consciousness of the weight of that splendor which oppresses it. The severer duties which, in the plenitude of health and strength, bear heavily on him born to rule, claim the attention of his enfeebled spirit, and chain it to the earth, even when all its aspirings are. after immortality, when it pants to burst the fetters imposed by time, and to sail, infinitely free, in the empyrean of space-of eternity.

Death could not chase ambition from the last sanctuary of receding life. It presented its earth-born aspect to the young and saintly King in the form of the proud and aspiring Duke of Northumberland. He watched, with intense scrutiny, every fluctuation of feeling, he detected every almost im perceptible emotion, that disturbed the calm of Edward's spirit. He discerned, with no dissatisfied eye, the, conflict

between the charities of private affection and the patriotism of public devotedness;-between love to those who were nearest-and one the dearest-to him, and duty to a higher relationeven to the Father of Light and Life! The state of the religious interests of his kingdom, fluctuating between Protestantism and Papistry, pressed heavily on the heart of the young King. According to the Act of Succession passed by Henry the Eighth, the Lady Mary was Edward's immediate heir. He could not forget the attachment she had always manifested for the ancient faith. He remembered that her early years had been spent under the Countess of Salisbury, the mother of that confirmed and devoted Papist, Cardinal Pole. He recalled her contùmacy and delay in acknowledging the supremacy of her father as head of the

church on earth; her continuing to have mass said in her house, after it was forbidden by the protecting council;

*The following is an extract of that letter which, after great struggles and long delay, Mary wrote to the King, and which procured for her a return of his favour :

"Item,-I do recognize, accept, take, re"pute, and acknowledge the King's Highness "to be supreme head in earth, under Christ, " of the Church of England; and do utterly "refuse the Bishop of Rome's pretended au"thority, power, and jurisdiction within this "realm heretofore usurped, according to the "laws and statutes made in that behalf, and "of all the King's true subjects humbly re"ceived, admitted, obeyed, kept, and observed ; "and also do utterly renounce and forsake all "manner of remedy, interest, and advantage, "which I may by any means claim by the "Bishop of Rome's laws, process, jurisdiction, " or sentence, at this present time, or in any wise "hereafter, by any manner of title, colour, ‚' mean, or case, that is, shall, or can be devised "for that purpose."

her rejection of the new form of prayer; and her continual choice of friends more than suspected of inclining to the Roman communion. She had, besides, strong personal motives of devotion to this creed, and of reverence to the Papal power. The tie of childhood attached her to it, for it had been the religion of her mother, the good and unfortunate Catherine of Arragon ;the bond of filial feeling and of womanly pride bound her to it ;-for its head had refused to sanction' the divorce of that parent; and, by conse

quence, had refused to stigmatize her Cown birth. And although she herself (the better to regain the favour of her King and father), had recognized the validity of that Act of Divorce,

* In another paragraph of the letter quoted above, Mary writes:

" Item,-I do freely, frankly, and for the

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it cannot be supposed that her real sentiments led her to a declaration which proclaimed her own illegitimacy, and invalidated for ever her right of succession to the crown.

Edward and Mary, so widely differing in their mode of receiving this strong and principal influence on human character, each regarding the religion of the other as a "damnable heresy," and comprehending, that zealous attachment to their separate faith was a vital and active principle in the mind of each, could not avoid transferring a portion of their dislike of the creed, to the person of the believer. To annul Mary's right

"discharge of my duty towards God, and the "King's Highness and his laws, without other "respect, recognize, and acknowledge, that the "marriage heretofore had between his Ma"jesty and my mother, the late Princess "Dowager, was, by God's law, and man's law, "incestuous and unlawful,”