richer. Indignant at this result, the reformed Clergy now prosecuted their other plans with the greater zeal. Laws were passed against the Jesuits, popish books, and various offences; thus adultery was to be punished with death. The Assembly, as it was called, ordered in 1586 that there should be annually two provincial and one general assembly of the Church, in which not only the Clergy but the lay elders have a seat and vote. The general Assemby of the Church regulates the visitations of the several dioceses and parishes. A Bishop is no more than an ordinary clergyman. When Archbishop Adamson opposed these resolutions, and excommunicated the authors of them, he was illtreated by his adversaries; and when the King interfered, he was answered that he had no voice in religious matters. At length, in the year 1592, the Parliament confirmed the whole of the Presbyterian constitution of the Church, and the King, says an historian, was silent to much, bore much, and granted much.

All these Scotch affairs warmly interested Mary. At the time when her son was in a manner kept a prisoner by the nobles, she wrote on the 5th of November, 1582, a detailed and eloquent letter to Elizabeth, in which she said in substance, "I hoped by patience and concession to soften the rigour with which I am treated; but I am worse treated than the meanest, amused with vain hopes, and (a

bad example for Catholic Princes,) even the conversation of a Catholic priest is denied me. Everything in me appears suspicious, everything is interpreted to my disadvantage, everybody is believed against me. And yet my only object is to pass the remainder of my days in tranquillity, out of England, and to strengthen my debilitated constitution." Elizabeth, as it seems, not unmoved by these complaints, caused proposals for a new treaty, resembling, on the whole, those we have already mentioned to be laid before her. But Mary again hesitated to come to a conclusion; and about the same time letters were intercepted from her to an Englishman in the pay of Spain, which shewed that she by no means thought merely of passing her life in quiet retirement, but hoped for great revolutions and conspiracies, and in order not to discourage her partisans, would not renounce any of her pretensions to the throne. (1o)

The Scotch, on their part, were vehemently opposed to the notion of again acknowledging as their Queen, a woman who was a Papist, who had been highly provoked, and if not convicted, yet accused of crimes deserving death. Lastly, Burghley feared (") that Mary would be closely united with the Guises, the French and Spaniards; (12) and, in fact, the affairs of England, both at home and abroad, were in so critical a situation, and the danger of foreign and civil war so imminent, that

it was necessary very seriously to deliberate on the measures to be adopted. The power of the Guises, in concert with Spain, surpassed that of Henry III., and the Hugonots daily became less important; Philip had subdued Portugal in 1580; the plan of his half-brother, Don John of Austria, to invade England, and gain, with the hand of Mary, the English throne, was defeated rather by his death than by Philip's jealousy; and the progress of his successor, Alexander of Parma, in the Netherlands, gave reason to fear their subjugation, and the complete re-establishment of the Spanish tyranny. How easily might King James of Scotland be one day induced to listen to the repeated proposals of Elizabeth's powerful enemies, while the boldness of domestic rebels threatened her government, nay, her life, with extreme danger. From the Colleges of the Jesuits at Douay and Rome, which were powerfully supported by Philip, above three hundred pupils, in various characters and disguises came to England, for the purpose of spreading the Roman Catholic religion, of inculcating the doctrine of the supremacy of the Pope, and fomenting conspiracies against Elizabeth. (13)

In consequence of these efforts of the spies and hirelings of Spain, and even the military support of Philip, several insurrections broke out in England and Ireland, from 1579 to 1582, which, however, were quelled by fidelity and unanimity. But,

said zealous Protestants, what can secure the life of Elizabeth, if, on the authority of the Papal Bull of excommunication, her murder is held to be lawful and necessary? if Romish priests in their writings call upon the female attendants of the Queen to treat her as Judith did Holofernes, when even a Cardinal (Allen) defends such crimes? Parr, a Welsh gentleman, referred at least to Allen's writing, and to the assent of Papal Ambassadors and Cardinals, when he was convicted of intending to assassinate Elizabeth. If, as some affirm, it is allowed that these accusations were partial and exaggerated, that the interpretation of the writings was far fetched, and that many expressions were even invented; yet it is certain, that in spite of Parr's punishment, several similar attempts were made, and prove, like the assassination of William of Orange, how easily many persons were, at that time, wholly alienated from all moral principles by the condemnable notion of the meritoriousness of such crimes. It is denied that Philip II. directly approved of those plots against Elizabeth: there is no doubt that he supported the rebellious Irish, and that Mendoza, his Ambassador, who was ordered to quit London on that account, was concerned in the intrigues, though he had grounds for recrimination, on account of the support given to his master's enemies.

The nation and the Parliament, who beheld in

the government of Elizabeth the pledge of their safety and religion, gave double proofs of their love and attachment to her, so that the French ambassador Mauvissière reports, "Queen Elizabeth has told me that several conspiracies, directed by the Jesuits, have been, by the goodness of God, discovered. Latterly, when she has appeared in public, whole crowds of people fell on their knees as she passed, prayed in various ways, invoked upon her a thousand blessings, and hoped that all her wicked enemies might be discovered and punished. She often stopped and returned thanks for all this love. When I was alone with her, (she rode on a good horse,) amidst all this crowd, she said to me, "you see that all do not wish me ill." (14)

In the next year, Leicester put himself at the head of an association for the protection of the Queen, and in 1585 laws were passed by Parliament of the following tenor: "every person who is not a merchant must have licence from the magistrates to travel into foreign countries; English subjects who are in foreign Roman Catholic seminaries are to return home, on pain of losing their property and of banishment for life; and no person shall in future send his children or relations to such seminaries. All Jesuits shall quit the kingdom in forty days, under the penalties of high treason; whosoever shall, notwithstanding, harbour and conceal