mon conversation"; and stuck not on oc

store of game as they say, partridges and stoncorleurs : I know who shall get their part of them; and here is the finest company of young hounds that ever was seen. God bless the sweet master of my harriers, that made them to be so well kept all summer; L mean Tom Badger. I assure myself thou wilt punctually observe the dyet and journey I set thee down in my first letter from Theobald's. God bless thee, and my sweet Kate, and Mall, to the comfort of thy "dear Dad,

66 JAMES R.

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

"Now the reason why James gave Buckingham the name of Steiny, was for his handsomeness, it being the diminutive of St. Stephen, who is always painted with a glory about his face"."

I have now given my authorities for the assertion in the text, the inference I leave to the reader, being unwilling to say more on a subject so disagreeable to the ears of the chaste and virtuous. I have added nothing, nor suppressed any thing; and therefore, as a mere relator, am liable, I think, to no censure. Had I met with any thing favourable to James in this matter, I would have declared it with great pleasure; but I cannot allow myself to invent, in order to vindicate.

33 He used cursing and swearing.] Here follow my proofs." He would make a great deal too bold

Compleat History of England, vol. II. p. 697. folio. Lond. 1706.

casion, to utter the most bitter impreca

with God in his passion, both in cursing and swearing, and one strain higher, verging on blasphemy; but would in his better temper say, he hoped God would not impute them as sins, and lay them to his charge, seeing they proceeded from passion." An excellent reason 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 censured them for making use of it. But any thing will serve for an excuse to those who chuse to do as they have been accustomed, and will not be at the pains to reform.That James was a swearer, appears from Lord Clarendon, who says "he renounced with many oaths the having communicated the prince's journey into Spain"." Oaths are highly indecent in princes: they are greatly impolitic also, as lessening the regard which ought to be paid unto them in courts of judicature, and leading thereby to perjury. Princes therefore should shew the greatest reverence to oaths, in order thereby to keep up their sacredness, and secure the truth and fidelity of their subjects, Those of them who will not thus behave, pay generally very dear for their liberty; for their servants and subjects taking example by them, run into the same excess, whereby they receive the greatest damage. So that interest alone, if well understood and considered, will engage those who bear rule, to set before men good examples, and abstain from the appearance of evil; and such of them as are not induced hereunto by a sense of it, have no great reason to boast of their understanding.

Weldon, p.

172.

b Clarendon, vol. I. p. 16.

tions on himself, and on his posterity 34.

34 He stuck not to utter the most bitter imprecations on himself, and on his posterity.] When the trial of the murtherers of Sir Thomas Overbury was going forwards, the king went from Whitehall to Theobald's, and so to Royston, and having sent for all the judges, he kneeled down in the midst of his lords and servants, and used these words to the judges. "My lords, I charge you, as you will answer it at that great and dreadful day of judgment, that you examine it [the poisoning of Overbury] strictly without favour, affection, or partiality; and if you spare any guilty of this crime, God's curse light upon you and your posterity; and if I spare any that are found guilty, God's curse light on me and my posterity for ever" And in the second year of his reign "several lords having declared in the star-chamber, that some of the puritans had raised a false rumour of the king, how he intended to grant a toleration to papists; the lords severally declared, how the king was discontented with the said false rumour, and had made but the day before a protestation 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 any of his issue should maintain any other religion than what he truly professed and maintained, that God would take them out of the world "." These are deep and horrible imprecations, and enough to make a man tremble to think on the profaneness of the mouth that could utter them; especially when it is known (that notwithstanding

b

a Weldon, p. 93.

folio

b Croke's Reports, part 2, p. 38, Lond. 1683,

And yet notwithstanding, upon times, he gave himself great airs of religion ", and

there were so many witnesses to these 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 shewn hereafter. How far his imprecations have affected his posterity, is not, I think for man to say. But, without breach of charity, we may assert, that Jaines was very rash and inconsiderate, and guilty of a great fault in calling down the judgments of heaven thus on himself and his family. "Tis good advice which the wise man gives, and which was worthy of the regard of this British Solomon, in the following words, "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God; for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few"." A sense of the omnipresence, power, wisdom, and majesty of the superintending mind, would have restrained James from these rash and horrible wishes; but he seems to have had little notion of any of these things, but rather to have been one of those who deal in holy things without any feeling. These, in lord Bacon's opinion, are "the great atheists, who must, says he, be needs cauterized in the end." Deplorable state! dismal condition! happy those, who, by an uniform course 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.

35 He gave himself airs of religion, &c.] Here b Bacon's Essay on Atheism.

a Eccles. v. 2.

5

talked after such a manner, as to lead those

text.

He was then for proving

follows a passage from Sully, tending to verify the "James asked me, says he, whether I went to the protestant church in London? upon my replying that I did, then, said he, you are not resolved, as I have been informed, to quit our religion, after the example of Sancy, who thought thereby to make his fortune, but by God's permission, did just the contrary. I treated this report as a calumny, and said, that my living in France in friendship with so many ecclesiasticks, and being so frequently visited by the pope's nuncio, might, perhaps, have given rise to it. Do you give the pope the title of holiness? said James. I replied, that, to conform to the custom established in France, I did. to me, that this custom was an offence against God, to whom alone this title could justly belong. I replied, that I supposed a greater crime was not hereby committed, than by so frequently giving to princes such titles as they were well known not to deserve." Let us add the following memorandum of the illustrious archbishop Usher to Sully, and we shall need nothing more to convince us of the solemn airs of religion James, at some times, could put on. "I was appointed by the lower house of parliament, to preach at St. Margaret's, Westminster, Feb. 7, 1620. Feb. 13, being Shrove Tuesday, I dined at court, and betwixt four and five kissed the king's hand, and had conference with him touching my sermon. He said, I had charge of an unruly flock to look unto the next Sunday. He asked me how I thought it could stand with true divinity, that so many hundred should be.

* Sully's Memoirs, vol. II. p. 33.