Dudley Carleton was quite right in saying an "ill name is half hanged." The trial was the merest farce. The judges were determined that Ralegh must be condemned, as soon as Ralegh was arrested. They knew that such was the King's will: and Ralegh's condemnation had become the King's will owing to the astute management of Cecil. There were many reasons for Cecil's line of action. Both James and he knew that there must be a large number of people in England disaffected to the new sovereign. It was advisable to open the reign by an illustrious example. Ralegh was a powerful man, whose powers Cecil knew and feared. Moreover, Ralegh had original ideas about government which fitted ill with Cecil's conception of himself as the chief man in England under an absolute King. So Cecil for a long time had been playing upon the King's fears, knowing well the King's timorous nature. And then, when the time came, he showed his zeal for the King by delivering Ralegh into his power. His known intimacy with Ralegh, upon which he took every opportunity of harping at the trial and elsewhere, would lend bright colour to his loyalty to the King. The judges are as little to blame as the system of which they were a part is much to blame. Here was Ralegh, whom Cecil, his friend and the first man in England, thought guilty of treason, just at a crucial moment in the history of the nation, when a new King was coming to the throne from another country. Naturally they would do their utmost to show their loyalty. The very vagueness and mystery of the charge increased their anxiety to condemn him. Fear, too, played a prominent part. Which of them could tell, if he showed any clemency to the prisoner, whether it would not be his turn to be charged next for complicity with the traitor? So they vied with one another in eagerness to crush Ralegh. Cecil was well aware of this; he had made his arrangements with infinite precaution. He was the first man in England, partly because he was his father's son, but chiefly because of his astuteness. His astuteness touched genius. Ralegh was undoubtedly innocent of conspiring against King James. But that he received money from foreign powers is probable, and so laid himself open to the charge of treason. It is easy to exclaim against him for this. But to do so is an error of judgment. It was a common practice of the time. All the chief men in England were in the pay of some foreign prince. It was part of an ambassador's duty to spend money in this way; the custom resembles the custom, prevalent in commerce, of giving presents to customers at Christmas. Lord Cecil is known to have received money from Spain during all the years that he held office. The custom has fallen into abeyance, not so much from the development of morality, as from the improvements that have come about in the means of travelling and communication. By knowledge man advances.