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there being no man to prosecute, there can be no man likewise to pay; and so the king loseth his moiety, when his title appears by verdict.

3. It falleth out sometimes in informations of weight, and worthy to be prosecuted, the informer dieth, or falls to poverty, or his mouth is stopped, and yet so as no man can charge him with composition, and so the matter dieth.

4. There be sundry seizures made, in case where the laws give seizures, which are released by agreements underhand, and so money wrested from the subject, and no benefit to the king.

All seizures once made, ought not to be discharged, but by order of the court, and

3. The officer in such case, is to inform the king's learned counsel, that they may prosecute if they think fit.

4. The officer is to take knowledge of such seizures, and to give information to the court concerning them.

This is of more difficulty, because seizures are matter in fact, whereas suits are matter of record: and it may require more persons to be employed,asat theports, where is much abuse.

therefore some entry ought to be made of them.

There be other points wherein the officer may be of good use, which may be comprehended in his grant or instructions, wherewith I will not now trouble your majesty, for I hold these to be the principal.

Thus have I, according to your majesty's reference, certified my opinion of that part of Sir Stephen Proctor's projects, which concerneth penal laws: which I do wholly and most humbly submit to your majesty's high wisdom and judgment, wishing withal that some conference may be had by Mr. Chancellor and the barons, and the rest of the learned counsel, to draw the service to a better perfection. And most specially that the travels therein taken may be considered and discerned of by the lord treasurer, whose care and capacity is such, as he doth always either find or choose that which is best for your majesty's service.

The recompense unto the gentleman, it is not my part to presume to touch, otherwise than to put your majesty in remembrance of that proportion, which your majesty is pleased to give to others out of the profits they bring in, and perhaps with a great deal less labour and charge.

ADVICE TO THE KING,

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY,

TOUCHING

MR. SUTTON'S ESTATE.

I FIND it a positive precept of the old law, that there should be no sacrifice without salt: the moral whereof, besides the ceremony, may be, that God is not pleased with the body of a good intention, except it be seasoned with that spiritual wisdom and judgment, as it be not easily subject to be corrupted and perverted: for salt, in the Scripture, is a figure both of wisdom and lasting. This cometh into my mind, upon this act of Mr. Sutton, which seemeth to me as a sacrifice without salt; having the materials of a good intention, but not powdered with any such ordinances and institutions as may preserve the same from turning corrupt, or at least from becoming unsavoury, and of little use. For though the choice of the feoffees be of the best, yet neither can they always live;

and the very nature of the work itself, in the vast and unfit proportions thereof, being apt to provoke a misemployment: it is no diligence of theirs, except there be a digression from that model, that can excuse it from running the same way that gifts of like condition have heretofore done. For to design the Charterhouse, a building fit for a prince's habitation, for an hospital, is all one as if one should give in alms a rich embroidered cloak to a beggar. And certainly a man may see "tanquam quæ oculis cernuntur," that if such an edifice, with six thousand pounds revenue, be erected into one hospital, it will in small time degenerate to be made a preferment of some great person to be master, and he to take all the sweet, and the poor to be stinted, and take but the crumbs; as it comes to pass in divers hospitals of this realm, which have but the names of hospitals, and are only wealthy benefices in

respect of the mastership; but the poor, which | in the beginning, that in these great hospitals the is the "propter quid," little relieved. And the revenues will draw the use, and not the use the like hath been the fortune of much of the alms of the Roman religion in their great foundations, which being begun in vainglory and ostentation, have had their judgment upon them, to end in corruption and abuse. This meditation hath made me presume to write these few lines to your majesty; being no better than good wishes, which your majesty's great wisdom may make something or nothing of.

Wherein I desire to be thus understood, that if this foundation, such as it is, be perfect and good in law, then I am too well acquainted with your majesty's disposition, to advise any course of power or profit that is not grounded upon a right: nay, farther, if the defects be such as a court of equity may remedy and cure, then I wish that, as St. Peter's shadow did cure diseases, so the very shadow of a good intention may cure defects of that nature. But if there be a right, and birthright planted in the heir, and not remediable by courts of equity, and that right be submitted to your majesty, whereby it is both in your power and grace what to do: then I do wish that this rude mass and chaos of a good deed were directed rather to a solid merit, and durable charity, than to a blaze of glory, that will but crackle a little in talk, and quickly extinguish.

revenues; and so, through the mass of the wealth, they will swiftly tumble down to a misemployment. And if any man say, that in the two hospitals in London there is a precedent of greatness concurring with good employment; let him consider that those hospitals have annual governors, that they are under the superior care and policy of such a state as the city of London; and, chiefly, that their revenues consist not upon certainties, but upon casualties and free gifts, which gifts would be withheld, if they appeared once to be perverted; so as it keepeth them in a continual good behaviour and awe to employ them aright; none of which points do match with the present case.

The next consideration may be, whether this intended hospital, as it hath a more ample endowment than other hospitals have, should not likewise work upon a better subject than other poor; as that it should be converted to the relief of maimed soldiers, decayed merchants, householders aged, and destitute churchmen, and the like; whose condition, being of a better sort than loose people and beggars, deserveth both a more liberal stipend and allowance, and some proper place of relief, not intermingled or coupled with the basest sort of poor; which project, though speAnd this may be done, observing the species cious, yet, in my judgment, will not answer the of Mr. Sutton's intent, though varying "in indi-designment in the event, in these our times. For viduo:" for it appears that he had in notion a triple good, a hospital, and a school, and maintaining of a preacher: which individuals refer to these three general heads; relief of poor, advancement of learning, and propagation of religion. Now, then, if I shall set before your majesty, in every of these three kinds, what it is that is most wanting in your kingdom; and what is like to be the most fruitful and effectual use of such a beneficence, and least like to be perverted; that, I think, shall be no ill scope of my labour, how meanly soever performed; for out of variety represented, election may be best grounded.

Concerning the relief of the poor; I hold some number of hospitals, with competent endowments, will do far more good than one hospital of an exorbitant greatness: for though the one course will be the more seen, yet the other will be the more felt. For if your majesty erect many, besides the observing the ordinary maxim, "Bonum, quo communius, eo melius," choice may be made of those towns and places where there is most need, and so the remedy may be distributed as the disease is dispersed. Again, greatness of relief, accumulated in one place, doth rather invite a swarm and surcharge of poor, than relieve those that are naturally bred in that place; like to ill-tempered medicines, that draw more humour to the part than they evacuate from it. But chiefly I rely upon the reason that I touched

certainly few men in any vocation, which have been somebody, and bear a mind somewhat according to the conscience and remembrance of that they have been, will ever descend to that condition, as to profess to live upon alms, and to become a corporation of declared beggars; but rather will choose to live obscurely, and as it were to hide themselves with some private friends: so that the end of such an institution will be, that it will make the place a receptacle of the worst, idlest, and most dissolute persons of every profession, and to become a cell of loiterers, and cast serving-men, and drunkards, with scandal rather than fruit to the commonwealth. And of this kind I can find but one example with us, which is the alms-knights of Windsor; which particular would give a man a small encouragement to follow that precedent.

Therefore the best effect of hospitals is, to make the kingdom, if it were possible, capable of that law, that there be no beggar in Israel: for it is that kind of people that is a burden, an eyesore, a scandal and seed of peril and tumult in the state. But chiefly it were to be wished, that such a beneficence towards the relief of the poor were so bestowed, as not only the mere and naked poor should be sustained, but, also, that the honest person which hath hard means to live, upon whom the poor are now charged, should be in some sort eased: for that were a work generally acceptable

of God to make a proceeding. Surely readers in the chair are as the parents in sciences, and deserve to enjoy a condition not inferior to their children, that embrace the practical part; else no man will sit longer in the chair, than till he can walk to a better preferment: and it will come to pass as Virgil saith,

"Ut patrum invalidi referant jejunia nati."

to the kingdom, if the public hand of alms might hath made a beginning, so this occasion is offered spare the private hand of tax: and, therefore, of all other employments of that kind, I commend most houses of relief and correction, which are mixed hospitals; where the impotent person is relieved, and the sturdy beggar buckled to work; and the unable person also not maintained to be idle, which is ever joined with drunkenness and impurity, but is sorted with such work as he can manage and perform; and where the uses are not distinguished, as in other hospitals; whereof some are for aged and impotent, and some for children, and some for correction of vagabonds; but are general and promiscuous: so that they may take off poor of every sort from the country as the country breeds them: and thus the poor themselves shall find the provision, and other people the sweetness of the abatement of the tax. Now, if it be objected, that houses of correction in all places have not done the good expected, as it cannot be denied, but in most places they have done much good, it must be remembered that there is a great difference between that which is done by the distracted government of justices of peace, and that which may be done by a settled ordinance, subject to a regular visitation, as this may be. And, besides, the want hath been commonly in houses of correction of a competent and certain stock, for the materials of the labour, which in this case may be likewise supplied.

Concerning the advancement of learning, I do subscribe to the opinion of one of the wisest and greatest men of your kingdom: That for grammar schools, there are already too many, and, therefore, no providence to add where there is excess: for the great number of schools which are in your highness's realm, doth cause a want, and doth cause likewise an overflow; both of them inconvenient, and one of them dangerous. For by means thereof they find want in the country and towns, both of servants for husbandry, and apprentices for trade: and, on the other side, there being more scholars bred than the state can prefer and employ; and the active part of that life not bearing a proportion to the preparative, it must needs fall out, that many persons will be bred unfit for other vocations, and unprofitable for that in which they are brought up; which fills the realm full of indigent, idle, and wanton people, which are but materia rerum novarum. Therefore, in this point, I wish Mr. Sutton's intention were exalted a degree; that that which he meant for teachers of children, your majesty should make for teachers of men; wherein it hath been my ancient opinion and observation, that in the universities of this realm, which I take to be of the best endowed universities of Europe, there is nothing more wanting towards the flourishing state of learning, than the honourable and plentiful salaries of readers in arts and professions. In which point, as your majesty's bounty already VOL. II.-31

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For if the principal readers, through the meanness of their entertainment, be but men of superficial learning, and that they shall take their place but in passage, it will make the mass of sciences want the chief and solid dimension, which is depth; and to become but pretty and compendious habits of practice. Therefore, I could wish that in both the universities, the lectures as well of the three professions, divinity, law, and physic; as of the three heads of science, philosophy, arts of speech, and the mathematics; were raised in their pensions unto 100l. per annum apiece: which, though it be not near so great as they are in some other places, where the greatness of the reward doth whistle for the ablest men out of all foreign parts to supply the chair; yet it may be a portion to content a worthy and able man; if he be likewise contemplative in nature, as those spirits are that are fittest for lectures. Thus may learning in your kingdom be advanced to a farther height; learning, I say, which, under your majesty, the most learned of kings, may claim some degree of elevation.

Concerning propagation of religion, I shall in few words set before your majesty three propositions, none of them devices of mine own, otherwise than that I ever approved them; two of which have been in agitation of speech, and the third acted.

The first is a college for controversies, whereby we shall not still proceed single, but shall, as it were, double our files; which certainly will be found in the encounter.

The second is a receipt (I like not the word seminary, in respect of the vain vows, and implicit obedience, and other things tending to the perturbation of states, involved in that term) for converts to the reformed religion, either of youth or otherwise; for I doubt not but there are in Spain, Italy, and other countries of the Papists, many whose hearts are touched with a sense of those corruptions, and an acknowledgment of a better way; which grace is many times smothered and choked, through a worldly consideration of necessity and want; men not knowing where to have succour and refuge. This likewise I hold a work of great piety, and a work of great consequence; that we also may be wise in our generation; and that the watchful and silent night may be used as well for sowing of good seed, as of tares.

The third is, the imitation of a memorable and religious act of Queen Elizabeth; who, finding a part of Lancashire to be extremely backward in X

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A DECLARATION OF THE TRUE CAUSES OF THE GREAT TROUBLES PRESUPPOSED TO BE INTENDED AGAINST THE REALM OF ENGLAND.

IT were just and honourable for princes being in wars together, that howsoever they prosecute their quarrels and debates by arms and acts of hostility; yea, though the wars be such, as they pretend the utter ruin and overthrow of the forces and states one of another, yet they so limit their passions as they preserve two things sacred and inviolable; that is, the life and good name each of other. For the wars are no massacres and confusions; but they are the highest trials of right; when princes and states, that acknowledge no superior upon earth, shall put themselves upon the justice of God for the deciding of their controversies by such success, as it shall please him to give on either side. And as in the process of particular pleas between private men, all things ought to be ordered by the rules of civil laws; so in the proceedings of the war nothing ought to be done against the law of nations, or the law of honour; which laws have ever pronounced these two sorts of men, the one, conspirators against the persons of princes; the other, libellers against their good fame; to be such enemies of common society as are not to be cherished, no, not by enemies. For in the examples of times which were less corrupted, we find that when, in the greatest heats and extremities of wars, there have been made offers of murderous and traitorous attempts against the person of a prince to the enemy, they have been not only rejected, but also revealed: and in like manner, when dishonourable mention hath been made of a prince before an enemy prince, by some that have thought therein to please his humour, he hath showed himself, contrariwise, utterly distasted therewith, and been ready to contest for the honour of an enemy.

According to which noble and magnanimous

kind of proceeding, it will be found, that in the whole course of her majesty's proceeding with the King of Spain, since the amity interrupted, there was never any project by her majesty, or any of her ministers, either moved or assented unto, for the taking away of the life of the said king: neither hath there been any declaration or writing of estate, no, nor book allowed, wherein his honour hath been touched or taxed, otherwise than for his ambition; a point which is necessarily interlaced with her majesty's own justification. So that no man needeth to doubt but that those wars are grounded, upon her majesty's part, upon just and honourable causes, which have so just and honourable a prosecution; considering it is a much harder matter when a prince is entered into wars to hold respect then, and not to be transported with passion, than to make moderate and just resolutions in the beginnings. But now if a man look on the other part, it will appear that, rather, as it is to be thought, by the solicitation of traitorous subjects, which is the only poison and corruption of all honourable war between foreigners, or by the presumption of his agents and ministers, than by the proper inclination of that king, there hath been, if not plotted and practised, yet at the least comforted, conspiracies against her majesty's sacred person: which, nevertheless, God's goodness hath used and turned, to show by such miraculous discoveries, into how near and precious care and custody it hath pleased him to receive her majesty's life and preservation. But in the other point it is strange what a number of libellous and defamatory books and writings, and in what variety, with what art and cunning handled, have been allowed to pass through

the world in all languages against her majesty and her government; sometimes pretending the gravity and authority of church stories to move belief; sometimes formed into remonstrances and advertisements of estate to move regard; sometimes presented as it were in tragedies of the persecutions of Catholics to move pity; sometimes contrived into pleasant pasquils and satires to move sport: so as there is no shape whereinto these fellows have not transformed themselves; nor no humour nor affection in the mind of man to which they have not applied themselves; thereby to insinuate their untruths and abuses to the world. And, indeed, let a man look into them, and he shall find them the only triumphant lies that ever were confuted by circumstances of time and place; confuted by contrariety in themselves, confuted by the witness of infinite persons that live yet, and have had particular knowledge of the matters; but yet avouched with such asseveration, as if either they were fallen into that strange disease of the mind, which a wise writer describeth in these words, ❝fingunt simul creduntque;" or as if they had received it as a principal precept and ordinance of their seminaries, "audacter calumniari, semper aliquid hæret;" or as if they were of the race which in old time were wont to help themselves with miraculous lies. But when the cause of this is entered into, namely, that there passeth over out of this realm, a number of eager and unquiet scholars, whom their own turbulent and humourous nature presseth out to seek their adventures abroad; and that, on the other side, they are nourished rather in listening after news and intelligences, and in whisperings, than in any commendable learning; and after a time, when either their necessitous estate, or their ambitious appetites importune them, they fall on devising how to do some acceptable service to that side which maintaineth them; so as ever when their credit waxeth cold with foreign princes, or that their pensions are ill paid, or some preferment is in sight at which they level, straightways out cometh a libel, pretending thereby to keep in life the party, which within the realm is contrary to the state, wherein they are as wise as he that thinketh to kindle a fire by blowing the dead ashes; when, I say, a man looketh into the cause and ground of this plentiful yield of libels, he will cease to marvel, considering the concurrence which is, as well in the nature of the seed, as in the travel of tilling and dressing; yea, and in the fitness of the season for the bringing up of those infectious weeds.

against her majesty do best satisfy the malice of the foreigner, so the slander and calumniation of her principal counsellors agreed best with the humours of some malcontents within the realm; imagining also, that it was like they should be more scattered here, and freelier dispersed; and also should be less odious to those foreigners which were not merely partial and passionate, who have for the most part in detestation the traitorous libellings of subjects directly against their natural prince.

Amongst the rest in this kind, there hath been published this present year of 1592, a libel that giveth place to none of the rest in malice and untruths; though inferior to most of them in penning and style; the author having chosen the vein of a Lucianist, and yet being a counterfeit even in that kind. This libel is entitled, "A declaration of the true causes of the great troubles presupposed to be intended against the realm of England;" and hath a semblance as if it were bent against the doings of her majesty's ancient and worthy counsellor, the Lord Burleigh; whose carefulness and pains her majesty hath used in her counsels and actions of this realm for these thirty-four years' space, in all dangerous times, and amidst many and mighty practices; and with such success as our enemies are put still to their paper-shot of such libels as these; the memory of whom will remain in this land, when all these libels shall be extinct and forgotten; according to the Scripture, "Memoria justi cum laudibus, at impiorum nomen putrescet." But it is more than evident, by the parts of the same book, that the author's malice was to her majesty and her government, as may especially appear in this, that he charged not his lordship with any particular actions of his private life, such power had truth, whereas the libels made against other counsellors have principally insisted upon that part: but hath only wrested and detorted such actions of state, as in times of his service have been managed; and, depraving them, hath ascribed and imputed to him the effects that have followed; indeed, to the good of the realm, and the honour of her majesty, though sometimes to the provoking of the malice, but abridging of the power and means of desperate and incorrigible subjects.

All which slanders, as his lordship might justly despise, both for their manifest untruths, and for the baseness and obscurity of the author; so, nevertheless, according to the moderation which his lordship useth in all things, never claiming the privilege of his authority, when it is question of satisfying the world, he hath been But to verify the saying of our Saviour, "non content that they be not passed over altogether in est discipulus super magistrum;" as they have silence; whereupon I have, in particular duty to sought to deprave her majesty's government in his lordship, amongst others that do honour and herself, so have they not forgotten to do the same love his lordship, and that have diligently observed in her principal servants and counsellors; think- his actions, and in zeal of truth, collected, upon ing, belike, that as the immediate invectives the reading of the said libel, certain observations,

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