Note 66 — Chapter III
Reading edition
Lingard's History of England, xi. 14.
Hugh Peters was an earnest advocate for peace with the Dutch.
"Mr. Peters prays and preacheth for peace, and exhorteth them to peace. On the last thanksgiving-day he told them, that God Almighty had punished them long enough for their sins, and especially for their pride, covetousness, ambition, discord, ingratitude, and unmercifulness, and hardheartedness to the poor, which are sins that do reign to some purpose in this nation."—From an intercepted letter in Dutch. Thurloe, i. 330.
Peters had become an important political personage. One of the Dutch deputies in treaty with England, observes, in a letter, November, 1653: "Mr. Peters hath writ a letter to the Queen (of Sweden) by the Lord Whitelocke, wherein he relates the reasons why they put the King to death, and dissolved this last Parliament; and withal sends to her Majesty a great English dog and a cheese, for a present."—Thurloe, i. 583.