CUBE BY YE TOUCH. 423 



the touch rendered by chirurgeon Clowes will be more satis- 

 factory to some minds. This gentleman, a native of Warwick- 

 shire, served as surgeon both in naval and military expedi- 

 tions of this reign. In consideration of surgical services 

 rendered, he received a grant of arms in 1576. Clowes wrote 

 many professional books; amongst others, one entitled 'A 

 right fruitful and approved Treatise of the Struma,' &c., 

 the very disease, be it remembered, most amenable to cure by 

 royal manipulation. Surely this is a question in which the 

 testimony of one like Clowes a contemporary, a professional 

 expert must be overpowering. What, then, is the testi- 

 mony? Hear it, ye sceptics, and -slink away abashed! He 

 gives the whole particulars of a cure upon a scrofulous person, 

 by the virgin Queen's stroking, which he judged to be i more 

 divine than human;' and he expressed the confident belief, 

 c that upon failure of other methods of cure, people may 

 expect relief from her Majesty.' 



I have stated that the Queen herself underrated the 

 divine power so miraculously vouchsafed. Thus, it is re- 

 corded by Dr. Tooker, that when the Queen was in Glou- 

 cestershire, many poor people afflicted with the disease, press- 

 ing upon her in an unruly manner, she let fall these words : 

 * Alas, poor people ! I cannot cure you ; it is God alone who 

 can do so.' 



Now, with Dean Tooker, I cannot but agree that the 

 expression above cited has been wrested from its proper and 

 legitimate meaning. Probably, what the Queen really did 

 mean was, that she held herself to be, in this matter, no more 

 than God's agent.* This capacity of healing independent 

 of will and belief of the royal person thus demonstrated, is 

 important. Being proven, the delicate question arisas, whether 

 any English sovereign has a constitutional right to abandon a 

 practice so fraught with blessing I Of this perhaps more anon. 



* Nevertheless, the practice of touching for the evil was discontinued 

 by Queen Elizabeth at a certain period of her reign. 



