the manifest will of Providence to positions of the highest authority,
to the thrones of rulers and sovereigns. And many of these women
have discharged those duties with great intellectual ability and great
success. It is rather the fashion now among literary men to
depreciate Queen Elizabeth and her government. But it is clear that,

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whatever may have been her errors--and no doubt they were grave--
she still appears in the roll of history as one of the best sovereigns
not only of her own house, but of all the dynasties of England.
Certainly she was in every way a better and a more successful ruler
than her own father or her own brother-in-law, and better also than
the Stuarts who filled her throne at a later day. Catherine of Russia,
though most unworthy as a woman, had a force of intellectual ability
quite beyond dispute, and which made itself felt in every department
of her government. Isabella I. of Spain gave proof of legislative and
executive ability of the very highest order; she was not only one of
the purest and noblest, but also, considering the age to which she
belonged, and the obstacles in her way, one of the most skillful
sovereigns the world has ever seen. Her nature was full of clear
intelligence, with the highest moral and physical courage. She was in
every way a better ruler than her own husband, to whom she proved
nevertheless an admirable wife, acting independently only where
clear principle was at stake. The two greet errors of her reign, the
introduction of the Inquisition and the banishment of the Jews, must
be charged to the confessor rather than to the Queen, and these
were errors in which her husband was as closely involved as herself.
On the other hand, some of the best reforms of her reign originated
in her own mind, and were practically carried out under her own close
personal supervision. Many other skillful female rulers might be