heads of some principal grievances, under which the kingdom groaned. In the second, he undertook to prove that the disorders from whence those grievances issued, were as hurtful to the King as to the people. In the third, he would advise such a way of healing, and removing those grievances, as might be equally effectual to maintain the honor and greatness of the King, and to procure the prosperity and contentment of the people.

In the handling whereof he promised to use such expressions as might mitigate the sharpness and bitterness of those things whereof he was to speak, so far as his duty and faithfulness would allow. It is a great prerogative to the King, and a great honor attributed to him, in a maxim of our law, that he can do no wrong; he is the fountain of justice; and, if there be any injustice in the execution of his commands, the law casts it upon the ministers, and frees the King.

Activity, life, and vigor are conveyed into the sublunary creatures by the influence of heaven; but the malignity and distemper, the cause of so many epidemical diseases, do proceed from the noisome vapors of the earth, or some ill-affected qualities of the air, without

any infection or alteration of those pure, celestial, and incorruptible bodies. In the like manner, he said, the authority, the power, and countenance of princes, may concur in the actions of evil men, without partaking in the injustice and obliquity of them. These matters whereof we complain, have been presented to his Majesty, either under the pretence of royal prerogatives, which he is bound to maintain, or of public good, which is the most honorable object of regal wisdom. But the covetous and ambitious designs of others have interposed betwixt his royal intentions and the happiness of his people, making those things pernicious and hurtful, which his Majesty apprehended as just and profitable.

He said, the things which he was to propound were of a various nature, many of them such as required a very tender and exquisite consideration. In handling of which, as he would be bold to use the liberty of the place and relation wherein he stood, so he would be very careful to express that modesty and humility which might be expected by those of whose actions he was to speak. And if his judgment or his tongue should slip into any particular mistake, he would not think it so great a shame