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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
management of her finances, and the adminis- tration of justice, have deservedly acquired the praise and admiration of posterity; while her prudence and vigilance, her vigour, constancy, and magnanimity have never, perhaps, been sur- passed by any monarch in ancient or modern history. But many instances are on record, which prove that she partook of the imperious spirit of her father, and sometimes degraded the amiable character of woman, by giving way to the violence of passion; nor was sne over delicate in the choice of terms to express her displeasure. At the commencement 0/ her reign she was moderate and humble; towards the end of it, haughty and severe; and to flatter her charms at the age of sixty-five, was the surest road to her favour and esteem. Her ministers* could always bias her judgment by means of flattery, or by intimidating threats that her throne was in danger; but the strength of her reason op|>osed their opinions, and made her defer, as long as she could, a decision which she fell was incon- sistent with her better part. But whatever were her defects as a woman, as a queen she is ever to be remembered by her subjects with g^ratitude. From the time that the earl of Essex was he- headed, the days of Elizabeth were sorrowful and gloomy; and she never ceased to reproach herself for the cruel precipitancy with which she acted. Her godson, sir John Harrington, de-
- Ths foDowloK brief notices of EUzabeth't mlnltten
may not be tnappltcable to our purpose: —
WiUiam Cecil, lord Burghley, was born at Bourn, In Lincolnshire, Sept. 13, I520| received the honour of knighthod from Edward VI October SI, issi; became chief minister to queen Elizabeth, and for a long time governed her councils. He was Jealoos of every man whose services were greater, and whose parts were better tlian ills own. He died August 4, 1&98.
Sir Francis Walsingtiam, one of the most eminent of Elizabeth's statesmen.her frequent representative at foreign courts, died Aprils, 159a, buried in St. Paul's.
Sir Christopher Hatton was one of the handsomest and most accomplished men of his time, and to these acciden- tal Instances of good fortune he owed his advancement in Elizal>eth's favour: certain it is, the same anomalous partiality which led her into the greatest extravagancies with Leicester and Essex she displayed towards Hatton, which eventually promoted him to the highest stations in the cabinet, and in his profession of a lawyer. He was appointed vice chamberlain of her hooselioid, lord high chancellor of England, and knight of the garter. He died November 20, 1591.
Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, was born at injinam, September 7, iM3, was ennobled in September, isSt. On June 4, 15S0, he was married to Amy Robsart, in the presence of Edward VI., she met her death by violence, at Cumnor hall, near Oxford, September Bth, Is6o. He is supposed to hare been poisoned, and died September 4, I J8g. For thirty years this nobleman had been the favour- ite of ills royal mistress, over whose affections he bad held such a firm ascendency as to Iteep her ignorant of bis dissipated maimers. As her councillor, he abused her confidence; for in the advice he ^ve of the unfortunate queen of Scotland, during the period of his government in the Netherlands, and in all the affairs of state, in whidi her misplaced partiality led her to consult him, he ever considered the furthering of his own ambitious plans, and his personal gratification, before the honour of his mis- tress and the ends of Justice. Leicesterwas too mean to be noble, and too vain to be great Biuied at Warwick.
Thomas Sackville, lord BucVhurst, first earl of Dorset, filled various important offices in tiie state; he was lord hl^ treasurer to queen Elizabeth, chancellor of the uni- versity of Oxford, K.O., Sec. and as an author maintains an eminent station amon;; the poets of his country. He died at a very advancee<l age, loaded with wealth and honours, April IB, 160s.
scribes her majesty, in October, 1601, as altered in features, and reduced to a skeleton. He says, her food was only manchel food and succory pottage. Her taste for dress was gone. Nothing could please her; she was the torment of the ladies who waited on her person. She stamped with her feet, and swore violently at the objects of her anger. For her protection she had or- dered a sword to be placed on the table, which she often took in her hand acd thrust with violence into the tapestry of her chamber." After the death of her intimate friend, the countess of Nottingham, she spent her days and nights in tears, and only spoke to mention some irritating subject; and having experienced some hours of alarming stupor, she persisted, after her recovery from it, to remain seated on cushions, from which she could not be prevailed upon to remove during ten days; but sat with her finger generally on her mouth, and her eyes open and lixvd upon the ground, for she had an absurd notion that if she lay down in bed she should not rise from it again. In her last illness die removed, on a stormy day in January, from her palace in Westminster to Richmond; and when tier ailings increased, she was obstinate in re- fusing medical advice. Her secretary, with the other great ministers of state, hanng met at Richmond, the queen was put into bed, and listened to prayers and exhortations from the archbishop. Two days before her death, Cecil reminded the queen that she had once said to him, at Whitehall, that her throne was the throne of kings. To which she replied, " I will have no rascal to succeed me. Who should suc- ceed me but a king?" On being asked to ex- plain her meaning more fully, her majesty said, "that a king should succeed, and who could that be but her cousin of Scotland." The arch- bishop resumed his prayers: she became speech- less, but twice beckoned him to continue. In the evening the same lords requested her to make a sign, if she continued in the same mind respecting the succession. The queen raised her arms in the air, and closed them over her head. In a few minutes she began to dose; and at three o'clock the next morning composedly breathed her last, on the 24th of Inarch, 1603. Her remains were deposited, with great ftinetal pomp, in Henry Vllth's chapel, Westminster abbey. She was the daughter of Anne Boleyn, and born at Greenwich, September 7, 1533.
Tills great queen passionately admired hand- some persons, and he was already far advanced in her favour who approached her with beauty and grace. She had so unconquerable an aversion for men who had been treated unfortunately by nature, that she could scarcely endure their presence. She left no less than three thousand different habits in her wardrobe when she died. She was possessed of the dresses of all countries. "In that time," [Elizabeth] says honest John Stowe, "he was held the greatest gallant that had the deepest ruff and longest rapier. The offence to the eye of the one, and hurt unto the life of the subject that came by
