LETTERS FROM THE RESUSCITATIO. 141 



the power to prevail in the Farmer s case of the French 

 wines, without the help of my lord Cooke, shall be better 

 able to go through these with his help, the ground being no 

 less just. And this I shall ever add of mine own, that I 

 shall ever respect your majesty s honour no less than your 

 profit; and shall also take care, according to rny pensive 

 manner, that that which is good for the present have not in 

 it hidden seeds of future inconveniences. 



The matter of the New Company was referred to me 

 by the lords of the privy council; wherein, after some pri 

 vate speech with Sir Lionel Cranfield, I made that report 

 which I held most agreeable to truth and your majesty s 

 service. If this New Company break, it must either be 

 put upon the patent or upon the order made by themselves. 

 For the patent I satisfied the board that there was no title 

 in it which was not either verbatim in the patent of the Old 

 Company, or by special warrant from the table, inserted. 

 My lord Cooke, with much respect to me, acknowledged, 

 but disliked the old patent itself, and disclaimed his being 

 at the table when the additions were allowed. But in my 

 opinion, (howsoever my lord Cooke, to magnify his science 

 in law, draweth every thing, though sometimes unproperly 

 and unseasonably, to that kind of question) it is not conve 

 nient to break the business upon these points. For consi 

 dering they were but clauses that were in the former patents, 

 and in many other patents of companies, and that the addi 

 tions likewise passed the allowance of the table, it will be 

 but clamoured, and perhaps conceived, that to quarrel them 

 now is but an occasion taken, and that the times are changed 

 rather than the matter. But that which preserveth entire 

 your majesty s honour, and the constancy of your proceed- 

 put the breach upon their orders. 

 is light I gave in my report, which the table readily 

 apprehended and much approved ; that if the table reject 

 their orders as unlawful and unjust it doth free you from 

 their contract ; for whosoever contracteth, or undertaketh 



