patched with a squadron to assist in placing don Antonio on the throne of Portugal. Here the event was not equal to the courage and talents employed in the expedition. Spain indeed was partially baffled, but England was little benefited. Drake was not formed so much to co-operate with others, as to execute his own bold and original designs. The sun of glory which had so long shone upon him with full lustre, was now verging to its decline. A formidable expedition against the Spanish settlements was projected soon after this failure, in which Drake and his relation and first patron Hawkins were appointed commanders. After an attack on the Canaries, in which they miscarried, the fleet arrived before Porto Rico; when they held a council, and it was determined to make an assault on the ships in the harbour. The strength of the fortifications rendered this attempt also fruitless, and sir John Hawkins fell a victim to the climate. The very same evening, while the principal officers were at supper, a cannon-ball entering the cabin killed sir Nicholas Clifford, mortally wounded another gentleman, and carried away the stool on which sir Francis Drake was seated. Thus Fortune once more befriended him, before she bade him a final adieu. After committing several depredations in these seas, to the injury and vexation of the Spaniards, they proceeded on their grand design, which was to cross the isthmus of Panama; but in this they were likewise foiled. Repeated disappointments, to which he had been so little accustomed, preyed on the mind of Drake with such pungent force, that he fell into a melancholy; in which state, being seized with the bloody flux, he quitted this life at Nombre de Dios, without leaving any children, in January 1596. In stature this accomplished seaman was low, but well set; his chest was broad and open, is head very round, his eyes large and clear, his complexion fresh, and his whole countenance animated and engaging. In England his death was lamented with the sincerest demonstrations of sorrow; and his character for perseverance and fortitude, for all that can exalt the hero and intrepid commander, was so firmly fixed in the hearts of his countrymen, that time can never tarnish his just laurels. Yet his defects as a man were very considerable; and if he excelled most in his great qualities, he sunk beneath the mass of mankind in some essential characteristics of humanity. Impatient of control, avaricious, and despotic, he was rather formed to excite fear than to attract regard. Untinctured with the liberal arts, except as far as they were connected with na vigation, (in which he stood unrivalled,) he evinced. none of those weaknesses which are an honour to our nature; and lived without seeming to enjoy life, except when some successful enterprise shed the casual gleam of satisfaction on his heart. Favoured by the smiles of Fortune till he vainly fancied that he had chained the fickle goddess, he could not endure her frowns; and has left a moral to posterity, "that a long series of uninterrupted prosperity seldom promotes the ultimate happiness of a being so weak and frail as man." IN ་་་་་་་་་· WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURLEIGH. Born 1520.-Died 1598. From 11th Henry VIII., to 40th Elizabeth. a private station a good man may be estimable, but when raised to rank and power he becomes eminently meritorious. The more the sphere of his activity is enlarged, and the higher the summit from which his influence is felt, the greater are his glory and his utility. All those virtues and that wisdom which in privacy are only calculated to win the applause of his own heart, or the veneration of a discerning few, then spread their delightful energies over a range worthy of their force and direction, promote the general welfare, and embrace whatever is great or good. These reflections were suggested by contemplating the life of Cecil; a man who, during the long space of forty years, and amidst many eventful scenes, was a principal minister of state, and directed the machine of government with a wise and steady aim. William Cecil was born at Bourn in Lincolnshire, the native place of his mother. His father was Richard Cecil, esq. of Burleigh, in the county of Northampton ; principal officer of the robes to Henry the Eighth, and a distinguished favourite of that monarch. Young Cecil imbibed the first rudiments of learning at the grammar schools of Grantham and Stamford, and gave early indications of those solid and shining talents which were to adorn his future life. His thirst for knowledge was excessive; and his father, willing to humour the bent of his mind, sent him when still a boy to St. John's college, Cambridge. Here intense application, united to a pregnant genius, soon procured him distinction in the literary career: but from too little attention to those springs by which the human machine is kept in repair, and its faculties improved, he indulged his sedentary disposition to such an inordinate degree, that he had nearly lost the use of his limbs; and certainly laid the foundation of that tormenting disease the gout, which at intervals preyed on his con |