Mr. Attorney would not have this letter read, saying that it was unfairly obtained from Lord Cobham; and upon Lord Cecil's advising to hear it, he said, "My Lord Cecil, mar not a good cause."

Lord Cecil. Mr. Attorney, you are more peremptory than honest; you must not come here to show me what to do.

Sir Walter Raleigh. I pray my Lord Cecil particularly to read the letter, as he knoweth my Lord Cobham's hand. Then was read the Letter of the Lord Cobham to Sir W. Raleigh, to this effect:

Now that the arraignment draws near, not knowing 'which should be first, I or you, to clear my conscience, satisfy the world with truth, and free myself from the cry of blood, I protest upon my soul and before God ' and his angels, I never had conference with you in any treason, nor was ever moved by you to the things I 'heretofore accused you of; and for any thing I know, you are as innocent and as clear from any treasons against the King as is any subject living. Therefore I wash my hands, and pronounce with Daniel, Purus sum 'à sanguine hujus; and God so deal with me and have 'mercy on my soul, as this is true!'

Sir Walter Raleigh. Now, my Masters of the jury, you may observe that which was showed against me was but a voluntary confession; whereas this is made under oath, and the deepest protestations a Christian can make. Therefore believe which of these hath most force. As to that which is said of the 1500%. a-year pension for intelligence, I cannot deny the offer, but it was never my purpose to accept it; it was my fault I did conceal it, and this fault of concealing I acknowledge; but for attempting or conspiring any treason against the King or the State, I still deny it to the death, and it can never be proved against me.

Here my Lord Chief Justice desired my Lord Cecil and my Lord of Northampton to satisfy the jury that there was no condition of favour promised or offered to the Lord Cobham for writing his last letter to the Lords; which they both did protest to their knowledge.

Sir Walter Raleigh. Nay, my Lords, I dare say your Lordships would not offer it; but my Lord Cobham

received a letter from his wife*, that there was no way to save his life but to accuse me.

The acknowledging of this 15007. a-year pension made the rest of the Lord Cobham's accusation the better credited. This ended, the jury were willed to go together; who departed, and stayed not a quarter of an hour, when they returned, bringing in their verdict of Guilty of Treason .

The King's Serjeant calling for judgment, and Sir W. Raleigh being asked what he could say why judgment should not be given against him, said, "I can say nothing in stay of judgment; for I know well, the jury having found me guilty, the law must now pronounce sentence against me. But I desire my Lords to favour me so far as to repeat to the King my protestation against these three accusations of the Lord Cobham; I never was privy to his practices with Spain, nor to the surprising' treason, nor to the conferences with Count Aremberg. True it is I was offered that sum of 1500l. a-year for intelligence, but embraced it not; my only fault was that I disclosed it not. If the King's mercy be greater than my offence, I shall take it thankfully; if otherwise, I must be contented; and if I die, I recommend my poor wife and child of tender years to his Majesty's compas

*In the State-Paper Office there is a letter from Lord Cobham to his wife, (who was called Lady Kildare, having been previously married to the Earl of Kildare,) requesting her to make interest on his behalf with her father, Lord Nottingham, and also with the Attorney-General. In her answer, she says, "God must help us, and I will be true to you; but help yourself if it may be; I say no more, but draw not the weight of others' burdens."

It is stated in the "Observations on the History of Mary Queen of Scots and James I.," that when the jury brought in their verdict, the Attorney-General was walking in the garden behind the castle. A messenger from the Court brought him the intelligence that the jury had brought in Sir Walter Raleigh guilty of high treason; upon which the Attorney-General said, "Surely thou art mistaken; I myself accused him but of misprision of treason." This story, though the author asserts, " upon the word of a Christian, that he received from Coke's own mouth," seems highly improbable. Osborne, however, says, that "some of the jury were afterwards so touched in conscience as to demand of Raleigh pardon on their knees."-Memoirs of James I., vol. ii. p. 118. 2 Q3

sion; but if of the King's grace I may live, I shall serve him and pray for him during my life.”

Popham, C. J. Sir W. Raleigh, I am sorry to see this fallen upon you this day: you have always been taken for a wise man, and I cannot but marvel to see that a man of your wit, as this day you have approved it, could be entangled with so many treasons; and sure had you remembered what you were, or in the time of good fortune contented yourself in your own rank, you could not thus have fallen. You were a man fit and able to have done the King good service; God had bestowed on you many benefits, but no mean was pleasing to you. You had not learned that saying of the greatest and wisest Counsellor of our time in England: “ In medio spatio mediocria firma locantur;" but trying the wheel of fortune, as you were lifted up by it, so were you cast down; and being overturned, could not again take hold on the place whence you were cast. And it may well be sought what causes should lead you to these attempts; it could not be reasonable discontentments, for there was no cause given; yourself being judge, it ought not to grieve you that the King placed another over the guards, since he did so with good reason, in order to have one whom he knew and might trust in that place, and who had held the same place elsewhere about him; and as to the taking away of your licences for wines from you, why should the King burthen the people for your private good? I think you could not well take it hardly that his subjects were eased, though by your private hindrance. But, in good truth, two vices chiefly led you along: the one was eager ambition, the other corrupt covetousness. Your ambition was to be advanced at once to that grace and favour which you held beforetime, but which you did not gain in a day or a year; for your covetousness, I grieve to find that a man of your quality would have sold yourself for a spy to the enemy of your country for 1500l. a-year; this were a bad and a base practice in any one, but in you who needed it not, having abundance of all things, it were the vilest action in the world. You have been taxed by the world, Sir Walter Raleigh, with holding heathenish, blasphemous, atheistical, and profane opinions, which I list not to repeat, because Christian ears cannot endure

to hear them; but the authors and maintainers of such opinions cannot be suffered to live in any Christian commonwealth. If these opinions be not yours, you shall do well, before you leave the world, to protest against them, and not to die with these imputations upon you; but if you do hold such opinions, then I beseech you renounce them, and ask God forgiveness for them as you hope for another life; and let not Heriott, nor any such Doctor, persuade you there is no eternity in Heaven, lest you find an eternity of hell-torments! One thing stands confessed against you, which is, that you persuaded Lord Cobham against all confession to a preacher; and in doing this, you reproved the example of my Lord of Essex,-that noble Earl, who, had he not been entangled by some in his closet, had no doubt submitted himself to the Queen, and lived. He confessed his offences, and obtained mercy of the Lord; for I am verily persuaded he died a good Christian, and the child of God. Your conceit of not confessing is most irreligious and wicked; for in this world is the time of confessing, that we may be absolved at the day of judgment. You have shown a fearful sign of denying God, by advising a man not to confess the truth. I only add one thing for the honour of the common law. By this day's experience, it may be seen upon what great reasons it is grounded that the party accusing himself is not to be produced and confronted with the party whom he accuseth. It is dangerous that traitors should have access to, or conference with one another; for a man is easily brought to retract when he seeth there is no hope of his own life; and when they see themselves must die, they will think it best to have their fellow live, that he may commit the like treason again, and so in some sort seek revenge. If in this case, my Lord Cobham had been called, then might these treasons have yet been concealed; at least obscured by several retractations. It now only remaineth to pronounce the judgment, which I would to God you had not to receive this day of me; for if the fear of God in you had corresponded to your other great parts, you might have lived to be a singular good subject to his Majesty.

The Lord Chief Justice then delivered the judgment of the Court in the usual form in cases of high treason.

Sir W. Raleigh after this used no words to the Court openly, but desired to be admitted to come and speak with the Earl of Suffolk, the Earl of Devonshire, the Lord Henry Howard, and my Lord Cecil, which was allowed, and he presently came up to them; but all he said was to desire them to make report to the King of his Protestations against the three principal things the Lord Cobham accused him of; and also to beg their Lordships to be suitors in his behalf to his Majesty, that, in regard of the places of honour which he had theretofore held, the rigour of his sentence might be qualified, and his death be honourable and not ignominious. The Lords promised to do their utmost endeavours for him; and then the Court rose, and the Prisoner was carried up again to the Castle.

In the account of this trial, commonly supposed to be written by Sir Thomas Overbury, the following account is given of the conduct of Sir Edward Coke and of Raleigh:-" Some people thought Mr. Attorney full of impertinent phrases and compliments, and especially when he spake of the King, his issue, or the Lords; after he had said he would say nothing of them, then he would presently fall into gross and palpable adulation of them to their faces; all the assembly could have wished that he had not behaved himself so violently and bitterly, nor used so great provocation to the prisoner; as when he brake forth into these and the like speeches, "This horrible and detestable traitor;' This main traitor;'This instigator and seducer to treasons ;' 'You are an odious man;' 'See with what a whorish forehead he defends his faults!' 'O, abominable traitor!' And as the Attorney was noted, so was the carriage of Raleigh most remarkable; first to the Lords, humble yet not prostrate; dutiful yet not dejected; for in some cases he would humbly thank them for gracious speeches, in others, when they related some circumstances, acknowledged that what they said was true; and in such points wherein he