this present was by far the most precious and
most acceptable.[*] Such were the innocent artifices by which Elizabeth
insinuated herself into the affections of her subjects. Open in her
address, gracious and affable in all public appearances, she rejoiced
in the concourse of her subjects, entered into all their pleasures and
amusements; and without departing from her dignity, which she knew
well how to preserve, she acquired a popularity beyond what any of her
predecessors or successors ever could attain. Her own sex exulted to see
a woman hold the reins of empire with such prudence and fortitude: and
while a young princess of twenty-five years, (for that was her age at
her accession,) who possessed all the graces and insinuation, though not
all the beauty of her sex, courted the affections of individuals by
her civilities, of the public by her services; her authority though
corroborated by the strictest bands of law and religion, appeared to be
derived entirely from the choice and inclination of the people.

* Heylin, p. 104. Strype, vol. i. p. 41.

** Camden, p. 371. Heylin, p. 104. Strype, vol. i. p 54.
Stowe, p. 635.

*** Burnet, vol. ii. p. 380. Strype, vol. i. p. 29.

A sovereign of this disposition was not likely to offend her subjects
by any useless or violent exertions of power; and Elizabeth, though she
threw out such hints as encouraged the Protestants delayed the entire
change of religion till the meeting of the parliament, which was
summoned to assemble. The elections had gone entirely against the
Catholics, who seem not indeed to have made any great struggle for the
superiority;[*] and the houses met in a disposition of gratifying the
queen in every particular which she could desire of them. They began
the session with a unanimous declaration, "that Queen Elizabeth was, and
ought to be, as well by the word of God, as the common and statute
laws of the realm, the lawful, undoubted, and true heir to the crown,
lawfully descended from the blood royal, according to the order of
succession settled in the thirty-fifth of Henry VIII."[**]

* Notwithstanding the bias of the nation towards the
Protestant sect, it appears that some violence, at least
according to our present ideas, was used in these elections:
five candidates were nominated by the court to each borough,
and three to each county; and by the sheriff's authority the
members were chosen from among t