tant parts in the lives of eminent and illustrious men; the ancient and irregular method of spelling having been abandoned. The perplexity and fatigue occasioned by the sort of irregularity alluded to, will at once be comprehended when it is learned that even the proper name Cecil is written by persons contemporary with Burleigh, ten different ways. He is not only called Cecil, Cicill, Cecelle, and Cycill, but Cycle, Syssyll, &c.

The leading subject of these volumes is the government of Somerset the Protector, and the intrigues and character of persons that figured conspicuously during the most remarkable periods of his fortunes, many of the letters correcting the prevalent notions propagated by our most popular historians, and all of them interesting on account of the occasions of their appearance or their special style and contents. A few specimens, together with an abstract of some of Mr. Tytler's connecting and illustrative notices will sufficiently impress our readers with a sense of the value of the long buried stores from which he has drawn forth these materials.

The first period or epoch, according to the divisions of our author, is that which commences with the death of Henry VIII. ; nor can we fix upon letters in the whole series that reveal more new and important lights than those that were written with reference to that monarch's decease, and the intrigues consequent upon it. The king had been dead nearly three days before the event was announced to Parliament which was then sitting, or otherwise published to the world, a degree and extent of concealment which at the present day would be regarded as a daring presumption. And yet the conduct of those who were to assume the power as the guardians and ministers of the young king appears to have been still more objectionable than what attached merely to the concealment of Henry's death.

Henry died at Westminster on Friday the 28th of January, at two o'clock of the morning. But it was not till Monday that the Commons were sent for to the House of Lords, and informed by the Lord Chancellor of the event. The Secretary of State, Sir William Paget, was then requested to read such parts of the late king's will as related to the succession, and the system by which the realm was to be governed during the minority of his son; and on the same day Edward was proclaimed and conducted to the Tower. The two letters which we are about to quote, written by the Earl of Hertford, shortly afterwards created Duke of Somerset the first, to the Secretary of State, the second to the council, are valuable, because they contain some account, and indicate other points of what took place in the interval between the death of the king and its notification by the Chancellor,-a portion of secret history, says Mr. Tytler, not to be found elsewhere. It will be observed that the first letter is written between three and four in

the morning of the 29th, Henry's decease having preceded this unusual period for business correspondence about twenty-four hours :

"This morning, between one and two, I received your letter. The first part thereof I like very well; marry, that the will should be opened till a further consultation, and that it might be well considered how much thereof were necessary to be published; for divers reasons I think it not convenient to satisfy the world. In the meantime I think it sufficient, when we publish the king's death, in the places and times as ye have appointed, to have the will presently with you, and to show that this is the will, naming unto them severally who be executors that the king did specially trust, and who be councillors; the contents at the breaking up thereof, as before, shall be declared unto them on Wednesday in the morning at the parliament; and in the meantime we to meet and agree therein, as there may be no controversy hereafter. For the rest of your appointments, for the keeping of the Tower, and the king's person, it shall be well done ye be not too hasty therein; and so I bid you heartily farewell. From Hartford, the 29th of Jan. between three and four in the morning. Your assured loving friend, 'E. HERTFORD.' "I have sent you the key of the will.' "Endorsed, To my Right loving Friend, Sir William

Paget, one of the King's Majesties Two Principal

Secretaries.

"Haste, post haste, Haste with all diligence, For thy life, For thy life.'

Edward the Sixth was, Mr. Tytler informs us, at the moment of his father's death, at Hertford, not Hatfield, as has been erroneously stated. His uncle, the Earl of Hertford, and Sir Anthony Brown immediately repaired to this place and conveyed the young king privately to Enfield, from which the second of the letters alluded to particularly by us, was sent :

"The Earl of Hertford to the Council.

Orig. St. P. Off. Domestic. January 30th, 1546-7. "Your lordships shall understand that 1, the Earl of Hertford, have received your letter concerning a pardon to be granted in such form as in the schedule ye have sent, and that ye desire to know our opinions therein. For answer thereunto, ye shall understand we be in some doubt whether our power be sufficient to answer unto the king's majesty that now is, when it shall please him to call us to account for the same. And in case we have authority so to do it, in our opinions the time will serve much better at the coronation than at this present. For if it should be now granted, his highness can shew no such gratuity unto his subjects when the time is most proper for the same; and his father, who we doubt not to be in heaven, having no need thereof, shall take the praise and thank from him that hath more need thereof than he. We do very well like your device for the matter; marry, we would wish it to be done when the time serveth most proper for the same. We intend the king's

majesty shall be a-horseback to-morrow by eleven of the clock, so that by three we trust his grace shall be at the Tower. So, if ye have not already advertised my Lady Anne of Cleves of the king's death, it shall be well done ye send some express person for the same. And so, with our right hearty commendations, we bid you farewell. From Enwild (Enfield) this Sunday night, at eleven of the clock. Your good lordship's assured loving friends,

"E. HERTFORD.
"ANTHONY BROWNE."

It is quite clear that a faction, whose proceedings were secret, whose plans had been maturing for a length of time, and who acted not only as irresponsible persons, but to whom no resistance could be offered from any quarter, was now reigning; and that Hertford, though calling himself merely one of the executors of the late king, had immediately after Henry's decease assumed the tone and authority of Protector, which his associates acknowledged. Mr. Tytler justly remarks that the emphatic postscript to the first of these letters proves that the will was in his private keeping. Then what security was there against its vitiation, either by additions or by suppressions?

Scarcely, in fact, was Henry in his grave when the faction, and those who had interest with the supreme actors, were all greedily intent on securing the utmost possible share of the spoils which Henry had grasped. Just listen to the moderate and modest demands of the Earl of Warwick, John Dudley.

"Master Secretary,-Perchance some folks will allege considerations concerning the not assignment of the lordship of Warwick, saying it is a stately castle, and a goodly park, and a great royalty. To that it may be answered-the castle of itself is not able to lodge a good baron with his train; for all the one side of the said castle, with also the dongeon tower, is clearly ruinated and down to the ground; and that of late the King's Majesty that dead is, hath sold all the chief and principal manors that belonged unto the said earldom and castle; so that at this present there is no lands belonging unto it, but the rents of certain houses in the town, and certain meadows with the park of Wegenock. Of the which castle with the park, and also of the town, I am Constable, high Steward, and Master of the game, with also th'herbage of the park during my life; and because of the name, I am the more desirous to have the thing; and also I come of one of the daughters and heirs of the right and not defiled line. I will rebate part of my fees in my portion, to have the same castle, meadows, and park, wherein I pray you to show me your friendship, to move the rest of my lords to this effect: and further to be friendly to Mr. Denny, according to his desire for the site and remains of Waltham, with certain other farms adjoining unto Jeston; wherein, as for the site of Waltham, I suppose it shall grow to a commonwealth to the thereabouts to let him have it. And in case that they will not condescend to me for the lordship of Warwick, as is aforesaid, I pray you then let me have

Tunbridge and Penshurst, that was the Buckingham's lands in Kent, as parcel of my portion, and also Hawlden, that was my own; and, whether I have the one or the other, let Canonbury be our portion. The Master of the Horse would gladly, as I do perceive by him, have the lordship in Sussex that was the Lord Laware's; which in my opinion were better bestowed upon him, or some such as would keep it up, and serve the King in the country in maintaining of household, than to let it fall to ruin as it doth, with divers other like houses; being a great pity, and loss it will be at length to the King and realme.

"Your own assuredly,

"J. WARWICK."

There is a letter from Lady Browne to Cecil, written not six months after the accession of Edward, which proves that that renowned character was at the age of twenty-seven, not only in the service of the Duke of Somerset, but a statesman holding a situation of high trust. Though the letter is immaterial in itself, it becomes valuable for the light it throws upon the early life of such a remarkable individual. The document is to the following effect :

"The Lady Browne to Cecil.

"Orig. St. P. Off. Domestic. 23d July, 1547.

"Gentle Mr. Syssyll,-After most hearty commendations. This shall be to render you most hearty thanks, for your gentleness shewed unto me at all times. Further, it may be to certify unto you, that I have unto my lord protector's grace a letter, in the which I am an humble suitor to the same his grace, for as much as I understand, his grace doth appoint certain gentlemen and others to go into Scotland to serve the king's majesty there, that it will please his grace to accept and appoint my brother to be one also amongst them. And supposing his grace not to know my brother, I shall desire you to prefer his suit, and that by your means he may deliver my said letter to my lord's grace; and for your gentleness herein, I shall reckon myself, as I am indeed, much beholden unto you. Thus always ready to trouble you, I will desire you to have me commended unto your good bedfellow, and so bid you most heartily to farewell. From Horsley, this Saint James's day. By your assured to my little power,

"ELIZABETH BROWNE." "Endorsed, To my friend Mr. Syssyll be these delivered.'"

Referring to Mary, who has been so generally detested by Protestants, Mr. Tytler states, that "there are some points in English history, or rather in English feeling upon English history, which have become part of the national belief,-they may have been hastily or superficially assumed,-they may be proved by as good evidence as the case admits of, to be erroneous; but they are fondly clung to, screwed and dove tailed into the mind of the people, and to attack them is a historical heresy. It is with these

musings that I approach her who is so generally execrated as the bloody Mary.' The idea of exciting a feeling in her favour, will appear a chimerical, perhaps a blameable one; yet, having examined the point with some care, let me say, for myself, that I believe her to have been naturally rather an amiable person. Indeed, till she was thirty-nine, the time of her marriage with Philip, nothing can be said against her, unless we agree to detest her because she remained faithful to the Roman Catholic church; nor can there, I think, be any doubt that she has been treated by Fox, Strype, Carte, and other Protestant writers, with injustice. The few unpublished letters of hers which I have met with, are simple, unaffected and kind-hearted; forming, in this respect, a remarkable contrast to those of Elizabeth, which are often inflated, obscure and pedantic. The distinguishing epithets by which the two sisters are commonly known, the bloody Mary,' and the good Queen Bess,' have evidently a reference to their times; yet we constantly employ them individually."

Here is one of Mary's letters which appears in the present collection. There are others in which she intercedes in behalf of her servants, or those that had been attached to her mother's household :

"Princess Mary to my Lady of Somerset.

"My good Gossip-After my very hearty commendations to you, with like desire to hear of the amendment and increase of your good health, these shall be to put you in remembrance of mine old suit concerning Richard Wood, who was my mother's servant when you were one of her Grace's maids, and, as you know by his supplication, hath sustained great loss, almost to his utter undoing, without any recompence for the same hitherto; which forced me to trouble you with this suit before this time, whereof (I thank you) I had a very good answer; desiring you now to renew the same matter to my lord your husband, for I consider that it is in manner impossible for him to remember all such matters having such a heap of business as he hath. Wherefore I heartily require you to go forward in this suit till you have brought it to an honest end, for the poor man is not able to lye long in the city. And thus my good Nann, I trouble you both with myself and all mine; thanking you with all my heart for your earnest gentleness towards me in all my suits hitherto, reckoning myself out of doubt of the continuance of the same. Wherefore once again I must trouble you with my poor George Brickhouse, who was an officer of my mother's wardrobe, of the beds, from the time of the King my father's coronation: whose only desire it is to be one of the knights of Windsor, if all the rooms be not filled, and, if they be, to have the next reversion; in the obtaining whereof, in mine opinion, you shall do a charitable deed, as knoweth Almighty God, who send you good health, and us shortly to meet, to his pleasure.

"From St. Johns, this Sunday at afternoon, being the 24th of April. Your loving friend during my life, "MARYE."