parted. We shall leave it, we say, to the patronage of those lovers of wholesale panegyric, for whose stomachs nothing is too gross; who drain the cup of flattery, dregs and all; and to the cool contempt (for it is unworthy to excite so strong a feeling as disgust) of every man of sense and principle in the kingdom, unfortunate enough to be induced by any mo tive to read the Public Characters.'

ART. X.-The Life of Sir Walter Ralegh, Knight. By Arthur Cayley, junior, Esq. 2 vols. quarto. 1l. 16s. Boards. Cadell and Davies. 1805.

THOSE who have heard of the mill erected at Camberwell by the ingenious Mr. Neckinger, for the reproduction of paper, will perhaps find themselves enabled to contemplate with more composure the alarming and inordinate consumption of that perishable article, occasioned by the present universal demand for information. But let sanguine credulity beware of expecting unqualified good from the most promising and alluring projects. If, on the one hand, by this contrivance many a ream may be redeemed from destruction, and cleansed from impurity; it must, on the other hand, be recollected, that the scheme may furnish a most dangerous encouragement to the manufacture of books, already too daring and extensive. If the Roman satirist exclaimed, Stulta est clementia, perituræ parcere chartæ,' what remorse shall restrain the most lavish and wanton sacrifices of this commodity in future, when the modesty and the conscience of our literary artisans shall be appeased by the reflection that their most unsuccessful labours will not condemn their sheets to hopeless dissolution; but that a process is at hand which shall restore them to existence, and to the chance of becoming the instruments of more happy and useful endeavours 2 We are disposed to believe that the diffidence of the author of this publication must have been subdued by some reflections of this nature.

If imagination may trace the noble dust of Alexander, till it be found stopping a bung-hole,' it may also be permitted, without incurring the charge of considering the matter too curiously,' to follow a changeable ream of mortal paper through all the 'varieties of untried being' to which this valuable invention might introduce it; and to consider the many directly opposite services into which it might be pressed in the course of its transmigrations. Those leaves which infected one generation with the poison of sedition and infidelity, might heal and purify the next with the balm of loyalty and religion and those which in one age diffused the opiate

influence of gentle dulness from many a column of soporific commentary, might enliven another with the graces of wit, or the attractions of eloquence. What waggon-loads of plain good sense and unsophisticated feeling might we not hope from the resurrection of the myriads of volumes which are annually sacrificed at the altar of sickly sentiment in Leadenhall-street! And what stores of liberal and temperate discussion might not be expected in another state of existence from those monumental tomes of controversy and polemics, which now repose in venerable silence, in our repositories of learning. If we might reasonably entertain the pleasing hypothesis that the materials exposed to the Neckingeric chemistry should be destined to repair in one period the offences committed in a former, we should hope that those elements which have been doomed to walk the earth in the shape of the Rights of Man, or Political Justice, may hereafter be exalted in the scale of literary existence, and be made the instruments of teaching the purest doctrines of moral and political wisdom and we should gladly admit the consolatory belief that the volumes before us may at no very distant point of time, and in some new state of being, be appointed to exhibit a just specimen of entertaining and instructive biography.

But alas! our duty calls us from the contemplation of the visionary perfections which these pages may, in another form, be destined to present to our posterity, and compels us to inform the public of the purposes to which Mr. Cayley has now applied them. And truly they have much to hope for in a state of regeneration, and may reasonably expect to be amply indemnified for having been made the instruments of an experi ment in the mystery of making books, as adventurous as ever we recollect to have witnessed. An age which has seen the biography of Geoffrey Chaucer stretched by the Procrustic machinery of Mr. Godwin to the length of two prodigious quartoes, will perhaps regard without alarm the life of Ralegh spread over a publication whose dimensions are comparatively moderate. But in times less accustomed to the artifices of compilation, it would be naturally inquired why an authentic narrative of all that can interest curiosity in the story of the worthy knight might not be conveniently compressed within the limits of a modest pamphlet ; and how an author who introduces himself to the public with humble professions of modesty, could provide himself with courage to transcribe and stitch together the materials for a life of sir W. Ralegh, and send the crude congeries into the world under the name of biography. Of the 648 pages which compose the present work, scarcely 100, on the most liberal calculation, will be found to belong to him who styles himself the writer. The

rest of the bulk is filled up by prodigal transcription of authorities and letters, and documents of every description: forming together a heavy mass of cumbrous knowledge, tedious from its minuteness, and unnecessary because most of the sources from whence it is collected are of no very difficult access. Mr. Cayley's amiable diffidence in his own powers, is indeed visible in every page; it scarcely permits him to trust himself with the composition of ten lines together; and it is not uncommon to find a single paragraph adorned with the motley contributions of almost as many authors as it contains sentences. Of this a curious instance may be seen in the first volume, page 275.

Of this method it is immediately perceived that it loses in beauty and attraction more than it gains in authenticity; and that therefore it is likely to leave unaccomplished the only purposes for which authenticity is valuable; for of what use is the fidelity of that information which no one is tempted to acquire? From a writer of biography or history is expected a narrative luminously arranged, enriched with just remark, and enlivened with judicious illustration. The alchemy of his mind must extract the spirit and the essence from the mass of his materials, and reject the grosser parts. We turn away disgusted and frightened from a mouldering pile of documents and records; and instead of feeling gratitude for the light of genuine and original intelligence, are angry with our conductor for blinding us with the dust of archives, libraries, and mu

seums.

The book commences with two pages of learning on the name and family of sir Walter, which we may dismiss without further notice, as the author informs us that the enquiry only tends to convince us of the difficulty of reconciling the several opinions.' We then learn that the subject of these memoirs was the younger son of sir Walter Ralegh, of Fardel in the parish of Cornwood near Plymouth, by his third wife Catharine, daughter of sir Philip Champernon, of Modbury, and relict of Otho Gilbert, esq. of Compton in Devonshire: that he was born at Hayes in the parish of Budley in 1552; a year on which the following important observation is gravely transcribed into the text from a manuscript quoted by Oldys, for the gratification of those who are always on the watch for a

wonder:

This year was remarkable, first for a strange shoal of fish which wandered up the Thames so high, till the river no longer retained any brackishness; and secondly, for that it was stained with the blood of the noble Seymer duke of Somerset ; events sur prisingly analogous both to the life of this adventurous voyager, sir Walter Ralegh, whose delight was in the hazardous discovery of unfrequented coasts; and also to his unfortunate death'!!! p. 5.

We are next informed that he was educated at Oxford, and that he did not study the law; that he served with reputation in France, and after six years of activity and enterprize returned to England in 1575. About this time a poem was published by sir Walter Rawely of the Middle Temple, prefixed to a satire entitled the Steel Glass, by G. Gascoigne, esq. which gives Mr. Cayley an inestimable opportunity to display the subtlety of his talents for inference. The arguments which lead him to think it probable that Ralegh was the author of these lines, notwithstanding the suspicious orthography of the name, seem to stand thus :-Gascoigne was acquainted with lord Grey, under whom Ralegh served in Ireland; moreover Gascoigne, like Ralegh, had led a life of foreign travel and military service, and assumed the same motto which was used by Ralegh on his arms: it is therefore likely that Ralegh was the author of lines prefixed to a satire written by Gascoigne. Q. E. D. (P. 10, 11.) His expedition to the Netherlands under sir John Norris, his unsuccessful embarkation for America with his unfortunate kinsman sir Humphry Gilbert, and his services in Ireland, occupy the remainder of the first chapter.

Of Ralegh's introduction at court our information is imperfect. The old story, however, of his spreading his plush mantle in the mire to make a carpet for queen Elizabeth, is here repeated. It appears that soon after this he enjoyed much of her majesty's confidence and favour. But the life of a courtier was insupportable to his active spirit: accordingly in the year 1584, the thirty-second of his age, he obtained a patent for discoveries, under the conviction that a large tract of valuable territory was to be found to the north of the gulph of Florida. And here either the modesty or the indolence of Mr. Cayley begins to operate very powerfully. Impressed with the importance of such a subject as the discovery of Virginia, he shrinks from the task of relating it, and hopes that he shall not trespass too much on the patience of his readers by transcribing the narrative of every navigator employed in that service by Ralegh. Accordingly Hackluyt's Collection of Voyages is put in immediate requisition, and the seventy pages which follow are almost entirely occupied with a literal insertion of the journals and log-books which that celebrated naval historian has preserved of the four first voyages to Virginia. Room however is allowed for the intelligence that during the period of these expeditions Ralegh was chosen to represent the county of Devonshire in parliament, and before the year 1585 was knighted; that in 1586 he was appointed seneschal of Cornwall and Exeter, and lord warden of the stannaries; and in 1587 promoted to the distinguished posts of captain of the guard to her majesty, and lieutenant-general of the county

of Cornwall. In the latter office he displayed the most vigor, ous activity and patriotic disinterestedness during the alarm of the armada, and is named among many of the most distinguished men of those times who augmented the naval force of their country by ships equipped and manned at their own expence.

The discovery of Virginia, and the distresses of the infant colony, had cost Ralegh 40,000l.,-an expenditure which his own patrimony, augmented as it was by the bounty of the crown, could not enable him to support without serious inconvenience, and which soon warned him of the folly of continuing sole proprietor of a new-born settlement. Accordingly in the year 1589 he assigned over to a company of gentlemen and merchants of London the right of continuing the plantation, reserving to himself a fifth part of all the gold and silver ore. If another edition of this work should be called for, we should be thankful for some explanation of Mr. Cayley's reasons for thinking that the difficulties the company had to struggle with, prove the faultless conduct of the original proprietor.' Vol. I. P. 107.

Soon after this period it seems that the favour of Elizabeth was withdrawn from Ralegh, and transferred to Essex the new favourite, who had soon influence enough to chase every rival from the court. Of the immediate cause of her majesty's displeasure our information is obscure and imperfect; and we can only learn that he was obliged, during its continuance, to retire to Ireland. He there visited the poet Spenser, and encouraged him to proceed with the Fairy Queen,' the first three books of which were committed to the press under his patronage. But we hasten to that period of his life in which he suffered still more severely from the royal indignation, in consequence of an amour with the lady whom he afterwards married, the beautiful Elizabeth, daughter of the celebrated statesman and ambassador sir Nicholas Trockmorton, and one of the maids of honour to the queen; an intrigue with which her majesty was so highly displeased that she committed both parties to the Tower. If we may believe the following singularly curious and entertaining epistle from sir Arthur Gorges to sir Robert Cecil, and written most probably during his confinement, his banishment from the presence of the queen. was the severest part of his punishment.

Honourable Sir!-I cannot chuse but advertise you of a strange tragedy that this day had like to have fallen out between the captain of the guard and the lieutenant of the ordnance, if I had not by great chance come at the very instant to have turned it into a comedy. For upon the report of her majesty's being at sir George Carye's, sir W. Ralegh having gazed and sighed a long time at