48 LETTERS FROM THE CABALA. 



Sir Francis Bacon s Considerations, touching the 



Queen s Service in Ireland. 



[Inserted in Vol. V. p, 187.] 



Sir Francis Bacon, to the Earl of Northumberland. 



It may please your Lordship, 



I would not have lost this journey; and yet I have not that 

 I went for: for I have had no private conference to purpose 

 with the king, no more hath almost any other English ; for 

 the speech of his majesty admitteth with some nobleman, is 

 rather matter of grace, than matter of business : with the 

 attorney he spake, urged by the treasurer of Scotland, but 

 no more than needs must. After I had received his 

 majesty s first welcome, and was promised private access, 

 yet not knowing what matter of service your lordship s 

 letter carried, for I saw it not, and knowing that primeness 

 in advertisement is much, I chose rather to deliver it to Sir 

 Thomas Hoskins, than to let it cool in my hands, upon 

 expectation of access. Your lordship shall find a prince 

 the farthest from vain-glory that may be, and rather like a 

 prince of the ancient form than of the latter time ; his 

 speeches swift and cursory, and in the full dialect of his 

 nation, and in speech of business short, in speech of dis 

 course large : he affecteth popularity by gracing them that 

 are popular, and not by any fashions of his own ; he is 

 thought somewhat general in his favours ; and his virtue of 

 access is rather because he is much abroad, and in press, 

 than he giveth easy audience : he hasteneth to a mixture of 

 both kingdoms and nations, faster perhaps than policy will 

 well bear. I told your lordship once before my opinion, 

 that methought his majesty rather asked counsel of the time 

 past, than of the time to come. But it is yet early to 

 ground any settled opinion. For other particularities I refer 

 to conference, having in these generals gone farther in these 



