Ireland being now suppressed, and the forfeited
lands divided into Signiories, among those principally who had been
instrumental in the important service of reducing that country; her
Majesty granted him one of the largest portions, consisting of twelve
thousand acres in the counties of Cork and Waterford, with certain
privileges and immunities, upon condition, of planting and improving
the same, to which the other grantees were obliged.

In the year 1586 we find our author so highly advanced in the Queen's
favour, so extremely popular on account of his patronage of learned
men, ard the active spirit he exerted in business, that her Majesty
made him seneschal in the dutchy of Cornwall. But these distinctions
incurred the usual effects of court preferment, and exposed Sir Walter
to the envy of those who were much inferior to him in merit; and even
the earl of Leicester himself, who had formerly been his great patron,
became jealous of him, and set up in opposition to him, his nephew
the young earl of Essex. The Comedians likewise took the liberty to
reflect upon Raleigh's power, and influence upon the Queen; which her
Majesty resented so highly as to forbid Tarleton, the most celebrated
actor of that age, from approaching her presence.

Raleigh, sollicitous for the prosperity of the plantation in Virginia,
sent out new supplies from time to time, some of whom were obliged to
return home; and the general alarm spread over the nation on account
of the Spanish invasion, threw all things into disorder.

About the beginning of the year 1587 he was raised to the dignity of
captain of her majesty's guard, which he held together with the place
of lord-warden of the Stannaries, and lieutenant-general of the county
of Cornwall. From this time till the year 1594, we find Sir Walter
continually engaged in projecting new expeditions, sending succours
to colonies abroad, or managing affairs in Parliament with consummate
address.

In the year 1593, we find Father Parsons the jesuit charging him with
no less a crime than atheism, and that he had founded a school in
which he taught atheistical principles, and had made a great many
young gentlemen converts to them; the most considerable authority
to countenance the suspicions of Sir Walter's religion, is that of
Archbishop Abbot, who in a letter dated at Lambeth, addressed to Sir
Thomas Roe, then an ambassador at the Mogul's court, expressly charges
Sir Walter with doubting God's bein