q ue en Elisabeth. By Edward Spencer Beesly. (Macmillan.)— Mr. Beesly's volume
is as good an appreciation of the great Queen —for great he believes her to have been, in spite of all that has been urged against her—as we have come across. We would specially commend the account which is given on pp. 33 5 of the causes of the weakness which are to be traced in Elizabeth's policy. " Her sex obliged Elizabeth to leave the large field of exe- cution to others. Her practical gifts, therefore, whatever they were, deteriorated rather than advanced as she grew older." It is acutely observed that her statesmen were embarrassed "by her nervous habit of catching at the rudder-lines." There is also an excellent chapter on " The Papal Attack." " We cannot doubt," writes Mr. Beesly, " that [Campion's] employers aimed at re- establishing Catholicism in England by rebellion and foreign in- vasion." The assassination of the Queen is a more doubtful matter. That it was contemplated by many of the Roman mis- sionaries there is no doubt. At the same time, it is pointed out that on the Protestant aide there was much purely religious Persecution. The subject of the Armada is treated in an in- teresting chapter. The famous speech at Tilbury is, we are glad to see, rehabilitated.
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