upon her by her privy council, a strong party of which, on vario grounds, particularly from hostility to Gardiner, the chancello opposed themselves to blood-thirsty measures. This is evider from the letters of Simon Renard, Charles the Fifth's ambassad at the English court, to his master; and it is to be observed, as gi ing the stronger weight to his testimony, that all his leanings wer in favour of the Queen. From one of these letters, dated 28th Apri 1554, we learn that Mary's cruelty required to be held in check, eve by this callous Spaniard, who, in recommending moderation, acte from no higher motive than state policy. "Sire,-The Queen ha more maturely weighed what I represented to her within these few days, (as contained in my last letters to your majesty), the troubles namely, which might arise from the divisions in the council, of wha great consequence it was to bring the Parliament to a close, and proceed gently in the reformation of religion, to avoid giving the peopl any ground for a new rebellion, and to provide a strong force for the safe passage and entry of his highness into the kingdom." In another letter, dated 1st May, 1554, he writes: "The Queen holds Paget in great suspicion for two reasons, which she gave me. The first, that when it was proposed in the Parliament to make it high treason for any one to take arms against his highness, Paget spoke more violently against it than any one; although, before this, to the Queen herself he had declared it quite right: the other, that when a bill was brought in for the punishment of heretics, he used all his influence with the lords to oppose it, and to give no room for punishment of death." In a subsequent letter he says: "This morning the Queen sent me word by Basset, that the Parliament finished yesterday, much to the contentment of the estates, the reputation of her majesty, and the satisfaction of all, that the ancient penalties against heretics were assented to by all the peers." Again, in a letter dated 13th May, 1554, he writes: "Sire,— Paget, stung with remorse, has lately presented himself to the Queen 3 1 Tytler's Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary, vol. ii., p. 378. after her mass, and asked her mercy for his intrigues in the late Parliament against the act for the punishment of heretics, and the statute which made it capital to take arms against his highness; . . . protesting that for the future he would serve her majesty with faith and cyalty. After some remonstrances, the Queen pardoned him, recommending him to behave better in time to come."1 Some Protestant writers have affirmed that, abstracted from her errcneous notions as to the power of sovereigns and of laws over Tad, vol. ii., p. 392. Miss Strickland, the accomplished biographer of the Queens England, attempts to whitewash Mary of the guilt of the Protestant blood shed tang ber reign, by throwing the blame upon her ministers. Speaking of her during her severe ness at the close of her life, she says: "So much ridicule has been cast on the mastake made in the Queen's situation [the mistake of her disease for pregnancy] no person has asked the obvious question, Who governed England during the me which embraced the commencement of the Protestant persecution and her violent " She again asks, “Who can believe that a woman in this state of mortal drag was capable of governing a kingdom, or that she was accountable for anything tase in it?-Vol. v., p. 405. In answer to this it is to be observed, 1st, that Mary atly knew of these barbarities. "That they were transacted by her bishops with her knowledge," says Ballard, "will seem very strange to any one who duly couders the vicinity of St. James's to the place where very many of them were put in eeston. It seems impossible that Smithfield should be kept in flames for so long a per Queen Mary know little or nothing of it."-Learned Ladies, p. 134. That kaew all about it appears from many passages in the despatches of Noailles, the Frenc ambassador at the English court. 2dly, These barbarities were committed by erder, or with her approbation. This also is manifest from the despatches of the ambassador. Gardiner was her prime minister during the first stages of the person, and Cardinal Pole during the last three years of it. With these ministers he was in constant communication during their respective periods of power, and they ered her entire confidence, because they fulfilled her wishes more perfectly than she wered any others would have done. Had she been averse to the shedding of blood, Pae, who aimed chiefly at pleasing her, would perhaps have acted with less severity. Ay, The enacting of these cruelties was just the carrying out of the policy which, as have extracts from Renard's correspondence abundantly show, she contemplated Le commencement of her reign. Let it further be observed, that in the directions What she gave in writing to her council, with respect to the reformation of the church, just before the persecution commenced, she expressly says: "Touching the punishment of beer, me thinketh it ought to be done without rashness, not leaving in the meanwe to do justice to such as by learning would seem to deceive the simple. Especaya London, I would wish none to be burnt without some of the council's presence, and there and everywhere good sermons at the same time."-Collier's Eccl. Hist., 32-Burnet, vol. iv., p. 402. religious opinions, which made her a persecutor from principle, sl was of a compassionate and humane disposition. This estimate her character is unhappily not borne out by facts, which prove her have been morose, gloomy, vindictive, unrelenting. It may suffic to advert only to her cruel punishment of such as had been concerne in Wyatt's rebellion, caused by the unpopularity of her projecte marriage with Philip of Spain. This rebellion not being Protestan it could not be a misguided conscience, but the ruthlessness of he temper which impelled her to severity. So inexorable was she, tha her councillors, as we learn from Renard's correspondence with Charles V., had some difficulty in prevailing with her to put a stop t these cruelties. Writing to Charles, 22d March, 1553-4, on this subject Renard says: "On Sunday last the councillors (moved by the pre meditated intrigues of the heretics) came to a resolution that, as i was a day of devotion, the Queen should be entreated to exercise clemency, and not to shed the noble blood of England; that already the justice inflicted on the rebels amounted to cruelty; that the people ought to be forgiven; and that she ought not to follow the opinion of bloody men, meaning the chancellor [Gardiner]. On the instant they determined to set off to find her majesty, and remonstrate on this subject; and they employed Paget, who is banded with them (as much I believe from hatred to the chancellor as for his religious opinions, which are suspected to be heretical), to carry the request to the Queen. From this neither Petre nor the comptroller [Sir Robert Rochester] dared to dissent. They found the Queen in her oratory after vespers; and not only took her by surprise, having given her no warning, but talked in such a way that, against her wishes and good-will, she pardoned six gentlemen, who had been sent to Kent for execution, and who had sided with Wyatt in his rebellion. The worst is that Paget told the Queen that they had already squandered 1 "Princeps apud omnes ob mores sanctissimos, pietatem in pauperes, liberalitatem innobiles, atque ecclesiasticos nunquam satis laudata."-Camden in Apparat., p. 23. "Mulier sane pia, clemens, moribusque catissimis, et utquequaque laudanda, si religionis errorem non spectes."-Godwin, p. 123. the blood of the house of Suffolk, that he might work on her fears, and induce her to be merciful to the brothers of the duke, who had been condemned." In another letter to the Emperor, written 22d April, 1554, speaking of the trial of the celebrated Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, he says: "It is six days since the trial of a rebel named Throckmorton. He was acquitted by twelve jurymen, who had been chosen and empannelled, and who were all heretics; there being no debt that in spite of the verdict he deserved to be condemned. And when they carried him back to the Tower, after his acquittal, the people with great joy raised shouts, and threw their caps in the air; which has so displeased the Queen, that she has been ill for three dayı, and has not yet got quite the better of it." 2 The measures had recourse to by Mary in order to exterminate the Fermers produced the very contrary result. The blameless and holy Ives of the Protestant martyrs, their pious fortitude and forgiving art displayed in death, awakened public sympathy, excited to inry, and made new converts to the cause which it was intended to crat. Even had her life been prolonged, it may be doubted whether she would have succeeded in effecting the consummation she so devoutly wisted. It was only after a persecution persevered in with unmitigated violence for several generations, that the government of the neighbouring kingdom of France succeeded in well nigh extinguishing the Reformation in that interesting country, and it would probably have been as difficult to extinguish the Reformation in England, in vhh its principles had been not less widely disseminated, and had fred their roots not less deeply. But from her obstinacy, bigotry, and fanaticism, had her life been prolonged, additional years of misery at have rolled over England, to which a termination could only be bped for at her death, unless perchance the natural indignation sther tyranny had become so general and overwhelming as to Teate a revolution. 1 Tytler's Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary, vol. ii., p. 343. Mary's closing days, misgovernment, were whom she adored; the odious to her subjects, parent to the throne, w Protestant religion, wa her privy councillors, v many of them of courti tion caused by her havi sive war with France i the French, a fortress afforded into the kingo treasury; these were f preyed upon her mind to bodily sufferings.1 Palace, on the 17th of N age, having reigned on reckoning her accession 6th July, 1553. Of the the English sceptre, her the Conquest, hers was the tyrant Richard III. Henry the Seventh's cha No monument was erect 1 Noailles, in a despatch da neglected, and she finds little c dated 31st October, 1556, he sa is thought to be inclined to ha told Pole that there is now no but himself."-Quoted in Turn Caricature prints were circula Spaniards at her breasts, to inti legends noting the rings, jewels, this she was greatly incensed, a could have known of these secret 2 Memoirs of Queen Mary's Miscellany, vol. i., pp. 209, 210. |