XI. erred in ignorance of what was right; and no one CHAP. but herself could know how much the temptation of the offered splendor had operated, beyond the solicitation, to seduce her to take what she ought to have continued to refuse. The common belief could not fail to be, that inclination more than persuading urgency had decided her determination; because every one rated her talents and attainments too high, not to perceive in them sufficient means of resisting the most emphatic importunity, unless intellectual cultivation be of no use to the preservation and practice of moral conduct. That she was only sixteen years old, would have excused an illiterate school girl, but not the student of Plato, nor the companion of Demosthenes. It is probable that she repented of the error, soon after she committed it. But almost all crimes are the transactions of a few minutes, and yet involve us in long-chastising consequences of disgrace and ruin, from which no remorse or regret can save us, when we have once committed ourselves to the evil issue. It is in the preceding deliberation that moral principle must exert its power, and mental fortitude fix its resisting resolution; and it is in the choice and decision of our will to do the unbecoming deed, that its personal criminality chiefly consists. The act is but the manual and momentary execution of the vicious and degrading determination. It is that which sullies the soul; and it is that in which virtue must maintain her sway. Within a month after his mortifying discomfiture, Northumberland was tried for high treason; and on 22d August beheaded at Tower Hill, reviling the Reformation, and declaring that he died in the BOOK II. Roman Catholic faith,10 a needless and disreputable disclosure of a masked and unprincipled mind; but a further evidence, that the defeated plot of usurpation had originated solely from political ambition. From such hypocrisy, national evils only could have resulted if he had triumphed. His failure was therefore no loss to the Reformation, which, if he had lived, he might have tried to betray; and the combination of his ill success, knavery and fate seems to have had the good effect of turning the minds and passions of the English nobility from the traitorous factions, which they had so often made, that they might dispose of the crown according to their temporary humors or individual convenience. A king gives them rank and legal consequence, and derives from them his chief support; but the succession must be independent of their appointment, if his reign is to be either comfortable to himself, or a benefit and credit to the whole nation which he governs. 101 See his speech in Strype's App. p. 917, 8. CHAP. XII. THE ACCESSION OF MARY HER ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND TEMPER-INVASION OF HER RELIGIOUS LIBERTY - PRO- XII. MARY had acted with decision and prudence, from CHAP. the commencement of a crisis which demanded an exertion of instantaneous judgment; and as she was, both in natural abilities and in her added attainments, a congenial branch of the Tudor family, she displayed them to advantage during a struggle which would have tried even manly talent and accustomed courage. If she had lived half a century earlier, or as much later in our national chronology, she would have added lustre to the English throne, and have obtained a reputation inferior to few of her predecessors. Even her more illustrious sister might not have excelled her. But if ever a sovereign has reigned, who has exhibited the deteriorating and degrading effects of allowing a political priesthood, with persecuting principles, to take the direction of the state government, and to make the mind of the sovereign subservient to the compulsory imposition on others of the religious system, tenets, and speculations which they chuse to maintain, MARY is such a person-Her name stands on the rolls of English history, like the pharos on the dark and dangerous rock, to warn every potentate and country, what must be timelily discerned and shunned; if honor, fame, happiness or national prosperity, be worthy of BOOK II. a king's pursuit, or desirable for his own gratification to enjoy. At the period of Anne Boleyn's death, when she was in her twentieth year,' Mary was described by the French gentleman, who was then in London, and had become acquainted with her habits, to have made reading the Scriptures, music, needle-work, and the study of foreign languages, her favorite occupations. She had been treated as a favorite princess, till the contest about her mother's divorce consigned her to a private life; when all state was discontinued to her, and she lived alone, cultivating her religion and every innocent pastime. The chief branches of human knowlege attracted her attention; she studied astronomy, geography, the natural philosophy of the day, and even mathematics; nor were logic, ethics and polity omitted." Her 1 3 Sanders places Mary's birth 18 February 1515, p. 10; Heylin the same day, in 1516, p. 1. But Stowe, p. 502, and Godwin, p. 338, more correctly on 11 February 1517, which corresponds with the usual account, that she died in her 42d year, in November 1558. 3 2 I quote this work as Crispin's, the lord of Miherve: Souvent vaquet aux divine leçons ; Souvent cherchoit des instrumens les sons; Crapelet, p. 188. Crapelet's ed. 176. XII. proficiency was greater in the Latin than in the CHAP. Greek authors, but she read both, for their history and poetry, and to assist her devotions." To this picture of her mind and its employments at the age of twenty, we are enabled, from the Venetian ambassador's report to his senate, to add, in the note, his more delineating yet corresponding account of her in her fortieth year. In her mental accomplishments, she was not much inferior to her young competitor; but being at the mature age of thirtysix at her accession, she surpassed Jane in vigor, prudence, decision and activity. As far as intellect, love of letters and patriotism were concerned, the nation lost nothing by her enthronement. It was bigotry and its oppressions, which injured her mind and afflicted her people. To the cultivation and private exercise, as she pleased, of her own religious sentiments, she was, like every human being, fully entitled. But by enforcing them on her subjects, by dungeons, misery and fire, she destroyed the effect of her real worth and unusual acquisitions, and has darkened her moral character for ever. To her courage, she was principally indebted for 7 Michele in 1557, thus described her, 'She is of short stature; wellmade; thin and delicate, and moderately pretty. Her eyes are so lively that she inspires reverence and respect, and even fear, wherever she turns them. Yet she is very shortsighted. She understands five languages; English, Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian; in which last however she does not venture to converse. She is also much skilled in ladies work; such as producing all sorts of embroidery with the needle. She has a knowlege of music, chiefly on the lute, on which she plays exceedingly well.' See his memoir translated in Mr. Ellis, second series, v. 2. p. 236. |