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INTERESTS OF GREAT BBITAIN. 881THIED PEEIOD.PERIOD OF THE STUARTS, 1603-1689.At the time when the Stuarts ascended the throne of England, the religious interest formed, as is evident from thepreceding part of this inquiry, the pivot on which turned thewhole politics,both foreign and domestic, at once of England and the rest of Europe. On Protestantism Elizabethhad founded her throne and her greatness, and a firmerbasis they could not have had because she thus united her;interest with that of the people.Her successor appearedtherefore to have his way marked out for him ;he thoughtfit, however, to choose another, and thus prepared the fallof his dynasty.The house of the Stuarts is probably the only one in history which brought on its fall, not so much by practical asby theoretical principles. These principles were, however,at direct variance with the interests of England generally ;and more especially with her continental interests. SinceElizabeth, by the defence of Protestantism, had attained thesupremacy of Protestant itEurope, was evident that to maintain it her successor must assume the same character. ButJames L was rendered incapable of doing so, by the strangemixture of politicaland religious sentiments in which heloved to indulge, and which remained the hereditary anddeep-rooted sentiments of his family. His theory respecting the high dignity and unlimited power of royalty, determined his religious creed, which was confirmed by the feelings which in his youth had been roused in him by the fateof his mother. He hated the puritans from the bottom of hisheart, because he scarce considered them in any light butthat of rebels. He professedthat he belonged to the episcopal church, because to be king of England it was necessary that he should do so, but his very first speech in parliament declares in such plain words that Catholicism,(excepting the doctrine of the papal supremacy, which wasdetestable to him from its limiting the regal power,) was thereligion of his heart, that it could not but destroy once and1for ever the confidence of the nation in their king.1This speech, like the rest of those composed by the king himself, forms acurious document illustrative of English history. It contains the seeds of