seize upon the person of the Lady Elizabeth, the king's eldest daughter. Now before, Tresham in his letter to my Lord Mounteagle did wish him to absent himself the first day of the parliament, for that God and man had resolved to take sudden vengeance, or to that effect.

This letter my Lord Mounteagle did instantly impart to the secretary; the Secretary did instantly acquaint the King and some of the council therewith: the King must have the honour to interpret it, that it was by gunpowder; and the very night before the parliament began it was to be discovered, to make the matter the more odious and the deliverance more miraculous. No less than the lord chamberlain must search for it and discover it, and Faux with his dark lantern must be apprehended. This being discovered, while the rest of the traitors were in Warwickshire and Worcestershire, they had seized upon some horses for war in Sir Fulke Greville's stable in Warwick Castle; but as soon as they heard that the treason was discovered and prevented in the parliament house, they desisted in their design, and all of them betook themselves to one house, where immediately they were beset; and while they were drying their gunpowder at the fire, a spark took some of it, whereby some of the company were blasted, which they did ascribe to the just judgment of God, that seeing they would have blown up others, they by God's mercy escaped, and they themselves were punished in the same kind.

Now here was a great oversight; that whereas there was no possibility that the traitors could resist, nor any hope that they could escape, neither did they kill any one man that did beset them, therefore a special charge should have been given that they should take the traitors alive, whereby that upon the rack they might discover the whole plot. Now they that beset them were permitted to shoot, and did kill Percy and Catesby, the two principal contrivers of the plot, and none but they were killed; and some will not stick to report, that the great statesman sending to apprehend these traitors gave special charge and direction for Percy and Catesby, 'Let me never see them alive;' who it may be would have revealed some evil counsel given. As for Tresham, he fell very sick in the Tower; and Butler, the great physician of Cambridge, coming to visit him as his fashion was, he gave him a piece of very pure gold to be put in his mouth; and upon the taking out of that gold, Butler said that he was poisoned. For the keeper of the parliament house, who let out the lodgings to Percy, it is said that as soon as ever he heard of the news what Percy intended, he instantly fell into a fright and died; so that it could not be certainly known who procured him the house, or by whose means.

Now the traitors impeached none others; yet the state knowing where to find out Garnet, the provincial jesuit, did apprehend him, and having nothing to lay to his charge, they put him into a chamber where they knew he would have a confessor. Nothing could be spoken there so softly but others could hear it; so that two overheard him making his confession, and acknowledging that in hearing the confession of others he had knowledge thereof, for which he was condemned and executed. It hath since appeared that divers priests in their letters to Rome did much complain that they found Catholics very

desperate, and that they could not persuade them to any obedience, but did much fear they intended mischief.'-Ib. 102-108.

Another account of this memorable conspiracy is furnished in the second volume, in a letter from Sir Edward Hobart to Sir Thomas Edmonds, the English ambassador at Brussels; but our space forbids its insertion.

Bacon was no favorite with Goodman; the bishop was too honest to love so unscrupulous and abject a courtier; though we suspect we are somewhat indebted to the fall of the latter for the accuracy-would that we could disbelieve it-of the following description:

'Now for Bacon, certainly he was a man of very great intellectuals, and a man who did every way comply with the King's desires; and he was a great projector in learning, as did appear by his 'Advancement of Learning,' to which book I would have given some answer if I durst have printed it. Over other men he did insult, and took bribes on both sides; and had this property, that he would not question any man for words against him, as knowing himself to be faulty, and therefore would not bring his adversaries upon the stage. Secretary Winwood was a man of courage, and the difference fell out upon a very small occasion, that Winwood did beat his dog from lying upon a stool, which Bacon seeing, said that every gentleman did love a dog. This passed on; then at the same time, having some business to sit upon, it should seem that Secretary Winwood sate too near my lord keeper; and his lordship willed him either to keep or to know his distance. Whereupon he arose from table, and I think he did him no good office. It is certain there were many exceptions against Bacon: no man got more dishonestly, and no man spent more wastefully; and how fit this man was to carry the King's conscience, whom I believe no other man would trust! And so, no marvel, at length he came to be discovered; and even after his fall, he still continued ambitious, and did practise so much as he could to rise again.'-Ib. pp. 283, 284.

Bacon's correspondence, so far as it has been preserved, fully sustains the severest charges which have been preferred against him. There is, however, something so painful in the admission of these charges, that we can readily excuse the zeal with which the disciples of his philosophy have sought to rebut them. We would gladly join with them in the chivalrous effort, did we not feel that the claims of truth were paramount even to those of Bacon; and that, whatever might be effected on behalf of the latter, must be purchased by an injury done to former. History testifies-and it is in vain to turn a deaf ear to her verdict-that in the case of Bacon, the intellectual and the moral were in contrast rather than in harmony; that the elements of earth and heaven were strangely blended in his character; that

est endowments with the meanest and most abject spirit; an disgraceful shrinking from the practical application of her rules to unquenchable thirst for truth in all her diversified forms, with a the conduct of human life. Mr. Brewer has printed in his second volume three letters of Bacon; one to King James, and the other two to the favorite Buckingham. They were all written subsequent to his disgrace, and are but too characteristic of the meanness which distinguished the man. The dignity of our nature is insulted when we hear the great philosopher addressing the court puppet of the day-the vain, unprincipled, and reckless Buckingham-in such language as the following: 'I now find that, in building upon your lordship's noble nature and friendship, I have built upon a rock where neither winds or rains can cause 'overthrow.' But we dismiss this painful subject with the following letter to the King:

'MAY IT PLEASE YOUR SACRED MAJESTY,

I acknowledge myself in all humbleness infinitely bounden to your Majesty's grace and goodness, for that, at the intercession of my noble and constant friend my Lord Marquis, your Majesty hath been pleased to grant me that which the civilians say is res inestimabilis,—my liberty; so that now, whenever God calleth me, I shall not die a prisoner. Nay, farther, your Majesty hath vouchsafed to cast a second and iterate aspect of your eye of compassion upon me, in referring the consideration of my broken estate to my good lord the Lord Treasurer; which as it is a singular bounty in your Majesty, so I have yet so much left of a late commissioner of your treasure, as I would be sorry to sue for any thing that might seem immodest.

'These your Majesty's great benefits in casting your bread upon the waters (as the Scripture saith), because my thanks cannot any ways be sufficient to attain, I have raised your progenitor of famous memory (and now I hope of more famous memory than before), King Henry the Seventh, to give your Majesty thanks for me. Which work, most humbly kissing your Majesty's hands, I do present. And because in the beginning of my trouble, when in the midst of the tempest I had a kenning of the harbour, which I hope now by your Majesty's favor I am entering into, I made tender to your Majesty of two works, an History of England, and a Digest of your Laws, as I have (by a figure of pars pro toto) performed the one, so I have herewith sent your Majesty, by way of an epistle, a new offer of the other. But my desire is further, if it stand with your Majesty's good pleasure, since now my stndy is my exchange, and my pen my factor for the use of my talent, that your Majesty (who is a great master in these things) would be pleased to appoint me some task to write, and that I shall take for an oracle.

And because my Instauration (which I esteem my great work, and do still go on with in silence) was dedicated to your Majesty, and this History of King Henry the Seventh to your lively and excellent image

the Prince, if now your Majesty will be pleased to give me a theme to dedicate to my Lord of Buckingham, whom I have so much reason to honor, I should with more alacrity embrace your Majesty's direction than mine own choice. Your Majesty will pardon me for troubling you thus long. God evermore preserve and prosper you. Your Majesty's poor beadsman most devoted,

'F. ST. ALBAN.' -Vol. ii. pp. 220-221.

The following short epistle from Prince Charles to Buckingham contains the germ of the policy of his subsequent reign. It was written at the close of 1621, when the House of Commons had evinced its determination to restrain the prerogatives of the Crown within their constitutional limits. The desire expressed, that such seditious fellows might be made an example to others,' evinces the early and deep-rooted aversion to the rights of parliament, which was afterwards displayed with such disastrous results.

'STINIE,

The lower house this day has been a little unruly, but I hope it will turn to the best, for before they rose they began to be ashamed of it; yet I could wish that the King would send down a commission here (that if need were), such seditious fellows might be made an example to others by Monday next, and till then I would let them alone; it will be seen whether they mean to do good or to persist in their follies, so that the King needs to be patient but a little while. I have spoken with so many of the council as the King trusts most, and they [are] all of this mind; only the sending of authority to set seditious fellows fast is of my adding. I defy thee in being more mine than I am Thy constant loving friend,

CHARLES P.' -Ib. pp. 209-210.

The only other extract for which we can make room is a letter from Sir Walter Raleigh to his wife, written from the Tower, which determines, as Mr. Brewer remarks, the much vexed ' question whether or not Sir Walter did attempt to stab himself.' We envy not the man who can read this epistle without being deeply interested in the fortunes of its writer.

Receive from thy unfortunate husband these his last lines, these the last words that ever thou shalt receive from him. That I can live to think never to see thee and my child more, I cannot. I have desired God, and disputed with my reason, but nature and compassion hath the victory. That I can live to think how you are both left a spoil to my enemies, and that my name shall be a dishonor to my child, I cannot, I cannot endure the memory thereof: unfortunate

he united to an extent rarely seen, and never surpassed, the highest endowments with the meanest and most abject spirit; an unquenchable thirst for truth in all her diversified forms, with a disgraceful shrinking from the practical application of her rules to the conduct of human life. Mr. Brewer has printed in his second volume three letters of Bacon; one to King James, and the other two to the favorite Buckingham. They were all written subsequent to his disgrace, and are but too characteristic of the meanness which distinguished the man. The dignity of our nature is insulted when we hear the great philosopher addressing the court puppet of the day-the vain, unprincipled, and reckless Buckingham-in such language as the following: 'I now find that, ' in building upon your lordship's noble nature and friendship, I 'have built upon a rock where neither winds or rains can cause ' overthrow.' But we dismiss this painful subject with the following letter to the King:

'MAY IT PLEASE YOUR SACRED MAJESTY,

'I acknowledge myself in all humbleness infinitely bounden to your Majesty's grace and goodness, for that, at the intercession of my noble and constant friend my Lord Marquis, your Majesty hath been pleased to grant me that which the civilians say is res inestimabilis,—my liberty; so that now, whenever God calleth me, I shall not die a prisoner. Nay, farther, your Majesty hath vouchsafed to cast a second and iterate aspect of your eye of compassion upon me, in referring the consideration of my broken estate to my good lord the Lord Treasurer; which as it is a singular bounty in your Majesty, so I have yet so much left of a late commissioner of your treasure, as I would be sorry to sue for any thing that might seem immodest.

"These your Majesty's great benefits in casting your bread upon the waters (as the Scripture saith), because my thanks cannot any ways be sufficient to attain, I have raised your progenitor of famous memory (and now I hope of more famous memory than before), King Henry the Seventh, to give your Majesty thanks for me. Which work, most humbly kissing your Majesty's hands, I do present. And because in the beginning of my trouble, when in the midst of the tempest I had a kenning of the harbour, which I hope now by your Majesty's favor I am entering into, I made tender to your Majesty of two works, an History of England, and a Digest of your Laws, as I have (by a figure of pars pro toto) performed the one, so I have herewith sent your Majesty, by way of an epistle, a new offer of the other. But my desire is further, if it stand with your Majesty's good pleasure, since now my stndy is my exchange, and my pen my factor for the use of my talent, that your Majesty (who is a great master in these things) would be pleased to appoint me some task to write, and that I shall take for an oracle.

And because my Instauration (which I esteem my great work, and do still go on with in silence) was dedicated to your Majesty, and this History of King Henry the Seventh to your lively and excellent image