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letters in the Museum which prove that he was at court before Wolsey's fall, under whose patronage his master, Cromwell, had risen to eminence. In one of these Sadler mentions to Cromwell, that, My Lord, his Grace," (the Cardinal, doubtless,) had been slandered to the King, and exclaims against the ingratitude of the secretary. In another letter he seems to write to Cromwell by order of the King, about certain issues of money and prizes taken at sea.

As Sadler advanced in the King's favour, he became, though at what time I cannot say, clerk of the hamper, one of the gentlemen of the privy chamber, and received the honour of knighthood.* And in the 30th year of Henry's reign, he was created one of his principal secretaries of state.

Sir Ralph Sadler seems to have. been active in the great work of dissolving the religious houses,

lastly, that Mr Sadler had not very well determined at what hour to christen his child, for he had first written morning and afterwards afternoon. But in addition to all this valuable information, the letter shows his connexion with Cromwell, and the superstition which it commemorates is a singular one.

*He is designed Sir Ralph Sadler, knight, in the will of Henry VIII. The honour conferred on him in the field of battle at Pinkie, consisted in his being elevated to the order of a Ban

nor did he miss his share of the spoil. It may be supposed, that his conversion to the Protestant faith was gradual, at least that his avowal of the reformed tenets did not precede the death of Henry VIII., who wished to die a Catholic, although he seized the supremacy, and plundered the monasteries. A charter of Edward VI., to be hereafter quoted, acquaints us, that Sir Ralph Sadler acquired the advowson of the rectory and church of Kemsey, in Worcestershire; that of the rectory and church of St Martins, in London, with the manors of Bromley, in Middlesex; Haslengefield, in Cambridgeshire; Walthamstow Tong, in Essex; Aston, Tinatt, and North Merton, in Berkshire; with various portions of tythes in Gloucestershire. These grants, extensive as they were, do not seem to comprehend all the lands bestowed on Sadler by the liberality of Henry VIII.

In 1537, Sadler commenced a long course of diplomatic services, by an embassy to Scotland, whose monarch, James V., was then absent in France, where he had just married a daughter of Francis I. The envoy was to greet the Dowager Queen Margaret, widow of James IV., to strengthen the English interest in the councils of regency which governed Scotland, and to discover the probable consequences of the intimate union between

France and Scotland. This was an object of greater importance, as, in passing through the northern counties of England, Sadler found them in an unusual state of turbulence, from the consequence of the rebellion, called the Pilgrimage of Grace.

In the small town of Darlington, the Envoy was well nigh besieged in his lodgings by thirty or forty clowns, armed with clubs, against whom his landlord, though well inclined to protect his guest, durst offer no violence, but was contented to cause them to disperse by remonstrances. The people, Sadler reported, were in a very strange and ticklish state, perplexed with false rumours, expecting mutations in Government, staring in idle and giddy excitation, and looking for they knew not what. The dissatisfaction at the innovations in religion was so general, that the town of Newcastle had nearly broken out into open revolt, had it not been for the loyal care of the Mayor, a wise fellow and substantial," who, assisted by his brethren, had suppressed the malcontents, and prepared for the defence of the place. Its fortifications seem to have been formidable." All along the walls lay sundry pieces of ordnance; and at every gate of the town they kept watch and ward, and yet do; every gatehouse is full of bows, arrows, bills, and other habiliments of war; and upon every gate lay in the

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tower, great pieces of ordnance, which would scour every way a mile or two and more; all which ordnance, they told me, that every merchant, for his part, brought out of their ships. They made also new gates of iron upon their bridge; and be victualled within the town, they think, for a whole year." At no time had peace with Scotland been more essential to the English interest. But the Scottish court was as much divided by aristocratic faction, as England by popular discontent. The clergy, and such of the more powerful nobles as France had thought worthy attaching to her cause, were zealous for war with England; the lesser barons and common people had already become attached to the Reformation; the Queen-Dowager was utterly without power; and the continuance of the peace depended upon the resolutions to be adopted by James on his return from France. With this intelligence, Sadler returned to England in the beginning of February 1537.

Of Sir Ralph Sadler's subsequent embassy in 1539-40, the following collection furnishes us with a particular account.-The ostensible purpose was that of maintaining, in general, a good correspondence between the crowns. But the private instructions of the envoy were, if possible, to separate James from the councils of Beaton, an ambitious

prelate, the head of the faction which was favourable to France. For this purpose he was instructed to state, that Henry had discovered, among certain letters thrown into his hands by the shipwreck of a vessel near Bamborough, a dangerous plan, by which Beaton designed, under colour of the King's favour, to usurp the whole government of Scotland, and to throw it under the absolute control of the Pope. In short, the instructions seem to infer, that Beaton was attempting the same enterprise in Scotland, which Wolsey had almost effected in Henry's own realm; and there can be little doubt, that, in describing the danger of intrusting power to such a character, Henry had the memory of his fallen favourite brought freshly to his recollection. Sadler was farther instructed to remonstrate with James on the economy with which he managed his crown lands; to represent it as unking-like, and to hold out to him a worthier and more princely source of revenue in the overgrown possessions of the church, which lay at his mercy. And, on the whole, he was directed to persuade the Scottish monarch, if possible, to imitate his uncle's conduct towards the See of Rome, and to make common cause with England against France.

James received Sadler with marks of distinction and kindness; but the reasoning of his uncle made but slight impression on his mind. His high spirit