altojour evansa cview: koenvi though in an opposite direction to Mary, if we persist in thinking otherwise.

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bf (intent on preserving the stigma which historians have affixed to the name of this unfortunate princess) it is Elizabeth' was saved from destruction, purely by the interference of Philip, Mary's husband, I reply, that in no instance, on valid authority, can this be proved the case; but even admitting the possibility of such a presump-" tion being correct, it must assuredly strengthen the grounds on which I affirm that Scarcely any act of Mary's reign was the result of her p sonal inclination. Since, if she spared her most offensive foe, whether we look on the enmity as religious or otherwise, at the solicitation of" a man who had not individual power to command, certainly, without determined to be impartial or unjust, we must suppose that she was equally undeterminate on all other subjects to which her assent was necessary

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But Sir Thomas Wyat's conspiracy (a rare opportunity for ridding herself of her rival, if such a purpose had occupied her mind) occurred before her marriage. From this peril therefore, of course, Elizabeth was not preserved by her brother-in-law. Philip was likewise absent in Spain for a considerable period, and a sanguinary tyrant would scarcely have failed to profit by his absence. A thousand hands only waited for her signal to stretch Elizabeth a corpse on the floor of that Chisto Hertfordshire palace, which, by favour of a poetical license, our historians are pleased to term a dungeon.

"Should any writer undertake the history of this reign, with the generous wish of eliciting truth, he will find more MS. chronicles to assist his labour than would the narrator of any other remote period of our history; and I repeat that, from Mary's conduct in regard to Elizabeth, accurately investigated, he will be able to exhibit her personal character in a light quite different from that in which it has usually been placed."

The liberal sentiments thus expressed by this Protestant writer, does equal credit to his head and heart. He has most triumphantly vindicated Mary's character from the charge of blood-thirstiness, so cruelly and unjustly lavished on her by bigotted and unprincipled writers. We must however d differ from the opinion he has formed of Mary's education, which we think did not restrict her mental faculties, not did she display' any deficiency in the exercise of her intellectual capacities, more than the constitutional sovereign does to the capricious tyrant. Mary followed, the principles of justice according to the rule of her ancestors; Elizabeth knew no other system than that of expediency and her own despo-" tig will. Mary's letters to her brother Edward, the lords of the council, her discourse with Ridley, and other documents preserved by Dodd, in his Church History, by no means betray a want of political or theo logical ability.

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Desirous to place on record the most unexceptionable testimony in favour of this slandered princess, we shall produce four other Protestant historians as witnesses on her side. Collier writes thus: It may be af fimred without panegyrie that the queen's private life was all along strict and unblemished. It must be said, that religion had the over-balance : the other world was uppermost with her; and she valued her conscience

above her crownbThat she was not of a vin vindictive implacable spirit, may be inferred from her pardoning most of the great men in Northumberland's rebellion (Eccl. Hist. vol. ii. b. 6. p. 406.). Camden says, "A princess never sufficiently to be commended of all men, for her pious and religious demeanour, her commiseration towards the poor, and her magnificence and liberality towards the nobility and churchmen. Intry to the Annals of Q. Eliz. p. 10.) Echard testifies, She was a woman of a strict and severe life; who allowed herself few of those diversions belonging to courts: was constant at her devotions, &c. She much endeavoured to expiate, and restore the sacrileges of the last reigns." (Hist, of Eng. p. 327.) And Fuller states, that " she hated to equivocate in her own religion; and always was what she was, without dissembling her judgment, or practice, for fear or flattery.... She had been a worthy princess, had as little cruelty been done under, as was done by her." (Ch. Hist. b. viii. p. 42.) 116 2001900 asw vlimuste We shall close this vindication of the memory of a calumnaited and ill-treated virtuous princess with Dr. Lingard's vivid delineation of Mary's character;" The foulest blot (he says) on the character of this queen is her long and cruel persecution of the reformers. The sufferings of the victims naturally beget an antipathy to the woman, by whose authority they were inflicted. It is, however, but fair to recollect what I have already noticed, that the extirpation of erroneous doctrine was inculcated as a duty by the leaders of every religious party. Mary only practised what they taught. It was her misfortune, rather than her fault, that she was not more enlightened than the wisest of her contemporaries. to With this exception, she has been ranked by the more moderate of the reformed writers among the best, though not the greatest of our princes. They have borne honourable testimony to her virtues; have allotted to her the praise of piety and clemency, of compassion for the poor, and liberality to the distressed; and have recorded her solicitude to restore to opulence the families that had been unjustly deprived of their possessions by her father and brother, and to provide for the wants of the parochial 9 clergy who had been reduced to penury by the spoliations of the last government. It is acknowledged that her m moral character was beyond reproof. It extorted respect from all even the most virulent of herenemies. The ladies of her household copied the conduct of their mistress, and the decency of Mary's court was often mentioned with applause by those, Who lamented the dissoluteness which prevailed in that of her successer.

The queen was thought by some to have inherited the obstinacy of her father: but there was this difference, that before she formed her decisions, she sought for advice and information, and made it an riable rule to prefer right to expediency. One of the outlaws, who had Lobtained his pardon, hoped to ingratiate himself with Mary by devising -a plan to render her independent of parliament. He submitted it to bathe inspection of the Spanish ambassador, by whom it was recommended to her consideration. Sending for Gardiner, she bade him peruse it, and then abjured him, as h he should answer at 1 the judgment seat of bGod, to speak his real sentiments. Madam, replied the prelate, it is a pity that so virtuous a lady should be surrounded by such sycophants. The book is naught it is filled with things too horrible to be thought of. She thanked him, and threw the paper into the fire......

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It had been the custom of her predecessors to devote the summer months to progresses through different counties. But these journeys produced considerable injury and inconvenience to the farmers, who were not only compelled to furnish provisions to the purveyors at in adequate prices, but were withdrawn on the labours of the harvest to aid with their horses and waggons in the frequent removals of the court, and of the multitude which accompanied it. Mary, through consideration for the interests and comforts of the husbandmen, en denied herself this pleasure; and generally confined her excursions to Croy don, a manor belonging to the church of Canterbury. There it formed her chief musement to walk out in the company of her maids, with any distinction of dress, and in this disguise to visit the houses of the neigbouring poor. She inquired into their circumstances #relieved their wants, spoke in their favour to her officers, and often, when the mdren as was numerous, apprenticed, at her own expense, such of the children as appeared of promising dispositions..... saulo llede g'l! Though her parliaments were convoked for temporary purposes, they made several salutary enactments, respecting the offence of treason, the office of sheriff, the powers of magistrates, the relief of the poor, and the practice of the courts of law. The merit of these may be due council, but of her own solicitude for administration of justice, we have a convincing proof. It had long been complained that in suits, to which the crown was a party, the subject, whatever were his right, had no probability of a favourable decision, on account of the superior advantages claimed and enjoyed by the counsel for the sovereign. When Mary appointed Morgan chief justice of the court of common pleas, she took the opportunity v to express her disapprobation of this grievance. I charge you, sir," said she, to minister the law and justice indifferently, without respect of person; and, notwithstanding the old error among you, which will not admit any witness to speak, or other matter to be heard in favour of the adversary, the crown being a party, it is my pleasure, that whatever can be in favour of the subject, may be admitted and heard. You are to sit there, not as advocates for me, but as indifferent judges between me and my people...

brought

Mary may also claim the merit of having supported the commercial interests of the country against the pretensions of a company of foreign merchants, which had existed for centuries in London, under the different denominations of Easterlings, merchants of the Hanse towns, and merchants of the Steelyard. By their readiness to advance loans of money on sudden emergencies, they had purchased the most valuable privileges from several of our monarchs. They formed a corporation, governed by its own laws: whatever duties were exacted from others, they paid no more than one per cent. on their merchandize they were at the same time buyers and sellers," so brokers and carriers they imported jewels and bullion, cloth of gold and silver, tapestry and wrought silk, arms, naval stores, and household furniture: and exported wool and woollen cloths, skins, lead and tin, cheese and beer, and Mediterranean wines. Their privileges and wealth, gave them a superiority over all other merchants, which excluded competito the Ting kit would bus non budna:it 382

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tion, and enabled them to raise or depress the prices alurost ut pleasure. In the last reign the public feeling against them had been manifested by frequent acts of violence, and several petitions had been presented to the council, complaining of the injuries suffered by the English merchants. After a long investigation it was declared, that the company had violated, and consequently had forfeited its charter : but by dint of remonstrances, of presents, and of foreign intercession, it obtained, in the course of a few weeks, a royal licence to resume the traffic under the former regulations. In Mary's first parliament, a new blow was aimed at its privileges: and it was enacted in the bill of tonnage and poundage, that the Easterlings should pay the same duties as other foreign merchants. The queen, indeed, wassinduced to suspend, for awhile, the operation of the statute; but she soon discerned the true interests of her subjects, revoked the priyileges of the company, and refused to listen to the arguments adduced, or the intercession made in its favour. Elizabeth followed the policy of her predecessor: the steelyard was at length shut up; and the Hanse towns, after a long and expensive suit, yielded to necessity, and abandoned the contest.'

".

The modern editors of Fox charge Mary with being “unacquainted with the constitution of the country," and that she sought to domineer over the rights of private judgment and trample on the privileges of man10 kind." The above facts, however, prove most incontestibly that Mary

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s not only a constitutional queen, but that she was careful of the privileges of her subjects, and anxious that justice should be meeted out to them. Had these editors applied the charge to their darling Bess, they would not have swerved from the truth. This lady has been lauded to the skies as a pattern to all sovereigns, though there never was was a more merciless tyrant on the throne of England, not even Γ. excepting her father Henry. We have given her character from the pen of the last named historian, in the first volume, page 147; and we recommend its perusal here, that the unprejudiced Protestant may see how much he has hitherto been deceived in the conduct of Elizabeth, and be enabled to draw a fair contrast between the qualities of the two sisters. We will say nothing of Elizabeth's birth, but let her be judged by her actions after she came to the crown.→In the first place she committed perjury, by swearing to protect the Catholic religion, and immediately after destroying it. If she preferred the new doctrines, why not openly avow her sentiments, as her sister did in favour of the old faith, and not call Heaven to witness what she did not sheid in faintend to perform! She destroyed most of the ancient nobility of the kingdom by the most unjust and iniquitous ways, and raised up a race of titled upstarts, governed by the worst vices.-She persecuted and displaced the gld, clergy, who were men of learning, and thrust in their places the refuse and scum of the ecclesiastical order, as well as idle tradesmen, who thought they should get more by thumping a cushion than mending a kettle. She sold licences, pardons, dispensations, &c. and put military law into execution on trivial occasions. In a word, authentic history proves that Elizabeth was a sovereign disregardless of the honour of her crown, or the lives and property of her subjects;

yet being the founder of the Church established by law, she is cried up by those interested in its loaves and fishes, and others out of hatred to the ancient faith, as a glorious queen, and the honour of her country.

The modern editors, after giving near 360 pages of the sufferings sof martyrs, as they are dubbed, conclude their tenth book with some remarks on the severe punishment of God upon the persecutors of ahis people, and such as have been blasphemers, &c. which are not 9 worth criticising. We shall, therefore, dismiss this book with one observation. If national calamities are to be considered a mark of God's judgment on the wicked, the broils and civil wars, the execution of a sking the exilement of his son for years, the foundation of debts, taxes, poor rates, pauperism, and every evil that can impoverish and enslave a people all which may be traced in the page of history as -progressively befalling this country, since the period of the Reformation so called, and are now nearly arrived at a crisis, threatening the most dreadful results-England has most assuredly experienced God's Swrath, for abandoning the religion he came on earth to establish with bhis blood, and which was the creed of the country for more than nine hundred years.pos rodton aldansdov ani estesanoo salt banohrads betaisuposats grind de fa gairebon adTod Taaremely of tonos de BOOK XI.

www to as galiojagada do grabite global evo ValTHE eleventh Book of this work is headed-A general Account of the Attempts made by the Papists to overturn the Protestant Governhement of England, from the Accession of Queen Elizabeth to the Reign of George II" It commences with The Spanish Armada, of whic we shall only say, that if this was an attempt by the Papists to egyerSaturn Elizabeth's government, the Catholics of England were not parties astositpras bits is acknowledged by all authorities worthy of credit, that they took the most conspicuous part, and were principally successful, in sydestroying this Spanish Armada. One fact we think quite sufficient to y establish this statement, and that is, that the lord high admiral who commanded the English fleet was a Catholic. As to the instruments toof torture, the modern editors had better look at home, as we shall, in 15our next volume display barbarities practised, on Catholics, in Eliza Jabethis reign, which none but monsters of cruelty could enforced -ils pilote tators of pronowe wok pritisno ottimmes de solgt

won odd bom ara THE GUNPOWDER PLOT,ure besung

The next subject is the "Horrid Conspiracy by the Papists for the destruction of James I, the Royal Family, and both Houses of Parliament; commonly known by the name of the Gun-powder Plot," Had the modern editors termed it a horrid conspiracy on the part of Protestant statesmen, for the destruction of the Catholics of England, they would have come much nearer the truth. The father of James I. was actually blown up with gunpowder at his house at Kirk-a-field, near Edinburgh, as he lay sick in his bed, by Protestant conspirators but it was not intended to serve James in like manner. This plot was a sham one, to answer political purposes, contrived by Cecil, the secretary of state, and ways tary of state, and the hypocritical celebration of it with the mockery of a religious ceremony, was focosely called by James himself, Cecil's Ho