toms was contending the reactionary old English spirit which had gathered strength under Mary, the single good result of her reign. Grass lands were again browning under tillage, farm-houses were re-built, and the small yeomen fostered into life again; but a vague unrest prevailed everywhere. Elizabeth's prospects during her first years were so precarious that no one felt confident for the future; and the energy of the country hung distracted, with no clear perception what to do or in what direction to turn.

The problem for statesmen was to discern among the new tendencies of the nation how much was sound and healthy, how much must be taken up into the constitution of the State before the disturbed elements settled into form again.

A revolution had passed over England of which the religious change was only a single feature. New avenues of thought were opening on all sides with the growth of knowledge; and as the discoveries of Columbus and Copernicus made their way into men's minds, they found themselves, not in any metaphor, but in plain and literal prose, in a new heaven and a new earth. How to send the fresh blood permeating healthily through the veins, how to prevent it from wasting itself in anarchy and revolution-these were the large questions which Elizabeth's ministers had to solve.

In this as in all else Cecil was the presiding spirit. Everywhere among the State papers of these years Cecil's pen is ever visible, Cecil's mind predominant. In the records of the daily meetings of the council

Cecil's is the single name which is never missed. In the Queen's cabinet or in his own, sketching Acts of Parliament, drawing instructions for ambassadors, or weighing on paper the opposing arguments at every crisis of political action; corresponding with archbishops on liturgies and articles, with secret agents in every corner of Europe or with foreign ministers in every court, Cecil is to be found ever restlessly busy; and sheets of paper densely covered with brief memoranda remain among his manuscripts to show the vastness of his daily labour and the surface over which he extended his control. From the great duel with Rome to the terraces and orange groves at Burghley nothing was too large for his intellect to grasp, nothing too small for his attention to condescend to consider.

In July 1561, under Cecil's direction, letters went round the southern and western counties desiring the magistrates to send in reports on the working of the laws which affected the daily life of the people, on the wages statutes, the acts of apparel, the poor laws, the tillage and pasture laws, the act for 'the maintenance of archery,' and generally on the condition of the population. A certain Mr Tyldsley was commissioned privately to follow the circulars and observe how far the magistrates either reported the truth or were doing their duty; and though the reports are lost Tyldsley's letters remain, with his opinion on the character of the English gentry..

If that opinion was correct the change of creed had not improved them. The people were no longer trained

in the use of arms because the gentlemen refused to set the example. For tillage it were plain sacrilege to interfere with it, the offenders being all gentlemen of the richer sort; ' while the alehouses'-' the very stock and stay of false thieves and vagabonds,' were supported by them for the worst of motives. The peers had the privilege of importing wine free of duty for the consumption of their households. By their patents they were able to extend the right to others under shelter of their name; and the tavern-keepers 'were my lord's servants, or my master's servants; yea, and had such kind of licenses, and license out of license to them and their deputies and assignees, that it was some danger to meddle with them.'1 The very threat of interference either with that or any other misdemeanour in high places caused Cecil to be generally detested. Go

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1 The intention of the exemption | Sir, would to God ye would not had been the encouragement of meddle so much as ye do, nor be so 'hospitality' in the great country earnest;' for, said he, 'if ye heard houses. Times were changing, and so much as I do hear, ye would the old-fashioned 'open house' was marvel. For even they that do no longer the rule. Without abol- speak you most fairest to your face ishing the privilege the council re- do name you behind your back to be stricted the quantity which each an extreme and cruel man, with a nobleman was allowed to import. great deal more than shall need to Dukes and archbishops were allowed rehearse; and they say,' said he, ten pipes annually; marquises nine that all these doings is long of Mr pipes; earls, viscounts, barons, and Secretary Cecil. I do know,' said bishops, six, seven, and eight.--Do- he, all this to be truth, for I do mestic MSS., Elizabeth, vol. xx. hear it amongst their servants, and belike they have heard it of their masters at one time or another. And further,' said he, 'when I was last in London, there was a business in hand as touching what wages watermen should take going from

2 This be you most sure of, that as much evil as can be invented by the devilish wit of them that be nought is spoken against you.

It is not yet four days past since one of my men said unto me,

where he would, Tyldsley said, 'he could find no man earnestly bent to put laws in execution;' 'every man let slip and pass forth :' so that 'for his part he did look for nothing less than the subversion of the realm, to which end all things were working.'

Equally unsatisfactory were the reports of the state of religion. The constitution of the Church offended the Puritans; the Catholics were as yet unreconciled to the forms which had been maintained to conciliate them; and to the seeming cordiality with which the Liturgy was at first received, a dead inertia soon succeeded in which nothing lived but self-interest. The bishops and the higher clergy were the first to set an example of evil. The friends of the Church of England must acknowledge with sorrow that within two years of its establishment the prelates were alienating the estates in which they possessed but a life interest-granting long leases and taking fines for their own advantage. The council had to inflict upon them the disgrace of a rebuke for neglecting the duties of common probity.1

The marriage of the clergy was a point on which the people were peculiarly sensitive. A mistress might be

one place to another, which thing was much cried out upon; and they say that Mr Cecil was all the doer of that matter too. Surely,' said he, 'he is not beloved; and therefore

zabeth.

1 Articles for the Bishops' oblifor God's sake, sir, be you ware. Igations, 1560: Domestic MSS. Elihave not spoken any of this to the intent that I would have you either to leave off or to slack any part of all your godly doings, but rather if I could to sharp you further against

2 The frequent surnames of Clark, Parsons, Deacon, Archdeacon, Dean, Prior, Abbot, Bishop, Frere, and Monk, are memorials of the con

winked at; lawful marriage was intolerable, and especially intolerable for members of cathedrals and collegiate bodies who occupied the houses and retained the form of the religious orders. While therefore canons and prebends were entitled to take wives if they could not do without them, they would have done better had they taken chary advantage of their liberty. To the AngloCatholic as well as the Romanist a married priest was a scandal, and a married cathedral dignitary an abomination.

'For the avoiding of such offences as were daily conceived by the presence of families of wives and children within colleges, contrary to the ancient and comely order of the same,' Elizabeth, in 1560, forbade deans and canons to have their wives residing with them within the cathedral closes under pain of forfeiting 'their promotions.' Cathedrals and colleges, she said, had been founded 'to keep societies of learned men professing study and prayer;' and the rooms intended for students were not to be sacrificed to women and children.1

The Church dignitaries treated the Queen's injunction as the country gentlemen treated the statutes. Deans and canons, by the rules of their foundations, were directed to dine and keep hospitality in their common hall. Those among them who had married broke up

cubinage which was generally practised in England by the clergy so long as they were forbidden to marry.

' Proclamation by the Queen for the eviction of wives out of colleges (In Cecil's hand): Domestic MSS., Elizabeth, vol. xix.