he committed in listening to the first disclosure of Cobham in relation to the proposed pension. This matter, he insists, "was only mentioned to him once; and, for three weeks after, he heard no more of it”— that he did not think that Cobham had any commission to offer it—and that he deemed the conversation of so little account, that he did not even remember it until it was used against him on the trial. In his letter to James, he says: "For my part, I protest before the ever living God, that I never intended treason, consented to treason, or performed treason. Lost am I for only hearing a vain man; for hearing only-never believing or approving."

A very able writer in the Edinburgh Review for April, 1840, after reviewing the circumstances of this case, and laying much stress upon the testimony of Beaumont, concludes, that "it would be more rational to believe that Ralegh was wholly guilty (that is, a direct participator in the designs of Cobham and Brooke,) than that he was wholly innocent (that is, wholly uninformed of the nature and objects of his intercourse with Aremberg.")

Now we find it impossible to adopt this conclusion, for several very strong reasons. In the first place, Ralegh had been, all his life, a most strenuous and indefatigable enemy of Spain; he had repeatedly perilled his life against her; he had cut up her commerce, burned her fleets, sacked her towns, written against her policy, humbled her pride, and expended over £40,000 (nearly his whole estate) in enterprises against her King and people. On the accession of James, he addressed him a powerful work, in which he exposed the designs and weakness of Spain;

counselling his Majesty to continue offensive measures against her, and volunteering an army, at his own cost, for his assistance. Although he may have been a discontented man, it does seem to us that the idea of applying to Spain, to send an army to invade England-of receiving from Spain a beggarly pension, and of uniting with a Nation, in contests against which he had won all his laurels,-is a very improbable, if not a preposterous idea. Secondly. Ralegh was a person of keen foresight, great comprehension, singular tact, and thorough knowledge of the men and the times. He was an individual who prided himself "on swaying all men's courses;"-he was a leader even among leaders; and,-knowing, as he did, the magnitude of such a design as Cobham's-involving a civil war-a foreign alliancedanger to the King, and revolution to the monarchy; knowing as he did, the character, the feelings and power of Cecil, as well as the weakness, cowardice and imbecility of the Lord Cobham;—is it not monstrous to suppose that he would have risked honor, fame, life itself, in a dangerous enterprise with such a coadjutor, for it must be remembered that he is charged with no interviews with any one but Cobham. Would he have rested during weeks, and allowed such a poor tool as Cobham to work for him?-and, moreover, if he was fully cognizant of all the proceedings, and knew (as he must have known, if "a direct participator,") the number and character of Cobham's communications with D'Aremberg, through Laurencie, would he, a guilty man,—in the most gratuitous manner, at a time when the fact was unknown to all but Cobham and himself, and

when his examination before the Council was concluded, have suggested to the Council "that they had better send for this very Laurencie, as he could tell them of all Cobham's conferences with D'Aremberg, though, for his part, he knew of nothing improper between them!"

But, in addition to this, Secretary Cecil, in a letter to Sir Ralph Winwood, written while Ralegh was languishing at Winchester, in ignorance of his fate, and in daily expectation of death, says; "that the king pretended to forbear Sir Walter Ralegh, for the present, until the Lord Cobham's death had given some light how far he would make good his accusation." Now, if it was necessary that James should have this additional proof of the truth of Cobham's charges, before he dared execute Ralegh, then, it seems certain, first, that there was not in his possession any other evidence than that adduced upon the trial, sufficient either to justify him in beheading Ralegh, or to excuse Beaumont in asserting his guilt; secondly, if the king only waited for the confirmatory death speech of Cobham, why did he not execute the sentence upon Ralegh when that proof was furnished? "Cobham mounted the scaffold with great assurance, and contempt of death," and, after outpraying the minister and the company, he reasserted the truth of all his accusations against Ralegh." Here was the "light" the king wanted! Why not proceed to execution? Did mercy restrain him? Did fear of the weakness of the proof, and instinctive horror of injustice, induce him to delay the axe of the headsman? Not so,-for, even if in the exercise of a large charity, we can suppose him sincere in his belief of

the evidence of this perjured man, why did he not release Ralegh, when, three years after that same, Cobham, in the presence of his queen, solemnly retracted even the accusations he had made on the scaffold!

The truth of the matter, if it ever be disinterred from the dusty archives of the reign of James, will probably be found in the private correspondence of the King and the scraps and memoranda of his Secretary Cecil, rather than in the despatches of D'Aremberg, or the speculations of Beaumont.

From the presence of the unjust judge, the illustrious prisoner passed into the tower, and, in that stern fortress, with whose every turret and gateway, are linked associations of outrage and tales of blood, the man of action was, for twelve long years, condemned to monotony and gloom. Did not this sudden reverse, this cruel blow, crush him to the earth? Did not the fiery spirit of the soldier, longing for the excitements, the dangers, and the glories of war, break, in the dull routine of the prison-house? Did not the strong mind of the statesman, yearning for the duties and struggles of the hall of legislation, or, the board of council, give way, as year stole after year, eventless and unmarked? Did not the restless fancy of the adventurer, bear him over the western ocean to the flowery isle of Wocoton, and the blue waters of Chessiopek, reveal the splendors of Manoa, and echo the rush of the turbid Amazon, until he sank, despairing, from dreams of the unreal, into the iron arms of the actual? Did not the polished blade rust in the neglected scabbard? the torch go out

in the long darkness? No! brighter and stronger grew the spirit, purer and higher flamed the light; and, instead of vain complaints and idle repining, the intellectual and moral man braced himself for a great task, explored the realms of philosophy, gathered the treasures of history, unravelled the mysteries of science, plucked the flowers of poesy; and, greater, perhaps, in his downfall than his prosperity, in the dungeon, than in the camp,-tasked all his energies in a work, wonderful for industry and learning, admirable in its style, veracious in its details, and lofty in its sentiment. And thus Sir Walter

"E'en with his prison-hours, enriched the world."

There is one circumstance connected with the long imprisonment of Ralegh, which I cannot refrain from noticing, and that is, the lofty and unshaken devotion of his wife. The biographers of Sir Walter tell us that the Lady Ralegh was exceeding beautiful. Brought up in a brilliant court, surrounded by all the refinements of intellect and the amenities of life, she was, doubtless, elegant and accomplished; but of her character we know nothing until this dark cloud gathered over the fortunes of her husband. In the day of his prosperity, when each succeeding year, invested him with new honors, and clothed him with greater dignity; when admiring friends and obsequious retainers, crowded the princely halls of Sherborne and Durham House, she unquestionably clung to him with affection, and looked up to him in pride. But, when the malice of his enemies and the injustice of his king, stripped him of office and humbled his state, when the victorious soldier be