It may be true, interrupted Dr. ARBUTHNOT, that the queen had less to fear from the princes on the Continent, than is sometimes represented. But you forget, in this survey of the public dangers, the distractions of IRELAND, and the restless intrigues of her near neighbours, the SCOTS: both of them assisted by _Spain_; and these last under the peculiar influence and direction of the GUISES.
You shall have my opinion, returned Mr. ADDISON, in few words.
For the IRISH distractions, it was not the queen’s intention, or certainly it was not her fortune, to compose them: I mean, during the greatest part of her reign; for we are now speaking of the general tenor of her policy. Towards the close of it, indeed, she made some vigorous attempts to break the spirits of those savages. And it was high time she should. For, through her faint proceedings against them, they had grown to that insolence, as to think of setting up for an independency on _England_. Nay, the presumption of that arch-rebel TYRONE, countenanced and abetted by _Spain_, seemed to threaten the queen with still further mischiefs. The extreme dishonour and even peril of this situation roused her old age, at length, to the resolution of taking some effectual measures. The preparation was great, and suitable to the undertaking. It must, further, be owned, it succeeded: but so late, that she herself did not live to see the full effect of it. However, this success is reckoned among the glories of her reign. In the mean time, it is not considered that nothing but her ill policy, in suffering the disorders of that country to gather to a head, made way for this glory. I call it her _ill policy_, for unless it were rather owing to her excessive frugality[85] one can hardly help thinking she designed to perpetuate the _Irish_ distractions. At least, it was agreeable to a favourite maxim of hers, to check, and not to suppress them. And I think it clear, from the manner of prosecuting the war, that, till this last alarm, she never was in earnest about putting an end to it.
SCOTLAND, indeed, demanded a more serious attention. Yet the weak distracted counsels of that court—a minor king—a captive queen—and the unsettled state of _France_ itself, which defeated in a good degree the malice of the GUISES—were favourable circumstances.