the process is formal, the law is fulfilled, and the judge and jury are only to hearken to the verification of the hypothesis, and whether the minor be well proved or not. That his writing of this libel is an overt act, the judges themselves do confess: that it was made fit for publication, the form of it bewrays the self; that he kept not these papers in a secret and safe façon, (manner) but in an open house and lidless cask, both himself and the messenger do confess; nay, himself confesseth, that he wrote them at the desire of another man, to whom he should have shown them when they had been perfected, and who craved an account for them, which, though it be denied by the other party, worketh sufficiently against the deponer himself. Nay, he confesses, that in the end he meant to preach it; and though, for diminishing of his fault, he alledges, that he meant first to have taken all the bitterness out of it, that excuse is altogether absurd, for there is no other stuff in, or through it all, but bitterness, which being taken out, it must be a quintessence of an alchimy spirit without a body, or popish accidents without a substance; and then to what end would he have published such a ghost, or shadow without substance, cui bono; and to what end did he so farce (stuff) it first with venom, only to scrape it out again; but it had been hard making that sermon to have tasted well, that was once so spiced, quo semel est imbuta recens, etc, But yet this very excuse is by himself overthrown again, confessing, that he meant to retain some of the most crafty malicious parts in it, as, etc. [So the manuscript. The only question that remains then is, whether it may be verified and proved, that, by the publishing of this sermon or rather libel of his he compassed or imagined the king's death: which I prove he did by this reason; had he compiled a sermon upon any other ground, or stuffed the bulk of it with any other matter, and only powdered it here and there, with some pass. ages of reprehension of the king; or had he never so bitterly railed against the king, and upbraided him of any two or three, though monstrous vices, it might yet have been some way excusable; or yet had he spued forth all the venom that is in this libel of his, in a railing speech, either in drunkenness, or upon the occasion of any sudden passion or discontentment, it might likewise have been excused in some sort; but upon the one part, to heap up all the injuries that the hearts of men, or malice of the devil, can invent against the king, to disable him utterly, not to be a king, not to be a Christian, not to be a man, or a reasonable creature, not worthy of breath here, nor salvation hereafter; and, upon the other part, not to do this hastily or rashly, but after long premeditation, first having made collections in scattered papers, and then reduced it to a method, in a formal treatise, a text chosen for the purpose, a prayer premitted, applying all his wits to bring out of that text what he could, in malam partem, against the king. This, I say, is a plain proof that he intended to compass or imagine, by this means, the king's destruction. For, will ye look upon the person or quality of the man, it was the far likeliest means he could use to bring his wicked intention to pass; his person an old, unable, and unweildly man; his quality a minister, a preacher; and that in so remote a part of the country, as he had no more means of access to the king's person than he had ability of body, or resolution of spirit, to act such a desperate attempt with his own hands upon him; and therefore, as every creature is ablest, in their own element, either to defend themselves, or annoy their adversaries, as birds in the air, fishes in the water, and so forth, what so ready and natural means had he whereby to annoy the king as by publishing such a seditious libel? and so, under the specious pretext of conscience, to inflame the hearts of the people against him. Now, here is no illation nor inference made upon the statute, it stands in puris naturalibus, but only a just inference and probation of the guilty intention of this party. So the only thing the judges can doubt of, is of the delinquent's intention; and then the question will be, whether if these reasons be stronger to enforce the guiltiness of his intention, or his bare denial Rawley's tio, to clear him, since nature teaches every man to defend his life as long as he may; and whether, in case there were a doubt herein, the judges should not rather incline to that side wherein all probability lies: but if judges will needs trust better the bare negative of an infamous delinquent, without expressing what other end he could probably have, than all the probabilities, or rather infallible consequences upon the other part, caring more for the safety of such a monster, than the preservation of a crown, in all ages following, whereupon depend the lives of many millions: happy then are all desperate and seditious knaves, but the fortune of this crown is more than miserable. Quod Deus avertat. CXX. To the KING, touching matter of his majesty's revenue and profit. It may please your Majesty, I MAY remember what Tacitus saith, by occasion that Tiberius was often and long absent from Rome. In urbe, et parva et magna negotia imperatorem simul premunt: but, saith he, In recessu, dimissis rebus minoris momenti, summæ rerum magnarum magis agitantur. This maketh me think it shall be no incivility to trouble your majesty with business, during your abode from London; knowing that your majesty's meditations are the principal wheel of your estate; and being warranted from a former commandment which I received from you. I do now only send your majesty these paper's inclosed, because I do greatly desire so far forth to preserve my credit with you, as thus, that whereas lately, perhaps out of too much desire, which induceth too much belief, I was bold to say, that I thought it as easy for your majesty to come out of want, as to go forth of your gallery; your majesty would not take me for a dreamer, or a projector; I send your majesty therefore some grounds of my hopes. And for that paper, which I have gathered of increasements sperate, I beseech you to give me leave to think, that if any of the particulars do fail, it will be rather for want of workman ship in those that shall deal in them, than want of Your majesty's most humble 25 April, 1615. and devoted subject and servant, CXXI. To the KING. Rawley's tio. It may please your excellent Majesty, MR. ST. JOHN his day is past, and well past. I hold it to be Janus Bifrons; it hath a good aspect to that which is past, and to the future; and doth both satisfy and prepare. All did well; my lord chief justice delivered the law for the benevolence strongly; I would he had done it timely. Mr. chancellor of the exchequer spake finely, somewhat after the manner of my late * lord privy seal; not all out so sharp- * Late earl ly, but as elegantly. Sir Thomas Lake, who is also of Northnew in that court, did very well, familiarly and counsellor-like. My lord of Pembroke, who is likewise a stranger there, did extraordinarily well, and became The chancellor of the exchequer here meant was Sir Fulke Greville, who being early initiated into the court of queen Elizabeth, became a polite and fine gentleman; and in the 18th of king James was created lord Brooke. He erected a noble monument for himself on the north side of Warwick church, which hath escaped the late desolation, with this well-known inscription, "Fulke Greville, servant to queen Elizabeth, counsellor to king "James, and friend to Sir Philip Sidney." Nor is he less remembered by the monument he has left in his writings and poems, chiefly composed in his youth, and in familiar exercises with the gentleman I have before mentioned. Stephens. Sir Thomas Lake was about this time made one of the principal secretaries of state, as he had been formerly Latin secretary to queen Elizabeth, and before that time bred under Sir Francis Walsingham. But in the year 1618, falling into the ampton. himself well, and had an evident applause. I meant well also; and because my information was the ground; having spoken out of a few heads which I had gathered, for I seldom do more, I set down, as soon as I came home, cursorily, a frame of that I had said; though I persuade myself I spake it with more life. I have sent it to Mr. Murray sealed; if your majesty have so much idle time to look upon it, it may give some light of the day's work: but I most humbly pray your majesty to pardon the errors. preserve you ever. Your majesty's most humble subject April 29, 1615. God FR. BACON. king's displeasure, and being engaged in the quarrels of his wife and daughter the lady Roos, with the countess of Exeter; he was at first suspended from the execution of his place, and afterwards removed, and deeply censured and fined in the star-chamber; although it is said the king then gave him in open court this public eulogy, that he was a minister of state fit to serve the greatest prince in Europe. Whilst this storm was hanging over his head, he writ many letters to the king and the marquis of Buckingham, which I have seen, complaining of his misfortune, that his ruin was likely to proceed from the assistance he gave to his nearest relations. Stephens. & William earl of Pembroke, son to Henry Herbert earl of Pembroke, lord president of the council in the marches of Wales, by Mary his wife, a lady in whom the Muses and Graces seemed to meet; whose very letters, in the judgment of one who saw many of them, declared her to be mistress of a pen not inferior to that of her brother, the admirable Sir Philip Sidney, and to whom he addressed his Arcadia. Nor did this gentleman degenerate from their wit and spirit, as his own poems, his great patronage of learned men, and resolute opposition to the Spanish match, did, among ot herinstances, fully prove. In the year 1616, he was made lord chamberlain, and chosen chancellor of the university of Oxford. He died suddenly on the 10th of April, 1630, having just completed fifty years. But his only son deceasing a child before him, his estate and honours descended upon his younger brother, Philip earl of Montgomery, the lineal ancestor of the present noble and learned earl. Stephens. |