of that struggle, few things are more remarkable than the manner in which the vices of the men in power became conducive to the success of the Reformation. Their cupidity stood in that place which, during the late reign, had been occupied by the tyrannical disposition of the monarch. He promoted the Reformation to secure the gratification of his inclinations; they to acquire a share in the plunder; whilst, in both instances, better men aided in the work, in the full belief that light would produce light; and that truth once sent forth, though it might wander abroad for many days, would sooner or later return, and bear the olivebranch along with her.

The cupidity of the Protector and his party made its appearance at the very moment of their accession to power. The will of Henry VIII. contained a direction, that all such gifts as it should appear to his executors that he had promised, ' in any 'manner wise,' should be perfected after his death. Acting upon this conscientious direction, the scrupulous executors called before them three witnesses, who deposed to certain intentions of the King to confer various titles and grants of lands upon the principal executors themselves, upon the witnesses, and upon some few other persons. This determined them. Both out of conscience to the King's will, and for their own honour,' they proceeded to fulfill the pious intentions of their late master, and their duty to his successor, by parcelling out the royal domains amongst themselves. The following letter, which Mr Tytler informs us is one of many of a similar kind, written about the same time by the same nobleman, who was afterwards Duke of Northumberland, explains the nature of the first business transacted by these conscientious guardians. It is addressed by the Earl of Warwick to Paget, and was written in March 1547:

Master Secretary-Perchance some folks will allege considerations concerning the not assignment of the Lordship of Warwick, saying it is a stately castle, and a goodly park, and a great royalty. To that it may be answered-the castle of itself is not able to lodge a good baron with his train; for all the one side of the said castle, with also the dongeon tower, is clearly ruinated and down to the ground; and that of late the King's Majesty that dead is, hath sold all the chief and principal manors that belonged unto the said earldom and castle; so that at this present there is no lands belonging unto it, but the rents of certain houses in the town, and certain meadows, with the park of Wegenock. Of the which castle, with the park, and also of the town, I am constable, high steward, and master of the game, with also the herbage of the park, during my life; and because of the name I am the more desirous to have the thing; and also I come of one of the daughters and heirs of the right and not defiled line.

"I will rebate part of my fees in my portion, to have the same castle,

meadows, and park; wherein I pray you to show me your friendship, to move the rest of my lords to this effect; and further to be friendly to Mr Denny, according to his desire, for the site and remains of Waltham, with certain other farms adjoining unto Jeston; wherein, as for the site of Waltham, I suppose it shall grow to a commonwealth to the country thereabouts to let him have it.

And in case that they will not condescend to me for the lordship of Warwick, as is aforesaid, I pray you then let me have Tunbridge and Penshurst, that was the Buckingham's lands in Kent, as parcel of my portion, with also Hawlden, that was my own; and whether I have the one or the other, let Canonbury be our portion.

The Master of the Horse would gladly, as I do perceive by him, have the Lordship in Sussex that was the Lord Laware's, which, in my opinion, were better bestowed upon him, or some such as would keep it up, and serve the king in the country in maintaining of household, than to let it fall to ruin as it doth, with divers other like houses; being a great pity, and loss it will be at length to the king and realme.'-Tyller, i. 28.

But Warwick, Tunbridge, Penshurst, Lord Delaware's lordship in Sussex, and all the other disposable properties, were not enough-the Crown was not rich enough-to satisfy these disinterested men. Henry, according to the testimony of the witnesses, had in view, when making these 'promises,' the princely estates of the Howards, but that source had failed; his prodigality, like sandy ground,' had 'suddenly sucked up the large shower of Abbey lands.' Of all the former confiscations nothing was available but the precedent; and that was determined to be applied to the lands of those superstitious endowments termed Chantries. The lands of chantries attached to the dissolved monasteries were given to the Crown by Henry VIII.'s last Parliament, to defray the expenses of the recent wars with France and Scotland. Now the incomes of all the remaining chantries, the number of which was very great-for there was not a parish-church of any note throughout England that had not some of them attached to it, and many had four, five, or more-St Paul's had forty-seven-were poured into the Treasury; and to swell the amount still higher, guilds, hospitals, free chapels and colleges, with the exception of those in Oxford and Cambridge, were added to the parliamentary grant. The act was put forth with the professed design of converting the confiscated property to the erection of grammar-schools, the augmentation of the universities, and the better provision of the poor. In their own private consultations the council treated it simply as a means of increasing the royal revenue ;* and no sooner

*Harl, MS. 6195, fo. 6,

was the act passed, than grammar-schools, universities, the poor, and the royal revenue were all forgotten, and the proceeds parcelled out amongst the council and their adherents. · The King 'bore the blame,' exclaimed an indignant preacher, in 1550, the 'poor felt the lack, and all the world saw that the act made for 'maintenance of learning and relief of the poor, had served some men as a fit instrument to rob learning and spoil the poor.'

But even chantry lands, although pleasant morsels, especially when lying contiguous to other properties already obtained, were of themselves quite inadequate to satisfy the cravings of the royal executors. The following characteristical conversation between the boisterous Seymour of Sudeley, the Lord Admiral, and one of his retainers, gives an apt illustration of the eagerness with which they availed themselves of any opportunity of proceeding more vigorously towards the satisfaction of 'the promises' of their deceased master.

• He (the Lord Admiral) was in a great heat, and, amongst many other things, said, " By God's precious soul! my lord my brother (the Protector Somerset) is wondrous hot in helping every man to his right saving me. He maketh a great matter to let me have the Queen's jewels, which you see by the whole opinion of all the lawyers ought to belong unto me; and all under pretence that he would not the King should lose so much—as who (should?) say it were a loss to the King to let me have mine own? But he maketh nothing of the loss that the King's Majesty hath by him in his Court of First-fruits and Tenths, where his revenue is abated, as I have heard say, almost ten thousand pounds a-year."

'I told him, that I thought it was not so much; for the whole land that had been surrendered since the King's death was by all men's guesses far under that sum.

"Well, well," said he, "they are at this point now that there can neither bishoprick, deanery, nor prebend fall void, but one or other of them will have a fleece of it."

'Indeed I did in this point both grant his saying to be true, and aggravate the matter to confirm his opinion, with naming the Deanery of Wells, the Bishoprick of Lincoln, and others, which I told him had been sore plucked at.

"It maketh no matter," said he, "it will come in again when the King cometh to his years, as he beginneth to grow lustily. By God's precious soul!" said he, "I would not be in some of their coats for five marks when he shall hear of these matters. For mine own part, I will not have a penny after that rate, nor they shall not all be able to charge me with the value of a farthing,"-Tytler, i. p. 170.

A few years afterwards, Sir William Petre writes to his cosecretary Cecil, the future Burghley, upon a desirable vacancy taking place at the Savoy, as follows:

'I doubt not but there be, as you write, good, or rather great plenty

of anglers for it. At the beginning, the Apostles left their fishing of fishes, and became fishers of men; and now we, which talk much of Christ and his holy word, have, I fear me, used a much contrary way, for we leave fishing for men, and fish again in the tempestuous seas of this world for gain and wicked mammon.-Ibid. i. p. 427.

Mr Tytler gives a curious explanation of the secret arrangement for remodelling the bishopric of Durham. It was suggested that it would be equally advantageous to the people and to the Crown-that Durham would be better and more godly furnished than it ever was, and that the royal revenue would be greatly benefited-if the castle, and the other houses which the bishop had, with 20007. a-year of the best lands within the north parts of the realm, were transferred to the Crown. The scheme was approved and carried into execution; but no sooner were the temporalities of the bishopric vested in the Crown, than they were granted out again to the disinterested proposer of the arrangement by which they had been acquired.

The first leader of these worthy guardians-who, it will be seen, watched over the state like unclean birds over a field of slaughter, fixing an eager gaze upon every thing that fell-was the Protector, Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset, a weak, vain, pompous man, ruled by an ambitious wife. Mr Tytler gives a more favourable view of his character than most of our recent historians. His arguments are ingenious and interesting, but we cannot coincide in his conclusions. It is told of some one, we forget whom, that, after listening to a dexterous special pleading in behalf of Mary of Scotland, he drily asked the advocate- Can you prove that she did not marry Bothwell?' We say to the defenders of the Protector Somerset-'Can you 'make it appear that he did not sign his brother's death-warrant?' Mr Tytler says his signature was a miserable neces'sity, arising out of his office as Protector.'-Alas! if Milton is an authority, Somerset is neither the first nor the greatest potentate on whose behalf 'necessity-the tyrant's plea,'—has been alleged as a defence.

Somerset's elevation to the Protectorate raised him above himself. Although bound, by the conditions imposed upon him at his appointment, to consult with his co-executors, and abstain from acting upon his own authority, he soon assumed the airs of a dictator; gave way to great cholerick fashions; insolently rebuked persons who differed from him in opinion; procured a stamp of the King's signature, which he affixed to whatever documents he pleased; * and kept the King in such close

* Kempe's Loseley Papers, p. 8. Tytler, i. 153.

*

ward, that he was never for half a quarter of an hour' alone, (i. 111;) and was driven to communicate with his nearest relations by stealth, writing to them 'small lines of recommendation upon' minute, torn, and shabby scraps of paper,' (ibid.112.) Of his imperious behaviour to those about him, and to his fellowcouncillors, there exists undeniable evidence in an extraordinary letter addressed to him by Sir William Paget, one of the secretaries of state. After reminding him of his pettish conduct in council, and his snapping at those who contraried any thing he had conceived, so that no man dared speak to him; and stating how heavily a gentleman whom he had rebuked that afternoon had complained of his treatment, seeming almost out of his wits, he tells him-A King which shall give men occasion of discourage to say their opinions frankly, receiveth thereby great hurt and peril to his realm. But a subject in great authority, as your Grace is, using such fashion, is like 'to fall into great danger and peril of his own person, beside that to the commonweal; which, for the very love I bear your Grace, I beseech you, and for God's sake, consider and weigh ⚫ well. And also, when the whole council shall move you, or " give you advice in a matter, like as they did of late, for sending of men to Bulloygn, to follow the same, and to relent sometimes from your opinion. Your surety shall be the more • and your burden the less.'

We have evidence to the same effect, although not so explicit, in a letter from Sir Thomas Smith, almost the only thoroughly honest man of the time, published in the present work. His feelings of gratitude compelled him to adhere to the Protector throughout his troubles; but he was fully alive to his faults. For my part,' he writes, I am in a most miserable case. I cannot leave the King's Majesty, and him who was my master, ' of whom I have had all; and I cannot deny but I have mis' liked also some things that you and the rest of my lords there 'did mislike, as ye know, no man better, yourself.'—Vol, i. 229.

His impatience of advice, and uncontrolled irritability of temper, were united with an evident hankering after popularity, scarcely less likely to make him obnoxious to his equals; and, when coupled with his treatment of the King, calculated to give rise to suspicions of the purity of his intentions. His anxiety to be regarded as the Good Duke,' was manifested in many ways. He had no ear for the advice of those who stood but one step