very desirous of his Presencâ that day So it mought be without prejudice But otherwise your Majesty esteemed a Servant more than a Service specially such a Servant Not to trouble your Majesty Though good Spirits in Sickness be uncertain Kalenders yet I have very good Comfort of him and I hope by that day c. A Letter to the King giving him an Account of Peachams Business and some others Jan. 31. 1614. It may please your excellent Majesty I Received this Morning by Mr. Mârray a Message from your Majesty of some warrant and confidence that I should advertise your Majesty of your business wherein I had part Wherein I am first humbly to thank your Majesty for your good acceptation of my Endeavours and Service which I am not able to furnish with any other Quality save Faith and Diligence For Peachams Case I have since my last Letter been with my Lord Cooke twice Once before Mr. Sâcretaries going down to your Majesty And once since which was yesterday At the Former of which times I delivered him Peachams papers And at this Latter the Presidents which I had with care gathered and selected For these Degrees and order the Business required At the former I told him that he knew my Errand which stood upon two points The one to inform him of the particular Case of Peachams Treasons For I never give it other word to him The other to receive his Opinion to my Self and in secret according to my Commission from your Majesty At the former time he fell upon the same Allegation which he had begun at the Council Table that Iudges were not to give Opinion by Fractions but entirely according to the Vote whereupon they should settle upon conference And that this Auricular Taking of Opinions single and apart was new and dangerous And other words more vehement than I repeat I replyed in Civil and plain Terms That I wisht his Lordship in my love to him to think better of it For that this that his Lordship was pleased to put into great Words seemed to me and my Fellows when we spake of it amongst our selves a reasonable and familiar Matter For a King to consult with his Iudges either assembled or selected or one by one And then to give him a little Outlet to save his first Opinion wherewith he is most commonly in love I added that Iudges some times might make a Suâe to be spared for their Opinion till they had spoken with their Brethren But if the King upon his own Princely Judgemeât for Reason of Estate should think it fit to have it otherwise and should so demand it there was no declining Nay that it touched upon a Violation of their Oath which was to counsel the King without Distinction whether it were joyntly or severally Thereupon I put him the Case of the Privy Council As if your Majesty should be pleased to command any of them to deliver their Opinion a part and in private whether it were a good Answer to deny it otherwise than if it were propounded at the Table To this he said That the Cases were not alike because this concern'd Life To which I replyed That Questions of Estate mought concern Thousands of Lives and many Things more precious than the Life of a particular As Warr and Peace and the like To conclude his Lordship tanquam Exitum quaerens desired me for the time to leave with him the Papers without pressing him to consent to deliver a private Opinion till he had perused them I said I would And the more willingly because I thought his Lordship upon due consideration of the Papers would finde the Case to be so clear a Case of Treason as he would make no difficulty to deliver his Opinion in private And so I was perswaded of the rest of the Iudges of the Kings Bench who likewise as I partly understood made no Scruple to deliver their Opinion in private Whereunto he said which I noted well That his Brethren were wise Men And that they might make a shew as if they would give an Opinion as was required But the end would be that it would come to this They would say they doubted of it and so pray advice with the rest But to this I answered that I was sorry to hear him say so much lest if it came so to pass some that loved him not might make a Construction that that which he had foretold he had wrought Thus your Majesty see 's that as Solomon saith Gressus nolentis tanquam in Sepi spinarum It catcheth upon every Thing The latter Meeting is yet of more Importance For then comming armed with divers presidents I thought to set in with the best strength I could and said That before I descended to the Record I would break the Case to him thus That it was true we were to proceed upon the antient Statute of King Edward the 3. because other Temporary Statutes were gone And therefore it must be said in the Indictment Imaginatus est et Compassavit Mortem et finalem Destructionem Domini Regis Then must the particular Treasons follow in this manner viz. Et quod ad perimplendum nefandum Propositum suum composuit conscripsit quendam detestabilem et venenosum libellum sive scriptum in quo inter alia proditoria continetur c. And then the principal passages of Treason taken forth of the Papers are to be entred in haec Verba And with a Conclusion in the End Ad Intentionem quod Ligeus Populus et Veri Subditi Domini Regis cordia em suum amorem â Domino Rege retraherent et ipsum Dominum Regem relinquerent Guerram et Insurrectionem contra eum levarent et facerent c. I have in this former followed the antient Stile of the Indictments for brevity sake though when we come to the Business it self we shall enlarge it according to the use of the later times This I represented to him being a thing he is well acquainted with that he might perceive the Platform of that was intended without any Mistaking or Obscurity But then I fell to the matter it self to loâk him in as much as I could viz. That there be 4. Means or manners whereby the Death of the King is compassed and imagined The first by some particular Fact or Plot. The second by Disabling his Title As by affirming that he is not lawfull King Or that another ought to be King Or that hee is an Vsurper Or a Bastard Or the like The third by Subjecting his Title to the Pope and thereby Making him of an Absolute King a Conditional King The fourth by Disabling his Regiment and making him appear to be incapable or indign to reign These things I relate to your Majesty in summ as is fit which when I opened to my Lord I did insist a little more upon with more efficacy and edge and Authority of Law and Record than I can now express Then I placed Peachams Treason
at last it came to that Modell in which it was committed to the Presse As many Living Creatures do lick their young ones till they bring them to their strength of Limms In the Composâng of his Books he did rather drive at a Masculine and clear Expression than at any Finenes or Affectation of Phrases And would often ask if the Meaning were expressed plainly enough As being one that aâcounted words to be but subservient or Ministeriall to Matter And not the Principall And if his Stile were Polite it was because he could do no otherwise Neither was he given to any Light Conceits Or Descanting upon Words But did ever purposely and industriously avoyd them For he held such Things to be but Digressions or Diversions from the Scope intended And to derogate from the Weight and Dignity of the Stile He was no Plodder upon Books Though he read much And that with great Iudgement and Rejection of Impertinences incident to many Authours For he would ever interlace a Moderate Relaxation of His Minde with his Studies As Walking Or Taking the Aire abroad in his Coach or some other befitâing Recreation And yet he would loose no Time In as much as upon his First and Immediate Return he would fall to Reading again And so suffer no Moment of Time to Slip from him without some present Improvement His Meales âere Refections of the Eare as well as of the Stomack Like the Noctes Atticae or Convivia Deipno-Sophistarum Wherein a Man might be refreshed in his Minde and understanding no lesse then in his Body And I have known some of no mean Parts that have professed to make use of their Note-Books when they have risen from his Table In which Conversations and otherwise he was no Dashing Man As some Men are But ever a Countenancer and Fosterer of another Mans Parts Neither was he one that would appropriate the Speech wholy to Himself or delight to out-vie others But leave a Liberty to the Co-Assessours to take their Turns Wherein he would draw a Man on and allure him to speak upon such a Subject as wherein he was peculiarly Skilfull and would delight to speak And for Himself he contemned no Mans Observations But would light his Torch at every Mans Candle His Opinions and Assertions were for the most part Binding And not contradicted by any Rather like Oracles then Discourses Which may be imputed either to the well weighing of his Sentence by the Skales of Truth and Reason Or else to the Reverence and Estimation wherein he was commonly had that no Man would contest with himâ So that there was no Argumentation or Pro and Con as they term it at his Table Or if their chanced to be any it was Carried with much Submission and Moderation I have often observed And so have other Men of great Account That if he had occasion to repeat another Mans Words after him he had an use and Faculty to dresse them in better Vestments and Apparell then they had before So that the Authour should finde his own Speech much amended And yet the Substance of it still retained As if it had been Naturall to him to use good Forms As Ovid spake of his Faculty of Versifying Et quod tentabam Scribere Versus erat When his Office called him as he was of the Kings Counsell Learned to charge any Offenders either in Criminals or Capitals He was never of an Insulting or Domineering Nature over them But alwayes tender Hearted and carrying himself decently towards the Parties Though it was his Duty to charge them home But yet as one that looked upon the Example with the Eye of Severity But upon the Person with the Eye of Pitty and Compassion And in Civill Businesse as he was Counseller of Estate he had the best way of Advising Not engaging his Master in any Precipitate or grievous Courses But in Moderate and Fair Proceedings The King whom he served giving him this Testimony That he ever dealt in Businesse Suavibus Modis Which was the way that was most according to his own Heart Neither was He in his time lesse Gracious with the Subject then with his Soveraign He was ever Acceptable to the House of Commons when He was a Member thereof Being the Kings Atturney chosen to a place in Parliament He was allowed and dispensed with to sit in the House which was not permitted to other Atturneys And as he was a good Servant to his Master Being never in 19. years Service as himself averred rebuked by the King for any Thing relating to his Majesty So he was a good Master to his Servants And rewarded their long Attendance with good Places freely when they fell into his Power Which was the Cause that so many young Gentlemen of Bloud and Quality Sought to list themselves in his Retinew And if he were abused by any of them in their Places It was onely the Errour of the Goodnesse of his Nature But the Badges of their Indiscretions and Intemperances This Lord was Religious For though the World be apt to suspect and prejudge Great Wits and Politicks to have somewhat of the Atheist Yet he was conversant with God As appeareth by severall Passages throughout the whole Current of his Writings Otherwise he should have crossed his own Principles which were That a little Philosophy maketh Men apt to forget God As attributing too much to Second Causes But Depth of Philosophy bringeth a Man back to God again Now I am sure there is no Man that will deny him or account otherwise of him but to have been a deep Philosopher And not onely so But he was able to render a Reason of the Hope which was in him Which that Writing of his of the Confession of the Faith doth abundantly testifie He repaired frequently when his Health would permit him to the Service of the Church To hear Sermons To the Administration of the Sacrament of the Blessed Body and Bloud of Christ And died in the true Faith established in the Church of England This is most true He was free from Malice which as he said Himself He never bred nor fed He was no Revenger of Injuries which if he had minded he had both Opportunity and Place High enough to have done it He was no Heaver of Men out of their Places As delighting in their Ruine and Undoing He was no Defamer of any Man to his Prince One Day when a great States-Man was newly Dead That had not been his Friend The King asked him What he thought of that Lord which was gone He answered That he would never have made his Majesties Estate better But he was sure he would have kept it from being wârse Which was the worst he would say of him Which I reckon not amongst his Morall but his Christian Vertues His Fame is greater and sounds louder in Forraign Parts abroad then at home in his own Nation Thereby verifying that Divine Sentence A Prophet is not without Honour save in his own
come and take the Honour of taking the Town His Lordships last Reason was that it cast some aspersion upon his Majesty Implying as if the King slept out the Sobbs of his Subjects untill he was awaked with the Thunderbolt of a Parlaament But his Lordships Couclusion was very Noble Which was with a Protestation That what Civill Threats Contestation Art and Argument can do hath been used already to procure Remedy in this Cause And a Promise That if Reason of State did permit as their Lordships were ready to spend their Breath in the pleading of that we desire so they would be ready to spend their Blouds in the Execution thereof This was the Resolution of that which passed A Speech used to the King by his Majesties Solliciter being chosen by the Commons as their Mouth and Messenger for the presenting to his Majesty of the Instrument or Writing of their Grievances In the Parliament 7o. Jacobi MOst gracious Soveraign The Knights Cittizens and Burgesses assembled in Parliament in the House of your Commons in all humbleness do Exhibite and present unto your Sacred Majesty in their own Words though by my hand their Petitions and Grievances They are here conceived and set down in writing According to ancient Custome of Parliament They are also prefaced according to the Manner and Tast of these later Times Therefore for me to make any Additionall Preface were neither warranted nor convenient Especially speaking before a King The Exactness of whose Judgement ought to scatter and chase away all unnecessary Speech as the Sun doth a Vapour This onely I must say Since this Session of Parliament we have seen your Glory in the Solemnity of the Creation of this most Noble Prince We have heard your Wisdome in sundry excellent Speeches which you have delivered amongst us Now we hope to find and feel the Effects of your Goodness in your Gracious Answer to these our Petitions For this we are perswaded that the Attribute which was given by one of the wisest Writers to Two of the best Emperours Divus Nerva Divus Traianus So saith Tacitus Res olim insociabiles miscuerunt Imperium Libertatem May be truly applyed to your Majesty For never was there such a Conservatour of Regality in a Crown Nor never such a Protectour of lawfull Freedome in a Subject Onely this Excellent Soveraign Let not the sound of Grievances though it be sad seem harsh to your Princely Eares It is but Gemitus Columbae The Mourning of a Dove With that Patience and Humility of Heart which appertaineth to loving and Loyall Subjects And far be it from us But that in the midst of the Sense of our Grievances we should remember and acknowledge the infinite Benefits which by your Majesty next under God we do enjoy Which bind us to wish unto your life Fulness of Dayes And unto your Line Royall a Succession and Continuance even unto the worlds end It resteth that unto these Petitions here included I do adde one more that goeth to them all Which is That if in the words and frame of them there be any Thing offensive Or that we have expressed our Selves otherwise then we should or would That your Majesty would cover it and cast the Vaile of your Grace upon it And accept of our good Intentions And help them by your benign Interpretation Lastly I am most humbly to crave a particular pardon for my self that have used these few words And scarcely should have been able to have used any at all in respect of the Reverence which I bear to your Person and Judgement had I not been somewhat relieved and comforted by the Experience which in my Service aâd Accesse I have had of your continuall Grace and Favour A Speech of the Kings Sollicitour used unto the Lords at a Conference by Commission from the Commons Moving and perswading the Lords to joyn with the Commons in Petâtion to the King To obtain Liberty to treat of a Composition with his Majesty for Wards and Tenures In the Parliament 7o. Jacobi THe Knights Cittizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons have commanded me to deliver to your Lordships the Cauâes of the Conference by them prayed and by your Lordships assented for the second Business of this Day They have had Report made unto them faithfully of his Majesties Answer declared by My L. Treasurer touching their humble Desire to obtain Liberty from his Majestyâ to treat of compounding for Tenures And first they think themselves much bound unto his Majesty That in Renovâ in which case Princes use to be apprehensive he hath made a gracious Construction of their Proposition And so much they know of that that belongs to the Greatness of his Majesty and the Greatness of the Cause As themselves acknowledge they ought not to have expected a present Resolution Though the Wise-Man saith Hope deferred is the Fainting of the Soul But they know their Duty to be to attend his Majesties Times at his good pleasure And they do it with the more comfort because in that his Majesties Answer Matching the Times aad weighing the Passages thereof they conceive in their Opinion rather Hope then Discouragement But the principall Causes of the Conference now prayed Besides these significations of Duty not to be omitted Are two Propositions The one Matter of Excuse of themselves The other Matter of Petition The former of which growes thus Your Lordship my L. Threasurer in your last declaration of his Majesties Anâwer which according to the Attribute then given unto it had Imaginem Caesaris fair and lively graven made this true and effectuall Distribution That there depended upon Tenures Considerations of Honour of Conscience And of Vtility Of these three Vtility as his Majesty set it by for the present out of the Greatness of his Mind So we set it by out of the Justnesse of our Desires For we never ment but a goodly and worthy Augmentation of the Profit now received and not a Diminution But to speak truly that Consideration falleth naturally to be examined when Liberty of Treaty is granted But the former Two indeed may exclude Treaty And cut it off before it be admitted Nevertheless in this that we shall say concerning those Two We desire to be conceived rightly We mean not to dispute with his Majesty what belongeth to Soveraign Honour or his Princely Conscience Because we know we are not capable to discern them Otherwise then as Men use sometimes to see the Image of the Sun in a Pail of Water But this we say for our selves God forbid that we knowingly should have propounded any thing that mought in our Sense and perswasion touch either of both And therefore herâin we desire to be heard not to enform or perswade his Majesty but to fâee and excuse our selves And first in generall we acknowledge that this Tree of Tenures was Planted into the Prerogative by the ancient common Law of this Land That it hath been Fenced in and Preserved by many Statutes
do acknowledge my Soveraign Liege Lord King James to be lawfull and undoubted King of all the Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland And I will bear true faith and Allegeance to his Highness during my life NOw my Lords upon these words I charge William Talbot to have committed a great Offence And such an one as if he had entred into a voluntary and malicious Publication of the like writing It would have been too great an Offence for the Capacity of this Court But because it grew from a Question askt by a Councell of âstate And so rather seemeth in a favourable Construction to proceed from a kind of Submission to answer then from any malicious or insolent Will it was fit according to the Clemency of these Times to proceed in this maner before your Lordships And yet let the Hearers take these things right For certainly if a Man be required by the Lords oâ the Councell to deliver his Opinion whether King Iames be King or no And He deliver his Opinion that He is not This is High Treason But I do not say that these words amount to thatâ And therefore let me open them truly to your Lordships And thereiâ open also it may be the Eyes of the Offender Himself how far they reach My Lords a Mans Allegeance must be Independant not provisionall and conditionall Elizabeth Barton that was called the Holy Maid of Kent affirmed That if K. H. 8. Did not take Katherine of Spain again to his Wife within a twelve moneth he should be no King And this was judged Treason For though this Act be Contingent and Future yet Treason of compassing and imagining the Kings Destruction is present And in like manner if a Man should voluntarily publish or maintain That whensoever a Bull or Deprivation shall come forth against the King that from thenceforth he is no longer King This is of like Nature But with this I do not charge you neither But this is the true Latitude of your Words That if the Doctrine touching the Killing of Kings be Matter of Faith that you submit your self to the Judgement of the Catholick Roman Church So as now to do you right your Allegeance doth not depend simply upon a Sentence of the Popes Deprivation against the King But upon another point also If these Doctrines be already or shall be declared to be Matter of Faith But my Lords there is little won in this There may be some Difference to the guiltinesse of the Party But there is little to the Danger of the King For the same Pope of Rome may with the same breath declare boâh So as still upon the matter the King is made but Tennant at will of his Life and Kingdomes And the Allegiance of his Subjects is pinn'd upon the Popes Act. And Certainly it is Time to stop the Current of this Opinion of Acknowledgement of the Popes power in Temporalibus Or elâe it will supplant the Seat of Kings And let it not be mistaken that Mr. Talbots Offence should be no more then the Refusing the Oath of Allegiance For it is one thing to be silent and another thing to affiâm As for the Point of Matter of Faith or not of Faith To tell your Lordships plain it would astonish a Man to see the Gulf of this implyed âeliefe Is nothing excepted from it If a Man should ask Mr. Talbot whether he do condemn Murther or Adultery or Rape or the Doctrine of Mahomet or of Arius in stead of Zuarius Must the Answer be with this exception that if the Question concern matter of Faith as no question it doth for the Moral Law is matter of Faith That therein he wil submit himself to what the Church shall determine And no doubt the Murther of Princes is more then Simple Murther But to conclude Talbot I will do you this Right and I will noâ be reserved in this but to declare that that is true That you came afterwards to a better mind Wherein if you had been constant the King out of his great goodnesse was resolved not to have proceeded with you in Course of Justice But then again you Started aside like a Broken Bow So that by your Variety and Vacillation you lost the acceptable time of the first Grace which was Not to have convented you Nay I will go farther with you Your last Submission I conceive to be Satisfactory and Compleat But then it was too late The Kings Honour was upon it It was published and the Day appointed for Hearing Yet what preparation that may be to the Second Grace of Pardon that I know not But I know my Lords out of their accustomed favour will admit you not only to your Defence concerning that that hath been Charged But to extenuate your Fault by any Submission that now God shall put into your mind to make The Charge given by Sr. Francis Bacon his Majesties Atturney Generall against Mr. I.S. for Scandalizing and Traducing in the publick Sessions Letters sent from the Lords of the Councell touching the Benevolence MY Lords I shall inform you ore tenus against this Gentleman Mr. I. S. A Gentleman as it seems of an ancient House and Name But for the present I can think of him by no other Name then the Name of a great Offender The Nature and Qualityâ of his Offence in sum is this This Gentleman hath upon advice not suddenly by his Pen Nor by the Slip of his Tongue Not privatly or in a Corner but publickly As it were to the face of the Kings Ministers and Iustices Slandered and Traduced The King our Soveraign The Law of the Land The Parliament And infinite Particulars of his Majesties worthy and loving Subjects Nay the Slander is of that Nature that it may seem to interest the People in Grief and Discontent against the State whence mought have ensued Matter of Murmur and Sedition So that it is not a Simple Slander but a Seditious Slander like to that the Poet speaketh of Calamosque armare Veneno A Venemous Dart that hath both Iron and Poysonâ To open to your Lordships the true State of this Offence I will set before you First the Occasion whereupon Mr. I. S. wrought Thân the Offence it self in his own words And lastly the Points of his Charge My Lords you may remember that there was the last Parliament an Expectation to have had the King supplied with Treasure although the Event failed Herein it is not fit for me to give opinion of an House of Parliament But I will give testimony of Truth in all places I served in the Lower House and I observed somewhat This I do affirm That I never could perceive but that there was in that House a generall Disposition to give And to give largely The Clocks in the House perchance might differ Some went too fast some went too slow But the Disposition to give was generall So that I think I may truly say Solo tempore lapsus Amor. This Accident happening
his Book Procure reverence to the King and the Law Inform my people truly of me which we know is hard to do according to the Excellency of his Merit but yet Endeavour it How zealous I am for Religion How I desire Law may be maintained and flourish That every Court should have his Iurisdiction That every Subject should submit himselâ to the Law And of this you have had of lâte no small Occasion of Notice and Remembrance by the great and strait Charge that the King haâh given me as Keeper of his Seal for the Governing of the Chancery without Tumour or Excesse Again è re natae you at this present ought to make the People know and consider âhe Kings Blâssed Care and Pâovidence in goveâning this Realm in his Absence So thât sitting at the Helm of another Kingdom Nât without gâeat Affairs and Business yet he governs all things here by his Letters and Directions as punctually and perfectly as if he were present I assure you my Lords of the Counsell and I do much admire the Extention and Latitude of his Care in all Things In the High Commission he did conceive a Sinnâw of Government was a little shrunk He recommended the care of it He hath called for the Accounts of the last Circuit from the Judges to be transmitted unto him into Scotland Touching the Infestation of Pyrates he hath been carefull and is and hath put things in way All things that concern the Reformation or the Plantation of Ireland He hath given in them punctuall and resolute Diâections All this in Absence I give but a few Instances of a publique Nature The Secrets of Counsell I may not enter into Though his Dispatches into France Spain and the Low-Countries now in his absence are also Notorious as to the outward sending So that I must conclude that his Majesty wants but more Kingdomes For I see he could suffice to all As for the other Glasse I told you of Of representing to the King the Griefs of his People without doubt it is properly your Part For the King ought to be informed of any thing amisse in the state of his Countries from the Observations and Relations of the Iudges That indeed know the Pulse of the Country Rather then from Discourse But for this Glasse thanks be to God I do hear from you all That there was never greater Peace Obedience and Contentment in the Country Though the best Governments be alwayes like the fairest Crystals wherin every little Isicle or Grain is seen which in a Fouler Stone is never perceived Now to some Particulars and not Many Of all other things I must begin as the King begins That is with the Cause of Religion And especially the Hollow Church Papist Saint Aug. hath a good Comparison of such Men affirming That âhey are like the Roots of Nettles which themselves sting not but yet âhey bear all the Stinging Leaves Let me know of such Roots and I will root them out of the Country Next for the Matter of Religion In the principall place I recommend both to you and the Iustices the Countenancing of Godly and Zealous Preachers I mean not Sectaries or Novellists But those which are sound and conform But yet pious and Reverend For there will be a perpetuall Defection except you keep Men in by Preaching as well as Law doth by punishing And commonly Spirituall Diseases are not Cured but by Spirituall Remedies Next let me commend unto you the Repressing as much as may be of Faction in the Countrys of which ensue infinite Inconveniences and perturbations of all good Order And Crossing of all good Service in Court or Country or wheresoever Cicero when he was Consul had devised a fine Remedy A Milde one but an effectuall and an apt one For he saith Eos qui otium perturbant reddam otiosos Those that trouble others Quiet I will give them Quiet They shall have nothing to do Nor no Authority shall be put into their Hands If I may know from you of any who are in the Country that are Heads or Hands of Faction Or Men of turbulent Spirits I shall give them Cicero's Reward as much as in me is To conclude study the Kings Book And study your selves how you profit by it And all shall be well And you the Iustices of Peace in particular Let me say this to you Never King of this Realm did you so much Honour as the King hath done you in his Speeeh By being your immediâte Directors And by sorting you and your seâvice with the Service of Ambassadours and of his nearest Attendants Nay more it seems his Majesty is willing to do the state of Iustice of Peace Honour actively also By bringing in with time the like Form of Commission into the Government of Scotland As that Glorious King Edward the third did plant this Commission here in this Kingdome And therefore you are not fit to be Coppies except you be Fair Written without Blots or Blurs or any thing unworthy your Authority And so I will trouble you no longer for this time The Speech used by Sir Francis Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England to Sir William Jones upon his calling to be Lord Chief Justice of Ireland 1617. Sir WILLIAM IONES THe Kings most Excellent Majesty being duly informed of your sufficiency every way Hath called you by his Writ now returned to the State and Degree of a Serjeant at Law But not to stay there but being so qualified to serve him as his Chief Iustice of his Kings Bench in his Realm of Ireland And therefore that which I shall say to you must be applied not to your Sârjeants place which you take but in passage But to that great place where you are to settle And because I will not spend Time to the Delay of the Businesse of Causes of the Court I will lead you the short Iourney by Examples and not the Long by Precepts The Place that you shall now serve in hath been fortunate to be well served in four successions before you Do but take unto you the Constancy and integrity of Sir Robert Gardiner The Gravity Temper and Direction of Sir Iames Lea The Quicknesâe Industry and Dispatch of Sir Humphry Winch The Care and Affection to the Common-wealth and the Prudent and Politick Administration of Sir Iohn Denham And you shall need no other Lessons They were all Lincolns Inn Men as you are You have known them as well in their Beginnings as in their Advancement But because you are to be there not only Chief Iustice but a Counseller of Estate I will put you in mind of the great Work now in hand that you may raise your thoughtes according unto it Ireland is the last Ex Filiis Europae which hath been reclaimed from Desolation and a Desert in many parts to Population and Plantation And from Savage and Barbarous Customes to Humanity and Civility This is the Kings Work in chief It is his Garland of Heroicall Vertue
People in the place of one of his Iustices of the Court oâ Common Pleas. This Court where you are to serve is the Locall Center and Heart of the Laws of this Realm Here the Subject hath his assurance By Fines and Recoveries Here he hath his Fixed and Invariable Remedies by Precipes and Writs of Right Here Iustice opens not by a By-gate of Priviledge but by the great Gate of the Kings originall Writs out of the Chancery Here issues Processe of Utlawry If men will not answer Law in this Center of Law they shall be cast out And therefore it is proper for you by all means with your Wisdome and Fortitude to maintain the Laws of the Realm Wherein neverthelesse I would not have you Head-strong but Heart-strong And to weigh and remember with your self that the 12. Iudges of the Realm are as the 12. Lions under Salomons Throne They must shew their Stoutnesse in Elevating and Bearing up the Throne To represent unto you the Lines and Portraitures of a Good Iudge The 1. is That you should draw your Learning out of your Books not out of your Brain 2. That you should mix well the Freedom of your own Opinion with the Reverence of the Opinion of your Fellows 3. That you should continue the Studying of your Books and not to spend on upon the old Stock 4. That you should fear no Mans Face And yet not turn Stoutness into Bravery 5. That you should be truly Impartiall and not so as Men may see Affection through fine Carriage 6. That you be a Light to Iurours to open their Eyes But not a Guid to Lead them by the Noses 7. That you affect not the Opinion of Pregnancy and Expedition by an impatient and Catching Hearing of the Counsellours at the Barre 8. That your Speech be with Gravity as one of the Sages of the Law And not Talkative nor with impertinent Flying out to shew Learning 9. That your Hands and the Hands of your Hands I mean those about you Be Clean and Vncorrupt from Gifts From Medling in Titles And from Serving of Turns Be they of Great Ones or Small Ones 10. That you contain the Iurisdiction of the Court within the ancient Meere-stones without Removing the Mark. 11. Lastly that you carry such a Hand over your Ministers and Clarks as that they may rather be in awe of you then presume upon you These and the like Points of the Duty of a Iudge I forbear to enlarge For the longer I have lived with you the shorter shall my speech be to you Knowing that you come so Furnished and Prepared with these Good Vertues as whatsoever I shall say cannot be New unto you And therefore I will say no more unto you at this time but deliver you your Patent His Lordships Speech in the Parliament being Lord Chanceller To the Speakers Excuse Mr. Serjeant Richardson THe King hath heard and observed your grave and decent Speech Tending to the Excuse and Disablement of your self for the place of Speaker In answer whereof his Majesty hath commanded me to say to you That he doth in no sort admit of the same First because if the Parties own Iudgement should be admitted in case of Elections Touching himself it would follow that the most confident and over-weening Persons would be received And the most considerate Men and those that understand themselves best should be rejected Secondly his Majesty doth so much rely upon the Wisdomes and Discretions of those of the House of Commons that have chosen you with an unanimous consent that his Majesty thinks not good to swerve from their Opinion in that wherein themselves are principally interessed Thirdly you have disabled your Self in so good and decent a Fashion As the Manner of your Speech hath destroyed the Matter of it And therefore the King doth allow of the Election and admits you for Speaker To the Speakers Oration Mr. Speaker THe King hath heard and observed your eloquent Discourse containing much good Matter and much good will Wherein you must expect from me such an Answer onely as is pertinent to the Occasion and compassed by due respect of Time I may divide that which you have said into four parts The first was a Commendation or Laudative of Monarchy The second was indeed a large Field Containing a thankfull Acknowledgement of his Majesties Benefits Attributes and Acts of Government The third was some Passages touching the Institution and Vse of Parliaments The fourth and last was certain Petitions to his Majesty on the behalf of the House and your self For your Commendation of Monarchy and preferring it before other Estates it needs no Answer The Schools may dispute it But Time hath tryed it And we find it to be the Best Other States have curious Frames soon put out of order And they that are made fit to last are not commonly fit to grow or spread And contrarywise those that are made fit to spread and enlarge are not fit to continue and endure But Monarchy is like a Work of Nature well composed both to grow and to continue From this I passe For the second part of your Speech wherein you did with no lesse Truth then Affection acknowledge the great Felicity which we enjoy by his Majesties Reign and Government His Majestie hath commanded me to say unto you That Praises and Thanks-givings he knoweth to be the true Oblations of Hearts and loving Affections But that which you offer him he will joyn with you in offering it up to God who is the Authour of all Good who knoweth also the uprightness of his Heart who He hopeth will continue and encrease his Blessings both upon Himself and his Posterity And likewise upon his Kingdomes and the Generations of them But I for my part must say unto you as the Grecian Orator said long since in the like case Solus dignus harum rerum Laudator Tempus Time is the onely Commender and Encomiastique worthy of his Majesty and his Government Why Time For that in the Revolution of so many years and Ages as have passed over this Kingdome Notwithstanding many Noble and excellent Effects were never produced untill his Majestys dayes But have been reserved as proper and peculiar unto them And because this is no part of a Panegyrick but meerly Story and that they be so many Articles of Honour fit to be recorded I will onely mention them extracting part of them out of that you Mr. Speaker have said They be in Number Eight 1. His Majesty is the first as you noted it well that hath laid Lapis Angularis the Corner Stone of these two mighty Kingdomes of England and Scotland And taken away the Wall of Separation Whereby his Majesty is become the Monarch of the most puissanâ and Militar Nations of the World And if one of the Ancient wise Men was not deceived Iron commands Gold Secondly the Plantation and Reduction to Civility of Ireland the second Island of the Ocean Atlantique did by Gods
and Countenance and Reputation to the World besides And have for that cause been commonly and necessarily used and practised In the Message of Viscount Montacute it was also contained that he should crave the Kings Counsell and Assistance accorâing to Amity and good Intelligence upon a Discovery of certain pernicious Plots of the House of Guise to annoy this Realm by the way of Scotland whereunto the Kings Answer was so Dark and so cold as Nothing could be made of it Till he had made an Exposition of it himself by effects in the expresse Restraint of Munition to be carried out of the Low-Countries unto the Siege of Leith Because our Nation was to have supply thereof from thence So as in all the Negotiations that passed with that King still her Majesty received no satisfaction but more and more suspiâious and Bad Tokens of evill affection Soon after when upon that Project which was disclosed before the King had resolved to disannull the Liberties and Priviledges unto his Subjects the Netherlands anciently belonging And to establish amongst them a Marshall Government which the People being very Wealthy And inhabiting Townes very strong and Defensible by Fortifications both of Nature and the Hand could not endure there followed the Defection and revolt of those Countries In which Action being the greatest of all those which have passed between Spain and England the Proceeding of her Majesty hath been so Just and mingled with so many Honourable Regards as Nothing doth so much clear and acquite her Majesty not only from Passion bât also from all Dishonourable Pollicy For first at the beginning of the Troubles she did impart unto Him faithfull and sincere Advise of the Course that was to be taken for the quietting and appeasing them And expresly forewarned both himself and such as were in principall Charge in those Countries during the Warsâ of the danger like to ensue if he held so heavy a Hand over that People leââ they should cast themselves into the Arms of a Stranger But finding the Kings Mind so exulcerate as he rejâcted all Counsell that tended to Mild and Gracious proceeding her Majesty neverthelesse gave not over her Honourable Resolution which was if it were possible to reduce and reconcile those Countries unto the obedience of their Naturall Soveraign the King of Spain And if that mought not be yet to preserve them from alienating themselves to a Ferrain Lord As namely unto the French with whom they much treated And amongst whom the Enterprise of Flanders was ever propounded as a Mene to unite their own Civill Dissensions Bât patiently temporizing expected the good effect which Time mought breed And whensoever the States grew into Extremitieâ of Despair and thereby ready to embrace the Offer of any Forrainer Then would her Majesty yield them some Relief of Moneyâ or permit some Supply of Forces to go over unto them To the end to interrupt such violent Resolution And still continued to mediate unto the King some Just and Honourable Capitulations of Grace and Accord Such as whereby alwayes should have been preserved unto him such Interest and Authority as He in Iustice âould claim Or a Prince moderately minded would seek to have And this Course she held interchangeably seeking to mitigate the Wrath of the King and the Despair of the Countries Till such Time as after the Death of the Duke of Anjou Into whose Hands according to her Majesties prediction but against her good liking they had put themselves The Enemy pressing them the united Provinces were received into her Majesties Protection which was after such Time as the King of Spain had discovered himself not onely an Implacable Lord to them but also a proâessed Enemy unto her Majesty having actually invaded Ireland ând designed the Invasion of England For it is to be noted thaâ the like Offers which were then made unto her Majesty had been made to her long before but as long as her Majesty conceived any Hope either of Making their Peace Or entertaining her own with Spain she would never hearken thereunto And yet now even at last her Majesty retained a singular and evident Proof to the World of her Justice and Moderation In that she refused the Inheritance and Soveraignty of those Goodly ârovinces which by the States with much Instance was pressed upon her and being accepted would hâve wrought greater Contentment and Satisfaction both to her People and theirs Being Countries for the Scite Wealth Commodity of Traffick Affection to our Nation Obedience of the Subjects well used most convenient to have been annexed to the Crown of England And withall one Charge Danger and Offence of Spain onely took upon her the Defence and Protection of their Liberties Which Liberties and Priviledges are of that Nature as they may justly esteem themselves but Conditionall Subjects to the King of Spain More justly then Aragon And may make her Majesty as justly esteem the ancient Confederacies and Treaties with Burgundy to be of Force rather with the People and Nation then with the Line of the Duke because it was never an Absolute Monarchy So as to summe up her Majesties Proceedings in this great Action they have but this That they have sought first to restore them to Spain Then to keep them from Strangers And never to purchase them to Her Self But during all that time the King of Spain kept one tenour in his Proceedings towards her Majesty Breaking forth more and more into Injuries and Contempts Her Subjects trading into Spain have been many of them Burned Some cast into the Gallies Others have died in Prison without any other Crimes committed but upon Quarrells pickt upon them for ther Religion here at home Her Merchants at the Sack of Antwerpe were diverse of them spoyled and put to their Ransomesâ though they could not be charged with any Part-taking Neither upon the Complaint of Doctor Wilson and Sir Edward Horsey could any Redresse be had A generall Arrest was made by the Duke of Alva of English mens both Goods and Persons upon pretence that certain Ships stayed in this Realm laden with Goods and Money of certain Merchants of Genoa belonged to that King which Money and Goods was afterwards to the uttermost value restored and payed back Whereas our Men were far from receiving the like Iustice on their side Doctor Man her Majesties Embassadour received during his Legation sundry Indignities himself being Removed out of Madrid and Lodged in a Village As they are accustomed to use the Embassadours of Moores His Sonn and Steward forced to assist at a Mass with Tapers in their Hands Besides sundry other Contumelies and Reproaches But the Spoyling or Damnifying of a Merchant Vexation of a Common Subject Dishonour of an Embassadour Were rather but Demonstrations of ill Disposition then Effects If they be compared with Actions of State Wherein He and his Ministers have sought the Overthrow of this Government As in the year 1569. when the Rebellion in the North part of
think you might have had more use of me But that Tide is passed I write not this to shew my Friends what a brave Letter I have written to Mr. Atturney I have none of those Humours But that I have written is to a good End That is to the more decent Carriage of my Masters Service And to our particular better Understanding One of Another This Letter if it shall be answered by you in deed and not in word I suppose it will not be worse for us both Else it is but a few Lines lost which for a much smaller Matter I would have adventured So this being to your Self I for my part rest A Letter to my Lord of Salisbury touching the Solliciters Place It may please your good Lordship I Am not ignorant how mean a Thing I stand for in desiring to come into the Solliciters Place For I know well it is not the Thing it hath been Time having wrought Alteration both in the Profession and in that special Place Yet because I think it will encrease my practice and that it may satisfy my Friends And because I have been voiced to it I would be glad it were done Wherein I may say to your Lordship in the Confidence of your poor Kinsman and of a Man by you advanced Tu idem fer opem qui Spem dedistâ For I am sure it was not possible for a Man Living to have received from another more significant and comfortable words of Hope your Lordship being pleased to tell me during the Course of my last Service that you would raise me And that when you had resolved to raise a Man you were more carefull of him than himself And that what you had done for me in my Marriage was a benefit to me but of no use to yoâr Lordship And therefore I might assure my Self you would not leave me there with many like Speeches which I knew my Duty too well to take any other hold of than the Hold of a Thankfull Remembrance And I acknowledge and all the World knoweth that your Lordship is no Dealer of Holy Water but Noble and Real And on my part I am of a sure ground that I have committed nothing that may deserve alteration And therfore my Hope is your Lordship will finish a good Work and consider that Time groweth pretious with me and that I am now in Vergentibus Annis And although I know that your Fortune is not to need an Hundred such as I am yet I shall be ever ready to give you my best and First fruits And to supply as much as in me lieth Worthiness by Thankfulnessâ A Letter of like Argument to the LORD CHANCELLOR It may please your good Lordship AS I conceived it to be a Resolution both with his Majesty and your Lordships of his Council that I should be placed Sollicââââ and the Solliciter to be removed to be the Kings Serjeant So I most thankfully acknowledge your Lordships furtherance and forwardness therâin your Lordship being the Man that first devised the Mean Wherefore my humble Request to your Lordship is that you would set in with some Strângth to finish this your Work VVhich I assure your Lordship I desire the rather because being placed I hope for many Favours at last to be able to doe you some better Service For as I am your Lordship cannot use me nor scarcely indeed know me Not that I vainly think I shall be able to doe any great Matters but certainly it will ârame me to use a nearer Observance and Application to such as I honour so much as I doe your Lordshâp And not I hopeâ without some good Offices which may now and then deserâe your Thanks And herewithall good my Lord I humbly pray your Lordship to consider that Time groweth precious with me and that a Married Man is 7. years elder in his thoughts the first day And therefore what a discomfortable Thing it is for me to be unsetled still Certainly were it not that I think my Self born to doe my Soveraign Service And therefore in that Station I will live and dye Otherwise for mine own Private comfort it were better for me that the King did blot me out of his Book Or that I should turn my Course to endeavour to serve in some other kinde than for me to stand thus at a stopp And to have that little Reputation which by my Industry I gather to be scattered and taken away by continual Disgraces every new Man comming above me Sure I am I shall never have fairer Promises and Words from all your Lordships For I know not what my Services are saving that your Lordships told me they were good And I would beleeve you in a much greater Matter Were it nothing else I hope the Modesty of my Sute deserveth somewhat For I know well the Solliciters Place is not as your Lordship left it Time working Alteration somewhat in the Profession much more in that special Place But to conclude as my Honourable Lady your Wife was some Mean to make me to change the Name of Another So if it please you to help me to change mine own Name I can be but more and more bounden to you And I am much deceived if your Lordship finde not the King well inclined and my Lord of Salisbury forward and affectionate A Letter to the King touching the Solliciters Place HOw honestly ready I have been most gracious Soveraign to doe your Majesty humble Service to the best of my power and in a manner beyond my power as I now stand I am not so unfortunate but your Majestie knoweth For both in the Commission of Vnion the Labour whereof for Men of my Profession rested most upon my hand And this last Parliament in the Bill of the Subsidy Both Body and Preamble In the Bill of Attainders both Tresham and the rest In the Matter of Purveyance In the Ecclesiastical Petitions In the Grievances And the like as I was ever carefull and not without good Success sometimes to put forward that which was good sometimes to keep back that which was not so good So your Majesty was pleased kindly to accept of my Services and to say to me Such Conflicts were the Warrs of Peace And such Victories the Victories of Peace And therefore such Servants that obtained them were by Kings that reign in Peace no less to be esteemed than Services of Commanders in the Warrs In all which nevertheless I can challenge to my Self no Suâficiency but that I was diligent and reasonable happy to execute those Directions which I received either immediately from your Royal Mouth or from my Lord of Salisbury At what time it pleased your Majesty also to promise and assure me that upon the Remove of the then Atturney I should not be forgotten but brought into Ordinary Place And this was after confirmed to me by many of my Lords and towards the end of the last Term the manner also in particular spoken of That is that Mr.
within the last Division agreeable to divers presidents whereof I had the Records ready And concluded that your Majesties Safety and Life and Authority was thus by Law inscansed and quartered And that it was in vain to fortify on Three of the sides and so leave you open on the Fourth It is true he heard me in a grave fashion more than accustomed and took a Pen and took notes of my Divisions And when he read the Presidents and Records would say This you mean falleth within your first or your second Division In the end I expresly demanded his Opinion as that whereto both he and I was enjoyned But he desired me to leave the Presidents with him that he might advise upon them I told him the rest of my Fellows would dispatch their part and I should be behinde with mine which I perswaded my Self your Majesty would impute rather to his Backwardness than my Negligence He said as soon as I should understand that the rest were ready he would not be long after with his Opinion For I. S. your Majesty knoweth the day draweth on And my Lord Chancellers Recovery the Season and his Age promising not to be too hasty I spake with him on Sunday at what time I found him in Bed but his Spirits strong and not spent or wearied And spake wholly of your Business leading me from one Matter to another And wished and seemed to hope that hee might attend the day for I. S. and it were as he said to be his last work to conclude his Services and express his Affection towards your Majesty I presumed to say to him that I knew your Majesty would be exceeding desirous of his being present that day so as that it mought be without prejudice to his continuance But that otherwise your Majestie esteemed a Servant more than a Service especially such a Servant Surely in mine Opinion your Majesty were better put off the dayâ than want his presence considering the Cause of the putting off is so notorioâs And then the Capital and the Criminal may come together the next Term. I have not been unprofitable in helping to discover and examine within these few dayes a late Patent by Surreption obtained from your Majesty of the greatest Forest in England worth 30000 l. under Colour of a Defective Title for a matter of 400 l. The Person must be named because the Patent must be questioned It is a great Person my Lord of Shrewsbury Or rather as I think a greater than he which is my Lady of Shrewsbury But I humbly pray your Majesty to know this first from my Lord Treasurer who methinks groweth even studious in your Business God preserve your Majesty Your Majesties most humble and devoted Subject and Servant The rather in regard of Mr. Murray's Absence I humbly pray your Majesty to have a little regard to this Letter A Letter to the King touching my Lord Chancellers Amendment and the putting off of J. S. his Cause February 7. 1614. It may please your excellent Majesty MY Lord Chanceller sent for me to speak with me this Morning about 8. of the clock I perceive he hath now that Signum Sanitatis as to feel better his former weakness For it is true I did a little mistrust that it was but a Boutade of Desire and good Spirit when he promised himself strength for Friday though I was wonn and carried with it But now I finde him well inclined to use should I say your Liberty or rather your Interdict signifyed by Mr. Secretary from your Majesty His Lordship shewed me also your own Letter whereof he had told me before but had not shewed it me What shall I say I doe much admire your Goodness for writing such a Letter at such a time He had sent also to my Lord Treasurer to desire him to come to him about that time His Lordship came And not to trouble your Majesty with circumstances both their Lordships concluded my Self present and concurring That it could be no prejudice to your Majesties Service to put off the day for I. S. till the next Term. The rather because there are Seven of your Privy Council which are at least Numerus and part of the Court which are by Infirmity like to be absent That is my Lord Chanceller my Lord Admiral my Lord of Shrewsbury my Lord of Exceter my Lord Zouch my Lord Stanhope and Mr. Chanceller of the Dutchy wherefore they agreed to hold a Council too morrow in the afternoon for that purpose It is true that I was alwayes of Opinion that it was no time lost And I doe think so the rather because I could be content that the Matter of Peacham were first setled and put to a point For there be perchance that would make the Example upon I.S. to stand for all For Peacham I expect some account from my Fellows this day If it should fall out otherwise then I hope it may not be left so Your Majesty in your last Letter very wisely put in a Disjunctive that the Iudges should deliver an Opinion privately either to my Lord Chanceller or to our Selves distributed His Sickness made the later way to be taken But the other may be reserved with some Accommodating when we see the success of the Former I am appointed this day to attend my Lord Treasurer for a Proposition of Raising Profit and Revenew by Infranchising Copyholders I am right glad to see the Patrimonial part of your Revenew well look'd into as well as the Fiscal And I hope it will so be in other parts as well as this God preserve your Majestie Your Majesties most humble and devoted Subject and Servant A Letter to the King of account of Owens Cause c. 11 February 1614. It may please your excellent Majesty MY Self with the rest of your Counsel Learned confered with my Lord Cooke and the rest of the Iudges of the Kings Bench onely being met at my Lords Chamber concerning the business of Owen For although it be true that your Maiesty in your Letter did mention that the same Course might be held in the Taking of Opinions apart in this which was prescribed and used in Peachams Cause yet both my Lords of the Council and we amongst our Selves holding it in a Case so clear not needfull But rathat it would import a diffidence in us and deprive us of the means to debate it with the Iudges if cause were more strongly which is somewhat we thought best rather to use this Form The Iudges desired us to leave the Examinations and Papers with them for some little time to consider which is a thing they use But I conceive there will be no manner of Question made of it My Lord Chief Iustice to shew forwardness as I interpret it shewed us passages of Suarez and others thereby to prove that though your Majesty stood not Excommunicate by particular Sentence yet by the General Bulls of Coena Domini and others you were upon the matter Excommunicate And
therefore that the Treason was as De praesenti But I that foresee that if that Course should be held when it commeth to a publick day to disseminate to the Vulgar an Opinion that your Majesties Case is all one as if you were de Facto particularly and exprâsây Excommunicate it would but encrease the danger of your Person with those that are Desperate Papists And that it is needless Commended my Lords Diligence but withall put it by And fell upon the other Course which is the true way That is that whosoever shall affirm in Diem or sub Conditione that your Majesty may be destroyed is a Traytor de praesenti For that he maketh you but Tennant for Life at the will of another And I put the Duke of Buckinghams Case who said That if the King caused him to be arrested of Treason he would stab him And the Case of the Imposturess Elizabeth Barton that said That if King Henry the 8. took not his Wife again Katharine Dowager he should be no longer King And the like It may be these particulars are not worth the Relating But because I find nothing in the World so important to your Service as to have you throughly inâormed the Ability of your Direction considered it maketâ me thus to doe Most humbly praying your Majesty to admonish me if I be over-troublesom For Peacham the rest of my Fellowes are ready to make their Report to your Majesty at such time and in such manner as your Majâsty shall require it My Self yesterday took my Lord Cooke aside after the rest were gone and told him all the rest were ready and I was now to require his Lordships Opinion according to my Commission He said I should have it And repeated that twice or thrice as thinking he had gone too farr in that kinde of Negative to deliver any Opiâion apart before And said he would tell it me within a very short time though he were not that instant ready I have tossed this Business in omnes partes whereof I will give your Majesty knowledge when time serveth God preserve your Majesty Your Majesties most humble and devoted Subject and Servant A Letter to the King about a Certificate of my Lord Cooke Feb. 14. 1614. It may please your excellent Majesty I Send your Majesty enclosed my Lord Cookes Answers I will not call them Rescripts Much less Oracles They are of his own hand and offered to me as they are in writing though I am glad of it for mine own Discharge I thought it my duty as soon as I received them instantly to send them to your Majesty And forbear for the present to speak further of them I for my part though this Muscovia Weather be a little too hard for my Constitution was ready to have waited upon your Majesty this day all respects set aside But my Lord Treasurer in respect of the season and much other Business was willing to save me I will only conclude touching these Papers with a Text Divided I can not say Oportet isthaec fieri But I may say Finis autem nondum God preserve your Majesty Your Majesties most humble and devoted Subject and Servant A Letter to the King touching Matter of his Revenew and Profit April 25. 1615. It may please your Majesty I May remember what Tacitus saith by occasion that Tiberius was often and long absent from Rome In Vrbe et parvâ et magnâ Negotia Imperatorem simul premunt But saith He In recessu dimissis rebus minoris momenti summae rerum magnârum magis agitantur This maketh me think it shall be no Incivility to trouble your Majesty with business during your aboad from London Knowingâ that your Majesties Meditations are the principal wheel of your Estate And being warranted from a former Commandement which I received from you I doe now onely send your Majesty these Papers enclosed because I doe greatly desire so farr forth to preserve my credit with you as thus That whereas lately perhaps out of too much Desire which induceth too much beleef I was bold to say that I thought it as easie for your Majesty to come out of Want as to goe forth of your Gallery your Majesty would not take me for a Dreamer or a Projectour I send your Majesty therefore some Grounds of my Hopes And for that Paper which I have gathered of Increasments sperate I beseech you to give me leave to think that if any of the particulars doe fail it will be rather for want of workmanship in those that shall deal in them than want of Materials in the Things themselves The other Paper hath many Discarding Cards And I send it chiefly that your Majesty may be the less surprized by Projectors who pretend sometimesâ great Discoveries and Inventions in Things that have been propounded and perhaps after a better fashion long since God Almighty preserve your Majesty Your Majesties most humble and devoted Subject and Servant A Letter to the King reporting the Day of Hearing of I. S. his Cause in the Starre-Chamber 29 April 1615. It may please your excellent Majesty I. S. his Day is past and well past I hold it to be Ianus Bifrons It hath a good Aspect to that which is past And to the Future And doth both âatisfie and prepare All did well My Lord Chief Iustice delivered the Law for the Benevolence strongly I would he had done it timely Mr. Chanceller of the Exchequer spake finely somewhat after the manner of my late Lord Privy Seal Not all out so sharply but as elegantly Sir Thomas Lake who is also new in that Court did very well familiarly and Counseller-like My Lord of Pembroke who is likewise a stranger there did extraordinarily well and became himself well and had an evident Applause I meant well also And because my Information was the Ground having spoken out of a few Heads which I had gathered For I seldom doe more I set down as soon as I came home cursorily a Frame of that I had said Though I perswade my self I spake it with more life I have sent it to Mr. Murray sealed If your Majesty have so much idle time to look upon it it may give some light of the Dayes work But I most humbly pray your Majesty to pardon the Errours God preserve you ever Your Majesties most humble Subject and devoted Servant A Letter to the King concerning the New Company August 12. 1615. It may please your most excellent Majesty YOâr Maâesty shall shortly receive the Bill for the Incorporation of the New Company together with a Bill for the Privy Seal being a Dependancy thereof For this Morning I subscribed and doâkeââed them both I think it therefore now time to repreâsent to your Majesties high wisdom that which I conceive and have had long in my minde concerning your Majesties service and honourable profit in this Business This Project which hath proceeded from a worthy Service of the Lord Treasurer I have from the beginning
Company break it must either be put upon the Patent or upon the Order made by themselves For the Patent I satisfied the Board that there was no Title in it which was not either Verbatim in the Patent of the Old Company Or by special warrant from the Table inserted My Lord Cooke with much respect to me acknowledged but disliked the Old Patent it self and disclaimed his being at the Table when the Additions were allowed But in my Opinion howsoever my Lord Cooke to magnify his Science in Law draweth every thing though sometimes unproperly and unseasonably to that kinde of Question it is not convenient to break the Business upon those Points For considering they were but Clauses that were in the former Patents and in many other Patents of Companies And that the Additions likewise passed the Allowance of the Table it will be but clamoured and perhaps conceived that to quarrel them now is but an Occasion taken And that the Times are changed rather than the Matter But that which preserveth entire your Majesties Honour and the Constancy of your Proceedings is to put the Breach upon their Orders For this Light I gave in my Report which the Table readily apprehended and much approved That if the Table reject their Orders as unlawfull and unjust it doth free you from their Contract For whosoever contracteth or undertaketh any thing is alwayes understood to perform it by lawfull means So as they have plainly abused the State if that which they have undertaken be either impossible or unjust I am bold to present this Consideration to that excellent Faculty of your Majesties Judgement because I think it importeth that future Good which may grow to your Majesty in the close of this Business That the Falling ofâ be without all Exception God have you in his precious Custody Your Majesties most humble and bounden Subject and Servant A Letter to the King touching the Lord Chancellers Sickness Feb. 9. 1615. It may please your most excellent Majesty I Am glad to understand by Mr. Murray that your Majesty accepteth well of my poor Endeavours in opening unto you the passages of your Service That Business may come the less crude and the more prepared to your Royal Iudgement the perfection whereof as I cannot expect they should satisfy in every particular so I hope through my Assiduity there will result a good Total My Lord Chancellers Sickness falleth out durâ Tempore I have alwaies known him a wise Man and of just Elevation for Monarchy But your Majesties service must not be Mortal And if you leese him as your Majesty hath now of late purchased many Hearts by depressing the Wicked So God doth minister unto you a Counterpart to doe the like by raising the Honest. God evermore preserve your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject and bounden Servant A Letter to the King of my Lord Chancellers Amendment and the Difference begun between the Chancery and Kings Bench Feb. 15. 1615. It may please your excellent Majesty I Doe find God be thanked a sensible Amendment in my Lord Chanceller I was with him yesterday in private conference about half an Hour And this day again at such time as he did seal which he endured well almost the space of an Hour though the Vapour of Wax be offensive to him He is free from a Feaver Perfect in his powers of Memory and Speech And not hollow in his Voice nor Look He hath no panting or labouring Respiration Neither are his Coughs dry or weak But whosoever thinketh his Disease is but Melancholy he maketh no true Judgement of it For it is plainly a formed and deep Cough with a Pectoral surcharge So that at times he doth almost Animam agere I forbear to advertise your Majesty of the Care I took to have Commissions in readiness because Mr. Secretary Lake hath let me understand he signifyed as much to your Majesty But I hope there shall be no use for them at this time And as I am glad to advertise your Majesty of the Amendment of your Chancellers Person So I am sorry to accompany it with an Advertisement of the Sickness of your Chancery Court though by the Grace of God that Cure will be much easier than the other It is true I did lately write to your Majesty that for the Matter of the Habeas Corpora which was the third Matter in Law you had given me in charge I did think the Communion in Service between my Lord Chanceller and my Lord Chief Iustice in the great Business of Examination would so joyn them as they would not square at this time But pardon me I humbly pray your Majesty if I have too Reasonable Thoughts And yet that which happened the last day of the Term concerning certain Indictments in the Nature of Premunire preferred into the Kings Bench but not sound Is not so much as is voiced abroad though I must say it is omni tempore Nimium et hoc tempoâe Alienum And therefore I beseech your Maâesty not to give any Beleeving Ear to Reports but to receive the Truth from me that am your Atturney General and ought to stand indifferent for Iurisdictions of all Courts which Account I cannot give your Majesty now because I was then absentâ And some are now absent which are properly and authentically to inform me touching that which passed Neither let this any wayes disjoynt your other Business For there is a time for all things And this very Accideât may be turned to Good Not that I am of Opinion that that same Cunning Maxim of Separa Impera which sometimes holdeth in Persons can well take place in Iurisdictions But because some good Occasion by this Excess may be taken to settle that which would have been more dangerous if it had gone out by little and little God ever preserve your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject and most bounden Servant A Letter to Sir George Villiers touching the Difference between the Court of Chancery and the Kings Bench. Febr. 19. 1615. SIR I received this Morning from you two Letters by the same Bearer The one written before the other after his Majesty had received my last In this Difference between the two Courts of Chancery and Kings Bench For so I had rather take it for this Time than between the Perâons of my Lord Chanceller and my Lord Chief Iustice I marvail not if Rumour get way of true Relation For I know Fame hath swift wings Specially that which hath black Feathers But within these two dayes For sooner I cannot be ready I will write unto his Majesty both the Narrative truly and my Opinion sincerely Taâing much comfort that I serve such a King as hath Gods Property in discerning truly of Mens Hearts I purpose to speak with my Lord Chanceller this day And so to exhibite that Cordial of his Majesties Grace As I hope that other Accident will rather rouze and raise his Spirit than deject him or encline him to
Relapse Mean while I commend the Wit of a mean Man that said this other day Well the next Term you shall have an old man come with a Beesom of Wormwood in his Hand that will sweep away all this For it is my Lord Chancellers Fashion specially towards the Summer to carry a Posie of Wormwood I write this Letter in Haste to return your Messenger with it God keep you and long and happily may you serve his Majesty Sir I thank you for your Inward Letter I have burned it as you commanded But the Fire it hath kindled in me will never be extinguished Your true and affectionate Servant A Letter to Sir George Villiers touching a Motion to swear him Counsellerâ Febr. 21. 1615. SIR My Lord Chancellers Health growing with the Dayes and his Resignation being an Uncertainty I would be glad you went on with my first Motion my swearing Privy Counseller This I desire not so much to make my Self more sure of the other and to put it past Competition For herein I rest wholly upon the King and your excellent self But because I finde hourly that I need this Strength in his Majesties service Both âor my better warrant and satisfaction of my Conscience that I deal not in Things above my Vocation And for my better Countenance and Prevailing where his Majesties service is under any pretext opposed I would it were dispatched I remember a greater Matter than this was dispatched by a Letter from Royston which was the Placing of the Arch-Bishop that now is And I imagine the King did it on purpose that the Act mought appear to be his own My Lord Chanceller told me yesterday in plain Terms that if the King would ask his opinion touching the Person that he would commend to succeed him upon Death or Disability he would name me for the fittest Man You may advise whether use may not be made of this offer I sent a pretty while since a Paper to Mr. Iohn Murrey which was indeed a little Remembrance of some Things past concerning my honest and faithfull Services to his Majesty Not by way of Boasting from which I am farr but as Tokens of my studying his Service uprightly and carefully If you be pleased to call for the Paper which is with Mr. Iohn Murrey And to find a fit time that his Maiesty may cast an eye upon it I think it will doe no Hurt And I have written to Mr. Murrey to deliver the Paper if you call for it God keep you in all Happiness Your truest Servant A Letter to the King concerning the Premunire in the Kings Bench against the Chancery Febr. 21. 1615. It may please your most excellent Majesty I Was yesterday in the Afternoon with my Lord Chanceller according to your Commandement which I received by the Master of the Horse And finde the Old Man well comforted Both towards God and towards the World and that same middle Comfort which is Divine and Humane proceeding from your Majesty being Gods Lieutenant on Earth I am perswaded hath been a great Cause that such a Sickness hath been portable to such an Age. I did not fail in my Conjecture that this Businessâ of the Chancery hath stirred him He sheweth to despise it but he is full of it And almost like a young Duellist that findeth himself behind hand I will now as your Majesty requireth give you a true Relation of that which hath passed Neither will I decline your Royal Commandement for delivering my Opinion also though it be a tender Subject to write on But I that account my Being but as an Accident to my service will neglect no duty upon Self-Safety First it is necessary I let your Majesty know the Ground of the Difference between the Two Courts that your Majesty may the better understand the Narrative There was a Statute made 27 Edw. 3. Cap. 1. which no doubt in the principal Intention thereof was ordained against those that sued to Romeâ wherein there are Words somewhat general against any that questioneth or impeacheth any Iudgement given in the Kings Courts or in any other Court. Vpon thesâ doubtfull words other Courts the Controversie groweth For the sounder Interpretation taketh them to be meant of those Courts which though locally they were not held at Rome or where the Popes Chair was but hâre within the Realm yet in their Iurisdiction had their Dependance upon the Court of Rome As were the Court of the Legate here and the Courts of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops which were then but subordinate Judgement Seats to that high Tribunal of Rome And for this Construction the Opposition of the Words if they be well observed between the Kings Courâs and other Courts maketh very much For it importeth as if those other Courts were not the Kings Courts Also the main Scope of the Statute fortifieth the same And lastly the Practice of many Ages The other Interpretation which cleaveth to the Letter expoundeth the Kings Courts to be the Courts of Law only and other Courts to be Courts of Equity as the Chancery Exchequer-chamber Dutchy c. Though this also flyeth indeed from the Letter for that all these are the Kings Courts There is also another Statute which is but a simple Prohibition and not with a Penalty of a Premunire as the other is That after Iudgements given in the Kings Courts the parties shall be in Peace except âhe Iudgement be undone by Error or Attaint which is a Legal form of Reversal And of this also I hold the Sounder Interpretation to be to settle Possessionsâ against Disturbances and not to take away Remedy in Equity where those Iudgements are obtained ex Rigore Iuris and against good Conscience But upon these two Statutes there hath been a late Conceit in some that if a Judgement pass at the Common Law against any that he may not after âue for Relief in Chancery And if he doth both He and his Counsell and his Sollicitours yea and the Iudge in Equity himself are within the Danger of those Statutes Here your Majesty hath the true state of the Question which I was necessarily to open to you first because your Majesty calleth for this Relation Not as Newes but as Business Now to the Historical part It is the Course of the Kings Bench that they give in Charge to a Grand Iury offences of all Natures to be presented within Middlesex where the said Court is And the manner is to enumerate them as it were iâ Articles This was done by Iustice Crook the Wednesday before the Term ended And that Article If any Man after a Iudgement given had drawn the said Iudgement to a new Examination in any other Court was by him specially given in charge which had not used to be given in charge before It is true it was not solemnly dwelt upon but as it were thrown in amongst the rest The last day of the Term And that which all Men condemn the supposed last day of my Lord Chancellers
Company to carry out Cloathes Dyed and Dressed Custom-free Which will still continue as a glorious Beam of your Majesties Royal Design I hope and Wish at least that this which I have written may be of some use to your Majesty to settle by the Advice of the Lords about you this great Business At the least it is the Effect of my Care and poor Ability which if in me be any it is given me to no other end but faithfully to serve your Majesty God ever preserve you Your Majesties most humble Subject and bounden Servant Another Letter to Sir George Villiers touching a Motion to swear him Counseller February 27. 1615. SIR I humbly pray you not to think me over-hasty or much in Appetite if I put you in Remembrance of my Motion of strengthening me with the Oath and Trust of a Privy Counseller Not for mine own strength For as to that I thank God I am armed within but for the Strength of my Service The Times I submit to you who knoweth them best But sure I am there were never Times which did more require a Kings Atturneâ to be well armed and as I said once to you to wear a Gauntlet and not a Glove The Arraignments when they proceed The Contention between the Chancery and Benchâ The great Cause of the Rege inconsulto which is so precious to the Kings Prerogative Diverse other Services that concern the Kings Revenew and the Repair of his Estate Besides it pleaseth his Majesty to accept well of my Relations touching his Business which may seem a kind of Interloping as the Merchants call it for one that is no Counseller But I leave all unto you thinking my Self infinitely bounden unto you for your great Favours The Beams whereof I see plainly reflect upon me even from others So that now I have no greater Ambition than this That as the King sheweth Himself to you the best Master so I mought be found your best Servant In which Wish and Vow I shall ever rest Most devoted and affectionate to obey your Commands A Letter to the King upon some Inclination of his Majesty to him for the Chancellers Place April 1. 1616. It may please your most excellent Majesty THe last day when it pleased your Majesty to express your Self towards me farr above that I can deserve or could expect I was surprized by the Princes comming in I most humbly pray your Majesty to accept these few Lines of Acknowledgement I never had great Thought for my Self further than to maintain those great Thoughts which I confess I have for your Service I know what Honour is And I know what the Times are But I thank God with me my Service is the Principal And it is farr from me under Honourable Pretences to cover base Desires which I account then to be when Men referr too much to Themselves especially serving such a King I am afraid of Nothing but that the Master of the Horse your Excellent Servant and I shall fall out who shall hold your Stirrop best But were you Mounted and Seated without Difficulties and Distastes in your Business as I desire and hope to see you I should ex animo desire to spend the Decline of my years in my Studies Wherein also I should not forget to doe him Honour who besides his Active and Politique Vertues is the best Penn of Kings Much more the best Subject of a Penn. God ever preserve your Majesty Your Majesties most humble Subject And more and more obliged Servant A Letter to Sir George Villiers touching his Swearing Counseller May 30. 1616. SIR The time is as I should think now or never âor his Majesty to finish his good Meaning towards me If it please him to consider what is past and what is to come If I would tender my Profit and oblige Men unto me by my Place and Practice I could have more profit than I could devise And could oblige all the World and offend none which is a brave Condition for a Mans Private But my Heart is not on these Tâings Yet on the other side I would be sorry that worthless Persons should make a Note that I get Nothing but Pains and Enemies And a little Popular Reputation which followeth me whether I will or no. If any thing be to be done for your self I should take infinite Contentment that my Honour might wait upon yours But I would be loath it should wait upon any Man 's else If you would put your strength to this Business it is done And that done many Things more will begin God keep you ever I rest Your true and devoted Servant A Letter to Sir George Villiers upon the Choice his Majesty gave him whether he would be sworn Counseller or have Assurance to succeed the Chanceller Iune 3. 1616. SIR The King giveth me a noble choice And you are the Man my Heart ever told me you were Ambition would draw me to the latter part of the Choice But in respect of my hearty wishes that my Lord Chanceller may live long And the small Hopes I have that I shall live long my Self And above all because I see his Majesties Service daily and instantly bleedeth Towards which I perswade my Self vainly perhaps but yet in mine own thoughts firmly and constantly that I shall give when I am of the Table some effectual Furtherance as a poor Thred of the Labyrinth which hath no other Vertue but an united Continuance without Interruption or Distraction I doe accept of the former to be Counseller for the present and to give over pleading at Barr Let the other Matter rest upon my Proof and his Majesties Pleasure and the Accidents of Time For to speak plainly I would be loath that my Lord Chanceller to whom I owe most after the King and your Self should be locked to his Successour for any Advancement or Gracing of me So I ever remain Your true and most devoted and obliged Servant To his very Honourable good Friend Sir George Villiers Master of the Horse to his Majesty and of the most Noble Order of the Garter Iune 12. 1616. SIR I send his Majesty a Draught of the Act of Counsel concerning the Iudges Letter penned as near as I could to his Majesties Instructions received in your presence I then told his Majesty my Memory was not able to keep way with his And therefore his Majesty will pardon me for any Omissions or Errours And be pleased to supply and reform the same I am preparing some other Materials for his Majesties excellent Hand concerning Business that is comming on For since his Majesty hath renewed my Heart within me methinks I should double my endeavours God ever preserve and prosper you I rest Your most devoted and bounden Servant A Letter to Sir George Villiers for the Restoring of Doctor Burgis to preach Iune 12. 1616. SIR I doe think you may doe your self Honour and that which is more doe a good Work if you will assist and perfect a Motion
to Sir George Villiers upon the Sending of his Patent for the Creation of Viscount Sealed August 20. 1616. SIR I took much Contentment in that I perceive by your Letter that you took in so good part the Freedom of my Advice And that your Self in your own Nature consented therewith Certainly no Service is comparable to good Counsell And the Reason is because no Man can doe so much for another as a Man may doe for himself Now good Counsel helpeth a Man to help himself But you have so happy a Master as supplyeth all My Service and good will shall not be wanting It was graciously and kindly done also of his Majesty towards me to tell you that you were beholding to me But it must be then for Thinking of you as I doeâ For otherwise for Speaking as I think it is but the part of an Honest Man I send you your Patent whereof God give you Joy And I send you here inclosed a little Note of Remembrance for that part of the Ceremony which concerneth the Patent For as for other Ceremonies I leave to others My Lord Chanceller dispatcht your Patent presently upon the Râceit And writ to me how glad he was of it and how well he wished you If you writ to him a few words of Thanks I think you shall doe well God keep you and prosper you I ever rest Your true and most devoted Servant A Letter to Sir George Villiers acknowledging the Kings Favour in granting some Sute of his August 22. 1616. SIR I am more and more bound unto his Majesty who I think knowing me to have other Ends than Ambition is contented to make me Judge of mine own Desires I am now beating my Brains amongst many Cares of his Majesties Business touching the Redeeming the Time in this Business of Cloath The great Question is How to miss or how to mate the Flemmings How to pass by them or how to pass over them In my next Letter I shall alter your Stile But I shall never whilst I breath alter mine own Stile In being Your true and most devoted Servant The Lord Keepers Letter to the University in answer of their Congratulation at his first Comming to that place To the Renowned University of Cambridge his Dear and Reverend Mother I Am Debtor to you of your Letters and of the Time likewise that I have taken to answer them But as soon as I could chuse what to think on I thought good to let you know That although you may erre much in your valuation of me yet you shall not be deceived in your Assurance And for the other part also though the manner be to mend the Picture by the Life yet I would be glad to mend the Life by the Picture and to become and be as you express me to be Your Gratulations shall be no more welcom to me than your Business or occasions which I will attend and yet not so but that I shall endeavour to prevent them by my care of your Good And so I commend you to God's goodness Your most loving and assured Friend and Sonne Fr. Bacon C. S. Gorhambury Apr. 12. 1617. A Letter of King James written to his Lordship when he was Lord Chanceller with his Majesties own Hand upon the sending to him his Book of Instauratio Magna then newly published MY Lord I Have received your Letter and your Book than the which you could not have sent a more acceptable Present unto me How thankfull I am for it cannot better be expressed by me than by a firm Resolution I have taken First to read it thorough with care and attention Though I should steal some Hours from my Sleep Having otherwise as little spare time to read it as you had to write it And theâ to use the liberty of a true Friend in not sparing to ask you the question in any point whereof I shall stand in doubt Nam ejus est Explicare cujus est Condere As on the other part I will willingly give a due commendation to such places as in my opinion shall deserve it In the mean time I can with comâort assure you that you could not have made choice of a Subject more befitting your placeâ and your universal and Methodick Knowledge And in the general I have already observed that you jump with me in keeping the midd way between the two Extremes As also in some particulars I have found that you agree fully with my opinion And so praying God to give your Work as good Success as your Heart can wish and your Labours deserve I bid you heartily farewell Iames Rex Octob. 16. 1620. OTHER LETTERS BY THE SAME Honourable Authour Written in the Dayes of QVEEN ELIZABETH LONDON Printed by F. L. for William Lee at the sign of the Turks-Head in Fleetstreet 1657. OTHER LETTERS WRITTEN BY THE SAME Honourable Authour To my Lord of Essex My singular good Lord I May perceive by my Lord Keeper that your Lordship as the time served signified unto him an Intention to conferr with his Lordship at better opportunity Which in regard of your several and weighty occasions I have thought good to put your Lordship in remembrance of That now at his Comming to the Court it may bee executed Desiring your good Lordship nevertheless not to conceive out of this my diligence in solliciting this matter that I am either much in Appetite or much in Hope For as for Appetite The Waters of Parnassus are not like the Waters of the Spaw that give a Stomach But rather they quench Appetite and Desires And for Hope How can he hope much that can allege no other Reason than the Reason of an Evil Debter who will perswade his Creditour to lend him new Summes and to enter further in with him to make him satisfie the old And to her Majesty no other Reason but the Reason of a Waterman I am her first Man of those who serve in Counsel of Law And so I commit your Lordship to Gods best preservation To my Lord of Essex My Lord COnceiving that your Lordship came now up in the person of a good Servant to see your Soveraign Mistris which kinde of Complements are many times Instar magnorum Meritorum And therefore that it would be hard for me to find you I have committed to this poor Paper the humble Salutations of him that is more yours than any Mans And more yours than any Man To these Salutations I add a due and joyfull Gratulation confessing that your Lordship in your last conference with me before your Journey spake not in vain God making it good That you trusted we should say Quis putasset Which as it is found true in a happy sense so I wish you doe not find another Quis putasset in the manner of taking this so great a Service But I hope it is as he said Nubecula est citò transibit And that your Lordships Wisdom and Obsequious Circumspection and Patience will turn all to the
Ordinary Accesses at Court And to come frequeâtly into the Queens Eye who would often grace him with private and free Communication Not onely about Matters of his Profession or Businesse in Law But also about the Arduous Affairs of Estate From whom she received from time to time great Satisfaction Neverthelesse though she cheered him much with the Bounty of her Countenance yet she never cheered him with the Bounty of her Hand Having never conferred upon him any Ordinary Place or Means of Honour or Profit Save onely one dry Reversion of the Registers Office in the Star-Chamber worth about 1600 l. per Annum For which he waited in Expectation either fully or near 20. years Of which his Lordship would say in Queen Elizabeths Time That it was like another Mans Ground buttalling upon his House which might mend his Prospect but it did not fill his Barn Neverthelesse in the time of King James it fell unto him Which might be imputed Not so much to her Majesties Aversenesse or Disaffection towards him As to the Arts and Policy of a Great Statesman âhen who laboured by all Industrious and secret Means to suppresse and keep him down Lest if he had riseâ he might have obscured his Glory But though he stood long at a stay in the Dayes of his Mistresse Queen Elizabeth Yet after the change and Comming in of his New Master King James he made a great Progresse By whom he was much comforted in Places of Trust Honour and Revenue I have seen a Letter of his Lordships to King James wherein he makes Acknowledgement That He was that Master to him that had raysed and advanced him nine times Thrice in Dignity and Sixe times in Office His Offices as I conceive were Counsell Learned Extraordinary to his Majesty as he had been to Queen Elizabeth Kings Solliciter Generall His Majesties Atturney Generall Counseller of Estate being yet but Atturney Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England Lastly Lord Chanceller Which two last Places though they be the same in Auâhority and Power yet they differ in Patent Heigth and Favour of the Prince Since whose time none of his Successours did ever bear the Title of Lord Chanceller His Dignities were first Knight Then Baron of Verulam Lastly Viscount Saint Alban Besides other good Gifts and Bounties of the Hand which his Majesty gave him Both out of the Broad Seal And out of the Alienation Office Towards his Rising years not before he entred into a married Estate And took to Wife Alice one of the Daughters and Co-Heires of Benedict Barnham Esquire and Alderman of London with whom He received a sufficiently ample and liberall Portion in Marriage Children he had none which though they be the Means to perpetuate our Names after our Deaths yet he had other Issues to perpetuate his Name The Issues of his Brain In which he was ever happy and admired As Jupiter was in the production of Pallas Neither did the want of Children detract from his good usage of his Consort during the Intermarriage whom he prosecuted with much Conjugall Love and Respect with many Rich Gifts and Enâowments Besides a Roab of Honour which he invested her withall which she wore untill her Dying Day Being twenty years and more after his Death The last five years of his Life being with-drawn from Civill Affaires and from an Active Life he employed wholy in Contemplation and Studies A Thing whereof his Lordshâp would often speak during his Active Life As if he affected to dye in the Shadow and not in the Light which also may be found in severall Passages of his Works In which time he composed the greatest Part of his Books and Writings Both in English and Latin Which I will enumerate as near as I can in the just Order wherein they were written The History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh Abecedarium Naturae or A Metaphysicall Piece which is lost Historia Ventorum Historia vitae Mortis Historia Densi Rari not yet Printed Historia Gravis Levis which is also lost A Discourse of a War with Spain A Dialogue touching an Holy War The Fable of the New Atlantis A Preface to a Digest of the Lawes of England The Beginning of the History of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth De Augmentis Scientiarum Or the Advanccment of Learning put into Latin with severall Enrichments and Enlargements Counsells Civill and Morall Or his Book of Essayes likewise Enriched and enlarged The Conversion of certain Psalms into English Verse The Translation into Latin of the History of King Henry the Seventh of the Counsells Civill and Morall of the Dialogue of the Holy War of the Fable of the New Atlantis For the Benefit of other Nations His Revising of his Book De Sapientià Veterum Inquisitio de Magnete Topica Inquisitionis de Luce Lumine Both these not yet Printed Lastly Sylva Sylvarum or the Naturall History These were the âruits and Productions of his last five years His Lordship also designed upon the Motion and Invitation of his late Majesty To have written the Reign of King Henry the Eighth But that Work Perished in the Designationâ meerly God not lending him Life to proceed further upon it then onely in one Mornings Work Whereof there is Extant An Ex Ungue Leonem already Printed in his Lordships Miscellany Works There is a Commemoration due As well to his Abilities and Vertues as to the Course of his Life Those Abilities which commonly goe single in other Men though of prime and Observable Parts were all conjoyned and met in Him Those are Sharpnesâ of Wit Memory Judgement and Elocution For the Former Three his Books doe abundantly speak them which with what Sufficiency he wrote let the World judge But with what Celerity he wrote them I can best testifie But for the Fourth his Elocution I will onely set down what I heard Sir Walter Rauleigh once speak of him by way of Comparison whose Iudgement may well be trusted That the Earl of Salisbury was an excellent Speaker but no good Pen-man That the Earl of Northampton the Lord Henry Howard was an excellent Pen-man but no good Speaker But that Sir Francis Bacon was Eminent in Both. I have been enduced to think That if there were a Beame of Knowledge derived from God upon any Man in these Modern Times it was upon Him For though he was a great Reader of Books yet he had not his Knowledge from Books But from some Grounds and Notions from within Himself Which notwithstanding he vented with great Caution and Circumspection His Book of Instauratio Magna which in his own Account was the chiefest of his works was no Slight Imagination or Fancy of his Brain But a Setled and Concocted Notion The Production of many years Labour and Travell I my Self have seen at the least Twelve Coppies of the Instauration Revised year by year one after another And every year altred and amended in the Frame thereof Till
Attractive to the Ambition of the Couucel of Spain who by former experience know of how tough a Complexion this Realm of England is to be asâailed And therefore as Rheumes and Fluxes of Humours is like to resort to that part which is weak and distempered And lastly it is famous now and so will be many Ages hence how by these two Sea-Journey's we have braved him and objected him to scorn so that no Bloud can be so frozen or mortified But must needs take Flames of Revenge upon so mighty Disgrace So as this Concurrence of Occurents all since our last Assembly some to deliver and free our enemies some to advance and bring him on his way some to tempt and allure him some to spur on and provoke him cannot but threaten an encrease of our Perill in great Proportion Lastly Mr. Speaker I will but reduce to the Memory of this House one other Argument for ample and large providing and supplying Treasure And this it is I see Men do with great Alacrity and Spirit proceed when they have obtained a course they long wished for and were restrained from My self can remember both in this Honourable âssembly and in all other places of this Realm how forward and affectionate men were to have an Invasive War Then we would say A Defensive War was like eating and consuming Interest And needs we would be Adventurers and Assailants Habes quod totâ mente petisti Shall we not now make it good especially when we have tasted so prosperous Fruit of our Desires The first of these Expeditions Invasive was atchieved with great Felicity ravished a strong and famous Port in the Lap and Bosome of their high Countries Brought them to such Despair as they fired themselves and their Indian Fleet in Sacrifice as a good Odour unto God for the great and Barbarous Cruelties which they have committed upon the poor Indians whither that Fleet was sayling Disordred their Reckonings so as the next News we heard of was nothing but protesting of Bills and Breaking credit The second Journey was with notable Resolution born up against Weather and all Difficulties And besides the success in amusing him and putting him to infinite charge sure I am it was like a Tartars or Parthians Bow which shooteth backward And had a most strong and violent effect and Operation both in France and Flaunders so that our Neighbours and Confederates have reaped the Harvest of it And while the Life Bloud of Spain went inward to the Heart the outward Limmes and Members trembled and could not resist And lastly we have a perfect account of all the Noble and good Bloud that was carried forth And of all our Sea-walls and good Shipping without Mortality of Persons wreck of Vessels or any manner of Diminution And these have been the happy Effects of our so long and so much desired Invasive War To conclude Mr. Speaker therefore I doubt not but every Man will consent that our Gift must bear these two Marks and Badges The one of the Danger of the Realm by so great a Proportion since the last Parliament encreased The other of the satisfaction we receive in having obtained our so earnest and ardent Desire of an Invasive War A Speech made by Sir FRANCIS BACON Knight chosen by the Commons to present a Petition touching Purveyors delivered to his Majesty in the with-drawing Chamber at White-Hall in the Parliament held âo. 2o. Iacobi the first Session IT is well known to your Majesty excellent King that the Emperours of Rome for their better Glory and Ornament did use in their Titles the Additions of the Countries and Nations where they had obtained victories As Germanicus Britannicus the like But after all those Names as in the higher place followed the Name of Pater Patriae as the greatest Name of all human Honour immediatly preceding that Name of Augustus whereby they took themselves to expresse some Affinity that they had in respect of their Office with Divine Honour Your Majesty mought with good reason assume to your self many of those other Names As Germanicus Saxonicus Britannicus Francicus Danicus Gothicus and others as appertaining to you Not by Bloud-shed as they bare them but by Bloud your Majesties Royall Person being a noble confluence of streams and veynes wherein the Royall Bloud of many Kingdoms of Europe are met and united But no Name is more worthy of you nor may more truly be ascribed unto you then that Name of Father of your people which you bear and express not in the Formality of your stile but in the reall Course of your Government We ought not to say unto you as was said to Caesar Iulius Quae miremur habemus quaelaudemus expectamus That we have already wherefore to admire you And that now we expect somewhat for which to commend you For we may without suspicion of Flattery acknowledge that we have found in your Majesty great Cause both of Admiration and Commendation For great is the Admiration wherewith you have possessed us since this Parliament began in those two Causes wherein we have had accesse unto you and heard your Voice That of the return of Sr. Francis Goodwine And that of the Union Whereby it seemeth unto us The one of these being so subtile a Question of Law And the other so high a Cause of Estate That as the âcripture âaith of the wisest King That his Heart was as the Sands of the Sea which though it be one of the largest and vastest Bodies yet it consisteth of the smallest Moates and Portions So I say it appeareth unto us in these two examples that God hath given your Majesty a rare sufficiency both to compasse and fathome the greatest matters and to discern the least And for matter of Praise and Commendation which chiefly belongeth to Goodness we cannot but with great thankfulness profess That your Majesty within the Circle of one Year of your Raign infra Orbem Anni Vertentis hath endeavoured to unite your Church which was divided To supply your Nobility which was diminished And to ease your People in Cases where they were burthened and oppressed In the last of these your high Merits That is the Ease and Comfort of your People Doth fall out to be comprehended the Message which I now bring unto your Majestie concerning the great Grievance arising by the manifold Abuses of âurveyors Differing in some Degree from most of the things wherein we deale and consult For it is true that the Knights Citizens and âurgesses in Parliament assembled are a Representative Body of your Commons and Third Estate And in many matters although we apply our selves to perform the trust of those that choose us yet it may be we do speak much out of our own Senses and Discourses But in this Grievance being of that Nature whereunto the poor People is most exposed and Men of Quality less we shall most humbly desire your Majesty to conceive That your Majesty doth not hear our Opinions
or Senses but the very Groanes and Complaints tâemselves of your Commons more truly and vively then by Representation For there is no Grievance in your Kingdome so generall so continuall so sensible and so bitter unto the common Subject as this whereof we now speak Wherein it may pleâse your Majesty to vouchsafe me leave First to set forth unto you the dutifull and respective Carriage of our proceeding Nâxt the substance of our Petition And Thirdly some Reasons and Motives which in all Humbleness we do offer to your Majesties Royall Consideration or Commiseration we assuring our selves that never King raigned that had better Notions of Head and Motions of Heart for the Good and Comfort of his loving Subjects For the first In the Course of Remedy which we desire we pretend not nor intend not in any sort to derogate from your Majesties Prerogative Nor to touch diminish or question any your Majesties Regalities or Rights For we seek nothing but the Reformation of Abuses and the Execution of former Laws whereunto we are born And although it be no strange Thing in Parliament for new Abuses to crave new Remedies yer nevertheless in these Abuses which if not in Nature yet in extremity and Heigth of them are most of them new we content our selves with the old Laws Onely we desire a Confirmation and Quickening of them in their Execution So far are we from any Humour of Iânovation or Incroachment As to the Court of the Green-Cloâh ordained for the Provision of your Majesties most Honourable Houshold we hold it Ancient we hold it Reverent Other Courts respect your Politick Person but that respects your Naturall Person But yet notwithstanding most Excellent King to use that Freedom which to Subjects that poure out their Griefs before so gracious a King is allowable we may very well alledge unto your Majesty a Comparison or Simitude used by one of the Fathers in another Matter And not unfitly representing our Case in this point And it is of the Leaves and Roots of Netâles The Leaves are venomous and stinging where they touch The Root is not so but âs without Venome or Malignity and yet it is that Root that bears and supports all the Leaves To come now to the substance of our Petition It is no other then by the Benefit of your Majesties Laws to be relieved of the Abuses of Purveyors Which Abuses do naturally divide themselves into three sorts The first they take in Kind that they ought not to take The second they take in Quântity a far greater proportion then commeth to your Majesties Use. The Third they take in an unlawfull manner In a manner I say directly and expresly prohibited by divers Laws For the First of these I am a little to alter their Name For instead of Takers they become Taxers Instead of taking Provision for your Majesties service they tax your people ad redimendam vexationem Imposing upon them and extoâting from them divers sums of Money sometimes in gross sometimes in the nature of Stipends annually paid Ne noceant to be freed and eased of their oppression Again they take Trees which by Law they cannot do Timber-Trees which are the Beauty Countenance and Shelter of Mens Houses That Men have long spared from their own purse and profit That Men esteem for their use and delight above ten times the value That are a Loss which Men cannot repair or recover These do they take to the Defacing and Spoyling of your Subjects Mansions and Dwellinâs Except they may be compounded with to their own Appetites And if a Gentleman be too hard for them while he is at home They will watch their time when there is but a Bayliffe or a Servant remaining And put the Axe to the Root of the Tree ere ever the Master can stop it Again they use a strange and most unjust Exaction In causing the Subjects to pay Poundage of their own Debts due from your Majesty unto them So as a poor Man when he hath had his Hay or his Wood or his Poultry which perchance he was full loath to part with and had for the Provision of his own Family and not to put to Sale taken from him And that not at a just Price but under the value And commeth to receive his Mony he shall have after the rate of 12. pence in the Pound abated for Poundage of his due Payment upon so hard Conditions Nay further they are grown to that extremity as is affirmed though it be scarce credible save that in such Persons all things are Credible that they will take double Poundage Once when the Debentur is made And âgain the second time when the Money is paid For the second Point most Gracious Soveraign touching the Quantity which they take far above that which is answered to your Majesties use they are the onely Multipliers in the world They have the Art of Multiplication For it is affirmed unto meâ by divers Gentlemen of good report and Experience in these Causes as a Matter which I may safely avouch before your Majesty To whom we owe all Truth as well of Information as Subjection That there is no Pound Profit which redoundeth to your Majesty in this Course But induceth and begetteth three Pound damage upon your Subjects besides the Discontentment And to the end they may make their Spoil more securely what do they whereas divers Statutes do stricâly provide that whatsoever they take shall be registred and attested To the end that by making a Collation Of that which is taken from the Countrey and that which is answered above their Deceits might appear They to the end to obscure their Deceits utterly omit the Observation of this which the Law prescribeth And therefore to descend if it may please your Majesty to the Third sort of Abuse which is of the unlawfull Manner of their Taking whereof this Question is a Branch It is so manifold as it rather asketh an Enumeration of some of the Particulars then a prosecution of all For their Price By Law they ought to take as they can agree with the Subject By Abuse they take at an imposed and enforced Price By Law they ought to make but one Aprizement by Neighbours in the Countrey By Abuse they make a second Aprizement at the Court Gate And when the Subjects Cattell come up many Miles lean and out of Plight by reason of their Travell then they prize them anew at an abated price By Law they ought to take between Sun and Sun By Abuse they take by Twilight and in the Night time A Time well chosen for Malefactours By Law they ought not to take in the High wayes A place by your Majesties high prerogative protected And by Statute by speciall words excepted By abuse they take in the wayes in Contempt of your Majesties prerogative and Laws By Law they ought to shew their Commission And the Form of Commission is by Law set down The Commissions they bring down are against the Law
And becauâe they know so much they will not shew them A number of other particulars there are whereof as I have given your Majesty a Tast so the chief of them upon deliberate Advise are set down in writing by the Labour of certain Committees and approbation of the whole House more particularly and lively than I can express them My self having them at the second hand by reason of my Aboad above But this writing is a Collection of theirs who dwell amongst the Abuses of these offenders and Complaints of the People And therefore must needs have a more perfect understanding of all the Circumstances of them It remaineth only that I use a few words the rather to move your Majesty in this cause A few words I say a very few For neither need so great Enormities any aggravating Neither needeth so great Grace as useth of it self to flow from your Majesties Princely Goodness any Artificiall perswading There be two Things onely which I think good to set before your Majesty The one the Example of your most Noble Progenitours Kings of this Realm who from the First King that endowed this Kingdom with the Great Charters of their Liberties untill the last have ordained most of them in their severall Raignes some Laws or Law against this kind of Offenders And specially the Example of one of them That King who for his Greatness Wisdom Glory and Union of severall Kingdoms resembleth your Majesty most both in Vertue and Fortune King Edward the Third who in his time onely made ten seveârall Laws against this Mischief The second is the Example of God himself who hath said and pronounced That he will not hold them guiltless that take his Name in vain For all these great Misdemâanours are committed in and under your Majesties Name And therefore we hope your Majesty will hold thâm twice guilty that commit these offences Once for the Oppressing of the People And once more for doing it under the Colour and abuse of your Majesties most dreaded and beloved Name So then I will conclude with the saying of Pindarus Optima Res Aqua Not for the Excellency but for the Common use of it And so contrary-wise the Matter of Abuse of Purveyance if it be not the most hainous Abuse yet certainly it is the most common and generall Abuse of all others in this Kingdom It resteth that according to the Command laid upon me I do in all Humbleness present this writing to your Majesties Royall Hands with most humble Petition on the Behalf of the Commons That as your Majesty hath been pleased to vouchsafe your Gracious Audience to hear me speak So you would be pleased to enlarge your Patience to hear this writing read which is more Materiall A Speech used by Sir Francis Bacon in the Lower House of Parliament 5o. Jacobi concerning the Article of generall Naturalization of the Scottish Nation IT may please you Mr. Speaker Preface will I use none but put my Self upon your good Opinions to which I have been accustomed beyond my Deservings Neither will I hold you in suspence what way I will choose But now at the first declare my self that I mean to counsell the House to naturalize this Nation Wherein nevertheless I have a request to make unto you which is of more Efficacy to the purpose I have in Hand then all that I shall say afterwards And it is the same which Demosthenes did more then once in great Causes of Estate make to the People of Athens Vt cum Calculis Suffragiorum sumanâ Magnanimitatem Reip. That when they took into their Hands the Balls whereby to give their Voices according as the manner of them was They would raise their Thoughts and lay aside those Considerations which their private Vocations and Degrees mought minister and represent unto them And would take upon them Cogitations and Minds agreeable to the Dignity and Honour of the Estate For Mr. Speaker as it was aptly and sharply said by Alexander to Parmenio when upon the Recitall of the great offers which Darius made Parmenio said unto him I would accept these offers were I as Alexander He Turned it upon him again So would I saith he were I as Parmenio So in this cause if an honest English Merchant I do not single out that State in disgrace For this Island ever held it Honourable But onely for an Instance of a private profession If an English Merchant should say Surely I would proceed no further in the union were I as the King It mought be reasonably answered No more would the King were he as an English Merchant And the like may be said of a Gentleman of the Countrey be he never so worthy and sufficient Or of a Lawyer be he never so wise and learned Or of any other particular Condition in this Kingdome For certainly Mr. Speaker if a Man shall be onely or chiefly sensible of those Respects which his particular Vocation and Degree shall suggest and infuse into him And not enter into true and worthy Considerations of Estate he shall never be able aright to give Counsell or take Counsell in this Matter So that if this Request be granted I account the Cause obtained But to proceed to the Matter it self All Consultations do rest upon Questions Comparative For when a Question is De Vero it is simple For there is but one Truth But when a Question is De Bono it is for the most part Comparative For there be differing Degrees of Good and Evill And the best of the Good is to be preferred and chosen And the worst of the Evill is to be declined and avoyded And therefore in a Question of this Nature you may not look for Answers proper to every Inconvenience alledged For somewhat that cannot be specially answered may nevertheless be encountred and over-weighed by matter of greater moment And therefore the Matter which I shall set forth unto you will naturally receive this Distribution of three parts First an Answer unto those Inconveniences which have been alledged to ensue if we should give way to this Naturalization which I suppose you will find not to be so great as they have been made But that much Dross is put into the Ballance to help to make weight Secondly an Encounter against the Remain of those Inconveniences which cannot properly be answered By much greater Inconveniences which we shall incur if we do not proceed to this Naturalization Thirdly an Encounter likewise but of another Nature That is by the gain and benefit which we shall draw and purchase to our selves by proceeding to this Naturalization And yet to avoid Confusion which evermore followeth of too much Generality it is necessary for me before I proceed to perswasion to use some Distribution of the Points or Parts of Naturalization Which certainly can be no better nor none other than the ancient Distribution of Ius Civitatis Ius Suffragii vel Tribus and Petitionis sive Honorum For all Ability and Capacity is
right we know in their Capacity and understanding they are a people Ingenious In Labour Industrious In Courage Valiant In Body Hard Active and Comely More might be said but in commending them we do but in effect commend our selves For they are of one Piece and Continent with us And Truth is we are participant both of their Vertues and Vices For if they have been noted to be a people not so tractable in Gâvernment we cannot without flatteâing our selves free our selves altogether from that Fault Being indeed a thing incident to all Martiall People As we see it evident by the Example of the Romans and others Even like unto Fierce Horses that though they be of better service then others yet are they harder to guid and to mannage But for this Objection Mr. Speaker I purpose to answer it Not by Authority of Scripture which saith Beatius est dare quam accipere But by an Authority framed and derived from the Judgement of our selves and our Ancestors in the same case as to this point For Mr. Speaker in all the Line of our Kings none useth to carry greater Commendation then his Majesties Noble Progenitour King Edward the First of that Name And amongst his other Commendations both of War and Pollicy none is more celebrated then his purpose and Enterprise for the Conquest of Scotland As not bending his Designes to glorious Acquests abroad but to solid strength at home which nevertheless if it had succeeded well could not but have brought in all those Inconveniences of the Commixture of a more Opulent Kingdome with a less that are now alledged For it is not the Yoke either of our Arms or of our Lawes that can alter the nature of the Climate or the Nature of the Soyl Neither is it the Manner of the Commixture that can alter the Matter of the Commixture And therefore Mr. Speaker if it were good for us then it is good for us now And not to be prised the less because we paid not so dear for it But a more full Answer to this Objection I refer over to that which will come after to be spoken touching Surety and Greatness The fourth Objection Mr. Speaker is not properly an Objection but rather a preoccupation of an Objection of the other side For it may be said and very materially whereabout do we contend The Benefit of Naturalization is by the Law in as many as have been or shall be born since his Majesties Comming to the Crown already setled and invested There is no more then but to bring the Ante-Nati into the Degree of the Post-Nati that Men grown that have well deserved may be in no worse case then children which have not deserved And Elder Brothers in no worse case then yonger Brothers So as we stand upon Quiddam not Quantum Being but a little difference of Time of one Generation from another To this Mr. Speaker it is said by some That the Law is not so but that the Post-Nati are Aliens as well as the rest A point that I mean not much to argue Both because it hath been well spoken to by the Gentleman that spake last before me And because I do desire in this Case and in this place to speak rather of Convenience then of Law Onely this will I say That that Opinion seems to me Contrary to reason of Law Contrary to form of pleading in Law And Contrary to Authority and Experience of Law For Reason of Law when I meditate of it Methinks the wisdom of the Common Laws of England well observed is Admirable in the Distribution of the Benefit and protection of the Laws According to the severall Conditions of Persons in an excellent Proportion The Degrees are four but bipartite Two of Aliens and Two of Subjects The first Degree is of an Alien born under a King or State that is an Enemy If such an one come into this Kingdom without safe Conduct it is at his perill The Law giveth him no protection neither for Body Lands nor Goods So as if he be slain there is no Remedy by any Appeal at the parties sute although his wife were an English Woman Marry at the Kings sute the Case may be otherwise in regard of the offence to the Peace The Second Degree is of an Alien that is born under the faith and Allegiance of a King or State that is a friend Unto such a Person the Law doth impart a greater Benefit and protection That is concerning things personall Transitory and Moveable As Goods and Chattels Contracts and the like But not concerning Freehold and Inheritance And the reason is because he may be an Enemy though he be not For the State under the Obeisance of which he is may enter intoy Quarrell and Hostility And therefore as the Law hath but a Transitory Assurance of him so it rewards him but with Transitory Benefits The third Degree is of a Subject who having been an Alien is by Charter made Denizen To such an one the Law doth impart yet a more ample Benefit For it gives him power to purchase Free-Hold and Inheritance to his Own use And likewise enables the Children born after his Denization to inherit But yet nevertheless he cannot make Title or convey Pedegree from any Ancestour Paramount For the Law thinks not good to make him in the same Degree with a Subject born Because he was once an Alien and so mought once have been an Enemy And Nemo subitò fingitur Mens Affections cannot be so setled by any Benefit as when from their Nativity they are inbred and inherent And the fourth Degree which is the perfect Degree is of such a Person that neither is Enemy nor can be Enemy in time to come Nor could have been Enemy at any time past And therefore the Law gives unto him the full Benefit of Naturalization Now Mr. Speaker if these be the true Steps and Paces of the Law no Man can deny but whosoever is born under the Kings Obedience never could in Aliquo puncto temporis be an Enemy A Rebell he mought be but no Enemy And therefore in Reason of Law is naturalized Nay contrary-wise he is bound Iure Nativitatis to defend this Kingdome of England against all Invaders or Rebels And therefore as he is obliged to the protection of Arms And that perpetually and universally so he is to have the perpetuall and universall Benefit and protection of Law which is Naturalization For Form of Pleading it is true that hath been said That if a Man would plead another to be an Alien He must not onely set forth negatively and privatively that he was born out of the Obedience of our Soveraign Lord the King But affirmatively under the Obedience of a forrain King or State in particular which never can be done in this case As for Authority I will not press it you know all what hath been published by the Kings Proclamation And for Experience of Law we see it in the Subjects of Ireland
the Exclusion of his Subjects from that Trade As a Prince that would not acknowledge that any such Right could grow to the Crown of Spain by the Donative of the Pope whose Authority he Disclaimeth Or by the Title of a dispersed and punctuall Occupation of certain Territories in the name of the rest But stood firm to reserve that point in full Question to further Times and occasions So as it is left by the Treaty in Suspence neither debarred nor permitted The Tenderness and Point of Honour whereof was such as they that went thither must run their own Perill Nay further his Lordship affirmed That if yet at this time his Majesty would descend to a Course of Entreaty for the release of the Arrests in those parts And so confess an Exclusion And quit the point of Honour his Majesty mought have them forthwith released And yet his Lordship added That the Offences and Scandalls of some had made this point worse then it was In regard that this very last Voyage to Virginia intended for Trade and Plantation Where the Spaniard hath no People nor Possession is already become inflamed for Pyracy Witness Bingley who first insinuating his purpose to be an Actour in that worthy Action of Enlarging Trade and Plantation is become a Pyrate And hath been so pursued as his Ship is taken in Ireland though his Person is not yet in hold For the Trade to the Levant His Lordship opened unto us that the Complaint consisted in effect but of two Particulars The one touching the Arrest of a Ship called the Triall in Sicely The other of a Ship called the Vineyard in Sardinia The First of which Arrests was upon pretence of Pyracy The Second upon pretence of carrying Ordnance and Powder to the Turk That Processe concerning the Triall hath been at the Merchants instance drawn to a Review in Spain which is a Favour of exceeding rare President Being directly against the Liberties Priviledges of Sicely That of the Vineyard notwithstanding it be of that nature as if it should be true tendeth to the great Dishonour of our Nation whereof Hold hath been already taken by the French Ambassadour residing at Constantinople Who entred into a Scandalous Expostulation with his Majesties Ambassadour there upon that and the like Transportations of Munition to the Turk yet neverthelesse there is an Answer given by Letters from the Kings Ambassadour Legier in Spain That there shall be some Course taken to give reasonable Contentment in that Cause as far as may be In both which Ships to speak truly the greatest Mass of loss may be included For the rest are mean in respect of the value of those two Vessels And thus much his Lordship Speech comprehended concerning the wrongs in Fact Concerning the Wrongs in Law That is to say the Rigour of the Spanish Lawes extended upon his Majesties Subjects that traffique thither his Lordship gave this Answer That they were no new Statutes or Edicts devised for our People or our Times But were the ancient Lawes of that Kingdome Suus cuique Mos. And therefore as Travellers must endure the Extremities of the Climate and Temper of the Air where they travell So Merchants must bear with the Extremities of the Lawes and Temper of the Estate where they trade Whereunto his Lordship added that our own Lawes here in England were not exempted from the like Complaints in Forrain Parts Especially in point of Marine Causes Depredations And that same swift Alteration of Property which is claimed by the Admiralty in case of Goods taken in Pyrates hands But that we were to understand thus much of the King of Spains Care and Regard of our Nation That he had written his Letters to all Corrigidors Officers of âorts and other his Ministers Declaring his will and pleasure to have his Majesties Subjects used with all Freedome and Favour And with this Addition that they should have more Favour when it might be shewed then any other Which words howsoever the Effects prove are not suddainly to be requited with peremptory Resolutions till Time declare the direct Issue For the third Part of the Matter of the Petition which was the Remedy sought by Letters of Mart His Lordship seemed desirous to make us capable of the Inconvenience of that which was desired by setting before us two notable Exceptions thereunto The one that the Remedy was utterly incompetent and vain There other that it was dangerous and pernicious to our Merchants And in Consequence to the whole State For the weaknesse of the Remedy His Lordship wished us to enter into Consideration what the Remedy was which the Statute of Henry the fifth which was now sought to be put in Execution gave in this Case which was thus That the Party grieved should first complain to the Keeper of the private Seal And from him should take Letters unto the Party that had committed the Spoyl for Restitution And in default of Restitution to be made upon such Letters served Then to obtain of the Chanceller Letters of Mart or Reprisall which Circuit of Remedy promised nothing but endlesse and fruitless Delay In regard that the first Degree prescribed was never likely to be effected It being so wilde a Chace as to serve Processe upon the wrong-Doer in Forrain Parts Wherefore his Lordship said that it must be the Remedy of Statute that must do good in this case which useth to proceed by Certificats Attestations and other means of Information Not depending upon a privy Seal to be served upon the Party whom happily they must seek out in the West-Indies For the Danger of the Remedy His Lordship directed our Considerations to take notice of the proportions of the Merchants Goods in either Kingdome As that the Stock of Goods of the Spaniard which is within his Majesties Power and Distresse is a Trifle Whereas the Stock of English Goods in Spain is a Masse of mighty value So as if this Course of Letters of Mart should be taken to satisfie a few hot Pursuitours here All the Goods of the English Subjects in Spain shall be exposed to Seisure and Arrest And we have little or nothing in our Hands on this side to mend our selves upon And thus much Mr. Speaker is that which I have collected out of that excellent Speech concerning the First main part which was The Consideration of the Petition as it proceeded from the Merchant There followeth now the Second Part Considering the Petition as it was offered in this House Wherein his Lordship after an affectionate Commemoration of the Gravity Capacity and Duty which he generally found in the proceedings of this House desired us neverthelesse to consider with him how it was possible that the Entertaining of Petitions concerning private Injuries and of this Nature could avoid these three Inconveniencies The First of Injustice The Second of Derogation from his Majesties supreme and absolute Power of concluding Warre or Peace And the Third of some prejudice in reason of Estate For
Injustice it is plain and cannot be denied that we hear but the one Part Whereas that Rule Audi alteram Partem is not of the Formality but of the Essence of Iustice Which is therefore figured with both Eyes shut and both Eares open Because she should hear both sides and respect Neither So that if we should hap to give a right Judgement it mought be Iustum but not Iustè without hearing both Parties For the Point of Derogation his Lordship said He knew well we were no lesse ready to acknowledge then Himself That the Crown of England was ever invested amongst other Prerogatives not disputable of an absolute Determination Power of concluding and making War and Peace Which that it was no new Dotation but of an ancient Foundation in the Crown he would recite unto us a number of Presidents in the Raignes of severall Kings And chiefly of those Kings which come nearest his Majesties own worthinesse Wherein He said that he would not put his Credit upon Ciphars and Dates Because it was easie to mistake the year of a Raign or number of a Rowle but he would avouch them in substance to be perfect and true as they are taken out of the Records By which Presidents it will appear That Petitions made in Parliament to Kings of this Realme his Majesties Progenitours Intermedling with matter of Warr or Peace Or inducement thereunto Received small Allowance or Successe But were alwaies put off with Dilatory Answers Sometimes referring the matter to their Councell Sometimes to their Letters sometimes to their further Pleasure and Advice And such other Formes Expressing plainly that the Kings meant to reserve Matter of that Nature entirely to their own Power and pleasure In the 18th yeare of King Edward the First Complaint was made by the Commons against the Subjects of the Earle of Flanders with Petition of Redresse The Kings Answer was Rex nihil aliud potest quam eodem modo petere That is The King could do âo more but make Request to the Earle of Flanders as Request had been made to him And yet no Body will imagine but King Edward the First was potent enough to have had his Reason of a Count of Flaunders by a Warr And yet his Answer was Nihil aliud potest As giving them to understand That the Entering into a Warr was a Matter Transcendent that must not depend upon such Controversies In the 4th year of King Edward the Third The Commons Petitioned That the King would enter into certain Covenants and Capitulations with the Duke of Brabant In which Petition there was also inserted somewhat touching a Money Matter The Kings Answer was That for that that concerned the Moneys they mought handle it and examine it But touching the Peace he would do as to himself seemed good In the 18th year of King Edward the Third The Commons petitioned that they might have the Triall and proceeding with certain Merchants Strangers as Enemies to the State The Kings Answer was It should remain as it did till the King had taken further order In the 45th yeare of King Edward the Third The Commons complained That their Trade with the Easterlings was not upon equall Tearms which is one of the poynts insisted upon in the present Petition And prayed an Alteration and Reducement The Kings Answer was It shall be so as occasion shall require In the 50th year of the same King The Commons petitioned to the King for Remedy against the Subjects of Spaine as they now do The Kings Answer was that he would write his Letter for Remedy Here is Letters of Request no Letters of Mart Nihil potest nisi eodem modo petere In the same year the Merchants of Yorke petitioned in Parliament against the Hollanders And desired their Shipps mought be stayed both in England and at Calais The Kings Answer was Let it be declared to the Kings Councell And they shall have such remedy as is according to Reason In the 2d year of King Richard the second the Merchants of the Seacoast did complaine of diverse spoiles upon their Shipps and Goods by the Spaniard The Kings Answer was that with the Advise of his Councell he would procure remedy His Lordship cited two other Presidents The one in the second yeare of King Henry the Fourth of a Petition Against the Merchants of Genova The other in the 11th yeare of King Henry the 6th Of a Petition against the Merchants of the Stilliard which I omit because they contain no variety of Answer His Lordship further cited two Presidents concerning other points of Prerogative Which are likewise Flowers of the Crowne The one Touching the Kings supremacy Ecclesiasticall The other Touching the Order of Waightes and Measures The former of them was in the time of King Richard the 2d At what time the Commons complained against certaine Encroachments and Usurpations of the Pope And the Kings Answer was The King hath given Order to his Councell to treat with the Bishops thereof The other was in the 18th year of King Edward the First At which time Complaint was made against uneven Waights And the Kings Answer was Vocentur partes ad placita Regis fit Iustitia Whereby it appeared that the Kings of this Realme still used to refer Causes petitioned in Parliament to the proper places of Cognizance and Decision But for the Matter of Warr and Peace As appeares in all the former Presidents The Kings ever kept it in Scrinio pectoris In the Shrines of their own Breast Assisted and advised by their Counsell of Estate His Lordship did conclude his Enumeration of Presidents with a notable President in the 17. year of King Richard the Second A Prince of no such glory nor strength And yet when he made offer to the Commons in Parliament That they should take into their Considerations Matter of Warr and Peace then in in hand The Commons in Modesty excused themselves and answered The Commons will not presume to treat of so high a charge Out of all which Presidânts his Lordship made this Inference that as Dies Diâm docet So by these Examples Wise Men will be admonished to forbear those Petitions to Princes which are not likely to have either a Welcome Hearing or an effectuall Answer And for prejudice that might come of handling and debating Matter of War and Peace in Parliament He doubted not but that the Wisedom of this House did conceive upon what secret Consideration and Motives that point did depend For that there is no King which will providently and Matuâely enter into a War But will first ballance his own Forces Seek to anticipate Confederacies and Alliances Revoake his Merchants Finde an opportunity of the first Breach And many other points which if they once do but take winde will prove vaine and frustrate And therefore that this Matter which is Arcanum Imperij one of the highest Mysteries of Estate must be suffered to be kept within the Vaile His Lordship adding that he knew
not wel whether in that which he had already saidâ out of an extreme Desire to give us satisfaction He had not communicated more particulars then perhaps was requisite Neverthelesse he confessedâ that sometimes Parliaments have been made acquainted with Matter of Warr and Peace in a generallity But it was upon one of âhese Two Motives When the King and Counsell conceived That either it was Materiall to have some Declaration of the zeal and Affection of the People Or else when the King needed to demand Moneys and Aides for the Charge of the Warrs Wherin if Things did sort to Warre we were sure enough to hear of it His Lordship hoping that his Majesty would find in us no lesse readiness to support it then to perswade it Now Mr. Speaker for the last part Wherein his Lordship considered the Petition As it was recommended from us to the upper House His Lordship delivered thus much from their Lorâships That they would make a good Construction of our Desires As those which they conceived did rather spring out of a Feeling of the Kings Strength And out of a Feeling of the Subjects Wrongs Nay more out of a Wisdome and Depth to declare our forwardness if need were to assist his Majesties future Resolutions which Declaration might be of good use âor his Majesties Service when it should be blown abroad Rather I say then that we did in any sort determine by this their Overture to do that wrong to his Highness Supreme Power Which happily might be inferred by those that were rather apt to make evill then good Illations of our proceeding And yet that their Lordships for the reasons before made most plainly tell us That they neither could nor would concur with us nor approve the course And therefore concluded That it would not be amiss for us for our better Contentment to behold the Conditions of the last Peace with Spain which were of a strange nature to him that duely observes them No Forces recalled out of the Low-Conntries No new Forces as to Voluntaries restrained to go thither So as the King may be in peace and never a Subject in England but may be in War And then to think thus with our selves That that King which would give no ground in making his Peace will not loose any Ground upon just pâovocation to enter into an Honourable War And that in the meane time we should know thus much that there could not be more forcible Negotiation on the Kings part but Blowes to procure Remedy of those wrongs Nor more fair promises on the King of Spaines part to give contentment concerning the same And therefore that the Event must be expected And thus Mr. Speaker have I passed over the Speech of this worthy Lord whose Speeches as I have often said in regard of his place and Judgement are extraordinary Lights to this House And have both the properties of Light That is Conducting and Comforting And although Mr. Speaker a Man would have thought nothing had been left to be said Yet I shall now give you account of another Speech full of excellent Matter and Ornaments And without Iteration Which neverthelesse I shall report more compendiously Because I will not offer the Speech that wrong as to report it at large when your minds per-case and Attentions are already wearied The other Earl who usually doth bear a principall part upon all important Occasions used a Speech first of Preface then of Argument In his Preface he did deliver that he was perswaded that both Houses did differ rather in Credulity and Belief then in Intention and Desire For it mought be their Lorships did not believe the Information so far but yet desired the Reformation as much His Lordship said furtherâ that the Merchant was a State and Degree of persons Not only to be respected but to be prayed for And graced them with the best Additions That they were the Convoyes of our supplies The Vents of our Abundance Neptunes Almesmen and Fortunes Adventurers His Lordship proceeded and said This Question was new to us but antient to them Assuring us that the King did not beare in vaine the Devise of the Thistle with the word Nemo me lasceâcit impunè And that as the Multiplying of his Kingdomes maketh him feel his own Power So the Multiplying of our Loves and Affections made him to feel our Griefs For the Arguments or Reasons they were Five in number which his Lordship used for satisfying us why their Lordships might not concur with usâ in this Petition The first was the Composition of our House which he took in the first foundation thereof to be meerly Democraticall Consisting of Knights of Shires and Burgesses of Townes And intended to be of those that have their Residence Vocation and Employment in the places for which they serve And therefore to have a private and locall wisedom according to that Compasse And so not fit to examine or determine Secrets of Estateâ which depend upon such Variety of Circumstances And therefore added to the President formerly vouched of the 17. of King Richard the 2d When the Commons disclaimed to intermeddle in matter of War and Peace That their Answer was that they would not presume to treat of so high and variable a Matter And although his Lordship acknowledged That there be divers Gentlemen in the Mixture of our House That are of good Capacity and Insight in Matters of Estate yet that was the Accident of the Person and not the Intentention of the place And Things were to be taken in the Institution not in the Practice His Lordships second Reason was That both by Philosophy and Civill Law Ordinatio Belli pacis est absoluti Imperij A principall Flower of the Crown Which Flowers ought to be so dear unto us as we ought if need were to water them with our Blood For if those Flowers should by neglect or upon facility and good affection wither and fall the Garland would not be worth the wearing His Lordships third Reason was That Kings did so love to imitate Trimum Mobile as that they do not like to move in borrowed Motions So that in those things that they do most willingly intend yet they indure not to be prevented by Request Whereof he did alledge a notable Example in King Edward the 3d. who would not hearken to the Petition of his Commons that besought him to make the Black Prince Prince of Wales But yet after that Repulse of their Petition out of his own meer Motion he created him His Lordships fourth Reason was That it mought be some scandall to step between the King and his own Vertue And that it was the Duty of Subjects Rather to take honours from Kings Servants and give them to Kings then to take honours from Kings and give them to their Servants Which he did very elegantly set forth in the Example of Ioab who lying at the Siege of Rabbah And finding it could not hold out writ to David to
And that it yieldeth at this day to the King the Fruit of a great Revenue But yet notwithstanding if upon the Stemme of this Tree may be raised a Pillar of support to the Crown Permanent and durable as the Marble by investing the Crown with a more ample more certain and more loving Dowry then this of Tenures we hope we propound no Matter of Disservice But to speak distinctly of both and first of Honour Wherein I pray your Lordships give me leave in a Subject that may seem supra Nos to handle it rather as we are capable then as the Matter perhaps may require Your Lordships well know the various Mixture and Composition of our House We have in our House learned Civilians that profess a Law that we reverence and sometimes consult wiâh They can tell us that all the Laws de Feodis are but Additionals to the Ancient Civill Law And that the Roman Emperours in the full Heigth of their Monarchy never knew them So that they are not Impâriall We have grave Professours of the Common Law who will define unto us that those are Parts of Soveraignty and of the Royall Prerogative which cannot be communicated with Subjects But for Tenures in substance there is none of your Lordships but have them And few of us but have them The King indeed hath a priority or first Service of his Tenures which shewes that they are not Regall nor any point of Soveraignty We have Gentlemen of honourable Service in the Wars both by Sea and Land Who can enform us that when it is in question who shall set his foot foremost towards the Enemy it is never asked whether he hold in Knights Service or in Socage So have we many Deputy Lievtenants to your Lordships And many Commissioners that have been for Musters and Levies That can tell us that the Service and Defence of the Realm hath in these dayes little dependance upon Tenures So then we perceive that it is no Bond or Ligament of Governmeât No Spur of Honour No Bridle of Obedience Time was when it had other uses and the Name of Knights Service imports it But Vocabula manent Res fugiunt But all thiâ which we have spoken we confess to be but in a vulgar Capacity which nevertheless may serve for our Excuse Though we submit the Thing it self wholy to his Majesties Judgement For Matter of Conscience Far be it from us to cast in any Thing willingly that may trouble that clear Fountain of his Majesties conscience We do confess it is a noble Protection that these young Birds of the Nobility and good Families should be gaâhered and clocked under the wings of the Crown But yet Natuârae vis maxima And suus cuique discretus sanguis Your Lordships wilââavour me to observe my former Methode The Common Law it self which is the best Bounds of our wisdom doth even in hoc Individuo prefer the prerogative of the Father before the prerogative of the King For if Lands descend held in chief from an Ancestour on the part of a Mother to a Mans eldest Son the Father being alive The Father shall have the Custody of the Body and not the King It is true that this is only for the Father And not any other Parent or Ancestour But then if you look to the high Law of Tutelage and Protection And of Obedience and Duty which is the Relative thereunto It is not said Honour thy Father alone But Honour thy Father and thy Mother c. Again the Civilians can tell us that there was a speciall Use of the Pretorian Power for Pupills and yet no Tenures The Citizens of London can tell us There be Courts of Orphants and yet no Tenures But all this while we pray your Lordships to conceive That we think our selves not competent to discern of the Honour of his Majesties Crown or the Shrine of his Conscience But leave it wholy unto him and alledge these things but in our own Excuse For Matter of Petition we do continue our most humble suit by your Lordships loving Conjunction that his Majesty will be pleaseâ to open unto us this entrance of his Bounty and Grace As to give us liberty to treat And lastly we know his Majestieâ Times are not subordinate at all but to the Globe above About this time the Sun hath got even with the Night and will rise apace And we know Solomons Temple whereof your Lordship my Lord Treasurer spake was not built in a day And if We shall be so happy as to take the Axe to hew and the Hammer to frame in this Case We know it cannot be without Time And therefore as far as we may with Duty and without Importunity we most humbly deâire an Acceleration of his Majesties Answer according to his good time and Royall Pleasure A Speech of the Kings Sollicitor perswading the House of Commons to desist from further Question of receiving the Kings Messages by their Speaker And from the Body of the Councell As well as from the Kings Person In the Parliament 7o. Jac. IT is my Desire that if any the Kings Business either of Honour or Profit shall pass the House It may be not onely with externall prevailing But with satisfaction of the Inward Man For in Consent where Tongue strings not Hart-strings make the Musick That Harmony may end in Discord To this I shall alwayes bend my Endeavours The Kings Soveraignty and the Liberty of Parliament are as the two Elements and Principles of this Estate which though the one be more Active the other more Pasâive yet they do not crosse or destroy the one the other But they strengthen and maintain the one the other Take away Liberty of Parliament the Griefes of the Subject will bleed inwards Sharp and Eager Humours will not evaporate And then they must exulcerate and so may indanger the Soveraignty it self On the other side if the Kings Soveraignty receive Diminution or any Degree of Contempt with usâ that are born under an Hereditary Monarchy So as the Motions of our Estate cannot work in any other Frame or Engine It must follow that we shall be a Meteore or Corpus imperfectè mistum which kind of Bodies come speedily to Confusion and Dissolution And herein it is our Happinesse that we may make the same Judgement of the King which Tacitus made of Nerva Divus Nerva res olim Dissociabiles miscuit Imperium Libertatem Nerva did temper things that before were thought incompatible Soveraignty and Liberty And it is not amisâe in a great Councell and a great Cause to put the other part of the Difference which was significantly expressed by the Judgement which Apollonius made of Nero which was thus When Vespasian came out of Iudea towards Italy to receive the Empire As he passed by Alexandria he spake with Apollonius A Man much admired And asked him a Question of State What was Nero's Fall or overthrow Apollonius said Nero could tune the Harp well but in
Government he alwaies either wound up the Pinns too high and strained the strings too far or let them down too low and slackened the strings too much Here we see the Difference between Regular and Able Princes And Irregular and Incapable Nerva and Nero. The one tempers and mingles the Soveraignty with the Liberty of the Subject wisely And the other doth interchange it and vary it unequally and absurdly Since therefore we have a Prince of so excellent Wisdom and Moderation Of whose Authority we ought to be tender as he is likewise of our Liberty Let us enter into a true and indifferent considâration how far forth the Case in Question may touch his Authority and how far forth our Liberty And to speak cleerly In my Opinion it concerns his Authority much And our Liberty nothing at all The Questions are Two The one whither our Speaker be exempted from Delivery of a Message from the King without our Licence The other whither it is not all one whither he received it from the Body of the Counsell as if he received it immediatly from the King And I will speak of the last First because it is the Circumstance of the present Case First I say let us see how it concerns the King and then how it concerns Us For the King certainly if it be observed it cannot be denyed but if you may not receive his pleasure by his Repreâentative Body which is his Counsel of his Estate you both streighten his Majesty in point of Conveniency And weaken the Reputation of his Counsell All Kings though they be Gods on Earth yet as he said they are Gods of Earth They may be of Extreme Age they may be indisposed in Health They may be absent In these Cases if their Councells may not supply their Persons to what infinite Accidents do you expose them Nây more sometimes in Pollicy Kings will not be seen but cover themselves with their Councell And if this be taken from them a great part of their safâty is taken away For the other point of weakning the Councel you know they are nothing without the King They are no Body Politique They have no Commission under Seal So as if you begin to distinguish and disjoyn them from the King they are Corpus Opacum For they have Lumen de Lumine And so by distinguishing you extinguish the principle Engine of the Estate For it is truly affirmed That Cousilium non habet po estatem delegaâam sed in haerentem And iâ is but Rex in Cathedrâ The King in his Chair or Consistory where his Will and Decrees which are in privacy more changeable are setled and fixed Now for that which concerns our selves First for Dignity no man must think this a Disparagement for us For the greatest Kings in Europe By their Embassadours receive Answers and Directions from the Councell in the Kings absence And if that Negotiation be fit for the Fraternity and Party of Kingâ It may much lesse be excepted to by Subjects For Use or Benefit no Man can be so Raw and Unacquainted in the Affaires of the Worldâ as to conceive there should be any Disadvantage in it As if such Answârs were lesse Firm and Certain For it cannot be supposed that Men of so great Cauââân as Counsellours of Estate commonly are whether you take Caution for Wisedom or Providence Or for Pledges of Estate or Fortune Will ever erre or adventure so far as to exceed their Warrant And therefore I conclude that in this point there can be unto us neither Disgrace nor Disadvantage For the Point of the Speaker First on the Kings Part it may have a shrewd Illation For it hath a shew as if there could be a stronger Duty then the Duty of a Subject to a King We see the Degrees and Differences of Duties in Families between Father and Son Master and Servant In Corporate Bodies between Communalties and their Officers Recorders Stewards and the like yet all these give place to the Kings commandements The Bonds are more speciall but not so Forcible On our Part it concerns us nothing For first it is but de Canali of the Pipe How the Kings Message shall be conveyed to us and not of the Matter Neither hath the Speaker any such Dominion As that comming out of his mouth it presseth us more then out of a Privy Councellours Nay it seems to be a great Trust of the Kings towards the House When the King doubâeth not to put his Message into their Mouth As if he should speak to the Citty by the Recorder Therefore me thinks we should not entertain this unnecessary Doubt It is one use of wit to make clear Things Doubtfull But it is a much better use of wit to make Doubtfull Things clear And to that I would Men would bend themselves A brief Speech in the End of the Session of Parliament 7o. Jac. Perswading some Supply to be given to his Majesty which seemed then to stand upon doubtfull terms And passed upon this Speech THe proportion of the Kings Supply is not now in question For when that shall be it may be I shall be of Opinion that we should give so now as we may the better give again But as Things stand for the present I think the point of Honour and Reputation is that which his Majesty standeth most upon That our Gift may at least be like those showers that may serve to lay the Winds Though they do not sufficiently Water the âarth To labour to perswade you I will not For I know not into what Form to cast my Speech If I should enter into a Laudative though never so due and just of the Kings great Merits it may be taken for Flattery If I should speak of the strait Obligations which intercede between the King and the Subject in case of the Kings want it were a kind of concluding the House If I should speak of the dangerous Consequence which Want may reverberate upon Subjects it might have a shew of a secret Menace These Arguments are I hope needless And do better in your Minds then in my Mouth But this give me leave to say That whereas the Example of Cyrus was used Who sought his Supply from those upon whom he had bestowed his Benefits We must always remember That there are as well Benefits of the Scâpter as Benefits of the Hand As well of Government as of Liberality These I am sure we will acknowledge to have come plenâ manu amongst us All And all those whom we represent And therefore it is every Mans Head in this Case that must be his Counsellor And every Mans Heart his Orator And those inward Powers are more forcible then any Mans Speech I leave it and wish it may go to the Question A Speech delivered by the Kings Atturney Sir Francis Bacon in the Lower House When the House was in great heat and much troubled about the undertakers which were thought to be some able and forward Gentlemen
Who to ingratiate themselves with the King were said to have undertaken that the Kings Business should pass in that House as his Majesty could wish In the Parliament 12o. Jac. Mr. Speaker I Have been hitherâo silent in this Matter of undertaking wherin as I perceive the House is much enwrapped First because to be plain with you I did not well understand what it meant or what it was And I do not love to offer at that that I do not throughly conceive That Private Men should undertake for the Commons of England Why A Man mought as well undertake for the four Elements It is a thing so giddyâ and so vast as cannot enter into the Brain of a sober Man And specially in a new Parliament When it was impossible to know who should be of the Parliament And when all Men that know never so little the Constitution of this House do know it to be so open to Reason As Men do not know when they enter into these Dores what mind themselves will be of untill they hear Things argued and debated Much lesse can any Man make a pollicy of Assurance what Ship shall come safe home into the Harbour in these Seas I had heard of undertakings in severall kinds There were undertakers for the Plantations of Derry and Colerane in Ireland the better to command and bridle those Parts There were not long ago some undertakers for the North-West Passage And now there are some undertakers for the Project of Died and Dressed Cloaths And in short every Novelty useth to be strengthened and made good by a kind of undertaking But for the Ancient Parliament of England which moves in a certain Manner and Sphear To be undertaken it passes my reach to conceive what it should be Must we be all Died and Dressed And no pure Whites amongst us Or must there be a new passage found for the Kings Business by a point of the Compass that was never sailed by before Or must there be some Forts built in this House that may command and contain the rest Mr. Speaker I know but two Forts in this House which the King ever hath The Fort of Affection and the Fort of Reason The one Commands the Hearts and the other Commands the Heads And others I know none I think Aesop was a Wise Man that described the nature of the âly thaâ sat upon the Spoke of the Chariot Wheele and said to her self What a Dust do I raise So for my part I think that all this Dust is raised by light Rumours and Buzzes and not upon any solid Ground The second Reason that made me silent was because this Susâicion and Rumor of undertaking settles upon no Person certain It is like the Birds of Paradise that they have in the Indies that have no Feet and therefore they never light upon any place but the wind carries them awayâ And such a Thing do I take this Rumour to be And lastly when that the King had in his two severall speeches freed us from the main of our Fears In affirming directly that there was no undertaking to him And that he would have taken it to be no less derogation to his own Majesty then to our Merits To have the Acts of his people transferred to particular persons That did quiet me thus far That these Vapours were not gone up to the Head howsoever they might glow and estuate in the Body Neverthelesse since I perceive that this Cloud still hangs over the House And that it may do hurt as well in Fame abroad as in the Kings Eare I resolved with my self to do the part of an honest voice in this House to counsell you what I think to be for the best Wherein first I will speak plainly of the pernicious Effects of the Accident of this Brute and Opinion of undertaking Towards Particulars Towards the House Towards the King And wards the People Secondly I will tell you in Mine Opinion what undertaking is tolerable And how far it may be justified with a good mind And on the other side this same Ripping up of the Question of Vndertakers How far it may proceed from a good Mind And in what kind it may be thought Malicious and Dangerous Thirdly I will shew you my poor advice what Meanes there are to put an end to this Question of Vndertaking Not falling for the present upon a precise Opinion But breaking it how many wayes there be by which you may get out of it And leaving the choice of them to a Debate at the Committee And Lastly I will advise you how things are to be handled at the Commitee to avoid distraction and losse of Time For the First of these I can say to you but as the Scripure saith Si invicem mordetis ab invicem consumemini If ye Fret and Gall one anothers Reputation The end will be that every Man shall go hence like Coyn cried down Of lesse price than he came hither If some shall be thought to fawn upon the Kings Business openly And others to crosse it secretly Some shall be thought Practicers that would pluck the Cardes And others shall be thought Papists that would shuffle the Cardes what a Misery is this that we should come together to foul one another instead of procuring the publick good And this ends not in particulars but will make the whole House Contemptible For now I hear Men say That this Question of undertaking is the predominant Matter of this House So that we are now according to the Parable of Iotham in the Case of the Trees of the Forrest That when Question was whether the Vine should raign over them That mought not be And whether the Olive should raign over them That mought not be But we have accepted the Bramble to raign over us For it seemes that the good Vine of the Kings Graces that is not so much in esteem And the good Oyle whereby we should salve and relieve the wants of the Estate and Crown that is laid aside too And this Bramble of Contention and Emulation This Abimelech which as was truly said by an understanding Gentleman is a Bastard For every Fame that wants a Head is Filius populi This must Raign and Rule amongst us Then for the King nothing can be more opposite Ex diametro to his Ends and Hopes then this For you have heard him profess like a King and like a gracious King that he doth not so much respect his present supply As this demonstration that the Peoples Hearts are more knit to him then before Now then if the Issue shall be this that whatsoever shall be done for Him shall be thought to be done but by a number of Persons that shall be laboured and packt This will rather be a sign of Diffidence and Alienation then of a naturall Benevolence and Affection in his People at home And rather Matter of Disreputation then of Honour abroad So that to speak plainly to you The King were better call for a
new Pair of Cards then play upon these if they be packt And then for the People It is my manner ever to look as well beyond a Parliament as upon a Parliament And if they abroad shall think themselves betrayed by those that are their Deputies and Atturnies here it is true we may bind them and conclude them But it will be with such Murmur and Insatisfactionâ as I would be loath to see These Things mought be dissembled And so things left to bleed inwards But that is not the way to cure them And therefore I have searched the Soare in hope that you will endeavour the Medecine But this to do more throughly I must proceed to my Second Part To tell you cleerely and distinctly what is to be set on the Right hand and what on the left in this business First if any Man hath doâ good Offices to advise the King to call a Parliament And to increase the good Affection and Confidence of his Majestie towards his People I say that such a Person doth rather Merit well then commit any Errour Nay further if any Man hath out of his own good mind given an opinion touching the Minds of the Parliament in generall How it is probable they are like to be found And that they will have a due feeling of the Kings wants And will not deal drily or illiberally with him This Man that doth but think of other Mens minds as he finds his own is not to be blamed Nay furâher if any Man hath coupled this with good wishes and Propositions That the King do comfort the Hearts of his People and testifie his own love to them by filing off the harshness of his Prerogative Retaining the substance and strength And to that purpose like the good Housholder in the Scripture That brought forth old store and new hath revolved the Petitions and Propositions of the last Parliament and added new I say this Man hath sown good seed And he that shall draw him into Envy for it sowes Tares Thus much of the Right hand But on the other side if any shall mediatly or immediatly infuse into his Majesty or to others That the Parliament is as Cato said of the Romans like Sheep That a Man were better drive a Flock of them then one of them And however they may be wise Men severally yet in this Assembly they are guided by some few which if they be made and assured the rest will easily follow This is a plain Robbery of the King of Honour and his Subjects of Thanks And it is to make the Parliament vile and servile in the eyes of their Soveraign And I count it no better than a supplanting of the King and Kingdom Again if a Man shall make this Impression that it shall be enough for the King to send us some things of shew that may serve for colours And let some Eloquent Tales be told of them And that will serve Ad faciendum populum any such Person will find that this House can well skill of false Lights And that it is no wooing Tokens but the true Love already planted in the Breast of the Subjects that will make them do for the King And this is my Opinion touching those that may have perswaded a Parliament Take it on the other side for I mean in all things to deale plainly If any Man hath been diffident touching the Call of a Parliament Thinking that the best Meanes were first for the King to make his utmost tryall to subsist of himself and his own Meanes I say an Honest and Faithfull Heart mought consent to that Opinion And the event it seems doth not greatly discredit it hitherto Again if any Man shall have been of Opinion that it is not a particular Party that can bind the House Nor that it is not Shews or Colours can please the House I say that Man though his speech tend to discouragement yet it is coupled with Providence But by your leave if any Man since the Parliamânt was called or when it was in speech shall have laid Plots to crosse the good will of the Parliament to the King By possessing them that a few shall have the thanks And that they are as it were Bought and Sold and betrayed And that that which the King offers them are but Baites prepared by particular persons Or have raised rumours that it is a packt Parliament To the end nothing may be done But that the Parliament may be dissolved as Gamesters use to call for new Cards when they mistrust a Pack I say These are Engins and Devises Naught Maligne and Seditious Now for the Remedy I shall rather break the Matter as I said in the Beginning then advise positively I know but three wayes Some Message of Declaration to the King Some Entry or protestation amongst our selves Or some strict and punctuall Examination As for the last of these I assure you I am not against it if I could tell where to begin or where to end For certainly I have often seen it that Things when they are in smother trouble more then when they break out Smoak blinds the Eyes but when it blazeth forth into Flame it gives light to the Eyes But then if you fall to an Examination some Person must be charged some Matter must be charged And the Manner of that Matter must be likewise charged For it may be in a Good Fashion and it may be in a Bad In as much difference as between Black and White And then how far Men will ingenuously confess How far they will politickly deny And what we can Make and gather upon their Confession And how we shall prove against their Deniall It is an endless peece of Work And I doubt that we shall grow weary of it For a Message to the King It is the Course I like best so it be carefully and considerately handled For if we shall represent to the King the Nature of this Body as it is Without the vayles or shadows that have been cast upon it I think we shall do him Honour and our selves Right For any Thing that is to be done amongst our selves I do not see much gained by it Because it goes no further then our selves Yet if any thing can be wisely conceived to that end I shall not be against it But I think the purpose of it is fittest to be Rather that the House conceives that all this is but a Mis-understanding Then to take knowledge that there is indeed a Just Ground And then to seek by a Protestation to give it a Remedy For Protestations and Professions and Apologies I never found them very Fortunate But they rather encrease suspicion then clear it Why then the Last Part is that these things be handled at the Committee seriously and temperately Wherein I wish that these four Degrees of Questions were handled in order First whether we shall do any thing at all in it Or passe by it and let it sleep Secondly whether we shall enter into
a particular Examination of it Thirdly whether we shall content our selves with some Entry or Protestation amongst our selves And Fourthly whether we shall proceed to a Message to the King And what Thus I have told you mine Opinion I know it had been more safe and politick to have been silent But it is perhaps more honest and lovingâ to speak The old Verse is Nam nulli tacuisse nocet nocet esse locutum But by your leave David saiâh Silui à bonis Dolor meus renovatus est When a Man speaketh He may be wounded by Others but if He holds his peace from Good Things he wounds Himself So I have done my part and leave it to you to do that which you shall judge to be the best The Charge of Sir Francis Bacon Knight his Majesties Atturney Generall against William Talbot a Counsellor at Law of Ireland upon an Information in the Star-Chamber Ore tenus For a writing under his Hand whereby the said William Talbot being demanded whether the Doctrine of Suarez touching Deposing and Killing of Kings Excommunicated were true or no He answered that he referred himself unto that which the Catholick Roman Church should determine thereof Ultimo die Termini Hilarij undecimo Iacobi Regis My Lords I Brought before you the first sitting of this Term the Cause of Duels But now this last sitting I shall bring before you a Cause concerning the greatest Duell which is in the Christian World The Duels and Conflicts between the lawfull Authority of Soveraign Kings which is Gods Ordinance for the comfort of Humane Society And the swelling pride and usurpation of the See of Rome in Temporalibus Tending altogether to Anarchy and Confusion Wherein if this pretence by the Pope of Rome by Cartels to make Soveraign Princes as the Banditi And to proscribe their Lives and to expose their Kingdomes to prey If these pretences I say and all Persons that submit themselves to that part of the Popes Power be not by all possible Severity repressed and punished The State of Christian Kings will be no other then the ancient Torment described by the Poets in the Hell of the Heathen A man sitting richly roabed solemnly attended delicious fare c. With a Sword hanging over his Head hanging by a small thread ready every moment to be cut down by an accursing and accursed hand Surely I had thought they had been the Prerogatives of God alone and of his secret Judgements Solvam Cingula Regum I will loosen the Girdles of Kings Or again He powreth contempt upon Princes Or I will give a King in my wrath and take him away again in my displeasure And the like but if these be the Claims of a Mortall Man certainly they are but the Mysteries of that Person which exalts himself above all that is called God Supra omne quod dicitur Deus Note it well Not above God though that in a sense be true in respect of the Authority they claim over the Scriptures But Above all that is called God That is Lawfull Kings and Magistrates But my Lords in this uel I find this Talbot that is now before you but a Coward For he hath given ground He hath gone backward and forward But in such a fashion and with such Interchange of Repenting and Relapsing as I cannot tell whether it doth extenuate or aggravate his Offence If he shall more publikely in the face of the Court fall and settle upon a right mind I shall be glad of it And he that would be against the Kings Mercy I would he might need the Kings Mercy But neverthelesse the Court will proceed by Rules of Justice The Offence wherewith I charge this Talbot Prisoner at the Bar is this in brief and in Effect That he hath maintained and maintaineth under his hand a power in the Pope for the Deposing and Murthering of Kings In what sort he doth this when I come to the proper and particular charge I will deliver it in his own words without Pressing or Straining Buâ before I come to the particular charge of this Man I cannot proceed so coldly but I must expresse unto your Lordships the extreme and imminent Danger wherein our Dear and Dread Soveraign is And in him we all Nay and wherein all Princes of both Religions For it is a common Cause do stand at this day By the spreading and Enforcing of this furious and pernicious Opinion of the Popes Temporall Power which though the modest Sort would blanch with the Distinction of In ordine ad Spiritualia yet that is but an Elusion For he that maketh the Distinction will also make the Case This perill though it be in it self notorious yet because there is a kind of Dulness and almost a Lethargy in this Age Give me leave to set before you two Glasses Such as certainly the like never met in one Age The Glasses of France and the Glasse of England In that of France the Tragedies acted and executed in two Immediate Kings In the Glasse of England the same or more horrible attempted likewise in a Queen and King immediate But ending in a happy Deliverance In France H. 3. in the face of his Army before the walls of Paris stabbed by a wretched Iacobine Fryer H. 4. a Prince that the French do surname the Great One that had been a Saviour and Redeemer of his Country from infinite Calamities And a Restorer of that Monarchy to the ancient State and Splendour And a Prince almost Heroicall except it be in the Point of Revolt from Religion At a time when he was as it were to mount on Horse-back for the Commanding of the greatest Forces that of long time had been levied in France This King likewise stilletted by a Rascal votary which had been enchanted and conjured for the purpose In England Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory A Queen comparable and to be rankt with the greatest Kings Oftentimes attempted by like votaries Sommervile Parry Savage and others But still protected by the Watch-man that Slumbreth not Again our excellent Soveraign King Iames The Sweetness and Clemency of whose nature were enough to quench and mortifie all Malignity And a King shielded and supported by Posterity Yet this King in the Chair of Majesty his Vine and Olive Branches about him Attended by his Nobles and Third Estate in Parliament Ready in the Twinckling of an Eye As if it had been a particular Doomesday To have been brought to Ashes dispersed to the four Winds I noted the last day my Lord Chief Iustice when he spake of this Powder Treason he laboured for words Though they came from him with great Efficacy yet he truly confessed and so must all Men That that Treason is above the Charge and Report of any Words whatsoever Now my Lords I cannot let passe but in these Glasses which I spake of besides the Facts themselves and Danger to shew you two Things The one the Wayes of God Almighty which turneth the Sword of Rome
upon the Kings that are the Vassals of Rome And over them gives it power But protecteth those Kings which have not accepted the Yoak of his Tyranny from the Effects of his Mallice The other that as I said at first this is a common Cause of Princes It involveth Kings of both Religions And therefore his Majesty did most worthily and prudently ring out the Alarum Bell to awaken all other Princes to think of it seriously and in Time But this is a miserable case the while That these Roman Souldiers do either thrust the Spear into the Side of Gods Annointed Or at least they Crown them with Thorns That is piercing and pricking Cares and Feares that they can never be quiet or secure of their Lives or States And as this Perill is common to Princes of both Religions So Princes of both Religions have been likewise equally sensible of every Injury that touch't their Temporall Thunaus reports in his Story That when the Realm of Fraunce was interdicted by the violent proceedings of Pope Iulius the 2d. the King Lewis the 12th otherwise noted for a Moderate Prince caused Coyns of Gold to be stamped with his own Image and this Superscription Perdam nomen Babylonis è terrâ And Thuanus saith Himself hath seen divers pieces thereof So as this Catholick King was so much incensed at that time in respect of the Popes Vsurpation As he did fore-run Luther in applying Babylon to Charlesâhe âhe 5th Emperour who was accounted one of âhe Popes best Sonnes yet proceeded in matter temporall towards Pope Clement with strange Rigour Never regarding the Pontificality but kept him Prisoner 18. Moneths in a Pestilent Prison And was hârdly disswaded by his Councell from having sent him Captive into Spain And made sport with the Threats of Frosberg the Germaine who wore a silk Rope under his Cassock which he would shew in all Companies Tellâng them that he carried it to strangle the Pope with his own hands As for Philip the Faire Iâ is the ordinary Example how he brought Pope Boniface the 8th to an ignominious End Dying Mad and Enraged And how he stiled hiâ Rescript to the Popes Bull whereby he challenged his Tempoâall Sciat Fatuitas Vestra Not your Beatitude but your Stultitude A Stile worthy to be continued in like Cases For certainly that claim is meerly Folly and Fury As for Native Examples here it is too long a Field to enter into them Never Kings of any Nation kept the Partition wall between Temporall and Spiriâuall better in times of greatest Superstition I report me to King Edward I. that set up so many Crossâs And yet crossed that part of the Popes Iurisdiction no Man more strongly But these things have passed better Penns and Speeches Heere I end them But now to come to the particular Charge of this Man I musâ enform your Lordships the Occasion and Nature of this Offenceâ Theâe haâh been published lately to the Worldâ a Work of Suârez a Portugese A Professor in the Vniversity of Coimbra A Confidenââ and daâing Writer such an one as Tully describes in derision Nihil tam verens quam ne dubitare aliquâ de re videretur One that feares nothing but this least he should seem to doubt of any thing A Fellow that thinksâ with his Magistrallity and Goose-quill to give Lawes and Mannages to Crowns and Scepters In this Mans writinâ this Doctrine of Deposing and Murthering Kings seems to comâ to a higher Elevation then heretofore And it is more artted and positived then in others For in the passages which your Lordships shall hear read anon I find three Assertions which run not in the vulgar Track But are such as wherewith Mâns Eares as I suppose are not much acquainted Whereof the first is That the Pope hath a superiority over Kings as Subjects to depose them Not only for Spirituall Crimes as Heresie and Schisme But for Faults of a Tempoârall Nature Forasmuch as a Tyrannicall Government tendeth ever to the Destruction of Soules So by this Position Kings of either Religion are alike comprehended and none exempted The Second that after a Sentence given by the Pope this Writer hath defined of a Series or Succession or Substitution of Hangmen or Burreo's to be suâe least an Executioner should fail His Assertion is That when a King is sentenced by the Pope to Deprivation or Death The Executioner who is first in place is He to whom the Pope shall commit the Authority Which mayâ be a Forraign Prânce It may be a Particular Subject It may be in generall to the first undertaker But if there be no Direction or Assignation in the Sentence speciall nor generall then de Jure it appertains to the nexâ Successour A naturall and pious Opinion For commonly they are Sons or Brothers or near of Kin all is one So as the Successor be Apparent and also that he be a Catholique But if he be Doubtfull or that he be no Catholique then it devolves to the Commonalty of the Kingdome So as he will be sure to have it done by one Minister or other In the Third he distinguishethâ of two kinds of Tyrants A Tyrant in Title and A Tyrant in Regiment âhe Tyrant in Regiment cannot be resisted or killed without a Sentence precedent by the Pope But a Tyrant in Title may be killed by any private Man whatsoever By which Doctrine he hath put the Judgement of Kings Titles which I will undertake are never so clean but that some vain Quarrel or Exception may be made unto them upon the Fancy of every ârivate Man And also couples the Judgement and Execution together That he may judge him by a Blow without any other Sentence Your Lordships see what Monstrous Opinions these are And how both these Beasts the Beast with seven Heads and the Beast with Many Heads Pope and people are at once let in and set upon the sacred Persons of Kings Now to go on with the Narrative There was an Extract made of certain Sentences and Portions of this Book Being of this nature that I have set forth By a great Prelate and Councellor upon a just Occasion And there being some Hollowness and Hesitation in these Matters wherein it is a thing impious to doubt discovered and perceived in Talbot He was asked his Opinion concerning these Assertions in the Presence of his Majesty And afterward they were delivered to him That upon advise and Sedato animo he mought declare himself Whereupon under his hand he subscribes thus May it please your Honourable good Lordships Concerning this Doctrine of Suarez I do perceive by what I have read in his Book that the same doth concern Matter of Faith The Controversie growing upon Exposition of Scriptures and Councels Wherein being ignorant and not studied I cannot take upon me to judge But I do submit mine Opinion therein to the Iudgement of the Catholick Roman Church as in all other Points concerning Faith I do And for Matter concerning my Loyalty I
thereupon takes Pen in hand and in stead of excusing himself sets down and contriveth a seditious and libellouâ Accusation against the King and State which your Lordships shall now hear And sends it to the Majour And witâall because the Feather of his Quill might fly abroad he gives authority to the Majour to impart it to the Iustices if he so thought good And now my Lords because I will not mistake or mis-repeat you shall hear the Seditious Libell in the proper termes and words thereof Here the Papers were read MY Lords I know this Paper offends your Ears much and the Eares of any good Subject And sorry I am that the Times should produce Offences of this nature But since they do I would be more sorry they should be passed without severe punishment Non tradite factum as the Verse sayes altered a little Aut si tradatis Facti quoque tradite poenam If any man have a mind to discourse of the Fact let him likewise discourse of the punishment of the Fact In this Writing my Lords there appears a Monster with four Heads Of the progeny of him that is the Father of Lies and takes his Name from Slander The first is a wicked and seditious Slander Or if I shall use the Scripture phrase a Blasphemingâ of the King himself Setting him forth for a Prince perjured in the great and solemne Oath of his Coronation which is as it were the Knot of the Diademe A Prince that should be a Violatour and Infringer of the Liberties Lawes and Customes of the Kingdome A mark for an H. the 4th A Match for a R. the 2d. The Second is a Slander and Falsification and wresting of the Law of the Land grosse and palpable It is truly said by a Civilian Tortura Legum pessima The Torture of Lawes is worse then the Torture of Men. The Third is a slander and false charge of the Parliament That they had denied to give to the King A Point of notorious untruth And the last is a Slander and Taunting of an infinite Number of the Kings loving Subjects that have given towards this Benevolence and free Contribution Charging them as Accessary and Coadjutours to the Kings Perjury Nay you leave us not there But you take upon you a Pontificall Habite And couple your Slander with a Curse But thanks be to God we have learned sufficiently out of the Scripture That as the Bird flies away so the causelesse Curse shall not come For the first of these which concerns the King I have taken to my self the opening and Aggravation thereof The other three I have distributed to my Fellows My Lords â cannot but enter into this part with some Wonder and Astonishment How it should come into the Heart of a Subject of England to vapour forth such a wicked and venemous slander against the King whose Goodness Grace is comparable if not incomparable unto any the Kings his Progenitors This therefore gives me a Just necessary occasion to do two things The one to make some Representation of his Majesty Such as truly he is found to be in his Government which Mr. I. S. chargeth with Violation of Lawes and Liberties The other to search and open the Depth of Mr. I.S. his Offence Both which I will do briefly Because the one I cannot expresse sufficiently And the other I will not presse too far My Lords I mean to make no Panegyrick or Laudative The Kings delights not in it neither am I fit for it But if it were but a Councellor or Noble-man whose Name had suffered and were to receive some kind of Reparation in this High Court I would do him that Duty as not to pass his Merits and just Attributes especially such as are limitted with the present Case in silence For it is fit to burn Incense where evill Odours have been cast and raised Is it so that King Iames shall be said to be a Violater of the Liberties Lawes and Customes of his Kingdomes Or is he not rather a noble and Constant Protector and Conservator of them all I conceive this consisteth in maintaining Religion and the true Church In maintaining the Lawes of the Kingdom which is the Subjects Birth-right In temperate use of the Prerogative In due and free Administration of Iustice And Conservation of the Peace of the Land For Religion we must ever acknowledge in first place that we have a King that is the Principall Conservator of true Relâgion through the Christian World He hath maintained it not only with Scepter and Sword But likewise by his Pen wherein also he is Potent He hath Awaked and Reauthorized the whole Party of the Reformed Religion throughout Europe which through the Insolency and diverse Artifices and Inchantments of the advers part was grown a little Dull and Dejected He hath summoned the Fraternity of Kings to infranchise Themselves from the Usurpation of the see of Rome He hath made himself a Mark of Contradiction for it Neither can I omit when I speak of Religion to remember that excellent Act of his Majesty which though it were done in a Forraign Country yet the Church of God is one And the Contagion of these things will soon pass Seas and Lands I mean in his constant and holy proceeding against the Heretick Vorstius whom being ready to enter into the Chair and there to have authorized one of the most pestilent and Heathenish Heresies that ever was begun His Majesty by his constant opposition dismounted and pulled down And I am perswaded there sits in this Court one whom God doth the rather blesse for being his Majesties Instrument in that Service I cannot remember Religion and the Church but I must think of the seed-plots of the same which are the Vniversities His Majesty as for Learning amongst Kings he is incomparable in his Person So likewise hath he been in his Government a benigâ or benevolent planet towards Learning By whose influence those Nurseries and Gardens of Learning the Vniversities were never morâ in Flower nor Fruit. For the Maintaining of the Lawes which is the Hedge and Fence about the Liberty of the Subject I may truly affirm it was never in better repair He doth concur with the Votes of the Nobles Nolumus Leges Angliae mutare He is an Enemy of Innovation Neither doth the Universality of his own Knowledge carry him to neglect or pass over the very Formes of the Lawes of the Land Neither was there ever King I am perswaded that did consult so oft with his Iudges As my Lords that sit here know well The Iudges are a kind of Councell of the Kings by Oath and ancient Institution But he useth them so indeed He confers regularly with them upon their Retârnes from their Visitations and Circuits He gives them Liberty both to enform him and to debate matters with him And in the Fall and Conclusion commonly relyeth on their Opinions As for the use of the Prerogative it runs within the ancient Channels
and Banks Some Things that were conceived to be in some Proclamations Commissions and Pattents as Overflowes have been by his Wisedom and Care reduced whereby no doubt the Main Channell of his Prerogative is so much the stronger For evermore Overflowes do hurt the Channell As for Administration of Iustice between Party and Party I pray observe these points There is no Newes of Great Seal or Signet that flies abroad for Countenance or Delay of Causes Protections rarely granted and only upon great Ground or by Consent My Lords here of the Councell and the King himself meddle not as hath been used in former times with Matters of Meum and Tuum except they have apparent mixture with Matters of Estate but leave them to the Kings Courts of Law or Equity And for Mercy and Grace without which there is no standing before Iustice we see the King now hath raigned 12. years in his White Robe without almost any Aspârsionâ of the Crimsân Die of âlood There sits my Lord Hobârt âhat served Atâurney seven years I served with him We were so happy as there passed not through our hands any one Arraignment for Treason And but one for any Capitall Offence which was that of the Lord Sanquier The Noblest piece of Iustice one of them that ever came âorth in any Kings Times As for Penall Lawes which lie as Snares upon the Subjects And which were as a Nemo seit to King Henry 7. It yeelds a Revenue that will scarce pay for the Parchment of the Kings Records at Wâstminster And lastly for Peace we see manifestly his Majesty bears some Resemblance of that great Name A Prince of Peace He haâh preserved his Subjects during his Raign in Peace both within and wiâhout For the Peace with States abroad We have it usque ad Satietatem And for Peace in the Lawyers phrase which count Trespasses and Forces and Riots to be Contra pacem Leâ me give your Lordships this Token or Tast That this Court where they should appear had never lesse to do And certainly there is no better Sign of Omnia benè then when this Court is in a Still But my Lords this is a Sea of Matter And therefore I must give it over and conclude That there was never King raigned in this Nation that did better keep Covenant in preserving the Liberties and procuring the Good of his People So that I must needs say for the Subjects of England O Fortunatos nimium sua si bona nôrint As no doubt they do both know and acknowledge it Whatsoever a few turbulent Discoursers may through the Lenity of the time take Boldness to speak And as for this particular touching the Benevolence wherein Mr. I.S. doth assign this breach of Covenant I leave it to others to tell you what the King may do Or what other Kings have done But I have told you what our King and my Lords have done Which I say and say again is so far from introducing a new President As it doth rather correct and mollifie and qualifie former presidents Now Mr. I. S. let me tell you your fault in few words For that I am perswaded you see it already Though I wooe no Mans Repentance But I shall as much as in me is cherish it where I find it Your Offence hath three parts knit together Your Slander Your Menace and Your Comparison For your Slander it is no lesse then that the King is perjured in his Coronation Oath No greater Offence then Perjury No greater Oath then that of a Coronation I leave it It is too great to aggravate Your Menace that if there were a Bulling-broke or I cannot tell what there were Matter for him is a very seditious Passage You know well that howsoever Henry the fourths Act by a secret Providence of God prevailed yet it was but an Vsurpation And if it were possible for such a one to be this day wherewith it seemes your Dreames are troubled I do not doubt his End would be upon the Block And that he would sooner have the Ravens sit upon his Head at London Bridge then the Crown at Westminster And it is not your interlacing of your God forbid that will salve these seditious Speeches Neither could it be a Fore-warning because the Matter was past and not revocable But a very Stirring up and Incensing of the People If I should say to you for Example if these times were like some former times of King H. 8 Or some other times which God forbid Mr. I. S it would cost you your life I am sure you would not think this to be a gentle warning but rather that I incensed the Court against you And for your Comparison with R. the 2. I see you follow the Example of them that brought him upon the Stage and into Print in Queen Elizabeths time A most prudent and admirable Queen But let me entreat you that when âou will speak of Queen Elizabeth or King Iames you would compare them to K. H. the 7th or K. Ed. 1. Or some other Paralels to which they are like And this I would wish both you and all to take heed of How you speak seditious Matterâ in Parables or by Tropes or Examples There is a thing in an Indictment called an Innuendo You must beware how you becken or make Signs upon the King in a Dangerous sense But I will contain my self and Press this no further I may hold you for Turbulent or Presumptuous but I hope you are not Disloyall You are graciously and mercifully dealt with And therefore having now oâened to my Lords and as I think to your own Heart and Conscience the principall part of your Offence which concerns the King I leave the rest which concerns the Law Parliament and the Subjects that have given to Mr. Serjeants and Mr. Sollicitour The Charge of Owen indicted of High Treason in the Kings Bench by Sir Francis Bacon Knight his Majesties Atturney Generall THe Treason wherewiâh this Man standeth Charged is for the Kind and Nature of it Ancient As Ancient as there is any Law of England But in the particular Late and Upstart And again in the Manner and Boldness of the present Case New and almost unheard of till this Man Of what mind he is now I know not but I take him as he was and as he standeth charged For High Treason is not written in Ice That when the Body relenteth the Impression should go away In this Cause the Evidence it self will spend little Time Time therefore will be best spent in opening fully the Nature of thiâ Treason with the Circumstances thereof Because the Example is more then the Man I think good therefore by way of Inducement and Declaration in this Cause to open unto the Court Iury and Hearers five Things The first is the Clemency of the King Because it is Newes and a kind of Rarety to have a proceeding in this place upon Treason And perhaps it may be marvelled by some why after
so long an Intermission it should light upon this Fellow Being a person but contemptible A kind of venemous fly And a Hang by of the Seminaries The Second is the Nature of this Treason as concerning the Fact which of all kinds of compassing the Kings Death I hold to be the most perillous And as much differing from other Conspiracies as the lifting up of a 1000 Hands against the King like the Giant Briareus differs from lifting up one or a few Hands The Third Point that I will speak unto is the Doctrine or Opinion Which is the Ground of this Treason Wherein I will not argue or speak like a Divine or Scholler But as a Man bred in a Civill Life And to speak plainly I hold the Opinion to be such that deserveth rather Detestation then Contestation The Fourth Point is the Degree of this Mans Offence which is more presumptuous then I have known any other to have fallen into in this kind And hath a greater Overflow of Maliceâ and Treason And Fifthly I will remove somewhat that may seem to qualifie and extenuate this Mans Offence in that he hath not affirmed simply That it is lawfull to kill the King but conditionally that if the King be Excommunicate it is lawfull to kill him which maketh little Difference either in Law or Perill For the Kings Clemency I have said it of late upon a good Occasion And I still speak it with comfort I have now served his Majestie Solliciter and Atturney eight years and better yet this is the first time that ever I gave in Evidence against a Traytor at this Barr or any other There hath not wanted Matter in that Party of the Subjects whence this kind of Offence floweth to irritate the King He hath been irritated by the Powder Treason which might have turned Judgement into Fury He hath been irritated by wicked and monstrous Libels Irritated by a generall Insolency and presumption in the Papists throughout the Land And yet I see his Majesty keepeth Caesars Rule Nil malo quam âos esse similes sui memei He leaveth them to be like themselves And he remaineth like Himself And striveth to overcome Evill with Goodness A strange thing Bloudy Opinions Bloudy Doctrines Bloudy Examples and yet the Government still unstained with Bloud As for this Owen that is brought in question though his Person be in his Condition contemptible yet we see by miserable Examples That these Wretches which are but the Scum of the Earth have been able to stir Earth-quakes by Murthering of Princes And if it were in case of Contagion As this is a Contagion of the Heart and Soul A Raskall may bring in a Plague into the Citty as well as a great Man So it is not the Person but the Matter that is to be considered For the Treason it self which is the second Point my Desire is to open it in the Depth thereof if it were possible But it is bottomelesse And so the Civill Law saith Conjurationes omnium pâoditionum odiosissimae perniciosissimae Against Hostile Invasions and the Adherence of Subjects to ânemies Kings can arm Rebellions must go over the Bodies of many good Subjects before they can hurt the King but Conspiracies against the Persons of Kings are like Thunder-bolts that strike upon the suddain hardly to be avoyded Major metus à singulis saith he quam ab universis There is no Preparation against them And that Preparation which may be of Guard or Custody is a perpetuall Misery And therefore they that have written of the Priviledges of Ambassadours and of the Amplitude of SafeâConducts have defined That if an Ambassadour or a Man that commeth in upon the highest safe-Conducts do practise Matter of Sedition in a State yet by the Law of Nations he ought to be remanded But if he conspire against the Life of a Prince by violence or Poyson he is to be justiced Quia odium est omni Privilegio Majus Nay even amongst Enemies and in the most deadly Wars yet neverthelesse Conspiracy and Assassinate of Princes hath been accounted villanous and execrable The Manners of Conspiring and compassing the Kings Death are many But it is most apparent that amongst all the rest this surmounteth First because it is grounded upon pretenced Religion which is a Trumpet that enflameth the Heart and Powers of a Man with Daring and Resolution more than any Thing else Secondly it is the Hardest to be avoided For when a particular Conspiracy is plotted or Attempted against a King by some one or some few Conspiratours it meets with a Number of Impediments Commonly he that hath the Head to devise it hath not the Heart to undertake it And the Person that is used sometime faileth in Coârage sometime faileth in Opportunity sometimes is touched with Remorce But to publish and maintain that it may be lawfull for any Man living to attempt the Life of a King this Doctrine is a Venomous Sop Or as a Legion of Malign Spirits Or an universall Temptation Doth enter at once into the Hearts of all that are any way prepared or of any Predisposition to be Traytors So that whatsoever faileth in any one is supplied in Many If one Man faint another will dare If one man hath not the Opportunity another hath If one Man Relent another will be Desperate And Thirdly particular Conspiracieâ have their Periods of Time within which if they be not taken they vanish But this is endless and importeth Perpetuity of springing Conspiracies And so much concerning the Nature of the Fact For the Third Point which is the Doctrine That upon an Excommunication of the Pope with sentence of Deposing A King by any Son of Adam may be slaughtered And that it is Iustice and no Murther And that their Subjects are absolved of their Allegeance And the Kings themselves exposed to spoyl and Prey I said before that I would not argue the subtilty of the Question It is rather to be spoken too by way of Accusation of the Opinion as Impious then by way of Dispute of it as Doubtfull Nay I say it deserveth rather some Holy-war or League amongst all Christian Princes of either Religion for the Extirpating and Razing of the Opinion and the Authors thereof from the face of the Earth Then the Stile of Pen or Speech Therefore in thiâ kind I will speak to it a few words and not otherwise Nay I protest if I were a Papist I should say as much Nay I should speak it perhaps with more ândignation and Feeling For this Horrible Opinion is our Advantage And it is their Reproach And will be their Ruine This Monster of Opinion is to be accused of Three most evident and most miserable Slanders First of the Slander it bringeth to the Christian Faith Being a plain plantation of Irreligion and Atheism Secondly the Subversion which it introduceth into all Pollicy and Government Thirdly the great Calamity it bringeth upon Papists themselves Of which the more Moderate sort
Better Commissioners to examine it The Term âath been almost turned into a Iustitium or Vacancy The People themselves being more willing to be Lookers on in this Business then to follow their own There hath been no Care of Discovery omitted no Moment of Time lost And therefore I will conclude this Part with the Saying of Salomon Gloria Dei celare rem gloria Regis Scrutari rem And his Majesties Honour is much the greater for that he hath shewed to the World in this Businesse as it hath Relation to my Lord of Sommerset whose Case in no sort I do prejudge being ignorant of the Secrets of the Cause but taking him as the Law takes him hitherto for a Suspect I say the King hath to his great Honour shewed That were any Man in such a Case of Bloud as the Signet upon his Right Hand as the Scripture sayes yet would He put him off Now will I come to the particular Charge of these Gentlemen whose Qualities and Persons I respect and love For they are all my particular Friends But now I can only do this Duty of a Friend to them to make them know their Fault to the full And therefore first I will by way of Narrative declare to your Lordships the Fact with the occasion of it Then you shall have their Confessions read upon which you are to proceed Together with some Collaterall Testimonies by way of Aggravation And lastly I will note and observe to your Lordships the Materiall points which I do insist upon for their Charge And so leave them to their Answer And this I will doe very briefly for the Case is not perplexed That wretched Man Weston who was the Actor or Mechanicall Party in this Impoysonment at the first day being indicted by a very substantiall Iury of Selected Cittizens to the number of 19. who foând âilla vera yet neverthelesse at the first stood mute But after some dayes Intermission it pleased God to cast out the Dumb Devill And that he did put himself upon his Tryall And was by a Jury also of great Value upon his Confession and other Testimonies found guilty So as 31. sufficient Iurours have passed upon him whereupon Judgement and Execution was awaâded against him After this being in preparation for another World he sent for Sr. Thomas Overburies Father and falling down upon his knees with great Remorce and Compunction asked him forgivenesse Aftârwards againe of his own Motion desired to have his like prayer of forgivenesseâ recommended to his Mother who was abâent And at boâh times out of the abundance of his Heart Confâssâd that he was to die justly and that he was woâthy of Deâth And after again at his Execution which is a kind of sealing tâme of Confessions evân at the point of Death Although there were Tempters about him as you shall hear by and by yet he did again confirm publickly that his Examinations weâe ârue And that he had been justly and honourably dealt with Here is the Narrative which enduceth the Charge The Chaâge it self is this M. L. Whose Offence stands alone single the Offence of the other two being in consort And yet all three meetingâ in their End and Center which was to interrupt or deface this Excellent piece of Iustice M. L. I say mean while between Westons standing mute and his Tryall Takes upon him to mâke a most False Odious and Libellous Relation Containing as many Untruths as Lines And sets it down in writing with his own Hand And deliveâs it to Mr. Henry Gibb of the Bed-chamber to be put into the Kings Hand In which writing he doth falsifie and pervert all that was done the first day at the Arraignment of Weston Turning the Pike and Point of his Imputations principally upon my Lord Chief Iustice of England Whose Name thus occurring I cannot pass by And yet I can not skill to flatter But this I will say of him and I would say as much to Ages if I should write a Story That never Mans Person and his place were better met in a Businesse then my Lord Cooke and my Lord Chief Iustice in the Cause of Overbury Now My Lords in this Offence of M. L For the particulars of these slanderous Articles I will observe them unto you when the Writings and Examinations are read For I do not love to set the Gloss before the Text. But in generalâ I noâe to your Lordships First the Person of M. L. I know he is a Scottish Gentleman and thereby more ignorant of our Lawes and Formes But I cannot tell whither this doth extenuate his Fault in râspect of Ignorance Or aggravate it much in respect of Presumptiou That he would meddle in that that he understood not But I doubt it came not out of his Quiver Some other Mans Cunning wrought upon this Mans Boldnesse Secondly I may note unto you the Greatnesse of the Cause Wherein he being a private mean Gentleman did presume to deal M. L could not but know to what great and grave Commissioners the King had committed this Cause And that his Majesây in his Wiâedom would expect return of all things from them to whose trust he had committed this Businesse For it is the part of Commissioners as well to report the Businesse as to mannage the Businâsse And then his Majesty mought have been sure to have had all thingâ well weighed and truly informed And therefore it should have been far from M. L. to have presumed to have put fârth his Hand to so high and tender a Businesse which was not to be touched but by Employed Hands Thirdly I note to your Lordships that this Infusion of a Slander into a Kings Ear is of all Formes of Libells and Slanders the worst It is true that Kingâ may keep secret their Informations and then no Man ought to enquire after them while they are shrined in their Breast But where a King is pleased that a Man shall answer for his false Information There I say the false Information to a King âxceeds in Offence the false Information of any other kind Being a kind since we are in matter of Poyson of Impoysonment of a Kings Ear. And thus much for the Offence of M. L. For the Offence of S. W. and H. I. which I said was in consort it was shortly this At the âime and Place of the Execution of Weston To âupplant his Christian Resolution and to Scandalâzeâhe âhe Iustice already past perhapâ to cut off the thred of thâtâ which is to come These Gentlemen with others came mounted on Horseback And in a Ruffling and Facing manner put themselves forward to re-examine Weston upon Questions And what Questions Directly crosse to that that had been tryed and judged For what was the point tried That Weston had poysoned Overbury What was S. W. Question Whether Weston did poyson Ovârbury or no A Contradictory directly Weston answered only that he did him wrong And turning to the Sheriffe said You promised me I
should not be troubled at this time Neverthelesse He pressed him to answer saying He desired to know it that he mought pray with him I know not that S. W. is an Ecclesiastick that he should cut any Man from Communion of Prayer And yet for all this vexing of the Spirit of a poor Man now in the Gates of Death Weston neverthelesse stood constant and said I die not unworthily My Lord Chief Iustice hath my mind under my hand and he is an Honourable and just Iudge This is S. W. his Offence For H. I. he was not so much a Questionist but wrought upon the others Questions And like a kind of Confessor wished him to discharge his Conscience and to satisfie the World What World I marvaile It was sure the World at Tyburn For the World at Guild-Hall and the World at London was satisfied before Teste the Bells that rang But men have a got fashion now a dayes that two or three busie Bodies will take upon them the Name of the World And broach their own Conceits as if it were a general Opinion Well what more When they could not work upon Weston then H.I. in an Indignation turned abont his Horse when the other was turning over the Ladder And said he was sorry of such a Conclusion That was to have the State honoured or justified But others took and reported his words in another degree But that I leave seeeing it is not Confessed H. I. his Offence had another Appendix before this in time which was that at the day of the Verdict given up by the Iury He also would needs give his Verdict Saying openly that if he were of the Iury he would doubt what to do Marry he saith he cannot tell well whether he spake this before the Jury had given up the Verdict or after Wherein there is little gained For whether H. I. were a Pre-Jurour or a Post-Jurour The one was as to prejudge the Iury the other as to taint them Of the Offence of these two Gentlemen in generall your Lordships must give me leave to say that it is an Offence greater and more dangerous then is conceived I know well that as we have no Spanish Inquisitions nor Iustice in a Corner So we have no Gagging of Mens Mouths at their Death But that they may speak freely at the last Hour But then it must come from the free Motion of the Party not by Temptation of Questions The Questions that are to be asked ought to tend to furâher Revealing of their own or others Guiltiness But to use a Question in the Nature of a false Interrogatory to falsifie that which is Res Iudicata is intollerable For that were to erect a Court or Commission of Review at Tyburn against the Kings Bench at Westminster And besides it is a Thing vain and idle For if they anâswer according to the Iudgement past it adds no Credit Nor if it be contrary it derogateth nothing But yet it subjecteth the Majesty of Iustice to popular and vulgar Talk and opinion My Lords these are great and dangerous Offences For if we do not maintain Iustice Iustice will not maintain us But now your Lordships shall hear the Examinations themselves upon which I shall have occasion to note some particular Things c. The Effect of that which was spoken by the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England at the taking of his place in Chancery In performance of the Charge his Majesty had given him when he received the Seal 1617. BEfore I enter into the Business of the Court I shall take advantage of so many Honourable witnesses to publish and make known summarily what charge the Kings most excellent Majesty gave me when I received the Seal And what Orders and Resolutions my Self have taken in Conformity to that charge That the King may have the Honour of Direction And I the part of Obedience Whereby Your Lordships and the Rest of the Presence shall see the whole Time of my sitting in the Chanceryâ which may be longer or shorter as please God and the King contrâcted into one Houre And this I do for three Causes First to give Account to the King of his Commandement Secondly that I may be a Guard and Custody to my self and mine own Doings That I do not swerve or recede from any Thing that I have professed in so Noble Company And thirdly that all men that have to do with the Chancery or the Seal may know what they shall expect And both set their Hearts and my Ears at rest Not moving me to any Thing against these Rules Knowing that my Answer is now turned from a Nolumus into a Non possumus It is no more I will not But I cannot After this Declaration And this I do also under three Cautions The first is that there be some Things of a more Secret and Counsell like Nature which are rather to be Acted then Published But these Things which I shall speak of to day are of a more publick Nature The second is that I will not trouble this Presence with every Particular which would be too long But select those Things which are of greatest efficacy and conduce most ad summas Rerum Leaving maây other Particulars to be set down in a Publick Table According to the good Example of my last Predecessour in his Beginning And lastly that these Imperatives which I have made but to my Self and my Times be without prejudice to the Authority of the Court or Wiser Men that may succeed me And chiefly that they are wholy submitted unto the great Wisdom of my Soveraignâ The absolutest Prinâe in Iudicature that hath been in the Christian World For if any of these Things which I intend to be Subordinate to his Directions shall be thought by his Majesty to be Inordinate I shall be most ready to reform them These things are but tanquam Albâm Praetoris For so did the Roman Praetors which have the greatest Affinity with the Iurisdiction of the Chancellor here who used to set down at their Entrance how they would use their Iurisdiction And this I shall do my Lords in verbis Masculis No flourishing or Painted Words but such as are fit to go before Deeds The Kings Charge which is my Lanthorn rested upon four Heads THe first was that I should contain the Iurisdiction of the Court within his true and due Limits without Swelling or Excesse The second that I should think the putting of the Great Seal to Letters Patents was not a Matter of Course after precedent Warrants But that I should take it to be the Maturity and Fulness of the Kings Intentions And therefore that it was one of the greatest Parts of my Trust if I saw any Scruple or Cause of stay that I should acquaint him Concluding with a Quod dubites ne feceris The third was that I should retrench all unnecessary delayes That the Subject mought find that he did enjoy that same Remedy against the Fainting of the
Assistants Nay I assure your Lordships if I should find any main Diversity of Opinion of my Assistants from mine own Though I know well the Iudicature wholy resides in my self yet I think I should have Recourse to the Oracle of the Kings own Judgement before I should pronounce And so much for the temperate use of the Authority of this Court wherein the Health of the Court doth much consist As that of the Body consists in Temperance For the Second Commandement of his Majesty touching staying of Grants at the Great Seale There may be just Cause of Stay Either in the Matter of the Grant Or in the Manner of pâssing the same Out of both which I extract these 6. principall Cases which I will now make known All which neverthelesse I understand to be wholly submitted to his Majesties Will and Pleasure after by me he shall have been informed For if Iteratum Mandatum do come Obedience is better then sacrifice The First Case is where any Matter of Revenew or Treasure or Profit passeth from his Majesty My First Duty shall be to examine whether the Grant hath passed in the due and naturall Course by the Great Officers of the Revenew The Lord Treasurer and Chanceller of the Exchequer And with their privity which if I find it not to be I must presume it to have passed in the dark and by a kind of surreption And will make stay of it till his Majesties pleasure be further known Secondly if it be a Grant that is not meerly vulgar And hath not of Course passed at the Signet by a Fac Simile But needeth Science my Duty shall be to examine whether it hath passed by the Learned Counsell and had their Dockets which is that which his Majesty reades and that leades him And if I find it otherwise although the Matter were not in it self inconvenient yet I hold it Just Cause of Stay for Presidents sake to keep Men in the right way Thirdly if it be a Grant which I conceive out of my little knowledge to be against the Law Of which nature Theodosius was wont to say when he was pressed I said it but I granted it not if it be unlawâull I will call the learned Counsell to it As well him that drew the Book as the Rest or some of them And if we find cause I will enform his Majesty of our Opinion either by my self or some of them For as for the Iudges they are Iudges of Grants past but not of Grants to come except the King call them Fourthly if the Grants be against the Kings Booke of Bounty I am expresly Commanded to stay them untill the King either Revise his Booke in Generall or give Direction in the particular Fiftly if as a Counseller of Estate I do foresee inconvenience to ensue by the Grant in reason of Estate in respect of the Kings Honour Or Discontent or Murmur of the People I will not trust mine own Judgement but I will either acquaint his Majesty with it or the Couâsell Table or some such of my Lords as I shall think fit Lastly for Matter of Pardons If it be of Treason Misprision of Treason Murther either expressed or involute by a non Obstante Or of a Pyracy or Premunire or of Fines Or Exemplary punishment in Star-Chamber Or of some other natures I shall by the grace of God stay them untill his Majesty who is the Fountain of Grace may resolve between God and him understanding the Case how far Grace shall abound or superabound And if it be of Persons attainted and Convicted of Burglaryâ c. Then will I examin whether the Pardons pasâed the Hand of any Justice of Assise Or other Commissioners before whom the Triall was made And if not I think it my duty also to stay them Thus your Lordships see in this Matter of the Seal agreeable to the Commandement I have received I mean to walk in the Light So that Men may know where to find me And this publishing thereof plainly I hope will save the King from a great deal of Abuse And Me from a great deal of Envy When Men shall see that no particular Turn or end leades me but a Generall Rule For the Third Generall Head of his Majesties Precepts concerning Speedy Iustice I am resolved that my Decree shall come speedily if not instantly after the Hearing And my signed Decree pronounced For it hath been a Manner much used of late in my last Lords time oâ whom I learn much to Imitate and with due reverence to his memory let me speak it Much to avoid That upon the Solemn Full Hearing of a Cause nothing is pronounced in Court But Breviates are required to be made Which I do not dislike in it self in Causes perplexed For I confess I have somwhat of the Cunctative And I am of Opinion that whosoever is not wiser upon Advice then upon the suddain The same Man is no wiser at 50. yeares old then he was at 30. And it was my Fathers ordinary Word You must give me time But yet I find that when such Breviates were taken the Cause was sometimes forgotten a Terme or two And then set down for a New hearing or a Rehearing three or four Termes after Of which kind of Intermission I see no Use And therefore I will promise regularly to pronounce my Decree within few dayes after my Hearing And to sign my Decree at least in the Vacation after the pronouncing For fresh Iustice is the sweetest And besides Iustice ought not to be delayed And it will also avoid all Meanes-making or Labouring For there ought to be no Labouring in Causes but the Labouring of the Counsell at the Barr. Again because Iustice is a Sacred Thing And the end for which I am called to this place And therefore is my way to Heaven And if it be shorter it is never a whit the worse I shall by the grace of God as far as God will give me strength add the Afternoon to the Forenoon And some Fourth night of the Vacation to the Term For the expediting and clearing of the Causes of the Court Only the depth of the Three long Vacations I would reserve in some measure free for Business of Estate And for Studies of Artes and Sciences to which in my Nature I am most inclined There is another Point of true Expedition which resteth much in My self And that is in the Manner of giving Orders For I have seen an Affectation of Dispatch turn utterly to Delay and Lengâh For the manner of it is to take the Tale out of the Counsellor at Bar his Mouth and to give a Cursory Order nothing tending or conducing to the end of the Businesse It makes me remember what I heard one say of a Judge that saâe in the Chancery That he would make 80. Orders in a Morning out of the way And it was out of the way indeed For it was nothing to the End of the Businesse And this is that which
makes 60 80 100. Ordârs in a Cause too and fro begetting one another and like Penelopes Web doing and undoing But I mean not to purchase the Praise of Expeditive in that kind But as one that have a Feeling of my Duty and of the Case of others my Endeavour shall be to hear patiently And to cast my Order into such a mould as may soonest bring the Subject to the End of his Iourney As for such Delayes as may concern Oâhers the great Abuse is that if the Plaintiffe have got an Injunction to stay sutes at Common Law then he will Spin on his Cause at length But by the grace of God I will make Injunctions an hard Pillow to sleep on For if I find that he prosecutes not with effect he may hap when he is awake find not onely his Injunction dissolved but his Cause dismissed There be other particular Orders I mean to take for Non Prosecution or faint Prosecution wherewith I will not trouble you now Because Summa sequar Fastigia Rerum And so much for Mattâr of Expedition Now for the fouth and last Point of the Kingâ Commandement For the cutting off of unnecessary charge of the Subject A great part of it is fulfilled in the precedent Article touching Expedition For it is the Length of Suits that doth multiply Charge chiefly But yet there are some other Remedies that conduce thereunto First therefore I shall maintain strictly and with Severity the Former Orders which I find made by my Lord Chanceller for the immoderate and needles prolixity and length of Bills and Answers and so forth As well in punishing the party as fining the Counsell whose hand I shall find at such Bills Answers c. Secondly for all the Examinations taken in the Court I do give charge unto the Examiners upon perill of their places that they do not use idle Repetitions or needless Circumstances in setting down the Depositions taken by them And I would I could help it likewise in Commissions in the Countrey But that is almost unpossible Thirdly I shall take a diligent Survey of the Ceppies in Chancery That they have their just number of Lines and without open or wastfull writing Fourthly I shall be carefull that there be no Exaction of any new Fees but according as they have been heretofore set and Tabled As for Lawyers Fees I must leave to the Conscience and Merit of the Lawyer And the Estimation and Gratitude of the Client But yet this I can do I know there have used to attend this Barr a Number of Lawyers that have not been heard sometimes scarce once or twice in a Term And that makes the Client seek to Great Counsell and Favourites as they call them A Term fitter for Kings then Iudges And that for every Order that a mean Lawyer mought dispatch and as well Therefore to help the Generality of Lawyârs And therein to ease the Client I will constantly observe that every Tuesday and other Dayes of Orders after nine a Clock strucken I will hear the Bar untill 11 or half an Hour after 10 at the least And since we are upon the point whom I will hear your Lordships will give me leave to tell you a Fancy It falls out that there be three of us the Kings servants in great place that are Lawyers by Descent Mr. Atturney Son of a Iudge Mr. Solliciter likewise Son of a Iudge And my self a Chancellers Son Now because the Law roots so well in my time I will water it at the Root thus far As besides these great Ones I will hear any Iudges Sonn before a Sergeant And any Sergeants Sonn before a Reader Lastly for the better Ease of the Subjects And the Brideling of contentious Sutes I shall give better that is greater Costs where the Suggestions are not proved then hath been hitherto used There be divers other Orders for the better Reiglement of this Court And for Granting of Writs And for Granting of Benefices And other Things which I shall set down in a Table But I will deal with no oâher to day but such as have a proper Relation to his Majâsties Commandement It being my Comfort that I serve such a Master that I shall need to be but a Conduit for the conveying onely of his Goodness to his People And it is true that I do affect and aspire to make good that Saying That Optimuâ Magistratus praestat optimae Legi which is true in his Majesty But for my self I doubt I shall not attain it But yet I have a Domesticall Example to follow My Lords I have no more to say but now I will go on to the Businesse of the Court. The Speech which was used by the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in the Star-Chamber before the Summer Circuits the King being then in Scotland 1617. THe King by his perfect Declaration published in this place concerning Iudges and Iustices Hath made the Speech of his Chanceller accustomed before the Circuits rather of Ceremony than of use For as in his Book to his Son he hath set forth a true Character and Platform of a King So in this his Speech he hath done the like of a Iudge and Iustice Which sheweth that as his Majesty is excellently able to Govern in chief So he is likewise well seen and skilfull in the inferiour Offices and Stages of Justice and Government which is a Thing very rare in Kings Yet neverthelesse somewhat must be said to fulfill an old Observance But yet upon the Kings Grounds and very briefly For as Salomon saith in another Case In these things who is he that can come after the King First you that are the Iudges of Circuits are as it were the Planets of the Kingdome I do you no Dishonor in giving you that name And no doubt you have a great stroak in the Frame of this Government As the other have in the great Frame of the World Do therefore as they do Move alwayes and be carried with the Motion of your first Mover which is your Soveraign A popular Iudge is a Deformed Thing And Plaudite's are fitter for Players then for Magistrates Do good to the people Love them and give them Justice But let it be as the Psalm saith Nihil inde Expectantes Looking for nothing neither Praise nor Profit Yet my Meaning is not when I wish you to take heed of Popularity that you should be imperious and Strange to the Gentlemen of the Countrey You are above them in Power but your Rank is not much unequall And learn this That Power is ever of greatesâ strength when it is civilly carried Secondly you must remember that besides your ordinary Administration of Iustice you do carry the two Glasses or Mirrours of the State For it is your Duty in these your Visitations To represent to the people the Graces and Care of the King And again upon your Return To present to the King the Distastes and Griefs of the People Mark what the King sayes in
and Felicity Denied to his Progenitors and Reserved to his Times The Work is not yet conducted to perfection but is in fair Advance And this I will say confidently that if God blesse this Kingdom with Peace and Justice No Usurer is so sure in seven years space to double his Prâncipall with Interest And Interest upon Interest As that Kingdom is within the same time to double the stock both of Wealth and People So as that Kingdom which once within these Twenty years Wise men were wont to doubt whether they should wish it to be in a Poole Is like now to become almost a Garden And younger Sister to Great Britain And therefore you must set down with your self to be not only a just Governer and a good Chief Iustice as if it were in England But under the King and the Deputy you are to be a Master Builder and a Master Planter and Reducer of Ireland To which end I will trouble you at this time but with Three Directions The First is that you have speciall care of the Three Plantations That of the North which is in part acted That of Weshford which is now in Distribution And that of Longford and Letrim which is now in survey And take this from me That the Bane of a Plantation is when the Vndertakers or Planters make such hast to a little Mechanicall present profit as disturbeth the whole Frame and noblenesse of the work for Times to come Therefore hold them to their Covenants and the strict Ordinances of Plantation The Second is that you be carefull of the Kings Revenew And by little and little constitute him a good Demeasn if it may be Which hitherto is little or none For the Kings Case is hard when every Mans Land shall be improved in value with increase manifold And the King shall be tied to his Dry Rent My last Direction though first in weight is that you do all good Endeavours to proceed resolutely and constantly and yet with due Temparance and Equality in Matters of Religion least Ireland Civill become more dangerous to us then Ireland Savage So God give you Comfort of your Place After Sir William Iones Speech I had forgotten one Thing which was this You may take exceeding great Comfort that you shall serve with such a Deputy One that I think is a Man ordain'd of God to do great Good to that Kingdome And this I think good to say to you That the true Temper of a Chief Iustice towards a Deputy is Neither servilly to second him nor factiously to oppose him The Lord Keepers Speech in the Exchecquer to Sir John Denham when he was called to be one of the Barons of the Exchecquer SIR Iohn Denham the King of his grace and favour hath made choice of you to be one of the Barons of the Exchecquer To succeed to one of the gravest and most Reverend Iudges of this Kingdome For so I hold Baron Altham was The King takes you not upon Credit but Proof and great Proof of your former Service And that in both those kinds wherein you are now to serve For as you have shewed your self a good Iudge beween party and party so you have shewed your self a good Administer of the Revenue Both when you were Chief Baron And since as Counseller of Estate there in Ireland where the Counsell as you know doth in great part mannage and messuage the Revenew And to both these Parts I will apply some Admonitions But not vulgar or discursive But apt for the Times and in few words For they are best remembred First therefore above all you ought to maintain the Kings Prerogative And to set down with your self that the Kings Prerogative and the Law are not two Things But the Kings Prerogative is Law And the Principall Part of the Law The First-Born or Pars Prima of the Law And therefore in conserving or maintaining that you conserve and maintain the Law There is not in the Body of Man one Law of the Head and another of the Body but all is one Entire Law The next Point that I would now advise you is that you acquaint your self diligently with the Revenew And also with the Ancient Recordâ and Presidents of this Court. When the famous Case of the Copper Mines was argued in this Court And judged for the King It was not upon the fine Reasons of Witt As that the Kings Prerogative drew to it the chief in quaque specie The Lion is the chief of Beasts The Eagle the chief of Birds The Whale the chief of Fishes And so Copper the chief of Minerals For these are but Dalliances of Law Ornaments But it was the grave Records and Presidents that grounded the Iudgement of that Cause And therefore I would have you both guide and arm your self with them against these Vapours and Fumes of Law which are extracted out of Mens Inventions and Conceits The third Advice I will give you hath a large Extent It is that you do your Endeavour in your place so to mannage the Kings Iustice and Revenue as the King may have most Profit and the Subject least vexation For when there is much vexation to the Subject and little Benefit to the King then the Exchecquer is Sick And when there is Much Benefit to the King with lesse Trouble and vexation to the Subject then the Exchecquer is sound As for Example If there shall be much Racking for the Kings old Debts And the more Fresh and Late Debts shall be either more negligently called upon or over easily discharged or over indulgently stalled Or if the Number of Informations be many and the Kings Part or Fines for Compositions a Trifle Or if there be much ado to get the King new Land upon Concealments and that which he hath already be not well known and surveyed Nor the woods preserved I could put you many other Cases this fals within that which I term the sick Estate of the Exchecquer And this is that which makes every Man ready with their Undertakings and their Projects to disturb the ancient Frame of the Exchecquer Then the which I am perswaded there is not a better This being the Burthen of the Song That much goeth out of the Subjects Purse And little commeth to the Kings Purse Therefore give them not that Advantage so to say Sure I am that besides your own Associates the Barons you serve with two superiour Great Officers that have Honourable and true Ends And desire to serve the King and right the Subject There resteth that I deliver you your Patent His Lordships Speech in the Common Pleas to Justice Hutton when he was called to be one of the Judges of the Common Pleas. Mr. Serjeant Hutton THe Kings most Excellent Majesty being duly enformed of your Learning Integrity Discretion Experience Meanes and Reputation in your Countrey Hath thought fit not to leave you these Talents to be employed upon your self onely But to call you to serve Himself and his
Providence wait for his Majesties Times Being a work resembling indeed the Workes of the ancient Heröes No new piece of that kind in Modern Times Thirdly this Kingdom now first in his Majesties Times hath gotten a Lot or Portion in the New World by the Plantation of Virginia and the Summer Islands And certainly it is with the Kingdomes on Earth as it is in the Kingdom of Heaven Sometimes a Grain of Mustardseed proves a great Tree Who can tell Fourthly his Majesty hath made that Truth which was before Titulary In that he hath verified the Stile of Deâender of the Faith Wherein his Majesties Pen hath been so happy as though the Deaf Adder will not hear yet he is charmed that he doth not Hiss I mean in the graver sort of those that have answered hiâ Majesties Writings Fiftly it is most certain that since the Conquest yee cannot assign Twenty years which is the Time that his Majesties Raign now drawes fast upon of Inward and Outward Peace Insomuch as the Time of Queen Eliz. of happy memory And alwaies magnified for a peaceable Raign was nevertheless interrupted the first Twenty years with a Rebellion in England And both first and last Twenty years with Rebellions in Ireland And yet I know that his Majesty will make good both his Words As well that of Nemo me lascesset impunè As that other of Beati pacifici Sixthly that true and primitive Office of Kings which is tâ sit in the Gate and to judge the People was never performed in like perfection by any of the Kings Progenitors Whereby his Majesty hath shewed himself to be Lex loquens And to sit upon the Throne not as a dumb statua but as a Speaking Oracle Seventhly for his Majesties Mercy as you noted it well shew me a time wherein a King of this Realm hath Reigned almost 20. years as I said in his White Robes without the Blood of any Peer of this Kingdom The Axe turned once or twice towards a Peere but never strook Lastly The Flourishing of Arts and Sciencâs recreated by his Majesties Countenance and Bounty was never in that Heighth especially that Art of Arts Divinity For that we may truly to Gods great glory confess That since the Primitive times there were never so many Stars for so the Scripture calleth them in that Firmament These Things Mr. Speaker I have partly chosen out of your Heap and are so far from being vulgar as they are in effect singular and proper to his Majesty and his Times So that I have made good as I take it my first Assertion That the only worthy Commender of his Majesty is Time Which hath so set off his Majesties Merits by the Shadowes of Comparison as it passeth the Lustre or Commendation of Words How then shall I conclude Shall I say O Fortunatos nimium sua si Bona nôrint No For I see ye are happy in injoying them and happy again in knowing them But I will conclude this part with that Saying turned to the Right Hand Si gratum dixeriâ omnia dixeris Your gratitude containes in a word all that I can say to you touching this Parliament Touching the Third Point of your Speech concerning Parliaments I shall need to say little For there was never that Honour done to the Institution of Parliament that his Majesty did it in his last Speech making it in effect the perfection of Monarchy For that although Monarchy was the more Ancient and be independant yet by the Advice and Assistance of Parliament it is the stronger and the surer built And therefore I shall say no more of this Point but as you Mr. Speaker did well note That when the King sits in Parliament and his Prelates Peeres and Commons attend him he is in the Exaltation of his Orb So I wish things may be so carried that he may be then in greatest Serenity and Benignity of Aspect shining upon his People both in Glory and Grace Now you know well that that the shining of the sun fair upon the ground whereby all things exhilarate and do fructifie is either hindered by Clouds above or Mists below perhaps by Brambles and Briars that grow upon the Ground it self All which I hope at this time will be dispelled and removed I come now to the last part of your Speech concerning the Petitions But before I deliver his Majesties Answer respectively in particular I am to speak unto you some few words in generall Wherein in effect I shall but glean His Majesty having so excellently and fully expressed himself For that that can be spoken pertinently must be either touching the Subject or Matter of Parliament Businesse Or of the Manner and Carriage of the same Or lastly of the Time and the Husbanding and Marshalling of Time For the Matters to be handled in Parliament they are either of Church State Lawes or Grievances For the First two concerning Church or Stateâ ye have heard the King himself speak and as the Scripture saith Who is he that in such things shall come after the King For the other two I shall say somewhat but very shortly For Lawes they are Things proper for your own Element And therefore therein ye are rather to lead then to be led Only it is not amisse to put you in mind of two Things The one that you do not multiply or accumulate Lawes more then ye need There is a Wise and Learned Civilian that applies the Curse of the Prophet Pluet super eos Laqueos To Multiplicity of Lawes For they do but ensnare and entangle the People I wish rather that ye should either revive good Lawes that are fallen and discontinued Or provide against the slack execution of Lawes which are already in Force Or meet with the subtile Evasionâ from Lawes which Time and Craft hath undermined then to make Novas Creaturas Legum Lawes upon a new Mould The other Point touching Lawes is That ye busie not your selves too much in private Bills except it be in Gases wherein the Help and Arm of ordinary Iustice is too short For Grievances his Majesty hath with great Grace and Benignity opened himself Neverthelesse the Limitations which may make up your Grievances not to beat the Air only but to sort to a desired effect areâ principally two The one to use his Majesties term that ye do not Hunt after Grievances Such as may seem rather to be stirred here when ye are met then to have sprung from the desires of the Country Ye are to represent the People ye are not to personate them The other that ye do not heap up Grievances as if Numbersâ should make a shew where the Weight is small Or as if all things amiss like Plato's Common wealth should be remedied at once It is certain that the best Governments yea and the best Men are like the best precious Stones wherein every Flaw or Isickle or Grain are seen and noted more then in those that are generally foul and corrupted
Therefore contain your selves within that Moderation as may appear to bend rather to the Effectuall Ease of the People then to a Discursive Envy or scandall upon the State As for the Manner of Carriage of Parliament Businesse ye must know that ye deal with a King that hath been longer King then any of you have been Parliament Men And a King that is no lesse sensible of Formes then of Matter And is as far from induring Diminution of Majesty as from regarding âlattery or Vain Glory And a King that understandeth as well the Pulse of the Hearts of People as his own Orb. And therefore both let your Grievances have a decent and Reverent Form and Stile And to use the words of former Parliaments let them be Tanquam Gemitus Columbae without Pique or Harshnesse And on the other side in that ye do for the King Let it have a Mark of Vnity Alacrity and Affection which will be of this Force That whatsoever ye do in substance will be doubled in Reputation abroad as in a Crystall Glass For the Time if ever Parliament was to be measured by the Houre-glass it is this In regard of the instant Occasion flying away irrecoverably Therefore let your Speeches in the House be the Speeches of Counsellors and not of Oratours Let your Committees tend to dispatch not to dispute And so marshall the Times as the publique Businesse especially the proper Businesse of the Parliament be put first And private Bills be put last as time shall give leave or within the spaces of the Publique For the Foure Petitions his Majesty is pleased to grant them all as liberally as the Ancient and true Custom of Parliament doth warrant And with the cautions that have ever gon with them That is to say That the priviledge be not used for Defrauding of Creditours and Defeating of ordinary Justice That Liberty of Speech turn not into License but be joyned with that Gravity and Discretion as may tast of Duty and Love to your Soveraign Reverence to your own Assembly and Respect to the Matters ye handle That your Accesses be at such fit Times as may stand best with his Majesties pleasure and Occasions That Mistakings and Misunderstandings be rather avoided and prevented as much as may be then salved or cleared CERTAIN TREATISES VVritten or Referring TO Queen Elizabeths TIMES BEING OBSERVATIONS UPON A LIBELL Published in Anno 1592. A true Report of Doctour LOPEZ his TREASON An Advertisement touching the Controversies of the Church of ENGLAND A Collection of the Felicities of Queen ELIZABETH By the Right Honourable FRANCIS BACON Baron of Verulam Viscount Saint Alban LONDON Printed by S. Griffin for William Lee and are to be sold at his Shop in Fleetstreet at the sign of the Turks-head neer the Mitre Tavern 1657. CERTAIN OBSERVATIONS UPON A LIBELL Published this present year 1592. INTITULED A DECLARATION Of the TRVE CAVSES OF THE GREAT TROVBLES Presupposed to be intended against the REALM of ENGLAND IT were Just and Honourable for Princes being in Warrs together that howsoever they prosecute their Quarrels and Debates by Arms and Acts of Hostility yea though the Warrs be such as they pretend the utter Ruine and Overthrow of the Forces and States one of another yet they so limit their Passions as they preserve two Things Sacred and Inviolable That is The Life and good Name each of other For the Warrs are no Massacres and Confusions But they are the Highest Trials of Right when Princes and States that acknowledge no Superior upon Earth shall put themselves upon the Iustice of God for the Deciding of their Controversies by such Successe as it shall please him to give on either side And as in the Processe of particular Pleas between private Men all things ought to be ordered by the Rules of Civill Lawes So in the Proceedings of the Warre nothing ought to be done against the Law of Nations or the Law of Honour Which Lawes have ever pronounced those two Sorts of Men The one Conspiratours against the Persons of Princes The other Libellers against theâr good Fame to be such Enemies of common Society as are not to be cherished no not by Enemies For in the Examples of Times which were lesse corrupted we find that when in the greatest Heats and Extremities of Warrs there have been made Offers of Murderous and Traiterous Attempts against the Person of a Prince to the Enemy they have been not onely Rejected but also Revealed And in like manner when Dishonourable Mention hath been made of a Prince before an Enemy Prince by some that have thought therein to please his Humour he hath shewed himself contrarywise utterly distasted therewith and been ready to contest for the Honour of an ânemy According to which Noble and Magnanimous Kind of Proceeding it will be found that in the whole Couâse of her Majesties Proceeding with the King of Spain since the Amity interâupted There was never any project by her Majesty or any of her Ministers either moved or assented unto for the Taking away of the Liâe of the said King Neither hath there been any Declaration or Writing of âstate No nor Book allowed wherein his Honour hath been touched or taxed otherwise then for his Ambition A point which is necessarily interlaced with her Majesties own Justification So that no Man needeth to doubt but that those Warrs are grounded upon her Majesties part upon just and Honourable Causes which have so Just and Honourable a prosecution Considering it is a much harder Matter when a Prince is entred into Warrs to hold respect then and not to be transported with Passion than to make Moderate and Iust Resolutions in the Beginnings But now if a Man look on the other part it will appear that rather as it is to be thought by the Solicitation of Traitorous Subjects which is the onely Poyson and Corruption of all Honourable Warr between Forrainers Or by the Presumptâon of his Agents and Ministers then by the proper Inclination of that King there hath been if not plotted and practised yet at the least comforted Conspiracies against her Majesties Sacred Person which neverthelesse Gods Goodnesse hath used and turned to shew by such miraculous Discoveries into how near and precious Care and Custody it hath pleased him to receive her Majesties Life and Preservation But in the other Point it is strange what a number of Libellous and Defamatory Bookes and Writings and in what Variety with what Art and cunning handled have been allowed to pass through the World in all Languages against her Majesty and her Government Sometimes pretending the Gravity and Authority of Church Stories to move Belief sometimes formed into Remonstrances and Advertisements of âstate to move Regard Sometimes presented as it were in Tragedies of the Persecutions of Catholicks to move Pitty Sometimes contrived into pleasant Pasquils and Satyres to move sport So as there is no shape whereinto these Fellowes have not transformed themselves Nor no Humor nor affection in the mind
strait-way think with himself Doth this Man beleeve what he saith Or not beleeving it doth he think it possible to make us beleeve it Surely in my conceit neither of both But his End no doubt was to round the Pope and the King of Spain in the Eare by seeming to tell a Tale to the People of England For such Bookes are ever wont to be translated into diverse Languages And no doubt the Man was not so simple as to think he could perswade the People of England the Contrary of what they tast and feele But he thought he might better abuse the States abroad if he directed his Speech to them who could best convict him and disprove him if he said untrue So that as Livy saith in the like case AEtolos magis coram quibus verba facerent quam ad quos pensi habere That the Aaetolians in their Tale did more respect those which did over-hear them then those to whom they directed their Speech So in this matter this Fellow cared not to be counted a Lier by all English upon Price of Deceiving of Spain and Italy For it must be understood that it hath been the generall Practise of this kind of Men many years of the one side to abuse the forraine Estates by making them believe that all is out of Joynt and Ruinous here in England And that there is a great part ready to joyn with the Invader And on the other side to make the Evill Subjects of England believe of great Preparations abroad and in great readinesse to be put in Act And so to deceive on both sides And this I take to be his Principall Drift So again it is an extravagant and incredible Conceit to Imagine that all the Conclusions and Actions of Estate which have passed during her Majesties Raign should be ascribed to one Counseller alone And to such an one as was never noted for an Imperious or Over-ruling Man And to say that though He carried them not by Violence yet he compassed them by Devise There is no Man of Iudgement that looketh into the Nature of these Times but will easily descry that the Wits of these Dayes are too much refined for any Man to walk Invisible Or to make all the World his Instruments And therefore no not in this point assuredly the Libeller spake as he thought But this he foresaw That the Imputation of Cunning doth breed Suspicion And the Imputation of Greatnesse and Sway doth breed Envy And therefore finding where he was most wrung and by whose pollicyâ and Experience their plots were most crossed the mark he shot at was to see whether he could heave at his Lordships Authority by making him suspected to the Queen or generally odious to the Realm Knowing well enough for the one point that there are not only Iealousies but certain Revolutions in Princes Minds So that it is a rare Vertue in the Rarest Princes to continue constant to the End in their Favours and Employments And knowing for the other point that Envy ever accompanieth Greatness though never so well deserved And that his Lordship hath alwaies marched a Round and a Reall Course in service And as he hath not moved Envy by Pomp and Ostentation so hath he never extinguished it by any Popular or Insinuâtive Carriage of Himself And this no doubt was his Second Driât A Third Drift was to assay if he could supplant and weaken by this violent kind of Libelling and turning the whole Imputation upon his Lordship his Resolution and Courage And to make him proceedâ more cautelously and not so throughly and strongly against them Knowing his Lordship to be a Politick Man and one that hath a great Stake to leese Lastly least while I discover Cunning and Art of this Fellow I should make him wiser then he was I think a great part of this Book was Passion Difficile est tacere cùm doleas The Humours of these Men being of themselves eager and Fierce have by the Abort and Blasting of their Hopes been blinded and enraged And surely this Book is of all that Sort that have been written of the meanest work-man-ship Being fraughted with sundry base Scoffs and cold Amplifications and other Characters of Despite But void of all Iudgement or Ornament 2. Of the presents Estate of this Realm of England whether it may be truly avouched to be prosperous or Afflicted THe Benefits of Almighty God upon this Land since the time that in his singular providence he led as it were by the hand and placed in the Kingdome his Servant our Queen Elizabeth are such as not in Boasting or in Confidence of our selves but in praise of his Holy Name are worthy to be both considered and confessed yea and registred in perpetuall Memory Notwithstanding I mean not after the manner of a Panegyrique to Extoll the present Time It shall suffice onely that those Men that through the Gall and Bitterness of their own Heart have lost their Tast and Iudgement And would deprive God of his Glory and us of our sences in affirming our Condition to be Miserable and âull of Tokens of the Wrath and Indignation of God be reproved If then it be true that Nemo est Miser aut Felix nisi comparatus Whether we shall keeping our selves within the Compasse of our own Island look into the Memories of Times past Or at this present time take a view of other States abroad in Europe We shall âind that we need not give place to the Happinesse either of Ancestours or Neighboursâ For if a Man weigh well all the Parts of State and Religion Lawes Aministration of Iustice Pollicy of Government Manners Civility Learning and Liberall Sciences Industry and Manuall Arts Armes and Provisions of Wars for Sea and Land Treasure Traffique Improvement of the Soyle Population Honour and Reputation It will appear that taking one part with Another the State of this Nation was never more Flourishing It is easie to call to Remembrance out of Histories the Kings of England which have in more ancient times enjoyed greatest Happinesse Besides her Majesties Father and Grand father that raigned in rare Felicity as is fresh in Memory They have been K. Henry 1. K Hen 2. K. Hen. 3. King Edw the 1. K. Edw. the 3. K. Henry the 5. All which have been Princes of Royall Vertue Great Felicity and Famous Memory But it may be truly affirmed without derogation to any of these worthy Princes that whatsoever we find in Libels there is not to be found in the English Chronicles a King that hath in all respects laid together raigned with such Felicity as her Majesty hath done For as for the First 3. Henries The First came in too soon after a Conquest The Second too soon after an Vsurpation And the Third too soon after a League or Barons War To raign with Security and Contentation King H. 1. also had unnaturall Wars with his Brother Robert wherein much Nobility was consumed He had therewithall tedious Wars in Wales
And was not without some other Seditions and Troubles As namely the great Contestation of his Prelates King Henry 2. his Happinesse was much deformed by the Revolt of his son Henry after he had associated him and of his other Sonnes King Hen. 3 besides his continuall Wars in Wales was after 44. years raign unquieted with Intricate Commotions of his Barons As may appear by the Mad Parliament held at Oxford and the Acts thereupon ensuing His Son King Ed. 1. had a more flourishing Time then any of the other Came to his Kingdom at ripe years and with great Reputation after his voyage into the Holy Land And was much loved and obeyed contrived his Wars with great Judgement First having reclaimed Wales to a setled Allegeance And being upon the point of Vniting Scotland But yet I suppose it was more honour for her Majesty to have so important a piece of Scotland in her hand And the same with such Justice to render up Then it was for that worthy King to have advanced in such Forwardnesse the Conquest of that Nation And for King Edward 3. his Raign was visited with much Sicknesse and Mortality So as they reckoned in his dayes 3. severall Mortalities One in the 22. year Another in tâe 35. year And the last in the 43. year of his Raign And being otherwise Victorious and in Prosperity was by that onely Crosse more afflicted then he was by the other Prosperities comforted Besides he entred hardly And again according to the Verse Cedebant ultima primis His Latter Times were not so prosperous And for King Henry 5. as his Successe was wonderfull so he wanted Continuance Being extinguished after 10. years Raign in the Prime of his Fortunes Now for her Majesty we will first speak of the Blessing of Continuance as that which wanted in the Happiest of these Kings And is not only a great favour of God unto the Prince but also a singular Benefit unto the People For that Sentence of the Scripture Misera Natio cùm multi sunt principes eius is interpreted not only to extend to Divisions and Distractions in Government but also to Frequent Changes in Succession Considering that the Change of a Prince bringeth in many Charges which are Harsh and Vnpleasant to a great part of Subjects It appeareth then that of the Line of Five hundred and fourescore years and more containing the Number of 22. Kings God hath already prolonged her Majesties Raign to exceed sixteen of the said Two and Twenty And by the end of this present year which God prosper she shall attain to be equall with two more During which time there have deceased four Emperours As many French Kings Twice so many Bishops of Rome Yea every State in Christendome except Spain have received sundry Successions And for the King of Spain he is waxed so infirm and thereby so Retired as the Report of his Death serveth for every years News whereas her Majesty Thanks be given to God being nothing decayed in vigor of Health and strength was never more able to supply and sustain the weight of her Affairs And is as far as standeth with the Dignity of her Majesties Royall State continually to be Seen to the great comfort and Hearty Ease of her People Secondly we will mention the Blessing of Health I mean generally of the People which was wanting in the Raign of another of these Kings which else deserved to have the second place in Happinesse which is one of the great Favours of God towards any Nation For as there be three Scourges of God War Famine and Pestilence so are there three Benedictions Peace Plenty and Health Whereas therefore this Realm hath been visited in times past with sundry kinds of Mortalities as Pestilences Sweats and other Contagious Diseases it is so that in her Majesties Times being of the continuance aforesaid there was only towards the Beginning of her Raign some Sicknesse between Iune and February in the Citty but not dispersed into any other paât of the Realm as was noted which we call yet the Great Plague Because that though it was nothing so Grievous and so Sweeping as it hath been sundry times heretofore yet it was great in respect of the Health which hath followed since Which hath been such especially of late years as we began to dispute and move Questions of the Causes whereunto it should be ascribed Untill such time as it pleased God to teach us that we ought to ascribe it onely to his Mercy By touching us a little this present year but with a very Gentle Hand And such as it hath pleased him since to remove But certain it is for so many years together notwithstanding the great Pestering of people in Houses The great Multitude of Strangers and the sundry Voiages by Seas All which have been noted to be Causes of Pestilence The Health Vniversall of the People was never so good The third Blessing is that which all the Politick and Fortunate Kings before recited have wanted That is Peace For there was never Forreiner since her Majesties Raign by Invasion or Incursion of Moment that took any footing within the Realm of England One Rebellion there hath been onely but such an one as was repressed within the space of seven weeks And did not wast the Realm so much as by the Destruction or Depopulation of one poor Town And for wars abroad taking in those of Leeth those of New-Haven the second Expedition into Scotland the wars of Spain which I reckon from the year 86 or 87 before which time neither had the King of Spain withdrawn his Embassadours here residing neither had her Majesty received into protection the united Provinces of the Low Countries And the Aid of France They have not occupied in time a third part of her Majesties Râign Nor consumed past two of ây Noble House whereof France took one and Flanders another And very few besides of Quality or Appearance They have scarce mowed down the overcharge of the People within the Realm It is therefore true that the Kings aforesaid and others her Maiâsties Progenitours have been Victorious in their Wars And have made many Famous and Memorable Voyages and Expediâtions into sundry parts And that her Majesty contrarywise from the bginning put on a firm Resolution to content her self within those Limits of her Dominions which she received And to entertain Peace with her Neighbour princes which Resolution she hath ever since notwithstanding she hath haâ Rare Opportunities Iust Claims and pretences and great and mighty Means sought to continue But if this be objected to be the lesse Honourable Fortune I answer that ever amongst the Heathen who held not the Expence of Blood so precious as Christians ought to do The peaceable Government of Augustus Caesar was ever as highly esteemed as the Victories of Iuliuâ his Uncle and that the Name of Pater Patriae was ever as Honourable as that of propagator Imperii And this I
nevertheless an extra-ordinary Grace in telling Truth of the Time to come Or as if the Effect of the Popes Curses of England were upon better Ad-vise adjourned to those dayes It is true it will be Misery enough for this Realm whensoever it shall be to leese such a Soveraign But for the rest we must repose our selves upon the good pleasure of God So it is an unjust Charge in the Libeller to impute an Accident of State to the Fault of the Government It pleaeth God sometimes to the end to make Men depend upon him the more to hide from them the clear sight of future Events And to make them think that full of Vncertainties which proveth Certain and Clear And sometimes on the other side to crosse Mens expectations and to make them full of Difficulty and Perplexity in that which they thought to be Easie and Assured Neither is it any New Thing for the Titles of Succession in Monarchies to be at Times lesse or more declared King Sebastian of Portugall before his Journey into Affrick declared no Successor The Cardinall though he were of extream Age and were much importuned by the King of Spain and knew directly of 6. or 7. Competitours to that Crown yet he rather established I know not what Interims then decided the Titles or designed any certain Successor The Dukedome of Ferrara is at this Day after the Death of the Prince that now liveth uncertain in the point of Succession The Kingdom of Scotland hath declared no Successor Nay it is very rare in Hereditary Monarchies by any Act of State or any Recognition or Oath of the People in the Collaterall Line to establish a Successor The Duke of Orleans succeeded Charles the 8th of France but was never declared Successor in his time Monsieur d' Angoulesme also succeeded him but without any Designation Sonnes of Kings themselves oftentimes through desire to raign and to prevent their Time wax dangerous to their Parents How much more Cousens in a more Remote Degree It is lawfull no doubt and Honourable if the Case require for Princes to make an establishment But as it was said it is rarely practised in the Collaterall Line Trajan the best Emperor of Rome of an Heathen that ever was At what time the Emperours did use to design Sucessours Not so much to avoid the Vncertainty of Succession as to the end to have Participes Curarum for the present Time because their Empire was so vast At what Time also Adoptions were in use and himself had been Adopted yet never designed a Successour but by his Last Will and Testament Which also was thought to be suborned by his Wife Plotina in the Favour of her Lover Adrian You may be sure That nothing hath been done to prejudice the Right And there can be but one Right But one thing I am perswaded of that no King of Spain nor Bishop of Rome shall umpire nor promote any Beneficiary or Feodatory King as as they designed to do Even when the Scottish Queen lived whom they pretended to cherish I will not retort the matter of Succession upon Spain but use that Modesty and Reverence that belongeth to the Majesty of so great a King though an Enemy And so much for this Third Branch The Fourth Branch he maketh to be touching the Overthrow of the Nobility And the Oppression of the People wherein though he may percase abuse the Simplicity of any Forreiner yet to an English Man or any that heareth of the present Condition of England he will appear to be a Man of singular Audacity and worthy to be employed in the defence of any Paradox And surely if he would needs have defaced the generall State of England at this time he should in wisdome rather have made some Friarly Declamation against the Excesse of Superfluity and Delicacy of our Times then to have insisted upon the Misery and Poverty and Depopulation of the Land as may sufficiently appear by that which hath been said But neverthelesse to follow this Man in his own steps First concerning the Nobility It is true that there have been in Ages past Noblemen as I take it both of greater Possessions and of greater Command and Sway then any are at this day One Reason why the possessions are lesse I conceive to be because certain Sumptuous Veins and Humours of Expence As Apparell Gaming Maintaining of a kind of Followers and the like Do raign more then they did in times past Another Reason is because Noblemen now a dayes do deal better with their younger Sons then they were accustomed to do heretofore whereby the principall House receiveth many Abatements Touching the Command which is not indeed so great as it hath been I take it rather to be a Commendation of the Time then otherwise For Men were wont factiously to Depend upon Noblemen whereof ensued many Partialities and Divisions besides much Interruption of Iustice while the great Ones did seek to bear out Those that did depend upon them So as the Kings of this Realm finding long since that kind of Commandement in Noblemen Vnsafe unto their Crown and Inconvenient unto their People thought meet to restrain the same by Provision of Lawes whereupon grew the Statute of Reteiners So as men now depend upon the Prince and the Lawes and upon no other A Matter which hath also a Congruity with the Nature of the Time As may be seen in other Countries Namely in Spain where their Grandees are nothing so Potent and so absolute as they have been in Times past But otherwise it may be truly affirmed that the Rights and preheminences of the Nobility were never more duly and exactly preserved unto them then they have been in her Majesties Times The Precedence of Knights given to the younger Sons of Barons No Subpena's awarded against the Nobility out of the Chancery but Letters No Answer upon Oath but upon Honour Besides a Number of other Priviledges in Parliament Court and Countrey So likewise for the Countenance of her Majesty and the State in Lieutenancies Commissions Offices and the like there was never a more Honourable and Gracefull Regard had of the Nobility Neither was there ever a more Faithfull Remembrancer and exacter of all these particular preheminences unto them Nor a more Diligent Searcher and Register of their Pedegrees Alliances and all Memorialls of Honour then that MAN whom he chargeth to have overthrown the Nobility Because a few of them by immoderate Expence are decayed according to the Humor of the time which he hath not been able to resist no not in his own House And as for Attainders there have been in 35 years but Five of any of the Nobility whereof but Two came to Execution and one of them was accompanied with Restitution of Blood in the Children Yea all of them except Westmerland were such as whether it were by Favour of Law or Government their Heirs have or are like to have a great Part of their Possession And so much
for the Nobility Touching the Oppression of the People he mentioneth four points 1. The Conâumption of People in the Wars 2. The Interruption of Traffick 3. The Corruption of Iustice. 4. The Multitude of Taxations Unto all which points there needeth no long Speech For the first thanks be to God the Benediction of Crescite and Multiplicamini is not so weak upon this Realm of ângland but The Population thereof may afford such Losse of Men as were sufficient for the Making our late Wars and were in a perpetuity without being seen either in City or Countrey We âead that when the Romans did take Cense of their People whereby the Citizens were numbred by the Poll in the beginning of a great War and afterwards again at the ending there sometimes wanted a Third Part of the Number But let our Muster Books be perused those I say that certifie the Number of all Fighting Men in every Shire of vicesimo of the Queen At what time except a Handfull of Souldiers in the Low Countries we expended no Men in the VVars And now again at this present time there will appear small Diminution There be many Tokens in this Realm rather of Presse and Surcharge of People then of Want and Depopulation which were before recited Besides it is a better Condition of Inward Peace to be accompanied with some Exercise of no Dangerous Warr in Forrain parts then to be utterly without Apprentisage of Warr whereby People grow Effeminate and unpractised when Occasion shall be And it is no small strength unto the Realm that in these Warrs of Exercise and not of Perill so many of our People are trained And so many of our Nobility and Gentlemen have been made Excellent Leaders both by Sea and Land As for that he objecteth we have no Provision for Souldiers at their Return Though that Point hath not been altogether neglected yet I wish with all my Heart that it were more Ample then it is Though I have read and heard that in all Estates upon Casheering and Disbanding of Souldiers many have endured Necessity For the Stopping of Traffique as I referred my Self to the Muster-Books for the First So I refer my Self to the Custome-Books upon this which will not lye And do make Demonstration of no Abatement at all in these last years but rather of Rising and Encrease We know of many in London and other places that are within a small time greatly come up and made Rich by Merchandizing And a Man may speak within his Compasse and affirm That our Prizes by Sea have countervailed any Prizes upon us And as to the Iustice of this Realm it is true that Cunning and Wealâh have bred many Sutes and Debates in Law But let those Points be considered The Integrity and Sufficiency of those which supply the Iudiciall places in the Queens Courts The good Laweâ that have been made in her Majesties time against Informers and Promoters And for the bettering of Trialls The Example of Severity which is used in the Star-chamber in oppressing Forces and Fraâdes The Diligence and Stoutness that is used by Iustices of Assises in Encountring all Countenancing and Bearing of Causes in the Countrey by their Authorities and Wisedome The great Favours that have been used towards Coppy-holders and Customary Tenants which were in ancient times meerly at the Discretion and Mercy of the Lord And are now continually relieved from hard Dealing in Chancery and other Courts of Equity I say let these and many other Points be considered and Men will worthily conceive an Honourable Opinion of the Iustice of England Now to the Points of Levies and Distributions of Money which he calleth Exactions First very coldly he is not abashed to bring in the Gathering for Paules Steeple and the Lottery Trifles Whereof the former being but a Voluntary Collection of that Men were freely disposed to give never grew to so great a Sum as was sufficient to finish the Work for which it was appointed And so I imagine it was converted into some other use like to that Gathering which was for the Fortifications of Paris save that the Gathering for Paris came to a much greater though as I have heard no competent Sum. And for the Lottery it was but a Novelty devised and followed by some particular persons and onely allowed by the State being as a Gain of Hazzard Wherein if any Gain was it was because many Men thought Scorn after they had fallen from their greater hopes to fetch their odd Money Then he mentioneth Loanes and Privy Seales Wherein he sheweth great Ignorance and Indiscretion considering the Payments back again have been very Good and Certain And much for her Majesties Honour Indeed in other Princes Times it was not wont to be so And therefore though the Name be not so pleasant yet the Vse of them in our Times have been with small Grievance He reckoneth also new Customes upon Cloathes and new Impost upon Wines In that of Cloathes he is deceived For the ancient Rate of Custome upon Cloathes was not raised by her Majesty but by Queen Mary a Catholique Queen And hath been commonly continued by her Majesty Except he mean the Computation of the odd yards which in strict Duty was ever answerable Though the Error were but lately looked into or rather the Tolleration taken away And to that of Wines being a Forrain Merchandize and but a Delicacy and of those which might be forborn there hath been some Encrease of Imposition which can rather make the Price of Wine Higher âhen the Merchant poorer Lastly touching the Number of Subsidies it is true that her Majesty in respect of her great Charges of her Warrs both by Sea and Land against such a Lord of Treasure as is the King of Spain Having for her part no Indies nor Mines And the Revenues of the Crown of England being such as they lesse grate upon the People then the Revenues of any Crown or State in Europe Hath by the Assent of Parliament according to the ancient Customes of this Realm received divers Subsidies of her People which as they have been employed upon the Defence and preservation of the Subject Not upon Excessive Buildings nor upon Immoderate Donatives Nor upon Triumphs and Pleasures Or any the like veines of Dissipation of Treasure which have been Familiar to many Kings So have they been yielded with great good will and cheerfulness As may appear by other kinds of Benevolence presented to her likewise in Parliament which her Majesty neverthelesse hath not put in Ure They have been Taxed also and Asseissed with a very Light and Gentle Hand And they have been spared as much as may be As may appear in that her Majesty now twice to spare the Subject hath sold of her own Lands But he that shall look into other Countries and conâider the Taxes and Tallages and Impositions and Assises and the like that are every where in use Will find that the English Man is the most
Master of his own Valuation and the least bitten in his Purse of any Nation of Europe Nay even at this Instant in the Kingdome of Spain notwithstanding the Pioners do still work in the Indian Mines the Iesuites most play the Pioners and Mine into the Spaniards Purses And under the Colour of a Ghostly Exhortation contrive the greatest Exaction that ever was in any Realm Thus much in Answer of these Calumniations I have thought good to note touching the present state of England which state is such that whosoever hath been an Architect in the Frame thereof under the Blessing of God and the Vertues of our Soveraign needed not to be ashamed of his Work 3. Of the Proceedings against the pretended Catholiques Whether they have been Violent or Moderate and Necessary I Find her Majesties Proceedings generally to have been grounded upon two Principles The one That Consciences are not to be Forced but to be Wonn and reduced by the Force of Truth by the Aide of Time and the Vse of all good Meanes of Instruction or Perswasion The other That Causes of Conscience when they exceed their Bounds and prove to be Matter of Faction leese their Nature And that Soveraign Princes ought distinctly to punish the Practise or Contempt though coloured with the Pretences of Conscience and Religion According to these two Principles her Majesty at her Comming to the Crown utterly disliking of the Tyranny of the Church of Rome which had used by Terrour and Rigour to seek Commandement over Mens Faiths and Consciences Although as a Prince of great Wisdome and Magnanimity she suffered but the Exercise of one Religion yet her Proceedings towards the Papists was with great Lenity Expecting the good Effects which Time might work in them And therefore her Majesty revived not the Lawes made in 28º and 35º of her Fathers Raign Whereby the Oath of Supremacy mought have been offered at the Kings Pleasure to any Subject though he kept his Conscience never so modestly to himself And the Refusall to take the same Oath without Further Circumstance was made Treason But contrariwise her Majesty not liking to make Windowes into Mens Hearts and Secret Thoughts Except the Abundance of them did overflow into Ouvert and Expresse Acts and Affirmations Tempered her Law so as it restraineth only manifest Disobedience in impugning and impeaching advisedly and ambitiously her Majesties supream pâwer And Maintaining and Extolling a Forrain Iurisdâction And as âor the Oath it was altred by her Majesty into a more gratââull Form the Harshâesse of the Name and Appellation of Suprââm Head was removed And the Penalty of the Reâusall thereof âurned into a Disablement to take any Promotion or to exercise any charge And yet that with a Liberty of being Revested therein if any Man shall accept thereof during his Life But after many years Toleration of a Multitude of Factioâs Papists When Pius Quintus had Excommunicated her Majâsty And the Bill of Excommunication was published in London Whereby her Majesty was in a sort proscribed and all her Subjects drawn upon pain of Damnation from her Obedienâe And that therâ upon as upon a Principall Motive or Preparative followed the Rebellion in the North yet notwithstanding because many of those Evill Humours were by that Rebellion partly purged And that she feared at that time no Forrain Invasion And much lesâ the Attempts of any within the Realm not backâd by some Foârain Succours from without she contented her self to make a Law against that speciall Case of Bringing in or publishing of Bulls or the like Instruments Whereunto was added a Prohibition not upon Pain of Treason but of an Inferiour Degree of âunishment against bringing in of Agnus Dei's Hallowed Beades and such other Merchandise of Rome As are well known not to be any Essentiall Part of the Roman Religion but only to be used in practise as Love-Tokens to enchant and bewitch the peopleâ Affections from their Allegeance to their Naturall Soveraign In all other Points her Majesty continuedâ her former Leniây But when about the 20th year of her Raign she had discovered in the King of Spain an Intention to Invade her Dominions And that a principall Point of the Plot was to prepare a Party within the Realm that mought adhere to the Forrainer And that the Seminaries began to blossome and to send forth dayly Priests and professed Men who should by vow taken at Shrifâ reconcile her Subjects from her Obedience yea and bind many of them to attempt against her Majesties Sacred Person And thaâ by the Poyson they spred the Humours of most Papists were altred And that they were no more Papists in Custome but Pâpists in Treasonable Faction Then were there New Lawes made foâ the punishment of such as should submit themselves to Reconcilements or Renunciations of Obedience For it is to be understood that this Manner of Reconcilement in Confession is of the same Nature and Operation that the Bull it self was of with this onely difference That whereas the Bull assoyled the Subjects from their Obedience at once the other doth it one by one And therefore it is both more Secret more Insinuative into the Conscience being joyned with no lesse Matter then an Absolution from Mortall Sin And because it was a Treason carried in the Cloudes and in wonderfull Secresie and came seldome to Light And that there was no Presumption thereof so great as the Recusants to come to Divine Service because it was set down by their Decrees That to come to Church before Reconcilement was to live in Schism but to come to Church after Reconcilement was absolutely Hereticall and Damnable Therefore there were added new Lawes containing a Punishment pecuniary against the Recusants Not to enforce Consciences but to Enfeeble those of whom it rested Indifferent and Ambiguous whether they were reconciled or no For there is no doubt but if the Law of Recusancy which is challeâged to be so Extream and Rigorous were thus qualified That any Recusant that shall voluntarily come in and take his Oath that He or She were never reconciled should immediatly be discharged of the Penalty and Forfeiture of the Law They would be so far from liking well of that Mitigation as they would cry out it was made to entrap them And when notwithstanding all this provision this Poyson was dispersed so secretly as that there was no Meanes to stay it but to restrain the Merchants that brought it in Then was there lastly added a Law whereby such Seditious Priests of the New Erection were exiled And those that were at that time within the Land shipped over And so commanded to keep hence upon Pain of Treason This hath been the Proceeding with that Sort though intermingled not onely with sundry Examples of her Majesties Grace towards such as in her wisdome she knew to be Papists in Conscience and not in Faction But also with an extraordinary Mitigation towards the Offenders in the Highest Degree convicted by Law if they would
hath proved Concluded as the Spaniards are great Waiters upon Time ground their Plots deep upon two Points The one to profess an extraordinary Patronage Defence of the Roman Religion making account thereby to have Factions in both Kingdoms In England a Faction directly against the State In France a Faction that did consent indeed in Religion with the King and therefore at first shew should seem unproper to make a Party for a Forreiner But he foresaw well enough that the King of France should be forced to the end to retain Peace and Obedience to yeeld in some things to those of the Religion which would undoubtedly alienate the Fiery and more violent sort of Papists Which Preparation in the People added to the Ambition of the Family of Guise which he nourished âor an Instrument would in the end make a Party for him against the State as since it proved and mought well have done long before As may well appear by the Mention of League and Associations which is above 25. years old in France The other Point he concluded upon was That his Low-Countries was the aptest place both for Ports and Shipping in respect of England And for Sciâuation in respect of France having goodly Frontier Townes upon that Realm And joyning also upon Germany whereby they might receive in at Peasure any Forces of Almaines To annoy and offend either Kingdom The Impediment was the Inclination of the People which receiving a wonderfull Commodity of Trades out of both Realmes especially of England And having been in ancient League and Confederacy with our Nation And having been also Homagers unto ârance He knew would be in no wise disposed to either War Whereupon he resolved to reduce them to a Martiall Government Like unto that which he had established in Naples and Millain upon which suppression of their Liberties ensued the Defection of those Provinces And about the same time the Reformed Religion found entâance in the same Countries So as the King enflamed with the Resistance he found in the first Part of his Plots And also because he mought not dispense with his other Principle in yielding to any Toleration of Religion And withall expecting a shorter work of it then he found Became passionatly bent to Reconquer those Countries Wherein he hath consumed infinite Treasure and Forces And this is the true Cause if a Man will look into it that hath made the King of Spain so good a Neigbbour Namely that he was so entangled with the Wars of the Low-Countries as he could not intend any other Enterprise Besides in Enterprizing upon Italy he doubted first the Displeasure of the See of Rome with whom he meant to run a Course of strait Conjunction Also he doubted it might invite the Turk to return And for Germany he had a fresh Example of his Father who when he had annexed unto the Dominions which he now possesseth the Empire of Almaign neverthelesse sunck in that Enterprize whereby he perceived that the Nation was of too strong a Composition for him to deal withall Though not long since by practise he could have been contented to snatch up in the East the Countrey of Emden For Portugal first the Kings thereof were good Sons to the See of Rome Next he had no Colour of Quarrel or pretence Thirdly they were Officious unto him yet iâ you will believe the Genuese who otherwise writeth much to the Honour and Advantage of the Kings of Spain It seemeth he had a good mind to make himself a way into that Kingdom seeing that for that purpose as he reporteth he did artificially nourish the yong King Sâbastian in the Voyage of Affrick expecting that overthrow which followed As for his Intention to warr upon the Inâidels and Turks it maketh me think what Francis Guicciardiue a wise writer of History speaketh of his great Grandâ Father Making a Judgement of him as Historiographers use That he did alwayes mask and vail his Appetites with a Demonstration of a Devout and Holy Intention to the Advancement of the Church and the Publick Good His Father also when he received Advertisement of the taking of the French King prohibited all Ringings and Bonfires and other Tokens of Joy and said Those were to be reserved for Victories upon Infidels On whom he meant never to warre Many a Cruzada hath the Bishop of Rome granted to him and his Predecessours upon that Colour Which all have been spent upon the Effusion of Christian Bloud And now this year the Levies of Germans which should have been made under hand for France were coloured with the pretence of Warr upon the Turk Which the Princes of Germany descrying not onely brake the Levies but threatned the Commissioners to hang the next that should offer the like Abuse So that this Form of Dissembling is Familiar and as it were Hereditary to the King of Spain And as for his Succours given to the French King against the Protestants he could not chuse but accompany the Pernicious Counsels which still he gave to the French Kings of breaking their Edicts and admitting of no Pacification but pursuing their Subjects with Mortall Warre with some Offer of Aides which having promised he could not but in some small Degree perform whereby also the Subject of France namely the violent Papist was enured to depend upon Spain And so much for the King of Spaines proceedings towards other States Now for ours And first touching the Point wherein he charââth us to be the Authours of Troubles in Scotland and France It will appear to any that have been well enformed of the Memoâiâs of these Affaires That the Troubles of those Kingdomes were indeed chiefly kindled by one and the same Family of the Guise A Family as was partly touched before as particularly dâvoted now for many years together to Spain as the Order of the Iâsuiâes is This House of Guise âaving of late years extraordinarily flourished in the eminent Verâue of a few Persons whose Ambition neverthelesse was nothing inferiour to their vertue But being of a House notwithstanding which the Princes of the Bloud of France reckoned but as strangers Aspired to a Greatness more then Civill and proportionable to their Cause wheresoever they had Authority And accordingly under Colour of Consanguinity and Religion they brought into Scotland in the year 1559 and in the Absence of the King and Queen French Forces in great numbers whereupon the Ancient Nobility of that Realm seeing the imminent danger of Reducing that Kingdome under the Tyranny of Strangers did pray according to the good Intelligence between the two Crowns hâr Majesties Neigh âourly âorces And so it is true that the Action being very Just Honourable her Majesty undertook it expelled the Strangers and restored the Nobility to their Degrees and the State to Peace After when Certain Noble-Men of Scotland of the same Faction of âuâse had during the Minority of the King possessed themselves of his Person to the end to abuse his Authority
many wayes And namely to make a Breach between Scotland and England her Majesties Forces were again in the year 1582. by the Kings best and truest Servants sought and required And with the Forces of her Maâesty prevailed so far as to be possessed of the Castle of Edenborough the principall part of that Kingdome which neverthelesse her Majesty incontinently with all Honour and Sincerity restored After she had put the King into good and faithfull Hands And so ever since in all the Occasions of Intestine Troubles whereunto that Nation hath been ever subject she hath performed unto the King all possible good Offices and such as he doth with all good Affection acknowledge The same House of Cuise under Colour of Alliance during the Raign of Francis the second and by the Support and practâââ of the Queen Mother who desiring to retain the Regency under her own Hands during the Minority of Charles the ninth used those of âuise as a Counterpoise to the Princes of the Bloud obtained also great Authority in the Kingdome of France whereupon having raised and moved Civill Warrs under preâence of Religion But indeed to enfeeble and depresse the Ancient Nobility of that Realm The contrary Part being compounded of the Bloud Royall and the Greatest Officers of the ârown opposed themselves onely against their Insolency And to their Aides called in her Majesties Forces giving them for security the Town of New-Haven which neverthelesse when as afterwards having by the Reputation of her Majesties Confederation made their Peace in Effect as they would themselves They would without observing any Conditions that had passed have had it back again Then indeed it was held by force and so had been long but for the great Mortality which it pleased God to send amongst our Men. After which time so far was her Majesty from seeking to sowe or kindle New Troubles As continually by the Sollicitation of her Embassadours she still perswaded with the Kings both Charles the 9th and Hen. the 3d to keep and observe their Edicts of Pacification and to preserve their Authority by the Union of their Subjects which Counsell if it had been as happily followed as it was prudently and sincerely given France had been at this day a most Flourishing Kingdome which is now a Theater of Misery And now in the end after that the Ambitious Practises of the same House of Guise had grown to that Ripeness that gathering further strength upon the weakness and Misgovernment of the said King Hen. 3d He was fain to execute the Duke of Guise without Ceremony at Bloys And yet neverthelesse so many Men were embarqued and engaged in that Conspiracy as the Flame thereof was nothing asswaged But contrarywise that King Hen. grew distressed so as he was enforced to implore the Succours of England from her Majesty Though no way interessed in that Quarrell Nor any way obliged for any good offices she had received of that King yet she accorded the same Before the Arrivall of which Forces the King being by a sacrilegious Iacobine murthered in his Camp near Paris yet they went on and came in good time for the Assistance of the King which now raigneth The Justice of whose Quarrell together with the long continued Amity and good Intelligence which her Majesty had with him hath moved her Majesty from time to time to supply with great Aides And yet she never by any Demand urged upon him the putting into her Hands of any Town or Place So as upon this that hath been said let the Reader judge whether hath been the more Just and Honourable Proceeding And the more free from Ambition and Passion towards other States That of Spain or that of England Now let us examine the proceedings reciproque between themselves Her Majesty at her Comming to the Crown found her Realm entangled with the Wars of France and Scotland her nearest Neighbours which Wars were grounded onely upon the Spaniards Quarrell But in the pursuit of them had lost England the Town of Calice Which from the 21. year of King Edward 3 had been possessed by the Kings of England There was a meeting near Burdeaux towards the end of Queen Maries Raign between the Commissioners of France Spain and England and some Overture of Peace was made But broke off upon the Article of the Resâitution of Callice After Queen Maries Death the King of Spain thinking himself dischaâged of that Difficulty though in hoâour he was no lesse bound to it then before renewed the like Treaty wherein her Majesty concurred so as the Commissioners for the said Princes met at Chasteau Cambraâssi near Cambray In the proceedings of which Treaty it is true that at the first the Commissioners of Spain for form and in Demonstration onely pretended to stand firm upon the Demand of Calliceâ but it was discerned indeed that the Kings Meaning was after âome Ceremonies and perfunctory Insisting thereupon to grow apart to a âeace with the French excluding her Majesty And so to leave her to make her own Peace after her People Had made his Wars Which Covert Dealing being politickly looked into her Majesty had reason being newly invested in her Kingdom And of her own Inclination being affected to Peace To conclude the same with such Conditions as she mought And yet the King of Spain in his Dissimulation had so much Advantage as she was fain to do it in a Treaty apart with the Frânch whereby to one that is not informed of the Counsels and Treaties of State as they passed it should seem to be a voluntary Agreement of her Majesty whereto the King of Spain would not be party whereas indeed he left her no other choice And this was the first Assay or Earnest penny of that Kings good affection to her Majesty About the same time when the King was sollicited to renew such Treaties and Leagues as had passed between the two Crowns of Spain and England by the Lord Cobham sent unto him to acquaint him with the Death of Queen Mary And afterwards by Sir Thomas Challenor and Sir Thomas Chamberlain successively Embassadours Resident in his Low Countries Who had order divers times during their Charge to make Overtures thereof both unto the King and certain principall persons about him And lastly those former Motions taking no effect By Viscount Montacute and Sir Thomas Chamberlain sent unto Spain in the year 1560 no other Answer could be had or obtained of the King but that the Treaties did stand in as good Force to all Intents as new Ratification could make them An Answer strange at that time but very conformable to his Proceedings since which belike even then were closely smothered in his own Breast For had he not at that time some hidden Alienation of Mind and Design of an Enemy towards her Majesty So wise a King could not be ignorant That the Renewing and Ratifying of Treaties between Princes and States do adde great Life and Force both of Assurance to the parties themselves
England brake forth Who but the Duke of Alva then the Kings Lievetenant in the Low-Countries and Don Guerres of Espes then his Embassador Lieger here were discovered to be chief Instruments and Practisers Having complotted with the Duke of Norfolk at the same time As was proved at the same Dukes Condemnation that an Army of 20000. Men should have landed at Harwich in aid of that Part which the said Duke had made within the Realm And the said Duke having spent and imployed 150000. Crownes in that Preparation Not contented thus to have consorted and assisted her Majesties Rebells in England He procured a Rebellion in Ireland Arming and Sending thither in the year 1579 an Arch-Rebell of that Country Iames Fitz Morrice which before was fled And truly to speak the whole course of Molestation which her Majesty hath received in that Realm by the Rising and Keeping on of the Irish hath been nourished and fomented from Spainâ but afterwards most apparently in the year 1580 he invaded the same Ireland with Spaâish Forces under an Italian Colonell By Name San Iesopho being but the Fore-runners of a greater Power Which by Treaty between Him and the Pope should have followed But that by the speedy Defeat of those former they were discouraged to pursue the Action Which Invasion was proved to be done by the Kings own Orders both by the Letters of Secretary Escouedo and of Guerres to the King And also by divers other Letters wherein the particular Conferences were set down concerning this Enterprise between Cardinall Riario the Popes Legate and the Kings Deputy in Spain Touching the Generall the Number of Men the Contribution of Money and the Manner of the Prosecuting of the Action And by the Confession of some of the Chiefest of those that were taken Prisoners at the Fort Which Act being an Act of Appaârent âostility added unto all the Injuries aforesaid And accompanied with a continuall Receit Comfort and Countenance by Audâences Pensions and Employments which he gave to Traytours and Fugitives both English and Irish As Westmerlând Paget Englâfield Baltinglasse and Numbers of others Did sufficiently jusâifie and warrant that pursuit of Revenge which either in the Spâyl of Carthagena and San Domingo in the Indies by Mr Drakâ Or in the undertaking the protection of the Low-Counâreysâ whân the Earl of Leicester was sent over afterwards follâwed For befoâe that time her Majesty though she stood upon her Guard in respect of the just Cause of Jealousie which tâe Sundry Injuries of that King gave her yet had entred into no Oââensiâe Acâion against Him For âoth the Voluntary Forces which Don Antonio had collected in this Realm were by express commandâment restrained And Offer was made of Restitution to the Spanish Embassadour of such Treasure as had been bâought into this Realm upon Proof that it had been taken by ârong And the Duke of Anjou was as much as could stand with the near Treaty of a Marriage which then was very foâwaâd between her Majesty and the said Duke Diverted from the Enterprise of âlanders But to conclude this Point when that some yeares after the Invasion and Conquest of thâs Land Intended long before but through many Crosses aâd Impediments which the King oâ Spain found in his Plots deferred Was in the year 1588 attempted Her Majesty not forgetting her own Nature was content at the same Instant to Treat of a Peace Not ignorantly as a Prince that knew not in what forwardness his preparations were For she had discovered them long before Nor fearfully as may appear by the Articles whereupon her Majesty in that Treaty stood which were not the Demands of a Prince afraid But onely to spare the shedding of Christian Bloud And to shew her constant Desire to make her Raign Renowned rather by Peace then victories which Peace was on her part treated sincerely But on his part as it should seem was but an Abuse Thinking thereby to have taken us more unprovided So that the Duke of Parma not liking to be used as an Instrument in such a Case in regard of his particular Honour would sometimes in Treating interlace That the King his Master ment to make his Peace With his Sword in his Hand Let it then be tried upon an indifferent view of the proceedings of England and Spain Who it is that Fisheth in Troubled Waters And hath disturbed the Peace of Christendome And hath written and described all his Plots in Bloud There follow the Articles of an Vniversall Peace which the Libeller as a Commissioner for the Estate of England hath propounded and are these First that the King of Spain should recall such Forces as of great compassion to the Naturall People of France he hath sent thither to defend them against a Relapsed Huguonott Secondly that he suffer his Rebells of Holland and Zeland quietly to possesse the places they hold And to take unto them all the Rest of the Low-Countries also Conditionally that the English may still keep the possession of such Port-Towns as they have and have some half a dozen more annexed unto them Thirdly thât the English Rovers mought peaceably go to his Indies And there take away his Treasure and his Indies also And thâse Articles being accorded he saith might follow that Peace which passeth all understanding As he calleth it in a scurrile and prophane Mockery of the Peace which Christians enjoy with God by the Attonement which is made by the Bloud of Christ whereof the Apostle saith That it passeth all understanding But these his Articles are sure mistaken And indeed corrected are briefly these 1. That the King of France be not impeached in Reducing his Rebels to obedience 2. That the Netherlands be suffered to enjoy their Ancient Liberties and Priviledges And so Forces of Strangers to be with-drawn both English and Spanish 3. That all Nations may trade into the East and West Indies yea discover and occupy such parts as the Spaniard doth not actually possesse And are not under Civill Government notwithstanding any Donation of the Pope 5. Of the Cunning of the Libeller in Palliation of his malicious Invectives against her Majesty and the State with pretence of Taxing onely the Actions of the Lord Burghley I Cannot rightly call this Point Cunning in the Libeller but rather good will to be Cunning without skill indeed or Judgement For finding that it had been the Usuall and Ready practise of Seditious Subjects to plant and bend their Invectives and Clamours Not against the Soveraigns themselves but against some such as had Grace with them and Authorities under them He put in ure his Learning in a wrong and unproper Case For this hath some Appearance to cover undutifull Invectives when it is used against Favourites or New Vpstarts and suddain-risen Counsellours But when it shall be practised against One that hath been Counsellour before her Majesties Time And hath continued longer Counsellour then any other Couâsâllâur in Europe One that must needs have been Great
Pâinces have had many Servants of Trust Name and sufficiency But where there have been great parts there hath often wanted Temper of Affection Where there have beeu both Ability and Moderation there have wanted Diligence and Love of Travaile Where all Three have been there have sometimes wanted Faith and Sincerity Where some few have had all these Four yet they have wanted Time and Experience But where there is a Concurrence of all these there is no marvaile though a Prince of Iudgement be constant in the Employment and Trust of such a Servant 7. Of divers parâicular Untruths and Abuses dispersed thrugh the Libel THE Order which this Man keepeth in his Libell is such as it may appear that he meant but to empty some Note Booke of the Matters of England To bring in whatsoever came of it a Number of Idle Jests which he thought might fly abroad And intended nothing lesse then to clear the Matters be handled by the Linht of Order and Distinct Writing Having therefore in the Principall Points namely the Second Third and Fourth Articles ranged his Scattering and wandering Discourse into some Order such as may help the Judgement of the Reader I am now content to gather up some of his By-Matters and Stragling Untruths and very briefly to censure them Page 9. he saith That his Lordships could neither by the Greatness of his Beades creeping to the Crosse Nor exteriour shew to Devotion before the High Altar find his entrance into high Dignity in Queen Maries Time All which is a meer Fiction at Pleasure For Queen Mary bare that Respect unto him in regard of his constant standing for her Title As she desired to continue his Service The Refusall thereof growing from his own Part He enjoyed nevertheless all other Liberties Favours of the time Save only that it was put into the Queens Head that it was dangerous to permit him to go beyond the Sea because he had a great Wit of Action and had served in so Principall a Place Which neverthelesse after with Cardinall Poole he was suffered to do Pag. Eadem he saith Sir Nich. Bacon that was Lord Keeper was a Man of exceeding crafty wit Which sheweth that this Fellow in his Slanders is no good Marks-Man But throweth out his Words of Defaming without all Levell For all the World noted Sir Nich. Bacon to be a Man Plain Direct and Constant without all Finenesse and Doublenesse And one that was of the mind that a Man in his private Proceedings and Estate and in the Proceedings of State should reât upon the Soundnesse and Strength of his own Courses and not upon Practise to Circumvent othersâ According to the Sentence of Salomon Vir Prudens aduertit ad Gressus suos stultus autem divertit ad Dolos Insomuch that the Bishop of Rosse a Subtile and Observing Man said of him That he could fasten no words upon him and that it was impossible to come within him because he offered no play And Queen Mother of France a very politick Princesse said of him That he should have been of the Councell of Spain because he despised the Occurrents and rested upon the First Plot So that if He were Crafty it is hard to say who is wise Pag. 10. he saith That the Lord Burleigh in the Establishment of Religion in the Beginning of the Queens Time prescribed a Composition of his own Invention Whereas the same Form not fully six years before had been received in this Realm in King Edwards Time So as his Lordship being a Christian Politick Counseller thought it better to follow a President then to innovate And chose the President rather at Home then Abroad Pag. 41. he saith That Catholicks never attempted to murther any principall person of her Majesties Court as did Burchew whom he calleth a Puritan In wounding of a Gentleman instead of Sir Christopher Hatten But by their great Vertue Modesty and Patience do manifest in themselves a far different Spirit ââom the other Sort. For Burchew it is certain he was Mad As appeareâh not only by his Mad Mistaking but by the violence âhât he âffâed afâer to his Keeper And most evidently by his bâhaviour at his Exâcution But of Catholicks I mean thâ âraâlârus sort of them a Man may say as Cato said sometimes of Caeâar Fum ad evârtendam Remp. sobrium accessisse They came sober and well advised to their Treasons and Conspiracies And commonly they look not so low as the Counsellers but have bent their murdârâur Attempts immediatly against her Majesties sacred Person Which God have in his precious Custody As may appear by the Conspiracy of Sommervile Parry Savadge and Six and otheâs Nay they have defended it in Thesi to be a Lawâull Act. Pag. 43. he saith That his Lordship whom he calleâh the ArchâPolitick hath fraudulently provided that when any Priesâ is arraigned the Indictment is enforced with many odious Mattârâ Wherein he sheweth great Ignorance if it be not Mallice For the Law permitteth not the Ancient Formes of Indicâments to be alâered Like as in an Action of Trespass although a Mân take away anothers Goods in the peaceablest manner in the World yet the Writ hath Quare vi Armis And if a Man enter upon anothers Ground and do no more the Plantife mentioneth Quod Herbam suam ibidem crescentem cum Equis Bobus porcis Bidentibus depastus sit conculcavit consumpsit Neither is this any Absurdity For in the Practise of all Law the Formularies hâve been Few and Certain And not varied according to every âarticular Case And in Indictmeuts also of Treason it is not so far fetched as in that of Trespass For the Law ever presumeth in Treason an Intention of subverting the State and Impeaching the Majesty Royall Pag. 45. and in other places speaking of the persecuting of Catholicks he still mentioneth Bowellings and Consuming Mens Entraâles by Fire As if this were a Torture newly devised Wherein he doth Cauâelously and Maliciously suppresse that the Law and Custom of this Land from all Antiquity hath ordained that Punishment in Case of Treason and permitteth no other And a Punishment surely it is though of great Terrour yeâ by reason of the quick Dispatching of lesse Torment far then either the Wheele or Forcipation yea then Simple Burning Pag. 48. he saith England is confederate with the Great Turk Wherein if he mean it because the Merchants have an Agent in Constantinople How will he answer for all the Kings of France since Francis the First which were good Catholicks For the Emperour for the King of Spain Himself for the Senate of Venice and other States that have had long time Embassadours Liedgers in that Court If he mean it because the Turk hath done some speciall Honour to our Embassadour if he be so to be termed we are beholding to the King of Spain for that For that the Honour we have won upon Him by Opposition hath given us Reputation through the World If
Gate of London called Lud-Gate being in decay was pulled down And built anew And on the one side was set up the Image of King Lud and his two Sons who according to the Names was thought to be the First Founder of that Gate And on the other side the Image of her Majesty in whose time it was reedified whereupon they published that her Majesty after all the Images of the Saints were long beaten down had now at last set up her own Image upon the Principall Gate of London to be adored And that all Men were forced to do reverence to it as they passed by And a watch there placed for that purpose Mr. Iewell the Bishop of Salisbury who according to his Life died most godly and patiently At the Point of Death used the Versicle of the Hymne Te Deum Oh Lord in thee have I trusted let me never be confounded Whereupon suppressing the rest they published that the principall Champion of the Hereticks in his very last words cryed he was confounded In the Act of Recognition of primo whereby the Right of the Crown is acknowledged by Parliament to be in her Majesty The like whereof was used in Queen Maries time The words of Limitation are In the Queens Majesty and the Naturall Heires of her Body and her lawfull Successours Upon which word Naturall they do maliciously and indeed villanously gâosse That it was the Intention of the Parliament in a Cloud to convey the Crown to any Issue oâ her Majesties that were Illegitimate Whereas âhe word Heire doth with us so necessarily and pregnantly import Lawfulness As it had been Indecorum and uncivill speaking of the Issues of a Prince to have expressed it They set forth in the year a Book with Tables and Pictures of the Persecutions against Catholiques Wherein they have not onely stories of 50. years old to supply their Pages But also taken all the persecutions of the Primitive Church under the Heathen and translated them to the practise of England As that of Worrowing Priests under the Skins of Bears by Doggs and the like I conclude then that I know not what to make of this Excesse in Avouching untruths save this That they may truly Chaunt in their Quires Linguam nostram magnificabimus Labia nostra nobis sunt And that they that have long ago forsaken the Truth of God which is the Toucâ-stone must now hold by the Whet-stone And that their Ancient Pillar of Lying wonders being decayed they must now hold by Lying Slaunders And make their Libells Successours to their Legend A TRUE REPORT Of the detestable TREASON INTENDED By Doctor RODERIGO LOPEZ A Physician attending upon the Person of the QVEENES MAIESTY Whom He for a Sum of Money promised to be paid him by the King of Spain did undertake to have destroyed by Poyson with certain Circumstances both of the Plotting and Detecting of the same TREASON Penned during the Queens Life THe King of Spain having found by the Enterprise of 88 the Difficulty of an Invasion of England And having also since that time embraced the Matters of France Being a Dessigne of a more easie nature and better prepared to his Hand Hath of necessity for a timeâ layed aside the Prosecution of his Attempts against this Realm by open Forces As knowing his Meanes unable to wield both Actions at once As well that of England as that of France And therefore casting at the Fairest hath in a manner bent his whole strength upon France making in the mean time onely a Defensive War upon the Low-Countries But finding again that the Supports and Aides which her Majesty hath continued to the French King are a principall Impediment Retardation to his prevailing there according to his Ends He hath now of late by all means projectâed to trouble the Waters here to cut us out some work at home That by practise without Diverting and Employing any greââ âorceâ he mought neverthelesse divert our Succours from France According to which purpose he first proved to move some Innovation in Scotland Not so much in hope to alienate the King from the Amity of her Majesty as practizing to make a Party there against the King himself Whereby he should be compelled to use her Majesties Forces for his Aââistance Thenâ he sollicited a Subject within this Realm being a Person of great Nobility to rise in Arms and levy War against her Majesty which practise was by the same Nobleman loyally and prudently revealed And lastly rather as it is to be thought by the Instigation of our Traiterous Fugitives in Forrain paâts And the corrupter Sort of his Counsellours and Ministers then of his own nature and Inclination either of himself or his said Counsellours and Ministers using his name have descenâed to to a course against all Honour All Society and Humanity Odious to God and Man Detested by the Heathen themselves which is to take away the Life of her Majesty which God have in his pâecious Custody by violence or poyson A Matter which mought be proved to be not onely against all Christianity and Religion but against Nature the Law of Nations the Honour of Arms The Civil Law The Rules of Morality and Pollicy Finally to be the most Condemned Barbarous and Ferine Act that can be imagined yea supposing the Quarrells and Hostility between the Princes to be never so Declared and so Mortal yet were it not that it would be a very Reproach unto the Age that the Matter should be once disputed or called in question it could never be defended And therefore I leave it to the Censure which Titus Livius giveth in the like case upon Perseus the last King of the Macedons afterwards overthrown taken with his Children led in Triumph by the Romans Quem non justuÌ Bellum gerere Regio Animo sed per omnia clandestina grassari scelera LatrocinioruÌ ac veneficiorum cernebant But to proceed certain it is that even about this present time there have been suborned and sent into this Realm divers persons some English some Irish corrupted by Money and Promises And resolved and Conjured by Priests in Confesâion to have executed that most wretched and horrible Fact Of which Number certain have been Taken and some have sufâfered and some are spared because they have with great sorrow confessed these Attempts and detested their Suborneâs And if I should conjecture what the reason is why this cursed enterprise was at this time so hotly and with such diligence pursued I take it to be chiefly because the Matters of France waxe ripe And the King of Spain made himself ready to unmask himself and to reap that in France which he had been long in sowing In regard that there being like to be a Divulsion in the League by the Reconciliation of some of the Heads to the King the more passionate Sort being destiâuted by their Associates were like to cast themselves wholly into the King of Spains Arms And to dismember some important Piece
as was said to do some service to Don Antonio But in truth to continue Lopez Negotiation and Intelligences with the King of Spain which he handled so well as at his Return hither for the comforting of the said Lopez he brought to him from the King besides thanks and words of encouragement and an Abrazo which is the Complement of Favour a very good Jewell garnished with sundry stones of good value This Jewell when Lopez had accepted he cunningly cast with himself That if he should offer it to her Majesty first He was assured she would not take it Next that thereby he should lay her asleep and make her Secure of him for greater Matters According to the saying Fraus sibi fidem in parvis praestruit ut in magnis opprimat which accordingly he did with Protestations of his Fidelity And her Majesty as a Princesse of Magnanimity not apt to fear or suspicion returned it to him with Gracious words After Lopez had thus abused her Majesty and had these Trialls of the Fidelity of Andrada they fell in conference the matter being first moved by Andrada as he that came freshly out of Spain touching the empoysoning of the Queen Which Lopez who saw that Matter of Intelligence without some such particular service would draw no great Reward from the King oâ Spain such as a Man that was not Needy but wealthy as hâ was coulâ find any Tast in assented unto And to that purpose procured again this Andrada to be sent over As well to âdvertise and asâure this Matter to the King of Spain and hiâ Ministers Namely to the Count de Fuentes Assistant to the Generall of the King of Spains Forces in the Low Countries as also to capitulate and âontract with him about the Certainty of hiâ Rewardâ Andrada having received those Instructions and beâing furnished with money by Lopez procurement from Don Antonio about whose service his Employment was believed to be Went over to Calais Where he remained to be near unto England and Flandeâs Having a Boy that ordinarily passed to and fro between him and Lopez By whom he did also the better to colour his Employment write to Lopez Intelligence as it was agreed he should between him and Lopez Whâ bad him send such Nâws as he should take up in the Streets From Calais he writeth to Count de Fuentes of Lopez Promise and Demands Upon the Receipt of which Letters after some Time taken to advertise this Proposition into Spain And to receive direction thereupon The Count de Fuentes associated with Stââphano Ibarra Secretary of the Councell of the Wars in the Low Countries calleth to âim one Manuel Louys Tinoco a Portugese who had also followed King Antonio and of whose good Devotion he had had Experience in that he had conveyed unto him two severall Packets wherewith he was trusted by the King Antonio for France Of this Louys they first received a Corporall Oath wiâh solemn Ceremony taking his Hands between their Hands that he should keep secret that which should be imparted to him And never reveal the same though he should be apprehended and questioned here This done they acquâint him with the Letters of Andrada with whom they charge him to conferre at Calais in his way and to passe to Lopez into England Addressing him further to Stephano Ferrera de Gama And signifying unto the said Lopez withall as from the King that he gave no great credence to Andrada as a person too sleight to be usâd in a Cause of so great weight And therefore marvelled much that he heard nothing from Ferrera of this Matter From whom he had in former time been advertised in generality of Lopez good affection to do him service This Ferrera had been sometimes a Man of great Livelyhood and wealth in Portugall which he did forego in adhering to Don Antonio And appeareth to be a Man of a Capacity and practise But hath some years since been secretly won to the service of the King of Spain not travelling neverthelesse too and fro but residing as his Leiger in England Manuel Louys dispatched with these Instructions and with all affectionate commendations from the Count to Lopez And with Letters to Ferrera Took his Journey first to Calais where he conferred with Andrada Of whom receiving more ample Information together with a short Ticket of Credence to Lopez that he was a Person whom he mought trust without scruple came over into England And first repaired to Ferrera and acquainted him with the State of the Businesse who had before that time given some Light unto Lopez that he was not a stranger unto the Practise between him and Andrada wherewith indeed Andrada had in a sort acquainted him And now upon this new Dispatch and Knowledge given to Lopez of the choise of Ferrera to continue that which Andrada had begun He to conform himself the better to the satisfaction of the King of Spain and his Ministers abroad was content more fully to communicate with Ferrera with whom from that time forward he meant singly and apertly to deal And therefore cunningly forbare to speak with Manuel Louys himself but concluded that Ferrera should be his only ârunk and all his Dealings should pass through his Hands thinking thereby to have gone Invisible Whereupon he cast with Himself that it was not safe to use the Mediation of Manuel Louys who had been made privy to the matter as some base carrier of Letters which Letters also should be written in a Cyphar Not of Alphabet but of Words Such as mought if they were opened import no vehement suspicion And therefore Manuel Louys was sent back with a short Answerâ And Lopez purveied himself of a base Fellow a âortugeze called Gomes d' Avila dwelling hard by Lopez House âo convey his Letters After this Messenger provided it was agreed between Lopez and Ferrera that Letters should be sent to the Count de Fuentes and Secretary Iuarra written and signed by Ferrera âor Lopez cautelously did forbear to write himself but directed and indeed dictated word by word by Lopez himself The Contents thereof were That Lopez was ready to execute that Service to the King which before had been treated but required for his Recompence the sum of 50000. Crowns and assurance for the same These Letters were written obscurely as was touched in Termes of Merchandise To which Obscurity when Ferrera excepted Lopez answered They knew his meaning by that which âad passed before Ferrera wrote also to Manuel Louys but charged this Gomez to deliver the same Letters unto him in the presence of Iuarra As also the Letter to Iuarra in the presence of Manuel Louys And these Letters were delivered to Gomez d' Avila to be carried to Bruxells And a Pasport procured and his charges defrayed by Lopez And Ferrera the more to approve his Industry writ Letters two severall times The one conveyed by Emanuel Palacios with the privity of Lopez to Christofero Moro a principall Counseller of the King of
Spain in Spain Signifying that Lopez was won to the King of Spain And that he was ready to receive his Commandement And received a Letter from the same Christophero Moro in answer to one oâ these which he shewed unto Lopez In the mean time Lopez though a Man in semblance of a heavy wit yet indeed subtile of himself as one trained in Practise And besides as wily as Fear and Covetousnesse could make him Thought to provide for himself as was partly touched before as many starting Holes and Evasions as he could devise If any of these Matters should come to Light And first he took his time to cast forâh some generall words a far off to her Majesty as asking her the Question Whether a Deceiver might not be deceived Whereof her Majesty not imagining these words tended to such end as to warrant him colourably in this wretched Conspiracy But otherwise of her own naturall Disposition bent to integrity and Sincerity uttered Dislike and Disallowance Next he thought he had wrought a great Mystery in demanding the precise sum of 50000. Crowns agreeing just with the sum of Assignation or Donation from Don Antonio Idly and in that grosâely imagining That if afterwards he should accept the same sum he mought excuse it as made good by the King of Spain in regard he desisted to follow and favour Don Antonio Whereupon the King of Spain was in honour tied noâ to see him a Looser Thirdly in his Conferrences with Ferrera when he was apposed upon the particular manner how he would poyson her Majestyâ he purposely named unto him a Syrop Knowing that her Majesty never useth Syrop And therefore thinking that would prove an high point for his Justification if Things should come in any Qnestion But all this while disirous after his prey which he had in hope devoured He did instantly importune Ferrera for the answering of his last Dispatch Finding the Delay strange and reiterating the Protestations of his Readinesse to do the Service if he were assured of his Money Now before the Return of Gomez d' Avila into England this Steven Ferrera was discovered to have Intelligence with the Enemy But so as the particular of his Traffique and Overtures appeared not Onely it seemed there was great account made of that he managed And thereupon he was committed to Prison Soon after arrived Gomez d' Avila and brought Letâers onely from Manuel Louys by the Name of Franceseo de Thores Because as it seemeth the great persons on the other side had a contrary disposition to Lopez And liked not to write by so base a Messenger but continued their Course to trust and employ Manuel Louys himself who in likelyhood was retained till they mought receive a full Conclusion from Spain Which was not till about two moneths after This Gomez was apprehended at his Landing And about him were found the Letters aforesaid written in Iargon or Verball Cyphar but yet somewhat suspicious in these words This Bearer will tell you the price in which your Pearles are esteemed and in what resolution we rest about a little Musk and Amber which I am determined to buy Which Words the said Manuel Louys afterwards voluntarily confessed to be desciphered in this sort That by the Allowance of the Pearles he meant that the Count de Fuentes and the Secretary did gladly accept the Offer of Lopez to poyson the Queen signified by Ferrera's Letter And for the Provision of Amber and Musk it was meant that the Count looked shortly for a Resolution from the King of Spain concerning a Matter of importance Which was For Burning of the Queens Ships and another Point tending to the satisfaction of their Vindicative Humour But while the sense of this former Letter rested ambiguous And that no direct particular was confessed by Ferrera Nor sufficient Light given to ground any rigorous examination of him Cometh over Manuel Louys with the Resolution from Spain Who first understanding of Ferrera's Restraint and therefore doubting how far things were discovered to shadow the matter like a cunning Companion gave advertisement of an Intent he had to do service and hereupon obtained a Pasport But after his comming in he made no hast to reveal any thing but thought to dally and abuse in some other sort And while the Light was thus in the Clouds there was also intercepted a little Ticket which Ferrera in Prison had found meanes to write in care to conceale Lopez and to keep him out of danger to give a Caveat of staying all further Answers and Advertisements in these Causes Whereupon Lopez was first called in Question But in Conclusion this matter being with all Assiduity and Pollicy more and more pierced and mined into First there was won from Manuel Louys his Letters from the Count de Fuentes and Secretary Iuara to Ferrera In both which mention is made of the Queens Death In that of the Counts under the Term of a Commission And in that of the Secretaries under the Term of the Great Service whereof should arise an universall Benefit to the whole World Also the Letters of Credit written by Gonzalo Gomez One to Pedro de Carrera And the other to Iuan Pallacio to take up a sum of Money by Emanuel Louys by the foresaid false Name of Fr. de Thores Letters so large and in a manner without Limitation as any sum by vertue thereof mought be taken up Which Letters were delivered to Louys by the Count de Fuentes own hands with directions to shew them to Lopez for his assurance A matter of Gods secret working in staying the same For thereupon rested only the Execution of the Fact of Lopez Upon so narrow a point consisted the safety of her Majesties Life already sold by Avarice to Mallice and Ambition But extraordinarily preserved by that Watchman which never slunbreth This same Emanuel Louys and Steven Ferrera also Whereof the one mannaged the Matter abroad And the other resided here to give correspondence never meeting after Emanuel had returned severally examined without Torture or Threatning did in the end voluntarily and clearly confesse the Matters above mentioned And in their Confessions fully consent and concur Not only in substance but in all points particularities and Circumstances Which confessions appear expressed in their own Naturall Language testified and subscribed with their own Hands And in open Assembly at the Arraignment of Lopez in the Guild hall were by them confirmed and avouched to Lopez his face And therewithall are extant undefaced the Originall Letters from Count de Fuente Secretary Iuara and the Rest. And Lopez himself at his first Apprehension and Examination did indeed deny And deny with deep and terrible Oathes and Execrations the very Conferences and Treaties with Ferrera or Andrada about the Empoysonment And being demanded if they were proved against him what he would say He answered That he would yield himself guilty of the Fact intended Neverthelesse being afterwards confronted by Ferrera who constantly maintained to him
all that he said Reducing him to the Times and places of the said Conferences he confessed the Matter As by his Confession in writing signed with his own Hand appeareth But then he fell to that slender Evasion as his last Refuge That he meant onely to cousen the King of Spain of the Money And in that he continued at his Arraignment when notwithstanding at the first he did retract his own Confession And yet being asked whither he was drawn either by Mean of Torture or promise of Life to make the same Confession he did openly testifie that no such Means was used towards him But the Falshood of this Excuse being an Allegation that any Traytour may use and provide for himself is convicted by three notable Proofes The first That he never opened this Matter neither unto her Majesty unto whom he had ordinary Accesse Nor to any Counseller of State to have permission to toll on and inveagle these Parties with whom he did treat if it had been thought so convenient Wherein percase he had opportunity to have done some good service for the further Discovery of their secret Machinations against her Majesties Life The second that he came too late to this shift Having first bewrayed his guilty Conscience in denying those Treaties and Conferences till they were evidently and manifestly proved to his Face The third that in conferring with Ferrera about the manner of his assurance he thought it better to have the Money in the Hands of such Merchants as he should name in Antwerp then to have brought it into England Declaring his purpose to be after the Fact done speedily to fly to Antwerp And there to tarry some time and so to convey himself to Constantinople where it is affirmed that Don Salomon a Jew in good credit is Lopez his near Kinsman And that he is greatly favoured by the said Don Salomon whereby it is evident that Lopez had cast his Reckonings upon the supposition of the Fact done Thus may appear both how justly this Lopez is condemned for the Highest Treason that can be imagined And how by Gods marvellous Goodness her Majesty hath been preserved And surely if a Man do truly consider it is hard to say Whither God hath done greater things By her Majesty or For Her If you obâerve on the one side how God hâth ordained her Government to break and crosse the unjust Ambition of the Two Mighty Potentates the King of Spain and the Bishop of Rome never so straitly between themselves combined And on the other side how mightily God hath protected her both against forrain Invasion and Inward Troubles And singularly against the many secret Conspiracies that have been made against her Life Therby declaring to the world that he will indeed preserve that Instrument which he hath magnified But the Corruptions of these Times are wonderfull when that Warrs which are the highest Trialls of Right between Princes that acknowledge no superiour Jurisdiction And ought to be prosecuted with all Honour shall be stained and infamed with such Foul and Inhumane Practises Wherein if so great a King hath been named the Rule of the Civill Law which is a Rule of Common Reason Must be remembred Frustra Legis auxilium implorat qui in Legem Committit He that hath sought to violate the Majesty Royall in the Highest Degree cannoâ claim the preheminence thereof to be exempted from just Imputation AN ADVERTISEMENT TOUCHING THE CONTROVERSIES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IT is but Ignorance if any Man find it strange that the State of Religion especially in the Dayes of Peace should be exercised and troubled with Controversies For as it is the Condition of the Church Militant to be ever under Trials So it commeth to passe that when the Fiery Triall of Persecution ceaseth there succeedeth another Triall which as it were by contrary Blasts of Doctrine doth sift and winnowe Mens Faith And proveth whether they Know God aright Even as that other of Afflictions discovereth whether they Love him better then the World Accordingly was it foretold by Christ saying That in the latter times it should be said Lo here loe there is Christ Which is to be understood not as if the very Person of Christ should be assumed and counterfeitted But this Authority and preheminence which is to be Truth it self should be challenged and pretended Thus have we read and seen to be fulfilled that which followeth Ecce in Deserto Ecce in Penetralibus While some have sought the Truth in the Conventicles and Conciliables of Hereticks and Sectaries others in the Externe Face and Representation of the Chuâch And both Sorts have been seduced Were it then that the Controversies of the Church of England were such as they did Divide the Vnity of the Spirit And not onely such as do unswaâh her of her Bands the Bands of Peace yet could it be no Occasion for any pretended Catholick to judge us or for any Irreligious Person to despise us Or if it be it shall but happen to us all as it hath used to do To them to be Hardned and to us to Endure the good pleasure of God But now that our Contentions are such as we need not so much that generall Canon and Sentence of Christ propounded against Hereticks Erratis nescientes Scripturas potestatem Dei. You do Err not Knowing the Scripture the Power of God As we need the Admonition of S. Iames Let every Man be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath And that the Wound is no way dangerous except we poyson it with our Remedies As the Former Sort of Men have lesse Reason to make themselves Musick in our Discord So I have good hope that Nothing shall displease our Selves which shall be sincerely modestly propounded for the appeasing of these Dissentions For it any shall be offended at this voyce Vos estis fratres ye are brethren why strive Ye He shall give a great presumption against himself that he is the Party that doth his Brethren wrong The Controversies themselves I will not enter into As judging that the Disease requireth rather Rest then any other Cure Thus much we all know and confess that they be not of the Highest Nature For they are not touching the high Mysteries oâ Faiâh such as detained the Churches for many yeares after their first Peace what time the Hereticks moved curious Questions and made strange Anatomies of the Natures and person of Christ And the Catholick Fathers were compelled to follow them with all Subtilty of Decisions and Determinations to exclude them from their Evasions and to take them in their Labyrinths So as it is rightly said Illis temporibus ingeniosa Res fuit esse Christianum In those dayes it was an ingenious and subtill thing to be a Christian. Neither are they concerning the great parts of the Worship of God Of which it is true that Non servatur unitas in Credendo nisi eadem sit in Colendo There will be kept
If a Third shall be accused upon these words uttered touching the Controversies Tollatur Lex fiat Certamen Whereby was meant that the prejudice of the Law removed either Reasons should be equally compared Of calling the People to Sedition and Mutiny As if he had said Away with the Law and try it out with Force If these and other like particulars be true which I have but by Rumourâ and cannot affirm It is to be lamented that they should labour amongst us with so little comfort I know Restrained Governments are better then Remisse And I am of his mind that said Better is to live where nothing is lawfull then where all Things are lawfull I dislike that Lawes should not be continued or Disturbers be unpunished But Lawes are likened to the Grape that being too much pressed yields an hard and unwholsome Wine Of these Things I must say Ira Viri non operatur Iusticiam Dei The Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousnesse of God As for the Injuries of the other Part they be Ictus inermes As it were Headlesse Arrowes They be Fiery and Eager Invecâives And in some fond Men uâcivill and unreverent Behaviour towards their Superiours This last invention also which exposeth them to Derision and Obloquy by Libels chargeth not as I am perswaded the whole side Neiâher doth that other which is yet more odious practised by the worst sort of them which is to call in as it were to their Aides certain Merceâary Bands which impugn Bishops and other Ecclesiasticall Dignities to have the spoyle of their Endowments and Livings Of those I cannot speak too hardly It is an Intelligence between Incendiaries and Robbers The one to Fire the House the other to Rifle it The Fourth Point wholly pertaineth to them which impugn the present Ecclesiasticall Government who although they have not cut Themselves off from the Body and Communion of the Church yet do they affect certain Cognizances and Differences wherein they seek to correspond amongst themselves and to be seperate from others And it is truly said Tam sunt Mores quidam Schismatici quam Dogmata Schismatica There be as well Schismaticall Fashions as Opinions First they have impropriated unto themselves the Names of Zealous Sincere and Reformed As if all others were Cold Minglers of Holy Things and Prophane and Friends of Abuses Yea be a man indued with great Vertues and fruitfull in good workes yet if he concur not with them they term him in Derogation a Civill and Morall Man And compare him to Socrates or some Heathen Philosopher Whereas the Wisedom of the Scriptures teacheth us otherwise Namely to judge and denominate Men Religious according to their Works of the Second Table Because they of the First are often Counterfeit and practised in Hypocrisie So Saint Iohn saith That a Man doth vainly boast of Loving God whom he never saw if he love not his Brother whom he hath seen And Saint Iames saith This is true Religion to visite the Fatherlesse and the Widow So as that which is with them but Philosophicall and Morall is in the Apostles Phrase True Religion and Christianity As in Affection they challenge the said Vertues of Zeal and the rest So in Knowledge they attribute unto themselves Light and Perfection They say the Church of England in King Edwards time and in the Beginning of her Majesties Raign was but in the Cradle And the Bishops in those times did somewhat for Day-Break But that Maâurityâ and Fulnesse of Light proceeded from themselves So Sabinius Bishop of Heraclea a Macedoniam Heretick said That the Fathers in the Councell of Nice were but Infants and Ignorant Men That the Church was not so perfect in their Decrees as to refuse that Further Ripeness of Knowledge which Time had revealed And as they censure vertuous Names by the Names of Civill and Morall So do they censure Men truly and godly wise who see into the vanity of their Affections by the name of Politicks saying that their Wisdome is but Carnall and savâuring of Mans Brain So likewise if a Preacher preach with Care and Meditation I speak not of the vain Scholasticall Manner of Preaching But soundly indeed ordering the Matter he handleth disâinctly for Memory Deducting and drawing it down for Direction and authorizing it with strong proofs and warrants They censure it as a Form of Speaking not becomming the Simplicity of the Gospell And refer it to the Reprehension of Saint Paul speaking of the Enticing Speech of Mans Wisdome Now for their own Manner of Preaching what is it Surely they exhort well and work Compunction of Mind And bring Men well to the Question Viri Fratres quid âaciemus But that is not enough Except they resolve the Question They handle Matters of Controversie weakly and obiter and as before a People that will accept of any Thing In Doctrine of Manners there is little but Generality and Repetition The word the Bread of Life they tosse up and down they break it not They draw not their Directions down ad Casus Conscientiae That a Man may be warranted in his perpetuall Actions whether they be Lawfull or not Neither indeed are many of them able to do it What through want of Grounded knowledge What through want of Study and Time It is a Compendious and easie Thing to call for the Observation of the Sabbath Day or to speak against unlawfull Gaine But what Actions and works may be done upon the Sabbath and what not And what Courses of Gain are Lawfull and in what Cases To set this down and to clear the whole Matter with good Distinctions and Decisions is a Matter of great Knowledge and Labour And asketh much Meditation and Conversing in the Scriptures and other Helps which God hath provided and pâeserveâ for Instruction Again they carry not an equall Hand in Teaching the People their lawfull Liberty as well as their Restraints and Prohibitions But they think a Man cannot go too far in that that hath a shew of a Commandement They forget that there are Sins on the Right Hand as well as oâ the Left And that the word is double edged and cutteth on both Sides As well the Profane Trangressions as the superstitious Observances Who doubteth but that it is as unlawfull to shut where God hath opened as to open where God hath shut To bind where God hath loosed as to loose where God hath bound Amongst Men it is commonly as ill taken to turn back Favâââs as to disobey Commandements In this Kind of Zeal for Example they have pronounced generally and without difference all Untruths unlawfull Notwithstanding that the Midwives are directly reported to have been blessed for their Excuse And Rahab is said by Faith to have concealed the Spies And Salomons selected Iudgement proceeded upon a Simulation And our Saviour the more to touch the Hearts of the two Disâiples with an holy Dalliance made as if he would have passed Emaus Further I have heard some Sermons
that all those which had any Authority or bare Office in the State had subscribed to it yet for that she saw it was not agreeable to the Word of God nor to the Primitive Purity nor to her own Conscience she did with a great deal of Courage and with the assistance of a very few Persons quite expell and abolish it Neither did she this by precipitate and Heady Courses but Timing it wisely and soberly And this may well be conjectured as from the Thing it self so also by an Answer of hers which she made upon occasion For within a very few dayes of her Comming to the Crown when many Prisoners were released out of Prison as the Custome is at the Inauguration of a Prince There came to her one day as she was going to Chappell a certain Courtier that had the Liberty of a Buffone And either out of his own Motion or by the Instigation of a wiser Man presenâed her with a Petition And before a great number of Courtiers said to her with a loud voice That there were yet four or five Prisoners unjustly detained in Prison He came to be a Suter to have them set at Liberty Those were the four Evangelists and the Apostle Saint Paul who had been long shut up in an unknown tongue as it were in Prison so as they could not converse with the common People The Queen answered very gravely That it was best first to enquire of them whether they would be set at liberty or no Thus she silenced an unseasonable Motion with a doubtfull Answer As reserving the Matter wholly in her own Power Neither did she bring in this Alteration timorously or by pieces but in a grave and mature Manner after a Conference betwixt both Sides and the Calling and Conclusion of a Parliament And thus within the Compasse of one year she did so establish and settle all Matters belonging to the Church as she departed not one Haires Breadth from them to the end of her Life Nay and her usuall Custom was in the beginning of every Parliament to forewarn the Houses not to question or innovate any thing already established in the Discipline or Rites of the Church And thus much of her Religion Now if there be any Severer Nature that shall tax her for that she suffered her self and was very willing to be courted wooed and to have Sonnets made in her Commendation And that she continued this longer then was decent for her years Notwithstanding if you will take this Matter at the best it is not without singular Admiration Being much like unto that which we find in Fabulous Narrations of a certain Queen in the Fortunate Islands and of her Court and Fashions where Faire purpose and Love-making was allowed but Lasciviâusnesse banished But if you will take it at the worst even so it amounteth to a more high Admiration Considering that these Courtships did not much eclipse her Fame and not at all her Majesty Neither did they make her lesse Apt for Government or check with the affaires and businesses of the Publick For such passages as these do often entertain the time even with the greatest Princes But to make an end of this Discourse Certainly this Princesse was Good and Morall And such she would be acknowledged She Detested Vice And desired to purchase Fame only by honourable Courses And indeed whilest I mention her Morall Parts there comes a certain pasâage into my mind which I will insert Once giving order to write to her Embassadour about certain Instructions to be delivered apart to the Queen Mother of the House of Valois And that her Secretary had inserted a certain Clause that the Embassadour should say as it were to endear her to the Queen Mother That they two were the only paire of Female Princes from whom for experience and Arts of Government there was no lesse expected then from the greatest Kings She utterly disliked the Comparison and commanded it to be put out saying That she practised other principles and Arts of âovernment then the Queen Mother did Besides she was not a little pleased if any one should fortune to tell her that suppose she had lived in a private Fortune yet she could not have escaped without some Note of Excellency and Singularity in her Sex So little did she desire to borrow or be beholding to her Fortune for her Praise But if I should wade further into this Queenes Praises Morall or Politick either I must slide into certain Common places and Heads of Vertue which were not worthy of so great a Princesse Or if I should desire to give her Vertues the true Grace and Lustre I must fall into a History of her Life Which requireth both better Leisure and a better Pen then mine is Thus much in brief according to my ability But to say the Truth The only Commender of this Ladies vertues is Time Which for as many Ages as it hath runn hath not yet shewed us one of the Female Sex equall to Her in the Administration of a Kingdom SEVERALL DISCOURSES VVritten in the Dayes OF KING JAMES Whereof some of them PRESENTED TO His Maiesty BEING A brief Discourse of the Vnion of England and Scotland Articles and Considerations touching the Vnion aforesaid A Beginning of the History of Great Britain A Letter and Discourse to Sir Henry Savill touching Helps for the Intellectuall Powers Certain Considerations touching the better Pacification and Edification of the Church of England Certain Considerations touching the Plantation in Ireland Advice to the King touching Suttons Estate A Proposition to the King touching the Compiling and Amendment of the Lawes of England A Fragment of an Essay of Fame By the Right Honourable FRANCIS BACON Baron of Verulam Viscount Saint Alban LONDON Printed by S. Griffin for William Lee and are to be sold at his Shop in Fleetstreet at the sign of the Turks-head neer the Mitre Tavern 1657. A BRIEFE DISCOURSE Of the Happy UNION OF THE KINGDOMES OF ENGLAND and SCOTLAND Dedicated in Private TO HIS MAJESTY I Do not find it strange excelleât King that when Heraclitus he that was surnamedâ the Obscure had set forth a certain Book which is not now extant many Men took it for a Discourse of Nature And many others took it for a Treatise of Pollicy For there is a great Affinity and Consent between the Rules of Nature and the true Rules of Pollicy The one being nothing else but an Order in the Government of the World And the other an Order in the Government of an Estate And therefore the Education and Erudition of the Kings of Persia was in a Science which was termed by a Name then of great Reverence but now degenerate and taken in the ill part For the Persian Magick which was the secret Literature of their âings was an Application of the Contemplations and Observatâons of Nature unto a sense Politick Taking the Fundamentall Lawes of Nature and the Branches and Passages of them as an Origiâall or fiâst
Modell whence to take and describe a Coppy and Imitation for Government After this manner the foresaid Instructours set before their Kings the Examples of the Celestiall Bodies The Sun the Moon and the rest which have great Glory and veneration but no Restâ or Intermission Being in a perpetuall Office of Motion for the Cherishing in turn and in Courseâ of Inferiour Bodies Expressing lâkewise the true manner of the Motions of Government which though they ought to be Swift and Rapide in respect of Dispatch and Occasions yet are they to be Constant and Regular without Waveâing or Confusion So did they râpresânt unto them how the Heavens do not enâich themselves by the Earth and the Seas Nor keep no dead Stock nor untouched Treasures of that they draw to themâ from below But whatsoever Moisture they do levy and take from both âlements in Vapours they do spend and turn back again in Showers Onely holding and storing them up for a time to the End to isâue and distribute them in Season But chiefly they did expresse and expound unto them that Fundamentall Law of Nature whereby all things do subsist and are preserved which is that every Thing in Nature although it hath his private and paâticular Affection and Appetite And doth follow and pursue the same in small Moments And when it is free and delivered from more generall and common Respects yet neverthelesse when there is Question or Case for Sustaining of the more General they foâsake their own Particularities and attend and conspire to uphold the publick So we see the Iron in small Quantity will ascend and approach to the Load-stone upon a particular Sympathy But if it be any Quantity of moment it leaveth his Appetite of Amity to the Loadstone and like a good Patriott falleth to the Earth which is the Place and Region of Massy Bodies So again the Waâer and other like Bodies do fall towards the Center of the Earth which is as was said their Region or Countrey And yet we see nothing more usuall in all Water Works and Engines then that the Water rather then to suffer any Distraction or Disunion in Nature will ascend Forsaking the Love to his own Region or Countrey and applying it self to the Body next adjoyning But it were too long a Digression to proceed to more Examples of this Kind Your Majesty your self did fall upon a Passage of this Nature in your gracious speech of Thanks unto your Counsell when acknowledging Princely their Vigilancies and well Deservings it pleased you to note that it was a successe and Event above the Course of Nature to have so great Change with so great a Quiet Forasmuch as sudden Mutations as well in State as in Nature are rarely without violence and perturbation So as still I conclude there is as was said a Congruity between the Principles of Nature and Policy And lest that Instance may seem to oppone to this Asseâtion I may even in âhat particular with your Majesties favour ofâer unto you a Type or Pattern in Nature much resembling this Event in your State Namely Earthquakes which many of them bring ever much Terrour and wonder but no Actuall Hurt The Earth trembling for a Moment and suddenly stablishing in perfect Quiet as it was before This Knowledge then of making the Government of the World a Mirrour for the Government of a State being a Wisdome almost lost Whereof the Reason I take to be because of the Difficulty for one Man to embrace both Philosophies I have thought good to make some proof as far as my weaknesse and the Straights of Time will suffer to revive in the Handling of one particular wherewith now I most humbly present your Majesty For surely as hath been said it is a Form of Discourse anciently used towards Kings And to what King should it be more proper then to a King that is stvdious to conjoyn contemplative Vertue and Active Vertue âogether Your Majesty is the first King that had the Honour to be Lapis Angularis to unite these two Mighty and warlike Nations of England and Scotland under one Soveraignty and Monarchy It doth not appear by the Records and Memories of any true History Or scarcely by the Fiction and Pleasure of any Fabulous Narration or Tradition That ever of any Antiquity this Island of Great Brittain was united under one King before this day And yet there be no Mountains nor Races of Hills There be no Seas or great Rivers There is no Diversity of Tongue or Language that hath invited or provoked this ancient separation or Divorce The Lot of Spain was to have the severall Kingdoms of that Continent Portugall onely except to be united in an Age not long past And now in our Age that of Portugall also which was the last that held out to be incorporate with the rest The Lot of France hath been much about the same time likewise to have reannexed unto that Crown the severall Dutchies and Portions which were in former times dismembred The Lot of this Island is the last reserved for your Majesties happy times by the speciall Providence and Favour of God who hath brought your Majesty to this happy Conjunction with great Consent of Hearts and in the strength of your years and in the Maturity of your Experience It resteth but that as I promised I set before your Majesties Princely Consideration the Grounds of Nature touching the Vnion and Commixture of Bodies And the Correspondence which they have with the Grounds of Policy in the Conjunction of States and Kingdomsâ First therefore that Position Vis unita fortior Being one of the common Notions of the Mind needeth not much to be ânduced or illustrate We see the Sunne when he entreth and while he continueth under the sign of Leo causeth more vehement Heats then when he is in Cancer what time his Beams are neverthelesse more perpendicular The Reason whereof in great part hath been truly ascribed to the Conjunction and Cor-Radi-ation in that place of Heaven of the Sunne with the four Stars of the first Magnitude Syrius Canicula Cor Leonis and Cauda Leonis So the Moon likewise by ancient Tradition while she is in the same Sign of Leo is said to be at the Heart which is not for any Affinity which that place of Heaven can have with that part of Mans Body But onely because the Moon is then by reason of the Conjunction and Nearness with the Stars aforenamed in greatest strength of Influence And so worketh upon that part in Inferiour Bodies which is most Vitall and ârincipall So we see Waters and Liquours in small Quantity do easily putrifie and corrupt but in large Quantity subsist long by reason of the Strength they receive by Vnion So in Earthquakes the more generall do little hurt by reason of the united weight which they offer to subvert but narrow and particular Earthquakes have many times overturned whole Towns and Cities So then this Point touching the Force of Vnion
Commons graced with the first Vote of all the Commons Selected âor that Cause Not in any Estimaâion of my Ability For therein so wise an Asâembly could not be so much deceived but in an acknowledgement of my Extream Labours and Integrity in that Businesse I thought my self every wayes bound Both in Duty to your Majesty And in ârust to that House of Parliament And in Consent to the Matter it self And in Conformity to mine own Travailes and Beginnings Not to neglect any paines that may tend to the furtherance of so excellent a work Wherein I will endeavour that that which I shall set down be Nihil minus quam verba For Length and Ornament of Speech are to be used for perswasion of Multitudes and not for Information of Kings especially such a King as is the only instance that ever I knew to make a Man of Plato's Opinion That all Knowledge is but Remembrance And that the Mind of Man knoweth all Things and demandeth only to have her own Noâions excited and awaked Which your Majesties rare and indeed singular Gift and faculty of swift Apprehension and infinite Expansion or Multiplication of anoâher Mans Knowledge by your own as I have often observed so I did extreamly admire in Goodwins Cause Being a matter full of Secâets and Mysteries of our Lawes meerly new unto you and quite out of the Path of your Education Reading and Conference Wherein neverthelesâe upon a Spark of Light given your Majesty took in so Dexterously and Profoundly as if you had been indeed Anima Legis Not only in Execution but in understanding The Remembrance whereof as it will never be out of my mind so it will alwayes be a warning to me to seek rather to excite your Judgemânt briefly then to enform it tediously And if in a Matter of that Nature how much more in this wherein your Princely Cogitations have wrought themselves and been conversant And wherein the principall Light pâoceeded from your self And therefore my Purpose is onely to break this Matter of the Vnion into certain short Articles and Questions And to make a certain kind of Anatomy or Analysis of the Parts and Members thereof Not that I am of Opinion that all the Questions which I now shall Open were fit to be in the Consultation of the Commissioners propounded For I hold nothing so great an Enemy to good Resolution as the Making of too many Questions Specially in Assemblies which consist of many For Princes for Avoyding of Distraction must take many Things by way of Admittance And if Questions must be made of them rather to suffer them to arise from others then to grace them and authoâize them as propounded from themselves But unto your Majesties private Consideration to whom it may better sort with me rather to speak as a Remembrancer then as a Counceller I have thought good to lay before you all the Branches Lineaments and Degrees of this Vnion that upon the Viâw and Consideration of them and their Circumstances your Majesty may the more clearly discern and more readily call to mind which of them is to be embraced and which to be rejected And of these which are to be accepted which of them is presently to be proceeded in and which to be put over to further time And again which of them shall require Authority of Parliament and which are fitter to be effected by your Majesties Royall Power and Prerogative or by other Pollicies or Means And lastly which of them is liker to Passe with Difficulty and Contradiction and which with more Facility and Smoothnesse First therefore to begin with that Question that I suppose will be out of question Whether it be not meet that the Statutes which were made touching Scotland or the Scottish Nation while the Kingdomes stood severed be repealed It is true there is a Diversity in these For some of these Lawes consider Scotland as an Enemy Countrey Oâher Lawes consider it as a Forrain Countrey onely As for Example the Law of Rich. 2. Anno 7º which Prohibiteth all Armour or Victuall to be carried to Scotland And the Law of 7º of K. H. the 7. that Enacteth all the Scottish Men to depart the Realm within a time prefixed Both these Lawes and some others resepct Scotland as a countrey of hostility But the of Law of 22 of Ed. 4 that endueth Barwick with âhe Liberty of a Staple where all Scottish Merchandizes should resort that should be uttred for England And likewise all English Merchandizes that should be uttered for Scotland This Law beholdeth Scotland onely as a Forrain Nation And not so much neither For there have been erected Staples in Towns of ângland for some Commodities with an Exclusion and Restriction of other Parts of England But this is a Matter of the least Difficulty your Mâsty shall have a Calender made of the Lawes and a Brief of the Effect And so you may judge of them And the like or Reciproque is to be done by Scotland for such Lawes as they have concerning England and the English Nation The Second Question is what Lawes Customes Commissions Officers Garrisons and the like are to be put down discontinued or taken away upon the Borders of both Realms This Point because I am not acquainted with the Orders of the Marches I can say the lesse Herein falleth that Question whether that the Tennants who hold their Tennant Rights in a greater Freedome and Exemption in Consideration of their Service upon the Borders And that the Countreys themselves which are in the same respect discharged of Subsidies and Taxes should not now be brought to be in one degree with other Tennants and Countreys Nam cessante caussâ tollitur Effectus Wherein in my Opinion some time would be given Quia adhùc eorum Messis in Herbâ est But some present Ordinance would be made to take effect at a future time considering it is one of the greatest Points and Marks of the Division of the Kingdomes And because Reason doth dictate that where the Principall Solution of Continuity was theâe the Healing and Consolidating Plaister should be chiefly applyed There would be some further Device foâ the utter and perpetuall Confounding of those Imaginary Bounds as your Majesty termeth them And therefore it would be considered whether it were not convenient to Plant and Erect at Carleil or Barwick some Counsell or Court of Iustice the Iurisdiction whereof might extend part into England and part into Scotland With a Commission not to proceed precisely or meerly according to the Lawes and Customes either of England or Scotland But mixtly according to Instructions by your Majesty to be set down after the Imitation and Precedent of the Counsell of the Marches here in England Erected upon the Vnion of Wales The third Question is that which many will make a great Question of though perhaps your Majesty will make no Question of it And that is Whether your Majesty should not make a stop or stand
Vnitâg of whose Hearts and Affectâons is the Life and true End of this Work For the Ceremoniall Crowns the Question will be whether there shall be framed one new Imperiall Crown of Britain to be used for the times to come Also admitting that to be thought Convenient whether in the Frame thereof there shall not be some Reference to the Crowns of Ireland and France Also whether your Majesty should repeat or iterate your own Coronation and your Queens or onely ordain that such new Crown shall be used by your Posterity hereafter The Difficulties will be in the Conceit of sâme Inequaliây whereby the Realm of Scotland may be thought to be made an Accession unto the Realm of England But that resteth in some Circumstances for the Compounding of the two Crowns is equall The Calling of the new Crown the Crown of Brittain is equall Onely the Place of Coronation if it shall be at Westminster which is the Ancient August and Sacred place for the Kings of England may seem to make an Inequality And again if the Crown of Scotland be discontinued then that Ceremony which I hear is used in the Parliament of Scotland in the absence of the Kings to have the Crowns carried in solemnity must likewise cease For the Name the main Question is whether the Contracted Name of Brittain shall be by your Majesty used or the Divided Names of England and Scotland Admitting there shall be an Alteration then the Case will require these Inferiour Questions First whether the Name of Brittain shall not onely be used in your Majesties Stile where the entire Stile is recited And in all other Forms the Divided Names to remain both of the Realms and of the People Or otherwise that the very Divided Nameâ of Realms and People shall likwise be changed or turned into special or subdivided Names of the Generall Name That is to say for Example whether your Majesty in your Stile shall denominate your self King of Brittain France and Ireland c. And yet neverthâlesse in any Commission Writ or otherwise where your Majesty mentioneth England or Scotland you shall retain the ancient Names as Secundum Conâuetudinem Regni nostri Angliae or whether those Divided Names shall be for ever lost and taken away and turned into the subdivisions of South-Britain and North-Britain and the People to be South-Brittains and North-Brittains And so in the Example aforesaid the Tenour of the like clause to run Secundum Consuetudinem Britanniae Australis Also if the former of these shall be thought convenient whether it were not better for your Majesty to âake that Alteration of Stile upon you by Proclamation as Edward the third did the Stile of France then to have it enacted by Parliament Also in the Alteration of the Stile whether it were not better to transpose the Kingdom of Ireland and put it immediatly after Britain and so place the Islands together And the Kingdom of France being upon the Continent last In regard that these Islands of the Western Ocean seem by Nature and Providence an entire Empire in themselves And also that there was never King of England so entirely possest of Ireland as your Majesty is So as your Stile to run King of Britain Ireland and the Islands Adjacent and of France c. The Difficulties in this have been already throughly beaten over but they gather but to two Heads The one Point of Honour and Love to the former Names The other Doubt lest the Alteration of the Name may induce and involve an Alteration of the Lawes and Pollicies of the Kingdom Both which if your Majesty shall assume the Stile by Proclamation and not by Parliament are in themselves satisfied For then the usuall Names must needs remain in Writs and Records The Formes whereof cannot be altered but by Act of Parliament And so the point of Honour satisfied And again your Proclamation altereth no Law And so the Scruple of a tacite or implyed Alteration of Lawes likewise satisfied But then it may be considered whether it were not a Form of the greatest Honour if the Parliament though they did not enact it yet should become Suiters and Petitioners to your Majesty to assume it For the Seales That there should be but one Great Seal of Britain and one Chanceller And that their should only be a Seal in Scotland for Processes and ordinary Iustice And that all Patents of Graunts of Lands or otherwise as well in Scotland as in England should passe under the Great Seal here kept about your Person It is an Alteration internall whereof â do not now speak But the Question in this Place is whether the Great Seales of England and Scotland should not be changed into one and the same Form of Image and Superscription of Britain which Neverthelesse is requisite should be with some one plain or manifest Alteration lest there be a Buz and suspect that Grants of Things in England may be passed by the Seal of Scotland Or è converso Also whether this Alteration of Form may not be done without Act of Parliament as the Great Seales have used to be heretofore changed as to their Impressions For the Moneys as to the Reall and Internall Consideration thereof the Question will be whether your Majesty should not continue two Mints which the Distance of Territory considered I suppose will be of Necessity Secondly how the Standards if it be not already done as I hear some doubt made of it in popular Rumour may be reduced into an Exact proportion for the time to come And likewise the Compuâation Tale or Valuation to be made exact for the Moneys already beaten That done the last Question is which is onely proper to this place whether the Stamp or the Image and Superscription of Britain for the time forwards should not be made the self same in both places without any Difference at all A Matter also which may be done as our Law is by your Majesties Prerogative without Act of Parliament These Points are Points of Demonstration Ad faciendum populum But so much the more they go to the Root of your Majesties Intention which is to imprint and inculcate into the Hearts and Heads of the People that they are one People and one Nation In this kind also I have heard it passe abroad in Speech of the Erection of some new Order of Knighthood with a Reference to the Vnion and an Oath appropriate thereunto which is a Point likewise deserveth a Consideration So much for the Externall Points The Internall Points of Separation are as followeth 1. Severall Parliaments 2. Severall Councels of Estate 3. Severall Officers of the Crown 4. Severall Nobilities 5. Severall Lawes 6. Severall Courts of Iustice Trialls and Processes 7. Severall Receipts and Finances 8. Severall Admiralties and Merchandizings 9. Severall Freedomes and Liberties 10. Severall Taxes and Imposts As touching the Severall States Ecclesiasticall and the severall Mints and Standards and the severall Articles
within the Compasse of any Moderation But theâe Things being with us to have an orderly passage under a King who hath a Royall power and approved Judgement And knoweth as well the Measure of Things as the Nature of them It is surely a needlesse Fear For they need not doubt but your Majesty with the advise of your Councell will discern what Things are intermingled like the Tares amongst the wheat which have their Roots so enwrapped and entangled as the one cannot be pulled up without endangering the other And what are mingled but as the Chaffe and the Corn which need but a Fanne to sift and sever them So much therefore for the first Point of no Reformation to be admitted at all For the Second Point that there should be but one form oâ Discipline in all Churches And that imposed by necessity of a Commandement and prescript out of the word of God It is a Matter Volumes have been compiled of and therefore cannot receive a brief Redargution I for my part do confesse that in Revolving the Scriptures I could never find any such Thing But that God had left the like Liberty to the Church Government as he had done to the Civill Government To be varied according to Time and Place and Accidents which neverthelesse his high and Divine Providence doth order and dispose For all Civil Governments are restrained from God unto the general Grounds of Justice and Manners But the Policies and Forms of them are left Free So that Monarchies and Kingdoms Senates and Seignories Popular States and Communalties are lawfull And where they are planted ought to be maintained inviolate So likewise in Church Matters the Substance of Doctrine is Immutable And so are the generall Rules of Government But for Rites and Ceremonies And for the particular Hierarchies Policies and Disciplines of Churches they be left at large And therefore it is good we return unto the ancient Bounds of Vnity in the Church of God which was One Faith One Baptisme And not one Hierarchy one Discipline And that we observe the League of Christians as it is penned by our Saviour which is in substance of Doctrine this He that is not with us is against us But in Things indifferent and but of circumstance this He that is not against us is with us In these things so as the generall Rules be observed That Christs Flock be fed That there be a Succession in Bishops and Ministers which are the Prophets of the new Testament That âhere be a due and reverent use of tâe power of the Keyes That those that preach the Gospel live of the Gospel That all things tend to edification That all things be done in order and with decency And the like The rest is left to the Holy wiâdome and Spirituall Discretion of the Master Builders and inâeriour Builders in Christs Church As it is excellently alluded by that Father that noted That Christs Garment was without Seam and yet the Churches Gârment was of divers Colours And thereupon setteth down for a Rule In veste varietas sit scissura non fit In which Variety neverthelesse it is a safe and wise Course to follow good Examples and Presidents But then by the Rule of Imitation and Example to consider not onely which are Best but which are the Likeliest as namely the Goverâment of the Church in the purest Times of the first Good Emperours that embraced the Faith For the Times of Persecution before Temporall Princes received our Faith As they were excellent Times for Doctrine and Manners so they be unproper and unlike Examples of outward Government and Policie And so much for this Point Now to the particular Points of Controversies or rather of Reformation Circumstances in the Government of Bishops FIrst therefore for the Government of Bishops I for my part not prejudging the Presidents of other Reformed Churches do hold it warranted by the Word of God and by the Practise of the Ancient Church in the better Times And much more convenient for Kingdoms then Parity of Ministers and Government by Synods But then further it is to be considered that the Church is not now to plant or Build But onely to be proiâed from Corruption And to be repaired and restored in some decayes For it is worth the Noting that the Scripture saith Translato Sacerdotio necesse est ut Legis fiat Translatio It is not possible in respect of the great and neer Sympathy between the State Civill and the State Ecclesiasticall to make so main an alteration in the Church but it would have a perillous operation upon the Kingdoms And therefore it is fit that Controversie be in Peace and Silence But there be two Circumstances in the Administration of Bishops Wherein I confesse I could never be satisfied The one the sole Exercise of their Authority The other the Deputation of their Authority For the First the Bishop giveth Orders alone Excommunicateth alone Iudgeth alone This seemeth to be a Thing almost without Example in good Government and therefore not unlikely to have crept in in the degenerate and corrupt Times We see the greatest Kings and Monarchs have their Councells There is no Temporall Court in England of the Higher sort where the Authority doth rest in one person The Kings Bench Common Pleas and the Exchequer are Benches of a certain Number of Judges The Chancellour of England hath an Assistance of twelve Masters of the Chancery The Master of the Wards hath a Councell of the Court So hath the Chancellour of the Dutchy In the Exchecquer Chamber the Lord Treasurer is joyned with the Chancellour and the Barons The Masters of the Requests are ever more then One. The Iustices of Assise are two The Lord Presidents in the North and in Wales have Councells of divers The Star-Chamber is an Assembly of the Kings Privy Counâell aspersed with the Lords Spirituall and Temporall So as in Courts the principall Person hath ever eitheâ Colleagues or Assessours The like is to be found in other well governed Common-Wealths abroad where the Iurisdiction is yet more dispersed As in the Court of Parliament of France And in other places No man will deny but the Acts that passe the Bishops Iurisdiction are of as great Importance as those that passe the Civil Courts For Mens Souls are more precious then their Bodies or Goods And so are their Good Names Bishops have their Infirmities have no Exception from that generall Malediction which is pronounced against all Men Living Vae Soli nam si ceciderit c. Nay we see that the fiâst Warrant in Spirituall Causes is directed to a Number Dic Ecclesiae which is not so in Temporall Matters And we see that in generall Causes of Church Government there are as well Assemblies of all the Clergy in Councells as of all the States in Parliament Whence should this sole exercise of Jurisdiction come Surely I do suppose and I think âpon good Ground That Ab Initio non fuit ita
Affection and Intention For I hold it for a Rule that there belongeth to great Monarchs from Faithâull Servants not onely the Tribute of Duty but the Oblations of cheerfulnesse of Heart And so I pray the Almighty to blesse this great Action with your Majesties Care And your Care with Happy Successe ADVICE TO THE KING TOUCHING Mr. SUTTONS ESTATE May it please Your MAIESTY I Find it a Positive Precept of the Old Law That there should be nâ Sacrifice without Salt The Morall whereof besides the Ceremony may be That God is not pleased with the Body of a good Intention Except it be seasoned with that Spirituall Wisedome and Iudgement as it be not easily Subject to be corrupted and perverted For Salt in the Scripture is a Figure both of Wisedome and Lasting This commeth into my Mind upon this Act of Mr. Sutton Which seemeth to me as a Sacrifice without Salt Having the Materials of a Good Intention but not powdred with any such Ordinances and Institutions as may preserve the same from turning Corrupt Or at least from becomming Vnsavoury and of little Vse For though the Choice of the Feoffees be of the best yet neither can they alwayes live And the very Nature of the Work it self in the vast and unfââ Proportions thereof being apt to provoke a Mis-imployment It is no Diligence of theirs except there be a Digression from that Modell that can excuse it from running the same way that Gifts of like Condition have heretofore done For to desigâ the Charter-house a Building fit for a Princes Habitaâion for an Hospitall Is all one as if one should give in Almes a Rich Embroydeâed âloak to a Beggar And certainly a Man may see Tanquam quae Oculâs Cernuntur that if such an Edifice with Six Thousand pounds Revenue be erected into one Hospitall It will in small time degenerate to be made a preferment of some great Person to be Master and he to take all the sweet and the Poor to be stinted and take but the Crums As it comes to passe in divers Hospitals of this Realm Which have but the Names of Hospitalls and are but wealthy Beneficeâ in respect of the Mastership But the Poor which is the Propter quid little relieved And the like hath been the Fortune of much of the Almes of the Roman Religion in the Great Foundations which being begun in Vain-Glory and Ostentationâ have had their Judgement upon them to end in Corruption and Abuse This Meditation hath made me presume to write these few Lines to your Majesty Being no better âhen good Wishes which your Majesties great Wisedom may make some thing or Nothing of Wherein I desire to be thus understood That if this Foundation such as it is be perfect and Good in Law Then I am too well acquainted with your Majesties Disposition to advise any Course of power or Profit that is not grounded upon a Right Nay further if the Defects be such as a Court of Equiây may Remedy and Cure Then I wish that as Saint Peterâ shadow did cure Diseases So the very shadow of a Good Intention may cure Defects of that Nature But if there be a Right and Birth-right planted in the Heir And not Remediable by Courts of âquity And that Right be submitted to your Majesty Whereby it is both in your power and Grace what to do Then I do wish that this rude Masse and Chaosâ of a Good Deed were directed rather to a Solide Merit and Durable Charity then to a Blaze of Glory that will but crackle a little in Talk and quickly extinguish And this may be done observing the Species of Mr. Suttons Intent though varying in Individuo For it appeares that he had in Notion a Triple Good An Hospitall And a Schoole And Maintaining of a Preacher Which Individualls refer to these Three Generall Heads Relief of Poore Advancement of Learning And Propagation of Religion Now then if I shall set before your Majesty in every of these Three Kindes what it is that is most wanting in your Kingdome And what is like to be the most Fruitfull Effectuall use of such a Beneficence and least like to be perverted That I think shall be no ill Scope of my Labour how meanly soever performed For out of Variety represented Election may be best grounded Concerning the Relief of the Poore I hold some Number of Hospitalls with Competent Endowments will do far more good then one Hospitall of an Exorbitant Greatnesse For though the one Course will be the more Seene yet the other will be the more Felt. For if your Majesty erect many besides the observing the Ordinary Maxime Bonum quo communius eo melius choice may be made of those Townes and Places where there is most Need And so the Remedy may be Distributed as the Disease is Dispersed Again Greatnesse of Reliefe accumulate in one place doth rather invite a Swarm and Surcharge of Poore then relieve those that are naturally bred in that place Like to ill tempred Medicines that draw more Humour to the Part then they Evacuate from it But chiefly I rely upon the Reason that I touched in the Beginning That in these Great Hospitalls the Revenues will draw the Vse and not the Vse the Revenues And so through the Masse of the Wealth they will swiftly tumble down to a Misemployment And if any Man say that in the Two Hospitalls in London there is a President of Greatnesse concurring with Good Employment Let him consider that those Hospitalls have Annuall Governers That they are under the Superiour Care and Policy of such a state as the City of London And chiefly that their Revenues consist not upon Certainties but upon Casualties and Free Gifts Which Gifts would be with-held if they appeared once to be perverted So as it keepeth them in a continuall Good Behaviour and Awe to employ them aright None of which Points do match with the present Case The next ConsideratioÌ may be whether this intended Hospital as it hath a more ample Endowment then other Hospitals have should not likewise work upon a better Subject then other Poore As that it should be converted to the Relief of Maimed Souldiers Decayed Merchants Householders Aged and Destitute Church-men and the like Whose Condition being of a better sorâ then loose People Begâgars deserveth both a more Liberal Stipend Allowance and some proper place of Relief not intermingled or coupled with the Basest Sort of Poore Which Project though Specious yet in my Judgement will not answer the Designment in the Event in these our Times For certainly few Men in any Vocation which have been some Body and beare a Mind somewhat according to the Conscience and Remembrance of that they have been will ever descend to that Condition as to professe to live upon Almes and to become a Corporation of Declared Beggars But rather will choose to live Obscurely and as it were to hide themselves with some private Friends So that the End of
such an Institution will be that it will make the Place a Receptacle of the Worst Idlest and most dissolute Persons of every Profession And to become a Cell of Loyterers and Cast Serving Men and Drunkards with Scandall rather then Fruit to the Common Wealth And of this kinde I can find but one Example with us Which is the Almes Knights of Windsor Which particular would give a Man small encouragement to follow that President Therefore the best Effect of Hospitals is to make the Kingdome if it were possible capable of that Law That there be no Beggar in Israel For it is that kind of People that is a burthen an Eye sore a scandall and a Seed of Perill and Tumult in the State But chiefly it were to be wished that such a Beneficence towards the Relief of the poor were so bestowed As not onely the Meere and Naked Poore should be sustained But also that the Honest Person which hath hard means to live upon whom the Poore are now charged should be in some sort eased For that were a Work generally acceptable to the Kingdome if the Publick Hand of Alms might spare the Private Hand of âax And therefore of all other Employments of that kind I commend most Houses of Relief and Correction which are Mixt Hospitalls where the Impotent Person is relieved and the Sturdy Beggar buckled to work And the unable Person also not maintained to be Idle which is ever joyned with Drunkennesse and Impurity But is sorted with such work as he can mannage and perform And where the uses are not distinguished as in other Hospitals Whereof some are for Aged and Impotent and some for Childrân And some for Correction of Vagabonds But are generall and promiscuous So that they may take off Poore of every sort from the Countrey as the Countrey breeds them And thus the Poore themselves shall find the Provision and other People the sweetnesse of the Abatement of the Tax Now if it be objected that Houses of Correction in all places have not done the good expected as it cannot be denied but in most places they have done much Good It must be remembred that there is a great Difference between that which is done by the Distracted Government of Iustices of Peace And that which may be done by a setled Ordinance subject to a Regular Visitation as this may be And besides the Want hath been commonly in Houses of Correction of a competent and Certain Stock for the Materialls of the Labour which in this case may be likewise supplied Concerning the Advancement of Learning I do subscribe to the Opinion of one of the Wisest and Greatest Men of your Kingdome That for Grammar Schools there are already too many and therefore no Providence to adde where there is Excesse For the great Number of Schools which are in your Highnesse Realm doth cause a Want and doth cause likewise an Overflow Both of them Inconvenient and one of them Dangerous For by Means thereof they find Want in the Countrey and Towns both of Servants for Husbandry and Apprentices for Trade And on the other side there being more Schollers bred then the State can prefer and Employ And the Active part of that life not bearing a proportion to the Preparative It must needs fall out that many Persons will be bred unfit for other Vocations And unprofitable for that in which they are brought up Which fills the Realm full of Indigent Idle and Wanton People which are but Materia Rerum novarum Therefore in this Point I wish Mr. Suttons Intention were exalted a Degree That that which he meant for Teachers of Children your Majesty should make for Teachers of Men wherein it hath been my ancient Opinion and Observation That in the Vniversities of this Realm which I take to be of the best endowed Vniversities of Europe there is Nothing more wanting towards the flourishing State of Learning then the Honourable and plentifull Salaries of Readers in Arts and Professions In which Point as your Majesties Bounty already hath made a Beginning So this Occasion is offered of God to make a Proceeding Surely Readers in the Chair are as the Parents in Sciences and deserve to enjoy a Condition not inferiour to their Children that embrace the Practicall Part. Els no Man will sit longer in the Chair then till he can walk to a better preferment And it will come to passe as Virgil saith Et Patrum invalidi referent Iejunia Nati For if the Principall Readers through the Meannesse of their Entertainment be but Men of superficiall Learning And that they shall take their place but in passage It will make the Masse of Sciences want the chief and solid Dimension which is Depth and to become but Pretty and compendious Habits of praâctice Therfore I could wish that in both the Vniversities the Lectures as well of the three Professions Divinity Law and Phyâsick As of the three Heads of Science Philosophy Arts of Speech and the Mathematicks were raised in their Pensions unto a 100 l. per Annum a piece Which though it be not near so great as they are in some other Places where the Greatnesse of the Reward doth whistle for the Ablest Men out of all Forrain parâ to supply the Chair yet it may be a Portion to content a Worthy and Able Man If he be likewise Contemplative in Nature As those spirits are that are Fittest for Lectures Thus may Learning in your Kingdome be advanced to a further Heighth Learning I say which under your Majesty the most Learned of Kings may claim some Degree of Elevation Concerning Propagation of Religion I shall in few words set before your Majesty three Propositions None of them Devises of mine own otherwise then that I ever approved them Two of which have been in Agitation of Speech and The third acted The first is a Colledge for Controversies Whereby we shall not still proceed Single but shall as it were double our Files Which certainly will be found in the Encounter The second is a Receipt I like not the word Seminary in respect of the Vain Vowes and implicite Obedience and other Thingâ tending to the perturbation of States involved in that Term for Converts to the Reformed Religion either of Youth or otherwise For I doubt not but there are in Spain Italy and other Countries of the Papists many whose Hearts are touched with a sense of those Corruptions and an acknowledgment of a better Way which Grace is many times smothered and choaked through a worldly Consideration of Necessity and want Men not knowing where to have Succour and Refuge This likewise I hold a Work of great Piety and a Work of great Consequence That we also may be Wise in our Generation And that the Watchfull and Silent Night may be used as well for sowing of good Seed as of Tares The third is the Imitation of a Memorable and Religious Act of Queen Elizabeth Who finding a part of Lancashire to be extreamly Backward
in Religion And the Benefices swallowed up in Impropriations did by Decree in the Dutchy erect four stipends of 100 l. per Annum a piece for Preachers well chosen to help the Harvest which have done a great deal of Good in the Parts where they have laboured Neither do there want other Corners in the Realm that would require for a time the like Extraordinary Help Thus have I briefly delivered unto your Majesty mine Opinion touching the Employment of this Charity whereby that Masse of wealth which was in the Owner little better then a Stack or Heap of Muck may be spread over your Kingdome to many fruitfull purposes your Majesty planting and watering and God giving the Encrease A PROPOSITION TO His Maiesty BY Sir FRANCIS BACON Knight HIS MAIESTIES ATTVRNEY GENERALL AND One of His PRIVY COUNSELL Touching the Compiling And Amendment Of the LAWES of ENGLAND YOVR MAIESTY OF Your Favour Having Made me Privy Councellor And Continuing me in the Place of your Atturney Generall which is more then was these hundred years before I do not understand it to be that by putting off the dealing in Causes between party and party I should keep Holy-day the more But that I should dedicate my time to your Service with lesse distraction Wherefore in this plentifull Accession of Time which I have now gained I take it to be my duty Not onely to speed your Commandements and the Businesse of my place But to meditate and to excogitate of my self wherein I May best by my Travels derive your Vertues to the Good of your People And return their Thanks and Increase of Love to you again And after I had thought of many things I could âind in my Judgement none more proper for your Majesty as a Master Nor for me as a Workman then the Reducing and Recompiling of the Lawes of England Your Majesty is a King blessed with Posterity And these Kings sort best with Acts of Perpetuity When they do not leave them instead of Children but transmit both Line and Merit to Future Generations You are a great Master in Iustice and Iudicature And it were pitty that the fruit of that Vertue should dye with you Your Majesty also Raigneth in Learned Times The more in regard Of your own perfections and patronage of Learning And it hath been the mishap of Works of this Nature that the lesse Learned Time hath wrought upon the more Learned Which now will not be so As for my self the Law is my profession to which I am a debter Some little helps I May have of other Learning which may give Form to matter And your Majesty hath set me in an Eminent place whereby in a Work which must be the Work of many I may the better have Coadjutors Therefore not to hold your Majesty with any long preface in that which I conceive to be nothing less then Words I will proceed to the Matter Which matter it self neverthelesse requireth somewhat briefly to be said both of the Dignity and likewise of the Safety and Convenience of this Work And then to go to the main That is to say to shew how the work is to be done Which incidently also will best Demonstrate that it is no vast nor speculative Thing But a Reall and feizable Callisthenes that followed Alexanders Court and was grown in some displeasure with him Because he could not well brook the Persian Adoration At a Supper which with the Graecians was ever a great part Talk was desired because he was an Eloquent Man to speak of some Theam which he did And chose for his Theam The praise of the Macedonian Nation which though it were but a âilling Thing to praise men to their Faces yet he did it with such Advantage of Truth and avoydance of Flattery and with such life As the Hearers were so ravished with it that they plucked the Roses off from their Garlands and threw them upon him As the Manner of Applauses then was Alexander was not pleased with it and by way of Discountenance said It was easie to be a good Oratour in a pleasing Theam But saith he to Callisthenes turn your stile and tell us now of our Faults that we may have the profit and not you onely the praise Which he presently did with such a force and so piquantly that Alexander said The Goodnesse of his Theam had made him Eloquent before But now it was the Malice of his heart that had inspired him 1. Sir I shall no fall into either of those two Extreames Concerning the Lawes of England They commend themselves best to them that understand them And your Majesties Chief Iustice of your Bench hath in his Writings magnified them not with out Cause Certainly they are Wise they are Just and Moderate Lawes They give to God They give to Caesar They give to the Subjects that which appertaineth It is true They are as mixt as our Language compounded of Britâish Râman Saxon Danish Norman Customes And as our Language is so much the Richer so the Lawes are the more compleat Neither doth this attribute lesse to them then those that would have them to have stood out the same in all Mutations For no âree is so good first set as by Transplanting 2. As for the Second Extream I have nothing to do with it by way of Taxing the Lawes I speak only by way of Perfitting them Which is easiest in the bâst things For that which is farr amisse hardly receiveth Amendment But that which hath already To that more may be Given âesides what I shall propound is not to the Matter of the Lawes but to the Manner of their Registry Expression and Tradition So thât it giveth them rather Light then any new Nâture This being so for the Dignity of the Worke I know scarcely where to find the like For surely that Scale and those Degrees of Soveraign Honour are true and rightly marshalled First the Founders of Estates Then the Law givers Then the Deliverers and Saviours after long Calamities Then the Faâhers of their Countries Which are Just and Prudent Princeâ And Lastly Conquerors which Honour is not to be received amongst the rest Except it be where there is an addition of more Country and Territory to a better Government then that was of the Conquered Of these in my Judgement your Majesty may with more truth then flattery be intituled to the first because of your Vniting of Britain Planting Ireland Both which savouâ of the Founder That which I now propound to you may adopt you also into the Second Law-givers have Been called Principes Perpeâui Because as Bishop Gardner said in a bad Sense that he would be Bishop an hundred years after his death in respect of the Long Leases he made So Law-givers are still Kings and Rulers after their Decease in their Lawes But this Worke shining so in it self needes no Taper For the safety and convenience thereof It is good to consider and to answer those Objectious or Scruples which
may arise or be made against this Worke. Obj. 1. That it is a Thing needlesse And that the Law as it now is is in good Estate Comparable to any Forrain Law And that it is not possible for the Wit of Man in respect of the Frailty thereof to provide against the Incertainties and Evasions or Omissions of Law Resp. For the Comparison with Forraine Lawes it is in vaine to speak of it For men will never agree about it Our Lawyers will maintain for our Municipall Lawes Civilians Schollars Travaillers will be of the other Opinion But Certain it is that our Lawes as they now stand are subject to great Incertainties and variety of Opinion Delayes and Evasions Whereof ensueth 1. That the Multiplicity and length of Suites is great 2. That the Contentious Person is armed and the Honest Subject Wearied and Oppressed 3. That the Iudge is more Absolute Who in doubtfull Cases hath a greater stroak and Liberty 4. That the Chancery Courts are more filled the Remedy of Law being often obscure and dââââfâll 5. That the ignorant Lawyâr shrowdeth his Ignorance of Law in that doubts are so frequent and many 6. That Mens Assurances of their Lands and âstaâeâ by Patents Deedes Wills are often subject to question and hollow And many the like Inconveniâncâes It is a good Rule and Direction For that all Lawes Secundum Magis Minus do participate of Incertainties That folâoweth Mark whether the Doubts that arise are only in Cases of Ordinary Experience Or which haâpen not every day âf in the first Only impute it to frailty of Manââoresight that cannot reach by Law to all Cases But if in the Lâttâr be assured there is a fault in the Law Of this I say no more but that To give every Man his Due Had it not been for Sâ Edward Cookes Reports which though they may have Errors and some peremptory and Extrajudiciall Resolutions more then are warranted Yet they containe infinite good Decisions and Rulings over of Cases The Law by this Time had been almost like a Ship without ballast For that the Cases of Modern Experience are fled from those that are adjudged and ruled in Former time But the Necessity of this Worke is yet greater in the Statute Law For First there are a number of Ensnaring Penall Lawes which lay upon the Subject And if in bad times they should be awaked and put in Execution would grinde them to powder There is a learned Civilian that expoundeth the Curse of the Prophet Pluet super eos Laqueos of Multitude of Penall Lawes Which are worse then showres of Hayle or Tempest upon Cattle for they fall upon Men. There are some Penall Lawes fit to be retained but tââir âenalty too great And it is ever a Rule that any ovââ great Penalty besides the Acerbity of it deads the Execution of the Law There is a further Inconvenience of Penall Lawes Obsolete and out of Vse For that it brings a Gangrene Neglect and Habite Disobedience upon other wholesome Lawes that are fit to be continued in Practise and Execution So that our Lawes endure the Torment of Mezentius The living die in the Armes of the dead Lastly there is such an Accumulation of Statutes concerning one matter And they so crosse and intricate as the Certainty of Law is lost in the Heape As your Majesty had Experience last day upon the Point Whether the Incendâary of New-market should have the benefit of his Clergy Obj. 1. That it is a great Innovation And Innovations are dangerous beyond foresight Resp. All Purgings and Medecines either in the Civile or Naturall Body are Innovations So as that Argument is a Common place against all Noble Reformations But the trâth is that this work ought not to be termed or held for any Innovation in the suspected sense For those are the Innovations which are quarrelled and spoken against that concern the Consciences Estates and Fortunes of particular persons But this of General Ordinance pricketh not particulars but passeth Sine Strepiâu Besides it is on the favourable part For it easeth it presseth not And lastly it is rather matter of Order and explanation then of Alteration Neither is this without President in former Governments The Romans by their Decemvirs did make their Twelve Tables But that was indeed a new Enacting or Constituting of Lawes Not a Registring or Recompiling And they were made out of the Lawes of the Graecians not out of their own Customes In Athens they had Sexvir which were standing Commissioners to watch and to discern what Lawes waxed unproper for the Time And what new Law did in any branch crosse a former Law and so Ex Officio propounded their Repeales King Lewis the 11th of France had it in his intention to have made one perfite and uniform Law out of the Civil Law Roman and the Povinciall Customes of France Iustinian the Emperour by Commissions directed to divers persons Learned in the Lawes reduced the Roman Lawes from Vastness of Volume and a Labyrinth of incertainties Unto that course of the Civill Law which is now in use I find here at home of late years That King Henry the 8th in the Twenty seventh of his Raign was authorized by Parliament to nominate Thirty two Commissioners part Ecclesiasticall part Temporall to purge the Canon Law and to make it agreeable to the Law of God and the Law of the Realm And the same was revived in the Fourth year of Edward the 6th though neither took effect For the Lawes of Lycurgus Solon Ninos and others of ancient time they are not the worse because Grammer Schollars speak of them But things too ancient wax Children with us again Edgar the Saxon King collected the Lawes of this Kingdome and gave them the Strength of a Faggot bound which formerly were dispersed The Statutes of King Edward the First were fundamentall But I doubt I err in producing so many Examples For as Cicero saith to Caesar so may I say to your Majesty Nil Vulgare te Dignum Videri possit Obj. 3. In this purging of the course of the Common Lawes and Statutes much good may be taken away Resp. In all Purging some good Humours may pass away But that is largely recompensed by Lightning the Body of much bad Obj. 4. Labour were better bestowed in bringing the Common Lawes of England to a Text Law as the Statutes are And setting both of them down in Method and by Titles Resp. It is too long a Businesse to debate whether Lex Scripta aut non Scripta A Text Law or Customes well registred with received and approved Grounds and Maximes and Acts and Resolutions Judiciall from Time to Time duely entred and reported Be the better Form of Declaring and Authorizing Lawes It was the principall Reason or Oracle of Lycurgus That none of his Lawes should be written Customes are Lawes written in Living Tables And some Traditions the Church doth not disauthorize In all Sciences they are the soundest that keep close
and Duties for the most part were common to my Self with him though by design as between Brethren dissembled And therefore most high and mighty King my most dear and dread Soveraign Lord since now the Corner Stone is laid of the mightiest Monarchy in Europe And that God above who hath ever a Hand in brideling the Flouds and Motions of the Seas and of Peoples Hearts hath by the miraculous and universal consent the more strange because it proceedeth from such Diversity of Causes in your comming in Given a Sign and Token of great Happinnesse in the Continuance of your Reign I think there is no Subject of your Majesties which loveth this Island and is not hollow or unworthy whose Heart is not set on fire Not onely to bring you Peace-Offrings to make you propitious But to sacrifice himself a Burnt-Offring or Holocaust to your Majesties Service Amongst which number no Mans Fire shall be more pure and fervent than mine But how farr forth it shall blaze out that resteth in your Majesties Imployment So thirsting after the Happinesse of Kissing your Royal Hand I continue ever To Mr. Faules in Scotland upon the Entrance of his Majesties Reign SIR The Occasion awaketh in me the Remembrance of the constant and mutual good Offices which passed between my good Brother and your Self wherunto as you know I was not altogether a Stranger Though the Time and Design as between Brethren made me more reserved But well doe I bear in minde the great opinion which my Brother whose Judgement I much reverence would often expresse to me of your Extraordinary Sufficiency Dexterity and Temper which he had found in you in the Business and Service of the King our Soveraign Lord This latter bred in me an Election as the former gave an Inducement for me to address my Self to you And to make this Signification of my Desire towards a mutual Entertainment of good Affection and Correspondence between us Hoping that both some good Effect may result of it towards the Kings Service And that for our particulars though Occasion give you the precedence of furthering my being known by good note unto the King So no long time will intercede before I on my part shall have some means given to requite your Favours and to verify your Commendation And so with my loving Commendations good Mr. Faules I leave you to Gods Goodness From Graies Inne the 25th of March. A Letter commending his Love and Occasions to Sir Thomas Challoner then in Scotland upon his Majesties Entrance SIR For our Money matters I am assured you received no Insatisfaction For you know my Minde And you know my Means which now the Openness of the time caused by this blessed Consent and Peace will encrease And so our Agreement according to your time be observed For the present according to the Roman Adage That one Cluster of Grapes ripeneth best besides another I know you hold me not unworhty whose muâual Friendship you should cherish And I for my part conceive good hope that you are likely to become an acceptable Servant to the King our Master Not so much for any way made heretofore which in my Judgementâ will make no great difference as for the Stuff and Sufficiency which I know to be in you And whereof I know his Majesty may reap great Service And therefore my general Request is that according to that industrious Vivacity which you use towards your Friends you will further his Majesties good Conceit and Inclination towards me To whom words can not make me known Neither mine own nor others but Time will to no Disadvantage of any that shall fore-runn his Majesties Experience by your Testimony and Commendation And though Occasion give you the Precedence of Doing me this special good Oâfice yet I hope no long time will intercede before I shall have some means to requite your Favour and acquit your Report More particularly having thought good to make Oblation of my most humble Service to his Majesty by a few Lines I doe desire your loving care and help by your Self or such Means as I referr to your Discretion to deliver and present the same to his Majesties Hands Of which Letter I send you a Copy that you may know what you carry And may take of Mr. Matthew the Letter it Self if you be pleased to undertake the Delivery Lastly I doe commend to your Self and such your Curtesies as Occasion may require this Gentleman Mr. Matthew eldest Sonne to my Lord Bishop of Duresm and my very good Friend Assuring you that any Curtesy you shall use towards him you shall use to a very worthy young Gentleman and one I know whose Acquaintance you will much esteem And so I ever continue A Letter to Mr. Davis then gone to the King at his first Entrance MR. Davis Though you went on the sudden yet you could not goe before you had spoken with your Self to the purpose which I will now write And therefore I know it shall be altogether needless save that I meant to shew you that I was not asleep Briefly I commend my Self to your Love and the well using my Name As well in repressing and answering for me if there be any Biting or Nibling at it in that Place As by imprinting a good Conceit and Opinion of me chiefly in the King of whose favour I make my Self comfortable Assurance As otherwise in that Court And not onely so but generally to perform to me all the good Offices which the Vivacity of your Wit can suggest to your minde to be performed to one with whose Affection you have so great Sympathy And in whose Fortune you have so great Interest So desiring you to be good to concealed Poets I continue A Letter to Mr. Faules 28 Martii 1603. MR. Faules I did write unto you yesterday by Mr. Lake who was dispatched hence from their Lordships a Letter of Revivour of those Sparks of former Acquaintance between us in my Brothers time And now upon the same Confidence finding so fit a Messenger I would not fail to salute you Hoping it will fall out so happily as that you shall be one of the Kings Servants which his Majesty will first employ here with us where I hope to have some means not to be barren in Friendship towards you We all thirst after the Kings Comming accounting all this but as the Dawning of the Day before the Rising of the Sun till we have his Presence And though now his Majestie must be Ianus Bifrons to have a Face to Scotland as well as to England yet Quod nunc instat agendum The Expectation is here that he will come in State and not in Strength So for this time I commend you to Gods Goodness A Letter to Mr. Robert Kempe upon the Death of Queen Elizabeth MR. Kempe This Alteration is so great as you might justly conceive some Coldness of my Affection towards you if you should hear nothing from me I living in this Place It
is in vain to tell you with what wonderfull Still and Calm this Wheel is turned round Which whether it be a Remnant of her Felicity that is gone or a Fruit of his Reputation that is comming I will not determine For I cannot but divide my Self between her Memory and his Name Yet we account it but a fair Morn before Sun-rising before his Majesties Presence Though for my part I see not whence any VVeather should arise The Papists are contained with Fear enough and Hope too much The French is thought to turn his Practice upon procuring some Disturbance in Scotland where Crowns may doe wonders But this Day is so welcom to the Nation and the time so short as I doe not fear the Effect My Lord of Southampton expecteth Release by the next Dispatch and is already much visited and much well wished There is continual poasting by Men of good Quality towards the King The rather I think because this Spring time it is but a kinde of Sport It is hoped that as the State here hath performed the part of good Atturneys to deliver the King quiet Possession of his Kingdoms So the King will re-deliver them quiet Possession of their Places Rather filling Places void than removing Men placed So c. A Letter to my Lord of Northumberland mentioning a Proclamation drawn for the King at his Entrance It may please your Lordship I Doe hold it a Thing formal and necessary for the King to fore-runn his Comming be it never so speedy with some Gracious Declaration for the Cherishing Entertaining and preparing of Mens Affections For which purpose I have conceived a Draught it being a thing familiar in my Mistris her times to have my Penn used in Publick Writings of Satisfaction The Use of this may be in two sorts First properly if your Lârdshipâhink âhink it convenient to shew the King any such Drââght because the Veins and Pulses of this Stâte cannot bin beâ beââ known here which if your Lordship should doe then I would desire you to withdraw my Name and onely signifieâ that you âave some Heads of Direction of such a Matter to one oâ whose Stile and Penn you had some Opinion The other Collateralâ Theâ though your Lordship make no other use of it yet it is a Kinâe oâ Portraicture of that which I think worthy to be advised by your Lordship to the King And perhaps more compendious and significant than if I had set them down in Articles I would have attended your Lordship but for some little Physick I took To morrow morning I will wait on you So I ever c. A Letter to the Earl of Southampton upon the Kings Comming in It may please your Lordship I Would have been very glad to have presented my humble Service to your Lordship by my attendance if I could have foreseen that it should not have been unpleasing unto you And therefore because I would commit no Error I chose to write Assuring your Lordship how credible soever it may seem to you at first yet it is as true as a Thing that God knoweth That this great Change hath wrought in me no other Change towards your Lordship than this That I may safely be now that which I was truly before And so craving no other pardon than for troubling you with my Letter I doe not now begin to be but continue to be Your Lordships humble and much devoted A Letter to the Earl of Northumberland after he had been with the King It may please your good Lordship I Would not have lost this Journey and yet I have not that I went for For I have had no private Conference to purpoâeâ with the King No more hath almost any other English For the Speach his Majesty admitteth with some Noblemen is rather Matter of Grace than Matter of Business With the Atturney he spake urged by the Treasurer of Scotland but no more than needs must After I had received his Majesties first Welcom and was promised private Access yet not knowing what matter of Service your Lordships Letter carried for I saw it not And well knowing that Primeness in Advertisement is much I chose rather to deliver it to Sir Tho. Heskins than to cool it in mine own Hands upon Expectation of Access Your Lordship shall finde a Prince the furthest from Vain-Glory that may be And rather like a Prince of the auncient Form than of the latter Time His Speech is swift and Cursory and in the full Dialect of his Country And in Speech of Business short in Speech of Discourse large He affecteth Popularity by gracing such as he hath heard to be Popular and not by any Fashions of his own He is thought somewhat general in his Favours And his Vertue of Access is rather because he is much abroad and in Press than that he giveth easie Audience He hastneth to a mixture of both Kingdâms and Occasions faster perhaps than Policy will well bear I told your Lordship once before that methought his Majesty rather asked Counsel of the time past than of the time to come But it is yet early to ground any Setled Opinion For the particulars I referr to conference having in these generals gone further in so tender an Argument than I would have done were not the Bearer hereof so assured So I continue c. A Letter to Mr. Pierce Secretary to the Deputy of IRELAND Mr. Pierce I Am glad to hear of you as I doe And for my part you shall find me ready to take any Occasion to further your credit and preferment And I dare assure you though I am no Undertaker to prepare your way with my Lord of Salisbury for any good Fortune which may befall you You teach me to complain of Business whereby I write the more briefly And yet I am so unjust as that which I allege for mine own Excuse I cannot admit for yours For I must by Expecting exact yoâr Letters with this Fruit of your Sufficiency as to understand how things pass in that Kingdom And therefore having begun I pray you continue This is not meerly Curiosity for I have ever I know not by what Instinct wish'd well to that impollish'd part of this Crown And so with my very loving Commendations I remain A Letter to the King upon presenting the Discourse touching the Plantation of Ireland It may please your excellent Majesty I Know not better how to express my good wishes of a New Year to your Majesty than by this little Book whichâ in all humbleness I send you The Stile is a Stile of Business rather than Curious or Elaborate And herein I was encouraged by my Experience of your Majesties former grace in accepting of the like poor Field-Fruits touching the Vnion And certainly I reckon this Action as a Second Brother to the Vnion For I assure my Self that England Scotland and Ireland well united is such a Trifoile as no Prince except your Self who are the worthiest weareth in his Crown Si
potentia reducatur in Actum I know well that for me to beat my Brains about these things they be Majora quam pro Fortuna But yet they be Minora quam pro Studio as Voluntate For as I doe yet bear an extreme Zeal to the Memory of my old Mistris Queen Elizabeth To whom I was rather bound for her Trust than her Favour So I must acknowledge my Self more bound to your Majesty both for Trust and Favour whereof I will never deceive the one as I can never deserve the other And so in all humbleness kissing your Majesties sacred hands I remain A Letter to the Lord Chancellor touching the History of Britaine It may please your good Lordship SOme late Act of his Majesty referred to some former Speech which I have heard from your Lordship bred in me a great Desire And the strength of Desire a Boldness to make an humble Proposition to your Lordship Such as in me can be no better than a Wish But if your Lordship should apprehend it it may take some good and worthy Effect The Act I speak of is the Order given by his Majesty for the Erection of a Tomb or Monument for our late Soveraign Queen Elizabeth Wherein I may note much but onely this at this time that as her Majesty did alwayes right to his Majesties Hopes So his Highness doth in all things Right to her Memory A very just and Princely Reâtribution But from this Occasion by a very easie Ascent I passed further being put in minde by this Representative of her Person of the more true and more vive Representation which is of âer Life and Government For as Statues and Pictures are dumb Histories so Histories are speaking Pictures wherein if my Affection be not too great or my Reading too small I am of this Opinion That if Plutarch were alive to write Lives by Parallels it would trouble him for Vertue and Fortune both to finde for her a Parallel amongst Women And though she was of the Passive Sexe yet her Government was so Active as in my simple Opinion it made more Impression upon the several States of Europe than it received from thence But I confess unto your Lordship I could not stay there but went a little further into the Consideration of the Times which have passed since King Henry the 8th wherein I find the strangest Variety that in so little Number of Successions of any Hereditary Monarchy hath ever been known The Reign of a Child The offer of an Vsurpation though it were but as a Diary Ague The Reign of a Lady married to a Foreiner And the Reign of a Lady Solitary and Unmarried So that as it commeth to pass in Massive Bodies That they have certain Trepidations and Waverings before they fix and settle So it seemeth that by the Providence of God this Monarchy before it was to settle in his Majesty and his Generations In which I hope it is now established for ever Hath had these Prelusive changes in these Barren Princes Neither could I contain my Self here As it is easier to multiply than to stay a Wish But calling to Remembrance the Unworthiness of the History of England in the main continuance thereof And the Partiality and Obliquity of that of Scotland in the latest and largest Offer that I have seen I conceived it would be Honour for his Majesty and a work very memorable if this Island of Great Britain as it is now joyned in Monarchy for the Ages to come so it were joyned in History for the Times past And that one Just and compleat History were compiled of both Nations And if any Man think it may refresh the Memory of former Discords he may satisfy himself with the Verse Olim haec meminisse juvabit For the Case being now altered it is Matter of Comfort and Gratulation to remember former Troubles Thus much if it may please your Lordship is in the Optative Mood It is time that I did Look a litle into the Potential wherein the Hope which I conceived was grounded upon 3. Observations The First the Nature of these Times which flourish in Learning both of Art and Language which giveth Hope not onely that it may be done but that it may be well done Secondly I doe see that which all the World see 's in his Majesty both a wonderfull Judgement in Learning and a singular Affection towards Learning And works which are of the Mind and not of the Hand For there cannot be the like Honour sought in building of Galleries and Planting of Elmes along high-wayes and the outward Ornaments wherein France now is busie Things rather of Magnificence than of Magnanimity As there is in the Vniting of States Pacifying of Controversies Nourishing and Augmenting of Learning and Arts and the particular Actions appertaining unto these Of which kind Cicero judged truly when he said to Caesar Quantum Operibus tuis detrahet Vetustas tantum addet laudibus And lastly I call to minde that your Lordship at some times had been pleased to express unto me a great desire that something of this Nature should be performed Answerable indeed to your other noble and worthy Courses and Actions Joyning and adding unto the great Services towards his Majesty which have in small Compass of Time been put upon your Lordship other great Deservings both of the Church and Commonwealth and Particulars So as the Opinion of so great and wise a Man doth seem to me a good Warrant both of the Possibility and Worth of this Matter But all this while I assure my Self I cannot be mistaken by your Lordship as if I sought an Oâfice or Employment for my Self For no Man knowes better than your Lordship that if there were in me any Faculty thereunto yet neither my Course of Life nor Profession would permit it But because there be so many good Painters both for Hand and Colours it needeth but Encouragement and Instructions to give Life unto it So in all Humbleness I conclude my presenting unto your Lordship of this Wish which if it perish it is but a loss of that which is not And so craving pardon that I have taken so much time from your Lordship I remain A Letter to the King upon the sending unto him a Beginning of an History of his Majesties Times It may please your Majesty HEaring that you are at leisure to peruse Stories a desire took me to make an Experiment what I could doe in your Majesties times which being but a Leaf or two I pray your pardon if I send it for your Recreation Considering that Love must creep where it cannot goe But to this I add these Petitions First that if your Majesty doe dislike any thing you would conceive I can amend it upon your least beck Next that if I have not spoken of your Majesty Encomiastically your Majesty would be pleased only to ascribe it to the Law of an History which doth not cluttâr together praises upon the first mention of a Name
Solliciter should be made your Majesties Serjeant and I Solliciter For so it was thought best to sort with both our Gifts and Faculties for the good of your Service And of this Resolution both Court and Country took knowledge Neither was this any Invention on Project of mine own but moved from my Lords I think first from my Lord Chanceller whereupon resting your Majesty well knoweth I never opened my Mouth for the Greater Place Though I am sure I had 2. Circumstances that Mr. Atturney that now is could not allege The one Nine years Service of the Crown The other the being Cousin Germain to the Lord of Salisbury whom your Majesty esteemeth and trusteth so much But for the less Place I conceive it was meant me But after that Mr. Atturney Hobert was placed I heard no more of my Preferment but it seemed to me at a stopp to my great Disgrace aud Discouragement For gracious Soveraign if still when the Waters are stirr'd another shall be put in before me your Majesty had need work a Miracle or else I shall be still a âame Man to doe your Service And therefore my most humble sute to your Majesty is That this which seemed to me intended may speedily be perâormed And I hope my former Service shall be but as Beginnings to better when I am better strengthened For sure I am no Mans Heart is fuller I say not but many may have greater Hearts but I say not fuller of Love and Duty toâwards your Majesty and your Children As I hope Time will manifest against Envy and Detraction if any be To conclude I most humbly crave pardon for my boldness and rest A Letter to the Earl of Salisbury of Curtesy upon a New-years Tide It may please your good Lordship HAving no Gift to present you with in any degree proportionable to my minde I desire nevertheless to take the Advantage of a Ceremony to express my Self to your Lordship it being the first time I could make the like Acknowledgement when I stood out of the person of a Suter wherefore I most humbly pray your Lordship to think of me thaâ now it hath pleased you by many Effectual and great Benefits to add the Assurance and Comfort of your Love and Favour to that prâcedent Disposition which was in me to admire your Vertue and Merit I doe esteem whatsoever I have or may have in this World but as Trash in comparison of having the Honour and Happiness âo be a near and well accepted Kinsman to so rare and worthy a Counseller Governââ and Patriot For having been a studious if not a Curious Observer of Antiquittes of Vertue as of late Pieces I forbear to say to your Lordship what I find and conceive But to any other I would think to make my Self beleeved But not to be tedious in that which may have the shew of a Complement I can but wish your Lordship many happy years Many more than your Father had Even so many more as we may need you more So I remain A Letter of Thanks to the King upon Mr. Atturney's Sickness It may please your most excellent Majesty I Doe understand by some of my good Friends to my great comfort that your Majesty hath in minde your Majesties Royal Promise which to me is Anchora Spei touching the Atturney's place I hope Mr. Atturney shall doe well I thank God I wish no Mans Death Nor much mine own Life more than to doe your Majesty Service For I account my Life the Accident and my Duty the Substance But this I will be âold to say If it please Godâ that ever I serve your Majesty in the Atturney's place I have known an Atturney Cooke and an Atturney Hoberâ Both worthy Men and farâ above my Self But if I should not find a Middle way between their two Dispositions and Carriages I should not satisfy my Self But these things are farr or near as it shall please God Mean while I most humbly pray your Majesty to accept my Sacrifice of Thanksgiving for your Gracious Favour God preserve your Majâstyâ I ever remain A Letter to the King of Sute to succeed in the Aâturney's Place It may please your Majesty YOur great and Princely Favours towards me in Advancing me to Place And that which is to me of no less comfort your Majesties benign and gracious Acceptation from time to time of my poor Services much above the Merit and Valew of them Hath almost brought me to an Opinion that I may sooner perchance be wanting to my Self in not asking Than finde your Majesties Goodness wanting to me in any my reasonable and modest desires And therefore perceiving how at this time Preferments of Law fly about mine Ears To some above me and to some below me I did conceive your Majesty may think it rather a Kinde of Dulness or want of Faith than Modesty if I should not come with my Pitcher to Iacobs Well as others doe VVherein I shall propound to your Majesty that which tendeth not so much to the Raising of my Fortune as to the setling of my Minde Being sometimes assailed with this Cogitation That by reason of my Slowness to see and apprehend suddain Occasions Keeping on one plain Course of painfull Service I may in fine Dierum be in danger to be neglected and forgotten And if that should be then were it much better for me now while I stand in your Majesties good Opinion though unworthy and have some little Reputation in the VVorld to give over the Course I am in and to make proof to doe you some Honour by my Pen either by writing some faithfull Narrative of your Happy though not untraduced Times Or by recompiling your Laws which I perceive your Majesty laboureth with And hath in your Head as Iupiter had Pallas Or some other the like work For without some Endeavour to doe you Honour I would not live Than to spend my Wits and Time in this laborious place wherein I now serve If it shall be deprived of those outward Ornaments which it was wont to have in respect of an Assured Succession to some Place of more Dignity and Rest which seemeth now to be an Hope altogether Casual if not wholly intercepted VVherefore not to hold your Majesty long my humble Sute to you is that than the which I think I cannot well goe lower which is that I may obtain your Royal promise to succeed if I live into the Atturneys place whensoever it shall be void It being but the Natural and âmmediate Step and Rise which the Place I now hold hath ever in sort made claim to and almost never failed of In this Sute I make no Friends to youâ Majesty but rely upon no other Motive but your Grace Nor any other Assurance but your Word whereof I had good Experience when I came to the Solliciteâs Place That it was like to the Two great Lights which in their Motions are never Retro râdâ So with my best Prayers for your Majesties
Happiness I rest A Letter to Sir George Carey in France upon sending him his Writing In Felicem Memoriam Elizabethae My very good Lord BEing asked the Question by this Bearer an old Servant of my Brother Anthony Bacons whether I would command him any thing into France And being at better leisure than I would in regard of Sickness I began to remember that neither your Business nor mine though great and continual can be upon an an exact account any just Occasion why so much good will as hath passed between us should be so much discontinued as hath been And therefore because one must begin I thought to provoke your Remembrance of me by a Letter And thinking to fit it with somewhat besides Salutations it came to my Minde that this last Summer Vacation by occasion of a Factious Book that endeavoured to verefy Misera âemina The Addition of the Popes Bull upon Queen Elizabeth I did write a few Lines in her Memorial which I thought you would be pleased to read both for the Argument And because you were wont to bear Affection to my Penn. Verum ut aliud ex alio if it came handsomly to pass I would be glad the President de Thou who hath written an History as you know of that Fame and Diligence saw it Chiefly because I know not whether it may not serve him for some use in his Story wherein I would be glad he did right to the Truth and to the Memory of that Lady as I perceive by that he hath already written he is well enclined to doe I would be glad also it were some Occasion such as Absence may permit of some Acquaintance or mutual Noticeâ between us For though he hath many wayes the precedence chiefly in worth yet this is common to us both that we serve our Soâeraigns in places of Law eminent And not our Selves onely but our Fathers did so before us And lastly that both of us love Learning and Liberal Sciences which was ever a Bond of Friendship in the greatest Distance of Places But of this I make no further Request than your Occasions and Respects to me unknown may further or limit My Principal Purpose being to salute you and to send you this Token Whereunto I will add my very kinde Commendations to my Lady And so commit you both to Gods Holy Protection A Letter to my Lord Mayour upon a Proceeding in a Private Cause MY very good Lord I did little expect when I left your Lordship last that there would have been a Proceeding against Mr. Barnard to his Overthrow Wherein I must confess my Self to be in a sort Accessary Because he relying upon me for Counsel I advised that Course which he followed Wherein now I begin to question my self whether in preserving my Respects unto your Lordship and the Rest I have not failed in the Duty of my Profession towards my Client For certainly if the words had been hainous and spoken in a malicious fashion and in some publick place and well proved And not a Prattle in a Tavern caught hold of by one who as I hear is a detected Sycophant Standish I mean yet I know not what could have been done more than to impose upon him a grievous Fine And to require the Levying of the same And to Take away his means of Life by his Disfranchisement And to commit him to a Defamed Prison during Christmass In Honour whereof the Prisoners in other Courts doe commonly of grace obtain some Enlargement This Rigor of Proceeding to tell your Lordship and the rest as my good Friends my Opinion plainly tendeth not to strengthen Authority which is best supported by Love and Fear intermixed But rather to make People discontented and Servile especially when such Punishment is inflicted for words not by Rule of Law but by a Iurisdiction of Discretion which would evermore be moderately used And I pray God whereas Mr. Recorder when I was with you did well and wisely put you in mind of the Admonitions you often received from my Lords that you should bridle unruly Tongues That those kind of Speeches and Rumours whereunto those Admonitions doe referr which are concerning the State and Honour thereof doe not pass too licentiously in the City unpunished while these Words which concern your particular are so straightly enquired into and punished with such Extremiy But these Things your own wisdom first or last will best represent unto you My writing unto you at this time is to the end that howsoever I doe take it somewhat unkindly that my Mediation prevailed no more yet I might preserve that further Respect that I am willing to use unto such a State in delivering my Opinion unto you freely before I would be of Counsel or move any thing that should cross your Proceedings which notwithstanding in case my Client can receive no Relief at your hands I must and will doe Continuing nevertheless in other Things my wonted good Affection to your Selves and your Occasions A Letter to my Lord Treasurer Salisbury upon a New-years Tide It may please your good Lordship I Would Entreat the New year to answâr for the Old in my humble Thanks to your Lordship Both for many your Favours and chiefly that upon the Occasion of Mr. Atturneys Infirmity I found your Lordship even as I could wish This doth encrease a desire in me to express my Thankfull minde to your Lordship Hoping that though I finde Age and Decayes grow upon me yet I may have a Flash or two of Spirit left to doe you Service And I doe protest before God without Complement or any light Vanity of Minde that if I knew in what Course of Life to doe you best Service I would take it and make my Thoughts which now fly to many Pieces to be reduced to that Center But all this is no more than I am which is not much But yet the Entire of him that is c. A Letter to his Majesty concerning Peachams Cause January 21. 1614. It may please your Excellent Majesty IT grieveth me exceedingly that your Majesty should be so much troubled with this Matter of Peacham whose Raging Devil seemeth to be turn'd into a Dumb Devil But although we are driven to make our way through Questions which I wish were otherwise yet I hope well the End will be good But then every Man must put too his Helping Hand For else I must say to your Majesty in this and the like Cases as St. Paul said to the Centurion when some of the Mariners had an Eye to the Cock-boat Except these stay in the Ship ye cannot be safe I finde in my Lords great and worthy Care of the Business And for my part I hold my Opinion and am strengthned in it by some Records that I have found God preserve your Majesty Your Majesties most humble and devoted Subject and Servant A Letter to the King touching Peachams Cause January 27. 1614. It may please your excellent Majesty THis Day
in the Afternoon was read your Majesties Letters of Direction touching Peacham which because it concerneth properly the Duty of my Place I thought it fit for me to give your Majesty both a speedy and a private Account thereof That your Majesty knowing Things clearly how they pass may have the true Fruit of your own Wisdom and clear-Seeing Judgement in Governing the Business First for the Regularity which your Majesty as a Master in Business of Estate doth prudently prescribe in Examining and taking Examinations I subscribe to it Onely I will say for my Self that I was not at this time the Principal Examiner For the Course your Majesty directeth and commandeth for the feeling of the Iudges of the Kings Bench their Several Opinions by distributing our Selves and enjoyning Secrecy we did first finde an Encounter in the Opinion of my Lord Cooke who seemed to affirm that such particular and as he call'd it Auricular Taking of Opinions was not according to the Custom of this Realm And seemed to divine that his Brethren would never doe it But when I replyed that it was our Duty to pursue your Majesties Directions And it were not amiss for his Lordship to leave his Brethren to their own Answers It was so concluded and his Lordship did desire that I mought conferr with Himself And Mr. Serjeant Mountague was named to speak with Iustice Crooke Mr. Serjeant Crew with Iustice Houghton and Mr. Solliciter with Iustice Dodderidge This done I took my Fellows aside and advised that they should presently speak with the 3. Iudges before I could speak with my Lord Cooke for doubt of Infusion And that they should not in any case make any doubt to the Iudges as if they mistrusted they would not deliver any Opinion apart but speak resolutely to them and onely make their Comming to be to know what time they would appoint to be attended with the Papers This sorted not amiss For Mr. Solliciter came to me this Evening and related to me that he had found Iudge Dodderidge very ready to give Opinion in secret And fell upon the same reason which upon your Majesties first Letter I had used to my Lord Cooke at the Council Table which was that every Iudge was bound expresly by his Oath to give your Majesty Counsel when he was called And whether he should doe it joyntly or severally that rested in your Maiesties good pleasure as you would require it And though the Ordinary Course was to assemble them yet there mought intervene Cases wherein the other Course was more convenient The like Answer made Iustice Crook Iustice Houghton who is a soft Man seemed desirous first to conferr Alleging that the other 3. Iudges had all served the Crown before they were Iudges but that he had not been much acquainted with Business of this Nature We purpose therefore âorthwith they shall be made acquainted with the Papers And if that could be done as suddainly as this was I should make small doubt of their Opinions And howsoever I hope Force of Law and President will bind them to the Truth Neither am I wholly out of hope that my Lord Cooke himself when I have in some dark manner put him in doubt that he shall be left alone will not continue singular For Owen I know not the reason why there should have been no Mention made thereof in the last Advertisement For I must say for my Self that I have lost no moment of Time in it as my Lord of Canterbury can bear me witness For having received from my Lord an Additional of great Importance which was that Owen of his own Accord after Examination should compare the Case of your Majesty if you were Excommunicate to the Case of a Prisoner Condemned at the Barr which Additional was subscribed by one Witness but yet I perceived it was spoken aloud and in the Hearing of others I presently sent down a Copy thereof which is now come up attested with the Hands of 3. more lest there should have been any Scruple of Singularis Testis So as for this Case I may say Omnia parata And we expect but a Direction from your Maâesty for the Acquainting the Iudges severally Or the 4. Iudges of the Kings Bench as your Majesty shall think good I forget not nor forslow not your Majesties Commandement touching Recusants Of which when it is ripe I will give your Majesty a true Account and what is possible to be done and where the Impediment is Mr. Secretary bringeth Bonam Voluntatem but he is not versed much in these things And sometimes urgeth the Conclusion without the premises and by haste hindreth It is my Lord Treasurer and the Exchequer must help it if it be holpen I have heard more wayes than oneâ of an ofter of 20000 l. per Annum for farming the Penalties of Recusants not including any Offence Capital or of Premunire wherein I will presume to say that my poor Endeavours since I was by your great and sole grace your Atturney have been no small Spurrs to make them feel your Laws and seek this Redemption Wherein I must also say my Lord Cooke hath done his part And I doe assure your Majesty I know it somewhat inwardly and groundedly that by the Courses we have taken they conform daily and in great Numbers And I would to God it were as well a Conversion as a Conformity But if it should die by Dispensation or Dissimulation then I fear that whereas your Majesty hath now so many ill Subjects poor and detected you shall then have them rich and dissembled And therefore I hold this offer very considerable of so great an Increase of Revenew If it can pass the fiery Trial of Religion and Honour which I wish all Projects may pass Thus in as much as I have made to your Majesty somewhat a naked and particular account of Business I hope your Majesty will use it accordingly God preserve your Majesty Your Majesties most humble and devoted Subject and Servant A Letter reporting the State of my Lord Chancellers Health Jan. 29. 1614. It may please your excellent Majesty BEcause I know your Majesty would be glad to hear how it is with my Lord Chanceller And that it pleased him out of his antient and great Love to me which many times in Sickness appeareth most To admit me to a great deal of Speech with him this afternoon which during these three dayes he hath scarcely done to any I thought it mought be pleasing to your Majesty to certify you how I found him I found him in bed but his Spirits fresh and good speaking stoutly and without being spent or weary And both willing and Beginning of himself to speak but wholly of your Majesties Business Wherein I cannot forget to relate this particular That he wished that his Sentencing of I. S. at the day appointed mought be his last Work to conclude his Services and express his Affection towards your Majesty I âold him I knew your Majesty would be
constantly affected As may well appear by my sundry Labours from time to time in the same For I hold it a worthy character of your Majesties Reign and Times Insomuch as though your Majesty mought have at this time as is spoken a great Annual Benefit for the Quitting of it yet I shall never be the Man that should wish your Majesty to deprive your Self of that Beatitude Beatius est dare quam accipere In this cause But to sacrifice your profit though as your Majesties State is it be precious to you to so great a Good of your Kingdom Although this Project is not without a Profit immediate unto you by the encreasing of Customes upon the materials of Dyes But here is the Case The New Company by this Patent and Privy Seal are to have two Things wholly diverse from the first Intention Or rather Ex Diametro opposite unto the same which nevertheless they must of necessity have or else the Work is overthrown So as I may call them Mala Necessaria but yet withall Temporarie For as Men make Warr to have Peace so these Merchants must have license for Whites to the end to banish Whites And they must have license to use Teyntours to the end to banish Teyntours This is therefore that I say your Majesty upon these two points may justly and with honour and with preservation of your first Intention inviolate demand Profit in thâ Interim as long as these unnatural points continue and then to cease For your Majesty may be pleased to observe that they are to have all the Old Companies Profit by the Trade of Whites They are again to have upon the proportion of Cloathes which they shall vent died and dressed the Flemmings profit upon the Teyntour Now then I say As it had been too good Husbandry for a King to have taken profit of them if the Project could have been effected at once as was voiced So on the other side it might be perchance too little Husbandry and Providence to take nothing of them for that which is meerly lucrative to them in the mean time Nay I say further this will greatly conduce and be a kinde of Security to the End desired For I alwayes feared and doe yet fear that when Men by condition Merchants though never so honest have gotten into their Hands the Trade of Whites and the Dispensation to Teyntour wherein they shall reap profit for that which they never sowed But have gotten themselves Certainties in respect of the States hopes They are like enough to sleep upon this as upon a Pillow And to make no haste to goe on with the rest And though it may be said that that is a thing will easily appear to the State yet no doubt means may be devised and found to draw the Business in length So that I conclude that if your Majesty take a profit of them in the Interim considering you refuse profit from the Old Company it will be both Spurr and Bridle to them to make them Pace aright to your Majesties End This in all humbleness according to my vowed Care and Fidelity being no Mans Man but your Majesties I present leave and submit to your Majesties better Judgement And I could wish your Majesty would speak with Sir Thomas Lake in it who besides his good Habit which he hath in business beareth methinks an indifferent Hand in this particular And if it please your Majesty it may proceed as from your Self and not as a Motion or Observation of mine Your Majesty need not in this to be streightned in time As if this must be demanded or treated before you sign their Bill For I foreseeing this and foreseeing that many things mought fall out which I could not foresee have handled it so as with their good Contentment there is a Power of Revocation inserted into their Patent And so commending your Majesty to Gods blessed and precious Custody I rest Your Majesties most humble and devoted Subject and Servant A Letter to Sir George Villiers touching Ropers place January 22. 1615. SIR Sending to the King upon Occasion I would not fail to salute you by my Letter which that it may be more than two lines I add this for News That as I was sitting by my Lord Chief Iustice upon the Commission for the Indicting of the Great Person One of the Iudges asked Him whether Roper were dead He said He for his part knew not Another of the Iudges answered It should concern you my Lord to know it Whereupon he turned his Speech to me aud said No Mr. Atturney I will not wrastle now in my latter times My Lord said I you speak like a wise Man Well saith he they have had no luck with it that have had it I said again Those dayes be past Here you have the Dialogue to make you merry But in sadness I was glad to perceive he meant not to contest I can but honour and love you and rest Your assured Friend and Servant A Letter to the King advising how to break off with the New Company February 3. 1615. It may please your excellent Majesty I Spake yesternight long with my Lord Cooke And for the Rege inconsulâo I conceive by him it will be An ampliùs deliberandum censeo as I thought at first so as for the present your Majesty shall not need to renew your Commandement of Stay I spake with him also about some Propositions concerning your Majesties casual Revenew wherein I found him to consent with me fully Assuming nevertheless that he had thought of them before But it is one Thing to have the Vapour of a Thought Another to digest Business aright He on his part imparted to me diverse Things of great weight concerning the Reparatâon of your Majesties Means and Finances which I heard gladly Insomuch as he perceiving the same I think was the readier to open himself to me in one Circumstance which he did much inculcate I concurr fully with him that they are to be held secret For I never saw but that Business is like a Child which is framed invisibly in the Wombe And if it come forth too soon it will be abortive I know in most of them the Prosecution must rest much upon my Self But I that had the Power to prevail in the Farmers Case of the French Wines without the help of my Lord Cooke shall be better able to goe through these with his help the ground being no less just And this I shall ever add of mine own that I shall ever respect your Majesties Honour no less than your Profit And shall also take care according to my pensive manner that that which is good for the present have not in it hidden Seeds of future Inconveniences The Matter of the New Company was referred to me by the Lords of the Privâ Council wherein after some private Speech with Sir Lionel Cranfield I made that Report which I held most agreeable to Truth and your Maiesties Service If this New
Circuit and my Lord Chancellers Infirmity with Hope of Recovery And although this pâotraction of Time may breed some doubt of Mutability yet I have lately learned out of an excellent Letter of a certain King That the Sun sheweth sometimes watry to our Eyes but when the Cloud is gone the Sun is as before God ever preserve your Majestie Your Majesties most humble Subject and bounden Servant A Letter to the King of Advice upon the Breach of the New Company Febr 25. 1615. It may please your most excellent Majesty YOur Privy Council have wisely and truly discerned of the Orders and Demands of the New Company that they are unlawfull and unjust And themselves have now acknowledged the Work impossible without them by their Petition in Writing now registred in the Council-Book So as this Conclusion of their own making is become peremptory and final to themselves And the Impossibility confessed the Practice and Abuse reserved to the Judgement the State shall make of it This Breach then of this great Contract is wholly on their part which could not have been if your Majesty had broken upon the Patent For the Patent was your Maiesties Act The Orders are their Act And in the former Case they had not been liable to further Question now they are There rest two Things to be considered The one if they like Proteus when he is hard held shall yet again vary their shape And shall quit their Orders convinced of Injustice and lay their Imposition onely upon the Trade of Whites whether your Majesty shall further expect The other if your Majestie dissolve them upon this Breach on their part what is further to be done for the setting of the Trade again in joynt and for your own Honour and profit In both which points I will not presume to give Opinion but onely to break the Business for your Majestiâs better Judgement For the first I am sorry the Occasion was given by my Lord Cookes Speech at this time of the Commitment of some of them That they should seek Omnem movere lapidem to help themselves Better it had been if as my Lord Penton said to me that Morning very judiciously and with a great Deal of Foresight That for that time they should have had a Bridge made for tâem to be gone But my Lord Cooke floweth according to his own Tides and not according to the Tides of Business The thingâ which my Lord Cook said was good and too little but at this time it was too much But that is past Howsoever if they should goe back and seek again to entertain your Majesty with new Orders or Offers as is said to be intended your Majesty hath ready two Answers of Repulse if it please your Majesty to use them The one that this is now the Fourth time that they have mainly broken with your Majesty and contradicted themselves First they undertook to dye and dress all the Cloaâhes of the Realm Soon after they wound themselves into the Trade of Whites and came down to the proportion contracted Secondly they ought to have performed that Contract according to their Subscription pro ratâ without any of these Orders and Impositions Soon after they deserted their Subscription and had recourse to these Devices of Orders Thirdly if by Order and not by Subscription yet their Orders should have laid it upon the Whites which is an Unlawfull and Prohibited Trade Nevertheless they would have brought in lawfull and setled Trades full Manufactures Merchandize of all Natures Poll-Money or Brotherhood-Money and I cannot tell what And now lastly it seemeth they would goe Back to lay it upon the Whites And therefore whether you Majesty will any more rest and build this great Wheel of your Kingdom upon these broken and brittle Pinns and try Experiments further upon the Health and Body of your State I leave to your Princely Iudgement The other Answer of Repulse is a kinde of Apposing them what they will doe after the three years contracted for Which is a point hitherto not much stirred though Sir Lionell Cranfield hath ever beaten upon it in his Speech with me For after the three years they are not tyed otherwayes than as Trade shall give Encouragement Of which Encouragement your Majesty hath a bitter Tast. And if they should hold on according to the third years Proportion and not rise on by further gradation your Majesty hath not your End No I fear and have long feared that this Feeding of the Foreiner may be dangerous For as we may think to hold up our Cloathing by Vent of Whites till we can dye and dresse So they I mean the Dutch will think to hold up their Manufacture of Dying and Dressing upon our Whites till they can cloath So as your Majesty hath the greatest reason in the World to make the New Company to come in and strengthen that part of their Contract And they refusing as it is confidently beleeved they will to make their Default more visible to all Men. For the second main part of your Majesties Consultation That is what shall be done supposing an absolute Breach I have had some Speech with Mr. Secretary Lake and likewise with Sir Lionell Cranfield And as I conceive tâere may be three wayes taken into consideration The first is that the Old Company be restored who no doubt are in Appetite and as I finde by Sir Lionell Cranfield not unprepared And that the Licences The one that of 30000 Cloathes which was the old Licence The other that of my Lord of Cumberlands which is without stint my Lord of Cumberland receiving Satisfaction be compounded into one entire Licence without stint And then that they amongst themselves take order for that profit which hath been offered to your Majesty This is a plain and known way wherein your Majesty is not an Actour onely it hath âhis that the Work of Dying and Dressing Cloathes which hath been so much glorifyed seemeth to be wholly relinquished if you leave there The second is that there be a free Trade of Cloath with this Difference That the Dyed and dressed pay no Custome and the Whites double Custom it being a Merchandize prohibited and onely licentiate This continueth in life and âame the âork desired and will have a popular Applause But I doe confess I did ever think that Trading in Companies is most agreeable to the English Nature which wantetâ that same general Vein of a Republick which runneth in the Dutch And sârveth to them instead of a Company And thârefore I dare not advise to adventure this great Trade of the Kingdom which hath been so long under Government in a free or loose Trade The Third is a Compounded Way of both which is To goe on with the Trade of Whites by the Old Company restored And that your Majesties Profit be raised by Order amongst Themselves Rather than by double Custom wherein you must be the Actour And that nevertheless there be added a Privilege to the same
Thus having performed that which Duty binds me to I commend you to Gods best preservation Your most devoted and bounden Servant A Letter from the Kings Atturney General to the Master of the Horse upon the sending of his Bill for Viscount August 5. 1616. SIR I send you the Bill âor his Majestiâs Signature reformed according to his Majesties Amendments both in the two places which I assure you were both altered with great Judgement And in the Third place which his Majesty termed a Question onely But he is an idle Body that thinks his Majesty asks an idle Question And therefore his Majesties Questions are to be answered by Taking away the Cause of the Question and not by Replying For the Name his Majesties Will is a Law in those things And to speak Truth it is a well-sounding and Noble Name both here and abroad And being your proper Name I will take it for a good Sign that you shall give Honour to your Dignity and not your Dignity to you Therefore I have made it Viscount Villiers And for your Baronry I will keep it for an Earldom For though the other had been more orderly yet that is as usual and both alike good in Law For Ropers place I would have it by all means dispatched And therefore I marvail it lingreth It were no good manners to take the Business out of my Lord Treasurers hands And therefore I purpose to write to his Lordship if I hear not from him first by Mr. Deckom But if I hear of any Delay you will give me leave especially since the King named me to deal with Sir Iohn Roper my Self For neither I nor my Lord Treasurer can deserve any great thanks of you in this Business considering the King hath spoken to Sir Iohn Roper and he hath promised And besides the thing it self is so reasonable as it ought to be as soon done as said I am now gotten into the Countrey to my House where I have some little Liberty to think of that I would think of and not of that which other Men Hourly break my Head withall as it was at London Upon this you may conclude that most of my Thoughts are of his Majesty And then you cannot be farr off God ever keep you and prosper you I rest alwayes Your true and most devoted Servant A Letter to Sir George Villiers upon the Sending his Patent of Viscount Villiers to be Signed August 12. 1616. SIR I have sent you now your Patent of Creation of Lord Blechley of Blechly and of Viscount Villiers Blechley is your own And I liked the sound of the Name better than Whaddon But the Name will be hid for you will be called Viscount Villiers I have put them both in a Patent after the manner of the Patent of Arms where Baronries are joyned But the chief Reason was because I would avoid double Prefaces which had not been fit Nevertheless Ceremony of Roabing and otherwise must be double And now because I am in the Country I will send you some of my Country Fruits which with me are good Meditations which when I am in the Citty are choaked with Business After that the King shall have watred your new Dignities with his Bounty of the Lands which he intends you And that some other things concerning your means which are now likewise in Intention shall be setled upon you I doe not see but you may think your private Fortunes established And therefore it is now time that you should refer your Actions chiefly to the Good of your Soveraign and your Country It is the life of an Oxe or a Beast alwaies to eat and never to exercise But Men are born especially Christian Men not to cramm in their Fortunes but to exercise their Vertues And yet the other have been the unworthy and âometimes the unlucky humour of great Persons in our Times Neither will your further Fortune be the further off For assure your self that Fortune is of a womans Nature that will sooner follow you by slighting than by too much Wooing And in this Dedication of your Self to the Publick I recommend unto you principally that which I think was never done since I was born And which not done hath bred almost a Wilderness and Solitude in the Kings Service which is that you countenance and encourage and advance able and vertuous Men in all Kindes Degrees and Professions For in the time of some late great Counsellours when they bare the Sway able Men were by design and of purpose suppressed And though now since Choice goeth better both in Church and Commonwealâh yet Money and Turn-Serving and Cunning Canvises and Importunity prevail too much And in places of Moment rather make Able and Honest Men yours than advance those that are otherwise because they are yours As for Cunning and Corrupt Men you must I know sometimes use them but keep them at a distance And let it appear that you make use of them rather than that they lead you Above all depend wholly next to God upon the King And be ruled as hitherto you have been by his Instructions For that 's best for your Self For the Kings Care and Thoughts concerning you are according to the Thoughts of a great King whereas your Thoughts coâcerning your Self are and ought to be according to the Thoughts of a Modest Man But let me not weary you The Summe is that you think Goodness the best part of Greatness And that you remember whence your Rising comes and make return accordingly God ever keep you A Letter to the King touching Sir George Villiers Patent for Baron of Blechley and Viscount Villiers August 12. 1616. It may please your most excellent Majesty I Have sent Sir George Villiers Patent drawn again containing also a Baronry The Name Blechley which is his own And to my Thinking soundeth better than Whaddon I have included both in one Patent to avoid a double Preface and as hath been used in the Patents of Earls of like nature Nevertheless the Ceremony of Roabing and otherwise is to be double as is also used in like case of Earls It resteth that I express unto your Majesty my great Joy in your Honouring and Advancing this Gentleman whom to describe not with Colours but with true Lines I may say this Your Majesty certainly hath found out and chosen a safe Nature a capable Man and honest Will Generous and Noble Affections and a Courage well lodged And one that I know loveth your Majesty unfeignedly And admireth you as much as is in a Man to admire his Sâveraign upon Earth Onely your Majesties School wherein he hath already so well profited as in this Entrance upon the Stage being the Time of greatest Danger he hath not committed any manifest Errour will add Perfection to your Majesties comfort and the great Contentment of your People God ever preserve and prosper your Majesty I rest in all Humbleness Your Majesties most bounden and most devoted Subject and Servant A Letter
invite me to it I should have been thought both Incompatible and Backward in her Majesties Service I say not this for that I think the Action such as it were Disadvantage to be thought the Projector of it But I say and say truly that my Lord Admiral devised it presented it to her Majesty and had as well the Approbation of her Majesty and the Assent of such of your Lordships as were acquainted with it as my Promise to goe with him One thing I confess I above all Men am to be charged withall That is That when her Majesties the Cities of London and the States of the Low-Countries charge was past the Men levied and marching to the Rendez-vous I could not see how with her Majesties Honour and Safety the Journey might be broken Whârein although I should be carried with passion yet I pray your Lordships consider who almost that had been in my Case named to such an Action voiced throughout Christendom and engaged in it as much as I was worth And being the Instrument of drawing more voluntary Men of their own charge than ever was seen these many years Who I say would not have been so affected But farr be it from me in an Action of this importance to weigh my Self or my particular Fortunes I must beseech your Lordships to remember that I was from time to time warranted by all your opinions delivered both amongst your selves and to her Majesty Which tieth you all to allow the Counsel And that being graunted your Lordships will call that Zeal which maketh a Man constant in a good Counsel that would be Passion in an evil or a doubtfull I confess her Majesty offered us Recompence for all our charges and losses But my Lords I pray your Lordships consider how many Things I should have sold at once for money I will leave mine own reputation as too small a Matter to be mentioned But I should have sold The Honour of her Majesty The safety of the State The Contentment of her Confederates The Fortune and Hope of many my poor Countrey-Men And The Possibility of giving a Blow to that Enemy that ought ever to be hatefull to all true English Hearts I should have sold all this for private profit Therefore though I ask pardon of her Majesty and pray your Lordships to mediate it for me that I was carried by this Zeal so fast that I forgat those Reverend Forms which I should have used yet I had rather have my Heart out of my Body than this Zeal out of my Heart And now as I have laid before your Lordships my past carriage and entring into this Action So I beseech your Lordships give me leave to prepare you to a favourable Construction of that which I shall doe hereafter In which Sute I am resolved neither to plead the Hazarding of Life nor spending of my Substance in a Publick Service To the end that I might find your Lordships who are publick persons more favourable Iudges But will confess that I receive so much Favour and Honour by this Trust and Employment as when I have done all I can I shall still be behind hand This Sute only I make that your Lordships will neither have too great an Expectation of our Actions nor too little Lest all we doe seem either Nothing or to be done by Chance I know we must be tyed to doe no more than shall be for her Majesties Service nor no less In which strait way though it be hard for so weak a Man as my Self to walk upright yet the Example of our raw Souldiers may comfort an unsufficient General âor they till they grow perfect in all their Orders and Motions are so afraid to be out and with such a continual heedfulness observe both themselves and those that are near them that they doe keep almost as good order at the first as ever after I am sure I am as distrustfull of my Self as they And because I have more Sense of Duty I shall be more Industrious For Sea Service the Judgement of my Honourable Companion shall be my Compass And for Land his Assent and the Advice of those her Majesty hath named as Counsellors at Warr shall be my Warranties It will be Honour to her Majesty and a great Assurance to her State if we either bring home wealth or give the King of Spain a blow by Sea But to have made a continual Diversion and to have left as it were a Thorn sticking in his Foot had been a Work worthy of such a Queen and of such a Preparation For then her Majesty should have heard no more of his Intentions for Ireland and Attempts upon the Coast of France Or his drawing of Ships or Galley's into these Narrow Seas But should at once have delivered all Christendom from his fearfull Usurpation Wherein as She had been great in Fame for such a general preservation So she had been as great in Power in making all the Enemies of Spain in Christendom to depend upon Her She should be Head of the Party She onely might be said to make the Warrs with Spain because she made them to purpose And they all but as her Assistants and Dependants And lastly as the End of the Warrs is Peace So she might have had Peace when she would and with what Conditions she would and have included or left out whom she would For she only by this course should force him to wish for Peace and she had the means in her hands to make the Conditions And as easie it had been to have done this as to have performed lesser Services The Objections against this will be Hazard and Charge Hazard to hold any Thing of his that is so Mighty a King And Charge to send such Supplies from time to time as will be needfull For Hazard It is not the Hazard of the State or the Whole as are the Hazards of a Defensive Warr whensoever we are enforced to fight But it is onely a Hazard of some few and such Commanders as shall be set out for such a Service And those also that shall be so hazarded shall be in lesse danger than if they were put into any Frontire Places of Fraunce or of the Low-Countries For they should not be left in any part of the Main or Continent of Spain or Portugall where the Enemy might bring an Army to attempt them Tâough I doubt not but after he had once tried what it were to besiege two or three thousand English in a place well fortified and where they had a Port open he would grow quickly weary of those Attempts But they should be so lodged as the Seat and Strength of the place should warrant their Safety So that to pull her Majesties Men out of it should be a harder Task than to conquer any Countrey that stands on firm land by him And to let English quietly possesse it should so much prejudice him as he were not able to endure it And for Charge there need