the printed authorities, combined with the important information contained in the Count de Beaumont's despatches, which, though they still remain in manuscript, we happen to have perused, to exhibit a tolerably satisfactory view of the probabilities -for certainty is unattainable-of the case. Beaumont was the resident French Ambassador at the English Court at the period of the accession; and his despatches to his Sovereign, and his minister Villeroy, are replete with details concerning the conspiracies which so early disturbed that at first rapturous occurrence. Carte is the only British writer by whom they have been examined. All others who have referred to them, have taken their information at secondhand from him; and though we do not say that he has left any important facts unrevealed, respecting this subject, we are inclined to think that the conclusions to which these despatches lead, may be better discriminated and brought out than in his narrative.

Popular as Elizabeth was, our history has no record of so joyful an accession as that of James. It was hailed with acclamations by all classes of the people. But the national joy was destined to be overcast in the very dawn of its existence. A nearer view of James's person and manners speedily dispelled those illusions which the people, long subjected to a female sovereign, had fondly attached to the name of king; and some early examples of his imprudence and misgovernment, produced a strong apprehension that they had been deceived by the accounts spread abroad of his regal wisdom. The rapacity of his Scottish followers, and his ill-judged haste to gratify them, excited the disgust and resentment of the whole nation. The Catholic portion of his subjects, who, according to Beaumont, had been amongst the foremost to welcome his accessionand in behalf of whom this ambassador had ventured to solicit some marks of favour, calculated to save them from becoming the dupes and tools of Spanish desperadoes-soon perceived that he was in no respect inclined to relax the rigorous policy of his predecessor. The Puritans, who had also cherished fallacious hopes, found they were doomed to be equally disappointed. Murmurs and discontents were the natural consequences; and some malecontents, as furious in their resentments as they were wild and rash in their purposes, proceeded to form treasonable designs against the person and government of the new sovereign. But before proceeding to any details regarding them, we must attend to such occurrences subsequent to the accession, and to such particulars of Raleigh's treatment and conduct, as appear necessary to be kept in mind in judging of the probability of his being a participator.

Immediately after the death of Elizabeth, a meeting took place

at Whitehall of the chief public men then in London, for the purpose of proclaiming her successor; and Raleigh's name occurs amongst those subscribed to the writing framed on that memorable occasion.* An opinion, however, was entertained by some, of whom Raleigh was one, that James's power of appointing his countrymen to places of trust and emolument in his English dominions, ought to be subjected to some limitations. Mr Tytler seems inclined to question Raleigh's assent; but as his opinion is not supported by any authority, and runs counter to the statements of Osborne, Aubery, Lloyd, and some others, it may be unhesitatingly discarded. If such a proposition could be entertained by so aged and discreet a counsellor as Sir John Fortescue, it was likely enough, surely, to recommend itself to the more bold and innovating genius of Raleigh. Aubery goes a great deal farther; for he ascribes to Raleigh a proposal not a little calculated to awaken curiosity, but to which neither Mr Tytler nor Dr Southey adverts; a proposal to pull down the monarchy, and substitute a republic! Aubery avers that this proposition was advanced by Raleigh at the above-mentioned meeting at Whitehall.

Let

us keep the staff in our own hands, and set up a commonwealth, and not remain subject to a needy and beggarly 'nation' were the astounding words he is represented to have there uttered. Dr Warton might well consider this as a very remarkable anecdote,† if indeed it could be viewed as true. But it rests wholly on the authority of this credulous collector of historical gossip; and though it partakes of Raleigh's bold, aspiring, and scheming disposition, the supposition of the possibility of establishing a republic at that time, and in the then state of England, is much too chimerical to allow us to imagine that it could be broached by a man of his understanding, and to such an assembly as that to which it was said to have been addressed.

But, independently of these facts, there were other causes of that dislike to Raleigh, which appears to have been early manifested by the King; and which indeed existed before he set foot on his English dominions. We allude to the attempts so successfully made by Cecil and his accomplices, in their secret correspondence with the Scottish King, to impress him with the belief that Raleigh was closely leagued with a party unfriendly to his title, and bent on opposing him when the succession should open.

* Carte, vol. iii. p. 708.

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† In a note to his edition of Pope, in one of whose Epistles' allusion is made to Raleigh's archaisms.

who have perused that very curious correspondence, as published by Lord Hailes, must remember the singularly malignant representations of Raleigh with which it teems; and the unexampled terms of abuse there applied to him and some of his friends. It is therefore surprising that any biographer of Raleigh should cast about for hypothetical explanations of a dislike, so easily accounted for by referring to known causes. Mr Tytler imagines that it was owing to Raleigh's being unable to conceal his contempt of James's displays;' and because he declined to imitate 'the flattery with which others fed his vanity.' Now, there is nothing more certain than that Raleigh never, at any time, allowed an aversion to flattery to stand in the way of his wishes; and it is equally certain that he evinced his readiness to feed James's vanity, with reference to the very displays' to which Mr Tytler alludes. I took it as a great comfort,' says he, in a letter to the royal pedant, to behold your Majesty; always learning some good, and bettering my knowledge, by hearing your Majesty discourse.' Raleigh's disfavour was far enough from being owing to his sparingness in the administration of the unction of flattery.

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There can be no doubt, in a word, that the Scottish King entered England with a mind strongly prepossessed against him; and that Cecil found it an easy achievement to complete the overthrow which his correspondence had prepared. James had arrived at York, in the prosecution of his intoxicating Progress' to the capital, before Cecil presented himself before him. The Count de Beaumont says, that he was by some blamed for leaving London at that critical juncture; but he doubtless felt it to be indispensable that he should repair to James, as well to furnish that information of which he and his Scottish courtiers were alike in want, as to take measures for crushing those who might have the temerity to be competitors for favour or power. Raleigh, in particular, was the man he most feared ;* and one of his first cares was to put a stop to that intercourse with the King, which would have resulted from his continuing in the office of Captain of the Guard. That office, which Raleigh had held with so much distinction during the late reign, was now promised, and speedily bestowed upon a Scottish favourite; and Cecil is said to have induced the King to take this step, by possessing him with the belief that the removal of one so universally disliked would be an act highly acceptable to the people of England.† The extreme unpopularity of a man of such great

and various talents, so distinguished for courtier-like accomplishments and martial achievements, has always appeared to us a perplexing part of Raleigh's history; and not to be sufficiently accounted for either by those who ascribe it solely to his haughty demeanour, or to his enmity to Essex, the general favourite of the people. The belief that he was not over scrupulous in his regard for truth-that his great and brilliant qualities were tarnished by craft and rapacity-that, as Ben Jonson alleged, he esteemed fame more than conscience '-were, we suspect, the principal sources of that hostile feeling entertained towards him, and which never without strong cause takes place of the esteem universally entertained for genius and valour. But be the cause what it may, the fact is unquestionable; and indeed we find his friend the Earl of Northumberland not merely acknowledging it, but alleging that he had himself suffered in public opinion from his long and intimate connexion with him. Still, there can be no doubt that Cecil, who had long associated with and courted him, was now actuated solely by his own personal animosities and selfish apprehensions. Raleigh, as soon as he was apprised of his machinations, set out in haste to endeavour to counteract them, by making some disclosures touching the execution of Queen Mary, and other matters, calculated, as he imagined, to make a strong impression upon the mind of her son; but the crafty secretary had taken his measures too well, and too securely; and was, besides, too necessary to James and his Scottish ministers, profoundly ignorant as they were of English affairs, to give his adversary any chance of success from this attempt. Its only effects were to widen existing differences, and to furnish additional aliment to that discontent, which soon became conspicuous to all. +

Raleigh's disappointments connected with the new reign, were not limited to those arising from loss of office and court favour. His fortune had been impaired by the expenses connected with the various expeditions which he had fitted out for Guiana, where he ever had hoped that, when circumstances were propitious, he should yet reap a golden harvest. This notion-the abiding vision of his changeful life-would naturally revisit his mind, and rekindle his hopes, as it had done originally, when, as now, he was deprived of place, favour, and expectations in his own country. But, in the pacific tem

See a remarkable letter, not noticed by either Mr Tytler or Dr Southey, though published in so well known a work as Miss Aiken's Memoirs of the Court of James. Vol. i. p. 58. † Beaumont, Dép. August 13.

per of James, and his ardent desire to conclude a peace with Spain, Raleigh saw the destruction of his favourite project. His notions of foreign policy, in which he was more largely skilled than any other statesman of that day, and a strong conviction of the propriety of upholding the United Provinces, in that glorious struggle for independence in which they had been so effectually aided by Elizabeth, seem to have led in the same direction with his own particular designs. We learn from one of his letters, that he made an offer to the King to raise, at his own cost, two thousand men, to attack Spain in her most vulnerable point-her American possessions. The answer is not mentioned; but no reply to any such proposal could, in James's temper of mind, be otherwise than unfavourable; and we may even suppose that, personally and politically timid as he was, it might contribute to augment his dislike of a man who could entertain such daring and extensive purposes. Raleigh at this time also wrote a discourse-one of the most remarkable of his smaller pieces, not for its composition, which is desultory and slovenly, but for the depth and reach of its general views, and the pregnant variety of its illustrations on the policy of continuing the protection of England to the United Provinces, so as to enable them to establish their independence of all the neighbouring powers. This tract he had intended to present to the King, to whom it was addressed, but did not find an opportunity. James, as is well known, was ultimately prevailed upon by Sully, the extraordinary ambassador of Henry the Fourth, to continue to the States that support for which Raleigh so urgently pleaded. But the certainty of that consummation, could he have anticipated it, would have been far from satisfying his desires. Bred in a school which classed Spain with the Pope and the Devil, and looked upon her American possessions as the appropriate field of English adventure and spoliation, Raleigh's ardent wish was, that the war should at all events be continued ; and he accordingly endeavoured to show, that Spain was now so greatly reduced, as to be incapable of withstanding the naval skill and power of England; but that, if peace should be conceded, and time allowed her to recruit, the former would. come to regret her forbearance and lost opportunities of glory and conquest, when all who could effectually serve her would be removed from the scene. This piece is the more

*He seemeth wonderfully fitted, both by art and nature, to serve the state; especially as he is versed in foreign matters, his skill therein being always estimable and praiseworthy.'-Sir John Harrington's Letter to the Bishop of Bath and Wells-Nuga Antiquæ, vol. i. p. 342.