1619.] BACON'S PENSION. 13 presently drew the council then present to me, and made Mr. Attorney repeat to them the passages past, and settled it that the commission should be returnable the first day of the next term, and then publication granted, that it might (if accidents of wind and weather permit) come to hearing in the term. And upon motion in open court it was ordered accordingly.1 God ever preserve and prosper you. I pray God this great easterly wind agree well with his Majesty, Your Lordship's most obliged friend, May 6, 1619. FR. VERULAM, Canc. TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.2 My very good Lord, 3 I am much bounden to his Majesty, and likewise to your Lordship. I see by the late accesses I have had with his Majesty, and now by his royal and real favour, that he loveth me, and knowledgeth me for the servant that I am, or desire to be. This in me must turn to a great alacrity to honour and serve him with a mind less troubled and divided. And for your Lordship, my affection may and doth daily receive addition, but cannot, nor never could, receive alteration. I pray present my humble thanks to his Majesty; and I am very glad his health confirmeth; and I hope to see him this summer at Gorhambury. There is sweet air as any is. God preserve and prosper you both. I ever rest May 9, 1619. Your Lordship's most obliged friend, and faithful servant, FR. VERULAM, Canc. 1 See S. P. Dom. James I. vol. cix. no. 10, "order in the Star Chamber, refusing the application of the Earl of Suffolk for delay of his cause till Michaelmas term, on plea of time for examination of witnesses in Ireland, so many delays having already occurred; and commanding that all examinations on both sides be ready by the first day of next term." Calendar, p. 43. 2 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 105. Copy. 3 "The Lord Chancellor hath a grant lately made of 12007. a year during his life and seven or ten years after, out of the office of alienations." Chamberlain to Carleton, 4 June, 1619. "The King hath granted some days since to her [Lady Bedford] and the Marquis Hamilton a suit out of the Cursitor's office in Chancery, with 2000. a year, towards the payment of her debts; in consideration whereof the Lord Chancellor hath the 12007. a year I wrote of: because it is a collop out of his Court." Id. 19. June, 1619. My noble Lord, TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.1 I shewed your letter of thanks to his Majesty, who saith there are too many in it for so small a favour, which he holdeth too little to encourage so well a deserving servant. For myself I shall ever rejoice at the manifestation of his Majesty's favour towards you, and will contribute all that is in me to the increasing his good opinion; ever resting Your Lordship's faithful friend and servant, G. BUCKINGHAM. TO THE R. Ho: MY VERY GOOD LO, THE LO. MARQUIS BUCKINGHAM, LO: HIGH ADMIRAL OF ENGLAND, AND OF HIS M. MOST HO. PRIVY COUNCIL.2 My very good Lord, If I should use the Count de Gondomar's action, I should first lay your last letter to my mouth in token of thanks, and then to my heart in token of contentment, and then to my forehead in token of perpetual remembrance. I send now to know how his Majesty doth after his remove, and to give you account, that yesterday was a day of motions. in the Chancery; this day was a day of motions in the Starchamber (and it was my hap to clear the bar, that no man was left to move any thing, which my Lords were pleased to note they never saw before); to-morrow is a sealing day; Thursday is the funeral day ; so that I pray your Lordship to direct me whether I shall attend his Majesty Friday or Saturday. Friday hath some reliques of business, and the commissioners of treasure have appointed to meet; but to see his Majesty is to me above all. I have set down de bene esse Suffolk's cause the third sitting next term, if the wind suffer the commission of Ireland to be sped. I ever more and more rest Your Lordship's most obliged friend and faithful servant, FR. VERULAM, Canc. This xi. of May, 1619. 1 Harl. MSS. 7000. f. 71. Orig. own hand. Docketed by Meautys, "My Lo. of Buckm, to my Lo." No date. 2 Fortescue Papers. Original, own hand. The Queen's; who died on the 2nd of March. 1619.] APPOINTMENT TO ATTEND THE KING. 15 TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.1 My most honourable Lord, I acquainted his Majesty with your letter at the first opportunity after I received it, who was very well pleased with that account of your careful and speedy dispatch of businesses. And for your Lordship's coming to attend his Majesty, Saturday will be the fittest day both in regard of his M. leisure and for those remainders of business which I see do yet lie upon your Lordship. I would sooner have given your Lp. answer to your letter, but that your servant seeing me so long busy with his M. and not hoping for despatch that night he was here, went away for that time upon assurance that it should be sent after him. I will give order for the despatch of your business as soon and in what manner you will direct, and so I rest, Your Lp's faithful friend and servant, G. BUCKINGHAM. Greenwich, 13th May, 1619. Your business should have been done before this, but that I knew not whether you would have the attorney or solicitor draw it. 1 Harl. MSS. 7006, f. 134. Docketed by Meautys "13 May, 1619, my Lo. of Buck". to your Lp. touching your own business." THE next letter, though only one of compliment, serves to remind us that the summer of 1619 was a critical time for Europe; and to introduce a remarkable paper of Bacon's which has hitherto escaped notice, but which is important as indicating the policy which in this crisis he would himself apparently have recommended England to pursue. We have seen that in the beginning of March, 1616-7, he had concurred as one of the select councillors to whom the question of proceeding or not proceeding with the treaty for a marriage between the Prince of Wales and the Infanta of Spain was then referred, in a recommendation to proceed with the treaty,-as an enterprise which promised advantages either in case of success or failure. If it were carried out on fair conditions it would be a valuable alliance; if it broke, the breach would probably be upon some material point of religion, and such a breach would strengthen the Government, both with subjects at home and with the Protestant powers abroad. The resolution finally taken by the King appears to have been in accordance with that recommendation, and to have been framed cautiously, with a view to either event. Digby was appointed to negotiate a treaty upon the basis of the articles, as last agreed upon; according to which a general promise of connivance and leniency in the administration of the penal laws against the Catholics was all that Spain demanded in the way of toleration. Upon this basis he was commissioned to treat and conclude, if he found the symptoms favourable; but not otherwise: and with reservation in any case of the point of religion, on which nothing was to be finally concluded until it had been submitted to the King and expressly approved. But the concession which the Spaniards had made or 1619.] NEGOTIATION WITH SPAIN. 17 professed to make on the point of religion had already served its purpose: it had encouraged James to renew the negotiation for the marriage, and thereby detached him from an alliance with France; and they were now free to withdraw it again. When Digby arrived in Spain in September, 1617, he found them as liberal and easy as possible with regard to the marriage portion and other temporal articles; but upon the religious point they could not now be satisfied with less than an engagement to repeal the statutes relating to the Catholics. This was a different thing: and accordingly, pleading want of commission to treat upon that point, and having arranged to his satisfaction what else he had in charge, he came home. James, knowing this to be an engagement beyond his power to fulfil, declined to entertain the proposal. This was in May, 1618. And thus it would seem that the case had already occurred which the select councillors had anticipated: the negotiation was about'to break upon a material point of religion; and if their advice had again been taken at this juncture I can hardly doubt that they would have advised the King to take advantage of the occasion to break it off at once. It would certainly have been the best course to take, and would have left the Government in a better position, both at home and abroad, than it was before. But for this James was not quite prepared, and I have some reason to think that he expressly abstained from consulting the councillors on that point, as knowing what their advice would be, and hoping to be able to bring the matter into a better shape himself. But however this may be, 1 I infer this, though somewhat doubtfully, from a passage in the 'Narrative of the Spanish Treaty,' by Francisco de Jesus; edited and translated by Mr. Gardiner for the Camden Society, 1869. On the 27th of May, he says that the King asked Gondomar to have an interview with the commissioners, "in order to hear from them their approbation of the 20 articles and of the which had been added, and which Sir John Digby had brought with him from Madrid; but asking him to say nothing to them about the principal point of religion and the liberty of the Catholics, because the King wished to treat of that privately with his Catholic Majesty, and to see if they could come to an agreement" (p. 147). He adds indeed that Gondomar did not feel justified in listening to anything about the articles "without adding that the principal matter which had to be arranged and secured was the general point, since in no other manner could either his Majesty [the King of Spain] agree to the marriage, or the Pope dispense: and he therefore spoke in this manner at the meeting which took place between himself and the aforesaid commissioners; and they declared that they would on their part help to facilitate and bring about this liberty of conscience." But if any one is disposed to infer from this that they did not at that time advise the breaking off of the treaty upon that "principal point of religion," I would remind him that this was only what they said to Gondomar,-or rather what Francisco says that Gondomar told him they said;-and that if they thought it expedient for the King to take this occasion of breaking off the treaty and found him unprepared to follow their advice, it was certainly not to Gondomar that they would confide their views. It was not for them to break off the treaty. All they had to do was to give him a civil answer. VOL. VII. C |