carried with me to sea 16,000 pieces, and that all the voyage I intended was only to get money into my hands. As I shall answer it before God, I had not at the time I went, in all the world, in my own hands, or in the hands of others to my use, either directly or indirectly, above a 1001; and of this I gave my wife 251 when I departed. This accusation came, as I afterwards perceived, by looking over the Scrivener's books, where the bills of adventure were found, amounting to a great sum, and so that false report was raised.

'I will now only borrow a little time of Mr Sheriff to speak of one thing not appertaining to this matter, but which doth make my heart to bleed to hear that such an imputation should be laid upon me; for it is said that I was a prosecutor of the death of the Earl of Essex, and that I stood in a window over against him when he suffered in the Tower, and puffed out tobacco in disdain of him. I take God to witness that I had no hand in his blood, and was none of those that procured his death. * I shed tears for him

* A letter from Raleigh to Cecil, published in Murdin's State Papers, p. 811, has been generally supposed to fix upon Raleigh's character the disgrace of having urged the execution of the Earl of Essex. The letter is without a date, except that it is indorsed Sir Walter Raleigh, 1601.' This indorsement was probably made sometime after the letter was written, and must necessarily be a mistake; for as Essex was executed on the 25th of February 1600-1, no English writer at that time could have given the date of 1601 to a letter obviously written in the life-time of Essex. There is nothing, therefore, to fix the date of the letter with certainty; nor is there anything in its contents inconsistent with the supposition that it was written before the trial of Essex, and during his imprisonment and exclusion from Court on his return from Ireland. Some of the expressions in the letter may refer to the Earl's execution;. but not necessarily so; and others expressly refer to the restraint of his liberty, and the continuance of his disgrace. Upon the whole, we think it very doubtful whether the letter is not to be referred to an earlier period than that which is usually ascribed to it; and therefore that it furnishes no proof that Raleigh urged the execution of the Earl of Essex.

when he died; and, as I hope to look God in the face hereafter, my Lord of Essex did not see my face when he suffered; for I was afar off, in the Armoury, where I saw him, but he saw not me. I was heartily sorry for him, though I confess I was of a contrary faction, and helped to pluck him down ; but in respect of his worth I loved him, and I knew that it would be worse with me, when he was gone; for I got the hate of those that wished me well before; and those that set me against him afterwards set themselves against me, and were my greatest enemies. My soul hath many times since been grieved that I was not nearer to him when he died; because, as I understood afterwards, he asked for me at his death, to have been reconciled unto me. These are the material points which I thought good to speak of; I am now at this instant to render up my account to God; and I protest, as I shall appear before Him, this that I have spoken is true; I hope I shall be believed.'

Then the Dean of Westminster asked him in what faith or religion he meant to die; he said, 'in the faith professed by the Church of England, and that he hoped to be saved and to have his sins washed away by the precious blood and merits of our Saviour Christ. Then, before he should say his prayers, because the morning was sharp, the Sheriff offered him to bring him down off the scaffold to warm him by a fire. No, good Mr Sheriff,' said he, 'let us despatch, for within this quarter of an hour mine ague will come upon me, and, if I be not dead before then, mine enemies will say that I quake for fear.' So he made a most divine and admirable prayer, and then rose up and clasped his hands, saying, 'Now I am going to God.'

Then a proclamation being made that all men should depart the scaffold, he prepared himself for

death, giving away his hat, his cap, with some money, to such as he knew that stood near him. And then taking his leave of the Lords, Knights, Gentlemen, and others of his acquaintance, and amongst the rest taking his leave of my Lord of Arundel, he thanked him for his company, and entreated him to desire the King that no scandalous writing, to defame him, might be published after his death; saying further unto him, 'I will now take my leave; for I have a long journey to go, and an assured hope to be quickly there.' And then, putting off his doublet and gown, desired the executioner to show him the axe; which not being suddenly granted unto him, he said, 'I prithee let me see it; dost thou think that I am afraid of it?' So it being given unto him, he poised it in his hand, and felt along upon the edge of it with his thumb, to see if it was keen; and smiling, spake unto Mr Sheriff, saying, This is a sharp medicine, but it will cure all diseases.' And then he kneeled down to prayer, and entreated the people to pray for him. After that, he called for the executioner, who, kneeling down and asking his forgiveness, he laid both his hands upon his shoulders, and said he heartily forgave him. And there being some dispute that his face should be towards the east, he made answer and said, 'So the heart be straight, it is no matter which way the head lieth.' As he was laying his head on the block, the executioner would have blindfolded him; upon which he rebuked him, saying, 'Think you I fear the shadow of the axe, when I fear not the axe itself?' He gave the headsman a sign when he should strike, by lifting up his hands; and the executioner struck off his head at two blows, his body never shrinking nor moving. His head was showed on each side of the scaffold, and then put into a red leather bag, and his wrought velvet gown thrown over it, which was afterwards conveyed away 43*

VOL. XVI.

in a mourning coach of his Lady's. The body was interred in the chancel, near the altar, of St Margaret, Westminster.

The Dean of Westminster, Dr Tounson, who was commanded by the Lords of the Council to be with him both in prison and at his death, says *he was the most fearless of death that ever was known, and the most resolute and confident, yet with reverence and conscience. When I began to encourage him against the fear of death, he made so light of it that I wondered at him. And when I told him that the dear servants of God, in better causes than his, had shrunk back and trembled a little, he denied not, but yet gave God thanks he never feared death, and much less then for it was but an opinion and imagination; and the manner of death, though to others it might seem grievous, yet he had rather die so than of a burning fever. He said that he was persuaded that no man that knew God and feared him, could die with cheerfulness and courage, except he were assured of the love and favour of God unto him; that other men might make shows outwardly, but they felt no joy within; with much more to that effect very Christianly; so that he satisfied me then, as I think he did all his spectators at his death. After he had received the Communion in the morning, he was very cheerful and merry, and hoped to persuade all the world that he died an innocent man, as he said. I put him in mind of the death of my Lord of Essex, how it was generally reported that he was a great instrument of his death; to which he made answer as is in the former relation, and said moreover, that my Lord of Essex was fetched off by a trick, which he privately told me of. He was very cheerful the morning he died, eat his breakfast heartily, and took tobacco, and made no more of death than if he had been to take a journey; and he

* Cayley's Life of Raleigh,' vol, ji, p. 177.

left a great impression on the minds of those that beheld him.'

Every man,' says the writer of the letter containing an account of the execution above alluded to, 'who saw Sir Walter Raleigh die, said it was impossible for any man to show more decorum, courage, or piety; and that his death would do more hurt to the faction that sought it than ever his life could have done.'

REMARKS.

The conduct of the Judges on the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh at Winchester has been warmly censured by his numerous biographers, and by most modern historians who have related the transaction: and, undoubtedly, the injustice of the course of evidence and of the conviction is so flagrant, that unprofessional writers and readers are naturally led into the belief, that the whole proceedings must have been, even at that time, grossly contrary to law. Unfortunately, and in spite of the general assertion of lawyers to the contrary, the rules of law are not, even in the present improved state of society, always founded upon the principles of reason and justice; still less were they so in the reign of James I. It would be out of place here to examine at large the circumstances of this case, for the purpose of vindicating the character of Chief Justice Popham, and the other Judges who formed part of the Special Commission; they were, however, much more respectable as men, and much more justly eminent as lawyers, than most of their successors in the reign of Charles II. But it is absolutely necessary, in order to obtain correct views of the history of English jurisprudence, that we should carefully distinguish between a failure of justice caused by the personal misconduct of judges and their wilful perversion of