Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

indirect. The trial of Ralegh, however, had one very extraordinary result at the time, and became by a strange accident the cause of a serious embarrassment long after, with which we shall be more particularly concerned; it may be well therefore to add a few words as to the position in which he was left.

Ralegh had passed his fiftieth year; had been a brilliant and conspicuous figure in various fields of enterprise from his youth; had never been conspicuously engaged in actions hostile or offensive to the people; had already performed all the deeds (his great literary work excepted) on which his fame rests; and yet he had never been popular; but the contrary. And since his popularity dates from the day on which he was put upon his trial and made his own defence; it is natural to suppose that the cause in which he spoke and suffered was not only good in law but gracious with the people. This however was by no means the case. He went to his trial a man so unpopular that he was hooted and pelted on the road; he came out an object of general pity and admiration, and has held his place ever since as one of England's favourite and representative heroes; and yet, if we except his gallant bearing and splendid abilities, (which were no new revelations,) there was nothing in his case which could have tended either to excite popular sympathy or command popular respect; nor has anything been discovered since that enables us to explain his connexion with the plot in a way at all favourable to his character. By his own showing he had been in intimate and confidential relations with a man whom nobody liked or respected, and who was secretly seeking help from the hated Spaniard in a plot to dispossess James in favour of the Lady Arabella. By his own admission he had at least listened to an offer of a large sum of money,―certainly Spanish, and therefore presumably in consideration of some service to be rendered to Spain. And though it is true that we do not know with what purposes he listened, how much he knew, how far he acquiesced, or what he intended to do, it is impossible to believe that his intentions (whether treasonable or not) were, or were then supposed to be, either popular or patriotic. He did not himself attempt to put any such colour upon his proceedings; declaring only that he did not know of the plot in which his confidential friends were engaged. His blindest advocates have not succeeded in doing it for him. And those who, though partial, have taken pains to examine and felt bound to respect the evidence, have scarcely succeeded even in believing him innocent. Among the students of his life in recent times there has been none more truly desirous to find heroic virtue in all his aims and actions than Mr. Macvey Napier: yet in

endeavouring to explain his connexion with Lord Cobham, as disclosed in the course of this trial, he is driven to suspect him of a design so far from heroic in itself that it is hard to understand how it could find place in a mind in which the heroic element predominated.

"Old Major Stansby of.... Hants," says Aubrey, "a most intimate friend and neighbour and coetanean of the late Earl of Southampton (Ld. Treas.) told me from his friend the Earl, that as to the plot and business about the Ld. Cobham, &c., he [Ralegh] being then governor of Jersey, would not fully or &c. [sic] unless they would go to his island; and that really and indeed Sir Walter's purpose was, when he had gotten them there, to have betrayed them and the plot, and so have delivered them up to the King, and made his peace."

To this report Mr. Napier refers us,2 after an elaborate discussion of the evidence, as containing the explanation of Ralegh's connexion with the plot which he seems inclined to accept as upon the whole most probable. And it must be admitted that of the difficulties which his case presents one at least would be removed by it. Had his case been clear, it is incredible to me that, with such a head, such a heart, and such a tongue, he would have left it so ambiguous that a worshipper of his memory is driven to a conjecture like this. But if the conjecture be true-if it be possible to suppose that he had been really inviting his friend's confidence with the intention of betraying it—that difficulty vanishes. Upon that supposition we may say that he purposely left the case dark, because he knew it would not bear the light: and if so, his handling of it so as to produce such a wonderful revolution of popular opinion in his own favour must surely be regarded as one of the most surprising feats of audacity and genius that the wit of man ever achieved.

I quote this however not as an explanation satisfactory to myself, but only as evidence that the case was and is still thought to require explanation for beyond this the report is of little or no value. It proves only that Ralegh's famous defence left people to wonder and guess how far and in what way he was really implicated; and that this was one of the guesses in circulation half a century after.

But though the question of his guilt or innocence remains doubtful, and the verdict of the Jury (who were better acquainted with the evidence than their outside critics, whose judgment was formed

3

1 Aubrey's Lives, iii. p. 516.

2 Edin. Rev., April, 1840, p. 63.

Napier's own version of Aubrey's story is, "that Ralegh's intention really was to inveigle Cobham to Jersey, and then, having got both him and his Spanish treasure in his power, to make terms with the King."

upon very imperfect reports-for no official statement was published) may for anything we know have been substantially just, the conduct of the trial cannot be defended. The unfair advantages insisted on by the Attorney General on behalf of the Crown, and allowed by the Judges, turned by a natural reaction to the great disadvantage of the Crown in the court of popular opinion, and left a blot in the tables which imperilled the whole game, and the effect of which was felt long afterwards-as we shall see in due time. For the present, Ralegh remained a prisoner in the Tower; respited, not pardoned; still under attainder for High Treason, and therefore, as the Law phrased it, "civilly dead"--a man who, being alive in fact, was still capable of committing new crimes and offences, but being dead in law, was not capable of being "drawn in question judicially "1 for any crime or offence he might afterwards commit :- -a man, in short, to whom Justice was thenceforward forbidden by Law.

In all this, Bacon, though no doubt an earnest and anxious observer, had no part as actor, adviser, or reporter. He came in for a share in the subsequent embarrassment, but was no way concerned in preparing the materials out of which it

grew.

Neither do I find that he had anything to do with the negotiations which ended not long after in the treaty of peace with Spain: a treaty of which the policy was and is disputed, but the consideration does not concern my subject.

2.

To this period however belongs one other paper of great importance, to which I have already had frequently to refer ;-a paper very interesting to me, as being one of those by which I was first attracted long ago to the study of Bacon's personal character and history, and which grows in interest as the case is better understood. The exact date of the composition I do not know; further than that the earliest printed copy bears 1604 on its title-page. If printed early in 1604, here is its proper place; and here at any rate it will come in most conveniently.

If the popular disapprobation excited at the time by Bacon's conduct towards the Earl of Essex was as great and as universal as it is usually assumed to have been by modern writers, it seems strange that proofs of the fact should not be more abundant. I believe however that the only contemporary witness who can be cited to

1 Draft, in Coke's hand, of a letter to the King concerning the form and manner of proceeding against Sir Walter Ralegh: Oct. 18, 1618. Lambeth MSS. Gib. Pap. viii. 21.

prove the existence of any disapprobation at all, is Bacon himself; and though his evidence proves conclusively that disapprobation had been expressed, the absence or silence of other witnesses proves almost as conclusively that it had not been expressed very generally or very loudly.

Now a

Such as it was, it had grown out of misinformation as to the part which he had really taken in the matter. For when Essex on his return from Ireland was committed to custody, those of his friends who, not knowing the circumstances, could not otherwise account for his loss of favour, naturally imputed it to the influence of some enemy at Court; and as the news ran that "all the Lords were in this matter his friends, for all spoke for him," while of Bacon it was only known that he was at that time frequently admitted to speech with the Queen, their suspicion not unnaturally fell upon him; and a suspicion in such cases soon becomes a rumour. rumour of this kind could not be satisfactorily met without the disclosure of confidential conversations in which others were concerned. It was allowed accordingly to prevail, and produced its natural effect. "Pity in the common people, if it run in a strong stream, doth ever cast up scandal and envy;"2 and the pity which ran so strongly in favour of Essex had cast up scandal and envy against Bacon. From the duty of bearing it in silence he was now by the death of the Queen partly released: he could now judge for himself what and how much he was at liberty to disclose of that which had passed between them. Whether any particular occasion impelled him to speak at this time-any revival of the calumny (such as James's supposed partiality for Essex and his open favour towards the surviving members of the party would naturally encourage), or some expression which may possibly have fallen from the Earl of Southampton upon his offer of congratulation-or whether it was merely that he wished to take the earliest opportunity of clearing himself from a painful and undeserved imputation-I cannot say for no record remains to shew what was said of him, or when, or by whom, except what may be collected from the terms of his answer. But the time was in one respect very convenient. For Lord Montjoy, who was cognisant of the whole case-those parts of it which could not yet be made public as well as the rest-was now in England and* in high reputation, newly created Earl of Devonshire and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He had been deeply involved in some of Essex's most secret intrigues,3 and had only escaped the consequences

1 Sydney Papers, ii. 156.

2 Hist. of Hen. VII. Works, VI. p. 203. 3 See Vol. II. pp. 167, 170. The fact that Montjoy had been implicated to an extent which he felt to be dangerous, is fully confirmed by Fynes Moryson's

through a bold connivance on the Queen's part; who wanted his service and felt that she could trust him, and made him understand that she meant to be ignorant of what had passed. No man could be less suspected of an inclination to judge Bacon's conduct too favourably. No man was so little likely to be deceived by a false story; nor was any man, on the other hand, so well qualified to understand the full meaning of the true story in those parts where the meaning could not yet be fully explained. To him, therefore, as to the best and fairest representative of the party by whom he was censured or suspected, Bacon now addressed a letter of explanation; which I leave to speak for itself; premising only that the object of it is, not to justify himself for neglecting the duties which in the common understanding of the world a man owes to his benefactor, but to show that he had to the best of his judgment and ability discharged them; up to the time when it became impossible to take his part further without betraying duties still more sacred. And if he does not enter into a formal vindication of the part he took at and after the trial, his motive may be easily conjectured. He could not have done it without repeating the story of Essex's offence, at a time when it would have served no higher object than the clearing of his own reputation.

account of his proceedings upon the news of Essex's insurrection and apprehension. "The same two and twentieth of February, his Lordship received a packet out of England, by which he understood that the Earl of Essex was committed to the Tower for treason; which much dismayed him and his nearest friends, and wrought strange alteration in him. For whereas before he stood upon terms of honour with the Secretary, now he fell flat to the ground, and insinuated himself into inward love, and to an absolute dependency with the Secretary; so as for a time he estranged himself from two of his nearest friends, for the open declaration they had made of dependency on the Earl of Essex; yet rather covering than extinguishing his good affection to them. It is not credible that the influence of the Earl's malignant star should work upon so poor a snake as myself, being almost a stranger to him, yet my nearness in blood to one of his Lordship's abovenamed friends made it perhaps seem to his Lordship improper to use my service in such nearness as his Lordship had promised and begun to do. So as the next day he took his most secret papers out of my hand; yet giving them to no other, but keeping them in his own cabinet. . . . In truth his Lordship had good cause to be wary in his words and actions, since by some confessions in England, himself was tainted with privity to the Earl's practices; so that however he continued still to importune leave to come over, yet no doubt he meant nothing less, but rather (if he had been sent for) was purposed with his said friends to sail into France, they having privately fitted themselves with money and necessaries thereunto. For howsoever his Lordship were not dangerously engaged therein, yet he was (as he privately professed) fully resolved not to put his neck under the file of the Queen's Attorney's tongue."—Itinerary, part ii. book i. c. 2, p. 89.

« AnteriorContinuar »