THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



says Bacon, ' to forsake or destitute a plantation once in 

 forwardness : for besides the dishonour, it is the guiltiness 

 of blood of many commiserable persons.' Perhaps he is 

 glancing at Sir Walter Raleigh, to whom, it cannot be 

 denied, some part of this guiltiness attaches. Raleigh 

 was always impatient of the day of small things, and 

 when his colony languished, made over his patent to 

 a company of merchants, and turned his attention to 

 El Dorado, the latest comer in the gorgeous pageant 

 of his dreams of world-empire. The miscarriage of the 

 Virginian attempt is the least magnificent of the failures 

 that make up the story of his life. 

 The long So the voices that had counselled discovery and peaceful 



^^^^' settlement were silenced, or were caught up and went 



to swell the clamour of war. For its first thirty years 

 the reign of Elizabeth was, in effect, one long preparation 

 for the great day. It is a time singularly barren, in the 

 English annals at least, of notable political events. 

 Events were what the Queen and her cautious Ministers, 

 Burghley and Walsingham, most dreaded. Their business 

 was to hold on to the reins of power, to retard natural 

 developments, to refuse action, to disclaim responsibility, 

 to chasten the impulses of fervid patriots, and to avoid 

 the open hostility of rival powers. The Government sat 

 still, and deprecated all vigorous intentions, and waited. 

 The Queen's fixed policy, her single resource for many 

 long years, was to continue saying 'Peace, Peace,' when 

 there was no peace. Her subjects were not slow to grasp 

 The price of ^^ situation. They were free to serve the Crown, 

 patriotism, but it must be at their own risk. They might give 

 battle to the enemy of their country and their religion, 

 but they must fight in the character of pirates. If they 



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