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 advantageous treaty with the United Provinces of the Netherlands. The other was the death of Elizabeth's life-long enemy, Philip II. of Spain.

Referring to 1599, Sir William Monson says: —

"I cannot write of anything done this year; for though there was never greater expectation of war, there was never less performance. Whether it was a mistrust one nation had of the other, or policy held on both sides to make peace with sword in hand, a treaty being entertained by consent of each prince, I am not to examine: but sure I am, the preparation was great on both sides, one expecting an invasion from the other. It was, however, generally conceived not to be intended by either."

The Spaniards had collected ships and galleys at Corunna. The object of the concentration was supposed to be a descent upon England or Ireland in 1599; but, as the event proved, the preparations were made against the Netherlands. In Ireland, Essex was supposed to be hatching schemes of ambition and revenge. Jealous watch, therefore, had to be kept upon at least two quarters; and, to meet the necessities of the moment, a fleet was mobilised with a rapidity previously unexampled. The work of rigging, victualling, and completely fitting out was accomplished in twelve days. Monson assures us that foreigners declared that "the queen was never more dreaded abroad for anything she ever did." Happily the fleet was not called upon to act, and, after having lain for three weeks or a month in the Downs, was sent peaceably back to its ports; but, both as a demonstration of the perfection to which the organisation of the English navy had attained, and as an exercise in hurried preparation for war, the experiment was well worth the comparatively small sum of money which it cost. In more than one respect it resembled the mobilisation of the Particular Service Squadron in January, 1896. Looking, however, to all the circumstances of the two cases, it must be admitted that the results attained in 1599 were much more remarkable than those attained in 1896. The mobilisation of 1599 seems to have really taken officers, men, and dockyards by surprise. The mobilisation of 1896, on the other hand, had been unofficially prepared for several weeks. Yet the interval between the moment when the formal order went forth from London and the moment when the mobilised ships were fully ready to go anywhere and do anything, was actually as short