united the daring courage of the old knight of chivalry CHAP L with the calm judgment and the love of stratagem which Varied distinguished a later and more refined age. Of the first qualities he gave an example in the defeat of Fitz-Edmonds, where he twice rescued and saved the life of one of the gentlemen of his company at the imminent peril of his own. Seizure of Of the last he furnished a no less striking instance in the Lord Roch surprise and seizure of the Lord Roch in his own castle, surrounded by a powerful garrison, and in a country where the enemy had carefully occupied every road and fastness.

England.

Upon the suppression of the rebellion Raleigh returned Return to to England, with a reputation for valour and experience well known to those with whom he had served, but which was lost at court amidst the dazzling brilliancy of superior rank and power. Nor could it well be otherwise; for at this moment the throne of Elizabeth was surrounded by a nobility amongst whom was to be found all that was illustrious in birth and pre-eminent in genius, by statesmen, and warriors both by land and sea, whose names have become familiar and stirring words, indissolubly associated with every recollection of the glory of their country.

Elizabeth

The sagacious and wary BURLEIGH was now in the Burleigh. zenith of his power, the favoured minister of his royal mistress, and possessing an influence over her masculine mind which no other amongst her servants ever retained so long. Capricious, and exhibiting the weakness and mutability of a woman to his rivals Leicester and Essex, Queen she maintained an invariable regard for Cecil; her confidence in his councils was never shaken; and upon every subject relating to internal administration or foreign policy, his opinion, although openly and severely canvassed at the moment it was given, was silently followed in the end. And yet, although the chosen minister of this great queen, Cecil was not a man of splendid genius or of brilliant and original endowments. In tracing the principles of his government, and studying the accounts of his private life, it will be found that the prominent

CHAP. I. Qualities of

Burleigh.

Neglect of
Spenser.

Consistent

and success ful policy.

qualities of Lord Burleigh were of a homelier nature. Prudence, calm and unimpassioned judgment, indefatigable application, and extreme closeness and taciturnity in the despatch of business, were perhaps his most striking qualities; and the exercise of these was not interrupted by the impediments of the heart or the imagination, which lead some men astray. No bursts of natural and generous feeling,-no enthusiasm for high intellectual talent, no admiration for what was profound in science, or graceful or beautiful in art,-no foolish feelings for chivalrous honour or unproductive glory, interrupted the even tenor of his purposes, or shook a single principle which he felt to be expedient and necessary. His neglect of Spenser, when this delightful poet was recommended to his patronage by his royal mistress,—his contempt for military renown, unless the victory brought some tangible fruit in security or in solid coin,—his coldness to every thing in religion which did not affect the strictness of the Protestant doctrines or the integrity of established forms, all point the same way, and convince us that the character of this great minister was less ardent than reflective.

But this is only one side of the picture. Looking to the principles and conduct of his administration, and the energy with which he pursued them, nothing can be more consistent and successful. His determination to humble the Papal power, and to support the Protestant reformation, his zeal on the side of liberty of conscience, -his consequent support of the Huguenot party in France, the Prince of Orange in the Low Countries, and the Reformed Lords in Scotland,-his encouragement of all that serviceable learning which promised to further these objects,*—his decided opposition to a war for territorial conquest, the energy with which he wielded the strength of the kingdom in the resistance of foreign

*Witness his engaging his friend Sir Thomas Smith to write a Treatise on the Roman Money, which he deemed of practical utility in guiding his own measures for the reformation of the coin. Biographia Britannica, by Kippis, art. Cecil, p. 387.

invasion, and in crushing the Irish rebellion,—his wise CHAP. L encouragement of the maritime power of England,—his Ardour ardour in humbling the naval supremacy of Spain, in against fitting out fleets for the discovery and planting of new Spain. countries, and enlarging the boundaries of foreign commerce, his measures of internal policy, for the settlement of a form of ecclesiastical government, for the payment of the debts of the crown, the relief of the poor, the reformation of the coin of the realm,-all speak the great man, and justify the universal confidence of the nation in his prudence, vigilance, and wisdom, and the extraordinary reputation which he had acquired in foreign countries.

of the age.

No man perhaps ever lived in more difficult times, or Difficulties survived them with greater credit and success; and the circumspection and caution of his earlier years, under Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Mary, are as remarkable in a different way as his pre-eminence during the reign of Elizabeth. Raised to the peerage from the rank of a private gentleman, he yet thought little of the distinction. He had been as powerful under the name of Real greatWilliam Cecil as he now was when he wrote Burleigh; ness. and although on great occasions, where a political object was to be gained, he could assume a magnificence in his entertainments which almost rivalled those of his sovereign, and even ordinarily in his houses, gardens, and equipage, kept up a splendid state, it was apparently more in obedience to the taste of the queen and of the times than from personal vanity or enjoyment. The common habits of his life were sober and unostentatious. "He had a little mule at his favourite seat at Theobalds, Habits of upon which he rode up and down the walks: sometimes he would look on those who were shooting with arrows or playing with bowls; but as for himself he never engaged in any diversion, taking the word in its usual sense. He had a few friends who were constantly at his table because he liked their company; but in all his life he never had one favourite, or suffered any body to get an ascendant over him. Basking, as he did, in the sun

life.

B