fcribes always, your majesty's most humble flave and dog, Steiny.

"Not to blot these papers with the bawdy that is in "fome of thefe letters of king James, 1 fhall only ob"serve, that such was the familiarity and friendship "between him and Buckingham, that in one of them he

tells Buckingham, he wears Steiny's pilure under his "waistcoat, next his heart; and in another, he bids "him, his only fweet and dear child, haften to him to Birely that night, that his white teeth might shine upon "him. But the reader may better judge of the reft of "king James's familiar letters to the duke of Bucking"ham, by the following fhort one, which runs thus verbatim, and is without date.

' My only fweet and dear child,

"Bleffing, bleffing, bleffing on thy heart's roots, and "all thine, this Thursday morning. Here is great ftore "of game as they fay, partridges and ftoncorleurs: I "know who shall get their part of them; and here is "the finest company of young hounds that ever was "feen. God bless the fweet mafter of my harriers, "that made them to be fo well kept all fummer; I "mean Tom Badger. I affure myself thou wilt punc"tually obferve the dyet and journey I fet thee down in my first letter from Theobald's. God bless thee, and my fweet Kate, and Mall, to the comfort of thy

❝ dear Dad,

"JAMES R.

"P. S. Let my laft compliment fettle to thy heart, till we have a sweet and comfortable meeting, which "God fend, and give thee grace to bid the drogues adieu this day.

"Now the reafon why James gave Buckingham the (4) Com"name of Steiny, was for his handsomeness, it being pleat hiftory the diminutive of St. Stephen, who is always painted vol. II. p. of England, with a glory about his face (k)."

697. Folio. Lond. 1706.

P. 172.

mon conversation (11); and stuck not, on occafion,

I have now given my authorities for the affertion in the text, the inference I leave to the reader, being unwilling to fay more on a fubject fo difagreeable to the ears of the chafte and virtuous. I have added nothing, nor fuppreffed any thing; and therefore, as a meer relator, am liable, I think, to no cenfure. Had I met with any thing favourable to fames in this matter, I would have declared it with great pleafure; but I cannot allow myself to invent, in order to vindicate.

(11) He used curfing and fwearing.] Here follow my proofs. "He would make a great deal too bold "with God in his paffion, both in curfing and fwear"ing, and one ftrain higher, verging on blafphemy;

but would in his better temper fay, he hoped God "would not impute them as fins, and lay them to his (a) Weldon," charge, feeing they proceeded from paffion. (a).” An excellent reafon this! and an admirable excuse for an acknowledged crime. James, weak as he was, would have seen the folly of this plea in others, and would have cenfured them for making use of it. But any thing will ferve for an excufe to thofe who chufe to do as they have been accustomed, and will not be at the pains to reform. That James was a fwearer, appears from Lord Clarendon, who fays "he renounced "with many oaths the having communicated the prince's (8) Claren journey into Spain (b)." Oaths are highly indecent in princes they are greatly impolitic alfo, as leffening the regard which ought to be payed unto them in courts of judicature, and leading thereby to perjury. Princes therefore fhould fhew the greatest reverence to oaths, in order thereby to keep up their facredness, and fecure the truth and fidelity of their fubjects. Those of them who will not thus behave, pay generally very dear for their liberty; for their fervants and fubjects taking example by them, run into the fame excefs, whereby they receive the greatest damage. So that intereft alone, if

don, Vol. I.

P. 16,

well

occafion, to utter the most bitter imprecations (KK) on himself, and on his pofterity,

And

well understood and confidered, will engage those who bear rule, to fet before men good examples, and abstain from the appearance of evil; and fuch of them as are not induced hereunto by a fense of it, have no great reason to boast of their understanding.

(KK) He stuck not to utter the most bitter impreca- ` tions on himself, and on his pofterity.] When the trial of the murtherers of Sir Thomas Overbury was going forwards, the king went from Whitehall to Theobald's, and fo to Royston, and having fent for all the judges, he kneeled down in the midst of his lords and fervants, and used these words to the judges. " "My lords, I charge you, as you will answer it at that great and dreadful

66

σε

day of judgment, that you examine it [the poisoning "of Overbury] ftrictly without favour, affection, or partiality; and if you spare any guilty of this crime, "God's curfe light upon you and your pofterity; and "if I fpare any that are found guilty, God's curfe "light on me and my pofterity for ever (a)." And in (a) Weldon the second year of his reign" feveral lords having de- P. 93. "clared in the flar-chamber, that fome of the puri-.. ritans had raised a falfe rumour of the king, how he "intended to grant a toleration to papifts; the lords feverally declared, how the king was difcontented "with the faid false rumour, and had made but the "day before a proteftation unto them, that he never "intended it, and that he would spend the last drop of "his blood before he would do it; and prayed, that "before of his iffue fhould maintain any other religion than what he truly profeffed and maintained, that "God would take them out of the world (b)." Thefe (6) Croke's are deep and horrible imprecations, and enough to make reports, part 2. p. 38. a man tremble to think on the profaneness of the mouth Lond. 1683. that could utter them; especially when it is known Folio. (that notwithstanding there were fo many witneffes to thefe

any

(c) Ecelef.

Vo Za

(Bacon's

effay on

Atheism.

And yet notwithstanding, upon times, he gave himself great airs of religion (LL), and talked

thefe his words) he spared Somerset and his lady, the principal actors in Overbury's tragedy; and that he not only intended, but did grant a toleration to papists, as will be fhewn hereafter. How far his imprecations have affected his pofterity, is not, I think, for man to fay. But, without breach of charity, we may affert, that James was very rafh and inconfiderate, and guilty of a great fault in calling down the judgments of heaven thus on himself and his family. Tis good advice which the wife man gives, and which was worthy of the regard of this British Solomon, in the following words, "Be not rash with my mouth, and let not thy "heart be hafty to utter any thing before God; for "God is in heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore "let thy words be few (c)." A fenfe of the omniprefence, power, wifdom, and majefty of the fuperintending mind, would have reftrained fames from these rash and horrible withes; but he feems to have had little notion of any of these things, but rather to have been one of thofe who deal in holy things without any feeling Thefe, in lord Bacon's opinion, are "the great atheifts, who muft, fays he, be needs cauterized in "the end (d)." Deplorable ftate! difmal condition! happy thofe, who, by an uniform courfe of virtuous actions, can look on the almighty being as their friend! who are careful at all times to do what they themselves think right, and agreeable to him: the religion of such is real, and their happiness, certain.

(LL) He gave himself airs of religion, &c.] Here follows a paffage from Sully, tending to verify the text. "James asked me, fays he, whether I went to the "proteftant church in London? upon my replying that "I did, then, faid he, you are not refolved, as I have "been informed, to quit our religion, after the ex

ample of Sancy, who thought thereby to make his

"fortune,

talked after fuch a manner, as to lead thofe

66

who

"fortune, but, by God's permiffion, did juft the con"trary. I treated this report as a calumny, and faid, "that my living in France in friendship with fo many "ecclefiafticks, and being fo frequently vifited by the pope's nuncio, might, perhaps, have given rife to it. "Do you give the pope the title of holinefs? faid James. I replied, that, to conform to the cuftom "eftablished in France, I did. He was then for prov❝ing to me, that this cuftom was an offence against "God, to whom alone this title could juftly belong. I "replied, that I fuppofed a greater crime was not here"by committed, than by fo frequently giving to prin"ces fuch titles as they were well known not to de"ferve (a)." Let us add the following memorandum (4) Sully's of the illuftrious archbishop Usher to Sully, and we fhall memoirs, need nothing more to convince us of the folemn airs of Vol. II. p. religion James, at fome times, could put on.

"I was

appointed by the lower houfe of parliament, to preach "at St. Margaret's, Weftminster, Feb. 7, 1620. Feb. <6 13, being Shrove Tuesday, I dined at court, and be"twixt four and five kiffed the king's hand, and had "conference with him touching my fermon. He said, "I had charge of an unruly flock to look unto the next Sun"day. He asked me how I thought it could stand with "true divinity, that so many hundred fhould be tied (up"on fo fhort warning) to receive the communion upon "a day, all could not be in charity, after fo late con"tentions in the houfe: many muft needs come with"out preparation, and eat their own condemnation : "that himself required all his whole houfhold to receive "the communion, but not all the fame day, unless at

Eafter, when the whole Lent was a time of prepa"ration. He bad me to tell them, I hoped they were "all prepared, but wifhed they might be better; to exhort them to unity and concord; to love God "first, and then their prince and country; to look to "the urgent neceflities of the times, and the miferable

• ftate

33.