servant. For myself, I shall ever rejoice at the manifestation of his majesty's favour toward you, and will contribute all that is in me, to the increasing of his good opinion; ever resting Your Lordship's faithful Friend and Servant, To the Marquis of Buckingham. My very good Lord, With due thanks for your last visit, this day is a playday for me. But I will wait on your lordship if it be necessary. * I do hear from divers of judgment, that to-morrow's conference is like to pass in a calm, as to the referrees +. Sir Lionel Cranfield, who hath been formerly the trumpet, said yesterday, that he did now incline to Sir John Walter's opinion and motion, not to have the referrees meddled with otherwise, than to discount it from the king; and so not to look back, but to the future. And I do hear almost all men of judgment in the house wish now that way. I woo nobody: I do but listen, and I have doubt only of Sir Edward Coke, who, I wish, had some round caveat given him from the king; for your lordship hath no great power with him but I think a word from the king mates him. If things be carried fair by the committees of the lower house, I am in some doubt, whether there will be occasion for your lordship to speak to-morrow; though, I confess, I incline to wish you did, chiefly because you are fortunate in that kind; and, to be plain also, for our better countenance, when your lordship, according to your noble proposition, shall shew more regard of the fraternity you have with great counsellors, than of the interest of your natural brother. Always, good my lord, let us think of times out of parliament, as well as the present time in parliament, and let us not all be put es pourpoint. Fair and moderate courses are ever best in causes of estate; the rather, because I wish this parliament, by the sweet and united passages thereof, On Monday the 5th of March, 1620-1, the house of lords received a message from the commons, desiring a conference touching certain grievances, principally concerning Sir Giles Mompesson.-See Journal of the House of Lords. Those to whom the king referred the petitions, to consider whether they were fit to be granted or not. This explanation of the word referrees I owe to a note in a MS. letter, written to the celebrated Mr. Joseph Mead of Christ's College, Cambridge. may increase the king's reputation with foreigners, who may make a far other judgment than we mean, of a beginning to question great counsellors and officers of the crown, by courts or assemblies of estates. But the reflection upon my particular in this makes me more sparing than perhaps, as a counsellor, I ought to be. God ever preserve and prosper you. Your Lordship's true Servant all and ever, March 7, the day I received the seal, 1620. To the King.* It may please your Majesty, I received your majesty's letter about midnight; and because it was stronger than the ancient summons of the exchequer, which is, sicut teipsum et omnia tua diligis; whereas this was sicut me diligis; I used all possible care to effect your majesty's good will and pleasure. I sent early to the prince, and to my Lord Treasurer; and we attended his highness soon after seven of the clock, at Whitehall, to avoid farther note. We agreed, that if the message came, we would put the lords into this way, that the answer should be, that we understood they came prepared both with examination and precedent; and we likewise desired to be alike prepared, that the conference might be with more fruit. I did farther speak with my Lord of Canterbury, when I came to the house, not letting him know any part of the business, that he would go on with a motion which he had told me of the day before, that the Lords' House might not sit Wednesday and Friday, because they were convocationdays; and so was the former custom of parliament. The date of this letter is determined to be the 8th of March, 1620-1, from the circumstance of its being mentioned to have been written on that Thursday, on which the house of lords adjourned to the Saturday following. It appears from the journal of that house, that on the 8th of March, 1620, the said house, at which were present the Prince of Wales and Marquis of Buckingham, was adjourned to Saturday the 10th, on which day a conference of both houses was held relating to the complaint of that of the commons against Sir Giles Mompesson. Of this conference the Lord Chancellor made report on Monday, March 12, to the house of lords, remarking, that "the inducement to this conference was to clear the king's honour, touching grants to Sir Giles, and the passages in procuring the same." After this report of the conference, the Lord Chamberlain, William, Earl of Pembroke, complained to the house, that two great lords, meaning the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Treasurer, the Lord Viscount Mandeville, had, in that conference, spake in their own defence, not being allowed to do so when the committees were named. Upon which both the lords acknowledged their error, and begged pardon of the house. As good luck was, the house read two bills, and had no other business at all whereupon my Lord of Canterbury made his motion; and I adjourned the house till Saturday. It was no sooner done, but came the message from the lower house. But the consummatum est was past, though I perceived a great willingness in many of the lords to have recalled it, if it might have been. So with my best prayers for your majesty's preservation, Your Majesty's most bounden, I rest Thursday, at eleven of our forenoon, March 8, 1620. and most devoted Servant, To the Marquis of Buckingham.* My very good Lord, Your lordship spoke of purgatory. I am now in it; but my mind is in a calm; for my fortune is not my felicity. I know I have clean hands, and a clean heart; and I hope a clean house for friends or servants. But Job himself, or whosoever was the justest judge, by such hunting for matters against him, as hath been used against me, may for a time seem foul, especially in a time when greatness is the mark, and accusation is the game. And if this be to be a chancellor, I think if the great seal lay upon Hounslow Heath, nobody would take it up. But the king and your lordship will I hope put an end to these my straits one way or other. And in troth, that which I fear most, is, lest continual attendance and business, together with these cares, and want of time to do my weak body right this spring by diet and physic, will cast me down; and that it will be thought feigning, or fainting. But I hope in God I shall hold out. God prosper you. To the Chancellor of the Duchy, Sir Humphrey There will come, upon Friday, before you a patent of his majesty's for the separation of the company of apothe caries from the company of grocers, and their survey, and the erecting them into a corporation of themselves under This letter seems to have been written soon after Lord St. Alban began to be accused of abuses in his office of chancellor. + The patent for incorporating the apothecaries by themselves, by the appellation of "The Masters, Wardens, and Society of the Art and Mystery of Apothecaries of London," was dated December 6, 1617. They had been incorporated with the company of grocers, April 9, 1606. * the survey of the physicians. It is, as I conceive, a fair business both for law and conveniency, and a work which the king made his own, and did, and as I hear doth take much to heart. It is in favorem vita, where the other part is in favorem lucri. You may perhaps think me partial to apothecaries, that have been ever puddering in physic all my life. But there is a circumstance that touches upon me but post diem, for it is comprehended in the charge and sentence passed upon me. It is true, that after I had put the seal to the patent, the apothecaries presented me with a hundred pounds. It was no judicial affair. But howsoever, as it may not be defended, so I would be glad it were not raked up more than needs. I doubt only the chair, because I hear he useth names sharply; and besides, it may be, he hath a tooth at me yet, which is not fallen out with age. But the best is, as one saith, satis est lapsos non erigere; urgere verò jacentes, aut præcipitantes impellere, certè est inhumanum. Mr. Chancellor, if you will be nobly pleased to grace me upon this occasion, by shewing tenderness of my name, and commiseration of my fortune, there is no man in that assembly from whose mouth I had rather it should come. I hope it will be no dishonour to you. It will oblige me much, and be a worthy fruit of our last reintegration of friendship. I rest Your faithful Friend to do you service. To the Count Gondomar, Ambassador from the Court of Spain. Illustrissime Domine Legate, Amorem illustrissimæ Dominationis tuæ erga me, ejusque et fervorem et candorem, tam in prosperis rebus, quam in adversis, æquabili tenore constantem perspexi. Quo nomine tibi meritas et debitas gratias ago. Me verò jam vocat et ætas, et fortuna, atque etiam genius meus, cui adhuc satis morosé satisfeci, ut excedens è theatro rerum civilium literis * His lordship being charged by the house of commons, that he had received one hundred pounds of the new company of apothecaries, that stood against the grocers, as likewise a taster of gold worth between four and five hundred pounds, with a present of ambergrise, from the apothecaries that stood with the grocers, and two hundred pounds of the grocers; he admits the several sums to have been received of the three parties, but alleges, "that he considered those presents as no judicial business, but a concord of composition between the parties : and as he thought they had all three received good, and they were all common purses, he thought it the less matter to receive what they voluntarily presented; for if he had taken it in the nature of a bribe, he knew it could not be concealed, because it must be put to the account of the three several companies." me dedam, et ipsos actores instruam, et posteritati serviam. Id mihi fortasse honori erit, et degam tanquam in atriis vitæ melioris. Deus illustrissimam Dominationem tuam incolumem servet et prosperam. Servus tuus, Junii 6, 1621. FR. ST. ALBAN. To Count Gondomar.* Illustrissime et excellentissime Domine, Perspexi et agnosco providentiam divinam, quod in tantâ solitudine mihi tanquam cœlitus suscitaverit talem amicum, qui tantis implicatus negotiis, et in tantis temporis angustiis, curam mei habuerit, idque pro me effecerit, quod alii amici mei aut non ausi sint tentare, aut obtinere non potuerint. Atque illustrissimæ Dominationi tuæ reddent fructum proprium et perpetuum mores tui tam generosi, et erga omnia officia humanitatis et honoris propensi; neque erit fortasse inter opera tua hoc minimum, quod me, qui et aliquis fui apud vivos, neque omnino intermoriar apud posteros, ope et gratiâ tuâ erexeris, confirmaris. Ego quid possum? Ero tandem tuus, si minus usufructu, at saltem affectu, voto. Sub cineribus fortunæ vivi erunt semper ignes amoris. Te igitur humillimè saluto, tibi valedico, omnia prospera exopto, gratitudinem testor, observantiam polliceor. Illustrissimo et excellentissimo Do. Do. Didaco Sarmiento de Acuna, Comiti de Gondomar, Legato Regis Hispaniarum extraordinario in Angliâ. To the Marquis of Buckingham.† in I humbly thank your lordship for the grace and favour which you did both to the message and messenger, bringing Mr. Meautys to kiss his majesty's hands, and to receive his pleasure. My riches in my adversity have been, that I have had a good master, a good friend, and a good servant. In the letters, memoirs, &c. of the Lord Chancellor Bacon, published by Mr. Stephens, in 1736, p. 517, is a Spanish letter to him from Count Gondomar, dated at London, June 14, 1621. This letter is reprinted here, because it differs in some respects from that published in Letters, Memoirs, Parliamentary Affairs, State Papers, &c. by Robert Stephens, Esq; p. 151. Edit. London, 1736, 4to. |