led, much given to women, careless of religion,-qualities notably serving my purpose; for while a man is held in exercise with his own vices, he hath little leisure to observe others; and besides, to feign myself an accommodable person to his humour in all points was indeed most convenient for me; looseness of behaviour, and a negligent worldly kind of carriage of a man's self, are the faults that States least fear, because they hurt only him in whom they are found. To take the benefit of this, I entered Rome with a mighty blue feather in a black hat: which, though itself were a slight matter, yet surely it did work in the imaginations of men three great effects: first, I was by it taken for no Englishman, upon which depended the ground of all; secondly, I was reputed as light in my mind as in my apparell (they are not dangerous men that are so); thirdly, no man could think that I desired to be unknown, who by wearing that feather, took a course to make myself famous through Rome in a few days." With all his precautions, however, and blue feather to boot, a sagacious Scotchman was so near discovering his secret that he judged it prudent to withdraw from Rome. He now took up his abode at Sienna, where he remained some time. In 1595 he returned to England.

Wotton's accomplishments, learning, and knowledge of the world, soon recommended him to the earl of Essex, who appointed him one of his secretaries. On the ruin of his patron he made his escape to France, and thus escaped sharing the fate of his fellow-secretary, Henry Cuff, who was hanged for concealing his knowledge of his master's treasons. He soon turned his steps once more to Italy, and took up his residence in Florence, where he gained the esteem of the grand duke, Ferdinand, and where an incident occurred which was destined to introduce him to the acquaintance and favour of king James. Ferdinand had intercepted a despatch of great importance relative to an intrigue for assassinating the king of Scots; and being desirous to communicate the discovery to James, his secretary, Vietta, recommended Wotton as a fit messenger to employ in so delicate and hazardous a mission. Wotton at once undertook the task; and the more effectually to escape suspicion, he proceeded first to Norway, where he embarked for Scotland. On reaching Stirling he gained admission to the king under the assumed character of a Florentine; but, after delivering his despatch, he contrived to inform his majesty in a whisper that he was an Englishman in disguise, and solicited a private interview. This was granted, and Wotton spent above three months at the Scottish court, during all which time his real name and character were unknown to any one save James himself.

A few months after his return to Florence, the death of Elizabethwhom he had vainly attempted to propitiate by the composition of a work entitled The State of Christendom,' in which he took care to represent her majesty's government as the model of perfection—and the accession of James, terminated his expatriation, and opened up his way to honour and offices. James received him with the utmost cordiality, declaring that "he was the most honest, and therefore the best dissembler he had ever met with;" he soon after knighted him, and next year offered him his choice of the embassies to France, to Spain, or to Ve

Walton's Life of Wotton.

nice. He preferred the last; and conducted himself so much to the king's satisfaction, that he was sent on two other occasions to Venice; he also performed embassies to the United Provinces, to the duke of Savoy, the united princes of Germany, the Archduke Leopold, the duke of Wirtemberg, the imperial cities of Strasburg and Ulm, and the emperor Ferdinand II. In all these missions Sir Henry exhibited great skill as a diplomatist. But he appears to have nearly forfeited his royal master's confidence by one little piece of imprudence, which we shall relate as characteristic of the times and of the temper of the English monarch. On his way to Venice, through Germany, Sir Henry happened to spend some days at Augsburg, where he met with some ingenious and learned men, one of them requested him to write some sentence in his album as a memorandum of him. With this request Sir Henry good-humouredly complied, and, taking occasion from some incidental discourse of the company, inserted the following definition of an ambassador in his friend's album: "Legatus est vir bonus peregre missus ad mentiendum reipublicæ causà;" that is, "An ambassador is an honest man sent abroad to tell falsehoods for the good of his country." By some unlucky chance, eight years afterwards, this album fell into the bands of the scurrilous Jasper Scioppius, who was at that time engaged in writing a book against King James. Wotton's sentence caught his eye, and he immediately introduced it into his book as an authentic specimen of the principles which this protestant monarch inculcated upon his servants. James was greatly grieved at this, and for a time threatened to visit his imprudent ambassador with some signal mark of his displeasure. But an apologetical letter, De Caspare Scioppio,' which Sir Henry addressed to James, so mightily pleased the royal pedant that he declared publicly "he had commuted sufficiently for a greater offence."

Wotton returned to England the year before king James died. He now withdrew from politics, and accepted, in 1623, the provostship of Eton college. In this comparative retreat he gave himself up entirely to religious meditation and the tranquil pursuits of literature. He died in December, 1639. He was the author of several small pieces on different subjects, which were published together in a volume entitled 'Reliquiæ Wottonianæ,' in 1651. The State of Christendom' was first published, in folio, in 1657. Several other pieces of his still remain in manuscript.

Thomas, Earl of Strafford.

BORN A. D. 1593.-died a. D. 1641.

THOMAS WENTWORTH, earl of Strafford, the favourite and able, but corrupt minister of Charles I., was the son of Sir William Wentworth, a Yorkshire gentleman, whose family made a distinguished figure among the revivers of popular liberty in the reign of Elizabeth. He was the eldest of twelve children, and was born in London on the 15th of April, 1593. He completed his studies at St John's college, Cambridge, after which he spent a short time on the continent.

On his return from abroad in 1613, he appeared at court, and was

knighted by King James. About the same time he married Margaret Clifford, the eldest daughter of the earl of Cumberland. In the following year he succeeded by the death of his father to a baronetcy, and an estate of £6000 a-year. His great wealth and influence soon pointed him out to the government as a person whose services were likely to be useful in the north of England, and accordingly, on the resignation of Sir John Saville, Custos rotulorum for the west riding of Yorkshire, that office was conferred on Wentworth. But he commenced his political career on the side of the opposition. In 1621, he was returned to parliament for the county of York; and such was the spirit he displayed in defending the popular rights against encroachment, that, in 1626, he was appointed a sheriff, for the purpose of being prevented resuming his seat in the house. In the following year he was sent to prison for refusing to contribute to the forced loan.

In Charles's third parliament he again represented the county of York, and joined with Eliot, Philips, and Seymour, in supporting the petition of right. When some proposed that they should rest satisfied with the king's assurances, without pressing the petition, Wentworth strenuously opposed so dangerous a course, "There hath been," said he, "a public violation of the laws by his majesty's ministers; and nothing shall satisfy me but a public amends. Our desire to vindicate

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the subjects rights exceeds not what is laid down in former laws, with some modest provision for instruction and performances." When the lords proposed to add to the petition a clause importing that they left entire all the rights and privileges of royalty, and wished to employ the term 'sovereign power' for 'prerogative,' Wentworth exclaimed against the proposition. "If we do admit of this addition," said he, we shall leave the subject in a worse state than we found him. Let us leave all power to his majesty to bring malefactors to legal punishment; but our laws are not acquainted with sovereign power.' We desire no new thing; nor do we offer to trench on his majesty's prerogative; but we may not secede from this petition, either in whole or in part." These were sentiments worthy of a Wentworth; but he who uttered them was destined soon to belie them by the grossest act of apostasy. Buckingham now felt and estimated the value of the man. That abandoned minister had hitherto treated Wentworth with great contempt, but he now saw his mistake, and resolved to retrace his steps; he courted Wentworth, and soon made overtures to him which were accepted. Wentworth had in fact been guided hitherto by ambition only. Repulsed in his first advances towards Buckingham, he at once perceived that the gates of court-favour were shut against him, and that to gain any thing from it, he must work upon the necessities and fears of the king and his minister. Upon this principle he chose his part, and how successfully he supported it let the result show.

His commission as president for the council of the north was the first item in his bargain with the court, and was signed a month before Buckingham's assassination: he was also advanced to the peerage with the title of baron. Hume notices Wentworth's desertion of his party, in language which, while it sounds like an apology, does virtually admit the baseness of his conduct. "His fidelity to the king," says the artful historian, "was unshaken; but as he now employed all his counsels to support the prerogative, which he had formerly bent all his