marks of distinguished favour, and continued in his office as chief minister. It was rather galling to Raleigh to see him in possession of power, while he was totally excluded from the royal councils and favour. Whether moved by envy or suspecting treachery, he indiscreetly furnished the King with a representation of the ill offices of Cecil and his father to the unfortunate Mary. But the King more readily forgave her enemies than his own. Cecil continued in power, and could hardly be expected to forget this attack upon it. Excluded now from court, and being also very unpopular as the enemy of Essex, whose memory was dear to the people, Raleigh became discontented, and associated with disaffected persons, and among others with Lord Cobham, a weak and unprincipled but wealthy nobleman. Some Popish priests had engaged in a very absurd plot for the murder of the King and his family, and for transferring the crown to the Lady Arabella Stewart ; and about the same time, Cobham had held some intercourse with the Flemish Ambassador, who was endeavouring to negotiate a peace for Spain; and had idly talked to Raleigh, as if he could procure money for him from the Ambassador for advocating the peace. Cobham became acquainted with the plot of the priests through his brother Broke; and when they, with Cobham, were apprehended, he from timidity, being drawn into a confession, passionately because he understood Raleigh had spoken of his associating with the Ambassador's agent, dropt some accusation against Raleigh, which he, however, afterwards retracted; yet because Broke had confessed that Cobham had formerly told him that Raleigh was concerned, not only "in the bye but the main," though even this, Broke at his execution recalled upon this hearsay of the hearsay of such senseless jargon, he was accused of high treason, and without confronting Cobham with Raleigh, though he repeatedly challenged it at his trial, he was found guilty of the whole treason, though the plots were distinct; Lord Coke, then attorney general, saying in his speech, 'that the treasons were like Sampson's foxes, joined in the tails, though the heads were 'severed.'

Though Cecil, Raleigh's capital enemy, and the rest of the commissiouers for his trial, and all the judges and counsel were against him; though Raleigh was at that time the most unpopular man in England, he defended himself with such a knowledge of law, such clearness, such steadiness, such pertinacity, and yet with such temper, that it has been said, 'that save that it went with the hazard of his life, it was the happiest day of 'his life.' The two first that brought the news to the King,

(says Sir Dudley Carlton,) were Roger Ashton, and a Scotchman; "whereof one affirined, that never man spake so well in times past, nor would do in the world to come; and the other said that whereas when he saw him first, he was so led with the common hatred, that he would have gone one hundred miles to see him hanged, he would ere he parted, have gone a thousand to have saved his life. In a word, never was a man so hated and so popular in so short a time." The truth however is, whatever impression his defence may have made upon the audience, the court and the jury, it could not procure his acquital. They all thought he had defended himself, as if he were innocent. But the court and jury had prejudged, that the enemy of Essex, the discarded statesman, the fallen courtier, must be disloyal: there was a plot, Cobham was concerned in it; he was a weak man, a friend of Raleigh, who alone had the head for a conspiracy. Raleigh must, therefore, be a traitor. Cecil had his revenge to satisfy; the King detested the enemy of Essex and of his own power; to the people he was equally odious; Sir Edward Coke thought it a fair occasion to show that he was not unfriendly to Essex; and the judges and jury were prepared to serve the King and his minister against the most unpopular man in England. It was in vain that Raleigh appealed to the statutes of Edward, which required two witnesses in treason; he was told they were repealed. He asked for Cobham's signature to his confession; he was told it was sufficient proof without a subscription. He produced Cobham's retraction; he was charged with having artfully procured it. He insisted that the common trial of England is by jury and witnesses;' and entreated that bis accuser might come face to face and depose.' The Chief Justice told him there was no law for it. Raleigh then entreated for this as a grace, let him (said he) be brought, being 'alive, and in the house, let him avouch any of these things, and 'I will confess the whole indictment, and renounce the King's mercy.' Cecil, however, said (having before consulted the judges) you know the law of the realm, that my Lord Cobham cannot be brought.'

6

The more skill he displayed, the more the Court were confirmed in his guilt. Sir Edward Coke fought for victory. 'I ' am the more large (said he) because I know with whom I 'deal for we have to deal to-day with a man of wit.' Raleigh's dexterity only exasperated him; he exaggerated the evidence, brought out all his rhetoric, bespattered him with abuse,* and repeated his remarks so often, that upon his saying 'I want

Attorney. Thou viper for I thou thee."-Shakspeare is thought to allude to this. See Twelfth Night,

VOL. IV.-no. 8.

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'words sufficient to express thy viperous treason;' Raleigh could not avoid the retort, I think you want words indeed, for 'you have spoken one thing half a dozen times.' He also interrupted Raleigh so often, that even Cecil, at last relented; it is his last discourse, give him, leave him, Mr. Attorney;' and afterwards, be not so impatient good Mr. Attorney, give ' him leave to speak.' Here, (says the reporter,) ' Mr. Attorney sat down in a chafe and would speak no more 'till the 'Commissioners urged and entreated him.' The trial is a vivid picture of the manners of that age. The accused, at this time was, perhaps, the greatest man in England, the last of those great men equally distinguished for wisdom and conduct, who gave character to the age of Elizabeth; a man of a comprehensive genius, of daring spirit and of splendid accomplishments. His fame as a great navigator, an enterprizing discoverer, and a successful commander by sea and land resounded over Europe. He was adorned with the unfading glories of the Spanish defeat and the greener laurels of Cadiz and Fayal. He was not dismayed by his hazardous situation; nor disconcorted by the new arena in which he was to contend for a life, which had been so often ventured in the battles of his country; in a technical court of justice without counsel, he defended himself against a capital charge with a temper, a skill, a spirit, which alarmed his opponents, and converted the audience from foes to friends.

The prosecutor was the greatest lawyer and one of the greatest patriots of his day; at the head of a profession, which, by the wise institutions of his country, rivals that of arms, in the honours to which it leads, and the wealth which it insures; then enjoying a professional fame which, though not so ripe as that which has since identified his name with that Common Law which will endure as long as the English and their descendants in every quarter of the globe, shall reverence freedom; was yet sufficiently mature to have been allied with humanity and cour

and from whom might have been expected some of the sympathies of kindred genius, towards "a great man fallen:" yet what are the epithets which Coke applies to Raleigh: "notorious traitor," "vile and execrable traitor," "Spanish heart and English face," "viper," "vile viper,” “damnable atheist ;" and what eagerness does he discover, that the accused may not escape him: taking every advantage, misconstruing and perverting the law, offering all kinds of evidence, and exaggerating the weakest ; and discovering the utmost impatience at anything like a successful defence or any approach to a conclusive argument, on the part of the accused. The gross epithets

are an evidence of a coarse and unpolished age; but the management of the prosecution proves not only a devotedness to power which, it is to be feared, will display itself whenever a victim is to be sacrificed to please a king or gratify the people; but an ignorance of and inattention to the very elements of freedom in the administration of criminal justice. However plain many of these principles appear now to us, they have been of very slow growth, and can only be preserved by the most inflexible adherence to them under all possible circumstances. They must become the inveterate habit of the courts. The escape of the guilty, in obedience to the general rules of criminal evidence, should never be the subject of peevish complaint against the laws or their administrators. If they sometimes, nay often screen the guilty, it should never be forgotten that they are the only safeguard of the innocent.

The sentence against Raleigh was not executed, but he was confined to the tower. By the earnest solicitations of his lady, a part of his personal estate was remitted to him by the crown, for the payment of his debts and the maintenance of his family. The King also granted him his forfeited life estate in Shelburne, which in the former reign he had entailed upon his son. Lady Raleigh was also permitted to reside with him in the tower. These alleviations of his calamity had begun to reconcile him to it, when the rapacious favourite of the king, Carr, afterwards Earl of Somerset, having discovered a flaw in Raleigh's settlement, induced the King to have it set aside at law, and to make him a grant of the estate. Thus, for "want of a word," (as Raleigh says) his family were beggared, and he deprived of an adequate maintenance. No importunity of Raleigh, who addressed a moving letter to the worthless minion, could induce him to relinquish his grasp. Raleigh had a mind of too much hardihood for despondency; and he sought relief from his distresses in the resources of his genius and the pursuit of science and letters. These recommended him to the Queen and to Prince Henry. The Queen he relieved of a fever by a preparation which his knowledge of chemistry enabled him to make; which "great cordial" (as he has styled it) was afterwards administered to the Prince, but came too late. It was, as he has informed us, for the instruction of this prince, a youth of rare promise, that he applied himself to the writing of his History of the World. He had obtained the Prince's confidence ; had been consulted by him on some affairs of state, and wrote for him many valuable tracts. The Prince was pleased to say of Raleigh, "that no king but his father, would keep such a bird in a cage."

Prince Henry procured from the King, who compensated his favourite for the loss, a grant of Raleigh's estate, intending to restore it to him, but his sudden death defeated his benevolent design, and the King returned it to Carr, but not without first paying to Raleigh one-third of its value. During his long confinement, he wrote upon various subjects; but his great work was the ripe fruit of his imprisonment, for which he would never have found leisure but for that calamity. His literary fame is owing to bis luckless fate. Had he continued a statesman and courtier, he never could have devoted himself to that laborious undertaking. How much of the fame of great men has arisen from the depth of affliction and disgrace! The philosophical writings of Cicero and of Bacon, and the histories of Raleigh and Clarendon, we owe as much to their misfortunes as their genius. The History of the World was published just before the meeting of Parliament in 1644. It has passed through eleven editions, besides being abridged, and is still read not only for instruction but delight. In the early part of the work, he dives into the depths of theology, treats of the unknown and unknowable, and wanders deeply in the mazes of rabbinical learning. He has devoted a chapter of fifteen sections to the place of paradise, and another of four, to its two chief trees. Though he does not adopt the opinion of those who place paradise under the equinoctial line, he repels the objection of Thomas Aquinas, of “its distemperate heat;" for recollecting, probably, the climate of his beloved Guiana, he says-Now we find that these hottest ' regions of the world, seated under the equinoctial line, or near it, are so refreshed with a daily gale of easterly wind (which 'the Spaniards call the Brize) that doth evermore blow strong'est in the heat of the day, as the downright beams of the sun 'cannot so much master it, that there is any inconvenience or 'distemperate heat found thereby; next, the nights are so cold, 'fresh and equal, by reason of the entire interposition of the 'earth, (as for those places which I myself have seen near the 'line and under it) I know no other part of the world of equal or "better temper. And the greatest part of those regions have so many goodly rivers, fountains and little brooks, abundance of high cedars and other stately trees casting shade, so many sorts * of delicate fruits ever bearing, and at all times beautified with 'blossom and fruit, both green and ripe, as it may of all other 'parts, be best compared to the Paradise of Eden: the boughs and branches are never unclothed and left naked, their sap *creepeth not under ground into the root, fearing the injury of the frost, nor doth Pomona at any time despise her withered