s
against the great Queen are based exclusively on statements in
Froude's History. It is remarkable how closely Froude has been
followed by writers treating of Elizabeth and her reign. He was
known to have gone to original documents for the sources of his
narrative; and it seems to have been taken for granted, not only
that his fidelity was above suspicion--an assumption with which I
do not deal now--but also that his interpretation of the meaning
of those who wrote the papers consulted must be correct. Motley,
in his 'History of the United Netherlands,' published in 1860,
had dwelt upon the shortness of ammunition and provisions in
the Channel Fleet commanded by Lord Howard of Effingham; but
he attributed this to bad management on the part of officials,
and not to downright baseness on that of Elizabeth.

Froude has placed beyond doubt his determination to make the Queen
responsible for all shortcomings.

'The Queen,' he says, 'has taken upon herself the detailed
arrangement of everything. She and she alone was responsible.
She had extended to the dockyards the same hard thrift with which
she had pared down her expenses everywhere. She tied the ships to
harbour by supplying the stores in driblets. She allowed rations
but for a month, and permitted no reserves to be provided in the
victualling offices. The ships at Plymouth, furnished from a
distance, and with small quantities at a time, were often for
many days without food of any kind. Even at Plymouth, short food
and poisonous drink had brought dysentery among them. They had
to meet the enemy, as it were, with one arm bandaged by their
own sovereign. The greatest service ever done by an English fleet
had been thus successfully accomplished by men whose wages had
not been paid from the time of their engagement, half-starved,
with their clothes in rags, and so ill-found in the necessaries
of war that they had eked out their ammunition by what they could
take in action from the enemy himself. The men expected that
at least after such a service they would be paid their wages
in full. The Queen was cavilling over the accounts, and would
give no orders for money till she had demanded the meaning of
every penny that she was charged.... Their legitimate food had
been stolen from them by the Queen's own neglect.'

We thus see that Froude has made Elizabeth personally responsible
for the short rations, the undue delay in paying wages earned, and
the fearful sickness whic