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Elizabeth outlived her great enemy the king of Spain two years. The trade of England would have increased greatly in this reign had not the activity and industry of the merchants been fettered by the patents and monopolies which Elizabeth granted to her courtiers and favorites.

The Protestants, though their religion was now established, were yet unfortunately divided amongst themselves. Many who had been exiled in the reign of Mary had found refuge at Geneva, and had there learned the doctrine of Calvin, the Swiss reformer. These persons, when they returned to England on the accession of Elizabeth, were much shocked to find that she retained, not only many of the prayers, but also many of the outward observances of the Romish church.

The Puritans, for so they were called on account of their way of life, scrupled, amongst other things, to perform the service of the church in a surplice, and many of the Puritan clergy refused benefices rather than be guilty of what they considered so great an impiety. A benefice is a living in the established, that is, the Episcopal church of England.

The queen, during her whole reign, was constantly on the watch to keep down the Puritans; and they, on their side, were as constantly seizing every opportunity to advance their cause. Their public preaching and private exhortations had a visible effect on the manners of the age, particularly in regard to the employment of the Sunday, which, by their example, began universally to be observed with seriousness, instead of being made as heretofore, a day of pastime, and often of excess.

In the fifth year of this reign was enacted the first com pulsory law for the relief of the poor, which is the foundation of the present poor laws in England, and by another act of parliament passed in 1601, the system as it now exists was nearly completed.

A trade between England and Turkey was begun abou

Did trade flourish in Eng and during the reign of Elizabeth?
Were the Protestants united? Who were the Puritans?

Did the queen favor the Puritans, and did they influence the misnotty of the time?

When were the present poor laws of England first enacted?

When was the English trade with Turkey commenced?

the year 1583.

first reached the

The fame of the English queen then cars of the Grand Signor, who till then had believed that England was a dependent province to France.

The character of Elizabeth is a very difficult one to comprehend. She had the courage and understanding of a man, with more than a woman's vanity and weakness. She was attached to her people, and imposed few taxes, and inflicted few punishments; but nevertheless, she was one of the most arbitrary of monarchs. She treated the house of commons with the utmost haughtiness, and more than once sent her commands to the members "to avoid long speeches."

CHAPTER XXIX.

JAMES 1.

[Years after Christ, 1602-1625.]

James was thirty seven years old when by the death of Elizabeth he was raised to the English throne, and thus united the whole island under one sovereign. His charac ter was an odd mixture of sense and folly. He posses sed a natural shrewdness and sagacity, with a great share of vanity and conceit; and he made even his learning, which was considerable, appear ridiculous by his pedantry and pomposity. With all this he had a great deal of childish simplicity; and there was an openness of temper about him, which, though it may be reckoned a virtue yet made him quite unfit to control the jealousies which arose between his English and Scotch subjects.

His person was awkward, and his manners uncouth, and without dignity; and these defects, together with his broad Scotch accent, soon made him an object of contempt

ls the character of Elizabeth easily comprehended! What was the character of James I.?

Did James command the respect of the English?

to those who had been accustomed to the stately majesty of Elizabeth.

James had married Anne, daughter of the king of Denmark, whose person and deportment are described as having been very homely and unprepossessing. They had three children at the time of James's accession. The eld. est, Henry, was a promising boy of nine years old; the second child was named Elizabeth; and Charles, the youngest, was a boy of four years old.

James, though surrounded on his arrival in England by Scotch nobles, all greedy of English honors, still retained many of Elizabeth's ministers in their places. The most distinguished of these was Cecil lord Salisbury, son of the great lord Burleigh, who possessed much of his father's capacity, but without his integrity. One of the first acts of the king was to restore the family of Howard, and some others who had suffered in his mother's cause, to their estates and honors.

A conspiracy was soon afterwards formed to place on the throne the lady Arabella Stuart. This lady was the daughter of a brother of lord Darnley, the king's father; consequently she was his first cousin, and equally descended with himself from Henry VII. Her mother was an English lady of the Cavendish family, and she had been brought up amongst her mother's relations in great privacy.

Lady Arabella was neither qualified nor desirous to be a queen, and was totally ignorant of the conspiracy. The plot was soon discovered, and three persons were executed. Sir Walter Raleigh who had been accused of sharing in it, but whose guilt was not proved, was condemned to death, but reprieved, and afterwards remained in prison nany years.

The Roman Catholics had expected great indulgence from James for his mother's sake; but they found, to their

What was James's family?

What were the first acts of James's government?

What were lady Arrabella Stuart's pretensions to the throne of Eng land?

Who were engaged in the conspiracy in behalf of lady Arabella
What plot was concerted by the Catholics?

great disappointment, that he was no less steady than Elizabeth had been to the cause of the Protestants; and to this disappointment was owing the well-known Gunpowder Plot, which had its first rise in 1604.

Catesby and Percy, two Catholic gentlemen, being in conversation on public affairs, Percy in great heat, said something about assassinating the king. The other replied that his single death would do them little good, and that they also must get rid of the lords and commons: he then suggested the possibility of laying a train of gunpowder under the parliament house, which would blow them up altogether.

Percy approved of the project: it was also agreed to communicate it to a few other persons; and they sent into Flanders in quest of Guy Fawkes, a man of known courage and zeal, then serving in the Spanish army, who they knew would be actively useful in the execution of their scheme.

This plot was in agitation all the spring. In the summer, the conspirators hired, in Percy's name, a house adjoining the house of lords, and began to undermine the wall between the two. After they had carried on their work some time, they learnt that a vault which had been used as a coal vault, and which was immediately under the house of lords, was to be let. Percy hired it, and secretly placed in it thirty-six barrels of gunpowder, and concealed them with faggots and billets of wood.

Every thing being ready, it was resolved that some of he conspirators should seize and kill the little prince Charles; and that others should get possession of the princess Elizabeth, and proclaim her queen, on the same day on which the king and queen, and their eldest son, were to be present at the opening of the parliament. Thus confident were they of destroying their victims.

This secret, though entrusted to above twenty persons, had been faithfully kept for near a year and a half; during

What was the Gun-powder Plot?

Who was Guy Fawkes?

What active measures were taken by the conspirators?
Did the conspirators intend to destroy the royal family?

Was the secret of the conspirators faithfully kept?

which period the execution was delayed from time to time by the repeated adjournments of parliament. The bigotry of the conspirators stifled all compunction at the thoughts of destroying so many of their fellow-creatures.

A few days before the meeting of parliament, lord Monteagle received a letter, very ambiguously expressed, which however, warned him of danger, and admonished him to go into the country instead of attending parliament. Monteagle knew not what to think of this letter, and showed it to lord Salisbury, who was no inclined to pay much attention to it, but who nevertheless, laid it before the king.

The king had sagacity enough to perceive, from its serious, earnest style, that something important was meant ; and this forewarning of a sudden and terrible blow, yet with the authors concealed, made his suspicions come very near the truth. The day before the meeting of parliament, he sent the earl of Suffolk to examine all the vaults under the houses of parliament.

In that which was under the house of lords, Suffolk was surprised to see so many piles of wood and faggots, and was also struck with the dark and mysterious countenance of Guy Fawkes, who was found there, and who called himself Percy's servant. It was then resolved to make a more thorough inspection, and about midnight a magistrate was sent with proper attendance for that purpose. On turning over the faggots, the barrels of gunpowder were discovered.

Fawkes had been seized near the door, and matches, and every thing required for setting the train on fire, were found upon him. He at first appeared quite undaunted, but his courage afterwards failed him, and he made a full discovery of the plot, and all the conspirators. Catesby, Percy and some others, hurried into Warwickshire, where one of their confederates, sir Everard Digby, not doubting but that the expected catastrophe in London had taken place, was already in arms.

What intimation of danger was sent to lord Monteagle?
What opinion did the king form of the letter to lord Monteagle?
What discoveries in relation to the plot were made by the earl of Suf
olk?

How did the conspirators meet detection?

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