SIR FEANCIS DRAKE AND THE PLYMOUTH CORPORATION. 515 
We shall see by-and-by where the contrary assumption would 
land us.* 
But we do not stop here. The most remarkable fact revealed by 
these entries is that the Water Act was not passed in the form in 
which it was introduced. A Proviso was added by the Committee, 
and on reference to the Act we see that this Proviso is the only 
part of the statute in which reference is made to mills. Have we 
here an indication of the origin of Drake's personal interest in the 
undertaking? It is certain that the Act confers no direct authority 
for the erection of mills; it is equally certain that this Proviso 
furnishes the only excuse that could be given for their erection — 
the compensation of the existing millers, whose trade might be 
injured by the abstraction of the water for such a purpose, t 
But the most singular incident in connection with the parlia- 
mentary history of the Plymouth Water Supply has yet to be 
mentioned. 
I have shown that there is no authority to erect mills conferred 
by the Water Act; that the erection of the mills is expressly 
assigned by the Black Book of the Corporation to Sir Francis 
Drake ; that while the Corporation paid £300 to Drake on account 
of the leat, besides their own direct expenditure, they made no pay- 
ment as such on account of the mills. Prom beginning to end 
the mills stand before us as Drake's idea and work, and not as in 
* Upon questions of "sea divinity," as Fuller quaintly phrases it, the feel- 
ing of Drake's time differed materially from ours ; and I do not censure him 
for acts which in the present day would be called piracy, but which were then 
regarded as legitimate warfare, or for his share in the early slave trade* 
which was then held honourable business. The code of private honour was 
much the same, however, then as now. It would have been as disgraceful for 
Drake to bring in a bill under false pretences — to lend his influence to the per- 
petration of a shameless job, to use his position to crush an individual or a 
corporation, or to turn to private profit the performance of a public duty — as 
it would be in any public man of the present day. Such suggestions have 
been made, and in support of his assumed benevolence ; but until direct proof 
is given I decline to see in Drake's attitude towards the Plymouth Corporation, 
and its water supply, anything beyond that of a keen man of business, who 
know how to turn mills to the best account. 
+ It is worth noting that in this same session of Parliament the Corporation 
of Chichester obtained an Act for the construction of water works, so that the 
Plymouth statute does not stand absolutely alone. Both these are quoted in 
Pickering's Statutes as public acts. 
2 l 2 
