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    ORIGINAL LETTERS.

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    letters by the Earl of Northampton and Bishop Compton . [ Communicated by Mr . Rutt . ] Sir , Clapton , Sept , 1 , 1817 . T H / 1 HE enclosed papers are copies of JL two letters which appear to have

    been written by two public men , who flourished during very different periods of the English history . I have compared the copies with the M . SS . in the British Museum . They are correct , and , so far as 1 know , have

    never been printed . The first , which describes an affecting and humiliating close of a courtier ' s prosperous life , was " communicated to the Rev * Dr . Birch , in a letter from Mr . M . Lori Trin . Coll .

    Camb . Dec . 2 , 1764 , being [ copied from ] one of 22 M . S . Letters , by Northampton , there . " It is described as " written with a shaking hand , and endorsed JE . of Northampton to mijself ;

    Ld . N . ' s seal on it , and thus superscribed : To theFL honorable my special good Lord the Erie of Somerset of his Majesty ' s Privy Council . " JBibL Birch . 4312 .

    jL he writer of this letter was Henry Howard , created by King James , in 16 O 8 , Earl of Northampton , the youngest of the two sons of Henry , Earl of Surry , whose execution was

    an atrocity which the first Defender of the Faithy just survived to perpetrate . That Earl is described by Wood as " the learnedest among the nobility , and the most noble among the learned . " His conviction , at Guildhall , on a

    most frivolous accusation , strikingly displays the too frequent example of a servile jury , beguiled by legal subtleties , or misled by the plausible directions of a courtly judge .

    It was in 1546 , only nine days be ^ fore the King ' s death , that the Earl of Surry was thus judicially murdered , at about twenty-six years of age , when this son must have been an infant .

    Of Lord Howard ' s attainments in early life , Lloyd says , that he ' * was as serious a student in King ' s College and Trinity Hall in Cambridge , as a discerning observator in Rome and Florence and Italy ; " and that u his Defensative against the supposed Poyson of Prophecies , dedicated to Sir Francis

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    Walsingham , bespeaks him a great and general scholar . " ( State Worthies ' , 1670 , p . 780 . ) f find the following quotation from that book , soon after its publication : " It is no marvel that when the familiars that speak in trunks , were repelled from their harbour , for fear of

    discovery , the blocks almighty lost their senses . " Scofs Discoverie of Witchcraft , 1584 , B . viii . C . vi . It is remarkable , that one who could thus expose

    the pious frauds of the Pagan priesthood , should have adhered , as he appears to have done , through life , though covertly , to the unreformed religion of his ancestors in which he had been educated . Lord Howard ' s

    Defensative is also mentioned by Spenser , on Vulgar Prophecies . Wood says of him , that " though he was not respected by Queen Elizabeth , yet he wrote a learned book , entitled , An Apology for the Government of Women , which is in M . S . in Bodley ' s library . " A . O . Fasti' 1 . 730 . Lord

    Orford attributes to him " a specyal prayer to God the Father , the fyrst persone in Trynetye , made and practised by the Lord Hen rye Howard , Erie of Northamptone . " When the crafty courtier Cecil , afterwards Earl of Salisbury , would

    ingratiate Jiimselfwith James , by promoting his succession to the Crown of England , Lord Howard was engaged , in 1601 , to manage the intrigue with the King of Scots , and his agents , the Earl of Mar and Mr . Bruce . The correspondence Was published in 1766 , by Sir David Dalrymple . Lord

    Orford complains of Lord Howard ' s intricate style , which , probably , might have been designedly obscure . His flattery of James is quite intelligible ^ On that King ' s accession , in 1603 , he had his reward . The anonymous author of Truth brought to Light , or the History of the first fourteen Years of King James / . says , he , " by the persuasion of the King , changeth Wis opinion of religion , in outward appearance j and to the intent to reap unto himself more honours , became a

    Protestant , for which cause he was created Earl of Northampton , and had the King ' s favour bountifully bestowed

    Original Letters.

    ORIGINAL LETTERS .

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    517

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1817, page 517, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2468/page/5/