Volume Iii Part 42 (1/2)

[300] Rushworth's Collections, i. 514.

[301] I deliver this fact as I find it in a private letter; but it is noticed in the Journals of the House of Commons, 23 Junii, 4.

Caroli Regis. ”Sir Edward c.o.ke reporteth that they find that, enclosed in the letter, to be unfit for any subject's ear to hear.

Read but one line and a half of it, and could not endure to read more of it. It was ordered to be sealed and delivered into the king's hands by eight members, and to acquaint his majesty with the place and time of finding it; particularly that upon the reading of one line and a half at most, they would read no more, but sealed it up, and brought it to the House.”

[302] I have since discovered, by a ma.n.u.script letter, that this _Dr. Turner_ was held in contempt by the king; that he was ridiculed at court, which he haunted, for his want of veracity; in a word, that he was a disappointed courtier!

[303] This circ.u.mstance is mentioned in a ma.n.u.script letter; what Cooke declared to the House is in Rushworth, vol. i. p. 525.

[304] I refer the critical student of our history to the duke's speech at the council-table as it appears in Rushworth, i. 525: but what I add respecting his personal sacrifices is from ma.n.u.script letters. Sloane MSS. 4177. Letter 490, &c.

[305] On this subject, see note to the brief article on Buckingham in vol. i.

[306] Curiosities of Literature, First Series, vol. iii. p. 438, ed.

1817; vol. v. p. 277, ed. 1823; vol. iii. p. 429, ed. 1824; vol. iv.

p. 148 ed. 1834; p. 301, ed. 1840, or vol. ii. p. 357, of this edition.

[307] I find this speech, and an account of its reception, in ma.n.u.script letters; the fragment in Rushworth contains no part of it. I. 526. Sloane MSS. 4177. Letter 490, &c.

[308] Modern history would afford more instances than perhaps some of us suspect. I cannot pa.s.s over an ill.u.s.tration of my principle, which I shall take from two very notorious politicians--Wat Tyler and Sir William Walworth!

Wat, when in servitude, had been beaten by his master, Richard Lyons, a great merchant of wines, and a sheriff of London. This chastis.e.m.e.nt, working on an evil disposition, appears never to have been forgiven; and when this Radical a.s.sumed his short-lived dominion, he had his old master beheaded, and his head carried before him on the point of a spear! So Grafton tells us, to the eternal obloquy of this arch-jacobin, who ”was a crafty fellow, and of an excellent wit, but wanting grace.” I would not sully the patriotic blow which ended the rebellion with the rebel; yet there are secrets in history! Sir William Walworth, ”the ever famous mayor of London,” as Stowe designates him, has left the immortality of his name to one of our suburbs; but having discovered in Stowe's ”Survey,” that Walworth was the landlord of the stews on the Bank-side, which he farmed out to the Dutch _vrows_, and which Wat had pulled down, I am inclined to suspect that private feeling first knocked down the saucy ribald, and then thrust him through and through with his dagger; and that there was as much of personal vengeance as patriotism, which crushed the demolisher of so much valuable property!

[309] I have formed my idea of Sir Francis Nethersole from some strange incidents in his _political_ conduct, which I have read in some contemporary letters. He was, however, a man of some eminence, had been Orator for the University of Cambridge, agent for James I.

with the Princes of the Union in Germany, and also Secretary to the Queen of Bohemia. He founded and endowed a free-school at Polesworth in Warwicks.h.i.+re.

[310] Ma.n.u.script letter.

[311] These speeches are entirely drawn from those ma.n.u.script letters to which I have frequently referred. c.o.ke's may be substantially found in Rushworth, but without a single expression as here given.

[312] The popular opinion is well expressed in the following lines preserved in Sloane MS. 826:--

When only one doth rule and guide the s.h.i.+p, Who neither card nor compa.s.s knew before, The master pilot and the rest asleep, The stately s.h.i.+p is split upon the sh.o.r.e; But they awaking start up, stare, and cry, ”Who did this fault?”--”Not I,”--”Nor I,”--”Nor I.”

So fares it with a great and wealthy state Not govern'd by the master, but his mate.

[313] This last letter is printed in Rushworth, vol. i. p. 609.

[314] The king's answer is in Rushworth, vol. i. p. 613.

[315] This eloquent state paper is in Rushworth, vol. i. p. 619.

[316] This interview is taken from ma.n.u.script letters.

[317] Ma.n.u.script Letters: Lord Dorset to the Earl of Carlisle.--Sloane MSS. 4178. Letter 519.

[318] Ma.n.u.script Letter.

[319] I have given (vol. ii. p. 336) the ”Secret History of Charles the First and his Queen,” where I have traced the firmness and independence of his character. In another article will be found as much of the ”Secret History of the Duke of Buckingham” as I have been enabled to acquire.

[320] ”To conclude,” said the king; ”let us not be jealous one of the other's actions.”