that I am doing my duty to God and man, by endeavouring to set future ages right, in their judgment of that happy reign; and, as a faithful historian, I cannot suffer falsehoods to run on any longer, not only against all appearance of truth, as well as probability, but even against those happy events, which owe their success, to the very measures then fixed in the general peace.
The materials of this history, beside what I have already mentioned, I mean the confidence reposed in me for those four years, by the chief persons in power, were extracted out of many hundred letters written by our ambassadors abroad, and from the answers, as well as instructions sent them, by our secretaries of state, or by the first minister the earl of Oxford. The former, were all originals, and the latter, copies entered into books in the secretaries office, out of both which I collected all that I thought convenient; not to mention several memorials given me by the ministers at home. Farther, I was a constant witness and observer of all that passed; and entered every particular of any consequence upon paper.
I was so far from having any obligation to the crown, that on the contrary, her majesty issued a proclamation, offering three hundred pounds to any person who would discover the author of a certain short treatise[1], which the queen well knew to have been written by me. I never received one shilling from the minister, or any other present, except that of a few books; nor did I want their assistance to support me. I very often dined indeed with the treasurer and secretary; but, in those days, that was not
