Every American mind should be duly impressed by this portion of English history, showing, as it does, how fierce and protracted was the struggle which led, in the end, to popular government, and the civil and religious freedom which it alone has guaranteed. Elizabeth was undoubtedly a great queen--great in the qualities of her intellect, in the steadfastness of her purposes, in that manly courage which "mounteth with occasion." When she became queen, the people of England, both Protestants and Roman Catholics, were tired of religious persecution, and anxious to put an end to it. She favored and recommended to Parliament measures of pacification, in the spirit of liberality and toleration. If, obeying the dictates of her own conscience, she preferred Protestantism to Roman Catholicism, she had such respect for the conscientious convictions of others as to desire that all her subjects should be secured in the right to accept either the one or the other at their own discretion. By the avowal of these and other kindred purposes, she incurred the opposition of the Roman Catholic bishops, who, in concert with foreign powers, and backed by the pope and his Jesuit militia, brought on a civil war which afflicted England with a long train of evils and calamities. Under the influence of her liberalism, the bulk of the population became tolerant of each other, and, by the great unanimity with which they accepted her as queen, indicated the desire that the protection of the Government should be given to both forms of worship. And it may be accepted as a fair inference from what then transpired, that she was defeated in her plan of conciliation only by the animosities engendered by the English bishops, the pope, and the Jesuits. Her defeat, however, was not final; and having survived the machinations of all her enemies, even the excommunication and anathemas of the pope, together with the stealthy plottings of the Jesuits, the pages which record the events of her reign constitute some of the brightest in English history. They teach a philosophy that will not be forgotten so long as free popular institutions shall continue to exist. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 75: Nicolini, p. 65. Steinmetz, Vol. I, p. 302.] [Footnote 76: Nicolini, pp. 151, 152, note.] [Footnote 77: History of England. By Lingard. Vol. VI, p. 4. See, also, Hume, Vol. IV, p. 4.] [Footnote 78: Lingard, Vol. VI, p. 110. Nicolini, p. 153.] [Footnote 79: History of England. By Hume. Vol. IV, p. 182.] [Footnote 80: Lingard, Vol. VI, p. 4.] [Footnote 81: History of England. By Rapin. Vol. VIII, pp. 217 to 232.] [Footnote 82: Lingard, Vol. VI, p. 5.] CHAPTER IX. JESUIT INFLUENCE IN INDIA.