and their right of keeping their kings in order. The elder
Cecil had invited him to write the history of the Queen, and had
communicated to him numerous documents for this purpose, which were
either in his own possession or belonged to the national archives.
Camden set cautiously to work, and went slowly on. He has himself
depicted the trouble it cost him to decipher the historical contents
of these scattered and dusty papers. He has certainly not surmounted
all the difficulties which stand in the way of composing a
contemporary history. Here and there we find even in his pages a
regard paid to the living, especially to King James himself, which we
would rather see away. But such passages are rare. Camden's Annals
take a high rank among histories of contemporary transactions. They
are of such authenticity in regard to facts, and show so intimate an
acquaintance with causes gathered from trustworthy information, that
we can follow the author, even where we do not possess the documents
to which he refers. His judgments are moderate and at the same time in
all important questions they are decided.

When we read Camden's letters we become acquainted with a circle of
scholars engaged in the severest studies. In his Britannia, which
gives a more complete and instructive picture of the country than any
other work, they all took a lively interest. Their works are clumsy
and old-fashioned, but they breathe a spirit of thoroughness and
breadth which does honour to the age. With what zeal were
ecclesiastical antiquities studied in Cambridge, after Whitaker had
pointed the way! Men sought to weed out what was spurious, and in what
was genuine to set aside the part due to the accidental forms of the
time, and to penetrate to the bottom of the sentiments, the belief,
and activity of the writers. The constitution of the Church naturally
led them to devote special study to the old provincial councils. For
the history of the country they referred to the monuments of
Anglo-Saxon times, and began even in treating of other subjects to
bring the original sources to light. Everywhere men advanced beyond
the old limits which had been drawn by the tradition of chroniclers
and the lack of historical investigation hitherto shown.

Francis Bacon was attracted by the task of depicting at length a
modern epoch, the history of the Tudors, with the various changes
which it presented and the great results it had introduced, in which
he saw the unit