It appears from letters under her hand and her secretary's, did not hesitate to prompt her keepers privately to inflict upon herbegan now secretly to solicit the aid of foreign princes for her rescue. She had for that purpose her agents at the courts of Spain, of France, in the Low Countries, and in Rome. The catholic party in England espoused her cause; an invasion was projected from abroad; and a conspiracy was formed, of which the objects were the deliverance of Mary, the establishment of the catholic religion, and the assassination of queen Elizabeth. This dangerous conspiracy was detected by the address of the secretary Walsingham, and the principal agents deservedly suf fered death. There was undoubted evidence that Mary had intelligence and concern in that part of the design which regarded her own deliverance; and it being thence inferred that she was privy to the scheme of assassination, it was now resolved to bring her to trial as a criminal for that offence.

The greatest difficulty to be overcome on the part of Elizabeth was the plea most forcibly urged by Mary, that she was an independent princess; that she owed no allegiance to Elizabeth, no obedience to her laws, no submission to her tribunals; and that though she might, as a sister sovereign, deign to vindicate her character to the world if she were at liberty, she would never condescend, while forcibly detained a prisoner, to plead for her life at the bar of any court whatever. This difficulty was most artfully removed on the part of Elizabeth. It was urged to Mary by her judges, that she injured her reputation by avoiding a trial, in which her innocence might be proved to the satisfaction of all mankind. This observation so powerfully impressed her, that she forgot the dictates of prudence, and agreed to submit to a tribunal where her condemnation was certain and inevitable. Two of her secretaries, corrupted, as was supposed, for the purpose, swore to certain letters dictated by her, which proved an acquiescence in the whole conspiracy. Mary desired that she might be confronted with her secretaries, who, she affirmed, would not, to her face, persist in a false accusation; but this request was refused: the evidence was held conclusive, and the queen of Scots was condemned to suffer death; a sentence which was executed on the 8th day of February, 1587, in the fortyfifth year of her age, and nineteenth of her captivity in England. Previously to this event, Murray had fallen the victim of the private revenge of one Hamilton of Bothwell-haugh, whom he had injured; Lethington, seized with remorse, took part with his injured sovereign, and poisoned himself in prison, to escape the sentence of his enemies; Morton, for some time, regent of the kingdom, and in that capacity the object of universal hatred for his crimes and vices, was finally brought to trial, and suffered death, on a full proof of his concern in the murder of Darnley. Such was the merited reward of their inhuman treasons.

The attention of the English was now called aside from dwelling on this disastrous event by the formidable preparations made by Philip II. of Spain for an invasion of the kingdom. The unsuccessful issue of all these preparations we have already recorded in treating of the reign of that monarch. Of the whole of the invincible armada there returned to Spain only fifty-three shattered ships; and the seamen as well as soldiers who remained, only served, by their accounts, to intimidate their countrymen from attempting to renew so dangerous an enterprise. The English, on the other hand, were incited to make some descents, in their turn, upon the Spanish coasts; and Elizabeth's navy, under the command of those great admirals, Raleigh, Howard, Drake, Cavendish, and Hawkins, began to establish that superiority at sea which Britain ever since has almost uninterruptedly maintained.

Among those who chiefly distinguished themselves in these Spanish expeditions, was the young earl of Essex, a nobleman of great courage, fond of glory, and of a most enterprising disposi tion. He possessed no less the talents of a warrior than of a finished courtier; yet his impetuosity was apt to exceed the bounds of prudence. He was haughty, and utterly impatient of advice or control. Elizabeth, then almost sixty years of age, was smitten with the personal charms of this accomplished youth; for it was peculiar to the queen, that though she had always rejected a husband, she was passionately fond of having a lover. The flattery of her courtiers had pursuaded her that, though wrinkled and even deformed, she was yet young and beautiful;* and she was not sensible of any disparity of choosing Essex for her partner in all the masks at court. Dudley, earl of Leicester, had died some time before. The death of Lord Burleigh, which happened soon after Essex came into favor, left him without a rival, not only in the queen's affections, but in the direction of her councils. The brilliant station which he now occupied, and still more the haughtiness of his temper, procured him many enemies; while the openness and unreservedness of his disposition gave these enemies every advantage. A rebellion had been for many years ferment

* A curious proof how desirous Elizabeth was of the praise of beauty exists in a proclamation issued by her in 1563, in the thirty-third year of her age, and fifth of her reign, which sets forth, that, from the great desire which all ranks of people have shown to have portraits of her majesty, there have been a great number of pictures made "which do not sufficiently express the natural representation of her majesty's person, favor, or grace, but for the most part have erred therein;-And for that her majesty perceiveth that a great number of her loving subjects are much grieved, and take great offence with the errors and deformities already committed by sundry persons in this behalf;-Therefore she straitly charges all manner of persons to forbear from painting, graving, printing, or making any portrait of her majesty, or from showing or publishing such as are apparently deformed, until some perfect pattern or example shall be made by some coning person, which shall be approved by her," &c. &c. This proclamation is published in the Archaiologia of the London Society of Antiquaries, vol. ii., p. 169, from the original draught in the handwriting of Secretary Cecil.

ing in Ireland, and the earl of Tyrone, who headed the malcontents, had committed infinite devastations to that country, and threatened with his party to shake off all dependence on the crown of England. Essex was deputed to quell these disorders; he was, however, unsuccessful, and procured nothing further than a cessation of hostilities. His enemies at court took occasion from this mis

carriage to undermine him in the favor of the queen-a purpose to which he himself contributed by hastily throwing up his command, and returning without leave to England. He trusted, it is probable, to the empire he had obtained over the queen's affections, which was indeed so great, that in spite of the highest dissatisfaction at his conduct, he was soon as much in her good graces as ever. But this impetuous and incautious man lost himself at length irretrievably by some personal reflections which he unguardedly threw out against his royal mistress. It was told her that his affection was all grimace, and that he had frequently declared that he thought the queen as deformed in her mind as she was crooked in her body. She now considered Essex as entirely unworthy of her esteem, and permitted his enemies to drive him to those extremities to which the impetuosity of his own disposition continually prompted him. Among other wild projects, he had concerted with some of his friends to beset the palace, to take possession of the queen's person, and forcibly compel her to remove from her councils all who were disagreeable or obnoxious to him; a scheme which one can hardly suppose to have proceeded from a brain that was not distempered. It was the fortune of Elizabeth's government, that all the machinations of her enemies were frustrated by a timely discovery. The queen's favor would, perhaps, have been still extended to him, but for another attempt equally treasonable, and yet more extravagant in its nature. This was to raise the city of London; and at the head of the citizens, with whom he believed himself extremely popular, to attain an absolute authority in the kingdom, and the removal of all his enemies. But he was deceived in the notion of his own popularity-he was opposed by the citizens-and being attacked in the streets, was compelled to retreat for shelter into his own house. His case was now desperate: he maintained a siege in his house against the queen's troops, and was at length compelled to surrender himself at discretion. He was tried by his peers, found guilty, and condemned to death as a traitor. The queen, with real reluctance, signed the warrant for his execu... tion; and he was privately beheaded in the Tower, in the thirty fifth year of his age.

From the death of Essex, the queen, now in the seventieth year of her age, seemed to lose all enjoyment of life. She fell into profound melancholy; she reflected then with remorse on some past actions of her reign, and was at times under the most violent emotions of anguish and despair. Her constitution, enfeebled by

age, very soon fell a victim to her mental disquietude; and perceiving her end approaching, she declared that the succession to the crown of England should devolve to her immediate heir, James VI. of Scotland. She died on the 24th of March, 1603, after a reign of forty-five years. There are few personages in history who have been more exposed to the calumny of enemies and the adulation of friends than queen Elizabeth. It is probable that her character varied considerably in the different periods of her life; yet, upon the whole, it is not difficult to pronounce un uniform judgment with regard to the conduct of this illustrious princess. The vigor of her mind, her magnanimity, her penetration, vigilance, and address, certainly merited the highest praises. She was frugal without avarice, enterprising without temerity, and of an active temper; yet free from turbulency and vain ambition.

On the other hand, as a queen, she was rigid to her people, imperious to her courtiers, insincere in her professions, and often a hypocrite in her public measures; as a woman, she was suspicious, jealous, and cruel. She was intemperate in her anger, insatiable in her desire of admiration, and, with all her excellent sense, continually the dupe of flattery.

Few sovereigns succeeded to the throne of England in more difficult circumstances, and none ever conducted the government with more uniform success and felicity; but, in fact, there never was a sovereign who carried the notions of prerogative higher than queen Elizabeth, or had so thorough a disregard for the people's liberties. Those engines of arbitrary power, which, in the hands of her successors, excited that indignant spirit of the people which ended at length in the destruction of the constitution, were employed by this politic queen without the smallest murmur on the part of her subjects. The tyranny of the courts of Star-chamber, and of High Commission, which we shall see the cause of those violent ferments in the time of Charles I., was most patiently submitted to under Elizabeth. The tone of the queen to her parliaments was, "I discharge you from presuming to meddle with affairs of state, which are matters above your comprehension." So distant was the condition of the subject in those so much vaunted days of queen Elizabeth from that degree of liberty which we at present enjoy-a consideration, this, which ought to produce at least a respect for that improved constitution which has secured to us that valuable blessing, a patriotic desire to preserve this constitution inviolate, and to maintain its equal balance, distant alike from the tyrannical encroachments of arbitrary power, and the insatiable claims of democratic faction.

CHAPTER XXIX.

GREAT BRITAIN in the Reigns of JAMES I. and CHARLES I.-Accession of James VI. of Scotland to the Throne of England-Change of popular Feeling on the Rights of the Subject-Gunpowder Plot-His unworthy FavoritesPacific Reign-Death-Charles I.-Differences with his first ParliamentPetition of Rights-Religious Innovations attempted in England and Scotland augment the Discontents-The National Covenant-Proceedings of Charles's last Parliament-Impeachment and Execution of Strafford--Bill passed declaring Parliament perpetual-Catholic Rebellion in Ireland made a Pretext for the Parliament's levying an Army--Bench of Bishops impeached and imprisoned-King impeaches five Members of the House of Commons-Civil WarSolemn League and Covenant-Scots coöperate with Parliament-CromwellBattle of Naseby-Cromwell turns the Army against the Parliament-Trial and Execution of Charles-Reflections.

UPON the death of Elizabeth, the crown of England passed with great tranquillity to her successor, James VI., king of Scotland, whose right united whatever descent, bequest, or parliamentary sanction could confer. If James mounted the throne with the entire approbation and even affection of his English subjects, it is certain that he did not long preserve them. He was unpopular from his manners, which were pedantic and austere, from his preference to his Scottish courtiers, and still more so from his high notions of an uncontrollable prerogative, which he was continually sounding in the ears of his subjects, both in his parliamentary speeches and in the works which he published,-a bad policy, which, giving occasion to men to examine into the ground of those pretensions, served only to expose their weakness. The vigor of Elizabeth's government scarce left room to scrutinize its foundation, but her successor was fond of such disputes, and was never so happy as when engaged in a learned argument upon the divine right of kings. About this period, the minds of men throughout all Europe seem to have undergone a very perceptible revolution. The study of letters began to be generally cultivated. Philosophy led to speculative reasonings on laws, on government, on religion, and on politics. In England, especially, which, in point of science, possessed a higher reputation at this period than any of the European kingdoms, these studies had a sensible influence on the current of public opinion. The love of liberty, which is inherent in all ingenuous nations, acquired new force, and began to furnish more extensive views of the rights of the subject than had prevailed in any former period of the constitution.