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cometh to parliament, though not to council. I hope I deserve not to be the only outcast.

God keep you. I ever rest

Your most affectionate friend

to do you service.

I wish you a good new year.

Indorsed,

To the chancellor of the Duchy. Gor. 1625.

THE FRENCH

TO THE MARQUIS D'EFFIAT, THE

AMBASSADOR.

Mons. l'Ambassadeur, mon fils,

Vous scavez que le commencement est la moitié du fait. Voyla pourquoy je vous ay escrit ce petit mot de lettre, vous priant de vous souvenir de vostre noble promesse de me mettre en la bonne grace de nostre tres-excellente Royne, & m'en faire recevoir quelque gracieuse demonstration. Vostre Excellence prendra aussi, s'il vous plaist, quelque occasion de prescher un peu à mon avantage en l'oreille du Duc de Buckingham en general. Dieu vous ayt en sa sainete garde.

Vostre tres-affectionné

January 18, 1625.

et tres humble serviteur,

FR. ST. ALBAN.

The following letters, wanting both date and circumstances to determine such dates, are placed here together.

TO THE LORD TREASURER*.

It may please your honourable Lordship,

* From the original draught in the library of Queen's

Oxford.

I ACCOUNT myself much bound to your lordship for Coxlere. your favour shewed to Mr. Higgins upon my com- Arch. D. 2. mendations about Pawlet's wardship; the effect of which your lordship's favour, though it hath been intercepted by my lord deputy's suit, yet the signification remains and I must in all reason consent and acknowledge, that your lordship had as just and good cause to satisfy my lord deputy's request, as I did think it unlikely, that my lord would have been suitor for so mean a matter.

So this being to none other end but to give your lordship humble thanks for your intended favour, I commend your lordship to the preservation of the Divine Majesty.

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I AM to recommend to your favour one Mr. John Ashe, as to serve under you, as agent of your company whose desire how much I do affect, you may perceive if it be but in this, that myself being no further interested in you, by acquaintance or deserving, yet have intruded myself into this commendation; which, if it shall take place, I shall by so much the more find cause to take it kindly, by how much I find less cause in myself to take upon me the part of a mover or commender towards you, whom nevertheless I will not so far estrange myself from, but that in a

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• Id. ib.

general or mutual respect, incident to persons of our qualities and service, and not without particular inducements of friendship, I might, without breaking decorum, offer to you a request of this nature, the rather honouring you so much for your virtues, I would gladly take occasion to be beholden to you ; yet no more gladly than to have occasion to do you any good office. And so this being to no other end, I commend you to God's. goodness.

From my chamber at the

* From the original draught in the library

of Queen's

Oxford,

SIR,

TO MR. CAWFEILDE*.

college, I MADE full account to have seen you here this readArch. D. 2. ing, but your neither coming nor sending the interr. as you undertook, I may (a) perceive of a wonder. And you know super mirari cœperunt philosophari. The redemption of both these consisteth in the vouchsafing of your coming up now, as soon as you conveniently can; for now is the time of conference and counsel. Besides, if the course of the court be held super interrogat. judicis, then must the interr. be ready ere the commission be sealed; and if the commission proceed not forthwith, then will it be caught hold of for further delay. I will not, by way of admittance, desire you to send with all speed the interr. because I presume much of your coming, which I hold necessary; and accordingly, pro more amicitiæ, I desire you earnestly to have regard both of the matter itself, and my so conceiving. And so, &c.

Your friend particularly.

(a) Query whether perceive.

1

TO MY LORD MONTJOYE*.

My very good Lord,

From the original draught in the library

of Queen's college,

FINDING by my last going to my lodge at Twicken- Oxford,
ham, and tossing over my papers, somewhat that I Arch. D. 2.
thought might like you, I had neither leisure to per-
fect them, nor the patience to expect leisure; so de-
sirous I was to make demonstration of my honour and
love towards you, and to increase your good love to-
wards me.
And I would not have your lordship con-
ceive, though it be my manner and rule to keep state
in contemplative matters, si quis venerit nomine suo,
eum recipietis, that I think so well of the collection
as I seem to do: and yet I dare not take too much
from it, because I have chosen to dedicate it to you.
To be short, it is the honour I can do to you at this
time. And so I commend me to your love and ho-
nourable friendship.

TO KING JAMES I.

May it please your Majesty,

THINKING often, as I ought, of your majesty's virtue
and fortune, I do observe, not without admiration,
that those civil acts of sovereignty, which are of the
greatest merit, and therefore of truest glory, are by
the providence of God manifestly put into your hands,
as a chosen vessel to receive from God, and an excel-
lent instrument to work amongst men the best and
noblest things. The highest degree of sovereign ho-
nour is to be founder of a kingdom or estate; for, as
in the acts of God, the creation is more than the
conservation; and as among men, the birth-day is
accounted the chiefest of the days of life; so, to
found a kingdom is more worthy, than to augment, or
to administer the same. And this is an honour that
no man can take from your majesty, that the day of

your coming to the crown of England was as the birth-day of the kingdom intire Britain.

The next degree of sovereign honour is the plantation of a country or territory, and the reduction of a nation, from waste soil and barbarous manners, to a civil population. And in this kind also your majesty bath made a fair and prosperous beginning in your realm of Ireland.

The third eminent act of sovereignty, is to be a lawgiver, whereof he speaketh,

Pace data terris, animum ad civilia vertit

Jura suum, legesque tulit justissimus author. And another saith," Ecquid est, quod tam proprie "dici potest actum ejus, qui togatus in republica cum "potestate imperioque versatur, quam lex. Quære "acta Gracchi; leges Semproniæ proferentur: quære Syllæ, Corneliæ quid? Cneii Pompeii tertius con"sulatus in quibus actis consistit? Nempe legibus. "A Cæsare ipso si quæreres quidnam egisset in urbe "et toga; leges multas se respondeat et præclaras "tulisse."

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TO THE KING.

It may please your Majesty,

A FULL heart is like a full pen: it can hardly make any distinguished work. The more I look upon my own weakness, the more I must magnify your favours; and the more I behold your favours, the more I must consider mine own weakness. This is my hope, that God, who hath moved your heart to favour me, will write your service in my heart. Two things I may promise; for, though they be not mine own, yet they are surer than mine own, because they are God's gifts; that is, integrity and industry. And therefore, whensoever I shall make my account to you, I shall do it in these words, ecce tibi lucrifeci, and not ecce mihi lucrifeci. And for industry, I shall take to me, in this procuration, not Martha's part, to be busied in many things, but Mary's part, which is to intend your service; for the less my

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