friends and had their consent, and that he would desire me to take an
occasion of speaking with her, but by no means not to heighten her
discontent or distaste whatever it be, but to make it up if I can. But he
being out of doors, I went away and went to see Mrs. Jem, who was now very
well again, and after a game or two at cards, I left her. So I went to
the Coffee Club, and heard very good discourse; it was in answer 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