had "no luck at sea," as
Queen Elizabeth observed, and it was Raleigh who, in 1584, took up the
scheme of colonisation. He did not drop it until the death of Elizabeth,
when, under the east wind of the new _regime_, the blossom of his
colonial enterprises flagged.

The motion for the ceremony of to-day originated with the authorities of
an important American city, which proudly bears the name of our
adventurer. The earliest settlement in what are now the United States
was made at Roanoke, in Virginia, on a day which must always be
prominent in the annals of civilisation, August 17th, 1585. But this
colony lasted only ten months, and it was not until nearly two years
later that the fourth expedition which Raleigh sent out succeeded in
maintaining a perilous foothold in the new country. This was the little
trembling taper to which his own name was given, the twinkling spark
which is now the flourishing city of Raleigh in North Carolina. We may
well marvel at the pertinacity with which Sir Walter persisted, in the
face of innumerable difficulties, in sending out one colonising fleet
after another, although, contrary to common legend, he himself never set
foot in North America. It was fortunate that at this period of his
career he was wealthy, for the attempts to plant settlements in the vast
region which he named Virginia cost him more than L40,000. We note at
all turns of his fortune his extraordinary tenacity of purpose, which he
illustrated, as though by a motto, in the verses he addressed to a
comrade towards the end of his imprisonment in the Tower:--

"Change not! to change thy fortune 'tis too late;
Who with a manly faith resolves to die
May promise to himself a lasting State,
Though not so great, yet free from infamy."

So we may think of him in his prime, as he stood on the Hoe of Plymouth
twenty years before, a gallant figure of a man, bedizened with precious
stones, velvets, and embroidered damasks, shouting his commands to his
captains in a strong Devonshire accent. We think of him resolutely
gazing westward always, with the light of the sea in his eyes.

We come to the final scene which we are here to-day to commemorate.
Little honour to the rulers of England in 1618 redounds from it, and yet
we may feel that it completed and even redeemed from decay the character
of Raleigh. This tragedy, which was almost a murder, was needed to round
off the accomplishment of so strange and frantic a care