382 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"* S. IX. May 19. 'CO. 



had himself to thank for the misfortunes which beset 

 him, and which caused him at last to die with an em- 

 phatic declaration that his mind was not at ease. Most 

 of Goldsmith's other biographers have been imposed 

 upon by his reputation, and have thought themselves 

 bound to put an attractive varnish on the character of 

 the author of the Vicar of Wakefield and The Deserted 

 Village, whether he deserved it or not. 



"The Life of Goldsmith is principally remarkable for 

 the evidence which it supplies of its author's superiority 

 to the vulgar prejudice that a man is entitled to any par- 

 ticular respect because he is famous. He has the honesty 

 to perceive, and the courage to say, that though Gold- 

 smith had a very pleasant style, and was tbe author of a 

 few works which, in all probability, will last as long as 

 the language, he was an idle, an ignorant, a very dis- 

 reputable, or rather profligate, and anything but a very 

 honest man. It is a strange thing that such a man's 

 memory should be invested with all sorts of glory merely 

 because he wrote a small quantity of pleasing poetry, a 

 good comedy, and a pretty novel. The absence of ap- 

 plause with which Lord Macaulay describes his life is 

 very satisfactory." — Vol. ix. pp. 373 — 4. 



In an amusing article in the same Review, 

 entitled " Personal Confidences," it is well re- 

 marked : — 



" The notion that to know trifles about a man is to 

 know the man himself has been so sedulously inculcated 

 by critics and biographers, that great enthusiasm has 

 been awakened in the vulgar mind to join in the collec- 

 tion of literary materials," &c. — Vol. ix. p. 395. 



Let me add a dictum of Jones of Nayland : — 

 " To take little things for great, and great for little, 

 is tbe worst misfortune that can befal the Human Under- 

 standing." 



Amid the mass of political and merely ephe- 

 meral matter with which the Saturday lieview 

 abounds, there are Reviews and Essays, often of 

 uncommon merit, on various subjects of enduring 

 interest. It were much to be wished that the 

 more remarkable should be selected from time to 

 time and published in a separate and permanent 

 form. The same end might be attained by printing 

 the Essays and Reviews so that they might be 

 purchased and bound with or without the political 

 and newspaper Articles, if such a plan would be 

 practicable. Eirionnacu. 



SPEECHES OF BACON AND YELVEBTON IN 

 THE DEBATE OX IMPOSITIONS, 1610. 



The debate in 1610 upon the king's claim to 

 levy impositions without the consent of Parlia- 

 ment took place in committee, and consequently 

 obtained only a very meagre notice in the Jour- 

 nals. The only available materials for a know- 

 ledge of the arguments used have hitherto been 

 the speeches of Bacon on one side, and of Hake- 

 will and Yelverton on the other, printed in the 

 State Trials. 



There are, however, to be found notes of the 

 whole debate in the Sloane MS. (4210.), from 

 which I recently extracted an account of the 

 winter session of the same year. 



Bacon's speech in defence of the prerogative is 

 justly characterised by Mr. Hallam as inferior in 

 argument to those on the other side. Yet Mr. 

 Hallam hardly had an opportunity of passing a 

 fair judgment, as the printed speech is only a 

 fragment of the speech which was actually de- 

 livered. 



The speech is to be found at fol. 48. a in the 

 MS. The notes of the earlier part are only valu- 

 able so far as they serve to impress us with a high 

 idea of the accuracy, as well as of the ability, of 

 the anonymous reporter. 



From the point where the printed copy breaks 

 off, the notes proceed as follows : — 



" Ob[jectio j\ No mentio of his power in prerog. Regis 

 Bract Bryton or other authors. 



"Sol[utio]. Case demynes — tbe king hath many pre- 

 rog. not menconed in that statute. 



" Tus f publicfl frequent in wryters. 

 ( Imperii — rare to be found. 



"Ob. An Aspersio drawne fro the proceedings against 

 the Lo. Latimer. 



"Sol. He ransackt the people — toke interest of the 

 king for his owne mony. 



" They did this of theyre owne authority & no sentence 

 against Lyons* till the king had disavowed livm. 



" Ob. The kings power is restrayn d by Acts of par- 

 liam'. 



"Sol. Those statutes of 2 natures. 



" 1. That the king shall not impose. 



" 2. The secod sorte make open trade. 



"Those that be expressly restrictive. 



" Magn. Ch. 



" 25 K I. 7 the maletolle of wools of 40s. p pack & 

 such other should be no more take but tbe G" 1 chapter 

 extends to taxes & tallages only w"'in land 



" Wool or such things, i. e. woolfells & lether & no 

 other things proved by 14 E 3 cap 21 made upoa petitiO 

 w ch was made of 5 things — wools — fells — lether — 

 leade — tyn. The king grants mitigaco for the 3 wool — 

 fells — Sc lether — but tor leade & tynne he would not 

 hoare of it. 



" So 45 E 3-4 & 11 R 2 cap 9 The kinge byndos his 

 power to impose only upon those three comodities — So 

 these stats applie the words such things to those 3 things, 

 statutes " The statutes of free trade make nothing. 15 E 3 

 of free [Stat 3J cap 5 savs there shall be free trade, but 

 ,racl<; - that is according to the statute of M E 3 [st. 2] 

 Ca 2 & the words of that lawe was — pnyige subsidies 

 & customes & other reasonable proffits. Reasonable i. e. 

 not certayne but arbitrary & uncertayne w ch must needs 

 be meant of Impositions. 



" Many authorities that kings shall not bo 

 word" 11 bound by genall words— Samso not to be bound 

 by cobwebs but bj' cordes. 



"L. Barkleys case, The king bound to give an AdditiO 

 because Inditement is named. 



" 9 E 3. 25 E 3. 22 R 2. H 4 all statutes of open trade 

 directly levyed to the Intrusions of Corporations — not to 

 be extended to the kings power, for that were aliud agere 

 then the lawmakers intended. 



"Ob. The kinge may not impose, but npo a restraynt 

 by parlianit. 



" Sol. Then it followes that if the king have power to 

 restrayne w">out act of pari 1 he may Impose during the 

 restraynt. And that he may restrayne proved by the 4 

 mencioned by Mr. Jones. 



* See Rolls of Parliament, vol. ii. p. 323. 



