On the 20th March, 1549, the execution of the lord admiral took place. "On the scaffold," says Dr. Lingard, "the unhappy man loudly proclaimed his innocence: nor will those who attentively peruse the thirty-three charges against him, and the depositions on which they were founded, be inclined to dispute his assertion." On the 22nd January, 1552-not three years afterwards—Somerset himself, after having enjoyed an indulgence which he had refused to his unhappy brother, namely, a trial by his peers, was conducted to the scaffold on Tower Hill. Mr. Tytler expresses considerable doubts whether the protector was really guilty of the crime laid to his charge. That, so far as the charge of treason is concerned, there exists reasonable doubts, we cannot deny ; and the judges accordingly acquitted him of that charge. But that he was guilty of the second crime of which he was accused and convicted, namely, of conspiracy to seize and imprison the Earl of Warwick, one of the privy councillors—an offence which, by an act passed in the third year of Edward's reign, had been made felony, without benefit of clergy-no one can hesitate to believe who attentively considers the following Confession of the Earl of Arundel, which Mr. Tytler has now printed for the first time, from the original in the State Paper Office. CONFESSION OF THE EARL OF ARUNDEL. "At such time as the Duke of Northumberland and the Lord Marquis of Northampton were appointed by the king's majesty's commandment to hear the confession of the Earl of Arundell in the Tower; of whom, when he was brought before them, and demanded what he had to say, they declared, also, how, upon his own suit and request, they were sent unto him for that pur pose. Who, after some protestations, with much difficulty, as a man loath to say anything that might touch himself, finally confessed these words, hereafter following, or the like, to the very same effect. "My lords, I cannot deny that I have had talk, and communication with the Duke of Somerset, and he with me, touching both your apprehensions ; and, to be plain, we determined to have apprehended you, but, by the passion of God!' quoth he, 'for no harm to your bodies.' And when they asked him how he would have apprehended them, he said, 'in the council.' And when he was demanded how oft the duke and he had met together about these matters, he said, · but once.' ་ "And after they had showed him (which was known by the duke's own confession) that the duke and he met sundry times together for that purpose, as well at Sion as at Somerset place in London; with that he sighed, lifting up his hands from the board, and said they knew all.' "And being demanded whether he did at any time send any message to the Duchess of Somerset by Stanhop, the effect whereof was that she and the duke should beware whom they trusted; for he had been of late at Bar nard's Castle with the Earl of Pembroke, and did perceive by his talk that he had some intelligence of these matters; but if they would keep their own council, he, for his part, would never confess anything to die for it; he seemed to be much troubled with this demand, and with great oaths began to swear that he never sent no such message to the duchess by no living creature. And being answered, it might be that he sent the message to the duke, he swore faintly, 'By the passion of God, no!' But, being farther charged by the said duke and marquis with the matter, he, perceiving that they had some knowledge of it, finally confessed that he did warn the duke of the premises by Stanhop, but not the duchess. "And afterwards, when Hampton, one of the clerks of the council, was sent unto him to write all the whole matter, he would, in a manner, have gone from all again; and, in especial, from the last, saying he did not will Stanhop to warn the duke, but only told it to Stanhop. Whereupon the said Duke of Northumberland and the Marquis were eftsoons sent to him again, in the company of the Lord Privy Seal and the Earl of Pembroke; at which time he did, by circumstances, confess the whole premises, saving the sending of Stanhop to the Duke; but nevertheless he said he declared to Stanhop to the duke, to the intent he should warn the duke of it, but in no wise he would confess again that he sent him. NORTHUMBERLAND, J. BEDFORD. -Tytler, ii., 43–5. But it is time to bring the present paper to a close; before doing so, however, we will add a specimen or two confirmatory of the amusing and varied character which we have attributed to the work. The first is from Hoper, Bishop of Gloster, "the sternest and austerest" of the Marian martyrs, as he is styled by Fuller. It is addressed to Cecil, and is full of kind remonstrances to him on the universal distress of the poor suffering under the "extreme evil of hunger, and seeing their little cottages and livings decaying daily." BISHOP HOPER TO CECIL. (Orig. St. Pap. Office: Domestic.) "17th April, 1551. "AFTER my very hearty commendations. Altho' I have no great matter to write unto your mastership of, yet duty and bondage requireth me to show mindful of your old and accustomed friendship toward me, and to thank you for the same, with hearty desire you so always continue towards me. "As for the success and going forthward of God's word, praised be his holy name, every day the number doth increase; and would so do more and more, in case there were good teachers amongst them for the furtherance and help thereof. I pray you, and in God's name require you, that ye stay what ye may, that no man obtain licence to have two benefices, which is a great destruction to this country, dangerous before God, as well to the King's Majesty that giveth it, as to the person that receiveth. "For the love and tender mercy of God, persuade and cause some order to be taken upon the price of things, or else the ire of God will shortly punish. All things be here so dear that the most part of people lacketh, and yet more will lack, necessary food. The body of a calf in the market 14s.; the carcase of a sheep at 10s. White [wheat] meat so dear, as a groat is nothing to a poor man to be sowing any kind of victuals. All pastures and breeding of cattle is turned into sheep's meat, and they be not kept to be brought to the market, but to bear wool, and profit only to their master. Master Secretary, for the passion of Christ, take the fear of God and a bold stomach to speak herein for a redress, and that the goods of every shire be not thus wrested, and taken into few men's hands. If it continue, the wealth and strength of the realm must needs perish. What availeth great riches in a realm, and neither the head nor the greatest part of the members to be the better for it? You best know.......Apud Justinian, non prosunt.......quoniam non ad commodum reipublicæ sed ad labem detrimentumque pertinent, inquit. "So much as have more than enough, buyeth when things be good cheap, to sell afterwards dear. God amend it! It is my bounden duty, and all other true men's, to persuade and teach obedience unto the people: and, thanks be to the Lord! I can perceive none other here but love and reve rence among the people to the king's majesty and to the laws; but, Mr. Secretary, it is the magistrates, and their own doings, that shall most commend them and win love of the people. Ye know what a grievous and extreme— yea, in manner unruly-evil hunger is. The prices of things be here as I tell ye; the number of people be great, their little cottages and poor livings decay daily except God by sickness take them out of the world, they must needs lack. God's mercy give you and the rest of my lords wisdom to redress it, wherein I pray ye may see the occasion of the evil and so destroy it. "May it please you to be so good as to desire a licence of the king's majes ty for me to eat flesh upon the fish days. Doubtless, my stomach is not as it hath been. In case it were, I could better eat fish than flesh; but I think it past for this life. There is also here a wise and sober man, one of the elder men of the town, a good and necessary subject for this little commonwealth here, called John Sanford, that is a weak and sickly man, desired me also to be a suitor to you for him in this case; and, doubtless, we will so use the king's authority as none, I trust, shall take occasion for liberty and contempt of laws by us. Thus, praying you to commend me to Mistress Cecil, and to good Mr. Cecil your father, my singular good friends, I commend ye with all my heart and whole spirit [to God], who keep you always in his fear, and give you wis dom and strength to do all things in this high business, troublous and perilous, to his glory. Amen!-17th April, 1551. "Your bounden for ever to his little power, "JOHN HOPER, Gloucest. Episc. "If I dare be so bold of your gentleness, commend me to all my very friends that be of the robes, who have used towards me always, from my first coming to the court, a singular and painful friendship in all business I have had to do."-Tytler, i., 364. The following quaint epistle from Dean Wotton, the English Ambassador in France, written at the time of Wyat's conspiracy, must form our last extract from this valuable and amusing work. WOTTON TO SIR WILLIAM PETRE. (Orig. St. Pap. Office). “France, 26th January, 1553–4. "SIR,-I thank you much for the promotion whereto you have promoted me by your last letter, but I am sorry you forgot to send me my title and name whereby I should be called, whether it be Yellow Cross, or Green Mantle, or Obscurentius, or such other; for that would have set me well forth pardy, and have made me welcome here, at the least amongst my fellows the heralds. “And seeing you have made me a herald, though you have poured no bowl of wine on my head, I intend to show you some part of my cunning: and therefore I send you herewith a certain declaration, whereby may appear (as I take it) certain degrees of consanguinity and affinity wherein the Queen's Highness and the Prince of Spain are knit together. But I remember very well that I have oftentimes heard my fellow, Will Somer (God keep him warm wheresoever he be !), say that he would abide by no saying of his ; and forasmuch as it is ever good to learn of a wise man, I intend, therefore, in this matter, to learn a lesson of him. And, therefore, I do protest unto you that, as well in this case as in any other concerning pedigrees, whatsoever I say or write, or shall say or write, I intend not to abide by it, but shall refer myself for the truth of it to them that do; quam protestationem volo semper et ubique pro repetita haberi, exnunc prout extunc, et extunc prout exnunc. Under this protestation, it shall not greatly force to whom you show it. And although I intend not to affirm either these, nor any other, to be true; yet would I be loath to declare or speak any such thing, but that I had read it before in some book or pedigree. "And where you would have me move yet more doubts: I am sure you do well remember the old saying, 'Qui nihil scit, de nullo dubitat:' seeing, then, I know nothing at all of your treaties and doings of this matter, how were it possible for me to consider any such doubt of them? Nor those few doubts whereof I wrote to you before, could I now have thought on unless, by my lord's letter from home, I had learnt that there had been some communication of this marriage; and that, by these men's report here, I understood that the emperor did offer the queen the low country. "And where I understand that our preachers' rooms at Canterbury shall now be void, I trust, my masters, you courtiers will not take the gift of them from me, to whom it belongeth, and entitle the queen to it by a thing called the king's prerogative, who is cousin-german to the præmunire: for no man living knoweth neither the one nor the other, but even as it pleaseth you to be, so it must be a prerogative or a præmunire. "For because I shall be sure never to hear no news from you, my masters, out of England, I intend, therefore, to send you some news from hence. We say here that the emperor requireth a good number of hostages of the queen, for the safeguard of the prince while he shall be in England; which fable, whether it be true or not, I cannot tell; but, as I hear, it giveth them here occasion of much mad talk, sounding not most to the honesty of poor England. And thus I beseech Jesu long to preserve you in health and prosperity! Written at Paris, the 26th of January, 1553. "Yours assuredly, "N. WOTTON. "Postscripta.-Since perceiving how I am fallen into this sickness upon so little occasion, to my knowledge, I am half in despair to be able to do the Queen's highness any service here, for this cause; and also for that, because of this marriage, I think it will be very hard to avoid the war betwixt us and France, the war continuing between the emperor and France, I have the less desire to continue here; therefore, if you see any good occasion of my revocation, I pray you omit it not: and by the next I pray you to signify to me whether you see any hope of my revocation or not; and, in case you do, about what time."-Tytler, ii., 283–6. THE Italian Opera season closed on the 10th of August, with Mozart's "Nozze di Figaro," and the favourite scene from “La prova d'un opera seria," in which Lablache is so conspicuously comical. The first time we heard the Figaro (a prominent item in our chronological history) Fodor was the countess; Camporese, la Susanna; Ambrogetti was the count; Naldi the Figaro; and Angrisani, Doctor Bartolo. The subordinates have fled to the limbo of things forgotten. To an organ exquisitely pure, exact, and flexible, and of charming quality, Fodor superadded a richly polished though not redundant style. She was a sprightly and crummy dame, and the first as well as the best-considerably the best-Zerlina that has appeared in this country. Camporese was said to be of aristocratic family and birth. Such was her uniform demeanour on the stage. A more lady-like woman has rarely trodden those boards. She and Fodor ought to have changed characters in the Figaro; for she was too precisely mannered, as well as graceful, for Susanna the waiting-woman. In the Don Giovanni, where she performed the part of Donna Anna, the appointments were more judicious. Camporese's voice was on the wane when she came over here; it had never been powerful, or perhaps of rich quality, and, at the period we speak of, it was somewhat austere: but her style and management of it bespoke the educated musician. Ambrogetti had but an |