would prevent her from being a tool of the Guisian faction, to the destruction of the Scottish protestants, and of the harmony between Scotland and England. Here, for the first time, we see that Cecil had taken a comprehensive view of all the mixed considerations of policy and justice which arose on that peculiarly debateable ground, on which the safety of a people seems to create a species of moral right, and to justify those acts which are necessary to secure the undisturbed quiet of the state, even when they deviate from rules which are, with reason, deemed inviolable in any but the most extreme and extraordinary cases. The great statesman calmly enquires into the duties of his royal mistress towards her own subjects; towards the adherents of her faith throughout Europe; and more especially to the protestant rulers of Scotland, whom she was bound by honour, as much as she was interested by national policy, to support. Faith between nations depends

little on names or forms. It was of no substantial importance to enquire whether the government of Moray was legitimate. It was enough that the Scottish protestants were men who had been encouraged by the acts and words of Elizabeth from the moment of her accession to stake their all upon her power and her will to support them. The interposition of her good cffices on behalf of Mary's safety and liberty, during the year which preceded her flight, rather riveted than loosened the obligations which England had so long contracted, to maintain the reformation in Scotland. These obligations were recognised by the ministers of the queen of Scots in negotiating the treaty of Edinburgh; they were founded on circumstances which were not changed; and a firm reliance on these obligations had caused measures to be adopted which it was now impossible to recall. What, then, would be the practical consequence of setting Mary at liberty? or, still more, of restoring her without conditions? If she was allowed to go to France, would not Scotland by that means be surrendered to the house of Lorraine? If she should prefer Spain, would not the

gates of England be thus put into the hands of that more powerful and more bigoted government at the moment of the war against the Netherlands, three years after the league of Bayonne, when reasonable protestants might dread the perpetration of such deeds as were perpetrated so soon afterwards on the day of St. Bartholomew ? If she were immediately allowed to return to Scotland, would not her return give a royal sanction to the revolts of Argyle and Huntly, which had broken out, as it were, to reproach her precipitate flight, and to invite her to re-ascend the throne? Spain, France, Ireland, a party in Scotland, many of the English nobility, who believed her to be the legitimate queen of England, needed only her presence and assent to assert her pretensions with vigour. If Elizabeth were to send a powerful army into Scotland to oppress her friends, she would be justly condemned for perfidy as much as despised for folly. To suffer Mary to return to Scotland, would be, in substance, as decisive an act of hostility to the protestant regency of Scotland, as the invasion of that country by an English army for the like purpose. Elizabeth had also to consider whether it was consistent with her duty to her people, as guardian of the public quiet, to allow a formidable pretender to the English crown to depart freely and unconditionally from the kingdom. Amidst relations so complicated, it was no wonder that duties should appear to be in a state of conflict with each other. Such an unhappy contest may sometimes arise; and in the position of the English queen it would be, perhaps, impossible to point out any course of measures which might not be resented by some parties concerned as a wrong, while it might be hard to determine which of the apparently jarring rules of national justice had the paramount claim to inviolable observance. The perilous question was brought into view, how far the right of the queen and people of England to provide for their own safety, and to retain the means of performing their duties, extended, in the case of an illustrious fugitive, whose unconditional liberty appeared to be incompatible with the secure quiet

of neighbouring countries. On several occasions the superiority of England, and the ancient vassalage of Scotland, were thrown into the scale, as vesting a sort of jurisdiction over Scottish affairs in Elizabeth, absurdly, after a forbearance of nearly 300 years, even if the claim had ever been satisfactorily established.

Mary, immediately on her landing, despatched Herries, her friend through every change of fortune, to desire that she might be forthwith admitted to the presence of the queen, and that succour might be granted to restore her, and to suppress the rebellion; expectations naturally excited by Elizabeth's affectionate treatment since her imprisonment at Lochleven. The queen answered, that she was heartily sorry that she could not assent to her sister's present coming: that as long as the imputation of a share in the murder of Darnley lay on Mary, and while the circumstances of the marriage with Bothwell were unexplained, Elizabeth could not with honour seem to treat so lightly the violent death of lord Darnley, her natural-born subject and nearest kinsman: that if the queen of Scots could devise any means of removing the imputation of such crimes, Elizabeth would receive her with open arms, restore her to the throne, and chastise her rebellious subjects; and in the mean time entertain her with all the honour due to a queen. Lord Herries replied, that though his mistress was impatient to be received by her sister, yet he was instructed by his queen to say, that if her majesty thought the interview for the present unmeet, his mistress would intrust the whole cause to the arbitrament of her sister. Elizabeth said, that she disclaimed all intention to adopt the forms of judgment against an independent sovereign; that her great object was to vindicate the innocence and re-establish the authority of Mary, or, in the worst event, if the assertion of Mary's honour should not be so clear as were to be wished, to compound all difficulties without bloodshed. An agreement was entered into accordingly. Elizabeth sent an agent to stop Moray's hostilities against Huntly

and Argyle, which saved these noblemen from destruction. Herries, a few days after, seemed loath to admit an enquiry in which the Scottish revolters were to be heard. After much conference between him and her majesty, in the presence of the council, he at last consented to her terms. Shortly after he faltered and scrupled, so that the conference was countermanded. He proposed that the kings of France and Spain should bind themselves to send no troops into Scotland, if Mary were suffered to go. But it being found that he had no authority to make this proposal, the council declined the consideration of it. About the 15th of July he appears to have consented to the original proposition of an enquiry by commissioners.* About the 28th of July, at Bolton Castle, to which residence Mary had been removed, Herries repeated to her, as well as to lord Scroop and sir Francis Knolles, frequently and solemnly, the message brought by him to his mistress, when he returned from London; which was, "that if Mary would commit her cause to be heard by her highness's order, not to make her highness judge over her, but rather as committing herself to the counsel of her dear cousin and friend, her highness would send for the noblemen of Scotland that they might answer before such noblemen of England as should be chosen by her, why they had deposed their queen; that if they could assign some reason (which her highness thought they could not), she might restore the queen of Scots to her regal seat, on condition that the lords and all her other subjects should continue in their honours, states, and dignities; but if they assigned no reason, her highness would replace the queen absolutely on her throne by force of arms, if they should resist; in which case her highness would expect the queen to renounce all claims to England during her highness's life, and the lives of her progeny, to convert the alliance with France into a league with England, and to substitute the English Book

*The above account is abridged from a paper corrected and interlined by Cecil, in the Cotton. Library, Calig. c. 1., and printed in Anderson's Col lections, iv. 7. Bolton, 28th July. Calig. c. 1. Anderson, iv. 109.

+ Knollys to Cecil.

of Common Prayer for the mass-book in the Scottish churches. At first she made some scruple; but, after further conference, she said she would submit her cause to her highness in thankful wise accordingly. At the same time it appeared that Herries, full as his heart was of truth and loyalty to Mary, did not mislike that she should be bridled in her government by the adjunction of some noblemen of her realm; "in consideration of her rashness and foul marriage with Bothwell, whom he would have prosecuted to death." In the interpretation and recollection of conversations which required language of so much delicacy, mis-statements at a subsequent time were altogether unavoidable. It will not, perhaps, appear to a careful and impartial reader that, in this case, either party had yet materially departed from their original overtures. The conditions proposed by Elizabeth continued to be, in the main, one and the same, from Cecil's first draught of advice to the subsequent conferences at York and Westminster. The fluctuations in Mary's language were not more than was unavoidable, amidst the violent struggles of her pride with her prudence. It was the noble care of Herries to guard the dignity of his fallen sovereign, by keeping aloof from judicial forms and pretences to jurisdiction, which, he thought, reasonably, if that had been the sole object, would be best effected by committing the discussion of Scottish affairs to the issue of a personal and friendly interview between the royal kinswomen. The English statesman leant to more rigour than was at that time acceptable to Elizabeth; and the privy council ascribed more to the varying shades of Mary's language than an equitable judge, who made due allowance for her circumstances and situation, would have approved. On the 20th of June the council had unanimously passed several resolutions respecting this great question, which contained their advice to her majesty, and were accordingly laid before her. They declared, that in their opinion the queen's majesty could not with honour or with safety release the queen of Scots, much less help her