intended escape, Which Mannourie did, and was answered by the said Ralegh, and prayed to tell Stukely, that if he would swear unto him not to discover him, he would tell him his whole intent. And that for the first point, though Stukely should lose his office, yet he should be no loser upon the matter; and for afterward, as soon as he was gotten into France or Holland, his wife was to send him 1000, and that he carried with him only 1000 crowns in money and jewels to serve for the present in his escape. But after supper, Ralegh said unto Mannourie, O! if I could escape without Stukely, I should do bravely; but it is no matter, said he, I'll carry him along, and afterward I'll dispatch myself of him well enough. And after, Mannourie relating all that had passed to Stukely, brought them together, at which time Ralegh shewed the jewel to Stukely; and he making shew to be content, prayed him a little respite to dispose of his office; whereupon Mannourie seeing them so accorded upon the matter in appearance, took his leave of them to go to London. And in the morning Mannourie upon the taking of his leave, said to Ralegh, that he did not think to see him again while he was in England; whereupon Ralegh gave him a letter directed to Mrs. Herrys of Radford, that she should deliver him an iron furnace with a distillatory of copper belonging unto it, and charged him to tell every man he met that he was sick, and that he left him in an extreme looseness that very night.

• But Ralegh having formerly dispatched a messenger to London, to prepare him a bark for his escape, came at last to London, and having won his purpose, (by these former devices of feigned sickness) to be spared from imprisonment in the Tower, and to be permitted to remain at his own house, till his better recovery, there fell-out an accident, which gave him great hopes and encouragement speedily to facilitate his intended design for escape. For as he came on his way to London, in his inn at Brentford, there came unto him a Frenchman named La Chesnay, a follower of Le Clerc, last agent here

for his Majesty's dearest brother the French king. Who told him that the French agent was very desirous to speak with him, as soon as might be after his arrival at London, for matters greatly concerning the said Sir Walter's weal and safety; as in effect it fell out, that the very next night after his arrival at London, the said Le Clerc and La Chesnay came unto him to his house, and there did the said Le Clerc offer unto him a French bark, which he had prepared for him to escape in, and with all his letters recommendatory for his safe conduct and reception to the governor of Calais, and to send a gentleman expressly that should attend and meet him there. To which offer of his, Ralegh, after some questions passed, finding the French bark not to be so ready nor so fit as that him. self had formerly provided, gave him thanks, and told him that he would make use of his own bark, but for his letters and the rest of his offer, he should be beholden to him, because his acquaintance in France was worn out. So passionately bent was

he

upon his escape, as that he did not forbear to trust his life, and to communicate a secret importing him so near, upon his first acquaintance, and unto a stranger, whom he hath since confessed that he never saw before. And thus after two nights stay, the third night he made an actual attempt to escape, and was in boat toward his ship, but was by Stukely arrested, brought back, and delivered into the custody of the lieutenant of the Tower.

For these his great and heinous offences, in acts of hostility upon his Majesty's confederates, depredations, and abuses, as well of his commission, as of his Majesty's subjects under his charge, impostures, attempts of escape, declining his Majesty's justice, and the rest, evidently proved or confessed by himself, he had made himself utterly unworthy of his Majesty's farther mercy; and because he could not by law be judicially called in question, for that his former attainder of treason is the highest and last work of the law (whereby he was civiliter mortuus), his Majesty was inforced (except attainders should

become privileges for all subsequent offences) to resolve to have him executed upon his former attainder.

His Majesty's just and honourable proceedings being thus made manifest to all his good subjects by this preceding Declaration, not founded upon conjectures or likelihoods, but either upon confession of the party himself or upon the examination of divers unsuspected witnesses, he leaves it to the world to judge, how he could either have satisfied his own justice, (his honourable intentions having been so perverted and abused by the said Sir Walter Ralegh) or yet make the uprightness of the same his intentions appear to his dearest brother the king of Spain, if he had not by a legal punishment of the offender, given an example, as well of terror to all his other subjects, not to abuse his gracious meanings, in taking the contrary courses for the attaining to their own unlawful ends, as also of demonstration to all other foreign princes and states, whereby they might rest assured of his Majesty's honourable proceeding with them, when any the like case shall occur. By which means his Majesty may the more assuredly expect and claim an honourable concurrence, and a reciprocal correspondence from them, upon any the like occasion. But as to Sir Walter Ralegh's confession at his death, what he confessed or denied touching any the points of this Declaration, his Majesty leaves him and his conscience therein to God, as was said in the beginning of this discourse. For sovereign princes cannot make a true judgment upon the bare speeches or asseverations of a delinquent at the time of his death, but their judgment must be founded upon examinations, re-examinations, and confrontments, and such-like real proofs, as all this former discourse is made-up and built upon; all the material and most important of the said examinations being taken under the hands of the examinates that could write, and that in the presence of no fewer than six of his Majesty's privy-council, and attested by their alike several subscriptions under their hands, which were my lords, the archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Ver

rulam, lord-chancellor of England, the earl of Worcester, lord privy-seal, Mr. Secretary Naunton, the master of the rolls, and Sir Edward Coke.'

No. XXII.

AN EXAMINATION OF MR. DAVID HUME'S ARGUMENTS AGAINST SIR WALTER RALEGH, IN NOTE I, VOL. VI, P. 555, OF HIS HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

(N. B. Mr. HUME's words are distinguished by the Italic character.)

more natural to think

1. There seems to be an improbability that the Spaniards, who knew nothing of Ralegh's pretended mine, should have built a town in so wide a coast, within three miles of it. The chances are extremely against such a supposition, and it is that the view of plundering the town led him thither, than that of working a mine.-Had Mr. Hume examined more minutely than he appears to have done, the papers relative to Sir Walter's three first voyages to Guiana, presented to the reader in this work, he would have found that the Spaniards were not unacquainted with the knight's motions in that quarter. Their building the town where they did built it, is an argument that they thought mines existed there, and strongly favours the veracity of Keymis, as to the mine in question. Had Ralegh, under the circumstances in which he stood in this country, sold his all for a voyage to plunder the town, as Mr. Hume adds, would not the mere idea have indicated insanity, not to mention the cheat practised upon his family and coadventurers?

11. No such mine is there found to this day. This assertion surely required the support of some authority. Dr. Campbell on the contrary informs us, that Coreal, one of the best Spanish travellers, confirms Sir Walter's account of the riches of Guiana; and that various mines were marked in that country, of which the Spaniards were suspiciously careful. (See LIVES of the ADMIRALS, 8", 1781, I, 522, note 1.)

111. Ralegh in fact found no mine, and in fact he plundered and burned a Spanish town. Is it not more probable, therefore, that the latter was his intention? How can the secrets of his breast be rendered so visible, as to counterpoise certain facts?—That no mine was found, and that a Spanish town was burned, were, if there be any truth in the preceding documents, the actions of Key. mis, not the commands of Ralegh. The probability that the latter was the knight's intention, is already examined under the first argument; and as for the secrets of his breast, Sir Walter's words, at his death, are the best testimony which we could have had of them.

Iv. He confesses, in his letter to "Lord Carew, that though he knew it, yet be concealed from the king the settlement of the Spaniards on that coast; does not this fact alone render him sufficiently criminal? -In chap. VIII, the reader has Sir Walter's Address to Lord Carew at length, and can therefore refer to the knight's arguments.

v. His commission empowers him only to settle on a coast possessed by savage and barbarous inhabitants; was it not the most evident breach of orders to disembark on a coast possessed by Spaniards?The coast was not possessed by Spaniards, although they had settlements in the country. Ralegh maintained that the claims of the English to it were at least equally just; and perhaps a less weak prince than James would have supported him, to the glory of his country. The words of the commission were only in the usual form, viz. Unto the south parts of America, or elsewhere within America, possessed and

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