discourse of strangers in the courte, [he said] he ' were not worthie to live and weare his crowne, if he 'should endure it 7.'

"For the epilogue, there was never the like hearde in parleament; or any where allowed, but against a criminall at the barre in case of felony and treason. Ours employed himselfe much to the disadvantage of this howse and our dishonour. I saye not to be condemned, if he spake under any of our heades; but he went directly against the sence of the howse, and made our child a changlinge.

"We must commende, and justly, the prologue in his protestacion. I wishe the other had not pleaded so much, that now reflectes upon himselfe. I speake not these thinges by commaundment, but by the place I have the honoure to hould: the neerenes unto his majestie have an opportunetie of knowinge more then every one.

"Now lett me consider of the remedy: and call for my compasse to consider how to save this shippe, which I may resemble to this howse, wherein our goodes and lyves are. If shee have either pinace or cockboate that gives impediment, cutt the cable in a storme, if he did mandati finis preterire, that he may either sink or swimme. Admit our shippe full of leakes,

Sir Edward Spencer pressed an explanation of the words, "He were not worthie to weare his crowne:" whereupon Mr. Vice-chamberlain Carleton said, "He spake not these wordes as his owne; but related them as his majestie delivered them." Harl. MS. 161.

let us stoppe, though not all we would, yet as many as wee can, that his majestie take not new counseles2, dum quod est facies.

"Parleamentes weare in all monarchies, as is oures that now are, changed. Kinges ever rose to heighten their prerogative; and when parleamente priveliges doe turn unto a tumultuarie libertie, what better successe can be expected?—which I hope we shall never see, but our commons ever well clade in cloth and with good fleshe; not with canvas, wooden shoes and starved bodyes, as would move commiseracion to behould. My conclusion of all is, to be as carefull that we neither sinke at home, nor be overwhelmed abroade: therefore, desire a committee of the whole house to entertayne this greate busines."]

• This reiterated threat gave considerable alarm to the commons; for in their subsequent remonstrance to the king, it was thus descanted on: "The words new counsels were remembered in a speech made amongst us by one of your majesty's privy-council, who told us, 'He had often thought of those 'words; that in his consideration of them, he remembered

that there were such kinds of parliaments anciently among ' other nations as are now in England; that in England he saw 'the country-people live in happiness and plenty, but in these ⚫ other nations he saw them poor both in persons and habit, or 'to that effect; which state and condition happened (as he • said) to them, where such new counsels were taken as that the ' use of their parliaments ended.' This intimation was such as gave just cause to fear there were some ill ministers near your majesty, that were so much against the parliamentary course of this kingdom, as they might perhaps advise such new counsels," &c. See Rushworth, vol. i. p. 401.

ELIZABETH,

COUNTESS OF LINCOLN,

DAUGHTER and co-heiress of sir Henry Knevet, and wife of Thomas earl of Lincoln, wrote

"The Countesse of Lincolne's Nurserie 3." Oxf. 1621, 4to. Addressed to her daughter-inlaw, "the right honourable and approved vertuous lady Briget countesse of Lincolne." She speaks of it as the first of her printed works, but I can find no account of

Ballard, p. 267. Lodge, vol. i. p. 498.

any other.

[By whom, says Dugdale, she had issue, seven sons and nine daughters. Her ladyship speaks of having had eighteen children. See p. 274. Her nursery instructions, therefore, were drawn from practical experience and maternal watchfulness.] Wood ascribes this piece to one Dr. [Wood had probably seen the book, as he has given the date more correctly than Ballard, but he had inspected it with little attention. All that Lodge contributed was a recommendatory address " to the courteous, chiefly most christian reader," which concludes with these cramp lines: "Blest is the land where sons of nobles raigne! Blest is the land where nobles teach their traine!

To church for blisse, kings, queenes, should nurses be,
To state its blisse, great dames babes nurse to see.
Go then, great booke, of nursing plead the cause;
Teach high'st, low'st, all, its God's and nature's lawes!

Thomas Lodge.”

[Lady Lincoln does not seem to speak of any other publications she only says, "I offer unto your ladyship the first worke of mine that ever came into print; because your rare example hath given an excellent approbation to the matter contained in this booke: for you have passed by all excuses, and have ventured upon, and doe goe on with, that loving act of a loving mother, in giving the milke of your own breasts to your owne childe; wherein you have gone before the greatest number of honourable ladies of your place, in these latter times." In our own day this laudable exemplar of maternal love has been followed by several females of the highest rank and accomplishments, and has been enforced with all the eloquence of poetry and philanthropy by the pens of Downman, Darwin, and Roscoe. Some of the persuasives adduced by the former 4 of these ingenious writers, were thus sagaciously inculcated by the coun

O mother! (let me by that tenderest name
Conjure thee,) still pursue the task begun;
Nor, unless urg'd by strong necessity,
Some fated, some peculiar circumstance,
Give to an alien's care thy orphan babe.
-From a stranger hand,

Ah! what can Infancy expect, when she
Whose essence was inwove with thine, whose life,

Whose soul thou didst participate, neglects

Herself in thee, and breaks the strongest seal
Which nature stamp'd in vain upon her heart?

tess of Lincoln, and addressed to the matrons of the seventeenth century.

"Trust not other women," says her ladyship, "whom wages hyres to doe this service, better then yourselves, whom God and nature ties to doe it. I have found by grievous experience, such dissembling in nurses, pretending willingnesse, towardnesse, wakefulnesse; when indeed they have been most wilfull, most froward, and most slothfull, as I feare the death of one or two of my little babes came by the defalt of their nurses. Of all those which I had for eighteene children, I had but two which were throughly willing and carefull: divers have had their children miscarry in the nurse's hands; and are such mothers (if it were by the nurse's carelessnesse) guiltlesse? I knowe not how they should; since they will shut them out of the armes of nature, and leave them to the will of a stranger; yea, to one that will seeme to estrange her selfe from her owne child, to give sucke to the nurse-child. This she may faine to doe upon a covetous composition, but she frets at it in her minde, if she have any naturall affection. Therefore be no longer at the trouble, and at the care, to hire others to doe your owne worke: bee not so unnaturall to thrust away

O luckless babe, born in an evil hour!

Who shall thy numerous wants attend? explore
The latent cause of ill? thy slumbers guard?

And when awake, with nice sedulity

Thy every glance observe? A parent may;

A hireling cannot.

Downman's Infancy, book i.