Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1834-12-11
SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

United States, and his fame belongs to-
American history. No EngIishman
of his age possessed so various or so
extraordinary qualities; courage which
was never daunted, mild self possession
and fertility Of invention, ensured him
glory in his profession of arms /; and
his service in the conquest Of Cadiz, or
the capture of Fayal, were alone suf-
ficient to establish his fame as com.
mander. In every danger, his life
was distinguished by valor. and his
death was ennobled by true magma
nimity.
He was not only admirable in active
life as a soldier; he was an accomplish
cd scholar. No statesman in retire
ment ever expressed tho charms of
tranquil leisure more beautifully than
Raleigh and it was not entirely with
the language of grateful friendship that
Spenser described his sweet verse as
sprinkled with nectar, and riyalling the
melodies of the summers nightingale.
When an unjust verdict, contrary to
probability and evidence, against law
and against equantity,' on charge
which seems to have been pure inven-
tion, left him to languish for years in
prison, with the sentence Of death sus-
pended over his head, his active gent.
us plunged into the depths Of erudition !;
and he, who had been soldier, cour-
tier and seaman, now became the
elaborate author of learned history
of the world.
Ills career as statesman was hon.
orable to the pupil of Coligny, and the
contemporary of L'lIopital. In his
public policy he was thoroughly an
English patriot jealous of the honor,
the prosperity and the advancement of
his country : the inexorable antagonist
of the pretensions of Spain. In par
lament, he defended the freedom of
domestic industry! When, by the op-
Grafton of unequal laws, taxation was
q burden upon industry rather than
wealth, he argued for change him.
self possessed Of a lucrative monopoly,
he gave his vote for the repeal of all
monopolies; and while he pertinacious-
ly used his influence with his sovereign
to mitigate the severity of the judge
ments against the non-conformists as
a legislator, he resisted the sweeping
of prosecuting laws.
In the career of discovery, his per.
severance was never baffled by losses.
He joined in the risks of Glbert's expi.
ditlon contributed to the discoveries
of Davis in the northwest; and himself
explored the 'insular regions
and broken world of Guiana. The
of his belief in the wealth of
he latter country, has been unreason.
IDLY questioned. If Elizabeth had no.
bed for a hyperborean Peru in the Arc
&c seas of America, why might not
Raleigh expect to find the city of gold
IN the banks of the Oronocu? His la
wish efforts in colonizing the soil of
our republic, his sagacity which en-.
Joined settlement within the Chesa-
peake Bay, the publications of Hariot
and Hakluyt, which he countenanced,
If followed by losses to himself, diffu-
sed over England knowledge of Amer
ica, and an interest in it's destinies,
and sowed the seeds Of which the fruits
were to ripen during his lifetime
but not for him
Raleigh had suffered from the palsy
before his last expedition. He return
ed broken hearted by the defeat of his
hopes, and by the death of his eldest
son. What shall be said of king James
who would open tot an aged paralytic no
other hopes ofliberty but through sue
cess in the discovery of mines in Gui-
ana What will be said of monarch
who could, at that time, under a sen.
tence winch was originally unjust, and
which had slumbered for fifteen years,
order the execution ofthe decrepid man
whose genius and valor shone brilliant.
Iy through the ravages of physical de-
Icay and whose English heart, within
a palsied frame, still beat with undying
love for his country
The judgements of the tribunals of
the Old World are often reversed at
the bar of public opinion in the New.
The family ofthe chief author of early
COLONIZATION in the United States was
reduced to beggary by the government
OF England and he himself was behead-
cd. After lapse ofnearly two cen
tules, the State of North Carolina by
solemn acts oflegislation, revived in its
capital the city of Raleigh and thus
expressed its confidence in the integri.
ty, and a grateful respect for the mem
DRY of the extraordinary man, whose
name Is indlssolubly connected with
the early period its history.