Justice in the courts was impartially administered; there was security to property and punishment for crime.  No great culprits escaped conviction; nor, when convicted, were they allowed to purchase, with their stolen wealth, the immunities of freedom.  The laws were not a mockery, as in republican Borne, where demagogues had the ascendency, and prepared the way for usurpation and tyranny.  All the expenses of the government were managed economically,—­so much so that the Queen herself received from Parliament, for forty years, only an average grant of L65,000 a year.  She disliked to ask money from the Commons, and they granted subsidies with extreme reluctance; the result was that between the two the greatest economy was practised, and the people were not over-burdened by taxation.

Elizabeth hated and detested war as the source of all calamities, and never embarked upon it except under compulsion.  All her wars were virtually defensive, to maintain the honor, safety, and dignity of the nation.  She did not even seek to recover Calais, which the French had held for three hundred years; although she took Havre, to gain a temporary foothold for her troops.  She did not strive for military eclat or foreign possessions in Europe, feeling that the strength of England, like the ancient Jewish commonwealth, was in the cultivation of the peaceful virtues; and yet she made war when it became imperative.  She gave free audience to her subjects, paid attention to all petitions, and was indefatigable in business.  She made her own glory identical with the prosperity of the realm; and if she did not rule by the people, she ruled for the people, as enlightened and patriotic monarchs ever have ruled.  It is indisputable that the whole nation loved her and honored her to the last, even when disappointments had saddened her and the intoxicating delusions of life had been dispelled.  She bestowed honors and benefits with frankness and cordiality.  She ever sought to base her authority on the affections of the people,—­the only support even of absolute thrones.  She was ever ready with a witticism, a smile, and a pleasant word.  Though she gave vent to peevishness and irritability when crossed, and even would swear before her ministers and courtiers in private, yet in public she disguised her resentments, and always appeared dignified and graceful; so that the people, when they saw her majestic manners, or heard her loving speeches, or beheld her mounted at the head of armies or shining unrivalled in grand festivals, or listened to her learning on public occasions,—­such as when she extemporized Latin orations at Oxford,—­were filled with pride and admiration, and were ready to expose their lives in her service.