WILLIAMS, LORD KEEPER, AND ARCHBISHOP OF YORK. IT is faid upon the monument of this learned Prelate, at an obfcure village in Carnarvonshire, that "he was linguarum plus decem fciens---that he "understood more than ten languages." The Lord Keeper had found, in the courfe of his own life, the advantage of knowledge to himself, and was very anxious that other perfons should poffefs those benefits which he had turned to fo good an account. His Biographer tells us, that in all the various progreffions in the dignities of the Church, whether as Canon, Dean, or Bishop, he always, fuperintended the grammar-fchools that were appended to his Cathedral, and took care that, they should be fupplied with proper and able mafters. Williams had been Chaplain to Lord Bacon, and fucceeded him in his office. When that great. man brought the Seals to his Sovereign James the First, the King was overheard to say,--"Now, by my foule, I am pained to the heart "where to bestow this; for as to my lawyers, " they be all knaveṣ.” Williams, Williams, however, was not more honeft than the perfons of that profeffion which James had fo fcandalized; and, as Keeper of the King's confcience, gave to his Sovereign, Charles the Firft, that advice respecting the figning the warrant for Lord Strafford's death, which prevented him from having afterwards any perfons firmly and steadily attached to him. Lord Clarendon fays, "That Lord Keeper "Williams told his Sovereign, that he muft "confider that he had a public confcience as "well as a private confcience; and that though his private confcience, as a man, would not per"mit him to act contrary to his own understand." ing, judgment, and confcience, yet his public "confcience, as a King, which obliged him to do "all for the good of his people, and to preferve his "kingdom in peace for himself and his pofterity, would not only permit him to do that, but even oblige and require him; and that he faw in what "commotion the people were; that his own life, and that of the Queen and the royal iffue might probably be facrificed to that "fury; and it would be very strange if his "confcience fhould prefer the right of one fingle perfon (how innocent foever) before all thefe other lives, and the prefervation of the "kingdom." Williams, Williams, foon after this ruinous advice, was tnade Archbishop of York, and fortified Conway Caftle for the service of his Sovereign; and having left his nephew as Governor there, fet out to attend the King at Oxford, in January 1643. In an interview that he had with Charles, he is faid to have cautioned him against Cromwell; telling his Majefty, that when he was Bishop of Lincoln, " he knew him at Bugden, but never knew of what religion he was. He was," added he, a common fpokesman for Sectaries, and took "their part with ftubbornness. He never dif"courfed as if he were pleased with your Ma"jesty or your officers; indeed, he loves none "that are more than his equals. His fortunes are broken, so that it is impoffible for him to "fubfift, much lets to be what he afpires at, but "by your Majesty's bounty, or by the ruin of Сс us all, and a common confusion: as one faid "long ago, Lentulo falvo, Refpublica falva effe "non poteft. In short, every heaft hath evil pro"perties, but Cromwell hath the properties of "all evil beafts. My humble motion is, that your Majesty would win him to you by pro"mises of fair treatment, or catch him by fome "ftratagem, and cut him off." After the King was beheaded, the Archbishop is faid to have spent his days in forrow, ftudy, and and devotion. He indeed only furvived his.unfortunate Sovereign one year. The Archbishop was extremely attentive to the Cathedrals fucceffively committed to his care. Wilson in his Life of King James says, " that "the old ruinous body of the Abbey Church at "Westminster was new cloathed by Archbishop "Williams, when he was Dean of that church." By the kindness of PAUL PANTON, Efq. of the Ifland of Anglefey, the COMPILER is enabled to prefent the Public with Three Original Letters of this extraordinary perfon. The first two were written from St. John's College in Cambridge; the other after he had loft the Great Seal. LETTER I. TO JOHN WYNNE, OF GUEDER, ESQ. IN CARNARVONSHIRE. "WORSHIPFULL SIR, "MY humble dutie remembred-I am righte "heartilie forrie to fee you impute my turbulent & paffionate Letter to ill nature, wch proceeded "only "only from fufpicious povertie, and a prefent "feare of future undoinge, bredd and fostered "by the fuggeftions of thofe, who either knewe "not what it was, or elfe would not imparte the "best counfaile. Well might your Worshippe "have guefde my fault to have been noe blemish "of nature, but fuch another as that of foolish "Euclio in Plautus, who fufpected Megadorus, "though he had foe farre againfte his eftate, & re"putation demeande himfelfe as to be a fuytor for "Euclio's daughter: r Nam fi opulentus it petitum pauperioris gratiam, "a faulte 1 have committed (for the wch I "mofte humblie crave pardonne, vowing heere "before the face of God to doe you what recom"pence & fatisfaction foever, how and when you "will); but that faulte was not in writinge unto "you, for therein I protefte I do not knowe that "I have any way mifdemened myfelfe, but it "was in a certain fufpicion I conceived of your "love towards me, caufed partlye by your late. "letter, far more fharpe and lefs courteous "than at other times, partly alfo by the letters " of |