"indefatigable in bufineffes, a patient hearer, 66 66 "February 1621.-I ftood by the most illuf"trious Prince Charles at dinner. He was then ર very merry, and talked occafionally of many things with his attendants. Amongst other 66 things, he faid if he were neceffitated to take 66 any particular profeffion of life, he could not "be a Lawyer, adding his reafons: I cannot " (faid he) defend a bad, nor yield in a good "caufe. Sic in majoribus fuccedas, in æternum fauftus, fereniffime Princeps." • Archbishop Laud's Diary. James Howell wrote a Treatife with this title, "horrid "horrid Infurrection and Maffacre which hap"pened lately in Ireland, by Mercurius Hiber"nicus, who discovers unto the World the true "Caufes and Incentives thereof, in Vindication "of his Majefty, who is moft maliciously tra"duced to be acceffary thereto, which is as "damnable a Lie as poffibly could be hatched " in Hell, which is the Staple of Lies, "A Lie ftands upon one leg, Amongst other reafons to account for the infurrection and maffacre in Ireland, Howell states, "that the army of eight thousand men, which "the Earl of Strafford had raised to be tranf"ported to England, for fuppreffing the Scot, "being by the advice of our Parliament here "diffolved, the country was annoyed by fome "of those straggling foldiers, as not one in twenty "of the Irish will from the fword to the fpade, "or from the pike to the plough again. There"fore the two Marquiffes that were Ambaffadors here then from Spain, having propounded to have fome numbers of thofe difbanded forces "for the fervice of their mafter, his Majefty, by the mature advice of his Privy Council, to prevent the mischiefs that might arise to his "kingdom of Ireland by these loose cashiered "foldiers, yielded to the Ambaffadors' motion, 66 66 "who fent advice to Spain accordingly, and fo provided fhipping for their tranfport, and im 66 preffed many to advance the bufinefs. But as they were at the heat of their work, his Majefty being then in Scotland, there was a fudden ftop made of thefe promifed troops, who had "depended long upon the Spaniard's fervice, as "the Spaniard had done upon theirs, and this "was the last though not the leaft folid caufe of "that horrid infurrection. All which particu"lars well confidered, it had been no hard matter to have been a prophet, and ftanding upon "the top of Holyhead, to have foreseen there "thick clouds engendering in the Irish air, 66 which broke out afterwards into fuch fearful "tempefts of blood." "His Majefty, then Prince of Wales, being arrived in Spain," adds Howell," the igno"rant country people cried out, The Prince of "Wales is come hither to make himself a "Chriftian. The Pope indeed wrote to the Inquifitor-General of Spain, to offer to use all "the industry they could to reduce him to the "Roman religion; and one of the Count Duke "Olivarez's first compliments to him was, that "he doubted not but his Highness came thither "to change his religion; whereunto he made a fhort anfwer, that he came not thither for "religion, religion, but for a wife. The Infanta of Spain herfelf defired him to vifit the Nunne of Car❝ton, hoping that the faid Nunne, who was fo "much cried up for miracles, might have wrought "one upon him; but he at least failed her: nor "was his Highness so weak a fubject to work upon, according to his late Majesty's (James "the First) fpeech to Drs. Mawe and Wren, when they came to kifs hands before they went "to Spaine to attend the Prince their master. "He wished them to have a care of Bucking "ham: As touching his fonne Charles, he apprehended no feare at all of him; for he knew him to be fo well grounded a Proteftant, that "nothing could change his religion." "This King's reign," adds Howell, 66 was "paralleled to that of Queen Elizabeth (who was the greatest minion of a people that ever was); "but one will find, that the ftretched prerogative much further. In her time (as I have read in the Latin Legend of her life) fome had "their hands cut off for only writing against her "matching with the Duke of Anjou*; others were hanged at Tyburn for traducing her "Government. She pardoned thrice as many Roman Priests as the King did; fhe paffed divers monopolies; fhe kept an Agent at * See p. 200 of this Volume. "Rome; "Rome; fhe fent her Serjeant at Arms to pluck "out a Member then fitting in the House of "Commons by the ears, and clapped him in "prifon; fhe called them faucy fellows to med"dle with her prerogative, or with the govern"ment of her houfhold; fhe managed all foreign "affairs, specially the wars with Ireland, by her "Privy Council; yet there was no murmuring "in her reign; and the reafon I conceive to be, "that neither Scot or Puritan had any stroke in "England.""-Howell's Italian Profpective. Howell concludes one of the many Pamphlets that he wrote in the reign of Charles the First thus: "I will conclude this point with an ob"fervation of the moft monstrous number of "witches that have fwarmed fince the wars "against the King, more (I dare fay) than have "been in this Island fince the Devil tempted Eve; " for in two counties only, viz. Suffolk and Effex, "there have been upwards of three hundred "arraigned, and eighteen executed, as I have it "from the Clerks of the Peace of the two "counties. What a barbarous, devilish office 66 one had, under colour of exoneration, to tor❝ment poor filly women with watchings, pinch ings, and other artifices, to find them for "witches while others (called fpirits) by a new "invention of villainy, were connived at, for feizing |