the extremities of hunger, he had gnawed and torn his own flesh."2 Robert, depressed by this calamity, and incapable of exertion, committed the whole cares of the government to the duke of Albany; and the power of that daring man was increased by another event which completely broke the spirit of the king, and was probably the cause of his death. This was the seizure by the English of his eldest son James, then a youth in his fifteenth year, and on his passage to France. The consequences were very fatal to the country. The prince was carried to the Tower; the father did not long survive the captivity of the son; and on his death, which took place in 1406, his brother, the duke of Albany, succeeded to the prize which had long been the object of his ambition, the undisputed regency of the kingdom.

The young king, James the First, was a captive, and Regency of Henry the Fourth knew too well the value of the prize to part the Duke with him. For nineteen years he was detained in England; and, during this long interval, Albany became the uncontrolled governor of Scotland. It has been suspected that the intrigues of this able and unprincipled man with the English monarch, had led to the seizure of the young king. That they prolonged the period of his captivity, there can be no doubt.

It was clearly the best policy of the regent to cultivate peace with England, and to conciliate Henry the Fourth, as this prince could at any time put a termination to his authority, by restoring James to his kingdom; and the same desire to retain the power which he had so nefariously usurped, induced Albany to cultivate the friendship, and overlook the crimes and excesses of the great feudal barons. All this led to dreadful confusion in Scotland, which, although freed for a time from the incessant invasions of its more powerful neighbour, was torn by private war, whilst the lives and property of its people were exposed to the attack of every unprincipled feudal baron who sheltered himself under the protection of the regent.

This miserable state of things was at length terminated by the return of James to his dominions; a prince whose returns to character presented a striking contrast to that of his father his country, and grandfather. During the nineteen years in which he had been unjustifiably detained in that country, he enjoyed advantages which almost repaid him for his captivity. Henry the Fourth, a prince who well understood the art of government, had made it his generous care that James should receive an excellent education; and he had the advantage of being instructed in war, by accompanying his victorious successor, Henry the Fifth, to France. On his return to his own dominions, he was in the prime and the vigour of manhood. His character, formed in the school of adversity, was one of great power. He found his kingdom a scene of lawless excess and rapine; a condition to which it had been reduced from the want of a firm hand to restrain oppression and enforce the laws. Since the death of Bruce the power of the aristocracy had been on the increase, while that of the crown had proportionally lost ground, and fallen into contempt. His object, as can be clearly discerned through the history of his brief reign, principles was to restore the kingly authority, to rescue the commons of government from oppression and plunder, to give security to property, encouragement to the industry and pacific arts of his people, and to compel his barons to renounce their ideas of individual independence, and become good subjects.

The regency of Albany, his uncle, and of his son Murdoch, who had succeeded him, was naturally and justly regarded by James as little else than a long usurpation. He was mortified that Albany, against whom, as the murderer of his brother, he entertained the deepest resentment, should have escaped his merited punishment; and the royal house of Albany. Scotland: vengeance fell with a proportionably heavier force upon Murdoch, his son and successor; nor is it possible to deny that James's retribution was cruel and excessive. Murdoch, the duke of Albany, his two sons, the earl of Athole, and Alexander Stewart, with his father-in-law, the earl of Lennox, a venerable nobleman, eighty years of age, were tried, condemned, and executed. James, the duke's youngest son, having escaped, collected a band of freebooters, and after sacking and plundering Dunbarton, took refuge in Ireland; but five of his men fell into the king's hands, and were torn in pieces by wild horses. So horrid a punishment, and the exterminating severity exhibited to all connected with the house of Albany, can admit of no justification; and there is every reason to believe, that the early and miserable death of the monarch, is to be traced to the deep feelings of revenge with which some of his nobles from that moment regarded him. Neither is it possible to believe that the king in this instance carried along with him the feelings of the people. Yet looking at the state of things in Scotland, it is easy to understand his object. It was his intention to exhibit to a nobility, long accustomed to regard the laws with contempt, and the royal authority as a name of empty menace, a memorable example of stern and inflexible justice, to convince them that a great change had already taken place in the executive part of the government; to furnish also a warning to the people, of the punishment which awaited those who imagined that fidelity to the commands of their feudal lord was paramount to the ties which bound them to obey the laws of their country.

Having given this severe and sanguinary lesson, the next efforts of the monarch were addressed to the internal administration of his kingdom. From without he had nothing to dread; he was at peace with England, and his marriage with Jane Beaufort, the niece of Cardinal Beaufort, had, from her near relationship to the English monarchs, strengthened the ties between the two countries. France was the ancient ally of Scotland; and the Netherlands profited too much from the Scottish trade not to be anxious to preserve the most friendly relations. The king could therefore direct his undivided attention to his affairs at home. His great principle, and it was one worthy of so wise a prince, seems to have been a determination to govern the country through the medium of his parliament. Of these convocations of the national legislature, which had been rarely held under the regencies of the two Albaans, no less than thirteen occurred during his brief reign, which, dating from his return in 1424, lasted only thirteen years. It is to him that Scotland owes the first clear recognition of the principle of representation by the election of the commissaries for shires; it was by him that one of the greatest improvements was introduced into the administration of justice, by the institution of a court of law known by the name of the Session. Nor was this all. Previously to his time, the laws and the acts of parliament had been published in Latin, and the great majority of the inferior judges to whom their execution was entrusted, were unable to understand them.

To remedy this grievance, the king commanded the acts of parliament to be drawn up in the spoken language of the in the Scotland; an improvement so important, that it forms an era in our legislation. Other points of almost equal interest occupied his attention. By his personal presence in the Highlands, and by the military force which he brought along with him, when he visited those remote districts of his dominions, he introduced laws and order where there had formerly been little else than feudal licence and contempt for all authority. Although he cultivated the arts of peace, he did not forget that its surest preservative was an attention to the military strength of his country. Weapon-showings, or military musters, were held periodically; and having witnessed, when resident in England, and in the war of Henry the Fifth with France, the great superiority of the English over the Scottish archers, he made it his earnest care that his subjects should cultivate this warlike accomplishment. In many of the acts of the various parliaments of this monarch, we can also trace an attention to the encouragement of agriculture, to the interests of foreign trade and domestic manufactures, to the state of his shipping and navy, to the prices of labour, and the melioration of the condition of the labourers of the soil, which clearly demonstrates the high and important objects that occupied the king's mind, although the means he employed were not exactly those which should have suggested themselves to the experience of a more advanced age. Amid these severer duties, James gave an example to his rude barons scholars of the cultivation of intellectual accomplishments. He was himself a poet; and the king's book, or King's Quair, composed during his captivity in England, is still read by many with delight and enthusiasm. He was a reformer of the language of his country; he composed pieces of music, and sang and accompanied himself on various instruments. It is probable, however, that these employments were rather the solace of his tedious confinement in England, than objects of serious pursuit after his return.

Having so zealously devoted himself to the best interests of his kingdom, James had the satisfaction to see his measures attended with success, and all seemed secure and prosperous, when he suddenly became the victim of a dark conspiracy. Under circumstances of extreme ferocity he was assassinated in the monastery of the Blackfriars at Perth, by Sir Robert Graham, the earl of Athole, and some accomplices who had been dependants of the house of Albany. The court was then at Perth, and James had taken up his residence in the Dominican monastery beside the town. The king was betrayed by his chamberlain, who facilitated the entrance of the conspirators, by removing or damaging the locks of the royal apartments. When the alarm was given, it is said that lady who waited on the queen, named Catherine Douglas, thrust her arm into the staple of the door, and thus, before it was broken, heroically afforded a brief interval in which the king contrived to conceal himself in a small vaulted chamber, where for some time he evaded discovery. The conspirators, under the idea that he had escaped, had dispersed themselves through the palace, and the unfortunate monarch might have been safe, if he had not prematurely attempted to leave his concealment. The noise which he made recalled one of the ruffians, who shouted to his companions; and springing down into the vault, they threw themselves upon their defenceless victim and murdered him, after a desperate resistance. Although considerable obscurity hangs over the ramifications of the plot which ended thus fatally to the king, there exists no doubt that it owed its origin to indignation at the fate of Albany, and those deep feelings of feudal revenge which had been long cherished by the friends of that unhappy house; affording a terrible lesson to princes of the reaction which may take place, when justice forgets her calmer mood, and pushes her punishments beyond example into revenge.

The death of James the First was a severe calamity to the country, exposing it for the third time since the death of Bruce to all the evils of a long minority. His eldest son, who succeeded to the throne by the title of James the Second, was a boy only six years old; and although the character of the queen-mother was marked by considerable talent and vigour, these qualities were feeble substitutes for the masculine wisdom, the determined courage, and the unwearyed care of the husband whom she had lost. Her first punish- Graham, the principal murderer of the late monarch, in the midst of the cruel tortures which preceded his death, had avowed that the day was at hand when the Scottish nobles would venerate his memory for having rid them of a tyrant; and these proud and powerful barons, when they remembered the magnitude of James's plans, and the stern and sometimes unjust severity with which he carried them into execution, could not but feel that now was the time to recover the privileges which they had lost, and to provide some strong and permanent barrier against all future encroachments of the crown.

This observation is the key to the history of the country, not only during the reign of this monarch, but for the next century. It unfortunately happened, that with the exception of James the Fourth, who on his accession was a youth of seventeen, Scotland was visited by a series of minorities in James the Second, James the Third, James the Fifth, and Mary, which occupied the long interval between 1436 and 1560; and during this period of more than a century, the extraordinary increase in the power of the nobles, the diminished respect for the crown, and its proportionate weakness against attack and encroachment, are too prominent features to escape notice. We see events, the same in character, and merely varied in name and minor incidents, occurring during the whole time: a monarch of greater or of less energy, emerging from his minority, and making an effort to recover the power which he had lost; a band of turbulent and selfish nobles league against him, and only detached from their brethren, and persuaded to act with the crown, by an appeal to their interest and their fears. These remarks were strikingly exemplified in the scenes which took place during the minority of James the Second.

Immediately after his coronation, a struggle commenced for the possession of the chief power in the government. In a parliament held at Edinburgh, the queen-mother was entrusted with the custody of the young king, while Archibald earl of Douglas and duke of Touraine, was appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom, a title probably including all the powers of a military governor. In civil matters the chief authority seems to have fallen into the hands of the chancellor Crichton, who had the command of Edinburgh Castle, in which the queen-mother, with the young prince, had taken refuge soon after the murder of her husband. This princess, however, soon found that Crichton turned the possession of the royal person into an engine for his own advancement, and refused to her that frequent intercourse with her son which she had expected, and to which she was entitled.

Having combined therefore with Sir Alexander Livingston, a baron who had been in favour with the late king, she contrived, by stratagem, to possess herself of the person of the young king, whom she shut up in a large wardrobe chest, and carried as her luggage to Leith, from whence she hastened to Stirling Castle, which had been assigned to her as a jointure-house.

The kingdom was now divided between three factions, that of the queen and Livingston, who possessed the person of the king, Sir Alexander Crichton the chancellor, and thirdly, the earl of Douglas, whose immense estates in Scotland, and his foreign wealth and influence as duke of Touraine, rendered him by far the most formidable baron in the country. From this moment to the period when James, having attained majority, began to act for himself, an interval of thirteen years, the history of the nation presents little else than one uniform scene of civil anarchy and of unpunished crime. "The young monarch beheld his kingdom converted into a stage on which his nobles contended for the chief power; whilst his subjects were cruelly oppressed, and he himself handed about, a passive puppet, from the falling grasp of one declining faction, into the more iron tutelage of a more successful party in the state." In this melancholy drama the chief parts were played by Crichton and Livingston, who, deeming it for their interest to crush the overgrown power of the house of Douglas, inveigled the young earl and his brother into the Castle of Edinburgh, brought suddenly against them a charge of treason, and put them to instant death.

It was fortunate for the country, that when thus torn by domestic factions, its foreign relations were of a pacific character, England, France, and the Netherlands, being all animated with the most friendly dispositions, while the young king, as he advanced from boyhood into maturer years, developed a character of prudence, vigour, and intelligence, which appeared destined to restore a better state of things to his kingdom. Having married the daughter of the duke of Gueldres, he assumed the government, and selected as his principal councillor, Kennedy, bishop of St. Andrews, a prelate of great wisdom and integrity, whose rank as head of the church, invested him with an authority to which the people, amid the general corruption, looked with much reverence and affection. It was probably by his advice, that James, whose passions were naturally violent, and who viewed with indignation the arrogance of the earl of Douglas, engaged in a systematic plan for the reduction of his overgrown power. Without attempting at once, and by any arbitrary exertion of strength, to deprive this potent chief of his high offices, a measure which might have been followed by extreme commotion, he gradually withdrew from him his countenance and employment; surrounded himself by able and energetic councillors, whom he promoted to the principal places of trust; and thus weakened the authority of the proud baron, rather by the formidable counterpoise which he raised against it, than by any act of open aggression. This conduct was attended with the best results. The earl of Douglas, finding his consequence decreasing, and his power on the wane, retired for a while from Scotland, and respect for the character of the monarch increased with the feeling of security derived from an improved administration of the government. During the absence of the chief, James had time to reduce the minor barons who were his dependants, to attach his own friends more powerfully to his interest, and to concentrate a strength, which, on Douglas's return from Italy, convinced him that he must consent to play a second part to his prince. The result was what might easily have been anticipated. A collision took place between this haughty potentate and the young sovereign whose commands he had so often defied. Douglas, naturally rash and fearless, had consented, under a safeconduct bearing the royal signature, to visit James in the Castle of Edinburgh. After the royal feast, the king remonstrated with his guest; disclosed to him the proofs he possessed of his combinations against the government; reproached him for the frequent murders of his subjects committed by his order; and condescended to intreat him to forsake such dangerous courses, assuring him of his pardon and favour. Douglas, instead of embracing the offer, replied to it with haughtiness and insolence; and the Earl of James, losing all command of himself, and braved to his face, drew his dagger and stabbed him to the heart. Falling at his feet, he was instantly despatched by the nobles, who, hearing the commotion, rushed into the apartment.

This atrocious murder was followed by a struggle between the royal party and the friends and vassals of the unfortunate baron, in which the king was completely successful. Sir James Douglas, who succeeded his brother in the earldom, attempted to brave the monarch, renouncing his allegiance, and throwing himself into the arms of England; but his projects against his country were defeated. He was equally unfortunate in his alliance with the Lord of the Isles, whose naval force he directed against the west of Scot- Scotland; land; and at length, in a fruitless effort to regain his lost power by invading the Merse along with the earl of Northumberland, he was totally routed by the earl of Angus, and driven a landless fugitive into England.

A.D.1460. Death of James II. at Roxburgh.

The remainder of this reign was employed by the king in an endeavour to complete the work which he had begun; by strengthening the power of the crown, and giving security to the persons and property of his subjects; by attaching to his party the great and influential body of the clergy, carrying into effect various parliamentary enactments for the defence of the borders against the attacks of England, and cultivating the warlike character of his people. Amid these kingly cares, he unwisely suffered himself to be entangled by the contests between the Yorkists and Lancastrians; and having espoused the party of Henry the Sixth, levied an army, and met his death by the bursting of one of his own guns at the siege of Roxburgh. He was succeeded by his son James the Third, a boy in his eighth year.

James III. The death of a sovereign thus cut off in the prime of his manhood and usefulness, leaving an infant successor, would have been a deep calamity at all times, but it was especially so at this moment. James the Second had with uncommon vigour and judgment reduced the overgrown power of his nobles; but he died before his plans were matured, leaving the nation at war with England, the seeds of civil division lurking in his kingdom and ready to spring up, and the more northern parts of the realm held by fierce chiefs, who were disposed, on the slightest provocation, to throw off their allegiance. With these island lords, Edward the Fourth entered into a strict alliance; and the banished Douglas, now become English subjects, agreed to assist him in a confederacy, the object of which was nothing less than the conquest and partition of Scotland. It was to be expected that the favour shown by that country to the expropriated monarch Henry the Sixth, should have deeply incensed his rival; but the facility with which he purchased his instruments, and found them in the ranks of the Scottish nobles, who became the vassals of England, is a mortifying fact.

From these general remarks it is easy to anticipate the history of this reign, and the scenes which it presented. In their minuter details it is impossible to enter. For a while the energy of the queen-mother supported the government. On the news of the death of her husband, instead of giving herself up to unavailing grief, she repaired with all speed to the camp before Roxburgh, carrying with her her infant son, now king; him she presented to the nobles, and urged them for him and his father's sake to press forward the siege. She was obeyed, and Roxburgh was taken; but fatal disputes soon succeeded to this success, and it required all the vigour of the queen, with her chief minister, Bishop Kennedy, a man of high character and talent, to struggle against the difficulties which surrounded them. In the northern parts of the kingdom all was unsettled; and the earl of Ross espousing the cause of Edward the Fourth, proclaimed himself king of the Hebrides, while the earl of Angus, on whom, after the fall of the house of Douglas, a large share of their power had devolved, undertook to support the party of Henry the Sixth, contrary to the wishes of the queen and Bishop Kennedy.

At this crisis, the young sovereign lost his mother Mary of Gueldres; and, after a few years, Bishop Kennedy followed her to the grave; events which deprived the government of its best, or rather of its only support. Yet amid all these complicated dangers, it is remarkable, that for fifteen years, the interval occupied by the minority of this prince, the affairs of the country were prosperous.

On the death of Bishop Kennedy, the chief power in the government had fallen into the hands of William Lord Boyd, the high Justiciar, a baron hitherto little known, but whose power rose, in a few years, to a height which almost rivaled that of the once formidable Douglas. He became governor of the king's person; filled every office with his Scottish dependants; married his eldest son, who was created earl of Arran, to the king's sister; and acquired so much influence over the young king, rather, it would seem, by terror than by love, that he appeared completely subservient to his wishes. The decay of this family was as sudden as its rise. A marriage had been negociated between the king and Margaret princess of Denmark, and scarcely was it concluded, when a faction of the nobles, at the head of whom was the monarch himself, suddenly attacked the Boyds, arraigned them of high treason, seized and confiscated their large estates, and brought to the scaffold their principal leader. A divorce was instituted against the earl of Arran and his wife, the princess Mary, sister to the king; and she was compelled to give her hand to Lord Hamilton, a favourite of the young monarch. It was through this marriage that the family of Hamilton, which now rose into great power upon the ruin of the Boyds, became, in the subsequent reign of Mary, the nearest heirs to the crown.

James had now attained majority, and in assuming the full administration of the government, he found his kingdom more opulent, more secure, and more powerful, than it could have been anticipated from the struggles of his minority. The important isles of Orkney and Zetland had been acquired with the daughter of Denmark; the rich town of Berwick, and the border fortress of Roxburgh, had been occupied by the Scots; the earldom of Ross had been annexed to the crown; the independence and liberty of the Scottish Church established by the erection of St. Andrews into an archbishopric; and, lastly, a marriage treaty with England, by which the youngest daughter of Edward the Fourth was betrothed to the king's eldest son, seemed to promise security and peace in this formidable quarter. If such had already been the success of this reign, it seemed not unreasonable to look forward to still greater prosperity in after years; and yet the history of the country, from the moment when the monarch attained his majority, presents a melancholy contrast to this beginning. This reverse we are inclined to ascribe partly to the personal qualities of the king, partly to some changes in the power and dispositions of the great body of the feudal nobles, which are discernible at this period, not in Scotland only, but in all the feudal kingdoms of Europe.

Some of our historians have represented James the Third as a compound of indolence, caprice, and imbecility; but of James their opinion seems rash and unfounded. His character was different from that of the age in which he lived, and in some respects it was far beyond it. The times were rude, warlike, and unintellectual. The king was fond of repose, and addicted to a seclusion in which he might devote himself to pursuits which bespoke a refined and cultivated mind: a passion for mathematics, and the study of judicial astrology, a taste for architecture, a love for the science and practice of music, and a generous disposition to patronize the professors of literature and philosophy, rather than to surround himself with a crowd of fierce retainers, were the prominent features in the mind of this unfortunate prince; tastes which have been reprobated by contemporary historians, but which, if duly regulated, were rather praiseworthy than the contrary. Unfortunately, however, this due regulation was wanting. James had the weakness, not only to patronize, but to confer feudal rank, and distinctions, hitherto appropriated to the nobles, upon the professors of his favourite studies. Architects, musicians, painters, and astrologers, were admitted to the familiar converse of the sovereign, while the highest nobles found a cold reception or a positive denial of access. Is it any subject of surprise, that a fierce nobility should have been disgusted with such conduct, and that the king's warlike brothers, the earls of Albany and Mar, should have been regarded as the chief support of the state? But in studying the history of this reign, we shall detect other causes of the sanguinary scenes in which it concluded. Not only were the feudal nobility of Scotland induced by the neglect and favouritism of the king to long for a change, but it is worthy of remark, that for some time previous to this period, the feudal nobility of Europe had been in a state of extraordinary commotion and tumult; and events had occurred which diminished in the eyes of the aristocracy and of the people the respect entertained for the throne.

The revolution in England under Henry the Fourth, the subsequent history of that kingdom during the contest between the houses of York and Lancaster, the political struggles in France under Louis the Eleventh, the relative condition of the greater nobles in Germany and of the rights of the imperial crown under the emperor Sigismund, the dissensions which divided the Netherlands, and the civil factions which agitated the government in Spain, all combined to render resistance so common, and so lucrative in the eyes of the feudal nobility in Europe, that its frequency can be a subject of little wonder; and if, when we take into account the frequent communication between Scotland and the continent during the period of these commotions, we may easily imagine their effect upon the still ruder and more independent nobility of that country. We have been tempted to throw out these general observations, because the reign of James the Third is in one respect most remarkable. It is the era from which we may date the rise of a republican spirit, and the first propagation of those popular principles, of which the operation can be traced, in a greater or less degree, through the whole course of its subsequent history.

To return from such remarks to the events of this reign, we find the king engaged in a contest with his two powerful brothers, Albany and Mar. To the first had been entrusted the wardenship of the east marches, the government of Berwick, and the castle of Dunbar, the principal key of the kingdom; and there seems no doubt that he had abused his high powers to an extent which bordered upon treason. Against Mar was brought a still more atrocious charge. He had plotted, it was said, to cause the king's death by magical arts; and being convicted by the evidence of his wizard accomplices, was imprisoned, and, according to one account, secretly executed. Another story ascribes his death to the consequences of a fever, for which having a vein opened, he in an excess of phrensy tore off his bandages and bled to death. Against Albany the king proceeded with unusual vigour. He attacked him in Dunbar, made himself master of the fortress, and would have seized his person, but the rebellious prince availed himself of the situation of the castle, which was open to the sea, and fled first to England, and afterwards to France.

At this moment, Louis the Eleventh was at war with Edward the Fourth, and he unfortunately possessed such influence over the Scottish king, that he brought about a rupture between James and Edward. It was a step signally impolitic. Albany, the king's brother, returning from France, threw himself into the arms of England; the nobility were full of complaints against the government; the Lord of the Isles embraced the interests of Edward; and after a long interval of peace had softened the national animosity between the kingdoms, it was a miserable sight once more to witness the renewal of hostilities.

This contest led to some extraordinary scenes. Albany having openly avowed his purpose to dethrone his brother, assumed the title of Alexander king of Scotland, and entered into a treaty with Edward, by which he hastily consented to sacrifice the independence and dismember some of the finest portions of the kingdom. To effect his designs, he had the address not only to secure the co-operation of the banished earl of Douglas, with the Lord of the Isles and his northern vassals, but he detached from James's service Angus, Gray, Huntly, Lennox, and many others of the leading Scotland nobility in Scotland. A conspiracy was formed against the monarch and his favourites; the conjuncture of his assembling his army, preparatory to his invasion of England, was deemed the most favourable moment for the execution of their purpose; and in the camp at Lauder its success was equally sudden and terrible. The nobles, led by Angus, seized Cochrane, James's favourite, who, from a mean station, had been promoted to high rank and enriched with the earldom of Mar; they then broke into the king's tent, made him prisoner, arrested the band of ignoble associates who shared his confidence, and proceeded to inflict summary vengeance on them all. Cochrane was hanged over the bridge of Lauder; Rogers, a musician, Hommel, Leonard, Preston and others, shared his fate; and the unfortunate monarch, having been conveyed to the capital, was shut up in the castle of Edinburgh. The result of this success was what might have been expected. Albany, who all along had acted from motives of personal ambition, having once possessed himself of the king's person, ruled the government at his will.

But usurpation of the supreme power was not the full extent of his treachery. He attached Edward the Fourth to his service by the sacrifice of the national independence. In a secret treaty, the English prince engaged to assist Albany, who hitherto had only assumed the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom, in placing the crown on his own head; and as the base price of this assistance, the new king and his nobles agreed to withdraw their oaths from king James, and to live under the sole allegiance of the king of England. It may give us some idea of the low estate to which the nobles of Scotland had fallen, when we mention, that not only the earl of Douglas, now banished and living in England, but the earls of Angus, Buchan, Athole, and many others, were willing parties to this wanton sacrifice of their country.

The plot, however, was defeated, and happily a party yet remained among the nobles, who, though their vengeance against had been directed against the king's favourites, were friends Albany to the crown and to the country. They had joined Albany with the object of sacrificing Cochrane and his associates, but had been kept in ignorance of his ultimate intentions; and the moment these became apparent, they united with the king and overwhelmed the opposite faction. And here, in the manner in which Albany was treated, is to be found the cause of all the subsequent misfortunes of the king. His brother deserved punishment, and ought to have met with no pity. He had been guilty of open and repeated treasons, had levied war against his prince; and imprisoned his royal person, leagued himself with his enemies, sold the independence of his country, and assumed the title of king. His guilt and ambition had seduced from their allegiance a large party of the nobles; and if ever there was a time in which a great example was to be made, that time was now come. Yet, instead of this wholesome severity, the duke of Albany insolent was treated with a lenity for which it is impossible to account. On acknowledging his manifold treasons, and laying down his office of lieutenant-general, he not only received a full pardon, but was permitted to retain not only his vast estates, but his wardenship of the marches, and was simply interdicted from coming within six miles of the court, or continuing his illegal combination with Angus, Athole, and Buchan.

Whether we are to ascribe this misplaced mercy to the king's attachment to his brother, or to a suspicion that he was not strong enough to inflict a more exemplary punishment, it is difficult to decide; but the result demonstrated what has been so often taught, the folly of misplaced lenity. In a few weeks Albany was again in rebellion. At his invitation, an English army invaded Scotland; Dunbar, the most important castle in the kingdom, as the key of the eastern Scotland, borders, was delivered up by this base person to the enemy, while he himself fled into England, and organized with James III. Edward the Fourth the plan of a more formidable invasion.

At this crisis occurred the death of the English monarch, and the seizure of the crown by Richard the Third; events which gave James an interval of rest, in which he acted with unusual firmness and energy. He assembled a parliament at Edinburgh, in which the sentence of forfeiture was pronounced against the duke of Albany and all his adherents; he entered into an intimate alliance with Charles the Eighth of France, and he concluded a truce with Richard the Third, who was too much occupied with his own complicated affairs, to have leisure or inclination to continue the war with Scotland. Thus strengthened, the king found it no difficult matter to resist the last effort of Albany and Douglas, who having once more invaded Scotland at the head of a small force, were completely defeated at Lochmaben; an event followed not long after by the death of Al of Douglas, in the abbey of Lindores, where he had been confined, and of Albany, who was slain in a tournament in France.

It might have been expected that James, who was thus delivered from his most powerful enemies, would have been permitted to reign in peace. But he was destined to be unfortunate; and, although his nobles had refused to alter the succession in favour of his ambitious brother, they soon after appear to have entered into intrigues with England for the purpose of placing the crown on the head of his son, the prince of Scotland, who was then a youth in his sixteenth year. Much obscurity hangs over the origin of this conspiracy. Advances seem first to have been made by the faction of the prince to Richard the Third, who, although he was animated by an anxious desire to remain at peace with Scotland, did not scruple to hold out secret encouragement to James's enemies. To what extent such secret negotiations proceeded, it is not easy to discover; but after the death of Richard they were renewed, and his successor, Henry the Seventh, showed as little scruple as his predecessor in encouraging the malcontents.

Five years had now elapsed since the death of Cochrane the king's favourite, and the dreadful scenes exhibited in the camp at Lauder. Since that time a change appears to have taken place in James's character. His devotion to study and retirement had given way to a sense of duty; he had exhibited not only capacity for government, but unwonted resolution in the attack and discomfiture of his enemies; and, although the impolitic lenity with which he had treated Albany was rather a weakness than a virtue, it was believed that he was now convinced of his error, and had resolved that the laws against treason should no longer slumber or be despised. These reflections filled the barons who had been conspirators at Lauder with the greatest alarm. They were well aware that a sentence of treason hung over their heads. They knew themselves guilty of aggravated offenses; they had imprisoned the king, usurped the government, and without regular trial or conviction, had put his favourites and councillors to death. As long as the chief power had remained in their own hands, they felt tolerably secure, but circumstances had once more restored the king to his wonted authority; and the dread of the retaliation which might be inflicted, with the certainty that, at all events, their power would be abridged, appears once more to have driven them into rebellion. Such at least seems to be the most probable way of accounting for the rise of that conspiracy in which this unfortunate prince lost his crown and his life.

The worst feature in the story is the unworthy part acted in it by his son, afterwards James the Fourth, over whom the malcontent barons gained a fatal influence, and who, seduced by the prospect of a crown, lent himself a tool to the dethronement of his father. When once organized, the plot proceeded to its maturity, and thence hurried on to Scotland's catastrophe with an appalling rapidity.

The two parties of the king and the conspirators first tried their mutual strength in a Parliament. It was proposed by the popular faction that an amicable adjustment of all disputes should take place between themselves and the sovereign, and that such barons as were still obnoxious to a charge of treason, should receive a full pardon. To this the party of the king peremptorily refused their consent. James, aware of the unworthy conduct of his son, the heir apparent, created his second son duke of Ormond, and seemed to point him out as his successor. He at the same time rewarded the principal barons who had espoused his interest, and took decisive measures, by the appointment of vigorous officers, to have the laws against treason severely administered. These steps convinced his opponents that their proceedings had been discovered; and without giving the monarch time to assemble an army, or even take measures for his personal defence, they threw off the mask, broke out into open rebellion, declared that James the Third, by his crimes and oppressions, had forfeited all title to the throne, and proclaimed his son, by the title of James the Fourth.

Even now, had not the king suffered himself to be misled by his paternal feelings, the conflict might have concluded in his favour; for it is evident that a large class of the nobility, and the whole body of the people, were against these nefarious proceedings. So strong was this feeling, that James, who, on the advance of the rebels to the capital, had taken refuge in the northern part of his kingdom, soon found himself at the head of a formidable army, and advanced instantly against the insurgents, whom he found stationed at Blackness, near Linlithgow.

It was now the time for action, the time for a determin- A.D.1483 ed execution of those laws which late years had seen so weakly constantly treated with contempt. But whether the affectionate heart of the monarch sickened at the sight of his ill- subjects in mortal array against each other, or some symp- tombs of disaffection breaking out in his own force rendered him apprehensive of their fidelity, James not only consented to an accommodation, but offered terms to the prince his associate and his associates, which were culpably lenient. He permitted the son who had usurped his kingly name and prerogative, and the subjects who had defied the authority of the crown and the laws, to negotiate with arms in their hands on a footing of equality. On the part of the misguided prince, now no longer a boy, no petition for forgiveness, no expression of penitence was suffered to escape. In the pacification at Blackness, the youth spoke throughout, Treaty of not as a son conscious that he had offended, but as a sovereign reigning transacting a treaty with his equal. The treaty, in truth, was a triumph to the discontented nobles. The prince and his friends who had encouraged him to resistance, agreed to become obedient subjects on receiving the king's forgiveness, while the monarch not only consented that their lives, honours, and estates, should be preserved, but that the household of the heir apparent should be maintained, and his friends and adherents supported with due dignity. It required little penetration to foresee that the tranquillity which was established on such a foundation could not long subsist. It was a confession of weakness pronounced at a time when firmness at least, if not severity, was the only guide to the permanent settlement of the convulsions which agitated the kingdom.

The consequences which any person of ordinary judgment might have anticipated, were not long of occurring. James retired to his capital, his army was dismissed, and the prince northern barons, whose valour had saved his crown, were permitted to return to their estates, and James, anticipat- ing a continuance of tranquillity, proceeded to reward his friends and re-organize his court, when he received intelligence that his son the prince, with the same fierce barons who had so lately sworn allegiance, were again in arms, and in more formidable numbers than before. In this emergency, indeed, the king acted with courage and promptitude; but having disbanded the strongest division of his army, which consisted of his northern barons and their vassals, the force which he mustered was much inferior to that of his opponents. It was therefore determined to await in the capital the arrival of the northern barons; but unfortunately this resolution was abandoned, and the monarch with inferior numbers, attacked the insurgents, who were commanded by the prince his son, at Sauchy Burro, within a mile of Bannockburn. The consequences proved most calamitous. The royal forces, after an obstinate struggle, gave way to their opponents; and James, flying from the field, was murdered by an unknown hand, at a little hamlet called Miltown, a few miles distant from the field of battle. He perished in the prime of life, and it is said his youthful successor was seized with overwhelming remorse on being informed of the miserable fate of his father. However this may be, he was immediately proclaimed king, and the homage of his barons, the early possession of a sceptre, and the lustre of a court, soon stifled his repentant feelings.

The character of James the Third has been represented by Boyce, Buchanan, and those writers who have been contented to follow their authority, as a compound of weakness, wilfulness, and crime; a character contradicted by the history of his reign. It must indeed be admitted, that James's indulgent treatment of his rebellious subjects, and of the prince his son, partook of weakness, although there are few father's hearts in which he will not find an advocate; but in other respects the best refutation of the ideal pictures of Buchanan is to be found in the real history of the reign. James's misfortunes are, in truth, to be attributed more to the extraordinary circumstances of the times in which he lived, than to any flagrant vices or defects in the monarch himself. At this period, in almost every kingdom in Europe with which Scotland was connected, the power of the great feudal nobles, and that of the sovereign, had been arrayed in jealous hostility against each other. The time appeared to have arrived when both parties seemed convinced that they were on the confines of a great change; that the power of the throne must either sink under the superior strength of the greater nobles, or the independence and tyranny of these feudal tyrants receive a blow from which it would not be easy for them to recover. In the different countries of Europe indeed, the result was not uniform, but in all the same elements of faction were seen arrayed against each other. Thus, in France, the struggle under Louis the Eleventh had terminated in favour of the crown; yet the lesson to be derived from it was not lost upon the Scottish nobility, who were in constant communication with this country. In Flanders and the states of Holland, they had before them the spectacle of an independent prince deposed and imprisoned by his son; and in Germany the reign of Frederic the Third, who was contemporary with James the Third of Scotland, presented one constant scene of struggle between the emperor and his nobility, in which this capricious potentate was uniformly defeated.

There is yet one other observation to be made upon this remarkable revolution, by which, for the first time in Scottish history, a king was solemnly deposed by a faction of his own subjects. Although the barons who led the successful faction represented themselves as the friends of liberty, driven to a resistance of royal oppression, the middle classes and the body of the people took no share in the struggle. Many individuals belonging to these classes, who were feudal vassals of the great lords, must no doubt have been compelled to serve under them; but as far as they were represented by the commissioners of burghs who sat in Parliament, they appear in this struggle to have joined the party of the sovereign and the clergy, by whom, during this reign, frequent efforts were made to introduce a more effectual administration of justice, and a greater respect for property and the rights of individuals.

Laws, mingled with alternate threats and exhortations, are to be found upon these subjects in the records of each successive Parliament of this reign; but the offenders continued refractory, and these offenders were the very men, whose offices, if conscientiously administered, ought to have secured the rights of the great body of the people. It was the nobles who were the justiciars, chancellors, chamberlains, sheriffs; and these, it was well known, were often the worst oppressors, partial and venal in their administration of justice, severe in exacting obedience, and opposed to every right which interfered with their own power. Their privileges as feudal nobles came repeatedly into direct collision with their duties as servants of the government, and they made no scruple to sacrifice the last to the preservation of the first; duty to privilege and self-interest. It is from this cause that we discern an honourable distinction between the clergy and the feudal nobles, in the struggle between the crown and the faction by which it was attacked. In this contest, wherever the greater offices in the government were in the hands of the clergy, it will be found that they generally supported the sovereign; when they were entrusted to the nobility they almost uniformly combined against him.

When James the Fourth succeeded to the throne left vacant by the murder of his father, he was in his seventeenth year; but his character at that early age had vigorously developed itself, and although it has sometimes been asserted, there is no reason to believe that the prince had been an unwilling assistant, or a passive tool in the hands of the conspirators. Their first care was to hold at Scone the ceremony of the coronation; their next to conclude a three years' truce with England, then under the government of Henry the Seventh; their third, to assemble a Parliament and provide for their own safety, by the forfeiture of their enemies and the rewards distributed to their friends.

And here it is not unimportant to mark the course which Artful contrivedly pursued. If any party in the state were at this juncture liable to a charge of treason, it was evidently the friends nobles, of the young king, and not the barons who had continued faithful to his father; but the difference consisted in this, that the treason of the prince's party had been accompanied with success, whereas the resistance of the friends of his father had been overwhelmed, and himself dethroned and murdered. They who now were in possession of the supreme power, therefore boldly turned the tables, summoned their opponents on a charge of treason, and as the facts were notorious, pronounced sentence against them. They next voted their own acquittal in strong and significant terms; and considering under whose dictation the act was drawn up, it is difficult to read, without a smile, the compliments pronounced upon their treason, when they declare that their sovereign lord, and his true barons, who served with him in the field, were innocent of the late battle and pursuit, and had no blame in exciting the disturbances which had terminated so fatally.

The innocence of these barons was however far from being generally admitted; and the Parliament had scarcely risen, when Lennox, Huntly, Marischal, and other powerful chiefs, rose in arms to avenge the death of their king. Lord Forbes, who had joined them, marched through the country, bearing the bloody shirt of the unfortunate prince suspended from a spear; and had it not been for the promptitude with which their opponents met the enterprise, the movements of Lennox, who advanced upon Stirling, might have delivered the country from their domination. But this chief, betrayed by some of his followers, was surprised and completely routed by Lord Drummond at Fal- Scotland. James IV.; Dumbarton, Lennox's strongest hold, surrendered, and the defeat added new strength to the young king and his friends.

A.D. 1489. Tranquillity being restored, James, as he approached manhood, exhibited signs of considerable ability, and energy in following up his purposes. Amid a love of pleasure, which had never been restrained by early discipline, and often hurried him into foolish and criminal excesses, he did not so far forget himself as to neglect his higher duties. He cultivated amicable relations with England, renewed the league with France, entered into a commercial alliance with Denmark, and in a Parliament held in the capital, directed his earnest endeavours to the establishment of good order, and the administration of equal justice throughout the kingdom. Happily the character of Henry the Seventh, his caution, sagacity, command of temper, and earnest desire for peace, were well calculated to check the ardour and impetuosity of the Scottish prince; and for twenty years, with the exception of a brief effort made by James in favour of Perkin Warbeck, the country enjoyed the blessing of repose.

This interval was wisely occupied by the monarch in reducing the northern portion of his dominions to obedience, and in an attempt, by the frequent convocation of his parliament, to promulgate useful laws, and, which proved a more difficult task, enforce their observance. It was evident, that as the king grew older, he became convinced of the fatal errors of his early years, and upbraided himself for having lent himself to a selfish and unprincipled faction, who, unless he consulted their wishes and gratified their ambition, might be disposed to treat him as they had treated his father. Aware that they were too powerful to be quelled, he prudently adopted a safer course, by gradually recalling to confidence and power the friends and ministers of his father. Among these, one of the ablest was Andrew Wood of Largo. This remarkable man, whose genius for naval adventure was combined with a powerful intellect in civil affairs, rose by degrees to be one of James's most confidential servants, and appears to have been almost exclusively trusted in his financial concerns. We find in him many qualities apparently inconsistent, when judged by modern notions. He was originally nothing more than an enterprising merchant; but at this time all merchant ships were armed, and generally acted on an emergency as ships of war. Wood, therefore, in the course of a life devoted to mercantile and commercial adventure, had become a skilful naval commander; and in the commencement of this reign, when the English privateers infested the narrow seas and attacked the Scottish shipping, had signalled himself by the capture of five vessels, and the subsequent defeat of a second squadron, commanded by Stephen Bull, a London merchant. These successes endeared him to the king, who had a passion for naval enterprise, and lost no opportunity of encouraging such a taste in his nobles. The advice of such a councillor as Wood, was of essential service to James. His travels in different countries had enlarged his mind, and made him ready to adopt their improvements in various points in which Scotland was behind her neighbours. He had been an affectionate servant of the late king; and to his advice we are perhaps to trace the coldness and severity with which James now began to treat some of the leaders in the late rebellion. Yet, while the monarch endeavoured to keep their power in check, he showed his prudence in abstaining from such severe measures as might have driven them into open opposition; and combining firmness with gentleness, he contrived to reconcile the opposite factions among his nobles, and to maintain his own authority over them all.

In the midst of these cares, the state of the Highlands occupied his special attention, and the principles of his Scotch policy were certainly wise and salutary. He endeavoured by every means in his power to attach to his interests the principal chiefs of these remote districts; he contrived, through them, to overawe and subdue the petty Highland princes who affected independence; he carried into their territories, which had hitherto been too exclusively governed by their own capricious and often tyrannical institutions, a more regular and rapid administration of civil and criminal justice, making them obedient to the same laws which regulated his lowland dominions; and lastly, he repeatedly visited the Highlands in person. In 1490, on two different occasions, the king rode from Perth across the "Mount," a term applied to the chain of mountains which extends from the Mearns to the head of Loch Ramnoch, accompanied by his chief lords and councillors. In 1493, he twice penetrated into the Highlands, and in the succeeding year thrice visited the isles.

One of these voyages, undertaken in 1494, during the spring months, was conducted with great state. He was accompanied by his chief ministers, his household, and a considerable fleet, many of the vessels composing which were fitted out by the nobles at their own expense. The pomp of the armament was well calculated to impress upon such wild districts an idea of the wealth and military power of the prince; while the rapidity of his progress, the success with which he punished all who braved his power, his generosity to those who sued for mercy, his familiarity with the lower classes of his subjects, and his own gay manners, increased his popularity, and confirmed the ties of allegiance. On arriving in this voyage at Tarbert in Kentire, James repaired the fort originally built there by Bruce, established an emporium for his shipping, transported thither his artillery, and by such wise and energetic precautions, ensured peace to districts which formerly had dreaded the royal vengeance. The chiefs, aware that the king could carry hostilities at a short warning into the heart of their territories, submitted to a force which it would have been vain to resist. One only, the Lord of the Isles, had forborne the folly to defy the royal vengeance, and soon repented of his temerity. He was summoned to take his trial for treason, pronounced guilty, stripped of his almost regal power, and his lands and possessions forfeited to the crown.

We must now advert for a moment to a singular episode Perkin in the history of the country. Perkin Warbeck, whose mysterious story still offers some field for historical speculation, after his first unsuccessful attempt upon the English crown, took refuge in Scotland in the year 1495. There seems strong ground for suspecting that James, at the request of the duchess of Burgundy, had embraced the interests of this adventurer at a much earlier period than is generally suspected; but whether he really believed him to be the prince whose name he assumed, or whether he was induced to espouse his cause as a means of weakening England, is not easily discoverable. It is certain, however, that in 1494, the Scottish King had projected an invasion of England in favour of the duke of York, and that the plan miscarried by the treachery of Perkin's friends.

On the arrival of the mysterious stranger at his court, James at once received him with royal honours, gave him in marriage a lady connected with the royal family, collected an army, and, attended by Warbeck, invaded Northumberland. But the proceeding was rash and impolitic; and its author found, within a short time, that the cause of Perkin was unpopular in England, and the war unacceptable to his own subjects. So deep was the national antipathy between the two nations, that the English no sooner saw the claimant of the crown invading their country at the head of a Scottish force, than they suddenly cooled in their enthusiasm; and the desolating fury with which James conducted hostilities, supported by a body of foreign mercenaries, completed their disgust. It was evident to the king that Henry the Seventh held his crown by a tenure too firm to be shaken by so feeble a hand as Perkin's; and having drawn back his army, he soon after concluded a truce with England, and refusing to deliver him to Henry, took measures for his quiet and amicable retreat from his dominions.

These negotiations having been concluded, James had leisure to attend to his affairs at home. He was aware that the chief errors of his father's reign were to be traced to his neglect of the great body of his nobility. To reign without their cordial co-operation was impossible, as long as Scotland remained a feudal kingdom; and it was happy for this prince that the course of conduct which his own disposition prompted him to pursue, was the best calculated to render him a favourite with this influential body. Under the reign of his father the nobles had little intercourse with their prince. They lived in gloomy independence at a distance from court, resorted thither only on occasions of state or counsel; and when parliament was ended, or the emergency had passed away, they returned to their castles full of complaints against a system which made them strangers to their sovereign and ciphered in the government.

All this was happily changed under the present monarch. Affable in his manners, a lover of magnificence, and a still greater lover of mirth and pleasure, the prince delighted to see himself encircled by a splendid nobility. He bestowed upon his highest barons those offices in his household which ensured their attendance upon his person; his court became a scene of perpetual amusement, in which his nobles laboured to surpass each other in extravagance and revelry; and while they impoverished themselves, they became more dependent upon the sovereign. In this manner the seclusion of their own castles became irksome to them; as their residence on their estates was less frequent, the ties which bound their vassals to their service were loosened; and the consequences proved in every way favourable to the royal authority.

James now turned his principal attention to his navy. It is well known that at this moment the maritime enterprises of the Portuguese, and the discoveries of Columbus, had created a wonderful sensation throughout Europe. Even the cautious and calculating spirit of Henry the Seventh had caught fire at the triumphs of naval enterprise; and an expedition which sailed from England under the command of John Cabot, a Venetian merchant, and his son Sebastian, was rewarded by the discovery of North America. These successes roused the adventurous spirit of the Scottish king, and as Scotland had hitherto been deficient in anything approaching to a navy, he became eager to supply the want, and maintain his place with other continental kingdoms. With this view, he paid great attention to his fisheries, and to foreign commerce, the best nurseries of seamen; and those enterprising merchants and hardy mariners who had hitherto speculated solely on their own capital, found themselves encouraged by the king and the government.

In a former parliament, complaints had been made of the want of boats to be employed in the fisheries, and of the wealth lost to the country from the few ships to be found in its sea-ports. It was now provided, that vessels of twenty tons and upwards, should be built in all the principal sea-ports, and that all stout vagrants found in these districts should be impressed, and compelled to learn the trade of mariners. Among his merchants and private traders were many men of ability, whom the king treated with favour. He exhorted them to extend their voyages, to arm their trading ships, to import artillery, and to build ships of force at home. Nor was this all. He studied the subject of his navy, and made himself personally familiar with its details; he practised gunnery, embarked in little experimental voyages, conversed with his mariners, and visited familiarly at the houses of his merchants and sea officers, by whom his fame was carried to foreign countries. All this was useful. The best foreign artisans being sure of a generous reception, flocked to Scotland from France, Italy, and the Low Countries; and if the king's credulity sometimes encouraged impostors, his enthusiasm also collected round him men of real knowledge and experience.

While we advert to these laudable exertions of the king, University the labours of an enlightened prelate for the dissemination of Aber- useful learning, ought not to be passed over. Scotland, seen gow, founded in 1495. To these Elphinstone, bishop of Aberdeen, now added a third. The papal bull was issued in 1494, but the buildings of King's College were not completed till about the year 1500. It supported professors of divinity, of the civil and canon law, of medicine, and of classical literature, in which its first principal, Hector Boece or Boyce, was no contemptible proficient. Soon after this, James married Marriage of the princess Margaret of England, daughter of Henry the seventh; a wise and politic alliance, although in the marriage treaty the diplomatic skill and penurious habits of her father seemed to have gained a victory over the Scottish commissioners.

From the public rejoicings that followed his nuptials, the king was called to repress a rebellion in the north, which rebellion appears to have been excited by an imprudent alteration in the policy hitherto pursued in these quarters. This had led to a confederation of the Highland chiefs, who determined to reinstate in his insular sovereignty the grandson of the last lord of the Isles; and so deep was the discontent, that it required the utmost efforts of the prince to restore these remote districts to tranquillity. In this he at last succeeded, divided them into new sherrifdoms, repaired and garrisoned the castles in the hands of the crown, and sent Wood and Barton, two of his best officers, with a small squadron to co-operate with Arran, his lieutenant-general, in reducing the insurgent chiefs. Having adopted these measures, which were soon followed by the complete re-establishment of tranquillity, James, at the head of a considerable force, visited the border districts, and, assisted by Lord Dacre, the English warden, compelled the Armstrongs, Jardines, and other powerful septs, to forsake their habits of plunder, and respect the laws. He then proceeded by negotiations to strengthen his pacific relations with France, and the Netherlands; while he prudently resisted the solicitations of Pope Julius the Second, who endeavoured to detach him from his alliance with Louis, and to induce him to join the emperor and the Venetians in their attempt to check the successes of the French in Italy.

Not long after this, occurred the death of Henry the Seventh, an event unfavourable to Scotland. The proud, capricious, and tyrannical character of his son and successor Henry the Eighth, rendered him little qualified to succeed to the English throne, which had been wisely cultivated by his father; and it soon appeared that the Scottish prince, a spirited monarch, jealous of his own dignity, and little accustomed to dictation, was not disposed to submit to it from his brother-in-law.

Matters proceeded smoothly for some time; but when Quarrel between Henry the Eighth engaged in war with France, the ancient ally of Scotland, James at once warmly espoused the party of Louis, and although against the best interests of his king, and Henry, suffered himself to be drawn into the quarrel. The history of the war is well known. Julius the Second having, in conjunction with Ferdinand of Spain, gained all he wished, by the league of Cambrai, became alarmed at the progress of the French in Italy, and to check their arms, prevailed upon Henry the Eighth, whose imagination had Scotland, lately been dazzled by dreams of Edward the Third and Henry the Fifth, to invade France. Louis, on the other hand, negotiated with James the Fourth, and to embarrass the king of England, induced him to declare war against Henry the Eighth. It was a fatal resolution; but the Scottish prince was beloved by his people, and so popular with the great body of his nobles, that his appeal to arms was answered by the muster of one of the most numerous and best equipped armies, and one of the most formidable fleets ever fitted out by the country.

The fleet amounted to twenty-three sail, of which thirteen were large ships, the rest small armed craft. Of this armament the destination was Ireland, but its command was entrusted to the earl of Arran, an officer of no experience in naval affairs; and the result was its total dispersion and discomfiture. The land army, on the other hand, which was led by the king in person, amounted to a force little short of a hundred thousand strong, with which James invaded England, and after some slight successes, encamped in a strong position on the hill or rising ground of Flodden, one of the last and lowest eminences which detach themselves from the range of the Cheviots. It was a strong position, impregnable on each flank, and in front defended by the Till, a deep and sluggish stream, which is tributary to the Tweed.

Henry the Eighth, before passing with his army into France, had entrusted the defence of his kingdom to the earl of Surrey, a brave and experienced officer, who lost no time in collecting a force with which, although it did not amount to half the number of the Scots, he did not hesitate to march against the king. But what he wanted in numbers, Surrey supplied by military experience and coolness; while James, blind, obstinate, and attending only to the dictates of his personal courage, threw away his advantages both of numbers and position. The result was one of the most calamitous defeats ever experienced before or since by Scotland. Surrey was permitted by the king to cross the Till in the face of his army. Contrary to the remonstrances of his veteran officers, he would suffer no one to attack him; although the moment was so favourable that, if Angus, Lindsay, and Huntly had been allowed to charge with their men, nothing less than a miracle could have saved the English earl. To the entreaties of Bothwick, the master of his artillery, he was equally obstinate. Had the guns been brought to bear upon the enemy when crossing the bridge of the Till, they must either have been beaten back or thrown into such disorder as would have exposed them to immediate rout; but this too the king would not suffer. With amazing folly he renounced the use of his artillery, that arm of war which, with so great care and expense, he had strengthened or rather created, at the very moment it became serviceable, and might have saved himself and his army. What James's motive was in this, unless the indulgence of some idle chivalrous punctilio, it is impossible to discover; but its consequences were grievous. Surrey completed his arrangements, passed the ford and the bridge, marshalled his army at leisure, and placing his entire line between James and his country, advanced by an easy ascent upon the rear of the Scottish army. Upon this the king set fire to the huts and temporary booths of his campment, and descended the hill with the object of preoccupying an eminence on which the village of Branksome is built. His army was divided into five battles, some of which had assumed the form of squares, some of wedges, all being drawn up in a line about a bow-shot distance from each other. The enemy were divided into two battles, each of which had two wings. The English van was led by lord Thomas and lord Edmund Howard, Surrey himself commanded the centre of the host, Sir Edward Stanley and lord Dacre the rear and the reserve. On the side of the Scots, Huntly and Hume led the advance, the king the centre, and the earls of Lennox and Argyll the rear. The battle commenced at four in the afternoon, and after an obstinate contest, which continued till nightfall, concluded James in the total defeat of the Scots. Among the slain was A.D.1513, the king himself, who, surrounded by a circle of his nobles, had fought with desperate courage, besides thirteen earls, and fifteen lords and chiefs of clans. The loss of common soldiers was estimated at ten thousand men. Of the gentry it is impossible to say how many were slain. Scarcely a family of note could say that they had not lost one or more relatives, while some had to lament the death of all their sons. Whether we regard this miserable slaughter of the sovereign with the flower of his nobility and country, or look to the long and sickening train of national calamities which it entailed upon the kingdom, it is not too much to pronounce the battle of Floddon the greatest national misfortune ever endured by Scotland.

The character of the unfortunate monarch who thus perished in the prime of life, for James had not completed his forty-second year, was marked by very contradictory qualities. Although devoted to his pleasures, wilful, and impatient, he was energetic and indefatigable in the administration of justice, a patron of all the useful arts, and laudably zealous for the introduction of law and order into the remotest parts of his dominions. The commerce and the agriculture of the country, the means of increasing the national security, the navy, the fisheries, the manufactures, were all subjects of interest to him; and his genuine kindness of heart, and accessibility to the lowest classes of his subjects, rendered him deservedly beloved. Yet he plunged needlessly into all the miseries of war, and his thirst for individual honour, and an obstinate adherence to his own judgment, led to the sacrifice of his army and his life, and once more exposed the kingdom to the complicated evils of a minority.

The news of defeat always flies rapidly, and the full extent of the national calamity soon became known in the capital, which was seized with the utmost sorrow and terror. The magistrates, with the forces of the borough, had joined the king's army, and many of them shared his fate; but the merchants, to whom their powers had been deputed, acted with much firmness and spirit. They armed the townsmen, published a proclamation, enjoining the women who were seen waiting in the streets to cease their lamentations, and repair to the churches, where they might pray for their lords and husbands, and took all the necessary precautions to defend the city in the event of any immediate attack. Soon afterwards the welcome intelligence arrived that Surrey, having suffered severely in the battle, had disbanded his host, and a breathing interval was allowed. The infant king was crowned at Scone, the castle of Stirling appointed as his residence, the government of it entrusted to lord Bothwick, and the archbishop of Glasgow, with the earls of Huntly and Angus, selected to be the councillors of the queen-mother, till a parliament should assemble. At the same time suspicions seem to have arisen that too much influence in the government ought not to be given to this princess, whose near connection with England might subject her to foreign influence; and a secret message was dispatched to France inviting the duke of Albany, the next heir to the throne, to repair to Scotland and assume the office of regent.

It was necessary, in the mean time, to consider the best schemes for the restoration of tranquillity and the preservation of order under the shock which a defeat so terrible had given to the country; and the prospect which presented itself, on taking a general view of the condition of the kingdom, was discouraging. The dignified clergy, a class of men who were undoubtedly the ablest and the best educated in Scotland, from whose ranks the state had been accustomed to look for its wisest councillors, were divid- ed into factions among themselves occasioned by the vacant benefices. The archbishop of St. Andrews, the prelates of Caithness and the Isles, and other ecclesiastical dignitaries, had fallen in the field of Flodden; and the intrigues of the various claimants for these high prizes distracted the church and the council. There were evils also to be dreaded from the character and youth of the queen-mother. Margaret had been married at fourteen, and was now only twenty-four. Her talents were excellent, as we know from the testimony of such able judges as Surrey, Dacre, and Wolsey; but in some points she too nearly resembled her brother Henry the Eighth. She was hasty in her resentment, headstrong, and often ready to sacrifice her calmer judgment to her passion or her pleasure; and in her thirst for power or personal gratification she sometimes cared as little for the purity of the means by which these objects were accomplished.

Soon after the death of the late king this princess gave birth to a son, who was named Alexander, and created duke of Ross; and in a parliament, which met after her recovery, she was confirmed in the office of regent, and entrusted with the custody of the young king and his brother.

At this moment the most powerful nobles in Scotland were the earls of Angus, Home, Huntly, and Crawford. Angus wielded the whole strength of the house of Douglas; Home was chamberlain, and commanded the eastern borders; while Huntly and Crawford ruled the northern districts. The earl of Arran, in the mean time, arrived from France along with the Sieur de la Bastie, who had been a favourite of the late king, and brought a message from the duke of Albany. Arran was nearly related to the royal family, and entitled, by his high birth, and the office of Lord High Admiral which he held, to act a leading part in the government; but his talents were of an inferior order, and unable to compete with the trying circumstances in which the country was placed.

Scarcely had the queen recovered from her confinement when she married the earl of Angus, a nobleman of great accomplishments and personal attractions, but, in the words of lord Dacre, "childish, young, and attended by no wise councillors." Had the princess entered into a second marriage after due consultation had been held with the council assigned to her by parliament, and after a decent interval, no one could have blamed her. She was yet in the bloom of her best years, and from her youth, as well as her high rank and the important duties entrusted to her, she required the protection of a husband; but the precipitation with which she hurried into the match with Angus was scarcely decorous, and certainly unwise, nor was it long before she bitterly repented her choice.

The first effects of this unfortunate step was to increase the bitterness of the pre-existing feuds amongst the nobles. Home and Angus marshalled themselves and their vassals against each other; Arran, assisted by Lennox and Glencairn, aspired to the regency; Beaton, archbishop of Glasgow, an intriguing prelate, supported the interests of Albany and the French faction; while Huntly, lord Drummond, and the earl Marischal gave their influence to Angus and the queen, who courted Henry the Eighth, and took the name of the English party. At this unfortunate crisis the country received a new blow in the death of Elphinstone, who had been nominated archbishop of St. Andrews. For the vacant primacy there were three competitors; Gavin Douglas, uncle to the earl of Angus, Hepburn, prior of St. Andrews, and Forman, bishop of Moray, respectively nominated by the queen, the chapter, and the pope. These ambitious ecclesiastics scrupled not to muster their armed vassals, and to vindicate their claims by an appeal to the sword, an indecent spectacle, which could not fail to lower the church in the eyes of the people.

It was under this deplorable state of things that Henry the Eighth carried to perfection a base system already begun by his father, that of keeping in pay a number of spies, Scotland, and pensioned supporters. He bribed the Scottish nobles, entertained a constant correspondence with the queen his James V. sister, and even went so far as to propose her flight with A.D.1515. the young king and his brother to the English court. It may give us some idea of the loose principles of some of the leading men, that Angus and his uncle, Gawin Douglas, who ranks higher as a poet than a politician, did not hesitate to give their countenance to a plan which amounted to nothing short of treason.

In the midst of these scenes the duke of Albany arrived from France, and assumed the regency; but unfortunately the Duke of his determined predilection for the French interests was Albany, as unacceptable to many of the wisest and best men in the A.D.1515. country, as the queen and Angus's devotion to England. At this moment Scotland required an upright and vigorous governor, animated by a sincere love of his country, and who could hold the balance with judgment between contending parties. But Albany was ignorant of the constitution, of the language, and of the manners of the country. His family also made him an object of suspicion, his father having traitorously attempted to seize the crown. He was the son of a French mother, had married a French woman, and having his chief estates in France, constantly styled the French king his master; nor does it appear that either his talents or his temper were calculated to counterbalance such disadvantages.

On his assumption of the government the effects of all Albany as this were soon perceived. The queen refused to give up the custody of the infant monarch; Home, the chamberlain, threw himself into the arms of England; Angus, guided solely by selfishness and the ambition of becoming chief ruler, deserted his wife, the queen. France, instead of assisting her ancient ally to defeat the intrigues of Henry the Eighth, which were carried on by his able minister lord Dacre, first betrayed strong symptoms of a change of policy, and at length refused to renew the alliance with Scotland; and although Albany, amid these difficulties, acted with considerable spirit and ability, it was impossible for him to compose the jarring elements, or restore tranquillity and order to the country.

Dissatisfied and dispirited, he retired for a few years to France, and returned to Scotland only to find the dangers to France, which threatened the kingdom more imminent, and the task of encountering them more difficult. In his absence De la Bastie, the person who enjoyed his chief confidence, and to whom he had entrusted the offices of warden of the marches and deputy governor, was murdered by the Homes in the most savage manner. The Highlands and Isles, long deprived of regular government, were torn by various factions, and exhibited scenes of the wildest excesses. And Angus, whose feudal power was far too great for a subject, had acted in open defiance of the laws, and domineered in the most tyrannical manner over all who dared to oppose his commands. The arrival of Albany compelled this chief to fly from the capital, and the regent exerted himself with the utmost vigour to put down the despotism of the Douglases. He was forthwith reconciled to the queen, received Albany's from her the keys of the castle of Edinburgh, and with return them the custody of the young king; he assembled a par- A.D.1521 liament, summoned the Douglases to answer a charge of treason, and, although thwarted in his administration by the intrigues of lord Dacre and the treachery and venality of the Scottish nobles, he compelled Angus, his principal enemy, to leave the kingdom.

It would be difficult, and if easy, uninteresting, to enter into the history of this period, when the country was torn kingdom by contending factions, and exposed to all the miseries incident to a feudal minority. Albany's worst enemies were lord Dacre and the Anglo-Scotican party which he kept in his pay. It was his policy to throw distrust and suspicion up- on every measure of the regent and the queen; to represent the regent as avaricious and tyrannical, to accuse him of a design to seize the crown, and to insinuate that the king's life was not safe in his custody. All of these tales are to be found in his correspondence with his master, Henry the Eighth, and there can be little doubt that the greater por- tion of them were false, and the whole grossly exaggerated. So at least we must judge from the conduct of the Scot- ish Parliament, which treated a message, soon afterwards sent by Henry the Eighth, and founded upon these idle accusations, with a calm and resolute denial. This monarch, acting up- on the impulse of the moment, and thwarted by the politic measures of the Regent, had dispatched a herald, who con- veyed a severe reprimand to the queen, and, at the same time, insisted that the Scottish nobles should instantly dis- miss Albany. Their reply to this haughty communication was spirited and dignified. They derided the fears expressed for the life of the young king, declaring that Albany was a faithful servant of the country, and had been invited by themselves to assume the regency. "Here it is our plea- sure," said they, "that he shall remain, nor shall he be per- mitted or enjoined to depart at the request of your grace, or any other sovereign prince. And as to the threat of hostilities, (thus they concluded their answer), if becausewe assert our own rights, we should happen to be invaded, what may we do but trust that God will espouse our just quarrel, and demean ourselves, as our ancestors have done before us, who, in ancient times, were constrained to fight for the conserva- tion of this realm, and that with good success and honour?"

This answer was followed, on the part of Henry, by an immediate declaration of war. The earl of Shrewsbury, at the head of the force of the northern counties, invaded Scot- land on the side of the Merse and Teviotdale; an English fleet ravaged and laid waste the coasts of the Firth of Forth; and Albany the Regent retaliated by breaking into England at the head of a large army. He was driven to this solely by a desire to vindicate the national honour; for he seems to have been conscious of the disadvantages which attended a war with England, and he knew that the majority of the nobles were animated by the same feelings. Under these circumstances he wisely determined to follow Bruce's prin- ciples as to war with this country, to avoid any protracted invasion, not to hazard a general battle, and while he showed a determination to maintain the independence of the country, and to resist any foreign dictation, to evince at the same time his readiness to conclude an honourable peace.

The same disposition being evinced by lord Dacre, the minister to whom Henry entrusted the management of Scottish affairs, a truce was concluded; but Albany, on dis- banding his army and resuming his civil duties, found him- self surrounded with difficulties. Nothing indeed could be more complicated or irksome, than the various contending interests which he had to understand and reconcile. His engagements with France prompted him to continue the war with England; his better judgment admonished him to remain at peace. Amid the universal corruption and selfish- ness which infected the body of the nobles, many of whom were in the pay of England, he looked in vain for any one to whom he could give confidence, or entrust with the execu- tion of his designs, while the queen-mother, with whom he had hitherto acted, betrayed him, and corresponded with Dacre.

The impossibility of overcoming these intricate evils with- out a more powerful military force than he could at present bring into the field, induced the Regent once more to pass into France, for the purpose of holding a conference with Francis the First, on the best method of reducing the English faction. A council of regency was appointed, con- sisting of Huntly, Arran, Argyll, and Gonzoles, a French knight, in whom Albany placed great confidence; and after an absence of some months, during which the war again broke out with great fury, he revisited Scotland, bringing with him a fleet of eighty-seven small vessels, in which he had embarked a fine body of six thousand foreign troops.

With this strong reinforcement he hoped to gain a pre- ponderating influence over the nobility, and to decide the contest with England; but he was miserably disappointed. The presence of foreign troops, always unacceptable to a people jealous of their rights, was particularly so to the Scots, who were poor, and had to support the foreigners at a great expense. This rendered the war unpopular with the great body of the nation; the queen-dowager was devoted to Eng- land; and the nobles, although prepared to assemble an army for the defence of the borders, were opposed to any invasion of England upon a great scale, or to a war of continued ag- gression. As many of these barons, however, were at that moment receiving pensions from France, the payment of which any too decided demonstration might have interrupt- ed, they artfully concealed their repugnance. An army of forty thousand men mustered on the Borough-moor beside Edinburgh, and Albany, taking the command in person, advanced to the borders; but on arriving at Melrose the mask was dropped, the leaders showed symptoms of insubor- dination, the soldiers catching the infection, murmured against the foreign mercenaries, and discontent gathering strength, at last broke out in an open refusal to advance. No entreaties or threats of the Regent could overcome this resolution; and after a short session, news arrived that the earl of Surrey, having assembled an army, was advancing against them. The intelligence of his speedy approach strengthened the Scottish nobles in their determination not to risk a battle. So completely had the majority of them Alba- ny been corrupted by the money and intrigues of Dacre and friends, the queen-dowager, that Albany did not venture to place them in the front, but formed his advance of the French auxiliaries and his artillery, the single portion of this army which had acted with spirit. To have attempted to fight Surrey with these alone, would have been the extremity of rashness, to have awaited the advance of the English earl with an army which refused to proceed against the enemy, might have rendered defeat inevitable. In these critical circumstances, Albany, who has been unjustly attacked by some ill-informed writers, adopted the only alternative which was safe or honourable. He disbanded the Scottish portion of his army, and he himself retreated with his French auxil- liaries and his artillery to Eccles, from which, after a short season, he returned to the capital, and here he assembled the parliament.

Its proceedings, as might have been anticipated, were A Parli- distracted and impeded by mutual accusations and com- plaints. The Regent could not conceal his animosity to those leaders who had so recently deserted him almost in the presence of the enemy. The nobles recriminated; they blamed him for squandering the public treasure, and not- withstanding the inclement season of the year, insisted on his dismissing the foreign troops, whose residence had be- come burdensome. All this was calculated to disgust and mortify the governor; and he requested permission to retire once more to France, for the purpose of holding a conference with Francis the First, and inducing him to grant him further assistance against the designs of England. His request was complied with, on the condition that if he did not return to Scotland within a limited period, the league with France, and his own regency, should be considered as at an end. In the mean season, the custody of the king's person was en- trusted to the lords Cassillis, Fleming, Borthwick, and Erskine, while the chief management of affairs was com- mitted to a council, composed of the chancellor, the bishop of Aberdeen, and the earls of Huntly and Argyll. Having Alba- ny made these arrangements, the duke of Albany quitted the kingdom, convinced, in all probability, of the impossibility of reconciling the various factions and interests by which it was torn in pieces. Although he gave hopes that his absence should not exceed three months, there is strong reason for believing that when he embarked it was with the resolution, which he fulfilled, of never returning to Scotland.

On the departure of Albany, it soon became apparent that a secret understanding had for some time been maintained between two of the most powerful factions in the country, and that his leaving the kingdom was the signal for the breaking out of an important revolution. The chief actors were the earl of Arran and the queen-mother, and there is ample evidence that their proceedings were agreeable to England. The young king was now in his thirteenth year, and his mother and Arran, having gained to their interest the peers to whom his person had been entrusted, carried him from Stirling to Edinburgh, proceeded to the Palace of Holyrood, declared in a council that he had assumed the government, and issued proclamations in his name. The peers of Margaret's party then tendered their allegiance, abjured their engagements lately made with Albany, declared his regency at an end, and promised to maintain henceforth the authority of their sovereign.

It was the evident object of the queen and Arran to obtain, by this revolution, the entire command of the government. The measure was strenuously resisted, in the strongest manner, by the bishops of St. Andrews and Aberdeen. They represented the utter folly of conferring the supreme power on a boy of twelve years old; and they stated, with truth, that Albany was still the Regent; but Margaret, supported by her brother Henry the Eighth, who hoped, through her, to govern Scotland, proved too strong for these prelates, and for a while her schemes succeeded. It was, however, only for a short season. Jealousies arose between her and Arran, who, from his near relationship to the crown, aspired to the chief power. The queen, whose love for Angus, her husband, had long since turned into hatred, fixed her affections on Henry Stewart, a son of lord Evandale, raised him to the office of treasurer, and could she obtain a divorce, determined to marry him; and Henry the Eighth, who began to find her demands too importunate, and her obedience problematical, recalled the earl of Angus from France, with the design of making him an instrument in his projects for the reduction of Scotland. This baron appears to have increased in experience and talent for intrigue, by his residence in that country, but not in public principle; and his first step was to sell himself to Henry in a secret treaty, by which he engaged to support the English interests in Scotland. In return, he and his brother, Sir George Douglas, hoped, by Henry's aid, to place themselves at the head of the government, and to be restored to the vast estates and power which they had lost.

The arrival of Angus in his native country, was the signal for immediate hostilities between him and the queen-mother, his wife, who had raised Henry Stewart to the office of chancellor, and detested her husband, in proportion to the progress of her avowed and indecent attachment to this favourite. Hitherto she and her supporters, Arran, Lennox, and the master of Kilmarnock, had been supported by pensions from the English court, and in return, had favoured the views of Henry the Eighth; but the principles of this venal association were of course capricious and selfish, and the arrival of Angus, who now wielded the power of the Douglas, threatened to break it to pieces.

The country, indeed, presented a miserable spectacle; a minor sovereign deserted by those who owed him allegiance and support, while his kingdom was left a prey to the rapacity of interested councillors, and exposed to the attacks of a powerful neighbour, whose object was to reduce it to the condition of a dependant province. In such circumstances it is certainly a matter of wonder that it retained its liberty.

Three factions struggled for the pre-eminence, and tore the country in pieces. The first was that of Albany, the late regent, which was supported by French influence, and conducted by the chancellor Beaton; the second had for its leaders the earl of Arran and the queen-regent, who held the king's person, and possessed the chief executive power; at the head of the third were the earl of Angus and his able brother George Douglas, who were wedded to the interests of the English government. It is impossible, within our limits, and it would be uninteresting, to enter into a detail of the continued plots and intrigues which constitute the sickening history of this period. It soon became apparent that the Angus party of the queen-mother was the weakest. Arran, a cautious prudish man, deserted her; her private conduct rendered her session of disreputable in the eyes of the people; and soon afterwards the king's coalition between Beaton the chancellor and Angus, carried the whole power of Albany's party to a union with the house of Douglas. Margaret sunk under this, and consented to a negotiation. She resigned the custody of her son to a council of peers nominated by parliament, and stripped of her power, consented to a reconciliation with Angus, her husband, in whom, along with the chancellor Beaton, the chief power in the government now centered. A feeble effort indeed was made by Arran to destroy the influence of the united factions; but the armed force with which he advanced to Linlithgow was dispersed by the prompt attack of Douglas, and the address of this politic baron soon afterwards prevailed on Arran to join his party.

The earl of Angus had now gained a complete triumph over his enemies. He possessed the person of the young king; he was assisted by the talents and experience of the chancellor Beaton; he had witnessed the gradual decay of the faction of Albany and the French monarch, and he had been joined by Arran, who, although personally a weak man, from his high birth and great estates possessed much power. His first step was wise and temperate. A pacification for three years was concluded with England; and it was hoped that this might be followed by a marriage between the young king and Henry's daughter, the princess Mary a measure which, if guarded so as to preserve the independence of Scotland, might have been attended with the happiest results.

The country, so long distracted by border war and internal decay of anarchy, might now, under a judicious administration, have French influence looked forward to something like tranquillity. Had Angus been reconciled to the queen, his wife; had he been contented with his recovery of greater power than he had lost, and been willing to administer the government with justice and moderation; there was every reason to hope for the maintenance of peace, security, and good order. The French party in Scotland had completely sunk. Dr. Magnus, Henry's English minister, who, during his residence in Scotland, had been an object of great jealousy to the people, was recalled; and lord Dacre, whose money and intrigues for so many years had corrupted the Scottish nobles, and introduced dissension and treachery into all their councils, was removed by death from the scenes of his mischievous activity. All these things were favourable; and the well affected, who sighed for the blessings of peace and good government, anticipated a period of repose.

It was a vain expectation, destroyed by the precipitate marriage folly of the queen-mother, and the grasping ambition of the Angus. That powerful baron had hitherto aimed at one great object, which he now deemed himself on the very point of attaining: to accomplish a reconciliation with his wife, the queen-mother, and, possessing her estates, with the custody of the young king's person, to engross the whole power of the government. At this crisis Margaret, so far from becoming less hostile to Angus, gave herself up more considerably than before, to her passion for Henry Stewart, and procuring a divorce from a husband whom she hated, espoused her paramour with a precipitation which disgusted the people. This imprudent step determined Angus to change his ground, and a dread of some counter revolution threw him upon new and more violent courses. By a successful stroke of policy, he procured the passing of an act of Parliament which annulled the authority of the secret council, the only power which stood between him and absolute dominion.

At the same moment, the parliament declared that the minority of the young king was at an end, and that having completed his fourteenth year, he was to be considered as an independent sovereign. While the youthful monarch thus nominally assumed the government, that provision which entrusted the keeping of the royal person to certain peers in rotation, remained in force; and as Angus had artfully summoned the parliament at that precise time, when it belonged to himself and the archbishop of Glasgow to assume their periodical guardianship of the king, the consequence of this state manoeuvre was to place the whole power of the government in their hands.

A new secret council was nominated, composed solely of the creatures of Angus; the great seal was soon after taken from Beaton, the young king was watched with the utmost jealousy, and compelled to give his consent to every thing proposed to him by his new masters. An act of parliament was passed, granting a remission to the heads and followers of this all-powerful faction for the crimes, robberies, or treasons, committed by them during the last nineteen years; every office of trust or emolument in the kingdom was disposed of to the one or other of its supporters, and the ancient tyranny of the house of Douglas once more attained a degree of strength which rivalled, or rather usurped the royal power. At this unhappy period, as has been observed in another work, "the borders became the scene of tumult and confusion, and the insolence of the numerous vassals of this great family was intolerable; murders, spoliations, and crimes of varied enormity, were committed with impunity. The arm of the law, paralysed by the power of an unprincipled faction, neglected to arrest the guilty; the sources of justice were corrupted; the highest and most sacred ecclesiastical dignities became the prey of daring intruders, or were sold to the highest bidder; and the young king, carried about through the country by Angus, apparently in great state, but merely a puppet in the hands of his masters, sighed in vain over a captivity to which there appeared no prospect of a termination."1

An attempt indeed was made for his deliverance, first by the laird of Buccleugh, one of the most powerful of the border barons, and afterwards by the earl of Lennox, who deserted the party of the Douglasses, and to whom the young monarch was much attached. But Buccleugh was routed with considerable loss, and Lennox defeated and slain.

These unsuccessful attempts only strengthened the power of Angus. He entered into a more strict alliance with Henry the Eighth, obtained the friendship and support of Beaton, the archbishop of St. Andrews, and unchecked by any opposition, ruled all things at his will. Nothing indeed could be more miserable than the picture presented by the country; a monarch in captivity, a nobility in thraldom, a people groaning under the most complicated oppressions, yet with their hands tied, and compelled by the miserable system under which they lived to serve their oppressors. It may be asked, what was the secret history of this enormous power, this degraded and implicit obedience? The answer is to be found in the fact, that the Douglasses were masters of the royal person; they could compel the king to affix his signature to any deeds or letters which their tyranny or their caprice might dictate. Angus, the supreme lord of all this misrule, was chancellor, and the great seal at his command; his uncle, Douglas of Kilspindy, was treasurer, and commanded the whole revenues of the country; the law, with all its terrible feudal processes of treason and forfeiture, could be wielded by them at pleasure. So long as the king remained in their hands, this powerful machinery was all theirs; the moment he escaped, the system broke to pieces, and their power was at an end.

Of all this James, who had now entered his seventeenth year, was perfectly aware; and as every hour of his captivity made the Douglasses more hateful to him, his mind became intently occupied with projects for his escape. Nor was it long ere he effected it. With an address superior to his years, the king had either succeeded in lulling the suspicions of his keepers, or a continuance of unchecked power had made them careless. James was at Falkland. Angus, Douglas his brother, and Archibald his uncle, were absent on their private affairs; only Douglas of Pathhead, the captain of the royal guard, remained. The young monarch called for the park-keeper, and, as had been his wont, proposed to hunt next morning. Therefore, says a graphic old chronicler,2 he caused him to warn all the whole tenants and gentlemen thereabouts who had the speediest dogs, that they would come to Falkland wood on the morn, to meet him at seven hours, for he was determined he should slay a fat buck or two for his pleasure; and to that effect caused warn the cooks and stewards to make his supper ready, that he might go to his bed the sooner, and to have his desjeune (breakfast) ready by four o'clock, and commanded James Douglas of Pathhead to pass the sooner to his bed, and caused bring his collation, and drank to James Douglas, saying to him, that he should have good hunting on the morrow, bidding him be early astir. Then the king went to his bed; and James Douglas, seeing the king in his bed, wist that all things had been sure enough, and passed in like manner to his bed. When the watch was set," continues Pitscottie, "and all things in quietness, the king called on a yeoman of the stable, and desired him bring one of his suits of apparel, hose, cloak, coat, and bonnet, and putting them on, stepped forth as a yeoman of the stable, and was perceived of the watches, till he had passed to the stables, and caused saddle a horse for himself, and one led, and took two servants with him, namely, Jocky Hart, a yeoman of the stable, and another secret chamber boy, and leapt on horse, and spurred hastily his journey to Stirling, and won there by the breaking of the day, over the bridge, which he caused to be closed behind him, that none without licence might win that passage. After this he passed to the castle, and was received there by the captain, who was very glad of his coming, and prepared the castle with all things needful. Then he caused shut the gates, and let down the portcullis, and put the king in his bed to sleep, because he had ridden all that night."

Having thus regained his liberty, James's first act was to summon a council, and issue a proclamation, interdicting the Angus and the Douglasses from all approach within six miles of the court, under pain of treason. Nor did they venture to disobey it. On discovering the flight of the king, Angus, Archibald, and Sir George, had hastily assembled a few followers, thrown themselves on horseback, and were riding to Stirling, when they were met by the herald, who read the act, and commanded them in the king's name to halt. For a moment they hesitated, but it was only for a moment. Their sovereign was free; the weapons which but a day before they had wielded with such irresistible force, were now ready to be employed against themselves. A single step forward, and they were guilty of treason, their property and their lives at the mercy of the crown. All this rose rapidly and fearfully before them; and aware how vain it would be at such a moment to meet the power of their enemies, they retreated to Linlithgow.

The monarch, who now took the government into his own

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1 Tytler's History of Scotland, vol. v. p. 201. 2 Lindsay of Pitscottie, pp. 218, 219. hands, had not completed his seventeenth year; but he had been nursed in the school of difficulty, and his character had acquired a consistency and vigour far superior to his age. This was more to his credit, because the Douglases had neglected his education; and while they gave him no opportunities of cultivating the qualities which might have made him a blessing to his people, permitted him to indulge in that love of pleasure and tendency to dissipation which was incident to his temperament and time of life. Happily his character, although it did not escape the pollution of such a base system, survived it; and, with some great faults, the king possessed at the same time not a few of the highest qualities which became a wise and good prince. Strict and scrupulously just, unrestrained in his application to business, earnest in his endeavours to remove the complicated burdens which, under the tyranny of the late oligarchy, had oppressed the people; generous, though somewhat warm in his temper, easy of access, a stranger to pride, and fond, almost to a fault, of mingling familiarly with all classes of his subjects; he soon rendered himself, young as he was, an object of respect to his nobles, and of affection to his people.

The principles which regulated his future government sprang naturally from the circumstances of his early life. The sternest resentment against Angus and the house of Douglas, was combined with a determination to assert and regain the rights of the crown, and to abridge the power of an aristocracy, which had grown intolerable during a long minority. Towards his uncle, Henry the Eighth, it was impossible that his feelings could be any other than those of resentment and suspicion. It was by this prince that there had been introduced into Scotland an organised system of corruption, of which his able and unscrupulous minister, lord Dacre, had been the author. Many Scottish nobles had become the pensioned agents of the English government; paid informers swarmed in the court and through the country. All idea of conquering Scotland by force of arms had been long since abandoned; but a more insidious expedient was adopted, by which the English king, maintaining the Douglases in their usurped dominion, received in return their homage and fidelity, and administered the government at his pleasure.

James's great objects, which we can trace through the whole remaining period of his reign, were to put an end to this system of foreign dictation; to restore its ancient and constitutional prerogatives to the crown; to bridle the exorbitant power of the great nobles, raising up as a check upon them the large and influential body of his clergy; to encourage the mercantile and commercial classes of his people; and to facilitate the administration of the laws, and insure equal justice to the lowest orders of the community.

For the accomplishment of such ends, it was first necessary to exhibit a wholesome example of retributive justice upon those who had been the greatest delinquents. It was declared treason for any person to hold intercourse with Angus, and every Douglas was commanded to leave the capital on pain of death. Angus himself was commanded to remain beyond the waters of the Spey, and required to deliver his brother Sir George Douglas, and his uncle Archibald, as hostages, for his answering to his summons of treason. Having hangbilly disobeyed these orders, a parliament assembled. He was proclaimed a traitor, and his lands nominally divided among those nobles to whom James owed his late success. It was easier, however, to promulgate than to execute such decrees against so powerful a baron; nor was it till after repeated attacks upon Tantallon, some of them led by the king in person, that the arch-offender was reduced, and compelled to seek an asylum in England.

James next directed his attention to the state of the borders; and in an expedition which was long remembered for the vigour, dispatch, and severity of the royal vengeance, inflicted punishment upon the greatest offenders, among Scotland, whom was the noted freebooter, Johnnie Armstrong, and reduced the district into a state of tranquillity. Scarcely was this accomplished, when the Orkneys were threatened to be torn from the crown by the rebellion of the earl of Caithness; and the Isles became the scene of a fierce struggle between the earl of Argyll and Alexander of Isla, one of the most powerful chiefs of that remote region. The judgment and energy of the monarch were shown in the speedy re-establishment of peace in both quarters; and the people, aware that the sceptre was once more in a firm hand, readily and gratefully co-operated with their sovereign in all his labours.

England and France were now at peace, and Henry the Foreign Eighth and Francis the First united in a strict alliance, politics which had for its object to bridle the increasing power of the emperor Charles the Fifth. Under these circumstances, Henry proposed a matrimonial alliance with Scotland, and the design was encouraged by France; while the emperor, jealous of the power which so near a connexion with James might give to his enemies, offered in marriage to the young prince his sister, the queen of Hungary, or his niece, the daughter of Christiern, king of Denmark, with Norway as her dowry.

For the present, however, all these offers were declined, and the monarch appeared wholly engrossed with the prosecution of his various plans for the melioration of his kingdom. Finding himself thwarted by the nobles, he was compelled to adopt decided measures, and to promote the clergy to those offices which had been filled by temporal barons. Argyll was thrown into prison, the earl of Crawford stripped of a large part of his estates; the determination that no Douglas should ever bear sway in Scotland became a more stern and obstinate principle than before; and while the archbishop of Glasgow, the abbot of Holyrood, and the bishop of Dunkeld, were principally consulted in affairs of state, many of the nobles who had hitherto enjoyed the royal confidence saw themselves treated with coldness and distrust.

It was at this time, that the king carried into effect two important measures, the one affecting the commercial treaty interests of his kingdom, the other of still higher moment, as an endeavour to secure to all classes of his subjects Netherland an equal and speedy administration of justice. A commercial treaty between Scotland and the Netherlands had been concluded by James the First, for the period of one hundred years. It was now approaching its termination, and an embassy was dispatched to Brussels, which renewed the league for another century. His second measure was the institution of the College of Justice, a court consisting of fourteen judges, one half selected from the spiritual, the other from the temporal estate, of which the idea is commonly believed to have been suggested by the parliament of Paris. The principal design of this new judicature was to put an end to the delay and partiality arising out of the barons' courts; in other words, to remove the means of oppression out of the hands of the aristocracy; but as it was provided, that the king might at his pleasure send three or four members of his council to give their votes, it was evident that the subject was freed from one grievance, only to be exposed to the hazard of another, whenever his rights might happen to come in collision with the crown.

During these transactions, the Douglases and their adherents were driven upon violent and discreditable courses, glasses sell in proportion as their prospect of reconciliation to the king themselves became more hopeless and remote. The earl of Bothwell, also a powerful border baron, whose excesses James had severely punished, entered into a traitorous alliance with Henry the Eighth, in which he engaged, if properly supported, to dethrone his sovereign, and to "crown the English king in the town of Edinburgh within a brief time." while the earl of Angus did not hesitate, in the extremity of his resentment, to sell himself to England; and in an original writing which yet remains, engaged to "make unto Henry the oath of allegiance, to recognise him as supreme lord of Scotland, as his prince and sovereign."

In consequence of these base engagements, war was once more kindled on the borders, and carried on by the Douglas and Henry's captains with such desolating fury, that James was compelled to call out the whole body of the fighting men in the country. These he divided into four armies, to each of which in rotation the defence of the marches was entrusted. The measure effectually checked the power of the English, and there was little prospect of Bothwell fulfilling his threat, of crowning Henry in the capital; but peace seemed more distant than ever, and nothing could be more deplorable than the picture presented by the country. The flames of villages and granges, the destruction of the fruits, and the cessation of the labour of the husbandman, the stoppage put to the enterprise of the merchant, the increase among the people of the spirit of national antipathy, the corruption of the nobles by the money of England, the loss among such pensioned adventurers of all affection for the sovereign, and the decay of the healthy feelings of national independence; all these lamentable consequences sprung out of the continuance of the war, and made the king desirous of securing peace, even if it should be at some sacrifice.

This he at length accomplished. James agreed that the Douglases, by which was meant Angus, his brother George, and his uncle Archibald, should remain unmolested in England, supported by Henry as his subjects, on condition that Edrington castle, the only spot which they held in Scotland, should be surrendered, and reparation made for any expedition which they or the English king might hereafter conduct against Scotland. On these conditions a pacification was concluded, for the period of the lives of Henry and James, and a year after the death of him who first deceased; and soon after its ratification, the young monarch, whose firmness and talent in the management of his government made him an object of respect to the European princes, received the Garter from England, the order of St. Michael from France, and the Golden Fleece from the emperor.

James was now in his twenty-second year, and his marriage was earnestly desired by the country; but he had hitherto shewn little inclination to gratify the wishes of his people. With all his good qualities, he unhappily inherited from his father an extreme devotedness to pleasure, which had been rather encouraged than restrained by the Douglases; and his passions getting the better of his prudence and principle, sought their gratification in low intrigues, carried on in disguise, and in pursuit of which he not unfrequently exposed his life to the attacks and revenge of his rivals. It was now full time that he should renounce these disreputable excesses; and having evaded an offer made by the Spanish ambassador, of the hand of the princess Mary of Portugal, and declined a similar proposal of Henry the Eighth, who pointed to his daughter the princess Mary, he dispatched an embassy to France, for the purpose of concluding a matrimonial alliance with that crown.

It now becomes necessary to attend to a great subject, (the rise of the Reformation in Scotland,) the principles of which had been for some time silently making their progress among the people, but which from this period exercised a marked and increasing influence over the history of the government and of the country. It was now nearly six years since Patrick Hamilton, abbot of Ferne, the friend and disciple of Luther and Melanchthon, having renounced the errors of the Roman Catholic church, and embraced the doctrines of these leading reformers, had been delated of heresy, and condemned to the flames. The cruel sentence was carried into effect at St. Andrews in 1528, under the minority of James, and while the supreme power was in the hands of the earl of Angus. On taking the government into his own hand, James, although decidedly inimical to the principles of Angus in all other things, unhappily followed his determination to persecute those whom he esteemed the enemies of the truth. David Stratton and Norman Gourlay, who were disciples of the reformation, were tried for heresy, condemned, and brought to the stake, on the 27th of August 1534; and the intolerant and cruel conduct of the king compelled some who had embraced the same opinions to fly for safety to England.

About this time Henry the Eighth exerted himself to the utmost to prevail upon the Scottish king to imitate his own conduct, and shake off the yoke of Rome. He endeavoured to open his eyes to the tyranny of the pope's usurpations, sent to him the treatise entitled the "Doctrine of a Christian Man," and dispatched Dr. Barlow and Lord William Howard to request a conference with his royal nephew at York; but the remembrance of the injuries he had sustained, resentment for Henry's intrigues with his discontented subjects, and an attachment to the faith of his fathers, indisposed James to listen to these overtures; and when Paul the Third deputed his legate Campeggio to visit Scotland, the embassy found it no difficult matter to confirm the Scottish monarch in his attachment to the Catholic church. At the same time he addressed him by the title of which Henry had proved himself unworthy, Defender of the Faith, and presented to him a cap and sword which had been consecrated by the pope upon the feast of the nativity.

A parliament which assembled about this time, made two provisions which deserve attention. The importation of the works of Luther, which had been proscribed by a former act, was again strictly forbidden; any discussion of his opinions, unless for the purpose of proving their falsehood, was prohibited; and all persons who possessed any treatises of the reformer, were enjoined, under the penalty of confiscation and imprisonment, to deliver them up to the ordinary within forty days. The second act, which is well worthy of notice, related to the burghs, in this dark age the best nurseries of industry and freedom. Hitherto feudal barons had been elected to the offices of magistrates and superintendents over the privileges of these corporations; an unwise practice, by which the provosts, aldermen, or bailies, instead of being industrious citizens, interested in the protection of trade, and the security of property, were little else than idle and factious tyrants, who consumed the substance and invaded the corporate privileges of the burgesses. A law was now made, that no person should be elected to any office in the magistracy of the borough, but such as themselves were honest and substantial burgesses, and although not immediately or strictly carried into effect, the enactment evinced the dawning of a better spirit.

War still continued between Francis the First and the emperor, a circumstance which induced the French king to continue an amicable correspondence with England; and France being aware that Henry the Eighth was intent upon accomplishing a marriage with Scotland, Francis did not care to disgust this passionate monarch by any very speedy attention to James's desires to unite himself to a French princess. To obviate this, the Scottish king himself took a voyage to France, and landing at Dieppe, proceeded from thence in disguise to the palace of the duke of Vendome. Here, being received only as a noble stranger, he saw, for the first time, but did not approve of his affianced bride, Marie de Bourbon, the duke's daughter, and transferred his affections to Madeleine, the youngest daughter of the French king, to

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1 MS. British Museum, Calig. B. I. 128. 2 Dismissal of Occurrences in Scotland, p. 19. In the circumstances in which Scotland was then placed, the church of Rome was inclined to consider this union as one of great importance; and it has been noted that seven cardinals surrounded the altar. Nor were these anticipations disappointed. James remained for nine months in France, and having returned to his own kingdom, it was soon evident that some great changes were on the eve of taking place.

Francis the First, although still nominally at peace with Henry, had become alienated from him by the violent and dictatorial tone which he assumed. The pope, who considered his own existence as involved in the contest with England, had neglected no method by which he might first terminate the disputes between the emperor and the French king, and then unite them in a coalition against Henry, as the common enemy. We have already noticed the success of the court of Rome in flattering the vanity of James; and it appears that, in 1537, these intrigues were so far successful, that a pacification was concluded between Francis and the emperor. From this moment the cordiality between France and England was completely at an end, while every argument which could have weight in a young and ardent mind was addressed to James, to induce him to join the projected league against Henry.

Nor had the conduct of Henry, during James's absence in France, been calculated to allay those resentful feelings which already existed between them. He had sent into Scotland Sir Ralph Sadler, a crafty and able diplomatist, for the express purpose of completing the system of secret intelligence introduced, as we have seen, with pernicious success by Lord Dacre. This minister was instructed to gain an influence over the nobility, to attach the queen-mother to his interest, to sound the inclinations of the body of the people on the subject of peace or war, an adoption of the reformed opinions, or an adherence to the ancient faith. The Douglases were still maintained with high favour in England. Their power, although nominally extinct, was far from being destroyed; their spies penetrated into every quarter, and had even followed the young king to France, whence they gave information of his most private motions; finally, those feudal covenants, termed bonds of manrent, still bound to their interest many of the most potent of the nobles, whom the vigour of the king's government had disgusted or estranged.

From this description we may gather the state of parties at the return of James to his dominions after his marriage. On the one hand was seen Henry the Eighth, the head of the protestant reformation in England, supported in Scotland not only by the still formidable power and unceasing intrigues of the Douglases, but by a large proportion of the nobles, and the talents of his sister, the queen-mother. On the other hand stood the king of Scotland, assisted by the united talent, zeal, and wealth of the Roman Catholic clergy, the loyalty of some of the most potent peers, the co-operation of France, the approval of the emperor, the affection of the great body of his people, upon whose minds the doctrines of Luther had not yet made any very general impression, and the cordial support of the papal court. The course of events, into which we cannot enter minutely, but which we shall touch in their principal consequences, illustrated strikingly these opposing interests.

In the mean time, scarcely had the rejoicings ceased for James's return to his dominions with his youthful queen, when it was apparent that she was sinking under a consumption, which in a short time carried her to the grave. Although depressed by this calamity, the king did not permit it to divert his mind from that system of policy on which he had resolved to act; and an embassy to France, was entrusted to David Beaton, afterwards the celebrated cardinal, who requested for his master the hand of Mary of Guise, the widow of the duke of Longueville, and sister to James V., the cardinal of Lorraine. To this second union, the court of France joyfully assented and the marriage took place at St. Andrews, within a year after the death of the former queen. At this moment the life of the king was twice endangered by conspiracy; and although much obscurity hangs over the subject, both plots were probably connected with the intrigues of the house of Douglas. At the head of the first was the master of Forbes, a brother-in-law of Angus. The chief actor in the second was the lady Glamis, his sister, who, only two days after the execution of Forbes, was accused of an attempt to poison her sovereign, found guilty and condemned to be burned; a dreadful sentence, the execution of which she bore with the hereditary courage of her house.

An event now happened, which drew after it important consequences. James Beaton, archbishop of St Andrews, died, and was succeeded in the primacy by his nephew, cardinal Beaton; a man far his uncle's superior in talent, and still more devotedly attached to the interests of the Roman Catholic church. It was to him, as we have seen, that James had committed the negotiation for his second marriage; and so great appears to have been the influence which he acquired over the royal mind, that the king henceforth selected him as his principal adviser.

Beaton's accession to additional power was marked by a renewal of persecution of the reformers; and it is worthy of observation, that most of the converts to the reformed faith belonged to the order of the inferior clergy. Keillor, Forret, Simson, and Beveridge, were arraigned before an ecclesiastical tribunal, and soon afterwards Kennedy and Russell, out of which number three, Kennedy, Forret, and Russell, suffered at the stake with great meekness and courage. There can be little doubt that such inhuman executions operated in favour, rather than against the progress of the reformation.

The coalition between Francis the First and the emperor was now completed under the auspices of the papal mission court; and Henry the Eighth, aware of the great efforts made to induce James to join the league against him, dispatched Sir Ralph Sadler into Scotland. The object of this able negotiator was to rouse James's jealousy against the increasing power of the clergy, to prevail upon him to throw off his allegiance to the pope, to imitate his example by suppressing the monasteries, and to urge him to maintain the peace with England. To the last request the Scottish king replied, that if Henry's conduct was pacific, nothing should induce him to join any hostile league against him; but he assured Sadler that he found his clergy his most loyal and useful subjects; and although he would be anxious to see a reformation in the general morals of this body, he did not exactly see how that could best be effected by renouncing the authority of his holy father the pope, the terrestrial head of the church, and thus setting an example of rebellion and confusion.

James had for some time meditated an important enterprise, which he now executed; a voyage to the most northern voyage to parts of his dominions conducted by himself, and on a scale the north-south as had not been attempted by any of his predecessors. His fleet consisted of twelve ships, fully armed and provisioned. He was attended by Beaton, and the earls of Huntly, Arran, and Angus; and these barons bringing with them their armed vassals, formed a force which, united to the royal suite and attendants, was equal to a little army. Lindsay, a skilful hydrographer, accompanied the expedition, and his maps and charts, the first rude essays in this science ever attempted in Scotland, are preserved at the present day. Scotland. Buchan; he next visited Caithness, crossed the Pentland frith to the Orkneys, doubled Cape Wrath, steered for the Lewis, crossed over to Skye, circumnavigated Mull, swept along the shores of Argyle, and passing Kintyre, inspected Arran and Bute, whence he sailed up the Clyde to Dumbarton, where he concluded his labours.

The effects of this royal progress were salutary and decisive. The force with which James was accompanied secured a prompt submission to his commands, and inspired these remote districts with a wholesome dread of the royal name. Some of the fiercer and more independent chiefs, who affected a show of resistance, were seized and confined in irons on board the fleet; others, more gently treated, were yet compelled to accompany the monarch as hostages for the pacific behaviour of their followers; and all were convinced that any attempt to brave the power of the crown, must for the present be vain and ruinous.

This exhibition of increasing energy in the king only exposed him the more to the jealousy of those nobles whose power had been nourished by long intervals of license, and who now clearly perceived, that unless they were prepared to resign their rights, a struggle between them and their sovereign could hardly be averted. A proof of this was shown on James's return to court from his northern voyage, when a conspiracy against his life was detected, the third which had occurred within no very long period. Like the rest it is involved in obscurity; but the proof was considered as sufficient, and its author, Sir James Hamilton, commonly called the bastard of Arran, was tried, convicted and executed. It is said that the king was thrown into a state of great despondency and gloom by the discovery of this plot; that it opened his eyes to the manifold dangers which surrounded a prince at variance with his nobles; and that he began to feel that he was engaged in a contest in which they might prove too strong for him.

Whatever credit we may attach to these reports, the conduct of James gave decided proofs that he was determined to continue the struggle; and in a Parliament which soon afterwards assembled in the capital, he strengthened his own hands by annexing to the crown the whole of the Hebrides, by which we are to understand the isles north and south of the two Kintyres. But this was not all. To these new acquisitions were added the Orkney and Zetland isles, many extensive lordships, Jedburgh forest, and the demesnes of Angus, Giamais, Liddaldale, and Evandale.

In the want of contemporary evidence, it is difficult to decide upon the strict justice of this sweeping measure. It is possible that, by rigidly investigating the history of former rebellions, and present treasons, James may have persuaded himself that he was entitled to the forfeiture of all these large estates and principalities; but in such circumstances it had been the practice of former monarchs to parcel out the forfeited lands among his nobles who had preserved their loyalty; and in the measure now adopted, of annexing the whole to the crown, the aristocracy saw little else than their own intended ruin. It was in vain that the measure was followed by the publication of a general act of amnesty for all former treasons. The earl of Angus, Sir George Douglas, and the whole of their adherents were excepted; and men observed, that while the king's generosity was vague and capricious, his aversion to those who had once injured him, was stern and immutable.

It is not easy to discover James's exact opinions regarding the progress of the reformed doctrines, which now began to create great alarm in the Roman Catholic clergy. On the one hand he seems to have become convinced of the necessity for a reform in the church, and to have looked with a severe eye upon the idleness, corruption, and ignorance of a large portion of the clergy. He encouraged Sir David Lindsay, whose satire upon the three estates contained a bitter attack upon the prelates; and being himself much involved in debt, there is reason to believe he regarded the Scottish overgrown possessions and extraordinary wealth of the clergy with certain longings to appropriate some portion of it towards the exigencies of the state. Yet, in the Parliament to which we have just alluded, it was made a capital offence to argue against the supreme authority, or the spiritual infallibility of the pope; the discussion of religious questions in private meetings was interdicted; a law was passed against the demolition of the shrines and images of saints; and it was evidently the opinion of the king that the reformation should be made by the church itself, within itself; and under the sanction of its head the pope.

Such seems to have been the feelings and the policy of mutual the sovereign. Those of another influential body in the state, mostly the clergy, are easily detected. To counteract the intrigues between Henry the Eighth, and to check any incipient feelings of favour towards the reformation, the great reliance of cardinal Beaton and the Roman Catholic party was in the prospect of a war with England. To accomplish this, they had unfortunately ample materials to work upon. Henry the Eighth was violent and dictatorial; James proud, and jealous of his independence. The English king had espoused the interests of the banished house of Douglas, and fomented discontent among the rest of the Scottish nobles. James was animated by an unrelenting animosity to the earl of Angus, the head of the house of Douglas, and to all who bore the name. Henry, instigated by the utmost hostility to the Roman see, eagerly desired that his royal nephew should imitate his example, suppress the religious houses, and proclaim his independence; but the instructions to his ambassador, Sadler, upon this subject, contained expressions so personally insolent to James, that if obeyed, his mission must have occasioned disgust rather than conciliation. The English king requested a personal interview at York; and James, after a promise to meet him, broke the appointment with Henry, who had proceeded to that city in expectation of his arrival.

At this crisis, the Scottish king evidently dreaded being prematurely hurried into war. He was in debt, he suspected the fidelity of his nobles, he was well aware that a feudal peace, monarch at variance with his barons, the sinews of his strength, was likely to be dishonoured and defeated. He had lately lost his only children, Arthur and James, and he believed that Beaton's anxiety for war was dictated by selfish motives, and influenced by his intrigues with Rome. Under these circumstances, public policy and personal feeling alike made him dread any immediate hostilities with England, and he endeavoured by an embassy to avert the rupture; but Henry, from the moment of his disappointment at York, would listen to no message of conciliation. War was resolved on, the east and middle marches were put into a state of defence, Berwick inspected, musters raised in the north, and soon afterwards Sir James Bowes, with the force of the east marches, marched across the border. The banished Angus, his brother Sir George Douglas, and a large body of the retainers of the Douglasses, had joined him; but they were encountered, and completely defeated by Huntly and Home.

This, however, was merely a preliminary outbreak; and as such border outrages had frequently occurred without drawing after them more serious consequences, James attempted a last effort to avert the storm, by sending commissioners first to York, and afterwards to meet the duke of Norfolk, who, at the head of an army of forty thousand men, had crossed the Tweed, and already given many of the granges and villages to the flames. It was in vain, however, to attempt negotiation; and aware that the crisis had arrived, the Scottish king commanded Huntly and Home, upon whose fidelity he had most reliance, to watch the progress of Norfolk, while he himself assembled the main force of his kingdom on the Borough-moor near Edinburgh. With this army, which mustered thirty thousand strong, he advanced to Fala-moor, and when encamped there, received the welcome intelligence that Norfolk, compelled by the want of supplies and the severity of the winter, was in full retreat. It was now the time to retaliate, and James issued orders for an immediate invasion of England. But the nobles felt their own strength. They had long regarded the measures of the court with distrust, some even with indignation and a desire of revenge; they recalled to mind the proceedings of the monarch, the threatening attitude lately assumed by the crown towards the whole body of the aristocracy; and when commanded to cross the borders, they haughtily and unanimously refused. It was in vain that James, stung with such an indignity, threatened, remonstrated, and even entreated them, as they valued their own honour and his, to proceed against the English. The feeling of attachment to their prince, or revenge against the enemy seemed to be completely extinguished in a resolution to assert their power, and procure a redress of their grievances; and the sovereign was at last compelled to disband the army, and return outraged and defeated to his capital.

There can be no doubt that so mortifying a reverse sunk deep into the heart of James, but his pride, and the natural vigour of his character supported him. Though deserted by the majority, he had still some powerful friends among the nobles, the clergy were unanimously in his favour, and it was resolved to make a second effort to re-assemble the army for the invasion of England. Its success, though partial, once more gave a gleam of hope to the monarch. A force of ten thousand men was collected chiefly by the exertions of Lord Maxwell; with this it was resolved to break across the western marches, and the king took his station at Caerlaverock, where he eagerly awaited the result of the expedition. A distrust of his nobles, however, still haunted him; and secret orders were issued, that as soon as the army reached the river Esk, his favourite, Oliver Sinclair, should be intrusted with the chief command. Nothing could be more unwise than this resolution. It was received with murmurs of discontent; and when the new general exhibited himself to the camp, and a herald attempted to read the royal commission by which he was appointed, the whole army became agitated, disorderly, and almost mutinous. At this crisis, Dacre and Musgrave, two English officers, advanced to reconnoitre at the head of three hundred horse, and approaching near enough to perceive the condition of the Scots, boldly charged them. The effect of this surprise was instantaneous and fatal. Ten thousand Scots fled from three hundred English cavalry, with scarcely a momentary resistance. In the panic the greater number escaped, but a thousand prisoners were taken, and among them many of the leading nobles, Cassillis, Glencairn, Maxwell, Somerville, Gray, Oliphant, and Fleming.

This second calamity completely overwhelmed the king. He had eagerly awaited at Caerlaverock the first news from the army, and he anticipated a victory which should efface the late dishonour, and restore the feelings of cordiality between himself and his barons. In an instant the hope was blasted, and gave place to the most gloomy despondency. For their unheard-of conduct, James could find no solution but in the persuasion that his nobles had secretly conspired to betray him to England, and to sacrifice the independence of the kingdom to the gratification of their personal revenge. This idea preyed upon his mind. The feeling that his army had exposed themselves, their sovereign, and the Scottish name to contempt, took entire possession of him. He became the victim of a low fever, which had its seat in a wounded heart, and from a proud monarch, lately in the vigour of his strength and the prime of his age, he sunk into a state of silent melancholy. When in this hopeless condition, the news arrived that his queen had given birth to a daughter. He had already lost his two sons, and clung to the hope Scotland, that his next might be a boy. But here too he was met by disappointment; and wandering back in thought to the time when the daughter of Bruce brought to his ancestor, the steward of Scotland, the dowry of the kingdom, he received the intelligence with the melancholy remark, "It cam wi' a lass, it will gang wi' a lass?" "It came by a girl, and will go with a girl." As he said this, a few of the most faithful of his nobles and councillors stood round his bed; and as they strove to comfort him, he stretched out his hand for them to kiss, and regarding them with great affection, closed his eyes, and placidly expired. He died in the thirty-fifth year of his age, and the twenty-ninth of his reign.

Somewhat more than two centuries and a half had elapsed since the death of Alexander the Third had left the country infant eight under circumstances of calamity and danger strikingly similar, dear to those in which it now found itself in losing James the Fifth. Alexander had been bereft of all his sons, and the crown descended to an only grand-daughter, the Maiden of Norway. James had been visited by a like bereavement. His sons, Arthur and James, had been cut off, and his only daughter, Mary, an infant eight days old, was now queen. On the death of Alexander, the kingdom saw itself exposed to the ambitious designs of Edward the First, who immediately conceived the project of marrying the queen of Scotland to his eldest son. On the death of James, Henry the Eighth, a monarch far inferior in talent to Edward, but equally ambitious, and, where the rights of others were concerned, still more unscrupulous, at once embraced the design of marrying his son the prince of Wales to the infant Mary. Edward, when disappointed of his first object by the death of the infant queen, resorted to intrigue and force to accomplish his purpose; and Henry having been baffled in his ambition, not indeed by the death, but by the betrothal of Mary to the dauphin, resorted to the same weapons to effect his designs. One point of the parallel, and that the most mortifying of all, remains. In the days of Edward, Scotland was basely deserted by her leading nobility, and owed her liberty to the inherent love of freedom and the persevering courage of her people. It was the same under Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth. The lapse of two centuries and a half found the great majority of the Scottish nobles as selfish, wavering, and unprincipled as their ancestors in the days of Edward,—supported by the money of England, ready to sacrifice the independence of their country to their individual ambition; and if Scotland preserved her liberty as a separate kingdom, which, by the blessing of God, she did, the agents selected for her deliverance were the great body of her people, and the numerous and influential classes of the clergy. From these general remarks let us return to our historical sketch.

The rout at the Solway Moss, followed, as we have seen, by the death of the king, gave an alarming advantage to Henry with the earl of Angus, Sir George Douglas, and the numerous supporters of this house, still powerful though in banishment, had been long devoted to his interests, in the support of which they saw the only sure hope of their own restoration. To these were added the prisoners of highest rank who were taken in the late disgraceful flight. To them the English monarch now proposed an alternative, trying indeed, but in the choice of which no citizen of a free country ought to have hesitated. On the one hand, they were threatened with imprisonment in the Tower, to which they had been conducted immediately after their being taken. On the other, they were promised freedom, and a return to their native country, but coupled with extraordinary conditions. A bond was drawn up which they were required to sign. By it they acknowledged Henry as lord superior of the kingdom of Scotland; they promised to exert their influence to procure for him the government of the kingdom, and the Scotland. resignation into his hands of all its fortresses; they engaged to have their infant queen delivered to his keeping; and they solemnly stipulated, that if the parliament of Scot- land resisted such demands, they would employ their whole feudal strength to co-operate with England in completing the conquest of the country. To this engagement they were required to swear fidelity; and if they failed in ac- complishing the wishes of the king, the penalty was to be their immediate return to their prisons in England. It must have been apparent to the Scottish prisoners that such an engagement virtually annihilated the existence of their country as a separate kingdom; and yet it is mortifying to add that it was embraced by the earls of Glencairn and Cassillis, with the lords Maxwell, Somerville, and Oliphant. These were among the chief prisoners taken in the rout of Solway Moss; the rest were of inferior rank, and re- mained in captivity, while Angus, Sir George Douglas, and the strength of their house, cordially co-operated with Henry.

A.D.1542. It was the policy of these lords on their return to Scot- land, to conceal the full extent of their engagements, and to proceed with great caution. On their arrival they found the country divided into two factions. On the one side, was cardinal Beaton the chancellor, supported by the queen-mother Mary of Guise, the whole body of the clergy, the Roman Catholic nobility, and the interest of France. On the other stood the earl of Arran, nearest heir to the crown, a weak and indolent man, who leaned to the re- formed opinions; all the nobles who had forsaken the an- cient faith, the adherents of the house of Douglas, and many who, ignorant of the unjust and degrading demands of Henry, considered a marriage with England, under due safeguards, as a wise and politic step. As to the great body of the people, by which we must chiefly understand the middle and commercial classes, their feelings, as far as they can be detected, were somewhat discordant. Many favoured the reformation, and from hostility to the cardinal, gave a virtual support to Henry the Eighth and the English fac- tion; but their feeling of national independence was so strong, that on the slightest assumption of superiority, it was ready to exhibit itself in determined hostility.

Arrival of the Dou- glas and the Solway prisoners.

Into the details of the struggles between these opposite factions, it belongs not to our plan to enter. We must touch only the great leading events; but these, even in their most general form, are full of interest. On the death of the king, Beaton produced a will which appointed him chief governor of the realm, and guardian to the infant queen; but the paper was thrown aside as a forged instrument; Arran, the nearest heir to the crown, was chosen governor; and the cardinal having contented himself with securing the interest and support of France, prepared for a deter- mined struggle with his opponents. At this moment, the Douglases and the Solway prisoners arrived, of which party Sir George Douglas, brother to Angus, and father of the celebrated regent Morton, was the leader. Their first act was bold and successful. Beaton was arraigned of a trea- sonable correspondence with France, and hurried to prison; a parliament was summoned for the discussion of the proposed alliance with England; and as the governor, Arran, appeared to be completely under English influence, it was confidently expected that Henry's schemes of ambition were not far from their accomplishment. But they were defeated by his own violent and intolerant conduct. He insisted on having the cardinal delivered up to be imprisoned in Eng- land; he upbraided the Douglases for their delay to surren- der the fortresses of the kingdom; and instead of being con- tented with the proceedings of the parliament, which agreed to the marriage between the Scottish queen and his son, he expressed the most violent resentment, because the estates

insisted that their country should preserve its liberties as a Scottish separate and independent kingdom.

Amidst these collisions the secret treachery of the Dou- glas and the Solway lords began to transpire. Beaton, nearly about the same time recovered his liberty, and after an ineffectual attempt to secure a matrimonial alliance with Henry and England on just and equal grounds, he placed himself and party in the great party of which he became the leader in deter- mined hostility to Henry. A last effort, however, was made, posi- tive and a Scottish embassy sought the English court. In a Henry personal interview, the ambassadors explained to the king the conditions on which the country would agree to the marriage. To their astonishment, the monarch, overcome by passion, proclaimed himself lord paramount of Scotland, and insisted that the government of that kingdom, and the custody of its infant sovereign, belonged of right to him. This disclosure, which was made in a moment of passion, and against the earnest entreaties of the English faction, produced an instantaneous effect. It was received in Scot- land, as had been predicted, with a universal burst of in- dignation. It gave the cardinal and the French party an immediate ascendancy; the governor, Arran, and his friends joined their ranks; and the people became so exasperated, that Sadler, the English ambassador, could not safely show himself in the capital.

To counteract all these effects, Sir George Douglas exert- ed himself with indefatigable activity. Henry was prevailed upon to renounce the most obnoxious part of his demands, with Eng- Arran, with his characteristic caprice, deserted his new friends; and in a convention of the nobles, which was not attended by the opposite faction, the treaties of marriage and pacification with England were finally arranged. Yet although, as far as it was promulgated to the people, the negotiation now concluded, preserved entire the rights and liberties of Scotland, a paper has lately been discovered, drawn up at the same time, and entitled a secret De- cree, in which the earls of Angus and Glencairn, with lord Maxwell, Sir George Douglas, and the rest of their party, once more tied themselves to the service of the English king, and promised that, if he did not accomplish the full extent of his designs, he should at least have the dominion on this side the Forth.

To fulfill this treaty, however, was found no easy matter. It was averred by the opposite faction, that it had been of the ear- carried through by private influence, unsanctioned by the of Am- highest nobles, unauthorized by any parliament, contrary to the wishes of the people; and at this very crisis the car- dinal obtained possession of the person of the infant queen, who had hitherto been strictly guarded by the governor and the Hamiltons. To balance this success, Arran, whose character had hitherto been only weak, became alarmed at the success of the cardinal; and, flattered by a proposal of the English king to make him sovereign of Scotland beyond the Forth, declared his readiness to co-operate with an English army for the entire subjugation of the country. In the mean time, he held a convention of the nobles in the abbey church of Holyrood, and in his character of governor of the realm, ratified the marriage treaty with England, un- mindful of the protestations of Beaton and his party, that they were no parties to such a transaction, and would not hold themselves bound by a decision contrary to the opinion of the majority of the nobles and the wishes of the people.

Henry the Eighth, enraged by this opposition, acted with Viator his wonted impetuosity and want of principle. He intrigued of the against the life and liberty of the cardinal, but his plots to English get possession of the prelate were unsuccessful; he seized ring the ships of the Scottish merchants which were in English ports, a measure which was deeply resented; and he assumed that tone of haughty defiance, which, when united to his

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1 Sadler's State Papers, vol. i. pp. 69, 81. 2 Tytler's History of Scotland, vol. v. p. 339. Scotland, hostile preparations, made it apparent that war could not be long averted. France now offered her assistance to her ancient ally. The earl of Arran, ever wavering and irresolute, once more threw his whole influence into Beaton's hands; and this minister, availing himself of an accession of strength, proceeded with a vigorous hand to suppress heresy, and to incite determined resistance to England.

Henry, who was thoroughly unprincipled, and cared not what means he used to rid himself of his opponents, attempted to remove the cardinal, by hiring Brunston, Grange, Rothes, and some of the opposite faction, to seize or assassinate him; but he once more failed in this nefarious project, and, foiled and irritated, let loose his vengeance in the shape of a naval invasion. An English fleet of a hundred sail, under lord Lisle, high admiral, appeared suddenly in the Forth, and disembarked a force which plundered Leith, sacked Edinburgh, which had been deserted by its inhabitants, ravaged the adjoining country with merciless cruelty, and left upon land a considerable force, which, in its retreat, was as remorseless in its devastations as the fleet had been in its attack. Such was Henry's mode of wooing, of which it was well observed by lord Herbert, that he did too much for a suitor, and too little for a conqueror.

It might have been expected that the rival leaders and factions in the state, all of whom had suffered by this invasion, would have had their eyes opened to the necessity of saving the country, by uniting their strength; but in vain the cardinal strained every effort to effect so desirable a result. Mutual jealousies, feudal quarrels, renewed intrigues with England, private bonds or covenants among themselves, all co-operated to destroy any cordial union; and the earls of Lennox and Glencairn, two of the most powerful of the Scottish barons, seized this opportunity to sell themselves to Henry, and to conduct a hostile expedition into the heart of Scotland.

It was at this moment, when all was gloom and despondency, that the earl of Angus, who, with his brother, had been lately restored to his estates, and absolved in Parliament from the sentence of treason, encountered and totally defeated Sir Ralph Evre and Sir Brian Layton at Ancram Muir. These English leaders had procured from Henry a grant of all they could conquer in Teviotdale and the Merse, where Angus's estates chiefly lay; and penetrating at the head of five thousand men to Melrose, they not only ravaged that district, but plundered the abbey, and wantonly defaced the tombs of the house of Douglas; an insult which Angus revenged in the most signal manner, by attacking the English in their retreat, dispersing their force, with the slaughter of eight hundred men, leaving Evre and Layton dead on the field, and making a capture of one thousand prisoners.

This victory, although resulting not from patriotic principle, but personal revenge, had a good effect in restoring confidence to the people; and it was followed up by the resolution of Francis the First to equip a fleet for the invasion of England, and to assist Scotland by an auxiliary force. Beaton, encouraged by this expected aid, having concentrated his party, prevailed upon the majority of the nobles, in a convention held in the capital, to refuse every advance of the English monarch, and to declare the treaty of peace and marriage at an end; while Henry, enraged to the utmost pitch by this success, eagerly encouraged a second plot of the earls of Cassillis, Angus, and Glencairn, for the murder of the cardinal. The king, however, enjoined Sir Ralph Sadler to propose the assassination, as coming from himself, and the conspirators at this moment would not act without Henry's direct approval.

In the midst of these dark plots, a French fleet arrived in Scotland with three thousand men. This led to decisive measures. A Scottish army was assembled; but torn as French usual by internal dissensions, and betrayed by the Douglases, who held a principal command, its operations were insignificant, and its retreat almost immediate. This was followed by a cruel invasion of the English, in which the earl of Hertford, at the head of an army, whose numbers rendered opposition fruitless, invaded Scotland, and after a desolating progress, sent word to his master, that for three hundred years there had not been such ravages committed. Seven monasteries and religious houses, sixteen castles and towns, five market towns, two hundred and forty-three villages, thirteen mills and three hospitals, were burned down during this atrocious expedition; and there still exists a characteristic letter, in which Henry, on receiving some French deserters into his service, enjoins them to show their attachment by some notable exploit, such as the "trapping or slaying the cardinal." He, at the same time, engaged the earl of Lennox, and Donald, lord of the Isles, to attack Scotland on the west coasts; and having heard that Beaton, his able and indefatigable enemy, meditated a visit to France for the purpose of subsidising a large auxiliary force for the continuance of the war, he determined to make a last effort to cut him off, and with this view, resumed with the lord of Brunston the plot for his assassination.

Into the details of this remarkable conspiracy, and the various parties whom Henry contrived to bring together for the execution of his sanguinary purpose, we cannot here enter. Fanaticism of the sternest kind, which had been worked up into action by the cardinal's cruel execution of George Wishart, commonly called the martyr, united itself to more mercenary motives with some of the conspirators, and with others, to the desire of private revenge; and on the morning of the 28th of May, a band of desperate men, who are now known to have been in the pay of England, and some of whom had been on former occasions urged by the English king to the commission of the murder, broke into the cardinal's apartments in the castle of St. Andrews, beat down the barricades with which the miserable man had attempted to defend the door, and putting him instantly to death, hung out his naked and mangled body over the window of his bed-chamber, in savage and brutal triumph. They then seized the castle, dismissed unharmed the household servants of the cardinal, sent off a messenger to the English court to inform Henry of their success; and being soon afterwards joined by John Knox, and a considerable band of his friends, who considered the death of Beaton as favourable to the reformation, they determined to defend the castle for Henry against any force which might be brought against them.

These confident anticipations were, for a time, overthrown by the death of Henry the Eighth, an event soon followed by that of his rival Francis the First; but the accession of Edward the Sixth in England, and that of Henry the Second in France, did not materially alter the policy of either king. In England, the protector Somerset, set, who was placed at the head of the government during the minority of his royal nephew, considered himself bound to enforce the observation of the marriage treaty between Edward and the young queen of Scots; while in France, Henry the Second, devoted to the cause of the Catholic church, and directed in his affairs by the Guises, foresaw at once the necessity of an intimate union with Mary of Scotland. Guise the queen-dowager, and the governor Arran; his policy being to arrest the spread of the reformed opinions, and to weaken England in the quarter to which Somerset looked for an easy triumph.

For nine years after the assassination of Beaton, the earl of Arran continued at the head of the government; and during that period some events took place which drew after them important effects. The warlike preparations of Somerset induced the French government to anticipate his motions; and a French fleet of sixteen armed galleons having entered the Frith, bombarded and carried the castle of St. Andrews; in which the conspirators against Beaton, and Knox the Scottish reformer, had deemed themselves secure.

It was when shut up in St. Andrews, that this extraordinary man first assumed the office of a minister of the reformed religion; but having capitulated with the rest, he was embarked with his associates for France, and on his arrival there, kept a prisoner in chains on board the galleys. He remained on the continent till 1550, when he returned not to Scotland, but to England, and became one of the chaplains to Edward the Sixth.

Immediately after the siege of St. Andrews, the protector Somerset invaded Scotland at the head of an army of fourteen thousand strong, and supported by a fleet of thirty-four ships of war. He was met by Arran, the governor, at Musselburgh, or Pinkey-clough, within about six miles distance from the capital, where an army considerably more than double the number of the English had encamped in so strong a position on the banks of the Esk, that with proper military skill on their part, any attempt to dislodge them might have brought ruin on their assailants. The inexperience and folly of Arran, the governor, threw away this advantage. He mistook a movement of Somerset, in which the English leader meant to possess himself of an adjoining height, for an intention to communicate with his fleet and reembark his army; and contrary to the remonstrances of his best officers, he gave orders for the whole army to strike their tents and cross the river on which he had encamped. The order was at first resisted, at last unwillingly and imperfectly obeyed; and in the midst of the confusion which ensued, the English attacked the Scottish divisions in detail, and after a sanguinary conflict, gained a complete victory. Fourteen thousand were slain in the battle and in the chase, while the English loss was comparatively trifling.

Since the fatal day of Floddon, Scotland had sustained no defeat in the least degree approaching to this at Pinkey, and had it been followed up by the Protector, the consequences must have been of the most serious kind, perhaps fatal to the liberty of the country. But happily Somerset, at the very moment of his victory, received accounts of a conspiracy which his enemies at the English court had organized against him; and impatient to confront them in person, his measures were hurried, confused, and ill-directed. After a brief stay in the capital, he commenced his retreat through Teviotdale, and the fleet at the same time weighed anchor and returned to England.

The consequences of the defeat at Pinkey, and the effects of a subsequent and cruel incursion into Annandale by Lord Wharton and the earl of Lennox, were to exasperate the feelings of national antipathy, and to throw the governors and the queen-mother more decidedly into the arms of France. A convention was held at Stirling, in which it was determined to request the immediate assistance of a French force, and to send Mary, the young queen of Scots, to be educated at the court of Henry the Second. Soon afterwards, the Sieur Montalembert, commonly called Monsieur d'Esse, one of the ablest officers in the service of that country, arrived in Scotland with six thousand men. In a parliament held at Haddington, the marriage of the French dauphin to the queen of Scots was finally determined; and the infant Mary, then in her sixth year, took her voyage to France, accompanied by lords Erskine and Livingston, her governors, and arrived in safety at the court of St. Germain, in August, Mary, A.D.1548.

It belongs not to an historical sketch of this kind, to enter War into the details of that sanguinary and obstinate war which England now took place between England and the united strength Peace of France and Scotland. The slaughter at Pinkey, the closed burning of their sea-ports and shipping, and the pitiless severity with which the repeated invasions of their country were accomplished, had at length animated the Scots with a common feeling of revenge, which gave to the contest a character of peculiar ferocity, and manifested itself in shocking excesses. Happily the struggle did not continue long. The peace of Boulogne, between France and England, led, in 1550, to a cessation of hostilities in Scotland, where for some time before, the tide of success had run in favour of the governor and his foreign auxiliaries; and thus, after a war which had lasted for seven years, dating it from the year 1543, when Henry the Eighth determined to enforce the observation of the treaty, the English saw themselves obliged to abandon the extravagant project of compelling the Scots into a matrimonial alliance.

This war, for the accomplishment of the marriage, was not Mary of long afterwards followed by the still more important and eventful struggle for the establishment of the reformation, the history of which may properly be divided into the war of opinion, which extended from the arrival of Knox in Scotland in 1555, to the attack upon Perth in 1559; and the actual war between the Congregation and their opponents, which was comparatively of short duration, and concluded in the treaty of Edinburgh and the triumph of the party of the Congregation, in 1561. How difficult is it, in the narrow compass allowed us for this picture, to do justice even to its prominent outlines? The queen-dowager, Mary of Guise, a woman, by the confession of her enemies, of good judgment, and sincere and upright principles, succeeded in procuring the retirement of Arran and her own nomination to the regency, (April 1554). She was enabled to accomplish this chiefly by the influence of France, then high in Scotland; but she was assisted also by the leaders of the protestant party, whom she courted and attached to her interest. Her possession of the supreme power was soon followed by the death of Edward the Sixth and the accession of Mary, a princess, as is well known, sincerely devoted to the ancient faith; but these changes were not accompanied by any important political events. The queen-dowager, indeed, when she saw England and Spain engaged in Italy in a struggle with France and the pope, deemed it her duty to support her country and attack England; but although the Scottish barons assembled an army, it was only to act on the defensive; they refused to cross the border, and the Regent, hitherto on the most amicable terms with the nobles, dismissed them with undiminished resentment.

To make up for this disappointment, the marriage between the young queen of Scots and the dauphin was concluded of Mary with much solemnity at Notre Dame; and in a parliament held at Edinburgh, it was agreed that the youthful husband should bear the title of king of Scotland during the continuance of the marriage, that all letters in Scotland should run in the joint names of Francis and Mary, and that the Elizabethan arms of both kingdoms should be quartered in the great seal and the current coin of the realm. These transactions had not been long concluded, when Mary of England, broken-hearted by the loss of Calais and the neglect of Philip, sunk into the grave; and Elizabeth's accession to the throne was hailed with universal delight by the protestant party in Europe.

When the English queen placed herself at the head of Progress the reformation, this great moral revolution had made no Refor considerable progress in Scotland. The return of Knox to his native country in 1555, and the influence which his fiery zeal and popular eloquence soon gained over the Congregation; determined them to make a formal separation from the Catholic Church; and although the reformer was once more compelled, probably by fears for his life, to retreat to Geneva, the danger appears soon to have passed, and the leaders of the Congregation, conscious of increasing strength, entered into that memorable bond or covenant, by which they engaged to establish the word of God, to maintain the gospel of Christ, to labour to have faithful ministers, and to execute judgment upon what they termed the superstitions and abominations of the ancient faith.

This bond was little less than an open declaration of war against the established religion; and lest it should be misunderstood, the lords of the Congregation at the same time passed a resolution, declaring, that in all parishes the common prayer, by which was meant the service book of Edward the Sixth, should be read in the churches by the curates, if qualified to perform this service, if not, by others in the parish who were qualified. It was resolved at the same time, that doctrine, preaching, and the interpretation of Scripture should be used privately, until it pleased God to move the prince to grant public preaching by faithful ministers.

The Roman Catholic clergy received such a denunciation of the national faith with alarm and indignation; and resorting once more to those weapons which had already so deeply injured their cause, they deemed it expedient to hold up an example which should strike terror into the new converts. Walter Mill, a priest who had embraced the reformation, was seized, tried, delivered over to the secular arm and burned at St. Andrews. The people, however, only execrated the cruelty of which he was the victim, and his last words were never forgotten. "I am now fourscore and two years old, and could not have lived long by the course of nature; but a hundred better shall rise out of the ashes of my bones, and I trust in God I am the last who shall suffer death in Scotland for this cause." A pathetic declaration, and happily prophetic.

Against this cruel execution, the lords of the Congregation, Glencairn, Argyll, Morton, Erskine of Dun, and others, presented a remonstrance to the queen-dowager. It was impossible, they said, that her Grace could be ignorant of the controversy which had arisen between them and the popish clergy, concerning the true religion and the right worshiping of God. They denounced the power which was claimed by these priests of dictating their creed under the penalty of fire and faggot, and declared, that although hitherto they had remained quiescent under such abuses, they now were persuaded, that they, "as part of that power which God had established in the land," were bound to defend their persecuted brethren. They proceeded still more boldly to state, that a reformation of abuses was necessary, not only in religion, but in the temporal government of the state; and after claiming for themselves the free right of assembling in public or private, hearing common prayers, and having the sacrament of the Lord's Supper administered in the vulgar tongue, they concluded by declaring that they were willing that the controversy between themselves and the Catholic priesthood should be determined by a reference to the New Testament, the writings of the fathers, and the laws of the emperor Justinian. This declaration was soon after followed by a supplication to parliament, in which they requested that all statutes by which churchmen were empowered to proceed against heretics, should be suspended until the controversies in religion were determined by a general council of the church.

This petition was received by the queen-regent with concealed dissatisfaction, by the great body of the Roman Catholic clergy with undisguised scorn and reprobation. It suited however the regent at this moment to dissemble. She required the aid of the protestant lords to carry her favourite measures in this parliament, the obtaining the crown-matrimonial and the title of king of Scots for the dauphin; Scotland, and intreating the lords of the Congregation to withdraw their petition and articles for a season, she promised them Mary and her protection, and a favourable consideration of their demands. To this they agreed, but under a protestation which was publicly read in parliament. It proved by the manner in which it was worded that they knew their own strength; and, in the event of a refusal, were prepared to enforce their demand for liberty of conscience and a thorough reformation of the church.

It was at this crisis, when the lords of the Congregation A.D. 1558 had taken their stand on the ground which they never afterwards deserted, and when the queen-regent, having obtained her wishes, considered herself independent of their support, that Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, and Knox, who soon after his first return had left Scotland, again arrived in his native country. Both events produced the most important effects. It was one of the great principles of Elizabeth's policy to increase her own security by weakening her neighbours; to accomplish which, she invariably fomented a secret faction which opposed itself to the existing government. We have already seen how lightly the feudal nobility of Scotland were accustomed to regard the power of the crown or the laws of the realm, if they interfered in any prominent manner with their personal freedom or privileges; and the history of the country, from the rebellion in the reign of James the Third, to the moment when they so recently refused to lead their forces against England, had exhibited little else than the total destruction of any balance between the fierce unbridled license of the aristocracy, and the decreasing influence of the crown and the laws.

Of those nobles who had been ready, without any feelings of shame, to renounce their allegiance to their country, and to be bought over by England, many had embraced the principles of the reformation. To men so long accustomed to make their personal interest the measure of their duty, and to think and act as they pleased, a revolution which contended for liberty of conscience and the license of private judgment, must have warmly recommended itself; and when they considered the history of the English reformation, and the appropriation of the church lands by Henry and Edward, they could not, we may believe, be totally dead to the lesson. The church of Rome in Scotland was comparatively as rich as her sister had been across the border; and if the reformation was to be as complete in their own country as in England, it was not difficult for these shrewd barons to persuade themselves that they might imitate, perhaps improve the example.

Over an aristocracy of such a character, Elizabeth and her ministers at once perceived how easy it would be to acquire an influence. Her policy at home was to avoid war, and over the to enforce in every department of the state the most rigid Congregational economy. Her policy abroad, as already observed, was to give her neighbours full employment within their own realm, Elizabeth, by secretly encouraging every faction which rose against the government. From the first moment of her accession, therefore, she favoured the leaders of the Congregation, directed their measures, supported them with money, and received from them in return a respect and deference superior to that which they paid to their own sovereign.

But if the effects of the accession of Elizabeth upon the Influence body of the Scottish nobles, were important in reference to Knox, the reformation, the consequences of Knox's re-appearance Change in were not less momentous upon the character of the people, the feelings Hitherto the healthy patriotic feeling, the resolution to defend their independence as a separate kingdom from foreign domination and attack, had existed almost exclusively in the middle and lower orders, the commercial classes, and the labourers of the soil. But among these, the principles of the reformation had taken a deep root. They had adopted them, not like many of the nobles, from interest, but from conviction; and upon their minds the popular eloquence of Knox, his fiery zeal, his denunciations of superstition, his sarcastic attacks upon the ignorance and the vices of his opponents, produced a powerful impression. Till this period they had been wont to regard France as their ancient ally, and England as their ancient enemy. But France was now held forth to them, in the discourses of their favourite preacher, as their bitterest foe, because the enemy of their soul's health; while England was the land of gospel light, and its queen the princess to whom, as the bulwark of the truth, they ought to look with affection and admiration.

Such were the feelings of the Scottish nobles, and the great body of the people, with reference to the momentous struggle between the reformation and the Roman Catholic faith, which was now about to convulse the country. Had the queen-dowager continued to act with the same judgment and caution which had distinguished the commencement of her government, it is possible that the struggle might have been for a time averted; but at this moment the powerful princes of the house of Guise deemed it expedient to join the league which had been concluded between the pope, the king of Spain, and the emperor, for the destruction of the protestants, and the re-establishment of the catholic faith in Europe. They immediately communicated with their sister, the regent, in Scotland; and such was unfortunately their influence over her mind, that after a feeble resistance she joined the papal coalition.

This fatal step was followed, as might have been expected, by an immediate collision between the two parties. In a convention of the clergy which was held at Edinburgh, in March 1559, the lords of the Congregation, in addition to the demands which they had already presented, insisted that bishops should not henceforward be elected without the consent of the gentlemen of the diocese, nor parish priests except by the votes of the parishioners. These proposals were met by the queen with a determined refusal. A proclamation was issued, commanding all persons to resort daily to mass and confession. It was declared that no language but the Latin could be used in public prayers, without violating the most sacred decrees of the church; and the protestant ministers who had acted in defiance of these injunctions, were summoned to appear at Stirling, and there answer to the accusations which should be brought against them.

They accordingly did appear; but it was with Knox at their head, and surrounded by crowds of their devoted followers, who were led by the principal barons of Angus and Mearns. On reaching Perth, however, it was judged expedient to attempt a measure of conciliation; and Erskine of Dun, a gentleman of ancient family, and grave experience, leaving his brethren, proceeded to the court at Stirling, where he was admitted to an interview with the regent. He assured her that their single demand was to be allowed to worship God according to their conscience, and to secure liberty for their preachers. She replied, that if he would prevail on the Congregation to disperse, their preachers should be unmolested, the summons discharged, and their grievances redressed.

To this Erskine consented. He communicated the agreement to his brethren; the people were disbanded; and when the reformers looked for toleration and redress, the queen-dowager, with a perfidy which was as base as it was unwise, reiterated the summons, and on their failure to appear, denounced the ministers as rebels. Such conduct inflamed the resentment of the Congregation to the utmost degree; and Knox having seized the moment to deliver a stern and impassioned sermon against idolatry, the people were wrought up to a state of high excitement. Observing a priest about to celebrate mass, after the preacher had retired, they burst in upon the altar, tore down its ornaments, shivered the shrines and relics, and speedily demolished every monument which seemed to savour of idolatry. From that moment the fate of the Roman Catholic church in Scotland was decided. Having once broken through restraint, and found their own strength, the multitude rushed to the religious houses of the Black and Grey friars, and inflicted on them an equally summary vengeance. They then attacked the charter-house or Carthusian monastery, which experienced a similar fate; and the infection of tumult and destruction spreading throughout the country, many excesses of the same kind were committed in the provincial towns. That Knox or his disciples directly advised such spoliation cannot be proved; that the principles which he laid down, and his stern denunciations of his opponents as idolaters, led to these excesses, is certain.

The effects of such scenes on the queen-dowager, were to rouse her to instant activity, and to array the two parties determined in opposition to each other; for although some of the protestant leaders, disclaiming all intentions of rebellion, disapproved of the late violence, and still acted with the regent, their neutrality was so short-lived that it scarcely demands attention. It had the effect, however, of producing a momentary spirit of conciliation. The protestants presented an address to the queen, to the nobility, and to the Roman Catholic clergy. In the first they professed their loyalty, deprecated her injustice, and demanded liberty of conscience, and the right of hearing their own preachers. In the second they vindicated their conduct to their brethren of the Roman Catholic nobility from the charge of heresy and sedition, while they upbraided those who first espoused and now deserted their cause. The third epistle to the Roman Catholic clergy, whom they broadly stigmatized as the generation of antichrist, was a denunciation of war, composed in that spirit of coarse and abusive railing which unfortunately marks the style of the early reformers. Such accusations were little calculated to produce pacific feelings; but the queen-regent, who had assembled her army, finding it inferior in strength to the Congregation, proposed an armistice, which on certain conditions was accepted. The Congregation having bound themselves to each other in a new covenant, disbanded their forces, and for the second time, as they allege, were overreached by the treachery of the dowager, who, against a solemn stipulation, occupied Perth with a body of French soldiers, expelled the magistrates who favoured the reformation, and garrisoned the town with troops in the pay of France, though in reality Scots.

This unwise and unjustifiable duplicity had the worst effects. The lord James, afterwards the regent Murray, a young man of great talents and ambition, who had hitherto adhered to the regent, though professing reformed opinions, deserted her. Argyll, a powerful and influential nobleman, followed his example; and, faithful to their renewed covenant, the army of the Congregation assembled in Perth strength at St. Andrews. Knox in the mean time, whose voice, Sadler, the English ambassador, compares in his letters to the sound of a thousand trumpets, set out on a preaching tour through the country. Directing his powerful and popular eloquence against the evils of superstition, and the misery of the thraldom which, by means of foreign mercenaries, the house of Guise were attempting to fix upon their country, he so powerfully excited the people, that they determined to take the reformation into their own hands, and levelled with the ground the monasteries of the Franciscan and Dominican orders. It was in vain that the regent exerted herself to check these popular outrages. The phrensy gained strength; the nobles and leaders of the Congregation felt proportionally encouraged, and advancing with their forces upon Perth, they opened a cannonade, and in a short time made themselves masters of the town. Stimulated to a high pitch of excitement by such success, the multitude, contrary to the entreaties of Knox, attacked and destroyed the abbey church and palace of Scone; after which, a portion of the army of the Congregation, under the lord James and Argyll, made a rapid march upon Stirling, which they occupied, hastened afterwards to Linlithgow, and having in both towns pulled down the altars, destroyed the shrines, and, as they said, purged the places of idolatry, they compelled the regent to make a rapid retreat to Dunbar, and entered the capital in triumph, in June 1559.

This last success, while it gave the highest courage to the party of the reformation, convinced the queen-regent that every hope to avoid a civil war must be abandoned, and that the crisis called for her most determined exertions. She instantly communicated her dangerous situation to France, and received in return a large reinforcement of French troops, whose discipline, skill, and equipment, being superior to the common feudal militia which the Congregation brought into the field, at once gave her a superiority. The reformers, on the other hand, threw themselves upon the protection of England; and Elizabeth, although she scrupled to send them either money or troops, encouraged them with general promises of approval, and, in case of extreme danger, with some hopes of support. In addition to this, her minister Cecil hinted in his letters the expediency of using their present power to "strip the Romish church of its pomp and wealth," and, as he termed it, "to apply good things to good uses;" while the terms in which the Congregation replied, seem to point to a more secret communication, in which this unscrupulous politician had advised the deposition of the regent, and a change of the government. It is certain that the necessity of such a measure had been for some time contemplated by the Congregation, but it was to be resorted to as the last extremity. In a letter from Kirkcaldy of Grange, one of their principal leaders, addressed to Sir Henry Percy, (1st of July 1559), and explanatory of their intentions, he declared that if the regent would consent to a reformation conformable to the pure word of God, cleanse the popish churches of all monuments of idolatry, suffer the book of common prayer published by Edward the Sixth to be read, and send away the French troops, they were ready to obey and serve her, and to annex the whole revenues of the abbeys to the crown.

For the queen-dowager to have agreed to this would have been equivalent to the giving up of the whole question, and would have been to establish protestantism on the ruins of what she esteemed the true church. She accordingly met the demands of the Congregation by a peremptory denial. In return they withdrew from her their allegiance, and in the name of their sovereign, whose authority they unscrupulously assumed, suspended her from the high office which she had abused.

The war now broke out with a violence proportioned to the exasperated feelings of either faction. The Congregation, at first intimidated by the superiority in the discipline of the French troops, began to dread a calamitous result; but they soon saw themselves strengthened by the arrival of an English fleet, while a land force under the duke of Norfolk advanced to Berwick, and after a negotiation with the reformed leaders, pushed forward into Scotland, and was joined at Preston by the army of the reformers.

It belongs not to this sketch to enter into details of hostilities, and happily for both countries the war was of brief duration. The queen-dowager, sinking under a broken constitution, died at Edinburgh, on the 10th of June 1560. The Congregation, disheartened by some reverses, and weakened by dissension among their principal leaders, felt no inclination to prolong the struggle; and Elizabeth having offered her services as a mediatrix between the two parties, a meeting of the English, French, and Scottish commissioners took place at Edinburgh, by whom a treaty of peace was concluded, having for its basis the withdrawal of the French troops from Scotland, and a recognition of the validity of Mary and the treaty of Berwick between Elizabeth and the party of Francis the congregation. Into this last proviso the French commissioners sent over by the young queen of Scots and her husband the dauphin, were entrapped by the diplomatic skill of Sir William Cecil, one of the English commissioners, contrary to their express instructions; and its validity was never admitted by the Scottish queen; but in the mean time it greatly strengthened the hands of the Congregation. At the same moment the leaders of this party presented to the commissioners certain "articles" concerning religion; but Elizabeth had directed Cecil and Wootton to decline all discussion upon the subject; and the reformers, who looked to the convention of Estates for the settlement of the question, did not press the point.

A parliament accordingly assembled at Edinburgh, on the Parliament 10th of July 1560. The lesser barons who had for some time at Edin- suffered their rights of sitting in the convention of estates burgh, to fall into disuse, were mostly attached to the doctrines of A.D.1560' the reformers, and looked with deep interest to the debates which were about to take place on the subject of religion. They accordingly met, claimed their right, and after some opposition, were allowed to take their place. This threw a preponderating weight into the party of the Congregation; and the "Confession of Faith," together with a "Book of Confession Discipline," which embodied the great principles of a re-formed church, and protested against the errors, abuses, and superstitions of the Roman Catholic faith, was submitted to Parliament. The Confession of Faith passed with little opposition. This remarkable paper, or rather treatise, professes to be a summary of Christian doctrine founded on the word of God; and although drawn up by Knox and his brethren in a very short space, embodied the result of much previous study and consultation. It is worthy of observation, that at this early period, the church of Scotland, in explaining the articles of its faith, approaches indefinitely near to the Apostles' creed, and the articles of Edward the Sixth; and that where it differs, it leans more to the side of catholicism than ultra-protestantism.

Three acts followed the adoption of this Confession of Faith. The first abolished for ever in Scotland, the power and jurisdiction of the Pope; the second repealed all former statutes passed in favour of the Catholic church; the third inflicted the highest penalties upon any who thenceforward should dare to say or to hear mass.

All this met with little opposition; but the Book of Discipline, by which the future government of the church was to be determined, gave rise to the keenest debates. "Some of the nobles and barons at once refused to sign it; others did sign, but eluded its injunctions; others mocked at its provisions, and called them devout imaginations." The cause of this is attributed by Knox to its interfering with the privileges and property of many powerful barons who had already "gripped the possessions of the church." It also discouraged other expectants, "who thought they would not lack their part of Christ's coat." The first class, according to the same authority, had no remorse of conscience, nor intended to restore any thing of that which they had long stolen or reft. The second were no doubt afraid, that if the ministers were first provided for, little or nothing would be left for them.

In considering its provisions it is material to notice, that it committed the election of ministers solely to the people, of the using, however, the precaution that the minister so chosen, before he was admitted to the holy office, should be examined and approved of by the ministers and elders, upon all points of controversy between the church of Rome and the Scotland. Congregation; after which he was to be considered an ordained minister, without any further solemnity, it being observed that although the apostles used the imposition of hands, it was intended to impart, and did impart miraculous powers, and "the miracle having ceased, the using the ceremony was judged henceforth unnecessary." The country was divided by it into ten dioceses, over which ten ministers, named Superintendents, were appointed, whose duty it was to be ambulatory preachers, and to inquire, in the course of their progress, into the lives of the clergy, the provision for the poor, and the proper instruction of youth. It is in this last clause that we meet with the first proposal of that admirable institution of parish schools, to which Scotland has since owed so much of her prosperity. Having thus established their reformation, the Parliament appointed an interim provisional government, confirmed the treaty of Berwick which had been entered into between Elizabeth and the Congregation, and proposed that as a basis of perpetual amity between England and Scotland, there should be a marriage between queen Elizabeth and the earl of Arran, heir apparent to the crown. In conclusion, they dispatched Sir James Sandilands of Calder to carry an account of their proceedings to their sovereigns in France, while Sir William Maitland of Lethington, with the earls of Morton and Glencairn, were sent on a similar mission to Elizabeth.

It was not to be expected that their youthful sovereign, educated in the bosom of the Roman Catholic church, and accustomed to look for direction and guidance to the advice of her uncles the Guises, could possibly ratify the extraordinary proceedings of this parliament. It had, by a few sweeping acts, abolished the national faith, confirmed the treaty which a faction of her subjects whom she had all along treated as rebels, had entered into with England; and by sending an embassy to Elizabeth, composed of men of higher rank and greater influence than Sandilands, who was deputed to wait upon their sovereign, it was intimated pretty significantly, that the Congregation were determined to treat the English princess with equal if not superior deference to that with which they regarded their own queen. She accordingly received the Scottish envoy with coldness, and peremptorily refused to ratify the treaty of Edinburgh.

At this moment Mary had the misfortune to lose her husband, Francis the Second, the young king of France; an event which made it necessary for her to return to her own kingdom, and at once threw her from a condition of much contentment and prosperity into circumstances of extraordinary trial and embarrassment. She had been educated in the most brilliant and accomplished, but, it must be added, one of the most profligate courts in Europe. From her infancy, as queen of Scotland, and presumptive queen of France, she had been flattered and caressed; and as she was extremely beautiful, possessed of amiable manners, highly accomplished, generous, and kind-hearted, she had received from every class of her French subjects the unaffected homage of their admiration and regard. All was now to be changed; and on turning her eyes from France to her own country a melancholy contrast soon presented itself.

As soon as the king's death was known in Scotland, a parliament assembled at Edinburgh, of which the proceedings appear to have been overruled by the Congregation. It was resolved to invite their sovereign to return to her kingdom; and for this purpose to send the lord James to France, while the Roman Catholic party dispatched Lesley, afterwards the celebrated bishop of Ross, on the same errand. The lord James, afterwards the regent Murray, was the natural son of James the Fifth by lady Margaret Erskine, who afterwards married the laird of Lochleven. From his earliest years he had exhibited marks of an extraordinary ambition, and a genius for affairs of state. His apparently blunt and careless manner, disposed men to treat him with confidence, and enabled him, when he was least suspected, Mary to carry on the most deep-laid and ambitious designs. At this moment he was regarded as the leader of the reformed party; and it is a remarkable proof of his talents, that, on his arrival in France, although at first suspected by Mary, he acquired an extraordinary influence over her character.

It was the misfortune of the queen of Scots, who was now only eighteen, that she was surrounded by difficulties which Elizabeth would have required to meet them a matured experience, and the most attached and faithful councillors. Elizabeth, who saw her opportunity, and was determined not to lose it, dispatched the earl of Bedford to demand the confirmation of the treaty of Edinburgh; and when this was refused, she exhibited her resentment by declaring that Mary, who had at first intended to pass through England into her own realm, should receive no safeconduct; a circumstance which made her resolve to sail at once from Dieppe to Leith. But Elizabeth was at least an open opponent, and the young queen, aware of her enmity, could secure herself against it. Murray, on the other hand, to whom she too heedlessly gave her confidence, had already visited the English court on his passage to France, communicated his plans to Elizabeth, and received her instructions from Cecil, her prime minister. On his return from Paris he again passed through England, consulted with the English queen on the best methods of detaining Mary in France, and actually carried his double dealing so far as to devise means for intercepting her, should she persist in her determination and set sail. This she at last determined to do at all risks; and having had the good fortune to escape the English cruisers, which were directed to be on the look out, she arrived at Leith, and was received with the utmost enthusiasm by all classes of her subjects, (August 19, 1561).

These happy indications were of short duration; and when the young queen considered the state of parties in Scotland, of her difficulties of her situation appeared complicated and disheartening. She was herself a conscientious Roman Catholic, warmly attached to France and the Guises her uncles. This of itself rendered her an object of suspicion and aversion to Knox, the great leader of the protestant clergy, and to the powerful nobles who had espoused the reformation. She had already peremptorily refused to sanction the proceedings of the Parliament, which had confirmed the treaty of Berwick, abolished the papal supremacy, and substituted the protestant doctrines and worship for the ancient faith. This drew upon her the enmity of England, and the English party in Scotland, led by Murray and Lethington; and as the influence of Knox and the preachers over their congregations was strong and universal, the feelings of the ministers were communicated to the great body of the people, and checked those sentiments of loyalty which manifested themselves upon her arrival. If, from such opponents, Mary turned to the body of her Roman Catholic nobles, among whom the most powerful and influential was the earl of Huntly, she found them animated indeed upon one great subject, by a community of sentiment; but then they, in common with all the nobles, had been so long accustomed to independence, and looked so constantly to the preservation and increase of their own power that, as a party, they were extremely difficult to manage. Lastly, looking to the great body of the Roman Catholic clergy, there was no one who, since the death of Beaton, had possessed that vigour of character and talent for state affairs, which were absolutely necessary in any minister to whom the queen should give her confidence, if we except Lesley, afterwards bishop of Ross.

It was necessary for her, however, to decide upon a line Lord of policy; and after deliberate consideration, the queen determined to make the lord James her chief minister, and to make secure the friendship and good offices of Elizabeth. In this way she hoped to attach to herself the great body of her people; who were mostly protestants; and as from France, torn at this moment by civil and religious dissensions, she could expect little assistance, she deemed it the more necessary to preserve peace with England. Events of much interest now succeeded each other with a startling rapidity, and the history of Mary, in the brief circle of six years, presented an appalling tragedy, of which we can only give the outline.

The first point on which the two queens came into collision was on the delicate subject of marriage. Mary's subjects wished her to marry, and she considered it wise and necessary that she should gratify their wishes. She was in the bloom of youth, extremely beautiful, and of manners so engaging and attractive, that few could see her without sentiments of admiration and regard. She was queen of Scotland, and, after Elizabeth, undoubted heir to the English throne; though this queen, from her morbid jealousy upon the subject of the succession, had never recognised her right. Mary's great object, at this moment, was to marry with her approbation, and to procure a declaration of her right of succession to the throne, failing Elizabeth's issue. She accordingly declared that she would regard her advice upon this subject as that of a mother, and consulted her sister of England with an openness and devotion which, if not perfectly prudent, appears to have been perfectly sincere.

In return for this confidence, the conduct of the queen of England was marked by that insincerity, selfishness, and want of truth which too frequently characterised her policy. She was determined that, if Mary did marry, she should lower herself by the alliance; but she would have been still better pleased could she have so ordered matters that she should not marry at all; and, guided by this ungenerous object, Elizabeth commenced a system of intrigue, the sole object of which was mystification and delay, and in which she enjoyed the satisfaction, not only of deceiving Mary and her councillors, but of setting her own ministers at fault, and rendering it impossible for them to decipher her real intentions. In the course of these negotiations, after objecting to every foreign alliance, the English queen at last proposed her own favourite, Leicester, and held out as a bait to Mary, who justly deemed such an alliance beneath her rank, the promise that the issue, if any, of this marriage should succeed to the English throne. Nothing can be more certain than that she had no such intention; but the farce was so well acted, that not only Mary and the lord James, now earl of Murray, but Randolph, the English ambassador at the Scottish court, were deceived; and when at last the bubble broke, and it was discovered that, from first to last, Elizabeth had been playing her usual dark and double game under the mask of friendship, the indignation of the sufferers was roused, as might have been expected, to the highest pitch.

An almost immediate and violent reaction took place. Mary had hitherto confided in Elizabeth, and consulted her upon the marriage. She now trusted her no longer, and determined, without delay, to follow her own inclination. Since her arrival in her dominions, she had favoured the protestants and rather repressed the Roman Catholics. She was now disposed to reverse the system. She had hitherto chosen Murray and Lethington as her chief ministers, had entrusted to the first almost regal power, loaded him with estates and honours, and placed him at the head of her nobility; and it was by Murray and Lethington's advice that she had shaped her policy towards England; but the road they marked out for her had led to insult, mortification, and defeat. Was it possible then, that she could continue to those two men, or to the protestant party, whom they represented, the confidence with which she had regarded them? or rather, was it not natural that, when she discovered their devotedness to Elizabeth, who had deceived and injured her, she should regard them with suspicion and distrust?

Under these circumstances, and when agitated by such feelings, Mary saw the lord Darnley, the eldest son of the earl of Lennox, who, with his father, had lately returned to Scotland. This young nobleman could boast of a royal descent, his grandmother being a sister of Henry the Eighth, and he himself, next to Mary, the nearest heir to the English throne. He was now in his twenty-first year, and had Lord Darnley not yet discovered that weak intellect and propensity to low vices which betrayed themselves soon after his marriage, A.D. 1564. It was the misfortune of the Scottish queen that she acted under impulses. She had been deceived by Elizabeth, and she determined to show her that she could choose for herself. Without giving herself time to study his disposition, and purposely abstaining from any previous communication of her intentions to England, she selected Darnley as her future husband, and dispatched Lethington to Elizabeth, not, as before, to ask her counsel, but to inform her of her resolution.

The consequences of this step were extraordinary. Darnley and his father were strongly suspected of being Roman Catholics. Murray and Lethington saw in this alliance little else than the demolition of their own power; the party of Knox and the kirk anticipated the restoration of the ancient religion; and Elizabeth not only declared herself hostile to the alliance, but bitterly accused the Scottish queen, insisted that Lennox and Darnley were English, not Scottish subjects, and sent them orders to repair instantly to her court. It was hardly to be expected that so ridiculous a command should be obeyed, and the opposition of England only rendered Mary more determined upon the marriage. A convention of her nobility was held at Stirling; it was numerously attended; the queen communicated to them her intention of marrying Darnley; the measure was approved without a dissentient voice; and although Murray, Darnley and the faction with whom he acted, attempted to instigate the people to opposition and rebellion, the endeavour was signally unsuccessful, and the queen carried her wishes into effect. She was married to Darnley in the chapel of Holyrood, on the 29th of July 1565.

Previously to the queen's marriage, Murray, Argyll, Lethington, and the party of the kirk had been encouraged by Murray and Elizabeth to rise against their sovereign; and had they received from the English queen the substantial assistance which she promised, the result might have led to the deposition of her whom they represented as the oppressor of her nobility, and the bitter enemy of the truth. But their schemes were defeated by the energy and promptitude of the Scottish queen and the timid parsimony of her sister of England. It was in vain that Murray and his brother insurgents reminded Cecil of their desperate situation, and the necessity of speedy assistance both in money and in soldiers. Neither the one nor the other could be wrung from Elizabeth. They were proclaimed traitors, driven from one position to another by the queen of Scots, who herself headed the forces which she led against them, and were at last compelled to fly to England and throw themselves upon the protection of Elizabeth. To their dismay she disowned and repulsed them; upheld Murray as a traitor to his royal mistress; and, although herself the encourager of their revolt, compelled them publicly to declare that she knew nothing of the matter. They were then dismissed from the queen's presence, and permitted to retire to Carlisle, where the earl of Bedford received secret instructions to supply their wants during their banishment.

While such was the course of events in England, Mary's satisfaction in the triumph over her rebels was grievously diminished by discovering that her husband was weak and profligate, the dupe of every artful companion whom he met, and unworthy of the confidence and affection with which she had treated him in the first ardour of her passion. To entrust him with any responsible share in the government Scotland was impossible; and Murray's friends who remained at court, and watched the increasing estrangement between the Queen and her husband, determined to turn it to their advantage.

It was the misfortune of the Scottish queen that she had few or no servants whom she could trust. Her secretary, Maitland of Lethington, had betrayed her interests to Elizabeth, and was in disgrace, and, in the mean time, the queen had availed herself of the services of Riccio, her foreign secretary. This person had entered her service at first as a singer in her band, but afterwards, by his skill and fidelity, he raised himself to this confidential employment, much to the annoyance of the young king, who regarded him with peculiar aversion; and, incredible as it may appear Darnley having persuaded himself that he had stolen from him the affection of the young queen, resolved to assassinate him. Nor was it difficult, among a fierce and unscrupulous nobility, to find associates in his flagitious schemes. His father the earl of Lennox, Morton the lord chancellor, Lethington the ex-secretary, Murray and his friends who were in banishment, and many of the stern supporters of the reformation, who suspected Riccio of intriguing with the papal court, willingly joined in the conspiracy. The parliament was at hand in which it was intended to pronounce sentence against the banished lords; it had been reported that measures were in preparation for the establishment of the Roman Catholic faith; and it was determined to arrest both the one and the other by striking the blow against Riccio. Accordingly, when Mary, who was then six months gone with child, sat at supper in a small cabinet adjoining to her bed-room in the palace of Holyrood, the king led the conspirators up a secret stair which communicated with the apartment, while the earl of Morton and a band of armed soldiers seized the gates of the palace. The countess of Argyll, Erskine, captain of her guard, the comptroller of her household, Riccio her secretary, and one or two domestic servants formed the queen's party, some sitting at table and others being in attendance. Indeed, the little closet or cabinet was so small that three or four persons could with difficulty have seated themselves. But its narrow dimensions prevented escape and favoured the ferocious purposes of the conspirators. Led by the king they burst into the cabinet, overturned the table, and threw themselves upon Riccio, who sprung for protection behind the queen. In a moment his fate was decided. One ruffian threatened Mary with his dagger, another held a pistol to her breast; a third, snatching the king's dagger, stabbed Riccio over her shoulder; and at last tearing him from the closet, amidst the shrieks of the women, and the shouts and execrations of the conspirators, they dispatched him, or rather cut him to pieces in an adjoining apartment, with fifty-six wounds.

After this atrocious murder, which, considering the situation of the queen, might have cost her and her infant their lives, the conspirators detained her as a prisoner in her palace, permitted no one but the king and their own party to hold any communication with her; and having been joined next morning by the earl of Murray and the exiles from Carlisle, it was determined to make a complete change in the government. Darnley, weak and profligate as he was, they rewarded by placing at the head of their new system, being well aware that he would soon be their tool. The queen was to be confined in Stirling till she should consent to the full establishment of the reformed religion; and the earl of Murray and his associates were to be restored to their former favour and power. In a single day all these intentions were overturned. Mary, left alone with her husband, regained her ascendancy over him; she convinced him of the perfidy of Morton, Ruthven, and his associates, obtained from him a confession of all the secrets of the conspiracy, escaped with him to Dunbar, and being instantly joined by eight thousand men, advanced with such rapidity Mary, against the conspirators, that they fled in dismay to Berwick, A.D.1567, and solicited the protection of Elizabeth.

Darnley, in his confessions to Mary, had betrayed his Mary's brother conspirators, whilst he solemnly asserted his own innocence; but Morton and his associates produced in their own defence various bonds and letters, which were signed by the king, and fully established his guilt; and Mary saw, to her inexpressible grief and disgust, that the cruel outrage was planned by her husband. From this moment this miserable prince became an object of contempt and aversion to all. His conduct had been a tissue of cowardice, cruelty, falsehood, and weakness: to treat him with confidence, or to entrust to him any share in the government was impossible; and the unhappy queen, without a stay to rest on, fell into a state of the deepest despondency. Whom indeed could she trust? Murray and his party had but recently been rebels; Morton and his associates were stained by the blood of her confidential servant, murdered at her knees; the king was the chief conspirator, the queen of England had deceived her, the party of Knox and the Scottish church regarded both of them with avowed aversion; and even the Roman Catholics James V were somewhat estranged by the preference which at first she had given to their opponents. Under these complicated difficulties, the queen pursued the course which she deemed most likely to ensure success. She broke with none, pardoned some of the conspirators, affected to believe her husband, hoping even against hope, and restored Murray to some portion of the power of which he had been deprived. Such was the state of things, when, the period for her confinement having arrived, she gave birth to a son in the castle of Edinburgh. The child was named James Charles, and on the death of Elizabeth succeeded to the English throne.

When her recovery permitted Mary to attend to the affairs of the country, it was apparent that unless immediate steps were taken to establish something like a strong government, the kingdom would fall to pieces; and yet such was the weakness and treacherous nature of the king, that to admit him to a share in it was impossible. She next turned to her nobles. Of these the most powerful were Murray, Bothwell, Huntly, Argyll, Lennox, Morton, and Lethington; but there had long existed a feud between Murray and Bothwell, while Morton, Lethington, Lennox, and their partizans were still in disgrace for the murder of Riccio. It was necessary to make an effort, and the queen succeeded in reconciling Murray to Bothwell: Huntly was made chancellor, Lethington was pardoned and restored to his office of secretary; while Murray, Argyll his brother-in-law, and Bothwell, were entrusted with the chief management of affairs.

Enraged at his exclusion from power, the king sullenly Darnley retired from court, threatened to murder the earl of Murray, and at last declared he would leave the kingdom. It was useless, in vain that his father remonstrated against his resolution; in vain that the queen herself, leading him before her council, conjured him to detail his grievances, and if she had injured him in any respect, to accuse her without reserve. He declared she had herself given him no cause of complaint; but afterwards, in a letter, he complained that he had no power in the state, that he was neglected by the nobility, and would bear it no longer. Soon after this the unhappy princess was seized by a fever at Jedburgh, during which her life was despaired of. Her enemies ascribed it to the injurious effects of a rapid ride which she took from Jedburgh to visit Bothwell, who had been wounded in a skirmish with some border thieves; it had more probably its origin in that anxiety which followed the conduct of Darnley; but be

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1 Keith's History of Scotland, p. 283. It was in this season of depression and despair that Murray and Maitland proposed to her a divorce from the king. They had previously confided their project to Huntly, Argyll, and Bothwell; and at first Mary seemed inclined to follow their advice, provided the divorce could be lawfully procured, and without prejudice to her child. But after weighing the whole matter her opinion changed, and when Maitland urged that means could be found to free her of Darnley without injury to her son, declaring that Murray would look on and say nothing against it, she broke off the conference. "I will," said she, "that ye do nothing through which any spot may be laid to my honour or conscience; let the matter be in the state is, abiding till God of his goodness put remedy thereto."

Having failed in this device, a conspiracy for the murder of the king was entered into by Maitland, Bothwell, Huntly, Argyll, and Sir James Balfour. It has been disputed whether Murray was, or was not, a party to this atrocious design. It is certain that he did not sign the bond, by which, according to the custom of this age, the conspirators bound themselves to each other. There is a strong presumption, however, that he knew of its existence; and the deed was communicated to Morton and his associates, who signed it, and agreed to support the conspirators in the execution of their purpose. Such was the state of matters when the baptism of the young prince took place at Stirling. From this ceremony the king obstinately absented himself, alleging in excuse the neglect and rigour with which he was treated. Soon afterwards he left the court and retired to Glasgow, where he was seized with the smallpox, and appeared in imminent danger. His situation appeared to awaken the tenderness of the queen. She sent her own physician to wait on him, and soon after visited him herself, and ministered to his wants. When his convalescence permitted him to be removed, she returned with him to Edinburgh, and placed him, for the benefit of the air, in a house in the suburbs called the Kirk-of-Field. It was here that the conspirators determined to carry their dreadful purpose into effect. At the solicitation of Elizabeth and the French king, Morton had been pardoned and permitted to return; and in a secret interview between him, Maitland, and Bothwell, the particulars of the murder were arranged. Bothwell undertook the chief part, and his men having obtained access to the cellars of the Kirk-of-Field, undermined the foundation, and placed gunpowder in the cavities which they had formed. According to another account, they deposited it in the queen's bed-chamber, which was immediately under that of the king. While all this had been secretly carrying into effect, Mary continued her attendance upon Darnley: their reconciliation appeared to be perfect, she often slept in the house, and on the evening of the 9th of February, when she took leave of him to attend a marriage of one of her servants, which was to be held at the palace, it was remarked that she embraced him tenderly, took a ring from her finger, and placed it on his. On that night, after she had retired to her chamber in the palace, a sudden and terrific explosion was heard, which shook the city, and it was soon discovered that the Kirk-of-Field was blown up. The dead bodies of the king and his page were found at a little distance in the garden. It is well known that this miserable catastrophe has given rise to a celebrated historical controversy, in which authors of great name and talents have taken different sides; some insisting that Scotland, the queen was cognizant of the plot for the murder of her husband, and others as positively asserting the contrary. Mary.

The limits of this historical sketch render it impossible that we should enter into its details. In the preceding narrative we have carefully avoided the introduction of a single controverted fact; in the sequel we shall as sedulously follow the same rule.

Scarcely were the citizens of the capital recovered from Aecasa—the horror and dismay which was incident to such a calamity, when bills appeared on the walls of the Tolbooth, Bothwell which accused Bothwell of the murder, and added that the queen had assented to it. Soon afterwards, the earl of Lennox, the unhappy father of the late king, earnestly required the imprisonment of the persons named in the anonymous handbills, and Bothwell declaring his innocence, demanded an instant trial. It was granted, and Lennox received due notice of it; but on the day of trial Bothwell appeared surrounded by upwards of four thousand of his friends and adherents; and Lennox, intimidated by the array, or finding it impossible to collect sufficient proof, requested an adjournment. This, however, was peremptorily refused, and the accused was acquitted by the jury, who considered it established by sufficient evidence that Bothwell could not have been at the Kirk-of-Field when the explosion took place.

Soon after this acquittal the Parliament assembled, and the nobles the majority of the nobility prevailed upon the queen to consent to an act by which all the grants of crown property which had been made during the present reign were confirmed, and herself and her successors deprived of all power for the revocation. In the same assembly of the estates, the verdict passed upon Bothwell, which many accused as Bothwell informal, was declared just and legal, and soon afterwards a divorced bond was drawn up by twenty-four of the principal peers. It affirmed in solemn terms the innocence of this profligate baron, whom the public clamour still denounced as the murderer of the king; recommended him as a proper husband for the queen; and bound its authors, as they should answer to God, to defend him from all danger, and to promote this unhallowed marriage to the utmost of their power and ability. The tragedy now hurried on to its conclusion. Bothwell, at the head of a thousand men, intercepted the queen on her way from Stirling to Edinburgh, and carried her captive, with the slender suite by whom she was accompanied, to Dunbar castle. Among her attendants were Huntly, Maitland, and Melville, but the first two were in Bothwell's interest, and had signed the bond. The last was completely in his power, and so was the unfortunate queen. He proposed marriage, and on her refusal exhibited the bond signed by her nobles. She still, it is said, resisted his request, and hoped for a rescue; but it was a vain expectation. He became more peremptory, and if we may trust the expressions of Mary, corroborated by Melville and her enemies, he compelled her by fear, force, and other unlawful means, to yield to his wishes, and admit him to her bed. From Dunbar he now carried his victim to Edinburgh. A divorce was procured from his wife on the ground of adultery, and the process having been hurried through the court, and the sentence passed, Bothwell was married to the queen at Holyrood, within a month after his acquittal of the murder of her husband, (May 15, 1567.)

Events of the deepest and most tragic interest now crowded on each other. The nobles who had advised the rise against marriage, who had acquitted Bothwell, and abetted him in his career of ambition and outrage, at once dropped the mask, assembled their forces, and declared their determination to separate the queen from the murderer of her husband. As

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1 The reader who wishes to make himself master of the controversy should consult for the Queen's innocence, the work of Goodall, and that of William Tytler, with the volumes of Stuart, Walfaker, and Chalmers; against her, the Histories of Hume and Robertson, with the Dissertation by Mr. Malcolm Laing. Scotland they advanced and occupied Edinburgh, the earl and the queen retired; but in a few days they found themselves strong enough to confront their enemy on Carberry hill, near Musselburgh. Both factions, however, seemed anxious to avoid a battle, and an extraordinary agreement took place. Bothwell, whom they had declared their determination to seize and punish as the murderer of his sovereign, was permitted, without molestation, to ride off the field. The queen was assured of their unshaken fidelity; and so completely did she credit their assurances, that she gave her hand to Grange, and suffering him to lead her to his associates, was conducted by them to the capital.

Within an hour she discovered that she had surrendered herself to her mortal enemies. On her entering the city, a furious mob assailed her with execrations, and displayed before her a broad banner bearing the figure of her murdered husband. Amidst these indignities she was carried to a house, where she was so strictly guarded, that not even her maids were allowed access. And on the succeeding evening she was conveyed by the lords Lindsay and Ruthven a prisoner to Lochleven, a strong castle in the middle of a lake, from which all escape seemed hopeless.

From those who had thus shamelessly broken their solemn engagement, little else could be looked for but additional indignity and outrage. Mary was soon visited in her prison by lord Lindsay of the Byres, whose fierce temper and brutal manners peculiarly fitted him for the mission on which he was sent. He presented to her three written instruments. By the first she was made to resign the crown in favour of her son; by the second, the earl of Murray was nominated regent during the king's minority; by the third, a temporary regency was appointed to act until Murray returned from the continent. When Lindsay threw these deeds on the table, he plainly informed the queen that no alternative was left, but either to sign them without delay, or prepare for death, as the murderer of her husband. We are not to wonder that, aware that her life was in the hands of her bitterest enemies, Mary instantly obeyed.

The young king was now crowned, and Murray having arrived from France, assumed the regency, and entered upon the cares of government. He had not, however, for many months enjoyed the sweets of power, when the queen, by the assistance and ingenuity of a youth of sixteen, named Douglas, escaped in the night from Lochleven, and riding first to Seaton, and next day to Hamilton, soon found herself surrounded by a band of her nobles, and at the head of six thousand men. Mary was desirous to avoid war, and addressed repeated pacific proposals to the regent, who was then at Glasgow. She offered to call a free parliament; she was ready to deliver up to justice all whom she accused as guilty of the murder, provided those whom she arraigned of the same crime were also delivered up. This was peremptorily refused, her messengers were arrested, her adherents denounced as traitors; and the queen, aware that it must come to the decision of the sword, determined to await the arrival of additional forces, when she was hurried into an engagement with the regent, who threw himself in her way at Langside, as she was on her march from Hamilton to Dunbar. The result was calamitous. Her army was completely defeated, and she herself compelled to fly from the field with a slender train, who rode to Dundrennan, a distance of sixty miles, before they drew bridle.

Next day she intimated her resolution of throwing herself on the protection of Elizabeth. From this step her friends passionately dissuaded her; but she declared she would trust to the assurances which she had received from her good sister; and crossing the Solway, she proceeded through Cockermouth to Carlisle. The return for this act of generous confidence and devotedness is well known. Elizabeth refused to see her, gave orders that she should be detained, kept her in prison a miserable and heart-broken captive for fourteen years, and at last brought her to the scaffold.

From the imprisonment of Mary (1568) till the accession of James the Sixth to the English throne (1603), there is an interval of thirty-five years. It is occupied by the successive regencies of Murray, Lennox, Mar, and Morton, after whose execution we have that portion of the reign of James which extends from 1581 to 1603. With a rapid review of the most interesting and influential events during this period, we shall conclude our labours.

The imprisonment of Mary left Murray the undisturbed possessor of the supreme power in Scotland; but the queen strenuously and indignantly asserted her innocence of the atrocious crimes of which she was accused; and as the English queen could bring forward no possible justification of her conduct in detaining Mary, except her alleged accession to the murder, it was evident that an investigation of the circumstances, if demanded by the accused party, could not in justice be refused. Mary offered to hear the accusation of her enemies in the presence of Elizabeth, and in the same presence to undertake her defence; but this was denied her. It was then proposed by the English ministers that she should consent to a public trial; but this she rejected as beneath the dignity of an independent sovereign. It was lastly suggested that her enemies should be summoned to produce their proofs before certain English and Scottish commissioners, and that the cause should be left to their decision.

A commission was accordingly held at York, but it led to political intrigues rather than judicial investigation. After some interval Murray was summoned to hold a private interview with Elizabeth at Westminster; and Mary again demanded to be admitted to the same presence, and confronted with her accuser. This was denied, while the English queen permitted Murray to bring forward his charge, 1569, and to attempt to substantiate it by letters, affirmed to be in the queen's hand-writing, addressed to Bothwell, and conclusive, as he contended, of her guilt. Again Mary demanded by her commissioners to be heard personally in her defence; and this being refused, they protested against further proceedings, and declared the conference at an end. Cecil, however, insisted that the inquiry should proceed; and having procured all the evidence which he judged necessary, he attempted to persuade the Scottish queen, as the only way of avoiding an ignominious exposure, to resign her crown. Her reply disconcerted him. "They have accused me," said she, "of the murder of my husband. It is a false and calumnious lie. It was themselves that counselled and contrived the murder, some of them were even its executioners. Give me what I am justly entitled to, copies of the letters they have produced; let me see and examine the originals, and I pledge myself, in presence of the queen, to convict them of the atrocious crime they have had the audacity to impute to me." This bold and unexpected tone embarrassed Elizabeth; and Mary having repeated her charge, insisted on having copies of the letters produced against her. The English queen evaded the request, and advised her to resign her crown. To this she declared that no persuasion would ever induce her; and under such circumstances the conferences were abruptly terminated. Murray, with his associates, received permission to return to Scotland. He carried away with him those alleged original letters, which the party whom they incriminated was never permitted to examine; and he left behind him copies, which were also concealed from Mary and her commissioners. It is from these copies, which the accused was never permitted to compare with the originals, that future authors have been obliged to infer the guilt or innocence of the queen; and certainly, if the opinion of Elizabeth is entitled to weight, it is clear that she considered the proof as defective. She and Murray shrank from a public challenge of Mary; and however suspicious or inexplicable some of the Such was the general comparative strength of each faction. Into the details of the contest we cannot enter; and indeed it had lasted but for a short time, when Lennox was slain in a skirmish at Stirling, and the earl of Mar, one of the most upright-minded and honourable noblemen in Scotland, was chosen to supply the vacant regency. To promote a reconciliation between the two factions, and to restore peace, order, and security of property, to a country distracted by intestine war, was the single purpose to which the new governor devoted himself; but he was thwarted by the ambition of Morton, and many of the higher nobles. These had so long been accustomed to derive individual advantage from public misery, that they laboured as earnestly to increase the contentions of the two parties, as Mar to remove them; and the governor, at last worn out by the struggle, and hopeless of effecting a reconciliation, sank into the grave.

He was succeeded in the regency by the earl of Moray, a man who has been justly described as possessing all chosen faults, some of the talents, but none of the good qualities of his predecessor. His character was Sordid and selfish, implicitly devoted to the service of Elizabeth, whose countenance and support he felt necessary to enable him to retain his power, a venal judge, a cruel unrelenting soldier, a hypocrite in religion, and a profligate in private life, it is difficult to find a single virtue to relieve the dark monotony of his vices. Yet Morton had some of the great qualities which distinguished the house of Douglas. He was brave, decisive, politic; and he possessed that rapid power of discerning the instant to act with success, and that deep insight into human character which is commonly acquired by men of talent, bred up in scenes of civil commotion.

On his accession to the supreme power, the regent found State of the friends of the imprisoned queen still able to make head Mary's against him. The duke of Norfolk, who had been pardoned party, Intrigues of by Elizabeth, resumed his project of marrying Mary, and engaged in a correspondence with her. The duke of Chastellerauld, and the earl of Huntly, lord Claud Hamilton, the lairds of Buccleugh and Fernihurst, with the indefatigable Maitland, and Grange, who was reputed the best soldier in Scotland, still supported her cause. Morton, however, strong in his own resources, and supported by Elizabeth, continued the war with success, and at last triumphed over opposition. Norfolk was brought to the scaffold, and the earl of Northumberland, treacherously delivered up by the Scottish regent, shared a similar fate. At last the castle of Edinburgh was invested by Sir William Drury, who joined the Scottish army with a formidable battering train. In this fortress, the single remaining hope of the queen of Scots, Kirkaldy of Grange commanded; and he held it bravely till Fate of the walls were destroyed, his guns silenced, and his provisions exhausted. Under these circumstances he surrendered, and Maitland with his companion Maitland. To this step, Drury had induced him by a promise of favourable terms; but the English queen disregarded the stipulation, and handed over the prisoners to Morton. Kirkaldy and his brother were immediately executed, and Maitland only escaped the same scaffold by taking poison.

Morton now deemed himself so strong as to be independent of all parties, and his avarice and spoliation knew no oppressive bounds. He oppressed the church, of whom he had formerly affected to be the steadiest patron; and treated the young king and the nobles with so much haughtiness and severity, that he soon became an object of universal dread and hatred. James was now twelve years old, and it was not difficult for a faction of the nobles, who detested the regent, to persuade the young monarch that he ought no longer to be treated as a child. Acting by their advice, he accordingly summoned a parliament. It was numerously attended; and Morton, to the astonishment of all, the moment he learned the king's wishes, declared his willingness Scotland.

James VI. A.D.1578.

Morton resigns the regency.

This ready and implicit submission was rewarded by the passing of an act of indemnity, which included a general pardon for any alleged transgressions, and ratified his whole conduct as regent. It is in his anxiety to procure this, that we are to find the secret of his sudden relinquishment of the supreme power; and scarcely was it procured when this extraordinary man, by means of a successful intrigue with a portion of the family of Mar, found means again to become master of the king's person, and re-emerged into as great power and ascendancy as before. His usurpation, however, was this time more short lived. Atholl, Argyll, and some of the most powerful nobles, assembled their forces, and declared their resolution to liberate the sovereign from his ignominious captivity. Instead of a battle, however, the opposite factions came to a compromise, by which the veteran tyrant was shorn of a large part of his power, and the young king recovered something of his independence.

James began now to show that strong propensity to favouritism which marked his future career; and the effects of this weakness were seen in the sudden rise into power of Esme Stewart, duke of Lennox, and captain Stewart, second son of lord Ochiltree, and afterwards the notorious earl of Arran. Of these, the first was a high-born nobleman, of graceful address, amiable feelings, and common-place understanding; but the second, of birth and connections much inferior to Lennox, was ambitious, intriguing, daring, and unprincipled, and soon managed to gain an influence over both the English queen, and was at last chased from court by the associated lords, who made themselves masters of the king's person. A government, upon a model which admitted the principal nobility to a share in the councils of the state, was now established; and Arran deserted by all parties, sank into insignificance.

It was impossible that Mary, who had been detained a captive by Elizabeth, contrary to every principle of honour and justice, should not have exerted herself to regain her Catholic freedom; and the Roman Catholic party in England were in favour not only interested in her success, but regarded her as their best security against Elizabeth and the Protestant faith. This led to a succession of intrigues, which were discovered by the penetration and activity of Elizabeth's ministers, the discovery only serving to increase the rigour of her confinement. At last the Scottish queen having been arraigned (unjustly as afterwards appeared) of an accession to the conspiracy of Babington, the object of which was the assassination of Elizabeth, and the restoration of the ancient religion, she was brought to trial before a commission, whose jurisdiction she at first peremptorily declined as an independent and sovereign princess. It was unfortunate for Mary that she did not continue in this resolution; but in the idea that a refusal might be construed into an admission of guilt, at last condescended to plead. The consequence was, what might have been expected from the nature of the evidence, the constitution of the court, and the supreme authority thereof of Elizabeth. Mary was found guilty of having compassed divers matters tending to the death of the queen; and after many affected delays, and an atrocious attempt to induce her keeper, Paulet, to dispatch her secretly, Elizabeth signed the warrant for her execution, which was carried into effect on the 7th of February 1587. The meekness with which she received the intimation of her sentence, and the admirable and saintly fortitude with which she suffered, formed a striking contrast to the despair and agony which not long afterwards darkened the death-bed of the English queen.

It might have been expected that if anything could have roused the king of Scots, it would have been the cruelty base and injustice to which his mother had fallen a sacrifice; and for a moment there was an ebullition of indignant feeling. But Elizabeth sent him an artful apology. The blame of the execution was laid upon Davison, her secretary, an innocent and upright man, who simply obeyed her orders; and with that unscrupulous falsehood which this princess seldom hesitated to employ when necessary to carry through her designs, the unfortunate statesman was sacrificed, that his royal mistress might escape. But the English queen had still a firmer hold over the young king of Scots. He regarded the succession to her throne as his undoubted right, and dreaded to irritate her personal feelings, or alienate her Protestant subjects, by appearing to place himself at the head of the Roman Catholic party, who burned to avenge the death of their royal mistress. In vain, therefore, they looked to the king, who, after a short interval, relapsed into his usual pacific frame of mind, and celebrated his entrance upon majority, by an attempt to abolish those sanguinary feuds amongst his nobility, which had increased to an alarming height, and threatened to pull the country to pieces.

This laudable endeavour, which did not meet with the success it merited, was followed by James's marriage to the princess Anne of Denmark; an alliance which Elizabeth, with her usual jealous and capricious policy, endeavoured to prevent. But the Scottish king, with unwonted spirit and energy, sought his bride in person in her father's court, and having solemnised his marriage at Upslo, returned with her to Scotland.

During his absence the kingdom had been unusually prosperous and happy; but it was soon afterwards embroiled by the intrigues and ambitions of the earl of Bothwell, who, leaning with the Roman Catholic faction, attacked the palace of Holyrood with the design of seizing the king's person, and placing himself at the head of the government. A second attempt of the same kind at Falkland was not more successful; and yet such was at this time the impotent state of the law, and the weakness of the royal authority, that these repeated treasons escaped unpunished, and Bothwell lived not only to defend but to repeat them.

Scotland at this moment presented a melancholy picture. The intrigues of Philip the Second had encouraged the Roman Catholic faction, which was led by the earls of Huntly, Errol, and Angus; and James, aware of the great power possessed by the Romanists, both in Scotland and England, was fearful of treating them with severity, lest he should raise a formidable opposition to his right of succession, which must open on the death of Elizabeth. But this was not the only source of disquiet. The excessive lenity of the king had fostered the feudal quarrels among his nobles, impunity led to new excesses, and the turbulent and audacious Bothwell once more appeared upon the scene, and made repeated attempts to seize the royal person, and administer the government at his pleasure. To these sources of disquiet, were added the interference of Elizabeth, which roused the jealousy of the king, and the intolerant spirit of the protestant ministers, who, horror-struck by the discovery of the intrigues of the Roman Catholic lords, recommended their being treated with the utmost severity.

These combined causes transformed the kingdom into a scene of almost perpetual tumult and bloodshed; but the monarch at last becoming convinced of the treasonable purposes of the popish earls, assembled an army, and reduced them to the last extremity of distress. Bothwell, too, was driven into exile, and the country began to breathe anew, when James found himself involved in a contest with the protestant ministers. The cause of this dispute was the king's wish to lean to the side of mercy in his conduct to the popish lords. It was reported that Huntly, their leader, had been admitted to a secret interview. The clergy, alarmed to the utmost, appealed to their congregations; they defended the conduct of Black, a minister who had openly attacked the court and the queen, in a seditious harangue; they haughtily declined the authority of the privy council; and by their violence, they excited a tumult in Edinburgh, which compelled the monarch to retire to Linlithgow. Under these trying circumstances, the king acted with extraordinary energy, and jealous of so bold an interference with his prerogative, restored tranquillity to the capital, punished the insurgent citizens, compelled the ministers to fly to England, and, according to his original intentions, extended his forgiveness to the popish lords who made a recantation of their errors.

James, who had been alarmed at the late violence exhibited by the presbyterian clergy, now became intent upon a plan for new-modelling the church; but aware, that if the Scotland measure originated in any other quarter than that of the clergy themselves, it would inevitably miscarry, he artfully prevailed on the General Assembly to second his views, A.D.1600.

The commission appointed by this ecclesiastical council were induced to complain that the church was the only body not represented; and the king, whose object it was to restore episcopacy, procured an act to be passed, by which those ministers upon whom he had conferred the vacant bishoprics and abbeys were entitled to sit in parliament. When this measure came again to be debated in the General Assembly, it encountered great opposition. "Deck these intruders as you will," exclaimed one of the most zealous presbyterians, "under all their disguise I see the horns of the mitre." Yet after a long debate, a majority of the General Assembly declared in its favour; and it was resolved that ministers might lawfully accept a seat in parliament; and that fifty-one members should be chosen as representatives of the church in the supreme court of the country. When, however, the question arose regarding the spiritual jurisdiction which should belong to these persons, the General Assembly so effectually shackled and abridged their powers, that they remained wholly dependant upon this great ecclesiastical council, and exercised no separate spiritual jurisdiction. It was James's hope, that, in the course of time, they would shake off these fetters, but, in the mean time, they could claim none of the privileges belonging to the episcopal order.

When the monarch was thus employed, and his kingdom The Gow was enjoying a degree of tranquillity to which it had been consigned, a stranger, the minds of the people were suddenly agitated by a sudden and mysterious attempt made at Perth upon the life of the king by the earl of Gowrie and his brother, Alexander Ruthven. These young men were the sons of that earl of Gowrie who had been executed for treason, and it is probable that a desire to revenge their father's death led to their miserable and ill-concerted enterprise; but much obscurity hangs over the whole transaction. It is certain that Ruthven induced the king, by a feigned story, to accompany him with a slender train from Falkland to his brother's house at Perth. Here he contrived to separate James from his attendants, and leading him into a remote apartment, threw himself upon him, seized him by the throat, and drew his dagger. The king struggled to get to the window, and calling out treason, alarmed his nobles, who rushed into the room, stabbed Ruthven to the heart, and when Gowrie attempted a rescue, put him also to death on the spot. Both these unfortunate men being slain, the utmost pains were taken to detect their associates, to unravel the plot, and to ascertain their precise object, but with so little success, that to this day the mystery is not solved.

The queen of England, now in her seventieth year, began Death of soon after this to droop, and her constitution, hitherto uncommonly vigorous and unimpaired, was evidently breaking up. Of all this James was well aware. He had secured the friendship and good offices of Sir Robert Cecil, her chief minister, who, unknown to his mistress, carried on a secret correspondence with the Scottish king; and acting by his advice, he had employed every effort to conciliate the affections of the English people, and to acquire the support of the most powerful of the English nobility. These judicious precautions were attended with the wished-for result. James was Elizabeth's undoubted heir; and on the death of this princess, an event which took place on the 23rd of March 1603, he succeeded, with the unanimous consent of the nation, to the throne of England. This great and auspicious event closes the history of Scotland as a separate kingdom. **STATISTICS.**

northern division of Great Britain, is situated between 54° 38' and 58° 41' north latitude, and between 1° 47' and 6° 7' west longitude from Greenwich; having the sea on all sides, except the south, where it is separated from England partly by the Tweed and other streams, and partly by a line supposed to be drawn along the high grounds in that quarter. The longest line that can be drawn in about the same parallel of longitude is from the Mull of Galloway in Wigtownshire to Cape Wrath in Sutherland, a distance of about 274 miles, though Dunnet-head in Caithness-shire, is the most northerly point; while its breadth is extremely various, ranging from 147 miles to about 30. The greatest breadth is between Buchanmess on the coast of Aberdeenshire, and the Rowanmoan Point on the west coast of Ross-shire. There are other points where the width is not much less; while between Alloa on the Frith of Forth and Dunbarton on the Clyde, the distance is only 32 miles, and between Lochbroom and the Frith of Dornoch, it is rather less than 30. The area of Scotland, calculated from Arrowsmith's map, and as given in the General Survey of Scotland, contains 25,520 square miles, and 494 square miles of fresh water lakes. This is the extent of the mainland only, exclusive of the islands on the west, known by the name of the Hebrides or Western Isles; and those of Orkney and Zetland on the north, which altogether are computed to extend over 4224 square miles, of which 144 consist of fresh water lakes. Including these islands, the northern limit of Scotland stretches beyond the 61st degree of latitude, and its longitude lies between the meridian of London and 8° 18' west; its area being computed to comprehend 30,238 square miles, of which the fresh water lakes occupy 638 square miles, or about 1-18th part of the whole.

**Table shewing the total extent of the several Counties of Scotland, thirty-three in number, including Buteshire, and the county of Orkney and Zetland, in square miles, and English statute acres; specifying the extent of Land and of Fresh Water Lakes in each County.**

| Counties | Extent in Square Miles | Extent in English Statute Acres | |---------------------------|------------------------|--------------------------------| | | Land. | Lakes. | Total. | Land. | Lakes. | Total. | | Aberdeenshire | 1,960 | 10 | 1,970 | 1,254,400 | 6,400 | 1,260,800 | | Argyle, exclusive of Islands | 2,200 | 60 | 2,260 | 1,408,000 | 38,400 | 1,446,400 | | Ayr | 1,039 | 6 | 1,045 | 664,960 | 3,840 | 668,800 | | Banff | 645 | 2 | 647 | 412,800 | 1,280 | 414,080 | | Berwick | 442 | | 442 | 282,880 | | 282,880 | | Caithness | 687 | 10 | 697 | 439,680 | 6,400 | 446,080 | | Clackmannan | 48 | | 48 | 30,720 | | 30,720 | | Cromarty | 256 | 10 | 266 | 163,840 | 6,400 | 170,240 | | Dumfries | 1,253| 10 | 1,263 | 801,920 | 6,400 | 808,320 | | Edinburgh, or Mid-Lothian | 354 | | 354 | 226,560 | | 226,560 | | Elgin, or Moray | 473 | 7 | 480 | 302,720 | 4,480 | 307,200 | | Fife | 467 | 3 | 470 | 298,880 | 1,920 | 300,800 | | Forfar, or Angus | 888 | 4 | 892 | 568,320 | 2,560 | 570,880 | | Haddington, or East Lothian | 272 | | 272 | 174,080 | | 174,080 | | Inverness, exclusive of Islands | 2,904 | 132 | 3,036 | 1,858,560 | 84,480 | 1,943,040 | | Kinross | 380 | 2 | 382 | 243,200 | 1,280 | 244,480 | | Kirkcudbright | 72 | 7 | 79 | 46,080 | 4,480 | 50,560 | | Lanark, or Clydesdale | 821½| 12½ | 834 | 525,760 | 8,000 | 533,760 | | Linlithgow, or West Lothian | 942 | 3 | 945 | 602,880 | 1,920 | 604,800 | | Nairn | 195 | 3 | 198 | 124,800 | 1,920 | 126,720 | | Peebles | 319 | | 319 | 204,160 | | 204,160 | | Perth | 2,588| 50 | 2,638 | 1,656,320 | 32,000 | 1,688,320 | | Renfrew | 225 | 2 | 227 | 144,000 | 1,280 | 145,280 | | Ross, exclusive of Islands | 2,069| 60 | 2,129 | 1,324,160 | 38,400 | 1,362,560 | | Roxburgh | 715 | ½ | 715½ | 457,600 | 320 | 457,920 | | Selkirk | 263 | 1½ | 264 | 168,320 | 960 | 169,280 | | Stirling | 489 | 13 | 502 | 312,960 | 8,320 | 321,280 | | Sutherland | 1,754| 47 | 1,801 | 1,122,560 | 30,080 | 1,152,640 | | Wigton | 451½| 7½ | 459 | 288,960 | 4,800 | 293,760 |

Sum of these: 25,520 494 26,014 16,332,800 316,160 16,648,960

**ISLANDS.**

| Hebrides, viz. | | | | | | | |---------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------| | Buteshire, including Arran, &c. | 161 | 4 | 165 | 103,040 | 2,560 | 105,600 | | Isles belonging to Argyleshire, | 929 | 21 | 950 | 594,560 | 13,440 | 608,000 | | Isles belonging to Inverness-shire, | 1,150 | 59 | 1,209 | 736,000 | 37,760 | 773,760 | | Isles belonging to the shires of Ross and Cromarty, | 560 | 20 | 580 | 358,400 | 12,800 | 371,200 | | Orkney Isles | 425 | 15 | 440 | 272,000 | 9,600 | 281,600 | | Zetland Isles | 855 | 25 | 880 | 547,200 | 16,000 | 563,200 |

Totals: 29,600 638 30,238 18,944,000 408,320 19,352,320 From what has been already said respecting the extreme variation in the breadth of Scotland at different places, the fact may be inferred, that the outline on the sea-coast is exceedingly irregular, and of great extent, the sea penetrating to a great depth, both on its eastern and western sides. Of these arms of the sea, the most considerable are the Firths of Forth and Tay, and the Moray and Dornoch Firths, on the east; and the Firth of Clyde and the Luce and Wigton Bays, on the west and south-west; whilst there are a very great number of smaller inlets, called lochs, such as Loch Fyne, Loch Long, Loch Etive, Loch Linnhe, Loch Broom, &c., which indent the country in all directions, to an extent varying from ten to seventy miles. With this irregularity of outline is combined a surface generally rugged and mountainous. With the exception of narrow tracts along its principal rivers, there is very little of the country flat or level, or what would be regarded as productive land in more favoured regions. "To such a degree," says Mr. McCulloch, "is this the case, that, estimating the whole extent of the country, exclusive of lakes, at 19,000,000 acres, it is doubtful whether so many as 6,000,000 are arable; whereas, taking the extent of England and Wales at 37,000,000 acres, the arable land certainly exceeds 29,000,000; so that, while in Scotland, the proportion of the cultivable to the entire land is less than one-third, in England it exceeds three-fourths. With the exception, indeed, of a few tracts of rich alluvial land, (carse), Scotland has no very extensive vales; the surface of the rest of the country being, even where most level, considerably varied with hill and dale." In the south of Scotland, a tract of mountainous country, known by various names, stretches in a south-west direction, from the Cheviot hills in Roxburghshire, on the borders of England, to the Irish channel, sending off branches on both sides, whilst detached hills prevail over the whole of the contiguous districts. These high grounds, however, are for the most part clothed in green, almost to their summits, and have little of that wild, romantic, and desolate character, which distinguishes many of the mountains of the Highlands. Northward from the isthmus formed by the Firths of Forth and Clyde, the low grounds constitute but a small proportion of the whole.

Here, in latitude 57°, the Grampians extend from sea to sea, with a breadth of from forty to sixty miles; and parallel to them, to the south, is another chain, called the Siedlaw, Ochills, and Campsie hills. Between these two ranges lies the fertile valley of Strathmore; whilst, farther north, cultivation is mostly confined to the sea-coast, the banks of the larger rivers, and the narrow glens between the mountains. On the north-west, beyond the line of the Caledonian canal, the country is, with few exceptions, singularly rugged and sterile; consisting of lofty mountains, either covered with heath, or presenting a mass of naked rocks, interrupted only by deep and dark ravines, lakes, and precipitous streamlets. But the eastern coast of Ross-shire is comparatively level and fertile; and Caithness, the north-eastern county of the mainland of Scotland, is generally low, marshy, and unproductive.

Scotland is divided into Highlands and Lowlands. "Those countries, whose inhabitants speak a different language, and wear a different garb," says Mr. Home, in his History of the Rebellion, 1745, "are not separated by firths or rivers, nor distinguished by northern or southern latitude. The same shire, the same parish, at this day, contains part of both; so that a Highlander and Lowlander (each of them standing at the door of the cottage where he was born) hear their neighbours speak a language which they do not understand." The line which separates the Highlands from the Lowlands is by no means well defined; but it may be described as beginning at Dumbarton, on the Firth of Clyde, and proceeding northward by Crieff, Dunkeld, and Blairgowrie, it runs through the forest of Morven, in the heights of Strathearn, Aberdeen, to Carron, in Banffshire; from Carron it stretches due west by Tarmaway, in Morayshire, to the town of Nairn; from Nairn the line is continued to Inverness; and from this latter place, it proceeds in a tortuous direction, to Dunistra, on the south side of the Firth of Dornoch, where the line of separation may be said to terminate, the country to the north of this firth being altogether Highland, except a narrow stripe of land along the shores of the German Ocean, which washes the east coast of Sutherland and Caithness. To the west of this line lie the Highlands, which, including the Hebrides, constitute in superficial extent nearly one-half of Scotland, although the inhabitants of this division do not form an eighth part of the population of that kingdom. The face of the country is wild, rugged, desolate, and mountainous. In almost every strath, valley, or glen, there glitters a stream or lake; and numberless firths, or arms of the sea, penetrate the land. The passes into the Highlands lie in deep ravines or glens, so narrow, and so overhung by mountains, that they admit of being very easily defended, and till recently, when roads have been made, they were impracticable almost to every one except the natives. To this must principally be ascribed the successful resistance opposed by the Highlanders to the attacks of the Romans and the Saxons; and hence, also, these northern people still form a distinct race, the lineal descendants of the ancient Celtic inhabitants of the country, and differing essentially in language, dress, and manners, from the Lowlanders.

The climate of Scotland, as may be expected, from its insular situation and high latitude, is cold, cloudy, and humid. This is its general character, as compared with the greater part of England; yet, even in the south of England, frost is sometimes more intense, and snow falls more copiously than in Scotland. Corn, however, and most of the fruits and vegetables common to both divisions of Great Britain, attain maturity about three weeks earlier in the south of England than in Scotland; and some plants, such as hops and a few others, cannot be profitably cultivated at all in the latter country. The mean annual temperature of Scotland is very high for the latitude, being about 46°8 in places near the level of the sea. In the more southerly parts of the kingdom, the climate differs but little from that of the northern parts of England. Sir David Brewster states the mean annual temperature to be 48°36 at Leith. At Edinburgh, which is elevated from 300 to 400 feet above the level of the sea, and situated two miles from it, the annual temperature is 47°8, and this may be taken as a near approximation to the general average of Scotland; the mean temperature of winter being 38°6, of spring, 46°4, of summer, 58°2, of autumn, 48°4, the coldest month being 38°3, and the warmest 59°4. The observations published in the New Statistical Account of Scotland, and in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, closely approximate to the above estimate. In the parish of Inch, Wigtonshire, the mean temperature for the year 1837 was 48°41. At Applegarth Manse, in the interior of Dumfries-shire, the average annual temperature for seven successive years, ending in 1831 inclusive, was 47°12; that of the spring being 40°31, of the summer, 56°86, the autumn, 54°18; and of winter, 39°92. At Wick in Caithness the mean annual temperature is 46°7, that of the winter being 40°35, the spring, 44°41, the summer, 53°77, and the autumn, 48°82; whilst at Sumburgh-head, the most southerly promontory of the Shetland Islands, in latitude 69°52', the mean annual temperature is 43°5, that of the winter being 40, the spring, 43°29, the summer, 50°60, and the autumn, 47°48. The range of the barometer is 2°82 inches, or from 30°92 to 28°10 inches; and in the Orkney and Shetland Islands it is somewhat more, or about three inches. The fall of rain is very differ- Statistics, ent in different districts; but the average is about 31 inches. The quantity which falls on the east coast of Scotland ranges from 22 to 26 inches; whilst, on the west coast and in the Hebrides, it is nearly double, varying, according to situation, from 35 to 46 inches. The number of fair days throughout the year is, on the west coast, only 160; whilst on the east it is 230. The mean annual fall of rain at Edinburgh for the years 1824 and 1825, was 23½ inches; at Glasgow, for an average of thirty years, it was 30 inches; whilst, still farther west, at Mount Stewart, in the Isle of Bute, it was, on an average of seven years, 46½ inches, the mean average of the whole country being, as just stated, 31 inches.

The prevailing winds throughout Scotland are from the westerly points; but on the east coast it blows from the easterly points about a third of the year. Easterly winds generally prevail in March and April, and often in May and part of June; and not only check vegetation, but are attended with slightly unfavourable effects on the health of the inhabitants, particularly such of them as are nervous, dyspeptic, consumptive, or rheumatic. But the climate of Scotland is eminently salubrious. There are, properly speaking, no fens or marshes. The low grounds are, in general, highly cultivated. From whatever point the wind may blow, except the east, a wide expanse of sea is passed over; and the air, though moist, is purified from injurious emanations, which are readily absorbed by the ocean. Hence it has been affirmed, that the mean duration of life is greater in Scotland than in almost any other country.1

"We are pretty confident, from extensive observation in different countries, that the proportion of the population that reaches seventy or eighty years of age, and the vigour then remaining, are greater in Scotland than almost anywhere else."

Mountains. The mountains of Scotland consist either of detached groups, more or less closely wedged together, or of ridges or chains. These latter may be characterized as running in a north-east and south-west direction. The most celebrated chain, the Grampians, mentioned by Tacitus, extend from the south-eastern boundaries of Argyleshire, with a more or less defined line, to the heart of Aberdeenshire. This chain may be regarded as a natural rampart, forming the south-eastern boundary of the Highlands. With the exception of Ben Nevis, the highest mountains in Scotland are comprehended in the Grampian range. Another chain, to the south of the Grampians, and nearly parallel to them, stretches from Montrose to the Clyde, in Dumbartonshire; but being intersected by the Tay and the Forth, it is divided into three distinct portions, which bear different names. From Montrose to the Tay, this chain is called the Siedlaw hills; from the Tay to the Forth, it is known by the name of the Ochillies; and the remainder passes under the names of the Dundaff, Fentry, and Campsie hills. The low country, or strath, which separates this range of hills from the Grampians, is called Strathmore, or the great valley. There is also a chain of mountains in the south of Scotland, stretching from the Cheviot hills, on the borders of Northumberland, to Loch Ryan, in Wigtonshire. There are other smaller ranges, such as the Monagh Lea mountains, which run parallel to and along the western side of the Spey; the Lomond hills in Fife-shire; the Pentland hills in Mid-Lothian, and others. The altitude and situation of the principal hills and mountains in Scotland having already been given under the head of Physical Geography, it is unnecessary to repeat the information here.

In the neighbourhood of the village of Leadhills, in Lanarkshire, 1564 feet above the level of the sea, is the highest cultivated land in Scotland. In Aberdeenshire, the plough sometimes reaches the height of about 1300 feet; but, with few exceptions, an elevation of 600 feet seems to be the limit of the tillage lands of Scotland. None of the Scottish mountains ascends to the line of perpetual congelation; yet snow may be found all the year round in some of the dark recesses, on which the sun never shines.

From the rugged and mountainous character of the surface of Scotland, the vales or level tracts cannot be expected to be extensive or numerous. They are, indeed, when compared with England, very much the reverse. Of these vales, called sometimes straths or carse, the following are the most important. The vale or carse of Stirling and Falkirk is a tract of low alluvial land, which extends on both sides of the Forth, with little interruption, and to a greater or less width, from Borrowstonness to about twenty miles north of Stirling, including the vales of the Teith and the Allan, two tributaries of the Forth. These lands are peculiarly fertile, and produce the richest crops of wheat and other grain. The vale of the Earn, a tributary of the Tay, known by the name of Strathearn, is of a similar character, but of comparatively limited extent. The carse of Gowrie, which lies on the north of the Tay, from Dundee to Perth, is incomparably the most fertile and productive district in Scotland, and is thought not to be surpassed in these respects by any other district of equal extent in the united kingdom. Strathmore stretches from Lawrencekirk in Angusshire to the neighbourhood of Perth, lying between the bases of the Siedlaw hills and the Grampians. This valley is not entirely flat, but is characterized by occasional gentle eminences. The Merse, or level lands of Berwickshire, stretch from the confluence of the Leader and the Tweed to the town of Berwick, occupying most of the low and generally level part of the country, or nearly the half of its surface. The carse of Baldoon, lying south of the river Bladnoch, and on the east shore of the bay of Wigton, is of limited extent, but of nearly equal fertility to the carse of Gowrie. There are other less important straths or carses, such as those along the Teviot in Roxburghshire; Tynehead, or the vale of Tyne, in East Lothian; and the Howe, or vale of Eden, in Fifeshire. These lands are either loamy or alluvial.

By this term we mean tracts of land composed of mosses, intermixed with rocks, lakes, and peat-moss. The moor of Rannoch, lying between Scheallan, Ben Cruachan, and Ben Nevis, is one of the most lonely, wild, and dreary districts in Scotland. It may be said to be entirely devoid of value, and would not of itself bring any rent. It is not inhabited, and very seldom visited. There is a tract about ten miles inland on the west coast of Sutherlandshire, not very dissimilar, but, though more rugged, it is not quite so dreary as that of the moor of Rannoch. The glen of Glenluce lies between Newtonstewart and Luce Bay, stretching along the public road for about ten miles, composed chiefly of peat and morasses, and forming one of the bleakest and most dreary rides in Scotland.

From the rugged and mountainous nature of the country, the rivers of Scotland are characterized by a more rapid course, are more diversified by rocks and cataracts, and are more limpid than those of England. Their course is also necessarily shorter, and few of them are navigable, at least to any great extent. Being generally mountain streams, they are peculiarly liable to sudden overflows, their rise and fall being equally sudden. From a very tedious and elaborate set of experiments, it is computed that they carry out to the sea, on an average, about $\frac{1}{2}$ of the weight of their waters in mud; that is, a film of about $\frac{1}{2}$ of an inch annually, or one inch in fifty years over the whole surface from which they draw their waters.

The principal rivers of Scotland, with the single exception of the Clyde, are exclusively confined to the east. Three inconsiderable rivers flow in a south-easterly direction, the

The Dee, which falls into the Solway Firth about six miles south of Kirkcudbright, and is navigable for small vessels two miles above that town; the Nith, which rises in the north of Dumfries-shire, and falls into the Solway Firth more than seven miles below Dumfries, being navigable to within two miles of that place; and the Annan, which rises on the south side of Hartfell, near Moffat, and falls into the same estuary at the town of Annan. The last is not navigable beyond this burgh. The rivers which flow in a northerly or north-easterly direction are the Ness, which flows from Loch Ness, and, after a short course, falls into the Moray Firth near Inverness; the Findhorn, which, rising in the Monadhliath mountains, falls into the same estuary at Findhorn, after a winding course of upwards of 50 miles; and the Spey, the most rapid of the Scottish rivers, which flows from Loch Spey towards the west of Inverness-shire, and, after receiving innumerable tributaries, and traversing the best wooded portion of the Highlands, falls into the Moray Firth. The course of the Spey is nearly 100 miles; it drains above 1300 square miles of country, but is not navigable. With the exception of the Ayr, which is likewise not navigable, and falls into the sea at the town of the same name, the only river on the west coast worth mentioning, is the Clyde, (the Glotta of Tacitus), which, in a manufacturing and commercial point of view, is the most important stream in Scotland. It rises on the west of the Moffat mountains, and, after a circuitous course of nearly eighty miles, falls into the Firth of Clyde below Dunbarton. It receives various tributaries, and is navigable to Glasgow, passing in its course the principal manufacturing and commercial towns in Scotland; Glasgow, Hamilton, Lanark, Paisley, Port-Glasgow, and Greenock.

The navigation of the Clyde was formerly much obstructed; but under the management of a Parliamentary board, called the River Trust, these obstructions have been nearly removed, and the channel rendered so deep and straight that vessels of 400 tons can now resort to the Broomielaw at Glasgow. The falls of Clyde, which are about 30 miles south-east of Glasgow, are very striking and celebrated. The first considerable fall is that of Bonnington, its height, including that of a little one immediately above it, being about thirty feet. The second is Corra Linn, where the water dashes from one shelving rock to another, its perpendicular height being about seventy feet. Dundaff fall is only ten feet in height; whilst that of Stonebyres, which includes three distinct falls, is not less than seventy-six feet. All the other rivers are on the east coast, namely, the Tweed, the Forth, the Tay, the North and South Esk, the Dee, and the Don. The Tweed rises near the sources of the Annan and Clyde, and running past Peebles through a beautiful pastoral country, falls into the German ocean at Berwick-upon-Tweed, after a winding course of about a hundred miles. The descent from its source to its embouchure is about 1500 feet; and it is navigable only to Berwick. The Forth, (the Badotria of Tacitus), rises on the east of Ben Lomond, and receiving the waters of the Teith and the Allan, it becomes a considerable stream at Stirling, to which the tide flows, and to which it is navigable for vessels of about seventy tons. From Stirling to Alloa is only six miles by land, but the stream of the Forth is so tortuous that it is no less than sixteen by water. The river may here be said to terminate in the Firth, which extends to the German ocean, a distance of forty miles. Its width is various. At Queensferry, eight miles west of Edinburgh, it is two miles; at Leith it is six; and thence it gradually expands till it is lost in the open sea. It is navigable for vessels of 300 tons as far as Alloa. The only low water pier of which it can boast is that of Granton, about a mile and a half west of Leith. The Tay rises to the north of Loch Lomond, and expanding into the romantic sheet of water called Loch Tay, it flows in a circuitous route past Dunkeld and Perth, and falls into the Firth of Tay at the confluence of its waters with the Earn, about twenty miles from the mouth of the estuary. It is navigable to Dundee for vessels of 500 tons burthen, and to Perth for those of 100 tons. It receives many tributaries, of which the Earn, just mentioned, is the most important. The Tay is the largest of the Scottish, and, in respect to the volume of water it conveys to the sea, even of the British rivers. The North and South Esk have their source in the Grampians, and fall into the sea at Montrose, within three miles of each other. The South Esk is navigable to Montrose, about a mile and a half from its mouth. The North Esk is not navigable. The basin of Montrose, through which the South Esk flows, and which bounds the town on the west, comprehends about 2000 acres of land; it is covered by water at full sea, and exhibits nothing but bare sand at ebb tide. This expanse, it has been calculated, might be reclaimed at a gross cost of £11,938. The Dee and the Don have also their rise in the Grampians, and fall into the sea, the former at New Aberdeen, and the latter at Old Aberdeen. The Dee is navigable for about a mile from its mouth; the Don is not navigable.

The Scottish rivers, as stated at the beginning of this head, are of such a character, that there is no room for reclaiming waste land from their channels. This is prevented by the rapidity of their streams and by their rugged course. But several attempts have been made to reclaim lands from inundation on the shores of the Firths of Forth and Tay. Without entering into particulars the following results may be given:

| | Acres | Cost | Rent | Value at 50 years' purchase | |--------|-------|------|------|---------------------------| | Forth | | | | | | Formerly reclaimed | 40 | £2,000 | £160 | £4,800 | | Recently reclaimed | 366 | 18,063 | 1464 | 43,920 | | Tay | | | | | | Formerly reclaimed | 105 | 3,050 | 600 | 18,000 | | Recently reclaimed | 142 | 5,730 | 920 | 27,600 | | Totals | 653 | £30,843 | £3144 | £94,320 |

In addition to this, it has been stated that the extent of land now in process of being reclaimed, on different estates on the shores of the Tay, may be computed at 1140 acres, at a gross cost of £50 per acre. The following extract, on the subject of embankments, from a work just published, contains minute and interesting information: "About 68 Scots acres of land have been here, (the parish of St. Madoes,) at different times reclaimed from the Tay by embankments. In 1826, in consequence of an arrangement between Sir John Richardson, the proprietor, and Mr. R.W. Rannie, tenant, Pitfour Mains, by which the latter agreed to raise an embankment at his own expense, and after being allowed to take the first crop free, to pay £4, 10s. annually, per Scots acre, for the reclaimed land, during a lease of nineteen years; operations were commenced, which resulted in the complete reclamation of 50 acres during the autumn of that year. The whole expense of embankments, sluices, levelling, water cuts, and trenching amounted to £1,530. So productive, however, did the new soil turn out, that Mr. Rannie has been amply rewarded for his enterprise. According to his own account, he has had, before liming and manuring, on some parts of a field, about 60 bolls of potatoes per acre, the average produce being from 40 to 50 bolls. After liming and manuring, he has had, on some parts of a field, 70 bolls per acre, the average being from 50 to 60 bolls, of 32 stones Dutch to

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1 Naismith's Survey of Clydesdale, p. 19, &c. 2 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, March 1838. 3 Ibid. for December 1837. 4 New Statistical Account of Scotland, part xxiii., p. 631. Statistics: the boil. He has half of oats, before liming and manuring, from 10 to 11, after liming and manuring; from 12 to 13 quarters per acre; and of wheat from 6 to 7 quarters per acre. He commenced liming in 1829 and manuring in 1835, the rotation, up to that period, being potatoes, and wheat, or oats, alternately. In 1833, Sir John Richardson reclaimed 18 acres more at an expense of £1,200; and, by means of head-dikes, breakwaters, and other contrivances, which he is from time to time throwing out into the river, for the purpose of accommodating silt, upwards of 150 acres more may ultimately be added to the parish; of these, from 15 to 20 may be banked off in the course of two years.

Lakes.

From a table already given, under the head of Superficial Extent, we have already found that the fresh water lakes in Scotland occupy an area of 638 square miles, or cover an aggregate extent of 408,320 English statute acres. The only counties that are devoid of lakes are those of Berwick, Clackmannan, the Lothians, and Peebles; whilst those of Roxburgh amount to only 320 English acres. The greatest extent of lakes are in Inverness-shire, (84,480 English acres,) Argyllshire, exclusive of islands, (38,400,) Ross-shire, (38,400,) Perthshire, (32,000,) and Sutherlandshire, (30,080.) The lakes, generally speaking, occupy the valleys or ravines amongst the mountains, and are thus distinguished for their length, their breadth being comparatively trifling. The only Lowland lakes worth specifying are Loch Leven, St. Mary's Loch, and Loch Ken. The first, situated in Kinross-shire, is four miles in length by two in breadth, having the Lomond hills on its east, and Benarty hill on its south; whilst the towns of Kinross and Milnathort lie on its western margin. This lake is remarkable for a peculiar species of red trout, which is highly valued; and it also produces char, perch, pike, and other species of fish. The fishery is let for a considerable sum; and it is a remarkable fact that Loch Leven is the only Scottish lake that yields any revenue to its proprietors. There is not even an attempt made to derive any profits from any other lake; nay, they are not fish-able for the domestic consumption even of the neighbouring inhabitants. But Loch Leven is principally celebrated for an island in the lake in which are the picturesque ruins of a castle, where Queen Mary was confined by her subjects, and from which she effected her escape (1568) a few days previous to the fatal battle of Langside. There are other small islands in the lake, the principal of which is St. Serf's, where was once a famous monastery, of which Andrew Win- ton, author of the Chronykil of Scotland, was prior. St. Mary's Loch, a most beautiful and picturesque sheet of water, three miles in length by from half a mile to a mile in breadth, is in Selkirkshire. Loch Ken is formed by the expansion of the river Ken in Kirkcudbrightshire, and forms part of the river. It is ten miles in length by rather less than a mile in breadth. The other lakes are all north of the Firths of Clyde and Forth. Loch Lomond is the most celebrated as well as the largest lake in Scotland; indeed, it is the largest in the British dominions. This noble sheet of water is above twenty-four miles in length, its greatest breadth is ten miles, but, towards its upper part, it is not more than half a mile. Its depth varies from twenty to a hundred and twenty fathoms, and its greatest depth is towards the north. It is studded with numerous and richly wooded islands, some of them being very small, but the largest, Inchmurrin, is two miles in length and one in breadth. Some of them, particularly Inchmurrin, are stocked with deer. Both sides of the lake are flanked by high and rugged mountains, among which "the lofty Ben Lomond" stands conspicuous, its height being 3195 feet above the margin of the water. The surface water of Loch Lomond is from three to five feet higher in winter than in summer; but its mean height is about twenty-two feet above the level of the sea at Dunbarton. Its surplus water is conveyed to the Clyde, a distance of six miles, by the river Leven.

Loch Katterin, so celebrated in Sir Walter Scott's Lady of the Lake, lies in the district of Menteith, Perthshire, and is one of the most romantic in Scotland. Its length is eight miles, and its greatest breadth less than one. It does not seem necessary to give a minute description of the other lakes; but the following table, taken from the General Report of Scotland, will show their number, dimensions, and situation.

| Name | Length in miles | Greatest breadth in miles | Square miles | Counties where situated | |----------|----------------|--------------------------|--------------|------------------------| | 1. Lomond | 24 | 7 | 45 | Dunbarton and Stirling | | 2. Awe | 25 | 2 | 30 | Argyll | | 3. Ness | 22 | 2 | 30 | Inverness | | 4. Shin | 20 | 1 | 25 | Sutherland | | 5. Marce | 12 | 3 | 24 | Ross, west coast | | 6. Tay | 15 | 2 | 20 | Perth | | 7. Arkeg | 12 | 2 | 18 | Inverness | | 8. Shiel | 16 | 1 | 16 | Inverness, west coast | | 9. Lechy | 16 | 1 | 15 | Inverness | | 10. Laggan| 8 | 1 | 12 | Inverness | | 11. Morrar| 9 | 2 | 12 | Inverness | | 12. Fannich| 7 | 1 | 10 | Ross, centre | | 13. Ericht| 14 | 2 | 10 | Perth and Inverness | | 14. Earn | 8 | 1 | 9 | Perth | | 15. Naver | 6 | 2 | 9 | Sutherland | | 16. Stennis| 8 | 2 | 8 | Orkney, mainland | | 17. Rannoch| 9 | 1 | 8 | Perth | | 18. Leven | 4 | 2 | 7 | Kinross | | 19. Fair | 4 | 2 | 6 | Ross | | 20. Lydoch | 6 | 1 | 6 | Perth and Argyle | | 21. Dee & Ken | 10 | 0 | 6 | Kirkcudbright | | 22. Loyal | 6 | 1 | 6 | Sutherland | | 23. Glass | 5 | 1 | 5 | Ross, east | | 24. Katterin | 8 | 0 | 5 | Perth, Menteith | | 25. Doon | 9 | 1 | 4 | Ayr | | 26. Huichart | 3 | 1 | 3 | Ross |

In a general point of view, Scotland may be separated, geologically as well as geographically, into three portions. By passing a line on the map nearly straight from Stonehaven, through Dunkeld, to the middle of the Isle of Bute, and thence with a slight curve to the Mull of Cantyre, we shall have traced the southern boundary of the primary non-fossiliferous system of rocks. Another line, but much more irregular than the former, drawn from St. Abb's Head in Berwickshire, passing near Peebles, Sanquhar, and New Cumnock, to the south of Girvan on the western coast, will form a general parallelism with the former line, and will contain the old greywacke, now named the Cumbrian system, lying to the south, and extending to the boundary between England and Scotland, whilst the land included between the two lines comprehends the old red sandstone, and great central basin of Scotland.

That extensive tract of Scotland which constitutes the northern division, is composed chiefly of gneiss, mica slate, chlorite slate, and clay slate, with subordinate masses of hornblende slate, talc slate, and primitive limestone. These, with granitic centres, often rise into magnificent mountains, of which the Grampians form a part. In many of these deposits, particularly in the mica slate, garnets of a brown colour are very abundant. In the primary deposits no organic remains have ever been discovered.

These, however, are not the only stratified formations which constitute this extensive district. The old red sandstone fringes the extremities of the land, commencing near the Statistics Moray Firth, extending on both sides of Loch Ness till within a short distance of Fort Augustus, and then proceeding northward, expanding the whole breadth of Caithness and constituting the principal formation of the Orkney Isles. On the western side of the mainland, the old red sandstone is deposited in numerous patches on the gneiss formation, as at Loch Broom, Gairloch, and Applecross.

The new secondary rocks have been but sparingly observed in Scotland; yet it is a curious fact that the few patches that have been discovered are superimposed on the old red sandstone, and have not been repose in uninterrupted order in the secondary series. Thus the lias shales, highly micaceous, and some of the upper beds of the oolitic system, occur at the mouth of the Cromarty Firth, from Dunrobin Castle to the orf of Caithness, Applecross, and other points on the mainland, and in the Western Islands, on the borders of Mull, the south and east of Skye, and near to the rocks of Arran. The equivalent of the fresh water deposits of the wealds of Sussex, geologically situated above the oolitic group and below the chalk, is seen in Moray and Skye. In the central and southern divisions of Scotland, these newer groups of rocks have not been detected. In this division of Scotland very few metallic ores have been found. Lead mines were formerly wrought at Tynrum, to the west of Loch Tay. Lead mines are at present wrought at Stronbean in Argyleshire, at which place the carbonate of strontian was first discovered. At Glen Strathfaire, in Inverness-shire, there have been detected veins of plumbago running between the laminae of the mica slate.

We may here briefly refer to the geological character of the Western Isles. Dr. McCulloch calls the Long Island, consisting of a series of islands lying in a south-west and north-east direction, the gneiss island, from the predominance of that species of rock. Another group, embracing Skye, Rum, Canna, Mack, Egg, and Mull, he designates the trap islands. There are five basaltic islands off the north-west side of Mull, of which the smallest but the most celebrated is Staffa, which is well known for its basaltic columns and cavern, called Fingal's cave. This cave, one of the most remarkable natural excavations in the world, is formed of the columnar bed of basalt, where it declines to the level of the sea, which washes the feet of the columns, that are like the pillars of an immense cathedral, placed close to each other, the sea forming the floor. The top of the arch, at the entrance, is 66 feet; but it gradually declines to 40 at the extremity, at the distance of 237 feet. The breadth of the cave is about forty feet. There are other similar caverns of less note on the island. The basalt of which the columns in Staffa are composed, is similar to that of the Giant's Causeway in Ireland; and it is probable that they are both of submarine origin, having been raised by the sea. St. Kilda, the most western of the Hebrides, is composed of several varieties of the trap rock. Arran, in the Firth of Clyde, even to the top of the highest mountains, is principally granitic.

In tracing the geological features of the country in the ascending order of the groups, we come next to the transition or greywacke system, now divided into two principal sections, the lower or Cumbrian, and the upper or Silurian. As far as has hitherto been ascertained, the Silurian division is unknown in Scotland; and the Cumbrian rocks, destitute of organic remains, cover the greater part of the area of the south of Scotland. These greywacke strata stand at high angles of from sixty to ninety degrees, and consist chiefly of coarse slaty strata, seldom divisible into thin roofing slates, and often alternating with arenaceous and coarse conglomerates. Amongst them, limestone is seldom found, and, when it is, the quality of it is inferior. In the division of which we now treat, coal and its accompaniments are known in few places; it is, however, wrought at Canonby, near Langholm, and at the Carter Fell. The only other rock formation, found in connexion with the old transition group here, with the exception of igneous rocks, is a red sandstone, ascertained, in some situations, to be the old red, but in others, considered as the new red sandstone, particularly in Dumfries-shire.

In the third geological division of Scotland, namely, the centre of the kingdom, is placed the great coal basin; but, adhering to our rule of marking the successive formations in the ascending order, we shall first treat of the old red sandstone, the most ancient rock in this subdivision of the country. This rock abuts against the line of the primary rocks, and stretches across the whole country from the German Ocean to the Atlantic, pursuing, like the mountain ranges, a south-westerly, or north-easterly direction. Its line forms a long, uninterrupted, extensive, and fertile valley. In the north-western part, it rises into hills, on the sides of one of which, east of Menteith, are deep and hideous fissures, the effect of some convulsion of the earth.

The formation appears to be of vast thickness, especially towards the north, and may, it is supposed, be divided into three portions; the lower, the middle, and the upper beds. In what are considered as the lower strata, the remains of fishes have been found in a high state of preservation. The well known Arbroath pavement belongs to the old red sandstone series.

But the most important group in this central district is the coal formation, consisting of limestone, ironstone, freestone, coal, and clays. The extent from east to west is bounded only by the extremities of the land. To the north, it is cut off from the old red sandstone by a range of trap hills, crossing the country from east to west. On the south, it is bounded by the greywacke and the old red sandstone. Its breadth, extending on both sides of the Forth and Clyde, averages forty miles, and its length about seventy miles.

The mountain limestone forms generally the basis of the group, although it is frequently found interstratified with other members of the series, and abounds with great numbers of organic remains. Below the mountain limestone, however, but belonging to the same group, a bed of limestone is worked at Burdiehouse, near Edinburgh, in which the organic remains differ essentially from those which have been just named. These remains consist of many of the plants which distinguish the coal formation; but that alluded to includes also the teeth, scales, and other bones of fishes which partake of the reptile character, some of which must have been of gigantic dimensions. Small fishes are also found in a fine state of preservation. The same limestone has been found in other parts of the country, and is of superior quality to the common limestone, for mortar, plaster, and the smelting of iron.

The clay limestone is found in beds and nodules, the workable kind containing from twenty-seven to forty-five per cent. of iron. The kind termed black band is in high request. From this ore is smelted vast quantities of pig iron. The iron works in Scotland have been increasing beyond all example; at Carron, Gartsherrie, Shotts, Cleland, Airdrie, Clyde, and other places. The quantity of iron produced in Scotland in 1830 amounted to 37,500 tons. But four years afterwards, in 1834, the latest date of which we have any correct account, the quantity had nearly doubled, being about 72,000 tons. These works are generally within ten or a dozen miles of Glasgow.

The coal is found in beds varying from a few inches to forty feet in thickness, is extracted in great quantity, and is used as fuel, both for domestic and manufacturing purposes. One variety, cannel coal, is of superior quality for Statistics. the preparation of gas. From the fire clay are manufactured fire brick and gas retorts; and the sandstone furnishes an inexhaustible store of substantial and beautiful material for building.

These several deposits contain in abundance the impressions of the vegetables which distinguish the carboniferous period; and, what is remarkable, the remains of animals, the same as occur in the Burdie-house limestone, are found in the shales, and even in the coal itself. In the island, no strata newer than the carboniferous system is known to exist. All is covered over with accumulations of clay, gravel, sand, and soil.

Roads. Until after the middle of last century there was scarcely a good road in Scotland. Soon after the rebellion of 1715, Government began to open up the country by roads made by the military, hence called military roads, which extended in all about eight hundred miles; but these being confined for the most part to the Highlands, intended for military purposes, and formed with little or no regard to such ascents and descents as do not impede the passage of an army, were of little advantage in an economical point of view. It is in the recollection of persons still living, when corn, coals, and other heavy articles, were usually carried upon the backs of horses, even in the southern counties of Scotland; the roads, or rather the tracks, being for the greater part of the year unfit for wheel-carriages. But so great a change has been made in this respect, particularly within the last forty years, that mail-coaches, and other carriages, now run day and night at the rate of from eight to ten miles an hour through every part of the country, from the borders of England to the northern extremity of Great Britain.

The only funds formerly applicable to the making and the repairing of the roads in Scotland were what is called the Statute Labour, or the labour of the occupiers of the land, for six days annually, upon the roads passing through their respective parishes, and a small assessment imposed upon the proprietors. This labour, which has been converted into payment in money, and also the sums raised by assessment on the proprietors, under the name of road and bridge money, are now applied to bye-roads, or such as communicate with the great turnpikes. Almost every county has procured an act of Parliament which fixes the rate of these assessments; but this varies in different counties according to circumstances.

The turnpike roads and bridges in the Lowlands have, for nearly a century, been made, and are kept in repair by means of tolls exacted from those who use them, under the authority of private acts of Parliament. The first of these acts was obtained in 1750, at which time the roads were so bad that the journey from Edinburgh to Glasgow, a distance of forty-two miles, occupied 1½ days, whereas it is now effected in from 4½ to 5 hours. The trustees named in these acts are commonly empowered, whether wisely or not, to borrow money upon the security of the funds to be received; by which means the work is more speedily executed. The board of trustees consists of the sheriff-depute, his substitute, and the justices of the peace in the county, together with all individuals, and their eldest sons, who are owners of estates worth L100 Scotch a-year, and upwards, of valued rent. The result of this is, that "in consequence of the excellent materials which abound in all parts of Scotland, and of the greater skill and science of Scotch trustees and surveyors, the turnpike roads in Scotland are superior to those in England."

Highland roads and bridges. In the Highlands, the nature of the country, and the state of the population, did not admit of the same system as in the Lowlands. The military roads had not only been made, but were kept in repair at the public expense, for which L5000 a-year was usually granted by Parliament; but a great many new roads and bridges were required; and, in 1803, an act was passed, proceeding upon "a survey and report of the coasts and central Highlands of Scotland," by which Parliament agreed to provide half the estimated expense of the necessary roads and bridges, the other half to be defrayed by the landed proprietors; and Commissioners were named to carry into effect the beneficent intentions of the Legislature. It appears from the report just referred to, that, under this act, the Commissioners had, in 1821, expended, on 875 miles of road, and several large bridges, upwards of L450,000, of which L240,000 was granted by Parliament, and the rest defrayed by the counties through which the roads passed; and that L100,000 more had been laid out by them upon harbours, of which L50,000 was paid out of the funds arising from the forfeited estates in Scotland, and the remainder raised by the burghs, and by the contributions of individuals. If to these sums, we add the amount of the losses sustained by the contractors, as stated in the Report, and the expense of the new roads made at the sole cost of the proprietors, to communicate with the Parliamentary roads, together with the charges of repairs, the whole amount expended within these twenty years upon the roads, bridges, and harbours of the Highlands of Scotland, may not be too highly stated at a million sterling. The Commissioners have under their charge both the maintaining of their own roads, and part of the military roads, the extent of the whole in 1821 being 1183 miles; and about L10,000 a-year, of which L5000 is granted by Parliament, was considered to be necessary for this purpose, including all charges of management. The military roads have been in many instances allowed to fall into disrepair; but nearly three hundred miles of them are still kept up.

Summary Statement as to the Turnpike Roads in Scotland in 1829.

| Length of turnpike roads | 3,666 miles | |--------------------------|------------| | Debts | L1,495,082 | | Income from all sources | 187,584 | | Expenditure | 181,028 | | Acts of Parliament | 394 | | Excess of income over expenditure | 6,556 |

The Caledonian Canal, the greatest work of the kind ever attempted in Great Britain, stretches south-west and north-east across the island, from a point near Inverness to Fort-William, a distance of 60½ miles, including Lochs Ness, Oich, and Lochy, by which nearly two-thirds of it are formed. The excavated or artificial part is twenty-three miles; and there are in all twenty locks. The depth in some places is only seventeen feet, but it was originally meant to be twenty. As it is, however, frigates of 32 guns, and merchant ships of 1000 tons can pass through it. It is 50 feet wide at the bottom, and 122 at top. But with all its magnificence, it has been found to be an imprudent speculation. The total cost of the canal, up to 1822, when it was opened, was L905,258; and the aggregate outlay to the first of May 1839, was no less than L1,023,628. Besides, the Commissioners have incurred a debt, including cash advanced by the bank, and outstanding claims, of L39,146. Nor has the income ever met the expenditure. In the year ending on the first of May 1839, for example, the expenditure was L4,170, whereas the income, though above the average, was only L2,532. It has, therefore, become a question with government whether the undertaking should be maintained or abandoned. The Lords of the Treasury, accordingly, em-

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1 Sir H. Parnell's Treatise on Roads, p. 313. 2 Anderson's Guide to the Highlands, &c., p. 6. 3 Ninth Report of the Commissioners for Highland Roads and Bridges. 4 Parliamentary Papers, No. 703, 1833, p. 176. ployed Mr. James Walker, engineer, to institute a minute investigation of the entire works, and to report. The report was presented to the House of Commons in 1838; and a select Committee was appointed to take the whole subject into consideration. The result of their investigations was, a recommendation that steam tugs should be employed in the locks, so as to ensure a speedy navigation, and that a sum not exceeding L200,000 be placed at the disposal of the government, to be expended in the repair and improvement of the canal, under the authority of an act of Parliament, which should be procured for the purpose. This recommendation will, it is hoped, be acted upon.

(NAVIGATION, INLAND). The Crinan canal is situated in Argyleshire, and is intended to afford a communication between Loch Gilp and the Western Ocean, so as to avoid the difficult and circuitous passage round the Mull of Cartyre. It was originally undertaken in 1793 by subscription of shareholders; but the sum subscribed (L108,000) being quite insufficient for the completion of the work, the government advanced the money, and the canal was transferred on mortgage to the Barons of Exchequer in Scotland. The management has since 1817 been lodged in the hands of the Commissioners of the Caledonian Canal. It is nine miles long, and twelve feet deep, admitting vessels of 200 tons burden. The income scarcely covers the expenditure.

The Forth and Clyde Canal, sometimes called the Great Canal, though begun in 1768, was not finally completed till 1790. The length from Grangemouth on the Forth to Bowling Bay on the Clyde, is 35 miles, and, including the lateral branch to Port-Dundas, Glasgow, 33½. Its depth is ten feet; and it has in all thirty-nine locks. Though iron swift boats and other lighters ply upon it, its staple trade consists in the transit of sailing vessels of 120 tons and under. The Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal, which was finished in 1822, stretches from Port-Hopetoun, Edinburgh, until it joins the Forth and Clyde Canal at Port-Dowinc, near Falkirk, a distance of 31½ miles. Its depth is only five feet, so that its traffic is quite limited.

The Monkland Canal stretches from Glasgow to Woodhall, about two miles south-east of Airdrie, a distance of twelve miles, and communicates by a lateral branch with the Forth and Clyde Canal at Port-Dundas. The Glasgow, Paisley, and Ardrossan Canal has not been completed; indeed it is not now intended to complete it. The progress of railways seems partially to supersede the use of canal communication. The canal in question has been constructed from Port-Eglinton, near Glasgow, to the village of Johnstone, a distance of eleven miles, and was opened in 1811. It was on this canal that the experiment was made in rapid travelling by canals, demonstrating that it was practicable for a properly constructed boat, carrying passengers and goods along a canal, to go at a rate of nine or ten miles an hour, without injury to the banks. These light boats are now common on canals suited for such travelling.

The Aberdeenshire Canal, completed in 1807, stretches from the harbour of Aberdeen to Inverury. The length is 18½ miles, and the number of locks is seventeen.

The first act obtained, in 1808, for a railway in Scotland, was for that between Kilmarnock and Troon, a distance of 9½ miles. The Monkland and Kirkintilloch railway connects the rich coal and ironstone district of New and Old Monkland, and, within fourteen miles of the city of Glasgow, with the Forth and Clyde Canal, near Kirkintilloch.

The Ballochney railway, which has been in operation for about ten years, is merely an elongation of the last mentioned line, four miles eastward into the interior. The Glasgow and Garnkirk railway stretches eight miles west from Glasgow, till it communicates with the Monkland and Kirkintilloch line, forming a direct communication with Glasgow, and avoiding the circuitous route of that line. The Wishaw and Coltness railway, which is meant to connect the Monkland and Kirkintilloch branch with the rich coal and ironstone beds of Wishaw, Coltness, and Allanton, has not yet been completed, though the act was passed in 1829. The Slamannan railway, which is in progress of construction, is to extend from the eastern termination of the Ballochney line to the Union Canal, within a mile of Linlithgow, a distance of 12½ miles. An act has been passed (1837) for forming a branch to the town of Bathgate. The Pollock and Govan railway, which was meant to connect these two places, which lie on the south of Glasgow, with that city, an interval of three miles, is in the same unfinished state. The Paisley and Renfrew railway, which extends from Paisley to the river Clyde at Renfrew ferry, a distance of 3¼ miles, was opened in 1837. The Glasgow, Paisley, and Greenock railway is meant to connect Glasgow and Greenock by way of Paisley. It runs nearly parallel with the Clyde, and is meant to be completed in 1840. The Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock, and Ayr railway is intended to connect these towns and the adjacent districts. The line from Glasgow to Paisley is declared to be common to the latter line, and that of the Glasgow, Paisley, and Greenock railway, and to be executed at the joint expense of both companies. The Glasgow and Paisley railway is to send branches out to the different towns in the district through which it passes. An act was obtained in 1838 for constructing a railway between Edinburgh and Glasgow. The line is to run nearly on a parallel with the Union Canal, past Ratho, Winchburgh, Linlithgow, and Falkirk, to pass that canal near Port-Downie, and to proceed onward to Glasgow by a line nearly parallel to the Great Canal. The distance will be forty-six miles. The capital of the company is L900,000. Twenty-nine miles of the line have already been contracted for, and the work will be completed at farthest in 1842. The Edinburgh and Dalkeith railway was opened in 1832. It extends to Dalhousie Mains on the South Esk, but a private branch has been carried over that river by a viaduct, and extends southwards for upwards of a mile. The Dalkeith line is about to be carried over the North Esk, in order to connect extensive coal fields in that quarter with the city of Edinburgh. There are also branches to Leith and Fishergrow. On this railway upwards of 100,000 tons of goods, and 300,000 passengers are annually conveyed. The Edinburgh, Leith, and Newhaven railway is only meant to extend 2½ miles. It is to commence at Canal Street, at the east end of Princes Street gardens, and proceed by a tunnel of 2800 feet, or rather more than a fifth of the whole line, under St. Andrews Street, St. Andrews Square, Duke Street, Drummond Place, &c., to the foot of Scotland Street, and thence to Newhaven in nearly a straight line, with a branch along the north side of the Water of Leith, to the wet docks at Leith. The work has been begun, but when it will be completed is uncertain. If the terminus of the line were to be united with that of the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway, much advantage would accrue to both speculations. But, according to act of Parliament, a mile intervenes at present between the depôts of the two. The Dundee and Newtyle railway is eleven miles in length, but branches are in progress to Cupar-Angus and to Glamis. There are on the line three inclined planes, and a tunnel of 340 yards. The Dundee and Forfar railway was opened in 1838. Its length is 16½ miles. The Arbroath and Forfar railway is just completed. The distance is 15½ miles.

About the middle of the seventeenth century, the lands of land, in Scotland were valued, with a view to ascertain what proportion thereof, of the land-tax and others should be paid by each county; rent of, and this valuation, called the "valued rent," which had been undertaken by the authority of Cromwell, was afterwards Statistics established by an act of the Scottish Convention in 1667. It is still the standard by which the counties, and the estates of each county, are assessed for payment of the land tax, and all local imposts on land. The "valued rent" of the whole Scottish counties, as it stood in 1674, was £3,804,221 Scots, or £317,018, 8s. 4d. sterling. In 1811, the landed property of Scotland was subdivided as in the following proportions, and there is every reason to believe that the document is not very far from the truth at the present time:

| Description of the Estates | Number of Proprietors | |---------------------------|-----------------------| | Large properties, or estates above £2,000 of valued rental | 396 | | Middling properties or estates from £2,000 to £500 of valued rental | 1077 | | Small properties, or estates under £500 of valued rental | 6181 | | Estates belonging to corporate bodies | 144 | | **Total** | **7798** |

The total extent of land in Scotland, exclusive of lakes, is 18,944,000 acres, but of this quantity only a fourth part, or 5,043,450 acres, are susceptible of cultivation. But even of this small proportion, nearly a half, or 2,489,725 acres, are estimated to be in grass. The following table will show the distribution of the land in tillage, with the quantity and value of the crops:

| Crop | Acres | Produce per acre | Value | |------------|-------|------------------|-------| | Wheat | 220,000 | 3 qrs. | 660,000 | 1,650,000 | | Barley | 280,000 | 3½ | 980,000 | 1,470,000 | | Oats | 1,275,000 | 4½ | 5,737,000 | 7,171,875 | | Beans & Pease | 100,000 | | | | | Potatoes | 130,000 | £5,5s. | | 2,520,000 | | Turnips | 350,000 | | | | | Flax | 16,000 | 8s. | | 128,000 | | Gardens | 32,000 | 13s. | | 416,000 | | Fallow | 150,000 | | | | | **Total** | **2,553,000** | | | **13,355,875** |

Such are the average quantity and value of the lands actually in tillage. But the average value per acre of the arable soils in pasture is estimated in the General Report at £2; and on this hypothesis, the produce of 2,489,725 acres of pasture, will be £4,979,450. But there still remains 14,000,000 acres of mountain pasture, waste land, and plantations, which, at an average rent of 3s. per acre, will be £2,100,000. Hence the total annual value of the land produce in Scotland will be,

- Value of crops and garden: £13,355,875 - Pasture land: £4,979,450 - Mountain pasture land, &c.: £2,100,000

**Total**: £20,435,325

This is the value of the gross produce of the soil. Most of the land is rented by tenants, only about a tenth part being supposed to be farmed by the landowners. The exact amount of the rental of Scotland cannot be known. The rental for 1810, including mines, fisheries, quarries, and the like, was ascertained to be £4,851,404; and it is supposed that, though considerable variations have taken place in different districts, the rental of Scotland continues at nearly the same amount; for although many of the rents contracted for, during the last years of the late war, have been greatly reduced, yet others, from the falling in of the older leases, have been proportionally advanced. As the common duration of the lease in Scotland is 19 years, the average term of the current leases must be between 9 and 10 years; so that half the leases current in the beginning of 1810 must have been entered into in the first year of the century, at a period previous to any great enhancement of land having taken place. Hence it is that we regard the rental of 1810 and of the present time as nearly equal to each other. It is conjectured by an eminent authority, that the rental of the 14,000,000 acres of mountain pasture, including wood and waste lands, does not exceed £850,000, or, in other words, that it averages 14s. per acre, whilst he estimates the rental of the arable portion at an average of 16s. an acre.

Rent, we may here remark, has advanced more in Scotland during the last seventy years, than perhaps in any old settled country during a similar period. The entire rental of Scotland is not supposed to have exceeded £1,000,000, or £1,300,000, in 1770. In 1795, it is believed to have been at least £2,000,000; and since that time it has a good deal more than doubled.

It is here worthy of remark, that both the law and the practice of Scotland are favourable to agricultural enterprise. What in England are termed "tenants at will," or tenants without a lease, are unknown in this portion of the empire. Leases in Scotland may be said to be universal, extending to 15, 19, or 21 years. It was not uncommon, indeed, about fifty years ago, and before that time, to give hereditaments, or leases for twice nineteen years, or even longer, a circumstance highly favourable to enterprise on the part of the tenant. With the exception of some districts in the Highlands and Islands, the system of small farms has been abandoned, and has given way to farms of great extent, rented by persons of intelligence and capital. There are no tithes. Poor-rates are entirely unknown in about three-fourths of the parishes of Scotland; and where this assessment does exist, it is of comparatively trifling amount. Besides, so large are the farms, that, exclusive of owners who cultivate their own property or portions of it, there are supposed to be only about 40,000 tenants in Scotland. And as farms are large, so they cannot be divided or sublet without the consent of the landlord. This consent is seldom or never granted; so that in point of fact no such subdivision ever takes place. A lease, moreover, is heritable; and on the death of a tenant, it is not parcelled out amongst his children, but descends entire to his oldest son, or heir at law. All these circumstances combined afford great encouragement to agricultural improvement and enterprise.

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1 Burton's Manual of the Law of Scotland, p. 120. 2 By the Union, the land tax was limited to £48,000, deducting all expenses. In 1797, it was limited to £47,954, 1s. 2d., and made perpetual, but liable to be redeemed by the proprietor, for stock in the three per cents, equal in annual value to one-tenth more than the tax. 3 General Report of Scotland, iii. appendix, p. 4. 4 The least proportion of cultivated land is in the counties of Selkirk, Sutherland, and Orkney, being only about six acres in the hundred; the greatest is in the county of Haddington, or East Lothian, where not quite a fourth remains uncultivated. 5 Statistical Account of British Empire, i. p. 337. 6 The total extent of woodland was estimated in the General Report of Scotland (ii. p. 321,) at 913,095 acres, of which 501,469 were natural woods, and 412,226 plantations. The quantity of the latter has since increased, so that the total of woodland cannot be less than 950,000 acres. 7 General Report, i. p. 123. 8 Statistical Account of the British Empire, i. p. 339. ### Table showing the extent of Land (exclusive of Lakes), in the several Counties of Scotland in imperial statute acres, the Statistics, extent of cultivated and uncultivated acres in each; the total rental of the land, including mines, fisheries, &c., in 1810, according to the returns under the Property Tax Act; the rent per acre in the same year; and the valued rent in Scotch money.

| Counties | Extent | Description of Land | |-------------------|--------------|---------------------| | | Acres | Cultivated Acres | Uncultivated Acres | Ascertained Rental for 1810 | Rent per acre in 1810 | Valued Rent in Scotch Money | | Aberdare | 1,254,400 | 451,584 | 802,816 | 233,827 | 0 3 8½ | 235,655 8 11 | | Argyle | 2,002,560 | 270,990 | 1,731,570 | 192,074 | 0 1 11 | 149,595 10 0 | | Ayr | 664,960 | 325,830 | 339,130 | 336,472 | 0 10 1½ | 191,605 0 7 | | Banff | 412,800 | 123,840 | 288,960 | 79,396 | 0 3 10½ | 79,200 0 0 | | Berwick | 282,880 | 137,197 | 145,683 | 231,973 | 0 16 5 | 178,366 8 6½ | | Bute, &c. | 103,040 | 29,440 | 73,600 | 18,591 | 0 3 7½ | 15,042 13 10 | | Caithness | 439,680 | 92,333 | 347,347 | 30,926 | 0 1 5 | 37,256 2 10 | | Clackmannan | 30,720 | 23,040 | 7,680 | 32,048 | 1 0 10½ | 25,482 10 10 | | Cromarty | 168,960 | 21,080 | 147,880 | 10,860 | 0 1 4 | 12,897 2 7½ | | Dunbarton | 145,920 | 53,990 | 91,930 | 56,973 | 0 7 9 | 33,327 19 0 | | Dumfries | 801,920 | 232,557 | 569,363 | 246,002 | 0 6 11 | 158,502 10 0 | | Edinburgh | 226,550 | 144,990 | 81,561 | 277,828 | 1 4 6 | 191,054 2 9 | | Elgin | 302,720 | 121,088 | 181,632 | 62,312 | 0 4 11½ | 65,603 0 5 | | Fife | 298,880 | 209,216 | 89,664 | 335,291 | 1 2 5½ | 363,192 3 7½ | | Forfar | 568,320 | 369,408 | 198,912 | 260,197 | 0 9 1½ | 171,239 16 8 | | Haddington | 174,080 | 139,264 | 34,816 | 180,654 | 1 0 9 | 168,873 10 8 | | Inverness | 2,594,560 | 244,365 | 2,350,195 | 145,844 | 0 1 11½ | 73,188 9 0 | | Kincardine | 243,200 | 92,416 | 150,784 | 159,896 | 0 13 1½ | 74,921 1 4 | | Kinross | 46,080 | 27,548 | 18,432 | 22,753 | 0 9 10½ | 20,250 4 3½ | | Kirkcudbright | 525,760 | 168,243 | 357,517 | 192,047 | 0 7 3½ | 114,597 2 3½ | | Lanark | 602,880 | 271,296 | 331,584 | 298,019 | 0 9 10½ | 162,131 14 6 | | Linlithgow | 76,800 | 57,500 | 19,200 | 82,947 | 1 1 7 | 75,018 10 6½ | | Nairn | 124,800 | 37,440 | 87,360 | 11,728 | 0 1 10½ | 15,162 10 11 | | Orkney and Zetland| 819,200 | 46,368 | 772,832 | 16,236 | 0 0 11½ | 57,786 0 4 | | Peebles | 204,140 | 24,500 | 179,640 | 57,382 | 0 5 7½ | 51,937 13 10 | | Perth | 1,656,320 | 530,022 | 1,126,298 | 460,730 | 0 5 6 | 339,892 6 9 | | Renfrew | 144,000 | 72,000 | 72,000 | 127,069 | 0 17 7½ | 69,172 1 0 | | Ross | 1,677,440 | 149,895 | 1,527,545 | 91,090 | 0 1 1 | 75,013 10 3 | | Roxburgh | 457,600 | 205,920 | 251,680 | 230,667 | 0 10 1 | 314,663 6 4 | | Selkirk | 168,320 | 10,100 | 158,220 | 39,776 | 0 4 8½ | 80,307 15 6 | | Stirling | 312,960 | 195,600 | 117,360 | 177,499 | 0 11 4½ | 108,509 3 3½ | | Sutherland | 1,122,560 | 63,045 | 1,059,515 | 28,457 | 0 0 6 | 26,093 9 9 | | Wigton | 288,960 | 101,136 | 187,824 | 123,837 | 0 8 6½ | 67,641 17 0 |

The average rent per acre in Scotland in 1810, 0 5 1½

### Judicial Establishments of Scotland.

In a remote, and what may be termed the aboriginal period of our judicial annals, the king was chief justice of the kingdom; and, with his council, made progress through the realm for the administration of public justice. At that time, indeed, the king executed in person the principal duties of government; and it was not till comparatively recent times that the different departments of the state began to be exclusively assigned to distinct and responsible officers.

As late as the middle of the fifteenth century, an act was passed, in which "the three estates concluded, that our sovereign lord ride through the realm incontinent, after there be word sent to his council, where any rebellion, slaughter, burning, reif, or theft happens; and there to call the sheriff of the shire, and ere the king depart out of that shire, to set remed of the harm, or gif ony sik shall happen to be done, whether the default be in the officers or in the doers, to be punished by the king; the quibilk conclusion and ordinance, all the barons of common assent and consent are obliged to assist baith with their power in bodies and gudes." This act was passed in the third parliament of king James the Second; and in the fifth parliament of his successor, when the courts of justice were regulated by statute, there was a special proviso to the effect that, "nevertheless, it sall be lawful to the kings highness to take decision of any matter that comes before him, at his compleasance, like as it was wont to be of before," 1469, c. 26. Two centuries afterwards, Charles the Second claimed a like power and prerogative; and "in a dutiful and humble recognisance thereof," the estates of parliament declared, that notwithstanding of any jurisdictions or offices whatsoever, "his sacred majesty may, by himself or any commissionated by him, take cognisance and decision of any cases or causes he pleases;" all government and jurisdiction within the kingdom originally residing in him, 1681, c. 18. Such a right, however, formed one of the grievances complained of at the Revolution; and since that event it has been deemed a settled part of the constitutional law of the land, that the king has committed all judicial power to the judges, and cannot himself administer justice in the courts.

The justiciar (justiciarius) was anciently the king's more Justiciar. Statistics immediate and principal officer. He seems to have been derived from Normandy; and agreeably to the mixed constitution of that country, he was here, as in England, capit legis et militiae, at the head both of the law and of the military force of the kingdom. He accompanied the king in his progresses through the realm, or represented him in his absence; and he had thus powers and jurisdiction as universal in their nature as they were unlimited in extent. We find, accordingly, repeated instances of the military prowess as well as judicial firmness of our early justiciars; and, not to mention other instances, in the middle of the thirteenth century, Durward, when thwarted in the project he had conceived of securing the throne to his descendants, joined Henry the Third in France, and served in his army, till, by the influence of the English monarch, he was re-instated in his high office of lord justiciar.

It does not appear, however, that the justiciar ever became here the formidable officer which he proved to be in England, where he was at one time a terror both to the king and to his subjects. Various circumstances concurred to limit his power. The chief of these, no doubt, was the influence of his adversary, the Lord Chancellor, as the head and organ of the ecclesiastics; but much also was owing to the early partition of the office into a justiciar of ancient Scotland, or the territory north of the Forth, and of Lothian, or the territory south of the Forth. This partition of the office, indeed, is observed in the very earliest notice of our justiciars. The series begins in the reign of Malcolm the Fourth, and from that time we have distinct and separate justiciars for Scotland and for Lothian. In neither of these was Galloway comprehended, that district enjoying its own peculiar laws and customs; but in 1258 it also got a separate justiciar. This state of matters continued till the invasion of Scotland by Edward the First.

In 1296, Sir William de Ormesby, a justice of the common pleas, and justice in ayre in England, was constituted lord justiciar of Scotland by Edward, who also associated with him William de Mortimer, an English justice of assize; and the next year the same king made Roger de Skotre, an English lawyer, justiciar of Galloway. But in 1299, John earl of Buchan was justiciarius Scotiae; he was son of the last regular justiciar of Scotland, Alexander earl of Buchan, who was upwards of thirty years in office previous to his death in the year 1289. In 1305, however, Edward again put down the Scotch; and thereupon distributed the kingdom into four districts, appointing for each district two justices, an Englishman and a Scotchman. These officers were of the nature of the English justices of assize; and when we take into consideration the nature of the appointments which were at the same time made in the counties, the object in view cannot be mistaken. Edward evidently contemplated putting the whole island under one judicial system, which had shortly before been introduced into England, namely, that of having annual or temporary sheriffs with a limited jurisdiction, and confining the law business of the country to a few courts and judges; a system very different from that which previously existed both in England and Scotland, where the great object was to bring justice home to every man's door in permanent local courts. The project, however, was stopped by Edward's death; the justiciars of Scotland and Lothian were then displaced, and permanent sheriffs restored. Robert the Second also restored to the people of Galloway their ancient laws. Matters appear to have generally continued in this state till the disastrous battle of Flodden. On that event, which united all classes of the community, the office of lord justiciar, or, as he was now styled, lord justice general, (in contradistinction to the special justiciars now frequently appointed, as well for particular trials as for particular places and districts,) came into the hands of a single individual, and comprehended the whole kingdom. The High Court of Justiciary also began to be settled at Edinburgh, and from that time commence the regular series of its books of adjournment.

The Justiciar or Justice-General might now have become formidable; but circumstances again concurred to reduce his power. The office fell into the noble family of Argyll, where it continued hereditary for a century; the Court of Session was established with a universal civil jurisdiction; and as that court was co-ordinate with it on the land, the admiral of Scotland came to be co-ordinate with it on the seas. By statute 1587, c. 82, eight senators or advocates of the College of Justice, were appointed as justiciar-deputies for the different quarters into which the realm was then divided; and by 1672, c. 16, instead of the justice-deputies, five lords of session were constituted commissioners of justiciary, along with the lord justice-general, and the justice-clerk, which latter was now made vice-president of the court. By statute 1681, c. 16, too, the high admiral was declared the king's lieutenant and justice-general on the seas. By a recent act, however, the Court of Justiciary re-acquired a jurisdiction in crimes at sea; and by Will. IV. c. 69, which entirely abolished the court of admiralty, the office of lord justice-general was made to devolve on, and remain with that of lord-president of the Court of Session. The effect of this seems to have been to place the justice-general at the head of the administration of the law; and thus, by a singular revolution, to restore him, after the lapse of three hundred years, to his former situation as lord chief-justice of Scotland.

It may, in conclusion, be remarked here, that in the Court of Justiciary, which, being a superior or at least co-ordinate tribunal, was but indirectly affected by the changes in the law introduced by the Court of Session, several usages of our most ancient common law have been preserved to this day. The court meets about eleven o'clock, which was the hour of cause of old, (1587, c. 87) whereas the Court of Session, in direct contrast, rose at that time, meeting, agreeably to the early hours of the ecclesiastics, at eight in the morning, (1537, c. 49). So also, jury trial, when laid aside by the other courts, continued here; the verdict is still by a majority; and in the assizes oath, we may trace at once the original character of a jury as an inquest of the vicinage, and also the rhythmical measures of our old legal formulae. The circuits of the Court of Justiciary were arranged in their present form by the act 1587, c. 82. Previous to that time the justiciar made a progress through the realm, from shire to shire, successively; but, by the above act, the realm was divided into four districts, or quarters. The present circuits are, besides the Lothians or home circuit, the southern, western, and northern circuits. The assize towns of the south, are Jedburgh, Dumfries, and Ayr; those of the west, Glasgow, Inverary, and Stirling; those of the north, Perth, Aberdeen, and Inverness.

The Court of Session, that is to say, the first court so called, was erected in 1425, the year following King James the First's return from his long captivity in England. It was composed of the "chancellor, and with him certain discreet persons of the three estates, chosen and depute by the king," and was to have a like jurisdiction as that exercised by the king and his council. It was, however, but of short duration; for, on the king's death, or rather on that of Bishop Wardlaw of St. Andrews, by whose influence it was in all likelihood erected, Bishop Cameron, the chancellor, was removed from office, and the court of the session expired. Attempts were afterwards made to revive it by Bishop Horwood, secretary to king James II.; and, thirty years afterwards, by Bishop Elphinstone, whose zeal for the establishment of the Roman law is well known. Accordingly in 1503, the court of daily council, which was essentially a revival of the former court of the session, was established by means of Bishop Elphinstone. And at length, whilst the kingdom was yet in a state of distraction from the fatal losses at Flodden, the present Court of Session or College of Justice was instituted; and of the numerous attempts of the clergy to establish the Roman law as the common law of the land, this was the last and most successful.

According to the simple principles of our old law, all suits originated by plaint, claim, or summary application to the judge, setting forth the cause of action; and the judge was bound of common right to administer justice therein. But afterwards, a maxim was introduced that the judges were substitutes of the crown, and consequently should take cognisance only of what was specially referred to them. Brieves or mandatory letters from the king to the judges were then invented; and the chancel of the royal chapel became the great officina justitiae, the shop or mint where the king's writs were framed, and sold out to parties injured, according to the exigency of the case. These writs issued out from the chancel or chancery until the institution of the College of Justice, when the chancellor and clergy, who were the principal judges there, began a mint or shop of their own in the Bill chamber of the court, so called because the brieves, or, as they are here termed letters, issue out, not on the oral application of the party, but on his "bill" or written supplication. This course of proceeding was adopted from the court of Rome; and it is observable, that in both cases the language employed is sometimes identical. Thus, when the request or prayer of the bill is granted, the judgment is, Fiat ut petatur, which are the very words used by the Pope in the like case; and the odd phrase, "Finds the letters orderly proceeded," is but a verbal translation of the Male appellatium et bene procession of the papal court. The names of the letters are also the same, letters of advocation, suspension, and reduction, being equally well known in both places; and letters of horning, caption, and relaxation, have their papal origin impressed upon them. The comparison might be carried through our whole process to its minutest technicality, and also to the style and habit of the judges. After the manner of the ecclesiastical tribunals, too, the judges deliberated in secret conclave with shut doors, parties and their counsel, and all others being removed (1537, c. 66); and there was no report of the judges' opinions, or of the reasons of the judgment, but only of the vote or sentence.

At the Revolution, however, the court was thrown open; but so powerful is custom over all men, that to this day the great body of the practitioners continue to walk the Outer House.

In modern times the court has been altered in almost every particular; its constitution and jurisdiction, the number of the judges, the distribution of the business, and the forms of proceeding. The machinery was indeed bad, but the spirit which pervaded it was worse; and the best antidote to this would perhaps be the full force of public opinion, that is, perfect publicity, not merely of hearing and judgment, but of every step in the administration of justice.

According to its first institution, the court consisted of a president and fourteen ordinary lords, half of the temporal estate and half spiritual, of which the president likewise was one. The Lord Chancellor, who was also an ecclesiastic, was made principal of the college, as it was termed, and as such had a vote with the judges; and there was a reserved power to the king to appoint, at his pleasure, three Statutes, or four extraordinary lords, a power which the crown always exercised, and also sometimes greatly abused. It was the Reformation which gave the first blow to the court. From that event it began to lose its ecclesiastical, which had been its earliest and most distinguishing feature. The Revolution followed, and opened up to the public eye the heretofore secret tribunal. And at the union with England it ceased to be supreme, though this last peculiarity, and that by which the Lords became so formidable in the country, was long struggled for, and is yet perhaps but imperfectly given up by the court. These important changes, however, affected the spirit and character of the court, rather than its external form, which remained much as it was before. But they prepared the way for alterations there too; and during the last thirty years, a great number of public statutes have been passed, altering the details of the court, and otherwise regulating the administration of justice throughout the kingdom.

In 1808, the commencement of the period just referred to, the court was formed into two divisions; or, in effect, two communicating but equal and independent courts. The reason assigned for this change, was the greatly increased number of lawsuits from the great extension of agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and population, and the consequent multiplication of transactions in Scotland. There is every ground to believe, however, that much of the supposed business was caused by the tedious methods of proof and written pleadings adopted by the court, and its endless judgments and rehearsings; for in the degree in which these have been abolished, the court has been able to absorb and dispatch the business of the other superior courts, and still to allow a decrease in the number of its judges. These are now only thirteen in all. Each division is composed of four judges; the Lord President, who is properly head of the whole court, presiding in the First Division, and the Lord Justice-Clerk presiding in the Second. The remaining judges sit separately in the Outer House, as Lords Ordinary. This term was originally given to all the judges under the president, and they served in the Outer House by rotation; but amongst other recent changes, the five junior judges were at first made permanent Lords Ordinary, as attached to a particular division of the Inner House, but now without any such relation. The junior or youngest Lord Ordinary of all is Ordinary on the Bills, and has a peculiar class of cases assigned to him. But it is to be observed, that from him, and from the other Ordinary, an appeal lies, or a proceeding in the nature of an appeal, to the Inner House; which, besides this appellate, has also some original jurisdiction. It is not necessary to add, that there is much imperfection in this whole system of judicature. There appears to have been little unity of design in its formation; there is considerable complexity in its actual working, and there is no great satisfaction in its results.

Let us now turn our attention to the local courts throughout the kingdom.

In early times the realm was divided into provinces, clanships, or counties, in each of which was a maormor, maor, Judge, mayor or mair, as the king's executive and ministerial officer; and in every county or province there were divers judges, each exercising judicial functions. The provinces and judicial districts of those times, however, are now but imperfectly known; and, as might be expected, the series of mayors and judges cannot by any means be made out. With re-

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1 In the year 1800, the number of causes enrolled in the Outer House, was 2413; in 1810, it was 2643; in 1820, it was 2069; and in 1831, it was 1956. In the years 1836 and 1837, the business stood thus:

| Year | Causes Enrolled | Decrees in Absence | Decrees in force by Lords Ordinary | Reclaiming Notes to Inner House | Decrees in force by Inner House | Average Number of Appeals to House of Lords | |------|-----------------|--------------------|----------------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|---------------------------------------------| | 1836 | 1,770 | 546 | 710 | 456 | 356 | 375 | | 1837 | 1,565 | 564 | | | | | Statistics. spect to the latter, viz., the Celtic judge, we have not traced him to a later period than the beginning of the fourteenth century. He was in all probability extinguished during king Edward's invasion of Scotland in the unhappy times which followed on the death of king Alexander the Third. The sheriff was then universally established; and as that officer engrossed to himself the functions both of the judge and mair, the former disappeared entirely from our annals, whilst the latter gradually degenerated into the sheriff's officer, with whom, accordingly, he is, to the present day, found mixed up in some of the northern counties.

Sheriffs. The most ancient sheriff was certainly the comes or earl. There is no direct evidence to that effect, however; and from a remote time, the officer so called was the vice-comes. The office was not a century in existence amongst us, when, falling into the hands of the great local proprietors, it began to descend to heirs with the paternal estate. The sherifflship of Ayr, which was erected in the year 1221, out of the bailiaries of Kyle, Carrick, and Cunningham, was from the first hereditary. It is not surprising that the hereditary vice-comes should soon cease to perform in person the duties of his office; these were accordingly devolved on a deputy or sub-vice-comes. The earliest officer of this sort we have met with, is Alan de Pilch, or Alan of the hairy garment, sub-vice-comes de Inverness, temp. Robert I.; but sheriff-deputies are mentioned much earlier, and to such an extent was the abuse of deputation carried, that in some counties, that of Cromarty for instance, the district was partitioned into various deputy-sheriffships, and individuals appointed, such as officers of the army, medical men, and others, in situations of life perfectly incompatible with the due discharge of the office. The office also in many instances became hereditary; and another was required to execute the active duties of the place, or pro-sub-vice-comes. Thus, at the time of the jurisdiction act in 1747, there were in most or all of the counties, omitting the comes, count or earl, a sheriff-principal or high sheriff, and sheriff-depute, and a sheriff-substitute. All these were continued by the above act; but the judicial powers were confined to the two last, whose duties and qualifications have also been repeatedly regulated. It would undoubtedly have been more agreeable to principle, however, to have abolished offices which grew out of the abuses of the times, and assigned to every sheriff a reasonable district in respect of extent and population, with constant residence therein, and the exercise of judicial functions only. In determining the number, character, and situation of courts in a country, the great problem evidently is, so to distribute them as to secure two things, namely, to bring justice home to every man's door, and to mature a sound and fixed system of jurisprudence. In England, the latter object appears to have been principally regarded since the days of Edward the First, before whose time England and Scotland were equally distinguished for their local courts. But what, we may ask, avails the best system of law, if it be remote or difficult of access? The end is in such case sacrificed to the means; and a multitude of petty courts, with a few practitioners in each, would prove the ruin not only of the legal profession, but of the law itself.

The sheriff-principal, or high sheriff, is lord lieutenant of his county, and appointed at pleasure by the crown. The sheriff-depute, so called, is also appointed by the crown; but he is quite independent of the high sheriff. He must be an advocate of at least three years' standing; he holds his office during life, or good behaviour; and he receives a salary, varying according to the shire, from L350 to L1200 a-year. The sheriff-substitute must be of the profession of the law, though not necessarily a member of the bar. He is named Statistic by the sheriff-depute of the shire, but paid by the crown, and is otherwise an independent officer. In every county there is a high sheriff or lord lieutenant. The same may be said of the sheriff-depute, except as to the united shires of Clackmannan and Kinross, Elgin and Nairn, Ross and Cromarty. Ross, Sutherland, and Caithness, were originally parts of the great shire of Inverness; but in the seventeenth century they became disjointed, and were erected into separate shires. By the jurisdiction act, however, Ross was put under the same sheriff with the ancient shire of Cromarty, and has continued so ever since. Sutherland and Caithness were then also re-united; but in 1806 these were again separated. Kinross was originally part of Fife; but it was afterwards separated, then re-united, and in 1807 disjointed again, and united to Clackmannan. With respect to the sheriff-substitute, in every shire there is at least one; but Edinburgh, Fife, Forfar, Perth, Renfrew, and Sutherland, have each two, Kirkcudbright and Argyle have each three, Lanark and Inverness have each four, and in one of the districts of Ross there is a sort of assistant substitute.

The jurisdiction of the county courts was originally most extensive; and as to civil suits in particular, there seems to have been scarcely any limitation. It was the policy of the Court of Session, however, to make itself the great law court of the kingdom; and as it gradually absorbed the civil jurisdiction of the justiciary, so, by a bold stratagem, it stripped the sheriff of all power to decide upon questions of real property. Such questions were formerly tried under the breve of right, a judicial writ so named, because issued to try what was esteemed the highest right, that of property in land; and it is clear that this breve was in virid obseruancia, and competent to sheriffs, till within a very few years of the institution of the Court of Session. This is clear from the act 1503, c. 95, which was passed to regulate it; and it is familiarly referred to by the poet Dunbar, in his Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins, where, speaking of the occupations of the damned, he says,

"Nae minstrels playt to them hot doubts, For gleemen there were holden out Be day and elk be night, Except a minstrel that slew a man: Swa tith his heritage he was, Entering be breve of right!"

Yet the Court of Session was scarcely established, when it boldly adjudged this breve "nocht to have bene, nor yet to be thir mony yeires in use;" and having thus, by repressing the writ, ousted the sheriff of his real jurisdiction, soon took it to itself exclusively, by letters prepared for the court in its own Bill-chamber. The sheriff, however, still continued competent to possessory actions; and by a recent statute, his jurisdiction has even extended to all actions and proceedings relative to nuisance or damages, arising from an undue exercise of the right of property, and also to questions touching the constitution or exercise of real or judicial servitudes, which is so far a restoration of his ancient powers. Besides the ordinary jurisdiction, civil and criminal, of the county court, the sheriff is empowered to decide summarily in questions of debt, when the sum in dispute does not exceed eight pounds. These small debt courts were instituted in 1825, with a view to extend and improve the like jurisdiction, which had been conferred upon justices of the peace about thirty years before. The summary redress which such courts afford is of the greatest benefit to trade and to good neighbourhood, in consequence of the little sacrifice of time, money, and feeling they require; and they are accordingly now extensively established, not only in this

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1 Robertson's Index, p. 29. 2 Skene voce Breve de recto. 3 Stat. Will. c. 14. Stat. Alex. II. c. 14. 4 Bishop of Aberdeen v. Ogilvy, 3d July 1563. The courts we have now adverted to comprehend the public and general courts of the kingdom, which have a public and general jurisdiction; but besides these, there are, or rather were, some whose jurisdiction was limited to particular sorts of causes only. We allude to the Court of Exchequer, and the ecclesiastical and maritime courts.

With respect to the first of these, the old Scotch court, Exchequer, composed of the treasurer and lords auditors of exchequer, was superseded at the union by a Court of Exchequer, composed of a lord chief-baron and four puisne barons; and in addition to certain ministerial powers continued from the old court, it had the like authority, jurisdiction, and course of procedure as the Court of Exchequer in England, after which generally it was modelled. It was an absurdly large and expensive establishment. It had comparatively nothing to do; and as the judges might be, and some of them commonly were, English barristers, it never could be opened up, like the exchequer of England, to the ordinary law business of the country. Accordingly the barons were gradually reduced, and the business is now transacted by a lord of session sitting as a judge in exchequer.

The Commission of Teinds, which was first erected at the Reformation, was in like manner remodelled at the Union. It was formerly vested with powers for the planting of churches, assigning and modifying stipends, and the valuation and sale of teinds. But by a recent statute, all actions for the valuation or sale of teinds, all actions of suspension or reduction of localities, and all actions of declarator or reduction connected with teinds, must be brought and decided in the Court of Session.

In times of popery, causes ecclesiastical were tried by the archdeacon's official, the bishop's commissary, and the auditor or official principal of the province; from which last an appeal lay to the pope, who generally determined the matter by commission. But at the Reformation, commissions named by the crown were appointed in every commissariat; and a Commissary Court, with original and appellate jurisdiction, was also established at Edinburgh, of which Sir James Balfour, the former official of St. Andrews, within the archdeaconry of Lothian, was the first chief-judge. The commissary courts continued till recent times, when the office of the local commissioners was abolished, and soon afterwards the Commissary Court of Edinburgh, their powers and jurisdiction being transferred to the Court of Session, and, in as far as regards confirmation of testaments, to the sheriff or county courts.

The jurisdiction of the Admiralty cannot perhaps be traced to an earlier period than the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the office of lord justiciar, who was of old the supreme judge in all manner of causes, became hereditary in the noble family of Argyll, and the authority of the Admiralty was also long very limited. It was confined to seafaring causes, and in these it had no exclusive jurisdiction. The earliest collection of maritime laws in Scotland, is that contained in Balfour's Practicks, and entitled "The Sea Laws, collectis furth of the Acts of Parliament, the practices and laws of Oberon, and the laws of Wisbeig, and the constitutions of François, king of France, 1543, 1557." This we conceive was the Lib. Kinotor referred to by Balfour, and the work of David Kintore, then judge of the Admiralty. Towards the end of the same century, Alexander King, advocate, filled the same office; and from the date of his Treatise on Maritime Law, apparently the first regular treatise on that branch of jurisprudence in Great Britain, the court of Admiralty rose into importance. By the act 1609, c. 15, it was declared a sovereign judicatory, and letters of horning were allowed on its decrees; and the reputation of the court being afterwards sustained by a succession of eminent judges, such as Acheson of Glencairney, Robertson of Beidlay, and Lyon of Carse, all of whom became lords of Session, it began to extend its jurisdiction generally to mercantile, and not, as before, to mere seafaring causes. The above act was then ratified by that of 1681, c. 16, by which the ground of the court was farther cleared and enlarged; the admiral being now also styled the high admiral, and declared the king's lieutenant and justice-general on the high seas. By a later statute, provision was made for a stated salary of L100 to the judge of the Admiralty. This was renewed by the act 1704, c. 8; and by 26 Geo. III. c. 47, the salary was made L400, which was afterwards raised to L800 a-year. The court, however, did not long enjoy this flow of prosperity. By the 6 Geo. IV. c. 120, jurisdiction in prize and capture was withdrawn, and vested in the Admiralty of England; and by a later statute the court was altogether abolished, and its remaining jurisdiction transferred to the Court of Session, and Sheriff courts; the High Court of Justiciary having also previously re-acquired, as of old, a co-ordinate jurisdiction in crimes at sea.

An ancient species of exempt territory was that of sanctuary. The first of the sort were probably churches; and

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1 The following table, from official returns, of causes brought for the five years preceding 1832, will give an idea of the working of the ordinary civil courts of the sheriffs in some of the principal counties.

| County | Actions brought | Decrees in Absence | Litigated | Appealed to Sheriff-Depute | Taken to Court of Session or Justiciary | |------------|-----------------|--------------------|-----------|---------------------------|----------------------------------------| | Edinburgh | 6,732 | 2,922 | 2,248 | 611 | 91 | | Lanark | 10,227 | 4,320 | 5,907 | 1,725 | 181 | | Perth | 6,823 | 3,377 | 2,971 | 887 | 85 | | Aberdeen | 6,033 | 3,777 | 2,256 | 543 | 71 | | Forfar | 3,531 | 1,636 | 1,823 | 298 | 7 | | Argyle | 3,033 | 1,580 | 679 | No return | 9 | | Ayr | 2,764 | 988 | 1,826 | 1,461 | 54 | | Dumfries | 2,658 | 1,420 | 1,233 | No return | 47 | | Fife | 2,442 | 1,1083 | 1,596 | 382 | 34 | | Inverness | 2,385 | 1,413 | 801 | 292 | 28 |

The following table, from official returns, will show the working of the small debt courts, and at the same time point out the preference given to the sheriff, or to the justices of the peace, in the counties named.

| County | By the Justices | By the Sheriff | By the Justices | By the Sheriff | |------------|-----------------|---------------|-----------------|---------------| | Edinburgh | 9,254 | 4,055 | Argyle | 1,333 | | Lanark | 9,001 | 11,182 | Ross | 1,320 | | Aberdeen | 2,933 | 2,769 | Inverness | 1,381 | | Forfar | 1,767 | 2,099 | Clackmannan | 294 | | Perth | 993 | 1,543 | Haddington | 282 |

* See Leg. Burg. c. 27; Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. I. part i. p. 189, and part ii. p. 93; and A. S., 16th January 1554. in regard to them we find a rescript of Pope Innocent III. to the king of Scots, and thereupon the statute Alex. II. c. 6, which is among the earliest regulations on the subject in the Scotch law. There were of old divers sanctuaries, or, as they were termed, girths, (1469, c. 35; 1535, c. 23; 1555, c. 31), and mostly ecclesiastical; there being a constant rivalry at all times between the sovereign power and the ecclesiastical. But the only one now in use, is the sanctuary of Holyrood, which, besides usage, has two main foundations, namely, a religious house, and a royal palace, especially the former, the precincts being usually called the sanctuary of Holyroodhouse, and the court there the Abbey court. The jurisdiction of the place is administered by a bailie, who holds a court for debt, and other civil obligations, where the debtor dwells within the precincts.

Regalities were another species of exempt territory. They were rights of exclusive power and jurisdiction, civil and criminal, real and personal, granted by the crown to the higher nobility; and though the impolicy of such grants had long been perceived, yet they were not altogether abolished till the passing of the jurisdiction act, in the middle of last century. By 1455, c. 43, it was enacted that all regalities in the king's hands should be annexed to the royalty and made subject to the king's courts and officers. It was about the date of that act that the great district of Kirkcudbright fell to the crown by the forfeiture of its lord; and a seneschall being therupon appointed, it has ever since remained the stewartry of Kirkcudbright. But neither this nor the islands of Orkney and Zetland, which were also erected into a stewartry, differs materially from a shire; each having a court perfectly of the nature of a sheriff or county court. Besides these, there were other stewartries, such as Strathern and Menteith in Perthshire, and Annandale in Dumfries; but by the jurisdiction act, they merged into their respective shires.

Burghs form yet another species of exempt territory; the principal character of a burgh being its separate jurisdiction and independent government, but upon reasons altogether different from either sanctuaries or regalities. They arise neither from superstition nor princes' favours. They have their origin in the wants and social tendencies of our nature; they are the chosen seats of civilization and the arts of life; and the distinction between them and shires pervades the entire political constitution of the country. There are three sorts of burghs, namely, burghs of barony, burghs of regality, and burghs of royalty or royal burghs; and in establishing these last, it would seem to have been the general policy of government to divide the realm into districts, in each of which a royal burgh was placed. Several of the burghs are counties of themselves, or counties corporate, such as Edinburgh, Stirling, Perth, Aberdeen, and Inverness; and these obviously contain within themselves all the elements of government and judicature. But it has unfortunately happened, that none of the burgh courts has kept pace with the advance of intelligence, the progress of trade, or the increase of commercial transactions. Justice continues to be administered there just as it was centuries ago. The consequence is, that the peculiar feature of the burghs as independent jurisdictions has in many cases given way; the burgh courts have been forsaken for the sheriff and justice of peace courts; and it seems to have become a public question of policy, whether they should not be altogether abolished. The same causes, however, which gave origin to burghs, remain; and therefore it would seem to be the wiser policy to improve the burgh courts, rather than to abolish them; to improve them, by relieving the magistrates of all, or at least the more important judicial duties, and to devolve these upon fixed and qualified judges.

The superintendence of the royal burghs was in the king's chamberlain, who held ayres, or itinerant courts, at which the magistrates and burgesses of burghs were bound to give attendance, and where he heard and determined all charges made against them. He was also in use from the earliest times, to hold, in the southern part of the kingdom, courts of four boroughs; which were so called because composed of delegates from the four burghs, originally of Edinburgh, Stirling, Berwick, and Roxburgh, but afterwards of Edinburgh, Stirling, Lanark, and Linlithgow. These delegates assembled before the chamberlain, and formed for appeals from the chamberlain ayres, and the different burgh courts, a tribunal which was to burgesses what the high court of parliament was to the other inhabitants of the kingdom, the last and highest court of appeal. The northern burghs had been long under a peculiar government of their own. They formed a sort of Hanseatic league; for as early as the reign of William the Lyon, a royal charter was granted to the king's burghers of Aberdeen and of Moray, and all beyond the Grampians, to hold their free "ansum" or hanse, as freely, quietly, fully, and honourably, as their predecessors had done in the time of the granter's royal grandfather. In the beginning of the fifteenth century, a court of four boroughs was holden at Stirling, where it was resolved that deputies from each of the royal burghs south of the Spey should convene yearly to consider and conclude on all matters affecting the commonweal of the royal burghs, their liberty and court. This convention was in all likelihood formed in imitation of the northern Hanse. The inconvenience of having two separate yet similar assemblies in the kingdom, however, must have been quickly felt; and, at the same time, the ease and propriety of uniting them, and thus assimilating the regimen of all the burghs, obvious. Accordingly, in the end of the same century, an act of parliament was passed, (1487, c. 3,) appointing deputies from all the royal burghs, "barth north and south," to meet in convention yearly, thus forming the convention of royal burghs which has ever since continued. The place of meeting was fixed at Inverkeithing, on the north of the Forth, probably from its central situation; but the convention soon removed to Edinburgh, which had long been the seat of the court of four boroughs, and was now become the metropolis of the kingdom. On the institution of the Court of Session, the court of four boroughs and the chamberlain ayres quickly fell into disuse; their judicial, and many of their ministerial functions having been engrossed by that court; and from the time of Malcolm lord Fleming, who fell at Pinkney in 1547, the office of chamberlain, or, as he was now styled, lord great chamberlain, ceased to be exercised. The convention, however, continued its yearly meetings; indeed, its records begin only at this time, when the Lord Provost of Edinburgh became by deviation its standing preses, and the Town-Clerk of Edinburgh its standing clerk.

Let us now return to the general and ordinary courts of the kingdom; the Court of Justiciary and Court of Session, the Sheriff Court, and the Bailie Courts of burghs.

The Court of Justiciary was originally the great pattern justice followed in the administration of justice throughout the kings-edom; but soon after the institution of the Court of Session, an act passed (1540, c. 72.) requiring all sheriffs and other temporal judges to copy the proceedings, not of the justices, as before, but of the Lords of Session; and the principle of this enactment was adopted in the recent judicature act regulating the forms of process in civil matters. The course of proceeding in ordinary actions is now generally as follows. The defendant, or, as he is called, the defender, is first summoned on the original writ to appear in court peremptorily Statistics, on a day named, the intervening days being held as *inducie legales*. If, when the cause is called, the defender do not appear, decree in absence may pass against him. If he appear, he is allowed certain days, termed *inducie deliberatoria*, to see the original writ and productions, and determine whether and how he shall proceed. He then puts in his defence and plea, admitting or denying the facts alleged, stating any other facts which he offers to prove, and subjoining a summary of the pleas in law on which he means to found. The defences and all subsequent steps of procedure must be drawn by counsel; and after the defences are given in, every order in the cause must be moved for in court and determined by the judges. If the parties choose they may go to judgment on the summons and defences; but commonly more specific pleadings are ordered, such as a concedescence and answers, or mutual concedescences, which are similar to the responsive allegations of the ecclesiastical courts, and both are borrowed from the *articuli et responsiones* of the papal process. These papers being revised by the parties, the record, ready to be closed, is transmitted to the judge for private consideration; after which, it is put out by him for debate. Parties are then heard in court by their counsel, and the judge may thereupon either give judgment at once, or, as is commonly the case, take the proceedings to chambers again for consideration, and there write out his decision; or, if any difficulty occur in the determination of the case, he may report the point to the Inner House for their direction or decision; or again, if the cause involves details or difficulties, he may order cases, that is to say, full argumentative pleadings, and then either decide the cause or report it to the Inner House. When the Lord Ordinary gives an interlocutor or judgment, it may be carried to the Inner House by reclaiming note, upon which counsel are heard, and the decision of the Lord Ordinary either altered or adhered to, and with or without cost, as the court may determine.

In jury causes, that is to say, causes appropriated for trial by jury, or in which jury trial is to take place, the course of proceeding now pointed out is but partially followed. In such causes a record is made up in the manner described; but as the system of pleading adopted in the Scotch courts does not, as in the common law courts of England, bring out the issue whether of fact or law, issues must be prepared. This is done by an officer of court, and in settling issues there is frequently considerable difficulty. In the proceedings of sheriff and bailie courts, however, there is something like an approach to the English system, an answer or reply to the defence being allowed. But here the analogy ends. There is no rejoinder unless ordered; and from the multitude of pleas pleadable in each paper, a single issue, or indeed any issue, in the technical sense of the term, is never produced. It is also to be observed, that jury trials in civil causes gradually fell into disuse in the local courts after the institution of the Court of Session, where such mode of trial was unknown till recently introduced by statute; and it has not been re-established except in the Court of Session. The details of a jury trial, when it does take place, need not be specified here, though they differ in some few particulars from the like proceeding in England.

Of the several methods of defence and proof in criminal cases, the earliest, and at the same time the rudest, was battle, in which the parties litigant put the truth of their averment on the issue of a judicial combat. This method of trial, so truly barbarous, was termed the judgment of God, though that appellation came more peculiarly to designate another method of a different origin, but no less uncertain as a criterion of truth. This was ordeal, which, if not introduced, was at least continued and countenanced by the ecclesiastics. It was of various kinds, but those known in Scotland were water, fire, and iron; and accordingly, as the accused was able to bear applications of these, so accordingly was he judged guilty or innocent. Another method of trial used also instead of battle, was that by compurgators, where the defendant exculpated or purged himself of the guilt imputed to him, by declaring his innocence on oath, and also producing a number of persons to swear that they believed he swore truly, which they did in general on their knowledge of his character. But all these methods of trial have been abolished, or have gradually become obsolete, which leads us to notice the course of proceeding now in use in ordinary cases.

The first step is to commit the accused for examination, when, if no case is made out, he is dismissed, otherwise he is committed for trial. From that moment he may sue out and "run his letters," a proceeding analogous to the habeas corpus. Trial being determined on, the accused is summoned to the day fixed, being at the same time served with a duplicate of the indictment or criminal letters, and lists of the assize (jurors) and witnesses on his own behalf. On the day of appearance, he must appear personally, (otherwise he is outlawed,) and stand at the bar or pannel whence he is termed the pannel; but in all cases he is allowed counsel and agent. If, on arraignment, he has no special matter to plead, the libel is read to him, and his confession, if made, is recorded. If any special plea on the relevancy is offered, it is determined by the judges on oral or written argument. Issue being joined, the evidence on both sides is laid before the court and jury, which are now impannelled for that purpose. The jury are then addressed by the pannel or his counsel, and the evidence is afterwards summed up by the presiding judge, with a direction in law to the jury; when the jury, after deliberation, return, unanimously, or by a majority, a verdict of guilty, not proven, or not guilty, as the case may be. A verdict of not guilty declares the prisoner's innocence; a verdict of not proven indicates suspicion, but insufficient proof of guilt; and in the case of a verdict of guilty, but in that only, sentence is pronounced. The nature of the sentence depends not only on the crime, but also on the public prosecutor; for of a long time past that officer has been in use to exercise a power to restrict the pains of law. This important power is commonly exercised with great discretion; yet undoubtedly it is a dangerous one to hold, and to it more, perhaps, than to any other cause whatever, is to be ascribed the singularly lax state of the criminal law of Scotland in reference to the punishment for crime.

There seems little doubt but that in early times the king Public chief justice of the kingdom. His great officer, the justiciar, who followed him, as we have seen, in the two latter capacities, followed him likewise in the capacity of public prosecutor; and what the justiciar did throughout the realm generally, the same did the sheriff in his particular county. Accordingly, we find it enacted in our early law that if any stranger remained in a town longer than a night without finding a pledge or surety for his good behaviour, "the justiciar or the sheriff shall accuse him;" and so late as the middle of the fifteenth century it was enacted "that all mairs and serjeants arrest at the sheriff's bidding, albeit na party follower lie, all trespassers, and that the sheriff follow said trespassers in the king's name, gif na party follower appears," (1436, c. 140.) In process of time however, as the principles of civil liberty and the elements of our constitution came to be better understood, distinct officers were appointed to the different departments of the State; and this office of public prosecutor naturally devolved upon the crown counsel. The principal of these is the lord advocate, and next to him is the solicitor-general, an officer derived from the English courts, and probably not known in Scotland earlier than the union of the crowns in the beginning of the seventeenth century. There are also four standing deputies to the lord advocate, or "advocate deputies," as they are termed, who had their origin by the act 1587, c. 82, which divided the realm into circuits for the administration of criminal justice. The procurators fiscal of the county and burgh courts, who are the public prosecutors in their respective districts, may also be regarded as deputies of the lord advocate. It is true they do not derive their authority from him; but they communicate with him in the prosecution of criminals, and in that department have generally the same powers and duties.

The following table will shew the great importance of public prosecutor.

| Year | For trial in the High Court | For trial on circuit | Of which there were at the instance of the Lord Advocate | |------|-----------------------------|---------------------|--------------------------------------------------------| | 1812 | 18 | 56 | 68 | | 1813 | 24 | 62 | 83 | | 1814 | 22 | 60 | 76 | | 1815 | 22 | 108 | 122 | | 1816 | 30 | 120 | 125 | | 1817 | 43 | 176 | 210 | | | 159 | 582 | 684 |

The following statement will also give some idea of the working of the criminal jurisdictions of Scotland. It relates to the year 1836. In that year there were 2922 persons charged with crime in the several counties and burghs of Scotland. Of these 289 were discharged without trial, and 219 from other causes; and of the remaining 2414, there were tried by the Justiciary, 674, (viz. 173 in the high court, and 404 on circuit); by sheriffs, 1325, (viz. 547 with jury, and 778 without jury); and 515 by burgh magistrates, justices of the peace, and others. Of the above 2414 also, 2152 were convicted; in 194 cases the charges were found not proven; 30 were declared not guilty; 36 were outlawed, and two were found insane on arraignment. And finally, of the 2152 convicted, 1647 were sentenced to imprisonment of different periods, 305 were condemned to transportation for different periods, 187 were punished by fine, 6 were discharged on sureties, 2 had sentence of death, 1 was executed, and 5 received no sentence.

Next in dignity to the crown counsel is the dean of faculty, facultatis juridicae decanus; or rather we should say that between these learned personages there has been a contest waged, the latter claiming precedence of the former. This claim, however, seems to be just a residuum of the once greater claims of the whole college of justice, and the dispute but a continuation of the conflict formerly maintained by the court against all power except its own. The place of dean of faculty has been held by some of the first men of the kingdom; and in the course of the last two hundred years there have been no less than three instances of elevation from it at once to the presidency of the Court of Session, Sir George Lockhart, Sir Hugh Dalrymple, and Mr. Blair. But in all the common elements of rank there cannot be a doubt of its inferiority to that of crown counsel.

According to the original constitution of the Court of Session, the members were associated into a college, with a view to a collegiate or common life; the judges or lords of Session being "senators" of the college, and the advocates the facultas juridica, or faculty of law, subordinate to whom were the students of law, or "servitors," as they were termed, who were attached to particular advocates as their pupils in the study of the law. The celebrated Sir Thomas Hope was in early life a "servitor" to Sir Thomas Nicolson. The term "servitor" was a college term, well known in the University of Oxford; but it has gone out of use with us, those formerly so designed being now termed "advocates' first clerks." But to what extent such intention was ever carried out, or whether any thing existed here in the nature of the English laws of court or Doctors Commons, does not appear. At present there is nothing of the sort. The original entry money to the Faculty was L.40 Scotch, and so it continued till 1672, the year in which the statute for the regulation of the judicatories passed, when the sum was raised to 200 merks. In the beginning of last century it had advanced to L.40 sterling, and now, after repeated advances, the fees of entry are upwards of 250 guineas besides extras. The number of the Faculty which, forty years ago, was about 260, is at present about 470, averaging of late about twelve in the year; but a fourth part only are in attendance on the courts.

The distinction of counsel and agents in Scotch practice Agents is of modern origin. The earliest agents properly so called, or practitioners below the bar, were the "servitors" above mentioned, or advocates' first clerks in the Court of Session; and all others were forbidden to act as agents. By the injunctions of their chief officer, the Secretary of State, in 1594, Writers to the Signet were also prohibited from acting as agents; and by a bye law of the body itself in 1676, every member who should take it upon him to act as an agent, was made liable to be prosecuted. They came at length, however, to act likewise as agents, and are now a large and influential body. Sixty years ago they were not more than 100; but about forty years ago they were 280. At present they are upwards of 700 in number, and almost all of them resident in Edinburgh; and the average entries yearly are the same in proportion as into the Faculty. There is another class of agents, the Solicitors before the supreme courts, enrolled under AS. 9 July 1754, and AS. 1772. They are upwards of a hundred in number, which is somewhat more than the enrolled number of advocates' first clerks, a body which has remained much about the same for the last forty years.

With respect to the procurators of the inferior courts, Country they appear to have generally continued, till recent times, Procurators on the same close footing on which the practitioners of all tons, the courts stood previous to the institution of the Court of Session; nor are they to this day admitted by the supreme court, or marshalled, like the bar, into one body, but are severally admitted, on varying qualifications, by the respective courts throughout the kingdom. They are of course restricted to the particular court so admitting them; whereas the advocates of the College of Justice form the proper bar of Scotland, and being admitted by the supreme court, may practise in any court of the kingdom. The same principle might be extended with evident advantage; and the local courts opened up to the talent and practical skill of the agents of the Court of Session. The present arrangements are very plainly imperfect, and incapable of maturing a uniform and settled system of jurisprudence in the country. There is not a tenth part of the law business of the country conducted by the counsel and agents of the supreme court. Unless a different provision is made, both the law and the legal profession of Scotland will inevitably suffer.

In the style of the procurators of Aberdeen, there is a Advocates peculiarity which may here be taken notice of and explained. They are styled advocates, which name is otherwise appropriated to the advocates of the College of Justice. The truth is that the appellation of advocate is amongst the earliest which we find in our records applied to practitioners.

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1 See AS. 13th July 1596; Stat. 1672, c. 16, and AS. 26th February 1678. Statistics of the law, (1424, c. 45); and it appears that persons so designated were formerly in every court of the kingdom, (1424, c. 45; 1429, c. 116—123.) The term was used synonymously with procurators; and at the institution of the Court of Session both terms were applied together, (1537, c. 64.) The sheriff court of Aberdeen was the earliest county court regulated subsequent to the erection of the Court of Session; and in the act of court then passed, the two names were used promiscuously. Hence has arisen the common use of the style of advocate; but the advocates of Aberdeen form no part of the proper bar of Scotland, any more than the practitioners of any of the local courts whatsoever. The entry of procurators of Edinburgh was not regulated by the sheriff till 1763, and for fifteen years more they remained unincorporated. It was still later before the procurators of Glasgow were erected into a corporation; and it was not till above thirty-five years ago that the procurators of Paisley were incorporated.

We have now a word or two to say with respect to the garb of the profession. The proper habit of the bar is the long robe which now characterises the profession, and which seems to have been adopted by the advocates of the College of Justice as the ecclesiastical array. Anciently, however, a sort of cloak or tabard of green was worn, (1455, c. 45,) which colour it will be recollected, was symbolical of learning amongst the ancient Britons; and accordingly that class of their priesthood called Ovates, and who professed the liberal arts, wore habits of green. In the burgh court of Edinburgh the cloak was worn till the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the procurators were required to wear gowns instead.

It remains to advert shortly to the executive officers of the law. These are, properly speaking, the sheriffs in their respective counties, and the magistrates in the burghs; and in the criminal warrants of the superior courts this is clear. But the ordinary civil process of the Court of Session is executed by the messengers and other officers at-arms; and the like process of the sheriff and bailie courts is executed by the sheriff and burgh officers respectively. The messengers-at-arms amount to upwards of two hundred in number, and are distributed throughout the different shires and districts of the kingdom. They are all associated, however, under the Lyon herald, king of arms, who, as head of the office or college of arms, has authority and jurisdiction over all the members and officers of the establishment. In this respect the Lord Lyon may be regarded as essentially at the head of the civil branch of the executive department of the law; and accordingly it might deserve consideration whether it would not be expedient, with a view at once to give unity of management to the entire department, and also to relieve the sheriff of all but judicial duties, to devolve upon the Lord Lyon and his officers the execution of process of every kind, and the whole ministerial powers of the sheriff, in as far as these are executive, or auxiliary to the courts of law.

In order to give a clear and concise view of the manner in which justice is distributed throughout Scotland by means of the circuit courts of justiciary, and the courts of the sheriffs-depute and sheriffs-substitute, not including the burgh and justice of peace courts, the following Tables are subjoined.

The great divisions of the realm in early times were Lothian, Galloway, and Scotland. In the first of these, justiciary-ayres were holden at Edinburgh, Peebles, and soon afterwards Glasgow; and if we credit the Reg. Mag. lib. ii, c. 20, the loca capitata Scotiae were, Scone for Gowry, Cluny for Stormonth, Rait for Athole, Dalgush for Fife, Perth for Strathearn, Forfar for Angus, Aberdeen for Mar and Buchan, and Inverness for Ross and Moray. The judicial districts assigned by king Edward I., in 1305, were Lothian, Galloway, beyond the Forth to the Grampians, and beyond the Grampians. At the institution of the Court of Session in 1532, the realm was divided, for the purposes of civil judicature, into four quarters, as follows:

| Circuits | Assize Towns since 1672. | Shires | Area square miles | Population, 1831 | Number of Sheriff Substitutes | Court Places | Number of Procurators in each | Number of ordinary actions brought into Sheriff Court, 1828-1832 | Number of causes advocated and appealed to Justiciary | |----------|------------------------|-------|------------------|-----------------|-----------------------------|--------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------| | The Lothians, or Home Circuit | Edinburgh, Haddington, Linlithgow, Berwick, Roxburgh, Peebles, Selkirk. | | | | | | | | | | Jedburgh | | | | | | | | | | | Southern Circuit | Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Ayr, Wigton, Lanark, Renfrew, Stirling. | | | | | | | | | | Western Circuit | Glasgow, Renfrew, Dunbarton. | | | | | | | | |

Statistical Table of the Judicature of Scotland.

| Circuits | Assize Towns since 1672. | Shires | Area square miles | Population, 1831 | Number of Sheriff Substitutes | Court Places | Number of Procurators in each | Number of ordinary actions brought into Sheriff Court, 1828-1832 | Number of causes advocated and appealed to Justiciary | |----------|------------------------|-------|------------------|-----------------|-----------------------------|--------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------| | The Lothians, or Home Circuit | Edinburgh, Haddington, Linlithgow, Bathgate, Berwick, Roxburgh, Peebles, Selkirk. | | | | | | | | | | Jedburgh | | | | | | | | | | | Southern Circuit | Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Ayr, Wigton, Lanark, Renfrew, Stirling. | | | | | | | | | | Western Circuit | Glasgow, Renfrew, Dunbarton. | | | | | | | | | ### Statistical Table of the Judicature of Scotland—continued.

| Circuits | Ass'te Towns since 1672. | Shires | Area square miles | Population 1831 | Number of Sheriff Substitutes | Court Places | Number of Prosecutors in each | Number of ordinary actions brought into Sheriff's Courts, 1828-1832 | Number of causes advocated and appealed to Justiciary | |----------|------------------------|--------|------------------|----------------|-------------------------------|-------------|-----------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------| | Western Circuit | Inverary, Argyle, Bute, Stirling, Clackmannan, Kinross, Fife, Perth, Perth, Forfar, Kincardine, Aberdeen, Banff, Moray, Elgin, Nairn | 3800 100,973 | 257 14,151 | 489 72,621 | 131 23,801 | 504 128,839 | 2588 142,894 | 840 139,606 | 317 31,431 | 1985 177,657 | 500 48,604 | 1040 43,585 | 4600 94,797 | 2836 74,820 | 1754 25,518 | 618 34,529 | 1325 58,239 | |

| Northern Circuit | Inverness, Cromarty, Ross, Sutherland, Caithness, Orkney and Zetland | 4600 94,797 | 2836 74,820 | 1754 25,518 | 618 34,529 | 1325 58,239 | |

The divisions which are recognized under this head are counties or shires, and parishes. Of the counties, the origin of which is very ancient, and has not been ascertained, a list, and other particulars respecting them, have already been given. They are thirty-three in number, but most of them are subdivided by local acts of parliament into two or more districts, for the purpose of police and internal economy; and several of them comprehend a variety of territorial divisions, founded on the natural circumstances of the country. Thus the county of Berwick is popularly divided into the three districts of the Merse, Lauderdale, and Lammermuir; Lanarkshire into the upper, middle, and lower wards; Ayrshire into Kyle, Cunningham, and Carrick; and in the extensive Highland counties, the subdivisions are still more numerous. There is no trace in Scotland of the minor divisions of the English counties, called hundreds, wapentakes, and the like. Of the judicial divisions of Scotland an account will be found in this article under the head of Judicial Establishments. Respecting the date of the erection of parishes, there have been various conjectures. They were purely an ecclesiastical regulation, and could not have been formed till the Christian system had been generally received, and its preachers become numerous; and as this division, and the necessary previous ecclesiastical establishment, infer no inconsiderable degree of civilization, it is highly probable that it did not take place before the ninth or the tenth century. Mr. Chalmers supposes that parishes were gradually formed after the year 843; but that they existed in the time of Malcolm III., who died in 1093, is ascertained by authentic records. The number of parishes has not been uniform. Previously to the Reformation the bishops possessed the power of uniting or disjoining parishes. Between this period and the Union, in 1707, the authority was transferred from the bishops and vested in several successive commissions of the Scottish parliament. In 1707, parliament vested this power in the Court of Session, but confined the power of the court to cases where consent had previously been given by persons possessing three-fourths of the valued rental of the parish; and this is the existing law. The disjoining or union of parishes is, therefore, attended with considerable difficulty, and very rarely takes place, except in cities where the consent of the municipal authorities, if patrons of the parish, and of the presbytery of the bounds, is sufficient for the purpose. Hence in Edinburgh five new parishes have been erected out of the parish of St. Cuthbert's, within the last forty years. The number of parishes is at present 916, exclusive of what are commonly called quoad sacra parishes. These latter parishes have been formed in either of the two following ways. First, owing to the inconvenient extent of parishes in the Highlands, and the consequent distance of many of the people from the parish church, missionaries

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1 Murray's Literary History of Galloway, 2d edit. 1832, p. 7. 2 Caledonia, vol. i. p. 23. supported by a royal grant, were appointed to certain localities with the privileges quoad spiritualia of parochial clergymen, except that they could not be constituent members of any of the church courts, and could not even have sessions of their own. But in the year 1833, these localities were, by an act of the General Assembly, converted into parishes quoad sacra, and their ministers declared to be constituent members of the ecclesiastical courts. The number of these new parishes is forty-one. Secondly, from the many difficulties attending the erection of new parishes, means have been introduced, in addition to the establishment of the new quoad sacra parishes referred to, to supersede the necessity of such a step; and this object was accomplished by the institution of "chapels of ease," or subsidiary places of worship, without any assigned locality. These parishes, the first of which was erected in 1798, amounted in 1834 to sixty-six; when the General Assembly conferred on them the same rights and privileges which belong to parish ministers, and appointed them a certain defined locality quoad sacra. Since that period they have greatly increased in number, and are yearly increasing, so that it would be both difficult and unnecessary to ascertain the exact amount. But they do not affect the original parishes in any way, except in regard to the spiritualities.

Church of Scotland. The reformation from popery began at an early period in Scotland, but was not triumphant until the year 1560, when popery was abolished, and the protestant religion established by act of parliament in its stead. But whilst popery was abolished, the protestants could not agree amongst themselves as to the system of ecclesiastical polity which should be established in its place. Episcopacy, or the government of the church by bishops, received the support of the king and of many of the most powerful families; whilst presbytery, or the polity introduced by Knox from Geneva, where he had studied under Calvin, was embraced by the great body of the people. But amidst the struggle for pre-eminence, the presbyterians, who constituted five-sixths of the protestant population, took matters into their own hand, and embodied their ecclesiastical system in a work entitled The Second Book of Discipline, which was ordered by the General Assembly that met in 1581, to be engrossed in the registers of the church as ecclesiastical law, and which has ever since formed the basis of the polity of the established presbyterian church of Scotland. This Assembly first divided the country into presbyteries and Synods.

But whilst presbytery was thus the religion of the people, it did not receive the sanction either of the Privy Council or Parliament. On the contrary, in 1584, episcopacy was established as the national church; presbytery was declared illegal; and the presbyterian clergy were exposed to much obloquy and persecution. But the public voice again got the ascendancy; and presbytery was for the first time ratified by act of parliament, in 1592, as the national church. But not being acceptable to the king and the court, this polity was superseded by episcopacy in 1606; nor did it again obtain the supremacy till the famous General Assembly, held at Glasgow in 1638, which abolished prelacy, and restored the presbyterian form of worship. The proceedings and acts of this Assembly were afterwards confirmed by the king and the parliament. But in 1660, on the restoration of Charles II., presbytery was compelled again to give way to episcopacy, which maintained the predominance till the Revolution. The act of William and Mary, re-establishing presbytery, was passed in 1690.

Standards of the Church. To the celebrated Assembly of Divines that met in Westminster in 1643, the presbyterian church of Scotland, which was represented in that meeting by commissioners chosen by herself, is indebted for her standards both as to her formularies and her doctrines. To the deliberations of this assembly she is indebted for a Directory of Public Worship, a Form of Ordination, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, and the Confession of Faith; all which were adopted by the General Assembly, and confirmed by the Scottish parliament, as agreeable to the word of God. The doctrines of the church are Calvinistic, the leading tenets being predestination, original sin, particular redemption, irresistible grace, justification by faith, and the perseverance of the saints.

Parishes. Every parish in Scotland enjoys the privilege of having a resident clergyman; residence being obligatory by law as early as the year 1563. The number of parishes, according to the civil law, is 916; and of these 27 are collegiate, that is, have each the services of two clergymen, who preach alternately in the same place of worship. The whole number of parishes, both civil and quoad sacra, was, in 1836, 1023; so that, including the collegiate charges, the whole number of clergymen is 1050.

Church Judicatories. The Kirk-session is the lowest court. It is composed of the minister of the parish and the lay elders. The minister is officially moderator or president of the session. This court takes cognizance of cases of scandal, of the poor's fund, and of parochial ecclesiastical discipline. There is a power of appeal from the session to the presbytery, which is the next court in dignity.

The Presbytery is composed of a number of contiguous parishes. A presbytery consists of the ministers of all the parishes within its limits; of the professor of divinity, if there be any university within its bounds, and of a lay-elder from each parish. The presbytery takes young men on trial as students of divinity, and candidates for licence; ordains presentees to vacant livings; and has the superintendence of religion and education within its precincts. Its decision is not final, if an appeal be lodged to the synod. A presbytery generally meets monthly; and it must necessarily meet at least twice a-year. The number of presbyteries is eighty.

The Synod is composed of two or more presbyteries. It consists of every parish minister within its limits, and of the elders who last represented the different sessions in the presbytery. There is a power of appeal from the synod to the General Assembly. The number of synods is sixteen.

The General Assembly is the highest ecclesiastical court, its decisions being final. It meets annually in the month of May, and sits for ten successive days. It is honoured with the presence of a nobleman as representative of the sovereign, under the title of Lord High Commissioner. But this high functionary has no voice in the deliberations of the court; and even his presence is not absolutely necessary. The Assembly, unlike the inferior courts, consists of representatives from the presbyteries, royal burghs, and universities of Scotland, formerly from the church of Cam-

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1 The First Book of Discipline was presented by the reformers to the parliament of 1560, which abolished popery; but it was not ratified by the legislature, though it was subscribed by a great many of its members as private individuals. But the parliament, though it did not give the sanction of its authority to The First Book of Discipline, accepted and confirmed the Confession of Faith drawn up by the protestants, the object of which being not so much to establish any particular set of doctrines as to abjure popery; and hence it is called the Negative Confession. Another Confession of Faith, or National Covenant, as it was called, was drawn up in 1580, and subscribed by the king, his household, and by persons of all ranks in the state, but not confirmed by parliament. (Knox's History of the Reformation, Peterkin's Compendium of the Law of the Church of Scotland.)

2 Cook's History of the Church, I. chap. iv.

3 Cook's History; Baillie's Letters and Journal; and acts of General Assembly.

4 Baillie, passim; and Murray's Life of Samuel Rutherford, chap. viii. 193—217. Statistics vere, now extinct, and from the churches in the East Indies connected with the Church of Scotland.

Eighty presbyteries send, ministers ........................................... 218 Do. do. elders ............................................................................. 94 City of Edinburgh, elders .......................................................... 2 Sixty-five other Royal Burghs .................................................... 65 University of Edinburgh ............................................................ 1 University of Glasgow .............................................................. 1 University of St. Andrews ......................................................... 1 Marischal College, Aberdeen .................................................... 1 King's College, Aberdeen ......................................................... 1 Churches in India, a minister and an elder .................................. 2 Campvere (now extinct) ............................................................ 0

Total number of members ....................................................... 386

We may here state that the course of study for the church is abundantly ample, extending at least to eight years in one or more of the Scottish universities. The first four years are devoted to literary and philosophical study; the other four to Hebrew, church history, and theology properly so called. After this course of study is ended, a young man can be taken on trials by the presbytery for licence as a preacher or probationer. The average annual income of the Scottish clergy, which is generally derived from teinds or tithes, is supposed to be about £200, exclusive of the manse and glebe. In parishes where the teinds have been exhausted, or do not produce to the clergyman an income of £150, the government has provided a fund, so as to raise such income to this minimum amount. The parishes thus assisted are called bounty livings, and amount to 208.

Dissenters. The great body of the Scottish dissenters are presbyterians, entertaining Calvinistic opinions, and recognising the same confession of faith and the same standards as the members of the established church; they abandoned that church in consequence of certain alleged errors in discipline, and particularly the undue exercise of patronage, for lay-patronage has always obtained, with more or less vigour in the Scottish establishment, except for more than twenty years prior to 1712. (See SECEDEERS.)

The dissenting body next in importance to the United Associate Synod, is the Relief, which was founded in 1755. The founders of this sect professed to differ from the Established Church on no other point than the right of patrons to appoint ministers against the inclinations of the people. But the breach between this body of dissenters and the Establishment has now become wider; while the different sections of dissenters seem more disposed to union among themselves. The two numerous bodies of the Secession and the Relief, are at present (1839) engaged in making advances towards a union of these denominations. The Original Burgher Associate Synod declined to join the coalition formed between the Burghers and Antiburghers in 1820. The different congregations belonging to this sect are, with few exceptions, disposed to join the Established Church; indeed, some of them have already done so. There is another class of presbyterian dissenters, generally called Cameronians, but who assume the title of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod, who are the successors and representatives of the Covenanters in the time of Charles the First and his son. This small but interesting body refused to accept the settlement of Presbytery, as established by law in 1690, unless the king should consent to subscribe the Solemn League and Covenant, and the standards of the Church. The Cameronians are, perhaps to this day, the most rigid presbyterians in Scotland. But without descending into particulars, the following table will afford a pretty correct view of the extent and importance of the different religious bodies in Scotland.

Summary of the Religious State of Scotland.

Established Church, including the quoad sacra parishes, up to 1836 ................................................................. 1023 United Associate Synod .......................................................... 361 Relief Synod ............................................................................. 108 Original Burgher Associate Synod ............................................. 44 Associate Synod of Original Seceders ........................................ 33 Reformed Presbyterian Synod .................................................. 33

Total number of dissenting Presbyterian congregations .................. 579 Scottish Episcopal Church ...................................................... 82 Independents ........................................................................... 90 Baptists, Methodists, Quakers, Glassites, Unitarians, and other Protestant sects ................................................................. 40

Total number of Protestant dissenting congregations .................... 791 Majority of the Established Church ........................................ 232 Roman Catholic chapels .......................................................... 55 Majority of Established Church over all other sects ....................... 177

1 Hill's Constitution of the Church of Scotland, passim. Burton's Manual of the Law of Scotland, pp. 85, et seq. 2 The history of tithes, or teinds in Scotland, since the Reformation, is involved and intricate. We need not enter on the consideration of the subject here, but merely state that, at the approach of the Reformation, most of the teinds, and much of the property of the church were alienated, and bestowed on laymen, or devolved on the crown. But to overlook the intermediate steps, the greatest change which took place in the matter was in the reign of Charles the First, who revoked all the ecclesiastical grants (except the church lands) which had been made during the two preceding reigns. This revocation having taken place, though with difficulty, it was provided that the lands, except such as had been already appropriated to the payment of stipend, should be valued and sold. The landholders were entitled to sue for a valuation or modus, and to purchase the teinds of their own estates. To facilitate the inquiry into the value of teinds, commissioners and sub-commissioners were appointed, the latter of whom were enjoined to visit their several parishes, and to report to the commissioners. Some of their reports, when made, were sanctioned; others have been brought forward for approval at later periods. The result was, that by far the greater part of the teinds have been bought up by the proprietors of the respective lands, after stipends, commuted into a money payment, had been modified to the clergymen, the teinds being held by these proprietors under the condition of augmenting, if necessary, such stipends to the extent of their value; in other words, there are in these cases no tithes or teinds, but part of the rent of the proprietors constitutes ministers' stipend, and a certain additional portion, in cases where the valuation is not exhausted, is still liable to augmentation of stipend. In cases where no valuation has taken place, the value of the teinds is calculated at one-fifth of the existing rent, and is also paid in money. The body of commissioners just spoken of, continued to act from the date of their appointment to the Union in 1707, at which period the Court of Session was authorised to supply their place, and to determine in all cases of valuation and sale of teinds. As the commissioners had been empowered to modify the stipends of the ministers, the same powers were transferred to the Court of Session. A clergymen is entitled, when the teinds of the parish are not exhausted, to apply to the Court for an augmentation of his stipend, which it is competent for that Court either to grant or refuse. But, whether granted or not, twenty years must elapse before such applications can be renewed. The stipend generally consists of so many chalders of grain. The value of the grain is determined by the far prices, which are struck in each county in Scotland in the month of February or March annually; and this value, which necessarily varies yearly, is then payable in money. The teinds are also appropriated to the building of parish churches and manse, and the keeping of them in repair. The ministers of Edinburgh and Montrose are paid not by teinds, but by a local tax, levied on the occupiers of houses; a circumstance that has been the source, particularly in Edinburgh, of much irritation and discontent. (Sir J. Comell on Teinds, passim.) 3 Peterkin's Supplement. Dunlop's Parochial Law. 4 M'Culloch's Statistical Account of the British Empire, ii. p. 430. 5 M'Kerrow's History of the Secession, vol. i. p. 361-8. We have not included the Jews in the foregoing enumeration, as they do not perhaps amount to above a hundred in all Scotland. Some of the dissenting congregations, besides, are very small; and we do not think it probable that the dissenters amount to much more than the fourth part of the whole population of Scotland, assigning to the Established Church all who do not attend any dissenting place of worship.

The subject of education engaged the attention of the Scottish Parliament even in comparatively rude times, viz. as early as the year 1494. The protestant church zealously took up the subject, and many acts of the General Assembly were passed in support of it. But it was not till 1616 that the Privy Council interposed and passed an act in favour of parish schools; nor was it till seventeen years afterwards, that this act of Council was ratified by Parliament. The disturbed state of the times prevented the act from becoming operative; and it was not, in truth, till some time after the Revolution, namely, in 1696, that the celebrated statute of William and Mary was passed, which forms the foundation of the present parochial system. The provisions of this act were immediately carried into effect in most parishes; and now the system is in universal operation throughout Scotland. The landowners and clergymen have it in their power, according to law, to establish more than one school in a parish, if circumstances seem to demand it; in which case the salary assigned to each of the teachers is less than the maximum sum (£34, 4s. 4½d.) given when there is only one schoolmaster in a parish.

From a Parliamentary paper, we learn, that the number of parochial schools in Scotland is 1047; that the number of teachers is 1170; that the aggregate amount of the salaries paid to them is £29,642, 18s. 11½d.; and that their total income, including salaries, fees, and all other emoluments, but exclusive of their dwelling-house and garden, is £55,339, 17s. 1½d., being an average of only £47, 5s. 11½d. to each teacher. But ill-paid though the teachers be, they are, generally speaking, a well educated and meritorious class of men; and the parochial system has given such a stimulus to education, that the endowed schools have been found, in the progress of society, to be too few to answer the demand for instruction on the part of the people. Hence it appears from the same official document, that the number of schools not parochial, is not less than 3995, and the number of teachers 4469, being nearly four times the amount of the parochial schools and teachers.

The greatest number of pupils attending the parochial schools between Lady-day and Michaelmas 1833, was 71,426; and the lowest number was 50,029. The greatest number attending the schools not parochial, between the same dates, was 189,427; and the lowest number was 139,237. What the incomes of the non-parochial teachers may be, we have no data to judge. They are pretty high in our large towns, but miserably low, perhaps not above ten shillings a-week, in rural districts. Taking the average of the preceding number of pupils, attending both the parochial and non-parochial schools, namely, 225,061, the inference is, that 10½ out of 100 of the population are at school; but when we take into account the number of female seminaries, of private boarding schools for boys, and children taught in private families by governesses and tutors, not to mention Sabbath evening schools and classes for religious instruction, we may with propriety conclude, that at least 9½ out of every 100 of the population are at the same time under tuition; a larger proportion than is known to be similarly situated, excepting in particular districts, in any other country of Europe.

The origin of the Scottish universities is not of any remote date. But as early as the year 1282, Dervorgille, wife of John Balliol, founded and endowed a college at Oxford for the reception of Scottish students; and, in 1326, a college, known by the name of the Scotch college, was founded and endowed at Paris by David Murray, bishop of Moray, for a similar purpose. But at length Scotland enjoyed the advantages of universities within the limits of her own territory. That of St. Andrews, the oldest in the kingdom, was founded by papal authority in 1413; that of Glasgow, by the same authority, in 1450; that of Aberdeen, also under the sanction of the pope, in 1494, though education did not commence there till 1500; and that of Edinburgh, founded by the presbyterians, in 1582. The university of St. Andrews consisted at one time of three colleges, instituted at different periods, viz. St. Salvator's, St. Leonard's, and St. Mary's; but in 1748, the two first were united, and the buildings of St. Leonard's were alienated and converted into dwelling-houses. The university of Aberdeen consists of two colleges; King's, founded, as just stated, in 1494; and Marischal college, instituted and endowed by George Keith, Earl Marischal, in 1593. The universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh contain one college each; but embrace all the faculties in their course of instruction. The following table shows the number of professors in the different universities, with the date of their foundation.

| University | When founded | Principals | Professors | |---------------------|--------------|------------|------------| | St. Andrews | 1413 | 2 | 11 | | Glasgow | 1450 | 1 | 19 | | Aberdeen, King's College | 1494 | 1 | 9 | | Marischal College | 1593 | 1 | 12 | | Edinburgh | 1582 | 1 | 30 |

Each of these universities enjoys the privilege of conferring literary honours in all the faculties. The aggregate number of students attending all these seminaries is about 2900, of whom about 1300 belong to the university of Edinburgh; 1100 to that of Glasgow; and the remainder to Aberdeen and St. Andrews, the attendance on the latter not exceeding 130. There are no religious tests to exclude students from any of our Scottish colleges. Jews, Catholics, Protestants, enjoy the same privileges. But the professors should, according to law, belong to the Established Church, and are liable to be called upon to sign her standards. This condition, however, is not always exacted. The session extends from the beginning of November till the end of April. There are a few summer classes in the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, but these extend only to three months preceding the first of August. A Royal Commission was appointed in 1826 for visiting the universities and colleges of Scotland, and in 1830 gave in a voluminous report. Another Commission was nominated in 1836, for visiting the university of Aberdeen. Their report has just been presented. But though a bill was brought into Parliament in 1836, founded on the former report, providing for a general board of visitors appointed by the crown over all the universities, that bill was withdrawn; and no measure on the subject has since been brought forward.

Though poor-rates are not generally imposed in Scotland, yet a law involving a compulsory assessment for the support of the impotent poor, was passed as early as the year 1576. But the very existence of such a statute seemed nearly unknown till about the middle of last century.

As long as there was no secession of presbyterians from the Established Church, the weekly collections, under the

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1 Educational Inquiry, Scotland, Session 1837, vol. xlvii. 2 Under the head of schools non-parochial, are included those established by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, namely, 340; those founded by the General Assembly's Education Committee, namely, 89; and those instituted by the different dissenting congregations. 3 Irving's Lives of Scottish Poets, 2d edit. vol. i. p. 61. Statistics, management of the kirk-session, were in general found sufficient for the management of the poor. In some years of peculiar hardship or scarcity, such as the four last years of the seventeenth century, or the year 1740, voluntary assistance was no doubt given; and in some instances temporary assessments were resorted to, to enable the kirk-sessions to meet the usual emergencies. But on all ordinary occasions the resources of the kirk-sessions were considered as sufficient, and continued to be so at least as late as 1755. And as legal assessments were reluctantly introduced, notwithstanding the existence of a law in their favour, so they have spread tardily. At this moment they embrace only 236 parishes, being little more than a fourth of the total parishes of Scotland. These assessments have not only been introduced, but are the heaviest, in the parishes bordering on England; and with the exception of our larger towns, they decrease or disappear as we recede from the infectious example of the sister kingdom. Thus every parish in the synod of Merse and Teviotdale is burdened with assessment. In the midland synods, less than the half of the parishes are assessed; whilst in the northern synods, embracing 157 parishes, only three are exposed to that burden.

Table, showing the proportion of parishes assessed or not assessed, the number of permanent or occasional poor, the average relief given to each, &c.

| Not Assessed | Voluntarily Assessed | Legally Assessed | Total | Rate per cent. to the population | Average relief given to each | |--------------|---------------------|-----------------|-------|---------------------------------|----------------------------| | Parishes | 517 | 126 | 236 | 879 | | | Poor on permanent roll | 24,379 | 6,592 | 26,998| 57,969 | £1 18 6 | | Occasional poor | 6,209 | 2,494 | 11,645| 20,348 | 0 14 8 | | Lunatics | 211 | 186 | 712 | 1111 | 0 48 | | Total poor | 30,800 | 9,273 | 39,358| 79,429 | 3 42 | | Total funds, including assessment, church-door collections, other voluntary contributions, and session funds | £34,991 | £19,824 | £100,305 | £155,121 | ... | | Total annual expense for levying assessment, litigation as to claims, &c. | £334 | £332 | £7344 | £8009 | ... |

Both these institutions have long existed in Scotland, but were based till recently on an insecure foundation. With the view of putting them on a sound footing, the act of 10 Geo. IV., c. 56, and of 4 and 5 Will. IV., c. 40, were passed. All friendly societies, claiming the benefits of these acts, are obliged to submit a statement of their rules and regulations for the approval of the officer appointed by government for the purpose; and these must receive his sanction ere the parties become entitled to the privileges conferred by the act in question, namely, the being allowed to invest the funds of the society in government securities at a minimum rate of interest (2½d. per cent. per day), and in the funds of savings banks. Upwards of five hundred friendly societies have been instituted on the principle of these acts. The act as to savings banks, which has been in operation in all other parts of the empire since 1819, was extended to Scotland in 1835. According to the provisions of this act, the money of savings banks can be invested in government securities at the rate of L3, 16s. 0½d. per cent.; but the interest paid to depositors is not to exceed 2½d. per cent. per day, or L3, 8s. 5¼d. per cent. per annum. No individual can deposit more than L30 in any one year, exclusive of interest, nor more than L200 in all. Savings banks have been established under the law in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cupar, Kirkaldy, Dunfermline, Dalkeith, and other towns. The deposits in the Edinburgh institution amount to about L170,000, in rather less than 3½ years; and the other savings banks in Scotland have been equally successful.

The peers of Scotland, by the treaty of union, elect sixteen of their number to be their representatives in the House of Lords. This election takes place in the palace of Holyrood on the dissolution of parliament. These sixteen peers, who are not elected for life, as is the case with the Irish representative peers, but for the continuance of the parliament for which they are chosen, enjoy all the privileges of the peers of England. The other peers of Scotland have all the privileges of the House of Lords, except the legislative and judicial powers, and the privileges thence arising. The number of Scottish peers at the union was one hundred and fifty-four; and there has been since restored five, making one hundred and fifty-nine; but the present number is eighty-three, namely, seven dukes, four marquises, thirty-nine earls, three countesses, six viscounts, twenty-three barons, and one baroness. Thirty-six of these are also British peers; and two are likewise peers of Ireland.

Scotland, before the passing of the reform bill in the year 1832, was represented in the House of Commons by forty-five members, thirty being returned by the counties, and fifteen by the royal burghs, sixty-six in number. The number of the Scottish representatives since the passing of the reform bill, is fifty-three, thirty being, as before, chosen by the counties, whilst the burghs and towns, seventy-six in number, of which ten are not royal burghs, send twenty-three. The counties, thirty-three in number, return only thirty members, because, for parliamentary objects, Kinross and Clackmannan, Elgin and Nairn, and Ross and Cromarty, are respectively united. The aggregate number of the county freeholders or voters, at the passing of the reform act, was 3211. The burgh constituencies were still more limited. With the exception of Edinburgh, which sent a member of itself, the other burghs were parcelled out in groups, and each burgh in the group voted by a delegate chosen by the magistrates and town-council, amounting, upon an average, to twenty in each, or 1320 in all. The aggregate number of the county constituencies, in 1838-39, was 46,480, or nearly fifteen times the former amount; and of the burgh constituencies, 36,373, or fully twenty-seven times its former extent. The total constituency of Scotland is 82,853.

The population of Scotland was supposed to be 1,050,000. Statistics in the year 1700; it was ascertained by Dr. Webster to be 1,265,380, in 1755; and the authors of the Statistical Account of Scotland afford the means of estimating its amount about 1798, when it appears to have been 1,526,492. Since the year 1801, inclusive, we have had four decennial censuses. The following table gives the population of Scotland at the different periods referred to, with the rates of increase in each decennial period since 1801, and the number of males and females in 1831.

| Year | Numbers | Increase per cent. | Males | Females | |------|---------|-------------------|-------|---------| | 1700 | 1,050,000 | ... | ... | ... | | 1755 | 1,265,380 | ... | ... | ... | | 1798 | 1,526,492 | ... | ... | ... | | 1801 | 1,599,068 | ... | ... | ... | | 1811 | 1,805,688 | 14 | ... | ... | | 1821 | 2,093,456 | 16 | 983,552 | 1,109,904 | | 1831 | 2,365,114 | 13 | 1,114,816 | 1,250,298 |

The amount of square miles, as stated under a previous head, being 29,600, the average population is within a fraction.

Table, shewing the aggregate number of acres in Scotland, with the number of persons, families, and inhabited houses, according to the population returns of 1831, and also the number of acres corresponding to each family and house.

| Aggregate number of acres | Number of Persons | Families | Inhabited houses | Number of acres corresponding to each person | Number of acres corresponding to each family | Number of acres corresponding to each house | |--------------------------|------------------|----------|-----------------|---------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------| | 18,944,000 | 2,365,114 | 502,301 | 369,393 | 8,009,761 | 37,714,438 | 51,204,133 | | | | | | | 4,708,554 | 5,402,703 |

The classification of individuals, principally of males, of twenty years of age and upwards, in different departments of industry in Scotland, according to the census of 1831, is

Occupations | Numbers ------------|--------- Occupiers employing labourers | 25,887 Ditto not ditto | 53,966 Labourers employed in agriculture | 87,292 Employed in manufactures, or making machinery for ditto | 83,993

In retail trade or handicraft, as masters or workmen | 152,464 Capitalists, bankers, professional, and other educated men | 29,203 Labourers employed in labour not agricultural | 76,191 Other males 20 years of age, except servants | 34,930 Servants 20 years of age, (males) | 5,895 Female servants | 103,512

Table shewing the population of the principal towns at different periods, with the number of inhabited houses, and the average number of persons to a house.

| Cities and towns | 1811 | 1821 | 1831 | Inhabited houses, 1831 | Persons to a house, 1831 | |-----------------|------|------|------|-----------------------|------------------------| | Edinburgh and Leith | 102,987 | 138,235 | 162,403 | 10,174 | 15,954,710 | | Glasgow, with Gorbals, &c. | 110,460 | 147,043 | 202,426 | 41,598 | 4,866,243 | | Aberdeen | 35,370 | 44,796 | 58,019 | 5,116 | 11,349,595 | | Paisley, with Abbey parish | 36,722 | 47,003 | 57,466 | 3,695 | 15,548,160 | | Dundee | 29,616 | 30,675 | 45,355 | 3,892 | 11,653,391 | | Greenock | 19,042 | 22,088 | 27,571 | 2,577 | 10,698,874 | | Perth | 16,948 | 19,068 | 20,016 | 2,049 | 9,768,667 | | Kilmarnock | 10,418 | 12,769 | 18,093 | 1,578 | 11,465,779 | | Dunfermline | 11,640 | 13,681 | 17,068 | 2,347 | 7,272,252 | | Montrose | 8,955 | 10,338 | 12,055 | 1,190 | 10,130,252 | | Dumfries, without Maxwellton | 9,262 | 11,052 | 11,606 | 1,509 | 7,691,166 | | Inverness | 10,737 | 12,264 | 14,324 | 2,125 | 6,740,705 | | Ayr | 6,291 | 7,455 | 7,606 | 892 | 8,526,905 | | Falkirk | 9,929 | 11,536 | 12,743 | 1,646 | 7,741,798 | | Wick | 5,080 | 6,713 | 9,850 | 1,578 | 6,242,078 | | Stirling | 5,820 | 7,113 | 8,340 | 785 | 10,624,208 |

It appeared from a previous table, that the entire population of Scotland had increased sixteen per cent. during the ten years ending in 1821, and thirteen per cent. during the subsequent ten years. But it is evident from the preceding table, that the increase in the population of the larger towns is considerably greater during the same periods, being... Statistics. 26½ and 26½ per cent. respectively. The advance of Glasgow, in particular, has exceeded that of any of the large towns in the empire, not even excepting London, Manchester, and Liverpool, having been 33 per cent. for the ten years ending in 1821, and 37 per cent. for the subsequent ten years.

Revenue. But the great prosperity and advancement which Scotland has undergone, is best proved by the state of her public revenue.

The revenue of Scotland at the union, including taxes then imposed, L160,000. And her net revenue for the year 1804, 1,934,276. Ditto for 1813, including the property-tax, and other war taxes, 4,155,599. Revenue for 1822, the property-tax, &c. having been repealed, 3,436,642. Ditto for 1836, 4,592,797. Ditto for 1838, 4,692,724.

Thus not only has the revenue of Scotland risen from L160,000 to L4,692,724 since the Union, or is now twenty-nine times greater than it then was, but the people are undoubtedly now more able to pay the larger sum than they formerly were to contribute the smaller.

Shipping. The following table, illustrative of the state of Scottish shipping at different periods, bears also unequivocal testimony to the great prosperity and advancement of Scotland.

| Year | No. of vessels | Tonnage | No. of men | |------|---------------|---------|-----------| | 1707 | 215 | 14,485 | ... | | 1750 | 976 | 52,818 | ... | | 1800 | 2155 | 161,611 | 13,883 | | 1822 | 3071 | 276,931 | 29,830 | | 1837 | 3244 | 334,870 | 24,292 |

Steam navigation. The first boat successfully impelled by steam in Europe was the Comet, which began to ply on the Clyde in 1812, and was the result of the skill and ingenuity of the late Henry Bell. Nor was there more than one steam-boat in Scotland for two years afterwards. In 1819, they had increased to 11; in 1830, to 61; and in 1837, to 109, (tonnage, 13,368), of which 63, or considerably more than the half, belonged to the Clyde. The following table shews the rapidly increasing number and tonnage of the steam-boats which entered the different ports of Scotland, and cleared out, at different periods, since 1820.

| Year | Inwards | Outwards | |------|---------|----------| | | Ships | Tons | Ships | Tons | | 1820 | 9 | 505 | ... | ... | | 1825 | 498 | 57,709 | 731 | 72,811 | | 1830 | 1886 | 240,270 | 1717 | 212,167 | | 1837 | 3340 | 563,438 | 2851 | 483,586 |

Manufactures. Linen. On the subject of the Scottish manufactures our notices, derived from official or other documents, shall be brief, particularly as under the articles Dundee, Glasgow, &c., we have already given pretty ample information on the different manufactures for which the country is distinguished. The linen manufacture was the earliest, and long regarded as the staple branch of industry carried on in Scotland. But such were the narrow limits within which it was confined, that, at the Union, in 1707, it was not supposed to exceed 1,500,000 yards a-year. In 1727, a board of trustees was established for the superintendence and encouragement of the linen manufacture; and bounties and premiums were given on its production and exportation.

The regulations as to the inspection and stamping of the Statistics linen intended for exportation, by which the trade was much annoyed, were abolished in 1822; and the bounties ceased in the year 1830. The quantity produced for sale in 1728 was 2,000,000 yards; in 1775, 12,000,000 yards; in 1822, 35,000,000 yards; and the exports alone, in 1835, exclusive of home consumption, was between 60,000,000 and 70,000,000 yards, worth about L1,600,000. Dundee and the east of Scotland, including Fife-shire, are the great seats of the manufacture, particularly in Osnaburghs, sail-cloth, and the coarser fabrics; and Dunfermline and the neighbouring towns and villages, the principal seat of damask, diaper, and the finer fabrics. Previously to 1791, all the yarn used in the manufacture was spun upon the common hand-wheel; but the spinning by machinery began at that time to be introduced; and such has been the facility of production consequent on the erection of flax-mills, that the cost of the yarn, including the raw material, is now less than the spinning amounted to thirty years ago. The number of flax, hemp, and tow factories was, in 1837, 175, employing no fewer than 15,462 workers, of whom 423 were between thirteen and eighteen years of age, and 163 between nine and thirteen.

Lanarkshire, which includes the city of Glasgow, and Cottan also the contiguous county of Renfrew, has always been the principal seat of the cotton manufacture. Some of the fabrics made at Glasgow and Paisley are of almost unrivalled beauty and fineness. The first steam-engine for the spinning of cotton erected in Scotland, was constructed so late as 1792. The number of cotton factories in 1837 was 177, all those of considerable size being situated at Glasgow, and in the neighbouring districts, comprehending twenty or thirty miles around Glasgow, excepting five in Aberdeenshire, two in Perthshire, one in Dumfries-shire, and one at Gatehouse, in Kirkcudbrightshire. But, with no exception, all these country mills are connected with Glasgow houses, or the Glasgow trade, at least so far as the raw material is concerned. The number of hands from eight years of age upwards employed in the Scottish cotton manufacture, is 34,418, of whom 13,567 are between thirteen and eighteen years of age, and 1096 between nine and thirteen.

The woollen manufacture of Scotland has never been considerable. It was formerly the custom for the occupiers of land in this country to spin the whole of their wool with the hand in their own houses, and to send the yarn to the village weaver to be woven into a species of coarse cloth called plaiding; but this mode, which is indicative of a rude and backward state of society, is now entirely abandoned, having been superseded by machinery. Factories for the making of fine cloth have been established in Aberdeenshire, and in some other counties; but comparatively coarse fabrics still continue to be the staple article of Scotch manufacture. The number of woollen or worsted factories in 1837 was 104, situated chiefly at Aberdeen, in Clackmannanshire, at Hawick, Galashiels, and Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, and in the counties of Stirling, Argyll, and Inverness. Hawick has almost entirely withdrawn from this species of manufacture, and devotes its energies principally to the production of woollen hose, of which it annually produces about 500,000 pairs, with blankets, and flannels. The towns of Stirling and Bannockburn are almost the exclusive seat of tartans. Kilmarnock is chiefly celebrated for its manufacture of carpets and shawls, besides large numbers of night-caps, bonnets, and foraging caps for the army. Bonnets in Scotland, however, have been pretty generally superseded by hats. The woollen factories, in 1837, contained 4339 workers, of whom 1856 were between thirteen and eighteen years of age, and 156 between nine and thirteen.

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1 Babington's Economy of Manufactures, p. 5. 2 Chalmers's Historical View, p. 887. 3 Chalmers, at supra, p. 390; Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, anno 1760; M'Colloch's Statistical Account, vol. xi. sect. Commerce. 4 The Steam Engine, by Hugo Reid, Edinburgh, 1838, p. 160. The silk manufacture in Scotland is still less considerable than that of woollen. The principal seats of it are at Paisley, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. Broad silks, or manufactured goods of entire silk, sold by the yard, viz. gauzes, Persians, satins, and, in general, all broad silks, plain or figured, are made at these places, particularly the two first. Silk mills were established in Edinburgh so late as the year 1838. Handkerchiefs, such as Bandanas and Barcelonas, are made at Paisley and Glasgow, and a few adjacent places in connexion with these towns. Paisley is celebrated for "mixed goods," that is, all varieties of manufacture in which silk forms a component part. Edinburgh is eminent chiefly for its shawls of the finest fabrics, but perhaps is surpassed even in this its staple silk production by Paisley. The silk factories contain about 1000 workers. The whole of the factories, of all kinds, in Scotland, namely, those of linen, cotton, woollen, and silk, amounted, in 1837, to 462, (of which 102 are situated in Lanarkshire, 94 in Forfarshire, including Dundee, Arbroath, and other manufacturing towns, and 62 in Renfrewshire,) employing 55,159 persons; but the number of both has increased considerably since that time.

Soap has long been manufactured to a very great extent in Scotland; and the principal seats of the manufacture are Glasgow, Leith, Paisley, Aberdeen, Prestontown, and Montrose. The quantity made, in 1837, was 12,958,856 lbs., viz. of hard soap, 9,553,855, and of soft, 3,405,001. The quantity exported was 450,956 lbs., the rest being retained for home consumption. The number of licences issued to soapmakers was twenty-one.

The quantity of whisky produced in Scotland cannot be ascertained before the year 1823, because, previously to that time, owing to the high rate of duty, (5s. 6d. per English wine gallon,) smuggling prevailed to a great extent in almost every district of the country, particularly in the Highlands. But in 1823 the duty was reduced to 2s., though subsequently, namely, in 1826 and 1830, it has been successively raised to 2s. 10d. and 3s. 4d. The following table will show the quantity that paid duty for home consumption since that time:

| Year | Number of gallons | |------|------------------| | 1824 | 4,350,301 | | 1831 | 5,700,689 | | 1833 | 5,988,556 | | 1835 | 6,013,935 | | 1838 | 6,124,035 |

This is exclusive of the quantity produced for the foreign market. In 1838 there were exported to England, at a duty of 7s. 6d. per gallon, 2,215,329 gallons; and to Ireland, at a duty of 2s. 4d., 861,969 gallons.

Official account of the number of distillers, rectifiers, dealers in, and retailers of, spirits in Scotland in 1833 and 1834.

| Distillers and rectifiers | 241 | 209 | | Dealers in spirits, not being retailers | 543 | 534 | | Retailers of spirits whose premises are rated under L.10 per annum | 11,659 | 11,494 | | Retailers at L.10 and under L.20 | 4301 | 4109 | | L.20 | L.25 | 259 | 222 | | L.25 | L.30 | 131 | 133 | | L.30 | L.40 | 151 | 156 | | L.40 | L.50 | 64 | 63 | | L.50 and upwards | 165 | 166 |

The principal seat of this manufacture is Edinburgh and its neighbourhood; but it prevails extensively in other places. By the following statement it appears that the quantity of strong ale brewed on an average of five years previous to 1830, was 119,551 barrels annually, (the duty being 9s. 10d. per barrel,) and of table beer, on an average of the same time, 250,698 barrels, the duty being 1s. 11½d. But the duty being repealed in 1830, there are no later accounts of the quantity brewed. The duty on malt is 20s. 8d. per quarter, and on hops 2d. per lb. The following table gives the number of brewers in Scotland in 1833 and 1834.

| Brewers of strong beer, not exceeding 20 barrels | 145 | 154 | | Ditto above 20 and not above 50 | 43 | 45 | | —— | 100 | 43 | 33 | | —— | 1000 | 209 | 204 | | —— | 1000 | 103 | 116 | | Brewers of table beer | 62 | 52 |

The manufacture of kelp, which was formed by the incineration of the common sea-wrack, has altogether ceased; but during the late war it was prosecuted to such an extent, particularly on the shores of the Highlands and Islands, that the total amount produced in Scotland was about 20,000 tons, which usually brought about L.10 per ton, or L.200,000 yearly. At some periods it brought L.20, at others it was as low as L.4 per ton. But since the reduction of the duty on barilla and salt, the manufacture has altogether ceased.

Scotland has long been famous for its fisheries, which were for a time the subject of bounties and premiums on the part of government; but it is questionable whether such factitious encouragement was productive of any real or permanent good. Boards for protecting, extending, and encouraging the fisheries were instituted in 1749, 1786, and 1803. But all bounties and premiums have now ceased; and the branch of industry in question is now thriving at least as well as when encumbered with factitious aid. The salmon fishery of Scotland has long been very considerable. The fishery in the Tweed is the most important, not only in Scotland, but in the empire, though there has of late years been a great decline in the quantity caught. About the end of the late war, the Tweed fishery yielded a rental of from L.15,000 to L.18,000 a-year; but owing to the falling off in the quantity caught, it does not now yield above L.4000 a-year. In addition to the Tweed, the other most valuable salmon fisheries are in the Forth, Tay, Dee, Don, Findhorn, Spey, Ness, Conon, and other rivers throughout Scotland. The London market is supplied with salmon chiefly by Scotland. The total value of the salmon caught in Scotland has been estimated at L.150,000 a-year. Salmon fisheries north of the Tweed and Solway, but not these rivers themselves, are to be shut from the 14th of September to the 1st of February. In the Tweed and its tributary streams, the taking of salmon with the net is prohibited between the 15th of October and 15th February, or with the rod between 7th of November and 15th February. The Solway fisheries, according to the act of Parliament, include all streams that fall into the Solway Firth, embracing the Piltanton, the Luce, and the Bladenoch in Wigtonshire; the Cree, Fleet, Dee, and Urr in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright; as well as the Nith and other rivers in Dumfries-shire. The close season with all of these rivers begins on the 25th of September, and terminates with Piltanton, Luce, Bladenoch, and Cree, as early as the 31st of December; with the Fleet

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1 Loudon's Encyclopedia of Agriculture. General Report of Scotland, iii. 327. and the Dee on the 1st of February; and on the Solway Firth itself, properly so called, including the Urr and the other streams that enter it, it extends to the 10th of March.

The penalties for transgressing any of these regulations are heavy. The herring fishery has long been extensively cultivated, and much capital has been invested in it. The chief seat is the east of Scotland, of which Wick, and its suburb, Pultneytown, in Caithness, are important stations. Pultneytown, indeed, has, owing to this circumstance, grown up with something like the rapidity of a manufacturing village.

During the fishing season, from 1500 to 2000 boats, each averaging a crew of five men, rendezvous here. Of these about 500 belong to the town; the rest resort thither from all quarters of the kingdom. Of 436,098 barrels of herring cured in the year ending the 5th of April 1834, no fewer than 134,738, or between a third and a fourth of the whole, were cured at Wick. The following table contains an account of the total number of barrels of herring which were cured in Scotland in the year just referred to, distinguishing the stations where landed or cured:

| Stations | Number of barrels cured | |---------------------------|-------------------------| | Ayr, Irvine, and Saltcoats| 3,158 | | Campbeltown | 3,394 | | Dumfries and Stranraer | 3,343 | | Fort William | 2,259 | | Glasgow | 8,946 | | Greenock | 12,817 | | Inverary | 3,931 | | Loch Broom | 1,054 | | Dunvegan and Loch Carron | 953 | | Lochgilphead | 656 | | Lybster | 34,712 | | Orkney, north isles | 3,196 | | Orkney, south isles | 10,560 | | Port-Gordon | 6,215 | | Shetland | 36,885 | | Stonehaven | 69 |

About an eighth part of the whole was cured at sea, and the remainder on shore. About the same proportion was cured ungutted; the rest were gutted, and generally within twenty-four hours after the fish were caught. In addition to the herring, the Scottish coast abounds with various kinds of white fish, such as haddock, cod, ling, and the like, as also oysters, flounders, and other flat fish. The persons who carry on the white fishing reside in the sea-ports, or the numerous villages on the coast. They use lines and nets, but principally the former; and their business can be carried on throughout the year. Steam navigation gives them a render and a wider command of a market than they formerly enjoyed. In 1834 the herring, cod, and ling fisheries employed 9,263 boats, decked and undocked, 48,700 fishermen and boys by whom the boats were manned, 1,893 coopers, and 28,646 in gutting, packing, &c.; the total number of persons employed in these fisheries being 79,238.

This article would not be complete if it did not refer, however briefly, to the system of banking for which Scotland has become so celebrated. The Scottish banks are joint-stock establishments with large constituencies, the National bank having no fewer than 1238 partners, and the North of Scotland bank 1418; and, except in the case of chartered banks, each partner is responsible to the extent of his private fortune. With the chartered banks the responsibility is limited; but then the charter guarantees a certain amount of capital. For example, the capital of the bank of Scotland is L1,500,000, for which sum the shareholders are responsible; and of it two-thirds, or L1,000,000, has been actually paid up. These establishments, based on wide constituencies, with unlimited responsibility on the part of the shareholders, or, if chartered, with large capitals paid up or guaranteed, enjoy the perfect confidence of the public. Besides, they are severally under the management of a body of Directors chosen by the partners out of their own body, and directly and periodically responsible to their constituents; and under their superintendence the banking business is carried on in these establishments on the most judicious and approved principles. Nor is this all. The different banks periodically exchange notes with each other; in Edinburgh, twice weekly, and in the country generally once a week. Over-issuing is thus completely checked, for if any one bank has, after an exchange is made, an overplus of the notes of any other, this latter must redeem those notes either by a payment in specie, or in Exchequer bills, or an order on the bank of England. For any of these institutions to become insolvent or bankrupt seems next to be impossible. Indeed, no joint-stock bank, of any importance, ever did become insolvent; but in cases when, in provincial towns, such banks have suspended payment, (which has happened only in a very few instances, and these originating in ignorance or fraud,) the public, or the holders of their notes, have suffered no loss, each partner being responsible to the amount of his private fortune. The Scotch banks receive sums as low as L10, or sometimes lower, as deposits, and allow interest on them at about one, or one and a half per cent, below the market rate. The system of "cash accounts" is peculiar to the Scottish mode of banking. A cash account is a credit given by a bank to an individual with two or more collateral securities, for a certain sum, which he may draw out wholly or partially as he pleases, replacing it in the same way, being charged interest only on the portion he withdraws. The act prohibiting the circulation of small notes in England did not extend to Scotland; so that the currency consists almost exclusively of paper, namely, notes of the value of L1 and upwards.

Indeed, there is very little gold in circulation. The Scotch banks draw on London at twenty days date. The Bank of Scotland, the oldest banking establishment in Scotland, was established in 1695, and issued notes for L1 as early as 1704. The Royal Bank of Scotland was founded in 1727; and the British Linen Company in 1746. The total number of joint-stock banks at present in Scotland is 25, having altogether 306 branches. There are also seven private banking establishments. The aggregate amount of the sums deposited in the different Scottish banks was calculated to be in 1826 about L20,000,000 or L21,000,000; and it must have since increased considerably. The circulation is supposed to be between L3,000,000 and L4,000,000, seldom exceeding the latter sum.

As in the progress of this article we have minutely referred to the authorities on which the truth of the statements depends, except when we spoke from our own personal knowledge, we have thought it unnecessary to give a collected list of such authorities in this place; but we cannot conclude without stating, that the Geological part was contributed by Mr. Alexander Rose, Lecturer on Geology, and that the article Judicial Establishments was furnished by James Stark, Esq., advocate.

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1 Burton's Manual of the Law of Scotland, pp. 257—60. 2 House of Commons' Report of 1826, on Scottish and Irish Banks.