Peter had been driven from England by
the persecutions of Laud; a few years later he "stood armed on the
scaffold" when that prelate was beheaded, and now we find him installed
in the archiepiscopal lodgings. Dr. Palfrey, it appears to me, gives
altogether too favorable an opinion both of Peter's character and
abilities. I conceive him to have been a vain and selfish man. He may
have had the bravery of passionate impulse, but he wanted that steady
courage of character which has such a beautiful constancy in Winthrop. He
always professed a longing to come back to New England, but it was only a
way he had of talking. That he never meant to come is plain from these
letters. Nay, when things looked prosperous in England, he writes to the
younger Winthrop: "My counsell is you should come hither with your family
for certaynly you will bee capable of a comfortable living in this free
Commonwealth. I doo seriously advise it.... G. Downing is worth 500_l_.
per annum but 4_l_. per diem--your brother Stephen worth 2000_l_. & a
maior. I pray come." But when he is snugly ensconced in Whitehall, and
may be presumed to have some influence with the prevailing powers, his
zeal cools. "I wish you & all friends to stay there & rather looke to the
West Indyes if they remoue, for many are here to seeke when they come
ouer.
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