NOTE 4 C. 



that whistles to them, or drives them to pasture, will have the honesty and cou 

 rage upon such occasions to despise all personal considerations, and to think of 

 no consequence but what may result to the public from the faithful discharge of 

 their sacred trust! When Sir Matthew Hale, in the ease of Lord Craven, 

 pleaded so forcibly for his client, that in those miserable times, he was threatened 

 by the then Attorney General, with the vengeance of the government, &quot; I am 

 pleading,&quot; he replied, &quot; in defence of those laws which the parliament have de 

 clared they will maintain and preserve ; I am doing my duty to my client, and 

 I am not to be daunted.&quot; The hardminded and mistaken JefTeries, said to Mr. 

 Wallop, on Baxter s trial, &quot; I observe you are in all these dirty causes, and were 

 it not for you gentlemen of the long robe, who should have more wit and honesty 

 than to uphold these factious knaves by the chin, we should not be at the pass 

 we are at.&quot; Similar language disgraced the bench on the trial of the seven 

 bishops, but Mr. Hale and Mr. Somers were not likely to be deterred by such 

 conduct from the discharge of their duties. 



4 C. Life, p. Ixx. 



Accounts of this trial may be found in Bacon s works, in the Sydney Papers, 

 in Camden, and in Morrison. Bacon s account will be found in vol. vi. of 

 this edition, p. 276. The accounts from the Sydney Papers, from Camden, and 

 from Morrison are annexed. 



Account of the Trial from the Sydney Papers. 



Row. Whyte, Esq. to Sir Rob. Sydney. S. L. Vol. ii. p. 199. Penshurst, 

 Friday night, 6 June, 1600. 



Yesterday my lord of Essex was at my Lord Keeper s before commissioners 

 appointed to hear his cause, and to-morrow I go to court, and will learn what 

 I can of it, and advertise your lordship. 



Row. Whyte, Esq. to Sir Rob. Sydney. S. L. Vol. ii. p. 199. Court in hast, 



Saturday, 7 June, 1 600. 



I am now newly come to court; where I hear how the matter passed upon 

 Thursday, with my lord of Essex before the lords and other commissioners. 

 The Attorney General, Serjeant Yelverton, her majesty s Solicitor, and Mr. 

 Bacon, all of her highnes learned counsel, laid open his offences and contempts, 

 during which time the earle himself kneeled at bord s end, and had a bundle of 

 papers in his own hand, which sometimes he laid in his hat that was upon the 

 ground by him. The effect of their speeches contained his making of my lord 

 Southampton general of the horse, contrary to her majesty s pleasure ; his 

 making of knights ; his going into Munster, contrary to his instructions ; his 

 return, being expressly commanded by her majesty s own letter to stay : all which 

 points were by her majesty s learned counsel very gravely and sharply touched 

 and propounded against him. His speech was very discreet, mild, and gentle, 

 acknowledging that he had grievously offended her majesty in all these things 

 objected against him, but with no malicious intent ; and that if it would please 

 their honors to give him leave, he would declare unto them the blind guides that 

 led him to those errors, which in his opinion would have furthered her majesty s 

 service. But then began my Lord Keeper, upon the reasons argued by her 

 majesty s learned counsel, to deliver his opinion ; that his contempts deserved 

 to be imprisoned in the Towre, to be fined as deeply as ever subject was, to 

 have his offices of counsellor, earl marshall, and master of the ordnance seques 

 tered from him. My Lord Treasurer left out the Towre ; my Lord Admiral the 

 fine. Mr. Secretary made a wise grave speech of these contempts of his towards 

 her majesty ; all the rest spoke, condemning him greatly for contemptuously 

 offending so gracious a sovereign ; and it was concluded that he should return 

 from the place he came, till her majesty s further pleasure were known. The 

 poor earl then besought their honors to be a mean unto her majesty for grace 

 and pardon ; seeing there appeared in his offences no disloyalty towards her 



