Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/352

 332 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.44," Ojt_the_otlier hand, to defend^ the insurgent subjects of a neighbouring sovereign was a dangerous precedent. If Elizabeth was justified in maintaining the Scotch Pro- testants, the King of Spain might claim as fair a right to interfere in behalf of the English Catholics. Tha form which a war would assume, and the contingencies which might arise from it, could not be foreseen, while the peril and expense were immediate and certain. The arguments on both sides were so evenly balanced that it was difficult to choose between? them. The council however, could it be proved that the Queen of Scots was in communication with the Pope to further her designs on England, were ready to consider that ' a great matter.' The name of the Pope was detested in England by men who believed themselves to hold every shred of Catholic doctrine ; the creed was an opinion ; the Pope was a po- litical and most troublesome fact, with which under no circumstances were moderate English gentlemen inclined to have any more dealings. The Pope turned the scale ; and the council, after some ineffectual attempts to find a middle course, resolved on immediately confiscating the estates of the Earl of Lennox ; while they recommended the~Queen to demand the ratification of the Treaty of Edinburgh, to send a fleet into the Forth, and to despatch a few thousand men to Berwick, to be at the disposal of the~EarT of Bedford^ Had these steps been taken, either Mary Stuart must have yielded, or there would have been an immediate 1 Notes of the Proceedings in Council at Westminster, September 24. In Cecil's hand : Cotton. MtiS. CALIG. B. 10. Scotch MSS. Rolls House.