LETTERS FROM THE RESUSCITATIO. 129 



not to give opinion by fractions, but entirely according to 

 the vote whereupon they should settle upon conference; 

 and that this auricular taking of opinions, single and apart ? 

 was new and dangerous ; and other words more vehement 

 than I repeat. 



I replied in civil and plain terms, that I wished his 

 lordship, in my love to him, to think better of it; for that 

 this, that his lordship was pleased to put into great words, 

 seemed to me and my fellows, when we spake of it amongst 

 ourselves, a reasonable and familiar matter, for a king to 

 .consult with his judges, either assembled or selected, or one 

 by one ; and then to give him a little outlet, to save his 

 first opinion, (wherewith he is most commonly in love) I 

 added that judges sometimes might make a suit to be spared 

 for their opinion till they had spoken with their brethren ; 

 but if the king upon his own princely judgment, for reason 

 of estate, should think it fit to have it otherwise, and should 

 so demand it there was no declining ; nay, that it touched 

 upon a violation of their oath, which was to counsel the 

 king without distinction, whether it were jointly or severally. 

 Thereupon I put him the case of the privy council, as if 

 your majesty should be pleased to command any of them to 

 deliver their opinion apart and in private ; whether it were 

 a good answer to deny it, otherwise than if it were pro 

 pounded at the table. To this he said, that the cases were 

 not alike, because this concerned life. To which I replied, 

 that questions of estate might concern thousand of lives ; 

 and many things more precious than the life of a particular ; 

 as war and peace, and the like. 



To conclude, his lordship, &quot; tanquam exitum quaerens,&quot; 

 desired me for the time to leave with him the papers, with 

 out pressing him to consent to deliver a private opinion till 

 he had perused them. I said I would ; and the more wil 

 lingly, because I thought his lordship, upon due considera 

 tion of the papers, would find the case to be so clear a case 



VOL. XI. K 



