315 His Doubts and Fears; acts in Yorkshire in the Prince's William and Mary King and Queen; Danby Lord Presi- dent and Marquis of Carmarthen; his Discontents Second Session of Convention Parliament LIVES OF EMINENT BRITISH STATESMEN. ROBERT CECIL, EARL OF SALISBURY. 1563-1612 THE first volume of "British Statesmen" concluded with the "advices" which the great lord Burleigh gave, to his second son for his conduct in life. It is seldom that the object of these paternal instructions, of which we have many examples in the history of eminent men, himself attains that eminence which tempts the historian to enquire whether the advice has been followed. The cases are still more rare in which the son of a great minister has succeeded him in the conduct of public affairs. Perhaps, where political talents have been hereditary, they have, in the greater number of instances, descended, as in the present case, to a younger son; but I know of no instance, except that of the Cecils, in which the succession to office and power has been immediate. This peculiarity would perhaps of itself call for some account of the life of Robert Cecil; but there are other grounds for continuing the history of this favoured family. The elder Cecil was the minister of a monarch whose reign has at all times been reckoned among the most glorious in our history; it was the lot of the younger, during the principal part of his administration, to serve a king, to whose name and policy it has been a habit to impute every sort of meanness and degradation; and although there was in many particulars a resemblance between the father and the son, the one is universally classed among the greatest of our statesmen, while the other has hardly kept his rank among the ablest of our politicians. There is, perhaps, some reason to doubt whether the popular judgment has been strictly accurate in its comparative estimate, either of the princes or of their ministers. Robert Cecil was born on the 1st of June, 1563.* While an infant, he was injured by a fall from his nurse's arms, and was always small in stature, and feeble in constitution. His early education was conducted in his father's house under a zealous and excellent tutor. He went, at the age of sixteen §, to St. John's College in Cambridge, where he took the degree of M. A. Of his proficiency nothing is known: it is probable that if he had not paid some attention to mathematics, his father would not have addressed to him his observations upon the suggestions of the astronomer Dee, for the amendment of the calendar; upon which Robert himself also made notes, which Strype has preserved.|| It may perhaps be taken as a symptom of the acquiescent and unmoving character of the Cecil policy, that neither father nor son did any thing towards correcting the error in computation, of which they were both aware. Indeed, as almost two centuries elapsed before the calendar was reformed in England, this remark might be extended to the English nation. Inscription on a monument in Westminster Abbey. Strype's Annals, iv. 473. +Sir Theodore Mayerne's medical account of him in Ellis's Letters on English History, 1st series, iii. 246. Lives, I. 347. Life and Death of Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, 4to. 1612. It was probably at this period that Robert visited Italy, a fact which is collected from a letter in which Francis Bacon congratulates him on his success in acquiring the Italian language. His public life commenced in 1586, when he was returned to parliament for Westminster.† But his first introduction to political service was in the branch of diplomacy. It is said that he accompanied the earl of Derby, when he carried the order of the garter to Henry III. of France, in the year 1585; but he was attached to the more important mission upon which that nobleman was employed in 1587 §, when, together with lord Cobham, sir John Crofts (comptroller of the queen's household), and doctors Dale and Rogers ¶, he was sent to negotiate in Flanders with the prince of Parma. I have seen few of Cecil's letters prior to this time; and those which I have are illustrative rather of the manners of the times than of our peculiar subject. In one, we hear of the transition of the well-known sir Christopher Hatton, from the condition of a dancing favourite, to that of keeper of the royal conscience. "Sir Christopher Hatton," Robert Cecil informs his father, “has left off his hat and feather, and now wears a flat velvet cap, not different from your lordship's.' This letter begins, "May it please your lordship tt,” a style very different from that now in use between father and son. Another letter, not quite intelligible to me, at least shews that the hour, though not the designation, of the sociable meal was the same in the days of queen Elizabeth as in those of Victoria. "For your doublet I have not yet spoken with my tenants, but I mean to * Works by Montagu, xiii. 49. +27th Elizabeth. He was again elected for Westminster in 28th Elizabeth; and for Herts 31st, S5th, 39th, and 43rd. Willis's Notitiæ Parl. iii. 103. 112. 121. 130. 140. 149. Henry, fourth earl of Derby, died in September, 1592. William Brooke, seventh lord Cobham. Camden in Kennet, iii. 544. See lord Burleigh's Cap in Lodge's Portr. iv. April 30. 1587. Murdin, p. 588. |