A RELIC FOR SCOTLAND

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 228, 20 June 1919, Page 8

A RELIC FOR SCOTLAND

Sir-The acerbity of J. M, Caispbell s reply to my impersonal amplification of a paragraph which appeared in your columns upon the purchase and presentation of Mary Queen of 'cots' last ■ letter to the Royal Scottish Museum, indicates that he has no tolerant relish for the statement of tho simple facts. I may assure him, however, that I have, not cabled to the authorities of Ilia Royal Scottish Museum in the matter, since I am persuaded that tho followers, of John Knox will be in full possession of the facts which have such intimate re- ■ lation with the first days of Presbyterinnism- and its leader; so that, how- v ever marked by "presumption" in other matters, I have acted a humble part in this. Your correspondent was careful to quote from Rnnsonie's "Short History of England" only what suited him. On page 213 (he quotes from page 215) Ransome writes: "Mary's friends pro as active as ever. Numbers of young (R.) Catholic priests, trained in hostility to Elizabeth, were pouring into the country. Conspiracies against iho Queen s life were numerous.' So that, even the book which my antagonist quotes upholds the contention I make, i.e., that Mary Queen of Scots died as a conspirator in tho interests of Rome and the Papal Powers, and not for her religion. The Cambridge "Modem History," vol. iii, page 265. records; The Queen of Scots . . . was the one perpetual focus of disaffection, and conspiri ncv; and, if Norfolk had deserved to .die, still'more so -Mary"; and continues, pa'o 293, "when all hope was lost she (Mary) 'teprcsented herself as tho victim of religious persecution, and sentiment has invested '• . . her tragic end w'th the halo of martyrdom." . Froude, however, is more clear-cut and deliberate, and wrote (Hist. Eng.,. vol. zii, page 257); "She (Mary) was a bad woman, disguised in the livery of a martyr, and, if in any sense at all she was suffering for her. religion, it was beca'ta the vns capable of those detestable crimes vhich, in the sixteenth century, appeared to be the-proper-fruits of it." Whilst the Cambridge "Modern History, vol. 3, page 289, quotes Olivarez, the Ambassador of Philip of Spain, a3 saying of Elizabeth: "What a valiant woman. She braves the greatest kings by lano and sea. If she were not "a heretic she wouldbe worth a whole world." I leave .your leaders to form that "dispassionate judgment" which Mr. Campbell oeems me incapable of forming.' but of which ha assumes-to.be an unexampled etpouent. Elizabeth is, notwithstanding your correspondent's uncertainty, the great Protestant Queen. From her reign dales the rise of the British Empire in the scale of nations to place of prestige and influence which has never been greater or more illustrious than at this moment Elizabeth, though not a paragon of the womanly traits, at least loved her cnuntry and her people, and set aside all her personal desires that the religious freedom and commercial; prosperity ot her country might not be- bliguted by any intrigues with or surrender to (he Panal Powers. She stands, and -nil continue,to stand, as one of tte supreme Wellington, June 18.