142 TWO CHAPTERS ILLUSTRATIVE OF 



had shed the hlood of this variously gifted* person to aflbrd them 

 unmodified satisfaction. 



Of Mr. Hume's disposition to praise, at least to cast a friendly 

 shade over the worst actions of the Stuarts, no one who has even 

 glanced at his narrative of their reigns can doubt. Having enlisted 

 himself, then, as their willing champion, he was in duty bound with 

 much pains to vindicate the father of that singularly unfortunate 

 line, in what related to the execution of Raleigh : but, on this oc- 

 casion, he has mustered a very incompetent defence. The principle 

 momenta of his argument rest upon a "declaration by authority"* 

 put forth at the time, to the averments of which he claims implicit 

 credence, on the ground of its being suhscribed by six privy coun- 

 cillors. Now, it has long been a settled point with the curious 

 readers of English history, that as little can be said in praise of 

 Hume's researches as of his fidelity. We have, therefore, thought 

 our time not ill spent in investigating a matter of great importance, 



faction. Further you may let them know, how able a man Sir Walter was 

 to have done his majesty service, if he should have been pleased to have em- 

 ployed him. Yet, to give them content, he hath not spared him ; when, by 

 preserving him, he might have given great satisfaction to his subjects, and 

 had at his command upon all occasions as useful a man as served any prince 

 in Christendom." — See Rushworth, vol. i, p. 96. After this letter, it surely 

 ought not to be enumerated among the paradoxical positions advanced by Sir 

 Walter, without any degree of scrupulosity, that the king had disclosed the 

 whole design of his voyage to Gondomar ; since the following passage in a 

 letter from Buckingham to Winwood so clearly establishes the truth of Sir 

 Walter's accusation : — " His majesty perceiveth by a letter he hath received 

 from the Spanish ambassador, that you have not been with him to acquaint 

 him with the order taken by his majesty about Sir Walter Raleigh's voyage; 

 and therefore would have you go to him as soon as you can possible, to relate 

 unto him particularly his majesty's care of that business, and the course he 

 hath taken therein." — See Hardwicke, State Papers, vol. i, p. 308. 



* Of his multifarious accomplishments and chivalrous character, Anthony 

 Wood has given the following graphic description : — "Authors are perplexed 

 under what topic to place him, whether of statesman, seaman, soldier, che- 

 mist, or chronologer, for in all these he did excel ; and it still remains a dis- 

 pute whether the age ha lived in was more obliged to his pen or his sword ; 

 the one being busy in conquering the new, the other in so bravely describing 

 the old world. The truth is, he was unfortunate in nothing else but the 

 greatness of his wit and advancement. His eminent worth was such, both in 

 domestic polity, foreign expedition and discoveries, arts and literature, both 

 practive and contemplative, that they seemed at once to conquer both exam- 

 ple and imitation. Those that knew him well, esteemed him to be a person 

 born to that only which he went about, so dextrious was he in all or most of 

 his undertakings, in court, or camp, by sea, by land, with sword, with pen." 



