I leave to your majesty in your high wisdom to remedy. Only I could wish that when Sir John Digby's instructions are perfected, and that he is ready to go, your majesty would be pleased to write some formal letter to the body of your counsel, (if it shall be in your absence,) signifying to them your resolution in general, to the end that, when deliberation shall be turned into resolution, no man, howsoever he may retain the inwardness of his opinion, may be active in contrarium. MY SINGULAR GOOD Lord, I send your lordship, according to the direction of your letter, a note of the precedents that I find in my Lord Brackley's business; which dỏ rather come near the case than match it. Your lordship knoweth already my opinion, that I would rather have you constant in the matter, than instant for the time. gave me the seal; and what rules and resolutions I had taken for the fulfilling his commandments. I send your lordship a copy of that I said. My Lord Hay, coming to take his leave of me two days before, I told him what I was meditating, and he desired of me to send him some remembrance of it; and so I could not but send him another copy thereof. Men tell me, it hath done the king a great deal of honour; insomuch, that some of my friends that are wise men, and no vain ones, did not stick to say to me, that there was not these seven years such a preparation for a Parliament; which was a commendation I confess pleased me well. I pray take some fit time to show it to his majesty, because if I misunderstood him in any thing, I may amend it, because I know his judgment is higher and deeper than mine. I send also enclosed an account of council | MY VERY GOOD LORD, business, by way of remembrance to his majesty, which it may please you to deliver to him. The queen returneth her thanks to your lordship, for the despatch of the warrant, touching her house; I have not yet acquainted the lord treasurer and chancellor of the exchequer with it; but I purpose to-morrow to deliver them the warrant, and to advise with them for the executing the same. I have received the king's letter with another from your lordship, touching the cause of the officers, and Sir Arthur Ingram, whereof I will be very careful to do them justice. Yesterday I took my place in Chancery, which I hold only from the king's grace and favour, and your constant friendship. There was much ado, and a great deal of world. But this matter of pomp, which is heaven to some men, is hell to me, or purgatory at least. It is true, I was glad to see, that the king's choice was so generally approved; and that I had so much interest in men's good wills and good opinions, because it maketh me the fitter instrument to do my master service, and my friend also. After I was set in Chancery, I published his majesty's charge, which he gave me when he I shall write to your lordship of a business, which your lordship may think to concern myself; but I do think it concerneth your lordship much more. For, as for me, as my judgment is not so weak to think it can do me any hurt, so my love to you is so strong, as I would prefer the good of you and yours before mine own particular. It seemeth Secretary Winwood hath officiously busied himself to make a match between your brother and Sir Edward Coke's daughter: and as we hear he doth it rather to make a faction than out of any great affection to your lordship: it is true, he hath the consent of Sir Edward Coke (as we hear) upon reasonable conditions for your brother, and yet no better than without question may be found in some other matches. But the mother's consent is not had, nor the young gentleman's, who expecteth a great fortune from her mother, which without her consent is endangered. This match, out of my faith and freedom towards your lordship, I hold very inconvenient, both for your brother and yourself. First, He shall marry into a disgraced house, which in reason of state is never held good. Next, He shall marry into a troubled house of man and wife, which in religion and Christian | match of Sir John Villiers, which I take to be discretion is disliked. Thirdly, Your lordship will go near to lose all such your friends as are adverse to Sir Edward Coke, (myself only except, who out of a pure love and thankfulness shall ever be firm to you.) And, lastly, and chiefly, (believe it,) It will greatly weaken and distract the king's service; for though, in regard of the king's great wisdom and depth, I am persuaded those things will not follow which they imagine; yet, opinion will do a great deal of harm, and cast the king back, and make him relapse into those inconveniencies which are now well on to be recovered. Therefore, my advice is, and your lordship shall do yourself a great deal of honour, if, according to religion and the law of God, your lordship will signify unto my lady your mother, that your desire is, that the marriage be not pressed or proceeded in without the consent of both parents, and so either break it altogether, or defer any further delay in it till your lordship's return: and this the rather, for that (besides the inconvenience of the matter itself) it hath been carried so harshly and inconsiderately by Secretary Winwood, as, for doubt that the father should take away the maiden by force, the mother to get the start hath conveyed her away secretly; which is ill of all sides. Thus, hoping your lordship will not only accept well, but believe my faithful advice, who by my great experience in the world must needs see further than your lordship can. I ever rest Your lordship's true and most devoted FR. BACON, C. S. I have not heard from your lordship since I sent the king my last account of council business, but I assure myself you received it, because I sent at the same time a packet to Secretary Laque, who hath signified to me that he hath received it. I pray your lordship deliver to his majesty this little note of Chancery business. July 12, 1617. TO THE KING. IT MAY PLEASE YOUR MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, I think it agreeable to my duty, and the great obligation wherein I am tied to your majesty, to be freer than other men in giving your majesty faithful counsel, while things are in passing; and more bound than other men in doing your commandments, when your resolution is settled and made known to me. I shall, therefore, most humbly crave pardon from your majesty, if in plainness and no less humbleness I deliver to your majesty my honest and disinterested opinion in the business of the magnum in parvo: preserving always the laws and duties of a firm friendship to my Lord of Buckingham, whom I will never cease to love, and to whom I have written already, but have not heard yet from his lordship. But, first, I have three suits to make to your majesty, hoping well you will grant them all. The first is, That if there be any merit in drawing on that match, your majesty would bestow the thanks not upon the zeal of Sir Edward Coke to please your majesty, nor upon the eloquent persuasions or pragmaticals of Mr. Secretary Winwood, but upon them that, carrying your commandments and directions with strength and justice, in the matter of the Governor of Diepe, in the matter of Sir Robert Rich, and in the matter of protecting the lady, according to your majesty's commandment, have so humbled Sir Edward Coke, as he seeketh now that with submission which (as your majesty knoweth) before he rejected with scorn: for this is the true orator that hath persuaded this business, as I doubt not but your majesty in your excellent wisdom doth easily discern. My second suit is, That your majesty would not think me so pusillanimous, as that I, that when I was but Mr. Bacon, had ever (through your majesty's favour) good reason at Sir Edward Coke's hands, when he was at the greatest, should now that your majesty of your great goodness hath placed me so near your chair, (being as I hope by God's grace, and your instructions, made a servant according to your heart and hand,) fear him or take umbrage of him, in respect of mine own particular. My third suit is, That if your majesty be resolved the match shall go on, after you have heard my reasons to the contrary, I may receive therein your particular will and commandments from yourself, that I may conform myself thereunto, imagining with myself (though I will not wager on women's minds) that I can prevail more with the mother than any other man. For, if I should be requested in it from my Lord of Buckingham, the answers of a true friend ought to be, That I had rather go against his mind than against his good: but your majesty I must obey; and, besides, I shall conceive that your majesty, out of your great wisdom and depth, doth see those things which I see not. Now, therefore, not to hold your majesty with many words, (which do but drown matter,) let me most humbly desire your majesty to take into your royal consideration, that the state is at this time not only in good quiet and obedience, but in good affection and disposition. Your majesty's prerogative and authority having risen some just degrees above the horizon more than heretofore, which hath dispersed vapours: your judges are in good temper, your justices of peace (which is the payment is not out of lands, but out of the customs, and so it can be but the rent. Your lordship remembereth, it is but in a case which, I hope, shall never be; that is, after his majesty's death, if she survive. God ever bless and direct you. body of the gentleman of England) grow to be | queen's bill, which I send your lordship. The loving and obsequious, and to be weary of the humour of ruffling; all mutinous spirits grow to be a little poor and to draw in their horns, and not the less for your majesty's disauctorizing the man I speak of. Now, then, I reasonably doubt, that if there be but an opinion of his coming in with the strength of such an alliance, it will give a turn and relapse in men's minds into the former state of things hardly to be holpen, to the great weakening of your majesty's service. Again, Your majesty may have perceived that, as far as it was fit for me in modesty to advise, I was ever for a Parliament, (which seemeth to me to be cardo rerum, or summa summarum, for the present occasions.) But this my advice was ever conditional, that your majesty should go to a Parliament with a council united and not distracted; and that your majesty will give me leave never to expect, if that man come in. Not for any difference of mine own, (for I am omnibus omnia for your majesty's service,) but because he is by nature unsociable, and by habit popular, and too old now to take a new ply. And men begin already to collect, yea, and to conclude, that he that raiseth such a smoke to get in, will set all on fire when he is in. It may please your majesty, now I have said, I have done : and, as I think I have done a duty not unworthy the first year of your last high favour, I most humbly pray your majesty to pardon me, if in any thing I have erred; for, my errors shall always be supplied by obedience; and so I conclude with my prayers for the happy preservation of your majesty's person and estate. Your majesty's most humble, bounden, From Gorhambury, this 25th of July, 1617. TO THE EARL OF BUCKINGHAM. MY VERY GOOD LORD, I do think long to hear from your lordship, touching my last letter, wherein I gave you my opinion touching your brother's match. As I then showed my dislike of the matter, so the carriage of it here in the manner I dislike as much. If your lordship think it is humour or interest in me that leads me, God judge my sincerity. But, I must say, that in your many noble favours towards me, they ever moved and flowed from yourself, and not from any of your friends whatsoever; and, therefore, in requital, give me leave that my counsels to you again be referred to your happiness, and not to the desire of any of your friends. I shall ever give you, as I give my master, safe counsel, and such as time will approve. I received, yesterday, from Mr. Attorney, the Your lordship's most faithful and devoted friend and servant, FR. BACON, C. S. Gorhambury, this SIR,-In this solitude of friends, which is the base court of adversity, where nobody, almost, will be seen stirring, I have often remembered this Spanish saying, Amor sin fin, no tiene fin. This bids me make choice of your friend and mine for his noble succours; not now towards the aspiring, but only the respiring of my fortunes. I, who am a man of books, have observed, that he hath both the magnanimity of the old Romans, and the cordiality of the old English, and, withal, I believe he hath the wit of both: sure I am, that, for myself, I have found him in both my fortunes, to esteem me so much above my just value, and to love me so much above the possibility of deserving, or obliging on my part, as if he were a friend created and reserved for such a time as this. You know what I have to say to the great lord, and I conceive it cannot pass so fitly to him, by the mouth of any, as of this gentleman ; and therefore do your best (which, I know, will be of power enough) to engage him, both in the substance and to the secrecy of it; for I can think of no man but yourself to be used by me in this, who are so private, so faithful, and so discreet a friend to us both; as, on the other side, I dare swear he is, and know myself to be as true to you as your own heart. in these floods. Meanwhile, to ease my heart, I March 25, 1620. FR. ST. ALBAN, Canc. TO THE EARL OF BUCKINGHAM. MY VERY GOOD LORD, TO THE EARL OF BUCKINGHAM. MY VERY GOod Lord, I send your lordship the certificate* touching the enrolment of prentices. We can find no ground for it by law. Myself shall ever be ready to further things that your lordship commendeth; but where the matter will not bear it, your lordship I know will think not the worse, but the better of me, if I signify the true state of things to your lordship; resting ever Your lordship's true friend and devoted servant, FR. BACON, C. S. Since my last to your lordship, I did first send York House, this 29th of October, 1617. for Mr. Attorney-General, and made him know, that since I heard from court, I was resolved to further the match and the conditions thereof, for your lordship's brother's advancement the best I could. I did send, also, to my Lady Hatton, and some other special friends, to let them know, I would in any thing declare myself for the match; which I did, to the end that, if they had any apprehension of my assistance, they might be discouraged in it. I sent also to Sir John Butler, and after by letter to my lady, your mother, to tender my performance of any good office towards the match or the advancement from the mother. This was all I could think of for the present. I did ever foresee, that this alliance would go near to leese me your lordship, that I hold so dear; and that was the only respect particular to myself that moved me to be as I was, till I heard from you. But I will rely upon your constancy and nature, and my own deserving, and the firm tie we have in respect of the king's service. In the mean time I must a little complain to your lordship, that I do hear my lady your mother and your brother Sir John do speak of me with some bitterness and neglect. I must bear with the one as a lady, and the other as a lover, and with both for your lordship's sake, whom I will make judge of any thing they shall have against me. But I hope, though I be a true servant to your lordship, you will not have me to be a vassal to their passions, specially as long as they are governed by Sir Edward Coke and Secretary Winwood, the latter of which I take to be the worst; for Sir Edward Coke I think is more modest and discreet. Therefore your lordship shall do me right, and yet I shall take it for favour if you signify to them that you have received satisfaction from me, and would have them use me friendly, and in good manner. God keep us from these long journeys and absence, which make misunderstandings and give advantage to untruth, and God ever prosper and preserve your lordship. Your lordship's true and devoted friend and servant, Gorhambury, this 23d of Aug. 1617. * See p. 22. TO THE EARL OF BUCKINGHAM. My Very Good Lord, The liking which his majesty hath of our proceeding, concerning his household, telleth me that his majesty cannot but dislike the declining and tergiversation of the inferior officers, which by this time he understandeth. There be but four kinds of retrenchments: 1. The union of tables; 2. The putting down of tables; 3. The abatement of dishes to tables; 4, The cutting off new diets and allowance lately raised; and yet perhaps such as are more necessary than some of the old. In my opinion the first is the best and most feasible. The lord chamberlain's table is the principal table of state. The lord steward's table is much frequented by Scottish gentlemen. Your lordship's table hath a great attendance; and the groom of the stole's table is much resorted to by the bedchamber. These would not be touched; but for the rest, (his majesty's case considered,) I think they may well be united into one. These things are out of my element, but my care runneth where the king's state most laboureth: Sir Lyonel Cranfield is yet sick, for which I am very sorry; for methinks his majesty, upon these tossings over of his business from one to others The Certificate : According to his majesty's command, signified by your lordship's letters, we have advisedly considered of the petition touching the enrolment of apprentices' indentures, and heard the petitioners' counsel, and do find as followeth: 1. That the act of parliament 5° Eliz. doth not warrant the erecting of an office to enrol such indentures in cities, towns corporate, or market towns. But if any such enrolment should be, it must be by the officers there, who are assigned to perform sundry other things touching apprentices and servants. colour) we cannot give the suitors hope, that any profit will 2. That in country villages (for which the suit carries most be there made warrantable by law. Thus we have (according to our duties) certified our opinions of this petition, submitting the same, nevertheless, to his majesty's great wisdom; and rest, FR. BACON, C. S. Oct. 25, 1617. At your lordship's command, FR. BACON, C. S. TO THE EARL OF BUCKINGHAM. MY VERY GOOD Lord, Yesterday at afternoon were read at the table his majesty's two letters, written with his own hand, the matter worthy the hand; for they were written ex arte imperandi, if I can judge; and I hope they and the like will disenchant us of the opinion, which yet sticks with us, that to-day will be as yesterday, and to-morrow as to-day, so as there will be (as he saith) acribus initiis, fine incurioso. I hold my opinion given in my former letter, that the uniting of some tables is the most passable way; but that is not all, for when that is done, the king may save greatly in that which remaineth. For if it be set down what tables shall be fixed, and what diet allowed to them, my steward (as ill a mesnager as I am,) or my Lord | Mayor's steward, can go near to tell what charge will go near to maintain the proportion; then add to that some large allowance for waste (because the king shall not leese his prerogative to be deceived more than other men,) and yet no question there will be a great retrenchment. But against this last abatement will be fronted the payment of arrears. But I confess, I would be glad that I might see, or rather, that a parliament may see, and chiefly that the king (for his own quiet) may see, that upon such a sum paid such an annual retrenchment will follow: for things will never be done in act, except they be first done in conceit. I know these things do not pertain to me; for my part is to acquit the king's office towards God, by administration of justice, and to oblige the hearts of his people to him by the same, and to maintain his prerogative. But yet because it is in hoc, that the king's case laboureth, I cannot but yield my care and my strength too in counsel, such as it is, which cannot be so much as it was between our Lady-day, and Michaelmas last. But whatsoever it is, it is wholly his majesty's without any deflexion. As soon as I find any possibility of health in Sir Lyonel Cranfield to execute a sub-commission, I will by conference with him frame a draught of a letter from his majesty, for which there is the fairest occasion in the world; and the king hath prepared it as well as possible. God ever preserve and prosper you. Your lordship's true friend York House, Nov. 22, 1617. and devoted servant, FR. BACON, C. S. TO THE EARL OF BUCKINGHAM. MY VERY GOOD Lord, I send your lordship a draught of a letter touch- York House, 27th Nov. 1617. TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM. I thought fit by this, my private letter to your lordship, to give you an account of such business as your lordship hath recommended unto me, that you may perceive that I have taken that care of them I ought, and ever shall in those things you recommend or remit to me. For the suit of the ale-houses which concerneth your brother, Mr. Christopher Villiers, and Mr. Patrick Mawle, I have conferred with my lord chief justice and Mr. Solicitor thereupon, and there is a scruple in it, that it should be one of Draught of the Subcommission : In this first and greatest branch of our charge concerning charges, and join themselves to some of the inferior officers, and so take upon them the mechanic and laborious part of every business, thereby to facilitate and prepare it for your consultations, according to the directions and instructious they shall receive from you from to time. |