plausibility to sustain it. * Nor is Cecil justly charged with a peculiar disregard of public liberty. † He never sought popular applause; and popularity, I fear, is seldom won unsought, especially by a man deformed. Bacon said truly that " he was a fit man to keep things from growing worse, but no very fit man to reduce things to be much better." His official talents are on all hands allowed to have been great, and, judging from his correspondence, I should say that his literary accomplishments were not inconsiderable. He was not a hero, nor a genius; but he was a faithful, able, and incorrupt minister, a mild, placable, and amiable man §; and though assuredly not faultless in either character, he may boldly stand a comparison with most of those who have occupied his station. For a minister to make a fortune was, in those days, as much a matter of course, as it is now beyond possibility. Robert Cecil built Salisbury house in the Strand (Brayley, Londiniana, ii. 333.); his father built Burleigh house. Miss Aikin (from whose book the passages in the text are taken) has transferred to her attractive pages the foolish calumnies of Weldon, who accuses Cecil of "burning a cart-load of precedents, which spoke the subjects' liberties;" and though she admits that these and other equally ridiculous statements are "unsubstantiated," she herself accuses Cecil, without any authority given, of "detestable doctrines promulgated on the state trials," and an atrocious and shameless assertion, that "torture might justifiably be inflicted on free-born Englishmen." (i 396 397.) Letter to the King, xii. 281. In addition to what is said by his eulogists, I would cite a letter from the earl of Northumberland (Collins, ii. 338.), who says that Cecil was "unwilling to be in the star chamber, further than duty commanded, where nothing was to be pronounced but lashings and slanderings, fines and imprisonments." APPENDIX. A. Letters from Sir Robert Cecil to Michael Hicks. No. 1. Endorsed "Concerning a secret favourite." MR. HYCKS, Things past are known unto you, and the more the diffi culties were, the more contentment now to remember them, being overcome. That which is to come, I pray you to take care of, which is especially that I may not be known to have had any particular dealing in the matter, more than out of the conceit I had, that his worth justly entitled him to this fortune; for it will disable me to do him or others pleasure hereafter, by any access to her majesty's ear, which now I so used, as her majesty cannot suspect that I looked to any thing but her service; which as I profess and protest I did and do, most of any thing in all my recommendations, so do I not deny to myself that liberty, that, when other things concur, my friends are not nearest me, in my wishes and honest endeavours. The party named, and even in the instant to be elected at Wymbleton (which you know best how it was deferred), is surely a worthy man, and one of whom I ever would be loath to be mis-judged, and therefore do only take care of this; that with silence he be content to enjoy my true friendship, which will be most honourable for him, and most agreeable to my humour. I hear that divers about my L. do tell him of my furtherance in it: you can guess how it comes, but by over-hearing me at one time when it was most in danger, for otherwise more than that I cannot avoid their speeches to me. I have not discovered any particular, divided affection, more than that I knew not, whereof such a pair — any one might be elected, and no choice to be discommended. I refer all other things to yourself, and if your discretion fail me, I shall alter my faith; and so scribbling hastily, I will send it you unread over, because I know it shall be buried. The eyes of men will now be more vigilant, and their tongues more frequent in the exercise of discourse of his proceedings, in the cradle of this fortune, than it will ever be in any time after, when he hath passed over three or four months discharging the place. Your friend, Ro. CECYLL. If there be any secret cause to be dealt between us only I will have you used, but for common courtesies and ordinary occasions let him not make it a stranger, for he is honest and of good nature, but yet in all things I would make some difference. No. 2. Lansdowne MS. Vol. 87. No. 80. MR. HICKES, I am not persuaded that I shall have any leisure; if I have, you have shewed me a fair way through to your troubles. For Pyndar I have moved the Q., who is so far from giving any thing out of the purse for the present as she was angry to be moved, noting the agent for a fool that would send it by an express messenger, when so many other ways might daily be found to send it by the merchant's ships. But I will do the best I can in the other matter, which I think is good for the Q., and yet till it be known who shall be the company, the old or the new, nothing can be done. To conclude, you know I would do any thing to any man, that may be good for you, but in these things which depend on the Q., I can do no more than is in my power, which for private things is nothing. Your loving friend, Endorsed, To my very loving friend, Mr. Michael Hickes. Ro. CECYLL. No. 3. Endorsed, "He would take no advantage of his authority to punish one who had killed his deer." -Lansdowne MS., Vol. 87. No. 65. If I had known your desire yester-night, I would have spoken to my lord, but I will to-morrow, for I assure you for mine own part I never liked the courses of that matter, but th yourself. For my deer that are killed, what I can do by law I will prove; but otherwise I will revenge myself by no other means under colour of authority, being in mine own case. Your loving friend, RO. CECYLL. No. 4. - Lansdowne MS., Vol. 88. No. 41. MR. HYCKS, If I send you this to read and return, in which, if you will have me do any thing, I would be glad, as in all things else; Flynt tells me that he finds now great store of springs. he do, I will once more give as good cause [to those] that are my friends to pray for me, as the scholar of Cambridge had to pray for the mayor. If you hear any bruit that the Spaniards] are landed, do not you believe it; well it may be twenty dayes hence, but if then, few in numbers. Your loving friend, Ro. CECYLL. No. 5. Earl of Salisbury to Sir Michael Hickes; thus endorsed," Answer to my Letter touching my Servant Robert, who had stolen a Gentlewoman." (Lansdowne MS., Vol. 90. No. 69.) SIR MICHELL, Though mine eyes be at this time sore, which makes me use another hand, yet my head serves me so well, as I can judge it fitter for me to quit my love of music, which pleaseth mine ear, than to protect lewdness in this kind, where the offence is not to me, but secundum quid; but simply and originally to others, whose case may be yours and mine. To conclude, therefore, sir, I hate the fact so much to steal away any man's child, as I am sorry it is not death by the law, seeing he that cuts my purse with fourteen-pence shall be hanged. I am a master of wards; I am a counsellor of state, and in my private conscience opposite to all fraud; if now I favour him, it will both confirm in the world (as it doth in me) that he would not have offered it, but in hope of my protection to bear him out; in which I will deceive whosoever shall most believe it; and for mine own part, mean to be no broken in their bawderies. To yourself I say no more than I have said to greater persons; for your journey I can give you no other instructions than to entreat you to use no speech, as if I were any particular furtherer of these jurors or ale-projects, for I thank God I am not other than as the rest of my fellows, being rather sorry to what our necessity presseth us; next I pray you take heed you do not over-spend yourself, for this is a hard world. And so I commit you to God. Your affectionate old friend, SALISBURY. No. 6. Lansdowne MS., Vol. 107. No. 37. MR. MICHAEL, I have not leisure to answer the fruits of your idle bald pate, which hath been read by those you left together, till our bellies |