troubling her Parliament too
much by demands for money. She has been often blamed for her economy
which sometimes became inconvenient in public affairs: as in most
cases, nature and policy here also coincided. That she was sparing of
money, and once was actually in a condition to decline a grant offered
her, gave the administration an independence of any momentary moods of
Parliament, which suited her whole nature, and without this might have
been easily lost.

William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, her treasurer, as economical as herself,
was likewise her first minister. He had assisted her with striking
counsel even before her accession, and since lived and moved in her
administration of the state. He was one of those ministers who find
their calling in a boundless industry,--he needed little sleep, long
banquets were not to his taste:[279] never was he seen inactive even
for half an hour; he kept notes of everything great and small;
business accompanied him even to his chamber, and to his retirement at
S. Theobald's. His anxious thoughts were visible in his face, as he
rode on his mule along the roads of the park; he only lost sight of
them for a moment when he was sitting at table among his growing
children: then his heavy eyebrows cleared up, light merriment even
came from his lips. Every other charm of life lay far from him: for
poetry and poets he had no taste, as Spenser was once made to feel:
in literature he patronised only what was directly useful; he
recommended no one except for his being serviceable. Magnanimous he
was not; he was content with being able to say to himself, that he
drew no advantage from any one's ill fortune. He was designated even
then as the man who set the English state in motion: this he always
denied, and sought his praise in the fact that he carried out the
views of the Queen, as she adopted them after hearing the plans
proposed or even after respectful remonstrances. He had to bear many a
slander: most of the reproaches made against him he brought himself to
endure quietly: but if, he said, it could be proved against him that
he neglected the Queen's interest, the war against Spain, and the
support of the Netherlands, then he was willing to become liable to
eternal blame. He was especially effective also through a moral
quality--he never lost heart. It was remarked that he worked with the
greatest alacrity when others were most doubtful. For he too had an
absolute confidence in the cause w