In May of this year Sir Robert wrote a letter to Prince CHARLES, which is notable for the contrasted advice, in respect to warlike pursuits, which it proffers to the new Prince, from that more famous advice which had but recently been offered to his late brother. [Sidenote: Comp. MS. Cott. Cleop. F. vi, § 1. ‘_An Answer ... to certain military men, &c._, (April, 1609).] He had lately found, he tells Prince CHARLES, a very ancient volume containing the principal passages of affairs between the two kingdoms of England and France under the reigns of King HENRY THE THIRD and King HENRY THE FIFTH, and had caused a friend of his to abstract from it the main grounds of the claim of the Kings of England to the Crown of France; translating the original Latin into English. This he now dedicates to the Prince, ‘as a piece of evidence concerning that title which, at the time when God hath appointed, shall come unto you.’ He ends his letter in a strain more than usually rhetorical:—‘This title hath heretofore been pleaded in France, as well by ordinary arguments of civil and common law, as also by more sharp syllogisms of cannons in the field. There have your noble ancestors, Kings of this realm, often argued in arms; there have been their large chases; there, their pleasant walks; there have they hewed honour out of the sides of their enemies; there—in default of peaceable justice—they have carried the cause by sentence of the sword. [Sidenote: Sir R. Cotton to Prince Charles. (MS. Lansd. 223. fol. 7.) (Copy.) (B. M.)] God grant that your Highness may, both in virtues and victories, not only imitate, but far excel them.’ [Sidenote: The King to Archbishop of Canterbury, &c. _Domestic Corresp._ James I, vol. lxxxvi, § 16. (R. H.)] The royal commission for the first examination of COTTON was issued on the 26th of October, 1615. Two months afterwards he was committed to the custody of one of the Aldermen of London. His library and papers were also searched. COTTON’S accusation was that of having communicated papers and secrets of State to the Spanish Ambassador. He was subjected to repeated examinations, which (as we have seen) are extant only in part. He maintained his innocence of all intentional offence. [Sidenote: COTTON’S EXAMINATIONS BY COMMISSION Jan.-April, 1616.] ‘The King,’ he said, ‘gave me instruction to speak as I did. If I misunderstood His Majesty my fault was involuntary. I followed the King’s instruction to the best of my belief and recollection.’ The examiners, however, were more intent by far on extracting something from COTTON that would tell against SOMERSET, than on the punishment of the fallen favourite’s ally and agent. COKE, in particular, was indefatigable in the task. It was as congenial to him as was the study of BRACTON or of LITTLETON.