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to deliver. This information only served to awaken all that passion which the queen had vainly endeavoured to suppress. She shook the dying countess in her bed, crying out, that "God might pardon her, but she never would." She then broke from her, and resigned herself to the dictates of her fixed despair. She refused food and sustenance; she continued silent and Mar. 24, gloomy; sighs and groans were the only vent 1603. she gave to her despondence; and she lay for ten days and nights upon the carpet, leaning on cushions which her maids brought her. Perhaps the faculties of her mind were impaired by long and violent exercise; perhaps she reflected with remorse on some past actions of her life, or perceived but too strongly the decays of nature and the approach of her dissolution. She saw her courtiers remitting their assiduity to her, in order to pay their court to James, the apparent successor. Such a concurrence of causes was more than sufficient to destroy the remains of her constitution; and her end visibly approached. Feeling a perpetual heat in her stomach, attended with an unquenchable thirst, she drank without ceasing, but refused the assistance of her physicians. Her distemper gaining ground, sir Robert Cecil, and the lord admiral, desired to know her sentiments with regard to the succession. To this she replied, that as the crown of England had always been held by kings, it ought not to devolve upon any inferior character, but upon her immediate heir, the king of Scotland. Being then advised by the archbishop of Canterbury to fix her thoughts upon God, she replied, that her thoughts did not in the least wander from him. Her voice soon after left her; she fell into a lethargic slumber, which continued some hours, and she expired gently without a groan in the seventieth year of her age,

and the forty-fifth of her reign. Her character differed with her circumstances; in the beginning she was moderate and humble; towards the end of her reign, haughty and severe. But ever prudent, active, and discerning, she procured for her subjects that happiness which was not entirely felt by those about her. She was indebted to her good fortune, that her ministers were excellent; but it was owing to her indiscretion that the favourites, who were more immediately chosen by herself, were unworthy. Though she was possessed of excellent sense, she never had the discernment to discover that she wanted beauty; and to flatter her charms at the age of sixty-five, was the surest road to her favour and esteem.,

But whatever were her personal defects, as a queen she is to be ever remembered by the English with gratitude. It is true, indeed, that she carried her prerogative in parliament to its highest pitch; so that it was tacitly allowed in that assembly, that she was above all laws, and could make and unmake them at her pleasure; yet still she was so wise and good, as seldom to exert that power which she claimed, and to enforce few acts of her prerogative, which were not for the benefit of the people. It is true, in like manner, that the English during her reign were put in possession of no new or splendid acquisitions; but commerce was daily growing up amongst them, and the people began to find that the theatre of their truest conquests was to be on the bosom of the ocean. A nation which hitherto had been the object of every invasion, and a prey to every plunderer, now asserted its strength in turn, and became terrible to its invaders. The successful voyages of the Spaniards and Portuguese began to excite their emulation ; and they fitted out several expeditions for discovering a

shorter passage to the East Indies. The famous sir Walter Raleigh, without any assistance from, government, colonised Virginia in North America, while internal commerce was making equal improvements; and many Flemings, persecuted in their native country, found, together with their arts and industry, an easy asylum in England. Thus the whole island seemed as if roused from her long habits of barbarity; arts, commerce, and legislation, began to acquire new strength; and such was the state of learning at the time, that some fix this period as the Augustan age of England. Sir Walter Raleigh and Hooker are considered as among the first improvers of our language. Spenser and Shakspeare are too well known as poets, to be praised here; but of all mankind, Francis Bacon, lord Verulam, who flourished in this reign, deserves, as a philosopher, the highest applause; his style is copious and correct, and his wit is only surpassed by his learning and penetration. If we look through history, and consider the rise of kingdoms, we shall scarcely find an instance of a people becoming, in so short a time, wise, powerful, and happy. Liberty, it is true, still continued to fluctuate; Elizabeth knew her own power, and stretched it to the very verge of despotism: but now that commerce was introduced, liberty soon followed; for there never was a nation perfectly commercial, that submitted long to slavery.

CHAPTER VI.

JAMES I.

A. D. 1603-1625.

JAMES, the Sixth of Scotland and the First of England, the son of Mary, came to the throne with the approbation of all orders of the state, as in his person was united every claim that either descent, bequest, or parliamentary sanction could confer. He had every reason, therefore, to hope for a happy reign; and he was taught, from his infancy, that his prerogative was uncontrollable, and his right transmitted from heaven. These sentiments he took no care to conceal; and even published them in many parts of those works which he had written before he left Scotland.

But he was greatly mistaken in the spirit of thinking of the times; for new systems of government, and new ideas of liberty, had for some time been stealing in with the Reformation, and only wanted the reign of a weak or merciful monarch to appear without control. In consequence of the progress of knowledge, and a familiar acquaintance with the governments of antiquity, the old Gothic forms began to be despised; and an emulation took place to imitate the freedom of Greece and Rome. The severe though popular government of Elizabeth had confined this rising spirit within very narrow bounds; but when a new sovereign and a new family appeared, less dreaded and less loved by the people, symptoms immediately began to be seen of a more free and independent genius in the nation.

James had scarcely entered England when he gave disgust to many. The desire in all to see their new

sovereign was ardent and natural; but the king, who loved retirement, forbade the concourse that attended on his journey from Scotland, pretending that this great resort of people would produce a scarcity of provisions. To this offence to the people he added, soon after, what gave disgust to the higher orders of the state, by prostituting titles of honour, so that they became so common as to be no longer marks of distinction. A pasquinade was fixed up at St. Paul's, declaring that there would be a lecture given on the art of assisting short memories, to retain the names of the new nobility.

But though his countrymen shared a part of these honours, yet justice must be done the king, by confessing that he left almost all the great offices in the hands in which he found them. Among these, Cecil, created earl of Salisbury, was continued prime minister and chief counsellor. This crafty statesman had been too cunning for the rest of his associates; and while, during Elizabeth's reign, he was apparently leagued against the earl of Essex, whom James protected, yet he kept up a secret correspondence with that monarch, and secured his interests without forfeiting the confidence of his party.

But it was not so fortunate with lord Grey, lord Cobham, and sir Walter Raleigh, who had been Cecil's associates. They felt immediately the effects of the king's displeasure, and were dismissed from their employments. These three seemed to be marked out for peculiar indignation; for, soon after, they were accused of entering into a conspiracy against the king; neither the proofs of which, nor its aims, have reached posterity all that is certain is, that they were condemned to die, but had their sentence mitigated by the king. Cobham and Grey were pardoned, after they had laid their heads on the block. Raleigh was reprieved, but

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