A NOTABLE PLOT DISCOVERED IN A LETTER SENT By an AGENT here in LONDON, TO The Earl of CLEVELAND at the HAGUE: SHOWING, How the said AGENT set the Committee of Mincing-lane on work, to procure an Act to put out all the old Officers of the Custom-house, by which means the Customs will be destroyed.  
Printed (together with a List of the Names of the said Committee, and of the Officers Cashiered, and to be Cashiered) for the Information of the Commons of England; Especially such as hold any Offices in the Kingdom.   

To the Right Honourable The Earl of CLEVELAND, at the Hague these present.  
My Lord,  
IN my last of the 15 of April, I gave your Lordship an Account how Affairs then stood in the Customhouse at London, and what I conceived would be the Issue in relation to those many Particulars then signified unto your Lordship: since which time, things have fallen according to our own hearts desire, the Gentlemen at Westminster having turned out all the cunning Knaves or old Officers at the Customhouse for the Port of London, without so much as giving them any Charge of their Delinquency: Their Names are, Sir John jacob's, Sir Thomas Dawes, Mr. Jo: Holloway, Mr. William Tonces, Richard Chambers Alderman, Mr. Edgar, Mr. Henry Kersley, Mr. Edward Brewer, Mr. William Thornbury, Mr. Ratcliff, Mr. Richard Lane, Mr. Wilmor, Mr. Edward Watkins, Robert Wakeman, Mr. Leaver, Jo: Norwood, Jeford Baily, Mr. Ever, Mr. Edw: Pelling, Mr. Christopher Rotheram, Mr. Cheatwood, Mr. Broden, Mr. John Blunke, Master John Davis, and Mr. Adam Edward's: these are the chief men-chashired in the Port of the City of London, besides many score more, whose Names at this present I cannot send unto your Lordship, in regard I have not yet had time and opporuunity to procure them, from my Friends the Committee in Mincing-lane, with whom I have the felicity to hold a strict Correspondence; especially with Mr. Moyer, Mr. Shute, and Mr. Penoyer, three prime Saints: into whose Acquaintance I have so screwed myself, that at any time they will unbosom themselves, and entertain me with as much confidence, as if I were a real Member of the godly Fraternity. But we must use all Arts to bring things about underhand by sleight, since we are not yet in a condition to act openly; and so I can effect the business wherein I have the honour to be engaged, I shall make no scruple (as the Proverb says) to light a Candle to the Devil, and Court his Creatures: For, I have so cajoled these three Wittols in the Courses they have taken, that (I dare say) they have (though much against their wills, God wots) done more for 102. than all the Carpet-Knights of our Cavalry ever did with their Drinking of Healths.  
But here (my Lord) before I proceed, be your Lordship pleased (with me) to admire the wonderful Justice of God, in the sweet Justice done by the Gentlemen of Westminster, toward these old Officers of the Customhouse beforenamed; who having (for their own private respects) made shipwreck of their Loyalty, and embarked Themselves, their Lives, and Estates, in the Service of their good Masters at Westminster, to the destruction of the King, Nobility, and Gentry, receive no other reward but to be turned off (without any Cause shown) like profane Delinquents, with their Wives and Children, to share in the common Calamity: So that the good men at Westminster have dealt (I may say) with these their good Servants, as the merciful Turk did with an Italian whom he had in his power, promising him Life if he would renounce Christianity and turn Mahometan; which the Italian had no sooner done, but the Turk immediately cut his Throat, reckoning it too small a Revenge to destroy the Body, except he damned his Soul too: In like manner, the old Officers of the Customhouse having been drawn by the Suggestions of the two Houses from that Allegiance they owed unto His Majesty, merely to preserve Themselves of Office, have now lived to see themselves turned out of all: and so They may even go to the Devil for a Reward, since They are like to far no better from those their merciful Masters.  
Now (my Lord) that which tickles me most, is, to see how finely I have managed the Interest I had with the Committee of Mincing-lane, in making Them the Instruments to destroy the Customs of the City of London, and let many Advantages slip by private Conveyances beyond-sea to His Majesty: For, wel-knowing that little could pass a Discovery as long as the old Foxes were in office; therefore the principal work was so to order the matter that they might be turned out to make room for new ones; which falling out as ones heart would have wished, the Men of Westminster have put in a Company of their own Creatures, a sort of cracked Citizens, and ignorant Rascals, Fellows that have been frighted out of half a dozen Religions and Factions, that what with the sharking of some, and the ignorance of others, the Customs will not amount to half so much as they did formerly: And this I humbly entreat your Lordship to assure 102. of, with my humblest Service to him, upon all Occasions.  
One thing (my Lord) I had almost forgot, which Moyer himself told me; how that now he had cried quittance with Watkins the Head-Searcher, for seizing on his Lead at Graves end, by causing M. Walton of the House of Commons, and the Committee of Mincing-lane to report his Place to be unnecessary. Po● take them, that they did not make this Report a year ago; For, then J. P. had received the two hundred pounds which that Fox Watkins seized on: But he being taken out of the way, we shall deal well enough with the new Novices, and send over G. freely to supply our Friends; For, no man but Watkins (with his Birds-eyes) can pry so narrowly, or know how to make a stop of transporting Money. Sometimes I have cracked a Cup with him to soothe him in his way; and when he is once in, he says, he finds Gold in Moorfields, and Silver at the Custom house: And though then the Fatling looks like the God of good Company, as if he minded little else, yet sure I am he is a subtle Youth and hath notable intelligence, as if (like our new Saints) he drove a Trade in Vision and Revelation, and tumbles like a Firkin in every corner: In earnest, I know him to be a very crafty Fellow in his Place; and I think it none of my least Services to 102. in breaking the neck of his Employment; which I effected by the means of Master Walton, Master Moyer, and the Committee of Mincing-lane: I have likewise by setting Friends of mine upon Master Wilson of the Council of State, made him very active against Watkins that he may never come to play again: And this Master Wilson may be the rather induced to, in regard himself and the Guinny Company are resolved to transport all their Gold which lately came home from Holland, and it amounts to about 30000 l. which I request your Lordship to signify to 102.  
And that your Lordship may know who they are of the Committee in Mincing-lene, with whom I correspond, I shall give you their Names; and by the way I must tell you, I manage my Correspondence with each of them so warily, that not one of them knows I deal at all with the other: they are the two Thompson's, Master Shute, Master Russell, the two Penoyers M. Hutchinson, Master Moyer, and Master Bartlet; a refined Generation that count Gain great Godliness, and therefore lie at catch to advance Themselves and their Creatures upon the ruins of others, and put any Tricks (for their Profit) upon the Account of the Public: And though they have all had a hand in undoing the old Officers; yet it is sport to see, how they disclaim the business one after another, when any of those Officers come to entreat their Favour; which they grant them only in fair words, confessing it is a sad business, and they are sorry, whenas their Designs are to keep them out of their Offices for ever, and expose their Wives and Children to Beggary; which makes the poor cashired Starvelings consider now, that it is an ill way to gain a Livelihood by forfeiting their Loyalty: And it may convince the world of this Truth, that it is (and ever hath been) usual with all Master-Rebels and Usurpers, when they have once gotten their ends, first to rid their hands of those who have been most serviceable to them in their Usurpation, and level those very Steps and Stairs by which they ascended to their height of Greatness.  
Therefore as they have given a Purge to all the old Officers at the Customhouse of London, I assure your Lordship the Men of Westminster intent likewise to proceed in the same Method to the cashiring all the Officers of the Out-Ports, it being designed already that they shall follow the Fate of their Brethren; And here I shall set down a List of their Names, as they were delivered to me by one of my Friends in the Mincing Committee, Edward Nuttall, and Edward Man, of Ipswich. John Burgis, Henry Shield, Barwick. Tho. Welby, George Sten, Boston. William Bond, Hugh Nuttlebury, Bridgwater. Luke Hodges, Thomas Shewell, Will: Hill, Hugh Lewis, Bristol. Hugh Lindsey, Will: Edwards, Chester. Edward Herbert, Jo: Bird, Cardiff. Jo: Row, Mr. Cockeram, Chichester. Vincent de-la-bare, Richard Davis Bomkeeper. Dover. Richard Sanders, Walter Dibble, Exon. Robert Hill, Sam: Bruston, Gloucester. Matthew Aldred, Rob: Morton, Tho: Somerscall, Hull. Henry Creamer, Tho: Tole, Lyn. John Bowen, Nicholas Squire, Milford. George Fenwicke, George Blakiston, Newcastle. Nich: Opie, Henry Hatsell, Plymouth. Henry Champant, Tho: Tulfsis, Matthew Lock, Southampton. Robert Fowler, Rochester. George Plea, Thomas Walton, Weymouth. Will: Greenwood, Will: Barret, Yarmouth. John Robinson, Gravesend: who are all designed to lose their Places, as the Officers of the Customhouse have done at London; And many of them are so poor, (their Livelihood depending on their Places) that their Families must go a begging; yet they shall be put out without any cause shown, save only the will of the Gentlemen of the Committee of Mincing-lane; whereby they will be made as sad Examples of disloyalty as their Brethren of the Customhouse at London.  
I beseech your Lordship fail not to let 102. see this Account, which I hope to bring to such an Issue as may conduce much to his Service: For, when all the old Officers of the Ports are once cashired, the new Ignoramuses will contribute to our advantage beyond imagination, as well as the Ignorance and Covetousness of the Brethren of the Mincing Committee hath done at the Customhouse of London pretty well already: For, besides the benefit of privy Transportation (which the new Owls will never espy) half the Customs must needs be lost through their want of discretion; which will no more displease the Merchants, in having an opportunity to cozen that Thing called the State, than it will me to see Things at the same pass in the Out-Ports, as they are now at London: Concerning which, I shall labour and watch to give a farther Account unto you,  
London, May 2. 1649. Stylo loci. (My Lord) Your Lordship's most humble, and most faithful Servant, J. M.  
FINIS.