Burleigh, like the old Marquess of Winchester, who preceded him in the custody of the White Staff, was of the willow, and not of the oak.  He first rose into notice by defending the supremacy of Henry the Eighth.  He was subsequently favoured and promoted by the Duke of Somerset.  He not only contrived to escape unhurt when his patron fell, but became an important member of the administration of Northumberland.  Dr. Nares assures us over and over again that there could have been nothing base in Cecil’s conduct on this occasion; for, says he, Cecil continued to stand well with Cranmer.  This, we confess, hardly satisfies us.  We are much of the mind of Falstaff’s tailor.  We must have better assurance for Sir John than Bardolph’s.  We like not the security.

Through the whole course of that miserable intrigue which was carried on round the dying bed of Edward the Sixth, Cecil so bemeaned himself as to avoid, first, the displeasure of Northumberland, and afterwards the displeasure of Mary.  He was prudently unwilling to put his hand to the instrument which changed the course of the succession.  But the furious Dudley was master of the palace.  Cecil, therefore, according to his own account, excused himself from signing as a party, but consented to sign as a witness.  It is not easy to describe his dexterous conduct at this most perplexing crisis in language more appropriate than that which is employed by old Fuller.  “His hand wrote it as secretary of state,” says that quaint writer; “but his heart consented not thereto.  Yea, he openly opposed it; though at last yielding to the greatness of Northumberland, in an age when it was present drowning not to swim with the stream.  But as the philosopher tells us, that though the planets be whirled about daily from east to west, by the motion of the primum mobile, yet have they also a contrary proper motion of their own from west to east, which they slowly, though surely, move, at their leisure; so Cecil had secret counter-endeavours against the strain of the court herein, and privately advanced his rightful intentions, against the foresaid duke’s ambition.”

This was undoubtedly the most perilous conjuncture of Cecil’s life.  Wherever there was a safe course, he was safe.  But here every course was full of danger.  His situation rendered it impossible for him to be neutral.  If he acted on either side, if he refused to act at all, he ran a fearful risk.  He saw all the difficulties of his position.  He sent his money and plate out of London, made over his estates to his son, and carried arms about his person.  His best arms, however, were his sagacity and his self-command.  The plot in which he had been an unwilling accomplice ended, as it was natural that so odious and absurd a plot should end, in the ruin of its contrivers.  In the meantime, Cecil quietly extricated himself and, having been successively patronised by Henry, by Somerset, and by Northumberland, continued to flourish under the protection of Mary.