Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/526

 5=06 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 61 them, wliat your Majesty must do is this. You can- not prevent your people from considering who is to be their future sovereign. They have too much at stake. It is against reason to expect otherwise. Perilous as it may be, you must now encourage Alen- C,on to take possession of the Low Countries, if only to separate him from the Papists. You must arm your realm, call out the musters and have them trained ; strengthen your navy, and fortify your harbours ; make a league with the Protestant princes ; abridge your excessive expenses ; attach the nobility and chief persons of the realm to your service by those gifts and attentions which have hitherto been cast away upon others who in time of need will fail you. You must seek new markets for your merchants, and invite strangers to you from all parts of the world, that if your trade is stopped in one quarter, it may be open in another. You must conciliate Ireland ; allow the chiefs to continue their ancient greatness ; take away the fear of conquest lately graffed in the wild Irish, and wink at disorders which do not offend the Crown ; make as strict laws as can be devised to terrify into quiet the competitors for the crown ; place the Queen of Scots in surer custody, and by a wise liberality to the King and the Lords, prevent them from seeking more profitable alliances with France and Spain.' 1 The wheel had made its full round. The situation of England was again what it had been when the Burghley to the Queen, January 28, 1580. Abridged : MURDIN.