Bretagne corsairs and especially the Scotch, who, being very needy, observe neither peace nor truce." 1 With the accession of Elizabeth, however, new and more severe demands fell upon the English navy. How little the men of the day were able to read the signs of the times is shown by the acquiescence of the English people in the marriage of Mary with Philip II. of Spain, and we may note, in passing, the irony of history which made Philip the patron of the English "Mysterie and Companie of Merchants adventurers for discoverie of regions, dominions, islands, and places unknown." The Spanish marriage, however, which might have made England a mere appendage of the Spanish Empire, left traces of a very different kind. To Philip, England becoming again heretical, was the necessary object of another Holy War, although that war might be delayed for a time. Professor Seeley 2 has brought out very clearly the masterly inactivity of Elizabeth's foreign policy. Afterwards when war had become inevitable, there were not wanting counsellors who urged that an offensive war should be carried on against the Spanish possessions. It may be doubted, however, whether England was yet strong enough to maintain such a war against the Empire which in 1580 had absorbed the whole power and colonial possessions of Portugal. Elizabeth preferred generally a waiting game, although offensive operations were sometimes undertaken, as in the capture by Sir Francis Drake of San Domingo. A kind of private war was for years carried on by English vessels against the Spanish commerce. Sir Richard Hawkins explains how these differed from pirates in the fact that England and Spain were at war, and that the English captains had "all license either immediately from their Prince or from others thereunto authorised." 3 At last, stung to the quick by heresy and privateering, Philip struck his great blow and sent forth the invincible Armada. Its fate, for the elements only completed what man had 1 Cal. of Ven. Papers, 1551. 2 Growth of British Policy, Vol. I. 3 Voyage to the South Sea in 1593. (Hakluyt Soc.). already begun, was the best justification for Elizabeth's policy. Of her it may be said with truth, "cunctando constituit rem." Thenceforward, Spain resembled some wounded wild beast which, while still powerful to hurt, carries about with it the seeds of death. It was because of the decay of Spanish greatness that England was allowed to develop in peace its colonial settlements. The maritime greatness of Spain had always been an exotic. Her sailors were either Germans, Flemings, or strangers, "for the Spaniards," says Hawkins, “are but indifferently practised in this art. . . The mariners are but as slaves to the rest to moil and toil day and night." It was not by such methods as these that the command of the sea was to be held. Englishmen, however, did not wait till the power of Spain was on the wane before attempting the work of colonization. Already in 1580 the English Government is found boldly asserting in answer to Spain, that "prescription without possession availed nothing." And more than one practical attempt had been, before this, made to give effect to this Circ. 1563. claim. The dubious Florida1 scheme of the worthless Stukeley need not detain us, but in 1565 we find the first traces of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's colonization schemes. Amongst the projects of a trading company established in that year to discover a North-West passage to Cathay is the colonization of intermediate lands. A pamphlet afterwards written by him,3 "A discourse to prove a passage by the North-West to Cataya and the East Indies," advocated colonization as a means of "settling there such needy people of our own which now trouble the Commonwealth." He is also found under the glamour of that El Dorado, which bewitched even the shrewd Raleigh. The pamphlet is said to have given directions to 1 Stukeley, though a dissolute adventurer, appears to have been a popular favourite. In "The City Gallant," Vol. XI. of Dodley's Old English Plays, 4th ed., a character is spoken of as "a Stukeley or a Sherley for his spirit, 1 ་ Frobisher's vague aspirations, which issued in three 1 expeditions in 1576, 1577, and 1578 to the Northern seas. We may note that Frobisher thought that he had found precious metals. The licence obtained by Frobisher to take criminals from the jails, with whom to garrison the land that he might discover, throws an ominous light on the failure of early schemes for colonization. A petition in 1574 of divers west March 22. country gentlemen to the Queen to allow of an enterprise for the discovery of certain rich and unknown lands "fatally and it seemeth by Providence reserved for England," whatever its immediate effect, received a practical answer in the patent granted to Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1578.2 He was empowered to discover heathen lands, not enjoyed by any Christian Prince, and to hold and enjoy the same with all commodities, jurisdictions, and royalties both by sea and land. He was thus restricted by no geographical limitations. The usual one-fifth of gold and silver was reserved for the Crown. No one might settle, without his leave, within two hundred leagues of the place in which, during the next six years, he should make his settlement. Full powers were given of making laws or ordinances, "as near as conveniently might be to the laws of the realm and not opposed to the Christian religion as professed by the Church of England." ance of It may be well here to point out the necessity of these Importletters patent, which we shall find continually recurring. written According to the common law, British subjects cannot take Grants. possession in their own right of a foreign country, but, whatever they acquire, they acquire for the Crown. (The idea that the natives might have independent right to the soil was late in dawning.) Hence the necessity of a previous grant; that that grant must come from the Crown follows from the rule that the sovereign is ultimate owner of all land. So far, the matter is plain enough, but a grave constitutional Constituquestion might have arisen with respect to the claim of the tional Question. "Much experience in ice navigation was gained during the last of these expeditions," Sir Clements Markham in the Royal Navy, ch. xvi. 2 Sainsbury, Cal. of State Papers (Col. Ser.), June 11. B Crown to settle the form of Government. Colonies, becoming the dominion of the King, are necessarily subject to the legislative power of Parliament, and the Englishman, who settles in a colony founded by settlement, remains, at common law, as free and possesses the same privileges as Englishmen at home. As a question of constitutional law, it would seem then that Parliament had always the power to interfere with the rules for the management of Colonies. Thus, according to the settled practice of the Tudors to waive the form while securing the substance of autocracy-we find in 1584 a Bill in confirmation of Raleigh's patent passed through Parliament. It must be remembered, however, that at the time with which we are dealing, the respective positions of Parliament and of the Privy Council, as both having issued from the “ Magnum Concilium" of the feudal kings, were far from settled, and a wholly different view of the constitution from the one which has prevailed could be plausibly maintained. Moreover, the Parliaments of the Stuarts had more practical questions, which absorbed their energies. We may note, however, that among the Bills to be offered to the next Parliament in 1614 was an Act for the better planting of Virginia and supply thereof, and that it was declared in the House of Commons that the patent was against law, and the hope was expressed that the patent may be damned and an Act of Parliament passed for the government of the Colony by a Company. When, afterwards, James sent down a message to the House of Commons not to concern itself with the affairs of the Virginia Company, because they were being settled by the Privy Council, his action was assented to with a general silence, "but not without soft muttering that any other business might in the same way be taken out of the hands of Parliament." And again, in 1621, the New England Company was the subject of debates in the House of Commons,2 and Parliament never waived the point that these grants might, at any rate, be within its jurisdiction, as monopolies. 1 1624, Sainsbury Cal., May 6th, Nethersole to Carleton. 2 Massachusetts Historical Society, 3rd ser., Vol. VI. Description of Sir Ferdinando Gorges' pleading before H. of C. Before passing from the subject of these patents, we may observe the strange consequences to which they sometimes led. The tract conveyed might be a kingdom, but the English law persisted in treating it as "white acre," thus we find1 Lord Carlisle assigning the Caribbean Islands, which had been granted him, to his creditors. Note, too, the persistency with which English notions prevail. In the deed 2 by Sir H. Gilbert assigning his rights to Trustees "every one that shall be sent over by the general charge of the realm . . . shall have in lease for three lives 60 acres, besides common in summer for so much cattle as they can keep in the winter, with allowance for housebote, hedgebote, and ploughbote . . . and after every death a best beast for a heriot." The first expedition of Gilbert was a complete failure, and in 15823 he associated Sir Thomas Gerrard and Sir Thomas Peckham in the privileges granted by the patent. In the same year, however, we find an agreement between Sir H. Gilbert and certain merchant adventurers of Southampton for a new expedition. Every adventurer of £5 was to have a thousand acres over and above the return of his adventure. Southampton was to be the staple port of the new Colony. A list is given of about fifty adventurers, which well illustrates the general character of the new movement. Headed by Sir Francis Walsingham, it includes merchants, mercers, ironmongers, bakers, &c. The next year saw the apparent realisation of Gilbert's hopes, in the formal taking possession by him of Newfoundland in the Queen's name. were, however, not yet favourable, and on the return voyage Gilbert was drowned.5 The fates August 5th 1583. The torch of colonization was now handed on to Raleigh. In 1584 he obtained a patent similar to that of Gilbert. His first step was to send out an expedition to report upon the country. Possession was taken of part of the mainland of America, which was named by Raleigh Virginia, after the 1 In 1609. Sainsbury Cal. under 1641. 3 June 6. Sainsbury Cal. 5 His last words were, 2 July 8, 1582. Sainsbury Cal. "We are as near to heaven by sea as by land!" March 25. Sainsbury Cal. Addend., 1574-1674. |