3. It was no easy task which lay before the young queen. She had to govern a people sharply divided into two parties, calling themselves Catholics and Protestants, ever ready in those days to bite and devour one another. Elizabeth endeavoured from the first to reign, not as queen of this party or that, but as queen of all her people. In her religious opinions, however, she leaned to the Protestant side. She was decidedly in favour of a National Church, in which the Pope had no power, and at her request her first Parliament restored the English Bible and Prayer-book to their former place in public worship.
4. Elizabeth was not without her faults. She was vain and fond of flattery, and sometimes mean and deceitful. But in the management of affairs of state she always sought the greatness of England. Although she had able ministers, she steered the ship of state herself. She loved to pilot her vessel in troubled waters, and to take a zigzag course, but so skilfully did she handle the helm that she avoided the shoals and rocks that lay in her course.
5. Elizabeth's great endeavour was to keep her country out of war. And so well did she succeed that she secured for England almost unbroken peace for thirty years, not peace at any price, but "peace with honour." She never yielded to threats, she never drew back a single inch when the honour of England bade her stand firm. She stood again and again on the brink of war, either with France or Spain. But so jealous were these powers of each other, and so full were their hands of their own home troubles, that the wily queen was able to play off one against the other, and get her own way without going to war. Owing to the long peace she secured, and the strict economy she practised, England constantly grew in prosperity and power.
6. Another lasting good Elizabeth wrought for her country. Before her day Scotland had always joined France when the latter went to war with England, and so close was the alliance at the time of Elizabeth's accession that Queen Mary of Scotland was married to the King of France, and French troops were quartered in Edinburgh. Elizabeth put herself at the head of the Scotch Protestants, who, with the help of her fleet and army, soon drove out the French. This action of Elizabeth put an end for ever to the alliance between France and Scotland. It created a friendly feeling between the Protestants of England and Scotland, and prepared the way for the peaceful union between the two crowns on Elizabeth's death.
7. Happily, that death was far distant, and when it occurred all England was ready to acknowledge James of Scotland as king. But had Elizabeth died young, the country would have been thrown into utter disorder, if not civil war. That danger at one time seemed imminent.
8. The queen, while staying at Hampton Court, felt herself one day faint and unwell. Never suspecting that small-pox was the cause, she went out for a ride, caught cold, and in a few hours was in a high fever. The eruption was checked. She grew rapidly and alarmingly worse. The thin cord that held England together was threatening to snap. Should the queen die no ray of hope or light could be seen for England. In the evening she sank into a stupor without speech; and with blank faces, in the ante-chamber of the room where she was believed to be dying, the Council sat into the night to consider the thorny question of the succession to the throne. At midnight the fever cooled, the skin grew moist, the spots began to appear. By the morning the eruption had come out—and the danger was over.
9. Among the queenly qualities of Elizabeth was her unfailing insight into men's character. She knew worthy men when she saw them, and showed unerring judgment in the selection of her ministers and agents. She made the interests of the kingdom her chief concern, and those who shared her counsels were of the same spirit. Her chief minister was William Cecil, and for forty years he served the queen with rare ability and loyalty. He had much to endure from the shifty and uncertain ways of his royal mistress, but he bore all with wonderful patience, and was ever at her elbow with his sage advice when the right moment had come. Elizabeth knew that she could trust him, and was never offended when he plainly showed that he disliked her crooked policy. Blunt of speech herself, she required her ministers to be plain-spoken; always ready to listen to their counsel, though not always ready to follow their advice.
10. Her great minister Elizabeth created Lord Burleigh, and gave him great wealth and power, which he always used in the interests of his country. No other minister has directed the affairs of state for so long a period, or ever directed them more wisely. Lord Burleigh, therefore, deserves a place of high honour among the makers of England. The family of Cecil has often since taken an active part in the government of the kingdom, a conspicuous example of which we have seen in the case of Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury, who has held the office of Prime Minister both in the last reign and the present.
11. Every Englishman recalls the reign of Queen Elizabeth with patriotic pride. In it he can find the roots of our national life and character. Many faults the queen certainly had, but they were such as affected the few who lived at her court. To the many who looked from afar her virtues only were known. Her ministers might know the weaknesses of her character and the windings of her policy, all her other subjects saw only the good results of the guiding hand at the helm. Whatever mistakes she made, there was one she never committed. She never forgot that she was Queen of England, and that it was her duty to make England great, prosperous, and powerful.