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turbulency and a vain ambition: fhe guarded not herself, with equal care or equal fuccefs, from leffer infirmities; the rivalfhip of beauty, the defire of admiration, the jealoufy of love, and the fallies of anger.

Her fingular talents for government were founded equally on her temper and on her capacity. Endowed with a great command over herself, fhe foon obtained an uncontrolled afcendant over the people; and while she merited all their esteem by her real virtues, fhe also en gaged their affection by her pretended ones. Few fovereigns of England fucceeded to the throne in more difficult circumstances, and none ever conducted the govern ment with fuch uniform fuccefs and felicity. Though unacquainted with the practice of toleration, the true fecret for managing religious factions, the preferved her people, by her fuperiour prudence, from thofe confufions in which theological controverfy had involved all the neighbouring nations: and though her enemies were the molt powerful princes of Europe, the most active, the moft enterprifing, the leaft fcrupulous, he was able, by her vigour, to make deep impreffions on their state; her own greatnefs, meanwhile, remaining untouched and unimpaired.

The wife ministers and brave warriours who flourished during her reign fhare the praife of her fuccess ; but, inftead of leffening the applaufe due to her, they make great addition to it. They owed, all of them, their advancement to her choice; they were fupported by her constancy; and, with all their ability, they were never able to acquire an undue afcendant over her. In her family, in her court, in her kingdom, she remained équally mistress. The force of the tender paffions was great over her, but the force of her mind was still fuperiour; and the combat which her victory visibly cost her, ferves only to difplay the firmnefs of her refolution, and the loftinefs of her ambitious fentiments.

The fame of this princefs, though it has furmounted the prejudices both of faction and of bigotry, yet lies ftill expofed to another prejudice, which is more durable, because more natural; and which, according to the different views in which we furvey her, is capable either of exalting beyond meafure, or diminishing, the luftre of

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her character. This prejudice is founded on the confi deration of her fex. When we contemplate her as a woman, we are apt to be struck with the highest admi ration of her qualities and extenfive capacity; but we are also apt to require fome more softness of difpofition, fome greater lenity of temper, fome of thofe amiable weaknelles by which her fex is diftinguished. But the true method of estimating her merit, is to lay aside all thefe confiderations, and to confider her merely as a rational being, placed in authority, and entrusted with the government of mankind. We may find it difficult to reconcile our fancy to her as a wife or a mistress; but her qualities as a fovereign, though with fome confiderable exceptions, are the object of undisputed applause and approbation.

* V. Charles V.'s Refignation of his Dominions. CHARLES refolved to refign his kingdoms to his fon,

with a folemnity fuitable to the importance of the tranfaction; and to perform this last act of fovereignty with fuch formal pomp, as might leave an indelible im preffion on the minds, not only of his fubjects, but of his fucceffor. With this view, he called Philip out of England; where the peevish temper of his queen, which increased with her defpair of having iffue, rendered him extremely unhappy, and the jealoufy of the English left him no hopes of obtaining the direction of their affairs.. Having allembled the fates of the Low Countries at Bruffels, on the twenty-fifth of October one thousand five hundred and fifty-five,, Charles feated himself for the last time in the chair of state; on one fide of which was placed his fon, and on the other his fifter the queen of Hungary, regent of the Netherlands; with a fplendid retinue of the grandees of Spain and princes of the empire standing behind him. The prefident of the council of Flanders, by his command, explained, in a few words, his intention in calling this extraordinary meeting of the ftates. He then read the inftrument of refignation, by which Charles furrendered to his fon Philip all his ter ritories, jurifdiction, and authority in the Low Coun tries abfolving his fubjects there, from their oath of allegiance to him, which he required them to transfer to

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Philip his lawful heir, and to ferve him with the fame loyalty and zeal which they had manifested, during so long a courfe of years, in fupport of his government.

Charles then rofe from his feat, and, leaning on the fhoulder of the prince of Orange, because he was unable to ftand without fupport, he addreffed himself to the au dience; and, from a paper which he held in his hand in order to affift his memory, he recounted with dignity, but without oftentation, all the great things which be had undertaken and performed fince the commencement of his administration. He observed, that, from the seventeenth year of his age, he had dedicated all his thoughts and attention to public objects, referving no portion of his time for the indulgence of his eafe, and very little for the enjoyment of private pleasure that, either in a pa cific or hoftile manner, he had vifited Germany nine times, Spain fix times, France four times, Italy fever times, the Low Countries ten times, England twice, A frica as often, and had made eleven voyages by fea that, while his health permitted him to discharge his duty, and the vigour of his conflitution was equal in any dé gree to the arduous office of governing fuch exter five dominions, he had never shunned labour, nor repined under fatigue: that, now, when his health was broken, and his vigour exhaufted by the rage of an in curable diftemper, his growing infirmities admonished him to retire ; nor was he fo fond of reigning as to retain the fceptre in an impotent hand, which was no longer able to protect his fubjects, or to render them happy that, instead of a fovereign worn out with diseases and fcarcely half alive, he gave them one in the prime of life, accustomed already to govern, and who added to the vigour of youth all the attention and fagacity of maturer years that if, during the courfe of a long ad ministration, he had committed any material errour in go vernment, or if, under the preffure of fo many and great affairs, and amidst the attention which he had been obliged to give them, he had either neglected or injured any of his fubjects, he now implored their forgiveness: that, for his part, he fhould ever retain a grateful fense of their fidelity and attachment, and would carry the re membrance of it along with him to the place of his re

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treat, as his sweetest confolation, as well as the best re ward for all his fervices; and, in his laft prayers to Almighty God, would pour forth his ardent wifhes for their welfare.

Then, turning towards Philip, who fell on his knees ↑ and skiffed this father's hand, "If," fays he, "I had left you, by my death, this rich inheritance, to which I have made fuch large additions, fome regard would have been justly due to my memory on that account; but: now, when I voluntarily refign to you what I might. have ftill retained, I may well expect the warmest expreffions of thanks on your part. With thefe, however, Idifpenfer; and fhall confider your concern for the wel fare of your fubjects, and your love of them, as the best and most acceptable teftimony of your gratitude to me. Iris in your power, by a wife and virtuous administra tion, to justify the extraordinary proof which I this day give of my paternal affection, and to demonstrate that you are worthy of the confidence which I repofe in you. Preferve an inviolable regard for religion; maintain the Catholic faith in its purity; let the laws of your couns try be facred in your eyes; encroach not on the rights and privileges of your people; and, if the time fhall ever come when your shall with to enjoy the tranquillity of private life, may you have a fon, endowed with. fuch qualities that you can refign your fceptre to him, with as much fatisfaction as I give up mine to you."

As foon as Charles had finifhed this long addrefs to his fubjects and to their new fovereign, he funk into the chair, exhausted and ready to faint with the fatigue of fuch an extraordinary effort. During his difcourfe, the whole audience melted into tears; fome, from admi ration of his magnanimity; others, foftened by the expreffions of tenderness towards his fon and of love to his people; and all were affected with the deepeft forrow at lofing a fovereign, who had diftinguished the Netherlands, his native country, with particular marks of his regard and attachment.

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A few weeks thereafter, Charles, in an affembly no lefs fplendid, and with a ceremonial equally pompous, refigned to his fon the crowns of Spain, with all the ter sitories depending on them, both in the old and in the

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new world. Of all thefe vaft poffeffions, he referved nothing for himself but an annual penfion of an hundred thousand crowns, to defray the charges of his family, and to afford him a fmall fum for acts of beneficence and charity. S

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The place he had chofen for his retreat was the mo naftery of St Juftus, in the province of Eftremadura. It was feated in a vale of no great extent, watered by a fmall brook, and furrounded by rifing grounds covered with lofty trees. From the nature of the foil, as well as the temperature of the climate, it was esteemed the most healthful and delicious fituation in Spain. Some months before his refignation, he had sent an architect thither to add a new apartment to the monaftery for his accom modation; but he gave ftrict orders that the file of the building fhould be fuch as fuited his prefent fituations rather than his former dignity. It confifted only of fix rooms: four of them in the form of friars cells, with na ked walls; the other two, each twenty feet fquare, were hung with brown cloth, and furnished in the most simple manner. They were all on a level with the ground, with a door on one fide into a garden, of which Charles himself had given the plan, and which he had filled with various plants, intending to cultivate them with his own hands. On the other fide; they communicated with the chapel of the monastery, in which he was to perform his devotions. Into this humble retreat, hardly fufficient for the comfortable accommodation of a private gentleman, did Charles enter with twelve domefties only. He buried there, in folitude and filence, his grandeur, his ambition, together with all thofe vaft projects, which during half a century, had alarmed and agitated: Eus rope, filling every kingdom in it by turns with the ter rour of his arms, and the dread of being fubjected to his power.

VI. Importance of Virtue.

VIRTUE is of intrinfic value and good defert, and of indispensable obligation; not the ereature of will, but necessary and immutable; not local or temporary, but of equal extent and antiquity with the Divine mind; not a mode of fenfation, but everlasting truth; not de pendent

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