throne. But though his arguments convinced her judgment, they could not control her despotic temper, or her childish love of splendid ceremonies.

LUCY.

I understand you, mamma; but I think the faults of Henry and Elizabeth disgraced only themselves. The worst part of the story is the behaviour of the reformers; especially their great want of charity towards the papists, and towards each other. All parties were too much alike in this respect. You see, Calvin wanted queen Elizabeth to call a protestant council, for the establishment of uniformity, though it was the unfortunate desire of making every body worship the Almighty just in the same way, that gave rise to persecution.

HARRY.

It is a pity that "Evenings at Home" were not written then: it might have done them all good to read "Sunday Morning."

MRS. B.

I think not, my dear Harry; for when the rights of conscience were so imperfectly understood, they would have been incapable of applying it. You know they had the New Testament, yet they seem not to have perceived that no particular form of worship is there prescribed; but the attention is turned from external cir

cumstances to the disposition of mind in which it is offered. The Eye of divine intelligence looks through all our specious professions, all our forms and shadows of religion, to the real state of our affections; discerning and accepting the offering of the humble and the penitent.

It is true, that the glory of the Reformation was tarnished by contention about externals, but much good was still effected; and even the church of Rome was benefited by the assault she sustained. The catholic clergy applied more generally to the acquisition of useful knowledge, and the invectives of Luther showed them the necessity of maintaining a greater regard to morality in their conduct. The reformers were, for the most part, exemplary in their manners, and this was one great cause of their influence over the people; the catholic clergy therefore perceived they must soon lose all credit if they continued to practice their former vices, which would not fail to be detected and exposed without mercy, by the protestants. This salutary check was not experienced in Spain. and Portugal, where the tyranny of the Inquisition crushed the principles of protestantism as soon as they appeared. In those countries: knowledge did not make the same progress, neither did the character of the ecclesiastics

improve, as it has done in France and Germany, where they felt themselves brought into comparison with protestants.

This beneficial influence extended also to the pontiffs. Before the Reformation, several of the popes were men of infamous character, a disgrace to religion and to human nature; but for two hundred years after that event, they observed considerable decorum of conduct. Many of them, especially among the pontiffs of the eighteenth century, were eminent for virtue and humanity, for the love of literature, and for a spirit of moderation scarcely known in former times*. Thus you see, my dear children, that even religious dissensions, though so dreadful in their immediate effects, become, under the moral government of Providence, the means of producing good. I mention this, not to apologize for those who are deficient in charity, but as a proof that human crimes and follies, far from interrupting the purposes of Divine benevolence, are so over-ruled as to promote them.

When they resumed their evening entertainment, Harry read the following account of

* Robertson's Charles V. vol. iv. p. 325–328.

LORD BURLEIGH.

Deep vers'd in man, the philosophic sage
Prepares with lenient hand their frenzy to assuage.

BEATTIE.

WHILE the influence of Cecil in the regulation of ecclesiastical affairs was limited, and sometimes counteracted, by the prejudices of the queen, she felt the value of his political wisdom, and in civil transactions the ascendency of his moderate and cautious counsels was apparent. From the commencement of his administration, it was his steady aim to improve the internal state of the country. During the reigns of Henry the Eighth and his son, the coin of the realm had become so exceedingly debased, that the difference between its real and nominal value was the source of continual disputes at home, and a great impediment to foreign trade. By the perseverance and activity of the new minister, this grievance was effectually redressed: the base money was called into the mint; new gold and silver coin, of the standard weight and value, was issued in its stead; and

the money of England, which had been generally decried, was soon esteemed as the heaviest and finest in Europe.

It was the opinion of Cecil, that rational conviction is a surer foundation of obedience than the dread of authority. On this principle, he was anxious to make it evident to the people that the plans of government were for their advantage; and in the early part of his administration, he encouraged discussions in parliament on the settlement of religion, and other important measures. Afterwards, when the queen's jealousy of debates which might tend to limit or weaken her prerogative, rendered him more cautious on this head, he availed himself of other methods of influencing the public mind. Notwithstanding the multiplicity of affairs which claimed his attention, he found time to compose and publish a great number of political tracts, suited to the exigencies of the moment. If the queen, or her ministers, were libeled or misrepresented by the disaffected, he wrote, or caused to be written, an immediate answer, justifying their conduct and the measures of government *.

The same desire of securing obedience, by conciliating the people, induced him to recom

Macdiarmid, p. 164-167.