Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/518

498 REIGN OF ELIZABETH, [CH, men appointed as magistrates to do justice without partiality. The present practice of pardoning notable crimes, of pardoning piracy especially, ought to cease, and ' penal laws not to be dispensed with for private men's profit, a matter greatly misliked of all good people/ Malcontents and recusants should be dis- armed. Special fines should be imposed on them, and all authority in the realm carefully taken from them, and it should be generally understood through the country that if disturbances were attempted in favour of the Queen of Scots, she would be herself the first to suffer. 1 So much for the realm ; and the recommendations throw light on the slipshod character of Elizabeth's in- ternal government. Abroad, the council invited her to abandon her hesitating courses and make up her mind once for all to assist the struggling Protestants in France and the Low Countries. In defending them she would really be defending herself. Conde, Navarre, and the Prince of Orange were fighting England's battles as much as their own. She should make herself strong at sea, and not be afraid to apply to her subjects for money. Be- ing childless too she might sell lands of her own for so 1 A precaution extremely neces- sary. On the 29th of September Don Juan de Vargas told Philip that the Queen of Scots, ' desesperada de ver el poco socorro que halla y la mala firma que tiene de salir de cap- tividad, ha dado orejas y empezado a tratar con algunos particulares In- gleses que se han venido a offrecer ; y que podria ser que se aventurasen a tentar la fortuna, y que se viese alguna gran solevacion en aquellas partes.' Vargas to Philip, Septem- ber 29 : TEULET, vol. v.