vinced of Buchanan's fincerity; and Thuanus did not fcruple to re late in his hiftory, all that paffed in Scotland just as Buchanan had related it. Camden indeed informed Thuanus, that he had been mifled by Buchanan: but had Camden his information from perfons lefs partial than Buchanan? Is he more to be depended on than those who were then in Scotland? Did he not obey the king through weakness, or had not he himself paffions? This may be faid in general against Camden's authority; but if it be more diftinctly confidered, it will plainly appear, that, on this occafion, he acted like a good fubject, but a bad hiftorian.

There is extant a letter from Thuanus to Camden, in which he thanks him for fome remarks that he had made on the beginning of his hiftory, and begs his advice how to relate what happened in Scotland in 1561, becaufe that part of his history was then printing. He wishes to give offence to no one, but neverthelefs to fpeak the truth; and is afraid that Buchanan may have written with too much vehemence: in fhort, he promises to follow Camden's advice. It must be observed, that Mary's difputes with Elizabeth began in great measure after that year, and that Mary then returned to Scotland after the death of Francis II. Camden was, it seems, not at leifure to fatisfy Thuanus, or he could not procure from the court the memoirs that he wished; for Thuanus's volume, which was at the prefs, was all printed off, before he received any advice from England. This appears from two

other letters of Thuanus, which prove that he paid no regard to what Camden wrote to him, nor altered his hiftory according to his advice. In the letter, written many months after, Thuanus thanks him for fome remarks he had fent him: and adds, that he could have wished that Camden had fent him an abstract of what paffed in England at the time of which he had written the hiftory. By thefe means,' (proceeds he), in following your steps, I ⚫ could more eafily have obferved

the moderation which fome perfons perhaps will wish I had obferved in regard to Scotland; and I fhould not have offended the great men of your country, which I would gladly have avoided. But having no one to confult but Buchanan, I was obliged to take from him the fequel of that tragical story, which others, who were by no means Proteftants, had before appróv⚫ed; and I have avoided all manner of invectives. But I am afraid that the mention only of that shameful murder (of the king, Mary's husband) may of fend those who are fo enraged at Buchanan. In fhort, princes 'fhould think, that if they believe that it is allowable for them to act as they pleafe, it is alfo allowable for all the world to fpeak and to write with freedom of their words and • deeds.'

Thuanus was in the right; and I remember to have been told (in 1687) by a diftinguished writer", that mentioning this fame Mary of Scotland to the late Queen Mary

* Dr. Burnet.

Having before mentioned his poems, fomething must now be added of his profe writings. They confift of a translation of Linacer's grammar from English into Latin; his dialogue on the royal right in Scotland, and his hiftory of that country.

The dialogue is written on the model of thofe of Cicero, whofe tyle he exactly imitates without pilfering, or fervilely copying him, as the Ciceronians did in the time of Erafmus. He alfo expreffes his thoughts in a ftyle no lefs fimple and natural than elegant. wrote it during the greatest troubles in Scotland, and dedicated it in 1579 to King James his pupil, who did not in the leaft profit by it.

He

He introduces this prince himfelf converfing with Thomas Maitland, whom he reprefents as returning from abroad into Scotland, and being furprised at the manner in which their kings are treated; for the Scotch at that time were utter enemies to arbitrary power,

and thought they had a right to oblige their princes to obferve their laws; instead of which, the French and other nations, the Low Countries only excepted, had fubmitted to the yoke.

As to his hiftory of Scotland, he could not have comprifed in a fhorter compafs all the tranfactions of the kingdom, from the time of Alexander the Great, when the Scots pretend that they began to have kings, to the year 1571, with which the history ends. Buchanan has alfo joined to the brevity of Salluft, the elegance and precision of Livy; for thefe are the two authors whom he principally defigns to imitate. I do not think that there is any modern hiftorian who has fucceeded better in imitating the hiftorians of antiquity, nor any poet of these latter times, who approaches more nearly to the ancient poets,

The twelve laft years of Buchanan's life were employed on his hiftory. He died at Edinburgh, February 28, 1582, aged 76.

under a private tutor, and received his univerfity-education in King's college in Cambridge. From the univerfity he was fent very young abroad to travel, for the rest of his learning; and, being a person of excellent fenfe and uncommon capacity, he made himself a perfect maiter of the laws, customs, manners, languages, and polity of the feveral nations with whom he converfed, as his fubfequent practice fully fhewed. He had the happiness of being out of England, in a kind of voluntary exile, during the cruel and perfecuting reign of Queen Mary I. which exempted him from the troubles and dangers to which moft gentlemen were then expofed. At his return home in Queen Elizabeth's time, being an accomplished gentleman, with a quick apprehenfion, a folid judgment, and accounted the best linguist in his time, he was foon obferved by the great Sir William Cecil, as a fit inftrument to be one of his agents; and, under his conduct, he came to be employed in the chiefeft affairs of itate.

The first of his public employments was an embally into France, where he refided feveral years, in very troublefome times, during the heat of the civil wars in that kingdom. In Auguft 1570, he was fent again ambasador there, to treat of a marriage between Queen Elizabeth and Francis Duke of Alençon, with other matters of the highest confequence; and continued at the court of France till April, 1573. He acquitted himfelf in that itation with uncommon capacity, faithfulness, and dili gence, fparing neither pains nor money to promote the queen's

fervice to the utmoft. Here upon Lloyd fays in his Stateworthies, His head was fo ftrong, that he could look into the depth of men and bufinefs, and dive into the whirlpools of ftate, Dexterous he was in finding a fecret, close in keeping it; much he had got by study, more by travel; which enlarged and actuated his thoughts. His converfation was infinuating and referved: He faw every man, and none faw him. His fpirit was as public as his parts; and it was his firft maxim, "Knowledge is never too dear:" yet as debonnair as he was prudent; and as obliging to the fofter predominant parts of the world, as he was ferviceable to the more fevere; and no less dexterous to work on humour, than to convince reafon. He would fay, he muft obferve the joints and flexures of affairs; and fo would do more with a story than others could with a harangue. He always furprised business, and preferred motions in the heat of other diverfions; and, if he must debate it, he would hear all; and, with the advantage of the foregoing fpeeches, that either cautioned or confirmed his refolutions, he carried all before him in conclufion, beyond reply. This Spanish proyerb was familiar with him, "Tell a lie, and find a truth;" and this,

Speak no more than you may fafely retreat from without danger, or fairly go through without oppofition." Some are good only at fome affairs in their own acquaintance; Walfingham was ready every where, and could make a party in Rome as well as England. He waited on men's fouls with his eye,

difcerning their fecret hearts thro

their

their transparent faces." The ju dicious Mr. de Wicquefort ob ferves, that Mr. Walfingham, who was employed in this negociation, was one of the ablest men that England ever produced; that the intereft of the reformed, where with he was charged, was a very nice affair; and that he had to deal with Charles IX. and his mother, the moft fufpicious and treacherous of princes; notwithstanding which he acquitted himfelf with great honour. To which it can be no exception, that he did not fufpect the court of France's perfidioufnefs; being himself an honest man, he could never imagine that fo black a villainy could enter into man's heart, as the maffacre of Paris, executed by order of the defpicable Charles IX. From our ambaffador's letters it appeared that his expences were fo great, very probably in gaining intelligence, that, to ufe his own words, fometimes he had neither furniture, money,

nor credit.

In order to keep the queen his mistress's powerful, treacherous, and ambitious neighbours fo well employed at home, that they might not be able to give England any difturbance, he laid the founda tion of the civil wars in France; and alfo of thofe in the Low Countries; which put a final ftop to the vaft defigns of the house of Auftria, Upon which occafion he told the queen, at his return from his em baffy to France, That he had no reason to fear the Spaniard; for, though he had a ftrong appetite, and a good digeftion, yet he had given him fuch a bone to pick, as would take him up twenty years at least, and break his teeth at laft; fo her majefty had no

more to do, but to throw into the fire he had kindled, fome English fuel from time to time, to keep it burning.'

In the beginning of the year 1573, he was appointed one of the principal fecretaries of ftate, fworn a privy counfellor, and knighted fome time after. Being put into that place of great truft, he exerted himself in a very uncommon manner; for he had devoted ab folutely himself, his life, time, and eftate, in the fervice of his queen and country; and, to compafs his ends, he guided himfelf by fuch maxims as thefe, recorded by Lloyd in his State-worthies: He faid that an habit of fecrecy is policy and virtue. To him men's faces fpoke as much as their tongues, and their countenances were indexes of their hearts. He would fo befet men with questions, and draw them on, and pick it out of them by piece-meals, that they discovered themselves whether they answered or were filent.

He served himself of the factions at court, as the queen his mistress did, neither advancing the one, nor depreffing the other: familiar with Cecil, allied to Leicester, and an oracle to Suffex. He could overthrow any matter by undertaking it, and move it fo as it must fall. He never broke any bufinefs, yet carried many: he could difcourfe any matter with them that moft oppofed; fo that they, in oppofing it, promoted it. fetches and compass to his defigned fpeech were things of great patience and ufe. So patient was this wife man, that his native place never faw him angry, the univerfity never paffionate, and the court never difcompofed. Reli

E 4

His

gion

gion was, in his judgment, the intereft of his country, and it was the delight of his foul; therefore he maintained it as fincerely as he profeffed it: it had his head, his heart, and his purfe. He laid the great foundation of the Proteftant conftitution, as to its policy, and the main plot against the Popish, as to its ruin.'

Thus it was that he was one of the great engines of ftate, and of the times, high in the queen's favour, and a watchful fervant over the fafety of his miftrefs. As long as he lived, her crown and life were preferved from daily attempts and confpiracies, chiefly by his vigilance and addrefs. His conftant method, for that purpose, was the utmoft fecrecy, patience, and the beft intelligence poffible; he maintaining, as we are affured, no lefs than fifty-three agents in foreign courts, and eighteen fpies. By thefe means he undermined all the plots of the Papifts, Jefuits, and other private as well as public enemies of this nation. • He outdid the Jefuits,' fays Lloyd, in their own bow, and over-reached them in their own equivocations and mental reservations; never fettling a lie, but warily drawing out and difcovering truth. So good was his intelligence, that he was confeffor to most of the Papifts before their death, as they had been to their brethren before their treafons.For two piftoles an order, he had all the private papers of Europe. Bellarmine read his lectures at Rome one month, and Reynolds had them to confute the next. Few letters efcaped his hands, whofe contents he could read, and not touch the feals.The queen of Scots letters were

all carried to him by her own fer, vant, whom the trufted, and de, cyphered to him by one Philips, as they were fealed again by one Gregory; fo that neither that queen, or her correfpondents, ever perceived either the feal defaced, or the letters delayed, to her dyingday. He had the wonderful art of weaving plots, in which bu fy people were fo entangled that they could never escape, but were fometimes fpared upon fubmiffion, at others, hanged for example.He would cherish a plot fome years together, admitting the confpirators to his own and the queen's prefence familiarly, but dogging them out watchfully: his fpies waited on fome men every hour for three years; and, lest. they could not keep counsel; he difpatched them to foreign parts, taking in new fervants.' But as Sir Robert Naunton obferves, it is inconceivable why he fuffered Dr. Parry to play fo long on the hook, before he hoifed him up.→ That Parry, intending to kill the queen, made the way of his access by betraying of others, and impeaching of the priests of his own correfpondency, and thereby had accefs and conference with the queen, and also oftentimes familiar and private conference with Walfingham, will not be the quere of the mystery; for the fecretary might have had his end of dif covery on a future maturity of the treafon. But that, after the queen knew Parry's intent, why the fhould then admit him to private difcourfe, and Walfingham to fuffer it, confidering the condition of all affailings, and permit him to go where and whither he lifted, and only on the fecurity of a dark

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