Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/502

 482 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 45. restoration of Murray and Maitland to confidence and authority were accepted as an indication of a changed purpose ; and harassed by her subjects, goaded into a marriage which she detested, and exhausted by a strug- gle which threatened a dangerous breach between her- self and the nation, Elizabeth closed the long chapter of distrust, and yielded or prepared to yield all that was demanded of her. Having thus made up her mind she resolved to break up the Parliament and to punish the refractory Hoube of Commons by a dissolution. After another election the Puritans would be in a minority. The succession could be legally established without division or quarrel, guarded by such moderate guarantees as might secure the mutual toleration of the two creeds. For the first time in parliamentary history a session had been wasted in barren disputes. On the 2nd of January between two and three in the afternoon the Queen appeared in the House of Lords to bring it to an end. The Commons were called to the bar ; the Speaker, Mr Onslow, read a complimentary address, in which he described the English nation as happy in a sovereign who understood her duties, who prevented her subjects from injuring one another and knew ' how to make quiet among the ministers of religion/ He touched on the many excellences of the constitution, and finally with some imprudence ventured an allusion to the restrictions on the royal authority. 1 There be/ he said, ' for the prince provided princely prerogatives and royalties, yet not such as the prince