OBSERVATIONS ON A LIBEL. 389 



libel is intitled, tf A declaration of the true causes of 

 t( the great troubles presupposed to be intended 

 &quot; against the realm of England ;&quot; and hath a sem 

 blance as if it were bent against the doings of her 

 majesty s ancient and worthy counsellor the lord 

 Burleigh ; whose carefulness and pains her majesty 

 hath used in her counsels and actions of this realm 

 for these thirty-four years space, in all dangerous 

 times, and amidst many and mighty practices ; and 

 with such success as our enemies are put still to their 

 paper-shot of such libels as these ; the memory of 

 whom will remain in this land, when all these libels 

 shall be extinct and forgotten ; according to the 

 Scripture, &quot; Memoria justi cum laudibus, at impio- 

 rum nomen putrescet.&quot; But it is more than evident, 

 by the parts of the same book, that the author s 

 malice was to her majesty and her government, 

 as may especially appear in this, that he charged not 

 his lordship with any particular actions of his private 

 life, such power had truth, whereas the libels made 

 against other counsellors have principally insisted 

 upon that part : but hath only wrested and detorted 

 such actions of state, as in times of his service have 

 been managed ; and depraving them, hath ascribed 

 and imputed to him the effects that have followed ; 

 indeed, to the good of the realm, and the honour of 

 her majesty, though sometimes to the provoking of 

 the malice, but abridging of the power and means of 

 desperate and incorrigible subjects. 



All which slanders, as his lordship might justly 

 despise, both for their manifest untruths, and for the 



