Both the pommel character of Elizabeth and the character of her government have been estimated very differently by writers of oppo site parties. That she had great qualities will hardly be disputed by any one who duly reflects on the difficulties of the position she occu pied, the consummate policy aud success with which she directed her course through the dangers that beset her on all sides, the courage and strength of heart that never failed her, the imposing attitude she maintained In the eyes of foreign nations, and the admiration and pride of which mho was the object at home. She was undeniably endowed with great good sense, and with a true feeling of what became her place. The weaknesses, and also the more forbidding features of her character, on the other baud, are so obvious as scarcely to require to be specified. Many of the least respectable mental peculiarities of her own sex were mixed in her with some of the least attractive among those of the other. lier selfishness and her vanity were both intense ; and of the sympathetic affections and finer sensibilities of every kind she was nearly destitute.
Her literary knowledge was certainly very coasidemble; but of her composition's (a few of which are in verso) none aro of much value, nor evidence any very superior ability, with the exception perhaps of some of her speeches to the parliameut. A list of the pieces attributed to her may be found in Walpole's ' Royal and Noble Authors.' There has been a good deal of controversy as to the proportion in which the elements of liberty and despotism were combined iu the English constitution, or hi the practice of the government, in the reign Df Elizabeth ; the object of one party being to convict the Stuarts of leviating into a new course in those exertions of the prerogative and Chat resistance to the popular demands which led to the civil wars of the 17th century,—of the other, to vindicate them from that charge, by showing that the previous government of Elizabeth had been as es theirs. There can be no doubt that the first James and the first Charles pursued their object with much less art, and much less knowledge and skill in managing the national character, as well as in less advantageous circumstances, than Elizabeth and her ministers; they did not know nearly so well when to resist and when to yield as she did ; but it may notwithstanding be reasonably questioned if her notion of the rightful supremacy of the crown was very different from theirs. However constitutional also (in the modern sense of the term) may have been the general course of her government, her occasional practice was certainly despotic enough. She never threw aside the sword of the prerogative, although she may have usually kept it in its scabbard.
Her reign however, take it all in all, was a happy as well as a glorious one for England. The kingdom under her government acquired and maintained a higher and more influential place among the states of Europe, principally by policy, than it had ever been raised to by the most suceessfel military exertions of former ages. Commerce flourished and made great advances, and wealth was much more extensively and rapidly diffused among the body of the people than at any former period. It is the feeling of progress, rather than any degree of 'actual attainment, that keeps a nation in spirits; and this feeling everything conspired to keep alive in the hearts of the English in the age of Elizabeth ; even the remembrance of the stormy times of their fathers, from which they had escaped, lending its aid to heighten the charm of the present calm. To these happy circum staeces of the national condition was owing, above all, and destined to survive all their other products, the rich native literature, more espe cially in poetry and the drama, which,now rushed up, as if from the tillage of a virgin soil, covering the land with its perennial fruit and flowers. Spenser and Shakspere, Beaumont and Fletcher, Raleigh and Bacon, and many other eminently distinguished names, gained their earliest celebrity in the Elizabethan age.
The invasion of England by the SPANISH Amiens is so important an uccurrence in English history that we deem it advisable to relate here, as fully as our limits permit, the story of the descent and destruction of that famous fleet, rather than merely to introduce it as an episode in the life of Elizabeth. In the beginning of May 1588, the preparations of Philip H. for the invasion of England, which had 80 long kept Europe in amazement and suspense, were brought to a conclusion ; and the Spaniards, in the confidence of success, previous to its sailing, gave their fleet the name of the Invincible Armada. It consisted at this time of 130 vessels : 65 of these were galleons and larger ships; 25 were pink-built ships; 19 tenders; 13 small frigates; 4 were galeassea; and 4 galleys. The soldiers on board amounted to 19,295, the mariners to 8050; of these, 3330 soldiers and 1293 mariners had been supplied by Portugal : besides which, the rowers in the galeasses amounted to 1200, and in the galleys to 888. There were also on board 2431 pieces of artillery, and 4575 quintals of powder : 347 of the pieces of artillery had likewise been supplied by Portugal. Two thousand volunteers of the most distinguished families in Spain, exclusive of the sailors and soldiers already mentioned, are stated to have accompanied the expedition.