ADVICE TO SIR GEORGE VILLIERS. 421 



lessen the just power of the crown, it borders so 

 near upon popularity. 



34. All this while I have spoken concerning the 

 common laws of England, generally and properly so 

 called, because it is most general and common to 

 almost all cases and causes, both civil and criminal : 

 but there is also another law, which is called the 

 civil or ecclesiastical law, which is confined to some 

 few heads, and that is not to be neglected : and 

 although J am a professor of the common law, yet 

 am I so much a lover of truth and of learning, and of 

 my native country, that I do heartily persuade that 

 the professors of that law, called civilians, because 

 the civil law is their guide, should not be discounte 

 nanced nor discouraged : else whensoever we shall 

 have aught to do with any foreign king or state, we 

 shall be at a miserable loss, for want of learned men 

 in that profession, 



III. I come now to the consideration of those 

 things which concern counsellors of state, the council 

 table, and the great offices and officers of the king 

 dom ; which are those who for the most part furnish 

 out that honourable board. 



1. Of counsellors there are two sorts : the first, 

 &quot; consiliarii nati,&quot; as I may term them, such are the 

 prince of Wales, and others of the king s sons, when 

 he hath more, of these I speak not, for they are na 

 turally born to be counsellors to the king, to learn 

 the art of governing betimes. 



2. But the ordinary sort of counsellors are such 



