Norfolk Record Office, HMN 7/307, 772X8
Most gratious soueraigne.
suffer some disadvantage because I am a Scott by nation
and education and the best blood that runnes in my veines
I haue extracted from thence, and what I shall now
speake examine and then execute:
Some may happily impute it as proceedinge from strength
of affection to that place and people from whence I
came but I protest my zeale to your Ma
suspend the aggitation of such principles and I will sett aside
all perticuler relation and looke uppon the Question as it is
not as passion and affection may sett it forth .
The question is concerninge warr an vnkowne subiect
here which seemes sweet to those that haue not tryed
it, and perhaps thinkes not to be troubled with it.
The worst of warr is in the close of it, for in the
conclusion of the most aduentagious warr that euer was
waged when all reckninges be cast vp the Conquerour hath
but litle whereof to glory.
But this is not a warr betwixt a king and a stranger but
betwixt a soueraigne and his subiect a neer relation and
they had nee of waighty motives that should dissolue this
knott.
Subiects are easily lost we see see it in the worke of eu
dayes experience but once lost are hardly regayned
affections are like to Christall glasses which once broken
are hardly sett together againe .And thes people are
(a people whome I know not shall be subiect vnto me
your Ma
was framed out of his owne Ribb thou art flesh of my f
and bone of my bone or rather as David of his su
in the day of his inauguration (for my bretheren
compannions sake) soe your Maiestie beinge theirs
they your Maiesties by a double tye you are not
Rex factus but Rex natus, and therefore the vn
beinge soe streight the motiue had need to be waig
that shall cause a man to sett his house on fire an
destroy the work of his owne hands.
Now let us consider of 2 thinges requisite in this Qest
The necessity of this warr.
Secondly the motives may induce us to it whether they
chance of warr and the miseries that accompanie it rat
then to forgoe the same
for the first pointe it is a good noate of Tacitus, that warr
shall be his vltimum refugium the last because the worst
refuge.
And if we consider of the wisest kings that euer did sway a
scepter in thes latter times how willinge they were to decline
the stroake of warr almost vppon any tearmes; If your
maiestie doe but consider the practise of Lewis the 11
king of france Henry the 7th king of England
For in the large list and catolouge of all the kings of booth nations
you cannot point out
Iudgment and better verst in the misteries of gouernment
yet what meanes the vsed or rather not vsed to diuert
the course if
dishonour to yeeld to their subiects demaunds though
es, a
stri
Those wise kings considered that the end of warr
was uncertaine and the euent uarious, and he that com
one error in the warr (especially when the estate of it
is in his owne kingdome seldome lives to com
we need not to goe far for Instances, Rich: 2d: Ed =
2d: will be fresh presidents for any that desire to try
the experience. Thereof uppon such tearmes as they did/
It shoul
naturall: Philobotomie. shoul
be soe praedominant that noe other course can remoue them
and unlesse that they be exiled they will occasion dissolution. but
blessed be god there is noe such necessity in this case.
That theire are some rough humo
cannot be denyed and some there are it may be that worke
obstructions in some of the lesser pipes of gouenment,
But your va' na basillicca and your va'na caua are full
and the royall spiritts in them haue there full and prope
influence and motion without any opposition,
Then what is now to be donne since by force it is not fitt
for euery subiect, some humours are to be expelled by
malignant, and there are three
not yet have bin tryed any of which are better th
the meanes praescribed.
impeachment to the scepter.
The wisest kings haue had theire errours in goue
which a wiser obseruance in auoidinge occasions
end tought them to recall.
Your father raigned gloriously and com
affections as well as the bodies of the Scotts and yet n
sought the obtrudinge of them either by sea or Lan
yett there was none more zealous of a kingly gou
then he was.
It is an art of the greatest folly to hazard the
substance for the shadowe not worth to be conten
for, and if your Maiestie were master of your own
desire it woul
and by this meanes they will either swallow the hooke
endure the proposall of it with less regrate, distast
thinges makes most dislike at the first and least at last
And your Ma
at the last which for the present they will rather
dye then imbrace.
We see how the Romanes by degrees brought royall
slauery upon the world which if they had at first pro=
=pounded in downe right tearmes had hardly beene
accomplished if euer.
Soe Normane william by degrees had brought the English
to weare the yoake which if he had at the first tendered
he either must have mist his ayme or had noe people to
impose it uppon soe impatient then were the english
nation to heare the name of conquerour or be branded
with the name of conque
if your maiestie shoul
demaunds and give the aduantage of a faire game
And I houlenfo=
enforced to make use of a remedy worse then the disease and
is noe necessity of war rebus sic stantibus.
To the second consideration thes thinges in aggitation s
are not tanti of such an alley as shoul
aduenture as to hazard kingdome at a cost for the gayning
of it, Plutarch wisely compared those that know not how to
propose the meanes to the end to such as fish with a golden
hooke the losse of the hooke is often of more consequence
then the fish they can take.
And truely to speake plainely what I thinke they that adui
warr in this kingdome know not what it is to gett nor greatly
game and fish in troubled waters.
Such counsellours as these were the B
of Scotts and the B
=garie the successe of booth may easily be remembred the one
was the cause and occasion of bringinge in the Turke into Hun
garia and the other the French into Scotland two such guests
as booth nations may wish that they may neuer know the way
thither agayne.
Three reasons have beene given to praeswade to warr which
I will not now answere but leave it to him that is better able
and more fully instructed for such a purpose, wherefore
consideringe nulla salus bello nulla necessitas belli my aduice to
your Ma
a certaine peace or when there is noe other way left but
that onely to obteyne it in this aduice (though I shall undoubte
=ly displease others.) yet I shall please myselfe because I haue
spoken as I thinke, and I hope when your Ma
occasion or be necessitated to draw your sword in Iust warr
I shall be ready to doe your ma
of warr but neither know whence to beginue it nor-greatly care
where or when to end it
Finis