ed to the feminine ear of a monarch, whom this vanity of
royalty startled with all the fears of a woman. This suggestion had
nearly occasioned the ruin of Cowel--it verged on treason; and if the
conspiracy of Coke now failed, it was through the mediation of the
archbishop, who influenced the King; but it succeeded in alienating
the royal favour from Cowel.

When Coke found he could not hang Cowel for treason, it was only a
small disappointment, for he had hopes to secure his prey by involving
him in felony. As physicians in desperate cases sometimes reverse
their mode of treatment, so Coke now operated on an opposite
principle. He procured a party in the Commons to declare that Cowel
was a betrayer of the rights and liberties of the people; that he had
asserted the King was independent of Parliament, and that it was a
favour to admit the consent of his subjects in giving of subsidies,
&c.; and, in a word, that he drew his arguments from the Roman
Imperial Code, and would make the laws and customs of Rome and
Constantinople those of London and York. Passages were wrested to
Coke's design. The prefacer of Cowel's book very happily expresses
himself when he says, "When a suspected book is brought to the
torture, it often confesseth all, and more than it knows."

The Commons proceeded criminally against Cowel; and it is said his
life was required, had not the king interposed. The author was
imprisoned, and the book was burnt.

On this occasion was issued "a proclamation touching Dr. Cowel's book
called 'The Interpreter.'" It may be classed among the most curious
documents of our literary history. I do not hesitate to consider this
proclamation as the composition of James I.

I will preserve some passages from this proclamation, not merely for
their majestic composition, which may still be admired, and the
singularity of the ideas, which may still be applied--but for the
literary event to which it gave birth in the appointment of a royal
licenser for the press. Proclamations and burning of books are the
strong efforts of a weak government, exciting rather than suppressing
public attention.

"This later age and times of the world wherein we are fallen is so
much given to verbal profession, as well of religion as of all
commendable royal virtues, but wanting the actions and deeds agreeable
to so specious a profession; as it hath bred such an unsatiable
curiosity in many men's spirits, and such an itching in the tongues