Page images
PDF
EPUB

any thing unworthy of his station. He owned, indeed, that out of his great care for the personal safety of his royal mistress, and the security of her realm, he had curiously endeavoured to search and sift out all plots and designs against both.'* And he added that in this view, if Ballard, though an accomplice with Babington, had offered him his service in the discovery of the plot, he would not only have accepted it, but also have rewarded him for it.' Mary seemed to

not fit to be kept, that I may satisfy her Majesty therein, who might otherwise take offence thereat; and, if you entreat this postscript in the same kind, you shall not err a whit.'

A few animadversions upon these postscripts are necessary. Secretary Davison's capacity makes no very great figure in history: but we are sure it is quite inconsistent with Sir Francis Walsingham's known cautiousness, cunning, or call it what you please, to trust a dangerous letter out of his hands, and stand to the chance of having it burnt, or otherwise destroyed, by those to whom it was sent; when he might as effectually have conveyed his orders or directions by a written message, which should have been brought back to him by the messenger. This latter part is more consistent with his character. However, the most effectual way of determining this point is to examine the pretended original letter, and see whether it is signed by Sir Francis Walsingham's own hand, which is well known, there being so many letters of his extant in different places. It is certain, that Sir Francis was not ready to order the Queen of Scots to be clandestinely destroyed: for when the Earl of Leicester was for taking her off by poison, as above stated, Walsingham protested 'he was so far from consenting that any violence should be done to her, that he had of late crossed Morton's counsel, who advised that she should be sent back into Scotland, and put to death in the very frontiers and borders of both kingdoms.'

* The Queen of Scots' letters were all carried to him by her own servant, whom she trusted, and decyphered to him by one Philips, as they were sealed again by one Gregory; so that neither she, nor her correspondents, ever perceived either the seal defaced, or the letters delayed, to her dying day.

[ocr errors]

be satisfied with this vindication of himself, and expressed her concern, that she should have credited idle reports to his disadvantage.'

In 1587, the King of Spain having made vast preparations, which kept all Europe in suspense, as not knowing on what nation the storm would break, Walsingham employed his utmost endeavours to discover this important secret. At last, he received intelligence from Madrid, that the King had informed his council of his having despatched an express to the Supreme Pontiff, acquainting his Holiness with the true design of his preparations, and begging his blessing upon it; which design however, for some particular reasons, he could not disclose to them till the courier's return. The secret being thus traced to it's recess, Walsingham, through a Venetian priest retained at Rome as his spy, procured a copy of the original letter, which was stolen out of the Pope's cabinet. After this, by his dexterous management he caused the Spanish bills to be protested at Genoa, and thus happily retarded the menaced invasion for an entire year.

This seems to have been the last public transaction, in which he was concerned; and of his private life no interesting anecdotes have been preserved. It remains only to add, that every attempt to promote the trade and navigation of England met at his hands protection and encouragement. By him Hakluyt's voyages and discoveries in foreign parts, and Gilbert's settling of Newfoundland, were promoted; and he assisted these adventurers from his private purse. He, likewise, founded a Divinity-Lecture at Oxford, and a Library at King's College, Cambridge.

Upon his death (which happened April 6, 1590) a remarkable proof was given, how far he had pre

[blocks in formation]

ferred the public to his own interest; for though, in addition to his post of Secretary of State, he held the office of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, he died so poor, that his friends were obliged to bury him by night in St. Paul's Church, lest his body should be arrested for debt! The want of generosity, and even of justice, manifested by Queen Elizabeth, as deducible from this circumstance, reflects no honour upon her character.

By his lady, who was of the family of St. Barbe, he left only one daughter, who (as it has been stated in a former Memoir) was married, successively, to Sir Philip Sidney; to Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex; ́and to Richard Bourke, Earl of Clanrickarde in Ireland. By the first she had one daughter, married to Roger Earl of Rutland; by the second, a son and two daughters; and by the last, a son and a daughter.

His Negotiations, or State-Papers, were collected by Sir Dudley Digges, Master of the Rolls, and published in folio, in 1655. A work is likewise ascribed to him entitled, Arcana Aulica, or Walsingham's Manual of Prudential Maxims,' which has been often printed; but it is not probable, that he was it's author. Howell, however, in his edition of Sir Robert Cotton's Posthuma,' 1651, has published a small tract under the name of Honesty, Ambition, and Fortitude anatomised,' 1590, which he expressly attributes to his pen; and which, being short and not very commonly met with, is subjoined to this Memoir.

6

[ocr errors]

'What it is directly that I will write, I know not. For, as my thoughts have never dwelt long upon one thing, and so my mind hath been filled with the

A

imagination of things of a different nature, so there is a necessity that this offspring of so uncomposed a parent must be mishaped, answerable to the original whence it is derived. Somewhat I am resolved to write, of some virtues, and some vices, and some indifferent things. For knowing that a man's life is a perpetual action, which every moment is under one of these three heads, my imaginations have ever chiefly tended to find out the natures of these things, that I might (as much as my frailty, the inseparable companion of man's nature, would give me leave) wear out this garment of my body, with as little inconvenience to my soul as I could, and play this game of conversation (in which every one, as long as he lives, makes one) with the reputation of a fair gamester, rather than of a cunning one.

Of Honesty.

And, first, I will write of Honesty; not in it's general sense (in which it comprehends all moral virtue) but in that particular, in which (according to our phrase) it denominates an honest man. There is required in an honest man, not so much to do every thing he would be done unto, as to forbear any thing that he would not be content to suffer: for the essence of honesty consists in forbearing to do ill; and to do good acts is a proper passion, and no essential part of honesty. As chastity is the honesty of women; so honesty is the chastity of men. Either of them, once impaired, is irrecoverable. For a woman that hath lost her chastity may as easily recover it, as a man that hath once taken liberty of being a knave, can be restored to the title of an honest man. For honesty

doth not consist in the doing of one, or one thousand acts, never so well; but in spinning on the delicate threads of life, though not exceeding fine, yet free from breaks and strains. We do not call him an honest man, but a worthy man, that doth brave eminent acts: but we give him the title of an honest man, of whom no man can truly report any ill.

The most eminent part of honesty is truth, not in words (though that be necessarily required) but in the course of his life: in his profession of friendship; in his promise of rewards and benefits to those, that depend upon him; and gratefully acknowledging those good turns, that he receives from any man. The greatest opposite to honesty is falsehood; and, as that is commonly waited upon with cunning and dissimulation, so is honesty with discretion and assurance.

6

It is true, that custom makes some apparently false some through impudence, and too much use; and other some for want of discretion, which if they had had, should have been employed in covering it. And there be some, in whom (though it be impossible, honesty should be a fault in society) their indiscreet managing of it makes it holden for a thing that's merely a vice, a wonderful troublesome companion. An honest man is as near an aptitude to become a friend, as gold is to become coin: he will melt with good offices well done, and will easily take the stamp of friendship; and having once taken it, though it may be bended and bruised, yet still will keep his stamp clean without rust or canker, and is not ashamed to be enclosed in it, but is contented to have all his glory seen through it only.

It is of itself a competent estate of virtue, able to supply all necessary parts of it to a man's own par

« PreviousContinue »