the
tyrannical minister.]

[Footnote 225: At page 154 of this work is a different view of the
character of this extraordinary man: those anecdotes are of a lighter
and satirical nature; they touch on "the follies of the wise."]

[Footnote 226: In "The Disparity." to accompany "The Parallel" of Sir
Henry Wotton; two exquisite cabinet-pictures, preserved in the _Reliquiae
Wottonianae;_ and at least equal to the finest "Parallels" of Plutarch.]

[Footnote 227: The singular openness of his character was not
statesmanlike. He was one of those whose ungovernable sincerity "cannot
put all their passions in their pockets." He told the Count-Duke
Olivarez, on quitting Spain, that "he would always cement the friendship
between the two nations; but with regard to you, sir, in particular, you
must not consider me as your friend, but must ever expect from me all
possible enmity and opposition." The cardinal was willing enough, says
Hume, "to accept what was proffered, and on these terms the favourites
parted." Buckingham, desirous of accommodating the parties in the
nation, once tried at the favour of the puritanic party, whose head was
Dr. Preston, master of Emanuel College. The duke was his generous
patron, and Dr. Preston his most servile adulator. The more zealous
puritans were offended at this intimacy; and Dr. Preston, in a letter to
some of his party, observed that it was true that the duke was a vile
and profligate fellow, but that there was no other way to come at him
but by the lowest flattery; that it was necessary for the glory of God
that such instruments should be made use of; and more in this strain.
Some officious hand conveyed this letter to the duke, who, when Dr.
Preston came one morning as usual, asked him whether he had ever
disobliged him, that he should describe him to his party in such black
characters. The doctor, amazed, denied the fact; on which the duke
instantly produced the letter, then turned from him, never to see him
more. It is said that from this moment he abandoned the puritan party,
and attached himself to Laud. This story was told by Thomas Baker to W.
Wotton, as coming from one well versed in the secret history of that
time.--_Lansdowne MSS_. 872, fo. 88.]

[Footnote 228: A well-known tract against the Duke of Buckingham, by Dr.
George Eglisham, physician to James the First, entitled "The Forerunner
of Revenge," may be found in many of our collections. Gerbier, in his
manuscript memoirs, g