parably associated-the drainage of the great tract known as the "Bedford Level" of the Fens, which, extending over parts of the counties of Huntingdon, Northampton, Lincoln, Norfolk, and Suffolk, includes nearly 400,000 acres. This tract, originally dry land, had, from neglect and inundations, assumed the form of a pestilential morass, almost impassable by boats, owing to the sedge and reeds. In the reign of Elizabeth this state of things first attracted public notice, and a Royal Commission and an Act of Parliament were procured to stimulate the work of draining it, but nothing was actually done. The enormous reward visible attracted many speculators; in the reign of James, Chief Justice Sir John Popham obtained an Act to attempt the same object, and actually commenced; but he dying, the project again dropped through, owing to the opposition of landowners. Next, the Earl of Arundel, Sir William Ayloff, Bart., and Anthony Thomas, Esq., stepped forward. Much delay taking place, however, before the terms could be settled, King James caught at the idea himself, and undertook to do the work, on condition of receiving 120,000 acres when the work was completed. This was agreed to; but, like most of James's "ideas," this ended in nothing. In Charles's reign, Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, a Dutch engineer, proposed to the Commissioners of Sewers to drain the Fens for 90,000 acres in remuneration. He accordingly surveyed them, but then demanded 5000 acres more, which (he being in ill odour as a foreigner) were refused. But on the 13th of January 1631, the Commissioners entered into a contract with the Earl of Bedford, whose Thorney Abbey grant lay in this district, to do the work for the

95,000 acres demanded by Vermuyden. Then thirteen gentlemen of position offered to become joint adventurers with the Earl, and were accepted, and on the 27th of February 1632, the undertaking commenced. In 1634 the King granted them a charter of incorporation in consideration of 12,000 acres, and on the 13th of January 1637, the Commissioners adjudged the land to be drained. Up to this time the adventurers had expended upwards of £123,000. The acres were being allotted among the adventurers when the King, instigated by Vermuyden and Secretary Windebank, and the Stuart greed for cash, stepped in, appointed a new commission to examine into the state of the works, and sent down a leading courtier to raise the lower orders against the proceedings of the adventurers. On the 18th of July 1638, the new Commissioners declared the works incomplete, and accepted the King's proposal to drain the Fens himself, on condition of receiving the 95,000 acres and 57,000 additional. A great outcry ensued from both adventurers and the lower orders, and Oliver Cromwell obtained the title of Lord of the Fens by combining these outcries, and obliging the Commissioners at last to grant to the commoners, whose rights had been neglected by all concerned, right of pasture over the lands, till the works were adjudged completed, and 40,000 acres to the old adventurers. Vermuyden now got the matter into his own hands. Whether he did the work (such as it might be) well or ill, it is impossible now to say; such was the ill-favour in which he stood with the nation, and such the opposition to the operations, that little had been done when, in 1641, the King abandoned the ject altogether. The Long Parliament took it up, but

pro

had other matters to occupy them, till, in 1649, after the King's execution, an Act was passed restoring William, the then Earl of Bedford, to all the rights of his father, and the work going on actively again, on the 23d of March 1653, the Level was adjudged to be fully drained, and the 95,000 acres allotted to the Earl and his fellow-adventurers, the latter of whom had been nearly ruined by the expense of draining, which amounted to £400,000, and were most of them bought out. This is, we believe, the only great estate ever added directly to the soil of Great Britain; but other great families have less directly created their own estates. There is scarcely one of them which has not by large drainage, great harbour works, agricultural experiments, and mining risks, added immensely to the general wealth of the country. Indeed, till the joint-stock principle began to be tried, only great peers dared face great works. After the Restoration this Act of Parliament was confirmed in most of its provisions, and a corporation created, called "The Conservators of the Great Level of the Fens." But 12,000 acres were taken from the adventurers and given to the King, in pursuance of the charter of 1634 (except 2000, which had been granted to the Earl of Portland).

During this great undertaking Earl Francis had other affairs, private and public, which kept him fully occupied. His eldest son, William, had fallen in love with Lady Anne Carre, the daughter of the Earl of Somerset, born in the Tower while her wretched father and mother were prisoners there on the charge of poisoning Sir Thomas Overbury. The Earl of Bedford naturally enough strongly objected to the match. He had himself been one of the escort of the

The

Countess when she was taken to her trial, and for a long time was obstinate in refusing his consent. young lady was one of the beauties of England, and had been brought up by her parents in the most careful manner, and being naturally of an excellent disposition, was one of the most desirable matches as far as her own character was concerned that could be found for William Russell. At last the King was induced to interfere, and to request the Earl to consent. Bedford then nominally gave way, but named for her dowry so high a sum that he hoped Somerset would be unable (impoverished as he was) to raise it. But Carre, bent on the match, sold his house at Chiswick (a site well known in modern times), his plate, his jewels, and his household furniture, to raise the £12,000 required; and Bedford having no further excuse, the marriage took place at Easter, 1637. It proved a very happy match, and one son born of it has obtained an imperishable name in history as Lord William Russell. The Earl rather opposed the calling of a Council of Peers at York, looking on it as a substitute for a Parliament which might be an injurious precedent, but on its meeting prevailed on the peers to petition the King to treat with the Scots; and accordingly he himself was sent as Commissioner for that purpose, and the result was the treaty of Ripon. On the meeting of the Parliament of April and the Long Parliament of November 1640, the Earl pursued the same course as in that of 1628-9, and was the acknowledged leader of the popular party in the Upper House as Pym was in the Lower. Together they counselled all the great measures taken in the first stage of that memorable as

sembly down to the period of the trial of Strafford. Clarendon, who speaks of the Earl as "of the best estate, and the best understanding of the whole number of the popular party," tells us that Bedford was not so violent as the rest, and did not desire the destruction of the Established Church. There can be no doubt he was wholly in unison with Pym in this matter, who, as long as it was possible, desired only her reformation; and as to what Clarendon calls his violence, there is a very different account given by Archbishop Laud, in his History of his Troubles and Trial,' in which, alluding to the Earl's death, he says, "This Lord was one of the main plotters of Strafford's death, and I knew where he, with other Lords, before the Parliament sat down, resolved to have his blood. But God would not let him to take joy therein, but cut him off in the morning, whereas the bill for the Earl of Strafford's death was not signed till night." Bedford, therefore, lived just long enough to bring the important measure to its last stage, of which, no doubt, he had been among the most active abettors, though, perhaps, like Pym, preferring the form of a judgment to a bill of attainder. Clarendon's story that the King intended to place Bedford at the head of a popular administration may be true, and is supported by the appointment of Oliver St John in February 1641 as Solicitor-General; but this early date seems to disprove the assertion that the condition was the saving of the life of Strafford, and that the arrangement was only prevented by the Earl's death. Bedford died of the smallpox on the 9th of May 1641. Earl Francis, in his generation, went by the name of "the wise Earl," and he seems