honored for his uprightness, impartiality, and integrity.1 The petition of the poor man ever received the same patient attention and courteous answer as that of the rich. These honored him, those prayed for him; the bad feared him, the good loved him; and nearly all, admiring his sound judgment, his unwearying patriotism, and his sturdy uprightness, were wont to style him "The Father of the Commonwealth." 2 In 1580, the Earl of Sussex wrote to him as follows: "The true fear of God which your actions have always showed to be in your heart; the great and deep care which you have always had for the honor and safety of the Queen's Majesty's most sacred worthy person; the continual trouble which you have of long time taken for the benefiting of the commonwealth; and the upright course which you have always taken, respecting the matter and not the person, in all causes; . . have tied me to your lordship in that knot which no worldly frailty can break." " This is perhaps the noblest tribute to Lord Burleigh's worth which we have on record; for, though addressed to him personally, it was no flattery, but the honest effusion of a high-minded soldier and nobleman, who never cringed to peer or prince.1 4 The last words which Lord Burleigh wrote the writing showing how tremulous was his hand -were addressed to his son Robert, then Secretary of State and the immediate successor of the 1 Peck, Vol. I. Book I. 25. 2 Ibid., 19, 20. * Lodge, II. 229. * See ante, Vol. II. pp. 323-326, and notes. 1 unfortunate Davison. They are equally indicative of his loyalty and piety: "Serve God by serving of the queen; for all other service is indeed bondage to the Devil." 3 "When," wrote one of his contemporaries, "when shall our realm see such a man, or when such a mistress have such another servant! Well might one weep when the other died." When she first heard of the death of the faithful servant who had held the helm of State from the moment of her accession, and had been her discreet counsellor in her previous days of sorrow and peril,5 Queen Elizabeth did weep, "taking her loss very grievously, and separating herself from all company. Nor was this a momentary grief. Months and years afterwards, the queen would "speak of him with tears, and turn aside when he was discoursed of." 1 Lodge, III. 19, note; 25. 2 We have the following statement from Sir John Harrington. "When my Lord Treasurer did come in from prayers, Sir Francis Walsingham did in merry sort say, that he wished himself so good a servant of God as Lord Burleigh, but that he had not been at church for a week past. Now my Lord Burleigh did gravely reply thus: 'I hold it meet for us to ask God's grace to keep us sound of heart who have so much in our power, and to direct us to the well-doing of all the people, whom it is easy for us to injure and ruin. And herein, my good friends, the special blessing seemeth meet to be discreetly asked and wisely worn.' I did not a little marvel at this good discourse; to see how a good man considereth his weighty charge and striveth to keep out Satan from corrupting the heart in the discharge of his duties. How few have such hearts or such heads! and therefore shall I note this for those that read hereafter." (Nugæ Antiquæ, I. 174, 175.) Indeed how few'! And how few, in the service of the State, find thus the secret of true greatness and success! 3 Strype's Annals, VII. 480. Wright, II. 488; who gives us a fac-simile of this interesting letter. 4 Harrington; Nugæ Antiquæ, I. 173. 5 Camden, 558. Birch, II. 390; Sir Willian Knollys to the Earl of Essex. At one time, she even forbade his name to be mentioned at the Council table.1 1 We have reason to believe that others also mourned his loss, and paid to his memory the silent tribute of their tears. We mean the Puritans, whom he had so often screened from the severities of the prelates, or released from bonds and imprisonment, they, their wives, and their children. "He was one of the few who have lived and died in glory."2 1 Nugæ Antiquæ, I. 244; Robert Sidney to Sir John Harrington, in Markham to Sir John Harrington, 1600. 1598-9. Ibid., 314; Sir Robert 2 Echard, 888. CHAPTER XVIII. THE PARLIAMENT OF 1601. THE DISCONTENTED HUMOR OF THE COMMONS AT THEIR ASSEMBLING. AG- MENTS UPON IT. AN THE portal of a new century was opened. The most varied and momentous events produced by any century of which we have history were wrapped within it all along to its farther extremity, unsuspected by the generation who stood upon its threshold, although signs of their coming and character were already floating in the air. Principles adverse to despotic monarchy and priestly domination, crude but vigorous ideas of civil rights, and a peculiar detestation of the Man of Sin, had taken root in the English mind, and were impelling it to resultsthough at terrible cost which have made the Northern Isle the queen among nations, the admiration of her rivals, and a blessing to the world. It has been our humble task to trace, we trust not inaccurately, the progress of these various but blended elements from the point of their first emergence to that where they had become a well-defined, augmenting, but as yet a controllable stream; destined, however, first to inundation, then to fertility. We follow it only for another day's journey. now The tenth and last Parliament of Queen Elizabeth was opened in the year 1601, on Tuesday, the twenty-seventh day of October. The Commons came together in a gloomy mood. The people throughout the realm were chafing under oppressions emanating from the royal prerogative, and the representatives sympathized with their constit uents. Even before the House could be organized, this temper was fanned. They had taken the customary oath, some before the Lord Steward, the Lord Admiral Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, -others before his deputies. The customary notice being given, that she awaited her Commons, they immediately went to the chamber of the Lords, but found the door closed against them; "and notwithstanding any means that was made by them, it was still kept shut." Indeed, they were told by a gentleman usher, who spake to them through the door, "An ye be not quiet, ye shall all be set in the stocks."1 "So they returned back again unto their own house much discontented," and "taking it in great disgrace." A few of their number, however, including those who were of her Majesty's Privy Council, had obtained private entrance to the 1 Townshend, 182. |