essary to guard carefully the
person of that princess; lest, finding this unexpected reserve in the
English friendship, she should suddenly take the resolution of flying
into France, and should attempt by foreign force to recover possession
of her authority: that her desperate fortunes and broken reputation
fitted her for any attempt; and her resentment, when she should find
herself thus deserted by the queen, would concur with her ambition and
her bigotry, and render her an unrelenting, as well as powerful enemy
to the English government: that if she were once abroad, in the hands
of enterprising Catholics, the attack on England would appear to her
as easy as that on Scotland; and the only method, she must imagine of
recovering her native kingdom, would be to acquire that crown to which
she would deem herself equally entitled: that a neutrality in such
interesting situations, though it might be pretended, could never,
without the most extreme danger, be upheld by the queen; and the
detention of Mary was equally requisite whether the power of England
were to be employed in her favor, or against her: that nothing, indeed,
was more becoming a great prince than generosity; yet the suggestions
of this noble principle could never, without imprudence, be consulted in
such delicate circumstances as those in which the queen was at present
placed; where her own safety and the interests of her people were
intimately concerned in every resolution which she embraced: that
though the example of successful rebellion, especially in a neighboring
country, could nowise be agreeable to any sovereign, yet Mary's
imprudence had been so great, perhaps her crimes so enormous, that the
insurrection of subjects, after such provocation, could no longer
be regarded as a precedent against other princes: that it was first
necessary for Elizabeth to ascertain, in a regular and satisfactory
manner, the extent of Mary's guilt, and thence to determine the degree
of protection which she ought to afford her against her discontented
subjects: that as no glory could surpass that of defending oppressed
innocence, it was equally infamous to patronize vice and murder on the
throne; and the contagion of such dishonor would extend itself to all
who countenanced or supported it: and that if the crimes of the Scottish
princess should, on inquiry, appear as great and certain as was affirmed
and believed, every measure against her, which policy should dictate,
woul