Ministers, there is no denying that they did their duty at the critical moment: but it is equally true that the crisis itself and their deeds have been ridiculously exaggerated. They might have been contented with the old phrase, "God blew upon them, and they were scattered." The good fortune however of this juste milieu, was, that it gained at so cheap a rate the credit of saving the national existence, and was never put to the test in a serious struggle. The triumph of its policy at that day, lay in avoiding great risks, and dealing out the war in the smallest possible doses; by which management, alone perhaps, the Government could have stood at all.

Returning however to the religious questions; little as we can look on the proceedings of this period as a model to be imitated, we may yet excuse them by reason of the pressure of circumstances, and we may confess that on the whole the good outweighed the evil: least of all should we think of extolling in preference the Puritanical rule which followed. Yet its blameable extravagances are mainly to be attributed to the faults of Elizabeth's policy; which by oppression drove the Puritans and Presbyterians into fanatical extremes, and by fostering a time-serving spirit in Court and Church, disposed the nation to venerate the persecuted body. Some there are indeed, who plead, in favor of the policy pursued, that no other measures could have kept aloof the threatening

storms. Forsooth, nothing could be done, but to live from day to day, earning and enjoying; covering with garments as gaudy or as presentable as might be, the inward eating ulcer: thus, by a fair outside, a specious conformity in Church and State, to flatter the present age and cheat the future. But if the highest wisdom of statesmen can really do no more, than, at the expence of all posterity, to spare the passing generation all violent convulsions, all great sufferings, all unusual efforts,- all, in fact, which can disturb selfish enjoyment; then, at least it were wiser to apologize for mortal weakness, than to ascribe positive excellence. Such false coinage of vanity and selfishness is at any rate not worthy of History.

156. Elizabeth, a Patroness of Learning.

It must be admitted, that the picture which this epoch offers of the state of the Universities and of Literature generally, is, at first sight, highly pleasing. Elizabeth herself possessed learning so well grounded and extensive, as is seldom found in a Sovereign and a woman. We may accept the testimony of those times with as much caution as we will; yet the fact is no less true. Indeed in any case, her boundless vanity would have induced her to come forward as the Patroness of Learning; and she proved herself so in fact. If she obtained this

reputation in the cheapest of all possible ways, we must reckon it among the many lucky changes of her reign. Never did a Sovereign do less for Learning and the Arts, than did Elizabeth, in respect to outward and pecuniary support of individuals or institutions. This as well as every other kind of generosity or of fresh creative love was quite foreign to Elizabeth. But the defects of the Queen were supplied by her subjects. Beside other nobler independent motives, which belonged to the spirit of the Age; the hope of obtaining her favor by such means led many to found new Schools and Colleges, or to enrich those already founded and of this we cannot refuse her a portion of the fame and merit. If, with little direct support or favor she contrived to surround herself with the learned and educated, to frown on ignorance, and to appear as the sun of this literate hemisphere; it undoubtedly proves real intellectual power in her, however turbid with coarser elements. Why should she do herself, what others did in her name, in her honor, and under her auspices? The principal point was, and is, that outward assistance, whencesoever it come, be plentifully showered down upon learning in its different stages. Indeed at this time were founded several of the most considerable schools, and numberless smaller ones for preliminary grammatical education.

§ 157. Miscellaneous notices of Endowments to encourage Learning.

Of Schools I may mention here the following. Westminster School, the only foundation to my knowledge really proceeding from Elizabeth; and Merchant Tailors' School, in London. I may perhaps count the Charterhouse also, although it was not founded till 1611. To these may be added the well known College-Schools of Rugby and Harrow, which formed admirable appendages to those of Eton and Winchester. It is very probable, that about a third of all the endowed Free Schools and Grammar Schools in England, originated at this period.

I cannot here enter into details concerning the Edinburgh University, founded at this time, as there is nothing to prove its influence upon those of England: nor again can I speak of the earlier institutions of Glasgow and Aberdeen. The resemblance of these Northern Universities to the German Protestant academic type, has already been mentioned: and we must not overlook the fact, that the University of Edinburgh was founded by the Town. The idea of a London University which has been reproduced in our own days was also frequently brought forward at that time.

In fact, an academic College in London was

attempted by that Prince of Industrialists* of those times, Sir T. Gresham; which may be reverenced as a model by more modern and perhaps more successful projectors. About the same period, Trinity College Dublin was founded; but neither did it exercise any considerable influence upon the scientific cultivation of the British Isle. Not to get too far out of the way of the task before me, I simply acquiesce in the received opinion, that it was founded in 1591, without exploring its connection with any earlier traces.

§ 158. New Colleges at the English Universities:— Bodleian Library.

In Oxford however and Cambridge we find three

* Gresham, in 1566, endowed seven Professorships, united under the rather inappropriate name of a College; but this was soon reduced to a few lectures, read to a very promiscuous public in a room attached to the Exchange; and at last they became mere sinecures.

[Of Gresham's Professors, four were to teach Divinity, Astronomy, Music and Geometry; the other three, Law, Physic, and Rhetoric. They received £50 a year each, beside apartments to live and study in. For some time, the lectures are said to have been well attended. In the seventeenth century, we find eminent names among them, such as Gunter, Wren, Briggs, Greaves, Barrow, Hooke, Bull

Mus: Doc:, Sir William Petty: but in the eighteenth few or no distinguished men appear. Originally, Sir T. Gresham's house in Bishopgate Street was devoted to his College: but in 1768, it was sold to government, and the lectures have thenceforward been read at the Royal Exchange. From the Penny Cyclopædia.It is not clear why our author, with whom the word Industrialist is a term of disparagement, here applies it to Sir T. Gresham. Gresham's professorships no doubt became sinecures, especially through the whole eighteenth century, and almost to this day: so did those of Oxford: but this is a misfortune, for which the founders deserve little blame.]