to Mr. Harrington’s answer, who said that the state of the Roman government was not a settled government, and so it was no wonder that the balance of propriety [i.e., property] was in one hand, and the command in another, it being therefore always in a posture of war; but it was carried by ballot, that it was a steady government, though it is true by the voices it had been carried before that it was an unsteady government; so to-morrow it is to be proved by the opponents that the balance lay in one hand, and the government in another.  Thence I went to Westminster, and met Shaw and Washington, who told me how this day Sydenham

[Colonel William Sydenham had been an active officer during the Civil Wars, on the Parliament side; M.P. for Dorsetshire, Governor of Melcombe, and one of the Committee of Safety.  He was the elder brother of the celebrated physician of that name.—­B.]

was voted out of the House for sitting any more this Parliament, and that Salloway was voted out likewise and sent to the Tower, during the pleasure of the House.  Home and wrote by the Post, and carried to Whitehall, and coming back turned in at Harper-’s, where Jack Price was, and I drank with him and he told me, among other, things, how much the Protector

[Richard Cromwell, third son of Oliver Cromwell, born October 4th, 1626, admitted a member of Lincoln’s Inn, May 27th, 1647, fell into debt and devoted himself to hunting and field sports.  His succession to his father as Protector was universally accepted at first, but the army soon began to murmur because he was not a general.  Between the dissensions of various parties he fell, and the country was left in a state of anarchy:  He went abroad early in the summer of 1660, and lived abroad for some years, returning to England in 1680.  After his fall he bore the name of John Clarke.  Died at Cheshunt, July 12th, 1712.]

is altered, though he would seem to bear out his trouble very well, yet he is scarce able to talk sense with a man; and how he will say that “Who should a man trust, if he may not trust to a brother and an uncle;” and “how much those men have to answer before God Almighty, for their playing the knave with him as they did.”  He told me also, that there was; L100,000 offered, and would have been taken for his restitution, had not the Parliament come in as they did again; and that he do believe that the Protector will live to give a testimony of his valour and revenge yet before he dies, and that the Protector will say so himself sometimes.  Thence I went home, it being late and my wife in bed.

18th.  To my office and from thence to Will’s, and there Mr. Sheply brought me letters from the carrier and so I went home.  After that to Wilkinson’s, where we had a dinner for Mr. Talbot, Adams, Pinkny and his son, but his son did not come.  Here we were very merry, and while I was here Mr. Fuller came thither and staid a little, while.