It was strange and surprising that she should accuse his sovereign of a crime most horrible, odious to God and man, against law and nature; and which, if proved to be true, would render her infamous throughout all the kingdoms of the world. Although he had so widely forgotten his duty, yet Elizabeth had not renounced her love of a good sister, a good neighbour, and a good friend; and it was her will that he and his company should produce the papers by which they imagined they were able to maintain their accusation. The earl of Murray, in his turn, was not wanting in dissimulation. He expressed himself to be very sorry for the high displeasure he had given to Elizabeth by his charge against Mary, and for the obstinacy of the Scottish queen and her deputies, which made it necessary for him to vindicate himself by discovering her dishonour. Under the load of this double and affected sorrow, he made an actual and formal exhibition of the vouchers by which he pretended to fix and establish her criminality. A particular account and examination of these vouchers, the reader will find in our life of Mary, and the works to which we have there referred.

To enumerate all the shifts to which Elizabeth and the adversaries of Mary were put, in order to make the strange evidence that was produced wear some degree of plausibility, would far exceed our bounds. It is sufficient to say, that after having wearied themselves with prevarication and falsehood; after having pressed Mary to abdicate her crown, a requisition with which she never would comply; and after having finally refused to hear her in her own defence; Elizabeth, on the 10th of January 1569, gave leave to the earl of Murray and his accomplices to deport her dominions; telling them, that since they came into England, nothing had been objected to them which could hurt their honour as men, or affect their allegiance as subjects. At the same time she told them, that they had produced no information or evidence by which she was entitled to conceive any bad opinion of the queen of Scots. It was therefore her pleasure to allow the affairs of Scotland to continue precisely in the condition in which they were situated at the beginning of the conference. Three days after this, they formally took their leave of the queen of England. The deputies of Mary remonstrated, protested, and argued, to no purpose; the English privy-council, with the most provoking indifference, told them, that "the earl of Murray had promised to their sovereign, for himself and his company, to return to England at any time she should call on him." But, in the meantime, the queen of Scots could not, for many strong reasons, be permitted to take her departure out of England. As to her deputies, they would move Elizabeth to allow them to return to Scotland; and they believed that she would not detain them.

Mary was exceedingly disappointed and chagrined by this singular issue of her cause. Her friends during this period had increased; and the cruel and injurious treatment she had met with was so flagrant, that the earl of Murray and his faction were apprehensive of a sudden reverse of fortune. The earls of Argyle and Huntly protested against the injustice of their proceedings, at the same time that they openly accused the earl of Murray and Maitland of Lethington as the associates of Bothwell in the murder of the king. This charge, according to the custom of the times, they offered to prove as true and certain by the law of arms; and they Scotland protested, that if their adversaries should delay to answer their challenge, they should be held as confessing themselves guilty of the murder. Elizabeth, however, foreseeing something of this kind, had dismissed Murray and his adherents with precipitation, so that there could now be no formal production of it before the English commissioners. It was known and published, however, in the court of Elizabeth. Murray made an evasive reply, and Lethington made none at all.

This, however, afforded no relief to the unhappy Mary, queen of Scotland. Her inveterate and treacherous enemy held her fast, and endeavoured by every method closer on her power to render her life miserable. Mary, on the other hand, lost neither her spirit nor her dignity. She attempted to rouse in the minds of her nobles that passion for liberty which had once so much distinguished the Scottish nation, but which now seemed to be exchanged for a servile subjection to the queen of England. But some despatches which urged these topics being intercepted, Mary was removed from Bolton to Tuthbury castle, where she was intrusted to the earl of Shrewsbury, and committed to closer confinement than she had yet experienced; while Elizabeth dispersed manifestoes all over the northern counties of England, complaining of reports injurious to her honour, and disclaiming all hostile intentions towards the liberties of Scotland.

In the mean time Murray returned to Scotland, where he took every method of establishing himself in great ill acquired power. Mary had commanded the duke's curé of Chatelherault to return to Scotland, in order to raise forces for her advantage; but this nobleman had been so long detained in England by the artifices of Elizabeth, that Murray had arrived there before him. The duke, however, began to raise forces, and might have proved a troublesome antagonist; had not Murray deceived him by a pretended negotiation, and got him into his power immediately after which he imprisoned him, and forced most of the other lords who were on that side to submit.

When the news of this important event reached the queen of Scots, she instructed the bishop of Ross to repair to Elizabeth, and to make remonstrances in their behalf. By the agency of this ecclesiastic, whom she had constituted her ambassador, she meant to conduct her transactions with the queen of England; and from the conclusion of the conferences, she had been meditating a proper plan on which to accomplish her liberty and restoration. The bishop of Ross, after complaining loudly of the rigorous proceedings of the regent, and intimating the general belief which prevailed that he was supported by the English court, pressed the propriety of a final settlement of the affairs of his mistress. With this view, he was admitted by Elizabeth and her privy-councillors to frequent conferences; and they even desired him to present to them in writing the articles which he was commanded to propose as the foundation of a treaty. He failed not to comply with this injunction; and it was the import of his schedule of agreement, that Mary should engage never to molest Elizabeth, and the lawful heirs of her body, respecting the succession to the crown of England and Ireland; if she could obtain sufficient security that on their demise her rights would be respected; that a new treaty of alliance Scotland; and friendship should be concluded between the two queens, by the advice of the estates of both kingdoms; that this league should be ratified by their oaths and seals, and confirmed by parliamentary acts; and, if any farther assurance should be deemed necessary on the part of Mary, that she would procure the kings of France and Spain to be the guarantors of her punctuality and concord; that in compliance with the pleasure of Elizabeth, she would extend her clemency to all her subjects who had offended her, under the provision that they would submit to her sovereignty, deliver up the prince her son, restore her castles, give back her jewels, and surrender to her friends and servants the estates and possessions of which they had been deprived; that the murder of the king should be punished against all the actors in it without delay, and according to the laws; that to prevent Bothwell from returning to Scotland, and to please those who imagined that it was in his power to excite ferment and trouble, she would be bound to institute a process of divorce against him; and that these articles being adjusted, the queen of England should allow her to proceed to Scotland, under a safe and honourable convoy, to be re-established by the three estates in her realm and government, and to be gratified with the dissolution of all the acts and statutes which had been passed to her prejudice.

These heads of alliance were received with a respect and cordiality which were not usually paid to the transactions of Mary in the court of Elizabeth; and the bishop of Ross was elated with expectation. Their justice, however, was not the sole, or even the chief, cause of this attention and complaisance. A combination of the English nobles had taken place against Cecil, whose power and credit were objects of indignation and jealousy; and the duke of Norfolk had been active and successful in promoting the scheme of his marriage with the queen of Scots. Taking advantage of the condition of parties, he had practised with the principal nobility to encourage his pretensions to Mary; and he secretly communicated to them the promises of support he had received from the earl of Murray. By the advice and influence of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, he engaged in his behalf the earl of Leicester; and this nobleman imparted the matter to the earls of Pembroke and Arundel. The duke himself was able to conciliate the favour of the earls of Derby, Bedford, Shrewsbury, Southampton, Northampton, Northumberland, Westmoreland, and Sussex. In the mean time, he was eagerly pressing Mary herself with his suit and importunities; and had mutually exchanged the tokens of a constant and sincere love. It was in this forward state of the match, that the bishop of Ross drew up the schedule of articles for the accommodation of the rival queens.

At the desire of Elizabeth, her privy-council conferred with the bishop on these articles at different times; and they expressed themselves highly pleased with their general import. Little doubt was entertained of their success; and the earl of Leicester, in order to complete the business, and to serve the duke of Norfolk, undertook to give them a more special force, and to improve them by the introduction of a stipulation about the marriage of the queen of Scots. According to his scheme of agreement, it was required of Mary, that she should be a party to no attempt against the rights and titles of the queen of England, or her heirs; that she should consent to a perpetual league, offensive and defensive, between the two kingdoms; that she should finally establish the Protestant religion in Scotland; that she should admit to her favour those of her subjects who had appeared against her; that if she had made any assignment of her kingdom to the duke of Anjou, in the expectation of a marriage to be contracted between them, it should be dissolved; and that instead of looking to a foreign prince, whose alliance would be dangerous, not only to the religion but to the liberty of the two realms, she would agree to marry the duke of Norfolk, the first peer of England. These articles being communicated to the bishop of Ross, he was desired to transmit them to Mary; but as they touched on some points concerning which he had no instructions, he declined this office, and recommended the propriety of their employing a special messenger of their own in a commission of such high importance. They accordingly appointed Mr Candish to go with them to the queen of Scots, and, in a formal despatch, they extolled the merits of the duke of Norfolk; assured her of the general favour and support of the English nobility, if she should approve of his love; and intimated their belief that Elizabeth would not be adverse to a marriage which gave the certain prospect of tranquillity and happiness to the two kingdoms. This despatch was in the handwriting of Leicester; and it was subscribed by this nobleman, and the earls of Arundel and Pembroke, and the lord Lumley.

Mary, in the solitude of her prison, received this application with pleasure. By the lord Boyd she received a very favourable answer to it; but took the liberty to admonish them of the necessity of their securing the good-will of Elizabeth, lest her dislike of the treaty of marriage should excite new disasters and misfortunes, and involve the duke of Norfolk in inconvenience and danger. This advice, the suggestion of her delicacy and prudence, did not draw their attention sufficiently. The duke of Norfolk was now impatient to conclude this great transaction, in which he had engaged himself; and admitted into his councils many nobles whom he had hitherto neglected to court, and many gentlemen who were considerable from their distinction and fortunes. The countenance and consent of the kings of France and Spain were thought necessary to the measures in agitation, and were solicited and obtained. In the universality of the applause with which they were honoured, it was supposed that Elizabeth would be allured into a cordial acknowledgment of their propriety, or be compelled to afford them a reluctant approbation; and so ardent a belief prevailed of their fortunate termination, that the marriage-contract was actually intrusted to the keeping of M. Fenelon the French ambassador.

The activity of the duke of Norfolk with the English nobles did not so much engross his attention as to make him forget the regent. He kept up a close correspondence with him in consequence of the concert into which they had entered, and received the most ample assurances of his fidelity and service. The most sanguine and seducing hopes elated him. The regent, while he stipulated for terms of favour and security to himself and his faction, appeared to be full of the marriage, as a measure from which the greatest advantages would Scotland would arise to the two kingdoms, to the two queens, and to the true religion. The match, in the mean time, was anxiously concealed from Elizabeth; but she was zealously pressed to conclude an accommodation with Mary, on the foundation of the schedule of agreement presented by the bishop of Ross. After having had many conferences with her privy-council, she seemed inclined to treat definitively for the restoration of the queen of Scots, and actually agreed to open the transaction to the regent. The lord Boyd was sent into Scotland on this business; and while he carried her letters, he was intrusted with despatches from Mary, the duke of Norfolk, and Sir Nicholas Throgmorton.

As the regent was returning from his northern expedition, he was saluted at Elgin by the lord Boyd, who immediately laid before him the despatches and instructions with which he had been charged. The queen of England, in her letters, made three propositions in behalf of Mary, and intimated a desire that one of them should be accepted. The queen of Scots, she said, might be restored fully and absolutely to her royal estate: she might be associated in the government with her son, have the title of queen, and, till the prince should attain the age of 17 years, the administration might continue in the regent; or she might be permitted to return to Scotland in a private station, and have an honourable appointment to maintain her in a safe and happy obscurity. The despatches from Mary to the regent desired, that judges might immediately be allowed to inquire into the legality of her marriage with Bothwel; and that, if it was found to have been concluded in opposition to the laws, it should be declared void, and that the liberty be granted to her of entering again into a matrimonial engagement. The duke of Norfolk expressed to the regent the gratitude he felt for his friendship; promised him the command of the fullest exertions of his consequence and power; intreated him to proceed expeditiously in promoting the business of the marriage, and referred him to the instructions of lord Boyd for a satisfactory answer to any doubts which might give him disgust or uneasiness. By the letters of Throgmorton, the regent was advertised that the marriage of the queen of Scots with the duke of Norfolk was a certain and decided point; and he was counselled to concur heartily and expeditiously in this transaction, that his consent might not seem to have been extorted. Maitland of Lethington was recommended to him by this statesman, as the person whom he should choose to represent him in the English court, as he could negotiate best the terms and mode of his security and of that of his party. In fine, Throgmorton intreated him not to be troubled with any precise scruples or objections, for that his overthrow, if he resisted, would be inevitable; and, in the view of his services and cordiality, he assured him, that no man's friendship would be accepted with greater affection, and no man's estimation be higher or more fortunate. The zeal of Throgmorton induced him also, on this occasion, to address to Maitland a despatch, in which he was infinitely importunate to hasten his expedition to England, in the character to which he recommended him. He complimented him as the fittest person to open the match to the English queen, on the part of the regent and the Scottish nobility; and he represented the success of the scheme to be infallible, as Elizabeth would never be so unwise as to put her own safety, the peace of her kingdom, and the preservation of her people, in competition with the partial devices that might proceed from the vanity and the passions of any person whatever. He enumerated the names of the English nobility who had confederated to promote the marriage. He enlarged on it as an expedient full of wisdom, and as advantageous in the highest degree to religion and the state. He pointed out the lasting and inseparable connexion of England and Scotland, as its happy and undoubted consequence. For, if James VI. should die, the sceptres of the two kingdoms might devolve on an English prince; and if he should attain to manhood, he might marry the daughter of the duke of Norfolk, and unite, in his person, the two crowns.

These weighty despatches fully employed the thoughts of the regent. The calls of justice and humanity were loud in the behalf of Mary; her engagements to Norfolk were precise and definitive; and the commission of Elizabeth afforded him the command of the most important services. But, on the other hand, the restoration of Mary, and her marriage, would put an end forever to his greatness; and, amidst all the stipulations which could be made for his protection, the enormity of his guilt was still haunting him with suspicions and terror. His ambition and his selfish sensibilities were an overmatch for his virtue. He practised with his partisans to throw obstacles in the way of the treaty and the marriage; and, on pretence of deliberating concerning the restoration of Mary, and on her divorce from Bothwel, a convention of the estates was summoned by him to assemble at Perth. To this assembly the letters of Elizabeth were recited; and her propositions were considered in their order. The full restoration of Mary to her dignity was accounted injurious to the authority of the king; and her association with her son in the government was judged improper and dangerous: but it was thought that her deliverance from prison, and her reduction to a private station, were reasonable expedients. No definitive treaty, however, was pronounced. The letters of Mary were then communicated to this council, and gave rise to vehement debates. She had written and subscribed them in her character of queen of Scotland. This carriage was termed insolent and imperious by the friends of the regent. They also held it unsafe to examine her requests, till they should be communicated to Elizabeth; and they insinuated, that some inclement and partial device was concealed under the purpose of her divorce from the earl of Bothwel. The favourers of Mary endeavoured to apologize for the form of the letters, by throwing the blame on her secretaries; and engaged, that while the commissaries, or judges, were proceeding in the business of the divorce, new despatches in the proper method should be applied for and procured. They were heard with evident symptoms of displeasure; and exclaimed, "that it was wonderful to them, that those very persons who had lately been so violent for the separation of the queen and Bothwel should now be so averse to it." The partisans of the regent replied, "that if the queen was so eagerly solicitous to procure the divorce, she might apply to the king of Denmark to execute Bothwel as the murderer of her husband; and that then she might marry the person who was most agreeable to her." The passions of the two factions were Scotland, were inflamed to a most indecent extremity, and the convention broke up with strong and unequivocal marks of hostility and anger.

Notwithstanding the caution with which Mary and Norfolk carried on their intrigues, intimations of them had come to Elizabeth. Norfolk himself, by the advice of the earl of Pembroke, had ventured to disclose his secret to Sir William Cecil, who affected to be friendly to him. The regent, in answer to her letters, transmitted to her the proceedings of the convention at Perth. The application of Mary for a divorce was a key to the ambitious hopes of the duke of Norfolk. She commanded Sir William Cecil to apply himself to discover the conspiracy. This statesman betrayed the confidence with which he had been entrusted; and Elizabeth, while the duke was attending her at Farnham, discovering a mixture of pleasantry and passion, admonished him to be careful on what pillow he repose his head. The earl of Leicester, alarmed by his fears, revealed to her at Titchfield the whole proceedings of the duke of Norfolk and his friends. Her fury was ungovernable; and at different times she loaded Norfolk with the severest reproaches and contumely, for presuming to think of a marriage with the queen of Scots without the sanction of her concurrence. Insulted with her discourse and her looks, abandoned by Leicester, and avoided by other nobles in whom he had confided, he felt his courage to forsake him. He left the court at Southampton without taking his leave, and went to London to the earl of Pembroke. New intimations of her displeasure were announced to him, and he retired to his seat at Kinningham in Norfolk. His friends urged him to take the field, and to commit his safety to the sword; but having no inclination to involve his country in the miseries of war, he rejected their advice; and addressing an apology to Elizabeth, protested that he never meant to depart from the fidelity which he owed her; and that it was his fixed resolution to have applied for her consent to his marriage with the queen of Scots. In return, she ordered him to repair to her court at Windsor; and, as he appeared to be irresolute, a messenger was despatched to take him into custody. He was first confined to the house of Paul Wentworth, at Burnham, in the neighbourhood of Windsor, and then committed to the Tower. The earls of Pembroke and Arundel, the lord Lumley, Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, and the bishop of Ross, were also apprehended and confined.

Elizabeth, amidst the ferment of her inquietudes, forgot not to gratify her revenge by insulting the queen of Scots. The name of Mary was sufficient to convulse her with anger. The earl of Huntingdon, who affected to have pretensions to the crown of England that were preferable to those of the Scottish princess, was joined with the earl of Shrewsbury in the office of guarding her. His instructions were rigorous, and he was disposed to exceed them. The earl of Shrewsbury considered it as an indignity to have an associate who was a declared enemy to his charge, who had an interest in her death, and who was remarkable for a natural ferocity of disposition. Mary exclaimed against the indelicacy and rudeness of Elizabeth, and protested that all her intentions were commendable and innocent. Huntingdon took a delight in her sufferings. He ransacked her coffers with a view of making discoveries; but her prudence had induced her to destroy all the evidences of her transactions with the duke of Norfolk; and the officious assiduity of this jailor was only rewarded with two ciphers which he could not comprehend. The domestics whom she favoured were suspected and dismissed. Her train of attendants was diminished. An unrelenting watch was kept over her. No couriers were allowed to carry her despatches. No messengers were admitted to her presence; and all the letters from her friends were ordered to be intercepted, and to be conveyed to the queen of England.

The proceedings of the convention at Perth were conflicting to Elizabeth, to Mary, and to the duke of Norfolk. In the first they created suspicions of the regent; and they were a certain annunciation to Mary, that he was resolved to support himself in the government of Scotland. Uncertain rumours had reached Elizabeth of the interviews he had held with Norfolk in the business of the marriage. Her surprise and indignation were unbounded. Mr Wood, who brought from the regent his answer to her letter, was treated with disrespect. Secretary Cecil despatched instructions to the lord Hunsdon, the governor of Berwick, to watch his operations with a jealous eye. Elizabeth, by a special envoy, required from him an explanation of his ambiguous carriage. The regent, true to his interests, apologized to her for his connexions with the duke of Norfolk, by laying open the design of that nobleman, to cut him off, in his way to Scotland, by a full communication of whatever had passed between them in relation to Mary, and by offers of an unlimited submission and obedience.

While the duke of Norfolk was carrying on his intrigues with Mary, the scheme of an insurrection for her deliverance was advancing under the direction of the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland. Motives of religion were the chief foundations of this conspiracy; and the more zealous Catholics over England were concerned in it. Mary, however, by the advice of the duke of Norfolk, who was afraid of her marrying a foreign prince, did not enter into it with cordiality. It advanced notwithstanding; and the agents of the pope were lavish of exhortations and donatives. The duke of Alva, by order of his master the king of Spain, encouraged the conspirators with the offer of 20,000 men from the Netherlands; and, under the pretence of adjusting commercial disputes, he sent into England Chiapini Vitelli marquis of Celona, an officer of ability, that he might be at hand, and prepare to take the command of them.—The report of an insurrection was universal. Elizabeth kept an army of 15,000 men near her person. The queen of Scots was removed to Coventry, a place of great strength; and if a superior and commanding force should appear before it, her ferocious keeper, it is said, had orders to assassinate her. Repeated commands were sent to the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, to repair to court. But the imprisonment of the duke of Norfolk and his friends had struck a panic into them. They conceived that their conspiracy was discovered; and putting themselves at the head of their followers, they issued their manifesto. The restoration of Popery, the establishment of the titles of Mary to the English crown, and the reformation of abuses in the commonwealth, were the avowed objects of their enterprise. But they had embarked Scotland, in a business to which they were altogether unequal.

Their efforts were feeble and desultory. The duke of Alva forgot his promises. Wherever the peace was disturbed by insurgents, there were troops to oppose them. The vigilance of Elizabeth disconcerted with ease the operations of men whom no resources or popularity could have conducted to greatness, and who could neither conquer nor die. The earl of Westmoreland, after concealing himself for some time in Scotland, effected his escape into Flanders, where he passed a miserable and useless existence; and the earl of Northumberland being taken by the regent, was imprisoned in the castle of Lochleven.

As the fury of Elizabeth abated, her resentment to the duke of Norfolk lost its power; and she failed not to distinguish between the intrigues of an honourable ambition, and the practices of an obstinate superstition. It was the result of the examination of this nobleman, and of the confessions of the other prisoners, that Levington had schemed the business of the marriage, and that the earl of Murray had encouraged it; that her consent was understood to be necessary to its completion; and that Mary herself had warmly recommended the expedient of consulting her pleasure. On receiving proper admonitions, the earls of Pembroke, Arundel, the lord Lumley, Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, and the bishop of Ross, were released from confinement; and, after a more tedious imprisonment, the duke of Norfolk was set at liberty. This favour, however, was not extended to him till he had not only submissively acknowledged his presumption in the business of the marriage, but had fully revealed whatever had passed between him and Mary, and solemnly engaged never more to think of this alliance, and never more to take any concern whatever in her affairs.

The regent, in the meanwhile, was very anxious to recover the good opinion of Elizabeth. Her treatment of Mr Wood, and her discovery of his practices, had excited his apprehensions. He therefore assembled at Stirling a convention of the estates; and taking her letters a second time into consideration, returned her a reply by Robert Pitcairn abbot of Dunfermline, in a style suited to her temper and jealousies, and from which she could decisively infer, that no favour of any kind would be shown to the queen of Scots. But this base condescension, though assisted by his treachery to the duke of Norfolk, not being sufficient, in his opinion, to draw completely to him the cordiality of the queen of England, he was preparing to gratify her with another sacrifice. The partiality of Maitland to Mary, and his intrigues with Norfolk and the English malcontents, had rendered him uncommonly obnoxious to Elizabeth and her ministry. The late commotions had been chiefly ascribed to his arts; and it was natural to dread new calamities and tumults from the fertile spring of his invention. Under pretence of employing his service in despatches to England, the regent invited him to Stirling. He was then with the earl of Athol at Perth; and suspecting some improper design, he obeyed the summons with reluctance. When he took his place in the privy council, Captain Crawford, the minion of the earl of Lenox, who had distinguished himself in the trial of Mary, accused him, in direct terms, of being a party in the murder of the late king. The regent affected astonishment, but permitted him to be taken into custody. He was soon after sent to Edinburgh under a guard, and admonished to prepare for his trial. On similar charges, the lord Seton and Sir James Balfour were seized on and imprisoned.

Kirkaldy of Grange, the governor of the castle of Edinburgh, who was warmly attached to Maitland, after having in vain remonstrated with the regent on the violence of his conduct, employed address and stratagem in the service of his friend. Under the cover of night, he went with a guard of soldiers to the lodging where Maitland was confined; and showing a forged warrant for taking his person into custody, got possession of him. Kirkaldy had now in his castle the duke of Chatelherault, the lord Herries, and Maitland. The regent sent for him to a conference; but he refused to obey his message. He put himself and his fortress under the direction of his prisoners. The regent, descending to pay him a visit, was more lavish than usual of his promises and kindness. His arts, however, only excited the disdain of this generous soldier. Since he could not lead out Maitland to the block, he instituted a process of treason against him, in order to forfeit his estates. Kirkaldy, by the mouth of a trumpeter, desired him to commence similar actions against the earl of Morton and Mr Archibald Douglas, as it was notorious that they were parties to the king's murder. This messenger was likewise charged with delivering a challenge from him to Mr Archibald Douglas, and another from the lord Herries to the earl of Morton. This disappointment, and these indignities, made a deep impression on the regent; and, in a thoughtful dissatisfied humour, about this time, he made a short progress towards the English border, courting popularity, and deserving it, by an attention to order and justice.

Elizabeth, flattered by his submissive advances, and pleased with his ambition, was now disposed to gratify his fullest wishes; and she perceived, that by delivering up to him the queen of Scots, she would effectually relieve herself of a prisoner whose vigour and intrigues were a constant interruption to her repose. A treaty for this purpose was entered into and concluded. The regent was to march an army to the English frontiers, and to receive from her his sovereign into her own dominions, the victim of his power, and the sport of his passions. No hostages and no security were stipulated for her entertainment and good usage. His authority over her was to be without any limits. On his part, he was to deliver to Elizabeth the young prince, to put her in possession of the principal forts of Scotland, and to assist her with troops in the event of a war with France. This treaty, so fatal to Mary, and so ruinous to the independence of Scotland, escaped not the vigilance of the bishop of Ross. He complained of it in the strongest terms to Elizabeth; and declared it to be equivalent to a sentence of death against his mistress. The ambassadors of France and Spain were also strenuous in their remonstrances to her on this subject. All resistance, however, was unavailing; and the execution of the treaty seemed inevitable. Yet how vain are the loftiest schemes of human pride! The career of the regent was hastening to its crisis; and the hand of an assassin put a period to his dream of royalty. Scotland did not lose its liberties; but Mary continued to be unfortunate.

James James Hamilton of Bothwelhaugh, who had been taken prisoner at the battle of Langside, obtained his liberty and life; but his estates were forfeited.—His wife, the heiress of Woodhouslie, retired on this emergency to her paternal inheritance, in the hope that it might escape the rapacity of the regent. He had, however, given it away to one of his favourites, Sir James Ballenden; and the instruments of his power having the inhumanity to strip her of her garments, and to turn her naked out of her house, in a cold and dark night, she became distracted before the morning. Hamilton vowed revenge; and the regent made a mockery of his threats. This contempt inspirited his passions; and the humiliation of the house of Hamilton, to which he was nearly allied, fostered the eagerness of his discontents. The madness of party added fuel to his rage. His mind became reconciled to assassination. After watching for some time a proper opportunity to perpetrate his horrid purpose, he found it at Linlithgow. The regent was to pass through this town on his way from Stirling to Edinburgh. Intimation reached him that Hamilton was now to perpetrate his design; and he unaccountably slighted the intelligence. The assassin, in a house that belonged to the archbishop of St Andrew's, waited deliberately his approach; and firing his musket from a window, shot him through the body. The wound, when examined, was not judged to be mortal; but the regent finding its pain to increase, prepared himself for death; and in a few hours after he expired. A fleet horse of the abbot of Arbroath carried the assassin to the palace of Hamilton; and thence he soon after effected his escape to France.

The death of the earl of Murray made no favourable alteration in the affairs of Mary. Confusion and disorder prevailed throughout the kingdom; and though the friends of the queen were promised assistance from France, nothing effectual was done for them. At last the regency was conferred on the earl of Lenox; an enemy to the queen, who treated her friends with the utmost rigour. At the same time Elizabeth continued to amuse with negotiations her unhappy rival. She granted liberty to the bishop of Ross to repair to the queen of Scots, who had been removed to Chatsworth, and to confer with her on the subject of the intended treaty. Mary, conforming to the advances of Elizabeth, authorized the lord Levington to pass to her dominions, and desire her friends to appoint a deputation of their number to give their assistance in promoting the salutary purpose of establishing the tranquillity of their country; and after meeting with some interruptions on the English borders from the earl of Sussex, this nobleman successfully executed his commission. The queen's lords gave powers to ten nobles to act in a body, or by two of their number, in the intended negociation; and a safe-conduct from Elizabeth allowed them to enter the English realm, and to remain in it during six months.

While the lord Levington was consulting the interests of Mary with her friends in Scotland, the bishop of Ross was making earnest suit with Elizabeth to proceed in the projected negociation. His solicitations were not ineffectual; and Sir William Cecil and Sir Walter Mildmay received the instructions of their mistress to wait on the queen of Scots at Chatsworth. The heads of accommodation which they proposed were explicit; and the rigour which they discovered towards Scotland, the Scottish princess seemed to prove their sincerity. It was proposed, that a perfect amity should take place between the two queens; that all the treaties which had formerly been concluded by the two nations should receive an ample confirmation; that the queen of Scotland should ratify the treaty of Edinburgh, and forbear to advance any title or claim to the crown of England during the life of Elizabeth, or to the prejudice of the heirs of her body; that in case of foreign invasions, the two realms should mutually assist each other; that all foreign soldiers should be ordered to depart out of Scotland; that in future, strangers of the profession of arms should be prohibited from repairing to it, and from taking up their residence in any of its castles or houses of strength; that Mary should hold no correspondence, directly or indirectly, with any subject of England, without the permission of the English queen; that the earl of Northumberland, and the English rebels in Scotland, should be delivered up to Elizabeth; that redress should be given to the subjects of England for the spoils taken by them on the Scottish borders; that the murderers of the lord Darnley and the earl of Murray should be duly and effectually punished; that before the queen of Scots should be set at liberty, the young prince her son should be brought into England, and that he should continue in the keeping of Elizabeth till the death of his mother, or till her resignation to him of her crown on his attaining majority; that the queen of Scots should not enter into a negociation for her marriage without the knowledge of the queen of England, nor conclude it without her approbation, or that of the greatest part of the Scottish nobility; that none of the subjects of Scotland should be suffered to go to Ireland without the safe-conduct of Elizabeth; and that Mary should deliver to her sister all the testimonies and writings which had been sent from France, renouncing and disavowing the pretended marriage between her and the duke of Anjou. Besides these articles of agreement, it was proposed by another treaty to adjust the differences of the queen of Scots and her subjects; and Sir William Cecil and Sir Walter Mildmay embraced the present opportunity of conferring with her on this business, under pretence of facilitating its management in the future stages of its progress.

During their stay at Chatsworth, these statesmen were completely satisfied with the behaviour of the queen of desirous to Scots. The candour, sincerity, and moderation which she displayed, were full assurances to them that on her part there was no occasion for apprehending any improper policy or art; and the calamities of her condition were a still more secure pledge of her compliance. Elizabeth, on hearing their report, affected to be highly pleased with her sister, and sent a message to the earl of Lenox, instructing him in the conditions which had been submitted to Mary; and desiring him to despatch commissioners into England to deliberate on the treaty, and to consult his interest and that of his faction. Nor did Mary neglect to transmit to her friends in Scotland the proposed terms of agreement; and the bishop of Ross, who had assisted her in the conferences with Sir William Cecil and Sir Walter Mildmay, conveyed intimations of them to the pope, the king of France, and the duke of Alva; besought their advice, and informed these princes, that unless an Scotland, effectual relief could be expected from their favour, the necessities of her condition would compel her to subscribe to the hard and humiliating dictates of the queen of England.

But while Mary and her friends were indulging the hope of a termination to her troubles, Elizabeth was secretly giving comfort to her adversaries, and encouraging them to throw obstacles in the way of the treaty. Sir William Cecil wrote to the regent, expressing his disapprobation of the negotiations at Chatsworth; desiring him not to be apprehensive of the hostings of the adherents of the queen of Scots; and advising him to make choice of commissioners, in the name of the king, on whose constancy and fortitude he could rely, and whom no address could allure from his interest, or from the common cause in which he and his friends were embarked. The earl of Sussex also sent him despatches, in which he admonished him to turn his anxious attention to the approaching negociation, and to insist on secure stipulations for the preservation of the prince, for his own safety, and for a general indemnity to the nobles and their adherents, whose party he had espoused. In every event, he represented it as proper for him to pay the greatest respect to Elizabeth; and, if no treaty should be concluded, he advised him to be prepared for reducing the friends of Mary to obedience, and for defending himself against invasions from abroad. By these artifices, the regent and his faction were inclined to intimate to Elizabeth their warm dissatisfaction with the terms of agreement which she had proposed to Mary; and Pitcairn abbot of Dunfermline, who had been appointed secretary of state in the room of Maitland of Lethington, was deputed to her on this business. He exclaimed against the treaty as wild and impolitic; and contended, that no stipulations could bind Mary, whose religion taught her to keep no faith with heretics; that her claims to the English crown, and her resentment against the queen of England, as well as her own subjects, would immediately on her restoration, involve the two kingdoms in blood; and that no peace or quiet could be expected or enjoyed, but by adhering to the salutary maxim of detaining her in close captivity. Elizabeth did not discourage these inclement sentiments; and Pitcairn was assured by her, that from her natural love to the king, and her regard to the nobles who upheld his authority, she would faithfully provide for their security; and that if justice should appear on their side, she would even strenuously maintain their quarrel and their consequence.

Mary had been carried to Sheffield, and was recovering from a feverish indisposition. To this place the bishop of Galloway and the lord Levingston, who had been selected by her friends to be her acting deputies in England, repaired in order to impart to her the state of affairs in Scotland, and to receive her commands. After repeated conferences on the subject of the approaching treaty, she gave them her commission and instructions, and joining them to the bishop of Ross, sent them to Elizabeth. They requested an audience of this princess, and were admitted to it at Hampton-court. Having presented their credentials, they informed her, that they were ready to conclude a treaty of concord and agreement, on principles the most extensive and liberal; and, representing to her the impoverished and tumultuous state of their country, they begged her to proceed in the business with expedition. The orders, they said, which they had received, and their own inclinations, disposed them to follow her advice and counsel in all points which were honourable and consistent with reason; and as her protection was the only refuge of the adversaries of their queen, they took the liberty of observing, that it was completely in her power to put a period to all disturbances and animosity, and to accomplish an accord, which would not only confer on her the highest reputation, but be of the most signal utility to the two kingdoms. Elizabeth declared, that it would please and flatter her in no common degree to advance in the negociation; and that it was painful to her that the regent, by his delay in sending commissioners, should discover any aversion to it. This answer was deemed very favourable by the bishop of Ross and his associates; and they obtained her authority to despatch a messenger to the regent to hasten his operations.

In the mean time, Mary received despatches from the pope, the king of France, and the duke of Alva; and they concurred in recommending it to her to accept the articles of accommodation which were offered by Elizabeth. The Turks were giving employment to the pope and the king of Spain; Charles IX. already enfeebled by the obstinate valour of the Huguenots, was busy in deceiving them with appearances of peace, and in plotting their overthrow; and the duke of Alva felt himself insecure in his government of the Netherlands. But while they strongly advised Mary to conclude an agreement with the queen of England, they were yet lavish to her of their expressions of a constant amity; and if the treaty should miscarry, they promised to make the most strenuous exertions in her behalf, and to assist her adherents with money, ammunition, and troops.

The earl of Morton, the abbot of Dunfermline, and Mr. James Macgill, had been appointed by the regent and his faction to be their commissioners in the name of the king; and at length their arrival was announced to Elizabeth. Conforming to the spirit of their party, deposition of the earl of Morton and his colleagues took an early opportunity of justifying to her the deposition of the queen of Scots, and by this means to interrupt the progress of the treaty. In an elaborate memorial, they affected to consider Mary as unworthy to reign, and asserted the constitutional power of the people to curb her ambition, and to degrade her from royalty. They endeavoured to intrench themselves within the authority of laws, civil, canon, and municipal; and they recited opinions to her prejudice by many pious divines. But though the general position, that the people have a title to resist the domination of the sovereign is clear and undoubted; yet their application of it to the queen of Scots was improper. To speak of her tyranny, and her violation of the rights of her people, was even a wanton mockery of truth and justice; for instead of having assumed an illegal exorbitancy of power, she had suffered in her own person and rights, and had been treated by her subjects with the most cruel and tyrannical insolence. Elizabeth, who was unwilling and afraid to enter again into the conduct of Mary, who was fully sensible of the insolence of her adversaries, and who did not approve of any maxims that pressed against the majesty of princes, received Scotland received their memorial with surprise and indignation.

She perceived not, she told them, any reason that could vindicate the severity which had been shown to the queen of Scots by her enemies; and advised them to consider, that in the present negociation it was their proper business to consult the security of the king and of their party.

On the part of Elizabeth, the commissioners were the lord-keeper Bacon, the earls of Sussex and Leicester, the lord Clynton, the lord chamberlain, Sir William Cecil, who about this time was created Lord Burleigh, Sir Francis Knollys, Sir James Croft, Sir Water Mildmay, and Sir Thomas Smith. The deputies of Mary were invited to meet the English commissioners in the house of the lord keeper; and after he had stated the general purposes of the treaty, he intimated to them, that there were two points which required a particular discussion. A proper security, he said, ought to be given by the queen of Scots for her due performance of the stipulations of the agreement with Elizabeth; and it was expedient to concert the mode of the pardon and indemnity which she was to extend to the subjects of Scotland who had offended her. As an assurance of the accommodation with his mistress, he demanded that the duke of Chatelherault, the earls of Huntly and Argyle, the lords Hume and Herries, with another person of high rank, should be surrendered to her, and remain in England for three years; that the castles of Dumbarton and Hume should be in her possession during the same period; and as to the article concerning the delivery of the prince into her custody, he observed, that it should be required from the regent, the queen of Scots not having the power of its performance. The deputies of Mary, surprised with this language, entreated the English delegates to reflect, that their queen, if deprived of the most faithful of her nobles, and of her strongest forts, could have little desire or ambition to return to her own kingdom; for she would thus be unable to protect herself against the turbulence of her subjects, and be a sovereign without friends, and without strength. They were inclined, they said, to put their commission and powers to the fullest stretch, in order to gratify Elizabeth; and they would agree, that two earls and two barons should be surrendered for two years, as hostages of the fidelity of their sovereign; under the restriction, that they might be exchanged every six months for persons of an equal condition, if they should be desirous of returning to their own country. As to the giving up of any forts or castles, they would not agree to it, because among the other inconveniences of this measure, similar claims might be made by the king of France, by the spirit of the treaty of Edinburgh, which stipulated, that no French or English troops should be admitted into Scotland. The lord-keeper Bacon, resuming his discourse, told them, that the whole realm of Scotland, its prince, nobles, and castles, were an inadequate pledge to the queen of England; and that, if his advice should be followed, the queen of Scots would not obtain her liberty on any kind of security which could be granted by the Scottish nation. In all public treaties, said the delegates of Mary, no further assurance can be required; from a sovereign than what consists with his safety; and when exactions are pressed from a contracting party in a league which are ruinous and impossible, it is understood that a foundation is sought to break off the negociation. The English commissioners, now interfering in a body, declared on their honour, that it was the meaning of Elizabeth to agree to the restoration of the queen of Scots to her crown and realm on receiving sufficient assurances for the articles of the accommodation; that the security offered for her acceptance should be submitted to her deliberation; and that they would immediately proceed to confer with the deputies from the king of Scots.

The English commissioners were not unacquainted with the sentiments of the earl of Morton and his colleagues; and it was from this quarter that they expected a resolute and definitive interruption to the treaty. Nor did these delegates disappoint the expectations conceived of them. After afflicting to take a comprehensive view of the articles under debate, they declared, that their commission gave them authority to treat about the amity of the two kingdoms, and the maintenance of the true religion; but that it conferred on them no power to receive their queen into Scotland, or to surrender to Elizabeth the person of their king. They therefore begged not to be urged to accede to a league which, at some future period, might expose them to a charge of high treason.

This singular declaration was considered to be solid and weighty by the English commissioners; and, in a new conference, it was communicated by them to the deputies of Mary. The bishop of Ross and his associates were disgusted with this formal impertinence. They did not hesitate to pronounce the plea of an insufficient commission from the king to his delegates to be an unworthy and most frivolous subterfuge. The authors, they said, of the deposition of their sovereign did not need any authority but their own to set her at liberty; the prince was not yet five years of age, and could give them no instructions; and the regent was wholly dependent on the will and pleasure of the queen of England. It was represented in return by the English delegates, that the commission of King James to his deputies, having been perused by Elizabeth, was accounted by her to be insufficient; and that it was her opinion, that the earl of Morton should return to Scotland to hold a parliament for obtaining new powers. The bishop of Ross exclaimed, that the queen of Scots had been amused with deceitful promises, that the prudence of Elizabeth had been corrupted by partial counsels, and that the allegations and pretences held out for interrupting the negociation were affected and unreal. The instructions, he said, from his sovereign to her commissioners, were to negotiate and to conclude, and not to trifle; and they would not by any means consent to protract, by artificial delays, a treaty which the queen of England, if her intentions were sincere and right, could immediately terminate on reasonable and honourable terms. His speech and his demeanour he acknowledged to be free and open; and he besought them to excuse him, since, having been made an instrument to abuse his mistress with false hopes, he could not but resent the indignity, and express what he knew and what he felt. The English deputies, addressing him and his colleagues, observed, that as the friends of Mary, and those of the king her son, could not come to an agreement, and as their queen was refused. Scotland. fused the assurance she expected, they held their commission to be at an end, and were no longer at liberty to negotiate.

The insincerity of Elizabeth, and the failure of the league or agreement, filled Mary with resentment and complaints. Her animosities, and those of Elizabeth, were increased. She was in haste to communicate to her allies the unworthy treatment she had received; and she sent her commands to her adherents in Scotland to rise in arms, to repose no trust in truces which were prejudicial and treacherous, and to employ all their resources and strength in the humiliation of the regent and his faction. Elizabeth, who by this time apprehended no enterprise or danger from Charles IX. or the duke of Alva, resolved, on the other hand, to give a strong and effectual support to James's friends, and to disunite by stratagem, and oppress by power, the partisans of the Scottish princess. The zeal of the bishop of Ross having raised her anger, she commanded him to depart from London; and Mary, in contempt of her mandate, ordered him to remain there under the privilege of her ambassador. The high and unbroken spirit of the Scottish queen, in the midst of her misfortunes, never once awakened the generous admiration of Elizabeth. While it uniformly inflamed her rage, it seems also to have excited her terror. With a pusillanimous meanness, she sent a despatch to the earl of Shrewsbury, instructing him to keep his charge in the closest confinement, and to be incessantly on his guard to prevent her escape. He obeyed, and regretted her severity. The expense, retinue, and domestics, of the queen of Scots, were diminished and reduced, and every probable means by which she might endeavour to obtain her liberty were removed from her. The rigours, however, that invaded her person could not reach her mind; and she pitied the tyrant that could add contumely to oppression, and deny her even the comforts of a prison.

All this time Scotland was involved in the miseries of civil war. The friends of Mary were everywhere punished with fines and forfeiture. Private families took the opportunity of the public confusion to revenge their quarrels against each other. Individuals of every denomination ranged themselves on the side either of the regent or of the queen, and took a share in the hostilities of their country. Fathers divided against sons, and sons against their fathers. Acts of outrage and violence were committed in every quarter, while, amidst the general confusion, religion was made the pretence by both parties.

In the mean time, though many encounters took place between the two factions, yet neither party seems to have been conducted by leaders of any skill in military affairs. This year, in one of these skirmishes, the regent himself was taken prisoner by a party of the queen's faction, and put to death. But this event made little alteration in the affairs of the nation. The earl of Mar, another of the queen's enemies, was chosen to the regency; but though he proposed to act against her party with rigour, he was baffled before Edinburgh castle, which was still held by her friends; and some bloody skirmishes were fought in the north, where victory declared in favour of the queen. These advantages, however, were more than compensated to the other party by the following event.

While the negotiations with Elizabeth for Mary's restoration were depending, the scheme of a conspiracy for her deliverance was communicated to her by Robert Ridolphia Florentine, who lived in London for many years as a merchant, and who was secretly an agent for the court of Rome. But to his letters, while the fate of the treaty was uncertain, she returned no reply. Its miscarriage, through the duplicity of Elizabeth, recalled them forcibly to her attention, and stimulated her to seek the accomplishment of her liberty by measures bolder and more arduous than any which she had hitherto employed. She drew up in cipher an ample discourse of his communications and of her situation, and despatched it to the bishop of Ross, together with letters for the duke of Norfolk. Her instructions to this ecclesiastic were to convey the discourse and letters expeditiously to Norfolk, and to concert an interview between that nobleman and Ridolphi. The confidential servants by whom the duke acted with the bishop of Ross were Bannister and Barker; and having received from them the discourse and the letters, they were deciphered by Hickford his secretary. Having considered them maturely, he delivered them to Hickford, with orders to commit them to the flames. His orders, however, were disobeyed; and Hickford deposited them, with other papers of consequence, under the mats of the duke's bedchamber. The contents of the discourse and the letters awakening the hope and ambition of Norfolk, he was impatient to see Ridolphi; and the bishop of Ross soon brought them together. Ridolphi, whose ability was excited by motives of religion and interest, exerted all his eloquence and address to engage the duke to put himself at the head of a rebellion against his sovereign. He represented to him, that there could not be a season more proper than the present for achieving the overthrow of Elizabeth. Many persons who had enjoyed authority and credit under her predecessors were much disgusted; the Catholics were numerous and incensed; the younger sons of the gentry were languishing in poverty and inaction in every quarter of the kingdom; and there were multitudes disposed to insurrections from restlessness, the love of change, and the ardour of enterprise. He insinuated that his rank, popularity, and fortune, enabled him to take the command of such persons with infinite advantage. He insisted on his imprisonment and the outrages he had sustained from Elizabeth; represented the contempt to which he would expose himself by a tame submission to these wrongs; extolled the propriety with which he might give way to his indignation and revenge; and pointed out the glory he might purchase by the humiliation of the enemies, and by the full accomplishment of his marriage with the queen of Scots. To give strength and confirmation to these topics he produced a long list of the names of noblemen and gentlemen with whom he had practised, and whom he affirmed to be ready to hazard their lives and riches for a revolution in the state, if the duke would enter into it with cordiality. To fix decisively the duke, he now opened to him the expectations with which he might flatter himself from abroad. The pope, he assured him, had already provided 100,000 crowns for the enterprise; and if Popery should be advanced in England, he would cheerfully defray the whole charges of the war. The king of Spain would supply 4000 horse and 6000 foot, which might be landed at Harwich. Charles IX. was devotedly attached to the queen of Scots, notwithstanding the treaty which had been enter- Scotland. ed into with Elizabeth for her marriage with his brother the duke of Anjou: and when he should discover that, on the part of the English princess, this matrimonial scheme was no better than a device or a mockery, he would renounce the appearance of friendship which he had assumed, and return to his natural sentiments, of disdain and hatred, with rebounded violence. In fine, he urged, that while he might depend on the assistance and arms of the greatest princes of Christendom, he would entitle himself to the admiration of all of them by his magnanimous efforts and generous gallantry in the cause of a queen so beautiful and so unfortunate.

The duke of Norfolk, allured by appearances so plausible and flattering, did not scruple to forget the duties of a subject, and the submissive obligation in which he had bound himself to Elizabeth never more to interfere in the affairs of the Scottish princess. Ridolphi, in this forward state of the business, advised him to address letters to the pope, the king of Spain, and the duke of Alva, expressive of his concurrence in the design, and exciting their activity and resolution. He even produced despatches framed for this purpose; and while he entreated the duke to subscribe them, he offered to carry them himself to Flanders, Rome, and Spain. The duke of Norfolk, who was ambitious and timid, disposed to treason, and unfit for it, hesitated whether he should subscribe the letters; and at length refused to proceed to that extremity. He yet allowed the bishop of Ross, and Barker his servant, to go to the Spanish ambassador to express his approbation of the measures of Ridolphi, to acknowledge that the letters were according to his mind, and to empower this statesman to certify their authenticity to his court. Ridolphi, full of hopes, set out to execute his commission. He passed first to the duke of Alva, to whom he communicated the transactions in which he had been engaged, and with whom he held many conferences. There was at this time at Brussels Charles Bailly, a servant of the queen of Scots; and Ridolphi, after disclosing to him his proceedings with Alva, entrusted him with letters to her, to the duke of Norfolk, the Spanish ambassador, and the bishop of Ross. When this messenger reached Calais, a letter was delivered to him from the bishop of Ross, desiring him to leave his despatches with the governor of that place. From inexperience and vanity he neglected this notice; and being searched at Dover, his letters, books, and clothes, were seized, and he himself sent to London, and imprisoned in the Marshalsea. The bishop of Ross, full of apprehensions, applied to Lord Cobham, the warden of the cinque ports, who was friendly to the duke of Norfolk; and obtaining by his means the packet of despatches from Ridolphi, he substituted another in its place, which contained letters of no danger or usefulness. He had also the dexterity to convey intelligence of this trick to Bailly, and to admonish him to preserve a profound silence, and not to be afraid. This simple and unpractised agent had, however, excited suspicions by the symptoms of terror he had exhibited on being taken, and by exclaiming, that the despatches he brought would involve his own destruction and that of others. At his first examination he confessed nothing; but being sent to the Tower, and put on the rack, he revealed his conversations with Ridolphi, and declared, that the despatches which he had brought had been delivered to the bishop of Ross. An order was granted Scotland, for taking the bishop into custody. Having been aware, however, of his perilous situation, his house was searched in vain for treasonable papers; and he thought to screen himself from answering any interrogatories under the sanctity of his character as the ambassador of an independent princess.

An unexpected incident excited, in the mean time, the duke's new suspicions and alarms. Mary being desirous of transmitting 2000 crowns to the lord Herries to advance her interests in Scotland, the duke of Norfolk undertook to convey it to him with safety. He intrusted it to the charge of his confidants Hickford and Barker, who putting it into a bag with despatches from their master to Lord Herries, ordered a servant called Brown to carry it to Bannister; who, being at this time on the border could forward it to Scotland. Brown, suspicious or corrupted, instead of proceeding on his errand, carried the bag and its contents to Sir William Cecil, now Lord Burleigh. The privy-council, deeming it treason to send money out of the realm for the use of the friends of Mary, whom they affected to consider as enemies, ordered Hickford and Barker to be apprehended. The rack extorted from them whatever they knew to the prejudice of their master. Hickford gave intelligence of the fatal discourse and the letters from Mary, which he had preserved in opposition to the orders given to him. All the proceedings between the queen of Scots, the duke of Norfolk, the bishop of Ross, and Ridolphi, were brought to light. A guard was placed on the house of the duke of Norfolk, in order to prevent his escape. Sir Ralph Sadler, Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Henry Nevil, and Dr Wilson, were commissioned to examine him; and being impressed with the belief that the discourse and the letters had been destroyed, he positively denied that he had any concern in the affairs of the queen of Scots, or any knowledge of them whatever. He was committed to the Tower a close prisoner. Bannister by this time was taken; and he confirmed the relations of Hickford and Barker. In the course of their discoveries, there appeared reasons of suspicion against many persons of rank and distinction. The earls of Arundel and Southampton, the lord Cobham, Mr Thomas Cobham his brother, Sir Thomas Stanley, Sir Henry Percy, and other gentlemen who were friendly to the queen of Scots and the duke of Norfolk, were ordered to be lodged in different prisons; and the rack, and the expectation of a pardon, drew from them the fullest confessions. The duke was altogether unable to defend himself. The concurring testimonies of his friends and servants, with the discourse and the letters, which he fondly imagined had been committed to the flames, were communicated to him. He was overwhelmed with amazement and distress; and exclaimed, that he had been betrayed and undone. He made ample acknowledgments of his guilt, and had no foundation of hope but in the mercy of his sovereign.

By the confession of the duke himself, and from all the inquiries which had been made by the ministers of Elizabeth, it appeared obvious beyond a doubt, that the bishop of Ross had been the principal contriver of the conspiracy. Ridolphi had acted under his direction, and he had excited the duke of Norfolk. He had contion even proceeded to the extremity of advising that noble- The defeat of the duke of Norfolk's conspiracy was a blow to Mary which she never recovered. Her most faithful friends were languishing in prisons on her account; she had no longer the counsels of the bishop of Ross; and the Spanish ambassador, who had entered into her concerns with an unscrupulous cordiality, had been ordered to withdraw from England. The trial and condemnation of Norfolk soon followed, and plunged her into the most calamitous distress.

The massacre of the Protestants at Paris in 1572 proved also extremely detrimental to her. It was interpreted to be a consequence of the confederacy which had been formed at Bayonne for the extermination of the reformed. The Protestants were everywhere transported with rage against the Papists. Elizabeth prepared herself against an attack from the Catholic powers; and was haunted with the notion that they meant to invade her kingdom, and to give it to the queen of Scots. Her ambassador at Paris, Sir Francis Walsingham, augmented her apprehensions and terror. He compared her weakness with the strength of her enemies, and assured her that if they should possess themselves of Scotland, she would soon cease to be a queen. He represented Mary as the great cause of the perils that threatened both her personal safety and the tranquillity of her kingdom; and as violent diseases required violent remedies, he scrupled not to counsel her to unite Scotland to her dominions, and to put to death a rival whose life was inconsistent with her security. The more bigotted Protestants of Scotland differed not very widely in their sentiments from Sir Francis Walsingham; while such of them as were more moderate were still more attached to their religion than to Mary; and amidst the indignation and horror into which the subjects of Scotland were thrown by the sanguinary outrages of Charles IX. and Catharine de Medicis, they surveyed the sufferings of their sovereign with a diminished sympathy.

This year the regent, finding himself beset with difficulties which he could not overcome, and the affairs of the nation involved in confusion from which he could not extricate them, died of melancholy, and was succeeded by the earl of Morton.

During the regency of the earl of Mar, a remarkable innovation took place in the church, which deserves to be particularly explained, being no less than the introduction of Episcopacy instead of the Presbyterian form of worship. While the earl of Lenox was regent, the archbishop of St Andrew's was put to death, because he was strongly suspected of having had a concern in the death of the earl of Murray; after which the earl of Morton procured a grant of the temporalities of that see. Out of these he allotted a stipend to Mr John Douglas, a Protestant clergyman, who assumed the title of archbishop. This violence excited censure and murmurs. In the language of the times, it was pronounced to be a profanation of the kirk, and a high contempt of God; and it underwent the scrutiny of the ministry in applications and complaints to the regent. The matter was doubtless of too much importance to be overlooked; and a commission of privy-councillors and clergymen was appointed in the name of the king to inquire into it, and to reform and improve the policy of the church. This commission, on the part of the privy-council, consisted of the earl of Morton, the lord Ruthven, ven, Robert abbot of Dunfermline, Mr James Macgill, Sir John Ballenden, and Colin Campbell of Glenorchie; and on the part of the church there were named John Erskine of Dun, and Mr John Winram, Mr Hay, Mr Lindsay, Mr Pont, and Mr John Craig. The consultations and debates were long; and the influence and management of the earl of Morton directed their determinations. It was resolved, that till the majority of the king, or till the wisdom of the three estates should be consulted, the titles of archbishop and bishop should continue as in the times which preceded the reformation; and that a chapter of learned ministers should be annexed to every metropolitan or cathedral seat. It was determined that the sees, as they became vacant, should be given to those of the Protestant ministry who were most eminent for their qualifications; that the archbishops and bishops should exercise no higher jurisdiction than what was permitted to superintendents; and that they should be subject to the control of the general assemblies of the church. It was agreed, that all abbots, priors, and other inferior prelates presented to benefices, should be examined by the bishop or superintendent of the diocese or precinct where the preferment was situated; and that their fitness to represent the church in parliament should be duly inquired into. It was judged that the king and the regent should recommend qualified persons to vacant bishoprics, and that the elections of them should be made by the chapters of the respective cathedrals. It was ordered that all benefices with cure under prelacies should be disposed of only to officiating ministers; that every minister should receive ordination from the bishop of the diocese, or the superintendent of the province; and that the bishops and superintendents, on the ordination of ministers, should exact an oath from them to recognise the authority of the king, and to pay canonical obedience to their ordinary in all things that were lawful.

By these artful regulations the earl of Morton did not mean solely to consult his own rapacity or that of the nobles. The exaltation of the Protestant church to be one of the three estates was a consequence of them; and the clergy being the strenuous enemies of Mary, he might by their means secure a decided influence in parliament. The earl of Mar, as regent, giving his sanction to the proceedings of the commission, they were carried into effect. The delusive expectation of wealth, which this revival of Episcopacy held out to the ministry, was flattering to them; and they bore with tolerable patience this severe blow that was struck against the religious policy of Geneva. Mr John Douglas was desired to give a specimen of his gifts in preaching; and his election took effect, notwithstanding the opposition that was made to it by John Knox and other ecclesiastics, who stood up for the rules and forms which had been established at the reformation. He was inaugurated in his office by the bishop of Caithness, Mr John Spotswood superintendent of Lothian, and Mr David Lindsay, who, violating the book of discipline, communicated to him his character and admission by the imposition of hands. This was a singular triumph to Episcopacy; and the exaltation of Douglas included other peculiarities remarkable and offensive. He denied that he had made any simoniacal agreement with the earl of Morton; yet it was known that the revenues of the archbishopric were almost wholly engrossed by that nobleman. He had promised to resign, upon his instalment, the office of rector which he held in the university of St Andrew's; yet he refused to execute this engagement. He was in a very advanced age; and his mental qualifications, which had never been eminent, were in a state of decay.

A general assembly, which was held at St Andrew's, considering the high moment of the new regulations introduced into the church, appointed commissioners to go to John Knox, who was at this time indisposed, and to consult with him deliberately in his house, whether they were agreeable to the word of God. But from the arts of the nobles, or from the sickness of Knox, it happened that this conference was not carried into effect. In a general assembly, however, which met at Perth, the new polity was reported and examined. The names of archbishop, dean, archdeacon, chancellor, and chapter, were excepted against as Popish distinctions, and as slanderous to the ears of pious Christians. A wish was expressed that they might be exchanged for titles less profane and superstitious; and an unanimous protestation was made, that the new polity was merely a temporary expedient, and should only continue till a more perfect order should be obtained from the king, the regent, and the nobility. This tolerating resolution left the new polity in its full force; and a colourable foundation was now established for the laity to partake in the profits of bishoprics. The simoniacal pact of Morton and Douglas was not long a matter of singularity. Mr James Boyd was appointed to the archbishopric of Glasgow, Mr James Paton to the bishopric of Dunkeld, and Mr Andrew Graham to the see of Dumbarton; and these compromising ecclesiastics, on being allowed competencies to themselves, gratified their noble friends with the greatest proportion of their revenues. The virtue of the common people approved not this spirit of traffic; and the bishops of the new polity were treated openly with reproach or with ridicule.

The year 1572 is also remarkable for the death of John Knox, whose mistaken zeal had contributed not a little to bring on the queen those misfortunes with which she was now oppressed. Neither by his death, however, nor by the change of the regency, could she now be relieved. The earl of Morton was so much devoted to Elizabeth, that he received particular instructions from her how to govern the young king. His elevation, indeed, gave the finishing stroke to the queen's affairs. He employed himself with success in dividing her party among themselves, and by his means the duke of Chatelherault and the earl of Huntly were induced to forsake her. As for Elizabeth, she was bent on putting Mary to death; but as no crime could be alleged against her in England, she thought it proper that she should be carried back to suffer death in her own dominions. This proposal, however, was rejected; and the friends who remained true to Mary once more began to indulge themselves in hopes of succours from France. New misfortunes, however, awaited them.—The castle of Edinburgh, which had hitherto been held for the queen by Kirkaldy of Grange, was obliged to surrender to an English army commanded by Sir William Drury. English Kirkaldy was solemnly assured by the English commandant of his life and liberty; but Elizabeth violated this capitulation, and commanded him to be delivered up to the regent. A hundred of his relations offered to become Scotland, come vassals to Morton, and to pay him 3050 merks yearly, if he would spare his life; but in vain: Kirkaldy and his brother Sir James were hanged at Edinburgh. Maitland of Lethington, who was taken at the same time, was poisoned in the prison house of Leith.

The jealousy of Elizabeth did not diminish with the Mary treaty. She now treated her with more rigour than ever, and patronized Morton in all the enormities which he committed against her friends. Lesly bishop of Ross had been long imprisoned in England, on account of his concern in the duke of Norfolk's conspiracy. Morton earnestly solicited the queen to deliver him up, and would undoubtedly have put him to death; but as he had acted in the character of ambassador from Mary, this was judged impolitic, and the prelate was suffered to depart for France. When he arrived there, he endeavoured in vain to stir up the emperor, the pope, and the duke of Alva, to exert themselves in behalf of the queen of Scotland; and, in 1574, the misfortunes of his royal mistress were further aggravated by the death of Charles IX. of France, and her uncle the cardinal of Lorraine. The regent, in the mean time, ruled with the most despotic sway.

He twice coined base money in the name of his sovereign; and after putting it into circulation the second time, he issued orders for its passing only for its intrinsic value. The duke of Chatelherault happening to die this year, the regent took every method of ruining all those of his name and family. He committed to prison all the Hamiltons, and every person of distinction who had fought for the queen at the battle of Langside, and compelled them to buy their liberty at an exorbitant price. He instigated Douglas of Lochleven to assassinate Lord Arbroath, and it was with difficulty that the latter escaped the ambush that was laid for him. Reid, the bishop of Orkney, having left his estate to pious and charitable uses, the regent prohibited the execution of the will, and took on himself the administration. To be rich was a sufficient crime to excite his vengeance. He entered the warehouses of merchants, and confiscated their property; and if he wanted a pretence to justify his conduct, the judges and lawyers were ready at his call.

In this disastrous period the clergy augmented the general confusion. Mr Andrew Melvil had lately returned from Geneva; and the discipline of his assembly being considered by him as the most perfect model of ecclesiastical polity, he was infinitely offended with the introduction of Episcopacy into Scotland. His learning was considerable, and his skill in languages was profound. He was fond of disputation, hot, violent, and pertinacious. The Scottish clergy were in a humour to attend him; and his merit was sufficient to excite their admiration. Instigated by his practices, John Drury, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, called in question, in a general assembly, the lawfulness of the bishops and the authority of chapters in electing them. Melvil, after commending his zeal and his motion, declaimed concerning the flourishing state of the establishment of Geneva; and having recited the opinions of Calvin and Beza on ecclesiastical government, maintained, that there should be no office-bearers in the church whose titles were not seen in the book of God. He affirmed, that the term bishop was nowhere to be found in it in the sense in which it was commonly understood, as Christ allowed not any superiority among ministers. He contended that Christ was the only lord of his church, and that the ministers of the word were all equal in degree and power. He urged, that the estate of the bishops, besides being unlawful, had grown unseemly with corruptions; and that if they were not removed out of the church, it would fall into decay, and endanger the interests of religion. His sentiments were received with approbation; and though the archbishop of Glasgow, with the bishops of Dunkeld, Galloway, Brechin, Dumbain, and the Isles, were present in this assembly, they ventured not to defend their vocation. It was resolved, that the name of bishop conferred no distinction or rank; that the office was not more honourable than that of the other ministers; and that by the word of God their functions consisted in preaching, in administering the sacraments, and in exercising ecclesiastical discipline with the consent of the elders. The Episcopal estate, in the mean time, was watched with anxious care; and the faults and demerits of every kind, which were found in individuals, were charged on the order with rudeness and asperity.

In a new assembly this subject was again canvassed. It was moved, whether bishops, as constituted in Scotland, had any authority for their functions from the Scriptures? After long debates, it was thought prudent to avoid an explicit determination of this important question. But a confirmation was bestowed on the resolution of the former assembly; and it was established as a rule, that every bishop should make choice of a particular church within his diocese, and should actually discharge the duties of a minister.

The regent, disturbed with these proceedings of the brethren, was disposed to amuse and to deceive them. He sent a messenger to advise them not to infringe and disfigure the established forms; and to admonish them, that if their aversion to Episcopacy was insurmountable, it would become them to think of some mode of ecclesiastical government to which they could adhere with constancy. The assembly taking advantage of this message, made a formal intimation to him, that they would diligently frame a lasting form of policy, and submit it to the privy-council. They appointed, accordingly, a committee of the brethren for this purpose. The business was too agreeable to be neglected; and in a short time Mr David Lindsay, Mr James Lawson, and Mr Robert Pont, were deputed to wait on the regent with a new scheme of ecclesiastical government. After reminding him, that he had been a notable instrument in purging the realm of Popery, and begging that he would consult with them on any of its articles which he thought improper or incomplete, they informed him, that they did not account it to be a perfect work, to which nothing could be added, or from which nothing could be taken away; for that they would alter and improve it, as the Almighty God might farther reveal his will unto them. The regent, taking from them their schedule, replied, that he would appoint certain persons of the privy-council to confer with them. A conference was even begun on the subject of their new establishment; but from his arts, or from the troubles of the times, no advances were made in it.

This year the earl of Bothwel died in Denmark; and in his last moments, being stung with remorse, he confessed... Scotland confessed that he had been guilty of the king's murder, revealed the names of the persons who were his accomplices, and with the most solemn protestations declared the honour and innocence of the queen. His confession was transmitted to Elizabeth by the king of Denmark; but was suppressed by her with an anxious solicitude. (x)

The regent still continued his enormities, till having rendered himself obnoxious to the best part of the nobility, he was, in 1577, compelled to resign his office into the hands of James VI.; but as his majesty was then only twelve years of age, a general council of twelve peers was appointed to assist him in the administration. Next year, however, the earl of Morton having found means to gain the favour of the young king, procured the dissolution of this council; and thus being left the sole adviser of the king, he hoped once more to be raised to his former greatness. This could not be done, however, without keeping the king in a kind of captivity, so that nobody could have access to him but himself. The king, sensible of his situation, sent a despatch to the earls of Argyle and Athole, intreating them to relieve him. An army for this purpose was soon raised; and Morton's partisans were in danger of being defeated, had not the opposite party dreaded the vengeance of Elizabeth, who was resolved to support the earl of Morton. In consequence of this a negociation was entered into, by which it was agreed, that the earl of Argyle, with some others, should be admitted into the king's council; and that four noblemen should be chosen by each party to consider of some proper method of preserving tranquillity in the nation.

This pacification did not greatly diminish the power of Morton. He soon got rid of one of his principal antagonists, the earl of Athole, by poisoning him at an entertainment; after which he again gave a loose to his resentments against the house of Hamilton, whom he persecuted in the most cruel manner. By these means, however, he drew on himself a general hatred; and he was supplanted in the king's favour by the lord d'Aubigny, who came from France in the year 1579, and was created earl of Lenox. The next year Morton was suspected of an intention to deliver up the king to Elizabeth, and a guard was appointed to prevent any attempts of this kind. The queen of England endeavoured to support her zealous partisan; but without effect. He was tried, condemned, and executed, as being concerned in the murder of Darnley. At the place of execution, it is said that he confessed his guilt; but of this the evidence is not quite satisfactory. It is however certain that he acknowledged himself privy to the plot formed against the life of the king; and when one of the clergymen attending him before his execution observed, that by his own confession he merited death in foreknowing and concealing the murder, he replied, "Ay but, Sir, had I been as innocent as St Stephen, or as guilty as Judas, I must have come to the scaffold. Pray, what ought I to have done in this matter? You knew not the king's weakness, Sir. If I had informed him of the plot against his life, he would have revealed it even to his enemies and those concerned in the design; and I would, it may be, have lost my own life, for endeavouring to preserve his to no purpose."

The elevation of King James, and the total overthrow of Morton, produced no beneficial consequences to the unfortunate Mary. In the year 1581, she addressed a letter to Castelnau the French ambassador, in which she complained that her body was so weak, and her limbs so feeble, that she was unable to walk. Castelnau therefore intreced Elizabeth to mitigate a little the rigours of Mary's confinement; which being refused, the latter had thoughts of resigning her claims to the crown both of England and Scotland into the hands of her son, and even of advising him to use every effort in his power to establish his claim to the English crown as preferable to that of Elizabeth. But being apprehensive of danger from this violent method, she again contented herself with sending to the court of England ineffectual memorials and remonstrances. Elizabeth, instead of taking compassion on her miserable situation, assiduously encouraged every kind of disorder in the kingdom, on purpose to have the queen more and more in her power. Thus the Scottish malcontents finding themselves always supported, a conspiracy taken place at last entered into, the design of which was to hold James in captivity, and to overthrow the authority of Arran and Lenox, who were now the principal persons in the kingdom. The chief actors in this conspiracy were the earls of Gowrie, Mar, and Glencairn, the lords Lindsay and Boyd, with the masters of Glamis and Oliphant. By reason of the youth and imbecility of the king, they easily accomplished their purpose; and having got him in their power, they promised him his liberty, provided he would command Lenox to depart out of the kingdom. This was accordingly done; but the king found himself as much a prisoner as before. The more effectually to detain him in custody, the rebels constrained him to issue a proclamation, wherein he declared himself to be at perfect liberty. Lenox was preparing to advance to the king's relief with a considerable body of forces, when he was disconcerted by the king's peremptory command to leave Scotland; on which he retired to Dumbarton, in order to wait for a more favourable opportunity. The earl of Arran being more forward, was committed to close custody for some time, but afterwards confined only in his house of Kinneil. The rebels took on them the title of "lords for the reformation of the state."

The clergy, who had all this time been exceedingly averse to Episcopacy, now gave open countenance to approved the lords of the reformation. On the 13th of October 1582, they made a solemn act, by which the raid of Ruthven, as the capture of the king was called, was deemed a service most acceptable to all who feared God.

(x) Jebb, vol. ii. p. 227. It has never been published. Keith and other historians have preserved what they call the earl of Bothwell's declaration at his death, and account it to be genuine. Their partiality for Mary induced them the more easily to fall into this mistake. The paper they give is demonstratively a forgery; and the want of the real confession of Bothwell is still a deficiency in our history. Scotland respected the true religion, and were anxious for the preservation of the king and state; and every minister was commanded to declaim from his pulpit on the expediency of this measure, and to exhort the people to concur with the lords in prosecuting the full deliverance of the church, and the perfect reformation of the commonwealth. Not satisfied with this approbation of the clergy, the conspirators got their proceedings approved by the estates of Scotland, as "a good, a thankful, and a necessary service to the king." At the same time it was enacted, that no civil or criminal suit of any kind should ever be instituted against the persons concerned in it. Soon after this, Lenox took his leave of Scotland, and sailed for France, where he died.

The unfortunate Mary was driven to despair when she heard that her son was taken prisoner by rebels who had been instigated by Elizabeth. In this distress, she addressed a most spirited letter to Elizabeth, in which she at once asserted her own innocence, and set forth the conduct of Elizabeth herself in such language as must have put the most impudent of her adversaries to the blush. Elizabeth could not reply, and therefore had recourse to her usual arts of treacherous negociation. New terms were proposed to Mary, who would gladly have submitted almost to anything, provided she could procure her freedom. It was proposed, as had often been done before, to associate the queen of Scots with her son in the government; but as this was to be referred to the king, who was in the hands of Elizabeth's friends, and to the parliament, who were under the power of the same faction, it is easy to see that no such association ever could take place, or indeed was ever intended.

After the death of Lenox, the conspirators apprehended no further danger, little supposing that a prince so young and unexperienced could deliver himself from captivity. This, however, in the year 1583, he effected in the following manner. A convention of the estates had been summoned to meet at St Andrew's. James, whom the earl of Arran, notwithstanding his confinement at Kinneil, had found means to instruct and advise, pretended a desire of visiting his grand-uncle the earl of March, who resided at St Andrew's, and was for that purpose permitted to repair thither a few days before the convention. The better to deceive the earls of Gowrie, Angus, and Mar, who attended him, he took up his lodgings in an old inn, which was quite open and defenceless. But having expressed a desire to see the castle of St Andrew's, he was admitted into it; and Colonel Stuart, who commanded the castle, after admitting a few of his retinue, ordered the gates to be shut. The earls of Argyle, Marischal, Moutrose, and Rothes, who were in concert with the king, hastened to make him an offer of their swords. The opposite faction, being unprepared for hostilities, were filled with consternation. Of all the conspirators, the earl of Gowrie alone was admitted into the king's presence, by the favour of Colonel Stuart, and received his pardon. The earls of March, Argyle, Gowrie, Marischal, and Rothes, were appointed to be a council for assisting the king in the management of his affairs; and soon after this, James set out for Edinburgh. The king no sooner found himself at liberty, than, by the advice of his privy council, he issued a proclamation of mercy to the conspirators; but they, flattering themselves with the hopes of support from Elizabeth, obstinately refused to accept of his pardon. In consequence of this, they were denounced rebels. Elizabeth failed not to give them secretly all the encouragement she could, and the clergy uttered the most sedulous discourses against the king and government; and while they railed against Popery, they themselves maintained openly the very characteristic and distinguishing mark of Popery, namely, that the clerical was entirely independent of the civil power.

At last the rebels broke forth into open hostilities; but by the vigilance of Arran, the earl of Gowrie, who had again begun his treasonable practices, was committed to custody; while the rest, unable to oppose the king, who appeared against them with a formidable army, were obliged to fly into England, where Elizabeth, with her usual treachery, protected them.

The earl of Gowrie suffered as a traitor; but the severity exercised against him did not intimidate the clergy. They still continued their rebellious practices, until the king being informed that they were engaged in a correspondence with some of the fugitive lords, citations were given to their leaders to appear before the privy council. The clergymen, not daring to appear, fled to England; and on the 20th of May 1584, the king summoned a convention of the estates, on purpose to humble the pride of the church in an effectual manner. In this assembly the raid of Ruthven was declared to be rebellion, according to a declaration which had formerly been made by the king. And, as it had grown into a custom with the promoters of sedition and the enemies of order, to decline the judgment of the king and the council, when called before them to answer for rebellious or contumelious speeches, uttered from the pulpit or in public places, an ordination was made, asserting that they had complete powers to judge concerning persons of every degree and function; and declaring, that every act of opposition to their jurisdiction should be accounted treason. It was enacted, that the authority of parliament, as constituted by the free votes of the three estates, was supreme; and that every attempt to diminish, alter, or infringe, its power, dignity, and jurisdiction, should be punished as treason. All jurisdictions and judgments, all assemblies and conventions, not approved of by the king and the three estates, were condemned as unlawful, and prohibited. It was ordained, that the king might appoint commissioners, with powers to examine into the delinquencies of clergymen, and, if proper, to deprive them of their benefices. It was commanded, that clergymen should not for the future be admitted to the dignity of lords of the session, or to the administration of any judicature civil or criminal. An ordination was made, which subjected to capital punishment all persons who should inquire into the affairs of state with a malicious curiosity, or who should utter false and slanderous speeches in sermons, declamations, or familiar discourse, to the reproach and contempt of the king, his parents, and progenitors. It was ordered that a guard, consisting of 40 gentlemen, with a yearly allowance to each of 20l. should continually attend on the king. This parliament, which was full of zeal for the crown, did not overlook the history of Buchanan, which about this time was exciting a very general attention. It commanded, that all persons persons who were possessed of copies of his chronicle, and of his treatise on the Scottish government, should surrender them within 40 days, under the penalty of 200l., in order that they might be purged of the offensive and extraordinary matters they contained. This stroke of tyranny was furious and inefficacious. Foreign nations, as well as his own countrymen, were filled with the highest admiration of the genius of Buchanan. It was not permitted that his writings should suffer mutilation; they were multiplied in every quarter; and the severity exercised against them only served the more to excite curiosity, and to diffuse his reputation.

While the parliamentary acts, which struck against the importance of the church, were in agitation, the ministers deputed Mr David Lindsay to solicit the king that no statutes should pass which affected the ecclesiastical establishment, without the consultation of the general assembly. But the earl of Arran having information of this commission, defeated it, by committing Mr Lindsay to prison as a spy for the discontented nobles. On the publication, however, of these acts by the heralds, Mr Robert Pont minister of St Cuthbert's, and one of the senators of the court of session, with Mr Walter Balcanqual, protested formally in the name of the church, that it dissented from them, and that they were consequently invalid. Having made this protestation, they instantly fled, and were proclaimed traitors. By letters and pamphlets, which were artfully spread among the people, their passions were roused against the king and his council. The ministers of Edinburgh took the resolution of forsaking their flocks, and retiring to England. And in an apology circulated by their management, they anxiously endeavoured to awaken commiseration and pity. They magnified the dangers which threatened them; and they held out, in vindication of their conduct, the example of the prophets, the apostles, the martyrs, and of Christ himself; who all concurred, they said, in opposing the ordinances of men, when contradictory to the will of heaven, and in declining the rage of the enemies of God. The king appointed his own chaplains and the archbishop of St Andrew's to perform the ministerial functions in his capital. The clergy over Scotland were commanded to subscribe a declaration, which imported the supremacy of the king over the church, and their submission to the authority of the bishops. The national ferments still increased in violence. Many ministers refused to subscribe this declaration, and were deprived of their livings. It was contended, that to make the king supreme over the church was no better than to set up a new pope, and to commit treason against Jesus Christ. It was urged, that to overthrow assemblies and presbyteries, and to give dominion to bishops, was not only to overset the established polity of the church, but to destroy religion itself. For the bishops were the slaves of the court, were schismatical in their opinions, and depraved in their lives. It was affirmed that heresy, atheism, and popery, would strike a deep root, and grow into strength. And the people were taught to believe, that the bishops would corrupt the nation into a resemblance with themselves; and that there everywhere prevailed dissimulation and blasphemy, persecution and obscenity, the profanation of the Scriptures, and the breach of faith, covetousness, perjury, and sacrilege. It was reported abroad, that the ministers alone were entrusted with ecclesiastical functions, and with the sword of the word; and that it was most wicked and profane to imagine, that Jesus Christ had ever committed the keys of the kingdom of heaven to civil magistrates and their servants or deputies.

While the clergy were thus impotently venting their wrath, Elizabeth, alarmed beyond measure at this sudden revolution, and terrified by a confession extorted by the rack from one Francis Throgmorton, concerning a combination of the Catholic princes to invade England, began to treat with Mary in a more sincere manner than usual; but having gained over to her side the earl of Arran, the only man of activity in Scotland, she resolved to proceed to extremities with the queen of Scots. The Catholics, both at home and abroad, were inflamed against her with a boundless and implacable rage. There prevailed many rumours of plots and conspiracies against her kingdom and her life. Books were published, which detailed her cruelties and injustice to Mary in the most indignant language of reproach, and which recommended her assassination as a most meritorious act. The earl of Arran had explained to her the practices of the queen of Scots with her son, and had discovered the intrigues of the Catholic princes to gain him to their views. While her sensibilities and fears were severely exercis- ing to her, circumstances happened which confirmed invasion of them, and provoked her to give the fullest scope to the discovered malignity of her passions. Crichton, a Scottish Jesuit, passing into his own country, was taken by Netherland pirates; and some papers which he had torn in pieces and thrown into the sea being recovered, were transmitted to England. Sir William Wade put them together with dexterity; and they demonstrated beyond a doubt, that the invasion of England was concerted by the Pope, the king of Spain, and the duke of Guise. About this time, too, a remarkable letter was intercepted from Mary to Sir Francis Englefield. She complained in it that she could have no reliance on the integrity of Elizabeth, and that she expected no happy issue to any treaty which might be opened for her restoration and liberty. She urged the advancement of the "great plot;" she intimated, that the prince her son was favourable to the "designment," and disposed to be directed by her advice; she entreated, that every delicacy with regard to her own state and condition should be laid aside without scruple; and she assured him, that she would most willingly suffer perils and dangers, and even death itself, to give relief to the oppressed children of the church. These discoveries, so exasperating to the inquietudes and distresses of Elizabeth, were followed by a deep and general consternation. The terror of an invasion spread itself with rapidity over England; and the Protestants, while they trembled for the life of their champion, were still more alarmed with the dangers which threatened their religion.

In this state of perplexity and distraction, the counsellors of Elizabeth did not forget that they had been her instruments in persecuting the queen of Scots, and of the severities with which she had treated the Catholics. They were fully sensible, that her greatness and safety were intimately connected with their own; and they concurred in indulging her fears, jealousies, and resentment. It was resolved that Mary should perish. An association was formed, to which persons of every con- Scotland. dition and degree were invited. The professed business of this association was the preservation of the life of Elizabeth, which it was affirmed was in danger, from a conspiracy to advance some pretended title to the crown; and its members vowed and protested, by the majesty of God, to employ their whole power, their bodies, lives, and goods, in her service; to withstand, as well by force of arms as by other methods of revenge, all persons, of whatever nation or rank, who should attempt in any form to invade and injure her safety or her life, and never to desist from the forcible pursuit of them till they should be completely exterminated. They also vowed and protested, in the presence of the eternal God, to prosecute to destruction any pretended successor, by whom, or for whom, the detestable deed of the assassination of Elizabeth should be attempted or committed.

The earl of Leicester was in a particular manner the patron of this association; and the whole influence of Elizabeth and her ministers was exerted to multiply the subscription to a bond or league which was to prepare the way, and to be a foundation for accomplishing the full destruction and ruin of the Scottish queen.

A combination so resolute and so fierce, which pointed at the death of Mary, which threatened her titles to the crown of England, and which might defeat the succession of her son, could not fail to excite in her bosom the bitterest anxieties and perturbation. Weary of her sad and long captivity, broken down with calamities, dreading afflictions still more cruel, and willing to take away from Elizabeth every possible pretext of severity, she now framed a scheme of accommodation, to which no reasonable objection could be made. By Naw, her secretary, she presented it to Elizabeth and her privy-council. She protested in it, that if her liberty should be granted to her, she would enter into the closest amity with Elizabeth, and pay an observance to her above every other prince of Christendom; that she would forget all the injuries with which she had been loaded, acknowledge Elizabeth to be the rightful queen of England, abstain from any claim to her crown during her life, renounce the title and arms of England, which she had usurped by the command of her husband the king of France, and reprobate the bull from Rome which had deposed the English queen. She likewise protested, that she would enter into the association which had been formed for the security of Elizabeth; and that she would conclude with her a defensive league, provided that it should not be prejudicial to the ancient alliance between Scotland and France; and that nothing should be done during the life of the English queen, or after her death, to invalidate her titles to the crown of England, or those of her son. As a confirmation of these articles, she professed that she would consent to stay in England for some time as an hostage; and that if she was permitted to retire from the dominions of Elizabeth, she would surrender proper and acceptable persons as sureties. She also protested, that she would make no alterations in Scotland; and that, on the repeal of what had been enacted there to her disgrace, she would bury in oblivion all the injuries she had received from her subjects; that she would recommend to the king her son those counsellors who were most attached to England, and that she would employ herself to reconcile him to the fugitive nobles; that she would take no steps respecting his marriage without acquainting the queen of England; and that, to give the greater firmness to Scotland, the proposed accommodation, it was her desire that he should be called as a party; and, in fine, she affirmed, that she would procure the king of France and the princes of Lorraine to be guarantees for the performance of her engagements. Elizabeth, who was skilful in hypocrisy, discovered the most decisive symptoms of satisfaction and joy when these overtures were communicated to her. She made no advances, however, to conclude an accommodation with Mary; and her ministers and courtiers exclaimed against lenient and pacific measures. It was loudly insisted, that the liberty of Mary would be the death of Elizabeth; that her association with her son would be the ruin both of England and Scotland; and that her elevation to power would extend the empire of Popery, and give a deadly blow to the doctrines of the Reformation.

In the mean time, an act of attainder had passed against the fugitive nobles, and their estates and honours were forfeited to the king; who, not satisfied with this, sent Patrick master of Gray, to demand from the queen of England a surrender of their persons. As this ambassador had resided for some time in France, and been intimate with the duke of Guise, he was recommended to Mary; but being a man of no principle, he easily suffered himself to be corrupted by Elizabeth; and while he pretended friendship to the unfortunate queen, he discovered all that he knew of her intentions and those of her son. The most scandalous falsehoods were forged against Mary; and the less she was apparently able to execute, the more she was said to design. That an unhappy woman, confined and guarded with the utmost vigilance, who had not for many years sufficient interest to procure a decent treatment for herself, should be able to carry on such close and powerful negotiations with different princes as were imputed to her, is an absurdity which it must forever be impossible to explain. That she had an amour with her keeper the earl of Shrewsbury, as was now reported, might be; though of this there is no proof. This, however, could scarcely be treason against Elizabeth; yet, on account of this, Mary was committed to the charge of Sir Amias Paulet and Sir Drue Drury, zealous puritans, and who, it was hoped, would treat her with such severity as might drive her to despair, and induce her to commit some rash action.

The earl of Leicester, said to be Elizabeth's paramour, even ventured to send assassins, on purpose, by the murder of Mary, at once to deliver his mistress from her fears. But the new keepers of the castle, though religious bigots, were men of strict probity, and rejected with scorn such an infamous transaction. In 1585, Mary began to feel all the rigours of a severe imprisonment. She had been removed from Sheffield to the castle of Tutbury; and under her new keepers she experienced a treatment which was in the highest degree unjust, disrespectful, and unceremonious. Two apartments or chambers only were allotted to her, and they were small and inconvenient, meanly furnished, and so full of apertures and chinks, that they could not protect her against the inclemencies of the weather. The liberty of going abroad for pleasure or exercise was denied to her. She was assailed by rheumatisms and other maladies; and her physician would not undertake to effect a cure, or even to procure her any ease, unless she Applications for this purpose were frequently made, and uniformly rejected. Here, however, her own afflictions did not extinguish in her mind her sensibility for the misfortunes of others; and she often indulged herself in the satisfaction of employing a servant to go through the village of Tutbury in search of objects of distress, to whom she might deal out her charity. But her inhuman keepers, envying her this pleasure, commanded her to abstain from it. Imputing their rigour to a suspicious fidelity, she desired that her servant might, on these occasions, be accompanied by one of the soldiers of their guard, or by the constable of the village. But they would not alter their prohibition. They refused to her the exercise of the Christian duty of dispensing an alms; and they would not allow her the soft consolation of moistening her eye with sorrows not her own. To insult her the more, the castle of Tutbury was converted into a common jail. A young man, whose crime was the profession of the Roman religion, was committed to a chamber which was opposite to her window, in order that he might be persecuted in her sight with the greatest cruelty. Notwithstanding his cries and resistance, he was dragged every morning to hear prayers, and to join in the Protestant worship; and after enduring several weeks this extraordinary violence to his conscience, he was unmercifully strangled without any form of law or justice. Mary remonstrated with warmth to Elizabeth against indignities so shocking and so horrible; but instead of obtaining consolation or relief, she was involved more deeply in woe, and exposed to still severer inventions of malice and of anger.

In the midst of her misfortunes, Mary had still solaced herself with hope; and from the exertions of her son she naturally expected the greatest advantage. He had hitherto behaved with a becoming cordiality; and in the negociation which she had opened with him for her association in the government, he had been studious to please and flatter her. He had informed her, by a particular despatch, that he found the greatest comfort in her maternal tenderness, and that he would accomplish her commands with humility and expedition; that he would not fail to ratify her union and association with him in the government; that it would be his most earnest endeavour to reconcile their common subjects to that measure; and that she might expect from him, during his life, every satisfaction and duty which a good mother could promise to herself from an affectionate and obedient son. But these fair blossoms of kindness and love were all blasted by the treacherous arts of Elizabeth. By the master of Gray, who had obtained an ascendant over James, she turned from Mary his affections. He delayed to ratify her association in the government; and he even appeared to be unwilling to urge Elizabeth on the subject of her liberty. The master of Gray had convinced him, that if any favour were shown to Mary by the queen of England, it would terminate in his humiliation. He assured him, that if his mother were again to mount the Scottish throne, her zeal for Popery would induce her to seek a husband in the house of Austria; that she would dissolve his association with her in the government, on pretence of his attachment to the reformed doctrines; and that he would not only lose the glory of his present power, but endanger his prospects of succession. Mary expostulated with him by letter on the timidity and coldness of his behaviour; and he returned her an answer full of disrespect, in which he intimated his resolution to consider her in no other character than as queen mother. Her amazement, indignation, and grief, were infinite. She wrote to Castelnaud the French ambassador to inform him of her inquietudes and anguish. "My son (said she) is ungrateful; and I desire that the king your master may consider him no longer as a sovereign. In your future despatches, abstain from giving him the title of king. I am his queen and his sovereign; and while I live and continue at variance with him, he can at most be only an usurper. From him I derive no lustre; and without me he could only have been Lord Darnley or the earl of Lennox; for I raised his father from being my subject to be my husband. I ask from him nothing that is his; what I claim is my own; and if he persists in his course of impiety and ingratitude, I will bestow on him my malediction, and deprive him not only of all right to Scotland, but of all the dignity and grandeur to which he might succeed through me. My enemies shall not enjoy the advantages they expect from him. For to the king of Spain I will convey, in the amplest form, my claims, titles, and greatness."

Elizabeth having thus found means to sow dissension between the queen of Scots and her son, did not fail to make the best use of the quarrel for her own advantage. The pope, the duke of Guise, and the king of Spain, had concluded an alliance, called the holy league, for the extirpation of the Protestant religion all over Europe. Elizabeth was thrown into the greatest consternation on this account; and the idea of a counter association among the Protestant princes of Europe immediately suggested itself. Sir Edward Wotton was deputed to Scotland; and so completely gained on the imbecility of James, that he concluded a firm alliance with Elizabeth, without making any stipulation in favour of his mother. Nay, so far was he the dupe of this ambassador and his mistress, that he allowed himself to be persuaded to take into his favour Mr Archibald Douglas, one of the murderers of Lord Darnley; and, as if all this had not been sufficient, he appointed the assassin to be his ambassador to England.

Mary, thus abandoned by all the world, in the hands of her most inveterate and cruel enemy, fell a victim to her resentment and treachery in the year 1587. A plot of assassination had been formed in the spring of the year 1586 against the English queen; partly with the view of rescuing the Scottish princess; but chiefly from a motive to serve the interests of the Catholic religion. This conspiracy, which originated with Catholic priests and persons of no distinction, was soon imparted to Mr Babington, a person of great fortune, of many accomplishments, and who had before that time discovered himself to be the zealous friend of Queen Mary. That she had corresponded with Babington there is no doubt; but it was some years previous to the formation of the plot. A long silence had taken place between them; and Morgan, one of the English fugitives in France, and a warm friend of Mary's, in the month of May 1586, wrote a letter to her, repeatedly and in the most pressing manner recommending a revival of that correspondence. In consequence of which, in her answer to Scotland. Morgan, dated the 27th day of July, she informed him that she had made every apology in her power to Babington, for not having written to him for so long a space; that he had generously offered himself and all his fortune in her cause; and that, agreeably to Morgan's advice, she would do her best to retain him in her interests; but she throws out no hint of her knowledge of the intended assassination. On the very same day she likewise wrote to Paget, another of her most confidential friends; but not a word in it with respect to Babington's scheme of cutting off the English queen. To Morgan and to Paget she certainly would have communicated her mind, more readily and more particularly than to Babington, and have consulted them about the plot, had she been accessory to it. Indeed it seems to have been part of the policy of Mary's friends to keep her a stranger to all clandestine and hazardous undertakings in her favour. To be convinced of this, we have only to recollect, that Morgan, in a letter of the fourth of July, expressly, and in the strongest terms, recommended to have no intelligence at all with Ballard, who was one of the original contrivers of the plot, and who was the very person who communicated it to Babington. The queen, in consequence of this, shut the door against all correspondence, if it should be offered, with that person.

At the same time, Morgan assigned no particular reasons for that advice; so cautious was he of giving the queen any information on the subject: What he said was generally and studiously obscure: "Ballard (said he, only) is intent on some matters of consequence, the issue of which is uncertain." He even went farther, and charged Ballard himself to abstain by all means from opening his views to the queen of Scots.

The conspiracy which goes under the name of Babington was completely detected by the court in the month of June: The names, proceedings, and residences, of those engaged in it were then known: The blow might have been soon struck: The life of Elizabeth was in imminent danger. The conspirators, however, were not apprehended; they were permitted to enjoy complete liberty; treated as if there were not the least suspicion against them; and in this free and quiet state, were they suffered to continue till the beginning of August, for a period of nearly two months. What could be the reasons for such a conduct? From what causes did the council of England suspend the just vengeance of the laws, and leave their queen's life still in jeopardy? Was it on purpose to procure more conspirators, and involve others in the crime?

Mary queen of Scots continued still detached from Babington and his associates. Their destruction was a small matter compared with her's. Could she be decoyed into the plot, things would have put on a very different aspect. Babington's conspiracy, which in reality occasioned little dread, as it was early found out, and well guarded against, would prove one of the most grateful incidents in Queen Elizabeth's reign. Elizabeth's ministers, too, knew how much they had rendered themselves justly obnoxious to the Scottish princess: Should she come to mount the throne of England, their downfall was inevitable; from which, it should seem, is to be explained, why they were even more zealous than their mistress to accomplish her ruin.

Of these, Sir Francis Walsingham secretary of state Art and appears to have taken on himself the chief management treachery of in concerting a plan of operations against the queen of Elizabeth's and her ministers. Scots; and as a model, he seems to have had in his eye that which was pursued on a former occasion by the earl of Murray. His spies having early got into the confidence of the lower sort of the conspirators, he now employed the very agency of the latter for his purposes. Learning that a packet from France was intended to be conveyed by them to Queen Mary, and by the hands of one Gilbert Gifford a priest, whom he had secretly gained over from their association, he wrote a letter to Sir Amias Paulet, who had now the custody of the Scottish queen, requesting that one of his domestics might be permitted to take a bribe for conveying that packet to the captive princess. This was on purpose to communicate to her a letter forged in the name of Babington, in which that conspirator was made to impart to the Scottish queen his scheme of assassination, and to claim rewards to the perpetrators of the deed. Paulet, however, to his honour, refused to comply with the request of Walsingham; on which Gifford corrupted a brewer in the neighbourhood, who put his letters to Mary in a hole in the castle-wall. By the same conveyance it was thought that Mary would answer the letters; but it appears that she never saw them, and that of course no return was made. It was then contrived that answers, in the name of the queen of Scots to Gifford, should be found in the hole of the wall. Walsingham, to whom these letters were carried, proceeded formally to decipher them by the help of one Thomas Philips, a person skilled in these matters; and after exact copies were taken of them, it is said that they were all artfully sealed and sent off to the persons to whom they were directed. It appears, however, that only the letters directed to Babington were sent to him; and the answers which he made to the queen's supposed letters were carried directly to Walsingham. A foundation for criminating Mary being thus laid, the conspirators were quickly discovered, as being already known.

(1) Dr Robertson of Dalmeny, who, in his history of Mary queen of Scots, has thrown much light on those dark transactions of Elizabeth's nefarious ministers, thinks it not improbable that an answer to Babington's letter was written by the Scottish queen's secretaries. Although they could not communicate that letter to herself, on account of her known abhorrence of assassination, they perhaps wrote a despatch in her name, approving of it; tempted by the prospect of escaping from imprisonment, and of their mistress being seated on the throne of England. This despatch being conveyed through the same chink of the wall, was carried by Gifford to Walsingham; opened; deciphered, and copied by him; and then sent to Babington. Camden informs us, that Walsingham artfully forged a postscript in the same cipher to this despatch; in which Queen Mary was made to request of Babington to inform her particularly of the names of his accomplices, and of others who were friends to the cause. Scotland known, and suffered the death of traitors. The unhappy princess, eagerly watched by Paulet, and unacquainted with the late occurrence, received a visit from Sir Thomas Gorges. This envoy, as instructed by Elizabeth, surprised her when she had mounted her horse to take the pleasure of the chase. His salutation was abrupt and unceremonious; and after informing her of the discovery and circumstances of the conspiracy of Babington, he rudely charged her with a concern in it. Her astonishment was great, and she desired to return to her chamber; but this favour was refused to her; and after being carried from one house to another, in an anxious and perplexing uncertainty, she was committed to Fotheringay castle in Northamptonshire. Naw and Curl, her two secretaries, the former a Frenchman, the latter a native of Scotland, were taken into custody. Paulet, breaking open the doors of her private closet, possessed himself of her money, which amounted to not more than 7000 crowns. Her cabinets were carefully sealed up; and being sent to London, were examined in the presence of Elizabeth. They contained many despatches from persons beyond the sea, copies of letters which had been dictated by her, and about 60 tables of ciphers and characters. There were also discovered in them many despatches to her from English noblemen, which were full of admiration and respect. These Elizabeth concealed; but their authors suspecting that they were known, sought to purchase her forgiveness by the most abject protestations of an attachment to her person, and by the exercise of the most inveterate enmity to the queen of Scots. Naw and Curl declared, that the copies of her letters were in their handwriting. They had been dictated by her in the French language to Naw, translated into English by Curl, and then put into cipher. They contained not, however, any matters with which she could be reproached or criminated.

It was on the foundation of the letters which Gifford had communicated to Walsingham that her guilt was to be inferred; and with copies of these, and with an attested account of the conspiracy of Babington and his associates, Sir Edward Wotton was now despatched into France to accuse her to Henry III., and to explain to him the dangers to which Elizabeth was exposed from the machinations and practices of the English exiles.

The privy counsellors of Elizabeth deliberated on the most proper method of proceeding against Mary. To some it appeared, that as she was only accessory to the plot, and not the designer of it, the most eligible severity to be exercised against her was a closer and more rigorous confinement; and they endeavoured to fortify this opinion, by observing, that she was sickly, and could not live long. By others who were haunted by the terrors of Popery, it was urged, that she ought to be put instantly to death by the formalities of the law. The earl of Leicester recommended it as most prudent to dispatch her secretly by poison. But this counsel was rejected, as mean, disgraceful, and violent. The lawyers were of opinion, that she might be tried on the statute of Edward III.; by which it was enacted to be treason to imagine the destruction of the sovereign, to make war against his kingdom, or to adhere to his enemies. Elizabeth, however, and her ministers had provided a more plausible foundation for her trial. This was a parliamentary statute approving the act of association. As it had been passed while Mary was in England, it was argued, that she was bound by it in a local allegiance to Elizabeth. The next point of debate was the designation under which it was most advisable to arraign her. To employ a foreign name and title as directly descriptive of her, was not judged to be consistent with the law of England. It was therefore resolved to designate her "Mary, daughter and heir of James V., king of Scotland, and commonly called queen of Scots, and dowager of France."

This resolution being once taken, Elizabeth next appointed above forty peers or privy counsellors, and five judges, bestowing on them in a body, or on the greater part of them, absolute power and authority to inquire into the matters compassed and imagined against her by the Scottish princess, and to pass sentence according to the spirit and tenor of the act which had been passed. Of these commissioners a great majority proceeded to the castle of Fotheringay; and the day after their arrival, they deputed to Mary, Sir Walter Mildmay, Sir Amias Paulet, and Edward Barker, a public notary, to deliver to her a letter from Elizabeth. In this letter the English queen gratified her unhappy passions, and, after reproaching Mary with her crimes, informed her that commissioners were appointed to take cognisance of them. The Scottish princess, though astonished with the project of being brought to a public trial, was able to preserve her dignity, and addressed them with a composed manner and air. "It is a matter (said she) altogether uncommon and strange, that Elizabeth should command me to submit to a trial, as if I were her subject. I am an independent sovereign, and will not tarnish by any meanness my high birth, the princes my predecessors, and my son. Misfortunes and misery have not yet so involved me in dejection, as that I am to faint and sink under this new calamity and insult. I desire that you will remember what I formerly protested to Bromley, who is now lord chancellor, and to the lord La War. To speak to me of commissioners is a vain mockery of my rank. Kings alone can be my peers. The laws of England are unknown to me; and I have no counsellors to whose wisdom I can apply for instruction. My papers and commentaries have been taken from me; and no person can have the courage to appear as my advocate. I have indeed recommended myself and my condition to foreign princes; but I am clear of the guilt of having conspired the destruction of Elizabeth, or of having incited any person whatever to destroy her. It is only by my own words and writings that an imputation of this kind can be supported; and I am conscious beyond the possibility of a doubt, that these evidences cannot be employed against me." The day after she had in this manner refused to allow the jurisdiction of the commissioners, Paulet and Barker returned to her, and informed her that they had put her speech into writing, and desired to know if she would abide by it. She heard it read distinctly, acknowledged it to be rightly taken, and avowed her readiness to persist in the sentiments she had delivered. But she added, there was a circumstance of which she had omitted to speak. "Your queen (aid she) affects in her letter to observe, that I am subject to the laws of England, because I have lived under their protection. This sentiment and mode of thinking are very surprising to me. I came into England to crave her assistance and aid; and, ever since, I have been confined to a prison. The miseries of captivity Scotland. captivity cannot be called a protection, and the treatment I have suffered is a violation of all law."

This afflicted but undaunted princess, after having thus scorned the competency and repelled the pretexts of the commissioners, was induced at last, by arguments under the insidious mask of candour and friendship, to depart from the proper and dignified ground which she had taken, and consent to that mode of trial which had been proposed. It was represented to her by Hatton the vice-chamberlain, that by rejecting a trial, she injured her own reputation and interests, and deprived herself of the only opportunity of setting her innocence in a clear light to the present and to future times. Imposed on by this artifice, she consented to make her appearance before the judges; at the same time, however, she still protested against the jurisdiction of the court, and the validity of all their proceedings.

After various formalities, the lord-chancellor opened the case; and was followed by Sergeant Gawdry, who proceeded to explain the abovestatute, and endeavoured to demonstrate that she had offended against it. He then entered into a detail of Babington's conspiracy; and concluded with affirming, "That Mary knew it, had approved of it, had promised her assistance, and had pointed out the means to effect it." Proofs of this charge were exhibited against her, and displayed with great art. The letters were read which Sir Francis Walsingham had forged, in concert with Gifford, &c., and her secretaries Naw and Curl. The three spies had afforded all the necessary intelligence respecting the conspiracy, on which to frame a correspondence between Mary and Babington, and on which despatches might be fabricated in her name to her foreign friends; and the ciphers were furnished by her two secretaries. But besides these pretended letters, another species of evidence was held out against her. Babington, proud of the despatch sent to him in her name by Walsingham and Gifford, returned an answer to it; and a reply from her by the same agency was transmitted to him. Deceived and in toils, he communicated these marks of her attention to Savage and Ballard, the most confidential of his associates. His confession and theirs thus became of importance. Nor were her letters and the confessions of these conspirators deemed sufficient vouchers of her guilt. Her two secretaries, therefore, who had lately forsaken her, were engaged to subscribe a declaration, that the despatches in her name were written by them at her command, and according to her instructions. These branches of evidence, put together with skill, and heightened with all the imposing colours of eloquence, were pressed on Mary. Though she had been long accustomed to the perfidious inhumanity of her enemies, her amazement was infinite. She lost not, however, her courage; and her defence was alike expressive of her penetration and magnanimity.

"The accusation preferred to my prejudice is a most detestable calumny. I was not engaged with Babington in his conspiracy; and I am altogether innocent of having plotted the death of Elizabeth. The copies of Babington's letters which have been produced, may indeed be taken from originals which are genuine; but it is impossible to prove that I ever received them. Nor did he receive from me the despatches addressed to him in my name. His confession and those of his associates, which have been urged to establish the authority of my letters to him, are imperfect and vain. If these conspirators could have testified any circumstances to my hurt, they would not so soon have been deprived of their lives. Tortures, or the fear of the rack, extorted improper confessions from them; and then they were executed. Their mouths were opened to utter false calumnies; and were immediately shut for ever, that the truth might be buried in their graves. It was no difficult matter to obtain ciphers which I had employed; and my adversaries are known to be superior to scruples. I am informed that Sir Francis Walsingham has been earnest to recommend himself to his sovereign by practices both against my life and that of my son; and the fabrication of papers by which to effectuate my ruin, is a business not unworthy of his ambition. An evidence, the most clear and incontestable, is necessary to overthrow my integrity; but proofs, the most feeble and suspicious, are held out against me. Let one letter be exhibited, written in my hand, or that bears my superscription; and I will instantly acknowledge that the charge against me is sufficiently supported. The declaration of my secretaries is the effect of rewards or of terror. They are strangers; and to overcome their virtue was an easy achievement to a queen whose power is absolute, whose riches are immense, and whose ministers are profound and daring in intrigues and treachery. I have often had occasion to suspect the integrity of Naw; and Curl, whose capacity is more limited, was always most obsequious to him. They may have written many letters in my name without my knowledge or participation; and it is not fit that I should bear the blame of their inconsiderate boldness. They may have put many things into despatches which are prejudicial to Elizabeth; and they may even have subscribed their declaration to my prejudice, under the prepossession that the guilt which would utterly overwhelm them might be pardoned in me. I have never dictated any letter to them which can be made to correspond with their testimony. And what, let me ask, would become of the grandeur, the virtue, and the safety of princes, if they depended upon the writings and declarations of secretaries? Nor let it be forgotten, that by acting in hostility to the duty and allegiance which they solemnly swore to observe to me, they have utterly incapacitated themselves from obtaining any credit. The violation of their oath of fidelity is an open perjury; and of such men the protestations are nothing. But, if they are yet in life, let them be brought before me. The matters they declare are so important as to require that they should be examined in my presence. It argues not the fairness of the proceedings against me, that this formality is neglected. I am also without the assistance of an advocate; and, that I might be defenceless and weak in the greatest degree, I have been robbed of my papers and commentaries. As to the copies of the despatches which are said to have been written by my direction to Mendoza, the lord Paget, Charles Paget, the archbishop of Glasgow, and Sir Francis Inglefield, they are most unprofitable forgeries. For they tend only to show that I was employed in encouraging my friends to invade England. Now, if I should allow that these despatches were genuine, it could not be inferred from them that I had conspired the death of Elizabeth. I will even confess, that I have yielded to the strong impulses of nature; and that, like a human creature encompassed Scotland, with dangers, and insulted with wrongs, I have exerted myself to recover my greatness and my liberty. The efforts I have made can excite no blushes in me; for the voice of mankind must applaud them. Religion, in her sternest moments of severity, cannot look to them with reproach; and to consider them as crimes, is to despise the sanctimonious reverence of humanity, and to give way to the suspicious wretchedness of despotism. I have sought by every art of concession and friendship to engage my sister to put a period to my sufferings. Invited by her smiles, I ventured into her kingdom, in the pride and gaiety of my youth; and, under her anger and the miseries of captivity, I have grown into age. During a calamitous confinement of 20 years, my youth, my health, my happiness, are for ever gone. To her tenderness and generosity I have been indebted as little as to her justice: and, oppressed and agonizing with unmitigated afflictions and hardships, I scrupled not to beseech the princes my allies to employ their armies to relieve me. Nor will I deny, that I have endeavoured to promote the advantage and interest of the persecuted Catholics of England. My entreaties in their behalf have been even offered with earnestness to Queen Elizabeth herself. But the attainment of my kingdom, the recovery of my liberty, and the advancement of that religion which I love, could not induce me to stain myself with the crimes that are objected to me. I would disdain to purchase a crown by the assassination of the meanest of the human race. To accuse me of scheming the death of the queen, my sister, is to brand me with the infamy which I abhor most. It is my nature to employ the devotions of Esther, and not the sword of Judith. Elizabeth herself will attest, that I have often admonished her not to draw upon her head the resentment of my friends by the enormity of her cruelties to me. My innocence cannot sincerely be doubted; and it is known to the Almighty God, that I could not possibly think to forego his mercy; and to ruin my soul, in order to compass a transgression so horrible as that of her murder. But amidst the inclement and unprincipled pretences which my adversaries are pleased to invent to overwhelm me with calamities and anguish, I can trace and discover with ease the real causes of their hostility and provocation. My crimes are, my birth, the injuries I have been compelled to endure, and my religion. I am proud of the first; I can forgive the second; and the third is a source to me of such comfort and hope, that for its glory I will be contented that my blood shall flow upon the scaffold."

To the defence of Mary, no returns were made beside unsupported affirmation of the truth of the evidence produced to her prejudice. In the course of the trial, however, there occurred some incidents which deserve to be related. My lord Burleigh, who was willing to discompose her, charged her with the fixed resolution of conveying her claims and titles to England to the king of Spain. But though, in a discontented humour with her son, she had threatened to disinherit him, and had even corresponded on the subject with her select friends, it appears that this project is to be considered as only a transient effect of resentment and passion. She indeed acknowledged, that the Spanish king professed to have pretensions to the kingdom of England, and that a book in justification of them had been communicated to her. She declared, however, that she had incurred the displeasure of many by disapproving of this book; and that no conveyance of her titles to the Spanish king had been ever executed.

The trial continued during two days; but the commissioners avoided delivering their opinions. My lord Burleigh, in whose management Elizabeth chiefly confided, and whom the Scottish queen discomposed in no common degree by her ability and vigour, being eager to conclude the business, demanded to know if she had anything to add to what she had urged in her defence. She informed him, that she would be infinitely pleased and gratified, if it should be permitted to her to be heard in her justification before a full meeting of parliament, or before the queen and her privy-council. This intimation was unexpected; and the request implied in the queen's words was rejected. The court, in consequence of previous instructions from Elizabeth, adjourned to a farther day, and appointed that the place of its convention should be the star-chamber at Westminster. It accordingly assembled there; and Naw and Curl, who had not been produced at Fotheringay castle, were now called before the commissioners. An oath to declare the truth was put to them; and they definitely affirmed and protested that the declaration they subscribed was in every respect just and faithful. Nothing farther remained but to pronounce sentence against Mary. The commissioners unanimously concurred in delivering it as their verdict or given a judgment, that she "was a party to the conspiracy of Babington; and that she had compassed and imagined matters within the realm of England tending to the hurt, death, and destruction, of the royal person of Elizabeth, in opposition to the statute framed for her protection." On the same day in which this extraordinary sentence was given, the commissioners and the judges of England issued a declaration, which imported, that it was not to derogate in any degree from the titles and honour of the king of Scots.

The sentence against Mary was very soon ratified by the English parliament. King James was struck with terror and horror at hearing of the execution of his mother; but that spiritless prince could show his resentment no farther than by unavailing embassies and remonstrances. France interposed in the same ineffectual manner; and on the 6th of December 1586, Elizabeth caused the sentence of the commissioners against her to be proclaimed. After this she was made acquainted with her fate, and received the news with the greatest composure, and even apparent satisfaction. Her keepers now refused to treat her with any reverence or respect. They entered her apartment with their heads covered, and made no obeisance to her. They took down her canopy of state, and deprived her of all the badges of royalty. By these insulting mortifications they meant to inform her, that she had sunk from the dignity of a princess to the abject state of a criminal. She smiled, and said, "In despite of your sovereign and her subservient judges, I will live and die a queen. My royal character is indelible; and I will surrender it with my spirit to Almighty God, from whom I received it, and to whom my honour and my innocence are fully known." In this melancholy situation Mary addressed a magnanimous letter to Elizabeth, in which, without making the least solicitation for her life, she only requested that her body might be carried to France; that she might be publicly executed; that her servants might be permitted to des... Scotland, part out of England unmolested, and enjoy the legacies which she bequeathed them." But to this letter no answer was given.

In the meantime James, who had neither address nor courage to attempt anything in behalf of his mother, announced her situation to his bigotted subjects, and ordered prayers to be said for her in all the churches. The form of the petition he prescribed was framed with delicacy and caution, that the clergy might have no objection to it. He enjoined them to pray, "that it might please God to enlighten Mary with the light of his truth, and protect her from the danger which was hanging over her." His own chaplains, and Mr David Lindsay minister of Leith, observed his command. But all the other clergy refused to prostitute their pulpits by preferring any petitions to the Almighty for a Papist. James, shocked with their spirit of intolerance and sedition, appointed a new day for prayers to be said for Mary, and issued a stricter injunction to the clergy to obey him; and that he might be free himself from any insult, he commanded the archbishop of St Andrew's to preach before him. The ecclesiastics, disgusted with his injunction, persuaded Mr John Cowper, a probationer in divinity, to occupy the pulpit designed for the archbishop. When the king entered the church, he testified his surprise; but told Cowper, that if he would obey his injunction, he might proceed to officiate. Cowper replied, "that he would do as the spirit of God would direct him." The king commanded him to retire, and the captain of his guard advanced to compel him to obedience. The enraged probationer exclaimed, that this violence "would witness against the king in the great day of the Lord;" and denounced a curse against the spectators for not exerting themselves in his defence. The archbishop now ascending the pulpit, performed with propriety the function to which he had been called, and took the opportunity of recommending moderation and charity to the audience. In the afternoon Cowper was cited before the privy-council; and was accompanied by Mr Walter Balcanquial and Mr William Watson, two ministers remarkable for their zeal. As a punishment for his audacious pertinacity, he was committed to the castle of Blackness; and his attendants having distinguished themselves by an impudent vindication of him, were prohibited from preaching during the pleasure of the king.

Elizabeth, in the mean time, felt the torment and disquiet of unhappy and miserable passions. At times she courted the sadness of solitude, and refused to be consoled or to speak. In other seasons her sighs were frequent, and she broke out into loud and wild exclamations expressive of the state of her mind. Her subjects waited the determination of her will under a distracting agitation and uncertainty. Her ministers, who knew that it is the nature of fear to exclude pity, were industrious in inventing terrifying intelligence, and in circulating it through the kingdom. There were rumours that the Spanish fleet had arrived at Milfordhaven; that a formidable army of Scottish combatants was advancing to the capital; that the duke of Guise had disembarked many troops of veteran soldiers in Sussex; that Mary had escaped out of prison, and was collecting the English Catholics; that the northern counties had thrown aside their allegiance; and that there was a new plot to kill Elizabeth, and to reduce London to ashes. An actual conspiracy was even maliciously charged upon L'Aubespine the French resident; and he was forced to withdraw from England in disgrace. From the panic terrors which the ministers of Elizabeth were so studious to excite, they scrupled not loudly and invariably to infer, that the peace and tranquillity of the kingdom could be re-established only by the speedy execution of the Scottish queen.

While the nation was thus artfully prepared for the destruction of Mary, Elizabeth ordered Secretary Davidson to bring to her the warrant for her death. Having perused it with deliberation, she observed that it was extended in proper terms, and gave it the authority of her subscription. She was in a humour somewhat gay, and demanded of him if he was not sorry for what she had done. He replied, that it was afflicting to him to think of the state of public affairs; but that he greatly preferred her life to that of the Scottish princess. She enjoined him to be secret, and desired, that before he should deliver the warrant to the chancellor, he should carry it to Walsingham. "I fear much (said she, in a merry tone), that the grief of it will kill him."

This levity was momentary; and fears and anxieties succeeded it. Though she earnestly desired the death of Mary, she was yet terrified to encounter its infamy. She was solicitous to accomplish this base transaction by some method which would conceal her consent to it. After intimating to Mr Davidson an anxious wish that wishes its blame should be removed from her, she counselled her to join with Walsingham in addressing a letter to Sir Amias Paulet and Sir Drue Dury, recommending it to them to manifest their love to her by shedding privately the blood of her adversary. The unlawfulness of this deed affected Davidson, and he objected to it. She repeated resolutely her injunctions, and he departed to execute them. A letter under his name and that of Walsingham was despatched to Mary's keepers, communicating to them her purpose. Corrupted by her passions, and lost to the sensibilities of virtue, Elizabeth had now reached the last extremity of human wickedness. Though a sovereign princess, and entrusted with the cares of a great nation, she blushed not to give it in charge to her ministers to enjoin a murder; and this murder was connected with every circumstance that could make it most frightful and horrid. The victim for whose blood she thirsted was a woman, a queen, a relation, who was splendid with beauty, eminent in abilities, magnanimous under misfortunes, and smiling with innocence. Sir Amias Paulet and Sir Drue Dury, though the slaves of religious prejudices, felt an elevation of mind which reflected the greatest disgrace on the first sovereign. They considered themselves as grossly insulted by the purpose proposed to them; and in the return they made to Walsingham, they assured him, that the queen might command their lives and their property, but that they would never consent to part with their honour, and stain themselves and their posterity with the guilt of an assassination. When Davidson carried their despatch to her, she broke out into anger. Their scrupulous delicacy, she said, was a dainty infringement of their oath of association; and they were nice, precise and perjured traitors, who could give great promises in words, and achieve nothing. She told him, that the business could be performed without them; and recommended mended one Wingfield to his notice, who would not hesitate to strike the blow. The astonished secretary exclaimed with warmth against a mode of proceeding so dangerous and unwarrantable. He protested, that if she should take upon herself the blame of this deed, it would pollute her with the blackest dishonour; and that, if she should disavow it, she would overthrow forever the reputation, the estates, and the children, of the persons who should assist in it. She heard him with pain, and withdrew from him with precipitation.

The warrant, after having been communicated to Walsingham, was carried to the chancellor, who put the great seal to it. This formality was hardly concluded, when a message from Elizabeth prohibited Davidson from waiting upon the chancellor till he should receive further instructions. Within an hour after, he received a second message to the same purpose. He hastened to court; and Elizabeth asked eagerly, if he had seen the chancellor. He answered in the affirmative; and she exclaimed with bitterness against his haste. He said, that he had acted exactly as she had directed him. She continued to express warmly her displeasure; but gave no command to stop the operation of the warrant. In a state of uneasiness and apprehension, he communicated her behaviour to the chancellor and the privy-council. These courtiers, however, who were well acquainted with the arts of their mistress, and who knew how to flatter her, paid no attention to him. They perceived, or were secretly informed, that she desired to have a pretence upon which to complain of the secretary, and to deny that he had obeyed her instructions. They observed to him, that by subscribing the warrant, she had performed whatever the law required of her; and that it was not proper to delay the execution any longer. While they were anxious to please Elizabeth, they were conscious of their own cruelty to Mary, and did not imagine they could be in perfect security while she lived. They despatched the warrant to the earls of Shrewsbury and Kent, with instructions to them to fulfil its purpose.

When the two earls and their retinue reached Fotheringay castle, they found that Mary was sick, and reposing on her bed. They insisted, notwithstanding, to be introduced to her. Being informed by her servants that the message they brought was important and pressing, she prepared to receive them. They were conducted into her presence by Sir Amias Paulet and Sir Drue Drury; and with little formality they told her, that Elizabeth had consented to her death, and that she was to suffer the next morning at eight o'clock. Then Beale, one of the clerks of the privy-council, who accompanied them, read over the warrant, which she heard with pious composure and unshaken fortitude. They then affected to justify their mistress by entering into details concerning the conspiracy of Babington. She put her hand on the Scriptures, which lay on a table near her, and swore in the most solemn manner, that she never devised, consented to, or pursued the death of Elizabeth in any shape whatever. The earl of Kent, unwisely zealous for the Protestant religion, excepted against her oath as being made on a Popish bible. She replied to him mildly, "It is for this very reason, my lord, to be relied on with the greater security; for I esteem the Popish version of the Scriptures to be the most authentic." Indulging his puritanical fervour, he declaimed against Popery, counselled her to renounce its errors, and recommended to her attention Dr. Fletcher dean of Peterborough. She heard him with some impatience; and discovered no anxiety to be converted by this ecclesiastic, whom he represented as a most learned divine. Rising into passion, he exclaimed, that "her life would be the death of their religion, and that her death would be its life." After informing him that she was unalterably fixed in her religious sentiments, she desired that her confessor might have the liberty to repair to her. The two earls concurred in observing, that their consciences did not allow them to grant this request. She intimated to them the favours for which she had applied by her letter to Elizabeth, and expressed a wish to know if her sister had attended to them. They answered, that these were points on which they had received no instructions. She made inquiries concerning her secretaries Naw and Curl; and asked, whether it had ever been heard of, in the wickedest times of the most unprincipled nation, that the servants of a sovereign princess had been suborned for the purpose of destroying her. They looked to one another, and were silent. Bourgoin her physician, who with her other domestics was present at this interview, seeing the two earls ready to depart, besought them with an emphatic earnestness to reflect on the short and inadequate portion of time that they had allotted to his mistress to prepare herself for death. He insisted, that a respect for her high rank, and the multiplicity and importance of her concerns, required at least a period of some days. They pretended, however, not to understand the propriety of his petition, and refused it.

On the departure of the two earls, her domestics gave her a full vent to their afflictions; and while she experienced a melancholy pleasure in their tears, lamentations, and kindness, she endeavoured to console them. Their grief, she said, was altogether unavailing, and could better neither her condition nor their own. Her cause had everything about it that was most honourable; and the miseries from which she was to be relieved were the most hopeless and the most afflicting. Instead of dejection and sadness, she therefore enjoined them to be contented and happy. That she might have the more leisure to settle her affairs, she supped early, and, according to her usual custom, she ate little. While at table, she remarked to Bourgoin her physician, that the force of truth was insurmountable; for that the earl of Kent, notwithstanding the pretence of her having conspired against Elizabeth, had plainly informed her, that her death would be the security of their religion. When supper was over, she ordered all her servants to appear before her, and treated them with the kindness which we have mentioned in her life. Having settled these attentions, she entered her bedchamber with her women; and, according to her uniform practice, employed herself in religious duties, and in reading in the Lives of the Saints. At her accustomed time she went to sleep; and after enjoying some hours of sound rest, she awoke. She then indulged in pious meditation, and partook of the sacrament by the means of a consecrated host, which a melancholy presentiment of her calamities had induced her to obtain from Pius V.

At the break of day she arrayed herself in rich, but becoming apparel; and calling together her servants, she ordered her will to be read, and apologized for the smallness Scotland, smallness of her legacies from her inability to be more generous. Following the arrangement she had previously made, she then dealt out to them her goods, wardrobes, and jewels. To Bourgoin her physician she committed the care of her will, with a charge that he would deliver it to her principal executor the duke of Guise. She also entrusted him with tokens of her affection for the king of France, the queen-mother, and her relations of the house of Lorraine. Bidding now an adieu to all worldly concerns, she retired to her oratory, where she was seen sometimes kneeling at the altar, and sometimes standing motionless with her hands joined, and her eyes directed to the heavens. In these tender and agitated moments, she was dwelling on the memory of her sufferings and her virtues, reposing her weaknesses in the bosom of her God, and lifting and solacing her spirit in the contemplation of his perfections and his mercy. While she was thus engaged, Thomas Andrews, the high sheriff of the county, announced to her, that the hour for her execution was arrived. She came forth dressed in a gown of black silk; her petticoat was bordered with crimson velvet; a veil of lawn bowed out with wire, and edged with bone-lace, was fastened to her caul, and hung down to the ground: an Agnus Dei was suspended from her neck by a pommel chain; her beads were fixed to her girdle; and she bore in her hand a crucifix of ivory. Amidst the screams and lamentations of her women she descended the stairs; and in the porch she was received by the earls of Kent and Shrewsbury with their attendants.—Here, too, she met Sir Andrew Melvil the master of her household, whom her keepers had debarr'd from her presence during many days. Throwing himself at her feet, and weeping aloud, he deplor'd his sad destiny, and the sorrowful tidings he was to carry into Scotland.

After she had spoken to Melvil, she besought the two earls that her servants might be treated with civility; that they might enjoy the presents she had bestowed on them; and that they might receive a safe-conduct to depart out of the dominions of Elizabeth. These slight favours were readily granted to her. She then begged that they might be permitted to attend her to the scaffold, in order that they might be witnesses of her behaviour at her death. To this request the earl of Kent discovered a strong reluctance. He said that they would behave with an intermediate passion; and that they would practise superstitious formalities, and dip their handkerchiefs in her blood. She replied, that she was sure that none of their actions would be blamable; and that it was but decent that some of her women should be about her. The earl still hesitating, she was affected with the insolent and stupid indignity of his malice, and exclaimed, "I am cousin to your mistress, and descended from Henry VII. I am a dowager of France, and the anointed queen of Scotland." The earl of Shrewsbury interposing, it was agreed that she should select two of her women, who might assist her in her last moments, and a few of her men servants, who might behold her demeanour, and report it.

She entered the hall where she was to suffer, and advanced with an air of grace and majesty to the scaffold, which was built at its farthest extremity. The spectators were numerous. Her magnanimous carriage, her beauty, of which the lustre was yet dazzling, and her matchless misfortunes, affected them. They gave way to contending emotions of awe, admiration, and pity. She ascended the scaffold with a firm step and a serene aspect, and turned her eye to the block, the axe, and the executioners. The spectators were dissolved in tears. A chair was placed for her, in which she seated herself. Silence was commanded; and Beale read aloud the warrant for her death. She heard it attentively, yet with a manner from which it might be gathered that her thoughts were employed on a subject more important. Dr Fletcher dean of Peterborough taking his station opposite to her without the rails of the scaffold, began a discourse on her life, past, present, and to come. He affected to enumerate her trespasses against Elizabeth, and to describe the love and tenderness which that princess had shown to her. He counselled her to repent of her crimes; and while he inveighed against her attachment to Popery, he threatened her with everlasting fire if she should delay to renounce its errors. His behaviour was indecent and coarse in the highest degree; and while he went to insult her, he insulted still more the religion which he professed, and the sovereign whom he flattered. Twice she interrupted him with great gentleness. But he persistently continued his exhortations. Raising her voice, she commended him with a resolute tone to withhold his indignities and menaces, and not to trouble her any more about her faith. "I was born (said she) in the Catholic religion; I have experienced its comforts during my life, in the trying seasons of sickness, calamity, and sorrow; and I am resolved to die in it." The two earls, ashamed of the savage obstinacy of his deportment, admonished him to desist from his speeches, and to content himself with praying for her conversion. He entered on a long prayer; and Mary falling on her knees, and disregarding him altogether, employed herself in devotions from the office of the Virgin.

After having performed all her devotions, her women assisted her to disrobe; and the executioners offering their aid, she repressed their forwardness by observing, that she was not accustomed to be attended by such servants, nor to be undressed before so large an assembly. Her upper garments being laid aside, she drew on her arms a pair of silk gloves. Her women and men servants burst out into loud lamentations. She put her finger to her mouth to admonish them to be silent, and then bade them a final adieu with a smile that seemed to console, but that plunged them into deeper woe. She kneeled resolutely before the block, and said, "In thee, O Lord! do I trust, let me never be confounded." She covered her eyes with a linen handkerchief in which the eucharist had been inclosed; and stretching forth her body with great tranquillity, and fitting her neck for the fatal stroke, she called out, "Into thy hands, O God! I commit my spirit." The executioner, from design, from unskilfulness, or from iniquitude, struck three blows before he separated her head from her body. He held it up mangled with wounds, and streaming with blood; and her hair being discomposed, was discovered to be already gray with afflictions and anxieties. The dean of Peterborough alone cried out, "So let the enemies of Elizabeth perish." The earl of Kent alone, in a low voice, answered, "Amen." All the other spectators were melted into the tenderest sympathy and sorrow. Her women hastened to protect her dead body from the curiosity of the spectators; and soothed themselves with the thoughts of mourning over it undisturbed when they should retire, and of laying it out in its funeral garb. But the two earls prohibited them from discharging these melancholy yet pleasing offices to their departed mistress, and drove them from the hall with indignity. Bourgoin her physician applied to them that he might be permitted to take out her heart for the purpose of preserving it, and of carrying it with him to France. But they refused his intreaty with disdain and anger. Her remains were touched by the rude hands of the executioners, who carried them into an adjoining apartment; and who, tearing a cloth from an old billiard table, covered that form, once so beautiful. The block, the cushion, the scaffold, and the garments which were stained with her blood, were consumed with fire. Her body, after being embalmed and committed to a leaden coffin, was buried with royal splendour and pomp in the cathedral of Peterborough. Elizabeth, who had treated her like a criminal while she lived, seemed disposed to acknowledge her for a queen when she was dead.

On the death of his mother, the full government of the kingdom devolved on James her son. Elizabeth, apprehensive of his resentment for her treatment of his mother, wrote him a letter, in which she disclaimed all knowledge of the fact. James had received intelligence of the murder before the arrival of this letter, which was sent by one Cary. The messenger was stopped at Berwick by an order from the king, telling him, that, if Mary had been executed, he should proceed at his peril. James shut himself up in Dalkeith castle, in order to indulge himself in grief; but the natural levity and imbecility of his mind prevented him from acting in any degree as became him. Instead of resolutely adhering to his first determination of not allowing Cary to set foot in Scotland, he in a few days gave his consent that he should be admitted to an audience of certain members of his privy-council, who took a journey to the borders on purpose to wait upon him. In this conference, Cary demanded that the league of amity between the two kingdoms should be inviolably observed. He said that his mistress was grieved at the death of Mary, which had happened without her consent; and, in Elizabeth's name, offered any satisfaction that James could demand. The Scots commissioners treated Cary's speech and proposal with becoming disdain. They observed, that they amounted to no more than to know whether James was disposed to sell his mother's blood; adding, that the Scottish nobility and people were determined to revenge it, and to interest in their quarrel the other princes of Europe. On this Cary delivered to them the letter from Elizabeth, together with a declaration of his own concerning the murder of the queen; and it does not appear that he proceeded farther.

This reception of her ambassador threw Elizabeth into the utmost consternation. She was apprehensive that James would join his force to that of Spain, and entirely overwhelm her; and had the resentment or the spirit of the king been equal to that of the nation, it is probable that the haughty English princess would have been made severely to repent her perfidy and cruelty. It does not, however, appear, that James had any serious intention of calling Elizabeth to an account for the murder of his mother; for which, perhaps, his natural imbecility may be urged as an excuse, though it is more probable that his own necessity for money had swallowed up every other consideration. By the league formerly concluded with England, it had been agreed that Elizabeth should pay an annual pension to the king of Scotland. James had neither economy to make his own revenue answer his purposes, nor address to get it increased. He was therefore always in want; and as Elizabeth had plenty to spare, her friendship became a valuable acquisition. To this consideration, joined to his view of ascending the English throne, must chiefly be ascribed the little resentment shown by him to the atrocious conduct of Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was not wanting in the arts of dissimulation and treachery now more than formerly. She prosecuted and fined Secretary Davidson and Lord Burleigh for the active part they had taken in Mary's death. Their punishment was indeed much less than they deserved, but they certainly did not merit such treatment at her hands. Walsingham, though equally guilty, yet escaped by pretending indisposition, or perhaps escaped because the queen had now occasion for his services. By her command he drew up a long letter addressed to Lord Thirlston, King James's prime minister; in which he showed the necessity of putting Mary to death, and the folly of attempting to revenge it. He boasted of the superior force of England to that of Scotland; showed James that he would for ever ruin his pretensions to the English crown, by involving the two nations in a war; that he ought not to trust foreign alliances; that the Catholic party were so divided among themselves, that he could receive little or no assistance from them, even supposing him so ill-advised as to change his own religion for Popery, and that they would not trust his sincerity. Lastly, He attempted to show, that James had already discharged all the duty towards his mother and his own reputation that could be expected from an affectionate son and a wise king; that his interceding for her with a concern so becoming nature, had endeared him to the kingdom of England; but that it would be madness to push his resentment farther.

This letter had all the effect that could be desired. James gave an audience to the English ambassador; and being assured that his blood was not tainted by the execution of his mother for treason against Elizabeth, but that he was still capable of succeeding to the crown of England, he consented to make up matters, and to address the murderer of his mother by the title of loving and affectionate sister.

The reign of James, till his accession to the crown of England by Elizabeth's death in 1603, affords little matter of moment. His scandalous concessions to Elizabeth, and his constant applications to her for money, filled up the measure of his meanness. Ever since the expulsion of Mary, the country had in fact been reduced to the condition of an English province. The sovereign had been tried by the queen of England, and executed for treason; a crime, in the very nature of the thing impossible, had not Scotland been in subjection to England; and to complete all, the contemptible successor of Mary thought himself well off that he was not a traitor. Scotland, traitor too, to his sovereign the queen of England we must suppose, for the case will admit of no other supposition.

During the reign of James, the religious disturbances which began at the reformation, and that violent struggle of the clergy for power which never ceased till the revolution in 1688, went on with great violence. Constant clamours were raised against Popery, at the same time that the very fundamental principles of Popery were held, nay urged in the most insolent manner, as the effects of immediate inspiration. These were the total independence of the clergy on every earthly power, at the same time that all earthly powers were to be subject to them. Their fantastic decrees were supposed to be binding in heaven; and they took care that they should be binding on earth, for whoever had offended so far as to fall under a sentence of excommunication was declared an outlaw.

It is easy to see that this circumstance must have contributed to disturb the public tranquillity in a great degree. But besides this, the weakness of James's government was such, that, under the name of peace, the whole kingdom was involved in the miseries of civil war; the feudal animosities revived, and slaughter and murder prevailed all over the country. James, fitted only for pedantry, disputed, argued, modelled, and re-modelled, the constitution to no purpose. The clergy continued their insolence, and the laity their violences on one another; at the same time that the king, by his unhappy credulity in the operation of demons and witches, declared a most inhuman and bloody war against the poor old women, many of whom were burnt for the imaginary crime of conversing with the devil.

King James had for some time formed a matrimonial scheme, and had fixed his eyes on the princess Anne, daughter of Frederic II., king of Denmark. Queen Elizabeth attempted to embarrass this marriage as she had done that of his mother, but James overlooked all obstacles by an effort of gallantry of which he was deemed incapable. On the 22d of October, 1589, he sailed to Denmark and married the princess Anne, then in the 16th year of her age. The character of this princess has been generally represented in a very unfavourable light, but probably the imputations which have been cast on it, arose more from prejudice than reality.

In autumn 1600, a remarkable conspiracy happened against the liberty, if not the life, of the king. The attainder and execution of the earl of Gowrie for the part he acted in the raid of Ruthven and for subsequent practices of treason, have been already mentioned. His son, however, had been restored to his paternal dignity and estates, and had in consequence professed gratitude and attachment to the king. But the Presbyterian clergy continued to express their approbation of the raid of Ruthven, and to declare on every occasion that in their opinion the earl of Gowrie had suffered by an unjust sentence. One of the most eminent and popular of that order of men was preceptor to the younger Gowrie and his brothers, who, from their frequent conversations with him, must have been deeply impressed with the belief that their father was murdered. The passion of revenge took possession of their breasts; and having invited the king from Falkland to the earl of Gowrie's house at Perth, under the pretence of showing him a secret treasure of foreign gold, which he might lawfully appropriate to his own use, an attempt was made to keep him a close prisoner, with threats of putting him to instant death if he should make any attempt to regain his liberty.

The reality of this conspiracy has been questioned by many writers, for no other reason, as it would appear, but because they could not assign a rational motive for Gowrie's engaging in so hazardous an enterprise; and some have even insinuated that the conspiracy was entered into by the king against Gowrie in order to get possession of his large estates. It has been shown however by Arnot, in his Criminal Trials, with a force of evidence which leaves no room for doubt, that the conspiracy was the earl's, who seems to have intended that the king should be cut off by the hand of an assassin; and the same acute and discriminating writer has made it appear highly probable, that he entertained hopes, in the then distracted state of the nation not ill founded, of being able to mount the throne of his murdered sovereign.

The particulars of this conspiracy, as far as they can be collected from the trial of the conspirators, and the depositions of the witnesses, published by Mr Arnot and the earl of Cromarty, are as follows. On the 5th of August at seven in the morning, while the king was about

(z) The family of Ruthven had long been looked upon as the head of that party which was attached to England and the reformation; and the accomplishments of the latter Gowrie qualified him to be the leader of an enterprising faction. The importance he derived from aristocratic influence over his extensive domains, and from the attachment of a powerful party in church and state, was embellished with the lustre of a regal descent. Thus ambition, as well as revenge, might stimulate him to his daring enterprise. Indeed, if his attempt was to be directed against the life of the king, it could no longer be safe for him to remain in the condition of a subject; and the indecent and malicious imputation of bastardy, with which the fanatics reproached King James, might afford a plausible pretext for excluding the royal offspring. The family of Hamilton, next heir to the crown, had long lost its popularity, and the earl of Arran, its head, had lost his judgment; and, though there undoubtedly were several families interposed between Gowrie and the crown in the strict line of succession, none of them probably possessed power and popularity to support their right. But if Gowrie and his brother were really endowed with those personal accomplishments which have been so highly extolled, and which made their countrymen conceive the most sanguine hopes of their early virtues; it is absurd to suppose Lord Gowrie to have flattered himself, that in a country where the church was in danger, where the trumpet of sedition was sounded by the ministers who fortified the chief block-house of the Lord's Jerusalem, his piety, popularity, and bravery, should supply the defect in title, and make him be called, while there were nearer heirs to the crown; as has since happened in the same country, on a similar occasion. Alexander Ruthven, brother of the earl of Gowrie, addressed him in a very familiar manner. After the hunt was over, the king desired the duke of Lenox to accompany him to the earl of Gowrie's at Perth, telling him that Alexander Ruthven had invited him to get some hidden treasure, but desired the duke to have an eye to himself, and to follow him wherever he went with Alexander Ruthven. When they arrived at the earl of Gowrie's, it was observed that the earl's servants were armed. After the king had dined, Ruthven carried him to the uppermost part of the house, where he attempted to make him a prisoner, and to bind his hands; but the king resisted, and called out treason from the window. Sir John Ramsay, who carried the king's hawk, first entered the chamber, where he saw Ruthven struggling with the king. Ramsay soon despatched the traitor; and the earl of Gowrie entering with a sword in each hand, and followed by armed men, there ensued a short conflict, in which the earl was mortally wounded by Sir John Ramsay.

For this eminent service Sir John Ramsay was ennobled; and though Gowrie and his brother fell in the struggle, they were attainted by an act of parliament, which decreed their name, memory, and dignity, to be extinguished; their arms to be cancelled; their whole estates to be forfeited and annexed to the crown; the name of Ruthven to be abolished; and their posterity and surviving brethren to be incapable of succeeding to, or of holding, any offices, honours, or possessions.

The most memorable transaction of James's reign, and that most to his honour, is the civilizing of the Western islanders. For this purpose, he instituted a company of gentlemen adventurers, to whom he gave large privileges for reforming them. The method he proposed was to transport numbers of them to his low countries in Scotland, and to give their islands, which were very improvable, in fee to his lowland subjects who should choose to reside in the islands. The experiment was to be made upon the Lewes, a long range of the Ebudes; whence the adventurers expelled Murdoch Macleod, the tyrant of the inhabitants. Macleod, however, kept the sea; and intercepting a ship which carried one of the chief adventurers, he sent him prisoner to Orkney, after putting the crew to the sword. Macleod was soon after betrayed by his own brother, and hanged at St Andrew's. The history of this new undertaking is rather dark; and the settlers themselves seem to have been defective in the arts of civilization. The arrangements they made were considered by the inhabitants as very oppressive; and one Norman, of the Macleod family, attacked and subdued them so effectually, that they not only consented to yield the property of the islands to him, but engaged to obtain the king's pardon for what he had done.

From the conspiracy of the Gowries there are few transactions deserving of notice in the reign of James VI. till the death of Queen Elizabeth, in 1603, called him to the English throne. From that period the affairs of Scotland are so intimately blended with those of England, that they cannot properly be considered apart. We have accordingly given a detail of the transactions of both countries from the accession of James to the throne of England, in the article Britain. Some circumstances more peculiarly relating to Scotland, will be found under the articles Edinburgh, Leith, and Glasgow.

We shall conclude the historical part of this article with a brief review of the state of affairs in Scotland from the introduction of the reformed religion, and a general statement of the effects produced, by the accession of James, on the state of his native kingdom.

The period of the reformation may be regarded as the period of crimes. The people were reformed from Papacy to Protestantism; but there was no reform in their morals. It was the fashion to declaim about religion; but if we may judge from the facts related by the annalists of those revolutionary times, religion had but little influence on the lives and manners of the people. Conspiracy followed conspiracy, and crime succeeded crime in rapid succession. History evinces that every great revolution produces the most unhappy effects on the human character; and it is certain from the annals of the reformation in Scotland, that the turbulent spirit of the people received an additional incitement from the civil conflicts of the superior classes.

We have seen that the reformers were more studious to pull down than to build. The whole estates of the ancient church were appropriated by the nobles before any proper establishment was made for the reformed clergy. Laws for promoting and securing the reformation were ratified on every topic, except that of providing for the ministers of the new religion. The church judicatories and the reformed clergy took the place, and assumed the practices, of the Papal establishment and the Popish functionaries. The ministers censured from the pulpits the conduct of the court; they disputed the authority of the king, and promoted tumults and sedition through the nation, so that the king and the parliament found it necessary to enact a variety of laws for enforcing the obedience of the ecclesiastical to the civil power; and some of the clergy continuing contumacious, they were expelled the kingdom. From this measure, however necessary it might be deemed, the king acquired much popular odium; and it was the prelude to continual disputes between him and the leaders of the reformation. In 1580, a convention of the clergy assembled at Dundee, and passed a resolution abolishing Episcopacy. This was opposed by a counter declaration from the king; and in 1597, the parliament passed a law, by which it was enacted, that "ministers, provided to prelacy, should have a place in the three estates."

In order to erect the assumptions of the newly formed church on the ruins of the state, the clergy had proceeded to such lengths, that it became necessary to oppose barriers to their pretensions. So early as the year 1584, the parliament had passed an act, declaring, that the honour, authority, and dignity, of the estates shall stand and continue in their ancient integrity, supreme over all things and all persons; and, to support this declaration by an adequate penalty, it was further declared to be treason to call in question, or to diminish, the power of the three estates. All other conventions or assemblies that pretended to meet without the king's authority, were denounced as illegal. What was thus declared amid the ravings of anarchy respecting the supreme power of the state, constituted only new affirmations of the ancient law; but these wise provisions were followed... lowed by a whole code respecting the constituent members, the mode of sitting, and the authority of the three estates. This code was drawn up in the 11th parliament of James VI.

As a new power had arisen rather in the church than in the state, disputing the king's legal capacity, the 18th parliament in its zeal passed an act, acknowledging the royal prerogative and the privilege of the crown over all estates, persons, and causes; and this prerogative and privilege the three estates engaged to maintain with their lives, lands, and goods. Besides this, they provided a standing guard for the safety of the king's person.

The judicial power of the state had acquired a useful improvement by the establishment of the college of justice in the preceding reign; but if the senators could not act without question by individuals, justice held her scales in vain. Amid the wildness and irascibility of those times, some of the judges had been thus questioned, and the parliament interposed in behalf of justice, by declaring, that whoever should challenge a senator for his opinion, should be punished with death.

During the early ages of the Scottish nation, clanship from blood had existed in every part of North Britain. Throughout the whole Sco-to-Saxon period there existed, as we have seen, from conquest and from birth, a state of universal vilenage, which disappeared in the 15th century. Amid the anarchy of subsequent times, there arose various clans, which were divided, according to the policy of those times, into clans of the Borders and clans of the Highlands. From such a state of society, and from the want of employment, we may account for the facility with which great bodies of men were then drawn together at the call of every petty chieftain. In some measure to counteract this facility of exciting disturbance and rebellion, the parliament of 1587 had passed an act, by which the chiefs of all the clans were obliged to give security for their peaceable demeanour, and were made answerable for the enormities committed by their adherents. By the union of the two crowns, however, the clans of the borders were in a great measure dissolved, and the quiet of that part of the kingdom finally established.*

The Scots had so long considered their monarchs as next heirs to the English throne, that they had full leisure to reflect on all the consequences of their being advanced to that dignity. But dazzled with the glory of giving a sovereign to their powerful enemy, relying on the partiality of their native prince, and in full expectation of sharing liberally in the wealth and honours which he would now be able to bestow, they attended little to the most obvious consequences of that great event, and rejoiced at his accession to the throne of England, as if it had been no less beneficial to the kingdom than honourable to the king. They soon had reason, however, to adopt very different sentiments, and from that period we may date a total alteration in the political constitution of Scotland.

The feudal aristocracy which had been subverted in most nations of Europe by the policy of their princes, or had been undermined by the progress of commerce, still subsisted with full force in Scotland. Many causes had contributed gradually to augment the power of the Scottish nobles; and even the Reformation, which, in every other country where it prevailed, added to the authority of the monarch, had increased their wealth and influence. A king possessed of a small revenue with a prerogative extremely limited, and unsupported by a standing army, could not exercise much authority over such potent subjects. He was obliged to govern by expedients; and the laws derived their force not from his power to execute them, but from the voluntary submission of the nobles. But though this produced a species of government extremely feeble and irregular; though Scotland, under the name and with all the outward ensigns of a monarchy, was really subject to an aristocracy, the people were not altogether unhappy; and even in this wild form of a constitution, there were principles which tended to their security and advantage. The king, checked and overawed by the nobles, durst venture upon no act of arbitrary power. The nobles, jealous of the king, whose claims and pretensions were many, though his power was small, were afraid of irritating their dependants by unreasonable exactions, and tempered the rigour of aristocratical tyranny with a mildness and equality to which it is naturally a stranger. As long as the military genius of the feudal government remained in vigour, the vassals both of the crown and of the barons were generally not only free from oppression, but were courted by their superiors, whose power and importance were founded on their attachment and love.

But, by his accession to the throne of England, James acquired such an immense accession of wealth, of power, and of splendour, that the nobles, astonished and intimidated, thought it vain to struggle for privileges which they were now unable to defend. Nor was it from fear alone that they submitted to the yoke. James, partial to his countrymen, and willing that they should partake in his good fortune, loaded them with riches and honours; and the hope of his favour concurred with the dread of his power in taming their fierce and independent spirits. The will of the prince became the supreme law in Scotland; and the nobles strove, with emulation, who should most implicitly obey commands which they had formerly been accustomed to contemn. Satisfied with having subjected the nobles to the crown, the king left them in full possession of their ancient jurisdiction over their own vassals. The extensive rights, vested in a feudal chief, became in their hands dreadful instruments of oppression; and the military ideas, on which these rights were founded, being gradually lost or disregarded, nothing remained to correct or to mitigate the rigours with which they were exercised. The nobles, exhausting their fortunes by the expense of frequent attendance upon the English court, and by attempts to imitate the manners and luxury of their more wealthy neighbours, multiplied exactions upon the people, who durst hardly utter complaints, which they knew would never reach the ear of their sovereign, nor move him to grant any redress.

At their accession to the throne of England, the kings of Scotland, once the most limited, became, in an instant, the most absolute princes in Europe, and exercised a despotic authority, which their parliaments were unable to controul, or their nobles to resist.

The church felt the effects of the absolute power which the king acquired by his accession; and its revolutions, too, are worthy of notice. James, during the latter years of his administration in Scotland, had revived the name and office of bishops. But they possessed Scotland, no ecclesiastical jurisdiction or pre-eminence; their revenues were inconsiderable; and they were scarcely distinguished by any thing but by their seat in parliament, and by being the object of the clergy's jealousy and the people's hatred. The king, delighted with the splendour and authority which the English bishops enjoyed, and eager to effect a union in the ecclesiastical policy which he had in vain attempted in the civil government of the two kingdoms, resolved to bring both churches to an exact conformity with each other. Three Scotsmen were consecrated bishops at London. From them their brethren were commanded to receive orders. Ceremonies unknown in Scotland were imposed; and, though the clergy, less obsequious than the nobles, boldly opposed the innovations, James, long practised and well skilled in the arts of managing them, obtained at length their compliance.*

The monuments of antiquity belonging to North Britain may be considered under three heads, as they belong to the Celtic period, the Roman period, or the Scooto-Irish period. Of the first of these periods very few monuments now remain, and these are chiefly of the tumular kind; consisting either of circles of stones, the evident remains of druidical worship, or of the remains of the hill forts, which appear to have been employed by the ancient Caledonians as places of defence. Of these hill forts there is a remarkable example at Barrow-hill in Aberdeenshire, which is described and figured by Mr Chalmers;† and a similar fort appears to have existed at Barry-hill near Alyth in Perthshire.

The remains of the Roman period in North Britain appear chiefly in the celebrated wall built in the reign of Antoninus Pius, between the friths of Forth and Clyde; in the ruins of which many curious inscriptions have been found. Another striking object of this epoch was a small edifice, vulgarly called Arthur's oven, which seems to have been regarded by some antiquaries as a small temple, dedicated to the god Terminus; probably after the erection of the wall of Antoninus, for we are not to conceive that these walls were the absolute lines, beyond which the Romans possessed no territory; while, on the contrary, in the pacific intervals, the garrisons along the wall may have claimed the foliage of the exterior fields; and the stream of Carron, beyond which this chapel stood, may have been considered as a necessary supply of water. The remains of the wall and forts, and other Roman antiquities in Scotland, particularly their camps and stations, many of which are remarkably entire, are ably illustrated in a publication of General Roy, and in the Caledonia of Mr Chalmers. General Roy, indeed, has too implicitly followed a common antiquarian error, in ascribing all these camps, stations, &c. to Agricola; while they may be more justly assigned to Lollius Urbicus, A.D. 140, or to the emperor Severus, A.D. 207, especially, indeed, to the latter; for the emperor's appearance in person to conduct two campaigns, probably as far as Inverness, must have occasioned the erection of works more eminent and durable than usual; the soldiers being excited by the animating counsell of a military monarch. In the reign of Domitian, Bolanus, as we learn from Statius the poet, erected several works in Britain, probably in the north; so that it is idle to impute these remains to any one author: but, to a judicious eye, the claims of Lollius Urbicus and of Severus seem preferable. One of the most northerly Roman camps yet discovered, is that near the source of the river Ythan, Aberdeenshire; periphery about two English miles. A smaller station has also been observed at Old Melvrum, a few miles to the south-east.

Four remarkable Roman stations are described and figured by Mr Chalmers; one on the north bank of the river Dee, near Peter-Culter in Aberdeenshire, occupying about eight Scotch acres;* a second in Banffshire on the southern bank of the Spey, near its mouth;† a third on the eastern bank of the river Findhorn, near Forres, which we believe to be the Varis of the Romans;‡ and a fourth, now called the Green Castle, near Clattering Brig in Kincardineshire, forming a fort whose internal area measures nearly 158 feet, by 262 feet.§

Roman roads have been traced a considerable way in the east of Scotland, as far as the county of Angus, affording some evidence of the existence of the province of Vespasiana; but the chief remains are within the wall. A hypocaust was also discovered near Perth, and another near Musselburgh, so that there was probably some Roman station near the Scottish capital; but the name of Alaterva is a ridiculous error, arising from an inscription by some foreign cohort to obscure goddesses of their own country, styled Matres Alatervae. The smaller remains of Roman antiquity found in Scotland, as coins, utensils, &c. are numerous.

There remain few monuments of antiquity that can be referred to the earlier part of the Scooto-Irish period. These consist principally of stone pillars and obelisks of rude workmanship, and generally without inscriptions. There are, however, some remarkable sculptured monuments referable to this period, such as the upright stones that stand in a cultivated field near Cargil, and are carved with figures of the moon and stars; a sculptured pillar near Forres, supposed to refer to the expulsion of the Danes in the reign of Malcolm II.; a hieroglyphical column which stands conspicuous on the moor of Rhyne in Aberdeenshire; some carved stones in the churchyard of Meigle, and perhaps the chapel of St Regulus at St Andrew's.

Among the antiquities of this period we must not omit to mention the remarkable terrace-hills, which are seen in many parts of Scotland (especially in Peeblesshire, as in the parish of Newlands). These hills appear to have served the purpose of amphitheatres, where the people witnessed the exhibition of plays and other public sports.

The monuments of antiquity that have been referred to the Picts, are rather of doubtful authenticity. These round towers, composed of stones without cement, which have been called Picts houses, and are still found in the Orkney islands, and in some parts of the north of Scotland, are generally considered as the remains of the nation whose name they bear, though Mr Chalmers will have them to be the remains of the old Celtic architecture.

Many Danish monuments have been described by antiquaries as existing in North Britain; but the characters of most of them are not sufficiently distinct to ascertain their Danish origin. One of the most certain Danish antiquities is found in the churchyard of Ruthwell in Dumfries-shire. When this monument was entire, it appears to have been about 18 feet high without its pedestal, Scotland, pedestal, and to have been sculptured on each of its four sides with foliage, birds, and marine animals, and inscribed with Runic letters. This curious pillar, which seems to be almost the only Runic remain in Scotland, was formerly held in such high veneration by the common people, that a decree of the general assembly of the kirk, in 1644, ordained it to be thrown down as an object of idolatry.

Of the numerous remains of castles, cathedrals, and monasteries, which occur in almost every part of Scotland, our limits do not permit us to take particular notice. Many of them have been already described under the names of the places where they are found; and such of our readers as desire a more particular account of these interesting ruins, may consult the Beauties of Scotland, where their curiosity will be amply gratified.

In our tabular view of the counties of Scotland, we have noted the population of each county as it was ascertained in 1801 and 1811, from which it appeared, that, in the latter year, the whole population of Scotland amounted to 1,805,688. From these, and other facts, there can be no doubt that the general population of the country is increasing. Thus it appears, that, in the year 1755, there were in Scotland about 1,265,000 souls; and, in 1791, 1,526,000. (a) Of the population in 1811, 907,431 persons lived in towns, and 898,257 in the country. The number of families was 402,068, of which 125,799 were chiefly employed in agriculture, 169,417 in trade, manufactures, and handicrafts, and 106,852 in other occupations. The total number of houses was 315,422. The annual number of baptisms was computed to be 53,162; of burials 37,032; and of marriages 15,026. (See Colquhoun's Treatise on the Wealth and Power of the British Empire, 1815.)

The government of Scotland since the union has been blended with that of England. The chief distinction between the original constitution of the two countries was, that Scotland had no house of commons, the parliament consisting of all descriptions, assembled in one hall. That enlightened prince James I. of Scotland, endeavoured to establish a house of commons in imitation of that of England, where he was educated; but the people most firmly and vigorously defended their ancient customs. The most splendid remaining feature of government in Scotland is the general assembly. Next to this may be classed the high courts of justice, especially that styled the Session, lately consisting of a president and fourteen senators. The Lords of Council and Session, as they are styled in Scotland, upon their promotion to office, assume a title, generally from the name of an estate, by which they are known and addressed, as if peers by creation, while they are only constituted lords by superior interests or talents. This court is the last resort in civil causes, and the only appeal is to the British house of peers. The justiciary court, which is the criminal court of Scotland, consists of five judges, who are likewise lords of session; but with a president, styled the lord justice clerk, as he is understood to represent the formerly great office of justice general, an office which still continues, though it may be considered rather as a post of honour and profit. This is the supreme court in criminal causes, which are determined by the majority of a jury, and not by their unanimity as in England. There is also a court of exchequer, consisting of a lord chief baron and four barons, who have the chief jurisdiction over the public revenue of Scotland; and a high court of admiralty, in which there is only one judge, who is the king's lieutenant and justice general on the high seas, and in all ports and harbours. From this court there is no appeal in maritime cases. The keepers of the great and privy seals, and the lord-register or keeper of the records, may also be mentioned under this head.

Besides the above national judges, there is in every county, a sheriff, who acts as chief magistrate, and whose jurisdiction extends to some criminal cases, and to all civil matters which are not by special law or custom appropriated to other courts.

The recent changes which have been made in the court of session, by dividing it into two houses, and by establishing a jury court for introducing this mode of trial in civil cases, are well calculated to favour the despatch of business, and to improve the administration of justice. At present the court of session consists of two divisions, the first of which is composed of eight judges, having the lord-president at their head, while in the second there are seven judges, whose president is the lord justice clerk; and three of the former, and two of the latter, act as permanent judges-ordinary. (b)

At the union in 1709, the revenue of Scotland was public only 160,000l. In 1789, Sir John Sinclair has stated the proportion of the public revenues furnished by North Britain to be as follows. The produce of the Scotch customs, in the year ending January 5th 1789, was 250,839l.; from which was deducted for debentures, bounties, salaries, and incidents, 171,638l. The average yearly amount of the money belonging to the exchequer is 72,500l. The salt duties in the same year yielded 18,043l., from which was deducted for drawbacks, salaries, &c. 8749l. The duties of excise for that year exceeded 422,000l.; the expense of management 83,982l. The stamp duties amounted to 73,877l.; the charges of managing and collecting were 8032l. The whole revenue of Scotland for 1788 was 1,059,148l. The expenditure was as follows—expenses of the crown 60,342l.; expenditure of the public 173,921l.; bounties, drawbacks, &c. 127,629l.; public expenses settled by the union, and by subsequent acts of parliament, 64,868l.; cash remitted to the English exchequer 628,031l.; balance remaining for national purposes 44,307l.

To the above statement of Sir John Sinclair must be added the income arising from the posts, which in 1801 amounted

(a) This last number is taken from the returns published in Sir John Sinclair's account. According to the returns in the population act in 1801, Scotland, at that period, contained 294,553 inhabited houses, 9537 uninhabited houses, 364,079 families, 734,581 males, 864,487 females, making a total of 1,599,068 inhabitants; of whom 965,516 were chiefly employed in agriculture; 293,378 chiefly employed in trade, manufactures, and handicrafts, and 833,914 were not included in these two classes.

(b) For an account of the first establishment of the College of Justice by James V. see N° 473. Scotland amounted to £89,817; and the product of the income tax, which about the same time yielded £344,015, was paid by 20,537 persons of various professions, whose incomes were assessed at £4,512,570. Thus the whole revenue of Scotland at the end of the 18th century, may be estimated at nearly one million and a half.

In 1813, the gross revenue of Scotland amounted to £4,519,892, and, deducting charges of management, the net revenue was £4,155,599. The gross receipt of customs that year, was £857,744; of excise £1,726,900; of the property tax £966,790; of the land tax £24,551; of the assessed taxes £412,977; of stamps £348,523; of the post-office £167,877; miscellaneous £14,526.

At the Union, the revenue of Scotland was only 1/8th of the revenue of Great Britain, but in 1813 it was rather more than 1/7th; and at the latter date, the revenue of Scotland was to that of Ireland nearly as 7 to 8.

In 1818, the gross produce of the customs for Scotland was £904,080, and the net produce £760,926. The gross produce of excise the same year was £2,199,988, and the net produce £1,808,700. The gross produce of stamps was £462,516, and the net produce £439,533.

It appears that the hereditary revenue of the crown in Scotland was so much diminished during the 18th century by lavish grants made by the crown, and a neglect in collecting what remained, as to amount in 1788 to only £800.

Scotland is represented in the British Parliament by 16 peers, chosen by the whole body of the Scottish peerage, and by 45 commoners, of whom 30 are elected by the counties, and the remaining 15 by as many districts of royal boroughs, one by each district. The following table will show what royal boroughs belong to each district.

| Districts | Members | |------------------------------------------------|---------| | 1. Edinburgh city | | | 2. Aberdeen, Aberbrothie, Bervie, Montrose, and Brechin | 1 | | 3. Ayr, Irving, Inverary, Rothsay, and Campbeltown | 1 | | 4. Anstruther Easter and Wester, Crail, Kilrenny, and Pittenweem | 1 | | 5. Banff, Cullen, Kintore, Elgin and Inverury | 1 | | 6. Stirling, Culross, Inverkeithing, Dunfermline, and Queensferry | 1 | | 7. Perth, Dundee, Forfar, St Andrew's, and Cupar Fife | 1 | | 8. Glasgow, Renfrew, Rutherglen, and Dumbarton | 1 | | 9. Dumfries, Sanquhar, Annan, Lochmaben, and Kirkcudbright | 1 | | 10. Inverness, Fortrose, Nairn, and Forres | 1 | | 11. Kinghorn, Dysart, Kirkcaldy, and Burntisland | 1 | | 12. Jedburgh, Haddington, Lauder, Dunbar, and North Berwick | 1 | | 13. Selkirk, Peebles, Lanark, and Linlithgow | 1 | | 14. Stranraer, Wigton, Whitehorn, and New Galloway | 1 | | 15. Kirkwall, Tain, Dingwall, Wick, and Dornoch | 1 |

The county members are elected by gentlemen possessed of landed property, or superiorities of lands valued in the cess-books of the county at 400l. Scots yearly rent, according to a valuation first introduced during the administration of Cromwell, and afterwards sanctioned by parliament.

The law of Scotland differs essentially from that of England, as the former is founded in a great measure on the civil law, while the latter depends chiefly on the statutes or acts of parliament. The law of Scotland also consists partly of statute law; but as many of its ancient statutes have never been enforced, the chief rule of practice arises from the decisions of the court of session, which are carefully preserved and published, and afford precedents that are generally deemed unexceptionable. The civil and canon laws may be said to form the two great pillars of Scottish judicature, for of common law there is scarcely a trace. The modes of procedure in Scotland are in general free from many of those legal fictions which disgrace the laws of some other countries, though it may be regarded as a fiction, that a debtor who refuses or neglects to pay, should be proclaimed a rebel to the king. The procedure in cases of debt is peculiarly mild in Scotland. No man can be suddenly arrested as in England; but he is first put to the horn, as it is termed, after which a certain delay is granted before the caption or arrest takes place. For a particular account of the Scottish laws, see the article Law.

The Presbyterian church government, which, since the revolution in 1688, has formed the established religion in Scotland, is founded on an equality of authority among all its pastors or presbyters, and is modelled after the Calvinistic plan adopted at Geneva, and recommended to the Scotch reformers by the celebrated John Knox. This form of church government, therefore, excludes all pre-eminence of rank, as all the ministers are on an equal footing. The want of ceremony in the ordinances of the Scottish church is unpleasing to the eye of a stranger who has been brought up in the Catholic or Lutheran persuasion. He will particularly be led to make a comparison between the form or rather mode of burial in Scotland and the burial service of England, very unfavourable to the former. He will contrast the hurried step, and indifferent if not noisy behaviour of the bearers and attendants, and the uncereemonious deposition of the body in the earth, according to the Scotch custom, with the slow and measured pace, the serious demeanour and melancholy silence, the solemn and impressive burial-service, at an English funeral; and he cannot but give the preference to the latter, as being alone calculated to produce sentiments of awe and becoming thoughts of death and a future state, both on the actors and spectators of the solemn scene.

The most ceremonious ordinance of the Scotch church is the administration of the sacrament. This takes place twice a year, and the communicants are generally very numerous, though in most parishes they must have previously been examined by the minister, and received from him a token of their qualification. Before the sacrament is administered, a solemn fast is held on the preceding Thursday, and the communicants attend divine worship in the forenoon on the Saturday preceding, and the Monday following the sacrament Sunday.

The former austerity of the Scottish clergy is considerably relaxed; but some marks of the ancient strictness of discipline still remain. In particular, the stool of repentance, so commonly used in the age of fanaticism, The ecclesiastical power is distributed among the judicatories of the church in the following manner. Scotland is divided into 935 parishes, each of which has one or more ministers, who discharge the pastoral office according to their discretion, and are accountable only to the presbytery of which they are members. In matters relating to discipline, the ministers are assisted by elders, selected from among the most intelligent and regular of his parishioners; but these elders have no right to teach, or to dispense the sacraments. Their proper office is to watch over the morals of the people, to question them as to their knowledge of the church catechism, and to visit the sick. In attending to the interests of the poor, they also discharge the office of deacons, or church-wardens, and are commonly called ruling elders. The ruling elders and the minister of the parish form what is called the kirk-session, which is the lowest assembly of ecclesiastical judicature in Scotland. The kirk-session distributes among the poor the alms which are collected at the church doors every Sunday, and it takes cognisance of petty offences against religion and good morals. Neither the kirk-session, nor any other ecclesiastical court, however, can impose any civil penalty, but must confine its punishments to private or public admonitions, or refusing to the offender admission to the sacraments of the church. Next above the kirk-session is the presbytery, composed of an indefinite number of ministers of contiguous parishes, with one ruling elder, elected half-yearly as the representative of each kirk-session; so that a presbytery is composed of an equal number of ministers and elders. The presbyteries take cognizance of all ecclesiastical matters within their bounds; judge in cases of appeal from the kirk-sessions, and judge of the qualifications of candidates for admission to holy orders. Three or more adjacent presbyteries form a synod, of which there are 15. The synod is a court of appeal from the presbyteries within its bounds, and has the power of confirming or reversing the judgments of those inferior assemblies, an appeal lying from it to the general assembly. This is the great ecclesiastical court of Scotland, and is composed of representatives from presbyteries, universities, and royal boroughs, in the following proportion. The presbyteries send 200 ministers, and 89 ruling elders; the royal boroughs 67 elders, and the universities five representatives, who may be either ministers or elders. These representatives are elected annually, and the assembly itself meets once a year, and holds its sittings for about 10 days, after which it is dissolved by the moderator or the ecclesiastical president, and by the lord commissioner, who sits in it as the representative of the king. The general assembly judges in appeals from the synods, and it can also enact laws which are binding on the whole church for one year. A permanent law can be made only in the following manner. It must be decreed by a majority of the general assembly, and be afterwards remitted to the consideration of all the presbyteries. If a majority of these approve it, and if it is also approved by the succeeding general assembly, it becomes a law, and can be repealed only in the form in which it was enacted.

The numbers of presbyteries and parishes which compose each synod, will appear from the following table:

| Synods | Presb. | Parishes | |-------------------------|--------|----------| | 1. Lothian and Tweeddale | 7 | 107 | | 2. Merse and Teviotdale | 6 | 67 | | 3. Dumfries | 5 | 54 | | 4. Galloway | 3 | 37 | | 5. Glasgow and Ayr | 7 | 123 | | 6. Perth and Stirling | 5 | 79 | | 7. Fife | 4 | 65 | | 8. Forfar and Mearns | 6 | 81 | | 9. Aberdeen | 9 | 103 | | 10. Murray | 7 | 53 | | 11. Ross | 3 | 24 | | 12. Sutherland and Caithness | 3 | 23 | | 13. Argyle | 5 | 52 | | 14. Glenelg | 5 | 29 | | 15. Orkney | 4 | 38 |

The stipends or salaries of the ministers are paid by the proprietors of the lands within their parishes, called the heritors, and are fixed by the court of session acting as a committee of the Scottish parliament. They are usually paid partly in money and partly in kind, and in general the latter is preferred by the minister.

There are in Scotland numerous dissenters from the established persuasion. Of these, some differ in nothing but their ideas of church-government, as those which are called the churches of Relief. These compose a single synod, comprising six presbyteries, viz. Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Ninians, Dysart, Perth and Dumfries, and about 73 parishes. Two of the principal sects of Scotch dissenters, or, as they are called, Seceders, are the Burghers and Antiburghers, both independent of the established church, and differing from each other principally in this circumstance, that the Burghers admit the legality of the oaths taken by burgesses in some of the royal boroughs, while the latter deny the legality of these oaths. The Burghers are the more numerous body, and comprise a single synod, comprehending 10 presbyteries, viz. those of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Falkirk and Stirling, Dunfermline, Perth, Coldstream, Selkirk, Lanark, and Aberdeen. The Antiburgher synods are three in number, viz. the synod of Edinburgh, comprehending the presbyteries of Edinburgh, Kelso, and Dumfries; the synod of Perth, comprehending the presbyteries of Perth, Kirkcaldy, and Forfar; and the synod of Glasgow, containing the presbyteries of Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Stirling, Elgin, and Aberdeen.

Besides these dissenters, there are in Scotland seven dioceses belonging to the Episcopalian church, viz. those of Edinburgh and Fife, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Moray, Ross, Dunkeld, and Brechin; and the congregations of

(c) The general assembly owes its institution to the parliament that met in 1560, by consent of Francis and Mary, to regulate the affairs of the nation and the church; and the first assembly was held in that year. of this persuasion are numerous and respectable. The Methodists and Anabaptists are also numerous, but the Quakers are few in number.

It is well known that there prevail in Scotland two languages that are extremely different in their nature and origin, the Earse or Gaelic, spoken in the Highlands and in the Western Islands, and the Lowland Scotch, spoken in the remaining parts of the country. Of the Gaelic language we have already treated at some length in the article PHILeOLOGY, N° 205 et seq.; and shall here only give a specimen of that language in the Lord's prayer, contrasting it with the Norse language as formerly spoken in the Orkneys, and with the ancient form of the Lowland Scotch.

**Lord's Prayer in Gaelic.**

A n'Athair ata air Neamh. Gu naamhaichear t-Tinn. Tigeadh do Rioghachd. Deanadh do Thoil air an Talamh mar a nithear air Neamh. Tabhair dhuiin an diu ar n-Aran laitheil. Agus maith dhuiin ar Fiacha amhul mhaithmid d'ar leudh-fia chailbh. Agus na leig am bhuireadh sinn. Ach saor sinn o ole. Amen.

**Lord's Prayer in the Orkney Norse Language.**

Favor ir i chimre. Helleur ir i namthite. Gilla cosdum thite cumma. Veya thine mota vara gort o yurn sinna gort i chimrie. Ga vus da on da dalight brow vora. Firgive vus sinna vora sin ve forgive sindara mutha vus. Lyve us ye i tuntation. Min delivra vus fro olt it. Amen; or, on sa meteth vera.

**Lord's Prayer in Old Scotch.**

Uor fader quhilik beest i Hevin. Hallowit weird thyne nam. Cum thyne kingrik. Be dune thyne wull as is i hevin sva po yerd. Uor deillie breid gif us thilk day. And forfeit us uor skaths, as we forfeit than quha skath us. And leed us na intil tentation. Butan fre us fra evil. Amen.

By comparing the above specimens, it will be evident, that both the Norse of the Orkneys, and the old Lowland Scotch are essentially different from the Gaelic, but that the two former have some distant resemblance to each other, which may lead an etymologist, without any great stretch of fancy, to believe that they originated from the same source. It has indeed been very generally believed, and almost taken for granted, that the language spoken in the Lowlands of Scotland is merely a corrupt dialect of the Anglo-Saxon, and that it was introduced into Scotland from South Britain at no very early period. The learned author of Caledonia is decidedly of this opinion, and contends that, previous to the establishment of a Saxon monarch on the throne of Scotland in the person of Edgar, son of Malcolm Canmore, no other language but Gaelic was spoken in North Britain, except in Lothian, which may be considered as then an English settlement. He further declares that the oldest document which he has met with in the Scottish language, is a contract with the magistrates of Edinburgh in 1387.

There can be no doubt of the affinity between the Lowland Scotch and the Anglo-Saxon. The only matter in dispute is, whether the latter was borrowed from the former, or was a dialect of the same Gothic language introduced into Scotland at an earlier period. One of the most strenuous, and perhaps successful advocates for the latter opinion is Dr John Jamieson, who in his elaborate work on the Scottish language has ably controverted the arguments of Mr Chalmers, and pleaded for the independent origin of the Scottish language. This is believed by Dr Jamieson to have been spoken by the Picts, and to have been brought by them from Scandinavia; for he is decidedly of opinion, in opposition to Mr Chalmers, that the Picts were not a remnant of the ancient Caledonians under a new name, but an independent Gothic tribe, who at a very early period established themselves in the north of Scotland.

There are two principal peculiarities in the Scottish language; the use of the quh at the beginning of words, where the English use the wh, and the change of the Anglo-Saxon th into d; both which peculiarities are evidently borrowed from the northern Gothic languages.

In their pronunciation of the vowels, the Scotch follow the method of the French, and other nations of the continent, though, as in England, this general custom is subject to many anomalies. Thus the a, which in man, and most other words, is pronounced broad, is, in Father, and a few other instances, pronounced open, Feyther.

Scottish literature cannot be traced to an early period. In the middle ages it consisted, like that of other countries, in little more than meagre chronicles, composed by ill-informed and credulous monks. Indeed, according to Mr Pinkerton, the country that produced Buchanan in the 16th century, could not in the 12th boast of a single native writer. It first began to dawn in the 13th century, when Scotland, filled with a barbarous Scandinavian colony, cannot be compared, in respect of literature, with the southern countries of England and Ireland; but with Scandinavia itself, with Holland and with the north of Germany, with Poland, Prussia, Russia, and Hungary. In all these countries literature is comparatively recent, and compared with them, Scotland will not be found deficient. It must not indeed be forgotten, that in the sacred ground of Iona flourished several respectable Sco-Irish writers, who were also classed among the apostles of religion in England, such as the biographers of Columba, Cumenius, and Adamnan, the latter the friend of the English historian.

(D) We have in the early part of this article, perhaps too hastily, adopted Mr Chalmers's opinion, that the Picts were not an independent race. The arguments which Mr Chalmers has adduced in support of this opinion, so opposite to that of most antiquaries and historians, are ingenious and plausible; but as they are drawn chiefly from the names of places, rivers, &c., in North Britain, which are allowed on all hands to be generally Celtic, and are in direct opposition to the testimony of Bede, the earliest British historian, Dr Jamieson will not allow that they have the weight which at first sight they appear to merit. The earliest fragment of Scottish literature is the *Chronicon Pictum*, supposed to have been written by some Irish priest, in the beginning of the 11th century. Of the 12th century there are some fragments of the register of St Andrew's, some short chronicles published by Father Innes; the chronicle of Melrose, and that of Holyrood. Towards the conclusion of the 13th century, appeared some writers of considerable estimation, particularly Michael Scot a philosopher, mathematician and physician, and also celebrated as an astrologer and alchemist, who published voluminous commentaries on the works of Aristotle; Thomas Learmont of Ercildoun, commonly called Thomas the Rhymer, famous for his poetical compositions, and his skill in heraldry, who wrote a metrical romance called Sir Tristrem; and John Scot of Dunse, or Duns Scotus, a consummate metaphysician and voluminous writer. In the 14th century lived John of Fordoun, the author of *Scoto-Chronicon*, a historical work of considerable merit, and John Barbour, archdeacon of Aberdeen, who wrote a poem on the actions of Robert I., which is no mean monument of the industry and talents of that age. King James I., who flourished in the beginning of the 15th century, may be ranked as the next Scottish writer of eminence. He was a learned and accomplished prince, and was the author of some excellent poems. James was followed by Holland and Harry the Rhymer. In the 16th century we may notice Elphinston, bishop of Aberdeen, who composed the *Scoticorum Chronicum*, and was distinguished both for learning and piety; Dunbar, the chief of the ancient Scottish poets; Gavin Douglas, bishop of Dunkeld, who published an excellent poetical translation of Virgil's *Enied*, and David Lindsay of the Mount. John Knox, the chief instrument and promoter of the reformation; John Major and Hector Boethius, two historians of considerable note, also belonged to this century; and the admirable Crichton must not be forgotten, though the usual accounts that have been given of his accomplishments are strongly tinctured with fable and romance. At the latter end of the same period flourished the classical Buchanan, an elegant historian and Latin poet, and John Leslie bishop of Ross, the author of many esteemed works, who was versed in theology and philosophy, in the civil and canon law, and was besides an able statesman.

The learned Archbishop Spottiswood, published a judicious ecclesiastical history of Scotland; and the natural history of this country was illustrated by Sir Andrew Balfour and Sir Robert Sibbald, two of its greatest ornaments. The discovery of logarithms in the beginning of the 17th century, is the indisputable right of Napier of Merchiston; and since his time, mathematical science has been cultivated in Scotland with singular success. The works of Keil, Gregory, MacLaurin, Simson, Stewart, Robison, Playfair, &c. are universally read and admired. During the 18th century this country produced other eminent writers in various departments of science. Among the Scots divine and moral philosophers, we may particularize Blair, Campbell, Hutcheson, Leechman, Macknight; among the statesmen and lawyers, Sir George Mackenzie, Viscount Stairs, Sir Thomas Craig, Lord Kames; among the historians, Hume, Robertson, Henry, Lord Hailes, Ferguson; among the political and moral writers, Smith, Reid, Lord Monboddo, Beatie; among the physicians and surgeons, Bell, Black, Cullen, Gregory, William and John Hunter, Hutton, Monro, Smellie, Whytt; and among the Scottish poets, Blair, Burns, Home, Ramsay, Thomson, Wilkie. The names now mentioned, besides Mansfield and Burnet, may be sufficient to show that Scotland has produced able writers in almost every useful branch of science. Among the few departments of literature in which Scottish writers have been less successful, may be mentioned biography, epic poetry, the critical illustration of the classics and comedy.* Indeed the efforts of the dramatic muse have been singularly damped in Scotland from the fanatical prejudices of its clergy; but we trust that these illiberal prejudices have now subsided, and that the venerable author of Douglas will stand on record as the last example of ecclesiastical censure, on account of his devotion to the drama.

Within the last 20 years, the progress of Scottish literature has perhaps been greater than at any former period. During that interval, booksellers shops have been established, where formerly there was scarcely a book-stall, and there are now few towns of any consideration that do not possess a printing-press. The increase of newspapers and periodical publications, especially in the capital of Scotland, is also very great, there being now published at Edinburgh not fewer than six monthly and quarterly reviews and magazines, and at least eight newspapers.

The progress of the arts in Scotland has of late scarcely fallen short of that of the sciences. Skilful workmen in the mechanic arts, especially in those of joinery and cabinet-making, are numerous in the large towns; and even musical instruments of considerable price and excellent workmanship, are constructed in Edinburgh. The liberal arts of painting and engraving have been carried to great perfection; and both these and the art of printing are now exercised in Edinburgh in a style little, if at all, inferior to that of the London artists. The numerous public and private buildings in Edinburgh and Glasgow, bear ample testimony to the abilities of Scottish architects, and show that they are by no means behind their brethren of the south in grandeur and beauty of design, and elegance and solidity of execution.

The mode of education pursued in Scotland is highly laudable; and is, perhaps, the best practical system pursued in any country in Europe. The plan which is followed in the cities, is nearly the same with that in England, either by private teachers, or at large public schools, of which the high school of Edinburgh is the most eminent, and may be traced back to the 16th century. The superior advantage of the Scottish education consists in every country parish possessing a schoolmaster as uniformly as a clergyman; at least, the rule is general, and the exceptions rare. The schoolmaster has a small salary, which enables him to educate the children at a rate easy and convenient even to indigent parents. It may, indeed, be computed, that a shilling will go as far in this parochial education, as a guinea in an English school. In the Highlands, the poor children attend to the flocks in summer, and the school in winter. Till within these few years, the salaries of the Scotch parochial schoolmasters were so trifling as to hold out no adequate encouragement to young men of abilities to engage in that useful office; but they have lately been Scotland, been augmented, and the establishment of a fund for the widows of schoolmasters in Scotland, has added to the respectability of the situation.

A great majority of the Scottish youth are educated for the church, and from this class the families of the gentry are generally supplied with private tutors, and the schools and academies with masters. It has been observed by Mr Laing, that "the poverty of the church of Scotland is peculiarly unfavourable to the pursuit of letters; her universities make no provision for the independence and ease of a studious life. The wealthy benefices of the English church may afford a final retreat, and its well endowed universities, an intermediate sanctuary for literary repose, where a taste for classical and polite learning is cultivated and preserved. But the Scottish clergy, who are removed from the university early in life, to a remote solitude, have neither access to the works of the learned, nor the means, if they retain the desire, of improving the acquisitions which they have already made. No one is illiterate; but the church has not yet been distinguished by a man of extensive or profound erudition. Their education imparts some smattering of science; their trials of ordination require an equal proportion of Greek and Hebrew; and the same parity is observable in the learning and in the discipline of the church."

There are in Scotland four universities, viz. those of St Andrew's, Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Edinburgh; a particular account of which will be found under those articles. The university of Edinburgh, though of most recent origin, is now in the highest estimation; from the numerous departments of science and literature there taught, and the general ability of its professors. The Scotch universities, unlike those of England, seldom consist of more than one college, and St Andrew's may be considered as the only proper exception to this observation, as the colleges of Aberdeen are in distinct towns, viz. the one in Old, and the other in New Aberdeen. There are professors of medicine at all these universities; but only Edinburgh and Glasgow can be regarded as medical schools.

We can here only enter on a few general observations respecting Scottish agriculture, as the state of husbandry in Scotland may be best seen from the general description given of the several counties, and from the article Agriculture. In the lower districts particularly, agriculture has arrived at a great degree of perfection. In the counties of Berwick, East Lothian, Ayr, Lanark, Stirling, Perth, Angus, and Mearns, the face of the country has, in consequence of the improved cultivation, assumed a new appearance, being highly cultivated, and generally inclosed with thorn hedges, instead of the former inclosures of stone dykes. Rich crops of wheat, barley, clover and turnips, are now raised on fields which some years ago afforded only scanty pasturage for sheep; and potato crops are now become general and excellent. Of the mountainous districts, black cattle and sheep are the staple commodities, and the rocky shores produce abundance of kelp. In a few years the deficiency of timber, so much complained of by southern travellers, will be abundantly supplied, as many proprietors are now covering their waste lands with extensive forests. One nobleman, the earl of Moray, from 1767 to 1807, planted upwards of 13,000,000 of trees, of which 1,500,000 are oak. The value of land in Scotland is within these few years prodigiously increased, and an Englishman will scarcely believe, that in some parts of Scotland extensive farms are let at 5l. and even 6l. per acre.*

As the valued rent of land is intimately connected with the progress of agricultural improvement, we shall here give a table of the rental of the several Scotch counties, as it has been valued in Scotch money.

| Counties | Valued rent in Scots Money | |-------------------|----------------------------| | Aberdeen | L.235,665 8 11 | | Argyle | 149,595 10 0 | | Ayr | 191,605 0 7 | | Banff | 79,200 0 0 | | Berwick | 178,365 7 3½ | | Bute and Arran | 15,022 13 8 | | Caithness | 37,256 2 10 | | Clackmannan | 26,482 10 10 | | Cromarty | 12,897 2 8 | | Dumbarton | 33,927 19 0 | | Dumfries | 158,627 10 0 | | Edinburgh | 191,054 3 9 | | Elgin | 65,603 0 5 | | Fife | 362,534 7 5 | | Forfar | 171,636 0 0 | | Haddington | 168,878 5 10 | | Inverness | 73,188 9 0 | | Kincardine | 74,921 1 4 | | Kinross | 20,192 11 2 | | Kirkcudbright | 114,571 19 3 | | Lanark | 162,118 16 11 | | Linlithgow | 74,931 19 0 | | Nairn | 15,163 1 1 | | Orkney and Shetland| 56,551 9 1 | | Peebles | 51,937 3 10 | | Perth | 339,818 5 8 | | Renfrew | 68,076 15 2 | | Ross | 75,140 10 3 | | Roxburgh | 315,594 14 6 | | Selkirk | 80,307 15 6 | | Stirling | 108,518 8 9 | | Sutherland | 26,193 9 9 | | Wigton | 67,646 17 0 |

Total, L.3,802,574 10 5l. Scots. Or, Sterling, L.316,881 4 2½

The inhabitants of North Britain can scarcely be regarded as a commercial people before the end of the tares and eleventh century, when the accession of Edgar, by placing a line of Saxon monarchs on the Scottish throne, introduced into Scotland that spirit of trade and commerce, which at an early period distinguished the Saxon inhabitants of South Britain. It has indeed been pretended that the Scotch had a fishery at home, and a foreign traffic with the Dutch, as early as the beginning of the ninth century; but the former is improbable, since the religious prejudices of the Gaelic people led them to regard fish as unhallowed food, and fishery as an unlawful occupation; and the latter assertion is at least incorrect, since the Dutch did not exist as a commercial society at that early period. The chief seats of trade have, in all ages, Scotland had neither towns nor cities, till the erection of castles and monasteries, subsequent to the eleventh century, produced the formation of villages under their walls. These villages became towns, from the settlements of the English, Anglo-Normans, and Flemings in them, during the 12th century; and from that time we may properly date the commencement of Scottish commerce.

At a period little anterior to this, the Scotch carried on several domestic manufactures. They manufactured their own flax into linen, and their hides into leather. They also wrought the wool of their flocks into coarse cloth: and these woollen fabrics were regulated by a particular assize during the reign of David I. Necessity had early introduced smiths, tanners, and shoemakers, into every village, and dyers, goldsmiths, and armourers, into every town. Salt works became an object of attention in the reign of David I., because they furnished a revenue to the kings and nobles, and profit to the monks. In the same reign, water-mills were subject to tithes, and tenants were obliged to grind at particular mills. The Scottish kings had mills at each of their burghs, and on several of their manors; and from these mills they derived a considerable revenue, and a constant source of munificent grants to the religious establishments. Before the middle of the thirteenth century, wind-mills had been universally introduced, and there was a malt kiln and a brewhouse in every village. These objects were considered as domestic manufactures, arising from husbandry, which was at that time the universal pursuit among all ranks, from the prince to the peasant.

It is curious to observe, that Scone was not only the metropolis of Scotland at the beginning of the Scot-Saxon period, but also one of the earliest places of foreign commerce. Perth had also a foreign traffic in those early times, and St Andrew's partook of the riches which flow from distant trade. Next to these, in the advantages resulting from a commercial intercourse with foreign nations, followed Stirling, Inveresk, Dunfermline and Aberdeen.

The erection of certain towns into royal burghs, though founded on the principles of exclusion and monopoly, tended to advance the general interests of trade. Each of these burghs had particular districts through which their privileges extended, and to which they were confined. Towards the conclusion of the Scot-Saxon period, the Flemings had placed a commercial factory at Berwick, and before the death of Alexander III. a trade had been opened with Gascony, for the importation of wine and corn.

The first great traders in Scotland seem to have been the heads of monasteries, as they alone possessed at once the spirit of commercial enterprise, and a sufficient capital to engage in promising speculations. To them belonged the principal ships; they had at first the exclusive privileges of fishing, and they were the chief bankers of those times.

After the numerous conflicts and revolutions which disturbed the peace of Scotland, previous to its union with England, its manufactures were not probably in a much better state of improvement at that epoch, than they had been at the death of Alexander III. They had been sometimes encouraged, but they seem never to have advanced beyond the domestic supply. Of course the commerce of North Britain could never have been very extensive, and its exports must have been confined chiefly to corn, and the raw products of the country. Since the union, the industry and manufactures of Scotland have been assiduously cultivated, and the attempts at improvement in the national commerce have, in the tedious result, proved successful beyond expectation. The establishment of the Royal Bank, and of the society for the improvement of agriculture in the reign of George I., and the subsequent establishment of a board of trustees for improving the manufactures, trade, and fisheries of North Britain, have been the means of adding greatly to the riches and prosperity of the country.

Since the union, this country has shared in the national prosperity. Towards the middle of last century, manufactures began to flourish, and trade increased in due proportion. Without troubling the reader with a detail on this subject, it may be sufficient to observe, that about 20 years ago, manufactures in many towns were carried on to a great extent. Cotton cloths alone employed in Glasgow, and its neighbourhood, 15,000 looms and 155,000 persons. Queen's ware, and the inkle manufacture, were likewise important branches in that city. In and near Paisley, upwards of 10,000 persons of all descriptions, were employed, in the manufacture of silk gauze; and 12,000 in working lawns, muslins, and cambrics; besides other trades, which were very productive. Common and flint-glass, to a great amount, is prepared in Dumbarton, Leith, and other parts of the country. Diapers are wrought in Dunfermline to the value of 50,000l. or 60,000l. a year. Checks and ticks are staple commodities in Kirkaldy. Coarse linen, sail-cloth, osnaburgs, &c. are manufactured in Dundee, Arbroath, Aberdeen, and Forfar. Paper-mills, delft-houses, and sugar-houses, have been erected in several towns and villages. Extensive iron-works are established in Fife, on the Clyde, and at Carron; in the last of which more than 1000 workmen are occasionally employed. The whale, herring, and salmon fisheries, are inexhaustible sources of wealth. The coal trade is well known, and extremely productive. Here it may not be improper to state, that the limits of the coal country on the west coast, are Saltcoats and Girvan; on the east coast, North Berwick and Fifeness; stretching from south-west to north-east in breadth, about 30 or 40 miles. Beyond these limits, no coal strata have hitherto been found. The exportation of black cattle to England has been highly advantageous to this country. The coasting trade to the south is carried on from Leith and other eastern ports, whilst Glasgow is the great emporium with the West Indies.

Another subject connected with commerce is the inland navigation. The canals of Scotland are the Forth and Clyde, the Crinan (see Canal), the Monkland, running 12 miles east from Glasgow, the Ardrossan, the Caledonian, and the Union canal, to extend from Edinburgh to Falkirk; the two latter are not yet finished. Scotland. The following Tables by Sir John Sinclair (10th volume, Pamphleteer), afford the best view of the Statistics of Scotland hitherto published.

### Extent

| Description | Land | Fresh-water lakes | Totals | |------------------------------|------|-------------------|--------| | 1. Mainland of Scotland | 25,520 | 494 | 26,014 | | 2. Hebrides | 2,800 | 104 | 2,904 | | 3. Orkney Islands | 425 | 15 | 440 | | 4. Zetland Isles | 855 | 25 | 880 |

Total: 29,600 638 30,238

### State of Property

| Description | Proprietors | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------| | 1. Large properties, or estates above 2000l. of valued rent, or 2500l. sterling of real rent | 396 | | 2. Middle properties, or estates from 2000l. to 500l. of valued rent, or from 2500l. to 625l. of real rent | 1077 | | 3. Small properties or estates under 500l. valued rent, or 625l. of real rent | 6181 | | 4. Estates belonging to corporate bodies | 144 |

Total proprietors in Scotland: 7798

### Proportion of Soil Cultivated and Uncultivated

| Description | English Acres | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------| | 1. Number of acres fully or partially cultivated | 5,043,050 | | 2. Acres uncultivated, including woods and plantations | 13,900,550 |

Total extent of Scotland in English acres: 18,943,600

### Extent of Woods and Plantations

| Description | English Acres | |------------------------------|---------------| | 1. Extent of plantations | 412,226 | | 2. Natural woods | 501,469 |

Total: 913,695

### Nature of the Productive Soils in Scotland

| Description | English Acres | |------------------------------|---------------| | 1. Sandy soils | 263,771 | | 2. Gravel | 681,862 | | 3. Improved mossy soils | 411,096 | | 4. Cold or inferior clays | 510,265 | | 5. Rich clays | 987,070 | | 6. Loams | 1,869,193 | | 7. Alluvial, haugh, or carse land | 320,193 |

Total: 5,043,450

### Number of Acres in One Year Under the Different Crops, or in Fallow

| Crop | Acres | |-------------------------------|---------------| | Grass (in hay and pasture) | 2,489,725 | | Wheat | 140,095 | | Carry over | 2,629,820 |

### Value of Crops

| Crop | Acres | Per acre | Amount | |-------------------------------|---------------|----------|--------| | 1. Grass lands | 2,489,725 | at L.2 | L.4,979,450 | | 2. Wheat | 140,095 | at 11 | 1,541,045 | | 3. Barley | 280,193 | at 8 | 2,241,544 | | 4. Oats | 1,260,362 | at 7 | 8,822,534 | | 5. Rye | 500 | at 6 | 3,000 | | 6. Beans and peas | 118,000 | at 6 | 708,000 | | 7. Potatoes | 80,000 | at 8 | 640,000 | | 8. Turnips | 407,125 | at 4 | 1,628,500 | | 9. Flax | 16,500 | at 8 | 132,000 | | 10. Gardens | 82,000 | at 15 | 480,000 |

Productive acres: 4,824,500 Produce: L.21,176,073 Fallow: 218,950

Total cultivated: 5,043,450, average p.acre (including fallow), 4L.4s. nearly. Uncultivated: 13,900,550, including woodlands, 3s. per acre: 2,085,082

Total land produce: L.23,261,155

### Live-stock, and their Produce

1. Horses, 243,489. Value of their work when full grown, or increase in their work while young, yearly, at 10l. each: L.2,434,890 2. Cattle, 1,047,142. Annual value of dairy produce, and annual increase in the worth of the feeding cattle, at 6l. each: 6,282,852 3. Sheep, 2,850,867: 1,425,983 4. Hogs, 500,000, produce 30s. each: 750,000 5. Lesser stock (poultry, &c.) 250,000

Total produce of live-stock: L.11,143,725 This sum is included in the general estimate of land produce already given.

### Mineral State

1. Extent of the great coal-field of Scotland: 600,000 acres. 2. Annual consumption: 172 do. 3. Quantity annually consumed: 2,500,000 tons. 4. Value of the coal annually consumed, at an average of 6s. 8d. per ton: L.833,333 5. Expense of labour, 5s. 10d. per ton: 729,166 6. Rent to the proprietor, 10d. per ton: 104,060 ### Scotland

#### Lime

1. Quantity of lime annually manufactured in Scotland - 3,000,000 bolls. 2. Quantity in Winchester bushels, at 4 bushels per boll - 12,000,000 do. 3. Value at 2s. 6d. per boll - L375,000 4. Extent of land annually dressed with lime - 100,000 acres.

#### Iron

1. Number of blast furnaces - 21 2. Quantity annually produced - 32,760 tons. 3. Value at 7l. per ton - L229,320 4. Number of persons annually employed - 7,650

#### Lead

1. Quantity of lead annually produced - 65,000 bars. 2. Annual value at 2l. per bar - L130,000

#### Value of Mineral Productions

1. Coal - L833,333 2. Lime - 375,000 3. Iron - 229,320 4. Lead - 130,000 5. Various articles - 30,000

Total L1,597,653

#### Fisheries

1. Salmon and fresh-water fisheries - L150,000 2. The white-sea fishery - 400,000 3. The herring fishery - 500,000 4. The whale fishery - 200,000 5. Shell fish - 50,000

Total L1,300,000

#### Amount of Territorial Productions

1. Gross produce of land - L23,261,155 2. Minerals - 1,597,653 3. Fisheries - 1,300,000

Total L26,158,808

4. The rents of lands, mines, fisheries, kelp, &c. for one year ending 5th April 1813 - 5,041,779

5. Amount of produce absorbed by the expense of cultivation, and the profit of farmers, gardeners, and other dealers in the productions of the soil, also by colliers, fishermen, &c. - L21,117,029

#### Manufactures of Scotland

| Value of raw materials | Total value of manufactured articles | Expense of labour and profit | |-----------------------|-------------------------------------|-----------------------------| | 1. Woollen | 300,000 | 450,000 | | 2. Linen | 834,149 | 1,775,000 | | 3. Cotton | 1,832,124 | 6,964,486 | | 4. Inferior branches | 1,300,000 | 5,000,000 |

Total 4,266,273 14,189,486 9,923,213

#### Commerce

1. Number of ships belonging to Scotland - 2,708 2. Tonnage - 231,273 3. Number of seamen - 16,300 4. Exports - L1,740,239 5. Imports - 3,671,158

Balance in favour of Scotland - L1,069,081

#### The Poor

1. Number of parochial poor - 36,000 2. Average allowance to each - L3 0 0

Total expense - L108,000

Average expense of maintaining the poor in workhouses, 8l. 10s.

#### Representation of the Landed Interest

1. Number of representatives - 30 2. Number of freeholders in the 33 Scotch counties - 2,429 3. Number of landholders entitled to vote, if the whole valued rent of the kingdom were held by persons each possessing 400l. Scots of valued rent - 9,511

#### Borough Representation

1. Number of representatives - 15 2. Number of boroughs - 65 3. Population of ditto - 471,417

#### Ecclesiastical State of Scotland

1. Number of synods - 16 2. Number of presbyteries - 78 3. Number of parishes - 893 4. Number of established clergymen - 938

#### Religious Persuasions

1. Established Presbyterian Church - 1,408,388 2. Seceders (Presbyterians) - 256,000 3. Baptists, Bereans, Glassites, &c. - 50,000 4. Roman Catholics - 50,000 5. Scotch Episcopalians - 28,000 6. Methodists - 9,000 7. Church of England - 4,000 8. Quakers - 300

Total 1,805,688

"The Scotch (says Dr Playfair) are commonly divided into two classes, viz. the Highlanders and Lowlanders; the former occupying the northern and mountainous provinces, the latter the southern districts. These classes differ from each other in language, manners, and dress. The Highlanders use the Irish or Celtic tongue; while, in the low country, the language is the ancient Scandinavian dialect blended with the Anglo-Saxon."

"About half a century ago, the Highlands of Scotland were in a state somewhat similar to that of England before the Norman conquest. The inhabitants were divided into tribes called clans. The inferior orders were vassals of particular chiefs, to whom they were attached, and on whom they relied for that safety which the laws were not alone able to ensure to them." Scotland: the other hand, the security and consequence of a chieftain depended on the number and fidelity of his servants and retainers; who, on account of their relation to him, assumed a dignity, and acquired in their manners a degree of politeness, to which other uncivilized nations are strangers.

"The rents of farms which those vassals occupied were inconsiderable, and paid chiefly in military service; so that the value of a proprietor's land was estimated, not by the money it produced, but by the men whom it could send into the field; and that the number of dependents might be increased, the farms, or allotments of land, were small, and barely sufficient for a scanty subsistence to the tenants. As an inconsiderable proportion of the country was cultivated, and as no intercourse subsisted between the inhabitants and other nations, little time was employed in agriculture and commerce. Most of it was wasted in indolence or amusement, unless when their superior summoned them to avenge, on some neighbouring tribe, an insult or injury. No more grain was raised, and no more raiment manufactured by any family, than what barely sufficed itself.

"Villages and hamlets, situated in valleys for shelter, were rudely constructed of turf and stone. In spring the natives ploughed, or dug, some adjacent patches of soil, in which barley or oats were sown; in summer they prepared and collected turf and peat for fuel; in autumn they gathered in their scanty crops of grain and hay; and the remainder of the year was devoted to pastime, or predatory excursions. In winter evenings, around a common fire, the youth of both sexes generally assembled, for the song, the tale, and the dance. A taste for music was prevalent among them. Their vocal strains were plaintive and melancholy; their instrumental airs were either lively for the dance, or martial for the battle. Every family of note retained an historian, to narrate its heroic deeds and feats of valour, or a bard who sang the praises of the chieftain and his clan. Some fragments of their poetry have been handed down from remote ages, and recently moulded into heroic poems. Strangers, who have ventured to penetrate into their fastnesses, they received and treated in the most hospitable manner; but themselves seldom went abroad, except for the purposes of devastation or plunder.

"Their dress was the last remain of the Roman habit in Europe, well suited to the nature of the country and the necessities of war. It consisted of a light woollen jacket, a loose garment that covered the thigh, and a bonnet that was the usual covering for the head all over Europe, till the hat was introduced towards the end of the 16th century.

"Always armed with a dirk and pistols, they were ready to resist an assault, or revenge a provocation, as soon as it was given. This circumstance contributed to render them polite and guarded in their behaviour to one another. When embodied by their chieftain, they were armed with a broad sword, a dagger, a target, a musket, and two pistols. In close engagement, and in broken ranks, they were irresistible. The only foe they dreaded was cavalry. As soon as the battle was over, most of the troops dispersed, and returned home to dispose of their plunder, and to provide for their families.

"Their religion was deeply tinged with superstition. They believed in ghosts and apparitions; by appearances in the heavens they predicted future events; they practised charms and incantations for the cure of various diseases; and to some individuals they thought the Divinity had communicated a portion of his prescience.

"But the state of society in the Highlands has been greatly changed and ameliorated since the rebellions in 1715 and 1745. The Roman dress and the use of arms were prohibited by government; roads, constructed at vast expense, opened an easy communication with the low country; and the courts of barons were suppressed by the jurisdiction act. The heads of clans have now ceased to be petty monarchs, and the services of their vassals are no longer requisite for their defence or aggrandisement. Divested of their legal authority, they now endeavour to preserve their influence by wealth. With this view their attention is directed to the improvement of their estates. Their ancient mode of living is also entirely altered; and the Highland gentleman, in every respect, differs little from a proprietor of the like fortune in the southern counties. A spirit of industry has been excited among the tenants, while in many places arts and manufactures are encouraged.

"The manners, habits, and dress, of the gentlemen in the low countries, resemble those of their English neighbours, with whom they have frequent intercourse. The peasantry and middle class are sober, industrious, and good economists; hospitable and discreet, intelligent, brave, steady, humane, and benevolent. Their fidelity to one another is a striking feature in their character. In their mode of living and dress there are some peculiarities, but these are gradually wearing out. Within these few years the use of pottage and bread of oatmeal, is almost disused among the commonalty; and tea, wheaten bread, and animal food, are as frequent on the north as on the south of the Tweed."

Though the diet of the superior classes in Scotland differs little from that of the same rank in England, there are still some peculiarities not generally known to strangers, which deserve notice. Among the peculiar Scotch dishes we may enumerate the haggies, a sort of hash, made of the lungs, heart and liver, of a sheep, minced fine, and mixed with suet, oatmeal, onions, pepper, and salt, and boiled in the sheep's maw or stomach; hotchpotch, a soup, prepared from mutton or lamb, cut into small pieces, with a large quantity of green peas, carrots, turnips, onions, and sometimes celery or parsley, served up to table with the meat and vegetables in the soup; cockie-leekie, a soup made of a cock or capon, with a large quantity of leeks; crappit-heau's; i.e. the heads of haddock stuffed with a pudding made of the soft roe, or butter, oatmeal, onions, and spices, acid boiled; fish and sauce, a sort of stew, made of haddock, whitings, or codlings, stewed with parsley, onions, butter, and spices; and the celebrated old dish of singed sheep's head, i.e. a sheep's-head, with the skin on, and the wool singed off with a hot iron, well boiled with carrots, turnips, onions, &c. so as to form a rich broth, which is generally served up distinct from the meat.

The public amusements in Scotland nearly resemble those of England, especially among the higher classes. Scotland. There are, however, two games which may be considered as peculiar to the Scotch. These are golf and curling. Of the former we have given an account under the article Golf. The diversion of curling, which is we believe unknown in England, is adapted only to frosty weather, and is played on the ice, by sliding from one mark to another, large stones, of from forty to seventy pounds weight, of a hemispherical shape, very smooth on the flat side, and furnished with an iron or wooden handle at top. The great object of the player is to lay his stone as near to the mark as possible, to guard that of his partner which had before been placed in a good position, or to strike off that of his antagonist. To attain these ends much skill and dexterity are often required; and the great art of the game is to make the stones bend in towards the mark, when this is so blocked up by other stones that they cannot reach it by being directed in a straight line.

To conclude: The union having incorporated the two nations of England and Scotland, and rendered them one people, the distinctions that had subsisted for many ages are gradually wearing away. Peculiarities disappear; similar manners prevail in both parts of the island; the same authors are read and admired; the same entertainments are frequented by the elegant and polite; and the same standard of taste and of language is established throughout the British empire.

New Scotland. See Nova Scotia.

Scoto-Irish, in History, an epithet applied, by some writers on Scottish antiquities, to the colony of Irish, commonly called Dalriads or Dalriadinians, who, in the beginning of the sixth century, established themselves in the district of Galloway; and formed a distinct tribe, till, under the reign of their king Kenneth II., they united with the Piets, whom they had nearly subdued. See Chalmers's Caledonia, vol. i. and Scotland, from No. 31. to No. 85.

Scoto-Saxon period, is by Mr Chalmers applied to that period of Scottish history which elapsed from the accession of Edgar, the son of Malcolm Canmore, to the throne of Scotland in the year 1097, to the reign of Robert Bruce in 1306. See Scotland from No. 86. to No. 164.