that for the continuance of peace, which he so sincerely and justly loves, it will be safe and necessary to provide and prepare really for a war."

There follows a list of "Heads to be advised upon by the Council of War." They are seventeen in number, and include questions upon all the points of detail that could be thought of; the last being, "what treasure will be required for the charge of the enterprise." Against which list there is set down a note of calculations, meant apparently for an answer to this last question; the sum of which is, that the raising of 25,000 foot and 5,000 horse would cost 102,000l., the transportation of them 10,000l. more, and the monthly pay, about 40,000l. But whether this formed part of the original paper or not is doubtful, and we are in possession of a more authentic answer to the question.

For though the author of this advice does not appear to have been in favour of the "conquering army " (as doubting whether the supplies which would be required for keeping it in a state of efficiency could be depended upon), it was the course chosen. On the 13th of January 1620-1 “his Majesty, having resolved to make some royal preparations for the recovery and protection of the Palatinate, being the ancient inheritance of his Majesty's son-in-law and grandchildren, did in his high wisdom think meet to appoint some persons of knowledge and experience in the wars, to consider and advise on such propositions as should be made them from the Board for the better expediting that service." The commissioners were to prosecute their consultations without intermission or delay, and report in writing under five of their hands, first, what number of men, horse, etc., would be sufficient; secondly, by what time they must be in readiness, and how provided. On the 11th of February they reported to the Council that the total charge of raising and setting forth an army of 25,000 foot, 5,000 horse, 20 pieces of artillery, etc. would rise to 258,3707; and the expenses of transport, ammunition, wages, and provisions, to 76,0647. 17s. 8d. monthly.

2

Now the largest sum collected in any one year by Parliamentary grant since the beginning of the century had been 188,8837. 3 That was in the last year of Elizabeth. The largest collected during the present reign had been 145,7621. And now it appeared that if the

Palatinate was to be recovered by a conquering army, it would be

1 S. P. vol. cxix. no. 21-23.

2 S. P.vol. cxix. no. 94, f. 14.

3 Gardiner's' History of England', 1603-1616, vol. ii. Appendix, p. 414. I include the subsidies of clergy because they could always be reckoned on as going with the others.

1620-1.]

ESTIMATE OF EXPENSES.

165

necessary to provide during this year not less than a million. It is true that the people had had a long rest from Parliamentary taxation; and that if during the last ten years every man had laid by annually a sum equal to his share of a single subsidy with its two fifteenths they would have had no difficulty in meeting the demand.1 But no man is better disposed to pay a tax because he has not been used to it; hardly any man is better able. What the tax-collector does not call for, men treat as their own, and learn to want it for themselves. The people were eager for the restoration of the Palatinate to the King's son-in-law and grandchildren. True: but were they prepared to pay a million for it out of their own pockets within the next twelve months? This was the question to be tried; and it was probably judicious in the Government to announce their choice of the most difficult and most effectual of the three courses from which they had to choose: because if the zeal of the Commons fell short of what was wanted for the first, the second or the third would still be open whereas if the Commons should prove to be earnest enough in pursuit of this one object to forget or suspend their other differences with the Crown till it were accomplished, the improved relation between the two would so raise the credit of the Government in the money-market, that what was wanted for the first might probably be obtainable: for if sufficient security could be offered, the money would no doubt be forthcoming; and it was but fair that the future should share the burden of defending its own inheritance. But the experiment was a very doubtful one at best: and Bacon was not destined to preside at the Council-board long enough to assist in the guidance of it—which might possibly have made a differ

ence.

2.

For the present, however, his personal fortunes were at their highest, and never seemed more secure. During the last two years he had been rapidly gaining upon the opinion both of the King and Buckingham, his counsels were better listened to than they had ever been before, and as the case became more difficult their value seemed likely to be better understood. One or two complaints against him from aggrieved suitors had been referred to the rest of the Council-board for examination, and left no blemish upon his name. He had been building by the fish-ponds at Gorhambury a retiring-place for study and recreation "the most

1 Sir Julius Cæsar stated in the House of Commons in February 1620-1, that one subsidy came to about 82,0007 and one fifteenth to 29,000. See Proceedings and Debates, vol. i. p. 49.

ingeniosely contrived little pile," says Aubrey, "that ever I saw;
in the design, arrangement, and decoration of which he had freely
indulged all his tastes; as looking forward to the time when, having
seen the King out of debt and in harmony with his Parliament, he
should be free to exchange the active for the contemplative life, and
devote his remaining years to the prosecution and exposition of his
philosophy. Ben Jonson celebrated his birthday in lines breathing
of nothing but reverence and honour. And the King, to show the
value he set upon his services, raised him a step higher in the peer-
age. On the morning of the 7th of January, Camden and Norroy
King-at-Arms had been sent for to consult about the arrangements
for his investiture with the title of Viscount St. Alban, which was to
be presently bestowed upon him with all the solemnities.2 In the
mean time the right to use it had not to wait for the ceremony of
investiture; for in a letter to the King of Denmark, dated the 13th,
and not otherwise of importance, I find it subscribed.

SERENISSIMO AC POTENTISSIMO REGI AC DOMINO, DOMINO
CHRISTIANO Quarto, Dei GRATIA DANIÆ, NORVEGIE VANDA-
LORUM, GOTHORUMQUE, ETC. REGI, DOMINO SUO CLEMEN-
TISSIMO.3

Serenissime Rex,

Cum Dominus Amstrudder affinis meus ac servitio Majestatis Vestræ apprime deditus, iterum ad Majestatem Suam proficiscatur, non potui officio meo deesse quin observantiam meam perpetuam erga Majestatem Suam literis testarer, quam non tantum calamo, sed opere et merito, prout dabitur occasio et facultas, præstare paratus sum. Dignabitur igitur Majestas Sua voluntatem pro facto accipere, meque inter fidos et propensos Majestatis Suæ servos reponere. Cujus manus humillime exosculor, eique omnia prospera comprecor.

Majestatis Vestræ omni observantia

et devotione servus addictissimus

Ex Edibus Eboracencibus

Janu. 13, 1620.

3.

FR. St. ALBAN, Can.

On the 16th of January, the meeting of Parliament was prorogued to the 30th, probably to give time for the deliberations of the

1 Lives vol. ii. part 1, p. 229.

2 Camden. Annal. Apparatus. 3 'Archæologia' vol. xli.

1620-1.] PREPARATIONS FOR MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

167

Council of War; and Bacon in the interval sent to the King through Buckingham, what I suppose to have been some memorial (like that which he submitted to him in 1614) of the communication to be made to the two houses on their assembling. We know that when in 1615, he wanted him to try another Parliament, he advised him to confine his own opening speech to a declaration of the causes which had moved him to assemble them, together with some princely and reserved description of the affairs of Christendom at the time"; leaving the Lord Chancellor to deliver any admonitions that might be required as to the government of their own proceedings. The case being now almost exactly the same, he would probably give the same advice: and we have evidence (which will be seen presently) that he did at one time expect that it would be so arranged:—that the King was to declare the causes for which they were called together, leaving it to him to say whatever might be expedient about their proper functions and duty. It was to this arrangement, I imagine, that the paper referred to in the next letter as the enclosed" had reference. It may have been a suggestion of what the King should say, or an account of what he proposed to say himself, or both. But I have not found any traces either of it or of the letter which accompanied it; and all that we can safely conclude about it is that the arrangement which it proposed or assumed did not exactly suit the King. He meant in his own speech to deal with both points,-the functions of Parliament generally, as well as the special business of this.

TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.2

I have acquainted his Majesty with your letter and the enclosed; who commanded me to return yo' Lp. this answer, That the matter which his Majesty hath been thinking upon for his speech concerneth both the points, of the institution of a Parliament, and of the end for which this is called; yet his Majesty thinketh it fit that some extract may be made out of it, which needeth to be but very short, as his Ma" will more fully shew you at his coming back to London, and so I rest Your Lp's. most faithful friend and servant, G. BUCKINGHAM.

Theobalds, 19th of Jan. 1619.

"On Saturday" says Chamberlain, writing on the 3rd of February, "the Lord Chancellor was created Viscount St. Alban's, with all the

1 See Vol. V. p. 190.

2 Harl. MSS. 7006, f. 51. Original. Docketed "19 January, 1620. My Lo. Marq. to yo' Lp. touching the heads of his Ma. speech in Parliament."

ceremonies of robes and coronet, whereas the rest were only done by patent." And if the only thing to be set off against the favour was a difficulty the King found occasionally in understanding the Novum Organum '-and it is all we hear of-we need not suspect of insincerity the letter in which he expressed his grateful sense of obligation.

TO THE KING.2

May it please your Majesty,

I thank God that I number my days both in thankfulness to him, and in warning to myself. I should likewise number your Majesty's benefits, which as (to take them in all kinds) they are without number; so even in this kind of steps and degrees of advancement, they are in greater number than scarcely any other of your subjects can say. For this is now the eighth time, that your Majesty hath raised me.

You found me of the Learned Counsel, Extraordinary, without patent or fee; a kind of individuum vagum. You established me, and brought me into Ordinary. Soon after, you placed me Solicitor, where I served seven years. Then your Majesty made me your Attorney or Procurator General. Then Privy Counsellor, while I was Attorney; a kind of miracle of your favour, that had not been in many ages. Thence Keeper of your Seal; and because that was a kind of planet and not fixed, Chancellor. And when your Majesty could raise me no higher, it was your grace to illustrate me with beams of honour; first making me Baron Verulam, and now Viscount St. Alban. So this is the eighth rise or reach, a diapason in music, even a good number and accord for a close. And so I may without superstition be buried in St. Alban's habit or vestment.

Besides the number, the obligation is increased by three notes or marks. First, that they proceed from such a King; for honours from some Kings are but great chances, or counters set

1 "And yet for all these special favours the King cannot forbear sometimes in reading his last book to say that it is like the peace of God, that passeth all understanding." S.P. Vol. 119, no. 64.

2 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. p. 225. Draught in Meautys's hand. No date nor signature nor indorsement nor fly-leaf. Written perhaps on a half-sheet; for the last words are written closer to get them into the page. Camden's note of the investiture (27 January, 1621) would seem to imply that he delivered the substance of this letter in a speech at the time of the ceremony. Ille gratias Regi egit septemplices; quod ipsum primo Sollicitatorem. 2 Attornatum. 3 Consiliarium privatum. 4 Custodem sigilli. 5 Cancellarium. 6 Baronem Verulamii. 7 Vicecomitem Sti. Albani.