outlived that voyage in which he was engaged, he would have removed him, and made another treasurer. And it is very true, that great office too had been very slippery, and not fast to those who had trusted themselves in it: insomuch as there were at that time five noble persons alive, who had all succeeded one another immediately in that unsteady charge, without any other person intervening: the earl of Suffolk; the lord viscount Mandevile, afterwards earl of Manchester; the earl of Middlesex; and the earl of Marlborough, who was removed under pretence of his age and disability for the work, (which had been a better reason against his promotion, so few years before, that his infirmities were very little increased,) to make room for the present officer; who, though advanced by the duke, may properly be said to be established by his death. He was a gentleman of a very good and ancient extraction by father and mother. His education had been very good amongst books and men. After some years study of the law in the Middle Temple, he travelled into foreign parts, and at an age fit to make observations and reflections; out of which, that which is commonly called experience is constituted. After this he betook himself to the court, and lived there some years; at that distance, and with that awe, as was agreeable to the modesty of the age, when men were seen some time before they were known; and well known before they were preferred, or durst pretend to be preferred. He spent the best part of his fortune (a fair one, that he inherited from his father) in his attendance at court, and involved his friends in securities with him, who were willing to run his hopeful fortune, before he received the least fruit from it, but the countenance of great men and those in authority, the most natural and most certain stairs to ascend by. and lost it not with others, who desired the destruction of those upon whom he most depended. He was made lord treasurer in the manner and at the time mentioned before, upon the removal of the earl of Marlborough, and few months before the death of the duke. The former circumstance, which is often attended by compassion towards the degraded, and prejudice towards the promoted brought him no disadvantage: for besides the delight that season had in changes, there was little reverence towards the person removed; and the extreme visible poverty of the exchequer sheltered that province from the envy it had frequently created, and opened a door for much applause to be the portion of a wise and provident minister. For the other, of the duke's death, though some, who knew the duke's passions and prejudice, (which often produced rather sudden indisposition, than obstinate resolution,) believed he would have been shortly cashiered, as so many had lately been; and so that the death of his founder was a greater confirmation of him in the office, than the delivery of the white staff had been: many other wise men, who knew the treasurer's talent in removing prejudice, and reconciling himself to wavering and doubtful affections, believed, that the loss of the duke was very unseasonable; and that the awe or apprehension of his power and displeasure was a very necessary allay for the impetuosity of the new officer's nature, which needed some restraint and check, for some time, to his immoderate pretences and appetite of power. He did indeed appear on the sudden wonderfully elated, and so far threw off his old affectation to please some very much, and to displease none, in which art he had excelled, that in few months after the duke's death he found himself to succeed him in the public displeasure, and in the malice of his enemies, without succeeding him in his credit at court, or in the affection of any considerable deHe was then sent ambassador to the archdukes, pendants. And yet, though he was not superior Albert and Isabella, into Flanders; and to the diet to all other men in the affection, or rather resignain Germany, to treat about the restitution of the tion, of the king, so that he might dispense favours palatinate; in which negotiation he behaved him- and disfavours according to his own election, he self with great prudence, and with the concurrent had a full share in his master's esteem, who looked testimony of a wise man, from all those with whom upon him as a wise and able servant, and worthy he treated, princes and ambassadors, and upon of the trust he reposed in him, and received no his return was made a privy counsellor, and chan-other advice in the large business of his revenue; cellor of the exchequer, in the place of the lord Brooke, who was either persuaded, or put out of the place; which, being an office of honour and trust, is likewise an excellent stage for men of parts to tread, and expose themselves upon; and where they have occasion of all natures to lay out and spread all their faculties and qualifications most for their advantage. He behaved himself very well in this function, and appeared equal to it; and carried himself so luckily in parliament, that he did his master much service, and preserved himself in the good opinion and acceptation of the house; which is a blessing not indulged to many by those high powers. He did swim in those troubled and boisterous waters, in which the duke of Buckingham rode as admiral, with a good grace, when very many who were about him were drowned, or forced on shore with shrewd hurts and bruises: which shewed he knew well how and when to use his limbs and strength to the best advantage; sometimes only to avoid sinking, and sometimes to advance and get ground: and by this dexterity he kept his credit with those who could do him good, nor was any man so much his superior, as to be able to lessen him in the king's affection by his power. So that he was in a post, in which he might have found much ease and delight, if he could have contained himself within the verge of his own province, which was large enough, and of such an extent, that he might, at the same time, have drawn a great dependence upon him of very considerable men, and appeared a very useful and profitable minister to the king; whose revenue had been very loosely managed during the late years, and might, by industry and order, have been easily improved: and no man better understood what method was necessary towards that good husbandry, than he. But I know not by what frowardness in his stars, he took more pains in examining and inquiring into other men's offices, than in the discharge of his own; and not so much joy in what he had, as trouble and agony for what he had not. The truth is, he had so vehement a desire to be the sole favourite, that he had no relish of the power he had: and in that contention he had many them, he was of so unhappy a feminine temper, that he was always in a terrible fright and apprehension of them. He had not that application, and submission, and reverence for the queen, as might have been expected from his wisdom and breeding, and often crossed her pretences and desires, with more rudeness than was natural to him. Yet he was impertinently solicitous to know what her majesty said of him in private, and what resentments she had towards him. And when by some confidants, who had their ends upon him from those offices, he was informed of some bitter expressions fallen from her majesty, he was so exceedingly afflicted and tormented with the sense of it, that sometimes by passionate complaints and representations to the rivals, who had credit enough to do him ill offices, though not enough to satisfy their own ambition; the king himself being resolved to hold the reins in his own hands, and to put no further trust in others, than was necessary for the capacity they served in. Which resolution in his majesty was no sooner believed, and the treasurer's pretence taken notice [of,] than he found the number of his enemies exceedingly increased, and others to be less eager in the pursuit of his friendship; and every day discovered some infirmities in him, which being before known to few, and not taken notice of, did now expose him both to public reproach, and to private animosities; and even his vices admitted those contradictions in them, that he could hardly enjoy the pleasant fruit of any of them. That which first exposed him to the public jea-king; sometimes by more dutiful addresses and lousy, which is always attended with public reproach, was the concurrent suspicion of his religion. His wife and all his daughters were declared of the Romish religion: and though himself, and his sons, sometimes went to church, he was never thought to have zeal for it; and his domestic conversation and dependants, with whom only he used entire freedom, were all known catholics, and were believed to be agents for the rest. And yet, with all this disadvantage to himself, he never had reputation and credit with that party, who were the only people of the kingdom who did not believe him to be of their profession. For the penal laws (those only excepted which were sanguinary, and even those sometimes let loose) were never more rigidly executed, nor had the crown ever so great a revenue from them, as in his time; nor did they ever pay so dear for the favours and indulgences of his office towards them. No man had greater ambition to make his family great, or stronger designs to leave a great fortune to it. Yet his expenses were so prodigiously great, especially in his house, that all the ways he used for supply, which were all that occurred, could not serve his turn; insomuch that he contracted so great debts, (the anxiety whereof, he pretended, broke his mind, and restrained that intentness and industry, which was necessary for the due execution of his office,) that the king was pleased twice to pay his debts; at least, towards it, to disburse forty thousand pounds in ready money out of his exchequer. Besides, his majesty gave him a whole forest (Chute forest in Hampshire) and much other land belonging to the crown; which was the more taken notice of, and murmured against, because, being the chief minister of the revenue, he was particularly obliged, as much as in him lay, to prevent, and even oppose, such disinherison; and because, under that obligation, he had, avowedly and sourly, crossed the pretences of other men, and restrained the king's bounty from being exercised almost to any. And he had that advantage, (if he had made the right use of it,) that his credit was ample enough (seconded by the king's own experience, and observation, and inclination) to retrench very much of the late unlimited expenses, and especially those of bounties; which from the death of the duke ran in narrow channels, which never so much overflowed as towards himself, who stopped the current to other men. He was of an imperious nature, and nothing wary in disobliging and provoking other men, and had too much courage in offending and incensing them but after having offended and incensed expostulations with the queen, in bewailing his misfortunes; he frequently exposed himself, and left his condition worse than it was before: and the eclaircissement commonly ended in the discovery of the persons from whom he had received his most secret intelligence. He quickly lost the character of a bold, stout, and magnanimous man, which he had been long reputed to be in worse times; and, in his most prosperous season, fell under the reproach of being a man of big looks, and of a mean and abject spirit. There was a very ridiculous story at that time in the mouths of many, which, being a known truth, may not be unfitly mentioned in this place, as a kind of illustration of the humour and nature of the man. Sir Julius Cæsar was then master of the rolls, and had, inherent in his office, the indubitable right and disposition of the six clerks' places; all which he had, for many years, upon any vacancy, bestowed to such persons as he thought fit. One of those places was become void, and designed by the old man to his son Robert Cæsar, a lawyer of a good name, and exceedingly beloved. The treasurer (as he was vigilant in such cases) had notice of the clerk's expiration so soon, that he procured the king to send a message to the master of the rolls, expressly forbidding him to dispose of that six-clerk's place, till his majesty's pleasure should be further made known to him. It was the first command of that kind that had been heard of, and was felt by the old man very sensibly. He was indeed very old, and had outlived most of his friends, so that his age was an objection against him; many persons of quality being dead, who had, for recompense of services, procured the reversion of his office. The treasurer found it no hard matter so far to terrify him, that (for the king's service, as was pretended) he admitted for a six-clerk a person recommended by him, (Mr. Fern, a dependant upon him,) who paid six thousand pound ready money; which, poor man! he lived to repent in a gaol. This work being done at the charge of the poor old man, who had been a privy-counsellor from the entrance of king James, had been chancellor of the exchequer, and served in other offices; the depriving him of his right made a great noise: and the condition of his son, (his father being not like to live to have the disposal of another office in his power,) who, as was said before, was generally beloved and esteemed, was argument of great compassion, and was lively and successfully represented to the king himself; who was graciously pleased to promise, that, "if the old man chanced to die 66 "before any other of the six-clerks, that office, "when it should fall, should be conferred on his son, whosoever should succeed him as master of "the rolls:" which might well be provided for; and the lord treasurer obliged himself (to expiate for the injury) to procure some declaration to that purpose, under his majesty's sign manual; which, however easy to be done, he long forgot, or neglected. 66 One day the earl of Tullibardine, who was nearly allied to Mr. Cæsar, and much his friend, being with the treasurer, passionately asked him, "Whether he had done that business?" To whom he answered with a seeming trouble, "That he had forgotten it, for which he was heartily sorry; and "if he would give him a little in writing, for a "memorial, he would put it amongst those which " he would despatch with the king that afternoon." The earl presently writ in a little paper, Remember Cæsar; and gave it to him; and he put it into that little pocket, where, he said, he kept all his memorials which were first to be transacted. Many days passed, and Cæsar never thought of. At length, when he changed his clothes, and he who waited on him in his chamber, according to custom, brought him all the notes and papers which were left in those he had left off, which he then commonly perused; when he found this little billet, in which was only written, Remember Cæsar, and which he had never read before, he was exceedingly confounded, and knew not what to make or think of it. He sent for his bosom friends, with whom he most confidently consulted, and shewed the paper to them, the contents whereof he could not conceive; but that it might probably have been put into his hand (because it was found in that enclosure, wherein he put all things of moment which were given him) when he was in motion, and in the privy lodgings in the court. After a serious and melancholic deliberation, it was agreed, that it was the advertisement from some friend, who durst not own the discovery: that it could signify nothing but that there was a conspiracy against his life, by his many and mighty enemies and they all knew Cæsar's fate, by contemning or neglecting such animadversions. And therefore they concluded, that he should pretend to be indisposed, that he might not stir abroad all that day, nor that any might be admitted to him, but persons of undoubted affections; that at night the gate should be shut early, and the porter enjoined to open it to nobody, nor to go himself to bed till the morning; and that some servants should watch with him, lest violence might be used at the gate; and that they themselves, and some other gentlemen, would sit up all the night, and attend the event. Such houses are always in the morning haunted by early suitors; but it was very late before any could now get admittance into the house, the porter having quitted some of that arrear of sleep, which he owed to himself for his night's watching; which he excused to his acquaintance, by whispering to them, "That his lord should have "been killed that night, which had kept all the "house from going to bed." And shortly after, the earl of Tullibardine asking him, whether he had remembered Cæsar; the treasurer quickly recollected the ground of his perturbation, and could not forbear imparting it to his friends, who likewise affected the communication, and so the whole jest came to be discovered. To conclude, all the honours the king conferred upon him (as he made him a baron, then an earl, and knight of the garter; and above this, gave a young beautiful lady nearly allied to him, and to the crown of Scotland, in marriage to his eldest son) could not make him think himself great enough. Nor could all the king's bounties, nor his own large accessions, raise a fortune to his heir; but after six or eight years spent in outward opulency, and inward murmur and trouble that it was no greater; after vast sums of money and great wealth gotten, and rather consumed than enjoyed, without any sense or delight in so great prosperity, with the agony that it was no greater; he died unlamented by any; bitterly mentioned by most who never pretended to love him, and severely censured and complained of by those who expected most from him, and deserved best of him; and left a numerous family, which was in a short time worn out, and yet outlived the fortune he left behind him. The next greatest counsellor of state was the lord privy-seal, who was likewise of a noble extraction, and of a family at that time very fortunate. His grandfather had been lord chief justice, and left by king Harry the Eighth one of the executors of his last will. He was the younger son of his father, and brought up in the study of the law in the Middle Temple; and had passed through, and, as it were, made a progress through all the eminent degrees of the law, and in the state. At the death of queen Elizabeth, or thereabouts, he was recorder of London; then the king's sergeant at law; afterwards chief justice of the king's bench. Before the death of king James, by the favour of the duke of Buckingham, he was raised to the place of lord high treasurer of England; and within less than a year afterwards, by the withdrawing of that favour, he was reduced to the empty title of president of the council; and, to allay the sense of the dishonour, created viscount Mandevile. He bore the diminution very well, as he was a wise man, and of an excellent temper, and quickly recovered so much grace, that he was made lord privy-seal, and earl of Manchester, and enjoyed that office to his death; whilst he saw many removes and degradations in all the other offices of which he had been possessed. He was a man of great industry and sagacity in business, which he delighted in exceedingly; and preserved so great a vigour of mind, even to his death, (when he was very near eighty years of age,) that some, who had known him in his younger years, did believe him to have much quicker parts in his age, than before. His honours had grown faster upon him than his fortunes; which made him too solicitous to advance the latter, by all the ways which offered themselves; whereby he exposed himself to some inconvenience, and many reproaches, and became less capable of serving the public by his counsels and authority; which his known wisdom, long experience, and confessed gravity and ability, would have enabled him to have done; most men considering more the person that speaks, than the things he says. And he was unhappily too much used as a check upon the lord Coventry; and when the other perplexed their counsels and designs with inconvenient objections in law, his authority, who had trod the same paths, was still called upon; and he did too frequently gratify their unjustifiable designs and pretences: a guilt and mischief, all men who are obnoxious, or who are thought to be so, are liable to, and can hardly preserve themselves from. But his virtues so far weighed down his infirmities, that he maintained a good general reputation and credit with the whole nation and people; he being always looked upon as full of integrity and zeal to the protestant religion, as it was established by law, and of unquestionable loyalty, duty, and fidelity to the king; which two qualifications will ever gather popular breath enough to fill the sails, if the vessel be competently provided with ballast. He died in a lucky time, in the beginning of the rebellion, when neither religion, or loyalty, or law, or wisdom, could have provided for any man's security. The earl of Arundel was next to the officers of state, who, in his own right and quality, preceded the rest of the council. He was a man supercilious and proud, who lived always within himself, and to himself, conversing little with any who were in common conversation; so that he seemed to live as it were in another nation, his house being a place to which all men resorted, who resorted to no other place; strangers, or such who affected to look like strangers, and dressed themselves accordingly. He resorted sometimes to the court, because there only was a greater man than himself; and went thither the seldomer, because there was a greater man than himself. He lived towards all favourites, and great officers, without any kind of condescension; and rather suffered himself to be ill treated by their power and authority (for he was always in disgrace, and once or twice prisoner in the Tower) than to descend in making any application to them. And upon these occasions he spent a great interval of his time in several journeys into foreign parts, and, with his wife and family, had lived some years in Italy, the humour and manners of which nation he seemed most to like and approve, and affected to imitate. He had a good fortune by descent, and a much greater from his wife, who was the sole daughter upon the matter (for neither of the two sisters left any issue) of the great house of Shrewsbury: but his expenses were without any measure, and always exceeded very much his revenue. He was willing to be thought a scholar, and to understand the most mysterious parts of antiquity, because he made a wonderful and costly purchase of excellent statues, whilst he was in Italy and in Rome, (some whereof he could never obtain permission to remove from Rome, though he had paid for them,) and had a rare collection of the most curious medals; whereas in truth he was only able to buy them, never to understand them; and as to all parts of learning he was almost illiterate, and thought no other part of history considerable, but what related to his own family; in which, no doubt, there had been some very memorable persons. It cannot be denied that he had in his person, in his aspect, and countenance, the appearance of a great man, which he preserved in his gait and motion. He wore and affected a habit very different from that of the time, such as men had only beheld in the pictures of the most considerable men; all which drew the eyes of most, and the reverence of many, towards him, as the image and representative of the primitive nobility, and native gravity of the nobles, when they had been most venerable: but this was only his outside, his nature and true humour being so much disposed to vulgar delights, which indeed were very despicable and childish. He was never suspected to love anybody, nor to have the least propensity to justice, charity, or compassion, so that though he got all he could, and by all the ways he could, and spent much more than he got or had; he was never known to give any thing, nor in all his employments (for he had employments of great profit as well as honour, being sent ambassador extraordinary into Germany, for the treaty of that general peace, for which he had great appointments, and in which he did nothing of the least importance, and which is more wonderful, he was afterwards made general of the army raised for Scotland, and received full pay as such; and in his own office of earl marshal, more money was drawn from the people by his avidity and pretence of jurisdiction, than had ever been extorted by all the officers preceding,) yet, I say, in all his offices and employments, never man used or employed by him, ever got any fortune under him, nor did ever any man acknowledge any obligation to him. He was rather thought to be without religion, than to incline to this or that party of any; he would have been a proper instrument for any tyranny, if he could have a man tyrant enough to have been advised by him, and had no other affection for the nation or the kingdom, than as he had a great share in it, in which, like the great leviathan, he might sport himself; from which he withdrew himself, as soon as he discerned the repose thereof was like to be disturbed, and died in Italy, under the same doubtful character of religion in which he lived. William earl of Pembroke was next, a man of another mould and making, and of another fame and reputation with all men, being the most universally loved and esteemed of any man of that age; and, having a great office in the court, he made the court itself better esteemed, and more reverenced in the country. And as he had a great number of friends of the best men, so no man had ever the wickedness to avow himself to be his enemy. He was a man very well bred, and of excellent parts, and a graceful speaker upon any subject, having a good proportion of learning, and a ready wit to apply it, and enlarge upon it; of a pleasant and facetious humour, and a disposition affable, generous, and magnificent. He was master of a great fortune from his ancestors, and had a great addition by his wife, another daughter and heir of the earl of Shrewsbury, which he enjoyed during his life, she outliving him: but all served not his expense, which was only limited by his great mind, and occasions to use it nobly. He lived many years about the court, before in it; and never by it; being rather regarded and esteemed by king James, than loved and favoured. After the foul fall of the earl of Somerset, he was made lord chamberlain of the king's house, more for the court's sake than his own; and the court appeared with the more lustre, because he had the government of that province. As he spent and lived upon his own fortune, so he stood upon his own feet, without any other support than of his proper virtue and merit; and lived towards the favourites with that decency, as would not suffer them to censure or reproach his master's judgment and election, but as with men of his own rank. He was exceedingly beloved in the court, because he never desired to get that for himself, which 66 others laboured for, but was still ready to promote | them said, "that he believed his lord was at that the pretences of worthy men. And he was equally "time very merry, for he had now outlived the celebrated in the country, for having received no day, which his tutor Sandford had prognosobligations from the court which might corrupt or "ticated upon his nativity he would not outlive; sway his affections and judgment; so that all who "which he had done now, for that was his birthwere displeased and unsatisfied in the court, or day, which had completed his age to fifty years." with the court, were always inclined to put them- The next morning, by the time they came to Coleselves under his banner, if he would have admitted brook, they met with the news of his death. them; and yet he did not so reject them, as to make them choose another shelter, but so far to depend on him, that he could restrain them from breaking out beyond private resentments and murmurs. He was a great lover of his country, and of the religion and justice, which he believed could only support it; and his friendships were only with men of those principles. And as his conversation was most with men of the most pregnant parts and understanding, so towards any, who needed support or encouragement, though unknown, if fairly recommended to him, he was very liberal. And sure never man was planted in a court, that was fitter for that soil, or brought better qualities with him to purify that air. Yet his memory must not be so flattered, that his virtues and good inclinations may be believed | without some allay of vice, and without being clouded with great infirmities, which he had in too exorbitant a proportion. He indulged to himself the pleasures of all kinds, almost in all excesses. To women, whether out of his natural constitution, or for want of his domestic content and delight, (in which he was most unhappy, for he paid much too dear for his wife's fortune, by taking her person into the bargain,) he was immoderately given But therein he likewise retained such a power and jurisdiction over his very appetite, that he was not so much transported with beauty and outward allurements, as with those advantages of the mind, as manifested an extraordinary wit, and spirit, and knowledge, and administered great pleasure in the conversation. To these he sacrificed himself, his precious time, and much of his fortune. And some, who were nearest his trust and friendship, were not without apprehension, that his natural vivacity and vigour of mind began to lessen and decline by those excessive indulgences. up. About the time of the death of king James, or presently after, he was made lord steward of his majesty's house, that the staff of chamberlain might be put into the hands of his brother, the earl of Montgomery, upon a new contract of friendship with the duke of Buckingham; after whose death, he had likewise such offices of his, as he most affected, of honour and command; none of profit, which he cared not for; and within two years after, he died himself of an apoplexy, after a full and cheerful supper. A short story may not be unfitly inserted, it being very frequently mentioned by the person whose character is here undertaken to be set down, and who, at that time, being on his way to London, met at Maidenhead some persons of quality, of relation or dependance upon the earl of Pembroke, sir Charles Morgan, commonly called General Morgan, who had commanded an army in Germany, and defended Stoad; Dr. Feild, then bishop of Saint David's; and Dr. Chafin, the earl's then chaplain in his house, and much in his favour. At supper one of them drank a health to the lord steward: upon which another of He died exceedingly lamented by all qualities of men, and left many of his servants and dependants owners of good estates, raised out of his employments and bounty. Nor had his heir cause to complain: for though his expenses had been very magnificent, (and it may be the less considered, and his providence the less, because he had no child to inherit,) insomuch as he left a great debt charged upon the estate; yet considering the wealth he left in jewels, plate, and furniture, and the estate his brother enjoyed in the right of his wife (who was not fit to manage it herself) during her long life, he may be justly said to have inherited as good an estate from him, as he had from his father, which was one of the best in England. The earl of Montgomery, who was then lord chamberlain of the household, and now earl of Pembroke, and the earl of Dorset, were likewise of the privy-council; men of very different talents and qualifications. The former being a young man, scarce of age at the entrance of king James, had the good fortune, by the comeliness of his person, his skill, and indefatigable industry in hunting, to be the first who drew the king's eyes towards him with affection; which was quickly so far improved, that he had the reputation of a favourite. And before the end of the first or second year, he was made gentleman of the king's bedchamber, and earl of Montgomery; which did the king no harm: for besides that he received the king's bounty with more moderation than other men, who succeeded him, he was generally known, and as generally esteemed; being the son and younger brother to the earl of Pembroke, who liberally supplied his expense, beyond what his annuity from his father would bear. He pretended to no other qualifications, than to understand horses and dogs very well, which his master loved him the better for, (being, at his first coming into England, very jealous of those who had the reputation of great parts,) and to be believed honest and generous, which made him many friends, and left him no enemy. He had not sat many years in that sunshine, when a new comet appeared in court, Robert Carr, a Scotsman, quickly after declared favourite: upon whom the king no sooner fixed his eyes, but the earl, without the least murmur or indisposition, left all doors open for his entrance; (a rare temper! and could proceed from nothing, but his great perfection in loving field sports;) which the king received as so great an obligation, that he always after loved him in the second place, and commended him to his son at his death, as a man to be relied on in point of honesty and fidelity ; though it appeared afterwards, that he was not strongly built, nor had sufficient ballast to endure a storm; of which more will be said hereafter. The other, the earl of Dorset, was, to all intents, principles, and purposes, another man; his person beautiful, and graceful, and vigorous; his wit pleasant, sparkling, and sublime; and his other parts of learning, and language, of that lustre, |