328 LETTERS FROM BIRCH. 



answering your last letter, since we are so shortly to be at 

 home ; yet we have thought good to make some observa 

 tions to you upon the same, that you may not err, by mis 

 taking our meaning. 



The first observation we are to make is, that whereas you 

 would invert the second sense, wherein we took your mag 

 num in parvo, in accounting it to be made magnum by their 

 streperous carriage that were for the match, we cannot but 

 show you your mistaking therein. For every wrong must 

 be judged by the first violent and wrongous ground, where 

 upon it proceeds. And was not the thefteous stealing away 

 of the daughter from her own father* the first ground, 

 whereupon all this great noise hath since proceeded ? For 

 the ground of her getting again came upon a lawful and 

 ordinary warrant, subscribed by one of our council,^ for 

 redress of the former violence : and except the father of a 

 child might be proved to be either lunatic, or idiot, we 

 never read in any law, that either it could be lawful for 

 any creature to steal his child from him ; or that it was a 

 matter of noise and streperous carriage for him to hunt for 

 the recovery of his child again. 



Our next observation is, that whereas you protest your 

 affection to Buckingham, and thereafter confess that it is 

 in some sort parent-like ; yet after that you have praised 

 his natural parts, we will not say that you throw all down 

 by a direct imputation upon him ; but we are sure you do 



* Lady Hatton had first removed her daughter to Sir Edmund Withipole s 

 house, near Oatlands, without the knowledge of Sir Edward Coke ; and from 

 thence, according to a letter of Mr. Chamberlain, dated July 19, 1617, the young 

 lady was privately conveyed to a house of the Lord of Argyle s by Hampton 

 Court; whence, adds Mr. Chamberlain, &quot;her father, with a warrant from Mr. 

 Secretary [Winwood] fetched her ; but indeed went farther than his warrant, 

 and brake open divers doors before he got her.&quot; 



t Secretary Winwood, who, as Mr. Chamberlain observes in the letter cited 

 in the note above, was treated with ill language at the council-board by the 

 Lord Keeper, and threatened with a pramunire, on account of his warrant granted 

 to Sir Edward Coke. His Lordship at the same time, told the Lady Compton, 

 mother of the Earl of Buckingham, that they wished well to her and her sons, 

 and would be ready to serve the earl with all true affection ; whereas others did 

 it out of faction and ambition. Which words glancing directly at Secretary 

 Winwood, he alleged that what he had done was by the direction of the queen 

 and the other parties, and showed a letter of approbation of all his courses from 

 the king, making the whole table judge what faction or ambition appeared in his 

 carriage : to which no answer was returned. The queen, some time after, 

 taking notice of the disgust which the Lord Keeper had conceived against Secre 

 tary Winwood, and asking his lordship what occasion the secretary had given 

 him to oppose himself so violently against him ? his lordship answered, &quot; Madam, 

 I can say no more but he is proud, and I am proud.&quot; MS. letter of Mr. Cham 

 berlain, October 11, 1717. 



