THE PREFACE TO The Reader.
THE whole Reign of our Renowned Queen Elizabeth,
was such a Series of admirable
Events, Such a Pattern of wise
and honest Counsel and steady
Conduct (Such an age of hellish
Plots and secret Conspiracies
by the Papists) on the one hand; and such prudent
Circumspection, Femal Courage and Zeal (and happy Deliverances) on the other; that no History can
deserve to be more minutely described than the Affairs
in her time : And though many famous Pens have
already travelled therein, and given us a fair prospect
of her actions, the subtile Contrivances and open
Force of her Enemies against her sacred Life, Government, and the trueProtestant Religion, and
the many providences and more than humane success
which blessed and crowned her days; yet we never
had to full an account of her last Parliaments as is
comprehended in this Volume, especially so curiously
as the very last is, collected by Mr. Townshend
a worthy Member in that Session, who hath so faithfully done it, that it is thought very fit, even after so
long an Interval, to appear in publick. There have
been many excellent persons of the greatest abilities
and worth, who though they had not the ambition to
struggle to be chosen into the House, and were well acquainted without-doors with all the most important
passages within, have yet often wished they might have
had the liberty of sitting there but a few days, onely
to observe the behaviour, methods, and tempers of
Men of assembled, and be an eye-witness how things
are managed and passed there. Now in this Relation there is so particular and exquisite an Account,
that such may even satisfie their curiosity in those very
Circumstances : For this is not onely the Journal-Book of what is entered upon Record, but (in the last
Session especially) there are all the particular Speeches, Motions, Arguments, nay and the very behaviour of every one in that grand Assembly; and all so
painted to the life, that to a considering Reader, it is
almost the same thing is if be had been present with
them all the while. Here you will finde that the
Grievances they laboured to have redressed, were very considerable, their Arguments rational and strong,
though finely adorned; which will be easily believed,
when we know the famour Secretary Cecill, Sir
Francis Bacon, Sir Walter Rawleigh, and
many other solid States-men, were fellow-Members
in this illustrious Assembly, whose Speeches alone are,
as I should guess, a sufficient Invitation to any one
that has but heard of them in our English world, to
know how they behaved themselves in that House of
Commons : which that you may do, I shall make no
further Preamble, but conduct you into the Work it
self.
Farewel.
ADVERTISEMENT.
That long-expected Work of Dr. William Howells, now Chancellor of Lincoln,
entituled, The General History of the World, in two Volumes, in Folio; the
first reprinted, with very large Additions; and the second never before printed: being
a most exact History, is finished. Printed for T. Basset, W. Crooke, and
W. Cademan.