converted his studious forbearance into insane rebellion. But instead of following, totidem verbis, his frantic career, we shall merely make a few quotations which are connected with it, and which seem to develope still further the personal character of Elizabeth.

Lord Bacon, great as he was intellectually, had certainly but little resolution, and was a most supple courtier. His conduct with regard to the unfortunate Essex in the hour of his disgrace was unmanly and discreditable. Even, however, in those days of unbounded sycophaney, his selfish attempts to ingratiate himself with Elizabeth, by the shameless sacrifice of his generous friend and patron, seem to have entailed upon him the public condemnation; for he wrote an Apology in certain Imputations concerning the late Earl of Essex," to justify himself. In this document are many curious passages illustrative of the infirmities of the wayward and imperious queen, and of the humiliating subserviency she obtained from her subjects. Bacon pretends that in all his seeming hostility to the disgraced peer, he was an unvoluntary agent; and that he was perpetually striving to deprecate the wrath of her majesty. He states that he does well remember that after the Earl of Devonshire was appointed by her to the office of lord lieutenant of Ireland, he said to her, "Surely, madam, if you mean not to employ my Lord of Essex thither again, your majesty cannot make a better choice,' and was going on to shew some reason, and her majesty interrupted me with great passion.

"Essex!' said she; whensoever I send Essex back again into Ireland I will marry you: claim it of me.""

"Still harping on my daughter!" Here is another instance of Elizabeth's feelings with regard to marriage, and of the singular infatuation with which she was always dwelling on this tormenting bugbear of her imagination.

He then proceeds to argue how great must have been his intercessions in favour of the earl, for that they were sufficient to offend her; and the proof that she had received offence, was, that when he went to her "divers times upon law business, methought that her face was not so clear and open to me, as it was at the first."

Again, as an additional proof of his constancy to the fallen, he adds:

"About that time her majesty, taking a liking of my pen, for that which I had formerly done concerning the proceedings at York house, commanded me to pen that book,' which was published for the better satisfaction of the world, which I did, but so as never secretary had more particular and express directions and instructions in every point how to guide my hand in it; and not only so, but after that I had made a first draught thereof, and propounded it to certain principal counsellors by her majesty's appointment, it was perused, weighed, censured, and altered, and made almost a new writing, according to their lordships' better consideration, wherein their lordships and myself both were as religious and curious of truth as desirous of satisfaction, and myself, indeed, only gave words, and form of style, in perusing their direction. After it had passed their allowance, it was again exactly perused by the queen herself, and some alterations made again by her appointment; nay, and after it was set to print, the queen, who, as your lordship knoweth, as she was excellent in great matters, so was she exquisite in small, noted that I could not forget my ancient respect to my lord of Essex, in terming him ever my lord of Essex, my lord of Essex, almost in every page of the book, which she thought not fit, but would have it made Essex, or the late Earl of Essex, whereupon of force it was printed de novo, and the first copies suppressed by her peremptory commandment."

Was ever a more lame, impotent, and lawyer-like plea? But the object of its quotation here is certainly not to criminate Bacon, but to shew, in the most characteristic manner, the universal peremptoriness and wilfulness of this authoritative and wayward sovereign. Nothing was too large or too small, too wide or too narrow, to escape her supervision and imperious interference. A curious extract from the pages of Hentzner, a traveller cited by Hume, shall now be laid before the reader; and we imagine we shall then have finally demonstrated that a residence at

"The Declaration of the Treasons of Lord Essex."

the court of Elizabeth could neither have been very pleasant nor at all encouraging to a man of sense, of feeling, and self-respect.

"No one spoke to Queen Elizabeth without kneeling, though now and then she raised some with waving her hand. Nay, wherever she turned her eyes every one fell on his knees. Even when she was absent, those who covered her table, though persons of quality, neither approached it, nor retired from it without kneeling, and that often three times."

This was not a school in which to have reared highminded and honest men. The intensity of their emulation stimulated the talents of her ministers and courtiers; the state and its mistress had brilliant and indefatigable servants; but among them all Diogenes might have failed to discover the object of his search.

We shall now extract from the pages of Bayle, the account of her death, and the occasion of it:

"After the execution of the Earl of Essex, the queen was a pretty long time as merry as before, particularly during the embassie of Mareschal de Biron. Therefore 'tis very likely, that if she died for grief upon account of the Earl of Essex, 'twas not so much because she had put him to death, as because she came to know that he had recurr'd to her clemency in such a way as she had promised him would never fail. M. du Maurier will explain us this little mystery-It will neither be needless, says he, nor disagreeable, to add here what the same Prince Maurice had from Mr. Carleton, the English ambassador in Holland, who died secretary of state, so much known under the name of Lord Dorchester, a man of very great merit, viz.— That Queen Elizabeth gave a ring to the Earl of Essex, in the height of her passion, bidding him to keep it well; and that whatever he might do, she would forgive him, if he sent her back the same ring. The earl's enemies having since prevailed with the queen (who, besides, was provoked by the earl's contempt of her beauty, which decayed through age), she caused him to be tryed for his life; and in the time of his condemnation, still expected that he would return her that ring, when she might pardon him according to her pro

mise. The earl, in the last extremity, had recourse to the wife of Admiral Howard, his kinswoman, and entreated her, by means of a person he trusted, to deliver that ring into the queen's own hands; but her husband, one of the earl's mortal enemies, to whom she imprudently revealed it, having hindred her from performing her message, the queen consented to his death, full of indignation against so haughty and fierce a man, who chose rather to die than fly to her clemency. Some time after, the admiral's lady being fallen sick and given over by her physicians, sent the queen word that she had a secret of great importance to disclose to her before she died. The queen being come to her bedside, and having caused every body to withdraw, the admiral's lady delivered to her preposterously that ring from the Earl of Essex, excusing her not delivering it sooner, because her husband would not let her. The queen withdrew instantly, struck with a mortal grief, passing fifteen days sighing, without taking any sustenance, laying herself down on her bed with her cloaths on, and getting up a hundred times in the night. At last she famished and grieved herself to death, for having consented to the death of her lover, who had recurr'd to her mercy."

Thus died a woman, who, with all her levity and lack of modesty, is yet most probably entitled to demand of posterity to inscribe on her tomb, " Here lies a virgin queen ;” though posterity, or at least the austere portion of it, may, in acceding to her claim, feel disposed to stipulate, that the orthography of the last word shall be changed, and that it shall be written "quean." Even in her own day, such was the opinion of some of the Puritans; but widely different were the impressions she left in the minds of the many. As a specimen of the unbounded admiration which her subjects continued to express for her after her death, we will extract from old Camden a species of epitaph, which he composed for her. We print it as we find it in the original folios, determined that the encomiastic antiquary shall not be deprived by us of any of his loyal intentions to be emphatic.

"Alas! how inconsiderable is her monument in comparison of the noble qualities of so heroical a lady! She

herself is her own monument, and a more magnificent and sumptuous one than any other. For let these noble actions recommend her to the praise and admiration of posterity:-

RELIGION REFORMED, PEACE ESTABLISHED, MONEY REDUCED TO ITS TRUE VALUE, A MOST COMPLEAT FLEET BUILT, OUR NAVAL GLORY RESTORED, REBELLION SUPPRESSED, ENGLAND FOR XLIII. YEARS TOGETHER MOST PRUDENTLY GOVERNED, ENRICHED, AND STRENGTHENED, SCOTLAND RESCUED FROM THE FRENCH, FRANCE ITSELF RELIEVED, THE NETHERLANDS SUPPORTED, SPAIN AND IRELAND QUIETED, AND THE WHOLE WORLD TWICE SAILED ROUND."

Yet, after all, we must not be too prone to be perpetually lauding her political sagacity and conduct. Her success and glory were probably as much the effect of chance as of talent. Not by benevolent objects wisely adopted and resolutely pursued, but by accidents of temper and disposition, she happened to be the ruler for her time. If her people had not been as pliant and servile, as she was wilful and imperious, instead of an increase of the national power, rebellion and ruin must have occurred. If her actions be closely investigated, the sources of the public prosperity will be found more in her vices than in her virtues; yet during her reign, England obtained so vast an advance in the European system, that not only her own subjects, but succeeding generations, have been unable to scan her excepting through an atmosphere of light which dazzles and confuses their judgment. Even the philosophical and dispassionate Hume is repeatedly yielding to what may be termed an hereditary incitement to commend extravagantly her talents for empire; and the consequence is that he is constantly contradicting in one page what he advanced in a prior one. Yet no one knew better than this great historian the real causes of her splendid career; for, after repeating a series of her most arbitrary, dishonest, and impolitic public acts, he adds:" Notwithstanding this conduct, Elizabeth contrived to be the most popular sovereign that ever swayed the sceptre of England, because the maxims of her reign were conformable to the principles of the times, and to the opinions generally entertained with regard to the constitution."