which intrenched upon the liberty of conscience, by making it high treason to exercise the right of it; she could hang, embowel alive, and quarter, innocent victims for constructive treason; she could encourage rebellion in states at perfect peace with her, under pretence of extending the light of evangelical liberty, but which was nothing less than irreligious intolerances and lawless despotism; witness the sanguinary massacres of the Catholics by the Huguenots of France; the pillaging and burning of churches and civil wars in that country, and in Germany and Flanders; the rebellions, murders, and sacrileges committed in Scotland, by Knox and his bloody associates; all which were connived at and aided by Elizabeth and her ministers.-Mary, on the contrary, as we have seen above, incited her people to charity; she repealed obnoxious laws, and contented herself with governing under those of her predecessors; she attempted not to force the consciences of the ignorant and deluded, nor would the blood of her subjects have been spilt, had they not proved ungrateful and rebellious to her mild and equitable admonitions. Were the Puritan revilers of Popery to conduct themselves against the present government of this country as Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and other rebels, behaved themselves towards their lawful sovereign Mary, they would certainly and justly expérience a fate similar to that which some of their brethren met under the idol of their adoration, Elizabeth, for daring to profess a faith contrary to her commands. Yet such is the perversion of our Puritan bigots, that this sweet lady, who is described by Protestant historians as revengeful, cruel, and vindictive in her disposition, is esteemed by them the patroness and protectress of liberty of conscience against Popery and Slavery; whilst, on the other hand, her sister Mary, who is described, by the same historians, to have possessed a merciful disposition, is condemned as a bloody tyrant, because she found it necessary to consign some of her turbulent subjects to the offended laws of the country!!!!!

But we must return to the reign of Mary, and produce evidence to illustrate the cause which led to the execution of so many unhappy beings in the latter part of her sway, whilst she was influenced by every desire to augment the honour, the glory, and the happiness of her king domesThe pope, on hearing of the accession of Mary, and forejudging the result, appointed cardinal Pole, an Englishman of royal descent, as legate to the queen, but the cardinal hesitated to accept the appoint ment until he had more satisfactory information as to the disposition of the people of England. It was evident that the queen wished the nation should be reconciled to the holy see, and the people return to the faith of their forefathers: In this disposition the queen met her first parliament on the 10th of October, when both peers and commoners, according to ancient usage, accompanied their sovereign to a solemn mass of the Holy Ghost. This religious ceremony is still followed in Catholic countries, both monarchicale and republican, on the meeting of the legislative bodies. Gardiner, the lord chancellor, made a speech to the two houses, and the speaker, in his address to the throne, enlarged on the piety, the clemency, and other virtues of Mary, whose ears were greeted with the loudest demonstrations of loyalty and attachment. A bill was introduced of a comprehensive nature, intending to repeal at once all the acts that had been passed in the two last reigns, affecting

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either the marriage of the queen's mother, or the exercise of religion as it stood in the first year of the reign of her father. By the lords this bill met with no opposition, but it was objected to in the commons rather strongly; however, with some modifications, and a little manoeuvering on the part of the ministry, the bill was divided into two and finally carried. The opposition to the measure for restoring the ancient form of worship was confined to the commons, and though the members in favour of the new doctrines appeared to be one-third of the house, yet after a debate of two days continuance, it was carried without a division. Thus fell by a vote in parliament that fabric raised by the hands of wicked and intriguing men, of whom Tom Cranmer was the head, though they had the blasphemy to assert that it arose by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The bill for confirming the marriage between Henry and Catharine, stated, writes Dr. Lingard, "that, after "the queen's father and mother had lived together in lawful matrimony for the space of twenty years, unfounded scruples and projects "of divorce had been suggested to the king by interested individuals, "who, to accomplish their design, procured in their favour the seals "of foreign universities by bribery, of the national universities by in"trigues and threats; and that Thomas, then newly made archbishop " of Canterbury, most ungodlily, and against all rules of equity and "conscience, took upon himself to pronounce, in the absence of the queen, a judgment of divorce, which was afterwards, on two occa"sions, confirmed by parliament: but that, as the said marriage was "not prohibited by the law of God, it could not be dissolved by any "such authority; wherefore, it enacted that all statutes, confirmatory of the divorce, should be repealed, and the marriage between Henry " and Catharine should be adjudged to stand with God's law, "should be reputed of good effect and validity, to all intents and pur"poses whatsoever. Against this bill, though it was equivalent to a "statute of bastardy in respect of Elizabeth, not a voice was raised in "either house of parliament."

4

呼

and

The other bills passed by this parliament were indicative of the con stitutional disposition of Mary and her regard for the welfare of the people. All contracts entered into by individuals during the usurpation of lady Jane were legalized; all treasons created since the reign of Edward III. with the new felonies and cases of præmunire introduced by Henry VIII. were abolished; at the same time the act of Edward VI. against riotous assemblies was in part revived, and extended to such meetings as should have for their object to change, BY FORCE, the existing laws in matters of religion. To this last act the modern editors and No-popery men cannot object, as there are laws now existing of the same tendency, to preserve the Church-of-England by law established from any attempts that may be contemplated of a similar strong nature. Bills restoring in blood those persons who had been iniquitously deprived of their hereditary rights were likewise passed, and one for attainting the chief authors and abettors of the late conspiracy to exclude Mary from the throne; but its operation was limited to Tom Cranmer, lady Jane Dudley, her husband Guildford Dudley, and his brother Ambrose, who had, it must be observed, been before arraigned, and convicted on their own confessions, Mary had no intention,

量

however, that they should suffer; what she hoped was, that while she kept the sentence suspended over their heads, she should secure the loyalty of their friends, and accordingly she gave orders that they should be treated with as much indulgence as their situation would svaseoul out of aqitizoago sal allow. bonso

;

The next which Mary turned her attention was that of a marriage, by a successor in a direct line might be secured to the realm. During her brother's life, Mary voluntarily preferred a single life, and the breath of calumny has not dared to stain her continency; but she was no sooner seated on the throne, than she avowed her intention to marry. The selection of her choice lay between the cardinal Pole and Courtney, the son of the countess of Exeter, who had been the individual companion of the queen.-The latter she had recently released from the Tower, where he had been unjustly imprisoned from his youth: both were descended from the house of York. The other competitor was the prince of Spain, son of the emperor Charles V.-Courtney, by his giddy and intemperate conduct, soon lost the affections of Mary; the cardinal, besides being an ecclesiastic, and therefore requiring a dispensation from his vows of celibacy, was deemed too old; the choice therefore fell on Philip. There were also many political motives which induced Mary to select the latter, which the French minister as strenuously endeavoured, but ineffectually, to counteract. The queen wisely judged that an union with a foreign prince would add to the security of her people, and it was manifest by the negociations ther that happiness was centered in the happiness of her p people and the honour of her country. In this resolution Mary experienced much opposition; the commons addressed her, requesting her to marry, but not to select her husband from a foreign family, but from some of the native nobility. The queen, however, was not to be moved, and secretly vowed to be the wife of Philip. And now may be said to commence the troubles that continued during the rest of the reign of this nobleminded but unfortunate sovereign. The reformers were well aware that should Mary unite herself to Philip, who was a stanch Catholic prince, ice, there was no chance for their new doctrines; they therefore began that system of sedition, cabal, insurrection, and treason, which marked their steps wherever the executive authority was opposed to their views. Courtney, who owed so much to the queen, and had made him earl of Devonshire, was instigated to rebel against her, and prefer his suit to her sister Elizabeth. The latter was also worked upon, an object of suspicion to the friends of the and while she became Spanish match, she e was the idol of those who opposed it. The greatest pains were ins were taken to create dissension between the two sisters, and awaken jealousy on the part of the queen, but Mary would not listen to their representations, at least she shewed as much by her carriage towards Elizabeth; for though hough she kept her near her person till the dissolution of parliament, she treated her with the greatest kindness, and when she let her depart to one of her country seats, she made her a present of two sets of valuable pearls.

W

1

Gardiner, the lord chancellor and bishop of Winchester, had opposed the Spanish match and supported the claim of Courtney, but finding that Mary was resolute in rejecting the latter, whose conduct had been

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*rash blood* childish and disgusting, he consented to negociate the treaty of marriage between the queen and Philip on such terms as would secure the the rights and liberties, and of course the honour of the nation. Gardiner, it will be observed, was a Catholic bishop, and by his civil situation of lord chancellor, the keeper of the queen's conscience, according to the notions of Protestant statesmen now-a-days. Well, this English Catholic prelate had to negociate with the ambassadors from the Catholic ens peror of Germany, in favour of an English Catholic queen, who had given them all a spice of her own determination. When the four am bassadors were admitted to an audience in presence of the whole court, they made an offer to Mary of the prince of Spain for her husband. She replied, says Dr. Lingard, "that it became not a female to speak in public on so delicate a subject as her own marriage they were at "liberty to confer with her ministers, who would make known her in“tentions; but this she would have them bear in mind (fixing at the same time her eyes on the ring on her finger) that her realm was her 'first husband, and that no consideration should induce her to violate that "faith, which she had pledged at the time of her coronation." Do these. noble sentiments of Mary exhibit a narrowness of spirit," or an igno rance of the constitution of the country, or a desire to " trample on the ing privileges of mankind?" Oh! much abused and calumniated princessber how well would it have been for this country, and for Christendom in general, if thy successor had imbibed the same patriotic and disinterestres ed feelings, the same real love of the people, and the same adherence too the fundamental principles of the constitution, which thou manifested of throughout the whole of thy reign.

:9vils llits law The terms of the treaty were soon settled between the lord chancelsm lor and the resident ambassador from the imperial court, and the cons ditions agreed to were the following, according to the testimony of Dri Heylin. 1. That it should be lawful for Philip to assume the title of "all the kingdoms and provinces belonging to his wife, and should beoup joint governor with her over those kingdoms; the privileges and custo "toms thereof always preserved inviolate, and the full and free distribute "tion of bishoprics, benefices, favours and offices, always remaining ing sast "tire in the queen. 2. That the queen should also o carry the titles ofɑ ni "all those realms, into which Philip either then was, or should be after 1, 2 "wards invested. 3. That if the queen survived Philip, sixty thousands pounds per annum should be assigned to her for her jointure, as had ges "been formerly assigned to the lady Margaret, sister to king Edward te "the 4th and wife to Charles duke of Burgundy, 4. That the issue 26 "begotten by this marriage should succeed in all the queen's dominions, ni as also in the dukedom and county of of Burgundy, and all those profi "vinces in the Netherlands, of which the emperor was possessed, oneri bas "That if none but daughters should proceed from marriage, the d "eldest should succeed in all the said provinces of the Netherlands, pror to “vided that by the counsel and consent of Charles (the son o of Philip by sie "Mary of Portugal his first wife) she should make choice of a husband did "out of England or the Netherlands, or otherwise to be deprived of 197 her right in the succession in the said estates, and ❝ed in them; and in that case convenient portions to be made for her bi and Charles to to be investor at "and the rest of the daughters. 9. And finally, that if the said Charles

"

this

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"should depart this life without lawful issue, that then the heir surviv "ing of this marriage, though female only, should succeed in all the theat kingdoms of Spain, together with all the dominions and estates of Italy "thereunto belonging."

These conditions must appear to every unprejudiced mind by far

Spain Vantageous to the realm of England

more

crown, ofis Spain. In fact, every advantage was on the side of this country. Had there been issue between the parties, the territories of England would have been considerably extended, and, as it was, she obtained the most powerful alliances by the match. But Philip was a Catholic, and it was not in the nature of the disciples of the new doctrines, as we shall soon shew, to be satisfied with the political advantages of the country, 42 when their fanatical notions on religion were likely to be superseded by a return to sound sense and an unerring rule of faith. Gardiner explained the articles to the lord mayor and aldermen, in an eloquent discourse, in which he pointed out the many valuable benefits to be anticipated from such an union with the heir apparent, for Philip was only prince of Spain at the time of the treaty, to so many rich and powerful territories. The public announcement of the match, however, was far from satisfying the opponents of the measure, whose restless and unprincipled disposition began to display itself by the practice of the most abominable artifices. They circulated the most incredible, stories, the private character of Philip was loaded with the basest imputations that s could disgrace the lowest of mankind, much more a prince; it was given out at one time that an army of Spaniards and imperialists were coming of to take absolute possession of the kingdom; at another, that Edward was still alive; that the queen had broken her promise to the Suffolk

men

un-ce

not to alter the religion settled in Edward's time; that the mar-sof riage would be but an introduction to a second vassalage to the popes. 5 of Rome; and that Mary had therefore forfeited her right to the crown By these and such like reports, the leading conspirators against the queen had prepared the ignorant and fanatical people and the realm for rebellion, and it was agreed that the duke of Suffolk, who still had the ambition of seeing his daughter replaced on the throne, should arm his tenants in Warwickshire; that Courtney, should raise the discontented in Devonshire, under the assurance of marrying the lady Elizabeth; and sir Thomas Wyat w was to put himself at the head of the malecontents in Kent. The co conduct of the duke of Suffolk in this business was most base and ungrateful. Though implicated with Northumberland in the first conspiracy against Mary's claim, instead of suffering with him, he was allowed to retire to his is own house, after a detention of three days in the Tower; received at court with a distinction the jealousy of Elizabeth; the forfeiture of his property and honours had been preserved to him by the clemency of Mary; and he had given to her the most solemn assurances of his approbations of her marriage. Such was the vile ungenerous conduct of this preci sian in religion, this disciple of Puritanism and treason. The lady Eliza-1/ beth, too, was not an unconcerned observer of this conspiracy. A let lette ter to her from Wyat, recommending her removal from the vicinity of the metropolis to Dunnington castle, was intercepted by the council, and Mary sent an order for her to return to to court; but she neither fol

which excited duchess was