In October, 1662, Sir Edward Nicholas was succeeded by Sir Henry Bennet. Like his predecessor, he gave himself diligently to inquiries respecting suspected persons. A month before the former retired, he told Lord Rutherford that there were rumours of disturbances intended by Presbyterians and Independents, but at present all was quiet. A month afterwards he confessed to the same person, that there was no commotion in any part of the kingdom, although factious sectaries raised reports to frighten people.[403] Frivolous letters constantly poured in upon the bewildered officials. There came notes of conversation with Edward Bagshawe,[404] who said London was discontented; that 1,960[405] ministers were turned out of their livings; that Dunkirk was sold; that the King only minded his mistresses; that the Queen and her cabal carried on the Government at Somerset House; that Popery was coming in; that the people would not endure these things, but would rise on the ground _that the Long Parliament was not yet dissolved because they had passed an Act against any dissolution but by themselves_. A large bundle of examinations was forwarded to Bennet, about the same time, by the Earl of Northumberland--an informer conveying them, and adding to the written secrets, _vivâ voce_ revelations--the papers disclosing such frivolous circumstances as that three gentlemen and two servants, whom nobody knew, had been seen somewhere, and that "an ancient grey man," and "a Jersey Frenchman" were mysteriously moving from place to place. Also, there arrived a packet promising much information, which, when opened, was found to contain only religious sentences, and a number of love verses. Suspicious persons were reported, and it is amusing, amongst unknown names to find mentioned "Dr. Goodwin and Owen, who now scruple at the surplice, but used to wear velvet cassocks, and to receive from five to seven hundred a-year from their Churches."[406] The letter-bags were robbed; people's houses were broken into, and trunks full of papers seized and carried off by constables. Spies employed by the Government were active in collecting reports, and there can be no doubt that they were quite as active in inventing them. Two informers, Peter and John Crabb, brought accounts of intended insurrections; but at the same time they made awkward revelations respecting themselves. Peter had told the Secretary of State, that he and his brother John were the Secretary's devoted servants, and wished to be employed in a certain business; that he had only received a part of the money, which he understood the Secretary had sent him; and that to cover his profession as a spy, lest City people should wonder how he lived, he put out a "bill, advertizing the cure of the rickets in children, in Red Lion Court, Bishopsgate."[407] After reading the correspondence of these two brothers, I am not surprised to find depositions charging one of them with being a liar and a villain. The depositions are met