the 4th of that King's reign, he is termed "Master of the great Wardrobe."

In the reign of Philip and Mary, Sir Ralph Sadler feems to have retired from court to his eftate at Hackney, and to have refigned the office of Knight of the Hamper, which had been conferred on him by Henry VIII, to fome friend of Archbishop Heath's. There is, however, complete evidence, that far from being in difgrace, he was in fuch confidence. with his Sovereign, that Mary authorized him to arm and equip as many able men as he could maintain, and to keep them ready to fupprefs, on an hour's notice, any popular tumult that might break forth.

When Elizabeth fucceeded to the throne, fhe called Sir Ralph Sadler to the privy council; and until the day of his death he retained a great portion of her regard and esteem. He was a member of her firft parliament, and continued to be a representative of the people during the greater part, if not the whole, of her reign. The jealoufy and hatred which Elizabeth had conceived against the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, is univerfally known; and when the refolved to fupport the lords of the congregation, as the Scotifh nobles who favoured the reformation flyled themfelves, against the legitimate government of their country, fhe pitched upon Sir Ralph Sadler, to manage the intrigues neceffary for the fuccefsful execution of this plan with fuch fecrecy, as neither to bring upon the lords of the congregation the odium of being the penfioners of England, nor to engage Elizabeth in an open war with her fifter and rival. Mr. Scott informs us who were affociated with Sir Ralph Sadler in this important negociation, but the chief confidence of Elizabeth and Cecil was reposed in him; nor was it repofed in a man who disappointed them. Sadler opened and carried on the negociation with his ufual ability, and paved the way for that abfolute influence, which Elizabeth foon afterwards obtained in the affairs of Scotland, as the numerous letters now offered to the public completely prove.

After Elizabeth's treaty with the lords of the congregation, and the furrender, in 1560, of the garrison of Leith to the English forces under the command of Lord Grey, we hear nothing more of Sir Ralph Sadler, except that he was created Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancafter, until the year 1568; when Elizabeth chofe to treat a fugitive Queen, who had fled to her for protection from her own rebellious fubjects, as an accufed criminal. Of the commiffioners appointed to hear the accufation brought by the Scotch rebels against their own Sovereign,

Sovereign, and to decide on her innocence or guilt, Sir Ralph Sadler was one, and the one most trusted, whether to the credit of his head and heart, the reader of these volumes will judge for himself.

His fenfe of virtue feems not, indeed, to have been always delicate, when acting in obedience to the diet tes of his royal miftrefs. After the fuppreffion of the rebellion, raifed by the Earls of Weflmoreland and Northumberland, for the deliverance of Queen Mary, and the refloration of the Romish religion, the infurgent Earls, with fome of their principal followers, retreated into Scotland. Northumberland fell into the power of the regent Murray, by whom he was, of course, delivered up to Elizabeth; but

"Weftmoreland being fheltered by the laird of Fernikerft, Sadler employed a perfon named Robert Conftable, a relation of the unfortunate fugitive, to feduce him to come back to England, under the promife of protection, and then to deliver him up to the feverity of the law. The perfon to whom this negociation was entrusted was, by birth, a gentleman, although his family was then ftained by treafon, as afterwards by regicide. But his quality did not prevent him from undertaking this treacherous commiffion, as the thirst of lucre could not, on the other hand, altogether fubdue his own fenfe of the infamy of his conduct. And between avarice, hypocrify, and remorfe, his letters to Sadler form a moft extraordinary picture of guilt contending with fhame. The anfwers of Sir Ralph are remarkable, as difdaining to qualify the infamy of the task otherwife than by increafing the bribe. He treats Constable as the traitor he had made himfelf; and appealing only to his avarice, makes no capitulation with his feelings whatfoever." Mem. p. 27.

That Conftable was an infamous man, and despised as fuch by Sir Ralph Sadler, is indeed apparent from the letters of both, publifhed in the fecond volume of this collection; but was the conduct of Sadler himfelf perfe&tly honourable, when he bribed and encouraged this wretch to enfnare his confiding relation? Mr. Scott, indeed fays, that he treats Conflable as the traitor he had made himfelf; and appealing only to his avarice, makes no capitulation whatever with his feelings. This, however, appears to us to be more than doubtful. In a letter to Secretary Cecil (vol. II. p. 109) Sadler fays that he had converfed with Conftable on the bufinefs of his treachery, and animated him to the fame by. representing the good fervice which he fhould thereby render to Her Majefty, which he might be fure Her Majesty would not leave unrewarded to his comfort; and to Constable himself, he says,

P4

"I have

"I have received your long letter, which I have thoroughlie perufed; and perceiving by the fame your good-will and payne. full travaile to fuftayned in your comberous journey for the fervice of the Queenes Majestie, and your countrey, I cannot but greatly praife and commende you for the fame!" P. 127.

Would a man of a delicate fenfe of virtue and true honour' confound loyalty and patriotifm with treachery, or praise another for actions which he would not perforin himself? Fortunately for the Earl of Weftmoreland this bafe negociation proved not fuccefsful.

In 1572 Sir Ralph Sadler was employed as one of the commiffioners for examining the Duke of Norfolk, with whom he had been lately affociated in trufts of a fimilar nature; and the iffue of the enquiry was the trial and execution of the unfortunate Duke. In 1578 he was honoured with a letter from James of Scotland, who had then taken the reins of government into his own hands, recommending to his good offices an ambaffador whom he had dispatched to the Queen of England.

We next find Sadler employed occafionally as a spy on the Earl of Shrewsbury, whofe caftle was converted into a prifon, and himself made a jailor for the unfortunate Queen of Scots. In 1580, Shrewsbury, after repeated intreaties to be relieved of a truft fo hateful in itself, was permitted to go to court; and during his abfence, Sir Ralph Sadler and Sir Henry Mildmay were appointed temporary keepers of the captive Queen, with authority to feize upon all her letters and correfpondence, if neceffary, by breaking open her cabinets, and other places where they might be found. In 1584. Shrewsbury was relieved from a charge, which had fo long fubjected him to conftant fufpicion, and Sir Ralph Sadler appointed in his room. With Sadler Mary appears to have been better pleased than with her former keeper; and her addrefs and affable manners feem to have made fuch an impreffion on him as induced him to recommend (obliquely indeed) the fetting her at liberty on certain conditions. In the midft of January, 1584-5, fhe was removed from Shrewsbury's caftle of Wingfield, to the caftle of Tutbury; and, fays Mr. Scott,

"Two circumftances happened, one in the courfe of the jour ney, and the other while Mary abode at Tutbury, illustrative of the jealous care with which, even Sir Ralph Sadler's guardianship of Mary was watched by the fpies of Elizabeth. In their lodgings at Derby, where Mary halted for a night, the Scottish Queen went courteously up to the mistress of the house, and

faluted

faluted her, faying, fhe was come to give her inconvenience; but, as they were both widows, they would agree well enough, haying no hufbands to trouble them. For permitting this intercourfe of ordinary civility, and for having used the common high road in their journey to Tutbury, Sir Ralph's conduct was fo reported at court as to render it neceffary that he should justify himfelf. A more heavy complaint against him was afterwards grounded on his having permitted Mary to accompany him at fome diftance from the caftle of Tutbury, to enjoy the fport of. hawking. This laft inftance of fufpicion and cruelty feems to have driven Sadler to the extremity of his patience, as it produced rather an expoftulation than an apology. He admitted he had fent for his hawks and falconers to divert the miferable life.. which he paffed at Tutbury, and that he had been unable to refift the folicitation of the prifoner, to permit her to fee a fport in which the greatly delighted. But he adds, that this was under the ftrictcft precautions for fecurity of her perfon; and he declares to the Secretary, that rather than continue a charge which fubjected him to fuch mifconftruction, were it not more for fear of offending the Queen than dread of the punishment, he would abandon his prefent charge on condition of furrendering himself prifoner to the Tower for all the days of his life? and concludes, that he is fo weary of this life, that death itself would make him moft happy." Mem. p. 32.

To thefe fupplications and complaints Elizabeth was at laft pleased to liften, by committing the unfortunate Mary to the cuftody of Drurie and Paulett, her last and sternest keepers. Still fhe had occafion for the services of Sir Ralph Sadler, and fuch fervices as a gallant Knight must surely have performed with reluctance. When the had put the Queen of Scots to death, and by that act of regicide difgufted all ranks and denominations of men, as well in England as in every other country, fhe feems to have become feriously afraid of what might be the confequences, fhould James attempt, at the head of an army, to avenge his mother's death. He was not, indeed, a warlike prince, and fome of his nobles were more devoted to Elizabeth than to him; but there was a powerful party in England, difaffected to her government, which, with the aid of fuch an army, as even James could bring to their affiftance, might, at that critical period of her reign, have fhaken the very foundations of her throne. Sadler was therefore dispatched to the court of James, whom he eafily diffuaded from a hazardous enterprize, to which his own love of eafe, and the profpect of peaceably fucceeding to the throne of England, made him, indeed, fufficiently reluctant,

This was the last time that Sir Ralph Sadler was employed in the public fervice; for foon after his return from Scot land he died, in the eightieth year of his age, reputed the richest commoner then in England. His talents, as a flatefman, are fully difplayed in the two volumes before us; and Mr. Scott has given us the character of him as a man, which was left by Lloyd among his ftate worthies.

We are there told, that

"He was at once a moft exquifite writer, and most valiant and experienced foldier; that his nights were devoted to con. templation, and his days to action; that though his body was little, his foul was great; that his thoughts were quick and clear, his performances fpeedy and refolute; and that he could not endure to spend that time in defigning one action which might perform two, or to delay in performing two, what might have defigned twenty."

The fame writer says, that

"His two main defigns were, 1. An intereft in his prince by fervice, and 2. An alliance with the nobility by marriage. His laft negociation was that in Scotland, during the troubles there about Queen Mary. So fearching and piercing was he, that no letter or advice paffed, whereof he had not a copy; fo civil and obliging, that there was no party that had not a kindness for him; fo grave and folid, that he was prefent at all counfels; fo clofe and unfeen, that his hand, though unfeen, was in every motion of that ftate; and fo fuccefsful, that he left the nobility fo divided, that they could not design any thing upon the King; and the King fo weak, that he could not caft off the Queen ; and all fo tottering, that they must depend upon Queen Eli zabeth."

From the fame sketch of his character it appears, that he bequeathed to his fucceffors, befide the letters and papers which his defcendant, Mr. Clifford, has now published, a register of all (national) occurrences, fince he was capable of obfervation; a register, of which the lofs, as Mr. Scott juftly obferves, is a matter of deep regret.

From the abstract which we have given of Sadler's life, the object of his three firft embaffies to Scotland, under Henry the Eighth, is fufficiently apparent. The purpose for which he was difpatched thither the fourth time was, to perfuade the eftates of that realm to make a treaty of perpetual peace with England; to contract a marriage between their infant Queen and Edward Prince of Wales; to deliver up their Queen immediately to Henry; to receive a governor of the kingdom, nominated by