Affairs in the Palatinate and the Low Countries, annis 1621 and 1622;" MS. "Letters relating to State Affairs, written to the King and Viscount Rochester, from Venice; ann. 1613;" MS. "Letters from and to Sir Dudley Carleton, Knight, during his Embassy in Holland, from January 1615-6, to December 1620, with a judicious historical Preface." Lond. 1757, 4to. This is the collection mentioned above. "A Letter to the Earl of Salisbury." [Dudley Carleton, says the Oxford historian, was born at Baldwin Brightwell near Watlington in Oxfordshire, in 15739; became a student of Christchurch, under the tuition of Dr. John King, and took the degrees in arts, that of master being completed in 1600, having then returned from his travels. He afterwards went as secretary to sir Ralph Winwood into ⚫ Howard's Coll. p. 513. [Printed from his majesty's office of papers and records for business of state.] According to lord Hardwicke, he had his scholastic education at Westminster school; and in the first parliament of king James represented the borough of St. Mawe's in Cornwall. In consequence of having been patronised by the earl of Northumberland, who had been committed on the discovery of the gunpowder-plot, he was put under confinement; but his innocence soon appearing, he was honourably discharged. Hist. Preface to Sir Dudley Carleton's Letters. : the Low Countries, where he added experience to his learning. In 1610 he received the honour of knighthood from king James, who sent him embassador in ordinary to the states of Venice, where he remained five years he then went in the same capacity to the states of Holland, where he resided ten years. At the latter end of James's reign he was made vice-chamberlain of the household, which he held for some time under Charles the first: by whom he was sent as embassador extraordinary both to Holland and France. In 1626 he was created baron Carleton of Imbercourt3, and in 1628 viscount Dorchester in Oxfordshire. In the same year he was constituted one of the principal secretaries of state, which he held till his death in 1631-2. He was a person, adds Wood, that understood several languages well, as also the laws, conditions, and manners of most states in Europe. Though he had studied the intrigues of courts, he was just in his dealings, and beloved by most men, who much missed him after his death. On that occasion Cowley wrote an inflated elegy, which (as Dr. Johnson observes of another lamentation by the same poet) has much praise but little passion: it concludes with a couplet of pure fustian. Weep with me each, who either reads or hears, And know his loss deserves his country's tears. The muses lost a patron by his fate, Virtue a husband, and a prop the state. * Wood says, in Surrey; but Bolton, in Middlesex. Extinct Peerage, p. 94. Sol's chorus weeps, and to adorn his hearse And had there been before no spring of theirs, Numerous letters by sir Dudley Carleton are printed in Winwood's Memorials. In the Harl. MSS. 1580 and 7002, three others are pointed out in the catalogue. In No. 161 is "The Speech of Mr. Vice-chamberlayne, Sir D. Carleton, on the Committment of Sir Dudley Digges and Sir John Eliot, May 12, 1626.” And in No. 160 is "An Explanation of his Speech delivered the same Day in the Commons House of Parliament, with Sir John Eliot his Answer thereunto, May 20, 1626.” The latter of these was printed by lord Hardwicke as an appendix to the second edition of Sir Dudley Carleton's Letters2; the former has been transcribed for insertion in the present article; as forming a diversity in the series of literary extracts, and evincing a forensic species of dexterity in the orator. "Seeing you, Mr. Speaker, at good leisure, it puts me in minde of an accident which hapned in my youth, in passinge over the seas, where missinge our course in the nighte, we touched first on one sand, then on another, untill at last we stucke fast. Our • Three letters from lord Dorchester to the queen of Bohemia, in 1631, are printed in the same Appendix to lord Hardwicke's Historical Preface. this master beinge an experte, discreete man, sendes for his compasse and examines howe we came on, and thereby fyndinge the cause, brought us off againe the same way we canie on. I assume not to myselfe to be the wise master, but, as a passenger, to relate what then preserved us, and to applie it to the present occasyon. Once or twice we have touched upon the sands this parliament, but never stucke fast untill now. Now imagine the compasse lies upon this table, and lett us see whether we came on this rocke by missinge our course. I meane not to laye any censure upon house perticular men may be displeased, yet I shall never question the house, nor the silent parte of them, (who are commonlie the wisest part) soe their silence be not opiniatre as ours is. Oure compasse that we are to be tryed by, is our order that authorized our eight 3 to speake what they had to handle, elles we shall committ ourselves to an uncertayne course, and whatsoever was under those heades agreed on, we are bound to maintaine, which consisted of sixe partes. If there were a slippe made by any of them, we will lay it asleepe; but if any went beyond the matter, especiallie the conclusion against the greate peere 4 that yet standes rectus in curia"-The house cryinge No; he an 3 Members appointed to manage the impeachment. 4 ✦ Villiers, duke of Buckingham, who was impeached by the commons for sundry misdemeanors, misprisions, offences, and crimes. Sir Dudley Digges opened the charge, and sir John Eliot summed up; for which both were sent to the Tower by the king's command. swered, “ I am sure he is no condemned man : though the epilogue still called him this man 5. "Now for the prologue and epilogue, which were the two extreames of this charge. I can saye for the first, that it is no newes; for the best orator that ever sate within these walles, sir Francis Bacon, used for an entrance into his discourse, many prittie historicall or poeticall thinges. It hath been done, it may be done, and soe did ours by his meteor, wherein he had a bright shininge sonne much to the honoure and prayse of the kinge. We have longe insisted upon the evelles, causes, and remedies; our evell is to have oure members taken from us, when they were sitting with us. The cause I am not commaunded, but have leave to tell you, was a high offence of scandall taken, I will not say given, unto his majestie, by sir Dudley Digges, who, speakinge of the kinge's death, said, "I will spare the kinges honore livinge.' This passage comminge severall wayes unto him, and was the • An expression applied to the duke by sir John Eliot, who thus vindicated its usage: "That in any language to say that man or this man should be an offence, I do not believe it. You know the Latin word is ille, as when they write of Cæsar, they used to say ille, ille Casar; and that I should think it an offence to call any man, a man, I cannot do it; nay, I must say, I do not think yet, that he is a god: and therefore, sir, I did use this title, but not every time that I had cause to name him; and sometimes I think it is sufficient to say, this man.”—See sir J. Eliot's exculpatory answers to sir D. Carleton in Lord Hardwicke's Appendix. 6 Or metaphor, perhaps, of Stellionatus, applied to the duke as a stigmatizing title, indicative of collusion or dolus malus. |