years it is admitted that Elizabeth and her wise
and sagacious ministers managed very admirably. They maintained the
position and honor of England, as a Protestant power, with great
success; and the country, during the whole period, made great progress
in the arts, in commerce, and in improvements of every kind. Elizabeth's
greatest danger, and her greatest source of solicitude during her whole
reign, was from the claims of Mary Queen of Scots. We have already
described the energetic measures which she took at the commencement of
her reign to counter act and head off, at the outset, these dangerous
pretensions. Though these efforts were triumphantly successful at the
time, still the victory was not final. It postponed, but did not
destroy, the danger. Mary continued to claim the English throne.
Innumerable plots were beginning to be formed among the Catholics, in
Elizabeth's own dominions, for making her queen. Foreign potentates and
powers were watching an opportunity to assist in these plans. At last
Mary, on account of internal difficulties in her own land, fled across
the frontier into England to save her life, and Elizabeth made her
prisoner.

In England, to plan or design the dethronement of a monarch is, in a
_subject_, high treason. Mary had undoubtedly designed the dethronement
of Elizabeth, and was waiting only an opportunity to accomplish it.
Elizabeth, consequently, condemned her as guilty of treason, in effect;
and Mary's sole defense against this charge was that she was not a
subject. Elizabeth yielded to this plea, when she first found Mary in
her power, so far as not to take her life, but she consigned her to a
long and weary captivity.

This, however, only made the matter worse. It stimulated the enthusiasm
and zeal of all the Catholics in England, to have their leader, and as
they believed, their rightful queen, a captive in the midst of them, and
they formed continually the most extensive and most dangerous plots.
These plots were discovered and suppressed, one after another, each one
producing more anxiety and alarm than the preceding. For a time Mary
suffered no evil consequences from these discoveries further than an
increase of the rigors of her confinement. At last the patience of the
queen and of her government was exhausted. A law was passed against
treason, expressed in such terms as to include Mary in the liability for
its dreadful penalties although she was not a subject, in case of any
ne