bearing Sir Edward Coke's indorsement, or some quaint remark or quotation in the hand-writing of that singular legal pedant, it is probable they formed a part of the contents of that "buckram bag."

Although partial extracts from this collection of papers have been published in the course of the numerous controversies which have taken place upon this much debated subject, they have never been carefully digested and laid before the public in the form of a connected narrative. For many years previously to the passing of the Catholic Relief Bill, whilst the propriety of that measure was the subject of animated discussion in every session of Parliament, proposals for the publication of these papers were discouraged from just and laudable motives, under a reasonable apprehension that such a publication, sanctioned as it must have been in some measure by the government, would have tended to prejudice that great question. Since this objection is removed, it is much to be desired that some individual possessing the requisite industry and impartiality would undertake the laborious task of reducing these materials into order, comparing and weighing them against materials derived from other sources, and thus composing a critical history of the Gunpowder Plot. It appears from some papers among the Tanner Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library that an undertaking of this kind was at one time contemplated by Archbishop Sancroft. The circumstance is not mentioned by any of his biographers, and it is unknown at what period of his life he commenced the undertaking; though it may be conjectured that his attention was directed to the subject by the discussions between the Papists and Protestants at the time of the Popish Plot. At all events, he did not proceed further than a partial collection of materials respecting the plot, and it is quite uncertain whether he intended to write a contro

versial or a purely historical work. Several docu ments, the originals of which were not to be found, and are probably not in existence, have been inserted in this volume from the copies in Sancroft's handwriting.

Although the documents upon the subject of the Gunpowder Plot preserved at the State-Paper Office are very numerous, and constitute a body of evidence of incalculable value to the historical inquirer, the collection is not by any means complete. Many important papers, which were particularly mentioned and abstracted by Bishop Andrews, Dr. Abbott, Casaubon and other contemporary writers, and some of which were copied by Archbishop Sancroft from the originals so lately as the close of the 17th century, are not now to be found. It is remarkable, that precisely those papers which constitute the most important evidence against Garnet and the other Jesuits are missing; so that if the merits of the controversy respecting their criminal implication in the Plot depended upon the fair effect of the original documents now to be found in the State-Paper Office, impartial readers might probably hesitate to form a decided opinion against them. The papers of particular importance upon this part of the subject are the minutes of an overheard conversation between Garnet and Oldcorne in the Tower, dated the 25th February, 1605-6, an intercepted letter from Garnet addressed to "the Fathers and Brethren of the Society of Jesus," dated on Palm Sunday, a few days after his trial, and an intercepted letter to Greenway, dated April 4, 1605-6. That all of these papers were in the State-Paper Office in 1613, when Dr. Abbott wrote his Antilogia, in 1613, is evident from the copious extracts from them published in that work; and a literal copy of the first of them, made by Archbishop Sancroft many years afterwards

from the State Papers, is still in existence. The originals of these documents, and many others mentioned by Dr. Abbott and Sancroft, are, however, not now to be found in the proper depository for them; and it is undoubtedly a singular accident that, amongst so large a mass of documents, precisely those should be abstracted upon whose authenticity the question so hotly disputed between the Catholics and Protestants mainly depended.

Many of the facts in the following narrative are taken from a manuscript relation of Father Greenway, brought by Dr. Lingard from Rome, and much relied upon by him in the interesting account of this conspiracy given in his History of England. Greenway's Narrative consists of a copious relation of all the details of the plot, from its commencement until the execution of Garnet. It is in the Italian language, and evidently translated from the original English. Though little is known of the history of this manuscript, there is strong internal evidence that it was written by Greenway, probably at the suggestion of the Pope or of the Father-General of the Jesuits, in order to vindicate his own conduct and that of Garnet from the charge of having encouraged the plot. His description of the personal characters of the principal conspirators, with most of whom he was familiarly acquainted; his account of their general conduct-their superstitious fearstheir dreams" their thick-coming fancies"—in the progress of the work of destruction, are extremely interesting. His speculations, too, respecting the letter to Lord Mounteagle and the probable treachery of Tresham are well worthy of attention: nor is there any reason in matters of this kind to doubt his veracity, excepting that some allowance must be made for the partial colours in which he depicts the charac ters of the conspirators. According to his statement,

the men who contrived this monstrous and cruel treason were the gentlest, the most benevolent, and the most pious of the human race; and if we are to believe Father Greenway, "the seven gentlemen of name and blood," as Fawkes truly calls them, who worked in the mine, together with those who afterwards joined them, composed as amiable a company, with respect to virtues and accomplishments, as could have been desired. But in the relation of facts which bear upon the main object of his work, namely, the exculpation of Father Garnet and himself from the heavy imputation cast upon them, his Narrative is entitled to no credit whatever; his statements in this part of his story, to which he sometimes adds the most solemn asseverations of their truth, being often not only incredible in themselves, but directly contradicted by the express and repeated admissions of Garnet and the principal confederates. It is clearly demonstrated by many facts detailed in the following pages that Greenway was a full accomplice in the plot. Garnet, having learned that Greenway had escaped, rested his own defence upon the crimination of his brother Jesuit; and it will be seen in the following pages that the testimony of Father Oldcorne, and more particularly that of Bates, exhibit Greenway, not only as privy to the design of the conspirators from its first formation, but as a zealous and active confederate, approving, promoting, and encouraging it with the utmost enthusiasm. The statements of such a person, writing probably at the command of his superiors, for the express purpose of justifying himself and the other English Jesuits, must of course be received with caution in all particulars relating to their connection with the plot. Collaterally, however, this Narrative affords the most satisfactory proof that the Gunpowder Plot was neither encouraged nor approved at Rome; for when Greenway is called upon by

his religious superiors to vindicate himself from the charge imposed upon him at the trials of the conspirators, he does not venture to admit his share in the transaction, but writes a laboured exculpation of himself, and condemns the plot in unequivocal terms, calling it a "rash, desperate, and wicked" conspiracy, and speaking of its prevention as a special interposition of Providence. He succeeded in deceiving those in authority at Rome, by his hypocrisy and falsehood; for he was afterwards appointed Penitentiary to the Pope, and is said to have enjoyed during the remainder of his life the full favour and confidence of Paul V.

Much information respecting the family connections of the conspirators, and the domestic history of the Catholics shortly before the period of the Gunpowder Plot, has been derived from a mass of papers lately discovered in a singular manner at Rushton, in Northamptonshire. In the early part of the year 1832, on the removal of a lintel over an ancient doorway in the old mansion of the Treshams at Rushton, a handsomely-bound breviary fell out upon the workmen. On further search, an opening was discovered in a thick stone wall, of about five feet long and fourteen or fifteen inches wide, almost filled with bundles of manuscripts, and containing about twenty Catholic books in excellent preservation. The contents of the manuscripts were various; consisting of historical notes by Sir Thomas Tresham, rolled up with building bills, deeds, and farming contracts, of no interest or importance, and also of a portion of the domestic correspondence of the Tresham family between the years 1590 and 1605. The paper of the latest date is a memorandum, without a signature, of certain bonds, therein stated to have been delivered up to Mrs. Tresham on the 28th of November, 1605, by the writer of the memorandum. In all probability,