Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

restoration to the throne, till, after a fair hearing of both parties, she should be absolved from the heinous crime charged upon her. The restitution of Mary to the dignity without the power of a queen seemed to the lords so subtle and complicated a scheme, so defective in securities against the most imminent perils, so likely to wound the pride and indignation of Mary, and to kindle her desire of revenge by arming it with some new weapons, that the council rejected it as altogether unmeet. They recommended that an account of all that had occurred, particularly of Mary's disposition to shrink from an enquiry which she had at first courted, should be communicated to the kings of France and Spain.

Few great transactions can be so fully estimated from the original documents as the detention of the queen of Scots in England. The documents themselves are eminently worthy of trust. They are the work of a statesman who was accustomed to write dissertations on public measures, and to examine them with a logical analysis, which almost compels a writer to fill up, according to the rules of method, every separate question presented by the subject which he handles. They much more resemble the writings of a political philosopher than the compositions of statesmen and diplomatists; which are generally coloured with a mere temporary purpose, and studiously avoid that rigorous order which renders too prominent the omission of topics inconvenient to be urged. In none of these state papers do we find that silence on some subjects, those mere allusions to others, that very partial disclosure of a third sort, which, though not unreasonable in diplomatic correspondence, where it is an object to avoid what might imprudently pledge one party, or needlessly offend another, yet are so often used for deception, as to be always liable to suspicions of a sinister purpose. From such suspicions the very pedantry of Cecil guards him, by compelling him to write with a sort of excess of good faith. The fulness and plainness of them imply a deep respect for the understanding of Elizabeth: naked reason is laid before her, without any attempts to conceal what might be

obnoxious, or to soften what was harsh, without flattering her vanity or inflaming her passions. This treatment implied undoubtedly the highest commendation which can be bestowed upon a sovereign. But it never could be adopted for a personal purpose. It is flattering only to the wise. It would be displeasing to inferior minds. Whenever it is successful, it is with princes who are inaccessible to adulation. The whole tone of the documents contradicts opinions which have arisen in later times. It is evident from them that all public measures originated with her sagacious counsellors, and that, though adopted by her wisdom, they were little influenced by her private passions and personal defects; excepting, indeed, those which relate to marriage, or to the inheritance of the crown and the pretensions to the succession.*

* About 250 years after Mary had crossed the Solway, another case of exception from ordinary rules arose in England, opposite to hers in moral circumstances, yet resembling it in the dry skeleton of legal theory.

Napoleon Bonaparte, probably the most extraordinary man who has ap peared in the world since Julius Cæsar, whom he surpassed in genius for war as much as he and all other warriors must yield to the great dictator in the arts and attainments of peace, having raised himself to the sovereignty of Europe by his commanding faculties, when he was hurled from that eminence by his insolent contempt for mankind, sought for refuge in the ships and territories of the only nation who had successfully defied his power. When he applied with that view to the commander of a British ship of war, he was answered, as Mary had been by the governor of Carlisle, that an officer had no authority to promise more than an hospitable reception in his own ship. The course of events obliged Mary to rush into shelter before the answer of Mr. Lowther arrived. Napoleon was compelled to take refuge in the ship before any answer could be obtained from a competent authority. Both affected to act voluntarily, though they were alike driven by necessity to the first open asylum. Neither of them was born an English subject, nor had committed any offence within the jurisdiction of England: consequently, neither of them was amenable to English law. Neither of them could be justly considered as at war with England; though, on that part of the subject, some technical but unsubstantial obstacles might be opposed to Napoleon, which could not be urged against Mary. The im prisonment of neither was conformable to the law of England or the law of nations. But the liberty of Mary was deemed to be at variance with the safety of the English government; as the enlargement of Napoleon was thought to be with the independence of nations, and with the repose for which Europe sighed after long bloodshed. The imprisonment, though in neither case warranted by the rules of municipal or international law, was in both justified by that necessity from which these rules have sprung, and without which no violence can rightfully be done to a human being.

Agreeably to this view of the matter, the detention of Napoleon was legalised by an act of the British parliament. By the bare passing of such act it was tacitly assumed, that the antecedent detention was without warrant of law. This evident truth is more fully admitted by the language o the statute, which, in assigning the reason for passing it, alleges, that "it is necessary for the preservation of the tranquillity of Europe, and for the general safety, that Napoleon Bonaparte should be detained and kept in custody;" and it is still more explicitly declared, by a specific enactment * 56 Geo. 3. cap. 22. A. D. 1816.

It must be owned that it is hard to deny that the necessity of self-defence, which is the only just foundation of the rights of war and of criminal justice, may not, in extreme emergencies, warrant violence to individuals, even though the principle of defence be not embodied in antecedent rules of law. Yet the methods by which men may be regularly and legitimately deprived of life or liberty are sufficiently comprehensive. The seasons at which exceptions present themselves, are commonly those in which fear and anger render just judgment most improbable, If they be considered as warranted in cases of minor severity, it will be found impossible to assign any limits to them other than the conscience and mercy of the possessors of power. Their opinion of what is necessary to ward off danger from themselves must become the sole measure of their conduct. The immense range of moral colours, from a fraudulent pretension through a considerable convenience, or the removal of an impediment or an accession to safety, up to the very confines of a struggle for existence, is more than enough to dazzle and bewilder the eye of the mind. A restraint on personal liberty, which seems to be the mildest and most strictly defensible of all irregular measures, has yet evils peculiar to itself, arising from the circumstance that it must often be long in order to be effectual. The danger is forgotten by the sufferer and the spectators; the anomaly alone steadfastly continues to glare on the eye. The prisoner complains often only from the irritation of his condition, sometimes with a purpose to provoke. Impartial bystanders embrace his cause, in proportion as his vexations are prolonged. The inferior agents in his detention, sometimes justly displeased, sometimes to pay their court to their employers, become more harsh. The process is sometimes cut short by the death of the prisoner, which generally earns for his memory the fellow-feeling of after ages. In other cases it proceeds

which pronounces, that he " shall be deemed and taken to be, and shall be treated and dealt with, as a prisoner of war;" a distinct admission that h was not so in contemplation of law until the statute had imposed that character upon him.

from complaint to conspiracy, which exasperates the sovereign more and more, until a government is provoked into a deed of blood, which leaves an indelible stain on its name.

Whoever with calmness reviews these melancholy portions of history, after temporary passions have subsided, will find it impossible to repress a wish that no exceptions from the rules of moral and even of legal justice towards individuals may hereafter be countenanced by historians or moralists. This might at

length contribute to banish such direful expedients from the practice of states. The least reflection will enable a reader, even if he only glances over the surface of history, to perceive how surely such stretches of power render their authors for ever odious, and how seldom (if ever) they were necessary to the safety of communities.

CHAP. III.

ELIZABETH.

1560-1574.

INTERNAL AFFAIRS.

THE revolutions of Scotland, the highest object of English policy during the early years of Elizabeth, have been thus related somewhat fully, until the moment arrived when, by the firm establishment of a reformed government among the Scots, they lost their importance in the history of England. Till Scotland was in friendly hands, Britain could not, in a military view, be regarded as an island. It was only then that the allies of Bayonne were deprived of the vantage ground from which they most nearly threatened the overthrow of Elizabeth's throne. The duke of Alva, who was then beginning to carry into execution the secret projects of these

princes, was not yet aware that the ruler of the island fortress, of which the works were just completed, was to prove a guardian of national independence, and an unconscious champion of religious liberty; who would sally forth in due time from behind her bulwarks, pouring hope into the bosoms of the persecuted, and striking terror into the hearts of the bigot and the tyrant.

These events, thus big with the fortunes of Christendom, become peculiarly interesting to the English historian, by enabling him to estimate our most famous sovereign and our wisest statesman, whose qualities are exhibited in their dealing with Scotland. We have seen, in original documents, which have strong intrinsic claims on belief, that the measures of the English cabinet, though not above exception, were not full of such art and stratagem,—nor, on the other hand, so characterised by caprice and jealousy,— as they have been supposed to be, by some historians, from hostile prejudice; by others, from a desire to excite surprise at contrasted qualities in the same character, and more especially at an union of high faculties with shameful foibles. has appeared that the supposed influence of the most odious of womanish faults cannot be really traced in negotiations, of which the whole particulars were intrusted to experienced statesmen. We shall not be recalled to the contemplation of these circumstances in the relations between the queens of England and Scotland, till scenes present themselves which will compel us to transfer our admiration and blame, with an equal observance of historical justice, to diametrically opposite parties.

It

The first ten years of Elizabeth's domestic adminis tration were a season of undisturbed quiet, -- barren in memorable events or affecting incidents. They were called by contemporaries "her halcyon days.”* "Until the tenth year of her reign the times were calm and serene, though sometimes overcast; as the most glorious sunshine is subject to shadowings and droopings;-for Naunton, Fragmenta Regalia.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »