James, to supply the deficiencies of the royal revenue, which had been prodigally squandered. For his exertions Cotton was rewarded with a baronetsy: and he was the twentyninth baronet that was created. He died at Westminster, in 1631.

The works of sir Robert Cotton are nume

rous.

1. "A Brief Abstract of the Question of Precedency between England and Spain." This tract was occasioned by Elizabeth expressing a desire to know the ideas of the antiquarian society relative to that point; and is still extant in the Cotton-library.

2. Being appointed in the year 1608, one of the commissioners to enquire into the state of the navy, which had been neglected since the death of Elizabeth, he drew up on this occasion, "A Memorial of their Proceedings," to be presented to the king. This piece is also reposited in the Cottonian library.

3. "A Discourse of the Lawfulness of Combats to be performed in the presence of the King or the Constable and Marshal of England," written in 1609, and printed in 1651, and in 1672.

4. The same year he wrote, "An Answer to

such Motives as were offered by certain Military Men to Prince Henry, to incite him to affect Arms more than Peace;" composed by order of that prince, and remaining still in MS. in his library.

5. "A Vindication of the Behaviour and Actions of Mary, Queen of Scots, from the Misrepresentations of Buchanan and Thuanus." This was written at the request of king James, and is supposed to be interwoven either in Cam→ den's Annals of Queen Elizabeth, or printed at the end of Camden's Epistles.

6. In the reign of James the numbers and activity of the catholics being so formidable as to give just cause of alarm to the nation, his majesty, in 1616, commissioned Cotton to examine whether it was authorized by the laws of the land, either to imprison or put them to death? In the investigation of this subject, sir Robert displayed great legal and constitutional knowledge, and produced twentyfour

arguments against proceeding to extre mity with the papists. These arguments were published in 1672, among Cottoni Posthuma.

7. Probably about the same time he composed a tract relative to the same subject, still in MS. in the royal library, entitled, "ConsiFf

VOL. II.

derations for the repressing of the Increase of Priests, Jesuits, and Recusants, without drawing blood."

8. "A Remonstrance of the Treaties of Amity," &c. This piece was written at the time when the match between prince Charles and the Infanta of Spain was in agitation, and at the instance of the House of Commons. He was desired to prove by an examination of the treaties between England and the house of Austria, the insincerity and unfaithfulness of the latter; and that in all her transactions, her sole object had been universal monarchy. This tract is printed among Cottoni Posthuma.

9. "An Answer to certain Arguments raised from supposed Antiquity, and urged by some Members of the LowerHouse of Parliament, to prove that Ecclesiastical Laws ought to be enacted by temporal Men." This was a vindication of our ecclesiastical constitution against the innovations of the Puritans.

10. "A Relation to prove that the Kings of England have been pleased to consult with their Peers in the great Council and Commons. of Parliament, of Marriage, Peace, and War." It was written in 1621, and printed in 1651 and 1672, among Cottoni Posthuma; also, in 1679,

under the title of "The Antiquity and Dignity of Parliaments."

11. " A Relation of the Proceedings against Ambassadors, who have miscarried themselves and exceeded their Commission."

12. "That the Sovereign's Person is required in the great Councils or Assemblies of the States, as well at the Consultations as at the Conclusions."

13. The Argument made by the command of the House of Commons out of the Acts of Parliament and Authority of Law expounding the same, at a Conference with the Lords, concerning the Liberty of the Person of every Freeman."

14. "A brief Discourse concerning the Power of the Peers and Commons of Parliament in point of Judicature." The four last are also printed in Cottoni Posthuma.

15. "A short View of the long Life and Reign of Henry III. King of England, written in 1614, and presented to James I." It was printed in 1627, 4to. and reprinted in Cottoni . Posthuma.

16. "Money raised by the King without Parliament, from the Conquest until this day, either by Imposition, or Free Gift, taken out

that do as much raise a style, as others can depress it. Superlation and over-muchness amplifies. It may be above faith, but never above a mean. ridiculous in Cestius, when he said of Alexander:

It was

Fremit oceanus, quasi indignetur, quòd terras relinquas; but propitiously from Virgil:

-credas innare revulsas Cycladas.

He doth not say it was so, but seemed to be so. Although it be somewhat incredible, that is excused before it be spoken. But there are hyperboles, which will become one language, that will by no means admit another. As Eos esse P. R. exercitus, qui cœlum possint perrumpere: who would say with us, but a bad man. Therefore, we must consider in every tongue what is used, what received. Quintilian warns us, that in no kind of translation, or metaphor, or allegory, we make a turn from what we began: as if we fetch the original of our metaphor from sea and billows, we end not in flames and ashes: it is a most foul inconsequence. Neither must we draw out our allegory too long, lest either we make ourselves obscure, or fall into affectation, which is childish. But why do men depart at all from the right and natural ways of speaking? Sometimes