464 LETTERS FROM BIRCH. 



The following Letters, wanting both dates and circumstances 

 to determine such dates, are placed here together. 



To King James I. 

 May it please your Majesty, 



Thinking often, as I ought, of your majesty s virtue and 

 fortune, I do observe, not without admiration, that those 

 civil acts of sovereignty, which are of the greatest merit, 

 and therefore of truest glory, are, by the providence of God, 

 manifestly put into your hands, as a chosen vessel to receive 

 from God, and an excellent instrument to work amongst 

 men the best and noblest things. The highest degree of 

 sovereign honour is to be founder of a kingdom or estate ; 

 for, as in the acts of God, the creation is more than the 

 conservation ; and as among men the birthday is accounted 

 the chiefest of the days of life ; so, to found a kingdom is 

 more worthy than to augment , or to administer the same. 

 And this is an honour that no man can take from your 

 majesty, that the day of your coming to the crown of Eng 

 land was as the birthday of the kingdom intire Britain. 



The next degree of sovereign honour, is the plantation of 

 a country or territory, and the reduction of a nation, from 

 waste soil and barbarous manners, to a civil population. 

 And in this kind also your majesty hath made a fair and 

 prosperous beginning in your realm of Ireland. The third 

 eminent act of sovereignty is to be a lawgiver, whereof he 

 speaketh, 



Pace data terris, animum ad civilia vertit 

 Jura suum, legesque tulit justissimus author. 



And another saith, &quot; Ecquid est, quod tarn proprie dici 

 potest actum ejus, qui togatus in republica cum potestate 

 imperioque versatur, quam lex. Quaere acta Gracchi ; leges 

 Semproniae proferentur : quaere Syllae, Corneliae quid ? 

 Cnei Pompeii tertius consulatus in quibus actis consistit ? 

 Nempe legibus. A Caesare ipso si quaereres quidnam egis- 

 set in urbe et toga; leges multas se respondeat et praeclaras 

 tulisse.&quot; 



To the King. 

 It may please your Majesty, 



A full heart is like a full pen ; it can hardly make any 

 distinguished work. The more I look upon my own weak 

 ness, the more I must magnify your favours ; and the more 

 I behold your favours, the more I must consider mine own 

 weakness. This is my hope, that God, who hath moved 



