she knew well how to govern her people, and her promptitude and decision were equally remarkable in all her actions. It was her happiness to have statesmen whose names are rendered immortal, who loved their country, and who combined the most consummate political foresight with admirable talents for the administration of public affairs. She was invariably the defender of the Protestant Church, and though it may be questioned whether she ever felt the animating and superior power of true religion, yet her name will be transmitted to posterity with unsullied reputation for the fostering care which she bestowed on the Reformation. Not that her conduct is free from reproach. Her haughtiness and cruelty to the unhappy Mary, Queen of Scots, will always be a stigma on her memory, as acts of injustice, and outrages on injured innocence, unworthy of her vigorous mind, and which have few parallels in history.

Her

conduct to the clergy was often haughty and tyrannical." She restored the Reformation it is true," says Collier," but in many places left little provision to maintain it. She drew back the patrimony of the Church restored by her sister Queen Mary, and reached somewhat unkindly unto theremainder. These things considered, if the Queen's usage of the clergy be compared with that which they experienced in the reign of Henry VIII. it is to be feared that it may be said, her little finger was thicker than her father's loins; and that he

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disciplined them with whips, but she chastised them with scorpions 1."”

Thus far have I detailed the first years of the life of Laud. A new scene now opens to our view— the accession of James of Scotland—and the important public transactions in which Laud was engaged-the theological disputes of the times-and the encroachments of the Puritans, who were making rapid progress in their endeavours to overturn the constitution.

1 1 Collier's Eccles. Hist. vol. ii.

p.

669, 670.

Accession of James I.-State of parties at that period-Religious feeling-Conduct of James-Remarks on his life-The Presbyterians-Insolence of their ministers-The Scottish Episcopal Church-Review of the Puritan objections to Episcopacy-The Hampton Court Conference-Its objects and results-Remarks on the Articles-Concluding observations.

THE eyes of the English nation were now turned on James; the princes of Europe beheld his accession to the English throne with no ordinary interest. More fortunate than any of his ancestors who had swayed the Scottish sceptre, and destined to be happier than any of his descendants, his singular good fortune was the source of envy to many continental princes, who beheld him called from the government of a small and feeble state, to become the monarch of three consolidated powerful kingdoms. Nor was the enthusiasm of the English nation on his accession the less excited,-though afterwards that very people, whose joy was so universal, were destined to exhibit many vicissitudes before the close of the seventeenth century. The beginning of that era saw the royal House of Stuart welcomed to the throne of Britain by every indi

vidual; its close beheld those princes driven from the throne, exiled, and their station among the princes of Europe occupied by others.

1

I design to examine briefly the causes of this wonderful revolution in public opinion; in the mean time, it is necessary to offer a few general remarks upon the state of parties at this eventful period of our history. I have already noted the progress of Puritanism, more especially in the University of Oxford, during Laud's residence there, and the influence which the Puritan leaders possessed over the minds of the students. It must be confessed that they were great men, although led away by an extravagant zeal: but hitherto, although both Oxford and Cambridge were well supplied by those ecclesiastical malcontents, by the vigorous administration of Elizabeth, and the salutary restraints imposed by the primates, this faction had not in its early progress assumed a regular form, nor had it become united as one grand opposing body. The leaders and partizans were detached, and even in dispute among themselves at all events, many of them, though raising a clamour about a second reformation, as they called it, were by no means anxious to leave the Church. But on James' accession, they had become more united: and they clearly saw the necessity of co-operation. The genius of Laud had excited their alarm, and his sentiments in the lectures he delivered were not to be passed over in silence. He was, in fact, no common opponent: he was not to be put down by the sophisms of

"

,,"},

1

Calvin, or the tenets of Genevan theology; and, armed as he was with an intimate knowledge of every argument of the Papists on the one hand, and of the Puritans on the other, they already anticipated this man in his rise to power, which they foresaw was inevitable. They could indeed boast of great men among their own adherents, whose learning was profound, and not surpassed by Laud himself, but unfortunately, however, having deeply imbibed the opinions of Calvin, they rejected the practice of the apostles and the authority of the primitive Church, in their anxiety to comprehend and expound the Institutes of that Reformer. But here was a man who was under no such restraints: who valued no more the opinion of Calvin than he did that of the Bishop of Rome, and who was resolved to uphold and defend that Church whose ordination. he had received, according to her Articles, and to the canons passed in her most solemn Convocations'.

"

1

1The famous Thomas Cartwright died the year before James' accession. Whitgift had all along treated him with lenity, think ing that when his enthusiasm subsided, he would become well affected towards the Church, and was not disappointed in the. expectations he had formed of him. Cartwright, who had contributed his full share towards the spread of Calvinism, and the fomenting of the religious disputes, after being admitted to bail, through the kindness of the Archbishop, died expressing his good inclinations towards the Established Church. He always acknowledged with gratitude the primate's kindness, as appears > from several of his letters to the primate.-Sir George Paul's Life of Whitgift, p. 71, 72. Strype's Annals, chap. xxviii.