In Sir Robert’s posthumous tracts (as they were published by James HOWELL) this speech has been printed as unquestionably spoken by him who wrote it. But that publication—as I have had occasion to show already, in relation to the ‘_Twenty-four Arguments_’—carries no grain of authority. Spoken or simply composed by its author, the speech is alike memorable in English history, and in the personal life of the man himself. The existence of the plague in London had led to the adjournment of the first Parliament of King CHARLES to Oxford. It was there, and on the 10th of August, 1625, that the speech which—whether it came from the lips of John ELIOT or of Robert COTTON—made a deep impression on the House, was spoken. It gave the key-note to not a few speeches of a subsequent date, and it contains passages which, in the event, came to have on their face something of the stamp of prophecy. Retrenchment in expenditure,—Parliamentary curb on Royal favourites,—No trust of a transcendent power to any one Minister,—Less lavishness in the bestowal of honours and dignities won by suit, or purchase, rather than by public meed,—Wary distrust of Spain,—Abolition of unjust monopolies and oppressive imposts;—these are amongst the earnest counsels which (whether it were as writer, or as speaker) Sir Robert COTTON impressed on his fellow-members in that memorable sitting at Oxford. Both the pith and the sting of the Speech may be found in its concluding words: ‘His Majesty hath ... wise, religious, and worthy servants.... In loyal duty, we offer our humble desires that he would be pleased to advise with them _together; ... not with young and single counsel_.’ Well would it have been for CHARLES, had he taken those simple words to heart, in good time. To us, and now, there is a special interest in an incidental passage of this speech which relates to SOMERSET. The reader has seen how Count GONDOMAR’S secret testimony—just disinterred from Simancas—against SOMERSET, as well as against COTTON, has recently been dealt with by an eminent historian. [Sidenote: (See, also, heretofore, the foot-note to p. 73.)] It is worth our while to remember some other words on that subject spoken publicly in the Parliament at Oxford almost two centuries and a half agone. They were spoken in the ears of men whose eyes had looked with keen scrutiny into the Spanish envoy as well as into the English minister. SOMERSET was still living. Men who then sat in the Parliament Chamber knew every incident in his official life, and not a few incidents in his private life, as well as every charge by which—publicly or privately—he had been infamed. They knew, exactly, Sir Robert COTTON’S position towards the fallen minister. If we choose to suppose that ELIOT was now speaking what COTTON wrote, the inference is unchanged. To those listeners Sir John and Sir Robert were known to be politically ‘double and inseparable.’ [Sidenote: COTTON’S EULOGY ON LORD SOMERSET’S POLICY (August, 1625).]