courts. Dr. Nares, who is probably somewhat too much disposed to magnify Cecil before his time, and on all occasions to find full employment for him, conjectures that he may have been consulted in this new capacity, or actually engaged in penning state papers; but that his quality of private secretary to the Protector, for such we must persist in thinking it to have been, might call upon him to do. Cecil supplied the materials, or at least some part of them, to Patten's " Diarium Expeditionis Scoticæ."

In the mean while Cranmer, who had become paramount in ecclesiastical matters, was pushing the progress of the Reformation, or "Restoration," as Dr. Nares would have it called, in every possible way; and, among other changes, the Bishops were called upon to take out new commissions, Cranmer himself setting the example-the congé d'élire was suppressed, and a patent substituted, and the office held during pleasure. A royal visitation also was appointed, consisting of civilians and divines, during the exercise of whose functions all episcopal powers were suspended. The first book of Homilies was published, and Erasmus's Paraphrase of the Gospels translated and circulated. To all these innovations Gardiner and Bonner were vehemently opposed: Gardiner in particular declared the visitation altogether illegal, and was, in consequence of his intemperate declarations, by the Council committed to the Fleet. He was, however, very soon offered his liberty, on condition of admitting the Homilies; but still objecting to the Homily on Salvation in particular, he required a few days to consider, and was remanded. During this interval, Cecil and Dr. Ridley were especially commissioned by the Protector and Cranmer to visit and confer with him, and they finally overcame his scruples. The bishop's own account is-the matter, to be sure is, not a very important one, except that Cecil was personally concerned-that he re-appeared before the Council at the end of a fortnight, and still persisting in his objections, was committed a prisoner to his own house, and that not till then did Cecil and Ridley attend him. Dr. Nares contrives to make this version of the story tell still more to Cecil's glory; for, on the Bishop's own showing, Cecil and Ridley (they were two) did more in one short interview, than Gardiner's own cogitations could accomplish in a whole fortnight.

Gardiner, however, did Cecil and Ridley little credit, for he quickly forgot his convictions, and being again summoned before the Council, in a few months, was commanded to "tarry in town." This was about Whitsuntide, and on St. Peter's day he preached before the King, but so intemperately, or at least so hostilely to the ruling party, that he was forthwith committed to the Tower, for obstinately resisting the King's authority. How Gardiner came to be allowed to preach on this occasion, is a matter of warm dispute-whether, that is, he demanded permission to do so, in order to give himself an opportunity of expressing his sentiments in the most public manner, or whether the task was imposed upon him, for the purpose of showing him up to his friends, as a man who succumbed to his masters. Cecil was a prime agent in the business, and, accordingly, Dr. Nares discusses the matter at some length. We may, we think, safely take his conclusion, which is, that Gardiner did in fact, with whatever view, ask permission to preach, and that St. Peter's day was assigned him on his own request-that after this permission had been thus indiscreetly given, Cecil was despatched to propose to him to preach from notes, to be seen beforehand by the Council, to acknowledge the legality of the acts of the Council, and abstain altogether from controverted points-that the Bishop naturally spurned at these conditions-that finally Cecil failing in his embassy, Sir Thomas Smith, the secretary, was then employed on the same errand, and failing also, the Bishop was left to take his own course. Gardiner treated the whole affair-the Council and their agents, with entire contempt-he neither wrote his sermon, nor acknowledged the Council's authority, nor abstained from controverted matters-a great tumult was excited among the audience by his contumacy, and he was committed, as was said, to the Tower. Cecil's commission will at least serve to show the degree of importance which he had obtained with the Protector and Cranmer;-the employment was still a subordinate one-that of an agent.

Soon after this event, Cecil was taken into the Secretary of State's office; not made one of the two principal secretaries, as has been supposed, chiefly from a misconstruction of Cecil's Latin. The words in his journal, are, “Sept. 1548, co-optatus sum in officium Secretarii," by which he probably meant he was appointed first clerk, or under secretary, as we should phrase it. It was not till two years after this, that under the patronage of Warwick, he succeeded Wootton as Secretary. At this period there were but two principal secretaries, and the names of both are known-Smith and Petre; nor was it till quite the end of the reign that a third secretary was appointed, apparently for a temporary purpose.

The execution of the younger Seymour, with the consent of his brother, gave the final blow to the popularity of the Protector, and furnished his vival Warwick with a complete triumph. The ground of the quarrels of the Seymours has been attributed, perhaps falsely, to the jealousies of their wives -the younger Seymour had married Katherine Parr, and there were probably squabbles about precedency-and Cecil has been charged, though no evidence now exists, with pricking on the hostility of the parties; but for what purpose likely to benefit either himself or his patron is scarcely conceivable ; and it is too much to suppose him all the while a secret tool of Warwick's, or that Warwick could so early have believed his ambitious views would be promoted by the quarrel of the brothers, or that such quarrel could have brought about the death of the one and the ruin of the other.

On the committal of the Protector to the Tower, Cecil, as one of his confidential agents, was also sent thither, but was released before the Duke, and soon, apparently, recovered the stroke, for within a few months we find him, under Warwick's supremacy, actually appointed Secretary of State. Except the bare facts just stated, nothing is known of the matter; the circumstances are wrapt in obscurity. In the severe handlings Cecil met with from his political opponents, he was charged with betraying his patron. Dr. Nares makes an elaborate defence, and perhaps an effective one. He deprecates the use of the term patron; but truly this is mere fastidiousness. Dr. Nares would have us believe Cecil, at this early period of so much importance in the state, as to be in reality the obliger, and not the obliged; but in matters of this kind, it is not a man's potentialities that give weight and station. The fact is indisputable, that in the common language and understanding of the term, Somerset was the patron, and Cecil the protégé he was the Protector's servant, and so called. Of treachery there is, we think, no direct evidence. Cecil held office, and high office under Warwick, the rival and enemy of his first patron; but then he had suffered with that patron-that patron had himself been reconciled to Warwick, the son of one had married the daughter of the other, and had besides been readmitted into the Council, over which Warwick ruled supreme. The utmost that can be safely affirmed against Cecil is, that he was not so passionately devoted as to sacrifice a new chance of advancement by useless adherence to an impotent patron. Cecil could then probably bend and accommodate, as he afterwards undoubtedly showed he could do.

Under Warwick's dominion, at all events, Cecil grew and prospered. He was made Secretary of State-knighted-employed in an embassy of honour -appointed Chancellor of the order of the Garter-had an annuity from the crown-and the reversion for sixty years of Wimbledon rectory, where we find him residing the next year, and it may be supposed in some state-for in his journal is an entry, on his appointment to the Chancellorship of the Garter;" Paid the embroiderer for xxxvi schutchyns for my servants coats at 2s. each 37. 12s., that is 32 servants;" but possibly they might have had more than one coat apiece.

Through the remainder of the reign Cecil, no doubt, was an active and effective member of the Government-still, it must be remembered, under Warwick-in settling the church, arranging the finances, in protecting trade, especially in reducing the privileges of the foreign merchants in the Steelyard, and was one of Cranmer's chief coadjutors in furthering the Reforma

tion, to whom, indeed, together with Cheke, he submitted the forty-two articles, as to "wise and good men, very well seen in divine learning, and the two great patrons of the Reformation at court." To the young King himself he was personally acceptable, and was supposed to have had no small share in those productions, which are ostensibly attributed to him-particularly the letter addressed to his sister Mary for her conversion-" Ah,” said she, on receiving it, "good Mr. Cecil took much pains here."

Just before Edward's death, Warwick, then Duke of Northumberland, had prevailed upon the dying boy to change the order of succession-setting aside his sisters as illegitimate, and appointing Jane Gray as his immediate successor. To the act of Council, sanctioning this appointment, the members affixed their signatures-some of them at the earnest importunity of the King, and among them Cranmer and Cecil. This document, a part of which Dr. Nares has printed, bears evident marks, by the erasures and interlineations in Northumberland's own hand, of trickery. It seems pretty manifest Edward had been seduced into setting aside his sisters under the notion of excluding females, and Jane Gray among the rest.

By this act Cecil, with the rest of the Council, was brought into difficulties on Mary's accession: but before Edward's death, penetrating the purposes of Northumberland, he had holden back, and for a time even feigned sickness to be out of the way; and on the King's death, when he as well as the Council were all at Greenwich, and Northumberland required him, as Secretary of State, to prepare a proclamation setting forth Jane's title, he refused; and again, also, when commanded to pen a letter justificatory of that title, in which Mary was to be designated bastard. So far from Cecil's seconding his views, Northumberland had apparently, for some time, been contemplating his removal, and from some distrust of him it probably was, that he at this time appointed Cheke a third secretary.

Cecil, according to his own account, " practised" with the members of the Council; and as soon as they had withdrawn to Baynard's Castle, Lord Arundel and Sir W. Paget were despatched to Mary with an offer of service, and were soon afterwards followed by Cecil, who met with a very gracious reception. In the arrangements consequent on her accession, the new Queen offered to continue him in the office of Secretary, if he would change his religion,-a condition which he, of course, rejected. This we learn from the testimony of his "domestic," who wrote a brief account of his master, and from whom the chief information, indeed, relative to his earlier days is derived a man who was in his service twenty-five years, apparently in some confidential employment, secretary perhaps, or steward, and " incapable," as Dr. Nares says, we do not know why, "of flattery." But be the story true or false, he was dismissed, and moreover the Chancellorship of the Garter was taken from him; but within a very few months matters are prodigiously changed, and no good reason assigned for it. The main pillar and stay of Protestantism conformed,- outwardly, says his excellent biographer, which may be very true-he had a priest in his house, he confessed, he attended mass, was, in short, a professed Catholic. Upon this change too, and it ceases to be a matter of wonder, we find the good man in favour again, though not restored to his old office, but actually appointed, in company with Lord Paget and Sir Edward Hastings, to go to Brussels and conduct to England Cardinal Pole, then invested with a legatine commission. This, Dr. Nares is with some regret compelled to acknowledge, is something extraordinary, but then it is extraordinary on both sides, not only that Cecil, so stout and staunch a reformer, should accept the appointment, but that Mary and her Council should trust a Protestant :-why the truth is, he was no Protestant, -he" conformed," or, in plain terms, he relapsed-he had a priest, confessed, attended mass, &c.

The probability which finally suggests itself to the biographer is, that he must in this otherwise unaccountable embassy, have been also politically employed, to discuss, perhaps, the affairs of Europe with the Emperor, admirably fitted as he must be allowed to have been from the confidential situa

tion he had held under the late King, and his "well-known eminence." But this is all pure conjecture. The Emperor, to be sure, was at Brussels-Pole was there at his court-and thither the commission went to fetch him-and time enough, no doubt, there might be to talk of the affairs of Europe; but this is not evidence. In his journal he says, "vi. Nov. 1554, cœpi iter cum Dom. Paget et Mag. Hastings versus Cæsarem pro reducendo Cardinale;" but surely it was perfectly natural to say he was going to the Emperor's (this we suppose is all that was meant-very little can be said at any time for Cecil's Latin) without its involving a political implication. Nor did Cecil's connexion with the Cardinal cease with the embassy; he was remarked on his return to have had more of the Cardinal's favour than any other Englishman, and he again accompanied him when he went back to the Continent to negotiate the peace. At Court he was so much in favour, that when summoned before the Council on a somewhat suspicious occasion, he was dismissed with the utmost courtesy on his own simple explanation; and though not conspicuously employed-there might perhaps have been no present opportunityhe was among those who presented and received new-year's gifts, no slight distinction in those days.

But all this his friends in their confiding good-nature, and certainly, by a natural bias, his able and amiable biographer, are willing to understand as a wise compliance with the times, for the sake of watching over the latent interests of Protestantism, and protecting, and counselling, and advising the Princess Elizabeth. It is pretty evident that he did keep up a correspondence with her, and did advise her on all important occasions; and if all this intercourse did not escape the notice of the Court, as we can scarcely imagine it could, then the fair inference is, that he was playing a double and a triple game, and we must admire the good luck with which he finally fell on his legs. But if we cannot concur entirely and absolutely with the biographer in his admiration, and even veneration for his very distinguished subject, we can well appreciate his own merits-they are of the very highest order. His work exhibits great research, great honesty, powerful statement, good feeling, liberal interpretations, and no little ingenuity; and no man, be he king, priest, or minister, need wish for a gentler chronicler.

THE CORONATION OF INEZ DE CASTRO.*

"Tableau, où l'Amour fait alliance avec la Tombe; union redoutable de la mort et de la vie.”—Madame de Stael.

THERE was music on the midnight ;—
From a royal fane it roll'd,

And a mighty bell, each pause between,
Sternly and slowly toll'd.

Strange was their mingling in the sky,

It hush'd the listener's breath;

For the music spoke of triumph high,
The lonely bell, of death.

There was hurrying through the midnight ;—

A sound of many feet;

But they fell with a muffled fearfulness,

Along the shadowy street:

And softer, fainter, grew their tread,

As it near'd the Minster-gate,

Whence a broad and solemn light was shed

From a scene of royal state.

* Don Pedro of Portugal, after his accession to the kingdom, had the body of the murdered Inez taken from the grave, solemnly enthroned and crowned.

Full glow'd the strong red radiance
In the centre of the nave,
Where the folds of a purple canopy
Swept down in many a wave;
Loading the marble pavement old
With a weight of gorgeous gloom;
For something lay 'midst their fretted gold,
Like a shadow of the tomb.

And within that rich pavilion
High on a glittering throne,
A woman's form sat silently,

Midst the glare of light alone.
Her jewell'd robes fell strangely still-
The drapery on her breast

Seem'd with no pulse beneath to thrill,
So stone-like was its rest.

But a peal of lordly music
Shook e'en the dust below,
When the burning gold of the diadem
Was set on her pallid brow!

Then died away that haughty sound,
And from th' encircling band,

Stept Prince and Chief, midst the hush profound,
With homage to her hand.

Why pass'd a faint cold shuddering
Over each martial frame,

As one by one, to touch that hand,
Noble and leader came?
Was not the settled aspect fair?
Did not a queenly grace,
Under the parted ebon hair,
Sit on the pale still face?

Death, Death! canst thou be lovely
Unto the eye of Life?

Is not each pulse of the quick high breast
With thy cold mien at strife?

-It was a strange and fearful sight,

The crown upon that head,

The glorious robes and the blaze of light,
All gather'd round the Dead!

And beside her stood in silence

One with a brow as pale,

And white lips rigidly compress'd,

Lest the strong heart should fail :

King Pedro with a jealous eye
Watching the homage done
By the land's flower and chivalry
To her, his martyr'd one.

But on the face he look'd not

Which once his star had been ;

To every form his glance was turn'd,

Save of the breathless Queen :

Though something, won from the grave's embrace,

Of her beauty still was there,

Its hues were all of that shadowy place,

'Twas not for him to bear.