reach and hazard beyond common apprehension. The queen of Scots' letters were all carried to him by her own servant, whom she trusted, and were decyphered for him by one Philips, and sealed up again by one Gregory; so that neither that queen, nor any of her correspondents ever perceived either the seals defaced, or letters delayed. Video et taceo, was his saying, before it was his mistress's motto. He served himself of the court factions as the queen did, neither advancing the one, nor depressing the other, He was familiar with Cecil, allied to Leicester, and an oracle to Radcliffe earl of Sussex. His conversation was insinuating, and yet reserved. He saw every man, and none saw him. "His spirit," says Lloyd, "was as public as his parts; yet as debonnaire as he was prudent, and as obliging to the softer but predominant parts of the world, as he was serviceable to the more severe; and no less dextrous to work on humours than to convince reason. He would say, he must observe the joints and flexures of affairs; and so could do more with a story, than others could with an barangue. He always surprized business, and preferred motions in the heat of other diversions; and if he must debate it, he would hear all, and with the advantage of foregoing speeches, that either cautioned or confirmed his resolutions, he carried all before him in conclusion, without reply. To him men's faces spake as much as their tongues, and their countenances were indexes of their hearts. He would so beset men with questions, and draw them on, that they discovered themselves whether they answered or were silent. He maintained fifty-three agents and eighteen spies in foreign courts; and for two pistoles an order had all the private papers in Europe. Few letters escaped his hands; and he could read their contents without touching the seals. Religion was the interest of his country, in his judgment, and of his soul; therefore he maintained it as sincerely as he lived. it. It had his head, his purse, and his heart. He laid the great foundation of the protestant constitution as to its policy, and the main plot against the popish as to its ruin."

In "Cottoni Posthuma, or divers and choice pieces of sir Robert Cotton," &c. is a short article entitled "Sir Francis Walsingham's anatomising of Honesty, Ambition, and Fortitude," but the book ascribed to him, entitled ، Arcana Aulica; or, Walsyngham's Manual, or prudential Maxims,”

which has been printed several times, is of more doubtful authority.'

WALSINGHAM (THOMAS, or THOMAS OF), one of the best English historians of the fifteenth century, was a native of Norfolk, a Benedictine of St. Albans, and historiographer royal, about 1440, in the reign of Henry VI. He compiled two historical works of considerable length, the one "A History of England," beginning at the 57th Henry III. the year 1273, and concluding with the funeral of Henry V. and the appointment of Humphrey duke of Gloucester to the regency of England. His other work is entitled Ypodigma Neustriæ," a sort of history of Normandy, anciently called Neustria, interspersed with the affairs of England from the beginning of the tenth century to 1418. In the dedication of this work, which, with the other, was published by archbishop Parker in 1574, fol. he tells Henry V. that when he reflected on the cunning intrigues, frauds, and breaches of treaties in his enemies the French, he was tormented with fears that they would deceive him and had composed that work, which contained many examples of their perfidy, to put him upon his guard. Walsingham himself allows that his style is rude and unpolished, and he relates many ridiculous stories of visions, miracles, and portents, but all this was the credulity of the age. In what belongs to himself he is more to be praised: his narrative is far more full, circumstantial, and satisfactory, than that of the other annalists of those times, and contains many things no where else to be found.

2

WALSTEIN (ALBERT), duke of Fridland, a celebrated German commander, was born in 1584, and descended of a noble and ancient Bohemian family. His education appears to have been irregular. At first he had no inclination for study, but later in life he applied himself to astronomy and politics, at Padua. After his return to his own country, he married, but being soon left a widower, he went to the siege of Gradisca, in Friuli, and offered his services to the archduke Ferdinand, against the Venetians. When the troubles broke out in Bohemia, he offered himself to the emperor, with an army of thirty thousand men, on condition of being their general. The emperor having

1 Biog. Brit.-Lloyd's State Worthies.-Peck's Desiderata.-Birch's Lives. -Melvil's Memoirs.-Lysons's Environs, vol. II.-Lodge's Illustrations.— Hume's Hist.-Wood's Annals.

? Nicolson's Hist. Library.-Henry's Hist. of Great Britain.

consented, Walstein marched at the head of this army, and reduced the diocese of Halberstadt and the bishopric of Halle; he ravaged also the territories of Magdeburgh and Anhalt; defeated Mansfeldt in two battles; retook all Silesia; vanquished the marquis d'Urlach; conquered the archbishopric of Bremen and Holsace, and made himself master of all the country between the ocean, the Baltic sea, and the Elbe; leaving only Gluckstadt to the king of Denmark, whom he also drove from Pomerania, where he had made a descent. After the treaty of Lubec, the emperor gave him the titles and spoils of the duke of Mecklenburgh, who had rebelled; but Walstein published an edict about that time, ordering the restitution of ecclesiastical property in the territories just given him; and the protesttants, being alarmed, called in Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, to their assistance. This step so intimidated the emperor, that he permitted Walstein to be removed, and sent only Tilly against Gustavus. Tilly having been defeated at Leipsic by the Swedes, the conqueror rushed into Germany like a torrent, which obliged the emperor to recall Walstein, whom he appointed generalissimo. Wals tein accordingly entered the lists with the Swedish monarch; defeated him, and was defeated in his turn; took from him almost the whole of Bohemia, by the capture of Prague, and fought with various success till the bloody battle of Lutzen, November 16, 1632, which Walstein lost, though Gustavus Adolphus was killed at the commencement of the action. Walstein, notwithstanding this defeat, finding himself delivered from so formidable a prince, was suspected of aiming at independence; and these suspicions being increased by his refusing to submit to the court of Vienna in any of his enterprises, the emperor de graded him, and gave the command to Galas. Walstein, alarmed at this, made the officers of his army take an oath of fidelity to him at Pilsen, January 12, 1634, and retired to Egra, a strong city on the frontiers of Bohemia and Saxony; but Gordon, a Scotchman, lieutenant-colonel and governor of Egra, flattered by the hopes of great preferment, conspired against him with Butler, an Irishman, to whom Walstein had given a regiment of dragoons, and Lasci, a Scotchman, captain of his guards. These three, who are said to have been instigated to this crime by the court of Vienna, murdered him in his chamber, February 15, 1634. He was, at that time, fifty years old. The family of Walstein

is distinguished in Germany, and has produced several other great men.

1

WALTON (BRIAN), a learned English bishop, and editor of the celebrated Polyglott Bible, was born at Cleaveland in the North Riding of Yorkshire, in 1600. He was admitted sizer of Magdalen college, Cambridge, under Mr. John Gooch, but in 1616 removed to Peter-House college, where he took a master of arts degree in 1623. About that time, or before, he taught a school, and served as a curate in Suffolk, whence he removed to London, and lived for a little time as assistant or curate to Mr. Stock, rector of Allhallows in Bread-street. After the death of Mr. Stock, he became rector of St. Martin's Orgar in London, and of Sandon in Essex; to the latter of which he was admitted in January 1635, and the same day to St. Giles's-in-theFields, which he quitted soon after. The way to preferment lay pretty open then to a man of his qualities; for, he had not only uncommon learning, which was more regarded then than it had been of late years, but he was also exceedingly zealous for the church and king. In 1639, he commenced doctor of divinity; at which time he was prebendary of St. Paul's and chaplain to the king. He possessed also another branch of knowledge, which made him very acceptable to the clergy: he was well versed in the laws of the land, especially those which relate to the patrimony and liberties of the church. During the controversy between the clergy and inhabitants of the city of London, about the tithes of rent, he was very industrious and active in behalf of the former; and upon that occasion made so exact and learned a collection of customs, prescriptions, laws, orders, proclamations, and compositions, for many hundred years together, relating to that matter, (an abstract of which was afterwards published,) that the judge declared, "there could be no dealing with the London ministers if Mr. Walton pleaded for them." Such qualities, however, could only render him peculiarly obnoxious to the republican party, and accordingly, when they had assumed the superiority, he was summoned by the House of Commons as a delinquent; was sequestered from his living of St. Martin's Orgar, plundered, and forced to fly; but whether he went to Oxford directly, or to his other living of Sandon in Essex, does not appear. It is, however, certain that

1 Moreri,-Dict. Hist.

he was most cruelly treated at that living likewise, being grievously harassed there; and once, when he was sought for by a party of horse, was forced to shelter himself in' a broom-field. The manner of his being sequestered from" this living is a curious specimen of the principles of those who were to restore the golden age of political justice. Sir Henry Mildmay and Mr. Ashe, members of parliament, first themselves drew up articles against him, though no way concerned in the parish, and then sent them to Sandon to be witnessed and subscribed. Thus dispossessed of both his livings, he betook himself for refuge to Oxford, as according to Lloyd, he would otherwise have been murdered.

On August 12, 1645, he was incorporated in the university of Oxford. Here it was that he formed the noble' scheme of publishing the Polyglott Bible; and, upon the' decline of the king's cause, he retired to the house of Dr. William Fuller, his father-in-law, in London, where, though frequently disturbed by the prevailing powers, he lived to complete it. The "Biblia Polyglotta" was published at London in 1657, in 6 vols. folio; wherein the sacred text was, by his singular care and oversight, printed, not only in the vulgar Latin, but also in the Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, Samaritan, Arabic, Ethiopic, Persic, and Greek, languages; each having its peculiar Latin translation joined therewith, and an apparatus fitted to each for the better understanding of those tongues. In this great work, so far as related to the correcting of it at the press, and the collating of copies, he had the assistance of several learned persons; the chief of whom was Mr. Edmund Castell, afterwards professor of Arabic at Cambridge. Among his other assistants were Mr. Samuel Clarke of Merton college, and Mr. Thomas Hyde of Queen's college, Oxford: he had also some help from Mr. Whelock, Mr. Thorndike, Mr. Edward Pocock, Mr. Thomas Greaves, &c. Towards printing the work, he had contributions of money from many noble persons and gentlemen, which were put into the bands of sir William Humble, treasurer for the said work. The Prolegomena and Appendix to it were attacked in 1659, by Dr. John Owen, in "Considerations," &c. who was answered the same year by Dr. Walton, in a piece under the title of "The Considerator considered: or, a brief View of certain Considerations upon the Biblia VOL. XXXI.

G