Chap. X.J ARRANGEMENTS FOR FIRST VOYAGE. 229
payment of a third of the whole stock on or before the 30th. On this day a . d leoo. draft of the patent of privileges, or charter, to be submitted to the crown, was read and approved. It had been prepared by a Mr. Altham, who received a fee of £4.
In the com'se of these preparations, the directors were somewhat startled by spirited cou
' ' _ •' duct of the
an application from the Lord-treasm-er Burleigh, recommending the employment directors, of Sir Edward Michelbome in the voyage. The ground of the application is not stated, but various circumstances lead to the conclusion that the possession of court favour was Sir Edward's highest qualification. The directors were only petitioning for their charter, and must have been perfectly aware of the risk they ran in refusing to comply with the wishes of such a statesman as Lord Burleigh. It says much both for their firmness and their prudence, that they managed to place their objection to his lordship's nominee not on personal but on public grounds, declaring their resolution " not to employ any gentleman in any place of chai-ge,"' and requesting " that they might be allowed to sort theire business with men of their own qualitye, lest the suspiccion of the employment of gentlemen being taken hold upon by the generalitie, do dryve a great number of the adventurers to withdraw their contributions. '
Were the words gentleman and gentlemen here employed in the sense Quaiifica- which is now usually attached to them, the answer would not only afford what ,,ioyniei.t Mr. Mill thinks he finds in it, "a curious specimen of the mode of thinking of the times," but indicate a narrowness and illiberality of mind sufficient to prove that the directors were unworthy of the honoiu^able office with which they iiad been intrusted. It is impossible to believe, that in laying the foimdations of a company in which one of the leading objects contemplated was, to use their own expression, " the honor of theii' native countrie," they intended to lay it down ixs, a general and inflexible rule, that a man, however well qualified he might be in other respects — liowever skilful as a seaman — however expert as an accountant — however slu-ewd and experienced as a merchant — was to be deemed unfit for employment " in any place of charge," if he happened to have been l>i>rn of a good family, and to possess the manners and accomplishments which entitled him to move in the first circles of society. However strange the language may sound, its meaning evidently went no further than this, that ill making their appointments the directors would be guided s(»lely by profes- sional ability, and were determined to have nothing to do with those who, pluming themselves on being gentlemen and nothing more, would only draw the profit, without performing the duties of any office to which they might be appointed.
Though tiie charter was not yet granted, the directors, having now no doubt Arrange of obtaining it, proceeded with their arrangements. The purchase of three firetvoylge. vessels luus already been mentioned On the 5th of October, a fourth, called the Malice Scourge, and double the size of any of the othei-s. was purchased fi-om
