winds to blow, and they were scattered." The sublime strains of the psalmist, uttered in reference to a deliverance of God's people of old, now became literally applicable to the experience of Protestant England:

"For, lo, the kings were assembled,

They passed by together.

They saw it, and so they marvelled;
They were troubled, and hasted away.
Fear took hold upon them there,
And pain, as of a woman in travail.
Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish
With an east wind.

As we have heard, so have we seen

In the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God:
God will establish it for ever." Psa. xlviii. 4-8.

Would that England had duly thought of the lovingkindness of God in the midst of his temple! The queen, indeed, went in solemn procession to St. Paul's, to express thankfulness for this great deliverance, on a national thanksgiving day appointed for the purpose, and the nation rejoiced at the time; but God's mercies are soon forgotten.

The king of Scotland showed his wisdom on this occasion, by refusing to unite with the enemies of Elizabeth. He expressed his full conviction of the fate which would be reserved for him, as the utmost favour to be conceded to a Protestant prince by confirmed papists; namely, that, like the promise of Polyphemus to Ulysses, it would only be, that he should be devoured the last. James plainly saw, that the real interests of his subjects, as well as his own, were indissolubly connected with England.

The universal loyalty displayed throughout the English nation on this occasion, speaks favourably of the general policy of Elizabeth's government. A queen, such as Mary's favourers falsely assert Elizabeth to have been, could not have so commanded the hearts and lives of her people at such a crisis. She prepared to take the field herself, and visited her army at Tilbury, under the command of the earl of Leicester, on August 9, before the final dispersion of the armada

was known. She appealed to the affection of her subjects, declaring her resolution "to lay down for her God, for her kingdom, and her people, her honour and her blood in the dust.' With the lofty bearing of the Tudors, she addressed the assembled multitudes, and declared, that though her person was "that of a weak woman, she had the heart of a king, and a king of England too!" and that she thought it "foul scorn, that Parma, Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of her realm." Popish historians endeavour to narrate the history of this soulstirring crisis, so as to deaden its influence on the hearts of the English nation; but rightly detailed, and duly considered, it speaks irresistibly-it shows how hateful popery was to the nation, and how signally the Lord of hosts interposed to defeat the machinations of the enemies of true religion. If a papist will but fairly consider the results of the mighty and unremitting efforts made by the leaders of popery against England, as a Protestant nation, during the forty years of Elizabeth's reign, he will see that the words of the psalmist are applicable :

"If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
When men rose up against us:

Then they had swallowed us up quick,

When their wrath was kindled against us:

Then the waters had overwhelmed us,

The stream had gone over our soul:

Then the proud waters had gone over our soul."

Psa. cxxiv. 2-5.

And ought not the English Protestant to respond?

"Blessed be the LORD,

Who hath NOT given us a prey to their teeth.

Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers:

The snare is broken, and we are escaped." Psa. cxxiv. 6, 7.

The special religious services and forms of prayer during this reign, decidedly show that the nation and its rulers deeply felt the dangerous position in which they were placed, and rightly estimated the only safeguard-the Divine protection. But it is to be regretted,

that a subject so appropriate to Christian poets as the defeat of the Spanish armada, and its ultimate dispersion by the Divine power controlling the elements, has been neglected. The following lines, though by a poet of note, do not do full justice to the subject:

THE SPANISH ARMADA.

Clear shone the moon, the gale was fair,
When, from Corunna's crowded port,
With many a cheerful shout and loud acclaim,
The huge armada pass'd.

To England's shores their streamers point,
To England's shores their sails are spread;
They go in triumph o'er the sea-girt land,
And Rome hath bless'd their arms.

Along the ocean's echoing verge,
Along the mountain-range of rocks,
The clustering multitudes behold their pomp,
And raise the votive prayer.

Commingling with the ocean's roar,
Ceaseless and hoarse their murmurs rise;
And soon they trust to see the winged bark
That bears good tidings home.

The watch-tower now in distance sinks,
And now Galicia's mountain rocks
Faint as the far-off clouds of evening lie,
And now they fade away.

Each like some moving citadel,

On through the waves they sail sublime;
And now the Spaniards see the silvery cliffs,
Behold the sea-girt land.

On come her gallant mariners:

What now avail Rome's boasted charms?

Where are the Spaniard's vaunts of eager wrath-
His hopes of conquest now?

And hark! the angry winds arise-
The billows rage at God's command;-

The winds and waves against the invaders fight,
To guard the sea-girt land.

Howling around his palace towers,
The Spanish despot hears the storm;
He thinks upon his navies far away,
And boding doubts arise.

Long o'er Biscay's boisterous surge
The watchman's aching eye shall strain;
Long shall he gaze, but never winged bark
Shall bear good tidings home.

1

ELIZABETH.

PART IV.

FROM A.D. 1588, TO A.D. 1603.

THE last period of Elizabeth's reign presented many busy scenes; but it was less unquiet than those which preceded it. The first event of importance was the death of Leicester, which took place immediately after the flight of the Spanish armada. When that event was clearly ascertained, the army encamped in Essex was disbanded, and Leicester proceeded towards his castle at Kenilworth. He was taken ill on the journey, and died at Cornbury park, in Oxfordshire. Some attribute his end to poison, administered by his wife and her supposed paramour, Blount, whom, it is said, Leicester had attempted to assassinate. To the account already given of this nobleman nothing need be added, excepting that his character continued enveloped in mystery till the very last. But his boldest accusers are popish writers, who blacken his memory by relating circumstances that are improbable, and contradict each other.

The preparations for resisting the Spanish invasion occasioned a large expenditure. This obliged Elizabeth to apply for a considerable grant, which was made by the parliament; but, with the jealous resistance of interference with the royal prerogative her family had ever shown, she refused to allow a reformation of the malpractices in purveyance. This was a right then largely exercised, the claiming of provisions and other articles for the royal household at low prices. Some regulations of the exchequer were also subjects of complaint. The queen promised to redress these grievances, but they were allowed to continue.

When the Spanish invasion threatened, apprehen