very open manner, these dangerous pretensions. The great
power of Mary, both from the favor of the Catholic princes, and her
connections with the house of Guise, not to mention the force and
situation of Scotland, was well known to her; and she saw no security,
that this princess, if fortified by a sure prospect of succession, would
not revive claims which she could never yet be prevailed on formally
to relinquish. On the other hand, the title of the house of Suffolk was
supported by the more zealous Protestants only; and it was very doubtful
whether even a parliamentary declaration in its favor would bestow on it
such validity as to give satisfaction to the people. The republican
part of the constitution had not yet acquired such an ascendant as
to control, in any degree, the ideas of hereditary right, and as the
legality of Henry's will was still disputed, though founded on the
utmost authority which a parliament could confer, who could be assured
that a more recent act would be acknowledged to have greater validity?
In the frequent revolutions which had of late taken place, the right of
blood had still prevailed over religious prejudices; and the nation had
ever shown itself disposed rather to change its faith than the order of
succession. Even many Protestants declared themselves in favor of
Mary's claim of inheritance;[*] and nothing would occasion more general
disgust, than to see the queen, openly and without reserve, take part
against it.

* Keith, p. 322.

The Scottish princess also, finding herself injured in so sensible a
point, would thenceforth act as a declared enemy; and uniting together
her foreign and domestic friends, the partisans of her present title
and of her eventual succession, would soon bring matters to extremities
against the present establishment. The queen, weighing all these
inconveniences, which were great and urgent, was determined to keep
both parties in awe, by maintaining still an ambiguous conduct; and she
rather chose that the people should run the hazard of contingent events,
than that she herself should visibly endanger her throne, by employing
expedients, which, at best, would not bestow entire security on the
nation. She gave, therefore, an evasive answer to the applications of
the commons; and when the house, at the end of the session, desired, by
the mouth of their speaker, further satisfaction on that head, she could
not be prevailed on to make her reply more explicit.