the victim and slave of religious bigotry, and that she sanctioned many bloody executions.  And yet it would appear that her nature was, after all, affectionate, which is evinced in the fact that she did spare the life of Elizabeth.  Here her better impulses gained the victory over craft and policy and religious intolerance, and rescued her name from the infamy to which such a crime would have doomed her, and which her Church would have sanctioned, and in which it would have rejoiced as much as it did in the slaughter of Saint Bartholomew.

The crocodile tears which Elizabeth is said to have shed when the death of her sister Mary was announced to her at Hatfield were soon wiped away in the pomps and enthusiasms which hailed her accession to the throne.  This was in 1558, when she was twenty-five, in the fulness of her attractions and powers.  Great expectations were formed of her wisdom and genius.  She had passed through severe experiences; she had led a life of study and reflection; she was gifted with talents and graces.  “Her accomplishments, her misfortunes, and her brilliant youth exalted into passionate homage the principle of loyalty, and led to extravagant panegyrics.”  She was good-looking, if she was not beautiful, since the expression of her countenance showed benignity, culture, and vivacity.  She had piercing dark eyes, a clear complexion, and animated features.  She was in perfect health, capable of great fatigue, apt in business, sagacious, industrious, witty, learned, and fond of being surrounded with illustrious men.  She was high-church in her sympathies, yet a Protestant in the breadth of her views and in the fulness of her reforms.  Above all, she was patriotic and disinterested in her efforts to develop the resources of her kingdom and to preserve it from entangling wars.

The kingdom was far from being prosperous when Elizabeth assumed the reins of government, and it is the enormous stride in civilization which England made during her reign, beset with so many perils, which constitutes her chief claim to the admiration of mankind.  Let it be borne in mind that she began her rule in perplexities, anxieties, and embarrassments.  The crown was encumbered with debts; the nobles were ambitious and factious; the people were poor, dispirited, unimportant, and distracted by the claims of two hostile religions.  Only one bishop in the whole realm was found willing to crown her.  Scotland was convulsed with factions, and was a standing menace, growing out of the marriage of Mary Stuart with a French prince.  Barbarous Ireland was in a state of chronic rebellion; France, Spain, and Rome were decidedly hostile; and all Catholic Europe aimed at the overthrow of England.  Philip II. had adopted the dying injunction of his father to extinguish the Protestant religion, and the princes of the House of Valois were leagued with Rome for the attainment of this end.  At home, Elizabeth had to contend with a jealous Parliament, a factious nobility, an empty