1619-20.] LETTER OF ADVICE ABOUT THE TREASURY. 83 TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.' My honourable Lord, Understanding that there hath been a long and tedious suit depending in the chancery between Robert D'Oyley and his wife, plaintiffs, and Leonard Loveis, defendant; which cause hath been heretofore ended by award, but is now revived again, and was in Michaelmas term last fully heard before your Lordship; at which hearing your Lordship did not give your opinion thereof, but were pleased to defer it, until breviats were delivered in on both sides, which as I am informed hath been done accordingly now my desire unto your Lordship is, that you will be pleased to take some time as speedily as your Lordship may, to give your opinion thereof, and so make a final end, as your Lordship shall find the same in equity to deserve. For which I will ever rest Your Lordship's faithful friend and servant, Windsor, 18 of May 1620. 3. Among the undated letters in Stephens's catalogue, there is one which is described as "a long letter about setting the Treasury to rights and making a Lord Treasurer;" and beginning with the words, 'Your Ma. having bound me.' I suppose therefore that there was such a letter among the papers sent to Tenison in December, 1682, of which the greater number were finally deposited in the Lambeth library, where they still remain. Some however appear to have been separated from the rest, and either to have been lost or to have found their way into other collections; and this is one of them. I could find no paper at Lambeth answering the description, but there is one in the British Museum which answers it exactly; and being transcribed in the hand of Edward Sherburn, belonged most probably to some collection of Bacon's own papers. At any rate it is plainly his composition. It is a fair transcript as far as it goes, but it seems to break off in the middle, and has neither heading nor docket to fix the date. It must however have been written before the 7th of October, 1620, and probably some time before, because in recalling it then to the King's attention he refers to it as his "former counsel." And on the other hand it must have been written after the 19th of July, 1618, when the Earl of Suffolk was removed from the Treasurership; and certainly a considerable time after; because the many matters enumerated in it as having been already dealt with by the commissioners must have taken a long time 1 Harl. MSS. 7000. Orig. Docketed, "18 May, My Lo. Marq" to your Lp. desiring to make an end between Doyley and Lovace." to get through. That the King had "of late sprinkled them with some new commissioners" is a fact from which the probable date may perhaps be brought within narrower limits; but in the meantime we cannot, I think, be far wrong in placing it here. The balance in the King's favour upon the year's accounts, which Bacon had reported twelve months before, had not been sufficient to meet the extraordinary expenditure, and "the King's state"-that is the state of the Exchequer-was still the great difficulty of the government. The "ancient and honourable," and in Bacon's opinion the only adequate, remedy (which was by Parliament,—and which upon his recommendation, or at least in accordance with it, was, in spite of previous failures, on the point of being tried once more in the autumn of 1615) had been postponed by causes which he would himself probably have considered sufficient. For I think that neither during the popular excitement about the murder of Overbury, nor while the King was bent upon arranging a marriage between his son and the Spanish Infanta, nor while Sir Walter Ralegh's proceedings were under enquiry and his execution fresh in memory, nor while the Bohemian Protestants were in insurrection and the King was unprepared to take up arms in their support, could he honestly have encouraged him to hope for help from the House of Commons. From the summer of 1615 therefore to the summer of 1620, it was only by the improvement and husbandry of the ordinary resources of the Crown that the King could be got out of debt. And in this way a great deal was done. At the death of Salisbury in 1612 the Crown was 500,000l. in debt, and the ordinary annual revenue fell short of the ordinary annual expenditure by 160,000l. At the beginning of 1617, about the time when Bacon received the seals, the ordinary revenue and expenditure had been brought nearly to an equality, the receipts a little exceeding the expenses, but not much. What the debt then amounted to I have not been able to ascertain; but it was found necessary about the same time to borrow another 100,000l. In the following November a vigorous effort was made, as we have seen, to retrench the expenses of the household; and in July, 1618, when upon the removal of the Earl of Suffolk the treasurership was put in commission, a general reform in the management of the department was begun, and carried on with no inconsiderable success. The next year I find from a statement in Sir Henry Yelverton's handwriting that the ordinary revenue exceeded the ordinary expenditure by 47,000l.; the debt being then 800,000l. In January, 1619-20, the excess of the receipts over the 1 Feb. 1619-20 (?) See Bacon's letter of the 10th, p. 77, "I would his M. had rested upon the first names. For the additionals, specially the Exchequer man," etc. 1619-20.] MEANS OF RECTIFYING THE KING'S ESTATE. 85 issues had risen to 61,5557., all of which was free to be employed for the discharge of pressing extraordinaries. On the 25th of March following, the debt was only 711,0267. And on the 29th of September it had been further reduced (if I understand the record right) to 611,5257.1 But though things were really improving, they were not improving nearly so fast as the case required, nor quite so fast (in Bacon's opinion) as the case admitted. And it must apparently have been some time between the two dates last mentioned-the 25th of March and the 29th of September, 1620-that he addressed to the King the letter which comes next. TO THE KING.2 It may please your Majesty, Your Majesty having bound me both by your benefits and by your trust, which is no less obligation than the other, to have care of your estate,-in most things prosperous, but in that which is equivalent to most things defective,-will be pleased I know not only to accept of the tribute of my poor intentions, but also to pardon and allow me to acquit myself with that liberty which the good of your service requires. And as my duty bindeth me to use liberty in respect of all others; considering it should be a poorness in me, your Majesty having set so few on my right hand, to fear who stands on my left; so your grace and wisdom will give me leave to use it even towards yourself; seeing it proceedeth from a heart which you know is full of reverence and admiration towards you, and from one that useth not to urge his counsels to engage his master, but as a servant should, subjecting free counsel to the free will and pleasure of your Majesty, who determines the choice. That which must help your Majesty's estate must be matter, order, and removing of impediments; and because the first two I know will rather be a troubling of the waters than any great fishing, except the third be first looked into, it is that wherewith I will begin. First, I am of opinion (with due submission be it spoken) that considering to what pass your Majesty's estate is now come, it is not a Commission of Treasury that can help it, but that your Majesty is to make choice of an officer, as heretofore it hath been. 2 S. P. Dom. 29 Sept. 1620. Harl MSS. 3787, f. 187. Fair copy in E. Sherburn's hand. Docketed in another hand, "To his Majesty concerning his present estate and the means to rectify it." It is true, and I will be bold to speak it, that the Commission hath done you good service, and hath kept things from precipitating; and although all things wax old, yet I think we do rather increase in skill than slacken in care; and your Majesty of late hath sprinkled us with some new commissioners: nay this I persuade myself, that we shall be able to set the clock and to make more perfect instructions for a Lord Treasurer and an Exchequer, as well for guiding them as for refraining them, than ever were heretofore. But yet I humbly pray your Majesty, with a settled consideration and exciting your own wisdom, to behold the reasons which I shall set before you concerning this counsel; and let not the regard of persons be the principal, but of the nature of your affairs and the times. I for my part may truly say that in this I do not consult with flesh and blood; for neither do I seek in it my own ease, as one that, God is my witness, measureth not my life by years and days, but by services and doing good as much as in me lieth; neither have I any special aim for the bringing in of any man otherwise than in lumine puro et sicco, who shall bear in his forehead the best character of fitness for your service. My first reason is, that the Commission is tardum auxilium, specially in so great declination of your means as rather needeth sudden shoring up and reparation than models of new re-edifying ; and again for that the disease eats out the remedies if they be not speedy; neither hath this been any fault in your commissioners; but it is not possible that a body of many should meet in time, meet in place, meet in mind, answerable to the assiduous care, constant pursuit, and peremptory commandment of one man. I may remember that when the Impositions were set by my Lord of Salisbury, which amounted to between threescore or fourscore thousand pounds per annum, although it were an immature counsel and cause of much mischief following, yet comparing it in that for which I bring it, which is the point of time, it was the work of one morning; whereas when I consider what time hath been spent by us (and yet no time lost) about settling the pretermitted duties, about the bargaining for tobacco, about the discharge of unnecessary officers of revenue of land, about the like concerning the revenue at the ports, about the revenue of recusants, about the settling of the alienations (which nevertheless was the speediest), about the Mint, about looking 1619-20.] REASONS FOR APPOINTING A LORD TREASURER. 87 into defalcations, about the bringing in of your debts (which had a pretty current at the first), about the waterworks, about the allum, about the casualties, about letting of copses that lie out of parks, about the coals, about keeping the forest of Deane from spoil, and many other branches, whereof some are settled at last, and some are in way, and some are in no way; and then weigh with myself in what time these things mought have been done by an officer of understanding and authority with his ministerial assistants, and what your Majesty might have gained both to purse and to forwardness to a general settlement, if they had been done in such time; I must think that there hath been great loss in the inning of your Majesty's harvest, whereof I see no cause, except it should stay for fouler weather. A second reason is, that the Commission wants the high prerogative of kings' affairs, which is Secrecy; wherein first your Majesty will easily believe that the very divulging and noising of your wants (begun first by the Earl of Salisbury upon art, and since continued upon a kind of necessity in respect of a commission to many) is no small prejudice to your estate both at home and abroad. But that is not it only; but how many directions are there concerning this harsh business of getting treasure, that are fitter to be given by your Majesty in private to a Lord Treasurer than communicated? nay fitter to be done by him ex officio than as by direction? And again how many things are there in execution fitter by him to be done de facto et sine strepitu, than by a Commission where they must be debated and conceived into an order? Lastly, how many things would men pragmatical and of industry be encouraged to put into the ear of a Lord Treasurer, which they are fearful to bring into the dispute of a Commission, as making account that when they bring it but to one man they can be but rejected, where they bring it to many they shall be noted? And although most of those things be naught, yet it is not good (specially as your Majesty's estate is) to scare away informations. The third reason is, that your Majesty's estate requires in point of treasure not only fidelity and judgment, but invention and stirring and assiduity and pursuit, with edifying one thing upon another; all which cannot possibly be done by a Commission where the care lies not principally upon one or two men. And somewhat it is also, that an officer is more answerable to your |