Mary, it will be seen, counted for nothing. The sole object in view was Philip’s interests, and, although decently cloaked with his usual bland professions of his desire to serve England, everything he did at this time was directed to using the country for his ends whilst his wife lived. After that he would have to deal with a new state of affairs. Another instance of the postponement of English interests for his benefit is seen in the delay in summoning Parliament until after he had left England. The sole object of the session was to raise money. Mary’s Government was in the deepest penury. Extravagance, corruption, and demoralisation existed everywhere in the administration; but pressing as was the need for funds, Philip could not face the certain unpopularity that would have fallen upon him if the demand for large taxation before his departure had given a pretext to the suspicious English for the belief that the money was being raised for him. In great state Mary, with Pole by her side, proceeded from St. James’s Palace in a sort of throne-litter on the 21st October, 1555, to open Parliament at Westminster, and Gardiner as Lord Chancellor, now a dying man, appealed in the Queen’s name for liberal supplies to conduct the business of the nation. It was his last effort, and though Parliament voted a million crowns, to be paid in two years, the Chancellor took no further share in public business, dying three weeks after at Whitehall, whither he was carried from the Parliament Chamber. The death of Gardiner was an irreparable loss to Mary. The man had many faults; he was arrogant, unscrupulous, and violent, but he was a bold and experienced statesman, who kept his shifty, greedy colleagues in something approaching subjection; and he was determined to prevent, if he could, either of the great Continental rivals from obtaining control of English policy for their ends. He had opposed the Spanish match as long as opposition might have prevented it; but when it was effected he minimised its disadvantages and never allowed either the Queen or Philip to subordinate English interests to those of others. He was as unpopular with the French faction as he was with the Spanish, and his death left the greedy cliques of Councillors, of whom Paget was the most active and corrupt, most of them bribed by one or both rivals, to wrangle uncontrolled in the interests of their paymasters or their own, with little thought for England. Pole had lost touch of English politics, for he was, to all intents and purposes, an Italian ecclesiastic, with a first thought for his papal mission. He lived in the Palace during Philip’s absence, and every day solemnly prayed with Mary for the King’s safe return; but he had refused to act as leading political Councillor, and was only consulted, as the Queen was, on subjects of high importance or upon which the Councillors differed. He, like the Queen, undoubtedly meant well by England; but, like her also, his views were exalted and