and according to that capacity, he must apply himself to do his Soveraign's bufineffe, to provide, not only for his publick, but his personal, wants; to bear-up the luftre and glory of his Court; to confider what occafions of extraordinary expences he may have, by encrease of Royal iffue, or maintenance of any of them abroad; to enable him to vindicate any affront, or indignity, that might be offered to his perfon, Crown, or dignity, by any forrain State or Kingdom, or inteftine Rebellion; to confult what may enlarge his bonour, contentment, and pleasure. And as the French Tacitus (Comines) hath it, the English Nation was used to be more forward and zealous in this particular than any other; according to that ancient, eloquent, speech of a great Lawyer, Domum Regis vigilia defendit omnium, otium illius labor omnium, deliciæ illius induftria omnium, vacatio illius occupatio omnium, falus illius periculum omnium, honor illius objectum omnium. Every one should stand Centinell to defend the King's houfe, his safety fhould be the danger of all, his pleasures the industry of all, his ease should be the labour of all, his honour the object of all.

Out of these premiffes this conclufion may be eafily deduced, that, the principall fountain whence the King derives bis happiness and safety, is his parlement; it is that great Conduit-pipe which conveighes unto him his people's bounty and gratitude; the trueft Looking-glaffe wherein he discernes their loves; (now the Subjects love hath been always accounted the prime Cittadell of a Prince.) In his Parlement he appears as the Sun in the Meridian, in the altitude of his glory, in his highest State Royal, as the Law tells us. Therefore whofoever is averse or difaffected to his Soveraign Law-making Court, cannot have his heart well-planted within him; he can be neither a good Subject, nor a good patriot, and therefore is unworthy to breath English air, or have any benefit, advantage, or protection from the Laws.

END OF MT. HOWELL'S DISCOURSE ON PARLIAMENTS

A MEMORIAL

PRESENTED TO

QUEEN ELIZABETH,

AGAINST HER MAJESTY'S BEING ENGROSS'D BY ANY PARTICULAR FAVOURITE.

Written by WILLIAM CECIL, Lord Burleigh, then Lord High Treasurer of England.

May it please your Majesty,

FULL of Affurance, that my unfeigned Zeal for your Majesty's Interest and Service, will be evident in what I humbly prefume to Remonftrate to Your Majefty; I shall venture to speak my mind with a Freedom worthy the noble End and Aim of my Design. When any Man, that is as ambitious as myfelf of engaging your Majesty's good Opinion of my Actions, and your Favour on my Endeavours, fhall attempt to plead against any Particular's engroffing your Royal Ear, he cannot well be fufpected of directing his Difcourfe and Sollicitations on that Head to any private Interest and Advantage: Since, by advancing the contrary Pofition, he might hope perhaps, in time, and in his turn, by the force of Industry and Application, to enjoy the Benefit of it.

Secure

Secure, therefore, in my Zeal for the Welfare of my Prince and my Country, I fhall venture to appeal to your Majesty's Knowledge of Hiftory, whether it afford any one Inftance of that Nature, which has not been, or was very likely to be, of fatal Confequence to the Prince or the people, or both. I will not infift on Sejanus, or any other of the Roman Minions, to whofe Ambition or Avarice, when the Nobility had fallen in Numbers, and the people felt the Rage of their exorbitant Paffions, unfatisfy'd with what they poffefs'd, they have aim'd at the Life and Throne of the Prince that raised them. The Reason of which is plain; because, having only themselves and their own private Advantage in view, they make use of the Prince only as the means of their own Grandeur, without any regard to his real Service, or the Publick Good, against which it is impoffible to do the Princea

A King, by bis Royal Office, is the Father of his Country; whofe Eye ought to watch over the Good of all and every one of his Subjects, in the just execution of the Laws, and the impartial difpenfation of Prerogative; in Redressing of Grievances, Rewarding Vertue, Punifbing Vice, Encouraging Industry, and the like. But Princes, though the Vicegerents of Heaven, being not endued with Omniscience, can only know these Grievances, Virtues, Vices, Industry, &c. of the People, and their several Exigencies, by the Eyes and Information of others; nor can this be done by trufting to any one particular Favourite, who having no more, nor larger, Qualifications than his Prince, can have no other means of informing him aright, than what his Prince has without him. Nay, it may very well be faid, that he has not any means fo sure and infallible; for the Prince, if he confult his Great Councils, and only adhere to their Publick Decifions, cannot mifs of knowing all that is neceffary to be known for his own Glory, and his people's

Good;

Good; which are infeparable: but the Favourite, having private Defigns to carry-on, receives his Information from thofe, who must represent things to him as he would have them, by that means to make their Court, and fecure that Succefs to their Wishes, for which they daily pay the Adoration of fo much flattery. But, if, by the wonderful Perfpicuity and Application of the Favourite, he should attain a true knowledge of the state of things; of the Inclinations, and Defires of the people; it is Forty to One, that, these clafhing with his private Aims, he gives them another Face to the Prince, a turn more agreeable to his feparate Intereft, though equally destructive of his Master's and Country's Good.

The only way, therefore, for a Prince to govern wtth fatisfaction to his own Confcience is to be the Common Father of all bis Country, to bear the advice of all his councellors, and to have an open Ear to all the Grievances and neceffities of all his People. Which can never be done while any One Man has the luck to poffefs the Royal Favour fo far as to make his Advice an over-balance to the whole Nation. They gain by that means a Power, which they extreamly feldom, if ever, ufe for the People's or Prince's Advantage, but most commonly, if not always, to the deftruction of both. There are Examples enough of this to alarm any Wife and Politick Prince. The Mayors of the Palace in France, at laft poffeffed the Throne. And Domestick InStances might be given of thofe, who, by their excefjive Power, have, if not themselves poffeff'd, yet deprived and fet whom they pleas'd on the Throne.

But, omitting what your Majefty knows extreamly well, I shall only give you a view of a great Favourite in the Reign of your Royal Father; a truc Profpect of whofe Practices and Ambition, may warn your Majefty against all thofe, who wou'd engrofs not only your Majefty's Ear,

but

but all the Gifts and Places your Majefly can bestow; fo to be, if not in Name, yet in Effect Kings of your People. I mean Cardinal Wolfey, whofe Fame has been pretended to be vindicated by a Domeftick of his, in the Days of the late Queen. And, tho' I shall not deny his admirable Qualifications and Parts; or his Juftice in many Particulars; yet I fhall fhew, that the ills he did, were much more prejudicial to the King and People, than the Good he did was beneficial to them.

Whatever he did, as Chancellor, (allowing his Decrees to have been all Equitable and Just,) will not be fufficient to destroy my Affertion; fince that only reach'd some Particulars, who had Caufes depending before him; but the many Exorbitances of his Administration, spread to the whole People; as will appear from thofe few Inftances which I fhall give, by which he put the King on the most illegal Attempts to replenish that Exchequer, which bis Ambition and Pride, more than any Profufion, or Expences, of the King, had exhausted.

The Reason of this Affertion will be plain, if your Majefty will reflect on the more than Royal Retinue, which (tho' a Subject of the lowest and most plebeian Rise,) he maintain'd. For, not to waste your Majefty's important Hours with a long Catalogue of the Particulars, he had in his Family, One Earl, nine Barons, and Knights, Gentlemen, and inferior Officers, about One Thousand. For the Maintenance of whom he was once poffefs'd of the Almonership, the Bishopricks of Tournay, Lincoln and York, and Durham, St. Albans in Commendam, the Bishoprick of Winchester, in exchange for that of Durham, the Revenues of thofe of Bath, Worcester and Hereford, was Lord Chancellor of England, and had the difpofal of all Places of Trust and Profit, and fingly and alone dispatched all Publick Negotiations.

But