sions were felt respecting the more bigoted papists, whose attachment to popery was stronger than their patriotic feelings. It was necessary to secure some of them from doing mischief; but Elizabeth only had them placed under restraint, and when the danger was over they were mostly liberated. Among the number were some seminary priests, and others, who were found to be involved in treasonable practices. Six of these suffered death, with some of their abettors, under the law which forbade such characters to enter the kingdom. Many more were in England, but these examples, it was considered, might be sufficient. The nation had then just narrowly escaped from the results of that combination of foreign and domestic enemies which the papists themselves called “the great plot;" if that had been successful, by their own account, the proceedings against the Protestants would have been beyond comparison more severe. The earl of Arundel, son of the duke of Norfolk, who was executed in 1572, was then in the Tower. He was charged with having corresponded with the invaders, and being tried by his peers, was found guilty of high treason. At the request of her councillors, the queen spared his life; but it was not then safe to allow the chief of the Eng. lish papists to be at liberty; he was detained in the Tower, where he died in 1595. A modern popish historian exaggerates the sufferings inflicted recusants; but even from his own representation, they were very different from those endured by the Protestants during the reign of Mary. In 1586, it was found that many of the recusants were unable to pay the fines they had incurred. One, a gentleman Suffolk, offered to pay every year the sum of forty pounds. He continued a recusant till the year 1600, but the utmost personal suffering inflicted on him was, detention in the castle of Ely three times, for short intervals, when the Spaniards were expected to invade England. One of these was in 1594; but in the autumn he was suffered to go to his own house for

upon

the

of

fourteen days; he then was to choose the house of some friend, where he was to remain, engaging not to go more than six miles from it, and to appear before the council at any time, within ten days after notice had been left at the house appointed for his residence. The account continues: "In 1595, he procured the indulgence of having his own house for his prison," (observe, under the same liberty of going six miles from it,) and in 1598 was permitted to leave it for six weeks." How widely different from the treatment of the poor Protestants in queen Mary's reign! The particulars just stated are related by the papists themselves; and the severest proceedings against the recusants ceased, if they would state that they did not consider the pope had power to depose Elizabeth: to maintain a contrary opinion assuredly was treasonable.

66

The nation was eager to attack the Spaniards, and desired to weaken Philip by wresting Portugal from his power. Such an attempt might divert him from continuing to stir up troubles in England and Scotland. The expedition was set forth in a singular manner. The queen only furnished six ships, and granted 60,000Z. towards the expense. The rest was supplied by private adventurers, who calculated upon a profitable return from plunder, or in rewards from Don Antonio, the claimant of the Portuguese throne. The whole fleet amounted to one hundred and fifty sail, with twenty thousand men, under the command of sir Francis Drake as admiral, and sir John Norris as general. It is painful to reflect, that in all warlike proceedings the suffering falls on the inoffensive inhabitants, rather than on those whose ambition and hateful spirit excite the conflict. The expedition against Portugal failed, but much havoc was made at Corunna, Vigo, and on the neighbouring coasts. The fleet returned victorious, after some months' absence; but more than half the men perished, chiefly by disease. The projectors were disappointed of the unlawful gains they greedily looked for. This expedition brought into notice the young earl

of Essex, who, though forbidden by the queen, joined it, with many young men of rank and family, as volunteers. His mother, Letitia, the widowed countess of Essex, had married the earl of Leicester, who introduced her son at court. He soon attracted the notice of Elizabeth, who made him master of the horse, and appointed him, though under twenty-one, captaingeneral of the cavalry in the camp at Tilbury. On the death of Leicester, he became the favourite courtier, and soon showed the wayward tempers of a spoiled child.

uncon

The singular changes of worldly politics were manifested this year, by the English nation being called upon to aid both the kings of France and Scotland against their subjects. In France, the Guises and the bigoted popish faction formed what they called "the holy league," and openly rebelled against their sovereign, who sought the aid of his Protestant or Huguenot subjects. Henry III. had been guilty of blood, by causing the duke of Guise to be assassinated in December, 1588, considering him a notorious traitor, though demned by any legal proceedings. The king himself soon after perished in like manner, being stabbed by Clement, a Dominican monk, whose superiors had induced him to believe that it would be a meritorious act to kill his monarch. Henry IV., who succeeded to the French throne, was one of the greatest monarchs of his day; but at that time he was a Protestant, which caused many of his subjects to refuse their help against the league, in which extremity he applied to Elizabeth. She sent him aid in money, and four thousand men from the Netherlands. By supporting the king of France, Elizabeth strengthened herself against Philip, who continued her determined enemy. But the aid rendered was not sufficient to settle the contest. It is only of late years that the plan of deciding a war by one strenuous effort has been resorted to. Additional aids of men and money were granted from time to time: one of the best organized divisions of the any his was commanded by Essex.

and

In 1590, sir Francis Walsingham, secretary of state, died. He was one of Elizabeth's most efficient ministers, a determined opponent of the papists, whose craft he did not hesitate to meet by craft. He carried the employment of spies to a greater extent than any English minister before or since. The persons occupied in these intrigues were usually unprincipled characters, men of desperate fortunes: among them were many who contrived to gain employment from both parties, thus increasing their profit, and at times diminishing their danger; but frequently causing unfounded suspicions, and even raising sham plots, to deceive their employers. With all his care, Walsingham was under great disadvantages, compared with the pope and the Romish princes. The Jesuits were far superior in ability to any other emissaries or spies, and actuated by far stronger motives than those of mere pecuniary interest. Yet even from them the English secretary secretly contrived to obtain some assistance, though liable to be deceived; for the Jesuits were his superiors in the arts of dissimulation, and the sixteenth century was eminently a time of crooked policy. Walsingham died poor. When his decease left the office of secretary vacant, Essex endeavoured to have Davison reinstated, or Bodley appointed; but lord Burghley desired the appointment of his son, sir Robert Cecil: the queen settled the matter, by requiring lord Burghley himself to take the office, and allowing him the assistance of his son.

The troubles from popish emissaries continued: they increased during the latter years of this reign.__ In 1589, the government received information that Parkyns, an English Jesuit, had declared there were seven ways or means agreed upon by the pope and his confederates for murdering the queen. The various garbs and characters assumed by these emissaries often baffled suspicion. They took every appearance, from the highest to the lowest, as best suited their views. Thus, a seminary priest appeared at the Croydon races, in

1591, “in green and velvet, well mounted, with a pistol at his side," like one of the gallants or sporting men of the day. Others were disguised as soldiers, orsailors, or even as galley-slaves, just liberated, begging for their bread. This mode of warfare involved less risk and expense than military proceedings, and was carried forward by men who considered the welfare of their souls connected with their diabolical efforts.

It would be wrong to make light of the sufferings of the papists, but they were solely on political grounds; the government lowered the spiritual tone of the Reformation, in order to comprehend the Romanists, and did so in a manner satisfactory to the bulk of them, till the pope interfered. By demanding absolute submission to his mandates, and requiring the dethronement of the queen, he placed every Romanist under the necessity of being accounted a rebel against one or the other; the pope enforcing obedience to his bulls, by threatenings against the eternal happiness of his slaves. The English papists felt this, and published an appeal against the unjust hardships inflicted upon them by the arbitrary mandates of the pope. Unceasing efforts also were made by the Jesuits to subject James of Scotland to popish influence. Notwithstanding all these provocations, no Romanist perished in England, excepting for his treasonable practices. Many suffered heavily by pecuniary fines, when they made themselves prominent; but what are fines, however severe, compared with the total loss of life and property inflicted on the Protestants ?

The comparative safety of Elizabeth and her government under all these intrigues, says much to explain the general desire of the nation for the execution of Mary Stuart: it certainly was considered a matter of safety for the realm. After her death, the English papists more decidedly separated into two classes. The older party objected to the rising influence of the Jesuits, known as the Spanish party, whose undisguised object was to re-establish popery in England, under a