Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/190

 1 76 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 53. ance, but the Government, wherever it had not been openly defied, had closed its eyes to the evasion of the law. The country was still full of Catholics, and the Protestant authorities had been prohibited from in- dulging their natural desire to punish them. In fact if not in theory there had been substantial toleration ; and whatever may be thought now of the prohibition of the mass, the success in modern times of a more generous system is no proof that it would have answered amidst the passions of the Reformation. It may be said that so far Elizabeth had governed the country extremely well and with extreme forbearance. In declining to marry she had indeed severely tried her subjects' patience, and the difficulty of choosing a successor from among the many competitors should have furnished an additional inducement to overcome her natural reluctance. If ever circumstances could be conceived which demanded a sacrifice of such a kind, the prospects of England in the event of Elizabeth's death left her in this respect without excuse. Yet to- wards the Queen of Scots, ' the daughter of debate/ who was the occasion of her .worst perplexities, she had acted with a weakness which her loyal subjects had a right to condemn, but which, justly looked at, had left little ground for complaint to the friends of her rival. She had saved her life, and she had saved her honour, when she might have spared herself all further trouble on her account by publishing the proofs of her infamy. These proofs Northumberland and Westmoreland had seen, had admitted, and in the rebellion itself had never