VILLIERS SENT ABROAD. CCCX1 



Westminster, who, well versed in matters of state, (a) soon 

 saw the position in which all parties were placed. He 

 recommended (b) that Villiers should, without a moment s 

 delay, be sent upon some foreign embassy ; and, his guilt 

 being less enormous or less apparent than of the other 

 offenders, he was thus protected by the power of his brother. 

 Villiers being safe, Williams advised compliance with the 

 humour of the people, and suggested that in this state 

 tempest (c) Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir F. Michell 

 &quot; should be thrown overboard as wares that might be 



(a) He was chaplain to Chancellor Egerton, and declined to accept the 

 same appointment under Bacon. 



(6) &quot; I will now spread affirmative proposals before your honor, which 

 I have studied and considered. Delay not one day before you give your 

 brother Sir Edward a commission for some embassage to some of the 

 princes of Germany, or the north lands, and despatch him over the seas 

 before he be missed.&quot; Hacket, p 50. 



(c) In a memorial which he had prepared for Buckingham (see Hacket, 

 p. 50) found after his death in his own hand-writing, he says, &quot; Trust me 

 and your other servants, that have some credit with the most active mem 

 bers, to keep you clear from the strife of tongues ; but if you assist to break 

 up this parliament, being now in the pursuit of justice, only to save some 

 cormorants, who have devoured that which must be regorged, you will 

 pluck up a sluice which will overwhelm yourself. Those empty fellows, 

 Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir Francis Michell, let them be made victims 

 to the public wrath. It strikes even with that advice which was given to 

 Caesar in Sallust, when the people expected that some should be examples 

 of public justice, Lucius Posthumius, Marcus Favonius mihi videntur 

 quasi magnae navis supervacua onera esse ; si quid adversi coortum est, de 

 illis petissimum jactura sit, quia pretii minimi sunt. Let Lord Posthumius 

 and M. Favonius be thrown overboard in the storm, for ihere are no wares 

 in the ship that may better be spared. And your lordship must needs par 

 take of the applause ; for though it is known that these vermin haunted your 

 chamber, and is much whispered that they set up trade with some little 

 license from your honor, yet when none shall appear more forward than 

 yourself to crush them, the discourse will come about, that these devices 

 which take ill, were stolen from you by misrepresentation, when you were 

 but new blossomed in court, whose deformities being discovered, you love 

 not your own mistakings, but are the most forward to recall them.&quot; 



