my lord Digby, but from J. A. to my lord Culpeper his dispatch was of weight; his business, to erect a mint at Truro, which should yield the king a vast profit; Mr. Browne, J. A.'s man (who was long a prisoner with him) (sic); the king's dues, by a special warrant (which I saw), to be paid to Mr. Ashburnham.

"What he did in Cornwall I know not, for you perceive he was to have no relation or reference to me, which, if you had been Chancellor of the Exchequer, you would have taken unkindly. Shortly after the Prince came hither he came to us, having left Cornwall a fortnight before we did. You may imagine my lord Culpeper was forward to help him, and how he promised to set up his mint, and assured us that he had contracted with merchants at St. Malloe to bring in such a quantity of bullion as would make the revenue very considerable to the Prince. We wondered why the merchants of St. Malloe should desire to have English money coined. He gave us an answer that appeared very reasonable: that all the trade they drove with the west country for tin, fish, or wool, was driven with money; and therefore they sent over their pistoles and pieces-of-eight, in which they sustained so great a loss that their merchants had rather have this bullion coined into English money at 20 in the hundred than take the other way.

"After several debates, in which (though there seemed no convincing argument to expect great profit from it) there was not the least suggestion of inconvenience, he pretending that he had all officers ready at St. Malloe, and such as belonged to the King's mint, and likewise his commission under the great seal (for he produced only the warrant under the sign-manual), the Prince writ a letter to the Governor, Bailiff, and Jurats to give him countenance, and to assign him some convenient place to reside in. Shortly after the Prince went away, the Colonel proceeds, brings his wife hither (who in truth is a sober woman) and takes a little house remote from neighbours, but pretended that the Prince's remove and other accidents had hindered the advance of the service, but that he hoped hereafter to proceed in it. Here he lived soberly and reservedly; and after two or three months here was found much adulterated money—half-crown pieces which had been put off by people belonging to him. One only officer he hath, an old Catholic, one Vaughan, who is a good graver.

"The Governor (who is strangely civil to all men, but immoderately so to such gentlemen as have seemed to serve the King in this quarrel) was much perplexed, the civil magistrates here taking notice of it (the base money), and sent to him to speak with him; told him that he believed his education had not been to such artifices, and that he might be easily deceived by the man he trusted, who was not of credit enough to brave the burthen of such a trust; that if this island fell into suspicion of such craft, their trade would be undone; and therefore (having showed him some pieces of money) desired him by no means to proceed in that design, till satisfaction might be given by the view of such officers who were responsible for it. The Colonel denied some of the pieces to be of his coining, but confessed others, and said it was by mistake too light; but I had forgot to tell you that he had assured me, two or three days before, that he had yet coined none.

"To conclude (though much troubled), he promised the Governor not to proceed further in it. Then he came to me, and told me a long and untoward discourse of a great trust between the King, Mr. Ashburnham and himself, and one more, which he would not name, but led me to believe it was Mr. A.'s friend at Paris, and that the design was originally to coin dollars, by which he could gain a vast advantage to the King. He found me not so civil as he expected, and therefore easily withdrew, and the same day attempted the Governor, and offered him a strong weekly bribe (enough to keep you and me and both our families very gallantly) to join with him and assist him. His reception was not much better there, so that he has since procured a good stout letter from the Prince to command the Governor, Bailiff, and Jurats to give him all countenance, and to advance the service. This will put an end to it, for the Governor will deal freely with the Prince, though upon the confidence we have still naughty new money. The reason of the Governor's exceeding tenderness is his duty to the King, to whom such a communion (which indeed is a strange one) would draw much dishonour. Tell me if you know anything of this, and whether you think your friend so wise, and careful of his master's honour as he should be; beyond this say nothing of it, except to my lord Hopton, who can tell you how scurvy a thing it is.

"Edw. Hyde.

"Jersey, February 24th, 1647.

"There is some discrepancy between this account of the affair and Chevalier's; not so much, however, considering that one writer was before, while the other was behind the scenes. The two narratives combined complete the history of the Jersey mint—a history evidently discreditable to certain personages, and therefore never intended to meet the public eye. Even the unsophisticated chronicler is intuitively aware that some mystery attaches to the transaction, which prevents him from writing with his usual unreserve."—Hoskins, Vol. II., page 138.

"In 1646, men of the Jersey Militia each received 5 sols per diem on Field days."—Le Quesne, page 486.

"A great improvement was effected in the organisation of the militia by Sir Thomas Morgan. He divided the militia into regiments, and remodelled the artillery. On his proposition, in order to compel the men to attend with regularity to their military duties, so essential for the preservation of the island, the States, on the 25th September, 1666, ordered that fines should be levied by the vingteniers for all defaults in the following proportions:—