The Queen was not to learn that, as the
strength of the kingdom consisted in the multitude of her
Subjects,
so the security of her person consisted and rested in the love and
fidelity of her people, which she politically affected (as it hath
been thought) somewhat beneath the height of her natural spirit and
magnanimity.
Moreover, it will be a true note of her providence, that she would
always listen to her profit: for she would not refuse the
information of meanest personages, which proposed improvement; and
had learned the philosophy of (HOC AGERE) to look unto her own work:
of which there is a notable example of one Carmarthen, an under
officer of the Custom House, who, observing his time, presented her
with a paper, showing how she was abused in the under-renting of the
Customs, and therewith humbly desired Her Majesty to conceal him,
for that it did concern two or three of her great counsellors, {33}
whom Customer Smith had bribed with two thousand pounds a man, so to
lose the Queen twenty thousand pounds per annum; which being made
known to the Lords, they gave strict order that Carmarthen should
not have access to the back-stairs; but, at last, Her Majesty
smelling the craft, and missing Carmarthen, she sent for him back,
and encouraged him to stand to his information; which the poor man
did so handsomely that, within the space of ten years, he was
brought to double his rent, or leave the Custom to new farmers.
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