406 LETTERS FROM BIRCH. 



As good luck was, the house read two bills, and had no 

 other business at all : whereupon my Lord of Canterbury 

 made his motion; and I adjourned the house till Saturday. 

 It was no sooner done, but came the message from the 

 lower house. But the consummation est was past, though 

 I perceived a great willingness in many of the lords to have 

 recalled it, if it might have been. 



So with my best prayers for your majesty s preservation, 

 I rest Your Majesty s most bounden, 



Thursday, at eleven of our and m st devoted Servant, 



forenoon, March 8, 1620. TR. ST. ALBAN, Cane. 



To the Marquis of Buckingham.* 

 My very good Lord, 



Your lordship spoke of purgatory. I am now in it ; but 

 my mind is in a calm ; for my fortune is not my felicity. 

 I know I have clean hands, and a clean heart ; and I hope 

 a clean house for friends or servants. But Job himself, or 

 whosoever was the justest judge, by such hunting for mat 

 ters against him, as hath been used against me, may for a 

 time seem foul, especially in a time when greatness is the 

 mark, and accusation is the game. And if this be to be a 

 chancellor, I think if the great seal lay upon Hounslow 

 Heath, nobody would take it up. But the king and your 

 lordship will I hope put an end to these my straits one 

 way or other. And in troth, that which I fear most, is, 

 lest continual attendance and business, together with these 

 cares, and want of time to do my weak body right this 

 spring by diet and physic, will cast me down ; and that it 

 will be thought feigning, or fainting. But I hope in God 

 I shall hold out. God prosper you. 



To the Chancellor of the Duchy, Sir Humphrey 



May. 



Good Mr. Chancellor, 



There will come, upon Friday, before you a patent f of 

 his majesty s for the separation of the company of apothe 

 caries from the company of grocers, and their survey, and 

 the erecting them into a corporation of themselves under 



* This letter seems to have been written soon after Lord St. Alban began to 

 be accused of abuses in his office of chancellor. 



t The patent for incorporating the apothecaries by themselves, by the appella 

 tion of &quot; The Masters, Wardens, and Society of the Art and Mystery of Apothe 

 caries of London,&quot; was dated December 6, 1617. They had been incorporated 

 with the company of grocers, April 9, 1606. 



