Ralegh abhorred drunkenness.
'It were better,' he has said, 'for a man to be subject to any vice than
to drunkenness.' But teetotalism had not been invented in the days of
Elizabeth. Not wholly unconnected with the social evenings at the
Mermaid may have been the frequent trouble he experienced from bodily
ailments. On September 19, 1601, he pronounced himself too grievously
ill to be able to travel to Bath for his annual cure. His ailments did
not prevent him from warning Cecil of a powerful Spanish fleet held
ready, with 6000 or 7000 soldiers, to descend either upon Ireland or the
Low Countries. Fresh intelligence, which on September 26 he despatched
to Cecil for transmission to the Lord Admiral, led him to believe the
expedition was designed for Cork or Limerick. He inferred from the
presence of many women on board that a 'Plantation' was meant. It was no
false alarm. He announced to Cecil, on October 13, 1601, the landing of
a strong body of Spaniards, and their intrenchment, as he had
prognosticated, outside the town of Kinsale. His readiness to accept
responsibility was met in the same spirit, particularly when Ireland was
concerned. Later, Cecil admitted that Ralegh, though no Privy
Councillor, was often invited to confer with the Council. Only three
months before Elizabeth was seized with her mortal sickness, in 1602,
he, with Cecil, was consulted by her on the treatment of Cormac
McCarthy, Lord of Muskerry. Cecil was for leniency. Ralegh advised that
no mercy should be shown, Cormac McCarthy's country being worth the
Queen's keeping. Elizabeth accepted his frankly selfish advice.

[Sidenote: _In Parliament._]

[Sidenote: _Monopolies._]

He sat as senior member for the County of Cornwall in the Parliament
which met on October 27, 1601. He had been previously a Cornish
representative, as member for Michell, in the House which was elected in
1593. In November, 1601, he obtained the rejection of a Bill to compel
the sowing of hemp for cables and cordage. 'I do not like,' he said, in
a spirit much in advance of his age, 'this constraining of men to manure
or use their ground at our wills; but rather let every man use his
ground to that which it is most fit for, and therein use his own
discretion.' The Tillage Act he held up for a warning. It ordered every
man to plough a third of his land, often to great loss. The land, 'if
unploughed, would have been good pasture for beasts.' Later in the
Session he supported a