1619.] GONDOMAR ON THE POSITION OF ENGLAND.

19

with Spain would immediately be followed by a large grant of money. In a few days a powerful fleet could be manned and equipped. On the other hand, at no time had the Spanish navy been so entirely unprepared for war. The sea would swarm with English privateers, and whoever was master at sea would soon be master on land. The Dutch rebels, the French Huguenots, and the German heretics, would place James at the head of a powerful confederacy, and it was impossible to say what injury he might not inflict upon the Catholic church and the Spanish monarchy.

"At any price, then, the friendship of James must be secured. With that, everything would be possible, even the reduction of England to the Catholic church. The marriage treaty must again be set on foot."1

Such being the opportunity of England according to the best Spanish opinions (and Gondomar was a much better judge of her position among foreign nations than of her domestic conditions, which he could never understand) it would have been strange if among her own councillors there were none who, taking the same view of the situation, were for pressing the advantage, and pursuing in the interest of England the very policy from which Gondomar in the interest of Spain had taken so much pains to divert her. Of what may have passed at the Council-table with regard to that question we have no record. The news-writers of the time were not informed, and we know little more of the matter than what we gather from the King's own letters explaining his own views. I have no evidence that the question was formally referred to the Council at this time. But this paper of Bacon's has very much the appearance of an argument prepared for a consultation either at the Board or at a meeting of the commissioners: and even if he had no opportunity of using it—which is very likely, for the King was not prone to seek advice when his own mind was made up and he wanted no help-it does not the less prove what his personal opinion was. It bas no date; but it contains an evident allusion to a circumstance which happened about the middle of March, 1618-9, and as it takes no notice of any of the great events which came so thick in the following summer and autumn, we may probably conclude that it was not written much later. There must have been many occasions to remind Bacon of the importance of the question and to make it probable that a decision upon it might at any time be required. For the proceedings of Spain had been a matter of curiosity and anxiety all that spring, and the question among the outside politicians was only whom she was preparing to attack.

"The alarm of the Spanish preparation," says Chamberlain, writing on

1 Gardiner, vol. i. p. 270.

the 30th of January, "sounds loud here at least and ministers much matter of discourse. Most men doubt they have a meaning to Ireland; the rather for that they have entertained many Scottish and Irish pilots; and that the Earl of Argyle and Tyrone's son are said to be gone for Spain. We talk of order taken for twenty ships to be made ready, half of the King's, the rest merchants, the best that can be had. Though we cannot be persuaded that he hath any intent hitherward, yet is it not good to stand to his courtesy. For my part, by all that I can gather, I should rather think he hath a mind to the Venetians; or to land his forces thereupon and go for Austria or Bohemia."

A letter from Toby Matthew to Bacon about Spanish affairs, docketed 14 February 1619-which must mean 1618-19—and written from Brussels, gives similar news, though with a different interpretation.

"In Spain there are very extraordinary preparations for a great Armada. Here is lately in this court a current speech as that the enterprise (whatsoever it should have been) is laid wholly aside; but that were strange; yet this is certain, that the forces of men (to the number of almost two thousand) which were to have gone into Spain from hence, are discharged, together with some munition, which was also upon the point of being sent. Another thing is also certain, that both in the Court of Spain and this, there is at this time a strange straitness of money; which I do not conceive, for my part, to proceed so much from want, as design to employ it. The rendezvous where the forces were to meet was at Malaga within the Straits, which makes the enterprise upon Algiers most likely to be intended. For I take that to be a wild conceit, which thinks of going by the Adriatic, per far in un viaggio duoi servitii, as the giving a blow to Venice, and the landing of forces in aid of the King of Bohemia, about Trieste.

'Perhaps the King of Spain would be glad to let the world see that now he is hors de paye, and by showing himself in some action to entitle the Duke of Lerma to all his former sloth; or perhaps he now makes a great preparation, upon the pretence of some enterprise that he will let fall, that so he may with the less noise assemble great forces some other year for some attempt not spoken of now."

Whatever his intentions had been, they were diverted by the measures taken to wait upon and meet them; and the news of the 16th of March was that "all preparations for war were certainly laid aside for the year.' 113 But the death of the Emperor Matthias

1 S.P. vol. cv. no. 69.

2 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 123. The date at the foot of the letter is torn off; but it is preserved in the docket; which is written by Meautys in Greek characters. Matthew probably dated according to the foreign practice-new style, and year commencing in January.

3 Lorkin to Puckering, March 16, 1618-9. C. and T. of James I. vol. ii. p. 146.

1619.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE ELECTOR PALATINE. 21

on the 10th opened new questions; and we have evidence that towards the end of April our relations with Spain were in some shape or other under consideration of the Council. "The last week," writes Lorkin on the 26th of April, "all such as had received letters out of Spain were by particular summonses commanded to bring the same to the Council-table, there to be perused. I cannot understand the true cause; but I conjecture it may be to discover by the several advertisements from all parts whether the King of Spain resumes again his former designs of raising forces now upon the fresh news of the Emperor's death." In the meantime the Elector Palatine was in active correspondence with his fatherin-law, and with all persons who were likely to have influence with him, hoping to engage England in the cause of the Bohemian revolution, and obtain aid of money and men, One of his projects was to get the Duke of Savoy made Emperor, and it was about this time that he sent De Plessen, one of his principal councillors, to England, in order to engage James in the support of it. It was probably by the hands of De Plessen that Bacon received a letter from him, the purport of which we do not know; but which most likely related to the same business; and though Bacon in his answer confined himself of course to general expressions of sympathy and good-will, yet as assistance to the Bohemian Protestants in any shape would necessarily lead to a breach of friendly relations with Spain, and as this was the crisis when the decision should be taken if it was to be taken at all, nothing seems more natural than that he should turn his thoughts to a serious consideration of the case, as a matter of policy, and set down a note of his conclusions. For the drawing up therefore of a short statement of the balance of forces between Great Britain and Spain I find no time more probable than this. His conclusion, it will be seen, is substantially the same as Gondomar's.

66

His reply to the Count Palatine is called a minute "meaning, I suppose, that it was written to dictation, for otherwise it would have been called a copy-and is in Meautys's hand.

TO THE COUNT PALATINE OF THE RAINE.2

Monseigneur,

Je me tiens a grand honneur, qu'il plaise à vostre altesse

1 C. & T. ii. p. 155.

2 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 107. the usual hand "13th May 1619. Count Palatine of the Rhine."

Copy by Meautys. No fly-leaf. Indorsed in The minute of a letter from your Lp. to the

de me cognoistre pour tel que je suis, ou pour le moins voudrois éstre, envers vous et vostre service: et m'estimeray heureux si par mes conseils aupres du Roy, ou autre devoir, je pourroy contribuer à vostre grandeur, dont il semble que Dieu vous a basti de belles occasions; ayant en contemplation vostre tresillustre personne, non seulement comme tres-cher allié de mon maistre, mais aussi comme le meilleur appui, apres les Roys de Grand Bretagne, de la plus saine partie de la Chrestieneté.

Je ne puis aussi passer sous silence la grande raison, que vostre Altesse fait a vostre propre honneur; en choissisant tels Conseilleurs et Ministres d'Estat, comme se montre tres-bien estre Monsieur le Baron de Dhona et Monsieur de Plessen, estants personages si graves, discretes et habiles; en quoy vostre jugement reluict aussi. Vostre Altesse de vostre grace excusera la faulte de mon language François, ayant ésté tant versé es vielles Loix de Normandie; mais le coeur supplera la plume, en priant Dieu de vous tenir en sa digne et saincte garde.

Monseigneur,

De vostre altesse le plus humble

et plus affectionné serviteur.

The paper on the comparative resources of Great Britain and Spain which I suppose to have been drawn up about this timeearlier, I should think, rather than later-is taken from a manuscript now in the British Museum, which seems formerly to have belonged to the collections used by Dr. Rawley for the 'Resuscitatio;' being in a hand in which a large portion of them is transcribed. On the cover is written, I think in the same hand, "A short view of Great Brittayne and Spayne": and below (whether in the same hand or not, I am doubtful) "by Sir Francis Bacon." Whoever inserted the name was no doubt right. The lower corner of the leaves has been damaged and worn away by damp, but the last words are supplied from other copies, of which there are two or three in existence, though none that I have met with of high enough authority to make a complete collation worth while.

A SHORT VIEW TO BE TAKEN OF GREAT BRITAIN And Spain.1

His Majesty now of England is of more power than any of his predecessors.

1 Additional MSS. 4263, no. 102 (A). Harl. MSS. 6353, f. 72, b. (H).

1619.] SHORT VIEW OF GREAT BRITAIN AND SPAIN.

23

1. Because touching our addition of dominions, Ireland is reduced into a more absolute state of obedience and increase of

revenue than heretofore. The footing we had in France was rather a greatness of trouble unto us than of strength: It was always in division: it held us in a continual flux of treasure and blood we never attempted it in front but it' attempted us in the rear; which did both distract our armies and aggravate the charge. It is a territory so separated from us by nature as we could not advance upon it either for offence or relief without the excess of difficulty and charge that a State must undergo when it runs the necessity of such an undertaking by sea, where the war was bent upon a great continent, a populous nation, a plentiful country, entire in itself, and that can be succoured without passing the seas. In these things we found such disadvantages as have been the undoing of our expeditions. Instead of the departure from this broken dominion we had in France his Majesty hath brought another whole kingdom to England; undivided from us either in amity or seat; from whence we have these benefits. The back-door that was open in the assistance of our enemies, both to offend us and to divert our attempts from them, is now open to us, and his Majesty hath the key of it. It saves us the money and the men that we were forced to employ in a second army for the withstanding the invasion of that side, and not saves us it only, but renders it to bestow in undertakings of profit which we were wont to spend upon defences of loss. We have another valiant nation to assist us, whose service in the Low country wars hath often and always given us this testimony of their affection and faithfulness even in Queen Elizabeth's time, that in every national quarrel between us and others, which hath many times happened between the French and us, they have voluntarily and bravely sided with us, making that danger common both to themselves and us which was drawn out but particularly against the English. The joining of Scotland hath made us an entire island, which by nature is the best fortification and the most capable of all the advantages of strength that can by art be added unto, nature; whereby we may be able at one and the same time both to undertake any action abroad and defend ourselves at home without either much danger or great cost.

1 that in both MSS.