Book I, COTTON. Does he take a line of apology and use words of extenuation? Not a whit. In the presence of some of the wisest SIR ROBERT and ablest of English statesmen, he eulogises SOMERSET as an honest and unselfish minister of the Crown. He asserts, that the Earl had discovered the double dealings' of Spanish emissaries, and the dangers of the Spanish alliance; and had made some progress in dissuading even King JAMES from putting faith in Spaniards. Then, winding up this episode, in order to pass to the topic of the hour, COTTON says: Thus stood the effect of SOMERSET'S power with His Majesty, when the clouds of his misfortune. fell upon him. What future advisers led to we may well remember. The marriage with Spain was renewed; GONDOMAR declared an honest man; Popery heartened; His Majesty's forces in the Palatinate withdrawn; His Highness's children stripped of their patrimony; our old and fast allies disheartened; and the King our now master MS.LANSD, exposed to so great a peril as no wise and faithful counsel 491, fol. 195. would ever have advised.' * At Court, speech such as this was deeply resented, instead of being turned to profit. A curious little incident which occurred at the Coronation of CHARLES in the next winter testifies, characteristically, to the effect which it produced on the minds both of the new King and of his favourite. At the date of that ceremony, Sir Robert's close political connection with the future Parliamentary chiefs was but in its infancy. His views of public policy were fast ripening, and had borne fruit. His private friendships were more and more shaping themselves into accordance with his tendencies * There is another MS. of this speech, in Sir John Eliot's hand, in the library at Port Eliot. See Forster's Life of Eliot, Vol. I, p. 413. Chap. II. SIR ROBERT AND HOS PITALITIES. in politics. Amongst those whose intimacy he cultivated— BOOK 1, besides that of ELIOT and others who have been mentioned LIFE OF already were Symonds D'EwES, and John SELDEN. It COTTON. was at COTTON's hospitable table, in Old Palace Yard, that FRIENDS the two men last named first made acquaintance with each other. Both were scholars; both were strongly imbued with the true antiquarian tinge; both had an extensive acquaintance with the black-letter lore of jurisprudence, as well as with the more elegant branches of archæology; and both, up to a certain point, had common aims in public life; yet they did not draw very near together. SELDEN'S more robust mind, and his wider sympathies, shocked some of the puritanic nicenesses of D'EwES. Precisely the same remark would hold good of the relations between. COTTON and D'EwES. But a certain geniality of manners in Sir Robert, combined with his grandee-like openness of hand and mind, attracted his fellow-baronet in a degree which went some way towards vanquishing D'EwES' most ingrained scruples. 'I had much more familiarity with Sir Robert COTTON, than with Master SELDEN,' jots down Sir Symonds in his Autobiographic Diary, and then he Harl. MS., adds: SELDEN being a man exceedingly puffed up with the apprehension of his own abilities.' That last sentence,— as the reader, perhaps, will agree with me in thinking,may possibly tell a more veracious tale of the writer, than of the man whom it reproves. Be that as it may, the dining-room in Old Palace Yard witnessed frequent meetings of many groups of visitors of whose tabletalk it would be delightful could we find as good a record as we have of the tabletalk in Bolt Court, or at Streatham Park; or even as we have of almost contemporary talk around the board at Hawthornden. Glorious old Ben himself was a frequent guest at Sir Robert COTTON'S as above. Book I, table. Until late in JAMES' reign, CAMDEN, when his growing infirmities permitted him to journey up from SIR ROBERT Chislehurst, would still be seen there, now and again. LIFE OF COTTON. THE CORO NATION OF CHARLES I. During the rare sessions of Parliament, many a famous member, as he left the House of Commons, would join the circle. And the high discourse about Greeks and Romans, about poetry and archæology, would be pleasantly varied, by the newest themes of politics, by occasional threnodies on the exorbitant power of court minions, but also by occasional and glowing anticipations of a better time to come. At one of these festive meetings, occurring not long before the Coronation of CHARLES THE FIRST, the talk seems to have turned on the coming solemnity. The plague COTTON AND at this time was still in London, though it was fast abating. That circumstance was to abridge the ceremonies, in order to permit the Court to leave Westminster more quickly; but it was known that great attention had been given by the King, personally, when framing the programme, to the strict observance of ancient forms. D'EwES was one of Sir Robert's guests. Like his host, he had a great love for sight-seeing on public occasions. And they would both anticipate a special pleasure in witnessing the revival of certain coronation observances which had been pretermitted during two centuries. In regard to the coronation oath COTTON had been consulted, and he expected to be present, carrying in his hand his own famous copy of the Gospels known as the Evangeliary of King Ethelstan.' It was also expected that the watergate of Cotton House would be the King's landing-place, and that he would cross the garden in order that he might enter the Palace more conveniently than he could from its usual stairs, then under repair, or in need of it. Sir Robert invited D'EwEs, with Chap. II. other of his guests-not privileged to claim places in West- BOOK I, minster Abbey on the great occasion-that at least they might see their new sovereign, as he passed to take his crown. When the morning came D'Ewes was early in his visit, but he found Cotton House already filled with ladies. The Earl Marshal had decorated the stairs to the river and the watergate very handsomely. Sir Robert had done his part by decorating his windows, and his garden, more handsomely still. But to the chagrin alike of the fair spectators and of their host, as they were standing, in all their bravery, from watergate to housedoor, to do respectful obeisance, the royal barge, by the King's own commandment-given at the moment, but pre-arranged by BUCKINGHAM was urged onward. To our amazement, writes Sir Symonds, we saw the King's barge pass to the ordinary stairs, belonging to the backyard of the Palace, where the landing was dirty. . and the incommodity was increased by the royal barge dashing into the ground and sticking fast, before it touched the causeway.' His Majesty, followed by the Favourite, had to leap across the mud, certainly an unusual incident in a coronation show. When COTTON-swallowing the mortification which he must have felt, on behalf of his bevy of fair visitors, if not on his own-presently showed himself in the Abbey, bearing the Evangeliary, he and it were contemptuously thrust aside. As a straw tells the turn of the wind, this trivial incident points to a policy. The insults both within the Abbey and without, had been planned, by the King and Duke, in order to mark the royal indignation at the close fellowship of COTTON with ELIOT and the other Parliamentary leaders. That the insults might be the more LIFE OF SIR ROBERT D'Ewes ; in Harl. MS., 646, as before. BOOK I, Chap. II. LIFE OF SIR ROBERT COTTON. Mede to MS. Harl., 1626. keenly felt, the Earl Marshal was left in ignorance of the plan. It is a help to the truthful portraiture of CHarles, as well as to that of BUCKINGHAM, to note that to insult a group of English ladies was no drawback to the pleasure of putting a marked affront upon a political opponent. Perhaps, it increased the zest, from the probable near relationship of some among them to the offender. But it is more important to note that another and graver intention in respect to Sir Robert COTTON had been already formed. It was in contemplation to do, in 1626, what was not really done until 1629. BUCKINGHAM had advised the King to put the royal seals on the Cottonian Library. 383, 18 April, That done, he thought, there would surely be an end to the communication of formidable precedents for parliamentary warfare. More wary counsellors however interposed with wiser advice. A fitting pretext was lacking. Slenderness in the pretext would be no serious obstacle to action. But some excuse there must be. The project, though abandoned for the time, will be seen to have its value when considering, presently, the strange story which is told, in the Privy Council Book, of the Proposition to bridle the impertinency of Parliaments,' and when narrating the sequel of that high-handed act of power, which brought COTTON's head—as yet scarcely gray-with sorrow to the grave. ADVICE TO PRIVY Although, tnus early in the reign of CHARLES, a court insult was inflicted upon Sir Robert COTTON, after a fashion the extreme silliness of which rather serves to set off the intended malignity than to cloke it, only a few months passed before his advice was called for in presence of the Council Board, on an important question of home policy. The question raised was that of an alteration of the coinage. |