The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-29 00:00:00

to English purposes. If allowed to take his own course,
he promised in two years to relieve his Sovereign from
all difficulties. His plan for effecting this was thus laid
down :

"My request shall be to his Majesty and you, to
apoynte me out weekly xii or xiii c [1,2001.] poundes,
to be secretly resevyed at one man's handes ; so that it
maye be kept secret, and that I may thereunto trust,
and that I may make my reconning thereof assewredly.
I shall so use this matter here in this towne of Andwerpe,
that every day I will be sure to take up ii or iii c /i.
[2OO/. or 3001.] sterlinge by exchange. And thus doing,
it shall not be persevyed, nor it shall not be no occasyone
to make the exchange fall. For that it shall be takynne
up in my name. And so by these means, in working by
delyberacione and tyme, the merchaunts' turn also shall
be servyed. As allso this shuld bring all merchants
owght of suspicione, who do nothing to [wards] pay-
ments of the king's detts ; and will not sticke to saye
that ere the payment of the King's dett be made, yt will
bringe down the exchange to xiiis. iiicl., wyche I trust
never to see that daye. So that by this you may perseve.
yf that I doo take up every daye but ii c /i. [2OO/.]
sterling, it will amownt in one Sere to lxii /i. [72,0001.] :
and the king's majesty oweth here at this present i c
viii [108,0004] with the interest monny that was
proloagyd afore this tyme. So that by these means, in
two yeres, thinges will be compassed accordingly to my
purpose set forth."

" How correct Gresham was in the results he antici-
pated from these and similar measures, appeared in the
sequel by the success which attended them. He found
means in a short space to raise the exchange from six-
teen shillings Flemish for the pound sterling, to twenty-
two shillings, at which rate he discharged all the king's
debts ; and by this means money was rendered plentiful
and trade prosperous, while the credit of the crown be-
came established on a firmer basis abroad than it had
ever been before."

Living generally at Antwerp, he was in that city when
the rejoicings took place for the birth of a son to Queen
Mary, which birth never took place. That a false report
of such a character obtained credence abroad should
harldly surprise, when even so near the Court as Al-
dersgate, not only the accouchement of the Queen, but
the admirable proportions of the prince were announced to
his congregation by the minister of St. Ann's Church.
Gresham was present at the abdication of the Emperor
Charles the Fifth. The Christmas of 1555 he passed in
England, and in the following month the Priory of
Austin Canons, at Massingham Maple., in Norfolk, and
several benefices, were conferred upon him as a mark of
the Queen's favour. What he received from her Ma-
jesty altogether, he states to have been of the annual
value of 2001.

Queen Mary died on the 17th of November, 1558.
Gresham is believed to have been out of England when
that event took place; but if so, he deemed it prudent to
lose no time in paying his duty to the new Sovereign.
On the 20th we find him at Hatfield, in Hertforchhire,
where Queen Elizabeth was then staying, and there lie
met with a singularly gracious reception. Her Majesty
promised that if he only served her as he had served her
brother and sister, she would grant him as much land as
he had received from both of them. She then gave him
her hand to kiss, and promised if anything unfavourable
should be reported to his prejudice during his absence,
she would always reserve one ear to listen to his vindi-
cation on his return. Of this gracious assurance he had
occasion to remind the Ministers of Queen Elizabeth
when the Marquis of Whinchester attempted to injure
him with his Royal mistress. He, however, triumphed
over all the malice of his enemies, and his powerful as-
sistance and advice continued to be in much request, not
only when a loan was to be raised, but in reference to
matters of commerce generally, as well as in various
questions of great political importance.
After he had received the honour of knighthood,
Lombard-street was not considered to be sufficintly dig-
nified for his residence, and he purchased or built a man-
sion in Bishopsgate-street which received the name of
Gresham House. He enjoyed great familiarity with
many of the most distinguished persons of his time ;
both officially and personally he was very intimate with
Sir William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh. On one
occasion, we learn from a passage in his correspondence,
he sent a present of silk stockings to the secretary for
himself, and, as he expressed it, for "my lady your
wife." His ingenuity and address were often exercised
in procuring munitions of war to be sent to England
from the Netherlands. A thousand pounds weight of
gunpowder, it was arranged, should be indicated in his
letters by the words " one piece of velvet." In spite of
such precaution, a discovery had nearly taken place. It
was turned aside by his skill, and the influence he had
gained from the high reputation he had established, or
by the presents he had made. He showed that he pos-
sessed no mea❑ talent for intrigue, and the art of bribing
in the cause of his sovereign was not unknown to.
Gresham. In various matters the information obtained
through him was of the highest importance.
Mr. Burgon has laboriously followed him through all
the negotiations with which he was concerned, both at
home and abroad. They prove that the utmost confi-
dence was reposed in him, and it is hardly creditable to
the liberality or the prudence of Elizabeth's Govern-
ment, that so valuable an agent should have been obliged
to importune them very frequently to bear in mind, after
the services he had rendered, the promise made to him
at Hatfield on the accession of the Queen. He did not
fail to do so very plainly, and on such occasions he set
forth the magnitude of the labours he had accomplished
without reserve. He might do this boldly, as sometimes
more was owing to him than the Government was pre-
pared to pay.

- Through many years he continued in the habit of
frequently passing from England to Antwerp, the Lords
of which, in 1543-4, sent him a present of wine of the
value of 101., to dispose him to give them the benefit of
his good offices with the Queen of England.
His dignity as a British merchant was offended at
seeing a noble Burse in Antwerp, while London could
boast no such accommodation for those whose lives were
devoted to commerce. About the year 1565 he applied
himself in earnest to correct this evil—how successful
will hereafter !appear. While at home and furthering
this great work, he was actively engaged in raising or
disbursing money for the Treasury.

Among the guests at Gresham House we find, self-
invited, the Duke of Norfolk, who lost his life on the
scaffold some years afterwards, for connecting himself
with the affairs of Mary Queen of Scots. In the eyes of
foreigners Gresham was a person of so much import-
ance, that when, in 1567, the heads of the reformed
church in Antwerp thought it expedient to send an ad-
dress to the Secretary of State, Cecil, praying his in-
fluence with the Queen on their behalf, a similar address
was, by the same body, voted to him. In the following
month he again proceeded to Antwerp, where he inte-
rested himself for the Protestants of that city. This
was his last appearance there. He witnessed the
troubles which then broke out in the Netherlands, and
wrote home an exact account of them. Shortly after-
wards he returned to England. In the following year
he was a suitor to the Queen for the purchase of certain
lands. He, indeed, seems constantly to have had an eye
to the accumulation of wealth, though not with a sordid
view, as was proved in the sequel. His company was
courted by persons of the greatest consideration ' • and
when foreigners of high rank came to England, Sir
Thomas was frequently appointed to receive them, and
to attend them in their visits to the principal objects of
interest in London, while, on any extraordinary emer-
gency, Sir William Cecil did not disdain to seek advice
from the merchant. It was by his counsel, as already
mentioned, that Elizabeth was brought, when a loan was
necessary, " not to use any strangers, but her own sub-
jects, that it might be seen what a prince of power she
was." Having suggested the idea, by his active exertions
in the city, it was eventually carried out.
The Lady Mary Grey, sister to the unfortunate Lady
Jane, who had offended the Queen by her marriage, was
in 1659 committed to the custody, or at all events to the
care, of Sir Thomas Gresham. Of this honour he soon
became weary, and made pressing representations to
obtain her removal. He did not succeed till after the
Noble or Royal guest had been under his roof more than
three years. Ultimately she gained some degree of favour
at Court.

He had purchased, at an early period of his life, a seat
at Mayfield, in Sussex. Thither, with his wife and
household, he retreated in 1570, when the plague broke
out in London ; and there, in 1573, he received a visit
from the Queen. In the year preceding, on her setting
out on a summer progress, he had been named, with the
Archbishop of Canterbury and others, as one of the
persons of "great trust, wisdom and experience," from
whom the Lord Mayor of London might seek advice for
the better government of the metropolis during her ab-
sence ; and he continued a member of that commission
till within a year of his death.
This distinguished citizen remained on the most inti-
mate footing with the principal statesmen of his day.
Besides building and endowing alms-houses near his
own mansion, he founded what has been called the
"epitome of a university," which was named "Gresham
College." In 1770 he purchased the manor of Heston,
and shortly afterwards took up his' residence in Osterley
Park (which was part of that manor), where, in 1576, he
received a visit frowQuecn Elizabeth, on which occasion she
was entertained with extraordinary festivity. It is re-
lated that she objected the court-yard was too large, and
would have been more handsome if divided in the middle.
Upon this Sir Thomas forthwith sent for workmen from
London, who laboured in the night silently, but with
such diligence, that when the Queen rose in the morning
a wall had been raised, and the fault which she had
noticed corrected.

Gresham did not long survive this honour. He was
now sixty years of age, when on Saturday, the 21st of
November, 1579, between six and seven in the evening,
having just come from the Royal Exchange to his house
in Bishopsgate•street, he was suddenly attacked, it is
supposed, by apoplexy. He was found speechless on the
floor of his kitchen, and in a short time breathed his
last. His remains were committed to the earth on the
15th of the following month, in St. Helen's Church,
Bishopsgate-street, where they still repose. The funeral
was one of extraordinary splendour, as it cost no less
than 800 L

His only son, Richard, had died in 164. Sir Thomas
had a natural daughter named Anne, whom he carefully
educated and provided with an ample dower, and who
eventually became the sister-in-law of Lord Bacon.
Lady Gresham survived her husband seventeen years,
and died at Osterley House, November 23, 1596. She
was buried in St. Helen's with great pomp on the 15th
of December, in the same grave with her husband, and,
by a curious coincidence, on the anniversary of his funeral.

BLANDFORD, OCTOBER 22.—A meeting was held
at the Town Hall, at a very short notice, relative
to a lime of railroad proposed to be adopted by the
South-Western Railway Company, to bring a branch
from their line to Salisbury, Cranbourne, Wimborne,
Blandford, Dorchester, and Weymonth. The meeting
was well attended and the subject appeared to excite
interest. much Prospectuses will shortly be issued, and
further particulars made
public.—Sherburne Journal.