land; a nation no lesse distant from the English in nature and affection.

3. In the prosecution of which, or any thing else relating to this king, I shall avoid all unnecessary severity, and observe more duty and respect, then may possibly be thought due, by posterity, to the person of a prince, that (after so exact a patterne as Queene Elizabeth left him) did, by debauching parliaments, and breaking his word, so far irritate, no lesse then impoverish the subject, as his son was forced to give concession to one rendered indissolvable but by their own will: a mischiefe could never have befallen England, had King James left them in the same temper he found them at the death of the queene. The newes of which was brought him first (as I have heard) by Cary, after Lord Lepington, and since Earle of Munmouth : who, not able to satisfy such a concourse of doubts and questions, as farre more resolute natures then his do usually muster up on lesse occasions, the king stood as in a

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maze, being more affected through the feare of opposition, then pleased with the present report; till, by a lamer post, he was advertised of his being joyfully proclaimed in London by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and of the unquestioned reception his title in all places met with; no lesse, then that the hopes of some, and feares of the major part, assisted by the prudent carriage of the treasurer, and ranting protestations of the Earle of Northumberland,' (that in all

Sir Robert Carey, a younger son of Lord Hunsden, having given the slip to the lords of council, rode post to Edinburgh, with the news of Elizabeth's death. He performed the journey in three days, notwithstanding a fall from his horse. It does not appear, from the account which he has given in his Memoirs, that James exhibited the extreme vacillation hinted at in the text. He barely states, that he produced to the king, as his credentials, “a blue ring from a fair lady;" that the king looked upon it, and said, " It is enough: I know by this you are a true messenger;" then promised him his protection, and dismissed him for the night. Next morning arrived dispatches from the counsellors, announcing his having been proclaimed, with some complaint of Carey's precipitate departure.

*Northumberland and Cecil had both worshipped the rising sun, i. e. carried on a secret correspondence with James during the latter years of Elizabeth's reign. Yet

places vapoured, he would bring him in by the sword,) had stopped their mouthes that

they were so far from cordially co-operating, that nothing is more prominent in Cecil's correspondence, than an anxious wish to convince James, that Northumberland had neither the power nor sincere wish to serve him. To the prejudices thus artfully excited, may be traced the succeeding misfortunes of that ill-used nobleman. The following extract of a letter, from Lord Henry Howard to Edward Bruce, will show how reluctantly Cecil admitted correspondence with him:

"After that Northumberland had brought the letter of King James, written to himself, to Cecil, and withal, presented unto him certain messages, by word of mouth, recommended to him, also, as he says, by Percy, from King James, Cecil seemed to accept his kindness very thankfully, but after he was departed, sent for me, and seemed very much to wonder at the messages which Percy delivered, and you shall find set down in my second letter, by this dispatch to King James. Because those messages did seem to set a greater price upon the man than he deserves, or Cecil, out of the knowledge of his falsehood, would wish that he should hold; and therefore, because exceptions might seem more strange out of the mouth of him in whose hand the letter was left in trust, than from me, whom duty and care of the service might move to speak plainly, without particular respects, he desired me to write in my own stile, as I have now done, to qualify this trust, and deliver plainly to his majesty, under correction, what my reason judgeth of the measure that is to be kept with him. My answer, which appeareth in my second letter to King James, did content exceedingly; and, in few words, the mea

desired (in regard of the knowne feud between the nations) he might be obliged to

sure which he desireth to be holden, and I also, in tenderness of zeal, and incomparable affection to King James, hold most safe, is still to use him well, to retain this pledge of his profession to make him sure, and, as occasion doth serve, some time to comply with courtesies, but never to give him the least light of any kind of favour or respect to Cecil; never to give him audience in his advices, which must either be idle, having no friend, or dangerous, being bent to particular [ends;] and last of all, that his majesty cut off all ordinary traffic of intelligence, because it will let a thousand lights into the mystery.

"The man is beloved of none, followed by none, trusted by no one nobleman or gentleman of quality within the land beside his faction, no not by the gentlemen or peasants of his own country, in respect of his vexation and sport, which you may know by your next neighbours; and the queen repeated one month since, when she was moved in his behalf for a regiment, saying, that Raleigh had made him as odious as himself, because he would [not] be singular, and such were not to be employed by princes of sound policy. There is no secret which he revealeth not to all his own men, which Cecil would have your majesty to know, as from me, lest he should hold Cecil as an accuser of a man that reposeth trust; though the cause thereof be, as he says, not an election of worth, but provision for security. It is far from me or Cecil to restrain the pen of King James, by advice, from giving good assurance únto great ones at their first approach, and to the

articles: And amongst these noble and publique spirits, was Sir John Fortescue, Sir Walter Rawly, the Lord Cobham, &c. All frowned upon after by the king, who had yet the luck to live so long as to change his opinion, and (when he found he neither durst do it him selfe, nor consent to it in parliament) to wish his countrymens numbers had beene limited, and not suffered like locusts to devour this kingdome; from whence they became so rich and insolent, as nothing with any moderation could either be given or denied them; the result of an

meaner sort by messages; but ibi ponat obicem, comparing the danger with the debility, the likelihood of discovery, with the poverty of advertisement: for whensoever King James receiveth from him, as Cecil willed me to write, any council-plot, caution, or discovery, that is worth the paper which he spends, he would have King James hold himself nobody. If you hold this temper you win ground; for I protest to God, nothing vexeth Cecil so much, as trust imparted above merit to men that are unsecret and indiscreet; weakening the wall sometime more in a day, by mining under ground among his fellow pioneers, by giddiness, than we can devise to repair in a year by discretion."-CECIL'S Correspondence, ut supra, p. 105,