unless it were for the king, for he parted voluntarily with a great benefit, to enlarge the king's revenue.

He had the most safe policy in him that can be in an eminent subject, for he did not affect popularity.

And therein he was as faithful to the state as to his own ends; for popular love belongs only to majesty.

He was the best president of a public ministry that a king can propose to be followed, for he carried his counsels of moderation, like the king's thoughts, so reservedly to him, that every effect of graciousness was, as it always ought to be, attributed to sovereignty, and those of justice so openly, that severity was accounted his own; whereby, the people, understanding him only in what they love not to feel,

grew to be a cause of their malice to him; yet he lost not the reputation they owed him; for when any change happened in the body or head of the state, subject to the confusion of advice by the uncertainty of issue, they distrusted their own affections, and believed in his judgment, putting themselves into his file, and following with such a suddenness and such a necessity (as it were) of resolution, as if they had been born to say, This man doth not err; so powerful is the wisdom of a counsellor that makes it one of his grounds to hold the love or hate of the people vain, for which they can give no reason. And their opinion of his understanding took great pity of their own ignorance, for it was a study of his providence to suppose every point of state into all the dangers and exigents it might be necessarily induced, and carried an appointment ever about him to serve the success.

To know him is as much as need be required to exemplify a statesman into sufficiency; for it was the fortune of his employments to have an honourable practice in affairs of all kinds that can be accident to a state, but only a civil war, wherein his judgment was the more worthy, for he prevented it. He affected so much the act of worth above the name, that I dare persuade myself some advices which, in private, were his wisdom, have come forth another man's.

He never wrote down an injury done him in red ink; the arms he wore were only defensive, which (nevertheless), might happen to do hurt, when they did no wrong; for no guard

can be maintained without offending, if it be violently intruded upon. He did favours to many, and received favours but of one, besides his parents; for he was beholden to no other subject for his advancement. He depended on majesty without the mediation of any second greatness, which is an honour the most noble to a man's self, and the surest to his king. He was the enjoyer of one happiness that all men naturally seek to retire into, but seldom opens to any, and the most uneasily to a statesman; he met with the conversation of a man whom he durst belovingly call his private friend.

His own plenty could not make him insensible of other mens' wants; for, in times of dearth, he sent his officers into markets, to give dearly to the seller, and to sell cheaply to the buyer.

He was a profitable master to every one of his servants that did not abuse his bounty. His religious faith is set down in his Testament as well as any holy knowledge can deliver it, and he that will not believe the word of a dying man in perfect strength of mind, deserves not to be carried with credit to the grave.

His making ready to die, was the greatest blessing of his life to him, for he never went to bed without cares till then, but had alarms every where to wake him, save in his conscience; when death came to be his business he was in

peace, and so died. He that shall succeed him in his place, may be ambitious to follow him in his way, for the honour of this transcended the dignity of the other; all the discouragement he can meet with in his passage, will be through their constructions, whose breasts are too narrow to entertain so spreading a merit; yet that should be no strong impediment, because (for aught I hear), it hath not pleased God to give any of his detractors the wit to express themselves well against him.

GVIL. TOURNneur.

D.

The State and Dignity of a Secretarie of Estates Place, with the Care and Peril thereof, written by the Right Honourable Robert, late Earl of Salisbury; with his excellent Instructions to the Earl of Bedford for the Government of Warwick; Work worthy of Memory.

(London, printed in the yeare 1642. *)

* ALL officers and councillors of princes have a prescribed authority by patent, by custom, or by oath, the secretary only excepted; but to the secretary, out of a confidence and singular affection, there is a liberty to negotiate at discretion, at home and abroad, with friends and enemies, in all matters of speech and intelligence. All servants of princes deal upon strong and wary authority, and warrant of disbursement as treasurers, in conference with enemies as general, in commissions, in executing offices by patent and instructions, and so in whatever else; only a secretary hath no warrant or commission, no, not in matters of his own greatest particulars, but the virtue and word of his sovereign. For such is the multiplicity of actions and variable motives and intents of foreign princes, and their daily practices, and in so many parts and places, as secretaries can never have any commission so long and universal as to secure them. So, as a secretary must either conceive the very thought of a king, which is only proper to God, or a king must exercise the painful office of a secretary, (which is contrary to majesty and liberty), or else a prince must make choice of such a servant of such a prince, as the prince's assurance must be his confidence; the secretary and the secretary's life, his trust in the prince. To deal now with a prince tanquam infra futurum, cannot be a rule for a secretary; for all that he hath to trust to, is quite contrary, which is, that his prince will be semper idem.

-

All strange princes hate secretaries, all aspirers, all con

I found this in a vol. in the Museum, lettered" Tracts, 773."

spirers, because they either kill these monsters in their cradles, or else track them out where no man else can discern the print of their footing.

Furthermore, this is manifest that all men of war will malign them, except they will be at their desires.

Their fellow-councillors envy them, because they have most easy and free access to princes; and wheresoever a prince hath cause to delay or deny to search or punish, none so soon bear so much burthen.

Kings are advised to observe these things in a secretary: First, that he be created by himself, or of his own raising; secondly, that he match not in a factious family; and lastly, that he have reasonable capacity and convenient ability.

On the other side, the place of a secretary is dreadful if he serve not a constant prince; for he that liveth by trust, must serve truly; so he that lives at mercy, ought to be careful in the choice of his master, that he be just, and de bonâ naturâ.

But for those of poorest quality, who have no other existence, nor can ever look for equal blessedness, them the jealousy of a prince hath never beheld suspect, but mere. contempt.

As long as any matter, of what weight soever, is handled only between the prince and the secretary, their counsels are compared to the mutual affections of two lovers, undiscovered to their friends; when it cometh to be disputed in council, it is like the conference of parents, and solemnization of marriage; the first matter, the second order; and indeed the one the act, the other the publication. If there be then a secretary whose state can witness that he counselleth not for profit, and if his careful life and death shall record it that love is his object; - if he deal less with other mens' suits, whereby secretaries gain, than ever any did; if he prefer his majesty and despise his own; if such a one should find that his life could not warrant him, no, not against the slanders of those

only them, surely that secre

wicked ones, when he must use tary must resolve that the first day of his entry is the first, day of his misery; for if he be not worthy of trust, he is less worthy of life; and a suspicion of a secretary is both a trial and condemnation, and a judgment.

198

THOMAS OSBORNE,

EARL OF DANBY AND DUKE OF LEEDS.

1631-1712.

THE statesman whose life I now propose to narrate, filled the highest posts, and was concerned in the greatest events, during two reigns and a revolution: he exercised great power; and, if not the leader of a numerous party, was certainly led by no other man.

Thomas Osborne, who became successively earl of Danby and duke of Leeds, was the eldest son of sir Edward Osborne, a baronet of Yorkshire, whose grandfather laid, in the reign of Elizabeth, the foundation of greatness, by an act of bravery and humanity. He was an apprentice to sir William Hewit, one of the most considerable merchants in London, and possessed of an estate of 6,000l. a year. Anne, the only child of the citizen, was accidentally dropped by her nurse from the window of his house on London bridge. Young Osborne jumped into the river, brought the child safe out, and afterwards, according to the laws of romance, married her, came into possession of estates in Yorkshire and Essex, and probably of a round sum in ready money; and ultimately became sheriff * and lord mayor † of London, a knight, and one of the city members.

Sir Edward Osborne was a royalist, and a follower of Strafford. His wife was Anne, widow of Thomas Middleton, of Yorkshire, esquire, and daughter of Thomas Walmsley, of Dunkealch in Lancashire. She was heiress, through her mother, of the ancient family of Neville, lord Latimer.§

* 1575.

+ 1582.

1585. He died in 1591.

Collins's Peerage, i. 255.