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was naturally of a found and folid judgment. This was visible by her whole management, from one end of her reign to the other. Nothing fhews her capacity more, than her addrefs in furmounting all the difficulties and troubles created by her enemies, efpecially when it is confidered who thefe enemies were; perfons the most powerful, the most artful, the moft fubtile, and the leaft fcrupulous in Europe. The following are the maxims which the laid down for the rule and measures of her whole conduct, and from which the never fwerved: "To make herself beloved "by her people: To be frugal of her trea"fure: To keep up diffenfion amongst her "neighbours."

with her money but with great caution, both in order to preferve the affection of her people, and to keep herself always in a condition to withstand her enemies.

She is accufed alfo of not being fo chafte as the affected to appear. Nay, fome pretend that there are now in England the defcendants of a daughter fhe had by the Earl of Leicester; but as hitherto nobody has undertaken' to produce any proofs of this accufation, one may fafely reckon it among the flanders which they endeavoured to ftain her reputation with, both in her life-time and after her decease.

It is not fo cafy to juftify her concerning the death of the queen of Scots. Here it mult Her enemies pretend that her abilities con- be owned, the facrificed equity, juftice, and fifted wholly in over-ftrained diffimulation, it may be, her own confcience, to her fafety. and a profound hypocrify. In a word, they If Mary was guilty of the murder of her fay fhe was a perfect comedian. For my husband, as there is ground to believe, it was part, I don't deny that the made great ufe of not Elizabeth's bufinefs to punish her for it. diffimulation, as well with regard to the And truly it was not for that the took away courts of France and Spain, as to the queen her life; but he made ufe of that pretence of Scotland and the Scots. I am alfo per- to detain her in prifon, under the deceitful fuaded that, being as much concerned to gain colour of making her innocence appear. On the love and esteem of her subjects, the af- this occafion her diffimulation was blamefected to fpeak frequently, and with exag-worthy. This first piece of injuftice drew geration, of her tender affection for them. And that the had a mind to make it believed that he did fome things from an exceffive love to her people, which the was led to more by her own intereft.

her in afterwards to ufe a world of artful devices, to get a pretence to render Mary's imprisonment perpetual. From hence arofe in the end, the neceflity of putting her to death on the fealfold. This, doubtlefs, is Elizabeth's Avarice is another failing which her own great blemih, which manifeftly proves to friends reproach her with. I will not deny what degree the carried the fear of lofing a that he was too parfimonious, and upon crown. The continual fear and uncafincis fome occafions ftuck too clofe to the maxims the was under on that account, is what chitfhe had laid down, not to be at any expence ratterifes her reign, because it was the main but what was abfolutely neceffary. However, fpring of almoft all her actions. The bot in general I maintain, that if her circum-thing that can be faid in Elizabeth's behalf is, ftances did not require her to be covetous, that the queen of Scots and her friends had. at least they required that the fhould not part brought inatters to fuch a pass, that one of L 4

the

the two queens muft perifh, and it was natural that the weakeft fhould fall. I don't believe any body ever questioned her being a true Proteftant. But, as it was her intereft to be fo, fome have taken occafion to doubt whether the zeal the expreffed for her religion was the effect of her perfuafion or policy. All that can be faid is, that the happened fometimes to prefer her temporal concerns, before thofe of religion. To fum up in two words what may ferve to form Elizabeth's character, I fhall add, fhe was a good and illuftrious queen, with many virtues and noble qualities, and few faults. But what ought above all things to make her memory precious is, that the caufed the English to enjoy a ftate of felicity unknown to their ancestors, under moft part of the kings, her predeceffors.

Died March 24, 1603, aged 70, having reigned 44 years, 4 months, and 8 days.

Rapin.

72. Another Character of ELIZABETH, There are few great perfonages in hiftory, who have been more expofed to the calumny of enemies, and the adulation of friends, than queen Elizabeth; and yet there is scarce any whofe reputation has been more certainly determined, by the unanimous confent of pofterity. The unufual length of her adminiftration, and the ftrong features of her character, were able to overcome all prejudices; and, obliging her detractors to abate much of their invectives, and her admirers fomewhat their panegyricks, have at lalt, in fpite of political factions, and, what is more, of religious animofitics, produced an uniform judgment with regard to her conduct. Her vigour, her conftancy, her magnanimity, her penetration, and vigilance, are allowed to merit the highest

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praise, and appear not to have been surpassed by any perfon who ever filled a throne. A conduct lefs vigorous, les imperious; more fincere, more indulgent to her people, would have been requisite to form a perfect character. By the force of her mind, the controuled all her more active and stronger quafitics, and prevented them from running into excefs. Her heroifm was exempt from all tenerity, her frugality from avarice, her friendship from partiality, her active fpirit from turbulency and a vain ambition. She guarded not herself with equal care, or equal fuccefs from leffer infirmities; the rivahthip of beauty, the defire of admiration, and jealoufy of love, and the fallics of anger.

Her fingular talents for government were founded equally on her temper and on her capacity. Endowed with a great command of herself, the obtained an uncontrouled afcendant over her people; and while the merited all their efteem by her real virtues, the alfo engaged their affection by her pretended ones. Few fovereigns of England fucceeded to the throne in more difficult circumftances; and none ever conducted the government with fuch uniform fuccefs and felicity. Though unacquainted with the practice of toleration, the true fecret for managing religious factions, the preferved her people, by her fuperior pru dence, from thofe confulions in which theological controverfy had involved all the neighbouring nations and though her enemies were the most powerful princes in Europe, the mott active, the moft enterprizing, the leaft fcrupulous, he was able by her vigour to make deep impreffions on their state; her own greatnefs meanwhile untouched and unimpaired.

The wife minifters and brave warriors, who Lourished during her reign, share the

$73.

Another Character of ELIZABETH. Elizabeth, in her perfon, was masculine, tall, ftraight, and strong-limbed, with an high

prife of her fuccefs: but instead of leffening the applaufe due to her, they make great addition to it. They owed all of them their advancement to her choice, they were fupported by her conftancy; and with ail their abi-round forehead, brown eyes, fair complexion, lity they were never able to acquire any undue fine white teeth, and yellow hair; fhe danced afeendant over her. In her family, in her with great agility; her voice was strong and court, in her kingdom, the remained equally thrill; the understood mufic, and played upon mitrefs. The force of the tender pallións | feveral inftruments. She poffeffed an excelwas great over her, but the force of her mind lent memory, and understood the dead and was fill fuperior; and the combat which her living languages, and made good proficiency victory visibly coft her, ferves only to difplay in the fciences, and was well read in hiftory. the firmness of her refolution, and the lofti- Her converfation was fprightly and agreeable, nefs of her ambitious fentiments. her judgment folid, her apprehenfion acute, her application indefatigabie, and her courage invincible. She was the great bulwark of the Proteftant religion: fhe was highly commendable for her general regard to the impartial adminiftration of juftice; and even for her rigid aconomy, which faved the public money, and evinced that love for her people which the fo warmly profeffed. Yet the deviated from juftice in fome inftances when her intereft and paffions were concerned; and, notwithstanding all, her great qualities, we cannot deny the was vain, proud, imperious, and in fome cafes cruel; her predominant paffion was jealoufy and avarice; though the was alfo fubject to fuch violent gufts of anger as overwhelmed all regard to the dignity of her ftation, and even hurried her beyond the common bounds of decency. She was wife and feedy in her principles of government, and above all princes fortunate in a miniftry. Smollett.

The fame of this princefs, though it has farmounted the prejudices both of faction and bigotry, yet lies ftill expofed to another prejudice which is more durable, because more natural, and which according to the different views in which we furvey her, is capable either of exalting beyond measure, or diminith ing the luftre of her character. This prejudice is founded in confideration of her fex. When we contemplate her as a woman, we are apt to be ftruck with the highest admiration of her great qualities and extenfive capacity; but we are apt alfo to require fome more feftnefs of difpofition, fome greater lenity of temper, fome of thofe amiable weakneffes by which her fex is diftinguifhed. But the true method of eftimating her merits is, to lay afide a thofe confiderations, and confider her merely as a rational being, placed in authority, and entrusted with the goverment of mankind. We may find it difficult to reconcle our fancy to her as a wife, or a mistress; but her qualities as a fovereign, though with fome confiderable exceptions, are the object of undifputed applaufe and approbation.

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$74. Character of JAMES I.

James was of a middle ftature, of a fine complexion, and a foft fkin, his perfon plump, but not curpulent, his eyes large and rolling, his beard thin, his tongue too big his mouth, his countenance difagreable L S

air awkward, and his gait remarkably ungraceful, from a weaknefs in his knees that prevented his walking without affiftance; he was tolerably temperate in his dict, but drank of little elfe than rich and ftrong wines. His character, from the variety of grotefque qualities that compofe it, is not cafy to be delineated. The virtues he poffeffed were fo loaded with a greater proportion of their neighbouring vices, that they exhibit no lights, to fet off the dark fhades; his principles of generofity were tainted by fuch a childith profufion, that they left him without means of paying his juft obligations, and fubjected him to the neceflity of attempting irregular, illegal, and unjust methods of acquiring money. His friendship, not to give it the name of vice, was directed by fo puerile a fancy, and fo abfurd a caprice, that the objects of it were contemptible, and its confequences attended with fuch an unmerited profufion of favours, that it was perhaps the most exceptionable quality of any he poffeffed. His diftinctions were formed on principles of felfifhnefs; he valued no perfon for any endowments that could not be made fubfervient to his pleasures or his intereft; and thus he rarely advanced any man of real worth and preferment. His familiar converfation, both in writing and in fpeaking, was stuffed with vulgar and indecent phrafes. Though proud and arrogant in his temper, and full of the importance of his ftation, he defcended to buffoonery, and fuffered his favourites to addrefs him in the moft difrespectful terms of grofs familia

rity.

Himfelf affected a fententious wit, but rofe no higher in thofe attempts than to quaint, and often ftale conceits. His education had been a more learned one than is commonly bestowed on princes; this, from the conceit

it gave him, turned out a very difadvantageous circumstance, by contracting his opinions to his own narrow views; his pretences to a confummate knowledge in divinity, politics, and the art of governing, exposed him to a high degree of ridicule, his conduct thewing him more than commonly deficient in all thefe points. His romantic ideas of all the natural rights of princes, caufed him publicly to avow pretenfions that impreffed into the minds of the people an incurable jealoufy; this, with an affectation of a profound skill in the art of diffembling, or kingcraft, as he termed it, rendered him the object of fear and diftruft; when at the fame time he was himfeif the only dupe to an impertinent ufelefs hypocrify.

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If the laws and couftitution of England received no prejudice from his government, was owing to his want of ability to effect a change fuitable to the purpofe of an arbitrary fway. Stained with thefe vices, and fullied with thefe weakneffes, if he is even exempt from our hatred, the exemption must arife from motives of contempt. Defpicable as he appears through his own Britannic government, his behaviour when king of Scotland was in many points unexceptionable; but, intoxicated with the power he received over a people whofe privileges were but feebly eftablithed, and who had been long fubjected to civil and ecclefiaftical tyranny, he at once flung off that moderation that hid his defor mities from the common eye. It is alledged that the corruption he met with in the court of England, and the time-ferving genius of the English noblemen, were the great means that debauched him from his circumfpect conduct. Among the forwardeft of the worthless tribe was Cecil, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, who told him on his coming to the crown, that he should find his English fubjects like affes, on

whom

whom he might lay any burden, and fhould
need neither bit nor bridle, but their affes ears.
Died March 27,
A.D. 1625. Aged 59.

Macaulay.

75. Another Character of AMES.

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as if in queft of no

day, as is commonly that of princes who are our contemporaries. Many virtues, however, it must be owned, he was poffeffed of; but not one of them pure, or free from the contagion of the neighbouring vices. His generefity bordered on profufion, his learning on James was in his ftature of the middle fize, pedantry, his pacific difpofition on pufillaniinclining to corpulency; his forehead was mity, his wifdom on cunning, his friendship high, his beard fcanty, and his afpect mean; his eyes, which were weak and languid, he he imagined that he was only maintaining his on light fancy, and boyith fondrefs. While rolled about inceffantly, velty; his tongue was fo large, that in fpeuk-in fome of his actions, and fill more of his own authority, he may perhaps be fufpected ing or drinking, he beflabbered the by-ftand-pretenfions, to have encroached on the liberties ers; his knees were fo weak as to bend under of his people. While he endeavoured by an the weight of his body; his addrefs was awk- exact neutrality, to acquire the good will of ward, and his appearance flovenly. There all his neighbours, he was able to preferve was nothing dignified either in the compofition fully the efteem and regard of none. of his reign exhibited repeated inftances of on general maxims than to conduct any inof his mind or perfon. We have in the courfe pacity was confiderable, but fitter to difcourfe his ridiculous vanity, prejudice, profufion, tricate bufinefs. folly, and littlenefs of foul. All that we can add in his favour is, that he was averfe to cruHis intentions were juft; but more adapted ety and injuftice; very little adicted to exto the conduct of private life, than to the gocefs, temperate in his meals, kind to his fer- perfon, and ungainly in his manners, he was vernment of kingdoms. Awkward in his of his fubjects, by granting that as a favour, undifcerning in his affections, he was little rants, and even defirous of acquiring the love ill qualified to command refpect: partial and which they claimed as a privilege. His reign, fitted to acquire general love. Of a feeble

though ignoble to

people. They which no war

vere

impofitions; and the commons

made

His ca

himfelf, was happy to his temper more than a frugal judgment; exwere enriched by commerce, pofed to our ridicule from his vanity, but exinterrupted. They felt no fe-empt from our hatred by his freedom from pride and arrogance. And upon the whole it may be pronounced of his character, that all his qualities were fullied with weakness, and embellished by humanity. Political courage he was certainly devoid of; and from

confiderable progrefs in afcertaining the liber

tars of the nation.

Smollett.

76. Another Character of JAMES.

an inference, however, which must be owned

offenfive, was ever fo much expofed to the op- which prevails against his perfonal bravery: No prince, fo little enterprizing and fo in- thence chiefly is derived the ftrong prejudice pite extremes of calumny and flattery, of fabegan in his time, being ftill continued have fallacious. ire and panegyric. And the factions which from general experience, to be extremely made his character be as much difputed to this

Hume.

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