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mont and our Princess Elizabeth, afterward espoused by Frederic, elector-palatinę. On this occasion Sir Walter Ralegh wrote two excellent discourses, apparently by command of Prince Henry,' wherein he strongly opposes the proposal. He also dedicated to his highness some Observations on the Royal navy and Sea service; which appears thus early in his life to have been a favourite subject with that discerning prince, and on which he probably loved to converse and correspond with a person of the knight's experience. A letter which Sir Walter wrote him touching the model of a ship is still extant, and is printed in the appendix (N°. XVI) as a specimen of the ideas of that day on the art of shipbuilding. The following letter from Ralegh to the prince, on a more popular subject, is inserted in this place upon the authority of Sir Richard Steele, who has left us in the dark as to the occasion on which it was written, remarking only that it makes the prince aware of the weakness to which he was most addicted, at the same time that it applauds the good. part of his disposition.

SIR WALTER RALEGH 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

* See them in Dr. Birch's Works of Ralegh, i, 249, 265. y See the beginning of the Discourse touching a match between the Princess Elizabeth and the prince of Piedmont. Z See them in Dr. Birch's Works of Ralegh, ii, 91. VOL. II.

D

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 freeagents, 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 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 men. 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. I am, Sir,

Your highnesses' most faithful servant,

Prince Henry, it appears, had for some time warmly solicited the Sherborne estate of his father, as if for himself; but with no other intention than that of restoring it to him whom he esteemed its just owner. His royal highness at last prevailed, and the king is said to have given Car £25,000 as a recompence. The prince's death, however, very 1612. shortly afterward, on the 6th of November 1612, prevented the accomplishment of his noble design, and Sherborne was restored to Car."

The following anecdote relative to the prince's last illness, is inserted here on the authority, and in the words of Dr. Welwood.

He (Ralegh) had, during his imprisonment, made

mo

a See Steele's Englishman, a sequel to the Guardian 12m, 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.

See Appendix, N°. XIII.

applications to Prince Henry, who contracted a particular esteem for him, kept a constant correspondence with him by letters and messages, and had again and again solicited the king for his liberty. When the prince fell into his last illness, the queen sent to Sir Walter Ralegh for some of his cordial, which she herself had taken in a fever some time before with remarkable success. Kalg sent it, together with a letter to the queen, where he express d a tender concern for the prince ; and, boasting of his medicine, stumb ed un'uckily upon an expression to this purpose, that it would certainly cure him, or any other, of a fever, except in case of poison. The prince dying, though he took it, the queen, in the agony of her grief, shewed Ralegh's letter, and laid so much weight on the expression about poison, that to her dying day she could never be dissuaded from the opinion, that her beloved son had had foul play done him.

Thus, in the 19th year of his age, were the fond

с See Dr. Welwood's Notes on Wilson's Hist. of King James, in the Complete History of England, fol. 1719, II. 714. Dr. Birch, in his Life of Prince Henry, informs us that it was the subject of some deliberation, whether Ralegh's medicine should be administered--but that after having been tasted and proved, it was, with the leave and advice of the lords of the council there present, given to the prince. Like the former medicines, however, it was' vain, except that, forcing the spark of life still remaining, it threw him into a perspiration, (p. 357.) It is ridiculous enough, that whatever medicine has been prescribed by Sir Walter, has always been called his cordial.