the Earl and John of Desmond any thing but rebels and traitors, and therefore they, who came to succour them, no better than rogues and runagates; * * wherefore it would be dishonourable for him, in the name of his queen, to condition, or make any terms with such rascals." It is painful to pursue the story farther. The fort surrendered, and orders were given by the inexorable deputy to put the garrison to the sword,-sparing only an Irish nobleman and a few Spanish officers, who were sent prisoners to England. Elizabeth, although she exculpated the inferior officers, who simply obeyed orders, expressed herself deeply dissatisfied with their leader on account of this piece of cruelty.*

For some time after this the life of Raleigh was that of an aspiring soldier, enthusiastic in his profession, and mortified "by the poor place and charge which he enjoyed under the lord-deputy." In a letter to the Earl of Leicester, whose favour he seems to have enjoyed at this time, he declares that were it not that Grey was the friend of that powerful favourite, "he would disdain his charge as much as to keep sheep," and describes Ireland as a lost land, not a commonwealth, but a commonwo. This discontent, however, was of short duration. Sir Walter rose in the confidence of the government; and his activity was so great in reducing the seditious practices of Lord Barry, and other leaders of the rebellion, -in the repulse of Fitz-Edmonds,-the capture of Lord Roch, and the restoration of the country to a state of security,―that he was repeatedly promoted to situations of trust and responsibility. On the return of the Earl of Ormond to England, the government of Munster was committed to Raleigh, in conjunction with Sir William Morgan and Captain Pierce; and the same year we find him holding the chief command in the city of Cork. The variety of his exploits, and the apparently contradictory qualities which he exhibited, were remarkable.

He

See a letter writen about this time to the Earl of Leicester, Cayley's Life, p. 25. Cayley's Life, vol. i. p. 25.

united the daring courage of the old knight of chivalry with the calm judgment and the love of stratagem which distinguished a later and more refined age. Of the first he gave an example in the defeat of Fitz-Edmonds, where he twice rescued and saved the life of one of the gentlemen of his company at the imminent peril of his own. Of the last he furnished a no less striking instance in the surprise and seizure of the Lord Roch in his own castle, surrounded by a powerful garrison, and in a country where the enemy had carefully occupied every road and fastness.

Upon the suppression of the rebellion Raleigh returned to England, with a reputation for valour and experience well known to those with whom he had served, but which was lost at court amidst the dazzling brilliancy of superior rank and power. Nor could it well be otherwise; for at this moment the throne of Elizabeth was surrounded by a nobility amongst whom was to be found all that was illustrious in birth and pre-eminent in genius, by statesmen, and warriors both by land and sea, whose names have become familiar and stirring words, indissolubly associated with every recollection of the glory of their country.

The sagacious and wary BURLEIGH was now in the zenith of his power, the favoured minister of his royal mistress, and possessing an influence over her masculine mind which no other amongst her servants ever retained so long. Capricious, and exhibiting the weakness and mutability of a woman to his rivals Leicester and Essex, she maintained an invariable regard for Cecil; her confidence in his councils was never shaken; and upon every subject relating to internal administration or foreign policy, his opinion, although openly and severely canvassed at the moment it was given, was silently followed in the end. And yet, although the chosen minister of this great queen, Cecil was not a man of splendid genius or of brilliant and original endowments. In tracing the principles of his government, and studying the accounts of his private life, it will be found that the prominent

qualities of Lord Burleigh were of a homelier nature. Prudence, calm and unimpassioned judgment, indefatigable application, and extreme closeness and taciturnity in the despatch of business, were perhaps his most striking qualities; and the exercise of these was not interrupted by the impediments of the heart or the imagination, which lead some men astray. No bursts of natural and generous feeling,-no enthusiasm for high intellectual talent, no admiration for what was profound in science, or graceful or beautiful in art,-no foolish feelings for chivalrous honour or unproductive glory, interrupted the even tenor of his purposes, or shook a single principle which he felt to be expedient and necessary. His neglect of Spenser, when this delightful poet was recommended to his patronage by his royal mistress,—his contempt for military renown, unless the victory brought some tangible fruit in security or in solid coin,—his coldness to every thing in religion which did not affect the strictness of the Protestant doctrines or the integrity of established forms, all point the same way, and convince us that the character of this great minister was less ardent than reflective.

But this is only one side of the picture. Looking to the principles and conduct of his administration, and the energy with which he pursued them, nothing can be more consistent and successful. His determination to humble the Papal power, and to support the Protestant reformation,—his zeal on the side of liberty of conscience, -his consequent support of the Huguenot party in France, the Prince of Orange in the Low Countries, and the Reformed Lords in Scotland,-his encouragement of all that serviceable learning which promised to further these objects,*—his decided opposition to a war for territorial conquest, the energy with which he wielded the strength of the kingdom in the resistance of foreign

*Witness his engaging his friend Sir Thomas Smith to write a Treatise on the Roman Money, which he deemed of practical utility in guiding his own measures for the reformation of the coin. Biographia Britannica, by Kippis, art. Cecil, p. 387.