The Sun. — 1838-04-07 (London, England)

THOMAS WRIGHT, M. A., 6'e.. London, Colburn, 1838. Mr. Wright's work, which consists of a series of original letters, selected 11 ith discriminating industry from the idited private correspondence of Queen Elizabeth and herne Courtiers, is constructed on the same plan as Ellis's Letters, and the Marchmont Papers ; and is well calculated to throw flood of new light upon some of the most obscure passages in the eventful "'P, political history of England's Virgin SoveAmong the letters which the reader will peruse svith the greatest advantage, we class the official corres.. pondence of the Cecil, afterwards Lord Treasurer Burghley ; Cecil, of the Earls of Leicester, Sussex, Shrewsury, Murray. of the Duke of Norfolk ; of Secretaries Was ngham and Smith ; and of Sir Christopher Hatton, Randolph, Throgmorton, Drury, and Sir P. Knollys. But while we most cheerfully admit the great value of these ocuments, and the important service rendered to the historicdal student by their publication, we take leave entirely to dissent from the conclusions which the learned Editor in his introduction. We have examineddraws from them them with some tare, and taking them in conjunction with the documents of contemporary writers, they neither acquit Elizabeth of the Judicial murder of the unfortunate Queen of Scots, nor Lord Robert Dudley of incapacity as Commander of the expedition for the Provin relief of the Protestants of the United ought ces. In justice to the memory of Mary, Mr. Wright to have included her letters to Elizabeth, in a collection of Papers published ostensibly with a view to make the actors and counsellors in the great political events of an important periodand in our history " speak for themselves,', quently to make their own impression upon the mind of the future of every historian. Mr. 'Wright's faith in the truth statement made by the Ministers and servants of Elizabeth in theirofficial letters appears to be unbounded; and we are occasionally not a little surprised to find him draw inferences from phrases the very reverse of what they would appear to us to warrant. For example, Cecil, in a letter to Sussex, relative to the arrival of Queen Mary in Scotland, says---,, the Quene's Majestic bath these ships in the North Seas to preserve the fyshers from the pyratts. I thynk they will he sorry to see hyr pass." Mr. Wright at once assumes these words to amount to a grave declaration that neither Elizabeth nor her Minister wished to intercept Mary on her voyage ; though Cecil states, in a previous letter, that he had refused her a free passage from France. Now, to us the language of Cecil would seem to imply a directly contrary meaning. The fleet appointed to intercept Mary was, for very poltic reasons, o stensibly ordered to scour the Channel fora the protection of the Northern fisheries. Cecil was not such a ninny as to disclose such of his schemes as were likely to prove unsuccessful, when he knew a disclosure would prove detrimental to the interests of his Royal Mistress. These volumes are dedicated by permissicn to the Queen, and embellished with portraits of Elizabeth, her favourite Minister Burghley, and Sir Robert Cecil. The portraits are taken from original paintings in the collection of the Marquis of Exeter, and are very beautifully executed. As a whole, this collection of letters is, as we above observed, invaluable ; though the prejudices of the Editor against the beautiful but unfortunate tialit Queen of Scots, and his Para bay to Elizabeth, who, after all, was a great Queen but d woman, will not fail to raise against it a host of enemies.