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spy with a power to apprehend him, after watching and entrapping him. It was so long before Raleigh could be induced to believe his life at hazard, that he neglected several opportunities of escape, and was, after some feeble attemps to fly, lodged in the Tower. In the mean time, the thief-taker, that had been sent after him, under the guise of friendship, taking the advantage of a mind overwhelmed by grief and sickness, had become privy to some efforts of flight and some petty "artifices for delay, which were exaggerated against him, with all the zeal and malignity of a hireling. Raleigh being lodged in the Tower, it was now pretended, that his gold mine was altogether a fabrication to procure his release; and it was forgotten in the determination to sacrifice him, that Guiana had long been a favourite object with Raleigh; that twenty years before, he had visited it at a great expense, explored it, favourably impressed the natives with his views of settlement, urged the Queen to colonize it, published a glowing account of it, and always contended that it would be found to be fruitful in gold. Nor was it adverted to, that he was not let out of prison merely to go in search of gold, as the price of his head; and that when released by a concurrence of circumstances, he might have abandoned the enterprize if he had thought fit, or at any rate could have purchased an abandonment of it, as he had bought himself out of prison. It cannot be fairly doubted, that Raleigh, whatever might have been the faith of others, firmly believed that Guiana was a golden region, and would prove, upon a rigorous search, rich in mines; though the extent and value of them could only be ascertained by founding a colony there. This seems to have been the object which he aimed at from first to last; and he probably hoped by his last voyage to excite the King or private adventurers to such an undertaking; and if he had been fortunate enough to procure more undoubted evidence of golden mines there, he might have given rise to a colony, and thus restored his fame, retrieved his fortunes, and acquired the confidence of the crown. This would appear to be a more rational account of his design, than the supposition of a hostile voyage meditated by him against Spain. The burning of the petty town of St. Thomas during his absence, seems much more like an accident in a principal action, than the object of the expedition. He could have found richer towns, and no better defended, if spoil had been his object. He held that he had a right to penetrate into Guiana, whether he found Spaniards there or not, in pursuit of those mines, which he had discovered when he first explored the country; and the King was distinctly informed where he was going, and might have known

whether there were Spaniards there or not, and in authorizing defence implied that opposition might attend the search.

That Raleigh, knowing the pacific temper of the King, and feeling his own suspected condition, should venture upon a voyage of plunder, with the hope of making his peace with the spoils, implies a folly and audacity entirely foreign to his character.

The inevitable consequence of such a defeated project would have been immediate flight; to return to England after a piracy which had produced no prize-money to buy a pardon, was the last consummation of human folly. This position is so striking, that it was pretended against the notorious fact, that he had been brought back a prisoner by his crew; a slander which he refuted with his dying breath.

The King, aware of public opinion, would not venture to bring Raleigh to trial for piracy and making war upon Spain: he knew he could not have found a jury to convict him. The old attainder was therefore resorted to. It was alleged that Raleigh had never been pardoned; as if a formal pardon were necessary, when no attempt had ever been made to execute the infamous verdict; when Cobham and Grey and Markham had been pardoned on the scaffold; when, after fourteen years of imprisonment, Raleigh was not only released from prison, restored to his liberty, and allowed to leave the country upon a distant voyage, but entrusted by the King's commission with the command of a fleet; appointed the governor and commander of the forces under him, and authorized to exercise martial law.

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Lord Bacon had considered this commission a pardon; for when, no doubt, a formal pardon, if it had been deemed necessary, could have been purchased of the Crown, Raleigh was told by him, Sir, the knee-timber of your voyage is money. 'Spare your purse in this particular, for upon my life you have 'a sufficient pardon for all that is passed already, the King having under his broad seal made you admiral of your fleet, ' and given you power of the martial law over your officers and 'soldiers.'

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The Judges having been directed to proceed to execution against him, he was ordered to be taken from the Tower to the bar of the King's Bench. The next day he was brought into court with a fever upon him; when the King's attorney prayed execution of the old judgment of treason, and concluded with expressing his compassion in the quaint language of the day, for (said he) the accused hath been a star at which the world have gazed, but stars may fall, nay, they must fall, when

'they trouble the sphere wherein they abide.' Raleigh, excusing his voice, now enfeebled by sickness, pleaded his Majesty's late commission, which having clothed him with the power of life and death, implied the pardon of him in whom such confidence was reposed; a trust (said Raleigh) undertaken for the 'honour of my sovereign, and to enrich his kingdom with gold, 'of the ore whereof this hand hath found and taken in Guiana.' Then, proceeding to account for the miscarriage of that enterpize, he was interrupted by the Chief Justice, who very briefly told him that treason could not be pardoned by implication. Raleigh now threw himself upon the King's mercy, and expressed the hope that the old judgment, whose harshness his Majesty had himself admitted, would not now at this remote day be revived against him. The Chief Justice replied, that under that judgment Raleigh had long since been dead in law, but had been spared hitherto by the King's clemency; but that new offences had stirred up his Majesty's justice to revive what the law had formerly cast upon him. I know (said he) that you have been ' valiant and wise, and I doubt not you retain these virtues, for 'now you shall have occasion to use them. Your faith bath 'heretofore been questioned, but I am resolved you are a good 'christian, for your book,* which is an admirable work, doth 'testify as much. I could give you counsel, but I know you can 'apply to your self far better than I am able to give you. Yet, as if reluctant to quit so fair an opportunity of displaying his rhetoric, he proceeded, I give you the oil of comfort, though in respect 'I am a minister of the law, mixed with vinegar. Sorrow will 'not avail you in some kind; for were you pained, sorrow 'would not ease you; were you afflicted, sorrow would not re'lieve you; were you tormented, sorrow would not content you; 'and yet the sorrow for your sins would be an everlasting com'fort to you. As to death, you must do as that valiant captain 'did, who, perceiving himself in danger, said in defiance of death, 'Death thou expectest me; but maugre this spite, I expect thee. 'Fear not death too much, nor fear death too little; not too 'much lest you fail in your hope, nor too little lest you die pre'sumptuously.''

Of his witty consolation, the Chief Justice was not sparing; but the respite of some time to "settle his affairs and mind," 'which leisure (said Raleigh) I beseech you, think that I crave 'not to gain one minute of life, for being now old, sick and in 'disgrace, life is wearisome to me,' was refused to him; for though the King was then absent from London, a warrant for

The History of the World

his execution, dated the day of his sentence, was immediately produced, and the execution ordered for the next day, the 29th of October, 1618. Thus as his son, Carew Raleigh, observed, 'his father was condemned for being a friend to the Spaniards, ' and lost his life for being their enemy.'

In the Gate-house that night he, probably, wrote the copy of verses which were there found in his Bible

'Even such is Time! who takes in trust

'Our youth, our joys, and all we have;
'And pays us but with earth and dust:
"Who in the dark and silent grave,
'When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.

'But from that earth, that grave and dust,
"The Lord shall raise me up, I trust.'

In a conversation with the divine who attended him on the scaffold, he expressed great contempt for death, which, he said, he had never feared; and declared that he would rather die on the block than by a fever. He ascribed his composure to his trust in the goodness of God. He eat his breakfast on the morning of his execution, and smoked his pipe with as much indifference, as if he was only going upon a journey.

He was taken to the Old Palace Yard, Westminster. He ascended the scaffold with a serene aspect, and saluted the persons present. He expressed some apprehension of being interrupted by the return of his fever, and hoped that those who were near him, would ascribe any failure of voice or paleness of countenance to that disorder, and not to the fear of death. Then looking towards a window, where were the Earl of Arundel and other noblemen, he raised his voice that they might hear him; upon which they left their seats and approached the scaffold. He then denied that he had been brought home as a prisoner by his crew, and calling upon his officers for the truth of his assertion, affirmed that, on the contrary, he had suppressed a mutiny in his ship, and, in the fearlessness of innocence, had brought back his men to their duty and to England; and, turning to the Earl of Arundel, he appealed to him whether he had not redeemed the pledge given in the gallery of his ship, of returning to England, whether successful or unfortunate. "Those (said Arundel) were the last words you said to me." He solemnly denied that the expedition to Guiana was a feint to procure his liberty.

His own condition reminding him now of the unhappy fate of Essex, he disclaimed the charge of having attended his execution from malignity or triumph; and only regretted that he had

not been seen by Essex, to have been reconciled to him, when that nobleman with that purpose inquired for him from the scaffold, for though of a contrary faction, he called God to witness that he had no hand in his death, nor bore him any ill affection.

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He concluded, to use his own words, and now I intreat you 'will all join me in prayer to that great God of Heaven whom 'I have grievously offended; (being a man full of vanity, who 'has lived a sinful life in such callings as have been most in'ducing to it, for I have been a soldier, a sailor and a courtier, 'which are courses of wickedness and vice, which his Almighty 'goodness will forgive me ;) that he will cast away my sins from 'me, and that he will receive me into everlasting life. So I take my leave of you all; making my peace with God.' Then saluting his friends, he said, 'I have a long journey to go, there'fore must take my leave.' When he had taken off his gown and doublet, he asked to see the axe; and repeating his request, said, 'Do you think I am afraid? Feeling the edge of it, he said, 'This is a sharp medicine, but it is a sound cure for all diseases.' Upon being asked how he would lie on the block, he replied, 'if the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lies.' Having reclined his head, after a short pause, he raised his hand; at which signal, his head was severed at two strokes; his body remaining unmoved.

ART. VII.-Prodromus Systematis naturalis Regni Vegetabilis, sive enumeratio contractu ordinum, generum, specierumque plantarum hucusque cognitarum, juxta methodi naturalis normas digesta. Auctore AUG. PYRAMO DE CANDOLLE. Paris. Pars I. 1824. Pars II. 1825. Pars III. 1828.

In the rapid increase of knowledge which has distinguished the close of the eighteenth and the commencement of the nineteenth century, every department of science has felt the animating influence of improvement. The spirit of investigation is on all sides awakened and excited, and if its intensity has not increased, the circumference in which it moves, is constantly becoming more wide and more undefinable. The work before us may well suggest such reflections. It is scarcely a century

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