To Prince Henry.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HIGHNESS,

THE following sheets are addressed to your highness, from a man who values his liberty and a very small fortune, in a remote part of this island, under the present constitution, above all the riches and honours that he could anywhere enjoy under any other establishment. You see, sir, the doctrines that are lately come into the world, and how far the phrase has obtained of calling your royal father God's vicegerent; which ill men have turned both to the dishonour of God, and the impeachment of his majesty's goodness. They adjoin the vicegerency to the idea of being all-powerful, and not to that of being all-good. His majesty's wisdom, it is to be hoped, will save him from the snare that may lie under gross adulations; but your youth, and the thirst of praise which I have observed in you, may possibly mislead you to hearken to these charmers, who would conduct your noble nature into tyranny. Be careful, O my prince, hear them not, fly from their deceits! You are in the succession to a throne from whence no evil can be imputed to you, but all good must be conveyed by you. Your father is called the vicegerent of Heaven. While he is good he is the vicegerent of Heaven. Shall man have authority from the fountain of good to do evil? No, my prince, let mean and degenerate spirits, which want benevolence, suppose their power impaired by a disability of doing injuries. If want of power to do ill be an incapacity in a prince, with reverence be it spoken, it is an incapacity he has in common with the Deity.

Let me not doubt but all plans which do not carry in them the mutual happiness of prince and people, will appear as absurd to your great understanding, as disagreeable to your noble nature.

Exert yourself, O generous prince, against such sycophants, in the glorious cause of liberty; and assume an ambition worthy of you, to secure your fellow-creatures from slavery; from a condition as much below that of brutes, as

to act without reason is less miserable than to act against it! Preserve to your future subjects the divine right of being free-agents, and to your own royal house the divine right of being their benefactors. Believe me, my prince, there is no other right can flow from God. While your highness is forming yourself for a throne, consider the laws as so many common places in your study of the science of government. When you mean nothing but justice, they are an ease and help to you. This way of thinking is what gave men the glorious appellatives of deliverers and fathers of their country. This made the sight of them rouse their beholders into acclamations, and made mankind incapable of bearing their very appearance without applauding it as a benefit. Consider the inexpressible advantages which will ever attend your highness, while you make the power of rendering men happy the measure of your actions. While this is your impulse, how easily will that power be extended! The glance of your eye will give gladness, and your every sentence have the force of a bounty. Whatever some men would insinuate, you have lost your subject when you have lost his inclination; you are to preside over the minds, not the bodies of The soul is the essence of a man; and you cannot have the true man against his inclination. Choose therefore to be the king or the conqueror of your people; it may be submission, but it cannot be obedience, that is passive.

men.

London, August 12, 1611.

I am,
Sir,

Your Highness' most faithful servant,
WALTER RALEGH°.

• See Steele's Englishman, a sequel to the Guardian, 12mo. 1714. p. 9. I am not, however, so well convinced,

as sir Richard seems to have been, that this letter is justly ascribed to Ralegh. CAYLEY.

A

RELATION OF CADIZ ACTION,

IN THE YEAR 1596.

WRITTEN BY SIR WALTER RALEGH.

TRANSCRIBED FROM A MANUSCRIPT IN THE HANDS OF HIS
GRANDCHILD, MR. RALegh.

You shall receive many relations, but none more true than this. May it please your honour therefore to know, that on Sunday, being the 20th of June, the English fleet came to anchor in the bay of St. Sebastian, short of Cales half a league. My lord admiral, being careful of her majesty's ships, had resolved with the earl of Essex that the town should be first attempted; to the end that both the Spanish galleons and galleys, together with the forts of Cales, might not all at once beat upon our navy. Myself was not present at the resolution; for I was sent the day before toward the main, to stop such as might pass out from St. Lucar, or Cales, along the coast. When I was arrived back again, (which was two hours after the rest,) I found the earl of Essex disembarking his soldiers; and he had put many companies into boats, purposing to make his descent on the west side of Cales; but such was the greatness of the billows, by reason of a forcible southerly wind, as the boats were ready to sink at the stern of the earl; and indeed divers did so, and in them some of the armed men: but because it was formerly resolved, (and that to cast doubts would have been esteemed an effect of fear,) the earl purposed to go on, until such time as I came aboard him, and in the presence of all the colonels protested against the resolution; giving him reasons, and making apparent demonstrations that he thereby ran the way of our general ruin, to the utter overthrow of the whole armies,

their own lives, and her majesty's future safety. The earl excused himself, and laid it to the lord admiral, who, he said, would not consent to enter with the fleet till the town were first possessed. All the commanders and gentlemen present besought me to dissuade the attempt; for they all perceived the danger, and were resolved that the most part could not but perish in the sea, ere they came to set foot on ground; and if any arrived on shore, yet were they sure to have their boats cast on their heads; and that twenty men in so desperate a descent would have defeated them all. The earl hereupon prayed me to persuade my lord admiral, who, finding a certain destruction by the former resolution, was content to enter the port. When I brought news of this agreement to the earl, calling out of my boat unto him, Intramus, he cast his hat into the sea for joy, and prepared to weigh anchor.

The day was now far spent, and it required much time to return the boats of soldiers to their own ships; so as we could not that night attempt the fleet, although many (seeming desperately valiant) thought it a fault of mine to put it off till the morning; albeit we had neither agreed in what manner to fight, nor appointed who should lead, and who should second, whether by boarding or otherwise; neither could our fleet possibly recover all their men in before sunset: but both the generals being pleased to hear me, and many times to be advised by so mean an understanding, came again to an anchor in the very mouth of the harbour: so that night, about ten of the clock, I wrote a letter to the lord admiral, declaring therein my opinion how the fight should be ordered; persuading him to appoint to each of the great galleons of Spain two great fly-boats to board them, after such time as the queen's ships had battered them; for I knew that both the St. Philip and the rest would burn, and not yield; and then to lose so many of the queen's, for company, I thought it too dear a purchase, and it would be termed but a lamentable victory.

This being agreed on, and both the generals persuaded to lead the body of the fleet, the charge for the perform

ance thereof was (upon my humble suit) granted, and assigned unto me. The ships appointed to second me were these: the Mary Rose, commanded by sir George Carew; the Lion, by sir Robert Southwell; the Rainbow, by the marshal sir Francis Veare; the Swiftsure, by captain Cross; the Dreadnought, by sir Conyers, and Alexander Clifford ; the Nonparilla, by Mr. Dudley; the twelve ships of London, with certain fly-boats.

The lord Thomas Howard, because the Mere-Honour, which he commanded, was one of the greatest ships, was also left behind with the generals; but being impatient thereof, pressed the generals to have the service committed unto him, and left the Mere-Honour to Mr. Dudley, putting himself into the Nonparilla. For mine own part, as I was willing to give honour to my lord Thomas, having both precedency in the army, and being a nobleman whom I much honoured, so yet I was resolved to give and not take example for this service, holding mine own reputation dearest, and remembering my great duty to her majesty. With the first peep of day therefore, I weighed anchor, and bare with the Spanish fleet, taking the start of all ours a good distance.

Now, sir, may it please you to understand, that there were ranged under the wall of Cales, on which the sea beateth, seventeen galleys, which lay with their prows to flank our entrance, as we passed towards the galleons. There was also a fort called the Philip, which beat and commanded the harbour. There were also ordnance, which lay all along the curtain upon the wall towards the sea: there were also divers other pieces of culverin, which also scoured the channel. Notwithstanding, as soon as the St. Philip perceived one of the admirals under sail approaching, she also set sail, and with her the St. Matthew, the St. Thomas, the St. Andrew, the two great galleons of Lisbon, three frigates of war, accustomed to transport the treasure, two argosies, very strong in artillery, the admiral, vice-admiral, and rear-admiral of Nueva Espana, with forty other great ships bound for Mexico, and other places. Of all which,