queen, Queen Elizabeth, who having come, as it were, from the fcaffold to the throne, enjoyed a wonderful calm (excepting fome fhort gufts of infurrection that happened in the beginning) for near upon 45 years together. But this, my Lord, may be imputed to the temper of the people, who had had a boifterous king not long before, with fo many revolutions in religion, and a minor king afterward, which made them to be governed by their fellow-fubje&s. And the fire and faggot being frequent among them in Queen Mary's days, the humours of the common people were pretty well spent, and fo were willing to conform to any government, that might preferve them and their estates in quietuefs. Yet in the reign of that fo popular and well-beloved queen there were many traverfes, which trenched as much if not more upon the privileges of parliament, and the liberties of the people, than any that happened in the reign of the two Jaft kings; yet it was not their fate to be fo popular. Teaching the firft, viz. Parliament; in one of hers there was a motion made in the Houfe of Commons, that there fhould be a lecture in the morning fome days of the week before they fat, whereunto the Icufe was very inclinable: the Queen hearing of it, fent them a meffage, that the much wondered at their rafhnefs, that they fhould offer to introduce fuch an innovation.

Another Parliament would have propofed ways for the regulation of her Court; but the fent them another fuch meffage, that he wondered, that being called by her thither to confult of public affairs, they fhould intermeddle with the government of her ordinary family, and to think her to be fo ill an housewife as not to be able to look to

her own houfe herfeif.

In another Parliament there was a motion made, that the Queen fhould entail the fuccefiion of the crown, and declare her next heir; but Wentworth, who propofed it, was committed to the Tower, where he breathed his lait; and Bromley upon a luis orcafion was clapped in the

Fleet.

Another time the Houfe petitioning that the Inds might join in private committees with the Commoners, the utterly rejected it. You know how Stubbs and Page had their hands cut off with a

butcher's knife and a mallet, becaufe they writ against the match with the Duke of Anjou; and Penry was hanged at Tyburn, though Alured, who writ a bitter invective against the late Spanish match, was but confined for a fhort time: how Sir John Heywood was flut up in the Tower, for an epille dedicatory to the Earl of Effex, &c.

Touching her favourites, what a monfter of a man was Leicester, who firft brought the art of poifoning into England? Add hereunto, that privy-feals were common in her days, ar preffing of men more frequent, elpecially for Ireland, where they were fent in handfuls, rather to continue a war (by the cunning of the officers) than to conclude it. The three fleets fhe fent against the Spaniard did hardly make the benefit of the voyages to countervail the charge. How poorly did the English garrifon quit Hare-de-Grace? and how were we baffled for the arrears that were due to England (by article) for the forces fent into France? For buildings, with all kind of braveries elfe that ule to make a nation happy, as riches and commerce, inward and outward, it was not the twen tieth part fo much in the best of her days (as appears by the Custom-house books) as it was in the reign of her fucceffors.

Touching the religion of the Court, the feldom came to fermon but in Lenttime, nor did there ufe to be any fermon upon Sundays, unless they were feftivals; whereas the fucceeding Kings had duly two every morning, one for the houfehold, the other for themfelves, where they were always prefent, as alfo at private prayers in the clofet; yet it was not their fortune to gain fo much upon the affections of city or country. Therefore, my Lord, the felicity of Queen Elizabeth may be much imputed to the rare temper and moderation of men's minds in thofe days; for the purfe of the common people, and Londoners, did beat nothing fo high as it did afterwards when they grew pampered with fo long peace and plenty. Add hereunto, that neither Hans, Jocky, or John Calvin, had taken fuch footing here as they did get afterwards, whofe humour is to pry and peep with a kind of malice into the carriage of the Court, and myileries of ftate, as alfo to malign nobility, with the wealth and folemnities of the church.

4

My

My Lord, it is far from my meaning hereby to let drop the least afperfion upon the tomb of that rare renowned Queen; but it is only to obferve the differing temper both of time and people. The fame of fome Princes is like the rofe, which, as we find by experience, fmells fweeter after it is plucked: the memory of others is like the tulip and poppy, which make a gay fhew, and fair flourish, while they ftand upon the ftalk, but being cut down they give an ill-favoured fcent. It was the happiness of that great long-lived Queen to caft a pleafing odour among her people both while the ftood, and after the was cut off by the common froke of mortality; and the older the world grows, the frether her fame will be. Yet he is little beholden to any foreign writers, unless it be the Hollanders; and good reafon they had to fpeak wel of her, for fhe was the chiefeet, who, though with the expence of mic English blood and bullion, railed them to a republic, by cafting that fatal bone for the Spaniard to gnaw upon, which frook his teeth fo ill-favouredly for furture years together. Other writers ftult visterly of her for her carriage to ter the Queen of Scots; for her n to her brother Philip of Spaing ing advice, by her amateur w Great Turk, to expel the fall had got a college in Pera: a her Secretary Walingam food projeź the poifoning of the waters of Doug and lastly, how the fifend the fe the Nativity of the Virgin Mary Bes tember to be turned to the CLERCLOT of her own birth-day, an DE THE fains are caft upon her by her memut and the afperfions of an enemy tea se like the dirt of over, wam da aut cleanse than contamine.

Thas, my Lord, have fome remarks, to few how KER

difcrepant the humeans tó a m be, and the genius of me what it was; which done ceed from a high a

a fpeculation that may become the

et and knowingest fran

Your Lordship doth fine at a
firft magnitude; for your tale *
called a true academy, aut vir
the capital of knowledge, ir

Exchequer, wherein there a as

enough to give penfions to all the wits of the time. With thefe thoughts I refl, my most highly honoured Lord, your very obedient and ever obliged fer

vant.

LETTER CVI.

From James Howel, Efq; to Mr. R. Floyd. London, 6th April.

Coufin Floyd,

THE first part of wifdom is to give good

courfel, the fecond to take it, and the third to follow it. Though you be young, yet you may be already capable of the two latter parts of wildom, and it is the only way to attain the firt: therefore I with you to follow the good com. fel of your ancle J. for I know him to ben a very dicrest ac-wegled gouramans and I can judge fomething of men, for i bare £uded many : therefore if you hear by dis sempads in this have underages, you test we brus folgen ATEDE. Tib tekiked you v»J affectionate con EL

LETTER CYL

LETTER CVIII.

From James Howel, Efq; to the Right Honourable the Lady E. Savage, afterwards Countess Rivers.

London, 2d Feb.

Excellent Lady, AMONG thofe multitudes that claim a fhare in the lofs of fo precious a Lord, mine is not the least. O how willingly could I have measured with my feet, and performed a pilgrimage over all thofe large continents wherein I have travelled, to have reprieved him! truly;

Madam, I fhall mourn for him while I

have a heart beating in my breaft; and though time may mitigate the fenfe of grief, yet his memory fhall be to me, like his worth and virtues, everlasting. But it is not fo much to be lamented that he hath left us (it being fo infinitely to his advantage), as that he hath left behind fo few like him.

your

I confefs, Madam, this is the weightieft cross that poffibly could come to exercife your patience; but I know Ladyship to be both pious and prudent in the highest degree: let the one preferve you from excefs of forrow, which may prove irreligious to heaven; and the other keep you from being injurious to yourself, and to that goodly brave iffue of his, which may ferve as fo many living copies of the original.

God Almighty comfort your Ladyfhip; fo praveth, Madam, your most humble and forrowful fervant.

LETTER CIX.

London, 4th Auguft.

Sir, IN the various courfes of my wandering fone part of my time in literal corre life, I have had occafion to spend fpondences with divers; but I never remember that I pleafed myfelf more in paying thefe civilities to any than to yourfelf: for when I undertake this talk,

find that my head, my hand, and my heart, go all fo willingly about it. The invention of the one, the graphical office of the other, and the affections of the

laft, are fo ready to obey me in performing the work; work do I call it? It is rather a fport, my pen and paper are as a chefs-board, or as your inftruments of mufic are to you, when you would recre ate your harmonious foul. Whence this proceeds I know not, unless it be from a charming kind of virtue that your letters carry with them to work upon my fpirits, which are fo full of facete and familiar friendly ftrains, and fo punctual in anfwering every part of mine, that you may give the law of epistolizing to all mankind.

Touching your poet laureat Skelton, I found him at lait (as I told you before) fkulking in Duck Lane, pitifully tattered and torn; and, as the times are, I do not

him in better clothes, for the genius of the age is quite another thing: yet there be fome lines of his, which I think will never be out of date for their quaint fenfe and with thefe I will close this letter, and falute you, as he did his friend, with thefe options:

Salve