The memory of Elizabeth has been advantageously accompanied with the tributary applauses of intelligent foreigners, her contemporaries: of whom De Thou, who has commended her with his superior pen; 188 and Castelnau, who personally observed and felt her merit, will be read with pleasure by every liberal minded Englishman.189 She avowed that the

will favor me, by transmitting some by my hand for this most serene queen. Likewise, if there are to be had in your kingdom cloths of silk or wool fit for so high a queen, to send some, as these will be more valued by her than any thing your majesty can give her. I have only to pray Heaven to give you victory over your enemies, and that your majesty may be ever prosperous and happy.' Ellis, ib. p. 54, 5.

188 Elizabeth had a masculine and elevated courage, and displayed from the beginning of her reign, a refined mind, instructed by adversity. The equality of soul which appeared in all her conduct, to the end of her life, produced that regular and constant happiness which accompanied her to her death. Magnificent in the distribution of her favors, yet always giving more to merit than from her inclination; she governed her liberalities with a prudential care, lest her finances being exhausted by her bounty, she should be forced to press upon her people to supply them. Always foreseeing, never avaricious, she enjoyed her fortune in all its exalting height, not with that security which abandons itself to its pleasures, but with that wise inquietude which becomes a prince, who is always on guard against evils that may supervene.' De Thou, Hist. 1. 129. v. 14. p. 144.

189 She has prospered in all her affairs, and continues to do so, and not from any great superfluities or immense donations which she has made; for she has always been a great economist, yet without exacting from her subjects, as preceding sovereigns had done. Her greatest desire has been the repose of her people, who have become surprisingly enriched during her reign. She had all the great qualities which are requisite for a long reign; yet, however excellent her talents, she never would decide or undertake any thing on her own opinion, but she always referred it to her council. Preserving herself free from all wars, she rather threw them upon her neighbours, than drew them on herself, and thus was like Augustus, when he closed the temple of Janus, by the universal peace which he established around him. She has been taxed with avarice, but unjustly, because she would not make large donations. She discharged all the debts of her predecessors, put her own finances into good order, and amassed great riches without imposing any new tax on her people. She has reigned eight years together without asking for any subsidy, tho her predecessors required one every three years; and in 1570, when her subjects offered her the money, she thanked them, but declined it, and assured them, that she would never levy any, unless the necessity of the state required it.' Castel. Mem. v. 1. p. 61, 2.

XXXVII.

fame of future times was a boon which she desired;190 CHAP. and as she has so fairly and so fully deserved it, she ought not to be unjustly deprived of it. The desire of this is so universal, and seems to be so instinctive in our nature, and operates so powerfully to do good when it seeks its object thro laudable pursuits, that it is not a chimerical possibility, that it may be something more to us than a voice which we cannot hear, or than a breath which evaporates as it is uttered. The reputation which we attain during this life, may follow our being wherever that may be situated hereafter, with all its momentous consequences; creating benefit and pleasure to us there, whenever it has arisen from what piety and virtue sanction and perpetuate here; but causing to us personal and sentient evil and disgrace in our future abode, if it has sprung from actions, writings or character, which have been repugnant to moral reason, to human welfare, or to religious truth. It is the soundest inference to believe that all Fame will be an unceasing companion to its possessor, for good or for evil, as long as the spirit shall exist any where in conscious sensitivity. In the meantime, in this world, the truest panegyrist of Elizabeth, will be, as lord Bacon has remarked, revolving and impartial TIME, which had produced nothing like her, among her own sex, in the administration of civil affairs.191 The longer England

190 We learn this from lord Bacon: 'She was much pleased when told, that in a private or middling life, she might have surpassed her ancestors; but that now she would not live without the distinction of excellence among all mankind.' Bacon, p. 194.

191 Revera discendum est non alium verum hujus feminæ laudatorem inveniri posse, quam TEMPUS; quod cum tamdiu jam volvetur nihil simile, in hoc sexu, quoad rerum civilium administrationem peperit.' Eliz. Mem. p. 194. Since this sheet was in the press, Mr. Bray

BOOK subsists, the more justly it will be able to appreciate

11.

the utilities derived from her reign, and to award the honor which she ought to receive for their intentional production."

192

has obliged me with a letter of lady Wolley's to her father, which exhibits the queen as using towards him similar words of kindness, taking the form of playful allusions to courtship, with which she endeavored to please her nobility and gentry, without any other object-Since my coming to the court, I have had many gracious words of her majesty, and who many times bade me welcome with all her heart, every time since I have waited. Yesterday, she wore the gown you gave her, and took thereby occasion to speak of you; saying that ere long I should find a mother-in-law, which was herself; but she was afraid of the two widows, which are there with you, that they would be angry with her for it; and that she would give 10,000l. you were twenty years younger; for she has but few such servants as you are. With many gracious speeches, both of yourself and my brother.' MS. Bray. Lady Wolley was one of Elizabeth's ladies of the bedchamber, and her father was sir William More, who died, like the queen, in 1603.

192 It may be desirable to many to know the view of this queen's character which LORD BOLINGBROKE has taken; as he had himself been a statesman and a leading cabinet minister, and therefore more capable than most of judging of her with a practical and discriminating intelligence. In his letters on the History of England, published in 1731, in the Craftsman, under the name of sir John Oldcastle, he thus

states his sentiments:

The most dangerous attacks on liberty are those which surprise or undermine; which are owing to powers given under pretence of some urgent necessity. QUEEN ELIZABETH shewed her moderation in desiring no suspicious powers, as well as in the exercise of her prerogative. This moderation was the more remarkable, because no prince ever had the pretence of necessity to urge on stronger appearances. Her whole reign may be almost called a state of defensive and offensive war; in England, as well as in Ireland; in the Indies, as well as in Europe. She ventured to go thro this state, if it was a venture, without a standing army-she esteemed the affection of her people to be the greatest security of her person, and the greatest strength of her government. Whenever she wanted troops, her subjects flocked to her standard. In many places, and on many occasions, her forces fought and conquered the best disciplined, veteran troops of Europe. She was careful to avoid every thing which might give the least umbrage to her people.

The conduct which she held with respect to PARTIES deserves to be remarked, because the moderation, the wisdom and the equity which she shewed in it, contributed very much to cool the ferment in the beginning of her reign. By this, she had time to captivate the good will of her people; to settle her government; to establish her authority; and even to change the national religion, with little contradiction and without any disturbance.

'Notwithstanding all the indignities she had suffered, and all the CHAP. dangers she had run before her accession, several persons were restored, XXXVII. and not a man was attainted in her first parliament. This clemency once shewn, she could more safely, and with greater reason, exercise severity, when the preservation of the public peace made it necessary. "The peace of the kingdom was the standard to which she proportioned her conduct. She was far from casting herself, with precipitation and violence, even into that party which she favored, and on which alone she resolved to depend. She was far from inflaming their spirit against the adverse party, and farther still from pushing any sort of men, puritans, or even papists, into despair; or provoking them to deserve punishment, that she might have a pretence to inflict it. She pursued her own scheme steadily, but she pursued it gradually, and accompanied it with all the artful circumstances which could soften the minds of men; and induce those who were the most averse to her measures to bear them, at least, patiently. On these principles she proceeded in the whole course of her reign.

To the Papists she used great lenity, till the bull of Pius Quintus and the rebellion, and other attempts consequent upon it, obliged her to procure new laws and execute more rigor. Yet even then, she distinguished Papists in conscience, from Papists in faction. (Walsingham's Letter. She made the same distinction with regard to the Puritans. Their zeal was not condemned; only their violence was sometimes censured, till they attempted to set up their own discipline, in opposition to that which had been established by the National Authority; ; until their motives appeared to be no more zeal, no more conscience,' says Secretary Walsingham, but mere faction and division.'

'Queen Elizabeth was accused of avarice by her enemies, and perhaps she was so by some of her friends. Among that hungry crew, which attends all Courts for the loaves and fishes, she could not escape this charge. But surely, the nation had reason to applaud her frugality. Her grandfather hoarded up riches; her father dissipated them. But she neither hoarded up, nor lavished away: and it is justly to be questioned, whether any example of a prudent economy in private life can be produced equal to that, which she practised in the whole management of her affairs.

As immense as the expenses were which she found herself obliged to make from the moment she ascended the throne, she received nothing in taxes from her people, till the sixth year of her reign. The prince in the world, who deserved to be trusted the most, desired to be so, the least. The aids which she had from her people were not so properly grants, as reimbursement of money advanced for national services. And what services? For establishing the Protestant religion; for defending England; for rescuing Scotland; for carrying on a successful war against an opulent and potent enemy; for assisting the subjects, and even the kings of France; for supporting the people of the Netherlands; for refining the debased coin; for paying all the debts, and restoring the credit of the crown; for providing ammunition at home, which before this time we had been always obliged to purchase abroad; for improving both home and foreign Trade; for rebuilding and augmenting the Navy; and for DOING ALL THIS without any

BOOK burthensome imposition on the people, as the Parliament more than once acknowleged.

II.

It was so much a maxim of Queen Elizabeth, to save for the public, not for herself; and to measure her riches, by the riches of the nation, not by the treasures she had in her coffers, that she refused the supplies offered, and remitted payment of supplies granted, when she perceived that she was able to carry on the public service without them. What could be done by wisdom and courage, she never attempted by money; nor expected that her subjects should buy her out of difficulties.

Strong at home, she affected little to lean on foreign help, as her alliance was often courted, and she seldom courted that of others. It was in her power to engage in no expense, but such as the interest of her kingdom rendered immediately necessary. To this interest alone she proportioned her expenses. This was the sole rule of her conduct.

She was not only thus frugal for her people, but perpetually attentive to the enriching of them. In the very first Parliament, amid the most important affairs, regulations for the improvement of trade and increase of shipping were not forgotten. In numberless instances she rose to the highest and descended even to the lowest circumstances, which in any degree affected the trade and navigation of her subjects. Besides the spirit of industry, which exercised itself at home, she raised and pushed to the highest degree, a spirit of discovering new countries, making new settlements, and opening new veins of trade. The force of this impression has lasted long amongst Commerce has thrived under neglect and discouragements. It has subsisted under oppressions and obstructions.

us.

Before Queen Elizabeth's reign the commerce of England was confined and poor. In HER REIGN it extended itself over all the known, and even into the unknown parts of the world. We traded to the north, and opened our passage into Muscovy. We carried our merchandise up the Dwina, down the Volga, and across the Caspian Sea into Persia.

Our merchants visited the Coast of Africa; all the countries of the Grand Seignior, and following the tracks of the Venetians into the East Indies, they soon followed the Portuguese thither, by the Cape of Good Hope. They went thither thro the South Sea, and sailed round the world. In the West Indies, they not only traded, but established themselves, in spite of all the power of Spain.

Before her reign the FLEET of England was so inconsiderable, that even in the days of her father, if I mistake not, we were forced to borrow or hire ships of Hamburgh, Lubeck, Dantzic, and other places. In her reign it soon grew to such a number and strength, that it became terrible to the greatest maritime powers of Europe.

'On such foundations were the riches and power of this kingdom laid by Queen Elizabeth. These were some of the means she employed to gain the affections of her subjects. Can we be surprised if she succeeded?' Craftsman, No. 237.

FINIS.