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92 Cotton : The Bardon Papers
It is hardly correct to say of the Duke of Norfolk that, while nominally
a Protestant, 'he was well known to be strongly Catholic in his sympathies.'
On the contrary, Maitland and other Protestants projected his marriage to
Mary because of his Protestantism. The duke was strong in nothing ; he
was merely a wobbler, whom in the end the Catholic conspirators purposed
to make a Catholic, and whom they and Mary befooled for their own
purposes. And is there much difficulty, as Dr. Read states, in guessing
Mary's motive in encouraging him ? She might, or might not, intend to
marry him, but she at least desired to utilize him as an instrument in
securing her liberty.
It seems rather rash to affirm that D'Aubigny's fall *
destroyed perhaps the
best chance Mary ever had of realizing her hopes.' Unless Dr. Read is
able to fathom the mystery of D'Aubigny's real aims, unless he knows that
D'Aubigny was more devoted to Mary than to James or to his own self, he
can hardly indulge in even a perhaps as to the destruction of the * best
chance,' for was it so much as a chance ?
Dr. Read is of opinion that it would be rash to attempt any definite
pronouncement as to Mary's guilt or innocence of the Babington murder
he thinks she
plot, though, judging from what is otherwise known of her,
* would not have been deterred by any nice moral scruples.' Now, to
those who have not given full attention to the various items of cumulative
evidence, this may seem a remarkably judicial verdict but a ; verdict of not
proven, unaccompanied with a careful summary of the evidence, has no
more claims for acceptance than a verdict, in similar circumstances, of
either innocent or guilty.
Its impartiality depends wholly on the character
of the evidence ; and since there is no room here for adequate discussion of
this, I refrain from expressing an opinion, beyond the remark that Mary
must have been a phenomenally weak, soft, or angelic woman if she did
not approve of Elizabeth's assassination ; that her approval of it, if she did
approve of it, can hardly in the circumstances be deemed a crime ; that,
minor matter
therefore, the question of her innocence or guilt is a very
indeed : a minor matter as regards herself, and a minor matter, also, as
regards her accusers, who, whether she was guilty or innocent, were the
begetters of the crime, real or imaginary,
for which she suffered execution.
T. F. HENDERSON.
THE BOOK OF ARRAN. Edited by J. A. Balfour, F.R. Hist. S., F.S.A.Scot.
Pp. xiv, 295. With numerous Illustrations. 4to. Published for the
Arran Society of Glasgow by Hugh Hopkins, Glasgow. 1910.
2 is. nett.
HALF a century has elapsed since Mr. Bryce, mathematical master in
Glasgow, was requested to prepare a geological guide to the Valley of the
Clyde for the members of the British Association. Out of that production
was developed by the same author, The Geology of Arran and the other Clyde
Islands, a work scientific in conception and popular in form, than which
no more entertaining local guide-book could be obtained anywhere. One
feature of the book was the supplement of sections dealing with the history
of the Isle, and of chapters devoted to its Fauna and Flora contributed by