Note (return) — Replies.

Cromwell Poisoned (Vol. ii., p. 393.).—Your correspondent P. T. queries if there be any other statement than that which he adduces respecting Cromwell having been poisoned. I would refer him to the Athenæ Oxoniensis of Anthony à Wood, vol. ii. p. 303.,[2] in which it is stated that Dr. George Bate's friends gave him credit for having given a baneful dose to the Protector, to ingratiate himself with Charles II. Amidst all the mutations of those changeful times, and whether Charles I., Cromwell, or Charles II. were in the ascendant, Dr. George Bate always contrived to be the chief state physician. In Whitelock's Memorials of the English Affairs (1732), p. 494, it appears that the Parliament, in 1651, ordered Dr. Bate to go into Scotland to attend the General (Cromwell), and to take care of his health; he being his usual physician in London, and well esteemed by him. He wrote a work styled Elenchus Motuum nuperorum in Angliâ. This was severely scrutinised in another, entitled Elenchus Elenchi; sive Animadversiones in Georgii Batei, Cromwelli Paricidæ, aliquando Protomedici, Elenchi Motuum nuperorum in Angliâ. Autore Robt. Pugh; Parisiis, 1664.