to acquiesce in the charge; so that the student who looks for his knowledge in European annals to Dr. Lardner's miscellany, will find, under the head of Spain, the same story treated as a mere idle fiction, which, under the head of England, he is taught most potently to believe. Lord F. Egerton, we observe, continues to doubt notwithstanding the strongly-expressed opinion of his principal. 'Whether,' he says, these deductions of Monsieur Raumer be correct or otherwise, it is evident that there is nothing to justify historians or biographers in stating, as an indisputable and notorious fact, that Philip was the murderer of his son and wife.' The latter, indeed, is a monstrous and wholly unauthorized accusation.* Whatever estimate we may be inclined to form respecting the amiability of Philip's character, his young wife was most devotedly attached to him, and he, as far as his nature permitted, returned her affection. Her last sighs were breathed on the bosom of her husband; her last prayers were, that her mother and brothers might be better impressed with the urgent duty of showing no compassion towards the enemies of their religion; so deeply, as Ranke observes, had the evil infection of the time insinuated itself into that innocent heart'!

From one great tragedy to another, performed on a more public stage and between actors of still greater mark and celebrity, the mind of the reader turns with a natural desire to compare and contrast circumstances so different in character, yet equally prominent among the tumultuous scenes of their busy century. Von Raumer has evidently taken a particular interest in compiling that part of his collections which relates to Mary Queen of Scots, and principally to the last period of her captivity and the events which immediately preceded her death. We cannot, however, say that he has succeeded in throwing any additional light on the mysterious part of those transactions. Nor, indeed, is there much of novelty, to English readers, in the extracts which he has inserted in the present volumes. One long and interesting letter, that of Mary describing her situation at Tutbury, was printed long ago, as the translator remarks, in Lord Bridgewater's Life of Lord Chancellor Egerton. He might have added, that it has been already used for the purposes of general history, as the most interesting parts of it have been extracted by Dr. Lingard. And all that is of importance in the despatches of the French envoys from Scotland and England will be found either in the Cotton, Harleian, or Egerton MSS., in the British Museum. But it is hardly possible to conceive that much public documentary evi

The story quoted by Raumer (pp. 156, 157) from an anonymous MS. merely gives the current reports in France at the time. The substance of it was already to be found in Le Laboureur's additions to the memoirs of Castelnau.

dence

dence can exist unsearched, on a favourite subject of controversy, which has exercised the wits of so many literary polemics.

Whether or no Mary did actually pen that fatal passage in her letter to Babington, (for hers it most undoubtedly was as to the rest of its contents,) which implicates her as accessary to the intended murder of Elizabeth, will, we fear, remain ever an undecided question. No reasoning, no ingenuity, can remove the suspicion which attaches to the conductors of the prosecution, from their not having confronted Mary with her two accusers, the secretaries who had made those disclosures which led to her condemnation. And yet, on the other hand, there is so much probability in favour of the supposition that Mary, whom the conspirators trusted in all besides, was trusted in this most critical point of all; there is, too, notwithstanding the general impression to the contrary, so much of openness and fairness in the recorded transactions with her previous to her trial; there is so much in Nau and Curl's confessions, which their subsequent retractation could neither palliate nor evade, that the mind remains balanced between the improbability of so many circumstances concurring to give verisimilitude to a fiction, and the difficulty of believing that the ministers of Elizabeth, if as upright as they were sagacious, could have committed so gross an error as to neglect, or to suffer their sovereign to omit, the only step wanted to confirm, in the eyes of all Europe, the justice of their accusations.

We have been led into these reflections less by the contents of the work before us than by the perusal of some very singular autograph letters of Lord Burleigh, which will shortly be given to the public by Mr. Leigh, their discoverer, together with other documents, edited and unedited, respecting the Babington conspiracy. Whether these letters will throw, in fact, any light upon the real state of the case between Mary and her accusers, or whether they only place additional difficulties in the way of any plausible theory, we will not now anticipate. But the picture which they give of the agitated mind of Elizabeth, during that

' Interim,

Like a phantasma or a hideous dream,' which passed between the first resolution to involve Mary in the charges against Babington, and the final adoption of judicial measures against her, is indeed fraught with the deepest interest. No language of a fictitious describer, even had Shakspeare brought his sovereign on the stage, could so forcibly depict the wild conflict of her feelings, as the manner in which her cold, unimpassioned, impenetrable minister notes everything, while seeming to note nothing; conveying to his correspondent (Walsingham) a perfect dissection of the queen's inmost thoughts, in a

style

style apparently so unconscious, that had the letters reached her eye, there is not a sentence or an expression on which she could have fixed as derogatory to her dignity or inconsistent with his duty as the mere exponent of her will and directions.

The interference of King James in behalf of his mother forms a curious chapter in the life of that monarch, whose fate it seems to have been, throughout life, to have his best intentions frustrated by the worthlessness of statesmen and favourites, by whom he was flattered, governed, and betrayed on all occasions. He has been so eminently unpopular a character with almost all historical writers, that it has been usual to attribute the failure of his intercessions with Elizabeth to his own lukewarmness, if not, with Burnet and others, to insincerity. Yet the latter, at least, seems a very unjust suspicion. Of high generosity his nature was not indeed capable: he had none of those chivalrous feelings which would have induced worse princes than himself to peril crown and life in such a cause, even for the sake of their own and their country's dignity, were all natural feeling out of the question. And his affection towards his mother was not likely to act powerfully in her favour-as he had never known her, and was moreover, it may fairly be believed, persuaded of her privity to his father's death. Nevertheless, if his exertions were not energetic, there is scarcely reason for imagining that they were not made in good faith. And sufficient allowance has not been made for the extraordinary circumstances in which he was placed, and the character of the men in whose hands imperious state-necessity—or rather the necessity of a prince whose ministers are forced upon him by a domineering party, and whose fate it is to employ agents whom he knows and despises-obliged him to place the conduct of the negociation. On this point the volumes before us afford some curious illustrations, from the despatches of M. de Courcelles, French ambassador at Edinburgh. We must however remark, that the bulk of his reports at this critical period is contained at considerable. length, and apparently most accurately translated, in the Cotton MSS. of the British Museum.

It will be remembered that the first envoy despatched to England by King James, on the intelligence of the arrest of the Queen of Scots' servants, in consequence of the Babington conspiracy, was William Keith, whose appointment excited great discontent among the high-minded Scottish nobility, both because he was a man of no personal consequence and also a partisan, perhaps a pensioner, of England. Yet it might be doubted whether so insignificant an agent was not likely to make more progress with the proud and vindictive Elizabeth than any of those warlike barons who would so gladly have carried her a message of defiance.

However

However, as the danger to Mary appeared more imminent, and after she had been found guilty by the Lords Commissioners, the king despatched three envoys, the Earl of Bothwell, Sir Robert Melville, and the Master of Gray, to intercede for her life. But Bothwell, the queen's devoted friend, was prevented from undertaking the journey by Elizabeth's decided opposition.

The King of Scotland,' writes De Courcelles, Dec. 31, 1586, ' appears not to trouble himself much with this,' (the obstacles thrown in the way of Bothwell's commission,) from his desire to send some one quickly, to prevent further proceedings against the queen his mother; and that, in any case, the passport being made out for Lord Gray,* who could take the said Melville with him, these seemed to him sufficient for the above legation.'

Here follow the instructions delivered to the commissioners, which are well known.

'To give these instructions more solemnity, James caused them to be read to the Parliament, and called upon the Lords to give their opinion upon them. Hereupon, the Lords Hamilton, Bothwell, and others remarked, it seemed to them not unfitting to add, that the king, if Elizabeth should proceed further against his mother, would declare war; or add some threats which would, in their opinion, be of more avail to restrain the insolence of the enemy, than all the entreaties they could make. They wished, also, to strike out certain passages in the last instruction, as running contrary to the honour and dignity of the king, and being such as his mother herself would even in extremity refuse her consent to. The king answered, "The time is not fitting, and the posture of my affairs does not permit me to threaten the Queen of England, who is a very powerful princess. The last article, moreover," (this was to the effect that Queen Mary should voluntarily renounce her personal rights as a sovereign prince, and remain a prisoner as Elizabeth's subject,) "must remain unaltered, as a means whereby the life of my mother may be saved."

Upon this, the Lord Herries prayed his Majesty not to take it amiss, if he were to tell him, that from the beginning they had shown themselves too tardy in the defence of his mother, which had given occasion to her enemies to proceed so far against her. The king, however, answered in anger," Although I am not bound to lay before my subjects an account of my dealings, I yet will that every one should know, that if I did not speak earlier respecting the liberation of my mother, I so abstained because she herself had sent me word not to do so, and I will not do service to any ungrateful person. For proofs how I have in everything discharged my duty towards her, our correspondence since my accession to the throne shall be laid before the highest tribunal of this realm, and copied. For the rest, you may add

The English translator ought to have noticed that the Master of Gray is thus confounded with his father the Peer, through the German collector's too literal adoption of the loose French Milord of De Courcelles.

or

or take away what you will in these instructions; inasmuch, however, as the object is to save the life of the queen, I declare solemnly, that if she suffer death, her blood be upon all your heads, and not on mine." As they saw him so steadfast in his opinion, none would make reply; many also concluded that he was advised that this was the only way to save his mother: they had perhaps laid it down for him from England, and Elizabeth was perhaps informed of it. In any case, the king will endeavour to derive therefrom advantages for himself. As he has made a general declaration, that he would not openly declare against England, even befalling the death of his mother, but only in the case of an attempt to exclude him from the succession, as he himself has said to Lords Bothwell and Seton, all which may have given, as they pretend it has, more courage to the partisans of England, who were about him, and knew the facility which is said to belong to him, to persuade the Queen of England not to hesitate (faindre) in proceeding against the queen his mother; for though her death would be displeasing to him, they would be able, by the great means they had in his court and their favour with his person, or in any event by the occasions which time would procure, to excuse the execution which might be done upon her. The partisans of England who surround him have taken fresh courage. He trusts to his dexterity to be able to dissuade Elizabeth and her council from violent measures against his mother; and the English think, that however disagreeable her execution may be to him, they will be able, by their influence and other means which time will furnish, to excuse and slur over the action.

'This is the more to the purpose, as Gray confessed to King James he had written to the Secretary of State, Walsingham, and others in England, suggesting to them not to execute Mary in public, but to remove her by poison. Gray could not, moreover, deny this, as these letters had come to the knowledge of some noblemen, who threatened him with death in the event of any injury happening to Mary. This, as some believe, has caused him to undertake a journey to England, with the better will, and to promise the king to set every thing in motion in his mother's behalf. He has confirmed this to me on the occasion of his departure, when I demanded of him and Melville to co-operate with Messieurs de Bellièvre and Châteauneuf. He hopes to repair his error and remove the suspicion which has arisen. He is also, in the case of the death of Queen Mary, safer in the first moment in England than here, where he would with difficulty withstand the impetuosity and effort of many who would rise on the first report they should receive of it.'-vol. ii. p. 146.

The history of this commission, and especially of the part taken in it by Gray, presents so singular a picture of the machinations and intricate treacheries of the courtiers of James, that we may perhaps be excused for pursuing it a little farther, though this may cause us to digress for a moment from M. von Raumer's pages; especially, as the course of these intrigues appears to us