652 



CECIL. 



Cecil, reinstatement in his office of secretary under the new 

 William, leaders. On this occasion he was knighted, and 

 ^ V ' when he entered on office, he afforded, amid all the ca- 

 bals of the time, the example of a minister occupying 

 himself exclusively with the concerns of his depart- 

 ment. By these means he avoided all concern in the 

 intrigues by which Warwick, now duke of Northum- 

 berland, sought to secure his own ascendency for life, 

 by getting the succession to the crown vested in 

 Lady Jane Grey. Cecil performed his duty in co- 

 operating to place the crown on the head of the law- 

 ful heiress, Mary ; but aware at the same time of her 

 bigotted attachment to popery, he made no other 

 use of his influence than to obtain a pardon for any 

 .thing that might have offended her in his past trans- 

 actions. The new court would gladly have had the 

 benefit of his abilities in office, but an abjuration of 

 the Protestant religion was, with Cecil, an inadmissible 

 condition, and he retired for a time from all interfe- 

 rence with politics. He was soon, however, returned 

 to parliament for Lincolnshire, and though this took 

 place without his solicitation, he acted his part in the 

 House with great firmness, and incurred some dan- 

 ger by advocating the popular cause. That danger 

 would have been increased, had it been discovered 

 that he was in the habit of corresponding with Eliza- 

 beth before the death of her suspicious sister. 



On Elizabeth's accession, (1558,) Cecil was the 

 first privy counsellor sworn in, and in the capacity of 

 Secretary of State, entered on that career of public 

 service, which was destined to last during the long 

 period of forty years, and to terminate only with his 

 life. He lost no time in directing his sovereign's at- 

 tention to the establishment of the Protestant reli- 

 gion, according to the present form of worship of the 

 church of England. In advocating the cause of 

 simplicity in the reformed ritual, he experienced con- 

 siderable difficulty from Elizabeth's predilection, 

 (though a Protestant,) to the imposing splendour of 

 Romish ceremonies, a predilection in which the queen 

 received the support of many dignitaries of the 

 church, In civil affairs,;the ascendency of Cecil was 

 far more conspicuous. His thoughtful habits, and a 

 facility in composition early acquired, led him to fol- 

 low the rule of recording on paper his opinions on 

 subjects of importance, and writing answers to all 

 publications hostile to the queen's government. That 

 economy of the public money, which is in the mouth 

 of every minister, was perhaps never so judiciously 

 and effectually practised as by him. The rule of 

 this reign was not to withdraw from the burden of 

 continental wars, but to avoid taking a leading part, 

 and to confine the exercise of interference to those 

 circumstances in which it had become indispensibly 

 necessary. Teaching her allies to rely on their own 

 resources, Elizabeth was accustomed to bring home 

 her troops, and redemand her loans as soon as the 

 state of military operations permitted it. Her cautious 

 minister persuaded her to despise all dreams of con- 

 tinental acquisition, and to decline even the proffered 

 sovereignty of Holland. Cecil was, in consequence, 

 often censured as the adviser of a narrow-minded po- 

 licy, but he was indifferent to such accusations, and 

 placed his reliance on the evidence of facts. He re- 

 sisted also, as much as in his power, the importuni- 

 ties of idle and rapacious courtiers, While thus hos- 



tile to irregular grants, he was punctal and even li- 

 beral in the reward of real services. He is consider- 

 ed the author of a very material reform in the mode 

 of paying the army, by which the money of the sol- 

 diers, instead of going through the medium of the 

 officers, a practice liable to great abuse, was trans- 

 mitted directly from government to the privates. 

 From this, and other circumstances, arose the saying, 

 that " the queen paid liberally though she rewarded 

 sparingly." 



The gradation of Cecil's honour was as follows : 

 In 1761 he was promoted to the office of master of 

 the wards, or, in other words, president of the court 

 of wards. In 1571, after he had been the chief in- 

 strument of extinguishing a dangerous rebellion in 

 the north, he was made Baron Burleigh ; and in 1572, 

 after escaping from a conspiracy against his life, in 

 which the Spanish ambassador was implicated, he 

 was made a knight of the garter. In the same year, 

 on the death of the lord high treasurer, he was raised 

 to that exalted and laborious station. In the exer- 

 cise of its functions, Cecil was equally vigilant in re- 

 gard to the collection and distribution of the public 

 money ; permitting no undue partiality in the former, 

 and, in the latter, making it an express rule to issue 

 nothing without a direct order from the queen. He 

 never imitated the usual practice of treasurers in oc- 

 casionally borrowing from the treasury for private 

 purposes ; and he was almost the only minister of 

 that age, who, at his death, owed nothing to the 

 public. Though frequently the admirer of vigorous 

 measures, the general character of his policy was 

 pacific. " War," he used to say, " is soon kindled, 

 but peace is very hardly procured." " A realm 

 gains more by one year's peace than by ten years 

 war." The reader who will take the pains to com- 

 pare the ambition of Europe in these days and in our 

 own, will find, that, while the inducements to war 

 were equally great, the course of policy pursued in 

 the two cases, forms a remarkable contrast. Scotland 

 and France were at that time torn by intestine con- 

 vulsions, and the low countries involved in a tedious 

 war with Philip II. AH presented tempting op- 

 portunities of conquest to an English army ; but 

 conquest, Cecil well knew, is not the true foundation 

 of national strength. He was the first to discover 

 the hostile intentions of Philip towards England, but 

 delayed, as long as possible, the resort to actual war- 

 fare. When the defeat of the armada put a finish to 

 Philip's hopes, and disposed him to reasonable terms 

 of peace, Cecil, who had hitherto been most vigilant 

 in opposing him, now became the advocate of a ces- 

 sation of military operations, unsuccessfully indeed, 

 for the passions which prompted a continuance of the 

 war were too violent to yield to reason and argument. 

 Zeal for religion, revenge for meditated subjugation,, 

 and the hope of rich captures, all contributed to sti- 

 mulate the nation to a prosecution of hostility against 

 Philip. In regard to France, the public mind being 

 less strongly agitated, Cecil's prudent counsels were 

 adopted by his sovereign, and, agreeably to them, 

 such assistance only afforded as was requisite to pre- 

 serve the Hugonots from falling under subjection to 

 their Catholic adversaries. Succour to that extent 

 was called for by the cause of religion, but to go far- 

 ther would, in Cecil's opinion, have answered no use* 



5 



Cecil, 

 William. 



