A

MEMORIAL

Presented to

Queen Elizabeth,

BY

WILLIAM CECIL, Lord Burleigh, then Lord High-Treasurer of England, to prevent Her Majefty's being Engrofs'd by any one Favorite.

May it please your Majesty,

F

ULL of Affurance, that my unfeigned Zeal for Your Majefty's Intereft and Service, will be evident in what I humbly prefume to Remonstrate to Your Majefty. I fhall venture to speak my mind with a Freedom worthy the noble End and Aim of my Defign. When any Man, that is, as ambi

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tious as my felf, of engaging your Majefty's good Opinion of my Actions, and your Favour on my Endeavours, shall attempt to plead against any Particulars engroffing your Royal Ear, he cannot well be fufpected of directing his Difcourse and Sollicitations on that Head, to any private Intereft 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 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 af ford 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 insist on Sejanus, or any other of the Roman Minions, to whole 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 rais'd them. The Reafon of which is plain,

because

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 Prince any.

A King, by his Royal Office, is the Fa-. ther 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 difpenfa tion of PREROGATIVE; in Redreffing of Grievances, Rewarding Vertue, Punishing Vice, Encouraging Industry, and the like. But Princes, tho' the Vicegerents of Heaven, being not endued with OmniScience, can only know thefe Grievances, Vertues, Vices, Induftry, &c. of the People, and their feveral Exigencies, by the Eyes and Information of others; nor can this be done by trufting to any one particular FAVORITE, 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

too fure and infallible; For the Prince if he confult his great Councils, and only adhere to their Publick Decifions, can not mifs of knowing all, that is neceffary to be known for his own GLORY, and his People's GOOD, which are infeparable; but the FAVORITE having private Defigns to carry on, receives his Information from thofe, who must reprefent things to him, as he wou'd 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 Perfpiccity and application of the Favorite, he fhou'd attain a trae. knowledge of the ftate of things; of the Inclinations, and Defires of the People; it is Forty to One, that, these clashing with his private Aims, he gives them another Face to the Prince, a Turn more. agreeable to his feparate Intereft, tho equally deftructive of his Master's and Country's Good.

The only way therefore, for a Prince to govern, with fatisfaction to his own Confcience, is to be the Common Father. of all his Country, to hear the Advice of

all

Ear

all his Counsellors, and have an open 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-ballance 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 Ad vantage, but most commonly, if not al ways, to the destruction of both. There are Examples enough of this to alarm any Wife and Politick Prince. The Mayors of the Palace in France, at laft poffefs'd the Throne. And Domeftick Inftances might be given of thofe, who by their exceffive Power have, if not themselves poffeft, yet depriv'd and set whom they pleas'd on the Throne.

But omitting what your Majefty knows extreamly well, I fhall only give you a view of a great FAVORITE in the Reign of your Royal Father; a true Profpect of whofe Practices and Ambition, may warn your Majefty against all those, who wou'd engrofs not only your Majefty's Ear, P 4

but