84 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
the lower wages of English workmen in the time of Elizabeth? 
The argument evidently did not apply, and told, if anything, 
against Drake's low-priced workmen. He failed, moreover, to find 
Mr. Brassey giving any instance of work done at so low a price as 
3 4-5 ths of a penny per yard, the lowest being generally 5d. and 
5Jd., and the wages of pick-men averaging a higher weekly rate 
than shovellers. 
He thought they had every reason to thank their essayist for the 
very liberal way in which he stated his conclusions. First, he states 
the total cost of the work at a figure far below that at which we esti- 
mate its great cost to Sir Francis Drake and the Corporation ; and 
secondly, attributing the defrayal of every farthing of the cost to 
the Corporation alone, he would have them accept the rather wild 
assertion that the Corporation met the whole cost of the introduction 
of the water at a time when the average regular yearly income of 
the Corporation did not reach £350. 1 
He now passed on to the grounds upon which he considered 
Drake entitled to his memorial. So far he thought they had ample 
grounds to repudiate the conclusion that Drake made a mere busi- 
ness transaction of the Plymouth leat. The presumption was a fair 
and strong one that his action and acceptance of a limited sum for 
his share in the work were intended to quicken the Plymouth Cor- 
poration in a scheme which in one form or another had for a 
considerable time been in contemplation. But a memorial on Ply- 
mouth Hoe would necessarily take a wider range of view. It would 
not merely commemorate Drake's activity and energy in bringing 
the Plymouth leat to a conclusion in a comparatively short space 
of time — four months — but it would refer far more to his voyage 
to the Indies, to his circumnavigation of the globe (1577-80), and 
the prominent part he took in the victories of England over the 
Armada of Spain. No treaty between Spain and England prohibited 
English subjects from trading or cruising in the waters of the Indies. 
The laws of Europe had no weight in the Western Hemisphere ; 
and Sir Christopher Hatton, 2 in his first recorded legal opinion, laid 
it down that though the Spaniards might send their privateers to 
1 The Corporate accounts for 1585-6 show receipts £314 lis. 6d., and ex- 
penditure £412 4s. 8d. In 1588-9 the outlay was £408 3s., or double the 
ordinary peace outlay. See Plym. Inst. Trans. 1881, p. 460. 
2 See Froude, History of England, vol. xi. p. 370. Cf. MSS. Simancas, 
October 23rd, 1580. 
