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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e28e93f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #67389 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67389) diff --git a/old/67389-0.txt b/old/67389-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 99d2696..0000000 --- a/old/67389-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,14237 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lives of the Founders of the British -Museum, by Edward Edwards - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Lives of the Founders of the British Museum - with Notices of its Chief Augmentors and Other Benefactors, - 1570-1870. Part I of II - -Author: Edward Edwards - -Release Date: February 17, 2022 [eBook #67389] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Richard Tonsing, MWS and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The - Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE -BRITISH MUSEUM *** - - - - - - LIVES OF - THE FOUNDERS - OF THE - BRITISH MUSEUM; - WITH - NOTICES OF ITS CHIEF AUGMENTORS AND OTHER BENEFACTORS. - 1570–1870. - - - BY EDWARD EDWARDS. - - - - - PART I. - - - LONDON: - TRÜBNER AND CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. - 1870. - (_All rights reserved._) - - - - - PRINTED BY J. E. ADLARD, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE. - - - - - LIVES OF THE FOUNDERS, AND NOTICES OF SOME CHIEF BENEFACTORS AND - ORGANIZERS, OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. - - - _COTTON—ARUNDEL—HARLEY—COURTEN—SLOANE—HAMILTON—CHARLES - TOWNELEY—PAYNE-KNIGHT—LANSDOWNE—BRIDGEWATER—KING GEORGE - III—BANKS—CRACHERODE—GRENVILLE—FELLOWS—LAYARD—CURETON—&c. &c. &c._ - - - - - WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. - - - MEMOIRS OF LIBRARIES: INCLUDING A HANDBOOK OF LIBRARY ECONOMY. 2 vols. - 8vo. [With 8 steel plates; 36 woodcuts; 16 lithographic plates; and - 4 illustrations in chromo-lithography.] 48s. - - LIBRARIES, AND FOUNDERS OF LIBRARIES. 8vo. 18s. - - COMPARATIVE TABLES OF SCHEMES WHICH HAVE BEEN PROPOSED FOR THE - CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. Fol. 5s. - - SYNOPTICAL TABLES OF THE RECORDS OF THE REALM. WITH AN HISTORICAL - PREFACE. Fol. 9s. - - CHAPTERS OF THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY, &c. 8vo. 6s. - - LIBER MONASTERII DE HYDA; _comprising a Chronicle of the Affairs of - England from the Settlement of the Saxons to Cnut; and a - Chartulary_; A.D. 455–1023. Edited by the Authority of the Lords - Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury, under the Direction of the - Master of the Rolls. 8vo. 10s. 6d. - - THE LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEGH; BASED ON CONTEMPORARY DOCUMENTS - PRESERVED IN THE ROLLS HOUSE, THE PRIVY COUNCIL OFFICE, HATFIELD - HOUSE, THE BRITISH MUSEUM, AND OTHER MANUSCRIPT REPOSITORIES, - BRITISH AND FOREIGN. Together with his LETTERS, now first Collected. - 2 vols. 8vo. 32s. - - EXMOUTH AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD, ANCIENT AND MODERN; BEING NOTICES, - HISTORICAL, BIOGRAPHICAL, AND DESCRIPTIVE, OF A CORNER OF SOUTH - DEVON. Crown 8vo. 5s. - - FREE TOWN LIBRARIES, THEIR FORMATION, MANAGEMENT, AND HISTORY; IN - BRITAIN, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND AMERICA. Together with brief Notices - of Book-Collectors, and of the Respective Places of Deposit of their - Surviving Collections. 8vo. 21s. - -[Illustration: - - DALLASTYPE. - - The first British Museum; formerly the residence of the Duke of - Montagu. -] - - - - - LIVES OF - THE FOUNDERS - OF THE - BRITISH MUSEUM; - WITH NOTICES OF ITS CHIEF AUGMENTORS AND OTHER BENEFACTORS. - 1570–1870. - - - BY EDWARD EDWARDS. - -[Illustration: - - The old “Townley Gallery.” -] - - LONDON: - TRÜBNER AND CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. - 1870. - (_All rights reserved._) - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PREFATORY NOTE. - - -For the materials of the earlier of the ‘Lives’ contained in this volume -I have been chiefly indebted to the Collection of State Papers at the -Rolls House; to the Privy-Council Registers at the Council Office; and -to many manuscripts in the Cottonian, Harleian, Sloane, and Lansdowne -Collections at the British Museum. - - HIGHGATE; _6th May, 1870_. - - _The liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things - shall he stand._ - - ISAIAH, xxxii, 8. - - _Man’s only relics are his benefits; - These, be there ages, be there worlds, between, - Retain him in communion with his kind._ - - LANDOR (_Count Julian_). - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - BOOK THE FIRST. - - _EARLY COLLECTORS:—THE GATHERERS OF THE FOUNDATION COLLECTIONS._ - - - CHAPTER I. - - _INTRODUCTION._ - PAGE - - _Chronological Epochs in the Formation of the British Museum_ 5 - - - CHAPTER II. - - _THE FOUNDER OF THE COTTONIAN LIBRARY._ - - _The Personal and Public Life of Sir Robert Cotton.—His Political - Writings and Political Persecutions.—Sources and Growth of the - Cottonian Library.—The Successors of Sir Robert Cotton.—History - of the Cottonian Library, until its union with the Manuscript - Library of Harley, and with the Museum and Miscellaneous - Collections of Sloane.—Review of some recent Aspersions on the - Character of the Founder_ 48 - - - CHAPTER III. - - _THE CHIEF COLLECTOR AND THE AUGMENTORS OF THE OLD ROYAL AND PUBLIC - LIBRARY AT ST. JAMES’._ - - _Life of Henry, Prince of Wales, son of James I, and virtual - Founder of the ‘Royal Library.’—Its Augmentors and its - Librarians.—Acquisition of the Library of the - Theyers.—Incorporation with the Collections of Cotton and of - Sloane_ 153 - - - CHAPTER IV. - - _THE COLLECTOR OF THE ARUNDELIAN MSS._ - - _Political Exile and Foreign Travel under Elizabeth and under - James.—Life of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel.—The Consolations - of Connoisseurship.—Vicissitudes of the Arundel Museum.—The - gifts of Henry Howard to the Royal Society_ 172 - - - CHAPTER V. - - _THE COLLECTOR OF THE HARLEIAN MSS._ - - _The Harley Family.—Parliamentary and Official Career of Robert - Harley, Earl of Oxford.—The Party Conflicts under Queen - Anne.—Robert Harley and Jonathan Swift.—Harley and the Court of - the Stuarts.—Did Harley conspire to restore the - Pretender?—History of the Harleian Library.—The Life and - Correspondence of Humphrey Wanley_ 203 - - - CHAPTER VI. - - _THE FOUNDERS OF THE SLOANE MUSEUM._ - - _Flemish Exiles in England.—The Adventures, Mercantile and - Colonial Enterprises, and Vicissitudes of the Courtens.—William - Courten and his Collections.—The Life and Travels of Sir Hans - Sloane.—His acquisition of Courten’s Museum.—Its Growth under - the new Possessor.—History of the Sloane Museum and Library, and - of their purchase by Parliament_ 247 - - - BOOK THE SECOND. - - _THE ORGANIZERS, AND EARLY AUGMENTORS._ - - - CHAPTER I. - - _INTRODUCTORY._ - - _Househunting.—The Removal of the Sloane Museum from - Chelsea.—Montagu House, and its History.—The Early Trustees and - Officers.—The Museum Regulations.—Early Helpers in the - Foundation and Increase of the British Museum.—Epochs in the - Growth of the Natural History Collections.—Experiences of - Inquiring Visitors in the years 1765–1784_ 317 - - - CHAPTER II. - - _A GROUP OF CLASSICAL ARCHÆOLOGISTS AND EXPLORERS._ - - _Sir William Hamilton and his Pursuits and Employments in - Italy.—The Acquisitions of the French Institute of Egypt, and - the capture of part of them at Alexandria.—Charles Towneley and - his Collection of Antiquities.—The Researches of the Earl of - Elgin in Greece.—The Collections and Writings of Richard Payne - Knight_ 346 - - - CHAPTER III. - - _A GROUP OF BOOK-LOVERS AND PUBLIC BENEFACTORS._ - - _Notices of some early Donors of Books.—The Life and Collections - of Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode.—William Petty, first Marquess of - Lansdowne, and his Library of Manuscripts.—The Literary Life and - Collections of Dr. Charles Burney.—Francis Hargrave and his - Manuscripts.—The Life and Testamentary Foundations of Francis - Henry Egerton, Ninth Earl of Bridgewater_ 413 - - - CHAPTER IV. - - _THE KING’S OR ‘GEORGIAN’ LIBRARY;—ITS COLLECTOR, AND ITS DONOR._ - - _Notices of the Literary Tastes and Acquirements of King George - the Third.—His Conversations with Men of Letters.—History of his - Library and of its Transfer to the British Nation by George the - Fourth_ 464 - - - CHAPTER V. - - _THE FOUNDER OF THE BANKSIAN MUSEUM AND LIBRARY._ - - _The Life, Travels, and Social Influence, of Sir Joseph Banks.—The - Royal Society under his Presidency.—His Collections and their - acquisition by the Trustees of the British Museum.—Notices of - some other contemporaneous accessions_ 487 - - - BOOK THE THIRD. - - _LATER AUGMENTORS AND BENEFACTORS._ - - 1829–1870. - - - CHAPTER I. - - _GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, UNDER THE - ADMINISTRATION, AS PRINCIPAL-LIBRARIAN, OF JOSEPH PLANTA._ - - _Notices of the Life of Joseph Planta, third - Principal-Librarian.—Improvements in the Internal Economy of the - Museum introduced or recommended by Mr. Planta.—His labours for - the enlargement of the Collections—and on the Museum - Publications and Catalogues.—The Museum Gardens and the Duke of - Bedford_ 515 - - - CHAPTER II. - - _INTRODUCTION TO BOOK III (continued):—GROWTH, PROGRESS, AND INTERNAL - ECONOMY, OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, DURING THE PRINCIPAL-LIBRARIANSHIP OF - SIR HENRY ELLIS._ - - _Internal Economy of the Museum at the time of the death of Joseph - Planta.—The Literary Life and Public Services of Sir Henry - Ellis.—The Candidature of Henry Fynes Clinton.—Progress of - Improvement in certain Departments.—Introduction of Sir Antonio - Panizzi into the Service of the Trustees.—The House of Commons’ - Committee of 1835–36.—Panizzi and Henry Francis Cary.—Memoir of - Cary.—Panizzi’s Report on the proper Character of a National - Library for Britain, made in October, 1837.—His successive - labours for Internal Reform.—And his Helpers in the work.—The - Literary Life and Public Services of Thomas Watts.—Sir A. - Panizzi’s Special Report to the Trustees of 1845, and what grew - thereout.—Progress, during Sir H. Ellis’s term of office, of the - several Departments of Natural History and of Antiquities_ 527 - - - CHAPTER III. - - _INTRODUCTION TO BOOK III (continued):—GROWTH, PROGRESS, AND INTERNAL - ECONOMY, OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM DURING THE PRINCIPAL-LIBRARIANSHIP OF - SIR ANTONIO PANIZZI._ - - _The Museum Buildings.—The New Reading-Room and its History.—The - House of Commons’ Committee of 1860.—Further Reorganization of - the Departments.—Summary of the Growth of the Collections in the - years 1856–1866, and of their increased Use and Enjoyment by the - Public_ 583 - - - CHAPTER IV. - - _ANOTHER GROUP OF ARCHÆOLOGISTS AND EXPLORERS.—THE SPOILS OF XANTHUS, - OF BABYLON, OF NINEVEH, OF HALICARNASSUS, AND OF CARTHAGE._ - - _The Libraries of the East.—The Monasteries of the Nitrian Desert, - and their Explorers.—William Cureton and his Labours on the MSS. - of Nitria, and in other Departments of Oriental Literature.—The - Researches in the Levant of Sir Charles Fellows, of Mr. Layard, - and of Mr. Charles Newton.—Other conspicuous Augmentors of the - Collection of Antiquities_ 608 - - - CHAPTER V. - - _THE FOUNDER OF THE GRENVILLE LIBRARY._ - - _The Grenvilles and their Influence on the Political Aspect of the - Georgian Reigns.—The Public and Literary Life of the Right - Honourable Thomas Grenville.—History of the Grenville Library_ 670 - - - CHAPTER VI. - - _OTHER BENEFACTORS OF RECENT DAYS._ - - _Recent Contributors to the Natural History Collections.—The Duke - of Blacas and his Museum of Greek and Roman Antiquities.—Hugh - Cuming and his Travels and Collections in South America.—John - Rutter Chorley, and his Collection of Spanish Plays and Spanish - Poetry.—George Witt and his Collections illustrative of the - History of Obscure Superstitions.—The Ethnographical Museum of - Henry Christy, and its History.—Colonial Archæologists and - British Consuls: The History of the Woodhouse Collection, and of - its transmittal to the British Museum.—Lord Napier and the - Acquisition of the Abyssinian MSS.—The Art Collections and - Bequests of Felix Slade.—The Travels and the Japanese Library of - Von Siebold_ 686 - - - CHAPTER VII. - - _RECONSTRUCTORS AND PROJECTORS._ - - _The Plans and Projects for the Severance and Partial Dispersion - of the Collections which at present form ‘The British Museum,’ - and for their re-combination and re-arrangement_ 721 - - INDEX 763 - - - - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. - - - PAGE - I. VIEW OF THE GARDEN-FRONT OF OLD MONTAGU HOUSE, - THE FIRST ‘BRITISH MUSEUM;’ as it appeared at - the opening of the Institution to the Public in - 1759 _Frontispiece._ - - II. VIEW OF THE OLD TOWNELEY GALLERY (built for the - reception of the Towneleian Marbles in 1805, - and pulled down on the erection of the existing _Vignette on - Museum) Title-page._ - - III. GROUND-PLAN OF THE PRINCIPAL FLOOR OF THE - ORIGINAL BRITISH MUSEUM OF 1759 325 - - IV. GROUND-PLAN OF THE SECONDARY FLOOR OF THE SAME 327 - - V. SUGGESTIONS MADE IN 1847 FOR THE ENLARGEMENT OF - THE LIBRARY OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM; being the - facsimile of a Plan inserted in a Pamphlet - (written in 1846) entitled ‘_Public Libraries _To face p._ - in London and Paris_’ 556 - - VI. REDUCED COPY OF BENJAMIN DELESSERT’S ‘_PROJET - D’UNE BIBLIOTHÈQUE CIRCULAIRE_,’ 1835 587 - - VII. GENERAL BLOCK-PLAN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, as it - was in 1857 589 - - VIII. GROUND-PLAN OF THE NEW OR ‘PANIZZI’ READING-ROOM, - and of the adjacent Galleries, 1857 590 - - IX. INTERIOR VIEW OF THE NEW READING-ROOM, 1857 591 - - X. COLOURED PLAN OF THE GROUND-FLOOR OF THE BRITISH - MUSEUM, as it was in 1862. _Copied from the _To face p._ - Parliamentary Return, No. 97 of Session 1862_ 750 - - XI. COLOURED PLAN OF THE GROUND-FLOOR &C., (as - above); TOGETHER WITH THE ALTERATIONS PROPOSED - TO THE LORDS OF THE TREASURY BY THE TRUSTEES OF - THE BRITISH MUSEUM; in their Minutes of - December, 1861, and January 21st, 1862, and in - their Letter to the Treasury of 11th February, _To face p._ - 1862. _Copied from the same Return_ 752 - - XII. COLOURED PLAN OF THE UPPER FLOOR OF THE BRITISH - MUSEUM, as it was in 1862. _Copied from the _To face p._ - same Return_ 754 - - XIII. COLOURED PLAN OF THE UPPER FLOOR, &C. (as above); - TOGETHER WITH THE ALTERATIONS PROPOSED TO THE - TREASURY BY THE TRUSTEES; in their Minutes of - December, 1861, and January, 1862, and in their - Letter of 11th February, 1862. _Copied from the _To face p._ - same Return_ 756 - - - - - BOOK THE FIRST. - _EARLY COLLECTORS:—THE GATHERERS OF THE FOUNDATION COLLECTIONS._ - - - - - _CONTENTS OF BOOK I._ - - - CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. - - II. THE FOUNDER OF THE COTTONIAN LIBRARY. - - III. THE COLLECTORS AND AUGMENTORS OF THE OLD ROYAL AND PUBLIC - LIBRARY AT ST. JAMES’. - - IV. THE COLLECTOR OF THE ARUNDELIAN MSS. - - V. THE COLLECTOR OF THE HARLEIAN MANUSCRIPTS. - - VI. THE FOUNDERS OF THE SLOANE MUSEUM. - - - - -... “The reverence and respect your Petitioners bear to the memory of -the most learned Sir ROBERT COTTON are too great not to mention, in -particular, that from the liberal use of his Library sprang (chiefly) -most of the learned works of his time, for ever highly to be valued. The -great men of that age constantly resorted to and consulted it to shew -the errors and mistakes in government about that period. And, as this -inestimable Library hath since been generously given and dedicated to -the Public use for ever, to be a National Benefit, your Petitioners -presume that no expression of gratitude can be too great for so valuable -a treasure, or for doing honour to the Memory and Family of Sir ROBERT -COTTON.”—‘_Petition to the Honourable House of Commons from the -Cottonian Trustees_’ (drawn up antecedently to the Foundation Act of the -British Museum); 1752. - - - - - CHAPTER I. - INTRODUCTION. - - - _Chronological Epochs in the Formation of the British Museum._ - -In two particulars, more especially, our great National Museum stands -distinguished among institutions of its kind. The collections which -compose it extend over a wider range than that covered by any other -public establishment having a like purpose. And, if we take them as a -whole, those collections are also far more conspicuously indebted to the -liberality of individual benefactors. [Sidenote: THE PUBLIC DEBT TO -PRIVATE COLLECTORS.] In a degree of which there is elsewhere no example, -the British Museum has been gradually built up by the munificence of -open-handed Collectors, rather than by the public means of the Nation, -as administered by Parliament, or by the Governments of the day. - -The real founders of our British Museum have been neither our British -monarchs nor our British legislators, as such. They have been, commonly, -individual and private British subjects; men loyal both to the Crown and -to the People. Often, they have been men standing in direct lineal -descent from the great Barons who dictated the Charter of our liberties, -in the meadow near Windsor, and from those who led English knights and -English bowmen to victory, on the wooded slopes near Poitiers. -Sometimes, they have been men of very lowly birth; such as could point -to no ancestral names appended to _Magna Charta_, or to the famous -letter written from Lincoln to Boniface the Eighth; such as may, indeed, -very well have had ancestors who gave their lives, or their limbs, for -England at Poitiers or at Cressy, but who certainly could point to no -heraldic memorials of feats of arms done on those bloody fields of -France. Not a few of them, perhaps, would have been vainly asked to tell -the names of their grandfathers. One boast, however, is common to both -of these groups of our public benefactors. They were men who had alike a -strong sense of gratitude to those who had gone before them, and a -strong sense of duty to those who were to come after them. To nearly all -of the men whose lives will be told in this volume are applicable, in a -special sense, some words of Julius HARE:—‘They wrought in a magnanimous -spirit of rivalry with Nature, or in kindly fellowship with her.... -[Sidenote: J. & A. Hare, _Guesses at Truth_, vol. ii, p. 18.] When they -planted, they chose out the trees of longest life—the Oak, the Chestnut, -the Yew, the Elm,—trees which it does us good to behold, while we muse -on the many generations of our Forefathers, whose eyes have reposed -within the same leafy bays.’ They were men whose large impulses and deep -insight led them to work, less for themselves than for their successors. -It is by dint of what men of that stamp did—and did, not under the -leading of the Gospel according to Adam SMITH, but of a Gospel very much -older than it—that upon us, whose day is now passing, Posterity, so to -speak, ‘has cast her shadow before; and we are, at this moment, reposing -beneath it.’ Of Public Benefactions, such as those which this volume -very inadequately commemorates, it is true, with more than ordinary -truth, that we owe them, mainly, to a generous conviction in the hearts -of certain worthies of old days that they owed suit and service to -Posterity. This may, indeed, be said of public foresight, when evidenced -in material works and in provisions to smooth some of the asperities of -common life and of manual toil. But it may be said, more appropriately -still, of another and a higher kind of public foresight;—of that -evidenced in educational institutions, and in the various appliances for -raising and vivifying the common intellect; for enlarging its faculties; -diffusing its enjoyments; and broadening its _public_ domain. As it has -been said (by the same acute thinker who has just been quoted) in better -words than any of mine:—‘The great works that were wrought by men of -former times; the great fabrics that were raised by them; their mounds -and embankments against the powers of evil; their drains to carry off -mischief; the wide fields they redeemed from the overflowings of -barbarism; the countless fields they enclosed and husbanded for good to -grow and thrive in; ... all this they [mainly] achieved _for -Posterity_.... [Sidenote: J. & A. Hare, _Guesses at Truth_, vol. ii, p. -13.] Except for Posterity; except for the vital magnetic consciousness -that while men perish, Man survives, the only principle of prudent -conduct must have been, “_Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die_.”’ - - -The pages which follow have been written in the belief that they -afford—whatever the defects of their Writer—useful illustrations of this -great and pregnant truth. To him it has not been given to work ‘_for -Posterity_,’ otherwise than as a Chronicler of some of the workings of -other men. But he owns to a special delight in that humble function. Its -charm,—to his mind,—is enhanced, on the present occasion, by the very -fact that so much of the work now about to be narrated is the work of -men who only rarely have been labouring with other means, or with other -implements, than those which were personal to themselves, as -individuals. - -In the chief countries of the Continent of Europe—on the other -hand—great national Museums have, commonly, had their origin in the -liberality and wise foresight either of some sovereign or other, or of -some powerful minister whose mind was large enough to combine with the -cares of State a care for Learning. In Britain, our chief public -collection of literature and of science originated simply in the public -spirit of private persons. - - -The BRITISH MUSEUM was founded precisely at that period of our history -when the distinctively national, or governmental, care for the interests -of literature and of science was at its lowest, or almost its lowest, -point. As regards the monarchs, it would be hard to fix on any, since -the dawn of the Revival of Learning, who evinced less concern for the -progress and diffusion of learning than did the first and second princes -of the House of Hanover. As regards Parliament, the tardy and languid -acceptance of the boon proffered, posthumously, by Sir Hans SLOANE, -constitutes just the one exceptional act of encouragement that serves to -give saliency to the utter indifference which formed the ordinary rule. - -Long before SLOANE’s time (as we shall see hereafter), there had been -zealous and repeated efforts to arouse the attention of the Government -as well to the political importance as to the educational value of -public museums. Many thinkers had already perceived that such -collections were a positive increase of public wealth and of national -greatness, as well as a powerful instrument of popular education. It had -been shewn, over and over again, that for lack of public care precious -monuments and treasures of learning had been lost; sometimes by their -removal to far-off countries; sometimes by their utter destruction. -Until the appeal made to Parliament by the Executors of Sir Hans SLOANE, -in the middle of the eighteenth century, all those efforts had uniformly -failed. - -[Sidenote: THE REAL FOUNDERS OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM.] - -But Sir Hans SLOANE cannot claim to be regarded, individually or very -specially, as the Founder of the British Museum. His last Will, indeed, -gave an opportunity for the foundation. Strictly speaking, he was not -even the Founder of his own Collection, as it stood in his lifetime. The -Founder of the Sloane Museum was William COURTEN, the last of a line of -wealthy Flemish refugees, whose history, in their adopted country, is a -series of romantic adventures. - -[Sidenote: THE ACQUISITION, BY THE NATION, OF THE COTTON LIBRARY.] - -Parliament had previously accepted the gift of the Cottonian Library, at -the hands of Sir John COTTON, third in descent from its Founder, and its -acceptance of that gift had been followed by almost unbroken neglect, -although the gift was a noble one. [Sidenote: (T. Carte to Sir Thomas -Hanmer, Speaker of the House of Commons; _Hanmer Corresp._, p. 226.)] -Sir John, when conversing, on one occasion, with Thomas CARTE, told the -historian that he had been offered £60,000 of English money, together -with a _carte blanche_ for some honorary mark of royal favour, on the -part of LEWIS THE FOURTEENTH, for the Library which he afterwards -settled upon the British nation. It has been estimated that SLOANE -expended (from first to last) upon his various collections about -£50,000; so that, even from the mercantile point of view, the COTTON -family may be said to have been larger voluntary contributors towards -our eventual National Museum than was Sir Hans SLOANE himself. That -point of view, however, would be a very false, because very narrow, one. - -Whether estimated by mere money value, or by a truer standard, the -third, in order of time, of the Foundation-Collections, that of the -‘Harleian Manuscripts,’—was a much less important acquisition for the -Nation than was the Museum of SLOANE, or the Library of COTTON; but its -literary value, as all students of our history and literature know, is, -nevertheless, considerable. Its first Collector, Robert HARLEY, the -Minister of Queen Anne and the first of the Harleian Earls of Oxford, is -fairly entitled to rank, after COTTON, COURTEN, and SLOANE, among the -virtual or eventual co-founders of the British Museum. - - -Chronologically, then, Sir Robert COTTON, William COURTEN, Hans SLOANE, -and Robert HARLEY, rank first as Founders; so long as we estimate their -relative position in accordance with the successive steps by which the -British Museum was eventually organized. But there is another -synchronism by which greater accuracy is attainable. Although four years -had elapsed between the passing—in 1753—of ‘_An Act for the purchase of -the Museum or Collection of Sir Hans Sloane, and of the Harleian -Collection of Manuscripts, and for providing one general repository for -the better reception and more convenient use of the said Collection, and -of the Cottonian Library and of the additions thereto_,’ and the gift—in -1757—to the Trustees of those already united [Sidenote: THE OLD ROYAL -LIBRARY, formed by PRINCE HENRY (son of James I) at St. James’.] -Collections by King GEORGE THE SECOND, of the Old Royal Library of the -Kings his predecessors, yet that royal collection itself had been (in a -restricted sense of the words) a Public and National possession soon -after the days of the first real and central Founder of the present -Museum, Sir Robert COTTON. But, despite its title, that Royal Library, -also, was—in the main—the creation of subjects, not of Sovereigns or -Governments. Its virtual founder was HENRY, Prince of Wales. It was -acquired, out of his privy purse, as a subject, not as a Prince. He, -therefore, has a title to be placed among the individual Collectors -whose united efforts resulted—after long intervals of time—in the -creation, eventually, of a public institution second to none, of its -kind, in the world. - -Prince HENRY’s story is not the least curious of the many life-stories -which these pages have to tell. That small span of barely eighteen years -was eventful, as well as full of promise. And it may very fitly be told -next, in order, after that of COTTON, who was not only his contemporary -but his friend. - -[Sidenote: THE MSS. OF LORD ARUNDEL.] - -As the Royal Library was, in a certain degree, a Public Collection -before the foundation of the Museum, so also was the Arundelian Library -of Manuscripts. It did not become part of the British Museum until -nearly eighty years after the amalgamation of the Cottonian, Harleian, -Sloanian, and Royal Collections into one integral body. But the -munificent Earl who formed it had often made it public, for the use of -scholars, in his own lifetime. One or two of his descendants allowed it -to fall into neglect. Before it left old Arundel House, in the Strand, -it was exposed, more than once, to loss by petty thefts. But when, by -another descendant, the injury was repaired, and the still choice -collection given—at the earnest entreaty of another of our English -worthies, John EVELYN—to the Royal Society, the Arundelian MSS., like -the Library at Saint James’ Palace, became (so far as a circle of -literary men and of the cultivators of scientific inquiry were -concerned) a public possession. Many of the Arundelian marbles had also -become—by other acts of munificence worthy of the time-honoured name of -HOWARD—to the Public at large, and without restriction, ‘things of -beauty,’ and ‘joys for ever.’ Others of them, indeed, are—even in these -days—shut up at Wilton with somewhat of a narrow jealousy of the -undistinguished multitude. But, by the liberality of the Dukes of -MARLBOROUGH, the choice gems gathered by the Earl of ARUNDEL during his -long travels on the Continent, and his widespread researches throughout -the world, have long been made available to public enjoyment, in more -ways than one. The varied narrative of that famous Collector’s life may, -perhaps, not unfitly be placed next after that of the best of the Stuart -princes. ARUNDEL, like HENRY, was the friend of Sir Robert COTTON, and -was proud of that distinction. - - -Undoubtedly, there is more than one point of view from which we may -regard the preponderating share borne by private collectors in the -ultimate creation of our national repository as matter of satisfaction, -rather than matter of shame. It testifies to the strength amongst -us—even at times deeply tinged with civil discord—of public and -patriotic feeling. Nor is this all. It testifies, negatively, but not -less strongly, to a conscientious sense of responsibility, on the part -of those who have administered British rule in conquered countries, and -in remote dependencies of the Crown. Few readers of such a book as this -are likely to be altogether unacquainted with national museums and -national libraries which have been largely enriched by the strong hand -of the spoiler. Into some such collections it is impossible for portions -of the people at whose aggregate expense they are maintained to enter, -without occasional feelings of disgust and humiliation. There are, it is -true, a few trophies of successful war in our own Museum. But there is -nothing in its vast stores which, to any visitor of any nationality -whatever, can bring back memories of ruthless and insolent spoliation. - -That narrowness of conception, however, which has made some publicists -to regard the slenderness of the contributions of the Nation at large, -when contrasted with the extent of those of individuals, as if it were a -cause for boasting, is visibly, and very happily, on the decline. It is -coming to be recognised, more implicitly with every year that passes, -that whatever can be done by the action of Parliament, or of the -Government, for the real promotion of public civilisation,—in the -amplest and deepest meaning of that word,—is but the doing of the People -themselves, by the use of the most effective machinery they have at -hand; rather than the acceptance of a boon conferred upon them, -extraneously and from above. - - -If that salient characteristic in the past history of our BRITISH MUSEUM -is very far from affording any legitimate cause of boasting to the -publicist, it affords an undeniable advantage to the narrator of the -history itself. It not only broadens the range of his subject, by -placing at its threshold the narrative of several careers which will be -found to combine, at times, romantic adventure and political intrigue -with public service of a high order; but it binds up, inseparably, the -story of the quiet growth of an institution in London with occasional -glimpses at the progress, from age to age, of geographical and -scientific discovery, of archæological exploration, and of the most -varied labours for the growth of human learning, throughout the world. - -As an organized establishment, the BRITISH MUSEUM is but little more -than a century old. The history of its component parts extends over -three centuries. That history embraces a series of systematic -researches,—scientific, literary, and archæological,—the account of -which (whatsoever the needful brevity of its treatment in these pages) -must be told clumsily, indeed, if it be found to lack a very wide and -general interest for all classes of readers—one class only excepted. - - -[Sidenote: THE DIVERSITY OF THE MUSEUM COLLECTIONS.] - -Even the least thoughtful among those visitors who can be said to -frequent the Museum—as distinguished from the mere holiday guests, who -come only in crowds, little favourable to vision; to say nothing of -thought—will occasionally have had some faint impression or other of the -great diversity and wonderful combination of effort which must have been -employed in bringing together the Collections they look upon. Every part -and almost every age of the world has contributed something; and that -something includes the most characteristic productions and choicest -possessions of every part. Almost every man of British birth who,—during -many centuries,—has won conspicuous fame as a traveller, as an -archæologist, or as a discoverer, has helped, in one way or other, to -enrich those collections. They bear their own peculiar testimony to -nearly every step which has been taken either in the maritime and -colonial enterprise, or in the political growth, of the British empire. -Nor is their testimony a whit less cogent to the power of that feeling -of international brotherhood, in matters of learning and science, which -grows with their growth, and waxes stronger with their strength. - - -To the remarkable career of the first of those four primary Collectors, -whose lifelong pursuits converged, eventually, in the foundation of an -institution, of the full scope of which only one of the four had even a -mental glimpse—and SLOANE’s glimpse was obviously but a very dim one—the -attention of the reader has now to be turned. Sir Robert COTTON’s -employments in political life (unofficial as they were), and the -powerful influence which he exerted upon statesmen much abler than -himself, will be found, it is hoped, to give not a little of historical -interest to his biography, quite additional to that which belongs to his -pursuits as a studious Collector, and as the most famous of all the -literary antiquaries who occur throughout our English story. - -To the conspicuous merits which belong to Sir Robert COTTON as a -politician of no mean acumen, and as,—in the event,—the real Founder of -the British Museum, are added the still higher distinctions of an -eminently generous spirit and a faithful heart. His openhandedness in -giving was constant and princely. His firmness in friendship is -testified by the fact that although (in a certain point of view) he was -the courtier both of JAMES THE FIRST and of CHARLES THE FIRST, he -nevertheless stood persistently and unflinchingly by the side of ELIOT, -and of the men who worked with ELIOT, in the period of their deepest -court disgrace. By the best of the Parliamentarian leaders he was both -reverenced and loved. And he reciprocated their feeling. - -[Sidenote: RECENT ATTACKS ON SIR ROBERT COTTON’S MEMORY.] - -My personal pleasure in the task of writing the life of such a man as he -was is much enhanced by a strong conviction that certain recent attacks -upon his memory are based upon fallacious evidence, shallow -presumptions, and hasty judgments. It is my hope to be able to shew to -the Reader, conclusively, that COTTON was worthy of the cordial regard -and the high esteem in which he was uniformly held by men who stood free -of all bias from political and party connexion—such, for example, as -William CAMDEN, who spoke of him, almost with dying lips, as ‘the -dearest of all my friends,’—as well as by those great Parliamentarian -leaders whose estimate of him may, perhaps, be thought—by hasty -readers—to rest partly, if not mainly, on the eminent political service -which he was able to render them. - - -When these pages shall come from the Press just three hundred years will -have elapsed since Sir Robert COTTON’s birth. Our English -proto-collector was born in the year 1570. The year 1870 will, in all -probability, witness the definite solution of a knotty problem as to the -future of the great institution of which he was the primary and central -founder. - - -COTTON may be regarded as the English ‘proto-collector,’ in a point of -view other than that which concerns the British Museum. No Library in -the United Kingdom can, I think, shew an _integral_ ‘Collection,’ still -extant, the formation of which—as a Collection—can be traced to an -earlier date than that of the collection of the Cottonian Manuscripts. - - -Whether the BRITISH MUSEUM shall continue to be the great national -repository for Science, as well as for Literature and Antiquities, is a -question which is fast ripening for decision; and it is one which ought -to be interesting to all Britons. It is also, and very eminently, one of -those questions of which it is literally—and not sarcastically—to be -affirmed that ‘there is much to be said on both sides.’ - -Personally I have a very strong conviction on that subject. But in -treating of it—in the ‘Postscript’ which closes the present volume—it -has been my single and earnest aim to state, with the utmost -impartiality I am able to attain, the leading arguments for maintaining -the Museum in its full integrity; and also the leading arguments for -severing the great Natural History Collections from the rapidly growing -Libraries and from the vast Galleries of marbles, bronzes, pottery, -medals, and prints. It is the business of writers to state and marshal -the evidence. It is the business of Parliament to pronounce the -judgment. - - -The main epochs in the History of the British Museum afford what may be -looked upon almost as a ‘table of contents’ to the present volume. And -they may be brought under the Reader’s eye in a way which will much -facilitate the correct apprehension of the author’s plan. I exhibit them -thus:— - -[Sidenote: EPOCHS OF BRIT. MUSEUM GROWTH AND INCREASE.] - - ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ - │ CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE DATES, FOUNDERS, AND CHARACTER, OF THE │ - │ COMPONENT COLLECTIONS, OUT OF WHICH THE BRITISH MUSEUM HAS BEEN │ - │ FORMED OR ENLARGED:— │ - ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────┤ - │ CLASS I.—=Foundation Collections, 1570–1762=. │ | - │ │ | - │ I. COTTONIAN MANUSCRIPTS, COINS, MEDALS, AND OTHER │ │ - │ ANTIQUITIES. │ │ - │ │ │ - │_Collected_ by =Sir Robert Cotton=, Baronet (born in │ │ - │the year 1570; died 6 May, 1631). _Given_ to the Nation│ │ - │by =Sir John Cotton= in 1700. _Augmented_ during the │ │ - │Collector’s lifetime by the gifts of =Arthur Agarde= │ │ - │(1615), =William Camden= (1623), =John Dee= (1608), │ │ - │=William Lambarde= (1601), and others; and, after his │ │ - │death, by the acquisitions of Sir Thomas COTTON and Sir│INCORPORATED │ - │John COTTON, his descendants; and also by the Printed │by the Act │ - │Library of =Major Arthur Edwards=, given in 1738. │(A.D. =1753=)│ - │ │26 Geo. II, │ - │ II. OLD ‘ROYAL LIBRARY.’ │c. 22, │ - │ │entitled, │ - │Re-founded, or restored, by =Henry, Prince of Wales= │‘_An Act for │ - │(born in 1594; died 6 November, 1612). [See CLASS II, §│the Purchase │ - │1.] │of the Museum│ - │ │or Collection│ - │ III. ARUNDELIAN MANUSCRIPTS. │of Sir Hans │ - │ │Sloane and of│ - │_Collected_ by =Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel and of │the Harleian │ - │Norfolk=; Earl Marshal of England; K.G. (Born in 1586; │Collection of│ - │succeeded as XXIII^{rd} Earl of Arundel in 1603; died 4│MSS.; and for│ - │October, 1646.) [See CLASS II, § 33.] │providing one│ - │ │General │ - │ IV. THOMASON TRACTS (Printed and Manuscript). [See │Repository │ - │ CLASS II, § 3.] │... for the │ - │ │said │ - │ V. HARLEIAN MANUSCRIPTS. │Collections │ - │ │and for the │ - │_Collected_ by =Robert Harley, Earl Of Oxford= (born in│Cottonian │ - │1661; died 21 May, 1724). _Augmented_ by incorporation,│Library and │ - │at various times, of the Collections, severally, or of │additions │ - │considerable portions of the Collections of =Sir │thereto_;’ │ - │Humphrey Gilbert= (died 1584), =John Foxe= (1581), │ │ - │=Daniel Rogers= (1590), =John Stowe= (1605), =Sir Henry│Opened, for │ - │Savile= (1622), =Sampson Lennard= (1633), =Sir Henry │Public Use, │ - │Spelman= (1641), =Sir Symonds D’Ewes= (1650), =Sir │on Monday the│ - │James Ware= (1666), =William Sancroft=, Archbishop of │15th January,│ - │Canterbury (1693), =Peter Séguier=, Chancellor of │=1759=; and │ - │France (1696), =John Bagford= (1716); and others. [See │subsequently │ - │BOOK I, c. 5.] │AUGMENTED, │ - │ │from time to │ - │ VI. ‘SLOANE MUSEUM’ OF NATURAL HISTORY AND OF │time, by │ - │ ANTIQUITIES; AND LIBRARY OF MANUSCRIPTS AND PRINTED │numerous │ - │ BOOKS. │additional │ - │ │Collections; │ - │_Collected_ by =William Courten= [known during part of │and, MORE │ - │his life as ‘William CHARLETON’] (born in 1642; died 26│PARTICULARLY,│ - │March, 1702); _continued_ by =Sir Hans Sloane=, Baronet│by the │ - │(born in 1660; died 11 January, 1752); _bequeathed_, by│following— │ - │the Continuator, to the British Nation,—conditionally │ │ - │on the payment to his executors, by authority of │ │ - │Parliament, of the sum of £20,000,—in order that those │ │ - │his Collections—to use the words of his last Will—being│ │ - │things ‘tending many ways to the Manifestation of the │ │ - │Glory of God, the Confutation of Atheism and its │ │ - │consequences, the Use and Improvement of the Arts and │ │ - │Sciences, and benefit of Mankind, may remain together │ │ - │and not be separated, and that chiefly in or about the │ │ - │City of London, where they may by the great confluence │ │ - │of people be of most use.’... [See BOOK I, c. 6.] │ │ - └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────────┘ - - - CLASS II.—=Primary Accession Collections.= - -=1757–1831=:— - - - (I) - -=1757.= Old ‘ROYAL LIBRARY.’ - -[Sidenote: EPOCHS OF BRIT. MUSEUM GROWTH AND INCREASE.] - -_Restored_, by =Henry, Prince of Wales=, in the year 1609, by the -purchase—and incorporation with the remnants of an ancient collection—of -the Library of =John de Lumley, Lord Lumley= (Born _circa_ 1530; -Restored in blood, as VIth Baron Lumley, in 1547: Died 1609); -_Continued_ by =Charles I= and =Charles II=, =Kings of England, &c.=, -from 1627 to 1683; _Given_ to the Nation by =King George the Second= in -1757. - - This OLD ROYAL LIBRARY, although, as above mentioned, it still - contains fragments of the more ancient Collection of the Kings of - England—and among them books which undoubtedly belonged to King - HENRY THE SIXTH, if not to earlier Plantagenet kings—may fairly be - regarded as of Prince HENRY’s foundation in the main. Lord LUMLEY’s - Library (which the Prince bought in bulk) contained that of his - father-in-law, Henry =Fitzalan=, Earl of Arundel, into which had - passed a part of Archbishop =Cranmer’s= Library. But this conjoined - Collection has not wholly passed to the British Museum. It suffered - some losses after Prince HENRY’s death. On the other hand, it had - acquired the collection of MSS. formed by the THEYERS (John and - Charles), in which was included another part of the Library of - CRANMER; as I shall shew hereafter. - - [See BOOK I, Chapter 3.] - - - (II) - -=1759.= HEBREW LIBRARY (Printed and Manuscript) of DA COSTA. - -_Collected_ by =Solomon Da Costa=, formerly of Amsterdam, and chiefly -between the years 1720 and 1727; _Given_ by the Collector, in 1759, to -the Trustees of the British Museum ‘for inspection and service of the -Public, as a small token of my esteem, reverence, love, and gratitude to -this magnanimous Nation, and as a thanksgiving offering ... for -numberless blessings which I have enjoyed under it.’ (From DA COSTA’s -Letter to the Trustees.) - - A collection, small in extent, but of great intrinsic worth; and - very memorable, both as the generous gift of a good man; and as - instancing the co-operation (at the very outset) of the love of - learning in a foreigner—and a Jew—with a like love in Britons, for a - common object; national, indeed, but also much more than national. - - - (III) - -=1762.= The THOMASON COLLECTION OF ENGLISH BOOKS and TRACTS, Printed and -Manuscript. - -_Collected_ by =George Thomason= (Died 1666); _Purchased_ by =King -George the Third=, in 1762, for presentation to the British Museum. - - This Collection—the interest of which is specially but by no means - exclusively political and historical—was formed between the years - 1641 and 1663 inclusive, and it contains everything printed in - England during the whole of that period which a man of great - enterprise and energy could bring together by daily watchfulness and - large outlay. It also contains many publications, and many private - impressions, from printing-presses in Scotland, Ireland, and the - Continent of Europe, relating to or illustrating the affairs of the - United Kingdom and of the Commonwealth. In his lifetime, the - Collector refused £4000 for his library, as insufficient to - reimburse his costs, charges, and labour. His heirs and their - assigns kept it for a century and then sold it to King George III - for £300. It includes many political MSS., which no printer dared to - put to press. - - - (IV) - -=1766.= The SOLANDER FOSSILS. - -_Collected_ by =Daniel Charles Solander= (Died 16 May, 1782); Purchased -by =Gustavus Brander= and by him _presented_ to the Museum (of which he -was one of the first Trustees) in 1766. - - The ‘Solander Fossils’—so called from the name of the eminent - naturalist who found and described them—formed the primary - Collection on which by gradual accessions the present magnificent - collection of fossils has been built up. - - - (V) - -=1766.= The BIRCH LIBRARY OF PRINTED BOOKS and MANUSCRIPTS. - -_Collected_ by =Thomas Birch, D.D.=, a Trustee of the British Museum -(Died 1766), and _bequeathed_ by the Collector. - - - (VI) - -=1772.= The HAMILTON VASES, ANTIQUITIES, and DRAWINGS. - -_Collected_ by =Sir William Hamilton= (Died 6 April, 1803); _Purchased_ -by Parliament from the Collector in 1772 for £8400. - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 2.] - - - (VII) - -=1790–1799.= The MUSGRAVE LIBRARY. - -_Collected_ by =Sir William Musgrave=, a Trustee (Died 1799); -_Acquired_, partly by gift in 1790; partly by bequest in 1799. - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 1.] - - - (VIII) - -=1799.= The CRACHERODE LIBRARY and MUSEUM. - -_Collected_ by the Reverend =Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode=, a Trustee of -the British Museum (Died 1799), and _bequeathed_ by the Collector. - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 3.] - - - (IX) - -=1799.= The HATCHETT MINERALS. - -_Collected_ by =Charles Hatchett=, and _purchased_ for £700. - - - (X) - -=1802.= The ALEXANDRIAN COLLECTION of EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. - -_Collected_ by the =French Institute of Egypt= in 1800; _Transferred_ to -the Crown of England by the terms of the Capitulation of Alexandria in -1801; _Given_ to the Museum in 1802 by =King George the Third=. - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 2.] - - - (XI) - -=1802.= The TYSSEN ANGLO-SAXON COINS. - -_Collected_ by =Samuel Tyssen=; _Purchased_ by the Trustees (for £620). - - - (XII) - -=1805–1814.= The TOWNLEY MARBLES, COINS, and DRAWINGS. - -_Collected_ by the Townley Family, and chiefly by =Charles Townley=, of -Townley in Lancashire; and acquired by Parliament, by successive -_purchases_, in the years 1805 and 1814, for the aggregate sum of -£28,200. - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 2.] - - - (XIII) - -=1807.= The LANSDOWNE MANUSCRIPTS. - -_Collected_ by =William Petty Fitzmaurice=, Marquess of Lansdowne (Died -1805), who _incorporated_ in it from time to time parts of the Libraries -and Manuscript Collections of =William Cecil, Lord Burghley= (Died -1598); of =Sir Julius Cæsar= (Died 1636); of =White Kennet=, Bishop of -Peterborough (Died 1728); of =John Strype= (Died 1737); of =Philip -Carteret Webb= (Died 1770); and of =James West= (Died 1772). _Purchased_ -by Parliament for the sum of £4925. - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 3.] - - - (XIV) - -=1810.= The GREVILLE MINERALS. - -_Collected_ by =Charles Greville=. _Purchased_ by Parliament for the sum -of £13,727. - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 2.] - - - (XV) - -=1810.= The ROBERTS ENGLISH COINS. - -_Collected_ by =Edward Roberts=, of the Exchequer; _Purchased_ by -Parliament for the sum of £4200. - - This Collection extended from the Norman Conquest to the reign of - George the Third. It was purchased for the Collector’s heir. - - - (XVI) - -=1811.= The DE BOSSET GREEK COINS. - -_Collected_ by =Colonel De Bosset=. _Purchased_ by the Trustees for the -sum of £800. - - - (XVII) - -=1813.= The HARGRAVE LIBRARY. - -_Collected_ by =Francis Hargrave=. _Purchased_ by Parliament for the sum -of £8000. - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 3.] - - - (XVIII) - -=1815.= The PHIGALEIAN MARBLES. - -_Discovered_, in 1812, amongst the ruins of Ictinus’ Temple of Apollo -‘the Deliverer’ at Phigaleia, in Arcadia, built about B.C. 430. -_Purchased_ in 1815, for the sum of £15,000. - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 2.] - - - (XIX) - -=1815.= The VON MOLL LIBRARY and MUSEUM. - -_Collected_ by the =Baron Von Moll= (Died ...). _Purchased_ (at Munich) -for the sum of £4768 (including the contingent expenses), out of the -Fund bequeathed by =Major Edwards=. - - The Library of BARON VON MOLL comprised nearly 20,000 volumes, and a - considerable Collection of Portraits and other Prints. His Museum - consisted of an extensive Herbarium and a Collection of Minerals. - The purchase was completed in 1816. - - - (XX) - -=1816.= The BEROLDINGEN FOSSILS. - - Acquired by _purchase_; and the only considerable acquisition, made - in this department, between BRANDER’S gift of Fossils (gathered from - the London Clay) in 1766, and the purchase of HAWKINS’ fine - Collection, in 1835. - - - (XXI) - -=1816.= The ELGIN MARBLES. - -_Collected_, under firman of the Ottoman Porte, between the years 1801 -and 1810—and chiefly in the years 1802 and 1803—by =Thomas Bruce, Earl -of Elgin= (Died 14 October, 1841). _Purchased_ by Parliament in 1816 for -the sum of £35,000. - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 2.] - - - (XXII) - -=1816.= The MONTAGU ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS. - -_Collected_ by =Colonel George Montagu= (Died 20 June, 1815), and -arranged, as a Museum of British Zoology—and especially of -Ornithology—at Knowle, in Devonshire. _Purchased_ at a cost of £1100. - - - (XXIII) - -=1818.= The BURNEY LIBRARY. - -_Collected_ by =Dr. Charles Burney= (Died 28 December, 1817). -_Purchased_ by a Parliamentary vote for the sum of £13,500. - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 3.] - - - (XXIV) - -=1818.= MRS. BANKS’ ARCHÆOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS. - -Collected by =Mrs. S. S. Banks=, and by =Lady Banks=; comprising a -valuable series of coins, medals, prints, &c., and _presented_ to the -Museum by the Survivor. - - - (XXV) - -=1823–1825.= The KING’S LIBRARY. - -_Collected_ by =King George the Third= (Died 1820); inherited by King -George the Fourth, and by him transferred, on terms, to the British -Museum. - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 4.] - - - (XXVI) - -=1824.= The PAYNE-KNIGHT CABINETS, LIBRARY, and MUSEUM. - -_Collected_ by =Richard Payne Knight= (Died 24 April, 1824), a Trustee; -comprising Marbles, Bronzes, Vases, Prints, Drawings, Coins, Medals, and -Books. _Bequeathed_ by the Collector. - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 3.] - - - (XXVII) - -=1825.= The PERSEPOLITAN MARBLES. - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 2.] - - - (XXVIII) - -=1825.= The ORIENTAL COLLECTIONS of CLAUDIUS JAMES RICH. - -=Claudius Rich= was British Consul at Bagdad (Died 5 Oct., 1821). He -made an extensive gathering of Persian, Turkish, Syriac, and Arabic -MSS., and of Coins, &c. These were purchased by a Parliamentary vote. - - - (XXIX) - -=1825.= SIR RICHARD COLT HOARE’S ITALIAN LIBRARY. - -_Given_, by the Collector, in 1825, and subsequently increased, by -another gift. - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 3.] - - - (XXX) - -=1827.= The BANKSIAN LIBRARY, HERBARIA, and MUSEUM. - -_Collected_ by =Sir Joseph Banks=, P.R.S. (Died 19 June, 1820), and a -Trustee. _Bequeathed_ by the Collector, with a prior life interest, to -=Robert Brown= (Died 1858); and by him _transferred_ to the British -Museum in 1827. - - Sir Joseph’s botanical Collections included the Herbaria, severally, - of =Cliffort=; of =Clayton= (the basis of the ‘_Flora Virginica_’); - of =John Baptist Fusée d’Aublet= (Died 6 May, 1728); of =Nicholas - Joseph Jacquin=, author of the ‘_Floræ Austriacæ_’ (Died 24 October, - 1817); and of =Philip Miller=, author of ‘_The Gardener’s - Dictionary_’ (Died 18 December, 1771); with portions of the - Collections of =Tournefort=, =Hermann=, and =Loureiro=. - - - (XXXI) - -=1829.= The HARTZ-MOUNTAINS MINERALS. - -_Collected_ at various periods and by several mineralogists. This fine -Cabinet was for a considerable period preserved at Richmond. _Presented_ -by =King George the Fourth=. - - - (XXXII) - -=1829.= The EGERTON MANUSCRIPTS. - -_Collected_ by =Francis Henry Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater= (Died 11 -February, 1829). _Bequeathed_ by the Collector; together with a sum of -£12,000, to be invested, and the yearly income to be applied for further -purchases of MSS. from time to time; and with other provision towards -the salary of an ‘Egerton Librarian.’ - - [See BOOK II, Chapter 5.] - - - (XXXIII) - -=1831.= The ARUNDELIAN MANUSCRIPTS. - -_Collected_, between the years 1606 and 1646, by =Thomas Howard, Earl of -Arundel=, &c. (Died 4 Oct., 1646); _Given_ in 1681 by his eventual heir, -=Henry Howard=, Esquire (afterwards XIIth Duke of Norfolk—Died in 1701), -and at the request of John Evelyn, to the Royal Society; _Transferred_ -by the Council of that Society, in 1831,—partly by purchase, and partly -by exchange—to the Trustees of the British Museum. The Collection -includes the bulk of the Library of =Bilibald Pirckheimer=, purchased at -Nuremberg, by LORD ARUNDEL, in 1636. - - [See BOOK I, Chapter 4.] - - - - - _COLLECTIONS OF PICTURES BELONGING TO THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH - MUSEUM, BUT DEPOSITED IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY._ - - - (XXXIV) - -=1823.= The BEAUMONT GALLERY. - -_Collected_ by =Sir George Howland Beaumont= (Died 7 February, 1827); -_Given_ by the Collector in 1823 to the British Museum, on condition of -its usufructuary retention, during his lifetime. Deposited in the -National Gallery, under terms of arrangement, after the Collector’s -death. - - - (XXXV) - -=1830.= The HOLWELL-CARR GALLERY. - -_Collected_ by the Reverend =William Holwell Carr= (Died 24 December, -1830), and by the Collector _bequeathed_ to the British Museum. -_Deposited_ under arrangements similar to those adopted for the Beaumont -Pictures in the National Gallery. - - -These are the primary Accession-Collections that came to the British -Museum, during the first seventy years which elapsed after its public -opening (January, 1759). They form a noble monument alike of the -liberality and public spirit of individual Englishmen, and of the -fidelity of the Trustees to the charge committed to them as a body. And -the reader will hardly have failed to notice how remarkable a proportion -of the most munificent of the Benefactors of the institution were, -previously to their gifts, numbered amongst its Trustees. - -If the liberality of Parliament failed to be elicited in due -correspondency—in respect either to the amount or the frequency of its -grants—to that of individuals, the failure is rarely, if ever, -ascribable to oversight or somnolency on the part of the Trustees. If, -during the lapse of those seventy years, they obtained grants of public -money which amounted, in the aggregate, to but £151,762—little more, on -an average, than two thousand pounds a year—they made not a few -applications to which the Treasury, or the House of Commons, refused to -respond. Meanwhile, the gifts of Benefactors probably much more than -trebled the public grants. - -At the outset, the Museum was divided into three ‘Departments’ only: (1) -_Manuscripts_; (2) _Printed Books_; (3) _Natural History_. - -The acquisition, in 1801, of the Alexandrian monuments, was the first -accession which gave prominence to the ‘Antiquities’—theretofore -regarded as little more than a curious appendage to the Natural History -Collections. Four years later came the Townley Marbles. It was then -obvious that a new Department ought to be made. This change was effected -in 1807. The Marbles and minor Antiquities, together with the Prints, -Drawings, Coins, and Medals (formerly appended to the Departments of -Printed Books and of MSS.) were formed into a separate department. -Twenty years afterwards the ‘Botanical Department’ was created, on the -reception of the Banksian herbaria and their appendant Collections. The -division into five departments continued down to the date of the -Parliamentary inquiry of 1835–36 [Book III, Chapter 1]. Soon afterwards -(1837), the immediate custody of the ‘Prints and Drawings’ was severed -from that of the ‘Antiquities’ and made a special charge. In like -manner, the Department of ‘Natural History’ was also (1837) subdivided; -but in this instance the one department became, eventually, three: (1) -Zoology; (2) Palæontology; (3) Mineralogy. The two last-named divisions -were first separated in 1857. How the eight departments of 1860 have -become _twelve_ in 1869 will be seen hereafter. - -It will also, I think, become apparent that this subdivision of -Departments has contributed, in an important measure, to the enlargement -of the several Collections; as well as to their better arrangement, and -to other exigencies of the public service. - - -We have now to enumerate the more salient and important among the many -successive acquisitions of the last forty years. Taken collectively, -they have so enlarged the proportions of the national repository as to -make the ‘British Museum’ of 1831 seem, in the retrospect, as if, at -that time, it had been yet in its infancy. - -In 1831 there were still living—here and there—a few ancient Londoners -whose personal recollections extended over the whole period during which -the Museum had existed. One or two of them could, perhaps, still call to -mind something of the aspect which the gaily painted and decorated rooms -of old Montagu House presented when—as children—they had been permitted -to accompany some fortunate possessor of a ticket of admission to ‘see -the curiosities;’ and were hurried by the Cerberus in charge for the day -from room to room; the Cerberus aforesaid (unless his memory has been -libelled) seeming to count the minutes, if a visitor chanced to show the -least desire for a closer inspection of anything which caught his eye. -And, in some points—although certainly not in that point—the Museum of -1831 was not very greatly altered, much as it had been enlarged, from -the Museum of 1759. Cerberus had long quitted his post; but many -portions of the Collections he had had in charge retained their wonted -aspect, much as he had left them. - -Such octogenarian survivors—if endowed with a good memory—would see, in -their latest visits to Great Russell Street much more to remind them of -what they had seen in the first, than a new visitor of 1831 could now -see,—in 1869,—were he, in his turn, striving to recall the impressions -of _his_ earliest visit. - - -The period now to be briefly outlined—in order to a fair preliminary -view of our subject—is marked, like that of 1759–1831, by continued -munificence on the part of private donors; but it is also marked—unlike -that—by some approach towards proportionate liberality from the keepers -of the public purse; as well as by energetic and persistent efforts for -internal improvement, on the part both of Trustees and of Officers. It -forms a quite new epoch. It may be said, unexaggeratedly, to have -witnessed a re-foundation of the Museum, in almost everything that bears -on its direct utility to the public. - -In regard to this last period, however—no less than in regard to the -foregoing one—only the more salient Collections can here be enumerated. -Many minor ones have been passed over already, notwithstanding their -intrinsic value. Many others—equally meriting notice, were space for it -available—will have, in like manner, to be passed over now. - - - CLASS III.—=Recent Accession-Collections. 1833–1869.= - - - (XXXVI) - -=1833.= The BORELL CABINET of GREEK and ROMAN COINS. - -_Collected_ by the late =H. P. Borell=, of Smyrna. _Purchased_ by the -Trustees for £1000. - - - (XXXVII) - -=1834.= SAMS’ COLLECTION of EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. - -_Collected_ by =Joseph Sams=. _Purchased_, by a Parliamentary grant, for -£2500. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 3.] - - - (XXXVIII) - -=1834= (and subsequent years). The HAWKINS FOSSILS. - -_Collected_ by =Thomas Hawkins=, of Glastonbury. _Purchased_, by -successive grants of Parliament, in the years 1834 and 1840. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 3.] - - - (XXXIX) - -=1835.= The HARDWICKE ORNITHOLOGICAL MUSEUM. - -_Collected_ by =Major-General Hardwicke=. _Bequeathed_ by the Collector. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (XL) - -=1835.= The SALT MUSEUM of EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. - -_Collected_ by =Henry Salt=, British Consul at Alexandria (Died 30 -October, 1827). _Purchased_ (at various times) by Parliamentary grants. - - Of Mr. Salt’s successive Collections of Egyptian antiquities the - most valuable portions have come to the Museum; chiefly in the years - 1823 and 1835. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 3.] - - - (XLI) - -=1836.= The MARSDEN CABINET of ORIENTAL COINS. - -_Collected_ by =William Marsden= (Died 6 October, 1836). _Bequeathed_ by -the Collector. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 3.] - - - (XLII) - -=1836.= The SHEEPSHANKS COLLECTION of ETCHINGS, PRINTS, &C. - -_Collected_ by =John Sheepshanks= (Died October, 1863); and _Given_ by -the Collector. - - - (XLIII) - -=1837–43.= The CANINO VASES. - -A selection from the superb Museum of the Prince of =Canino= (Died 29 -June, 1840); acquired by successive purchases before and after the -Collector’s death. - - - (XLIV) - -=1839.= The MANTELL FOSSILS. - -_Collected_ by =Gideon Algernon Mantell= (Died November 10, 1850). -_Purchased_ by a Parliamentary grant. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (XLV) - -=1841–1847.= SYRIAC MANUSCRIPTS from the NITRIAN MONASTERIES. - -_Collected_ by the Reverend =Henry Tattam= and by =M. Pachot=. -_Purchased_ by the Trustees, by three successive bargains, in the years -1841–1847. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 3.] - - - (XLVI) - -=1842.= The HARDING PRINTS and DRAWINGS. - -_Purchased_, for the Trustees, by selection at the Collector’s sale. The -selection comprised 321 very choice specimens of early German and -Italian masters; and was acquired for the sum of £2390. - - - (XLVII) - -=1843.= The RAPHAEL MORGHENS PRINTS. - -_Purchased_ by the Trustees, by a like selection, at a public sale in -1843. - - - (XLVIII) - -=1845.= The LYCIAN or XANTHIAN MARBLES. - -_Discovered_ by =Sir Charles Fellowes= (Died 1860) in the years -1842–1844. _Transferred_ to the Museum at the cost of the Trustees in -1845. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 3.] - - - (XLIX) - -=1847.= The GRENVILLE LIBRARY. - -_Collected_ by the Right Hon. =Thomas Grenville= (Died 17 December, -1846). _Bequeathed_ by the Collector. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 2.] - - - (L) - -=1847.= The MICHAEL HEBREW LIBRARY. - -_Collected_ by =H. J. Michael=, of Hamburgh. _Purchased_ by the Trustees -from his Executors. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LI) - -=1847.= JOHN ROBERT MORRISON’S CHINESE LIBRARY. - -_Collected_ by =J. R. Morrison= (son of the eminent Christian Missionary -and Lexicographer—Died 1843). _Purchased_ from his Executors by a -Parliamentary grant. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LII) - -=1848.= The CROIZET FOSSIL-MAMMALS. - -_Collected_ by =M. Croizet= in Auvergne. _Purchased_ by the Trustees. - - - (LIII) - -=1851–1860.= The ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES. - -Partly _discovered_ by =Austen Henry Layard=. Excavated at the public -charge, and under the joint direction of the Trustees of the British -Museum and of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in 1851 and -subsequent years by the Discoverer, and by =H. Rassam=, and =W. K. -Loftus=. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 3.] - - - (LIV) - -=1853.= The GELL DRAWINGS. - -_Drawn_ and _Collected_ by =Sir William Gell= (Died 4 February, 1836). -_Bequeathed_ by the Honorable =Keppel Craven= (Died 1853). - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 3.] - - - (LV) - -=1853.= The STEPHENS CABINET of BRITISH ENTOMOLOGY. - -_Collected_ by =James Francis Stephens= (Died 22 December, 1852). -_Purchased_ by the Trustees. - - Although this Collection contained about 88,000 specimens, it cost - the Trustees only £400. - - - (LVI) - -=1854.= The DES-HAYES TERTIARY FOSSILS. - -_Collected_, in France, by =M. Des Hayes=. _Purchased_ by the Trustees. - - - (LVII) - -=1855–1860.= The HALICARNASSIAN and CNIDIAN MARBLES. - -_Discovered_ and excavated by =C. T. Newton= (then Vice-Consul at -Mitylene) and other Explorers (earlier and later). In part _Presented_ -by =Lord Canning= of Redcliffe (then Ambassador at Constantinople); and -in part excavated and transported by the Trustees, with the aid of -Parliamentary grants made in 1855 and subsequent years. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 3.] - - - (LVIII) - -=1856.= The TEMPLE MUSEUM of ITALO-GREEK and ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. - -_Collected_ by =Sir William Temple= (Died 1856) during his Embassy at -Naples. _Bequeathed_ by the Collector. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 3.] - - - (LIX) - -=1857.= The CAUTLEY FOSSILS from the Himalayas. - -_Collected_ by =Major Cautley=, during his service in India. _Purchased_ -by the Trustees. - - - (LX) - -=1858.= The BRUCHMANN FOSSIL PLANTS. - -_Collected_ by =Bruchmann= at and near Œningen. _Purchased_ by the -Trustees. - - - (LXI) - -=1859.= The CARTHAGINIAN ANTIQUITIES. - -_Discovered_,—and excavated (partly at the cost of the Trustees),—by -=Nathan Davis= and others, during the year 1856 and subsequent years. -The Davis Collection includes a series of Phœnician Inscriptions, some -of which are of great antiquity. _Purchased_ from the Collector. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 3.] - - - (LXII) - -=1860.= The ALLAN-GREG CABINET of MINERALS. - -_Collected_, mainly, by =R. H. Greg=, of Manchester. _Purchased_ by the -Trustees. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LXIII) - -=1860.= The GARDNER HERBARIUM of BRAZIL. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LXIV) - -=1860.= The CYRENE MARBLES. - -_Discovered_, and excavated by Lieutenants =R. M. Smith= and =Porcher=, -under firmans from Constantinople, and at the charge of the Trustees, in -1860 and subsequent years. - - [See also No. LXVI under the year ‘1863,’ and - -BOOK III, Chapter 3.] - - - (LXV) - -=1862.= The HAEBERLEIN FOSSILS. - -_Collected_ by =Haeberlein=. Brought from Solenhofen; and _Purchased_ by -the Trustees. - - - (LXVI) - -=1863.= The SICILIAN ANTIQUITIES. - -_Discovered_ and excavated by =George Dennis= (Her Majesty’s Consul at -Benghazi), under direction from the Foreign Office, in 1862 and -subsequent years. _Presented_ by =Earl Russell=. - - - (LXVII) - -=1863.= The BOWRING COLLECTION of FOREIGN INSECTS. - -_Collected_ by =John Bowring=. _Presented_ by the Collector. - - The Collector obtained a large portion of this fine Cabinet of - Entomology during his own travels in India, Java, and China. It - consists chiefly of Coleopterous insects. - - - (LXVIII) - -=1864.= The WIGAN CABINET of COINS. - -_Collected_ and _Presented_ by =Edward Wigan=. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 3.] - - - (LXIX) - -=1864.= The RHODIAN MARBLES. - -_Excavated_, at the charge of the Trustees, by =MM. Salzmann= and -=Biliotti=, in 1863 and subsequent years. - - - (LXX) - -=1864.= The CURETON ORIENTAL MANUSCRIPTS. - -_Collected_ by the late =William Cureton, D.D.= (Died 17 June, 1864). -_Purchased_ by the Trustees from his Executors. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 3.] - - - (LXXI) - -=1864.= The WRIGHT HERBARIUM of CUBA and NEW MEXICO. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LXXII) - -=1864.= The TRISTRAM CABINET of the ZOOLOGY of the HOLY LAND. - -_Collected_ by the Reverend =H. B. Tristram, M.A.= _Presented_ by the -Collector. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LXXIII) - -=1865.= The HEBREW LIBRARY of ALMANZI. - -This valuable series of Hebrew Manuscripts, &c. was _collected_ by the -late =Joseph Almanzi=, of Padua; and was _purchased_ by the Trustees of -his Executors. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LXXIV) - -=1865.= The ERSKINE ORIENTAL MANUSCRIPTS. - -_Collected_ by =William Erskine=, during his residence in India. -_Purchased_ by the Trustees. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LXXV) - -=1865.= The MALCOLM PERSIAN MANUSCRIPTS. - -_Collected_ by =Sir John Malcolm= (Died 31 May, 1833) during his Embassy -to Persia. _Purchased_ by the Trustees. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LXXVI) - -=1865.= The KOKSCHAROW MINERALS. - -_Collected_ by =Colonel de Kokscharow=. _Purchased_ by the Trustees. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LXXVII) - -=1865.= The EPHESIAN MARBLES. - -Excavated, at the charge of the Trustees, by Vice-Consul =Wood=. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 3.] - - - (LXXVIII) - -=1865.= The CHRISTY PRE-HISTORIC and ETHNOLOGICAL MUSEUM. - -_Collected_ and _Bequeathed_ by =Henry Christy= (Died 4 May, 1865). - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LXXIX) - -=1865.= The BANK of ENGLAND CABINET of COINS and MEDALS. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 1.] - - - (LXXX) - -=1865.= WITT’S ETHNIC MUSEUM. - -_Collected_ and _Presented_ by =Henry Witt=. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LXXXI) - -=1866.= The BLACAS MUSEUM. - -_Collected_ by the =Dukes of Blacas= (The elder Collector died in 1839; -the younger, in 1865). _Purchased_, by the Trustees, of the heirs of the -Survivor. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LXXXII) - -=1866.= The WOODHOUSE MUSEUM. - -_Collected_ by =James Woodhouse=, Her Majesty’s Treasurer at Corfu (Died -February, 1866). _Bequeathed_ by the Collector. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LXXXIII) - -=1866.= The CUMING CONCHOLOGICAL COLLECTION. - -_Collected_ by =Hugh Cuming= (Died 1866). Acquired by the Trustees in -1866, partly by gift, and partly by purchase, under the directions of -the Collector’s Will. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LXXXIV) - -=1867.= The HAWKINS COLLECTION OF ENGLISH POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL -PRINTS. - -_Collected_ by =Edward Hawkins= (Died 1867). _Purchased_ by the -Trustees. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 1.] - - - (LXXXV) - -=1868.= The ABYSSINIAN ANTIQUITIES and MANUSCRIPTS. - - Acquired by the Trustees during and after the Abyssinian War; partly - by gift from the British Government, and partly by the researches of - the Representative of the Trustees in the British Camp. Another and - a very valuable portion of the Abyssinian Manuscripts came to the - India Office, by the gift of =Lord Napier= of Magdala; and by the - Secretary of State for India was given to the British Museum. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LXXXVI) - -=1868.= The SLADE ARCHÆOLOGICAL COLLECTION. - -_Collected_ by =Felix Slade= (Died 1868). _Bequeathed_ by the Collector. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - - (LXXXVII) - -=1869.= The HAYS COLLECTION of EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. - - [See BOOK III, Chapter 4.] - - -As I have had occasion to observe in a former paragraph, the preceding -list is, of necessity, an abridged list. It is by no means a complete or -exhaustive one. The prescribed bounds—those of a single volume for a -very wide and multifarious subject—compel the writer to treat his -subject by way of selection. The reader is solicited to keep that fact -in mind; as well for its bearing on the chapters which follow, as on the -introductory chapter now under his eye. And in regard both to this brief -enumeration of the successive component parts of the Museum, and to the -biographical notices of which it is the preliminary, the cautionary -remark here repeated applies to _every_ Department of the national -repository. It holds good of the Natural History Collections, and of the -Collections of Antiquities, no less than of the Collections of Printed -Books and of Manuscripts. - -Among the many minor, but intrinsically important, Collections -thus—compulsorily—passed over, in the present volume, are some of which -brief notices have been given (by the same hand) in a preceding work, -published in 1869. Those ‘Notices,’ however, relate exclusively to -collectors and collections of Printed Books, of Engravings, of Drawings, -and of Manuscripts. Thus,—to give but a few examples,—important -collections, now forming part of the British Museum, and gathered -originally by =Thomas Rymer= (1713); =Thomas Madox= (1733); =Brownlow -Cecil, Earl of Exeter= (1739); =David Garrick= (1779); =Peter Lewis -Ginguene= (1816); the =Abate Canonici= (_circa_, 1818); =John Fowler -Hull= (1825); =Frederick North=, sixth =Earl of Guildford= (1826); -=Count Joseph de Puisaye= (1827); the =Marquess Wellesley= (1842); =D. -E. Davy= (_circa_ 1850),—are all noticed in an Appendix headed -‘Historical Notices of Collectors’ to the volume entitled ‘_Free Town -Libraries_’ published in 1869. Of that Appendix the notices above -referred to form, respectively, Nos. ‘848’ (_Rymer_); ‘570’ (_Madox_); -‘186’ (_Cecil_); ‘351’ (_Garrick_); ‘372’ (_Ginguene_); ‘165’ -(_Canonici_); ‘462’ (_Hull_); ‘683’ (_North_); ‘781’ (_Puisaye_); ‘1049’ -(_Wellesley_); and ‘249’ (_Davy_). - - -The existing constitution of the Board of Trustees of the British Museum -has been on many occasions, and by several writers, somewhat freely -impugned. More than once it has been the subject of criticism in the -House of Commons. With little alteration that Board remains, in 1869, -what Parliament made it in 1753. Obviously, it might be quite possible -to frame a new governing Corporation, in a fashion more accordant with -what are sometimes called the ‘progressive tendencies’ of the period. - -But I venture to think that the bare enumeration of the facts which have -now been briefly tabulated, in this introductory chapter, gives a proof -of faithful and zealous administration of a great trust, such as cannot -be gainsaid by any the most ardent lover of innovation. Both the -Collections given, and the Collections purchased, afford conclusive and -splendid proofs that the Trustees and the Officers have alike won the -confidence and merited the gratitude of those whose acquirements and -pursuits in life have best qualified them to give a verdict on the -implied issue. - - -If, of late years, the public purse has been opened with somewhat more -of an approach to harmony with the openhandedness of private Englishmen, -that result is wholly due to unremitting effort on the part both of the -Trustees who govern, and of the Officers who administer, or have -administered, the British Museum. And, to attain their end, both -Trustees and Officers have, very often, had to fight hard, as the later -chapters of this volume will more than sufficiently show. - - - - - CHAPTER II. - =THE FOUNDER OF THE COTTONIAN LIBRARY.= - - - ‘Est in hac urbe nobilis Eques, homo pereruditus rerum vetustarum et - omnis historiæ, sive priscæ, sive recentis, studiossisimus, qui ex - ipsis monumentis publicis et epistolis duarum reginarum Angliæ et - Scotiæ veram eorum quæ gesta sunt, historiam didicit, et jam regis - jussu eandem componit, digeritque in ordinem.’ - - CASAUBON to DE THOU (London, 5 Kal. Mart., 1611). _Epistolæ_, 373. - - _The Personal and Public Life of Sir Robert_ COTTON.—_His Political - Writings and Political Persecutions.—Sources and Growth of the - Cottonian Library.—The Successors of Sir Robert_ COTTON.—_History - of the Cottonian Library, until its union with the Library of - Harley, and with the Museum and Miscellaneous Collections of_ - SLOANE.—_Review of some recent Aspersions on the Character of the - Founder._ - - -[Sidenote: BOOK I, Chap. II. LIFE OF SIR ROBERT COTTON.] - -Sir Robert COTTON was the eldest son of Thomas COTTON of Conington and -of Elizabeth SHIRLEY, daughter of Francis SHIRLEY of Staunton-Harold in -Leicestershire. He was born on the 22nd of January, 1570, at Denton, in -the county of Huntingdon. Denton was a sort of jointure-house attached -to that ancient family seat of Conington, which had come into the -possession of the Cottons, about the middle of the preceding century, by -the marriage of William COTTON with Mary WESENHAM, daughter and heir of -Robert WESENHAM, who had acquired Conington by his marriage with Agnes -BRUCE.[1] - -[Sidenote: PARENTAGE AND ANCESTRY OF SIR ROBERT COTTON.] - -The Cottons of Conington were an offshoot of the old Cheshire stock. -They held a good local position in right of their manorial possessions -both in Huntingdonshire and in Cambridgeshire, but they had not, as yet, -won distinction by any very conspicuous public service. Genealogically, -their descent, through Mary WESENHAM, from Robert BRUCE, was their chief -boast. Sir Robert was to become, as he grew to manhood, especially proud -of it. He rarely missed an opportunity of commemorating the fact, and -sometimes seized occasions for recording it, heraldically, after a -fashion which has put stumbling-blocks in the way of later antiquaries. -But the weakness has about it nothing of meanness. It is not an -unpardonable failing. And with the specially antiquarian virtues it is -not less closely allied than with love of country. In days of court -favour, JAMES THE FIRST was wont to please Sir Robert COTTON by calling -him cousin. Sir Robert’s descendants became, in their turn, proud of his -personal celebrity, but they too were, at all times, as careful to -celebrate, upon the family monuments, their Bruce descent, as to claim a -share in the literary glories of the ‘Cottonian Library.’ - -This cousinship with King James—and also a matter which to Sir Robert -was much more important, the descent to the Cottons of the rich Lordship -of Conington with its appendant manors and members—will be seen, at a -glance, by the following— - - +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ - | PEDIGREE OF COTTON, OF CONINGTON. | - | | - | EDMUND, called _Ironside_,----King of England. | - | | | - | Edward = Agatha, Daughter of the Emperor Henry III. | - | | | - | +-----------------+ | - | | | - | MALCOLM, = Margaret (Saint). | - | Cean-mohr, King of Scotland.| | - | +------------------+ | - | | | - | DAVID, King of Scotland = Maud,[2] daughter, and heir | - | | of Waltheof, Earl | - | | of Huntingdon. | - | +---------------+ | - | | | - | Henry, = Ada, daughter of the William de COTTON | - | Prince of Scotland. | Earl of Warren. (of Cotton, in Cheshire).| - | +----+ | | - | | | | - | David, = Margaret, daughter | | - | Earl of Huntingdon and Angus, | and heir of Ralph, | | - | Lord of Conington. | Earl of Chester. | | - | | | | - | +-------+ | | - | | | | - | Robert BRUCE, = Isabel, heiress of | | - | Lord of Conington | Conington. William de COTTON | - | (_jure uxoris_). | (of Hampstall-Ridware | - | +-----------+-------------+ in Staffordshire). | - | | | | | - | Robert BRUCE, Sir Bernard de BRUCE, [*] | - | Earl of Carrick, Lord of Conington | - | Competitor for the [‘by the gift of his Mother, | - | Crown of Scotland. 37 Henry III,[3]-_Sir R._ | - | | _Cotton’s Note in MS._ Harl.] | - | +-------+ | - | | | - | ROBERT, = . . . . | - | King of Scotland. | | - | +-----------+-----+ | - | | | | - | DAVID, Marjory BRUCE = Walter STUART. | - | King of Scotland. | | - | +------------------+ | - | | | - | ROBERT (Stuart) II, | - | King of Scotland. | - | | | - | JAMES I, King of Scotland. | - | | | - | | - | | | - | JAMES VI, of Scotland, | - | and I, of Britain. | - +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ - | Sir Bernard de BRUCE | - | Lord of Conington. | - | | | - | Sir John de BRUCE, = Margaret Beauchamp. | - | Lord of Conington. | | - | +---------------+----------+ | - | | | | - | Agnes BRUCE, = Sir Hugh de Joan BRUCE = Sir Nicholas | - | eldest daughter | WESENHAM. 2nd daughter | Greene. | - | and co-heir. | and co-heir. | | - | | +------------+ | - | +-+--------------------+ | | - | | | | | - | Thomas WESENHAM Robert WESENHAM _a quo_ | - | (d. 39 Hen. VI, (died 17 Edw. IV). Culpeper | - | without issue). | and | - | +-------+ Harington. | - | [*] | | - | | | | - | William de COTTON (2nd son = Mary WESENHAM | - | of Richard de COTTON), | (heir of Conington). | - | (of Hampstall Ridware) | | - | slain at the Battle of | | - | St. Albans, 33 H. VI. | | - | +-------------+ | - | | | - | Thomas COTTON = Eleanor Knightley. | - | (Lord of Conington). | | - | +-----+ | - | | | - | Thomas COTTON = Jane Paris. | - | | | - | +-----+ | - | | | - | Thomas COTTON = Lucy Harney. | - | | | - | +-----+ | - | | | - | Thomas COTTON = Elizabeth Shirley. | - | | | - | +-----+ | - | | | - | SIR ROBERT (BRUCE) COTTON, | - | Knight and Bart., Lord of Conington, &c., and | - | FOUNDER OF THE COTTONIAN LIBRARY (Born | - | 1570; Died 6 May, 1631).[3] | - +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ - - [From the COTTON ROLL XIV, 6 [by SEGAR, CAMDEN, and ST. GEORGE]; - compared with MS. Hark 807, fol. 95, and with MS. LANSD., 863, - containing the heraldic Collections of R. ST. GEORGE, Norroy, Vol. - III, fol. 82 verso.] - - [For the continuation of the COTTON PEDIGREE, showing (1) the descent - from Sir Robert of the subsequent possessors of the COTTONIAN - LIBRARY, up to the date of the gift to the Nation made by Sir John - COTTON, and (2) the relationship of the Cottonian Trustees of the - British Museum, see the concluding pages of the present Chapter.] - -Robert COTTON was educated at Trinity College in Cambridge, where he -took the degree of B.A. towards the close of 1585.[4] Of his collegiate -career very little is discoverable, save that it was an eminently -studious one. [Sidenote: COTTON’S EARLY FRIENDSHIPS.] Long before he -left Trinity, he had given unmistakeable proofs of his love for -archæology. Some among the many conspicuous and lifelong friendships -which he formed with men likeminded took their beginnings at Cambridge, -but most of them were formed during his periodical and frequent sojourns -in London. John JOSCELINE, William DETHICK, Lawrence NOWELL, William -LAMBARDE, and William CAMDEN were amongst his earliest and closest -friends. Most of them were much his seniors. Whilst still in the heyday -of youth he married Elizabeth BROCAS, daughter and eventually coheir of -William BROCAS of Thedingworth in Leicestershire. Soon after his -marriage he took a leading part in the establishment of the first -Society of Antiquaries. Some of COTTON’S fellow-workers in the Society -are known to all of us by their surviving writings. Others of them are -now almost forgotten, though not less deserving, perhaps, of honourable -memory; for amongst these latter was— - - ‘that good Earl, once President - Of England’s Council and her Treasury; - Who liv’d in both unstain’d with gold or fee,’ - -at a time when such praise could seldom be given truthfully. It was as a -contributor towards the common labours of that Society that COTTON made -his earliest appearance as an author. The subjects chosen for his -discourses at the periodical meetings of the Elizabethan antiquarians -indicate the prevalent bias of his mind. Nearly all of them may be said -to belong to our political archæology. - -[Sidenote: GROWTH OF THE COTTONIAN LIBRARY AND GALLERY.] - -Before the close of the sixteenth century, his collections of -Manuscripts and of Antiquities had already become so large and important -as to win for him a wide reputation in foreign countries, as well as at -home. His correspondence indicates, even at that early period, a -generous recognition of the brotherhood of literature, the world over, -and proves the ready courtesy with which he had learned to bear somewhat -more than his fair share of the obligations thence arising. In later -days he was wont to say to his intimates: ‘I, myself, have the smallest -share in myself.’ From youth, onwards, there is abundant evidence that -the saying expressed, unboastingly, the simple facts of his daily life. - -[Sidenote: FRIENDSHIP WITH CAMDEN.] - -CAMDEN was amongst the earliest of those intimates, and to the dying day -of the author of the _Britannia_ the close friendship which united him -with COTTON was both unbroken and undiminished. The former was still in -the full vigour of life when COTTON had given proof of his worthiness to -be a fellow-labourer in the field of English antiquities. In 1599 they -went, in company, over the northern counties; explored together many an -old abbey and many a famous battle-field. When that tour was made, the -evidences of the ruthless barbarism with which the mandates of HENRY THE -EIGHTH had been carried out by his agents lay still thick upon the -ground, and may well have had their influence in modifying some of the -religious views and feelings of such tourists. Not a few chapters of the -_Britannia_ embody the researches of COTTON as well as those of CAMDEN; -and the elder author was ever ready to acknowledge his deep sense of -obligation to his younger colleague. For both of them, at this time, and -in subsequent years, the storied past was more full of interest than the -politics, howsoever momentous or exciting, of the day. But, -occasionally, they corresponded on questions of policy as well as of -history. There is evidence that on one stirring subject, about which -men’s views were much wont to run to extremes, they agreed in advocating -moderate courses. In the closing years of the Queen, COTTON, as well as -CAMDEN, recognised the necessity that the Government should hold a firm -hand over the emissaries of the Church and Court of Rome, whilst -refusing to admit that a due repression of hostile intrigues was -inconsistent with the honourable treatment of conscientious and peaceful -Romanists. - -It was, in all probability, almost immediately after COTTON’S return -from the Archæological tour to the North which he had made with his -early friend, that he received a message from the Queen. ELIZABETH had -been told of his growing fame for possessing an acquaintance with the -mustiest of records, and an ability ‘to vouch precedents’ such as few -students, even of much riper years, had attained to. He was now to be -acquainted with a dispute about national precedency which had arisen at -Calais between Sir Henry NEVILLE and the Ambassador of Spain. [Sidenote: -THE TRACTATE ON ENGLISH PRECEDENCY OVER SPAIN.] It was Her Majesty’s -wish that he should search the records which bore upon the question, and -send her such a report as might strengthen NEVILLE’S hands in his -contest for the honour of England. - -Such a task could not fail to be a welcome one; and COTTON found no lack -of pertinent evidence. The bent and habit of his mind were always -methodical. He begins his abstract of the records by tabulating his -argument. Precedency, he says, must have respect either to the nation or -to the ruler of the nation. A kingdom must rank either (1) according to -its antiquity, or (2) according to ‘the eminency of the throne royal,’ -by which phrase he means the complete unity of the dominion under one -supreme ruler. On the first title to precedency he observes that it may -be based either upon the date of national independence, or upon that of -the national recognition of Christianity. He claims for England that it -was a monarchy at least four hundred and sixty years before Castile -became one; that Christianity had then been established in it, without -break or interruption, for a thousand years; [Sidenote: _Cottoni -Posthuma_, pp. 76, 77.] whereas in Spain Christianity was ‘defaced with -Moorish Mahumetisme,’ until the expulsion of the Moors by FERDINAND, -little more than a century before the time at which he was writing. - -His assertion of the greater ‘eminency of the throne royal’ in England -than in Spain is mainly founded on the union in the English sovereignty -alone of supreme ecclesiastical with supreme civil power; and on the -lineal descent of the then sovereign ‘from Christian princes for 800 -years,’ whereas the descent of the Kings of Spain ‘is chiefly from the -Earls of Castilia, about 500 years since,’ and the then King of Spain -was ‘yet in the infancy of his kingdom.’ - -Two minor and ancillary arguments in this tract are also notable: The -Spanish throne, says COTTON, hath not, as hath the English and French, -‘that virtue to endow the king therein invested with the power to heal -the king’s evil; for into France do yearly come multitudes of Spaniards -to be healed thereof.’ And he further alleges that ‘absolute power of -the King of England, which in other kingdoms is much restrained.’ The -time was to come when the close friend and fellow-combatant of ELIOT and -the other framers of the great ‘Petition of Right’ would rank himself -with the foremost in ‘much restraining’ the kingly power in England, and -would discover ample warrant in ancient precedents for every step of the -process. But, as yet, that time was afar off. - - -[Sidenote: MS. Cott. Vesp. C. xiii, ff. 158; 160, seqq. (B. M.)] - -Immediately on the accession of King JAMES, Sir Robert COTTON greeted -the new monarch with two other and far more remarkable tractates on a -subject bearing closely on our relations with Spain. Their political -interest, as contributions to the history of public opinion, is great. -Their biographical interest is still greater. But I postpone the -consideration of them until we reach a momentous crisis in Sir Robert’s -life on which they have a vital bearing. He also wrote,—almost -simultaneously,—a much more courtierlike ‘_Discourse of his Majesty’s -descent from the Saxon Kings_,’ which was graciously welcomed. -[Sidenote: _Domestic Correspondence_, James I, vol. i, f. 3 (R. H.).] In -the following September he received the honour of knighthood. [Sidenote: -RETURNED TO PARLIAMENT.] In JAMES’ first Parliament he sat for the -County of Huntingdon, in fellowship with Sir Oliver CROMWELL, uncle of -the future Protector. There is no evidence that at this period he took -any active part in debate. Nor did he, at any time, win distinction as a -debater. But in the labours of Committees he was soon both zealous and -prominent. Two classes of questions, in particular, appear to have -engaged his attention:—questions of Church discipline, and questions of -administrative reform. [Sidenote: _Dom. Cor._ as above; vol. xix, pp. 37 -seqq.; vol. xxvii, pp. 44 seqq. (R. H.); MS. Cott. Jul. C., iii, p. 10. -(B. M.)] He also assisted Bacon in the difficult attempt to frame -acceptable measures for a union with Scotland. - -The fame of his library and of his museum of antiquities continued to -spread farther and wider. He had many agents on the Continent who sought -diligently to augment his collections. His correspondence with men who -were busied in like pursuits both at home and abroad increased. Much of -it has survived. On that interesting point at which a glance has been -cast already, its witness is uniform. He was always as ready to impart -as he was eager to collect. Few, if any, important works of historical -research were carried on in his day to which he did not, in some way or -other, give generous furtherance. At a time when he was most busy in -forming his own library, he helped BODLEY to lay the foundation of the -noble library at Oxford. - -[Sidenote: FURTHER GROWTH AND SOURCES OF THE COTTONIAN LIBRARY.] - -Readers who can call to mind even mere fragments of that superabundant -evidence which tells of the neglect throughout much of the Tudor period -of the public archives of the realm, can feel little surprise that Sir -Robert COTTON should have been able to collect a multitude of documents -which had once been the property of the nation, or of the sovereign. -Those who are most familiar with that evidence ought to be the first to -remember that, under the known circumstances of the time, the -presumption of honest acquisition is stronger than that of dishonest, -whenever conclusive proof of either is absent. English State Papers had -passed into the possession not only of English antiquarians, but of -English booksellers—and not a few of them into that of foreigners—before -COTTON was born. Other considerations bearing on this matter, and -tending as it seems in a like direction, belong to a later period of Sir -Robert’s life. There is, however, a very weighty one which stands at the -threshold of his career as a collector. - -Almost the earliest incident which is recorded of COTTON’S youthful -days, is his concurrence in a petition in which Queen ELIZABETH was -entreated to establish a Public and National Library, and to honour it -with her own name. [Sidenote: ATTEMPT OF COTTON AND CAMDEN TO ESTABLISH -A NATIONAL LIBRARY.] Its especial and prime object was to be the -collection and preservation, as public property, of the monuments of our -English history. The proposal was not altogether new. It was a much -improved revival of a project which Dr. John DEE had once submitted, in -an immature form, to Queen MARY. It was the reiteration of an earnest -request which had been made to Queen ELIZABETH by Archbishop PARKER, at -a time when COTTON was still in his cradle. The joint petition of COTTON -and CAMDEN met with as little success as had attended the entreaties of -those who had taken the same path before them. [Sidenote: _Petition, -&c._ (undated) in Cotton MS. Faustina, E. V, ff. 67, 68.] The -petitioners were willing to bind themselves, and others like-minded, to -incur ‘costs, and charges,’ for the effectual attainment of their -patriotic object, on the condition of royal patronage and royal -fellow-working with them in its pursuit. When COTTON, upon bare -presumptions, is charged to be an embezzler of records, this Petition -comes to have a very obvious relevancy to the matter in question. The -relevancy is enhanced by the fact that two, at least, of those who had -(at various times) concurred in promoting its object, gave to the -Library of their fellow-labourer in the field of antiquity, manuscripts -and records which, had the issue of their project been otherwise, they -would have given to the ‘Public Library of Queen ELIZABETH,’ in express -trust for their fellow-countrymen at large. - -Indirectly, this same petition has also its bearing on a curious passage -relating to Sir Robert COTTON which occurs among the Minute-books of the -Corporation of London, and which has recently been printed by Mr. RILEY, -in his preface to _Liber Custumarum_. - -On the 10th of November, 1607, the Court of Aldermen of London recorded -the following minute: [Sidenote: COTTON AND THE CITY RECORDS OF LONDON.] -‘It is this day ordered, that Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Town Clerk, Mr. -EDMONDS, and Mr. Robert SMITH, or any three of them, shall repair to Sir -Robert COTTON, from this Court, and require him to deliver to the City’s -use three of the City’s books _which have been long time missing_—the -first book called _Liber Custumarum_; the second, called _Liber Legum -Antiquorum_; and the thirde, called _Fletewode_, which are affirmed to -be in his custody.’ Of the results of the interview of Master -Chamberlain and his fellow-ambassadors with COTTON no precise account -has been preserved. It is plain, however, from the sequel, that they -found the matter to be one for which such extremely curt ‘requisition’ -was scarcely the appropriate mode of setting to work. The Corporation -appealed in vain to the Lord Privy Seal NORTHAMPTON; and they had -afterwards to solicit the mediation with COTTON of two of their own -members—Sir John JOLLES and another—who were personally known to him. -Their interposition was alike ineffectual. Of the interview we have no -report; but Sir Robert, it is clear, asserted his right to retain the -City books (or rather portions of books) which were then in his hands, -and he did retain them. They now form part of the well-known and very -valuable Cottonian MS., ‘Claudius D. XI.’ - -That these London records had once belonged to the citizens is now -unquestioned. That Cotton—both in 1607 and again in the following -year—asserted a title, of some sort, to those of them which were then in -his hands, seems also to be established. Is the fair inference this: -‘Their then holder, in 1607, had obtained them wrongfully, and he -persisted, despite all remonstrance, in his wrongful possession’? Is it -not rather to be inferred that, whosoever may have been the original -wrongdoer, Sir Robert COTTON had acquired them by a lawful purchase? -[Sidenote: THE DISPUTE ABOUT CITY RECORDS.] If that should have been the -fact, he may possibly have had a valid reason for declining to give what -he had, ineffectually and rudely, been commanded to restore. - -On the other hand, it is impossible to defend Sir Robert’s occasional -mode of dealing with MSS.,—some of which, it is plain, were but lent to -him,—when, by misplacement of leaves, or by insertions, and sometimes by -both together, he confused their true sequence and aspect. Of this -unjustifiable manipulation I shall have to speak hereafter. - - -The years which followed close upon this little civic interlude were -amongst the busiest years of COTTON’S public life. He testified the -sincerity of his desire to serve his country faithfully, by the choice -of the subjects to the study of which he voluntarily bent his powers. - -[Sidenote: COTTON’S MEMORIAL ON ABUSES IN THE NAVY.] - -Abuses in the management of the navy and of naval establishments have -been at most periods of our history fruitful topics for reformers, -competent or other. In the early years of JAMES there was a special -tendency to the increase of such abuses in the growing unfitness for -exertion of the Lord High Admiral. NOTTINGHAM had yet many years to -live,—near as he had been to the threescore and ten when the new reign -began. But even his large appetencies were now almost sated with wealth, -employments, and honours; and ever since his return from his splendid -embassy to Spain, he seemed bent on compensating himself for his hard -labour under ELIZABETH by his indolent luxury under JAMES. The repose of -their chief had so favoured the illegitimate activities of his -subordinates, that when COTTON addressed himself to the task of -investigating the state of the naval administration he soon found that -it would be much easier to prove the existence and the gravity of the -abuses than to point to an effectual remedy. - -The abuses were manifold. Some of them were, at that moment, scarcely -assailable. To COTTON, in particular, the approach to the subject was -beset with many difficulties. He was, however, much in earnest. -[Sidenote: THE INQUIRY INSTITUTED BY COTTON INTO ABUSES IN THE ROYAL -NAVY.] When he found that some of the obstacles must, for the present, -be rather turned by evasion than be encountered—with any fair chance of -success—by an open attack in front, he betook himself to the weaker side -of the enemy. He obtained careful information as to naval -account-keeping; discovered serious frauds; and opened the assault by a -conflict with officials not too powerful for immediate encounter,—though -far indeed from being unprotected. - -[Sidenote: Cotton, _Memorial on Abuses of the Navy;—Domestic Corresp._ - James I, vol. xli, p. 21. (R. H).] - -Of Sir Robert’s _Memorial_ to the King, I can give but one brief -extract, by way of sample: ‘Upon a dangerous advantage,’ he writes, -‘which the Treasurer of the Navy taketh by the strict letter of his -Patent, to be discharged of all his accounts by the only vouchee and -allowance of _two_ chief officers, it falls out, strangely, at this -time—by the weakness of the Controller and cunning of the Surveyor—that -these two offices are, in effect, but _one_, which is the Surveyor -himself, who—joining with the Treasurer as a Purveyor of all -provisions—becomes a paymaster to himself ... at such rates as _he_ -thinks good.’ It is a suggestive statement. - -COTTON’S most intimate political friendships were at this time with the -HOWARDS. Henry HOWARD (now Earl of Northampton),—whatever the intrinsic -baseness and perfidy of his nature, was a man of large capacity. He was -not unfriendly to reform,—when abuses put no pelf in his own pocket. To -naval reforms, his nearness of blood to NOTTINGHAM, the Lord High -Admiral, tended rather to predispose him; for when near relatives -dislike one another, the intensity of their dislike is sometimes -wonderful to all bystanders. Interest made these two sometimes allies, -but it never made them friends. NORTHAMPTON gave his whole influence in -favour of Sir Robert’s plan. He began the inquiries into this wide -subject by persuading the King to appoint a Commission. On the 30th of -April, 1608, Letters Patent were issued, in the preamble of which the -pith of the Memorial is thus recited: ‘We are informed that very great -and considerable abuses, deceits, frauds, corruptions, negligences, -misdemeanours and offences have been and daily are perpetrated ... -_against the continual admonitions and directions of you, our Lord High -Admiral_, by other the officers of and concerning our Navy Royal, and by -the Clerks of the Prick and Check, and divers other inferior officers, -ministers, mariners, soldiers, and others working or labouring in or -about our said Navy;’ [Sidenote: COMMISSION FOR INQUIRY ON THE ABUSES IN -THE NAVY.] and thereupon full powers are given to the Commissioners so -appointed to make full inquiry into the allegations; and to certify -their proceedings and opinions. COTTON was made a member of the -Commission, and at the head of it were placed the Earls of NORTHAMPTON -and of NOTTINGHAM. It was directed that the inquiry should be carried at -least as far back as the year 1598. The Admiral’s share was little more -than nominal. The proceedings were opened on the 7th of May, 1608, when, -as - -COTTON himself reports, an ‘elegant speech was made by Lord Northampton, -of His Majesty’s provident and princely purposes for reformation of the -abuses.’ Northampton, he adds, ‘took especial pains and care for a full -and faithful discharge of that trust.’ At his instance Sir Robert was -made Chairman of a sort of sub-committee, to which the preliminary -inquiries and general array of the business were entrusted; [Sidenote: -_Proceedings in the Commission for the Navy Royal_; MS. COTT. Julius F. -iii, fol. 1. (B. M.)] ‘Sir Robert COTTON, during all the time of this -service, entertaining his assistants at his house at the Blackfriars as -often as occasion served.’ - -The inquiry lasted from May, 1608, to June, 1609. COTTON was then -requested by his fellow-commissioners to make an abstract of the -depositions to be reported to the King. It abundantly justified the -Memorial of 1608. JAMES, when he had read it, ordered a final meeting of -the Commissioners to be held in his presence, at which all the -inculpated officers were to attend that they might adduce whatever -answers or pleas of defence might be in their power. ‘In the end,’ says -Sir Robert, ‘they were advised rather to cast themselves at the feet of -his grace and goodness for pardon, than to rely upon their weak replies; -which they readily did.’ The most important outcome of the inquiry was -the preparation of a ‘_Book of Ordinances for the Navy Royal_,’ in the -framing of which Sir Robert COTTON had the largest share. It led to many -improvements. But, in subsequent years, measures of a still more -stringent character were found needful. - -[Sidenote: THE INQUIRY INTO CROWN REVENUES.] - -In the next year after the presentation of this Report on the Navy, Sir -Robert addressed to the King another Report on the Revenues of the -Crown. The question is treated historically rather than politically, but -the long induction of fiscal records is frequently enlivened by keen -glances both at underlying principles and at practical results. Once or -twice, at least, these side glances are such as, when we now regard -them, in the light of the subsequent history of JAMES’S own reign and of -that of his next successor, seem to have in them more of irony than of -earnest. The style of the treatise is clear, terse, and pointed. - -On no branch of the subject does the author go into more minute detail -than on that delicate one of the historical precedents for ‘abating and -reforming excesses of the Royal Household, Retinue, and Favourites.’ He -points the moral by express reference to existing circumstances. Thus, -for example, in treating of the arrangements of the royal household, he -says, ‘There is never a back-door at Court that costs not the king £2000 -yearly;’ and again, when treating of gifts to royal favourites: ‘It is -one of the greatest accusations against the Duke of Somerset for -suffering the King [EDWARD VI] to give away the possessions and profits -of the Crown in manner of a spoil.’ - -Not less plainspoken are COTTON’S words about a question that was -destined, in a short time, to excite the whole kingdom. Tonnage and -poundage, he says, were granted simply for defence of the State, ‘so -they may be employed in the wars; and particular Treasurers account in -Parliament’ for that employment. [Sidenote: _Proceedings in the -Commission for the Navy Royal, &c._; as above.] ‘They are so granted,’ -he adds, ‘in express words; and that they proceed of goodwill, not of -duty. Precedents of this nature are plentiful in all the Rolls.’ A final -example of this sort may be found in the pithy warning grounded upon -RICHARD THE SECOND’S grant to a minion of the power of compounding with -delinquents. It was fatal, he says, both to the king and to his -instrument. ‘It grew the death of the one and the deposition of the -other.’ - -COTTON’S Report on the Crown Revenues has also an incidental interest. -Out of it grew the creation of the new dignity of baronets. Were His -Majesty, says the writer, ‘now to make a degree of honour hereditary as -Baronets, next under Barons, and grant them in tail, taking of every one -£1000, in fine it would raise with ease £100,000; [Sidenote: COTTON’S -PROPOSITION FOR THE CREATION OF BARONETS, 1609.] and, _by a judicious -election_, be a means to content those worthy persons in the -Commonwealth that by the confused admission of [so] many Knights of the -Bath held themselves all this time disgraced.’ When this passage was -written that which had been, under ELIZABETH, so real and eminent an -honour as to be eagerly coveted by patriotic men, had been lavished by -JAMES with a profusion which entailed their contempt and disgust. I have -before me the fine old MS. from a passage in which COTTON borrowed the -title of the new dignity. [Sidenote: 9 R. II. Durh. 17 July, 1385. -COTTON MS., Nero D., vi, § 16. (B. M.)] The word occurs thus:—‘_Ceux -sont les estatutz, ordenances ... de n̄re très excellent souv seigneur -le Roy Richard, et Johan, Duc de Lancastre, ... et des autres Contes, -Barons, et_ Baronnetz, _et sages Chivalers_.’ - -Sir Robert was himself amongst the earliest receivers (June, 1611) of -the new order. Its creation led to many jealousies and discords. It gave -both to the King and to his councillors not a little trouble in settling -the precise privileges and precedencies of its holders. In those -controversies the author of the suggestion took no very active part. -King JAMES was much more anxious for the speedy receipt of the hundred -thousand pounds, than about the ‘judicious election’ of those by whom -the money was to be provided. COTTON’S satisfaction with the ultimate -working out of his plan must have had its large alloy.[5] - -This is the more apparent, inasmuch as, at the first acceptance of his -project, Sir Robert had obtained the King’s distinct promise that no -future creation of a baron should be made, until the new peer had first -received the degree of baronet; unless he belonged to a family already -ennobled. Hearing of a probability that the royal promise in this -respect was likely to be broken, he wrote to Somerset:—‘If His Highness -_will_ do it, I rather humbly beg a relinquishing in the design of the -baronets, as desponding of good success.’ [Sidenote: Cotton to Somerset -(undated) MS. Harl., 7002, f. 380. (B. M.)] But to James all projects -for the opening of gold mines—whether at home or abroad—were much too -attractive to be staved off by any puritanic scruples about pledge or -promise. For him, from youth to dotage, the one thing needful was gold. - - -The question of the baronetcies is one of the earliest which brings us -in presence of the eventful political connection which subsisted between -COTTON and the Earl of SOMERSET. [Sidenote: THE POLITICAL INTERCOURSE OF -SIR R. COTTON WITH LORD SOMERSET. 1613–1615.] Of its first beginnings no -precise testimony seems to have survived. But there is a strong -presumption that when SOMERSET was led, by his fatal love for Lady -ESSEX, to change his early position of antagonism to the HOWARDS for one -of alliance and friendship, he came frequently into contact with Sir -Robert, who had long been familiarly acquainted with the Earl of -SUFFOLK—and also with his too well-known Countess—as well as with the -Earl of NORTHAMPTON. - -The one ineffaceable stigma on SOMERSET’S memory which was brought upon -him by his disgraceful marriage has barred the way to an impartial -estimate of his standing as a politician. A man who was branded by his -peers (though upon garbled depositions) as a murderer can scarcely, by -possibility, have his pretensions to statesmanship fairly weighed in a -just balance. Such testimony, it is true, as that on which SOMERSET was -found guilty of the poisoning of OVERBURY would not now suffice to -convict a vagrant of petty larceny. It would not indeed at this day be -treated as evidence at all; it would be looked upon as a mere decoction -of surmises. But the foul scandal of the marriage itself has so tainted -SOMERSET’S very name that historians (almost with one consent) have -condoned the baseness of his prosecutors. - -With some of this man’s contemporaries it was quite otherwise. Some -English statesmen whose names we have all learnt to venerate, looked -upon the murder of OVERBURY as a revengeful deed instigated by Lady -SOMERSET, wholly without her husband’s complicity; and they looked at -SOMERSET’S conviction of complicity in the crime as simply the issue of -a skilfully-managed court intrigue, for a court object. They knew that -SOMERSET’S enemies had been wont to say amongst themselves, ‘A nail is -best driven out by driving in another nail,’ and had, very effectually, -put the proverb into action. They knew, too, that to the rising -favourite the King had committed—most characteristically—the pleasing -task of communicating, on his behalf, with the Crown lawyers, as their -own task of compiling the depositions against the falling favourite went -on from stage to stage. - -Sir Robert COTTON believed not only that SOMERSET was guiltless of the -murder of OVERBURY, and that the Earl’s political extinction was -resolved upon, as the readiest means of making room for a new favourite, -but he also believed that SOMERSET’S loss of power involved the loss by -England—for a long time to come—of some useful domestic reforms, as well -as its subjection to several new abuses. This belief was a favourite -subject of conversation with him to his dying day. He was in the habit -of imparting it to the famous men who, in the early years of the next -reign, joined with him in fighting the battles of parliamentary freedom -against royal prerogative. There may well have been an element of truth -in COTTON’S view of the matter, though, in these days, it seems but a -barren pursuit to have discussed the preferability to England of the -rule of a Robert CARR rather than that of a George VILLIERS. - -[Sidenote: COTTON AND THE PROJECTED SPANISH MATCH.] - -What is now chiefly important in the close political connection which -was formed between COTTON and SOMERSET is the fact that it eventually -thrust Sir Robert’s fortune and entire future into great peril, even if -it did not actually hazard his life itself, as well as his fair fame -with posterity. The life that was preserved to him was also to be -redeemed by future and brilliant public service. [Sidenote: 1615.] His -fortune sustained no great damage, and much of it was afterwards spent -upon public objects. His reputation as a statesman, however, suffered, -and must suffer, some degree of loss. SOMERSET led him to become an -agent in urging on the treaty for the marriage of Prince CHARLES with -the Infanta of Spain. As it seems, his agency was—for a very brief -period—even active and zealous. Neither SOMERSET nor COTTON, however, -set that intercourse with GONDOMAR afoot which presently brought Sir -Robert within the toils. It was pleasantly originated by the wily -Spaniard himself, in the character of _a lover of antiquities_, deeply -anxious to study Sir Robert’s Museum, in its owner’s company. - -It is unfortunate for a truthful estimate of the _degree_ of discredit -attachable to Cotton for this agency in promoting a scheme pregnant with -dishonour to England, that little evidence of the share he took in it is -now to be derived from any English source. His own extant correspondence -yields very little, though it suffices to establish the fact of the -agency, apart from that testimony of GONDOMAR, which will be cited -presently. - -Under COTTON’S own hand we have the fact that in a conversation with -himself the Ambassador of Spain on one occasion held out (by way, it -seems, more immediately, of inducement to the English Government to -shape certain pending negotiations on other matters into greater -conformity with _Spanish_ counsels) [Sidenote: Cotton to Somerset; -(undated) Harleian MS. 7002, fol. 378. (B. M.)] the threat that, if such -a course were not taken, ‘turbulent spirits—of which Spain wanteth -not—might add some hurt to the ill affairs of Ireland, or hindrance to -the near affecting of the great work now in hand;’ a threat which COTTON -transmits to SOMERSET without rebuke or comment. - -Early in 1615, COTTON had an interview with GONDOMAR in relation to the -progress of the marriage negotiation in Spain. Of what passed at this -interview we have no _detailed_ account other than that which was sent -to the King of Spain by his Ambassador. The way in which COTTON’S name -is introduced, and the singular misstatement that he had the custody of -‘all the King’s archives,’ seem to imply that GONDOMAR had still but -little knowledge of the messenger now employed by JAMES and by SOMERSET -to confer with him. Throughout, the reader will have to bear in mind -that the narrative is GONDOMAR’S, and that all the material points of it -rest upon his sole authority. - -[Sidenote: 1615. April 18.] - -‘The King and the Earl of SOMERSET,’ writes the Ambassador, ‘have sent -in great secrecy by Sir Robert COTTON—who is a gentleman greatly -esteemed here, and with whom the King has deposited all his archives—to -tell me what Sir John DIGBY has written about the marriage of the -Infanta with this Prince. COTTON informed me that he was greatly pleased -that the negotiation had been so well received in Spain, because he -desired its conclusion and success. He enlarged upon the conveniencies -of the marriage, but said that the King considered DIGBY not to be a -good negotiator, because he was a great friend of the Archbishop of -Canterbury, and of the Earl of PEMBROKE, who were of the Puritan -faction, and was in correspondence with them.’... ‘In order to make a -beginning,’ continued COTTON, as GONDOMAR reports his conversation, ‘the -King must beg your Majesty to answer three questions: (1.) “Does your -Majesty believe that with a safe conscience you can negotiate this -marriage?” (2.) “Is your Majesty sincerely desirous to conclude it, upon -conditions suitable to both parties?” (3.) “Will your Majesty abstain -from asking anything, in matters of Religion, which would compel him to -do that which he cannot do without risking his life and his kingdom; -contenting yourself with trusting that he will be able to settle matters -quietly?” [Sidenote: Gardiner Transcripts of Simancas MSS.] When an -answer is given to these questions he will consider the matter as -settled, and will immediately give a commission to the Earl of Somerset -to arrange the points with me. [Sidenote: See also S. R. Gardiner, in -_Letters of Gondomar, giving an Account of the affair of the Earl of -Somerset_; (_Archæologia_, vol. xli.)] This Sir Robert COTTON is held -here, by many, to be a Puritan, but he told me that he was a Catholic, -and gave me many reasons why no man of sense could be anything else.’ He -afterwards adds: ‘Sir Robert COTTON, who has treated with me in this -business, tells me that after the marriage is agreed upon, [and] before -the Infanta arrives in England, matters of Religion will be in a much -improved condition.’ The writer of this remarkable despatch, it may be -well to mention, had asserted with equal roundness, but a few months -before, that JAMES himself had said, at the dinner-table: ‘I have no -doubt that the Roman Catholic Church is the true Church.’ - -[Sidenote: Simancas MSS. 2590, 10 (Gardiner Transcripts).] - -Nor is it unimportant, as bearing on the _degree_ of credibility to be -assigned to GONDOMAR’S despatches, when they chance to be -uncorroborated,—to remark that a despatch addressed by him to the Duke -of LERMA, in November, contains an express contradiction of an assertion -addressed to PHILIP, in the preceding April. To the King, as we have -just seen, he narrates COTTON’S communication of despatches written by -DIGBY. To the Minister he writes, six months later, that ‘a traitor had -given information’ against COTTON, for communicating Papers of State to -the Spanish Ambassador, and that the charge is ‘false.’ [Sidenote: -Simancas MS. 2534, 61 (Gardiner Transcripts).] Discrepancies like this -(howsoever easily explained, or explainable) suffice to show that -GONDOMAR’S testimony, when unsupported, needs to be read with caution; -and of such discrepancies there are many. Consummate as he was in -diplomatic ability of several kinds, this able statesman was -nevertheless loose (and sometimes reckless) in assertion. He was very -credulous when he listened to welcome news. It is impossible to study -his correspondence without perceiving that to him, as to so many other -men, the wish was often father of the thought. - -On the 22nd of June, Sir Robert paid another visit to GONDOMAR. He told -me, says the Ambassador, that the King’s hesitations had been overcome; -that JAMES was now willing to negotiate on the basis of the Spanish -articles, with some slight modifications; that Somerset had taken his -stand upon the match with Spain, had won the co-operation of the Duke of -Lennox, and was now willing to stake his fortunes on the issue. Sir -Robert COTTON, adds GONDOMAR, ‘assured me of his own satisfaction at the -turn which things had taken, as he had no more ardent wish than to live -and die an avowed Catholic, like his fathers and ancestors.[6] Whereupon -I embraced him, and said that God would guide.’ - - -Thus far, I have, advisedly, followed a Spanish account of English -conversations. Although believing that there exists, already ample, -evidence (both in our own archives and elsewhere) for bringing home to -the Count of GONDOMAR wilful misstatements of [Sidenote: SIR ROBERT -COTTON’S ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST INTERVIEW WITH COUNT GONDOMAR.] fact—in -the despatches which he was wont to write from London—as well as very -pardonable misapprehensions of the talk which he reports, I have -preferred to put before the reader the Ambassador’s own story in its -Spanish integrity. - -The mere fact, indeed, that an English historian[7], deservedly esteemed -for his acute and painstaking research, as well as for his eminent -abilities, has honoured GONDOMAR’S story by endorsing it, is warrant -enough for citing these despatches as they stand. But they have now to -be compared with another account of the same transaction given by -authority of Sir Robert COTTON himself. It was given upon a memorable -occasion. The place was the Painted Chamber in the Palace of -Westminster. The hearers were the assembled Lords and Commons of the -Realm.[8] - -The Spaniard, it seems, was far, indeed, from holding—as he says that he -held—his first conference with COTTON either in his own ambassadorial -lodging, or upon credentials given in the name and by the command of -King JAMES. That COTTON sought him he suggests, by implication. That the -visit, in which the ground was broken, was made at the King’s instance, -he states circumstantially. Both the suggestion and the assertion are -false. - -As the reader has seen, Sir Robert’s openness in exhibiting his library -and his antiquities was matter of public notoriety. [Sidenote: 1614. -February.] Profiting by that well-known facility of access, the Spanish -Ambassador presented himself at Cotton House in the guise of a virtuoso. -‘Do me the favour—with your wonted benevolence to strangers—to let me -see your Museum.’ With some such words as these, GONDOMAR volunteered -his first visit; led the conversation, by and bye, to politics; found -that COTTON was not amongst the fanatical and undiscriminating enemies -of Spain at all price—outspoken, as he had been, from the first, in his -assertion both of the wisdom and of the duty of England to protect the -Netherlanders; showed him certain letters or papers (not now to be -identified, it appears), and in that way produced an impression on -COTTON’S mind which led him to confer with SOMERSET, and eventually with -the King. So much is certain. Unfortunately, the speeches at the famous -‘Conference’ on the Spanish Treaty, in 1624, are reported in the most -fragmentary way imaginable. The reporter gives mere hints, where the -reader anxiously looks for details. Their present value lies in the -conclusive reasons which notwithstanding the lacunæ—they supply for -weighing, with many grains of caution, the accusations of an enemy of -England against an English statesman—whensoever it chances that those -accusations are uncorroborated. King JAMES himself (it may here be -added), when looking back at this mysterious transaction some years -later, and in one of his Anti-Spanish moods—said to Sir Robert: ‘The -Spaniard is a juggling jack. I believe he forged those letters;’ -alluding, as the context suggests, to the papers—whatever they -were—which GONDOMAR showed to COTTON at the outset of their intercourse, -in order to induce him to act as an intermediary between himself and the -Earl of SOMERSET. - - -At this time, the ground was already trembling beneath SOMERSET’S feet, -though he little suspected the source of his real danger. He knew, ere -long, that an attempt would be made to charge him with embezzling jewels -of the Crown. In connection with this charge there was a State secret, -in which Sir Robert COTTON was a participant with SOMERSET, and with the -King himself. And a secret it has remained. Such jewels, it is plain, -were in SOMERSET’S hands, and by him were transferred to those of -COTTON. Few persons who have had occasion to look closely into the -surviving documents and correspondence which bear upon the subsequent -and famous trials for the murder of OVERBURY, will be likely to doubt -that the secret was one among those ‘alien matters’ of which SOMERSET -was so urgently and so repeatedly adjured and warned, by JAMES’S -emissaries, to avoid all mention, should he still persist (despite the -royal, repeated, and almost passionate, entreaties with which he was -beset) in putting himself upon his trial; instead of pleading guilty, -after his wife’s example, and trusting implicitly to the royal mercy. - -For the purpose of warding off the lesser, but foreseen, danger, COTTON -advised the Earl to take a step of which the Crown lawyers made -subsequent and very effective use, in order to preclude all chance of -his escape from the unforeseen and greater danger. [Sidenote: 1615. -July.] By Sir Robert’s recommendation he obtained from the King -permission to have a pardon drawn, in which, amongst other provisions, -it was granted that no account whatever should be exacted from SOMERSET -at the royal exchequer; and to that pardon the King directed the -Chancellor to affix the Great Seal. The Seal, however, was withheld, and -a remarkable scene ensued in the Council Chamber. There are extant two -or three narratives of the occurrence, which agree pretty well in -substance. Of these GONDOMAR’S is the most graphic. The incident took -place on the 20th of August. The despatch in which it is minutely -described was written on the 20th of October. There is reason to believe -that the Ambassador drew his information from an eye-witness of what -passed. - -‘As the King was about to leave the Council Board,’ writes GONDOMAR, -‘SOMERSET made to him a speech which, as I was told, had been -preconcerted between them. [Sidenote: THE SCENE IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER, -RESPECTING THE PARDON DRAWN BY SIR R. COTTON FOR SOMERSET.] He said that -the malice of his enemies had forced him to ask for a pardon; adduced -arguments of his innocency; and then besought the King to command the -Chancellor to declare at once what he had to allege against him, or else -to put the seal to the pardon. [Sidenote: 1615. August.] The King, -without permitting anything to be spoken, said a great deal in -SOMERSET’S praise; asserted that the Earl had acted rightly in asking -for a pardon, which it was a pleasure to himself to grant—although the -Earl would certainly stand in no need of it in his days—on the Prince’s -account, who was then present.’ Here, writes GONDOMAR, the King placed -his hand on the Prince’s shoulder, and added—‘That he may not undo what -I have done.’ Then, turning to the Chancellor, the King ended with the -words: ‘And so, my Lord Chancellor, put the seal to it; for such is my -will.’ The Chancellor, instead of obeying, threw himself on his knees, -told the King that the pardon was so widely drawn that it made SOMERSET -(as Lord Chamberlain) absolute master of ‘jewels, hangings, tapestry, -and of all that the palace contained; seeing that no account was to be -demanded of him for anything.’ And then the Chancellor added: ‘If your -Majesty insists upon it, I entreat you to grant me a pardon also for -passing it; otherwise I cannot do it.’ On this the King grew angry, and -with the words, ‘I order you to pass it, and you must pass it,’ left the -Council Chamber. His departure in a rage, before the pardon was sealed, -gave SOMERSET’S enemies another opportunity by which they did not fail -to profit. They had the Queen on their side. On that very day, too, the -King set out on a progress, long before arranged. For the time the -matter dropped. Before the Ambassador of Spain took up his pen to tell -the story to his Court, VILLIERS, ‘the new favourite,’ had begun to -supplant his rival; so that the same despatch which narrates the -beginnings of the fall of SOMERSET, tells also of the first stage in the -rapid rise of BUCKINGHAM. - -[Sidenote: THE SECOND PARDON DRAWN BY COTTON. 1615, Sept.] - -About a month after this wrangling at the Council Board, SOMERSET again -advised with Sir Robert COTTON on the same subject. [Sidenote: _Report -of the Trial of the Earl of Somerset._ (MS. R. H.)] COTTON recommended -him to have the Pardon renewed; saying to the Earl, ‘In respect you have -received some disgrace in the opinion of the world, in having passed’ -[_i. e._ missed] ‘that pardon which in the summer you desired, and -seeing there be many precedents of larger pardons, I would have you get -one after the largest precedent; that so, by that addition, you may -recover your honour.’ Strangely as these closing words now sound, in -relation to such a matter, they seem to embody both the feeling and the -practice of the times. - -In another version of the proceedings at the trial of May, 1616, -SOMERSET is represented as using in the course of his defence these -words: ‘To Sir Robert COTTON I referred the whole drawing and despatch -of the Pardon.’ And again: ‘I first sought the Pardon by the motion and -persuasion of Sir Robert COTTON, who told me in what dangers great -persons honoured with so many royal favours had stood, in former times.’ -[Sidenote: MS. Report of Trial (R. H.)] Sir Robert’s own account of this -and of many correlative matters of a still graver sort has come down to -us only in garbled fragments and extracts from his examinations, such as -it suited the purposes of the law-officers of the Crown to make use of, -after their fashion. The original documents were as carefully -suppressed, as COTTON’S appearance in person at the subsequent trial was -effectually hindered. At that day it was held to be an unanswerable -reason for the non-appearance of a witness,—whatever the weight of his -testimony,—to allege that he was regarded by the Crown as ‘a -delinquent,’ and could not, therefore, be publicly questioned upon -‘matters of State.’ There is little cause to marvel that a scrutinising -reader of the _State Trials_ (in their published form) is continually in -doubt whether what he reads ought to be regarded as sober history, or as -wild and, it may be, venomous romance. - - -One other incident of 1615 needs to be noticed before we proceed to the -catastrophe of the Gondomar story. - -[Sidenote: 1615. May 24.] - -In May of this year Sir Robert wrote a letter to Prince CHARLES, which -is notable for the contrasted advice, in respect to warlike pursuits, -which it proffers to the new Prince, from that more famous advice which -had but recently been offered to his late brother. [Sidenote: Comp. MS. -Cott. Cleop. F. vi, § 1. ‘_An Answer ... to certain military men, &c._, -(April, 1609).] He had lately found, he tells Prince CHARLES, a very -ancient volume containing the principal passages of affairs between the -two kingdoms of England and France under the reigns of King HENRY THE -THIRD and King HENRY THE FIFTH, and had caused a friend of his to -abstract from it the main grounds of the claim of the Kings of England -to the Crown of France; translating the original Latin into English. -This he now dedicates to the Prince, ‘as a piece of evidence concerning -that title which, at the time when God hath appointed, shall come unto -you.’ He ends his letter in a strain more than usually rhetorical:—‘This -title hath heretofore been pleaded in France, as well by ordinary -arguments of civil and common law, as also by more sharp syllogisms of -cannons in the field. There have your noble ancestors, Kings of this -realm, often argued in arms; there have been their large chases; there, -their pleasant walks; there have they hewed honour out of the sides of -their enemies; there—in default of peaceable justice—they have carried -the cause by sentence of the sword. [Sidenote: Sir R. Cotton to Prince -Charles. (MS. Lansd. 223. fol. 7.) (Copy.) (B. M.)] God grant that your -Highness may, both in virtues and victories, not only imitate, but far -excel them.’ - - -[Sidenote: The King to Archbishop of Canterbury, &c. _Domestic Corresp._ - James I, vol. lxxxvi, § 16. (R. H.)] - -The royal commission for the first examination of COTTON was issued on -the 26th of October, 1615. Two months afterwards he was committed to the -custody of one of the Aldermen of London. His library and papers were -also searched. - -COTTON’S accusation was that of having communicated papers and secrets -of State to the Spanish Ambassador. He was subjected to repeated -examinations, which (as we have seen) are extant only in part. He -maintained his innocence of all intentional offence. [Sidenote: COTTON’S -EXAMINATIONS BY COMMISSION Jan.-April, 1616.] ‘The King,’ he said, ‘gave -me instruction to speak as I did. If I misunderstood His Majesty my -fault was involuntary. I followed the King’s instruction to the best of -my belief and recollection.’ The examiners, however, were more intent by -far on extracting something from COTTON that would tell against -SOMERSET, than on the punishment of the fallen favourite’s ally and -agent. COKE, in particular, was indefatigable in the task. It was as -congenial to him as was the study of BRACTON or of LITTLETON. - -What then must have been his delight when,—whilst attending a sermon at -Paul’s Cross,—word was brought to him which gave hope of a discovery of -SOMERSET’S most secret correspondence? The pending proceedings had -stirred men’s minds in city and suburb, as well as at Court. A London -merchant had been asked, a little while before, to take into his charge -a box of papers. The depositor was a woman of the middle class, with -whom his acquaintance was but slight. At that time there was nothing in -the incident to excite suspicion. But, at a moment when strange rumours -were afloat, the depositor suddenly requested the return of the deposit. -The merchant bethought himself that the circumstances now looked -mysterious. If the papers should chance to bear on matters of State, to -have had any concern with them, howsoever innocent, might be dangerous. -He carried the box to Sir Edward COKE’S chambers. Not a moment was lost -in apprising the absent lawyer of the incident. Such news was of more -interest than the sermon. Probably, the preacher had not finished his -exordium, before all the faculties of COKE and of a fellow-commissioner -were bent on the letters which had passed between SOMERSET and -NORTHAMPTON. - -If GONDOMAR is to be believed, some secret papers belonging to King -JAMES himself were part of the precious spoil.[9] - -As usual, there are two accounts of the original secretor of the papers -so opportunely discovered. According to one of them, the box was -delivered by SOMERSET’S own order to the woman by whom it was carried to -the London merchant. [Sidenote: COTTON’S DEALINGS WITH SOMERSET’S -CORRESPONDENCE.] [Sidenote: 1615.] According to another, SOMERSET -entrusted the papers to COTTON; and the latter, anticipating the search -and sealing up of his library, gave them to a female acquaintance with -whom he thought they would remain in safety, but whose own fears led her -to shift their custody, in her turn. - -That the letters which NORTHAMPTON had received from -SOMERSET—containing, amongst many other things, numerous references to -the imprisonment of OVERBURY in the Tower—had been in Sir Robert -COTTON’S hands is unquestioned. After NORTHAMPTON’S death, COTTON, to -use his own words, had been ‘permitted to peruse and oversee all the -writings, books, &c. in the Earl’s study.’ In the course of this -examination he proceeds to say, ‘I had collected thirty several letters -of my Lord of SOMERSET to the Earl of Northampton, which, upon request, -I delivered to my Lord Treasurer [the Earl of SUFFOLK,] who sent them to -the Earl of SOMERSET.’ SUFFOLK, it is to be remembered, was -NORTHAMPTON’S heir. - -Thus far, no charge rests upon COTTON in relation to this -correspondence. What he did in disposing of SOMERSET’S letters was done -by order of the representatives of their deceased owner. It is far -otherwise with respect to their treatment after they had repassed, by -SUFFOLK’S gift, into the hands of SOMERSET, their writer. - -The letters were undated. That they should be so was in accordance with -the practice of a majority of the letter-writers of the time—as students -of history know to their sorrow. [Sidenote: Extracts of Examinations, -&c. (R. H.).] When suspicion was aroused and inquiry commenced about the -real cause of OVERBURY’S death, COTTON’S advice was sought by SOMERSET. -He told me, says SOMERSET himself: ‘These letters of yours may be dated, -so as may clear you of all imputation.’ Did he mean that the dates might -be forged, and so be made to bear false witness? Or did he mean that, by -putting their true dates to the letters, their contents would exculpate -an innocent man? To these questions there is absolutely no answer, save -the presumptive answer of character.[10] - -Whatever may be our estimate of the difficulty attending on the -admission of such exculpation as that, in respect of a charge which -amounts (in substance) to participation, after the fact, in the crime of -murder, there is really now no alternative. That Sir Robert COTTON put -dates to SOMERSET’S undated letters is certain. It was found to be -absolutely impossible, after desperate effort, to prove that the dates -were false. It is alike impossible to prove that they are true. These -dates are in COTTON’S own hand, without any attempt to disguise it. - -Upon the hypothesis of SOMERSET’S guilt, the question is beset with as -much difficulty, as upon the hypothesis of his innocence. By procuring -OVERBURY’S imprisonment—with whatever motive, or beneath whatever -influence—SOMERSET had brought himself under inevitable suspicion of -complicity in the ultimate result of that imprisonment. He was already -within the web. His struggles made it only the more tangled. - -Sir Robert COTTON remained in custody until the middle of the year 1616. -He was effectually prevented from appearing in May of that year as a -witness at his friend’s trial. [Sidenote: _Domestic Corresp._ James I, -vol. lxxxvii, f. 67 (R. H.).] He was himself put to no form of trial -whatever. But he had to purchase his pardon at the price of five hundred -pounds. It received the Great Seal on the 16th July. [Sidenote: Bacon to -Villiers, Feb. 1; and April 18; 1616.] Remembering BACON’S share in each -stage of the proceedings against SOMERSET, and the lavishness of his -professions to VILLIERS of the extreme delight he felt in following the -lead of the new favourite throughout every step of the prosecution of -the old one, it is suggestive to note that the framers, five years -afterwards, of a pardon for the Lord Chancellor BACON were directed to -follow the precedent of the pardon granted in July 1616 to Sir Robert -COTTON. - -Nor is it of less interest to observe that, to some of Sir Robert -COTTON’S closest friends, it seemed—at the moment when every part of the -matter was fresh in men’s minds—that it was much more needful for him to -exonerate himself from a suspicion of having stood beside SOMERSET too -lukewarmly, than to clear himself from the charge of committing a -forgery in order to cloke a murder. Very significant, for example, are -the words of one of those friends which I find in a letter addressed to -COTTON on the very day on which his pardon passed the Great Seal:—‘If I -say I rejoice and gratulate to you your return to your own house, as I -did lament your captivity, ... it will easily be credited.... The -unsureness of this collusive world, and the danger of great friendships, -you have already felt; and may truly say, with holy DAVID, _Nolite -fidere in principibus_.... As I hear, you have begun to make good use of -it, by receiving to you your Lady which God himself had knit unto you. -It is a piety for which you are commended. And, were it not for one -thing I should think my comfort in you were complete.... _It is said you -were not sufficiently sincere to your most trusting friend, the pitied -Earl. [Sidenote: E. Bolton to Sir R. Cotton; Cott. MS. Julius C., iii, -fol. 32. (B. M.)] Though I hold this a slander, yet being not able to -make particular defences, I opposed my general protestation against it -as an injury to my friend._ Yet wanting apt countermines to meet with -those close works by which some seek to blow up a breach into your -honour, I was not a little afflicted.... I leave the arming of me in -this cause to your own pleasure.’ - -The caution as to the danger of the friendships of grandees and great -favourites was one which COTTON took to heart. In the years to come he -had occasionally to give critical advice, in critical junctures. But, in -the true sense of the words, he learnt, at last, not to put his trust in -Princes. Long before his acquaintance with SOMERSET and his private -conferences with JAMES, a very true and dear friend had noted a -dangerous proclivity in Sir Robert’s character. [Sidenote: Arthur Agarde -to Sir R. Cotton: Cott. MS. Julius C., iii, fol. 1.] It prompted, by way -of counsel, the words: ‘Be yourself; and no man’s creature; but [only] -God’s. And so He will prosper all your designs, both to his glory and -your good.’ - -That ply had been taken too deeply, however, to be very easily smoothed -out. In the years to come Sir Robert COTTON approached—more than once, -perhaps—the brink of the old peril. As BUCKINGHAM clomb higher and -higher, and busied himself with many transactions of the nature of which -he had but a very insecure mental grasp, he felt his need of the -counsels of experienced men. He made occasional advances to COTTON, -amongst others. They were met; and not always so warily, as might now -have been expected. - -But against the danger which over-confiding intercourse with -too-powerful courtiers was sure to bring in its train, COTTON found a -better safeguard in wounded self-esteem, than even in dearbought -experience. He soon saw that in BUCKINGHAM’S character there was at -least as much of vacillation as of versatility. The famous lines which -describe the son as - - A man so various, that he seem’d to be - Not one, but all mankind’s epitome, - -would have a spice of truth if applied to the father. But their -applicability is only partial; whereas the lines which follow are almost -as true—a single word excepted—of the first Duke of Buckingham as they -were of the second— - - Stiff in opinions; often in the wrong; - He’s everything by starts, and nothing long. - -When Sir Robert COTTON perceived that James’s new favourite would -listen, in the morning, to grave advice on a grave subject, and affirm -his resolution to act upon it; and yet, in the afternoon suffer himself -to be carried from his purpose by the silly jests or malicious -suggestions of youngsters and sycophants, unacquainted with affairs and -often reckless of consequences, he saw the wisdom of standing somewhat -aloof. He rarely, however, refused his advice, when it was asked. In -regard to matters of naval administration,—the authoritative value of -his opinion on which was now everywhere recognised, save in the -dockyards and their dependencies,—he gave it with especial willingness. -But henceforward, to use AGARDE’S words, he was ‘no man’s creature.’ - -Five years passed on, marked by events which stirred England to its -core, but to Sir Robert COTTON they were years of comparative quiet. He -was, indeed, very far from being a careless bystander. He observed much, -and learnt much. [Sidenote: GROWTH OF COTTON’S LITERARY AND PUBLIC -CORRESPONDENCE.] Had it not been for the lessons which those publicly -eventful years impressed on his receptive mind, he might have gone to -his grave with no other reputation than that of a profound antiquary, -and the Founder of the Cottonian Library. - -Meanwhile, his pen worked as hard in the service of scholars, both at -home and abroad, as though he had been a busy proof-reader in a leading -printing-office. He supplied, at the same time, on the right hand and on -the left, precedents and formulæ, with a diligence and readiness which -would have won both fame and fortune for a long-accustomed conveyancer. -CAMDEN consults him, continually, for help in his historical labours. -Ben JONSON puts questions to him about intricate points of Roman -geography. [Sidenote: MS. Cott., Julius C., iii, fol. 239. (B. M.)] -William LISLE seeks COTTON’S aid in the prosecution of his studies of -the language and literature of the Anglo-Saxons. [Sidenote: _Ib._, fol. -288, seqq.] PEIRESC consults him on questions in Numismatics. [Sidenote: -_Domestic Corresp._, Jas. I, vol. lxxxi, § 15. (R. H.)] If great -officers of State chance to quarrel amongst themselves about their -respective claims to carry before the King the sword _Curtana_, at some -special ceremony, they agree to refer the dispute to Sir Robert COTTON -and to abide—without fighting a duel—by his momentous decision. If a -courtier obtains for a friend the royal promise of an Irish viscounty he -writes to COTTON, asking him to choose an appropriate and well-sounding -title. [Sidenote: MS. Cott., Julius C., iii, fol. 378.] Roger MAYNWARING -begs him to determine the legal amount of burial-fees. [Sidenote: _Ib._, -fol. 252.] Dr. LAMBE asks him to settle conflicting pretensions to the -advowson of a living which, in old time, belonged to an abbey. -[Sidenote: _Ib._, fol. 229.] Augustine VINCENT implores his help in a -tough question about patents of peerage. [Sidenote: _Ib._, fol. 379.] -The Lord Keeper WILLIAMS seeks advice on questions of parliamentary form -and privilege. [Sidenote: Edwards’ _Life and Letters of Ralegh_, vol. -ii, p. 321.] RALEGH writes to him, from that ‘Bloody Tower’ which he was -about to turn into a literary shrine for all generations of Englishmen -to come, by composing in it a noble ‘History of the World’—beseeching -him to supply a desolate prisoner with historical materials. [Sidenote: -MS. Julius C. iii, fol. 204.] The Earl of ARUNDEL writes to him from -Padua, begging that he would compile ‘the story of my ancestors.’ -[Sidenote: _Ib._, fol. 320.] The Earl of DORSET entreats him to make out -a list of the gifts which some early SACKVILLE had piously bestowed upon -the Church—not, however, with the smallest intention of himself -increasing them. And, anon, there comes to Sir Robert, from a third -great peer, the second of the Cecil Earls of Salisbury, an -entreaty—expressed in terms so urgent that one might call it a -supplication—‘Permit me, I pray you, to see my Lord of NORTHAMPTON’S -letters.... [Sidenote: Salisbury to Cotton, in MS. Cott., Julius C., -iii.] I will return them unread, and unseen, by anybody,’ save himself. -And then the Secretary of State writes to him in an impetuous hurry -which made his letter scarcely legible:—‘If you be not here’ [_i. e._ at -the Council Chamber] ‘with those precedents for which there is present -use, we are all undone. [Sidenote: MS. Cott., Julius C., iii, fol. 57.] -For His Majesty doth so chide, that I dare not come in his sight.’ - -Along with this busy correspondence—of which, in these brief sentences I -have given the reader but a very inadequate and scanty sample—the -surviving records of these years of comparative retirement supply us -with abundant notices of the growth and of the sources, from time to -time, of the Cottonian Library. It would be no unwelcome task to tell -that story at length. It would, indeed, be but the paying, in very -humble coin, of a debt of gratitude to a liberal benefactor. But within -the compass of these pages so many careers have to be narrated that the -due proportions of some of them—and even of one so interesting as -COTTON’S—must needs be closely shorn. On this point it must, for the -present, suffice to say that the acquisition of many Cottonian State -Papers, and of such as carry on their face the most irrefragable marks -of former official ownership, can be distinctly traced. The assertion is -no hasty or inconsiderate one. It is founded on an acquaintance with the -Cottonian MSS., which is now, I fear, thirty years old, and on the -strength of which (when reading some recent assaults on the fair fame of -their Collector), I have been tempted to put certain well-known lines -into Sir Robert’s mouth:— - - If I am - Traduced by o’er hasty tongues—which neither know - My faculties nor person, yet will be - The chroniclers of my doing—let me say - ’Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake - That virtue must go through. - -Were it not, however, for one pregnant circumstance in Sir Robert -COTTON’S subsequent life, all this would have but a very meager -attractiveness for nineteenth-century readers. The story of the growth -of a great library has its charm, but the sphere of potency is of small -dimension. Few but those who are themselves imbued with a spice of -literary antiquarianism ever enter within the narrow circle. Just in -like manner, that active literary and political correspondence—spreading -from Exeter to Durham, and from Venice to Copenhagen—would nowadays have -but a slender interest for anybody (not belonging to the scorned -fraternity of Oldbuck and Dryasdust), were it not for that great war -between King and Parliament, Cavalier and Roundhead, of which, in one -sense, COTTON lived only long enough to see the gathering of forces, and -the early skirmishes, but in which, nevertheless, he played a part -second only to that played by ELIOT and by PYM. His close connection -with the Parliamentarian leaders of 1625–1629 lifts the whole story of -the man out of the petty circuit of mere ‘curiosities of literature,’ -into the broad arena of the hard-won liberties of England. - -[Sidenote: COTTON’S ALLIANCE WITH THE PARLIAMENTARIAN CHIEFS.] - -All students of the deeds done in that arena now know—and their -knowledge is in no slight degree due to the persistent labours of a -living writer—that the battle of the ‘Petition of Right’ was even a -greater battle than Naseby or Marston Moor. They know that the -marshalling of the forces which, at a period antecedent to that famous -Petition, succeeded in winning a safe place on ‘the fleshy tables’ of -the hearts of Englishmen for those political immunities it -embodied—after the first written record had been vainly torn from the -Council Book—was a feat of arms not less brilliant, in its way, than was -that arraying of Ironsides, on much later days of the long strife, which -resulted in ‘Darwen stream with blood of Scots imbued,’ and placed -Worcester’s laureat wreath on the brow of CROMWELL. There are many -senses in which we have all of us (or nearly all) learnt to see the -truth of the familiar words, ‘Peace hath her victories, not less -renown’d than War,’ but in no sense have those words a deeper truth than -when we simply invert MILTON’S own application of them. By him they were -pointed at something yet to be done, and which, as he hoped, might be -done by CROMWELL. Nowadays, the historian has good ground to point them -at an earlier victory, won when the great soldier was but looking on at -the parliamentary contest, which he could not much advance, and might -very possibly have seriously impeded. The one thing which has transmuted -Robert COTTON from the status of a dead antiquary into that of a living -English worthy, is his close fellowship with ELIOT, RUDYARD, and PYM. -His rights to a place amongst our national worthies is due—more than all -else—to the fact that the services which he rendered in that strife of -heroes were services which one man, and only one, throughout broad -England had made himself capable of rendering. COTTON could no more have -led the parliamentary phalanx, than he could have led the Ironsides. To -stir men’s minds as ELIOT or PYM could stir them was about as much in -his power as it was to have invented logarithms, or to have written -‘_Lear_.’ But if he could not command the army, he could furnish the -arsenal. At that day and under the then circumstances that service was -priceless. - -Sir Robert COTTON’S best and most memorable parliamentary service was -rendered under CHARLES; not under JAMES. But there is one incident in -his public career which occurred just before the change in the wearers -of the Crown that has a claim to mention, even in so brief a memoir as -this. - -Among the revenges wrought by the ‘whirligigs of time’ before JAMES went -to his grave, was the necessity laid upon him to direct a search for -precedents how best to put a mark of disgrace on a Spanish Ambassador -for misconduct in his office. The man selected by the Duke of Buckingham -to make the search, and to report upon it, was Sir Robert COTTON. Some -weeks before he had been chosen to draw up, in the name of both Houses -of Parliament, a formal address to the King for the rupture of the -Spanish match. - -[Sidenote: THE SEARCH FOR PRECEDENTS AGAINST AMBASSADORS.] - -When BUCKINGHAM made that famous speech at the Conference of Lords and -Commons on the relations between England and Spain, to which COTTON’S -well-known _Remonstrance of the treaties of Amity and Marriage of the -Houses of Austria and Spain with the Kings of England_,[11] was to serve -as a preface, he spoke with considerable force and incisiveness. -[Sidenote: 1624. 27 April.] His arguments were not hampered by many -anxieties about consistency with his own antecedents. His words were -chosen with a view to clinch his arguments to English minds rather than -to spare Spanish susceptibilities. The ambassadors—there were then, I -think, two of them—were furious at a degree of plain-speaking to which -they had been little accustomed. They appealed to the King. They knew -that the versatile favourite, once loved, was now dreaded. They tried to -work on the King’s cowardice. The Duke, they told His Majesty, had -plotted the calling of Parliament expressly to have a sure tool with -which to keep him in control, should he prove refractory to the joint -schemes of the Duke and Prince CHARLES. ‘They will confine your -Majesty’s sacred person,’ said they, ‘to some place of pleasure, and -transfer the regal power upon the Prince.’ - -The framing of such an accusation, writes Sir Robert, in the Report -which he addressed to BUCKINGHAM on ‘_Proceedings against Ambassadors -have miscarried themselves_,’ would, by the laws of the realm, amount to -High Treason, had it been made by a subject. [Sidenote: _Relation of -Proceedings, &c._; MS. LANSD., 811, ff. 133–139.] He then adduces a long -string of precedents for the treatment of offending envoys; advises that -the Spaniards should first be immediately confined to their own abode; -and should then, by the Speakers of both Houses of Parliament, in -person, be exhorted and required to ‘make a fair discovery of the ground -that led them so to inform the King.’ - -If, says Sir Robert, they refuse—‘as I believe they will’—then are they -authors of the scandal, and His Majesty should be addressed to send a -‘letter of complaint to the King of Spain, requiring justice to be done -according to the law of nations, which claim should the King of Spain -refuse, the refusal would amount to a declaration of war.’ This advice -was given by COTTON to the Duke on the 27th of April, 1624. Its author’s -momentary favour with the favourite of the now fast-rising sun was -destined (as we shall see presently) to be of extremely brief duration. - -Pen-service of this sort was eminently congenial with Sir Robert -COTTON’S powers. To his vast knowledge of precedents he added much -acumen and just insight in their application. Though never admitted to -the Privy Council as a sworn councillor of the Crown, his service as an -adviser on several great emergencies was conspicuous. - - -And it did not stand alone. Small as were his natural gifts for oratory, -COTTON’S earnestness in the strife of politics prompted him, more than -once, to put aside his own sense of his disadvantages, and to endeavour -himself to strike a good blow, with the weapons which he knew so well -how to choose for others. [Sidenote: COTTON’S SPEECH IN THE PARLIAMENT -AT OXFORD.] On one of these occasions he prepared a speech which proved -very effective. - -[Sidenote: 1625. 10 August.] - -Curiously enough, whilst the best contemporary reports of that speech -agree amongst themselves in substance; they differ as to the name of the -speaker by whom it was actually uttered within the walls of the House of -Commons. Internal evidence and external authority are also agreed that -the speech, if not spoken, was at all events prepared by Sir Robert -COTTON. On that point, all parties coincide. But according to one -account, he both wrote and uttered it. According to another, he wrote -it; but was prevented from the intended delivery,—either by an -accidental absence from the House, or by some inward and unwaivable -misgiving which led him at the eleventh hour to hand over the task to -the able and well-accustomed tongue of his comrade ELIOT. - -[Sidenote: COTTON’S? OR ELIOT’S?] - -If we turn, for help—in our strait—to the admirable biography of ELIOT, -by Mr. FORSTER, we shall find that its author rather accepts the doubt, -than solves it. Inclining to the opinion that Sir John ELIOT was the -actual utterer, he thinks nevertheless that the best course is to ‘let -the speech stand double and inseparable; a memorial of a fast -friendship.’ It was the friendship, I may add, of two statesmen who -fought a good fight, side by side; until one of them was violently torn -out of the arena, and thrust into a dungeon, in the hope that slow -disease might unstring the eloquent tongue which honours could not -bribe, and terrors could not silence. - -In Sir Robert’s posthumous tracts (as they were published by James -HOWELL) this speech has been printed as unquestionably spoken by him who -wrote it. But that publication—as I have had occasion to show already, -in relation to the ‘_Twenty-four Arguments_’—carries no grain of -authority. Spoken or simply composed by its author, the speech is alike -memorable in English history, and in the personal life of the man -himself. - -The existence of the plague in London had led to the adjournment of the -first Parliament of King CHARLES to Oxford. It was there, and on the -10th of August, 1625, that the speech which—whether it came from the -lips of John ELIOT or of Robert COTTON—made a deep impression on the -House, was spoken. It gave the key-note to not a few speeches of a -subsequent date, and it contains passages which, in the event, came to -have on their face something of the stamp of prophecy. - -Retrenchment in expenditure,—Parliamentary curb on Royal favourites,—No -trust of a transcendent power to any one Minister,—Less lavishness in -the bestowal of honours and dignities won by suit, or purchase, rather -than by public meed,—Wary distrust of Spain,—Abolition of unjust -monopolies and oppressive imposts;—these are amongst the earnest -counsels which (whether it were as writer, or as speaker) Sir Robert -COTTON impressed on his fellow-members in that memorable sitting at -Oxford. Both the pith and the sting of the Speech may be found in its -concluding words: ‘His Majesty hath ... wise, religious, and worthy -servants.... In loyal duty, we offer our humble desires that he would be -pleased to advise with them _together; ... not with young and single -counsel_.’ Well would it have been for CHARLES, had he taken those -simple words to heart, in good time. - -To us, and now, there is a special interest in an incidental passage of -this speech which relates to SOMERSET. The reader has seen how Count -GONDOMAR’S secret testimony—just disinterred from Simancas—against -SOMERSET, as well as against COTTON, has recently been dealt with by an -eminent historian. [Sidenote: (See, also, heretofore, the foot-note to -p. 73.)] It is worth our while to remember some other words on that -subject spoken publicly in the Parliament at Oxford almost two centuries -and a half agone. They were spoken in the ears of men whose eyes had -looked with keen scrutiny into the Spanish envoy as well as into the -English minister. SOMERSET was still living. Men who then sat in the -Parliament Chamber knew every incident in his official life, and not a -few incidents in his private life, as well as every charge by -which—publicly or privately—he had been infamed. They knew, exactly, Sir -Robert COTTON’S position towards the fallen minister. If we choose to -suppose that ELIOT was now speaking what COTTON wrote, the inference is -unchanged. To those listeners Sir John and Sir Robert were known to be -politically ‘double and inseparable.’ - -[Sidenote: COTTON’S EULOGY ON LORD SOMERSET’S POLICY (August, 1625).] - -The facts being so, what is the course taken by the speaker when he -finds occasion to remind the House of things that happened when ‘My Lord -of Somerset stood in state of grace, and had the trust of the Signet -Seal?’ Does he take a line of apology and use words of extenuation? Not -a whit. In the presence of some of the wisest 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. -[Sidenote: MS. LANSD.,[12] 491, fol. 195.] 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 exposed to so great a peril as no wise and -faithful counsel 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 in politics. Amongst those whose intimacy he -cultivated—besides that of ELIOT and others who have been mentioned -already—were Symonds D’EWES, and John SELDEN. [Sidenote: FRIENDS AND -HOSPITALITIES.] It was at COTTON’S hospitable table, in Old Palace Yard, -that 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. [Sidenote: Harl. MS., as above.] ‘I had -much more familiarity with Sir Robert COTTON, than with Master SELDEN,’ -jots down Sir Symonds in his Autobiographic _Diary_, and then he 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 table. Until late in -JAMES’ reign, CAMDEN, when his growing infirmities permitted him to -journey up from Chislehurst, would still be seen there, now and again. -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 at this time was still in London, though it -was fast abating. [Sidenote: COTTON AND THE CORONATION OF CHARLES I.] -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 other of his guests—not privileged to claim -places in Westminster 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.’ [Sidenote: D’Ewes; in Harl. MS., 646, -as before.] 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 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. -[Sidenote: Mede to Stuteville; MS. Harl., 383, 18 April, 1626.] -BUCKINGHAM had advised the King to put the royal seals on the Cottonian -Library. 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. - - -[Sidenote: ADVICE TO PRIVY COUNCIL ON CHANGE OF COINAGE.] - -Although, thus 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. The Privy -Council was divided in opinion. There was a desire for the advice of -statesmen who were not at the Board, but who were known to have studied -a subject beset with many difficulties. Among these, Sir Robert COTTON -was consulted. He appeared at the Council Table on the 2nd of September, -1626, and we have a report of his speech to the Lords, which from -several points of view is notable. [Sidenote: MS. LANSD., ff. 141–152. -(B. M.)[13]] [Sidenote: _Council Registers_, James I, vols. v and vi, -_passim_. (C. O.)] But a preliminary word or two needs to be said on -what may seem the singularity that a man who, in 1625, was fighting -zealously beside the Parliamentary patriots, should, in 1626, be -speaking at the Council Table as a quasi-councillor of the Crown. - -It might be sufficient to point attention to the obvious difference -between questions affecting the liberty of the subject, and questions of -mere administration, were this the only occasion—or were it a fair -sample of the only class of occasions—in which COTTON appears as an -unofficial Councillor. But the fact is otherwise. And it is best to be -explained, partly, by the unsettled character of party connection during -the political strife of CHARLES’ reign, as well as long afterwards, and -partly by peculiarities belonging to the man himself. [Sidenote: _Life -of Sir John Eliot_, vol. i, p 468.] There are not many statesmen, even -of that period, of whom it could be said as the able biographer of Sir -John ELIOT says of Sir Robert COTTON: ‘He acted warmly with ELIOT and -with the patriots in the first Parliament of CHARLES. At the opening of -the third, he was tendering counsel to the King, _of which the -obsequious forms have yet left no impression unfavourable to his -uprightness and honour_.’ The result is unusual. How came it to pass? - -Perhaps the preceding pages may have already suggested to the reader’s -mind more than one possible and plausible answer to this question. Here -it may suffice to say that while Sir Robert COTTON was plainly at one -with the Parliamentarian leaders in the main points of their civil -policy, he never went to the extreme lengths of the puritanic faith, -either in things secular, or in matters pertaining to Religion. On some -religious questions he differed from them widely. In secular matters, a -tyrannic Parliament would have been as little to his liking as a -despotic king. Neither friend nor enemy—GONDOMAR excepted—ever called -him a Puritan (or pretended-Puritan) in his lifetime, any more than they -would have called him a Republican. His ultimate divergence was not -cloaked. It was no bar to the entire respect, or to the love and close -fellowship, of men like ELIOT, just because it was frankly avowed, and -had no selfish aim. COTTON,—had he lived long enough,—would probably -have ranged himself, at last, with the Cavaliers, rather than with the -Roundheads. He would have had FALKLAND’S misgivings, and FALKLAND’S -sorrow, but I think he would not have lacked FALKLAND’S self-devotion -also. - -And, in another point, he resembled Lord FALKLAND. Both would have -advised CHARLES to yield much of so-called ‘prerogative.’ Neither of -them would have bade him to yield a grain of true royal honour. In later -years, some words which COTTON wrote,—in 1627,—for the King’s eye may -well have come back painfully into CHARLES’ memory:—‘To expiate the -passion of the People,’ said Sir Robert, ‘with sacrifice of any of His -Majesty’s servants, I have ever found to be no less fatal _to the -Master_ than to the Minister, in the end.’ - - -The question of the Coinage, on which he was called into Council in -September 1626, had caused no small measure of discussion whilst JAMES -was still on the throne. [Sidenote: THE ADVICE GIVEN BY SIR R. COTTON ON -MINT AFFAIRS.] Many merchants of London had raised the old and hacknied -cry of complaint against an alleged ‘vast transportation of gold and -silver from England’ to the Continent. Others said that the complaint, -if not groundless, was misdirected. The following Minute of the Privy -Council will shew how the question stood in that early stage. It was -drawn up in November, 1618. - -[Sidenote: Council to the King, 30 Nov., 1618; James I, vol. iv, p. 45. - (C. O.)] - -‘Being by Your Majesty’s commandment to take into our consideration the -state of the Mint and to advise of the way or means how to bring bullion -more plentifully into the Kingdom, and to be coined there, as also how -to stop the great exportation of treasure out of the Realm,—a matter of -which the State hath been jealous: For our better information and Your -Majesty’s satisfaction we thought it fit first to know from the Office -of your Mint what quantity of gold and silver hath been there coined in -the last seven years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth and the seven years -last past of Your Majesty. And we find that in the said seven years of -the Queen there was coined in gold and silver of all sorts £948,713 -sterling, whereas in the seven late years of Your Majesty’s reign there -hath been coined of all sorts, in gold and silver, £1,603,998. So as, -comparing the one with the other, there hath been coined of both species -in the said seven years of Your Majesty’s reign £655,285 sterling, more -than in the seven years aforesaid of the Queen, the difference being -almost three parts to one. Next we required a certificate from the -Goldsmiths of London of the Plate that hath been made in those years -within the City of London; and it appeareth that there was made and -stamped in their hall the last seven years of Queen Elizabeth of silver -plate the worth of £22,187 more than in the seven later years of Your -Majesty’s reign. But upon the whole matter we cannot find and do humbly -certify the same unto Your Majesty as our opinion that there hath been -of late any such vast transportation of gold and silver into France and -the Low Countries as was supposed; neither that there is any such -notorious diminution of treasure generally in the Kingdom—at the least -of gold—since it is apparent that there hath been a far greater quantity -in the total coined within these seven years last past than in the last -seven years of the late Queen. Besides Your Majesty may be pleased to -observe that the making of so much silver plate cannot be the principal -cause of the decay of the Mint since there was more plate made in London -[in] those last seven years of the Queen,—when there came more silver to -be coined in the Mint,—than there hath been used of late years, when -silver in the Mint hath been so scarce though Gold more plentiful.... In -the mean time we do humbly offer ... that there is no necessity ... to -raise your coin, either in the one kind or in the other. [Sidenote: -_Registers of Privy Council_, as above, p. 46. (C. O.)] But rather that -the same may draw with it many inconveniences; and because the noise -thereof through the City of London and from thence to other parts of the -Realm, as we understand, hath already done hurt and in some measure -interrupted and distracted the course of general commerce, we think it -very requisite ... that some signification be forthwith made from this -Table time to raise your coins.’ - -The course thus recommended—and in the recommendation the Council seems -to have been well nigh unanimous—was precisely the course JAMES did not -wish to take. The Council Books abound with proof how hard it was to -dissuade the King from adopting this ‘intended project of enhancing the -coin [_i. e._ by debasing the standard], though, as COTTON afterwards -said at the Council Table, to do so would trench, both into the honour, -the justice, and the profit’ [_i. e._ the real and ultimate profit] ‘of -my royal Master very far.’ - -In his address at the Board, Sir Robert made an almost exhaustive -examination of the history of the English Mint. He did it with much -brevity and pith. His views about foreign trade are, of course, not free -from the fallacies which were accepted as aphorisms by very nearly every -statesman then living. But his advice on the immediate question at issue -is marked by sound common sense, by insight and practical wisdom. -[Sidenote: MS. LANSD., 811, ff. 148–152 (B. M.) [Compare the Report of -Proceedings in the House of Commons, Feby. 1621. (_Parl. Hist._, vol. i, -c. 1188–1194).]] His speech told, and he followed it up by framing, as -Chairman of a Committee, (1) an _Answer to the Propositions delivered by -some Officers of the Mint_; and (2) _Certain General Rules collected -concerning Money and Bullion out of the late Consultation at Court_. -Copies of both exist amongst the Harleian and Lansdowne MSS., and both, -together with the Speech, are printed in the _Posthuma_ (although not -without some of the Editor’s characteristic inaccuracies). - -The next question which it was Sir Robert’s task to discuss before the -Privy Council was a much more momentous question than that of the -Coinage. It was, potentially, both to Sovereign and to people, an issue -of life or death. - -In January, 1628 [N. S.], he delivered, at the Board, the substance of -the remarkable Discourse which has been more than once printed under the -title, ‘_The Danger wherein this Kingdom now Standeth, and the Remedy_.’ -[Sidenote: DISCOURSE ON THE CALLING OF A PARLIAMENT. 1628. Jany.] The -courtliness of its tone no more detracts from its incisiveness of -stroke, than a jewelled hilt would detract from the cleaving sweep of a -Damascus blade, when wielded by well-knit sinews. It led instantly to -the calling of the Parliament. [Sidenote: MS. LANSD., 254, ff. 258, -seqq.] But neither its essential and true loyalty to the King, nor the -opportune service which it rendered to the country was to make the -fortunes of its author any exception to those which—sooner or -later—befell every councillor of CHARLES THE FIRST, who, in substance if -not in form, was wont to put Country before King. - -In that third Parliament of CHARLES Sir Robert himself had no seat. In -the Parliament which preceded it he sat for Old Sarum, having lost his -seat for Huntingdonshire. But he continued to be the active ally and the -influential councillor of the leaders of opposition to strained -prerogatives. When the Parliament assailed Bishops NEILE and LAUD, the -inculpated prelates, it is said, threw upon COTTON as much of their -anger as they well could have done had he led the assault in person. - -The opportunity was not very far to seek. [Sidenote: THE ‘PROPOSITION TO -BRIDLE PARLIAMENTS.’ 1629. October.] Not long after the dissolution in -March, 1629, of that Parliament of the assembling of which Sir Robert -COTTON’S patriotic effort had been the immediate occasion, and to some -of the effective blows of which he had helped to give vigour, some -courtier or other brought to CHARLES’ hands a political tract, in -manuscript, and told him that copies of it were in the possession of -several statesmen. Those—with one exception—who were then named to the -King were men wont to be held in greater regard in the country than at -Court. The pamphlet bore for its title: ‘_The Proposicion for Your -Majesties Service ... to secure your Estate and to bridle the -impertinencie of Parliaments_.’ - -The consequences of this small incident were destined to prove of large -moment. The earliest mention we have of it occurs in a letter written by -the Archbishop of York—himself a Privy Councillor—to Sir Henry VANE, in -November, 1629: ‘The Vice-Chancellor,’ says Archbishop HARSNET, ‘was -sent to Sir Robert COTTON to seal up his library, and to bring himself -before the Lords of the Council.’ [Sidenote: _Domest. Corresp._, Charles -I, vol. cli, § 24. (R. H.)] In the words that follow the Archbishop is -evidently speaking from what he had been told, not from his personal -knowledge. ‘There was found,’ he proceeds to say, ‘in his custody a -pestilential tractate which he had fostered as a child, containing a -project how a Prince may make himself an absolute tyrant. [Sidenote: -_Ib._] _This pernicious device he had communicated to divers Lords._’ - -CHARLES was presently in intense excitement about the matter. Its next -stage cannot be better or more briefly told, than in the words which the -King himself addressed to his assembled Councillors—in unusual array, -for they were twenty-one in number—and afterwards caused to be entered -upon the Council Book: - -[Sidenote: 1629. 15 Nov.] - -‘This day His Majestie, sitting in Counsell, was pleased to imparte to -the whole Boarde the cause for which the [Sidenote: [_Council Register_, -vol. v, p. 495.]] Erles of CLARE, SOMERSET, and BEDFORDE, Sir Robert -COTTON, and sundry other persons of inferior qualitie, had bene lately -restrained and examined by a speciall Committee appointed by him for -that purpose, which cause was this:— - -‘His Majestie declared that there came to his handes, by meere accedent, -the coppie of a certain “_Discourse_” or “_The Proposicion_” (which was -then, by his commandement, read at the Boarde), pretended to be written -“for His Majesties service,” and bearing this title—”_The Proposicion -for Your Majestie’s Service conteineth twoe partes: [Sidenote: -PROCEEDINGS AGAINST SIR ROBERT COTTON IN THE PRIVY COUNCIL.] The one to -secure your Estate, and to bridle the impertinencie of Parlements; the -other to encrease Your Majestie’s Revenue much more then it is_.” - -‘Now the meanes propounded in this Discourse for the effecting thereof -are such as are fitter to be practised in a Turkish State then amongst -Christians, being contrarie to the justice and mildnesse of His -Majestie’s Government, and the synceritie of his intentions, and -therefore cannot be otherwise taken then for a most scandalous -invention, proceding from a pernitious dessein, both against His -Majestie and the State, which, notwithstanding, the aforesaid persons -had not onely read—and concealed the same from His Majestie and his -Counsell—but also communicated and divulged it to others. - -‘Whereupon His Majestie did farther declare that it is his pleasure that -the aforesaid three Erles, and Sir Robert COTTON, shall answere this -their offense in the Court of Star Chamber, to which ende they had -alreadie bene summoned, and that now they shoulde be discharged and -freed from their restraint and permitted to retourne to their severall -houses, to the ende that they mighte have the better meanes to prepare -themselves for their answere and defense. - -‘And, lastly, he commanded that this his pleasure should be signified by -the bearer unto them, who were then attending without,—having, for that -purpose, bene sent for. His Majestie, having given this Order and -direccion, rose from the Boarde, and when he was gone, the three Erles -were called in severally and the Lorde Keeper signified to each of them -His Majestie’s pleasure in that behalfe; shewing them, with all, how -gratiously he had bene pleased to deale with them, both in the maner of -the restraint, which was only during the time of the examination of the -cause (a thing usuall and requisite specially in cases of that -consequence), and in that they had bene committed to the custodie of -eminent and honorable persons by whom they were treated according to -their qualities; and lykewise in the discharge of them now from their -restraint that they may have the better convenience and meanes to -prepare themselves for the defense of their cause in that legall coursse -by which His Majestie had thought fit to call them to an account and -tryall. - -‘The like was also signified by his Lordship to Sir Robert COTTON, who -was further tolde that although it was His Majestie’s pleasure that his -Studies’ [meaning, that is, his Library and Museum,] ‘shoulde, as yett, -remaine shut up, yet he might enter into them and take such writtings -wherof he shoulde have use, provided that he did it in the presence of a -Clerke of the Counsell; [Sidenote: _Council Register_, Chas. I, vol. v, -ff. 495, 496 (C. O.).] and whereas the Clerke attending hath the keyes -of two of his Studies he might put a seconde lock on either of them so -that neither dores might be opened, but by him and the said Clerke both -together.’ - -A reader who now looks back on this singular transaction—and who has -therefore the advantage of looking at it by the stern-lights of -history,—will be likely to believe that the chief offence of the -pamphlet lay (in a certain sense,) in its truth. [Sidenote: CHARACTER -AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE ‘PROPOSITION TO BRIDLE PARLIAMENTS.’] It was the -much too frank exposition of a policy which clung very close to CHARLES’ -heart, though he could ill afford—in 1629—to have it openly avowed. The -undeniable fact that this ‘_Proposition for Your Majesty’s Service_’ was -indeed fitter for the latitude of Constantinople, than for that of -London, sounds but awkwardly on the royal lips, when connected with an -assertion (in the same breath,) of the ‘justice and mildness’ of the -King’s own government. The indictment which his Parliament brought -against CHARLES,—and which History has endorsed,—could hardly be packed -into briefer words than those which the King himself used that day at -the Council Board. His notions of kingly rule, like his father’s, were -in truth much better suited for the government of Turkey than for the -government of England. - -Sir Robert COTTON, however, had no more to do with the authorship of the -‘_Proposition_’ than had CHARLES himself. The author was Sir Robert -DUDLEY. The time of its composition was at least fifteen years before -the date of the imprisonment of COTTON and his companions in disfavour. -The place of its birth was Florence. It cannot even be proved that -COTTON had any personal knowledge of the fact that the offensive tract -had been found in his own library. He had recently read it, indeed,—in -common with BEDFORD, CLARE, and Oliver SAINT-JOHN, and no doubt, like -them, had read it with many surging thoughts,—but he had read it in a -recent transcript, written by a clerk. - -Of Robert DUDLEY’S motive in writing his ‘_Proposition_’ we have also no -proof. But the presumptive and internal evidence is so strong, as to -make proof almost superfluous. The tract bears witness, between the -lines, that it was composed to win the favour—or at least to arrest the -despoiling hand—of King JAMES. And there is hardly a suggestion in it -which might not be backed by some parallel passage in the writings, or -the speeches, of JAMES himself, when expatiating on kingly prerogatives -in some mood of mind a little more foolish than usual, or when -striving—only too successfully—to train up his successor to follow in -his own path. It seems like an irony of Fate to find that (in all -probability,—for here again the proof is not quite clinching,) the -King’s informer, against COTTON and the other offenders, was WENTWORTH, -who, not many years after 1629, was to sum up views of policy much akin -to Robert DUDLEY’S in the memorable word ‘_Thorough_.’ - -COTTON himself believed that this apparently trivial incident cost him -his life. He said not long before his death,—‘It has killed me.’ We -shall probably never know whether DUDLEY’S tract had anything to do with -bringing about in the mind of WENTWORTH that eventful change of -political views which is known to have passed over it (about the time -when the incriminated manuscript was sent so eagerly from hand to hand), -and which, in a few years more, was to work his death also. But one can -hardly avoid, in passing, a momentary thought on the curious possibility -that a pamphlet, written at Florence, in the hope that it might save, -for the writer, some wreck or remnant of a despoiled inheritance,—may -have proved fatal alike to the close political friend of ELIOT, and to -the close political friend of LAUD. A tract of such potency may well -claim a few words about its contents. They bear in every line the stamp -of mental energy, and also the stamp of moral recklessness. - -[Sidenote: CAREER OF SIR R. DUDLEY, (THE TRUE AUTHOR).] - -Sir Robert DUDLEY knew well enough that a rooted dislike of Parliaments -was, in JAMES’S mind, combined with a besetting dread of them. He knew -that, between hate and fear, a Parliament was like a nightmare, for ever -crouching behind the royal pillow. It is the purpose of his tract to -tell the King how to drive the nightmare away. He recommends, amongst -other and minor measures, the erection of a strong fortress in all the -chief towns of the Kingdom, to be manned by trained bands, and to be -placed in such situations as shall command the high roads. In addition -to these measures, your Majesty, he says, must set up a strict system of -passports, for travellers. Nor is all this merely a new and more -elaborate version of the old story of belling the cat. The writer of -this counsel knows, perfectly, that already the King’s poverty is the -Parliament’s power; and that to build fortresses and array soldiers -needs a full purse, not an exhausted one. But he says,—as WENTWORTH said -after him,—that soldiers can be set to work upon good hopes of the pay -to come. A resolute King, he thinks, with resolute troops at his back, -could do in England what had so often been done in Italy. He could tithe -men’s estates. He could make salt and some other things of prime -necessity a royal monopoly. He could set a tariff on dignities of -honour. He could establish sumptuary laws, such as should make the -vanity and jealousy of thriving nobodies—men with full pockets and blank -pedigrees—willing contributors to the King’s Exchequer. He could buy up -improvident leases of Crown lands, and resell them at a large profit. - -The shortsightedness of such advice as this is now obvious enough. But -advice quite as shortsighted and far less plausibly couched,—for the -eyes that were to read it,—had been fruitful of result, when offered to -Stuarts. Nor was the man who now offered it to CHARLES a mere clever -talker. He was a man who had already acquitted himself with conspicuous -ability in several spheres of action, lying widely apart. - - -Sir Robert DUDLEY possessed many splendid accomplishments. He had been -educated by the same ripe scholar who afterwards became tutor to Prince -HENRY. At the age of one and twenty, he had put himself into the lists -with RALEGH, as navigator and discoverer, by heading an expedition to -the Oronoco. [Sidenote: THE CAREER OF SIR ROBERT DUDLEY.] In the course -of that expedition he had captured nine Spanish ships; one of them of -twice his own strength. At three and twenty, he had fought, side by side -with RALEGH, in the naval battle in the bay of Cadiz; had handled his -ship with an ability which won the praise of his rivals; and had then -fought, in the land attack, side by side with ESSEX. When his own -unbridled passions and resentments gave a fatal opening for the equally -unbridled cupidity of JAMES, and of JAMES’S courtiers, to despoil him of -a great estate, and to drive him into exile, he showed that he knew how -to snatch honour out of defeat. He laid the foundation of a new English -trade with Italy and created—it is not saying too much—the maritime -prosperity of Leghorn. He drained vast Italian marshes, and made corn to -grow where corn had never grown before. The man who, in early life, had -won fame at once as a navigator full of pluck and resource, and as an -able soldier by sea and land:—and who, on attaining full manhood, had -shown himself both a clever diplomatist and a great engineer;—did not go -to his foreign grave before he had won literary fame with the pen, and -scientific fame at the furnace of the chemist. He had, in its fullest -measure, the versatility and the energy of his race. English family -biography, I suppose, can scarcely show a stranger group of lives than -the successive lives of the last four DUDLEYS of that line:—Edmund, the -Minister of HENRY VII, and author of _The Tree of the Commonwealth_; -NORTHUMBERLAND, the subduer of EDWARD VI, and the murderer of Jane GREY; -LEICESTER, the Favourite of ELIZABETH; Sir Robert, the self-made exile, -and the maker of Leghorn. Whilst English history, in its long course, -can scarcely match the fatality which seems to have foredoomed powers of -mind and strength of will, such as are rarely repeated in four -successive generations, to teem with evil instead of good for England. - - -Such, in few words, was the career of the man, the forgotten production -of whose pen was to shorten the life of a statesman whose only -connection with it—so far as the evidence goes—lay in the fact that a -copy chanced to turn up in his library; fell under the keen eye of a -lawyer who thought that something might be made of it; and was then -copied—probably by some clerk, who was in the habit of making -transcripts for students to whom money was less precious than time.[14] -In some points of the story there is still considerable uncertainty. But -so much as this seems to be established. How the tract came, at the -first, into Sir Robert COTTON’S library there is no evidence whatever to -shew. - - -It is not the least curious point in this transaction that the Earl of -SOMERSET should have been mixed up with it. He had been released from -the Tower almost eight years before (namely, on the 28th of January, -1622), but was prohibited from living near the Court. At first, he was -ordered to restrict himself to one or other of two old mansions in -Oxfordshire—Caversham and Grey’s Court. [Sidenote: _Council Registers, -James I_, vol. v, pp. 230, 425 (C. O.).] Afterwards, his option was -enlarged, by including, in the license, Aldenham, in Hertfordshire. It -is evident that, after BUCKINGHAM’S death, he began to hope that a -political career might be still possible for him. And statesmen like -BEDFORD and CLARE—as well as COTTON—kept up with him a correspondence. - -More than once or twice, coming events had cast their preliminary -shadows over Sir Robert, in relation to the very matter which so vexed -his heart in the winter of 1629. ‘Sir Robert COTTON’S Library is -threatened to be sealed up’ is a sentence which made its occasional -appearance in news-letters, long before King CHARLES hurried down to the -Council Chamber to vent his indignation on the handing about of DUDLEY’S -‘_Proposition to bridle Parliaments_.’ - -[Sidenote: BEN JONSON AND THE VERSES TO FELTON.] - -One cause of the rumour lay doubtless in the known enmity between -BUCKINGHAM and the great antiquary. This enmity, on one occasion, -brought Ben JONSON into peril. Ben was fond of visiting Cotton House. He -liked the master, and he liked the table; and he was wont to meet at it -men with whom he could exchange genial talk. On one such occasion, just -a year before the Florence pamphlet incident, some verses went round the -table at Cotton House, with the dessert. They began, ‘_Enjoy thy -bondage_,’ and ended with the words ‘_England’s ransom here doth lie_.’ -Only two months had then passed since BUCKINGHAM’S assassination, and -these verses were, or were supposed to be, addressed to FELTON. We can -now imagine more than one reason why such lines may have been curiously -glanced at, over Sir Robert’s table, without assuming that there was any -triumphing over a fallen enemy; still less any approval of murder. But -there seems to have been present one guest too many. [Sidenote: -_Domestic Corresp. Charles I_, vol. cxix, § 33.] Some informer told the -story at Whitehall, and JONSON found himself accused of being the author -of the obnoxious verses. He cleared himself; but not, it seems, without -some difficulty and annoyance. - - -The release from immediate restraint of the prisoner of November ’29 was -no concession to any prompting of CHARLES’ own better nature. -Fortunately for Sir Robert COTTON, his companions in the offence were -peers. Their fellow-peers shewed, quietly but significantly, that -continued restraint would need to be preceded by some open declaration -of its cause. During the course of the proceedings which followed their -release it was asserted—I do not know by whom—that not only had the -‘_Proposition_’ been copied, but that an ‘_Answer_’ to it had been -either written, or drafted. And that the reply, like the original tract, -would be found in Sir Robert’s library. - -This somewhat inexplicable circumstance in the story is nowhere -mentioned, I think, except in a Minute of the Privy Council. The Minute -runs thus:— - -‘A Warrant directed to Thomas MEWTAS, Esq. ... and Laurence WHITAKER, -Esq. [Clerks of Council] autorising them to accompanie Sir Robert -COTTON, Knight, to his house and assist him in searching amongst the -papers in his studie or elsewhere, for certaine notes or draughtes for -an answer to a “_Proposicion_” pretended to be made “_for His Majesties -Service_” touching the securing of His Estate, and also to seeke -diligently amongst his papers, and lykewise the trunkes and chambers of -Mr. JAMES, and [of] FLOOD, Sir Robert COTTON’S servant, as well for anie -such notes, as also for coppies of the said “_Proposicion_,” and for -other wrytings, of that nature, which may import prejudice to the -government and His Majestie’s service.’ [Sidenote: _Council Registers, -Charles I_; vol. 5, pp. 493, 495. 1629. Nov. 10. Whitehall. (C. O.).] -The new search, it seems, had not the desired, or any important, result. - -A year passed away. The proceedings in the Star Chamber proved to be -almost as fruitless, as had been the vain, but repeated, searches which -wearied the legs and perplexed the minds of Clerks of Council and of -Messengers of the Secretary’s office. [Sidenote: _Domestic Corresp. -Chas. I_, clxvii, § 65, seqq. (R. H.)] But the locks and seals were -still kept on the Cottonian Library. Sir Robert and his son (afterwards -Sir Thomas) petitioned the King over and over again. But CHARLES had set -his face as a flint, and would not listen. In vain he was told that the -Manuscripts were perishing by neglect; and that, as they occupied some -of the best rooms, the continued locking up made their owner to be like -a prisoner, in his own house. In order to go into any one of them he had -to send to Whitehall, to request the presence of a Clerk of the Council. - -[Sidenote: COTTON’S DECLINE OF HEALTH.—THE ARTFUL QUACK AND THE WARY - PATIENT.] - -Under such circumstances it is not surprising that his friends noticed -with anxiety his changed appearance. His ruddy countenance became sallow -and haggard. It grew, says his associate D’EWES, to be of ‘a blackish -paleness near to the semblance and hue of a dead visage.’ His somewhat -portly frame stooped and waned. Life had still some charms for him,—so -long at least as he could hope even faintly, for an opportunity of -returning, at last, to his beloved studies. He was told of the growing -repute of a certain Dr. FRODSHAM, who combined (it seems) experiments at -the retort and still of the chemist, with the clinical practice of the -physician,—when he could get it. Sir Robert sent for him and desired -that he would bring a certain restorative balsam, or other nostrum, that -had become the talk of the town. The worthy practitioner preferred to -send his answer in writing. With great frankness, he said to his -correspondent: ‘I have now an extraordinary occasion for money.... -Neither is it my accustomed manner to distil for any body, without some -payment beforehand. So, noble Sir, if pleas you, send here, _by this -berer_, £17 and 12_s._, for so much the druges will cum tow. I confes -that way I worke is deare, yett must say, upon my life, that I will -make’ [you] ‘as sound and able of body, as at thirty-five,—and’ [this] -‘within five weeks.’ [Sidenote: MS. Harl., 7002, fol. 318; H. Frodsam to -Sir R. Cotton (B. M.).] But the eye for which this naïve epistle was -meant was an eye keen enough to detect the difference between corn and -chaff. [Sidenote: _Ib._] ‘I did,’ replied Sir Robert, ‘expect something -of fact, to make me confident; before I could venture either my trial or -my purse.... Promises I have often met and rejected. Error of judgment -must be, to me, of more loss than the money.’ - -By way of addition to the combined anxieties of failing health, and of a -bitter grief, there came now to be heaped upon COTTON’S shoulders the -heavier burden of a conspiracy to assail his moral character. - -Large as had been his expenditure on his noble collections, and -openhanded as was his manner of life and of giving, Sir Robert COTTON -was still wealthy. Some persons who had benefited by his repeated -generosity thought they saw an opening, in the summer of 1630, to -increase the gain by a clever and lucrative plot. The method they took -reads, nowadays, less like a real incident in English literary -biography, than like one of those— - - ... last, best, of the ‘_Hundred Merry Tales_’ - Of how [a grave and learned sage] devised - To carry off a spouse that moped too much, - And cured her of the vapours in a trice; - - · · · · · - - For now the husband—playing Vulcan’s part,— - ... started in hot pursuit - To catch the lovers, and came raging up; - Cast then his net, and call’d neighbours to see - The convicts in their rosy impudence. - -The victim of this plot was now in his sixtieth year. Whatever may have -been the sins of his youth, there was obvious risk in a contrivance to -extort money by telling such a tale as that, about a man the fever of -whose blood must needs have abated; even had he not been already broken -down under cumulative weight of the sorrow and hunger of the heart. -[Sidenote: THE CONSPIRACY OF WILCOX AND STEVENSON AGAINST SIR R. -COTTON.] The intended victim, too, was a man with troops of friends. But -the conspirators, it is evident, thought that Sir Robert’s known -disgrace at Court would tell as a good counterpoise in their favour. A -man already in circumstances of peril would, they thought, be likely to -open his pursestrings rather than incur the burden of a new accusation. - -On a June morning in 1630 Sir Robert COTTON received an urgent letter -from an elderly woman—one Amphyllis FERRERS—who had the claim upon him -of distant kinship, and upon whom, in that character, he had bestowed -many kindnesses. The letter made a new appeal to his compassion; told -him of the distresses of the writer’s daughter—married not long before -to a needy man—and besought him to pay them a visit; that he might judge -of their necessities with his own eyes. Both mother and daughter lived -together in Westminster, at no great distance from Cotton House. - -Sir Robert paid the invited visit; was told of various family plans -connected with the recent marriage, and, amongst other things, of a -pressing need for some household furniture. When the talk turned upon -furniture, he was asked to look, himself, at an upstairs room, and form -his own opinion about the request. Both mother and daughter went up with -him; but the three had hardly entered the room, when a loud battering -noise was heard on the other side of the thin wall which separated them -from the neighbouring house. And, presently a still greater noise was -heard from the rush of footsteps upon the stairs. - -The daughter, it seems, was not in the plot. Her husband had -ostentatiously ridden away from the door on the previous morning, to go -into the country, for an absence of some days;—exactly like a hero in -BOCCACCIO. At night, he quietly returned, and took up his abode, by -preconcert with his neighbours, next door. In the morning he lay with -those neighbours in ambush. When they all tumultuously rushed up -stairs—into the man’s own abode—they were full of indignation at Sir -Robert’s wantonness; but,—unfortunately for their story—in their eager -haste they entered the room almost as soon as he himself had entered it, -with his two companions. Nevertheless, they persisted in their -accusation; permitting, however, when the first burst of virtuous wrath -had somewhat subsided, the appearance of a sufficient indication that -they were not wholly averse from listening to a reasonable proposal. -There was a way, and one way only, in which that fierce wrath might be -appeased. Sir Robert, however, was indignant in his turn. The purse of -the intended victim remained stubbornly closed. - -[Sidenote: 1630. July—Decr.] - -There is no need to pursue the unsavoury narrative. Nor would so much of -the story have here been told, but for the suggestion which lies within -it that the rapid breaking up of Sir Robert’s vigorous constitution was -not perhaps due, quite exclusively,—as has been commonly believed[15]—to -the malicious privation inflicted upon him by King CHARLES. For though -he was successful in extracting, from the chief accuser himself, a -confession of the falsehood of the charge, and an acknowledgment that -the object of the conspirators was to extort money, yet the matter -brought him much toil and vexation of spirit. One of the latest acts of -his life was to arrange the proofs of the conspiracy in due and formal -array.[16] [Sidenote: _Cottonian Charters_, &c., i, 3, seqq.; MS. -ADDIT., 14049, ff. 21–43. (B. M.)] When he had done that, and had once -again made an effort—as fruitless as the efforts which had been made -before—for the recovery of his library, he seems to have prepared -himself for death. - -[Sidenote: _Domestic Corresp._, Charles I, vol. clxvii, § 45, seqq. (R. - H.).] - -Sir Robert’s repeated efforts to regain his Library were not unseconded -by friends powerful at Court. But the King’s stubbornness would not give -way—till concession was too late. The Lord Privy Seal (the -newly-appointed successor of WORCESTER, recently dead), was amongst -those who interceded with CHARLES. [Sidenote: COTTON’S DEATH.] A little -before Sir Robert’s death his Lordship sent to him John ROWLAND—one of -his officers—to tell him that, at length, his mediation had been -successful, and the King was reconciled to him. [Sidenote: Rowland, in -Pref. to the Political Satire entitled _Gondomar’s Transactions_, &c.] -COTTON answered, ‘You come too late. My heart is broken.’ - -COTTON, when he came to lie on the bed of death, had certain topics of -reflection—of a secular sort—on which he might well look back with some -measure of complacency. As a student of Antiquity he had been -conspicuously successful. [Sidenote: COTTON’S DEATHBED REFLECTIONS.] He -had won the respect and reverence of every man in Europe who had proved -himself competent to judge of such studies. And he had not been a -selfish student. He had made his own researches and collections seed -plots for Posterity. If, as a Statesman, he had missed his immediate -aims more frequently than he had reached them, he had none the less -rendered, on some salient occasions, brilliant public service. He had -shewn, incontestably, that the true greatness of England lay near his -heart. - -One of his contemporaries presently said of him—when told of his -death—‘If you could look at Sir Robert COTTON’S heart “_My Library_” -would be found inscribed there;—just as Queen MARY said “_Calais_” was -printed deeply on hers.’ But the character impressed on every volume of -that large collection which he so loved is ‘England.’ To illustrate the -history, and to enlighten the policy, of Englishmen was the object which -made COTTON, from his youth, a Collector. - -On the other hand, when the inevitable deathbed reflections passed from -things secular to things sacred,—and also from Past to Future,—there was -very little room for complacency of any sort. A few years before, when a -better and more famous man than COTTON lay in like circumstances, this -thought came into his mind:—‘Godly men, in time of extreme afflictions, -did comfort themselves with the remembrance of their former life, _in -which they had glorified God_. It is not so in me. I have no comfort -that way. All things in my former life have been vain,—vain,—vain.’ - -Those words were among Sir Robert COTTON’S own early recollections. When -he was sixteen years of age some of the dying words of Philip SYDNEY -were repeated in almost every manor-house of England, and at many a -cottage fireside. Those particular words came under his eye, at the most -impressionable period of his life. The document which has handed them -down to us was preserved by his care.[17] Did the exact thought they -embody, and the very words themselves, come into his mind, as they well -might, when he, too, lay upon his deathbed? - -Be that as it may, such words in Sir Robert’s mouth would have had a -special fitness. And he knew it well. Happily, he also knew where to -look for comfort. He found it, just as Philip SYDNEY—in common with many -thousands among the nameless Englishmen who had passed away in the -interval between 1586 and 1631—had found it before him. He could say, as -SYDNEY said:— - - ‘My Faith is frail; Hope constant never, - Yet this my comfort is, for ever, - God saves not man for merit.’[18] - -Not long before he died, COTTON said to a friend (after a long -conference which he had held with Dr. OLDISWORTH, a Divine who spent -many hours, from day to day, at his bedside) such comfort as I would not -want, to be the greatest monarch in the world.’ [Sidenote: THE LAST -SCENE.] Bishop WILLIAMS—who passed the greater part of the last night in -conversation with him—remarked, as he went his way in the morning, ‘I -came to bring Sir Robert comfort, but I carry away more than I brought.’ -To the last, however, the ruling passion of COTTON’S nature asserted -itself. He could forgive his persecutors, but he could not shake off the -memory of the bitterness of the persecution. Turning to Sir Henry -SPELMAN, he said: ‘Tell the Lord Privy Seal, and the rest of the -Council, that their so long detaining my books from me has been the -cause of this mortal malady.’ SPELMAN gave his message, and the ‘Lord -Privy Seal’ himself hastened to Sir Robert’s bedside to express his -regrets. The interview was narrated to CHARLES, and presently the Earl -of DORSET was sent, from the King himself. The new comforter came half -an hour too late. The persecuted man had passed to his rest. He died, -trusting in the one, only, all-sufficient, Saviour of sinful men. His -death occurred on the 6th of May, 1631. [Sidenote: John Pory to Sir -Thomas Puckering; MS. HARL., 7000, fol. 310.] His body was removed to -Conington, and was interred with more than the usual demonstrations of -respect. The inscription on his monument is printed at the end of this -chapter. - - -[Sidenote: THE ROYAL MESSAGE TO SIR THOMAS COTTON, 2nd BART.] - -When Lord DORSET, on his arrival at Cotton House with the royal message, -found that Sir Robert was already dead he turned to the heir. If the -Earl has been truly reported, the terms in which he expressed his -master’s condolence and good wishes were ill-chosen: ‘To you, His -Majesty commanded me to say that, as he loved your father, _so_ he will -continue his love to yourself.’ [Sidenote: Pory to Sir T. Puckering, as -above.] The comfort of the promise could not have been great. Sir -Thomas’ experiences of the rubs of life were, however, to come chiefly -from the King’s opponents; not from the King. - -His life was a quiet one, up to the time of the outbreak of Civil War. -Until then, its most notable incidents grew out of the circumstance that -it fell to his lot to serve as Sheriff of Huntingdonshire, during the -busy year of ‘Shipmoney.’ - -Sir Thomas COTTON was in no danger of being tempted to follow the -example of HAMPDEN. The readiness with which he discharged the -troublesome task of collecting the impost throughout his county probably -laid the first foundation of a strong feeling of personal ill-will -towards him, on the part of the lower class of the adherents of the -Parliament, during subsequent years. He never ranged himself with the -King’s party. Neither would he take any prominent part on the side of -the Parliament. He had little taste for public life; and regarded the -quarrel with the aloofness of spirit natural to a man with no dominant -political convictions, and with a decided love for country sports and -for the pleasures of domesticity. - -[Sidenote: _Domestic Corresp._, Charles I, vol. cccxliii, § 67; cccxlvi, - § 115; cccxlv, § 17; cccxlviii, cccl, § 40; cccliv, § 58; - ccclxi, § 104; ccclxvi, § 13; ccclxxi, § 58. (R. H.)] - -He had sat in Parliament (for Marlow) during his father’s lifetime, and -in his father’s company. His correspondence shows considerable talent. -The extensive portion of that correspondence—in the years 1636 and -1637—which was imposed on him by the Shipmoney business, shews also -considerable power of dealing with official details, little as he could -have liked them. It exhibits an anxiety to acquit himself -conscientiously of a difficult duty, and not to shirk any of the -incidents of duty merely on account of their distastefulness. In the -‘Short Parliament’ of 1640 he sat as member for his own county. He does -not seem to have sought for any seat in the memorable Parliament which -followed. - -[Sidenote: THE COMMITTEE OF SEQUESTRATIONS FOR HUNTINGDONSHIRE.] - -His troubles began in 1644. Much to his disgust he was appointed to be -one of the ‘Committee of Sequestrations’ for Huntingdonshire. The duty -was one which any English gentleman might well have disliked without -incurring the reproach either of idleness or of undue fastidiousness. -Sir Thomas’ repugnance to the work was backed by a repugnance, not less -keen, to those who would fain have been his fellows in its performance. - -‘This County of Huntingdon’—so he writes not long after his own -nomination to an ungenial office, which he refused to accept on the -ground of an illness, that was far from being feigned for the -occasion—‘is in an unhappy condition by Sequestrators. Only four or five -men, of mean reputation and estate, are “Committees;” and they act (all -of them) as Judges, Jury, and Executioners.’ His own experience was -destined to become a pregnant comment on that pithy text. - -His avoidance of all share in the task of punishing, by fine and -imprisonment, those of his old friends and country neighbours who -thought that the duty of loyalty to the Crown was still a duty, however -glaring the faults of the man who, for the time, wore the Crown, was the -primary offence given by Sir Thomas COTTON to the busy patriots who -would fain have had him work with them as a fellow-sequestrator. His -illness (as I have said) was doubtless real enough; but he also disliked -the work, and took no pains to conceal his dislike. Medical advisers -told him that Bedfordshire—where he also had property—was a better -county than Huntingdonshire for a man who suffered from chronic ague and -low fever. But Sir Thomas needed no adviser to tell him that, under the -existing circumstances of the country and the times, Eyworth would be a -much more satisfactory abode than Conington for a quiet-loving man who -had other duties than those of a soldier, who abhorred civil war with -all his soul, and who ardently desired such a solution of the current -issues as would neither make the King a mere dependent on his -Parliament, nor make the Parliament an absolute ruler over the kingdom. -Sir Thomas went into Bedfordshire. Lady COTTON continued to abide at -Conington. Very soon after his departure she received a summons, -addressed to her husband, and couched exactly in these words: ‘You are -assessed eight hundred pounds, according to an Ordinance of Parliament. -[Sidenote: 1643. 16 August.] The King and Parliament hath present use of -these monies. Therefore, we pray you, send it up to us at Huntingdon on -Saturday next.’ Before the receipt of this very summary ‘assessment’ -many of Sir Thomas COTTON’S horses, with a good deal of farm produce and -other property, had been already seized, by measures more summary still. -Meanwhile Sir Thomas had committed no act of delinquency; he had simply -removed himself into another county. Payment was refused. - -[Sidenote: The Proceedings of the Huntingdonshire Sequestrators at - Conington.] - -The sequel of the story depicts, in small, what was then passing at -large over much of the length and breadth of England. The farmers on the -Conington estate were told, in the plainest of words, that if they did -not pay their rents ‘to us at Huntingdon,’ their moveables would be -seized and themselves treated as ‘delinquents.’ Execution, in those -days, followed hard on process; and little difference was made, either -in word or deed, at the farms and at the manor-house. On one morning, -Lady COTTON was visited in her bedchamber—before she could dress—by five -troopers, who, under her own eyes, broke open her drawers and trunks, -and carried off what they thought meet. On another, one of Sir Thomas’ -confidential servants received a similar visit; had his papers rifled in -a like fashion, and his apparel stolen. At the stables and out-offices -scarcely any three days passed, during the entire summer of 1643—from -May to August—without some raid or other for plunder. For much of this -there was scarcely the semblance or the pretext of a legal warrant. -During those saturnalia of ‘liberty’ there was, virtually, no judge in -England, and not a few men did whatsoever seemed good in their own eyes. - - -Sir Thomas COTTON was old enough to remember the early stages of the -long conflict of which—in 1643—this was seemingly the upshot. In the -Parliament at Oxford he had sat beside his father and his father’s -friends. His correspondence at this time—so far as it appears to have -survived—deals merely with the passing events. It contains, I think, no -disclosure of any reflections which may have crossed his mind on the -principles which underlay them. He was probably shrewd enough to see -already that the grossness of the current abuses of popular power -carried with it no scintilla of valid blame upon the first leaders in -that conflict—the real issues of which were still far off. What he, in -common with so many of the best gentlemen in England, was now smarting -under was the consequence rather of the royal triumphs of CHARLES’ -earlier years, than of the royal defeats of his later years. Had the -policy of Robert COTTON and of John ELIOT prevailed a quarter of a -century sooner, there would (very probably) have been no county -committees of sequestrators; no political scaffolds at Whitehall; no -ruling of England by brute force under artificers suddenly transformed -into generals; no wholesale massacres in Ireland, fraught with mischief -for the whole empire during centuries to come. - - -Be that however as it may, things were not yet at so bad a pass, but -that a curb could, now and then, be put on the necks of such busy -patriots as those who sat in perpetual Committee at Huntingdon. Redress -was impossible; seeing that the plunder was dissipated almost as fast as -it was made. But, in Sir Thomas COTTON’S case, it was found practicable -to put a check on its progress. He invoked the aid of a powerful friend, -Henry, Earl of Manchester, who represented the authority of the -Parliament in Huntingdonshire. The Earl summoned the Sequestrators to -show cause for their raids on Conington. He held a court. The new -functionaries were brought—after some ineffectual bluster—to confess -that they knew of no act done by COTTON which brought him within purview -of the Parliamentary Ordinance, nor of any other legal cause to subject -him to sequestration. As the words of confession were on the lips of one -active Committee-man, another functionary blurted out—most -felicitously—‘You are wrong. [Sidenote: _Proceedings in the -Sequestration of the Estate of Sir T. Cotton_; MS. ADDIT., 5012, ff. 34, -seqq.] Master Serjeant Wilde wished it should be done.’ And, in the -sequel, ‘Master Serjeant’ proved to be strong enough to protract the -inquiry, and even to procure its adjournment to London; though his -attempt to maintain the sequestration—on a plea the falsehood of which -was conclusively proved—came at last to be entirely foiled. - -When Sir Thomas COTTON came to sum up his losses he found that they -amounted to more than four thousand pounds (in the money of that day). -[Sidenote: _Ib._, ff. 71, seqq.] ‘They have had,’ he wrote, ‘£1500, in -money; besides eleven horses, worth £140; Billeting at Conington, -Eyworth, and other places, which came to £100; spoil made at Sawtrey and -at St. Germans which £300 will not make good; and besides the decay of -my rents to an amount of at least £600 a-year; ... and now the layers -and taxes will take up the whole of Ladyday’s rent.’ [Sidenote: _Ib._, -74.] Meanwhile his unlucky tenants, in Huntingdonshire alone, had been -deprived of a hundred and ninety horses, and their farms had been -stripped both of provisions and of forage. - -By way of pleasant diversity to his troubles in Huntingdonshire and -Bedfordshire Sir Thomas received, presently, a letter from John -SELDEN—the old and warmly-attached friend of his family—warning him that -the capabilities of Cotton House in London had caught the eye of certain -other Committee-men, and had made a deep impression on them. [Sidenote: -THE ATTEMPT TO SEIZE ON COTTON HOUSE.] They saw that it would do -capitally both as a lodging house for the entertainment of distinguished -strangers who might come to Westminster, to wait on the Parliament, and -as a State prison for very eminent delinquents. These watchful -Committee-men were also members of the Council of State; and the time -had now come when King JAMES’ sarcastic and well-remembered jest—‘Bring -me sax chairs, for I see sax kings approaching’—was turning itself into -a very awkward fact. These Committee-men, too, (like their humbler -fellows at Huntingdon,) had their Serjeant at hand to give them advice -on elastic points of law. ‘Serjeant DENDY,’ wrote SELDEN, ‘fairly told -me that the Committee and Council were informed that, by the Patent -under which you claim, it was provided that your interest [in Cotton -House] should cease, _during the time of the Parliament_.’ [Sidenote: -Selden to Sir T. Cotton; in an Appendix to Cotton MSS. marked ‘16. l.’ -fol. 50 (B. M.)] Certainly, an awkward clause to appear in a man’s -lease, in days when a Parliament, beginning its ‘time’ in 1641 had not -quite ended it until 1660. This claim of the Council of State proved, in -the sequel, to have in it no more of real validity than had that other -claim to procure the Conington rents to be paid ‘to us at Huntingdon’; -but, like that, it gave Sir Thomas COTTON a good deal of annoyance -before he succeeded in getting quit of it. - -It is much to his honour that petty but cumulative misfortunes like -these did not sour Sir Thomas COTTON’S temper. When quieter times came, -he showed himself the worthy son of his eminent father, both by the -improvement of his library, at considerable charge, and by the -liberality with which he lent his choicest manuscripts, and, in many -ways, made them and his other collections serviceable to literature. The -still extant acknowledgments of service of this sort from historians and -great scholars are very numerous.[19] - -By his first marriage with Margaret HOWARD, daughter of William Lord -HOWARD of Naworth, Sir Thomas had one son and two daughters. By his -second marriage with Alice CONSTABLE he had four sons, two of whom died -without issue. Alice was the daughter and sole heir of Sir John -CONSTABLE of Dromondley in Yorkshire, and the relict of Edmund ANDERSON -of Eyworth and of Stratton in Bedfordshire, and she brought with her a -considerable dowry. - -Sir John COTTON, the eldest son of the first marriage, sat in Parliament -for the borough of Huntingdon in the reign of CHARLES THE SECOND, and -for Huntingdonshire in that of JAMES THE SECOND. But he took no -prominent part in public affairs. Like his father he was twice married. -And his first wife became step-daughter as well as daughter-in-law to -his father, being Dorothy, daughter and heir of Edmund ANDERSON of -Eyworth above mentioned. His second wife was Elizabeth HONYWOOD. He -seems to have resembled his father both in his tastes for a quiet -country life, and in the liberality with which he allowed (on reasonable -cause and to proper persons) access to his library. Nor did Sir John, -any more than Sir Thomas, escape animadversion, when he allowed himself -to form his own judgment of the fitness or the timeliness of any -particular application. [Sidenote: _Autobiog. and Corresp._, vol. ii, p. -40.] [Sidenote: _History of the Reformation_, vol. iii, _Introd._, p. 8. -(Edit. of 1714.)] Caustic Symonds D’EWES writes down Sir Thomas COTTON -as ‘unworthy to be master of so inestimable a library.’ Caustic Bishop -BURNET writes in his turn of Sir John COTTON: ‘A great Prelate had -possessed him with such prejudices against me that ... he desired to be -excused’ [from granting BURNET admittance to the Cottonian Library] -‘unless the Archbishop of Canterbury or a Secretary of State would -recommend me as a person fit to have access.’ Against strictures such as -these, it were easy, but is not needful, to adduce a score of -acknowledgments of deep obligation, from writers more eminent by far -than either D’EWES or BURNET. - -The eldest son (also John) of Sir John COTTON, by his wife Dorothy, did -not live to inherit either the famous library or the ancestral estates. -He died in 1681, and his later days seem to have been marked by some -stormy incidents. In one point, his troubles resembled those which -disturbed the last year of his great-grandfather’s life;—in so far as -that they were caused by a lady. But whereas Sir Robert had the lady -thrust upon him, to suit the purposes of other men, the misfortunes of -his great-grandson appear to have grown out of an ardent but illicit -passion—as ardently, and not less illicitly, returned by its object. -Some scraps of their correspondence which have chanced to be preserved -read, after two centuries of dusty repose, as if they were still all -aflame with that fierce love which an experienced poet describes as -‘passion’s essence.’[20] - -Sir John COTTON survived till nearly the close of the seventeenth -century. He was succeeded in the baronetcy and estates by John, the son -of the last-mentioned John COTTON, who had married Frances, daughter and -heir of Sir George DOWNING of East Hatley in Cambridgeshire. Sir John, -fourth baronet, married Elizabeth HERBERT, one of the grand-daughters of -Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. Like his ancestors of many -generations, this Sir John COTTON sat in Parliament for Huntingdonshire. -His chief claim to honourable memory is that he settled the Cottonian -Library on the British nation for ever, and thus made its founder, Sir -Robert, the virtual and first FOUNDER OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. This was -done by Act of Parliament, in the year 1700. - -This eminent public benefactor died, in 1731, without surviving issue. -The baronetcy then reverted to Robert the eldest son of the second -marriage of the first Sir John COTTON, grandson of the Founder. From Sir -Robert, fifth baronet, the dignity came, in 1749, to a fourth ‘John -COTTON’ who then became sixth baronet and who was the last surviving -male heir of his honoured line. - -Sir John had lost his only son—a fifth John—many years before his -accession to the baronetcy, which, on his own death (27 March, 1752), -became extinct. Conington had long previously passed to a younger son of -Sir Thomas COTTON, second baronet; as shown in the following— - - +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ - | CONCLUSION OF THE PEDIGREE OF COTTON OF CONINGTON, | - | SHOWING ALSO THE DESCENT OF THE COTTONIAN TRUSTEESHIP | - | OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. | - | | - | | - | Sir Robert (BRUCE) COTTON = Elizabeth BROCAS. | - | Founder of the | | - | Cottonian Library. | | - | | | - | | | - | Alice CONSTABLE, = Sir Thomas COTTON, = Margaret HOWARD, | - | daughter and sole heir | (2nd Bart.) | daughter of William, | - | of Sir John CONSTABLE, | of Conington, Hunts, | Lord HOWARD of | - | of Dromondley, in | and of Eyworth, | Naworth [First Wife]. | - | Yorkshire; Relict | Bedfordshire. | | - | of Edmund ANDERSON, | [X] | - | of Eyworth and of | | - | Stratton, in | | - | Bedfordshire. | | - | | | - | +-------------+-------+----------------------+---------------+ | - | | | | | | - | Thomas Sir Robert COTTON = Gertrude Philip COTTON, William COTTON, | - | (died in of Hatley St. | MORRICE. eventually of of Cotton Hall, | - | infancy). George, County | Conington, in Cheshire. | - | of Cambridge, | died without | | - | Knight. | issue, leaving | | - | | Conington to | | - | | Thomas COTTON, | | - | | his nephew. | | - | | | | - | +----------------------+ +---------------------------+ | - | | | | - | Alice = Robert TREFUSIS. Thomas COTTON, | - | | of Conington, | - | | devisee of Philip. | - | | | | - | Robert-Cotton TREFUSIS. Frances = Dingley ASCHAM. | - | | (sole heir). | - | | | - | From whom | - | the present | - | Charles Henry | - | Rolle TREFUSIS, | - | 18th Baron Clinton, | - | of Maxtoke. | - +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ - | [X] | - | | | - | +-----------------------------+-------+ | - | | | | | - | Elizabeth HONYWOOD = Sir John COTTON = Dorothy ANDERSON, Lucy. Frances. | - | [Second Wife]. | (3rd Bart.) | daughter and sole | - | | of Conington, | heir of Edmund | - | | and of Eyworth, | ANDERSON, of | - | | succy. M.P. for | Eyworth and of | - | | Borough and | Stratton [First | - | | County of | Wife]. | - | | Huntingdon. | | - | | [Y] | - | | | - | +---------+-----------------------------+------------+ | - | | | | | - | Sir Robert COTTON = Elizabeth WIGSTON. Elizabeth. Mary. | - | of Gedding, in Hunts, | | - | succeeded, as 5th Bart., | | - | on the death, in 1731, | | - | of Sir John COTTON. | | - | | | - | +--------------+ | - | | | - | Sir John COTTON = Jane BURDETT. | - | Succ. as 6th Bart | | - | in 1749. Died, | | - | without surviving | | - | male issue, | | - | 27 March, 1752. | | - | +----------+ | - | | | | - | John, Jane = Thomas HART, | - | died in infancy. of Warfield, | - | Berkshire. First | - | Parliamentary | - | Trustee of the | - | COTTONIAN LIBRARY. | - +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ - | | - | [Y] | - | | | - | John COTTON = Frances DOWNING, | - | Died in 1681 | daughter of Sir George | - | in his Father’s | DOWNING, of East | - | lifetime. | Hatley, Cambridgeshire. | - | | | - | | | - | +----------+----------------------+-------+ | - | | | | | - | Sir John COTTON = Elizabeth HERBERT, Thomas Frances = William HANBURY.[21]| - | (4th Bart.) grand-daughter of COTTON. | | - | M.P. for Philip, Earl of | | | - | Huntingdon, Pembroke, &c. | | | - | Donor of COTTON | | | - | Library to | | | - | the Nation. | | | - | +-+ | | - | | | | - | Mary, Mary HANBURY = Martin ANNESLEY.| - | sole heir | | - | | | - | | | - | | | - | +----------------+--------+ | - | | | | - | Revd. Francis ANNESLEY, George ANNESLEY,| - | Present COTTONIAN TRUSTEES of | - | the British Museum. | - +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ - -The reader who glances at this pedigree will notice that some of the -COTTONS of 1600–1750 were as fortunate in getting heiress-wives as had -been their foregoers of preceding centuries. But their possessions were -scattered almost as rapidly as they had been augmented. Conington, which -was the most valued possession of Sir Robert, was less prized by his -descendants. The Council Books show that some of its appendant manors -and members—notably Glatton and Hulme—gave to the Founder himself a good -deal of trouble. The Sequestration Books show the anxieties and losses -which the busy Parliamentarians of Huntingdonshire inflicted on his next -successor. Other circumstances tended also to bring the place into -disfavour with owners who had a choice of seats. It lay so close to the -great northern road, as to be exposed to undue demands alike from the -movement of troops and from the tramping of professional vagrants. Nor -was it less exposed, from its situation, to injuries by great floods. -[Sidenote: DESERTION OF THE OLD SEAT OF CONINGTON.] Long before the -extinction of the male line, Conington was deserted, in favour of more -attractive abodes in southern counties. We learn from a passage in -Stukeley’s _Itinerary_ that the house was fast becoming a ruin, even in -the reign of GEORGE THE FIRST; although it had been solidly rebuilt by -Sir Robert himself. - -‘I thought it,’ writes that antiquary, ‘a piety to turn half a mile out -of the road, to visit Conington the seat of the noble Sir Robert -COTTON,—where he and Camden have often sat in council upon the -Antiquities of Britain, and where he had a choice collection of Roman -inscriptions picked up from all parts of the kingdom. I was concerned to -see a stately old house of hewn stone, large and handsome, already -falling into ruin.’[22] - -By the Statute which established the COTTON Library as a national -institution, it was enacted as follows: ‘The Cottonian Library ... shall -be kept and preserved, in the name and family of the COTTONS, for public -use and advantage. [Sidenote: THE ESTABLISHMENT ACT OF 1700.] And -therefore, according to the desire of the said Sir John COTTON, and at -his request, the said Mansion House, ... and also all the said -Library, ... together with all the Coins, Medals, and other -rarities, ... shall be vested in Trustees ... with a perpetual -succession.’ The first Trustees were the Lord Chancellor SOMERS, Mr. -Speaker HARLEY (afterwards Earl of Oxford), and the Lord Chief Justice, -_ex officio_; together with Sir Robert COTTON, of Hatley St. George, -Cambridgeshire; Philip COTTON, of Conington; Robert COTTON of Gedding, -in Cambridgeshire, and William HANBURY, of the Inner Temple. [Sidenote: -12 & 13 WILL. III, c. 7.] It was provided that on the decease of any one -of the four family trustees the heir male, for the time being, of Sir -Robert COTTON, the founder, should appoint a successor. - -The furious party-spirit which at this time divided the country into -hostile camps, the leaders of which were at any moment ready to fly at -each other’s throats, was eminently unfavourable both to the -guardianship and to the growth of the new institution; as it was, -indeed, to all matters of learning or of mental culture. Hardly seven -years had passed before it was found necessary to pass ‘_An Act for the -better securing of Her Majesty’s purchase of Cotton House in -Westminster_.’ - -This Act recites that since the preceding enactment of 1700 ‘very little -had been done in pursuance thereof to make the said Library useful to -the Public, except what had been lately done at Her Majesty’s charge;’ -and that the place wherein the Library then was, being ‘a narrow little -damp room, was improper for preserving the books and papers.’ The Act -then proceeds to declare that an agreement had been made for the -purchase of Cotton House for £4,500, ‘to the intent that it might be in -Her Majesty’s power to make this most valuable collection useful to her -own subjects, and to all learned strangers.’ - -Within five years, however, this unfortunate Library had to be removed -from Cotton House to Essex House, in the Strand (1712); and thence -again, in 1730, to Ashburnham House, at Westminster (already containing -the Royal collection), where it had not long been lodged, when the fire -occurred by which it was so seriously injured. [Sidenote: THE FIRE AT -ASHBURNHAM HOUSE.] The account which the Parliamentary Committee of -Inquiry gave to the Public, shortly after the occurrence of this -calamity, runs thus: - -‘On Saturday morning, October 23, 1731, a great smoke was perceived by -Dr. BENTLEY, and the rest of the family at Ashburnham House, which soon -after broke out into a flame. It began from a wooden mantel-tree taking -fire which lay across a stove-chimney that was under the room where the -MSS. of the Royal and Cottonian Libraries were lodged, and was -communicated to that room by the wainscoat and by pieces of timber, that -stood perpendicularly upon each end of the mantel-tree.’ - -‘They were in hope, at first,’ continues the Committee, ‘to put a stop -to the fire by throwing water upon the pieces of timber and -wainscoat, ... and therefore did not begin to remove the books so soon -as they otherwise would have done. But, the fire prevailing, Mr. CASLEY, -the Deputy Librarian, took care in the first place to remove the famous -Alexandrian MS. and the books under the head of Augustus’ [twelve of the -Cottonian presses, it will be remembered, were adorned by the heads of -the twelve Cæsars, whence the still existing designations or -press-marks, as for instance, that of the famous _Evangeliary of King -Ethelstan_, NERO D. vi, mentioned on page 132] ‘in the Cottonian -Library, as being esteemed the most valuable amongst the collection. -Several entire presses, with the books in them, were also removed; -but ... several of the backs of the presses being already on fire, they -were obliged to be broke open, and the books, as many as could be, -thrown out of the windows.’ All the MSS. that were saved, and the -remains of what been burnt, were removed to the Dormitory of Westminster -School. - -[Sidenote: 1731 October.] - -At the time of this disastrous fire, the number of MS. volumes was 958. -Of this number 114 were reported to be ‘lost, burnt, or entirely -spoiled; and 98 damaged so as to be defective.’ Mr. Speaker ONSLOW took -immediate measures, in conjunction with Dr. BENTLEY and Mr. CASLEY, for -the examination of the burnt MSS., and for the repair of such as were -then deemed alone reparable. Three months afterwards the Record Clerk to -whom the task was more particularly committed, thus reports his -progress: ‘One hundred and upwards,’ he says, ‘being volumes of Letters -and State Papers, have been quite taken to pieces, marked, and bound -again.’ [Sidenote: _Report of the Committee appointed to view the -Cottonian Library_ (1732), pp. 11–15; and Casley’s Appendix thereto.] -But he laments that ‘there having no way hitherto been found out to -extend vellum and parchment that has been shrivelled up and contracted -by fire to its former dimensions, part of several of the vellum MSS. -must remain not legible, unless the desideratum can be supplied.’ - -For nearly a century some of the most precious of the injured MSS. -remained as the fire had left them. But in 1824, by the care of Mr. -FORSHALL, the then Keeper of the MSS. in the British Museum, a -commencement was made towards their restoration, which his successor, -Sir F. MADDEN, zealously and successfully continued. Nearly three -hundred volumes have been repaired, and more or less completely -restored, (a considerable number of which were previously regarded as -beyond all hope of recovery) to a state of legibility.[23] - - -The calamity of 1731 brought about what may, in a sense, be termed a -partial compensation, by inducing Major Arthur EDWARDS to make an -important bequest, with the view of precluding its recurrence. -[Sidenote: THE BEQUEST OF ARTHUR EDWARDS.] Owing to the protraction of a -life interest in the legacy—the terms of which will be cited in -describing that eventual Act of Incorporation which created the British -Museum—it did not become available until other arrangements had made its -application to building purposes needless. It was, consequently, and in -pursuance of the Testator’s contingent instructions, appropriated to the -purchase of books in the manner, and with results, which will be spoken -of in a subsequent chapter. Major EDWARDS also bequeathed his own -collection of about 2,000 volumes of printed books, by way of addition -to the Cottonian Library of MSS. These, however, were not actually -incorporated with the Museum collections until the year 1769. - - -For several years, BENTLEY conjoined the Keepership of the Cottonian -with that of the Royal Library. His predecessors in the office were Dr. -Thomas SMITH (hitherto the only biographer of the Founder,) and William -HANBURY, who had married a descendant of the Founder. [Sidenote: THE -KEEPERS OF THE COTTONIAN LIBRARY.] Dr. SMITH was less eminent as a -scholar—though his learning was great—but far more estimable as a man, -than was his successor in the Keepership, the imperious and covetous -Master of Trinity. For conscience sake, SMITH had given up both a good -fellowship and a good living, at the Revolution. Literature profited by -the loss of Divinity. He died in May, 1710. HANBURY—by a very -undesirable plurality—was a Trustee as well as Keeper. That he was not, -in either capacity, strictly faithful to the spirit of the Trust -confided to him seems to be established by incidents which I find -recorded in the MS. Diary of Humphrey WANLEY. The reader will observe -that it is possible to reconcile WANLEY’S statement with the supposition -that the MSS. alienated had never actually been made part of the -Cottonian Library, though it is as plain as sunlight that a really -faithful trustee would have made them part of it. As it turned out, the -sale of them did no actual and eventual mischief. On December 2nd, 1724, -says WANLEY, ‘I had a conversation with Mr. HANBURY, who owned that he -hath still in his possession many original and valuable papers given him -by his wife’s brother, Sir John COTTON, which now lie in different -places. These papers and whatever else happens to be among them—as -books, rolls, &c.—he hath agreed to put into my hands for my Lord’s -[OXFORD’S] use. [Sidenote: _Wanley’s Diary_, MS., ii, 40 (B.M.).] I have -promised that he shall be very well paid and considered for the same.’ - -WANLEY had already recorded a previous visit in which HANBURY had -delivered ‘for my Lord OXFORD’S use, a small but curious parcel of old -letters,’ adding: ‘I believe he expects a gratuity for them.’ On the -last day of December he received another parcel; and on the 4th January, -1725, he again writes: ‘Mr. HANBURY gave me another parcel of letters -written to Sir Robert COTTON.’ - -Without endorsing the violent diatribe of Lord OXFORD (the second of the -Harleian Earls) against HANBURY’S successor—as the almost wilful -destroyer of part of the Cotton MSS.—it must be admitted that there is -conclusive evidence that neglect of duty on Dr. BENTLEY’S part was a -moving agent in the disaster. Under his nominal keepership the practical -duties of Cottonian Librarian were discharged by an industrious and -otherwise meritorious deputy, David CASLEY. - - -[Sidenote: THE PROJECT OF 1707 FOR UNITING THE COTTONIAN, ROYAL, AND - ARUNDEL, LIBRARIES.] - -There were many projects for making Sir Robert COTTON’S noble -collections, both in literature and antiquities, the foundation of a -‘British Museum,’ before a feasible and successful project was hit upon. -[Sidenote: Sloane to Charlett, 7 April, 1707. (Bodleian Library, -Oxford).] It is curious to note that one of these schemes embraced, as -the groundwork of the projected national Museum, the collections of Sir -Robert COTTON, of Prince HENRY, and of Lord ARUNDEL; and that some -particulars of the plan were narrated—to a country correspondent—by Sir -Hans SLOANE, almost fifty years before his own conditional bequest gave -occasion and means for the eventual union of the collections so spoken -of with the vast gatherings of all kinds, in literature and in science, -to the procuring of which so large a portion of his own useful and -laborious life was to be devoted. - -When that occasion came, two of the then Cottonian Trustees framed a -Petition to Parliament in which they expressed their acknowledgments for -‘seasonable and necessary care’ of the Cotton Library. They alleged that -it had remained ‘almost useless’ to the Public, during many years, for -want of a fixed and convenient building to receive it; that it had been -exposed to many dangers by frequent removals, and had once run the -hazard of ‘a total destruction by fire.’ If, said they, the loss which -the Public then sustained proved to be less than had been feared, the -Public owed the obligation ‘to a great member of this House’ [of -Commons] ‘who powerfully interposed and assisted in its preservation.’ -The allusion is to the Right Hon. Arthur ONSLOW, the then Speaker, who -afterwards became one of the first Trustees of the Museum established by -the Act of 1753. - -[Sidenote: Petition of Samuel Burroughs and Thos. Hart; MS. in Cottonian - ‘Appendix’ (B. M.).] - -The Petitioners proceed to state that their most earnest wishes are -accomplished by seeing a Library, famed throughout Europe, with the -generous gifts of Major EDWARDS annexed thereto, placed out of all -further dangers from neglect, and that they rejoice to perceive that the -Museum of their own Founder is about to be enlarged by other rare and -valuable collections. ‘We are,’ say they, ‘fully persuaded that an -edifice raised upon such a stately plan will, by degrees, be stored with -benefactions and become a common Cabinet for preserving with safety all -curiosities and whatsoever is choice or excellent in its kind. Moreover, -being a new institution for the service of the learned world it will be -an honour to the Nation, an ornament long wanted in this great city, and -a distinguished event in the history of our times.’ [Sidenote: -Heretofore, p. 3.] Then follows the passage which I have prefixed, by -way of motto, to this first division of the volume now in the reader’s -hands. - - -When these Petitioners went on to state to Parliament that ‘no -expression of gratitude can be too great ... for doing honour to the -memory of Sir Robert COTTON,’ their assertion gave rise to no utterance -of hostile feeling. [Sidenote: RECENT CHARGES AGAINST THE CHARACTER AND -FAME OF SIR R. COTTON.] They were not even charged with undue laudation -of their ancestor. People who at that time troubled themselves to think -of such matters at all, were agreed in regarding Sir Robert COTTON as -unquestionably one of the worthies of England. Nowadays—as I have had -occasion to show already—there are many gainsayers. A distinguished -historian (Mr. GARDINER) asperses COTTON’S character both for -statesmanship and for truthfulness; whilst a distinguished archæologist -(Mr. BREWER) charges him with embezzling records. - -The first charge has been partly met, in these pages, by the simple -apposition and collation of contemporary evidence. The reader has his -choice between the cumulative testimony of several English peers and -statesmen; and the unsupported testimony of one foreign diplomatist, who -made it his boast to be the enemy of Englishmen, and whose hostility was -graduated in tolerably exact accordance with the qualities and the deeds -which have made England proud of them. The home witnesses gave their -testimony whilst the events were still fresh in men’s minds. They gave -it in broad daylight, and with open doors. The foreign witness put his -evidence into a secret dispatch, to be seen by no human eye, out of the -Spanish Cabinet, until our own historian disinterred it, at Simancas, -two centuries and a half after date. Nor is this quite all. - -If GONDOMAR’S account be true, not only was Sir Robert COTTON’S life as -a statesman a protracted lie, but his duplicity was so superbly cloaked -as to deceive the most keen-sighted of his contemporaries. The men who -sat habitually at his board in his days of health, and who ministered at -his bedside in all the offices of tender friendship in his days of -sickness and of death, were all wrong about his character. [Sidenote: _A -Discours wether yt be fitt for Inglande to make peace with Spaine._ MS. -Cott. Vespas. C. xiii, ff. 160, seqq. (B. M.).] And there is this other -little fact to boot: Sir Robert COTTON began his public life by as open -a declaration of anti-Spanish policy in relation to the great question -of the Netherlands as ever came from the lips of our RALEGH. He ended -his public life with as staunch an adherence to the principles, both in -Church and State, which the rulers of Spain abhorred as that which had -been shown by RALEGH on the scaffold in Old Palace Yard, or by ELIOT in -the dungeon of the Tower of London. Meanwhile, just in the mid-channel -of his career, and in the prime of his faculties, Sir Robert COTTON -threw himself, gratuitously, at the feet of GONDOMAR. He humbly asked -leave to take Spanish service in the guise of a political slave. The -historian’s proposition is a bold one. And its evidence needs to be -cogent. English readers now know quite enough about GONDOMAR to judge -whether or not his sole testimony is sufficient to damn the fame of such -a man as COTTON;—to degrade him from the rank of an English worthy;—to -brand him as a criminal virtually convicted of apostacy in religion, and -of treason to his avowed convictions in politics?[24] - -From the nature of things the second charge cannot be so directly, so -compactly, or so effectively met. Almost a third of the manuscripts -which form the most important section of the Cotton Library consist of, -or contain, Papers of State. Of these a very considerable proportion -once belonged to the State. How came they to pass into the hands of Sir -Robert COTTON? - -[Sidenote: MR. BREWER’S ACCOUNT OF SIR R. COTTON’S ACQUISITION OF STATE - PAPERS.] - -By Mr. BREWER the question has been answered, unhesitatingly and -exhaustively. Large portions of the Diplomatic Correspondence of HENRY -THE EIGHTH were, he says, ‘carried off in 1614, if not before, by Sir -Robert COTTON.... The original bundles appear to have been broken up -under the keepership of AGARDE, when the Treasury of the Exchequer was -rifled of its most precious contents to augment the collections of Sir -R. COTTON.... [Sidenote: _Calendar of the State Papers_; Reign of Henry -VIII, Pref., pp. viii, ix.] For the early years of HENRY, his [Sir -Robert’s] collections are more numerous, and even more interesting, than -the documents in the English, the French, or the Spanish Archives. They -are equally authentic.... By what fraud or negligence they found their -way into the possession of Sir Robert COTTON it is not for me to -inquire.’ - -No writer can be better qualified to speak with authority on such a -topic as this than is Mr. BREWER. Familiar with State Papers and with -records of all kinds for a very long period, he has won the deep respect -of all students of our history by the uses to which his knowledge has -been applied. But the ablest writer will sometimes write hastily. The -most impartial inquirer will now and then reach a conclusion by -overleaping part of the evidence. - -The sweeping passage which I have quoted, like other passages in Mr. -RILEY’S preface to _Liber Custumarum_, previously noticed, leaves -altogether out of view three or four whole classes of testimony—chains -not links—having a vital bearing on the issue. For example— - -[Sidenote: Sir T. Wilson to King James I, _Domestic Corresp._, vol. - xcvi, § 41*, seqq. (R. H.)] - -I. It disregards the fact that certain bundles of State letters and -papers were given by the King’s order to Sir Robert COTTON, during the -reign of JAMES THE FIRST. These, indeed, were commanded to be -‘subscriptions and signatures of Princes and great men, attached to -letters _otherwise unimportant_.’ But who is to tell us what was the -estimate of ‘importance’ in papers of State formed, two centuries and a -half ago, by JAMES, who gave the order, or by Sir Thomas WILSON, who -received it? - -II. It disregards the fact that long before, as well as long after, that -known order of 1618, Sir Robert’s possession of papers once the property -of the Government was so published and so recognized as to imply, by -fair induction, that the possession must have been—as far as he was -concerned—a lawful one. In his own writings, he iterates and reiterates -reference to national documents then in his own collection. His -references are specific and minute. Secretaries of State write to him, -asking leave to inspect original Treaties (sometimes in order to lay -them before the King in person) and promising to return them promptly. -[Sidenote: _Domestic Corresp._, as above, 1621, March; and _passim_; -also _Council Books_ (C. O.).] Law Officers of the Crown desire him -kindly to afford them opportunities for collating public instruments, -preserved at Cotton House, with public instruments still in the -repositories of the Crown. - -III. It leaves out of sight the fact that in the correspondence of Sir -Edward COKE with Sir Robert COTTON there is a passage which also -_implies_—though it does not expressly assert—that Sir Robert had -received from King JAMES a permission to select records, of some kind or -other, from the Tower of London, anterior to the qualified permission, -[Sidenote: Sir E. Coke to Sir R. Cotton; MS. Cott. Julius, ciii -(Undated; probably 1612). (B. M.)] above mentioned, given in 1618, to -select ‘autographs’ from the Paper Office; - -IV. It disregards that strong implication of a lawful possession—so far -as Sir Robert COTTON, individually, is concerned—which necessarily -arises out of the fact that at two several periods the Cottonian Library -was under the sole control and custody of Crown officials; [Sidenote: -_Registers of Privy Council_, 1616; 1629; 1630; _passim_ (C. O.)] that -it remained under such control for an aggregate period of more than two -years; that COTTON’S bitter enemies were then at the head of affairs; -that in 1630 a Royal Commission was actually issued [Sidenote: _Signs -Manual_, Charles I, vol. xii, § 15 (R. H.).] ‘to search what Records or -other Papers of State in the custody of Sir Robert COTTON properly -belong to His Majesty, and thereof to certify;’ and that the existing -Cottonian MSS., together with those burned in 1732, were, one year after -the issue of that Commission, restored by the Crown to Sir Robert -COTTON’S heirs; - -[Sidenote: _e. g._ MS. Harl., 7002, ff. 120, 122, &c., MS. Cott. Julius - ciii, _passim_ (B. M.).] - -V. It overlooks the circumstance, vital to the issue now raised, that -amongst the MSS. which most indubitably were once Crown property many -can still be minutely traced from possessor to possessor, prior to their -reception into the Cottonian Library; - -And VI. It disregards the fact, hardly less important, that a patriotic -statesman conversant both with the arcana of government at large, and -with the special arcana of the State Paper Office and Secretary’s -offices, under King JAMES THE FIRST and King CHARLES THE FIRST, might -have cogent reasons for believing that some important classes of State -Papers would be likely to remain much more truly and enduringly the -property of the English nation if stored up at Cotton House—even had no -‘British Museum’ ever been created—than if stored up at Whitehall. - - -Inferences and implications such as these are far from amounting to -conclusive proof. But most readers, I think, will assent to the -assertion that, cumulatively, they amount to a very strong presumption -indeed that the stigma which has been impressed on Sir Robert COTTON’S -memory is both precipitate and unjust. Precipitate it plainly is, for a -confident verdict has virtually been pronounced—upon a grave -issue,—before hearing any evidence for the accused. Unjust I, for one, -cannot but think it, inasmuch as circumstances which at most are but -grounds of mere suspicion of the greater offence charged, have been so -huddled up with proofs of a minor and (comparatively) venial offence, -that readers giving but ordinary attention to the allegations and their -respective evidence are almost certain to be misled. - -For, undoubtedly, Sir Robert COTTON stands convicted of dealing, more -than once, with manuscripts which he had borrowed very much as though -they had been manuscripts which he possessed. Mr. RILEY’S testimony is, -on this point, conclusive. An independent witness, Dr. Sedgwick -SAUNDERS, the able Chairman of the Library Committee of the Corporation -of London, tells me that both the _returned_ MS. of _Liber Custumarum_, -and also that of _Liber Legum Antiquorum_, bear as unmistakable marks of -a claim to ownership on Sir Robert’s part, as those of which the return -was refused. - -To such proofs as these I can myself add a new instance. Archbishop LAUD -had procured, from the Principal and Fellows of St. John’s, the loan to -Sir Robert COTTON of a certain ancient Beda MS. of great value. Many -years passed, and the MS. had not returned to St. John’s. The Fellows -cast severe blame on their eminent benefactor. [Sidenote: Archbp. Laud -to Sir R. Cotton, MS. Cott. Julius C., iii, f. 232.] LAUD had to -petition his friend COTTON for the return of Beda, in terms almost -pathetic; and he was so doubtful whether pathos would suffice that he -added bribe to entreaty. If, he said, ‘anything of worth in like kind -come to my hands, I will freely give it you in recompense.’ - - -The reader has seen the abounding proofs of that generous furtherance of -every kind of literary effort which COTTON gave, throughout life, with -an ungrudging heart and an open hand. [Sidenote: Bolton to Camden; MS. -Harl., 7002, f. 396.] Sir ROBERT’S openness made his library—to use the -words of an eminent contemporary—the ‘Common treasury’ of English -antiquities. The reader now sees also the drawback. It remains for him -to strike a true balance; and to strike it with justice, but also with -charity. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - THE CHIEF COLLECTOR AND THE AUGMENTORS OF THE OLD ROYAL AND PUBLIC - LIBRARY AT ST. JAMES’. - - ‘Death never makes such effectual demonstration of his power, as - when he singles out the man who occupies the largest place in public - estimation;—as when he seizes upon him whose loss is felt, by - thousands, with all the tenderness of a family bereavement;—puts a - sudden arrest, ... before the infirmities of age had withdrawn him - from the labours of usefulness;— ... and sends the fearful report of - this his achievement through the streets of the city, where it runs, - in appalling whispers, among the multitude.’— - - THOMAS CHALMERS. - - _Life of_ HENRY, _Prince of Wales, son of_ JAMES I, _and virtual - Founder of the ‘Royal Library.’—Its Augmentors and - its Librarians.—Acquisition of the Library of the_ - THEYERS.—_Incorporation with the Collections of_ COTTON _and of_ - SLOANE. - - -[Sidenote: BOOK I, Chap. III. LIFE OF HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES.] - -HENRY, Prince of Scotland, and afterwards of Wales, was born at Stirling -Castle on the 19th of February, 1594. King JAMES had married ANNE of -Denmark more than four years before the Prince’s birth, but a certain -grotesqueness which had marked some of the characteristic circumstances -of the marriage in Norway (in 1589) was not without its counterpart -among the incidents that came to be attendant on the subsequent event at -home. One of these incidents is thus narrated in the quaint narrative of -a Scottish courtier who made it his business to chronicle the movements -of the Court with newsmanlike fidelity:—‘Because the chappell royal was -ruinous and too little, the King concluded that the old chappell should -be utterly rased, and a new [one] erected in the same place that should -be more large, long, and glorious, to entertain the great number of -strangers’ who were expected to be present at the baptism. The interval -demanded for the restoration of this decayed chapel at Stirling entailed -an unusual delay between the child’s birth and his baptism, but it -gratified the King by enabling him to send invitations far and wide. Had -all of them met with acceptance they would have resulted in the presence -of a cloud of witnesses, such as had rarely been seen in Scotland upon -any the most famous occasion of courtly rejoicing. - -[Sidenote: PRINCE HENRY’S BAPTISM AT STIRLING.] - -For the presence of two guests in particular JAMES was anxious. He -wished to see an ambassador extraordinary from the Court of ELIZABETH, -and another from that of HENRY THE FOURTH. HENRY would not gratify his -wish, and the omission was much resented. ELIZABETH, on the other hand, -was ostentatiously swift to comply, but her willingness was well nigh -defeated by one of the common accidents of life. She had fixed her -choice on the brilliant Earl of CUMBERLAND, whose love of magnificence -was scarcely less prominent than was his love of adventure. He could -grace a royal festivity, as conspicuously as he could lead a band of -eager soldiers, or a crew of daring navigators. Just as the Earl’s -costly preparations for his embassy were completed, he fell sick. Some -days were lost in the hope of his speedy recovery, but the Queen was -soon obliged to nominate the Earl of SUSSEX in his stead. SUSSEX had -then to make preparations in turn. The day fixed for the ceremony in -Scotland had to be more than twice postponed, in order to ensure his -presence. In all, more than six months elapsed before the babe was -really baptized. We will hope that the Court Chronicler exaggerates a -little when he tells us that ‘the time intervening was spent in -magnificent banquetting and revelling.’ [Sidenote: _True Reportarie of -the baptisme of the Prince of Scotland_, MS. ADDIT., 5795 (B. M.).] If -so, the potations at Stirling must have vied with those of Elsinore. - -When the long-expected day arrived (30 August, 1594) the child lay ‘on a -bed of estate richly decored ... with the story of HERCULES.’ The old -Countess of MAR lifted him into the arms of LENNOX, and by him the babe -was transferred to those of the English ambassador who held him during -baptism. Then Patrick GALLOWAY, we are told, learnedly entreated upon a -text from the 21st chapter of Genesis. - -The Bishop of ABERDEEN taught, in his turn, upon the Sacrament of -Baptism—first in the vulgar tongue and then in Latin—and his discourse -was followed by the twenty-first Psalm, ‘sung to the great delectation -of the noble auditory,’ and also by a panegyric upon the Prince, -delivered in Latin verse, from the pulpit. Then came a banquet, at which -‘six gallant dames’ had the cruel task assigned them of performing ‘a -silent comedy.’ To the banquet succeeded a ‘desart of sugar,’ drawn in -upon a triumphal chariot. The original programme had provided that this -richly-laden chariot should be drawn by a lion, for whose due tameness -the projector had pledged himself. But to King JAMES a lion, like a -sword, was at all times an unpleasant object. He said that it would -affright the ladies, and that ‘a black-moore’ would be a more safe -propeller. Banquet and dessert together lasted from eight o’clock in the -evening until three of the following morning. At intervals, the cannon -of Stirling Castle roared, until, says our chronicler, ‘the earth -trembled therewith.’ - -Thus was ushered in a brief but remarkable life. It lasted less than -nineteen years. [Sidenote: _Ibid._, pp. 6–17, verso.] Then to the cradle -which had been so richly emblazoned with the labours of HERCULES, in all -the colours of embroidery, there succeeded the hearse of black velvet -thickly set with its plumes of sombre feathers. One half, however, of -those nineteen years that stood between cradle and hearse were years -passed upon an arena to which the course of events had given almost -world-wide importance and conspicuousness. The Prince’s career was, by -the necessity of his position still more than by reason of his youth, a -career of promise, not of performance. But every year which passed after -the removal from Scotland seems to have intensified the promise in the -eyes of those who watched it, as well as to have deepened a conviction -in the minds of nearly all thoughtful bystanders that to a grand -ambition there were about to be proffered, in GOD’S due time, means and -appliances more than usually large, and a grand field of action. So it -seemed to human expectation. And because, in those long-past years, it -reasonably seemed so, there is still somewhat of a real human interest -attaching to incidents which, otherwise, would be trivial and barren. - - -EARLY DISSENTIONS AT COURT. - -One unhappy circumstance which occurred before HENRY was eighteen months -old testified to the existence, even at that date, of unhappy domestic -relations of the kind which on many subsequent occasions brought -bitterness into his daily life. Queen ANNE was deprived of the care of -her child very soon after his baptism. The Earl of MAR was appointed to -be his governor, and the Earl’s mother assumed that place in the -upbringing of the royal infant which, in most cases, custom no less than -nature would have assigned to the Queen herself. Her natural resentment -brought about more than one angry discussion at Court. After one of -those scenes of turbulence, JAMES gave to MAR, in writing, this -characteristic command: ‘Because in the surety of my son consisteth my -surety, I have concredited unto you the charge of his keeping.... This I -command you out of my own mouth, _being in the company of those I like_. -Otherwise, for [_i. e._ notwithstanding] any charge or necessity that -can come from me, you shall not deliver him.’ - -In 1599, Adam NEWTON became Prince HENRY’S tutor; and the choice seems -to have been a happy one. The boy had a most towardly inclination to -learn. The tutor had both a genuine love of letters and a real delight -in teaching. He had also the wisdom which shuns extremes. Under NEWTON’S -care the child remained, in spite of an obliging offer from Pope CLEMENT -THE EIGHTH to have him educated at Rome under the papal eye. - -At the death of ELIZABETH, and after receiving the news of his own -proclamation as her successor, the delighted father wrote to his -son—then just entering on his tenth year—a letter which depicts its -writer in a way as lifelike as does the warrant addressed to MAR. -[Sidenote: JAMES’ LETTER TO PRINCE HENRY ON THE ACCESSION TO THE ENGLISH -CROWN.] I quote it, literally, from the hurriedly-written original, as -it now lies before me: ‘My Sonne, That I see you not before my pairting, -impute it to this greate occasion, quhairin tyme is so precious. But -_that_ I[25] shall, by Goddes grace, shortlie be recompenced by your -cumming to me shortlie, and continuall residence with me ever after. -Lett not this news make you proude or insolent. For a Kings sonne and -heire was ye before, and na maire are ye yett. The augmentation that is -heirby lyke to fall unto you is but in caires and heavie burthens. Be -therefore merrie, but not insolent. Keepe a greatness, but _sine fastu_. -Be resolute, but not willfull. Keeye your kyndness, but in honorable -sorte. Choose none to be your play fellowis but thaime that are -well-borne. And above all things, give never good countenance to any but -according as ye shall be informed that thay are in estimation with me. -Looke upon all Englishmen that shall cum to visit you as among youre -loving subjects; not with that ceremonie as towardis straingers, and -yett with such hartines as at this tyme they deserve.’ And so forth. -For, notwithstanding the King’s haste to set out on his journey, his pen -ran on. But all his advice is in one strain. The variations are for -ornament. In me, he says (only not so briefly), you see a model king. -Mould yourself after that pattern, and you will be a model prince. ‘I -send you my booke,’ he adds—referring to Βασιλικον δωρον— ... ‘ye must -level everie mannis opinions or advices unto you, as ye finde thaime -agree or discorde with the rules thaire sett down.’ Near as they -commonly were in person, in the after years, JAMES still found occasion -to write to HENRY a good many letters. This one theme runs through them -all. But no amount of hortatory discourse could hinder the new metal -from overrunning the worn and antiquated mould. - -[Sidenote: PRINCE HENRY IN ENGLAND.] - -Prince HENRY came into England in the June of 1603. He was invested with -the Garter on the 2nd of July at Windsor. Sir Thomas CHALONER (son of -ELIZABETH’S well-known ambassador to the Emperor) succeeded MAR in the -office of Governor. He was a man of many accomplishments, and had a -strong bias for some of the physical sciences. But it does not seem that -he possessed that force of character which in the elder Sir Thomas -CHALONER was a conspicuous quality. - -From a very early age, HENRY showed that in him were combined in happy -proportions a strong relish for the pleasures of literature with a -relish not less keen for the pursuits and employments of an active and -out-of-doors life. He could enjoy books thoroughly, without being -absorbed by them. He had a manly delight in field sports, without -falling under the temptation to become a slave to his pastime. If in -anything his enjoyments tended to excess, as he grew towards maturity, -it was seen in his devotion to warlike exercises. So that even the -excess testified to that real manliness of spirit which keeps the body -in subjection, instead of pampering its pleasures and its aptitudes. He -seems to have learnt, unusually early in life, that the natural -instincts of youth will have their truest gratification, and will retain -their fullest zest, when made, by deliberate choice, steps towards a -conscious fitness for the duties of manhood. Alike in what we have from -his own pen, and in the testimonies of those who were the closest -observers of his brief career, we see evidence that he had formed a due -estimate of the responsibilities that, to human view, lay close before -him. Of his thoughts about kingship we possess only fragments. Of his -father’s thoughts on that subject we enjoy an exhaustive exposition. The -contrast in the thinking is curiously significant. - -Some of the best known anecdotes of HENRY’S life exhibit the interest he -felt in naval matters. That tendency may, perhaps, have taken its birth -in a London incident of March, 1604. The Earl of NOTTINGHAM, Lord High -Admiral, was then in the flush of Court favour. The Prince had been but -for a few months in England, and his sight-seeing had not, as yet, -included the baptism[26] of a ship. [Sidenote: ORIGIN OF HENRY’S -INTEREST IN NAVAL AFFAIRS.] The Admiral prepared that novelty to please -him. It was at the Tower that the Prince first examined the ‘_Disdain_’ -(15 March, 1604). Whether at the same time he made his first -acquaintance with the most famous inhabitant of the Tower is matter of -mere conjecture. [Sidenote: _Life of Pett_, MS. HARL., vol. 6279 (B. -M.). (Cited by Birch, p. 39.)] RALEGH, at all events, was there[27] on -the day when Phineas PETT moored his new vessel off Tower Wharf, for the -Prince’s delight. Before any long time had passed, RALEGH was busy in -the composition of a _Discourse of a maritimal voyage, and of the -passages and incidents therein_, with a like object. The acquaintance, -however began, was improved with every passing year. Of the many hopes -which came to a sudden end eight years afterwards, few, it is probable, -were more sanguine or more far-reaching than those of the King’s keenly -watched and dreaded prisoner. [Sidenote: HENRY AND RALEGH.] For England, -RALEGH saw in Prince HENRY a wise and brave king to come. For himself, -he saw not only a generous friend, but a man who might be the means of -giving shape and substance to many patriotic schemes with which a brain -that could not be imprisoned had long been teeming. - -There is evidence that on more than one topic of public policy RALEGH’S -counsel made a deep impression on HENRY. One instance of it will be seen -presently. But apart altogether from such positive results as admit of -testimony, their intercourse is memorable. It must have been by virtue -of some congeniality of nature that a youth in HENRY’S position so -quickly leapt—across many obstacles—to an appreciation, alike of the -circumstances and of the character of RALEGH, which still commends -itself to those who have looked into them most searchingly. The estimate -has been many times confirmed by the investigations of history, long -afterwards, but it was strongly opposed to the broad current of -contemporary opinion. A heart larger than the average may have its -divinations, as well as the intellect that is more acute and better -furnished than the average. - -[Sidenote: THE INVESTIGATION INTO THE NAVAL DOCKYARDS.] - -But the generous heart is often allied with a hasty temper. The -impression made on the Prince by RALEGH’S writings on naval matters had, -amongst other results, that of increasing both his interest in the -management of the royal dockyards, and his familiar intercourse with -Phineas PETT. PETT was master shipwright at Chatham, and, as we have -seen, the designer of the prince’s first vessel _Disdain_. [Sidenote: -1608. April. See Chap. ii, pp. 62, 63.] When Sir Robert COTTON had -induced the King to issue that Commission of Inquiry into the Navy, of -the results of which some account has been given in the preceding -Chapter, PETT was one of the persons whose official doings were brought -into question. HENRY took a warm interest in the inquiry and testified -openly his anxiety on PETT’S behalf. A specific charge about an alleged -disproportion between timber paid for and the vessels built therewith -was investigated at Woolwich. Both the King and the Prince were present. -HENRY stood by PETT’S side. [Sidenote: MS. Life of Phineas Pett, in MS. -HARL. 6279 (B. M.) p. 45.] When the evidence was seen to disprove the -charge, the Prince cried with a loud voice—disregarding alike the royal -presence and the forms of law—‘Where be now those perjured fellows that -dare thus abuse His Majesty with false informations? Do they not -worthily deserve hanging?’ - -The warmth of HENRY’S friendship seems to have suffered little -diminution by the absence of its objects. [Sidenote: HENRY’S FOREIGN -CORRESPONDENCE.] When his friends went to far-off countries he -encouraged them to be active correspondents by setting them a good -example. He welcomed all sorts of real and worthy information. About the -government and affairs of foreign countries his curiosity was -insatiable. When important letters came to him he not only read them -with care but made abstracts of their contents. When the labour-loving -Lord Treasurer SALISBURY noticed, with regret, in his son CRANBORNE -certain indications of a turn towards indolence, it was by an appeal to -Prince HENRY’S example that he strove to correct the failing. HENRY -evinced eagerness to learn by all methods. Books, letters, conversation, -personal insight into notable things and new inventions,—were alike -acceptable to him. - -[Sidenote: HIS PURCHASE OF LORD LUMLEY’S LIBRARY.] - -In April, 1609, the death of John, Lord LUMLEY, without issue, enabled -the Prince to gratify his love of books by purchasing a Library which -probably was more valuable than any other collection then existing in -England, with the exception of that of Sir Robert COTTON. - -Thirty years before, Lord LUMLEY had inherited the fine library of his -father-in-law, Henry FITZALAN, Earl of ARUNDEL, who had been a collector -of choice manuscripts at a time when the reckless dispersion of monastic -treasures impoverished the nation, but gave, here and there, golden -opportunities to openhanded private men. When the estates of the -FITZALANS came to LUMLEY—in virtue of an entail made by the Earl of -ARUNDEL during Lady LUMLEY’S lifetime—the splendid succession had lost -its best charm. The wife who had thus enriched him was dead, and he was -childless. His wife’s sister, the Duchess of NORFOLK, was also dead, but -had left a son. [Sidenote: Muniments at Norf. House (Sussex, Box 7), as -cited in Tierney’s _Arundel_, p. 19.] LUMLEY sold his life interest in -the broad lands, and forests, and in the famous castle of Arundel, to -the next heir, but he kept the library and found one of the chief -pleasures of his remaining term of life in liberally augmenting it. -HENRY’S first care, after his purchase, was to have a careful catalogue -made of the collection. And he soon gave evidence that he had bought the -books for use; not for show. [Sidenote: _Privy Purse Book_; in _Domestic -Correspondence_, JAMES I, vol. lvii, § 87, p. 4. (R. H.)] He also made -many important additions, from time to time, during his three years’ -ownership. - -Perhaps the most festive days of that brief span were the sixth of -January, 1610, and the sixth of June of the same year, on both of which -Whitehall again witnessed a gay tournament. [Sidenote: THE TOURNAMENTS -OF 1610.] On twelfth-day, at the head of a band of knights which -included LENNOX, ARUNDEL, SOUTHAMPTON, HAY, Sir Thomas SOMERSET, and Sir -Richard PRESTON, HENRY kept his barriers against fifty-six assailants, -and before a brilliant court, for whose pleasure the long mimic fight -was diversified by the gay devices of Inigo JONES, and the graceful -verses of Ben JONSON. Next day the jousting was followed by a banquet -not less splendid. [Sidenote: _Chronicle of England_, p. 898. _The -Speeches at Prince Henries Barriers_; and _Oberon, a Masque_. (Jonson’s -_Works_, vol. v, pp. 965–974, 1st edit.)] At Whitehall,—as at Stirling -sixteen years before,—the banquetting lasted seven hours, but it was -enlivened by a comedy in which the ladies were not condemned to silence. -In the following June, HENRY’S creation as Prince of WALES was -celebrated by tiltings on a more extensive scale, as well as by masques -and dances, and by an elaborate naval battle upon the Thames. But the -prince himself seems to have taken more pleasure in witnessing from time -to time, at Woolwich or at Chatham, the launching of real ships fitted -for real warfare. Nor are indications wanting that during his ponderings -on the many advices which he received of the course of public events in -Europe, he had occasional presentiments that a crisis was drawing near -which would make the adoption of a warlike policy to be alike the duty -of the King, and the recognized interest of the nation. - -Be that as it may, the broad contrasts of character which existed -between the wearer of the crown and its heir apparent became -increasingly obvious during the long negotiations and correspondence -about the projects of marriage for the prince himself and for his -sister. [Sidenote: THE PROJECTS FOR ROYAL MARRIAGES.] [Sidenote: -1611–1612.] Something, indeed, of the difference in character between -JAMES and HENRY was indicated when, in 1611, the prince directed RALEGH -to draw up, in his prison, a paper of advice on the scheme of a double -marriage with Savoy and on the relations between Savoy and Spain. It -came out more forcibly when, on occasion of the proposal from France for -his own marriage with CHRISTINA (the elder sister of HENRIETTA MARIA), -he wrote to his father in these words: ‘The cause which first induced -your Majesty to proceed in this proposition by your Ambassador was the -hope which the Duke of BOUILLON gave your Majesty of breaking their -other match with Spain. If the continuance of this treaty hold only upon -that hope, and not upon any desire to effect a match with the second -daughter, in my weak opinion I hold that it stands more with your -Majesty’s honour to stay your Ambassador from moving it any more than to -go on with it. Because no great negotiation should be grounded upon a -ground that is very unsure and uncertain, and depends upon their wills -who were the first causers of the contrary.’ For this letter the Prince -was rebuked. Two months afterwards, it was found indispensable to desire -him to express again his opinion upon a new stage of the negotiation. He -did so in words to which the events of the next few years were destined -to give significance. I quote from the original letter, preserved (with -a large mass of other letters from the same hand) amongst the Harleian -MSS.[28] - -‘As for the exercise of the princess’ religion,’ wrote HENRY, on the 5th -of October, 1612, ‘your Majesty may be pleased to make your Ambassador -give a peremptory answer that you will never agree to give her greater -liberty in the exercise of it than that which is agreed with the -Savoyeard, which is—to use his own word—_privatemente_; or, as Sir Henry -WOTTON did expound it, “in her most private and secret chamber.”’ Then -he touches on the delicate question of dowry, and the relative -preferability of the alliance proffered by France and that proffered by -Savoy; adding,—with an obvious mental reference, I think, to the advice -given him by RALEGH in the preceding year,—these pregnant words: ‘If -your Majesty will respect rather which of these two will give the -greatest contentment to the general body of the Protestants abroad, then -I am of opinion that you will sooner incline to France than to Savoy.’ - -[Sidenote: 1612. Oct. 5. Henry to James; MS. HARL., 6986, f. 180.] - -The writer then hints a fear that he may, unwittingly, have incurred a -renewal of the paternal displeasure which some expressions of opinion in -his former letter on the same subject had excited. Let his father kindly -remember, he entreats, that his own special part in the business,—‘which -is to be in love with any of them, is not yet at hand.’ - - -Death, not love-making, was at hand. One month afterwards, the arm that -penned this letter was stretched out,—still and rigid. - -The Prince was seized with sudden illness on the 10th of October, five -days after its date. [Sidenote: DEATH. 1612. November.] The first -appearances were such as are wont to follow upon a great chill, after -excessive exercise—to which HENRY was always prone. In spite of much -pain and some alarming symptoms, he persisted in removing from Richmond -to St. James’ on the 16th, in order to receive the Elector Palatine, -soon to become the husband of his sister. Within very few days it was -apparent that his illness was of the most serious nature. He left his -apartment at St. James’ on the morning of the 25th, to hear a sermon at -the Chapel Royal. The text was from the fourteenth of Job, ‘_Man, that -is born of a woman, is of short continuance_.’ Afterwards he dined with -the King, but was obliged to take his leave, being seized with faintness -and shivering fits. These continued to recur, at brief intervals, until -his death, on the evening of the sixth of November. Almost the only -snatch of quiet sleep which he could obtain followed upon the -administration of a cordial, prepared for him in the Tower by RALEGH, at -the Queen’s earnest request. It was not given until the morning of the -last day. - -HENRY died calmly, but under total exhaustion. For many hours before his -death he was unconscious, as well as speechless. The last words to which -he responded were those of Archbishop ABBOT:—‘In sign of your faith and -hope in the blessed Resurrection, give us, for our comfort, a sign by -the lifting up of your hands.’ HENRY raised both hands, clasped -together. It was his last conscious act. - - -Here, to human ken, was a life all seed-time. The harvest belonged to -the things unseen. Contemporaries who had treasured up, in memory, many -of those small matters which serve to mark character, were wont -sometimes to draw contrasts between the prince and his brother. And many -have been the speculations—natural though unfruitful—as to the altered -course of English history, had HENRY lived to ascend the throne. One -fact, observable in the correspondence and documentary history of the -times, will always retain a certain interest. Some of those who were to -rank among the staunchest opponents of CHARLES were men who thought -highly of HENRY’S abilities to rule, and who held his memory in -affectionate reverence. - -[Sidenote: DISPOSAL OF THE PRINCE’S LIBRARY.] - -HENRY had died intestate. The library which he had purchased from the -Executors of Lord LUMLEY fell to the disposal of the King. The greater -part of it went to augment the remains of the old royal library of -England, portions of which had been scattered during JAMES’ reign, as -well as before it. By that disposal of a collection, in which the prince -had taken not a little delight during his brief possession, he became -virtually, and in the event, a co-founder of the British Museum. - -[Sidenote: UNION OF THE ST. JAMES’ AND WHITEHALL LIBRARIES.] - -The library remained at St. James’ under the charge, for a time, of the -prince’s librarian, Edward WRIGHT. The relics of the royal collection at -Whitehall were then in the keeping of the eminent scholar and -theologian, Patrick YOUNG. Eventually they too were brought to St. -James’, and YOUNG took the entire charge. It was by his exertions that -the combined collection was augmented by a valuable part of the library -of Isaac CASAUBON. [Sidenote: Roe, _Negotiations_, pp. 335; 618.] It was -to his hands that Sir Thomas ROE delivered the ‘Alexandrian Manuscript’ -of the Greek Bible, the precious gift to King CHARLES of Cyril LUCAR, -Patriarch of Constantinople. - -YOUNG survived until 1652, but he was deprived of his office in 1648. In -that turbulent time the library narrowly escaped two perils. Some of the -soldiers of the triumphant party sought to disperse it, piecemeal, for -their individual profit. Some of the leaders of that party formed a -scheme to export it to the Continent for a like purpose. It stands to -the credit of a somewhat fanatical partisan—Hugh PETERS, one of the many -men who are doomed to play in history the part of scapegoats, whatever -their own sins may have really been—that his hasty assumption of -librarianship (1648) saved the library from the first danger. [Sidenote: -Comp. _Order-Book of Council of State_, vol. v, p. 454, and vol. xxiv, -p. 604. (R. H.)] A like act on the part of Bulstrode WHITELOCKE, in the -following year (July, 1649), saved it from the second. Probably, it was -at his instance that the Council of State made or designed to make it a -Public Library. [Sidenote: WHITELOCKE’S _Embassy to Sweden_, vol. i, p. -273. (Reeve’s edit.)] Four years afterwards, WHITELOCKE held at -Stockholm a curious conversation with Queen Christina about its -manuscript treasures, of some of which, he tells us, she was anxious to -possess transcripts. - -Under the Commonwealth, the librarianship had been combined, first with -the keepership of the Great Seal, and then with an Embassy to Sweden. -Under the Restoration, it was held in plurality with an active -commission in the Royal Navy. [Sidenote: ACQUISITION OF THE THEYER -LIBRARY.] CHARLES II, however, caused some valuable additions to be made -to the library. Of these the most important was the manuscript -collection which had belonged, successively, to John and Charles THEYER. -The sum given was £560. The collection came to St. James’ Palace in -1678. It was rich in historical manuscripts and in the curiosities of -mediæval science. It embraced many of the treasured book-possessions of -a long line of Abbots and Priors of Llanthony,[29] and the -common-place-books of Archbishop CRANMER. - -At CHARLES THE SECOND’S death the number of works in the royal -collection had increased to more than ten thousand. No doubt, in that -reign, the books could have brought against their owner the pithy -complaint to which PETRARCH gave expression, on behalf of some of their -fellows, at an earlier day: ‘Thou hast many books tied in chains which, -if they could break away and speak, would bring _thee_ to the judgment -of a private prison.... [Sidenote: Petrarch, _De remediis utriusque -fortunæ_.] They would weep to think that one man—ostentatious of a -possession for which he hath no use—should own a host of those precious -things that many a passionate student doth wholly lack.’ - -No true lover of books, for their own sake, indeed, was ever to possess -that rich collection, until it passed into the ownership of the nation. -Its entail, so to speak, as a heirloom of the Crown, was cut off, just -as it was about to pass into the hands of the one English King who -alone, of all the Monarchs since CHARLES THE FIRST, cared about books. -That it should pass to the Nation had been proposed by Richard BENTLEY, -when himself royal librarian, sixty years before the proposal became a -fact. ‘’Tis easy to foresee,’ said BENTLEY, ‘how much the glory of our -Nation will be advanced by erecting a Free Library of all sorts of -books.’ In his day, he saw no way to such an establishment, otherwise -than by transfer of the royal collection. - -There is a reasonable, perhaps it might be said a strong, probability -that when BENTLEY gave expression to this wish, at the close of the -seventeenth century, he was unconsciously reviving one among many -projects for the public good which had been temporarily buried in the -grave of Prince HENRY. For under the Commonwealth, the Library at St. -James’ had been ‘Public’ rather in name than in fact. - -[Sidenote: THE ULTIMATE INCORPORATION OF THE ROYAL LIBRARY WITH THE - COLLECTIONS OF SLOANE AND OF COTTON.] - -When the time came, the number of volumes of the Royal Collection which -remained to be incorporated with the Museum of SLOANE and with the -Library of Sir Robert COTTON was somewhat more than twelve thousand. The -number of separate works—printed and manuscript together—probably -exceeded fifteen thousand. - -Amongst the acquisitions so gained by the nation the first place of -honour belongs to the _Codex Alexandrinus_. It stands, by the common -consent of biblical palæographers, in a class of manuscripts of the Holy -Scriptures into which only two or three other codices in the world can -claim to be admitted. Of early English chronicles there is a long series -which to their intrinsic interest as primary materials of our history -add the ancillary interest of having been transcribed—sometimes of -having been composed—expressly for presentation to the reigning Monarch. -Here also, among a host of other literary curiosities, is the group of -romances which John TALBOT, Earl of Shrewsbury, caused to be compiled -for MARGARET of Anjou; and the autograph _Basilicon_, written for Prince -HENRY. Among the innumerable printed treasures are choice books which -accrued as presentation copies to the sovereigns of the House of TUDOR, -beginning with a superb series of illuminated books on vellum, from the -press of Anthony VERARD of Paris, given to HENRY THE SEVENTH. For large -as had been the losses sustained by the original royal library, and -truly as it may be said that Prince HENRY’S acquisitions amounted -virtually to its re-foundation, many of the finest books of long -anterior date had survived their varied perils. And some others have -rejoined, from time to time, their old companions, after long absence. - -The royal collection has also an adventitious interest—in addition to -the main one—from another point of view. It includes results of the -strong-handed confiscations of our kings, as well as of the purchases -they made, and the gifts they received. Both the royal manuscripts and -the royal printed books contain many memorials of careers in which our -poets no less than our historians have found, and are likely to find, an -undying charm. - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - THE COLLECTOR OF THE ARUNDELIAN MSS. - - ‘The English nobles are high-spirited, active, educated men, born to - wealth and power, who have run through every country and have kept, - in every country, the best company; have seen every secret of art - and nature; and—when men of any ability or ambition—have been - consulted in the conduct of every important action. You cannot wield - great agencies without lending yourself to them. When it happens - that the spirit of the Earl meets his rank and his duties, we have - the best examples.... These are the men who make England that - strong-box and Museum it is; who gather and protect works of art, - dragged from amidst burning cities and revolutionary countries, and - brought hither, out of all the world.... When I saw that, besides - deer and pheasants, these men have preserved ARUNDEL MARBLES, - TOWNLEY GALLERIES, HOWARD and SPENCER LIBRARIES, WARWICK AND - PORTLAND VASES, SAXON MANUSCRIPTS, MONASTIC ARCHITECTURES, AND - MILLENIAL TREES, I pardoned their high park-fences.’— - - R. W. EMERSON, (_English Traits_, § xi). - - _Political Exile and Foreign Travel under Elizabeth, and under - James.—Life of Thomas_ HOWARD, _Earl of Arundel_.—_The - Consolations of Connoisseurship.—Vicissitudes of the Arundel - Museum.—The gifts of Henry_ HOWARD _to the Royal Society_. - - -[Sidenote: BOOK 1, Chap. IV. THE COLLECTOR OF THE ARUNDELIAN MSS.] - -The Collector of the Arundel Marbles and Founder of the Arundel Library -was the great-grandson of that twenty-first Earl of ARUNDEL (Henry -FITZALAN) by whom had been collected the choicest portion of the library -which passed, in 1609, from the possession of John, Lord LUMLEY, to that -of HENRY, Prince of Wales. [Sidenote: chap. iii, p. 162] That Earl had -profited by the opportunities which the dissolution of the monasteries -presented so abundantly to collectors at home. The new Earl profited, in -his turn, by larger and far more varied opportunities, offered to him -during a long course of travel abroad. For himself, his travels ripened -and expanded a somewhat crude and irregular education. He attained, at -length, and in a much greater degree (as it seems) than any of his -contemporaries, to that liberal culture which enabled him to appreciate, -and to teach his countrymen to appreciate, the arts from which Greece -and Italy had derived so much of their glory; whilst in England those -arts had, as yet, done very little either to enhance the enjoyments and -consolations of human life, or to call into action powers and aptitudes -which had long lain dormant. It is not claiming too much for the Earl of -ARUNDEL to say that of whatever, upon a fair estimate, England may be -thought to owe to its successful cultivation of the Arts of Design, he -was the first conspicuous promoter. Nor is his rank as a pioneer in the -encouragement of the systematic study of archæology—a study so fruitful -of far-reaching result—less eminent. - -[Sidenote: FOREIGN TRAVEL, UNDER TUDORS AND STUARTS.] - -He may also be regarded as setting, by the course he took with his own -children, the fashion of foreign travel, as a necessary complement of -the education of men of rank and social position. The example became -very influential, and in a sphere far broader than the artistic one. -Under ELIZABETH, the Englishmen best known on the Continent had been -political exiles. Most of them were men self-banished. Many of them -passed their lives in defaming and plotting against the country they had -left. The jealous restrictions upon the liberty of travel imposed by the -Government rarely kept at home the men of mischief, but were probably -much more successful in confining men whose free movements would have -been fruitful in good alike to the countries they visited and to their -own. The altered circumstances which ensued upon the accession of JAMES -notoriously gave facilities to wider Continental intercourse; and it was -by men who followed very much in Lord ARUNDEL’S track that some of the -best social results of that intercourse were won. - - -Thomas HOWARD, Earl of Arundel, Surrey, and Norfolk, was twentieth in -lineal descent from that William de ALBINI who, in the year 1139, had -acquired the Castle and Earldom of Arundel by virtue of his marriage -with the widow of King HENRY THE FIRST. He was born at Finchingfield, in -Essex, in 1585,—a date which nearly marks the period of lowest -depression in the strangely varied fortunes of an illustrious family. -[Sidenote: Thomas, D. of Norfolk to his son Philip, &c., MS. Harl., -787.] Philip, Earl of ARUNDEL, the father of Earl Thomas, was already in -the Tower, and was experiencing, in great bitterness, the truth of words -written to him by his own father, when in like circumstances:—‘Look into -all Chronicles, and you shall find that, in the end, high degree brings -heaps of cares, toils in the State, and most commonly (in the end) utter -overthrow.’ Before Thomas HOWARD had reached his fifth year his -mother—co-heiress of the ‘DACRES of the North’—had to write to the Lord -Treasury BURGHLEY: ‘Extremytye inforceth me to crave succour,’ and to -illustrate her assertion by a detail of miseries. - -The hopes with which the STUART accession was naturally anticipated by -all the HOWARDS, were by some of them more than realized, but the heir -of Arundel was not of that number. He was, indeed, restored in blood to -such honours as his father, Earl Philip, had enjoyed, and also to the -baronies forfeited by his grandfather, Thomas, Duke of NORFOLK, in 1572. -But the dignities were restored without the lands. His nearest relations -profited by their influence at Court to obtain grants of his chief -ancestral estates. The Earls of NOTTINGHAM, NORTHAMPTON,[30] and SUFFOLK -had each of them a share in the spoil;—salving their consciences, -probably, by the reflection that, despite his poverty, their young -kinsman had made a great marriage. For his alliance, in 1606, with Lady -Aletheia TALBOT, daughter and co-heir of Gilbert, Earl of SHREWSBURY, -had already brought to him considerable means in hand, and a vast estate -in prospect. The marriage, in higher respects, was also a happy one. But -a natural and eager desire to recover what his father had forfeited cast -much anxiety over years otherwise felicitous. He could not regain even -Arundel House in London, until he had paid £4000 for it to the Earl of -NOTTINGHAM. - -[Sidenote: ARUNDEL AT COURT.] - -Lord ARUNDEL made his first appearance at Court in 1605. In May, 1611, -he was created a Knight of the Garter. Thirteen years of JAMES’ reign -had passed before the Earl was admitted to the Privy Council. This -honour was conferred upon him in July, 1616. Five years more were to -pass before his restoration to his hereditary office of Earl Marshal of -England, although he had been made one of six Commissioners for the -discharge of its duties in October, 1616. The baton was at length (29th -August, 1621) delivered to him at THEOBALDS. [Sidenote: _Domestic -Corresp._, James I, 1621, 21 July. (R. H.)] ‘The King,’ wrote John -CHAMBERLAIN to Sir Dudley CARLETON, when communicating the news, ‘would -have given him £2000 a year pension withal, but—whatsoever the reason -was—he would accept but the ordinary fee, which is twenty pounds per -annum.’ It is plain, however, that this assertion was an error. -According to the ancient constitution of the Earl Marshal’s office there -were certain fees accruing from it which were now, under new -regulations, to cease. The question arose, Shall the Earl Marshal be -compensated by pension, or (according to a pernicious fashion of the -age) by the grant, or lease, of a customs duty upon some largely vended -commodity? [Sidenote: Minutes of Correspondence in Sec. Conway’s Letter -Book; (R. H.) and Council Books (C. O.).] The ‘impost of currants’ was -eventually fixed upon. But the Earl had subsequent occasion to adduce -evidence before a Committee of the Privy Council, that the rent paid to -the King sometimes exceeded the aggregate duty collected from the -merchants.[31] - -There is some uncertainty as to the date of the earliest of Lord -ARUNDEL’S many visits to the Continent. According to Sir Edward WALKER, -he was in Italy in 1609. But that statement is open to doubt. There is -proof that in 1612 he passed some time in Florence and in Siena. With -Siena, as a place of residence, he was especially delighted. Of the -foundation of his collections—to which his Italian journeys largely -contributed—there are no distinct records until the following year. - -[Sidenote: Arundel to Rochester, MS. Cott. Titus, B. vii, f. 463.] - -The tour of 1613, followed immediately upon the marriage of the Princess -ELIZABETH with FREDERICK, Count Palatine of the Rhine. The royal pair -were escorted into Germany by both Lord and Lady ARUNDEL, who soon left -the Rhine country on a new visit to Italy, and remained there until -nearly the close of 1614. [Sidenote: BEGINNINGS OF THE ARUNDELIAN -COLLECTIONS.] During that long residence the Earl established a wide -intercourse with the most distinguished artists and archæologists of -Italy, and made extensive purchases. The fame of his princely tastes was -spread abroad. It soon became notorious that by this open-handed -collector marbles, vases, coins, gems, manuscripts, pictures, were -received with equal welcome. And from this time onwards many passages -occur in his correspondence which indicate the keen and minute interest -he took in the researches of the agents who, in various parts of the -Continent, were busy on his behalf. The pursuit did not lack the special -zest of home rivalry, as will be seen hereafter. - - -Not the least singular incident in the early part of Lord ARUNDEL’S life -was his commitment to the Tower, at a moment when his favour with King -JAMES was at its height. - -[Sidenote: 1621, May.] - -[Sidenote: THE QUARREL BETWEEN LORDS ARUNDEL AND SPENCER.] - -In one of the many impassioned parliamentary debates which occurred -during the session of 1621 an allusion was made by Lord SPENCER to the -unhappy fate of two famous ancestors of the Earl of ARUNDEL, and it was -made in a way which induced the Earl to utter an unwise and unjust -retort. The matter immediately under discussion was a very small one, -but it had grown out of the exciting question of monopolies, and it was -mixed up with the yet more exciting question of the overweening powers -entrusted by the King to BUCKINGHAM. In the course of an examination at -the bar of the House of Lords about the grant of a patent for licensing -inns, Sir Henry YELVERTON had made a furious attack upon the Duke. The -attack was still more an insult to the House, than to the King’s -favourite, and it had been repeated. It was proposed, on a subsequent -day, to call YELVERTON to the bar for the third time, in order to see if -he would then offer the apology which before he had refused. ARUNDEL -opposed the motion. ‘We have his words; we need hear no more,’ he said. -Lord SPENCER rose to answer: ‘I remember that two of the Earl’s -ancestors—the Earl of SURREY, and the Duke of NORFOLK, were unjustly -condemned to death, without being heard.’ The implied parallel was a -silly one, but its weakness and irrelevancy did not restrain ARUNDEL’S -anger. ‘My Lords,’ said he, ‘I do acknowledge that my ancestors have -suffered. It may be for doing the king and the country good service; and -at such time, perhaps, as when the ancestors of the Lord that spake last -kept sheep.’ The speaker failed to see that by using such words he had -committed exactly the same offence as that for which he had, but a -moment before, censured the late Attorney-General, and had moved the -House to punish him. On all sides, he was advised to apologise. He -resisted all entreaty. When committed to the Tower, he still refused -submission. Both the King and the Prince of Wales had to intercede for -him with the House before he could regain his liberty. - - -With rare exception, the public incidents of LORD ARUNDEL’S life during -the remainder of the reign of JAMES are such as offer little interest, -save as illustrations of character. In that respect, many of them -testify to the failing which appears so strikingly in the story of the -quarrel with Lord SPENCER. Some noble qualities lost part of their real -lustre when pride was so plainly seen in their company. All that was -best in Lord ARUNDEL revolted at the grossness of the Stuart court. He -often increased his own disgust by contrasting what he saw at Whitehall -with the memories of his youth. His office of Earl Marshal precluded him -from very long absences. Sometimes, when forced to mingle with courtiers -for whose society he had little liking, he rebuked their want of dignity -by exaggerating his own dignity into haughtiness. Against failings of -this kind we have to set many merits, and amongst them a merit eminently -rare in that age. ARUNDEL was free from covetousness—save in that -special sense in which covetousness, it may be feared, cleaves to all -‘collectorship.’ - -[Sidenote: ADVENTURE OF LADY ARUNDEL AT VENICE.] - -In 1622 some anxiety was occasioned to Lord ARUNDEL by a singular -adventure which befell his wife during her residence in the Venetian -territory, whither (in the course of a long Italian tour) she had gone -to watch over the education of their sons; little anticipating, it may -well be supposed, that her name and that of Lord ARUNDEL, would be made -to figure in Venetian records in connection with the strange story of -the conspirator Antonio FOSCARINI. - -After making some stay in Venice, Lady ARUNDEL had taken a villa on the -Brenta, about ten miles from the City. - -In April, 1622, she was on her way from this villa to the Mocenigo -Palace, her residence in Venice, when she was met by the Secretary of -Sir Henry WOTTON, English ambassador to the Republic. The secretary said -that he was sent by the ambassador to inform her that the Venetian -Senate had resolved to command her ladyship to leave their city and -territory within a few days, on the ground of a discovery that FOSCARINI -had carried on some of his traitorous intrigues with foreign -ministers—and more especially with those of the Pope and Emperor—at her -house. [Sidenote: 1622, April.] To this the messenger added, that it was -Sir Henry WOTTON’S most earnest advice that Lady ARUNDEL should not -return to Venice, but should remain at Dolo, until she heard from him -again. Having listened to this strange communication in private, she -desired the secretary to repeat it in the presence of some of the -persons who attended her. Then she hastened to the ambassador’s house at -Venice. Her interview with WOTTON is thus, in substance, narrated by -Lord ARUNDEL, when telling the story to his friend the Earl of CARLISLE, -then ambassador to the Court of France. - -‘Lady ARUNDEL went immediately to my Lord Ambassador [WOTTON], telling -him she came to hear from his own mouth what she had heard from his -servant’s.’ When Sir Henry had repeated the statement of his secretary, -the Lady asked him how long the accusation and the resolution of the -Senate had been known to him. He replied that reports of the alleged -intercourse with FOSCARINI had reached him some fifteen days before, or -more; but that of the resolution of the Senate he had heard only on that -morning. ‘She asked him why he did never let her understand of the -report all that time? He said because she spake not to him of it.’ To -Lady ARUNDEL’S pithy rejoinder that it would have been hard for her to -speak of a matter of which she had never heard the least rumour until -that day, and to her further protestation that she had not even seen -FOSCARINI since the time of his visit to England, some years earlier, -Sir Henry replied, ‘I believe there was no such matter;’ but he refused -to disclose the name of the person who had first spoken to him of the -accusation. To his renewed advice that her ladyship should not stir -farther in the matter, she declined to accede. [Sidenote: MS. ADDIT., -4176, § 156. (B. M.)] It concerned her honour, and her husband’s honour, -she said, to have public conference with the Doge and Council without -delay. From carrying out this resolve the ambassador found it impossible -to dissuade her. - -That conference took place on the following day with the remarkable -result of a public declaration by the Doge that no mention had ever been -made of Lady ARUNDEL’S name, or of the name of any person nearly or -remotely connected with her, either at any stage of the proceedings -against FOSCARINI, or in any of the discussions which had arisen out of -his conspiracy. - -When the audience given to Lady ARUNDEL by the Doge had been made the -subject of a communication to the Senate, that body instructed the -Venetian Ambassador in England to confer with Lord ARUNDEL. [Sidenote: -_Deliberations of the Senate of Venice_; printed by Hardy, in _Report on -Venetian Archives_, pp. 78–84 (1866).] ‘You are,’ said they, ‘to speak -to the Earl Marshal in such strong and earnest language that he may -retain no doubt of the invalidity of the report, and may remain -perfectly convinced of the esteem and cordial affection entertained -towards him by the Republic; augmented as such feelings are by the open -and dignified mode of life led here by the Countess, and in which she -hastens the education of her sons in the sciences to make them—as they -will become—faithful imitators of their meritorious father and their -ancestors.’ - -Sir Henry WOTTON’S motive in the strange part taken by him in this -incident is nowhere disclosed. He had to listen to several indirect -reproofs, both from the Doge and from the Senate, which were none the -less incisive on account of the courtly language in which they were -couched. - -Two years afterwards, the Earl was himself hastily summoned to the -Continent to attend the death-bed of his eldest son, James, Lord -MALTRAVERS, who is described by a contemporary writer as a ‘gentleman of -rare wit and extraordinary expectation.’ [Sidenote: DEATH OF ARUNDEL’S -ELDEST SON.] The Countess and her two elder sons, James and Henry, were -then returning from Italy to England. [Sidenote: _Royal license to -travel_, July, 1624.] They passed through Belgium in order to visit the -Queen of BOHEMIA. Whilst at Ghent, upon the journey, Lord MALTRAVERS was -seized with the smallpox. He died in that city in July, 1624. The -affliction was acutely felt. [Sidenote: _Domestic Corresp._ James I, -vol. cxlix, § 67; vol. clii, § 55.] ‘My sorrow makes me incapable of -this world’s affairs,’ wrote the Earl to one of his political -correspondents, in the autumn of the year. To the outer world, reserved -manners and a stately demeanour often gave a very false impression of -the man himself. Throughout his life, ARUNDEL’S affectionate nature was -so evinced in his deeds, and in his domestic intercourse, as to stand in -little need of illustration from his words. Mainly, as it seems, to this -characteristic quality he was soon to owe a second imprisonment in the -Tower of London. - -[Sidenote: THE STUART MARRIAGE AND ITS RESULTS.] - -The new Lord MALTRAVERS shortly after his return to England fell in love -with the Lady Elizabeth STUART, daughter of Esme, Duke of LENNOX. -ARUNDEL had formed other wishes and plans for the son who was now his -heir, and there is evidence that he was reluctant to give his consent to -the prosecution of the suit. Nor did the kinship of the prospective -bride with King CHARLES appear to him, it seems, at all an inviting -circumstance in the matter. So long as BUCKINGHAM stood at the helm of -affairs ARUNDEL was likely to have a very small share in the new king’s -affections, so that pride and policy as well as inclination stood in the -way of his approval. He knew also that it was CHARLES’ eager wish that -his kinswoman should marry Lord LORNE, the eldest son of the Earl of -ARGYLE. But the young lover was ardent, and his entreaties -unintermitting. At length, we are told, he not only wrung from the Earl -the words ‘You may try your fortune with the lady that you seem to love -so well,’ but prevailed upon him to confer paternally on the subject -with the lady’s aunt and guardian, the Duchess of RICHMOND. MALTRAVERS, -meanwhile, had resolved to incur no risk of defeat by waiting for a -royal assent to his marriage. He had long before won his cause with the -lady, but had kept the secret. Two passionate lovers[32] went gravely -through the ceremony of a formal introduction to each other. - -MALTRAVERS then induced her to consent to a private marriage. When Lord -ARUNDEL was informed of the fact he immediately disclosed his knowledge -to the King, and besought pardon for the culprits. But CHARLES’ wrath -was unbounded. He placed the new-married pair under restraint in London. -He committed ARUNDEL himself to the Tower. He commanded Lady ARUNDEL to -remain at Horsley, in Surrey, a seat belonging to the Dowager Countess, -her mother-in-law. - -When Lord ARUNDEL was thus imprisoned Parliament was sitting. The Lords -declared his arrest to be an infringement of their privileges. The King -replied that ‘the Earl of ARUNDEL is restrained for a misdemeanour which -is personal to the King’s Majesty, and has no relation to matters of -Parliament.’ The Lords still insisted that it was the Earl’s -unquestionable right ‘to be admitted to come, sit, and serve in -Parliament.’ CHARLES released ARUNDEL from the Tower, and then confined -him to Horsley. Royal evasion did but provoke increased earnestness and -firmness from the Peers. At length they resolved that they would suspend -public business until the Earl presented himself in his place. -[Sidenote: _Secretary Conway’s Letter Book_, pp. 251 seqq. (R. H.)] -Nearly three months had been spent in debate and altercation before -Secretary CONWAY was directed to write to ARUNDEL in these terms: ‘It is -the King’s pleasure that you come to the Parliament, but not to the -Court.’ - -[Sidenote: _Lords’ Journals_, vol. iii, p. 653, &c.] - -The sequel of the story, as it tells itself in the State Papers, affords -an early and eminent illustration of the qualities in CHARLES THE FIRST -which, as they ripened, brought about his ruin. The King resolved that -his concession should as far as was possible be retracted. Directly the -sitting of Parliament was suspended, the King commanded CONWAY to -apprise the Earl that his restraint to Horsley was renewed, ‘as before -the Earl’s leave to come to Parliament.’ [Sidenote: _Domestic Corresp._, -Charles I, vol. xxxv, p. 16 (R. H.).] ARUNDEL on his part made courtly -and even lavish declarations of submission. ‘I desire to implore the -King’s grace by the humblest and best ways I can.’ This was written in -September, 1626. Whenever it was indispensable that he should obtain -leave to visit the capital a petition had to be prepared. In March, -1627, he writes: ‘The King has limited my stay in London until the 12th -of March. I will obey, but I beg you to represent to His Majesty that I -have necessary business to transact ... and that I have so carried -myself as to shew my desire to give His Majesty no distastes. If now, -after a year has passed, the King will dissolve this cloud, and leave me -to my own liberty, I will hold myself to be most free when living in -such place and manner as may be most to His Majesty’s liking.’ It was -all in vain. Another whole year passes. ARUNDEL has still to write: ‘I -beseech the King to give life to my just desires, and after two years of -heavy disfavour to grant me the happiness to kiss his hands and to -attend him in my place.’ To this humble representation and entreaty it -was replied by Secretary CONWAY: ‘His Majesty’s answer is that the Earl -has not so far appeased the exceptions which the King has taken against -unkindness conceived, as yet to take off his disfavour. [Sidenote: -_Ibid._, vol. lvi, p. 86; vol. xcv, pp. 51, 85, &c. _Conway’s Letter -Book_, pp. 295, &c. (R. H.)] As for the Earl’s proffered duty and -carriage in the King’s service, the King will judge of that as he shall -find occasion.’ - -He found occasion ere long; but not until after BUCKINGHAM’S death. -ARUNDEL rendered useful service, on some conspicuous occasions, both at -home and abroad. If his successive diplomatic missions to Holland in -1632, and to Ratisbon in 1638, on the affairs of the Palatinate, failed -of their main object, it was from no miscarriage of the ambassador. In -the unostentatious labours of the Council Board he took during a long -series of years a very honourable share. And it is much to his honour -that by the men to whom the chief scandals of a disastrous reign are -mainly ascribable, ARUNDEL was, almost uniformly, both disliked and -feared. - -[Sidenote: ARUNDEL AND STRAFFORD.] - -[Sidenote: 1641. March and April.] - -As Lord High Steward of England, ARUNDEL had to preside at the trial of -the Earl of STRAFFORD. He acquitted himself of an arduous task with -eminent ability, and with an impartiality which won respect, alike from -the managers of the impeachment and from the friends of the doomed -statesman. The only person who expressed dissatisfaction with ARUNDEL’S -conduct on that critical occasion was the King. The historians who have -most deeply and acutely scanned the details of that most memorable of -all our State Trials are agreed that in order to have satisfied CHARLES, -the Earl of ARUNDEL must have betrayed the duty of his high office. - -Shortly after the trial of STRAFFORD, it became ARUNDEL’S duty as Earl -Marshal to attend the mother of the queen (MARY of Medicis), on her -return to Holland; and he received the King’s license to remain beyond -the seas during his pleasure. [Sidenote: LATEST EMPLOYMENTS.] He -returned however to England in October of the same year. [Sidenote: -Rushworth, vol. iv, pp. 317, 318.] In the following February, a similar -ceremonial mission was his last official employment. He then conducted -Queen HENRIETTA MARIA on her journey into France, and took his own last -farewell of England. [Sidenote: 1642. February.] It was an unconscious -farewell. [Sidenote: Sir E. Walker, in MS. Harl., as before.] Nor does -his departure appear to have been dictated by any desire to shrink from -sacrifices on behalf of the cause with which—whether rightly or -wrongly—all his personal sympathies, as well as the political views of -his whole life, were bound up. At the hands of the first STUART he had -met with capricious favour, and with enduring injustice. By the second, -during several years, he was treated with marked and causeless -indignity; and then, during several other years, rewarded grudgingly for -zealous service. In exile, his contributions in support of the royal -cause were upon a scale which impoverished both himself and his -family.[33] - -Such a fact is a conclusive proof of magnanimity of spirit, whatever may -be thought of its bearings in regard to political insight. [Sidenote: -COLONIZING EFFORTS OF LORD ARUNDEL.] Opinion is less likely to differ -with respect to exertions of quite another order which occasionally -occupied Lord ARUNDEL’S mind and energies during at least twenty years -of his political life. - -One of the best known incidents in his varied career is also one of its -most honourable incidents. His friendship for RALEGH grew out of a deep -interest in colonization. And the calamitous issue of that famous voyage -to Guiana in 1617 which ARUNDEL had promoted was very far from inducing -him to abandon the earnest advocacy of a resumption, in subsequent -years, of the enterprise which RALEGH had had so much at heart. His -efforts were more than once repeated, but the same influences which -ruined RALEGH foiled the exertions of ARUNDEL and of those who worked -with him. - -[Sidenote: _Grant Book_, James I, pp. 307, seqq. _Domest. Corresp._, - James I, vol. cviii, § 85.] - -He then turned his attention towards the wide field of colonial -enterprise which presented itself in New England. From the autumn of -1620 until the summer of 1635 he, from time to time, actively supported -the endeavours of the ‘Council for the Planting of New England.’ -[Sidenote: _Proclamation Book_, May 15, 1620. (R. H.)] The Minute in -which that Council summed up the causes which induced it, at the date -last-named, to resign its charter is an instructive one. [Sidenote: -SURRENDER OF THE NEW ENGLAND CHARTER.] It expresses, in few words, the -views of Lord ARUNDEL and of his ablest fellows at the board:—‘We have -found,’ say the Councillors, in their final Minute, ‘that our endeavours -to advance the plantation of New England have been attended with -frequent troubles and great disappointments. We have been deprived of -near friends and faithful servants employed in that work. We have been -assaulted with sharp litigious questions before the Privy Council by the -Virginia Company, who had complained to Parliament that our Plantation -was a grievance.’ They proceed to say that a promising settlement which -had been established, under the governorship of Captain GORGES in -Massachusetts Bay, had been violently broken up by a body of speculative -intruders who, without the knowledge of the Council of New England, had -found means to obtain a royal ‘grant of some three thousand miles of the -sea-coast.’ Finding it by far too great a task, for their means, to -restore what had thus been brought to ruin, ARUNDEL, and his -fellow-councillors were constrained to resign their charter. - -[Sidenote: _Colonial Papers_, vol. viii, § 58. (R. H.)] - -Four years later the Earl formed an elaborate plan for the colonization -of Madagascar. But the events of 1639–40 soon made its effectual -prosecution hopeless. - - -The latest notice we have of the Earl of ARUNDEL, from the hand of any -eminent contemporary, occurs in the Diary of John EVELYN, and is dated -six months before the Earl’s death. [Sidenote: DEATH AT PADUA, 1646.] In -June of the preceding year (1645) EVELYN had paid a visit to Lord -ARUNDEL at his house in Padua, and had then accompanied him to a famous -garden in that city known as the ‘Garden of Mantua.’ [Sidenote: Evelyn, -_Diary_, vol. 1, p. 212.] They had also explored together some ancient -ruins lying near the Palace of Foscari all’ Arena. When EVELYN renewed -his visit in March, 1646, the Earl was no longer able to leave the -house. [Sidenote: _Ibid._, pp. 218, 219.] ‘I took my leave of him,’ says -the diarist, ‘in his bed, where I left that great and excellent man in -tears, on some private discourse of crosses that had befallen his -family, particularly the undutifulness of his grandson, Philip, turning -Dominican friar; and the misery of his country, now embroiled in civil -war. He caused his gentleman to give me directions, written with his own -hand, what curiosities I should inquire after in my journey; and -so—enjoyning me to write sometimes to him—I departed.’ The Earl died at -Padua on the 24th September, 1646, having entered into the sixty-second -year of his age. In compliance with the directions of his Will his -remains were brought to England and buried at Arundel. - - -It remains only to add a few particulars of the character and sources of -the splendid collections which the Earl of ARUNDEL, by the persistent -labours and the lavish expenditure of more than thirty years, had -amassed. The surviving materials for such an account are, however, very -fragmentary. [Sidenote: NOTICES OF THE ARUNDELIAN COLLECTIONS.] Those -which are of chief interest occur in the correspondence which passed -between the Earl and Sir Thomas ROE during the embassy of that eminent -diplomatist to the Ottoman Porte in the years 1626–1628. - -The Earl’s zeal as a collector, and the public attention which his -personal successes in that character during his Italian travels had soon -attracted, naturally excited a like ambition on the part of several of -his contemporaries. Conspicuous in this respect were his brother-in-law -the Earl of PEMBROKE, and his political rival and enemy the Duke of -BUCKINGHAM. ARUNDEL’S success in amassing many fine pictures had, in -like manner, already attracted the attention of Prince CHARLES to that -peculiarly fascinating branch of collectorship. - -[Sidenote: CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR THOMAS ROE.] - -When Sir Thomas ROE set out for Constantinople he was charged with -commissions to search for antiquities on BUCKINGHAM’S behalf, as well as -on Lord ARUNDEL’S. He was himself a novice in such inquiries. He had to -encounter excessive difficulties from the jealousy, and sometimes the -dishonesty, of the Turkish and other agents whom he was obliged to -employ. Most of them were stubborn in their belief that a search for old -marbles did but mask the pursuit of buried treasure of greater currency. -And to difficulties of this sort was added a standing fear that every -service rendered to the Earl Marshal might be esteemed an offence to the -powerful favourite at Whitehall. - -To an urgent letter which he had received from ARUNDEL just as he was -embarking, Sir Thomas replied, from Constantinople, in January, 1622. ‘I -moved our Consul, Richard MILWARD, at Scio, whom I found prepared and -ready,’ he reports. ‘We conferred about “the Maid of Smirna” which he -cannot yet obteyne, without an especiall command [from the Porte]. I -brought with mee from Messina the Bishop of Andre, one of the islands of -the Arches, a man of good learning and great experience in these parts. -Hee assured mee that the search after old and good authors was utterly -vaine.... The last French ambassador had the last gleanings. Only of -some few he gave mee notice as of an old Tertullian, and a piece of -Chrisostome ... which may be procured to be copied, but not the -originall.... Concerning antiquities in marbles, there are many in -divers parts, but especially at Delphos, unesteemed here, and, I doubt -not, easy to be procured for the charge of digging and fetching, which -must be purposely undertaken. It is supposed that many statues are -buried to secure them from the envy of the Turks, and that, leave -obteyned, [they] would come to light, which I will endeavour as soon as -I am warm here.’ After mentioning that he had already procured some -coins, he adds, with amusing naïveté, ‘I have also a stone, taken out of -the old pallace of Priam in Troy, cutt in horned shape, but because I -neither can tell of what it is, nor hath it any other bewty but only the -antiquity and truth of being a peece of that ruined and famous building, -I will not presume to send it you. [Sidenote: Sir T. Roe to Lord -Arundel, 27 Jan., 1621 [O. S.]; _Negotiations_, p. 16.] Yet I have -delivered it to the same messenger, that your Lordship may see it and -throw it away.’ - -Two years afterwards the ambassador has to tell Lord ARUNDEL a mingled -story of failure and success: ‘The command you required for the Greeke -to be sent into Morea I have sollicitted [of] two viziers, one after the -other, butt they both rejected mee and gave answere, that it was no tyme -to graunt such priviledges. Neare to the port they have not so great -doubt and therefore I have prevailed with another, and [have] sent Mr. -MARKHAM, assisted with a letter from the Caplen Bassa, whose -jurisdiction extends to all the islands and sea-ports.... On Asia side, -about Troy, Zizicum, and all the way to Aleppo, are innumerable pillars, -statues, and tombstones of marble, with inscriptions in Greeke. -[Sidenote: _Ibid._, 10 May, 1623, _Negotiations_, p. 154.] These may be -fetcht at charge, and secrettly; butt yf wee ask leave it cannot be -obteyned; therefore Mr. MARKHAM will use discretion rather then power, -and so the Turks will bring them for their proffitt.’ - -ROE’S report encouraged Lord ARUNDEL to send an agent, named PETTY, on a -special exploring mission into various parts of the Ottoman Empire. The -agent thus selected was eminently fitted for his task, and showed -himself to be a man of untiring industry. Very soon after PETTY’S -arrival at Constantinople, Sir Thomas ROE wrote to the Duke of -BUCKINGHAM an account of his successful researches, and he prefaced it -with an acknowledgement that ‘by conference with Mr. PETTY, sent hither -by my Lord of ARUNDELL, I have somewhat bettered my sckill in such -figures. We have searched all this cyttye,’ he proceeds to say, ‘and -found nothing but upon one gate, called anciently _Porta Aurea_, built -by CONSTANTINE, bewtifyed with two mighty pillars, and upon the sides -and over it, twelve tables of fine marble cutt into historyes,—some of a -very great relevo, sett into the wall with small pillars as supporters. -Most of the figures are equall; some above the life some less. -[Sidenote: Roe to the Duke of Buckingham, 11 May, 1625, _Negotiations_, -pp. 386–7.] They are—in my eye—extremely decayed, but Mr. PETTY doth so -prayse them, as that he hath not seene much better in the great and -costly collections of Italye.... The fower to which I have most -affection ... are both brave and sweete.... The relevo so high that they -are almost statues, and doe but seeme to sticke to the ground.’ - -In October of the same year Sir THOMAS sent an elaborate account to the -Earl of ARUNDEL of the progress made by PETTY, and of his own exertions -to provide him with every possible facility. [Sidenote: THE PROPOSED -PARTITION OF ANCIENT MARBLES BETWEEN ARUNDEL AND BUCKINGHAM.] He told -the Earl of the difficulty of his own position towards the Duke of -BUCKINGHAM, and besought him to admit of an arrangement by which the -product of the joint exertions of ambassador and agent should be divided -between the competitors. PETTY, he reports, ‘hath visited Pergamo, -Samos, Ephesus, and some other places, where he hath made your Lordship -great provisions.... I have given him forceable commands, and letters of -recommendation from the Patriarch. I have bene free and open to him in -whatsoever I knewe, and so I will continue for your Lordship’s command. -But your Lordship knowing that I have received the like from the Duke of -BUCKINGHAM, and engaged my word to doe him service hee might judge it -want of witt, or will, or creditt, if Mr. PETTY, who could doe nothing -but by mee, should take all things before or from mee. Therefore to -avoid all emulation, and that I might stand clear before two so great -and honourable patrons, I thought I had made agreement with him for all -our advantages. Therefore we resolved to take down those sixe mentioned -relevos on _Porta Aurea_, and I proceeded so far as I offered 600 -dollars for four of them, to bee divided between his Grace and your -Lordship by lotts. And if your Lordship liked not the price, Mr. PETTY -had his choice to forsake them. But now, I perceave, he hath entitled -your Lordship to them all by some right that, if I could gett them, it -were an injury to divide them.... But I am sorry wee strive for the -shadowe. Your Lordship may beleeve an honest man, and your servant, I -have tried the bassa,—the capteyne of the Castle,—the overseer of the -Grand Signor’s works,—the soldiours that make that watch,—and none of -them dare meddle. They [the sculptures] stand between two mighty pillars -of marble, on other tables of marble supported with less pillars, uppon -the cheife port of the Citty, the entrance by the Castle called “The -Seaven Towres,” which was never opened since the Greeke Emperour lost -it, but a counterscarfe and another wall built before it.... There is -butt one way left in the world, which I will practice.... [Sidenote: Roe -to Arundel, 30 Oct, 1625; _Negotiations_, pp. 444–446.] If I gett them -not, I will pronounce [that] no man, no ambassadour, shall ever bee able -to doe it;—except, also, the Grand Signor, for want, will sell the -Castle.’ - -Just before the date of this letter PETTY had suffered shipwreck on the -coast of Asia, when returning from Samos. Together with his papers and -personal baggage, he lost the fruits of long and successful researches. -But his inexhaustible energies enabled him to recover what, to the men -about him, seemed to have hopelessly perished. He found means to raise -the buried marbles from the wreck. [Sidenote: _Ibid._, 7 April, 1626, p. -495.] ‘There was never man,’ wrote Sir Thomas ROE, with the frank -admiration of a congenial spirit, ‘so fitted to an employment; that -encounters all accidents with so unwearied patience; eates with Greekes -on their worst dayes; lyes with fishermen on plancks, at the best; is -all thinges to all men, that he may obteyne his ends, which are your -Lordship’s service.’ - -To Dr. GOADE, one of the chaplains of Archbishop ABBOT, Sir Thomas ROE -continued the narrative of PETTY’S zealous researches, and of the -success which attended them. ‘By my means,’ he wrote, ‘Mr. PETTY had -admittance into the best library known of Greece, where are loades of -old manuscripts, and hee used so fine arte, with the helpe of some of my -servants, that hee conveyed away twenty two. I thought I should have had -my share, but hee was for himselfe. Hee is a good chooser; saw all, or -most, and tooke, I thincke, those that were and wilbe of greate esteeme. -Hee speaketh sparingly of such a bootye, but could not conteyne sometyme -to discover with joy his treasure.... I meant to have a review of that -librarye, but hee gave it such a blow under my trust that, since, it -hath been locked up under two keys, whereof one kept by the townsmen -that have interest or oversight of the monastery, so that I could do no -good.... [Sidenote: _Ib._, p. 500.] My hope is to deale with the -Patriarch, and not to trust to myselfe, and to chances.’ - -In November, 1626, Sir Thomas further informed the Duke of BUCKINGHAM -that ‘Mr. PETTY hath raked together two hundred peices [of sculpture], -all broken, or few [of them] entyre.... Hee had this advantage, that hee -went himselfe into all the islands, and tooke all he saw, and is now gon -to Athens.’ [Sidenote: _Ib._, p. 570; comp. pp. 619; 647; 692, and 764.] -In subsequent letters and despatches the diplomatist returns often to -this unofficial branch of his duties, and makes it very apparent that -PETTY’S zeal had, for a time, spoiled the market of the agents who -followed in his track. - -[Sidenote: LORD ARUNDEL’S RESEARCHES IN ITALY.] - -Lord ARUNDEL was not less ably served by the factors and representatives -whom he employed in Italy, in Germany, and in the Netherlands. But the -story is far too long to be told in detail. [Sidenote: MSS. at Norfolk -House; printed, in Tierney’s _Arundel_, p. 489.] Their success in -collecting choice pictures and other works of art was so conspicuous -that when one of them had an interview with RUBENS at Antwerp, to give a -commission from Lord ARUNDEL, the great painter—himself, it will be -remembered, an eminent collector also—said to him: ‘I regard the Earl in -the light of an evangelist to the world of art, and as the great -supporter of our profession.’ In these artistic commissions and -researches William TRUMBULL, Edward NORGATE, Sir John BOROUGH, and Sir -Isaac WAKE, especially distinguished themselves. Their correspondence -with Lord ARUNDEL is spread over a long series of years, and it abounds -with curious illustrations of ‘the world of art,’ as it lived and moved -in the earlier part of the seventeenth century. - -Among those entire collections which the Earl purchased in bulk, two are -more particularly notable—the museum, namely, of Daniel NICE, and the -library of the family of PIRCKHEIMER of Nuremberg. - -NICE’S Museum was especially rich in medals and gems. [Sidenote: Evelyn -to Pepys; _Diary and Corresp._, vol. iii, p. 300.] If EVELYN’S -information about the circumstances of that acquisition was accurate, it -cost the Earl the sum—enormous, at that date—of ten thousand pounds. I -cannot, however, but suspect that into that statement some error of -figures has crept. - -The acquisition of the PIRCKHEIMER Library was made by the Earl himself, -during his diplomatic mission into Germany on the affairs of the -Palatinate. In this collection some of the choicest of the Arundelian -MSS. which now enrich the British Museum were comprised. Its foundation -had been laid more than a hundred and thirty years before the date of -the Earl’s purchase. But part of the library of the first founder had -passed into the possession of the City of Nuremberg. The collection -which Lord ARUNDEL acquired was rich both in classical manuscripts and -in the materials of mediæval history. - -The liberality with which these varied treasures, as they successively -arrived in London, were made accessible to scholars was in harmony with -the open-handedness by means of which they had been amassed. For a few -years Arundel House was itself an anticipatory ‘British Museum.’ Then -came the civil war. But the injury which the ARUNDEL collections -sustained from the insecurity and commotions of a turbulent time is very -insignificant, in comparison with that sustained, after the Restoration, -through the ignorance and the indolence of an unworthy inheritor. - -[Sidenote: THE SUCCESSORS OF LORD ARUNDEL.] - -The immediate heir and successor of Earl Thomas survived his father less -than six years. He died at Arundel House in April, 1652, leaving several -sons, of whom the two eldest, Thomas and Henry, became successively -Earls of Arundel and Dukes of Norfolk. The first of these was restored -to the dukedom in 1660. But the whole of his life, after attaining -manhood, was passed in Italy and under the heavy affliction of impaired -mental faculties, following upon an attack of brain-fever which had -seized him at Padua, in 1645. He never recovered, but died in the city -in which the disease had stricken him, lingering until the year 1677. It -was in consequence of this calamity that the inheritance of a large -portion of the Arundelian collections, and also the possession of -Arundel House in London, passed from Earl Henry-Frederick to his second -son, Henry. - - -We learn from many passages both in the Diary and in the Letters of John -EVELYN that, under the new owner, Arundel House and its contents were so -neglected as, at times, to lie at the mercy of a crowd of rapacious -parasites. In one place he speaks of the mansion as being infested by -‘painters, panders, and misses.’ In another he describes the library as -suffering by repeated depredations. He remonstrated with the owner, and -at length obtained from him a gift of the library for the newly-founded -Royal Society, and a gift of part of the marbles for the University of -Oxford. In his Diary he thus narrates the circumstances under which -these benefactions were made:— - -[Sidenote: GIFT OF THE ARUNDEL LIBRARY TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY;] - -Having mentioned that on the destruction of the meeting-place of the -Royal Society, its members ‘were invited by Mr. HOWARD to sit at Arundel -House in the Strand,’ he proceeds to say that Mr. HOWARD, ‘at my -instigation, likewise bestowed on the Society that noble library which -his grandfather especially, and his ancestors, had collected. This -gentleman had so little inclination to books that it was the -preservation of them from embezzlement.’ [Sidenote: Evelyn, _Diary, -&c._, vol. ii, p. 20.] Elsewhere he says that not a few books had -actually been lost before, by his interference, the bulk of the -collection was thus saved. The gift to the Royal Society was made at the -close of the year 1666. - -[Sidenote: AND THAT OF THE MARBLES TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.] - -In September of the following year this entry occurs in the same -Diary:—‘[I went] to London, on the 19th, with Mr. Henry HOWARD of -Norfolk, of whom I obtained the gift of his Arundelian Marbles,—those -celebrated and famous inscriptions, Greek and Latin, gathered with so -much cost and industry from Greece by his illustrious grandfather the -magnificent Earl of ARUNDEL.... When I saw these precious monuments -miserably neglected, and scattered up and down about the garden and -other parts of Arundel House, and how exceedingly the corrosive air of -London impaired them, I procured him to bestow them on the University of -Oxford. This he was pleased to grant me, and now gave me the key of the -gallery, with leave to mark all those stones, urns, altars, &c., and -whatever I found had inscriptions on them, that were not statues. This I -did, and getting them removed and piled together, with those which were -encrusted in the garden-walls, I sent immediately letters to the -Vice-Chancellor of what I had procured.’ [Sidenote: _Ib._, p. 29. (edit. -1850.)] On the 8th of October he records a visit from the President of -Trinity, ‘to thank me, in the name of the Vice-Chancellor and the whole -University, and to receive my directions what was to be done to show -their gratitude to Mr. HOWARD.’ - -Ten months later, EVELYN records that he was called to London to wait -upon the Duke of NORFOLK. The Duke, he says, ‘having, at my sole -request, bestowed the Arundelian Library on the Royal Society, sent to -me to take charge of the books and remove them.... Many of these books -had been presented by Popes, Cardinals, and great persons, to the Earls -of ARUNDEL and Dukes of NORFOLK; and the late magnificent Earl of -ARUNDEL bought a noble library in Germany which is in this collection. -[Sidenote: _Ib._, pp. 122, 123.] I should not, for the honour I bear the -family, have persuaded the Duke to part with these, had I not seen how -negligent he was of them; suffering the priests and everybody to carry -away and dispose of what they pleased, so that abundance of rare things -are irrecoverably gone.’ - -A curious narrative communicated, almost a century afterwards, to the -Society of Antiquaries, by James THEOBALD, proves that in this respect -the gallery of antiquities—notwithstanding the noble benefaction to -Oxford—was even more unfortunate than the library of books. At the time -when these gifts were obtained for Oxford and for the Royal Society, -another extensive portion of the original collections had already passed -into the possession of William HOWARD, Viscount Stafford, and had been -removed to Stafford House. Lord STAFFORD was a younger son of the -collector, and appears to have received the choice artistic treasures -which long adorned his town residence by the gift of his mother. -[Sidenote: DISPERSION OF PART OF THE ARUNDEL MARBLES.] According to -EVELYN, Lady ARUNDEL also ‘scattered and squandered away innumerable -other rarities, ... whilst my Lord was in Italy.’ But in this instance -he appears to speak by hearsay, rather than from personal knowledge. -TIERNEY, the able and painstaking historian of the family, asserts that -its records contain no proof whatever of the justice of the charge. -[Sidenote: _History of Arundel_, p. 509.] And he traces the origin of -EVELYN’S statement to a passage in one of the letters of Francis JUNIUS, -in which it is said of Lady ARUNDEL that she ‘carried over a vast -treasure of rarities, and convaighed them away out of England.’ Even to -JUNIUS, notwithstanding his connection with the family, the charge may -have come but as a rumour. - -Be that as it may, the subsequent dispersion of many treasures of art -which the Earl had collected with such unwearied pains and lavish -expenditure is unquestionable. - -Lord Henry HOWARD, it has been shown, excepted the ‘statues’ from his -gift to the University. They remained at Arundel House, but so little -care was bestowed upon their preservation that when the same owner -afterwards obtained an Act of Parliament empowering him to build streets -on part of the site of Arundel House and Gardens, many of these statues -were broken by the throwing upon or near them of heaps of rubbish from -the excavations made, in the years 1678 and 1679, for the new buildings. -These broken statues and fragments retained beauty enough to attract -from time to time the admiration of educated eyes when such eyes chanced -to fall upon them. Those which long adorned the seat of the Earls of -POMFRET, at Easton Neston, in Oxfordshire, were purchased by Sir William -FERMOR, and were given to the University of Oxford by one of his -descendants. Others which are, or were, at Fawley Court, near Henley, -were purchased by Mr. FREEMAN. Others, again, were bought by Edmund -WALLER, the poet, for the decoration of Beaconsfield. - -Still more strange was the fate which befell certain other marbles which -Lord Henry (by that time Duke of NORFOLK) caused to be removed from -Arundel House to a piece of waste ground belonging to the manor of -Kennington. These the owner seems to have regarded as little better than -lumber. It is therefore the less surprising that his servants took so -little care of them as to suffer them to be buried, in their turn, -beneath rubbish which had been brought to Kennington from St. Paul’s, -during the rebuilding of that cathedral. By-and-bye, precious marbles, -excavated amidst so many difficulties arising from Turkish barbarism in -Asia Minor, had to be re-excavated in England. Many years after their -second burial, some rumour of the circumstance came to the knowledge of -the Earl of BURLINGTON, and by his efforts and care something was -recovered. But the researches then made were, in some way, interrupted. -They were afterwards resumed by Lord PETRE. [Sidenote: Narrative by -Theobald; printed in ANECDOTES OF HOWARD FAMILY, pp. 101–120.] ‘After -six days’ of excavation and search, says an eye-witness, ‘just as the -workmen were going to give over, they fell upon something which gave -them hopes. Upon further opening the ground they discovered six -statues, ... some of a colossal size, the drapery of which was thought -to be exceeding fine.’ These went eventually to Worksop. - -Some Arundelian marbles were, it is said, converted into rollers for -bowling-greens. The fragments of others lie in or beneath the -foundations of the houses in Norfolk Street and the streets adjacent. - -The Stafford-House portion of the collections—which included pictures, -drawings, vases, medals, and many miscellaneous antiquities of great -curiosity—was sold by auction in 1720. At the prices of that day the -sale produced no less a sum than £8852. - -The Arundelian cabinet of cameos and intaglios, now so famous under the -name of ‘The Marlborough Gems,’ was offered to the Trustees of the -British Museum for sale, at an early period in the history of the -institution. The price asked by the then possessor, the Duchess Dowager -of NORFOLK, was £10,000. But at that time the funds of the nascent -institution were inadequate to the purchase. - - -It affords conspicuous proof of the marvellous success which had -attended Lord ARUNDEL’S researches to find that the remnants, so to -speak, of his collections retain an almost inestimable value, after so -many losses and loppings. They are virtually priceless, even if we leave -out of view all that is now private property. - -When the Arundelian MSS. were transferred, in the years 1831 and 1832, -to the British Museum, their money value—for the purposes of the -exchange as between the Royal Society and the Museum Trustees—was -estimated (according to the historian of the Royal Society) at the sum -of £3559. [Sidenote: Weld, _History of the Royal Society_, vol. ii, pp. -448, 449.] This sum was given by the Trustees, partly in money, and -partly in printed books of which the Museum possessed two or more than -two copies. The whole of the money received by the Royal Society was -expended by its Council in the purchase of other printed books. So that -both Libraries were benefited by the exchange. - -It may deserve remark that a somewhat similar transfer had been -contemplated and discussed during the lifetime of the original donor. -The project, at that period, was to make an exchange between the Royal -Society and the University of Oxford. The University induced EVELYN to -recommend Lord Henry HOWARD to sanction an exchange of such MSS. ‘as -concern the civil law, theology, and other scholastic learning, for -mathematical, philosophical, and such other books as may prove most -useful to the design and institution of the Society.’ [Sidenote: Evelyn -to Howard; 14 March, 1669.] But at that time, after much conference, it -was otherwise determined. - -The heraldical and genealogical books belonging to the original ARUNDEL -Library were given, at the date of the first transfer of the bulk of the -collection to the Royal Society, to the Heralds’ College. They still -form an important part of the College Library, and they include valuable -materials for the history of the family of HOWARD. - - - - - CHAPTER V. - THE COLLECTOR OF THE HARLEIAN MSS. - - ‘A soul supreme, in each hard instance tried, - Above all pain, all passion, and all pride, - The rage of power, the blast of public breath, - The lust of lucre, and the dread of death.— - POPE, _Epistle to Robert, Earl of Oxford, in the Tower_. - - ‘Whether this man ever had any determined view besides that of - raising his family is, I believe, a problematical question in the - world. My opinion is that he never had any other.... Oxford fled - from Court covered with shame, the object of the derision of the - Whigs and of the indignation of the Tories.’—BOLINGBROKE, _Letter to - Sir W. Wyndham_. - - _The_ HARLEY _Family.—Parliamentary and Official Career of Robert_ - HARLEY, _Earl of Oxford.—The Party Conflicts under Queen_ - ANNE.—_Robert_ HARLEY _and Jonathan_ SWIFT.—HARLEY _and the Court - of the Stuarts.—Did_ HARLEY _conspire to restore the - Pretender?—History of the Harleian Library.—The Life and - Correspondence of Humphrey_ WANLEY. - - -[Sidenote: BOOK I, Chap. V. THE COLLECTOR OF THE HARLEIAN MSS.] - -Robert HARLEY was the eldest son of Sir Edward HARLEY, of Brampton -Bryan, in Herefordshire, by his second wife, Abigail, daughter of -Nathaniel STEPHENS, of Essington, in Gloucestershire. He was born at his -father’s town-house in Bow Street, Covent Garden, in the year 1661. - -[Sidenote: THE HARLEY FAMILY.] - -The HARLEYS had been a family of considerable note in Herefordshire -during several centuries. Many generations of them had sat in the House -of Commons, sometimes for boroughs, but not infrequently for their -county. Sir Edward sided with the Parliamentarians during the Civil -Wars. He was, however, one of those moderate statesmen who, in the words -of a once-celebrated clerical adherent and martyr of their party, -Christopher LOVE, judged it ‘an ill way to cure the body politic, by -cutting off the political head.’ In due time he also became one of those -‘secluded members’ of the Long Parliament who published the -‘Remonstrance’ of 1656, and who were then as strenuous—though far less -successful—in opposing what they deemed to be the tyranny of the -Protector, as they had formerly been in opposing the tyranny of the -King. Sir Edward HARLEY promoted the restoration of CHARLES THE SECOND, -and sat in all the Parliaments of that reign. He distinguished himself -as a defender of liberty of conscience in unpropitious times; and he -won, in a high degree, the respect of men who sat beside him in the -House of Commons, but were rarely counted with him upon a division. - -The first public act of Robert HARLEY of which a record has been kept is -his appearance with his father, in 1688, at the head of an armed band of -tenantry and retainers, assembled in Herefordshire to support the cause -of the Prince of ORANGE, when the news had come of the Prince’s arrival -in Torbay. - -[Sidenote: HARLEY’S PARLIAMENTARY CAREER.] - -In the first Parliament of WILLIAM and MARY Robert HARLEY sat for -Tregony. To the second he was returned by the burgesses of New Radnor. -The first reported words of his which appear in the debates were spoken -in the course of a discussion upon the heads of a ‘Bill of Indemnity.’ -‘I think,’ said he on this occasion, ‘that the King in his message has -led us. He shews us how to proceed for satisfaction of justice. There is -a crime [of which] God says, He will not pardon it. [Sidenote: Grey’s -_Debates_, vol. ix, p. 247.] ’Tis the shedding of innocent blood. A -gentleman said that the West was “a shambles.” What made that shambles? -It began in law. It was a common discourse among the Ministers that “the -King cannot have justice.”’ The debate on the Bill of Indemnity of 1690 -may be looked upon as, in some sort, the foreshadowing of a long spell -of political conflict, in which Robert HARLEY was to take a conspicuous -share. Twenty seven years afterwards the strife of parties was to enter -on a new stage. Some of the men who acted as the political Mentors of -the new member of 1689–90 were to live long enough to clamour for his -execution as a traitor, and, on their failure to produce any adequate -proof that he was guilty, were to console themselves by insisting on his -exclusion from the ‘Act of Grace’ of 1717. - - -HARLEY won his earliest distinctions in political life by assiduous, -patient, and even drudging labour on questions of finance. [Sidenote: -MS. Harl. 7524, f. 139, seqq.] During six years, at least, he worked -zealously as one of the ‘Commissioners for stating the Public Accounts -of the Kingdom.’ In parliamentary debates on the public establishments -and expenditure he took a considerable share. As a speaker he had no -brilliancy. His usual tone and manner, we are told, were somewhat -listless and drawling. But occasionally he would speak with a certain -pith and incisiveness. [Sidenote: Grey’s _Debates_, vol. x, p. 268.] -Thus, in November, 1692, in a discussion on naval affairs, he said—‘We -have had a glorious victory at sea. But although we have had the honour, -the enemy has had the profit. They take our merchant ships.’ Again, in -the following year, when supporting the Bill for more frequent -Parliaments, he spoke thus:—‘A standing Parliament can never be a true -representative. Men are much altered after they have been here some -time. They are no longer the same men that were sent up to us.’ - -Of the truth of that saying, in one of its senses, HARLEY became himself -a salient instance. Bred a Whig, and during his early years acting -commonly with the Whigs, his party ties were gradually relaxed. By -temper and mental constitution he was always inclined to moderate -measures. As the party waxed fiercer and fiercer, and as its policy came -to be more and more obviously the weapon of its hatreds, HARLEY soon lay -open to the reproach of being a trimmer. The growing breach became -evident enough in the course of the debates on the treason of Sir John -FENWICK, in November, 1696. [Sidenote: HIS SPEECH ON THE ATTAINDER OF -FENWICK.] He then argued, with force and earnestness, that atrocity in a -crime is no justification or excuse for violence and unscrupulousness in -a prosecutor. Some of his applications of that sound doctrine are very -questionable. But it is to his honour that he preached moderation with -consistency. He did not bend it to the exigencies of the party he was -approaching, any more than to those of the party from which he was -gradually withdrawing himself. - -Meanwhile he had signalised his powers in another way. By long study he -had acquired a considerable knowledge of parliamentary law and -precedent. He had taken his full share in the work of committees. In -February, 1701, he was proposed for the Speakership, in opposition to -Sir Thomas LITTLETON. He had a large body of supporters, nor were they -found exclusively in the Tory ranks. The King sent for LITTLETON, and -told him that he thought it would be for the public service that he -should give way to the choice of Mr. HARLEY in his stead. But the -election was carried by a majority of only four votes. ‘It is a great -encouragement to his party,’ wrote TOWNSHEND to WALPOLE, who was then in -the country, ‘and no small mortification to the Whigs.’ HARLEY retained -the Speakership until the third session of the first Parliament of Queen -ANNE. - -Whatever may have been the ‘mortification of the Whigs’ at his -elevation, it is certain that at this time HARLEY laboured zealously for -the establishment of the Protestant succession to the throne. [Sidenote: -HARLEY AND THE ACT OF SUCCESSION.] [Sidenote: 1701. March.] In the -preparation, facilitating, and passing of that measure he took so -influential a part that, afterwards, he was able to say, in the face of -his opponents, when they were most numerous and most embittered, ‘I had -the largest hand in settling the succession of the House of Hanover.’ -The assertion met with no denial. - -It is evident, too, that the qualities for which he was already reviled -by extreme partisans on both sides were—in their measure—real -qualifications, both for the office of Speaker and for the special task -of that day. The party leaders who were then most eagerly followed were -men bent on crushing their adversaries as well as conquering them. It -was inevitable that by such men HARLEY’S moderation towards opponents -should be regarded as more cajolery. And of that unhappy quality he was -destined, at a later day, to acquire but too much. - - -[Sidenote: THE SECRETARYSHIP OF STATE, 1704.] - -On the 27th of April, 1704, Mr. Speaker HARLEY was sworn of the Privy -Council. On the 18th of May he received the seals as one of the -Principal Secretaries of State. [Sidenote: _Privy Council Register_, -Anne, vol. ii, p. 102.] He had scarcely entered on the duties of his -office before he was busied with precautionary measures in Scotland -against an anticipated Jacobite insurrection, as well as with a large -share of the foreign correspondence. But just at that busy time he found -means to begin—though he could not then complete—an act of charity which -is memorable both on the recipient’s account and on the score of some -well-known political consequences which eventually grew thereout. - -At the time when HARLEY became a member of the GODOLPHIN administration -Daniel DE FOE lay in Newgate, under a conviction for seditious libel, -committed in the publication of his famous tract, _The Shortest Way with -the Dissenters_. [Sidenote: HARLEY’S PROTECTION OF DE FOE, 1704.] The -new Secretary sent a confidential person to the prison with instructions -to visit DE FOE, and to ask him, in the Minister’s name, ‘What can I do -for you?’ DE FOE’S characteristic reply must be given in his own -words:—‘In return for this kind and generous message I immediately took -pen and ink, and writ the story of the blind man in the Gospel, ... to -whom our blessed Lord put the question, “What wilt thou that I should do -unto thee?” who—as if he had made it strange that such a question should -be asked, or as if he had said, “Lord, dost thou see that I am blind, -and yet ask me what thou shalt do for me?”—my answer is plain in my -misery, “Lord that I may receive my sight.” I needed not to make the -application.’ - -[Sidenote: De Foe, _Appeal to Honour and Justice_, p. 11.] - -DE FOE then adds:—‘From this time, as I learned afterwards, this noble -person made it his business to have my case represented to Her Majesty, -and methods taken for my deliverance.’ But the bigots who had caused a -malicious prosecution succeeded in delaying the successful issue of the -Secretary’s efforts during four months. With HARLEY the sufferer had had -no previous acquaintance. The one designation under which he ever -afterwards spoke of him was ‘my first benefactor.’ And the gratitude was -lifelong. - -In part, HARLEY owed his new office to the personal credit which he had -won with the Queen during his Speakership; and in part, also, to the -friendship of MARLBOROUGH. On receiving the news of his appointment the -Duke wrote to him, from the Camp:—‘I am sensible of the advantage I -shall reap by it, in having so good a friend near Her Majesty’s person -to present in the truest light my faithful endeavours for her service.’ -[Sidenote: Marlborough to Harley; 13 June, 1704.] But their intercourse, -if it ever attained to true cordiality at all, was cordial for a very -short time. Brief confidence was followed by long distrust. HARLEY -strove to strengthen himself by the use of channels of Court influence -which were utterly inimical to the MARLBOROUGH connection. His efforts -to make himself independent of that connection did not, however, lessen -the prodigality of his assurances of friendship and fidelity. - -His political position thus became that of a man who was exposed to the -attacks of many bitter enemies among the statesmen with whom he had -begun his career, without being able to rely upon any hearty support -from those with whom he now shared the conduct of affairs. He might -count, indeed, on assailants from the ranks both of the extreme Whigs -and the extreme Tories, whilst from most of his own colleagues of the -intermediate party he would have to meet the greater danger of a -lukewarm defence. In such a position the attack was not likely to be -long waited for. - -Easiness of nature, and a tendency to alternate fits of close -application with fits of indolence, always characterised him. And those -qualities had an incidental consequence which opened to his opponents a -tempting opportunity. HARLEY was habitually less careful of official -papers than it behoved a Secretary of State to be.[34] He was also at -all times prone to place a premature and undue confidence in his -dependants. In 1707, William GREGG, one of the clerks in his office, -abused his confidence by secretly copying some letters of the highest -importance and by selling the copies to the Court of France. - -[Sidenote: THE CRIME OF WILLIAM GREGG, AND THE USE MADE OF IT BY - HARLEY’S ENEMIES.] - -The treachery was discovered by the Secretary himself, and such steps -were taken to lessen the mischief as the case admitted. Much excitement -naturally followed upon the publicity of the crime. The least scrupulous -of HARLEY’S enemies conceived a hope that the traitor who had served the -public enemy for a bribe might also be tempted to ruin his master for -another and greater bribe. Means were found to convey to GREGG strong -assurances of a certain escape, and of a wealthy exile, if he would but -declare that he had copied the despatches, and forwarded the -transcripts, by the Secretary’s direction. Pending the attempt, they -circulated throughout the country a report that such a declaration had -actually been made, and that the Secretary was to be impeached. But the -clerk, instead of betraying his master, exposed his temptors. [Sidenote: -Appendix to Gregg’s Trial, &c., in _State Trials_, vol. xii, pp. 694 -seqq.] His first emphatic declaration of HARLEY’S innocence was repeated -immediately before his death in these words:—‘As I shall answer it -before the judgment seat of Christ, the gentleman aforesaid [_i. e._ -HARLEY] was not privy to my writing to France, neither directly nor -indirectly.’ - -HARLEY himself, and also his nearest friends, were wont to speak of this -affair as one that had brought his life into real peril. It is certain -that the incident and its consequences helped materially to make his -continuance in office impossible. But he struggled hard. - -Meanwhile, the dissensions in the Ministry were daily increasing. -[Sidenote: DISMISSED FROM OFFICE. Feb., 1708.] They became so bitter as -to lead to personal altercations at the Council Board, even when the -Queen herself was present. On one such occasion (February, 1708) -GODOLPHIN and MARLBOROUGH went together to the Queen a little before the -hour at which a Cabinet Council had been summoned. They told her they -must quit her service, since they saw that she was resolved not to part -with HARLEY. ‘She seemed,’ says Bishop BURNET, ‘not much concerned at -the Lord GODOLPHIN’S offering to lay down; and it was believed to be a -part of HARLEY’S new scheme to remove him. But she was much touched with -the Duke of MARLBOROUGH’S offering to quit, and studied, with some soft -expressions, to divert him from that resolution; but he was firm; and -she did not yield to them.’ [Sidenote: Burnet, _History of his own -Time_, vol. v, pp. 343, 344 (edit. 1823).] So they both went away, -without attending the Council, ‘to the wonder of the whole Court.’ - -When the Council met, it became part of HARLEY’S duty as Secretary to -deliver to the Queen a memorial relating to the conduct of the war. The -Duke of SOMERSET rose, as the Secretary was about to read it, and with -the words ‘If Your Majesty suffers that fellow’ (pointing to HARLEY) ‘to -treat affairs of the war without the General’s advice, I cannot serve -you,’ abruptly left the Council. [Sidenote: Swift to Archbishop King, 12 -Feb. 1708. Comp. Burnet, as above.] ‘The rest,’ according to BURNET, -‘looked so cold and sullen that the Cabinet Council was soon at an end.’ - -Whilst a result which—for the time—had thus become so plainly -inevitable, remained still doubtful, HARLEY had imposed on himself the -humiliating task of assuring the Duke of MARLBOROUGH of the honesty of -his former professions of attachment. [Sidenote: HARLEY’S DISMISSAL FROM -THE SECRETARYSHIP. Feb., 1708.] ‘I have never writ anything to you,’ -said he, ‘but what I really thought and intended.’ And then he went on -to say:—‘I have for near two years seen the storm coming upon me, and -now I find I am to be sacrificed to sly insinuations and groundless -jealousies.’ These words were written in September, 1707. On the 10th of -February in the following year, MARLBOROUGH had, at length, the -satisfaction of writing from St. James’ to a foreign correspondent:—‘Mr. -Secretary HARLEY has this afternoon given up the seals of office to the -Queen. Between ourselves he richly deserves what has befallen him.’[35] -[Sidenote: Marlborough to Count Wratislaw, 10 Feb., 1708.] Among the two -or three friends who went out with HARLEY was Henry ST. JOHN. - -For the next two years and a half, HARLEY’S principal occupation was to -prepare the way for a return, in kind, of the defeat thus inflicted upon -him. [Sidenote: THE INTRIGUE AGAINST THE GODOLPHIN MINISTRY. 1708–1710.] -Some of the steps by which he achieved his end are among the most -familiar portions of our political history. But from the necessities of -the case it has been, and probably it must continue to be, one of those -portions in which the basis of truth can scarcely, by any researches -that are now possible, be separated from the large admixture of -falsehood built thereon by party animosities. - -His own correspondence shows that strong hopes of success in the effort -were entertained within eight months of his dismissal. It shows also -that the channel employed, unsuccessfully, in 1708, was that which -became an effectual one in 1710. - -Early in October, HARLEY received from the Court an unsigned letter in -which these passages occur:—‘The Queen stands her ground and refuses to -enter into any capitulation with the [Whig Lords]. She has not hitherto -consented to offer or hear of any terms. The Lord T[reasure]r desired -she might allow him to treat with ’em, and the Duke of S[OMERSE]T was -employed to persuade her, but she was inflexible. The Lord Treasurer -offered to resign the Staff, but she would neither take the Staff nor -advice from him, and he went to Newmarket without getting any powers or -leave to treat.... [Sidenote: Harley Corresp. in MS. Harl. 7526, f. -237.] Your friend cannot answer for the event.... I will add no more but -that your friend thinks your being here is very necessary, and that Her -Majesty ... would be the better of assistance and good advice.’ - -It was not, however, until the 8th of August, 1710, that the GODOLPHIN -Ministry was dismissed. Two days afterwards, HARLEY was made Chancellor -of the Exchequer; the Treasury being put into commission. - -[Sidenote: THE CHANCELLORSHIP OF THE EXCHEQUER. 1710, August.] - -He entered upon that office amidst enormous obstacles. His enemies were -unable to deny that his exertions to overcome the difficulties in his -path were marked by financial ability, and by a large measure of -temporary success. But as little can it be denied that the immediate -triumph laid the groundwork of public troubles to come. - -His own account of the situation of affairs, and of the methods taken to -improve it, must, of course, be read with the due allowance. The pith of -it lies in these sentences:—‘The army was in the field. There was no -money in the Treasury. None of the remitters would contract again. The -Bank had recently refused to lend the Lord Treasurer GODOLPHIN a hundred -thousand pounds. The Army and Navy Services were in debt nearly eleven -millions. The Civil List owed £600,000. The annual deficit was, at -least, a hundred and twenty-four thousand pounds. The new Commissioners -of the Treasury, nevertheless, made provision, within a few days of -their appointment, for paying the Army by the greatest remittance that -was ever known. [Sidenote: _Letter to the Queen_, June 9, 1714. (_Parl. -Hist._, vol. vii, App.)] When Parliament met, on the 27th of November, -funds had been prepared for the service of the year, and a plan was -submitted for easing the nation of nine millions of debt.’ - -HARLEY was scarcely warm in his new office before he made the -acquaintance of SWIFT, then full of ambitious though vague schemes for -the future, and very angry with the leaders of the Whig party for the -coolness with which his proffers, both of counsel and of service, had -lately been received. - -[Sidenote: EARLY INTERCOURSE WITH SWIFT. 1710–1711.] - -At the time of his introduction to HARLEY, SWIFT’S immediate business in -London consisted in soliciting from the Government a remission of -first-fruits to the clergy of Ireland. His nominal colleagues in that -trust were the Bishops of Ossory and Killaloe, but the whole weight of -the negotiations rested upon SWIFT’S shoulders. His treatment of it soon -displayed his parts. The Minister saw that he was both able and willing -to render efficient political service. To the intercourse so begun we -owe a life-like portraiture of HARLEY, under all his aspects, and in -every mood of mind. Nor is the depicter himself anywhere seen under -stronger light than in those passages of his journal which narrate, from -day to day, the rise and fall of the Government founded on the unstable -alliance between HARLEY and ST. JOHN. - -Of their first interview SWIFT notes:—‘I was brought privately to Mr. -HARLEY, who received me with the greatest respect and kindness -imaginable.’ Of the second:—‘We were two hours alone.... He read a -memorial I had drawn up, and put it into his pocket to show the Queen; -told me the measures he would take, ... told me he must bring Mr. ST. -JOHN and me acquainted; and spoke so many things of personal kindness -and esteem for me, that I am inclined half to believe what some friends -have told me, that he would do everything to bring me over.’ [Sidenote: -_Journal to Stella_; in Works, 2nd Edit., vol. ii, pp. 33; 37; 80.] When -the promised interview with Secretary ST. JOHN comes to be diarized in -its turn:—‘He told me,’ says SWIFT, ‘among other things, that Mr. HARLEY -complained he could keep nothing from me, I had the way so much of -getting into him.’ I knew that was a refinement.... It is hard to see -these great men using me like one who was their betters, and the puppies -with you in Ireland hardly regarding me.’ Not many weeks had passed -before SWIFT’S pen was at work in defence of the measures of the -Government with an energy, a practical and versatile ability, of which, -up to that date, there had been scarcely an example, brilliant as was -the roll of contemporary writers who had taken sides in the political -strife. SWIFT’S defects, as well as his merits, armed him for his task. - -Nor had he been long engaged upon it before he marked, very distinctly, -the character both of the rewards to which he aspired, and of the -personal independence which he was determined to maintain, in his own -fashion. - -One day, as he took his leave of HARLEY, after dining with him, the -Minister placed in his hand a fifty pound note. He returned it angrily. -And he met HARLEY’S next invitation by a refusal. Then comes this entry -in his diary:—‘I was this morning early with Mr. LEWIS, of the -Secretary’s office, and saw a letter Mr. HARLEY had sent to him desiring -to be reconciled; but I was deaf to all entreaties, and have desired -LEWIS to go to him and let him know I expect further satisfaction. If we -let these great Ministers pretend too much there will be no governing -them. He promises to make me easy if I will but come and see him. But I -will not, and he shall do it by message, or I will cast him off.’ -[Sidenote: _Journal to Stella_, p. 169.] The desired concession was -made, and in a day or two we find our journalist recording, -characteristically enough, that he ‘sent Mr. HARLEY into the House to -call the Secretary [ST. JOHN], to let him know I would not dine with him -if he dined late.’ And then:—‘I have taken Mr. HARLEY into favour -again.... I will cease to visit him after dinner, for he dines too late -for my head.... [Sidenote: _Ib._, pp. 178; 182.] They call me nothing -but “Jonathan,” and I said I believed they would leave me Jonathan as -they found me, and that I never knew a Ministry do anything for those -whom they make companions of their pleasures.’ - -SWIFT was one of the first bystanders who took note of the seeds of -dissension which were already growing up between HARLEY and ST. JOHN, -and who foresaw the coming parallel between the fate of the new -Government and that of its predecessor. On the 4th of March, 1711, he -wrote:—‘We must have a Peace, let it be a bad or a good one; though -nobody dares talk of it. The nearer I look upon things the worse I like -them. I believe the Confederacy will soon break to pieces, and our -factions at home increase. The Ministry is upon a very narrow bottom, -and stands like an isthmus between the Whigs on one side, and the -violent Tories on the other. They are able seamen, but the tempest is -too great, the ship too rotten, and the crew all against them.... -[Sidenote: _Ib._, p. 196.] Your Duchess of SOMERSET, who now has the -key, is a most insinuating woman, and I believe they [the Whigs] will -endeavour to play the same game that has been played against them.’ - -The game was suddenly interrupted, though only for a while. An attempt -to assassinate HARLEY gave him a renewed hold upon power and popularity. -But its unexpected consequences embittered the jealousies which already -menaced his administration with ruin. - -[Sidenote: GUISCARD’S ATTEMPT ON THE LIFE OF HARLEY. 1711, March.] - -Antoine de GUISCARD was a French adventurer, whose private life had been -marked by great profligacy. He had taken an obscure part in the -insurrection of the Cevennes—rather as a recruiting agent than as a -combatant. In that character he had met with encouragement to raise a -refugee regiment in England. Hopes had also been held out to him that a -British auxiliary contingent would be landed on the southern coast of -France. In the course, however, of some preliminary inquiries into the -position of the insurrectionists, it was found that such an invasion -would have little chance of any useful result, and the project was -abandoned. Meanwhile, a pension of £400 a year had been bestowed on the -emissary. - -But ere long it was discovered that GUISCARD had profited by -opportunities, afforded him in the course of the discussions about the -proposed expedition, to make himself conversant with many particulars of -military and naval affairs, and that it was his habit to send advices -into France. Some of his letters were seized. Their writer was arrested -on the 8th of March, 1711, and was taken, immediately, before a -Committee of the Privy Council. - -When examined as to his illicit intercourse with France he persisted in -mere denials. At length, one of his letters was shown to him by HARLEY, -and he was closely pressed as to his motives in writing it. He then -addressed himself to Secretary ST. JOHN, and begged permission to speak -with him apart. The Secretary answered, ‘You are here before the Council -as a criminal. Whatever you may have to say must be said to all of us.’ -The man persisted in refusing to reply to any further questions, unless -his request was granted. Seeing that nothing more could then be obtained -from him, the Lord President rose to ring the bell for a messenger, that -the prisoner might be removed in custody. - -At that moment the prisoner pulled a penknife from his pocket, turned -towards HARLEY, near to whom he stood, and stabbed him in the breast. He -repeated the stroke, and then rushed towards ST. JOHN. But between the -prisoner and the Secretary there stood a small table, over which he -stumbled. ST. JOHN drew his sword, and, with the words ‘The villain has -killed Mr. HARLEY,’ struck at him, as did also the Duke of ORMOND and -the Duke of NEWCASTLE. Lord POWLETT cried out ‘Do not kill him.’ -Presently the assassin was in the hands of several messengers, with -whom, notwithstanding his wounds, he struggled so desperately that more -than one of them received severe injuries. When at length overpowered, -he said to ORMOND, ‘My Lord, why do you not despatch me?’ ‘That,’ -replied the Duke, ‘is not the work of gentlemen. ’Tis another man’s -business.’ - -HARLEY’S wound was so severe that for several days there was a belief -that it would prove mortal. It entailed a lingering illness.[36] Before -his recovery, his assailant died in prison. The coroner’s inquest -ascribed GUISCARD’S death to bruises received from one of the messengers -who strove to bind him, but SWIFT tells us that he died of the -sword-wounds. - -[Sidenote: _Journal to Stella_, pp. 202–214.] - -That keen observer had seen, long before this attempted assassination, -the latent personal jealousies between HARLEY and ST. JOHN. [Sidenote: -HARLEY BECOMES LORD HIGH TREASURER.] He had recognised in those -jealousies the gravest peril of HARLEY’S government. GUISCARD’S crime -had now made HARLEY the most popular man in the country, and it had -doubled his favour with the Queen. On his recovery, he received the -congratulations of the House of Commons, expressed with more than usual -emphasis. [Sidenote: _Journals of H. of Commons_, 1711. 27 April.] By -the Queen he was raised to the peerage (24 May, 1711) as Earl of OXFORD -and Earl MORTIMER. Five days afterwards (29 May) he was made Lord High -Treasurer. [Sidenote: _Council Register_, Anne, vol. v, p. 249.] His -elevation intensified the jealousy of ST. JOHN into something which -already closely resembled hatred, although years were to elapse before -the mask could be quite thrown aside. It is amusing to read the -philosophical reflection with which the Secretary sent the news to Lord -OSSORY:—‘Our friend Mr. HARLEY is now Earl of OXFORD and High Treasurer. -This great advancement is what the labour he has gone through, the -danger he has run, and the services he has performed, seem to deserve. -[Sidenote: St. John to Lord Ossory; 1711, 12 June (_Corresp._ i, 148).] -But he stands on slippery ground, and envy is always near the great to -fling up their heels on the least trip which they make.’ - -The Earl of OXFORD had not long obtained the Treasurer’s staff before he -received some characteristic exhortations from the Jacobite section of -his Tory supporters of the use which he ought to make of it. ATTERBURY -came to him, on the part of some of the Treasurer’s ‘particular -friends,’ to acquaint him how uneasy they were that he had neither -dissolved the Parliament, nor removed from office nearly so many Whigs -as those particular friends wished to see removed. ‘I know very well,’ -replied the Earl, ‘the men from whom that message comes, and I am also -very sensible of the difficulties I have to struggle with. If, in -addition, I must communicate all my measures, it will be necessary for -me to assure Her Majesty that I can no longer do her any service.’ - -[Sidenote: OXFORD AND THE OCTOBER CLUB.] - -These hot-headed politicians had already formed their famous ‘October -Club.’ They were about a hundred and fifty in number, and for a few -months their proceedings made a great noise. The Treasurer found means -to deal with them in a more effectual fashion than that in which they -had endeavoured to deal with the administration. ‘By silent, quiet -steps, in a little time,’ says a writer who watched the process and -aided it, ‘he so effectually separated these gentlemen, that in less -than six months the name of “October Club” was forgotten in the -world.... [Sidenote: De Foe, _Secret History of the White Staff_.] With -so much address was this attempt overthrown, that he lost not the men, -though he put them by their design.’ - -Those brief sentences indicate, I think, the fatality of the position in -which OXFORD now placed himself. He had ardently desired to gain the -control of affairs, at a period of exceptional difficulty. And, at the -best, his capacity and energies would have been barely equal to the task -in times of exceptional ease. Some of the very qualities, both of mind -and heart, which made him beloved by those who lived with him, weakened -him as a statesman. He was surrounded by adepts in political intrigue, -some of whom combined with an experience not less than his own, far -greater powers of mind, an unbending will, and an utter unscrupulousness -as to the use of means. He vainly flattered himself that he could beat -these men at their own weapons. His temporary success laid a foundation -for his eventual ruin. - -[Sidenote: OXFORD AND THE COURT OF THE STUARTS.] - -To gain the aid of the Jacobite Tories in Parliament he held out hopes -which it was never his intention to realise. He carried on an indirect -correspondence with the Stuart Court in a way sufficiently adroit to -induce that Court to instruct its adherents to support the negotiations -for the Peace with France. He would commit himself to nothing until -Peace was made. The conclusion of a Peace was the one measure on which -he was firmly bent. He had contended that the true interests of Britain -demanded the ending of an exhausting war many years before. And whatever -the demerits and shortcomings of the Treaty of Utrecht, it had at least -the merit of making the quiet succession of the House of Hanover -possible. - -In March, 1713, the French agent in England, the Abbé GAUTIER, wrote to -the Marquis de TORCY an account of an interview he had obtained with the -Lord Treasurer:—‘M. Vanderberg’ [_i. e._ Lord OXFORD], he says, ‘sent -for me, seven or eight days ago, to tell me something of importance. -Indeed, he opened his mind to me, making me acquainted with his feelings -towards Montgourlin [_i. e._ the Pretender], and the desire he had to do -him service, as soon as the Peace shall be concluded.... It will not be -difficult, because the Queen is of his opinion. But, in the mean time, -it is essential that Montgourlin should make up his mind; that he should -declare that it is not his intention to continue to reside where he now -is. He must say, publicly, and especially before his family, that when -the Peace is made he means to travel in Italy, in Switzerland, in -Bavaria, even in Spain. [Sidenote: Gautier to De Torcy; 1713, March. -[Printed in _Edin. Review_, from notes of Mackintosh.]] This is to be -done, that it may be believed in England that his choice of a residence -is not dictated by a mere desire to be near his relatives, and to be -close at hand should measures have to be taken on an emergency.’ - -After the communication of this statement to the Pretender he made -repeated attempts to enter into correspondence with Queen ANNE. By -OXFORD these attempts were uniformly and effectually foiled. - -To the insincerity of OXFORD’S advances—such as they were—to the -Jacobite emissaries, there can be no witness more competent, none more -unexceptionable, than the Duke of BERWICK. His testimony runs thus:—‘We -wrote,’ he says, ‘to all the Jacobites to support the government; a step -which had no small share in giving to the Court party so large a -majority in the House of Commons that it carried everything its own -way.... After the Peace, the Treasurer spoke with not a whit more of -clearness or precision than before it.... [Sidenote: _Mémoires du -Maréchal Duc de Berwick_ (in Petitot’s _Collection_, tom. lxvi, pp. 219 -seqq.)] He was merely keeping us in play; and it was very difficult to -find a remedy. To have broken with him would have spoiled all; for he -had the reins in his hand. He governed the Queen at his will.’ -[Sidenote: _Ib._, pp. 224, 225.] In all his advances, adds the Duke, in -another passage, ‘OXFORD’S only motive had been to win over Jacobites to -side with the Tories, and to get a sanction for the Peace.’ - -Whilst these intrigues were still in action, one, at least, of the -Jacobite agents was clear-sighted enough to detect the secret of the -Treasurer’s scheme. [Sidenote: Original in Nairne MSS., vol. 4. -(Macpherson, _Original Pagers_, vol. ii, p. 269.)] A confidential agent -of the Earl of MIDDLETON, Secretary to the Pretender, wrote in February, -1712—‘[The Earl of OXFORD] is entirely a friend to [the Elector of -HANOVER], notwithstanding the disobliging measures that spark has -taken.... [OXFORD’S] head is set on shewing that he is above resentment, -and that he [the Elector] has been put into a wrong way.’ - -In matters of Church policy at home the Earl followed like indirect -courses, and with the like result—a momentary success which prepared the -way for final defeat. - -[Sidenote: HARLEY’S CONDUCT ON THE CONFORMITY BILL.] - -No measure could possibly be more repugnant to OXFORD’S declared -convictions than the famous ‘Bill against Occasional Conformity,’ -brought into the House of Lords by the Earl of NOTTINGHAM, at the close -of the year 1711. It was part of a policy to which his very nature was -antagonistic. But he was in vain entreated, by men who had been his -life-long adherents, to oppose it. The passage of that Bill was the -price, and, as it seems, the only price for which NOTTINGHAM and his -band of followers would give their support to the foreign policy of the -Government. - -The growth of the internal dissensions in the administration kept pace -with the growth of its external perils. Personal objects of the pettiest -kind were made occasions of quarrel. In the summer of 1712, ST. JOHN, -who had set his heart on the restoration in himself of that family -Earldom of BOLINGBROKE which in the previous year had become extinct on -the death of a distant relative, was made a Viscount. On the -announcement of his creation he burst into open menaces of vengeance -against the Treasurer, and renewed them with greater violence towards -the close of the year, when he found himself excluded from another -coveted dignity. An election of Knights of the Garter made, to use Lord -OXFORD’S own words about it, ‘a new disturbance which is too well -remembered.’ Just as the breach with BOLINGBROKE had become plainly -irreconcilable, the Treasurer found a new and equally bitter enemy in -another old friend. He defeated a rapacious attempt made by Lady MASHAM -on the Treasury. The first offence in that kind would never have been -forgiven. But ere long it was repeated. - -In both Houses of Parliament, OXFORD’S veiled and vacillating policy was -fast alienating men who had long supported him, and who to the last -retained more confidence in him than in his brilliant rival. The crisis, -however, was brought about, not by the increased strength of -Parliamentary opposition, but by bed-chamber intrigues, such as those -which he had himself stooped to employ six years before against -GODOLPHIN and MARLBOROUGH. - -Meanwhile the Minister played into the hands of his opponents by -exhibiting great irresolution. He dallied and procrastinated with urgent -business. He relaxed in his attention to the Queen. At an unwary moment -he even gave her personal offence, the results of which were none the -less bitter for the absence of design. He showed more concern about -comparatively distant perils than about those which were close at hand. - -At the beginning of 1714 the best informed of the Jacobites had become -fully convinced that OXFORD was their enemy. They saw, to repeat the -words of the Duke of BERWICK, that he had been only keeping them in -play. [Sidenote: OXFORD’S CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE COURT OF HANOVER.] But -at the Court of Hanover he was far from being regarded as an assured -friend. Over-subtlety had been rewarded with almost universal distrust. - -[Sidenote: 1714, April.] - -When in April of that year he sent to Hanover renewed protestations of -fidelity, expressed in terms of unusual energy, they were looked upon by -some of the Elector’s advisers as mere professions.[37] If now read side -by side with contemporary documents, drawn up by secret emissaries of -the Pretender, they acquire a stamp of sincerity which it is hard to -doubt. - -To Baron WASSENAER DUYVENWORDE Lord OXFORD wrote thus:—‘I do in the most -solemn manner assure you that, next to the Queen, I am entirely and -unalterably devoted to the interests of His Electoral Highness of -Hanover.... I am ready to give him all the proofs of my attachment to -his interest, and to set in a true light the state of this country; for -it will be very unfortunate for so great a Prince to be only Prince over -a party, which can never last long in England.’ He then goes on to add -that the one thing which would, under existing circumstances, imperil -the Hanover succession is the sending into England of any member of that -family without the Queen’s consent. Such an act would, in his judgment, -‘change the dispute to the Crown and the Successor, whereas now it is -between the House of Hanover and the Popish Pretender.’ - -[Sidenote: Oxford to Wassenaer; MS. Sloane, 4107. (B. M.)] - -He repeated the advice in another and not less urgent letter, after the -occurrence of the visit made to the Lord Chancellor HARCOURT by the -Hanoverian Resident, to ask for a writ of summons for the Duke of -CAMBRIDGE. But he also advised Queen ANNE to consent to the issue of -such a writ. He was opposed by a majority of his colleagues, under the -leadership of BOLINGBROKE, as well as by the persistent unwillingness of -the Queen herself. - -It is instructive to read the comments on the political situation in -England at this moment, of a German diplomatist resident in London (as -Minister from the Elector Palatine) who was devotedly attached to the -Hanoverian succession. - -‘Some people,’ wrote Baron von STEINGHENGS to Count von der SCHULENBERG, -on the 12th of May, ‘have been at work for a whole year to deprive the -Lord Treasurer of the conduct of public affairs. I have been aware, -almost from the beginning, of the different channels which have been -made use of to carry this point. But I should never have expected that -they would fire the mine before the end of this session, and I am much -mistaken if the authors have not reason one day to regret their -over-haste. For I do not know my man, if he does not cut out a good deal -of work for them, particularly if a certain intrigue which is on the -tapis succeeds. As for the rest, you may rely upon his sentiments; and -he never succeeded in persuading those who doubted them more than by his -declaration made in a full House on the 16th of last month on the -question of danger to the Protestant succession, having in it given much -greater hold upon himself than there was any need for, if he was not -acting in good faith.... The party of the Hanoverian Tories has visibly -been strengthened by it.’ [Sidenote: Von Steinghengs to Count von der -Schulenberg, May 1⁄12 1714 (in Kemble’s _State Papers_, p. 493).] And to -this the writer adds, in a postscript, ‘It is of extreme importance both -for the Whigs and for the House of Hanover to take steps to keep him -there, and to engage him by some sort of political confidence to be -assured of his fortunes under that House.’ In another letter to the same -correspondent, Baron von STEINGHENGS notes a fact which by many of our -historians has been too much neglected. [Sidenote: Same to same, June 14 -(Kemble, p. 507).] ‘To make the English Ministry,’ he wrote, ‘alone -responsible ... for the exorbitant power which the Peace of Utrecht has -given to France is ... to ignore entirely the incredible obstacles which -the enemies of that Ministry threw, both at home and abroad, in the way -of making the Peace such as it might have been.’ - -But although ‘the mine was fired’ before the end of May, July had nearly -ended before the effectual explosion came. [Sidenote: OXFORD’S DISMISSAL -AND THE QUEEN’S DEATH. 1714, July 27, August 1.] BOLINGBROKE’S triumph -lasted exactly four days. ‘The Earl of OXFORD was removed on Tuesday. -The Queen died on Sunday. What a world is this! And how does Fortune -banter us!... I have lost all by the death of the Queen, but my spirit.’ -Such were the words in which BOLINGBROKE announced to SWIFT his -victory,—and its futility. In a few more days the spirit vanished, like -the triumph. The victor was a fugitive. - -BOLINGBROKE’S hatred to OXFORD lasted to the close of his life. He -survived his old comrade twenty-seven years. The final year of that long -period brought no relenting thought, no spark of charitable feeling. - - -[Sidenote: DID OXFORD CONSPIRE TO BRING BACK THE PRETENDER?] - -To the question ‘Did Lord OXFORD, during his tenure of office, conspire -to enthrone the Pretender?’ it ought always to have been a sufficient -answer that there was, as yet, not a tittle of _evidence_ of any such -conspiracy on his part. That accusation had never any support beyond -surmise and conjecture. Men who were in possession of every imaginable -resource and appliance to back their search failed to adduce even a -shadow of evidence in proof of the charge they would fain have fastened -upon him. And in 1869 the matter still stands, in the main, where it -stood in 1717. - -After many examinations of the most secret correspondence of the Stuarts -and their adherents, and after the publishing of extensive selections -from it—made at intervals which spread over eighty years,—not a scrap of -direct and valid testimony has been found to sustain the charge. Every -passage, save one, which bears at all on OXFORD’S intercourse with -Jacobite emissaries, up to the year 1715, tends to show that what they -asserted about his intentions on the Pretender’s behalf was built on -wishes, hopes, and guesses—on anything rather than knowledge. Every -passage, save one, tends to show that he was using the Jacobites for his -own purposes, without the least idea of aiding theirs. Every passage, -save one, is in entire harmony with the terms of that incompatible -charge by means of which BOLINGBROKE justified to himself his life-long -hostility, when writing the _Letter to Sir William Wyndham_. The -significance of that charge, coming from such a source, can scarcely be -exaggerated. ‘OXFORD would not,’ wrote BOLINGBROKE, ‘or he could not, -act with us, and he resolved that we should not act without him, as long -as he could hinder it.... At the Queen’s death, he hoped ... to deliver -us up, bound as it were, hand and foot, to our adversaries. On the -foundation of this merit he flattered himself that he had gained some of -the Whigs, and softened, at least, the rest of the party to him. -[Sidenote: Bolingbroke, _Letter to Sir W. Wyndham_.] By his secret -negotiations at Hanover, he took it for granted that he was not only -reconciled to that Court, but that he should, under his present -Majesty’s reign, have as much credit as he had enjoyed under that of the -Queen.’ - -[Sidenote: Gautier to De Torcy; 14 December, 1713. [Printed in _Edinb. - Review_, from the Notes of Sir James Mackintosh, in vol. - lxii, pp. 18, seqq.]] - -The solitary passage in the correspondence of the Jacobite agents which -goes directly to the issue is the assertion made by GAUTIER, in a letter -to DE TORCY, that OXFORD said to him, in December, 1713, ‘As long as I -live, England shall not be governed by a German.’ In that notable -statement lies the pith of a mass of letters which report the hopes, -beliefs, conjectures, and imaginings, of their respective writers, as to -what Lord OXFORD would do for the Pretender,—whenever that prince could -be brought to change, or, at least, to disguise his religion. - - -OXFORD was present, as a Privy Councillor, at the proclamation of King -GEORGE THE FIRST. [Sidenote: OXFORD’S RECEPTION BY GEORGE I.] It was -noted by some of the bystanders that his demeanour was buoyant and -joyous. When the King reached Greenwich, the Earl went thither with more -than usual pomp and retinue. He was received with marked coldness, if -not with open contempt. - -There is little need, in a sketch of this kind, to tell, at length, the -story of an impeachment which was stretched over two years, and had no -result save that of breaking down, by two years of imprisonment, the -health of the defeated statesman. Few and brief words on that head will -suffice. - -[Sidenote: HIS IMPEACHMENT. 1715–1717.] - -Out of twenty-two articles of impeachment, fourteen accuse the Earl of -OXFORD of betrayal of duty, either in the conduct of the negotiations -for Peace, or in instructions given for handling the British -Army—pending those negotiations—in such a way as to injure the common -cause of the Allies, by promoting the conclusion of a treaty ‘on terms -fatal to the interests of the Kingdom.’ [Sidenote: 1715. June 24.] The -fifteenth article charges him with inserting false statements in the -Queen’s Speeches and Messages to Parliament; the sixteenth with -improperly advising the Queen to make a creation of Peers. [Sidenote: -_State Trials_, vol. xv, Coll. 1052, seqq.] Other articles allege -misconduct in the management of an expedition to Canada; the -appropriation of sums of ‘Secret Service Money’ to corrupt purposes; and -treasonable intercourse with ‘Irish Papists.’ - - -Whilst these charges were still in preparation the Venetian Resident in -London wrote a despatch to his Senate in which we have an interesting -glimpse, behind the curtain, at the process:—‘The Whigs,’ he says, ‘seek -to annihilate the Tories utterly, and to place them under the yoke. They -want to impeach even the Duke of SHREWSBURY.’... After enlarging on -nascent dissensions amongst the Whigs themselves, as to the lengths to -which they might safely carry their party resentments, he proceeds to -assert that the more cautious men among them ‘have now, when it is well -nigh too late, become aware that the Tory party, recently dominant, was -a mixed party. [Sidenote: _Correspondence of Joseph Querini_; from -extracts by T. D. Hardy, in _Report on Archives of Venice_, pp. 98, 99.] -Some were in favour of the Pretender; some for the House of Hanover. Had -His Majesty made this distinction on his accession to the Crown he would -have excluded the former, but not the latter. By favouring the Whigs -alone, he lost all the others at once.’ In brief, GEORGE THE FIRST had -made himself exactly what OXFORD had warned him against becoming, the -‘King of a party.’ - -When the Earl at length appeared before his peers to answer to his -impeachment, he began by denying ‘that at any time or place in the -course of those negotiations,’ now incriminated, ‘he conferred -unlawfully or without due authority with any emissaries of France.’ He -affirmed that he neither promoted nor advised any private, separate, or -unjustifiable negotiation, and that he himself had no knowledge ‘that -any negotiation relating to Peace was carried on without communication -to the Allies.’ - -On the specific charge that he had traitorously given up Tournay to -France, his defence is twofold:—‘I used my best offices,’ he asserts, -‘to preserve that town and fortress to the States General. I believe -that at this time they are continued to the States General as part of -their barrier.’ And then he adds:—‘But I deny that for a Privy -Councillor and Minister of State to advise the yielding of any town, -fort, or territory, upon the conclusion of a Peace, is, or can be, High -Treason by any law of this realm.’ - -On the whole matter of the Peace, he asserts that ‘its terms and -preliminaries were communicated to Parliament. They were agreed on with -the concurrence of Parliament. The Definitive Treaty was afterwards -approved of by both Houses. Solemn thanks were rendered to God for it in -all our churches and also in the churches of the United Provinces. Her -Majesty received upon its conclusion the hearty and unfeigned thanks of -her people from all parts of her dominions.’ - -[Sidenote: _State Trials_, vol. xv, c. 1137 seqq.] - -[Sidenote: _Commons’ Journals_, 9 June, 1715.] - -It might well have been thought that even in those evil days it would be -difficult to induce a Committee of partisans to report to the House of -Commons that ‘large sums issued for the service of the war were received -by the Earl of OXFORD, and applied to his Lordship’s private use,’ -without the possession of some plausible show of proof. There was not so -much as a decent presumption, or colourable inference, to back the -assertion. When the matter came to be probed, it appeared that a royal -gift of £13,000 had been received by the Earl in what were known as ‘tin -tallies,’ and that the sum had been a charge upon the revenues of the -Duchy of Cornwall. - - -Probably few politicians have owed quite so large a debt of gratitude to -their enemies as that incurred by the Earl of OXFORD. His ministry at -home had been marked by weaknesses which went perilously near the edge -of public calamity. The Peace which was its characteristic achievement -abroad had brought with it many real blessings, but they were won at the -cost of a large sacrifice of national pride, if not also by some -sacrifice of national honour. The wild excesses of his adversaries now -gave back to the obnoxious Minister the strength of his best days. -[Sidenote: OXFORD’S BEHAVIOUR UNDER TRIAL.] When POPE wrote of him, ‘The -utmost weight of ministerial power and popular hatred were almost worth -bearing for the glory of so dauntless a conduct as he has shown under -it,’ the praise came from a pen which is known to have been employed, -now and again, to flatter the great. But it was no flatterer who wrote -to OXFORD himself—‘Your intrepid behaviour under this prosecution -astonishes every one but me, who know you so well, and how little it is -in the power of human actions or events to discompose you. I have seen -your Lordship labouring under great difficulties and exposed to great -dangers, and overcoming both, by the providence of God, and your own -wisdom and courage.’ Those words came from one of the shrewdest and most -acute observers of human character that have ever lived. They were -written after a close and daily intimacy of four eventful years. OXFORD, -in his day of power, had disappointed SWIFT of some cherished hopes, -which now could never be renewed. The praise of SWIFT must have been -sincere. [Sidenote: Swift’s _Correspondence_, in Works, by Scott, vol. -xvi, pp. 232, 233.] When such a writer, at such a time, goes on to -add—‘You suffer for having preserved your country, and for having been -the great instrument, under God, of his present Majesty’s peaceable -accession to the throne;—this I know, and this your enemies know’—the -most prepossessed reader cannot but feel that the absence from the two -and twenty articles of impeachment of any charge of plotting against the -Hanover succession is alike intelligible and significant. - - -[Sidenote: THE TRIAL. 1717, July.] - -When Oxford’s imprisonment could be no longer protracted without a -trial, the two Houses of Parliament were unable to agree as to the mode -of proceeding. It was obvious on all sides that the charge of ‘treason’ -would fail. The Lords declared that on the articles imputing treason -judgment must be given, before the articles imputing ‘other high crimes -and misdemeanours’ could be entered upon. They declared that the attempt -of the Commons to mix up the two was ‘a new and unjustifiable -proceeding.’ [Sidenote: _Lords’ Journals_, vol. xx, p. 515, seqq. -_Commons’ Journals_, vol. xviii.] The Commons refused to adduce evidence -on the charge of treason, and to take the issue upon that. - -[Sidenote: _State Trials_, vol. xv, 1164, seqq.] - -On the first of July, 1717, the Earl was brought to the bar to hear from -the Lord High Steward a declaration that ‘Robert, Earl of OXFORD, is, by -the unanimous vote of all the Lords present, acquitted of the articles -of impeachment exhibited against him, by the House of Commons, for High -Treason and other high crimes and misdemeanours, and that the said -impeachment shall be and is hereby dismissed.’ Then the Steward said, -‘Lieutenant of the Tower, You are now to discharge your prisoner.’ - -[Sidenote: OXFORD’S RETURN TO THE HOUSE OF LORDS. 1717, July.] - -On the third of July, the Earl resumed his seat as a peer of Parliament. -On the fourth, the Commons resolved to address the King, beseeching him -‘to except Robert, Earl of OXFORD, out of the Act of Grace which Your -Majesty has been graciously pleased to promise from the throne, to the -end the Commons may be at liberty to proceed against the said Earl in a -parliamentary way.’ [Sidenote: _Journals_, vol. xviii, p. 617.] No such -proceeding, of course, was taken or intended. - - -For several years to come Lord OXFORD took part, from time to time, in -the business of Parliament. He served often on Committees in these final -years of his public life, just as he had done during his early years of -apprenticeship in the Lower House. In the Lords, as in the Commons, he -was listened to with especial deference on points of parliamentary law -and privilege. - -From time to time, also, the Jacobite agitators, both at home and -abroad, made repeated appeals to him, direct or indirect, for -countenance and help in their schemes. They had, it seems, a confident -hope that the sufferings and the humiliation inflicted on him in the -years 1715–1717 must have so entirely alienated him from the reigning -House, as now, at all events, to have prepared him to be really their -fellow-conspirator, on the first occurrence of a promising opportunity. -[Sidenote: ALLEGED RENEWAL OF CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE STUART AGENTS.] -How far the Earl listened to such suggestions and persuasions is still, -it will be seen, matter of great and curious uncertainty.[38] - - -[Sidenote: DOMESTIC LIFE OF LORD OXFORD.] - -Lord OXFORD’S private life was not less chequered by rapid alternations -of sunshine and of gloom than was his political career. In August, 1713, -he gratified a cherished desire by the marriage of his son Edward, Lord -HARLEY, with the Lady Henrietta CAVENDISH HOLLES, daughter and heiress -of John, Duke of NEWCASTLE (who died in 1711). With what Lord HARLEY had -already derived under the Duke’s will, this marriage brought him an -estate then worth sixteen thousand pounds a year, and destined to -increase enormously in value. Three months afterwards the Earl lost a -dearly loved daughter, the Marchioness of CAERMARTHEN, who died at the -age of twenty-eight. It was of her that SWIFT wrote to him—‘I have sat -down to think of every amiable quality that could enter into the -composition of a lady, and could not single out one which she did not -possess in as high a perfection as human nature is capable of. But as to -your Lordship’s own particular, as it is an unconceivable misfortune to -have lost such a daughter, so it is a possession which few can boast of -to have had such a daughter. I have often said to your Lordship that “I -never knew any one by many degrees so happy in their domestics as you;” -and I affirm that you are so still, though not by so many degrees.... -[Sidenote: Swift to Oxford; 21 Nov., 1713. (_Works_, vol. xvi, pp. -78–80.)] You began to be too happy for a mortal; much more happy than is -usual with the dispensations of Providence long to continue.’ - -Under the sorrows both of public and of private life it was his wont to -find a part of his habitual consolations in the use, as well as in the -increase, of his splendid library. [Sidenote: HISTORY OF THE HARLEIAN -LIBRARY.] He began the work of collection in youth, and to add to his -treasures was one of the matters which, at intervals, occupied his -latest thoughts. - -Among the famous Englishmen whose manuscripts passed, either wholly or -partially, into the Harleian Library are to be counted Sir Thomas SMITH; -John FOX, the martyrologist; John STOWE, the historian; Edward, Lord -HERBERT of Cherbury; and Archbishop SANCROFT. Among famous foreigners, -Augustus LOMENIE DE BRIENNE; Peter SÉGUIER, Chancellor of France; and -Gerard John VOSSIUS. Perhaps the most extensive of the prior collections -which it had absorbed, in mass, was the assemblage of manuscripts that -had been gathered by Sir Symonds D’EWES, whose acquisitions included a -rich series of the materials of English history. - -The inquiries which led to the purchase of the D’EWES’ Collection were -the occasion of making fully known to Robert HARLEY a model librarian in -the person of Humphrey WANLEY. [Sidenote: HUMPHREY WANLEY; HIS LIFE, -LETTERS, AND JOURNAL.] The latter portion of WANLEY’S life was wholly -devoted to the service of the Harleian Library, and his employment there -was a felicity, both for him and for it. His journal of the incidents -which occurred during the growth of the collection given to his care is -the most curious document in its kind which is known to exist. That -journal illustrates the literary history and the manners of the time, -not less amusingly than it exhibits the personal character of its -writer, and the fidelity with which he worked at his task in life. - -WANLEY was the son of a country parson, little known to fame, but -possessing some tincture of learning, and was born at Coventry, on the -21st of March, 1673. In his youth he attracted the favourable notice of -his father’s diocesan, William LLOYD, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry -(and afterwards of Worcester), by whom he was sent to Edmund Hall at -Oxford. That hall he soon exchanged for University College, on the -persuasion of Dr. Arthur CHARLETT, by whose influence he was afterwards -made an Underkeeper of the Bodleian Library. He took no degree, but won -some distinction, whilst at Oxford, by the services which he rendered to -Dr. MILL in collating the text of the New Testament. - -On leaving the University, WANLEY went to London, where he became -Secretary to the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. He -translated OSTERVALD’S _Grounds and Principles of the Christian -Religion_; and compiled a valuable Catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon -Manuscripts preserved in the chief libraries of Great Britain. The -last-named labour gave proof of much ability. It was a sample of the -work for which its writer was best fitted. - -As Speaker of the House of Commons, HARLEY took a considerable part in -organizing the Cottonian Library, when it became a public institution -under the Act of Parliament. WANLEY proffered to the Speaker, on this -occasion, some advice about the necessary arrangements; became well -acquainted with HARLEY’S bookishness, and saw how eagerly he would -welcome opportunities for the improvement of his own library, as well as -of that newly acquired by the Public. - -[Sidenote: THE D’EWES COLLECTIONS AND THEIR HISTORY.] - -The Sir Symonds D’EWES of that generation was the grandson of the -diligent antiquary and politician who has been heretofore mentioned in -this volume as the close friend of Sir Robert COTTON, and to whose -labours, in a twofold capacity, students of our history owe a far better -acquaintance with parliamentary debates, in the times both of ELIZABETH -and of CROMWELL, than, but for him, would have been possible. The -grandson of the first Sir Symonds had inherited from his ancestor a -valuable library; but its possession had no great charm for him. He was -willing to part with it, for due consideration, yet aware that he was -under an obligation, moral if not legal, not so to part with his books -as to lead to their dispersion. - -On that head, the original collector had thus expressed himself in his -last Will:—‘I bequeath to Adrian D’EWES, my young son yet lying in the -cradle, or to any other of my sons, hereafter to be born, who shall -prove my heir (if God shall vouchsafe unto me a masculine heir by whom -my surname and male line may be continued in the ages to come), my -precious library, in which I have stored up, for divers years past, with -great care, cost, and industry, divers originals and autographs, ... and -such [books] as are unprinted; and it is my inviolable injunction and -behest that he keep it entire, and not sell, divide, or dissipate it. -Neither would I have it locked up from furthering the public good, the -advancing of which I have always endeavoured; but that all lovers of -learning, of known virtue and integrity, might have access to it at -reasonable times, so that they did give sufficient security to restore -safely any original or autograph ... borrowed out of the same, ... -without blotting, erasing, or defraying it. But if God hath decreed now -at last to add an end to my family in the male line, His most holy and -just will be done!’ In that case, the testator proceeds to declare, it -is his desire that the library should pass to his daughter and her -heirs, on like conditions as to its perpetual preservation, so ‘that not -only all lovers of learning ... may have access to it at seasonable -times, but also that all collections which concern mine own family, or -my wife’s, may freely be lent ... to members thereof,’ &c. [Sidenote: -D’Ewes, _Autobiography_, in MS. Harl. (B. M.)] Then the testator adds—in -relation to the last-named clause—an averment that he had ‘only sought -after the very truth, as well in these things as in all other my -elucubrations, whilst I searched amongst the King’s records or public -offices.’ - -[Sidenote: WANLEY’S ACCOUNT OF THE ACQUISITION OF THE D’EWES LIBRARY.] - -It having come to WANLEY’S knowledge or belief, in the year 1703, that -possibly arrangements might be made to obtain this library, for the -Public, from the then possessor, he wrote to HARLEY in these terms:—‘Sir -Symonds D’EWES being pleased to honour me with a peculiar kindness of -esteem, I have taken the liberty of inquiring of him whether he will -part with his library, and I find that he is not unwilling to do so. And -that at a much easier rate than I could think for. I dare say that it -would be a noble addition to the Cotton Library; perhaps the best that -could be had anywhere at present.... If your Honour should judge it -impracticable to persuade Her Majesty to buy them for the Cotton -Library—in whose coffers such a sum as will buy them is scarcely -conceivable—then, Sir, if you shall have a mind of them yourself I will -take care that you shall have them cheaper than any other person -whatsoever. I know that many have their eyes upon this collection.’ -[Sidenote: Wanley to Harley; MS. Lansd. 841, fol. 63. (B. M.)] ‘I am -desirous,’ he goes on to say, ‘to have this collection in town for the -public good, and rather in a public place than in private hands; but, of -all private gentlemen’s studies, first in yours. I have not spoken to -anybody as yet, nor will not till I have your answer, that you may not -be forestalled.’ - -HARLEY welcomed the overture thus made to him, and WANLEY, on his -behalf, entered upon a negotiation which ended in the eventual -acquisition of the whole of the D’EWES Manuscripts for the Harleian -Collection. Soon afterwards, WANLEY became its librarian. - -In the course of this employment he watched diligently for other -opportunities of a like sort; established an active correspondence with -booksellers, both at home and abroad; and induced Lord OXFORD to send -agents to the Continent to search for manuscripts. [Sidenote: HISTORY OF -THE HARLEIAN LIBRARY, CONTINUED.] But the Earl had soon to meet an eager -rival in the book-market, in the person of Lord SUNDERLAND, who in -former years had been, by turns, his colleague and his opponent in the -keener strife of politics. In their new rivalry, Lord SUNDERLAND had one -considerable advantage. He cared little about money. If he succeeded in -obtaining what he sought for, he rarely scrutinised the more or less of -its cost. WANLEY was by nature a bargainer. He felt uneasy under the -least suspicion that any bookseller or vendor was getting the better -hand of him in a transaction. And he seems, in time, to have inoculated -Lord OXFORD with a good deal of the same feeling. Some of the entries in -his diary put this love of striking a good bargain in an amusing light. - -Thus, for example, in telling of the acquisition of a valuable monastic -chartulary which had belonged to the ‘Bedford Library’ at Cranfield, he -writes thus:—‘The said Chartulary is to be my Lord’s, and he is to -present to that library _St. Chrysostom’s Works_, in Greek and Latin, -printed at Paris, for which my Lord shall be registered a benefactor to -the said library. Moreover, Mr. FRANK will send up a list of his -out-of-course books, out of which my Lord may pick and choose any twenty -of them gratis.... I am also to advise that he is heartily willing and -ready to serve his Lordship in any library matters; ... particularly -with [Sir John] OSBORNE of Chicksand Abbey, where most part of the old -monastical library is said yet to remain.’ [Sidenote: Wanley’s _Diary_, -vol. i, pp. 13, 21. 1720, February.] And again, on another occasion:—‘My -Lord was pleased to tell me that Mr. GIBSON’S last parcel of printed -books were all his own as being gained into [the bargain with] the two -last parcels of manuscripts bought of him.’ [Sidenote: _Ib._, vol. ii, -f. 24.] GIBSON’S protest that he was entitled to an additional thirty -pounds was quite in vain. - -Of the innumerable skirmishes between librarian and bookseller which -WANLEY’S pages record with loving detail, two passages may serve as -sufficient samples:—‘VAN HOECK, a Dutchman’ he writes in 1722, ‘brought -to my Lord a small parcel of modern manuscripts, and their lowest -prices,—which proved so abominably wicked that he was sent away with -them immediately.’ And, in February, 1723:—‘BOWYER, the bookseller, came -intreating me to instruct him touching the prices of old editions, and -of other rare and valuable books, pretending that thereby he should be -the better able to bid for them; but, as I rather suppose, to be better -able to exact of gentlemen. I pleaded utter inexperience in the matter, -and, without a quarrel, in my mind rejected this ridiculous attempt with -the scorn it deserved. [Sidenote: Wanley’s _Diary_, vol. i, f. 73, -verso. MS. Lansd., 771. (B. M.)] This may be a fresh instance of the -truth of TULLIE’S paradox, “that all fools are mad.”’ - -In the year 1720, large additions were made, more especially to the -historical treasures of the Harleian Library, by the purchase of -manuscripts from the several collections of John WARBURTON (Somerset -Herald), of Archdeacon BATTELY, and of Peter SÉGUIER (Chancellor of -France). Another important accession came, in the same year, by the -bequest of Hugh THOMAS. [Sidenote: _Ibid._, pp. 35, 42, 48.] In 1721 -purchases were made from the several libraries of Thomas GREY, second -Earl of STAMFORD; of Robert PAYNELL, of Belaugh, in Norfolk; and of John -ROBARTES, first Earl of RADNOR. - - -Lord OXFORD died on the 21st May, 1724, at the age of sixty-three. -[Sidenote: DEATH OF LORD OXFORD.] WANLEY records the event in these -words: ‘It pleased God to call to His mercy Robert, Earl of OXFORD, the -founder of this Library, who long had been to me a munificent patron.’ - -[Sidenote: Corresp., in _Works_, vol. xvi, p. 438.] - -When condoling with the new Earl upon his father’s death, SWIFT wrote to -him:—‘You no longer wanted his care and tenderness, ... but his -friendship and conversation you will ever want, because they are -qualities so rare in the world, and in which he so much excelled all -others. It has pleased me, in the midst of my grief, to hear that he -preserved the greatness, the calmness, and intrepidity, of his mind to -his last minutes; for it was fit that such a life should terminate with -equal lustre to the whole progress of it.’ It is honourable alike to the -man who was thus generously spoken of, and to the friend who mourned his -loss, that the testimony so borne was a consistent testimony. The -failings of HARLEY were well known to SWIFT. In the days of prosperity -they had been freely blamed; and face to face. When those days were -gone, the good qualities only came to be dwelt upon. To the unforgiving -enemy, as to the bereaved son, SWIFT wrote about the merits of the -friend he had lost. ‘I pass over that paragraph of your letter,’ said -BOLINGBROKE, in reply, ‘which is a kind of an elegy on a departed -minister.’ - - -When the Harleian Library was inherited by the second Earl of OXFORD (of -this family) it included more than six thousand volumes of Manuscripts, -in addition to about fourteen thousand five hundred charters and rolls. -By him it was largely augmented in every department. [Sidenote: INCREASE -OF THE HARLEIAN LIBRARY BY EDWARD, EARL OF OXFORD. 1724–1741.] -[Sidenote: See MS. ADDIT., 5338. (B. M.)] He made his library most -liberally accessible to scholars; and when, by a purchase made in -Holland, he had acquired some leaves of one of the most precious -biblical manuscripts in the world—leaves which had long before been -stolen from the Royal Library at Paris—he sent them back to their proper -repository in a manner so obliging as made it apparent that his sense of -the duties of collectorship was as keen as was his sense of its -delights. At his death, on the 16th of June, 1741, the volumes of -manuscripts had increased to nearly eight thousand. The printed books -were estimated at about fifty thousand volumes, exclusive of an -unexampled series of pamphlets, amounting to nearly 400,000, and -comprising, like the manuscripts, materials for our national history of -inestimable value. - -The only daughter and heiress of the second Earl, Margaret, by her -marriage with William, Duke of PORTLAND, carried her share in a remnant -of the fortunes of the several families of CAVENDISH, HOLLES, and -HARLEY, into the family of BENTINCK. The magnificent printed library -which formed part of her inheritance was sold and dispersed. [Sidenote: -Johnson, _Account of the Harleian Library_; _Works_, vol. v, p. 181.] It -was of that collection that JOHNSON said, ‘It excels any library that -was ever yet offered to sale in the value as well as in the number of -the volumes which it contains.’ - -The Manuscripts were eventually purchased by Parliament for the sum of -ten thousand pounds. [Sidenote: THE PURCHASE OF THE HARLEIAN MSS. FOR -THE NATION.] With reference to this purchase the Duchess of PORTLAND -wrote as follows, in April, 1753, to the Speaker of the House of -Commons:—‘As soon as I was acquainted with the proposal you had made in -the House of Commons, in relation to my Father’s Collection of -Manuscripts I informed my Mother [the then Dowager Countess of OXFORD] -of it, who has given the Duke of PORTLAND and me full power to do -therein as we shall think fit. - -‘Though I am told the expense of collecting them was immense, and that, -if they were to be dispersed, they would probably sell for a great deal -of money, yet, as a sum has been named, and as I know it was my Father’s -and is my Mother’s intention that they should be kept together, I will -not bargain with the Publick. I give you this trouble therefore to -acquaint you that I am ready to accept of your proposal upon condition -that this great and valuable Collection shall be kept together in a -proper repository, as an addition to the Cotton Library, and be called -by the name of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts. - -‘I hope you do me the justice to believe that I do not consider this as -a sale for an adequate price. [Sidenote: Duchess of Portland to Arthur -Onslow; MS. ADDIT., 17521, f. 30. (B. M.)] But your idea is so right, -and so agreeable to what I know was my Father’s intention, that I have a -particular satisfaction in contributing all I can to facilitate the -success of it.’ - - -If it were possible to give, in few words, any adequate view of the -obligations which English literature, and more especially English -historical literature, owes to the Collectors of the Harleian -Manuscripts, there could be no fitter conclusion to a biographical -notice of Robert HARLEY. Here, however, no such estimate is practicable. -Nor, in truth, can it be needed in order to convince the reader that -‘some tribute of veneration’—to use the apposite words which JOHNSON -prefixed to the Harleian Catalogue—is due to the ardour of the two -HARLEYS for literature; and ‘to that generous and exalted curiosity -which they gratified with incessant searches and immense expense; and to -which they dedicated that time and that superfluity of fortune which -many others, of their rank, employ in the pursuit of contemptible -amusements or the gratification of guilty passions.’ - - - NOTE TO CHAPTER V. - - _EXTRACTS FROM THE STUART PAPERS, REFERRING TO INTERCOURSE OF ROBERT - HARLEY, EARL OF OXFORD, WITH THE JACOBITES, AFTER THE ACCESSION OF - GEORGE I._ - - -1. [1717?] A document which, could it be recovered, would go far towards -clearing up some of the uncertainties which exist as to Lord Oxford’s -intercourse with the Pretender and his agents, subsequently to the death -of Queen Anne, was seen by Sir James Mackintosh among the Stuart Papers -acquired by George the Fourth. It was afterwards vainly searched for by -Lord Mahon, when engaged upon his _History of England, from the Peace of -Utrecht_. [Sidenote: _Edin. Rev._, vol. lxii, pp. 18, 19.] It is still -known only from the cursory notes made by Mackintosh, and referred to by -a writer in the _Edinburgh Review_ in these words: ‘During Oxford’s -confinement in the Tower there is a communication from him to the -Pretender, preserved among the Stuart Papers, offering his services and -advice; recommending the Bishop of Rochester as the fittest person to -manage the Jacobite affairs,—the writer himself being in custody; and -adding that he should never have thought it safe ‘_to engage again_ with -His Majesty if Bolingbroke himself had been still about him.’ - -2. 1717. September 29. Bishop ATTERBURY to Lord MAR:— - -‘Your accounts of what has been said here concerning some imaginary -differences abroad have not so much foundation as you may suppose. At -least, if they have, I am a stranger to it.... The result of any -discourse I shall have with [the Earl of Oxford?] will be sure to reach -you by his means. [Sidenote: _Stuart Papers_, 1717.] You will, I -suppose, have a full account of affairs here from his and other hands.’ - -3. [1717?] The same to the same. - -[Sidenote: _Ibid._] - -‘Distances and other accidents have, for some years, interrupted my -correspondence with [the Earl of Oxford?] but I am willing to renew it, -and to enter into it upon a better foot than it has ever yet stood, -being convinced that my so doing may be of no small consequence to the -service. I have already taken the first step towards it that is proper -in our situation, and will pursue that by others as fast as I can have -opportunity; hoping that the secret will be as inviolably kept on your -side as it shall be on this, so far as the nature of such a transaction -between two persons who must see one another sometimes can pass -unobserved.’ - -[Sidenote: _Edin. Rev._, as before.] - -4. 1721. ‘Among the same papers,’ says the Reviewer quoted on the -previous page, ‘there is a letter from Mrs. Oglethorpe to the Pretender -(Jan. 17, 1721), containing assurances from Lord Oxford of his eternal -respect and good wishes, which from accidental circumstances he had been -unable to convey in the usual manner.’ - -5. 1722. April 14. THE PRETENDER [to Lord OXFORD?] - -‘If you have not heard sooner or oftener from me, it hath not, I can -assure you, been my fault. Neither do I attribute to yours the long -silence you have kept on your side, but to a chain of disappointments -and difficulties which hath been also the only reason of my not finding -all this while a method of conveying my thoughts to you, and receiving -your advice, which I shall ever value as I ought, because I look upon -you not only as an able lawyer but a sincere friend. [Sidenote: _Stuart -Papers_, 1722.] This will, I hope, come soon to your hands, and the -worthy friend by whose canal I send it will accompany it, by my -directions, with all the lights and information he or I can give, and -which it is therefore useless to repeat here.’ - -6. 1722. April 16. THE PRETENDER to ATTERBURY. - -‘I am sensible of the importance of secrecy in such an affair, yet I do -not see how it will be possible to raise a sufficient sum, or to make a -reasonable concert in England, without letting some more persons into -the project. [Sidenote: _Ibid._] You on the place are best judge how -these points are to be compassed, but I cannot but think that [the Earl -of Oxford?] might be of great use on this occasion. [Lord Lansdowne?] is -to write to him on the subject, and I am confident that if you two were -to compare notes together you would be able to contrive and settle -matters on a more sure and solid foundation than they have hitherto -been.’ - -7. 1722. In a report made to the Earl of Mar by George Kelly, one of his -emissaries employed in England, it is stated that on the delivery, by -Kelly, of Mar’s letter to Atterbury, the prelate asked the messenger if -he had anything to say, in addition to the contents of the letter, and -that he replied (in the jargon of his calling): ‘It is a proposal for -joining stocks with the Earl of Oxford, and taking the management of the -Company’s business into their hands.’ Atterbury, according to this -story, required a day’s deliberation, and then told Kelly that he was -‘resolved to join both heart and hand with the Earl; and not only so, -but in the management and course of the business he would shew him all -the deference and respect that was due to a person who had so justly -filled the stations which he had been in.’ The Bishop, says Kelly, also -added that he was ‘resolved to dedicate the remainder of his days to the -King’s service, and proposed, by this reunion, to repay some part of the -personal debt which he owed to the Earl of Oxford, to whom he would -immediately write upon this subject.’ [Sidenote: _Ibid._] The messenger -goes on to assure Lord Mar that Atterbury ‘is entirely of your opinion -that there is not much good to be expected from the present managers, -and thinks it no great vanity to say that the Earl of Oxford and himself -are the fittest persons for this purpose; but the chief success of their -partnership will depend upon the secrecy of it.’ - - -Of the genuineness of the several letters,—of the credit due to the -emissaries and their reports,—even of the accurate identification, in -some instances, of the ‘Mr. Hackets,’ ‘Houghtons,’ and numerous other -pseudonyms, under which ‘Lord Oxford’ is assumed to be veiled, there -are, as yet, no adequate means of judging. - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - THE FOUNDERS OF THE SLOANE MUSEUM. - - ... ‘He pry’d through Nature’s store, - Whate’er she in th’ ethereal round contains, - Whate’er she hides beneath her verdant floor, - The vegetable and the mineral reigns. - At times, he scann’d the globe,—those small domains - Where restless mortals such a turmoil keep,— - Its seas, its floods, its mountains, and its plains.’— - THOMSON. - - _Flemish Exiles in England._—_The Adventures, Mercantile and Colonial - Enterprises, and Vicissitudes of the_ COURTENS.—_William_ COURTEN - _and his Collections.—The Life and Travels of Sir Hans_ - SLOANE—_His acquisition of_ COURTEN’S _Museum_.—_Its growth under - the new Possessor._—_History of the Sloane Museum and Library, and - of their purchase by Parliament._ - - -[Sidenote: BOOK I, Chap. VI. THE FOUNDERS OF THE SLOANE MUSEUM.] - -The history of the rise and growth of our English trade is, in a -conspicuous degree, a history of the immigration hither of foreign -refugees, and of what was achieved by their energy and industry, when -put forth to the utmost under the stimulus and the stern discipline of -adversity. Other countries, no doubt, have derived much profit from a -similar cause, but none, in Europe, to a like extent. By turns almost -all the chief countries of the Continent have sent us bands of exiles, -who brought with them either special skill in manual arts and -manufactures, or special capabilities for expanding our foreign -commerce. To Flemish refugees, and more particularly to those of them -who were driven hither by Spanish persecution in the sixteenth century, -England owes a large debt in both respects. [Sidenote: FLEMISH EXILES IN -ENGLAND.] Our historians have given more prominence of late years to -this chapter in the national annals than was ever given to it before, -but there is no presumption in saying that not a little of what was -achieved by exiles towards the industrial greatness of the nation has -yet to be told. - -Nor is it less evident that, over and above the political and public -interest of the things done, or initiated, by the new comers in their -adopted country, the personal and family annals of the exiles possess, -in not a few instances, a remarkable though subsidiary interest of their -own. In certain cases, to trace the fortunes of a refugee family, is at -once to throw some gleams of light on obscure portions of our commercial -history, and to tell a romantic story of real life. - -One such instance presents itself in the varied fortunes of the -COURTENS. [Sidenote: THE COURTENS; THEIR ADVENTURES AND ENTERPRISES.] -That family attained an unusual degree of commercial prosperity, and -attained it with unusual rapidity. In the second generation it -seemed—for a while—to have struck a deep root in our English soil. It -owned lands in half-a-dozen English counties, and its alliance was -sought by some of the greatest families in the kingdom. In the next -generation its fortunes sank more rapidly than they had risen. In the -fourth, the last of the COURTENS was for almost half his life a -wanderer, living under a feigned name, and he continued so to live when -at length enabled to return to his country. The true name had been -preserved only in the records of interminable litigation—in England, -Holland, India, and America—about the scattered wreck of a magnificent -property. But the enterprise of the family, in its palmy days, had -planted for England a prosperous colony. It had opened new paths to -commerce in the East Indies, as well as in the West. And its last -survivor found a solace for many ruined hopes in the collection of -treasures of science, art and literature, which came to be important -enough to form no small contribution towards the eventual foundation of -the British Museum. - - -[Sidenote: THE FOUNDER OF THE FAMILY.] - -In 1567 William COURTEN, a thriving dealer in linens and silks, living -at Menin in Flanders, was together with his wife, Margaret CASIER, -accused of heresy. COURTEN was thrown into the prison of the -Inquisition, but contrived both to make his escape into England, and to -enable his wife soon to join him. He established himself in London, in -the same business which had thriven with him at home. [Sidenote: Family -Records of the Courtens; in MS. Sloane, 3515, _passim_. (B. M.)] His -wife shared in its toils, and by skilfully adapting her exertions to -those tastes for finery in the families of rich citizens which were now -striving with some success against the rigour of the old sumptuary laws -made the business more prosperous than before. It expanded until the -poor haberdasher of 1567 had become a notability on the London Exchange. - -In 1571 a son was born to the exiles. This second William COURTEN was -bred as a merchant rather than as a tradesman. He had good parts, and -seems to have started into life with a passion for bold enterprise. His -early training in London was continued at Haerlem, and there he laid a -foundation for commercial success by marrying the daughter of Peter -CROMMELINCK, a wealthy merchant. First and last, his wife brought him a -dowry of £40,000, of which sum it was stipulated by the father’s will -that not less than one half should be laid out in the purchase of lands -in England, to be settled on the eldest son that should be born of the -marriage. - -[Sidenote: SIR WILLIAM COURTEN AND HIS MERCANTILE PURSUITS.] - -By the time of his attaining the age of five and thirty William COURTEN -had already become—for that period—a great capitalist. He then, in 1606, -established in London a commercial house which added to the ordinary -business of merchants on the largest scale, that of marine insurers, and -also that of adventurers in the whale fishery. His partners in the firm -were his younger brother, Peter COURTEN, and John MOUNCEY. One half of -the joint stock belonged to the founder; the other half was divided -between the junior partners. - -For nearly a quarter of a century this mercantile partnership prospered -marvellously. Its annual returns are said to have averaged £200,000. It -built more than twenty large ships, and kept in constant employment more -than four hundred seamen and fishermen. The head of the firm gradually -acquired a large landed property which included estates in the several -counties of Worcester, Gloucester, Leicester, Nottingham, Essex, and -Kent. - -This great prosperity had, of course, its drawbacks. Amongst the -earliest checks which are recorded to have befallen it was a Crown -prosecution of COURTEN (in company with several other foreign merchants -of note, among whom occur the names of BURLAMACHI, VANLORE, and DE -QUESTER) on the frequent charge—so obnoxious to the political economy of -that age—of ‘the unlawful exportation of gold.’ [Sidenote: _Domestic -Corresp._, James I, vol. cix, § 90; 96; vol. cx, § 86; vol. cxi, § 66. -_Signs Manual_, vol. xii, § 26. (R. H.)] COURTEN was brought into the -Star Chamber and was fined £20,000; a sum so enormous as to excite a -suspicion of the accuracy of the record, but for its repeated entry. The -prosecution was instituted in June, 1619; the defendant’s discharge -bears date July, 1620. But it may fairly be assumed that only a portion -of the nominal fine was really exacted. - -Another and much more serious check to the prosperity of the -enterprising merchant came from his embarking in the grand but hazardous -work of planting colonies. - -[Sidenote: 1626. COLONIAL ENTERPRISES OF SIR WM. COURTEN.] - -In 1626, William COURTEN—then Sir William, having received the honour of -knighthood at Greenwich, on the 31st of May, 1622—petitioned the King -for ‘licence to make discoveries and plant colonies in that southern -part of the world called _Terra Australis incognita_, with which the -King’s subjects have as yet no trade,’ and his petition was granted. -[Sidenote: _Domestic Corresp._, Charles I, vol. xiv, § 33.] What ensued -thereupon is thus told in an authoritative manuscript account preserved -in the Sloane collection:— - -‘Sir William COURTEN being informed, by his correspondents in Zealand, -that some Dutch men-of-war sent out upon private commission against the -Spaniards had put into the island of Barbados, and found it uninhabited, -and very fit for a plantation, did thereupon, at his own charge, set -forth two ships provided with men, ammunition, and arms, and all kinds -of necessaries for planting and fortifying the country, who landed and -entered into possession of the same in the month of February, 1626 -[1627, N.S.]... Afterwards, in the same year, he sent Captain POWELL -thither, with a further supply of servants and provisions, who, in 1627, -fetched several Indians from the mainland, with divers sorts of seeds -and roots, and agreed with them to instruct the English in planting -cotton, tobacco, indigo, &c. Sir William COURTEN having, by his partners -and servants, maintained the actual possession for the space of two -years, and peopled the island with English, Indians, and others, to the -number of eighteen hundred and fifty men, women, and children, thought -fit to make use of the Earl of PEMBROKE’S name in obtaining a patent -particularly for Barbadoes, although he had before a general grant from -the king to possess any land within a certain latitude, wherein this -island was comprehended. His Majesty having thus granted, by his Letters -Patent, dated 25 February, 1627 [1628, N.S.] the government of this -island unto the Earl of PEMBROKE, in trust for Sir William COURTEN, with -power to settle a colony according to the laws of England, Captain -POWELL had a commission to continue there as Governor, in their behalf. -The Earl of CARLISLE,’ continues the MS. narrative, ‘having, before this -Patent to the Earl of PEMBROKE, procured a grant, dated 2nd July 1627, -of all those islands lying within 10 and 20 degrees of latitude by the -name of Carliola, or Carlisle Province, with all royalties, and -jurisdictions, as amply as they were enjoyed by any Bishop of Durham, -within his bishopric or county palatine, and having also got another -patent, for the greater security of his title, dated 7th April 1628, -sent one Henry HAWLEY with two ships, who, arriving there in 1629, -invited the Governor on board, kept him prisoner, seized the forts, and -carried away the factors and servants of Sir William COURTEN and the -Earl of PEMBROKE. [Sidenote: _Ibid._ Comp. Despatches in _Colonial -Correspondence_, vol. v, §§ 1, 9, 13, 101, seqq.] The authority of the -Earl of CARLISLE being thus established was maintained.’ - -But it was only maintained after a long contest at the Council Board at -home, which contest seems to have been largely influenced by the -fluctuations of Court favour from time to time. A despatch in February, -written in behalf of CARLISLE, is followed in April by another despatch -written in behalf of PEMBROKE and COURTEN. The one fact that becomes -consistently evident throughout the proceedings is that grants of this -kind were made in the loosest fashion, and often in entire ignorance -even of the geographical positions of the countries given by them.[39] -Indeed, the common course of procedure under the STUARTS, when a -courtier had the happy thought of begging a territory in America, -reminds one of those earlier days of the TUDORS, when a favoured -suppliant sometimes obtained the grant of a monastery, or the lease of a -broad episcopal estate, with hardly more trouble than it cost him to win -a royal smile. - -To COURTEN and his colonists the issue of this quarrel about Barbadoes -was very disastrous. To some of the latter it brought ruin. But to the -founder himself a check to enterprise in one direction seems to have -brought increased stimulus to new enterprise in another direction. He -now embarked largely in adventures to the East Indies and to China. As -usual, they were planned on a magnificent scale; excited great jealousy -in the breasts of competitors; and were attended, in the long run, with -very mixed results of good and ill. - -Meanwhile, Sir William’s growing wealth—greatly exaggerated by popular -renown—and the conspicuous position into which his varied pursuits had -brought him, led to plans of enterprise by others, and of quite another -kind, at home. He had lost his first wife, and also his eldest son. He -had married a second wife,—Hester TRYON, daughter of Peter TRYON. Only -one son survived, but Sir William had three daughters, whose prospective -charms attracted many suitors. In September, 1624, King JAMES wrote a -characteristic letter in which he assured COURTEN that the son of Sir -Robert FLEETWOOD, Lord of the Scottish barony of Newton, would make a -fit match for one of the three daughters, and that the conclusion of -such a match would be very acceptable to the King himself. [Sidenote: -ALLIANCES BETWEEN THE CITY AND THE COURT.] [Sidenote: James I to Sir -Willm. Courten; _Dom. Corr._, vol. clxxii, § 71.] The pretendant would -gladly, and impartially, wed any one of the three ladies, but the King -himself, continues the royal letter, ‘will regard, as a favour, any -increase of portion given to the daughter whom FLEETWOOD may marry, over -and above the portion given to, or intended for, the other daughters.’ - -But despite so powerful a recommendation the young Baron of NEWTON -failed in his suit. Among the aspirants with whom he stood in -competition were men much higher in social position. Eventually, the -eldest daughter married Sir Edward LYTTELTON of Staffordshire. The -second daughter married Henry GREY, eighth Earl of Kent, of that family. -And the third married Sir Richard KNIGHTLEY of Fawsley. - -Royal commendations of suitors were sure, in that age, not to be the -only sample of royal letters—direct and indirect—with which a man in Sir -William COURTEN’S position became familiar. He was favoured with not a -few solicitations for advances of money on privy-seals, and in other -forms of ‘loan.’ Sometimes he complies. Sometimes he remonstrates by -specifying the large sums he contributes to the revenue in the way of -custom’s duties, and the entire incapability thence arising of the -desired response to privy-seals and the like documents. His loans, -however, to JAMES, and to CHARLES, amounted to no less a sum than -£27,000. - -[Sidenote: COMMERCIAL COMPLICATIONS IN HOLLAND.] - -The death in 1625 of his brother, Sir Peter COURTEN, deprived the firm -of its efficient representative in Holland, and laid a foundation for -great misfortunes by putting in his place an unworthy successor. The -partner resident at Middleburgh had the trust both of a large portion of -the capital of the Company, and of the chief share of its account -keeping. - -Peter BOUDAEN was a nephew of the COURTENS, and had been to some extent -admitted as a partner. His uncle Peter made him also his executor. He -thus acquired a great control over the continental affairs of the house, -just at the time when its transactions were expanding in all directions. -[Sidenote: 1631.] He proved unfaithful to his trust, applied his large -local influence to his personal advantage and to the prejudice of his -partners; and at length failed altogether to render due accounts to the -two partners in England. MOUNCEY, the junior of these, went to Holland -in order to enforce an adjustment. He had hardly entered on his task -when he died, after a very brief illness, in BOUDAEN’S house at -Middleburgh. BOUDAEN made a Will for him; asserted that the testator had -executed it, in due form of law, immediately before his death; and found -means to get the document sanctioned by the Dutch Courts, in the face of -strong opposition and of strong presumptive evidence of fraud. - -[Sidenote: ESTABLISHMENT BY SIR W. COURTEN OF THE BRITISH FISHERY - ASSOCIATION.] - -[Sidenote: _Domest. Corresp._, Charles I, vol. cclxxxvii, § 57; vol. - ccciii, § 75; cccxiii, § 16; cccxvii, § 75.] - -Sir William COURTEN, meanwhile, prosecuted with his characteristic -vigour his vast enterprises already established; made new and large -ventures in the reclaiming of waste lands in England; and established -the ‘Fishery Association of Great Britain and Ireland,’ with a view to -the rescue from the Dutch of that productive herring fishery on our own -coasts, which the growing supineness of English governments during at -least two generations had permitted to become almost a monopoly in their -hands. Of this Association COURTEN, during the closing years of his -life, was the mainspring. - -The Dutch, as was natural, strove vigorously to retain the advantage -they had acquired, and were little scrupulous about the means of -opposition. English herring busses were occasionally captured. And the -captors had the great incidental advantage in the strife of dealing with -a Government already weak at home, and yearly losing ground. - -[Sidenote: THE TRADE WITH INDIA.] - -The East Indian adventures were, at length, attended by circumstances -still more complex than those pertaining to the fishery business at -home, or to the trading in Holland. [Sidenote: _Domestic Corresp._, -Charles I, vol. cccxxiii, p. 58; vol. cccxliii, § 19.] For, in the -former, English rivalry had to be encountered, as well as Dutch rivalry. -And the rivalry took such a shape as to make the carrying on of trade -extremely like the carrying on of war. But, as if the care of these -varied interests, in addition to all the toils and anxieties of ordinary -commerce on an extraordinary scale, were all too little to occupy the -mind of a man who had now reached his sixty-sixth year, we find Sir -William COURTEN taking, just at the close of life, a new and leading -part in the business of redeeming captives who had been taken by the -pirates of Morocco and Algiers. [Sidenote: _Domestic Corresp._, Charles -I, vol. cccxv, § 16; vol. ccclxviii, § 82.] Nor was this merely an -affair of the provision of money and the conduct of correspondence. It -involved an intimate acquaintance with the circumstances and the needs -of the Barbary States, being carried on, in part, on the principle of -barter. - - -But all these far-spread activities were now fast approaching their -natural close. COURTEN’S career had been, as a whole, wonderfully -prosperous, until very near its close. Already it contained, indeed, the -germ of a series of reverses, hardly less remarkable; but the growth of -that germ was to depend on the as yet unseen course of public events. -His ambition to ‘found a family’ had also been gratified by the marriage -of his only surviving son[40]—William COURTEN, third of his name—with -the Lady Katherine EGERTON, daughter of John EGERTON, Earl of -Bridgewater. [Sidenote: _Courten Papers_, in MS. Sloane, 3515.] On that -son and his heirs, Sir William COURTEN settled landed estates amounting -to nearly seven thousand pounds a year. - -Sir William COURTEN died in June, 1636. The commercial enterprises of -all kinds which were in full activity at the time of his death were -continued by his son, who inherited large claims, large -responsibilities, and large perils. And it was of the perils that—after -his succession—he had earliest experience. - -[Sidenote: THE THIRD WILLIAM COURTEN.] - -Just before the father’s death, a complaint had been made to the Privy -Council that certain ships which he had sent to Surat and other places -had committed acts of ‘piracy near the mouth of the Red Sea.’ [Sidenote: -_Domestic Corresp._, Charles I, vol. cccxliii, § 19.] It appeared -afterwards that the ships which had given cause, or pretext, of -complaint were not COURTEN’S ships, but the accusation entailed trouble, -and was, to the heir, the beginning of troubles to come. The opposition -of the East India Company to the Indian trading of ‘interlopers’ (as -they were called already) was unremitting and bitter. [Sidenote: -_Courten Papers_, in MS. Sloane, 3515, p. 38.] In June, 1637, William -COURTEN, with a view to arm himself for the encounter, obtained from the -Crown letters patent which empowered himself and his associates to trade -with all parts of the East, ‘wheresoever the East India Company had not -settled factories or trade before the twelfth day of December, 1635.’ -One of his chief associates under the new grant was Endymion PORTER, and -it appears that it was partly by PORTER’S influence at Court that the -grant had been procured. - -Renewed activity was now shown in prosecuting the Eastern trade; new and -large ventures were made in it. On some occasions as many as seven -well-appointed ships were sent out by COURTEN and his associates at one -time. Instructions are still extant which were given to the chief -agents, supercargoes, and factors, for the settlement of English -factories at many important places where none had heretofore existed. -They are marked by great sagacity and breadth of view, and, in several -points, contrast advantageously with contemporary documents of a like -kind. - -[Sidenote: SEIZURE BY THE DUTCH OF THE BONA ESPERANZA AND HENRY - BONADVENTURE IN THE INDIAN SEAS.] - -The enterprise was pursued, as it seems, with satisfactory results until -the year 1643, when, in the Straits of Malacca, two richly-laden vessels -of the COURTEN fleet were seized by the Dutch. Subsequent proceedings -show that the value of the ships and their cargoes, with the contingent -losses, exceeded £150,000. Along with this severe blow came the -interruptions and injuries to trade at home, which were the inevitable -accompaniment of the Civil War. Soon after it, there came indications -that the loss to Sir William COURTEN’S representatives by the misconduct -of Peter BOUDAEN at Middleburgh would but too probably prove to be a -loss without present remedy. It appears to have been established by the -evidence adduced in the course of the almost interminable litigation -which ensued that there was due from BOUDAEN to his partners a sum of -£122,000; none of which, it may be added, seems ever to have been -recovered. And the debt which had been contracted by JAMES THE FIRST and -his successor, though less grievous in amount, was at this time even -more hopeless. - -Under the pressure of such a combination of misfortunes, William COURTEN -found himself practically and suddenly insolvent. He met some of the -most pressing claims upon him by the sale of available portions of his -landed property. He assigned other portions of his estates to trustees, -and became himself an exile. He survived the ruin of the brilliant hopes -and expectations to which he had been born about ten years; dying at -Florence in the year 1655. He left, by his marriage with Lady Katherine -EGERTON, one son and one daughter. - - -[Sidenote: WILLIAM COURTEN, FOUNDER OF THE SLOANE MUSEUM.] - -The fourth William COURTEN was born in London on the 28th March, 1642. -He was baptized at St. Gabriel Fenchurch, on the 31st of that month. The -downfall of his family was therefore very nearly contemporaneous with -his own birth, and makes it explicable that no record can now be found -of the places of his education, or of the course of his early years. But -the first trace which does occur of him is in exact harmony with the one -fact which makes his existence memorable to his countrymen. [Sidenote: -_Museum Tradescantianum_, (1656).] He appears, at the age of fourteen, -in the list of benefactors to the Tradescant Museum, at Lambeth, a -collection which afterwards became the basis of the Ashendean Museum at -Oxford. - -The Tradescants—father and son—hold a conspicuous place in the history -of Botanical Science in England, and they are especially notable as the -founders of the first ‘Museum’ worthy of the name, which was established -in this country. The next collection of note, after theirs, was that -formed by Robert HUBERT, in his house near St. Paul’s Cathedral. Other -collectors—as for example, John CONYERS and Dr. John WOODWARD—soon -followed the example. But in this path all of them were far outstripped -by COURTEN, who had marked his early bias, and also his characteristic -liberality, by his gift to the TRADESCANTS in 1656. - -Part of COURTEN’S youth was passed at Montpelier, where he formed the -acquaintance of several men then, or afterwards, famous for their -scientific acquirements. Amongst them, and with the local advantages for -the study of the natural sciences, in particular, for the possession of -which Montpelier was already noted, his tastes for observation and study -were developed, and his character took the ply which soon became -indelible. - -If he ever possessed any share at all of the qualities and -predispositions for mercantile adventure, which had marked so many -generations of his ancestors on the father’s side, that share was far -too weak an element in his composition to resist the discouragements of -adverse circumstances. But as he attained manhood, he found himself -immersed—unwittingly in part—in a sea of litigation which boded ill to -his prospective enjoyment of leisure for scientific studies, whatever -might prove to be its ultimate results upon his worldly fortunes. - -[Sidenote: THE SUITS AND CLAIMS INSTITUTED BY GEORGE CAREW, ON BEHALF OF - COURTEN AND OF THE CREDITORS.] - -Some of the later enterprises of Sir William COURTEN had been carried on -in conjunction with another famous merchant, Sir Paul PINDAR, who like -himself was a large creditor of the Crown. The administration of -PINDAR’S estate had fallen into the hands of a certain George CAREW, who -seems to have imagined that the restoration of royal authority in -England would bring with it opportunities, to an energetic man, of -winning a new fortune out of the remnants of the old fortunes which the -fall of royalty had helped to ruin. [Sidenote: _Courten Papers_, in MSS. -Sloane, 3515; 3961; and 3962.] Just before CHARLES THE SECOND came back, -this man busied himself in buying up claims against COURTEN’S estate as -well as claims against PINDAR’S. He had a stock of energy. He had also -the prospect of acquiring a good standpoint at Court, in addition to his -present possession of a good training in the mysteries of English law. -He was ready to devote all his energies to the business, and to -encounter at once with the Dutch East India Company, the Dutch Republic, -the Government of Barbadoes, and a host of adversaries at home. - -There had, however, been no Commission of Bankruptcy. It was necessary -that the battle should be fought as well in the name of the heir and -representative of the family, as in the name of the collective body of -creditors. CAREW used COURTEN’S name and used it, as it appears, for -some years without authority from the legal guardian. COURTEN himself -did not become of age until 1663. - -The Restoration was hardly effected before CAREW besieged the King and -the Courts with Petitions, Memorials, Claims, and Bills of Plaint. He -would lose nothing for lack of asking. And he was undeterred by -difficulties or rebuffs. - -[Sidenote: THE BARBADOES CLAIM.] - -The case of Barbadoes was thus put before the Committee of the Privy -Council for America:— - -‘COURTEN claims the whole island of Barbadoes; and, more particularly, -the Corn Plantation, the Indian Bridge Plantation, the Fort Plantation, -the Indian Plantation eastwards, and Powell’s plantation. Sir William -COURTEN’S ships discovered the island in the year 1626, and left fifty -people there. Captain Henry POWELL landed there in February, 1627, built -[houses] for COURTEN’S colony, and left more than forty inhabitants -there. John POWELL erected Plantation Fort, and remained until he was -surprised in 1628 by a force under Charles WOLVERTON, by which the fort -was captured. [Sidenote: _Colonial Correspondence_, vol. xiv, §§ 37, 39, -42.] In 1629, Sir William COURTEN sent eighty men with arms, in the -‘Peter and John,’ and they retook the fort in the name of the Earl of -PEMBROKE, Trustee for COURTEN, according to the royal grant.’ And then -the Petition recites the recapture, under the conflicting Patent of the -Earl of Carlisle, as I have described it already. - -There is, of course, no foundation for the statement that Barbadoes was -‘discovered’ by the ships of COURTEN. In other respects, the details -here set forth appear to be sustained by the evidence. - -[Sidenote: _Domestic Corresp._, Charles II, vol. xx, § 77; and xlviii, § - 48.] - -In order to the recovery of the debt from the Crown, CAREW suggested, in -another petition, and quite in the fashion of the day, that the -Petitioners should have ‘leave to raise the money’ due to the COURTEN -Estate from the estates of John LISLE, Thomas SCOTT, Thomas ANDREWS, and -others, concerned in the murder of the late King. In a third petition, -he prayed that ‘a blank warrant for the dignity of a baronet’ might be -granted, in order to sell it to the best bidder, and to apply the -proceeds in partial satisfaction of the debt. - -[Sidenote: THE CASE OF THE EAST INDIA SHIPS.] - -But it was to the prosecution of the claim upon the Dutch Republic for -the unwarranted seizure, in 1643, of the rich ships of the East India -Fleet that CAREW devoted his best energies. The damages were put at -£163,400. The main facts of the case were fully substantiated. And a -royal letter was addressed to the States General on the 21st of March, -1662, claiming full satisfaction. - -A Memorial was delivered at the Hague in the April following, by the -English Ambassador, Sir George DOWNING, in which, after a general -statement of the case at issue, he went on to say: ‘Whereas it may seem -strange that this matter may be set on foot at this time, whereas in the -year 1654 Commissioners were sent to England who did end several matters -relating to the East Indies, and whereas in the year 1659 several -matters of a fresher date were also ended, and thereby a period put to -all other matters of difference which had happened about the same time, -and were known in Europe before the 20th of January in the same year, it -is to be considered that the persons interested in these ships were such -as, for their singular and extraordinary activity to His Majesty, ... -father to the King my master, were rendered incapable of obtaining or -pursuing their just rights, at home or abroad. [Sidenote: _Memorial -delivered to the States General_, at the Hague, 19 April, 1662.] And -upon that account it is that the business of the two ships remains yet -in dispute, though several matters of a much fresher date have been -ended.’ - -When these proceedings were initiated by Sir George DOWNING at the -Hague, COURTEN himself was still in his minority. But it is probable -that he had already returned to England. - -COURTEN’S first personal appearance upon the scene was also made in the -way of presenting a petition to the King. [Sidenote: MS. Sloane 3515.] -In July 1663, he thus alleged that the steps which had been taken were -without his concurrence or knowledge, ‘and, as is feared, with intention -to deprive him of his claims.’ The King referred the petition to Sir -Geoffrey PALMER, who pronounced in COURTEN’S favour. - - -His position was one of great embarrassment. [Sidenote: THE AGREEMENT -BETWEEN COURTEN AND CAREW.] Some of his family connexions had already -suffered much annoyance from litigation about the COURTEN Estates at -home, and were little inclined to incur further risk or trouble on -behalf of a relative whose inheritance was certain to yield abundance of -immediate vexation and anxiety, and very uncertain in respect to its -prospects of any better harvest in the end. [Sidenote: 1663.] He was -advised to sell the remnant of his entailed estates, to put the product -of the sale out of danger from any adverse issue of pending claims, and -to come to terms with CAREW for the prosecution of the latter—or of some -of them—on a joint account. In accordance with this advice, an agreement -was made, in the course of 1663, by which CAREW was empowered to pursue -the claims against the Netherlands, as well on COURTEN’S behalf as on -his own and that of other creditors. The remaining landed estates in -Worcestershire and other counties—or nearly all that remained of -them—were sold, and a life income was secured. - -For the next half dozen years COURTEN’S life was almost that of a -recluse, save that such activities as it admitted of were devoted almost -exclusively to the study of antiquities and of the natural sciences. A -great part of those years was passed at Fawsley with his aunt, Lady -KNIGHTLEY, one of the few relatives whose affection stood the proof of -adversity. - - -There are several reasons for thinking that the rudimentary foundation -of COURTEN’S Museum had been laid as early as in the time of his -grandfather, Sir William, whose mercantile and colonial enterprises -presented so many opportunities for bringing into England the more -curious productions of remote countries, as well as their merchandise. -Be that as it may, the collection of a museum which should eclipse -everything of its kind theretofore known in England became, from his -attainment of manhood, the leading aim and object of William COURTEN’S -career. It was to him both an ambition and a solace. - -The other of the two men who thus came into brief contact in 1663 lived -a life as different from COURTEN’S as can well be conceived. CAREW seems -to have been a glutton in his appetite for contention. [Sidenote: -_Pretentien tegens d’Oost-Indische Compagnie_, &c. (B. M.)] And the -Dutchmen, as far as they were concerned, put no stint upon its -indulgence. There was also ample time for it. Treaty followed by war, -and war leading to renewed treaty, kept the affair of the _Bona -Esperanza_ and the _Henry Bon-Adventure_ both in active historical -memory, and in full legal vigour. Towards the close of 1662 it had been -covenanted by the English government, as a necessary condition of a good -understanding between the two Powers, that there should be a prompt -satisfaction of damages. The Treaty of Commerce of that year was tossed -to and fro on that one point of the COURTEN ships with more obstinate -pertinacity than on any other. To the intrinsic merits of the claim, in -the main, there was really no answer. To the legal technicalities by -which its settlement, if left to Dutch courts of judicature, could be -indefinitely protracted, there was no end. [Sidenote: THE CLAIMS IN -HOLLAND.] When letters of dismissal had been already drawn at Whitehall -for the Dutch envoys of 1662, because they insisted on a clause -extinguishing all outstanding claims on both sides; they skilfully -contrived to substitute leave to litigate[41] for a proviso to satisfy. -And the event justified their forecast. - -[Sidenote: _Domestic Corresp._, Charles II, vol. cxiii, § 143.] - -During the year 1665, Letters of Marque and Reprisal were granted to -CAREW and his associates, and a special clause of continuance until the -full recovery of debt and damages,[42] notwithstanding the conclusion of -any subsequent Treaty of Peace was inserted. This was done after an -elaborate argument before the Lord Chancellor CLARENDON. Several ships -were taken by CAREW’S cruisers, but they were nearly all claimed by -Hamburghers, Swedes, and others. And at length the cost of the reprisals -exceeded their yield. - -In this case, and throughout it, as in so many other and graver cases, -the policy of CHARLES THE SECOND’S ministers was a policy of the passing -exigence. Principle had always to vail to expediency. The Dutch were -permitted, after all, to insert their favorite extinction clause in the -Treaty of Breda (21 July, 1667). Five years later, the Privy Council -advised the King that ‘it is just and reasonable for your Majesty to -insist upon reparation for the debt and damages’ sustained by the -seizure, in 1643, of the _Bona Esperanza_ and her consort. New Letters -of Marque led to the capture of more vessels, duly provided with a -diversity of flag; and to the imprisonment, in England, of the captors, -before trial or inquiry. Meanwhile, CAREW himself was seized abroad, and -put into a Dutch prison. [Sidenote: _Courten Papers_, in MS. Sloane, -3515.] And, at length, in 1676, the States of Holland sent express -orders to their courts of judicature, directing that ‘no further -progress shall be made in the pending suits,’ grounding the order upon -the proviso in the treaty of 1667, as extinctive of all claims and -pretensions, whatsoever, advanced by Englishmen against Dutch citizens, -be the foundation and history of such claims what they might. This -decree, therefore, operated in bar, as well of the claims of the -representatives of Sir William COURTEN, for the debt of Peter BOUDAEN, -as of those arising out of the seizure of the ships of the East India -Fleet. It was estimated that the COURTEN claims then pending in the -Courts of Holland amounted, in the aggregate, to £380,000 sterling.[43] - -In May, 1683, a petition was presented to the English government, in -which humble prayer was made that that government would be graciously -pleased ‘to perpetuate the memory of Sir William COURTEN and of Sir Paul -PINDAR, by setting up their statues in marble under the piazzas of the -Royal Exchange—Sir William COURTEN’S at the end of the “Barbadoes walk” -at the one side, and Sir Paul PINDAR’S at the end of the “Turkey walk” -of the other side—for encouragement to all merchants, in future ages, -[Sidenote: _Vox Veritatis_, 1683. (B. M.)] to take examples by them for -loyalty and fidelity to their King and country.’ - - -[Sidenote: COURTEN’S SECOND VISIT TO FRANCE, AND HIS TRAVELS.] - -COURTEN did his best to avoid any personal share in those unceasing -turmoils, and to keep in the quiet paths of a studious retirement. But -he presently found that, in order to secure his end, he must needs do as -his father had done before him. He must leave England, either for Italy -or for France. When his mind was made up to exile, it was also made up -to the relinquishment of his name. William COURTEN became, even to his -nearest relatives, ‘William CHARLETON.’ - -The friendships he had already formed at Montpelier, in his youth, and -the local charms of that city for a studious man, incited him to revisit -his old retreat. But he made no permanent abode there. He took long -tours, in France, in Germany, and in Italy; adding everywhere both to -the stores of his knowledge and to the presses and cabinets of his -library and museum. It was during his second stay at Montpelier that he -formed his life-long friendships with a famous Frenchman, Joseph PITTON -DE TOURNEFORT, and with a more famous Englishman, John LOCKE. Here also -began his acquaintance with Dr. (afterwards Sir) Hans SLOANE. - - -It was at SLOANE’S instance that he made his solitary appearance as an -author, in the shape of a communication to the Royal Society, which was -laid before them in 1679, and afterwards printed in the _Philosophical -Transactions_, [Sidenote: _Philosoph. Transact._, vol. xxvii, pp. 485, -seqq.] under the title: _Experiments and Observations of the Effects of -several sorts of Poisons upon Animals, made at Montpelier_. - - -Thirteen or fourteen years were thus passed. And then, to the natural -yearning of an exile, there came the strong reinforcement of the call of -large collections for a settled abode. There are few claims to fixity of -tenure better grounded than are those of a Museum or a Library. - -[Sidenote: RETURN TO ENGLAND.] - -The return was not easy, but the difficulties were faced. It is probable -that he came back to England in the summer of 1684. He did not then own -one acre of that land of which his father had inherited so respectable a -breadth in half a dozen counties. He had not long arrived before one of -his nearest friends wrote him a letter, which seemed to bode ill for his -prospects of a peaceable life. ‘The number of creditors,’ wrote Richard -SALWEY to him, on the 18th August, 1684, ‘is incredible, for the debts -are standing, and multiplied to children and grandchildren, who, so long -as the parchment and the wax can be preserved, will not forego their -hopes nor attempts. And I fear your late so public station[44] will -daily expose you, and that you will at every backstairs and turning be -pulled by the sleeve and provoked. [Sidenote: Salwey to ‘Charlton;’ MS. -Sloane, 3962, f. 191.] Nor yet do I know of any danger consequent in any -suit that can be commenced, except putting you to great trouble and like -expenses;—and I fear you have not a superfluous bank to defray the -charge.’ - -COURTEN, however, was not seriously molested. He established himself in -London as the occupant of a large suite of chambers in Essex Court, -Middle Temple. Here his collections were conveniently arranged, and they -had space to expand. [Sidenote: ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COURTEN MUSEUM.] -Ere long we find mention of his Museum as filling ten rooms. - -Of the cost at which it had been gathered, there are now no adequate and -authenticated materials for forming an estimate. But in those days the -man who himself travelled on such a quest had a vast advantage over the -man—howsoever better provided with what in the sixteenth century was -called purse-ability—who sent other men to travel in his stead. In -COURTEN’S days no dealers explored the Continent as an ordinary incident -of their calling. The wreck, too, of such a fortune as that of the -COURTENS was not contemptible. [Sidenote: _Courten Papers_, in MS. -Sloane, 3962; 303.] When living in France (1677–79) our collector -appears to have had an income of about fifteen hundred pounds a year, -accruing from money invested in mortgages and in annuities. - -Although his chief collections were of his own gathering, he had many -helpers. Among them was the future inheritor of his Museum, Hans SLOANE. -In the year 1687, when about to set out on his voyage to the West -Indies, SLOANE wrote to him: ‘I design to send you what is curious from -the several islands we land at,—which will be most of our plantations.’ -[Sidenote: Sloane to ‘Charlton;’ _Ib._, 308.] The writer was then a -young man. Probably his acquaintance with COURTEN was at that time of -not greater standing than eight or nine years, but he writes of the -obligations COURTEN had then already conferred upon him: ‘I am extremely -obliged to you, beyond any in the world.’[Sidenote: _Ibid._] - -The use this Collector made of his treasures was as liberal as the zeal -with which he had amassed them was indefatigable. The friend whose -correspondence has just been quoted said, after COURTEN’S death, that he -was wont to show his Museum very freely, and to make his stores -contribute, in various ways, ‘to the advancement of the glory of God, -the honour and renown of the country, and the no small promotion of -knowledge and the useful arts.’ - -Many notices are extant—scattered here and there in the _Diaries_ and -among the correspondence of the day—of visits made to COURTEN’S Museum -by men who were able to judge of what they saw. Those notices confirm -the general statement made by SLOANE, and show the comprehensiveness of -the collector’s tastes as well as the geniality of his character. Two -such notices have an especial interest, which is not lessened by the -fact that both of them are to be found in diaries that are well known. -They record the visits to Essex Court of John EVELYN, and of John -THORESBY. - -[Sidenote: EVELYN’S VISIT TO COURTEN’S MUSEUM.] - -EVELYN paid his first visit in charming company. It was made in -December, 1686. He thus tells of it in his journal: ‘I carried the -Countess of SUNDERLAND to see the rarities of one Mr. CHARLTON, in the -Middle Temple, who showed us such a collection as I had never seen in -all my travels abroad—either of private gentlemen, or of princes. It -consisted of miniatures, drawings, shells, insects, medals, ... -minerals; all being very perfect and rare of their kind; especially his -books of birds, fishes, flowers, and shells, drawn and miniatured to the -life. He told us that one book stood him in three hundred pounds. -[Sidenote: _Diary_, &c., vol. ii, p. 260. (Edit. of 1854.)] It was -painted by that excellent workman whom the late GASTON, Duke of Orleans, -employed.[45] This gentleman’s whole collection, gathered by himself -[while] travelling over most parts of Europe, is estimated at eight -thousand pounds. He appeared to be a modest and obliging person.’ - -EVELYN records two other visits, which he made at subsequent times. It -is obvious that during almost the whole period which elapsed between -COURTEN’S return to England and his death, his museum was a place of -frequent and fashionable resort; notwithstanding the warning which its -owner had received as to the perils of a ‘public station,’ under his -peculiar circumstances. To the celebrated diarist himself, his visits -seem to have suggested a very natural thought of the public value of -such an institution, to be maintained by and for the country at large. -And he was very far from keeping the idea to himself. EVELYN lived to a -more than ordinary term of years, but not long enough to see his idea -carried into act. He had, however, helped to prepare the way. - -His incidental statement about the estimated money value of the COURTEN -Museum does not invalidate a foregoing remark in this chapter. The -estimate can hardly have been founded upon better ground than mere -conjecture. But it is curious to note the near approach of the guess of -1686 to another guess, on the same small point, made nine years later. - -THORESBY’S visit occurred in May, 1695. He records it thus: ‘Walked to -Mr. CHARLTON’S chambers at the Temple, who very courteously showed me -his Museum, which is perhaps the most noble collection of natural and -artificial curiosities, of ancient and modern coins and medals, that any -private person in the world enjoys. It is said to have cost him seven or -eight thousand pounds sterling.... [Sidenote: Thoresby, _Diary_, 1695, -May 24, vol. i, p. 299.] I spent the greatest part of my time amongst -the coins; for though the British and Saxon be not very extraordinary, -yet his [collection of] the silver coins of the Emperors and Consuls is -very noble. He has also a costly collection of medals of eminent persons -in Church and State, and of domestic and foreign Reformers. But, before -I was half satisfied, an unfortunate visit from the Countess of PEMBROKE -and other ladies from Court prevented further queries.’ - -The visits of the ‘ladies from Court’ may not have seemed quite so -unfortunate to the host who had to entertain them, as to the zealous -antiquary whose recondite questions they broke off. At all events, such -visits must have been to COURTEN like renewed glimpses of the gayer life -of which he had known something in his early days. - -In learned leisure, and in quiet pleasures such as these, his life -passed gently to its end. He kept up his correspondence as well with -some of the surviving friends of his youth, as with two or three of the -eminent scholars and naturalists with whom he had made acquaintance -during the travel-years of middle life. Failing to raise his fortunes to -the height of his early hopes, he yet won contentment by bringing down -his desires to the level of his means. He ceased to trouble himself with -claims on the Dutch Republic, or with pretensions to a proprietorship in -the Island of Barbadoes, or even about his interest in debts contracted -by the Crown of England. He had been able, in spite of all losses, to -open to his contemporaries means of culture and of mental recreation -which, on any like scale, had been before unknown to them. Only in the -most famous cities of Italy had the like then been seen. And he had the -final satisfaction of making the secured continuance of his Museum the -means of further securing, at the same time, the comfort and prosperity -of some humble friends and dependants whose faithful attention had -helped to solace his own closing years. Nor had he neglected those -consolations which are supreme. - -William COURTEN’S Will was made on his death-bed, in March, 1702. Having -bequeathed certain pecuniary legacies—increased two days afterwards by -codicil—and having provided for the payment of his debts, he made Dr. -Hans SLOANE his residuary legatee and sole executor. He forbade all -display at his funeral. He died, at Kensington, on the 26th of March, -1702, wanting two days of the completion of his sixtieth year.[46] He -was buried in Kensington churchyard, near the south-east door of the -church. By his friend and executor an altar-tomb, carved by Grinling -GIBBONS, was placed above his remains, with this inscription:— - - Juxtà hic sub marmoreo tumulo - jacet GULIELMUS COURTEN, cui Gulielmus pater, Gulielmus avus, - mater, Catharina, Joannis Comitis de Bridgwater filia, - Paternum vel ad Indos præclarum Nomen; - qui tantis haudquaquam degener parentibus, - Summâ cum laude vitæ decurrit tramitem; - Gazarum per Europam indagator sedulus, - quas hinc illinc sibi partas negavit nemini, - sed cupientibus exposuit humanissimè, - Non avaræ mentis pabulum, sed ingenii - si quid naturæ, si quid artis nobile - Opus, id quovis pretio suum esse voluit - ut musis lucidum conderet sacrarium; - ast mortis hæc non sunt curæ! - Hic Musarum cultor tam eximius, - Hic tam insignis viator, - Obiit, Quievit, 7 Cal. Apr. A.D. 1702. - Vixit annos 62, menses xi, dies 28. - Pompa, quam vivus fugit, ne mortuo fieret, testamento cavit, - sed hoc qualecumque monumentum, - et quam potuit immortalitatem, - bene merenti mœrens dedit - HANS SLOANE, M.D. - - -Sir Hans SLOANE was the seventh and youngest son of Alexander SLOANE, a -Scotchman who had married one of the daughters of Dr. George HICKES, -Prebendary of Winchester, and who had settled in Ireland on receiving -the appointment of receiver-general of the estates of the Lord CLANEBOY, -afterwards Earl of CLANRICARDE. [Sidenote: LIFE OF SIR HANS SLOANE.] He -was born at Killileagh, in the county Down, on the 16th of April, 1660. - -We learn that almost from earliest youth, Hans SLOANE evinced his -possession of quick parts and of keen powers of observation. And he gave -early indications of that happy constitution of mind and will which now -and then permits the union of intellectual ambition and aspiration, with -not a little of prudential shrewdness. A special bias towards the study -of the natural sciences was—as it has often been in like cases—one of -the things that were soonest taken note of by those about him. Faculties -such as these naturally pointed to medicine as a fitting profession for -their early possessor. His home studies, however, were checked by a -severe illness which threatened his life, and from some of the effects -of which he never quite recovered. But that illness helped to qualify -him for his future profession. If it took away, for life, the likelihood -that the bright promises of the dawn would be altogether realized in his -maturity, it seems to have strengthened, in an unusual degree, both the -prudential element which already marked his character, and his -predisposition to rely mainly, for the success of his plans, upon -plodding industry. From youth to old age an unweariable power of taking -pains was his leading characteristic. - -In his eighteenth year he came to London with the immediate object of -studying chemistry and botany, before he entered on other studies more -distinctively medical. [Sidenote: EARLY STUDIES IN LONDON;] [Sidenote: -1677–1682.] He learned chemistry under STAPHORST,[47] and of botany he -acquired a good deal of knowledge by frequenting, with much assiduity, -the recently founded Botanical Garden at Chelsea. In the latter pursuit -he met with assistance from the intelligent keeper of the garden, Mr. -WATTS. [Sidenote: _MS. Corresp._] And ere long he acquired the -friendship of John RAY, and of Robert BOYLE. - -After six years of steady educational labours, both scientific and -medical, he went to Paris, which possessed in 1683—and long -afterwards—facilities for medical education far superior to any that -could then be found in London. [Sidenote: AND IN FRANCE.] [Sidenote: -1683–4.] His companions in the journey were Dr. Tancred ROBINSON and Dr. -WAKELEY. - -SLOANE had scarcely got farther into France than the town of Dieppe, -before it was his good fortune to make the acquaintance of Nicholas -LEMERY, and to find himself able to communicate to that eminent chemist -the results of some novel experiments. [Sidenote: _Eloge_, in _Mém. de -l’Acad. des Sciences_ (1753); and _MS. Correspondence_. (B. M.)] They -journeyed together from Dieppe to Paris, and the acquaintance thus -casually formed was productive of good to both of them. The studies -begun in Ireland, and assiduously continued in London, were now matured -in Paris under men of European fame. And the young botanist who -heretofore could profit only by the infant garden established by the -London apothecaries at Chelsea, and by an occasional botanizing ramble -into the country, could now expatiate at will in the magnificent _Jardin -des Plantes_ of the King of FRANCE. In that botanical university SLOANE, -too, had TOURNEFORT—four years his senior—for his frequent companion and -fellow-student. - -In July, 1683, he took his degree as Doctor of Medicine in the -University of Orange. Thence he went to Montpelier, where he resided -until nearly the end of May, 1684. After visiting Bordeaux, and some -other parts of France, he returned to Paris. There were few towns, in -which he made any stay, that had not given him some friend or other, in -addition to a valuable accession of knowledge. And the friendships he -had once formed were but rarely lost. - -Towards the close of 1684 Dr. SLOANE returned to England, whither the -reputation of his increased acquirements had preceded him. In January, -1685, he was chosen a Fellow of the Royal Society, and exactly one year -afterwards he was proposed for election as Assistant-Secretary. Among -the other candidates were Denis PAPIN and Edmund HALLEY. On the first -scrutiny, SLOANE had ten votes; HALLEY sixteen. The majority was not -enough, but on a second ballot HALLEY was chosen. Early in 1687 he -became a Fellow of the College of Physicians. He had thus early laid -some foundation for a London practice that would lead him to social -eminence, as well as to fortune. And for the good gifts of fortune he -had a very keen relish. - -Loving wealth well, he loved science still better. But he had already -good reason to hope that both might be won, in company. He had become -known to Christopher MONK, second Duke of ALBEMARLE, and when that -nobleman received, in 1687, the office of Governor-General of the West -India Colonies, SLOANE received an invitation to sail with him, as the -Duke’s physician and as Chief Physician to the fleet; and he was desired -to name his own conditions, if disposed to accept the appointment. - -He did not take any long time to think over the offer. If it presented -no very brilliant prospect of monetary profit, it opened a large field -for scientific research. [Sidenote: THE VOYAGE TO JAMAICA.] And, in the -main, the field was new. [Sidenote: 1687.] No Englishman had ever yet -been tempted to take so long a journey in the interests of science. He -knew that he had excellent personal qualifications for turning to good -account the large opportunities of discovery that such a voyage was sure -to bring. Nor was it less certain that it would bring innumerable -occasions for enlarging his strictly professional knowledge. And he had -on his side the vigour of youth, as well as its curiosity and its -enthusiasm. - -In annexing to his reply the conditions of his acceptance he wrote thus: -‘If it be thought fit that Dr. SLOANE go physician to the West Indian -Fleet, the surgeons of all the ships must be ordered to observe his -directions.... He proposes that six hundred pounds, _per annum_, shall -be paid to him quarterly, with a previous payment of three hundred -pounds, in order to his preparation for this service; and also that if -the Fleet shall be called home he shall have leave to stay in the West -Indies if he pleases.’ The proposed terms were approved. [Sidenote: -_Corresp._ in MS. Sloane, 4069, ff. 86, 87.] The Doctor embarked at -Portsmouth, in the Duke’s frigate _Assistance_, on the 12th of -September. - -His work as a scientific collector began at Madeira. [Sidenote: _Ibid._, -MS. Sloane, 3962, f. 310.] To botanize in that pleasant island was an -enjoyment all the more welcome after an unusual share of suffering from -seasickness, in the midst of professional toil. For it was honourably -characteristic of SLOANE that, under all circumstances and forms of -temptation, medical duties had the first place with him. What he -achieved for science, throughout his life, was achieved in the intervals -of more immediate duty. - -He reached Barbadoes in November. Thence he wrote to COURTEN: ‘This is -indeed a new world in all things. You may be sure the task I have is -already delightful to me.’ [Sidenote: Sloane to Courten; _Ib._, 1687, -Nov. 28.] Then he continues: ‘I am heartily sorry that I, being new -landed here, cannot now send [what I have collected for you] with this -letter. What I had at Madeira cannot be come at. What is here I have -not, as yet, gathered. But you may assure yourself that what these parts -of the West Indies afford is all your own, the best way I can send -them.’ - -The collections begun thus favourably were continued at the beginning of -December in the islands of Nevis, St. Christopher, and Hispaniola. The -fleet reached Port Royal on the 19th of that month. Jamaica was explored -with ardent enthusiasm and with minutest care. Its animals and minerals, -as well as its plants; its history, as well as its meteorology, were -thoroughly studied. [Sidenote: Medical Cases appended to _Voyage to -Jamaica_; vol. i (1708).] And the medical skill of the new-comer was put -as heartily at the service of the toil-worn negro as at that of the -wealthiest planter, or of the highest officer of the Crown. - -But presently SLOANE himself needed the care and skill he so willingly -bestowed. ‘I had a great fever,’ he says, ‘though those about me called -it a little seasoning.’ He had scarcely recovered before his knowledge -of the natural history of Jamaica was suddenly and unpleasantly -increased. - -‘Ever since the beginning of February,’ I find him writing to the Lord -Chief Justice HERBERT (who seems to have been one of the earliest of the -many patients who became also friends): ‘I dread earthquakes more than -heat. For then we had a very great one. Finding the house to dance and -the cabinets to reel, I looked out of window to see whether people -removed the house (a wooden structure) or no. Casting my eyes towards an -aviary, I saw the birds in as great concern as myself. Then, another -terrible shake coming, I apprehended what it was, and betook me to my -heels to get clear of the house; but before I got down stairs it was -over. If it had come the day after, it had frighted us ten times more. -[Sidenote: Sloane to Lord Chief Justice Herbert; MS. Sloane, 4069, ff. -277, 278.] For the day it happened there arrived a Spanish sloop from -Porto Bello, giving an account of the destruction of great part of the -kingdom of Peru.’ - -Long before this letter was written the exploring studies and expedition -had been resumed with all the activity of renewed health, and they were -carried on—at every available interval, as I have said, of pressing -medical duty—throughout the year 1688. That eventful year, during which -the thoughts and anxieties of the mass of his countrymen were so -differently engrossed, was to SLOANE the especial seedtime of his study -of Nature. All that he was enabled to effect in that attractive path may -now seem very small and dim, when viewed in the light of subsequent -achievements. But it was great for that day, when, in England, the path -was so newly opened that the possession of a taste for collecting -insects was thought, by able men of the world, to be a strong -presumption of lunacy. And it soon fired the ambition of a multitude of -inquirers who rapidly carried the good work of investigation onward, in -all directions. - -Towards the close of the year, the Duke of ALBEMARLE suddenly died. The -contingency for which SLOANE had had the foresight to make provision had -arisen, but in a quite unexpected way; so that his forecast failed to -secure him that time for continued research which he had coveted and -contracted for. The Duchess of ALBEMARLE had accompanied her husband in -his voyage, and, after the first shock of his death had been borne, was -naturally desirous to leave the colony. SLOANE could not allow her to -take the return voyage without his attendance. He hastened to gather up -his collections and prepared to come home. The fleet set sail from Port -Royal on the 16th of March, 1689. - -[Sidenote: THE RETURN VOYAGE OF 1689.] - -The voyage was full of anxiety. Such news from England as had yet -reached the West Indies was very fragmentary. And the lack of authentic -intelligence about the outbreak of the Revolution and its results, had -been eked-out by all sorts of wild rumours. The voyagers looked daily -with intense eagerness for outward-bound ships that might bring them -news, and were especially anxious to know if war had broken out between -England and France. When they caught sight of a sail so wistfully -watched for, they commonly observed in the other vessel as great a -desire to avoid a meeting, as there was amongst themselves to ensure -one. - -The Duchess of ALBEMARLE had with her a large amount of wealth in plate -and jewels, as well as a large retinue. Her anxieties were not lessened -when the captain of the frigate said to her Grace, two or three weeks -after the departure from Port Royal: ‘I cannot fight any ship having -King JAMES’ commission, from whom I received mine.’ On hearing this -assurance—which seemed to open to her the prospect, or at least the -possible contingency, of being carried into France—the Duchess resolved -to change her ship. With SLOANE and with her suite she left the -_Assistance_, and re-embarked, first in the late Duke’s yacht, and then -in one of the larger ships of the fleet. - -After this separation, ‘our Admiral’ says SLOANE, ‘pretended he wanted -water and must make the best of his way for England, without staying to -convoy us home, which accordingly he did.’ The voyage, nevertheless, was -made in safety. - -[Sidenote: _Voyage to Jamaica_, &c., vol. ii, p. 344.] - -They learned very little of what had happened at home, until they had -arrived within a few leagues of Plymouth. Then SLOANE himself went out, -in an armed boat, with the intention of picking up such news as could be -gathered from any fishermen who might be met with near the coast. The -first fishing vessel they hailed did her best to run away, but was -caught in the pursuit. [Sidenote: _Ibid._, p. 347.] To the question, -‘How is the King?’ the master’s reply was, ‘What King do you mean? King -WILLIAM is well at Whitehall. King JAMES is in France.’ - -[Sidenote: EARLY YEARS IN ENGLAND.] - -SLOANE landed at Plymouth on the 29th of May, with large collections in -all branches of natural history, and with improved prospects of fortune. -The Duchess of ALBEMARLE behaved to him with great liberality, and for -some years to come he continued to be her domestic physician, and lived, -for the most part, in one or other of her houses as his usual place of -residence. In 1690 much of his correspondence bears date from the -Duchess’ seat at New Hall, in Essex. In 1692 we find him frequently at -Albemarle House, in Clerkenwell. He had also made, whilst in the West -Indies, a lucky investment in the shape of a large purchase of Peruvian -Bark. [Sidenote: _Sloane Corresp._, in MSS. Sloane.] It was already a -lucrative article of commerce, and the provident importer had excellent -professional opportunities of adding to its commercial value by making -its intrinsic merits more widely known in England. - -The botanists, more especially, were delighted with the large accessions -to previous knowledge which SLOANE had brought back with him. ‘When I -first saw,’ said John RAY, ‘his stock of dried plants collected in -Jamaica, and in some of the Caribbee Islands, I was much astonished at -the number of the capillary kind, not thinking there had been so many to -be found in both the Indies.’ - -The collector, himself, had presently his surprise in the matter, but it -was of a less agreeable kind. ‘My collection,’ he says, ‘of dried -samples of some very strange plants excited the curiosity of people who -loved things of that nature to see them, and who were welcome, until I -observed some so very curious as to desire to carry part of them -privately home, and injure what they left. This made me upon my guard.’ - -[Sidenote: 1693.] - -On the 30th of November, 1693, SLOANE was elected to the Secretaryship -of the Royal Society. A year afterwards he was made Physician to Christ -Hospital. It is eminently to his honour that from his first entrance -into this office—which he held for thirty-six years—he applied the whole -of its emoluments for the advantage and advancement of deserving boys -who were receiving their education there. For that particular -appointment he was himself none the richer, save in contentment and good -works. - -[Sidenote: THE CATALOGUE OF WEST INDIAN PLANTS, AND THE CONTROVERSY WITH - PLUKENET.] - -In 1696 he made his first appearance as an author by the publication of -his _Catalogus Plantarum quæ in insula Jamaica sponte proveniunt, vel -vulgo coluntur cum earundem synonimis et locis natalibus: Adjectis aliis -quibusdam quæ in insulis Madeira, Barbadoes, Nevis, et Sancti -Christophori nascuntur_. [Sidenote: 1696.] He had already seen far too -much of the world to marvel that his book soon brought him censure as -well as praise. By Leonard PLUKENET, a botanist of great acquirements -and ability, many portions of the Jamaica Catalogue were attacked, -sometimes on well-grounded objections; more often upon exceptions rather -captious than just, and with that bitterness of expression which is the -unfailing finger-post of envy. PLUKENET’S strictures were published in -his _Almagesti Botanici Mantissa_.[48] SLOANE made no rash haste to -answer his critic. Where the censure bore correction of real error or -oversight, he carefully profited by it. Where it was the mere cloak of -malice, he awaited without complaint the appropriate time for dealing, -both with censure and censor, which would be sure to come when he should -give to the world the ripened results of the voyage of 1687. - -A passage in Dr. SLOANE’S correspondence with Dr. CHARLETT, of -Cambridge, written in the same year with the publication of the Jamaica -Catalogue, shows that even whilst he was still almost at the threshold -of his London life, he was able steadily to enlarge his museum. -[Sidenote: Charlett to Sloane, in MS. Corresp., 4043, f. 193.] At that -early date, CHARLETT, who had seen it during a visit to London, calls it -already ‘a noble collection of all natural curiosities.’[49] The -collector, when he landed its first fruits at Plymouth, had yet before -him—such was to be his unusual length of days—almost sixty-four years of -life. Not one of them, probably, passed without some valuable accession -to his museum. And those sixty-four years were the adolescent and -formative years of the study of the Physical Sciences in Britain. They -were years, too, in the course of which there was to be a great -development of British energy, both in foreign travel and in colonial -enterprise. Very many were to run to and fro in the earth, so that -knowledge might be largely increased. As a traveller, SLOANE had already -done his spell of work. But just as that was achieved, he was placed, by -his election to the secretaryship to the Royal Society, precisely in the -position where he could most extensively profit by a wide correspondence -with men of like scientific pursuits all over the world, and could -exercise a watchful observation over the doings and the opportunities of -explorers. - -[Sidenote: RESUMPTION OF THE ‘PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS.’] - -But the most immediate result of his secretaryship was the resumption of -the suspended _Philosophical Transactions_. The interruption of a work -which had already rendered yeoman service to Science, abroad as well as -at home, had been caused by a combination of unfavourable circumstances. -The death of its first and energetic editor, Henry OLDENBURG; some -diminution in the Society’s income; and some personal disagreements at -its Council board, seem all, in their measure, to have concurred to -impede a publication, the continuance of which the best men in the Royal -Society knew to be inseparable from the achievement of its true -purposes. SLOANE bestirred himself with the steady vigour which had been -born with him; impressed his friends into the service; profited by the -foreign connections he had formed ten years earlier at Paris, Bordeaux, -and Montpelier, and so found new channels by which to enrich the pages -of the _Transactions_, as well as to extend their circulation. - -He did it, of course, in his own way, and under the necessary influence -of his habits and predispositions. One natural result of his labours, as -secretary and as editor, was a frequent prominence of medical subjects, -both at the meetings and in the subsequent selections for permanent -record. If such a prominence might now and then give, or seem to give, -fair ground of complaint to men whose thoughts were absorbed in the -calculus of fluxions, or whose eyes were wont to search the heavens that -they might learn the courses of the stars, it had at least the excuse -that it tended to the elevation—in all senses of the word—of a -profession in the thorough education and the dignified status of which -all the world have a deep interest. - -If SLOANE, in his day, occasionally made scientific men somewhat more -familiar with medical themes than they cared to be, he did very much to -make medical men aware of the peculiar duty under which their profession -laid them of becoming also men of true science. And in this way he -exerted an influence upon medical knowledge, which was none the less -pregnant with good and enduring results because it was in great measure -an indirect influence. It was one of the minor, but memorable, results -of the establishment of the Royal Society that it tended powerfully to -lift medical practice out of the slough of quackery. - -This frequent reading of medical papers during the Doctor’s -secretaryship could not fail to give an opening, now and again, for the -wit of the scorner. A physician, in his daily practice, is constantly -seeing the power of small things. He may well, at times, over estimate -trifles. In the year 1700, Dr. SLOANE was made the subject of a -satirical pamphlet which appeared under the title of ‘_The -Transactioneer, with some of his Philosophical Fancies_.’ The author of -the satire was Dr. William KING, but, for a considerable time, the -authorship was unknown. There was great anxiety to discover it, not only -on SLOANE’S part individually, but on the part of the Council at large. -The whole affair was trivial, and would be unworthy of memory but that -it led to some dissensions within the Society itself, which for a long -time left marks of their influence. - -[Sidenote: SLOANE AND WOODWARD.] - -SLOANE conceived that _The Transactioneer_ was the production of Dr. -John WOODWARD—the author of _Natural History of the Earth_—who was -himself a member of the Royal Society’s Council. WOODWARD, in denying -the imputation, endorsed the satire. ‘Whether there was not some -occasion given,’ he said to the Council, ‘may be worth your -consideration. This I am sure of: The world has been now, for some time -past, very loud upon that subject. [Sidenote: _Newton Correspondence and -Papers_; cited by Brewster, in _Memoirs_, &c. (2nd Edit.), vol. ii, ff. -185, 186.] And there were those who laid the charges so much wrong, that -I have but too often had occasion to vindicate the Society itself, and -that in public company.’ The ill feeling thus excited lasted a long -time. It seemed at length, that the Society must lose either the -services of its laborious Secretary or those of his active-tongued -opponent. - -The petty dissension came to a height when SLOANE chanced to make some -passing medical comment on the words ‘the bezoar is a gall-stone,’ -occurring in a paper which he was reading to the Society, from the -Memoirs of the Parisian Academy of Sciences. SLOANE’S casual remark drew -from WOODWARD the offensive words, ‘No man who understands anatomy would -make such an assertion.’ On another occasion he interrupted some -observation or other made by SLOANE, by exclaiming—‘Speak sense, or -English, and we shall understand you.’ A friend or two of WOODWARD tried -hard to back him by enlisting the illustrious President on their side. -They reminded NEWTON that he had been often himself impatient under the -medical dissertations, and they praised Dr. WOODWARD’S acquirements in -philosophy. ‘For a seat in the Council,’ replied Sir Isaac, ‘a man -should be a moral philosopher, as well as a natural one.’ [Sidenote: -Records of the Royal Society.] Eventually, it was resolved: ‘That Dr. -WOODWARD be removed from the Council, for creating a disturbance by the -said reflecting words upon Dr. SLOANE.’ The latter was of a very -forgiving temper, and he soon sought to be reconciled with his -adversary. - -His professional course, meanwhile, was steadily upward. A friendship -which he had contracted in 1705 with Dr. SYDENHAM greatly aided his -progress. SYDENHAM was retiring from practice, and gave to SLOANE his -cordial recommendations. In 1712[50] he was made Physician Extraordinary -to the Queen, whom he attended, two years afterwards, on her death bed. -He filled the office of Physician-in-Chief to GEORGE THE FIRST, by whom, -on the 3rd April, 1716, he was created a Baronet. He was, I believe, the -first physician who received that dignity. In 1719 he became President -of the College of Physicians. In 1727 he received the crowning honour of -a life which, to an unusual degree, had already been replete with -honourable distinctions of almost every kind. He was placed in the chair -of the Royal Society, as the next successor of NEWTON. - -Eighteen years before, he had been welcomed into the illustrious Academy -of Sciences, the establishment of which at Paris had followed so quickly -upon the foundation of the Royal Society. Both academies had worked with -conspicuous success. Both had been adorned by a long line of eminent -members. They had frequently, and in many ways, interchanged friendly -communion. To SLOANE himself, the reception at Paris had been the -prelude of many like invitations from other learned societies in various -parts of Europe. No man of his time had a worthier estimate of the -dignity involved in the freemasonry of science, nor had any a more -conscientious sense of the duties and responsibilities which it entails. - -As President of the Royal Society, one of his earliest proposals to the -Council was that, for the future, no pecuniary contribution should be -received from foreign members whose fellowship it invited as an honour. -He urged this step, notwithstanding that the Society was at the time in -debt from an unusual arrear of subscriptions,—an arrear so great that he -felt it to be right that the Council should be recommended to sue their -offending brethren in the law courts. His third proposal, like both the -others, had for its object the incontestible advantage and honour of the -Society. He checked some nascent abuses in elections by making it -necessary that there should be an express approval of every new -candidate by the Council, on the recommendation of not less than three -fellows, before proceeding to a ballot in the Society at large. - - -[Sidenote: THE NATURAL HISTORY OF JAMAICA.] - -The work by which SLOANE holds his chief place in the literature of -science, the _Natural History of Jamaica_, was the work of no less than -thirty-eight years. Its materials, as we have seen, were collected in -the years 1687 and 1688. The first volume was not published until 1708. -Seventeen additional years elapsed before the completion of the second. -The fact indicates how crowded with avocations its author’s life was, as -well as the marked conscientiousness and thoroughness which from youth -to age characterized his doings. - -The Jamaica book cannot be opened without some appreciation, even at -first sight, of this faculty of thoroughness. For it is shown not more -by the elaboration and beauty of the illustrations, than by the copious -citation of authorities, on all points in relation to which authority is -valuable. That all previous labourers in his field should have their -full meed of acknowledgment is with SLOANE a prime anxiety. - -[Sidenote: SLOANE’S SERVICES TO ARBORICULTURE.] - -The West Indian Voyage of 1687–89 had had, it may here be remarked, -other results besides that of exciting new emulation—at home and -abroad—in the study of natural history, and in the amassing in cabinets -and presses of the dried and preserved objects of that study. It gave a -marked impulse to arboriculture, both in England and in Ireland. What -SLOANE had to show, and to tell of, led to the sending oversea of -vessels expressly prepared for the transport of living trees; and -several noble ornaments of our parks and pleasure grounds date their -introduction to English and Irish soil from the expeditions so set on -foot. - - -The _Natural History of Jamaica_ excited considerable interest abroad, -as well as at home. [Sidenote: Corresp. of Sloane and Briasson; in MS. -Sloane, 4039, ff. 136–140.] Bernard de JUSSIEU offered to undertake the -editorship of a French translation, and BRIASSON, a Parisian bookseller -of some eminence, wrote to SLOANE that he was willing to incur the -charges and risk of publication, on condition that the author would send -the copper plates of the original work to Paris, for use in the new -edition. Sir Hans, however, objected to incur the risk of this -transmission across the channel, but was willing to have the needful -impression worked off in London; an arrangement to which the Parisian, -in his turn, was disinclined to assent, being of opinion—perhaps not -unjustly—that, in 1743, the art of copperplate printing was better -understood in Paris than in London. On these grounds the negotiation was -broken off. - -[Sidenote: GROWTH OF THE SLOANE MUSEUM.] - -Amidst these varied avocations, the growth of the library and museum -went on unceasingly. Friends and foes contributed, in turn, to its -enrichment. The year 1702 saw the incorporation with the original -gatherings of the West India voyage of the splendid collections of -COURTEN, the friend of SLOANE’S youth. In 1710, Sir Hans acquired the -valuable herbaria of his old assailant, Leonard PLUKENET. In 1718 he -purchased the extensive collections, in all departments of natural -history, of another friend of early years, James PETIVER. The herbarium -of Adam BUDDLE, a botanist little remembered now but of note in his -generation, came to SLOANE, as a token of friendship, from the death-bed -of its collector. [Sidenote: MS. Sloane, 4069, _passim_.] The scientific -possessions of Dr. Christopher MERRET were purchased from his son, and -from time to time, when valuable collections were known to be on sale -upon the Continent, agents went across to buy. - - -Of these numerous sources of augmentation the museum of PETIVER was next -in importance to that of COURTEN—but with a considerable interval. It is -said (in the contemporary correspondence, as I think) that its cost to -SLOANE was four thousand pounds. But remembering what four thousand -pounds was a hundred and fifty years ago, there is reason to suspect -some exaggeration in the statement. - -[Sidenote: THE NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS OF PETIVER.] - -James PETIVER, when Sir Hans first became acquainted with him, was -serving, as an apprentice, the then apothecary of St. Bartholomew’s -Hospital. He afterwards became apothecary to the Charter House. He had, -in one way or other, made for himself a singularly extensive -acquaintance amongst seafaring men; and by their help had established an -almost world-wide correspondence with people interested in natural -history, or possessed of special opportunities for gathering its -rarities. Of such rarities, SLOANE somewhere says, ‘He had procured, I -believe, a greater quantity than any man before him.’ But in course of -time his collections overpowered his means, or his industry, for the -work of preservation and arrangement. When, at the collector’s death, -they passed into the possession of his friend, choice specimens were -found, not in order, but in heaps. The due classification and ordering -occupied many hands during many months. - - -[Sidenote: SLOANE’S CORRESPONDENCE, AND HIS CHARITIES.] - -The charities of human life were not, in the breast of Sir Hans SLOANE, -choked either by the various allurements and preoccupations of science, -or by the ceaseless toils of a busy and anxious profession. He was a -very liberal giver, and also a discriminating and conscientious giver. I -have rarely seen a correspondence which mirrors more strikingly than -does that of SLOANE, a just and equable attention to multifarious and -often conflicting claims. - -The multiplicity of the claims was, indeed, as notable as was the -patience with which they were listened to. Not to dwell upon the -innumerable gropings after money of which, in one form or other, every -man who attains any sort of eminence is sure to have his share (but of -which Sir Hans SLOANE seems to have had a Benjamin’s portion) or upon -interminable requests for the use of influence, at Court, at the -Treasury, at the London Hospitals, at the Council Boards of the Royal -Society or of the College of Physicians, and elsewhere; his fame brought -upon him a mass of appeals and solicitations from utter strangers, -busied with less worldly aims and pursuits. Enthusiastic students of the -deep things of theology sought his opinion on abstruse and mystical -doctrines. Advocates of perpetual peace, and of the transformation, at a -breath, of the Europe of the eighteenth century into a new Garden of -Eden, implored him to endorse their theories, or to interpret their -dreams. - -His replies are sometimes both characteristic and amusing; none the less -so for the fact that his power of writing was, at all times, far beneath -his other mental powers and attainments. Now and then, though rarely, a -touch of humour lights up the homeliness of phrase. - -To one of the enthusiasts in mystic divinity, who had sent for his -perusal an enormous manuscript, he replied: ‘I am very much obliged for -the esteem you have of my knowledge, which, I am very sure, comes far -short of your opinion. [Sidenote: Sloane to Gabriel Nisbett, May, 1737, -MS. Sloane, 4069, f. 38.] As to the particular controversies on foot in -relation to Natural and Revealed Religion, and to Predestination, I am -no ways further concerned than to act as my own conscience directs me in -those matters; and am no judge for other people.... I have not time to -peruse the book you sent.’ - -To the worthy and once famous Abbé DE SAINT PIERRE, who would fain have -established with SLOANE a steady correspondence on the universal -amelioration of mankind, by means of a vast series of measures, -juridical, political, and politico-economical, which started from the -total abolition of vice and of war, and descended to the improvement of -road-making by some happy anticipation—a hundred years in advance—of our -own MACADAM, he wrote thus: ‘I should be very glad to see a general -Peace established, for ever. [Sidenote: Sloane to St. Pierre, MS. -Sloane, 4069, f. 44.] Rumours of war are often, indeed, found to be -baseless, and the fears of it, even when well grounded, are often -dissipated by an unlooked-for Providence. But poor mortals are often so -weak as to suffer, in their health, from the fear of danger, where there -is none!’ - -Letters on high themes like these had their frequent variety, in the -shape of proffers of contributions, to be made upon terms, for the -enlargement of the Museum, the fame of which had now spread into very -humble ranks of society. A single specimen in this kind will suffice: ‘I -understand,’ wrote a correspondent of a speculative turn, ‘you are a -great virtuoso, and gives a valuable consideration for novelties of -antiquity,’—on getting thus far in the perusal, one can imagine Sir Hans -murmuring ‘not willingly, I assure you,’—‘a pin has been many hundred -years in our family, and was, I am told, the pin of the first Saxon king -of the West Angles,’ and so on. - - -[Sidenote: ACQUISITION OF THE MANOR OF CHELSEA.] - -Until the year 1741, a few months after his resignation of the chair of -the Royal Society on the score of old age, Sir Hans SLOANE continued to -live chiefly in London; though often removing, for part of the summer -months, to his Manor House in the then charming suburb of Chelsea. He -had purchased that valuable manor, from the family of Cheyne, in 1714. -The fine old House abounded in historical recollections and amongst -them, as most readers will remember, in associations connected with the -memory of Sir Thomas MORE. It had the additional attraction of a large -and beautiful garden, close to that other garden in which the now Lord -of the Manor had pursued, with all the energies of youth, the study of -botany. One of his earliest acts of lordship had been a graceful gift to -the Company of Apothecaries, of the freehold in the land of which till -then they had been tenants. In 1741 he transferred his Museum and -Library from Bloomsbury to Chelsea. His former house—situated in Great -Russell Street, near the corner of what is now Bloomsbury Square—had -been capacious, but the new one admitted of a greatly improved -arrangement and display of the collections. - - -[Sidenote: A ROYAL VISIT TO THE SLOANE MUSEUM AT CHELSEA.] - -The state and character of the Sloane Museum, in the fullness to which -the collector had brought it during these latest years of his life, can -scarcely be exemplified better than in a contemporary account of a visit -which was paid to the Manor House at Chelsea by the Prince and Princess -of Wales, in the year 1748. I quote it, almost verbally, from the -_Gentleman’s Magazine_ of that year, but with some unimportant -omissions. - -[Sidenote: G. M., vol. xviii, pp. 301, 302. (July, 1748.)] - -At that date, the Manor House formed a square of above a hundred feet on -each side, enclosing a court. Three of the principal rooms were, on the -occasion of this royal visit, filled successively—as the visitors passed -from one room into another—with the finest portions of the collections -in its most portable departments. The minerals were first shown. The -tables were spread with drawers filled with all sorts of precious stones -in their natural beds, as they are found in the earth, except the first -table, which contained stones found in animals, such as pearls, bezoars, -and the like. Emeralds, topazes, amethysts, sapphires, garnets, rubies, -diamonds, ... with magnificent vessels of cornelian, onyx, sardonyx and -jasper, delighted the eye, says the attendant describer, and raised the -mind to praise the great Creator of all things. - -When their Royal Highnesses, continues our narrator, had viewed one -room, and went into another, the scene was shifted. When they returned, -the same tables were covered, for a second course, with all sorts of -jewels, polished and set after the modern fashion, and with gems carved -and engraved. For the third course, the tables were spread with gold and -silver ores, and with the most precious and remarkable ores used in the -dresses of men from Siberia to the Cape of Good Hope, from Japan to -Peru; and with both ancient and modern coins in gold and silver. - -The gallery, a hundred and ten feet in length, presented a ‘surprising -prospect.’ The most beautiful corals, crystals, and figured stones; the -most brilliant insects; shells, painted with as great variety as the -precious stones; and birds vying with the gems; diversified with remains -of the antediluvian world. - -Then a noble vista presented itself through several rooms filled with -books; among these were many hundred volumes of dried plants; a room, -full of choice and valuable manuscripts; and the rich present sent by -the French King to Sir Hans of the engravings of his collections of -paintings, medals, and statues, and of his Palaces, in twenty-five large -atlas volumes. - -Below stairs, some rooms were then shown, filled with the antiquities of -Egypt, Greece, Etruria, Rome, Britain, and even America; other rooms and -the Great Saloon were filled with preserved animals. The halls were -decorated with the horns of divers creatures. [Sidenote: G. M., vol. -xviii, pp. 301, 302. (July, 1748.)] ‘Fifty volumes in folio,’ concludes -the enthusiastic bystander who chronicled, for Mr. Sylvanus URBAN, the -royal visit of 1748, ‘would scarce suffice to contain a detail of this -immense Museum, consisting of above 200,000 articles.’ - -The Prince of WALES, on taking leave of his host, gave expression to a -wish which he did not live long enough to see realised. ‘It is a great -pleasure to me,’ he said, ‘to see so magnificent a collection in -England. It is an ornament to the Nation. Great honour would redound -from the establishing of it for public use, to the latest posterity.’ - -Plans, more or less definite, of perpetuating those collections for -public use had occasionally engaged their owner’s thoughts almost from -the date of his acquisition of the Museum of William COURTEN, in 1702. -[Sidenote: THE WILL AND CODICILS OF 1749–51.] In 1707, he had watched -with interest a scheme that had been set on foot for the formation of a -Public Library in London by combining the old Royal Collection with the -collections of Sir Robert COTTON and of the Royal Society.[51] But that -scheme failed of execution, until, almost half a century later, it was, -in the main, revived and carried out as the indirect but very natural -consequence of his own testamentary dispositions. - -His Will, in its first form, was made at Chelsea in 1748, but was -replaced on the 10th July, 1749, by the following codicil:— - -[Sidenote: THE TESTAMENTARY DISPOSAL OF THE COURTEN AND SLOANE MUSEUM.] - -‘Whereas I have in and by my said Will given some directions about the -sale and disposition of my Museum, or collection of rarities herein more -particularly mentioned, now I do hereby revoke my said Will, as far as -relates thereto, and I do direct and appoint concerning the same in the -following manner: Having had from my youth a strong inclination to the -study of plants and all other productions of nature, and having through -the course of many years, with great labour and expense, gathered -together whatever could be procured either in our own or foreign -countries that was rare and curious; and being fully convinced that -nothing tends more to raise our ideas of the power, wisdom, goodness, -providence, and other perfections of the Deity, or more to the comfort -and well being of his creatures, than the enlargement of our knowledge -of the works of nature, I do will and desire that for the promoting of -these noble ends, the glory of God, and the good of man, my collection -in all its branches may be, if possible, kept and preserved together -whole and entire, in my Manor House in the Parish of Chelsea, situate -near the Physic Garden given by me to the Company of Apothecaries for -the same purposes; and having great reliance that the right honourable, -honourable, and other persons hereafter named, will be influenced by the -same principles and [will] faithfully and conscientiously discharge the -trust hereby reposed in them, I do give, devise, and bequeath, unto the -Rt. Hon. Charles Sloane CADOGAN ... [_and to forty-nine other persons -whose names follow_,] all that my Collection or Museum at, in, or about, -my Manor House at Chelsea aforesaid, which consists of too great a -variety to be particularly described, but ... which are more -particularly described, mentioned, and numbered, with short histories or -accounts of them, with proper references, in certain catalogues by me -made, containing thirty-eight volumes in folio, and eight volumes in -quarto,—except such framed pictures as are not marked with the word -“_Collection_”—to have and to hold to them and their successors and -assigns for ever, ... upon the trusts, and for the uses and -purposes, ... hereafter particularly specified concerning the same. - -‘And for rendering this my intention more effectual that the said -Collection may be preserved and continued entire in its utmost -perfection and regularity, and being assured that nothing will conduce -more to this than placing the same under the direction and care of -learned, experienced, and judicious persons who are above all low and -mean views, I do earnestly desire that the King, H.R.H. the Prince of -WALES, H.R.H. William, Duke of CUMBERLAND, the Archbishop of CANTERBURY -for the time being ... [Sidenote: _Authentic Copies_, &c. (B. M.) 17, p. -12.] [_and twenty-eight others, being chiefly great Officers of State_] -will condescend so far as to act and be Visitors of my said Museum and -Collection; and I do hereby, with their leave, nominate and appoint them -Visitors thereof, with full power and authority for any five or more of -them to enter my said Collection or Museum, at any time or times, to -peruse, supervise, and examine, the same, and the management thereof, -and to visit, correct, and reform, from time to time, as there may be -occasion, either jointly with the said Trustees or separately—upon -application to them for that purpose, or otherwise—all abuses, defects, -neglects or mismanagements, that may happen to arise therein, or -touching and concerning the person or persons, officer or officers, that -are or shall be appointed to attend the same. - -‘And my will is and I do hereby request and desire that the said -Trustees, or any seven or more of them, do make their humble application -to His Majesty, or to Parliament at the next session after my -decease,—as shall be thought most proper,—in order to pay the full and -clear sum of twenty thousand pounds unto my executors or to the -survivors of them, in consideration of the said Collection or Museum; it -not being, as I apprehend or believe, a fourth of their real and -intrinsic value; and also to obtain such effectual powers and -authorities for vesting in the said Trustees all and every part of my -said Collection, ... and also my said capital Manor-House, with such -gardens and outhouses as shall thereunto belong and be used by me at the -time of my decease, in which it is my desire that the same shall be kept -and preserved; and also the water of or belonging to my Manor of Chelsea -coming from Kensington, or right of patronage of the Church of Chelsea; -to the end the same premises may be absolutely vested in the said -Trustees for the preserving and continuing my said Museum in such manner -as they shall think most likely to answer the public benefit by me -intended, and also obtain, as aforesaid, a sufficient fund and provision -for maintaining and supporting my said Manor House, ... to be vested in -the said Trustees for ever.... [Sidenote: _Authentic Copies_, &c. (B. -M.) 17, p. 12.] And it is also my will and desire that all such other -powers ... may be added or vested as well in the said intended Trustees -as in the Visitors hereby appointed, as shall by the Legislature be -thought most proper and convenient for the better management, order, and -care, of my said Collection and premises.’ - -Provision is then made, in subsequent clauses of this codicil, for the -replacement, by the Trustees surviving, from time to time, of vacancies -occasioned by death in the ranks of the Trustees first appointed; and by -surviving Visitors of vacancies so occasioned in those of the original -Visitors. - -[Sidenote: LATER CODICILS.] - -In September, 1750, another codicil added to the list of Visitors—in -order to supply vacancies which death had already wrought—the Earls of -MACCLESFIELD and SHELBURNE, and the then Master of the Rolls, Sir John -STRANGE, with proviso of succession for the Master of the Rolls of the -time being. Sir John BERNARD, Sir William CALVERT, and Mr. Slingsby -BETHEL were, in like manner, added to the roll of Trustees. The same -codicil excepted the advowson of the Rectory of Chelsea from the bequest -of 1749, and annexed it to the lordship of the Manor. - -By his marriage with the daughter and heiress of Mr. LANGLEY, an -Alderman of London, Sir Hans SLOANE had issue two daughters, but no son. -The elder of the daughters, Sarah SLOANE, married George STANLEY, of -Poultons, in Hampshire; the younger, Elizabeth, married Lord CADOGAN. By -the representatives of those co-heiresses the large inheritance was -eventually enjoyed. - -A subsequent codicil of 1751, added nine other Trustees, five of whom -were distinguished foreigners. Among the four English names are those of -John HAMPDEN (‘twenty-fourth hereditary lord of Great Hampden,’ and last -lineal male descendant of that famous stock) and William SOTHEBY. - - -[Sidenote: THE CLOSING YEARS.] - -The declining years of a man to whom had been given, not only unusual -length of days, but an unusual span both of bodily and of mental vigour, -so that he remained in the rank of busy men until he had passed his -eightieth year, were necessarily days of seclusion. He had enjoyed not -only the honours[52] and the comforts, but the troop of friends which -should accompany old age. Yet a man who reaches the age of ninety-two -must needs lose the friends of his maturity, as well as the friends of -his youth. Sir Hans SLOANE, in the old Manor House of Chelsea, had -something of the experience which made a famous statesman of our own -day, who was loth to leave the stir of London life, say—with a sigh—‘I -see all the world passing my windows, but few come in.’ - -His chief recreations, in those latest years, lay in the continued -examination of the stores of nature and of art which never palled upon -his capacity of enjoyment, and in the regular weekly visit of a much -younger man, who was very conversant in the busy world without; who -could talk, and talk well, alike upon public events, upon the novelties -of science, and upon the gossip of the coffee-houses and the clubs. This -friend of old age was George EDWARDS, a naturalist of considerable -acquirements, and the author of some _Essays on Natural History_ which -are still worth reading. - -SLOANE’S mental vigour long outlived his power of bodily locomotion. For -years he could move from room to room, or on very bright days from room -to garden, only by the aid of an invalid chair. In other respects, his -health gave a weighty sanction to the counsel which he had been wont to -give, not infrequently, in lieu of an invited but superfluous -prescription. ‘I advise you’ he would say, ‘to what I practice myself. I -never take physic when I am well. When I am ill, I take little, and only -such as has been very well tried.’ - -The end of a bright, abundant, and most useful life, came at the -beginning of the year 1753. On the tenth of January, George EDWARDS -found him rapidly sinking, and suffering greatly. On the eleventh he -found him at the point of death. ‘I continued with him,’ he wrote, -‘later than any one of his relatives. But I was obliged to retire—his -last agonies being beyond what I could bear; although, under his pain -and weakness of body, he seemed to retain a great firmness of mind and -resignation to the will of God.’ He was buried at Chelsea, in the same -vault in which, twenty-eight years before, he had buried his wife. - - -[Sidenote: SYNOPTICAL TABLES OF THE SLOANE MUSEUM.] - -This indefatigable collector had continued to enrich his Museum with new -accessions as long as he lived. We have the means of estimating its -growth—as regards mere numbers, of course—by comparing a synoptical -table drawn up in 1725—for the purpose of showing to certain grumblers -what had been the nature and aim of those avocations which had delayed -the completion of the _Natural History of Jamaica_—with another table -drawn up by his Trustees immediately after his death. - -The comparison of numbers shows that the twenty thousand two hundred and -twenty-eight coins and medals of 1725 had grown, in 1752, to thirty-two -thousand. Other antiquities had increased from eight hundred and -twenty-four to two thousand six hundred and thirty-five. The minerals -and fossils had increased from about three thousand to five thousand -eight hundred and twenty-two specimens. The botanical collection which, -in 1725, had numbered eight thousand two hundred and twenty-six -specimens, together with a _Hortus Siccus_ of two hundred volumes, had -become in 1752 twelve thousand five hundred specimens, with a _Hortus -Siccus_ of three hundred and thirty-four volumes. The other natural -history collections had increased on the average by more than one half. -The details are as follows:— - - ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ - │ Volumes in Volumes in │ - │ =1725=. =1753=. │ - │ │ - │ 2,686 1. MANUSCRIPTS 3,516│ - │ 136 2. DRAWINGS 347│ - │ 3. PRINTED BOOKS about 40,000│ - │ 200 4. HORTUS SICCUS 334│ - │ │ - │ Specimens in Specimens in │ - │ =1725=. =1753=. │ - │ │ - │ 20,228 5. MEDALS and COINS 32,000│ - │ 302 6. ANTIQUITIES 1,125│ - │ 81* 7. SEALS, &c. 268│ - │ 441* 8. CAMEOS and INTAGLIOS about 700│ - │ 1,394 9. PRECIOUS STONES 2,256│ - │ │ - │ [*See under No. 10. VESSELS OF AGATE, JASPER, &c. │ - │ 8.] 542│ - │ 1,025 11. CRYSTALS, SPARS, &c. 1,864│ - │ 730 12. FOSSILS, &c. 1,275│ - │ 1,394 13. METALS and MINERAL ORES 2,725│ - │ 536 14. EARTHS, SANDS, SALTS, &c. 1,035│ - │ 249 15. BITUMENS, SULPHURS, &c. 399│ - │ 169 16. TALCS, MICÆ, &c. 388│ - │ 3,753 17. SHELLS 5,843│ - │ 804 18. CORALS, SPONGES, &c. 1,421│ - │ 486 19. ECHINI, ECHINITES, &c. 659│ - │ 183 20. ASTERIÆ, TROCHI, &c. 241│ - │ 263 21. CRUSTACEA 363│ - │ 22. STELLÆ MARINÆ 173│ - │ 1,007 23. FISHES, and their parts 1,555│ - │ 753 24. BIRDS, and their parts 1,172│ - │ 345 25. VIPERS, &c. 521│ - │ 1,194 26. QUADRUPEDS 1,886│ - │ 3,824 27. INSECTS 5,439│ - │ 507 28. ANATOMICAL PREPARATIONS, &c. 756│ - │ 8,226 29. VEGETABLES 12,506│ - │ 1,169 30. MISCELLANEOUS THINGS 2,098│ - │ 319 31. PICTURES and DRAWINGS, framed 310│ - │ 54 32. MATHEMATICAL INSTRUMENTS 55│ - └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ - -On the 27th January—sixteen days after Sir Hans’ death—about forty of -the Trustees named in the Will met at Chelsea, to confer with the -Executors. Lord CADOGAN produced the Will and its Codicils. By these, -should the bequest and its additions be accepted, the manor house and -land, together with the collection in its existing state and -arrangement, would be given to the Public. This, said Lord CADOGAN, will -save the hazard and expense of removal. Mr. William SLOANE then informed -the Trustees that the Executors had thought it prudent temporarily to -remove the medals of gold and silver, the precious stones, gems, and -vases, to the Bank of England, in order to ensure their present safety. - -The Earl of MACCLESFIELD was then placed in the chair. A synopsis of the -contents of the Museum was read by Mr. James EMPSON, who had acted as -its curator for many years. Mr. EMPSON was appointed to act as Secretary -to the Trustees, and a form of Memorial to be addressed to the King, in -order to the carrying out of the trusts of the Will, was agreed upon. - -The Memorial had—eventually—the desired effect. [Sidenote: THE ACT FOR -ESTABLISHING THE BRITISH MUSEUM.] It led, in the course of the year -1753, to the passing of an Act of Parliament—26 GEORGE II, chapter -22—which is entitled _An Act for the purchase of the_ Museum or -Collection of Sir Hans SLOANE, _and of the_ Harleian Collection of -Manuscripts, _and for providing one General Repository for the better -reception and more convenient use of the said Collections, and of the_ -Cottonian Library, _and of the additions thereto_. - -The Act recites the tenour of the testamentary dispositions made by Sir -Hans SLOANE. It also recites that a provisional assent had been given by -his Trustees to the removal of his Museum from the Manor House of -Chelsea ‘to any proper place within the Cities of London and -Westminster, or the suburbs thereof, if such removal shall be judged -most advantageous to the Public.’ - -The Act then proceeds to declare that, ‘Whereas, all arts and sciences -have a connexion with each other, and discoveries in natural philosophy -and other branches of speculative knowledge,’ for the advancement -whereof the Museum was intended, may, in many instances, give help to -useful experiments and inventions, ‘therefore, to the end that the said -Museum may be preserved and maintained, not only for the inspection and -entertainment of the learned and the curious, but for the general use -and benefit of the Public,’ it is enacted by Parliament that the sum of -twenty thousand pounds shall be paid to the Executors of Sir Hans -SLOANE, in full satisfaction for his said Museum. - -In this Statute, also, the preceding original Act for the public -establishment of the Cottonian Library (12th and 13th of WILLIAM III, c. -7), together with the subsequent Act on that subject (5th ANNE, c. 30), -are severally recited, and it is declared as follows:— - -[Sidenote: FURTHER PROVISIONS OF THE ACT OF INCORPORATION.] - -First, ‘Although the public faith hath been thus engaged to provide for -the better reception and more convenient use of the Cottonian Library, a -proper repository for that purpose hath not yet been prepared, for the -want of which the said Library did ... suffer by a fire;’ - -And secondly, ‘Arthur EDWARDS, late of Saint George’s, Hanover Square, -in the county of Middlesex, Esquire, being desirous to preserve for the -public use the said Cottonian Library, and to prevent the like accident -for the future, bequeathed the sum of seven thousand pounds’—after the -occurrence of a certain contingent event—for the purpose either of -erecting, ‘in a proper situation, such a house as might be most likely -to preserve that Library from all accidents, or—in the event of the -performance by the Public, before the falling out of the contingency -above mentioned, of that duty to which it already stood pledged by Act -of Parliament, then—for the purpose of purchasing such manuscripts, -books of antiquities, ancient coins, medals, and other curiosities, as -might be worthy to increase the Cottonian Library aforesaid;’ to which -end the same public benefactor further bequeathed his own library. - -In order therefore to give due effect, at length, both to the primary -donation of Sir John COTTON, and to the additional benefaction made -thereto by Major Arthur EDWARDS, Parliament now enacted that a general -repository should be provided for the several collections of COTTON, -EDWARDS, and SLOANE, and that Major EDWARDS’ legacy of money should be -paid to the Trustees created by the new Act, in accordance with the -provisions heretofore recited in Sir Hans SLOANE’S codicil of 1749. - -[Sidenote: THE SERVICES OF MR. SPEAKER ONSLOW IN THE FORMATION OF THE - BRITISH MUSEUM.] - -It is to the exertions, at this time, of Arthur ONSLOW, the then Speaker -of the House of Commons, that historical students owe their debt of -gratitude for the preservation of the Harleian Manuscripts from that -dispersion,—abroad as well as at home,—which befel the Harleian printed -books. - -When the Memorial of SLOANE’S Trustees was first presented to GEORGE THE -SECOND, he received it with the stolid indifference to all matters -bearing upon science and mental culture, which was as saliently -characteristic of that king as were his grosser vices. ‘I don’t think -there are twenty thousand pounds in the Treasury,’ was the remark with -which he dismissed the proposal. Money could be found, indeed, for very -foolish purposes, and for very base ones. And the bareness of the -Treasury was, very often, the natural result of the profligacy of the -Court. But, in 1753, it was a fact. - -Save for Speaker ONSLOW’S exertions, the Memorial would have fared -little better in Parliament than at Court. The then Premier, Henry -PELHAM, was not unfriendly to the scheme, nor was he, like his royal -master, a man of sordid nature; but a Minister who was every now and -then obliged to write to his ambassadors abroad, even in the crisis of -important negotiations, ‘I have ordered you a part of your last year’s -appointments, but we are so poor that I can do no more,’ could hardly be -eager to provide forty or fifty thousand pounds for the purchase of a -new Museum and the safety of an old Library. - -[Sidenote: 1753. _Commons’ Journals_, March 19, seqq.] - -ONSLOW proposed—eventually—as a means of overcoming these difficulties, -that a sum of money should be raised by a public lottery, and that it -should be large enough to effect not only the immediate objects -contemplated by the Will of Sir Hans SLOANE, and by the prior public -establishment of Sir Robert COTTON’S Library, but to purchase for a like -purpose the noble series of Manuscripts which had passed (just eleven -years before SLOANE’S death) to the executors of the last Earl of -OXFORD, in trust for his widow, the Dowager Countess, and for his -daughter, the Duchess of PORTLAND. - -Edward, Earl of OXFORD, had stood at one period of his life, in the rank -of the wealthiest of Englishmen. He was the owner of estates worth some -four or five hundred thousand pounds. He was, too, a man of highly -intellectual and studious tastes; but, in his case, a magnificent style -of living, great generosity, and excessive trust in dependants, did what -is more usually the work of huge folly or of gross sins; they brought -him into circumstances which, for his position in life, might almost be -called those of poverty. But for this comparative impoverishment, his -own act—it is more than probable—would have secured to posterity the -enjoyment, in its entirety, of the splendid library he had inherited and -increased. - -To the proposal of a lottery there was much solid objection. What were -then called ‘parliamentary lotteries’ had been introduced expressly to -put down those private lotteries, common in the sixteenth and -seventeenth centuries, which had been fraught with mischief. It was -hoped, or pretended, that a ‘regulated’ evil would be reduced within -tolerable limits, whilst bringing grist to the national mill. But the -forty years that had passed since the first parliamentary lottery of -1709 had shown that the system was essentially and incurably -mischievous. PELHAM was averse to its continuance. As First Lord of the -Treasury, it was his poverty, not his will, that consented to the -adoption of so questionable an expedient for the purchase of the SLOANE -Collections. He had not, individually, any such love of learning as -might have induced an appeal to Parliament to set, for once, an example -of liberal and far-sighted legislation. He merely stipulated that some -stringent provisos should be put into the Act, directed against the -nefarious practices of the lottery-jobbers. - -[Sidenote: THE LOTTERY OF 1753 FOR THE PURCHASE OF THE SLOANE AND - HARLEIAN COLLECTIONS.] - -Eventually, it was enacted that there should be a hundred thousand -shares, at three pounds a share; that two hundred thousand pounds should -be allotted as prizes, and that the remaining hundred thousand—less the -expenses of the lottery itself—should be applied to the threefold -purposes of the Act, namely, the purchase of the SLOANE and HARLEIAN -Collections; the providing of a Repository; and the creation of an -annual income for future maintenance. - - -By the precautionary clauses of the Bill, provision was made for the -prolonged sale of shares; for the prevention of the purchase by any one -adventurer of more than twenty shares, or ‘tickets,’ and for other -impediments, as it was thought, to a fraudulent traffic in the combined -covetousness and ignorance of the unwary. - -All these precautions proved to be vain. Mr. PELHAM’S opposition was -abundantly justified by the result. Fraud proved to be, in that age, -just as inseparable an element in a Lottery scheme, however good its -purpose, as fraud has proved to be, in this age, an inseparable element -(at one stage or other of the business) in a Railway scheme,—however -useful the line proposed to be made. - -It thus came to pass that the foundation of the BRITISH MUSEUM gave rise -to a great public scandal. When evidence was produced that many families -had been brought to misery, as the first incident in the annals of a -beneficent and noble foundation, a somewhat dull Session of Parliament -was suddenly enlivened by an animated and angry debate. - -[Sidenote: THE PROSECUTION OF LEHEUP FOR HIS DEALINGS WITH THE MUSEUM - LOTTERY.] - -The provident clauses in the Lottery Act of 1753 were made of no effect, -mainly by entrusting the chief share in working the Act to an -accomplished jobber. One Peter LEHEUP was made a Commissioner of the -Lottery. This man had held some employment or other at Hanover, from -which he had been recalled with circumstances of disgrace. [Sidenote: -1753. December.] It is to be inferred, from the way in which his name -points an epigrammatic phrase in one of the letters of BOLINGBROKE,[53] -and in more than one of those of Horace WALPOLE, that it had come, long -before this appointment took place, to have a sort of proverbial -currency, like the names of ‘CURLL’ or of ‘CHARTRES.’ But, be that as it -may, Mr. Commissioner LEHEUP set on foot as thriving and as flagitious a -traffic in SLOANE lottery tickets, as was ever set on foot in railway -shares by a clever promoter of our own day. He wrote circular letters -instructing his correspondents how most effectually to evade the Act. He -sold nearly three hundred tickets to a single dealer by furnishing him -with a list of ‘Roes’ and ‘Does,’ ‘Gileses’ and ‘Stileses’ at -discretion. He supplied himself, with equal liberality; and contrived to -close the subscription, after an actual publicity of exactly six -hours—for the issue of one hundred thousand tickets. In a few days, of -course, tickets in abundance were to be had, at sixteen shillings -premium upon each, and in what looked to be a still rising market. The -trap proved to be brilliantly ‘successful.’ - -The subsequent explosion of parliamentary anger was rather increased -than lessened by an attempt of Henry FOX (afterwards the first Lord -Holland) to extenuate LEHEUP’S offence by some arguments of the ‘_Tu -quoque_’ sort. By a great majority, the House of Commons sent up an -address praying the King to direct his Attorney General to prosecute the -chief offender, who was accordingly convicted and fined a thousand -pounds. It is not uninstructive to note that Horace WALPOLE—himself one -of the SLOANE Trustees—treats the matter in one of his letters exactly -in the offhand man-of-the-world style in which Henry FOX had treated it -in the House of Commons.[54] - -By this unfortunate episode, the name of one of the best of Englishmen -was brought into a sort of momentary connection with the name of one of -the worst. But the chief discredit of the story does not really rest -upon LEHEUP. A private citizen, of moderate means, had been willing to -expend seventy or eighty thousand pounds—besides an inestimable amount -of labour and research—upon an object essentially and largely public. -Yet a British Parliament could not summon up enough of public spirit to -tax its own members, in common with their tax-paying fellow subjects -throughout the realm, to the extent of a hundred thousand pounds, in -order to meet an obvious public want, to redeem an actual parliamentary -pledge, and to secure a conspicuous national honour for all time to -come. That want of public spirit did not exhaust its results with the -ruin of the poor families, scattered here and there, whose scanty means -had been hazarded and lost by gambling, under a parliamentary -temptation. It impressed itself, so to speak, on the subsequent history -of the institution for more than forty years. The Museum had been -founded grudgingly. It was kept up parsimoniously. - -Had that fact been otherwise, the story of the knavery of Peter LEHEUP -would have little merited recital a century after it, and he, had passed -into oblivion. - -The value of so small an incident in the crowded story of our National -Museum lies simply in the fact that it forms a just and salient -illustration of the narrowness of spirit with which the then -representatives of the people received the liberal gift of public -benefactors. It serves to show why it was that, from the year 1753 down -to some years after 1800, the History of the British Museum casts very -little honour on Britain as a nation, whereas the precedent history of -its integral parts, as separate and infant collections, casts, and will -long continue to cast, great honour on the memory of the COTTONS, the -HARLEYS, and the SLOANES, by whom they were painfully gathered and most -liberally dispensed. - - -Happily, as the course of this narrative—whatever its -shortcomings—cannot fail to show, the literary and scientific treasures -which men of that stamp had collected, came, in a subsequent generation -(and, in a chief measure, by dint of the exertions of the Trustees and -Officers to whom they had been, in course of time, confided) to be more -adequately estimated by Ministers and by Parliament in their public -capacity, as well as by the more cultivated portion of the people -generally. For more than a half-century past the History of the British -Museum has been one that any Briton may take delight and pride in -telling. And such it promises to be, preeminently, in the time yet to -come. In a conspicuous sense, the men by whom it was first founded, and -the men by whom, for what is now a long time past, it has been -administered and governed, have alike been true workers for Posterity. - - - - - BOOK THE SECOND. - - _THE ORGANIZERS, AND EARLY AUGMENTORS._ - - - - - _CONTENTS OF BOOK II_:— - - - CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.—EARLY HISTORY OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. - - II. A GROUP OF ARCHÆOLOGISTS AND CLASSICAL EXPLORERS. - - III. THE COLLECTORS OF THE CRACHERODE, LANSDOWNE, BURNEY, AND - EGERTON LIBRARIES, AND OF THE APPENDANT COLLECTIONS. - - IV. THE KING’S LIBRARY—ITS COLLECTOR AND ITS DONOR. - - V. THE FOUNDER OF THE BANKSIAN MUSEUM AND LIBRARY. - -“The King made this Ordinance:—That there should be a mission of three -of the brethren of Solomon’s House, whose errand was only to give us -knowledge of the affairs and state of those countries to which they were -designed, and especially of the Sciences ... and Inventions of all the -World; and withal to bring us books, instruments, and patterns in every -kind.... - -“We have also precious stones, of all kinds; many of them of great -beauty.... Also, store of fossils.... But we do hate all impostures and -lies, insomuch as we have severally forbidden it to all our fellows, -under pain of ignominy or fines, that they do not show any natural work -or thing adorned or swelling, but only pure as it is, without -affectation of showing marvels.... - -“We have also those who take care to consider of the former labours and -Collections, and out of them to direct new explorations ... more -penetrating into Nature than the former.... Upon every invention of -value we erect a statue to the inventor, and give him a liberal and -honourable reward. - -“We have hymns and services, which we say daily, of laud and thanks to -GOD for His marvellous works, and forms of prayer imploring His blessing -for the illumination of our labours.”—BACON, ‘_New Atlantis, a Work -unfinished_.’ - - - - - CHAPTER I. - INTRODUCTORY. - - ‘A Museum of Nature does not aim, like one of Art, merely to charm - the eye and gratify the sense of beauty and of grace. - - ‘As the purpose of a Museum of Natural History is to ... impart and - diffuse that knowledge which begets the right spirit in which all - Nature should be viewed, there ought to be no partiality for any - particular class, merely on account of the quality which catches and - pleases the passing gaze. Such a Museum should subserve the - instruction of a People; and should also afford objects of study and - comparison to professed Naturalists, so as to serve as an instrument - in the progress of Science.’— - - RICHARD OWEN, _On a National Museum of Natural History_, pp. 10; 11; - 115. - - _Househunting.—The Removal of the Sloane Museum from - Chelsea.—Montagu House, and its History.—The Early Trustees - and Officers.—The Museum Regulations.—Early Helpers in the - Foundation and Increase of the British Museum.—Epochs in the - Growth of the Natural History Collections.—Experiences of - Inquiring Visitors in the years 1765–1784._ - - -[Sidenote: BOOK II, Chap. 1 EARLY HISTORY OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM.] - -The practical good sense which had always been a marked characteristic -in the life of Sir Hans SLOANE is seen just as plainly in those -clauses of his Will by which he leaves much latitude, in respect of -means and agencies, to the discretion of his Executors and Trustees. -It is seen, for example, when, after reciting some views of his own as -to the methods by which his Museum should be maintained for public -use, he adds the proviso—‘in such manner as they (the Trustees) shall -think most likely to answer the public benefit by me intended.’ He had -a love for the old Manor House at Chelsea, and contemplated, as it -seems, with some special complacency, the maintenance there of the -Collections which had added so largely to the pleasures of his own -fruitful life. But he was careful not to tie down his Trustees to the -continuance of the Museum at Chelsea, as a condition of his bounty. -They were at liberty to assent to its removal, should the balance of -public advantage seem to them to point towards removal. - -Chelsea was in that day a quiet suburban village, distant from the -heart of London. As the site of a Museum it had many advantages, but -it was, comparatively and to the mass of visitors and students, a long -way off. The Trustees assented to a generally expressed opinion that -whilst the new institution ought not to be placed in any of the -highways of traffic, it ought to be nearer to them than it would be, -if continued in its then abode. - -[Sidenote: Edmund, Duke of Buckingham, to Duke of Shrewsbury.] - -One of the first places offered for their choice was the old -Buckingham House (now the royal palace). It was already a large and -handsome structure. The charm of its position, at that time, was not -unduly boasted of in the golden letters of the inscription conspicuous -upon its entablature— - - ‘_Sic siti lætantur lares._’ - -Its prospects, as described not very long before by the late ducal -owner, ‘presented to view at once a vast town, a palace, and a -cathedral, on one side; and, on the other sides, two parks, and a -great part of Surrey.’ Its fine gardens ended in ‘a little wilderness, -full of blackbirds and nightingales.’ Yet it was close to the Court -end of the town. But the price was thirty thousand pounds. - -Another offer was that of Montagu House at Bloomsbury. Less charmingly -placed, and architecturally less striking in appearance than was its -rival, both its situation and its plan were better fitted for the -purposes of a public Museum. [Sidenote: MONTAGU HOUSE AND ITS -HISTORY.] It stood, it is true, on the extreme verge of the London of -that day. Northward, there was nothing between it and the distant -village of Highgate, save an expanse of fields and hedgerows. And for -a long distance, both to the east and the west, no part of London had -yet spread beyond it, except an outlying hospital or two. But there -were already indications that the town would extend in that northerly -direction, more quickly than in almost any other. The house had seven -and-a-half acres of garden and shrubberies; and its price was but ten -thousand, two hundred and fifty pounds. - -Montagu House had been built about sixty years before for Ralph -MONTAGU, first Duke of Montagu. A spacious court separated the house -from Great Russell Street, towards which it presented to view only a -screen of pannelled brickwork, having a massive gateway and cupola in -the centre, and turreted wings, masking the domestic offices, at -either end. The house itself was rather stately than beautiful, but -its chief rooms and its grand staircase were elaborately painted by -the best French artists of the day. And the appendant offices were -more than usually extensive. - -It stood on the site of a structure of much greater architectural -pretensions, erected for the same owner, only twelve years before, -from the designs of Robert HOOKE. That first Montagu House had been -burned to the ground. - -The offer of Montagu House was accepted by the Trustees and approved -by the Government. It was found needful to make considerable -alterations in order to adapt the building to its new uses. This -outlay increased the eventual cost of the mansion, and of its -appliances and fittings, to somewhat more than twenty-three thousand -pounds. The adaptation, with the removal and re-arrangement of the -Collections, occupied nearly five years. It was not until the -beginning of the year 1759 that the Museum was opened for public -inspection. When removed to Bloomsbury, it was but brought back to -within a few hundred yards of its first abode. - - -[Sidenote: CONSTITUTION OF THE MUSEUM TRUST.] - -We have seen that according to the plan for the government of the -institution which SLOANE had sketched in his Codicil of July, 1749, -there would have been a Board of Visitors as well as a Board of -Trustees. But, by the foundation Statute, enacted in 1753, both of -these Boards were incorporated into one. Forty-one Trustees were -constituted, with full powers of management and control. Six of these -were representatives of the several families of COTTON, HARLEY, and -SLOANE, the head, or nearest in lineal succession, of each family -having the nomination, from time to time, of such representatives or -‘Family Trustees,’ when, by death or otherwise, vacancies should -occur. Twenty were ‘Official’ Trustees, in accordance, so far, with -SLOANE’S scheme for the constitution of his Board of Visitors; and by -these two classes, conjointly, the other fifteen Trustees were to be -elected. - -The Official Trustees were to be the holders for the time being of the -following offices:—(1) The Archbishop of Canterbury, (2) the Lord -Chancellor, (3) the Speaker of the House of Commons, (4) the Lord -President of the Council, (5) the First Lord of the Treasury, (6) the -Lord Privy Seal, (7) the First Lord of the Admiralty, (8 and 9) the -Secretaries of State, (10) the Lord Steward, (11) the Lord -Chamberlain, (12) the Bishop of London, (13) the Chancellor of the -Exchequer, (14) the Lord Chief Justice of England, (15) the Master of -the Rolls, (16) the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, (17) the -Attorney-General, (18) the Solicitor-General, (19) the President of -the Royal Society, (20) the President of the College of Physicians. - -[Sidenote: Act of 26 Geo. II, c. 22, Clauses 4–8.] - -To the first three of these Official Trustees Parliament entrusted the -appointment, from time to time, of all the Officers of the Museum, -except the Principal Librarian, who is to be appointed by the Crown, -on the nomination of the ‘Principal Trustees,’ as the first three -Trustees—the Archbishop, Chancellor, and Speaker—have always been -called. - - -The following fifteen persons were the first _elected_ Trustees, under -the Act of 1753:—The Duke of Argyle, the Earl of Northumberland, Lord -Willoughby of Parham, Lord Charles Cavendish, the Honourable Philip -Yorke, Sir George Lyttelton, Sir John Evelyn, James West, Nicholas -Hardinge, William Sloane, William Sotheby, Charles Grey, the Reverend -Dr. Thomas Birch, James Ward, and William Watson. [Sidenote: Records -of British Museum, in MS. ADDIT., 6179.] The first meeting of the -Trustees under the Act was held at the Cockpit, Whitehall, on the 17th -of December, 1753. - -The first ‘Principal Librarian’[55] was Dr. Gowin KNIGHT, a member of -the College of Physicians, and eminent, in his day, as a cultivator of -experimental science. Some magnetic apparatus of his construction and -gift was placed in the Museum soon after its opening, and attracted, -in its day, much attention. He received the appointment after a keen -competition with the more widely-known physician and botanist, Sir -John HILL. The first three ‘Keepers of Departments’ were Dr. Matthew -MATY, Dr. Charles MORTON, and Mr. James EMPSON. Dr. KNIGHT retained -his post until 1772. - -MATY and MORTON succeeded in turn to the office of Principal -Librarian, and their respective services will have a claim to notice -hereafter. EMPSON had been the valued servant and friend of Sir Hans -SLOANE. He is the only officer whose name appears in SLOANE’S Will. He -had served him as Keeper of the Museum at Chelsea for many years. - - -There is, in one of the letters of Horace WALPOLE to Sir Horace MANN, -an amusing account of an initiatory meeting of the original Trustees, -held prior to their formal constitution by Parliament. It is marked by -the writer’s usual superciliousness towards all hobbies, except the -dilettante hobby which he himself was wont to ride so hard. ‘I employ -my time chiefly, at present,’ he wrote to MANN, in February, 1753, ‘in -the guardianship of embryos and cockle shells. Sir Hans SLOANE valued -his Museum at eighty thousand pounds, and so would anybody who loves -hippopotamuses, sharks with one ear, and spiders as big as geese.... -We are a charming wise set—all Philosophers, Botanists, Antiquarians, -and Mathematicians—and adjourned our first meeting because Lord -MACCLESFIELD, our Chairman, was engaged in a party for finding out the -Longitude.’ - -‘One of our number,’ continues WALPOLE, ‘is a Moravian, who signs -himself “Henry XXVIII, Count de REUSS.” The Moravians have settled a -colony at Chelsea, in Sir Hans’ neighbourhood, and I believe he -intended to beg Count Henry the Twenty-Eighth’s skeleton for his -Museum.’ This distinguished foreigner does not appear in the -parliamentary list. - -The Chairman of the preliminary meeting so airily described by -WALPOLE, continued, under the definitive constitution of the Trust, to -take a leading part in its administration. It appears to have been by -Lord MACCLESFIELD that the original ‘Statutes and Bye-laws’ of the -Museum, or many of them, were drafted.’ - -[Sidenote: THE REGULATIONS FOR ADMISSION AND STUDY.] - -In the form in which they were first issued, in 1759, these statutes -directed that the Museum should ‘be kept open every day in the week, -except Saturday and Sunday.’ [Sidenote: 1759–1803.] For the greater -part of the year the public hours were from nine o’clock in the -morning until three o’clock in the afternoon. On certain days, in the -summer months, the open hours were from four o’clock in the afternoon -until eight—so as to meet the requirements of persons actively engaged -in business during the early part of the day. But the publicity was -hampered by a system of admission-tickets which had to be applied for -on a day precedent to that of every intended visit. The application -had first to be made, then registered; a second application had to -follow, in order to receive the ticket; and the ticket could rarely be -used at the time of receiving it. [Sidenote: MS. ADDIT., 6179, ff. 36, -seqq.] So that, in practice, each visit to the Museum had commonly to -be preceded by two visits to the ‘Porter’s Lodge.’ - -The visitors were admitted in parties, at the prescribed hours, and -were conducted through the Museum by its officers according to a -routine which, practically and usually, allowed to each group of -visitors only one hour for the inspection of the whole. Special -arrangements, however, were made for those who resorted to the Museum -for purposes of study. [Sidenote: _Statutes and Regulations_, part ii, -§ 3.] To such, say the statutes, ‘a particular room is allotted, in -which they may read or write without interruption during the time the -Museum is kept open.’ - -[Sidenote: MS. ADDIT., 6179, as above.] - -The aggregate number of persons admitted as visitors—exclusive of -students—was, for some years, restricted to sixty persons, as a -maximum, in any one day. - - -In order to give the reader a definite and clear idea of what was -seen, in 1759, by the earliest visitors to the British Museum, in its -rudimentary state, some sort of ground plan is essential, but the -merest outline will suffice for the purpose. - -There were at Montagu House two floors or stories of state apartments. -The upper floor was that which was first shown, after the formation of -the Museum. - -The visitor, having ascended the superb staircase painted by LA FOSSE, -passed through a vestibule and grand saloon (_A_ _B_) furnished with -various antiquities, into the ‘Cottonian Library’ (_C_), and thence -into the ‘Harleian Library,’ which occupied three rooms (_D_, _E_, and -_F_). He then entered the ‘Medal Room’—containing the coins and medals -of the SLOANE and COTTON collections (_G_); the ‘SLOANE Manuscript -Room’ (_H_); and the room containing the chief part of the antiquities -(_I_)— - -[Illustration: - - _Rough Diagram, showing Principal Floor of the original British - Museum of 1759._ -] - -Then the visitor, passing again through the vestibule (_A_) and great -saloon (_B_), entered the rooms _K_, _L_, and _M_. _K_ contained the -minerals and fossils of Sir Hans SLOANE’S collection; _L_, the shells; -_M_, the plants and insects. Thence he passed into _N_, which was -devoted to the bulk of the SLOANE Zoological Collection, and into _O_, -containing artificial and miscellaneous curiosities. - -Descending to the floor beneath, by the secondary staircase between -_N_ and _O_, the visitor then entered the small room _P_, which -contained the magnetic apparatus given by Dr. Gowin KNIGHT, and the -rooms, _Q_ and _R_ devoted to the reception of the greater part of the -Royal Library, restored by HENRY, Prince of Wales, and augmented—but -with extreme parsimony—by several of the Stuart monarchs, whose -additions to the shelves were, indeed, much oftener made of books -given, than of books bought. He then passed into SLOANE’S Printed -Library, which occupied the whole of the spacious and handsome suite -of rooms _S_, _T_, _V_, _W_, _X_, and _Y_, and (passing through the -Trustees’ Room _Z_,) entered the room _A A_, containing the EDWARDS -Library; ending his tour of inspection in the room _B B_, in which was -arranged the remainder of the old Royal Library, the main portion -whereof had been seen already in _Q_ and _R_. - -[Illustration: - - _Rough Diagram, showing Ground Plan of the original British Museum - of 1759._ -] - -When the combined Museum and Libraries, thus arranged, were first -opened to the inspection of the curious Public in 1759, the -collections enumerated in the Foundation Act of 1753 had, it is seen, -already received some notable increase by gifts. [Sidenote: EARLY -HELPERS IN THE FOUNDATION AND GROWTH OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM.] The first -donor was the House of Lords, by whose order the historical -collections of Thomas RYMER, royal historiographer, and editor of the -_Fœdera_, were given to the Trustees, immediately after their -incorporation. [Sidenote: 1755–57.] Then followed, in 1757, the gift -of the Royal Library and that of the Lethieullier Antiquities from -Egypt. [See Chapter II.] - -The next donor, in order of time, was a Jewish merchant, and -stock-broker, of humble origin, but of princely disposition. -[Sidenote: 1759. DA COSTA’S HEBREW COLLECTION.—HISTORY OF THE -COLLECTOR.] Solomon DA COSTA was one of the many men who have done -honour to commerce not merely by its successful prosecution, but by -the conspicuous union of mercantile astuteness with noble tastes and -true beneficence. [Sidenote: _Correspondence of Thomas Hollis._] His -talents for business enabled him to make a hundred thousand -pounds—which in his day was more, perhaps, than the equivalent of four -hundred thousand in ours. He had made it, says a keen observer, who -knew the man well, ‘without scandal or meanness.’ When wealth made him -independent, he spent his new leisure, not in luxury but in hard -labour for the poor. - -DA COSTA had come, from Amsterdam, into England, in the year 1704. His -struggling Hebrew compatriots were among the earliest sharers in his -bounty. But his heart was too large to suffer that bounty to be -limited by considerations either of race or of local neighbourhood. To -him, as to the Samaritan of old, distress made kinship. He was wont to -journey, from time to time, through thirty or forty parishes of Surrey -and of Kent, with the punctual diligence of a commercial traveller, -simply to succour the distressed by that best of all succour, the -provision of means through which, in time, self-help would be -developed and ensured. Provident loans, clothing-funds, the education -and apprenticeship of necessitous children, were the forms in which DA -COSTA’S benevolence delighted to invest not only his money, but his -personal exertion and his cordial sympathy. He devoted more than a -thousand pounds a year to the benefit of Christian Englishmen, besides -all that he gave to the poor of his own faith and race. And to both he -gave, without noise or ostentation. - -He had, too, the breadth of view which enabled him to put, on their -true foot of equality, the claims of the necessitous mind, as well as -those of the necessitous body. Unlike many other men of genuine -beneficence, popular estimates of giving did not mislead him into -one-sidedness of aim. - -Within a few years of DA COSTA’S arrival in England, probably about -the year 1720, and when, with youthful ardour, he was seeking to -acquire knowledge as well as to make money, he met, at a bookseller’s, -with a remarkable collection of Hebrew books, of choice editions and -in rich and uniform bindings. The collection had that sumptuousness of -aspect which invited inquiry into its origin. All that he could learn -on that score was the probability that some statesman or other of the -Commonwealth period, had collected them for a public but unfulfilled -purpose, and that they had fallen—with so much other spoil—into the -hands of CHARLES THE SECOND. By that King’s order they had received, -if not their rich binding, at least his crown and cypher as marks of -the royal appropriation, and then (in a truly Carolinian fashion) were -left in the hands of the King’s stationer for lack of payment of the -charge of what—whether binding or mere decoration—had been done to the -books by the royal command. DA COSTA prized them as among his chief -treasures, but directly he heard of the foundation of a great -repository of learning, the emotions of the Jewish broker were such as -might have been felt by ‘broad-browed VERULAM,’ could he have lived to -see that day; save only that BACON would first have scanned the -evidence about the origin of the institution, and would have -discriminated the praise. - -DA COSTA wrote a letter to the Trustees. The generous heart is facile -in ascribing generosity. ‘A most stately monument’ said DA COSTA, -‘hath been lately erected and endowed, by the wisdom and munificence -of the British Legislature,’ and he accompanied his eulogy with a -prayer that the Almighty would ‘render unto them a recompense, -according to the work of their hands.’ [Sidenote: Da Costa to the -Trustees of the Brit. Museum, ‘5th of Sivan, 5519’ [1759]]. He brought -his mite of contribution, he added, not only as proof of sympathy with -the work in progress, ‘but as a thanksgiving offering, in part, for -the generous protection and numberless blessings which I have enjoyed -under the British Government.’ - -The gift embraced several Biblical Manuscripts of value, and a still -choicer series of early printed books, one hundred and eighty in -number. The giver has a merited place in the roll of our public -benefactors; and his devout prayer for the new Museum, ‘May it -increase and multiply ... to the benefit of the people of these -nations and of the whole earth,’ has had a more conspicuous fulfilment -than could, in 1759, have been imagined by the most sanguine of -bystanders. - - -[Sidenote: GIFT OF THE THOMASON COLLECTION OF ENGLISH BOOKS OF - 1641–1662, BY GEORGE III.] - -Three years afterwards, and soon after his accession to the throne, -King GEORGE THE THIRD gave to the Nation that most curious assemblage -of nearly the whole English literature of two and twenty eventful -years of Civil War,—open or furtive,—which is known to the Public as -the ‘Thomason Collection,’ though its technical name within the Museum -walls continues, as of old, to be ‘the King’s Tracts.’ - -That name is the less appropriate from its tendency to give an -inaccurate idea of the contents of the King’s gift, as well as from -its disregard of the origin of the Collection. The ‘tracts’ include -the most ponderous theological quartos that ever came from an English -press as well as the tiniest handbill, or the fugitive circular which -called together a ‘Committee of Sequestrators’ at Wallingford House. - -[Sidenote: GEORGE THOMASON AND HIS LABOURS.] - -George THOMASON, its collector, was an eminent London bookseller, of -royalist sympathies, who watched intensely the progress of the great -struggle between King and Parliament, Cavalier and Roundhead, and who -had noted with professional keenness how strikingly the printing press -was made to mirror, almost from day to day, the strife of senators in -council, as well as that of soldiers in the field. He had seized, in -1641, the idea of helping posterity the better to realize every phase -of the great conflict, the oncoming of which many men had long -foreseen, by gathering everything which came out in print—as far as -vigilant industry could do so—whether belonging to literature, and to -the obvious materials of history, or merely subserving the most -trivial need of the passing moment. He failed, of course, to secure -everything; but his endeavour was wonderfully successful, on the -whole. He also gathered many manuscripts which no printer in England -dared to put into type. And he obtained a large number of political -and historical pieces, bearing on English affairs, which had issued -from foreign presses; their authors being sometimes foreign observers -of the struggle, but more frequently British refugees. - -CHARLES THE FIRST congratulated THOMASON on the utility of his idea. -More than once the King was able to gratify his curiosity by borrowing -some tract or other which only our collector was known to possess. The -Parliament, meanwhile, was far from exhibiting any literary sympathies -in the undertaking. Some of its leaders loved freedom of the press -when it was seen to be a channel for urging forward their peculiar -doctrines and aims, but had the gravest doubts about its policy when -it manifestly helped their opponents and gave back blow for blow. The -‘Thomason Collection’ came to be viewed, at length, much in the light -in which soldiers view an enemy’s battery. If it could be captured and -carried off, some of the pieces might be turned against the enemy. If -the attempt at complete capture should miscarry, a sudden sally might -at least enable the assailants to destroy what they had failed to -secure. - -Hence it was that the poor Collector came to be in such alarm about -the possible fate of his treasures that he had them repeatedly packed -into cases, and, as the successes of the war veered to and fro, sent -them, at one time, far to the south of London; at another time, as far -to the east; now, smuggled them, concealed between the real and false -tops of tables, into a city warehouse; and anon made a colourable sale -of them to the University of Oxford. - -When the King enjoyed his own again, the Collection was offered, as -fit to be made a royal one. It contained more than thirty-three -thousand separate publications—bound in about 2,200 volumes—issued -between 1640 and 1662 inclusive. But CHARLES THE SECOND was busied -with pursuits having little to do with any kind of learning, and was -ill inclined, as we have seen already, to burden his Treasury for the -enrichment of his Library. Sir Thomas BODLEY’S Trustees at Oxford -refused the offer, in their turn, under a very different but scarcely -less obstructive pressure. Their excellent founder had formed peculiar -and stringent views about the literature worthy of a great University. -He had warned them against stuffing his library with ‘mere baggage -books.’ And so future Bodleian curators had, in another age, to buy -with large bank notes many things which their predecessors could have -bought with small silver coins;—just as in the ancient story. - -The unfortunate Collection went a-begging. The books passed from hand -to hand, somewhat, it would seem, by way of pledge or mortgage. They -had cost a large sum of money, and a larger amount of toil. When his -expectations were at their best the first owner, it is said, refused -several thousands of pounds for them. [Sidenote: THE ACQUIREMENT OF -THE THOMASON COLLECTION BY GEORGE III.] His ultimate successors in the -possession were glad, in 1762, to accept, at the hands of King GEORGE -THE THIRD, three hundred pounds. The purchase was recommended to him -by Thomas HOLLIS, and also by Lord BUTE, as a serviceable addition to -the newly founded Museum. [Sidenote: 1762.] As all readers now know, -it has largely subserved our history already. It is not less certain -that the ‘Thomason Collection’ embodies a store of information yet -unused. - - -[Sidenote: THE BRANDER FOSSILS.] - -[Sidenote: 1766.] - -The next augmentor of the Museum was one of its Trustees, Gustavus -BRANDER, distinguished as a promoter of natural science, and more -especially of mineralogy and palæontology in the early stages of their -study in England. A remarkable collection of fossils found in -Hampshire, in the London Clay, was given by Mr. BRANDER to the Public, -after having been, at his cost, carefully examined and described by -Dr. SOLANDER. It was the first notable contribution to the grand -series of specimens in palæontology which, in their combination, have -made the British Museum the most important of all repositories in that -department of science. - -To the Zoological Collections, the additions made, whether by gift or -by purchase—save as the result, more or less direct, of ‘Voyages of -Discovery,’ which will be noticed presently—were for many years very -unimportant. The first purchase worthy of record was a collection of -stuffed birds, formed in Holland, and acquired, in 1769, for four -hundred and sixty pounds. This purchase was made by the Trust. - - -The reign of GEORGE THE THIRD is marked by very few characteristics -which are more honourable, both to King and people, than is its long -series of expeditions to remote countries made expressly, or mainly, -for purposes of geographical and scientific discovery, and extending -over almost the whole of the reign. - -[Sidenote: ACCESSIONS ACCRUING FROM VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY. 1760–1820.] - -Scarcely one voyage of the long series failed to bring, directly or -indirectly, some valuable accession or other to the Collection of -Natural History. Sometimes such accessions came to the Museum as the -gifts of the navigators and explorers themselves. In this class of -donors the name of Captain James COOK,[56] and that of Archibald -MENZIES, occur both early and frequently. Sometimes they came as the -gifts of the Board of Admiralty. Sometimes, again,—and not -infrequently—as those of the King, who, in his best days, took a keen -interest in enterprise of this kind, and delighted in talking with the -captains of the discovery ships about their adventures, and about the -marvels of the far-off lands they had been among the first to see. Nor -did the King stand alone in his active encouragement of remote -explorations. Many of the great and wealthy nobles gave generous -furtherance to them, and were equally ready to make available for -scientific study the new specimens which the ships brought home. In -this way, for example, the Marquess of ROCKINGHAM gave to the Museum a -curious collection of reptiles gathered in Surinam. - -In the same manner was furnished that minor, but very popular and -instructive, collection illustrating the rude arts and modes of life -of the newly explored countries, which some yet among us can remember -as occupying the ‘South Sea Room’ of the old house. In the course of -years it came to be eclipsed by much better collections of the same -kind elsewhere, and so to wear a meagre and somewhat obsolete aspect. -But it had rendered good service in its day, and was the germ of what -will become, it may be hoped, in due time, an ethnological collection -worthy of a seafaring people. - -[Sidenote: EPOCHS IN THE GROWTH OF THE NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS.] - -As regards the Natural History Collections, the growth of the Museum -may be said to have been mainly dependent on the Voyages of Discovery -for more than forty years. That source of improvement seems to mark, -distinctively, the first epoch in the history of those collections. -Then came a second epoch, marked by some approach to systematic -improvement, in all branches, by means of the purchase of entire -private collections as opportunity offered. A third period may be -dated from the acquisition of the botanical and other gatherings of -Sir Joseph BANKS in 1827. Sir Joseph’s splendid gift was soon followed -by so many other gifts—sometimes as donations, more frequently as -bequests—that for many years the liberality of benefactors quite -eclipsed the liberality of Parliament. Only of late years can it be -said that the public support of the Natural History Collections has -been worthy, either of the Nation or of their own intrinsic importance -to it. By degrees, statesmen have become convinced that such -collections are much more than the implements of a knot of professed -naturalists, and the toys of the public at large. Slowly, but surely, -the economic and commercial value of a great museum of natural -history, as well as its educational value, have come saliently into -view. And a wise enlargement of the contributions from national funds -has had the excellent result of stimulating, instead of checking, the -benefactions of individuals. - -Some of the particular steps by which so conspicuous an improvement -has been gradually brought about will claim our notice hereafter, in -their due order. - - -If, for a long series of years, the degree of liberality with which -these varied collections were shown to the Public at large scarcely -accorded, either with their origin, or with the purpose for which they -had been avowedly combined, it should be borne in mind that ‘the -Public’ of 1759 was a very different body from the Public of a century -later. It is only by degrees that indiscriminate admission to museums -has come to be either very useful or quite feasible. There was a good -deal of warrant in 1759 for the opinion recorded by one of the -Trustees when the Rules were first under discussion. [Sidenote: MS. -ADDIT., 6179, f. 61.] ‘A general liberty,’ said Dr. John WARD, the -eminent Gresham Professor, ‘to ordinary people of all ranks and -denominations, is not to be kept within bounds. Many irregularities -will be committed that cannot be prevented by a few librarians who -will soon be insulted by such people [as commit abuses], if they offer -to control or contradict them.’ But, after all, the inadequate -strength of the staff was the main cause of such of the restrictions -as were chiefly complained of. - -The original regulations, with but small change, remained in force for -about forty-five years. How they worked will be best and most briefly -shown by citing the experiences of two or three notable visitors, at -various periods, during the last century. - -[Sidenote: GROSLEY’S ACCOUNT OF THE MUSEUM IN 1765.] - -In 1765, Peter John GROSLEY, an accomplished and keen-eyed -Frenchman, familiar with the Museums of Italy as well as with those -of his own country, visited the new Museum, and recorded his -impressions of it. With the building he was charmed. He had already -seen many parts of England, but nowhere any house that he thought -worthy to be compared with Montagu House. He calls it ‘the largest, -the most stately, the best arranged, and most richly decorated’ -structure of its kind in all England. He made repeated visits. What -chiefly arrested his attention in the Natural History rooms were the -beauty of the papillonacea—comprising, he thought, ‘all that either -the old world or the new can supply in this kind’—and the -strangeness of some mineral specimens brought from the Giant’s -Causeway in Ireland. The Printed Books he thought to be ‘the weakest -part of this vast collection.’ In one of the principal rooms, ‘I -saw,’ he continues, ‘not without astonishment, a very fine bust of -Oliver CROMWELL, occupying a distinguished place!’ He praises the -courtesy with which Drs. MATY and MORTON discharged, by turns, the -duty of exhibition. ‘They show,’ he says, ‘the most obliging -readiness to explain things to the visitor, but,’ he adds, with -obvious truth, ‘their very courtesy is wont to make a stranger -content himself with hasty and unsatisfactory glances, that he may -not trespass on their politeness.’ And then he makes a wise -practical suggestion, which was carried into effect, almost half a -century afterwards. - -‘In order really to carry out the intentions of Parliament,’ writes -GROSLEY, in 1765, ‘it is to be wished that the Public should be -admitted more liberally, and more easily, by placing a warder in every -room, to be continually present during the public hours.’ - -Ten years afterwards, the difficulty on this score had so increased -that a notification to the following effect was circulated: ‘British -Museum, 9th August, 1776. The Applicants of the middle of April are -not yet satisfied. [Sidenote: MS. ADDIT., 10,555, fol. 14.] Persons -applying are requested to send weekly to the porter to know how near -they are upon the List.’ - -[Sidenote: VISIT OF C. P. MORITZ IN 1782.] - -In 1782, the plan had so far improved that instead of waiting from -April until August, a visitor could usually get admission within a -fortnight or so after applying for a ticket. We have an intelligent -and amusing account of a visit then made. This time the narrator is a -German,—Charles MORITZ, of Berlin. ‘In general,’ writes MORITZ, ‘you -must give in your name a fortnight before you can be admitted. But, by -the kindness of Mr. WOIDE’—a countryman of the traveller, and, at that -time, an Assistant-Librarian in the Museum,—‘I got admission -earlier.... Yet, after all, I am sorry to say that it was the room, -the glass-cases, the shelves, ... which I saw; not the Museum itself, -so rapidly were we hurried on through the departments. The company who -saw it when I did, and in like manner, was variously composed. They -were of all sorts, and some, as I believe, of the very lowest classes -of the people of both sexes, for, as it is, the property of the -Nation, every one has the same ‘right’—I use the term of the -country—to see it that another has. [Sidenote: WENDEBORN’S ACCOUNT OF -THE MUSEUM. 1780–90.] I had Mr. WENDEBORN’S book in my pocket, and it, -at least, enabled me to take more particular notice of some of the -principal things.’ - -The book thus referred to by MORITZ is the German original of that -account of English society and institutions which WENDEBORN himself -translated, a few years afterwards, into English, and published at -London, under the title of _A View of England_. - -Its author had settled in London as the Minister of a German -Congregation. He was himself a studious frequenter of the Museum, and -says of it: ‘The whole is costly, worth seeing, and honourable to the -Nation; when taken altogether it has not its equal. When considered in -its separate branches, almost each of them singly may be surpassed by -some other collection even in England itself.’ But the only collection -which he specifies as, in this sense, superior, are the Hunterian -Museum, and that which had been formed by Sir Ashton LEVER, and which, -when the _View of England_ was written, belonged to Mr. PARKINSON. -[Sidenote: Wendeborn, _A View of England_, vol. i, 323–325.] Of the -Museum Library, WENDEBORN says, ‘though a numerous and valuable -collection, it is yet, in many respects, very deficient, and as to its -use, much circumscribed.’ - -When the German visitor of 1782 pulled Mr. WENDEBORN’S book from his -pocket, as he was hurried through the Museum, the action attracted the -attention of the other visitors. The more intelligent of them pressed -round him to see if the book could be made to yield any information -for their behoof also. And the stranger gratified their curiosity by -translating a passage or two in explanation of the objects they were -passing. Then came an exquisite bit of sub-officialism. - -‘The gentleman who conducted us’ observes MORITZ, ‘took little pains -to conceal the contempt which he felt for my communications when he -found it was only a German description of the British Museum which I -had.’ ‘So rapid a passage,’ he continues, ‘through a vast suite of -rooms, in little more than one hour of time, with opportunity to cast -but one poor longing look of astonishment on all the vast treasures of -nature, antiquity, and literature, in the examination of which one -might profitably spend years, confuses, stuns, and overpowers the -visitor.’ - -Two years later, we have a similar account of the experiences of an -inquisitive Englishman, and of one who is much more outspoken in his -complaint. [Sidenote: WILLIAM HUTTON’S VISIT IN 1784.] William HUTTON, -the historian of Birmingham, came to London in December, 1784. ‘I was -unwilling to quit it,’ he writes, ‘without seeing what I had, many -years, wished to see. But how to accomplish it was the question. I had -not one relative in that vast metropolis to direct me.... By good -fortune, I stumbled upon a person possessing a ticket for the next -day, which he valued less than two shillings. We struck a bargain in a -moment and were both pleased.... I was not likely to forget Tuesday, -December 7th, at eleven.’ HUTTON, shrewd as he was, did not suspect -the real nature of his ‘bargain.’ He had met with a professional -dealer in Museum tickets; one of several who, on a humbler scale, -followed in the steps of Peter LEHEUP, but were lucky enough not to -excite the anger of the House of Commons. - -He was taken through the rooms in company with about ten other -persons, at a very rapid rate. He asked their conductor for some -information about the curiosities. The reply, he says, so humbled him -that he could not utter another word. ‘The company seemed influenced. -They made haste and were silent. No voice was heard but in whispers. -If a man spends two minutes in a room, in which a thousand things -demand his attention, he cannot bestow on them a glance apiece.... It -grieved me to think how much I lost for want of a little information. -In about thirty minutes we finished our silent journey through the -princely mansion, which would well have taken thirty days.... I had -laid more stress on the British Museum, than on anything else which I -should see in London. It was the only sight which disgusted me.... -[Sidenote: Hutton, _A Journey to London_, pp. 187–196.] Government -purchased this rare collection at a vast expense, and exhibits it as a -national honour.... How far it answers the end proposed this account -will testify.’ - -Better days were at hand. But it was not until 1805 that the rules of -admission were even so far effectively revised as to abolish the -traffic in tickets. Nor was any ‘Synopsis’ of the contents of the -Museum provided until 1808. In that year admission tickets were -abolished wholly. - - -Straitened means of maintenance have, at all times, had far more to do -with any inadequate provision for public usefulness of which (in days -long past) there may have been well-grounded cause of complaint, than -had neglect or oversight on the part of any officer. - -The officers, too, were, for a very long period after the -establishment of the Museum, engaged, and remunerated, only for an -attendance, in rotation, for two hours daily, on alternate days. A -largely increased provision by Parliament was the essential condition -of any large increase in the accessibility of the institution. - -As early as in 1776 the necessary expenditure in salaries and wages -alone (at a very low scale of payment), exceeded the annual income -(£900) accruing from the original endowment fund. After Parliament had -made an additional provision—first introduced in a clause of what was -then called a ‘hotch-potch Act’—averaging £1000 yearly, the total -annual income was still but £2448, including the yearly three hundred -pounds accruing from the ‘EDWARDS Fund,’ and the £248, paid, under the -grant of GEORGE THE SECOND, as the net yearly salary of the ‘King’s -Librarian.’ For a considerable period, the sums expended in -purchases—for all the departments collectively—had not amounted, in -any one year, to one hundred pounds. - - -[Sidenote: THE CAREER OF DR. MATTHEW MATY.] - -On the decease of the first Principal Librarian, Dr. Gowin KNIGHT, in -1772, Dr. Matthew MATY was appointed to that office. He was born at, -or in the neighbourhood of Utrecht, in 1718, and was educated in the -University of Leyden, where he took his degrees in 1740, the subject -of his inaugural dissertation, for that of M.A. and Doctor of -Philosophy, being ‘custom,’ and its wide results and influence social -and political. His essay was published (under the title _Dissertatio -philosophica inauguralis de Usu_,) in 1740. For the degree of Doctor -in Medicine, he treated of the effects of habit and custom upon the -human frame (_De Consuetudinis efficacia in corpus humanum_). This -medical dissertation was also published at Leyden, in the usual form, -in the same year. Both essays showed much ability, along with many -faults and crudities. Some of these became matters of conversation and -correspondence between the author and his friends. The subject was -less hacknied than that of the majority of academical essays, and MATY -was induced to reconsider it. He republished the result of his -thoughts, in a greatly improved form, in the following year at -Utrecht, and, to gain a wider audience, wrote in French. The _Essai -sur l’Usage_ attracted much attention, and served to pave the way for -the establishment by its author, eight years afterwards, of the -periodical entitled, _Journal Britannique_, as editor of which he is -now best remembered. He came to England in 1741, practised as a -physician, attained considerable reputation, and distinguished himself -more especially by following in the path of Sir Hans SLOANE, and -others, as an earnest supporter of the practice of inoculation. In -this field he was able to render good service, both by his -professional influence and by his pen. In the sharp controversies -which soon, and for a time, impeded the new practice, he took a large -share, and his publications on the subject are distinguished from many -others by their union of moderation of tone with vigour of advocacy. - -MATY’S predilections, however, pointed to a literary rather than to a -medical career. He had early taken that ply, and it was not easily -effaced. Within six years (1750–1756) he published eighteen volumes of -the _Journal Britannique_—edited in London but printed at the Hague—in -the toils of which he was, according to GIBBON, almost unaided. -GIBBON, too, bears testimony to the amiability of the man, as well as -to the industry of the writer. His own first and youthful achievement -in literature had MATY’S encouragement and active aid. [Sidenote: -_Memoirs of Gibbon_, p. 107.] When the _Essai sur l’Etude de la -Littérature_ was, after much filing and polishing, given to the -Public, a preliminary letter from MATY’S pen accompanied it, and by -him the essay was carried through the press. - -When he succeeded Dr. Gowin KNIGHT, as Principal Librarian in 1772, -his health was already failing. He occupied the post during less than -four years. To the last, his pen was busily employed. He was a -contributor to several foreign journals, as well as to the -_Philosophical Transactions_, some volumes of which he edited, or -assisted to edit, in his capacity as one of the Secretaries of the -Royal Society, to which office he had been appointed in 1765. Among -his minor literary publications are a life of BOERHAAVE, in French, -and one of Dr. Richard MEAD, in English. At the time of his death he -was working on the _Life of Lord Chesterfield_, afterwards prefixed to -the collective edition of the Earl’s _Miscellaneous Works_. Dr. MATY -died in 1776, and was succeeded in his Librarianship by his colleague, -Dr. Charles MORTON, who had had, from the beginning, the charge of the -department of Manuscripts, and had also acted as Secretary to the -Trustees. - -[Sidenote: NOTICE OF DR. CHARLES MORTON, THIRD PRINCIPAL LIBRARIAN.] - -Dr. MORTON was a native of Westmoreland, and was born in 1716. Until -the year 1750 he had practised as a physician at Kendal. In 1751 he -became a Licentiate of the College of Physicians, and in the following -year a Fellow of the Royal Society. His service in the British Museum -lasted from 1756 to 1799. There are several testimonies to the -courtesy with which he treated such visitors and students as came -under his personal notice, but his long term of superior office was -certainly not marked by any striking improvement in the public economy -of the Museum. And how much room for improvement existed there the -reader has seen. Dr. MORTON, like his predecessor, was one of the -Secretaries of the Royal Society. He filled that office from the year -1760 to 1774. He contributed several papers to the _Philosophical -Transactions_, as well on antiquarian subjects as on topics of -physical science, and he was the first editor of Bulstrode -WHITELOCKE’S remarkable narrative of his embassy to Sweden during the -Protectorate. MORTON’S writings are not remarkable either for vigour -or for originality, but, on more topics than one, they had the useful -result of setting abler men awork. He was three times married: (1) to -Mary BERKELEY, the niece of SWIFT’S frequent correspondent Lady -Elizabeth GERMAINE; (2) to Lady SAVILE; (3) to Mrs. Elizabeth PRATT. -He died on the 10th February, 1799. - -Of his successors in the office of Principal Librarian some account -will be found in the Introductory Chapter of Book III. - - - - - CHAPTER II. - A GROUP OF CLASSICAL ARCHÆOLOGISTS AND EXPLORERS. - - ‘The Archæologist cannot, like the Scholar, carry on his researches - in his own Library, independent of outward circumstances. For _his_ - work of reference and collation he must travel, excavate, collect, - arrange, delineate, transcribe, before he can place his whole - subject before his mind.... - - ‘A Museum of Antiquities is to the Archæologist what a Botanic - Garden is to the Botanist. It presents his subject compendiously, - synoptically, suggestively, not in the desultory and accidental - order in which he would otherwise be brought into contact with its - details.’— - - C. T. NEWTON, _On the Study of Archæology_, p. 26. - - _Sir William_ HAMILTON _and his Pursuits and Employments in - Italy.—The Acquisitions of the French Institute of Egypt, and - the capture of part of them at Alexandria.—Charles_ TOWNELEY - _and his Collection of Antiquities.—The Researches of the Earl - of_ ELGIN _in Greece.—The Collections and Writings of Richard_ - PAYNE KNIGHT. - - -[Sidenote: BOOK II, Chap. II. CLASSICAL ARCHÆOLOGISTS AND EXPLORERS.] - -To the comparatively small assemblage of antiquities which originally -formed part of the Museum of COURTEN and of SLOANE, several additions -had been made—besides the coins, medals, and bronzes of Sir Robert -COTTON—prior to the opening of the British Museum to the Public in -1759. Some of those additions were the gift, severally, of three -members of the LETHIEULLIER family. Others were the gift of Thomas -HOLLIS, who became a constant benefactor to the Museum almost from the -day of Sir Hans SLOANE’S death to that of his own. - -The LETHIEULLIER antiquities had been chiefly gathered in Egypt. -[Sidenote: THE EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES OF THE LETHIEULLIERS.] The first -gift was made by the Will of Colonel William LETHIEULLIER, dated 23rd -July, 1755. [Sidenote: MS. ADDIT., 6179, f. 29.] And the first -catalogue of any kind which was prepared for the British Museum, after -its acquisition by Parliament, was a list of these antiquities drawn -up by Dr. John WARD, one of the Trustees. And here it may deserve -remark that for many years after the foundation not a few of the -Trustees took a large share in the actual work of preparing the Museum -for public use, as well as in the ordinary duties of control and -administration. - -To the gift of Colonel William LETHIEULLIER, his cousin, Smart -LETHIEULLIER, and his nephew, Pitt LETHIEULLIER, made several -additions between the years 1756 and 1770. The last-named of these -gentlemen, when receiving, as executor of his uncle, the personal -thanks of a Committee of the Trustees (February, 1756), for the -bequest so made, took the opportunity of augmenting it by the gift of -some antiquities which he had himself collected during his residence -at Grand Cairo. - -But the first large and comprehensive addition in the archæological -department was that made in 1772 by the purchase, by means of a -Parliamentary grant, of the Museum of Antiquities, which had been -formed during seven years’ researches in Italy by Sir William -HAMILTON, our Ambassador at Naples. - - -[Sidenote: SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON AND HIS CAREER AT NAPLES.] - -Sir William HAMILTON was among the earliest of British diplomatists -who, by a voluntary choice, turned to good account, in the interests -of learning and of the public, the opportunities which diplomatic life -so frequently offers for amassing treasures of literature and science, -and (in many cases) for saving them from peril of destruction. In that -path Frenchmen had showed the way many generations earlier. - -As far, indeed, as regards a public and national care for matters of -the intellect, France is far better entitled to claim a priority in -the proud distinction of ‘teaching the nations how to live,’ than is -any other country in the world. It is to her immortal honour that from -a very early period, and even in times of sore trouble, her sovereigns -and her statesmen have known how to turn public resources to the -promotion of public culture, as well as of national power. A man may -read in French diplomatic letters of instruction of the sixteenth -century orders to collect manuscripts and antiquities, as implements -of public education, such as he would look for in vain in parallel -British documents of any century at all,—inclusive of the -present;—although it is certain that the omission has by no means -arisen from the engrossment of our diplomatists in weightier concerns. - -In Sir William HAMILTON’S case the liberal tastes and the mental -energy of the individual supplied the defect of his instructions. He -set an example which not a few of our ambassadors have voluntarily -followed with like public spirit, and with results not less -conspicuous. - - -William HAMILTON was the fourth son of Lord Archibald HAMILTON, -youngest son of James, third Duke of HAMILTON, K.G. His mother, Lady -Jane HAMILTON, was of that illustrious family by birth, as well as by -marriage, being the daughter of James, sixth Earl of ABERCORN. He was -born in the year 1730. - -Towards the close of his career, Sir William would sometimes say to -his intimates, when conversation turned upon the battle of life: ‘I -had to begin the world with a great name, and one thousand pounds for -all my fortune.’ But the world never used him very roughly. Whilst -still a young man (1755) he married Miss BARLOW, the wealthy heiress -of Hugh BARLOW, of Laurenny Hall, in Pembrokeshire. She brought him an -estate, in the neighbourhood of Swansea, worth nearly five thousand -pounds a year; but it was his happy lot to have married a true wife, -not a bag of money. DUCLOS, who saw much of the HAMILTONS in their -family circle at Naples in after years, was wont to say, ‘They are the -happiest couple I ever saw.’ - -[Sidenote: 1764–1800.] - -Mr. HAMILTON was sent to the Court of Naples in 1764. The post, in -that day, was not overburdened with business. And for some years to -come the new Ambassador found the Neapolitan society little to his -taste. He was intellectual, and, in the truest sense, an English -gentleman. The tone of society at that time in Naples was both -frivolous and dissolute. He had to form, by slow degrees, a circle in -which a man of cultivated tastes might enjoy social life. The public -duties of the embassy could employ but a small portion of his time, -and the temper of the man made employment to him a necessary of life. -He threw his energies into hard study. And he possessed that happiest -of mental characteristics, an equal love of the natural sciences, and -of the world of art and of books. He could pore, with like enjoyment, -on the deep things of Nature, and on the secrets of ‘the antiquary -times.’ And in both paths, he knew how to make his personal enjoyments -teem with public good. - -His first labours were given to the exhaustive research of volcanic -phenomena. He amazed the fine gentlemen of Naples by setting to work -as though he had to win his bread by the sweat of his brow. He -laboured harder on the slopes of Vesuvius than an exceptionally -diligent craftsman would labour in a factory—had Naples possessed any. -Within four years he ascended the famous mountain twenty-two times. -More than one of these ascents was made at the risk of his life. He -made, and caused to be made, innumerable drawings of all the phenomena -that he observed, showing the volcanic eruption in all its stages, and -under every kind of meteorological condition. He formed too a complete -collection of volcanic products, and of the earths and minerals of the -volcanic district. When he had studied Vesuvius under every possible -aspect, he went to Etna. - -The results of these elaborate investigations were sent, from time to -time, to the Royal Society (of which Mr. HAMILTON was made a Fellow, -after the reading of the first of his papers in 1766), and they were -published in the _Philosophical Transactions_, between the years 1766 -and 1780. They were afterwards collected, and improved, in the two -beautiful volumes entitled _Campi Phlegræi_, and were lavishly -illustrated from the drawings of F. A. FABRIS, who had been trained by -HAMILTON to the work.[57] The collection of volcanic geology and -products was given to the British Museum in 1767. - -[Sidenote: THE HAMILTON MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES.] - -These geological labours had been diversified, at intervals, by the -collection of a rich archæological museum, and by the establishment of -a systematic correspondence on antiquarian subjects with men of -learning in various parts of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. This -correspondence had for its object, not merely the enrichment of his -own Museum, but the awakening of local attention throughout the -country to its antiquities and history; matters which had theretofore -been but too much neglected—in the Neapolitan fashion. - -One of the earliest and choicest acquisitions made by HAMILTON in the -early years of his residence at Naples was a collection of vases -belonging to the senatorial family of PORCINARI, many of which had -been gathered from sepulchres and excavations in Magna Græcia. This -purchase, made in 1766 and afterwards largely increased, may be -regarded as the substantial beginning of the noble series of vases now -so prominent a part of our National Museum. - -Thus had been formed, by degrees, at Naples, a museum which, at the -beginning of the year 1772, included seven hundred and thirty fictile -vases; a hundred and seventy-five terra-cottas; about three hundred -specimens of ancient glass (including three of the most perfect -cinerary urns known, at that time, to have been discovered); six -hundred and twenty-seven bronzes, of which nearly one-half illustrated -the arms and armour of the ancients; more than two hundred specimens -of sacrificial, domestic, and architectonic, instruments and -implements; fourteen bassi-relievi, busts, masques, and inscribed -tablets; about a hundred and fifty miscellaneous pieces of ancient -ivory, including a curious series of tessaræ; a hundred and forty-nine -gems, chiefly scarabæi; a hundred and forty-three personal ornaments, -of various kinds, in gold; a hundred and fifty-two fibulæ in various -materials; and more than six thousand coins and medals, comprising a -considerable series from the towns of Magna Græcia. - -The first fruits of this noble collection was the publication, -commenced in the year 1766, of the work entitled _Antiquités -Etrusques_, &c., with admirable illustrations, and with a descriptive -text, written in French by D’HANCARVILLE. [Sidenote: PUBLICATION OF -THE ‘ANTIQUITÉS ETRUSQUES.’] The first edition of this costly book was -issued at Naples. It naturally attracted great attention. No such -collection of fictile vases—in their combination of number and -beauty—had been theretofore known. - -The two volumes published at Sir William’s cost in 1766, were followed -by two other volumes in 1767. All of them were executed with great -care and with lavish expenditure. But the later edition, printed at -Florence—long afterwards—is in many points superior.[58] - -Whilst the volumes were still incomplete, Mr. HAMILTON circulated -proof plates of the work with great liberality. Some of these proofs -were lent to our famous English potter, Josiah WEDGWOOD, and gave a -strong impulse to his taste and artistic zeal. [Sidenote: Meteyard, -_Life of Josiah Wedgwood_, vol. ii, p. 72.] But they excited an eager -longing for access to the vases themselves, as the only satisfactory -models. - -[Sidenote: Wedgwood to Bentley, 10 May, 1770.] - -When WEDGWOOD wrote to his friend and partner, BENTLEY;—‘Mr. -HAMBLETON, you know, has flattered the old pot-painters very much,’ -one feels that for the moment that excellent man’s prepossessions had -been rubbed a little, against the grain. But he shows directly that -there is no real intent to impeach the Editor’s honesty in the matter. -‘He has, no doubt,’ adds WEDGWOOD, ‘taken his designs from the very -best vases extant,’ which was precisely what it was his duty to do, -since selection was the task in hand, not the publication of seven -hundred specimens. - -This Collection—far more remarkable than any, of its kind, which had -yet come to England—was brought over in 1772, and offered to the -Trustees of the British Museum. An appeal was made to Parliament, and -the first grant of public money, worthy of mention, was now made in -order to its acquisition. The sum given to Mr. HAMILTON was eight -thousand four hundred pounds. - -How soon one of the incidental results of the acquisition returned to -the Public much more than its cost—leaving out of account altogether -the best returns which accrue from such Collections—is among the -familiar annals of our commerce. Josiah WEDGWOOD told a Committee of -the House of Commons that, within two years, he had himself brought -into England, by his imitations of the Hamilton vases in his -manufactory at Etruria, about three times the sum which the Collection -had cost to the country. - -[Sidenote: THE EXPLORATIONS AT POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM.] - -At the beginning of the year 1772 Mr. HAMILTON was made a Knight of -the Bath. He returned to Naples soon after the transfer of his -antiquities to the Museum, and ere long he was busily engaged in new -explorations at Pompeii and at Herculaneum. He sent to the Society of -Antiquaries, in 1777, an interesting account of the discoveries at -Pompeii, which is printed in the fourth volume of the _Archæologia_. -At Herculaneum he employed, during many years, Father Antonio PIAGGI -to superintend excavations and make drawings, and gave him an annual -salary equal to a hundred pounds sterling, after vainly -endeavouring—at that time—to urge on the Neapolitan Government its own -duty to carry on the task in an adequate manner for the honour of the -nation, and to publish the results of the explorations for the general -benefit of learning. - -Sir William’s services as an ambassador were rendered with zeal and -with credit, as opportunity offered. But the opportunity, in his -earlier period, was comparatively rare. It was, perhaps, despite the -proverb, not altogether a happy thing for Naples that its annals were -tiresome. The rust of inactivity showed itself there, as so often -elsewhere, to be much more fatal than the exhaustion of strife. -Certainly, to the ambassador, it was a personal misfortune that, when -the affairs of Naples became really momentous to Englishmen, the -vigour and the will of earlier days were then departing from the man -whose energies were at length to be put to the test in the proper -sphere of his profession. Meanwhile, and in his prime, he had but—from -time to time—to make routine memorials as to matters of individual -wrong; to heal breaches between one Bourbon and another; and to secure -the neutrality of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies during the war which -grew out of the struggle in America. Such matters made no great inroad -upon the pursuits of the naturalist and the antiquarian. - -Labour on the mountains, in the excavations, and in the study, had -been, now for many years, relieved by congenial friendships. There had -been an improvement in the tone of Neapolitan Society since HAMILTON’S -first appearance. And all that was best in Naples had gathered round -him. To English travellers his hospitalities were splendid and -unremitting. But in 1782 the circle lost its mistress. Seven years -before, Sir William and Lady HAMILTON had been bereaved of a -daughter—their only child. In 1783 occurred the dreadful earthquake in -Calabria, the greatest calamity of the century save that at Lisbon. - -Among the scientific correspondents in England with whom Sir William -HAMILTON kept up an intercourse was Sir Joseph BANKS, then the -President of the Royal Society. To him was sent the fullest account -that was attainable of the sad event of 1783. - -It had chanced that just before the news reached Naples, Sir Joseph -had written to HAMILTON about some experiments and discoveries on the -composition and transmutation of water. He had said, jestingly: ‘In -future we philosophers shall rejoice when an eruption, which may -swallow up a few towns, affords subsistence for as many nations of -animals and vegetables.’ This letter HAMILTON was about to answer when -he received the intelligence from Calabria. - -‘We have had here,’ he writes, ‘some shocks of an earthquake which, in -Calabria Ultra, has swallowed up or destroyed almost every town, -together with some towns in Sicily.... Every hour brings in accounts -of fresh disasters. [Sidenote: 1783. Feb. 18.] Some thousands of -people will perish with hunger before the provisions sent from hence -can reach them. This, I believe, will prove to have been the greatest -calamity that has happened in this century. An end is put to the -Carnival. [Sidenote: Hamilton to Banks, MS. ADDIT., 8967, ff. 34, -seqq.] The theatres are shut. I suppose Saint Januarius will be -brought out.’ There had been no exaggeration in these first reports. -It was found that at Terranova, not only were all the buildings -destroyed, but the very ground on which they stood sunk to such a -depth as to form a sort of gulf. In that district alone 3043 people -lost their lives. At Seminara 1328 persons were buried beneath the -ruins. In other and adjacent districts more than 3300 persons -perished. - -In 1784 the ambassador visited England. His stay was brief. But an -incident which occurred during this visit gave its colour to the rest -of his life. - -In 1791 Sir William HAMILTON was made a Privy Councillor, and in the -same year (nine years after the death of his first wife) he married -Emma HARTE, whom he had first met in the house of his nephew, Colonel -GREVILLE, in 1784. In September, 1793, his eventful acquaintance with -NELSON was formed. - -[Sidenote: HAMILTON’S FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH NELSON.] - -In that month, NELSON had been sent to Naples with despatches from -Admiral Lord HOOD, in which Sir William HAMILTON was pressed to -procure the sending of some Neapolitan troops to Toulon. After his -first interview with Lord HOOD’S messenger, he is said to have -remarked to his wife: ‘I have a little man to introduce to you who -will become one of the greatest men England has ever had.’ The -favourable impression was reciprocal, it seems. The ambassador gave -such good furtherance to the object of NELSON’S mission, that the -messenger, we are told, said to him, ‘You are a man after my heart. -[Sidenote: Clarke and McArthur, _Life, &c., of Nelson_, vol. i, p. -133; and Nicolas, vol. i, p. 326.] I’m only a captain, but, if I live, -I shall get to the top of the tree;’ while, of the too-fascinating -lady into whose social circle he was presently brought, NELSON wrote -to his wife, ‘She is a young woman of amiable manners, who does honour -to the station to which she is raised.’ Several years, however, were -yet to intervene before the events of the naval war and the political -circumstances of Naples itself brought about a close connexion in -public transactions between the great seaman and the British -ambassador, whose long diplomatic career was drawing to its close. - - -HAMILTON, after the manner of Collectors, had scarcely parted with the -fine Museum, which he had sold to the Public in 1772, before he began -to form another. The explorations of the buried cities gave some -favourable opportunities near home, and his researches were spread far -and wide. In amassing vases he was especially fortunate. And, in that -particular, his second Collection came to surpass the first. He became -anxious to ensure its preservation in integrity. With that view he -offered it to the King of Prussia. - -[Sidenote: THE SECOND HAMILTON COLLECTION OF VASES.] - -‘I think,’ he wrote to the Countess of LICHTENAU, in May, 1796, ‘my -object will be attained by placing my Collection, with my name -attached to it, at Berlin. And I am persuaded that, in a very few -years, the profit which the arts will derive from such models will -greatly exceed the price of the Collection. The King’s [porcelain] -manufactory would do well to profit by it.... For a long time past I -have had an unlimited commission from the Grand Duke of Russia -[afterwards PAUL THE FIRST], but, between ourselves, I should think my -Collection lost in Russia; whilst, at Berlin, it would be in the midst -of men of learning and of literary academies. - -‘There are more,’ he continues, ‘than a thousand vases, and one half -of them figured. If the King listens to your proposal, he may be -assured of having the whole Collection, and I would further undertake -to go, at the end of the war, to Berlin to arrange them. [Sidenote: -Sir W. Hamilton to the Countess of Lichtenau, 3 May, 1796.] On -reckoning up my accounts,—I must speak frankly (_il faut que je dise -la vérité_),—I find that I shall needs be a loser, unless I receive -seven thousand pounds sterling for this Collection. That is exactly -the sum I received from the English Parliament for my first -Collection....[59] As respects Vases, the second is far more beautiful -and complete than the series in London, but the latter included also -bronzes, gems, and medals.’ But the negotiation thus opened led to no -result. And some of the choicest contents of this second Museum were -eventually lost by shipwreck. - -When the correspondence with Berlin occurred, the Collector’s health -was rapidly failing him. The political horizon was getting darker and -darker. Victorious France was putting its pressure upon the Neapolitan -Government to accept terms of peace which should exact the exclusion -of British ships from the Neapolitan ports. The ambassador needed now -all the energies for which, but a few years before, there had been no -worthy political employment. They were fast vanishing; but, to the -last, Sir William exerted himself to the best of his ability. It was -his misfortune that he had now to work, too often, by deputy. - -[Sidenote: THE LATER EVENTS AT NAPLES, 1796–1799.] - -Lady HAMILTON’S ambitious nature, and her appetite for political -intrigue, when combined with some real ability and a good deal of -reckless unscrupulousness as to the path by which the object in view -might be reached, were dangerous qualities in such a Court as that of -Naples. If, more than once, they contributed to the attainment of ends -which were eagerly sought by the Government at home, and were of -advantage to the movements of the British fleet, they cost—as is but -too well known—an excessive price at last. The blame fairly attachable -to Sir William HAMILTON is that of suffering himself to be kept at a -post for which the infirmities of age were rapidly unfitting him. But -there he was to remain during yet four eventful years; quitting his -embassy only when, to all appearance, he was at the door of death. - -Between the September of 1793 and that of 1798 NELSON and Sir William -HAMILTON met more than once; but their chief communication was, of -course, by letter. When, in October, 1796, after two victories in -quick succession, NELSON lost his hard-won prizes, and narrowly -escaped being taken into a Spanish port, it was to HAMILTON that he -wrote for a certificate of his conduct. And one of the ambassador’s -latest diplomatic achievements was his procuring access for British -ships to Neapolitan ports before the Battle of the Nile was won. - -On the very night of that famous first of August, 1798, Sir -William—whilst the distant battle was yet raging—told NELSON of the -disappointment which had followed the rumours, current during many -days at Naples, of a defeat given to the French fleet in the Bay of -Alexandretta, and assured him of his own confidence that the rumours, -though then unfounded, would come true at last. Five weeks afterwards, -he had the satisfaction of sending to London the first official -account of the great victory which he had seen before with the eye of -faith. - -At Naples the authentic news was received with a joy which worked like -frenzy. When the ambassador first saw the Queen, after its arrival, -she was rushing up and down the room of audience, and embracing every -person who entered it—man, woman, or child. [Sidenote: Sir W. Hamilton -to Nelson; Nicolas, vol. iii, p. 72.] He sent to NELSON an account of -the universal joy. ‘You have now, indeed, made yourself immortal,’ was -his own greeting. On the 22nd they again met, on board the _Vanguard_, -in the Bay. On the 21st of the following December Sir William HAMILTON -accompanied the King and Court of Naples in their flight to Palermo. - -The events of 1799 belong rather to history than to biography. Sir -William HAMILTON’S chief share in them lay in his exertions to obtain -for NELSON the large powers which the King of NAPLES vested in the -English Admiral—with results so mingled. On the 21st of June he -embarked with NELSON on board the _Foudroyant_, and sailed with the -squadron to Naples. In the stormy interview between NELSON and -Cardinal RUFFO, Sir William acted as interpreter. In all that -followed, he seems to have been rather a spectator than an actor. At -the close of the year he joined with NELSON in the vain endeavour to -induce the King to return to Naples, while that course was yet open to -him. - -[Sidenote: DEPARTURE FROM NAPLES.] - -On the 10th of June, 1800, Sir William took his final leave of Naples, -which had been his home for thirty-six years, and where he had mingled -in a departed world. In company with the Queen and three princesses, -the HAMILTONS sailed in the _Foudroyant_ for Leghorn, on their way to -Vienna. A few days after the embarkation, a fellow-passenger writes -thus: ‘Sir William HAMILTON appears broken, distressed, and harassed. -[Sidenote: Miss Knight to Lady Berry, July 2, 1800.] He says that he -shall die by the way, and he looks so ill that I should not be -surprised if he did.’ When the Admiral struck his flag (13th July) at -Leghorn, the party set out for Vienna. Between Leghorn and Florence, -Sir William’s carriage met with an overturn, which increased his -malady. At Trieste the physicians were inclined to despair of his -life. But he rallied sufficiently to reach England at last, and the -change from turmoil to rest prolonged his life for two years to come. - -[Sidenote: SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON’S LAST DAYS.] - -During the long interval between the acquisition of the first Hamilton -Museum and the return of its Collector to his country, he had marked -his interest in the national Collection by repeated and valuable -gifts. To make yet one gift more—trivial, but possessing an historical -interest—was one of his last acts. On the 12th of February, 1803, he -sent to the British Museum a Commission given by the famous fisherman -of Amalfi to one of his insurrectionary captains. On the 6th of April -Sir William HAMILTON died, in London. He was buried at Milford Haven. - - -The kindly heart had left many memorials of its quality at Naples. The -ambassador had lost a part of his fortune. But many poor dependants, -in his old home, enjoyed pensions from his liberality. - -NELSON, when writing to the Queen of the Two Sicilies upon the death -of their common friend, made this remark on his testamentary -arrangements:—‘The good Sir William did not leave Lady HAMILTON in -such comfortable circumstances as his fortune would have allowed. He -has given it amongst his relations. [Sidenote: Nelson to the Queen of -Naples (Nicolas, vol. iv, p. 84).] But she will do honour to his -memory, although every one else of his friends calls loudly against -him on that account.’ This comment, however, expresses rather a -temporary feeling than a wise judgment. Sir William had settled a -jointure of seven hundred pounds a year upon his widow. - -During the few months of life that yet remained to the great seaman -himself, the highest encomium known to his vocabulary was to say, -‘So-and-so was a great friend of Sir William HAMILTON.’ - - -[Sidenote: THE ‘INSTITUTE OF EGYPT;’ AND ITS RESEARCHES AND - ACQUISITIONS.] - -As the British Museum owes one choice portion of its archæological -treasures to the man who was NELSON’S type of friendship, so also it -owes—indirectly—another portion of them to the man who was NELSON’S -favourite aversion, and whose very name, in the Admiral’s mind, served -to sum up all that was most detestable. The Battle of the Nile, and -the military operations which followed it in the after years, would -have counted no antiquarian riches amongst their trophies, but for -that ardent love of science in NAPOLEON which prompted him to plan the -‘Institute of Egypt’ as an essential part of the Campaign of Egypt. - -The intention with which the Institute of Egypt was founded embraced -every kind of study and research. The scholars of whom it was composed -included within their number men of the most varied powers. What they -effected was fragmentary, and yet their researches, directly or -indirectly, bore much fruit. - -In the end, the harvest was to France herself none the less abundant -from the fact that NELSON’S achievement, and what grew thereout, set -Englishmen and Germans to work with increased vigour in the same -field, and divided some of the tools. - -Scarcely had General BONAPARTE established the military power of the -French Republic in Egypt, before he was employed in organizing the -Institute at Cairo. [Sidenote: 1798–1801.] Its declared object was -twofold: (1) the increase and diffusion of learning in Egypt itself; -(2) the examination, study, and publication, of the monuments of its -history and of its natural phenomena, together with the elucidation -and improvement of the natural and industrial capabilities of the -country. [Sidenote: _Mémoires sur l’Egypt_, passim.] The Institute was -composed of thirty-six members, and was divided into four sections. -The section with which alone we are here concerned—that of Literature, -Arts, and History—was headed by DENON, and amongst its other members -were DUTERTRE, PARSEVAL, and RIPAULT. Its labours began in 1798, and -were continued, with almost unparalleled activity, until the summer of -1801, when the defeat of BELLIARD near Cairo, and the capitulation of -MENOU at Alexandria, placed that part of the collections of the -Institute which had not been already sent to France at the disposal of -Lord HUTCHINSON. - -DENON, on his return from Upper Egypt to Cairo, said, with French -vivacity, that if the active movements of the Mamelukes now and then -forced an antiquary to become, in self-defence, a soldier, the -antiquary was enabled, by way of balance and through the good nature -and docility of the French troops, to turn a good many soldiers into -antiquaries. Had it not been for this general sympathy and readiness, -one can hardly conceive that so much could have been accomplished, -even under the eye of NAPOLEON, amidst perils so incessant. The -_Description de l’Egypte_ is for France at large, no less than for -NAPOLEON and the men whom he set to work, a monument which might well -obliterate the momentary mortification attendant on the transfer to -London of a part of the treasures of the Institute. History, ancient -or modern, scarcely offers a parallel instance in which war was made -to contribute results so splendid, both for the progress of science -and for the eventual improvement of the invaded country. To the -labours initiated by NAPOLEON, and partially carried out by the -‘Institute of Egypt,’ the ablest of the recent rulers of that land owe -some of their best and latest inspirations. Nor is it a whit less true -that the most successful of our English Egyptologists have followed -the track in which Frenchmen led the way. Such results, indeed, can -never suffice to justify an unprovoked invasion. But they illustrate, -in a marvellous way, how temporary evil is wrought into enduring good. - -By the sixteenth article of the Capitulation of Alexandria, it was -provided that the Members of the Institute of Egypt might carry back -with them all instruments of science and art which they had brought -from France, but that all collections of marbles, manuscripts, and -other antiquities, together with the specimens of natural history and -the drawings, then in the possession of the French, should be regarded -as public property, and become subject to the disposal of the generals -of the allied army. - -[Sidenote: THE CONVENTION OF ALEXANDRIA.] - -The Convention was made between General MENOU and General HOPE, on the -31st of August, 1801. [Sidenote: 1801, August.] Against this sixteenth -article MENOU made the strongest remonstrances, but General HOPE -declined to modify it, otherwise than by agreeing to make a reference, -as to the precise extent to which it should be carried into actual -effect, to Lord HUTCHINSON, as Commander-in-Chief. - -Between MENOU and HUTCHINSON there was a long correspondence. The -French General declared that the Collections, both scientific and -archæological, were private, not public property. The since famous -‘Rosetta stone,’ for example, belonged, he said, to himself. Various -members of the Institute claimed other precious objects; some alleged, -with obvious force of argument, that the care bestowed on specimens of -natural history made them the property of the collectors and -preservers; others threatened to prefer the destruction or defacement -of their collections, by their own hands, to the giving of them up to -the English army. - -[Sidenote: THE NEGOTIATIONS AND SERVICES OF COLONEL TURNER.] - -The correspondence was followed by several personal conferences -between MENOU and Colonel (afterwards General) TURNER, in order to a -compromise. TURNER, who was himself a man of distinguished knowledge -and accomplishments, advised Lord HUTCHINSON to insist on the transfer -of the Marbles and Manuscripts, and to yield the natural history -specimens, with some minor objects, to the possessors. The astute -Capitan Pasha had contrived to place himself in ‘possession’ of one of -the most precious of the marbles—the famous sarcophagus which Dr. -CLARKE so strenuously contended to be nothing less than the tomb of -ALEXANDER—by seizing the ship on board of which the French had placed -it, and he gave Colonel TURNER almost as much trouble as MENOU himself -had given. - -The French soldiers were, as was natural, deeply mortified when they -heard that the captors of Alexandria were to have the antiquities. -Every man of them who had had to do with their excavation or transport -had vindicated DENON’S eulogy by his pains to protect the sculptures -from harm. Now, their excessive zeal and their national pride led to -an unworthy result. The Rosetta stone was stripped of the soft cotton -cloth and the thick matting in which it had been sedulously wrapped, -and was thrown upon its face. Other choice antiquities were deprived -of their wooden cases. [Sidenote: CAPTURE OF THE ROSETTA STONE;] When -TURNER, with a detachment of artillerymen and a strong tumbril, went -to the French head-quarters to receive the Rosetta stone, he had to -pass through a lane of angry Frenchmen who crowded the narrow streets -of Alexandria, and were not sparing in their epithets and sarcasms. -Those artillerymen, too, were the first English soldiers who entered -the city. When Colonel TURNER had gotten safely into his hands the -stone destined to mark an era in philology, he returned good for evil. -He permitted some members of the Institute of Egypt to take a cast of -it, which they sent to Paris in lieu of the original. - -The Rosetta inscription had been found, by the French explorers, among -the ruins of a fortification near the mouth of the Rosetta branch of -the Nile. When they discovered it the stone was already broken, both -at the top and at the right side. Of its triple inscription, -commemorative of the beginning of the actual and personal reign of -PTOLEMY EPIPHANES—and therefore cut nearly two hundred years before -the Christian era—that in the hieroglyphic or sacred character had -suffered most. The second or enchorial inscription was also mutilated -in its upper portion. The Greek version was almost entire. - -The scarcely less famous Alexandrian sarcophagus was found by the -French in the court-yard of a mosque called the ‘Mosque of St. -Athanasius.’ [Sidenote: AND OF THE SARCOPHAGUS SOMETIMES CALLED ‘TOMB -OF ALEXANDER.’] Of its discovery and state when found, the following -account is given in the _Description de l’Egypte_:—A small octagonal -building, covered with a cupola, had been constructed by the Moslems -for their ablutions, and in this they had placed the sarcophagus to be -used as a bath; piercing it for that purpose with large holes, but not -otherwise injuring it. The sarcophagus is a monolith of dark-coloured -breccia—such as the Italians call _breccia verde d’Egitto_—and is -completely covered with hieroglyphics. [Sidenote: _Description de -l’Egypte_, vol. v, pp. 373, seqq.; Plates and Append. (8vo edit.), -1829.] Their number, according to the French artist by whom -impressions in sulphur were taken of the whole, exceeds 21,700. Dr. -CLARKE’S identification of this monument as the tomb of Alexander has -not been supported by later Egyptologists. - -This sarcophagus, with most of the other antiquities, was sent on -board the flagship _Madras_. [Sidenote: LIST OF THE EGYPTIAN -ANTIQUITIES EMBARKED AT ALEXANDRIA.] The Rosetta inscription, Colonel -TURNER embarked, with himself, in the frigate _Egyptienne_. His own -list of the antiquities thus brought, in safety, to England runs -thus:—(1) An Egyptian sarcophagus, of green breccia; (2) another, of -black granite, from Cairo; (3) another, of basalt, from Menouf; (4) -the hand of a colossal statue—supposed to be Vulcan—found in the ruins -of Memphis; (5) five fragments of lion-headed statues, of black -granite, from Thebes; (6) a mutilated kneeling statue, of black -granite; (7) two statues, of white marble, from Alexandria—Septimus -Severus and Marcus Aurelius; (8) the Rosetta stone; (9) a lion-headed -statue, from Upper Egypt; (10) two fragments of lions’ heads, of black -granite; (11) a small kneeling figure, of black granite; (12) five -fragments of lion-headed statues, of black granite; (13) a fragment of -a sarcophagus, of black granite, from Upper Egypt; (14) two small -obelisks, of basalt, with hieroglyphics; (15) a colossal ram’s head. -Nos. 10 to 15 inclusive were all brought from Upper Egypt. (16) A -statue of a woman, sitting, with a model of the capital of a column of -the Temple of Isis at Dendera, between her feet; (17) a fragment of a -lion-headed statue, of black granite, from Upper Egypt; (18) a chest -of Oriental Manuscripts—sixty-two in number—in Coptic, Arabic, and -Turkish. - - -I have given the more careful detail to this notice of the -archæological results of the capitulation of Alexandria, inasmuch as a -very inaccurate statement of the matter has found its way into an able -and deservedly accredited book. [Sidenote: See the _History of -Europe_, vol. v, p. 596 (last edition).] Sir Archibald ALISON, in his -_History of Europe_ (probably from some misconception of the -compromise effected between General TURNER and the French -Commander-in-Chief), writes thus:—‘General HUTCHINSON, with a generous -regard for the interests of science and the feelings of these -distinguished persons [the Members of the Institute of Egypt], agreed -to depart from the stipulation and allow these treasures of art to be -forwarded to France. The sarcophagus of ALEXANDER, now in the British -Museum, was, however, retained by the British, and formed the glorious -trophy of their memorable triumph.’ - -General TURNER’S conspicuous service on this occasion did not end with -the transport into England of the Alexandrian Collections. Before the -Rosetta inscription was, by the King’s command, placed, together with -its companions, in the British Museum, as their permanent abode, -General TURNER obtained Lord BUCKINGHAMSHIRE’S assent to the temporary -deposit of the stone from Rosetta in the custody of the Society of -Antiquaries, by whose care copies of the inscriptions were sent to the -chief scholars and academies of the Continent, in order that combined -study might be brought to bear, immediately, upon the contents. This -circumstance makes it all the more honourable to our countryman, Dr. -Thomas YOUNG, that by his labours upon the stone a strong impulse was -first given to the progress of hieroglyphical discovery. - -The accessions from Alexandria served, also, to initiate another -improvement. When, in 1802, they reached the Museum, its contents had -so increased that the old house afforded no adequate space for their -reception. They had, like some famous sculptures of much later -acquisition, to be placed in sheds which scarcely preserved them from -bad weather, and were even less adapted to facilitate their study. -[Sidenote: 1804, July 2.] [Sidenote: _Parliamentary Debates_, vol. ii, -col. 901, seqq.] The Trustees made their first application to -Parliament for the enlargement of the Museum Building, ‘in order to -provide suitable room for the preservation of invaluable monuments of -antiquity which had been acquired by the valour, intrepidity, and -skill of our troops in an expedition seldom equalled in the annals of -the country.’ And before presenting their petition they determined -that increased facilities should be given for the admission of the -Public, as soon as they should be enabled to make an adequate increase -in the staff of the establishment. - -When the extension of the British Museum came first to be discussed in -the House of Commons (somewhat grudgingly and captiously it must, in -truth, be acknowledged), upon the application of the Trustees, some of -their number were already aware that an accession was likely soon to -accrue through the munificence of a fellow-trustee, which would make a -new and extensive building indispensable. Charles TOWNELEY had already -made a Will in virtue of which—as it stood in 1804—the Towneley -Marbles were devised in trust for the British Museum, on condition -that the Trustees thereof should, ‘within two years from the time of -the testator’s decease, set apart a room or rooms sufficiently -spacious and elegant to exhibit these antiquities most advantageously -to the Public,—such rooms to be exclusively set apart for the -reception and future exhibition of the antiquities aforesaid.’ -Circumstances not foreseen in 1802, when Colonel TOWNELEY’S Will had -been first made, led afterwards to a change in the mode in which his -noble Collection was to be received by the Public. But its -preservation and public accessibility, in one way or other, had long -been resolved upon. - - -The TOWNELEYS, of Towneley, rank among the most ancient and -distinguished commoners of Lancashire. They can trace an honourable -descent to a period antecedent to the Conquest. They have been seated -at Towneley from the twelfth century. Several of them have given good -service to England, in various ways, in spite of the obstacles and -discouragements which, for many generations, clave to almost every man -whose convictions obliged him to adhere to the Roman Catholic Church, -and so to incur the pains and disabilities of recusancy. Of these they -had their full share. One TOWNELEY had been mulcted in fines amounting -to more than five thousand pounds, simply for remaining true to his -belief, and had been, for that cause, sent (with an ingenuity of -torment one is almost tempted to call diabolic) from prison to prison -across the breadth of England, and back again.[60] Another TOWNELEY -was driven into an exile which lasted so long that when he returned -into Lancashire everybody had forgotten his features and his voice, -except his dog. But neither fine, imprisonment, nor banishment, had -converted them to Protestantism. Hence it was that Charles TOWNELEY, -the Collector of the Marbles, received his education at Douay, and -contracted all the strong formative impressions of early life and -habit on the Continent. - -He was born, in the old seat of the family at Towneley Hall, on the -1st of October, 1737. [Sidenote: LIFE OF CHARLES TOWNELEY.] His -father, William TOWNELEY, had married Cecilia, sole daughter and heir -of Richard STANDISH, by his wife Lady Philippa HOWARD, daughter of -Henry, Duke of NORFOLK. The hall—which has not yet lost all its -venerable aspect—was built in part by a Sir John TOWNELEY in the reign -of HENRY VIII, and its older portions (turrets, gateway, chapel, and -library) suit well the fine position of the building, and the noble -woods which back it. Of the founder two things still remain in local -tradition and memory. He took the changes made under the rule of -HENRY—or rather of Thomas CROMWELL—so much in dudgeon, that when -Lancaster Herald came to Towneley, upon his Visitation, he refused to -admit him, saying, ‘Do not trouble thyself. There are no more -gentlemen left in Lancashire now than my Lord of DERBY, and my Lord -MONTEAGLE.’ The other tradition of this same Sir John is, that he -enclosed a common pasture called Horelaw, and so made the peasantry as -angry with his innovations as he was with CROMWELL’S. Some of their -descendants may yet chance to assure the inquisitive stranger, that -his ghost still haunts the park, crying aloud in the dead of night— - - ‘Lay out! lay out![61] - Horelaw and Hollingley Clough!’ - -At Douay Charles TOWNELEY received a careful education, moulded, of -course, under the conditions and the memories of that celebrated -College. When he left its good priests he was already the owner of the -family estates—his father having died prematurely in 1742—and he was -plunged, at once, into the gaieties and temptations of Paris. All the -Mentorship he had was that of a great uncle who had become -sufficiently naturalised to win the friendship of VOLTAIRE, and to be -able to turn _Hudibras_ into excellent French. The dissipations of the -Capital overpowered, for a time, the real love of classical studies -which had been excited in the provincial college. But the seed had -been sown in a good soil. The study of art and of classical -archæology, in particular, presently reasserted its claims and renewed -its attractions. It was a fortunate circumstance, too, that family -affairs required the presence of Mr. TOWNELEY in England on the -attainment of his majority. - -He had left Towneley very young. He came back to it with more of the -foreigner than of the Englishman in his ways of life and manners. But -he was able to win the genuine regard of his neighbours, and to take -his fair share in their pursuits and sports, although he could -never—at least in his own estimation—succeed in expressing his -thoughts with as much ease and readiness in English as in French. Late -in life, he would speak of this conscious inability with regret. -Whether needfully or not, the feeling, no doubt, prevented Mr. -TOWNELEY from turning to literary account his large acquirements. - -What he had seen of the Continent had given him a desire to see more -of it, and the bias of his youthful studies pointed in the same -direction. In 1765, after a short stay in France, he went into Italy, -and there he passed almost eight years. They were passed in a very -different way from that in which he had passed the interval between -Douay and Towneley. That long residence abroad enabled him to become a -very conspicuous benefactor to his country. - -He visited Naples, Florence, and Rome, and from time to time made many -excursions into various parts of Magna Græcia and of Sicily. At Naples -he formed the acquaintance of Sir William HAMILTON and of -D’HANCARVILLE. [Sidenote: TOWNELEY’S ARTISTIC RESEARCHES IN ITALY.] -[Sidenote: 1765–1778.] At Rome he became acquainted with three -Englishmen, James BYRES, Gavin HAMILTON, and Thomas JENKINS, all of -whom had first gone thither as artists, and step by step had come to -be almost exclusively engrossed in the search after works of ancient -art. The success and fame of Sir William HAMILTON’S researches in the -Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and of those, still earlier, of Thomas -COKE of Holkham (afterwards Earl of Leicester), had given a strong -impulse to like researches in other parts of Italy. TOWNELEY caught -the contagion, and was backed by large resources to aid him in the -pursuit. - -His first important purchase was made in 1768. It was that of a work -already famous, and which for more than a century had been one of the -ornaments of the Barberini Palace at Rome. This statue of a boy -playing at the game of tali, or ‘osselets’ (figured in _Ancient -Marbles in the British Museum_, part ii, plate 31), was found among -the ruins of the Baths of Titus, during the Pontificate of URBAN THE -EIGHTH. During the same year, 1768, Mr. TOWNELEY acquired, from the -Collection of Victor AMADEI, at Rome, the circular urn with figures in -high relief—which is figured in the first volume of Piranesi’s -_Raccolta di Vasi Antichi_—and also the statue of a _Nymph of Diana_, -seated on the ground. This statue was found in 1766 at the Villa -Verospi in Rome. - -[Sidenote: FORMATION OF THE TOWNELEY GALLERY.] - -Two years afterwards, several important acquisitions were made of -marbles which were discovered in the course of the excavations -undertaken by BYRES, Gavin HAMILTON, and JENKINS, amidst the ruins of -Hadrian’s Villa near Tivoli. The joint-stock system, by means of which -the diggings were effected, no less than the conditions which -accompanied the papal concessions that authorised them, necessitated a -wide diffusion of the spoil. But whenever the making of a desirable -acquisition rested merely upon liberality of purse or a just -discrimination of merit, Mr. TOWNELEY was not easily outstripped in -the quest. Amongst these additions of 1769–71 were the noble Head of -_Hercules_, the Head said, conjecturally, to be that of _Menelaus_, -and the ‘_Castor_’ in low relief (all of which are figured in the -second part of _Ancient Marbles_). - -Two terminal heads of the bearded _Bacchus_—both of them of remarkable -beauty—were obtained in 1771 from the site of Baiæ. These were found -by labourers who were digging a deep trench for the renewal of a -vineyard, and were seen by Mr. ADAIR, who was then making an excursion -from Naples. In the same year the statue of _Ceres_ and that of a -_Faun_ (_A. M._, ii, 24) were purchased from the Collection in the -Macarani Palace at Rome. In 1772 the _Diana Venatrix_ and the _Bacchus -and Ampelus_ were found near La Storta. It was by no fault of -TOWNELEY’S that the _Diana_ was in part ‘restored,’ and that -blunderingly. He thought restoration to be, in some cases, -permissible; but never deceptively; never when doubt existed about the -missing part. In art, as in life, he clave to his heraldic motto -‘_Tenez le vrai_.’ - -In 1771, also, the famous ‘_Clytie_’—doubtfully so called—was -purchased from the Laurenzano Collection at Naples. - -The curious scenic figure on a plinth (_A. M._, part x) together with -many minor pieces of sculpture, were found in the Fonseca Villa on the -Cælian Hill in 1773. In the same year many purchases were made from -the Mattei Collection at Rome. Amongst these are the heads of _Marcus -Aurelius_ and of _Lucius Verus_. And it was at this period that Gavin -HAMILTON began his productive researches amidst the ruins of the villa -of Antoninus Pius at Monte Cagnolo, near the ancient Lanuvium. This is -a spot both memorable and beautiful. The hill lies on the road between -Genzano and Civita Lavinia. It commands a wide view over Velletri and -the sea. To HAMILTON and his associates it proved one of the richest -mines of ancient art which they had the good fortune to light upon. -Mr. TOWNELEY’S share in the spoil of Monte Cagnolo comprised the group -of _Victory sacrificing a Bull_; the _Actæon_; a _Faun_; a -Bacchanalian vase illustrative of the _Dionysia_; and several other -works of great beauty. The undraped _Venus_ was found—also by Gavin -HAMILTON—at Ostia, in 1775. - -[Sidenote: THE ACQUISITION OF THE ‘TOWNELEY VENUS.’] - -In the next year, 1776, Mr. TOWNELEY acquired one of the chiefest -glories of his gallery, the _Venus_ with drapery. This also was found -at Ostia, in the ruins of the Baths of Claudius. But that superb -statue would not have left Rome had not its happy purchaser made, for -once, a venial deflection from the honourable motto just adverted to. -The figure was found in two severed portions, and care was taken to -show them, quite separately, to the authorities concerned in granting -facilities for their removal. The same excavation yielded to the -Towneley Collection the statue of _Thalia_. From the Villa Casali on -the Esquiline were obtained the terminal head of _Epicurus_, and the -bust thought to be that of _Domitia_. The bust of _Sophocles_ was -found near Genzano; that of _Trajan_, in the Campagna; that of -_Septimius Severus_, on the Palatine, and that of _Caracalla_ on the -Esquiline. A curious cylindrical fountain (figured in _A. M._, i, § -10) was found between Tivoli and Præneste, and the fine representation -in low relief of a _Bacchanalian procession_ (_Ib._, part ii) at -Civita Vecchia. All these accessions to the Towneley Gallery accrued -in 1775 or 1776. - -Of the date of the Collector’s first return to England with his -treasures I have found no record. [Sidenote: THE TOWNELEY GALLERY IN -ENGLAND.] But it would seem that nearly all the marbles hitherto -enumerated were brought to England in or before the year 1777. The -house, in London, in which they were first placed was found to be -inadequate to their proper arrangement. Mr. TOWNELEY either built or -adapted another house, in Park street, Westminster, expressly for -their reception. Here they were seen under favourable circumstances as -to light and due ordering. They were made accessible to students with -genuine liberality. And few things gave their owner more pleasure than -to put his store of knowledge, as well as his store of antiquities, at -the service of those who wished to profit by them. He did so genially, -unostentatiously, and with the discriminating tact which marked the -high-bred gentleman, as well as the enthusiastic Collector. - -A contemporary critic, very competent to give an opinion on such a -matter, said of Mr. TOWNELEY: ‘His learning and sagacity in explaining -works of ancient art was equal to his taste and judgment in selecting -them.’[62] If, in any point, that eulogy is now open to some -modification, the exception arises from the circumstance that early in -life, or, at least, early in his collectorship, he had imbibed from -his intercourse with D’HANCARVILLE somewhat of that writer’s love for -mystical and supersubtle expositions of the symbolism of the Grecian -and Egyptian artists. To D’HANCARVILLE, the least obvious of any two -possible expositions of a subject was always the preferable one. Now -and then TOWNELEY would fall into the same vein of recondite -elaboration; as, for example, when he described his figure of an -Egyptian ‘tumbler’ raising himself, upon his arms, from the back of a -tame crocodile, as the ‘Genius of Production.’ - -During the riots of 1780, the Towneley Gallery (like the National -Museum of which it was afterwards to become a part) was, for some -time, in imminent peril. The Collector himself could have no enemies -but those who were infuriated against his religious faith. Fanaticism -and ignorance are meet allies, little likely to discriminate between a -Towneley Venus and the tawdriest of Madonnas. Threats to destroy the -house in Park Street were heard and reported. Mr. TOWNELEY put his -gems and medals in a place of safety, together with a few other -portable works of art. Then, taking ‘Clytie’ in his arms—with the -words ‘I must take care of my wife’—he left his house, casting one -last, longing, look at the marbles which, as he feared, would never -charm his eyes again. But, happily, both the Towneley house and the -British Museum escaped injury, amid the destruction of buildings, and -of works of art and literature, in the close neighbourhood of both of -them. - - -[Sidenote: THE SCULPTURES ACQUIRED FROM THE VILLA MONTALTO AT ROME;] - -Liberal commissions and constant correspondence with Italy continued -to enrich the Towneley Gallery, from time to time, after the Collector -had made England his own usual place of abode. In 1786, Mr. -JENKINS—who had long established himself as the banker of the English -in Rome, and who continued to make considerable investments in works -of ancient art, with no small amount of mercantile profit—purchased -all the marbles of the Villa Montalto. From this source Mr. TOWNELEY -obtained his _Bacchus visiting Icarus_ (engraved by BARTOLI almost a -century before); his _Bacchus and Silenus_; the bust of _Hadrian_; the -sarcophagus decorated with a _Bacchanalian procession_ (_A. M._, part -x), and also that with a representation of the _Nine Muses_. -[Sidenote: AND FROM NEW EXCAVATIONS.] By means of the same keen agent -and explorer he heard, in or about the year 1790, that leave had been -given to make a new excavation under circumstances of peculiar -promise. - -Our Collector was at Towneley when the letter of Mr. JENKINS came to -hand. He knew his correspondent, and the tenour of the letter induced -him to resolve upon an immediate journey to Rome. The grass did not -grow under his feet. He travelled as rapidly as though he had been -still a youngster, escaping from Douay, with all the allurements of -Paris in his view. - -[Sidenote: THE JOURNEY TO ROME OF 1790?] - -When he reached Rome, he learnt that the promising excavation was but -just begun upon. Without any preliminary visits, or announcement, he -quietly presented himself beside the diggers, and ere long had the -satisfaction of seeing a fine statue of Hercules displayed. Other fine -works afterwards came to light. But on visiting Mr. JENKINS, in order -to enjoy a more deliberate examination of ‘the find,’ and to settle -the preliminaries of purchase, his enjoyment was much diminished by -the absence of Hercules. JENKINS did not know that his friend had seen -it exhumed, and he carefully concealed it from his view. Eager -remonstrance, however, compelled him to produce the hidden treasure. -TOWNELEY, at length, left the banker’s house with the conviction that -the statue was his own, but it never charmed his sight again until he -saw it in the Collection of Lord LANSDOWNE. He had, however, really -secured the _Discobolus_ or Quoit-thrower,—perhaps, notwithstanding -its restored head, the finest of the known repetitions of MYRO’S -famous statue,—as well as some minor pieces of sculpture. - -Other and very valuable acquisitions were made, occasionally, at the -dispersion of the Collections of several lovers of ancient art, some -of these Collections having been formed before his time, and others -contemporaneously with his own. [Sidenote: ACQUISITIONS MADE IN -ENGLAND AND IN FRANCE.] In this way he acquired whilst in England (1) -the bronze statue of _Hercules_ found, early in the eighteenth -century, at Jebel or Gebail (the ancient Byblos), carried by an -Armenian merchant to Constantinople, there sold to Dr. SWINNEY, a -chaplain to the English factory; by him brought into England, and -purchased by Mr. James MATTHEWS; (2) the Head of _Arminius_, also from -the Matthews Collection; (3) the _Libera_ found by Gavin HAMILTON, on -the road to Frascati, in 1776, and then purchased by Mr. GREVILLE; (4) -Heads of a _Muse_, an _Amazon_, and some other works, from the -Collection of Mr. Lyde BROWNE, of Wimbledon; (5) the _Monument of -Xanthippus_, from the Askew Collection; (6) the bust of a female -unknown (called by TOWNELEY ‘Athys’) found near Genzano, in the -grounds of the family of CESARINI, and obtained from the Collection of -the Duke of ST. ALBANS; (7) many urns, vases, and other antiquities, -partly from the Collection of that Duke and partly from Sir Charles -FREDERICK’S Collection at Esher. The bronze _Apollo_ was bought in -Paris, at the sale, in 1774, of the Museum formed by M. L’ALLEMAND DE -CHOISEUL. - - -Some other accessions came to Mr. TOWNELEY by gift. The _Tumbler and -Crocodile_, and the small statue of _Pan_ (_A. M._, pt. x, § 24), were -the gift of Lord CAWDOR. The _Oracle of Apollo_ was a present from the -Duke of BEDFORD. This accession—in 1804—was the last work which Mr. -TOWNELEY had the pleasure of seeing placed in his gallery. He died in -London, on the 3rd of January, 1805. - -He had been made, in 1791, a Trustee of the British Museum, in the -progress of which he took a great interest. Family circumstances, as -it seems, occurred which at last dictated a change in the original -disposition which he had made of his Collection. [Sidenote: MR. -TOWNELEY’S WILL.] [Sidenote: Codicil of 22 Dec., 1804.] By a Codicil, -executed only twelve days before his death, he bequeathed the -Collection to his only brother Edward TOWNELEY-STANDISH, on condition -that a sum of at least four thousand five hundred pounds should be -expended for the erection of a suitable repository in which the -Collection should be arranged and exhibited. Failing such expenditure -by the brother, the Collection was to go to John TOWNELEY, uncle of -the Testator. Should he decline to fulfil the conditions, then the -Collection should go, according to the Testator’s first intent, to the -British Museum. - -Eventually, it appeared, on an application from the Museum Trustees, -that the heirs were willing to transfer the Collection to the Public, -but that Mr. TOWNELEY had left his estate subject to a mortgage debt -of £36,500. [Sidenote: _Act of 45 Geo. III._] The Trustees, therefore, -resolved to apply to Parliament for a grant, and this noble Collection -was acquired for the Nation on the payment of the sum of £20,000, very -inadequate, it need scarcely be added, to its intrinsic worth. - -Charles TOWNELEY possessed considerable skill, both as a draughtsman -and as an engraver. In authorship, his only public appearance was as -the writer of a dissertation on a relic of antiquity (the ‘Ribchester -Helmet’), printed in the _Vetusta Monumenta_. - -He was a learned, genial, and benevolent man. His intense love of -ancient art did not blind his eyes to things beyond art, and above it. -The impulses of the collector did not obstruct the duties of the -citizen. He was a good landlord; a generous friend. It may be said of -him, with literal truth, that he restricted his personal indulgences -in order that he might the more abundantly minister to the wants of -others. - -Charles TOWNELEY was buried at Burnley. The following inscription was -placed upon his monument: - - M. S. - CAROLI TOWNELEII, - viri ornati, modesti, - nobilitate stirpis, amænitate ingenii, suavitate morum, - insignis; - qui omnium bonarum artium, præsertim Græcarum, - spectator elegantissimus, æstimator acerrimus, judex peritissimus, - earum reliquias, ex urbium veterum ruderibus effossas, - summo studio conquisivit, suâ pecuniâ redemit, in usum patriæ - reposuit, - eâ liberalitate animi, quâ, juvenis adhuc, - hæreditatem alteram, vix patrimonio minorem, - fratri spontè cesserat, dono dederat. - Vixit annos lxvii. menses iii. dies iii. - Mortem obiit Jan. iii. A.S. 1805. - -Whilst the Trustees of the British Museum were preparing—in a way that -will be hereafter noticed—for the reception of this noble addition to -the public wealth of the Nation, another liberal-minded scholar and -patriot was considering in what way his collections in the wide field -of classical archæology might be made most contributive to the -progress of learning, of art, and of public education. - - -[Sidenote: LORD ELGIN AND HIS PURSUITS IN GREECE.] - -Thomas BRUCE, eleventh Earl of Kincardine, and seventh Earl of Elgin, -was born on the 20th of July, 1766. He was a younger son, but -succeeded to his earldoms on the death, without issue, in 1771, of his -elder brother, William Robert, sixth Earl of Elgin, and tenth of -Kincardine. He was educated at Harrow, at St. Andrew’s, and at Paris; -entered the army in 1785; and in 1790 began his diplomatic career by a -mission to the Emperor Leopold. In subsequent years he was sent as -Commissioner to the armies of Prussia and Austria, successively, and -was present during active military operations, both in Germany and in -Flanders. In 1795 he went as envoy to Berlin. - - -Lord ELGIN was appointed to the embassy to the Ottoman Porte, with -which his name is now inseparably connected, in July, 1799. One of his -earliest reflections after receiving his appointment was that the -mission to Constantinople might possibly afford opportunities of -promoting the study and thorough examination of the remains of Grecian -art in the Turkish dominions. He consulted an early friend, Mr. -HARRISON—distinguished as an architect, who had spent many years of -study on the Continent with much profit—as to the methods by which any -such opportunities might be turned to fullest account. HARRISON’S -advice to his lordship was that he should seek permission to employ -artists to make casts, as well as drawings and careful admeasurements, -of the best remaining examples of Greek architecture and sculpture, -and more especially of those at Athens. - -Before leaving England, Lord ELGIN brought this subject before the -Government. He suggested the public value of the object sought for, -and how worthy of the Nation it would be to give encouragement from -public sources for the employment of a staff of skilful and eminent -artists. But the suggestion was received with no favour or welcome. He -was still unwilling to relinquish his hopes, and endeavoured to -engage, at his own cost, some competent draughtsmen and modellers. But -the terms of remuneration proposed to him were beyond his available -means. He feared that he must give up his plans. - -On reaching Palermo, however, Lord ELGIN opened the subject to Sir -William HAMILTON, who strongly recommended him to persevere, and told -him that if he could not afford to meet the terms of English artists, -he would find less difficulty in coming to an agreement with Italians, -whose time commonly bore a smaller commercial value. [Sidenote: -CONFERS WITH SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON.] With Sir William’s assistance he -engaged, in Sicily, a distinguished painter and archæologist, John -Baptist LUSIERI (better known at Naples as ‘Don Tita’), and he -obtained several skilful modellers and draughtsmen from Rome. The -removal of the marbles themselves formed no part of Lord ELGIN’S -original design. That step was induced by causes which at this time -were unforeseen. - -On his arrival at Constantinople Lord ELGIN applied to the Turkish -Ministers for leave to establish six artists at Athens to make -drawings and casts. He met with many difficulties and delays, but at -length succeeded. [Sidenote: SENDS ARTISTS TO ATHENS;] Mr. HAMILTON, -his Secretary, accompanied the Italians into Greece, to superintend -the commencement of their labours. - -The difficulties at Constantinople proved to be almost trivial in -comparison with those which ensued at Athens. Every step was met, both -by the official persons and the people generally, with jealousy and -obstruction. If a scaffold was put up, the Turks were sure that it was -with a view to look into the harem of some neighbouring house. If a -fragment of sculpture was examined with any visible delight or -eagerness, they were equally sure that it must contain hidden gold. -When the artist left the specimen he had been drawing, or modelling, -he would find, not infrequently, that some Turk or other had laid -hands upon it and broken it to pieces. But the artists persevered, and -habit in some degree reconciled, at length, the people to their -presence. - -When Lord ELGIN went himself to Athens the state in which he found -some of the temples suggested to him the desirableness of excavations -in the adjacent mounds. He purchased some houses, expressly to pull -them down and to dig beneath and around them. Sometimes the -exploration brought to light valuable sculpture. [Sidenote: AND MAKES -EXPLORATIONS BY DIGGING.] Sometimes, in situations of greatest -promise, nothing was found. - -On one occasion, when the indication of buried sculpture seemed -conclusive, and yet the search for it fruitless, Lord ELGIN was -induced to ask the former owner of the ground if he remembered to have -seen any figures there. ‘If you had asked me that before,’ replied the -man, ‘I could have saved you all your trouble. I found the figures, -and pounded them to make mortar with, because they were of excellent -marble. A great part of the Citadel has been built with mortar made in -the same way. That marble makes capital lime.’ - -The conversation was not lost upon Lord ELGIN. And the assertion made -in it was amply corroborated by facts which presently came under his -own eyes. He became convinced that when fine sculpture was found it -would be a duty to remove it, if possible, rather than expose it to -certain destruction—a little sooner or a little later—from Turkish -barbarity. - -[Sidenote: THE EXPLORATIONS EXTENDED TO OTHER PARTS OF GREECE.] - -At intervals the artists, whose head-quarters were at Athens, made -exploring trips to other parts of Greece. They visited Delphi, -Corinth, Epidaurus, Argos, Mycene, Cape Sigæum, Olympia, Æginæ, -Salamis, and Marathon. - -But it was only by means of renewed efforts at Constantinople, and -after a long delay, that the artists and their assistant labourers -were enabled to act with freedom and to make thorough explorations. So -long as the French remained masters of Egypt Lord ELGIN had to win -every little concession piecemeal, and obtained it grudgingly. As soon -as it became apparent that the British Expedition would be finally -successful, the tone of the Turkish government was entirely altered. -They were now eager to satisfy the Ambassador, and to lay him under -obligation. [Sidenote: INFLUENCE OF THE BRITISH VICTORIES IN EGYPT.] -Firmauns were given, which empowered him, not only to make models, but -‘to take away any pieces of stone from the temples of the idols with -old inscriptions or figures thereon,’ at his pleasure. Instructions -were sent to Athens which had the effect of making the Acropolis -itself a scene of busy and well-rewarded labour. Theretofore a heavy -admission fee had been exacted at each visit of the draughtsmen or -modellers. Before the close of 1802, more than three hundred labourers -were at work under the direction of LUSIERI—with results which are -familiar to the world. - -It is less widely known that, had NAPOLEON’S plans in Egypt been -carried to a prosperous issue, the ‘Elgin Marbles’ would, beyond all -doubt, have become French marbles. When Lord ELGIN’S operations began, -French agents were actually resident in Athens, awaiting the turn of -events and prepared to profit by it, in the way of resuming the -operations which M. DE CHOISEUL GOUFFIER had long previously -begun.[63] - -[Sidenote: INSTANCES OF TURKISH DEVASTATION.] - -[Sidenote: 1674.] - -The efforts of the British Ambassador became the more timely and -imperative from the fact that no amount of experience or warning was -sufficient to deter the Turks from their favourite practice of -converting the finest of the Greek Temples into powder magazines. -Twenty of the metopes of the northern side of the Parthenon had been, -in consequence of this practice, destroyed by an explosion during the -Venetian siege of Athens in the seventeenth century. [Sidenote: 1800.] -The Temple of Neptune was found by Lord ELGIN devoted to the same use, -at the beginning of the nineteenth. - -No methods of extending his researches, so as to make them as nearly -exhaustive as the circumstances would admit, were overlooked by the -ambassador. Through the friendship of the Capitan Pasha, Lord ELGIN -had already, whilst yet at the Dardanelles, obtained the famous -Boustrophedon inscription from Cape Sigæum. Through the friendship of -the Archbishop of Athens, he now procured leave to search the churches -and convents of Attica, and the search led to his possession of many -of the minor but very interesting works of sculpture and architecture -which came eventually to England along with the marbles of the -Parthenon. - -Of the curious range and variety of the dangers to which the remains -of ancient art were exposed under Turkish rule, the Boustrophedon -inscription just mentioned affords an instance worth noting. -[Sidenote: _Memoranda on the Earl of Elgin’s Pursuits in Greece, &c._, -p. 35.] Lord ELGIN found it in use as a seat, or couch, at the door of -a Greek chapel, to which persons afflicted with ague or rheumatism -were in the habit of resorting, in order to recline on this marble, -which, in their eyes, possessed a mysterious and curative virtue. The -seat was so placed as to lift the patient into a much purer air than -that which he had been wont to breathe below, and it commanded a most -cheerful sea-view; but it was the ill fate of the inscription to have -a magical fame, instead of the atmosphere. Constant rubbing had -already half obliterated its contents. But for Lord ELGIN, the whole -would soon have disappeared. At Athens itself, the loftier of the -sculptures in the Acropolis enjoyed equal favour in the eyes of -Turkish marksmen, as affording excellent targets. - -In the course of various excavations made, not only at Athens, but at -Æginæ, Argos, and Corinth, a large collection of vases was also -formed. It was the first collection which sufficed, incontestibly, to -vindicate the claim of the Greeks to the invention of that beautiful -ware, to which the name of ‘Etruscan’ was so long and so inaccurately -given. - -[Sidenote: _Ibid._, 31.] - -One of the most interesting of the many minor discoveries made in the -course of Lord ELGIN’S researches comprised a large marble vase, five -feet in circumference, which enclosed a bronze vase of thirteen inches -diameter. In this were found a lachrymatory of alabaster and a deposit -of burnt bones, with a myrtle-wreath finely wrought in gold. This -discovery was made in a tumulus on the road leading from Port Piræus -to the Salaminian Ferry and Eleusis. - - -Early in 1803, all the sculptured marbles from the Parthenon which it -was found practicable to remove were prepared for embarkation. Both of -those so prepared and of the few that were left, casts had been made, -together with a complete series of drawings to scale. That great -monument of art had been exhaustively studied, with the aid of all the -information that could be gathered from the drawings made by the -French artist, CARREY, in 1674, and those of the English architect, -STUART, in 1752. A general monumental survey of Athens and Attica was -also compiled and illustrated. - -The original frieze, in low relief, of the _cella_ of the -Parthenon—representing the chief festive solemnity of Athens, the -Panathenaic procession—had extended, in the whole, to about five -hundred and twenty feet in length. That portion which eventually -reached England amounted to two hundred and fifty feet. And of this a -considerable part was obtained by excavations. Of a small portion of -the remainder casts were brought. But the bulk of it had been long -before destroyed. Of the statues which adorned the pediments a large -portion had also perished, yet enough survived to indicate the design -and character of the whole. Of statues and fragments of statues, -seventeen were brought to England. Of metopes in high relief, from the -frieze of the entablature, fourteen were brought. - -[Sidenote: THE DIFFICULTIES OF TRANSPORT AND THE SHIPWRECK AT CERIGO.] - -Thus far, an almost incredible amount of effort and toil had been -rewarded by a result large enough to dwarf all previous researches of -a like kind. But the difficulties and dangers of the task were very -far from being ended. The ponderous marbles had to be carried from -Athens to the Piræus. There was neither machinery for lifting, nor -appliances for haulage. There were no roads. The energy, however, -which had wrestled with so many previous obstacles triumphed over -these. But only to encounter new peril in the shape of a fierce storm -at sea. - -Part of the Elgin Marbles had been at length embarked in the ship, -purchased at Lord ELGIN’S own cost, in which Mr. HAMILTON sailed for -England, carrying with him also his drawings and journals. The vessel -was wrecked near Cerigo. Seven cases of sculpture sunk with the ship. -Only four, out of the eleven embarked in the _Mentor_, were saved, -along with the papers and drawings. Meanwhile, Lord ELGIN himself, on -his homeward journey, was, upon the rupture of the Peace of Amiens, -arrested and ‘detained’ in France. - -If the reader will now recall to mind, for an instant, the -mortifications and discouragements, as well as the incessant toils, -which had attended this attempt to give to the whole body of English -artists, archæologists, and students, advantages which theretofore -only a very small and exceptionally fortunate knot of them could -enjoy, or hope to enjoy, he will, perhaps, incline to think that -enough had been done for honour. The casts and drawings had been -saved. The removal of marbles had formed no part of Lord ELGIN’S first -design. It was only when proof had come—plain as the noonday sun—that -to remove was to preserve, and to preserve, not for England alone, but -for the civilised world, that leave to carry away was sought from the -Turkish authorities, and removal resolved upon. - -Entreaty to the British Government that the thorough exploration of -the Peloponnesus, by the draughtsman and the modeller, should be made -a national object, had been but so much breath spent in vain. Private -resources had then been lavished, beyond the bounds of prudence, to -confer a public boon. Personal hardships and popular animosities had -been alike met by steady courage and quiet endurance. All kinds of -local obstacle had been conquered. And now some of the most precious -results of so much toil and outlay lay at the bottom of the sea. The -chief toiler was a prisoner in France. - -But Lord ELGIN was not yet beaten. He came of a tough race. He was— - - ‘One of the few, the letter’d and the brave, - Bound to no clime, and victors o’er the grave.’ - -[Sidenote: LORD ELGIN BRANDED, IN ENGLAND, AS A ROBBER.] The buried -marbles were raised, at the cost of two more years of labour, and -after an expenditure, in the long effort, of nearly five thousand -pounds, in addition to the original loss of the ship. Then a storm of -another sort had to be faced in its turn. A burst of anger, classical -and poetical, declared the ambassador to be, not a benefactor, but a -thief. The gale blew upon him from many points. The author of the -_Classical Tour through Italy_ declared that Lord ELGIN’S ‘rapacity is -a crime against all ages and all generations; depriving the Past of -the trophies of their genius and the title-deeds of their fame, the -Present of the strongest inducements to exertion.’ [Sidenote: Eustace, -_Classical Tour_, p. 269.] The author of _Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage_ -declared that, for all time, the spoiler’s name (the glorious name of -BRUCE)— - -[Sidenote: Byron, _Curse of Minerva_, § 7.] - - ‘Link’d with the fool’s who fired th’ Ephesian dome— - Vengeance shall follow far beyond the tomb. - EROSTRATUS and ELGIN e’er shall shine - In many a branding page and burning line! - Alike condemn’d for aye to stand accurs’d— - Perchance the second viler than the first. - So let him stand, through ages yet unborn, - Fix’d statue on the pedestal of scorn!’ - -That the abuse might have variety, as well as vigour, a very learned -Theban broke in with the remark that there was no need, after all, to -make such a stir about the matter. The much-bruited marbles were of -little value, whether in England or in Greece. If Lord ELGIN was, -indeed, a spoiler, he was also an ignoramus. His bepraised sculptures, -instead of belonging to the age of PERICLES, belonged, at earliest, to -that of HADRIAN; far from bearing traces of the hand of PHIDIAS, they -were, at best, mere ‘architectonic sculptures, the work of many -different persons, some of whom would not have been entitled to the -rank of artists, even in a much less cultivated and fastidious age.... -PHIDIAS did not work in marble at all.’ These oracular sentences, and -many more of a like cast, were given to the world under the sanction -of the ‘Society of Dilettanti.’ - -The equanimity which had stood so many severer tests did not desert -its possessor under a tempest of angry words. When set at liberty, -after a long detention in France, he resumed his journey. On his -eventual arrival in England, in 1806, he brought with him a valuable -collection of gems and medals, gathered at Constantinople. He also -brought some valuable counsels as to the mode in which he might best -make the Athenian Marbles useful to the progress of art, obtained in -Rome. - -[Sidenote: LORD ELGIN’S CONFERENCE WITH CANOVA.] - -For, at Rome, he had been enabled to show a sample of his acquisitions -to a man who was something more than a dilettante. ‘These,’ said -CANOVA, ‘are the works of the ablest artists the world has seen.’ - -When consulted on the point whether restoration should, in any -instance, be attempted, the reply of the great Italian sculptor was in -these words: ‘The Parthenon Marbles have never been retouched. It -would be sacrilege in me—sacrilege in any man—to put a chisel on -them.’ - -Lord ELGIN came to England with the intention of offering his whole -Collection to the British Government, unconditionally. He was ready to -forget the short-sightedness with which his proposal of 1799 had been -met. He was prepared to trust to the liberality of Parliament, and to -the force of public opinion, for the reimbursement of his outlay, and -the fair reward of his toil. The ambassador was not in a position to -sacrifice the large sums of money he had spent. He could not afford -the proud joy of giving to Britain, entirely at his own cost, a boon -such as no man, before him, had had the power of giving. There were -conflicting duties lying upon him, such as are not to be put aside. -That British artists—in one way or another—should profit by the grand -exemplars of art which he had saved from Turkish musquetry and the -Turkish lime-kilns, was the one thing towards which his face was set. - -When first imprisoned in France, Lord ELGIN did actually send a -direction to England that his Collection should be made over, -unconditionally, to the British Government. This order was sent, to -guard against the possible effect of any casualty that might happen -during his detention, the duration of which was then very -problematical. He reached England, however, before the instruction had -been carried into effect. In the mean time, the controversy about the -real value of the Marbles, as well as that which impugned the -Collector’s right to remove them from Athens, had arisen, and had -excited public attention. It became important to elicit an enlightened -opinion on those points, before raising the question how the sculpture -should be finally disposed of. - -The ignorance of essential facts—which alone made such reproaches[64] -as those I have just quoted possible from a man devoid of malice, and -gifted with genius—was a far less stubborn obstacle in Lord ELGIN’S -intended path than was the one-sided learning (one-sided as far as -true art and its appreciation are concerned) which dictated the -sneering utterances of some among the ‘Dilettanti.’ A BYRON, by his -nature, is open to conviction, sooner or later, in his own despite. A -connoisseur, when narrow and scornful, is above reason. And he is -eminently reproductive. - - -[Sidenote: THE ACTION OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM ON THE - TOWNELEY BEQUEST. 1805–1806.] - -But for this stumbling-block in the path, the time of Lord ELGIN’S -return to England would have been eminently favourable for realising -his plans in their fulness. - -The two important accessions of antiquities to the British Museum -which had just accrued from the success of our arms in Egypt, and from -the almost life-long researches of Mr. TOWNELEY and his associates in -Italy, had led the way to an important enlargement of the Museum -building, and also to a great improvement in its internal -organization. The true importance, to the Public, of a series of the -best works of ancient art as a national possession was beginning to be -felt. - -In June, 1805, the Trustees obtained from Parliament the purchase of -the Towneley Marbles. They had already (in the previous year) obtained -power to begin an additional building, the plan and design of which -were now enlarged, and made specially appropriate to the reception and -display of the Towneley Collection. - -[Sidenote: ORGANIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES.] - -Hitherto, the Antiquities in the Museum had been regarded as a mere -appendix of the Natural History Collections. They were now made a -separate department, in accordance with their intrinsic value. Mr. -Taylor COMBE, who had entered the service of the Trustees, in 1803, as -an assistant librarian, was made first Keeper of the new department. -He filled that office, with much efficiency, until his death in 1826. - -The new building or ‘Towneley Gallery’ was opened by a royal visit on -the third of June, 1808. The Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Dukes of -Cumberland and Cambridge, came to the Museum with a considerable -retinue, and were received, with much ceremony, by a Committee of the -Trustees. The Queen had not visited the Museum for twenty years past. - -The Towneley Gallery was erected from the designs of Mr. SAUNDERS, and -was admirably adapted to its purpose. Some of the sculptures have not -been seen to quite equal advantage since its replacement by the -existing building. The addition has now disappeared as entirely as has -old Montagu House itself, but the reader may see its form and style by -glancing at the small vignette on the title-page of this volume. - - -[Sidenote: OPENING OF THE ELGIN MARBLES AT BURLINGTON HOUSE.] - -So favourable an opportunity, however, was for the present lost. The -self-conceit of the cognoscenti strengthened the too obvious parsimony -of Parliament. Lord ELGIN made no direct overture to the Government, -but appealed to the great body of artists, of students, and of art -lovers, for their verdict on his labours in Greece and their product. -He arranged his marbles first in his own house in Park Lane, and -afterwards—for the sake of better exhibition—at Burlington House, in -Piccadilly, and threw them open to public view. The voice of the -artists was as the voice of one man. Some, who were at the top of the -tree, acknowledged a wish that it were possible to begin their studies -over again. Others, who had but begun to climb, felt their ardour -redoubled and their ambition directed to nobler aims in art than had -before been thought of. Not a few careers, arduous and honourable, -took their life-long colour from what was then seen at Burlington -House. Some of the men most strongly influenced were not what the -world calls successful, but not one of them ended his career without -making England the richer by his work. - -The eagerness of foreign artists to study the Elgin Marbles was equal -to that of Englishmen. CANOVA, when on his visit to London in 1815, -wrote: ‘I think that I can never see them often enough. Although my -stay must be extremely short, I dedicate every moment I can spare to -their contemplation. I admire in them the truth of nature, united to -the choice of the finest forms.... I should feel perfectly satisfied, -if I had come to London only to see them.’ - -The most accomplished of foreign archæologists were not less decisive -in their testimony. VISCONTI, after seeing and studying repeatedly a -small portion only of the Parthenon frieze, said of it: ‘This has -always seemed to me to be the most perfect production of the -sculptor’s art in its kind.’ When he saw the whole, his delight was -unbounded. - -The Collector was not able to carry out his plan of exhibition, in any -part of it, to the full extent which he had contemplated. - -He was anxious that casts of the whole of the extant sculptures of the -Parthenon should be exhibited, in the same relative situation to the -eye of the viewer which they had originally occupied in the Temple at -Athens. He was also desirous that a public competition of sculptors -should be provided for, in order to a series of comparative -restorations of the perfect work, based upon other casts of its -surviving portions, and wrought in presence of the remains of the -authentic sculpture itself. - - -[Sidenote: CONTINUANCE OF THE LABOURS OF LUSIERI AT ATHENS, UNTIL - 1816.] - -Meanwhile, the chief of the artists employed in the work of drawing -and modelling continued his labours at Athens, and in its vicinity, -for more than twelve years after Lord ELGIN’S departure from -Constantinople. Between the years 1811 and 1816, inclusive, eighty -cases containing sculpture, casts, drawings, and other works of art, -were added to the Elgin Collection in London. - -In the year last named, when the question of artistic value had -already been very effectively determined by the cumulative force of -enlightened opinion, a Select Committee of the House of Commons was at -length appointed, to inquire whether it were expedient that Lord -ELGIN’S Collection ‘should be purchased on behalf of the Public, and, -if so, what price it may be reasonable to allow for the same.’ - -[Sidenote: _Report on Earl of Elgin’s Collection_ (1816), p. 8.] - -By this Committee it was reported to the House that ‘several of the -most eminent artists in this kingdom rate these marbles in the very -first class of ancient art; ... speak of them with admiration and -enthusiasm; and, notwithstanding their manifold injuries, ... and -mutilations, ... consider them as among the finest models and most -exquisite monuments of antiquity.’ It was also reported that their -removal to England had been explicitly authorised by the Turkish -Government. [Sidenote: _Ib._, p. 16.] The Committee further -recommended their purchase for the Public at the sum of thirty-five -thousand pounds; and that the Earl of ELGIN and his heirs (being Earls -of Elgin) should be perpetual Trustees of the British Museum. -[Sidenote: _Ib._, p. 27.] And the Committee expressed, in conclusion, -its hope that the Elgin Marbles might long serve as models and -examples to those who, by knowing how to revere and appreciate them, -may first learn to imitate, and ultimately to rival them. On the 1st -of July, 1816, the Act for effecting the purchase was passed by the -Legislature. I do not know that any one member of the Society of -Dilettanti really regretted the fact. But it is certain that by a very -eminent connoisseur on the Continent it was much regretted. The King -of Bavaria had already lodged a sum of thirty thousand pounds in an -English banking house, by way of securing a pre-emption, should the -controversy amongst the connoisseurs on this side of the Channel, of -which so much had been heard, lead the British Parliament eventually -to decline the purchase. - -The nearest estimate that could be formed in 1816 of Lord ELGIN’S -outlay, from first to last, amounted to upwards of fifty thousand -pounds. And the interest on that outlay, at subsisting rates, amounted -to about twenty-four thousand pounds. Upon merely commercial -principles, therefore, the mark of honour affixed by Parliament to the -Earldom of Elgin was abundantly earned. By every other estimate, Lord -ELGIN had done more than enough to keep his name, for ever, in the -roll of British worthies. And, as all men know, he had a worthy -successor in that honoured title. The name of ELGIN, instead of -ranking, according to BYRON’S prophecy, with that of EROSTRATUS, has -already become a name not less revered in the Indies, and in America, -than in Britain itself. - - -For nearly half a century, Lord ELGIN was one of the Representative -Peers of Scotland. After his great achievement was completed, he took -but little part in public life. The most curious incident of his later -years was his election as a Member of the Society of Dilettanti, -twenty-five years after his return from the Levant. The election was -made without his knowledge. When the fact was intimated to him, he -wrote to the Secretary to decline the honour. After a brief and -dignified allusion to his efforts in Greece, he went on to say:—‘Had -it been thought—twenty-five years ago, or at any reasonable time -afterwards—that the same energy would be considered useful to the -Dilettanti Society, most happy should I have been to contribute every -aid in my power; but such expectation has long since past. I do not -apprehend that I shall be thought fastidious, if I decline the honour -now proposed to me at this my eleventh hour.’ - -The Collector of the Elgin Marbles died in England on the fourteenth -of October, 1841. - - -[Sidenote: THE MARBLES OF PHIGALEIA.] - -During the long period which had thus intervened between the first -exhibition to the Public of the sculptures from the Temple of Minerva -and their final acquisition for the national Museum, an inferior but -valuable series of Greek marbles was obtained from Phigaleia, in -Arcadia. They were the fruit of the joint researches, in 1812, of the -late eminent architect, Mr. Charles Robert COCKERELL, Mr. John FOSTER, -Mr. LEE, Mr. Charles HALLER VON HALLERSTEIN, and Mr. James LINKH, who, -in that year, had become fellow-travellers in Greece, and partners in -the work of exploration for antiquities. - -The temple to which these marbles had belonged, and beneath the ruins -of which they were found, stands on a ridge clothed with oak trees on -one of the slopes of Mount Cotylium. The scenery which surrounds it is -of great beauty. The temple itself has long been a ruin. It was the -work of ICTINUS, the builder of the Parthenon. One portion of the -frieze of its _cella_ represents the battles of the Centaurs and the -Lapithæ—the subject of the metopes of the Parthenon entablature. The -remaining portion illustrates another series of mythic contests—that -of the Athenians and the Amazons. - -The extent of this frieze, in its integrity, was about a hundred and -eight feet in length, by two feet one and a quarter inches in height. -About ninety-six lineal feet were found, broken into innumerable -fragments, but susceptible, as it proved—by dint of skill and of -marvellous patience—of almost entire reunion, so that no restoration -was needed to bring the subject of the sculpture into perfect -intelligibility. - -[Sidenote: THE EXCAVATIONS ON MOUNT COTYLIUM.] - -Mr. COCKERELL, one of the most active of the explorers of 1812, had to -proceed to Sicily whilst his fellows in the enterprise carried on the -toils of digging and removal. But it is from his pen that we have a -charming little notice of the progress of the work, and of the -amusements which enlivened it. ‘I regret’ wrote Mr. COCKERELL, ‘that I -was not of that delightful party at Phigaleia, which amounted to above -fifteen persons. They established themselves, for three months, on the -top of Mount Cotylium—where there is a grand prospect over nearly all -Arcadia—building, round the Temple, huts covered with boughs of trees, -until they had almost formed a village, which they called Francopolis. -They had frequently fifty or eighty men at work in the Temple, and a -band of Arcadian music was constantly playing to entertain this -numerous assemblage. When evening put an end to work, dances and songs -commenced; lambs were roasted whole on a long wooden spit; and the -whole scene in such a situation, at such an interesting time, when, -every day, some new and beautiful sculpture was brought to light, is -hardly to be imagined. Apollo must have wondered at the carousals -which disturbed his long repose, and have thought that his glorious -days of old were returned.’ - -[Sidenote: Cockerell to ...; printed by Hughes, _Travels in Greece_, - vol. i, p. 194.] - -‘The success of our enterprise,’ continues Mr. COCKERELL, ‘astonished -every one, and in all circumstances connected with it good fortune -attended us.’ One of these circumstances, however—that of the mixed -nationality of the discoverers—put, it must be added, some difficulty -in the way towards accomplishing an earnest wish, on the part of the -English sharers in the adventure, that England should be made the -final home of the Phigaleian sculptures. Two Germans, as we have seen, -were active partners in the exploration. A third, Mr. GROPIUS, had -likewise some interest in it. And there was also a more formidable -sleeping partner in the rich digging. VELY Pasha had stipulated that -he was to have one half of the marbles discovered, as the price of his -licence to explore. But, very fortunately, one of the ordinary changes -in Turkish policy at Constantinople removed VELY from his government, -just at the critical moment; and so made him anxious to sell his -share, and to facilitate the removal of the spoil. The new Pasha had -heard of the discoveries, and was hastening to lay hands upon the -whole. But he was too late. - -The marbles were removed to Zante. The German proprietors insisted on -a public sale by auction. There was not time to bring the matter -before Parliament. [Sidenote: THE TRANSFER OF THE MARBLES OF PHIGALEIA -TO ZANTE;] But the Prince Regent took an active interest in it. With -his sanction, and mainly by the exertions of Mr. W. R. HAMILTON -(afterwards a zealous Trustee of the British Museum), some members of -the Government authorised the despatch of Mr. Taylor COMBE to Zante. -By him the marbles were purchased, at the price of sixty thousand -dollars; but that sum was enhanced by an unfavourable exchange, so -that the actual payment amounted to nineteen thousand pounds. -[Sidenote: AND TO ENGLAND.] It was paid out of the Droits of the -Admiralty,—a fund of questionable origin, and one which had been many -times grossly abused, but which, on this occasion, subserved a great -national advantage. - -The marbles thus obtained are confessedly inferior to those of the -Parthenon; but they possess great beauty, as well as great -archæological value. Both acquisitions, in their place, have -contributed to increase historic knowledge, not less conspicuously -than to develop artistic power, or to enlighten critical judgment, -both in art and in literature. It would not be an easy task to -estimate to what degree a mastery of the learning which is to be -acquired only from the marbles of Attica and of Arcadia, and their -like, has tended to make the study of Greek books a living and -life-giving study. - -To the sculptures brought from Phigaleia into England in 1815, several -missing fragments have been added subsequently. A peasant living near -Paulizza had carried off a piece of the frieze to decorate, or to -hallow, his hut. This fragment was procured by Mr. Spencer STANHOPE in -1816. The Chevalier BRÖNDSTED added other fragments in 1824. Only one -entire slab of the original sculpture is wanting. - - -[Sidenote: PURCHASE OF THE SECOND TOWNELEY COLLECTION, 1814.] - -Almost contemporaneously with the accessions which came to the Museum -as the result of the explorations in 1814 of Mr. COCKERELL and his -fellow-travellers in Arcadia, a considerable addition was made to the -Towneley Gallery by the purchase of a large series of bronzes, gems, -and drawings, and of a cabinet of coins and medals, both Greek and -Roman, all of which had been formed by the Collector of the Marbles. -These were purchased from Mr. TOWNELEY’S representatives for the sum -of eight thousand two hundred pounds. Among other conspicuous -additions, made from time to time, a few claim special mention. Among -these are the _Cupid_, acquired from the representatives of Edmund -BURKE; the _Jupiter_ and _Leda_, in low relief, bought of Colonel de -BOSSET; and the _Apollo_, bought in Paris, at the sale of the Choiseul -Collection. - - -[Sidenote: MINOR ANTIQUITIES OF THE ELGIN COLLECTION.] - -Among the minor Greek antiquities which came to the British Museum in -1816, along with the sculptures of the Parthenon, are the fine -Caryatid figure, and the very beautiful Ionic capitals, bases, and -fragments of shafts, from the double temple of the Erectheium and -Pandrosos at Athens,—part of which, like the Temple of Neptune, was -used by the Turks, in Lord ELGIN’S time, as a powder-magazine. -Acquisitions still more valuable than these were the grand fragment of -the colossal _Bacchus_ in feminine attire, which Lord ELGIN brought -from the Choragic monument of Thrasyllus; the statue of _Icarus_ -(identified by comparison with a well-known low-relief in rosso antico -formerly preserved in the Albani Collection); and the noble series of -casts from the frieze of the Theseium and from that of the Choragic -monument of Lysicrates. The Collection also included many statues’ -heads and fragments of great archæological interest, but of which the -original localities are for the most part unknown, and a considerable -series of sepulchral urns. - -After the Elgin Marbles, the next important acquisition in the -Department of Antiquities was that made by the purchase, in 1819, of -the famous ‘_Apotheosis of Homer_.’ This marble had been found, almost -two centuries before, at Frattocchi (the ancient ‘Bovillæ’), about ten -miles from Rome on the Appian road, and had long been counted among -the choicest ornaments of the Colonna Palace. It cost the Trustees one -thousand pounds. Then, in 1825, came the noble bequest of Mr. Richard -Payne KNIGHT. - -When the treasures of Mr. Payne KNIGHT came to be added to the several -Collections made, during the preceding fifty years, by HAMILTON, -TOWNELEY, and ELGIN, as well as to those which the British army had -won in Egypt, or which were due, in the main, to the research and -energy of our travelling fellow-countrymen, the national storehouse -may fairly be said to have passed from its nonage into maturity. The -Elgin Collection had, of itself, sufficed to lift the British Museum -into the first rank among its peers. But the antiquarian treasures of -the Museum showed many gaps. Some important additions, indeed, had -been made, from time to time, to the class of Egyptian antiquities. -And a small foundation had been laid of what is now the superb -Assyrian Gallery. Rich in certain classes of archæology, it remained, -nevertheless, poor in certain others. In 1825, it came to the front in -all. - -[Sidenote: THE LIFE, WRITINGS, AND COLLECTIONS, OF R. PAYNE KNIGHT.] - -Richard Payne KNIGHT is one of the many men who, in all probability, -would have attained more eminent and enduring distinction had he been -less impetuous and more concentrated in its pursuit. He went in for -all the honours. He aimed to be conspicuous, at once, as archæologist -and philosopher, critic and poet, politician and dictator-general in -matters of art and of taste. He was ready to give judgment, at any -moment, and without appeal, whether the question at issue concerned -the decoration of a landscape, the summing-up of the achievement of a -HOMER, or a PHIDIAS, or the system of the universe. - -Mr. KNIGHT was born in 1749, and was the son of a landed man, of good -property, whose estates were chiefly in Wiltshire, and who possessed a -borough ‘interest’ in Ludlow. His constitution was so weakly, and his -chance of attaining manhood seemed so doubtful, that his father would -not allow him to go to any school, or to be put to much study at home. -It was only after his father’s death, and when he had entered his -fourteenth year, that his education can be said to have begun. Within -three years of his first appearance in any sort of school, he went -into Italy; substituting for the university the grand tour. Only when -he was approaching eighteen years of age did he fairly set to work to -learn Greek. But he studied it with a will, and to good purpose. - -After remaining on the Continent about six or seven years, Mr. Payne -KNIGHT removed to England, and went to live at Downton Castle. He took -delight in the management of his land, proved himself to be a kind -landlord as well as a skilful one, and convinced his neighbours that a -man might love Greek and yet ride well to hounds. When returned to -Parliament for the neighbouring borough, he attached himself to the -Whigs, and more particularly to that section of them who supported -BURKE in his demands for economical reform. When in London, he gave -constant attention to his parliamentary duty, and when in the country, -foxhunting, hospitality, and the improvement of his estate, had their -fair share of his time. But, at all periods of life, his love of -reading was insatiable. When there was no hunting and no urgent -business, he could read for ten hours at a stretch. - -He had reached his thirty-sixth year before he made the first -beginning of his museum of antiquities. The primitive acquisition was -a head, unknown—probably of _Diomede_—which was discovered at Rome in -1785. It is in brass, of early Greek work, and was bought of JENKINS. -Despite the doubt which exists as to the personage, there are many -known copies of this fine head upon ancient pastes and gems. In the -following year, Mr. KNIGHT made his first appearance as an author. - -[Sidenote: EARLY WRITINGS OF MR. PAYNE KNIGHT.] - -The _Inquiry into the remains of the Worship of Priapus, as existing -at Isernia, in the Kingdom of Naples_, treated of a subject which -scarcely any one will now think to have been well chosen, as the first -fruits or earnest of a scholarly career. When a French critic said of -it ‘a maiden-work, but little virgin-like (_peu virginal_)’ he -expressed, pithily, the usual opinion of the very small circle of -readers at home to whom the book became known. The author eventually -called in the impression, so far as lay in his power, and the book is -now one of the many ‘rarities’ which might well be still more rare -than they are. - -In 1791, he gave to the world another work on a classical subject -which possessed real value, and, amongst scholars, attracted much -attention. The _Analytical Essay on the Greek Alphabet_ is a treatise -which, in its day, rendered good service to grammatical learning, and -led to more. It was followed, in 1794, by _The Landscape, a Poem_. - -‘The Landscape’ is an elaborate protest against the then fashionable -modes of gardening, which sought to ‘improve’ nature, almost as much -by replacement as by selection. On many points the poem is marked by -good sense and just thought, as well as by vigour of expression, but -its reasoning is far superior to its poetry. What is said of the -choice and growth of trees shows thorough knowledge of the subject and -true taste. But it needs no poet to convict ‘Capability BROWN’ of -ignorance in his own pursuit when he insisted on ‘the careful removal -of every token of decay’ as a cardinal maxim in landscape-gardening. -Such topics may well be left to plain prose. - -The one notable feature in the poem which has still an interest is its -curious indication of that peculiarity in Mr. KNIGHT’S creed which -asserted—in relation both to the works of nature and to those of -art—that beauty is absolutely inconsistent with vastness. The -excessive love of the minute and delicate led Mr. KNIGHT into the -greatest practical error of his public life, as will be seen -presently. At this time it merely led him to the bold assertion that -no mountain ought to dare to lift its head so high as to— - - ‘Shame the high-spreading oak, or lofty tower.’ - -The lines which follow are, it will be seen, curiously prophetic of -that controversy about the Marbles of the Parthenon in which Mr. Payne -KNIGHT took so large a share:— - - ‘But as vain painters, destitute of skill, - Large sheets of canvas with large figures fill, - And think with shapes gigantic to supply - Grandeur of form, and grace of symmetry, - So the rude gazer ever thinks to find - The view sublime, when vast and undefined. - - - ’Tis form, not magnitude, adorns the scene. - A hillock may be grand, and the vast Andes mean. - - - Oft have I heard the silly traveller boast - The grandeur of Ontario’s endless coast; - Where, far as he could dart his wandering eye, - He nought but boundless water could descry. - With equal reason, Keswick’s favoured pool - Is made the theme of every wondering fool.’ - -Within a few months, this poem—little as it is now remembered—went -through two editions. It was soon followed by a more ambitious flight. -In 1796, its author published ‘_The Progress of Civil Society; a -didactic poem_.’ - -The impression which had been made, in that day of feeble verse (as -far as the southern part of the realm is concerned), by _The -Landscape_, gained for _The Progress of Civil Society_ an amount of -attention of which it was intrinsically unworthy. The work deals with -social progress, and it treats the convictions dearest to Christian -men as being simply the conjectures of ‘presumptuous ignorance.’ It is -the work of a man who writes after nine generations of his ancestors -and countrymen have had a free and open Bible in their hands, and who -none the less puts the worship of Nature, and of her copyists, in the -place of the worship of Nature’s God. This ‘didactic poem’ is written -in the land of BACON, MILTON, and SHAKESPEARE, and it bases itself on -the ‘fifth book of LUCRETIUS.’ - -Not the least curious thing about the matter is the effect which was -wrought by Mr. KNIGHT’S poetic flight upon the mind of a brother -antiquarian. The work absolutely inspired Horace WALPOLE with a -serious and deep regret that he was consciously too near the grave to -undertake the defence of Christian philosophy against its new -assailant. Such a labour, from such a pen, would indeed have been a -curiosity of literature. - -[Sidenote: HORACE WALPOLE ON THE ‘PROGRESS OF CIVIL SOCIETY,’ 1796.] - -Feeling that for a man who was almost an octogenarian the tasks of -controversy would be too much, WALPOLE writes to MASON. He entreats -him to expose the daring poetaster. His earnestness in the matter -approaches passion. ‘I could not, without using too many words,’ he -says, ‘express to you how much I am offended and disgusted by Mr. -KNIGHT’S new, insolent, and self-conceited poem. Considering to what -height he dares to carry his insolent attack, it might be sufficient -to lump [together] all the rest of his impertinent sallies ... as -trifling peccadillos.... The vanity of supposing that his -authority—the authority of a trumpery prosaic poetaster—was sufficient -to re-establish the superannuated atheism of LUCRETIUS!... I cannot -engage in an open war with him.... Weak and broken as I am, tottering -to the grave at some months past seventy-eight, I have not spirits or -courage enough to tap a paper war.’ - -WALPOLE then adverts to a foregone thought, on MASON’S part, to have -taken up the foils on the appearance of _The Landscape_. ‘I ardently -wish,’ he says, ‘you had overturned and expelled out of gardens this -new Priapus, who is only fit to be erected in the Palais de -l’Egalité.’ [Sidenote: Horace Walpole to William Mason, March 22, 1796 -(_Letters_; Coll. Edit., vol. ix, p. 462).] And he urges his -correspondent not to let the present occasion slip. Irony and -ridicule, he thinks, would be weapons quite sufficient to overthrow -this ‘Knight of the Brazen Milk-Pot.’ - -The last thrust was unkind indeed. It was hard that our Collector, -whatever his other demerits, should be reproached for his passion to -gather small bronzes, by the builder and furnisher of Strawberry-Hill. - -For, amidst all his devotion to poetry and pantheism, Mr. KNIGHT -carried on the pursuits of connoisseurship with insatiable ardour. -[Sidenote: _Spec. of Ancient Sculp._, pl. 55 and 56.] Among the -choicer acquisitions which speedily followed the _Diomede_[?] -purchased in 1785, were the mystical _Bacchus_—a bronze of the -Macedonian period—found near Aquila in 1775; a colossal head of -_Minerva_, found near Rome by Gavin HAMILTON; and a figure of -_Mercury_ of great beauty. The last-named bronze had been found, in -1732, at Pierre-Luisit, in the Pays de Bugey and diocese of Lyons. -[Sidenote: _Ib._, 33, 34.] A dry rock had sheltered the little figure -from injury, so that it retained the perfection of its form, as if it -had but just left the sculptor’s hand. It passed through the hands of -three French owners in succession before it was sold to Mr. KNIGHT, by -the last of them, at the beginning of the Reign of Terror. - -The year 1792, in which he acquired this much-prized ‘Mercury,’ is -also the date of a remarkable discovery of no less than nineteen -choice bronzes in one hoard, at Paramythia, in Epirus. They had, in -all probability, been buried during nearly two thousand years. The -story of the find is, in itself, curious. [Sidenote: THE HOARD OF -BRONZES FOUND AT PARAMYTHIA, IN EPIRUS.] It shows too, in relief, the -energy and perseverance which Mr. KNIGHT brought to his work of -collectorship, and in which he was so much better employed—both for -himself and for his country—than in philosophising upon human -progress, from the standpoint of LUCRETIUS. - -Some incident or other of the weather had disclosed appearances which -led, fortuitously, to a search of the ground into which these bronzes -had been cast—perhaps during the invasion of Epirus, _B.C._ 167—and, -by the finder, they were looked upon as so much saleable metal. -Bought, as old brass, by a coppersmith of Joannina, they presently -caught the eye of a Greek merchant, who called to mind that he had -seen similar figures shown as treasures in a museum at Moscow. He made -the purchase, and sent part of it, on speculation, to St. Petersburgh. -The receiver brought them to the knowledge of the Empress CATHERINE, -who intimated that she would buy, but died before the acquisition was -paid for. They were then shared, it seems, between a Polish -connoisseur and a Russian dealer. One bronze was brought to London by -a Greek dragoman and shown to Mr. KNIGHT, who eagerly secured it, -heard the story of the discovery, and sent an agent into Russia, who -succeeded in obtaining nine or ten of the sculptures found at -Paramythia. Two others were given to Mr. KNIGHT by Lord ABERDEEN, who -had met with them in his travels. They were all of early Greek work. -Amongst them are figures of _Serapis_, of _Apollo Didymæus_, of -_Jupiter_, and of one of the _Sons of Leda_. All these have been -engraved among the _Specimens of Ancient Sculpture_, published by the -Society of Dilettanti. - -Few sources of acquisition within the limits which he had laid down -for himself escaped Mr. Payne KNIGHT’S research. He kept up an active -correspondence with explorers and dealers. He watched Continental -sales, and explored the shops of London brokers, with like assiduity. -Coins, medals, and gems, shared with bronzes, and with the original -drawings of the great masters of painting, in his affectionate -pursuit. - -In his search for bronzes he welcomed choice and characteristic works -from Egypt and from Etruria, as well as the consummate works of Greek -genius. His numismatic cabinet was also comprehensive, but its Greek -coins were pre-eminent. For works in marble he had so little relish -that he actually persuaded himself, by degrees, that the greatest -artists of antiquity rarely ‘condescended’ to touch marble. But he -collected a small number of busts in that material. - -For one volume of drawings by CLAUDE, Mr. KNIGHT gave the sum of -sixteen hundred pounds. - -Among his later acquisitions of sculpture in brass was the very -beautiful _Mars_ in Homeric armour. This figure was brought to England -by Major BLAGRAVE in 1813. The _Bacchic Mask_ (No. 35, in the second -volume of the _Specimens_) was found, in the year 1674, near Nimeguen, -in a stone coffin. It was preserved by the Jesuits of Lyons, in their -Collegiate Museum, until their dissolution. From them it passed into -the possession of Mr. Roger WILBRAHAM, from whom Mr. KNIGHT obtained -it. - - -[Sidenote: THE INQUIRY INTO THE SYMBOLISM OF GREEK ART AND MYTHOLOGY.] - -On the thorough study of the fine Collection which had been gathered -from so many sources—here indicated by but a scanty sample—and on that -of other choice Collections both at home and abroad, Mr. KNIGHT based -the most elaborate—perhaps the most valuable—work of his life, next to -his Museum itself. The _Inquiry into the Symbolism of Greek Art and -Mythology_ bears, indeed, too many traces of the narrowness of the -author’s range of thought, whenever he leaves the purely artistic -criticism of which he was, despite his limitations, a master, in order -to dissertate on the interdependence or on the ‘priestcraft’ of the -religions of the world. But his genuine lore cannot be concealed by -his flimsy philosophy. The student will gain from the _Inquiry_ real -knowledge about ancient art. He will find, indeed, not a few -statements which the author himself would be the first to modify in -the light of the new information of the last fifty years. But he will -also find much which, in its time, proved to be suggestive and -fruitful to other minds, and which prepared the way for wider and -deeper studies. It may do so yet. The book is one which the student of -archæology cannot afford to overlook. Whilst he may well afford a -passing smile at the philosophic insight which prompted our author’s -eulogies (1) upon the ‘liberal and humane spirit which still prevails -among those nations whose religion is founded upon the principle of -emanations;’ (2) upon the wisdom of the ‘Siamese, who shun disputes, -and believe that almost all religions are good;’ [Sidenote: _Inquiry_, -&c., p. 19.] (3) on the supreme fitness of the idolatries of India ‘to -call forth the ideal perfections of art, by expanding and exalting the -imagination of the artist;’ or (4) upon the exceptional and -pre-eminent capacity of the Hindoos to become ‘the most virtuous and -happy of the human race,’ but for that one solitary misfortune which -cursed them with a priesthood.[65] - -[Sidenote: THE DISSERTATION ON ANCIENT SCULPTURE.] - -The _Inquiry into Symbolism_ was, at first, printed only for private -circulation, in 1818. It was afterwards reprinted in the _Classical -Journal_, with some corrections by the author. It was again reprinted, -after his death, as an appendix to the second volume of the _Specimens -of Ancient Sculpture_. - -To the first volume of that work Mr. Payne KNIGHT had already prefixed -his _Preliminary Dissertation on the Progress of Ancient Sculpture_. -After showing that of Phœnician art we have no real knowledge other -than that which is to be derived from the study of coins, and that -thence it may be learnt that the Phœnicians had artisans, but not -artists, he goes on to survey Greek art in its successive phases. That -art, at its best, finds, he thinks, a typical expression, or summary, -in the saying ascribed to LYSIPPUS: ‘It is for the sculptor to -represent men as they seem to be, not as they really are.’ He dates -the culmination of Greek sculpture as ranging between the years _B.C._ -450 and 400, and as due to the national pride and energy which were -excited by the defeat of XERXES and the events which followed. He -thinks that what was gained, by the artists of the next half-century, -in ideal grace, and in the fluent refinements of workmanship, was -obtained only by a loss of energy, of characteristic expression, and -of originality—the εθος of art. In the works of LYSIPPUS and his -school (_B.C._ 350–300), he sees a brief resuscitation of the vigour -of the former period, combined with much more than the grace of the -latter, to be followed only too swiftly by those desolating wars ‘in -which the temples were destroyed, their treasures of art pillaged, and -artists, for the first time, saw their works perish before -themselves.’ - -In the ‘_Dissertation_,’ as in the ‘_Inquiry_,’ there are many -statements and many reasonings to which subsequent discoveries have -brought a tacit correction. [Sidenote: MR. PAYNE KNIGHT AND THE ELGIN -MARBLES.] The passage in the former about the Elgin Marbles had to be -corrected by the evidence of the author’s own eyesight. His -examination before the Commons’ Committee of 1816 was an amusing -scene. The key-note was struck by the witness’s first words. To the -question ‘Have you seen the marbles brought to England by Lord ELGIN?’ -he replied, ‘Yes. I have looked them over.’ But on this point, enough -has been said already in a previous page. - -Both to the _Edinburgh Review_ and to the _Classical Journal_ Mr. -KNIGHT was a frequent and valuable contributor. It was in the latter -periodical that his Prolegomena to HOMER were first given to the -world, although he had printed a small edition (limited to fifty -copies) for private circulation, as early as in the year 1808.[66] His -latest poetical work, the Romance of _Alfred_, I have never had the -opportunity of reading. - -Richard Payne KNIGHT died on the twenty-fourth of April, 1824, in the -75th year of his age. He bequeathed his whole Collections to the -British Museum, of which he had long been a zealous and faithful -Trustee. He made no conditions, other than that his gift should be -commemorated by the addition to the Trust of a perpetual KNIGHT -‘Family Trustee.’ - -For this purpose a Bill was introduced into Parliament by Lord -COLCHESTER on the eighth of June. It received the royal assent on the -seventeenth. - -The addition of Mr. KNIGHT’S Greek Coins made the British Museum -superior, in that department, to the Royal Museum of Paris; the -addition of his bronzes raised it above the famous Museum of Naples. -By the most competent judges it has been estimated that, if the -Collection had been sold by public auction, Mr. KNIGHT’S -representatives would probably have obtained for it the sum of sixty -thousand pounds. - ------ - -Footnote 1: - - Sir Robert’s father was the fourth ‘Thomas Cotton of Conington,’ and - fifth Lord of that manor of the Cotton family. The marriage of - William Cotton with the eventual heiress of the Huntingdonshire - Bruces was contracted about the year 1450. - -Footnote 2: - - ‘By this woman the Earldom of Huntingdon and the Lordship of - Conington came to the Crown of Scotland.’-_MS. Note by Sir R. - Cotton_, in ‘Harl. 807.’ - -Footnote 3: - - From the COTTON ROLL XIV, 6 [by SEGAR, CAMDEN, and ST. GEORGE]; - compared with MS. Harl. 807, fol. 95, and with MS. LANSD., 863, - containing the Heraldic Collections of R. ST. GEORGE, Norroy, Vol. - III, fol. 82 verso. - -Footnote 4: - - Here, if we accepted Cotton’s authorship of the _Twenty-four - Arguments, whether it be more expedient to suppress Popish - Practices, &c._, published in the _Cottoni Posthuma_, by James - Howell, we should have to add that ‘he travelled on the Continent - and passed many months in Italy.’ But that tract is _not_ - Cotton’s—though ascribed to him by so able and careful an historian - as Mr. S. R. Gardiner (_Archæologia_, vol. xli. Comp. _Prince - Charles and the Spanish Marriage, &c._, vol. i, p. 32). That its - real author was in Italy is plain, from his own statement ‘I - remember that in Italy it was often told me,’ &c.; and, again: ‘In - Rome itself I have heard the English fugitive taxed,’ &c., - _Posthuma_, pp. 126, seqq. Dr. Thomas Smith put a question as to - this implied visit of Sir Robert to Italy to his grandson, Sir John - Cotton, who assured him that no such visit was known to any of the - family; by all of whom it was believed that their eminent antiquary - never set foot out of Britain. Smith’s words are these:— - - ... ‘D. Joannes Cottonus hac de re a me literis consultus, se de - isthoc avi sui itinere Italico ne verbum quidem a Patre suo edoctum - fuisse respondit.... Cottonum usum et cognitionem linguæ Italicæ a - Joanne Florio ... anno 1610 addidicisse ex ejusdem literis ad - Cottonum scriptis, mihi certo constat.’ _Vita_, p. xvii. - -Footnote 5: - - The story which, has been told—on the authority of one of John - Chamberlain’s letters to Carleton (April, 1612) that ‘Sir Robert - Cotton was sent out of the way’ at a time when certain claims of the - Baronets were to be definitively heard at the Council Board, ‘in - order that he might not produce records in their favour,’ rests on - mere rumour. Charles, Lancaster Herald, wrote to Cotton immediately - before the hearing in these terms: ‘On Saturday next the final - determination is expected, if some troublesome spirit do not hinder; - which end I wish were well made, and am glad that you are not seen - in it at this time.’—Cotton MS., Julius, C. iii, f. 86. - -Footnote 6: - - ‘Tambien me dijo que el Conde de Somerset havia puesto todo su resto - en este negocio, y ganado el Duque de Lenox, ... aventurandose el - Conde ... a ganarse y asegurarse si se hazia, o a perderse si no se - hacia; concluyendo esta platica el Coton con decirme que el estava - loco de contento de ver esto en este estado, porque no pretendia ni - desseava otra cosa mas que vivir y morir publicamente Catolico, como - sus padres y abuelos lo havian sido.’—_Gardiner Transcripts of MSS. - at Simancas_, vol. i, p. 102 (MS.). - -Footnote 7: - - Mr. S. R. Gardiner. His account is contained in the able paper - entitled _On Certain Letters of the Count of Gondomar giving an - Account of the Affair of the Earl of Somerset_, read to the Society - of Antiquaries in 1867. Comp. the same historian’s _Prince Charles - and the Spanish Marriage_ (Vol. I, c. 1, and especially the passage - beginning ‘Sarmiento was _surprised by a visit from Sir Robert - Cotton_,’ and so on). In these pages I use Sarmiento’s subsequent - title of ‘Gondomar,’ simply because English readers are more - familiar with it than with the Spaniard’s family name. Mr. Gardiner - needlessly deepens the stain on Cotton’s memory, arising—all - allowance duly made—out of this intercourse with Gondomar, by the - remark that ‘twenty months before’ the interview occurred, Sir - Robert had ‘argued his case’ [_i. e._ a tract on the question of the - right treatment, by the State, of Romanist priests and recusants] - ‘from a decidedly Protestant point of view, and had taken care to - put himself forward as a thorough, if not an extreme, Protestant.’ - But, unfortunately for Mr. Gardiner’s trenchant conclusion on that - point, the pamphlet he refers to—by whomsoever written—was certainly - _not_ written by Sir Robert Cotton. - -Footnote 8: - - ‘[Then the Duke] came to the Relation of Sir Robert Cotton [of the - intercourse] that he had with the Spanish Ambassador in 1614 [O.S.]. - The Spanish Ambassador came to his house pretending [a desire] to - see his rarities. On the 10th of February he acquainted His Majesty - with it. Somerset [had] warrant then to sound the life of the - intention. [Gondomar] told him he doubted he had no warrant to set - any such thing on foot. [On the] 16th of March the Spanish - Ambassador dealt with him and endeavoured to make Somerset Spanish, - and to further this match. [He] answered him that there were divers - rubs and difficulties in it. [On the] 9th of April he gave - [Gondomar] a pill in a paper—viz. three reasons: If the King of - Spain would not urge unreasonable things in Religion, then,’ &c. [as - in Gondomar’s letter, which I have already quoted]. ‘Afterwards Sir - Robert Cotton was questioned [for shewing] to the Ambassador of - Spain a packet [received] from Spain.... [In the year] 1616, His - Majesty told Sir Robert Cotton that Gondomar had counterfeited those - letters, and that he was a “juggling jack.”’ Here Sir Edward Coke - interposed. He was one of the Managers of the Conference for the - Commons. He spoke thus: ‘This matter has a little relation to me. I - committed Sir Robert Cotton, when I was Chief Justice. For I - understood he had intelligence with the Spanish Ambassador, and - questioned him for it. _For no subject ought to converse with - Ambassadors without the King’s leave._ For the offence [for which] I - committed him [Sir Robert had] afterwards his general pardon from - the King.’ _Journals of the House of Commons_, 4 March, 1624. Vol. - I, pp. 727, 728. - -Footnote 9: - - ‘... Por diferentes vias le confirmado que contra el Conde - [Somerset] no se averigua cosa de sustancia en lo de la muerte del - Ovarberi; y de la del Principe [Henry, Prince of Wales,] no ha - permetido el Rey que se hable en ella; y todo lo demas probado hasta - agora viene a parar en que dio un decreto antes que le prendiesen, - para recojer unos papeles, diziendo que era orden del Rey, sin - haverla tenido para ello. Fue lo que causo su prision, y el aver - entregado despues todos los papeles que tenia de importancia, con - algunas joyas, a un amigo suyo [Sir Robert Cotton], para que lo - guardase que se coxieron. _Y el Rey ha sentido infinito que se ayan - visto algunos papeles que havia suyos para el Conde, ... y assi - carga agora toda la yra sobre el Conde_,’ &c. Gondomar to Philip - III,—Simancas MS. 2595, f. 23; and in _Archæologia_ (by Gardiner), - vol. xli, p. 29. - -Footnote 10: - - On this point, it is my wish to leave the reader to form his own - estimate of probabilities. _Probabilities_, only, are attainable; - and I have no side to take, in any attempt to weigh them. But it may - be well to ask the reader’s attention to a passage in the Diary of a - contemporary of Sir R. Cotton, a man of high character, and one who - sat by Cotton’s side in Parliament, fighting with him for the - liberties of England, during many years; one who is also remarkable - for speaking about the faults of his friends with abundant candour. - ‘Sir Robert Cotton, being highly esteemed by the Earl of - Somerset, ... _was acquainted with this murder [of Overbury] by him, - a little before it now came to light_, and had advised him what he - took to be the best course for his safety.’ This passage occurs in - the private diary of Sir Symonds D’Ewes—‘a man,’ says a great - writer, ‘of somewhat Grandisonian ways,’ a man of ‘scrupulous - Puritan integrity, of high flown conscientiousness, ... ambitious to - be the pink of Christian country gentlemen,’ (Carlyle’s _Essays_, - iv, 297.) This ‘scrupulous Puritan’ knew all that was current about - the terrible ‘Great Oyer of Poisoning,’ as Sir Edward Coke called - it. He lived in familiar intercourse with Cotton, and regarded their - long acquaintance as an honour to himself; whilst speaking freely - about certain social habits and limitations—neither Grandisonian or - Puritanic—on Cotton’s part, as precluding their intercourse from - ripening into that close friendship which such a man as D’Ewes could - form only with men likeminded with himself on the highest interests - of humanity. Is it not easy to infer—and is not the inference also - inevitable—that by the fact of Somerset ‘acquainting Cotton with the - murder of Overbury a little before’ it became public, and advising - him as to ‘the course for his safety,’ D’Ewes understood such a - communication and such advice as are entirely compatible with - Somerset’s innocence of his wife’s crime? - -Footnote 11: - - Such is the title in _Cottoni Posthuma_. In MS. Harl. 180—apparently - given by Cotton himself to Sir S. D’Ewes—the title is ‘_A - Declaration against the Matche_,’ &c. In that copy, this note occurs - at the end, in Sir Symonds’ hand:—‘Thus far only, as Sir Robert - Cotton himself told me, he proceeded; leaving the rest to be - added ... according to the relation ... declared before the greater - part of both Houses by ... the Duke of Buckingham.’—_MS. Harl._ 180, - fol. 169. - -Footnote 12: - - 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. - -Footnote 13: - - It has been printed by Howell in the _Cottoni Posthuma_ of 1651, pp. - 283–294; and is followed by _The Answer of the Committees appointed - by Your Lordships to the Propositions delivered by some Officers of - the Mint for inhauncing His Majesties monies of gold and silver_. - The ‘_Answer_’ as well as the speech, appears to be from Sir - Robert’s pen. - -Footnote 14: - - _Registers of the Privy Council_, James I, vol. v, pp. 484, 485, - 489; Nov. 3–5, 1629. (C. O.) _Domestic Correspondence_, James I, - vol. cli, § 24, § 69, _seqq._, and vol. clii, § 78, _seqq._ In this - last-named document the following passage occurs. The writer is - Richard James, who for very many years was Librarian to Sir Robert - Cotton, and he is writing to Secretary Lord Dorchester.—‘About July - last, I was willed by Sir Robert Cotton to carry him [Mr. Oliver - Saint John] into the Upper Study and there let him make search among - some bundles of papers for business of the Sewers.... If he (St. - John) did make any mention of a projecting pamphlet there pretended - to be found, so God save me as I entered into no further - conversation of it. Neither can I believe that any such as this now - questioned was ever in keeping with us, or ever seen by Sir R. - Cotton until, of late, he received it from my Lord of Clare. For - myself, let not God be merciful unto me if, before that time, I ever - saw, heard, or thought of it’ (R. James to Dorchester, vol. 152, § - 78). (R. H.) There is also some further information on the subject - in MS. Harl. 7000, ff. 267, _seqq._ (B. M.) A considerable number of - the letters of Richard James to Sir Robert Cotton, his friend and - benefactor, are preserved in MS. Harl. 7002. But these throw no - satisfactory light on the incident of 1629. I believe, however, that - to an observant reader they will be likely to suggest the idea that - Richard James knew more than he was willing that Sir Robert should - know. The letters are without dates, after the fashion of the times, - and this adds to their obscurity. But one thing is plain. The writer - ran away from London, either when he knew that the first inquiry was - imminent or thought it probable that a renewed inquiry would be set - on foot. In one of these letters, after many professions of - attachment, he writes thus: ‘From you, at this time, I should not - have parted, _if the exigence and penurie of my life had not forc’d - a silent retreat into myself, and my owne home at Corpus Christi - College_;’ and then, a fit of poesy—such as it was—coming over him, - he ends his letter metrically, as thus: - - ‘The poore young Russian youth, that slave - Was to the Prince, and trustie knave - To my deere Harrie Wilde, when wee - Forsooke that Northern Barbarie, - Loe bending at my feete did saye - Thancks for my love, and kindely praye, - His evills that I would not beare - In minde,—the which none, truely, were. - This youth I well remember, and - In neere, loe, manner kisse your hand; - Hoping, of gentle courtesie, - You will no worse remember me.’ - —MS. Harl. 7002, f. 118. - -Footnote 15: - - And as, it must be remembered, Cotton himself believed. - -Footnote 16: - - Curiously enough, part of these documents, so carefully brought - together by Sir Robert Cotton, remained with the Cottonian MSS., and - part of them were severed from that collection for more than two - centuries. Their recovery is one of the smallest of the innumerable - obligations which the Department of MSS. owes to the care and - far-spread researches of the late Keeper, Sir Frederick Madden. - -Footnote 17: - - It is COTTONIAN MS., Vitellius, c. 17, ff. 380, _seqq._ - -Footnote 18: - - Verses entitled _Sir Philip Sydney lying on his Deathbed_; in MS. - Chetham 8012 (Chetham Library, Manchester). - -Footnote 19: - - I had noted some of these as worthy, by way of sample, to be - printed. But the reduced limits of my book (as compared with its - plan) have compelled the omission of much illustrative matter which - had been carefully prepared for insertion, and which, as I hope, - would have been found to merit the attention of the reader. I will - find room, however, to mention one little fact connected with the - famous Evangeliary marked ‘Nero D. vi.’ The reader probably - remembers Sir Robert COTTON’S fruitless perambulation of the aisle - of Westminster Abbey, with that splendid MS. in his hands, on the - day of the Coronation of Charles the First. It seems likely that the - anecdote was told to Charles the Second when, at length, a like - ceremony was to take place for him. Be that as it may, he - sent—before he had been many days in England—a confidential servant - to borrow the book from Sir Thomas. And the fact of the loan stands - recorded on a fly-leaf, by the King’s intermediary, in honour ‘of - the most noble Sir Thomas COTTON, the starre of learning and - honestie.’ The MS., I may add, is one of those which came to Sir - Robert from Dethick (Garter). It bears Dethick’s autograph with the - date ‘1603’ and Cotton’s, ‘1608.’ Besides the Four Gospels it - contains _Processus factus ad Coronationem Regis Ricardi Secundi_, - and _Modus tenendi Parliamentum_. For some momentary fancy or other - Sir Robert took out of another superb MS. of his—the _Psalter_ of - King Henry the Sixth—a small but beautiful miniature, and made of it - a vignette for this Ethelstan volume. So it continued to remain for - two hundred and forty years, when Sir Frederick Madden restored the - miniature to its more legitimate place (Domitian A. xvii, fol. 96*.) - Had this Nero volume chanced to have been scrutinized at the moment - when it was Sir Robert’s fate to be stigmatized as ‘an embezzler of - records,’ it is very possible that it might have been called to bear - witness for the charge. For it is undeniable that the ‘RO. COTTON - BRUCEUS’ is written _over an erasure_. (The signature occurs on the - beautiful dedicatory page—‘_Beatissimo Papæ Damaso Hieronymus_.’) - But, fortunately, the descent of the book can be traced clearly. - -Footnote 20: - - Take, for example, these few lines: ‘Sweete Sainte whome I soley - addore,—at whooes srine I offer myself; I reseived your loving - lines.... Without them, I could not live at all;—being deprived of - your blessed sight, ... I live yet, but most miserably. Use means, - if it be possible, that we may come to the speech of one another; - and the Heavens of Hope may be yet auspitious unto us.... Those - deviles have again been writing letters unto my mother.’ In 1679, it - would seem, the two ardent lovers were kept in a sort of honourable - imprisonment. On COTTON’S coming to Cotton House, in the spring of - that year, an upper servant of the family writes thus to a - correspondent: ‘I advised him to call for money; take a coach and go - about to take the air, and to visit his friends that are in or about - the town; and not to be mewed up in a room, without money or - company.’—John SQUIRES, to a person unnamed; in _Appendix to Cotton - MSS._ ‘16, 1.’ (B. M.) - -Footnote 21: - - By this William HANBURY, son-in-law of John COTTON (great grandson - of the Founder), many COTTON MSS. were alienated—partly by sale and - partly by gift—to Robert, Earl of OXFORD. _See_ hereafter, Chapter - V. - -Footnote 22: - - Stukeley’s _Itinerary of Great Britain_ (2nd edit. 1776). - -Footnote 23: - - Some of the burnt MSS., regarded, until Mr. Forshall’s time, as - hopelessly illegible, have been found very helpful to the - preparation of the volume now in the reader’s hands. - -Footnote 24: - - I have dwelt, somewhat protractedly, on this one interesting point - in Cotton’s history,—pressing as are the limits prescribed to this - volume,—under the belief that many readers will bear in mind that - Sir Robert’s misfortune beneath the recent disinterment of - ambassadorial despatches, written to foreign courts, is _not_ an - exceptional misfortune. Sir Walter Ralegh has fared still worse, in - Mr. Gardiner’s able hands, by being held up to public scorn as a - knavish liar, upon the uncorroborated testimony of certain avowed - and bitter enemies of England. See _Prince Charles and the Spanish - Marriage_ (1869), vol. i, Chaps. 1 and 2, _passim_. Readers of the - admirable _History of England_ by Mr. Froude—and who has not read - that history?—will easily call to mind several not dissimilar - instances. Nor is it at all surprising that it should be so. The - most warily judicial of intellects can never be quite independent of - that factitious charm which there will always be—over and above the - legitimate charm—in telling an old story from an entirely new point - of view. If, besides the attraction of mere novelty, there should - chance to have been a keen burst of search over a difficult country, - before the eager searcher could succeed in running down his quarry, - he would be more than human if, in the moment of victory, he could - weigh and balance with exact precision the real value of the - hard-won spoil. At present, historians are too keenly chasing after - new evidence to be able to estimate quite fairly its relative - importance or net result. The most part both of writers and of - readers are far too busy over newly-discovered materials to adjust - with any approach to impartial fairness the vital question of - comparative credibility. But the time for doing _that_ must needs - come, by and bye. Meanwhile, the fame of not a few of our old and - true worthies will—in all probability—suffer some degree of - momentary eclipse; just as that of Ralegh and Cotton has suffered. - -Footnote 25: - - The word ‘hope’ or some like expression, seems here to have been - intended, but omitted. The repetition of the word ‘shortlie’ will - sufficiently indicate to the reader the haste with which this - effusion was written,—just as the King was about to mount for the - long looked-for journey southwards. The letter has been printed by - Birch, but with amendments. - -Footnote 26: - - It was not strictly a ‘launch.’ The vessel had been built expressly - for the Prince, at Chatham, and was brought thence to London to be - named with the usual ceremonies. - -Footnote 27: - - He was removed to the Fleet Prison ten days afterwards. - -Footnote 28: - - In dealing with royal letters it is, of course, necessary to keep in - mind how largely the vicarious element is apt to enter into their - composition. Those, however, that are quoted in the text seem to - have a plain stamp of individuality upon them. - -Footnote 29: - - That Llanthony, in Monmouthshire, the purchase of which in the - present century gave rise to so singular a chapter in the history of - Landor, and whose charms, in retrospect, prompted the lines— - - ‘Llanthony! an ungenial clime, - And the broad wing of restless Time, - Have rudely swept thy massy walls, - And rockt thy Abbots in their palls. - I loved thee, by thy streams of yore; - By distant streams, I love thee more.’ - -Footnote 30: - - Part of Lord Northampton’s large estates came eventually to Lord - Arundel by bequest. He also inherited Northampton’s house at - Greenwich, and occasionally resided there, until its destruction by - fire in January, 1616. Chamberlain’s account of the incident, given - to Sir Dudley Carleton, is worth quotation for the comment with - which it ends: ‘There fell a great mischance to the Earl of Arundel - by the burning of his house ... at Greenwich, where he lost a great - deal of household stuff and rich furniture; the fury of the fire - being such that nothing could be saved. No doubt the Papists will - ascribe and publish it as a punishment for his deserting or falling - from them.’ Ten days before the fire, Arundel had testified, - publicly, his conformity with the Church of England. But he had - shewn long before that his religious views and convictions differed - widely from those in which he had been brought up. - -Footnote 31: - - The question was complicated by opposition offered by the Lord - Keeper Williams to the terms in which Lord Arundel’s patent was - originally drawn. The relations between Arundel and Buckingham were - never cordial, and the Lord Keeper seems to have profited by that - circumstance to make his opposition to the pension effectual. It is - probable that he had good grounds for so much of his objection as - related to certain powers proposed to be vested in the Earl - Marshal’s court. But on that point Arundel’s views eventually - prevailed—until the time of the Long Parliament. The Lord Keeper’s - letter is printed in _Cabala_, p. 285. - -Footnote 32: - - ‘In my deare lorde I long since placed my true affection and - love.... Had I manie lives I would have adventured them all.’ _Lady - Maltravers to the Earl of Arundel_, 6 Feb., 1626 (MS. Harl., 1581, - f. 390). - -Footnote 33: - - It has been estimated, on competent evidence, that for every one - thousand pounds which the Earl’s estates in England contributed - towards his personal and household expenditure, in exile, - twenty-seven thousand pounds were so contributed towards the - maintenance, in one form or other, of the royalist cause. Such an - estimate can, of course, only be approximative. But it has obvious - significance and value. - -Footnote 34: - - See the details in Lords’ Report on Gregg’s case; reprinted in - _State Trials_, vol. xiv, cols. 1378 seqq. - -Footnote 35: - - In the interval between June, 1707 (after the Union with Scotland), - and February, 1708, the following entries occur in the Council - Books:— - - ‘1 July, 1707. The Rt. Hon. Robert Harley, one of Her Majesty’s - principal Secretaries of State, delivered up the old signet of - office—which was thereupon broken before Her Majesty—and received a - new one by the Queen’s command.’ The entry is followed by the - note:—‘This order was thus drawn by Mr. Harley’s particular - direction.’ (_Register of Privy Council_, Anne, vol. iii, p. 395.) - - ‘8 January, 170⅞. The Rt. Hon. R. Harley, ... having this day - presented to Her Majesty in her Privy Council a new signet with - supporters, Her Majesty was pleased to deliver it back to him, - whereupon he returned to Her Majesty the old signet, which was - immediately defaced,’ &c. (Ib., p. 485.) - -Footnote 36: - - Swift’s account of their first interview after Harley’s partial - recovery merits quotation:—‘I went in the evening,’ he notes on the - 5th of April, ‘to see Mr. Harley. Mr. Secretary was just going out - of the door, but I made him come back; and there was the old - Saturday club, Lord Keeper [Harcourt], Lord Rivers, Mr. Secretary, - Mr. Harley, and I; the first time since his stabbing. Mr. Secretary - went away, but I stayed till nine, and made Mr. Harley show me his - breast and tell all his story.... I measured and found that the - penknife would have killed him, if it had gone but half the breadth - of my thumb-nail lower; so near was he to death. I was so curious as - to ask him what were his thoughts while they were carrying him home - in the chair. He said he concluded himself a dead man.’—_Journal to - Stella_, as before, pp. 255, 256. - -Footnote 37: - - The original letters of the Elector to Harley are in Lansdowne MS. - 1236, ff. 272–294. They range, in date, from 15 December, 1710, to - 15 June, 1714. There also are several letters (in autograph) of the - Electress Sophia. The earliest of these bears date 26 May, 1707. The - latest is undated, but was written in May, 1714, very few days - before the writer’s death. - -Footnote 38: - - The chief passages in the Stuart Correspondence upon which a - confident assertion has been based of his ultimate complicity in the - Jacobite conspiracies are given, textually, in a note at the end of - this chapter. - -Footnote 39: - - Thus, for example, at one stage of the proceedings before the Privy - Council about Barbadoes, we find the Lord Keeper Coventry reporting - to the Board upon an order of reference: ‘I am of opinion that - Barbadoes is not one of the Caribbee Islands.... But ... I am also - of opinion that the proof on Lord Carlisle’s part that Barbadoes was - intended to be passed in his Patent is very strong.’—_Colonial - Papers_, April 18, 1629, vol. v, § 11. See also The King to - Wolverton, _Ib._, § 13. - -Footnote 40: - - His eldest son, Peter Courten, had married a daughter of Lord - Stanhope of Harrington, and died without issue. Sir William Courten - bought the widow’s jointure of £1200 a year by the present payment - of £10,000, according to a statement in MS. Sloane, 3515. - -Footnote 41: - - ‘Hoc excepto quod scilicet qui se jacturam passos dicunt in duabus - navibus ... poterunt litem inceptam prosequi.’—_Treaty of Commerce_ - of 1662. - -Footnote 42: - - After elaborate inquiries in the Admiralty Court the losses were - certified as amounting to £151,612; and that assessment was adopted - in a subsequent Commission under the Great Seal. - -Footnote 43: - - This, of course, is the statement, _ex parte_, of the claimants. - -Footnote 44: - - This allusion I am unable to explain. It is quite an exceptional - phrase in the Courten correspondence. But, possibly, ‘station’ may - be understood as meaning merely place of residence. - -Footnote 45: - - This volume undoubtedly passed into the Sloane Collection, but is - not so described as to be identified quite satisfactorily. - -Footnote 46: - - The fact is unquestionably so, although upon his tomb it is said - that his age was sixty-two years, eleven months, and twenty-eight - days. The same inaccurate statement occurs also—and more than - once—in papers written by Sir Hans Sloane. Courten was born on the - 28th March, 1642. There is an entry of his baptism in the Register - of St. Gabriel, Fenchurch, on the 31st of the same month; and a copy - of it in MS. Sloane, 3515, fol. 53. - -Footnote 47: - - Staphorst was, by birth, a German. He is known in English literature - as the translator of Rauwolf’s _Travels in Asia_. This task he - undertook upon Sloane’s recommendation. - -Footnote 48: - - As, for example, under the words ‘_Lapathum_;’ _Poonnacai - Malabarorum_; ‘_Ricinus_;’ ‘_Salix_;’ and several others. See - _Almagesti Botanici Mantissa_, pp. 113; 143; 161; 165, &c. - -Footnote 49: - - Dr. Arthur Charlett’s long and intimate correspondence with Sir Hans - Sloane began in this year (1696), and continued without interruption - until 1720. It has much interest, and fills MS. Sloane 4040, from f. - 193 to f. 285. That with John Chamberlayne was of nearly equal - duration, and is preserved in the same volume (ff. 100–167). The - correspondence with James Bobart contains much valuable material for - the history of botanical study in England, and is preserved in MS. - Sloane, 4037 (ff. 158–185). It began in 1685, and was continued - until Bobart’s death, in 1716. Still more curious is the - correspondence with John Burnet (1722–1738), who was originally a - surgeon in the service of the East India Company, and afterwards - Surgeon to the King of Spain. Burnet’s letters to Sloane, written - from Madrid, contain valuable illustrations of Spanish society and - manners as they were in the first half of the Eighteenth Century. - This correspondence is in MS. Sloane, 4039. - -Footnote 50: - - _History of Europe_ [the precursor of the _Annual Register_], for - 1712. - -Footnote 51: - - ‘Here are great designs on foot for uniting the Queen’s Library, the - Cotton, and the Royal Society’s, together. How soon they may be put - in practice time must discover.’—_Sloane to Dr. Charlett, Master of - University College_, April, 1707. - -Footnote 52: - - Besides those distinctions which I have noted already, he had been - requested, in 1730, by the University of Oxford, to allow his - portrait to be placed in the University Gallery. In 1733 his statue, - by Rysbraeck, was placed in the Botanic Garden at Chelsea. - -Footnote 53: - - ‘Walpole is your tyrant to-day; and any man His Majesty pleases to - name—Horace or Leheup—may be so to-morrow.’—_Bolingbroke to - Marchmont_, 22 July, 1739. - -Footnote 54: - - ‘Our House of Commons—mere poachers—are piddling with the torture of - Leheup, who extracted so much money out of the Lottery.’—_Horace - Walpole to Richard Bentley_, 19 December, 1753. - -Footnote 55: - - The term ‘Librarian,’ as used at the British Museum, has never - implied any _special_ connection with the Books, printed or - manuscript. All the Keepers of Departments were, originally, called - ‘Under Librarian.’ The General Superintendent or Warden has always - been called ‘Principal Librarian.’ - -Footnote 56: - - One of Cook’s many individual gifts was the first Kangaroo ever - brought into Europe. - -Footnote 57: - - In a copy of this work now before me, the original drawings are - bound up with the engravings, and later drawings are added. They - serve to show that Sir William’s scientific interest in the subject - lasted as long as his life. - -Footnote 58: - - That superiority, however, is only partial. The original Naples - edition, along with many errors, contains much valuable matter - omitted in the reprint. - -Footnote 59: - - I find that in this statement—made twenty-four years after the date - of the transaction referred to—Sir William’s memory misled him. The - amount of the Parliamentary vote was (as I have stated it, on a - previous page) eight thousand four hundred pounds. - -Footnote 60: - - This John Towneley was sent first to Chester Castle, then to the - Marshalsea in Southwark, then to York Castle, and to a block-house - in Hull. From Yorkshire he was sent to the Gatehouse at Westminster, - and thence to a jail in Manchester. From his Lancashire prison he - was presently hustled into Oxfordshire, and sent thence to another - prison at Ely. The gallant old recusant survived it all, to die at - Towneley at last. - -Footnote 61: - - Lancastrian for ‘throw open.’ - -Footnote 62: - - _Specimens of Ancient Sculpture._ Published by the Society of - Dilettanti, Preface, § 61. - -Footnote 63: - - One of the metopes from the south side of the Parthenon, removed by - the Count de Choiseul, during his embassy at the eve of the - Revolution, was captured by an English ship when on its way to - France, and had been purchased by Lord Elgin at a Custom House sale - in London. By him it was returned to Choiseul, with a liberality too - rare in such matters. When this metope came, after Choiseul’s death, - to be sold at Paris, by auction, the Trustees of the British Museum - sent a commission for its purchase. The commissioner went so far as - to offer a thousand pounds, but was overbidden by the French - Government. - -Footnote 64: - - _Curse of Minerva_, passim. - -Footnote 65: - - That my needful abridgment, in the text, of Mr. Payne Knight’s words - may not misrepresent his meaning, I subjoin the whole of the - passage:—‘Had this powerful engine of influence’ [namely, loss of - caste] ‘been employed in favour of pure morality and efficient - virtue, the Hindoos might have been the most virtuous and happy of - the human race. But the ambition of a hierarchy has, as usual, - employed it to serve its own particular interests instead of those - of the community in general.... Should the pious labours of our - missionaries succeed in diffusing among them a more pure and more - moral, but less uniform and less energetic system of religion, they - may improve and exalt the character of individual men, but they will - for ever destroy the repose and tranquillity of the mass.... The - prevalence of European religion will be the fall of European - domination.... The incarnations which form the principal subject of - sculpture in all the temples of India, Tibet, Tartary, and China, - are, above all others, calculated to call forth the ideal - perfections of the art, by expanding and exalting the imagination of - the artist, and exciting his ambition to surpass the simple - imitation of ordinary forms, in order to produce a model of - excellence, worthy to be the corporeal habitation of the Deity. But - this no nation of the East, nor indeed of the Earth, except the - Greeks and those who copied them, ever attempted.’—_Analytical - Inquiry_, &c., p. 80.] - -Footnote 66: - - _Carmina Homerica Ilias et Odyssea a rapsidorum interpolationibus - repurgata, et in pristinam formam ... redacta; cum notis ac - prolegomenis, ... opera et studio_ Richardi Payne Knight. 1808, 8vo. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES - - - 1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in - spelling. - 2. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as - printed. - 3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. - 4. Enclosed bold font in =equals=. - 5. Superscripts are denoted by a caret before a single superscript - character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in - curly braces, e. g. M^r. or M^{ister}. - 6. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Lives of the Founders of the British Museum</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>with Notices of its Chief Augmentors and Other Benefactors, 1570-1870. Part I of II</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Edward Edwards</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 17, 2022 [eBook #67389]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Richard Tonsing, MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM ***</div> - -<div class='tnotes covernote'> - -<p class='c000'><b>Transcriber’s Note:</b></p> - -<p class='c000'>The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='titlepage'> - -<div> - <h1 class='c001'><span class='large'>LIVES OF</span><br /> <span class='xlarge'>THE FOUNDERS</span><br /> <span class='xsmall'>OF THE</span><br /> BRITISH MUSEUM;<br /> <span class='xsmall'>WITH</span><br /> <span class='small'>NOTICES OF ITS CHIEF AUGMENTORS AND OTHER BENEFACTORS.</span><br /> <span class='large'>1570–1870.</span></h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='sc'>By</span> EDWARD EDWARDS.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c003'>PART I.</h2> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>LONDON:</div> - <div><span class='small'>TRÜBNER AND CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW.</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>1870.</span></div> - <div><span class='xsmall'>(<i>All rights reserved.</i>)</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div><span class='small'>PRINTED BY J. E. ADLARD, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='section ph2'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div>LIVES OF THE FOUNDERS, AND NOTICES OF SOME CHIEF BENEFACTORS AND ORGANIZERS, OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM.</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><i>COTTON—ARUNDEL—HARLEY—COURTEN—SLOANE—HAMILTON—CHARLES TOWNELEY—PAYNE-KNIGHT—LANSDOWNE—BRIDGEWATER—KING GEORGE III—BANKS—CRACHERODE—GRENVILLE—FELLOWS—LAYARD—CURETON—&c. &c. &c.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='box'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div>WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>MEMOIRS OF LIBRARIES: <span class='sc'>including a Handbook -of Library Economy</span>. 2 vols. 8vo. [With 8 steel plates; -36 woodcuts; 16 lithographic plates; and 4 illustrations in -chromo-lithography.] 48s.</p> - -<p class='c006'>LIBRARIES, AND FOUNDERS OF LIBRARIES. -8vo. 18s.</p> - -<p class='c006'>COMPARATIVE TABLES <span class='sc'>of Schemes which have -been proposed for the Classification of Human Knowledge</span>. -Fol. 5s.</p> - -<p class='c006'>SYNOPTICAL TABLES OF THE RECORDS OF -THE REALM. <span class='sc'>With an Historical Preface.</span> Fol. 9s.</p> - -<p class='c006'>CHAPTERS OF THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH -ACADEMY, &c. 8vo. 6s.</p> - -<p class='c006'>LIBER MONASTERII DE HYDA; <i>comprising a Chronicle -of the Affairs of England from the Settlement of the -Saxons to Cnut; and a Chartulary</i>; <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 455–1023. Edited -by the Authority of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s -Treasury, under the Direction of the Master of the Rolls. 8vo. -10s. 6d.</p> - -<p class='c006'>THE LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEGH; <span class='sc'>based on -Contemporary Documents preserved in the Rolls -House, the Privy Council Office, Hatfield House, the -British Museum, and other Manuscript Repositories, -British and Foreign</span>. Together with his <span class='sc'>Letters</span>, now -first Collected. 2 vols. 8vo. 32s.</p> - -<p class='c006'>EXMOUTH AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD, ANCIENT -AND MODERN; <span class='sc'>being Notices, Historical, Biographical, -and Descriptive, of a Corner of South Devon</span>. -Crown 8vo. 5s.</p> - -<p class='c006'>FREE TOWN LIBRARIES, <span class='sc'>their Formation, -Management, and History; in Britain, France, Germany, -and America</span>. Together with brief Notices of Book-Collectors, -and of the Respective Places of Deposit of their -Surviving Collections. 8vo. 21s.</p> - -</div> - -<div id='Frontispiece' class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_frontis.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p><span class='left'><span class='small'>DALLASTYPE.</span></span><br /><br />The first British Museum; formerly the residence of the Duke of Montagu.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='ph1'> - -<p class='c013'><span class='large'>LIVES OF</span><br /> -<span class='xlarge'>THE FOUNDERS</span><br /> -<span class='xsmall'>OF THE</span><br /> -BRITISH MUSEUM;<br /> -<span class='xsmall'>WITH</span><br /> -<span class='small'>NOTICES OF ITS CHIEF AUGMENTORS AND OTHER BENEFACTORS.</span><br /> -<span class='large'>1570–1870.</span></p> - -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='sc'>By</span> EDWARD EDWARDS.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div id='Title' class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_title.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>The old “Townley Gallery.”</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>LONDON:</div> - <div>TRÜBNER AND CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW.</div> - <div>1870.</div> - <div><span class='small'>(<i>All rights reserved.</i>)</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c008' /> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c003'>PREFATORY NOTE.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c009'>For the materials of the earlier of the ‘Lives’ contained -in this volume I have been chiefly indebted to the Collection -of State Papers at the Rolls House; to the Privy-Council -Registers at the Council Office; and to many -manuscripts in the Cottonian, Harleian, Sloane, and Lansdowne -Collections at the British Museum.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-l'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'><span class='sc'>Highgate</span>; <i>6th May, 1870</i>.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'><i>The liberal deviseth liberal things; and by -liberal things shall he stand.</i></p> - -<div class='lg-container-r c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Isaiah</span>, xxxii, 8.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'><i>Man’s only relics are his benefits;</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>These, be there ages, be there worlds, between,</i></div> - <div class='line'><i>Retain him in communion with his kind.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in24'><span class='sc'>Landor</span> (<i>Count Julian</i>).</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_v'>v</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CONTENTS.</h2> -</div> - -<table class='table0'> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>BOOK THE FIRST.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>EARLY COLLECTORS:—THE GATHERERS OF THE FOUNDATION COLLECTIONS.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER I.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>INTRODUCTION.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <th class='c014'></th> - <th class='c015'><span class='small'>PAGE</span></th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>Chronological Epochs in the Formation of the British Museum</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_5'>5</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER II.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>THE FOUNDER OF THE COTTONIAN LIBRARY.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>The Personal and Public Life of Sir Robert Cotton.—His Political Writings and Political Persecutions.—Sources and Growth of the Cottonian Library.—The Successors of Sir Robert Cotton.—History of the Cottonian Library, until its union with the Manuscript Library of Harley, and with the Museum and Miscellaneous Collections of Sloane.—Review of some recent Aspersions on the Character of the Founder</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_48'>48</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER III.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>THE CHIEF COLLECTOR AND THE AUGMENTORS OF THE OLD ROYAL AND PUBLIC LIBRARY AT ST. JAMES’.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>Life of Henry, Prince of Wales, son of James I, and virtual Founder of the ‘Royal Library.’—Its Augmentors and its Librarians.—Acquisition of the Library of the Theyers.—Incorporation with the Collections of Cotton and of Sloane</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_153'>153</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><span class='pageno' id='Page_vi'>vi</span> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER IV.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>THE COLLECTOR OF THE ARUNDELIAN MSS.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>Political Exile and Foreign Travel under Elizabeth and under James.—Life of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel.—The Consolations of Connoisseurship.—Vicissitudes of the Arundel Museum.—The gifts of Henry Howard to the Royal Society</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_172'>172</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER V.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>THE COLLECTOR OF THE HARLEIAN MSS.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>The Harley Family.—Parliamentary and Official Career of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford.—The Party Conflicts under Queen Anne.—Robert Harley and Jonathan Swift.—Harley and the Court of the Stuarts.—Did Harley conspire to restore the Pretender?—History of the Harleian Library.—The Life and Correspondence of Humphrey Wanley</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_203'>203</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER VI.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>THE FOUNDERS OF THE SLOANE MUSEUM.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>Flemish Exiles in England.—The Adventures, Mercantile and Colonial Enterprises, and Vicissitudes of the Courtens.—William Courten and his Collections.—The Life and Travels of Sir Hans Sloane.—His acquisition of Courten’s Museum.—Its Growth under the new Possessor.—History of the Sloane Museum and Library, and of their purchase by Parliament</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_247'>247</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>BOOK THE SECOND.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>THE ORGANIZERS, AND EARLY AUGMENTORS.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER I.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>INTRODUCTORY.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span><i>Househunting.—The Removal of the Sloane Museum from Chelsea.—Montagu House, and its History.—The Early Trustees and Officers.—The Museum Regulations.—Early Helpers in the Foundation and Increase of the British Museum.—Epochs in the Growth of the Natural History Collections.—Experiences of Inquiring Visitors in the years 1765–1784</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_317'>317</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER II.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>A GROUP OF CLASSICAL ARCHÆOLOGISTS AND EXPLORERS.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>Sir William Hamilton and his Pursuits and Employments in Italy.—The Acquisitions of the French Institute of Egypt, and the capture of part of them at Alexandria.—Charles Towneley and his Collection of Antiquities.—The Researches of the Earl of Elgin in Greece.—The Collections and Writings of Richard Payne Knight</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_346'>346</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER III.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>A GROUP OF BOOK-LOVERS AND PUBLIC BENEFACTORS.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>Notices of some early Donors of Books.—The Life and Collections of Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode.—William Petty, first Marquess of Lansdowne, and his Library of Manuscripts.—The Literary Life and Collections of Dr. Charles Burney.—Francis Hargrave and his Manuscripts.—The Life and Testamentary Foundations of Francis Henry Egerton, Ninth Earl of Bridgewater</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">413</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER IV.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>THE KING’S OR ‘GEORGIAN’ LIBRARY;—ITS COLLECTOR, AND ITS DONOR.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>Notices of the Literary Tastes and Acquirements of King George the Third.—His Conversations with Men of Letters.—History of his Library and of its Transfer to the British Nation by George the Fourth</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">464</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><span class='pageno' id='Page_viii'>viii</span> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER V.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>THE FOUNDER OF THE BANKSIAN MUSEUM AND LIBRARY.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>The Life, Travels, and Social Influence, of Sir Joseph Banks.—The Royal Society under his Presidency.—His Collections and their acquisition by the Trustees of the British Museum.—Notices of some other contemporaneous accessions</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">487</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>BOOK THE THIRD.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>LATER AUGMENTORS AND BENEFACTORS.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>1829–1870.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER I.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION, AS PRINCIPAL-LIBRARIAN, OF JOSEPH PLANTA.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>Notices of the Life of Joseph Planta, third Principal-Librarian.—Improvements in the Internal Economy of the Museum introduced or recommended by Mr. Planta.—His labours for the enlargement of the Collections—and on the Museum Publications and Catalogues.—The Museum Gardens and the Duke of Bedford</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">515</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER II.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>INTRODUCTION TO BOOK III (continued):—GROWTH, PROGRESS, AND INTERNAL ECONOMY, OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, DURING THE PRINCIPAL-LIBRARIANSHIP OF SIR HENRY ELLIS.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><span class='pageno' id='Page_ix'>ix</span><i>Internal Economy of the Museum at the time of the death of Joseph Planta.—The Literary Life and Public Services of Sir Henry Ellis.—The Candidature of Henry Fynes Clinton.—Progress of Improvement in certain Departments.—Introduction of Sir Antonio Panizzi into the Service of the Trustees.—The House of Commons’ Committee of 1835–36.—Panizzi and Henry Francis Cary.—Memoir of Cary.—Panizzi’s Report on the proper Character of a National Library for Britain, made in October, 1837.—His successive labours for Internal Reform.—And his Helpers in the work.—The Literary Life and Public Services of Thomas Watts.—Sir A. Panizzi’s Special Report to the Trustees of 1845, and what grew thereout.—Progress, during Sir H. Ellis’s term of office, of the several Departments of Natural History and of Antiquities</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">527</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER III.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>INTRODUCTION TO BOOK III (continued):—GROWTH, PROGRESS, AND INTERNAL ECONOMY, OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM DURING THE PRINCIPAL-LIBRARIANSHIP OF SIR ANTONIO PANIZZI.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>The Museum Buildings.—The New Reading-Room and its History.—The House of Commons’ Committee of 1860.—Further Reorganization of the Departments.—Summary of the Growth of the Collections in the years 1856–1866, and of their increased Use and Enjoyment by the Public</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">583</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER IV.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>ANOTHER GROUP OF ARCHÆOLOGISTS AND EXPLORERS.—THE SPOILS OF XANTHUS, OF BABYLON, OF NINEVEH, OF HALICARNASSUS, AND OF CARTHAGE.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>The Libraries of the East.—The Monasteries of the Nitrian Desert, and their Explorers.—William Cureton and his Labours on the MSS. of Nitria, and in other Departments of Oriental Literature.—The Researches in the Levant of Sir Charles Fellows, of Mr. Layard, and of Mr. Charles Newton.—Other conspicuous Augmentors of the Collection of Antiquities</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">608</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER V.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>THE FOUNDER OF THE GRENVILLE LIBRARY.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>The Grenvilles and their Influence on the Political Aspect of the Georgian Reigns.—The Public and Literary Life of the Right Honourable Thomas Grenville.—History of the Grenville Library</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">670</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><span class='pageno' id='Page_x'>x</span> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER VI.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>OTHER BENEFACTORS OF RECENT DAYS.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>Recent Contributors to the Natural History Collections.—The Duke of Blacas and his Museum of Greek and Roman Antiquities.—Hugh Cuming and his Travels and Collections in South America.—John Rutter Chorley, and his Collection of Spanish Plays and Spanish Poetry.—George Witt and his Collections illustrative of the History of Obscure Superstitions.—The Ethnographical Museum of Henry Christy, and its History.—Colonial Archæologists and British Consuls: The History of the Woodhouse Collection, and of its transmittal to the British Museum.—Lord Napier and the Acquisition of the Abyssinian MSS.—The Art Collections and Bequests of Felix Slade.—The Travels and the Japanese Library of Von Siebold</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">686</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'>CHAPTER VII.</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><i>RECONSTRUCTORS AND PROJECTORS.</i></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><i>The Plans and Projects for the Severance and Partial Dispersion of the Collections which at present form ‘The British Museum,’ and for their re-combination and re-arrangement</i></td> - <td class='c015'><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">721</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c014'><span class='sc'>Index</span></td> - <td class='c015'><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">763</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_xi'>xi</span> - <h2 class='c003'>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> -</div> - -<table class='table0'> - <tr> - <th class='c016'></th> - <th class='c014'> </th> - <th class='c015'><span class='small'>PAGE</span></th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'>I.</td> - <td class='c014'><span class='sc'>View of the Garden-Front of Old Montagu House, the first ‘British Museum;’</span> as it appeared at the opening of the Institution to the Public in 1759</td> - <td class='c015'><i><a href='#Frontispiece'>Frontispiece.</a></i></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'> </td> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'>II.</td> - <td class='c014'><span class='sc'>View of the old Towneley Gallery</span> (built for the reception of the Towneleian Marbles in 1805, and pulled down on the erection of the existing Museum)</td> - <td class='c015'><i><a href='#Title'>Vignette on Title-page.</a></i></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'> </td> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'>III.</td> - <td class='c014'><span class='sc'>Ground-Plan of the Principal Floor of the original British Museum of 1759</span></td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_325'>325</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'> </td> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'>IV.</td> - <td class='c014'><span class='sc'>Ground-Plan of the Secondary Floor of the same</span></td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_327'>327</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'> </td> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'>V.</td> - <td class='c014'><span class='sc'>Suggestions made in 1847 for the Enlargement of the Library of the British Museum</span>; being the facsimile of a Plan inserted in a Pamphlet (written in 1846) entitled ‘<i>Public Libraries in London and Paris</i>’</td> - <td class='c015'><i>To face p.</i> <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">556</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'> </td> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'>VI.</td> - <td class='c014'><span class='sc'>Reduced copy of Benjamin Delessert’s ‘<i>Projet d’une Bibliothèque Circulaire</i>,’</span> 1835</td> - <td class='c015'><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">587</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'> </td> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'>VII.</td> - <td class='c014'><span class='sc'>General Block-Plan of the British Museum</span>, as it was in 1857</td> - <td class='c015'><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">589</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'> </td> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'>VIII.</td> - <td class='c014'><span class='sc'>Ground-Plan of the New or ‘Panizzi’ Reading-Room</span>, and of the adjacent Galleries, 1857</td> - <td class='c015'><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">590</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'> </td> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'>IX.</td> - <td class='c014'><span class='sc'>Interior View of the New Reading-Room</span>, 1857</td> - <td class='c015'><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">591</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'> </td> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'>X.</td> - <td class='c014'><span class='sc'>Coloured Plan of the Ground-Floor of the British Museum</span>, as it was in 1862. <i>Copied from the Parliamentary Return, No. 97 of Session 1862</i></td> - <td class='c015'><i>To face p.</i> <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">750</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'> </td> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'>XI.</td> - <td class='c014'><span class='sc'>Coloured Plan of the Ground-Floor &c.</span>, (as above); <span class='sc'>together with the Alterations proposed to the Lords of the Treasury by the Trustees of the British Museum</span>; in their Minutes of December, 1861, and January 21st, 1862, and in their Letter to the Treasury of 11th February, 1862. <i>Copied from the same Return</i></td> - <td class='c015'><i>To face p.</i> <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">752</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'> </td> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'>XII.</td> - <td class='c014'><span class='sc'>Coloured Plan of the Upper Floor of the British Museum</span>, as it was in 1862. <i>Copied from the same Return</i></td> - <td class='c015'><i>To face p.</i> <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">754</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'> </td> - <td class='c014'> </td> - <td class='c015'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c016'>XIII.</td> - <td class='c014'><span class='sc'>Coloured Plan of the Upper Floor, &c.</span> (as above); <span class='sc'>together with the Alterations proposed to the Treasury by the Trustees</span>; in their Minutes of December, 1861, and January, 1862, and in their Letter of 11th February, 1862. <i>Copied from the same Return</i></td> - <td class='c015'><i>To face p.</i> <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67390">756</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span> - <div class='section'><h3 class='c001'>BOOK THE FIRST.<br /> <i>EARLY COLLECTORS:—THE GATHERERS OF THE FOUNDATION COLLECTIONS.</i></h3></div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span> - <div class='section'><h4 class='c017'><i>CONTENTS OF BOOK I.</i></h4></div> -</div> - - <dl class='dl_1 c002'> - <dt><span class='sc'>Chapter</span> I.</dt> - <dd><span class='sc'>Introduction.</span> - </dd> - <dt>II.</dt> - <dd><span class='sc'>The Founder of the Cottonian Library.</span> - </dd> - <dt>III.</dt> - <dd><span class='sc'>The Collectors and Augmentors of the Old Royal and Public Library at St. - James’.</span> - </dd> - <dt>IV.</dt> - <dd><span class='sc'>The Collector of the Arundelian MSS.</span> - </dd> - <dt>V.</dt> - <dd><span class='sc'>The Collector of the Harleian Manuscripts.</span> - </dd> - <dt>VI.</dt> - <dd><span class='sc'>The Founders of the Sloane Museum.</span> - </dd> - </dl> -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>... “The reverence and respect your Petitioners bear -to the memory of the most learned Sir <span class='sc'>Robert Cotton</span> are -too great not to mention, in particular, that from the -liberal use of his Library sprang (chiefly) most of the -learned works of his time, for ever highly to be valued. -The great men of that age constantly resorted to and -consulted it to shew the errors and mistakes in government -about that period. And, as this inestimable Library -hath since been generously given and dedicated to the -Public use for ever, to be a National Benefit, your Petitioners -presume that no expression of gratitude can be -too great for so valuable a treasure, or for doing honour -to the Memory and Family of Sir <span class='sc'>Robert Cotton</span>.”—‘<i>Petition -to the Honourable House of Commons from the -Cottonian Trustees</i>’ (drawn up antecedently to the Foundation -Act of the British Museum); 1752.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span> - <div class='section'><h4 class='c017'>CHAPTER I.<br /> <span class='large'>INTRODUCTION.</span></h4></div> -</div> -<h5 class='c019'><i>Chronological Epochs in the Formation of the British Museum.</i></h5> - -<p class='c020'>In two particulars, more especially, our great National -Museum stands distinguished among institutions of its -kind. The collections which compose it extend over a -wider range than that covered by any other public establishment -having a like purpose. And, if we take them as -a whole, those collections are also far more conspicuously -indebted to the liberality of individual benefactors. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Public debt to private Collectors.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In a -degree of which there is elsewhere no example, the British -Museum has been gradually built up by the munificence -of open-handed Collectors, rather than by the public means -of the Nation, as administered by Parliament, or by the -Governments of the day.</p> - -<p class='c021'>The real founders of our British Museum have been neither -our British monarchs nor our British legislators, as such. -They have been, commonly, individual and private British -subjects; men loyal both to the Crown and to the People. -Often, they have been men standing in direct lineal descent -from the great Barons who dictated the Charter of our -liberties, in the meadow near Windsor, and from those -who led English knights and English bowmen to victory, -on the wooded slopes near Poitiers. Sometimes, they have -been men of very lowly birth; such as could point to no -<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>ancestral names appended to <i>Magna Charta</i>, or to the -famous letter written from Lincoln to Boniface the Eighth; -such as may, indeed, very well have had ancestors who -gave their lives, or their limbs, for England at Poitiers or -at Cressy, but who certainly could point to no heraldic -memorials of feats of arms done on those bloody fields of -France. Not a few of them, perhaps, would have been -vainly asked to tell the names of their grandfathers. One -boast, however, is common to both of these groups of our -public benefactors. They were men who had alike a -strong sense of gratitude to those who had gone before -them, and a strong sense of duty to those who were to -come after them. To nearly all of the men whose lives -will be told in this volume are applicable, in a special -sense, some words of Julius <span class='sc'>Hare</span>:—‘They wrought in a -magnanimous spirit of rivalry with Nature, or in kindly -fellowship with her.... <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>J. & A. Hare, <i>Guesses at Truth</i>, vol. ii, p. 18.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When they planted, they chose -out the trees of longest life—the Oak, the Chestnut, the -Yew, the Elm,—trees which it does us good to behold, -while we muse on the many generations of our Forefathers, -whose eyes have reposed within the same leafy bays.’ They -were men whose large impulses and deep insight led them -to work, less for themselves than for their successors. It -is by dint of what men of that stamp did—and did, not -under the leading of the Gospel according to Adam <span class='sc'>Smith</span>, -but of a Gospel very much older than it—that upon us, -whose day is now passing, Posterity, so to speak, ‘has -cast her shadow before; and we are, at this moment, -reposing beneath it.’ Of Public Benefactions, such as those -which this volume very inadequately commemorates, it is -true, with more than ordinary truth, that we owe them, -mainly, to a generous conviction in the hearts of certain -worthies of old days that they owed suit and service to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>Posterity. This may, indeed, be said of public foresight, -when evidenced in material works and in provisions to -smooth some of the asperities of common life and of manual -toil. But it may be said, more appropriately still, of another -and a higher kind of public foresight;—of that evidenced -in educational institutions, and in the various appliances for -raising and vivifying the common intellect; for enlarging -its faculties; diffusing its enjoyments; and broadening -its <i>public</i> domain. As it has been said (by the same -acute thinker who has just been quoted) in better words -than any of mine:—‘The great works that were wrought -by men of former times; the great fabrics that were raised -by them; their mounds and embankments against the -powers of evil; their drains to carry off mischief; the wide -fields they redeemed from the overflowings of barbarism; -the countless fields they enclosed and husbanded for good -to grow and thrive in; ... all this they [mainly] achieved -<i>for Posterity</i>.... - <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>J. & A. Hare, -<i>Guesses at -Truth</i>, vol. ii, -p. 13.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Except for Posterity; except for the -vital magnetic consciousness that while men perish, Man -survives, the only principle of prudent conduct must -have been, “<i>Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we -die</i>.”’</p> - -<p class='c009'>The pages which follow have been written in the belief -that they afford—whatever the defects of their Writer—useful -illustrations of this great and pregnant truth. To -him it has not been given to work ‘<i>for Posterity</i>,’ otherwise -than as a Chronicler of some of the workings of other men. -But he owns to a special delight in that humble function. -Its charm,—to his mind,—is enhanced, on the present occasion, -by the very fact that so much of the work now about -to be narrated is the work of men who only rarely have -been labouring with other means, or with other implements, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>than those which were personal to themselves, as -individuals.</p> - -<p class='c021'>In the chief countries of the Continent of Europe—on -the other hand—great national Museums have, commonly, -had their origin in the liberality and wise foresight either -of some sovereign or other, or of some powerful minister -whose mind was large enough to combine with the cares -of State a care for Learning. In Britain, our chief public -collection of literature and of science originated simply in -the public spirit of private persons.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The <span class='sc'>British Museum</span> was founded precisely at that -period of our history when the distinctively national, or -governmental, care for the interests of literature and of -science was at its lowest, or almost its lowest, point. As -regards the monarchs, it would be hard to fix on any, since -the dawn of the Revival of Learning, who evinced less -concern for the progress and diffusion of learning than did -the first and second princes of the House of Hanover. As -regards Parliament, the tardy and languid acceptance of -the boon proffered, posthumously, by Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, -constitutes just the one exceptional act of encouragement -that serves to give saliency to the utter indifference which -formed the ordinary rule.</p> - -<p class='c021'>Long before <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>’s time (as we shall see hereafter), -there had been zealous and repeated efforts to arouse the -attention of the Government as well to the political importance -as to the educational value of public museums. -Many thinkers had already perceived that such collections -were a positive increase of public wealth and of national -greatness, as well as a powerful instrument of popular -education. It had been shewn, over and over again, that -for lack of public care precious monuments and treasures -<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>of learning had been lost; sometimes by their removal to -far-off countries; sometimes by their utter destruction. -Until the appeal made to Parliament by the Executors of -Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, in the middle of the eighteenth century, -all those efforts had uniformly failed.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The real Founders of the British Museum.</span></div> - -<p class='c021'>But Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> cannot claim to be regarded, individually -or very specially, as the Founder of the British -Museum. His last Will, indeed, gave an opportunity for -the foundation. Strictly speaking, he was not even the -Founder of his own Collection, as it stood in his lifetime. -The Founder of the Sloane Museum was William <span class='sc'>Courten</span>, -the last of a line of wealthy Flemish refugees, whose -history, in their adopted country, is a series of romantic -adventures.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The acquisition, by the Nation, of the Cotton Library.</span></div> - -<p class='c021'>Parliament had previously accepted the gift of the -Cottonian Library, at the hands of Sir John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, third -in descent from its Founder, and its acceptance of that gift -had been followed by almost unbroken neglect, although -the gift was a noble one. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>(T. Carte to Sir Thomas Hanmer, Speaker of the House of Commons; <i>Hanmer Corresp.</i>, p. 226.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Sir John, when conversing, on -one occasion, with Thomas <span class='sc'>Carte</span>, told the historian that -he had been offered £60,000 of English money, together -with a <i>carte blanche</i> for some honorary mark of royal -favour, on the part of <span class='sc'>Lewis the Fourteenth</span>, for the -Library which he afterwards settled upon the British -nation. It has been estimated that <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> expended -(from first to last) upon his various collections about -£50,000; so that, even from the mercantile point of view, -the <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> family may be said to have been larger voluntary -contributors towards our eventual National Museum -than was Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> himself. That point of view, -however, would be a very false, because very narrow, one.</p> - -<p class='c021'>Whether estimated by mere money value, or by a truer -standard, the third, in order of time, of the Foundation-Collections, that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>of the ‘Harleian Manuscripts,’—was a -much less important acquisition for the Nation than was -the Museum of <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, or the Library of <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>; but -its literary value, as all students of our history and literature -know, is, nevertheless, considerable. Its first Collector, -Robert <span class='sc'>Harley</span>, the Minister of Queen Anne and the first -of the Harleian Earls of Oxford, is fairly entitled to rank, -after <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, <span class='sc'>Courten</span>, and <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, among the virtual -or eventual co-founders of the British Museum.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Chronologically, then, Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, William -<span class='sc'>Courten</span>, Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, and Robert <span class='sc'>Harley</span>, rank first -as Founders; so long as we estimate their relative position -in accordance with the successive steps by which the -British Museum was eventually organized. But there is -another synchronism by which greater accuracy is attainable. -Although four years had elapsed between the -passing—in 1753—of ‘<i>An Act for the purchase of the -Museum or Collection of Sir Hans Sloane, and of the -Harleian Collection of Manuscripts, and for providing one -general repository for the better reception and more convenient -use of the said Collection, and of the Cottonian -Library and of the additions thereto</i>,’ and the gift—in 1757—to -the Trustees of those already united -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Old Royal Library</span>, formed by <span class='sc'>Prince Henry</span> (son of James I) at St. James’.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Collections by -King <span class='sc'>George the Second</span>, of the Old Royal Library of -the Kings his predecessors, yet that royal collection itself -had been (in a restricted sense of the words) a Public and -National possession soon after the days of the first real and -central Founder of the present Museum, Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>. -But, despite its title, that Royal Library, also, was—in -the main—the creation of subjects, not of Sovereigns or -Governments. Its virtual founder was <span class='sc'>Henry</span>, Prince of -Wales. It was acquired, out of his privy purse, as a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>subject, not as a Prince. He, therefore, has a title to be -placed among the individual Collectors whose united efforts -resulted—after long intervals of time—in the creation, -eventually, of a public institution second to none, of its -kind, in the world.</p> - -<p class='c021'>Prince <span class='sc'>Henry</span>’s story is not the least curious of the -many life-stories which these pages have to tell. That -small span of barely eighteen years was eventful, as well -as full of promise. And it may very fitly be told next, in -order, after that of <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, who was not only his contemporary -but his friend.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The MSS. of Lord Arundel.</span></div> - -<p class='c021'>As the Royal Library was, in a certain degree, a Public -Collection before the foundation of the Museum, so also -was the Arundelian Library of Manuscripts. It did not -become part of the British Museum until nearly eighty -years after the amalgamation of the Cottonian, Harleian, -Sloanian, and Royal Collections into one integral body. -But the munificent Earl who formed it had often made -it public, for the use of scholars, in his own lifetime. -One or two of his descendants allowed it to fall into -neglect. Before it left old Arundel House, in the Strand, -it was exposed, more than once, to loss by petty thefts. -But when, by another descendant, the injury was repaired, -and the still choice collection given—at the earnest entreaty -of another of our English worthies, John <span class='sc'>Evelyn</span>—to the -Royal Society, the Arundelian MSS., like the Library at -Saint James’ Palace, became (so far as a circle of literary -men and of the cultivators of scientific inquiry were concerned) -a public possession. Many of the Arundelian -marbles had also become—by other acts of munificence -worthy of the time-honoured name of <span class='sc'>Howard</span>—to the -Public at large, and without restriction, ‘things of beauty,’ -and ‘joys for ever.’ Others of them, indeed, are—even in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>these days—shut up at Wilton with somewhat of a narrow -jealousy of the undistinguished multitude. But, by the -liberality of the Dukes of <span class='sc'>Marlborough</span>, the choice gems -gathered by the Earl of <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> during his long travels -on the Continent, and his widespread researches throughout -the world, have long been made available to public -enjoyment, in more ways than one. The varied narrative -of that famous Collector’s life may, perhaps, not unfitly be -placed next after that of the best of the Stuart princes. -<span class='sc'>Arundel</span>, like <span class='sc'>Henry</span>, was the friend of Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, and was proud of that distinction.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Undoubtedly, there is more than one point of view from -which we may regard the preponderating share borne by -private collectors in the ultimate creation of our national -repository as matter of satisfaction, rather than matter of -shame. It testifies to the strength amongst us—even at times -deeply tinged with civil discord—of public and patriotic -feeling. Nor is this all. It testifies, negatively, but not -less strongly, to a conscientious sense of responsibility, on -the part of those who have administered British rule in -conquered countries, and in remote dependencies of the -Crown. Few readers of such a book as this are likely to -be altogether unacquainted with national museums and -national libraries which have been largely enriched by the -strong hand of the spoiler. Into some such collections it -is impossible for portions of the people at whose aggregate -expense they are maintained to enter, without occasional -feelings of disgust and humiliation. There are, it is true, -a few trophies of successful war in our own Museum. -But there is nothing in its vast stores which, to any visitor -of any nationality whatever, can bring back memories of -ruthless and insolent spoliation.</p> - -<p class='c021'><span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>That narrowness of conception, however, which has made -some publicists to regard the slenderness of the contributions -of the Nation at large, when contrasted with the extent of -those of individuals, as if it were a cause for boasting, is -visibly, and very happily, on the decline. It is coming to -be recognised, more implicitly with every year that passes, -that whatever can be done by the action of Parliament, or -of the Government, for the real promotion of public -civilisation,—in the amplest and deepest meaning of that -word,—is but the doing of the People themselves, by the -use of the most effective machinery they have at hand; -rather than the acceptance of a boon conferred upon them, -extraneously and from above.</p> - -<p class='c009'>If that salient characteristic in the past history of our -<span class='sc'>British Museum</span> is very far from affording any legitimate -cause of boasting to the publicist, it affords an undeniable -advantage to the narrator of the history itself. It not only -broadens the range of his subject, by placing at its threshold -the narrative of several careers which will be found to -combine, at times, romantic adventure and political intrigue -with public service of a high order; but it binds up, -inseparably, the story of the quiet growth of an institution -in London with occasional glimpses at the progress, -from age to age, of geographical and scientific discovery, of -archæological exploration, and of the most varied labours -for the growth of human learning, throughout the world.</p> - -<p class='c021'>As an organized establishment, the <span class='sc'>British Museum</span> -is but little more than a century old. The history of its -component parts extends over three centuries. That -history embraces a series of systematic researches,—scientific, -literary, and archæological,—the account of which -(whatsoever the needful brevity of its treatment in these -<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>pages) must be told clumsily, indeed, if it be found to -lack a very wide and general interest for all classes of -readers—one class only excepted.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The diversity of the Museum Collections.</span></div> - -<p class='c021'>Even the least thoughtful among those visitors who can -be said to frequent the Museum—as distinguished from -the mere holiday guests, who come only in crowds, little -favourable to vision; to say nothing of thought—will -occasionally have had some faint impression or other of the -great diversity and wonderful combination of effort which -must have been employed in bringing together the Collections -they look upon. Every part and almost every age -of the world has contributed something; and that something -includes the most characteristic productions and -choicest possessions of every part. Almost every man of -British birth who,—during many centuries,—has won -conspicuous fame as a traveller, as an archæologist, or as -a discoverer, has helped, in one way or other, to enrich -those collections. They bear their own peculiar testimony -to nearly every step which has been taken either in the -maritime and colonial enterprise, or in the political growth, -of the British empire. Nor is their testimony a whit less -cogent to the power of that feeling of international brotherhood, -in matters of learning and science, which grows with -their growth, and waxes stronger with their strength.</p> - -<p class='c009'>To the remarkable career of the first of those four -primary Collectors, whose lifelong pursuits converged, -eventually, in the foundation of an institution, of the full -scope of which only one of the four had even a mental -glimpse—and <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>’s glimpse was obviously but a -very dim one—the attention of the reader has now to be -turned. Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>’s employments in political -<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>life (unofficial as they were), and the powerful influence -which he exerted upon statesmen much abler than himself, -will be found, it is hoped, to give not a little of historical -interest to his biography, quite additional to that which -belongs to his pursuits as a studious Collector, and as the -most famous of all the literary antiquaries who occur throughout -our English story.</p> - -<p class='c021'>To the conspicuous merits which belong to Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span> as a politician of no mean acumen, and as,—in -the event,—the real Founder of the British Museum, are -added the still higher distinctions of an eminently generous -spirit and a faithful heart. His openhandedness in giving -was constant and princely. His firmness in friendship is -testified by the fact that although (in a certain point of view) -he was the courtier both of <span class='sc'>James the First</span> and of <span class='sc'>Charles -the First</span>, he nevertheless stood persistently and unflinchingly -by the side of <span class='sc'>Eliot</span>, and of the men who worked -with <span class='sc'>Eliot</span>, in the period of their deepest court disgrace. -By the best of the Parliamentarian leaders he was both -reverenced and loved. And he reciprocated their feeling.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Recent attacks on Sir Robert Cotton’s memory.</span></div> - -<p class='c021'>My personal pleasure in the task of writing the life of -such a man as he was is much enhanced by a strong -conviction that certain recent attacks upon his memory -are based upon fallacious evidence, shallow presumptions, -and hasty judgments. It is my hope to be able to shew -to the Reader, conclusively, that <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was worthy of -the cordial regard and the high esteem in which he was -uniformly held by men who stood free of all bias from -political and party connexion—such, for example, as -William <span class='sc'>Camden</span>, who spoke of him, almost with dying -lips, as ‘the dearest of all my friends,’—as well as by those -great Parliamentarian leaders whose estimate of him may, -perhaps, be thought—by hasty readers—to rest partly, if -<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>not mainly, on the eminent political service which he was -able to render them.</p> - -<p class='c009'>When these pages shall come from the Press just three -hundred years will have elapsed since Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>’s -birth. Our English proto-collector was born in the year -1570. The year 1870 will, in all probability, witness the -definite solution of a knotty problem as to the future of -the great institution of which he was the primary and -central founder.</p> - -<p class='c009'><span class='sc'>Cotton</span> may be regarded as the English ‘proto-collector,’ -in a point of view other than that which concerns -the British Museum. No Library in the United Kingdom -can, I think, shew an <i>integral</i> ‘Collection,’ still extant, the -formation of which—as a Collection—can be traced to an -earlier date than that of the collection of the Cottonian -Manuscripts.</p> - -<p class='c009'>Whether the <span class='sc'>British Museum</span> shall continue to be the -great national repository for Science, as well as for Literature -and Antiquities, is a question which is fast ripening for -decision; and it is one which ought to be interesting to all -Britons. It is also, and very eminently, one of those questions -of which it is literally—and not sarcastically—to be -affirmed that ‘there is much to be said on both sides.’</p> - -<p class='c021'>Personally I have a very strong conviction on that -subject. But in treating of it—in the ‘Postscript’ which -closes the present volume—it has been my single and -earnest aim to state, with the utmost impartiality I am -able to attain, the leading arguments for maintaining the -Museum in its full integrity; and also the leading arguments -for severing the great Natural History Collections -<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>from the rapidly growing Libraries and from the vast Galleries -of marbles, bronzes, pottery, medals, and prints. It -is the business of writers to state and marshal the evidence. -It is the business of Parliament to pronounce the judgment.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The main epochs in the History of the British Museum -afford what may be looked upon almost as a ‘table of contents’ -to the present volume. And they may be brought -under the Reader’s eye in a way which will much facilitate -the correct apprehension of the author’s plan. I exhibit -them thus:—</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Epochs of Brit. Museum growth and increase.</span></div> - -<table class='table1'> -<colgroup> -<col class='colwidth80' /> -<col class='colwidth19' /> -</colgroup> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='2'><span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span></td></tr> - <tr> - <th class='btt bbt blt brt c022' colspan='2'><span class='sc'>Chronological List of the Dates, Founders, and Character, of the Component Collections, out of which the BRITISH MUSEUM has been formed or enlarged</span>:—</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <th class='blt brt c022'><span class='sc'>Class I.</span>—<b>Foundation Collections, 1570–1762</b>.</th> - <th class='brt c023 bbt' rowspan='23'><span class='sc'>Incorporated</span> by the Act (<span class='fss'>A.D.</span> <b>1753</b>) <span class='sc'>26 Geo. II</span>, c. 22, entitled, ‘<i>An Act for the Purchase of the Museum or Collection of Sir Hans Sloane and of the Harleian Collection of MSS.; and for providing one General Repository ... for the said Collections and for the Cottonian Library and additions thereto</i>;’<br /> <br />Opened, for Public Use, on Monday the 15th January, <b>1759</b>; and subsequently <span class='fss'>AUGMENTED</span>, from time to time, by numerous additional Collections; and, <span class='fss'>MORE PARTICULARLY</span>, by the following—</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c024'> </td> - - </tr> - <tr> - <th class='blt brt c022'>I. <span class='sc'>Cottonian Manuscripts, Coins, Medals, and other Antiquities.</span></th> - - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c024'> </td> - - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c024'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Sir Robert Cotton</b>, Baronet (born in the year 1570; died 6 May, 1631). <i>Given</i> to the Nation by <b>Sir John Cotton</b> in 1700. <i>Augmented</i> during the Collector’s lifetime by the gifts of <b>Arthur Agarde</b> (1615), <b>William Camden</b> (1623), <b>John Dee</b> (1608), <b>William Lambarde</b> (1601), and others; and, after his death, by the acquisitions of Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> and Sir John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, his descendants; and also by the Printed Library of <b>Major Arthur Edwards</b>, given in 1738.</td> - - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c024'> </td> - - </tr> - <tr> - <th class='blt brt c022'>II. <span class='sc'>Old ‘Royal Library.’</span></th> - - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c024'> </td> - - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c024'>Re-founded, or restored, by <b>Henry, Prince of Wales</b> (born in 1594; died 6 November, 1612). [See <span class='sc'>Class II</span>, § 1.]</td> - - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c024'> </td> - - </tr> - <tr> - <th class='blt brt c022'>III. <span class='sc'>Arundelian Manuscripts.</span></th> - - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c024'> </td> - - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c024'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel and of Norfolk</b>; Earl Marshal of England; K.G. (Born in 1586; succeeded as XXIII<sup>rd</sup> Earl of Arundel in 1603; died 4 October, 1646.) [See <span class='sc'>Class II</span>, § 33.]</td> - - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c024'> </td> - - </tr> - <tr> - <th class='blt brt c022'>IV. <span class='sc'>Thomason Tracts</span> (Printed and Manuscript). [See <span class='sc'>Class II</span>, § 3.]</th> - - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c024'> </td> - - </tr> - <tr> - <th class='blt brt c022'>V. <span class='sc'>Harleian Manuscripts.</span></th> - - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c024'> </td> - - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c024'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Robert Harley, Earl Of Oxford</b> (born in 1661; died 21 May, 1724). <i>Augmented</i> by incorporation, at various times, of the Collections, severally, or of considerable portions of the Collections of <b>Sir Humphrey Gilbert</b> (died 1584), <b>John Foxe</b> (1581), <b>Daniel Rogers</b> (1590), <b>John Stowe</b> (1605), <b>Sir Henry Savile</b> (1622), <b>Sampson Lennard</b> (1633), <b>Sir Henry Spelman</b> (1641), <b>Sir Symonds D’Ewes</b> (1650), <b>Sir James Ware</b> (1666), <b>William Sancroft</b>, Archbishop of Canterbury (1693), <b>Peter Séguier</b>, Chancellor of France (1696), <b>John Bagford</b> (1716); and others. [See <span class='sc'>Book I</span>, c. 5.]</td> - - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c024'> </td> - - </tr> - <tr> - <th class='blt brt c022'>VI. <span class='sc'>‘Sloane Museum’ of Natural History and of Antiquities; and Library of Manuscripts and Printed Books.</span></th> - - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c024'> </td> - - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='bbt blt brt c024'><i>Collected</i> by <b>William Courten</b> [known during part of his life as ‘William <span class='sc'>Charleton</span>’] (born in 1642; died 26 March, 1702); <i>continued</i> by <b>Sir Hans Sloane</b>, Baronet (born in 1660; died 11 January, 1752); <i>bequeathed</i>, by the Continuator, to the British Nation,—conditionally on the payment to his executors, by authority of Parliament, of the sum of £20,000,—in order that those his Collections—to use the words of his last Will—being things ‘tending many ways to the Manifestation of the Glory of God, the Confutation of Atheism and its consequences, the Use and Improvement of the Arts and Sciences, and benefit of Mankind, may remain together and not be separated, and that chiefly in or about the City of London, where they may by the great confluence of people be of most use.’... [See <span class='sc'>Book I</span>, c. 6.]</td> - - </tr> -</table> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span> - <h5 class='c019'><span class='sc'>Class II.</span>—<b>Primary Accession Collections.</b></h5> -</div> -<p class='c020'><b>1757–1831</b>:—</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(I)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1757.</b> Old ‘<span class='sc'>Royal Library</span>.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Epochs of Brit. Museum growth and increase.</span></div> - -<p class='c021'><i>Restored</i>, by <b>Henry, Prince of Wales</b>, in the -year 1609, by the purchase—and incorporation with the remnants -of an ancient collection—of the Library of <b>John de -Lumley, Lord Lumley</b> (Born <i>circa</i> 1530; Restored -in blood, as VIth Baron Lumley, in 1547: Died 1609); -<i>Continued</i> by <b>Charles I</b> and <b>Charles II</b>, <b>Kings of -England, &c.</b>, from 1627 to 1683; <i>Given</i> to the -Nation by <b>King George the Second</b> in 1757.</p> - -<p class='c025'>This <span class='sc'>Old Royal Library</span>, although, as above -mentioned, it still contains fragments of the more -ancient Collection of the Kings of England—and -among them books which undoubtedly belonged to -King <span class='sc'>Henry the Sixth</span>, if not to earlier Plantagenet -kings—may fairly be regarded as of Prince <span class='sc'>Henry</span>’s -foundation in the main. Lord <span class='sc'>Lumley</span>’s Library -(which the Prince bought in bulk) contained that of -his father-in-law, Henry <b>Fitzalan</b>, Earl of Arundel, -into which had passed a part of Archbishop <b>Cranmer’s</b> -Library. But this conjoined Collection has -not wholly passed to the British Museum. It suffered -some losses after Prince <span class='sc'>Henry</span>’s death. On the -other hand, it had acquired the collection of MSS. -formed by the <span class='sc'>Theyers</span> (John and Charles), in which -was included another part of the Library of <span class='sc'>Cranmer</span>; -as I shall shew hereafter.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book I</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span> - <h6 class='c019'>(II)</h6> -</div> - -<p class='c020'><b>1759.</b> <span class='sc'>Hebrew Library</span> (Printed and Manuscript) of -<span class='sc'>Da Costa</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Solomon Da Costa</b>, formerly of -Amsterdam, and chiefly between the years 1720 and 1727; -<i>Given</i> by the Collector, in 1759, to the Trustees of -the British Museum ‘for inspection and service of the -Public, as a small token of my esteem, reverence, love, and -gratitude to this magnanimous Nation, and as a thanksgiving -offering ... for numberless blessings which -I have enjoyed under it.’ (From <span class='sc'>Da Costa</span>’s Letter to the -Trustees.)</p> - -<p class='c025'>A collection, small in extent, but of great intrinsic -worth; and very memorable, both as the generous -gift of a good man; and as instancing the co-operation -(at the very outset) of the love of learning in a -foreigner—and a Jew—with a like love in Britons, for -a common object; national, indeed, but also much -more than national.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(III)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1762.</b> The <span class='sc'>Thomason Collection of English Books</span> -and <span class='sc'>Tracts</span>, Printed and Manuscript.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>George Thomason</b> (Died 1666); -<i>Purchased</i> by <b>King George the Third</b>, in 1762, -for presentation to the British Museum.</p> - -<p class='c025'>This Collection—the interest of which is specially -but by no means exclusively political and historical—was -formed between the years 1641 and 1663 inclusive, -and it contains everything printed in England -during the whole of that period which a man of great -<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>enterprise and energy could bring together by daily -watchfulness and large outlay. It also contains many -publications, and many private impressions, from -printing-presses in Scotland, Ireland, and the Continent -of Europe, relating to or illustrating the affairs -of the United Kingdom and of the Commonwealth. -In his lifetime, the Collector refused £4000 for his -library, as insufficient to reimburse his costs, charges, -and labour. His heirs and their assigns kept it for a -century and then sold it to King George III for £300. -It includes many political MSS., which no printer -dared to put to press.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(IV)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1766.</b> The <span class='sc'>Solander Fossils</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Daniel Charles Solander</b> (Died -16 May, 1782); Purchased by <b>Gustavus Brander</b> -and by him <i>presented</i> to the Museum (of which he was one -of the first Trustees) in 1766.</p> - -<p class='c025'>The ‘Solander Fossils’—so called from the name -of the eminent naturalist who found and described -them—formed the primary Collection on which by -gradual accessions the present magnificent collection -of fossils has been built up.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(V)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1766.</b> The <span class='sc'>Birch Library of Printed Books</span> and -<span class='sc'>Manuscripts</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Thomas Birch, D.D.</b>, a Trustee of -the British Museum (Died 1766), and <i>bequeathed</i> by the -Collector.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span> - <h6 class='c019'>(VI)</h6> -</div> - -<p class='c020'><b>1772.</b> The <span class='sc'>Hamilton Vases</span>, <span class='sc'>Antiquities</span>, and -<span class='sc'>Drawings</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Sir William Hamilton</b> (Died 6 -April, 1803); <i>Purchased</i> by Parliament from the Collector -in 1772 for £8400.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 2.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(VII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1790–1799.</b> The <span class='sc'>Musgrave Library</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Sir William Musgrave</b>, a Trustee -(Died 1799); <i>Acquired</i>, partly by gift in 1790; partly -by bequest in 1799.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 1.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(VIII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1799.</b> The <span class='sc'>Cracherode Library</span> and <span class='sc'>Museum</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by the Reverend <b>Clayton Mordaunt -Cracherode</b>, a Trustee of the British Museum (Died -1799), and <i>bequeathed</i> by the Collector.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(IX)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1799.</b> The <span class='sc'>Hatchett Minerals</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Charles Hatchett</b>, and <i>purchased</i> for -£700.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(X)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1802.</b> The <span class='sc'>Alexandrian Collection</span> of <span class='sc'>Egyptian -Antiquities</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by the <b>French Institute of Egypt</b> -in 1800; <i>Transferred</i> to the Crown of England by the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>terms of the Capitulation of Alexandria in 1801; <i>Given</i> to -the Museum in 1802 by <b>King George the Third</b>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 2.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XI)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1802.</b> The <span class='sc'>Tyssen Anglo-Saxon Coins</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Samuel Tyssen</b>; <i>Purchased</i> by the -Trustees (for £620).</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1805–1814.</b> The <span class='sc'>Townley Marbles</span>, <span class='sc'>Coins</span>, and -<span class='sc'>Drawings</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by the Townley Family, and chiefly by -<b>Charles Townley</b>, of Townley in Lancashire; and -acquired by Parliament, by successive <i>purchases</i>, in the -years 1805 and 1814, for the aggregate sum of £28,200.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 2.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XIII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1807.</b> The <span class='sc'>Lansdowne Manuscripts</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>William Petty Fitzmaurice</b>, -Marquess of Lansdowne (Died 1805), who <i>incorporated</i> in -it from time to time parts of the Libraries and Manuscript -Collections of <b>William Cecil, Lord Burghley</b> -(Died 1598); of <b>Sir Julius Cæsar</b> (Died 1636); of -<b>White Kennet</b>, Bishop of Peterborough (Died 1728); -of <b>John Strype</b> (Died 1737); of <b>Philip Carteret -Webb</b> (Died 1770); and of <b>James West</b> (Died -1772). <i>Purchased</i> by Parliament for the sum of £4925.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span> - <h6 class='c019'>(XIV)</h6> -</div> - -<p class='c020'><b>1810.</b> The <span class='sc'>Greville Minerals</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Charles Greville</b>. <i>Purchased</i> by -Parliament for the sum of £13,727.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 2.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XV)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1810.</b> The <span class='sc'>Roberts English Coins</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Edward Roberts</b>, of the Exchequer; -<i>Purchased</i> by Parliament for the sum of £4200.</p> - -<p class='c025'>This Collection extended from the Norman Conquest -to the reign of George the Third. It was purchased -for the Collector’s heir.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XVI)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1811.</b> The <span class='sc'>De Bosset Greek Coins</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Colonel De Bosset</b>. <i>Purchased</i> by -the Trustees for the sum of £800.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XVII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1813.</b> The <span class='sc'>Hargrave Library</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Francis Hargrave</b>. <i>Purchased</i> by -Parliament for the sum of £8000.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XVIII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1815.</b> The <span class='sc'>Phigaleian Marbles</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Discovered</i>, in 1812, amongst the ruins of Ictinus’ -Temple of Apollo ‘the Deliverer’ at Phigaleia, in Arcadia, -built about <span class='fss'>B.C.</span> 430. <i>Purchased</i> in 1815, for the sum of -£15,000.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 2.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span> - <h6 class='c019'>(XIX)</h6> -</div> - -<p class='c020'><b>1815.</b> The <span class='sc'>Von Moll Library</span> and <span class='sc'>Museum</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by the <b>Baron Von Moll</b> (Died ...). -<i>Purchased</i> (at Munich) for the sum of £4768 (including -the contingent expenses), out of the Fund bequeathed by -<b>Major Edwards</b>.</p> - -<p class='c025'>The Library of <span class='sc'>Baron Von Moll</span> comprised nearly -20,000 volumes, and a considerable Collection of -Portraits and other Prints. His Museum consisted -of an extensive Herbarium and a Collection of -Minerals. The purchase was completed in 1816.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XX)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1816.</b> The <span class='sc'>Beroldingen Fossils</span>.</p> - -<p class='c025'>Acquired by <i>purchase</i>; and the only considerable -acquisition, made in this department, between -<span class='sc'>Brander’s</span> gift of Fossils (gathered from the London -Clay) in 1766, and the purchase of <span class='sc'>Hawkins’</span> fine -Collection, in 1835.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXI)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1816.</b> The <span class='sc'>Elgin Marbles</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i>, under firman of the Ottoman Porte, between -the years 1801 and 1810—and chiefly in the years 1802 -and 1803—by <b>Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin</b> -(Died 14 October, 1841). <i>Purchased</i> by Parliament in -1816 for the sum of £35,000.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 2.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1816.</b> The <span class='sc'>Montagu Zoological Collections</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Colonel George Montagu</b> (Died -<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>20 June, 1815), and arranged, as a Museum of British -Zoology—and especially of Ornithology—at Knowle, in -Devonshire. <i>Purchased</i> at a cost of £1100.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXIII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1818.</b> The <span class='sc'>Burney Library</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Dr. Charles Burney</b> (Died 28 December, -1817). <i>Purchased</i> by a Parliamentary vote for -the sum of £13,500.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXIV)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1818.</b> <span class='sc'>Mrs. Banks’ Archæological Collections.</span></p> - -<p class='c021'>Collected by <b>Mrs. S. S. Banks</b>, and by <b>Lady -Banks</b>; comprising a valuable series of coins, medals, -prints, &c., and <i>presented</i> to the Museum by the Survivor.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXV)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1823–1825.</b> The <span class='sc'>King’s Library</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>King George the Third</b> (Died -1820); inherited by King George the Fourth, and by him -transferred, on terms, to the British Museum.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXVI)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1824.</b> The <span class='sc'>Payne-Knight Cabinets</span>, <span class='sc'>Library</span>, and -<span class='sc'>Museum</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Richard Payne Knight</b> (Died 24 -April, 1824), a Trustee; comprising Marbles, Bronzes, -Vases, Prints, Drawings, Coins, Medals, and Books. -<i>Bequeathed</i> by the Collector.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span> - <h6 class='c019'>(XXVII)</h6> -</div> - -<p class='c020'><b>1825.</b> The <span class='sc'>Persepolitan Marbles</span>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 2.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXVIII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1825.</b> The <span class='sc'>Oriental Collections</span> of <span class='sc'>Claudius James -Rich</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><b>Claudius Rich</b> was British Consul at Bagdad (Died -5 Oct., 1821). He made an extensive gathering of Persian, -Turkish, Syriac, and Arabic MSS., and of Coins, &c. -These were purchased by a Parliamentary vote.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXIX)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1825.</b> <span class='sc'>Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s Italian Library.</span></p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Given</i>, by the Collector, in 1825, and subsequently increased, -by another gift.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXX)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1827.</b> The <span class='sc'>Banksian Library</span>, <span class='sc'>Herbaria</span>, and -<span class='sc'>Museum</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Sir Joseph Banks</b>, P.R.S. (Died 19 -June, 1820), and a Trustee. <i>Bequeathed</i> by the Collector, -with a prior life interest, to <b>Robert Brown</b> (Died 1858); -and by him <i>transferred</i> to the British Museum in 1827.</p> - -<p class='c025'>Sir Joseph’s botanical Collections included the -Herbaria, severally, of <b>Cliffort</b>; of <b>Clayton</b> -(the basis of the ‘<i>Flora Virginica</i>’); of <b>John -Baptist Fusée d’Aublet</b> (Died 6 May, 1728); -of <b>Nicholas Joseph Jacquin</b>, author of the -‘<i>Floræ Austriacæ</i>’ (Died 24 October, 1817); and of -<b>Philip Miller</b>, author of ‘<i>The Gardener’s Dictionary</i>’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>(Died 18 December, 1771); with portions of -the Collections of <b>Tournefort</b>, <b>Hermann</b>, and -<b>Loureiro</b>.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXXI)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1829.</b> The <span class='sc'>Hartz-Mountains Minerals</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> at various periods and by several mineralogists. -This fine Cabinet was for a considerable period preserved -at Richmond. <i>Presented</i> by <b>King George the -Fourth</b>.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXXII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1829.</b> The <span class='sc'>Egerton Manuscripts</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Francis Henry Egerton, Earl of -Bridgewater</b> (Died 11 February, 1829). <i>Bequeathed</i> -by the Collector; together with a sum of £12,000, to be -invested, and the yearly income to be applied for further -purchases of MSS. from time to time; and with other -provision towards the salary of an ‘Egerton Librarian.’</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chapter 5.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXXIII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1831.</b> The <span class='sc'>Arundelian Manuscripts</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i>, between the years 1606 and 1646, by -<b>Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel</b>, &c. (Died -4 Oct., 1646); <i>Given</i> in 1681 by his eventual heir, <b>Henry -Howard</b>, Esquire (afterwards XIIth Duke of Norfolk—Died -in 1701), and at the request of John Evelyn, to -the Royal Society; <i>Transferred</i> by the Council of that -Society, in 1831,—partly by purchase, and partly by -exchange—to the Trustees of the British Museum. The -Collection includes the bulk of the Library of <b>Bilibald -Pirckheimer</b>, purchased at Nuremberg, by <span class='sc'>Lord -Arundel</span>, in 1636.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book I</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span> - <h5 class='c017'><i>COLLECTIONS OF PICTURES BELONGING TO THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, BUT DEPOSITED IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY.</i></h5> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXXIV)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1823.</b> The <span class='sc'>Beaumont Gallery</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Sir George Howland Beaumont</b> -(Died 7 February, 1827); <i>Given</i> by the Collector in 1823 -to the British Museum, on condition of its usufructuary -retention, during his lifetime. Deposited in the National -Gallery, under terms of arrangement, after the Collector’s -death.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXXV)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1830.</b> The <span class='sc'>Holwell-Carr Gallery</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by the Reverend <b>William Holwell -Carr</b> (Died 24 December, 1830), and by the Collector -<i>bequeathed</i> to the British Museum. <i>Deposited</i> under -arrangements similar to those adopted for the Beaumont -Pictures in the National Gallery.</p> - -<p class='c009'>These are the primary Accession-Collections that came -to the British Museum, during the first seventy years which -elapsed after its public opening (January, 1759). They -form a noble monument alike of the liberality and public -spirit of individual Englishmen, and of the fidelity of the -Trustees to the charge committed to them as a body. -And the reader will hardly have failed to notice how -remarkable a proportion of the most munificent of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>Benefactors of the institution were, previously to their gifts, -numbered amongst its Trustees.</p> - -<p class='c021'>If the liberality of Parliament failed to be elicited in due -correspondency—in respect either to the amount or the -frequency of its grants—to that of individuals, the failure -is rarely, if ever, ascribable to oversight or somnolency on -the part of the Trustees. If, during the lapse of those -seventy years, they obtained grants of public money which -amounted, in the aggregate, to but £151,762—little more, -on an average, than two thousand pounds a year—they -made not a few applications to which the Treasury, or the -House of Commons, refused to respond. Meanwhile, the -gifts of Benefactors probably much more than trebled the -public grants.</p> - -<p class='c021'>At the outset, the Museum was divided into three -‘Departments’ only: (1) <i>Manuscripts</i>; (2) <i>Printed Books</i>; -(3) <i>Natural History</i>.</p> - -<p class='c021'>The acquisition, in 1801, of the Alexandrian monuments, -was the first accession which gave prominence to the -‘Antiquities’—theretofore regarded as little more than a -curious appendage to the Natural History Collections. -Four years later came the Townley Marbles. It was then -obvious that a new Department ought to be made. This -change was effected in 1807. The Marbles and minor -Antiquities, together with the Prints, Drawings, Coins, and -Medals (formerly appended to the Departments of Printed -Books and of MSS.) were formed into a separate department. -Twenty years afterwards the ‘Botanical Department’ -was created, on the reception of the Banksian herbaria -and their appendant Collections. The division into five -departments continued down to the date of the Parliamentary -inquiry of 1835–36 [Book III, Chapter 1]. Soon -afterwards (1837), the immediate custody of the ‘Prints and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>Drawings’ was severed from that of the ‘Antiquities’ and -made a special charge. In like manner, the Department -of ‘Natural History’ was also (1837) subdivided; but in -this instance the one department became, eventually, three: -(1) Zoology; (2) Palæontology; (3) Mineralogy. The two -last-named divisions were first separated in 1857. How -the eight departments of 1860 have become <i>twelve</i> in 1869 -will be seen hereafter.</p> - -<p class='c021'>It will also, I think, become apparent that this subdivision -of Departments has contributed, in an important measure, -to the enlargement of the several Collections; as well as to -their better arrangement, and to other exigencies of the -public service.</p> - -<p class='c009'>We have now to enumerate the more salient and important -among the many successive acquisitions of the last forty -years. Taken collectively, they have so enlarged the proportions -of the national repository as to make the ‘British -Museum’ of 1831 seem, in the retrospect, as if, at that -time, it had been yet in its infancy.</p> - -<p class='c021'>In 1831 there were still living—here and there—a few -ancient Londoners whose personal recollections extended -over the whole period during which the Museum had existed. -One or two of them could, perhaps, still call to mind -something of the aspect which the gaily painted and decorated -rooms of old Montagu House presented when—as -children—they had been permitted to accompany some -fortunate possessor of a ticket of admission to ‘see the -curiosities;’ and were hurried by the Cerberus in charge -for the day from room to room; the Cerberus aforesaid -(unless his memory has been libelled) seeming to count the -minutes, if a visitor chanced to show the least desire for a -closer inspection of anything which caught his eye. And, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>in some points—although certainly not in that point—the -Museum of 1831 was not very greatly altered, much as it -had been enlarged, from the Museum of 1759. Cerberus -had long quitted his post; but many portions of the -Collections he had had in charge retained their wonted -aspect, much as he had left them.</p> - -<p class='c021'>Such octogenarian survivors—if endowed with a good -memory—would see, in their latest visits to Great Russell -Street much more to remind them of what they had seen -in the first, than a new visitor of 1831 could now see,—in -1869,—were he, in his turn, striving to recall the impressions -of <i>his</i> earliest visit.</p> - -<p class='c009'>The period now to be briefly outlined—in order to a fair -preliminary view of our subject—is marked, like that of -1759–1831, by continued munificence on the part of -private donors; but it is also marked—unlike that—by -some approach towards proportionate liberality from the -keepers of the public purse; as well as by energetic and -persistent efforts for internal improvement, on the part -both of Trustees and of Officers. It forms a quite new -epoch. It may be said, unexaggeratedly, to have witnessed -a re-foundation of the Museum, in almost everything that -bears on its direct utility to the public.</p> - -<p class='c021'>In regard to this last period, however—no less than in -regard to the foregoing one—only the more salient Collections -can here be enumerated. Many minor ones have -been passed over already, notwithstanding their intrinsic -value. Many others—equally meriting notice, were space -for it available—will have, in like manner, to be passed -over now.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span> - <h5 class='c019'><span class='sc'>Class III.</span>—<b>Recent Accession-Collections. 1833–1869.</b></h5> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXXVI)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1833.</b> The <span class='sc'>Borell Cabinet</span> of <span class='sc'>Greek</span> and <span class='sc'>Roman -Coins</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by the late <b>H. P. Borell</b>, of Smyrna. <i>Purchased</i> -by the Trustees for £1000.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXXVII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1834.</b> <span class='sc'>Sams’ Collection</span> of <span class='sc'>Egyptian Antiquities.</span></p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Joseph Sams</b>. <i>Purchased</i>, by a Parliamentary -grant, for £2500.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXXVIII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1834</b> (and subsequent years). The <span class='sc'>Hawkins Fossils</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Thomas Hawkins</b>, of Glastonbury. -<i>Purchased</i>, by successive grants of Parliament, in the -years 1834 and 1840.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XXXIX)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1835.</b> The <span class='sc'>Hardwicke Ornithological Museum</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Major-General Hardwicke</b>. <i>Bequeathed</i> by the Collector.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XL)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1835.</b> The <span class='sc'>Salt Museum</span> of <span class='sc'>Egyptian Antiquities</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Henry Salt</b>, British Consul at Alexandria -<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>(Died 30 October, 1827). <i>Purchased</i> (at various -times) by Parliamentary grants.</p> - -<p class='c025'>Of Mr. Salt’s successive Collections of Egyptian -antiquities the most valuable portions have come to -the Museum; chiefly in the years 1823 and 1835.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XLI)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1836.</b> The <span class='sc'>Marsden Cabinet</span> of <span class='sc'>Oriental Coins</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>William Marsden</b> (Died 6 October, -1836). <i>Bequeathed</i> by the Collector.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XLII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1836.</b> The <span class='sc'>Sheepshanks Collection</span> of <span class='sc'>Etchings, -Prints, &c.</span></p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>John Sheepshanks</b> (Died October, -1863); and <i>Given</i> by the Collector.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XLIII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1837–43.</b> The <span class='sc'>Canino Vases</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'>A selection from the superb Museum of the Prince of -<b>Canino</b> (Died 29 June, 1840); acquired by successive -purchases before and after the Collector’s death.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XLIV)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1839.</b> The <span class='sc'>Mantell Fossils</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Gideon Algernon Mantell</b> (Died -November 10, 1850). <i>Purchased</i> by a Parliamentary grant.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span> - <h6 class='c019'>(XLV)</h6> -</div> - -<p class='c020'><b>1841–1847.</b> <span class='sc'>Syriac Manuscripts</span> from the <span class='sc'>Nitrian -Monasteries</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by the Reverend <b>Henry Tattam</b> and by -<b>M. Pachot</b>. <i>Purchased</i> by the Trustees, by three successive -bargains, in the years 1841–1847.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XLVI)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1842.</b> The <span class='sc'>Harding Prints</span> and <span class='sc'>Drawings</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Purchased</i>, for the Trustees, by selection at the Collector’s -sale. The selection comprised 321 very choice -specimens of early German and Italian masters; and was -acquired for the sum of £2390.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XLVII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1843.</b> The <span class='sc'>Raphael Morghens Prints</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Purchased</i> by the Trustees, by a like selection, at a -public sale in 1843.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XLVIII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1845.</b> The <span class='sc'>Lycian</span> or <span class='sc'>Xanthian Marbles</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Discovered</i> by <b>Sir Charles Fellowes</b> (Died -1860) in the years 1842–1844. <i>Transferred</i> to the -Museum at the cost of the Trustees in 1845.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(XLIX)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1847.</b> The <span class='sc'>Grenville Library</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by the Right Hon. <b>Thomas Grenville</b> -(Died 17 December, 1846). <i>Bequeathed</i> by the Collector.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 2.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span> - <h6 class='c019'>(L)</h6> -</div> - -<p class='c020'><b>1847.</b> The <span class='sc'>Michael Hebrew Library</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>H. J. Michael</b>, of Hamburgh. <i>Purchased</i> -by the Trustees from his Executors.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LI)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1847.</b> <span class='sc'>John Robert Morrison’s Chinese Library.</span></p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>J. R. Morrison</b> (son of the eminent -Christian Missionary and Lexicographer—Died 1843). -<i>Purchased</i> from his Executors by a Parliamentary grant.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1848.</b> The <span class='sc'>Croizet Fossil-Mammals</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>M. Croizet</b> in Auvergne. <i>Purchased</i> by -the Trustees.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LIII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1851–1860.</b> The <span class='sc'>Assyrian Antiquities</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'>Partly <i>discovered</i> by <b>Austen Henry Layard</b>. -Excavated at the public charge, and under the joint direction -of the Trustees of the British Museum and of the Secretary -of State for Foreign Affairs, in 1851 and subsequent years -by the Discoverer, and by <b>H. Rassam</b>, and <b>W. K. -Loftus</b>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span> - <h6 class='c019'>(LIV)</h6> -</div> - -<p class='c020'><b>1853.</b> The <span class='sc'>Gell Drawings</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Drawn</i> and <i>Collected</i> by <b>Sir William Gell</b> (Died -4 February, 1836). <i>Bequeathed</i> by the Honorable -<b>Keppel Craven</b> (Died 1853).</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LV)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1853.</b> The <span class='sc'>Stephens Cabinet</span> of <span class='sc'>British Entomology</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>James Francis Stephens</b> (Died -22 December, 1852). <i>Purchased</i> by the Trustees.</p> - -<p class='c025'>Although this Collection contained about 88,000 -specimens, it cost the Trustees only £400.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LVI)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1854.</b> The <span class='sc'>Des-Hayes Tertiary Fossils</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i>, in France, by <b>M. Des Hayes</b>. <i>Purchased</i> -by the Trustees.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LVII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1855–1860.</b> The <span class='sc'>Halicarnassian</span> and <span class='sc'>Cnidian -Marbles</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Discovered</i> and excavated by <b>C. T. Newton</b> (then -Vice-Consul at Mitylene) and other Explorers (earlier and -later). In part <i>Presented</i> by <b>Lord Canning</b> of -Redcliffe (then Ambassador at Constantinople); and in -part excavated and transported by the Trustees, with the -aid of Parliamentary grants made in 1855 and subsequent -years.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span> - <h6 class='c019'>(LVIII)</h6> -</div> - -<p class='c020'><b>1856.</b> The <span class='sc'>Temple Museum</span> of <span class='sc'>Italo-Greek</span> and -<span class='sc'>Roman Antiquities</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Sir William Temple</b> (Died 1856) -during his Embassy at Naples. <i>Bequeathed</i> by the Collector.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LIX)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1857.</b> The <span class='sc'>Cautley Fossils</span> from the Himalayas.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Major Cautley</b>, during his service in -India. <i>Purchased</i> by the Trustees.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LX)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1858.</b> The <span class='sc'>Bruchmann Fossil Plants</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Bruchmann</b> at and near Œningen. -<i>Purchased</i> by the Trustees.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXI)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1859.</b> The <span class='sc'>Carthaginian Antiquities</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Discovered</i>,—and excavated (partly at the cost of the -Trustees),—by <b>Nathan Davis</b> and others, during the -year 1856 and subsequent years. The Davis Collection -includes a series of Phœnician Inscriptions, some of which -are of great antiquity. <i>Purchased</i> from the Collector.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span> - <h6 class='c019'>(LXII)</h6> -</div> - -<p class='c020'><b>1860.</b> The <span class='sc'>Allan-Greg Cabinet</span> of <span class='sc'>Minerals</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i>, mainly, by <b>R. H. Greg</b>, of Manchester. -<i>Purchased</i> by the Trustees.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXIII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1860.</b> The <span class='sc'>Gardner Herbarium</span> of <span class='sc'>Brazil</span>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXIV)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1860.</b> The <span class='sc'>Cyrene Marbles</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Discovered</i>, and excavated by Lieutenants <b>R. M. -Smith</b> and <b>Porcher</b>, under firmans from Constantinople, -and at the charge of the Trustees, in 1860 and -subsequent years.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See also No. <span class='fss'>LXVI</span> under the year ‘1863,’ and</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c021'><span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 3.]</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXV)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1862.</b> The <span class='sc'>Haeberlein Fossils</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Haeberlein</b>. Brought from Solenhofen; -and <i>Purchased</i> by the Trustees.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXVI)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1863.</b> The <span class='sc'>Sicilian Antiquities</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Discovered</i> and excavated by <b>George Dennis</b> (Her -Majesty’s Consul at Benghazi), under direction from the -Foreign Office, in 1862 and subsequent years. <i>Presented</i> -by <b>Earl Russell</b>.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span> - <h6 class='c019'>(LXVII)</h6> -</div> - -<p class='c020'><b>1863.</b> The <span class='sc'>Bowring Collection</span> of <span class='sc'>Foreign Insects</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>John Bowring</b>. <i>Presented</i> by the -Collector.</p> - -<p class='c025'>The Collector obtained a large portion of this -fine Cabinet of Entomology during his own travels -in India, Java, and China. It consists chiefly of -Coleopterous insects.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXVIII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1864.</b> The <span class='sc'>Wigan Cabinet</span> of <span class='sc'>Coins</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> and <i>Presented</i> by <b>Edward Wigan</b>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXIX)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1864.</b> The <span class='sc'>Rhodian Marbles</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Excavated</i>, at the charge of the Trustees, by <b>MM. -Salzmann</b> and <b>Biliotti</b>, in 1863 and subsequent -years.</p> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXX)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1864.</b> The <span class='sc'>Cureton Oriental Manuscripts</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by the late <b>William Cureton, D.D.</b> -(Died 17 June, 1864). <i>Purchased</i> by the Trustees from his -Executors.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXXI)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1864.</b> The <span class='sc'>Wright Herbarium</span> of <span class='sc'>Cuba</span> and <span class='sc'>New -Mexico</span>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span> - <h6 class='c019'>(LXXII)</h6> -</div> - -<p class='c020'><b>1864.</b> The <span class='sc'>Tristram Cabinet</span> of the <span class='sc'>Zoology</span> of the -<span class='sc'>Holy Land</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by the Reverend <b>H. B. Tristram, M.A.</b> -<i>Presented</i> by the Collector.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXXIII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1865.</b> The <span class='sc'>Hebrew Library</span> of <span class='sc'>Almanzi</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'>This valuable series of Hebrew Manuscripts, &c. was -<i>collected</i> by the late <b>Joseph Almanzi</b>, of Padua; and -was <i>purchased</i> by the Trustees of his Executors.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXXIV)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1865.</b> The <span class='sc'>Erskine Oriental Manuscripts</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>William Erskine</b>, during his residence -in India. <i>Purchased</i> by the Trustees.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXXV)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1865.</b> The <span class='sc'>Malcolm Persian Manuscripts</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Sir John Malcolm</b> (Died 31 May, -1833) during his Embassy to Persia. <i>Purchased</i> by the -Trustees.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXXVI)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1865.</b> The <span class='sc'>Kokscharow Minerals</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Colonel de Kokscharow</b>. <i>Purchased</i> -by the Trustees.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span> - <h6 class='c019'>(LXXVII)</h6> -</div> - -<p class='c020'><b>1865.</b> The <span class='sc'>Ephesian Marbles</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'>Excavated, at the charge of the Trustees, by Vice-Consul -<b>Wood</b>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 3.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXXVIII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1865.</b> The <span class='sc'>Christy Pre-Historic</span> and <span class='sc'>Ethnological -Museum</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> and <i>Bequeathed</i> by <b>Henry Christy</b> (Died -4 May, 1865).</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXXIX)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1865.</b> The <span class='sc'>Bank</span> of <span class='sc'>England Cabinet</span> of <span class='sc'>Coins</span> and -<span class='sc'>Medals</span>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 1.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXXX)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1865.</b> <span class='sc'>Witt’s Ethnic Museum.</span></p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> and <i>Presented</i> by <b>Henry Witt</b>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXXXI)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1866.</b> The <span class='sc'>Blacas Museum</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by the <b>Dukes of Blacas</b> (The elder Collector -died in 1839; the younger, in 1865). <i>Purchased</i>, -by the Trustees, of the heirs of the Survivor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span> - <h6 class='c019'>(LXXXII)</h6> -</div> - -<p class='c020'><b>1866.</b> The <span class='sc'>Woodhouse Museum</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>James Woodhouse</b>, Her Majesty’s -Treasurer at Corfu (Died February, 1866). <i>Bequeathed</i> by -the Collector.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXXXIII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1866.</b> The <span class='sc'>Cuming Conchological Collection</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Hugh Cuming</b> (Died 1866). Acquired -by the Trustees in 1866, partly by gift, and partly by -purchase, under the directions of the Collector’s Will.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXXXIV)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1867.</b> The <span class='sc'>Hawkins Collection of English Political -and Historical Prints</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Edward Hawkins</b> (Died 1867). -<i>Purchased</i> by the Trustees.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 1.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXXXV)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1868.</b> The <span class='sc'>Abyssinian Antiquities</span> and <span class='sc'>Manuscripts</span>.</p> - -<p class='c025'>Acquired by the Trustees during and after the -Abyssinian War; partly by gift from the British -Government, and partly by the researches of the -Representative of the Trustees in the British Camp. -Another and a very valuable portion of the Abyssinian -Manuscripts came to the India Office, by the gift of -<b>Lord Napier</b> of Magdala; and by the Secretary -of State for India was given to the British Museum.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span> - <h6 class='c019'>(LXXXVI)</h6> -</div> - -<p class='c020'><b>1868.</b> The <span class='sc'>Slade Archæological Collection</span>.</p> - -<p class='c021'><i>Collected</i> by <b>Felix Slade</b> (Died 1868). <i>Bequeathed</i> -by the Collector.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h6 class='c019'>(LXXXVII)</h6> - -<p class='c020'><b>1869.</b> The <span class='sc'>Hays Collection</span> of <span class='sc'>Egyptian Antiquities</span>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[See <span class='sc'>Book III</span>, Chapter 4.]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c009'>As I have had occasion to observe in a former paragraph, -the preceding list is, of necessity, an abridged list. It is -by no means a complete or exhaustive one. The prescribed -bounds—those of a single volume for a very wide and -multifarious subject—compel the writer to treat his subject -by way of selection. The reader is solicited to keep that -fact in mind; as well for its bearing on the chapters which -follow, as on the introductory chapter now under his eye. -And in regard both to this brief enumeration of the successive -component parts of the Museum, and to the biographical -notices of which it is the preliminary, the cautionary -remark here repeated applies to <i>every</i> Department of the -national repository. It holds good of the Natural History -Collections, and of the Collections of Antiquities, no less -than of the Collections of Printed Books and of Manuscripts.</p> - -<p class='c021'>Among the many minor, but intrinsically important, -Collections thus—compulsorily—passed over, in the present -volume, are some of which brief notices have been given -(by the same hand) in a preceding work, published in -1869. Those ‘Notices,’ however, relate exclusively to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>collectors and collections of Printed Books, of Engravings, -of Drawings, and of Manuscripts. Thus,—to give but a few -examples,—important collections, now forming part of the -British Museum, and gathered originally by <b>Thomas -Rymer</b> (1713); <b>Thomas Madox</b> (1733); <b>Brownlow -Cecil, Earl of Exeter</b> (1739); <b>David -Garrick</b> (1779); <b>Peter Lewis Ginguene</b> -(1816); the <b>Abate Canonici</b> (<i>circa</i>, 1818); <b>John -Fowler Hull</b> (1825); <b>Frederick North</b>, sixth -<b>Earl of Guildford</b> (1826); <b>Count Joseph de -Puisaye</b> (1827); the <b>Marquess Wellesley</b> -(1842); <b>D. E. Davy</b> (<i>circa</i> 1850),—are all noticed in an -Appendix headed ‘Historical Notices of Collectors’ to the -volume entitled ‘<i>Free Town Libraries</i>’ published in 1869. -Of that Appendix the notices above referred to form, respectively, -Nos. ‘848’ (<i>Rymer</i>); ‘570’ (<i>Madox</i>); ‘186’ -(<i>Cecil</i>); ‘351’ (<i>Garrick</i>); ‘372’ (<i>Ginguene</i>); ‘165’ -(<i>Canonici</i>); ‘462’ (<i>Hull</i>); ‘683’ (<i>North</i>); ‘781’ (<i>Puisaye</i>); -‘1049’ (<i>Wellesley</i>); and ‘249’ (<i>Davy</i>).</p> - -<p class='c009'>The existing constitution of the Board of Trustees of the -British Museum has been on many occasions, and by -several writers, somewhat freely impugned. More than -once it has been the subject of criticism in the House of -Commons. With little alteration that Board remains, in -1869, what Parliament made it in 1753. Obviously, it -might be quite possible to frame a new governing Corporation, -in a fashion more accordant with what are sometimes -called the ‘progressive tendencies’ of the period.</p> - -<p class='c021'>But I venture to think that the bare enumeration of the -facts which have now been briefly tabulated, in this -introductory chapter, gives a proof of faithful and zealous -administration of a great trust, such as cannot be gainsaid -<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>by any the most ardent lover of innovation. Both the -Collections given, and the Collections purchased, afford -conclusive and splendid proofs that the Trustees and the -Officers have alike won the confidence and merited the -gratitude of those whose acquirements and pursuits in life -have best qualified them to give a verdict on the implied -issue.</p> - -<p class='c009'>If, of late years, the public purse has been opened with -somewhat more of an approach to harmony with the openhandedness -of private Englishmen, that result is wholly due -to unremitting effort on the part both of the Trustees who -govern, and of the Officers who administer, or have administered, -the British Museum. And, to attain their end, -both Trustees and Officers have, very often, had to fight -hard, as the later chapters of this volume will more than -sufficiently show.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span> - <div class='section'><h4 class='c017'>CHAPTER II.<br /> <span class='large'><b>THE FOUNDER OF THE COTTONIAN LIBRARY.</b></span></h4></div> -</div> -<p class='c026'>‘<span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Est in hac urbe nobilis Eques, homo pereruditus rerum -vetustarum et omnis historiæ, sive priscæ, sive recentis, -studiossisimus, qui ex ipsis monumentis publicis et epistolis -duarum reginarum Angliæ et Scotiæ veram eorum quæ gesta -sunt, historiam didicit, et jam regis jussu eandem componit, -digeritque in ordinem.</span>’</p> - -<div class='lg-container-r c027'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Casaubon</span> to <span class='sc'>De Thou</span> (London, 5 Kal. Mart., 1611). <i>Epistolæ</i>, 373.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c028'><i>The Personal and Public Life of Sir Robert</i> <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>.—<i>His -Political Writings and Political Persecutions.—Sources -and Growth of the Cottonian Library.—The -Successors of Sir Robert</i> <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>.—<i>History of the -Cottonian Library, until its union with the -Library of Harley, and with the Museum and Miscellaneous -Collections of</i> <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>.—<i>Review of some recent -Aspersions on the Character of the Founder.</i></p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Book I</span>, Chap. II. <span class='sc'>Life of Sir Robert Cotton.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was the eldest son of Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> -of Conington and of Elizabeth <span class='sc'>Shirley</span>, daughter of Francis -<span class='sc'>Shirley</span> of Staunton-Harold in Leicestershire. He was -born on the 22nd of January, 1570, at Denton, in the -county of Huntingdon. Denton was a sort of jointure-house -attached to that ancient family seat of Conington, -which had come into the possession of the Cottons, about -the middle of the preceding century, by the marriage of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>William <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> with Mary <span class='sc'>Wesenham</span>, daughter and -heir of Robert <span class='sc'>Wesenham</span>, who had acquired Conington -by his marriage with Agnes <span class='sc'>Bruce</span>.<a id='r1'></a><a href='#f1' class='c030'><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Parentage and Ancestry of Sir Robert Cotton.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The Cottons of Conington were an offshoot of the old -Cheshire stock. They held a good local position in right -of their manorial possessions both in Huntingdonshire and -in Cambridgeshire, but they had not, as yet, won distinction -by any very conspicuous public service. Genealogically, -their descent, through Mary <span class='sc'>Wesenham</span>, from Robert -<span class='sc'>Bruce</span>, was their chief boast. Sir Robert was to become, -as he grew to manhood, especially proud of it. He rarely -missed an opportunity of commemorating the fact, and -sometimes seized occasions for recording it, heraldically, -after a fashion which has put stumbling-blocks in the way -of later antiquaries. But the weakness has about it -nothing of meanness. It is not an unpardonable failing. -And with the specially antiquarian virtues it is not less closely -allied than with love of country. In days of court favour, -<span class='sc'>James the First</span> was wont to please Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> -by calling him cousin. Sir Robert’s descendants became, -in their turn, proud of his personal celebrity, but they too -were, at all times, as careful to celebrate, upon the family -monuments, their Bruce descent, as to claim a share in the -literary glories of the ‘Cottonian Library.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>This cousinship with King James—and also a matter -which to Sir Robert was much more important, the descent -to the Cottons of the rich Lordship of Conington with its -appendant manors and members—will be seen, at a glance, -by the following—</p> - -<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span></div> -<div class='mono x-ebookmaker-drop'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c031'> - <div>+---------------------------------------------------------------------+</div> - <div>| PEDIGREE OF COTTON, OF CONINGTON. |</div> - <div>| |</div> - <div>| EDMUND, called <i>Ironside</i>,----King of England. |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| Edward = Agatha, Daughter of the Emperor Henry III. |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| +-----------------+ |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| <span class='sc'>Malcolm</span>, = Margaret (Saint). |</div> - <div>| Cean-mohr, King of Scotland.| |</div> - <div>| +------------------+ |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| <span class='sc'>David</span>, King of Scotland = Maud,<a id='r2'></a><a href='#f2' class='c030'><sup>[2]</sup></a> daughter, and heir |</div> - <div>| | of Waltheof, Earl |</div> - <div>| | of Huntingdon. |</div> - <div>| +---------------+ |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| Henry, = Ada, daughter of the William de <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> |</div> - <div>| Prince of Scotland. | Earl of Warren. (of Cotton, in Cheshire).|</div> - <div>| +----+ | |</div> - <div>| | | |</div> - <div>| David, = Margaret, daughter | |</div> - <div>| Earl of Huntingdon and Angus, | and heir of Ralph, | |</div> - <div>| Lord of Conington. | Earl of Chester. | |</div> - <div>| | | |</div> - <div>| +-------+ | |</div> - <div>| | | |</div> - <div>| Robert <span class='sc'>Bruce</span>, = Isabel, heiress of | |</div> - <div>| Lord of Conington | Conington. William de <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> |</div> - <div>| (<i>jure uxoris</i>). | (of Hampstall-Ridware |</div> - <div>| +-----------+-------------+ in Staffordshire). |</div> - <div>| | | | |</div> - <div>| Robert <span class='sc'>Bruce</span>, Sir Bernard de <span class='sc'>Bruce</span>, [*] |</div> - <div>| Earl of Carrick, Lord of Conington |</div> - <div>| Competitor for the [‘by the gift of his Mother, |</div> - <div>| Crown of Scotland. 37 Henry III,<a id='r3'></a><a href='#f3' class='c030'><sup>[3]</sup></a>-<i>Sir R.</i> |</div> - <div>| | <i>Cotton’s Note in MS.</i> Harl.] |</div> - <div>| +-------+ |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| <span class='sc'>Robert</span>, = .... |</div> - <div>| King of Scotland. | |</div> - <div>| +-----------+-----+ |</div> - <div>| | | |</div> - <div>| <span class='sc'>David</span>, Marjory <span class='sc'>Bruce</span> = Walter <span class='sc'>Stuart</span>. |</div> - <div>| King of Scotland. | |</div> - <div>| +------------------+ |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| <span class='sc'>Robert</span> (Stuart) II, |</div> - <div>| King of Scotland. |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| <span class='sc'>James I</span>, King of Scotland. |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| <span class='sc'>James VI</span>, of Scotland, |</div> - <div>| and I, of Britain. |</div> - <div>+---------------------------------------------------------------------+</div> - <div>| Sir Bernard de <span class='sc'>Bruce</span>, |</div> - <div>| Lord of Conington. |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| Sir John de <span class='sc'>Bruce</span>, = Margaret Beauchamp. |</div> - <div>| Lord of Conington. | |</div> - <div>| +---------------+----------+ |</div> - <div>| | | |</div> - <div>| Agnes <span class='sc'>Bruce</span>, = Sir Hugh de Joan <span class='sc'>Bruce</span> = Sir Nicholas |</div> - <div>| eldest daughter | <span class='sc'>Wesenham</span>. 2nd daughter | Greene. |</div> - <div>| and co-heir. | and co-heir. | |</div> - <div>| | +------------+ |</div> - <div>| +-+--------------------+ | |</div> - <div>| | | | |</div> - <div>| Thomas <span class='sc'>Wesenham</span> Robert <span class='sc'>Wesenham</span> <i>a quo</i> |</div> - <div>| (d. 39 Hen. VI, (died 17 Edw. IV). Culpeper |</div> - <div>| without issue). | and |</div> - <div>| +-------+ Harington. |</div> - <div>| [*] | |</div> - <div>| | | |</div> - <div>| William de <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> (2nd son = Mary <span class='sc'>Wesenham</span> |</div> - <div>| of Richard de <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>), | (heir of Conington). |</div> - <div>| (of Hampstall Ridware) | |</div> - <div>| slain at the Battle of | |</div> - <div>| St. Albans, 33 H. VI. | |</div> - <div>| +-------------+ |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, = Eleanor Knightley. |</div> - <div>| (Lord of Conington). | |</div> - <div>| +-------+ |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> = Jane Paris. |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| +-----+ |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> = Lucy Harney. |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| +-----+ |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> = Elizabeth Shirley. |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| +-----+ |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| <span class='sc'>Sir ROBERT (BRUCE) COTTON</span>, |</div> - <div>| Knight and Bart., Lord of Conington, &c., and |</div> - <div>| <span class='sc'>Founder of the Cottonian Library</span> (Born |</div> - <div>| 1570; Died 6 May, 1631).<a href='#f3' class='c030'><sup>[3]</sup></a> |</div> - <div>+---------------------------------------------------------------------+</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='hide'> - -<div class='figcenter id002'> -<img src='images/i_067.png' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c032'>[From the <span class='sc'>Cotton Roll XIV</span>, 6 [by <span class='sc'>Segar, -Camden</span>, and <span class='sc'>St. George</span>]; compared -with MS. Hark 807, fol. 95, and with MS. -<span class='sc'>Lansd.</span>, 863, containing the heraldic Collections -of <span class='sc'>R. St. George</span>, Norroy, Vol. III, fol. 82 verso.]</p> - -<p class='c032'>[For the continuation of the <span class='sc'>Cotton Pedigree</span>, -showing (1) the descent from Sir Robert of -the subsequent possessors of the <span class='sc'>Cottonian -Library</span>, up to the date of the gift to the -Nation made by Sir John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, and (2) -the relationship of the Cottonian Trustees of -the British Museum, see the concluding -pages of the present Chapter.]</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was educated at Trinity College in Cambridge, -where he took the degree of B.A. towards the close -of 1585.<a id='r4'></a><a href='#f4' class='c030'><sup>[4]</sup></a> Of his collegiate career very little is discoverable, -save that it was an eminently studious one. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Cotton’s Early Friendships.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Long -before he left Trinity, he had given unmistakeable proofs of -his love for archæology. Some among the many conspicuous -and lifelong friendships which he formed with men -likeminded took their beginnings at Cambridge, but most -of them were formed during his periodical and frequent -sojourns in London. John <span class='sc'>Josceline</span>, William <span class='sc'>Dethick</span>, -Lawrence <span class='sc'>Nowell</span>, William <span class='sc'>Lambarde</span>, and William -<span class='sc'>Camden</span> were amongst his earliest and closest friends. -Most of them were much his seniors. Whilst still in the -heyday of youth he married Elizabeth <span class='sc'>Brocas</span>, daughter and -eventually coheir of William <span class='sc'>Brocas</span> of Thedingworth in -Leicestershire. Soon after his marriage he took a leading -part in the establishment of the first Society of Antiquaries. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>Some of <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> fellow-workers in the Society are known -to all of us by their surviving writings. Others of them -are now almost forgotten, though not less deserving, -perhaps, of honourable memory; for amongst these latter -was—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>‘that good Earl, once President</div> - <div class='line'>Of England’s Council and her Treasury;</div> - <div class='line'>Who liv’d in both unstain’d with gold or fee,’</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c034'>at a time when such praise could seldom be given -truthfully. It was as a contributor towards the common -labours of that Society that <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> made his earliest -appearance as an author. The subjects chosen for his discourses -at the periodical meetings of the Elizabethan antiquarians -indicate the prevalent bias of his mind. Nearly -all of them may be said to belong to our political -archæology.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Growth of the Cottonian Library and Gallery.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Before the close of the sixteenth century, his collections -of Manuscripts and of Antiquities had already become so -large and important as to win for him a wide reputation -in foreign countries, as well as at home. His correspondence -indicates, even at that early period, a generous -recognition of the brotherhood of literature, the world -over, and proves the ready courtesy with which he had -learned to bear somewhat more than his fair share of the -obligations thence arising. In later days he was wont to -say to his intimates: ‘I, myself, have the smallest share in -myself.’ From youth, onwards, there is abundant evidence -that the saying expressed, unboastingly, the simple facts of -his daily life.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Friendship with Camden.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Camden</span> was amongst the earliest of those intimates, -and to the dying day of the author of the <i>Britannia</i> the -close friendship which united him with <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was both -unbroken and undiminished. The former was still in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>full vigour of life when <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> had given proof of his -worthiness to be a fellow-labourer in the field of English -antiquities. In 1599 they went, in company, over the -northern counties; explored together many an old abbey -and many a famous battle-field. When that tour was -made, the evidences of the ruthless barbarism with which -the mandates of <span class='sc'>Henry the Eighth</span> had been carried out -by his agents lay still thick upon the ground, and may well -have had their influence in modifying some of the religious -views and feelings of such tourists. Not a few chapters of -the <i>Britannia</i> embody the researches of <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> as well as -those of <span class='sc'>Camden</span>; and the elder author was ever ready to -acknowledge his deep sense of obligation to his younger -colleague. For both of them, at this time, and in subsequent -years, the storied past was more full of interest -than the politics, howsoever momentous or exciting, of -the day. But, occasionally, they corresponded on questions -of policy as well as of history. There is evidence that on -one stirring subject, about which men’s views were much -wont to run to extremes, they agreed in advocating moderate -courses. In the closing years of the Queen, <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, -as well as <span class='sc'>Camden</span>, recognised the necessity that the -Government should hold a firm hand over the emissaries -of the Church and Court of Rome, whilst refusing to admit -that a due repression of hostile intrigues was inconsistent -with the honourable treatment of conscientious and peaceful -Romanists.</p> - -<p class='c029'>It was, in all probability, almost immediately after -<span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> return from the Archæological tour to the North -which he had made with his early friend, that he received -a message from the Queen. <span class='sc'>Elizabeth</span> had been told of -his growing fame for possessing an acquaintance with the -mustiest of records, and an ability ‘to vouch precedents’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>such as few students, even of much riper years, had -attained to. He was now to be acquainted with a dispute -about national precedency which had arisen at Calais -between Sir Henry <span class='sc'>Neville</span> and the Ambassador of -Spain. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Tractate on English precedency over Spain.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It was Her Majesty’s wish that he should search -the records which bore upon the question, and send her -such a report as might strengthen <span class='sc'>Neville’s</span> hands in his -contest for the honour of England.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Such a task could not fail to be a welcome one; and -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span> found no lack of pertinent evidence. The bent -and habit of his mind were always methodical. He begins -his abstract of the records by tabulating his argument. -Precedency, he says, must have respect either to the nation -or to the ruler of the nation. A kingdom must rank either -(1) according to its antiquity, or (2) according to ‘the -eminency of the throne royal,’ by which phrase he means -the complete unity of the dominion under one supreme -ruler. On the first title to precedency he observes that it -may be based either upon the date of national independence, -or upon that of the national recognition of Christianity. He -claims for England that it was a monarchy at least four -hundred and sixty years before Castile became one; that -Christianity had then been established in it, without break -or interruption, for a thousand years; -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Cottoni Posthuma</i>, pp. 76, 77.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -whereas in Spain -Christianity was ‘defaced with Moorish Mahumetisme,’ -until the expulsion of the Moors by <span class='sc'>Ferdinand</span>, little more -than a century before the time at which he was writing.</p> - -<p class='c029'>His assertion of the greater ‘eminency of the throne -royal’ in England than in Spain is mainly founded on the -union in the English sovereignty alone of supreme ecclesiastical -with supreme civil power; and on the lineal descent -of the then sovereign ‘from Christian princes for 800 -years,’ whereas the descent of the Kings of Spain ‘is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>chiefly from the Earls of Castilia, about 500 years since,’ -and the then King of Spain was ‘yet in the infancy of his -kingdom.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Two minor and ancillary arguments in this tract are -also notable: The Spanish throne, says <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, hath not, -as hath the English and French, ‘that virtue to endow the -king therein invested with the power to heal the king’s -evil; for into France do yearly come multitudes of Spaniards -to be healed thereof.’ And he further alleges that ‘absolute -power of the King of England, which in other kingdoms -is much restrained.’ The time was to come when -the close friend and fellow-combatant of <span class='sc'>Eliot</span> and the -other framers of the great ‘Petition of Right’ would rank -himself with the foremost in ‘much restraining’ the kingly -power in England, and would discover ample warrant in -ancient precedents for every step of the process. But, as -yet, that time was afar off.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'>MS. Cott. Vesp. C. xiii, ff. 158; 160, seqq. (B. M.)</div> - -<p class='c029'>Immediately on the accession of King <span class='sc'>James</span>, Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span> greeted the new monarch with two other and far -more remarkable tractates on a subject bearing closely on -our relations with Spain. Their political interest, as contributions -to the history of public opinion, is great. Their -biographical interest is still greater. But I postpone the -consideration of them until we reach a momentous crisis in -Sir Robert’s life on which they have a vital bearing. He -also wrote,—almost simultaneously,—a much more courtierlike -‘<i>Discourse of his Majesty’s descent from the Saxon -Kings</i>,’ which was graciously welcomed. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Domestic Correspondence</i>, James I, vol. i, f. 3 (R. H.).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In the following -September he received the honour of knighthood. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Returned to Parliament.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In -<span class='sc'>James’</span> first Parliament he sat for the County of Huntingdon, -in fellowship with Sir Oliver <span class='sc'>Cromwell</span>, uncle of the -future Protector. There is no evidence that at this period -<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>he took any active part in debate. Nor did he, at any -time, win distinction as a debater. But in the labours of -Committees he was soon both zealous and prominent. -Two classes of questions, in particular, appear to have -engaged his attention:—questions of Church discipline, -and questions of administrative reform. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Dom. Cor.</i> as above; vol. xix, pp. 37 seqq.; vol. xxvii, pp. 44 seqq. (R. H.); MS. Cott. Jul. C., iii, p. 10. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He also assisted -Bacon in the difficult attempt to frame acceptable measures -for a union with Scotland.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The fame of his library and of his museum of antiquities -continued to spread farther and wider. He had many -agents on the Continent who sought diligently to augment -his collections. His correspondence with men who were -busied in like pursuits both at home and abroad increased. -Much of it has survived. On that interesting point at -which a glance has been cast already, its witness is uniform. -He was always as ready to impart as he was eager to -collect. Few, if any, important works of historical research -were carried on in his day to which he did not, in some -way or other, give generous furtherance. At a time when -he was most busy in forming his own library, he helped -<span class='sc'>Bodley</span> to lay the foundation of the noble library at -Oxford.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Further Growth and Sources of the Cottonian Library.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Readers who can call to mind even mere fragments of -that superabundant evidence which tells of the neglect -throughout much of the Tudor period of the public archives -of the realm, can feel little surprise that Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> -should have been able to collect a multitude of documents -which had once been the property of the nation, or of the -sovereign. Those who are most familiar with that evidence -ought to be the first to remember that, under the known -circumstances of the time, the presumption of honest -acquisition is stronger than that of dishonest, whenever -conclusive proof of either is absent. English State Papers -<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>had passed into the possession not only of English antiquarians, -but of English booksellers—and not a few of them -into that of foreigners—before <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was born. Other -considerations bearing on this matter, and tending as it -seems in a like direction, belong to a later period of Sir -Robert’s life. There is, however, a very weighty one which -stands at the threshold of his career as a collector.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Almost the earliest incident which is recorded of <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> -youthful days, is his concurrence in a petition in -which Queen <span class='sc'>Elizabeth</span> was entreated to establish a Public -and National Library, and to honour it with her own name. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Attempt of Cotton and Camden to Establish a National Library.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Its especial and prime object was to be the collection and -preservation, as public property, of the monuments of our -English history. The proposal was not altogether new. -It was a much improved revival of a project which Dr. John -<span class='sc'>Dee</span> had once submitted, in an immature form, to Queen -<span class='sc'>Mary</span>. It was the reiteration of an earnest request which -had been made to Queen <span class='sc'>Elizabeth</span> by Archbishop <span class='sc'>Parker</span>, -at a time when <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was still in his cradle. The joint -petition of <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> and <span class='sc'>Camden</span> met with as little success -as had attended the entreaties of those who had taken the -same path before them. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Petition, &c.</i> (undated) in Cotton MS. Faustina, E. V, ff. 67, 68.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The petitioners were willing to -bind themselves, and others like-minded, to incur ‘costs, and -charges,’ for the effectual attainment of their patriotic object, -on the condition of royal patronage and royal fellow-working -with them in its pursuit. When <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, upon -bare presumptions, is charged to be an embezzler of records, -this Petition comes to have a very obvious relevancy to the -matter in question. The relevancy is enhanced by the fact -that two, at least, of those who had (at various times) -concurred in promoting its object, gave to the Library of -their fellow-labourer in the field of antiquity, manuscripts -and records which, had the issue of their project been -<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>otherwise, they would have given to the ‘Public Library of -Queen <span class='sc'>Elizabeth</span>,’ in express trust for their fellow-countrymen -at large.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Indirectly, this same petition has also its bearing on a -curious passage relating to Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> which occurs -among the Minute-books of the Corporation of London, -and which has recently been printed by Mr. <span class='sc'>Riley</span>, in his -preface to <i>Liber Custumarum</i>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>On the 10th of November, 1607, the Court of Aldermen -of London recorded the following minute: -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Cotton and the City Records of London.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘It is this -day ordered, that Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Town Clerk, -Mr. <span class='sc'>Edmonds</span>, and Mr. Robert <span class='sc'>Smith</span>, or any three of -them, shall repair to Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, from this Court, -and require him to deliver to the City’s use three of the -City’s books <i>which have been long time missing</i>—the first -book called <i>Liber Custumarum</i>; the second, called <i>Liber -Legum Antiquorum</i>; and the thirde, called <i>Fletewode</i>, which -are affirmed to be in his custody.’ Of the results of the -interview of Master Chamberlain and his fellow-ambassadors -with <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> no precise account has been preserved. -It is plain, however, from the sequel, that they found the -matter to be one for which such extremely curt ‘requisition’ -was scarcely the appropriate mode of setting to work. -The Corporation appealed in vain to the Lord Privy Seal -<span class='sc'>Northampton</span>; and they had afterwards to solicit the -mediation with <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> of two of their own members—Sir -John <span class='sc'>Jolles</span> and another—who were personally known to -him. Their interposition was alike ineffectual. Of the -interview we have no report; but Sir Robert, it is clear, -asserted his right to retain the City books (or rather portions -of books) which were then in his hands, and he did -retain them. They now form part of the well-known and -very valuable Cottonian MS., ‘Claudius D. XI.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>That these London records had once belonged to the -citizens is now unquestioned. That Cotton—both in 1607 -and again in the following year—asserted a title, of some -sort, to those of them which were then in his hands, -seems also to be established. Is the fair inference this: -‘Their then holder, in 1607, had obtained them wrongfully, -and he persisted, despite all remonstrance, in his -wrongful possession’? Is it not rather to be inferred that, -whosoever may have been the original wrongdoer, Sir -Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> had acquired them by a lawful purchase? -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Dispute about City Records.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -If that should have been the fact, he may possibly have had -a valid reason for declining to give what he had, ineffectually -and rudely, been commanded to restore.</p> - -<p class='c029'>On the other hand, it is impossible to defend Sir -Robert’s occasional mode of dealing with MSS.,—some of -which, it is plain, were but lent to him,—when, by misplacement -of leaves, or by insertions, and sometimes by both -together, he confused their true sequence and aspect. Of this -unjustifiable manipulation I shall have to speak hereafter.</p> - -<p class='c035'>The years which followed close upon this little civic -interlude were amongst the busiest years of <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> public -life. He testified the sincerity of his desire to serve his -country faithfully, by the choice of the subjects to the study -of which he voluntarily bent his powers.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Cotton’s Memorial on Abuses in the Navy.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<p class='c029'>Abuses in the management of the navy and of naval -establishments have been at most periods of our history -fruitful topics for reformers, competent or other. In the -early years of <span class='sc'>James</span> there was a special tendency to the -increase of such abuses in the growing unfitness for exertion -of the Lord High Admiral. <span class='sc'>Nottingham</span> had yet -many years to live,—near as he had been to the threescore -and ten when the new reign began. But even his large -<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>appetencies were now almost sated with wealth, employments, -and honours; and ever since his return from his -splendid embassy to Spain, he seemed bent on compensating -himself for his hard labour under <span class='sc'>Elizabeth</span> by his -indolent luxury under <span class='sc'>James</span>. The repose of their chief -had so favoured the illegitimate activities of his subordinates, -that when <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> addressed himself to the task of -investigating the state of the naval administration he soon -found that it would be much easier to prove the existence and -the gravity of the abuses than to point to an effectual remedy.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The abuses were manifold. Some of them were, at that -moment, scarcely assailable. To <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, in particular, -the approach to the subject was beset with many difficulties. -He was, however, much in earnest. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Inquiry instituted by Cotton into Abuses in the Royal Navy.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When he -found that some of the obstacles must, for the present, -be rather turned by evasion than be encountered—with -any fair chance of success—by an open attack in front, he -betook himself to the weaker side of the enemy. He -obtained careful information as to naval account-keeping; -discovered serious frauds; and opened the assault by a -conflict with officials not too powerful for immediate -encounter,—though far indeed from being unprotected.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>Cotton, <i>Memorial on Abuses of the Navy;—Domestic Corresp.</i> James I, vol. xli, p. 21. (R. H).</div> - -<p class='c029'>Of Sir Robert’s <i>Memorial</i> to the King, I can give but -one brief extract, by way of sample: ‘Upon a dangerous -advantage,’ he writes, ‘which the Treasurer of the Navy -taketh by the strict letter of his Patent, to be discharged of -all his accounts by the only vouchee and allowance of <i>two</i> -chief officers, it falls out, strangely, at this time—by the -weakness of the Controller and cunning of the Surveyor—that -these two offices are, in effect, but <i>one</i>, which is the Surveyor -himself, who—joining with the Treasurer as a Purveyor -of all provisions—becomes a paymaster to himself ... at -such rates as <i>he</i> thinks good.’ It is a suggestive statement.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span><span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> most intimate political friendships were at this -time with the <span class='sc'>Howards</span>. Henry <span class='sc'>Howard</span> (now Earl of -Northampton),—whatever the intrinsic baseness and perfidy -of his nature, was a man of large capacity. He was not -unfriendly to reform,—when abuses put no pelf in his own -pocket. To naval reforms, his nearness of blood to <span class='sc'>Nottingham</span>, -the Lord High Admiral, tended rather to predispose -him; for when near relatives dislike one another, -the intensity of their dislike is sometimes wonderful to all -bystanders. Interest made these two sometimes allies, but -it never made them friends. <span class='sc'>Northampton</span> gave his whole -influence in favour of Sir Robert’s plan. He began the -inquiries into this wide subject by persuading the King to -appoint a Commission. On the 30th of April, 1608, -Letters Patent were issued, in the preamble of which the -pith of the Memorial is thus recited: ‘We are informed -that very great and considerable abuses, deceits, frauds, -corruptions, negligences, misdemeanours and offences have -been and daily are perpetrated ... <i>against the continual -admonitions and directions of you, our Lord High -Admiral</i>, by other the officers of and concerning our Navy -Royal, and by the Clerks of the Prick and Check, and -divers other inferior officers, ministers, mariners, soldiers, -and others working or labouring in or about our said -Navy;’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Commission for Inquiry on the Abuses in the Navy.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and thereupon full powers are given to the Commissioners -so appointed to make full inquiry into the -allegations; and to certify their proceedings and opinions. -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was made a member of the Commission, and at -the head of it were placed the Earls of <span class='sc'>Northampton</span> and -of <span class='sc'>Nottingham</span>. It was directed that the inquiry should -be carried at least as far back as the year 1598. The -Admiral’s share was little more than nominal. The proceedings -were opened on the 7th of May, 1608, when, as</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span><span class='sc'>Cotton</span> himself reports, an ‘elegant speech was made -by Lord Northampton, of His Majesty’s provident and -princely purposes for reformation of the abuses.’ Northampton, -he adds, ‘took especial pains and care for a full -and faithful discharge of that trust.’ At his instance Sir -Robert was made Chairman of a sort of sub-committee, -to which the preliminary inquiries and general array of the -business were entrusted; -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Proceedings in the Commission for the Navy Royal</i>; MS. <span class='sc'>Cott.</span> Julius F. iii, fol. 1. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> ‘Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, during all -the time of this service, entertaining his assistants at his -house at the Blackfriars as often as occasion served.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The inquiry lasted from May, 1608, to June, 1609. -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was then requested by his fellow-commissioners to -make an abstract of the depositions to be reported to the -King. It abundantly justified the Memorial of 1608. -<span class='sc'>James</span>, when he had read it, ordered a final meeting of the -Commissioners to be held in his presence, at which all -the inculpated officers were to attend that they might -adduce whatever answers or pleas of defence might be in -their power. ‘In the end,’ says Sir Robert, ‘they were -advised rather to cast themselves at the feet of his grace -and goodness for pardon, than to rely upon their weak -replies; which they readily did.’ The most important -outcome of the inquiry was the preparation of a ‘<i>Book of -Ordinances for the Navy Royal</i>,’ in the framing of which -Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> had the largest share. It led to many -improvements. But, in subsequent years, measures of a -still more stringent character were found needful.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Inquiry into Crown Revenues.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>In the next year after the presentation of this Report on -the Navy, Sir Robert addressed to the King another Report -on the Revenues of the Crown. The question is treated -historically rather than politically, but the long induction -of fiscal records is frequently enlivened by keen glances -both at underlying principles and at practical results. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>Once or twice, at least, these side glances are such as, when -we now regard them, in the light of the subsequent history -of <span class='sc'>James’s</span> own reign and of that of his next successor, seem -to have in them more of irony than of earnest. The style -of the treatise is clear, terse, and pointed.</p> - -<p class='c029'>On no branch of the subject does the author go into -more minute detail than on that delicate one of the historical -precedents for ‘abating and reforming excesses of the -Royal Household, Retinue, and Favourites.’ He points -the moral by express reference to existing circumstances. -Thus, for example, in treating of the arrangements of the -royal household, he says, ‘There is never a back-door at -Court that costs not the king £2000 yearly;’ and again, -when treating of gifts to royal favourites: ‘It is one of -the greatest accusations against the Duke of Somerset -for suffering the King [<span class='sc'>Edward VI</span>] to give away the -possessions and profits of the Crown in manner of a -spoil.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Not less plainspoken are <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> words about a question -that was destined, in a short time, to excite the whole -kingdom. Tonnage and poundage, he says, were granted -simply for defence of the State, ‘so they may be employed -in the wars; and particular Treasurers account in Parliament’ -for that employment. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Proceedings in the Commission for the Navy Royal, &c.</i>; as above.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘They are so granted,’ he adds, -‘in express words; and that they proceed of goodwill, not -of duty. Precedents of this nature are plentiful in all the -Rolls.’ A final example of this sort may be found in the -pithy warning grounded upon <span class='sc'>Richard the Second’s</span> -grant to a minion of the power of compounding with -delinquents. It was fatal, he says, both to the king and -to his instrument. ‘It grew the death of the one and the -deposition of the other.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> Report on the Crown Revenues has also an -<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>incidental interest. Out of it grew the creation of the -new dignity of baronets. Were His Majesty, says the writer, -‘now to make a degree of honour hereditary as Baronets, -next under Barons, and grant them in tail, taking of every -one £1000, in fine it would raise with ease £100,000; -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Cotton’s Proposition for the Creation of Baronets</span>, 1609.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and, <i>by a judicious election</i>, be a means to content those -worthy persons in the Commonwealth that by the confused -admission of [so] many Knights of the Bath held themselves -all this time disgraced.’ When this passage was -written that which had been, under <span class='sc'>Elizabeth</span>, so real and -eminent an honour as to be eagerly coveted by patriotic -men, had been lavished by <span class='sc'>James</span> with a profusion which -entailed their contempt and disgust. I have before me the -fine old MS. from a passage in which <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> borrowed the -title of the new dignity. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>9 R. II. Durh. 17 July, 1385. <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> MS., Nero D., vi, § 16. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The word occurs thus:—‘<i>Ceux -sont les estatutz, ordenances ... de n̄re très excellent souv -seigneur le Roy Richard, et Johan, Duc de Lancastre, ... -et des autres Contes, Barons, et</i> Baronnetz, <i>et sages Chivalers</i>.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Sir Robert was himself amongst the earliest receivers -(June, 1611) of the new order. Its creation led to many -jealousies and discords. It gave both to the King and to -his councillors not a little trouble in settling the precise -privileges and precedencies of its holders. In those controversies -the author of the suggestion took no very active -part. King <span class='sc'>James</span> was much more anxious for the speedy -receipt of the hundred thousand pounds, than about -the ‘judicious election’ of those by whom the money was -to be provided. <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> satisfaction with the ultimate -working out of his plan must have had its large alloy.<a id='r5'></a><a href='#f5' class='c030'><sup>[5]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>This is the more apparent, inasmuch as, at the first -acceptance of his project, Sir Robert had obtained the -King’s distinct promise that no future creation of a baron -should be made, until the new peer had first received the -degree of baronet; unless he belonged to a family already -ennobled. Hearing of a probability that the royal promise -in this respect was likely to be broken, he wrote to Somerset:—‘If -His Highness <i>will</i> do it, I rather humbly beg a -relinquishing in the design of the baronets, as desponding -of good success.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Cotton to Somerset (undated) MS. Harl., 7002, f. 380. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But to James all projects for the opening -of gold mines—whether at home or abroad—were much -too attractive to be staved off by any puritanic scruples -about pledge or promise. For him, from youth to dotage, -the one thing needful was gold.</p> - -<p class='c035'>The question of the baronetcies is one of the earliest -which brings us in presence of the eventful political connection -which subsisted between <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> and the Earl of -<span class='sc'>Somerset</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Political Intercourse of Sir R. Cotton with Lord Somerset.</span> 1613–1615.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Of its first beginnings no precise testimony -seems to have survived. But there is a strong presumption -that when <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> was led, by his fatal love for Lady -<span class='sc'>Essex</span>, to change his early position of antagonism to the -<span class='sc'>Howards</span> for one of alliance and friendship, he came frequently -into contact with Sir Robert, who had long been -familiarly acquainted with the Earl of <span class='sc'>Suffolk</span>—and also -with his too well-known Countess—as well as with the Earl -of <span class='sc'>Northampton</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The one ineffaceable stigma on <span class='sc'>Somerset’s</span> memory -<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>which was brought upon him by his disgraceful marriage -has barred the way to an impartial estimate of his standing -as a politician. A man who was branded by his peers -(though upon garbled depositions) as a murderer can -scarcely, by possibility, have his pretensions to statesmanship -fairly weighed in a just balance. Such testimony, -it is true, as that on which <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> was found guilty of -the poisoning of <span class='sc'>Overbury</span> would not now suffice to convict -a vagrant of petty larceny. It would not indeed at -this day be treated as evidence at all; it would be looked -upon as a mere decoction of surmises. But the foul scandal -of the marriage itself has so tainted <span class='sc'>Somerset’s</span> very name -that historians (almost with one consent) have condoned the -baseness of his prosecutors.</p> - -<p class='c029'>With some of this man’s contemporaries it was quite -otherwise. Some English statesmen whose names we have -all learnt to venerate, looked upon the murder of <span class='sc'>Overbury</span> -as a revengeful deed instigated by Lady <span class='sc'>Somerset</span>, wholly -without her husband’s complicity; and they looked at -<span class='sc'>Somerset’s</span> conviction of complicity in the crime as simply -the issue of a skilfully-managed court intrigue, for a court -object. They knew that <span class='sc'>Somerset’s</span> enemies had been -wont to say amongst themselves, ‘A nail is best driven out -by driving in another nail,’ and had, very effectually, put the -proverb into action. They knew, too, that to the rising -favourite the King had committed—most characteristically—the -pleasing task of communicating, on his behalf, -with the Crown lawyers, as their own task of compiling the -depositions against the falling favourite went on from stage -to stage.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> believed not only that <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> was -guiltless of the murder of <span class='sc'>Overbury</span>, and that the Earl’s -political extinction was resolved upon, as the readiest means -<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>of making room for a new favourite, but he also believed -that <span class='sc'>Somerset’s</span> loss of power involved the loss by England—for -a long time to come—of some useful domestic -reforms, as well as its subjection to several new abuses. -This belief was a favourite subject of conversation with him -to his dying day. He was in the habit of imparting it to -the famous men who, in the early years of the next reign, -joined with him in fighting the battles of parliamentary -freedom against royal prerogative. There may well have -been an element of truth in <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> view of the matter, -though, in these days, it seems but a barren pursuit to -have discussed the preferability to England of the rule -of a Robert <span class='sc'>Carr</span> rather than that of a George <span class='sc'>Villiers</span>.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Cotton and the projected Spanish Match.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>What is now chiefly important in the close political connection -which was formed between <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> and <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> -is the fact that it eventually thrust Sir Robert’s fortune and -entire future into great peril, even if it did not actually -hazard his life itself, as well as his fair fame with posterity. -The life that was preserved to him was also to be redeemed -by future and brilliant public service. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1615.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -His fortune sustained -no great damage, and much of it was afterwards -spent upon public objects. His reputation as a statesman, -however, suffered, and must suffer, some degree of loss. -<span class='sc'>Somerset</span> led him to become an agent in urging on the -treaty for the marriage of Prince <span class='sc'>Charles</span> with the Infanta -of Spain. As it seems, his agency was—for a very brief -period—even active and zealous. Neither <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> nor -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, however, set that intercourse with <span class='sc'>Gondomar</span> afoot -which presently brought Sir Robert within the toils. -It was pleasantly originated by the wily Spaniard himself, -in the character of <i>a lover of antiquities</i>, deeply anxious to -study Sir Robert’s Museum, in its owner’s company.</p> - -<p class='c029'>It is unfortunate for a truthful estimate of the <i>degree</i> of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>discredit attachable to Cotton for this agency in promoting -a scheme pregnant with dishonour to England, that little -evidence of the share he took in it is now to be derived -from any English source. His own extant correspondence -yields very little, though it suffices to establish the fact of -the agency, apart from that testimony of <span class='sc'>Gondomar</span>, which -will be cited presently.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Under <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> own hand we have the fact that in -a conversation with himself the Ambassador of Spain -on one occasion held out (by way, it seems, more immediately, -of inducement to the English Government to shape -certain pending negotiations on other matters into greater -conformity with <i>Spanish</i> counsels) -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Cotton to Somerset; (undated) Harleian MS. 7002, fol. 378. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -the threat that, if such -a course were not taken, ‘turbulent spirits—of which Spain -wanteth not—might add some hurt to the ill affairs of -Ireland, or hindrance to the near affecting of the great -work now in hand;’ a threat which <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> transmits to -<span class='sc'>Somerset</span> without rebuke or comment.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Early in 1615, <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> had an interview with <span class='sc'>Gondomar</span> -in relation to the progress of the marriage negotiation in -Spain. Of what passed at this interview we have no <i>detailed</i> -account other than that which was sent to the King of -Spain by his Ambassador. The way in which <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> -name is introduced, and the singular misstatement that he -had the custody of ‘all the King’s archives,’ seem to imply -that <span class='sc'>Gondomar</span> had still but little knowledge of the -messenger now employed by <span class='sc'>James</span> and by <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> -to confer with him. Throughout, the reader will have to -bear in mind that the narrative is <span class='sc'>Gondomar’s</span>, and that -all the material points of it rest upon his sole authority.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>1615. April 18.</div> - -<p class='c029'>‘The King and the Earl of <span class='sc'>Somerset</span>,’ writes the -Ambassador, ‘have sent in great secrecy by Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span>—who is a gentleman greatly esteemed here, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>with whom the King has deposited all his archives—to tell -me what Sir John <span class='sc'>Digby</span> has written about the marriage -of the Infanta with this Prince. <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> informed me that -he was greatly pleased that the negotiation had been so -well received in Spain, because he desired its conclusion -and success. He enlarged upon the conveniencies of the -marriage, but said that the King considered <span class='sc'>Digby</span> not -to be a good negotiator, because he was a great friend of -the Archbishop of Canterbury, and of the Earl of <span class='sc'>Pembroke</span>, -who were of the Puritan faction, and was in -correspondence with them.’... ‘In order to make a -beginning,’ continued <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, as <span class='sc'>Gondomar</span> reports his -conversation, ‘the King must beg your Majesty to answer -three questions: (1.) “Does your Majesty believe that with -a safe conscience you can negotiate this marriage?” (2.) “Is -your Majesty sincerely desirous to conclude it, upon conditions -suitable to both parties?” (3.) “Will your Majesty -abstain from asking anything, in matters of Religion, -which would compel him to do that which he cannot do -without risking his life and his kingdom; contenting yourself -with trusting that he will be able to settle matters -quietly?” -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Gardiner Transcripts of Simancas MSS.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When an answer is given to these questions he -will consider the matter as settled, and will immediately -give a commission to the Earl of Somerset to arrange the -points with me. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>See also S. R. Gardiner, in <i>Letters of Gondomar, giving an Account of the affair of the Earl of Somerset</i>; (<i>Archæologia</i>, vol. xli.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -This Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> is held here, by -many, to be a Puritan, but he told me that he was a -Catholic, and gave me many reasons why no man of sense -could be anything else.’ He afterwards adds: ‘Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, who has treated with me in this business, tells me -that after the marriage is agreed upon, [and] before the -Infanta arrives in England, matters of Religion will be in -a much improved condition.’ The writer of this remarkable -despatch, it may be well to mention, had asserted with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>equal roundness, but a few months before, that <span class='sc'>James</span> -himself had said, at the dinner-table: ‘I have no doubt -that the Roman Catholic Church is the true Church.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>Simancas MSS. 2590, 10 (Gardiner Transcripts).</div> - -<p class='c029'>Nor is it unimportant, as bearing on the <i>degree</i> of credibility -to be assigned to <span class='sc'>Gondomar’s</span> despatches, when they -chance to be uncorroborated,—to remark that a despatch -addressed by him to the Duke of <span class='sc'>Lerma</span>, in November, -contains an express contradiction of an assertion addressed -to <span class='sc'>Philip</span>, in the preceding April. To the King, as we -have just seen, he narrates <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> communication of -despatches written by <span class='sc'>Digby</span>. To the Minister he writes, -six months later, that ‘a traitor had given information’ -against <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, for communicating Papers of State to the -Spanish Ambassador, and that the charge is ‘false.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Simancas MS. 2534, 61 (Gardiner Transcripts).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Discrepancies -like this (howsoever easily explained, or explainable) -suffice to show that <span class='sc'>Gondomar’s</span> testimony, when -unsupported, needs to be read with caution; and of such -discrepancies there are many. Consummate as he was in -diplomatic ability of several kinds, this able statesman was -nevertheless loose (and sometimes reckless) in assertion. He -was very credulous when he listened to welcome news. -It is impossible to study his correspondence without perceiving -that to him, as to so many other men, the wish -was often father of the thought.</p> - -<p class='c029'>On the 22nd of June, Sir Robert paid another visit to -<span class='sc'>Gondomar</span>. He told me, says the Ambassador, that the -King’s hesitations had been overcome; that <span class='sc'>James</span> was -now willing to negotiate on the basis of the Spanish articles, -with some slight modifications; that Somerset had taken -his stand upon the match with Spain, had won the co-operation -of the Duke of Lennox, and was now willing to stake -his fortunes on the issue. Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, adds <span class='sc'>Gondomar</span>, -‘assured me of his own satisfaction at the turn -<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>which things had taken, as he had no more ardent wish -than to live and die an avowed Catholic, like his fathers and -ancestors.<a id='r6'></a><a href='#f6' class='c030'><sup>[6]</sup></a> Whereupon I embraced him, and said that -God would guide.’</p> - -<p class='c035'>Thus far, I have, advisedly, followed a Spanish account -of English conversations. Although believing that there -exists, already ample, evidence (both in our own archives -and elsewhere) for bringing home to the Count of <span class='sc'>Gondomar</span> -wilful misstatements of -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Sir Robert Cotton’s Account of the first interview with Count Gondomar.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -fact—in the despatches which -he was wont to write from London—as well as very pardonable -misapprehensions of the talk which he reports, I have -preferred to put before the reader the Ambassador’s own -story in its Spanish integrity.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The mere fact, indeed, that an English historian<a id='r7'></a><a href='#f7' class='c030'><sup>[7]</sup></a>, deservedly -esteemed for his acute and painstaking research, as -well as for his eminent abilities, has honoured <span class='sc'>Gondomar’s</span> -story by endorsing it, is warrant enough for citing these -<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>despatches as they stand. But they have now to be compared -with another account of the same transaction given by -authority of Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> himself. It was given -upon a memorable occasion. The place was the Painted -Chamber in the Palace of Westminster. The hearers were -the assembled Lords and Commons of the Realm.<a id='r8'></a><a href='#f8' class='c030'><sup>[8]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c029'>The Spaniard, it seems, was far, indeed, from holding—as -he says that he held—his first conference with <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>either in his own ambassadorial lodging, or upon credentials -given in the name and by the command of King -<span class='sc'>James</span>. That <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> sought him he suggests, by implication. -That the visit, in which the ground was broken, was -made at the King’s instance, he states circumstantially. -Both the suggestion and the assertion are false.</p> - -<p class='c029'>As the reader has seen, Sir Robert’s openness in exhibiting -his library and his antiquities was matter of public -notoriety. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1614. February.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Profiting by that well-known facility of access, -the Spanish Ambassador presented himself at Cotton House -in the guise of a virtuoso. ‘Do me the favour—with your -wonted benevolence to strangers—to let me see your -Museum.’ With some such words as these, <span class='sc'>Gondomar</span> -volunteered his first visit; led the conversation, by and bye, -to politics; found that <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was not amongst the -fanatical and undiscriminating enemies of Spain at all -price—outspoken, as he had been, from the first, in his -assertion both of the wisdom and of the duty of England -to protect the Netherlanders; showed him certain letters -or papers (not now to be identified, it appears), and in that -way produced an impression on <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> mind which led -him to confer with <span class='sc'>Somerset</span>, and eventually with the -King. So much is certain. Unfortunately, the speeches -at the famous ‘Conference’ on the Spanish Treaty, in 1624, -are reported in the most fragmentary way imaginable. -The reporter gives mere hints, where the reader anxiously -looks for details. Their present value lies in the conclusive -reasons which notwithstanding the lacunæ—they supply for -weighing, with many grains of caution, the accusations of -an enemy of England against an English statesman—whensoever -it chances that those accusations are uncorroborated. -King <span class='sc'>James</span> himself (it may here be added), when -looking back at this mysterious transaction some years later, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>and in one of his Anti-Spanish moods—said to Sir Robert: -‘The Spaniard is a juggling jack. I believe he forged -those letters;’ alluding, as the context suggests, to the -papers—whatever they were—which <span class='sc'>Gondomar</span> showed -to <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> at the outset of their intercourse, in order to -induce him to act as an intermediary between himself and -the Earl of <span class='sc'>Somerset</span>.</p> - -<p class='c035'>At this time, the ground was already trembling beneath -<span class='sc'>Somerset’s</span> feet, though he little suspected the source of his -real danger. He knew, ere long, that an attempt would be -made to charge him with embezzling jewels of the Crown. -In connection with this charge there was a State secret, in -which Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was a participant with <span class='sc'>Somerset</span>, -and with the King himself. And a secret it has remained. -Such jewels, it is plain, were in <span class='sc'>Somerset’s</span> hands, and by -him were transferred to those of <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>. Few persons -who have had occasion to look closely into the surviving -documents and correspondence which bear upon the subsequent -and famous trials for the murder of <span class='sc'>Overbury</span>, will -be likely to doubt that the secret was one among those ‘alien -matters’ of which <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> was so urgently and so repeatedly -adjured and warned, by <span class='sc'>James’s</span> emissaries, to avoid -all mention, should he still persist (despite the royal, -repeated, and almost passionate, entreaties with which he -was beset) in putting himself upon his trial; instead of -pleading guilty, after his wife’s example, and trusting -implicitly to the royal mercy.</p> - -<p class='c029'>For the purpose of warding off the lesser, but foreseen, -danger, <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> advised the Earl to take a step of which -the Crown lawyers made subsequent and very effective use, -in order to preclude all chance of his escape from the unforeseen -and greater danger. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1615. July.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -By Sir Robert’s recommendation -<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>he obtained from the King permission to have a pardon -drawn, in which, amongst other provisions, it was granted -that no account whatever should be exacted from <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> -at the royal exchequer; and to that pardon the King -directed the Chancellor to affix the Great Seal. The Seal, -however, was withheld, and a remarkable scene ensued in -the Council Chamber. There are extant two or three -narratives of the occurrence, which agree pretty well in -substance. Of these <span class='sc'>Gondomar’s</span> is the most graphic. -The incident took place on the 20th of August. The -despatch in which it is minutely described was written on -the 20th of October. There is reason to believe that the -Ambassador drew his information from an eye-witness of -what passed.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘As the King was about to leave the Council Board,’ -writes <span class='sc'>Gondomar</span>, ‘<span class='sc'>Somerset</span> made to him a speech -which, as I was told, had been preconcerted between them. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The scene in the Council Chamber, respecting the Pardon drawn by Sir R. Cotton for Somerset.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He said that the malice of his enemies had forced him to -ask for a pardon; adduced arguments of his innocency; -and then besought the King to command the Chancellor -to declare at once what he had to allege against him, or -else to put the seal to the pardon. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1615. August.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The King, without -permitting anything to be spoken, said a great deal in -<span class='sc'>Somerset’s</span> praise; asserted that the Earl had acted rightly -in asking for a pardon, which it was a pleasure to himself -to grant—although the Earl would certainly stand in no -need of it in his days—on the Prince’s account, who was -then present.’ Here, writes <span class='sc'>Gondomar</span>, the King placed -his hand on the Prince’s shoulder, and added—‘That he -may not undo what I have done.’ Then, turning to the -Chancellor, the King ended with the words: ‘And so, my -Lord Chancellor, put the seal to it; for such is my will.’ -The Chancellor, instead of obeying, threw himself on his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>knees, told the King that the pardon was so widely drawn -that it made <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> (as Lord Chamberlain) absolute -master of ‘jewels, hangings, tapestry, and of all that -the palace contained; seeing that no account was to be -demanded of him for anything.’ And then the Chancellor -added: ‘If your Majesty insists upon it, I entreat you -to grant me a pardon also for passing it; otherwise I cannot -do it.’ On this the King grew angry, and with the -words, ‘I order you to pass it, and you must pass it,’ -left the Council Chamber. His departure in a rage, before -the pardon was sealed, gave <span class='sc'>Somerset’s</span> enemies another -opportunity by which they did not fail to profit. They -had the Queen on their side. On that very day, too, the -King set out on a progress, long before arranged. For the -time the matter dropped. Before the Ambassador of Spain -took up his pen to tell the story to his Court, <span class='sc'>Villiers</span>, -‘the new favourite,’ had begun to supplant his rival; so -that the same despatch which narrates the beginnings of the -fall of <span class='sc'>Somerset</span>, tells also of the first stage in the rapid -rise of <span class='sc'>Buckingham</span>.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Second Pardon drawn by Cotton.</span> 1615, Sept.</div> - -<p class='c029'>About a month after this wrangling at the Council -Board, <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> again advised with Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> -on the same subject. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Report of the Trial of the Earl of Somerset.</i> (MS. R. H.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span> recommended him to have -the Pardon renewed; saying to the Earl, ‘In respect you -have received some disgrace in the opinion of the world, in -having passed’ [<i>i. e.</i> missed] ‘that pardon which in the -summer you desired, and seeing there be many precedents -of larger pardons, I would have you get one after the largest -precedent; that so, by that addition, you may recover your -honour.’ Strangely as these closing words now sound, in -relation to such a matter, they seem to embody both the -feeling and the practice of the times.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In another version of the proceedings at the trial of May, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>1616, <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> is represented as using in the course of -his defence these words: ‘To Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> I referred -the whole drawing and despatch of the Pardon.’ And -again: ‘I first sought the Pardon by the motion and persuasion -of Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, who told me in what dangers -great persons honoured with so many royal favours had -stood, in former times.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. Report of Trial (R. H.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Sir Robert’s own account of this -and of many correlative matters of a still graver sort -has come down to us only in garbled fragments and -extracts from his examinations, such as it suited the purposes -of the law-officers of the Crown to make use of, -after their fashion. The original documents were as carefully -suppressed, as <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> appearance in person at the -subsequent trial was effectually hindered. At that day it -was held to be an unanswerable reason for the non-appearance -of a witness,—whatever the weight of his testimony,—to -allege that he was regarded by the Crown as ‘a delinquent,’ -and could not, therefore, be publicly questioned -upon ‘matters of State.’ There is little cause to marvel -that a scrutinising reader of the <i>State Trials</i> (in their -published form) is continually in doubt whether what he -reads ought to be regarded as sober history, or as wild -and, it may be, venomous romance.</p> - -<p class='c035'>One other incident of 1615 needs to be noticed before we -proceed to the catastrophe of the Gondomar story.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>1615. May 24.</div> - -<p class='c029'>In May of this year Sir Robert wrote a letter to Prince -<span class='sc'>Charles</span>, which is notable for the contrasted advice, in -respect to warlike pursuits, which it proffers to the new -Prince, from that more famous advice which had but -recently been offered to his late brother. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Comp. MS. Cott. Cleop. F. vi, § 1. ‘<i>An Answer ... to certain military men, &c.</i>, (April, 1609).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He had -lately found, he tells Prince <span class='sc'>Charles</span>, a very ancient volume -containing the principal passages of affairs between the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>two kingdoms of England and France under the reigns of -King <span class='sc'>Henry the Third</span> and King <span class='sc'>Henry the Fifth</span>, and -had caused a friend of his to abstract from it the main -grounds of the claim of the Kings of England to the Crown -of France; translating the original Latin into English. -This he now dedicates to the Prince, ‘as a piece of -evidence concerning that title which, at the time when -God hath appointed, shall come unto you.’ He ends his -letter in a strain more than usually rhetorical:—‘This -title hath heretofore been pleaded in France, as well by -ordinary arguments of civil and common law, as also by -more sharp syllogisms of cannons in the field. There -have your noble ancestors, Kings of this realm, often -argued in arms; there have been their large chases; there, -their pleasant walks; there have they hewed honour out -of the sides of their enemies; there—in default of peaceable -justice—they have carried the cause by sentence of -the sword. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Sir R. Cotton to Prince Charles. (MS. Lansd. 223. fol. 7.) (Copy.) (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -God grant that your Highness may, both in -virtues and victories, not only imitate, but far excel them.’</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'>The King to Archbishop of Canterbury, &c. <i>Domestic Corresp.</i> James I, vol. lxxxvi, § 16. (R. H.)</div> - -<p class='c029'>The royal commission for the first examination of <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> -was issued on the 26th of October, 1615. Two months -afterwards he was committed to the custody of one of the -Aldermen of London. His library and papers were also -searched.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> accusation was that of having communicated -papers and secrets of State to the Spanish Ambassador. -He was subjected to repeated examinations, which (as we -have seen) are extant only in part. He maintained his -innocence of all intentional offence. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Cotton’s examinations by Commission</span> Jan.-April, 1616.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘The King,’ he said, -‘gave me instruction to speak as I did. If I misunderstood -His Majesty my fault was involuntary. I followed the -King’s instruction to the best of my belief and recollection.’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>The examiners, however, were more intent by far on -extracting something from <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> that would tell against -<span class='sc'>Somerset</span>, than on the punishment of the fallen favourite’s -ally and agent. <span class='sc'>Coke</span>, in particular, was indefatigable in the -task. It was as congenial to him as was the study of -<span class='sc'>Bracton</span> or of <span class='sc'>Littleton</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>What then must have been his delight when,—whilst attending -a sermon at Paul’s Cross,—word was brought to him -which gave hope of a discovery of <span class='sc'>Somerset’s</span> most secret -correspondence? The pending proceedings had stirred men’s -minds in city and suburb, as well as at Court. A London -merchant had been asked, a little while before, to take into -his charge a box of papers. The depositor was a woman -of the middle class, with whom his acquaintance was but -slight. At that time there was nothing in the incident to -excite suspicion. But, at a moment when strange rumours -were afloat, the depositor suddenly requested the return of -the deposit. The merchant bethought himself that the -circumstances now looked mysterious. If the papers should -chance to bear on matters of State, to have had any concern -with them, howsoever innocent, might be dangerous. He -carried the box to Sir Edward <span class='sc'>Coke’s</span> chambers. Not a -moment was lost in apprising the absent lawyer of the -incident. Such news was of more interest than the sermon. -Probably, the preacher had not finished his exordium, -before all the faculties of <span class='sc'>Coke</span> and of a fellow-commissioner -were bent on the letters which had passed between <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> -and <span class='sc'>Northampton</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>If <span class='sc'>Gondomar</span> is to be believed, some secret papers -belonging to King <span class='sc'>James</span> himself were part of the precious -spoil.<a id='r9'></a><a href='#f9' class='c030'><sup>[9]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>As usual, there are two accounts of the original secretor -of the papers so opportunely discovered. According to one -of them, the box was delivered by <span class='sc'>Somerset’s</span> own order -to the woman by whom it was carried to the London -merchant. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Cotton’s dealings with Somerset’s Correspondence.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1615.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -According to another, <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> entrusted the -papers to <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>; and the latter, anticipating the search -and sealing up of his library, gave them to a female -acquaintance with whom he thought they would remain in -safety, but whose own fears led her to shift their custody, -in her turn.</p> - -<p class='c029'>That the letters which <span class='sc'>Northampton</span> had received from -<span class='sc'>Somerset</span>—containing, amongst many other things, -numerous references to the imprisonment of <span class='sc'>Overbury</span> in -the Tower—had been in Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> hands is -unquestioned. After <span class='sc'>Northampton’s</span> death, <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, to -use his own words, had been ‘permitted to peruse and -oversee all the writings, books, &c. in the Earl’s study.’ In -the course of this examination he proceeds to say, ‘I had -collected thirty several letters of my Lord of <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> to -the Earl of Northampton, which, upon request, I delivered -to my Lord Treasurer [the Earl of <span class='sc'>Suffolk</span>,] who sent -them to the Earl of <span class='sc'>Somerset</span>.’ <span class='sc'>Suffolk</span>, it is to be -remembered, was <span class='sc'>Northampton’s</span> heir.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Thus far, no charge rests upon <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> in relation to this -correspondence. What he did in disposing of <span class='sc'>Somerset’s</span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>letters was done by order of the representatives of their -deceased owner. It is far otherwise with respect to their -treatment after they had repassed, by <span class='sc'>Suffolk’s</span> gift, into -the hands of <span class='sc'>Somerset</span>, their writer.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The letters were undated. That they should be so was -in accordance with the practice of a majority of the letter-writers -of the time—as students of history know to their -sorrow. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Extracts of Examinations, &c. (R. H.).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When suspicion was aroused and inquiry commenced -about the real cause of <span class='sc'>Overbury’s</span> death, <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> -advice was sought by <span class='sc'>Somerset</span>. He told me, says -<span class='sc'>Somerset</span> himself: ‘These letters of yours may be dated, -so as may clear you of all imputation.’ Did he mean -that the dates might be forged, and so be made to bear -false witness? Or did he mean that, by putting their true -dates to the letters, their contents would exculpate an -innocent man? To these questions there is absolutely no -answer, save the presumptive answer of character.<a id='r10'></a><a href='#f10' class='c030'><sup>[10]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>Whatever may be our estimate of the difficulty attending -on the admission of such exculpation as that, in respect of a -charge which amounts (in substance) to participation, after -the fact, in the crime of murder, there is really now no -alternative. That Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> put dates to <span class='sc'>Somerset’s</span> -undated letters is certain. It was found to be absolutely -impossible, after desperate effort, to prove that the -dates were false. It is alike impossible to prove that they -are true. These dates are in <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> own hand, without -any attempt to disguise it.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Upon the hypothesis of <span class='sc'>Somerset’s</span> guilt, the question -is beset with as much difficulty, as upon the hypothesis of -his innocence. By procuring <span class='sc'>Overbury’s</span> imprisonment—with -whatever motive, or beneath whatever influence—<span class='sc'>Somerset</span> -had brought himself under inevitable suspicion -of complicity in the ultimate result of that imprisonment. -He was already within the web. His struggles made it -only the more tangled.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> remained in custody until the middle -of the year 1616. He was effectually prevented from -appearing in May of that year as a witness at his friend’s -trial. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Domestic Corresp.</i> James I, vol. lxxxvii, f. 67 (R. H.).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He was himself put to no form of trial whatever. But -he had to purchase his pardon at the price of five hundred -pounds. It received the Great Seal on the 16th July. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Bacon to Villiers, Feb. 1; and April 18; 1616.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Remembering <span class='sc'>Bacon’s</span> share in each stage of the proceedings -against <span class='sc'>Somerset</span>, and the lavishness of his professions -<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>to <span class='sc'>Villiers</span> of the extreme delight he felt in -following the lead of the new favourite throughout every -step of the prosecution of the old one, it is suggestive to -note that the framers, five years afterwards, of a pardon for -the Lord Chancellor <span class='sc'>Bacon</span> were directed to follow the -precedent of the pardon granted in July 1616 to Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Nor is it of less interest to observe that, to some of Sir -Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> closest friends, it seemed—at the moment -when every part of the matter was fresh in men’s minds—that -it was much more needful for him to exonerate himself -from a suspicion of having stood beside <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> too lukewarmly, -than to clear himself from the charge of committing -a forgery in order to cloke a murder. Very -significant, for example, are the words of one of those friends -which I find in a letter addressed to <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> on the very -day on which his pardon passed the Great Seal:—‘If I -say I rejoice and gratulate to you your return to your own -house, as I did lament your captivity, ... it will easily be -credited.... The unsureness of this collusive world, and -the danger of great friendships, you have already felt; and -may truly say, with holy <span class='sc'>David</span>, <i>Nolite fidere in principibus</i>.... -As I hear, you have begun to make good use of it, by -receiving to you your Lady which God himself had knit -unto you. It is a piety for which you are commended. -And, were it not for one thing I should think my comfort -in you were complete.... <i>It is said you were not sufficiently -sincere to your most trusting friend, the pitied Earl. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>E. Bolton to Sir R. Cotton; Cott. MS. Julius C., iii, fol. 32. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Though -I hold this a slander, yet being not able to make particular -defences, I opposed my general protestation against it as an -injury to my friend.</i> Yet wanting apt countermines to -meet with those close works by which some seek to blow up -a breach into your honour, I was not a little afflicted.... -<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>I leave the arming of me in this cause to your own -pleasure.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The caution as to the danger of the friendships of -grandees and great favourites was one which <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> took -to heart. In the years to come he had occasionally to give -critical advice, in critical junctures. But, in the true sense -of the words, he learnt, at last, not to put his trust in -Princes. Long before his acquaintance with <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> -and his private conferences with <span class='sc'>James</span>, a very true and -dear friend had noted a dangerous proclivity in Sir Robert’s -character. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Arthur Agarde to Sir R. Cotton: Cott. MS. Julius C., iii, fol. 1.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It prompted, by way of counsel, the words: -‘Be yourself; and no man’s creature; but [only] God’s. -And so He will prosper all your designs, both to his glory -and your good.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>That ply had been taken too deeply, however, to be very -easily smoothed out. In the years to come Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span> approached—more than once, perhaps—the brink -of the old peril. As <span class='sc'>Buckingham</span> clomb higher and higher, -and busied himself with many transactions of the nature of -which he had but a very insecure mental grasp, he felt his -need of the counsels of experienced men. He made occasional -advances to <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, amongst others. They were -met; and not always so warily, as might now have been -expected.</p> - -<p class='c029'>But against the danger which over-confiding intercourse -with too-powerful courtiers was sure to bring in its train, -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span> found a better safeguard in wounded self-esteem, -than even in dearbought experience. He soon saw that in -<span class='sc'>Buckingham’s</span> character there was at least as much of -vacillation as of versatility. The famous lines which describe -the son as</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A man so various, that he seem’d to be</div> - <div class='line'>Not one, but all mankind’s epitome,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c034'><span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>would have a spice of truth if applied to the father. But -their applicability is only partial; whereas the lines which -follow are almost as true—a single word excepted—of -the first Duke of Buckingham as they were of the -second—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Stiff in opinions; often in the wrong;</div> - <div class='line'>He’s everything by starts, and nothing long.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c029'>When Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> perceived that James’s new -favourite would listen, in the morning, to grave advice on a -grave subject, and affirm his resolution to act upon it; and -yet, in the afternoon suffer himself to be carried from his purpose -by the silly jests or malicious suggestions of youngsters -and sycophants, unacquainted with affairs and often reckless -of consequences, he saw the wisdom of standing somewhat -aloof. He rarely, however, refused his advice, when -it was asked. In regard to matters of naval administration,—the -authoritative value of his opinion on which -was now everywhere recognised, save in the dockyards and -their dependencies,—he gave it with especial willingness. -But henceforward, to use <span class='sc'>Agarde’s</span> words, he was ‘no -man’s creature.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Five years passed on, marked by events which stirred -England to its core, but to Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> they were -years of comparative quiet. He was, indeed, very far from -being a careless bystander. He observed much, and learnt -much. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Growth of Cotton’s Literary and Public Correspondence.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Had it not been for the lessons which those publicly -eventful years impressed on his receptive mind, he -might have gone to his grave with no other reputation -than that of a profound antiquary, and the Founder of the -Cottonian Library.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Meanwhile, his pen worked as hard in the service of -scholars, both at home and abroad, as though he had been a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>busy proof-reader in a leading printing-office. He supplied, -at the same time, on the right hand and on the left, precedents -and formulæ, with a diligence and readiness which would -have won both fame and fortune for a long-accustomed -conveyancer. <span class='sc'>Camden</span> consults him, continually, for help -in his historical labours. Ben <span class='sc'>Jonson</span> puts questions to -him about intricate points of Roman geography. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. Cott., Julius C., iii, fol. 239. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -William -<span class='sc'>Lisle</span> seeks <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> aid in the prosecution of his studies -of the language and literature of the Anglo-Saxons. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, fol. 288, seqq.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sc'>Peiresc</span> consults him on questions in Numismatics. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Domestic Corresp.</i>, Jas. I, vol. lxxxi, § 15. (R. H.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -If -great officers of State chance to quarrel amongst themselves -about their respective claims to carry before the King the -sword <i>Curtana</i>, at some special ceremony, they agree to -refer the dispute to Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> and to abide—without -fighting a duel—by his momentous decision. If a -courtier obtains for a friend the royal promise of an Irish -viscounty he writes to <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, asking him to choose an -appropriate and well-sounding title. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. Cott., Julius C., iii, fol. 378.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Roger <span class='sc'>Maynwaring</span> -begs him to determine the legal amount of burial-fees. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, fol. 252.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Dr. <span class='sc'>Lambe</span> asks him to settle conflicting pretensions to the -advowson of a living which, in old time, belonged to an -abbey. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, fol. 229.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Augustine <span class='sc'>Vincent</span> implores his help in a tough -question about patents of peerage. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, fol. 379.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The Lord Keeper -<span class='sc'>Williams</span> seeks advice on questions of parliamentary form -and privilege. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Edwards’ <i>Life and Letters -of Ralegh</i>, vol. ii, p. 321.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sc'>Ralegh</span> writes to him, from that ‘Bloody -Tower’ which he was about to turn into a literary shrine -for all generations of Englishmen to come, by composing in -it a noble ‘History of the World’—beseeching him to -supply a desolate prisoner with historical materials. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. Julius C. iii, fol. 204.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The -Earl of <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> writes to him from Padua, begging that -he would compile ‘the story of my ancestors.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, fol. 320.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The Earl of -<span class='sc'>Dorset</span> entreats him to make out a list of the gifts which -some early <span class='sc'>Sackville</span> had piously bestowed upon the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>Church—not, however, with the smallest intention of himself -increasing them. And, anon, there comes to Sir Robert, -from a third great peer, the second of the Cecil Earls of -Salisbury, an entreaty—expressed in terms so urgent that -one might call it a supplication—‘Permit me, I pray you, -to see my Lord of <span class='sc'>Northampton’s</span> letters.... -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Salisbury to Cotton, in MS. Cott., Julius C., iii.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -I will -return them unread, and unseen, by anybody,’ save himself. -And then the Secretary of State writes to him in an impetuous -hurry which made his letter scarcely legible:—‘If -you be not here’ [<i>i. e.</i> at the Council Chamber] ‘with those -precedents for which there is present use, we are all -undone. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. Cott., Julius C., iii, fol. 57.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -For His Majesty doth so chide, that I dare not -come in his sight.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Along with this busy correspondence—of which, in these -brief sentences I have given the reader but a very inadequate -and scanty sample—the surviving records of these -years of comparative retirement supply us with abundant -notices of the growth and of the sources, from time to time, -of the Cottonian Library. It would be no unwelcome task -to tell that story at length. It would, indeed, be but the -paying, in very humble coin, of a debt of gratitude to a -liberal benefactor. But within the compass of these pages -so many careers have to be narrated that the due proportions -of some of them—and even of one so interesting as -<span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span>—must needs be closely shorn. On this point -it must, for the present, suffice to say that the acquisition -of many Cottonian State Papers, and of such as carry on -their face the most irrefragable marks of former official -ownership, can be distinctly traced. The assertion is no -hasty or inconsiderate one. It is founded on an acquaintance -with the Cottonian MSS., which is now, I fear, thirty -years old, and on the strength of which (when reading -some recent assaults on the fair fame of their Collector), I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>have been tempted to put certain well-known lines into Sir -Robert’s mouth:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in24'>If I am</div> - <div class='line'>Traduced by o’er hasty tongues—which neither know</div> - <div class='line'>My faculties nor person, yet will be</div> - <div class='line'>The chroniclers of my doing—let me say</div> - <div class='line'>’Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake</div> - <div class='line'>That virtue must go through.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c029'>Were it not, however, for one pregnant circumstance in -Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> subsequent life, all this would have -but a very meager attractiveness for nineteenth-century -readers. The story of the growth of a great library has -its charm, but the sphere of potency is of small dimension. -Few but those who are themselves imbued with a spice of -literary antiquarianism ever enter within the narrow circle. -Just in like manner, that active literary and political correspondence—spreading -from Exeter to Durham, and from -Venice to Copenhagen—would nowadays have but a -slender interest for anybody (not belonging to the scorned -fraternity of Oldbuck and Dryasdust), were it not for that -great war between King and Parliament, Cavalier and -Roundhead, of which, in one sense, <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> lived only -long enough to see the gathering of forces, and the early -skirmishes, but in which, nevertheless, he played a part -second only to that played by <span class='sc'>Eliot</span> and by <span class='sc'>Pym</span>. His -close connection with the Parliamentarian leaders of 1625–1629 -lifts the whole story of the man out of the petty -circuit of mere ‘curiosities of literature,’ into the broad -arena of the hard-won liberties of England.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Cotton’s alliance with the Parliamentarian chiefs.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>All students of the deeds done in that arena now know—and -their knowledge is in no slight degree due to the -persistent labours of a living writer—that the battle of the -‘Petition of Right’ was even a greater battle than Naseby -<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>or Marston Moor. They know that the marshalling of the -forces which, at a period antecedent to that famous Petition, -succeeded in winning a safe place on ‘the fleshy tables’ of -the hearts of Englishmen for those political immunities it -embodied—after the first written record had been vainly -torn from the Council Book—was a feat of arms not less brilliant, -in its way, than was that arraying of Ironsides, on much -later days of the long strife, which resulted in ‘Darwen -stream with blood of Scots imbued,’ and placed Worcester’s -laureat wreath on the brow of <span class='sc'>Cromwell</span>. There are many -senses in which we have all of us (or nearly all) learnt to -see the truth of the familiar words, ‘Peace hath her victories, -not less renown’d than War,’ but in no sense have -those words a deeper truth than when we simply invert -<span class='sc'>Milton’s</span> own application of them. By him they were -pointed at something yet to be done, and which, as he -hoped, might be done by <span class='sc'>Cromwell</span>. Nowadays, the historian -has good ground to point them at an earlier victory, -won when the great soldier was but looking on at the -parliamentary contest, which he could not much advance, -and might very possibly have seriously impeded. The one -thing which has transmuted Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> from the -status of a dead antiquary into that of a living English -worthy, is his close fellowship with <span class='sc'>Eliot</span>, <span class='sc'>Rudyard</span>, and -<span class='sc'>Pym</span>. His rights to a place amongst our national worthies -is due—more than all else—to the fact that the services -which he rendered in that strife of heroes were services -which one man, and only one, throughout broad England -had made himself capable of rendering. <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> could no -more have led the parliamentary phalanx, than he could -have led the Ironsides. To stir men’s minds as <span class='sc'>Eliot</span> or -<span class='sc'>Pym</span> could stir them was about as much in his power as it -was to have invented logarithms, or to have written ‘<i>Lear</i>.’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>But if he could not command the army, he could furnish the -arsenal. At that day and under the then circumstances -that service was priceless.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> best and most memorable parliamentary -service was rendered under <span class='sc'>Charles</span>; not under -<span class='sc'>James</span>. But there is one incident in his public career -which occurred just before the change in the wearers of the -Crown that has a claim to mention, even in so brief a -memoir as this.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Among the revenges wrought by the ‘whirligigs of time’ -before <span class='sc'>James</span> went to his grave, was the necessity laid upon -him to direct a search for precedents how best to put -a mark of disgrace on a Spanish Ambassador for misconduct -in his office. The man selected by the Duke of Buckingham -to make the search, and to report upon it, was Sir -Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>. Some weeks before he had been chosen to -draw up, in the name of both Houses of Parliament, a -formal address to the King for the rupture of the Spanish -match.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The search for precedents against Ambassadors.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>When <span class='sc'>Buckingham</span> made that famous speech at the -Conference of Lords and Commons on the relations between -England and Spain, to which <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> well-known -<i>Remonstrance of the treaties of Amity and Marriage of the -Houses of Austria and Spain with the Kings of England</i>,<a id='r11'></a><a href='#f11' class='c030'><sup>[11]</sup></a> -was to serve as a preface, he spoke with considerable -force and incisiveness. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1624. 27 April.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -His arguments were not hampered -by many anxieties about consistency with his own antecedents. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>His words were chosen with a view to clinch his -arguments to English minds rather than to spare Spanish -susceptibilities. The ambassadors—there were then, I -think, two of them—were furious at a degree of plain-speaking -to which they had been little accustomed. They -appealed to the King. They knew that the versatile -favourite, once loved, was now dreaded. They tried to work -on the King’s cowardice. The Duke, they told His Majesty, -had plotted the calling of Parliament expressly to have a -sure tool with which to keep him in control, should he prove -refractory to the joint schemes of the Duke and Prince -<span class='sc'>Charles</span>. ‘They will confine your Majesty’s sacred -person,’ said they, ‘to some place of pleasure, and transfer -the regal power upon the Prince.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The framing of such an accusation, writes Sir Robert, in -the Report which he addressed to <span class='sc'>Buckingham</span> on ‘<i>Proceedings -against Ambassadors have miscarried themselves</i>,’ -would, by the laws of the realm, amount to High -Treason, had it been made by a subject. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Relation of Proceedings, &c.</i>; MS. <span class='sc'>Lansd.</span>, 811, ff. 133–139.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He then adduces -a long string of precedents for the treatment of offending -envoys; advises that the Spaniards should first be immediately -confined to their own abode; and should then, by -the Speakers of both Houses of Parliament, in person, be -exhorted and required to ‘make a fair discovery of the -ground that led them so to inform the King.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>If, says Sir Robert, they refuse—‘as I believe they will’—then -are they authors of the scandal, and His Majesty -should be addressed to send a ‘letter of complaint to the -King of Spain, requiring justice to be done according to the -law of nations, which claim should the King of Spain refuse, -the refusal would amount to a declaration of war.’ -This advice was given by <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> to the Duke on the 27th -of April, 1624. Its author’s momentary favour with the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>favourite of the now fast-rising sun was destined (as we shall -see presently) to be of extremely brief duration.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Pen-service of this sort was eminently congenial with -Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> powers. To his vast knowledge of -precedents he added much acumen and just insight in -their application. Though never admitted to the Privy -Council as a sworn councillor of the Crown, his service as -an adviser on several great emergencies was conspicuous.</p> - -<p class='c035'>And it did not stand alone. Small as were his natural -gifts for oratory, <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> earnestness in the strife of -politics prompted him, more than once, to put aside -his own sense of his disadvantages, and to endeavour himself -to strike a good blow, with the weapons which he knew -so well how to choose for others. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Cotton’s Speech in the Parliament at Oxford.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -On one of these occasions -he prepared a speech which proved very effective.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>1625. 10 August.</div> - -<p class='c029'>Curiously enough, whilst the best contemporary reports -of that speech agree amongst themselves in substance; -they differ as to the name of the speaker by whom it was -actually uttered within the walls of the House of Commons. -Internal evidence and external authority are also agreed -that the speech, if not spoken, was at all events prepared -by Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>. On that point, all parties coincide. -But according to one account, he both wrote and uttered -it. According to another, he wrote it; but was prevented -from the intended delivery,—either by an accidental -absence from the House, or by some inward and unwaivable -misgiving which led him at the eleventh hour -to hand over the task to the able and well-accustomed -tongue of his comrade <span class='sc'>Eliot</span>.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Cotton’s? or Eliot’s?</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>If we turn, for help—in our strait—to the admirable -biography of <span class='sc'>Eliot</span>, by Mr. <span class='sc'>Forster</span>, we shall find that its -author rather accepts the doubt, than solves it. Inclining -<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>to the opinion that Sir John <span class='sc'>Eliot</span> was the actual utterer, -he thinks nevertheless that the best course is to ‘let the -speech stand double and inseparable; a memorial of a fast -friendship.’ It was the friendship, I may add, of two statesmen -who fought a good fight, side by side; until one of -them was violently torn out of the arena, and thrust into a -dungeon, in the hope that slow disease might unstring the -eloquent tongue which honours could not bribe, and terrors -could not silence.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In Sir Robert’s posthumous tracts (as they were published -by James <span class='sc'>Howell</span>) this speech has been printed as -unquestionably spoken by him who wrote it. But that -publication—as I have had occasion to show already, in -relation to the ‘<i>Twenty-four Arguments</i>’—carries no grain -of authority. Spoken or simply composed by its author, -the speech is alike memorable in English history, and in -the personal life of the man himself.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The existence of the plague in London had led to the -adjournment of the first Parliament of King <span class='sc'>Charles</span> to -Oxford. It was there, and on the 10th of August, 1625, -that the speech which—whether it came from the lips of -John <span class='sc'>Eliot</span> or of Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>—made a deep impression -on the House, was spoken. It gave the key-note to not a -few speeches of a subsequent date, and it contains passages -which, in the event, came to have on their face something -of the stamp of prophecy.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Retrenchment in expenditure,—Parliamentary curb on -Royal favourites,—No trust of a transcendent power to -any one Minister,—Less lavishness in the bestowal of -honours and dignities won by suit, or purchase, rather -than by public meed,—Wary distrust of Spain,—Abolition -of unjust monopolies and oppressive imposts;—these are -amongst the earnest counsels which (whether it were as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>writer, or as speaker) Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> impressed on his -fellow-members in that memorable sitting at Oxford. Both -the pith and the sting of the Speech may be found in its -concluding words: ‘His Majesty hath ... wise, religious, -and worthy servants.... In loyal duty, we offer our -humble desires that he would be pleased to advise with -them <i>together; ... not with young and single counsel</i>.’ -Well would it have been for <span class='sc'>Charles</span>, had he taken those -simple words to heart, in good time.</p> - -<p class='c029'>To us, and now, there is a special interest in an incidental -passage of this speech which relates to <span class='sc'>Somerset</span>. -The reader has seen how Count <span class='sc'>Gondomar’s</span> secret testimony—just -disinterred from Simancas—against <span class='sc'>Somerset</span>, -as well as against <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, has recently been dealt with by -an eminent historian. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>(See, also, heretofore, the foot-note to p. 73.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It is worth our while to remember -some other words on that subject spoken publicly in the -Parliament at Oxford almost two centuries and a half agone. -They were spoken in the ears of men whose eyes had -looked with keen scrutiny into the Spanish envoy as well -as into the English minister. <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> was still living. -Men who then sat in the Parliament Chamber knew every -incident in his official life, and not a few incidents in his -private life, as well as every charge by which—publicly or -privately—he had been infamed. They knew, exactly, -Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> position towards the fallen minister. -If we choose to suppose that <span class='sc'>Eliot</span> was now speaking -what <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> wrote, the inference is unchanged. To those -listeners Sir John and Sir Robert were known to be politically -‘double and inseparable.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Cotton’s Eulogy on Lord Somerset’s policy</span> (August, 1625).</div> - -<p class='c029'>The facts being so, what is the course taken by the -speaker when he finds occasion to remind the House of -things that happened when ‘My Lord of Somerset stood -in state of grace, and had the trust of the Signet Seal?’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>Does he take a line of apology and use words of extenuation? -Not a whit. In the presence of some of the wisest -and ablest of English statesmen, he eulogises <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> -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 <span class='sc'>James</span> from putting faith in Spaniards. Then, winding -up this episode, in order to pass to the topic of the -hour, <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> says: ‘Thus stood the effect of <span class='sc'>Somerset’s</span> -power with His Majesty, when the clouds of his misfortune -fell upon him. What future advisers led to we may well -remember. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. <span class='sc'>Lansd.</span>,<a id='r12'></a><a href='#f12' class='c030'><sup>[12]</sup></a> 491, fol. 195.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The marriage with Spain was renewed; -<span class='sc'>Gondomar</span> 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 -exposed to so great a peril as no wise and faithful counsel -would ever have advised.’</p> - -<p class='c035'>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 <span class='sc'>Charles</span> in the next winter -testifies, characteristically, to the effect which it produced -on the minds both of the new King and of his favourite.</p> - -<p class='c035'>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 -<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>in politics. Amongst those whose intimacy he cultivated—besides -that of <span class='sc'>Eliot</span> and others who have been mentioned -already—were Symonds <span class='sc'>D’Ewes</span>, and John <span class='sc'>Selden</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Friends and Hospitalities.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It -was at <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> hospitable table, in Old Palace Yard, that -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. <span class='sc'>Selden’s</span> -more robust mind, and his wider sympathies, shocked some -of the puritanic nicenesses of <span class='sc'>D’Ewes</span>. Precisely the -same remark would hold good of the relations between -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span> and <span class='sc'>D’Ewes</span>. 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 <span class='sc'>D’Ewes’</span> most -ingrained scruples. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Harl. MS., as above.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘I had much more familiarity with -Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, than with Master <span class='sc'>Selden</span>,’ jots down -Sir Symonds in his Autobiographic <i>Diary</i>, and then he -adds: ‘<span class='sc'>Selden</span> 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.</p> - -<p class='c029'>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 <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>table. Until late in <span class='sc'>James’</span> reign, <span class='sc'>Camden</span>, when his -growing infirmities permitted him to journey up from -Chislehurst, would still be seen there, now and again. -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.</p> - -<p class='c029'>At one of these festive meetings, occurring not long -before the Coronation of <span class='sc'>Charles the First</span>, the talk -seems to have turned on the coming solemnity. -The plague -at this time was still in London, though it was fast abating. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Cotton and the Coronation of Charles I.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -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. <span class='sc'>D’Ewes</span> 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 <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> had been consulted, and he expected to be -present, carrying in his hand his own famous copy of the -Gospels known as the ‘<i>Evangeliary of King Ethelstan</i>.’ -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 <span class='sc'>D’Ewes</span>, with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>other of his guests—not privileged to claim places in Westminster -Abbey on the great occasion—that at least they -might see their new sovereign, as he passed to take his -crown.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When the morning came <span class='sc'>D’Ewes</span> 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 <span class='sc'>Buckingham</span>—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.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>D’Ewes; in Harl. MS., 646, as before.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -His Majesty, -followed by the Favourite, had to leap across the -mud,—certainly an unusual incident in a coronation show.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>—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 <i>Evangeliary</i>, he and it were contemptuously thrust -aside.</p> - -<p class='c029'>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 <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> with <span class='sc'>Eliot</span> and the other Parliamentary -leaders. That the insults might be the more -<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>keenly felt, the Earl Marshal was left in ignorance of the -plan. It is a help to the truthful portraiture of <span class='sc'>Charles</span>, -as well as to that of <span class='sc'>Buckingham</span>, 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.</p> - -<p class='c029'>But it is more important to note that another and graver -intention in respect to Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> had been already -formed. It was in contemplation to do, in 1626, what was -not really done until 1629. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Mede to Stuteville; MS. Harl., 383, 18 April, 1626.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sc'>Buckingham</span> had advised the -King to put the royal seals on the Cottonian Library. -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 ‘<i>Proposition to bridle the -impertinency of Parliaments</i>,’ and when narrating the -sequel of that high-handed act of power, which brought -<span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> head—as yet scarcely gray—with sorrow to the -grave.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Advice to Privy Council on Change of Coinage.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Although, thus early in the reign of <span class='sc'>Charles</span>, a court -insult was inflicted upon Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, 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. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>The Privy Council was divided in opinion. There was a -desire for the advice of statesmen who were not at the -Board, but who were known to have studied a subject -beset with many difficulties. Among these, Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was consulted. He appeared at the Council Table -on the 2nd of September, 1626, and we have a report of -his speech to the Lords, which from several points of view -is notable. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. <span class='sc'>Lansd.</span>, ff. 141–152. (B. M.)<a id='r13'></a><a href='#f13' class='c030'><sup>[13]</sup></a><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Council Registers</i>, James I, vols. v and vi, <i>passim</i>. (C. O.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But a preliminary word or two needs to be -said on what may seem the singularity that a man who, in -1625, was fighting zealously beside the Parliamentary -patriots, should, in 1626, be speaking at the Council -Table as a quasi-councillor of the Crown.</p> - -<p class='c029'>It might be sufficient to point attention to the obvious -difference between questions affecting the liberty of the -subject, and questions of mere administration, were this -the only occasion—or were it a fair sample of the only -class of occasions—in which <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> appears as an unofficial -Councillor. But the fact is otherwise. And it is -best to be explained, partly, by the unsettled character of -party connection during the political strife of <span class='sc'>Charles’</span> -reign, as well as long afterwards, and partly by peculiarities -belonging to the man himself. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Life of Sir John Eliot</i>, vol. i, p 468.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -There are not -many statesmen, even of that period, of whom it could -be said as the able biographer of Sir John <span class='sc'>Eliot</span> -says of Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>: ‘He acted warmly with -<span class='sc'>Eliot</span> and with the patriots in the first Parliament of -<span class='sc'>Charles</span>. At the opening of the third, he was tendering -counsel to the King, <i>of which the obsequious forms -<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>have yet left no impression unfavourable to his uprightness -and honour</i>.’ The result is unusual. How came it to -pass?</p> - -<p class='c029'>Perhaps the preceding pages may have already suggested -to the reader’s mind more than one possible and plausible -answer to this question. Here it may suffice to say that -while Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was plainly at one with the -Parliamentarian leaders in the main points of their civil -policy, he never went to the extreme lengths of the -puritanic faith, either in things secular, or in matters -pertaining to Religion. On some religious questions he -differed from them widely. In secular matters, a tyrannic -Parliament would have been as little to his liking as a -despotic king. Neither friend nor enemy—<span class='sc'>Gondomar</span> -excepted—ever called him a Puritan (or pretended-Puritan) -in his lifetime, any more than they would have called him -a Republican. His ultimate divergence was not cloaked. -It was no bar to the entire respect, or to the love and close -fellowship, of men like <span class='sc'>Eliot</span>, just because it was frankly -avowed, and had no selfish aim. <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>,—had he lived -long enough,—would probably have ranged himself, at last, -with the Cavaliers, rather than with the Roundheads. He -would have had <span class='sc'>Falkland’s</span> misgivings, and <span class='sc'>Falkland’s</span> -sorrow, but I think he would not have lacked <span class='sc'>Falkland’s</span> -self-devotion also.</p> - -<p class='c029'>And, in another point, he resembled Lord <span class='sc'>Falkland</span>. -Both would have advised <span class='sc'>Charles</span> to yield much of so-called -‘prerogative.’ Neither of them would have bade -him to yield a grain of true royal honour. In later years, -some words which <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> wrote,—in 1627,—for the -King’s eye may well have come back painfully into -<span class='sc'>Charles’</span> memory:—‘To expiate the passion of the -People,’ said Sir Robert, ‘with sacrifice of any of His -<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>Majesty’s servants, I have ever found to be no less -fatal <i>to the Master</i> than to the Minister, in the -end.’</p> - -<p class='c035'>The question of the Coinage, on which he was called -into Council in September 1626, had caused no small -measure of discussion whilst <span class='sc'>James</span> was still on the throne. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Advice given by Sir R. Cotton on Mint Affairs.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Many merchants of London had raised the old and hacknied -cry of complaint against an alleged ‘vast transportation of -gold and silver from England’ to the Continent. Others -said that the complaint, if not groundless, was misdirected. -The following Minute of the Privy Council will shew how -the question stood in that early stage. It was drawn up -in November, 1618.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>Council to the King, 30 Nov., 1618; James I, vol. iv, p. 45. (C. O.)</div> - -<p class='c029'>‘Being by Your Majesty’s commandment to take into -our consideration the state of the Mint and to advise of the -way or means how to bring bullion more plentifully into -the Kingdom, and to be coined there, as also how to stop -the great exportation of treasure out of the Realm,—a -matter of which the State hath been jealous: For our -better information and Your Majesty’s satisfaction we -thought it fit first to know from the Office of your Mint -what quantity of gold and silver hath been there coined in -the last seven years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth and -the seven years last past of Your Majesty. And we find -that in the said seven years of the Queen there was coined -in gold and silver of all sorts £948,713 sterling, whereas -in the seven late years of Your Majesty’s reign there hath -been coined of all sorts, in gold and silver, £1,603,998. -So as, comparing the one with the other, there hath been -coined of both species in the said seven years of Your -Majesty’s reign £655,285 sterling, more than in the seven -years aforesaid of the Queen, the difference being almost -<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>three parts to one. Next we required a certificate from -the Goldsmiths of London of the Plate that hath been -made in those years within the City of London; and it -appeareth that there was made and stamped in their -hall the last seven years of Queen Elizabeth of silver -plate the worth of £22,187 more than in the seven later -years of Your Majesty’s reign. But upon the whole -matter we cannot find and do humbly certify the same -unto Your Majesty as our opinion that there hath been -of late any such vast transportation of gold and silver -into France and the Low Countries as was supposed; -neither that there is any such notorious diminution -of treasure generally in the Kingdom—at the least -of gold—since it is apparent that there hath been a far -greater quantity in the total coined within these seven -years last past than in the last seven years of the late -Queen. Besides Your Majesty may be pleased to observe -that the making of so much silver plate cannot be the -principal cause of the decay of the Mint since there was -more plate made in London [in] those last seven years of -the Queen,—when there came more silver to be coined in -the Mint,—than there hath been used of late years, when -silver in the Mint hath been so scarce though Gold more -plentiful.... In the mean time we do humbly -offer ... that there is no necessity ... -to raise your coin, either in the one kind or in the other. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Registers of Privy Council</i>, as above, p. 46. (C. O.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But rather that the same may draw with it many inconveniences; -and because the noise thereof through the City of -London and from thence to other parts of the Realm, as -we understand, hath already done hurt and in some -measure interrupted and distracted the course of general -commerce, we think it very requisite ... that -some signification be forthwith made from this Table -<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>time to raise your coins.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The course thus recommended—and in the recommendation -the Council seems to have been well nigh -unanimous—was precisely the course <span class='sc'>James</span> did not wish -to take. The Council Books abound with proof how hard -it was to dissuade the King from adopting this ‘intended -project of enhancing the coin [<i>i. e.</i> by debasing the standard], -though, as <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> afterwards said at the Council Table, -to do so would trench, both into the honour, the justice, -and the profit’ [<i>i. e.</i> the real and ultimate profit] ‘of my royal -Master very far.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>In his address at the Board, Sir Robert made an almost -exhaustive examination of the history of the English Mint. -He did it with much brevity and pith. His views about -foreign trade are, of course, not free from the fallacies -which were accepted as aphorisms by very nearly every -statesman then living. But his advice on the immediate -question at issue is marked by sound common sense, by -insight and practical wisdom. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. <span class='sc'>Lansd.</span>, 811, ff. 148–152 (B. M.) [Compare the Report of Proceedings in the House of Commons, Feby. 1621. (<i>Parl. Hist.</i>, vol. i, c. 1188–1194).]<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -His speech told, and he -followed it up by framing, as Chairman of a Committee, -(1) an <i>Answer to the Propositions delivered by some Officers -of the Mint</i>; and (2) <i>Certain General Rules collected concerning -Money and Bullion out of the late Consultation at -Court</i>. Copies of both exist amongst the Harleian and -Lansdowne MSS., and both, together with the Speech, are -printed in the <i>Posthuma</i> (although not without some of the -Editor’s characteristic inaccuracies).</p> - -<p class='c029'>The next question which it was Sir Robert’s task to -discuss before the Privy Council was a much more -momentous question than that of the Coinage. It was, -potentially, both to Sovereign and to people, an issue -of life or death.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>In January, 1628 [N. S.], he delivered, at the Board, -the substance of the remarkable Discourse which has -been more than once printed under the title, ‘<i>The -Danger wherein this Kingdom now Standeth, and the -Remedy</i>.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Discourse on the Calling of a Parliament.</span> 1628. Jany.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The courtliness of its tone no more detracts -from its incisiveness of stroke, than a jewelled hilt would -detract from the cleaving sweep of a Damascus blade, when -wielded by well-knit sinews. It led instantly to the calling -of the Parliament. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. <span class='sc'>Lansd.</span>, 254, ff. 258, seqq.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But neither its essential and true loyalty -to the King, nor the opportune service which it rendered -to the country was to make the fortunes of its author any -exception to those which—sooner or later—befell every -councillor of <span class='sc'>Charles the First</span>, who, in substance if not -in form, was wont to put Country before King.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In that third Parliament of <span class='sc'>Charles</span> Sir Robert himself -had no seat. In the Parliament which preceded it he sat -for Old Sarum, having lost his seat for Huntingdonshire. -But he continued to be the active ally and the influential -councillor of the leaders of opposition to strained prerogatives. -When the Parliament assailed Bishops <span class='sc'>Neile</span> and -<span class='sc'>Laud</span>, the inculpated prelates, it is said, threw upon <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> -as much of their anger as they well could have done had he -led the assault in person.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The opportunity was not very far to seek. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The ‘Proposition to bridle Parliaments.’</span> 1629. October.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Not long -after the dissolution in March, 1629, of that Parliament -of the assembling of which Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> patriotic -effort had been the immediate occasion, and to some of -the effective blows of which he had helped to give vigour, -some courtier or other brought to <span class='sc'>Charles’</span> hands a political -tract, in manuscript, and told him that copies of it were in -the possession of several statesmen. Those—with one -exception—who were then named to the King were men -wont to be held in greater regard in the country than at -<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>Court. The pamphlet bore for its title: ‘<i>The Proposicion -for Your Majesties Service ... to secure your Estate and -to bridle the impertinencie of Parliaments</i>.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The consequences of this small incident were destined -to prove of large moment. The earliest mention -we have of it occurs in a letter written by the -Archbishop of York—himself a Privy Councillor—to -Sir Henry <span class='sc'>Vane</span>, in November, 1629: ‘The Vice-Chancellor,’ -says Archbishop <span class='sc'>Harsnet</span>, ‘was sent to Sir -Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> to seal up his library, and to bring himself -before the Lords of the Council.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Domest. Corresp.</i>, Charles I, vol. cli, § 24. (R. H.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In the words that follow -the Archbishop is evidently speaking from what he had -been told, not from his personal knowledge. ‘There was -found,’ he proceeds to say, ‘in his custody a pestilential -tractate which he had fostered as a child, containing a -project how a Prince may make himself an absolute tyrant. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<i>This pernicious device he had communicated to divers -Lords.</i>’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Charles</span> was presently in intense excitement about -the matter. Its next stage cannot be better or more -briefly told, than in the words which the King himself -addressed to his assembled Councillors—in unusual array, -for they were twenty-one in number—and afterwards caused -to be entered upon the Council Book:</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>1629. 15 Nov.</div> - -<p class='c029'>‘This day His Majestie, sitting in Counsell, was pleased -to imparte to the whole Boarde the cause for which the -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>[<i>Council Register</i>, vol. v, p. 495.]<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Erles of <span class='sc'>Clare</span>, <span class='sc'>Somerset</span>, and <span class='sc'>Bedforde</span>, Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, and sundry other persons of inferior qualitie, -had bene lately restrained and examined by a speciall Committee -appointed by him for that purpose, which cause -was this:—</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘His Majestie declared that there came to his handes, -by meere accedent, the coppie of a certain “<i>Discourse</i>” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>or “<i>The Proposicion</i>” (which was then, by his commandement, -read at the Boarde), pretended to be written “for His -Majesties service,” and bearing this title—”<i>The Proposicion -for Your Majestie’s Service conteineth twoe partes: -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Proceedings against Sir Robert Cotton in the Privy Council.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The one to secure your Estate, and to bridle the impertinencie -of Parlements; the other to encrease Your Majestie’s Revenue -much more then it is</i>.”</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘Now the meanes propounded in this Discourse for the -effecting thereof are such as are fitter to be practised in a -Turkish State then amongst Christians, being contrarie to -the justice and mildnesse of His Majestie’s Government, -and the synceritie of his intentions, and therefore cannot -be otherwise taken then for a most scandalous invention, -proceding from a pernitious dessein, both against His -Majestie and the State, which, notwithstanding, the aforesaid -persons had not onely read—and concealed the same -from His Majestie and his Counsell—but also communicated -and divulged it to others.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘Whereupon His Majestie did farther declare that it is -his pleasure that the aforesaid three Erles, and Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, shall answere this their offense in the Court of Star -Chamber, to which ende they had alreadie bene summoned, -and that now they shoulde be discharged and freed -from their restraint and permitted to retourne to their -severall houses, to the ende that they mighte have the -better meanes to prepare themselves for their answere and -defense.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘And, lastly, he commanded that this his pleasure -should be signified by the bearer unto them, who were -then attending without,—having, for that purpose, bene -sent for. His Majestie, having given this Order and -direccion, rose from the Boarde, and when he was gone, -the three Erles were called in severally and the Lorde -<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>Keeper signified to each of them His Majestie’s pleasure in -that behalfe; shewing them, with all, how gratiously he -had bene pleased to deale with them, both in the maner of -the restraint, which was only during the time of the -examination of the cause (a thing usuall and requisite -specially in cases of that consequence), and in that they -had bene committed to the custodie of eminent and -honorable persons by whom they were treated according -to their qualities; and lykewise in the discharge of them -now from their restraint that they may have the better -convenience and meanes to prepare themselves for the -defense of their cause in that legall coursse by which His -Majestie had thought fit to call them to an account and -tryall.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘The like was also signified by his Lordship to Sir -Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, who was further tolde that although it -was His Majestie’s pleasure that his Studies’ [meaning, -that is, his Library and Museum,] ‘shoulde, as yett, -remaine shut up, yet he might enter into them and take -such writtings wherof he shoulde have use, provided that he -did it in the presence of a Clerke of the Counsell; -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Council Register</i>, Chas. I, vol. v, ff. 495, 496 (C. O.).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -and -whereas the Clerke attending hath the keyes of two of his -Studies he might put a seconde lock on either of them so -that neither dores might be opened, but by him and the -said Clerke both together.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>A reader who now looks back on this singular transaction—and -who has therefore the advantage of looking at it -by the stern-lights of history,—will be likely to believe -that the chief offence of the pamphlet lay (in a certain -sense,) in its truth. <span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Character and Authorship of the ‘Proposition to bridle Parliaments.’</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It was the much too frank exposition -of a policy which clung very close to <span class='sc'>Charles’</span> heart, -though he could ill afford—in 1629—to have it openly -avowed. The undeniable fact that this ‘<i>Proposition for -<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>Your Majesty’s Service</i>’ was indeed fitter for the latitude -of Constantinople, than for that of London, sounds but -awkwardly on the royal lips, when connected with an -assertion (in the same breath,) of the ‘justice and mildness’ -of the King’s own government. The indictment which his -Parliament brought against <span class='sc'>Charles</span>,—and which History -has endorsed,—could hardly be packed into briefer words -than those which the King himself used that day at the -Council Board. His notions of kingly rule, like his father’s, -were in truth much better suited for the government of -Turkey than for the government of England.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, however, had no more to do with -the authorship of the ‘<i>Proposition</i>’ than had <span class='sc'>Charles</span> -himself. The author was Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Dudley</span>. The time -of its composition was at least fifteen years before the date -of the imprisonment of <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> and his companions in disfavour. -The place of its birth was Florence. It cannot -even be proved that <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> had any personal knowledge of -the fact that the offensive tract had been found in his own -library. He had recently read it, indeed,—in common -with <span class='sc'>Bedford</span>, <span class='sc'>Clare</span>, and Oliver <span class='sc'>Saint-John</span>, and no -doubt, like them, had read it with many surging thoughts,—but -he had read it in a recent transcript, written by a -clerk.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Of Robert <span class='sc'>Dudley’s</span> motive in writing his ‘<i>Proposition</i>’ -we have also no proof. But the presumptive and -internal evidence is so strong, as to make proof almost -superfluous. The tract bears witness, between the lines, -that it was composed to win the favour—or at least to -arrest the despoiling hand—of King <span class='sc'>James</span>. And there -is hardly a suggestion in it which might not be backed by -some parallel passage in the writings, or the speeches, of -<span class='sc'>James</span> himself, when expatiating on kingly prerogatives in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>some mood of mind a little more foolish than usual, or -when striving—only too successfully—to train up his successor -to follow in his own path. It seems like an irony -of Fate to find that (in all probability,—for here again the -proof is not quite clinching,) the King’s informer, against -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span> and the other offenders, was <span class='sc'>Wentworth</span>, who, -not many years after 1629, was to sum up views of policy -much akin to Robert <span class='sc'>Dudley’s</span> in the memorable word -‘<i>Thorough</i>.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Cotton</span> himself believed that this apparently trivial -incident cost him his life. He said not long before his -death,—‘It has killed me.’ We shall probably never -know whether <span class='sc'>Dudley’s</span> tract had anything to do with -bringing about in the mind of <span class='sc'>Wentworth</span> that eventful -change of political views which is known to have passed -over it (about the time when the incriminated manuscript -was sent so eagerly from hand to hand), and which, in a -few years more, was to work his death also. But one can -hardly avoid, in passing, a momentary thought on the -curious possibility that a pamphlet, written at Florence, in -the hope that it might save, for the writer, some wreck or -remnant of a despoiled inheritance,—may have proved -fatal alike to the close political friend of <span class='sc'>Eliot</span>, and to the -close political friend of <span class='sc'>Laud</span>. A tract of such potency -may well claim a few words about its contents. They bear -in every line the stamp of mental energy, and also the stamp -of moral recklessness.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Career of Sir R. Dudley, (the true Author).</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Dudley</span> knew well enough that a rooted dislike -of Parliaments was, in <span class='sc'>James’s</span> mind, combined with -a besetting dread of them. He knew that, between hate -and fear, a Parliament was like a nightmare, for ever -crouching behind the royal pillow. It is the purpose of -his tract to tell the King how to drive the nightmare -<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>away. He recommends, amongst other and minor measures, -the erection of a strong fortress in all the chief towns of the -Kingdom, to be manned by trained bands, and to be -placed in such situations as shall command the high roads. -In addition to these measures, your Majesty, he says, must -set up a strict system of passports, for travellers. Nor is -all this merely a new and more elaborate version of the old -story of belling the cat. The writer of this counsel knows, -perfectly, that already the King’s poverty is the Parliament’s -power; and that to build fortresses and array -soldiers needs a full purse, not an exhausted one. But he -says,—as <span class='sc'>Wentworth</span> said after him,—that soldiers can -be set to work upon good hopes of the pay to come. A -resolute King, he thinks, with resolute troops at his back, -could do in England what had so often been done in Italy. -He could tithe men’s estates. He could make salt and -some other things of prime necessity a royal monopoly. -He could set a tariff on dignities of honour. He could -establish sumptuary laws, such as should make the vanity -and jealousy of thriving nobodies—men with full pockets -and blank pedigrees—willing contributors to the King’s -Exchequer. He could buy up improvident leases of Crown -lands, and resell them at a large profit.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The shortsightedness of such advice as this is now obvious -enough. But advice quite as shortsighted and far less -plausibly couched,—for the eyes that were to read it,—had -been fruitful of result, when offered to Stuarts. Nor -was the man who now offered it to <span class='sc'>Charles</span> a mere clever -talker. He was a man who had already acquitted himself -with conspicuous ability in several spheres of action, lying -widely apart.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Dudley</span> possessed many splendid accomplishments. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>He had been educated by the same ripe -scholar who afterwards became tutor to Prince <span class='sc'>Henry</span>. -At the age of one and twenty, he had put himself into the -lists with <span class='sc'>Ralegh</span>, as navigator and discoverer, by heading -an expedition to the Oronoco. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The career of Sir Robert Dudley.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In the course of that -expedition he had captured nine Spanish ships; one of -them of twice his own strength. At three and twenty, he -had fought, side by side with <span class='sc'>Ralegh</span>, in the naval battle -in the bay of Cadiz; had handled his ship with an ability -which won the praise of his rivals; and had then fought, in -the land attack, side by side with <span class='sc'>Essex</span>. When his own -unbridled passions and resentments gave a fatal opening -for the equally unbridled cupidity of <span class='sc'>James</span>, and of <span class='sc'>James’s</span> -courtiers, to despoil him of a great estate, and to drive him -into exile, he showed that he knew how to snatch honour -out of defeat. He laid the foundation of a new English -trade with Italy and created—it is not saying too much—the -maritime prosperity of Leghorn. He drained vast -Italian marshes, and made corn to grow where corn had -never grown before. The man who, in early life, had won -fame at once as a navigator full of pluck and resource, and -as an able soldier by sea and land:—and who, on attaining -full manhood, had shown himself both a clever diplomatist -and a great engineer;—did not go to his foreign grave -before he had won literary fame with the pen, and scientific -fame at the furnace of the chemist. He had, in its fullest -measure, the versatility and the energy of his race. English -family biography, I suppose, can scarcely show a -stranger group of lives than the successive lives of the last -four <span class='sc'>Dudleys</span> of that line:—Edmund, the Minister of -<span class='sc'>Henry VII</span>, and author of <i>The Tree of the Commonwealth</i>; -<span class='sc'>Northumberland</span>, the subduer of <span class='sc'>Edward VI</span>, and the -murderer of Jane <span class='sc'>Grey</span>; <span class='sc'>Leicester</span>, the Favourite of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span><span class='sc'>Elizabeth</span>; Sir Robert, the self-made exile, and the maker -of Leghorn. Whilst English history, in its long course, can -scarcely match the fatality which seems to have foredoomed -powers of mind and strength of will, such as are rarely -repeated in four successive generations, to teem with evil -instead of good for England.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Such, in few words, was the career of the man, the forgotten -production of whose pen was to shorten the life of a -statesman whose only connection with it—so far as the evidence -goes—lay in the fact that a copy chanced to turn up -in his library; fell under the keen eye of a lawyer who -thought that something might be made of it; and was -then copied—probably by some clerk, who was in the -habit of making transcripts for students to whom money -was less precious than time.<a id='r14'></a><a href='#f14' class='c030'><sup>[14]</sup></a> In some points of the story -<span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>there is still considerable uncertainty. But so much as this -seems to be established. How the tract came, at the -first, into Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> library there is no evidence -whatever to shew.</p> - -<p class='c035'>It is not the least curious point in this transaction that -the Earl of <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> should have been mixed up with it. -He had been released from the Tower almost eight years -before (namely, on the 28th of January, 1622), but was -prohibited from living near the Court. At first, he was -ordered to restrict himself to one or other of two old mansions -in Oxfordshire—Caversham and Grey’s Court. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Council Registers, James I</i>, vol. v, pp. 230, 425 (C. O.).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Afterwards, -his option was enlarged, by including, in the license, -Aldenham, in Hertfordshire. It is evident that, after -<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span><span class='sc'>Buckingham’s</span> death, he began to hope that a political -career might be still possible for him. And statesmen -like <span class='sc'>Bedford</span> and <span class='sc'>Clare</span>—as well as <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>—kept up -with him a correspondence.</p> - -<p class='c029'>More than once or twice, coming events had cast their preliminary -shadows over Sir Robert, in relation to the very -matter which so vexed his heart in the winter of 1629. -‘Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> Library is threatened to be sealed -up’ is a sentence which made its occasional appearance -in news-letters, long before King <span class='sc'>Charles</span> hurried down -to the Council Chamber to vent his indignation on the -handing about of <span class='sc'>Dudley’s</span> ‘<i>Proposition to bridle Parliaments</i>.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Ben Jonson and the Verses to Felton.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>One cause of the rumour lay doubtless in the known -enmity between <span class='sc'>Buckingham</span> and the great antiquary. -This enmity, on one occasion, brought Ben <span class='sc'>Jonson</span> into -peril. Ben was fond of visiting Cotton House. He liked -the master, and he liked the table; and he was wont to meet -at it men with whom he could exchange genial talk. On -one such occasion, just a year before the Florence pamphlet -incident, some verses went round the table at Cotton House, -with the dessert. They began, ‘<i>Enjoy thy bondage</i>,’ and -ended with the words ‘<i>England’s ransom here doth lie</i>.’ -Only two months had then passed since <span class='sc'>Buckingham’s</span> -assassination, and these verses were, or were supposed to -be, addressed to <span class='sc'>Felton</span>. We can now imagine more than -one reason why such lines may have been curiously glanced -at, over Sir Robert’s table, without assuming that there -was any triumphing over a fallen enemy; still less any -approval of murder. But there seems to have been -present one guest too many. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Domestic Corresp. Charles I</i>, vol. cxix, § 33.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Some informer told the -story at Whitehall, and <span class='sc'>Jonson</span> found himself accused -of being the author of the obnoxious verses. He cleared -<span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>himself; but not, it seems, without some difficulty and -annoyance.</p> - -<p class='c035'>The release from immediate restraint of the prisoner -of November ’29 was no concession to any prompting of -<span class='sc'>Charles’</span> own better nature. Fortunately for Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, his companions in the offence were peers. Their -fellow-peers shewed, quietly but significantly, that continued -restraint would need to be preceded by some open -declaration of its cause. During the course of the proceedings -which followed their release it was asserted—I do -not know by whom—that not only had the ‘<i>Proposition</i>’ -been copied, but that an ‘<i>Answer</i>’ to it had been either -written, or drafted. And that the reply, like the original -tract, would be found in Sir Robert’s library.</p> - -<p class='c029'>This somewhat inexplicable circumstance in the story is -nowhere mentioned, I think, except in a Minute of the -Privy Council. The Minute runs thus:—</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘A Warrant directed to Thomas <span class='sc'>Mewtas</span>, Esq. ... and -Laurence <span class='sc'>Whitaker</span>, Esq. [Clerks of Council] autorising them -to accompanie Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, Knight, to his house and -assist him in searching amongst the papers in his studie or -elsewhere, for certaine notes or draughtes for an answer to a -“<i>Proposicion</i>” pretended to be made “<i>for His Majesties -Service</i>” touching the securing of His Estate, and also to -seeke diligently amongst his papers, and lykewise the -trunkes and chambers of Mr. <span class='sc'>James</span>, and [of] <span class='sc'>Flood</span>, -Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> servant, as well for anie such notes, -as also for coppies of the said “<i>Proposicion</i>,” and for other -wrytings, of that nature, which may import prejudice to -the government and His Majestie’s service.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Council Registers, Charles I</i>; vol. 5, pp. 493, 495. 1629. Nov. 10. Whitehall. (C. O.).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The new -search, it seems, had not the desired, or any important, -result.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>A year passed away. The proceedings in the Star -Chamber proved to be almost as fruitless, as had been the -vain, but repeated, searches which wearied the legs and -perplexed the minds of Clerks of Council and of Messengers -of the Secretary’s office. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Domestic Corresp. Chas. I</i>, clxvii, § 65, seqq. (R. H.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But the locks and seals were -still kept on the Cottonian Library. Sir Robert and his -son (afterwards Sir Thomas) petitioned the King over and -over again. But <span class='sc'>Charles</span> had set his face as a flint, and -would not listen. In vain he was told that the Manuscripts -were perishing by neglect; and that, as they occupied some -of the best rooms, the continued locking up made their -owner to be like a prisoner, in his own house. In order -to go into any one of them he had to send to Whitehall, to -request the presence of a Clerk of the Council.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Cotton’s decline of health.—The artful Quack and the wary patient.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Under such circumstances it is not surprising that his -friends noticed with anxiety his changed appearance. His -ruddy countenance became sallow and haggard. It grew, -says his associate <span class='sc'>D’Ewes</span>, to be of ‘a blackish paleness -near to the semblance and hue of a dead visage.’ His -somewhat portly frame stooped and waned. Life had still -some charms for him,—so long at least as he could hope -even faintly, for an opportunity of returning, at last, to -his beloved studies. He was told of the growing repute -of a certain Dr. <span class='sc'>Frodsham</span>, who combined (it seems) -experiments at the retort and still of the chemist, with -the clinical practice of the physician,—when he could get it. -Sir Robert sent for him and desired that he would bring a -certain restorative balsam, or other nostrum, that had -become the talk of the town. The worthy practitioner -preferred to send his answer in writing. With great -frankness, he said to his correspondent: ‘I have now an -extraordinary occasion for money.... Neither -is it my accustomed manner to distil for any body, without -<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>some payment beforehand. So, noble Sir, if pleas you, -send here, <i>by this berer</i>, £17 and 12<i>s.</i>, for so much the -druges will cum tow. I confes that way I worke is deare, -yett must say, upon my life, that I will make’ [you] ‘as -sound and able of body, as at thirty-five,—and’ [this] -‘within five weeks.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. Harl., 7002, fol. 318; H. Frodsam to Sir R. Cotton (B. M.).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But the eye for which this naïve -epistle was meant was an eye keen enough to detect the -difference between corn and chaff. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘I did,’ replied Sir -Robert, ‘expect something of fact, to make me confident; -before I could venture either my trial or my purse.... -Promises I have often met and rejected. Error of judgment -must be, to me, of more loss than the money.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>By way of addition to the combined anxieties of failing -health, and of a bitter grief, there came now to be heaped -upon <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> shoulders the heavier burden of a conspiracy -to assail his moral character.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Large as had been his expenditure on his noble collections, -and openhanded as was his manner of life and of giving, -Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was still wealthy. Some persons who -had benefited by his repeated generosity thought they saw -an opening, in the summer of 1630, to increase the gain -by a clever and lucrative plot. The method they took -reads, nowadays, less like a real incident in English -literary biography, than like one of those—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>... last, best, of the ‘<i>Hundred Merry Tales</i>’</div> - <div class='line'>Of how [a grave and learned sage] devised</div> - <div class='line'>To carry off a spouse that moped too much,</div> - <div class='line'>And cured her of the vapours in a trice;</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'> · · · · ·</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>For now the husband—playing Vulcan’s part,—</div> - <div class='line'>... started in hot pursuit</div> - <div class='line'>To catch the lovers, and came raging up;</div> - <div class='line'>Cast then his net, and call’d neighbours to see</div> - <div class='line'>The convicts in their rosy impudence.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>The victim of this plot was now in his sixtieth year. -Whatever may have been the sins of his youth, there was -obvious risk in a contrivance to extort money by telling such -a tale as that, about a man the fever of whose blood must -needs have abated; even had he not been already broken -down under cumulative weight of the sorrow and hunger -of the heart. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Conspiracy of Wilcox and Stevenson against Sir R. Cotton.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The intended victim, too, was a man with -troops of friends. But the conspirators, it is evident, -thought that Sir Robert’s known disgrace at Court would -tell as a good counterpoise in their favour. A man already -in circumstances of peril would, they thought, be likely to -open his pursestrings rather than incur the burden of a -new accusation.</p> - -<p class='c029'>On a June morning in 1630 Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> received -an urgent letter from an elderly woman—one Amphyllis -<span class='sc'>Ferrers</span>—who had the claim upon him of distant kinship, -and upon whom, in that character, he had bestowed many -kindnesses. The letter made a new appeal to his compassion; -told him of the distresses of the writer’s daughter—married -not long before to a needy man—and besought -him to pay them a visit; that he might judge of their -necessities with his own eyes. Both mother and daughter -lived together in Westminster, at no great distance from -Cotton House.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Sir Robert paid the invited visit; was told of various -family plans connected with the recent marriage, and, -amongst other things, of a pressing need for some household -furniture. When the talk turned upon furniture, he -was asked to look, himself, at an upstairs room, and form -his own opinion about the request. Both mother and -daughter went up with him; but the three had hardly -entered the room, when a loud battering noise was heard -on the other side of the thin wall which separated them -<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>from the neighbouring house. And, presently a still -greater noise was heard from the rush of footsteps upon -the stairs.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The daughter, it seems, was not in the plot. Her -husband had ostentatiously ridden away from the door on -the previous morning, to go into the country, for an -absence of some days;—exactly like a hero in <span class='sc'>Boccaccio</span>. -At night, he quietly returned, and took up his abode, -by preconcert with his neighbours, next door. In the -morning he lay with those neighbours in ambush. When -they all tumultuously rushed up stairs—into the man’s -own abode—they were full of indignation at Sir Robert’s -wantonness; but,—unfortunately for their story—in their -eager haste they entered the room almost as soon as he -himself had entered it, with his two companions. Nevertheless, -they persisted in their accusation; permitting, -however, when the first burst of virtuous wrath had somewhat -subsided, the appearance of a sufficient indication -that they were not wholly averse from listening to a reasonable -proposal. There was a way, and one way only, in -which that fierce wrath might be appeased. Sir Robert, -however, was indignant in his turn. The purse of the -intended victim remained stubbornly closed.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>1630. July—Decr.</div> - -<p class='c029'>There is no need to pursue the unsavoury narrative. Nor -would so much of the story have here been told, but for the -suggestion which lies within it that the rapid breaking up of -Sir Robert’s vigorous constitution was not perhaps due, -quite exclusively,—as has been commonly believed<a id='r15'></a><a href='#f15' class='c030'><sup>[15]</sup></a>—to -the malicious privation inflicted upon him by King <span class='sc'>Charles</span>. -For though he was successful in extracting, from the -chief accuser himself, a confession of the falsehood of the -charge, and an acknowledgment that the object of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>conspirators was to extort money, yet the matter brought -him much toil and vexation of spirit. One of the latest -acts of his life was to arrange the proofs of the conspiracy -in due and formal array.<a id='r16'></a><a href='#f16' class='c030'><sup>[16]</sup></a> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Cottonian Charters</i>, &c., i, 3, seqq.; MS. <span class='sc'>Addit.</span>, 14049, ff. 21–43. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When he had done that, and -had once again made an effort—as fruitless as the efforts -which had been made before—for the recovery of his -library, he seems to have prepared himself for death.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>Domestic Corresp.</i>, Charles I, vol. clxvii, § 45, seqq. (R. H.).</div> - -<p class='c029'>Sir Robert’s repeated efforts to regain his Library were -not unseconded by friends powerful at Court. But the -King’s stubbornness would not give way—till concession -was too late. The Lord Privy Seal (the newly-appointed -successor of <span class='sc'>Worcester</span>, recently dead), was amongst -those who interceded with <span class='sc'>Charles</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Cotton’s Death.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -A little before Sir -Robert’s death his Lordship sent to him John <span class='sc'>Rowland</span>—one -of his officers—to tell him that, at length, his mediation -had been successful, and the King was reconciled to -him. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Rowland, in Pref. to the Political Satire entitled <i>Gondomar’s Transactions</i>, &c.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span> answered, ‘You come too late. My heart -is broken.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, when he came to lie on the bed of death, had -certain topics of reflection—of a secular sort—on which he -might well look back with some measure of complacency. -As a student of Antiquity he had been conspicuously successful. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Cotton’s Deathbed Reflections.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He had won the respect and reverence of every -man in Europe who had proved himself competent to judge -of such studies. And he had not been a selfish student. -He had made his own researches and collections seed plots -for Posterity. If, as a Statesman, he had missed his immediate -aims more frequently than he had reached them, he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>had none the less rendered, on some salient occasions, -brilliant public service. He had shewn, incontestably, -that the true greatness of England lay near his heart.</p> - -<p class='c029'>One of his contemporaries presently said of him—when -told of his death—‘If you could look at Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> heart “<i>My Library</i>” would be found inscribed -there;—just as Queen <span class='sc'>Mary</span> said “<i>Calais</i>” was printed deeply -on hers.’ But the character impressed on every volume of -that large collection which he so loved is ‘England.’ To -illustrate the history, and to enlighten the policy, of Englishmen -was the object which made <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, from his youth, a -Collector.</p> - -<p class='c029'>On the other hand, when the inevitable deathbed reflections -passed from things secular to things sacred,—and -also from Past to Future,—there was very little room for -complacency of any sort. A few years before, when a -better and more famous man than <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> lay in like -circumstances, this thought came into his mind:—‘Godly -men, in time of extreme afflictions, did comfort themselves -with the remembrance of their former life, <i>in which they -had glorified God</i>. It is not so in me. I have no comfort -that way. All things in my former life have been vain,—vain,—vain.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Those words were among Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> own early -recollections. When he was sixteen years of age some of -the dying words of Philip <span class='sc'>Sydney</span> were repeated in almost -every manor-house of England, and at many a cottage -fireside. Those particular words came under his eye, at -the most impressionable period of his life. The document -which has handed them down to us was preserved by his -care.<a id='r17'></a><a href='#f17' class='c030'><sup>[17]</sup></a> Did the exact thought they embody, and the very -<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>words themselves, come into his mind, as they well might, -when he, too, lay upon his deathbed?</p> - -<p class='c029'>Be that as it may, such words in Sir Robert’s mouth -would have had a special fitness. And he knew it well. -Happily, he also knew where to look for comfort. He -found it, just as Philip <span class='sc'>Sydney</span>—in common with many -thousands among the nameless Englishmen who had passed -away in the interval between 1586 and 1631—had found -it before him. He could say, as <span class='sc'>Sydney</span> said:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘My Faith is frail; Hope constant never,</div> - <div class='line'>Yet this my comfort is, for ever,</div> - <div class='line'>God saves not man for merit.’<a id='r18'></a><a href='#f18' class='c030'><sup>[18]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c029'>Not long before he died, <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> said to a friend (after a -long conference which he had held with Dr. <span class='sc'>Oldisworth</span>, -a Divine who spent many hours, from day to day, at his -bedside) -such comfort as I would not want, to be -the greatest monarch in the world.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The last Scene.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Bishop <span class='sc'>Williams</span>—who -passed the greater part of the last night in conversation -with him—remarked, as he went his way in the -morning, ‘I came to bring Sir Robert comfort, but I carry -away more than I brought.’ To the last, however, the -ruling passion of <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> nature asserted itself. He could -forgive his persecutors, but he could not shake off the -memory of the bitterness of the persecution. Turning to -Sir Henry <span class='sc'>Spelman</span>, he said: ‘Tell the Lord Privy Seal, -and the rest of the Council, that their so long detaining my -books from me has been the cause of this mortal malady.’ -<span class='sc'>Spelman</span> gave his message, and the ‘Lord Privy Seal’ himself -hastened to Sir Robert’s bedside to express his regrets. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>The interview was narrated to <span class='sc'>Charles</span>, and presently the -Earl of <span class='sc'>Dorset</span> was sent, from the King himself. The -new comforter came half an hour too late. The persecuted -man had passed to his rest. He died, trusting in the one, -only, all-sufficient, Saviour of sinful men. His death -occurred on the 6th of May, 1631. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>John Pory to Sir Thomas Puckering; MS. <span class='sc'>Harl.</span>, 7000, fol. 310.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -His body was removed -to Conington, and was interred with more than the usual -demonstrations of respect. The inscription on his monument -is printed at the end of this chapter.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Royal Message to Sir Thomas Cotton</span>, 2nd <span class='sc'>Bart.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>When Lord <span class='sc'>Dorset</span>, on his arrival at Cotton House -with the royal message, found that Sir Robert was already -dead he turned to the heir. If the Earl has been truly -reported, the terms in which he expressed his master’s -condolence and good wishes were ill-chosen: ‘To you, His -Majesty commanded me to say that, as he loved your father, -<i>so</i> he will continue his love to yourself.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Pory to Sir T. Puckering, as above.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The comfort of the -promise could not have been great. Sir Thomas’ experiences -of the rubs of life were, however, to come chiefly from -the King’s opponents; not from the King.</p> - -<p class='c029'>His life was a quiet one, up to the time of the outbreak -of Civil War. Until then, its most notable incidents grew -out of the circumstance that it fell to his lot to serve as -Sheriff of Huntingdonshire, during the busy year of -‘Shipmoney.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was in no danger of being tempted -to follow the example of <span class='sc'>Hampden</span>. The readiness with -which he discharged the troublesome task of collecting the -impost throughout his county probably laid the first foundation -of a strong feeling of personal ill-will towards him, on -the part of the lower class of the adherents of the Parliament, -during subsequent years. He never ranged himself -with the King’s party. Neither would he take any prominent -<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>part on the side of the Parliament. He had little taste -for public life; and regarded the quarrel with the aloofness -of spirit natural to a man with no dominant political convictions, -and with a decided love for country sports and for -the pleasures of domesticity.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>Domestic Corresp.</i>, Charles I, vol. cccxliii, § 67; cccxlvi, § 115; cccxlv, § 17; cccxlviii, cccl, § 40; cccliv, § 58; ccclxi, § 104; ccclxvi, § 13; ccclxxi, § 58. (R. H.)</div> - -<p class='c029'>He had sat in Parliament (for Marlow) during his -father’s lifetime, and in his father’s company. His correspondence -shows considerable talent. The extensive portion -of that correspondence—in the years 1636 and 1637—which -was imposed on him by the Shipmoney business, -shews also considerable power of dealing with official -details, little as he could have liked them. It exhibits an -anxiety to acquit himself conscientiously of a difficult duty, -and not to shirk any of the incidents of duty merely on -account of their distastefulness. In the ‘Short Parliament’ -of 1640 he sat as member for his own county. He does -not seem to have sought for any seat in the memorable -Parliament which followed.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Committee of Sequestrations for Huntingdonshire.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>His troubles began in 1644. Much to his disgust he -was appointed to be one of the ‘Committee of Sequestrations’ -for Huntingdonshire. The duty was one which any -English gentleman might well have disliked without incurring -the reproach either of idleness or of undue fastidiousness. -Sir Thomas’ repugnance to the work was backed by -a repugnance, not less keen, to those who would fain have -been his fellows in its performance.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘This County of Huntingdon’—so he writes not long -after his own nomination to an ungenial office, which he -refused to accept on the ground of an illness, that was far -from being feigned for the occasion—‘is in an unhappy -condition by Sequestrators. Only four or five men, of -mean reputation and estate, are “Committees;” and they -act (all of them) as Judges, Jury, and Executioners.’ His -<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>own experience was destined to become a pregnant comment -on that pithy text.</p> - -<p class='c029'>His avoidance of all share in the task of punishing, by -fine and imprisonment, those of his old friends and country -neighbours who thought that the duty of loyalty to the -Crown was still a duty, however glaring the faults of the -man who, for the time, wore the Crown, was the primary -offence given by Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> to the busy patriots -who would fain have had him work with them as a fellow-sequestrator. -His illness (as I have said) was doubtless -real enough; but he also disliked the work, and took no -pains to conceal his dislike. Medical advisers told him -that Bedfordshire—where he also had property—was a -better county than Huntingdonshire for a man who suffered -from chronic ague and low fever. But Sir Thomas needed -no adviser to tell him that, under the existing circumstances -of the country and the times, Eyworth would be a -much more satisfactory abode than Conington for a quiet-loving -man who had other duties than those of a soldier, -who abhorred civil war with all his soul, and who ardently -desired such a solution of the current issues as would -neither make the King a mere dependent on his Parliament, -nor make the Parliament an absolute ruler over the -kingdom. Sir Thomas went into Bedfordshire. Lady -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span> continued to abide at Conington. Very soon after -his departure she received a summons, addressed to her -husband, and couched exactly in these words: ‘You are -assessed eight hundred pounds, according to an Ordinance -of Parliament. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1643. 16 August.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The King and Parliament hath present -use of these monies. Therefore, we pray you, send it up -to us at Huntingdon on Saturday next.’ Before the -receipt of this very summary ‘assessment’ many of Sir -Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> horses, with a good deal of farm produce -<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>and other property, had been already seized, by measures -more summary still. Meanwhile Sir Thomas had committed -no act of delinquency; he had simply removed -himself into another county. Payment was refused.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>The Proceedings of the Huntingdonshire Sequestrators at Conington.</div> - -<p class='c029'>The sequel of the story depicts, in small, what was then -passing at large over much of the length and breadth of -England. The farmers on the Conington estate were told, -in the plainest of words, that if they did not pay their rents -‘to us at Huntingdon,’ their moveables would be seized -and themselves treated as ‘delinquents.’ Execution, in -those days, followed hard on process; and little difference -was made, either in word or deed, at the farms and at the -manor-house. On one morning, Lady <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was visited -in her bedchamber—before she could dress—by five -troopers, who, under her own eyes, broke open her drawers -and trunks, and carried off what they thought meet. On -another, one of Sir Thomas’ confidential servants received a -similar visit; had his papers rifled in a like fashion, and -his apparel stolen. At the stables and out-offices scarcely -any three days passed, during the entire summer of 1643—from -May to August—without some raid or other for -plunder. For much of this there was scarcely the semblance -or the pretext of a legal warrant. During those saturnalia -of ‘liberty’ there was, virtually, no judge in England, -and not a few men did whatsoever seemed good in their -own eyes.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was old enough to remember the -early stages of the long conflict of which—in 1643—this -was seemingly the upshot. In the Parliament at Oxford -he had sat beside his father and his father’s friends. His -correspondence at this time—so far as it appears to have -survived—deals merely with the passing events. It contains, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>I think, no disclosure of any reflections which may -have crossed his mind on the principles which underlay -them. He was probably shrewd enough to see already -that the grossness of the current abuses of popular power -carried with it no scintilla of valid blame upon the first -leaders in that conflict—the real issues of which were still -far off. What he, in common with so many of the best -gentlemen in England, was now smarting under was the -consequence rather of the royal triumphs of <span class='sc'>Charles’</span> -earlier years, than of the royal defeats of his later years. -Had the policy of Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> and of John <span class='sc'>Eliot</span> prevailed -a quarter of a century sooner, there would (very -probably) have been no county committees of sequestrators; -no political scaffolds at Whitehall; no ruling of -England by brute force under artificers suddenly transformed -into generals; no wholesale massacres in Ireland, -fraught with mischief for the whole empire during centuries -to come.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Be that however as it may, things were not yet at so -bad a pass, but that a curb could, now and then, be put on -the necks of such busy patriots as those who sat in perpetual -Committee at Huntingdon. Redress was impossible; -seeing that the plunder was dissipated almost -as fast as it was made. But, in Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> -case, it was found practicable to put a check on its -progress. He invoked the aid of a powerful friend, -Henry, Earl of Manchester, who represented the authority -of the Parliament in Huntingdonshire. The Earl summoned -the Sequestrators to show cause for their raids on -Conington. He held a court. The new functionaries -were brought—after some ineffectual bluster—to confess -that they knew of no act done by <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> which brought -<span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>him within purview of the Parliamentary Ordinance, nor of -any other legal cause to subject him to sequestration. As -the words of confession were on the lips of one active -Committee-man, another functionary blurted out—most -felicitously—‘You are wrong. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Proceedings in the Sequestration of the Estate of Sir T. Cotton</i>; MS. <span class='sc'>Addit.</span>, 5012, ff. 34, seqq.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Master Serjeant Wilde -wished it should be done.’ And, in the sequel, ‘Master -Serjeant’ proved to be strong enough to protract the -inquiry, and even to procure its adjournment to London; -though his attempt to maintain the sequestration—on a plea -the falsehood of which was conclusively proved—came at -last to be entirely foiled.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> came to sum up his losses he -found that they amounted to more than four thousand -pounds (in the money of that day). -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, ff. 71, seqq.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘They have had,’ he -wrote, ‘£1500, in money; besides eleven horses, worth -£140; Billeting at Conington, Eyworth, and other places, -which came to £100; spoil made at Sawtrey and at St. -Germans which £300 will not make good; and besides the -decay of my rents to an amount of at least £600 a-year; ... and now the layers and taxes will take up the -whole of Ladyday’s rent.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, 74.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Meanwhile his unlucky tenants, -in Huntingdonshire alone, had been deprived of a hundred -and ninety horses, and their farms had been stripped both -of provisions and of forage.</p> - -<p class='c029'>By way of pleasant diversity to his troubles in Huntingdonshire -and Bedfordshire Sir Thomas received, presently, -a letter from John <span class='sc'>Selden</span>—the old and warmly-attached -friend of his family—warning him that the capabilities of -Cotton House in London had caught the eye of certain -other Committee-men, and had made a deep impression on -them. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Attempt to seize on Cotton House.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -They saw that it would do capitally both as a -lodging house for the entertainment of distinguished -strangers who might come to Westminster, to wait on the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>Parliament, and as a State prison for very eminent delinquents. -These watchful Committee-men were also members -of the Council of State; and the time had now -come when King <span class='sc'>James’</span> sarcastic and well-remembered -jest—‘Bring me sax chairs, for I see sax kings approaching’—was -turning itself into a very awkward fact. These -Committee-men, too, (like their humbler fellows at Huntingdon,) -had their Serjeant at hand to give them advice -on elastic points of law. ‘Serjeant <span class='sc'>Dendy</span>,’ wrote <span class='sc'>Selden</span>, -‘fairly told me that the Committee and Council were -informed that, by the Patent under which you claim, it -was provided that your interest [in Cotton House] should -cease, <i>during the time of the Parliament</i>.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Selden to Sir T. Cotton; in an Appendix to Cotton MSS. marked ‘16. l.’ fol. 50 (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Certainly, an -awkward clause to appear in a man’s lease, in days when a -Parliament, beginning its ‘time’ in 1641 had not quite -ended it until 1660. This claim of the Council of State -proved, in the sequel, to have in it no more of real validity -than had that other claim to procure the Conington rents -to be paid ‘to us at Huntingdon’; but, like that, it gave Sir -Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> a good deal of annoyance before he succeeded -in getting quit of it.</p> - -<p class='c029'>It is much to his honour that petty but cumulative misfortunes -like these did not sour Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> -temper. When quieter times came, he showed himself the -worthy son of his eminent father, both by the improvement -of his library, at considerable charge, and by the liberality -with which he lent his choicest manuscripts, and, in many -ways, made them and his other collections serviceable to -literature. The still extant acknowledgments of service -of this sort from historians and great scholars are very -numerous.<a id='r19'></a><a href='#f19' class='c030'><sup>[19]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>By his first marriage with Margaret <span class='sc'>Howard</span>, daughter -of William Lord <span class='sc'>Howard</span> of Naworth, Sir Thomas had one -son and two daughters. By his second marriage with -Alice <span class='sc'>Constable</span> he had four sons, two of whom died -without issue. Alice was the daughter and sole heir of -Sir John <span class='sc'>Constable</span> of Dromondley in Yorkshire, and the -relict of Edmund <span class='sc'>Anderson</span> of Eyworth and of Stratton -in Bedfordshire, and she brought with her a considerable -dowry.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Sir John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, the eldest son of the first marriage, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>sat in Parliament for the borough of Huntingdon in the -reign of <span class='sc'>Charles the Second</span>, and for Huntingdonshire in -that of <span class='sc'>James the Second</span>. But he took no prominent part -in public affairs. Like his father he was twice married. And -his first wife became step-daughter as well as daughter-in-law -to his father, being Dorothy, daughter and heir of Edmund -<span class='sc'>Anderson</span> of Eyworth above mentioned. His second wife -was Elizabeth <span class='sc'>Honywood</span>. He seems to have resembled -his father both in his tastes for a quiet country life, and in -the liberality with which he allowed (on reasonable cause and -to proper persons) access to his library. Nor did Sir John, -any more than Sir Thomas, escape animadversion, when he -allowed himself to form his own judgment of the fitness -or the timeliness of any particular application. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Autobiog. and Corresp.</i>, vol. ii, p. 40.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>History of the Reformation</i>, vol. iii, <i>Introd.</i>, p. 8. (Edit. of 1714.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Caustic -Symonds <span class='sc'>D’Ewes</span> writes down Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> as -‘unworthy to be master of so inestimable a library.’ Caustic -Bishop <span class='sc'>Burnet</span> writes in his turn of Sir John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>: ‘A -great Prelate had possessed him with such prejudices against -me that ... he desired to be excused’ [from granting -<span class='sc'>Burnet</span> admittance to the Cottonian Library] ‘unless the -Archbishop of Canterbury or a Secretary of State would -recommend me as a person fit to have access.’ Against -strictures such as these, it were easy, but is not needful, to -adduce a score of acknowledgments of deep obligation, -from writers more eminent by far than either <span class='sc'>D’Ewes</span> or -<span class='sc'>Burnet</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The eldest son (also John) of Sir John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, by his -wife Dorothy, did not live to inherit either the famous -library or the ancestral estates. He died in 1681, and his -later days seem to have been marked by some stormy incidents. -In one point, his troubles resembled those which -disturbed the last year of his great-grandfather’s life;—in -so far as that they were caused by a lady. But whereas -<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>Sir Robert had the lady thrust upon him, to suit the purposes -of other men, the misfortunes of his great-grandson -appear to have grown out of an ardent but illicit passion—as -ardently, and not less illicitly, returned by its object. -Some scraps of their correspondence which have chanced to -be preserved read, after two centuries of dusty repose, -as if they were still all aflame with that fierce love which an -experienced poet describes as ‘passion’s essence.’<a id='r20'></a><a href='#f20' class='c030'><sup>[20]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c029'>Sir John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> survived till nearly the close of the -seventeenth century. He was succeeded in the baronetcy -and estates by John, the son of the last-mentioned John -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, who had married Frances, daughter and heir of -Sir George <span class='sc'>Downing</span> of East Hatley in Cambridgeshire. -Sir John, fourth baronet, married Elizabeth <span class='sc'>Herbert</span>, one of -the grand-daughters of Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. -Like his ancestors of many generations, this Sir -John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> sat in Parliament for Huntingdonshire. His -chief claim to honourable memory is that he settled the -Cottonian Library on the British nation for ever, and thus -made its founder, Sir Robert, the virtual and first <span class='sc'>Founder -of the British Museum</span>. This was done by Act of Parliament, -in the year 1700.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>This eminent public benefactor died, in 1731, without -surviving issue. The baronetcy then reverted to Robert -the eldest son of the second marriage of the first Sir John -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, grandson of the Founder. From Sir Robert, fifth -baronet, the dignity came, in 1749, to a fourth ‘John -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span>’ who then became sixth baronet and who was the -last surviving male heir of his honoured line.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Sir John had lost his only son—a fifth John—many -years before his accession to the baronetcy, which, on his -own death (27 March, 1752), became extinct. Conington -had long previously passed to a younger son of Sir Thomas -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, second baronet; as shown in the following—</p> - -<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span></div> -<div class='mono x-ebookmaker-drop'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c031'> - <div>+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+</div> - <div>| CONCLUSION OF THE PEDIGREE OF COTTON OF CONINGTON, |</div> - <div>| <span class='sc'>Showing Also the Descent of the Cottonian Trusteeship |</span></div> - <div><span class='sc'>| of the British Museum.</span> |</div> - <div>| |</div> - <div>| |</div> - <div>| Sir Robert (<span class='sc'>Bruce</span>) <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> = Elizabeth <span class='sc'>Brocas</span>. |</div> - <div>| Founder of the | |</div> - <div>| Cottonian Library. | |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| Alice <span class='sc'>Constable</span>, = Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, = Margaret <span class='sc'>Howard</span>, |</div> - <div>| daughter and sole heir | (2nd Bart.) | daughter of William, |</div> - <div>| of Sir John <span class='sc'>Constable</span>, | of Conington, Hunts, | Lord <span class='sc'>Howard</span> of |</div> - <div>| of Dromondley, in | and of Eyworth, | Naworth [First Wife]. |</div> - <div>| Yorkshire; Relict | Bedfordshire. | |</div> - <div>| of Edmund <span class='sc'>Anderson</span>, | [X] |</div> - <div>| of Eyworth and of | |</div> - <div>| Stratton, in | |</div> - <div>| Bedfordshire. | |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| +-------------+-------+----------------------+---------------+ |</div> - <div>| | | | | |</div> - <div>| Thomas Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> = Gertrude Philip <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, William <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, |</div> - <div>| (died in of Hatley St. | <span class='sc'>Morrice</span>. eventually of of Cotton Hall, |</div> - <div>| infancy). George, County | Conington, in Cheshire. |</div> - <div>| of Cambridge, | died without | |</div> - <div>| Knight. | issue, leaving | |</div> - <div>| | Conington to | |</div> - <div>| | Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, | |</div> - <div>| | his nephew. | |</div> - <div>| | | |</div> - <div>| +---------------------+ +---------------------------+ |</div> - <div>| | | |</div> - <div>| Alice = Robert <span class='sc'>Trefusis</span>. Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, |</div> - <div>| | of Conington, |</div> - <div>| | devisee of Philip. |</div> - <div>| | | |</div> - <div>| Robert-Cotton <span class='sc'>Trefusis</span>. Frances = Dingley <span class='sc'>Ascham</span>. |</div> - <div>| | (sole heir). |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| From whom |</div> - <div>| the present |</div> - <div>| Charles Henry |</div> - <div>| Rolle <span class='sc'>Trefusis</span>, |</div> - <div>| 18th Baron Clinton, |</div> - <div>| of Maxtoke. |</div> - <div>+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+</div> - <div>| [X] |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| +-----------------------------+-----+ |</div> - <div>| | | | |</div> - <div>| Elizabeth <span class='sc'>Honywood</span> = Sir John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> = Dorothy <span class='sc'>Anderson</span>, Lucy. Frances. |</div> - <div>| [Second Wife]. | (3rd Bart.) | daughter and sole |</div> - <div>| | of Conington, | heir of Edmund |</div> - <div>| | and of Eyworth, | <span class='sc'>Anderson</span>, of |</div> - <div>| | succy. M.P. for | Eyworth and of |</div> - <div>| | Borough and | Stratton [First |</div> - <div>| | County of | Wife]. |</div> - <div>| | Huntingdon. | |</div> - <div>| | [Y] |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| +---------+-----------------------------+------------+ |</div> - <div>| | | | |</div> - <div>| Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> = Elizabeth <span class='sc'>Wigston</span>. Elizabeth. Mary. |</div> - <div>| of Gedding, in Hunts, | |</div> - <div>| succeeded, as 5th Bart., | |</div> - <div>| on the death, in 1731, | |</div> - <div>| of Sir John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>. | |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| +---------------+ |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| Sir John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> = Jane <span class='sc'>Burdett</span>. |</div> - <div>| Succ. as 6th Bart | |</div> - <div>| in 1749. Died, | |</div> - <div>| without surviving | |</div> - <div>| male issue, | |</div> - <div>| 27 March, 1752. | |</div> - <div>| +----------+ |</div> - <div>| | | |</div> - <div>| John, Jane = Thomas <span class='sc'>Hart</span>, |</div> - <div>| died in infancy. of Warfield, |</div> - <div>| Berkshire. First |</div> - <div>| Parliamentary |</div> - <div>| Trustee of the |</div> - <div>| <span class='sc'>Cottonian Library</span>. |</div> - <div>+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+</div> - <div>| |</div> - <div>| [Y] |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> = Frances <span class='sc'>Downing</span>, |</div> - <div>| Died in 1681 | daughter of Sir George |</div> - <div>| in his Father’s | <span class='sc'>Downing</span>, of East |</div> - <div>| lifetime. | Hatley, Cambridgeshire. |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| +----------+----------------------+-------+ |</div> - <div>| | | | |</div> - <div>| Sir John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> = Elizabeth <span class='sc'>Herbert</span>, Thomas Frances = William <span class='sc'>Hanbury</span>.<a id='r21'></a><a href='#f21' class='c030'><sup>[21]</sup></a> |</div> - <div>| (4th Bart.) grand-daughter of <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>. | |</div> - <div>| M.P. for Philip, Earl of | | |</div> - <div>| Huntingdon, Pembroke, &c. | | |</div> - <div>| Donor of <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> | | |</div> - <div>| Library to | | |</div> - <div>| the Nation. | | |</div> - <div>| +-+ | |</div> - <div>| | | |</div> - <div>| Mary, Mary <span class='sc'>Hanbury</span> = Martin <span class='sc'>Annesley</span>. |</div> - <div>| sole heir | |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| | |</div> - <div>| +----------------+--------+ |</div> - <div>| | | |</div> - <div>| Revd. Francis <span class='sc'>Annesley</span>, George <span class='sc'>Annesley</span>, |</div> - <div>| Present <span class='sc'>Cottonian Trustees</span> of |</div> - <div>| the British Museum. |</div> - <div>+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='hide'> - -<div class='figcenter id002'> -<img src='images/i_152.png' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>The reader who glances at this pedigree will notice that -some of the <span class='sc'>Cottons</span> of 1600–1750 were as fortunate in -getting heiress-wives as had been their foregoers of preceding -centuries. But their possessions were scattered -almost as rapidly as they had been augmented. Conington, -which was the most valued possession of Sir Robert, was -less prized by his descendants. The Council Books show -that some of its appendant manors and members—notably -Glatton and Hulme—gave to the Founder himself a good -deal of trouble. The Sequestration Books show the anxieties -and losses which the busy Parliamentarians of Huntingdonshire -inflicted on his next successor. Other circumstances -tended also to bring the place into disfavour with owners -who had a choice of seats. It lay so close to the great -northern road, as to be exposed to undue demands alike -from the movement of troops and from the tramping of -professional vagrants. Nor was it less exposed, from its -situation, to injuries by great floods. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Desertion of the old Seat of Conington.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Long before the extinction -of the male line, Conington was deserted, in favour -of more attractive abodes in southern counties. We learn -from a passage in Stukeley’s <i>Itinerary</i> that the house was -fast becoming a ruin, even in the reign of <span class='sc'>George the -First</span>; although it had been solidly rebuilt by Sir Robert -himself.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘I thought it,’ writes that antiquary, ‘a piety to turn -half a mile out of the road, to visit Conington the seat -of the noble Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>,—where he and Camden -have often sat in council upon the Antiquities of Britain, -and where he had a choice collection of Roman inscriptions -picked up from all parts of the kingdom. I was concerned -to see a stately old house of hewn stone, large and handsome, -already falling into ruin.’<a id='r22'></a><a href='#f22' class='c030'><sup>[22]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>By the Statute which established the <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> Library -as a national institution, it was enacted as follows: ‘The -Cottonian Library ... shall be kept and preserved, in the -name and family of the <span class='sc'>Cottons</span>, for public use and -advantage. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Establishment Act of 1700.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And therefore, according to the desire of the -said Sir John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, and at his request, the said Mansion -House, ... and also all the said Library, ... together with -all the Coins, Medals, and other rarities, ... shall be -vested in Trustees ... with a perpetual succession.’ The -first Trustees were the Lord Chancellor <span class='sc'>Somers</span>, Mr. -Speaker <span class='sc'>Harley</span> (afterwards Earl of Oxford), and the Lord -Chief Justice, <i>ex officio</i>; together with Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, -of Hatley St. George, Cambridgeshire; Philip <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, of -Conington; Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> of Gedding, in Cambridgeshire, -and William <span class='sc'>Hanbury</span>, of the Inner Temple. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>12 & 13 <span class='sc'>Will. III</span>, c. 7.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It -was provided that on the decease of any one of the four -family trustees the heir male, for the time being, of Sir -Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, the founder, should appoint a successor.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The furious party-spirit which at this time divided the -country into hostile camps, the leaders of which were at -any moment ready to fly at each other’s throats, was -eminently unfavourable both to the guardianship and to -the growth of the new institution; as it was, indeed, to all -matters of learning or of mental culture. Hardly seven -years had passed before it was found necessary to pass ‘<i>An -Act for the better securing of Her Majesty’s purchase of -Cotton House in Westminster</i>.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>This Act recites that since the preceding enactment of -1700 ‘very little had been done in pursuance thereof to -make the said Library useful to the Public, except what -had been lately done at Her Majesty’s charge;’ and that -the place wherein the Library then was, being ‘a narrow -little damp room, was improper for preserving the books -<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>and papers.’ The Act then proceeds to declare that an agreement -had been made for the purchase of Cotton House for -£4,500, ‘to the intent that it might be in Her Majesty’s -power to make this most valuable collection useful to her -own subjects, and to all learned strangers.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Within five years, however, this unfortunate Library had -to be removed from Cotton House to Essex House, in the -Strand (1712); and thence again, in 1730, to Ashburnham -House, at Westminster (already containing the Royal -collection), where it had not long been lodged, when the -fire occurred by which it was so seriously injured. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Fire at Ashburnham House.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The -account which the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry -gave to the Public, shortly after the occurrence of this -calamity, runs thus:</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘On Saturday morning, October 23, 1731, a great smoke -was perceived by Dr. <span class='sc'>Bentley</span>, and the rest of the family at -Ashburnham House, which soon after broke out into a -flame. It began from a wooden mantel-tree taking fire -which lay across a stove-chimney that was under the room -where the MSS. of the Royal and Cottonian Libraries were -lodged, and was communicated to that room by the wainscoat -and by pieces of timber, that stood perpendicularly -upon each end of the mantel-tree.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘They were in hope, at first,’ continues the Committee, -‘to put a stop to the fire by throwing water upon the -pieces of timber and wainscoat, ... and therefore did not -begin to remove the books so soon as they otherwise would -have done. But, the fire prevailing, Mr. <span class='sc'>Casley</span>, the -Deputy Librarian, took care in the first place to remove -the famous Alexandrian MS. and the books under the head -of Augustus’ [twelve of the Cottonian presses, it will be -remembered, were adorned by the heads of the twelve -Cæsars, whence the still existing designations or press-marks, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>as for instance, that of the famous <i>Evangeliary of -King Ethelstan</i>, <span class='sc'>Nero</span> D. vi, mentioned on page 132] -‘in the Cottonian Library, as being esteemed the most -valuable amongst the collection. Several entire presses, -with the books in them, were also removed; but ... -several of the backs of the presses being already on fire, -they were obliged to be broke open, and the books, as many -as could be, thrown out of the windows.’ All the MSS. -that were saved, and the remains of what been burnt, were -removed to the Dormitory of Westminster School.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>1731 October.</div> - -<p class='c029'>At the time of this disastrous fire, the number of MS. -volumes was 958. Of this number 114 were reported to -be ‘lost, burnt, or entirely spoiled; and 98 damaged so as -to be defective.’ Mr. Speaker <span class='sc'>Onslow</span> took immediate -measures, in conjunction with Dr. <span class='sc'>Bentley</span> and Mr. <span class='sc'>Casley</span>, -for the examination of the burnt MSS., and for the repair -of such as were then deemed alone reparable. Three -months afterwards the Record Clerk to whom the task was -more particularly committed, thus reports his progress: -‘One hundred and upwards,’ he says, ‘being volumes of -Letters and State Papers, have been quite taken to pieces, -marked, and bound again.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Report of the Committee appointed to view the Cottonian Library</i> (1732), pp. 11–15; and Casley’s Appendix thereto.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But he laments that ‘there -having no way hitherto been found out to extend vellum -and parchment that has been shrivelled up and contracted -by fire to its former dimensions, part of several of the -vellum MSS. must remain not legible, unless the desideratum -can be supplied.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>For nearly a century some of the most precious of the -injured MSS. remained as the fire had left them. But in -1824, by the care of Mr. <span class='sc'>Forshall</span>, the then Keeper of -the MSS. in the British Museum, a commencement was -made towards their restoration, which his successor, Sir F. -<span class='sc'>Madden</span>, zealously and successfully continued. Nearly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>three hundred volumes have been repaired, and more or -less completely restored, (a considerable number of which -were previously regarded as beyond all hope of recovery) to -a state of legibility.<a id='r23'></a><a href='#f23' class='c030'><sup>[23]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c035'>The calamity of 1731 brought about what may, in a -sense, be termed a partial compensation, by inducing -Major Arthur <span class='sc'>Edwards</span> to make an important bequest, -with the view of precluding its recurrence. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The bequest of Arthur Edwards.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Owing to the -protraction of a life interest in the legacy—the terms of -which will be cited in describing that eventual Act of -Incorporation which created the British Museum—it did -not become available until other arrangements had made -its application to building purposes needless. It was, consequently, -and in pursuance of the Testator’s contingent instructions, -appropriated to the purchase of books in the manner, -and with results, which will be spoken of in a subsequent -chapter. Major <span class='sc'>Edwards</span> also bequeathed his own collection -of about 2,000 volumes of printed books, by way of -addition to the Cottonian Library of MSS. These, however, -were not actually incorporated with the Museum -collections until the year 1769.</p> - -<p class='c035'>For several years, <span class='sc'>Bentley</span> conjoined the Keepership of -the Cottonian with that of the Royal Library. His predecessors -in the office were Dr. Thomas <span class='sc'>Smith</span> (hitherto the only -biographer of the Founder,) and William <span class='sc'>Hanbury</span>, who had -married a descendant of the Founder. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Keepers of the Cottonian Library.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Dr. <span class='sc'>Smith</span> was less -eminent as a scholar—though his learning was great—but -far more estimable as a man, than was his successor in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>Keepership, the imperious and covetous Master of Trinity. -For conscience sake, <span class='sc'>Smith</span> had given up both a good -fellowship and a good living, at the Revolution. Literature -profited by the loss of Divinity. He died in May, -1710. <span class='sc'>Hanbury</span>—by a very undesirable plurality—was a -Trustee as well as Keeper. That he was not, in either -capacity, strictly faithful to the spirit of the Trust confided -to him seems to be established by incidents which I find -recorded in the MS. Diary of Humphrey <span class='sc'>Wanley</span>. The -reader will observe that it is possible to reconcile <span class='sc'>Wanley’s</span> -statement with the supposition that the MSS. -alienated had never actually been made part of the -Cottonian Library, though it is as plain as sunlight that -a really faithful trustee would have made them part of -it. As it turned out, the sale of them did no actual and -eventual mischief. On December 2nd, 1724, says <span class='sc'>Wanley</span>, -‘I had a conversation with Mr. <span class='sc'>Hanbury</span>, who owned that -he hath still in his possession many original and valuable -papers given him by his wife’s brother, Sir John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, -which now lie in different places. These papers and whatever -else happens to be among them—as books, rolls, &c.—he -hath agreed to put into my hands for my Lord’s -[<span class='sc'>Oxford’s</span>] use. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Wanley’s Diary</i>, MS., ii, 40 (B.M.).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -I have promised that he shall be very -well paid and considered for the same.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Wanley</span> had already recorded a previous visit in which -<span class='sc'>Hanbury</span> had delivered ‘for my Lord <span class='sc'>Oxford’s</span> use, a -small but curious parcel of old letters,’ adding: ‘I believe -he expects a gratuity for them.’ On the last day of -December he received another parcel; and on the 4th -January, 1725, he again writes: ‘Mr. <span class='sc'>Hanbury</span> gave me -another parcel of letters written to Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Without endorsing the violent diatribe of Lord <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> -(the second of the Harleian Earls) against <span class='sc'>Hanbury’s</span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>successor—as the almost wilful destroyer of part of the -Cotton MSS.—it must be admitted that there is conclusive -evidence that neglect of duty on Dr. <span class='sc'>Bentley’s</span> -part was a moving agent in the disaster. Under his -nominal keepership the practical duties of Cottonian -Librarian were discharged by an industrious and otherwise -meritorious deputy, David <span class='sc'>Casley</span>.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Project of 1707 for uniting the Cottonian, Royal, and Arundel, Libraries.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>There were many projects for making Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> noble collections, both in literature and antiquities, -the foundation of a ‘British Museum,’ before a feasible -and successful project was hit upon. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Sloane to Charlett, 7 April, 1707. (Bodleian Library, Oxford).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It is curious to note -that one of these schemes embraced, as the groundwork of -the projected national Museum, the collections of Sir -Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, of Prince <span class='sc'>Henry</span>, and of Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel</span>; -and that some particulars of the plan were narrated—to a -country correspondent—by Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, almost fifty -years before his own conditional bequest gave occasion and -means for the eventual union of the collections so spoken -of with the vast gatherings of all kinds, in literature and in -science, to the procuring of which so large a portion of his -own useful and laborious life was to be devoted.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When that occasion came, two of the then Cottonian -Trustees framed a Petition to Parliament in which they -expressed their acknowledgments for ‘seasonable and necessary -care’ of the Cotton Library. They alleged that it -had remained ‘almost useless’ to the Public, during many -years, for want of a fixed and convenient building to -receive it; that it had been exposed to many dangers -by frequent removals, and had once run the hazard of -‘a total destruction by fire.’ If, said they, the loss which -the Public then sustained proved to be less than had been -feared, the Public owed the obligation ‘to a great member -<span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>of this House’ [of Commons] ‘who powerfully interposed -and assisted in its preservation.’ The allusion is to the -Right Hon. Arthur <span class='sc'>Onslow</span>, the then Speaker, who afterwards -became one of the first Trustees of the Museum -established by the Act of 1753.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>Petition of Samuel Burroughs and Thos. Hart; MS. in Cottonian ‘Appendix’ (B. M.).</div> - -<p class='c029'>The Petitioners proceed to state that their most earnest -wishes are accomplished by seeing a Library, famed -throughout Europe, with the generous gifts of Major -<span class='sc'>Edwards</span> annexed thereto, placed out of all further -dangers from neglect, and that they rejoice to perceive -that the Museum of their own Founder is about to be -enlarged by other rare and valuable collections. ‘We -are,’ say they, ‘fully persuaded that an edifice raised upon -such a stately plan will, by degrees, be stored with benefactions -and become a common Cabinet for preserving -with safety all curiosities and whatsoever is choice or -excellent in its kind. Moreover, being a new institution -for the service of the learned world it will be an honour to -the Nation, an ornament long wanted in this great city, -and a distinguished event in the history of our times.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Heretofore, p. 3.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Then follows the passage which I have prefixed, by way of -motto, to this first division of the volume now in the reader’s -hands.</p> - -<p class='c035'>When these Petitioners went on to state to Parliament -that ‘no expression of gratitude can be too great ... for -doing honour to the memory of Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>,’ their -assertion gave rise to no utterance of hostile feeling. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Recent Charges against the character and fame of Sir R. Cotton.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -They -were not even charged with undue laudation of their -ancestor. People who at that time troubled themselves to -think of such matters at all, were agreed in regarding Sir -Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> as unquestionably one of the worthies of -England. Nowadays—as I have had occasion to show -<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>already—there are many gainsayers. A distinguished -historian (Mr. <span class='sc'>Gardiner</span>) asperses <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> character -both for statesmanship and for truthfulness; whilst a distinguished -archæologist (Mr. <span class='sc'>Brewer</span>) charges him with -embezzling records.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The first charge has been partly met, in these pages, by -the simple apposition and collation of contemporary evidence. -The reader has his choice between the cumulative -testimony of several English peers and statesmen; and the -unsupported testimony of one foreign diplomatist, who -made it his boast to be the enemy of Englishmen, and -whose hostility was graduated in tolerably exact accordance -with the qualities and the deeds which have made -England proud of them. The home witnesses gave their -testimony whilst the events were still fresh in men’s minds. -They gave it in broad daylight, and with open doors. -The foreign witness put his evidence into a secret dispatch, -to be seen by no human eye, out of the Spanish Cabinet, -until our own historian disinterred it, at Simancas, two -centuries and a half after date. Nor is this quite all.</p> - -<p class='c029'>If <span class='sc'>Gondomar’s</span> account be true, not only was Sir -Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> life as a statesman a protracted lie, but -his duplicity was so superbly cloaked as to deceive the most -keen-sighted of his contemporaries. The men who sat -habitually at his board in his days of health, and who -ministered at his bedside in all the offices of tender friendship -in his days of sickness and of death, were all wrong -about his character. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>A Discours wether yt be fitt for Inglande to make peace with Spaine.</i> MS. Cott. Vespas. C. xiii, ff. 160, seqq. (B. M.).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And there is this other little fact to -boot: Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> began his public life by as open -a declaration of anti-Spanish policy in relation to the great -question of the Netherlands as ever came from the lips of -our <span class='sc'>Ralegh</span>. He ended his public life with as staunch an -adherence to the principles, both in Church and State, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>which the rulers of Spain abhorred as that which had been -shown by <span class='sc'>Ralegh</span> on the scaffold in Old Palace Yard, or -by <span class='sc'>Eliot</span> in the dungeon of the Tower of London. Meanwhile, -just in the mid-channel of his career, and in the -prime of his faculties, Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> threw himself, -gratuitously, at the feet of <span class='sc'>Gondomar</span>. He humbly asked -leave to take Spanish service in the guise of a political -slave. The historian’s proposition is a bold one. And its -evidence needs to be cogent. English readers now know -quite enough about <span class='sc'>Gondomar</span> to judge whether or not his -sole testimony is sufficient to damn the fame of such a man -as <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>;—to degrade him from the rank of an English -worthy;—to brand him as a criminal virtually convicted of -apostacy in religion, and of treason to his avowed convictions -in politics?<a id='r24'></a><a href='#f24' class='c030'><sup>[24]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>From the nature of things the second charge cannot be -so directly, so compactly, or so effectively met. Almost -a third of the manuscripts which form the most important -section of the Cotton Library consist of, or contain, Papers -of State. Of these a very considerable proportion once -belonged to the State. How came they to pass into the -hands of Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>?</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Mr. Brewer’s Account of Sir R. Cotton’s Acquisition of State Papers.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>By Mr. <span class='sc'>Brewer</span> the question has been answered, unhesitatingly -and exhaustively. Large portions of the Diplomatic -Correspondence of <span class='sc'>Henry the Eighth</span> were, he -says, ‘carried off in 1614, if not before, by Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span>.... The original bundles appear to have been -broken up under the keepership of <span class='sc'>Agarde</span>, when the -Treasury of the Exchequer was rifled of its most precious -contents to augment the collections of Sir R. <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>.... -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Calendar of the State Papers</i>; Reign of Henry VIII, Pref., pp. viii, ix.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -For -the early years of <span class='sc'>Henry</span>, his [Sir Robert’s] -collections are more numerous, and even more interesting, -than the documents in the English, the French, or the -Spanish Archives. They are equally authentic.... By -what fraud or negligence they found their way into the -possession of Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> it is not for me to -inquire.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>No writer can be better qualified to speak with authority -on such a topic as this than is Mr. <span class='sc'>Brewer</span>. Familiar -with State Papers and with records of all kinds for a very -long period, he has won the deep respect of all students of -our history by the uses to which his knowledge has been -applied. But the ablest writer will sometimes write -<span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>hastily. The most impartial inquirer will now and then -reach a conclusion by overleaping part of the evidence.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The sweeping passage which I have quoted, like other -passages in Mr. <span class='sc'>Riley’s</span> preface to <i>Liber Custumarum</i>, -previously noticed, leaves altogether out of view three -or four whole classes of testimony—chains not links—having -a vital bearing on the issue. For example—</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>Sir T. Wilson to King James I, <i>Domestic Corresp.</i>, vol. xcvi, § 41*, seqq. (R. H.)</div> - -<p class='c029'>I. It disregards the fact that certain bundles of State -letters and papers were given by the King’s order to -Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, during the reign of <span class='sc'>James the First</span>. -These, indeed, were commanded to be ‘subscriptions and -signatures of Princes and great men, attached to letters -<i>otherwise unimportant</i>.’ But who is to tell us what was -the estimate of ‘importance’ in papers of State formed, -two centuries and a half ago, by <span class='sc'>James</span>, who gave the -order, or by Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Wilson</span>, who received it?</p> - -<p class='c029'>II. It disregards the fact that long before, as well as -long after, that known order of 1618, Sir Robert’s possession -of papers once the property of the Government was so -published and so recognized as to imply, by fair induction, -that the possession must have been—as far as he was concerned—a -lawful one. In his own writings, he iterates -and reiterates reference to national documents then in his -own collection. His references are specific and minute. -Secretaries of State write to him, asking leave to inspect -original Treaties (sometimes in order to lay them before -the King in person) and promising to return them -promptly. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Domestic Corresp.</i>, as above, 1621, March; and <i>passim</i>; also <i>Council Books</i> (C. O.).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Law Officers of the Crown desire him kindly -to afford them opportunities for collating public instruments, -preserved at Cotton House, with public instruments still in -the repositories of the Crown.</p> - -<p class='c029'>III. It leaves out of sight the fact that in the correspondence -of Sir Edward <span class='sc'>Coke</span> with Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>there is a passage which also <i>implies</i>—though it does not -expressly assert—that Sir Robert had received from King -<span class='sc'>James</span> a permission to select records, of some kind or -other, from the Tower of London, anterior to the qualified -permission, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Sir E. Coke to Sir R. Cotton; MS. Cott. Julius, ciii (Undated; probably 1612). (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -above mentioned, given in 1618, to select -‘autographs’ from the Paper Office;</p> - -<p class='c029'>IV. It disregards that strong implication of a lawful -possession—so far as Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, individually, is -concerned—which necessarily arises out of the fact that at -two several periods the Cottonian Library was under the -sole control and custody of Crown officials; -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Registers of Privy Council</i>, 1616; 1629; 1630; <i>passim</i> (C. O.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -that it -remained under such control for an aggregate period of -more than two years; that <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> bitter enemies were -then at the head of affairs; that in 1630 a Royal Commission -was actually issued -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Signs Manual</i>, Charles I, vol. xii, § 15 (R. H.).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘to search what Records or -other Papers of State in the custody of Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span> properly belong to His Majesty, and thereof -to certify;’ and that the existing Cottonian MSS., together -with those burned in 1732, were, one year after the issue -of that Commission, restored by the Crown to Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> heirs;</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>e. g.</i> MS. Harl., 7002, ff. 120, 122, &c., MS. Cott. Julius ciii, <i>passim</i> (B. M.).</div> - -<p class='c029'>V. It overlooks the circumstance, vital to the issue now -raised, that amongst the MSS. which most indubitably -were once Crown property many can still be minutely -traced from possessor to possessor, prior to their reception -into the Cottonian Library;</p> - -<p class='c029'>And VI. It disregards the fact, hardly less important, -that a patriotic statesman conversant both with the arcana -of government at large, and with the special arcana of the -State Paper Office and Secretary’s offices, under King -<span class='sc'>James the First</span> and King <span class='sc'>Charles the First</span>, might have -cogent reasons for believing that some important classes of -State Papers would be likely to remain much more truly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>and enduringly the property of the English nation if stored -up at Cotton House—even had no ‘British Museum’ ever -been created—than if stored up at Whitehall.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Inferences and implications such as these are far from -amounting to conclusive proof. But most readers, I think, -will assent to the assertion that, cumulatively, they amount -to a very strong presumption indeed that the stigma -which has been impressed on Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> memory -is both precipitate and unjust. Precipitate it plainly is, -for a confident verdict has virtually been pronounced—upon -a grave issue,—before hearing any evidence for the -accused. Unjust I, for one, cannot but think it, inasmuch -as circumstances which at most are but grounds of mere -suspicion of the greater offence charged, have been so -huddled up with proofs of a minor and (comparatively) -venial offence, that readers giving but ordinary attention -to the allegations and their respective evidence are almost -certain to be misled.</p> - -<p class='c029'>For, undoubtedly, Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> stands convicted -of dealing, more than once, with manuscripts which he had -borrowed very much as though they had been manuscripts -which he possessed. Mr. <span class='sc'>Riley’s</span> testimony is, on this -point, conclusive. An independent witness, Dr. Sedgwick -<span class='sc'>Saunders</span>, the able Chairman of the Library Committee of -the Corporation of London, tells me that both the <i>returned</i> -MS. of <i>Liber Custumarum</i>, and also that of <i>Liber Legum -Antiquorum</i>, bear as unmistakable marks of a claim to -ownership on Sir Robert’s part, as those of which the -return was refused.</p> - -<p class='c029'>To such proofs as these I can myself add a new instance. -Archbishop <span class='sc'>Laud</span> had procured, from the Principal and -Fellows of St. John’s, the loan to Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> of a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>certain ancient Beda MS. of great value. Many years -passed, and the MS. had not returned to St. John’s. The -Fellows cast severe blame on their eminent benefactor. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Archbp. Laud to Sir R. Cotton, MS. Cott. Julius C., iii, f. 232.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sc'>Laud</span> had to petition his friend <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> for the return of -Beda, in terms almost pathetic; and he was so doubtful -whether pathos would suffice that he added bribe to -entreaty. If, he said, ‘anything of worth in like kind -come to my hands, I will freely give it you in recompense.’</p> - -<p class='c035'>The reader has seen the abounding proofs of that generous -furtherance of every kind of literary effort which <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> -gave, throughout life, with an ungrudging heart and an -open hand. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Bolton to Camden; MS. Harl., 7002, f. 396.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Sir <span class='sc'>Robert’s</span> openness made his library—to -use the words of an eminent contemporary—the ‘Common -treasury’ of English antiquities. The reader now -sees also the drawback. It remains for him to strike a -true balance; and to strike it with justice, but also with -charity.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span> - <div class='section'><h4 class='c017'>CHAPTER III.<br /> <span class='large'>THE CHIEF COLLECTOR AND THE AUGMENTORS OF THE OLD ROYAL AND PUBLIC LIBRARY AT ST. JAMES’.</span></h4></div> -</div> - -<p class='c036'>‘Death never makes such effectual demonstration of his -power, as when he singles out the man who occupies the -largest place in public estimation;—as when he seizes upon -him whose loss is felt, by thousands, with all the tenderness -of a family bereavement;—puts a sudden arrest, ... before -the infirmities of age had withdrawn him from the labours -of usefulness;— ... and sends the fearful report of this -his achievement through the streets of the city, where it -runs, in appalling whispers, among the multitude.’—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-r c037'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Thomas Chalmers.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c038'><i>Life of</i> <span class='sc'>Henry</span>, <i>Prince of Wales, son of</i> <span class='sc'>James I</span>, <i>and -virtual Founder of the ‘Royal Library.’—Its Augmentors -and its Librarians.—Acquisition of the -Library of the</i> <span class='sc'>Theyers</span>.—<i>Incorporation with the -Collections of</i> <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> <i>and of</i> <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Book I</span>, Chap. III. <span class='sc'>Life of Henry, Prince of Wales.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Henry</span>, Prince of Scotland, and afterwards of Wales, -was born at Stirling Castle on the 19th of February, 1594. -King <span class='sc'>James</span> had married <span class='sc'>Anne</span> of Denmark more than -four years before the Prince’s birth, but a certain grotesqueness -which had marked some of the characteristic -circumstances of the marriage in Norway (in 1589) was -not without its counterpart among the incidents that came -to be attendant on the subsequent event at home. One -<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>of these incidents is thus narrated in the quaint narrative -of a Scottish courtier who made it his business to chronicle -the movements of the Court with newsmanlike fidelity:—‘Because -the chappell royal was ruinous and too little, the -King concluded that the old chappell should be utterly -rased, and a new [one] erected in the same place that -should be more large, long, and glorious, to entertain the -great number of strangers’ who were expected to be present -at the baptism. The interval demanded for the restoration -of this decayed chapel at Stirling entailed an unusual -delay between the child’s birth and his baptism, but it gratified -the King by enabling him to send invitations far and -wide. Had all of them met with acceptance they would -have resulted in the presence of a cloud of witnesses, such -as had rarely been seen in Scotland upon any the most -famous occasion of courtly rejoicing.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Prince Henry’s Baptism at Stirling.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>For the presence of two guests in particular <span class='sc'>James</span> was -anxious. He wished to see an ambassador extraordinary -from the Court of <span class='sc'>Elizabeth</span>, and another from that of -<span class='sc'>Henry the Fourth</span>. <span class='sc'>Henry</span> would not gratify his wish, -and the omission was much resented. <span class='sc'>Elizabeth</span>, on the -other hand, was ostentatiously swift to comply, but her -willingness was well nigh defeated by one of the common -accidents of life. She had fixed her choice on the brilliant -Earl of <span class='sc'>Cumberland</span>, whose love of magnificence was -scarcely less prominent than was his love of adventure. He -could grace a royal festivity, as conspicuously as he could -lead a band of eager soldiers, or a crew of daring navigators. -Just as the Earl’s costly preparations for his embassy -were completed, he fell sick. Some days were lost in the -hope of his speedy recovery, but the Queen was soon -obliged to nominate the Earl of <span class='sc'>Sussex</span> in his stead. -<span class='sc'>Sussex</span> had then to make preparations in turn. The day -<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>fixed for the ceremony in Scotland had to be more than -twice postponed, in order to ensure his presence. In all, -more than six months elapsed before the babe was really -baptized. We will hope that the Court Chronicler exaggerates -a little when he tells us that ‘the time intervening -was spent in magnificent banquetting and revelling.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>True Reportarie of the baptisme of the Prince of Scotland</i>, MS. <span class='sc'>Addit.</span>, 5795 (B. M.).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -If -so, the potations at Stirling must have vied with those of -Elsinore.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When the long-expected day arrived (30 August, 1594) -the child lay ‘on a bed of estate richly decored ... with the -story of <span class='sc'>Hercules</span>.’ The old Countess of <span class='sc'>Mar</span> lifted him -into the arms of <span class='sc'>Lennox</span>, and by him the babe was transferred -to those of the English ambassador who held him -during baptism. Then Patrick <span class='sc'>Galloway</span>, we are told, -learnedly entreated upon a text from the 21st chapter of -Genesis.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Bishop of <span class='sc'>Aberdeen</span> taught, in his turn, upon the -Sacrament of Baptism—first in the vulgar tongue and -then in Latin—and his discourse was followed by the -twenty-first Psalm, ‘sung to the great delectation of the -noble auditory,’ and also by a panegyric upon the Prince, -delivered in Latin verse, from the pulpit. Then came a -banquet, at which ‘six gallant dames’ had the cruel task -assigned them of performing ‘a silent comedy.’ To the -banquet succeeded a ‘desart of sugar,’ drawn in upon a -triumphal chariot. The original programme had provided -that this richly-laden chariot should be drawn by a lion, -for whose due tameness the projector had pledged himself. -But to King <span class='sc'>James</span> a lion, like a sword, was at all times -an unpleasant object. He said that it would affright the -ladies, and that ‘a black-moore’ would be a more safe -propeller. Banquet and dessert together lasted from eight -o’clock in the evening until three of the following morning. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>At intervals, the cannon of Stirling Castle roared, until, -says our chronicler, ‘the earth trembled therewith.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Thus was ushered in a brief but remarkable life. It -lasted less than nineteen years. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 6–17, verso.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Then to the cradle which -had been so richly emblazoned with the labours of <span class='sc'>Hercules</span>, -in all the colours of embroidery, there succeeded -the hearse of black velvet thickly set with its plumes of -sombre feathers. One half, however, of those nineteen -years that stood between cradle and hearse were years -passed upon an arena to which the course of events had -given almost world-wide importance and conspicuousness. -The Prince’s career was, by the necessity of his position -still more than by reason of his youth, a career of promise, -not of performance. But every year which passed -after the removal from Scotland seems to have intensified -the promise in the eyes of those who watched it, as well as -to have deepened a conviction in the minds of nearly all -thoughtful bystanders that to a grand ambition there were -about to be proffered, in <span class='sc'>God’s</span> due time, means and -appliances more than usually large, and a grand field of -action. So it seemed to human expectation. And because, -in those long-past years, it reasonably seemed so, there -is still somewhat of a real human interest attaching to -incidents which, otherwise, would be trivial and barren.</p> - -<p class='c035'><span class='sc'>Early Dissentions -at -Court.</span></p> - -<p class='c029'>One unhappy circumstance which occurred before <span class='sc'>Henry</span> -was eighteen months old testified to the existence, even at -that date, of unhappy domestic relations of the kind which -on many subsequent occasions brought bitterness into his -daily life. Queen <span class='sc'>Anne</span> was deprived of the care of her -child very soon after his baptism. The Earl of <span class='sc'>Mar</span> was -appointed to be his governor, and the Earl’s mother assumed -that place in the upbringing of the royal infant which, in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>most cases, custom no less than nature would have assigned -to the Queen herself. Her natural resentment brought -about more than one angry discussion at Court. After -one of those scenes of turbulence, <span class='sc'>James</span> gave to <span class='sc'>Mar</span>, in -writing, this characteristic command: ‘Because in the -surety of my son consisteth my surety, I have concredited -unto you the charge of his keeping.... This I command -you out of my own mouth, <i>being in the company of those I -like</i>. Otherwise, for [<i>i. e.</i> notwithstanding] any charge or -necessity that can come from me, you shall not deliver -him.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>In 1599, Adam <span class='sc'>Newton</span> became Prince <span class='sc'>Henry’s</span> tutor; -and the choice seems to have been a happy one. The boy -had a most towardly inclination to learn. The tutor had -both a genuine love of letters and a real delight in teaching. -He had also the wisdom which shuns extremes. Under -<span class='sc'>Newton’s</span> care the child remained, in spite of an obliging -offer from Pope <span class='sc'>Clement the Eighth</span> to have him educated -at Rome under the papal eye.</p> - -<p class='c029'>At the death of <span class='sc'>Elizabeth</span>, and after receiving the -news of his own proclamation as her successor, the delighted -father wrote to his son—then just entering on his tenth -year—a letter which depicts its writer in a way as lifelike -as does the warrant addressed to <span class='sc'>Mar</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>James’ Letter to Prince Henry on the Accession to the English Crown.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -I quote it, -literally, from the hurriedly-written original, as it now lies -before me: ‘My Sonne, That I see you not before my -pairting, impute it to this greate occasion, quhairin tyme is -so precious. But <i>that</i> I<a id='r25'></a><a href='#f25' class='c030'><sup>[25]</sup></a> shall, by Goddes grace, shortlie -<span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>be recompenced by your cumming to me shortlie, and continuall -residence with me ever after. Lett not this news -make you proude or insolent. For a Kings sonne and -heire was ye before, and na maire are ye yett. The -augmentation that is heirby lyke to fall unto you is but -in caires and heavie burthens. Be therefore merrie, but -not insolent. Keepe a greatness, but <i>sine fastu</i>. Be -resolute, but not willfull. Keeye your kyndness, but in -honorable sorte. Choose none to be your play fellowis -but thaime that are well-borne. And above all things, -give never good countenance to any but according as ye -shall be informed that thay are in estimation with me. -Looke upon all Englishmen that shall cum to visit you as -among youre loving subjects; not with that ceremonie as -towardis straingers, and yett with such hartines as at this -tyme they deserve.’ And so forth. For, notwithstanding -the King’s haste to set out on his journey, his pen ran on. -But all his advice is in one strain. The variations are for -ornament. In me, he says (only not so briefly), you see a -model king. Mould yourself after that pattern, and you -will be a model prince. ‘I send you my booke,’ he adds—referring -to <span lang="grc" xml:lang="grc">Βασιλικον δωρον</span>— ... ‘ye must level everie -mannis opinions or advices unto you, as ye finde thaime -agree or discorde with the rules thaire sett down.’ Near -as they commonly were in person, in the after years, -<span class='sc'>James</span> still found occasion to write to <span class='sc'>Henry</span> a good many -letters. This one theme runs through them all. But no -amount of hortatory discourse could hinder the new metal -from overrunning the worn and antiquated mould.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Prince Henry in England.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Prince <span class='sc'>Henry</span> came into England in the June of 1603. -He was invested with the Garter on the 2nd of July at -Windsor. Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Chaloner</span> (son of <span class='sc'>Elizabeth’s</span> -well-known ambassador to the Emperor) succeeded <span class='sc'>Mar</span> in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>the office of Governor. He was a man of many accomplishments, -and had a strong bias for some of the physical -sciences. But it does not seem that he possessed that -force of character which in the elder Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Chaloner</span> -was a conspicuous quality.</p> - -<p class='c029'>From a very early age, <span class='sc'>Henry</span> showed that in him were -combined in happy proportions a strong relish for the -pleasures of literature with a relish not less keen for the -pursuits and employments of an active and out-of-doors life. -He could enjoy books thoroughly, without being absorbed -by them. He had a manly delight in field sports, without -falling under the temptation to become a slave to his -pastime. If in anything his enjoyments tended to excess, -as he grew towards maturity, it was seen in his devotion -to warlike exercises. So that even the excess testified to -that real manliness of spirit which keeps the body in subjection, -instead of pampering its pleasures and its aptitudes. -He seems to have learnt, unusually early in life, -that the natural instincts of youth will have their truest -gratification, and will retain their fullest zest, when made, -by deliberate choice, steps towards a conscious fitness for -the duties of manhood. Alike in what we have from his -own pen, and in the testimonies of those who were the -closest observers of his brief career, we see evidence that -he had formed a due estimate of the responsibilities that, -to human view, lay close before him. Of his thoughts -about kingship we possess only fragments. Of his father’s -thoughts on that subject we enjoy an exhaustive exposition. -The contrast in the thinking is curiously significant.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Some of the best known anecdotes of <span class='sc'>Henry’s</span> life -exhibit the interest he felt in naval matters. That tendency -may, perhaps, have taken its birth in a London -<span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>incident of March, 1604. The Earl of <span class='sc'>Nottingham</span>, Lord -High Admiral, was then in the flush of Court favour. -The Prince had been but for a few months in England, -and his sight-seeing had not, as yet, included the baptism<a id='r26'></a><a href='#f26' class='c030'><sup>[26]</sup></a> -of a ship. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Origin of Henry’s interest in Naval affairs.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The Admiral prepared that novelty to please -him. It was at the Tower that the Prince first examined -the ‘<i>Disdain</i>’ (15 March, 1604). Whether at the same -time he made his first acquaintance with the most famous -inhabitant of the Tower is matter of mere conjecture. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Life of Pett</i>, MS. <span class='sc'>Harl.</span>, vol. 6279 (B. M.). (Cited by Birch, p. 39.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sc'>Ralegh</span>, at all events, was there<a id='r27'></a><a href='#f27' class='c030'><sup>[27]</sup></a> on the day when -Phineas <span class='sc'>Pett</span> moored his new vessel off Tower Wharf, for -the Prince’s delight. Before any long time had passed, -<span class='sc'>Ralegh</span> was busy in the composition of a <i>Discourse of a -maritimal voyage, and of the passages and incidents therein</i>, -with a like object. The acquaintance, however began, was -improved with every passing year. Of the many hopes -which came to a sudden end eight years afterwards, few, it -is probable, were more sanguine or more far-reaching than -those of the King’s keenly watched and dreaded prisoner. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Henry and Ralegh.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -For England, <span class='sc'>Ralegh</span> saw in Prince <span class='sc'>Henry</span> a wise and -brave king to come. For himself, he saw not only a -generous friend, but a man who might be the means of -giving shape and substance to many patriotic schemes -with which a brain that could not be imprisoned had long -been teeming.</p> - -<p class='c029'>There is evidence that on more than one topic of public -policy <span class='sc'>Ralegh’s</span> counsel made a deep impression on -<span class='sc'>Henry</span>. One instance of it will be seen presently. But -apart altogether from such positive results as admit of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>testimony, their intercourse is memorable. It must have -been by virtue of some congeniality of nature that a youth -in <span class='sc'>Henry’s</span> position so quickly leapt—across many obstacles—to -an appreciation, alike of the circumstances and of the -character of <span class='sc'>Ralegh</span>, which still commends itself to those -who have looked into them most searchingly. The estimate -has been many times confirmed by the investigations -of history, long afterwards, but it was strongly opposed to -the broad current of contemporary opinion. A heart larger -than the average may have its divinations, as well as the -intellect that is more acute and better furnished than the -average.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Investigation into the Naval Dockyards.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>But the generous heart is often allied with a hasty -temper. The impression made on the Prince by <span class='sc'>Ralegh’s</span> -writings on naval matters had, amongst other results, that -of increasing both his interest in the management of the -royal dockyards, and his familiar intercourse with Phineas -<span class='sc'>Pett</span>. <span class='sc'>Pett</span> was master shipwright at Chatham, and, as -we have seen, the designer of the prince’s first vessel -<i>Disdain</i>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1608. April. See Chap. ii, pp. 62, 63.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> had induced the -King to issue that Commission of Inquiry into the Navy, -of the results of which some account has been given in the -preceding Chapter, <span class='sc'>Pett</span> was one of the persons whose -official doings were brought into question. <span class='sc'>Henry</span> took a -warm interest in the inquiry and testified openly his -anxiety on <span class='sc'>Pett’s</span> behalf. A specific charge about an -alleged disproportion between timber paid for and the -vessels built therewith was investigated at Woolwich. -Both the King and the Prince were present. <span class='sc'>Henry</span> -stood by <span class='sc'>Pett’s</span> side. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. Life of Phineas Pett, in MS. <span class='sc'>Harl.</span> 6279 (B. M.) p. 45.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When the evidence was seen to -disprove the charge, the Prince cried with a loud voice—disregarding -alike the royal presence and the forms of law—‘Where -be now those perjured fellows that dare thus -<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>abuse His Majesty with false informations? Do they not -worthily deserve hanging?’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The warmth of <span class='sc'>Henry’s</span> friendship seems to have suffered -little diminution by the absence of its objects. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Henry’s foreign Correspondence.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When -his friends went to far-off countries he encouraged them to -be active correspondents by setting them a good example. -He welcomed all sorts of real and worthy information. -About the government and affairs of foreign countries his -curiosity was insatiable. When important letters came to -him he not only read them with care but made abstracts of -their contents. When the labour-loving Lord Treasurer -<span class='sc'>Salisbury</span> noticed, with regret, in his son <span class='sc'>Cranborne</span> -certain indications of a turn towards indolence, it was by -an appeal to Prince <span class='sc'>Henry’s</span> example that he strove to -correct the failing. <span class='sc'>Henry</span> evinced eagerness to learn by -all methods. Books, letters, conversation, personal insight -into notable things and new inventions,—were alike acceptable -to him.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>His Purchase of Lord Lumley’s Library.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>In April, 1609, the death of John, Lord <span class='sc'>Lumley</span>, -without issue, enabled the Prince to gratify his love of -books by purchasing a Library which probably was more -valuable than any other collection then existing in England, -with the exception of that of Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Thirty years before, Lord <span class='sc'>Lumley</span> had inherited the -fine library of his father-in-law, Henry <span class='sc'>Fitzalan</span>, Earl of -<span class='sc'>Arundel</span>, who had been a collector of choice manuscripts -at a time when the reckless dispersion of monastic treasures -impoverished the nation, but gave, here and there, -golden opportunities to openhanded private men. When -the estates of the <span class='sc'>Fitzalans</span> came to <span class='sc'>Lumley</span>—in virtue -of an entail made by the Earl of <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> during Lady -<span class='sc'>Lumley’s</span> lifetime—the splendid succession had lost its -best charm. The wife who had thus enriched him was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>dead, and he was childless. His wife’s sister, the Duchess -of <span class='sc'>Norfolk</span>, was also dead, but had left a son. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Muniments at Norf. House (Sussex, Box 7), as cited in Tierney’s <i>Arundel</i>, p. 19.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sc'>Lumley</span> -sold his life interest in the broad lands, and forests, and in -the famous castle of Arundel, to the next heir, but he kept -the library and found one of the chief pleasures of his -remaining term of life in liberally augmenting it. <span class='sc'>Henry’s</span> -first care, after his purchase, was to have a careful catalogue -made of the collection. And he soon gave evidence -that he had bought the books for use; not for show. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Privy Purse -Book</i>; in -<i>Domestic -Correspondence</i>, -<span class='sc'>James -I</span>, vol. lvii, -§ 87, p. 4. -(R. H.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He -also made many important additions, from time to time, -during his three years’ ownership.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Perhaps the most festive days of that brief span were the -sixth of January, 1610, and the sixth of June of the same -year, on both of which Whitehall again witnessed a gay -tournament. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Tournaments of 1610.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -On twelfth-day, at the head of a band of -knights which included <span class='sc'>Lennox</span>, <span class='sc'>Arundel</span>, <span class='sc'>Southampton</span>, -<span class='sc'>Hay</span>, Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Somerset</span>, and Sir Richard <span class='sc'>Preston</span>, -<span class='sc'>Henry</span> kept his barriers against fifty-six assailants, and -before a brilliant court, for whose pleasure the long mimic -fight was diversified by the gay devices of Inigo <span class='sc'>Jones</span>, and -the graceful verses of Ben <span class='sc'>Jonson</span>. Next day the jousting -was followed by a banquet not less splendid. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Chronicle of England</i>, p. 898. <i>The Speeches at Prince Henries Barriers</i>; and <i>Oberon, a Masque</i>. (Jonson’s <i>Works</i>, vol. v, pp. 965–974, 1st edit.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -At Whitehall,—as -at Stirling sixteen years before,—the banquetting -lasted seven hours, but it was enlivened by a comedy in -which the ladies were not condemned to silence. In the -following June, <span class='sc'>Henry’s</span> creation as Prince of <span class='sc'>Wales</span> was -celebrated by tiltings on a more extensive scale, as well as -by masques and dances, and by an elaborate naval battle -upon the Thames. But the prince himself seems to have -taken more pleasure in witnessing from time to time, at -Woolwich or at Chatham, the launching of real ships -fitted for real warfare. Nor are indications wanting that -during his ponderings on the many advices which he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>received of the course of public events in Europe, he had -occasional presentiments that a crisis was drawing near -which would make the adoption of a warlike policy to -be alike the duty of the King, and the recognized interest -of the nation.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Be that as it may, the broad contrasts of character which -existed between the wearer of the crown and its heir apparent -became increasingly obvious during the long negotiations -and correspondence about the projects of marriage -for the prince himself and for his sister. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The projects for Royal Marriages.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1611–1612.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Something, -indeed, of the difference in character between <span class='sc'>James</span> and -<span class='sc'>Henry</span> was indicated when, in 1611, the prince directed -<span class='sc'>Ralegh</span> to draw up, in his prison, a paper of advice on the -scheme of a double marriage with Savoy and on the relations -between Savoy and Spain. It came out more forcibly -when, on occasion of the proposal from France for his own -marriage with <span class='sc'>Christina</span> (the elder sister of <span class='sc'>Henrietta -Maria</span>), he wrote to his father in these words: ‘The cause -which first induced your Majesty to proceed in this proposition -by your Ambassador was the hope which the Duke -of <span class='sc'>Bouillon</span> gave your Majesty of breaking their other -match with Spain. If the continuance of this treaty hold -only upon that hope, and not upon any desire to effect a -match with the second daughter, in my weak opinion I hold -that it stands more with your Majesty’s honour to stay -your Ambassador from moving it any more than to go on -with it. Because no great negotiation should be grounded -upon a ground that is very unsure and uncertain, and -depends upon their wills who were the first causers of the -contrary.’ For this letter the Prince was rebuked. Two -months afterwards, it was found indispensable to desire -him to express again his opinion upon a new stage of the -negotiation. He did so in words to which the events of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>the next few years were destined to give significance. I -quote from the original letter, preserved (with a large mass -of other letters from the same hand) amongst the Harleian -MSS.<a id='r28'></a><a href='#f28' class='c030'><sup>[28]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c029'>‘As for the exercise of the princess’ religion,’ wrote <span class='sc'>Henry</span>, -on the 5th of October, 1612, ‘your Majesty may be pleased -to make your Ambassador give a peremptory answer that -you will never agree to give her greater liberty in the exercise -of it than that which is agreed with the Savoyeard, which -is—to use his own word—<i>privatemente</i>; or, as Sir Henry -<span class='sc'>Wotton</span> did expound it, “in her most private and secret -chamber.”’ Then he touches on the delicate question of -dowry, and the relative preferability of the alliance proffered -by France and that proffered by Savoy; adding,—with an -obvious mental reference, I think, to the advice given him -by <span class='sc'>Ralegh</span> in the preceding year,—these pregnant words: -‘If your Majesty will respect rather which of these two will -give the greatest contentment to the general body of the -Protestants abroad, then I am of opinion that you will -sooner incline to France than to Savoy.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>1612. Oct. 5. Henry to James; MS. <span class='sc'>Harl.</span>, 6986, f. 180.</div> - -<p class='c029'>The writer then hints a fear that he may, unwittingly, -have incurred a renewal of the paternal displeasure which -some expressions of opinion in his former letter on the same -subject had excited. Let his father kindly remember, he -entreats, that his own special part in the business,—‘which -is to be in love with any of them, is not yet at -hand.’</p> - -<p class='c035'>Death, not love-making, was at hand. One month afterwards, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>the arm that penned this letter was stretched out,—still -and rigid.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Prince was seized with sudden illness on the 10th of -October, five days after its date. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Death.</span> 1612. November.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The first appearances -were such as are wont to follow upon a great chill, after -excessive exercise—to which <span class='sc'>Henry</span> was always prone. In -spite of much pain and some alarming symptoms, he persisted -in removing from Richmond to St. James’ on the -16th, in order to receive the Elector Palatine, soon to -become the husband of his sister. Within very few days -it was apparent that his illness was of the most serious -nature. He left his apartment at St. James’ on the morning -of the 25th, to hear a sermon at the Chapel Royal. The -text was from the fourteenth of Job, ‘<i>Man, that is born -of a woman, is of short continuance</i>.’ Afterwards he dined -with the King, but was obliged to take his leave, being -seized with faintness and shivering fits. These continued to -recur, at brief intervals, until his death, on the evening of -the sixth of November. Almost the only snatch of quiet -sleep which he could obtain followed upon the administration -of a cordial, prepared for him in the Tower by -<span class='sc'>Ralegh</span>, at the Queen’s earnest request. It was not given -until the morning of the last day.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Henry</span> died calmly, but under total exhaustion. For -many hours before his death he was unconscious, as -well as speechless. The last words to which he responded -were those of Archbishop <span class='sc'>Abbot</span>:—‘In sign of -your faith and hope in the blessed Resurrection, give us, -for our comfort, a sign by the lifting up of your hands.’ -<span class='sc'>Henry</span> raised both hands, clasped together. It was his -last conscious act.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Here, to human ken, was a life all seed-time. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>harvest belonged to the things unseen. Contemporaries -who had treasured up, in memory, many of those small -matters which serve to mark character, were wont sometimes -to draw contrasts between the prince and his brother. -And many have been the speculations—natural though -unfruitful—as to the altered course of English history, had -<span class='sc'>Henry</span> lived to ascend the throne. One fact, observable in -the correspondence and documentary history of the times, -will always retain a certain interest. Some of those who -were to rank among the staunchest opponents of <span class='sc'>Charles</span> -were men who thought highly of <span class='sc'>Henry’s</span> abilities to rule, -and who held his memory in affectionate reverence.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Disposal of the Prince’s Library.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Henry</span> had died intestate. The library which he had -purchased from the Executors of Lord <span class='sc'>Lumley</span> fell to the -disposal of the King. The greater part of it went to augment -the remains of the old royal library of England, -portions of which had been scattered during <span class='sc'>James’</span> reign, -as well as before it. By that disposal of a collection, in -which the prince had taken not a little delight during his -brief possession, he became virtually, and in the event, a -co-founder of the British Museum.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Union of the St. James’ and Whitehall Libraries.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The library remained at St. James’ under the charge, for -a time, of the prince’s librarian, Edward <span class='sc'>Wright</span>. The -relics of the royal collection at Whitehall were then in the -keeping of the eminent scholar and theologian, Patrick -<span class='sc'>Young</span>. Eventually they too were brought to St. James’, -and <span class='sc'>Young</span> took the entire charge. It was by his exertions -that the combined collection was augmented by a valuable -part of the library of Isaac <span class='sc'>Casaubon</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Roe, <i>Negotiations</i>, pp. 335; 618.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It was to his hands -that Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Roe</span> delivered the ‘Alexandrian Manuscript’ -of the Greek Bible, the precious gift to King <span class='sc'>Charles</span> -of Cyril <span class='sc'>Lucar</span>, Patriarch of Constantinople.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Young</span> survived until 1652, but he was deprived of his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>office in 1648. In that turbulent time the library narrowly -escaped two perils. Some of the soldiers of the triumphant -party sought to disperse it, piecemeal, for their individual -profit. Some of the leaders of that party formed a scheme -to export it to the Continent for a like purpose. It stands -to the credit of a somewhat fanatical partisan—Hugh -<span class='sc'>Peters</span>, one of the many men who are doomed to play in -history the part of scapegoats, whatever their own sins may -have really been—that his hasty assumption of librarianship -(1648) saved the library from the first danger. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Comp. <i>Order-Book of Council of State</i>, vol. v, p. 454, and vol. xxiv, p. 604. (R. H.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -A like act -on the part of Bulstrode <span class='sc'>Whitelocke</span>, in the following year -(July, 1649), saved it from the second. Probably, it was at -his instance that the Council of State made or designed to -make it a Public Library. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Whitelocke’s</span> <i>Embassy to Sweden</i>, vol. i, p. 273. (Reeve’s edit.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Four years afterwards, <span class='sc'>Whitelocke</span> -held at Stockholm a curious conversation with Queen Christina -about its manuscript treasures, of some of which, he -tells us, she was anxious to possess transcripts.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Under the Commonwealth, the librarianship had been -combined, first with the keepership of the Great Seal, and -then with an Embassy to Sweden. Under the Restoration, -it was held in plurality with an active commission in the -Royal Navy. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Acquisition of the Theyer Library.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sc'>Charles II</span>, however, caused some valuable -additions to be made to the library. Of these the most -important was the manuscript collection which had belonged, -successively, to John and Charles <span class='sc'>Theyer</span>. The sum given -was £560. The collection came to St. James’ Palace in -1678. It was rich in historical manuscripts and in the -curiosities of mediæval science. It embraced many of the -treasured book-possessions of a long line of Abbots and Priors -of Llanthony,<a id='r29'></a><a href='#f29' class='c030'><sup>[29]</sup></a> and the common-place-books of Archbishop -<span class='sc'>Cranmer</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>At <span class='sc'>Charles the Second’s</span> death the number of works in -the royal collection had increased to more than ten thousand. -No doubt, in that reign, the books could have brought -against their owner the pithy complaint to which <span class='sc'>Petrarch</span> -gave expression, on behalf of some of their fellows, at an -earlier day: ‘Thou hast many books tied in chains which, -if they could break away and speak, would bring <i>thee</i> to -the judgment of a private prison.... -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Petrarch, <i>De remediis utriusque fortunæ</i>.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -They would weep -to think that one man—ostentatious of a possession for -which he hath no use—should own a host of those precious -things that many a passionate student doth wholly lack.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>No true lover of books, for their own sake, indeed, was -ever to possess that rich collection, until it passed into the -ownership of the nation. Its entail, so to speak, as a -heirloom of the Crown, was cut off, just as it was about to -pass into the hands of the one English King who alone, -of all the Monarchs since <span class='sc'>Charles the First</span>, cared about -books. That it should pass to the Nation had been proposed -by Richard <span class='sc'>Bentley</span>, when himself royal librarian, -sixty years before the proposal became a fact. ‘’Tis easy -to foresee,’ said <span class='sc'>Bentley</span>, ‘how much the glory of our -Nation will be advanced by erecting a Free Library of all -sorts of books.’ In his day, he saw no way to such an -establishment, otherwise than by transfer of the royal -collection.</p> - -<p class='c029'>There is a reasonable, perhaps it might be said a strong, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>probability that when <span class='sc'>Bentley</span> gave expression to this -wish, at the close of the seventeenth century, he was -unconsciously reviving one among many projects for the -public good which had been temporarily buried in the -grave of Prince <span class='sc'>Henry</span>. For under the Commonwealth, -the Library at St. James’ had been ‘Public’ rather in -name than in fact.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The ultimate incorporation of the Royal Library with the Collections of Sloane and of Cotton.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>When the time came, the number of volumes of the -Royal Collection which remained to be incorporated with -the Museum of <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> and with the Library of Sir Robert -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span> was somewhat more than twelve thousand. The -number of separate works—printed and manuscript together—probably -exceeded fifteen thousand.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Amongst the acquisitions so gained by the nation the -first place of honour belongs to the <i>Codex Alexandrinus</i>. -It stands, by the common consent of biblical palæographers, -in a class of manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures into -which only two or three other codices in the world can -claim to be admitted. Of early English chronicles there is -a long series which to their intrinsic interest as primary -materials of our history add the ancillary interest of having -been transcribed—sometimes of having been composed—expressly -for presentation to the reigning Monarch. Here -also, among a host of other literary curiosities, is the group -of romances which John <span class='sc'>Talbot</span>, Earl of Shrewsbury, -caused to be compiled for <span class='sc'>Margaret</span> of Anjou; and the -autograph <i>Basilicon</i>, written for Prince <span class='sc'>Henry</span>. Among -the innumerable printed treasures are choice books which -accrued as presentation copies to the sovereigns of the -House of <span class='sc'>Tudor</span>, beginning with a superb series of illuminated -books on vellum, from the press of Anthony -<span class='sc'>Verard</span> of Paris, given to <span class='sc'>Henry the Seventh</span>. For -large as had been the losses sustained by the original -<span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>royal library, and truly as it may be said that Prince -<span class='sc'>Henry’s</span> acquisitions amounted virtually to its re-foundation, -many of the finest books of long anterior date had -survived their varied perils. And some others have -rejoined, from time to time, their old companions, after -long absence.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The royal collection has also an adventitious interest—in -addition to the main one—from another point of -view. It includes results of the strong-handed confiscations -of our kings, as well as of the purchases they made, -and the gifts they received. Both the royal manuscripts -and the royal printed books contain many memorials of -careers in which our poets no less than our historians have -found, and are likely to find, an undying charm.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span> - <div class='section'><h4 class='c017'>CHAPTER IV.<br /> <span class='large'>THE COLLECTOR OF THE ARUNDELIAN MSS.</span></h4></div> -</div> -<p class='c036'>‘The English nobles are high-spirited, active, educated -men, born to wealth and power, who have run through -every country and have kept, in every country, the best -company; have seen every secret of art and nature; and—when -men of any ability or ambition—have been consulted -in the conduct of every important action. You -cannot wield great agencies without lending yourself to -them. When it happens that the spirit of the Earl meets -his rank and his duties, we have the best examples.... -These are the men who make England -that strong-box and Museum it is; who gather and protect -works of art, dragged from amidst burning cities and -revolutionary countries, and brought hither, out of all the -world.... When I saw that, besides deer and -pheasants, these men have preserved <span class='sc'>Arundel Marbles</span>, -<span class='sc'>Townley Galleries</span>, <span class='sc'>Howard</span> and <span class='sc'>Spencer Libraries</span>, -<span class='sc'>Warwick and Portland Vases</span>, <span class='sc'>Saxon Manuscripts</span>, -<span class='sc'>Monastic Architectures</span>, <span class='sc'>and Millenial -Trees</span>, I pardoned their high park-fences.’—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-r c037'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>R. W. Emerson</span>, (<i>English Traits</i>, § xi).</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c038'><i>Political Exile and Foreign Travel under Elizabeth, and -under James.—Life of Thomas</i> <span class='sc'>Howard</span>, <i>Earl of -Arundel</i>.—<i>The Consolations of Connoisseurship.—Vicissitudes -of the Arundel Museum.—The gifts of -Henry</i> <span class='sc'>Howard</span> <i>to the Royal Society</i>.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Book 1</span>, Chap. IV. <span class='sc'>The Collector of the Arundelian MSS.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The Collector of the Arundel Marbles and Founder -of the Arundel Library was the great-grandson of that -twenty-first Earl of <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> (Henry <span class='sc'>Fitzalan</span>) by -whom had been collected the choicest portion of the -library which passed, in 1609, from the possession of -John, Lord <span class='sc'>Lumley</span>, to that of <span class='sc'>Henry</span>, Prince of Wales. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>chap. iii, p. 162<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>That Earl had profited by the opportunities which the -dissolution of the monasteries presented so abundantly to -collectors at home. The new Earl profited, in his turn, by -larger and far more varied opportunities, offered to him -during a long course of travel abroad. For himself, his -travels ripened and expanded a somewhat crude and irregular -education. He attained, at length, and in a much -greater degree (as it seems) than any of his contemporaries, -to that liberal culture which enabled him to appreciate, and -to teach his countrymen to appreciate, the arts from which -Greece and Italy had derived so much of their glory; -whilst in England those arts had, as yet, done very little -either to enhance the enjoyments and consolations of human -life, or to call into action powers and aptitudes which had -long lain dormant. It is not claiming too much for the -Earl of <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> to say that of whatever, upon a fair -estimate, England may be thought to owe to its successful -cultivation of the Arts of Design, he was the first conspicuous -promoter. Nor is his rank as a pioneer in the -encouragement of the systematic study of archæology—a -study so fruitful of far-reaching result—less eminent.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Foreign Travel, under Tudors and Stuarts.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>He may also be regarded as setting, by the course he -took with his own children, the fashion of foreign travel, -as a necessary complement of the education of men of rank -and social position. The example became very influential, -and in a sphere far broader than the artistic one. Under -<span class='sc'>Elizabeth</span>, the Englishmen best known on the Continent -had been political exiles. Most of them were men self-banished. -Many of them passed their lives in defaming -and plotting against the country they had left. The jealous -restrictions upon the liberty of travel imposed by the Government -rarely kept at home the men of mischief, but -were probably much more successful in confining men -<span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>whose free movements would have been fruitful in good -alike to the countries they visited and to their own. The -altered circumstances which ensued upon the accession of -<span class='sc'>James</span> notoriously gave facilities to wider Continental intercourse; -and it was by men who followed very much in -Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel’s</span> track that some of the best social results -of that intercourse were won.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Thomas <span class='sc'>Howard</span>, Earl of Arundel, Surrey, and Norfolk, -was twentieth in lineal descent from that William de -<span class='sc'>Albini</span> who, in the year 1139, had acquired the Castle -and Earldom of Arundel by virtue of his marriage with the -widow of King <span class='sc'>Henry the First</span>. He was born at -Finchingfield, in Essex, in 1585,—a date which nearly -marks the period of lowest depression in the strangely -varied fortunes of an illustrious family. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Thomas, D. of Norfolk to his son Philip, &c., MS. Harl., 787.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Philip, Earl of -<span class='sc'>Arundel</span>, the father of Earl Thomas, was already in the -Tower, and was experiencing, in great bitterness, the truth -of words written to him by his own father, when in like -circumstances:—‘Look into all Chronicles, and you shall -find that, in the end, high degree brings heaps of cares, -toils in the State, and most commonly (in the end) utter -overthrow.’ Before Thomas <span class='sc'>Howard</span> had reached his fifth -year his mother—co-heiress of the ‘<span class='sc'>Dacres</span> of the North’—had -to write to the Lord Treasury <span class='sc'>Burghley</span>: ‘Extremytye -inforceth me to crave succour,’ and to illustrate -her assertion by a detail of miseries.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The hopes with which the <span class='sc'>Stuart</span> accession was naturally -anticipated by all the <span class='sc'>Howards</span>, were by some of -them more than realized, but the heir of Arundel was not -of that number. He was, indeed, restored in blood to -such honours as his father, Earl Philip, had enjoyed, and -also to the baronies forfeited by his grandfather, Thomas, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>Duke of <span class='sc'>Norfolk</span>, in 1572. But the dignities were -restored without the lands. His nearest relations profited -by their influence at Court to obtain grants of his chief -ancestral estates. The Earls of <span class='sc'>Nottingham</span>, <span class='sc'>Northampton</span>,<a id='r30'></a><a href='#f30' class='c030'><sup>[30]</sup></a> -and <span class='sc'>Suffolk</span> had each of them a share in the -spoil;—salving their consciences, probably, by the reflection -that, despite his poverty, their young kinsman had made a -great marriage. For his alliance, in 1606, with Lady -Aletheia <span class='sc'>Talbot</span>, daughter and co-heir of Gilbert, Earl of -<span class='sc'>Shrewsbury</span>, had already brought to him considerable -means in hand, and a vast estate in prospect. The marriage, -in higher respects, was also a happy one. But a -natural and eager desire to recover what his father had forfeited -cast much anxiety over years otherwise felicitous. -He could not regain even Arundel House in London, until -he had paid £4000 for it to the Earl of <span class='sc'>Nottingham</span>.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Arundel at Court.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> made his first appearance at Court in -1605. In May, 1611, he was created a Knight of the -Garter. Thirteen years of <span class='sc'>James’</span> reign had passed before -the Earl was admitted to the Privy Council. This honour -was conferred upon him in July, 1616. Five years more -were to pass before his restoration to his hereditary office -<span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>of Earl Marshal of England, although he had been made -one of six Commissioners for the discharge of its duties in -October, 1616. The baton was at length (29th August, -1621) delivered to him at <span class='sc'>Theobalds</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Domestic Corresp.</i>, James I, 1621, 21 July. (R. H.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘The King,’ wrote -John <span class='sc'>Chamberlain</span> to Sir Dudley <span class='sc'>Carleton</span>, when communicating -the news, ‘would have given him £2000 a year -pension withal, but—whatsoever the reason was—he would -accept but the ordinary fee, which is twenty pounds per -annum.’ It is plain, however, that this assertion was an -error. According to the ancient constitution of the Earl -Marshal’s office there were certain fees accruing from it -which were now, under new regulations, to cease. The -question arose, Shall the Earl Marshal be compensated by -pension, or (according to a pernicious fashion of the age) -by the grant, or lease, of a customs duty upon some -largely vended commodity? -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Minutes of Correspondence in Sec. Conway’s Letter Book; (R. H.) and Council Books (C. O.).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The ‘impost of currants’ was -eventually fixed upon. But the Earl had subsequent occasion -to adduce evidence before a Committee of the Privy -Council, that the rent paid to the King sometimes exceeded -the aggregate duty collected from the merchants.<a id='r31'></a><a href='#f31' class='c030'><sup>[31]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c029'>There is some uncertainty as to the date of the earliest -of Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel’s</span> many visits to the Continent. According -to Sir Edward <span class='sc'>Walker</span>, he was in Italy in 1609. But -that statement is open to doubt. There is proof that in -1612 he passed some time in Florence and in Siena. With -<span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>Siena, as a place of residence, he was especially delighted. -Of the foundation of his collections—to which his Italian -journeys largely contributed—there are no distinct records -until the following year.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>Arundel to Rochester, MS. Cott. Titus, B. vii, f. 463.</div> - -<p class='c029'>The tour of 1613, followed immediately upon the marriage -of the Princess <span class='sc'>Elizabeth</span> with <span class='sc'>Frederick</span>, Count -Palatine of the Rhine. The royal pair were escorted into -Germany by both Lord and Lady <span class='sc'>Arundel</span>, who soon left -the Rhine country on a new visit to Italy, and remained -there until nearly the close of 1614. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Beginnings of the Arundelian Collections.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -During that long -residence the Earl established a wide intercourse with the -most distinguished artists and archæologists of Italy, and -made extensive purchases. The fame of his princely tastes -was spread abroad. It soon became notorious that by this -open-handed collector marbles, vases, coins, gems, manuscripts, -pictures, were received with equal welcome. And -from this time onwards many passages occur in his correspondence -which indicate the keen and minute interest -he took in the researches of the agents who, in various parts -of the Continent, were busy on his behalf. The pursuit -did not lack the special zest of home rivalry, as will -be seen hereafter.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Not the least singular incident in the early part of Lord -<span class='sc'>Arundel’s</span> life was his commitment to the Tower, at -a moment when his favour with King <span class='sc'>James</span> was at its -height.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>1621, May.</div> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The quarrel between Lords Arundel and Spencer.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>In one of the many impassioned parliamentary debates -which occurred during the session of 1621 an allusion was -made by Lord <span class='sc'>Spencer</span> to the unhappy fate of two famous -ancestors of the Earl of <span class='sc'>Arundel</span>, and it was made in a -way which induced the Earl to utter an unwise and unjust -retort. The matter immediately under discussion was a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>very small one, but it had grown out of the exciting question -of monopolies, and it was mixed up with the yet more -exciting question of the overweening powers entrusted by -the King to <span class='sc'>Buckingham</span>. In the course of an examination -at the bar of the House of Lords about the grant -of a patent for licensing inns, Sir Henry <span class='sc'>Yelverton</span> had -made a furious attack upon the Duke. The attack was -still more an insult to the House, than to the King’s -favourite, and it had been repeated. It was proposed, on -a subsequent day, to call <span class='sc'>Yelverton</span> to the bar for the third -time, in order to see if he would then offer the apology -which before he had refused. <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> opposed the -motion. ‘We have his words; we need hear no more,’ he -said. Lord <span class='sc'>Spencer</span> rose to answer: ‘I remember that -two of the Earl’s ancestors—the Earl of <span class='sc'>Surrey</span>, and -the Duke of <span class='sc'>Norfolk</span>, were unjustly condemned to death, -without being heard.’ The implied parallel was a silly one, -but its weakness and irrelevancy did not restrain <span class='sc'>Arundel’s</span> -anger. ‘My Lords,’ said he, ‘I do acknowledge that my -ancestors have suffered. It may be for doing the king and -the country good service; and at such time, perhaps, as -when the ancestors of the Lord that spake last kept sheep.’ -The speaker failed to see that by using such words he had -committed exactly the same offence as that for which he had, -but a moment before, censured the late Attorney-General, -and had moved the House to punish him. On all sides, he -was advised to apologise. He resisted all entreaty. When -committed to the Tower, he still refused submission. -Both the King and the Prince of Wales had to intercede -for him with the House before he could regain his -liberty.</p> - -<p class='c035'>With rare exception, the public incidents of <span class='sc'>Lord -<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>Arundel’s</span> life during the remainder of the reign of <span class='sc'>James</span> -are such as offer little interest, save as illustrations of character. -In that respect, many of them testify to the failing -which appears so strikingly in the story of the quarrel with -Lord <span class='sc'>Spencer</span>. Some noble qualities lost part of their real -lustre when pride was so plainly seen in their company. -All that was best in Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> revolted at the grossness -of the Stuart court. He often increased his own disgust -by contrasting what he saw at Whitehall with the memories -of his youth. His office of Earl Marshal precluded him -from very long absences. Sometimes, when forced to mingle -with courtiers for whose society he had little liking, he -rebuked their want of dignity by exaggerating his own -dignity into haughtiness. Against failings of this kind we -have to set many merits, and amongst them a merit eminently -rare in that age. <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> was free from covetousness—save -in that special sense in which covetousness, it -may be feared, cleaves to all ‘collectorship.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Adventure of Lady Arundel at Venice.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>In 1622 some anxiety was occasioned to Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> -by a singular adventure which befell his wife during her -residence in the Venetian territory, whither (in the course -of a long Italian tour) she had gone to watch over the education -of their sons; little anticipating, it may well be supposed, -that her name and that of Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel</span>, would be -made to figure in Venetian records in connection with the -strange story of the conspirator Antonio <span class='sc'>Foscarini</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>After making some stay in Venice, Lady <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> had -taken a villa on the Brenta, about ten miles from the City.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In April, 1622, she was on her way from this villa to -the Mocenigo Palace, her residence in Venice, when she was -met by the Secretary of Sir Henry <span class='sc'>Wotton</span>, English ambassador -to the Republic. The secretary said that he was sent -by the ambassador to inform her that the Venetian Senate -<span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>had resolved to command her ladyship to leave their city -and territory within a few days, on the ground of a discovery -that <span class='sc'>Foscarini</span> had carried on some of his traitorous -intrigues with foreign ministers—and more especially with -those of the Pope and Emperor—at her house. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1622, April.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -To this the -messenger added, that it was Sir Henry <span class='sc'>Wotton’s</span> most -earnest advice that Lady <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> should not return to -Venice, but should remain at Dolo, until she heard from him -again. Having listened to this strange communication -in private, she desired the secretary to repeat it in the -presence of some of the persons who attended her. Then -she hastened to the ambassador’s house at Venice. Her -interview with <span class='sc'>Wotton</span> is thus, in substance, narrated by -Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel</span>, when telling the story to his friend the Earl -of <span class='sc'>Carlisle</span>, then ambassador to the Court of France.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘Lady <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> went immediately to my Lord Ambassador -[<span class='sc'>Wotton</span>], telling him she came to hear from his -own mouth what she had heard from his servant’s.’ When -Sir Henry had repeated the statement of his secretary, the -Lady asked him how long the accusation and the resolution -of the Senate had been known to him. He replied -that reports of the alleged intercourse with <span class='sc'>Foscarini</span> had -reached him some fifteen days before, or more; but that -of the resolution of the Senate he had heard only on that -morning. ‘She asked him why he did never let her understand -of the report all that time? He said because she -spake not to him of it.’ To Lady <span class='sc'>Arundel’s</span> pithy rejoinder -that it would have been hard for her to speak of a -matter of which she had never heard the least rumour until -that day, and to her further protestation that she had not -even seen <span class='sc'>Foscarini</span> since the time of his visit to England, -some years earlier, Sir Henry replied, ‘I believe there -was no such matter;’ but he refused to disclose the name -<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>of the person who had first spoken to him of the accusation. -To his renewed advice that her ladyship should not stir -farther in the matter, she declined to accede. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. <span class='sc'>Addit.</span>, -4176, § 156. -(B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It concerned -her honour, and her husband’s honour, she said, to have -public conference with the Doge and Council without -delay. From carrying out this resolve the ambassador -found it impossible to dissuade her.</p> - -<p class='c029'>That conference took place on the following day with the -remarkable result of a public declaration by the Doge that -no mention had ever been made of Lady <span class='sc'>Arundel’s</span> name, -or of the name of any person nearly or remotely connected -with her, either at any stage of the proceedings against -<span class='sc'>Foscarini</span>, or in any of the discussions which had arisen -out of his conspiracy.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When the audience given to Lady <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> by the -Doge had been made the subject of a communication to the -Senate, that body instructed the Venetian Ambassador in -England to confer with Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Deliberations of the Senate of Venice</i>; printed by Hardy, in <i>Report on Venetian Archives</i>, pp. 78–84 (1866).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘You are,’ said -they, ‘to speak to the Earl Marshal in such strong and -earnest language that he may retain no doubt of the invalidity -of the report, and may remain perfectly convinced -of the esteem and cordial affection entertained towards him -by the Republic; augmented as such feelings are by the -open and dignified mode of life led here by the Countess, -and in which she hastens the education of her sons in the -sciences to make them—as they will become—faithful -imitators of their meritorious father and their ancestors.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Sir Henry <span class='sc'>Wotton’s</span> motive in the strange part taken -by him in this incident is nowhere disclosed. He had to -listen to several indirect reproofs, both from the Doge and -from the Senate, which were none the less incisive on -account of the courtly language in which they were -couched.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>Two years afterwards, the Earl was himself hastily summoned -to the Continent to attend the death-bed of his -eldest son, James, Lord <span class='sc'>Maltravers</span>, who is described by -a contemporary writer as a ‘gentleman of rare wit and extraordinary -expectation.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Death of Arundel’s eldest son.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The Countess and her two elder -sons, James and Henry, were then returning from Italy to -England. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Royal license to travel</i>, July, 1624.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -They passed through Belgium in order to visit -the Queen of <span class='sc'>Bohemia</span>. Whilst at Ghent, upon the journey, -Lord <span class='sc'>Maltravers</span> was seized with the smallpox. He -died in that city in July, 1624. The affliction was acutely -felt. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Domestic Corresp.</i> James I, vol. cxlix, § 67; vol. clii, § 55.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘My sorrow makes me incapable of this world’s -affairs,’ wrote the Earl to one of his political correspondents, -in the autumn of the year. To the outer world, reserved -manners and a stately demeanour often gave a very false -impression of the man himself. Throughout his life, -<span class='sc'>Arundel’s</span> affectionate nature was so evinced in his deeds, -and in his domestic intercourse, as to stand in little need -of illustration from his words. Mainly, as it seems, to this -characteristic quality he was soon to owe a second imprisonment -in the Tower of London.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Stuart Marriage and its Results.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The new Lord <span class='sc'>Maltravers</span> shortly after his return to -England fell in love with the Lady Elizabeth <span class='sc'>Stuart</span>, -daughter of Esme, Duke of <span class='sc'>Lennox</span>. <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> had formed -other wishes and plans for the son who was now his heir, -and there is evidence that he was reluctant to give his consent -to the prosecution of the suit. Nor did the kinship of -the prospective bride with King <span class='sc'>Charles</span> appear to him, -it seems, at all an inviting circumstance in the matter. So -long as <span class='sc'>Buckingham</span> stood at the helm of affairs <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> -was likely to have a very small share in the new king’s -affections, so that pride and policy as well as inclination -stood in the way of his approval. He knew also that it -was <span class='sc'>Charles’</span> eager wish that his kinswoman should marry -<span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>Lord <span class='sc'>Lorne</span>, the eldest son of the Earl of <span class='sc'>Argyle</span>. But -the young lover was ardent, and his entreaties unintermitting. -At length, we are told, he not only wrung from -the Earl the words ‘You may try your fortune with the -lady that you seem to love so well,’ but prevailed upon him -to confer paternally on the subject with the lady’s aunt and -guardian, the Duchess of <span class='sc'>Richmond</span>. <span class='sc'>Maltravers</span>, meanwhile, -had resolved to incur no risk of defeat by waiting -for a royal assent to his marriage. He had long before -won his cause with the lady, but had kept the secret. -Two passionate lovers<a id='r32'></a><a href='#f32' class='c030'><sup>[32]</sup></a> went gravely through the ceremony -of a formal introduction to each other.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Maltravers</span> then induced her to consent to a private -marriage. When Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> was informed of the fact -he immediately disclosed his knowledge to the King, and -besought pardon for the culprits. But <span class='sc'>Charles’</span> wrath -was unbounded. He placed the new-married pair under -restraint in London. He committed <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> himself to -the Tower. He commanded Lady <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> to remain at -Horsley, in Surrey, a seat belonging to the Dowager -Countess, her mother-in-law.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> was thus imprisoned Parliament -was sitting. The Lords declared his arrest to be an infringement -of their privileges. The King replied that ‘the -Earl of <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> is restrained for a misdemeanour which -is personal to the King’s Majesty, and has no relation to -matters of Parliament.’ The Lords still insisted that it -was the Earl’s unquestionable right ‘to be admitted to -come, sit, and serve in Parliament.’ <span class='sc'>Charles</span> released -<span class='sc'>Arundel</span> from the Tower, and then confined him to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>Horsley. Royal evasion did but provoke increased earnestness -and firmness from the Peers. At length they resolved -that they would suspend public business until the Earl -presented himself in his place. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Secretary Conway’s Letter Book</i>, pp. 251 seqq. (R. H.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Nearly three months had -been spent in debate and altercation before Secretary -<span class='sc'>Conway</span> was directed to write to <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> in these terms: -‘It is the King’s pleasure that you come to the Parliament, -but not to the Court.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>Lords’ Journals</i>, vol. iii, p. 653, &c.</div> - -<p class='c029'>The sequel of the story, as it tells itself in the State -Papers, affords an early and eminent illustration of the -qualities in <span class='sc'>Charles the First</span> which, as they ripened, -brought about his ruin. The King resolved that his concession -should as far as was possible be retracted. Directly -the sitting of Parliament was suspended, the King commanded -<span class='sc'>Conway</span> to apprise the Earl that his restraint to -Horsley was renewed, ‘as before the Earl’s leave to come -to Parliament.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Domestic Corresp.</i>, Charles I, vol. xxxv, p. 16 (R. H.).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sc'>Arundel</span> on his part made courtly and -even lavish declarations of submission. ‘I desire to implore -the King’s grace by the humblest and best ways I -can.’ This was written in September, 1626. Whenever -it was indispensable that he should obtain leave to visit the -capital a petition had to be prepared. In March, 1627, he -writes: ‘The King has limited my stay in London until -the 12th of March. I will obey, but I beg you to represent -to His Majesty that I have necessary business to -transact ... and that I have so carried myself as to -shew my desire to give His Majesty no distastes. If now, -after a year has passed, the King will dissolve this cloud, -and leave me to my own liberty, I will hold myself to be -most free when living in such place and manner as may be -most to His Majesty’s liking.’ It was all in vain. Another -whole year passes. <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> has still to write: ‘I beseech -the King to give life to my just desires, and after two -<span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>years of heavy disfavour to grant me the happiness to kiss -his hands and to attend him in my place.’ To this humble -representation and entreaty it was replied by Secretary -<span class='sc'>Conway</span>: ‘His Majesty’s answer is that the Earl has not -so far appeased the exceptions which the King has taken -against unkindness conceived, as yet to take off his disfavour. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ibid.</i>, -vol. lvi, p. 86; -vol. xcv, pp. -51, 85, &c. -<i>Conway’s -Letter Book</i>, -pp. 295, &c. -(R. H.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -As for the Earl’s proffered duty and carriage in -the King’s service, the King will judge of that as he shall -find occasion.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>He found occasion ere long; but not until after <span class='sc'>Buckingham’s</span> -death. <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> rendered useful service, on -some conspicuous occasions, both at home and abroad. If -his successive diplomatic missions to Holland in 1632, and -to Ratisbon in 1638, on the affairs of the Palatinate, failed -of their main object, it was from no miscarriage of the -ambassador. In the unostentatious labours of the Council -Board he took during a long series of years a very honourable -share. And it is much to his honour that by the men -to whom the chief scandals of a disastrous reign are mainly -ascribable, <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> was, almost uniformly, both disliked -and feared.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Arundel and Strafford.</span></div> - -<div class='sidenote'>1641. March and April.</div> - -<p class='c029'>As Lord High Steward of England, <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> had to -preside at the trial of the Earl of <span class='sc'>Strafford</span>. He acquitted -himself of an arduous task with eminent ability, and with -an impartiality which won respect, alike from the managers -of the impeachment and from the friends of the doomed -statesman. The only person who expressed dissatisfaction -with <span class='sc'>Arundel’s</span> conduct on that critical occasion was the -King. The historians who have most deeply and acutely -scanned the details of that most memorable of all our State -Trials are agreed that in order to have satisfied <span class='sc'>Charles</span>, -the Earl of <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> must have betrayed the duty of his -high office.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>Shortly after the trial of <span class='sc'>Strafford</span>, it became <span class='sc'>Arundel’s</span> -duty as Earl Marshal to attend the mother of the queen -(<span class='sc'>Mary</span> of Medicis), on her return to Holland; and he -received the King’s license to remain beyond the seas -during his pleasure. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Latest Employments.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He returned however to England in -October of the same year. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Rushworth, vol. iv, pp. 317, 318.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In the following February, a -similar ceremonial mission was his last official employment. -He then conducted Queen <span class='sc'>Henrietta Maria</span> on her journey -into France, and took his own last farewell of England. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1642. February.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It -was an unconscious farewell. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Sir E. Walker, in MS. Harl., as before.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Nor does his departure -appear to have been dictated by any desire to shrink from -sacrifices on behalf of the cause with which—whether -rightly or wrongly—all his personal sympathies, as well as -the political views of his whole life, were bound up. At -the hands of the first <span class='sc'>Stuart</span> he had met with capricious -favour, and with enduring injustice. By the second, -during several years, he was treated with marked and -causeless indignity; and then, during several other years, -rewarded grudgingly for zealous service. In exile, his contributions -in support of the royal cause were upon a scale -which impoverished both himself and his family.<a id='r33'></a><a href='#f33' class='c030'><sup>[33]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c029'>Such a fact is a conclusive proof of magnanimity of -spirit, whatever may be thought of its bearings in regard to -political insight. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Colonizing Efforts of Lord Arundel.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Opinion is less likely to differ with respect -to exertions of quite another order which occasionally -occupied Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel’s</span> mind and energies -during at least twenty years of his political life.</p> - -<p class='c029'>One of the best known incidents in his varied career is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>also one of its most honourable incidents. His friendship -for <span class='sc'>Ralegh</span> grew out of a deep interest in colonization. -And the calamitous issue of that famous voyage to Guiana -in 1617 which <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> had promoted was very far from -inducing him to abandon the earnest advocacy of a resumption, -in subsequent years, of the enterprise which -<span class='sc'>Ralegh</span> had had so much at heart. His efforts were more -than once repeated, but the same influences which ruined -<span class='sc'>Ralegh</span> foiled the exertions of <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> and of those who -worked with him.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>Grant Book</i>, James I, pp. 307, seqq. <i>Domest. Corresp.</i>, James I, vol. cviii, § 85.</div> - -<p class='c029'>He then turned his attention towards the wide field of -colonial enterprise which presented itself in New England. -From the autumn of 1620 until the summer of 1635 he, from -time to time, actively supported the endeavours of the -‘Council for the Planting of New England.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Proclamation Book</i>, May 15, 1620. (R. H.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The Minute -in which that Council summed up the causes which induced -it, at the date last-named, to resign its charter is an instructive -one. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Surrender of the New England Charter.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It expresses, in few words, the views of -Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> and of his ablest fellows at the board:—‘We -have found,’ say the Councillors, in their final Minute, -‘that our endeavours to advance the plantation of New -England have been attended with frequent troubles and -great disappointments. We have been deprived of near -friends and faithful servants employed in that work. We -have been assaulted with sharp litigious questions before -the Privy Council by the Virginia Company, who had complained -to Parliament that our Plantation was a grievance.’ -They proceed to say that a promising settlement which -had been established, under the governorship of Captain -<span class='sc'>Gorges</span> in Massachusetts Bay, had been violently broken -up by a body of speculative intruders who, without the -knowledge of the Council of New England, had found -means to obtain a royal ‘grant of some three thousand -<span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>miles of the sea-coast.’ Finding it by far too great a task, -for their means, to restore what had thus been brought to -ruin, <span class='sc'>Arundel</span>, and his fellow-councillors were constrained -to resign their charter.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>Colonial Papers</i>, vol. viii, § 58. (R. H.)</div> - -<p class='c029'>Four years later the Earl formed an elaborate plan for -the colonization of Madagascar. But the events of 1639–40 -soon made its effectual prosecution hopeless.</p> - -<p class='c035'>The latest notice we have of the Earl of <span class='sc'>Arundel</span>, from -the hand of any eminent contemporary, occurs in the Diary -of John <span class='sc'>Evelyn</span>, and is dated six months before the Earl’s -death. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Death at Padua</span>, 1646.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In June of the preceding year (1645) <span class='sc'>Evelyn</span> had -paid a visit to Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> at his house in Padua, and -had then accompanied him to a famous garden in that city -known as the ‘Garden of Mantua.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Evelyn, <i>Diary</i>, vol. 1, p. 212.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -They had also explored -together some ancient ruins lying near the Palace of Foscari -all’ Arena. When <span class='sc'>Evelyn</span> renewed his visit in March, -1646, the Earl was no longer able to leave the house. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 218, 219.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘I -took my leave of him,’ says the diarist, ‘in his bed, where -I left that great and excellent man in tears, on some private -discourse of crosses that had befallen his family, particularly -the undutifulness of his grandson, Philip, turning Dominican -friar; and the misery of his country, now embroiled -in civil war. He caused his gentleman to give me directions, -written with his own hand, what curiosities I should -inquire after in my journey; and so—enjoyning me to -write sometimes to him—I departed.’ The Earl died at -Padua on the 24th September, 1646, having entered into -the sixty-second year of his age. In compliance with the -directions of his Will his remains were brought to England -and buried at Arundel.</p> - -<p class='c035'>It remains only to add a few particulars of the character -<span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>and sources of the splendid collections which the Earl of -<span class='sc'>Arundel</span>, by the persistent labours and the lavish expenditure -of more than thirty years, had amassed. The surviving -materials for such an account are, however, very -fragmentary. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Notices of the Arundelian Collections.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Those which are of chief interest occur in the -correspondence which passed between the Earl and Sir -Thomas <span class='sc'>Roe</span> during the embassy of that eminent diplomatist -to the Ottoman Porte in the years 1626–1628.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Earl’s zeal as a collector, and the public attention -which his personal successes in that character during his -Italian travels had soon attracted, naturally excited a like -ambition on the part of several of his contemporaries. -Conspicuous in this respect were his brother-in-law the -Earl of <span class='sc'>Pembroke</span>, and his political rival and enemy the -Duke of <span class='sc'>Buckingham</span>. <span class='sc'>Arundel’s</span> success in amassing -many fine pictures had, in like manner, already attracted -the attention of Prince <span class='sc'>Charles</span> to that peculiarly fascinating -branch of collectorship.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Correspondence with Sir Thomas Roe.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>When Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Roe</span> set out for Constantinople he -was charged with commissions to search for antiquities on -<span class='sc'>Buckingham’s</span> behalf, as well as on Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel’s</span>. -He was himself a novice in such inquiries. He had to -encounter excessive difficulties from the jealousy, and sometimes -the dishonesty, of the Turkish and other agents whom -he was obliged to employ. Most of them were stubborn in -their belief that a search for old marbles did but mask the -pursuit of buried treasure of greater currency. And to -difficulties of this sort was added a standing fear that every -service rendered to the Earl Marshal might be esteemed an -offence to the powerful favourite at Whitehall.</p> - -<p class='c029'>To an urgent letter which he had received from <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> -just as he was embarking, Sir Thomas replied, from Constantinople, -in January, 1622. ‘I moved our Consul, Richard -<span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span><span class='sc'>Milward</span>, at Scio, whom I found prepared and ready,’ he -reports. ‘We conferred about “the Maid of Smirna” -which he cannot yet obteyne, without an especiall command -[from the Porte]. I brought with mee from Messina -the Bishop of Andre, one of the islands of the Arches, a -man of good learning and great experience in these parts. -Hee assured mee that the search after old and good authors -was utterly vaine.... The last French ambassador had -the last gleanings. Only of some few he gave mee notice -as of an old Tertullian, and a piece of Chrisostome ... -which may be procured to be copied, but not the originall.... -Concerning antiquities in marbles, there are many in -divers parts, but especially at Delphos, unesteemed here, -and, I doubt not, easy to be procured for the charge of -digging and fetching, which must be purposely undertaken. -It is supposed that many statues are buried to secure them -from the envy of the Turks, and that, leave obteyned, -[they] would come to light, which I will endeavour as soon -as I am warm here.’ After mentioning that he had already -procured some coins, he adds, with amusing naïveté, ‘I -have also a stone, taken out of the old pallace of Priam in -Troy, cutt in horned shape, but because I neither can tell -of what it is, nor hath it any other bewty but only the -antiquity and truth of being a peece of that ruined and -famous building, I will not presume to send it you. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Sir T. Roe -to Lord -Arundel, -27 Jan., -1621 [O. S.]; -<i>Negotiations</i>, -p. 16.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Yet -I have delivered it to the same messenger, that your Lordship -may see it and throw it away.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Two years afterwards the ambassador has to tell Lord -<span class='sc'>Arundel</span> a mingled story of failure and success: ‘The -command you required for the Greeke to be sent into -Morea I have sollicitted [of] two viziers, one after the -other, butt they both rejected mee and gave answere, that -it was no tyme to graunt such priviledges. Neare to the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>port they have not so great doubt and therefore I have -prevailed with another, and [have] sent Mr. <span class='sc'>Markham</span>, -assisted with a letter from the Caplen Bassa, whose jurisdiction -extends to all the islands and sea-ports.... -On Asia side, about Troy, Zizicum, and all the way to -Aleppo, are innumerable pillars, statues, and tombstones of -marble, with inscriptions in Greeke. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ibid.</i>, 10 May, 1623, <i>Negotiations</i>, p. 154.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -These may be fetcht -at charge, and secrettly; butt yf wee ask leave it cannot -be obteyned; therefore Mr. <span class='sc'>Markham</span> will use discretion -rather then power, and so the Turks will bring them for -their proffitt.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Roe’s</span> report encouraged Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> to send an -agent, named <span class='sc'>Petty</span>, on a special exploring mission into -various parts of the Ottoman Empire. The agent thus -selected was eminently fitted for his task, and showed -himself to be a man of untiring industry. Very soon after -<span class='sc'>Petty’s</span> arrival at Constantinople, Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Roe</span> wrote -to the Duke of <span class='sc'>Buckingham</span> an account of his successful -researches, and he prefaced it with an acknowledgement -that ‘by conference with Mr. <span class='sc'>Petty</span>, sent hither by my -Lord of <span class='sc'>Arundell</span>, I have somewhat bettered my sckill -in such figures. We have searched all this cyttye,’ he proceeds -to say, ‘and found nothing but upon one gate, called -anciently <i>Porta Aurea</i>, built by <span class='sc'>Constantine</span>, bewtifyed -with two mighty pillars, and upon the sides and over it, -twelve tables of fine marble cutt into historyes,—some of -a very great relevo, sett into the wall with small pillars as -supporters. Most of the figures are equall; some above -the life some less. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Roe to the Duke of Buckingham, 11 May, 1625, <i>Negotiations</i>, pp. 386–7.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -They are—in my eye—extremely -decayed, but Mr. <span class='sc'>Petty</span> doth so prayse them, as that he -hath not seene much better in the great and costly collections -of Italye.... The fower to which I have most -affection ... are both brave and sweete.... The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>relevo so high that they are almost statues, and doe but -seeme to sticke to the ground.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>In October of the same year Sir <span class='sc'>Thomas</span> sent an elaborate -account to the Earl of <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> of the progress made -by <span class='sc'>Petty</span>, and of his own exertions to provide him with -every possible facility. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The proposed partition of ancient marbles between Arundel and Buckingham.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He told the Earl of the difficulty of -his own position towards the Duke of <span class='sc'>Buckingham</span>, and -besought him to admit of an arrangement by which the -product of the joint exertions of ambassador and agent -should be divided between the competitors. <span class='sc'>Petty</span>, he -reports, ‘hath visited Pergamo, Samos, Ephesus, and some -other places, where he hath made your Lordship great provisions.... -I have given him forceable commands, and -letters of recommendation from the Patriarch. I have bene -free and open to him in whatsoever I knewe, and so I will -continue for your Lordship’s command. But your Lordship -knowing that I have received the like from the Duke -of <span class='sc'>Buckingham</span>, and engaged my word to doe him service -hee might judge it want of witt, or will, or creditt, if Mr. -<span class='sc'>Petty</span>, who could doe nothing but by mee, should take all -things before or from mee. Therefore to avoid all emulation, -and that I might stand clear before two so great and -honourable patrons, I thought I had made agreement with -him for all our advantages. Therefore we resolved to take -down those sixe mentioned relevos on <i>Porta Aurea</i>, and -I proceeded so far as I offered 600 dollars for four of -them, to bee divided between his Grace and your Lordship -by lotts. And if your Lordship liked not the price, -Mr. <span class='sc'>Petty</span> had his choice to forsake them. But now, I -perceave, he hath entitled your Lordship to them all by -some right that, if I could gett them, it were an injury to -divide them.... But I am sorry wee strive for the -shadowe. Your Lordship may beleeve an honest man, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>your servant, I have tried the bassa,—the capteyne of the -Castle,—the overseer of the Grand Signor’s works,—the -soldiours that make that watch,—and none of them dare -meddle. They [the sculptures] stand between two mighty -pillars of marble, on other tables of marble supported with -less pillars, uppon the cheife port of the Citty, the entrance -by the Castle called “The Seaven Towres,” which was -never opened since the Greeke Emperour lost it, but a -counterscarfe and another wall built before it.... -There is butt one way left in the world, which I will practice.... -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Roe to -Arundel, -30 Oct, 1625; -<i>Negotiations</i>, -pp. 444–446.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -If I gett them not, I will pronounce [that] no -man, no ambassadour, shall ever bee able to doe it;—except, -also, the Grand Signor, for want, will sell the -Castle.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Just before the date of this letter <span class='sc'>Petty</span> had suffered -shipwreck on the coast of Asia, when returning from -Samos. Together with his papers and personal baggage, -he lost the fruits of long and successful researches. But -his inexhaustible energies enabled him to recover what, to -the men about him, seemed to have hopelessly perished. -He found means to raise the buried marbles from the -wreck. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ibid.</i>, 7 April, 1626, p. 495.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘There was never man,’ wrote Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Roe</span>, -with the frank admiration of a congenial spirit, ‘so fitted -to an employment; that encounters all accidents with so -unwearied patience; eates with Greekes on their worst -dayes; lyes with fishermen on plancks, at the best; is all -thinges to all men, that he may obteyne his ends, which -are your Lordship’s service.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>To Dr. <span class='sc'>Goade</span>, one of the chaplains of Archbishop -<span class='sc'>Abbot</span>, Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Roe</span> continued the narrative of <span class='sc'>Petty’s</span> -zealous researches, and of the success which attended them. -‘By my means,’ he wrote, ‘Mr. <span class='sc'>Petty</span> had admittance into -the best library known of Greece, where are loades of old -<span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>manuscripts, and hee used so fine arte, with the helpe of -some of my servants, that hee conveyed away twenty two. -I thought I should have had my share, but hee was for himselfe. -Hee is a good chooser; saw all, or most, and tooke, -I thincke, those that were and wilbe of greate esteeme. Hee -speaketh sparingly of such a bootye, but could not conteyne -sometyme to discover with joy his treasure.... I meant -to have a review of that librarye, but hee gave it such a -blow under my trust that, since, it hath been locked up -under two keys, whereof one kept by the townsmen that -have interest or oversight of the monastery, so that I could -do no good.... -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, p. 500.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -My hope is to deale with the Patriarch, -and not to trust to myselfe, and to chances.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>In November, 1626, Sir Thomas further informed the -Duke of <span class='sc'>Buckingham</span> that ‘Mr. <span class='sc'>Petty</span> hath raked together -two hundred peices [of sculpture], all broken, or few -[of them] entyre.... Hee had this advantage, that hee -went himselfe into all the islands, and tooke all he saw, and -is now gon to Athens.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, p. 570; comp. pp. 619; 647; 692, and 764.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In subsequent letters and despatches -the diplomatist returns often to this unofficial branch of his -duties, and makes it very apparent that <span class='sc'>Petty’s</span> zeal had, -for a time, spoiled the market of the agents who followed -in his track.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Lord Arundel’s researches in Italy.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> was not less ably served by the factors -and representatives whom he employed in Italy, in Germany, -and in the Netherlands. But the story is far too -long to be told in detail. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MSS. at Norfolk House; printed, in Tierney’s <i>Arundel</i>, p. 489.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Their success in collecting choice -pictures and other works of art was so conspicuous that -when one of them had an interview with <span class='sc'>Rubens</span> at -Antwerp, to give a commission from Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel</span>, the -great painter—himself, it will be remembered, an eminent -collector also—said to him: ‘I regard the Earl in the light -of an evangelist to the world of art, and as the great supporter -<span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>of our profession.’ In these artistic commissions and -researches William <span class='sc'>Trumbull</span>, Edward <span class='sc'>Norgate</span>, Sir John -<span class='sc'>Borough</span>, and Sir Isaac <span class='sc'>Wake</span>, especially distinguished -themselves. Their correspondence with Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> is -spread over a long series of years, and it abounds with -curious illustrations of ‘the world of art,’ as it lived and -moved in the earlier part of the seventeenth century.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Among those entire collections which the Earl purchased -in bulk, two are more particularly notable—the museum, -namely, of Daniel <span class='sc'>Nice</span>, and the library of the family of -<span class='sc'>Pirckheimer</span> of Nuremberg.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Nice’s</span> Museum was especially rich in medals and gems. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Evelyn to Pepys; <i>Diary and Corresp.</i>, vol. iii, p. 300.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -If <span class='sc'>Evelyn’s</span> information about the circumstances of that -acquisition was accurate, it cost the Earl the sum—enormous, -at that date—of ten thousand pounds. I cannot, however, -but suspect that into that statement some error of figures -has crept.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The acquisition of the <span class='sc'>Pirckheimer</span> Library was made -by the Earl himself, during his diplomatic mission into -Germany on the affairs of the Palatinate. In this collection -some of the choicest of the Arundelian MSS. which now -enrich the British Museum were comprised. Its foundation -had been laid more than a hundred and thirty years -before the date of the Earl’s purchase. But part of the -library of the first founder had passed into the possession -of the City of Nuremberg. The collection which Lord -<span class='sc'>Arundel</span> acquired was rich both in classical manuscripts -and in the materials of mediæval history.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The liberality with which these varied treasures, as they -successively arrived in London, were made accessible to -scholars was in harmony with the open-handedness by -means of which they had been amassed. For a few years -Arundel House was itself an anticipatory ‘British Museum.’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>Then came the civil war. But the injury which the <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> -collections sustained from the insecurity and commotions of -a turbulent time is very insignificant, in comparison with -that sustained, after the Restoration, through the ignorance -and the indolence of an unworthy inheritor.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Successors of Lord Arundel.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The immediate heir and successor of Earl Thomas survived -his father less than six years. He died at Arundel -House in April, 1652, leaving several sons, of whom the -two eldest, Thomas and Henry, became successively Earls -of Arundel and Dukes of Norfolk. The first of these was -restored to the dukedom in 1660. But the whole of his -life, after attaining manhood, was passed in Italy and under -the heavy affliction of impaired mental faculties, following -upon an attack of brain-fever which had seized him at -Padua, in 1645. He never recovered, but died in the city -in which the disease had stricken him, lingering until the -year 1677. It was in consequence of this calamity that the -inheritance of a large portion of the Arundelian collections, -and also the possession of Arundel House in London, passed -from Earl Henry-Frederick to his second son, Henry.</p> - -<p class='c035'>We learn from many passages both in the Diary and in -the Letters of John <span class='sc'>Evelyn</span> that, under the new owner, -Arundel House and its contents were so neglected as, at -times, to lie at the mercy of a crowd of rapacious parasites. -In one place he speaks of the mansion as being infested by -‘painters, panders, and misses.’ In another he describes -the library as suffering by repeated depredations. He -remonstrated with the owner, and at length obtained -from him a gift of the library for the newly-founded -Royal Society, and a gift of part of the marbles for the -University of Oxford. In his Diary he thus narrates -<span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>the circumstances under which these benefactions were -made:—</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Gift of the Arundel Library to the Royal Society</span>;</div> - -<p class='c029'>Having mentioned that on the destruction of the -meeting-place of the Royal Society, its members ‘were -invited by Mr. <span class='sc'>Howard</span> to sit at Arundel House in the -Strand,’ he proceeds to say that Mr. <span class='sc'>Howard</span>, ‘at my -instigation, likewise bestowed on the Society that noble -library which his grandfather especially, and his ancestors, -had collected. This gentleman had so little inclination to -books that it was the preservation of them from embezzlement.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Evelyn, <i>Diary, &c.</i>, vol. ii, p. 20.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Elsewhere he says that not a few books had -actually been lost before, by his interference, the bulk -of the collection was thus saved. The gift to the Royal -Society was made at the close of the year 1666.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>and that of the Marbles to the University of Oxford</span>.</div> - -<p class='c029'>In September of the following year this entry occurs in -the same Diary:—‘[I went] to London, on the 19th, with -Mr. Henry <span class='sc'>Howard</span> of Norfolk, of whom I obtained the -gift of his Arundelian Marbles,—those celebrated and -famous inscriptions, Greek and Latin, gathered with so -much cost and industry from Greece by his illustrious -grandfather the magnificent Earl of <span class='sc'>Arundel</span>.... When -I saw these precious monuments miserably neglected, and -scattered up and down about the garden and other parts of -Arundel House, and how exceedingly the corrosive air of -London impaired them, I procured him to bestow them on -the University of Oxford. This he was pleased to grant -me, and now gave me the key of the gallery, with leave to -mark all those stones, urns, altars, &c., and whatever I -found had inscriptions on them, that were not statues. -This I did, and getting them removed and piled together, -with those which were encrusted in the garden-walls, I -sent immediately letters to the Vice-Chancellor of what I -had procured.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, p. 29. (edit. 1850.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -On the 8th of October he records a visit -<span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>from the President of Trinity, ‘to thank me, in the name -of the Vice-Chancellor and the whole University, and to -receive my directions what was to be done to show their -gratitude to Mr. <span class='sc'>Howard</span>.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Ten months later, <span class='sc'>Evelyn</span> records that he was called -to London to wait upon the Duke of <span class='sc'>Norfolk</span>. The -Duke, he says, ‘having, at my sole request, bestowed the -Arundelian Library on the Royal Society, sent to me to -take charge of the books and remove them.... Many -of these books had been presented by Popes, Cardinals, -and great persons, to the Earls of <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> and Dukes of -<span class='sc'>Norfolk</span>; and the late magnificent Earl of <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> -bought a noble library in Germany which is in this collection. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, pp. 122, 123.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -I should not, for the honour I bear the family, -have persuaded the Duke to part with these, had I not -seen how negligent he was of them; suffering the priests -and everybody to carry away and dispose of what they -pleased, so that abundance of rare things are irrecoverably -gone.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>A curious narrative communicated, almost a century afterwards, -to the Society of Antiquaries, by James <span class='sc'>Theobald</span>, -proves that in this respect the gallery of antiquities—notwithstanding -the noble benefaction to Oxford—was even -more unfortunate than the library of books. At the time -when these gifts were obtained for Oxford and for the -Royal Society, another extensive portion of the original collections -had already passed into the possession of William -<span class='sc'>Howard</span>, Viscount Stafford, and had been removed to -Stafford House. Lord <span class='sc'>Stafford</span> was a younger son of the -collector, and appears to have received the choice artistic -treasures which long adorned his town residence by the -gift of his mother. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Dispersion of part of the Arundel Marbles.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -According to <span class='sc'>Evelyn</span>, Lady <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> -also ‘scattered and squandered away innumerable other -<span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span>rarities, ... whilst my Lord was in Italy.’ But in this -instance he appears to speak by hearsay, rather than from -personal knowledge. <span class='sc'>Tierney</span>, the able and painstaking -historian of the family, asserts that its records contain no -proof whatever of the justice of the charge. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>History of Arundel</i>, p. 509.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And he traces -the origin of <span class='sc'>Evelyn’s</span> statement to a passage in one of the -letters of Francis <span class='sc'>Junius</span>, in which it is said of Lady -<span class='sc'>Arundel</span> that she ‘carried over a vast treasure of rarities, -and convaighed them away out of England.’ Even to -<span class='sc'>Junius</span>, notwithstanding his connection with the family, -the charge may have come but as a rumour.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Be that as it may, the subsequent dispersion of many -treasures of art which the Earl had collected with such -unwearied pains and lavish expenditure is unquestionable.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Lord Henry <span class='sc'>Howard</span>, it has been shown, excepted the -‘statues’ from his gift to the University. They remained -at Arundel House, but so little care was bestowed upon -their preservation that when the same owner afterwards -obtained an Act of Parliament empowering him to build -streets on part of the site of Arundel House and Gardens, -many of these statues were broken by the throwing upon -or near them of heaps of rubbish from the excavations -made, in the years 1678 and 1679, for the new buildings. -These broken statues and fragments retained beauty enough -to attract from time to time the admiration of educated eyes -when such eyes chanced to fall upon them. Those which -long adorned the seat of the Earls of <span class='sc'>Pomfret</span>, at Easton -Neston, in Oxfordshire, were purchased by Sir William -<span class='sc'>Fermor</span>, and were given to the University of Oxford by -one of his descendants. Others which are, or were, at -Fawley Court, near Henley, were purchased by Mr. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span><span class='sc'>Freeman</span>. Others, again, were bought by Edmund <span class='sc'>Waller</span>, -the poet, for the decoration of Beaconsfield.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Still more strange was the fate which befell certain other -marbles which Lord Henry (by that time Duke of <span class='sc'>Norfolk</span>) -caused to be removed from Arundel House to a -piece of waste ground belonging to the manor of Kennington. -These the owner seems to have regarded as little -better than lumber. It is therefore the less surprising that -his servants took so little care of them as to suffer them to -be buried, in their turn, beneath rubbish which had been -brought to Kennington from St. Paul’s, during the rebuilding -of that cathedral. By-and-bye, precious marbles, excavated -amidst so many difficulties arising from Turkish barbarism -in Asia Minor, had to be re-excavated in England. -Many years after their second burial, some rumour of the -circumstance came to the knowledge of the Earl of <span class='sc'>Burlington</span>, -and by his efforts and care something was -recovered. But the researches then made were, in some -way, interrupted. They were afterwards resumed by Lord -<span class='sc'>Petre</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Narrative by Theobald; printed in <span class='sc'>Anecdotes of Howard Family</span>, pp. 101–120.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘After six days’ of excavation and search, says an -eye-witness, ‘just as the workmen were going to give over, -they fell upon something which gave them hopes. Upon -further opening the ground they discovered six statues, ... some of a colossal size, the drapery of which was -thought to be exceeding fine.’ These went eventually to -Worksop.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Some Arundelian marbles were, it is said, converted into -rollers for bowling-greens. The fragments of others lie in -or beneath the foundations of the houses in Norfolk Street -and the streets adjacent.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Stafford-House portion of the collections—which -included pictures, drawings, vases, medals, and many miscellaneous -antiquities of great curiosity—was sold by auction -<span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span>in 1720. At the prices of that day the sale produced no -less a sum than £8852.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Arundelian cabinet of cameos and intaglios, now so -famous under the name of ‘The Marlborough Gems,’ was -offered to the Trustees of the British Museum for sale, at -an early period in the history of the institution. The price -asked by the then possessor, the Duchess Dowager of -<span class='sc'>Norfolk</span>, was £10,000. But at that time the funds of the -nascent institution were inadequate to the purchase.</p> - -<p class='c035'>It affords conspicuous proof of the marvellous success which -had attended Lord <span class='sc'>Arundel’s</span> researches to find that the -remnants, so to speak, of his collections retain an almost -inestimable value, after so many losses and loppings. They -are virtually priceless, even if we leave out of view all that -is now private property.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When the Arundelian MSS. were transferred, in the -years 1831 and 1832, to the British Museum, their money -value—for the purposes of the exchange as between the -Royal Society and the Museum Trustees—was estimated -(according to the historian of the Royal Society) at the -sum of £3559. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Weld, <i>History of the Royal Society</i>, vol. ii, pp. 448, 449.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -This sum was given by the Trustees, -partly in money, and partly in printed books of which -the Museum possessed two or more than two copies. The -whole of the money received by the Royal Society was -expended by its Council in the purchase of other printed -books. So that both Libraries were benefited by the -exchange.</p> - -<p class='c029'>It may deserve remark that a somewhat similar transfer -had been contemplated and discussed during the lifetime -of the original donor. The project, at that period, was to -make an exchange between the Royal Society and the -University of Oxford. The University induced <span class='sc'>Evelyn</span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>to recommend Lord Henry <span class='sc'>Howard</span> to sanction an exchange -of such MSS. ‘as concern the civil law, theology, -and other scholastic learning, for mathematical, philosophical, -and such other books as may prove most useful to the -design and institution of the Society.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Evelyn to Howard; 14 March, 1669.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But at that time, -after much conference, it was otherwise determined.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The heraldical and genealogical books belonging to the -original <span class='sc'>Arundel</span> Library were given, at the date of the -first transfer of the bulk of the collection to the Royal -Society, to the Heralds’ College. They still form an -important part of the College Library, and they include -valuable materials for the history of the family of -<span class='sc'>Howard</span>.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span> - <div class='section'><h4 class='c017'>CHAPTER V.<br /> <span class='large'>THE COLLECTOR OF THE HARLEIAN MSS.</span></h4></div> -</div> -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘A soul supreme, in each hard instance tried,</div> - <div class='line'>Above all pain, all passion, and all pride,</div> - <div class='line'>The rage of power, the blast of public breath,</div> - <div class='line'>The lust of lucre, and the dread of death.—</div> - <div class='line in4'><span class='sc'>Pope</span>, <i>Epistle to Robert, Earl of Oxford, in the Tower</i>.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c039'>‘Whether this man ever had any determined view besides -that of raising his family is, I believe, a problematical -question in the world. My opinion is that he never had any -other.... Oxford fled from Court covered with shame, -the object of the derision of the Whigs and of the indignation -of the Tories.’—<span class='sc'>Bolingbroke</span>, <i>Letter to Sir W. Wyndham</i>.</p> - -<p class='c038'><i>The</i> <span class='sc'>Harley</span> <i>Family.—Parliamentary and Official Career -of Robert</i> <span class='sc'>Harley</span>, <i>Earl of Oxford.—The Party -Conflicts under Queen</i> <span class='sc'>Anne</span>.—<i>Robert</i> <span class='sc'>Harley</span> <i>and -Jonathan</i> <span class='sc'>Swift</span>.—<span class='sc'>Harley</span> <i>and the Court of the -Stuarts.—Did</i> <span class='sc'>Harley</span> <i>conspire to restore the -Pretender?—History of the Harleian Library.—The -Life and Correspondence of Humphrey</i> <span class='sc'>Wanley</span>.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Book I</span>, Chap. V. <span class='sc'>The Collector of the Harleian MSS.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Robert <span class='sc'>Harley</span> was the eldest son of Sir Edward <span class='sc'>Harley</span>, -of Brampton Bryan, in Herefordshire, by his second wife, -Abigail, daughter of Nathaniel <span class='sc'>Stephens</span>, of Essington, in -Gloucestershire. He was born at his father’s town-house -in Bow Street, Covent Garden, in the year 1661.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Harley Family.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The <span class='sc'>Harleys</span> had been a family of considerable note in -Herefordshire during several centuries. Many generations -of them had sat in the House of Commons, sometimes for -boroughs, but not infrequently for their county. Sir Edward -<span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>sided with the Parliamentarians during the Civil Wars. He -was, however, one of those moderate statesmen who, in the -words of a once-celebrated clerical adherent and martyr of -their party, Christopher <span class='sc'>Love</span>, judged it ‘an ill way to cure -the body politic, by cutting off the political head.’ In due -time he also became one of those ‘secluded members’ of -the Long Parliament who published the ‘Remonstrance’ of -1656, and who were then as strenuous—though far less -successful—in opposing what they deemed to be the tyranny -of the Protector, as they had formerly been in opposing the -tyranny of the King. Sir Edward <span class='sc'>Harley</span> promoted the -restoration of <span class='sc'>Charles the Second</span>, and sat in all the Parliaments -of that reign. He distinguished himself as a -defender of liberty of conscience in unpropitious times; -and he won, in a high degree, the respect of men who sat -beside him in the House of Commons, but were rarely -counted with him upon a division.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The first public act of Robert <span class='sc'>Harley</span> of which a record -has been kept is his appearance with his father, in 1688, -at the head of an armed band of tenantry and retainers, -assembled in Herefordshire to support the cause of the -Prince of <span class='sc'>Orange</span>, when the news had come of the Prince’s -arrival in Torbay.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Harley’s Parliamentary career.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>In the first Parliament of <span class='sc'>William</span> and <span class='sc'>Mary</span> Robert -<span class='sc'>Harley</span> sat for Tregony. To the second he was returned -by the burgesses of New Radnor. The first reported words -of his which appear in the debates were spoken in the -course of a discussion upon the heads of a ‘Bill of Indemnity.’ -‘I think,’ said he on this occasion, ‘that the -King in his message has led us. He shews us how to proceed -for satisfaction of justice. There is a crime [of which] -God says, He will not pardon it. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Grey’s <i>Debates</i>, vol. ix, p. 247.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -’Tis the shedding of -innocent blood. A gentleman said that the West was “a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>shambles.” What made that shambles? It began in law. -It was a common discourse among the Ministers that “the -King cannot have justice.”’ The debate on the Bill of -Indemnity of 1690 may be looked upon as, in some sort, -the foreshadowing of a long spell of political conflict, in -which Robert <span class='sc'>Harley</span> was to take a conspicuous share. -Twenty seven years afterwards the strife of parties was to -enter on a new stage. Some of the men who acted as the -political Mentors of the new member of 1689–90 were to -live long enough to clamour for his execution as a traitor, -and, on their failure to produce any adequate proof that he -was guilty, were to console themselves by insisting on his -exclusion from the ‘Act of Grace’ of 1717.</p> - -<p class='c035'><span class='sc'>Harley</span> won his earliest distinctions in political life by -assiduous, patient, and even drudging labour on questions -of finance. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. Harl. 7524, f. 139, seqq.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -During six years, at least, he worked zealously -as one of the ‘Commissioners for stating the Public Accounts -of the Kingdom.’ In parliamentary debates on the -public establishments and expenditure he took a considerable -share. As a speaker he had no brilliancy. His usual -tone and manner, we are told, were somewhat listless and -drawling. But occasionally he would speak with a certain -pith and incisiveness. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Grey’s <i>Debates</i>, vol. x, p. 268.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Thus, in November, 1692, in a discussion -on naval affairs, he said—‘We have had a glorious -victory at sea. But although we have had the honour, the -enemy has had the profit. They take our merchant ships.’ -Again, in the following year, when supporting the Bill for -more frequent Parliaments, he spoke thus:—‘A standing -Parliament can never be a true representative. Men are -much altered after they have been here some time. They -are no longer the same men that were sent up to us.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Of the truth of that saying, in one of its senses, <span class='sc'>Harley</span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>became himself a salient instance. Bred a Whig, and -during his early years acting commonly with the Whigs, -his party ties were gradually relaxed. By temper and -mental constitution he was always inclined to moderate -measures. As the party waxed fiercer and fiercer, and as -its policy came to be more and more obviously the weapon -of its hatreds, <span class='sc'>Harley</span> soon lay open to the reproach of -being a trimmer. The growing breach became evident -enough in the course of the debates on the treason of Sir -John <span class='sc'>Fenwick</span>, in November, 1696. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>His Speech on the attainder of Fenwick.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He then argued, -with force and earnestness, that atrocity in a crime is no -justification or excuse for violence and unscrupulousness in -a prosecutor. Some of his applications of that sound -doctrine are very questionable. But it is to his honour -that he preached moderation with consistency. He did -not bend it to the exigencies of the party he was approaching, -any more than to those of the party from which he -was gradually withdrawing himself.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Meanwhile he had signalised his powers in another way. -By long study he had acquired a considerable knowledge of -parliamentary law and precedent. He had taken his full -share in the work of committees. In February, 1701, he -was proposed for the Speakership, in opposition to Sir -Thomas <span class='sc'>Littleton</span>. He had a large body of supporters, -nor were they found exclusively in the Tory ranks. The -King sent for <span class='sc'>Littleton</span>, and told him that he thought it -would be for the public service that he should give way to -the choice of Mr. <span class='sc'>Harley</span> in his stead. But the election -was carried by a majority of only four votes. ‘It is a -great encouragement to his party,’ wrote <span class='sc'>Townshend</span> to -<span class='sc'>Walpole</span>, who was then in the country, ‘and no small -mortification to the Whigs.’ <span class='sc'>Harley</span> retained the Speakership -<span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>until the third session of the first Parliament of Queen -<span class='sc'>Anne</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Whatever may have been the ‘mortification of the Whigs’ -at his elevation, it is certain that at this time <span class='sc'>Harley</span> -laboured zealously for the establishment of the Protestant -succession to the throne. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Harley and the Act of Succession.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1701. March.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In the preparation, facilitating, -and passing of that measure he took so influential a part -that, afterwards, he was able to say, in the face of his -opponents, when they were most numerous and most embittered, -‘I had the largest hand in settling the succession -of the House of Hanover.’ The assertion met with no -denial.</p> - -<p class='c029'>It is evident, too, that the qualities for which he was -already reviled by extreme partisans on both sides were—in -their measure—real qualifications, both for the office of -Speaker and for the special task of that day. The party -leaders who were then most eagerly followed were men bent -on crushing their adversaries as well as conquering them. It -was inevitable that by such men <span class='sc'>Harley’s</span> moderation -towards opponents should be regarded as more cajolery. -And of that unhappy quality he was destined, at a later -day, to acquire but too much.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Secretaryship of State</span>, 1704.</div> - -<p class='c029'>On the 27th of April, 1704, Mr. Speaker <span class='sc'>Harley</span> was -sworn of the Privy Council. On the 18th of May he received -the seals as one of the Principal Secretaries of State. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Privy Council Register</i>, Anne, vol. ii, p. 102.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He had scarcely entered on the duties of his office before -he was busied with precautionary measures in Scotland -against an anticipated Jacobite insurrection, as well as with -a large share of the foreign correspondence. But just at -that busy time he found means to begin—though he could -not then complete—an act of charity which is memorable -both on the recipient’s account and on the score of some -<span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>well-known political consequences which eventually grew -thereout.</p> - -<p class='c029'>At the time when <span class='sc'>Harley</span> became a member of the -<span class='sc'>Godolphin</span> administration Daniel <span class='sc'>De Foe</span> lay in Newgate, -under a conviction for seditious libel, committed in the -publication of his famous tract, <i>The Shortest Way with the -Dissenters</i>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Harley’s protection of De Foe</span>, 1704.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The new Secretary sent a confidential person -to the prison with instructions to visit <span class='sc'>De Foe</span>, and to ask -him, in the Minister’s name, ‘What can I do for you?’ -<span class='sc'>De Foe’s</span> characteristic reply must be given in his own -words:—‘In return for this kind and generous message I -immediately took pen and ink, and writ the story of the -blind man in the Gospel, ... to whom our blessed Lord put -the question, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” -who—as if he had made it strange that such a question -should be asked, or as if he had said, “Lord, dost thou see -that I am blind, and yet ask me what thou shalt do for -me?”—my answer is plain in my misery, “Lord that I -may receive my sight.” I needed not to make the application.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>De Foe, <i>Appeal to Honour and Justice</i>, p. 11.</div> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>De Foe</span> then adds:—‘From this time, as I learned afterwards, -this noble person made it his business to have my -case represented to Her Majesty, and methods taken for -my deliverance.’ But the bigots who had caused a malicious -prosecution succeeded in delaying the successful issue -of the Secretary’s efforts during four months. With <span class='sc'>Harley</span> -the sufferer had had no previous acquaintance. The one -designation under which he ever afterwards spoke of him -was ‘my first benefactor.’ And the gratitude was lifelong.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In part, <span class='sc'>Harley</span> owed his new office to the personal -credit which he had won with the Queen during his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>Speakership; and in part, also, to the friendship of <span class='sc'>Marlborough</span>. -On receiving the news of his appointment the -Duke wrote to him, from the Camp:—‘I am sensible of the -advantage I shall reap by it, in having so good a friend -near Her Majesty’s person to present in the truest light my -faithful endeavours for her service.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Marlborough to Harley; 13 June, 1704.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But their intercourse, -if it ever attained to true cordiality at all, was cordial for -a very short time. Brief confidence was followed by long -distrust. <span class='sc'>Harley</span> strove to strengthen himself by the use of -channels of Court influence which were utterly inimical to -the <span class='sc'>Marlborough</span> connection. His efforts to make himself -independent of that connection did not, however, lessen -the prodigality of his assurances of friendship and fidelity.</p> - -<p class='c029'>His political position thus became that of a man who was -exposed to the attacks of many bitter enemies among the -statesmen with whom he had begun his career, without -being able to rely upon any hearty support from those with -whom he now shared the conduct of affairs. He might -count, indeed, on assailants from the ranks both of the -extreme Whigs and the extreme Tories, whilst from most -of his own colleagues of the intermediate party he would -have to meet the greater danger of a lukewarm defence. -In such a position the attack was not likely to be long -waited for.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Easiness of nature, and a tendency to alternate fits of -close application with fits of indolence, always characterised -him. And those qualities had an incidental consequence -which opened to his opponents a tempting opportunity. -<span class='sc'>Harley</span> was habitually less careful of official papers than -it behoved a Secretary of State to be.<a id='r34'></a><a href='#f34' class='c030'><sup>[34]</sup></a> He was also at all -times prone to place a premature and undue confidence in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>his dependants. In 1707, William <span class='sc'>Gregg</span>, one of the -clerks in his office, abused his confidence by secretly copying -some letters of the highest importance and by selling the -copies to the Court of France.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Crime of William Gregg, and the use made of it by Harley’s enemies.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The treachery was discovered by the Secretary himself, -and such steps were taken to lessen the mischief as the case -admitted. Much excitement naturally followed upon the -publicity of the crime. The least scrupulous of <span class='sc'>Harley’s</span> -enemies conceived a hope that the traitor who had served -the public enemy for a bribe might also be tempted to ruin -his master for another and greater bribe. Means were -found to convey to <span class='sc'>Gregg</span> strong assurances of a certain -escape, and of a wealthy exile, if he would but declare that -he had copied the despatches, and forwarded the transcripts, -by the Secretary’s direction. Pending the attempt, -they circulated throughout the country a report that such -a declaration had actually been made, and that the Secretary -was to be impeached. But the clerk, instead of -betraying his master, exposed his temptors. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Appendix to Gregg’s Trial, &c., in <i>State Trials</i>, vol. xii, pp. 694 seqq.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -His first -emphatic declaration of <span class='sc'>Harley’s</span> innocence was repeated -immediately before his death in these words:—‘As I shall -answer it before the judgment seat of Christ, the gentleman -aforesaid [<i>i. e.</i> <span class='sc'>Harley</span>] was not privy to my writing to -France, neither directly nor indirectly.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Harley</span> himself, and also his nearest friends, were wont -to speak of this affair as one that had brought his life into -real peril. It is certain that the incident and its consequences -helped materially to make his continuance in office -impossible. But he struggled hard.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Meanwhile, the dissensions in the Ministry were daily -increasing. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Dismissed from Office.</span> Feb., 1708.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -They became so bitter as to lead to personal -altercations at the Council Board, even when the Queen -herself was present. On one such occasion (February, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>1708) <span class='sc'>Godolphin</span> and <span class='sc'>Marlborough</span> went together to the -Queen a little before the hour at which a Cabinet Council -had been summoned. They told her they must quit her -service, since they saw that she was resolved not to part -with <span class='sc'>Harley</span>. ‘She seemed,’ says Bishop <span class='sc'>Burnet</span>, ‘not -much concerned at the Lord <span class='sc'>Godolphin’s</span> offering to lay -down; and it was believed to be a part of <span class='sc'>Harley’s</span> new -scheme to remove him. But she was much touched with -the Duke of <span class='sc'>Marlborough’s</span> offering to quit, and studied, -with some soft expressions, to divert him from that resolution; -but he was firm; and she did not yield to them.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Burnet, <i>History of his own Time</i>, vol. v, pp. 343, 344 (edit. 1823).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -So they both went away, without attending the Council, ‘to -the wonder of the whole Court.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>When the Council met, it became part of <span class='sc'>Harley’s</span> duty -as Secretary to deliver to the Queen a memorial relating to -the conduct of the war. The Duke of <span class='sc'>Somerset</span> rose, as -the Secretary was about to read it, and with the words -‘If Your Majesty suffers that fellow’ (pointing to <span class='sc'>Harley</span>) -‘to treat affairs of the war without the General’s advice, I -cannot serve you,’ abruptly left the Council. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Swift to Archbishop King, 12 Feb. 1708. Comp. Burnet, as above.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘The rest,’ -according to <span class='sc'>Burnet</span>, ‘looked so cold and sullen that the -Cabinet Council was soon at an end.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Whilst a result which—for the time—had thus become -so plainly inevitable, remained still doubtful, <span class='sc'>Harley</span> had -imposed on himself the humiliating task of assuring the -Duke of <span class='sc'>Marlborough</span> of the honesty of his former professions -of attachment. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Harley’s dismissal from the Secretaryship.</span> Feb., 1708.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘I have never writ anything to -you,’ said he, ‘but what I really thought and intended.’ -And then he went on to say:—‘I have for near two years -seen the storm coming upon me, and now I find I am to -be sacrificed to sly insinuations and groundless jealousies.’ -These words were written in September, 1707. On the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>10th of February in the following year, <span class='sc'>Marlborough</span> had, -at length, the satisfaction of writing from St. James’ to a -foreign correspondent:—‘Mr. Secretary <span class='sc'>Harley</span> has this -afternoon given up the seals of office to the Queen. Between -ourselves he richly deserves what has befallen him.’<a id='r35'></a><a href='#f35' class='c030'><sup>[35]</sup></a> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Marlborough to Count Wratislaw, 10 Feb., 1708.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Among -the two or three friends who went out with <span class='sc'>Harley</span> was -Henry <span class='sc'>St. John</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>For the next two years and a half, <span class='sc'>Harley’s</span> principal -occupation was to prepare the way for a return, in kind, of -the defeat thus inflicted upon him. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The intrigue against the Godolphin Ministry.</span> 1708–1710.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Some of the steps by -which he achieved his end are among the most familiar -portions of our political history. But from the necessities -of the case it has been, and probably it must continue to -be, one of those portions in which the basis of truth can -scarcely, by any researches that are now possible, be separated -from the large admixture of falsehood built thereon -by party animosities.</p> - -<p class='c029'>His own correspondence shows that strong hopes of -success in the effort were entertained within eight months -of his dismissal. It shows also that the channel employed, -unsuccessfully, in 1708, was that which became an effectual -one in 1710.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>Early in October, <span class='sc'>Harley</span> received from the Court an -unsigned letter in which these passages occur:—‘The Queen -stands her ground and refuses to enter into any capitulation -with the [Whig Lords]. She has not hitherto consented -to offer or hear of any terms. The Lord T[reasure]r -desired she might allow him to treat with ’em, and the -Duke of <span class='sc'>S[omerse]t</span> was employed to persuade her, but -she was inflexible. The Lord Treasurer offered to resign -the Staff, but she would neither take the Staff nor advice -from him, and he went to Newmarket without getting any -powers or leave to treat.... -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Harley Corresp. in MS. Harl. 7526, f. 237.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Your friend cannot answer -for the event.... I will add no more but that your friend -thinks your being here is very necessary, and that Her -Majesty ... would be the better of assistance and good -advice.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>It was not, however, until the 8th of August, 1710, that -the <span class='sc'>Godolphin</span> Ministry was dismissed. Two days afterwards, -<span class='sc'>Harley</span> was made Chancellor of the Exchequer; -the Treasury being put into commission.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Chancellorship of the Exchequer.</span> 1710, August.</div> - -<p class='c029'>He entered upon that office amidst enormous obstacles. -His enemies were unable to deny that his exertions to overcome -the difficulties in his path were marked by financial -ability, and by a large measure of temporary success. But -as little can it be denied that the immediate triumph laid -the groundwork of public troubles to come.</p> - -<p class='c029'>His own account of the situation of affairs, and of the -methods taken to improve it, must, of course, be read with -the due allowance. The pith of it lies in these sentences:—‘The -army was in the field. There was no money in -the Treasury. None of the remitters would contract again. -The Bank had recently refused to lend the Lord Treasurer -<span class='sc'>Godolphin</span> a hundred thousand pounds. The Army and -Navy Services were in debt nearly eleven millions. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span>Civil List owed £600,000. The annual deficit was, at -least, a hundred and twenty-four thousand pounds. The -new Commissioners of the Treasury, nevertheless, made -provision, within a few days of their appointment, for paying -the Army by the greatest remittance that was ever -known. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Letter to the Queen</i>, June 9, 1714. (<i>Parl. Hist.</i>, vol. vii, App.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When Parliament met, on the 27th of November, -funds had been prepared for the service of the year, and a -plan was submitted for easing the nation of nine millions of -debt.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Harley</span> was scarcely warm in his new office before he -made the acquaintance of <span class='sc'>Swift</span>, then full of ambitious -though vague schemes for the future, and very angry with -the leaders of the Whig party for the coolness with which -his proffers, both of counsel and of service, had lately been -received.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Early intercourse with Swift.</span> 1710–1711.</div> - -<p class='c029'>At the time of his introduction to <span class='sc'>Harley</span>, <span class='sc'>Swift’s</span> -immediate business in London consisted in soliciting from -the Government a remission of first-fruits to the clergy of -Ireland. His nominal colleagues in that trust were the -Bishops of Ossory and Killaloe, but the whole weight of -the negotiations rested upon <span class='sc'>Swift’s</span> shoulders. His treatment -of it soon displayed his parts. The Minister saw -that he was both able and willing to render efficient political -service. To the intercourse so begun we owe a life-like -portraiture of <span class='sc'>Harley</span>, under all his aspects, and in every -mood of mind. Nor is the depicter himself anywhere seen -under stronger light than in those passages of his journal -which narrate, from day to day, the rise and fall of the -Government founded on the unstable alliance between -<span class='sc'>Harley</span> and <span class='sc'>St. John</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Of their first interview <span class='sc'>Swift</span> notes:—‘I was brought -privately to Mr. <span class='sc'>Harley</span>, who received me with the greatest -respect and kindness imaginable.’ Of the second:—‘We -<span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>were two hours alone.... He read a memorial I had drawn -up, and put it into his pocket to show the Queen; told me -the measures he would take, ... told me he must bring -Mr. <span class='sc'>St. John</span> and me acquainted; and spoke so many things -of personal kindness and esteem for me, that I am inclined -half to believe what some friends have told me, that he -would do everything to bring me over.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Journal to Stella</i>; in Works, 2nd Edit., vol. ii, pp. 33; 37; 80.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When the promised -interview with Secretary <span class='sc'>St. John</span> comes to be diarized in -its turn:—‘He told me,’ says <span class='sc'>Swift</span>, ‘among other things, -that Mr. <span class='sc'>Harley</span> complained he could keep nothing from -me, I had the way so much of getting into him.’ I knew -that was a refinement.... It is hard to see these great -men using me like one who was their betters, and the -puppies with you in Ireland hardly regarding me.’ Not -many weeks had passed before <span class='sc'>Swift’s</span> pen was at work in -defence of the measures of the Government with an energy, -a practical and versatile ability, of which, up to that date, -there had been scarcely an example, brilliant as was the -roll of contemporary writers who had taken sides in the -political strife. <span class='sc'>Swift’s</span> defects, as well as his merits, -armed him for his task.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Nor had he been long engaged upon it before he marked, -very distinctly, the character both of the rewards to which -he aspired, and of the personal independence which he was -determined to maintain, in his own fashion.</p> - -<p class='c029'>One day, as he took his leave of <span class='sc'>Harley</span>, after dining -with him, the Minister placed in his hand a fifty pound -note. He returned it angrily. And he met <span class='sc'>Harley’s</span> -next invitation by a refusal. Then comes this entry in his -diary:—‘I was this morning early with Mr. <span class='sc'>Lewis</span>, of the -Secretary’s office, and saw a letter Mr. <span class='sc'>Harley</span> had sent -to him desiring to be reconciled; but I was deaf to all -entreaties, and have desired <span class='sc'>Lewis</span> to go to him and let -<span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>him know I expect further satisfaction. If we let these -great Ministers pretend too much there will be no governing -them. He promises to make me easy if I will but -come and see him. But I will not, and he shall do it by -message, or I will cast him off.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Journal to Stella</i>, p. 169.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The desired concession -was made, and in a day or two we find our journalist recording, -characteristically enough, that he ‘sent Mr. <span class='sc'>Harley</span> -into the House to call the Secretary [<span class='sc'>St. John</span>], to let -him know I would not dine with him if he dined late.’ -And then:—‘I have taken Mr. <span class='sc'>Harley</span> into favour again.... -I will cease to visit him after dinner, for he dines too -late for my head.... -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, pp. 178; 182.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -They call me nothing but -“Jonathan,” and I said I believed they would leave me -Jonathan as they found me, and that I never knew a -Ministry do anything for those whom they make companions -of their pleasures.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Swift</span> was one of the first bystanders who took note of the -seeds of dissension which were already growing up between -<span class='sc'>Harley</span> and <span class='sc'>St. John</span>, and who foresaw the coming parallel -between the fate of the new Government and that of its -predecessor. On the 4th of March, 1711, he wrote:—‘We -must have a Peace, let it be a bad or a good one; -though nobody dares talk of it. The nearer I look upon -things the worse I like them. I believe the Confederacy -will soon break to pieces, and our factions at home increase. -The Ministry is upon a very narrow bottom, and stands -like an isthmus between the Whigs on one side, and the -violent Tories on the other. They are able seamen, but -the tempest is too great, the ship too rotten, and the crew -all against them.... -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, p. 196.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Your Duchess of <span class='sc'>Somerset</span>, who -now has the key, is a most insinuating woman, and I believe -they [the Whigs] will endeavour to play the same -game that has been played against them.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>The game was suddenly interrupted, though only for a -while. An attempt to assassinate <span class='sc'>Harley</span> gave him a -renewed hold upon power and popularity. But its unexpected -consequences embittered the jealousies which already -menaced his administration with ruin.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Guiscard’s attempt on the life of Harley.</span> 1711, March.</div> - -<p class='c029'>Antoine de <span class='sc'>Guiscard</span> was a French adventurer, whose private -life had been marked by great profligacy. He had taken -an obscure part in the insurrection of the Cevennes—rather -as a recruiting agent than as a combatant. In that character -he had met with encouragement to raise a refugee -regiment in England. Hopes had also been held out to -him that a British auxiliary contingent would be landed on -the southern coast of France. In the course, however, of -some preliminary inquiries into the position of the insurrectionists, -it was found that such an invasion would have -little chance of any useful result, and the project was -abandoned. Meanwhile, a pension of £400 a year had -been bestowed on the emissary.</p> - -<p class='c029'>But ere long it was discovered that <span class='sc'>Guiscard</span> had -profited by opportunities, afforded him in the course of the -discussions about the proposed expedition, to make himself -conversant with many particulars of military and naval -affairs, and that it was his habit to send advices into -France. Some of his letters were seized. Their writer -was arrested on the 8th of March, 1711, and was taken, -immediately, before a Committee of the Privy Council.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When examined as to his illicit intercourse with France -he persisted in mere denials. At length, one of his letters -was shown to him by <span class='sc'>Harley</span>, and he was closely pressed -as to his motives in writing it. He then addressed himself -to Secretary <span class='sc'>St. John</span>, and begged permission to speak with -him apart. The Secretary answered, ‘You are here before -the Council as a criminal. Whatever you may have to say -<span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span>must be said to all of us.’ The man persisted in refusing -to reply to any further questions, unless his request was -granted. Seeing that nothing more could then be obtained -from him, the Lord President rose to ring the bell for a -messenger, that the prisoner might be removed in -custody.</p> - -<p class='c029'>At that moment the prisoner pulled a penknife from his -pocket, turned towards <span class='sc'>Harley</span>, near to whom he stood, -and stabbed him in the breast. He repeated the stroke, -and then rushed towards <span class='sc'>St. John</span>. But between the -prisoner and the Secretary there stood a small table, over -which he stumbled. <span class='sc'>St. John</span> drew his sword, and, with -the words ‘The villain has killed Mr. <span class='sc'>Harley</span>,’ struck at -him, as did also the Duke of <span class='sc'>Ormond</span> and the Duke of -<span class='sc'>Newcastle</span>. Lord <span class='sc'>Powlett</span> cried out ‘Do not kill him.’ -Presently the assassin was in the hands of several messengers, -with whom, notwithstanding his wounds, he struggled -so desperately that more than one of them received severe -injuries. When at length overpowered, he said to <span class='sc'>Ormond</span>, -‘My Lord, why do you not despatch me?’ ‘That,’ replied -the Duke, ‘is not the work of gentlemen. ’Tis another -man’s business.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Harley’s</span> wound was so severe that for several days there -was a belief that it would prove mortal. It entailed a lingering -illness.<a id='r36'></a><a href='#f36' class='c030'><sup>[36]</sup></a> Before his recovery, his assailant died in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span>prison. The coroner’s inquest ascribed <span class='sc'>Guiscard’s</span> death -to bruises received from one of the messengers who strove -to bind him, but <span class='sc'>Swift</span> tells us that he died of the sword-wounds.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>Journal to Stella</i>, pp. 202–214.</div> - -<p class='c029'>That keen observer had seen, long before this attempted -assassination, the latent personal jealousies between <span class='sc'>Harley</span> -and <span class='sc'>St. John</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Harley becomes Lord High Treasurer.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He had recognised in those jealousies the -gravest peril of <span class='sc'>Harley’s</span> government. <span class='sc'>Guiscard’s</span> crime -had now made <span class='sc'>Harley</span> the most popular man in the -country, and it had doubled his favour with the Queen. -On his recovery, he received the congratulations of the -House of Commons, expressed with more than usual -emphasis. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Journals of -H. of Commons</i>, -1711. -27 April.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -By the Queen he was raised to the peerage -(24 May, 1711) as Earl of <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> and Earl <span class='sc'>Mortimer</span>. -Five days afterwards (29 May) he was made Lord High -Treasurer. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Council -Register</i>, -Anne, vol. v, -p. 249.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -His elevation intensified the jealousy of <span class='sc'>St. -John</span> into something which already closely resembled hatred, -although years were to elapse before the mask could be quite -thrown aside. It is amusing to read the philosophical -reflection with which the Secretary sent the news to Lord -<span class='sc'>Ossory</span>:—‘Our friend Mr. <span class='sc'>Harley</span> is now Earl of <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> -and High Treasurer. This great advancement is what the -labour he has gone through, the danger he has run, and -the services he has performed, seem to deserve. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>St. John to -Lord Ossory; -1711, 12 June -(<i>Corresp.</i> i, -148).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But he -stands on slippery ground, and envy is always near the great -to fling up their heels on the least trip which they -make.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Earl of <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> had not long obtained the Treasurer’s -staff before he received some characteristic exhortations -from the Jacobite section of his Tory supporters of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>use which he ought to make of it. <span class='sc'>Atterbury</span> came to -him, on the part of some of the Treasurer’s ‘particular -friends,’ to acquaint him how uneasy they were that he had -neither dissolved the Parliament, nor removed from office -nearly so many Whigs as those particular friends wished to -see removed. ‘I know very well,’ replied the Earl, ‘the men -from whom that message comes, and I am also very sensible -of the difficulties I have to struggle with. If, in addition, -I must communicate all my measures, it will be necessary -for me to assure Her Majesty that I can no longer do her -any service.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Oxford and the October Club.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>These hot-headed politicians had already formed their -famous ‘October Club.’ They were about a hundred and -fifty in number, and for a few months their proceedings -made a great noise. The Treasurer found means to deal -with them in a more effectual fashion than that in which -they had endeavoured to deal with the administration. ‘By -silent, quiet steps, in a little time,’ says a writer who -watched the process and aided it, ‘he so effectually separated -these gentlemen, that in less than six months the -name of “October Club” was forgotten in the world.... -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>De Foe, <i>Secret History of the White Staff</i>.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -With so much address was this attempt overthrown, that -he lost not the men, though he put them by their -design.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Those brief sentences indicate, I think, the fatality of the -position in which <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> now placed himself. He had -ardently desired to gain the control of affairs, at a period -of exceptional difficulty. And, at the best, his capacity -and energies would have been barely equal to the task in -times of exceptional ease. Some of the very qualities, both -of mind and heart, which made him beloved by those who -lived with him, weakened him as a statesman. He was -surrounded by adepts in political intrigue, some of whom -<span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span>combined with an experience not less than his own, far -greater powers of mind, an unbending will, and an utter -unscrupulousness as to the use of means. He vainly flattered -himself that he could beat these men at their own -weapons. His temporary success laid a foundation for -his eventual ruin.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Oxford and the Court of the Stuarts.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>To gain the aid of the Jacobite Tories in Parliament he -held out hopes which it was never his intention to realise. -He carried on an indirect correspondence with the Stuart -Court in a way sufficiently adroit to induce that Court to -instruct its adherents to support the negotiations for the -Peace with France. He would commit himself to nothing -until Peace was made. The conclusion of a Peace was the -one measure on which he was firmly bent. He had contended -that the true interests of Britain demanded the ending -of an exhausting war many years before. And whatever -the demerits and shortcomings of the Treaty of Utrecht, -it had at least the merit of making the quiet succession -of the House of Hanover possible.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In March, 1713, the French agent in England, the Abbé -<span class='sc'>Gautier</span>, wrote to the Marquis de <span class='sc'>Torcy</span> an account of an -interview he had obtained with the Lord Treasurer:—‘M. -Vanderberg’ [<i>i. e.</i> Lord <span class='sc'>Oxford</span>], he says, ‘sent for me, -seven or eight days ago, to tell me something of importance. -Indeed, he opened his mind to me, making me acquainted -with his feelings towards Montgourlin [<i>i. e.</i> the Pretender], -and the desire he had to do him service, as soon as the -Peace shall be concluded.... It will not be difficult, -because the Queen is of his opinion. But, in the mean -time, it is essential that Montgourlin should make up his -mind; that he should declare that it is not his intention -to continue to reside where he now is. He must say, publicly, -and especially before his family, that when the Peace -<span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span>is made he means to travel in Italy, in Switzerland, in -Bavaria, even in Spain. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Gautier to De Torcy; 1713, March. [Printed in <i>Edin. Review</i>, from notes of Mackintosh.]<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -This is to be done, that it may be -believed in England that his choice of a residence is not -dictated by a mere desire to be near his relatives, and to -be close at hand should measures have to be taken on an -emergency.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>After the communication of this statement to the Pretender -he made repeated attempts to enter into correspondence -with Queen <span class='sc'>Anne</span>. By <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> these attempts -were uniformly and effectually foiled.</p> - -<p class='c029'>To the insincerity of <span class='sc'>Oxford’s</span> advances—such as they -were—to the Jacobite emissaries, there can be no witness -more competent, none more unexceptionable, than the Duke -of <span class='sc'>Berwick</span>. His testimony runs thus:—‘We wrote,’ he -says, ‘to all the Jacobites to support the government; a step -which had no small share in giving to the Court party so -large a majority in the House of Commons that it carried -everything its own way.... After the Peace, the Treasurer -spoke with not a whit more of clearness or precision than -before it.... -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Mémoires du Maréchal Duc de Berwick</i> (in Petitot’s <i>Collection</i>, tom. lxvi, pp. 219 seqq.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He was merely keeping us in play; and it -was very difficult to find a remedy. To have broken with -him would have spoiled all; for he had the reins in his -hand. He governed the Queen at his will.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, pp. 224, 225.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In all his -advances, adds the Duke, in another passage, ‘<span class='sc'>Oxford’s</span> -only motive had been to win over Jacobites to side with -the Tories, and to get a sanction for the Peace.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Whilst these intrigues were still in action, one, at least, -of the Jacobite agents was clear-sighted enough to detect -the secret of the Treasurer’s scheme. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Original in Nairne MSS., vol. 4. (Macpherson, <i>Original Pagers</i>, vol. ii, p. 269.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -A confidential agent -of the Earl of <span class='sc'>Middleton</span>, Secretary to the Pretender, -wrote in February, 1712—‘[The Earl of <span class='sc'>Oxford</span>] is -entirely a friend to [the Elector of <span class='sc'>Hanover</span>], notwithstanding -the disobliging measures that spark has taken.... -<span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>[<span class='sc'>Oxford’s</span>] head is set on shewing that he is above -resentment, and that he [the Elector] has been put into a -wrong way.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>In matters of Church policy at home the Earl followed -like indirect courses, and with the like result—a momentary -success which prepared the way for final defeat.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Harley’s conduct on the Conformity Bill.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>No measure could possibly be more repugnant to <span class='sc'>Oxford’s</span> -declared convictions than the famous ‘Bill against -Occasional Conformity,’ brought into the House of Lords -by the Earl of <span class='sc'>Nottingham</span>, at the close of the year 1711. -It was part of a policy to which his very nature was antagonistic. -But he was in vain entreated, by men who had -been his life-long adherents, to oppose it. The passage of -that Bill was the price, and, as it seems, the only price for -which <span class='sc'>Nottingham</span> and his band of followers would give -their support to the foreign policy of the Government.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The growth of the internal dissensions in the administration -kept pace with the growth of its external perils. Personal -objects of the pettiest kind were made occasions of quarrel. -In the summer of 1712, <span class='sc'>St. John</span>, who had set his heart -on the restoration in himself of that family Earldom of -<span class='sc'>Bolingbroke</span> which in the previous year had become extinct -on the death of a distant relative, was made a Viscount. -On the announcement of his creation he burst into open -menaces of vengeance against the Treasurer, and renewed -them with greater violence towards the close of the year, -when he found himself excluded from another coveted -dignity. An election of Knights of the Garter made, to -use Lord <span class='sc'>Oxford’s</span> own words about it, ‘a new disturbance -which is too well remembered.’ Just as the breach with -<span class='sc'>Bolingbroke</span> had become plainly irreconcilable, the Treasurer -found a new and equally bitter enemy in another old -friend. He defeated a rapacious attempt made by Lady -<span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span><span class='sc'>Masham</span> on the Treasury. The first offence in that kind -would never have been forgiven. But ere long it was -repeated.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In both Houses of Parliament, <span class='sc'>Oxford’s</span> veiled and -vacillating policy was fast alienating men who had long -supported him, and who to the last retained more confidence -in him than in his brilliant rival. The crisis, however, -was brought about, not by the increased strength of -Parliamentary opposition, but by bed-chamber intrigues, -such as those which he had himself stooped to employ six -years before against <span class='sc'>Godolphin</span> and <span class='sc'>Marlborough</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Meanwhile the Minister played into the hands of his -opponents by exhibiting great irresolution. He dallied and -procrastinated with urgent business. He relaxed in his -attention to the Queen. At an unwary moment he even -gave her personal offence, the results of which were none -the less bitter for the absence of design. He showed more -concern about comparatively distant perils than about those -which were close at hand.</p> - -<p class='c029'>At the beginning of 1714 the best informed of the -Jacobites had become fully convinced that <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> was -their enemy. They saw, to repeat the words of the Duke -of <span class='sc'>Berwick</span>, that he had been only keeping them in play. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Oxford’s correspondence with the Court of Hanover.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But at the Court of Hanover he was far from being regarded -as an assured friend. Over-subtlety had been rewarded -with almost universal distrust.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>1714, April.</div> - -<p class='c029'>When in April of that year he sent to Hanover renewed -protestations of fidelity, expressed in terms of unusual -energy, they were looked upon by some of the Elector’s -advisers as mere professions.<a id='r37'></a><a href='#f37' class='c030'><sup>[37]</sup></a> If now read side by side -<span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span>with contemporary documents, drawn up by secret emissaries -of the Pretender, they acquire a stamp of sincerity -which it is hard to doubt.</p> - -<p class='c029'>To Baron <span class='sc'>Wassenaer Duyvenworde</span> Lord <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> -wrote thus:—‘I do in the most solemn manner assure you -that, next to the Queen, I am entirely and unalterably -devoted to the interests of His Electoral Highness of -Hanover.... I am ready to give him all the proofs -of my attachment to his interest, and to set in a true light -the state of this country; for it will be very unfortunate for -so great a Prince to be only Prince over a party, which -can never last long in England.’ He then goes on to add -that the one thing which would, under existing circumstances, -imperil the Hanover succession is the sending -into England of any member of that family without the -Queen’s consent. Such an act would, in his judgment, -‘change the dispute to the Crown and the Successor, -whereas now it is between the House of Hanover and the -Popish Pretender.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>Oxford to Wassenaer; MS. Sloane, 4107. (B. M.)</div> - -<p class='c029'>He repeated the advice in another and not less urgent -letter, after the occurrence of the visit made to the Lord -Chancellor <span class='sc'>Harcourt</span> by the Hanoverian Resident, to ask -for a writ of summons for the Duke of <span class='sc'>Cambridge</span>. But -he also advised Queen <span class='sc'>Anne</span> to consent to the issue of such -a writ. He was opposed by a majority of his colleagues, -under the leadership of <span class='sc'>Bolingbroke</span>, as well as by the -persistent unwillingness of the Queen herself.</p> - -<p class='c029'>It is instructive to read the comments on the political -situation in England at this moment, of a German diplomatist -<span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>resident in London (as Minister from the Elector -Palatine) who was devotedly attached to the Hanoverian -succession.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘Some people,’ wrote Baron von <span class='sc'>Steinghengs</span> to Count -von der <span class='sc'>Schulenberg</span>, on the 12th of May, ‘have been at -work for a whole year to deprive the Lord Treasurer of the -conduct of public affairs. I have been aware, almost from -the beginning, of the different channels which have been -made use of to carry this point. But I should never have -expected that they would fire the mine before the end of -this session, and I am much mistaken if the authors have -not reason one day to regret their over-haste. For I do -not know my man, if he does not cut out a good deal of -work for them, particularly if a certain intrigue which is on -the tapis succeeds. As for the rest, you may rely upon his -sentiments; and he never succeeded in persuading those -who doubted them more than by his declaration made in a -full House on the 16th of last month on the question of -danger to the Protestant succession, having in it given -much greater hold upon himself than there was any need -for, if he was not acting in good faith.... The party of -the Hanoverian Tories has visibly been strengthened by it.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Von Steinghengs to Count von der Schulenberg, May <span class='fraction'>1<br /><span class='vincula'>12</span></span> 1714 (in Kemble’s <i>State Papers</i>, p. 493).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And to this the writer adds, in a postscript, ‘It is of -extreme importance both for the Whigs and for the -House of Hanover to take steps to keep him there, and to -engage him by some sort of political confidence to be -assured of his fortunes under that House.’ In another -letter to the same correspondent, Baron von <span class='sc'>Steinghengs</span> -notes a fact which by many of our historians has been too -much neglected. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Same to same, June 14 (Kemble, p. 507).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘To make the English Ministry,’ he wrote, -‘alone responsible ... for the exorbitant power which -the Peace of Utrecht has given to France is ... to -ignore entirely the incredible obstacles which the enemies -<span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span>of that Ministry threw, both at home and abroad, -in the way of making the Peace such as it might have -been.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>But although ‘the mine was fired’ before the end of -May, July had nearly ended before the effectual explosion -came. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Oxford’s Dismissal and the Queen’s Death.</span> 1714, July 27, August 1.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sc'>Bolingbroke’s</span> triumph lasted exactly four days. -‘The Earl of <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> was removed on Tuesday. The -Queen died on Sunday. What a world is this! And -how does Fortune banter us!... I have lost all by the -death of the Queen, but my spirit.’ Such were the words -in which <span class='sc'>Bolingbroke</span> announced to <span class='sc'>Swift</span> his victory,—and -its futility. In a few more days the spirit vanished, -like the triumph. The victor was a fugitive.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Bolingbroke’s</span> hatred to <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> lasted to the close of -his life. He survived his old comrade twenty-seven years. -The final year of that long period brought no relenting -thought, no spark of charitable feeling.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Did Oxford conspire to bring back the Pretender?</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>To the question ‘Did Lord <span class='sc'>Oxford</span>, during his tenure of -office, conspire to enthrone the Pretender?’ it ought always -to have been a sufficient answer that there was, as yet, not a -tittle of <i>evidence</i> of any such conspiracy on his part. That -accusation had never any support beyond surmise and -conjecture. Men who were in possession of every imaginable -resource and appliance to back their search failed to -adduce even a shadow of evidence in proof of the charge -they would fain have fastened upon him. And in 1869 -the matter still stands, in the main, where it stood in -1717.</p> - -<p class='c029'>After many examinations of the most secret correspondence -of the Stuarts and their adherents, and after the -publishing of extensive selections from it—made at intervals -which spread over eighty years,—not a scrap of direct and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>valid testimony has been found to sustain the charge. Every -passage, save one, which bears at all on <span class='sc'>Oxford’s</span> intercourse -with Jacobite emissaries, up to the year 1715, tends to show -that what they asserted about his intentions on the Pretender’s -behalf was built on wishes, hopes, and guesses—on -anything rather than knowledge. Every passage, save one, -tends to show that he was using the Jacobites for his own -purposes, without the least idea of aiding theirs. Every -passage, save one, is in entire harmony with the terms of -that incompatible charge by means of which <span class='sc'>Bolingbroke</span> -justified to himself his life-long hostility, when writing the -<i>Letter to Sir William Wyndham</i>. The significance of that -charge, coming from such a source, can scarcely be exaggerated. -‘<span class='sc'>Oxford</span> would not,’ wrote <span class='sc'>Bolingbroke</span>, ‘or -he could not, act with us, and he resolved that we should -not act without him, as long as he could hinder it.... -At the Queen’s death, he hoped ... to deliver us up, -bound as it were, hand and foot, to our adversaries. On -the foundation of this merit he flattered himself that he had -gained some of the Whigs, and softened, at least, the rest -of the party to him. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Bolingbroke, <i>Letter to Sir W. Wyndham</i>.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -By his secret negotiations at Hanover, -he took it for granted that he was not only reconciled to -that Court, but that he should, under his present Majesty’s -reign, have as much credit as he had enjoyed under that of -the Queen.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>Gautier to De Torcy; 14 December, 1713. [Printed in <i>Edinb. Review</i>, from the Notes of Sir James Mackintosh, in vol. lxii, pp. 18, seqq.]</div> - -<p class='c029'>The solitary passage in the correspondence of the Jacobite -agents which goes directly to the issue is the assertion made -by <span class='sc'>Gautier</span>, in a letter to <span class='sc'>De Torcy</span>, that <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> said to -him, in December, 1713, ‘As long as I live, England shall -not be governed by a German.’ In that notable statement -lies the pith of a mass of letters which report the hopes, -beliefs, conjectures, and imaginings, of their respective -writers, as to what Lord <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> would do for the Pretender,—whenever -<span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>that prince could be brought to change, -or, at least, to disguise his religion.</p> - -<p class='c035'><span class='sc'>Oxford</span> was present, as a Privy Councillor, at the proclamation -of King <span class='sc'>George the First</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Oxford’s reception by George I.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It was noted by some -of the bystanders that his demeanour was buoyant and -joyous. When the King reached Greenwich, the Earl -went thither with more than usual pomp and retinue. He -was received with marked coldness, if not with open -contempt.</p> - -<p class='c029'>There is little need, in a sketch of this kind, to tell, at -length, the story of an impeachment which was stretched -over two years, and had no result save that of breaking -down, by two years of imprisonment, the health of the -defeated statesman. Few and brief words on that head -will suffice.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>His Impeachment.</span> 1715–1717.</div> - -<p class='c029'>Out of twenty-two articles of impeachment, fourteen -accuse the Earl of <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> of betrayal of duty, either in -the conduct of the negotiations for Peace, or in instructions -given for handling the British Army—pending those negotiations—in -such a way as to injure the common cause of -the Allies, by promoting the conclusion of a treaty ‘on -terms fatal to the interests of the Kingdom.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1715. June 24.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The fifteenth -article charges him with inserting false statements in the -Queen’s Speeches and Messages to Parliament; the sixteenth -with improperly advising the Queen to make a -creation of Peers. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>State Trials</i>, vol. xv, Coll. 1052, seqq.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Other articles allege misconduct in the -management of an expedition to Canada; the appropriation -of sums of ‘Secret Service Money’ to corrupt purposes; -and treasonable intercourse with ‘Irish Papists.’</p> - -<p class='c035'>Whilst these charges were still in preparation the -Venetian Resident in London wrote a despatch to his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>Senate in which we have an interesting glimpse, behind -the curtain, at the process:—‘The Whigs,’ he says, ‘seek -to annihilate the Tories utterly, and to place them under -the yoke. They want to impeach even the Duke of <span class='sc'>Shrewsbury</span>.’... -After enlarging on nascent dissensions -amongst the Whigs themselves, as to the lengths to which -they might safely carry their party resentments, he proceeds -to assert that the more cautious men among them ‘have -now, when it is well nigh too late, become aware that the -Tory party, recently dominant, was a mixed party. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Correspondence of Joseph Querini</i>; from extracts by T. D. Hardy, in <i>Report on Archives of Venice</i>, pp. 98, 99.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Some -were in favour of the Pretender; some for the House of -Hanover. Had His Majesty made this distinction on -his accession to the Crown he would have excluded the -former, but not the latter. By favouring the Whigs -alone, he lost all the others at once.’ In brief, <span class='sc'>George -the First</span> had made himself exactly what <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> -had warned him against becoming, the ‘King of a party.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>When the Earl at length appeared before his peers to -answer to his impeachment, he began by denying ‘that at -any time or place in the course of those negotiations,’ now -incriminated, ‘he conferred unlawfully or without due -authority with any emissaries of France.’ He affirmed -that he neither promoted nor advised any private, separate, -or unjustifiable negotiation, and that he himself had no -knowledge ‘that any negotiation relating to Peace was -carried on without communication to the Allies.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>On the specific charge that he had traitorously given up -Tournay to France, his defence is twofold:—‘I used my -best offices,’ he asserts, ‘to preserve that town and fortress -to the States General. I believe that at this time they are -continued to the States General as part of their barrier.’ -And then he adds:—‘But I deny that for a Privy Councillor -and Minister of State to advise the yielding of any town, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span>fort, or territory, upon the conclusion of a Peace, is, or -can be, High Treason by any law of this realm.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>On the whole matter of the Peace, he asserts that ‘its -terms and preliminaries were communicated to Parliament. -They were agreed on with the concurrence of Parliament. -The Definitive Treaty was afterwards approved of by both -Houses. Solemn thanks were rendered to God for it in -all our churches and also in the churches of the United -Provinces. Her Majesty received upon its conclusion the -hearty and unfeigned thanks of her people from all parts of -her dominions.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>State Trials</i>, vol. xv, c. 1137 seqq.</div> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>Commons’ Journals</i>, 9 June, 1715.</div> - -<p class='c029'>It might well have been thought that even in those evil -days it would be difficult to induce a Committee of partisans -to report to the House of Commons that ‘large sums -issued for the service of the war were received by the Earl -of <span class='sc'>Oxford</span>, and applied to his Lordship’s private use,’ -without the possession of some plausible show of proof. -There was not so much as a decent presumption, or colourable -inference, to back the assertion. When the matter -came to be probed, it appeared that a royal gift of £13,000 -had been received by the Earl in what were known as ‘tin -tallies,’ and that the sum had been a charge upon the -revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Probably few politicians have owed quite so large a debt -of gratitude to their enemies as that incurred by the Earl of -<span class='sc'>Oxford</span>. His ministry at home had been marked by weaknesses -which went perilously near the edge of public calamity. -The Peace which was its characteristic achievement -abroad had brought with it many real blessings, but they -were won at the cost of a large sacrifice of national pride, -if not also by some sacrifice of national honour. The wild -excesses of his adversaries now gave back to the obnoxious -<span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>Minister the strength of his best days. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Oxford’s behaviour under trial.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When <span class='sc'>Pope</span> wrote -of him, ‘The utmost weight of ministerial power and popular -hatred were almost worth bearing for the glory of so -dauntless a conduct as he has shown under it,’ the praise -came from a pen which is known to have been employed, -now and again, to flatter the great. But it was no flatterer -who wrote to <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> himself—‘Your intrepid behaviour -under this prosecution astonishes every one but me, who -know you so well, and how little it is in the power of -human actions or events to discompose you. I have seen -your Lordship labouring under great difficulties and exposed -to great dangers, and overcoming both, by the providence -of God, and your own wisdom and courage.’ Those -words came from one of the shrewdest and most acute -observers of human character that have ever lived. They -were written after a close and daily intimacy of four eventful -years. <span class='sc'>Oxford</span>, in his day of power, had disappointed -<span class='sc'>Swift</span> of some cherished hopes, which now could never be -renewed. The praise of <span class='sc'>Swift</span> must have been sincere. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Swift’s <i>Correspondence</i>, in Works, by Scott, vol. xvi, pp. 232, 233.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When such a writer, at such a time, goes on to add—‘You -suffer for having preserved your country, and for having -been the great instrument, under God, of his present -Majesty’s peaceable accession to the throne;—this I know, -and this your enemies know’—the most prepossessed reader -cannot but feel that the absence from the two and twenty -articles of impeachment of any charge of plotting against -the Hanover succession is alike intelligible and significant.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Trial.</span> 1717, July.</div> - -<p class='c029'>When Oxford’s imprisonment could be no longer protracted -without a trial, the two Houses of Parliament were -unable to agree as to the mode of proceeding. It was -obvious on all sides that the charge of ‘treason’ would -fail. The Lords declared that on the articles imputing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>treason judgment must be given, before the articles imputing -‘other high crimes and misdemeanours’ could be -entered upon. They declared that the attempt of the -Commons to mix up the two was ‘a new and unjustifiable -proceeding.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Lords’ Journals</i>, vol. xx, p. 515, seqq. <i>Commons’ Journals</i>, vol. xviii.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The Commons refused to adduce evidence on -the charge of treason, and to take the issue upon that.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>State Trials</i>, vol. xv, 1164, seqq.</div> - -<p class='c029'>On the first of July, 1717, the Earl was brought to the -bar to hear from the Lord High Steward a declaration that -‘Robert, Earl of <span class='sc'>Oxford</span>, is, by the unanimous vote of all -the Lords present, acquitted of the articles of impeachment -exhibited against him, by the House of Commons, for High -Treason and other high crimes and misdemeanours, and that -the said impeachment shall be and is hereby dismissed.’ -Then the Steward said, ‘Lieutenant of the Tower, You are -now to discharge your prisoner.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Oxford’s return to the House of Lords.</span> 1717, July.</div> - -<p class='c029'>On the third of July, the Earl resumed his seat as a peer -of Parliament. On the fourth, the Commons resolved to -address the King, beseeching him ‘to except Robert, -Earl of <span class='sc'>Oxford</span>, out of the Act of Grace which Your -Majesty has been graciously pleased to promise from the -throne, to the end the Commons may be at liberty to proceed -against the said Earl in a parliamentary way.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Journals</i>, vol. xviii, p. 617.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -No -such proceeding, of course, was taken or intended.</p> - -<p class='c035'>For several years to come Lord <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> took part, from -time to time, in the business of Parliament. He served -often on Committees in these final years of his public life, -just as he had done during his early years of apprenticeship -in the Lower House. In the Lords, as in the Commons, -he was listened to with especial deference on points of parliamentary -law and privilege.</p> - -<p class='c029'>From time to time, also, the Jacobite agitators, both at -home and abroad, made repeated appeals to him, direct or -<span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>indirect, for countenance and help in their schemes. They -had, it seems, a confident hope that the sufferings and the -humiliation inflicted on him in the years 1715–1717 must -have so entirely alienated him from the reigning House, as -now, at all events, to have prepared him to be really their -fellow-conspirator, on the first occurrence of a promising -opportunity. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Alleged renewal of Correspondence with the Stuart Agents.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -How far the Earl listened to such suggestions -and persuasions is still, it will be seen, matter of great -and curious uncertainty.<a id='r38'></a><a href='#f38' class='c030'><sup>[38]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Domestic Life of Lord Oxford.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Lord <span class='sc'>Oxford’s</span> private life was not less chequered by -rapid alternations of sunshine and of gloom than was his -political career. In August, 1713, he gratified a cherished -desire by the marriage of his son Edward, Lord <span class='sc'>Harley</span>, -with the Lady Henrietta <span class='sc'>Cavendish Holles</span>, daughter and -heiress of John, Duke of <span class='sc'>Newcastle</span> (who died in 1711). -With what Lord <span class='sc'>Harley</span> had already derived under the -Duke’s will, this marriage brought him an estate then -worth sixteen thousand pounds a year, and destined to -increase enormously in value. Three months afterwards -the Earl lost a dearly loved daughter, the Marchioness of -<span class='sc'>Caermarthen</span>, who died at the age of twenty-eight. It -was of her that <span class='sc'>Swift</span> wrote to him—‘I have sat down to -think of every amiable quality that could enter into the -composition of a lady, and could not single out one which -she did not possess in as high a perfection as human nature -is capable of. But as to your Lordship’s own particular, -as it is an unconceivable misfortune to have lost such a -daughter, so it is a possession which few can boast of to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>have had such a daughter. I have often said to your Lordship -that “I never knew any one by many degrees so happy -in their domestics as you;” and I affirm that you are so -still, though not by so many degrees.... -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Swift to Oxford; 21 Nov., 1713. (<i>Works</i>, vol. xvi, pp. 78–80.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -You -began to be too happy for a mortal; much more happy -than is usual with the dispensations of Providence long to -continue.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Under the sorrows both of public and of private life it -was his wont to find a part of his habitual consolations in the -use, as well as in the increase, of his splendid library. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>History of the Harleian Library.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He -began the work of collection in youth, and to add to his -treasures was one of the matters which, at intervals, occupied -his latest thoughts.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Among the famous Englishmen whose manuscripts -passed, either wholly or partially, into the Harleian Library -are to be counted Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>Smith</span>; John <span class='sc'>Fox</span>, the martyrologist; -John <span class='sc'>Stowe</span>, the historian; Edward, Lord -<span class='sc'>Herbert</span> of Cherbury; and Archbishop <span class='sc'>Sancroft</span>. -Among famous foreigners, Augustus <span class='sc'>Lomenie de Brienne</span>; -Peter <span class='sc'>Séguier</span>, Chancellor of France; and Gerard John -<span class='sc'>Vossius</span>. Perhaps the most extensive of the prior collections -which it had absorbed, in mass, was the assemblage -of manuscripts that had been gathered by Sir Symonds -<span class='sc'>D’Ewes</span>, whose acquisitions included a rich series of the -materials of English history.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The inquiries which led to the purchase of the <span class='sc'>D’Ewes’</span> -Collection were the occasion of making fully known to -Robert <span class='sc'>Harley</span> a model librarian in the person of Humphrey -<span class='sc'>Wanley</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Humphrey Wanley; his Life, Letters, and Journal.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The latter portion of <span class='sc'>Wanley’s</span> life was -wholly devoted to the service of the Harleian Library, and -his employment there was a felicity, both for him and for it. -His journal of the incidents which occurred during the -growth of the collection given to his care is the most curious -<span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>document in its kind which is known to exist. That -journal illustrates the literary history and the manners of -the time, not less amusingly than it exhibits the personal -character of its writer, and the fidelity with which he -worked at his task in life.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Wanley</span> was the son of a country parson, little known -to fame, but possessing some tincture of learning, and was -born at Coventry, on the 21st of March, 1673. In his -youth he attracted the favourable notice of his father’s -diocesan, William <span class='sc'>Lloyd</span>, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry -(and afterwards of Worcester), by whom he was sent to -Edmund Hall at Oxford. That hall he soon exchanged -for University College, on the persuasion of Dr. Arthur -<span class='sc'>Charlett</span>, by whose influence he was afterwards made an -Underkeeper of the Bodleian Library. He took no degree, -but won some distinction, whilst at Oxford, by the services -which he rendered to Dr. <span class='sc'>Mill</span> in collating the text -of the New Testament.</p> - -<p class='c029'>On leaving the University, <span class='sc'>Wanley</span> went to London, -where he became Secretary to the Society for the Propagation -of Christian Knowledge. He translated <span class='sc'>Ostervald’s</span> -<i>Grounds and Principles of the Christian Religion</i>; and -compiled a valuable Catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts -preserved in the chief libraries of Great Britain. -The last-named labour gave proof of much ability. It was -a sample of the work for which its writer was best fitted.</p> - -<p class='c029'>As Speaker of the House of Commons, <span class='sc'>Harley</span> took a -considerable part in organizing the Cottonian Library, when -it became a public institution under the Act of Parliament. -<span class='sc'>Wanley</span> proffered to the Speaker, on this occasion, some -advice about the necessary arrangements; became well -acquainted with <span class='sc'>Harley’s</span> bookishness, and saw how -eagerly he would welcome opportunities for the improvement -<span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>of his own library, as well as of that newly acquired -by the Public.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The D’Ewes Collections and their History.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The Sir Symonds <span class='sc'>D’Ewes</span> of that generation was the -grandson of the diligent antiquary and politician who has -been heretofore mentioned in this volume as the close -friend of Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, and to whose labours, in a -twofold capacity, students of our history owe a far better -acquaintance with parliamentary debates, in the times both -of <span class='sc'>Elizabeth</span> and of <span class='sc'>Cromwell</span>, than, but for him, would -have been possible. The grandson of the first Sir Symonds -had inherited from his ancestor a valuable library; but its -possession had no great charm for him. He was willing -to part with it, for due consideration, yet aware that he -was under an obligation, moral if not legal, not so to part -with his books as to lead to their dispersion.</p> - -<p class='c029'>On that head, the original collector had thus expressed -himself in his last Will:—‘I bequeath to Adrian <span class='sc'>D’Ewes</span>, -my young son yet lying in the cradle, or to any other of -my sons, hereafter to be born, who shall prove my heir (if -God shall vouchsafe unto me a masculine heir by whom -my surname and male line may be continued in the ages -to come), my precious library, in which I have stored up, -for divers years past, with great care, cost, and industry, -divers originals and autographs, ... and such [books] -as are unprinted; and it is my inviolable injunction and -behest that he keep it entire, and not sell, divide, or dissipate -it. Neither would I have it locked up from furthering -the public good, the advancing of which I have always -endeavoured; but that all lovers of learning, of known -virtue and integrity, might have access to it at reasonable -times, so that they did give sufficient security to restore -safely any original or autograph ... borrowed out of the -same, ... without blotting, erasing, or defraying it. But -<span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>if God hath decreed now at last to add an end to my family -in the male line, His most holy and just will be done!’ -In that case, the testator proceeds to declare, it is his -desire that the library should pass to his daughter and her -heirs, on like conditions as to its perpetual preservation, so -‘that not only all lovers of learning ... may have access -to it at seasonable times, but also that all collections which -concern mine own family, or my wife’s, may freely be lent ... to members thereof,’ &c. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>D’Ewes, <i>Autobiography</i>, in MS. Harl. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Then the testator adds—in -relation to the last-named clause—an averment that he -had ‘only sought after the very truth, as well in these -things as in all other my elucubrations, whilst I searched -amongst the King’s records or public offices.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Wanley’s account of the acquisition of the D’Ewes Library.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>It having come to <span class='sc'>Wanley’s</span> knowledge or belief, in the -year 1703, that possibly arrangements might be made to -obtain this library, for the Public, from the then possessor, -he wrote to <span class='sc'>Harley</span> in these terms:—‘Sir Symonds -<span class='sc'>D’Ewes</span> being pleased to honour me with a peculiar kindness -of esteem, I have taken the liberty of inquiring of him -whether he will part with his library, and I find that he is -not unwilling to do so. And that at a much easier rate -than I could think for. I dare say that it would be a -noble addition to the Cotton Library; perhaps the best -that could be had anywhere at present.... If your Honour -should judge it impracticable to persuade Her Majesty to -buy them for the Cotton Library—in whose coffers such a -sum as will buy them is scarcely conceivable—then, Sir, -if you shall have a mind of them yourself I will take care -that you shall have them cheaper than any other person -whatsoever. I know that many have their eyes upon this -collection.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Wanley to Harley; MS. Lansd. 841, fol. 63. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘I am desirous,’ he goes on to say, ‘to have -this collection in town for the public good, and rather in a -public place than in private hands; but, of all private -<span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>gentlemen’s studies, first in yours. I have not spoken to -anybody as yet, nor will not till I have your answer, that -you may not be forestalled.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Harley</span> welcomed the overture thus made to him, and -<span class='sc'>Wanley</span>, on his behalf, entered upon a negotiation which -ended in the eventual acquisition of the whole of the -<span class='sc'>D’Ewes</span> Manuscripts for the Harleian Collection. Soon -afterwards, <span class='sc'>Wanley</span> became its librarian.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In the course of this employment he watched diligently -for other opportunities of a like sort; established an active -correspondence with booksellers, both at home and abroad; -and induced Lord <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> to send agents to the Continent -to search for manuscripts. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>History of the Harleian Library, continued.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But the Earl had soon to meet -an eager rival in the book-market, in the person of Lord -<span class='sc'>Sunderland</span>, who in former years had been, by turns, his -colleague and his opponent in the keener strife of politics. -In their new rivalry, Lord <span class='sc'>Sunderland</span> had one considerable -advantage. He cared little about money. If he succeeded -in obtaining what he sought for, he rarely scrutinised -the more or less of its cost. <span class='sc'>Wanley</span> was by nature a -bargainer. He felt uneasy under the least suspicion that -any bookseller or vendor was getting the better hand of -him in a transaction. And he seems, in time, to have -inoculated Lord <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> with a good deal of the same -feeling. Some of the entries in his diary put this love of -striking a good bargain in an amusing light.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Thus, for example, in telling of the acquisition of a valuable -monastic chartulary which had belonged to the -‘Bedford Library’ at Cranfield, he writes thus:—‘The -said Chartulary is to be my Lord’s, and he is to present -to that library <i>St. Chrysostom’s Works</i>, in Greek and Latin, -printed at Paris, for which my Lord shall be registered a -benefactor to the said library. Moreover, Mr. <span class='sc'>Frank</span> will -<span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>send up a list of his out-of-course books, out of which my -Lord may pick and choose any twenty of them gratis.... I am -also to advise that he is heartily willing and ready to serve -his Lordship in any library matters; ... particularly with [Sir -John] <span class='sc'>Osborne</span> of Chicksand Abbey, where most part of the -old monastical library is said yet to remain.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Wanley’s <i>Diary</i>, vol. i, pp. 13, 21. 1720, February.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And again, on -another occasion:—‘My Lord was pleased to tell me that -Mr. <span class='sc'>Gibson’s</span> last parcel of printed books were all his own -as being gained into [the bargain with] the two last parcels -of manuscripts bought of him.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, vol. ii, f. 24.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sc'>Gibson’s</span> protest that he was -entitled to an additional thirty pounds was quite in vain.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Of the innumerable skirmishes between librarian and -bookseller which <span class='sc'>Wanley’s</span> pages record with loving -detail, two passages may serve as sufficient samples:—‘<span class='sc'>Van -Hoeck</span>, a Dutchman’ he writes in 1722, ‘brought -to my Lord a small parcel of modern manuscripts, and their -lowest prices,—which proved so abominably wicked that -he was sent away with them immediately.’ And, in February, -1723:—‘<span class='sc'>Bowyer</span>, the bookseller, came intreating -me to instruct him touching the prices of old editions, and -of other rare and valuable books, pretending that thereby -he should be the better able to bid for them; but, as I -rather suppose, to be better able to exact of gentlemen. I -pleaded utter inexperience in the matter, and, without a -quarrel, in my mind rejected this ridiculous attempt with -the scorn it deserved. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Wanley’s <i>Diary</i>, vol. i, f. 73, verso. MS. Lansd., 771. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -This may be a fresh instance of -the truth of <span class='sc'>Tullie’s</span> paradox, “that all fools are mad.”’</p> - -<p class='c029'>In the year 1720, large additions were made, more -especially to the historical treasures of the Harleian -Library, by the purchase of manuscripts from the several -collections of John <span class='sc'>Warburton</span> (Somerset Herald), of -Archdeacon <span class='sc'>Battely</span>, and of Peter <span class='sc'>Séguier</span> (Chancellor of -France). Another important accession came, in the same -<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>year, by the bequest of Hugh <span class='sc'>Thomas</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 35, 42, 48.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In 1721 purchases -were made from the several libraries of Thomas <span class='sc'>Grey</span>, -second Earl of <span class='sc'>Stamford</span>; of Robert <span class='sc'>Paynell</span>, of Belaugh, -in Norfolk; and of John <span class='sc'>Robartes</span>, first Earl of <span class='sc'>Radnor</span>.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Lord <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> died on the 21st May, 1724, at the age -of sixty-three. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Death of Lord Oxford.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sc'>Wanley</span> records the event in these words: -‘It pleased God to call to His mercy Robert, Earl of -<span class='sc'>Oxford</span>, the founder of this Library, who long had been to -me a munificent patron.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>Corresp., in <i>Works</i>, vol. xvi, p. 438.</div> - -<p class='c029'>When condoling with the new Earl upon his father’s -death, <span class='sc'>Swift</span> wrote to him:—‘You no longer wanted his -care and tenderness, ... but his friendship and conversation -you will ever want, because they are qualities so rare -in the world, and in which he so much excelled all others. -It has pleased me, in the midst of my grief, to hear that -he preserved the greatness, the calmness, and intrepidity, -of his mind to his last minutes; for it was fit that such a -life should terminate with equal lustre to the whole progress -of it.’ It is honourable alike to the man who was thus -generously spoken of, and to the friend who mourned his -loss, that the testimony so borne was a consistent testimony. -The failings of <span class='sc'>Harley</span> were well known to <span class='sc'>Swift</span>. In -the days of prosperity they had been freely blamed; and -face to face. When those days were gone, the good qualities -only came to be dwelt upon. To the unforgiving -enemy, as to the bereaved son, <span class='sc'>Swift</span> wrote about the -merits of the friend he had lost. ‘I pass over that paragraph -of your letter,’ said <span class='sc'>Bolingbroke</span>, in reply, ‘which -is a kind of an elegy on a departed minister.’</p> - -<p class='c035'>When the Harleian Library was inherited by the second -Earl of <span class='sc'>Oxford</span> (of this family) it included more than six -<span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span>thousand volumes of Manuscripts, in addition to about -fourteen thousand five hundred charters and rolls. By -him it was largely augmented in every department. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Increase of the Harleian Library by Edward, Earl of Oxford.</span> 1724–1741.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>See MS. <span class='sc'>Addit.</span>, 5338. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He -made his library most liberally accessible to scholars; and -when, by a purchase made in Holland, he had acquired -some leaves of one of the most precious biblical manuscripts -in the world—leaves which had long before been -stolen from the Royal Library at Paris—he sent them back -to their proper repository in a manner so obliging as made -it apparent that his sense of the duties of collectorship was -as keen as was his sense of its delights. At his death, on -the 16th of June, 1741, the volumes of manuscripts had -increased to nearly eight thousand. The printed books -were estimated at about fifty thousand volumes, exclusive -of an unexampled series of pamphlets, amounting to nearly -400,000, and comprising, like the manuscripts, materials -for our national history of inestimable value.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The only daughter and heiress of the second Earl, Margaret, -by her marriage with William, Duke of <span class='sc'>Portland</span>, -carried her share in a remnant of the fortunes of the several -families of <span class='sc'>Cavendish</span>, <span class='sc'>Holles</span>, and <span class='sc'>Harley</span>, into the family -of <span class='sc'>Bentinck</span>. The magnificent printed library which formed -part of her inheritance was sold and dispersed. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Johnson, <i>Account of the Harleian Library</i>; <i>Works</i>, vol. v, p. 181.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It was -of that collection that <span class='sc'>Johnson</span> said, ‘It excels any library -that was ever yet offered to sale in the value as well as -in the number of the volumes which it contains.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Manuscripts were eventually purchased by Parliament -for the sum of ten thousand pounds. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The purchase of the Harleian MSS. for the Nation.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -With reference -to this purchase the Duchess of <span class='sc'>Portland</span> wrote as -follows, in April, 1753, to the Speaker of the House of -Commons:—‘As soon as I was acquainted with the proposal -you had made in the House of Commons, in relation -to my Father’s Collection of Manuscripts I informed my -<span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>Mother [the then Dowager Countess of <span class='sc'>Oxford</span>] of it, who -has given the Duke of <span class='sc'>Portland</span> and me full power to do -therein as we shall think fit.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘Though I am told the expense of collecting them was -immense, and that, if they were to be dispersed, they would -probably sell for a great deal of money, yet, as a sum has -been named, and as I know it was my Father’s and is my -Mother’s intention that they should be kept together, I -will not bargain with the Publick. I give you this trouble -therefore to acquaint you that I am ready to accept of your -proposal upon condition that this great and valuable Collection -shall be kept together in a proper repository, as an -addition to the Cotton Library, and be called by the name -of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘I hope you do me the justice to believe that I do not -consider this as a sale for an adequate price. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Duchess of Portland to Arthur Onslow; MS. <span class='sc'>Addit.</span>, 17521, f. 30. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But your -idea is so right, and so agreeable to what I know was my -Father’s intention, that I have a particular satisfaction in -contributing all I can to facilitate the success of it.’</p> - -<p class='c035'>If it were possible to give, in few words, any adequate -view of the obligations which English literature, and more -especially English historical literature, owes to the Collectors -of the Harleian Manuscripts, there could be no fitter conclusion -to a biographical notice of Robert <span class='sc'>Harley</span>. Here, -however, no such estimate is practicable. Nor, in truth, -can it be needed in order to convince the reader that ‘some -tribute of veneration’—to use the apposite words which -<span class='sc'>Johnson</span> prefixed to the Harleian Catalogue—is due to the -ardour of the two <span class='sc'>Harleys</span> for literature; and ‘to that -generous and exalted curiosity which they gratified with -incessant searches and immense expense; and to which -they dedicated that time and that superfluity of fortune -<span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>which many others, of their rank, employ in the pursuit of -contemptible amusements or the gratification of guilty -passions.’</p> - -<h5 class='c019'><span class='sc'>Note to Chapter V.</span></h5> - -<p class='c040'><i>EXTRACTS FROM THE STUART PAPERS, REFERRING TO -INTERCOURSE OF ROBERT HARLEY, EARL OF OXFORD, -WITH THE JACOBITES, AFTER THE ACCESSION OF -GEORGE I.</i></p> - -<p class='c035'>1. [1717?] A document which, could it be recovered, would go far -towards clearing up some of the uncertainties which exist as to Lord -Oxford’s intercourse with the Pretender and his agents, subsequently to -the death of Queen Anne, was seen by Sir James Mackintosh among the -Stuart Papers acquired by George the Fourth. It was afterwards -vainly searched for by Lord Mahon, when engaged upon his <i>History of -England, from the Peace of Utrecht</i>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Edin. Rev.</i>, vol. lxii, pp. 18, 19.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It is still known only from the -cursory notes made by Mackintosh, and referred to by a writer in the -<i>Edinburgh Review</i> in these words: ‘During Oxford’s confinement in the -Tower there is a communication from him to the Pretender, preserved -among the Stuart Papers, offering his services and advice; recommending -the Bishop of Rochester as the fittest person to manage the -Jacobite affairs,—the writer himself being in custody; and adding that -he should never have thought it safe ‘<i>to engage again</i> with His Majesty -if Bolingbroke himself had been still about him.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>2. 1717. September 29. Bishop <span class='sc'>Atterbury</span> to Lord <span class='sc'>Mar</span>:—</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘Your accounts of what has been said here concerning some imaginary -differences abroad have not so much foundation as you may suppose. -At least, if they have, I am a stranger to it.... The result of any -discourse I shall have with [the Earl of Oxford?] will be sure to reach -you by his means. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Stuart Papers</i>, 1717.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -You will, I suppose, have a full account of affairs -here from his and other hands.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>3. [1717?] The same to the same.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>Ibid.</i></div> - -<p class='c029'>‘Distances and other accidents have, for some years, interrupted my -correspondence with [the Earl of Oxford?] but I am willing to renew it, -and to enter into it upon a better foot than it has ever yet stood, being -convinced that my so doing may be of no small consequence to the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>service. I have already taken the first step towards it that is proper in -our situation, and will pursue that by others as fast as I can have opportunity; -hoping that the secret will be as inviolably kept on your side as -it shall be on this, so far as the nature of such a transaction between -two persons who must see one another sometimes can pass unobserved.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>Edin. Rev.</i>, as before.</div> - -<p class='c029'>4. 1721. ‘Among the same papers,’ says the Reviewer quoted on the -previous page, ‘there is a letter from Mrs. Oglethorpe to the Pretender -(Jan. 17, 1721), containing assurances from Lord Oxford of his eternal -respect and good wishes, which from accidental circumstances he had -been unable to convey in the usual manner.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>5. 1722. April 14. <span class='sc'>The Pretender</span> [to Lord <span class='sc'>Oxford</span>?]</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘If you have not heard sooner or oftener from me, it hath not, I can -assure you, been my fault. Neither do I attribute to yours the long -silence you have kept on your side, but to a chain of disappointments -and difficulties which hath been also the only reason of my not finding -all this while a method of conveying my thoughts to you, and receiving -your advice, which I shall ever value as I ought, because I look upon -you not only as an able lawyer but a sincere friend. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Stuart Papers</i>, 1722.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -This will, I hope, -come soon to your hands, and the worthy friend by whose canal I send -it will accompany it, by my directions, with all the lights and information -he or I can give, and which it is therefore useless to repeat here.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>6. 1722. April 16. <span class='sc'>The Pretender</span> to <span class='sc'>Atterbury</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘I am sensible of the importance of secrecy in such an affair, yet I do -not see how it will be possible to raise a sufficient sum, or to make a -reasonable concert in England, without letting some more persons into -the project. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ibid.</i><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -You on the place are best judge how these points are to -be compassed, but I cannot but think that [the Earl of Oxford?] might -be of great use on this occasion. [Lord Lansdowne?] is to write to him -on the subject, and I am confident that if you two were to compare notes -together you would be able to contrive and settle matters on a more -sure and solid foundation than they have hitherto been.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>7. 1722. In a report made to the Earl of Mar by George Kelly, one -of his emissaries employed in England, it is stated that on the delivery, -by Kelly, of Mar’s letter to Atterbury, the prelate asked the messenger -if he had anything to say, in addition to the contents of the letter, and -that he replied (in the jargon of his calling): ‘It is a proposal for -joining stocks with the Earl of Oxford, and taking the management of -the Company’s business into their hands.’ Atterbury, according to this -story, required a day’s deliberation, and then told Kelly that he was -‘resolved to join both heart and hand with the Earl; and not only so, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span>but in the management and course of the business he would shew him -all the deference and respect that was due to a person who had so justly -filled the stations which he had been in.’ The Bishop, says Kelly, also -added that he was ‘resolved to dedicate the remainder of his days to the -King’s service, and proposed, by this reunion, to repay some part of the -personal debt which he owed to the Earl of Oxford, to whom he would -immediately write upon this subject.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ibid.</i><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The messenger goes on to assure -Lord Mar that Atterbury ‘is entirely of your opinion that there is not -much good to be expected from the present managers, and thinks it no -great vanity to say that the Earl of Oxford and himself are the fittest -persons for this purpose; but the chief success of their partnership will -depend upon the secrecy of it.’</p> - -<p class='c035'>Of the genuineness of the several letters,—of the credit due to the -emissaries and their reports,—even of the accurate identification, -in some instances, of the ‘Mr. Hackets,’ ‘Houghtons,’ and numerous -other pseudonyms, under which ‘Lord Oxford’ is assumed to be veiled, -there are, as yet, no adequate means of judging.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span> - <div class='section'><h4 class='c017'>CHAPTER VI.<br /> <span class='large'>THE FOUNDERS OF THE SLOANE MUSEUM.</span></h4></div> -</div> -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>... ‘He pry’d through Nature’s store,</div> - <div class='line'>Whate’er she in th’ ethereal round contains,</div> - <div class='line'>Whate’er she hides beneath her verdant floor,</div> - <div class='line'>The vegetable and the mineral reigns.</div> - <div class='line'>At times, he scann’d the globe,—those small domains</div> - <div class='line'>Where restless mortals such a turmoil keep,—</div> - <div class='line'>Its seas, its floods, its mountains, and its plains.’—</div> - <div class='line in48'><span class='sc'>Thomson.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c038'><i>Flemish Exiles in England.</i>—<i>The Adventures, Mercantile -and Colonial Enterprises, and Vicissitudes of the</i> -<span class='sc'>Courtens</span>.—<i>William</i> <span class='sc'>Courten</span> <i>and his Collections.—The -Life and Travels of Sir Hans</i> <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>—<i>His -acquisition of</i> <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> <i>Museum</i>.—<i>Its growth under -the new Possessor.</i>—<i>History of the Sloane Museum -and Library, and of their purchase by Parliament.</i></p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Book I</span>, Chap. VI. <span class='sc'>The Founders of the Sloane Museum.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The history of the rise and growth of our English trade -is, in a conspicuous degree, a history of the immigration -hither of foreign refugees, and of what was achieved by -their energy and industry, when put forth to the utmost -under the stimulus and the stern discipline of adversity. -Other countries, no doubt, have derived much profit from -a similar cause, but none, in Europe, to a like extent. By -turns almost all the chief countries of the Continent have -sent us bands of exiles, who brought with them either -special skill in manual arts and manufactures, or special -<span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>capabilities for expanding our foreign commerce. To -Flemish refugees, and more particularly to those of them -who were driven hither by Spanish persecution in the -sixteenth century, England owes a large debt in both -respects. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Flemish Exiles in England.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Our historians have given more prominence of -late years to this chapter in the national annals than was -ever given to it before, but there is no presumption in -saying that not a little of what was achieved by exiles towards -the industrial greatness of the nation has yet to be -told.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Nor is it less evident that, over and above the political -and public interest of the things done, or initiated, by the -new comers in their adopted country, the personal and -family annals of the exiles possess, in not a few instances, -a remarkable though subsidiary interest of their own. In -certain cases, to trace the fortunes of a refugee family, is -at once to throw some gleams of light on obscure portions -of our commercial history, and to tell a romantic story of -real life.</p> - -<p class='c029'>One such instance presents itself in the varied fortunes -of the <span class='sc'>Courtens</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Courtens; their Adventures and Enterprises.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -That family attained an unusual degree -of commercial prosperity, and attained it with unusual -rapidity. In the second generation it seemed—for a while—to -have struck a deep root in our English soil. It owned -lands in half-a-dozen English counties, and its alliance was -sought by some of the greatest families in the kingdom. -In the next generation its fortunes sank more rapidly than -they had risen. In the fourth, the last of the <span class='sc'>Courtens</span> -was for almost half his life a wanderer, living under a feigned -name, and he continued so to live when at length enabled -to return to his country. The true name had been preserved -only in the records of interminable litigation—in -England, Holland, India, and America—about the scattered -<span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>wreck of a magnificent property. But the enterprise of the -family, in its palmy days, had planted for England a prosperous -colony. It had opened new paths to commerce in -the East Indies, as well as in the West. And its last -survivor found a solace for many ruined hopes in the collection -of treasures of science, art and literature, which -came to be important enough to form no small contribution -towards the eventual foundation of the British -Museum.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Founder of the Family.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>In 1567 William <span class='sc'>Courten</span>, a thriving dealer in linens -and silks, living at Menin in Flanders, was together with -his wife, Margaret <span class='sc'>Casier</span>, accused of heresy. <span class='sc'>Courten</span> -was thrown into the prison of the Inquisition, but contrived -both to make his escape into England, and to enable -his wife soon to join him. He established himself in London, -in the same business which had thriven with him -at home. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Family Records of the Courtens; in MS. Sloane, 3515, <i>passim</i>. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -His wife shared in its toils, and by skilfully -adapting her exertions to those tastes for finery in the -families of rich citizens which were now striving with some -success against the rigour of the old sumptuary laws -made the business more prosperous than before. It expanded -until the poor haberdasher of 1567 had become a -notability on the London Exchange.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In 1571 a son was born to the exiles. This second -William <span class='sc'>Courten</span> was bred as a merchant rather than as -a tradesman. He had good parts, and seems to have -started into life with a passion for bold enterprise. His -early training in London was continued at Haerlem, and -there he laid a foundation for commercial success by marrying -the daughter of Peter <span class='sc'>Crommelinck</span>, a wealthy merchant. -First and last, his wife brought him a dowry of -£40,000, of which sum it was stipulated by the father’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>will that not less than one half should be laid out in the -purchase of lands in England, to be settled on the eldest -son that should be born of the marriage.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Sir William Courten and his Mercantile Pursuits.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>By the time of his attaining the age of five and thirty -William <span class='sc'>Courten</span> had already become—for that period—a -great capitalist. He then, in 1606, established in London -a commercial house which added to the ordinary business -of merchants on the largest scale, that of marine insurers, -and also that of adventurers in the whale fishery. His -partners in the firm were his younger brother, Peter -<span class='sc'>Courten</span>, and John <span class='sc'>Mouncey</span>. One half of the joint stock -belonged to the founder; the other half was divided between -the junior partners.</p> - -<p class='c029'>For nearly a quarter of a century this mercantile partnership -prospered marvellously. Its annual returns are said -to have averaged £200,000. It built more than twenty -large ships, and kept in constant employment more than -four hundred seamen and fishermen. The head of the firm -gradually acquired a large landed property which included -estates in the several counties of Worcester, Gloucester, -Leicester, Nottingham, Essex, and Kent.</p> - -<p class='c029'>This great prosperity had, of course, its drawbacks. -Amongst the earliest checks which are recorded to have -befallen it was a Crown prosecution of <span class='sc'>Courten</span> (in company -with several other foreign merchants of note, among -whom occur the names of <span class='sc'>Burlamachi</span>, <span class='sc'>Vanlore</span>, and -<span class='sc'>De Quester</span>) on the frequent charge—so obnoxious to the -political economy of that age—of ‘the unlawful exportation -of gold.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Domestic Corresp.</i>, James I, vol. cix, § 90; 96; vol. cx, § 86; vol. cxi, § 66. <i>Signs Manual</i>, vol. xii, § 26. (R. H.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sc'>Courten</span> was brought into the Star Chamber and -was fined £20,000; a sum so enormous as to excite a -suspicion of the accuracy of the record, but for its repeated -entry. The prosecution was instituted in June, 1619; the -defendant’s discharge bears date July, 1620. But it may -<span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>fairly be assumed that only a portion of the nominal fine -was really exacted.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Another and much more serious check to the prosperity -of the enterprising merchant came from his embarking in -the grand but hazardous work of planting colonies.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>1626. <span class='sc'>Colonial Enterprises of Sir Wm. Courten.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>In 1626, William <span class='sc'>Courten</span>—then Sir William, having -received the honour of knighthood at Greenwich, on the -31st of May, 1622—petitioned the King for ‘licence to make -discoveries and plant colonies in that southern part of the -world called <i>Terra Australis incognita</i>, with which the -King’s subjects have as yet no trade,’ and his petition was -granted. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Domestic Corresp.</i>, Charles I, vol. xiv, § 33.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -What ensued thereupon is thus told in an -authoritative manuscript account preserved in the Sloane -collection:—</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘Sir William <span class='sc'>Courten</span> being informed, by his correspondents -in Zealand, that some Dutch men-of-war sent out -upon private commission against the Spaniards had put -into the island of Barbados, and found it uninhabited, and -very fit for a plantation, did thereupon, at his own charge, -set forth two ships provided with men, ammunition, and -arms, and all kinds of necessaries for planting and fortifying -the country, who landed and entered into possession of the -same in the month of February, 1626 [1627, N.S.]... Afterwards, -in the same year, he sent Captain <span class='sc'>Powell</span> thither, -with a further supply of servants and provisions, who, in -1627, fetched several Indians from the mainland, with -divers sorts of seeds and roots, and agreed with them to -instruct the English in planting cotton, tobacco, indigo, &c. -Sir William <span class='sc'>Courten</span> having, by his partners and servants, -maintained the actual possession for the space of -two years, and peopled the island with English, Indians, -and others, to the number of eighteen hundred and fifty -men, women, and children, thought fit to make use of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>Earl of <span class='sc'>Pembroke’s</span> name in obtaining a patent particularly -for Barbadoes, although he had before a general grant -from the king to possess any land within a certain latitude, -wherein this island was comprehended. His Majesty -having thus granted, by his Letters Patent, dated 25 February, -1627 [1628, N.S.] the government of this island unto -the Earl of <span class='sc'>Pembroke</span>, in trust for Sir William <span class='sc'>Courten</span>, -with power to settle a colony according to the laws of -England, Captain <span class='sc'>Powell</span> had a commission to continue -there as Governor, in their behalf. The Earl of <span class='sc'>Carlisle</span>,’ -continues the MS. narrative, ‘having, before this Patent to the -Earl of <span class='sc'>Pembroke</span>, procured a grant, dated 2nd July 1627, -of all those islands lying within 10 and 20 degrees of latitude -by the name of Carliola, or Carlisle Province, with all -royalties, and jurisdictions, as amply as they were enjoyed -by any Bishop of Durham, within his bishopric or county -palatine, and having also got another patent, for the greater -security of his title, dated 7th April 1628, sent one Henry -<span class='sc'>Hawley</span> with two ships, who, arriving there in 1629, invited -the Governor on board, kept him prisoner, seized the -forts, and carried away the factors and servants of Sir -William <span class='sc'>Courten</span> and the Earl of <span class='sc'>Pembroke</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ibid.</i> Comp. -Despatches in -<i>Colonial -Correspondence</i>, -vol. v, -§§ 1, 9, 13, -101, seqq.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The authority -of the Earl of <span class='sc'>Carlisle</span> being thus established was -maintained.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>But it was only maintained after a long contest at the -Council Board at home, which contest seems to have been -largely influenced by the fluctuations of Court favour from -time to time. A despatch in February, written in behalf -of <span class='sc'>Carlisle</span>, is followed in April by another despatch -written in behalf of <span class='sc'>Pembroke</span> and <span class='sc'>Courten</span>. The one -fact that becomes consistently evident throughout the proceedings -is that grants of this kind were made in the loosest -fashion, and often in entire ignorance even of the geographical -<span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span>positions of the countries given by them.<a id='r39'></a><a href='#f39' class='c030'><sup>[39]</sup></a> Indeed, the -common course of procedure under the <span class='sc'>Stuarts</span>, when a -courtier had the happy thought of begging a territory in -America, reminds one of those earlier days of the <span class='sc'>Tudors</span>, -when a favoured suppliant sometimes obtained the grant -of a monastery, or the lease of a broad episcopal estate, -with hardly more trouble than it cost him to win a royal -smile.</p> - -<p class='c029'>To <span class='sc'>Courten</span> and his colonists the issue of this quarrel -about Barbadoes was very disastrous. To some of the -latter it brought ruin. But to the founder himself a check -to enterprise in one direction seems to have brought increased -stimulus to new enterprise in another direction. -He now embarked largely in adventures to the East Indies -and to China. As usual, they were planned on a magnificent -scale; excited great jealousy in the breasts of competitors; -and were attended, in the long run, with very -mixed results of good and ill.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Meanwhile, Sir William’s growing wealth—greatly exaggerated -by popular renown—and the conspicuous position -into which his varied pursuits had brought him, led to -plans of enterprise by others, and of quite another kind, at -home. He had lost his first wife, and also his eldest son. -He had married a second wife,—Hester <span class='sc'>Tryon</span>, daughter -of Peter <span class='sc'>Tryon</span>. Only one son survived, but Sir William -had three daughters, whose prospective charms attracted -<span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span>many suitors. In September, 1624, King <span class='sc'>James</span> wrote a -characteristic letter in which he assured <span class='sc'>Courten</span> that the -son of Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Fleetwood</span>, Lord of the Scottish barony -of Newton, would make a fit match for one of the three -daughters, and that the conclusion of such a match would -be very acceptable to the King himself. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Alliances between the City and the Court.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>James I to Sir Willm. Courten; <i>Dom. Corr.</i>, vol. clxxii, § 71.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The pretendant -would gladly, and impartially, wed any one of the three -ladies, but the King himself, continues the royal letter, -‘will regard, as a favour, any increase of portion given to -the daughter whom <span class='sc'>Fleetwood</span> may marry, over and -above the portion given to, or intended for, the other -daughters.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>But despite so powerful a recommendation the young -Baron of <span class='sc'>Newton</span> failed in his suit. Among the aspirants -with whom he stood in competition were men much higher -in social position. Eventually, the eldest daughter married -Sir Edward <span class='sc'>Lyttelton</span> of Staffordshire. The second -daughter married Henry <span class='sc'>Grey</span>, eighth Earl of Kent, of -that family. And the third married Sir Richard <span class='sc'>Knightley</span> -of Fawsley.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Royal commendations of suitors were sure, in that age, -not to be the only sample of royal letters—direct and indirect—with -which a man in Sir William <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> position -became familiar. He was favoured with not a few solicitations -for advances of money on privy-seals, and in other -forms of ‘loan.’ Sometimes he complies. Sometimes he -remonstrates by specifying the large sums he contributes -to the revenue in the way of custom’s duties, and the -entire incapability thence arising of the desired response to -privy-seals and the like documents. His loans, however, -to <span class='sc'>James</span>, and to <span class='sc'>Charles</span>, amounted to no less a sum than -£27,000.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Commercial Complications in Holland.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The death in 1625 of his brother, Sir Peter <span class='sc'>Courten</span>, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span>deprived the firm of its efficient representative in Holland, -and laid a foundation for great misfortunes by putting in -his place an unworthy successor. The partner resident at -Middleburgh had the trust both of a large portion of the -capital of the Company, and of the chief share of its account -keeping.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Peter <span class='sc'>Boudaen</span> was a nephew of the <span class='sc'>Courtens</span>, and -had been to some extent admitted as a partner. His uncle -Peter made him also his executor. He thus acquired a -great control over the continental affairs of the house, just -at the time when its transactions were expanding in all -directions. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1631.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He proved unfaithful to his trust, applied his -large local influence to his personal advantage and to the -prejudice of his partners; and at length failed altogether -to render due accounts to the two partners in England. -<span class='sc'>Mouncey</span>, the junior of these, went to Holland in order to -enforce an adjustment. He had hardly entered on his -task when he died, after a very brief illness, in <span class='sc'>Boudaen’s</span> -house at Middleburgh. <span class='sc'>Boudaen</span> made a Will for -him; asserted that the testator had executed it, in due -form of law, immediately before his death; and found -means to get the document sanctioned by the Dutch -Courts, in the face of strong opposition and of strong -presumptive evidence of fraud.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Establishment by Sir W. Courten of the British Fishery Association.</span></div> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>Domest. Corresp.</i>, Charles I, vol. cclxxxvii, § 57; vol. ccciii, § 75; cccxiii, § 16; cccxvii, § 75.</div> - -<p class='c029'>Sir William <span class='sc'>Courten</span>, meanwhile, prosecuted with his -characteristic vigour his vast enterprises already established; -made new and large ventures in the reclaiming of waste -lands in England; and established the ‘Fishery Association -of Great Britain and Ireland,’ with a view to the -rescue from the Dutch of that productive herring fishery -on our own coasts, which the growing supineness of -English governments during at least two generations had -permitted to become almost a monopoly in their hands. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span>Of this Association <span class='sc'>Courten</span>, during the closing years of -his life, was the mainspring.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Dutch, as was natural, strove vigorously to retain -the advantage they had acquired, and were little scrupulous -about the means of opposition. English herring busses -were occasionally captured. And the captors had the great -incidental advantage in the strife of dealing with a Government -already weak at home, and yearly losing ground.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Trade with India.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The East Indian adventures were, at length, attended by -circumstances still more complex than those pertaining to -the fishery business at home, or to the trading in Holland. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Domestic Corresp.</i>, Charles I, vol. cccxxiii, p. 58; vol. cccxliii, § 19.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -For, in the former, English rivalry had to be encountered, -as well as Dutch rivalry. And the rivalry took such a -shape as to make the carrying on of trade extremely like -the carrying on of war. But, as if the care of these varied -interests, in addition to all the toils and anxieties of ordinary -commerce on an extraordinary scale, were all too little -to occupy the mind of a man who had now reached his -sixty-sixth year, we find Sir William <span class='sc'>Courten</span> taking, just -at the close of life, a new and leading part in the business -of redeeming captives who had been taken by the pirates -of Morocco and Algiers. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Domestic Corresp.</i>, Charles I, vol. cccxv, § 16; vol. ccclxviii, § 82.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Nor was this merely an affair -of the provision of money and the conduct of correspondence. -It involved an intimate acquaintance with the circumstances -and the needs of the Barbary States, being -carried on, in part, on the principle of barter.</p> - -<p class='c035'>But all these far-spread activities were now fast approaching -their natural close. <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> career had been, -as a whole, wonderfully prosperous, until very near its -close. Already it contained, indeed, the germ of a series -of reverses, hardly less remarkable; but the growth of that -germ was to depend on the as yet unseen course of public -<span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span>events. His ambition to ‘found a family’ had also been -gratified by the marriage of his only surviving son<a id='r40'></a><a href='#f40' class='c030'><sup>[40]</sup></a>—William -<span class='sc'>Courten</span>, third of his name—with the Lady -Katherine <span class='sc'>Egerton</span>, daughter of John <span class='sc'>Egerton</span>, Earl of -Bridgewater. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Courten -Papers</i>, in -MS. Sloane, -3515.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -On that son and his heirs, Sir William -<span class='sc'>Courten</span> settled landed estates amounting to nearly -seven thousand pounds a year.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Sir William <span class='sc'>Courten</span> died in June, 1636. The commercial -enterprises of all kinds which were in full activity -at the time of his death were continued by his son, who -inherited large claims, large responsibilities, and large -perils. And it was of the perils that—after his succession—he -had earliest experience.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The third William Courten.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Just before the father’s death, a complaint had been -made to the Privy Council that certain ships which he had -sent to Surat and other places had committed acts of -‘piracy near the mouth of the Red Sea.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Domestic Corresp.</i>, Charles I, vol. cccxliii, § 19.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It appeared -afterwards that the ships which had given cause, or -pretext, of complaint were not <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> ships, but the -accusation entailed trouble, and was, to the heir, the -beginning of troubles to come. The opposition of the -East India Company to the Indian trading of ‘interlopers’ -(as they were called already) was unremitting and -bitter. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Courten Papers</i>, in MS. Sloane, 3515, p. 38.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In June, 1637, William <span class='sc'>Courten</span>, with a view to -arm himself for the encounter, obtained from the Crown -letters patent which empowered himself and his associates -to trade with all parts of the East, ‘wheresoever the East -India Company had not settled factories or trade before -the twelfth day of December, 1635.’ One of his chief -<span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span>associates under the new grant was Endymion <span class='sc'>Porter</span>, and -it appears that it was partly by <span class='sc'>Porter’s</span> influence at -Court that the grant had been procured.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Renewed activity was now shown in prosecuting the -Eastern trade; new and large ventures were made in it. -On some occasions as many as seven well-appointed ships -were sent out by <span class='sc'>Courten</span> and his associates at one time. -Instructions are still extant which were given to the chief -agents, supercargoes, and factors, for the settlement of -English factories at many important places where none had -heretofore existed. They are marked by great sagacity -and breadth of view, and, in several points, contrast -advantageously with contemporary documents of a like kind.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Seizure by the Dutch of the Bona Esperanza and Henry Bonadventure in the Indian Seas.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The enterprise was pursued, as it seems, with satisfactory -results until the year 1643, when, in the Straits of -Malacca, two richly-laden vessels of the <span class='sc'>Courten</span> fleet were -seized by the Dutch. Subsequent proceedings show that -the value of the ships and their cargoes, with the contingent -losses, exceeded £150,000. Along with this severe blow -came the interruptions and injuries to trade at home, which -were the inevitable accompaniment of the Civil War. -Soon after it, there came indications that the loss to Sir -William <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> representatives by the misconduct of -Peter <span class='sc'>Boudaen</span> at Middleburgh would but too probably -prove to be a loss without present remedy. It appears to -have been established by the evidence adduced in the -course of the almost interminable litigation which ensued -that there was due from <span class='sc'>Boudaen</span> to his partners a sum of -£122,000; none of which, it may be added, seems ever to -have been recovered. And the debt which had been contracted -by <span class='sc'>James the First</span> and his successor, though -less grievous in amount, was at this time even more -hopeless.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span>Under the pressure of such a combination of misfortunes, -William <span class='sc'>Courten</span> found himself practically and suddenly -insolvent. He met some of the most pressing claims upon -him by the sale of available portions of his landed property. -He assigned other portions of his estates to trustees, and -became himself an exile. He survived the ruin of the brilliant -hopes and expectations to which he had been born -about ten years; dying at Florence in the year 1655. He -left, by his marriage with Lady Katherine <span class='sc'>Egerton</span>, one -son and one daughter.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>William Courten, Founder of the Sloane Museum.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The fourth William <span class='sc'>Courten</span> was born in London on -the 28th March, 1642. He was baptized at St. Gabriel -Fenchurch, on the 31st of that month. The downfall of -his family was therefore very nearly contemporaneous with -his own birth, and makes it explicable that no record can -now be found of the places of his education, or of the -course of his early years. But the first trace which does -occur of him is in exact harmony with the one fact which -makes his existence memorable to his countrymen. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Museum Tradescantianum</i>, (1656).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He -appears, at the age of fourteen, in the list of benefactors to -the Tradescant Museum, at Lambeth, a collection which -afterwards became the basis of the Ashendean Museum at -Oxford.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Tradescants—father and son—hold a conspicuous -place in the history of Botanical Science in England, and -they are especially notable as the founders of the first -‘Museum’ worthy of the name, which was established in -this country. The next collection of note, after theirs, was -that formed by Robert <span class='sc'>Hubert</span>, in his house near St. Paul’s -Cathedral. Other collectors—as for example, John <span class='sc'>Conyers</span> -and Dr. John <span class='sc'>Woodward</span>—soon followed the example. -But in this path all of them were far outstripped -<span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span>by <span class='sc'>Courten</span>, who had marked his early bias, and also his -characteristic liberality, by his gift to the <span class='sc'>Tradescants</span> in -1656.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Part of <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> youth was passed at Montpelier, where -he formed the acquaintance of several men then, or afterwards, -famous for their scientific acquirements. Amongst -them, and with the local advantages for the study of the -natural sciences, in particular, for the possession of which -Montpelier was already noted, his tastes for observation -and study were developed, and his character took the ply -which soon became indelible.</p> - -<p class='c029'>If he ever possessed any share at all of the qualities and -predispositions for mercantile adventure, which had marked -so many generations of his ancestors on the father’s side, -that share was far too weak an element in his composition -to resist the discouragements of adverse circumstances. -But as he attained manhood, he found himself immersed—unwittingly -in part—in a sea of litigation which boded -ill to his prospective enjoyment of leisure for scientific -studies, whatever might prove to be its ultimate results -upon his worldly fortunes.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The suits and claims instituted by George Carew, on behalf of Courten and of the Creditors.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Some of the later enterprises of Sir William <span class='sc'>Courten</span> -had been carried on in conjunction with another famous -merchant, Sir Paul <span class='sc'>Pindar</span>, who like himself was a large -creditor of the Crown. The administration of <span class='sc'>Pindar’s</span> -estate had fallen into the hands of a certain George <span class='sc'>Carew</span>, -who seems to have imagined that the restoration of royal -authority in England would bring with it opportunities, to -an energetic man, of winning a new fortune out of the -remnants of the old fortunes which the fall of royalty had -helped to ruin. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Courten Papers</i>, in MSS. Sloane, 3515; 3961; and 3962.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Just before <span class='sc'>Charles the Second</span> came -back, this man busied himself in buying up claims against -<span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> estate as well as claims against <span class='sc'>Pindar’s</span>. He -<span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span>had a stock of energy. He had also the prospect of acquiring -a good standpoint at Court, in addition to his -present possession of a good training in the mysteries of -English law. He was ready to devote all his energies to -the business, and to encounter at once with the Dutch East -India Company, the Dutch Republic, the Government of -Barbadoes, and a host of adversaries at home.</p> - -<p class='c029'>There had, however, been no Commission of Bankruptcy. -It was necessary that the battle should be fought as well -in the name of the heir and representative of the family, as -in the name of the collective body of creditors. <span class='sc'>Carew</span> -used <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> name and used it, as it appears, for some -years without authority from the legal guardian. <span class='sc'>Courten</span> -himself did not become of age until 1663.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Restoration was hardly effected before <span class='sc'>Carew</span> besieged -the King and the Courts with Petitions, Memorials, -Claims, and Bills of Plaint. He would lose nothing for -lack of asking. And he was undeterred by difficulties or -rebuffs.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Barbadoes Claim.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The case of Barbadoes was thus put before the Committee -of the Privy Council for America:—</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘<span class='sc'>Courten</span> claims the whole island of Barbadoes; and, -more particularly, the Corn Plantation, the Indian Bridge -Plantation, the Fort Plantation, the Indian Plantation eastwards, -and Powell’s plantation. Sir William <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> ships -discovered the island in the year 1626, and left fifty people -there. Captain Henry <span class='sc'>Powell</span> landed there in February, -1627, built [houses] for <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> colony, and left more -than forty inhabitants there. John <span class='sc'>Powell</span> erected Plantation -Fort, and remained until he was surprised in 1628 by a -force under Charles <span class='sc'>Wolverton</span>, by which the fort was -captured. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Colonial Correspondence</i>, vol. xiv, §§ 37, 39, 42.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In 1629, Sir William <span class='sc'>Courten</span> sent eighty -men with arms, in the ‘Peter and John,’ and they retook -<span class='pageno' id='Page_262'>262</span>the fort in the name of the Earl of <span class='sc'>Pembroke</span>, Trustee for -<span class='sc'>Courten</span>, according to the royal grant.’ And then the -Petition recites the recapture, under the conflicting Patent -of the Earl of Carlisle, as I have described it already.</p> - -<p class='c029'>There is, of course, no foundation for the statement that -Barbadoes was ‘discovered’ by the ships of <span class='sc'>Courten</span>. In -other respects, the details here set forth appear to be sustained -by the evidence.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>Domestic Corresp.</i>, Charles II, vol. xx, § 77; and xlviii, § 48.</div> - -<p class='c029'>In order to the recovery of the debt from the Crown, -<span class='sc'>Carew</span> suggested, in another petition, and quite in the -fashion of the day, that the Petitioners should have ‘leave -to raise the money’ due to the <span class='sc'>Courten</span> Estate from the -estates of John <span class='sc'>Lisle</span>, Thomas <span class='sc'>Scott</span>, Thomas <span class='sc'>Andrews</span>, -and others, concerned in the murder of the late King. In -a third petition, he prayed that ‘a blank warrant for the -dignity of a baronet’ might be granted, in order to sell it -to the best bidder, and to apply the proceeds in partial -satisfaction of the debt.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Case of the East India Ships.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>But it was to the prosecution of the claim upon the Dutch -Republic for the unwarranted seizure, in 1643, of the rich -ships of the East India Fleet that <span class='sc'>Carew</span> devoted his best -energies. The damages were put at £163,400. The main -facts of the case were fully substantiated. And a royal -letter was addressed to the States General on the 21st of -March, 1662, claiming full satisfaction.</p> - -<p class='c029'>A Memorial was delivered at the Hague in the April -following, by the English Ambassador, Sir George <span class='sc'>Downing</span>, -in which, after a general statement of the case at issue, -he went on to say: ‘Whereas it may seem strange that -this matter may be set on foot at this time, whereas in the -year 1654 Commissioners were sent to England who did -end several matters relating to the East Indies, and whereas -in the year 1659 several matters of a fresher date were also -<span class='pageno' id='Page_263'>263</span>ended, and thereby a period put to all other matters of difference -which had happened about the same time, and were -known in Europe before the 20th of January in the same -year, it is to be considered that the persons interested in -these ships were such as, for their singular and extraordinary -activity to His Majesty, ... father to the King my -master, were rendered incapable of obtaining or pursuing -their just rights, at home or abroad. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Memorial delivered to the States General</i>, at the Hague, 19 April, 1662.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And upon that -account it is that the business of the two ships remains yet -in dispute, though several matters of a much fresher date -have been ended.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>When these proceedings were initiated by Sir George -<span class='sc'>Downing</span> at the Hague, <span class='sc'>Courten</span> himself was still in his -minority. But it is probable that he had already returned -to England.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> first personal appearance upon the scene was -also made in the way of presenting a petition to the King. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. Sloane 3515.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In July 1663, he thus alleged that the steps which had -been taken were without his concurrence or knowledge, -‘and, as is feared, with intention to deprive him of his -claims.’ The King referred the petition to Sir Geoffrey -<span class='sc'>Palmer</span>, who pronounced in <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> favour.</p> - -<p class='c035'>His position was one of great embarrassment. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Agreement between Courten and Carew.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Some of -his family connexions had already suffered much annoyance -from litigation about the <span class='sc'>Courten</span> Estates at home, and -were little inclined to incur further risk or trouble on behalf -of a relative whose inheritance was certain to yield abundance -of immediate vexation and anxiety, and very uncertain -in respect to its prospects of any better harvest in -the end. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1663.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He was advised to sell the remnant of his entailed -estates, to put the product of the sale out of danger from -any adverse issue of pending claims, and to come to terms -<span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span>with <span class='sc'>Carew</span> for the prosecution of the latter—or of some -of them—on a joint account. In accordance with this -advice, an agreement was made, in the course of 1663, by -which <span class='sc'>Carew</span> was empowered to pursue the claims against -the Netherlands, as well on <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> behalf as on his own -and that of other creditors. The remaining landed estates -in Worcestershire and other counties—or nearly all that -remained of them—were sold, and a life income was secured.</p> - -<p class='c029'>For the next half dozen years <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> life was almost -that of a recluse, save that such activities as it admitted of -were devoted almost exclusively to the study of antiquities -and of the natural sciences. A great part of those years -was passed at Fawsley with his aunt, Lady <span class='sc'>Knightley</span>, one -of the few relatives whose affection stood the proof of -adversity.</p> - -<p class='c035'>There are several reasons for thinking that the rudimentary -foundation of <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> Museum had been laid as -early as in the time of his grandfather, Sir William, whose -mercantile and colonial enterprises presented so many opportunities -for bringing into England the more curious -productions of remote countries, as well as their merchandise. -Be that as it may, the collection of a museum which -should eclipse everything of its kind theretofore known in -England became, from his attainment of manhood, the -leading aim and object of William <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> career. It -was to him both an ambition and a solace.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The other of the two men who thus came into brief -contact in 1663 lived a life as different from <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> -as can well be conceived. <span class='sc'>Carew</span> seems to have been a -glutton in his appetite for contention. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Pretentien tegens d’Oost-Indische Compagnie</i>, &c. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And the Dutchmen, as -far as they were concerned, put no stint upon its indulgence. -There was also ample time for it. Treaty followed by war, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span>and war leading to renewed treaty, kept the affair of the -<i>Bona Esperanza</i> and the <i>Henry Bon-Adventure</i> both in -active historical memory, and in full legal vigour. Towards -the close of 1662 it had been covenanted by the English -government, as a necessary condition of a good understanding -between the two Powers, that there should be a -prompt satisfaction of damages. The Treaty of Commerce -of that year was tossed to and fro on that one point of the -<span class='sc'>Courten</span> ships with more obstinate pertinacity than on any -other. To the intrinsic merits of the claim, in the main, -there was really no answer. To the legal technicalities by -which its settlement, if left to Dutch courts of judicature, -could be indefinitely protracted, there was no end. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Claims in Holland.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When -letters of dismissal had been already drawn at Whitehall -for the Dutch envoys of 1662, because they insisted on a -clause extinguishing all outstanding claims on both sides; -they skilfully contrived to substitute leave to litigate<a id='r41'></a><a href='#f41' class='c030'><sup>[41]</sup></a> for -a proviso to satisfy. And the event justified their forecast.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>Domestic Corresp.</i>, Charles II, vol. cxiii, § 143.</div> - -<p class='c029'>During the year 1665, Letters of Marque and Reprisal -were granted to <span class='sc'>Carew</span> and his associates, and a special -clause of continuance until the full recovery of debt and -damages,<a id='r42'></a><a href='#f42' class='c030'><sup>[42]</sup></a> notwithstanding the conclusion of any subsequent -Treaty of Peace was inserted. This was done after -an elaborate argument before the Lord Chancellor <span class='sc'>Clarendon</span>. -Several ships were taken by <span class='sc'>Carew’s</span> cruisers, but -they were nearly all claimed by Hamburghers, Swedes, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span>others. And at length the cost of the reprisals exceeded -their yield.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In this case, and throughout it, as in so many other and -graver cases, the policy of <span class='sc'>Charles the Second’s</span> ministers -was a policy of the passing exigence. Principle had always -to vail to expediency. The Dutch were permitted, after -all, to insert their favorite extinction clause in the Treaty -of Breda (21 July, 1667). Five years later, the Privy -Council advised the King that ‘it is just and reasonable -for your Majesty to insist upon reparation for the debt and -damages’ sustained by the seizure, in 1643, of the <i>Bona -Esperanza</i> and her consort. New Letters of Marque led -to the capture of more vessels, duly provided with a diversity -of flag; and to the imprisonment, in England, of the -captors, before trial or inquiry. Meanwhile, <span class='sc'>Carew</span> himself -was seized abroad, and put into a Dutch prison. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Courten Papers</i>, in MS. Sloane, 3515.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And, -at length, in 1676, the States of Holland sent express orders -to their courts of judicature, directing that ‘no further -progress shall be made in the pending suits,’ grounding -the order upon the proviso in the treaty of 1667, as extinctive -of all claims and pretensions, whatsoever, advanced -by Englishmen against Dutch citizens, be the foundation -and history of such claims what they might. This decree, -therefore, operated in bar, as well of the claims of the representatives -of Sir William <span class='sc'>Courten</span>, for the debt of -Peter <span class='sc'>Boudaen</span>, as of those arising out of the seizure of -the ships of the East India Fleet. It was estimated that -the <span class='sc'>Courten</span> claims then pending in the Courts of Holland -amounted, in the aggregate, to £380,000 sterling.<a id='r43'></a><a href='#f43' class='c030'><sup>[43]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c029'>In May, 1683, a petition was presented to the English -government, in which humble prayer was made that that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span>government would be graciously pleased ‘to perpetuate the -memory of Sir William <span class='sc'>Courten</span> and of Sir Paul <span class='sc'>Pindar</span>, -by setting up their statues in marble under the piazzas of -the Royal Exchange—Sir William <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> at the end -of the “Barbadoes walk” at the one side, and Sir Paul -<span class='sc'>Pindar’s</span> at the end of the “Turkey walk” of the other -side—for encouragement to all merchants, in future ages, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Vox Veritatis</i>, 1683. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -to take examples by them for loyalty and fidelity to their -King and country.’</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Courten’s Second Visit to France, and his Travels.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Courten</span> did his best to avoid any personal share in -those unceasing turmoils, and to keep in the quiet paths -of a studious retirement. But he presently found that, in -order to secure his end, he must needs do as his father -had done before him. He must leave England, either for -Italy or for France. When his mind was made up to -exile, it was also made up to the relinquishment of his -name. William <span class='sc'>Courten</span> became, even to his nearest -relatives, ‘William <span class='sc'>Charleton</span>.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The friendships he had already formed at Montpelier, in -his youth, and the local charms of that city for a studious -man, incited him to revisit his old retreat. But he made -no permanent abode there. He took long tours, in France, -in Germany, and in Italy; adding everywhere both to the -stores of his knowledge and to the presses and cabinets of -his library and museum. It was during his second stay at -Montpelier that he formed his life-long friendships with a -famous Frenchman, Joseph <span class='sc'>Pitton de Tournefort</span>, and -with a more famous Englishman, John <span class='sc'>Locke</span>. Here also -began his acquaintance with Dr. (afterwards Sir) Hans -<span class='sc'>Sloane</span>.</p> - -<p class='c035'>It was at <span class='sc'>Sloane’s</span> instance that he made his solitary -<span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span>appearance as an author, in the shape of a communication -to the Royal Society, which was laid before them in 1679, -and afterwards printed in the -<i>Philosophical Transactions</i>, -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Philosoph. -Transact.</i>, -vol. xxvii, -pp. 485, seqq.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -under the title: <i>Experiments and Observations of the Effects -of several sorts of Poisons upon Animals, made at Montpelier</i>.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Thirteen or fourteen years were thus passed. And then, -to the natural yearning of an exile, there came the strong -reinforcement of the call of large collections for a settled -abode. There are few claims to fixity of tenure better -grounded than are those of a Museum or a Library.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Return to England.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The return was not easy, but the difficulties were faced. -It is probable that he came back to England in the summer -of 1684. He did not then own one acre of that land of -which his father had inherited so respectable a breadth in -half a dozen counties. He had not long arrived before one -of his nearest friends wrote him a letter, which seemed to -bode ill for his prospects of a peaceable life. ‘The number -of creditors,’ wrote Richard <span class='sc'>Salwey</span> to him, on the 18th -August, 1684, ‘is incredible, for the debts are standing, -and multiplied to children and grandchildren, who, so long -as the parchment and the wax can be preserved, will not -forego their hopes nor attempts. And I fear your late so -public station<a id='r44'></a><a href='#f44' class='c030'><sup>[44]</sup></a> will daily expose you, and that you will at -every backstairs and turning be pulled by the sleeve and -provoked. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Salwey to ‘Charlton;’ MS. Sloane, 3962, f. 191.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Nor yet do I know of any danger consequent -in any suit that can be commenced, except putting you to -great trouble and like expenses;—and I fear you have not -a superfluous bank to defray the charge.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span><span class='sc'>Courten</span>, however, was not seriously molested. He -established himself in London as the occupant of a large -suite of chambers in Essex Court, Middle Temple. Here -his collections were conveniently arranged, and they had -space to expand. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Establishment of the Courten Museum.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Ere long we find mention of his Museum -as filling ten rooms.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Of the cost at which it had been gathered, there are now -no adequate and authenticated materials for forming an -estimate. But in those days the man who himself travelled -on such a quest had a vast advantage over the man—howsoever -better provided with what in the sixteenth century -was called purse-ability—who sent other men to travel in -his stead. In <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> days no dealers explored the -Continent as an ordinary incident of their calling. The -wreck, too, of such a fortune as that of the <span class='sc'>Courtens</span> was -not contemptible. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Courten Papers</i>, in MS. Sloane, 3962; 303.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When living in France (1677–79) our -collector appears to have had an income of about fifteen -hundred pounds a year, accruing from money invested in -mortgages and in annuities.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Although his chief collections were of his own gathering, -he had many helpers. Among them was the future inheritor -of his Museum, Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>. In the year 1687, -when about to set out on his voyage to the West Indies, -<span class='sc'>Sloane</span> wrote to him: ‘I design to send you what is curious -from the several islands we land at,—which will be most of -our plantations.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Sloane to ‘Charlton;’ <i>Ib.</i>, 308.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The writer was then a young man. -Probably his acquaintance with <span class='sc'>Courten</span> was at that time -of not greater standing than eight or nine years, but he -writes of the obligations <span class='sc'>Courten</span> had then already conferred -upon him: ‘I am extremely obliged to you, beyond -any in the world.’<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ibid.</i><span class='hidev'>|</span></span></p> - -<p class='c029'>The use this Collector made of his treasures was as liberal -as the zeal with which he had amassed them was indefatigable. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span>The friend whose correspondence has just been -quoted said, after <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> death, that he was wont to show -his Museum very freely, and to make his stores contribute, -in various ways, ‘to the advancement of the glory of God, -the honour and renown of the country, and the no small -promotion of knowledge and the useful arts.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Many notices are extant—scattered here and there in the -<i>Diaries</i> and among the correspondence of the day—of visits -made to <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> Museum by men who were able to -judge of what they saw. Those notices confirm the general -statement made by <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, and show the comprehensiveness -of the collector’s tastes as well as the geniality of his -character. Two such notices have an especial interest, -which is not lessened by the fact that both of them are -to be found in diaries that are well known. They record -the visits to Essex Court of John <span class='sc'>Evelyn</span>, and of John -<span class='sc'>Thoresby</span>.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Evelyn’s Visit to Courten’s Museum.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Evelyn</span> paid his first visit in charming company. It -was made in December, 1686. He thus tells of it in his -journal: ‘I carried the Countess of <span class='sc'>Sunderland</span> to see -the rarities of one Mr. <span class='sc'>Charlton</span>, in the Middle Temple, -who showed us such a collection as I had never seen in all -my travels abroad—either of private gentlemen, or of princes. -It consisted of miniatures, drawings, shells, insects, medals, ... minerals; all being very perfect and rare of their kind; -especially his books of birds, fishes, flowers, and shells, -drawn and miniatured to the life. He told us that one -book stood him in three hundred pounds. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Diary</i>, &c., vol. ii, p. 260. (Edit. of 1854.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It was painted -by that excellent workman whom the late <span class='sc'>Gaston</span>, Duke of -Orleans, employed.<a id='r45'></a><a href='#f45' class='c030'><sup>[45]</sup></a> This gentleman’s whole collection, -gathered by himself [while] travelling over most parts of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span>Europe, is estimated at eight thousand pounds. He appeared -to be a modest and obliging person.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Evelyn</span> records two other visits, which he made at subsequent -times. It is obvious that during almost the whole -period which elapsed between <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> return to England -and his death, his museum was a place of frequent and -fashionable resort; notwithstanding the warning which its -owner had received as to the perils of a ‘public station,’ -under his peculiar circumstances. To the celebrated diarist -himself, his visits seem to have suggested a very natural -thought of the public value of such an institution, to be -maintained by and for the country at large. And he was -very far from keeping the idea to himself. <span class='sc'>Evelyn</span> lived -to a more than ordinary term of years, but not long enough -to see his idea carried into act. He had, however, helped -to prepare the way.</p> - -<p class='c029'>His incidental statement about the estimated money value -of the <span class='sc'>Courten</span> Museum does not invalidate a foregoing -remark in this chapter. The estimate can hardly have been -founded upon better ground than mere conjecture. But it -is curious to note the near approach of the guess of 1686 -to another guess, on the same small point, made nine years -later.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Thoresby’s</span> visit occurred in May, 1695. He records it -thus: ‘Walked to Mr. <span class='sc'>Charlton’s</span> chambers at the Temple, -who very courteously showed me his Museum, which is perhaps -the most noble collection of natural and artificial -curiosities, of ancient and modern coins and medals, that -any private person in the world enjoys. It is said to have -cost him seven or eight thousand pounds sterling.... -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Thoresby, <i>Diary</i>, 1695, May 24, vol. i, p. 299.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -I spent the greatest part of my time amongst the coins; -for though the British and Saxon be not very extraordinary, -yet his [collection of] the silver coins of the Emperors and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span>Consuls is very noble. He has also a costly collection of -medals of eminent persons in Church and State, and of -domestic and foreign Reformers. But, before I was half -satisfied, an unfortunate visit from the Countess of <span class='sc'>Pembroke</span> -and other ladies from Court prevented further -queries.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The visits of the ‘ladies from Court’ may not have -seemed quite so unfortunate to the host who had to entertain -them, as to the zealous antiquary whose recondite -questions they broke off. At all events, such visits must -have been to <span class='sc'>Courten</span> like renewed glimpses of the gayer -life of which he had known something in his early days.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In learned leisure, and in quiet pleasures such as these, -his life passed gently to its end. He kept up his correspondence -as well with some of the surviving friends of -his youth, as with two or three of the eminent scholars and -naturalists with whom he had made acquaintance during -the travel-years of middle life. Failing to raise his fortunes -to the height of his early hopes, he yet won contentment by -bringing down his desires to the level of his means. He -ceased to trouble himself with claims on the Dutch Republic, -or with pretensions to a proprietorship in the Island of -Barbadoes, or even about his interest in debts contracted -by the Crown of England. He had been able, in spite of -all losses, to open to his contemporaries means of culture -and of mental recreation which, on any like scale, had been -before unknown to them. Only in the most famous cities -of Italy had the like then been seen. And he had the final -satisfaction of making the secured continuance of his Museum -the means of further securing, at the same time, the comfort -and prosperity of some humble friends and dependants whose -faithful attention had helped to solace his own closing years. -Nor had he neglected those consolations which are supreme.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span>William <span class='sc'>Courten’s</span> Will was made on his death-bed, in -March, 1702. Having bequeathed certain pecuniary legacies—increased -two days afterwards by codicil—and having -provided for the payment of his debts, he made Dr. Hans -<span class='sc'>Sloane</span> his residuary legatee and sole executor. He forbade -all display at his funeral. He died, at Kensington, on the -26th of March, 1702, wanting two days of the completion -of his sixtieth year.<a id='r46'></a><a href='#f46' class='c030'><sup>[46]</sup></a> He was buried in Kensington churchyard, -near the south-east door of the church. By his friend -and executor an altar-tomb, carved by Grinling <span class='sc'>Gibbons</span>, -was placed above his remains, with this inscription:—</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c031'> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Juxtà hic sub marmoreo tumulo</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">jacet <span class='sc'>Gulielmus Courten</span>, cui Gulielmus pater, Gulielmus avus,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">mater, Catharina, Joannis Comitis de Bridgwater filia,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Paternum vel ad Indos præclarum Nomen;</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">qui tantis haudquaquam degener parentibus,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Summâ cum laude vitæ decurrit tramitem;</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Gazarum per Europam indagator sedulus,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">quas hinc illinc sibi partas negavit nemini,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">sed cupientibus exposuit humanissimè,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Non avaræ mentis pabulum, sed ingenii</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">si quid naturæ, si quid artis nobile</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Opus, id quovis pretio suum esse voluit</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">ut musis lucidum conderet sacrarium;</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">ast mortis hæc non sunt curæ!</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Hic Musarum cultor tam eximius,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Hic tam insignis viator,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Obiit, Quievit, 7 Cal. Apr. <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 1702.</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Vixit annos 62, menses xi, dies 28.</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Pompa, quam vivus fugit, ne mortuo fieret, testamento cavit,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">sed hoc qualecumque monumentum,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">et quam potuit immortalitatem,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">bene merenti mœrens dedit</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><span class='sc'>Hans Sloane</span>, M.D.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c035'><span class='pageno' id='Page_274'>274</span>Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> was the seventh and youngest son of -Alexander <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, a Scotchman who had married one of -the daughters of Dr. George <span class='sc'>Hickes</span>, Prebendary of Winchester, -and who had settled in Ireland on receiving the -appointment of receiver-general of the estates of the Lord -<span class='sc'>Claneboy</span>, afterwards Earl of <span class='sc'>Clanricarde</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Life of Sir Hans Sloane.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He was -born at Killileagh, in the county Down, on the 16th of -April, 1660.</p> - -<p class='c029'>We learn that almost from earliest youth, Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> -evinced his possession of quick parts and of keen powers of -observation. And he gave early indications of that happy -constitution of mind and will which now and then permits -the union of intellectual ambition and aspiration, with not -a little of prudential shrewdness. A special bias towards -the study of the natural sciences was—as it has often been -in like cases—one of the things that were soonest taken -note of by those about him. Faculties such as these naturally -pointed to medicine as a fitting profession for their -early possessor. His home studies, however, were checked -by a severe illness which threatened his life, and from some -of the effects of which he never quite recovered. But that -illness helped to qualify him for his future profession. If -it took away, for life, the likelihood that the bright promises -of the dawn would be altogether realized in his maturity, it -seems to have strengthened, in an unusual degree, both -the prudential element which already marked his character, -and his predisposition to rely mainly, for the success of his -plans, upon plodding industry. From youth to old age an -<span class='pageno' id='Page_275'>275</span>unweariable power of taking pains was his leading characteristic.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In his eighteenth year he came to London with the immediate -object of studying chemistry and botany, before -he entered on other studies more distinctively medical. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Early Studies in London</span>;<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1677–1682.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He learned chemistry under <span class='sc'>Staphorst</span>,<a id='r47'></a><a href='#f47' class='c030'><sup>[47]</sup></a> and of -botany he acquired a good deal of knowledge by frequenting, -with much assiduity, the recently founded -Botanical Garden at Chelsea. In the latter pursuit he met -with assistance from the intelligent keeper of the garden, -Mr. <span class='sc'>Watts</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>MS. Corresp.</i><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And ere long he acquired the friendship of -John <span class='sc'>Ray</span>, and of Robert <span class='sc'>Boyle</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>After six years of steady educational labours, both scientific -and medical, he went to Paris, which possessed in -1683—and long afterwards—facilities for medical education -far superior to any that could then be found in London. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>And in France.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1683–4.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -His companions in the journey were Dr. Tancred <span class='sc'>Robinson</span> -and Dr. <span class='sc'>Wakeley</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Sloane</span> had scarcely got farther into France than the -town of Dieppe, before it was his good fortune to make -the acquaintance of Nicholas <span class='sc'>Lemery</span>, and to find himself -able to communicate to that eminent chemist the results -of some novel experiments. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Eloge</i>, in <i>Mém. de l’Acad. des Sciences</i> (1753); and <i>MS. Correspondence</i>. (B. M.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -They journeyed together from -Dieppe to Paris, and the acquaintance thus casually formed -was productive of good to both of them. The studies -begun in Ireland, and assiduously continued in London, -were now matured in Paris under men of European fame. -And the young botanist who heretofore could profit only -by the infant garden established by the London apothecaries -at Chelsea, and by an occasional botanizing ramble -<span class='pageno' id='Page_276'>276</span>into the country, could now expatiate at will in the magnificent -<i>Jardin des Plantes</i> of the King of <span class='sc'>France</span>. In -that botanical university <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, too, had <span class='sc'>Tournefort</span>—four -years his senior—for his frequent companion and -fellow-student.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In July, 1683, he took his degree as Doctor of Medicine -in the University of Orange. Thence he went to Montpelier, -where he resided until nearly the end of May, 1684. -After visiting Bordeaux, and some other parts of France, -he returned to Paris. There were few towns, in which he -made any stay, that had not given him some friend or -other, in addition to a valuable accession of knowledge. And -the friendships he had once formed were but rarely lost.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Towards the close of 1684 Dr. <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> returned to -England, whither the reputation of his increased acquirements -had preceded him. In January, 1685, he was chosen -a Fellow of the Royal Society, and exactly one year afterwards -he was proposed for election as Assistant-Secretary. -Among the other candidates were Denis <span class='sc'>Papin</span> and Edmund -<span class='sc'>Halley</span>. On the first scrutiny, <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> had ten votes; -<span class='sc'>Halley</span> sixteen. The majority was not enough, but on a -second ballot <span class='sc'>Halley</span> was chosen. Early in 1687 he -became a Fellow of the College of Physicians. He had -thus early laid some foundation for a London practice that -would lead him to social eminence, as well as to fortune. -And for the good gifts of fortune he had a very keen -relish.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Loving wealth well, he loved science still better. But -he had already good reason to hope that both might be -won, in company. He had become known to Christopher -<span class='sc'>Monk</span>, second Duke of <span class='sc'>Albemarle</span>, and when that nobleman -received, in 1687, the office of Governor-General of -the West India Colonies, <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> received an invitation -<span class='pageno' id='Page_277'>277</span>to sail with him, as the Duke’s physician and as Chief -Physician to the fleet; and he was desired to name his -own conditions, if disposed to accept the appointment.</p> - -<p class='c029'>He did not take any long time to think over the offer. -If it presented no very brilliant prospect of monetary -profit, it opened a large field for scientific research. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Voyage to Jamaica.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And, -in the main, the field was new. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1687.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -No Englishman had -ever yet been tempted to take so long a journey in the -interests of science. He knew that he had excellent personal -qualifications for turning to good account the large -opportunities of discovery that such a voyage was sure to -bring. Nor was it less certain that it would bring innumerable -occasions for enlarging his strictly professional -knowledge. And he had on his side the vigour of youth, -as well as its curiosity and its enthusiasm.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In annexing to his reply the conditions of his acceptance -he wrote thus: ‘If it be thought fit that Dr. <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> go -physician to the West Indian Fleet, the surgeons of all -the ships must be ordered to observe his directions.... -He proposes that six hundred pounds, <i>per -annum</i>, shall be paid to him quarterly, with a previous payment -of three hundred pounds, in order to his preparation -for this service; and also that if the Fleet shall be called -home he shall have leave to stay in the West Indies if he -pleases.’ The proposed terms were approved. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Corresp.</i> in MS. Sloane, 4069, ff. 86, 87.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The Doctor -embarked at Portsmouth, in the Duke’s frigate <i>Assistance</i>, -on the 12th of September.</p> - -<p class='c029'>His work as a scientific collector began at Madeira. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ibid.</i>, MS. Sloane, 3962, f. 310.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -To -botanize in that pleasant island was an enjoyment all the -more welcome after an unusual share of suffering from seasickness, -in the midst of professional toil. For it was -honourably characteristic of <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> that, under all circumstances -and forms of temptation, medical duties had the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_278'>278</span>first place with him. What he achieved for science, -throughout his life, was achieved in the intervals of more -immediate duty.</p> - -<p class='c029'>He reached Barbadoes in November. Thence he wrote -to <span class='sc'>Courten</span>: ‘This is indeed a new world in all things. -You may be sure the task I have is already delightful to -me.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Sloane to Courten; <i>Ib.</i>, 1687, Nov. 28.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Then he continues: ‘I am heartily sorry that I, being -new landed here, cannot now send [what I have collected -for you] with this letter. What I had at Madeira cannot -be come at. What is here I have not, as yet, gathered. -But you may assure yourself that what these parts of the -West Indies afford is all your own, the best way I can -send them.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The collections begun thus favourably were continued -at the beginning of December in the islands of Nevis, St. -Christopher, and Hispaniola. The fleet reached Port Royal -on the 19th of that month. Jamaica was explored with -ardent enthusiasm and with minutest care. Its animals and -minerals, as well as its plants; its history, as well as its -meteorology, were thoroughly studied. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Medical Cases appended to <i>Voyage to Jamaica</i>; vol. i (1708).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And the medical -skill of the new-comer was put as heartily at the service of -the toil-worn negro as at that of the wealthiest planter, or -of the highest officer of the Crown.</p> - -<p class='c029'>But presently <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> himself needed the care and skill -he so willingly bestowed. ‘I had a great fever,’ he says, -‘though those about me called it a little seasoning.’ He -had scarcely recovered before his knowledge of the natural -history of Jamaica was suddenly and unpleasantly increased.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘Ever since the beginning of February,’ I find him -writing to the Lord Chief Justice <span class='sc'>Herbert</span> (who seems to -have been one of the earliest of the many patients who -became also friends): ‘I dread earthquakes more than heat. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_279'>279</span>For then we had a very great one. Finding the house to -dance and the cabinets to reel, I looked out of window -to see whether people removed the house (a wooden structure) -or no. Casting my eyes towards an aviary, I saw the -birds in as great concern as myself. Then, another terrible -shake coming, I apprehended what it was, and betook me to -my heels to get clear of the house; but before I got down -stairs it was over. If it had come the day after, it had -frighted us ten times more. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Sloane to Lord Chief Justice Herbert; MS. Sloane, 4069, ff. 277, 278.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -For the day it happened there -arrived a Spanish sloop from Porto Bello, giving an account -of the destruction of great part of the kingdom of -Peru.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Long before this letter was written the exploring studies -and expedition had been resumed with all the activity of -renewed health, and they were carried on—at every available -interval, as I have said, of pressing medical duty—throughout -the year 1688. That eventful year, during -which the thoughts and anxieties of the mass of his countrymen -were so differently engrossed, was to <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> the -especial seedtime of his study of Nature. All that he was -enabled to effect in that attractive path may now seem very -small and dim, when viewed in the light of subsequent -achievements. But it was great for that day, when, in -England, the path was so newly opened that the possession -of a taste for collecting insects was thought, by able men -of the world, to be a strong presumption of lunacy. And -it soon fired the ambition of a multitude of inquirers who -rapidly carried the good work of investigation onward, in -all directions.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Towards the close of the year, the Duke of <span class='sc'>Albemarle</span> -suddenly died. The contingency for which <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> had -had the foresight to make provision had arisen, but in a -quite unexpected way; so that his forecast failed to secure -<span class='pageno' id='Page_280'>280</span>him that time for continued research which he had coveted -and contracted for. The Duchess of <span class='sc'>Albemarle</span> had -accompanied her husband in his voyage, and, after the -first shock of his death had been borne, was naturally -desirous to leave the colony. <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> could not allow her -to take the return voyage without his attendance. He -hastened to gather up his collections and prepared to come -home. The fleet set sail from Port Royal on the 16th of -March, 1689.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Return Voyage of 1689.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The voyage was full of anxiety. Such news from -England as had yet reached the West Indies was very -fragmentary. And the lack of authentic intelligence about -the outbreak of the Revolution and its results, had been -eked-out by all sorts of wild rumours. The voyagers -looked daily with intense eagerness for outward-bound -ships that might bring them news, and were especially -anxious to know if war had broken out between England -and France. When they caught sight of a sail so wistfully -watched for, they commonly observed in the other -vessel as great a desire to avoid a meeting, as there was -amongst themselves to ensure one.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Duchess of <span class='sc'>Albemarle</span> had with her a large amount -of wealth in plate and jewels, as well as a large retinue. -Her anxieties were not lessened when the captain of the -frigate said to her Grace, two or three weeks after the -departure from Port Royal: ‘I cannot fight any ship having -King <span class='sc'>James’</span> commission, from whom I received mine.’ On -hearing this assurance—which seemed to open to her the -prospect, or at least the possible contingency, of being -carried into France—the Duchess resolved to change her -ship. With <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> and with her suite she left the <i>Assistance</i>, -and re-embarked, first in the late Duke’s yacht, and -then in one of the larger ships of the fleet.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_281'>281</span>After this separation, ‘our Admiral’ says <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, ‘pretended -he wanted water and must make the best of his -way for England, without staying to convoy us home, -which accordingly he did.’ The voyage, nevertheless, was -made in safety.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>Voyage to Jamaica</i>, &c., vol. ii, p. 344.</div> - -<p class='c029'>They learned very little of what had happened at home, -until they had arrived within a few leagues of Plymouth. -Then <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> himself went out, in an armed boat, with -the intention of picking up such news as could be gathered -from any fishermen who might be met with near the coast. -The first fishing vessel they hailed did her best to run away, -but was caught in the pursuit. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ibid.</i>, p. 347.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -To the question, ‘How is -the King?’ the master’s reply was, ‘What King do you -mean? King <span class='sc'>William</span> is well at Whitehall. -King <span class='sc'>James</span> -is in France.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Early Years in England.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Sloane</span> landed at Plymouth on the 29th of May, with -large collections in all branches of natural history, and with -improved prospects of fortune. The Duchess of <span class='sc'>Albemarle</span> -behaved to him with great liberality, and for some years to -come he continued to be her domestic physician, and lived, for -the most part, in one or other of her houses as his usual place -of residence. In 1690 much of his correspondence bears date -from the Duchess’ seat at New Hall, in Essex. In 1692 -we find him frequently at Albemarle House, in Clerkenwell. -He had also made, whilst in the West Indies, a lucky -investment in the shape of a large purchase of Peruvian -Bark. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Sloane Corresp.</i>, in MSS. Sloane.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It was already a lucrative article of commerce, and -the provident importer had excellent professional opportunities -of adding to its commercial value by making its intrinsic -merits more widely known in England.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The botanists, more especially, were delighted with the -large accessions to previous knowledge which <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> had -brought back with him. ‘When I first saw,’ said John -<span class='pageno' id='Page_282'>282</span><span class='sc'>Ray</span>, ‘his stock of dried plants collected in Jamaica, and -in some of the Caribbee Islands, I was much astonished -at the number of the capillary kind, not thinking there had -been so many to be found in both the Indies.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The collector, himself, had presently his surprise in the -matter, but it was of a less agreeable kind. ‘My collection,’ -he says, ‘of dried samples of some very strange plants -excited the curiosity of people who loved things of that -nature to see them, and who were welcome, until I observed -some so very curious as to desire to carry part of them -privately home, and injure what they left. This made me -upon my guard.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>1693.</div> - -<p class='c029'>On the 30th of November, 1693, <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> was elected to -the Secretaryship of the Royal Society. A year afterwards -he was made Physician to Christ Hospital. It is eminently -to his honour that from his first entrance into this office—which -he held for thirty-six years—he applied the whole of -its emoluments for the advantage and advancement of deserving -boys who were receiving their education there. For -that particular appointment he was himself none the richer, -save in contentment and good works.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Catalogue of West Indian Plants, and the Controversy with Plukenet.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>In 1696 he made his first appearance as an author by -the publication of his <i>Catalogus Plantarum quæ in insula -Jamaica sponte proveniunt, vel vulgo coluntur cum earundem -synonimis et locis natalibus: Adjectis aliis quibusdam quæ in -insulis Madeira, Barbadoes, Nevis, et Sancti Christophori -nascuntur</i>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1696.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He had already seen far too much of the world -to marvel that his book soon brought him censure as well -as praise. By Leonard <span class='sc'>Plukenet</span>, a botanist of great -acquirements and ability, many portions of the Jamaica -Catalogue were attacked, sometimes on well-grounded objections; -more often upon exceptions rather captious than -just, and with that bitterness of expression which is the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_283'>283</span>unfailing finger-post of envy. <span class='sc'>Plukenet’s</span> strictures were -published in his <i>Almagesti Botanici Mantissa</i>.<a id='r48'></a><a href='#f48' class='c030'><sup>[48]</sup></a> <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> -made no rash haste to answer his critic. Where the -censure bore correction of real error or oversight, he carefully -profited by it. Where it was the mere cloak of malice, -he awaited without complaint the appropriate time for -dealing, both with censure and censor, which would be -sure to come when he should give to the world the ripened -results of the voyage of 1687.</p> - -<p class='c029'>A passage in Dr. <span class='sc'>Sloane’s</span> correspondence with Dr. -<span class='sc'>Charlett</span>, of Cambridge, written in the same year with -the publication of the Jamaica Catalogue, shows that even -whilst he was still almost at the threshold of his London -life, he was able steadily to enlarge his museum. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Charlett to Sloane, in MS. Corresp., 4043, f. 193.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -At that -early date, <span class='sc'>Charlett</span>, who had seen it during a visit to -London, calls it already ‘a noble collection of all natural -curiosities.’<a id='r49'></a><a href='#f49' class='c030'><sup>[49]</sup></a> The collector, when he landed its first fruits -at Plymouth, had yet before him—such was to be his unusual -<span class='pageno' id='Page_284'>284</span>length of days—almost sixty-four years of life. Not -one of them, probably, passed without some valuable accession -to his museum. And those sixty-four years were the -adolescent and formative years of the study of the Physical -Sciences in Britain. They were years, too, in the course -of which there was to be a great development of British -energy, both in foreign travel and in colonial enterprise. -Very many were to run to and fro in the earth, so that -knowledge might be largely increased. As a traveller, -<span class='sc'>Sloane</span> had already done his spell of work. But just -as that was achieved, he was placed, by his election to -the secretaryship to the Royal Society, precisely in the -position where he could most extensively profit by a -wide correspondence with men of like scientific pursuits -all over the world, and could exercise a watchful -observation over the doings and the opportunities of -explorers.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Resumption of the ‘Philosophical Transactions.’</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>But the most immediate result of his secretaryship was -the resumption of the suspended <i>Philosophical Transactions</i>. -The interruption of a work which had already rendered -yeoman service to Science, abroad as well as at home, had -been caused by a combination of unfavourable circumstances. -The death of its first and energetic editor, Henry -<span class='sc'>Oldenburg</span>; some diminution in the Society’s income; -and some personal disagreements at its Council board, seem -all, in their measure, to have concurred to impede a publication, -the continuance of which the best men in the -Royal Society knew to be inseparable from the achievement -of its true purposes. <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> bestirred himself with the -steady vigour which had been born with him; impressed -his friends into the service; profited by the foreign connections -he had formed ten years earlier at Paris, Bordeaux, -and Montpelier, and so found new channels by which to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_285'>285</span>enrich the pages of the <i>Transactions</i>, as well as to extend -their circulation.</p> - -<p class='c029'>He did it, of course, in his own way, and under the -necessary influence of his habits and predispositions. One -natural result of his labours, as secretary and as editor, was -a frequent prominence of medical subjects, both at the -meetings and in the subsequent selections for permanent -record. If such a prominence might now and then give, -or seem to give, fair ground of complaint to men whose -thoughts were absorbed in the calculus of fluxions, or -whose eyes were wont to search the heavens that they -might learn the courses of the stars, it had at least the excuse -that it tended to the elevation—in all senses of the -word—of a profession in the thorough education and the -dignified status of which all the world have a deep interest.</p> - -<p class='c029'>If <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, in his day, occasionally made scientific men -somewhat more familiar with medical themes than they -cared to be, he did very much to make medical men aware -of the peculiar duty under which their profession laid them -of becoming also men of true science. And in this way he -exerted an influence upon medical knowledge, which was -none the less pregnant with good and enduring results -because it was in great measure an indirect influence. It -was one of the minor, but memorable, results of the establishment -of the Royal Society that it tended powerfully to -lift medical practice out of the slough of quackery.</p> - -<p class='c029'>This frequent reading of medical papers during the -Doctor’s secretaryship could not fail to give an opening, -now and again, for the wit of the scorner. A physician, -in his daily practice, is constantly seeing the power of small -things. He may well, at times, over estimate trifles. In -the year 1700, Dr. <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> was made the subject of a -satirical pamphlet which appeared under the title of ‘<i>The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_286'>286</span>Transactioneer, with some of his Philosophical Fancies</i>.’ -The author of the satire was Dr. William <span class='sc'>King</span>, but, for a -considerable time, the authorship was unknown. There -was great anxiety to discover it, not only on <span class='sc'>Sloane’s</span> -part individually, but on the part of the Council at large. -The whole affair was trivial, and would be unworthy of -memory but that it led to some dissensions within the -Society itself, which for a long time left marks of their -influence.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Sloane and Woodward.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Sloane</span> conceived that <i>The Transactioneer</i> was the production -of Dr. John <span class='sc'>Woodward</span>—the author of <i>Natural -History of the Earth</i>—who was himself a member of the -Royal Society’s Council. <span class='sc'>Woodward</span>, in denying the -imputation, endorsed the satire. ‘Whether there was not -some occasion given,’ he said to the Council, ‘may be -worth your consideration. This I am sure of: The world -has been now, for some time past, very loud upon that -subject. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Newton Correspondence and Papers</i>; cited by Brewster, in <i>Memoirs</i>, &c. (2nd Edit.), vol. ii, ff. 185, 186.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And there were those who laid the charges so -much wrong, that I have but too often had occasion to vindicate -the Society itself, and that in public company.’ The -ill feeling thus excited lasted a long time. It seemed at -length, that the Society must lose either the services of its -laborious Secretary or those of his active-tongued opponent.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The petty dissension came to a height when <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> -chanced to make some passing medical comment on the -words ‘the bezoar is a gall-stone,’ occurring in a paper -which he was reading to the Society, from the Memoirs of -the Parisian Academy of Sciences. <span class='sc'>Sloane’s</span> casual remark -drew from <span class='sc'>Woodward</span> the offensive words, ‘No man -who understands anatomy would make such an assertion.’ -On another occasion he interrupted some observation or -other made by <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, by exclaiming—‘Speak sense, or -English, and we shall understand you.’ A friend or two -<span class='pageno' id='Page_287'>287</span>of <span class='sc'>Woodward</span> tried hard to back him by enlisting the -illustrious President on their side. They reminded <span class='sc'>Newton</span> -that he had been often himself impatient under the -medical dissertations, and they praised Dr. <span class='sc'>Woodward’s</span> -acquirements in philosophy. ‘For a seat in the Council,’ -replied Sir Isaac, ‘a man should be a moral philosopher, -as well as a natural one.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Records of the Royal Society.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Eventually, it was resolved: -‘That Dr. <span class='sc'>Woodward</span> be removed from the Council, for -creating a disturbance by the said reflecting words upon -Dr. <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>.’ The latter was of a very forgiving temper, -and he soon sought to be reconciled with his adversary.</p> - -<p class='c029'>His professional course, meanwhile, was steadily upward. -A friendship which he had contracted in 1705 with Dr. -<span class='sc'>Sydenham</span> greatly aided his progress. <span class='sc'>Sydenham</span> was -retiring from practice, and gave to <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> his cordial -recommendations. In 1712<a id='r50'></a><a href='#f50' class='c030'><sup>[50]</sup></a> he was made Physician -Extraordinary to the Queen, whom he attended, two years -afterwards, on her death bed. He filled the office of -Physician-in-Chief to <span class='sc'>George the First</span>, by whom, on -the 3rd April, 1716, he was created a Baronet. He was, -I believe, the first physician who received that dignity. In -1719 he became President of the College of Physicians. In -1727 he received the crowning honour of a life which, to -an unusual degree, had already been replete with honourable -distinctions of almost every kind. He was placed in -the chair of the Royal Society, as the next successor of -<span class='sc'>Newton</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Eighteen years before, he had been welcomed into the -illustrious Academy of Sciences, the establishment of which -at Paris had followed so quickly upon the foundation of the -Royal Society. Both academies had worked with conspicuous -<span class='pageno' id='Page_288'>288</span>success. Both had been adorned by a long line -of eminent members. They had frequently, and in many -ways, interchanged friendly communion. To <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> himself, -the reception at Paris had been the prelude of many -like invitations from other learned societies in various parts -of Europe. No man of his time had a worthier estimate of -the dignity involved in the freemasonry of science, nor had -any a more conscientious sense of the duties and responsibilities -which it entails.</p> - -<p class='c029'>As President of the Royal Society, one of his earliest proposals -to the Council was that, for the future, no pecuniary -contribution should be received from foreign members -whose fellowship it invited as an honour. He urged this -step, notwithstanding that the Society was at the time in -debt from an unusual arrear of subscriptions,—an arrear so -great that he felt it to be right that the Council should be -recommended to sue their offending brethren in the law -courts. His third proposal, like both the others, had for -its object the incontestible advantage and honour of the -Society. He checked some nascent abuses in elections by -making it necessary that there should be an express approval -of every new candidate by the Council, on the recommendation -of not less than three fellows, before proceeding -to a ballot in the Society at large.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Natural History of Jamaica.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The work by which <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> holds his chief place in the -literature of science, the <i>Natural History of Jamaica</i>, was -the work of no less than thirty-eight years. Its materials, -as we have seen, were collected in the years 1687 and -1688. The first volume was not published until 1708. -Seventeen additional years elapsed before the completion -of the second. The fact indicates how crowded with avocations -its author’s life was, as well as the marked conscientiousness -<span class='pageno' id='Page_289'>289</span>and thoroughness which from youth to age -characterized his doings.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Jamaica book cannot be opened without some appreciation, -even at first sight, of this faculty of thoroughness. -For it is shown not more by the elaboration and beauty of -the illustrations, than by the copious citation of authorities, -on all points in relation to which authority is valuable. -That all previous labourers in his field should have their -full meed of acknowledgment is with <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> a prime -anxiety.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Sloane’s services to Arboriculture.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The West Indian Voyage of 1687–89 had had, it may -here be remarked, other results besides that of exciting new -emulation—at home and abroad—in the study of natural -history, and in the amassing in cabinets and presses of the -dried and preserved objects of that study. It gave a -marked impulse to arboriculture, both in England and in -Ireland. What <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> had to show, and to tell of, led to -the sending oversea of vessels expressly prepared for the -transport of living trees; and several noble ornaments of -our parks and pleasure grounds date their introduction to -English and Irish soil from the expeditions so set on foot.</p> - -<p class='c035'>The <i>Natural History of Jamaica</i> excited considerable -interest abroad, as well as at home. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Corresp. of Sloane and Briasson; in MS. Sloane, 4039, ff. 136–140.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Bernard de <span class='sc'>Jussieu</span> -offered to undertake the editorship of a French translation, -and <span class='sc'>Briasson</span>, a Parisian bookseller of some eminence, -wrote to <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> that he was willing to incur the charges -and risk of publication, on condition that the author would -send the copper plates of the original work to Paris, for -use in the new edition. Sir Hans, however, objected to -incur the risk of this transmission across the channel, but -was willing to have the needful impression worked off in -London; an arrangement to which the Parisian, in his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_290'>290</span>turn, was disinclined to assent, being of opinion—perhaps -not unjustly—that, in 1743, the art of copperplate printing -was better understood in Paris than in London. On -these grounds the negotiation was broken off.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Growth of the Sloane Museum.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Amidst these varied avocations, the growth of the library -and museum went on unceasingly. Friends and foes contributed, -in turn, to its enrichment. The year 1702 saw -the incorporation with the original gatherings of the West -India voyage of the splendid collections of <span class='sc'>Courten</span>, the -friend of <span class='sc'>Sloane’s</span> youth. In 1710, Sir Hans acquired -the valuable herbaria of his old assailant, Leonard <span class='sc'>Plukenet</span>. -In 1718 he purchased the extensive collections, in all departments -of natural history, of another friend of early -years, James <span class='sc'>Petiver</span>. The herbarium of Adam <span class='sc'>Buddle</span>, -a botanist little remembered now but of note in his generation, -came to <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, as a token of friendship, from the -death-bed of its collector. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. Sloane, 4069, <i>passim</i>.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The scientific possessions of -Dr. Christopher <span class='sc'>Merret</span> were purchased from his son, and -from time to time, when valuable collections were known to -be on sale upon the Continent, agents went across to buy.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Of these numerous sources of augmentation the museum -of <span class='sc'>Petiver</span> was next in importance to that of <span class='sc'>Courten</span>—but -with a considerable interval. It is said (in the contemporary -correspondence, as I think) that its cost to -<span class='sc'>Sloane</span> was four thousand pounds. But remembering -what four thousand pounds was a hundred and fifty years -ago, there is reason to suspect some exaggeration in the -statement.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Natural History Collections of Petiver.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>James <span class='sc'>Petiver</span>, when Sir Hans first became acquainted -with him, was serving, as an apprentice, the then apothecary -of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. He afterwards became -apothecary to the Charter House. He had, in one way -<span class='pageno' id='Page_291'>291</span>or other, made for himself a singularly extensive acquaintance -amongst seafaring men; and by their help had established -an almost world-wide correspondence with people interested -in natural history, or possessed of special opportunities for -gathering its rarities. Of such rarities, <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> somewhere -says, ‘He had procured, I believe, a greater quantity than -any man before him.’ But in course of time his collections -overpowered his means, or his industry, for the work of -preservation and arrangement. When, at the collector’s -death, they passed into the possession of his friend, choice -specimens were found, not in order, but in heaps. The -due classification and ordering occupied many hands during -many months.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Sloane’s Correspondence, and his Charities.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The charities of human life were not, in the breast of Sir -Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, choked either by the various allurements -and preoccupations of science, or by the ceaseless toils of a -busy and anxious profession. He was a very liberal giver, -and also a discriminating and conscientious giver. I have -rarely seen a correspondence which mirrors more strikingly -than does that of <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, a just and equable attention to -multifarious and often conflicting claims.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The multiplicity of the claims was, indeed, as notable as -was the patience with which they were listened to. Not to -dwell upon the innumerable gropings after money of which, -in one form or other, every man who attains any sort of -eminence is sure to have his share (but of which Sir Hans -<span class='sc'>Sloane</span> seems to have had a Benjamin’s portion) or upon -interminable requests for the use of influence, at Court, at -the Treasury, at the London Hospitals, at the Council -Boards of the Royal Society or of the College of Physicians, -and elsewhere; his fame brought upon him a mass of -appeals and solicitations from utter strangers, busied with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_292'>292</span>less worldly aims and pursuits. Enthusiastic students of -the deep things of theology sought his opinion on abstruse -and mystical doctrines. Advocates of perpetual peace, and -of the transformation, at a breath, of the Europe of the -eighteenth century into a new Garden of Eden, implored -him to endorse their theories, or to interpret their dreams.</p> - -<p class='c029'>His replies are sometimes both characteristic and amusing; -none the less so for the fact that his power of writing -was, at all times, far beneath his other mental powers and -attainments. Now and then, though rarely, a touch of -humour lights up the homeliness of phrase.</p> - -<p class='c029'>To one of the enthusiasts in mystic divinity, who had -sent for his perusal an enormous manuscript, he replied: -‘I am very much obliged for the esteem you have of my -knowledge, which, I am very sure, comes far short of your -opinion. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Sloane to Gabriel Nisbett, May, 1737, MS. Sloane, 4069, f. 38.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -As to the particular controversies on foot in relation -to Natural and Revealed Religion, and to Predestination, -I am no ways further concerned than to act as my -own conscience directs me in those matters; and am no -judge for other people.... I have not time to peruse the -book you sent.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>To the worthy and once famous Abbé <span class='sc'>de Saint Pierre</span>, -who would fain have established with <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> a steady -correspondence on the universal amelioration of mankind, -by means of a vast series of measures, juridical, political, -and politico-economical, which started from the total abolition -of vice and of war, and descended to the improvement -of road-making by some happy anticipation—a hundred -years in advance—of our own <span class='sc'>Macadam</span>, he wrote thus: -‘I should be very glad to see a general Peace established, -for ever. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Sloane to St. Pierre, MS. Sloane, 4069, f. 44.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Rumours of war are often, indeed, found to be -baseless, and the fears of it, even when well grounded, are -often dissipated by an unlooked-for Providence. But poor -<span class='pageno' id='Page_293'>293</span>mortals are often so weak as to suffer, in their health, from -the fear of danger, where there is none!’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Letters on high themes like these had their frequent -variety, in the shape of proffers of contributions, to be made -upon terms, for the enlargement of the Museum, the fame of -which had now spread into very humble ranks of society. A -single specimen in this kind will suffice: ‘I understand,’ -wrote a correspondent of a speculative turn, ‘you are a -great virtuoso, and gives a valuable consideration for novelties -of antiquity,’—on getting thus far in the perusal, one -can imagine Sir Hans murmuring ‘not willingly, I assure -you,’—‘a pin has been many hundred years in our family, -and was, I am told, the pin of the first Saxon king of the -West Angles,’ and so on.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Acquisition of the Manor of Chelsea.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Until the year 1741, a few months after his resignation -of the chair of the Royal Society on the score of old age, -Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> continued to live chiefly in London; -though often removing, for part of the summer months, to -his Manor House in the then charming suburb of Chelsea. -He had purchased that valuable manor, from the family -of Cheyne, in 1714. The fine old House abounded in -historical recollections and amongst them, as most readers -will remember, in associations connected with the memory -of Sir Thomas <span class='sc'>More</span>. It had the additional attraction of -a large and beautiful garden, close to that other garden in -which the now Lord of the Manor had pursued, with all -the energies of youth, the study of botany. One of his -earliest acts of lordship had been a graceful gift to the -Company of Apothecaries, of the freehold in the land of -which till then they had been tenants. In 1741 he transferred -his Museum and Library from Bloomsbury to Chelsea. -His former house—situated in Great Russell Street, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_294'>294</span>near the corner of what is now Bloomsbury Square—had -been capacious, but the new one admitted of a greatly -improved arrangement and display of the collections.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>A Royal Visit to the Sloane Museum at Chelsea.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The state and character of the Sloane Museum, in the -fullness to which the collector had brought it during these -latest years of his life, can scarcely be exemplified better -than in a contemporary account of a visit which was paid -to the Manor House at Chelsea by the Prince and Princess -of Wales, in the year 1748. I quote it, almost verbally, -from the <i>Gentleman’s Magazine</i> of that year, but with some -unimportant omissions.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>G. M., vol. xviii, pp. 301, 302. (July, 1748.)</div> - -<p class='c029'>At that date, the Manor House formed a square of above -a hundred feet on each side, enclosing a court. Three of -the principal rooms were, on the occasion of this royal visit, -filled successively—as the visitors passed from one room -into another—with the finest portions of the collections in -its most portable departments. The minerals were first -shown. The tables were spread with drawers filled with -all sorts of precious stones in their natural beds, as they are -found in the earth, except the first table, which contained -stones found in animals, such as pearls, bezoars, and the -like. Emeralds, topazes, amethysts, sapphires, garnets, -rubies, diamonds, ... with magnificent vessels of cornelian, -onyx, sardonyx and jasper, delighted the eye, says -the attendant describer, and raised the mind to praise the -great Creator of all things.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When their Royal Highnesses, continues our narrator, -had viewed one room, and went into another, the scene -was shifted. When they returned, the same tables were -covered, for a second course, with all sorts of jewels, -polished and set after the modern fashion, and with gems -carved and engraved. For the third course, the tables were -<span class='pageno' id='Page_295'>295</span>spread with gold and silver ores, and with the most precious -and remarkable ores used in the dresses of men from -Siberia to the Cape of Good Hope, from Japan to Peru; -and with both ancient and modern coins in gold and silver.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The gallery, a hundred and ten feet in length, presented -a ‘surprising prospect.’ The most beautiful corals, crystals, -and figured stones; the most brilliant insects; shells, -painted with as great variety as the precious stones; and -birds vying with the gems; diversified with remains of the -antediluvian world.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Then a noble vista presented itself through several rooms -filled with books; among these were many hundred volumes -of dried plants; a room, full of choice and valuable manuscripts; -and the rich present sent by the French King to -Sir Hans of the engravings of his collections of paintings, -medals, and statues, and of his Palaces, in twenty-five -large atlas volumes.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Below stairs, some rooms were then shown, filled with -the antiquities of Egypt, Greece, Etruria, Rome, Britain, -and even America; other rooms and the Great Saloon -were filled with preserved animals. The halls were decorated -with the horns of divers creatures. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>G. M., vol. xviii, pp. 301, 302. (July, 1748.)<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘Fifty volumes -in folio,’ concludes the enthusiastic bystander who chronicled, -for Mr. Sylvanus <span class='sc'>Urban</span>, the royal visit of 1748, -‘would scarce suffice to contain a detail of this immense -Museum, consisting of above 200,000 articles.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Prince of <span class='sc'>Wales</span>, on taking leave of his host, gave -expression to a wish which he did not live long enough -to see realised. ‘It is a great pleasure to me,’ he said, -‘to see so magnificent a collection in England. It is an -ornament to the Nation. Great honour would redound -from the establishing of it for public use, to the latest -posterity.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_296'>296</span>Plans, more or less definite, of perpetuating those collections -for public use had occasionally engaged their owner’s -thoughts almost from the date of his acquisition of the -Museum of William <span class='sc'>Courten</span>, in 1702. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Will and Codicils of 1749–51.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In 1707, he had -watched with interest a scheme that had been set on foot -for the formation of a Public Library in London by combining -the old Royal Collection with the collections of Sir -Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> and of the Royal Society.<a id='r51'></a><a href='#f51' class='c030'><sup>[51]</sup></a> But that scheme -failed of execution, until, almost half a century later, it was, -in the main, revived and carried out as the indirect but -very natural consequence of his own testamentary dispositions.</p> - -<p class='c029'>His Will, in its first form, was made at Chelsea in 1748, -but was replaced on the 10th July, 1749, by the following -codicil:—</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The testamentary disposal of the Courten and Sloane Museum.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>‘Whereas I have in and by my said Will given some -directions about the sale and disposition of my Museum, or -collection of rarities herein more particularly mentioned, -now I do hereby revoke my said Will, as far as relates -thereto, and I do direct and appoint concerning the same in -the following manner: Having had from my youth a strong -inclination to the study of plants and all other productions -of nature, and having through the course of many years, -with great labour and expense, gathered together whatever -could be procured either in our own or foreign countries -that was rare and curious; and being fully convinced that -nothing tends more to raise our ideas of the power, wisdom, -goodness, providence, and other perfections of the Deity, -or more to the comfort and well being of his creatures, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_297'>297</span>than the enlargement of our knowledge of the works of -nature, I do will and desire that for the promoting of these -noble ends, the glory of God, and the good of man, my -collection in all its branches may be, if possible, kept and -preserved together whole and entire, in my Manor House -in the Parish of Chelsea, situate near the Physic Garden -given by me to the Company of Apothecaries for the same -purposes; and having great reliance that the right honourable, -honourable, and other persons hereafter named, will -be influenced by the same principles and [will] faithfully -and conscientiously discharge the trust hereby reposed in -them, I do give, devise, and bequeath, unto the Rt. Hon. -Charles Sloane <span class='sc'>Cadogan</span> ... [<i>and to forty-nine other -persons whose names follow</i>,] all that my Collection or -Museum at, in, or about, my Manor House at Chelsea -aforesaid, which consists of too great a variety to be particularly -described, but ... which are more particularly -described, mentioned, and numbered, with short histories -or accounts of them, with proper references, in certain -catalogues by me made, containing thirty-eight volumes in -folio, and eight volumes in quarto,—except such framed -pictures as are not marked with the word “<i>Collection</i>”—to -have and to hold to them and their successors and assigns -for ever, ... upon the trusts, and for the uses and -purposes, ... hereafter particularly specified concerning -the same.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘And for rendering this my intention more effectual that -the said Collection may be preserved and continued entire -in its utmost perfection and regularity, and being assured -that nothing will conduce more to this than placing the -same under the direction and care of learned, experienced, -and judicious persons who are above all low and mean -views, I do earnestly desire that the King, H.R.H. the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_298'>298</span>Prince of <span class='sc'>Wales</span>, H.R.H. William, Duke of <span class='sc'>Cumberland</span>, -the Archbishop of <span class='sc'>Canterbury</span> for the time being ... -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Authentic Copies</i>, &c. (B. M.) 17, p. 12.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -[<i>and twenty-eight others, being chiefly great Officers of -State</i>] will condescend so far as to act and be Visitors of -my said Museum and Collection; and I do hereby, with -their leave, nominate and appoint them Visitors thereof, -with full power and authority for any five or more of them -to enter my said Collection or Museum, at any time or -times, to peruse, supervise, and examine, the same, and the -management thereof, and to visit, correct, and reform, -from time to time, as there may be occasion, either jointly -with the said Trustees or separately—upon application to -them for that purpose, or otherwise—all abuses, defects, -neglects or mismanagements, that may happen to arise -therein, or touching and concerning the person or persons, -officer or officers, that are or shall be appointed to attend -the same.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘And my will is and I do hereby request and desire that -the said Trustees, or any seven or more of them, do make -their humble application to His Majesty, or to Parliament -at the next session after my decease,—as shall be thought -most proper,—in order to pay the full and clear sum of -twenty thousand pounds unto my executors or to the -survivors of them, in consideration of the said Collection or -Museum; it not being, as I apprehend or believe, a fourth -of their real and intrinsic value; and also to obtain such -effectual powers and authorities for vesting in the said -Trustees all and every part of my said Collection, ... and -also my said capital Manor-House, with such gardens and -outhouses as shall thereunto belong and be used by me at -the time of my decease, in which it is my desire that the -same shall be kept and preserved; and also the water of or -belonging to my Manor of Chelsea coming from Kensington, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_299'>299</span>or right of patronage of the Church of Chelsea; to the end -the same premises may be absolutely vested in the said -Trustees for the preserving and continuing my said Museum -in such manner as they shall think most likely to answer -the public benefit by me intended, and also obtain, as -aforesaid, a sufficient fund and provision for maintaining -and supporting my said Manor House, ... to be vested in -the said Trustees for ever.... -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Authentic Copies</i>, &c. (B. M.) 17, p. 12.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And it is also my will and -desire that all such other powers ... may be added or vested -as well in the said intended Trustees as in the Visitors -hereby appointed, as shall by the Legislature be thought -most proper and convenient for the better management, -order, and care, of my said Collection and premises.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Provision is then made, in subsequent clauses of this -codicil, for the replacement, by the Trustees surviving, from -time to time, of vacancies occasioned by death in the ranks -of the Trustees first appointed; and by surviving Visitors -of vacancies so occasioned in those of the original -Visitors.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Later Codicils.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>In September, 1750, another codicil added to the list of -Visitors—in order to supply vacancies which death had -already wrought—the Earls of <span class='sc'>Macclesfield</span> and <span class='sc'>Shelburne</span>, -and the then Master of the Rolls, Sir John <span class='sc'>Strange</span>, -with proviso of succession for the Master of the Rolls of -the time being. Sir John <span class='sc'>Bernard</span>, Sir William <span class='sc'>Calvert</span>, -and Mr. Slingsby <span class='sc'>Bethel</span> were, in like manner, added to -the roll of Trustees. The same codicil excepted the advowson -of the Rectory of Chelsea from the bequest of 1749, -and annexed it to the lordship of the Manor.</p> - -<p class='c029'>By his marriage with the daughter and heiress of Mr. -<span class='sc'>Langley</span>, an Alderman of London, Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> -had issue two daughters, but no son. The elder of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_300'>300</span>daughters, Sarah <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, married George <span class='sc'>Stanley</span>, of -Poultons, in Hampshire; the younger, Elizabeth, married -Lord <span class='sc'>Cadogan</span>. By the representatives of those co-heiresses -the large inheritance was eventually enjoyed.</p> - -<p class='c029'>A subsequent codicil of 1751, added nine other Trustees, -five of whom were distinguished foreigners. Among the -four English names are those of John <span class='sc'>Hampden</span> (‘twenty-fourth -hereditary lord of Great Hampden,’ and last lineal -male descendant of that famous stock) and William -<span class='sc'>Sotheby</span>.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Closing Years.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The declining years of a man to whom had been given, -not only unusual length of days, but an unusual span both -of bodily and of mental vigour, so that he remained in the -rank of busy men until he had passed his eightieth year, -were necessarily days of seclusion. He had enjoyed not -only the honours<a id='r52'></a><a href='#f52' class='c030'><sup>[52]</sup></a> and the comforts, but the troop of -friends which should accompany old age. Yet a man who -reaches the age of ninety-two must needs lose the friends -of his maturity, as well as the friends of his youth. Sir -Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, in the old Manor House of Chelsea, had -something of the experience which made a famous statesman -of our own day, who was loth to leave the stir of -London life, say—with a sigh—‘I see all the world passing -my windows, but few come in.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>His chief recreations, in those latest years, lay in the -continued examination of the stores of nature and of art -which never palled upon his capacity of enjoyment, and in -the regular weekly visit of a much younger man, who was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_301'>301</span>very conversant in the busy world without; who could talk, -and talk well, alike upon public events, upon the novelties -of science, and upon the gossip of the coffee-houses and the -clubs. This friend of old age was George <span class='sc'>Edwards</span>, a -naturalist of considerable acquirements, and the author of -some <i>Essays on Natural History</i> which are still worth -reading.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Sloane’s</span> mental vigour long outlived his power of bodily -locomotion. For years he could move from room to room, -or on very bright days from room to garden, only by the -aid of an invalid chair. In other respects, his health gave -a weighty sanction to the counsel which he had been wont -to give, not infrequently, in lieu of an invited but superfluous -prescription. ‘I advise you’ he would say, ‘to what -I practice myself. I never take physic when I am well. -When I am ill, I take little, and only such as has been very -well tried.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The end of a bright, abundant, and most useful life, came -at the beginning of the year 1753. On the tenth of January, -George <span class='sc'>Edwards</span> found him rapidly sinking, and suffering -greatly. On the eleventh he found him at the point of death. -‘I continued with him,’ he wrote, ‘later than any one of -his relatives. But I was obliged to retire—his last agonies -being beyond what I could bear; although, under his pain -and weakness of body, he seemed to retain a great firmness -of mind and resignation to the will of God.’ He was buried -at Chelsea, in the same vault in which, twenty-eight years -before, he had buried his wife.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Synoptical Tables of the Sloane Museum.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>This indefatigable collector had continued to enrich his -Museum with new accessions as long as he lived. We have -the means of estimating its growth—as regards mere numbers, -of course—by comparing a synoptical table drawn up -<span class='pageno' id='Page_302'>302</span>in 1725—for the purpose of showing to certain grumblers -what had been the nature and aim of those avocations which -had delayed the completion of the <i>Natural History of -Jamaica</i>—with another table drawn up by his Trustees immediately -after his death.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The comparison of numbers shows that the twenty thousand -two hundred and twenty-eight coins and medals of -1725 had grown, in 1752, to thirty-two thousand. Other -antiquities had increased from eight hundred and twenty-four -to two thousand six hundred and thirty-five. The -minerals and fossils had increased from about three thousand -to five thousand eight hundred and twenty-two specimens. -The botanical collection which, in 1725, had -numbered eight thousand two hundred and twenty-six -specimens, together with a <i>Hortus Siccus</i> of two hundred -volumes, had become in 1752 twelve thousand five hundred -specimens, with a <i>Hortus Siccus</i> of three hundred and thirty-four -volumes. The other natural history collections had -increased on the average by more than one half. The -details are as follows:—</p> - -<table class='table2'> - <tr><td class='c013' colspan='4'><span class='pageno' id='Page_303'>303</span></td></tr> - <tr> - <th class='btt blt c022'>Volumes in <b>1725</b>.</th> - <th class='btt c041'> </th> - <th class='btt c042'> </th> - <th class='btt brt c043'>Volumes in <b>1753</b>.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'> </td> - <td class='c041'> </td> - <td class='c042'> </td> - <td class='brt c044'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>2,686</td> - <td class='c041'>1.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Manuscripts</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>3,516</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>136</td> - <td class='c041'>2.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Drawings</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>347</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'> </td> - <td class='c041'>3.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Printed Books</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>about 40,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>200</td> - <td class='c041'>4.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Hortus Siccus</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>334</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'> </td> - <td class='c041'> </td> - <td class='c042'> </td> - <td class='brt c044'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <th class='blt c022'>Specimens in <b>1725</b>.</th> - <th class='c041'> </th> - <th class='c042'> </th> - <th class='brt c043'>Specimens in <b>1753</b>.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'> </td> - <td class='c041'> </td> - <td class='c042'> </td> - <td class='brt c044'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>20,228</td> - <td class='c041'>5.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Medals</span> and <span class='sc'>Coins</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>32,000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>302</td> - <td class='c041'>6.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Antiquities</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>1,125</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>81*</td> - <td class='c041'>7.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Seals</span>, &c.</td> - <td class='brt c044'>268</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>441*</td> - <td class='c041'>8.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Cameos</span> and <span class='sc'>Intaglios</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>about 700</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>1,394</td> - <td class='c041'>9.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Precious Stones</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>2,256</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'> </td> - <td class='c041'> </td> - <td class='c042'> </td> - <td class='brt c044'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>[*See under No. 8.]</td> - <td class='c041'>10.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Vessels of Agate</span>, <span class='sc'>Jasper</span>, &c.</td> - <td class='brt c044'>542</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>1,025</td> - <td class='c041'>11.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Crystals</span>, <span class='sc'>Spars</span>, &c.</td> - <td class='brt c044'>1,864</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>730</td> - <td class='c041'>12.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Fossils</span>, &c.</td> - <td class='brt c044'>1,275</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>1,394</td> - <td class='c041'>13.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Metals</span> and <span class='sc'>Mineral Ores</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>2,725</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>536</td> - <td class='c041'>14.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Earths</span>, <span class='sc'>Sands</span>, <span class='sc'>Salts</span>, &c.</td> - <td class='brt c044'>1,035</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>249</td> - <td class='c041'>15.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Bitumens</span>, <span class='sc'>Sulphurs</span>, &c.</td> - <td class='brt c044'>399</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>169</td> - <td class='c041'>16.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Talcs</span>, <span class='sc'>Micæ</span>, &c.</td> - <td class='brt c044'>388</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>3,753</td> - <td class='c041'>17.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Shells</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>5,843</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>804</td> - <td class='c041'>18.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Corals</span>, <span class='sc'>Sponges</span>, &c.</td> - <td class='brt c044'>1,421</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>486</td> - <td class='c041'>19.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Echini</span>, <span class='sc'>Echinites</span>, &c.</td> - <td class='brt c044'>659</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>183</td> - <td class='c041'>20.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Asteriæ</span>, <span class='sc'>Trochi</span>, &c.</td> - <td class='brt c044'>241</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>263</td> - <td class='c041'>21.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Crustacea</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>363</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'> </td> - <td class='c041'>22.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Stellæ Marinæ</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>173</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>1,007</td> - <td class='c041'>23.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Fishes</span>, and their parts</td> - <td class='brt c044'>1,555</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>753</td> - <td class='c041'>24.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Birds</span>, and their parts</td> - <td class='brt c044'>1,172</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>345</td> - <td class='c041'>25.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Vipers</span>, &c.</td> - <td class='brt c044'>521</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>1,194</td> - <td class='c041'>26.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Quadrupeds</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>1,886</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>3,824</td> - <td class='c041'>27.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Insects</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>5,439</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>507</td> - <td class='c041'>28.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Anatomical Preparations</span>, &c.</td> - <td class='brt c044'>756</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>8,226</td> - <td class='c041'>29.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Vegetables</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>12,506</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>1,169</td> - <td class='c041'>30.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Miscellaneous things</span></td> - <td class='brt c044'>2,098</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c041'>319</td> - <td class='c041'>31.</td> - <td class='c042'><span class='sc'>Pictures</span> and <span class='sc'>Drawings</span>, framed</td> - <td class='brt c044'>310</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='bbt blt c041'>54</td> - <td class='bbt c041'>32.</td> - <td class='bbt c042'><span class='sc'>Mathematical Instruments</span></td> - <td class='bbt brt c044'>55</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p class='c029'>On the 27th January—sixteen days after Sir Hans’ death—about -forty of the Trustees named in the Will met at -<span class='pageno' id='Page_304'>304</span>Chelsea, to confer with the Executors. Lord <span class='sc'>Cadogan</span> produced -the Will and its Codicils. By these, should the -bequest and its additions be accepted, the manor house and -land, together with the collection in its existing state -and arrangement, would be given to the Public. This, said -Lord <span class='sc'>Cadogan</span>, will save the hazard and expense of removal. -Mr. William <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> then informed the Trustees -that the Executors had thought it prudent temporarily to -remove the medals of gold and silver, the precious stones, -gems, and vases, to the Bank of England, in order to ensure -their present safety.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Earl of <span class='sc'>Macclesfield</span> was then placed in the chair. -A synopsis of the contents of the Museum was read by Mr. -James <span class='sc'>Empson</span>, who had acted as its curator for many years. -Mr. <span class='sc'>Empson</span> was appointed to act as Secretary to the -Trustees, and a form of Memorial to be addressed to the -King, in order to the carrying out of the trusts of the Will, -was agreed upon.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Memorial had—eventually—the desired effect. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Act for Establishing the British Museum.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It -led, in the course of the year 1753, to the passing of an Act of -Parliament—26 <span class='sc'>George II</span>, chapter 22—which is entitled -<i>An Act for the purchase of the</i> Museum or Collection of Sir -Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, <i>and of the</i> Harleian Collection of Manuscripts, -<i>and for providing one General Repository for the better -reception and more convenient use of the said Collections, -and of the</i> Cottonian Library, <i>and of the additions thereto</i>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Act recites the tenour of the testamentary dispositions -made by Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>. It also recites that a provisional -assent had been given by his Trustees to the removal of his -Museum from the Manor House of Chelsea ‘to any proper -place within the Cities of London and Westminster, or the -suburbs thereof, if such removal shall be judged most advantageous -to the Public.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_305'>305</span>The Act then proceeds to declare that, ‘Whereas, all arts -and sciences have a connexion with each other, and discoveries -in natural philosophy and other branches of speculative -knowledge,’ for the advancement whereof the Museum -was intended, may, in many instances, give help to useful -experiments and inventions, ‘therefore, to the end that the -said Museum may be preserved and maintained, not only -for the inspection and entertainment of the learned and the -curious, but for the general use and benefit of the Public,’ -it is enacted by Parliament that the sum of twenty thousand -pounds shall be paid to the Executors of Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, -in full satisfaction for his said Museum.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In this Statute, also, the preceding original Act for the -public establishment of the Cottonian Library (12th and -13th of <span class='sc'>William III</span>, c. 7), together with the subsequent -Act on that subject (5th <span class='sc'>Anne</span>, c. 30), are severally recited, -and it is declared as follows:—</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Further Provisions of the Act of Incorporation.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>First, ‘Although the public faith hath been thus engaged -to provide for the better reception and more convenient use -of the Cottonian Library, a proper repository for that purpose -hath not yet been prepared, for the want of which the -said Library did ... suffer by a fire;’</p> - -<p class='c029'>And secondly, ‘Arthur <span class='sc'>Edwards</span>, late of Saint George’s, -Hanover Square, in the county of Middlesex, Esquire, being -desirous to preserve for the public use the said Cottonian -Library, and to prevent the like accident for the future, -bequeathed the sum of seven thousand pounds’—after -the occurrence of a certain contingent event—for the purpose -either of erecting, ‘in a proper situation, such a house -as might be most likely to preserve that Library from all -accidents, or—in the event of the performance by the Public, -before the falling out of the contingency above mentioned, -of that duty to which it already stood pledged by Act of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_306'>306</span>Parliament, then—for the purpose of purchasing such manuscripts, -books of antiquities, ancient coins, medals, and -other curiosities, as might be worthy to increase the Cottonian -Library aforesaid;’ to which end the same public -benefactor further bequeathed his own library.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In order therefore to give due effect, at length, both to -the primary donation of Sir John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, and to the additional -benefaction made thereto by Major Arthur <span class='sc'>Edwards</span>, -Parliament now enacted that a general repository should -be provided for the several collections of <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, <span class='sc'>Edwards</span>, -and <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, and that Major <span class='sc'>Edwards’</span> legacy of money -should be paid to the Trustees created by the new Act, in -accordance with the provisions heretofore recited in Sir -Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane’s</span> codicil of 1749.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Services of Mr. Speaker Onslow in the formation of the British Museum.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>It is to the exertions, at this time, of Arthur <span class='sc'>Onslow</span>, -the then Speaker of the House of Commons, that historical -students owe their debt of gratitude for the preservation -of the Harleian Manuscripts from that dispersion,—abroad -as well as at home,—which befel the Harleian -printed books.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When the Memorial of <span class='sc'>Sloane’s</span> Trustees was first presented -to <span class='sc'>George the Second</span>, he received it with the -stolid indifference to all matters bearing upon science and -mental culture, which was as saliently characteristic of that -king as were his grosser vices. ‘I don’t think there are -twenty thousand pounds in the Treasury,’ was the remark -with which he dismissed the proposal. Money could be -found, indeed, for very foolish purposes, and for very base -ones. And the bareness of the Treasury was, very often, -the natural result of the profligacy of the Court. But, in -1753, it was a fact.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Save for Speaker <span class='sc'>Onslow’s</span> exertions, the Memorial would -have fared little better in Parliament than at Court. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_307'>307</span>then Premier, Henry <span class='sc'>Pelham</span>, was not unfriendly to the -scheme, nor was he, like his royal master, a man of sordid -nature; but a Minister who was every now and then obliged -to write to his ambassadors abroad, even in the crisis of -important negotiations, ‘I have ordered you a part of your -last year’s appointments, but we are so poor that I can do -no more,’ could hardly be eager to provide forty or fifty -thousand pounds for the purchase of a new Museum and -the safety of an old Library.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>1753. <i>Commons’ Journals</i>, March 19, seqq.</div> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Onslow</span> proposed—eventually—as a means of overcoming -these difficulties, that a sum of money should be -raised by a public lottery, and that it should be large -enough to effect not only the immediate objects contemplated -by the Will of Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, and by the prior -public establishment of Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> Library, but -to purchase for a like purpose the noble series of Manuscripts -which had passed (just eleven years before <span class='sc'>Sloane’s</span> -death) to the executors of the last Earl of <span class='sc'>Oxford</span>, in trust -for his widow, the Dowager Countess, and for his daughter, -the Duchess of <span class='sc'>Portland</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Edward, Earl of <span class='sc'>Oxford</span>, had stood at one period of his -life, in the rank of the wealthiest of Englishmen. He was -the owner of estates worth some four or five hundred thousand -pounds. He was, too, a man of highly intellectual -and studious tastes; but, in his case, a magnificent style of -living, great generosity, and excessive trust in dependants, -did what is more usually the work of huge folly or of -gross sins; they brought him into circumstances which, for -his position in life, might almost be called those of poverty. -But for this comparative impoverishment, his own act—it is -more than probable—would have secured to posterity the -enjoyment, in its entirety, of the splendid library he had -inherited and increased.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_308'>308</span>To the proposal of a lottery there was much solid objection. -What were then called ‘parliamentary lotteries’ had -been introduced expressly to put down those private lotteries, -common in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, -which had been fraught with mischief. It was hoped, or -pretended, that a ‘regulated’ evil would be reduced within -tolerable limits, whilst bringing grist to the national mill. -But the forty years that had passed since the first parliamentary -lottery of 1709 had shown that the system was -essentially and incurably mischievous. <span class='sc'>Pelham</span> was averse -to its continuance. As First Lord of the Treasury, it was -his poverty, not his will, that consented to the adoption of -so questionable an expedient for the purchase of the <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> -Collections. He had not, individually, any such love of -learning as might have induced an appeal to Parliament to -set, for once, an example of liberal and far-sighted legislation. -He merely stipulated that some stringent provisos -should be put into the Act, directed against the nefarious -practices of the lottery-jobbers.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Lottery of 1753 for the Purchase of the Sloane and Harleian Collections.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Eventually, it was enacted that there should be a hundred -thousand shares, at three pounds a share; that two hundred -thousand pounds should be allotted as prizes, and that the -remaining hundred thousand—less the expenses of the -lottery itself—should be applied to the threefold purposes -of the Act, namely, the purchase of the <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> and -<span class='sc'>Harleian</span> Collections; the providing of a Repository; -and the creation of an annual income for future maintenance.</p> - -<p class='c035'>By the precautionary clauses of the Bill, provision was -made for the prolonged sale of shares; for the prevention -of the purchase by any one adventurer of more than twenty -shares, or ‘tickets,’ and for other impediments, as it was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_309'>309</span>thought, to a fraudulent traffic in the combined covetousness -and ignorance of the unwary.</p> - -<p class='c029'>All these precautions proved to be vain. Mr. <span class='sc'>Pelham’s</span> -opposition was abundantly justified by the result. Fraud -proved to be, in that age, just as inseparable an element in -a Lottery scheme, however good its purpose, as fraud has -proved to be, in this age, an inseparable element (at one -stage or other of the business) in a Railway scheme,—however -useful the line proposed to be made.</p> - -<p class='c029'>It thus came to pass that the foundation of the <span class='sc'>British -Museum</span> gave rise to a great public scandal. When evidence -was produced that many families had been brought -to misery, as the first incident in the annals of a beneficent -and noble foundation, a somewhat dull Session of -Parliament was suddenly enlivened by an animated and -angry debate.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Prosecution of Leheup for his dealings with the Museum Lottery.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The provident clauses in the Lottery Act of 1753 were -made of no effect, mainly by entrusting the chief share in -working the Act to an accomplished jobber. One Peter -<span class='sc'>Leheup</span> was made a Commissioner of the Lottery. This -man had held some employment or other at Hanover, from -which he had been recalled with circumstances of disgrace. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1753. December.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It is to be inferred, from the way in which his name points -an epigrammatic phrase in one of the letters of <span class='sc'>Bolingbroke</span>,<a id='r53'></a><a href='#f53' class='c030'><sup>[53]</sup></a> -and in more than one of those of Horace <span class='sc'>Walpole</span>, -that it had come, long before this appointment took place, -to have a sort of proverbial currency, like the names of -‘<span class='sc'>Curll</span>’ or of ‘<span class='sc'>Chartres</span>.’ But, be that as it may, Mr. -Commissioner <span class='sc'>Leheup</span> set on foot as thriving and as -flagitious a traffic in <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> lottery tickets, as was ever -<span class='pageno' id='Page_310'>310</span>set on foot in railway shares by a clever promoter of our -own day. He wrote circular letters instructing his correspondents -how most effectually to evade the Act. He sold -nearly three hundred tickets to a single dealer by furnishing -him with a list of ‘Roes’ and ‘Does,’ ‘Gileses’ and -‘Stileses’ at discretion. He supplied himself, with equal -liberality; and contrived to close the subscription, after an -actual publicity of exactly six hours—for the issue of one -hundred thousand tickets. In a few days, of course, tickets -in abundance were to be had, at sixteen shillings premium -upon each, and in what looked to be a still rising market. -The trap proved to be brilliantly ‘successful.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The subsequent explosion of parliamentary anger was -rather increased than lessened by an attempt of Henry <span class='sc'>Fox</span> -(afterwards the first Lord Holland) to extenuate <span class='sc'>Leheup’s</span> -offence by some arguments of the ‘<i>Tu quoque</i>’ sort. By a -great majority, the House of Commons sent up an address -praying the King to direct his Attorney General to prosecute -the chief offender, who was accordingly convicted and -fined a thousand pounds. It is not uninstructive to note -that Horace <span class='sc'>Walpole</span>—himself one of the <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> Trustees—treats -the matter in one of his letters exactly in the offhand -man-of-the-world style in which Henry <span class='sc'>Fox</span> had treated -it in the House of Commons.<a id='r54'></a><a href='#f54' class='c030'><sup>[54]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c029'>By this unfortunate episode, the name of one of the best -of Englishmen was brought into a sort of momentary connection -with the name of one of the worst. But the chief -discredit of the story does not really rest upon <span class='sc'>Leheup</span>. A -private citizen, of moderate means, had been willing to expend -seventy or eighty thousand pounds—besides an inestimable -<span class='pageno' id='Page_311'>311</span>amount of labour and research—upon an object -essentially and largely public. Yet a British Parliament -could not summon up enough of public spirit to tax its own -members, in common with their tax-paying fellow subjects -throughout the realm, to the extent of a hundred thousand -pounds, in order to meet an obvious public want, to redeem -an actual parliamentary pledge, and to secure a conspicuous -national honour for all time to come. That want of public -spirit did not exhaust its results with the ruin of the poor -families, scattered here and there, whose scanty means had -been hazarded and lost by gambling, under a parliamentary -temptation. It impressed itself, so to speak, on the subsequent -history of the institution for more than forty years. -The Museum had been founded grudgingly. It was kept -up parsimoniously.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Had that fact been otherwise, the story of the knavery -of Peter <span class='sc'>Leheup</span> would have little merited recital a century -after it, and he, had passed into oblivion.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The value of so small an incident in the crowded story -of our National Museum lies simply in the fact that it forms -a just and salient illustration of the narrowness of spirit -with which the then representatives of the people received -the liberal gift of public benefactors. It serves to show -why it was that, from the year 1753 down to some years -after 1800, the History of the British Museum casts very -little honour on Britain as a nation, whereas the precedent -history of its integral parts, as separate and infant collections, -casts, and will long continue to cast, great honour on -the memory of the <span class='sc'>Cottons</span>, the <span class='sc'>Harleys</span>, and the <span class='sc'>Sloanes</span>, -by whom they were painfully gathered and most liberally -dispensed.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Happily, as the course of this narrative—whatever its -<span class='pageno' id='Page_312'>312</span>shortcomings—cannot fail to show, the literary and scientific -treasures which men of that stamp had collected, came, in -a subsequent generation (and, in a chief measure, by dint -of the exertions of the Trustees and Officers to whom they -had been, in course of time, confided) to be more adequately -estimated by Ministers and by Parliament in their public -capacity, as well as by the more cultivated portion of the -people generally. For more than a half-century past the -History of the British Museum has been one that any -Briton may take delight and pride in telling. And such -it promises to be, preeminently, in the time yet to come. In -a conspicuous sense, the men by whom it was first founded, -and the men by whom, for what is now a long time past, -it has been administered and governed, have alike been -true workers for Posterity.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_313'>313</span> - <div class='section'><h3 class='c001'>BOOK THE SECOND.<br /> <br /> <i>THE ORGANIZERS, AND EARLY AUGMENTORS.</i></h3></div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_314'>314</span> - <div class='section'><h4 class='c017'><i>CONTENTS OF BOOK II</i>:—</h4></div> -</div> - - <dl class='dl_2 c002'> - <dt><span class='sc'>Chapter</span> I.</dt> - <dd><span class='sc'>Introductory.—Early History of the British Museum.</span> - </dd> - <dt>II.</dt> - <dd><span class='sc'>A Group of Archæologists and Classical Explorers.</span> - </dd> - <dt>III.</dt> - <dd><span class='sc'>The Collectors of the Cracherode, Lansdowne, Burney, and Egerton - Libraries, and of the appendant Collections.</span> - </dd> - <dt>IV.</dt> - <dd><span class='sc'>The King’s Library—its Collector and its Donor.</span> - </dd> - <dt>V.</dt> - <dd><span class='sc'>The Founder of the Banksian Museum and Library.</span> - </dd> - </dl> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_315'>315</span>“The King made this Ordinance:—That there should -be a mission of three of the brethren of Solomon’s House, -whose errand was only to give us knowledge of the affairs -and state of those countries to which they were designed, -and especially of the Sciences ... and Inventions of all -the World; and withal to bring us books, instruments, -and patterns in every kind....</p> - -<p class='c029'>“We have also precious stones, of all kinds; many of -them of great beauty.... Also, store of fossils.... -But we do hate all impostures and lies, insomuch as we -have severally forbidden it to all our fellows, under pain of -ignominy or fines, that they do not show any natural work -or thing adorned or swelling, but only pure as it is, without -affectation of showing marvels....</p> - -<p class='c029'>“We have also those who take care to consider of the -former labours and Collections, and out of them to direct -new explorations ... more penetrating into Nature than -the former.... Upon every invention of value we erect -a statue to the inventor, and give him a liberal and honourable -reward.</p> - -<p class='c029'>“We have hymns and services, which we say daily, of -laud and thanks to <span class='sc'>God</span> for His marvellous works, and -forms of prayer imploring His blessing for the illumination -of our labours.”—<span class='sc'>Bacon</span>, ‘<i>New Atlantis, a Work unfinished</i>.’</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_317'>317</span> - <div class='section'><h4 class='c017'>CHAPTER I.<br /> <span class='large'>INTRODUCTORY.</span></h4></div> -</div> -<p class='c045'>‘A Museum of Nature does not aim, like one of Art, -merely to charm the eye and gratify the sense of beauty -and of grace.</p> - -<p class='c046'>‘As the purpose of a Museum of Natural History is to ... impart and diffuse that knowledge which begets -the right spirit in which all Nature should be viewed, -there ought to be no partiality for any particular class, -merely on account of the quality which catches and pleases -the passing gaze. Such a Museum should subserve the -instruction of a People; and should also afford objects of -study and comparison to professed Naturalists, so as to -serve as an instrument in the progress of Science.’—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-r c047'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Richard Owen</span>, <i>On a National Museum of Natural History</i>, pp. 10; 11; 115.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c038'><i>Househunting.—The Removal of the Sloane Museum from -Chelsea.—Montagu House, and its History.—The -Early Trustees and Officers.—The Museum Regulations.—Early -Helpers in the Foundation and Increase of -the British Museum.—Epochs in the Growth of the -Natural History Collections.—Experiences of Inquiring -Visitors in the years 1765–1784.</i></p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chap. 1 <span class='sc'>Early History of the British Museum.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The practical good sense which had always been a -marked characteristic in the life of Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> is -seen just as plainly in those clauses of his Will by which -he leaves much latitude, in respect of means and agencies, -to the discretion of his Executors and Trustees. It is seen, -for example, when, after reciting some views of his own as -to the methods by which his Museum should be maintained -<span class='pageno' id='Page_318'>318</span>for public use, he adds the proviso—‘in such manner as -they (the Trustees) shall think most likely to answer the -public benefit by me intended.’ He had a love for the -old Manor House at Chelsea, and contemplated, as it -seems, with some special complacency, the maintenance -there of the Collections which had added so largely to the -pleasures of his own fruitful life. But he was careful not -to tie down his Trustees to the continuance of the Museum -at Chelsea, as a condition of his bounty. They were at -liberty to assent to its removal, should the balance of -public advantage seem to them to point towards removal.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Chelsea was in that day a quiet suburban village, -distant from the heart of London. As the site of a -Museum it had many advantages, but it was, comparatively -and to the mass of visitors and students, a long way off. -The Trustees assented to a generally expressed opinion that -whilst the new institution ought not to be placed in any of -the highways of traffic, it ought to be nearer to them than -it would be, if continued in its then abode.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>Edmund, Duke of Buckingham, to Duke of Shrewsbury.</div> - -<p class='c029'>One of the first places offered for their choice was the old -Buckingham House (now the royal palace). It was already -a large and handsome structure. The charm of its position, -at that time, was not unduly boasted of in the golden -letters of the inscription conspicuous upon its entablature—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘<i>Sic siti lætantur lares.</i>’</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c034'>Its prospects, as described not very long before by the -late ducal owner, ‘presented to view at once a vast town, -a palace, and a cathedral, on one side; and, on the other -sides, two parks, and a great part of Surrey.’ Its fine -gardens ended in ‘a little wilderness, full of blackbirds -and nightingales.’ Yet it was close to the Court end of -the town. But the price was thirty thousand pounds.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_319'>319</span>Another offer was that of Montagu House at Bloomsbury. -Less charmingly placed, and architecturally less -striking in appearance than was its rival, both its situation -and its plan were better fitted for the purposes of a public -Museum. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Montagu House and its History.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It stood, it is true, on the extreme verge of the -London of that day. Northward, there was nothing -between it and the distant village of Highgate, save an -expanse of fields and hedgerows. And for a long distance, -both to the east and the west, no part of London had yet -spread beyond it, except an outlying hospital or two. But -there were already indications that the town would extend -in that northerly direction, more quickly than in almost -any other. The house had seven and-a-half acres of garden -and shrubberies; and its price was but ten thousand, two -hundred and fifty pounds.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Montagu House had been built about sixty years before -for Ralph <span class='sc'>Montagu</span>, first Duke of Montagu. A spacious -court separated the house from Great Russell Street, -towards which it presented to view only a screen of pannelled -brickwork, having a massive gateway and cupola in -the centre, and turreted wings, masking the domestic -offices, at either end. The house itself was rather stately -than beautiful, but its chief rooms and its grand staircase -were elaborately painted by the best French artists of the -day. And the appendant offices were more than usually -extensive.</p> - -<p class='c029'>It stood on the site of a structure of much greater architectural -pretensions, erected for the same owner, only -twelve years before, from the designs of Robert <span class='sc'>Hooke</span>. -That first Montagu House had been burned to the -ground.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The offer of Montagu House was accepted by the Trustees -and approved by the Government. It was found -<span class='pageno' id='Page_320'>320</span>needful to make considerable alterations in order to adapt -the building to its new uses. This outlay increased the -eventual cost of the mansion, and of its appliances and -fittings, to somewhat more than twenty-three thousand -pounds. The adaptation, with the removal and re-arrangement -of the Collections, occupied nearly five years. It was -not until the beginning of the year 1759 that the Museum -was opened for public inspection. When removed to -Bloomsbury, it was but brought back to within a few -hundred yards of its first abode.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Constitution of the Museum Trust.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>We have seen that according to the plan for the government -of the institution which <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> had sketched in his -Codicil of July, 1749, there would have been a Board of -Visitors as well as a Board of Trustees. But, by the -foundation Statute, enacted in 1753, both of these Boards -were incorporated into one. Forty-one Trustees were constituted, -with full powers of management and control. Six -of these were representatives of the several families of -<span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, <span class='sc'>Harley</span>, and <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, the head, or nearest in -lineal succession, of each family having the nomination, -from time to time, of such representatives or ‘Family -Trustees,’ when, by death or otherwise, vacancies should -occur. Twenty were ‘Official’ Trustees, in accordance, so -far, with <span class='sc'>Sloane’s</span> scheme for the constitution of his Board -of Visitors; and by these two classes, conjointly, the other -fifteen Trustees were to be elected.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Official Trustees were to be the holders for the time -being of the following offices:—(1) The Archbishop of -Canterbury, (2) the Lord Chancellor, (3) the Speaker of -the House of Commons, (4) the Lord President of the -Council, (5) the First Lord of the Treasury, (6) the Lord -Privy Seal, (7) the First Lord of the Admiralty, (8 and 9) -<span class='pageno' id='Page_321'>321</span>the Secretaries of State, (10) the Lord Steward, (11) the -Lord Chamberlain, (12) the Bishop of London, (13) the -Chancellor of the Exchequer, (14) the Lord Chief Justice -of England, (15) the Master of the Rolls, (16) the Lord -Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, (17) the Attorney-General, -(18) the Solicitor-General, (19) the President of -the Royal Society, (20) the President of the College of -Physicians.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>Act of 26 Geo. II, c. 22, Clauses 4–8.</div> - -<p class='c029'>To the first three of these Official Trustees Parliament -entrusted the appointment, from time to time, of all the -Officers of the Museum, except the Principal Librarian, -who is to be appointed by the Crown, on the nomination -of the ‘Principal Trustees,’ as the first three Trustees—the -Archbishop, Chancellor, and Speaker—have always been -called.</p> - -<p class='c035'>The following fifteen persons were the first <i>elected</i> -Trustees, under the Act of 1753:—The Duke of Argyle, the -Earl of Northumberland, Lord Willoughby of Parham, Lord -Charles Cavendish, the Honourable Philip Yorke, Sir George -Lyttelton, Sir John Evelyn, James West, Nicholas Hardinge, -William Sloane, William Sotheby, Charles Grey, the Reverend -Dr. Thomas Birch, James Ward, and William Watson. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Records of British Museum, in MS. <span class='sc'>Addit.</span>, 6179.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The first meeting of the Trustees under the Act was -held at the Cockpit, Whitehall, on the 17th of December, -1753.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The first ‘Principal Librarian’<a id='r55'></a><a href='#f55' class='c030'><sup>[55]</sup></a> was Dr. Gowin <span class='sc'>Knight</span>, -a member of the College of Physicians, and eminent, in his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_322'>322</span>day, as a cultivator of experimental science. Some magnetic -apparatus of his construction and gift was placed in -the Museum soon after its opening, and attracted, in its -day, much attention. He received the appointment after a -keen competition with the more widely-known physician -and botanist, Sir John <span class='sc'>Hill</span>. The first three ‘Keepers -of Departments’ were Dr. Matthew <span class='sc'>Maty</span>, Dr. Charles -<span class='sc'>Morton</span>, and Mr. James <span class='sc'>Empson</span>. Dr. <span class='sc'>Knight</span> retained -his post until 1772.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Maty</span> and <span class='sc'>Morton</span> succeeded in turn to the office of -Principal Librarian, and their respective services will have -a claim to notice hereafter. <span class='sc'>Empson</span> had been the valued -servant and friend of Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>. He is the only -officer whose name appears in <span class='sc'>Sloane’s</span> Will. He had -served him as Keeper of the Museum at Chelsea for many -years.</p> - -<p class='c035'>There is, in one of the letters of Horace <span class='sc'>Walpole</span> to -Sir Horace <span class='sc'>Mann</span>, an amusing account of an initiatory -meeting of the original Trustees, held prior to their formal -constitution by Parliament. It is marked by the writer’s -usual superciliousness towards all hobbies, except the dilettante -hobby which he himself was wont to ride so hard. -‘I employ my time chiefly, at present,’ he wrote to <span class='sc'>Mann</span>, -in February, 1753, ‘in the guardianship of embryos and -cockle shells. Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> valued his Museum at -eighty thousand pounds, and so would anybody who loves -hippopotamuses, sharks with one ear, and spiders as big as -geese.... We are a charming wise set—all Philosophers, -Botanists, Antiquarians, and Mathematicians—and adjourned -our first meeting because Lord <span class='sc'>Macclesfield</span>, our -Chairman, was engaged in a party for finding out the -Longitude.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_323'>323</span>‘One of our number,’ continues <span class='sc'>Walpole</span>, ‘is a Moravian, -who signs himself “Henry XXVIII, Count de -<span class='sc'>Reuss</span>.” The Moravians have settled a colony at Chelsea, -in Sir Hans’ neighbourhood, and I believe he intended to -beg Count Henry the Twenty-Eighth’s skeleton for his -Museum.’ This distinguished foreigner does not appear -in the parliamentary list.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Chairman of the preliminary meeting so airily -described by <span class='sc'>Walpole</span>, continued, under the definitive constitution -of the Trust, to take a leading part in its administration. -It appears to have been by Lord <span class='sc'>Macclesfield</span> -that the original ‘Statutes and Bye-laws’ of the Museum, -or many of them, were drafted.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Regulations for Admission and Study.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>In the form in which they were first issued, in 1759, -these statutes directed that the Museum should ‘be kept -open every day in the week, except Saturday and Sunday.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1759–1803.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -For the greater part of the year the public hours were from -nine o’clock in the morning until three o’clock in the afternoon. -On certain days, in the summer months, the open -hours were from four o’clock in the afternoon until eight—so -as to meet the requirements of persons actively engaged -in business during the early part of the day. But the publicity -was hampered by a system of admission-tickets which -had to be applied for on a day precedent to that of every -intended visit. The application had first to be made, then -registered; a second application had to follow, in order to -receive the ticket; and the ticket could rarely be used at -the time of receiving it. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. <span class='sc'>Addit.</span>, 6179, ff. 36, seqq.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -So that, in practice, each visit to -the Museum had commonly to be preceded by two visits to -the ‘Porter’s Lodge.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The visitors were admitted in parties, at the prescribed -hours, and were conducted through the Museum by its -officers according to a routine which, practically and usually, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_324'>324</span>allowed to each group of visitors only one hour for the inspection -of the whole. Special arrangements, however, -were made for those who resorted to the Museum for purposes -of study. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Statutes and Regulations</i>, part ii, § 3.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -To such, say the statutes, ‘a particular -room is allotted, in which they may read or write without -interruption during the time the Museum is kept open.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>MS. <span class='sc'>Addit.</span>, 6179, as above.</div> - -<p class='c029'>The aggregate number of persons admitted as visitors—exclusive -of students—was, for some years, restricted to -sixty persons, as a maximum, in any one day.</p> - -<p class='c035'>In order to give the reader a definite and clear idea of -what was seen, in 1759, by the earliest visitors to the -British Museum, in its rudimentary state, some sort of -ground plan is essential, but the merest outline will suffice -for the purpose.</p> - -<p class='c029'>There were at Montagu House two floors or stories of -state apartments. The upper floor was that which was -first shown, after the formation of the Museum.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The visitor, having ascended the superb staircase painted -by <span class='sc'>La Fosse</span>, passed through a vestibule and grand saloon -(<i>A</i> <i>B</i>) furnished with various antiquities, into the ‘Cottonian -Library’ (<i>C</i>), and thence into the ‘Harleian Library,’ -which occupied three rooms (<i>D</i>, <i>E</i>, and <i>F</i>). He then -entered the ‘Medal Room’—containing the coins and -medals of the <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> and <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> collections (<i>G</i>); the -‘<span class='sc'>Sloane</span> Manuscript Room’ (<i>H</i>); and the room containing -the chief part of the antiquities (<i>I</i>)—</p> - -<div class='figcenter id003'> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_325'>325</span> -<img src='images/i_325.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p><i>Rough Diagram, showing Principal Floor of the original British Museum of 1759.</i></p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c029'>Then the visitor, passing again through the vestibule -(<i>A</i>) and great saloon (<i>B</i>), entered the rooms <i>K</i>, <i>L</i>, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_326'>326</span><i>M</i>. <i>K</i> contained the minerals and fossils of Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane’s</span> -collection; <i>L</i>, the shells; <i>M</i>, the plants and insects. -Thence he passed into <i>N</i>, which was devoted to the bulk of -the <span class='sc'>Sloane</span> Zoological Collection, and into <i>O</i>, containing -artificial and miscellaneous curiosities.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Descending to the floor beneath, by the secondary staircase -between <i>N</i> and <i>O</i>, the visitor then entered the small -room <i>P</i>, which contained the magnetic apparatus given by -Dr. Gowin <span class='sc'>Knight</span>, and the rooms, <i>Q</i> and <i>R</i> devoted to -the reception of the greater part of the Royal Library, -restored by <span class='sc'>Henry</span>, Prince of Wales, and augmented—but -with extreme parsimony—by several of the Stuart -monarchs, whose additions to the shelves were, indeed, -much oftener made of books given, than of books bought. -He then passed into <span class='sc'>Sloane’s</span> Printed Library, which -occupied the whole of the spacious and handsome suite of -rooms <i>S</i>, <i>T</i>, <i>V</i>, <i>W</i>, <i>X</i>, and <i>Y</i>, and (passing through the -Trustees’ Room <i>Z</i>,) entered the room <i>A A</i>, containing the -<span class='sc'>Edwards</span> Library; ending his tour of inspection in the -room <i>B B</i>, in which was arranged the remainder of the -old Royal Library, the main portion whereof had been -seen already in <i>Q</i> and <i>R</i>.</p> - -<div class='figcenter id003'> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_327'>327</span> -<img src='images/i_327.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p><i>Rough Diagram, showing Ground Plan of the original British Museum of 1759.</i></p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c029'>When the combined Museum and Libraries, thus arranged, -were first opened to the inspection of the curious Public -<span class='pageno' id='Page_328'>328</span>in 1759, the collections enumerated in the Foundation Act -of 1753 had, it is seen, already received some notable -increase by gifts. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Early Helpers in the Foundation and Growth of the British Museum.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The first donor was the House of Lords, -by whose order the historical collections of Thomas <span class='sc'>Rymer</span>, -royal historiographer, and editor of the <i>Fœdera</i>, were given -to the Trustees, immediately after their incorporation. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1755–57.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Then -followed, in 1757, the gift of the Royal Library and that -of the Lethieullier Antiquities from Egypt. [See Chapter II.]</p> - -<p class='c029'>The next donor, in order of time, was a Jewish merchant, -and stock-broker, of humble origin, but of princely -disposition. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1759. <span class='sc'>Da Costa’s Hebrew Collection.—History of the Collector.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Solomon <span class='sc'>Da Costa</span> was one of the many men -who have done honour to commerce not merely by its successful -prosecution, but by the conspicuous union of mercantile -astuteness with noble tastes and true beneficence. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Correspondence of Thomas Hollis.</i><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -His talents for business enabled him to make a hundred -thousand pounds—which in his day was more, perhaps, -than the equivalent of four hundred thousand in ours. He -had made it, says a keen observer, who knew the man well, -‘without scandal or meanness.’ When wealth made him -independent, he spent his new leisure, not in luxury but -in hard labour for the poor.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Da Costa</span> had come, from Amsterdam, into England, in -the year 1704. His struggling Hebrew compatriots were -among the earliest sharers in his bounty. But his heart -was too large to suffer that bounty to be limited by considerations -either of race or of local neighbourhood. To -him, as to the Samaritan of old, distress made kinship. He -was wont to journey, from time to time, through thirty or -forty parishes of Surrey and of Kent, with the punctual -diligence of a commercial traveller, simply to succour the -distressed by that best of all succour, the provision of -means through which, in time, self-help would be developed -and ensured. Provident loans, clothing-funds, the education -<span class='pageno' id='Page_329'>329</span>and apprenticeship of necessitous children, were the -forms in which <span class='sc'>Da Costa’s</span> benevolence delighted to invest -not only his money, but his personal exertion and his -cordial sympathy. He devoted more than a thousand -pounds a year to the benefit of Christian Englishmen, -besides all that he gave to the poor of his own faith and -race. And to both he gave, without noise or ostentation.</p> - -<p class='c029'>He had, too, the breadth of view which enabled him to -put, on their true foot of equality, the claims of the necessitous -mind, as well as those of the necessitous body. -Unlike many other men of genuine beneficence, popular -estimates of giving did not mislead him into one-sidedness -of aim.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Within a few years of <span class='sc'>Da Costa’s</span> arrival in England, -probably about the year 1720, and when, with youthful -ardour, he was seeking to acquire knowledge as well as to -make money, he met, at a bookseller’s, with a remarkable -collection of Hebrew books, of choice editions and in rich -and uniform bindings. The collection had that sumptuousness -of aspect which invited inquiry into its origin. All -that he could learn on that score was the probability that -some statesman or other of the Commonwealth period, had -collected them for a public but unfulfilled purpose, and -that they had fallen—with so much other spoil—into the -hands of <span class='sc'>Charles the Second</span>. By that King’s order -they had received, if not their rich binding, at least his -crown and cypher as marks of the royal appropriation, and -then (in a truly Carolinian fashion) were left in the hands -of the King’s stationer for lack of payment of the charge -of what—whether binding or mere decoration—had been -done to the books by the royal command. <span class='sc'>Da Costa</span> -prized them as among his chief treasures, but directly he -heard of the foundation of a great repository of learning, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_330'>330</span>the emotions of the Jewish broker were such as might -have been felt by ‘broad-browed <span class='sc'>Verulam</span>,’ could he -have lived to see that day; save only that <span class='sc'>Bacon</span> would -first have scanned the evidence about the origin of the -institution, and would have discriminated the praise.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Da Costa</span> wrote a letter to the Trustees. The generous -heart is facile in ascribing generosity. ‘A most stately -monument’ said <span class='sc'>Da Costa</span>, ‘hath been lately erected and -endowed, by the wisdom and munificence of the British -Legislature,’ and he accompanied his eulogy with a prayer -that the Almighty would ‘render unto them a recompense, -according to the work of their hands.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Da Costa to the Trustees of the Brit. Museum, ‘5th of Sivan, 5519’ [1759]<span class='hidev'>|</span></span>. -He brought his -mite of contribution, he added, not only as proof of sympathy -with the work in progress, ‘but as a thanksgiving -offering, in part, for the generous protection and numberless -blessings which I have enjoyed under the British -Government.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The gift embraced several Biblical Manuscripts of value, -and a still choicer series of early printed books, one hundred -and eighty in number. The giver has a merited place -in the roll of our public benefactors; and his devout prayer -for the new Museum, ‘May it increase and multiply ... -to the benefit of the people of these nations and of the -whole earth,’ has had a more conspicuous fulfilment than -could, in 1759, have been imagined by the most sanguine -of bystanders.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Gift of the Thomason Collection of English Books of 1641–1662, by George III.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Three years afterwards, and soon after his accession to -the throne, King <span class='sc'>George the Third</span> gave to the Nation -that most curious assemblage of nearly the whole English -literature of two and twenty eventful years of Civil War,—open -or furtive,—which is known to the Public as the -‘Thomason Collection,’ though its technical name within -<span class='pageno' id='Page_331'>331</span>the Museum walls continues, as of old, to be ‘the King’s -Tracts.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>That name is the less appropriate from its tendency to -give an inaccurate idea of the contents of the King’s gift, -as well as from its disregard of the origin of the Collection. -The ‘tracts’ include the most ponderous theological quartos -that ever came from an English press as well as the tiniest -handbill, or the fugitive circular which called together a -‘Committee of Sequestrators’ at Wallingford House.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>George Thomason and his labours.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>George <span class='sc'>Thomason</span>, its collector, was an eminent London -bookseller, of royalist sympathies, who watched intensely -the progress of the great struggle between King and Parliament, -Cavalier and Roundhead, and who had noted with -professional keenness how strikingly the printing press was -made to mirror, almost from day to day, the strife of -senators in council, as well as that of soldiers in the -field. He had seized, in 1641, the idea of helping -posterity the better to realize every phase of the great -conflict, the oncoming of which many men had long -foreseen, by gathering everything which came out in -print—as far as vigilant industry could do so—whether -belonging to literature, and to the obvious materials of -history, or merely subserving the most trivial need of the -passing moment. He failed, of course, to secure everything; -but his endeavour was wonderfully successful, on the -whole. He also gathered many manuscripts which no printer -in England dared to put into type. And he obtained a -large number of political and historical pieces, bearing on -English affairs, which had issued from foreign presses; -their authors being sometimes foreign observers of the -struggle, but more frequently British refugees.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Charles the First</span> congratulated <span class='sc'>Thomason</span> on the -utility of his idea. More than once the King was able to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_332'>332</span>gratify his curiosity by borrowing some tract or other which -only our collector was known to possess. The Parliament, -meanwhile, was far from exhibiting any literary sympathies -in the undertaking. Some of its leaders loved freedom of -the press when it was seen to be a channel for urging forward -their peculiar doctrines and aims, but had the gravest -doubts about its policy when it manifestly helped their -opponents and gave back blow for blow. The ‘Thomason -Collection’ came to be viewed, at length, much in the light -in which soldiers view an enemy’s battery. If it could be -captured and carried off, some of the pieces might be -turned against the enemy. If the attempt at complete -capture should miscarry, a sudden sally might at least -enable the assailants to destroy what they had failed to -secure.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Hence it was that the poor Collector came to be in such -alarm about the possible fate of his treasures that he had -them repeatedly packed into cases, and, as the successes of -the war veered to and fro, sent them, at one time, far to the -south of London; at another time, as far to the east; now, -smuggled them, concealed between the real and false tops -of tables, into a city warehouse; and anon made a colourable -sale of them to the University of Oxford.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When the King enjoyed his own again, the Collection -was offered, as fit to be made a royal one. It contained -more than thirty-three thousand separate publications—bound -in about 2,200 volumes—issued between 1640 and -1662 inclusive. But <span class='sc'>Charles the Second</span> was busied -with pursuits having little to do with any kind of learning, -and was ill inclined, as we have seen already, to burden his -Treasury for the enrichment of his Library. Sir Thomas -<span class='sc'>Bodley’s</span> Trustees at Oxford refused the offer, in their -turn, under a very different but scarcely less obstructive -<span class='pageno' id='Page_333'>333</span>pressure. Their excellent founder had formed peculiar -and stringent views about the literature worthy of a great -University. He had warned them against stuffing his -library with ‘mere baggage books.’ And so future -Bodleian curators had, in another age, to buy with large -bank notes many things which their predecessors could -have bought with small silver coins;—just as in the -ancient story.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The unfortunate Collection went a-begging. The books -passed from hand to hand, somewhat, it would seem, by -way of pledge or mortgage. They had cost a large sum -of money, and a larger amount of toil. When his expectations -were at their best the first owner, it is said, refused -several thousands of pounds for them. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Acquirement of the Thomason Collection by George III.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -His ultimate successors -in the possession were glad, in 1762, to accept, at -the hands of King <span class='sc'>George the Third</span>, three hundred -pounds. The purchase was recommended to him by Thomas -<span class='sc'>Hollis</span>, and also by Lord <span class='sc'>Bute</span>, as a serviceable addition -to the newly founded Museum. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1762.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -As all readers now know, -it has largely subserved our history already. It is not less -certain that the ‘Thomason Collection’ embodies a store of -information yet unused.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Brander Fossils.</span></div> - -<div class='sidenote'>1766.</div> - -<p class='c029'>The next augmentor of the Museum was one of its -Trustees, Gustavus <span class='sc'>Brander</span>, distinguished as a promoter -of natural science, and more especially of mineralogy and -palæontology in the early stages of their study in England. -A remarkable collection of fossils found in Hampshire, in -the London Clay, was given by Mr. <span class='sc'>Brander</span> to the Public, -after having been, at his cost, carefully examined and -described by Dr. <span class='sc'>Solander</span>. It was the first notable contribution -to the grand series of specimens in palæontology -which, in their combination, have made the British Museum -<span class='pageno' id='Page_334'>334</span>the most important of all repositories in that department of -science.</p> - -<p class='c029'>To the Zoological Collections, the additions made, -whether by gift or by purchase—save as the result, more -or less direct, of ‘Voyages of Discovery,’ which will be -noticed presently—were for many years very unimportant. -The first purchase worthy of record was a collection of -stuffed birds, formed in Holland, and acquired, in 1769, -for four hundred and sixty pounds. This purchase was -made by the Trust.</p> - -<p class='c035'>The reign of <span class='sc'>George the Third</span> is marked by very few -characteristics which are more honourable, both to King -and people, than is its long series of expeditions to remote -countries made expressly, or mainly, for purposes of geographical -and scientific discovery, and extending over almost -the whole of the reign.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Accessions accruing from Voyages of Discovery.</span> 1760–1820.</div> - -<p class='c029'>Scarcely one voyage of the long series failed to bring, -directly or indirectly, some valuable accession or other to -the Collection of Natural History. Sometimes such accessions -came to the Museum as the gifts of the navigators -and explorers themselves. In this class of donors the name -of Captain James <span class='sc'>Cook</span>,<a id='r56'></a><a href='#f56' class='c030'><sup>[56]</sup></a> and that of Archibald <span class='sc'>Menzies</span>, -occur both early and frequently. Sometimes they came as -the gifts of the Board of Admiralty. Sometimes, again,—and -not infrequently—as those of the King, who, in his best -days, took a keen interest in enterprise of this kind, and -delighted in talking with the captains of the discovery ships -about their adventures, and about the marvels of the far-off -lands they had been among the first to see. Nor did the -King stand alone in his active encouragement of remote explorations. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_335'>335</span>Many of the great and wealthy nobles gave -generous furtherance to them, and were equally ready to -make available for scientific study the new specimens which -the ships brought home. In this way, for example, the -Marquess of <span class='sc'>Rockingham</span> gave to the Museum a curious -collection of reptiles gathered in Surinam.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In the same manner was furnished that minor, but very -popular and instructive, collection illustrating the rude arts -and modes of life of the newly explored countries, which -some yet among us can remember as occupying the ‘South -Sea Room’ of the old house. In the course of years it -came to be eclipsed by much better collections of the same -kind elsewhere, and so to wear a meagre and somewhat -obsolete aspect. But it had rendered good service in its day, -and was the germ of what will become, it may be hoped, in -due time, an ethnological collection worthy of a seafaring -people.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Epochs in the Growth of the Natural History Collections.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>As regards the Natural History Collections, the growth -of the Museum may be said to have been mainly dependent -on the Voyages of Discovery for more than forty years. -That source of improvement seems to mark, distinctively, -the first epoch in the history of those collections. Then -came a second epoch, marked by some approach to systematic -improvement, in all branches, by means of the purchase -of entire private collections as opportunity offered. -A third period may be dated from the acquisition of the -botanical and other gatherings of Sir Joseph <span class='sc'>Banks</span> in 1827. -Sir Joseph’s splendid gift was soon followed by so many -other gifts—sometimes as donations, more frequently as -bequests—that for many years the liberality of benefactors -quite eclipsed the liberality of Parliament. Only of late years -can it be said that the public support of the Natural History -Collections has been worthy, either of the Nation or of their -<span class='pageno' id='Page_336'>336</span>own intrinsic importance to it. By degrees, statesmen have -become convinced that such collections are much more than -the implements of a knot of professed naturalists, and the -toys of the public at large. Slowly, but surely, the economic -and commercial value of a great museum of natural -history, as well as its educational value, have come saliently -into view. And a wise enlargement of the contributions -from national funds has had the excellent result of stimulating, -instead of checking, the benefactions of individuals.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Some of the particular steps by which so conspicuous an -improvement has been gradually brought about will claim -our notice hereafter, in their due order.</p> - -<p class='c035'>If, for a long series of years, the degree of liberality -with which these varied collections were shown to the Public -at large scarcely accorded, either with their origin, or with -the purpose for which they had been avowedly combined, -it should be borne in mind that ‘the Public’ of 1759 was -a very different body from the Public of a century later. It -is only by degrees that indiscriminate admission to museums -has come to be either very useful or quite feasible. There -was a good deal of warrant in 1759 for the opinion recorded -by one of the Trustees when the Rules were first under -discussion. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. <span class='sc'>Addit.</span>, 6179, f. 61.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -‘A general liberty,’ said Dr. John <span class='sc'>Ward</span>, -the eminent Gresham Professor, ‘to ordinary people of all -ranks and denominations, is not to be kept within bounds. -Many irregularities will be committed that cannot be prevented -by a few librarians who will soon be insulted by -such people [as commit abuses], if they offer to control or -contradict them.’ But, after all, the inadequate strength -of the staff was the main cause of such of the restrictions as -were chiefly complained of.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_337'>337</span>The original regulations, with but small change, remained -in force for about forty-five years. How they -worked will be best and most briefly shown by citing the -experiences of two or three notable visitors, at various -periods, during the last century.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Grosley’s Account of the Museum in 1765.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>In 1765, Peter John <span class='sc'>Grosley</span>, an accomplished and keen-eyed -Frenchman, familiar with the Museums of Italy as well -as with those of his own country, visited the new Museum, -and recorded his impressions of it. With the building he -was charmed. He had already seen many parts of England, -but nowhere any house that he thought worthy to be -compared with Montagu House. He calls it ‘the largest, -the most stately, the best arranged, and most richly decorated’ -structure of its kind in all England. He made repeated -visits. What chiefly arrested his attention in the -Natural History rooms were the beauty of the papillonacea—comprising, -he thought, ‘all that either the old world -or the new can supply in this kind’—and the strangeness of -some mineral specimens brought from the Giant’s Causeway -in Ireland. The Printed Books he thought to be ‘the -weakest part of this vast collection.’ In one of the principal -rooms, ‘I saw,’ he continues, ‘not without astonishment, -a very fine bust of Oliver <span class='sc'>Cromwell</span>, occupying a -distinguished place!’ He praises the courtesy with which -Drs. <span class='sc'>Maty</span> and <span class='sc'>Morton</span> discharged, by turns, the duty of -exhibition. ‘They show,’ he says, ‘the most obliging -readiness to explain things to the visitor, but,’ he adds, -with obvious truth, ‘their very courtesy is wont to make -a stranger content himself with hasty and unsatisfactory -glances, that he may not trespass on their politeness.’ And -then he makes a wise practical suggestion, which was -carried into effect, almost half a century afterwards.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘In order really to carry out the intentions of Parliament,’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_338'>338</span>writes <span class='sc'>Grosley</span>, in 1765, ‘it is to be wished that the -Public should be admitted more liberally, and more easily, -by placing a warder in every room, to be continually -present during the public hours.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Ten years afterwards, the difficulty on this score had so -increased that a notification to the following effect was -circulated: ‘British Museum, 9th August, 1776. -The -Applicants of the middle of April are not yet satisfied. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. <span class='sc'>Addit.</span>, 10,555, fol. 14.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Persons applying are requested to send weekly to the -porter to know how near they are upon the List.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Visit of C. P. Moritz in 1782.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>In 1782, the plan had so far improved that instead of -waiting from April until August, a visitor could usually -get admission within a fortnight or so after applying for a -ticket. We have an intelligent and amusing account of a -visit then made. This time the narrator is a German,—Charles -<span class='sc'>Moritz</span>, of Berlin. ‘In general,’ writes <span class='sc'>Moritz</span>, -‘you must give in your name a fortnight before you can be -admitted. But, by the kindness of Mr. <span class='sc'>Woide</span>’—a countryman -of the traveller, and, at that time, an Assistant-Librarian -in the Museum,—‘I got admission earlier.... -Yet, after all, I am sorry to say that it was the room, -the glass-cases, the shelves, ... which I saw; not the -Museum itself, so rapidly were we hurried on through the -departments. The company who saw it when I did, and -in like manner, was variously composed. They were of all -sorts, and some, as I believe, of the very lowest classes of -the people of both sexes, for, as it is, the property of the -Nation, every one has the same ‘right’—I use the term of -the country—to see it that another has. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Wendeborn’s Account of the Museum.</span> 1780–90.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -I had Mr. <span class='sc'>Wendeborn’s</span> -book in my pocket, and it, at least, enabled me -to take more particular notice of some of the principal -things.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The book thus referred to by <span class='sc'>Moritz</span> is the German -<span class='pageno' id='Page_339'>339</span>original of that account of English society and institutions -which <span class='sc'>Wendeborn</span> himself translated, a few years afterwards, -into English, and published at London, under the -title of <i>A View of England</i>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Its author had settled in London as the Minister of a -German Congregation. He was himself a studious frequenter -of the Museum, and says of it: ‘The whole is -costly, worth seeing, and honourable to the Nation; when -taken altogether it has not its equal. When considered in -its separate branches, almost each of them singly may be -surpassed by some other collection even in England itself.’ -But the only collection which he specifies as, in this sense, -superior, are the Hunterian Museum, and that which had -been formed by Sir Ashton <span class='sc'>Lever</span>, and which, when the -<i>View of England</i> was written, belonged to Mr. <span class='sc'>Parkinson</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Wendeborn, <i>A View of England</i>, vol. i, 323–325.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Of the Museum Library, <span class='sc'>Wendeborn</span> says, ‘though a -numerous and valuable collection, it is yet, in many respects, -very deficient, and as to its use, much circumscribed.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>When the German visitor of 1782 pulled Mr. <span class='sc'>Wendeborn’s</span> -book from his pocket, as he was hurried -through the Museum, the action attracted the attention -of the other visitors. The more intelligent of them -pressed round him to see if the book could be made -to yield any information for their behoof also. And the -stranger gratified their curiosity by translating a passage -or two in explanation of the objects they were passing. -Then came an exquisite bit of sub-officialism.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘The gentleman who conducted us’ observes <span class='sc'>Moritz</span>, -‘took little pains to conceal the contempt which he felt for -my communications when he found it was only a German -description of the British Museum which I had.’ ‘So rapid -a passage,’ he continues, ‘through a vast suite of rooms, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_340'>340</span>in little more than one hour of time, with opportunity to -cast but one poor longing look of astonishment on -all the vast treasures of nature, antiquity, and literature, -in the examination of which one might profitably -spend years, confuses, stuns, and overpowers the -visitor.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Two years later, we have a similar account of the experiences -of an inquisitive Englishman, and of one who is -much more outspoken in his complaint. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>William Hutton’s Visit in 1784.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -William <span class='sc'>Hutton</span>, -the historian of Birmingham, came to London in December, -1784. ‘I was unwilling to quit it,’ he writes, ‘without -seeing what I had, many years, wished to see. But how -to accomplish it was the question. I had not one relative -in that vast metropolis to direct me.... By good -fortune, I stumbled upon a person possessing a ticket for -the next day, which he valued less than two shillings. We -struck a bargain in a moment and were both pleased.... -I was not likely to forget Tuesday, December 7th, at eleven.’ -<span class='sc'>Hutton</span>, shrewd as he was, did not suspect the real nature -of his ‘bargain.’ He had met with a professional dealer in -Museum tickets; one of several who, on a humbler -scale, followed in the steps of Peter <span class='sc'>Leheup</span>, but were -lucky enough not to excite the anger of the House of -Commons.</p> - -<p class='c029'>He was taken through the rooms in company with -about ten other persons, at a very rapid rate. He asked -their conductor for some information about the curiosities. -The reply, he says, so humbled him that he could not utter -another word. ‘The company seemed influenced. They -made haste and were silent. No voice was heard but in -whispers. If a man spends two minutes in a room, in -which a thousand things demand his attention, he cannot -bestow on them a glance apiece.... It grieved me to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_341'>341</span>think how much I lost for want of a little information. In -about thirty minutes we finished our silent journey through -the princely mansion, which would well have taken thirty -days.... I had laid more stress on the British Museum, -than on anything else which I should see in London. -It was the only sight which disgusted me.... -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Hutton, <i>A Journey to London</i>, pp. 187–196.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Government -purchased this rare collection at a vast expense, and -exhibits it as a national honour.... How far it answers -the end proposed this account will testify.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Better days were at hand. But it was not until 1805 -that the rules of admission were even so far effectively -revised as to abolish the traffic in tickets. Nor was any -‘Synopsis’ of the contents of the Museum provided until -1808. In that year admission tickets were abolished -wholly.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Straitened means of maintenance have, at all times, had -far more to do with any inadequate provision for public -usefulness of which (in days long past) there may have been -well-grounded cause of complaint, than had neglect or -oversight on the part of any officer.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The officers, too, were, for a very long period after -the establishment of the Museum, engaged, and remunerated, -only for an attendance, in rotation, for two -hours daily, on alternate days. A largely increased -provision by Parliament was the essential condition -of any large increase in the accessibility of the institution.</p> - -<p class='c029'>As early as in 1776 the necessary expenditure in salaries -and wages alone (at a very low scale of payment), exceeded -the annual income (£900) accruing from the original endowment -fund. After Parliament had made an additional -provision—first introduced in a clause of what was then -<span class='pageno' id='Page_342'>342</span>called a ‘hotch-potch Act’—averaging £1000 yearly, the -total annual income was still but £2448, including the -yearly three hundred pounds accruing from the ‘<span class='sc'>Edwards</span> -Fund,’ and the £248, paid, under the grant of <span class='sc'>George -the Second</span>, as the net yearly salary of the ‘King’s -Librarian.’ For a considerable period, the sums expended -in purchases—for all the departments collectively—had -not amounted, in any one year, to one hundred -pounds.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Career of Dr. Matthew Maty.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>On the decease of the first Principal Librarian, Dr. -Gowin <span class='sc'>Knight</span>, in 1772, Dr. Matthew <span class='sc'>Maty</span> was appointed -to that office. He was born at, or in the neighbourhood -of Utrecht, in 1718, and was educated in the University -of Leyden, where he took his degrees in 1740, the subject -of his inaugural dissertation, for that of M.A. and Doctor -of Philosophy, being ‘custom,’ and its wide results and influence -social and political. His essay was published (under -the title <i>Dissertatio philosophica inauguralis de Usu</i>,) in -1740. For the degree of Doctor in Medicine, he treated of -the effects of habit and custom upon the human frame (<i>De -Consuetudinis efficacia in corpus humanum</i>). This medical -dissertation was also published at Leyden, in the usual form, -in the same year. Both essays showed much ability, along -with many faults and crudities. Some of these became -matters of conversation and correspondence between the -author and his friends. The subject was less hacknied -than that of the majority of academical essays, and <span class='sc'>Maty</span> -was induced to reconsider it. He republished the result -of his thoughts, in a greatly improved form, in the following -year at Utrecht, and, to gain a wider audience, wrote in -French. The <i>Essai sur l’Usage</i> attracted much attention, -and served to pave the way for the establishment by its -<span class='pageno' id='Page_343'>343</span>author, eight years afterwards, of the periodical entitled, -<i>Journal Britannique</i>, as editor of which he is now best -remembered. He came to England in 1741, practised as -a physician, attained considerable reputation, and distinguished -himself more especially by following in the path -of Sir Hans <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, and others, as an earnest supporter -of the practice of inoculation. In this field he was able -to render good service, both by his professional influence -and by his pen. In the sharp controversies which soon, -and for a time, impeded the new practice, he took a large -share, and his publications on the subject are distinguished -from many others by their union of moderation of tone -with vigour of advocacy.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Maty’s</span> predilections, however, pointed to a literary rather -than to a medical career. He had early taken that ply, -and it was not easily effaced. Within six years (1750–1756) -he published eighteen volumes of the <i>Journal Britannique</i>—edited -in London but printed at the Hague—in -the toils of which he was, according to <span class='sc'>Gibbon</span>, almost -unaided. <span class='sc'>Gibbon</span>, too, bears testimony to the amiability -of the man, as well as to the industry of the writer. His -own first and youthful achievement in literature had <span class='sc'>Maty’s</span> -encouragement and active aid. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Memoirs of Gibbon</i>, p. 107.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When the <i>Essai sur -l’Etude de la Littérature</i> was, after much filing and polishing, -given to the Public, a preliminary letter from <span class='sc'>Maty’s</span> pen -accompanied it, and by him the essay was carried through -the press.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When he succeeded Dr. Gowin <span class='sc'>Knight</span>, as Principal -Librarian in 1772, his health was already failing. He -occupied the post during less than four years. To the -last, his pen was busily employed. He was a contributor -to several foreign journals, as well as to the <i>Philosophical -Transactions</i>, some volumes of which he edited, or assisted -<span class='pageno' id='Page_344'>344</span>to edit, in his capacity as one of the Secretaries of the -Royal Society, to which office he had been appointed in -1765. Among his minor literary publications are a life of -<span class='sc'>Boerhaave</span>, in French, and one of Dr. Richard <span class='sc'>Mead</span>, in -English. At the time of his death he was working on the -<i>Life of Lord Chesterfield</i>, afterwards prefixed to the collective -edition of the Earl’s <i>Miscellaneous Works</i>. Dr. <span class='sc'>Maty</span> died -in 1776, and was succeeded in his Librarianship by his -colleague, Dr. Charles <span class='sc'>Morton</span>, who had had, from the -beginning, the charge of the department of Manuscripts, -and had also acted as Secretary to the Trustees.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Notice of Dr. Charles Morton, Third Principal Librarian.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Dr. <span class='sc'>Morton</span> was a native of Westmoreland, and was -born in 1716. Until the year 1750 he had practised as a -physician at Kendal. In 1751 he became a Licentiate of -the College of Physicians, and in the following year a -Fellow of the Royal Society. His service in the British -Museum lasted from 1756 to 1799. There are several testimonies -to the courtesy with which he treated such visitors -and students as came under his personal notice, but his -long term of superior office was certainly not marked by -any striking improvement in the public economy of the -Museum. And how much room for improvement existed -there the reader has seen. Dr. <span class='sc'>Morton</span>, like his predecessor, -was one of the Secretaries of the Royal Society. -He filled that office from the year 1760 to 1774. He -contributed several papers to the <i>Philosophical Transactions</i>, -as well on antiquarian subjects as on topics of -physical science, and he was the first editor of Bulstrode -<span class='sc'>Whitelocke’s</span> remarkable narrative of his embassy to -Sweden during the Protectorate. <span class='sc'>Morton’s</span> writings are -not remarkable either for vigour or for originality, but, on -more topics than one, they had the useful result of setting -abler men awork. He was three times married: (1) to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_345'>345</span>Mary <span class='sc'>Berkeley</span>, the niece of <span class='sc'>Swift’s</span> frequent correspondent -Lady Elizabeth <span class='sc'>Germaine</span>; (2) to Lady <span class='sc'>Savile</span>; -(3) to Mrs. Elizabeth <span class='sc'>Pratt</span>. He died on the 10th February, -1799.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Of his successors in the office of Principal Librarian -some account will be found in the Introductory Chapter of -Book III.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_346'>346</span> - <div class='section'><h4 class='c017'>CHAPTER II.<br /> <span class='large'>A GROUP OF CLASSICAL ARCHÆOLOGISTS AND EXPLORERS.</span></h4></div> -</div> -<p class='c045'>‘The Archæologist cannot, like the Scholar, carry on his -researches in his own Library, independent of outward -circumstances. For <i>his</i> work of reference and collation -he must travel, excavate, collect, arrange, delineate, -transcribe, before he can place his whole subject before -his mind....</p> - -<p class='c046'>‘A Museum of Antiquities is to the Archæologist what -a Botanic Garden is to the Botanist. It presents his subject -compendiously, synoptically, suggestively, not in the -desultory and accidental order in which he would otherwise -be brought into contact with its details.’—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-r c047'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>C. T. Newton</span>, <i>On the Study of Archæology</i>, p. 26.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c038'><i>Sir William</i> <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> <i>and his Pursuits and Employments -in Italy.—The Acquisitions of the French Institute of -Egypt, and the capture of part of them at Alexandria.—Charles</i> -<span class='sc'>Towneley</span> <i>and his Collection of Antiquities.—The -Researches of the Earl of</i> <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> <i>in Greece.—The -Collections and Writings of Richard</i> <span class='sc'>Payne -Knight</span>.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Book II</span>, Chap. II. <span class='sc'>Classical Archæologists and Explorers.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>To the comparatively small assemblage of antiquities -which originally formed part of the Museum of <span class='sc'>Courten</span> -and of <span class='sc'>Sloane</span>, several additions had been made—besides -the coins, medals, and bronzes of Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>—prior -to the opening of the British Museum to the Public in -1759. Some of those additions were the gift, severally, of -three members of the <span class='sc'>Lethieullier</span> family. Others were -<span class='pageno' id='Page_347'>347</span>the gift of Thomas <span class='sc'>Hollis</span>, who became a constant benefactor -to the Museum almost from the day of Sir Hans -<span class='sc'>Sloane’s</span> death to that of his own.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The <span class='sc'>Lethieullier</span> antiquities had been chiefly gathered -in Egypt. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Egyptian Antiquities of the Lethieulliers.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The first gift was made by the Will of Colonel -William <span class='sc'>Lethieullier</span>, dated 23rd July, 1755. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>MS. <span class='sc'>Addit.</span>, -6179, f. 29.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And -the first catalogue of any kind which was prepared for the -British Museum, after its acquisition by Parliament, was a -list of these antiquities drawn up by Dr. John <span class='sc'>Ward</span>, one -of the Trustees. And here it may deserve remark that for -many years after the foundation not a few of the Trustees -took a large share in the actual work of preparing the -Museum for public use, as well as in the ordinary duties of -control and administration.</p> - -<p class='c029'>To the gift of Colonel William <span class='sc'>Lethieullier</span>, his cousin, -Smart <span class='sc'>Lethieullier</span>, and his nephew, Pitt <span class='sc'>Lethieullier</span>, -made several additions between the years 1756 and 1770. -The last-named of these gentlemen, when receiving, as executor -of his uncle, the personal thanks of a Committee of the -Trustees (February, 1756), for the bequest so made, took -the opportunity of augmenting it by the gift of some -antiquities which he had himself collected during his -residence at Grand Cairo.</p> - -<p class='c029'>But the first large and comprehensive addition in the -archæological department was that made in 1772 by the -purchase, by means of a Parliamentary grant, of the Museum -of Antiquities, which had been formed during seven years’ -researches in Italy by Sir William <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span>, our Ambassador -at Naples.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Sir William Hamilton and his career at Naples.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Sir William <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> was among the earliest of British -diplomatists who, by a voluntary choice, turned to good -account, in the interests of learning and of the public, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_348'>348</span>opportunities which diplomatic life so frequently offers for -amassing treasures of literature and science, and (in many -cases) for saving them from peril of destruction. In that -path Frenchmen had showed the way many generations -earlier.</p> - -<p class='c029'>As far, indeed, as regards a public and national care for -matters of the intellect, France is far better entitled to claim -a priority in the proud distinction of ‘teaching the nations -how to live,’ than is any other country in the world. It is -to her immortal honour that from a very early period, and -even in times of sore trouble, her sovereigns and her statesmen -have known how to turn public resources to the -promotion of public culture, as well as of national power. -A man may read in French diplomatic letters of instruction -of the sixteenth century orders to collect manuscripts and -antiquities, as implements of public education, such as he -would look for in vain in parallel British documents of any -century at all,—inclusive of the present;—although it is -certain that the omission has by no means arisen from -the engrossment of our diplomatists in weightier concerns.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In Sir William <span class='sc'>Hamilton’s</span> case the liberal tastes and -the mental energy of the individual supplied the defect of -his instructions. He set an example which not a few of our -ambassadors have voluntarily followed with like public -spirit, and with results not less conspicuous.</p> - -<p class='c035'>William <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> was the fourth son of Lord Archibald -<span class='sc'>Hamilton</span>, youngest son of James, third Duke of <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span>, -K.G. His mother, Lady Jane <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span>, was of -that illustrious family by birth, as well as by marriage, -being the daughter of James, sixth Earl of <span class='sc'>Abercorn</span>. He -was born in the year 1730.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_349'>349</span>Towards the close of his career, Sir William would sometimes -say to his intimates, when conversation turned upon -the battle of life: ‘I had to begin the world with a great -name, and one thousand pounds for all my fortune.’ But -the world never used him very roughly. Whilst still a -young man (1755) he married Miss <span class='sc'>Barlow</span>, the wealthy -heiress of Hugh <span class='sc'>Barlow</span>, of Laurenny Hall, in Pembrokeshire. -She brought him an estate, in the neighbourhood -of Swansea, worth nearly five thousand pounds a year; but -it was his happy lot to have married a true wife, not a bag -of money. <span class='sc'>Duclos</span>, who saw much of the <span class='sc'>Hamiltons</span> in -their family circle at Naples in after years, was wont to -say, ‘They are the happiest couple I ever saw.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>1764–1800.</div> - -<p class='c029'>Mr. <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> was sent to the Court of Naples in 1764. -The post, in that day, was not overburdened with business. -And for some years to come the new Ambassador found -the Neapolitan society little to his taste. He was intellectual, -and, in the truest sense, an English gentleman. -The tone of society at that time in Naples was both frivolous -and dissolute. He had to form, by slow degrees, a -circle in which a man of cultivated tastes might enjoy social -life. The public duties of the embassy could employ but -a small portion of his time, and the temper of the man -made employment to him a necessary of life. He threw -his energies into hard study. And he possessed that happiest -of mental characteristics, an equal love of the natural -sciences, and of the world of art and of books. He could -pore, with like enjoyment, on the deep things of Nature, -and on the secrets of ‘the antiquary times.’ And in both -paths, he knew how to make his personal enjoyments teem -with public good.</p> - -<p class='c029'>His first labours were given to the exhaustive research -of volcanic phenomena. He amazed the fine gentlemen of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_350'>350</span>Naples by setting to work as though he had to win his -bread by the sweat of his brow. He laboured harder on -the slopes of Vesuvius than an exceptionally diligent craftsman -would labour in a factory—had Naples possessed any. -Within four years he ascended the famous mountain -twenty-two times. More than one of these ascents was -made at the risk of his life. He made, and caused to be -made, innumerable drawings of all the phenomena that he -observed, showing the volcanic eruption in all its stages, and -under every kind of meteorological condition. He formed -too a complete collection of volcanic products, and of the -earths and minerals of the volcanic district. When he had -studied Vesuvius under every possible aspect, he went to -Etna.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The results of these elaborate investigations were sent, -from time to time, to the Royal Society (of which Mr. -<span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> was made a Fellow, after the reading of the -first of his papers in 1766), and they were published in the -<i>Philosophical Transactions</i>, between the years 1766 and -1780. They were afterwards collected, and improved, in -the two beautiful volumes entitled <i>Campi Phlegræi</i>, and -were lavishly illustrated from the drawings of F. A. <span class='sc'>Fabris</span>, -who had been trained by <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> to the work.<a id='r57'></a><a href='#f57' class='c030'><sup>[57]</sup></a> The -collection of volcanic geology and products was given to -the British Museum in 1767.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Hamilton Museum of Antiquities.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>These geological labours had been diversified, at intervals, -by the collection of a rich archæological museum, -and by the establishment of a systematic correspondence on -antiquarian subjects with men of learning in various parts -<span class='pageno' id='Page_351'>351</span>of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. This correspondence -had for its object, not merely the enrichment of his own -Museum, but the awakening of local attention throughout -the country to its antiquities and history; matters which -had theretofore been but too much neglected—in the Neapolitan -fashion.</p> - -<p class='c029'>One of the earliest and choicest acquisitions made by -<span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> in the early years of his residence at Naples was -a collection of vases belonging to the senatorial family of -<span class='sc'>Porcinari</span>, many of which had been gathered from sepulchres -and excavations in Magna Græcia. This purchase, -made in 1766 and afterwards largely increased, may be -regarded as the substantial beginning of the noble series -of vases now so prominent a part of our National -Museum.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Thus had been formed, by degrees, at Naples, a museum -which, at the beginning of the year 1772, included seven -hundred and thirty fictile vases; a hundred and seventy-five -terra-cottas; about three hundred specimens of ancient -glass (including three of the most perfect cinerary urns -known, at that time, to have been discovered); six hundred -and twenty-seven bronzes, of which nearly one-half illustrated -the arms and armour of the ancients; more than two -hundred specimens of sacrificial, domestic, and architectonic, -instruments and implements; fourteen bassi-relievi, busts, -masques, and inscribed tablets; about a hundred and fifty -miscellaneous pieces of ancient ivory, including a curious -series of tessaræ; a hundred and forty-nine gems, chiefly -scarabæi; a hundred and forty-three personal ornaments, of -various kinds, in gold; a hundred and fifty-two fibulæ in -various materials; and more than six thousand coins and -medals, comprising a considerable series from the towns of -Magna Græcia.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_352'>352</span>The first fruits of this noble collection was the publication, -commenced in the year 1766, of the work entitled -<i>Antiquités Etrusques</i>, &c., with admirable illustrations, and -with a descriptive text, written in French by <span class='sc'>D’Hancarville</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Publication -of the -‘Antiquités -Etrusques.’</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The first edition of this costly book was issued -at Naples. It naturally attracted great attention. No -such collection of fictile vases—in their combination of -number and beauty—had been theretofore known.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The two volumes published at Sir William’s cost in -1766, were followed by two other volumes in 1767. All of -them were executed with great care and with lavish expenditure. -But the later edition, printed at Florence—long -afterwards—is in many points superior.<a id='r58'></a><a href='#f58' class='c030'><sup>[58]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c029'>Whilst the volumes were still incomplete, Mr. <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> -circulated proof plates of the work with great liberality. -Some of these proofs were lent to our famous English -potter, Josiah <span class='sc'>Wedgwood</span>, and gave a strong impulse to -his taste and artistic zeal. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Meteyard, <i>Life of Josiah Wedgwood</i>, vol. ii, p. 72.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But they excited an eager -longing for access to the vases themselves, as the only satisfactory -models.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>Wedgwood to Bentley, 10 May, 1770.</div> - -<p class='c029'>When <span class='sc'>Wedgwood</span> wrote to his friend and partner, -<span class='sc'>Bentley</span>;—‘Mr. <span class='sc'>Hambleton</span>, you know, has flattered the -old pot-painters very much,’ one feels that for the moment -that excellent man’s prepossessions had been rubbed a little, -against the grain. But he shows directly that there is no -real intent to impeach the Editor’s honesty in the matter. -‘He has, no doubt,’ adds <span class='sc'>Wedgwood</span>, ‘taken his designs -from the very best vases extant,’ which was precisely what -it was his duty to do, since selection was the task in hand, -not the publication of seven hundred specimens.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_353'>353</span>This Collection—far more remarkable than any, of its -kind, which had yet come to England—was brought over -in 1772, and offered to the Trustees of the British Museum. -An appeal was made to Parliament, and the first grant of -public money, worthy of mention, was now made in order -to its acquisition. The sum given to Mr. <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> was -eight thousand four hundred pounds.</p> - -<p class='c029'>How soon one of the incidental results of the acquisition -returned to the Public much more than its cost—leaving -out of account altogether the best returns which accrue -from such Collections—is among the familiar annals of our -commerce. Josiah <span class='sc'>Wedgwood</span> told a Committee of the -House of Commons that, within two years, he had himself -brought into England, by his imitations of the Hamilton -vases in his manufactory at Etruria, about three times the -sum which the Collection had cost to the country.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Explorations at Pompeii and Herculaneum.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>At the beginning of the year 1772 Mr. <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> was -made a Knight of the Bath. He returned to Naples soon -after the transfer of his antiquities to the Museum, and ere -long he was busily engaged in new explorations at Pompeii -and at Herculaneum. He sent to the Society of Antiquaries, -in 1777, an interesting account of the discoveries -at Pompeii, which is printed in the fourth volume of the -<i>Archæologia</i>. At Herculaneum he employed, during many -years, Father Antonio <span class='sc'>Piaggi</span> to superintend excavations -and make drawings, and gave him an annual salary equal -to a hundred pounds sterling, after vainly endeavouring—at -that time—to urge on the Neapolitan Government its -own duty to carry on the task in an adequate manner for -the honour of the nation, and to publish the results of the -explorations for the general benefit of learning.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Sir William’s services as an ambassador were rendered -with zeal and with credit, as opportunity offered. But the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_354'>354</span>opportunity, in his earlier period, was comparatively rare. -It was, perhaps, despite the proverb, not altogether a happy -thing for Naples that its annals were tiresome. The rust -of inactivity showed itself there, as so often elsewhere, to -be much more fatal than the exhaustion of strife. Certainly, -to the ambassador, it was a personal misfortune that, -when the affairs of Naples became really momentous to -Englishmen, the vigour and the will of earlier days were -then departing from the man whose energies were at length -to be put to the test in the proper sphere of his profession. -Meanwhile, and in his prime, he had but—from time to -time—to make routine memorials as to matters of individual -wrong; to heal breaches between one Bourbon and -another; and to secure the neutrality of the Kingdom -of the Two Sicilies during the war which grew out -of the struggle in America. Such matters made no great -inroad upon the pursuits of the naturalist and the antiquarian.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Labour on the mountains, in the excavations, and in the -study, had been, now for many years, relieved by congenial -friendships. There had been an improvement in the tone -of Neapolitan Society since <span class='sc'>Hamilton’s</span> first appearance. -And all that was best in Naples had gathered round -him. To English travellers his hospitalities were splendid -and unremitting. But in 1782 the circle lost its -mistress. Seven years before, Sir William and Lady -<span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> had been bereaved of a daughter—their only -child. In 1783 occurred the dreadful earthquake in -Calabria, the greatest calamity of the century save that at -Lisbon.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Among the scientific correspondents in England with -whom Sir William <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> kept up an intercourse was -Sir Joseph <span class='sc'>Banks</span>, then the President of the Royal Society. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_355'>355</span>To him was sent the fullest account that was attainable of -the sad event of 1783.</p> - -<p class='c029'>It had chanced that just before the news reached Naples, -Sir Joseph had written to <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> about some experiments -and discoveries on the composition and transmutation -of water. He had said, jestingly: ‘In future we philosophers -shall rejoice when an eruption, which may swallow -up a few towns, affords subsistence for as many nations -of animals and vegetables.’ This letter <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> was -about to answer when he received the intelligence from -Calabria.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘We have had here,’ he writes, ‘some shocks of an earthquake -which, in Calabria Ultra, has swallowed up or -destroyed almost every town, together with some towns in -Sicily.... Every hour brings in accounts of fresh -disasters. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1783. Feb. 18.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Some thousands of people will perish with hunger -before the provisions sent from hence can reach them. This, -I believe, will prove to have been the greatest calamity that -has happened in this century. An end is put to the -Carnival. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Hamilton to Banks, MS. <span class='sc'>Addit.</span>, 8967, ff. 34, seqq.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The theatres are shut. -I suppose Saint Januarius -will be brought out.’ There had been no exaggeration -in these first reports. It was found that at Terranova, not -only were all the buildings destroyed, but the very ground -on which they stood sunk to such a depth as to form a sort -of gulf. In that district alone 3043 people lost their lives. -At Seminara 1328 persons were buried beneath the -ruins. In other and adjacent districts more than 3300 -persons perished.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In 1784 the ambassador visited England. His stay was -brief. But an incident which occurred during this visit -gave its colour to the rest of his life.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In 1791 Sir William <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> was made a Privy -Councillor, and in the same year (nine years after the death -<span class='pageno' id='Page_356'>356</span>of his first wife) he married Emma <span class='sc'>Harte</span>, whom he had -first met in the house of his nephew, Colonel <span class='sc'>Greville</span>, in -1784. In September, 1793, his eventful acquaintance with -<span class='sc'>Nelson</span> was formed.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Hamilton’s first acquaintance with Nelson.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>In that month, <span class='sc'>Nelson</span> had been sent to Naples with -despatches from Admiral Lord <span class='sc'>Hood</span>, in which Sir William -<span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> was pressed to procure the sending of some -Neapolitan troops to Toulon. After his first interview -with Lord <span class='sc'>Hood’s</span> messenger, he is said to have remarked -to his wife: ‘I have a little man to introduce to you who -will become one of the greatest men England has ever had.’ -The favourable impression was reciprocal, it seems. The -ambassador gave such good furtherance to the object of -<span class='sc'>Nelson’s</span> mission, that the messenger, we are told, said to -him, ‘You are a man after my heart. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Clarke and McArthur, <i>Life, &c., of Nelson</i>, vol. i, p. 133; and Nicolas, vol. i, p. 326.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -I’m only a captain, -but, if I live, I shall get to the top of the tree;’ while, of -the too-fascinating lady into whose social circle he was -presently brought, <span class='sc'>Nelson</span> wrote to his wife, ‘She is a young -woman of amiable manners, who does honour to the station -to which she is raised.’ Several years, however, were yet -to intervene before the events of the naval war and the -political circumstances of Naples itself brought about a -close connexion in public transactions between the great -seaman and the British ambassador, whose long diplomatic -career was drawing to its close.</p> - -<p class='c035'><span class='sc'>Hamilton</span>, after the manner of Collectors, had scarcely -parted with the fine Museum, which he had sold to the -Public in 1772, before he began to form another. The -explorations of the buried cities gave some favourable opportunities -near home, and his researches were spread far and -wide. In amassing vases he was especially fortunate. And, -in that particular, his second Collection came to surpass the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_357'>357</span>first. He became anxious to ensure its preservation in -integrity. With that view he offered it to the King of -Prussia.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Second Hamilton Collection of Vases.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>‘I think,’ he wrote to the Countess of <span class='sc'>Lichtenau</span>, in -May, 1796, ‘my object will be attained by placing my -Collection, with my name attached to it, at Berlin. And I -am persuaded that, in a very few years, the profit which the -arts will derive from such models will greatly exceed the -price of the Collection. The King’s [porcelain] manufactory -would do well to profit by it.... For a long time -past I have had an unlimited commission from the Grand -Duke of Russia [afterwards <span class='sc'>Paul the First</span>], but, between -ourselves, I should think my Collection lost in Russia; -whilst, at Berlin, it would be in the midst of men of -learning and of literary academies.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘There are more,’ he continues, ‘than a thousand vases, -and one half of them figured. If the King listens to your -proposal, he may be assured of having the whole Collection, -and I would further undertake to go, at the end of the war, -to Berlin to arrange them. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Sir W. Hamilton to the Countess of Lichtenau, 3 May, 1796.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -On reckoning up my accounts,—I -must speak frankly (<i>il faut que je dise la vérité</i>),—I -find that I shall needs be a loser, unless I receive seven -thousand pounds sterling for this Collection. That is -exactly the sum I received from the English Parliament for -my first Collection....<a id='r59'></a><a href='#f59' class='c030'><sup>[59]</sup></a> As respects Vases, the second is -far more beautiful and complete than the series in London, -but the latter included also bronzes, gems, and medals.’ -But the negotiation thus opened led to no result. And -some of the choicest contents of this second Museum -were eventually lost by shipwreck.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_358'>358</span>When the correspondence with Berlin occurred, the -Collector’s health was rapidly failing him. The political -horizon was getting darker and darker. Victorious France -was putting its pressure upon the Neapolitan Government -to accept terms of peace which should exact the exclusion -of British ships from the Neapolitan ports. The ambassador -needed now all the energies for which, but a few years -before, there had been no worthy political employment. -They were fast vanishing; but, to the last, Sir William -exerted himself to the best of his ability. It was his misfortune -that he had now to work, too often, by deputy.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The later events at Naples, 1796–1799.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Lady <span class='sc'>Hamilton’s</span> ambitious nature, and her appetite for -political intrigue, when combined with some real ability -and a good deal of reckless unscrupulousness as to the path -by which the object in view might be reached, were dangerous -qualities in such a Court as that of Naples. If, more -than once, they contributed to the attainment of ends which -were eagerly sought by the Government at home, and were -of advantage to the movements of the British fleet, they cost—as -is but too well known—an excessive price at last. -The blame fairly attachable to Sir William <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> is -that of suffering himself to be kept at a post for which -the infirmities of age were rapidly unfitting him. But -there he was to remain during yet four eventful years; -quitting his embassy only when, to all appearance, he was -at the door of death.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Between the September of 1793 and that of 1798 <span class='sc'>Nelson</span> -and Sir William <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> met more than once; but their -chief communication was, of course, by letter. When, in -October, 1796, after two victories in quick succession, -<span class='sc'>Nelson</span> lost his hard-won prizes, and narrowly escaped being -taken into a Spanish port, it was to <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> that he wrote -for a certificate of his conduct. And one of the ambassador’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_359'>359</span>latest diplomatic achievements was his procuring access -for British ships to Neapolitan ports before the Battle of -the Nile was won.</p> - -<p class='c029'>On the very night of that famous first of August, 1798, -Sir William—whilst the distant battle was yet raging—told -<span class='sc'>Nelson</span> of the disappointment which had followed the -rumours, current during many days at Naples, of a defeat -given to the French fleet in the Bay of Alexandretta, and -assured him of his own confidence that the rumours, though -then unfounded, would come true at last. Five weeks -afterwards, he had the satisfaction of sending to London the -first official account of the great victory which he had seen -before with the eye of faith.</p> - -<p class='c029'>At Naples the authentic news was received with a joy -which worked like frenzy. When the ambassador first -saw the Queen, after its arrival, she was rushing up and -down the room of audience, and embracing every person -who entered it—man, woman, or child. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Sir W. Hamilton to Nelson; Nicolas, vol. iii, p. 72.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He sent to <span class='sc'>Nelson</span> -an account of the universal joy. ‘You have now, indeed, -made yourself immortal,’ was his own greeting. On the -22nd they again met, on board the <i>Vanguard</i>, in the Bay. -On the 21st of the following December Sir William -<span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> accompanied the King and Court of Naples in -their flight to Palermo.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The events of 1799 belong rather to history than to -biography. Sir William <span class='sc'>Hamilton’s</span> chief share in them -lay in his exertions to obtain for <span class='sc'>Nelson</span> the large powers -which the King of <span class='sc'>Naples</span> vested in the English Admiral—with -results so mingled. On the 21st of June he embarked -with <span class='sc'>Nelson</span> on board the <i>Foudroyant</i>, and sailed -with the squadron to Naples. In the stormy interview -between <span class='sc'>Nelson</span> and Cardinal <span class='sc'>Ruffo</span>, Sir William acted as -interpreter. In all that followed, he seems to have been -rather a spectator than an actor. At the close of the year -<span class='pageno' id='Page_360'>360</span>he joined with <span class='sc'>Nelson</span> in the vain endeavour to induce the -King to return to Naples, while that course was yet open -to him.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Departure from Naples.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>On the 10th of June, 1800, Sir William took his final -leave of Naples, which had been his home for thirty-six -years, and where he had mingled in a departed world. -In company with the Queen and three princesses, the -<span class='sc'>Hamiltons</span> sailed in the <i>Foudroyant</i> for Leghorn, on their -way to Vienna. A few days after the embarkation, a -fellow-passenger writes thus: ‘Sir William <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> -appears broken, distressed, and harassed. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Miss Knight to Lady Berry, July 2, 1800.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -He says that he -shall die by the way, and he looks so ill that I should not -be surprised if he did.’ When the Admiral struck his flag -(13th July) at Leghorn, the party set out for Vienna. -Between Leghorn and Florence, Sir William’s carriage met -with an overturn, which increased his malady. At Trieste -the physicians were inclined to despair of his life. But he -rallied sufficiently to reach England at last, and the change -from turmoil to rest prolonged his life for two years to -come.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Sir William Hamilton’s last days.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>During the long interval between the acquisition of -the first Hamilton Museum and the return of its Collector -to his country, he had marked his interest in the -national Collection by repeated and valuable gifts. To make -yet one gift more—trivial, but possessing an historical interest—was -one of his last acts. On the 12th of February, -1803, he sent to the British Museum a Commission given -by the famous fisherman of Amalfi to one of his insurrectionary -captains. On the 6th of April Sir William <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> -died, in London. He was buried at Milford Haven.</p> - -<p class='c035'>The kindly heart had left many memorials of its quality at -Naples. The ambassador had lost a part of his fortune. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_361'>361</span>But many poor dependants, in his old home, enjoyed pensions -from his liberality.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Nelson</span>, when writing to the Queen of the Two Sicilies -upon the death of their common friend, made this remark -on his testamentary arrangements:—‘The good Sir William -did not leave Lady <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> in such comfortable -circumstances as his fortune would have allowed. He has -given it amongst his relations. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Nelson to the Queen of Naples (Nicolas, vol. iv, p. 84).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But she will do honour -to his memory, although every one else of his friends calls -loudly against him on that account.’ This comment, however, -expresses rather a temporary feeling than a wise judgment. -Sir William had settled a jointure of seven hundred -pounds a year upon his widow.</p> - -<p class='c029'>During the few months of life that yet remained to the -great seaman himself, the highest encomium known to -his vocabulary was to say, ‘So-and-so was a great friend -of Sir William <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span>.’</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The ‘Institute of Egypt;’ and its researches and acquisitions.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>As the British Museum owes one choice portion of its -archæological treasures to the man who was <span class='sc'>Nelson’s</span> -type of friendship, so also it owes—indirectly—another -portion of them to the man who was <span class='sc'>Nelson’s</span> favourite -aversion, and whose very name, in the Admiral’s mind, -served to sum up all that was most detestable. The Battle -of the Nile, and the military operations which followed it in -the after years, would have counted no antiquarian riches -amongst their trophies, but for that ardent love of science -in <span class='sc'>Napoleon</span> which prompted him to plan the ‘Institute of -Egypt’ as an essential part of the Campaign of Egypt.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The intention with which the Institute of Egypt was -founded embraced every kind of study and research. The -scholars of whom it was composed included within their -number men of the most varied powers. What they effected -<span class='pageno' id='Page_362'>362</span>was fragmentary, and yet their researches, directly or indirectly, -bore much fruit.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In the end, the harvest was to France herself none the -less abundant from the fact that <span class='sc'>Nelson’s</span> achievement, and -what grew thereout, set Englishmen and Germans to work -with increased vigour in the same field, and divided some -of the tools.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Scarcely had General <span class='sc'>Bonaparte</span> established the military -power of the French Republic in Egypt, before he was -employed in organizing the Institute at Cairo. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1798–1801.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Its declared -object was twofold: (1) the increase and diffusion of -learning in Egypt itself; (2) the examination, study, and -publication, of the monuments of its history and of its -natural phenomena, together with the elucidation and -improvement of the natural and industrial capabilities of -the country. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Mémoires sur l’Egypt</i>, passim.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The Institute was composed of thirty-six -members, and was divided into four sections. The section -with which alone we are here concerned—that of Literature, -Arts, and History—was headed by <span class='sc'>Denon</span>, and -amongst its other members were <span class='sc'>Dutertre</span>, <span class='sc'>Parseval</span>, and -<span class='sc'>Ripault</span>. Its labours began in 1798, and were continued, -with almost unparalleled activity, until the summer of 1801, -when the defeat of <span class='sc'>Belliard</span> near Cairo, and the capitulation -of <span class='sc'>Menou</span> at Alexandria, placed that part of the -collections of the Institute which had not been already -sent to France at the disposal of Lord <span class='sc'>Hutchinson</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Denon</span>, on his return from Upper Egypt to Cairo, said, -with French vivacity, that if the active movements of the -Mamelukes now and then forced an antiquary to become, -in self-defence, a soldier, the antiquary was enabled, by way -of balance and through the good nature and docility of -the French troops, to turn a good many soldiers into antiquaries. -Had it not been for this general sympathy and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_363'>363</span>readiness, one can hardly conceive that so much could have -been accomplished, even under the eye of <span class='sc'>Napoleon</span>, -amidst perils so incessant. The <i>Description de l’Egypte</i> is -for France at large, no less than for <span class='sc'>Napoleon</span> and the men -whom he set to work, a monument which might well -obliterate the momentary mortification attendant on the -transfer to London of a part of the treasures of the Institute. -History, ancient or modern, scarcely offers a parallel -instance in which war was made to contribute results so -splendid, both for the progress of science and for the -eventual improvement of the invaded country. To the -labours initiated by <span class='sc'>Napoleon</span>, and partially carried out by -the ‘Institute of Egypt,’ the ablest of the recent rulers of -that land owe some of their best and latest inspirations. -Nor is it a whit less true that the most successful of our -English Egyptologists have followed the track in which -Frenchmen led the way. Such results, indeed, can never -suffice to justify an unprovoked invasion. But they illustrate, -in a marvellous way, how temporary evil is wrought -into enduring good.</p> - -<p class='c029'>By the sixteenth article of the Capitulation of Alexandria, -it was provided that the Members of the Institute of Egypt -might carry back with them all instruments of science and -art which they had brought from France, but that all collections -of marbles, manuscripts, and other antiquities, -together with the specimens of natural history and the drawings, -then in the possession of the French, should be regarded -as public property, and become subject to the disposal -of the generals of the allied army.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Convention of Alexandria.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The Convention was made between General <span class='sc'>Menou</span> and -General <span class='sc'>Hope</span>, on the 31st of August, 1801. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1801, August.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Against -this sixteenth article <span class='sc'>Menou</span> made the strongest remonstrances, -but General <span class='sc'>Hope</span> declined to modify it, otherwise -<span class='pageno' id='Page_364'>364</span>than by agreeing to make a reference, as to the precise -extent to which it should be carried into actual effect, to -Lord <span class='sc'>Hutchinson</span>, as Commander-in-Chief.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Between <span class='sc'>Menou</span> and <span class='sc'>Hutchinson</span> there was a long -correspondence. The French General declared that the -Collections, both scientific and archæological, were private, -not public property. The since famous ‘Rosetta stone,’ -for example, belonged, he said, to himself. Various members -of the Institute claimed other precious objects; some -alleged, with obvious force of argument, that the care -bestowed on specimens of natural history made them the -property of the collectors and preservers; others threatened -to prefer the destruction or defacement of their collections, -by their own hands, to the giving of them up to the -English army.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Negotiations and Services of Colonel Turner.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The correspondence was followed by several personal -conferences between <span class='sc'>Menou</span> and Colonel (afterwards General) -<span class='sc'>Turner</span>, in order to a compromise. <span class='sc'>Turner</span>, who was -himself a man of distinguished knowledge and accomplishments, -advised Lord <span class='sc'>Hutchinson</span> to insist on the transfer -of the Marbles and Manuscripts, and to yield the natural -history specimens, with some minor objects, to the possessors. -The astute Capitan Pasha had contrived to place -himself in ‘possession’ of one of the most precious of the -marbles—the famous sarcophagus which Dr. <span class='sc'>Clarke</span> so -strenuously contended to be nothing less than the tomb of -<span class='sc'>Alexander</span>—by seizing the ship on board of which the -French had placed it, and he gave Colonel <span class='sc'>Turner</span> almost -as much trouble as <span class='sc'>Menou</span> himself had given.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The French soldiers were, as was natural, deeply mortified -when they heard that the captors of Alexandria were to -have the antiquities. Every man of them who had had to -do with their excavation or transport had vindicated -<span class='pageno' id='Page_365'>365</span><span class='sc'>Denon’s</span> eulogy by his pains to protect the sculptures from -harm. Now, their excessive zeal and their national pride -led to an unworthy result. The Rosetta stone was stripped -of the soft cotton cloth and the thick matting in which it -had been sedulously wrapped, and was thrown upon its -face. Other choice antiquities were deprived of their wooden -cases. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Capture of the Rosetta Stone</span>;<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -When <span class='sc'>Turner</span>, with a detachment of artillerymen -and a strong tumbril, went to the French head-quarters to -receive the Rosetta stone, he had to pass through a lane of -angry Frenchmen who crowded the narrow streets of -Alexandria, and were not sparing in their epithets and sarcasms. -Those artillerymen, too, were the first English -soldiers who entered the city. When Colonel <span class='sc'>Turner</span> had -gotten safely into his hands the stone destined to mark an -era in philology, he returned good for evil. He permitted -some members of the Institute of Egypt to take a cast of -it, which they sent to Paris in lieu of the original.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Rosetta inscription had been found, by the French -explorers, among the ruins of a fortification near the mouth -of the Rosetta branch of the Nile. When they discovered -it the stone was already broken, both at the top and at the -right side. Of its triple inscription, commemorative of the -beginning of the actual and personal reign of <span class='sc'>Ptolemy -Epiphanes</span>—and therefore cut nearly two hundred years -before the Christian era—that in the hieroglyphic or sacred -character had suffered most. The second or enchorial inscription -was also mutilated in its upper portion. The -Greek version was almost entire.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The scarcely less famous Alexandrian sarcophagus was -found by the French in the court-yard of a mosque called -the ‘Mosque of St. Athanasius.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>and of the Sarcophagus sometimes called ‘Tomb of Alexander.</span>’<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Of its discovery and state -when found, the following account is given in the <i>Description -de l’Egypte</i>:—A small octagonal building, covered -<span class='pageno' id='Page_366'>366</span>with a cupola, had been constructed by the Moslems for -their ablutions, and in this they had placed the sarcophagus -to be used as a bath; piercing it for that purpose with large -holes, but not otherwise injuring it. The sarcophagus is -a monolith of dark-coloured breccia—such as the Italians -call <i>breccia verde d’Egitto</i>—and is completely covered with -hieroglyphics. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Description de l’Egypte</i>, vol. v, pp. 373, seqq.; Plates and Append. (8vo edit.), 1829.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Their number, according to the French -artist by whom impressions in sulphur were taken of the -whole, exceeds 21,700. Dr. <span class='sc'>Clarke’s</span> identification of this -monument as the tomb of Alexander has not been supported -by later Egyptologists.</p> - -<p class='c029'>This sarcophagus, with most of the other antiquities, was -sent on board the flagship <i>Madras</i>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>List of the Egyptian Antiquities embarked at Alexandria.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The Rosetta inscription, -Colonel <span class='sc'>Turner</span> embarked, with himself, in the frigate -<i>Egyptienne</i>. His own list of the antiquities thus brought, -in safety, to England runs thus:—(1) An Egyptian sarcophagus, -of green breccia; (2) another, of black granite, from -Cairo; (3) another, of basalt, from Menouf; (4) the hand of -a colossal statue—supposed to be Vulcan—found in the -ruins of Memphis; (5) five fragments of lion-headed statues, -of black granite, from Thebes; (6) a mutilated kneeling statue, -of black granite; (7) two statues, of white marble, from Alexandria—Septimus -Severus and Marcus Aurelius; (8) the -Rosetta stone; (9) a lion-headed statue, from Upper Egypt; -(10) two fragments of lions’ heads, of black granite; (11) a -small kneeling figure, of black granite; (12) five fragments of -lion-headed statues, of black granite; (13) a fragment of a sarcophagus, -of black granite, from Upper Egypt; (14) two small -obelisks, of basalt, with hieroglyphics; (15) a colossal ram’s -head. Nos. 10 to 15 inclusive were all brought from Upper -Egypt. (16) A statue of a woman, sitting, with a model of the -capital of a column of the Temple of Isis at Dendera, between -her feet; (17) a fragment of a lion-headed statue, of black -<span class='pageno' id='Page_367'>367</span>granite, from Upper Egypt; (18) a chest of Oriental Manuscripts—sixty-two -in number—in Coptic, Arabic, and Turkish.</p> - -<p class='c035'>I have given the more careful detail to this notice of the -archæological results of the capitulation of Alexandria, inasmuch -as a very inaccurate statement of the matter has found -its way into an able and deservedly accredited book. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>See the <i>History of Europe</i>, vol. v, p. 596 (last edition).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Sir -Archibald <span class='sc'>Alison</span>, in his <i>History of Europe</i> (probably from -some misconception of the compromise effected between -General <span class='sc'>Turner</span> and the French Commander-in-Chief), -writes thus:—‘General <span class='sc'>Hutchinson</span>, with a generous regard -for the interests of science and the feelings of these distinguished -persons [the Members of the Institute of Egypt], -agreed to depart from the stipulation and allow these -treasures of art to be forwarded to France. The sarcophagus -of <span class='sc'>Alexander</span>, now in the British Museum, was, however, -retained by the British, and formed the glorious trophy of -their memorable triumph.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>General <span class='sc'>Turner’s</span> conspicuous service on this occasion -did not end with the transport into England of the Alexandrian -Collections. Before the Rosetta inscription was, by -the King’s command, placed, together with its companions, -in the British Museum, as their permanent abode, General -<span class='sc'>Turner</span> obtained Lord <span class='sc'>Buckinghamshire’s</span> assent to the -temporary deposit of the stone from Rosetta in the custody of -the Society of Antiquaries, by whose care copies of the inscriptions -were sent to the chief scholars and academies of the Continent, -in order that combined study might be brought to bear, -immediately, upon the contents. This circumstance makes it -all the more honourable to our countryman, Dr. Thomas -<span class='sc'>Young</span>, that by his labours upon the stone a strong impulse -was first given to the progress of hieroglyphical discovery.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The accessions from Alexandria served, also, to initiate -<span class='pageno' id='Page_368'>368</span>another improvement. When, in 1802, they reached the -Museum, its contents had so increased that the old house -afforded no adequate space for their reception. They had, -like some famous sculptures of much later acquisition, to -be placed in sheds which scarcely preserved them from bad -weather, and were even less adapted to facilitate their -study. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1804, July 2.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Parliamentary -Debates</i>, -vol. ii, col. -901, seqq.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The Trustees made their first application to Parliament -for the enlargement of the Museum Building, ‘in -order to provide suitable room for the preservation of -invaluable monuments of antiquity which had been acquired -by the valour, intrepidity, and skill of our troops in an -expedition seldom equalled in the annals of the country.’ -And before presenting their petition they determined that -increased facilities should be given for the admission of the -Public, as soon as they should be enabled to make an adequate -increase in the staff of the establishment.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When the extension of the British Museum came first to -be discussed in the House of Commons (somewhat grudgingly -and captiously it must, in truth, be acknowledged), -upon the application of the Trustees, some of their number -were already aware that an accession was likely soon to -accrue through the munificence of a fellow-trustee, which -would make a new and extensive building indispensable. -Charles <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> had already made a Will in virtue of -which—as it stood in 1804—the Towneley Marbles were -devised in trust for the British Museum, on condition that -the Trustees thereof should, ‘within two years from the -time of the testator’s decease, set apart a room or rooms -sufficiently spacious and elegant to exhibit these antiquities -most advantageously to the Public,—such rooms to be -exclusively set apart for the reception and future exhibition -of the antiquities aforesaid.’ Circumstances not foreseen in -1802, when Colonel <span class='sc'>Towneley’s</span> Will had been first -<span class='pageno' id='Page_369'>369</span>made, led afterwards to a change in the mode in which his -noble Collection was to be received by the Public. But its -preservation and public accessibility, in one way or other, -had long been resolved upon.</p> - -<p class='c035'>The <span class='sc'>Towneleys</span>, of Towneley, rank among the most -ancient and distinguished commoners of Lancashire. They -can trace an honourable descent to a period antecedent to -the Conquest. They have been seated at Towneley from -the twelfth century. Several of them have given good -service to England, in various ways, in spite of the obstacles -and discouragements which, for many generations, clave to -almost every man whose convictions obliged him to adhere -to the Roman Catholic Church, and so to incur the pains -and disabilities of recusancy. Of these they had their full -share. One <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> had been mulcted in fines amounting -to more than five thousand pounds, simply for remaining -true to his belief, and had been, for that cause, sent -(with an ingenuity of torment one is almost tempted to call -diabolic) from prison to prison across the breadth of England, -and back again.<a id='r60'></a><a href='#f60' class='c030'><sup>[60]</sup></a> Another <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> was driven -into an exile which lasted so long that when he returned -into Lancashire everybody had forgotten his features and -his voice, except his dog. But neither fine, imprisonment, -nor banishment, had converted them to Protestantism. -Hence it was that Charles <span class='sc'>Towneley</span>, the Collector of the -Marbles, received his education at Douay, and contracted -<span class='pageno' id='Page_370'>370</span>all the strong formative impressions of early life and habit -on the Continent.</p> - -<p class='c029'>He was born, in the old seat of the family at Towneley -Hall, on the 1st of October, 1737. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Life of Charles Towneley.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -His father, William -<span class='sc'>Towneley</span>, had married Cecilia, sole daughter and heir of -Richard <span class='sc'>Standish</span>, by his wife Lady Philippa <span class='sc'>Howard</span>, -daughter of Henry, Duke of <span class='sc'>Norfolk</span>. The hall—which -has not yet lost all its venerable aspect—was built in part -by a Sir John <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> in the reign of <span class='sc'>Henry VIII</span>, and -its older portions (turrets, gateway, chapel, and library) -suit well the fine position of the building, and the noble -woods which back it. Of the founder two things still -remain in local tradition and memory. He took the changes -made under the rule of <span class='sc'>Henry</span>—or rather of Thomas -<span class='sc'>Cromwell</span>—so much in dudgeon, that when Lancaster -Herald came to Towneley, upon his Visitation, he refused -to admit him, saying, ‘Do not trouble thyself. There are -no more gentlemen left in Lancashire now than my Lord of -<span class='sc'>Derby</span>, and my Lord <span class='sc'>Monteagle</span>.’ The other tradition of -this same Sir John is, that he enclosed a common pasture -called Horelaw, and so made the peasantry as angry with -his innovations as he was with <span class='sc'>Cromwell’s</span>. Some of their -descendants may yet chance to assure the inquisitive -stranger, that his ghost still haunts the park, crying aloud -in the dead of night—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘Lay out! lay out!<a id='r61'></a><a href='#f61' class='c030'><sup>[61]</sup></a></div> - <div class='line'>Horelaw and Hollingley Clough!’</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c029'>At Douay Charles <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> received a careful education, -moulded, of course, under the conditions and the -memories of that celebrated College. When he left its good -priests he was already the owner of the family estates—his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_371'>371</span>father having died prematurely in 1742—and he was -plunged, at once, into the gaieties and temptations of Paris. -All the Mentorship he had was that of a great uncle who had -become sufficiently naturalised to win the friendship of -<span class='sc'>Voltaire</span>, and to be able to turn <i>Hudibras</i> into excellent -French. The dissipations of the Capital overpowered, for a -time, the real love of classical studies which had been excited -in the provincial college. But the seed had been sown -in a good soil. The study of art and of classical archæology, -in particular, presently reasserted its claims and renewed its -attractions. It was a fortunate circumstance, too, that -family affairs required the presence of Mr. <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> in -England on the attainment of his majority.</p> - -<p class='c029'>He had left Towneley very young. He came back to it -with more of the foreigner than of the Englishman in his -ways of life and manners. But he was able to win the -genuine regard of his neighbours, and to take his fair share -in their pursuits and sports, although he could never—at -least in his own estimation—succeed in expressing his -thoughts with as much ease and readiness in English as in -French. Late in life, he would speak of this conscious -inability with regret. Whether needfully or not, the feeling, -no doubt, prevented Mr. <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> from turning to literary -account his large acquirements.</p> - -<p class='c029'>What he had seen of the Continent had given him a -desire to see more of it, and the bias of his youthful studies -pointed in the same direction. In 1765, after a short stay -in France, he went into Italy, and there he passed almost -eight years. They were passed in a very different way from -that in which he had passed the interval between Douay -and Towneley. That long residence abroad enabled him to -become a very conspicuous benefactor to his country.</p> - -<p class='c029'>He visited Naples, Florence, and Rome, and from time -<span class='pageno' id='Page_372'>372</span>to time made many excursions into various parts of Magna -Græcia and of Sicily. At Naples he formed the acquaintance -of Sir William <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> and of <span class='sc'>D’Hancarville</span>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Towneley’s Artistic Researches in Italy.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1765–1778.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -At Rome he became acquainted with three Englishmen, -James <span class='sc'>Byres</span>, Gavin <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span>, and Thomas <span class='sc'>Jenkins</span>, -all of whom had first gone thither as artists, and step by -step had come to be almost exclusively engrossed in the -search after works of ancient art. The success and fame -of Sir William <span class='sc'>Hamilton’s</span> researches in the Kingdom of -the Two Sicilies and of those, still earlier, of Thomas <span class='sc'>Coke</span> -of Holkham (afterwards Earl of Leicester), had given a -strong impulse to like researches in other parts of Italy. -<span class='sc'>Towneley</span> caught the contagion, and was backed by large -resources to aid him in the pursuit.</p> - -<p class='c029'>His first important purchase was made in 1768. It -was that of a work already famous, and which for more -than a century had been one of the ornaments of the -Barberini Palace at Rome. This statue of a boy playing -at the game of tali, or ‘osselets’ (figured in <i>Ancient Marbles -in the British Museum</i>, part ii, plate 31), was found among -the ruins of the Baths of Titus, during the Pontificate of -<span class='sc'>Urban the Eighth</span>. During the same year, 1768, Mr. -<span class='sc'>Towneley</span> acquired, from the Collection of Victor <span class='sc'>Amadei</span>, -at Rome, the circular urn with figures in high relief—which -is figured in the first volume of Piranesi’s <i>Raccolta di Vasi -Antichi</i>—and also the statue of a <i>Nymph of Diana</i>, seated -on the ground. This statue was found in 1766 at the -Villa Verospi in Rome.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Formation of the Towneley Gallery.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Two years afterwards, several important acquisitions -were made of marbles which were discovered in the course -of the excavations undertaken by <span class='sc'>Byres</span>, Gavin <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span>, -and <span class='sc'>Jenkins</span>, amidst the ruins of Hadrian’s Villa near -Tivoli. The joint-stock system, by means of which the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_373'>373</span>diggings were effected, no less than the conditions which -accompanied the papal concessions that authorised them, -necessitated a wide diffusion of the spoil. But whenever -the making of a desirable acquisition rested merely upon -liberality of purse or a just discrimination of merit, Mr. -<span class='sc'>Towneley</span> was not easily outstripped in the quest. Amongst -these additions of 1769–71 were the noble Head of -<i>Hercules</i>, the Head said, conjecturally, to be that of -<i>Menelaus</i>, and the ‘<i>Castor</i>’ in low relief (all of which are -figured in the second part of <i>Ancient Marbles</i>).</p> - -<p class='c029'>Two terminal heads of the bearded <i>Bacchus</i>—both of -them of remarkable beauty—were obtained in 1771 from -the site of Baiæ. These were found by labourers who -were digging a deep trench for the renewal of a vineyard, -and were seen by Mr. <span class='sc'>Adair</span>, who was then making an -excursion from Naples. In the same year the statue of -<i>Ceres</i> and that of a <i>Faun</i> (<i>A. M.</i>, ii, 24) were purchased -from the Collection in the Macarani Palace at Rome. In -1772 the <i>Diana Venatrix</i> and the <i>Bacchus and Ampelus</i> -were found near La Storta. It was by no fault of <span class='sc'>Towneley’s</span> -that the <i>Diana</i> was in part ‘restored,’ and that -blunderingly. He thought restoration to be, in some cases, -permissible; but never deceptively; never when doubt -existed about the missing part. In art, as in life, he clave -to his heraldic motto ‘<i>Tenez le vrai</i>.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>In 1771, also, the famous ‘<i>Clytie</i>’—doubtfully so -called—was purchased from the Laurenzano Collection -at Naples.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The curious scenic figure on a plinth (<i>A. M.</i>, part x) -together with many minor pieces of sculpture, were found -in the Fonseca Villa on the Cælian Hill in 1773. In the -same year many purchases were made from the Mattei -Collection at Rome. Amongst these are the heads of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_374'>374</span><i>Marcus Aurelius</i> and of <i>Lucius Verus</i>. And it was at this -period that Gavin <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> began his productive researches -amidst the ruins of the villa of Antoninus Pius -at Monte Cagnolo, near the ancient Lanuvium. This -is a spot both memorable and beautiful. The hill lies on -the road between Genzano and Civita Lavinia. It commands -a wide view over Velletri and the sea. To <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> -and his associates it proved one of the richest mines of -ancient art which they had the good fortune to light upon. -Mr. <span class='sc'>Towneley’s</span> share in the spoil of Monte Cagnolo comprised -the group of <i>Victory sacrificing a Bull</i>; the <i>Actæon</i>; -a <i>Faun</i>; a Bacchanalian vase illustrative of the <i>Dionysia</i>; -and several other works of great beauty. The undraped -<i>Venus</i> was found—also by Gavin <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span>—at Ostia, in -1775.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The acquisition of the ‘Towneley Venus.’</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>In the next year, 1776, Mr. <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> acquired one of -the chiefest glories of his gallery, the <i>Venus</i> with drapery. -This also was found at Ostia, in the ruins of the Baths -of Claudius. But that superb statue would not have left -Rome had not its happy purchaser made, for once, a -venial deflection from the honourable motto just adverted -to. The figure was found in two severed portions, and -care was taken to show them, quite separately, to the -authorities concerned in granting facilities for their removal. -The same excavation yielded to the Towneley Collection -the statue of <i>Thalia</i>. From the Villa Casali on the Esquiline -were obtained the terminal head of <i>Epicurus</i>, and the -bust thought to be that of <i>Domitia</i>. The bust of <i>Sophocles</i> -was found near Genzano; that of <i>Trajan</i>, in the Campagna; -that of <i>Septimius Severus</i>, on the Palatine, and that -of <i>Caracalla</i> on the Esquiline. A curious cylindrical -fountain (figured in <i>A. M.</i>, i, § 10) was found between -Tivoli and Præneste, and the fine representation in low -<span class='pageno' id='Page_375'>375</span>relief of a <i>Bacchanalian procession</i> (<i>Ib.</i>, part ii) at Civita -Vecchia. All these accessions to the Towneley Gallery -accrued in 1775 or 1776.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Of the date of the Collector’s first return to England -with his treasures I have found no record. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Towneley Gallery in England.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But it would -seem that nearly all the marbles hitherto enumerated were -brought to England in or before the year 1777. The house, -in London, in which they were first placed was found to be -inadequate to their proper arrangement. Mr. <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> -either built or adapted another house, in Park street, Westminster, -expressly for their reception. Here they were seen -under favourable circumstances as to light and due ordering. -They were made accessible to students with genuine -liberality. And few things gave their owner more pleasure -than to put his store of knowledge, as well as his store of -antiquities, at the service of those who wished to profit by -them. He did so genially, unostentatiously, and with -the discriminating tact which marked the high-bred gentleman, -as well as the enthusiastic Collector.</p> - -<p class='c029'>A contemporary critic, very competent to give an opinion -on such a matter, said of Mr. <span class='sc'>Towneley</span>: ‘His learning -and sagacity in explaining works of ancient art was equal -to his taste and judgment in selecting them.’<a id='r62'></a><a href='#f62' class='c030'><sup>[62]</sup></a> If, in any -point, that eulogy is now open to some modification, the -exception arises from the circumstance that early in life, or, -at least, early in his collectorship, he had imbibed from his -intercourse with <span class='sc'>D’Hancarville</span> somewhat of that writer’s -love for mystical and supersubtle expositions of the symbolism -of the Grecian and Egyptian artists. To <span class='sc'>D’Hancarville</span>, -the least obvious of any two possible expositions of a -subject was always the preferable one. Now and then -<span class='pageno' id='Page_376'>376</span><span class='sc'>Towneley</span> would fall into the same vein of recondite elaboration; -as, for example, when he described his figure of an -Egyptian ‘tumbler’ raising himself, upon his arms, from the -back of a tame crocodile, as the ‘Genius of Production.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>During the riots of 1780, the Towneley Gallery (like the -National Museum of which it was afterwards to become a -part) was, for some time, in imminent peril. The Collector -himself could have no enemies but those who were infuriated -against his religious faith. Fanaticism and ignorance are -meet allies, little likely to discriminate between a Towneley -Venus and the tawdriest of Madonnas. Threats to destroy -the house in Park Street were heard and reported. Mr. -<span class='sc'>Towneley</span> put his gems and medals in a place of safety, -together with a few other portable works of art. Then, -taking ‘Clytie’ in his arms—with the words ‘I must take -care of my wife’—he left his house, casting one last, longing, -look at the marbles which, as he feared, would never -charm his eyes again. But, happily, both the Towneley -house and the British Museum escaped injury, amid the -destruction of buildings, and of works of art and literature, -in the close neighbourhood of both of them.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Sculptures acquired from the Villa Montalto at Rome</span>;</div> - -<p class='c029'>Liberal commissions and constant correspondence with -Italy continued to enrich the Towneley Gallery, from time -to time, after the Collector had made England his own -usual place of abode. In 1786, Mr. <span class='sc'>Jenkins</span>—who had -long established himself as the banker of the English in -Rome, and who continued to make considerable investments -in works of ancient art, with no small amount of -mercantile profit—purchased all the marbles of the Villa -Montalto. From this source Mr. <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> obtained his -<i>Bacchus visiting Icarus</i> (engraved by <span class='sc'>Bartoli</span> almost a -century before); his <i>Bacchus and Silenus</i>; the bust of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_377'>377</span><i>Hadrian</i>; the sarcophagus decorated with a <i>Bacchanalian -procession</i> (<i>A. M.</i>, part x), and also that with a representation -of the <i>Nine Muses</i>. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>and from -new Excavations.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -By means of the same keen agent -and explorer he heard, in or about the year 1790, that leave -had been given to make a new excavation under circumstances -of peculiar promise.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Our Collector was at Towneley when the letter of Mr. -<span class='sc'>Jenkins</span> came to hand. He knew his correspondent, and -the tenour of the letter induced him to resolve upon an -immediate journey to Rome. The grass did not grow -under his feet. He travelled as rapidly as though he had -been still a youngster, escaping from Douay, with all the -allurements of Paris in his view.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Journey to Rome of 1790?</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>When he reached Rome, he learnt that the promising -excavation was but just begun upon. Without any preliminary -visits, or announcement, he quietly presented himself -beside the diggers, and ere long had the satisfaction of -seeing a fine statue of Hercules displayed. Other fine works -afterwards came to light. But on visiting Mr. <span class='sc'>Jenkins</span>, -in order to enjoy a more deliberate examination of ‘the find,’ -and to settle the preliminaries of purchase, his enjoyment -was much diminished by the absence of Hercules. <span class='sc'>Jenkins</span> -did not know that his friend had seen it exhumed, and he -carefully concealed it from his view. Eager remonstrance, -however, compelled him to produce the hidden treasure. -<span class='sc'>Towneley</span>, at length, left the banker’s house with the conviction -that the statue was his own, but it never charmed -his sight again until he saw it in the Collection of Lord -<span class='sc'>Lansdowne</span>. He had, however, really secured the <i>Discobolus</i> -or Quoit-thrower,—perhaps, notwithstanding its -restored head, the finest of the known repetitions of -<span class='sc'>Myro’s</span> famous statue,—as well as some minor pieces of -sculpture.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_378'>378</span>Other and very valuable acquisitions were made, occasionally, -at the dispersion of the Collections of several lovers -of ancient art, some of these Collections having been -formed before his time, and others contemporaneously with -his own. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Acquisitions made in England and in France.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -In this way he acquired whilst in England -(1) the bronze statue of <i>Hercules</i> found, early in the -eighteenth century, at Jebel or Gebail (the ancient Byblos), -carried by an Armenian merchant to Constantinople, there -sold to Dr. <span class='sc'>Swinney</span>, a chaplain to the English factory; -by him brought into England, and purchased by Mr. -James <span class='sc'>Matthews</span>; (2) the Head of <i>Arminius</i>, also from -the Matthews Collection; (3) the <i>Libera</i> found by Gavin -<span class='sc'>Hamilton</span>, on the road to Frascati, in 1776, and then -purchased by Mr. <span class='sc'>Greville</span>; (4) Heads of a <i>Muse</i>, an -<i>Amazon</i>, and some other works, from the Collection of Mr. -Lyde <span class='sc'>Browne</span>, of Wimbledon; (5) the <i>Monument of -Xanthippus</i>, from the Askew Collection; (6) the bust of a -female unknown (called by <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> ‘Athys’) found -near Genzano, in the grounds of the family of <span class='sc'>Cesarini</span>, -and obtained from the Collection of the Duke of <span class='sc'>St. -Albans</span>; (7) many urns, vases, and other antiquities, -partly from the Collection of that Duke and partly from -Sir Charles <span class='sc'>Frederick’s</span> Collection at Esher. The bronze -<i>Apollo</i> was bought in Paris, at the sale, in 1774, of the -Museum formed by M. <span class='sc'>L’Allemand de Choiseul</span>.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Some other accessions came to Mr. <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> by gift. -The <i>Tumbler and Crocodile</i>, and the small statue of <i>Pan</i> -(<i>A. M.</i>, pt. x, § 24), were the gift of Lord <span class='sc'>Cawdor</span>. The -<i>Oracle of Apollo</i> was a present from the Duke of <span class='sc'>Bedford</span>. -This accession—in 1804—was the last work which Mr. -<span class='sc'>Towneley</span> had the pleasure of seeing placed in his gallery. -He died in London, on the 3rd of January, 1805.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_379'>379</span>He had been made, in 1791, a Trustee of the British -Museum, in the progress of which he took a great interest. -Family circumstances, as it seems, occurred which at last -dictated a change in the original disposition which he had -made of his Collection. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Mr. Towneley’s Will.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Codicil of 22 Dec., 1804.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -By a Codicil, executed only twelve -days before his death, he bequeathed the Collection to his -only brother Edward <span class='sc'>Towneley-Standish</span>, on condition -that a sum of at least four thousand five hundred pounds -should be expended for the erection of a suitable repository -in which the Collection should be arranged and exhibited. -Failing such expenditure by the brother, the Collection was -to go to John <span class='sc'>Towneley</span>, uncle of the Testator. Should -he decline to fulfil the conditions, then the Collection should -go, according to the Testator’s first intent, to the British -Museum.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Eventually, it appeared, on an application from the -Museum Trustees, that the heirs were willing to transfer -the Collection to the Public, but that Mr. <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> had -left his estate subject to a mortgage debt of £36,500. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Act of 45 Geo. III.</i><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The -Trustees, therefore, resolved to apply to Parliament for a -grant, and this noble Collection was acquired for the Nation -on the payment of the sum of £20,000, very inadequate, -it need scarcely be added, to its intrinsic worth.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Charles <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> possessed considerable skill, both as -a draughtsman and as an engraver. In authorship, his -only public appearance was as the writer of a dissertation -on a relic of antiquity (the ‘Ribchester Helmet’), printed -in the <i>Vetusta Monumenta</i>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>He was a learned, genial, and benevolent man. His intense -love of ancient art did not blind his eyes to things -beyond art, and above it. The impulses of the collector -did not obstruct the duties of the citizen. He was a good -landlord; a generous friend. It may be said of him, with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_380'>380</span>literal truth, that he restricted his personal indulgences in -order that he might the more abundantly minister to the -wants of others.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Charles <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> was buried at Burnley. The following -inscription was placed upon his monument:</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c031'> - <div>M. S.</div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><span class='sc'>Caroli Towneleii</span>,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">viri ornati, modesti,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">nobilitate stirpis, amænitate ingenii, suavitate morum,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">insignis;</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">qui omnium bonarum artium, præsertim Græcarum,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">spectator elegantissimus, æstimator acerrimus, judex peritissimus,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">earum reliquias, ex urbium veterum ruderibus effossas,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">summo studio conquisivit, suâ pecuniâ redemit, in usum patriæ reposuit,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">eâ liberalitate animi, quâ, juvenis adhuc,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">hæreditatem alteram, vix patrimonio minorem,</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">fratri spontè cesserat, dono dederat.</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Vixit annos lxvii. menses iii. dies iii.</span></div> - <div><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Mortem obiit Jan. iii. A.S. 1805.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c029'>Whilst the Trustees of the British Museum were preparing—in -a way that will be hereafter noticed—for the -reception of this noble addition to the public wealth of the -Nation, another liberal-minded scholar and patriot was -considering in what way his collections in the wide field of -classical archæology might be made most contributive to -the progress of learning, of art, and of public education.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Lord Elgin and his Pursuits in Greece.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Thomas <span class='sc'>Bruce</span>, eleventh Earl of Kincardine, and seventh -Earl of Elgin, was born on the 20th of July, 1766. He -was a younger son, but succeeded to his earldoms on the -death, without issue, in 1771, of his elder brother, William -Robert, sixth Earl of Elgin, and tenth of Kincardine. He -was educated at Harrow, at St. Andrew’s, and at Paris; -entered the army in 1785; and in 1790 began his diplomatic -career by a mission to the Emperor Leopold. In -<span class='pageno' id='Page_381'>381</span>subsequent years he was sent as Commissioner to the -armies of Prussia and Austria, successively, and was present -during active military operations, both in Germany and in -Flanders. In 1795 he went as envoy to Berlin.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> was appointed to the embassy to the -Ottoman Porte, with which his name is now inseparably -connected, in July, 1799. One of his earliest reflections -after receiving his appointment was that the mission to -Constantinople might possibly afford opportunities of promoting -the study and thorough examination of the remains -of Grecian art in the Turkish dominions. He consulted -an early friend, Mr. <span class='sc'>Harrison</span>—distinguished as an architect, -who had spent many years of study on the Continent -with much profit—as to the methods by which any such -opportunities might be turned to fullest account. <span class='sc'>Harrison’s</span> -advice to his lordship was that he should seek permission -to employ artists to make casts, as well as -drawings and careful admeasurements, of the best remaining -examples of Greek architecture and sculpture, and more -especially of those at Athens.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Before leaving England, Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> brought this subject -before the Government. He suggested the public value of -the object sought for, and how worthy of the Nation it -would be to give encouragement from public sources for -the employment of a staff of skilful and eminent artists. -But the suggestion was received with no favour or welcome. -He was still unwilling to relinquish his hopes, and -endeavoured to engage, at his own cost, some competent -draughtsmen and modellers. But the terms of remuneration -proposed to him were beyond his available means. -He feared that he must give up his plans.</p> - -<p class='c029'>On reaching Palermo, however, Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> opened the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_382'>382</span>subject to Sir William <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span>, who strongly recommended -him to persevere, and told him that if he could -not afford to meet the terms of English artists, he would -find less difficulty in coming to an agreement with Italians, -whose time commonly bore a smaller commercial value. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Confers with Sir William Hamilton.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -With Sir William’s assistance he engaged, in Sicily, a distinguished -painter and archæologist, John Baptist <span class='sc'>Lusieri</span> -(better known at Naples as ‘Don Tita’), and he obtained -several skilful modellers and draughtsmen from Rome. -The removal of the marbles themselves formed no part of -Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin’s</span> original design. That step was induced by -causes which at this time were unforeseen.</p> - -<p class='c029'>On his arrival at Constantinople Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> applied to -the Turkish Ministers for leave to establish six artists at -Athens to make drawings and casts. He met with many -difficulties and delays, but at length succeeded. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Sends Artists to Athens</span>;<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Mr. -<span class='sc'>Hamilton</span>, his Secretary, accompanied the Italians into -Greece, to superintend the commencement of their labours.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The difficulties at Constantinople proved to be almost -trivial in comparison with those which ensued at Athens. -Every step was met, both by the official persons and the -people generally, with jealousy and obstruction. If a -scaffold was put up, the Turks were sure that it was with a -view to look into the harem of some neighbouring house. -If a fragment of sculpture was examined with any visible -delight or eagerness, they were equally sure that it must -contain hidden gold. When the artist left the specimen -he had been drawing, or modelling, he would find, not infrequently, -that some Turk or other had laid hands upon -it and broken it to pieces. But the artists persevered, and -habit in some degree reconciled, at length, the people to -their presence.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> went himself to Athens the state in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_383'>383</span>which he found some of the temples suggested to him the -desirableness of excavations in the adjacent mounds. He -purchased some houses, expressly to pull them down and -to dig beneath and around them. Sometimes the exploration -brought to light valuable sculpture. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>and makes Explorations by digging.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Sometimes, -in situations of greatest promise, nothing was found.</p> - -<p class='c029'>On one occasion, when the indication of buried sculpture -seemed conclusive, and yet the search for it fruitless, Lord -<span class='sc'>Elgin</span> was induced to ask the former owner of the ground -if he remembered to have seen any figures there. ‘If you -had asked me that before,’ replied the man, ‘I could have -saved you all your trouble. I found the figures, and -pounded them to make mortar with, because they were of -excellent marble. A great part of the Citadel has been -built with mortar made in the same way. That marble -makes capital lime.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The conversation was not lost upon Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span>. And -the assertion made in it was amply corroborated by facts -which presently came under his own eyes. He became -convinced that when fine sculpture was found it would be -a duty to remove it, if possible, rather than expose it to -certain destruction—a little sooner or a little later—from -Turkish barbarity.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Explorations extended to other parts of Greece.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>At intervals the artists, whose head-quarters were at -Athens, made exploring trips to other parts of Greece. -They visited Delphi, Corinth, Epidaurus, Argos, Mycene, -Cape Sigæum, Olympia, Æginæ, Salamis, and Marathon.</p> - -<p class='c029'>But it was only by means of renewed efforts at Constantinople, -and after a long delay, that the artists and their assistant -labourers were enabled to act with freedom and -to make thorough explorations. So long as the French -remained masters of Egypt Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> had to win every -<span class='pageno' id='Page_384'>384</span>little concession piecemeal, and obtained it grudgingly. As -soon as it became apparent that the British Expedition -would be finally successful, the tone of the Turkish government -was entirely altered. They were now eager to satisfy -the Ambassador, and to lay him under obligation. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Influence of the British Victories in Egypt.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Firmauns -were given, which empowered him, not only to make models, -but ‘to take away any pieces of stone from the temples of -the idols with old inscriptions or figures thereon,’ at his -pleasure. Instructions were sent to Athens which had the -effect of making the Acropolis itself a scene of busy and -well-rewarded labour. Theretofore a heavy admission fee -had been exacted at each visit of the draughtsmen or -modellers. Before the close of 1802, more than three -hundred labourers were at work under the direction of -<span class='sc'>Lusieri</span>—with results which are familiar to the world.</p> - -<p class='c029'>It is less widely known that, had <span class='sc'>Napoleon’s</span> plans in -Egypt been carried to a prosperous issue, the ‘Elgin Marbles’ -would, beyond all doubt, have become French marbles. -When Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin’s</span> operations began, French agents were -actually resident in Athens, awaiting the turn of events -and prepared to profit by it, in the way of resuming the -operations which M. <span class='sc'>de Choiseul Gouffier</span> had long previously -begun.<a id='r63'></a><a href='#f63' class='c030'><sup>[63]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Instances of Turkish Devastation.</span></div> - -<div class='sidenote'>1674.</div> - -<p class='c029'>The efforts of the British Ambassador became the more -timely and imperative from the fact that no amount of -experience or warning was sufficient to deter the Turks from -<span class='pageno' id='Page_385'>385</span>their favourite practice of converting the finest of the Greek -Temples into powder magazines. -Twenty of the metopes -of the northern side of the Parthenon had been, in consequence -of this practice, destroyed by an explosion during -the Venetian siege of Athens in the seventeenth century. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>1800.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The Temple of Neptune was found by Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> -devoted to the same use, at the beginning of the nineteenth.</p> - -<p class='c029'>No methods of extending his researches, so as to make -them as nearly exhaustive as the circumstances would admit, -were overlooked by the ambassador. Through the friendship -of the Capitan Pasha, Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> had already, whilst -yet at the Dardanelles, obtained the famous Boustrophedon -inscription from Cape Sigæum. Through the friendship of -the Archbishop of Athens, he now procured leave to search -the churches and convents of Attica, and the search led to -his possession of many of the minor but very interesting -works of sculpture and architecture which came eventually -to England along with the marbles of the Parthenon.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Of the curious range and variety of the dangers to which -the remains of ancient art were exposed under Turkish rule, -the Boustrophedon inscription just mentioned affords an -instance worth noting. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Memoranda on the Earl of Elgin’s Pursuits in Greece, &c.</i>, p. 35.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> found it in use as a -seat, or couch, at the door of a Greek chapel, to which persons -afflicted with ague or rheumatism were in the habit of -resorting, in order to recline on this marble, which, in their -eyes, possessed a mysterious and curative virtue. The seat -was so placed as to lift the patient into a much purer air -than that which he had been wont to breathe below, and it -commanded a most cheerful sea-view; but it was the ill fate -of the inscription to have a magical fame, instead of the -atmosphere. Constant rubbing had already half obliterated -<span class='pageno' id='Page_386'>386</span>its contents. But for Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span>, the whole would soon -have disappeared. At Athens itself, the loftier of the sculptures -in the Acropolis enjoyed equal favour in the eyes of -Turkish marksmen, as affording excellent targets.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In the course of various excavations made, not only at -Athens, but at Æginæ, Argos, and Corinth, a large collection -of vases was also formed. It was the first collection -which sufficed, incontestibly, to vindicate the claim of the -Greeks to the invention of that beautiful ware, to which -the name of ‘Etruscan’ was so long and so inaccurately -given.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>Ibid.</i>, 31.</div> - -<p class='c029'>One of the most interesting of the many minor discoveries -made in the course of Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin’s</span> researches -comprised a large marble vase, five feet in circumference, -which enclosed a bronze vase of thirteen inches diameter. -In this were found a lachrymatory of alabaster and a deposit -of burnt bones, with a myrtle-wreath finely wrought in gold. -This discovery was made in a tumulus on the road -leading from Port Piræus to the Salaminian Ferry and -Eleusis.</p> - -<p class='c035'>Early in 1803, all the sculptured marbles from the -Parthenon which it was found practicable to remove were -prepared for embarkation. Both of those so prepared and -of the few that were left, casts had been made, together -with a complete series of drawings to scale. That great -monument of art had been exhaustively studied, with the -aid of all the information that could be gathered from the -drawings made by the French artist, <span class='sc'>Carrey</span>, in 1674, -and those of the English architect, <span class='sc'>Stuart</span>, in 1752. A -general monumental survey of Athens and Attica was also -compiled and illustrated.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The original frieze, in low relief, of the <i>cella</i> of the Parthenon—representing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_387'>387</span>the chief festive solemnity of Athens, -the Panathenaic procession—had extended, in the whole, to -about five hundred and twenty feet in length. That portion -which eventually reached England amounted to two -hundred and fifty feet. And of this a considerable part was -obtained by excavations. Of a small portion of the remainder -casts were brought. But the bulk of it had been -long before destroyed. Of the statues which adorned the -pediments a large portion had also perished, yet enough -survived to indicate the design and character of the whole. -Of statues and fragments of statues, seventeen were brought -to England. Of metopes in high relief, from the frieze of -the entablature, fourteen were brought.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The difficulties of Transport and the Shipwreck at Cerigo.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Thus far, an almost incredible amount of effort and toil -had been rewarded by a result large enough to dwarf all -previous researches of a like kind. But the difficulties and -dangers of the task were very far from being ended. The -ponderous marbles had to be carried from Athens to the -Piræus. There was neither machinery for lifting, nor appliances -for haulage. There were no roads. The energy, -however, which had wrestled with so many previous obstacles -triumphed over these. But only to encounter new -peril in the shape of a fierce storm at sea.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Part of the Elgin Marbles had been at length embarked -in the ship, purchased at Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin’s</span> own cost, in which -Mr. <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> sailed for England, carrying with him also -his drawings and journals. The vessel was wrecked near -Cerigo. Seven cases of sculpture sunk with the ship. -Only four, out of the eleven embarked in the <i>Mentor</i>, were -saved, along with the papers and drawings. Meanwhile, -Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> himself, on his homeward journey, was, upon -the rupture of the Peace of Amiens, arrested and ‘detained’ -in France.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_388'>388</span>If the reader will now recall to mind, for an instant, the -mortifications and discouragements, as well as the incessant -toils, which had attended this attempt to give to the whole -body of English artists, archæologists, and students, advantages -which theretofore only a very small and exceptionally -fortunate knot of them could enjoy, or hope to -enjoy, he will, perhaps, incline to think that enough had -been done for honour. The casts and drawings had been -saved. The removal of marbles had formed no part of -Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin’s</span> first design. It was only when proof had -come—plain as the noonday sun—that to remove was to -preserve, and to preserve, not for England alone, but for the -civilised world, that leave to carry away was sought from -the Turkish authorities, and removal resolved upon.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Entreaty to the British Government that the thorough -exploration of the Peloponnesus, by the draughtsman and -the modeller, should be made a national object, had been -but so much breath spent in vain. Private resources had -then been lavished, beyond the bounds of prudence, to -confer a public boon. Personal hardships and popular -animosities had been alike met by steady courage and quiet -endurance. All kinds of local obstacle had been conquered. -And now some of the most precious results of so -much toil and outlay lay at the bottom of the sea. The -chief toiler was a prisoner in France.</p> - -<p class='c029'>But Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> was not yet beaten. He came of a -tough race. He was—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘One of the few, the letter’d and the brave,</div> - <div class='line'>Bound to no clime, and victors o’er the grave.’</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c034'><span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Lord Elgin branded, in England, as a Robber.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The buried marbles were raised, at the cost of two more -years of labour, and after an expenditure, in the long effort, -of nearly five thousand pounds, in addition to the original -loss of the ship. Then a storm of another sort had to be -<span class='pageno' id='Page_389'>389</span>faced in its turn. A burst of anger, classical and poetical, -declared the ambassador to be, not a benefactor, but a thief. -The gale blew upon him from many points. The author -of the <i>Classical Tour through Italy</i> declared that Lord -<span class='sc'>Elgin’s</span> ‘rapacity is a crime against all ages and all generations; -depriving the Past of the trophies of their genius -and the title-deeds of their fame, the Present of the strongest -inducements to exertion.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Eustace, <i>Classical Tour</i>, p. 269.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The author of <i>Childe Harold’s -Pilgrimage</i> declared that, for all time, the spoiler’s name -(the glorious name of <span class='sc'>Bruce</span>)—</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>Byron, <i>Curse of Minerva</i>, § 7.</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘Link’d with the fool’s who fired th’ Ephesian dome—</div> - <div class='line'>Vengeance shall follow far beyond the tomb.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Erostratus</span> and <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> e’er shall shine</div> - <div class='line'>In many a branding page and burning line!</div> - <div class='line'>Alike condemn’d for aye to stand accurs’d—</div> - <div class='line'>Perchance the second viler than the first.</div> - <div class='line'>So let him stand, through ages yet unborn,</div> - <div class='line'>Fix’d statue on the pedestal of scorn!’</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c034'>That the abuse might have variety, as well as vigour, a very -learned Theban broke in with the remark that there was no -need, after all, to make such a stir about the matter. The -much-bruited marbles were of little value, whether in -England or in Greece. If Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> was, indeed, a -spoiler, he was also an ignoramus. His bepraised sculptures, -instead of belonging to the age of <span class='sc'>Pericles</span>, belonged, -at earliest, to that of <span class='sc'>Hadrian</span>; far from bearing -traces of the hand of <span class='sc'>Phidias</span>, they were, at best, mere -‘architectonic sculptures, the work of many different persons, -some of whom would not have been entitled to the rank of -artists, even in a much less cultivated and fastidious age.... -<span class='sc'>Phidias</span> did not work in marble at all.’ These -oracular sentences, and many more of a like cast, were -given to the world under the sanction of the ‘Society of -Dilettanti.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_390'>390</span>The equanimity which had stood so many severer tests -did not desert its possessor under a tempest of angry words. -When set at liberty, after a long detention in France, he -resumed his journey. On his eventual arrival in England, -in 1806, he brought with him a valuable collection of gems -and medals, gathered at Constantinople. He also brought -some valuable counsels as to the mode in which he might -best make the Athenian Marbles useful to the progress of -art, obtained in Rome.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Lord Elgin’s Conference with Canova.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>For, at Rome, he had been enabled to show a sample of -his acquisitions to a man who was something more than a -dilettante. ‘These,’ said <span class='sc'>Canova</span>, ‘are the works of the -ablest artists the world has seen.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>When consulted on the point whether restoration should, -in any instance, be attempted, the reply of the great Italian -sculptor was in these words: ‘The Parthenon Marbles have -never been retouched. It would be sacrilege in me—sacrilege -in any man—to put a chisel on them.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> came to England with the intention of offering -his whole Collection to the British Government, unconditionally. -He was ready to forget the short-sightedness with -which his proposal of 1799 had been met. He was prepared -to trust to the liberality of Parliament, and to the -force of public opinion, for the reimbursement of his outlay, -and the fair reward of his toil. The ambassador was not -in a position to sacrifice the large sums of money he had -spent. He could not afford the proud joy of giving to -Britain, entirely at his own cost, a boon such as no man, -before him, had had the power of giving. There were conflicting -duties lying upon him, such as are not to be put -aside. That British artists—in one way or another—should -profit by the grand exemplars of art which he -had saved from Turkish musquetry and the Turkish -<span class='pageno' id='Page_391'>391</span>lime-kilns, was the one thing towards which his face was -set.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When first imprisoned in France, Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> did actually -send a direction to England that his Collection should -be made over, unconditionally, to the British Government. -This order was sent, to guard against the possible effect of -any casualty that might happen during his detention, the -duration of which was then very problematical. He reached -England, however, before the instruction had been carried -into effect. In the mean time, the controversy about the -real value of the Marbles, as well as that which impugned -the Collector’s right to remove them from Athens, had -arisen, and had excited public attention. It became important -to elicit an enlightened opinion on those points, -before raising the question how the sculpture should be -finally disposed of.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The ignorance of essential facts—which alone made such -reproaches<a id='r64'></a><a href='#f64' class='c030'><sup>[64]</sup></a> as those I have just quoted possible from a man -devoid of malice, and gifted with genius—was a far less -stubborn obstacle in Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin’s</span> intended path than was -the one-sided learning (one-sided as far as true art and its -appreciation are concerned) which dictated the sneering -utterances of some among the ‘Dilettanti.’ A <span class='sc'>Byron</span>, by -his nature, is open to conviction, sooner or later, in his -own despite. A connoisseur, when narrow and scornful, -is above reason. And he is eminently reproductive.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The action of the Trustees of the British Museum on the Towneley Bequest.</span> 1805–1806.</div> - -<p class='c029'>But for this stumbling-block in the path, the time -of Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin’s</span> return to England would have been -eminently favourable for realising his plans in their -fulness.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The two important accessions of antiquities to the British -Museum which had just accrued from the success of our -<span class='pageno' id='Page_392'>392</span>arms in Egypt, and from the almost life-long researches of -Mr. <span class='sc'>Towneley</span> and his associates in Italy, had led the way -to an important enlargement of the Museum building, and -also to a great improvement in its internal organization. -The true importance, to the Public, of a series of the best -works of ancient art as a national possession was beginning -to be felt.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In June, 1805, the Trustees obtained from Parliament -the purchase of the Towneley Marbles. They had already -(in the previous year) obtained power to begin an additional -building, the plan and design of which were now enlarged, -and made specially appropriate to the reception and display -of the Towneley Collection.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Organization of the Department of Antiquities.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Hitherto, the Antiquities in the Museum had been regarded -as a mere appendix of the Natural History Collections. -They were now made a separate department, in -accordance with their intrinsic value. Mr. Taylor <span class='sc'>Combe</span>, -who had entered the service of the Trustees, in 1803, as an -assistant librarian, was made first Keeper of the new -department. He filled that office, with much efficiency, -until his death in 1826.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The new building or ‘Towneley Gallery’ was opened by -a royal visit on the third of June, 1808. The Queen, the -Prince of Wales, the Dukes of Cumberland and Cambridge, -came to the Museum with a considerable retinue, and were -received, with much ceremony, by a Committee of the -Trustees. The Queen had not visited the Museum for -twenty years past.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Towneley Gallery was erected from the designs of -Mr. <span class='sc'>Saunders</span>, and was admirably adapted to its purpose. -Some of the sculptures have not been seen to quite equal -advantage since its replacement by the existing building. -The addition has now disappeared as entirely as has old -<span class='pageno' id='Page_393'>393</span>Montagu House itself, but the reader may see its form and -style by glancing at the small vignette on the title-page of -this volume.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Opening of the Elgin Marbles at Burlington House.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>So favourable an opportunity, however, was for the -present lost. The self-conceit of the cognoscenti strengthened -the too obvious parsimony of Parliament. Lord -<span class='sc'>Elgin</span> made no direct overture to the Government, but -appealed to the great body of artists, of students, and of art -lovers, for their verdict on his labours in Greece and their -product. He arranged his marbles first in his own house -in Park Lane, and afterwards—for the sake of better exhibition—at -Burlington House, in Piccadilly, and threw them -open to public view. The voice of the artists was as the -voice of one man. Some, who were at the top of the tree, -acknowledged a wish that it were possible to begin their -studies over again. Others, who had but begun to climb, -felt their ardour redoubled and their ambition directed to -nobler aims in art than had before been thought of. Not -a few careers, arduous and honourable, took their life-long -colour from what was then seen at Burlington House. -Some of the men most strongly influenced were not what -the world calls successful, but not one of them ended his -career without making England the richer by his work.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The eagerness of foreign artists to study the Elgin -Marbles was equal to that of Englishmen. <span class='sc'>Canova</span>, when -on his visit to London in 1815, wrote: ‘I think that I -can never see them often enough. Although my stay must -be extremely short, I dedicate every moment I can spare -to their contemplation. I admire in them the truth of -nature, united to the choice of the finest forms.... I -should feel perfectly satisfied, if I had come to London -only to see them.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_394'>394</span>The most accomplished of foreign archæologists were not -less decisive in their testimony. <span class='sc'>Visconti</span>, after seeing and -studying repeatedly a small portion only of the Parthenon -frieze, said of it: ‘This has always seemed to me to be the -most perfect production of the sculptor’s art in its kind.’ -When he saw the whole, his delight was unbounded.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Collector was not able to carry out his plan of exhibition, -in any part of it, to the full extent which he had -contemplated.</p> - -<p class='c029'>He was anxious that casts of the whole of the extant -sculptures of the Parthenon should be exhibited, in the same -relative situation to the eye of the viewer which they had -originally occupied in the Temple at Athens. He was also -desirous that a public competition of sculptors should be -provided for, in order to a series of comparative restorations -of the perfect work, based upon other casts of its surviving -portions, and wrought in presence of the remains of the -authentic sculpture itself.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Continuance of the labours of Lusieri at Athens, until 1816.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Meanwhile, the chief of the artists employed in the work -of drawing and modelling continued his labours at Athens, -and in its vicinity, for more than twelve years after Lord -<span class='sc'>Elgin’s</span> departure from Constantinople. Between the years -1811 and 1816, inclusive, eighty cases containing sculpture, -casts, drawings, and other works of art, were added to the -Elgin Collection in London.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In the year last named, when the question of artistic -value had already been very effectively determined by the -cumulative force of enlightened opinion, a Select Committee -of the House of Commons was at length appointed, to -inquire whether it were expedient that Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin’s</span> Collection -‘should be purchased on behalf of the Public, and, if -so, what price it may be reasonable to allow for the same.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><i>Report on Earl of Elgin’s Collection</i> (1816), p. 8.</div> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_395'>395</span>By this Committee it was reported to the House that -‘several of the most eminent artists in this kingdom rate -these marbles in the very first class of ancient art; ... -speak of them with admiration and enthusiasm; and, notwithstanding -their manifold injuries, ... and mutilations, ... consider them as among the finest models and most -exquisite monuments of antiquity.’ It was also reported -that their removal to England had been explicitly authorised -by the Turkish Government. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, p. 16.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The Committee further -recommended their purchase for the Public at the sum of -thirty-five thousand pounds; and that the Earl of <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> -and his heirs (being Earls of Elgin) should be perpetual -Trustees of the British Museum. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, p. 27.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And the Committee expressed, -in conclusion, its hope that the Elgin Marbles might -long serve as models and examples to those who, by knowing -how to revere and appreciate them, may first learn to -imitate, and ultimately to rival them. On the 1st of July, -1816, the Act for effecting the purchase was passed by the -Legislature. I do not know that any one member of the -Society of Dilettanti really regretted the fact. But it is -certain that by a very eminent connoisseur on the Continent -it was much regretted. The King of Bavaria had already -lodged a sum of thirty thousand pounds in an English -banking house, by way of securing a pre-emption, should -the controversy amongst the connoisseurs on this side of the -Channel, of which so much had been heard, lead the British -Parliament eventually to decline the purchase.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The nearest estimate that could be formed in 1816 of -Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin’s</span> outlay, from first to last, amounted to upwards -of fifty thousand pounds. And the interest on that -outlay, at subsisting rates, amounted to about twenty-four -thousand pounds. Upon merely commercial principles, -therefore, the mark of honour affixed by Parliament to the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_396'>396</span>Earldom of Elgin was abundantly earned. By every other -estimate, Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> had done more than enough to keep -his name, for ever, in the roll of British worthies. And, -as all men know, he had a worthy successor in that honoured -title. The name of <span class='sc'>Elgin</span>, instead of ranking, according -to <span class='sc'>Byron’s</span> prophecy, with that of <span class='sc'>Erostratus</span>, has already -become a name not less revered in the Indies, and in -America, than in Britain itself.</p> - -<p class='c035'>For nearly half a century, Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> was one of the -Representative Peers of Scotland. After his great achievement -was completed, he took but little part in public life. The -most curious incident of his later years was his election as -a Member of the Society of Dilettanti, twenty-five years -after his return from the Levant. The election was made -without his knowledge. When the fact was intimated to -him, he wrote to the Secretary to decline the honour. After -a brief and dignified allusion to his efforts in Greece, he -went on to say:—‘Had it been thought—twenty-five years -ago, or at any reasonable time afterwards—that the same -energy would be considered useful to the Dilettanti Society, -most happy should I have been to contribute every aid in -my power; but such expectation has long since past. I do -not apprehend that I shall be thought fastidious, if I decline -the honour now proposed to me at this my eleventh hour.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The Collector of the Elgin Marbles died in England on -the fourteenth of October, 1841.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Marbles of Phigaleia.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>During the long period which had thus intervened -between the first exhibition to the Public of the sculptures -from the Temple of Minerva and their final acquisition for -the national Museum, an inferior but valuable series of -Greek marbles was obtained from Phigaleia, in Arcadia. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_397'>397</span>They were the fruit of the joint researches, in 1812, of the -late eminent architect, Mr. Charles Robert <span class='sc'>Cockerell</span>, -Mr. John <span class='sc'>Foster</span>, Mr. <span class='sc'>Lee</span>, Mr. Charles <span class='sc'>Haller von -Hallerstein</span>, and Mr. James <span class='sc'>Linkh</span>, who, in that year, -had become fellow-travellers in Greece, and partners in the -work of exploration for antiquities.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The temple to which these marbles had belonged, and -beneath the ruins of which they were found, stands on a -ridge clothed with oak trees on one of the slopes of Mount -Cotylium. The scenery which surrounds it is of great -beauty. The temple itself has long been a ruin. It was -the work of <span class='sc'>Ictinus</span>, the builder of the Parthenon. One -portion of the frieze of its <i>cella</i> represents the battles of the -Centaurs and the Lapithæ—the subject of the metopes of -the Parthenon entablature. The remaining portion illustrates -another series of mythic contests—that of the Athenians -and the Amazons.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The extent of this frieze, in its integrity, was about a -hundred and eight feet in length, by two feet one and a -quarter inches in height. About ninety-six lineal feet were -found, broken into innumerable fragments, but susceptible, -as it proved—by dint of skill and of marvellous patience—of -almost entire reunion, so that no restoration was -needed to bring the subject of the sculpture into perfect -intelligibility.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Excavations on Mount Cotylium.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Mr. <span class='sc'>Cockerell</span>, one of the most active of the explorers -of 1812, had to proceed to Sicily whilst his fellows in the -enterprise carried on the toils of digging and removal. But -it is from his pen that we have a charming little notice of -the progress of the work, and of the amusements which -enlivened it. ‘I regret’ wrote Mr. <span class='sc'>Cockerell</span>, ‘that I was -not of that delightful party at Phigaleia, which amounted -to above fifteen persons. They established themselves, for -<span class='pageno' id='Page_398'>398</span>three months, on the top of Mount Cotylium—where there -is a grand prospect over nearly all Arcadia—building, round -the Temple, huts covered with boughs of trees, until they -had almost formed a village, which they called Francopolis. -They had frequently fifty or eighty men at work in the -Temple, and a band of Arcadian music was constantly -playing to entertain this numerous assemblage. When -evening put an end to work, dances and songs commenced; -lambs were roasted whole on a long wooden spit; and the -whole scene in such a situation, at such an interesting time, -when, every day, some new and beautiful sculpture was -brought to light, is hardly to be imagined. Apollo must -have wondered at the carousals which disturbed his long -repose, and have thought that his glorious days of old were -returned.’</p> - -<div class='sidenote'>Cockerell to ...; printed by Hughes, <i>Travels in Greece</i>, vol. i, p. 194.</div> - -<p class='c029'>‘The success of our enterprise,’ continues Mr. <span class='sc'>Cockerell</span>, -‘astonished every one, and in all circumstances connected -with it good fortune attended us.’ One of these -circumstances, however—that of the mixed nationality of -the discoverers—put, it must be added, some difficulty in -the way towards accomplishing an earnest wish, on the -part of the English sharers in the adventure, that England -should be made the final home of the Phigaleian sculptures. -Two Germans, as we have seen, were active partners in the -exploration. A third, Mr. <span class='sc'>Gropius</span>, had likewise some interest -in it. And there was also a more formidable sleeping -partner in the rich digging. <span class='sc'>Vely</span> Pasha had stipulated that -he was to have one half of the marbles discovered, as the -price of his licence to explore. But, very fortunately, one -of the ordinary changes in Turkish policy at Constantinople -removed <span class='sc'>Vely</span> from his government, just at the critical -moment; and so made him anxious to sell his share, and to -facilitate the removal of the spoil. The new Pasha had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_399'>399</span>heard of the discoveries, and was hastening to lay hands -upon the whole. But he was too late.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The marbles were removed to Zante. The German proprietors -insisted on a public sale by auction. There was -not time to bring the matter before Parliament. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The Transfer of the Marbles of Phigaleia to Zante;</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -But the -Prince Regent took an active interest in it. With his -sanction, and mainly by the exertions of Mr. W. R. -<span class='sc'>Hamilton</span> (afterwards a zealous Trustee of the British -Museum), some members of the Government authorised the -despatch of Mr. Taylor <span class='sc'>Combe</span> to Zante. By him the -marbles were purchased, at the price of sixty thousand -dollars; but that sum was enhanced by an unfavourable -exchange, so that the actual payment amounted to nineteen -thousand pounds. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>and to England.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It was paid out of the Droits of the -Admiralty,—a fund of questionable origin, and one which -had been many times grossly abused, but which, on this -occasion, subserved a great national advantage.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The marbles thus obtained are confessedly inferior to -those of the Parthenon; but they possess great beauty, as -well as great archæological value. Both acquisitions, in -their place, have contributed to increase historic knowledge, -not less conspicuously than to develop artistic power, or to -enlighten critical judgment, both in art and in literature. It -would not be an easy task to estimate to what degree a -mastery of the learning which is to be acquired only from -the marbles of Attica and of Arcadia, and their like, has -tended to make the study of Greek books a living and life-giving -study.</p> - -<p class='c029'>To the sculptures brought from Phigaleia into England -in 1815, several missing fragments have been added subsequently. -A peasant living near Paulizza had carried off a -piece of the frieze to decorate, or to hallow, his hut. This fragment -was procured by Mr. Spencer <span class='sc'>Stanhope</span> in 1816. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_400'>400</span>The Chevalier <span class='sc'>Bröndsted</span> added other fragments in 1824. -Only one entire slab of the original sculpture is wanting.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Purchase of the second Towneley Collection, 1814.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Almost contemporaneously with the accessions which -came to the Museum as the result of the explorations in -1814 of Mr. <span class='sc'>Cockerell</span> and his fellow-travellers in -Arcadia, a considerable addition was made to the Towneley -Gallery by the purchase of a large series of bronzes, gems, -and drawings, and of a cabinet of coins and medals, both -Greek and Roman, all of which had been formed by the -Collector of the Marbles. These were purchased from Mr. -<span class='sc'>Towneley’s</span> representatives for the sum of eight thousand -two hundred pounds. Among other conspicuous additions, -made from time to time, a few claim special mention. Among -these are the <i>Cupid</i>, acquired from the representatives of -Edmund <span class='sc'>Burke</span>; the <i>Jupiter</i> and <i>Leda</i>, in low relief, -bought of Colonel de <span class='sc'>Bosset</span>; and the <i>Apollo</i>, bought in -Paris, at the sale of the Choiseul Collection.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Minor Antiquities of the Elgin Collection.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Among the minor Greek antiquities which came to the -British Museum in 1816, along with the sculptures of the -Parthenon, are the fine Caryatid figure, and the very beautiful -Ionic capitals, bases, and fragments of shafts, from the -double temple of the Erectheium and Pandrosos at Athens,—part -of which, like the Temple of Neptune, was used by -the Turks, in Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin’s</span> time, as a powder-magazine. -Acquisitions still more valuable than these were the grand -fragment of the colossal <i>Bacchus</i> in feminine attire, which -Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span> brought from the Choragic monument of -Thrasyllus; the statue of <i>Icarus</i> (identified by comparison -with a well-known low-relief in rosso antico formerly preserved -in the Albani Collection); and the noble series of -casts from the frieze of the Theseium and from that of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_401'>401</span>Choragic monument of Lysicrates. The Collection also -included many statues’ heads and fragments of great -archæological interest, but of which the original localities -are for the most part unknown, and a considerable series of -sepulchral urns.</p> - -<p class='c029'>After the Elgin Marbles, the next important acquisition -in the Department of Antiquities was that made by the purchase, -in 1819, of the famous ‘<i>Apotheosis of Homer</i>.’ -This marble had been found, almost two centuries before, -at Frattocchi (the ancient ‘Bovillæ’), about ten miles from -Rome on the Appian road, and had long been counted -among the choicest ornaments of the Colonna Palace. It -cost the Trustees one thousand pounds. Then, in 1825, -came the noble bequest of Mr. Richard Payne <span class='sc'>Knight</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>When the treasures of Mr. Payne <span class='sc'>Knight</span> came to be -added to the several Collections made, during the preceding -fifty years, by <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span>, <span class='sc'>Towneley</span>, and <span class='sc'>Elgin</span>, as well -as to those which the British army had won in Egypt, or -which were due, in the main, to the research and energy of -our travelling fellow-countrymen, the national storehouse -may fairly be said to have passed from its nonage into -maturity. The Elgin Collection had, of itself, sufficed to -lift the British Museum into the first rank among its peers. -But the antiquarian treasures of the Museum showed many -gaps. Some important additions, indeed, had been made, -from time to time, to the class of Egyptian antiquities. -And a small foundation had been laid of what is now -the superb Assyrian Gallery. Rich in certain classes of -archæology, it remained, nevertheless, poor in certain -others. In 1825, it came to the front in all.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Life, Writings, and Collections, of R. Payne Knight.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Richard Payne <span class='sc'>Knight</span> is one of the many men who, in -all probability, would have attained more eminent and -enduring distinction had he been less impetuous and more -<span class='pageno' id='Page_402'>402</span>concentrated in its pursuit. He went in for all the honours. -He aimed to be conspicuous, at once, as archæologist and -philosopher, critic and poet, politician and dictator-general -in matters of art and of taste. He was ready to give judgment, -at any moment, and without appeal, whether the -question at issue concerned the decoration of a landscape, -the summing-up of the achievement of a <span class='sc'>Homer</span>, or a -<span class='sc'>Phidias</span>, or the system of the universe.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight</span> was born in 1749, and was the son of a -landed man, of good property, whose estates were chiefly in -Wiltshire, and who possessed a borough ‘interest’ in Ludlow. -His constitution was so weakly, and his chance of -attaining manhood seemed so doubtful, that his father would -not allow him to go to any school, or to be put to much -study at home. It was only after his father’s death, and -when he had entered his fourteenth year, that his education -can be said to have begun. Within three years of his first -appearance in any sort of school, he went into Italy; substituting -for the university the grand tour. Only when he -was approaching eighteen years of age did he fairly set to -work to learn Greek. But he studied it with a will, and to -good purpose.</p> - -<p class='c029'>After remaining on the Continent about six or seven -years, Mr. Payne <span class='sc'>Knight</span> removed to England, and went -to live at Downton Castle. He took delight in the management -of his land, proved himself to be a kind landlord as -well as a skilful one, and convinced his neighbours that a -man might love Greek and yet ride well to hounds. When -returned to Parliament for the neighbouring borough, he -attached himself to the Whigs, and more particularly to -that section of them who supported <span class='sc'>Burke</span> in his demands -for economical reform. When in London, he gave constant -attention to his parliamentary duty, and when in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_403'>403</span>country, foxhunting, hospitality, and the improvement of -his estate, had their fair share of his time. But, at all -periods of life, his love of reading was insatiable. When -there was no hunting and no urgent business, he could read -for ten hours at a stretch.</p> - -<p class='c029'>He had reached his thirty-sixth year before he made the -first beginning of his museum of antiquities. The primitive -acquisition was a head, unknown—probably of <i>Diomede</i>—which -was discovered at Rome in 1785. It is in -brass, of early Greek work, and was bought of <span class='sc'>Jenkins</span>. -Despite the doubt which exists as to the personage, there are -many known copies of this fine head upon ancient pastes -and gems. In the following year, Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight</span> made his -first appearance as an author.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Early Writings of Mr. Payne Knight.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The <i>Inquiry into the remains of the Worship of Priapus, -as existing at Isernia, in the Kingdom of Naples</i>, treated of -a subject which scarcely any one will now think to have -been well chosen, as the first fruits or earnest of a scholarly -career. When a French critic said of it ‘a maiden-work, -but little virgin-like (<i>peu virginal</i>)’ he expressed, pithily, -the usual opinion of the very small circle of readers at home -to whom the book became known. The author eventually -called in the impression, so far as lay in his power, and the -book is now one of the many ‘rarities’ which might well -be still more rare than they are.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In 1791, he gave to the world another work on a classical -subject which possessed real value, and, amongst scholars, -attracted much attention. The <i>Analytical Essay on the -Greek Alphabet</i> is a treatise which, in its day, rendered -good service to grammatical learning, and led to more. It -was followed, in 1794, by <i>The Landscape, a Poem</i>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘The Landscape’ is an elaborate protest against the then -fashionable modes of gardening, which sought to ‘improve’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_404'>404</span>nature, almost as much by replacement as by selection. On -many points the poem is marked by good sense and just -thought, as well as by vigour of expression, but its reasoning -is far superior to its poetry. What is said of the choice -and growth of trees shows thorough knowledge of the -subject and true taste. But it needs no poet to convict -‘Capability <span class='sc'>Brown</span>’ of ignorance in his own pursuit when -he insisted on ‘the careful removal of every token of decay’ -as a cardinal maxim in landscape-gardening. Such topics -may well be left to plain prose.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The one notable feature in the poem which has still an -interest is its curious indication of that peculiarity in Mr. -<span class='sc'>Knight’s</span> creed which asserted—in relation both to the -works of nature and to those of art—that beauty is absolutely -inconsistent with vastness. The excessive love of -the minute and delicate led Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight</span> into the greatest -practical error of his public life, as will be seen presently. -At this time it merely led him to the bold assertion that no -mountain ought to dare to lift its head so high as to—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘Shame the high-spreading oak, or lofty tower.’</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c034'>The lines which follow are, it will be seen, curiously prophetic -of that controversy about the Marbles of the Parthenon -in which Mr. Payne <span class='sc'>Knight</span> took so large a share:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘But as vain painters, destitute of skill,</div> - <div class='line'>Large sheets of canvas with large figures fill,</div> - <div class='line'>And think with shapes gigantic to supply</div> - <div class='line'>Grandeur of form, and grace of symmetry,</div> - <div class='line'>So the rude gazer ever thinks to find</div> - <div class='line'>The view sublime, when vast and undefined.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line c002'>’Tis form, not magnitude, adorns the scene.</div> - <div class='line'>A hillock may be grand, and the vast Andes mean.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line c002'>Oft have I heard the silly traveller boast</div> - <div class='line'>The grandeur of Ontario’s endless coast;</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_405'>405</span>Where, far as he could dart his wandering eye,</div> - <div class='line'>He nought but boundless water could descry.</div> - <div class='line'>With equal reason, Keswick’s favoured pool</div> - <div class='line'>Is made the theme of every wondering fool.’</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c029'>Within a few months, this poem—little as it is now remembered—went -through two editions. It was soon followed -by a more ambitious flight. In 1796, its author published -‘<i>The Progress of Civil Society; a didactic poem</i>.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The impression which had been made, in that day of -feeble verse (as far as the southern part of the realm is -concerned), by <i>The Landscape</i>, gained for <i>The Progress of -Civil Society</i> an amount of attention of which it was intrinsically -unworthy. The work deals with social progress, -and it treats the convictions dearest to Christian men as -being simply the conjectures of ‘presumptuous ignorance.’ -It is the work of a man who writes after nine generations -of his ancestors and countrymen have had a free and open -Bible in their hands, and who none the less puts the worship -of Nature, and of her copyists, in the place of the -worship of Nature’s God. This ‘didactic poem’ is written -in the land of <span class='sc'>Bacon</span>, <span class='sc'>Milton</span>, and <span class='sc'>Shakespeare</span>, and it -bases itself on the ‘fifth book of <span class='sc'>Lucretius</span>.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>Not the least curious thing about the matter is the effect -which was wrought by Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight’s</span> poetic flight upon -the mind of a brother antiquarian. The work absolutely -inspired Horace <span class='sc'>Walpole</span> with a serious and deep regret -that he was consciously too near the grave to undertake the -defence of Christian philosophy against its new assailant. -Such a labour, from such a pen, would indeed have been a -curiosity of literature.</p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>Horace Walpole on the ‘Progress of Civil Society,’ 1796.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>Feeling that for a man who was almost an octogenarian -the tasks of controversy would be too much, <span class='sc'>Walpole</span> -writes to <span class='sc'>Mason</span>. He entreats him to expose the daring -<span class='pageno' id='Page_406'>406</span>poetaster. His earnestness in the matter approaches passion. -‘I could not, without using too many words,’ he says, ‘express -to you how much I am offended and disgusted by -Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight’s</span> new, insolent, and self-conceited poem. -Considering to what height he dares to carry his insolent -attack, it might be sufficient to lump [together] all the rest -of his impertinent sallies ... as trifling peccadillos.... The -vanity of supposing that his authority—the authority of a -trumpery prosaic poetaster—was sufficient to re-establish -the superannuated atheism of <span class='sc'>Lucretius</span>!... I cannot -engage in an open war with him.... Weak and broken -as I am, tottering to the grave at some months past seventy-eight, -I have not spirits or courage enough to tap a paper war.’</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='sc'>Walpole</span> then adverts to a foregone thought, on <span class='sc'>Mason’s</span> -part, to have taken up the foils on the appearance of <i>The -Landscape</i>. ‘I ardently wish,’ he says, ‘you had overturned -and expelled out of gardens this new Priapus, who -is only fit to be erected in the Palais de l’Egalité.’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span>Horace Walpole to William Mason, March 22, 1796 (<i>Letters</i>; Coll. Edit., vol. ix, p. 462).<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -And -he urges his correspondent not to let the present occasion -slip. Irony and ridicule, he thinks, would be weapons -quite sufficient to overthrow this ‘Knight of the Brazen -Milk-Pot.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>The last thrust was unkind indeed. It was hard that -our Collector, whatever his other demerits, should be reproached -for his passion to gather small bronzes, by the -builder and furnisher of Strawberry-Hill.</p> - -<p class='c029'>For, amidst all his devotion to poetry and pantheism, -Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight</span> carried on the pursuits of connoisseurship -with insatiable ardour. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Spec. of Ancient Sculp.</i>, pl. 55 and 56.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -Among the choicer acquisitions -which speedily followed the <i>Diomede</i>[?] purchased in 1785, -were the mystical <i>Bacchus</i>—a bronze of the Macedonian -period—found near Aquila in 1775; a colossal head of -<i>Minerva</i>, found near Rome by Gavin <span class='sc'>Hamilton</span>; and a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_407'>407</span>figure of <i>Mercury</i> of great beauty. The last-named bronze -had been found, in 1732, at Pierre-Luisit, in the Pays de -Bugey and diocese of Lyons. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Ib.</i>, 33, 34.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -A dry rock had sheltered -the little figure from injury, so that it retained the perfection -of its form, as if it had but just left the sculptor’s -hand. It passed through the hands of three French owners -in succession before it was sold to Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight</span>, by the last -of them, at the beginning of the Reign of Terror.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The year 1792, in which he acquired this much-prized -‘Mercury,’ is also the date of a remarkable discovery of no -less than nineteen choice bronzes in one hoard, at Paramythia, -in Epirus. They had, in all probability, been buried -during nearly two thousand years. The story of the find -is, in itself, curious. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>The hoard of Bronzes found at Paramythia, in Epirus.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -It shows too, in relief, the energy and -perseverance which Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight</span> brought to his work of -collectorship, and in which he was so much better employed—both -for himself and for his country—than in philosophising -upon human progress, from the standpoint of -<span class='sc'>Lucretius</span>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Some incident or other of the weather had disclosed -appearances which led, fortuitously, to a search of the -ground into which these bronzes had been cast—perhaps -during the invasion of Epirus, <i>B.C.</i> 167—and, by the -finder, they were looked upon as so much saleable metal. -Bought, as old brass, by a coppersmith of Joannina, they -presently caught the eye of a Greek merchant, who called -to mind that he had seen similar figures shown as treasures -in a museum at Moscow. He made the purchase, and sent -part of it, on speculation, to St. Petersburgh. The receiver -brought them to the knowledge of the Empress <span class='sc'>Catherine</span>, -who intimated that she would buy, but died before the -acquisition was paid for. They were then shared, it seems, -between a Polish connoisseur and a Russian dealer. One -<span class='pageno' id='Page_408'>408</span>bronze was brought to London by a Greek dragoman and -shown to Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight</span>, who eagerly secured it, heard the -story of the discovery, and sent an agent into Russia, who -succeeded in obtaining nine or ten of the sculptures found -at Paramythia. Two others were given to Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight</span> by -Lord <span class='sc'>Aberdeen</span>, who had met with them in his travels. -They were all of early Greek work. Amongst them are -figures of <i>Serapis</i>, of <i>Apollo Didymæus</i>, of <i>Jupiter</i>, and of -one of the <i>Sons of Leda</i>. All these have been engraved -among the <i>Specimens of Ancient Sculpture</i>, published by -the Society of Dilettanti.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Few sources of acquisition within the limits which he had -laid down for himself escaped Mr. Payne <span class='sc'>Knight’s</span> -research. He kept up an active correspondence with -explorers and dealers. He watched Continental sales, and -explored the shops of London brokers, with like assiduity. -Coins, medals, and gems, shared with bronzes, and with -the original drawings of the great masters of painting, in -his affectionate pursuit.</p> - -<p class='c029'>In his search for bronzes he welcomed choice and characteristic -works from Egypt and from Etruria, as well as -the consummate works of Greek genius. His numismatic -cabinet was also comprehensive, but its Greek coins were -pre-eminent. For works in marble he had so little relish -that he actually persuaded himself, by degrees, that the -greatest artists of antiquity rarely ‘condescended’ to touch -marble. But he collected a small number of busts in that -material.</p> - -<p class='c029'>For one volume of drawings by <span class='sc'>Claude</span>, Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight</span> -gave the sum of sixteen hundred pounds.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Among his later acquisitions of sculpture in brass was -the very beautiful <i>Mars</i> in Homeric armour. This figure -was brought to England by Major <span class='sc'>Blagrave</span> in 1813. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_409'>409</span><i>Bacchic Mask</i> (No. 35, in the second volume of the <i>Specimens</i>) -was found, in the year 1674, near Nimeguen, in a -stone coffin. It was preserved by the Jesuits of Lyons, in -their Collegiate Museum, until their dissolution. From them -it passed into the possession of Mr. Roger <span class='sc'>Wilbraham</span>, -from whom Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight</span> obtained it.</p> - -<div class='c002'></div> -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Inquiry into the Symbolism of Greek Art and Mythology.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>On the thorough study of the fine Collection which had -been gathered from so many sources—here indicated by but -a scanty sample—and on that of other choice Collections -both at home and abroad, Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight</span> based the most -elaborate—perhaps the most valuable—work of his life, next -to his Museum itself. The <i>Inquiry into the Symbolism of -Greek Art and Mythology</i> bears, indeed, too many traces of -the narrowness of the author’s range of thought, whenever -he leaves the purely artistic criticism of which he was, -despite his limitations, a master, in order to dissertate on -the interdependence or on the ‘priestcraft’ of the religions of -the world. But his genuine lore cannot be concealed by his -flimsy philosophy. The student will gain from the <i>Inquiry</i> -real knowledge about ancient art. He will find, indeed, -not a few statements which the author himself would be -the first to modify in the light of the new information of -the last fifty years. But he will also find much which, in -its time, proved to be suggestive and fruitful to other -minds, and which prepared the way for wider and deeper -studies. It may do so yet. The book is one which the -student of archæology cannot afford to overlook. Whilst -he may well afford a passing smile at the philosophic insight -which prompted our author’s eulogies (1) upon the -‘liberal and humane spirit which still prevails among those -nations whose religion is founded upon the principle of -emanations;’ (2) upon the wisdom of the ‘Siamese, who -<span class='pageno' id='Page_410'>410</span>shun disputes, and believe that almost all religions are good;’ -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><i>Inquiry</i>, &c., p. 19.<span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -(3) on the supreme fitness of the idolatries of India ‘to call -forth the ideal perfections of art, by expanding and exalting -the imagination of the artist;’ or (4) upon the exceptional -and pre-eminent capacity of the Hindoos to become ‘the -most virtuous and happy of the human race,’ but for that -one solitary misfortune which cursed them with a -priesthood.<a id='r65'></a><a href='#f65' class='c030'><sup>[65]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='sidenote'><span class='sc'>The Dissertation on Ancient Sculpture.</span></div> - -<p class='c029'>The <i>Inquiry into Symbolism</i> was, at first, printed only for -private circulation, in 1818. It was afterwards reprinted in -the <i>Classical Journal</i>, with some corrections by the author. -It was again reprinted, after his death, as an appendix -to the second volume of the <i>Specimens of Ancient Sculpture</i>.</p> - -<p class='c029'>To the first volume of that work Mr. Payne <span class='sc'>Knight</span> -had already prefixed his <i>Preliminary Dissertation on the -Progress of Ancient Sculpture</i>. After showing that of -Phœnician art we have no real knowledge other than that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_411'>411</span>which is to be derived from the study of coins, and that -thence it may be learnt that the Phœnicians had artisans, -but not artists, he goes on to survey Greek art in its successive -phases. That art, at its best, finds, he thinks, a -typical expression, or summary, in the saying ascribed to -<span class='sc'>Lysippus</span>: ‘It is for the sculptor to represent men as they -seem to be, not as they really are.’ He dates the culmination -of Greek sculpture as ranging between the years -<i>B.C.</i> 450 and 400, and as due to the national pride and -energy which were excited by the defeat of <span class='sc'>Xerxes</span> and the -events which followed. He thinks that what was gained, -by the artists of the next half-century, in ideal grace, and in -the fluent refinements of workmanship, was obtained only -by a loss of energy, of characteristic expression, and of -originality—the <span lang="grc" xml:lang="grc">εθος</span> of art. In the works of <span class='sc'>Lysippus</span> -and his school (<i>B.C.</i> 350–300), he sees a brief resuscitation -of the vigour of the former period, combined with -much more than the grace of the latter, to be followed only -too swiftly by those desolating wars ‘in which the temples -were destroyed, their treasures of art pillaged, and -artists, for the first time, saw their works perish before -themselves.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>In the ‘<i>Dissertation</i>,’ as in the ‘<i>Inquiry</i>,’ there are many -statements and many reasonings to which subsequent discoveries -have brought a tacit correction. -<span class='sni'><span class='hidev'>|</span><span class='sc'>Mr. Payne Knight and the Elgin Marbles.</span><span class='hidev'>|</span></span> -The passage in -the former about the Elgin Marbles had to be corrected by -the evidence of the author’s own eyesight. His examination -before the Commons’ Committee of 1816 was an amusing -scene. The key-note was struck by the witness’s first -words. To the question ‘Have you seen the marbles -brought to England by Lord <span class='sc'>Elgin</span>?’ he replied, ‘Yes. I -have looked them over.’ But on this point, enough has -been said already in a previous page.</p> - -<p class='c029'><span class='pageno' id='Page_412'>412</span>Both to the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> and to the <i>Classical -Journal</i> Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight</span> was a frequent and valuable contributor. -It was in the latter periodical that his Prolegomena -to <span class='sc'>Homer</span> were first given to the world, although he had -printed a small edition (limited to fifty copies) for private -circulation, as early as in the year 1808.<a id='r66'></a><a href='#f66' class='c030'><sup>[66]</sup></a> His latest poetical -work, the Romance of <i>Alfred</i>, I have never had the opportunity -of reading.</p> - -<p class='c029'>Richard Payne <span class='sc'>Knight</span> died on the twenty-fourth of -April, 1824, in the 75th year of his age. He bequeathed his -whole Collections to the British Museum, of which he had -long been a zealous and faithful Trustee. He made no conditions, -other than that his gift should be commemorated -by the addition to the Trust of a perpetual <span class='sc'>Knight</span> -‘Family Trustee.’</p> - -<p class='c029'>For this purpose a Bill was introduced into Parliament by -Lord <span class='sc'>Colchester</span> on the eighth of June. It received the -royal assent on the seventeenth.</p> - -<p class='c029'>The addition of Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight’s</span> Greek Coins made the -British Museum superior, in that department, to the Royal -Museum of Paris; the addition of his bronzes raised it -above the famous Museum of Naples. By the most competent -judges it has been estimated that, if the Collection -had been sold by public auction, Mr. <span class='sc'>Knight’s</span> representatives -would probably have obtained for it the sum of -sixty thousand pounds.</p> - -<hr class='c048' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f1'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. Sir Robert’s father was the fourth ‘Thomas Cotton of Conington,’ -and fifth Lord of that manor of the Cotton family. The marriage of -William Cotton with the eventual heiress of the Huntingdonshire Bruces -was contracted about the year 1450.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f2'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. ‘By this woman the Earldom -of Huntingdon and the -Lordship of Conington came -to the Crown of -Scotland.’-<i>MS. Note by Sir -R. Cotton</i>, in ‘Harl. 807.’</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f3'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r3'>3</a>. From the <span class='sc'>Cotton Roll</span> XIV, 6 [by <span class='sc'>Segar</span>, -<span class='sc'>Camden</span>, and <span class='sc'>St. George</span>]; compared -with MS. Harl. 807, fol. 95, and with MS. -<span class='sc'>Lansd.</span>, 863, containing the Heraldic Collections -of R. <span class='sc'>St. George</span>, Norroy, Vol. -III, fol. 82 verso.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f4'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r4'>4</a>. Here, if we accepted Cotton’s authorship of the <i>Twenty-four Arguments, -whether it be more expedient to suppress Popish Practices, &c.</i>, published -in the <i>Cottoni Posthuma</i>, by James Howell, we should have to add -that ‘he travelled on the Continent and passed many months in Italy.’ -But that tract is <i>not</i> Cotton’s—though ascribed to him by so able and -careful an historian as Mr. S. R. Gardiner (<i>Archæologia</i>, vol. xli. Comp. -<i>Prince Charles and the Spanish Marriage, &c.</i>, vol. i, p. 32). That its real -author was in Italy is plain, from his own statement ‘I remember that -in Italy it was often told me,’ &c.; and, again: ‘In Rome itself I have -heard the English fugitive taxed,’ &c., <i>Posthuma</i>, pp. 126, seqq. Dr. -Thomas Smith put a question as to this implied visit of Sir Robert to -Italy to his grandson, Sir John Cotton, who assured him that no such -visit was known to any of the family; by all of whom it was believed that -their eminent antiquary never set foot out of Britain. Smith’s words -are these:—</p> - -<p class='c029'><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">... ‘D. Joannes Cottonus hac de re a me literis consultus, se de -isthoc avi sui itinere Italico ne verbum quidem a Patre suo edoctum -fuisse respondit.... Cottonum usum et cognitionem linguæ Italicæ -a Joanne Florio ... anno 1610 addidicisse ex ejusdem literis ad -Cottonum scriptis, mihi certo constat.’ <i>Vita</i>, p. xvii.</span></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f5'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r5'>5</a>. The story which, has been told—on the authority of one of John -Chamberlain’s letters to Carleton (April, 1612) that ‘Sir Robert Cotton -was sent out of the way’ at a time when certain claims of the Baronets -were to be definitively heard at the Council Board, ‘in order that he -might not produce records in their favour,’ rests on mere rumour. -Charles, Lancaster Herald, wrote to Cotton immediately before the -hearing in these terms: ‘On Saturday next the final determination is -expected, if some troublesome spirit do not hinder; which end I wish -were well made, and am glad that you are not seen in it at this time.’—Cotton -MS., Julius, C. iii, f. 86.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f6'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r6'>6</a>. ‘Tambien me dijo que el Conde de Somerset havia puesto todo su -resto en este negocio, y ganado el Duque de Lenox, ... aventurandose -el Conde ... a ganarse y asegurarse si se hazia, o a perderse si no se -hacia; concluyendo esta platica el Coton con decirme que el estava loco -de contento de ver esto en este estado, porque no pretendia ni desseava -otra cosa mas que vivir y morir publicamente Catolico, como sus padres -y abuelos lo havian sido.’—<i>Gardiner Transcripts of MSS. at Simancas</i>, -vol. i, p. 102 (MS.).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f7'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r7'>7</a>. Mr. S. R. Gardiner. His account is contained in the able paper -entitled <i>On Certain Letters of the Count of Gondomar giving an Account of -the Affair of the Earl of Somerset</i>, read to the Society of Antiquaries in -1867. Comp. the same historian’s <i>Prince Charles and the Spanish Marriage</i> -(Vol. I, c. 1, and especially the passage beginning ‘Sarmiento was <i>surprised -by a visit from Sir Robert Cotton</i>,’ and so on). In these pages I -use Sarmiento’s subsequent title of ‘Gondomar,’ simply because English -readers are more familiar with it than with the Spaniard’s family name. -Mr. Gardiner needlessly deepens the stain on Cotton’s memory, arising—all -allowance duly made—out of this intercourse with Gondomar, by -the remark that ‘twenty months before’ the interview occurred, Sir -Robert had ‘argued his case’ [<i>i. e.</i> a tract on the question of the right -treatment, by the State, of Romanist priests and recusants] ‘from a -decidedly Protestant point of view, and had taken care to put himself -forward as a thorough, if not an extreme, Protestant.’ But, unfortunately -for Mr. Gardiner’s trenchant conclusion on that point, the -pamphlet he refers to—by whomsoever written—was certainly <i>not</i> -written by Sir Robert Cotton.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f8'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r8'>8</a>. ‘[Then the Duke] came to the Relation of Sir Robert Cotton [of the -intercourse] that he had with the Spanish Ambassador in 1614 [O.S.]. -The Spanish Ambassador came to his house pretending [a desire] to see -his rarities. On the 10th of February he acquainted His Majesty with it. -Somerset [had] warrant then to sound the life of the intention. -[Gondomar] told him he doubted he had no warrant to set any such -thing on foot. [On the] 16th of March the Spanish Ambassador dealt -with him and endeavoured to make Somerset Spanish, and to further -this match. [He] answered him that there were divers rubs and difficulties -in it. [On the] 9th of April he gave [Gondomar] a pill in a -paper—viz. three reasons: If the King of Spain would not urge unreasonable -things in Religion, then,’ &c. [as in Gondomar’s letter, which I -have already quoted]. ‘Afterwards Sir Robert Cotton was questioned -[for shewing] to the Ambassador of Spain a packet [received] from -Spain.... [In the year] 1616, His Majesty told Sir Robert -Cotton that Gondomar had counterfeited those letters, and that he was -a “juggling jack.”’ Here Sir Edward Coke interposed. He was one of -the Managers of the Conference for the Commons. He spoke thus: -‘This matter has a little relation to me. I committed Sir Robert -Cotton, when I was Chief Justice. For I understood he had intelligence -with the Spanish Ambassador, and questioned him for it. <i>For no subject -ought to converse with Ambassadors without the King’s leave.</i> For the -offence [for which] I committed him [Sir Robert had] afterwards his -general pardon from the King.’ <i>Journals of the House of Commons</i>, 4 -March, 1624. Vol. I, pp. 727, 728.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f9'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r9'>9</a>. ‘... Por diferentes vias le confirmado que contra el Conde -[Somerset] no se averigua cosa de sustancia en lo de la muerte del -Ovarberi; y de la del Principe [Henry, Prince of Wales,] no ha permetido -el Rey que se hable en ella; y todo lo demas probado hasta agora viene -a parar en que dio un decreto antes que le prendiesen, para recojer unos -papeles, diziendo que era orden del Rey, sin haverla tenido para ello. -Fue lo que causo su prision, y el aver entregado despues todos los papeles -que tenia de importancia, con algunas joyas, a un amigo suyo [Sir -Robert Cotton], para que lo guardase que se coxieron. <i>Y el Rey ha -sentido infinito que se ayan visto algunos papeles que havia suyos para el -Conde, ... y assi carga agora toda la yra sobre el Conde</i>,’ &c. Gondomar -to Philip III,—Simancas MS. 2595, f. 23; and in <i>Archæologia</i> (by Gardiner), -vol. xli, p. 29.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f10'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r10'>10</a>. On this point, it is my wish to leave the reader to form his own -estimate of probabilities. <i>Probabilities</i>, only, are attainable; and I have -no side to take, in any attempt to weigh them. But it may be well to -ask the reader’s attention to a passage in the Diary of a contemporary -of Sir R. Cotton, a man of high character, and one who sat by Cotton’s -side in Parliament, fighting with him for the liberties of England, during -many years; one who is also remarkable for speaking about the faults -of his friends with abundant candour. ‘Sir Robert Cotton, being highly -esteemed by the Earl of Somerset, ... <i>was acquainted with this murder -[of Overbury] by him, a little before it now came to light</i>, and had advised -him what he took to be the best course for his safety.’ This passage -occurs in the private diary of Sir Symonds D’Ewes—‘a man,’ says a -great writer, ‘of somewhat Grandisonian ways,’ a man of ‘scrupulous -Puritan integrity, of high flown conscientiousness, ... ambitious to be -the pink of Christian country gentlemen,’ (Carlyle’s <i>Essays</i>, iv, 297.) -This ‘scrupulous Puritan’ knew all that was current about the terrible -‘Great Oyer of Poisoning,’ as Sir Edward Coke called it. He lived in -familiar intercourse with Cotton, and regarded their long acquaintance as -an honour to himself; whilst speaking freely about certain social habits -and limitations—neither Grandisonian or Puritanic—on Cotton’s part, -as precluding their intercourse from ripening into that close friendship -which such a man as D’Ewes could form only with men likeminded -with himself on the highest interests of humanity. Is it not easy to -infer—and is not the inference also inevitable—that by the fact of -Somerset ‘acquainting Cotton with the murder of Overbury a little -before’ it became public, and advising him as to ‘the course for his -safety,’ D’Ewes understood such a communication and such advice as -are entirely compatible with Somerset’s innocence of his wife’s crime?</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f11'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r11'>11</a>. Such is the title in <i>Cottoni Posthuma</i>. In MS. Harl. 180—apparently -given by Cotton himself to Sir S. D’Ewes—the title is ‘<i>A Declaration -against the Matche</i>,’ &c. In that copy, this note occurs at the end, -in Sir Symonds’ hand:—‘Thus far only, as Sir Robert Cotton himself -told me, he proceeded; leaving the rest to be added ... according to -the relation ... declared before the greater part of both Houses by ... -the Duke of Buckingham.’—<i>MS. Harl.</i> 180, fol. 169.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f12'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r12'>12</a>. There is another MS. of this speech, <i>in Sir John Eliot’s hand</i>, in the -library at Port Eliot. See Forster’s <i>Life of Eliot</i>, Vol. I, p. 413.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f13'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r13'>13</a>. It has been printed by Howell in the <i>Cottoni Posthuma</i> of 1651, pp. 283–294; -and is followed by <i>The Answer of the Committees appointed by Your -Lordships to the Propositions delivered by some Officers of the Mint for -inhauncing His Majesties monies of gold and silver</i>. The ‘<i>Answer</i>’ as well -as the speech, appears to be from Sir Robert’s pen.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f14'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r14'>14</a>. <i>Registers of the Privy Council</i>, James I, vol. v, pp. 484, 485, 489; -Nov. 3–5, 1629. (C. O.) <i>Domestic Correspondence</i>, James I, vol. cli, -§ 24, § 69, <i>seqq.</i>, and vol. clii, § 78, <i>seqq.</i> In this last-named document -the following passage occurs. The writer is Richard James, who for -very many years was Librarian to Sir Robert Cotton, and he is writing -to Secretary Lord Dorchester.—‘About July last, I was willed by Sir -Robert Cotton to carry him [Mr. Oliver Saint John] into the Upper -Study and there let him make search among some bundles of papers for -business of the Sewers.... If he (St. John) did make any mention of a -projecting pamphlet there pretended to be found, so God save me as I -entered into no further conversation of it. Neither can I believe that any -such as this now questioned was ever in keeping with us, or ever seen -by Sir R. Cotton until, of late, he received it from my Lord of Clare. -For myself, let not God be merciful unto me if, before that time, I ever -saw, heard, or thought of it’ (R. James to Dorchester, vol. 152, § 78). -(R. H.) There is also some further information on the subject in MS. -Harl. 7000, ff. 267, <i>seqq.</i> (B. M.) A considerable number of the letters -of Richard James to Sir Robert Cotton, his friend and benefactor, are -preserved in MS. Harl. 7002. But these throw no satisfactory light -on the incident of 1629. I believe, however, that to an observant reader -they will be likely to suggest the idea that Richard James knew more -than he was willing that Sir Robert should know. The letters are -without dates, after the fashion of the times, and this adds to their -obscurity. But one thing is plain. The writer ran away from London, -either when he knew that the first inquiry was imminent or thought it -probable that a renewed inquiry would be set on foot. In one of these -letters, after many professions of attachment, he writes thus: ‘From -you, at this time, I should not have parted, <i>if the exigence and penurie of -my life had not forc’d a silent retreat into myself, and my owne home at -Corpus Christi College</i>;’ and then, a fit of poesy—such as it was—coming -over him, he ends his letter metrically, as thus:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘The poore young Russian youth, that slave</div> - <div class='line'>Was to the Prince, and trustie knave</div> - <div class='line'>To my deere Harrie Wilde, when wee</div> - <div class='line'>Forsooke that Northern Barbarie,</div> - <div class='line'>Loe bending at my feete did saye</div> - <div class='line'>Thancks for my love, and kindely praye,</div> - <div class='line'>His evills that I would not beare</div> - <div class='line'>In minde,—the which none, truely, were.</div> - <div class='line'>This youth I well remember, and</div> - <div class='line'>In neere, loe, manner kisse your hand;</div> - <div class='line'>Hoping, of gentle courtesie,</div> - <div class='line'>You will no worse remember me.’</div> - <div class='line in24'>—MS. Harl. 7002, f. 118.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f15'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r15'>15</a>. And as, it must be remembered, Cotton himself believed.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f16'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r16'>16</a>. Curiously enough, part of these documents, so carefully brought -together by Sir Robert Cotton, remained with the Cottonian MSS., and -part of them were severed from that collection for more than two -centuries. Their recovery is one of the smallest of the innumerable -obligations which the Department of MSS. owes to the care and far-spread -researches of the late Keeper, Sir Frederick Madden.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f17'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r17'>17</a>. It is <span class='sc'>Cottonian</span> MS., Vitellius, c. 17, ff. 380, <i>seqq.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f18'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r18'>18</a>. Verses entitled <i>Sir Philip Sydney lying on his Deathbed</i>; in MS. -Chetham 8012 (Chetham Library, Manchester).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f19'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r19'>19</a>. I had noted some of these as worthy, by way of sample, to -be printed. But the reduced limits of my book (as compared with -its plan) have compelled the omission of much illustrative matter -which had been carefully prepared for insertion, and which, as I -hope, would have been found to merit the attention of the reader. -I will find room, however, to mention one little fact connected with -the famous Evangeliary marked ‘Nero D. vi.’ The reader probably -remembers Sir Robert <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> fruitless perambulation of the -aisle of Westminster Abbey, with that splendid MS. in his hands, on -the day of the Coronation of Charles the First. It seems likely that the -anecdote was told to Charles the Second when, at length, a like ceremony -was to take place for him. Be that as it may, he sent—before he -had been many days in England—a confidential servant to borrow the -book from Sir Thomas. And the fact of the loan stands recorded on a -fly-leaf, by the King’s intermediary, in honour ‘of the most noble Sir -Thomas <span class='sc'>Cotton</span>, the starre of learning and honestie.’ The MS., I may -add, is one of those which came to Sir Robert from Dethick (Garter). -It bears Dethick’s autograph with the date ‘1603’ and Cotton’s, ‘1608.’ -Besides the Four Gospels it contains <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>Processus factus ad Coronationem -Regis Ricardi Secundi</i>, and <i>Modus tenendi Parliamentum</i></span>. For some -momentary fancy or other Sir Robert took out of another superb MS. -of his—the <i>Psalter</i> of King Henry the Sixth—a small but beautiful -miniature, and made of it a vignette for this Ethelstan volume. So it -continued to remain for two hundred and forty years, when Sir Frederick -Madden restored the miniature to its more legitimate place (Domitian -A. xvii, fol. 96*.) Had this Nero volume chanced to have been -scrutinized at the moment when it was Sir Robert’s fate to be stigmatized -as ‘an embezzler of records,’ it is very possible that it might have -been called to bear witness for the charge. For it is undeniable that -the ‘<span class='sc'>Ro. Cotton Bruceus</span>’ is written <i>over an erasure</i>. (The signature -occurs on the beautiful dedicatory page—‘<i>Beatissimo Papæ Damaso -Hieronymus</i>.’) But, fortunately, the descent of the book can be traced -clearly.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f20'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r20'>20</a>. Take, for example, these few lines: ‘Sweete Sainte whome I soley -addore,—at whooes srine I offer myself; I reseived your loving lines.... -Without them, I could not live at all;—being deprived of -your blessed sight, ... I live yet, but most miserably. Use -means, if it be possible, that we may come to the speech of one another; -and the Heavens of Hope may be yet auspitious unto us.... -Those deviles have again been writing letters unto my mother.’ In 1679, -it would seem, the two ardent lovers were kept in a sort of honourable -imprisonment. On <span class='sc'>Cotton’s</span> coming to Cotton House, in the spring of -that year, an upper servant of the family writes thus to a correspondent: -‘I advised him to call for money; take a coach and go about to take the -air, and to visit his friends that are in or about the town; and not to be -mewed up in a room, without money or company.’—John <span class='sc'>Squires</span>, to a -person unnamed; in <i>Appendix to Cotton MSS.</i> ‘16, 1.’ (B. M.)</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f21'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r21'>21</a>. By this William <span class='sc'>Hanbury</span>, son-in-law of John <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> (great grandson of the Founder), many <span class='sc'>Cotton</span> MSS. were alienated—partly by sale and partly by gift—to -Robert, Earl of <span class='sc'>Oxford</span>. <i>See</i> hereafter, Chapter V.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f22'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r22'>22</a>. Stukeley’s <i>Itinerary of Great Britain</i> (2nd edit. 1776).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f23'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r23'>23</a>. Some of the burnt MSS., regarded, until Mr. Forshall’s time, as hopelessly -illegible, have been found very helpful to the preparation of the -volume now in the reader’s hands.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f24'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r24'>24</a>. I have dwelt, somewhat protractedly, on this one interesting point -in Cotton’s history,—pressing as are the limits prescribed to this volume,—under -the belief that many readers will bear in mind that Sir Robert’s -misfortune beneath the recent disinterment of ambassadorial despatches, -written to foreign courts, is <i>not</i> an exceptional misfortune. Sir Walter -Ralegh has fared still worse, in Mr. Gardiner’s able hands, by being -held up to public scorn as a knavish liar, upon the uncorroborated -testimony of certain avowed and bitter enemies of England. See <i>Prince -Charles and the Spanish Marriage</i> (1869), vol. i, Chaps. 1 and 2, <i>passim</i>. -Readers of the admirable <i>History of England</i> by Mr. Froude—and who -has not read that history?—will easily call to mind several not dissimilar -instances. Nor is it at all surprising that it should be so. The -most warily judicial of intellects can never be quite independent of that -factitious charm which there will always be—over and above the legitimate -charm—in telling an old story from an entirely new point of view. -If, besides the attraction of mere novelty, there should chance to have -been a keen burst of search over a difficult country, before the eager -searcher could succeed in running down his quarry, he would be more -than human if, in the moment of victory, he could weigh and balance -with exact precision the real value of the hard-won spoil. At present, -historians are too keenly chasing after new evidence to be able to estimate -quite fairly its relative importance or net result. The most part -both of writers and of readers are far too busy over newly-discovered -materials to adjust with any approach to impartial fairness the vital -question of comparative credibility. But the time for doing <i>that</i> must -needs come, by and bye. Meanwhile, the fame of not a few of our old -and true worthies will—in all probability—suffer some degree of -momentary eclipse; just as that of Ralegh and Cotton has suffered.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f25'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r25'>25</a>. The word ‘hope’ or some like expression, seems here to have been -intended, but omitted. The repetition of the word ‘shortlie’ will sufficiently -indicate to the reader the haste with which this effusion was -written,—just as the King was about to mount for the long looked-for -journey southwards. The letter has been printed by Birch, but with -amendments.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f26'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r26'>26</a>. It was not strictly a ‘launch.’ The vessel had been built expressly -for the Prince, at Chatham, and was brought thence to London to be -named with the usual ceremonies.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f27'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r27'>27</a>. He was removed to the Fleet Prison ten days afterwards.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f28'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r28'>28</a>. In dealing with royal letters it is, of course, necessary to keep in -mind how largely the vicarious element is apt to enter into their composition. -Those, however, that are quoted in the text seem to have a -plain stamp of individuality upon them.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f29'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r29'>29</a>. That Llanthony, in Monmouthshire, the purchase of which in the -present century gave rise to so singular a chapter in the history of -Landor, and whose charms, in retrospect, prompted the lines—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c033'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘Llanthony! an ungenial clime,</div> - <div class='line'>And the broad wing of restless Time,</div> - <div class='line'>Have rudely swept thy massy walls,</div> - <div class='line'>And rockt thy Abbots in their palls.</div> - <div class='line'>I loved thee, by thy streams of yore;</div> - <div class='line'>By distant streams, I love thee more.’</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f30'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r30'>30</a>. Part of Lord Northampton’s large estates came eventually to Lord -Arundel by bequest. He also inherited Northampton’s house at -Greenwich, and occasionally resided there, until its destruction by fire -in January, 1616. Chamberlain’s account of the incident, given to Sir -Dudley Carleton, is worth quotation for the comment with which it -ends: ‘There fell a great mischance to the Earl of Arundel by the -burning of his house ... at Greenwich, where he lost a great deal of -household stuff and rich furniture; the fury of the fire being such that -nothing could be saved. No doubt the Papists will ascribe and publish -it as a punishment for his deserting or falling from them.’ Ten days -before the fire, Arundel had testified, publicly, his conformity with the -Church of England. But he had shewn long before that his religious -views and convictions differed widely from those in which he had been -brought up.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f31'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r31'>31</a>. The question was complicated by opposition offered by the Lord -Keeper Williams to the terms in which Lord Arundel’s patent was -originally drawn. The relations between Arundel and Buckingham -were never cordial, and the Lord Keeper seems to have profited by that -circumstance to make his opposition to the pension effectual. It is probable -that he had good grounds for so much of his objection as related -to certain powers proposed to be vested in the Earl Marshal’s court. -But on that point Arundel’s views eventually prevailed—until the time -of the Long Parliament. The Lord Keeper’s letter is printed in <i>Cabala</i>, -p. 285.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f32'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r32'>32</a>. ‘In my deare lorde I long since placed my true affection and love.... -Had I manie lives I would have adventured them all.’ <i>Lady -Maltravers to the Earl of Arundel</i>, 6 Feb., 1626 (MS. Harl., 1581, f. 390).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f33'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r33'>33</a>. It has been estimated, on competent evidence, that for every one -thousand pounds which the Earl’s estates in England contributed -towards his personal and household expenditure, in exile, twenty-seven -thousand pounds were so contributed towards the maintenance, in one -form or other, of the royalist cause. Such an estimate can, of course, -only be approximative. But it has obvious significance and value.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f34'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r34'>34</a>. See the details in Lords’ Report on Gregg’s case; reprinted in -<i>State Trials</i>, vol. xiv, cols. 1378 seqq.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f35'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r35'>35</a>. In the interval between June, 1707 (after the Union with Scotland), -and February, 1708, the following entries occur in the Council Books:—</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘1 July, 1707. The Rt. Hon. Robert Harley, one of Her Majesty’s -principal Secretaries of State, delivered up the old signet of office—which -was thereupon broken before Her Majesty—and received a new -one by the Queen’s command.’ The entry is followed by the note:—‘This -order was thus drawn by Mr. Harley’s particular direction.’ -(<i>Register of Privy Council</i>, Anne, vol. iii, p. 395.)</p> - -<p class='c029'>‘8 January, 170⅞. The Rt. Hon. R. Harley, ... having this day -presented to Her Majesty in her Privy Council a new signet with supporters, -Her Majesty was pleased to deliver it back to him, whereupon -he returned to Her Majesty the old signet, which was immediately -defaced,’ &c. (Ib., p. 485.)</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f36'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r36'>36</a>. Swift’s account of their first interview after Harley’s partial recovery -merits quotation:—‘I went in the evening,’ he notes on the 5th of -April, ‘to see Mr. Harley. Mr. Secretary was just going out of the -door, but I made him come back; and there was the old Saturday club, -Lord Keeper [Harcourt], Lord Rivers, Mr. Secretary, Mr. Harley, and -I; the first time since his stabbing. Mr. Secretary went away, but I -stayed till nine, and made Mr. Harley show me his breast and tell -all his story.... I measured and found that the penknife would have -killed him, if it had gone but half the breadth of my thumb-nail -lower; so near was he to death. I was so curious as to ask him what -were his thoughts while they were carrying him home in the chair. He -said he concluded himself a dead man.’—<i>Journal to Stella</i>, as before, -pp. 255, 256.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f37'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r37'>37</a>. The original letters of the Elector to Harley are in Lansdowne -MS. 1236, ff. 272–294. They range, in date, from 15 December, 1710, to -15 June, 1714. There also are several letters (in autograph) of the -Electress Sophia. The earliest of these bears date 26 May, 1707. The -latest is undated, but was written in May, 1714, very few days before -the writer’s death.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f38'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r38'>38</a>. The chief passages in the Stuart Correspondence upon which a -confident assertion has been based of his ultimate complicity in the -Jacobite conspiracies are given, textually, in a note at the end of this -chapter.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f39'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r39'>39</a>. Thus, for example, at one stage of the proceedings before the Privy -Council about Barbadoes, we find the Lord Keeper Coventry reporting -to the Board upon an order of reference: ‘I am of opinion that -Barbadoes is not one of the Caribbee Islands.... But ... I am -also of opinion that the proof on Lord Carlisle’s part that Barbadoes -was intended to be passed in his Patent is very strong.’—<i>Colonial -Papers</i>, April 18, 1629, vol. v, § 11. See also The King to Wolverton, -<i>Ib.</i>, § 13.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f40'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r40'>40</a>. His eldest son, Peter Courten, had married a daughter of Lord -Stanhope of Harrington, and died without issue. Sir William Courten -bought the widow’s jointure of £1200 a year by the present payment -of £10,000, according to a statement in MS. Sloane, 3515.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f41'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r41'>41</a>. ‘Hoc excepto quod scilicet qui se jacturam passos dicunt in duabus -navibus ... poterunt litem inceptam prosequi.’—<i>Treaty of Commerce</i> -of 1662.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f42'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r42'>42</a>. After elaborate inquiries in the Admiralty Court the losses were -certified as amounting to £151,612; and that assessment was adopted in -a subsequent Commission under the Great Seal.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f43'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r43'>43</a>. This, of course, is the statement, <i>ex parte</i>, of the claimants.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f44'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r44'>44</a>. This allusion I am unable to explain. It is quite an exceptional -phrase in the Courten correspondence. But, possibly, ‘station’ may be -understood as meaning merely place of residence.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f45'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r45'>45</a>. This volume undoubtedly passed into the Sloane Collection, but is -not so described as to be identified quite satisfactorily.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f46'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r46'>46</a>. The fact is unquestionably so, although upon his tomb it is said -that his age was sixty-two years, eleven months, and twenty-eight days. -The same inaccurate statement occurs also—and more than once—in -papers written by Sir Hans Sloane. Courten was born on the 28th -March, 1642. There is an entry of his baptism in the Register of -St. Gabriel, Fenchurch, on the 31st of the same month; and a copy of it -in MS. Sloane, 3515, fol. 53.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f47'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r47'>47</a>. Staphorst was, by birth, a German. He is known in English literature -as the translator of Rauwolf’s <i>Travels in Asia</i>. This task he undertook -upon Sloane’s recommendation.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f48'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r48'>48</a>. As, for example, under the words ‘<i>Lapathum</i>;’ <i>Poonnacai Malabarorum</i>; -‘<i>Ricinus</i>;’ ‘<i>Salix</i>;’ and several others. See <i>Almagesti Botanici -Mantissa</i>, pp. 113; 143; 161; 165, &c.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f49'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r49'>49</a>. Dr. Arthur Charlett’s long and intimate correspondence with Sir -Hans Sloane began in this year (1696), and continued without interruption -until 1720. It has much interest, and fills MS. Sloane 4040, -from f. 193 to f. 285. That with John Chamberlayne was of nearly equal -duration, and is preserved in the same volume (ff. 100–167). The correspondence -with James Bobart contains much valuable material for the -history of botanical study in England, and is preserved in MS. Sloane, -4037 (ff. 158–185). It began in 1685, and was continued until Bobart’s -death, in 1716. Still more curious is the correspondence with John -Burnet (1722–1738), who was originally a surgeon in the service of -the East India Company, and afterwards Surgeon to the King of Spain. -Burnet’s letters to Sloane, written from Madrid, contain valuable illustrations -of Spanish society and manners as they were in the first half -of the Eighteenth Century. This correspondence is in MS. Sloane, -4039.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f50'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r50'>50</a>. <i>History of Europe</i> [the precursor of the <i>Annual Register</i>], for 1712.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f51'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r51'>51</a>. ‘Here are great designs on foot for uniting the Queen’s Library, the -Cotton, and the Royal Society’s, together. How soon they may be put -in practice time must discover.’—<i>Sloane to Dr. Charlett, Master of -University College</i>, April, 1707.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f52'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r52'>52</a>. Besides those distinctions which I have noted already, he had been -requested, in 1730, by the University of Oxford, to allow his portrait to -be placed in the University Gallery. In 1733 his statue, by Rysbraeck, -was placed in the Botanic Garden at Chelsea.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f53'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r53'>53</a>. ‘Walpole is your tyrant to-day; and any man His Majesty pleases -to name—Horace or Leheup—may be so to-morrow.’—<i>Bolingbroke to -Marchmont</i>, 22 July, 1739.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f54'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r54'>54</a>. ‘Our House of Commons—mere poachers—are piddling with the -torture of Leheup, who extracted so much money out of the Lottery.’—<i>Horace -Walpole to Richard Bentley</i>, 19 December, 1753.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f55'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r55'>55</a>. The term ‘Librarian,’ as used at the British Museum, has never -implied any <i>special</i> connection with the Books, printed or manuscript. -All the Keepers of Departments were, originally, called ‘Under Librarian.’ -The General Superintendent or Warden has always been called -‘Principal Librarian.’</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f56'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r56'>56</a>. One of Cook’s many individual gifts was the first Kangaroo ever -brought into Europe.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f57'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r57'>57</a>. In a copy of this work now before me, the original drawings are -bound up with the engravings, and later drawings are added. They -serve to show that Sir William’s scientific interest in the subject lasted -as long as his life.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f58'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r58'>58</a>. That superiority, however, is only partial. The original Naples -edition, along with many errors, contains much valuable matter omitted -in the reprint.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f59'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r59'>59</a>. I find that in this statement—made twenty-four years after the date -of the transaction referred to—Sir William’s memory misled him. The -amount of the Parliamentary vote was (as I have stated it, on a previous -page) eight thousand four hundred pounds.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f60'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r60'>60</a>. This John Towneley was sent first to Chester Castle, then to the -Marshalsea in Southwark, then to York Castle, and to a block-house in -Hull. From Yorkshire he was sent to the Gatehouse at Westminster, -and thence to a jail in Manchester. From his Lancashire prison he was -presently hustled into Oxfordshire, and sent thence to another prison -at Ely. The gallant old recusant survived it all, to die at Towneley at -last.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f61'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r61'>61</a>. Lancastrian for ‘throw open.’</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f62'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r62'>62</a>. <i>Specimens of Ancient Sculpture.</i> Published by the Society of Dilettanti, -Preface, § 61.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f63'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r63'>63</a>. One of the metopes from the south side of the Parthenon, removed -by the Count de Choiseul, during his embassy at the eve of the -Revolution, was captured by an English ship when on its way to France, -and had been purchased by Lord Elgin at a Custom House sale in -London. By him it was returned to Choiseul, with a liberality too rare -in such matters. When this metope came, after Choiseul’s death, to be -sold at Paris, by auction, the Trustees of the British Museum sent a -commission for its purchase. The commissioner went so far as to offer -a thousand pounds, but was overbidden by the French Government.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f64'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r64'>64</a>. <i>Curse of -Minerva</i>, -passim.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f65'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r65'>65</a>. That my needful abridgment, in the text, of Mr. Payne Knight’s -words may not misrepresent his meaning, I subjoin the whole of the -passage:—‘Had this powerful engine of influence’ [namely, loss of caste] -‘been employed in favour of pure morality and efficient virtue, the -Hindoos might have been the most virtuous and happy of the human -race. But the ambition of a hierarchy has, as usual, employed it to serve -its own particular interests instead of those of the community in general.... Should -the pious labours of our missionaries succeed in diffusing -among them a more pure and more moral, but less uniform and less -energetic system of religion, they may improve and exalt the character -of individual men, but they will for ever destroy the repose and tranquillity -of the mass.... The prevalence of European religion will -be the fall of European domination.... The incarnations which -form the principal subject of sculpture in all the temples of India, Tibet, -Tartary, and China, are, above all others, calculated to call forth the -ideal perfections of the art, by expanding and exalting the imagination -of the artist, and exciting his ambition to surpass the simple imitation -of ordinary forms, in order to produce a model of excellence, worthy to -be the corporeal habitation of the Deity. But this no nation of the -East, nor indeed of the Earth, except the Greeks and those who copied -them, ever attempted.’—<i>Analytical Inquiry</i>, &c., p. 80.]</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f66'> -<p class='c029'><a href='#r66'>66</a>. <i>Carmina Homerica Ilias et Odyssea a rapsidorum interpolationibus -repurgata, et in pristinam formam ... redacta; cum notis ac prolegomenis, ... opera et studio</i> Richardi Payne Knight. 1808, 8vo.</p> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c008' /> -</div> -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='section ph2'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c049'> - <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - - <ol class='ol_1 c002'> - <li>Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. - - </li> - <li>Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed. - </li> - </ol> - -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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