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vinced of Buchanan's fincerity; and Thuanus did not fcruple to relate in his hiftory, all that paffed in Scotland juft as Buchanan had related it. Camden indeed in formed 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 historian.

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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 wifhed that Camden had fent him an abstract of what paffed in England at the time of which he had written the hiftory. By these means,' (proceeds he), in following your fteps, I 'could more easily have obferved the moderation which fome perfons perhaps will wish I had ob'ferved 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 approv 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 thofe who are so enraged at 'Buchanan. In short, princes fhould think, that if they believe that it is allowable for them to act as they please, it is alfo allowable for all the world to fpeak and to write with freedom of their words and ' deeds.'

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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 hiftory was then printing. He wishes to give offence to no one, but nevertheless to speak the truth; and is afraid that Buchanan may have written with too much vehemence in fhort, he promifes 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 H. Camden was, it seems, not at leifure to latisfy 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

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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.

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of England, when he was only Princefs of Orange, and faying, that a certain Roman-catholic hiftorian had spoken to her difadvantage, fhe replied, that if princes would not be blamed, they ought not to commit actions that were 'blameable.'

Nothing can exceed what Buchanan wrote to his friend Vinet, regent of the college at Bourdeaux, a little before his death, and which Thuanus has preferved in the fecond book of his life; 'This only I defire, to quit with as little noife as poffible, that f company which I am so unfit to 'keep, they being living, and I

dead.'

Having before mentioned his poems, fomething must now be added of his profe writings. They confift of a tranflation 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 thole of Cicero, whofe ftyle 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 style no lefs fimple and natural than elegant.

He 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 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 comprised 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 hiftory ends. Buchanan has alfo joined to the brevity of Salluft, the elegance and precition of Livy; for thefe are the two authors whom he prinI do cipally defigns to imitate. any modern not think that there is 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 last years of Buchanan's life were employed on his hiftory. He died at Edinburgh, Fe bruary 28, 1582, aged 76.

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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 reft of his learning; and, being a perfon of excellent fenfe and uncommon Capacity, he made himself a perfect mafter of the laws, cuftoms, 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, du ring 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 linguift 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 state.

The first of his public employments was an embally into France, where he refided feveral years, in very troublesome times, during the heat of the civil wars in that king. dom. In August 1570, he was fent again ambaffador there, to treat of a marriage between Queen Elizabeth and Francis Duke of Alençon, with other matters of the higheft confequence; and continued at the court of France till April, 1573. He acquitted himfelf in that station with uncommon capacity, faithfulncts, aud diligence, paring neither pains nor money to promote the queen's

fervice to the utmost. Hereupon Lloyd fays in his Stateworthies, "His head was fo strong, that he could look into the depth of men and business, and dive into the whirlpools of ftate. Dexterous he was in finding a fecret, close in keeping it: much he had got by ftudy, more by travel; which enlarged and actuated his thoughts. His converfation was infinuating and referved: He faw every man, and none faw him. His (pirit 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 fofte! 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 must obferve the joints and flexures of affairs; and fo would do more with a flory than others could with a harangue. He always furprised business, and preferred motions in the heat of other diverfions; and, if he muft debate it, he would hear all; and, with the advantages of the foregoing fpeeches, that either cautioned or confirmed his refolutions, he carried all before him in conclufion, beyond reply. This Spanish proverb was familiar with him, "Tell a lie, and find a truth;" and this,

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their transparent faces." The judicious Mr. de Wicquefort obferves, that Mr. Waltingham, who was employed in this negociation, was one of the ableft men that England ever produced; that the intereft of the reformed, wherewith 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 him felf an honeft man, he could never imagine that fo black a villainy could enter into man's heart, as the maflacre of Paris, executed by order of the defpicable Charles IX.-From our ambassador's letters it appeared that his expences were fo great, very probably in gaining intelligence, that, to ule his own words, fometimes he had neither furniture, money, nor credit.

In order to keep the queen his miftrefs's powerful, treacherous, and ambitious neighbours fo well employed at home, that they might not be able to give England any disturbance, he laid the foundation 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 houfe of Autiria. Upon which occafion he told the queen, that his return from his emhaffy to France, That he had no reafon 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 leaft, and break his teeth at laft; fo her majefty had no

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

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In the beginning of the year 1573, he was appointed one of the principal fecretaries of ftate, fworna privy counfellor, and knighted fome time after. Being put into that place of great truft, he exerted himfelf in a very uncommon manner; for he had devoted ab-` folutely himfelf, his life, time, and eftate, in the fervice of his queen' and country; and, to compass his ends, he guided himfelf by fuch maxims as thefe, recorded by Lloyd in his State-worthies: He faid that an habit of fecrefy 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 difcovered themfelves whether they antwered or were filent. -He ferved himfelf 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 most opposed; fo that they, in oppofing it promoted it. His fetches and compafs to his defign. ed fpeech were things of great patience and ufe.-So patient was this wife man, that his native place never faw him angry, the university never paffionate, and the never dilcompofed. Reli

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gion was, in his judgement, the intereft of his country, and it was the del ght of his foul; therefore he maintained it as fincerely as he profelled 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 piot against the Popin,

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 mistress. 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 out did the Jefuits, fays Lloyd, in their own bow, and over-reached them in their own equivocations and mental refervations; never fettling a lie, but warily draw ing out and difcovering truth. So good was his intelligence, that he was confeffor to moit 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 nex. Few letters escaped 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 bufy people were fo entangled that they could never efcape, 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, left they could not keep counfel; 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 accels by betraying of others, and impeaching of the priests of his own correfpondency, and thereby had accefs and conference with the queen, and alfo 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 hould then admit him to private difcourfe, and Walfingham to luffer 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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