Being chosen in 1555 one of the members for his native county, he distinguished himself by his opposition to the measures of the Catholic party. The rejection of the bill for confiscating the estates of such as had quitted the kingdom on the score of religion is mainly attri buted to him. In consequence of his conduct on this occasion he was summoned before the privy council, but he made so satisfactory a defence that he escaped committal to the Tower : a fate which befel those who were summoned with him. He however continued in that and the next parliament to advocate the cause of the persecuted Protestants. Foreseeing that Mary could not long survive, Cecil opened a private correspondence with the Princess and enabled her by his communications and counsel to avoid the snares of the vindictive and suspicious Mary. On the very day of Elizabeth's accession he presented to her a paper setting forth twelve affairs which required immediate despatch; which particulars, it is remarkable, formed the basis of his chief measures throughout his long adminis tration : they were doubtless the result of the broad and comprehensive survey his comparative retirement from active life had enabled him to take of the state of the kingdom. He was the first person sworn of the privy council in the new reign, and was forthwith appointed secretary of state. From this time until the close, of his life Cecil directed the affairs of England. A full account of his life would be the history of the reign of Elizabeth. Capricious as the queen often was, her sound judgment enabled her to see the true value of Cecil, and induced her on many occasions to yield to his cool and dis passionate reasonings. In 1571 Cecil was created Baron Burleigh, in 1572 he received the Order of the Garter, and in the same year suc ceeded the Marquis of Winchester as lord high treasurer; in which office ho continued till his death. These honours may seem but an inadequate reward for Cecil's services, but the peerage in the reign of Elizabeth was a mark of the highest favour, and a token of real merit. Except in the lnatauce of Leicester, no example perhaps occurs in that reign of a title acquired without desert. It is impossible within the limits of this article to notice even the principal measures pro moted by this great minister. In every branch of his policy, whether in relation to religion, which then formed so material a part of Euro pean affairs, the internal government of England, or her foreign policy, be was guided by fixed and well-grounded principles; and no act of his administration appears to have been produced by motives of temporary expediency only, but to have formed a part of a consistent and well-considered plan. He was cautious and intriguing, but caution and intrigue were necessary in an age when negotiation was a system of duplicity. Few ministers have been exposed to more acrimonious attacks than Lard Burleigh. The favourites of the queen were at all times opposed to his judicious and economical policy. The frequent plots occasioned by the rancorous excitement of religious feeling—the disputes fostered by the unsettled state of the succession—the chivalrous feeling excited and produced by Mary queen of Scotland and her partisans—and the capricious conduct of Elizabeth, herself secretly approving even when publicly blaming her minister, and holding him up to screen herself from public disapprobation—all con duced to embarrass his plans and confound his operations. But the
accurate information which Lord Burleigh at all times obtained, his vigilance, his unceasing application, and unimpeachable integrity, enabled him to overcome the difficulties which surrounded him, and to the end of his career to retain the favour of the queen and the respect and affection of hel' subjects. It is worthy of observation, that those parts of his conduct which have been characterised as unfeeling and selfish, have generally received the approbation of posterity; and it is admitted, with all the advantage we possess from the knowledge of the effects of his measures, that they were the most judicious that could have been taken for the preservation of the peace and welfare of his country, and the establishment of the reformed religion. He was distinguished for self-command and moderation. It was observed that he never spoke harshly of his enemies, nor embraced auy opportunity of revenge ; and as he was no less on his guard to avoid every undue bias from affection, it became a general remark that he was a better enemy than friend. "I entertain," he said, "malice against no individual whatever; and I thank God that I never retired to rest out of charity with any man." In common with most other great public men, he possessed discern. meut in discovering men of peculiar talents for business. " He seemed resolved that England should be distinguished above all nations for the integrity of her judges, the piety of her divines, and the sagacity of her ambassadors." He encouraged open discussion, as tending to the discovery of truth. He was strictly and scrupulously impartial; magnificent in his several establishments; and liberal to his officers and dependents. He gave largely in charity, and increased his private fortune without borrowing from the coffers of the state, as before his time was the common custom with those who had the power, and without tarnishing his fame by any public or private extortion, as appeared at his death, when the queen instituted a rigorous inquiry into his affairs. In private he was cheerful, affable, and facetious; abstemious in his own diet, be enjoyed the cheerful relaxation at his table with his family and friends. Books and the superintendence of his garden at Theobald's formed the chief amuse ment in his few hours of leisure. His mind was strongly tinctured with piety.
lu 1589 he lost his wife Mildred, his affectionate companion for forty-three years. The despondency produced by this calamity, the increasing infirmities of age,' and successive attacks of the gout, rendered more severe by a weakness which had been caused by his sedentary habits, interrupted the unruffled calmness of his temper ; he became subject to bursts of peevishness, but on such occasions he immediately endeavoured to make reparation for tho pain which he had caused. He died on the 4th of August 1593, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, having held the station of prime minister of England for upwards of half a century. He had, by his second wife, Robert, created earl of Salisbury ; Anne, married to Edward Vere, seventeenth earl of Oxford ; and Elizabeth, married to William, eldest son of Lord Wentworth, of whom the first-named only survived him.
(Macdiarmid, British. Statesmen; Biog. Brit.; Camden, Annals; Fuller, Holy State.)