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
come and take the Honour of taking the Town His Lordships last Reason was that it cast some aspersion upon his Majesty Implying as if the King slept out the Sobbs of his Subjects untill he was awaked with the Thunderbolt of a Parlaament But his Lordships Couclusion was very Noble Which was with a Protestation That what Civill Threats Contestation Art and Argument can do hath been used already to procure Remedy in this Cause And a Promise That if Reason of State did permit as their Lordships were ready to spend their Breath in the pleading of that we desire so they would be ready to spend their Blouds in the Execution thereof This was the Resolution of that which passed A Speech used to the King by his Majesties Solliciter being chosen by the Commons as their Mouth and Messenger for the presenting to his Majesty of the Instrument or Writing of their Grievances In the Parliament 7o. Jacobi MOst gracious Soveraign The Knights Cittizens and Burgesses assembled in Parliament in the House of your Commons in all humbleness do Exhibite and present unto your Sacred Majesty in their own Words though by my hand their Petitions and Grievances They are here conceived and set down in writing According to ancient Custome of Parliament They are also prefaced according to the Manner and Tast of these later Times Therefore for me to make any Additionall Preface were neither warranted nor convenient Especially speaking before a King The Exactness of whose Judgement ought to scatter and chase away all unnecessary Speech as the Sun doth a Vapour This onely I must say Since this Session of Parliament we have seen your Glory in the Solemnity of the Creation of this most Noble Prince We have heard your Wisdome in sundry excellent Speeches which you have delivered amongst us Now we hope to find and feel the Effects of your Goodness in your Gracious Answer to these our Petitions For this we are perswaded that the Attribute which was given by one of the wisest Writers to Two of the best Emperours Divus Nerva Divus Traianus So saith Tacitus Res olim insociabiles miscuerunt Imperium Libertatem May be truly applyed to your Majesty For never was there such a Conservatour of Regality in a Crown Nor never such a Protectour of lawfull Freedome in a Subject Onely this Excellent Soveraign Let not the sound of Grievances though it be sad seem harsh to your Princely Eares It is but Gemitus Columbae The Mourning of a Dove With that Patience and Humility of Heart which appertaineth to loving and Loyall Subjects And far be it from us But that in the midst of the Sense of our Grievances we should remember and acknowledge the infinite Benefits which by your Majesty next under God we do enjoy Which bind us to wish unto your life Fulness of Dayes And unto your Line Royall a Succession and Continuance even unto the worlds end It resteth that unto these Petitions here included I do adde one more that goeth to them all Which is That if in the words and frame of them there be any Thing offensive Or that we have expressed our Selves otherwise then we should or would That your Majesty would cover it and cast the Vaile of your Grace upon it And accept of our good Intentions And help them by your benign Interpretation Lastly I am most humbly to crave a particular pardon for my self that have used these few words And scarcely should have been able to have used any at all in respect of the Reverence which I bear to your Person and Judgement had I not been somewhat relieved and comforted by the Experience which in my Service aâ—d Accesse I have had of your continuall Grace and Favour A Speech of the Kings Sollicitour used unto the Lords at a Conference by Commission from the Commons Moving and perswading the Lords to joyn with the Commons in Petâ—tion to the King To obtain Liberty to treat of a Composition with his Majesty for Wards and Tenures In the Parliament 7o. Jacobi THe Knights Cittizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons have commanded me to deliver to your Lordships the Cauâ—es of the Conference by them prayed and by your Lordships assented for the second Business of this Day They have had Report made unto them faithfully of his Majesties Answer declared by My L. Treasurer touching their humble Desire to obtain Liberty from his Majestyâ— to treat of compounding for Tenures And first they think themselves much bound unto his Majesty That in Renovâ in which case Princes use to be apprehensive he hath made a gracious Construction of their Proposition And so much they know of that that belongs to the Greatness of his Majesty and the Greatness of the Cause As themselves acknowledge they ought not to have expected a present Resolution Though the Wise-Man saith Hope deferred is the Fainting of the Soul But they know their Duty to be to attend his Majesties Times at his good pleasure And they do it with the more comfort because in that his Majesties Answer Matching the Times aad weighing the Passages thereof they conceive in their Opinion rather Hope then Discouragement But the principall Causes of the Conference now prayed Besides these significations of Duty not to be omitted Are two Propositions The one Matter of Excuse of themselves The other Matter of Petition The former of which growes thus Your Lordship my L. Threasurer in your last declaration of his Majesties Anâ—wer which according to the Attribute then given unto it had Imaginem Caesaris fair and lively graven made this true and effectuall Distribution That there depended upon Tenures Considerations of Honour of Conscience And of Vtility Of these three Vtility as his Majesty set it by for the present out of the Greatness of his Mind So we set it by out of the Justnesse of our Desires For we never ment but a goodly and worthy Augmentation of the Profit now received and not a Diminution But to speak truly that Consideration falleth naturally to be examined when Liberty of Treaty is granted But the former Two indeed may exclude Treaty And cut it off before it be admitted Nevertheless in this that we shall say concerning those Two We desire to be conceived rightly We mean not to dispute with his Majesty what belongeth to Soveraign Honour or his Princely Conscience Because we know we are not capable to discern them Otherwise then as Men use sometimes to see the Image of the Sun in a Pail of Water But this we say for our selves God forbid that we knowingly should have propounded any thing that mought in our Sense and perswasion touch either of both And therefore herâ—in we desire to be heard not to enform or perswade his Majesty but to fâ—ee and excuse our selves And first in generall we acknowledge that this Tree of Tenures was Planted into the Prerogative by the ancient common Law of this Land That it hath been Fenced in and Preserved by many Statutes
do acknowledge my Soveraign Liege Lord King James to be lawfull and undoubted King of all the Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland And I will bear true faith and Allegeance to his Highness during my life NOw my Lords upon these words I charge William Talbot to have committed a great Offence And such an one as if he had entred into a voluntary and malicious Publication of the like writing It would have been too great an Offence for the Capacity of this Court But because it grew from a Question askt by a Councell of 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
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
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
for the Nobility Touching the Oppression of the People he mentioneth four points 1. The Conâ—umption of People in the Wars 2. The Interruption of Traffick 3. The Corruption of Iustice. 4. The Multitude of Taxations Unto all which points there needeth no long Speech For the first thanks be to God the Benediction of Crescite and Multiplicamini is not so weak upon this Realm of â—ngland but The Population thereof may afford such Losse of Men as were sufficient for the Making our late Wars and were in a perpetuity without being seen either in City or Countrey We â—ead that when the Romans did take Cense of their People whereby the Citizens were numbred by the Poll in the beginning of a great War and afterwards again at the ending there sometimes wanted a Third Part of the Number But let our Muster Books be perused those I say that certifie the Number of all Fighting Men in every Shire of vicesimo of the Queen At what time except a Handfull of Souldiers in the Low Countries we expended no Men in the VVars And now again at this present time there will appear small Diminution There be many Tokens in this Realm rather of Presse and Surcharge of People then of Want and Depopulation which were before recited Besides it is a better Condition of Inward Peace to be accompanied with some Exercise of no Dangerous Warr in Forrain parts then to be utterly without Apprentisage of Warr whereby People grow Effeminate and unpractised when Occasion shall be And it is no small strength unto the Realm that in these Warrs of Exercise and not of Perill so many of our People are trained And so many of our Nobility and Gentlemen have been made Excellent Leaders both by Sea and Land As for that he objecteth we have no Provision for Souldiers at their Return Though that Point hath not been altogether neglected yet I wish with all my Heart that it were more Ample then it is Though I have read and heard that in all Estates upon Casheering and Disbanding of Souldiers many have endured Necessity For the Stopping of Traffique as I referred my Self to the Muster-Books for the First So I refer my Self to the Custome-Books upon this which will not lye And do make Demonstration of no Abatement at all in these last years but rather of Rising and Encrease We know of many in London and other places that are within a small time greatly come up and made Rich by Merchandizing And a Man may speak within his Compasse and affirm That our Prizes by Sea have countervailed any Prizes upon us And as to the Iustice of this Realm it is true that Cunning and Wealâ—h have bred many Sutes and Debates in Law But let those Points be considered The Integrity and Sufficiency of those which supply the Iudiciall places in the Queens Courts The good Laweâ— that have been made in her Majesties time against Informers and Promoters And for the bettering of Trialls The Example of Severity which is used in the Star-chamber in oppressing Forces and Fraâ—des The Diligence and Stoutness that is used by Iustices of Assises in Encountring all Countenancing and Bearing of Causes in the Countrey by their Authorities and Wisedome The great Favours that have been used towards Coppy-holders and Customary Tenants which were in ancient times meerly at the Discretion and Mercy of the Lord And are now continually relieved from hard Dealing in Chancery and other Courts of Equity I say let these and many other Points be considered and Men will worthily conceive an Honourable Opinion of the Iustice of England Now to the Points of Levies and Distributions of Money which he calleth Exactions First very coldly he is not abashed to bring in the Gathering for Paules Steeple and the Lottery Trifles Whereof the former being but a Voluntary Collection of that Men were freely disposed to give never grew to so great a Sum as was sufficient to finish the Work for which it was appointed And so I imagine it was converted into some other use like to that Gathering which was for the Fortifications of Paris save that the Gathering for Paris came to a much greater though as I have heard no competent Sum. And for the Lottery it was but a Novelty devised and followed by some particular persons and onely allowed by the State being as a Gain of Hazzard Wherein if any Gain was it was because many Men thought Scorn after they had fallen from their greater hopes to fetch their odd Money Then he mentioneth Loanes and Privy Seales Wherein he sheweth great Ignorance and Indiscretion considering the Payments back again have been very Good and Certain And much for her Majesties Honour Indeed in other Princes Times it was not wont to be so And therefore though the Name be not so pleasant yet the Vse of them in our Times have been with small Grievance He reckoneth also new Customes upon Cloathes and new Impost upon Wines In that of Cloathes he is deceived For the ancient Rate of Custome upon Cloathes was not raised by her Majesty but by Queen Mary a Catholique Queen And hath been commonly continued by her Majesty Except he mean the Computation of the odd yards which in strict Duty was ever answerable Though the Error were but lately looked into or rather the Tolleration taken away And to that of Wines being a Forrain Merchandize and but a Delicacy and of those which might be forborn there hath been some Encrease of Imposition which can rather make the Price of Wine Higher â—hen the Merchant poorer Lastly touching the Number of Subsidies it is true that her Majesty in respect of her great Charges of her Warrs both by Sea and Land against such a Lord of Treasure as is the King of Spain Having for her part no Indies nor Mines And the Revenues of the Crown of England being such as they lesse grate upon the People then the Revenues of any Crown or State in Europe Hath by the Assent of Parliament according to the ancient Customes of this Realm received divers Subsidies of her People which as they have been employed upon the Defence and preservation of the Subject Not upon Excessive Buildings nor upon Immoderate Donatives Nor upon Triumphs and Pleasures Or any the like veines of Dissipation of Treasure which have been Familiar to many Kings So have they been yielded with great good will and cheerfulness As may appear by other kinds of Benevolence presented to her likewise in Parliament which her Majesty neverthelesse hath not put in Ure They have been Taxed also and Asseissed with a very Light and Gentle Hand And they have been spared as much as may be As may appear in that her Majesty now twice to spare the Subject hath sold of her own Lands But he that shall look into other Countries and conâ—ider the Taxes and Tallages and Impositions and Assises and the like that are every where in use Will find that the English Man is the most
Vnitâ—g of whose Hearts and Affectâ—ons is the Life and true End of this Work For the Ceremoniall Crowns the Question will be whether there shall be framed one new Imperiall Crown of Britain to be used for the times to come Also admitting that to be thought Convenient whether in the Frame thereof there shall not be some Reference to the Crowns of Ireland and France Also whether your Majesty should repeat or iterate your own Coronation and your Queens or onely ordain that such new Crown shall be used by your Posterity hereafter The Difficulties will be in the Conceit of sâ—me Inequaliâ—y whereby the Realm of Scotland may be thought to be made an Accession unto the Realm of England But that resteth in some Circumstances for the Compounding of the two Crowns is equall The Calling of the new Crown the Crown of Brittain is equall Onely the Place of Coronation if it shall be at Westminster which is the Ancient August and Sacred place for the Kings of England may seem to make an Inequality And again if the Crown of Scotland be discontinued then that Ceremony which I hear is used in the Parliament of Scotland in the absence of the Kings to have the Crowns carried in solemnity must likewise cease For the Name the main Question is whether the Contracted Name of Brittain shall be by your Majesty used or the Divided Names of England and Scotland Admitting there shall be an Alteration then the Case will require these Inferiour Questions First whether the Name of Brittain shall not onely be used in your Majesties Stile where the entire Stile is recited And in all other Forms the Divided Names to remain both of the Realms and of the People Or otherwise that the very Divided Nameâ— of Realms and People shall likwise be changed or turned into special or subdivided Names of the Generall Name That is to say for Example whether your Majesty in your Stile shall denominate your self King of Brittain France and Ireland c. And yet neverthâ—lesse in any Commission Writ or otherwise where your Majesty mentioneth England or Scotland you shall retain the ancient Names as Secundum Conâ—uetudinem Regni nostri Angliae or whether those Divided Names shall be for ever lost and taken away and turned into the subdivisions of South-Britain and North-Britain and the People to be South-Brittains and North-Brittains And so in the Example aforesaid the Tenour of the like clause to run Secundum Consuetudinem Britanniae Australis Also if the former of these shall be thought convenient whether it were not better for your Majesty to â—ake that Alteration of Stile upon you by Proclamation as Edward the third did the Stile of France then to have it enacted by Parliament Also in the Alteration of the Stile whether it were not better to transpose the Kingdom of Ireland and put it immediatly after Britain and so place the Islands together And the Kingdom of France being upon the Continent last In regard that these Islands of the Western Ocean seem by Nature and Providence an entire Empire in themselves And also that there was never King of England so entirely possest of Ireland as your Majesty is So as your Stile to run King of Britain Ireland and the Islands Adjacent and of France c. The Difficulties in this have been already throughly beaten over but they gather but to two Heads The one Point of Honour and Love to the former Names The other Doubt lest the Alteration of the Name may induce and involve an Alteration of the Lawes and Pollicies of the Kingdom Both which if your Majesty shall assume the Stile by Proclamation and not by Parliament are in themselves satisfied For then the usuall Names must needs remain in Writs and Records The Formes whereof cannot be altered but by Act of Parliament And so the point of Honour satisfied And again your Proclamation altereth no Law And so the Scruple of a tacite or implyed Alteration of Lawes likewise satisfied But then it may be considered whether it were not a Form of the greatest Honour if the Parliament though they did not enact it yet should become Suiters and Petitioners to your Majesty to assume it For the Seales That there should be but one Great Seal of Britain and one Chanceller And that their should only be a Seal in Scotland for Processes and ordinary Iustice And that all Patents of Graunts of Lands or otherwise as well in Scotland as in England should passe under the Great Seal here kept about your Person It is an Alteration internall whereof â— do not now speak But the Question in this Place is whether the Great Seales of England and Scotland should not be changed into one and the same Form of Image and Superscription of Britain which Neverthelesse is requisite should be with some one plain or manifest Alteration lest there be a Buz and suspect that Grants of Things in England may be passed by the Seal of Scotland Or è converso Also whether this Alteration of Form may not be done without Act of Parliament as the Great Seales have used to be heretofore changed as to their Impressions For the Moneys as to the Reall and Internall Consideration thereof the Question will be whether your Majesty should not continue two Mints which the Distance of Territory considered I suppose will be of Necessity Secondly how the Standards if it be not already done as I hear some doubt made of it in popular Rumour may be reduced into an Exact proportion for the time to come And likewise the Compuâ—ation Tale or Valuation to be made exact for the Moneys already beaten That done the last Question is which is onely proper to this place whether the Stamp or the Image and Superscription of Britain for the time forwards should not be made the self same in both places without any Difference at all A Matter also which may be done as our Law is by your Majesties Prerogative without Act of Parliament These Points are Points of Demonstration Ad faciendum populum But so much the more they go to the Root of your Majesties Intention which is to imprint and inculcate into the Hearts and Heads of the People that they are one People and one Nation In this kind also I have heard it passe abroad in Speech of the Erection of some new Order of Knighthood with a Reference to the Vnion and an Oath appropriate thereunto which is a Point likewise deserveth a Consideration So much for the Externall Points The Internall Points of Separation are as followeth 1. Severall Parliaments 2. Severall Councels of Estate 3. Severall Officers of the Crown 4. Severall Nobilities 5. Severall Lawes 6. Severall Courts of Iustice Trialls and Processes 7. Severall Receipts and Finances 8. Severall Admiralties and Merchandizings 9. Severall Freedomes and Liberties 10. Severall Taxes and Imposts As touching the Severall States Ecclesiasticall and the severall Mints and Standards and the severall Articles
within the Compasse of any Moderation But 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
Ead. l. 4â— Mene. l. Meane p. 138. l. 46. ther. l. their p. 144. l. ult be l. he Ead. lin linht l. light p. 147. l. 37. Lord l. Lordship p. 164. l. 32. Non is repetit Conditionibus Dissidiis l. Non repetitis Conditionibus Dissidii p. 208. l. 43. Mesty l. Majesty p 212. l. 14. rue l. true p 218. l. 9. Mad. l. Man Ead. l. 14. how to l. to how p. 241. l. 16. a. l. as p. 246. l 10. if l. of pag. 266. l. 5 Desig lâ—ge Designe 275. l. 28 Sexvir l. Sexviri Ead. l. 45 Ninos l. Minos SEVERAL LETTERS WRITTEN BY THIS Honourable Authour TO QUEEN ELIZABETH KING IAMES DIVERS LORDS AND OTHERS LONDON Printed by F. L. for William Lee at the sign of the Turks-Head in Fleetstreet 1657. A LETTER To the LORD TREASURER BVRGHLEY In Excuse of his SPEECH in PARLIAMENT Against the TRIPLE SVBSIDIE It may please your Lordship I Was sorry to find by your Lordships Speech yesterday that my last Speech in Parliament delivered in discharge of my Conscience and Duty to God her Majesty and my Countrey was offensive If it were misreported I would be glad to attend your Lordshipâ— to disavow any thing I said not If it were misconstrued I would be glad to expound my self to exclude any sense I meant not If my Heart be misjudged by Imputation of Popularity or Opposition by any envious or officious Informer I have great wrong And the greater because the Manner of my Speech did most evidently shew that I spake simply And onely to satisfie my Conscience and not with any Advantage or Policy to sway the Cause And my Terms carried all signification of Duty and Zeal towards her Majesty and her Service It is true that from the Beginning whatsoever was above a Double Subsidy I did wish might for president sake appear to be extraordinary And for Discontents sake mought not have been levied upon the Poorer sort Though otherwise I wished it as Rising as I think this will prove and more This was my mind I confesse it And therefore I most humbly pray your good Lordship First to continue me in your own good Opinion And then to perform the part of an Honourable Friend towards your poor Servant and Alliance In drawing her Majesty to accept of the Sincerity and Simplicity of my Heart And to bear with the rest and restore me to her Majesties Favour A Letter to the Lord Treasurer Burghley recommending his first Sute touching the Sollicitors place After the remembrance of my most humble Duty THough I know by late Experience how mindfull your Lordship vouchsafeth to be of me and my poor Fortunes since it pleased your Lordship during your Indisposition when her Majesty came to visit your Lordship to make mention of me for my Employment and preferment yet being now in the Countrey I do presume that your Lordship who of your Self had so Honourable care of the matter will not think it a Trouble to be sollicited therein My hope is that whereas your Lordship told me her Majesty was somewhat gravelled upon the Offence she took at my Speech in Parliament your Lordships favourable and good word who hath assured me that for your own part you construed that I spake to the best will be as a good Tide to remove her from that Shelf And it is not unknown to your Lordship that I was the first of the Ordinary Sort of the Lower House of Parliament that spake for the Subsidy And â—hat which I after spake in difference was but in Circumstances of Time and Manner which methinks should be no great Matter since there is Variety allowed in Counsel as a Discord in Musick to make it more perfect But I may justly doubt not so much her Majesties Impression upon this particular as her Conceit otherwise of my Insufficiency which though I acknowledge to be great yet it will be the lesse because I purpose not to divide my self between her Majesty and the Causes of other Men as others have done but to attend her Businesse only Hoping that a whole Man meanly able may doe as well as Half a Man better able And if her Majesty think that she shall make an Adventure in using one that is rather a Man of Study than of Practice and Experience Surely I may remember to have heard that my Father an Example I confesse rather Ready than Like was made Sollicitor of the Augmentation a Court of much Businesse when he had never practiced and was but 27 years old And Mr. Brograve was now in my time called to be Atturney of the Dutchy when he had practised little or nothing And yet discharged his place with great Sufficiency But these Things and the like are as her Maâ—esty shall be made capable of them wherein knowing what Auâ—hority your Lordships Commendation hath with her Majestyâ— I conclude with my Self that the Substance of Strength wâ—ich I may receive will be from your Lordship It is true my Life hath been so private as I have had no means to do your Lordship service but yet as your Lordship knoweth I have made offer of such as I could yield For as God hath given me a mind to love the Publick so incidently I have ever had your Lordship in singular Admiration whose happy Ability her Majesty hath so long used to her great Honour and yours Besides that Amendment of State or Countenance which I have received hath been from your Lordship And therefore if your Lordship shall stand a good Friend to your pooâ— Allie you shall but Tueri Opus proprium which you have begun And your Lordship shall bestow your benefit upon one that hath more sense of Obligation than of Self-love Thus humbly desiring pardon of so long a Letter I wish your Lordship all Happinesse This 7th of Iune 1595. A Letter to Queen Elizabeth upon the sending of a New-years Gift It may please your Majesty ACcording to the Ceremony of the Time I would not forget in all humblenesse to present your Majesty with a small New-years Gift Nothing to my Mind And therefore to supply it I can but pray to God to give your Majesty his New-years Gift that is a New year that shall be as no year to your Body And as a year with 2. Harvests to your Coffers And every other way prosperous and gladsom And so I remain A Letter to Queen Elizabeth upon the sending of a New-years Gift Most excellent Soveraign Mistris THe onely New-years Gift which I can give your Majestie is that which God hath given to me which is a Mind in all Humblenesse to wait upon your Commandements and Businesse Wherein I would to God that I were hooded that I saw lesse Or that I could perform more For now I am like a Hawk that bates when I see occasion of service but cannot fly because I am tyed to anothers Fist. But mean while I continue my presumption of making to your Majesty my poor Oblation of a
at last it came to that Modell in which it was committed to the Presse As many Living Creatures do lick their young ones till they bring them to their strength of Limms In the Composâ—ng of his Books he did rather drive at a Masculine and clear Expression than at any Finenes or Affectation of Phrases And would often ask if the Meaning were expressed plainly enough As being one that aâ—counted words to be but subservient or Ministeriall to Matter And not the Principall And if his Stile were Polite it was because he could do no otherwise Neither was he given to any Light Conceits Or Descanting upon Words But did ever purposely and industriously avoyd them For he held such Things to be but Digressions or Diversions from the Scope intended And to derogate from the Weight and Dignity of the Stile He was no Plodder upon Books Though he read much And that with great Iudgement and Rejection of Impertinences incident to many Authours For he would ever interlace a Moderate Relaxation of His Minde with his Studies As Walking Or Taking the Aire abroad in his Coach or some other befitâ—ing Recreation And yet he would loose no Time In as much as upon his First and Immediate Return he would fall to Reading again And so suffer no Moment of Time to Slip from him without some present Improvement His Meales â—ere Refections of the Eare as well as of the Stomack Like the Noctes Atticae or Convivia Deipno-Sophistarum Wherein a Man might be refreshed in his Minde and understanding no lesse then in his Body And I have known some of no mean Parts that have professed to make use of their Note-Books when they have risen from his Table In which Conversations and otherwise he was no Dashing Man As some Men are But ever a Countenancer and Fosterer of another Mans Parts Neither was he one that would appropriate the Speech wholy to Himself or delight to out-vie others But leave a Liberty to the Co-Assessours to take their Turns Wherein he would draw a Man on and allure him to speak upon such a Subject as wherein he was peculiarly Skilfull and would delight to speak And for Himself he contemned no Mans Observations But would light his Torch at every Mans Candle His Opinions and Assertions were for the most part Binding And not contradicted by any Rather like Oracles then Discourses Which may be imputed either to the well weighing of his Sentence by the Skales of Truth and Reason Or else to the Reverence and Estimation wherein he was commonly had that no Man would contest with himâ— So that there was no Argumentation or Pro and Con as they term it at his Table Or if their chanced to be any it was Carried with much Submission and Moderation I have often observed And so have other Men of great Account That if he had occasion to repeat another Mans Words after him he had an use and Faculty to dresse them in better Vestments and Apparell then they had before So that the Authour should finde his own Speech much amended And yet the Substance of it still retained As if it had been Naturall to him to use good Forms As Ovid spake of his Faculty of Versifying Et quod tentabam Scribere Versus erat When his Office called him as he was of the Kings Counsell Learned to charge any Offenders either in Criminals or Capitals He was never of an Insulting or Domineering Nature over them But alwayes tender Hearted and carrying himself decently towards the Parties Though it was his Duty to charge them home But yet as one that looked upon the Example with the Eye of Severity But upon the Person with the Eye of Pitty and Compassion And in Civill Businesse as he was Counseller of Estate he had the best way of Advising Not engaging his Master in any Precipitate or grievous Courses But in Moderate and Fair Proceedings The King whom he served giving him this Testimony That he ever dealt in Businesse Suavibus Modis Which was the way that was most according to his own Heart Neither was He in his time lesse Gracious with the Subject then with his Soveraign He was ever Acceptable to the House of Commons when He was a Member thereof Being the Kings Atturney chosen to a place in Parliament He was allowed and dispensed with to sit in the House which was not permitted to other Atturneys And as he was a good Servant to his Master Being never in 19. years Service as himself averred rebuked by the King for any Thing relating to his Majesty So he was a good Master to his Servants And rewarded their long Attendance with good Places freely when they fell into his Power Which was the Cause that so many young Gentlemen of Bloud and Quality Sought to list themselves in his Retinew And if he were abused by any of them in their Places It was onely the Errour of the Goodnesse of his Nature But the Badges of their Indiscretions and Intemperances This Lord was Religious For though the World be apt to suspect and prejudge Great Wits and Politicks to have somewhat of the Atheist Yet he was conversant with God As appeareth by severall Passages throughout the whole Current of his Writings Otherwise he should have crossed his own Principles which were That a little Philosophy maketh Men apt to forget God As attributing too much to Second Causes But Depth of Philosophy bringeth a Man back to God again Now I am sure there is no Man that will deny him or account otherwise of him but to have been a deep Philosopher And not onely so But he was able to render a Reason of the Hope which was in him Which that Writing of his of the Confession of the Faith doth abundantly testifie He repaired frequently when his Health would permit him to the Service of the Church To hear Sermons To the Administration of the Sacrament of the Blessed Body and Bloud of Christ And died in the true Faith established in the Church of England This is most true He was free from Malice which as he said Himself He never bred nor fed He was no Revenger of Injuries which if he had minded he had both Opportunity and Place High enough to have done it He was no Heaver of Men out of their Places As delighting in their Ruine and Undoing He was no Defamer of any Man to his Prince One Day when a great States-Man was newly Dead That had not been his Friend The King asked him What he thought of that Lord which was gone He answered That he would never have made his Majesties Estate better But he was sure he would have kept it from being wâ—rse Which was the worst he would say of him Which I reckon not amongst his Morall but his Christian Vertues His Fame is greater and sounds louder in Forraign Parts abroad then at home in his own Nation Thereby verifying that Divine Sentence A Prophet is not without Honour save in his own
Baron of Verulam Viscount Saint Alban LONDON Printed by Sarah Griffin for William Lee and are to be sold at his Shop in Fleetstreet at the sign of the Turks-head neer the Mitre Tavern 1657. A SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT Elizabeth 39. UPON THE MOTION of SVBSIDY AND please you Mr. Speaker I must consider the Time which is spent yet so as I must consider also the Matter which is great This great Cause was at the first so materially and weightily propounded And after in such sort perswaded and enforced And by Him that last spake so much time taken and yet to good purpose As I shall speak at a great disadvantage But because it hath been alwayes used and the Mixture of this House doth so require it That in Causes of this Nature there be some Speech and Opinion as well from persons of Generallity as by persons of Authority I will say somewhat and not much wherein iâ— shall not be fit for me to enter into or to insist upon secrets either of her Majestiesâ—offers â—offers or of her Councell but my Speech must be of a more vulgar Nature I will not enter Mr. Speaker into a laudative Speech of â—he high and singular Benefits which by her Majesties most politick and happy Government we receive thereby to incite you to a Retribution partly because no breath of Man can set them forth worthily and partly because I know hâ—r Maâ—esty in her Magnanimity doth bestow her benefits like her fâ—ee'st Pattents absque aliquo inde reddendo Not looking for any thing again iâ— it were in respect only of her particular but Love and Loyalty Neither will I now aâ— this time put the case of this Realm of England too precisely How it standeth with the Subject in point of payments to the Crown Though I could make it appear by Dâ—monstration what opinion soever be conceivâ—d that never Subjects were partakers of greater Freedome and Ease And that whether you look abroad into other Countries at this present timeâ— or look back to former Times in this our own Countrey we shall find an exceeding Difference in matter â—f Taxes which now I reserve to mention not so much in doubt to acquaint your Ears with Forrain Sâ—rains or to digge up the Sepulâ—hers â—f Buried and Forgotten Impositions which in this case as by way of Comparison it is necessary you understand But because Speech in the House is â—it to perswade the generall point And particularity is more proper and seasonable for the Commâ—ttee Neither will I make any Observations upon her Majesâ—ies manner of expending and issuing Treasure being not upon â—xcâ—ssive and exoâ—bitant Donatives nor upon sumptuous and unnecessary Triuâ—phâ— Buildings or like Magnificence but upon the Preservation Protection and Honâ—ur of the Realm For I dare noâ— scan upâ—n heâ— Majesties Aâ—â—ion whâ—ch it becomemeth me rather to admire in silence then to gloss or discourse upon them though with never so good a meaning Sure I am â—hat the Treasure that commeth from you to hâ—r Majesâ—y is but as a Vapour which â—iseth from the Earth and gatherâ—th into a Cloud and stayeth not there long but upon the same Earth it falleth again and what if some drops of this do fall upon â—rance or Flaunders It is like a sweet Odour of Honour and Reputation to our Nation throughout the World But I will onely insist upon the Naturall and Inviolate Law of Preservation It is a Truth Mr. Speaker and a familiar Truth that safety and preservation is to be preferred before Benefit or Encrease In as much as those Counsels which tend to preservation seem to be attended with necessity whereas those Deliberations which tend to Benefit seem onely accompanied with perswasion And it is ever gain and no loss when at the foot of he account theâ—e remains the purchase of safety The Prints of this are every where to be found The Patient will ever part with some of his Bloud to save and clear the rest The Sea-faring Man will in a Storm cast over some of his Goods to save and assure the rest The Husband-man will afford some Foot of Ground for his Hedge and Ditch to fortifie and defend the rest Why Mr. Speaker the Disputer will if he be wise and cunning grant somewhat that seemeth to make against him because he will keep himself within the strength of his opinion and the better maintain the rest But this Place advertiseth me not to handle the Matter in a Common Place I will now deliver unto you that which upon a probatum est hath wrought upon my self knowing your Affections to be like mine own There hath fallen out since the last Parliament four Accidents or Ocurrents of State Things published and known to you all by every one whereof it seemeth to me in my vulgar understanding that the danger of this Realm is encreased Which I speak not by way of apprehending fear For I know I speak to English Courages But by way of pressing Provision For I do find Mr. Speaker that when Kingdomes and States are entred into Tearms and Resolutions of Hostility one against the other yet they are many times restrained from their Attempts by four Impediments The first is by this same Aliud agere when they have their Hands full of other Matters which they have embraced and serveth for a diversion of their Hostile purposes The next is when they want the Commodity or opportunity of some places of near Approach The third when they have conceived an apprehension of the Difficulty and churlishness of the enterprise and that it is not prepared to their Hand And the fourth is when a State through the Age of the Monarch groweth heavy and indisposed to actions of great Perill and Motion and this dull Humour is not sharpened nor inflamed by any provocations or scorns Now if it please you to examin whither by removing the Impediments in these four kinds the Danger be not grown so many degrees nearer us by accidents as I said fresh and all dated since the last Parliament Soon after the last Parliament you may be pleased to remember how the French King revolted from his Religion whereby every Man of common understanding may infer that the Quarrell between France and Spain is more reconcileable And a greater inclination of affairs to a peace than before which supposed it followeth Spain shall be more free to intend his Malice against this Realm Since the last Parliament it is also notorious in every mans knowledge and remembrance That the Spaniards have possessed themselves of that Avenue and place of approach for England which was never in the Hands of any King of Spain before And that is Callais which in true Reason and Consideration of estate of what value or service it is I know not but in common understanding it is a knocking at our Doors Since the last Parliament also that Ulcer of Ireland which indeed brake forth before hath run on and raged more which cannot but be a great
Injustice it is plain and cannot be denied that we hear but the one Part Whereas that Rule Audi alteram Partem is not of the Formality but of the Essence of Iustice Which is therefore figured with both Eyes shut and both Eares open Because she should hear both sides and respect Neither So that if we should hap to give a right Judgement it mought be Iustum but not Iustè without hearing both Parties For the Point of Derogation his Lordship said He knew well we were no lesse ready to acknowledge then Himself That the Crown of England was ever invested amongst other Prerogatives not disputable of an absolute Determination Power of concluding and making War and Peace Which that it was no new Dotation but of an ancient Foundation in the Crown he would recite unto us a number of Presidents in the Raignes of severall Kings And chiefly of those Kings which come nearest his Majesties own worthinesse Wherein He said that he would not put his Credit upon Ciphars and Dates Because it was easie to mistake the year of a Raign or number of a Rowle but he would avouch them in substance to be perfect and true as they are taken out of the Records By which Presidents it will appear That Petitions made in Parliament to Kings of this Realme his Majesties Progenitours Intermedling with matter of Warr or Peace Or inducement thereunto Received small Allowance or Successe But were alwaies put off with Dilatory Answers Sometimes referring the matter to their Councell Sometimes to their Letters sometimes to their further Pleasure and Advice And such other Formes Expressing plainly that the Kings meant to reserve Matter of that Nature entirely to their own Power and pleasure In the 18th yeare of King Edward the First Complaint was made by the Commons against the Subjects of the Earle of Flanders with Petition of Redresse The Kings Answer was Rex nihil aliud potest quam eodem modo petere That is The King could do â—o more but make Request to the Earle of Flanders as Request had been made to him And yet no Body will imagine but King Edward the First was potent enough to have had his Reason of a Count of Flaunders by a Warr And yet his Answer was Nihil aliud potest As giving them to understand That the Entering into a Warr was a Matter Transcendent that must not depend upon such Controversies In the 4th year of King Edward the Third The Commons Petitioned That the King would enter into certain Covenants and Capitulations with the Duke of Brabant In which Petition there was also inserted somewhat touching a Money Matter The Kings Answer was That for that that concerned the Moneys they mought handle it and examine it But touching the Peace he would do as to himself seemed good In the 18th year of King Edward the Third The Commons petitioned that they might have the Triall and proceeding with certain Merchants Strangers as Enemies to the State The Kings Answer was It should remain as it did till the King had taken further order In the 45th yeare of King Edward the Third The Commons complained That their Trade with the Easterlings was not upon equall Tearms which is one of the poynts insisted upon in the present Petition And prayed an Alteration and Reducement The Kings Answer was It shall be so as occasion shall require In the 50th year of the same King The Commons petitioned to the King for Remedy against the Subjects of Spaine as they now do The Kings Answer was that he would write his Letter for Remedy Here is Letters of Request no Letters of Mart Nihil potest nisi eodem modo petere In the same year the Merchants of Yorke petitioned in Parliament against the Hollanders And desired their Shipps mought be stayed both in England and at Calais The Kings Answer was Let it be declared to the Kings Councell And they shall have such remedy as is according to Reason In the 2d year of King Richard the second the Merchants of the Seacoast did complaine of diverse spoiles upon their Shipps and Goods by the Spaniard The Kings Answer was that with the Advise of his Councell he would procure remedy His Lordship cited two other Presidents The one in the second yeare of King Henry the Fourth of a Petition Against the Merchants of Genova The other in the 11th yeare of King Henry the 6th Of a Petition against the Merchants of the Stilliard which I omit because they contain no variety of Answer His Lordship further cited two Presidents concerning other points of Prerogative Which are likewise Flowers of the Crowne The one Touching the Kings supremacy Ecclesiasticall The other Touching the Order of Waightes and Measures The former of them was in the time of King Richard the 2d At what time the Commons complained against certaine Encroachments and Usurpations of the Pope And the Kings Answer was The King hath given Order to his Councell to treat with the Bishops thereof The other was in the 18th year of King Edward the First At which time Complaint was made against uneven Waights And the Kings Answer was Vocentur partes ad placita Regis fit Iustitia Whereby it appeared that the Kings of this Realme still used to refer Causes petitioned in Parliament to the proper places of Cognizance and Decision But for the Matter of Warr and Peace As appeares in all the former Presidents The Kings ever kept it in Scrinio pectoris In the Shrines of their own Breast Assisted and advised by their Counsell of Estate His Lordship did conclude his Enumeration of Presidents with a notable President in the 17. year of King Richard the Second A Prince of no such glory nor strength And yet when he made offer to the Commons in Parliament That they should take into their Considerations Matter of Warr and Peace then in in hand The Commons in Modesty excused themselves and answered The Commons will not presume to treat of so high a charge Out of all which Presidâ—nts his Lordship made this Inference that as Dies Diâ—m docet So by these Examples Wise Men will be admonished to forbear those Petitions to Princes which are not likely to have either a Welcome Hearing or an effectuall Answer And for prejudice that might come of handling and debating Matter of War and Peace in Parliament He doubted not but that the Wisedom of this House did conceive upon what secret Consideration and Motives that point did depend For that there is no King which will providently and Matuâ—ely enter into a War But will first ballance his own Forces Seek to anticipate Confederacies and Alliances Revoake his Merchants Finde an opportunity of the first Breach And many other points which if they once do but take winde will prove vaine and frustrate And therefore that this Matter which is Arcanum Imperij one of the highest Mysteries of Estate must be suffered to be kept within the Vaile His Lordship adding that he knew
And that it yieldeth at this day to the King the Fruit of a great Revenue But yet notwithstanding if upon the Stemme of this Tree may be raised a Pillar of support to the Crown Permanent and durable as the Marble by investing the Crown with a more ample more certain and more loving Dowry then this of Tenures we hope we propound no Matter of Disservice But to speak distinctly of both and first of Honour Wherein I pray your Lordships give me leave in a Subject that may seem supra Nos to handle it rather as we are capable then as the Matter perhaps may require Your Lordships well know the various Mixture and Composition of our House We have in our House learned Civilians that profess a Law that we reverence and sometimes consult wiâ—h They can tell us that all the Laws de Feodis are but Additionals to the Ancient Civill Law And that the Roman Emperours in the full Heigth of their Monarchy never knew them So that they are not Impâ—riall We have grave Professours of the Common Law who will define unto us that those are Parts of Soveraignty and of the Royall Prerogative which cannot be communicated with Subjects But for Tenures in substance there is none of your Lordships but have them And few of us but have them The King indeed hath a priority or first Service of his Tenures which shewes that they are not Regall nor any point of Soveraignty We have Gentlemen of honourable Service in the Wars both by Sea and Land Who can enform us that when it is in question who shall set his foot foremost towards the Enemy it is never asked whether he hold in Knights Service or in Socage So have we many Deputy Lievtenants to your Lordships And many Commissioners that have been for Musters and Levies That can tell us that the Service and Defence of the Realm hath in these dayes little dependance upon Tenures So then we perceive that it is no Bond or Ligament of Governmeâ—t No Spur of Honour No Bridle of Obedience Time was when it had other uses and the Name of Knights Service imports it But Vocabula manent Res fugiunt But all thiâ— which we have spoken we confess to be but in a vulgar Capacity which nevertheless may serve for our Excuse Though we submit the Thing it self wholy to his Majesties Judgement For Matter of Conscience Far be it from us to cast in any Thing willingly that may trouble that clear Fountain of his Majesties conscience We do confess it is a noble Protection that these young Birds of the Nobility and good Families should be gaâ—hered and clocked under the wings of the Crown But yet Natuâ—rae vis maxima And suus cuique discretus sanguis Your Lordships wilâ—â—avour me to observe my former Methode The Common Law it self which is the best Bounds of our wisdom doth even in hoc Individuo prefer the prerogative of the Father before the prerogative of the King For if Lands descend held in chief from an Ancestour on the part of a Mother to a Mans eldest Son the Father being alive The Father shall have the Custody of the Body and not the King It is true that this is only for the Father And not any other Parent or Ancestour But then if you look to the high Law of Tutelage and Protection And of Obedience and Duty which is the Relative thereunto It is not said Honour thy Father alone But Honour thy Father and thy Mother c. Again the Civilians can tell us that there was a speciall Use of the Pretorian Power for Pupills and yet no Tenures The Citizens of London can tell us There be Courts of Orphants and yet no Tenures But all this while we pray your Lordships to conceive That we think our selves not competent to discern of the Honour of his Majesties Crown or the Shrine of his Conscience But leave it wholy unto him and alledge these things but in our own Excuse For Matter of Petition we do continue our most humble suit by your Lordships loving Conjunction that his Majesty will be pleaseâ— to open unto us this entrance of his Bounty and Grace As to give us liberty to treat And lastly we know his Majestieâ— Times are not subordinate at all but to the Globe above About this time the Sun hath got even with the Night and will rise apace And we know Solomons Temple whereof your Lordship my Lord Treasurer spake was not built in a day And if We shall be so happy as to take the Axe to hew and the Hammer to frame in this Case We know it cannot be without Time And therefore as far as we may with Duty and without Importunity we most humbly deâ—ire an Acceleration of his Majesties Answer according to his good time and Royall Pleasure A Speech of the Kings Sollicitor perswading the House of Commons to desist from further Question of receiving the Kings Messages by their Speaker And from the Body of the Councell As well as from the Kings Person In the Parliament 7o. Jac. IT is my Desire that if any the Kings Business either of Honour or Profit shall pass the House It may be not onely with externall prevailing But with satisfaction of the Inward Man For in Consent where Tongue strings not Hart-strings make the Musick That Harmony may end in Discord To this I shall alwayes bend my Endeavours The Kings Soveraignty and the Liberty of Parliament are as the two Elements and Principles of this Estate which though the one be more Active the other more Pasâ—ive yet they do not crosse or destroy the one the other But they strengthen and maintain the one the other Take away Liberty of Parliament the Griefes of the Subject will bleed inwards Sharp and Eager Humours will not evaporate And then they must exulcerate and so may indanger the Soveraignty it self On the other side if the Kings Soveraignty receive Diminution or any Degree of Contempt with usâ— that are born under an Hereditary Monarchy So as the Motions of our Estate cannot work in any other Frame or Engine It must follow that we shall be a Meteore or Corpus imperfectè mistum which kind of Bodies come speedily to Confusion and Dissolution And herein it is our Happinesse that we may make the same Judgement of the King which Tacitus made of Nerva Divus Nerva res olim Dissociabiles miscuit Imperium Libertatem Nerva did temper things that before were thought incompatible Soveraignty and Liberty And it is not amisâ—e in a great Councell and a great Cause to put the other part of the Difference which was significantly expressed by the Judgement which Apollonius made of Nero which was thus When Vespasian came out of Iudea towards Italy to receive the Empire As he passed by Alexandria he spake with Apollonius A Man much admired And asked him a Question of State What was Nero's Fall or overthrow Apollonius said Nero could tune the Harp well but in
Who to ingratiate themselves with the King were said to have undertaken that the Kings Business should pass in that House as his Majesty could wish In the Parliament 12o. Jac. Mr. Speaker I Have been hitherâ—o silent in this Matter of undertaking wherin as I perceive the House is much enwrapped First because to be plain with you I did not well understand what it meant or what it was And I do not love to offer at that that I do not throughly conceive That Private Men should undertake for the Commons of England Why A Man mought as well undertake for the four Elements It is a thing so giddyâ— and so vast as cannot enter into the Brain of a sober Man And specially in a new Parliament When it was impossible to know who should be of the Parliament And when all Men that know never so little the Constitution of this House do know it to be so open to Reason As Men do not know when they enter into these Dores what mind themselves will be of untill they hear Things argued and debated Much lesse can any Man make a pollicy of Assurance what Ship shall come safe home into the Harbour in these Seas I had heard of undertakings in severall kinds There were undertakers for the Plantations of Derry and Colerane in Ireland the better to command and bridle those Parts There were not long ago some undertakers for the North-West Passage And now there are some undertakers for the Project of Died and Dressed Cloaths And in short every Novelty useth to be strengthened and made good by a kind of undertaking But for the Ancient Parliament of England which moves in a certain Manner and Sphear To be undertaken it passes my reach to conceive what it should be Must we be all Died and Dressed And no pure Whites amongst us Or must there be a new passage found for the Kings Business by a point of the Compass that was never sailed by before Or must there be some Forts built in this House that may command and contain the rest Mr. Speaker I know but two Forts in this House which the King ever hath The Fort of Affection and the Fort of Reason The one Commands the Hearts and the other Commands the Heads And others I know none I think Aesop was a Wise Man that described the nature of the â—ly thaâ— sat upon the Spoke of the Chariot Wheele and said to her self What a Dust do I raise So for my part I think that all this Dust is raised by light Rumours and Buzzes and not upon any solid Ground The second Reason that made me silent was because this Susâ—icion and Rumor of undertaking settles upon no Person certain It is like the Birds of Paradise that they have in the Indies that have no Feet and therefore they never light upon any place but the wind carries them awayâ— And such a Thing do I take this Rumour to be And lastly when that the King had in his two severall speeches freed us from the main of our Fears In affirming directly that there was no undertaking to him And that he would have taken it to be no less derogation to his own Majesty then to our Merits To have the Acts of his people transferred to particular persons That did quiet me thus far That these Vapours were not gone up to the Head howsoever they might glow and estuate in the Body Neverthelesse since I perceive that this Cloud still hangs over the House And that it may do hurt as well in Fame abroad as in the Kings Eare I resolved with my self to do the part of an honest voice in this House to counsell you what I think to be for the best Wherein first I will speak plainly of the pernicious Effects of the Accident of this Brute and Opinion of undertaking Towards Particulars Towards the House Towards the King And wards the People Secondly I will tell you in Mine Opinion what undertaking is tolerable And how far it may be justified with a good mind And on the other side this same Ripping up of the Question of Vndertakers How far it may proceed from a good Mind And in what kind it may be thought Malicious and Dangerous Thirdly I will shew you my poor advice what Meanes there are to put an end to this Question of Vndertaking Not falling for the present upon a precise Opinion But breaking it how many wayes there be by which you may get out of it And leaving the choice of them to a Debate at the Committee And Lastly I will advise you how things are to be handled at the Commitee to avoid distraction and losse of Time For the First of these I can say to you but as the Scripure saith Si invicem mordetis ab invicem consumemini If ye Fret and Gall one anothers Reputation The end will be that every Man shall go hence like Coyn cried down Of lesse price than he came hither If some shall be thought to fawn upon the Kings Business openly And others to crosse it secretly Some shall be thought Practicers that would pluck the Cardes And others shall be thought Papists that would shuffle the Cardes what a Misery is this that we should come together to foul one another instead of procuring the publick good And this ends not in particulars but will make the whole House Contemptible For now I hear Men say That this Question of undertaking is the predominant Matter of this House So that we are now according to the Parable of Iotham in the Case of the Trees of the Forrest That when Question was whether the Vine should raign over them That mought not be And whether the Olive should raign over them That mought not be But we have accepted the Bramble to raign over us For it seemes that the good Vine of the Kings Graces that is not so much in esteem And the good Oyle whereby we should salve and relieve the wants of the Estate and Crown that is laid aside too And this Bramble of Contention and Emulation This Abimelech which as was truly said by an understanding Gentleman is a Bastard For every Fame that wants a Head is Filius populi This must Raign and Rule amongst us Then for the King nothing can be more opposite Ex diametro to his Ends and Hopes then this For you have heard him profess like a King and like a gracious King that he doth not so much respect his present supply As this demonstration that the Peoples Hearts are more knit to him then before Now then if the Issue shall be this that whatsoever shall be done for Him shall be thought to be done but by a number of Persons that shall be laboured and packt This will rather be a sign of Diffidence and Alienation then of a naturall Benevolence and Affection in his People at home And rather Matter of Disreputation then of Honour abroad So that to speak plainly to you The King were better call for a
new Pair of Cards then play upon these if they be packt And then for the People It is my manner ever to look as well beyond a Parliament as upon a Parliament And if they abroad shall think themselves betrayed by those that are their Deputies and Atturnies here it is true we may bind them and conclude them But it will be with such Murmur and Insatisfactionâ— as I would be loath to see These Things mought be dissembled And so things left to bleed inwards But that is not the way to cure them And therefore I have searched the Soare in hope that you will endeavour the Medecine But this to do more throughly I must proceed to my Second Part To tell you cleerely and distinctly what is to be set on the Right hand and what on the left in this business First if any Man hath doâ— good Offices to advise the King to call a Parliament And to increase the good Affection and Confidence of his Majestie towards his People I say that such a Person doth rather Merit well then commit any Errour Nay further if any Man hath out of his own good mind given an opinion touching the Minds of the Parliament in generall How it is probable they are like to be found And that they will have a due feeling of the Kings wants And will not deal drily or illiberally with him This Man that doth but think of other Mens minds as he finds his own is not to be blamed Nay furâ—her if any Man hath coupled this with good wishes and Propositions That the King do comfort the Hearts of his People and testifie his own love to them by filing off the harshness of his Prerogative Retaining the substance and strength And to that purpose like the good Housholder in the Scripture That brought forth old store and new hath revolved the Petitions and Propositions of the last Parliament and added new I say this Man hath sown good seed And he that shall draw him into Envy for it sowes Tares Thus much of the Right hand But on the other side if any shall mediatly or immediatly infuse into his Majesty or to others That the Parliament is as Cato said of the Romans like Sheep That a Man were better drive a Flock of them then one of them And however they may be wise Men severally yet in this Assembly they are guided by some few which if they be made and assured the rest will easily follow This is a plain Robbery of the King of Honour and his Subjects of Thanks And it is to make the Parliament vile and servile in the eyes of their Soveraign And I count it no better than a supplanting of the King and Kingdom Again if a Man shall make this Impression that it shall be enough for the King to send us some things of shew that may serve for colours And let some Eloquent Tales be told of them And that will serve Ad faciendum populum any such Person will find that this House can well skill of false Lights And that it is no wooing Tokens but the true Love already planted in the Breast of the Subjects that will make them do for the King And this is my Opinion touching those that may have perswaded a Parliament Take it on the other side for I mean in all things to deale plainly If any Man hath been diffident touching the Call of a Parliament Thinking that the best Meanes were first for the King to make his utmost tryall to subsist of himself and his own Meanes I say an Honest and Faithfull Heart mought consent to that Opinion And the event it seems doth not greatly discredit it hitherto Again if any Man shall have been of Opinion that it is not a particular Party that can bind the House Nor that it is not Shews or Colours can please the House I say that Man though his speech tend to discouragement yet it is coupled with Providence But by your leave if any Man since the Parliamâ—nt was called or when it was in speech shall have laid Plots to crosse the good will of the Parliament to the King By possessing them that a few shall have the thanks And that they are as it were Bought and Sold and betrayed And that that which the King offers them are but Baites prepared by particular persons Or have raised rumours that it is a packt Parliament To the end nothing may be done But that the Parliament may be dissolved as Gamesters use to call for new Cards when they mistrust a Pack I say These are Engins and Devises Naught Maligne and Seditious Now for the Remedy I shall rather break the Matter as I said in the Beginning then advise positively I know but three wayes Some Message of Declaration to the King Some Entry or protestation amongst our selves Or some strict and punctuall Examination As for the last of these I assure you I am not against it if I could tell where to begin or where to end For certainly I have often seen it that Things when they are in smother trouble more then when they break out Smoak blinds the Eyes but when it blazeth forth into Flame it gives light to the Eyes But then if you fall to an Examination some Person must be charged some Matter must be charged And the Manner of that Matter must be likewise charged For it may be in a Good Fashion and it may be in a Bad In as much difference as between Black and White And then how far Men will ingenuously confess How far they will politickly deny And what we can Make and gather upon their Confession And how we shall prove against their Deniall It is an endless peece of Work And I doubt that we shall grow weary of it For a Message to the King It is the Course I like best so it be carefully and considerately handled For if we shall represent to the King the Nature of this Body as it is Without the vayles or shadows that have been cast upon it I think we shall do him Honour and our selves Right For any Thing that is to be done amongst our selves I do not see much gained by it Because it goes no further then our selves Yet if any thing can be wisely conceived to that end I shall not be against it But I think the purpose of it is fittest to be Rather that the House conceives that all this is but a Mis-understanding Then to take knowledge that there is indeed a Just Ground And then to seek by a Protestation to give it a Remedy For Protestations and Professions and Apologies I never found them very Fortunate But they rather encrease suspicion then clear it Why then the Last Part is that these things be handled at the Committee seriously and temperately Wherein I wish that these four Degrees of Questions were handled in order First whether we shall do any thing at all in it Or passe by it and let it sleep Secondly whether we shall enter into
a particular Examination of it Thirdly whether we shall content our selves with some Entry or Protestation amongst our selves And Fourthly whether we shall proceed to a Message to the King And what Thus I have told you mine Opinion I know it had been more safe and politick to have been silent But it is perhaps more honest and lovingâ— to speak The old Verse is Nam nulli tacuisse nocet nocet esse locutum But by your leave David 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
Providence wait for his Majesties Times Being a work resembling indeed the Workes of the ancient Heröes No new piece of that kind in Modern Times Thirdly this Kingdom now first in his Majesties Times hath gotten a Lot or Portion in the New World by the Plantation of Virginia and the Summer Islands And certainly it is with the Kingdomes on Earth as it is in the Kingdom of Heaven Sometimes a Grain of Mustardseed proves a great Tree Who can tell Fourthly his Majesty hath made that Truth which was before Titulary In that he hath verified the Stile of Deâ—ender of the Faith Wherein his Majesties Pen hath been so happy as though the Deaf Adder will not hear yet he is charmed that he doth not Hiss I mean in the graver sort of those that have answered hiâ— Majesties Writings Fiftly it is most certain that since the Conquest yee cannot assign Twenty years which is the Time that his Majesties Raign now drawes fast upon of Inward and Outward Peace Insomuch as the Time of Queen Eliz. of happy memory And alwaies magnified for a peaceable Raign was nevertheless interrupted the first Twenty years with a Rebellion in England And both first and last Twenty years with Rebellions in Ireland And yet I know that his Majesty will make good both his Words As well that of Nemo me lascesset impunè As that other of Beati pacifici Sixthly that true and primitive Office of Kings which is tâ— sit in the Gate and to judge the People was never performed in like perfection by any of the Kings Progenitors Whereby his Majesty hath shewed himself to be Lex loquens And to sit upon the Throne not as a dumb statua but as a Speaking Oracle Seventhly for his Majesties Mercy as you noted it well shew me a time wherein a King of this Realm hath Reigned almost 20. years as I said in his White Robes without the Blood of any Peer of this Kingdom The Axe turned once or twice towards a Peere but never strook Lastly The Flourishing of Arts and Sciencâ—s recreated by his Majesties Countenance and Bounty was never in that Heighth especially that Art of Arts Divinity For that we may truly to Gods great glory confess That since the Primitive times there were never so many Stars for so the Scripture calleth them in that Firmament These Things Mr. Speaker I have partly chosen out of your Heap and are so far from being vulgar as they are in effect singular and proper to his Majesty and his Times So that I have made good as I take it my first Assertion That the only worthy Commender of his Majesty is Time Which hath so set off his Majesties Merits by the Shadowes of Comparison as it passeth the Lustre or Commendation of Words How then shall I conclude Shall I say O Fortunatos nimium sua si Bona nôrint No For I see ye are happy in injoying them and happy again in knowing them But I will conclude this part with that Saying turned to the Right Hand Si gratum dixeriâ— omnia dixeris Your gratitude containes in a word all that I can say to you touching this Parliament Touching the Third Point of your Speech concerning Parliaments I shall need to say little For there was never that Honour done to the Institution of Parliament that his Majesty did it in his last Speech making it in effect the perfection of Monarchy For that although Monarchy was the more Ancient and be independant yet by the Advice and Assistance of Parliament it is the stronger and the surer built And therefore I shall say no more of this Point but as you Mr. Speaker did well note That when the King sits in Parliament and his Prelates Peeres and Commons attend him he is in the Exaltation of his Orb So I wish things may be so carried that he may be then in greatest Serenity and Benignity of Aspect shining upon his People both in Glory and Grace Now you know well that that the shining of the sun fair upon the ground whereby all things exhilarate and do fructifie is either hindered by Clouds above or Mists below perhaps by Brambles and Briars that grow upon the Ground it self All which I hope at this time will be dispelled and removed I come now to the last part of your Speech concerning the Petitions But before I deliver his Majesties Answer respectively in particular I am to speak unto you some few words in generall Wherein in effect I shall but glean His Majesty having so excellently and fully expressed himself For that that can be spoken pertinently must be either touching the Subject or Matter of Parliament Businesse Or of the Manner and Carriage of the same Or lastly of the Time and the Husbanding and Marshalling of Time For the Matters to be handled in Parliament they are either of Church State Lawes or Grievances For the First two concerning Church or Stateâ— ye have heard the King himself speak and as the Scripture saith Who is he that in such things shall come after the King For the other two I shall say somewhat but very shortly For Lawes they are Things proper for your own Element And therefore therein ye are rather to lead then to be led Only it is not amisse to put you in mind of two Things The one that you do not multiply or accumulate Lawes more then ye need There is a Wise and Learned Civilian that applies the Curse of the Prophet Pluet super eos Laqueos To Multiplicity of Lawes For they do but ensnare and entangle the People I wish rather that ye should either revive good Lawes that are fallen and discontinued Or provide against the slack execution of Lawes which are already in Force Or meet with the subtile Evasionâ— from Lawes which Time and Craft hath undermined then to make Novas Creaturas Legum Lawes upon a new Mould The other Point touching Lawes is That ye busie not your selves too much in private Bills except it be in Gases wherein the Help and Arm of ordinary Iustice is too short For Grievances his Majesty hath with great Grace and Benignity opened himself Neverthelesse the Limitations which may make up your Grievances not to beat the Air only but to sort to a desired effect areâ— principally two The one to use his Majesties term that ye do not Hunt after Grievances Such as may seem rather to be stirred here when ye are met then to have sprung from the desires of the Country Ye are to represent the People ye are not to personate them The other that ye do not heap up Grievances as if Numbersâ— should make a shew where the Weight is small Or as if all things amiss like Plato's Common wealth should be remedied at once It is certain that the best Governments yea and the best Men are like the best precious Stones wherein every Flaw or Isickle or Grain are seen and noted more then in those that are generally foul and corrupted
Therefore contain your selves within that Moderation as may appear to bend rather to the Effectuall Ease of the People then to a Discursive Envy or scandall upon the State As for the Manner of Carriage of Parliament Businesse ye must know that ye deal with a King that hath been longer King then any of you have been Parliament Men And a King that is no lesse sensible of Formes then of Matter And is as far from induring Diminution of Majesty as from regarding â—lattery or Vain Glory And a King that understandeth as well the Pulse of the Hearts of People as his own Orb. And therefore both let your Grievances have a decent and Reverent Form and Stile And to use the words of former Parliaments let them be Tanquam Gemitus Columbae without Pique or Harshnesse And on the other side in that ye do for the King Let it have a Mark of Vnity Alacrity and Affection which will be of this Force That whatsoever ye do in substance will be doubled in Reputation abroad as in a Crystall Glass For the Time if ever Parliament was to be measured by the Houre-glass it is this In regard of the instant Occasion flying away irrecoverably Therefore let your Speeches in the House be the Speeches of Counsellors and not of Oratours Let your Committees tend to dispatch not to dispute And so marshall the Times as the publique Businesse especially the proper Businesse of the Parliament be put first And private Bills be put last as time shall give leave or within the spaces of the Publique For the Foure Petitions his Majesty is pleased to grant them all as liberally as the Ancient and true Custom of Parliament doth warrant And with the cautions that have ever gon with them That is to say That the priviledge be not used for Defrauding of Creditours and Defeating of ordinary Justice That Liberty of Speech turn not into License but be joyned with that Gravity and Discretion as may tast of Duty and Love to your Soveraign Reverence to your own Assembly and Respect to the Matters ye handle That your Accesses be at such fit Times as may stand best with his Majesties pleasure and Occasions That Mistakings and Misunderstandings be rather avoided and prevented as much as may be then salved or cleared CERTAIN TREATISES VVritten or Referring TO Queen Elizabeths TIMES BEING OBSERVATIONS UPON A LIBELL Published in Anno 1592. A true Report of Doctour LOPEZ his TREASON An Advertisement touching the Controversies of the Church of ENGLAND A Collection of the Felicities of Queen ELIZABETH By the Right Honourable FRANCIS BACON Baron of Verulam Viscount Saint Alban LONDON Printed by S. Griffin for William Lee and are to be sold at his Shop in Fleetstreet at the sign of the Turks-head neer the Mitre Tavern 1657. CERTAIN OBSERVATIONS UPON A LIBELL Published this present year 1592. INTITULED A DECLARATION Of the TRVE CAVSES OF THE GREAT TROVBLES Presupposed to be intended against the REALM of ENGLAND IT were Just and Honourable for Princes being in Warrs together that howsoever they prosecute their Quarrels and Debates by Arms and Acts of Hostility yea though the Warrs be such as they pretend the utter Ruine and Overthrow of the Forces and States one of another yet they so limit their Passions as they preserve two Things Sacred and Inviolable That is The Life and good Name each of other For the Warrs are no Massacres and Confusions But they are the Highest Trials of Right when Princes and States that acknowledge no Superior upon Earth shall put themselves upon the Iustice of God for the Deciding of their Controversies by such Successe as it shall please him to give on either side And as in the Processe of particular Pleas between private Men all things ought to be ordered by the Rules of Civill Lawes So in the Proceedings of the Warre nothing ought to be done against the Law of Nations or the Law of Honour Which Lawes have ever pronounced those two Sorts of Men The one Conspiratours against the Persons of Princes The other Libellers against theâ—r good Fame to be such Enemies of common Society as are not to be cherished no not by Enemies For in the Examples of Times which were lesse corrupted we find that when in the greatest Heats and Extremities of Warrs there have been made Offers of Murderous and Traiterous Attempts against the Person of a Prince to the Enemy they have been not onely Rejected but also Revealed And in like manner when Dishonourable Mention hath been made of a Prince before an Enemy Prince by some that have thought therein to please his Humour he hath shewed himself contrarywise utterly distasted therewith and been ready to contest for the Honour of an â—nemy According to which Noble and Magnanimous Kind of Proceeding it will be found that in the whole Couâ—se of her Majesties Proceeding with the King of Spain since the Amity interâ—upted There was never any project by her Majesty or any of her Ministers either moved or assented unto for the Taking away of the Liâ—e of the said King Neither hath there been any Declaration or Writing of â—state No nor Book allowed wherein his Honour hath been touched or taxed otherwise then for his Ambition A point which is necessarily interlaced with her Majesties own Justification So that no Man needeth to doubt but that those Warrs are grounded upon her Majesties part upon just and Honourable Causes which have so Just and Honourable a prosecution Considering it is a much harder Matter when a Prince is entred into Warrs to hold respect then and not to be transported with Passion than to make Moderate and Iust Resolutions in the Beginnings But now if a Man look on the other part it will appear that rather as it is to be thought by the Solicitation of Traitorous Subjects which is the onely Poyson and Corruption of all Honourable Warr between Forrainers Or by the Presumptâ—on of his Agents and Ministers then by the proper Inclination of that King there hath been if not plotted and practised yet at the least comforted Conspiracies against her Majesties Sacred Person which neverthelesse Gods Goodnesse hath used and turned to shew by such miraculous Discoveries into how near and precious Care and Custody it hath pleased him to receive her Majesties Life and Preservation But in the other Point it is strange what a number of Libellous and Defamatory Bookes and Writings and in what Variety with what Art and cunning handled have been allowed to pass through the World in all Languages against her Majesty and her Government Sometimes pretending the Gravity and Authority of Church Stories to move Belief sometimes formed into Remonstrances and Advertisements of â—state to move Regard Sometimes presented as it were in Tragedies of the Persecutions of Catholicks to move Pitty Sometimes contrived into pleasant Pasquils and Satyres to move sport So as there is no shape whereinto these Fellowes have not transformed themselves Nor no Humor nor affection in the mind
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
here and not to proceed to any â—urther Vnion Contenting your Self with the two former Articles or Points For it will be said That we are now well thanks be to God And your Majesty and the State of neither Kingdome is to be repented of And that it is true which Hippocrates saith That Sana Corpora difficilè medicationes serunt It is better to make Alterationsâ— in sick Bodies then in sound The Consideration of which Point will rest upon these two Branches What Inconveniencies will ensue with time if the Realmes stand as they are divided which are yet not found nor sprung up For it may be the sweetnesse of your Majesties first Entrance and the great Benefit that both Nations have felt thereby hath covered many Inconveniencies Which neverthelesse be your Majesties Government never so gracious and Pollitick Continuance of Time and the Accidents of Time may breed and discover if the Kingdomes stand divided The Second Branch is Allow no manifest or important Perill or Inconvenience should ensue of the Continuing oâ— the Kingdomes Divided yet on the other Side whether that upon the further Vniting of them there be not like to follow that Addition and Encrease of Wealth and Reputation as is worthy your Majesties Vertues and Fortune to be the Authour and Founder of for the Advancement and Exaltation of Your Majesties Royall Posterity in time to come But admitting that your Majesty should proceed to this more perfect and entire Vnion Wherein your Majesty may say Majus Opus moveo To enter into the Parts and Degrees thereof I think fit first to set down as in a brief Table in whâ—t Points the Nations stand now at this present time already united And in what Points yet still severed and divided that your Majesty may the better see what is done and what is to be done And how that which is to be done is to be inferred upon that which is done The Points wherein the Nations stand already united are In Soveraignty In the Relative thereof which is Subjection In Religion In Continent In Language And now lastly by the Peace by your Majesty concluded with Spain In Leagues and Confederacies For now both Nations have the same Friends and the same Enemies Yet notwithstanding there is none of the six Points wherein the Vnion is perfect and Consummate But every of them hath some scruple or rather Grain of separation enwrapped and included in them For the Soveraignty the Vnion is absolute in your Majesty and your Generation But if it should so be which God of his infinite Mercy defend that your Issue should fail then the Descent of both Realmes doth resort to the severall Lines of the Severall Blouds Royall For Subjection I take the Law of England to be clear what the Law of Scotland is I know not That all Scottishmen from the very Instant of your Majesties Raign begun are become Denizons And the Post-Nati are naturaliz'd Subjects of England for the time forwards For by our Lawes none can be an Alien but he that is of another Allegeance then our Soveraign Lord the Kings For there be but two Sorts of Aliens whereof we find mention in our Law An Alien Ami and an Alien Enâ—my Whereof the former is a Subject of a State in Amity with the King And the latter a Subject of a State in Hostility But whether he be one or other it is an Essentiall Difference unto the Definition of an Alien if he be not of the Kings Allegeance As we see it evidently in the precedent of Ireland who since they were Subjects to the Crown of England have ever been Inheritable and capable as Naturall Subjects And yet not by any Statute or Act of Parliament but meerly by the Common Law and the Reason thereof So as there is no doubt that every Subject of Scotland wasâ— and is in like Plight and Degree since your Majesties Comming in as if your Majesty had granted particularly your Letters of Denization or Naturalization To every of them And the Post-Nati wholly Naturall But then on the other Side for the time Back-wards and â—or those that were Ante-Nati the Bloud is not by Law naturalized So as they cannot take it by Descentâ— from their Ancestours without Act of Parliament And therefore in this Point there is a Defect in the Vnâ—on of Subjection For Matter of Religion the Vnion is perfect in points of Doctrine but in Matter of Discipline and Government it is imperfect For the Continent It is true there are no Naturall Boundaries of Mountains or Seas or Navigable Rivers But yet theâ—e are Badges and Memorialls of Borders Of which Point I have spoken before For the Language It is true the Nations are unius Labii and and have not the first Curse of Disunion which was Confusion of Tongues whereby one understood not another But yet the Dialect is differing and it remaineth a kind of Mark of Distinction But for that Tempori permittendum it is to be left to Time For considering that both Languages do concur in the principall Office and Duty of a Language which is to make a Mans self understood For the rest it is rather to be accounted as was said a Diversity of Dialect then of Language and as I said in my first Writing it is like to bring forth the enriching of one Language by compounding and taking in the proper and significant Words of either Tongue rather then a Coutinuance of two Languages For Leagues and Confederacies It is true that neither Nation is now in Hostility with any State wherewith the other Nation is in Amity but yet so as the Leagues and Treaties have been concluded with either Nation respectively and not with both jointly which may contain some Diversity of Articles of straiâ—ness of Amity with one more then with the other But many of these Matters may perhaps be of that kind as may fall within that Rule In veste varietas sit scissura non sit Now to descend to the particular Points wherein the Realms stand severed and divided over and besides the former six Points of separation which I have noted and placed as defects or Abatements of the six Points of the Vnion And therfore shall not need to be repeated The Points I say yet remaining I will divide into Externall and into Internal The Externall Points therefore of the Separation are four 1. The severall Crowns I mean the Ceremoniall and Materiall Crowns 2. The second is the severall Names Stiles or Appellations 3. The third is the severall Prints of the Seals 4. The fourth is the severall Stamps or Marks of the Coins or Monies It is true that the Externall are in some respect and parts much mingled and interlaced with Considerations Internall And that they may be as effectuall to the rue Vnion which must be the work of Time as the Inâ—ernall Because they are Operative upon the Conceits and Opinions of the People The
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
may arise or be made against this Worke. Obj. 1. That it is a Thing needlesse And that the Law as it now is is in good Estate Comparable to any Forrain Law And that it is not possible for the Wit of Man in respect of the Frailty thereof to provide against the Incertainties and Evasions or Omissions of Law Resp. For the Comparison with Forraine Lawes it is in vaine to speak of it For men will never agree about it Our Lawyers will maintain for our Municipall Lawes Civilians Schollars Travaillers will be of the other Opinion But Certain it is that our Lawes as they now stand are subject to great Incertainties and variety of Opinion Delayes and Evasions Whereof ensueth 1. That the Multiplicity and length of Suites is great 2. That the Contentious Person is armed and the Honest Subject Wearied and Oppressed 3. That the Iudge is more Absolute Who in doubtfull Cases hath a greater stroak and Liberty 4. That the Chancery Courts are more filled the Remedy of Law being often obscure and dâ—â—â—â—fâ—ll 5. That the ignorant Lawyâ—r shrowdeth his Ignorance of Law in that doubts are so frequent and many 6. That Mens Assurances of their Lands and â—staâ—eâ— by Patents Deedes Wills are often subject to question and hollow And many the like Inconveniâ—ncâ—es It is a good Rule and Direction For that all Lawes Secundum Magis Minus do participate of Incertainties That folâ—oweth Mark whether the Doubts that arise are only in Cases of Ordinary Experience Or which haâ—pen not every day â—f in the first Only impute it to frailty of Manâ—â—oresight that cannot reach by Law to all Cases But if in the Lâ—ttâ—r be assured there is a fault in the Law Of this I say no more but that To give every Man his Due Had it not been for Sâ— Edward Cookes Reports which though they may have Errors and some peremptory and Extrajudiciall Resolutions more then are warranted Yet they containe infinite good Decisions and Rulings over of Cases The Law by this Time had been almost like a Ship without ballast For that the Cases of Modern Experience are fled from those that are adjudged and ruled in Former time But the Necessity of this Worke is yet greater in the Statute Law For First there are a number of Ensnaring Penall Lawes which lay upon the Subject And if in bad times they should be awaked and put in Execution would grinde them to powder There is a learned Civilian that expoundeth the Curse of the Prophet Pluet super eos Laqueos of Multitude of Penall Lawes Which are worse then showres of Hayle or Tempest upon Cattle for they fall upon Men. There are some Penall Lawes fit to be retained but tâ—â—ir â—enalty too great And it is ever a Rule that any ovâ—â— great Penalty besides the Acerbity of it deads the Execution of the Law There is a further Inconvenience of Penall Lawes Obsolete and out of Vse For that it brings a Gangrene Neglect and Habite Disobedience upon other wholesome Lawes that are fit to be continued in Practise and Execution So that our Lawes endure the Torment of Mezentius The living die in the Armes of the dead Lastly there is such an Accumulation of Statutes concerning one matter And they so crosse and intricate as the Certainty of Law is lost in the Heape As your Majesty had Experience last day upon the Point Whether the Incendâ—ary of New-market should have the benefit of his Clergy Obj. 1. That it is a great Innovation And Innovations are dangerous beyond foresight Resp. All Purgings and Medecines either in the Civile or Naturall Body are Innovations So as that Argument is a Common place against all Noble Reformations But the trâ—th is that this work ought not to be termed or held for any Innovation in the suspected sense For those are the Innovations which are quarrelled and spoken against that concern the Consciences Estates and Fortunes of particular persons But this of General Ordinance pricketh not particulars but passeth Sine Strepiâ—u Besides it is on the favourable part For it easeth it presseth not And lastly it is rather matter of Order and explanation then of Alteration Neither is this without President in former Governments The Romans by their Decemvirs did make their Twelve Tables But that was indeed a new Enacting or Constituting of Lawes Not a Registring or Recompiling And they were made out of the Lawes of the Graecians not out of their own Customes In Athens they had Sexvir which were standing Commissioners to watch and to discern what Lawes waxed unproper for the Time And what new Law did in any branch crosse a former Law and so Ex Officio propounded their Repeales King Lewis the 11th of France had it in his intention to have made one perfite and uniform Law out of the Civil Law Roman and the Povinciall Customes of France Iustinian the Emperour by Commissions directed to divers persons Learned in the Lawes reduced the Roman Lawes from Vastness of Volume and a Labyrinth of incertainties Unto that course of the Civill Law which is now in use I find here at home of late years That King Henry the 8th in the Twenty seventh of his Raign was authorized by Parliament to nominate Thirty two Commissioners part Ecclesiasticall part Temporall to purge the Canon Law and to make it agreeable to the Law of God and the Law of the Realm And the same was revived in the Fourth year of Edward the 6th though neither took effect For the Lawes of Lycurgus Solon Ninos and others of ancient time they are not the worse because Grammer Schollars speak of them But things too ancient wax Children with us again Edgar the Saxon King collected the Lawes of this Kingdome and gave them the Strength of a Faggot bound which formerly were dispersed The Statutes of King Edward the First were fundamentall But I doubt I err in producing so many Examples For as Cicero saith to Caesar so may I say to your Majesty Nil Vulgare te Dignum Videri possit Obj. 3. In this purging of the course of the Common Lawes and Statutes much good may be taken away Resp. In all Purging some good Humours may pass away But that is largely recompensed by Lightning the Body of much bad Obj. 4. Labour were better bestowed in bringing the Common Lawes of England to a Text Law as the Statutes are And setting both of them down in Method and by Titles Resp. It is too long a Businesse to debate whether Lex Scripta aut non Scripta A Text Law or Customes well registred with received and approved Grounds and Maximes and Acts and Resolutions Judiciall from Time to Time duely entred and reported Be the better Form of Declaring and Authorizing Lawes It was the principall Reason or Oracle of Lycurgus That none of his Lawes should be written Customes are Lawes written in Living Tables And some Traditions the Church doth not disauthorize In all Sciences they are the soundest that keep close
Countrey and in his own House Concerning which I will give you a Tast onely out of a Letter â—ritten from Italy The Store-House of Refined Witts to the late Earle of Devonshire Then the Lord Candish I will expect the New Essayes of my Lord Chancellâ—r Bacon As also his History with a great deal of Desire And whatsoever else he shall compose But in Particular of his History I promise my Self a Thing perfect and Singular especially in Henry the Seventh Where he may exercise the Talent of his Divine Understanding This Lord is more and more known And his Books here more and more delighted in And those Men that have more than ordinary Knowledge in Humane Affaires esteem him one of the most capable Spirits of this Age And he is truly such Now his Fame doth not decrease with Dayes since but rather encrease Divers of his Works have been anciently and yet lately translated into other Tongues both Learned and Modern by Forraign Pens Severall Persons of Quality during his Lordships Life crossed the Seas on purpose to gain an Opportunity of Seeing him and Discoursing with himâ— whereof one carried his Lordships Picture from Head to Foot over with Him into France As a Thing which he foresaw would be much desired there That so they might enjoy the Image of his Person As well as the Images of his Brain his Books Amongst the rest Marquis Fiat A French Nobleman who came Ambassadour into England in the Beginning of Queen Mary Wife to Charlesâ— was taken with an extraordinary Desire of Seeing him For which he made way by a Friend And when he came to him being then through weaknesse confined to his Bed The Marquis saluted him with this High Expression That his Lordship had been ever to Him like the Angels of whom he had often heard And read much of them in Books But he never saw them After which they contracted an intimate Acquaintance And the Marquis did so much revere him That besides his Frequent visits They wrote Letters one to the other under the Titles and Appellations of Father and Son As for his many Salutations by Letters from Forraign Worthies devoted to Learning I forbear to mention them Because that is a Thing common to other Men of Learning or Note together with him But yet in this Matter of his Fame I speak in the Comparative onely and not in the Exclusive For his Reputation is great in his own Nation also Especially amongst those that are of a more Acute and sharper Iudgement Which I will exemplifie but with two Testimonies and no more The Former When his History of King Henry the Seventh was to come forth It was delivered to the old Lord Brooke to be perused by him who when he had dispatched it returned it to the Authour with this Eulogy Commend me to my Lord And bid him take care to get good Paper Inke For the Work is Incomparable The other shall be that of Doctor Samuel Collins late Provost of Kings Colledge in Cambridge A Man of no vulgar Wit who affirmed unto me That when he had read the Book of the Advancement of Learning He found Himself in a case to begin his Studies a new And that he had lost all the Time of his â—tudying before It hath been desired That something should be signified touching his Diet And the Regiment of his Health Of which in regard of his Universall Insight into Nature he may perhaps be to some an Example For his Diet It was rather a plentifull and liberall Diet as his Stomack would bear it then a Restrained Which he also commended in his Book of the History of Life and Death In his younger years he was much given to the Finer and Lighter sort of Meats As of Fowles and such like But afterward when he grew more Iudicious He preferred the stronger Meats such as the Shambles afforded As those Meats which bred the more firm and substantiall Juyces of the Body And lesse Dissipable upon whiâ—h he would often make his Meal Though he had other Meats upon the Table You may be sure He would not neglect that Himself which He so much extolled in his Writings And that was the Vse of Nitre Whereof he took in the Quantity of about three Grains in thin warm Broath every Morning for thirty years together next before his Death And for Physick he did indeed live Physically but not miserably For he took onely a Maceration of Rhubarb Infused into a Draught of White Wine and Beer mingled together for the Space of half an Hour Once in six or seven Dayes Immediately before his Meal whether Dinner or Supper that it might dry the Body lesse which as he said did carry away frequently the Grosser Humours of the Body And not diminish or carry away any of the Spirits As Sweating doth And this was no Grievous Thing to take As for other Physick in an ordinary way whatsoever hath been vulgarly spoken he took not His Receit for the Gout which did constantly ease him of his Pain within two Hours Is already set down in the End of the Naturall History It may seem the Moon had some Principall Place in the Figure of his Nativity For the Moon was never in her Passion or Eclipsed but he was surprized with a sudden Fit of Fainting And that though he observed not nor took any previous Knowledge of the Eclipse thereof And assoon as the Eclipse ceased he was restored to his former strength again He died on the 9th Day of Aprill in the year 1626â— In the early Morning of the Day then celebrated for our Saviours Resurrection In the 66th year of his Age At the Earle of Arundells House in High-gate near London To which Place he casually repaired about a week before God so ordaining that he should dye there Of a Gentle Feaver accidentally accompanied with a great Cold whereby the Defluxion of Rheume fell so plentifully upon his Breast that he died by Suffocation And was buried in Saint Michaels Church at Saint Albans Being the Place designed for his Buriall by his last Will and Testament Both because the Body of his Mother was interred there And because it was the onely Church then remaining within the Precincts of old Verulam Where he hath a Monument erected for him of White Marble By the Care and Gratitude of Sir Thomas Meautys Knight formerly his Lordships Secretary Afterwards Clark of the Kings Honourable Privy Counsell under two Kings Representing his full Pourtraiture in the Posture of studying with an Inscription composed by that Accomplisht Gentleman and Rare Wit Sir Henry Wotton But howsoever his Body was Mortall yet no doubt his Memory and Works will live And will in all probability last as long as the World lasteth In order to which I have endeavoured after my poor Ability to do this Honour to his Lordship by way of conducing to the same SPEECHES IN Parliament STAR-CHAMBER Kings Bench CHANCERY AND OTHER-WHERE Of the Right Honourable FRANCIS BACON