Calendar of State Papers, 1607 - 1610. ' Edited by Horatio Brown. (Eyre
and Spottiswoode.)—There have been few more interesting volumes than this published in the " Calendar " Series. Events which one is disposed to pass over with a cursory notice when they are recorded in ordinary history are lighted up, so to speak, in a way that arrests attention when we see behind the scenes. Here is an instance. In 1609 the succession to the Duchy of Cleves became vacant. Was it to be Roman or Protestant ? The Austrian Archduke Leopold seized Juliers ; two Protestant Princes occupied Cleves. Henry IV. was on the side of the latter. Spain had to be repressed. King James I. reluctantly gave his adhesion. Henry seemed bent on war. But it was not only his great design that fired him ; he entertained a passion for the Princess of Conde,—the same disturbing influence was always at work on Henry. Conde took his wife over the frontier, and both he and she•adopted the Spanish dress. Henry sent Envoy after Envoy to demand her back. " He would fetch her," he said, " with forty thousand men." (Politics are, after all, a little improved since then.) Then the Prince and his wife quarrelled, and the Prince fled to Milan, where, not a little to his disgust, he was practically a prisoner. Then Charles Emmanuel of Savoy took a hand. Would Henry declare war on Spain and help him to attack Milan? Alter sundry negotiations a treaty was signed (April 25th). Nineteen days after Henry was assassinated. If there is any force in the old query " Cui bone ?" it is not difficult to guess who put the dagger into Ravaillac's hand. -English affairs are not very prominent. The country was on the down grade, just as might be expected when an Elizabeth had given place to a James. The Fleet was sadly weakened. James spent some money on it, but he spent much more on Court festivities and masques, and, above all, on his favourites. In October, 1609, the Venetian Ambassador tells his people at home that the English Treasury was going to sell all the pepper in London at half-price. In the following year Lord Salisbury is described as haranguing a Con- ference of the two Houses of Parliament " at such length that his speech came to an end for want of breath and strength rather than for want of ideas and the will to continue." There was a Debt of three millions and an annual deficit of eight hundred thousand ducats. The documents include the time of Henry IV.'s death, and there is among them a highly important report of tho English Ambassador's speech to the Venetian Cabinet. The Ambassador (Sir Henry Wotton) was quite sure that the assassin had had a religious motive. The Jesuits had assured him of eternal happi- ness. How else could he have ventured on such a deed when escape was impossible? And then he tells a curious story. In the late Irish troubles one Colonel Norres, desiring to end the business as soon as possible, offered £10,000 to any one who would kill the Earl of Tyrone. "This was a good, just, and laudable plan" (!),—another indication of improvement in politics. No one could be found to do it, but "there was not the smallest doubt that if the Colonel, who promised ten thousand pounds sterling and even more to the man who should kill the Earl and escape, had had authority to promise paradise on death, the Earl would most assuredly have been killed."
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