had not been introduced in a barbarous age by the usurping and dictatorial Innocent III.*, never could have crept into any communion professing the meek and merciful religion of the Prince of Peace. There are many degrees of inferior punishment, but for the love of God spare their lives. If that cannot be, (but what should restrain the exercise of your mercy?) at least grant a long respite in which we may reclaim them from their monstrous errors. s." He is said to have poignantly felt the infliction of such punishment in a place consecrated by the ashes of protestant martyrs. + All his topics are not indeed consistent with the true principles of religious liberty. But they were more likely to soften the antipathy of his contemporaries, and to win the assent of his sovereign, than bolder propositions ; they form a wide step towards liberty of conscience. Had the excellent writer possessed the power of showing mercy, and once tasted the sweetness of exercising it towards deluded fanatics, he must doubtless have been attracted to the practice of unbounded toleration. He gained for them only a respite. The writ de heretico comburendo was issued for the first time under Elizabeth. John Weelmaker and Henry Toorwoort, the two anabaptists, were burnt at Smithfield on the 23d of July, dying, says the chronicler, "with great horror, crying and roaring." This murder, as far as the multitude thought of it, met with their applause. It was con

sidered by others as the ordinary course. But the first blood spilt by Elizabeth for religion forms in the eye of posterity a dark spot upon a government hitherto distinguished, beyond that of any other European community, by a religious administration, which, if not unstained, was at least bloodless.

Whilst the queen thus vigorously, and, as we have seen, sometimes unjustly, repressed the various parties which prevailed among her subjects, no ruler perhaps

This ambitious pontiff is condemned with as much severe justice by the abbé Fleury, as by any protestant writer. Hist. Ecclésiast. liv. lxxv lxxvi. + Heylin, ubi supra, 105. Stowe, 680. Heylin, 105.

ever watched more closely, or consulted more assiduously, those sentiments of a quiescent and somewhat impartial nature, which actuated the classes who possessed most influence over their countrymen, and might be considered as constituting or representing the final judgment of the public. Her festivities and amusements were converted into effectual instruments for discovering and guiding that lasting portion of national opinion. It was her custom to make annual " progresses” through the parts of her dominions not too remote from London, in which she examined the principal towns, and visited the chief gentry of the southern counties. On these occasions, she was attended by a gay and brilliant assemblage of knights and ladies in gorgeous apparel, and on coursers full of fire and grace, mixed with grave personages arrayed in a rich variety of official habits, which excited the inhabitants to hang their houses sometimes with cloth of gold and of silver; thus turning the day of her arrival into a day of festival and jubilee, which amused and delighted the eyes of the humblest of her people. Every graceful saying uttered by her on these joyful occasions flew through the neighbourhood, and left an agreeable impression of her on every age and rank. During her residence at Windsor, her learning rendered her approbation of the exercises at Eton acceptable to the ambitious boys. On her visit to Cambridge, her harangues to the University announced the pupil of Roger Ascham to the academical youth. A well-timed familiarity marked her general demeanour. When on a visit to the old marquis of Winchester, who entertained her jovially at Basing, she said,—“ By my troth, if my lord treasurer were but a younger man, I could find in my heart to have him for my husband, as well as any man in England.' At Oxford, in 1566, she rallied Dr. Humphries for his suspected puritanism, saying, “Mr. Doctor, that loose gown becomes you mighty well. I wonder your notions should be so narThe harangue of the Greek professor she gra

row.

This

ciously answered in the language which it was his province to teach. It was no inconsiderable homage to the free exercise of reason that she allowed such critical questions to be discussed before her, as- "Whether the civil commands of a sovereign are to be obeyed, and whether hereditary monarchy be preferable to that which is elective?" The value of this intercourse was often enhanced by its very homeliness. When the mayor of Coventry presented a handsome and well-filled purse to her, she answered, "I have few such gifts. It is a hundred pounds in gold.”. "Please your grace," replied the mayor, "it is a great deal more." "What is that?" said she." It is," said he, "the hearts of all your loving subjects.". “We thank you, Mr. Mayor,” said she, "it is a great deal more, indeed." The festivities which filled up these progresses were exhibited on the most magnificent scale by the favourite Leicester, at Kenilworth castle, of which the palatial remains still attest the vast dimensions and pristine grandeur. noble mansion, of which the fame has been recently spread over the world by one of those few men of genius whose works have instantly become a part of the library of the whole European race, was frequently visited by Elizabeth. A very brief summary of the sports and amusements which diverted the royal and noble visitants, and probably still more delighted the people, who always shared in some of them, will afford a faint notion of the diversity of those jarring, but stirring exhibitions. No national sport was omitted. The people and the mob of all ranks were indulged in baiting bulls and bears. Italians, who were rope-dancers, jugglers, and performers of other amazing feats, entertained the guests and the numerous spectators. She was welcomed at the entrance by one who personated "the Lady of the Lake" in the romance of King Arthur. The highest personages assisted in the fantastic but national ceremonies of a bridal, between a handsome pair of the neighbourhood. Music and dancing were blended with hunting and fishing parties. The masques and pageants displayed a

strange jumble of Gothic romance with Grecian mythology, of allegorical persons with the heroes of legend, with a small sprinkling of the warriors whose shadowy forms are dimly perceived on the farthest frontier of history. Jupiter and king Arthur, Saturn and Huon of Bourdeaux, sir Eglamour and Virgil are thrown together marvellously, and perhaps absurdly, but with a prodigality and variety which rudely foreshows the age of Shakspeare. A celebrated reciter of that time, one captain Cox, told all the tales, and repeated all the ballads, which formed the delight of the people from Bevis of Hampton to Clim of the Cleugh. The citizens of Coventry and the farmers of Warwickshire were pleased with finding that the pastimes of their own winter evenings were among the chosen enjoyments of their sovereign.

Very little more can be here said on this subject. Sir Nicholas Bacon was perplexed by the offer of a royal visit, with which he declared that he knew not how to deal, having passed his time on the bench or in counsel more than at court, When she visited him at Gorhambury, she told him that his house was too small for him; to which he answered, "No, madam, your grace has made me too great for my house." She paid twelve visits to Cecil, each of which is said to have cost him 30007.: a sum which seems incredible, if we suppose the value of money of the same denomination to have been then only four times greater than it is at present. Many complaints are extant of the burden which the queen thus threw on her nobility and gentry. But there is some reason to suspect that these complaints were occasionally disguised boasts of royal favours, and that the cost was in other cases amply, though not directly, compensated by the bounty of the crown.

Sir Thomas Gresham, to whom several of these visits were made, was a person whose aggrandisement was a characteristic feature of his age. His father, the son of an ancient and opulent family in Norfolk, had applied himself to merchandise in the reign of Henry VII. He

enriched himself as the chief merchant and moneydealer of Henry VIII. He was favourable to the new opinions in religion; as well as a remarkable example of that conquest over old prejudice which shrank from traffic as derogatory to a gentleman. Sir Thomas Gresham followed the footsteps of his father on the road to great wealth, as banker to Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth. At the accession of the latter princess, when her exchequer was beggarly, he procured for her, on the credit of the city of London, a large loan at Antwerp, then one of the greatest money markets of the world. He was consulted in his province by Cecil and the council, whom he often brought over to his somewhat reasonable opinions on commercial questions; and he, at one time, prevailed on the cautious minister to seize great sums of money, sent in Spanish ships by Philip to Alva, under the pretext that the specie belonged to certain Genoese traders, to whom the repayment was guaranteed. In 1570 the queen went, in a solemn and splendid procession, to dine with this great merchant; and gave the name of "The Royal Exchange" to the handsome building which he had erected for the intercourse of traders. He displayed his mercantile magnificence in his seat at Osterley Park, near Brentford. When his intention to found a college became known, he was besieged by importunate counsellors, who entreated him to choose Oxford or Cambridge, instead of London, where it was known to be his wish to place it. He showed his sagacity in adhering to his first purpose, and founded Gresham College; which, however, has long ceased to answer any useful purpose. The growing importance of trade, thus exemplified in the life of Gresham, was evidenced by the multiplication of unskilful and pernicious laws to monopolise navigation, and to regulate the trader in the pursuit of profit, which have not, perhaps, been surpassed by modern ignorance and presumption.

The progress of trade might, however, have been more slow if it had depended alone on those exact cal