be too great a Work to embrace whether it were not convenient that Cases Capitall were the same in both Nations I say the Cases I do not speak of the Proceedings or Trials That is to say whether the same Offences were not fit to be made Treason or Felony in both places The Third Question is whether Cases Penall though not Capitall yet if they concern the Publick State or otherwise the Discipline of Manners were not fit likewise to be brought into one Degree As the Case of Misprision of Treason The Case of Premunire The Case of Fugitives The Case of Incest The Case of Simony and the rest But the Question that is more urgent then any of these is Whether these Cases at the least be they of an higher or inferiour degrâ—e Wherein the Fact committed or Act done in Scotland may prejudice the State and Subjects of England or é converso Are not to be reduced into one Vniformity of Law and Punishment As for Example A perjury committed in a Court of Iustice in Scotland cannot be prejudiciall in England Because Depositions taken in Scotland cannot be produced and used here in England But a Forgery of a Deed in Scotland I mean with a false Date of England may be used and given in Evidence in England So likewise the Depopulating of a Town in Scotland doth not directly prejudice the State of England But if an English Merchant shall carry Silver and Gold into Scotland as he may and thence transport it into forrain parts this prejudiceth the State of England And may be an Evasion to all the Lawes of England ordained in that Case And therefore had need to be bridled with as severe a Law in Scotland as it is here in England Of this kind there are many Lawes The Law of the 50 of Rich. the 2. of going over without licence if there be not the like Law in Scotland will be frustrated and evaded For any Subject of England may go first into Scotland and thence into forrain parts So the Lawes prohibiting Transportation of sundry Commodities as Gold and Silver Ordnance Artillery Corn c. if there be not a Correspondence of Lawes in Scotland will in like manner be deluded and frustrate For any English Merchant or Subject may carry such Commodities first into Scotland as well as he may carry them from Port to Port in England And out of Scotland into Forrain Parts without any Perill of Law So Libells may be devised and written in Scotland and published and scattered in England Treasons may be plotted in Scotland and executedâ— in England And so in many other Cases if there be not the like Severity of Law in Scotland to restrain Offences that there is in England whereof we are here ignorant whether there be or no It will be a Gap or Stop even for English Subjects to escape and avoid the Lawes of England But for Treasons the best is that by the Statute of 26. K. Hen. the 8'h Cap. 13. any Treason committed in Scotland may be proceeded with in England as well as Treasons committed in France Rome or elsewhere For Courts of Iustice Trialls Processes and other Administration of Lawes to make any Alteration in either Nation it will be a Thing so new and unwonted to either People That it may be doubted it will make the Administration of Iustice Which of all other Things ought to be known and certain as a beaten way To become intricate and uncertain And besides I do not see that the Severalty of Administration of Iustice though it be by Court Soveraign of last Resort I mean without Appeal or Errour Is any Impediment at all to the Vnion of a Kingdom As we see by Experience in the severall Courts of Parliament in the Kingdome of France And I have been alwayes of Opinion that the Subjects of England do already fetch Iustice somewhat far off more then in any Nation that I know the largeness of the Kingdome Considered though it be holpen in some part by the Circuits of the Iudges And the two Councels at York and in the Marches of Wales established But it may be a good Question whether as Commune Vinculum of the Iustice of both Nations your Majesty should not erect some Court about your person in the Nature of the Grand Councell of France To which Court you might by way of Evocation draw Causes from the ordinary Iudges of both Nations For so doth the French King from all the Courts of Parliament in France Many of which are more remote from Paris then any part of Scotland is from London For Receits and Finances I see no Question will arise In regard it will be Matter of Necessity to establish in Scotland a Receit of Treasure for Payments and Erogations to be made in those parts And for the Treasure of Spare in either Receipts the Custodies thereof may well be severall considering by your Majesties Commandement they may be at all times removed or disposed according to your Majesties Occasions For the Patrimonies of both Crowns I see no Question will arise Except your Majesty would be pleased to make one compounded Annexation for an Inseparable Patrimony to the Crown out of the Lands of both Nations And so the like for the Principality of Britain and for other Appennages of the rest of your Children Erecting likewise such Dutchies and Honours compounded of the Possessions of both Nations as shall be thought fit For Admiralty or Navy I see no great question will arise For I see no Inconvenience for your Majesty to continue Shipping in Scotland And for the Iurisdictions of the Admiralties and the Profits and Casualties of them they will be respective unto the Coasts over against which the Seas lye and are situated As it is here with the Admiralties of England And for Merchandizing it may be a Question whether that the Companies of the Merchant Adventurers of the Turky Merchants and the Muscovy Merchants if they shall be continued should not be compounded of Merchants of both Nations English and Scottish For to leave Trade free in the one Nation and to have it restrained in the other may percase breed some Inconvenience For Freedomes and Liberties the Charters of both Nations may be reviewed And of such Liberties as are agreeable and convenient for the Subjects and People of both Nations one Greaâ— Charter may be made and confirmed to the Subjects of Britain And those Liberties which are peculiar or proper to either Nation to stand in State as they do But for Imposts and Customes it will be a great Question how to accommodate them and reconcile them For if they be much easier in Scotland then they be here in England which is a Thing I know not then this Inconvenience will follow That the Merchants of England may unlade in the Ports of Scotland And this Kingdome to be served from thence and your Majesties Customes abated And for the Question whether the Scottish
the Table the Daily Bread for which we pray is turned to a deadly Snare But I think rather that that was meant of the Treachery of Friends that were participant of the same Table But let us go on It is an Offence my Lords that hath the two Spurs of Offending Spes Perficiendi and Spes Celandi It is easily committed and easily concealed It is an Offence that is Tanquam Sagitta nocte volans It is the Arrow that flies by Night It discerns not whom it hits For many times the Poyson is laid for one and the other takes it As in Sanders Case where the Poysoned Apple was laid for the Mother and was taken up by the Child and killed the Child And so in that notorious case whereupon the Statute of 22º H. 8 Cap. 9º was made where the Intent being to poyson but one or two Poyson was put into a little Veâ—sell of Barm that stood in the Kitchin of the Bishop of Rochesters House Of which Barm Pottage or Gruell was made wherewith 17 of the Bishops Family were Poysoned Nay Divers of the Poor that came to the Bishops Gate and had the broken Pottage in Alms were likewise Poysoned And therefore if any Man will comfort himself or think with himself Here is great Talk of Impoysonment I hope I am safe For I have no Enemies Nor I have nothing that any Body should long for why that is all one For he may sit at Table by one for whom Poyson is prepared and have a Drench of his Cup or of his Pottage And so as the Poet saith Concidit infelix alieno vulnere He may die another Mans Death And therefore it was most gravely and judiciously and properly provided by that Statute That Impoysonment should be High Treason Because whatsoever Offence tendeth to the utter Subversion and Dissolution of Human Society is in the nature of High Treason Lastly it is an Offence that I may truly say of it Non est nostri Generis nec Sanguinis It is Thanks be to God rare in the Isle of Brittanny It is neither of our Country nor of our Church you may find it in Rome or Italy There is a Region or perhaps a Religion for it And if it should come amongst us certainly it were better living in a Wildernesse than in a Court. For the particular Fact upon Overburyâ— First for the Person of Sir Thomas Overbury I knew the Gentleman It is true his Mind was great but it moved not in any good Order yet certainly it did commonly fly at good Things And the greatest Fault that I ever heard by him was that he made his Friend his Idoll But I leave him as Sir Thomas Overbury But then take hiâ— as he was the Kings Prisoner in the Tower And then see how the Case stands In that place the State is as it were Respondent to make good the Body of a Prisoner And if any thing happen to him there it may though not in this Case yet in some others make an Aspersion and a Reflexion upon the State it self For the Person is utterly out of his own Defence His own Care and Providence can serve him nothing He is in Custody and Preservation of Law And we have a Maxime in our Law as my Lords the Iudges know that when a State is in preservation of Law nothing can destroy it or hurt it And God forbid but the like should be for the Persons of those that are in Custody of Law And therefore this was a Circumstance of great Aggravation Lastly to have a Man chaced to Death in such manner as it appears now by Matter of Record For other Privacy of the Cause I know not By Poyson after Poyson first Roseaker then Arsenick then Mercury Sublimate then Sublimate again It is a Thing would astonish Mans Nature to hear it The Poets faign that the Furies had whips and that they were corded with Poysonous Snakes And a Man would think that this were the very Case To have a Man tied to a Poast and to scourge him to Death with Snakes For so may truly be termed Diversity of â—oysons Now I will come unto that which is the Principall That is his Majesties Princely yea and as I may truly term it Sacred proceeding in this Cause Wherein I will first Speak of the Temper of his Iustice and then of the Strength thereof First it pleased my Lord Chief Iustice to let me know That which I heard with great Comfort Which was the Charge â—hat his Majesty gave to Himself first And afterwards to the Commissioners in this Case worthy certainly to be written in Letters of Gold wherein his Majesty did fore-rank and make it his prime Direction that it should be carried without touch to any that was innocent Nay more not onely without Impeachment but without Aspersion which was a most Noble and Princely Caution from his Majesty For Mens Reputations are tender Things And ought to be like Christs Coat without Seam And it was the more to be respected in this Case because it met with two great Persons A Noble Man that his Majesty had favoured and advanced And his Lady being of a Great and Honourable House Though I think it be true that the Writers say that there is no Pomgranate so fair or so sound but may have a perished Kernell Nay I see plainly that in those excelâ—lent Papers of his Majesties own Hand writing Being as so many Beams of Iustice issuing from that Vertue which doth shine in him I say I see it was so evenly carried without prejudiceâ— whither it were a true Accusation of the one part or a Practise of a false Accusation on the other As shewed plainly that his Majesties Judgement was tanquam Tabula Rasa as a clean pair of Tables And his Ear tanquam Ianua aperta As a Gate not side open but wide open to Truth as it should be by little and little discovered Nay I see plainly that at the first till further Light did break forth his Majesty was little moved with the First Tale which he vouchsafeth not so much as the Name of a Tale But calleth it a Rumour which is an Headless Tale. As for the Strength or Resolution of his Majesties Iustice I must tell your Lordships plainly I do not marvell to see Kings thunder out Iustice in Cases of Treason when they are touched Themselves And that they are Vindices Doloris Proprij But that a King should pro Amore Iustitiae onely Contrary to the Tide of his own Affection for the preservation of his People take such Careâ— of a Cause of Iustice That is rare and worthy to be celebrated far and nearâ— For I think I may truly affirm that there was never in this Kingdome nor in any other Kingdome the Bloud of a private Gentleman vindicated Cum tanto Moâ—u Regni or to say better Cum tanto Plausu Regni If it had concerned the King or Prince there could not have been Greater nor
if it wâ—re but by Surviving alone though he had no other Excellency One that hath passed the Degrees of Honour with great Travell and long Time which quencheâ—h alwayes Envy except it be joyned wâ—th extreme Malice Then it appeareth manifestly to be but a Brick wall at Tennis to make the Defamation and Hatred rebound from the Counsellour upon the Prince And assuredly they be very simple to think to abuse the VVorld with those Shifts Since every Child can tell the Fable That the VVolfs Malice was not to the Shepherd but to his Dog It is true that these Men have altred their Tune twice or thrice when the Match was in Treating with the Duke of Anjou they spake Honey as to her Majesty All the Gall was uttered against the Earl of Leicester But when they had gotten Heart upon the Expectation of the Invasion they changed stile and disclosed all the Venome in the World immediately against her Majâ—sty what New Hope hath made them return their Sinons Note in teaching Troy how to save it self I cannot tell But in the mean time they do his Lordship much Honour For the more despitefully they inveigh against his Lordship the more Reason hath her Majesty to trust him and the Realm to honour him It was wont to be a Token of scarce a good Liedgeman when the Enemy spoiled the Countrey and left any particular Mens Houses or Fields unwasted 6. Certain true generall Notes upon the Actions of the Lord Burleigh BUT above all the rest it is a strange Fancy in the Libeller that he maketh his Lordship to be the Primum Mobile in every Action without Distinction That to him her Majesty is Accomptant of her Resolutions That to him the Earl of Leicâ—ster and Mr. Secretary Walsingham both Men of great Power and of great wit and understanding were but as Instruments whereas it is well knownn that as to her Majesty there was never a Counseller of his Lordships long Continuance that was so applyable to her Majesties Princely Resolutions Endeavouring alwayes after Faithfull Propositions and Remonstrances and these in the best words and the most Gratefull Manner to rest upon such Conclusions as her Majesty in her own wisdome determineth and them to execute to the best So far hath he been from Contestation or drawing her Majesty into any his own Courses And as for the Forenamed Counsellours and others with whom his Lordship hath consorted in her Majesties service It is rather true that his Lordship out of the Greatnesse of his Experience and Wisdome And out of the Coldnesse of his Nature hath qualified generally all Hard and Extreame Courses as far as the Service of her Majesty and the Safety of the State the Making himself compatible with those with whom he served would permit So far hath his Lordship been from inciting others or running a full Course with them in that kind But yet it is more strange that this Man should be so absurdly Malitious as he should charge his Lordship not onely with all Actions of State but also with all the Faults and Vices of the Times As if Curiosity and Emulation have bred some Controversies in the Church Though thanks be to God they extend but to outward Things As if Wealth and the Cunning of Wits have brought forth Multitudes of Suits in Law As If Excesse in Pleasures and in Magnificence joyned with the unfaithfulnesse of Servants and the Greedinesse of Monied Men have decayed the Patrimony of many Noble Men and others That all these and such like Conditions of the Time should be put on his Lordships accompt who hath been as far as to his Place appertaineth a most Religious and Wise Moderator in Church Matters to have Vnity kept who with great Iustice hath dispatched infinite Causes in Law that have orderly been brought before him And for his own Example may say that which few Men can say but was sometime said by Cephalus the Athenian so much Renowned in Plato's Works who having lived near to the age of an 100 years And in continuâ—ll Affairs the Businesse was wont to say of Himself That he never sued any neither had been sued by any Who by reason of his Office hath preserved many Great Houses from Overthrow by relieving sundry Extremities towards such as in their Minority have been circumvented And towards all such as his Lordship might advise did ever perswade Sober and Limited Expence Nay to make Proof further of his Contented Manner of Life free from Suits and Covetousnesse as he never sued any Man so did he never raise any Rent or put out any Tenant of his own Nor ever gave consent to have the like done to any of the Queens Tenants Matters singularly to be noted in this Age. But however by this Fellow as in a False Artificiall Glasse which is able to make the best Face Deformed his Lordships Doings be set forth yet let his Proceedings which be indeed his own be indifferently weighed and considered And let Men call to Mind that his Lordship was never a violent and Transported Man in Matters of State but ever Respective and Moderate That he was never Man in his particular a Breaker of Necks no heavy Enemy but ever Placable and Mild That he was never a Brewer of Holy water in Court no Dallier no Abuser but ever Reall and Certain That he was never a Bearing Man nor Carrier of Causes But ever gave way to Iustice and Course of Law That he was never a Glorious Wilfull Proud Man but ever Civill and Familiar and good to deal withall That in the Course of his Service he hath rather sustained the Burthen then sought the Fruition of Honour or Profit Scarcely sparing any time from his Cares and Travailes to the Sustentation of his Health That he never had nor sought to have for Himself and his Children any Penny-worth of Lands or Goods that appertained to any attainted of any Treason Felony or otherwise That he never had or sought any kind of Benefit by any Forfeiture to her Majesty That he was never a Factious Commender of Men as he that intended any waies to besiege Her by bringing in Men at his Devotion But was ever a true Reporter unto her Majesty of every Mans Deserts and Abilities That he never took â—he Course to unquiet or offend no nor exasperate her Majesty but to content her mind and mitigate her Displeasure That he ever bare Himself reverently and without Scandall in Matters of Religion and without blemish in his Private Course of Life Let Men I say without Passionate Mallice call to mind these Things And they will think it Reason that though he be not canonized for a Saint in Rome yet he is worthily celebrated as Pater Patriae in England And though he be Libelled against by Fugitives yet he is prayed for by a Multitude of good Subjects Aud lastly though he be envied whilest he liveth yet he shall be deeply wanted when he is gone And assuredly many
within the Compasse of any Moderation But theâ—e 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 â—here be a due and reverent use of tâ—e 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 wiâ—dome and Spirituall Discretion of the Master Builders and inâ—eriour Builders in Christs Church As it is excellently alluded by that Father that noted That Christs Garment was without Seam and yet the Churches Gâ—rment 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 Goverâ—ment 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 proiâ—ed 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 Counâ—ell 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 fiâ—st 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 â—pon good Ground That Ab Initio non fuit ita
Princes can have no Justice without treading in their steps Secondly his Lordship did observe some Improbability that the wrongs should be so great considering Trading into those parts was never greater whereas if the wrongs and griefs were so intollerable and continuall as they propound them It would work rather a generall Discouragement and Coldness of Trade in Fact Then an earnest and hot Complaint in Words Thirdly his Lordship did observe That it is a Course howsoever iâ— may be with a good Intent yet of no small presumption for Merchants upon their particular Grievances to urge things tending to a direct War Considering that nothing is more usuall in Treaties then that such particular Dammages and Molestations of Subjects are left to a Form of Justice to be righted And that the more high Articles do retain nevertheless their vigour inviolably And that the great Bargain of the Kingdome for War and Peace may in no wise depend upon such petty Forfeitures No more then in common Assurance between Man and Man it were fit that upon every breach of Covenants there should be limitted a Re-entry Fourthly his Lordship did observe In the manner of preferring their Petition they had inverted due order Addressing themselves to the Foot and not to the Head For considering that they prayed no new Law for their Relief And that it concerned Matter of Inducement to War or Peace They ought to have begun with his Majesty unto whose Royall Judgement Power and Office did properly belong the discerning of that which was desired The putting in Act of that which mought be granted And the Thanks for that which mought be obtained Fâ—fthly his Lordship did observe That as they had not preferred their Petition as it should be So they had not pursued their own Direction as it was For having directed their Petition to the King the Lords spirituall and Temporall and the Commons in Parliament assembled It imported as if they had offered the like Petition to the Lords which they never did Contrary Not onely to their own Direction but likewise to our Conceipt who presupposed as it should seem by some Speech that passed from us at a former Conference That they had offered severall Petitions of like tenour to both Houses So have you now those eight Observations part Generall part Speciall which his Lordship made touching the Persons of those which exhibited the Petition and the Circumstances of the same For the Matter of the Petition it self his Lordship made this Division That it consisteth of three parts First of the Complaints of wrongs in Fact Secondly of the Complaints of wrongs in Law As they may be truly termed That is of the Inequality of Lawes which do regulate the Trade And thirdly the Remedy desired by Letters of Mart. The wrongs in Fact receive a locall Distribution of three In the Trade to Spain In the Trade to the Westâ—Indies And in the Trade to the Levant Concerning the Trade to Spain Although his Lordship did use much signification of Compassion of the Injuries which the Merchants received And attributed so much to their Profession and Estate As from such a mouth in such a Presence they ought to receive for a great deal of Honour and Comfort which Kind of Demonstration he did enterlace throughout â—is whole Speech as proceeding Ex Abundantiâ Cordis yet nevertheless he did remember four Excusations or rather Extenuations of those wrongs The first was that the Injustices complained of were not in the Highest Degree Because they were Delayes and hard proceedings and not Inique Sentences or definitive Condemnations Wherein I called to mind what I heard a great Bishop say That Courts of Iustice though they did not turn Iustice into Wormwood by Corruption yet they turned it into Vinegar by Delaies which sowred it Such a Difference did his Lordship make which no question is a Difference secundum Magis Minus Secondly his Lordship ascribed these Delayes not so much to Mallice or Alienation of Mind towards us As to the Nature of the People and Nation which is Proud and therefore Dilatory For all proud Men are full of Delayes and must be waited on And specially to the Multitudes and Diversities of Tribunals and places of justice And the Number of the Kings Counsels full of Referrings which ever prove of necessity to be Deferrings Besides the great Distance of Territories All which have made the Delayes of Spain to come into a Byword through the World Wherein I think his Lordship might allude to the Proverb of Italy Me Venga la Morte di Spagna Let my Death come from Spain For then it is sure to be long a comming Thirdly his Lordship did use an Extenuation of these wrongs drawn from the Nature of Man Nemo subitò fingitur For that we must make an account That though the Fire of Enmity be out between Spain and us yet it vapoureth The utter Extincting whereof must be the work of Time But lastly his Lordship did fall upon that Extenuation which of all the rest was must forcible which was That many of these wrongs were not sustained without some Aspersion of the Merchants own Fault in ministring the Occasion which grew chiefly in this manner There is contained an Article in the Treaty between Spain and us That we shall not transport any Native Commodities of the Low-Countreys into Spain Nay more that we shall not transport any Opificia Manufactures of the same Countreys So that if an English Cloath take but a Dye in the Low Countryes it may not be transported by the English And the Reason is because even those Manufactures although the Materiall come from other Places do yield unto them a Profit and Sustentation in regard their People are set on work by them They have a gain likewise in the Price And they have a Custome in the Transporting All which the Pollicy of Spain is to debar them of Being no less desirous to Suffocate the Trade of the Low-Countries then to reduce their Obedience This Article the English Merchant either doth not or will not understand But being drawn with his threefold Cord of Love Hate and Gain They do adventure to transport the Low-Countrey Commodities of these natures And so draw upon themselves these Arrests and Troubles For the Trade to the Indies His Lordship did discover unto us the state of it to be thus The Pollicy of Spain doth keep that Treasury of theirs under such Lock and Key as both Confederates yea and Subjects are excluded of Trade into those Countries Insomuch as the French King who hath reason to stand upon equall termes with Spain yet nevertheless is by expresse Capitulation debarred The Subjects of Portugall whom the State of Spain hath studied by all means to content are likewise debarred Such a vigilant Dragon is there that keepeth this Golden Fleece yet neverthelesse such was his Majesties Magnanimity in the Debate and Concluâ—ion of the last Treaty As he would never condiscend to any Article importing
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 saiâ—h 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
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 â—state 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 boâ—h 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 elâ—e 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 affiâ—m 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 â—eliefe 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 Thâ—n 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
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 witâ—all 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 Relâ—gion 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 Retâ—rnes 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 Aspâ—rsionâ— of the Crimsâ—n Die of â—lood There sits my Lord Hobâ—rt â—hat served Atâ—urney 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 â—orth 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 Wâ—stminster And lastly for Peace we see manifestly his Majesty bears some Resemblance of that great Name A Prince of Peace He haâ—h preserved his Subjects during his Raign in Peace both within and wiâ—hout 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 â—ou 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 oâ—ened 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 wherewiâ—h 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 â—os 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 pâ—oditionum odiosissimae perniciosissimae Against Hostile Invasions and the Adherence of Subjects to â—nemies 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 Safeâ—Conducts 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 Coâ—rage 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 â—ndignation 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
as Men misled are to be pittied For the First if a Man doth visit the foul and polluted Opinions Customesâ— or Practices of Heathenism Mahometism and Heresie he shall find they do not attain to this Height Take the Examples of damnable Memory amongst the Heathen The Proscriptions in Rome of Sylla And afterwards of the Triumvirs what were they They were but of a finite Number of Persons and those not many that were exposed unto any Mans Sword But what is that to the proscribing of a King and all that shall take his Part And what was the Reward of a Souldier that amongst them killed one of the proscribed A small piece of Money But what is now the reward of one that shall kill a King The Kingdom of Heaven The Custome among the Heathen that was most scandalized was that sometimes the Priest sacrificed Men But yet you sâ—all not read of any Priesthood that sacrificed Kings The Mahometâ—ns make it a part of their Religion to propagate their Sect by the Sword But yet still by Honourable Wars never by Villanies and secret Murthers Nâ—y I find that the Saracen Prinâ—e of whom the Name of the â—ssassins is derived which had divers Votaâ—ies at Commandement which he sent and imployed to the Killing of divers Princes in the East By one of whom Amurath the First was slain And Edward the First of England was wounâ—ed was put down and rooted out by common Consentâ— of the Mahometan Princes The Anabaptists it is true come nearest For they professe the pulling down of Magistrates And they can chaunt the Psalm To bind their Kings in Chaines and their Nobles in fetters of Iron This is the Glory of the Saints mâ—ch like the Temporall Authority that the Pope Challengeth over Princes But this is the difference That that is a Furious and Fanaticall Fury And this is a sad and solemn Mischief He imagineth Mischief as a Law A Law-like Mischief As for the Defence which they do make it doth aggravate the sin And turneth it from a Cruelty towards Man to a Blaâ—phemy towards God For to say that all this is in ordine ad spirituale And to a good End And for the salvation of Soules It is directly to make God Author of Evill And to draw him into the likenesse of the Prince of Darknesse And to say with thoseâ— that Saint Paul speaketh of Let us do Evill that good may come thereof Of whom the Apostle saith dâ—finitively That their damnatioâ— is Iust. For the Destroying of Government universally it is most evident That it is not the Case of Protestant Princes onely But of Catholick Princes likewise As the King hath excellently set forth Nay it is not the Case of Princes onely but of all Subjects and private Persons For touching Princes let History be perused what hath been the Causes of Excommunication And namely this Tumour of it the Deposing of Kings It hath not been for Heresie and Schism alone but for Collation and Investitures of Bishopricks and Benefiâ—es Intruding upon Ecclesiasticall Possessions violating of any Ecclesiasticall Person or Liberty Nay generally they maintain it that it may be for any sin So that the Difference wherein their Doctors vary That some hold That the Pope hath his Temporall power immediatly And others but in ordine ad spiritude is but a Delusion and an Abuse For all commeth to one What is there that may not be made spirituall by Consequence specially when He that giveth the Sentence may make the Case And accordingly hath the miserable Experience followed For this Murthering of Kings hath been put in practise as well against Papist Kings as Protestants Save that it hath pleased God so to guide it by his admirable providence As the Attempts upon Papist Princes have been executed And the Attempts upon Protestant Princes have failed Except that of the Prince Aurange And not that neither untill such time as he had joyned too fast with the Duke of Anjou and the Papists The rest is wanting The Charge of Sir Francis Bacon the Kings Atturney Generall against M. L. S. W. and H. I. for Scandall and Traducing of the Kings Justice in the proceedings against Weston In the Star-Chamber 10. Novemb. 1615. THe Offence wherewith I shall charge the three Offenders at the Bar is a Misdemeanour of a High Nature Tending to the Defacing and Scandall of Iustice in a great Cause Capitall The particular Charge is this The King amongst many his Princely vertues is known to excell in that proper vertue of the Imperiall Throne which is Iustice. It is a Royall Vertue which doth employ the other three Cardinall Vertues in her Service Wisdome to discover and discern Nocent or Innocent Fortitude to prosecute and execute Temperance so to carry Iustice as it be not passionate in the pursuit nor confused in involving persons upon light suspicion Nor precipitate in time For this his Majesties Vertue of Iustice God hath of late raised an occasion and erected as it were a Stage or Theater much to his Honour for him to shew it and act it in the pursuit of the untimely Death of Sir Thomas Overbury And therein cleansing the Land from Bloud For my Lords if Bloud spilt Pure doth cry to Heaven in Gods Eares much more Bloud defiled with Poyson This Great Work of his Majesties Iustice the more excellent it is your Lordships will soon conclude the greater is the Offence of any that have sought to Affront it or Traduce it And therefore before I descend unto the Charge of these Offenders I will set before your Lordships the weight of that which they have sought to impeach Speaking somewhat of the generall Crime of Impoysonment And then of the particular Circumstances of this Fact upon Overbury And thirdly and chiefly of the Kings great and worthy Care and Carriage in this Business This Offence of Impoysonment is most truly figured in that Devise or Description which was made of the Nature of one of the Roman Tyrants That he was Lutum Sanguine maceratum Mire mingled or cymented with Bloud For as it is one of the highest Offencesâ— in Guiltiness So it is the Basest of all others in the Mind of the Offenders Treasons Magnum aliquid spectant They aym at great thingâ—â— But this is vile and base I tell your Lordships what I have noted That in all Gods Book both of the Old and New Testament I find Examples of all other Offences and Offendours in the world but not any one of an Impoyâ—onment or an Impoysoner I find mention of Fear of casuall Impoysonment when the Wild Vine was shred into the Pot they came complaining in a fearfull manner Maister Mors in ollâ And I find mention of Poysons of Beasts and Serpents The Poyson of Aspes is under their Lips But I find no Example in the Book of God of Impoysonment I have sometime thought of the Words in the Psalm Let their Table be made a Snare Which certainly is most True of Impoysonment For
Seal and against the Consumption of the Means and estate which was speedy Iustice. Bis dat qui citò dat The fourth was that Iustice might passe with as easie charge as mought be And that those same Brambles that grow about Iustice of needlesse Charge and Expence And all manner of Exactions mought be rooted out so far as mought be These Commandements my Lords are Righteous And as I may term them Sacred And therefore to use a Sacred Form I pray God blesse the King for his great care over the Iustice of the Land And give me his poor Servant Grace and Power to observe his Precepts Now for a Beginning towards it I have set down and applied particular Orders to every one of these four Generall Heads For the Excesse or Tumour of this Court of Chancery I shall divide it into five Natures The first is when the Court doth embrace or retain Causes both in Matter and Circumstance meerly Determinable and Fit for the Common Law For my Lords the Chancery is ordained to supply the Law and not to subvert the Law Now to describe unto you or delineate what those Causes are and upon what differences that are fit for the Court were too long a Lecture But I will tell you what Remedy I have prepared I will keep the Keyes of the Court my self and I will never refer any Demurrer or Plea tending to discharge or dismisse the Court of the Cause to any Mr. of the Chancery But judge oâ— itâ— my self or at least the Mr. of the Rowles Nay further I will appoint regularly that on the Tuesday in every week which is the Day of Orders first to hear all Motions of that Nature before any other That the Subject may have his Vale at first without further attending And that the Court do not keep and accumulate a Miscellany and Confusion of Causes of all Natures The sâ—cond Point concerneth the time of the Complaint And the late Commers into the Chancery which stay till a Iudgement be passed against them at the Common Law and then complain Wherein your Lorships may have heard a great Ratâ—le and a Noyse of a Premunire and I cannot tell what But that Question the King hath setled according to the ancient presidentâ— in all times continued And this I will say that the Opinion not to relieve any Case afâ—er Iudgement would be a guilty Opinion Guilty of the Ruine and Naufrage and perishing of infinite Subjects And as the King found it well out why should a Man fly into the Chancery before he be Hurt The whole need not the Physician but the sick But My Lords the Power would be preserved but then the Practise would be moderate My Rule shall be therefore that in Case of Complaints after Iudgement except the Iudgements be upon Nihil dicit which are but Disguises of â—udgement Obtained in Contempt of a preceding Order of this Court yea and after Verdicts also I will have the Party Complainant enter into good Boâ—d to prove his Suggestion So that if he will be relieved against a Iudgement at Common Law upon Matter of Equity He shall do it Tanquam in Vinculis at his Perill The Third Point of Excesse may be the over Frequent and Facile Granting of Injunctions for the staying of the Common Lawes Or the Altering Possessions wherein these shall be my Rules I will grant no Injunction mereely upon Priority of suit That is to say Because this Court was first possessed A Thing that was well reformed in the late Lord Chancellers time but used in Chanceller Broomeleyes time Insomuch as I remember that Mr. Dalton the Councellor at Law put a Pasquill upon the Coâ—rt in Nature of a Bill For seeing it was no more but My Lord the Bill came in on Munday and the Arrest at Common Law was on Tuesday I pray the Injunction upon Priority of Suite He caused his Clâ—ent that had a Loose Debteâ— to put a Bill into the Chancery bâ—forâ— the Bond due to him was forfeited to desire an Order that he might have his Money at the Day Because he would be sure to be before the other I do not mean to make it a Matter of an Horse-Race or Poasting who shall be first in Chancery or in Courts of Law Neither will I grant an Injunction upon Matâ—er conâ—ained in the Bill only be it never so smooth and Specious But upon Matter confessed in the Defendants Answer Or Matter pregnant in Writing or of Record Or upon Contempt of the Defendant in not Appearing or not Answering or Trifling with the Court by insufficient Answering For then it may be thought the Defendant stands out upon purpose to get the start at the Common Law And so take Advantage of his own Contempt which may not be suffered As for Injunctions for possession I shall maintaine possessions as they were at the time of the Bill exhibited And for the space of a year before Except the possession were gotten by Force or by any Trick Neither will I alter Possession upon Interlocutory Orders untill a Decree Except upon Matter plainly confessed in the Defendants Answer joyned with a plain Disability and Insolvency of the Defendants to answer the Profits As for taking the Possession away in respect of Contempts I will have all the proceedings of the Court spent first and a Sequestration of the Profits before I come to an Injunction The Fourth Part of Excesse is concerning the Communicating of the Authority of the Chanceller too far And making upâ—n the matter too many Chancellors by relying too much upon Reports of the Masters of the Chancery as concludent I know my Lords the Masters of the Chancery are Reverend Men And the great Mass of Businesse of the Court cannot be sped without them And it is a Thing the Chanceller may soon fall into for his own Ease to rely too much upon them But the Course that I will take generally shall be this That I will make no Binding Order upon any report of the Masters without giving a seven nights day at the least to shew cause against the Report which nevertheless I will have done modestly with due reverence towards them And again I must utterly discontinue the Making of an Hypotheticall or Conditionall Order That if a Master of the Chancery do certifie thus that then it is Ordered without further Motion For that is a Surprise and gives no time for Contradiction The last Point of Excesse is If a Chanceller shall be so much of himself as he should neglect Assistance of Reverend Iudges in Cases of Difficulty especially if they touch upon Law or Calling them shall do it but Pro formâ tantùm and give no due respect to their Opinions Wherein my Lords preserving the Dignity and Majesty of the Court which I count rather increased then diminished by grave and due Assistance I shall never be found so Soveraign or abundant in mine own sense but I shall both desire and make true use of
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 pâ—ssing 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 unlawâ—ull 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 Couâ—sell 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 pasâ—ed 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 Lengâ—h 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 saâ—e 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. Ordâ—rs 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 Oâ—hers 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 Mattâ—r 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 Lawyâ—rs 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 oâ—her to day but such as have a proper Relation to his Majâ—sties 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
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 lâ—te no small Occasion of Notice and Remembrance by the great and strait Charge that the King haâ—h 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 â—he Kings Blâ—ssed Care and Pâ—ovidence in goveâ—ning this Realm in his Absence So thâ—t sitting at the Helm of another Kingdom Nâ—t without gâ—eat 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 Sinnâ—w 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 Diâ—ections 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 â—hey are like the Roots of Nettles which themselves sting not but yet â—hey 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 immediâ—te Directors And by sorting you and your seâ—vice 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 Sâ—rjeants 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 Quicknesâ—e 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
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 Prâ—ncipall 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
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 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 tâ—e 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 paâ—t 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 Râ—ign Nor consumed past two of â—y 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 Maiâ—sties Progenitours have been Victorious in their Wars And have made many Famous and Memorable Voyages and Expediâ—tions 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
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 accorâ—ing 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 suspiâ—ious 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 bâ—t 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 leâ—â— they should cast themselves into the Arms of a Stranger But finding the Kings Mind so exulcerate as he rejâ—cted 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 Bâ—t 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 â—ould 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 proâ—essed Enemy unto her Majesty having actually invaded Ireland â—nd 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 â—rovinces which by the States with much Instance was pressed upon her and being accepted would hâ—ve 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
lent your Reputation in this Case That is To pretend that if Peace go not on and the Queen mean to make not a Defensive Warr as in times past but a full Reconquest of those parts of the Countrey you would accept the Charge I think it would help to settle Tyrone in his seeking Accord and win you a great deal of Honour gratis And that which most properly concern's this Action if it prove a Peace I think her Majesty shall doe well to cure the Root of the Disease And to Professe by a Commission of Peaceable Men of Respect and Countenance a Reformation of Abuses Extortions and Injustices there And to plant a stronger and surer Government than heretofore for the Ease and Protection of the Subject For the Removing of the Sword or Government in Arms from the Earl of Ormond Or the sending of a Deputy which will ecclipse it if Peace follow I think it unseasonable Lastly I hold still my Opinion both for your better Inâ—ormation and the fuller Declaration of your Care in Medling in this urgent and meriting Service That your Lordship have a set Conference with the persons I named in my former Letter A Letter of Advice to my Lord of Essex immediately before his going into Ireland My sigular good Loâ—d YOur late Note of my Silence in your Occasions hath made me set down these few wandring Lines as one that would say somewhat and can say nothing touching your Lordships intended Charge for Ireland Which my Endeavour I know your Lordship will accept graciously whether your Lordship take it by the Handle of Occasion ministred from your Self or of the Affection from which it proceeds Your Lordship is designed to a Service of great Merit and great Peril And as the Greatness of the Peril must needs include a like proportion of Merit So the Greatnesse of the Merit may include no small Consequence of Peril if it be not temperately governed For all immoderate Successe extinguisheth Merit and stirreth up Distast and Envy The assured Forerunners of whole Charges of Peril But I am at the last point first Some good Spirit leading my Penn to presage to your Lordship successe Wherein it is true I am not without my Oracles and Divinations None of them Superstitious and yet not all Natural For first looking into the Course of Gods Providence in Things now depending And calling to consideration how great things God hath done by her Majesty and for her I collect he hath disposed of this great Defection in Ireland thereby to give an urgent occasion to the Reduction of that whole Kingdom As upon the Rebellion of Desmond there insued the Reduction of that whole Province Next your Lordship goeth against three of the unluckiest Vices of all others Disloyalty Ingratitude and Insolency Which three Offences in all Examples have seldom their Doom adjourn'd to the world to come Lastly he that shall have had the Honour to know your Lordship inwardly as I have had shall find Bona Exta whereby he may better ground a Divination of Good than upon the Dissection of a Sacrifice But that part I leave For it is fit â—or others to be confident upon the cause The Goodnesse and Justice whereof is such as can hardly be matched in any Exampleâ— It being no Ambitious Warr against Forreiners but a Recovery of Subjects And that after Lenity of Conditions often tryed And a Recovery of them not onely to Obedience but to Humanity and Policy from more than Indian Barbarism There is yet another Kinde of Divination familiar to Matters of State Being that which Demosthenes so often relyed upon in his time when he said That which for the time past is worst of all is for the time to come the best which is that things goâ— ill not by Accident but by Errours Wherein if your Lordship have been heretofore an Awaking Censour you must look â—or no other now but Medice Cura teipsum And though you shall not be the Happy Physician that commeth in the Declination of the Disease yet you embrace that Condition which many Noble Spirits have accepted for Advantage which is that you goe upon the greater Peril of your Fortune and the lesse of your Reputation And so the Honour countervaileth the Adventure Of which Honour your Lordship is in no small possession when that her Majesty known to be one of the most judicious Princes in discerning of Spirits that ever governed hath made choice of you meerly out of her Royal Iudgement her Affection inclining rather to continue your Attendance into whose hand and trust to put the Command and Conduct of so great Forces The Gathering the Fruit of so great Charge The Execution of so many Counsels The Redeeming of the Defaults of so many former Governers The clearing of the Glory of her so many happy years Reign onely in this part eclipsed Nay further how far forth the peril of that State is interlaced with the peril of England And therefore how great the Honour is to keep and defend the Approaches or Ave-newes of this Kingdom I hear many discourse And there is a great Difference whether the Tortoise gathereth her self within her shell hurt or unhurt And if any Man be of Opinion that the Nature of the Enemy doth extenuate the Honour of the Service being but a Rebell and a Savage I differ from him For I see the justest Triumphs that the Romans in their greatnesse did obtain And that whereof the Emperours in their Stiles took Addition and Denomination were of such an Enemy as this That is People Barbarous and not reduced to Civility magnifying a kind of lawlesse Liberty and prodigal of Life hardned in Body fortified in Woods and Boggs and placing both Justice and Felicity in sharpnesse of their Swords Such were the Germans and auncient Brittons and divers others Upon which kinde of People whether the Victory were a Conquest or a Reconquest upon a Rebellion or a Revolt It made no difference that ever I could find in Honour And therefore it is not the Enriching Predatory Warr that hath the preheminence in Honour Else should it be more Honour to bring in a Carick of rich Burthen than one of the 12. Spanish Apostles But then this Nature of People doth yield a higher point of Honour considered in Truth and Substance than any warr can yield which should be atchieved against a Civil Enemy If the End may be Pacique imponere morem to replant and refound the policy of that Nation To which nothing is wanting but a just and Civil Government which Design as it doth descend unto you â—rom your Noble Father who lost his life in that Action though he paid Tribute to Nature and not to Fortune So I hope your Lordship shall be as Fatal a Captain to this warr as Africanus was to the Warr of Carthage After that both his Uncle and Father had lost their Lives in Spain in the same warr Now although it be true that these Things which I
I rendâ—r you no less kinde Thanks for your aid and Favour towards him than if it had been for my Self Assuring you that this Bond of Alliance shall on my part tye me to give all the Tribute to your good Fortune upon all occasions that my poor Strâ—ngth can yield I send you so required an Abstract of the Lands of Inheritance And one Lease of great value which my Kinsman bringeth with a Note of the Tenures Valews Contents and State truly and perfectly drawen whereby you may perceive the Land is good Land and well countenanced by scope of Acres â—oods and Royalties Though the Total of the Rents be set down as it now goeth without Improvement In which respâ—ct it may somewhat differ from your first Note Out of this what he will assure in Ioincture I leave it to his own kindness For I love not to measure Affection To conclude I doubt not your Daughter mought have married to a better Living but never to a better Life Having chosen a Gentleman bred to all Honesty Vertue and Worth with an Estate convenient And if my Brother or my Self were either Thrivers or Fortunate in the Queens Service I would hope there should be left as great an House of the Cookes in this Gentleman as in your good Friend Mr. Atturney General But sure I am if Scriptures fail not it will have as much of Gods Blessing and Sufficiency is ever the best Feast c. To Sir Robert Cecil at his Being in France It may please your Honourable Lordship I Know you will pardon this my Observance in writing to you empty of matter but out of the fulness of my Love I am sorry that as your time of Absence is prolonged above that was esteemed at your Lordships setting forth So now upon this last Advertisement received from you there groweth an Opinion amongst better than the vulgar that the Difficulties also of your Neâ—otiation are encreased But because I know the Gravity of your Nature to be not to hope lightly it maketh me to despair the less For you are Natus ad Ardua And the Indisposition of the Subject may honour the Skill of the Workman Sure I am â—udgement and Diligence shall not want in your Lordships Self But this was not my purpose Being onely to signifie unto your Lordship my continual and incessant love towards you thirsting after your Return for many respects So I commend you ever to the good preservation of the Divine Majesty Grayes Inne At your Honours Commandement ever and particularly To Sir Robert Cecil My singulâ—r good Lord THe Argument of my Letters to your Lordship rather encreaseth than spendeth It being only the Desire I have to salute you which by your absence is more augmented than abated For me to write your Lordship Occurrences either of Scotish Braggs or Irish Plaints or Spanish Ruffling or Low-Countrey States were besides that it is alienum quiddam from mine own humour To forget to whom I write save that you that know true Advertisements sometimes desire and delight to hear common Reports As we that know but common Reports desire to hear the Truth But to leave such as write to your Fortunes I write to your self in regard of my love to you you being as near to me in Hearts Bloud as in Bloud of Descent This day I had the Contentment to see your Father upon Occasion And methought his Lordships Countenance was not decayed nor his Cough vehement But his Voice was as faint all the while as at first Thus wishing your Lordship a happy and speedy Return I commend you to the Divine Majesty To the Queen It may please your sacred Majesty I Would not fail to give your Majesty my most humble and due Thanks for your Royal choice of such Commissioners in the great Starre-chamber Cause Being persons besides their Honour of such Science and Integrity By whose Report I doubt not but your Majesty will finde that which you have been heretofore enfotmed both by my Lord Keeper and by some much meaner person touching the Nature of that Cause to be true This preparatory Hearing doth already assail me with new and enlarged Offers of Composition which if I had born a minde to have hearkned unto this matter had been quenched long agoe without any benefit to your Majesty But your Majesties Benefit is to me in greater regard than mine own particular Trusting to your Majesties gracious disposition and Royal word that your Majesty will include me in any extraordinary Course of your Soveraign pleasure which your Majesty shall like to take in this Cause The other Man I spoke to your Majesty of may within these two Terms be in the same streights between your Majesties Justice and Mercy that this Man now is if your Majesty be so pleased So most humbly craving pardon for my presuming to seek accesse for these few Lines I recommend your Majesty to the most precious Custody and best preservation of the Divine Majesty Your Majesties most humble and entirely obedient Servant and Subject To the Queen It may please your Majesty IT were great simplicity in me to look for better than that your Majesty should cast away my Letter as you have done Me were it not that it is possible your Majesty will think to find somewhat in it whereupon your displeasure may take hold And so Indignation may obtain that of you which Favour could not Neither mought I in reason presume to offer unto your Majesty dead lines my self being excluded as I am Were it not upon this onely Argument or Subject Namely to clear my self in point of Duty Duty though my State lye buried in the Sands And my Favours be cast upon the Waters And my Honours be committed to the Wind Yet standeth surely built upon the Rock and hath been and ever shall be unforced and unattempted And therefore since the World out of Errour and your Majesty I fear out of Art is pleased to put upon me That I have so much as any Election or Will in this my Absence from Attendance I cannot but leave this Protestation with your Majesty That I am and have been meerly a patient and take my self onely to obey and execute your Majesties will And indeed Madam I had never thought it possible that your Majesty could have so dis-interessed your self of me Nor that you had been so perfect in the Art of forgetting Nor that after a Quintessence of Wormwood your Majesty would have taken so large a Draught of Poppy As to have passed so many Summers without all Feeling of my Sufferings But the onely Comfort I have is this that I know your Majesty taketh Delight and Contentment in executing this Disgrace upon me And since your Majesty can find no other use of me I am glad yet I can serve for that Thus making my most humble petition to your Majesty that in Justice Howsoever you may by strangeness untye or by violence cut Asunder all other Knotts your Majesty would
them a single and zealous minde to bestow their duties therein He will see them accordingly appointed of Sufficiency convenient for the Rank and Standing where they shall be employed So as under this her Majesties Blessing I trust to receive a larger allowance of Gods Graces And as I may hope for this so I can assure and promise for my Endeavour that it shall not be in fault But what Diligence can entitle me unto that I doubt not to recover And now seeing it hath pleased her Majesty to take knowledge of this my Mind and to vouchsafe to appropriate me unto her Service preventing any desert of mine with her Princely liberality First I am humbly to beseech your Lordship to present to her Majesty my more than humble Thanks for the same And withall having regard to mine own unworthiness to receive such Favour And to the small possibility in me to satisfie and answer what her Majesty conceiveth I am moved to become a most humble Suter to her Majesty that this Benefit also may be aâ—fixed unto the other which is That if there appear in me no such Towardness of Service as it may be her Majesty doth benignly value and assess me at by reason of my sundry wants and the disadvantage of my Nature being unapt to lay forth the Simple Store of those inferiour Gifts which God hath allotted unto me most to view yet that it would please her Excellent Majesty not to account my Thankfulness the less for that my Disability is great to shew it But to sustain me in her Majesties gracious opinion whereupon I onely rest and not upon any expectation of Desert to proceed from my Self towards the Contentment thereof But if it shall please God to send forth an occasion whereby my faithfull Affection may be tryed I trust it shall save me labour for ever making more protestation of it hereafter In the mean time howsoever it be not made known to her Majesty yet God knoweth it through the daily sollicitations wherewith I address my self unto him in unfeigned prayer for the Multiplying of her Majesties prosperities To your Lordship also whose Recommendation I know right well hath been material to advance her Majesties good opinion of me I can be but a bounden Servant So much may I safely premise and purpose to be seeing publick and private Bonds vary not but that my Service to her Majesty and your Lordship draw in a Line I wish therefore to shew it with as good proof as I can say it in good faith c. Your Lordships c. To Sir Robert Cecil It may please your good Honour I Am apt enough to contemn Mendacia Famae yet it is with this Distinction As Fame walks among Inferiours and not as it hath Entrance into some Ears And yet nevertheless in that kinde also I intend to avoid a suspicious silence but not to make any base Apology It is blown about the Town that I should give opinion touching my Lord of Essex Cause First that it was a Praemunire And now last that it reached to High Treason And this Opinion should be given in opposition to the Opinion of the Lord Chief Iustice and of Mr. Atturney General Sir I thank God whatsoever Opinion my Head serveth me to deliver to her Majesty being asked My Heart serveth me to maintain the same honest Duty directing me and assisting me But the utter untruth of this Report God and the Queen can witness And the Improbability of it every Man that hath Wit more or lesse can conceive The Root of this I discern to beâ— not so much a light and humorous Envy at my Accesses to her Majesty which of her Majesties grace being begun in my first years I would be sorry she should estraunge in my last years For so I account them reckoning by Health not by Age As a deep Malice to your Honourable Self upon whom by me through nearness they think to make some Aspersion But as I know no Remedy against Libels and Lies So I hope it shall make no manner of Disseverance of your Honourable good Conceits and Affection towards me which is the Thing I confesse to fear For as for any violence to be offered to me wherewith my Friends tell me to no small terrour that I am threatned I thank God I have the privy Coat of a good Conscience And have a good while since put off any fearfull care of Life or the Accidents of Life So desiring to be preserved in your gooâ— Opinion I remain To the Queen It may please your most excellent Majesty I Presume according to the Ceremony and good manner of the Time and my accustomed Duty in all Humblenesse to present your Majesty with a simple Gift Almost as farre from answering my Mind as sorting with your Greatnesse And therewith wish that we may continue to reckon on and ever your Majesties happy yeares of Reign And they that reckon upon any other Hopes I would they mought reckon short and to their Cost And so craving pardon most humbly I commend your Majesty to the preservation of the Divine Goodnesse To the Queen It may please your most excellent Majesty I Most humbly entreat your Majesty not to impute my absence to any weaknesse of mind or unworthinesse But I assure your Majesty I do find Envy beating so strongly upon me standing as I do if this be to stand as it were not Strength of Mind but Stupidity if I should not decline the Occasions Except I could doe your Majesty more Service than I can any wayes discern that I am able to doe My Course towards your Majesty God is my witnesse hath been pure and unleavened And never poor Gentleman as I am perswaded had a deeper and truer desire and care of your glory your safety your Repose of Mind your service VVherein if I have exceeded my outward vocation I most humbly crave your Majesties pardon for my presumption On the other side if I have come short of my inward vocation I most humbly crave Gods pardon for quenching the Spirit But in this mind I find such solitude and want of comfort which I judge to be because I take Duty too exactly and not according to the Dreggs of this Age wherein the old Antheme mought never be more truly sung Totus mundus in maligno positus est My Life hath been threatned and my Name libelled which I count an Honor. But these are the practices of those whose despairs are dangerous But yet not so dangerous as their Hopes Or else the Devices of some that would put out all your Majesties lights and fall on reckoning how many years you have reigned which I beseech our blessed Saviour may be doubled And that I may never live to see any Eclipse of your glory Interruption of safety or Indisposition of your person which I commend to the Divine Majesty who keep you and fortifie you To my Lord Hen. Howard My Lord THere be very few besides your self to whom
I would perform this Respect For I contemn Mendacia Famae as it walkes among Inferiours Though I neglect it not as it may have entrance into some Eare. For your Lordships Love rooted upon good opinion I esteem it highly because I have tasted of the Fruits of it And we both have tasted of the best waters in my accompt to knit minds together There is shaped a Tale in Londons Forge that beateth apace at this time That I should deliver opinion to the Queeâ— in my Lord of Essex cause First that it was premunire And now last that it was High Treason And this opinion to be in opposition and Encounter of the Lord chief Iustices Opinion and the Atturney Generalls My Lord I thank God my wit serveth me not to deliver any Opinion to the Qeen which my Stomach serveth me not to maintain One and the same Conscience of Duty guiding me and fortifying me But the untruth oâ— this Fable God and my Soveraign can witnesse And there I leave it Knowing no more Remedy against lies than others doe against libells The Root no question of it is partly some light-headed Envy at my Accesses to her Majesty Which being begun and continued since my childhood as long as her Majesty shall think me worthy of them I scorn those that shall think the contrary And another Reason is the Aspersion of this Tale And the Envy thereof upon some greatâ—r Man in regard of my Nearnesse And therefore my Lord I pray you answâ—r for me to any person that you think worthy your own Reply and my defence For my Lord of Essex I am not servile to him having regard to my â—uperiours Duty I have been much bound unto him And on the other side I have spent more time and more thoughts about his well-doing than I ever did about mine own I pray God you his Friends amongst you be in the right Nulla Remedia tam faciunt dolorem quam quae sunt salutaria For my part I have deserved better than to have my Name objected to Envy or my Life to a Ruffians violence But I have the privy Coat of a good Conscience I am sure these Courses and Bruits hurt my Lord more than all So having written to your Lordship I desire exceedingly to be preferred in your good Opinion and Love And so leave you to Gods Goodnesse The Earl of Essex Letter to the Councill at his Embarquing for Spain Iune 1596. My very good Lords HAving taken order for all things that belong to our Land-Forces And staying onely till the Shipps be ready to take in our Souldiers I am come aboard as well to draw other Men by my example to leave the shore As to have time and leasure to ask account of my self what other duty I have to do besides the Governing of those Troups And the using of them to good purpose In which Meditation as I first study to please my most gracious Soveraign as well as to serve her So my next care is to leave your Lordships well satisfied of my passed Carriage since I was nominated to this Service And apt to make favourable Construction of what I shall do hereafter In my past Carriage I will neither plead Merit nor Excuse Imperfections For whatsoever I shall be able to do I know is lesse than I owe And besides my Faults my very Faith and Zeal which are the best things in me do make me commit Errours But I would fain approve the Matter it self of undertaking this service to have been good howsoever my former have been erroneous Or at least my Intent and Ends unblameable though my Judgement were faulty Your Lordships know it hath been the Wisedome of all Times rather to attempt and do something in another Countrey than to attend an Enemy and be in danger much in our own And if this Rule among the Ancients was generally held true it might be better allowed of us in particular cases where a State little in Territory not extraordinarily rich and defended onely with it self shall have to doe with another State that hath Many and ample Dominions the Treasure of the Indies and all the Mercenaries of Christendome to serve it For we have as the Athenians had with the auncient usurping Philip Praelium Facile Bellum Difficile Therefore it is our Disadvantage to draw the Warr into Length And if any Man in this Kingdom should be allowed to perswade to prevention he might be one that saw the Spaniard at home apprehend an Invasion with greater Terrour than he makes it abroad And that was a Witness how an Handfull of Men neither armed victualled nor ordered as they should be landed marched and had done what they listed if either the Ships had come up or they had had any provisions to make a Hole in a Wall or to break open a Gate But though the Counsel be good for some States and for ours at some times yet the Opportunities ought to be watched and it must appear that this it is which is now taken The Opportunity for such Service I take to be when either the Enemy May receive the most hurt Or when he is likeliest to attempt against us if he be not empeached The Hurt that our Estate should seek to doe him is To intercept his Treasure whereby we shall cut his Sinnews and make Warr upon him with his own Money And to beat or at least discontinew him from the Sea whereby her Majesty shall be both secured from his Invasions and become Mistris of the Sea which is the Greatness that the Queen of an Island should most aspire unto In matter of Profit we may this Journey most hurt him and benefit our Selves Since he hath as is agreed on by all Men more Caracks to come home now than ever any year before Besides many good Advantages which will be offered if we command the Coast. And to give him a Blow and discountenance him by Sea now is the Time when he hath declared his Ambition to command the Seas And yet so divided his Fleets Some appointed to be set out and yet scant in readiness others upon point of Comming home and not fit to defend themselves if either they be met at Sea or found in Harbour And all so dispersed in several places as if at any time we might doe good that way it is now And whether he will make Warr upon us if we let him alone Let his Sollicitations Offers and Gifts to the Rebells of Ireland His besieging and winning of Calais and those parts of France that front upon us And his strengthening himself by Sea by so many means Let these things I say tell us So as if we will at any time allow the Counsel of prevention to be reasonable we must now confess it to be opportune But whatsoever the Counsel were I am not to be charged with it For as I was not the Contriver nor Offerer of the Project so if I had refused to joyn with him that did
Stiles Esquire of the Inner Temple 120. The Saints Comfort in Evil times 120. Gods Revenge against Murther in thirty Tragical Histories by I. Reynolds in Fol. the third Edition Whereunto is newly added the Sculptures Pictures of the Chief Persons â—entioned in every Histoâ—y graven in Copper-plates and fixed before each History With a Satisfactory Epistle of the Stationer Sylva Sylvarum or a Natural History in ten Centuries Whereunto is newly added The History of Life and Death or the Prolongation of Life Both written by the Right Honorable Francis Lord Verulam In Foâ—io 1651. The Magnetique cure of Wounds The Nativity of Tartar in Wine The Image of God in Man Also another Treatise of the Errors oâ— Physicians concerning Defluxions both published in Englishâ— 40. 1650. With The Darkness of Aâ—heism dispelled by the light of Nature All published by Dr. Charleton Physician to the late King 40. 165â— A Discourse conceâ—ning the King of Spâ—ins surprizing of the Valtoline Translated by the Renowned Sir Thomas Râ—e many times Embassador in Forein parts 40 The Roman Foot and Denaries from whence as from two principles the measure and weights may be deduced by Iohn Greaves of Oxford â—0 1647. A Treatise of the Court Written in French by that great Counâ—ellour De Refuges many times Embassador for the two laâ—t French Kings Englished by Iohn Râ—â—â—â—ld â—0 The Hebrew Commonwealth Translated out of Petrus Cunâ—us in 120. 1653. Hugo Grotius his two Treatises Of God and his Providence and Of Christ and his Miracles together with the said Authors judgement of sundry Points controverted in 120. Both Translated by Clem. Barksdal Certamen Relâ—giosum or a Conference between the late King of England and the late Lord Marquess of Worcester concerning Religion 40â— 1652. The Battel of Agencourt fought by Henry the 5th The Miseries of Queen Margareâ— with other Poems by Mic. Drayton Esq 80. The Odes of Horace Selected and Translated by Sir Thomas Hawkins in 120. The Spanish Gallant instructing men in their Carriage to be beloved of the People Youths Behaviour or Decency in Conversation amongst men with new Additions of a Discourse of Powdring of Hair of black Patches and naked Breasts 80. 1651. The Tillage of Light A Treatise of The Philosophers Stone 80. The Right of Peace and Warr in 3. Books written in Latine by the Illustrious Hugo Grotius together with the Life of the said Author in English 80. large 1654. A Sermon of the Nature of Faith by Barten Holyday Doctor of Divinity 1654. The Innocent Lady or the Illustrious Innocent written Originally in French by the learned Father de Ceriziers of the Company of Jesus rendred into English by Sir William Lower Knight 1654. A Disputation at Winchcomb in Glocestershire wherein much satisfaction given in many Fundamental Points of Religion in the presence of many Eminent Persons 1654. A brief Discourse of changing Ministers Tithes into Stipends or into another thing 1654. Plutarch's Lives in English with a New Addition of Twenty Lives never before published in English in Fol. 1657. FINIS 1. Part. 2. Part. 3. Part. 4. Part. 1 Contiâ—uance 2 Health 3 Peace 4 Plenâ—y and Wealth 5 Increase oâ— People 6 Reformation in Religion The speciall 〈◊〉 esâ—â—â—lished among uâ— by â—he puâ—ity of Religion Finenesse oâ— Money The Might oâ— the Navâ— Compaâ—ison of the state of England with the stateâ— abroad Afflicted in France Low-Countries Portugall Prosperouâ— as Scotland Poland Sweden Denmark Italy Germany Savoy Spâ—iâ— Câ—â—câ—rning the Conâ—ro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our Church Concerning the Forrain Enemies of this State Concerning the State of the Nobility Concerning the State oâ— the Common subâ—ect Statutes concerning Scotland and the Scotish Nation Lawes Customes Commissions Offiâ—ersâ— of the Borders or Marches Further Union besides the Removing of Inconvenient and dissenting Lawes and Usages Points wherein the Nations stand already united Soveraignty Line Royall Suâ—jection Obedience Alien Naturalization Religion Church-Government Continent Borders Language Diâ—lect Leagues Confederacies Treaties Externall points of the Separation and Union The Ceremoniall or Mateâ—iall Crowns The Stiles and Names The Seales The Standards and Stamps Moneys Internall Points of Union 1 Parliament 2 Cousellâ— oâ— Estate 3 Offâ—cers of the Crown 4 Nobilities 5 Lawâ—â— 6 Courts of Justice and Administration of Lawes 7 Receits Finances and Patrimonies of the Crown 8 Admiralty Navy and Merchandizing 9 Freedomes and Liberties 〈…〉 These that follow are but indisgested Notes This Constitution of Reporters I obtained of the King after I was Chancellour and there are two appointed with a 100. l. a year a peece sâ—ipend * Thuanus These Letters following I find not in his Lordships Register-Book of Letters But I am enduced by the Stile and other Characters to own them to be his VVritten by Mr. Bacon for my Lord of Essex
thus besides expectation It stirred up and awaked in divers of his Majesties worthy Servants and Subjects of the Clergy the Nobility the Court and others here neaâ— at hand an Affection loving and cheerfull To present the King some with Plate some with Money as a Freewill offering A Thing that God Almighty loves A Cheerfull Givâ—r what an Evill Eye doth I know not And my Lords let me speak it plainly unto you God forbid any Body should be so wretched as to think that the Obligation of Love and Duty from the Subject to the King should be Joynt and not severall No my Lords it is both The Subject petitioneth to the King in Parliament He Petitioneth likewise out of Parliament The King on the other side gives Graces to the Subjects in Parliament He gives them likewise and poureth them upon his People out of Parliament And so no doubt the Subject may give to the King in Parliament and out of Parliament It is true the Parliament is Intercursus Magnus The great Intercourse and main Current of Graces and Donatives from the King to the People from the People to the King But Parliaments are held but at certain times Whereas the Passages are alwayes open for Particulars Even as you see great Rivers have their Tides But particular Springs and Fountains run continually To proceed therefore As the Occasion which was the failing of Supply by Parliament did awake the Love and Benevolence of those that were at hand to give So it was apprehended and thought fit by my Lords of the Councell to make a proof whether the occasion and Example both would not awake those in the Country of the better sort to follow Whereupon their Lordships devised and directed Letters unto the Sheriffs and Iustices which declared what was done here above and wished that the Country might be moved especially Men of value Now My Lords I beseech you give me favour and attention to set forth and observe unto you five Points I will number them because other Men may note them And I will but touch them because they shall not be drowned or lost in discourse which I hold worthy the observation for the Honour of the State and Confusion of Slanders Whereby it will appear most evidently What care was taken that that which was then done might not have the effect no nor the shew no nor so much as the shadow of a Tax And that it was so far from breeding or bringing in any ill president or Example As contrary wise it is a Corrective that doth correct and allay the Harshness and Danger of former Examples The first is That what was done was done immediately after such a Parliament as made generall Profession to give and was interrupted by Accideâ—t So as you may truly and justly esteem it Tanquà m Posthuma Proles Parliamenti As an After Child of the Parliament And in pursuit in some small measure of the firm Intent of a Parliament past You may take it also if you will as an Advance or Provisionall Help untill a Future Parliawent Or as a Gratification simply without any Relation to a Parliament you can no wayes take it amisse The Second is That it wrought upon Example As a Thing not devised Or projected Or required No nor so much as recommended untill many that were never moved nor dealt with Ex mero motu had freely and frankly sent in their presents So that the Letters were rather like Letters of Newes what was done aâ— London then otherwise And we know Exempla ducunâ— non traâ—unt Examples they do but Lead they do not Draw nor Drive The Third is Thâ—t it was not done by Commission under the Great Seal A Thing warranted by a Multitude of Presidents both ancient and of late time as you shall hear anon And no doubt warranted by Law So that the Commissions be of that Stile and Tenour as that they be to move and not to levy But this was done by Letters of the Councell and no higher Hand or Form The Fouâ—th iâ— That these Letters had no manner of Shew of any Binding Act of State For they contaiâ—â— not any speciall Frame of Direction how the Businesse should be Mannaged But were written as upon trust Leaving the matter wholy to the Industry and Confidence of those in the Country So that it was an absque Compoto Such a form of Letter as no Man could fitly be called to accompt upon The Fift and last Point is That the whole Carriage of â—he Business had no Circumstance compulsory There was no Proportion Or Rate â—et down not so much as by way of a Wish There was no Menace of any that should deny No Reproof of any that did deny No certifying of the Names of any that had denied Indeed if Men could not content themselves to deny but that they must censure and inveigh Nor to excuse themselves but they must accuse the State that is anoâ—her Case But I say for Denying no Man was apprehended no nor noted So that I verily think that there is none so subtill a Disputer in the Controversie of Liberum Arbitrium that can with all his Distinctions fasten or carp upon the Act but that there was Free Will in it I conclude therefore My Lords that this was a True and pure Benevolence Not an Imposition called a Benevelence which the Statute speaks of As you shall hear by one of my Fellows There is a great Difference I tell you though Pilate would not see it between Rex Iudaeorum and se dâ—cens Regem Iudaeorum And there is a great difference between a Benevolence and an Exaction called a Benevolence which the Duke of Buckingham speaks of in his Oration to the Citty And defineth it to be not what the Subject of his good will would give but what the King of his good will would take But this I say was a Benevolence wherein every man had a Princes Prerogative A Negative Voyce And this word Excuse moy was a Plea peremptory And therefore I do wonder how Mr. I. S. could foul or trouble so clear a Fountain Certainly it was but his own Bitterness and unsound Humours Now to the particular Charge Amongst other Countries these Letters of the Lords came to the Iustices of D shire Who signified the Contents thereof And gave Directions and Appointments for meetings concerning the Business to severall Towns Places within that County And amongst the rest notice was given unto the Town of A The Majour of A conceiving that this Mr. I. S. being a Principall Person and a Dweller in that Town was a Man likely to give both money and good Example Dealt with him to know his mind He intending as it seems to play prizes would give no Answer to the Majour in private but would take Time The next day then being an Appointment of the Iustices to meet he takes occasion or pretends occasion to be absent because he would bring his Papers upon the Stage And