general edict, there is none thinks of departing. After its publication, there is no one tarries behind. A kind of Council fixes the day, and grants a certain time to prepare for it, after which they all take their flight; and fo exact to their discipline, that the next day there is not a ftraggler or deferter to be found. Many people know of no other bird but the swallow, that acts thus; but it is certain, that many other fpecies do the fame. Now I afk, though we had but the fingle inftance of the fwal low, What news they have received from the countries whither they go in great companies, to be affured that they fhall find all things there prepared for their reception! I ask, Why they do not keep like other birds to the coun try where they have brought up their young, which have been fo kindly treated in it? By what difpofition to travel does this new brood, which knows no other than its native country, confpire all at once to quit it? In what language is the ordinance publifhed, which forbids all both old and new subjects of the republic to tarry beyond a certain day? And laftly, By what figns do the principal Magiftrates know, that they should run an extreme hazard in expofing themselves to be prevented by a rigorous feafon? What other anfwer can be given to these queftions than that of the prophet, O Lord, how manifold are thy works, in wisdom haft thou made them all? The HISTORY of ENGLAND (P. 324. Vol. VI.) continued With a curious Head of Sir NICHOLAS BACON, engraved from an original Painting. Thus Q Elifabeth was wounding her enemies in the most vital parts, with little or no expence, in America, while fhe, with her watchfulness and fuperior policy, eluded all their schemes, and diverted all their force in Europe to dethrone her. The Spaniards, who had tried all means to raise to her Majefty great uneafiness at home, and fhewed a propenfity to join with any power to deprive her of her dominions, were no good evidence and teftimony, to have committed any thing against law and right: That thefe goods were laid by purpofely, that fatisfaction might be made to the Spaniards, tho' the Queen had spent a greater fum of money, than Drake had brought in, against thofe rebels, whom the Spaniards had raised and encouraged against her, both in Ireland and England. Moreover, the understood not why her, or any other Prince's fubje&s, 'which fhe could not perfuade herself the Spaniard had any just title unto, by the Bishop of Rome's donation (iń whom the acknowledged no prerogative, much lefs authority, in fuch cafes, fo as to lay any tie upon Princes, who owed him no obedi.. ⚫ence, or obfervance; or, as it were, fooner acquainted with the depreda-fhould be debarred from the Indies, tions made by Drake, but they complained loudly, by their Ambaffador, and even demanded reftitution. But our glorious Queen, who expected no thing lefs, had prepared them an anfwer, no doubt, as foon as the expedi tion was refolved upon, which was delivered to the complainant, in the following terms: That the Spaniards, by their hard dealing with the Eng lib, whom they had prohibited commerce, contrary to the law of nations, had drawn these mischiefs up on themselves: That Drake thould be forth-coming, to answer according to law, if he were convicted, by to infeoff the Spaniard in that new world, and inveft him with the pof⚫feffion thereof) nor yet by any other claim, than as they had touched, here and there, upon the coafts, built cottages, and given names to a river, or a cape; which things cannot entitle them to a property. So that this do C "nation nation of what is another man's, which is of no validity in law, and this imaginary property, cannot hinder other Princes from trading into 'thofe countries, and, without breach of the law of nations, from tranfporting colonies, into those parts thereof, where the Spaniards inhabit not: for(afmuch as prefcription without poffeffion is little worth :) neither from freely navigating that vaft ocean, feeing the use of the fea and air is common to all: neither can a title to the ocean belong to any people or private perfons; forafmuch as neither nature nor public ufe and cuítom per"mitted any poffeffion thereof. Which was all the fatisfaction that haughty Ambaffador could obtain for the prefent. And the Queen, to fhew her further approbation of Drake's fervice, ordered his fhip to be brought to Deptford, and laid up in a dock there, and, as it were, confecrated, with great ceremony, as a monument of fo fuccefsful a navigation round the world. She even honoured it with her royal prefence at dinner on board, and conferred on Captain Drake the dignity of Knighthood. In this fame year Amur at h Cham, Emperor of the Turks, upon a treaty, betwixt William Harbourn, an Englishman, and Mustapha Beg, a Turkiji Baffaw, granted, that the English Merchants might freely trade throughout the Turkije dominions, in like manner as the French, Venetians, and other nations did. Whereupon the English Merchants, by the Queen's privilege afterwards granted, affociated themselves into a company, called the Turkey company. This company has fince continued a very advantageous trade to ConHantinople, Smyrna, Aleppo, Angori, Scio, Petrazzo, Alexandria, Egypt, Cyprus, and feveral places in Afta, for ipices, cotton, raw filk, mohair, tapestries, Indian dye, currants, foap, &c. In 1579, on the 20th of February, died that great Statesman and zealous friend to the Proteftant caufe, Sir Nicholas Bacon. He was defcended of an ancient family in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, but was himself born at Chislehurst in Kent, A. D. 1509. : It does not appear under whom this great man received the firit rudiments of learning; but we meet with him in Corpus Chrifti college in Cambridge, a-, bout the year 1524 and an author of repute informs us, that he afterwards travelled, and refided fome time at Paris, as was much the fashion at that time, when the questions of the Queen's divorce and the Pope's fupremacy diftrated England, and expofed the un-. wary to great hazards, and the refentment of the King and his Courtiers., At his return home, Mr. Bacon fettled in Gray's Inn, and applied himself so industriously to the ftudy of the law,: that he foon became eminent in its practice; and fo effectually recommended himself to his Sovereign, that Henry VIII, in 1546, rewarded his merit by appointing him Attorney.general of the Court of Wards; an office which he had the addrefs to keep in the fucceeding reigns of Edward VI.and Queen Mary. When Queen Elifabeth afcended the throne, the conferred on him the order of Knighthood, and by patent created him Lord keeper of the Great Seal of England; and it must be noted, that he was the firft Lord keeper, who had all the dignity of a Lordchancellor granted him; for the ancient cuftom had been, that thofe who bore that title had no dignity nor authority annexed to their office they did not hear causes, nor prefide in the houfe of Peers; but were only employed to put the feal to fuch writs or patents as went in courfe; and fo it was only committed to the hands of a Keeper, for fome fhort interval. And his not being raised to that high Title of Lord-chancellor, which office he executed to all intents and purpofes, as much as any of his fucceffors, is generally afcribed to his own great modefty, which he retained, in the midst of all his greatness, equal to what the ancient Greeks and Romans had carried with them to their higheft advancement. On On January 25, 1558-9, he opened the Parliament with a long fpeech, in which he laid before them the dif trasted state of the nation, both in matters of religion, and the other mi feries, that the war and other late calamities had brought upon them; in fuch forcible terms, as to engage unanimity and dispatch for the fecurity of the nation, and the ftrengthening the hands of the government. In March following, he prefided at the difputation held at Westminster between the Proteftant and Popish Divines. But in 1564, having by fome means incurred the displeasure of the Earl of Leicester, that favourite had like to have ruined him in the esteem of Queen Elifabeth, having perfuaded her that the Keeper had intermeddled in the affair of the fucceffion, and affited in the publication of a book written in favour of the houfe of Suffolk, against the title of the Queen of Scots. And, though he was permitted to continue in his office, it was very vifib'e from the Queen's coldness towards him thenceforward, that he stood upon a ticklish foundation, and that he was retained through neceffity, rather than inclination. However when he was attacked in 1573, together with Lord Burleigh, in a libel publifhed by the Popish rebels and fugitives in foreign parts, as guilty of treafon to his country, the Queen protected his innocence, and, to exprefs her disbelief of thofe calumnies, ordered the book to be fuppreffed under the feverest penalties. And in November, 1577, he wrote a long letter to her Majesty upon the fituation of af. fairs at that time, wherein he ob. ferved, that her Majefty's great ene mies were France, Spain, and Rome and that, as thefe enemies had three eafy ways to difturb her, fo fhe had three, eafy ways to obviate their defigns. That the means which France had, was Scotland; Spain, the Low-countries; and Rome, its partizans in England. But that the proper manner of oppofing them was, to withland France, by affuring Scotland to England; to counter mine Spain, was to concert with the Prince of Orange, the moft effectual fcheme for fupporting the Proteftant intereft, and the new republic, establishing in the Low-countries; and, to fruftrate the fchemes of Rome, was to diftinguish her own proteftant fubjects with her particular regard and favours, and to ufe a juft feverity against fuch, as were of a contrary party, and were now grown formidable for their num bers. He died the year following, as obferved before, and was interred on the fouth fide of the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, where a noble mo nument was erected to his memory in the fouth ifle of the old choir, with this ingenious infcription written by the great fcholar, and most celebrated poet, George Buchanan, Tutor to King James I. |