much more valuable than foreign trade, and is the foundation of it-her conduct was ill calculated to serve that purpose at which she aimed, much less to promote the riches of her people. The exclusive companies also were an immediate check on foreign trade.

Yet, notwithstanding these discouragements, the spirit of the age was strongly bent on naval enterprises; and, besides the military expeditions against the Spaniards, many attempts were made for new discoveries, and many new branches of foreign commerce were opened by the English. Sir Martin Frobisher undertook three fruitless voyages to discover the north-west passage. Davis, not discouraged by this ill success, made a new attempt, when he discovered the straits which pass by his name. In the year 1600, the queen granted the first patent to the East India Company. The stock of that company was £72,000, and they fitted out four ships, under the command of James Lancaster, for this new branch of trade. The adventure was successful; and the ships returning with a rich cargo, encouraged the company to continue the

commerce.

The communication with Russia had been opened in Queen Mary's time by the discovery of the passage to Archangel; but the commerce with that country did not begin to be carried on till about the year 1569. The queen obtained from the czar an exclusive patent to the English for the whole trade of Russia; and she entered into a personal, as well as national, alliance with him. This czar was named John Basilides, a furious tyrant, who, continually suspecting the revolt of his subjects, stipulated to have a safe retreat and protection in England. In order the better to ensure this resource he proposed to marry an Englishwoman; and the queen intended to have sent him Lady Anne Hastings, daughter of the earl of Huntingdon. But when the lady was informed of the barbarous manners of the country, she wisely declined purchasing an empire at the expense of her ease and safety.

The English, encouraged by the privileges which they had obtained from Basilides, ventured farther into those

countries than any Europeans had formerly done. They transported their goods along the river Dwina in boats made of one entire tree, which they towed and rowed up the stream as far as Walogda. Thence they carried their commodities seven days' journey to Yeraslau, and then down the Volga to Astrakhan. At Astrakhan they built ships, crossed the Caspian Sea, and distributed their goods in Persia. But this bold attempt met with such discouragements that it was never renewed.

After the death of John Basilides, his son, Theodore, revoked the patent which the English enjoyed for a monopoly of the Russian trade. When the queen remonstrated against this innovation, he told her ministers that princes must carry an impartial hand, as well between their subjects as between foreigners, and not convert trade, which by the laws of nations ought to be common to all, into a monopoly for the private gain of a few. So much juster notions of commerce were entertained by this barbarian than appear in the conduct of the renowned Queen Elizabeth! Theodore, however, continued some privileges to the English on account of their being the discoverers of the communication between Europe and his country.

The trade in Turkey commenced about the year 1583, and that commerce was immediately confined to a company by Queen Elizabeth. Before that time the Sultan had always conceived England to be a dependent province of France; but, having heard of the queen's power and reputation, he gave a good reception to the English, and even granted them larger privileges than he had given to the French.

The merchants of the Hanse Towns complained loudly, in the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, of the treatment which they received in the reigns of Edward and Mary. She prudently replied that as she could not innovate anything, she would still protect them in the immunities and privileges of which she found them possessed. This answer not contenting them, their commerce was soon after suspended for a time, to the great advantage of the English merchants, who tried what they could themselves

The

effect for promoting their commerce. They took the whole trade into their own hands; and, their returns proving successful, they divided themselves into staplers and merchant adventurers; the former residing constantly at one place, the latter trying their fortunes in other towns and states abroad with cloth and other manufactured goods. This success so enraged the Hanse Towns, that they tried all the methods which a discontented people could devise to draw upon the English merchants the ill opinion of other nations and states. They prevailed so far as to obtain an imperial edict, by which the English were prohibited all commerce in the German empire. queen, by way of retaliation, retained sixty of their ships, which had been seized in the river Tagus with contraband goods of the Spaniards. These ships the queen intended to have restored, as desiring to have compromised all differences with those trading cities; but when she was informed that a general assembly was held at Lubeck, in order to concert measures for distressing the English trade, she caused the ships and cargoes to be confiscated. Only two of them were released to carry home the news, and to inform these states that she had the greatest contempt imaginable for all their proceedings.

Henry VIII., in order to fit out a navy, was obliged to hire ships from Hamburg, Lubeck, Dantzic, Genoa, and Venice. But Elizabeth, very early in her reign, put affairs upon a better footing, both by building some ships of her own, and by encouraging the merchants to build large trading vessels, which, on occasion, were converted into ships of war. In the year 1582, the seamen in England were found to be 14,295 men; the number of vessels, 1,232; of which there were only 217 above 80 tons.

You will confer the greatest benefits on your city, not by raising the roofs, but by exalting the souls of your fellow-citizens. For it is better that great souls should live in small habitations, than that abject slaves should burrow in great houses.-Epictetus.

ENGLAND IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

PART III.

THE MANNERS OF THE PEOPLE.

The nobility in this age still supported, in some degree, the ancient magnificence, in their hospitality and in the numbers of their retainers; and the queen found it pruden to retrench, by proclamation, their expenses in this las particular. The expense of hospitality she encouraged by the frequent visits she paid her nobility, and the sumptuous feasts which she received from them. The earl of Leicester gave her an entertainment in Kenilworth Castle which was extraordinary for expense and magnificence. Among other particulars, we are told that 365 hogsheads of beer were drunk at it. The earl had fortified this castle at great expense, and it contained arms for 10,000 men. The earl of Derby had a family consisting of 240 servants. Stowe remarks it as a singular proof of beneficence in this nobleman that he was contented with his rents from his tenants, and exacted not any extraordinary services from them.

Burleigh, though he was frugal, and had no paternal estate, kept a family consisting of a hundred servants. He had a standing table for gentlemen, and two other tables for persons of meaner condition, which were always served alike whether he were in town or in the country. About his person he had people of great distinction, insomuch that he could reckon up twenty gentlemen retainers, who had each a thousand pounds a year; and as many among his ordinary servants, who were worth from a thousand pounds to three, five, ten, and twenty thousand pounds. It is to be remarked that, though the revenues of the crown were at that time very small, the ministers and courtiers sometimes found means, by employing the boundless prerogative, to acquire greater fortunes than it is possible for them at present to amass from their larger salaries and more limited authority.

Burleigh entertained the queen twelve several times at his country house, where she remained three, four, or five weeks at a time. Each visit cost him two or three thou

sand pounds. The quantity of silver plate possessed by this nobleman is surprising. He had no less than fourteen or fifteen thousand pounds weight, which, besides the fashion, would be above £50,000 sterling in value. Yet Burleigh left only £4,000 a year in land, and £11,000 in money; and as land was then commonly sold at ten years' purchase, his plate was nearly equal to all the rest of his fortune. It appears that little value was then put upon the design of the plate, which was probably rude; the weight was chiefly considered.

But, though there were preserved great remains of the ancient customs, the nobility were by degrees acquiring a taste for elegant luxury, and many edifices in particular were built by them, neat, large, and sumptuous, "to the great ornament of the kingdom," says Camden, "but to the no less decay of the glorious hospitality of the nation." It is, however, more reasonable to think that this new turn of expense promoted arts and industry, while the ancient hospitality was the source of vice, disorder, sedition, and idleness.

Among the other kinds of luxury, that of apparel began to increase much during this reign, and the queen thought proper to restrain it by proclamation. Her example was very little conformable to her edicts, as no woman was ever more conceited of her beauty, or more desirous of making impression on the hearts of beholders. No one ever went to a greater extravagance in apparel, or studied more the variety and richness of her dresses. She appeared almost every day in a different dress, and tried all the several modes by which she hoped to render herself agreeable. She was also so fond of her clothes that she could never part with any of them; and at her death she had in her wardrobes all the different habits, to the number of three thousand, which she had ever worn in her lifetime.

The retrenchment of the ancient hospitality, and the diminution of retainers, were favourable to the prerogative of the sovereign; and, by disabling the great noblemen from resistance, promoted the execution of the laws and extended the authority of the courts of justice.

Learning, on its revival, was held in high estimation by

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