author of this extraordinary prerogative, vested in Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby, general of Queen Elizabeth's forces in the Netherlands, at the time when the Prince of Parma † was obliged, by the valour of the English, to break up the siege of Bergen-op-zome.

The fourth instance is directly to the point in question, and fixes the exact æra (the year 1591) when Sir Robert Cary was made a knight. It is inserted by Mr Camden in these words.

"That he (the Earl of Essex) might wịn "the love and affection of his army, and

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heighten their courage, he knighted ma

ny, not without the offence of many

*See Camden's Queen Elizabeth, book iii. p. 420., anno 1588.

+ Alexander Farnese was one of the greatest generals in the sixteenth century;-an æra productive of remarkable military men. He was made governor of the Low Countries in the year 1578.. If the Spanish armada had been successful, he intended to have invaded England with those forces which he afterwards employed against Bergen-op-zome.

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others, who had been dignified with that "honour before they came from home; as " if he had too cheaply prostituted that ti"tle, which had hitherto been of so glori❝ous esteem among the English, and which "the Queen had bestowed but very spa

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ringly, and that only upon men of good "note and spirit.” *

By the quotations here drawn from Camden, it is plain that the royal prerogative of knighting was, on some occasions, permitted and made over to the great officers of state. Such a grant was, in all probability, limited and restrained. The Queen intended it only as a power to give immediate honours upon extraordinary occasions, in distant countries, and for signal acts of bravery and military conduct. Lord Essex, naturally rash and precipitate, often used this power inconsiderately. He rewarded services that were to be done; the

* See Camden's Queen Elizabeth, book iv. p. 449.

Queen rewarded services that were done : her words, her manner, her very looks were rewards. It is a just remark, made by our historians, that she denied a favour with more grace than her successor (we may add her two next successors) granted it. Camden's assertion of Queen Elizabeth's rare and wary disposal of knighthood, has drawn Mons. Rapin into an error. Speaking of her death he says, that there was then such a scarcity of knights, “Qu'il ne se "trouvoit plus assez de chevaliers dans les pro"vinces pour etre deputez au parlement.” * "That there were not knights enough to

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serve in parliament." Tindal, to correct, or rather to outdo Mons. Rapin, translates the passage, "that scarce a county had "knights enough to make a jury."

Lord Essex most certainly gave no offence by any honours which he bestowed

* See L'Histoire d'Angleterre, par M. de Rapin Thoyras, Vol. VII. liv. 18. p. 6.

on Sir Robert Cary, who, from the beginning to the end of his life, deserved all those honours which he received. He was early attached to that brave and unfortunate Earl; he was his true friend, and faithful servant. The total silence which may be observed in his Memoirs of his noble patron's catastrophe, proceeds, it may be presumed, from duty towards the Queen, whose inflexible severity as he could not applaud, he would not presume to cen

sure.

4

No prince could come with greater advantages than King James I. to the throne. Protestants and Papists allowed his right: the former from a just system of politics, and a true spirit of patriotism, because he was the nearest Protestant heir to the crown; the latter, because, having often declared the right of his mother, they found themselves obliged to acknowledge the right of her son.

Whether King James made a proper use, or not, of the right inherent in himself, and

the unanimity collected in his people, is a point neither proper nor necessary to be discussed here. It is certain he began his reign ungracefully. He drove the people from his presence by proclamation, as they loyally flocked to see him; and he hanged up a cutpurse without any other authority or trial, but his own will and pleasure. This last action was little murmured at during the astonishment of joy with which his new subjects received him; but it was deeply, though not openly, remembered in the reign of his son, when jealousies arose and increased to such a height, that they overturned the king, the kingdom, the law, and the gospel.

In the subsequent Memoirs will appear the yielding, timid disposition of King James I.: a prince flattered in his lifetime to the height of heaven: crammed down, since his death, into the lowest pit of hell. The extremes of flattery are always succeeded by the extremes of obloquy. Extremes of every kind are evidently avoided by Sir