HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Sect. I.—Roman Period.
It will not be expected that in such a sketch of the history of Scotland as is alone suited to this work, we should enter into the great controversy concerning the origin of the Scottish people, a subject upon which much needless acrimony, and many unprofitable volumes, have been thrown away. It will be more suitable to mark the progress of the great events in our national history, and to pass over its minor features; to fix the attention upon results rather than to perplex it with details; to establish a series of points by which an intelligent reader may guide his memory and direct his studies; and occasionally to note those authors from whose pages he may fill up the picture.
It is well known, that our first authentic knowledge of Britain comes from Julius Caesar. Fifty-five years before the Christian era, this extraordinary man invaded the island from Gaul; but his operations were attended with little success, his stay was brief, and it is certain that he knew nothing of Scotland. It was not till nearly a century and a half after Caesar's descent, and during the reign of the emperor Vespasian, that Julius Agricola, at the head of a Roman army, penetrated into the northern parts of Britain. The details of his various campaigns, the resistance which he encountered, and the vestiges of his progress which yet remain, have furnished matter of laborious investigation to our antiquaries. Among their conflicting accounts, it seems certain that he first pushed his conquests as far as the Friths of Forth and Clyde; that in succeeding campaigns he penetrated northwards; and that in his last great expedition, during which his army was accompanied by a numerous fleet, which sailed along the coast, he was opposed by a barbarian chief named Galgacus. A sanguinary battle was fought between this leader and Agricola, the exact site of which has been keenly disputed. There seems to be little doubt, however, that previously to its occurrence the Roman general had passed the Frith of Tay, and that although victorious over the fierce and undisciplined multitudes which opposed him, he experienced a check which compelled him to desist from any further aggression. Two great events marked the last years of the government of Agricola. He explored the northern coasts of Scotland by his fleet; and to him the Roman world, in all probability, owed its first certain knowledge that Britain was an island. He endeavoured, in the second place, to secure his conquests from future attack by a chain of forts connecting the Friths of Forth and Clyde. Having completed these defences, he was recalled by the jealousy of Domitian, and left Britain in the year 85.
From this time till the reign of Hadrian, a period of thirty-six years, we hear little of the Romans, either in southern or northern Britain. Early in the second century, (A.D. 121), this emperor in person made an expedition into Scotland; and about twenty years later, Lollius Urbicus, the Roman governor under the emperor Antoninus, distinguished himself by the courage and ability which he displayed against Lollius Urbicus, the turbulent and warlike tribes which inhabited the northern parts of the island. Two facts, however, are admitted by the Roman writers, which demonstrate how uncertain was the tenure by which these masters of the world held their northern possessions in Britain. The emperor Hadrian, apparently distrusting the sufficiency of the line of forts already formed by Agricola, constructed a wall or fortified rampart from the Tyne to the Solway. It has been supposed by some antiquaries, that the emperor entirely abandoned to the barbarians the wide country between this new defence and the more ancient Vallum which united the Friths of Forth and Clyde; but the discovery of a succession of coins along the line of this last rampart, belonging to the intermediate emperors, appears to indicate the contrary. From the adoption of this measure it is however evident, that the courage and successes of the barbarians had given much annoyance to the Romans; and this is corroborated by the second fact to which we allude, namely, that between the period of Hadrian's death and the succession of Antoninus Pius, (A.D. 138), the wall between the Forth and Clyde had been so completely destroyed, that Lollius Urbicus entirely reconstructed it. This fact is proved by inscriptions, which the reader may consult in Horsley's Britannia Romana. During the remaining years of his government, this able officer devoted himself to opening up the country by roads; to the construction of various camps and fortalices, of which the site has been traced with much industry and success by the latest writer on the subject; and to the introduction of those useful arts which were best calculated to raise and humanize the character of the northern barbarians. His administration in Britain appears to have terminated with the death of his master, Antoninus Pius, A.D. 161.
From this period till the beginning of the third century, Severus all is dark in Britain. But in the year 207, the emperor Se- A.D. 207. verus received intelligence that the Caledonians had invaded the Roman provinces; and with a vigour and alacrity which, considering the distance of the seat of war, and the barren prize to be contested, is not easily explained, he hastened in person to reduce the insurgent Caledonians. This expedition, making every allowance for the exaggeration with which the exploits of an emperor were usually recorded, must have been an extraordinary one. In the comparatively civilized country which extended between the walls of Hadrian and Antoninus, he could meet with little opposition; but when he left this last line of defence, and conducted his army into the wild regions beyond the Frith of Forth, ultimately penetrating into Moray, we must suppose him to have encountered very formidable obstacles. The savage and uncleared state of the country, the extent of the forests, the unhealthy and
---
1 The reader is referred to Innes's Critical Essay on the ancient Inhabitants of Scotland, as the best work yet written on this subject. Its arrangement is defective; but its good sense, and the authenticity of the documents upon which its deductions are founded, are highly praiseworthy. Pinkerton's Dissertation on the Scythians or Goths, Dr. Jamieson's Dissertation on the Origin of the Scottish Language, and the first volume of the laborious work of Chalmers, entitled Caledonia, may be consulted with the greatest advantage. In their pages, the critical student who may desire to pursue the subject, will find ample references to all the noted works upon this question.
2 Chalmers's Caledonia, p. 116.
3 Horsley's Britannia, Rom. L. I. c. 10; James's Critical Essay, vol. i. p. 12. The remains of the wall are popularly called Grim's Dyke. Grym in Welsh and Cornish, signifies strong, and is used perhaps metaphorically, as Chalmers conjectures, for a "strength or a rampart."
4 We may here refer the critical reader to Chalmers's dissertation on the actions of Lollius Urbicus, contained in the first volume of his Caledonia. interminable marshes, the mountainous ranges which presented such formidable obstacles to the march of a regular army, the rivers, of which the fords were unknown, and the want of subsistence for his troops, except what he carried along with him, must have combined to throw infinite difficulties in his way. The classical writers who have described his campaign inform us, in general terms, that he was obliged to fell the forests, to drain the marshes, to open up the country by roads, and to construct bridges; and they affirm that the Roman emperor did not retrace his steps till he had proceeded so far north, that the soldiers remarked the extraordinary length of the days and shortness of the nights, in comparison with those of Italy. There seems good reason to believe that the spot where the Roman eagles terminated their flight in this memorable expedition was the promontory separating the Cromarty and the Moray Friths. Here, according to Chalmers, the Caledonians sought for peace, surrendered their arms, and relinquished a portion of their country. The critical student must pardon the vagueness of these expressions, as the historians of the time do not enable us to be more definite.
Severus retired to York in a feeble state of health; but it was not to repose upon his laurels, for scarcely had he reached that station when news arrived that the Caledonians were again in arms. Irritated by disappointment and disease, he determined instantly to renew the war; intrusted the leading of the army to his son Caracalla; and issued orders to spare neither age nor sex. But death happily arrested these inhuman projects. The emperor died at York, and the son does not appear, on any good evidence, to have executed the orders of the father.
Previously to his celebrated northern campaign, Severus is said to have reconstructed the rampart originally built by Hadrian between the Tyne and the Solway; a circumstance from which there arises a strong presumption that the Caledonians had encroached upon the Roman provinces, and regained much of the intermediate country between the walls of Hadrian and Antoninus.
From this period, (A.D. 211), which marks the commencement of the third, to nearly the middle of the fifth century, (446), the Romans appear to have abandoned all thoughts of extending their conquests. The vast fabric of their empire was now, as is well known, in a state of melancholy feebleness and decay; attacked on every side by those fierce tribes who were destined to destroy it; and unable to retain provinces far nearer and more important than those in Britain. For some time, however, an effort was made to defend the northern Romanized Britons from the repeated incursions of the Caledonians. In the commencement of the fourth century, (A.D. 306), Constans revisited Britain for this purpose; in the year 368, after a sanguinary and destructive invasion of the barbarians, a temporary tranquillity was restored by the arms of Theodosius; in 398, Stilicho, alarmed by new excesses and increasing weakness in the northern provinces, sent such effectual aid as enabled the Roman governors once more to repel the enemy; and, lastly, in the year 422, the emperor Honorius, having in vain endeavoured in their own defence, sent a legion to their assistance, by whose efforts the fortifications of the two walls were repaired, and the barbarians once more driven back into their more northern seats. But this was the last relief which could be wrung by her miserable children from a parent who was herself expiring; and it secured for them but a brief period of tranquillity. Imperial Rome, with a tardy and ostentatious justice, conferred freedom on the southern Britons; and restoring a country which she was no longer able to hold, informed them that henceforth they must trust to their own efforts for the defence of their independence. Having given this parting advice to men who appear to have been little able to follow it, the Romans abandoned Britain for ever.
Sect. II.—The Pictish Period.
In the brief sketch which has been given of the Roman A.D. 446 dominion in north Britain, which extended from the year to 843, 85 to 446, a period of little more than three centuries and the abortive half, we have seen that the Romanized Britons were constantly exposed to the invasions of their more northern neighbours, who threatened at last to wrest from them the whole of the country, which had been fortified by Roman skill and mainly defended by Roman soldiers. The question now arises, who were these fierce and indomitable tribes? And to this inquiry, in which antiquaries have spilt almost as much ink as the Romans did blood, the research of a laborious writer enables us to give a satisfactory answer. It appears from the investigation of Chalmers that “at the epoch of Agricola’s invasion, the ample extent of north Britain was inhabited by one-and-twenty tribes, who were connected by such slight ties as scarcely to enjoy a social state. These were the Ottadini, who appear to have occupied the whole extent of coast from the southern Tyne to the Frith of Forth; the Gadeni, whose seats lay in the interior country, from the Tyne on the south to the Frith on the north; the Selgovae, whose western boundary was the Dee, and their southern limit the Solway Frith; the Novantae, who inhabited the midland and western parts of Galloway; and the Damii, who possessed the shires of Ayr, Renfrew, and Stirling, with a portion of Dunbarton and Perth. Such were the five tribes,” says this author, “which occupied, during the first century, that ample region extending from the Tyne and the Solway on the south, to the Forth and the Clyde on the north, varying their limits with the fluctuations of war, conquest, or internal dissensions, during the succession of many ages.” Beyond the Forth we find the Horestii, the Venricomes, the Taixali, the Vacomagi, the Albani, the Attacotti, the Caledonii, the Cantii, the Legii, the Carnabii, the Catini, the Mertii, the Carnonaces, the Creones, and the Epidi. The names of these twenty-one original tribes, which are taken from Chalmers, are by him transcribed from the account of Ptolemy, checked by the ancient treatise and map of Richard of Cirencester. Of the manners of this ancient people, it is impossible, in the absence of all authentic documents, to speak with certainty. From the general account given by Caesar, they were little removed in the scale of social life or of civil government.
---
1 Caledonia, vol. i. p. 186, 187. 2 The son of Severus is indeed affirmed to have fought on the banks of the Carron with the heroes of Osian; but much has yet to be proved before we venture to transplant these shadowy contests into the field of history. 3 Including the half of Northumberland, the eastern portion of Roxburghshire, all Berwickshire, and East Lothian. 4 Caledonia, vol. i. p. 62. 5 It ought however to be stated, that some grave doubts hang over the genuineness of this early writer. Dr. Stukeley’s account of him is vague, and the story told by Professor Bertram regarding his discovery of the manuscript and the map is still more suspicious. I have abstained from giving from Chalmers the exact limits of the possessions held by the last sixteen tribes, who inhabited the whole extent of country beyond the Forth to the extremity of Caithness. The research and erudition which he has displayed is entitled to all praise; but it is difficult to believe that the boundaries of these remote, fierce, and wandering aborigines should be ascertainable with as much precision after the lapse of eighteen centuries as the marches of Middlesex or Yorkshire. Two points, however, and these of leading importance, Chalmers conceives that he has established: the first, that Britain, from its extreme southern to its most remote northern point, was peopled from Gaul; and the second, that the aborigines over the whole island were a Celtic race. Scotland, from the rudest savages. They led a pastoral life, living on the milk of their flocks, or the produce of the chase; they were polygamous and idolatrous; their religion, which was Druidical, was stained with human sacrifices; and their rude form of civil government was intimately connected with their religion. They were armed with slight shields, short spears, and daggers; and sometimes fought in small cars, which were drawn by little spirited horses. They rather burrowed in huts than lived in houses, went naked from choice, were brave to excess, capable of enduring all sorts of privation and fatigue, and had such loose ideas of property, that Dio does not hesitate to call them robbers.
This character, with the exception of their Druidical form of worship, exhibits little more than the general features of every savage people; and there seems no reason to believe that the lapse of three centuries created any great change in those fierce and indomitable tribes which, inhabiting the more northern parts of the island from the Forth to Caithness, and latterly wresting from the Romans the provinces which they had subdued, were never brought under the yoke, or humanized by the arts of that great people.
A.D. 446. At the period of the Roman abdication, we find that north Britain was inhabited by the descendants of the Caledonian clans which we have enumerated, who, under the name of Picts or Picti, became for four centuries the predominating nation in Scotland. Among these we must be careful to distinguish the five Romanized tribes who possessed Valenta, or the country between the walls of Agri- cola and Antoninus, not as a race of different descent, but of improved civilization, while their fiercer brethren beyond the Forth bore fresh upon them all the stamp of barbarian life. The name of Picti is conjectured to be derived from Peitha, a British word which characterises those that are without, or the people of the open country.
It would be a vain, and in a sketch of this nature, an idle labour, to enter upon the obscure and sanguinary annals of the Pictish period; an era upon which, to use a quaint expression of Chalmers, archaeology is loquacious, and history silent. From an ancient manuscript, first printed by Innes, and which had belonged to Lord Burleigh, this author has given us a list of their kings, from Drest, who succeeded in the middle of the fifth century, (A.D. 451), to a prince named Bred, who died about the middle of the ninth century, (A.D. 843). During the four centuries which elapsed between the accession of the first and the last of these monarchs, thirty-eight Pictish kings are enumerated. Of their authentic history there is scarcely a vestige; but the blank has been filled up by the fables of Boyce, which unhappily were afterwards embalmed in the elegant Latinity of Buchanan.
Some points in this period, however, have been ascertained, and they are well worthy of notice. We have already seen, that on the entire abdication of Britain by the Romans, the five tribes which inhabited Valenta were declared independent. They were no longer provincial subjects of Rome, but a free, though an effeminate people. The constant attacks of the Picts rendered it necessary for them to unite in their own defence; and from this union arose a new kingdom, denominated by ancient authors sometimes the Regnum Cumbrease, or more frequently the kingdom of Strathclyd. It appears to have included the present Liddesdale, Teviotdale, Dumfries-shire, Galloway, Ayrshire, Renfrew, Strathclyde, the midland and western parts of Shetingshire, with the largest portion of Dunbartonshire. "The metropolis of this kingdom," says Chalmers, "was Alelyd, a city which they still retained when the pen dropped from the hand of the venerable Bede, in 734, and which is situated on the north bank of the Clyde, at the influx of the Leven. The descriptive name of Alelyd, which signifies the rocky height, Scotland, on the Clyde, was applied to the bifurcated rock, on the summit of which these associated Britons had a strong hill fort, which formed a secure residence for their reguli or kings. To this fortress the Scot-Irish subsequently applied the name of Dan-Briton, signifying the fortress of the Britons, an appellation which, by an easy transition, has in modern times been converted into Dunbarton. Among the little kings who reigned over Strathclyd, there are none whose names or exploits are worthy of preservation, with the single exception of the semi-poetic Arthur. It is sad King that the severer hand of history should strip this glorious Arthur, "Childe" of his many-coloured robes, and reduce him to the cold reality of a Cambrian Pendragon. At the commencement of the sixth century, Arthur, the chief military leader or Pendragon of the Cumbrian Britons, expelled his sovereign, Huail or Hoel, from Strathclyde, and commenced a reign of which it is impossible to separate the facts from the fictions with which they have become incorporated.
But the Pictish period is not only distinguished by the rise of a new kingdom, it is marked by the arrival in Scotland of a new people, the Saxons, a race of Gothic origin, who invaded and finally effected a settlement in Lothian, A.D. 449. This remarkable event, so important in its remote consequences upon our national history, took place in the middle of the fifth century (A.D. 449). It was not difficult for the Saxons, a people who certainly were far their superiors in courage and arms, to subdue the feebler race of the Otadini. They do not at first appear to have attempted to push their conquests to the northward of the Forth, but contented themselves with the occupation of a portion of the province of Valentia. After the lapse of a century, however, Ida, one of the boldest and most adventurous of the sons of Woden, landed at Flamborough, and brought an important accession to the strength and numbers of his countrymen. It was by this great chief that the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria was founded; nor was he arrested Northumbria's career, till he had extended his dominions from the Humber to the Forth. Ida was succeeded in the Northumbrian kingdom by Acella, and Acella by Ethelred, Aella, under whose reigns occurred no event of importance; but Edwin his successor, who came to the throne in the beginning of the seventh century, appears to have added essentially to the extent of the Saxon conquests, and to have impressed not only the southern Britons, but his fiercer and more northern neighbours the Picts, with the terror of his Edwards. There appears little doubt that Edinburgh or Edburgh or winburgh, the present capital of Scotland, owes its foundation to this energetic Saxon chief.
Hitherto, in speaking of the northern inhabitants beyond the Forth, we have designated them by the single appellation of the Picts. We must now mark the arrival of a different people, although probably sprung from the same ancient stock.
At the commencement of the fourth century, we find that the ruling or dominant people in Ireland were the Scots, a Celtic race; and although there is no sufficient evidence that they had formed any permanent settlement in Britain previously to the abdication of the island by the Romans, it is certain that in the year 360 they invaded the Roman provinces in that kingdom, and were repelled by Theodosius. In the beginning of the sixth century, three Irish chiefs, A.D. 503-Loarn, Fergus, and Angus, sons of Erc, king of Dalriada, by which we are to understand the province of Ulster, led a colony into the ancient province of the British Epidii, and effected a settlement upon the promontory of Kentire. As Scots far as any light is afforded by the Irish annals, in this occupation of Kentire the Scot-Irish met with but feeble opposition.
---
1 Chalmers's Caledonia, vol. i. p. 203. 2 Caledonia, vol. i. pp. 237, 238. 3 Caledonia, vol. i. p. 238. 4 Innes's Critical Essay, vol. ii. Appendix. 5 Caledonia, vol. i. p. 234. 6 Ibid. 274. tion; and a long period of obscurity succeeds, in which little more is distinguishable, except the fact that a series of Scot-Irish kings, or reguli, are found in Scotland, from the commencement of the fifth century, (503), when Fergus held the throne, till the accession of Kenneth, the son of Alpin, who reigned from the year 836 to 843, under whom the ascendancy of the Scot-Irish or Scotch, appears to have been established. Upon this portion of our history we are tempted to transcribe the following observations of Chalmers.
"In the records of time, there scarcely occurs a period of history so perplexed and obscure, as the annals of the Scot-Irish kings and their tribes. The original cause of this obscurity is the want of contemporaneous writing. An ample field was thus left open for the contests of national emulation. Ignorance and ingenuity, sophistry and system, have all contributed to make what was dark still more obscure. The series and genealogy of the kings have been involved in peculiar perplexity by the contests of the Irish and Scottish antiquaries, for pre-eminence in antiquity, as well as in fame. And Cimmerian darkness has overspread the annals of a people too restless for the repose of study; too rude for the elaboration of writing." After such an acknowledgment, it would be idle labour to follow this indefatigable inquirer into the twilight-history of these times; but this period is distinguished by one great event which shines brightly amidst the surrounding gloom, namely, the conversion of northern Britain to Christianity.
Already the Romanized Britons of the South had received the true faith, and the Scot-Irish appear to have been converted to Christianity by St. Patrick, previously to their establishment in Kentire. St. Ninian, himself a Briton, though educated as a monk at Rome, had, in the commencement of the fourth century, founded a monastery in Galloway; and in the sixth century, St. Kentigern signalized himself by his pious labours among the Britons of Strathclyde; but the conversion of the northern Picts was reserved for St. Columba. This great and good man was born in Ireland, in the year 521. His descent was royal, and his education was at first carefully conducted under the best masters which his native island, long before this converted to Christianity, could supply. Of these the most noted was St. Ciaran, the apostle of the Scot-Irish of Kentire; and from him, in all probability, Columba imbibed his first desire to introduce the gospel into the desolate and barbarous dominions of the northern Picts. It was in the year 568, that embarking with twelve of his friends, in a boat of wicker work which was covered with hides, he set out upon his benevolent mission, and landed in the Island of Hy, or Iona, which was situated near the confines of the Scottish and Pictish territories. The difficulties which he had to encounter on his first arrival, were of the most formidable kind. He found a people so barbarous that his life was attempted; the king, when the holy man first approached his residence, ordered its gates to be shut against him; the priests, who were druids, and possessed much influence, employed all their eloquence to counteract his efforts; and the nature of the country, woody, mountainous, and infested with wild beasts, rendered travelling most dangerous and painful. It is also said that at first the saint required an interpreter to make himself intelligible, although after a short residence he appears to have found little difficulty in conversing with the barbarians. But none of these obstacles was sufficient to baffle the zeal and courage of Columba; and so blest were his labours, so rapid the effects produced by the example of his virtues, that in a few years the greater portion of the Pictish dominions was converted to the Christian faith; churches were erected, monasteries established, in various places, and Columba, as primate, became an object of the utmost love and veneration among the barbarous tribes, and fierce and warlike princes whom he had called from darkness into light. At that time his monastery was perhaps the chief seminary of learning in Europe. It was from this nursery, that not only all the monasteries, and above three hundred churches which he himself had established, were supplied with learned pastors, but which also gave divines to many of the religious establishments among the neighbouring nations. Columba died in the year 597, in the seventy-seventh year of his A.D. 567. age; a man not less distinguished by his zeal and labour in Death of the dissemination of the gospel, than by the simplicity of his Columba manners, the sweetness of his temper, and the holiness of his life.
We have already observed, that it would be foreign to the Disappearance object of this historical sketch, to involve our readers in the annals of the dark and wholly uninteresting annals of the Pictish kings. Picts. But one remarkable event must not escape our notice, we mean the disappearance of the Pictish people after the middle of the ninth century. There seems every reason to believe, that the story of the total extermination of the Picts by the sword of the victorious Kenneth Macalpin, is a fable invented at a later period, and certainly supported by nothing approaching to contemporary evidence. A more rational and intelligible account ascribes this event, not to the destruction, but to what may more correctly be denominated the absorption of the Picts by the predominating nation of the Scots. Both were probably a people of the same race, speaking a similar language, and little different in their manners and civil government. Both were animated by the emulation of outstripping each other in power and extent of territory; and this led to protracted struggles, in which the Picts maintained their independence with difficulty, and the Scots gradually enlarging their dominions, acquired a predominating influence. Such being the relative condition of the two nations, an event took place which united in one person the claim to the Pictish and the Scottish throne.
Achatus or Eocha, king of the Scots, who died in the year Kenneth 826, had married Urgusia, a Pictish princess, the sister of Macalpin. Constantine and Ungus, successively kings of the Picts. His A.D. 836-grandson was Kenneth Macalpin, a prince of great hardihood and ambition, who succeeded to his paternal throne in 836. On the death of Uvpen, the Pictish monarch, in 839, Kenneth asserted his claim to the Pictish throne, in right of his grandmother, Urgusia. The feeble state of the nation, and the incapacity of the true heir, combined to favour his ambitious designs; and after a struggle of three years, he succeeded in uniting the two crowns in his own person. The observations of Chalmers upon this event, and the important consequences which it drew after it, are well worthy of notice. "During such confusions," says this author, "amidst a rude people, whose forms of government were little fixed, and whose laws were less regarded, the loss of a battle, or the death of a king, was an adequate cause of an important revolution. Of all these events, Kenneth dexterously took advantage; and finding a feeble competitor, he easily stepped into the vacant throne. In his person a new dynasty began. The king was changed, but the government remained the same. The Picts and Scots, who were a congenial people, from a common origin, and spoke cognate tongues, the British and Gaelic, readily coalesced; yet has it been asserted by ignorance, and believed by credulity, that Kenneth made so bad a use of the power which he had adroitly acquired, as to destroy the whole Pictish people in the wantonness of his cruelty. To enforce the belief in an action which is in itself unknown, and so inconsistent with the interest of a provident sovereign, requires Sect. III.—The Scottish Period.
A.D. 843–1097.
The union of the two nations of the Picts and the Scots, under one powerful prince, forms the commencement of the third great division of Scottish history, which extends from the middle of the ninth century (843) to the expiration of the eleventh (1097), a period of two centuries and a half.
For ages before the time of this union, the Pictish dominions were confined by the Forth on the south, Drumalban on the west, and the German Ocean on the east and north; while at the period of its occurrence the Scots possessed the whole western coast, from the Clyde to Loch Torridon, with the extensive kingdom of Argyll, which stretched its arms from the Clyde on the south to Loch Eir and Loch Maree on the north, and reached from the sea on the west to Drumalban on the east. These extensive dominions were now united; the name of Scotia, as marking the whole kingdom, gained ground over that of Pictavia; and from the tenth century (934), when the Saxon Chronicle first mentions Scotland as invaded by Athelstan, this distinctive appellation for the kingdom of North Britain gradually gained ground till it excluded every other.
It has been observed by Sir Walter Scott, "that the descendants of Kenneth Macalpine pass us in gloomy and obscure pageantry, like those of Banquo in the theatre;" and it might have been added, that the impression left upon the mind by the perusal of their various reigns is as shadowy and unsubstantial. To fatigue and perplex the reader, by a detail of historical passages, which led to no great results, is not the purpose of this sketch, but to mark the features which prominently distinguish the period. Nor were these either few or unimportant.
1. The first event which demands our notice, is the commencement of those invasions by the Danes, which for several centuries continued to be the greatest scourge of Scotland. It was under the reign of Constantine, the second monarch in succession from Kenneth, that these fierce pirate leaders, known under the name of Vikinghr, or scakings, first made their appearance in North Britain. Having established a settlement in Ireland, they soon became acquainted with the commodious havens of the Scottish coasts; and after a partial visit in 866, a more formidable armament sailed from Dublin, under Anlaf and Ivar, in 870. During this invasion, they took Alcluyd, or Dunbar-ton, ravaged the whole extent of North Britain, and returned glutted with slaughter and booty to Ireland. These sea-wolves having once tasted blood, were not slow to return. Thrice under the same reign were their vessels seen on the coasts of the devoted country, in 871, 875, and 876; and at last, in 881, the Scottish monarch met his death on the banks of the Forth, in an ineffectual attempt to defend his people, and repel their ravages. Reappearing under the reign of Donald, who succeeded to the throne in 893, by Donald, they were defeated on the banks of the Tay, in the vicinity of Scone, and again, in 904, repulsed by the same prince, who lost his life, after he had slain their leader. This, however, did not prevent their return in 907, and afterwards, in 918, under the reign of Constantine the Third, who, with the assistance of the northern Saxons, encountered and repulsed them at Tinmore; a check which appears for a considerable period to have given repose to the kingdom.
In 961, under the reign of Indalf, who had succeeded to the throne in 953, the Vikinghr made a descent in the bay repeatedly of Cullen, in Banffshire; and this monarch with difficulty defeated them in a desperate action, in which he lost his life. In 970, Kenneth the Third, who is represented as a A.D. 970 monarch of extraordinary vigour and ambition, succeeded to the throne, and under his reign the Danes reappeared with a numerous fleet in the Tay; but after a sanguinary struggle, in which they at first succeeded, were ultimately defeated by the bravery of the Scots, commanded by Kenneth in person. This contest, which appears to have been attended with an enormous loss on both sides, took place at Luncarty, where many tumuli still remain, to mark the field of battle.
After this the country enjoyed a quiet of nine years; but Danes in 1003, the Norsemen, who had now for some time permanently settled themselves in Orkney, again made their Mortlach appearance in great strength upon the coast of Moray. They seized and fortified the promontory known by the name of the Burgh-head of Moray, where they found a commodious harbour, and from which, in 1010, they led an army to plunder that fertile region. But they were met and defeated with great slaughter by Malcolm the Second, in the battle of Mortlach, where the king, in gratitude for his victory, endowed a religious house, which became the seat of the earliest Scottish bishopric.
These repeated repulses checked and disheartened the Treaty between Macalpine kings; but they disdained to relinquish the contest; and Angus and Buchan, where they were repulsed in successive conflicts, fought at Aberlemno, Panbride, and Slaines final defeat. At length a convention, or pacific treaty, was entered into between Malcolm, and Sweo, king of Denmark, the Danes, in the year 1014, which was followed by the evacuation of the Burgh-head of Moray, and the final departure of the Danes. Thus, after a severe struggle, which at various intervals, and with various success, appears to have continued for nearly a century and a half, (896 to 1014), the energy of the Scots ultimately triumphed over the efforts of the Norsemen; and while the Danish rovers established themselves in some of the finest countries in Europe, and in England alternately fixed themselves as permanent settlers, or extorted an odious tribute as the price of their absence, Sweo, though one of their most powerful princes, found himself at last compelled to desist from the contest.
2. The second event of importance which marked this period, was the enlargement of the Scottish provinces of Malcolm the First, by the pacific acquisition of Cumberland from Edmund the Saxon king of England. Against this young prince, the Danes, who had established themselves in the northern part of his dominions, declared war, and calling the Norwegians to their assistance, threatened to subdue the whole country. Edmund opposed them with great courage and success, reduced Northumberland, then a Danish province, and next turned his arms against Cumbria, or Cumberland. After wasting this little country, then inhabited by the Britons, under their king or chief leader, Dunmail, the English prince, aware perhaps of the difficulty of retaining his new acquisition, delivered it up to Malcolm the First, under the condition that he would become his associate (medecertha) in war, or, as the terms are explained by Matthew of Westminster, "that he would de-
---
1 Chalmers's Caledonia, vol. i. p. 333. 2 Drumalban, the ridge of mountains which separates the rivers running into the sea, on the west coast of Inverness-shire and Argyll from those which run into the sea of Norway. Macpherson's Geographical Illustrations. 3 Chalmers's Caledonia, vol. i. p. 394, 395. Scotland. fend the northern parts of England from the invasions of his enemies, whether they came by sea or by land." It is to be remembered, that this transaction was entered into between two independent princes, the one of Saxon, the other of Celtic race, more than a century before the feudal usages or tenures were introduced into England by the Normans; an observation which might have been deemed unnecessary, had not some ingenious writers affected to detect in the stipulations of Malcolm the acknowledgment of feudal dependence. In this manner did Cumbria, in the middle of the tenth century, become a portion of the Scottish dominions.
3. This treaty was followed by the reigns of Indulf, Duf, and Culen, a dark and sanguinary period, occupied by domestic war and civil commotion; but under Kenneth the Third, who came to the throne in 970, occurred another event of no little moment in the history of the country. This was the conquest of the ancient British kingdom of Strathclyd by the arms of that monarch. We have seen this independent state arise, in the middle of the fifth century, from a union of the Romanized British tribes, who, on the desertion of the island by the Romans, were drawn together by the ties of common danger and mutual defence. From this time, (446), they had, under various reverses and multiplied attacks, enjoyed a precarious independence for upwards of five centuries; nor did they permit themselves to be incorporated in the Scottish monarchy without a determined struggle. The arms and the energy of Kenneth, however, were successful; and one of those gleams of romantic light, which sometimes soften the gloomy annals of these ages, fell on the ruins of Strathclyd. Dunwallon, the last of its kings, after exhibiting the utmost courage and resolution in defence of his people, assumed the religious habit, travelled to Rome, and died a monk.
The last prominent feature which marks this period, was the further enlargement of the Scottish dominions, by the acquisition of Lothian, hitherto a part of England. It took place in 1016, under the reign of Malcolm the Second, the son of Kenneth the Third, to whose conquest of Strathclyd we have just alluded. It was this same Malcolm whose courage we have seen victorious over the Danes at Mortlach, and to whose convention with Sweno Scotland owed its freedom from the ravages of the pirate kings. In the beginning of the eleventh century, (1018), this warlike prince engaged in hostilities with Ughtred, earl of Northumberland. Their forces met at Carham, near Werk, on the southern bank of the Tweed, and a sanguinary battle was fought, which effectually checked the Scottish prince. Ughtred, however, having been assassinated, was succeeded by his brother Eadulph, a feebler ruler, who, from a dread of a second invasion, was induced to purchase the friendship of Malcolm, by the cession of the whole of Lothian.
Such are the great features which distinguish the early history of Scotland, from the middle of the ninth to the commencement of the eleventh century, (843 to 1018), and upon which it is both wiser and easier to fix the mind than to crowd and burden it with lists of barbarous and forgotten kings. We see a people, still rude, ignorant, and, except for the sweetening influences of Christianity, little removed from savage life; but we find them able not only to vindicate their freedom against those incessant and cruel invasions, which broke, and for a time subdued the neighbouring country of England, but animated by an ambition which, under successive princes, largely extended their dominions, by the successive acquisitions of Cumberland, Strathclyd, and Lothian. Nor is the remaining portion of the Scottish period, from 1018 to 1097, unmarked by some great events. In 1031, under the reign of Malcolm the Second, Canute, the Danish king of England, invaded Scotland. This prince, the most powerful monarch of his time, as he possessed not only England, but Denmark and Norway, led an army against Malcolm. The cause of the war Malcolm is involved in much obscurity. It was however connected with some claim or dispute regarding Cumberland, and it terminated in Malcolm retaining the possession of that province, and performing the conditions upon which it had been transferred to him.
In the historical romance of Boyce, and the classical pages of Buchanan, Malcolm the Second figures as the first and one of the greatest of Scottish legislators. It was referred for the learning and acuteness of Lord Hailes to detect his apocryphal laws as the forgery of a much later age.
Malcolm the Second, whose severe and vigorous reign had been marked by many sanguinary domestic feuds, not necessary to be detailed, was succeeded in 1033 by his grandson Duncan, the "gracious Duncan" of Shakspeare, whose imperishable drama is founded upon a fictitious narrative, which Holinshed copied from Boyce. Let us for a moment, in a spirit rather of homage than of criticism, disentangle the dross of fact from the ore of fiction. Lady Macbeth was the Lady Gracoch, and had regal blood in her veins. She was the grand-daughter of Kenneth the Fourth. Her husband, Macbeth, was the son of Finlegh Macnemoor, or the supreme ruler of Ross. The real wrongs of the Lady Gracoch, the root of her implacable revenge, were even more deep than those of her mighty counterpart. She had seen her grandfather Kenneth dethroned by Malcolm; her brother assassinated, and her husband burned, griefs amply sufficient to turn her milk to gall. Macbeth, on the other hand, had wept a father slain also by Malcolm; and thus revenge and ambition were equally roused in both their bosoms. The purpose which had been arrested by the superior vigour and courage of Malcolm, was executed on his more feeble grandson. Duncan, in 1039, was assassinated at Bothgowan, near Elgin; and Macbeth seized the sanguinary sceptre, which he held with a vigorous grasp for fifteen years, until he was defeated and slain by Macduff, in 1054.
On his death, a contest for the throne arose between Lulach, the son of the Lady Gracoch, and great-grandson of Kenneth the Fourth, and Malcolm Ceanmore, great-grandson of Malcolm the Second; and this struggle terminated in 1057, by the defeat of Lulach, and the accession of his rival, Malcolm, who was contemporary with Edward the Confessor.
The accession of Malcolm Ceanmore to the Scottish throne Malcolm was soon afterwards followed by an event, which, although ill taking place in the sister country, produced the most important effects upon the history of Scotland. This was the invasion and conquest of England by the Normans, and the establishment of an entirely new dynasty in that country. The first consequence of this change was favourable to Malcolm, as Malcolm it led to his marriage with a Saxon princess, whose character had a marked and favourable influence upon the ruder Margaret, manners of her husband and his people. This lady was Edgar Margaret, who was the sister of Edgar Etheling. It is important to trace her lineage. Canute, the Danish king of England, had banished Edwin and Edward, the children of Edmund Ironside, the last of the pure Saxon dynasty, for Edward the Confessor was half a Norman. They found a retreat in Hungary, where Edwin died; but from this country Edward, in 1057, was recalled by Edward the Confessor.
---
1 Matthew of Westminster, p. 367. Brady's Compleat History of England, p. 120. 2 Chalmers's Caledonia, vol. i. p. 389. 3 Chalmers's Caledonia, vol. i. p. 390, 393. 4 Ibid. vol. i. p. 402. 5 Ibid. vol. i. p. 402. 6 Ibid. vol. i. p. 403. Scotland. sor. This prince had three children, a son, Edgar, commonly called Edgar Ætheling, the heir of the Saxon line, and two daughters, Margaret and Christian. On the conquest of England, the nobles of Northumberland, who were principally of Danish origin, led by two chiefs, named Maerleswegen and Gospatric, becoming disgusted at the Norman tyranny, fled to the court of Malcolm, taking with them Edgar and his two sisters. Edgar was weak, almost to imbecility; and in the event of his dying, or being found incapable of filling the throne, his claims as heir of the Saxon line descended to his sister. She was beautiful, accomplished, and pious; and a union which perhaps, at a distance, had been suggested to Malcolm by ambition, on a nearer view was perfected by love.
The marriage of the Scottish monarch was soon followed by an invasion of England, in which Malcolm mercilessly ravaged the bishopric of Durham. The manner in which this predatory inroad was conducted marks the ferocity of the times. Malcolm and his subjects were Christians; yet even the churches were destroyed and burnt, while the unhappy persons who had fled to them for sanctuary were massacred, or consumed in the flames. During the occurrence of these savage scenes in England, Gospatric, one of the most powerful of the Northumbrian barons, whose assistance William the Conqueror had secured, swept through Malcolm's territory of Cumberland, and laid waste the country in a miserable manner, upon which the Scottish prince returned home, leading captive, says an English historian, such a multitude of young men and maidens, "that for many years they were to be found in every Scottish village, nay, even in every Scottish hovel."
There seems to be little doubt that this expedition of Malcolm was intimately connected with the determined stand made against William the Conqueror by the Northumbrian earls who had carried Edgar Ætheling into Scotland. Combining in 1069 with their brethren, the Danes, who brought a powerful fleet to their assistance, they advanced as far as York, where they put the Norman garrison to the sword; and here it is probable they expected to be joined by Malcolm, but being disappointed in their hope, they made peace with William, who had the address to dissolve the confederacy. Malcolm alone continued faithful to the cause of the Saxon prince; and, though deserted by his confederates, yet by invading England fulfilled his agreement.
This inroad led to a dreadful retaliation on the part of William. "To punish the revolt," we use the words of Lord Hailes, "and to oppose a wilderness to the invasions of the Danes, he laid entirely waste the fertile country which lies between the Humber and the Tees." "At this time," says William of Malmesbury, "there were destroyed such splendid towns, such lofty castles, such beautiful pastures, that had a stranger viewed the scene he might have been moved to compassion, and had one inhabitant been left alive, he would not have recollected the country." Of this fine district the inhabitants seem to have been almost wholly exterminated. Many who escaped the sword died of famine, many sold themselves for slaves, while those of higher quality, Norman as well as Saxon, sought an asylum in Scotland, and found at the court of Malcolm a favourable reception.
William having secured peace at home, prepared an armament against Scotland, and in 1072 he invaded that country, both by sea and by land. Malcolm wisely met superior power by an offer of submission. He sought and obtained peace, gave hostages, and performed homage. So far all is certain; but a question arises, for what was this homage performed? The answer may be given in the words of one of the most able inquirers upon the subject: "According to Scotland, the general and most probable opinion, this homage was done by Malcolm for the lands which he held in England."
We have already met with Gospatric, the powerful Nor-Gospatric thumblin earl who fled from the Conqueror to the court estates of Malcolm, bringing with him the heir of the Saxon line, Scotland, with his sisters. Proving treacherous to Malcolm, Gospatric obtained from William the government of Northumberland; but on his return from his successful expedition against Malcolm, the Norman conqueror, from jealousy or disgust, degraded his Northumbrian ally, who once more fled to the Scottish king. Malcolm, on his part, not only forgave him, but presented him with the lands and castle of Dunbar, and the castle of Cockburnspath. He who held these estates, lying on the borders between the two countries, might be said to have the keys of Scotland at his girdle; and the circumstance is worthy of remembrance, not only as marking the origin of a potent family, destined to act a leading part in the future history of the country, but as indicating the policy of Malcolm, who, conscious of the inferiority of his own Celtic race, manifested a wise anxiety to prevail on strangers, whether Normans, Danes, or Saxons, to settle in his dominions.
The remaining portion of the reign of this energetic A.D. prince (1079–1093), is chiefly distinguished by a struggle 1079–1093, with William Rufus, who, upon the death of the Conqueror, William had succeeded to the English throne. This prince appears Rufus to have withheld from Malcolm part of the English possessions to which he claimed a right; and with the view of compelling a surrender of them, the Scottish king invaded England, and penetrated as far as Chester, on the Wre. Rufus led against him a superior force; and Malcolm, aware of his approach, prudently declined a contest, and by a timely retreat, secured his plunder and his captives.
This appears to have taken place in May 1091; and in Rufus in the autumn of the same year, the Norman prince, having vades Scot, equipped a fleet, and levied a numerous land force, led his land, A.D. army in person against Scotland. He continued his march to the shores of the Forth; but here his progress was stayed, in consequence of his receiving intelligence that his fleet had been destroyed by a tempest. There were no vessels to transport his troops across the Forth. The Scots, with a policy which they early learned, and repeatedly practised, had driven away their cattle, and cleared the country of its provisions; and at this crisis, when his soldiers were perishing from famine, Malcolm led his army against the English, crossed the Forth, and advanced into Lothian; a territory originally, as we have seen, acquired from the Angles, and therefore esteemed a part of England, although now subject to the Scottish king. Here having chosen a strong position, he encamped, and avoiding a battle, harassed the enemy, proposing to cut off his supplies, and expel him by famine. While both parties were thus situated, Edgar Ætheling, now with Rufus, and Robert, the king's brother, exerted themselves to conciliate a peace. The English monarch, notwithstanding his fiery temper, knew how to bend his fury to his interest; and Malcolm, perceiving that he could obtain his purpose by treaty, wisely preferred this to the risk of a battle. It is Peace important to mark the conditions of the agreement. Wil-tween Mal liam Rufus, we find, consented to restore to Malcolm twelve ecdm and manors, which the Scottish prince had held under the Conqueror, and to make an annual payment to him of twelve marks of gold. Malcolm, on his part, consented to do homage to William, and to hold his lands under the same tenure of feudal service and obedience to him, as he had formerly paid to his father the Conqueror.
Here pausing for a moment upon a subject which has given rise to some discordant opinions, and which, now that the bitterness of national rivalry is at an end, may, we trust, be calmly considered; we would remark that, taking the testimony of English historians as our guide, all as yet seems clear, as to the much debated subject of homage. Simeon of Durham expressly declares that Malcolm agreed to obey William Rufus on the same conditions as those on which he had obeyed William the Conqueror. Under the Conqueror it is certain that Malcolm held twelve manors in England. These Rufus had seized; but he now restored them, and Malcolm renewed his obligation of homage. On a former occasion when, as we have seen, the Scottish king, in 1072, paid his homage to the Conqueror in person, the ground upon which he paid it is equally clear. Previously to the battle of Hastings, the Scottish monarchs had obtained from the Saxon kings some possessions in England. This was before the introduction of the strict feudal tenures, which came in with the Normans; but there is no doubt that these possessions were held under the condition of aiding the Saxon princes in repelling the incursions of the Danes. When William the Conqueror established himself in England, Malcolm, as we have seen, considered him as a usurper of the rights of his brother-in-law, Edgar Ætheling; and, on this ground, as well as perhaps from an indisposition to embrace a system which must have been new to him, he had at first refused to pay his homage for the lands he held in England. Circumstances, however, made him change this resolution. The prevailing power of William, the acquiescence of the English under his government, and the inactivity and imbecility of Edgar Ætheling, his brother-in-law, induced him to desist from a conflict in which he ceased to have an interest. A more intimate acquaintance with the feudal tenures introduced into England taught him that, in the acknowledgment of superiority for the lands which he held in that country, there was no sacrifice of dignity as an independent monarch, and as all idea of restoring Edgar was abandoned, he paid his homage to the conqueror.
The point of homage seemed thus prudently settled; but the proud and fiery temper, which appears to have been an infirmity of both princes, soon led to a new contest between Malcolm and Rufus. A jealousy of the incursions of the Scots had formerly led the Conqueror to build two strong castles, the one at Durham, the other at Newcastle. To these his successor now added a third at Carlisle; a barrier which, however necessary, might possibly be considered as encroaching on the freedom of the lands which Malcolm held in Cumberland. A dispute arose, and a personal interview between the two kings having been considered the best mode of settling their differences, Malcolm repaired to Gloucester, where Rufus met him, and proposed that he should do homage in presence of his English barons. This the Scottish monarch refused; although he was ready, he said, to perform his homage on the frontiers of both kingdoms, as had been the ancient usage. The reply was angrily received, and the two kings having parted with expressions of defiance, Malcolm assembled an army, and advancing with a speed whetted by the indignity with which he had been treated, burst into Northumberland, which he wasted with fire and sword. Sweeping onwards to Alnwick, he was about to possess himself of the castle, when the Scottish army was attacked by Robert de Mowbray. In the battle which ensued Malcolm was slain, and Edward, his eldest son, shared the fate of his father.
We have already observed that the mild and gentle disposition of his queen, St. Margaret, had an admirable influence over the fierce and impetuous character of this prince. Of her life we have an interesting account from the pen of Turgot her confessor; and we cannot resist borrowing a few touches from this early specimen of biography. When the king set out on his last expedition against England, Margaret was suffering from a fatal and lingering complaint. She only lived to hear of the death of her husband and her son. Her last moments are thus described by that faithful minister, who related what he saw: "During a short interval of ease, the queen devoutly received the communion. Soon after, her anguish of body returned with redoubled violence; she stretched herself upon her couch and calmly waited for the moment of her dissolution; cold, and in the agonies of death, she ceased not to put up her supplications to heaven. These were some of her words: 'Have mercy upon me, O God; according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out mine iniquities; make me to hear joy and gladness, that so the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.' At that moment," continues Turgot, "her son, Edgar, returning from the army, approached her couch. 'How fares it?' said she, 'with the king and my Edward?' The youth stood silent. 'I know all; I know all. By this holy cross, by your filial affection, I adjure you to tell me the truth.' He answered, 'your husband and your son are both slain.' Lifting up her eyes and her hands to heaven she then said, 'Praise and blessing be to thee, Almighty God, that thou hast been pleased to make me endure so bitter anguish in the hour of my departure, thereby, as I trust, to purify me in some measure, from the corruption of my sins; and thou, Lord Jesus Christ, who, through the will of the Father, hast enlightened the world by thy death, oh deliver me.' While pronouncing the words 'deliver me,' she expired."
"In reviewing the reign of Malcolm the Third," says Lord Hailes, "we may discern a character of steady persevering courage. From his early youth to his last invasion of England, his conduct was uniform. He maintained his throne with the same spirit by which he won it. Though he was the ruler of a nation uncivilised, and destitute of foreign resources, and had such antagonists as the Conqueror and William Rufus to encounter, yet, for twenty-seven years, he supported this unequal contest, sometimes with success, never without honour. That he should have so well asserted the independency of Scotland is astonishing, when the weakness of his own kingdom, and the strength and abilities of his enemies are fairly estimated."
Malcolm's eldest son had fallen, as we have seen, with his Donald father. His remaining sons, Ethelred, Edmund, Edgar, Alexander, and David, were all under age; and his brother Donald, who, on the usurpation of the throne by Macbeth, had taken refuge in the Hebrides, appears to have remained in that distant retreat during the whole reign of the late king. These islands were then independent of the Scottish crown. They were inhabited by a warlike race, whose chiefs yielded to the Norwegian king a fluctuating submission; and many of these leaders having joined him, Donald, with a powerful fleet, invaded Scotland and seized the crown; but it was for a very brief season. Duncan, a son of Malcolm, but illegitimate as is generally believed, had, in 1072, been delivered to William Rufus as a hostage for his father's fidelity. He had received his education at the Norman court, and having been knighted by the English monarch, was retained in his service. With permission of William, he now invaded Scotland, and assisted by a band
---
1 Cædmonia, vol. i. p. 304. 2 In this account of the expedition of William Rufus into Scotland, and in the remarks on the disputed point of the homage, we have been induced to treat the subject a little more in detail, availing ourselves of some manuscript notes of the late David Macpherson, a writer of great research and judgment. This seemed the more necessary, as the subject of Rufus's invasion of Scotland, and Malcolm's stipulated homage, has been considered by high authority as one involved in extreme obscurity. 3 Hailes's Annals, vol. i. pp. 40, 41; 4to edit. We have availed ourselves of Lord Hailes's translation of the passage from Turgot describing the queen's death. 4 Ibid. vol. i. pp. 25, 26; 4to edit. of English and Norman adventurers expelled Donald Bane. He, in his turn, after a reign of little more than a year, was assassinated, and Donald once more ascended the throne, from which, in 1097, he was again expelled by William Rufus, who dispatched Edgar Ætheling with a powerful army into Scotland. By this prince the aged usurper was defeated, and Edgar, the son of Malcolm and Margaret, the nephew of Edgar Ætheling, ascended the throne. This event took place in the close of the eleventh century; and, with the captivity and death of Donald Bane, who is the last of the race of Scoi-Irish kings, the Scottish period expires.
And here, after having passed over a portion of our history which extends from the middle of the ninth to the end of the eleventh century, let us pause to say a few words on the condition of the church, the state of the laws, and the manners of the people. To every critical student of this period one thing appears certain. Throughout its whole extent, we find the predominant people a Celtic race. The laws were Celtic, the government Celtic, the usages and manners Celtic, the church Celtic, the language Celtic. "If," says Chalmers, "Malcolm Canmore, a Celtic prince, who did not arrogate the character of a lawgiver, had been disposed to effect a considerable change in this Celtic system, he would have found his inclination limited by his impotence. The Scottish kings, during those times, seem not to have possessed legislative power. Whenever they acted as legislators, they appear to have had some coadjutors: either some maormors, a term by which we are to understand the chief civil ruler of a district, or some bishops."
We shall see, when we pursue our inquiry into a later period, that the children and grandchildren of this Celtic monarch, when they attempted to introduce new maxims of government, were opposed in Galloway and in Moray by frequent insurrections.
Looking now first to that most important and interesting point, the state of the church, we have already seen that, at the commencement of the Pictish period in 446, Christianity had been introduced into North Britain. Of the exact constitution, discipline, and orders in the early Scottish church, from the conversion of the Scots to the commencement of the Scoi-Pictish period (843), much has been written; and it is well known that the advocates of episcopacy and the supporters of presbyterianism have each endeavoured to deduce, from an examination of these remote ages, irrefragable arguments for their peculiar opinions. Into this discussion it belongs not to our plan to enter. We deal with general results, and dare not embark in controversy; but we may be permitted to observe, from the authentic monuments which still remain in our own times, and it seems difficult to avoid the conclusion, that the primitive and most ancient form of church government in Scotland was episcopal. At the memorable epoch of the union of the Picts and the Scots, we find a bishopric of Lindisfarne extending far into Lothian. In Lothian itself, the religious houses of Melrose, Coldingham, Tyningham, Pefferham, and Abercorn, had been long established. In Galloway, the bishopric of Whithorn, which we have seen founded by St. Ninian, had fallen soon after the commencement of the ninth century. Looking beyond the Friths, we find that, at the same period, various religious cells had been settled by the disciples of Columba; and that not long afterwards, Kenneth Macalpin, anxious to testify his respect for the relics of this apostle of the Scots, removed his relics from Iona to Dunkeld, where he built a church, which became not only the seat of a bishop, (849), but, till supplanted by St. Andrews, the seat of the primate of the Scottish church. There is an ancient legend quoted by Spottiswood from the register of St. Andrews, which, if any credit is to be attached to it, gives the honour of founding the see of St. Andrews to Hungus king of the Picts, who died in 833. This prince, it appears, had invaded Northumberland, and upon his return was overtaken by Athelstan, king of the West Saxons, at the head of a powerful army. "Having given order for battle against the next Churchday," says the historian, "Hungus betook himself to prayer, A.D. 813—spending most part of the night in that exercise. A little time before day, falling into a slumber, it seemed to him that the apostle St. Andrew stood by him and assured him of the victory, which vision being related to the army, did much encourage them. The history addeth that, in the joining of the battle, there appeared in the air a cross in the form of the letter X, which so terrified the enemies as presently they gave back, king Athelstan himself being killed. Hungus, to express his thankfulness for the victory, gave to the church of Regulus, now called St. Andrews, divers rich gifts, as chalices, basons, the image of Christ in gold, and of his twelve apostles in silver. He gave likewise a case of beaten gold for preserving the relics of St. Andrew, and restored to the spirituality the tithes of all corn, cattle, and herbage within the realm, exempting them from answering before any temporal judge; farther, he did appoint the cross of St. Andrew to be the badge and cognizance of the Picts, both in their wars and otherwise, which, as long as that kingdom stood, was observed, and is by the Scots as yet retained."
This extract we have given rather as a curious example of the earliest tradition as to the national emblem of the cross of St. Andrew, than from any high opinion of the authenticity of king Hungus's devotion. The following list of the Scottish bishoprics, according to the date of their foundation, is taken from Keith's Catalogue. It is to be observed, however, that in some of its dates we must regard it rather as an approximation to the truth, as far as it can be ascertained from authentic sources, than as fixing the exact years of the erection.
| Bishopric | Date | |---------------------------|------------| | See of the Isles | 447 | | See of Galloway | 450 | | See of Glasgow | 560 | | See of Dunkeld | 729 | | See of St. Andrews | 892 | | Mortlach, afterwards | 1010 | | See of Ross | 1128 | | See of Brechin | 1150 | | See of Caithness | 1150 | | See of Dunblane | 1160 | | See of Moray | 1162 | | See of Argyle | 1200 |
Of these episcopal sees, the reader will observe, that Parishes only the bishoprics of the Isles, Galloway, Glasgow, Dun-early established, St. Andrews, and Mortlach, afterwards Aberdeen, belong to the period of which we now treat, from 843 to 1097; although the remaining sees are added, to afford to the reader some idea of their comparative antiquity. "The united kingdom of the Picts and Scots," says Chalmers, "was formed under the regimen of parishes, though neither the times nor the circumstances of this formation can be clearly ascertained amid the gloom which hangs over the Scotican church during the Scottish period. We may easily suppose that those ecclesiastical districts were gradually established subsequent to the great epoch of 843. They were pretty generally settled during the Scottish period, though they were inconveniently large. They were established by private persons, rather than by public authority. But that parishes existed during the reign of Malcolm Canmore, is certain from unquestionable records. Thus, in the charter of David the First to the monastery of Dunfermline, this monarch uses these words: Pretere pater meus (his father was Malcolm the Third,) et mater mea dederunt ecclesiae Sanctae Trinitatis parochiam totam de Fetherid." It seems equally certain," he continues, "that when churches were erected, parishes laid out, and parochial duties statedly performed, ecclesiastical dues must have been incident-
---
* Spottiswood's History of the Church of Scotland, p. 23. * Chalmers's Caledonia, vol. i. p. 432. ally paid. In the charters of Alexander the First, and of David, tithes are mentioned as if they were familiarly known, and had been long established. It is clear that tithes were paid to the clergy during the reign of Malcolm Canmore, and probable that such ecclesiastical dues were payable as early as the commencement of the tenth century (910,) when Constantine the king, and Kellach the bishop, solemnly vowed to observe the faith, discipline, and rights of the churches. During the reign of Malcolm Canmore, according to the high authority of Innes, several national councils were held in Scotland for the establishment of ecclesiastical discipline, and the reformation of the rude and fierce manners of the people. Some extracts from the canons passed in these councils are inserted by Turgot, the confessor of Malcolm's pious consort St. Margaret, in the interesting life which he has given us of this princess.
During this obscure period, we meet with frequent mention of an order of religious men named Culdees, who first appear in the beginning of the ninth century. They seem to have been a kind of secular presbyters or monks, the Gaelic term Culdee meaning a recluse or hermit. With the exception of the form of the tonsure and the rule of observing Easter, they professed the same rites and ceremonies as the rest of the church. It has been erroneously pretended that the Culdees rejected bishops. So far was this from being the case, that we have repeated instances of the colleges of these Celtic monks having been instituted and ordained by the bishops themselves, while they, wherever they had a college about the see, possessed a vote in the election of the bishop. Of this distinct order, we find that there existed in North Britain, during the Scottish period, religious houses at Abernethy, Dunkeld, St. Andrews, Dunblane, Brechin, Mortlach, Aberdeen, Monymusk, Lochleven, Portmoak, Dunfermline, Scone, and Kirkcaldy.
It remains to say a few words on the laws, manners, and language of the Scottish period. To affect to speak with certainty upon the laws which regulated the government, restrained the crimes, or directed the succession of a fierce and barbarous people who have left no written monuments, would betray presumption and ignorance. As far as can be conjectured, we find the crown neither strictly hereditary nor strictly elective, but directed in its descent by what has been termed the law of Tanistry; an institution by which the person in the family of the reigning prince who was judged best qualified, whether son, brother, or even more remote relative, was chosen under the name of Tanist, to lead the army during the life of the king, and to succeed to him after his death. Chalmers has asserted, that, at this era, the tenure of land throughout the country determined with the life of the possessor; an opinion requiring some modification, as it indicates a state of barbarism even greater than is discovered by the few glimpses of light which sometimes shoot athwart this twilight of our history. By a custom which the Scots evidently brought with them from Ireland, denominated in Irish gabhairt-eine, meaning literally family settlement, it appears, that the fathers of families divided their lands among their sons, sometimes in equal, sometimes in unequal portions, and strictly excluded females from any share in this appropriation. As to their legislative code, there seems to be little doubt that the nearest approach we can make to the laws or usages of Celtic Scotland, must be by the study of such fragments as remain to us of the brehon laws of Ireland. "This brehon law," says Laus Cox, "was no written law, it was only the will of the brehon or lord; and it is observable that their brehons or judges, like their physicians, bards, harpers, poets, and historians, had their offices by descent and inheritance. These hereditary judges or doctors," continues he, "were but very sad tools. The brehon, when he administered justice, used to sit on a turf or heap of stones, or on the top of a hillock, without a covering, without clerks, or indeed any formality of a court of judicature." This state of law, observes the author of Caledonia, may be traced among the Sco-to-Irish in Scotland till recent times. Every baron had his mote-hill, whence justice was distributed to his vassals by his baron bailie. There seems to be little doubt that Malcolm, from his marriage with a Saxon princess, and his frequent intercourse with the Saxon and Norman people, was an admirer of their superior civilization, and anxious to introduce their usages among his own ruder subjects. But that he succeeded to any material degree is extremely problematical; and the notion that he introduced the complicated system of the feudal law into Scotland, has been long ago exploded.
In a rapid sketch of this nature, little room can be given to any detailed description of the manners of the people during the Scottish period. The natural state of the Celtic tribes in Scotland was similar to that which we find existing among them in Ireland, namely, a state of constant war; and to those who consider how slow is the progress of improvement, and how strong the principle of imitation and tradition among a savage people, it will be no subject of wonder that we find little change produced by the lapse of centuries upon the manners of the ancient British, whether we look to Wales, Ireland, or North Britain. Their marriages, their mode of burial, their dress, their war cries, were similar. Armorial bearings, during this whole period, were unknown; seals, and coined money they had none; and it has been remarked by Chalmers, that the Gaelic people of Scotland borrowed their very terms for the several denominations of money from the Sco-to-Saxon inhabitants. Thus, the Gaelic sceiling, farthing, is from the Saxon sceiling; the Gaelic peiginn, a penny, is from the Saxon penig.
In those rude ages of which we now write, stones of memorial were frequently employed, and many of them still remain; yet as they are found without inscriptions, and only occasionally ornamented by rude hieroglyphics, the memory of the events which they describe has perished, and the field is left open to antiquarian conjecture. Inaugural stones also were used by them, upon which not only the Irish and Scotish kings were placed on their accession to the crown; but the chiefs of septs or petty regali, were accustomed on the same to take the oaths to their vassals, when they succeeded to the power of the former chief. To the same class of inaugural stones belongs, as is well known, the famous coronation stone of Scotland. Tradition reports this singular relic to have been brought from Ireland by Kenneth; it was undoubtedly carried off from Scone by Edward the First, who inserted it into a chair, which he placed before the shrine of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. It is almost impossible to speak with any precision of the state
---
1 Innes, p. 785. Chronicle. Codex Colbertinus. See also Innes, 603. 2 And here having spoken of St. Margaret, we cannot refrain, in these brief remarks on the early state of the Scottish church, from alluding to a beautiful picture preserved by this same worthy Bishop Turgot, in which he describes the love of Malcolm for St. Margaret, and the influence which the mild piety of the Saxon princess acquired over the fiery temper of her Celtic husband. "Malcolm," says he, (we use Lord Hailes's translation), "respected the religion of his spouse, was fearful of offending her, and listened to her admonitions. Whatever she loved or disliked, so did he. Although he could not read, he frequently turned over her prayer-books, and kissed her favourite volumes. He had them adorned with gold and precious stones, and presented them to her in token of his devotion. She instructed him to pass the night in prayer, with groans and tears. I must acknowledge, that I often admired the works of the divine mercy, when I saw a king so religious, and such signs of deep compunction in a layman."—Hailes, vol. i, p. 15. 3 Goodall's Introduction to the History and Antiquities of Scotland, p. 117. 4 Chalmers, vol. i, p. 434. 5 Caledonia, vol. i, p. 363. Scotland. of society in this remote period, yet a few incidental gleams of light are reflected from the lives of the early saints.
Thus, in Adamnan's life of Columba, which was written only eighty years after the saint's death, we find frequent mention of houses of wattle, similar probably to those which the Constable Richard de Moreville, in a charter of the twelfth century, denominates clive nicatae. Even the abbey of Iona was built of the same rude materials. The clothing of the monks seems to have been often composed of the skins of beasts, though latterly they had woollen stuffs and linen; the first probably manufactured by themselves, the linen imported from the continent. Venison, fish, milk, flesh, and wild fowl, were the common food of the people.
"The monks of Iona," says Chalmers, "who lived by their labour, cultivated their fields, and laid up corn in their garnerers." But it is to be recollected that the monks were everywhere, for ages, the improvers themselves, and the instructors of others in the useful arts. Even Iona had its orchards in the rugged times of the ninth century, till the Viking or pirate kings, ravaged and ruined all. Looking to their shipping, we find that their little vessels were constructed by covering a keel of wood and a frame of wicker work with the skins of cattle and of deer. These were denominated currachs. Afterwards they were enlarged and made capable of containing a respectable crew. It was in a vessel of this description, a wicker boat covered with hides, that Columba, accompanied by twelve of his friends, embarked from Ireland, in the year 563, and landed in Iona. With these few remarks, we close the Scottish period of our national history.
Sect. IV.—Scoto-Saxon Period.
A.D.1097—We have already seen, that the death of Malcolm Canmore at Alnwick gave rise to a temporary usurpation of the throne by Donald his brother, that he was expelled by Duncan, an illegitimate son of Malcolm, who had been educated at the court of William Rufus; and this Duncan having been assassinated, Edgar Atheling led an English army into Scotland, and placed Edgar, the son of Malcolm Canmore, on the throne.
Alexander Edgar's reign was brief, pacific, and of little interest; but his successor, Alexander the First, the eldest surviving son of Malcolm, was a prince of a powerful and vigorous character. From his accession to the throne, in the commencement of the twelfth century, (1106), to the death of Alexander the Third (1285), in the close of the thirteenth, a period little short of two centuries, the nation was progressive and prosperous in a degree unequalled during the whole course of its future history. Under a succession of six monarchs, Alexander the First, David the First, Malcolm the Fourth, William the Lion, Alexander the Second, and Alexander the Third, it maintained its independence against foreign aggression, and not only preserved the integrity, but extended the boundaries of its dominions. Its commerce, its manufactures, its agriculture, and all the arts which improve and humanize an ignorant and fierce people, were encouraged; and throughout this long period, in the personal characters of each of these successive princes, though varying in their shades, there was that ingredient of energy and boldness which communicated itself to their people, and maintained the nation at the standard to which each ruler in his turn had raised it.
Let us for a moment pursue our system, and like a traveller gazing from a mountain height, and noting the landmarks of a new country, endeavour to detect the leading and influential events in this division of our national history. In the character of Alexander the First, everything seems to have been in excess; but happily the qualities which were so overcharged, were most of them of the better sort. He is traditionally remembered by the epithet of the fierce; and though humble and courteous to his clergy, whom he deemed entitled to this homage as God's servants, not his, he was, to use the words of an ancient and authentic writer, "terrible beyond measure to his subjects." The leading event of his reign was the struggle which he maintained for the independence of the Scottish church against the pretended rights claimed, first for the see of York, and afterwards by that of Canterbury, by the see of York, and afterwards by that of Canterbury, dependence on the election of Turgot, a monk of Durham, to the bishopric of St. Andrews (1109,) the archbishop of York insisting on his having the right of consecrating him. To this the Scottish king declared he would never agree; and a compromise having taken place, by which the point was left undecided, Alexander, on the death of Turgot, altered his ground, and chose for his successor Eadmer, a monk of Canterbury. The same right of consecration, and founded on the same ground of the alleged dependence of the Scottish church upon the primacy of England, was now advanced by Canterbury; but it was still more haughtily and peremptorily refused by Alexander. A compromise again took place. Eadmer accepted the ring from the king, and took the pastoral staff from the altar, as if receiving it from the Lord; but finding his authority weakened, and the countenance of the monarch withdrawn from him, he intimated his resolution of repairing to Canterbury for advice. This Alexander violently opposed, declaring that as long as he lived, the bishop of St. Andrews should never be subject to that see. Nor did he fail here, as in all his other enterprises, to keep his word; Eadmer remained an elected but unconsecrated bishop. At length weary of the contest, and trammelled in his usefulness, he desired permission to resign, restored the ring to the king, replaced the pastoral staff on the high altar, and returned to Canterbury. Robert, prior of Scone, was elected to fill the vacant see, and the king's determined efforts to maintain the independence of the Scottish church were crowned with success. It had continued for fourteen years, and Alexander survived its termination only a single year. He died in 1124, leaving no children by his wife Sybilla, a natural daughter of Henry I., the First, and was succeeded by his brother, David the First.
Edgar, the brother of this prince, had, on his deathbed, bequeathed to him that portion of Cumberland which was possessed by the Scottish kings. The legacy had two good effects. It called the young prince early to the cares and labors of administration; and it removed him from Scotland to a country where he became acquainted with a more advanced civilization and with better regulated government. These advantages were not thrown away upon David. His natural dispositions were excellent; his love of justice, his capacity for labour, his sense of the national honour and independence, his affection to every class of his people, his tenderness to his children, his piety to God, were all so conspicuous in his character, that Buchanan, an author who cannot be suspected of adulation, pronounces him the perfect exemplar of a good king; and the progress made by the country during the twenty-nine years of his reign goes far to justify the assertion.
His reign was contemporary with that of Henry the First War with and of Stephen in England, and it opened with many difficulties. The question of the independence of the church was again started; and before it could be brought to a termination, the forcible seizure of the English crown by Stephen, who deposed Matilda, the daughter of Henry the First, involved him in a war with that usurper. During the life of Henry the First, David and Stephen had sworn to maintain the right of Matilda; and the Scottish monarch, in obedience to his oath, invading England, compelled the barons of the northern portion of that kingdom to swear fealty to this princess. His efforts however were more honourable than successful; and after a war which lasted three years, David was ultimately defeated in the great battle of the Standard, fought on Cotton Moor, in the neighbourhood of Northallerton. Peace was now concluded, and the terms to which Stephen consented, indicate that, although defeated, the Scottish king was but little humbled.
The earldom of Northumberland, with the exception of the two castles of Newcastle and Bamborough, was ceded to Prince Henry, David's eldest son. As an equivalent for these fortresses, lands were granted to him in the south of England; the barons of Northumberland were to hold their estates of Henry the Prince of Scotland, reserving their fealty to Stephen; and in return, David and all his people became bound to maintain an inviolable peace with England.
The remaining years of the reign of this wise monarch were pacific and prosperous. The war had convinced him that the English were far superior to his people in arms and discipline; it had been undertaken in fulfilment of his oath to Henry, not from any love of conquest, and having satisfied his conscience, he devoted his life to the arts of good government. "During the course of his sage administration," says Lord Hailes, "public buildings were erected, towns established, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce promoted. The barbarities of his people in their invasions of England, had affected him with the deepest anguish, and believing that religion was the only agent which could humanize and improve the savage multitudes whom he had led, but could not restrain, he endowed the church with new privileges, enriched it with extensive grants of land, founded various bishoprics, built many monasteries, and exhibited in his own person so fine an example of royal greatness, chastened and purified by Christian humility and devotion, that it could not fail to have the best effects upon his people."
Towards the close of his reign, it was his misfortune to lose his eldest son, Prince Henry, just as he had reached manhood, and exhibited many of the excellent qualities of his father. The blow sunk deep into his heart; but David's first care had been for his people, and he roused himself to provide for the pacific succession of his grandson, Malcolm, a child in his twelfth year. By his orders, this boy, the son of Prince Henry, was carried in a progress through his dominions, to receive the homage of the barons and the people, and was solemnly proclaimed heir to the crown. Having performed this wise but mournful duty, the aged king within a year followed his son to the grave. It is a remarkable and beautiful circumstance, that he was found dead in an attitude of devotion. "His death had been so tranquil," says Aldred, who knew him well, "that you would not have believed he was dead. He was found with his hands clasped devoutly upon his breast in the very posture in which he seems to have been raising them to heaven."
The reign of Malcolm the Fourth, which lasted only twelve years, offers little for our observation. It began with those evils which so invariably attend a minority; war without, and insecurity within the kingdom. Somerled the thane of Argyle, strengthened by the naval powers of the Isles, invaded Scotland, and for some years continued to harass the country by repeated attacks, which at length terminated in an amicable agreement. The transactions of Malcolm with Henry the Second of England impress us with an unfavourable notion of this young prince. It had been a promise of the English monarch made to David the First, in 1149, that if he succeeded to the crown of England, he would cede to Scotland for ever the territory between the Tyne and the Tweed. Instead of insisting on this, Malcolm overreached by the superior sagacity of Henry, or betrayed by the treachery of his councillors, abandoned to England his whole possessions in the northern counties, and received in return the honor of Huntingdon; a measure which created universal discontent in the nation. These feelings of disgust were imprudently increased by an expedition of the young prince into France, where he joined the army of Henry, claimed from him the distinction of knighthood, and outraged the feelings of national jealousy, by forgetting his station as an independent prince, and fighting under the banner of the English monarch. A deputation from the Scots was sent into France to remonstrate against this conduct, nor did they hesitate in bold language to reproach their king for the desertion of his duty. Galloway rose into rebellion; the inhabitants of Moray about the same time threw off their allegiance; and Somerled the thane of Argyle invaded the country with a formidable fleet. Although the obstinacy of the king had brought these disasters upon himself, his energy and decision met and overcame them. He hurried from France, conciliated his nobles, invaded and subdued Galloway, repulsed Somerled, and after suppressing the rebellion in Moray, adopted the extraordinary measure of dispossessing its ancient inhabitants, compelling them to settle in more distant parts of his dominions, and planting new colonies in their room. These energetic measures were his last, for he died immediately after, at an early age, and was succeeded by his brother William the Second, son of Henry, prince of Scotland, and grandson of David the First.
The administration of this prince presents us with the longest reign in the range of Scottish history, extending from 1165 to 1214, nearly half a century. In this protracted division, the most important event was, the disgraceful surrender of the national independence to Henry the Second in 1174, and its recovery by William in 1189. Both transactions require our serious notice. It was the weakness of William to be guided by impulse. Smitten with admiration for the warlike qualities of Henry the Second, and uninstructed by the misfortunes of his predecessor Malcolm, he first courted this prince, and being disappointed in his object of procuring from his justice the restitution of Northumberland, he imprudently defied him. War ensued; and the king of the Scots having advanced with his army to Alnwick, was surprised, made prisoner, and shut up in the castle of Falaise in Normandy. His impatience under captivity, and the longing of the barons and clergy for their king, led to a pusillanimous treaty, which will ever remain a blot upon the national honour. With consent of his barons and clergy, given at Valognes on the 8th of December 1174, William agreed to become the liege-man of Henry for Scotland, and all his other territories; to deliver up to the English monarch the castles of Roxburgh, Berwick, Jedburgh, Edinburgh, and Stirling; to give his brother David and some of his chief barons as hostages, and to receive in return his liberty. In this treaty, it is remarkable, that while little care was shown as to the independence of the people, a prudent, and, as it has been well denominated, a memorable clause was introduced, which left entire the independence of the Scottish church; and this clause, the bishops and clergy took the first opportunity of asserting before the Papal legate in a council held at Northampton (1176).
On his return to his dominions, William appears to have devoted himself with much energy and success to the cares of government. His dominions were weakened and distracted by repeated insurrections in Ross and in Galloway. In these wild and remote districts, the native chiefs claimed almost a royal sway; and the people, ferocious in their habits, and jealous of all intercourse with England, were ready, upon the slightest provocation or encouragement, to rise in rebellion. A pretender to the crown also appeared in Galloway, in the person of Donald, the grandson of Duncan, commonly called the bastard king of Scotland. This adventurer having seized Ross, and wasted Moray, William led an army against him; nor was it till after a desperate struggle that Donald fell near Inverness, and by his death restored tranquillity to the country.
We have already seen how firmly the Scottish church had declared its independence. A.D.1188. The Scottish Church renounced the idea of any dependence upon the metropolitan sees of York or Canterbury; we have adverted to that careful reservation of their rights at the moment when the king and the nobles bartered away what was not theirs to give, the national independence. In this resolute conduct the clergy were supported by the king; and in 1188, Clement the Third pronounced a solemn decree, by which he declared the "church of Scotland to be the daughter of Rome, and immediately subject to her; and that to the Pope alone, or his legate de latere, should belong the power of pronouncing any sentence of excommunication against that kingdom."
This important declaration was soon followed by another event still more memorable, in which the kingdom recovered its independence. On the death of Henry the Second, Richard Cœur de Lion, his successor, then intent upon collecting money for his expedition to the Holy Land, invited the king of Scotland to his court, and upon William's engagement to pay to him the sum of ten thousand marks, agreed to restore his kingdom to its independence, reserving the homage formerly due by the Scottish kings for the lands which they held in England. The instrument by which this transaction was completed, declares, that Richard had delivered up to William king of Scots, his castles of Roxburgh and Berwick, had granted to him an acquittance of all obligations which had been extorted from him by Henry the Second, in consequence of his captivity, and had ordained the boundaries of the two kingdoms to be re-established as they existed at the date of William's imprisonment. The Scottish king was at the same time put in possession of all his fees in the earldom of Huntingdon; and all the charters of homage done to Henry the Second by the Scottish barons were delivered up, and declared to be cancelled for ever. We are to ascribe it to the wise regulations of this treaty, and the fidelity with which they were observed on both sides by its authors and their successors, that for a century after its date, there occurred no national quarrel or hostilities between the two countries. The remaining portion of the reign of William demands little notice. During the latter years of it, the succession of John to his brother Richard the First threatened to dissolve the pacific relations between the two countries; but war was happily averted, and the Scottish monarch reserved his energies for the pacification of his own realm, disturbed by a rebellion in the northern counties. In 1214, the king died at Stirling, after a reign of forty-eight years, the longest, as already stated, in Scottish history. His name of William the Lion was probably owing to the circumstance, that before his time, none of the Scottish kings had assumed a coat armorial. The Lion rampant first appears upon his shield.
William was succeeded by his son Alexander, a youth of seventeen, to whom the Scottish barons had sworn homage in 1201, and who was one of the wisest of our kings, whether we regard the justice of his administration, the reasonable severity with which he subdued all internal commotions in his kingdom, the firmness exhibited in his maintenance of the rights of the church, or the wisdom, forbearance, and vigour which marked his policy towards England. His reign was one of constant action, and full of incident. It commenced with his joining the English barons who resisted the tyranny of John. This conduct drew down upon him and his kingdom a sentence of excommunication (1216); but the papal terrors appear to have been little dreaded at this time; and in 1218, Honorius not only abrogated the sentence pronounced by his legate, but confirmed the liberties of the Scottish church.
On the accession of Henry the Third to the English throne, Alexander, who was occupied with quelling the repeated insurrections in the northern parts of his dominions, showed every disposition to cultivate amity with England; and his marriage to the princess Joanna, sister of Henry, had a favourable effect in strengthening the ties between the two monarchs.
One of the striking features which mark the reign of this monarch, is the gradual increase that is to be observed in the power of the nobles, and the corresponding decrease in the authority of the crown; but if this had injurious effects upon the general prosperity of the kingdom, and distracted it by internal private feuds, it encouraged a feeling of independence, and fostered that warlike spirit, which proved the best safeguards against the encroachments of their more powerful neighbours. This was strikingly shown on the occurrence of a rupture between England and Scotland in 1244. Some time before this, Alexander had claimed from Henry, in right of inheritance, the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland; and although the English king did not grant him his full demand, he admitted its justice, by transferring to him an equivalent in certain lands, which he accepted in full of all claims. For these lands the Scottish king did homage; and both monarchs remained on friendly terms for some years, when jealousies suddenly arose, and Henry, alleging that homage had been unjustly withheld, led an army against Scotland. Under these threatening circumstances, the Scottish king, although he had recently experienced the resistance of his nobles to his personal requests, found himself strongly supported by the same barons against the meditated attack of England. They raised in a short time an army of a hundred thousand foot, and a thousand horse, and this demonstration of the national strength had happily the effect of restoring peace without bloodshed. It is worthy of notice, that when a papal legate visited Scotland under this reign, and held a provincial council in the capital, the king manifested the same jealousy of such a proceeding as had been exhibited by his predecessors. He seemed afraid lest the admission of a papal messenger, whose message regarded England alone, should be deemed derogatory to the independence of the Scottish church; and although, at the request of the nobility of both countries, he consented to his coming into the kingdom, he declined a personal meeting, and stipulated that this permission should not be drawn into a precedent.
Having engaged in a maritime expedition against Angus of Argyll, one of those petty island chiefs, whose dubious allegiance, in those remote times, oscillated between Norway and Scotland, Alexander had conducted his fleet as far as the Sound of Mull, when he was seized with a fever, and died in a small island there named Kerranay, in the 35th year of his reign. He was succeeded by his son, Alexander the Third, a boy in his eighth year; and the kingdom, which had enjoyed under his father's wise and vigorous administration, an uncommon degree of prosperity, became immediately exposed to the many evils of a minority. Two parties divided the nobility; the one led by Walter Comyn, earl of Menteith, the other by Durward the high Justiciar; and Henry the Third secretly wrote to the Pope, requesting him to interdict the coronation of the young king. Scotland, he said, was a fee of England, Alexander his vassal, and his permission as superior had not been obtained. The Pope appears to have rejected his demand with promptitude, as derogatory to the rights of a sovereign Prince; and the ceremony of the coronation was performed at the abbey of Scone, the coronation-oath being read first in Latin, and afterwards in Norman-French.
Alexander soon afterwards, in fulfilment of a former treaty, Scotland, espoused Margaret, the youthful daughter of Henry, at York, and exhibited a spirit and intelligence superior to his years, in refusing to pay homage for his kingdom of Scotland. "I came," said he to the artful monarch who made the proposal; "I came into England on a joyful and pacific errand, not to answer to an arduous question, which belongs to the states of my kingdom." He at the same time made no objection to take the oath of fealty for the lands which he held in England.
Defeated in this attempt to overreach a minor sovereign, Henry commenced a series of intrigues with the Scottish nobles, with the object of obtaining an entire control over the affairs of the sister kingdom; and the country was divided and distracted by two factions, the one acting under English influence, and the other more honestly contending for the freedom of their prince and the independent administration of the government. These scenes of civil faction and foreign interference continued till the monarch, having arrived at manhood, and developing a character of much energy and judgment, took the reins into his own hand, and compelled his nobility to respect the laws and support his measures.
Haco, king of Norway, defeated at Largs, A.D.1263.
Scarcely had this happy change occurred, when the kingdom, which had already suffered from the vicinity of the fleets of Norway, was threatened with invasion by Haco, one of its most warlike princes. The dispute which led to this menace originated in a circumstance already noticed; the precarious homage paid by the petty piratical chiefs of the Western Isles, who, as circumstances pressed on the one side or the other, acknowledged a feudal dependence on Scotland or on Norway. To support them in their independence on Alexander, Haco made a descent on the western coast of Scotland with a mighty fleet, but sustained a signal defeat at Largs, and on his return with the shattered remains of his ships, sickened and died at Orkney. The results of this victory were highly favourable to Scotland. It fixed the chiefs of the Western Isles in their allegiance, secured to Alexander the homage of the king of Man, and convinced Norway that Scotland was not to be so easily subdued or overawed as its piratical princes had anticipated.
The remainder of this reign was prosperous, as far as the circumstances of the kingdom are considered, but unfortunate for the monarch, who found himself suddenly deprived by death of all his children. His eldest son, Alexander, died soon after his marriage, and his only daughter Margaret, the wife of Eric, king of Norway, was cut off in childhood, leaving an infant daughter, Margaret, commonly called the Maiden of Norway, the heiress of the Scottish throne. These calamities induced the king, who was a widower, to make a second marriage. Having selected Jeleta de Coney, daughter of the Count de Dreux, the nuptials were celebrated at Jedburgh; and the nation, under a wise monarch still in the prime of life, flourishing at home and at peace abroad, looked forward to a long season of prosperity, when all its hopes were overcast in a moment. Alexander, when riding in a dark night, on the brink of a dangerous rocky ledge near Kinghorn, was precipitated from the top to the bottom, and killed on the spot.
Death of Alexander III., A.D.1285.
The death of the king was deeply lamented, and not without cause, for he left the kingdom in most difficult circumstances, exposed to the ambition and attack of Edward the First, one of the ablest princes who had ever reigned in England, and its happiness at home dependant upon the precarious life of an infant. To fill the cup of Scotland's calamity, this child, Margaret, the Maiden of Norway, when on her passage from that country to take possession of her throne, sickened and died in Orkney; and on her death arose that celebrated competition for the Scottish crown, which threatened to plunge the kingdom into all the miseries of civil war.
The moment was favourable to the designs of Edward the First, who determined to make himself master of Scotland. While in that country the various competitors collected their forces and prepared to support their claims, Designs of the English monarch having given orders for assembling the strength of his kingdom by a certain day, invited the nobility and clergy of Scotland to meet him at Norham, for the purpose of deliberating upon the succession to the crown. It has been made a subject of dispute, whether Edward was invited by the Scottish people to be umpire in the contest for the crown, or whether he proposed himself as judge, and the subject is involved in some obscurity. It is by no means improbable, that English intrigue and a regard to their own interest, had induced some of the competitors, if not to invite, at least most readily to accept the mediation of the English monarch; but it is equally true, and the point is of far greater importance, that there is no evidence to prove that there was any invitation of this kind, either by the people of Scotland, or even by a majority of its nobles and clergy. Be this as it may, Edward the competitors for the crown, with a large proportion of acts as the nobility and clergy of Scotland, accepted the medi- pire, ation of Edward, and met this monarch at Norham, (May A.D.1291).
Of these claimants for the crown the two principal were Claims of John Balliol and Robert Bruce. It was quite apparent that Bruce and the question lay between them, the rights of the other competitors being evidently inferior to theirs. The title of these two chiefs arose out of the circumstance, that on the death of all descendants of Alexander the Third, the crown reverted to the descendants of David, earl of Huntingdon, brother of king William the Lion. This David left three daughters, Margaret, the eldest, who married Alan, lord of Gal- loway; Isabella, the second, who married Robert Bruce, father to the competitor Robert Bruce, lord of Annandale; and Ada, the third daughter, who married John de Hastings. It was evident, therefore, that the question lay between Balliol and Bruce. Balliol pleaded that he was entitled to the crown as the descendant of the eldest daughter, being great-grandson to David, earl of Huntingdon. Bruce admitted that he sprung from the second daughter, but contended that, being grandson of the earl of Huntingdon, and therefore a degree nearer, his claim was superior.
Edward's scheme against the independence of Scotland Conduct of was now ripe for execution; and announcing his determination to give a just decision, he, to the dismay of many present, required the Scottish barons to swear fealty to him as their Lord Paramount. It was in this character alone, he said, that he was entitled to give, and as such alone that he would pronounce, a judgment. The scene which now ensued was a humiliating one. The right of Edward was admitted; and Bruce, Balliol, the remaining competitors, the barons and the clergy, set their hands to an instrument, in which they acknowledged that the English king was feudal superior of Scotland. There can be little doubt that they knew this claim of Edward to be untenable upon any ground of truth or justice, but they saw it ready to be enforced by a determined prince at the head of the whole strength of his dominions, and they did not dare to resist it. Edward, accordingly, having received their oaths of homage, proceeded to investigate the contending claims, and awarded the crown to John Balliol.
It was probably part of the plan of the English monarch He invaded to quarrel with his vassal king. It is at least certain, that Scotland he availed himself of the earliest appearance of spirit and resistance in this unfortunate prince to summon him, in terms of reproach and indignity, to his court in England, and at last goaded him and his people into what he termed rebellion. In the war which ensued, Edward found it an easy matter to overrun a kingdom unprepared to resist so formidable an enemy. The town of Berwick was carried by storm; Scotland. Dunbar, the key of the borders, surrendered; Balliol was taken prisoner and sent to the Tower; while the English prince concluded what he deemed the conquest of Scotland, by removing from Scone to Westminster the sacred stone upon which the long line of its kings had been crowned and anointed. But at this sad moment Scotland, which in vain looked for a deliverer amongst its feudal nobles, found one in a man of far inferior rank.
William Wallace was the son of Sir Malcolm Wallace, who held the estate of Ellerslie, near Paisley. Having been outlawed by the English for an alleged murder, committed on one by whom he had been grievously injured, he fled into the fastnesses of his country, and assembling round him a small band of followers, who were weary of their servitude, commenced that kind of predatory warfare, which led from one success to another, till he saw himself at the head of a formidable force. With this he boldly descended into the low country, and after having defeated the English in the sanguinary battle of Stirling, was soon after chosen Governor of Scotland. This title he only accepted as acting in the name of John Balliol, whom he had always acknowledged as his hereditary king. Into the exploits and career of this great man it is impossible, within our limits, to enter; but making every allowance for the passionate admiration of his countrymen, and regarding him as reflected in the cold glass of history, rather than invested with the brilliant hues of romance, there will still be found all that constitutes a heroic character, if the accomplishment of the greatest results with the most confined means, an entire devotion to his country, a contempt of power for its own sake, unextinguishable hatred of oppression, and a personal courage which nothing could shake for a moment, were ever entitled to such an epithet.
It was however impossible for Wallace, with all his great qualities, to reconcile the Scottish nobles to his elevated position, or to compose the feuds and jealousies which divided and weakened their efforts. Edward, who had been absent in Flanders when his officers were defeated at Stirling, hurried back to England, and once more invading Scotland at the head of an immense army, encountered and defeated Wallace in the battle of Falkirk. The result of this victory was the temporary subjugation of a country, whose allegiance expired the moment its invaders retired. Wallace voluntarily resigned the office of Governor, Robert Bruce and John Comyn were chosen Guardians, and for five years the war was continued with various success; but Edward, who in this interval had thrice invaded the kingdom, by these unceasing efforts and superior numerical strength, at last subdued the spirit, and appeared to have completed the conquest of this devoted people. The Guardians submitted and were pardoned; sentence of outlawry was pronounced against Simon Fraser and the few followers of Wallace who still held out; and at last this great chief himself was betrayed into the hands of the conqueror, and executed at London. It was at this crisis, which seemed to seal for ever the fate and liberty of the Scottish people, that a deliverer arose in the person of Robert Bruce.
Section V.
A.D. 1306 to 1436.
Nothing could be more extraordinary, or apparently more unpromising to the cause of freedom, than the circumstances which led to this great result. Robert Bruce, earl of Carrick, and grandson of the competitor for the crown, had acted a dubious and interested part during the years that Wallace, and the few patriotic barons who adhered to him, made their stand for the independence of their country. He inherited, with vast landed estates, the right to the crown possessed by his grandfather; but, had he urged his claim, it might have been at the risk of the forfeiture of these possessions, which made him one of the most powerful barons in Scotland; and, although, in his early career, we can detect occasional outbreaks of the patriotic feeling, he preserved his allegiance to Edward the First, and appears to have been treated with confidence by that monarch.
The injuries inflicted on the country seem at last to have aroused both Bruce and Comyn, and they formed a secret agreement to rise against the English. But Comyn's heart failed him. He betrayed the purpose to Edward, and meeting Bruce, who had been made aware of his treachery, in the church of the Grey friars at Dumfries, that proud baron reviled him as an informer, and stabbed him to the heart on the steps of the high altar. He was instantly proclaimed a traitor by Edward, excommunicated as a sacrilegious murderer by the Pope, a price set upon his head; and from the first and most influential noble in the kingdom, he felt that he must either assert his right to the crown, and trust to his sword for its defence, or be content to sink into the condition of an outlaw and a fugitive. His decision was instantly taken. He rode with his little band to Scone, and claims there solemnly crowned; but being aware of the advance of an English army, he hastily concentrated his forces, A.D. 1306, and after ravaging Galloway, marched against Perth, then in possession of Edward.
But the early portion of Bruce's career was disastrous; and those military talents, which afterwards conducted him through a course of unexampled victory, were nursed amid untutored defeat and hardship. He was put to flight at Methven, his small army dispersed, and he himself driven an almost solitary wanderer through Lennox and Kintyre, to seek an asylum in Rachrin, a little island on the northern coast of Ireland. Here he remained during the winter, unaware of the execution of his faithful followers, who had fallen into the hands of Edward; of the imprisonment of his queen and daughter, and the extraordinary severity with which the English monarch seemed determined to rivet the fetters upon his native country.
In the spring he passed over from Raclurin to Arran, accompanied by his brother Edward Bruce, Sir James Douglas the glas, and about three hundred men. His own castle of English at Turnberry, on the coast of Carrick, was then occupied by Lord Percy, an officer of Edward. Bruce attacked it, put the English garrison to the sword, and, after a variety of minor enterprises, in which, although often repulsed, he and his followers gained experience and confidence, he ventured, although at the head of only six hundred spearmen, to meet the earl of Pembroke, with three thousand cavalry, at Loudon Hill, (May 1307). The result of this conflict, owing to the admirable dispositions of Bruce, was the entire defeat of the English; and from this point, the crisis of his fortune, to the hour when the liberty of his country was for ever secured on the field of Bannockburn, the career of this extraordinary man presented an almost continuous series of success.
It was perhaps fortunate for Scotland that he was opposed, not by Edward the First, who had died when on his march to Scotland, (1307), but by his son, Edward the Second, a prince of far inferior talent; yet the military resources of England were so formidable, and the barons who wielded them such experienced leaders, that Bruce, who had to struggle against domestic enemies, as well as foreign invasion, may well be praised for the admirable judgment with which he wielded the strength of his little kingdom. It was his policy to avoid a general battle, and to starve and distress the formidable armies which England repeatedly sent against him, by wasting the country, retiring slowly before his enemies into the woods and fastnesses, and when they were compelled by famine or the season to retreat, by hanging on their rear, and cutting them off in detail. Convinced that, from the poverty of Scotland, it was in vain to attempt to rival the mounted chivalry of England, he turned his whole attention to the formation and discipline of his infantry. They were armed with a spear eighteen feet in length, a sword and battle-axe at their girdle, a short cut-and-thrust dagger, a steel bonnet, and a back and breast-piece buckled over a tough leather jerkin. They were trained to form sometimes in squares, sometimes in circles, more or less deep, according to the nature of the ground and of the service. Such was the main army of Bruce, his pikemen; but after he had restored peace and security to his kingdom, and began in his turn to act upon the offensive, he often employed the only kind of cavalry which Scotland could raise, the border prickers, who, lightly armed, mounted on hardy little horses, and carrying as their provisions a bag of meal slung at their saddle-bow, darted upon the richest districts of England, or stripped them of their wealth, and scoured like a whirlwind across the border, ere the force of the country could be raised in its defence.
To pursue the details of his obstinate contest with England, is impossible. It was during the first years a war of defense, in which Bruce struggled for existence. This secured it became aggressive; but his efforts were confined to the recovery of his dominions out of the hands of those Scottish barons who had embraced the service of the enemy, or his castles from the English governors to whom they had been entrusted. At last, when Edward the Second, at the head of an army a hundred thousand strong, composed of the flower of his kingdom, and led by his most experienced officers, had penetrated into the country, Bruce found himself driven from his favourite maxim, and compelled to hazard a battle. On the field of Bannockburn, near Stirling, thirty thousand Scottish foot, and five hundred horse, led by the king in person, and under him commanded by Douglas, Randolph, and the Steward of Scotland, encountered and entirely defeated the formidable array of England. Edward fled from the field to Dunbar, and the broken remains of his army, in dispersed bodies, made their retreat in much disorder into England, (June 24, 1314).
In this memorable victory it may be said, without exaggeration, that a lesson in the history of liberty was taught, not only to Scotland, but to the world; to every people who have felt the misery of servitude, or tasted the sweets of freedom. It proved that a country may be, as Scotland was under Edward the First, brought by oppression and cruelty to the very brink of despair; its cities sacked, its fields laid waste, till famine was the consequence; its best leaders executed or imprisoned, its hearths left desolate, its very offerings of praise proscribed, and its refuge in religion attempted to be cut off; but that, till exterminated, a free-born people cannot be said to be subdued.
The immediate effects of this great victory upon the spirit of the respective countries, were not less remarkable. It convinced the Scots, that, with a good heart and skilful leaders, their squares of infantry, with their long pikes, were a match for the English horse, however superior in arms and numbers; it taught the king, that what he had most to dread was the discharge of the English bowmen; and admonished him, that, however complete had been the defeat, however glorious the consequences of the victory, his favourite military maxim, to avoid a general battle, was still his best and safest course. It affords a striking view of the character of this great man, that his success at Bannockburn led neither to presumption, nor, much as he had suffered, and deeply as he had been injured in his tenderest relations, to a cruel retaliation. On the contrary, it was followed up by Bruce with an immediate proposal for peace; but he would consent to treat only on the footing of an independent king, and the offer was rejected.
From 1314 to 1328, an interval of nearly fourteen years, Robert the war was continued with almost uninterrupted success. Bruce on the part of the Scots; while a series of reverses were endured by England, which are chiefly to be ascribed to the pusillanimous character of the monarch, and the great military ability not only of Bruce, but of the officers whom he had trained, Sir James Douglas, Randolph earl of Moray, the young steward of Scotland, and many others. It may convey some idea of Bruce's incessant occupation in the field, when it is mentioned, that during this interval, England was twelve times invaded, either by the king in person, or by his officers, its border counties were exposed to ravages, and on frequent occasions the fires which marked the Scottish march were seen burning beside the gates of York; nor were the Scottish king's proposals for a peace accepted, till the English districts, which were compelled to purchase safety by the payment of a heavy tribute, threatened in their misery, to throw themselves into the arms of Scotland. The war At last, on the first of March 1328, an English parliament assembled at York. Bruce was acknowledged king of Scotland, A.D.1328 Scotland itself recognised as a free and independent kingdom, and peace established, after a sanguinary war of twenty years.
This great consummation was not long survived by him Death of to whom, under God, the result was chiefly due. The Bruce, king, whose constitution had been broken by the fatigues A.D.1329 and exposure of his early life, began to droop soon after he saw the liberty of his country permanently established; and he died at Cardross on the 7th of June 1329.
The death of Bruce was a severe trial to Scotland. His David II. only son David, who succeeded him, was a boy of six years Regency of old; and while the nation was thus exposed to all the evils of a long minority, Edward the Third, one of England's most warlike monarchs, was just commencing his career, which soon developed uncommon talents, and great ambition. Randolph indeed, who was chosen Regent, and the good Sir James Douglas, with other veteran officers, still remained; but Douglas was slain in Spain, whither he had proceeded on his way to Jerusalem with his master's heart; and the earl of Moray only survived the death of Bruce for three years. To add to these calamities, the monarchs who successively filled the Scottish throne, and on whose personal character, in these rude times, much of the success and vigour of the government depended, were little similar to their great predecessor. From the death of Bruce till the reign of James the First, the first prince who in any measure was worthy of a comparison with him, a period of nearly a century elapsed, in which the sceptre passed into the hands of three princes, David the Second, Robert the Second, (the first sovereign of the house of Stewart, being the son of the Steward of Scotland, by Marjory, Bruce's only daughter,) and, lastly, Robert the Third. Contemporary with these Scottish princes were Edward the Third, Richard the Second, Henry the Fourth, and Henry the Fifth, all, with one exception in Richard, wise, warlike, and fortunate monarchs. The odds, therefore, were infinitely against Scotland, a country far inferior in its population and resources to England, and torn by domestic feuds; and yet against reiterated attacks it maintained the contest for its liberty. Unable to descend into minute detail, we take a summary of the larger portion of this calamitous interval of Scottish history, from another work. "A period of sixty-four years elapsed between the death of Robert Bruce and the birth of James the First, during which time, although torn by anarchy and domestic faction, the country maintained a remarkable struggle for its liberty. It
---
1 We date not from the birth of James, but his return from captivity in England. It may be proper to mention, that the authorities for this sketch, from Alexander the Third to the reign of Mary, are the same as those followed by Mr. Tytler, in his History of Scotland. Scotland was in this period, eight times invaded by a foreign force; it was betrayed and deserted by David the Second, the unworthy son and successor of Bruce; it saw, on many occasions, the most powerful of its nobles enlisted under the banner of its enemies; it had to struggle against the military genius and political talents of Edward the Third, and Henry the Fourth and Fifth; and yet, with limited resources, and divided councils, so tenaciously did the people cling to their liberty, that, though sore oppressed, they were never conquered. Amid almost constant war, and its dreadful accompaniments, famine and the pestilence, they still preserved their freedom, preferring the prospect of living in a country reduced by repeated invasion to a solitude or a desert, or even the last alternative of being totally exterminated, to the most flattering offers of being united to England, when coupled with the condition that they should renounce their national independence.
We have above alluded to the degeneracy of David the Second, whose long reign of forty-two years was divided into a minority, the greater part of which was passed in France; a captivity in England, the result of his calamitous defeat in the battle of Durham; and a train of subsequent reverses all occasioned by his headstrong character and devotion to his selfish pleasures. But the darkest stain upon David, was his intrigues with Edward the Third, in which he hesitated not to sacrifice the independence of the country, to swear homage to the English prince for his kingdom of Scotland, and even to propose to his parliament, that the order of succession solemnly settled by his heroic father, should be altered in favour of an English prince. It is needless to say that so degrading a proposal was indignantly repelled, and that the death of the prince who had offered the insult was regarded as a national deliverance.
In Robert the Second, who succeeded him as the first of the house of Stewart, and his son, Robert the Third, the nation, though still exposed to the repeated attacks of England, experienced a short breathing time, owing to the death of Edward the Third, and the incapacity of Richard the Second; but neither of these Scottish princes possessed the vigour or the talents requisite to wield the sceptre with success, in the midst of the difficulties by which they were surrounded. The second Robert came to the crown when age had chilled his vigour; and his son and successor, Robert the Third, was of too indolent and gentle a character to hold his part against a fierce feudal nobility, led by his brothers, the Earls of Fife and Buchan, the first a man of great ambition, the second a monster of crime, who gave himself up to every species of lust and rapine, and has been traditionally remembered as "the Wolf of Badenoch."
All this led to great disorder. The king, unwilling to burden himself with the cares of government, devolved the administration upon his son, the duke of Rothsay, a young man of violent passions, though of considerable ability, who had made himself particularly obnoxious to his uncle, the earl of Fife. This led to a fatal collision. Fife, whose authority was increased by his being made duke of Albany, proved too strong for the young prince. His father, the king, was persuaded that the excesses of his son required restraint, and the unhappy youth was hurried to Falkland, and shut up in a dungeon, where he was intrusted to the care of two ruffians, who starved him to death. It was at first reported that he had been cut off by a dysentery; but the horrible tale of his sufferings soon after transpired. A poor woman in passing through the palace garden, had been attracted by his groans, and had found means to support him by thin cakes which she slid into the grated window of his prison, and it is said by her own milk, conveyed through a reed; but she was detected, and put to death by his keepers; and after fifteen days, the body of the miserable captive was found in a state too shocking to be described.
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 return 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. vengeance fell with a proportionally 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 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 Albays, 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 commissioners 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 land; 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 scholar and 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 Feb. 20, 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 a 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 Sir Bruce to all the evils of a long minority. His eldest son, who succeeded to the throne by the title of James the A.D. 1436. 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 unwearying care of the husband whom she had lost. Her first Pains duty was the arrest and punishment of his murderers; and merit of the this she executed with speedy and immutigible severity, murderers. But the death of the king once more gave a licence, and offered to the feudal nobles an opportunity of recovering their power of which they were not slow to avail themselves. 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 handled about, a passive puppet, from the failing 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 safe-conduct bearing the royal signature, to visit James in the Castle of Stirling. After the royal feast, the king remonstrated with his guest; disclosed to him the proofs A.D.1451, 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 Murder of offer, replied to it with haughtiness and insolence; and the Earl of James, losing all command of himself, and braved to his Douglas by face, drew his dagger and stabbed him to the heart. Fall, James II. lying 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 of Cardross, 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- 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.
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 genius 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.
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 dissension 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 expatriated 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. Into 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 rivalled that of the once formidable Douglases. He became governor of the king's person; filled every office with his 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 negotiated 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 could have been anticipated from the struggles of his State of 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 Character 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 reproached 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 basely 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 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 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 Renewed was not strong enough to inflict a more exemplary punishment, it is difficult to decide; but the result demonstrated what Albany has been so often taught, the folly of a 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's 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 Alasdair Douglas, in the abbey of Lindores, where he had been confined, and of Albany, who was slain in a tournament in France.
The Scottish nobles delivered from his most powerful enemies, would have been renew their 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 its 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 determined execution of those laws which late years had seen so weakly constantly treated with contempt. But whether the affec- tionate heart of the monarch sickened at the sight of his subjects in mortal array against each other, or some sympa-thoms 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 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, not as a son conscious that he had offended, but as a sovereign, reign 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. Rebellion of James retired to his capital, his army was dismissed, 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 Scotland, 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 Burn, within 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 commissaries 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 complainers artfully pursued. If any party in the state were at this juncture liable to a charge of treason, it was evidently the friends 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 his 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., Dunbarlon, 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 princes; 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 Scotland 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 island princes who affected independence; he carried into their territories, which had hitherto 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 Rannoch, 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 James's spring months, was conducted with great state. He was voyage to accompanied by his chief ministers, his household, and a highconsiderable fleet, many of the vessels composing which lands in 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 Forfeiture 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 Warbeck mysterious story still offers some field for historical scepticism, 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 interest 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 immediately 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
---
1 Catherine Gordon, the daughter of the Earl of Huntly. Scotland. their enthusiasm; and the desolating fury with which James IV. 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 cipher 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 Aberdeen useful learning, ought not to be passed over. Scotland, deem at this period, possessed only two universities, St. Andrews, founded in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and Glasgow, founded in 1453. 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 king, 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, Northern 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 respect or preserve the pacific relations with that country, 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 Henry the Eighth engaged in war with France, the ancient rivalry of Scotland, James at once warmly espoused the party of Louis, and although against the best interests of his kingdom, 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 Cambray, 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 destruction. 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 Borthwick, 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 encampment, 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 Scotland battle commenced at four in the afternoon, and after an obstinate contest, which continued till nightfall, concluded James V. 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 entails upon the kingdom, it is not too much to pronounce the battle of Flodden 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 of James 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, of James 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 Borthwick, 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 State of 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- Scotland, 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, pensioned supporters. He bribed the Scottish nobles, entertained a constant correspondence with the queen his sister, and even went so far as to propose her flight with 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 Albany, as unacceptable to many of the wisest and best men in the 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's measures 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 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 keys from her the keys of the castle of Edinburgh, and with them the custody of the young king; he assembled a parliament, 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 portion of them were false, and the whole grossly exaggerated. So at least we must judge from the conduct of the Scottish 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 upon the impulse of the moment, and thwarted by the politic measures of the Regent, had dispatched a herald, who conveyed a severe reprimand to the queen, and, at the same time, insisted that the Scottish nobles should instantly dismiss Albany. Their reply to this haughty communication was spirited and dignified. They declaimed 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 pleasure," said they, "that he shall remain, nor shall he be permitted 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,) it, because we 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 conservation 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 Scotland on the side of the Merse and Teviotdale; an English fleet ravaged and laid waste the coasts of the Frith 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 principles 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 disbanding his army and resuming his civil duties, found himself 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 selfishness 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 execution 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 without 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, consisting of Huntly, Arran, Argyll, and Gonzales, 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 preponderating influence over the nobility, and to decide the War 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 England; 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 aggression. As many of these barons, however, were at that moment receiving pensions from France, the payment of which any too decided demonstration might have interrupted, 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 insubordination, 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 season, 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 Albany been corrupted by the money and intrigues of Dacre and treats, 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 auxiliaries 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 distracted and impeded by mutual accusations and complaints. The Regent could not conceal his animosity towards 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 notwithstanding the inclement season of the year, insisted on his dismissing the foreign troops, whose residence had become 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 entrusted to the lords Cassillis, Fleming, Borthwick, and Erskine, while the chief management of affairs was committed to a council, composed of the chancellor, the bishop of Aberdeen, and the earls of Huntly and Argyll. Having Albany made these arrangements, the duke of Albany quitted the leaves 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 Scotland 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 remonstrated against, 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 Kilmaurs, 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; the 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 party of the queen-mother was the weakest. Arran, a certain suspicious man, deserted her; her private conduct rendered her session of disreputable in the eyes of the people; and soon afterwards the 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 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 disunion 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 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 considerately 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." 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 Douglases, 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 thrall, 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 Douglases 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 Scotland, forfeiture, could be wielded by them at pleasure. So long as the king remained in their hands, this powerful machinery James V. was all theirs; the moment he escaped, the system broke A.D.1528, 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 Douglases more hateful to him, his mind became intensely 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 jailing 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, "he caused him to warn all the whole tenants and gentlemen therabouts 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 would 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 dejeune (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, stept forth as a yeoman of the stable, and was unperceived 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 Douglases and the Douglases 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 Scotland, 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 Douglas family 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 Douglas 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 haughtily 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 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 shewn 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, 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 encouragement to secure to all classes of his subjects 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 Douglas and their adherents were driven upon violent and discreditable courses, glasses sell in proportion as their prospect of reconciliation to the king 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." Scotland, 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 un molested 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 Ferrie, 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 boroughs, 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 The king emperor, a circumstance which induced the French king to visits 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 Vendôme. Here, being received only as a noble stranger, he saw, for the first time, but did not approve of his advanced bride, Marie de Bourbon, the duke's daughter, and transferred his affections to Madeleine, the youngest daughter of the French king, to
---
1 MS. British Museum, Calig. B. I. 128. 2 Diurnal of Occurrents in Scotland, p. 19 Scotland, whom he was soon after married in the church of Notre Dame.
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 Scotland, 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 Douglasses 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, whose 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 Douglasses, 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 A.D.1537, 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 Cardinal renewed persecution of the reformers; and it is worthy of Beaton's observation, that most of the converts to the reformed faith belonged to the order of the inferior clergy. Keiller, 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, such 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. The king first coasted Fife, Angus, and
---
* In the Harleian Collection, British Museum. Scotland. Buchan; he next visited Caithness, crossed the Pentland frith to the Orkneys, doubled Cape Wrath, steered for the James V. 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 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.
Conspiracy. 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, Glamis, 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 Scotland, 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 of 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 James in 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 invasion by 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 Douglases, had joined him; but they were encountered, and completely defeated by Huntly and Home.
This, however, was merely a preliminary outbreak; and the king as such border outrages had frequently occurred without making a last drawing after them more serious consequences, James attempt to make 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 James V., 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, 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 betrothment 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 Solway Moss, followed, as we have seen, by the death of the king, gave an alarming advantage to Henry with Henry the Eighth. The earl of Angus, Sir George Douglas, the prisoners, 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 Scotland 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 accomplishing 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 remained in captivity, while Angus, Sir George Douglas, and the strength of their house, cordially co-operated with Henry.
It was the policy of these lords on their return to Scotland, 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 reformed opinions; all the nobles who had forsaken the ancient 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 faction; 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.
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 determined 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 treasonable 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 England; he upbraided the Douglases for their delay to surrender the fortresses of the kingdom; and instead of being contented 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 Scotland, separate and independent kingdom.
Amidst these collisions the secret treachery of the Douglases and the Solway lords began to transpire. Beaton nearly about the same time recovered his liberty, and after gaining his illusory attempt to secure a matrimonial alliance with Henry and England on just and equal grounds, he placed himself and placed himself in the great party of which he became the leader in determining his own hostility to Henry. A last effort, however, was made, and a Scottish embassy sought the English court. In a 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 Scotland, as had been predicted, with a universal burst of indignation. 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 shew himself in the capital.
To counteract all these effects, Sir George Douglas exerted himself with indefatigable activity. Henry was prevailed upon to renounce the most obnoxious part of his demands, with Arran, with his characteristic caprice, deserted his new land, 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 Device, 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. Treachery was avowed by the opposite faction, that it had been of the worst kind, carried through by private influence, unsanctioned by the highest nobles, unauthorized by any parliament, contrary to the wishes of the people; and at this very crisis the cardinal 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, unmindful 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 violence his wonted impetuosity and want of principle. He intrigued against the life and liberty of the cardinal, but his plots to get possession of the prelate were unsuccessful; he seized 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 Scotland. hostile preparations, made it apparent that war could not be long averted. France now offered her assistance to her anciently. 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 inculcate 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 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 laird 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—Edward towards Scotland. In England, the protector Somerset, 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 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-cleugh, 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 Flodden, 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-digested. 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 inroad into Annandale by Lord Wharton and the earl of Lennox, were to exasperate the feelings of national antipathy, and to throw the governor 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, 1548.
It belongs not to an historical sketch of this kind, to enter War with into the details of that sanguinary and obstinate war which England now took place between England and the united strength Peace com- of France and Scotland. The slaughter at Pinkey, the ended, burning of their sea-ports and shipping, and the piteous se- verity with which the repeated invasions of their country were accompanied, 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 Eng- land, 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 event- Guise ef- ful struggle for the establishment of the reformation, the his- tory of which may properly be divided into the war of opinion, regency 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 compara- tively of short duration, and concluded in the treaty of Edin- burgh 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 con- fession 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 undissembled resentment.
To make up for this disappointment, the marriage between Marriage the young queen of Scots and the dauphin was concluded of Mary to with much solemnity at Notre Dame; and in a parliament the Dauphin held at Edinburgh, it was agreed that the youthful husband should bear the title of king of Scotland during the con- Accession tinuance of the marriage, that all letters in Scotland should be Queen run in the joint names of Francis and Mary, and that the Elizabeth- arme of both kingdoms should be quartered in the great seal A.D.1558, 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 of the reformation, this great moral revolution had made no the Refor- inconsiderable progress in Scotland. The return of Knox mation in to his native country in 1555, and the influence which his Scotland, 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 worshipping 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 acquired 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, 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 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. 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 he 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 Mary and Francis 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 in determined opposition to each other; for although some Amistice bellion, 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 The Lord effects. The lord James, afterwards the regent Murray, James de a young man of great talents and ambition, who had hitherto, seen the Regent, though professing reformed opinions, adhered to the regent, though professing reformed opinions, Regent, the Count of Guise, a powerful and influential nobleman, followed his example; and, faithful to their re- take newed covenant, the army of the Congregation assembled in Perth, strength at St. Andrews. Knox in the mean time, whose A.D.1559 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 thralldom 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 Scotland, 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 Dumbarton, 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 for French assistance 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 papish 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 disunion 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 the treaty of Berwick between Elizabeth and the party of Francis.
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 Woolton 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 suffered their rights of sitting in the convention of estates, to fall into disuse, were mostly attached to the doctrines of 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 reformed 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 anything 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, dispensed 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 A.D.1560, 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, Lord James, 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 his 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 Difficulties the young queen considered the state of parties in Scotland, 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 of policy; and after deliberate consideration, the queen determined to make the lord James her chief minister, and to secure the friendship and good offices of Elizabeth. In this minister. Scotland, 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 re-action 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 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 she promised, the result might have led to the deposition 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; upbraided 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 Mary 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, Riccio, 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 against the conspirators, that they fled in dismay to Berwick, and solicited the protection of Elizabeth.
Darnley, in his confessions to Mary, had betrayed his 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 Birth of her with avowed aversion; and even the Roman Catholics James VI 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 retired from court, threatened to murder the earl of Murray, and at last declared he would leave the kingdom. It was 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 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
---
1 Keith's History of Scotland, p. 283. Scotland, as it may, she recovered only to be the victim of more aggravated sufferings. Partial reconciliations were followed by no revival of affection or confidence; and in the anguish of a wounded spirit, she sometimes lamented that she had not died at Jedburgh.
A divorce proposed.
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 it 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 physicians 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.
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 Accusa 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 assassinated 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 majority of the nobility prevailed upon the queen to recommend 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 from his wife and 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 The nobles crowded on each other. The nobles who had advised the rise against marriage, who had acquitted Bothwell, and abetted him in the queen, 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
---
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, Whitaker, 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 assertions, 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 he 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 Regency of possessor of the supreme power in Scotland; but the queen Murray 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 Commission at political intrigues rather than judicial investigation. After some interval Murray was summoned to hold a private interview with Elizabeth at Westminster; and Mary again partial 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 shrunk from a public challenge of Mary; and however suspicious or inexplicable some of the Scotland, steps taken by this unfortunate princess may have been, her friends alleged that victory in the conferences at York and Westminster was on her side. Yet she was detained a captive by the very princess who had virtually declared her guiltless. All this might however have been anticipated; and no one who knew any thing of the unscrupulous policy of Elizabeth could have dreamed, that having once possession of the queen, she would ever permit her to return to her dominions. In her detention, she possessed the means of rendering Murray subservient to her wishes, of checking the Roman Catholic party, confirming the ascendancy of the protestants, and destroying the French interest and intrigues in Scotland. These were advantages with which no considerations of the individual guilt or innocence of her royal captive were likely to interfere.
The subsequent career of Murray was bold and brief. He found himself called to a contest with a party, headed by the duke of Norfolk in England, and by Maitland and Grange in Scotland, whose object was, the restoration of the Scottish queen, and her marriage to Norfolk. The project had been encouraged by the Regent, whether at first sincerely or for selfish and ambitious purposes, is not clear; but in the end he betrayed the plot to Elizabeth, and was the main instrument in bringing this unfortunate nobleman to the scaffold.
The principles upon which his government was conducted were entirely protestant and English; and Elizabeth, who knew well and valued so able an assistant, cordially co-operated with him to overwhelm the queen's friends, and to extinguish all hopes of the Roman Catholic party in either country. But the task was more difficult than had been anticipated. She succeeded indeed in extinguishing the great rebellion, led by the earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland; but Murray found it impossible to prevent the intrigues of such men as Maitland, Grange, and their associates, who had known him long, and having assisted to raise him to the supreme power, were indignant to find themselves treated with severity or neglect. It was in the midst of this struggle between the regent and his former associates in ambition and guilt, that he was assassinated in the streets of Linlithgow, by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, who was incited to this act of revenge by a private injury, of which Murray was only the remote cause.
His death found Scotland divided between two parties. On the one side were the Protestants who adhered to the young king, and regarded Elizabeth as their protector; on the other the queen's friends, who, being animated with the utmost rancour against their opponents, prepared instantly to appeal to the sword. Previously to this, however, they assembled a parliament at Edinburgh, and fulminated denunciations of treason against their enemies; while the protestants in their turn having chosen the earl of Lennox regent, convoked the estates at Stirling, and soon afterwards having made themselves masters of Dunbarston by a successful night attack, they took prisoner the archbishop of St. Andrews, who had shut himself up in the fortress, and executed him on the instant, without even the semblance of a trial. This outrage led to retaliation, and a civil war, remarkable for its ferocity, began to spread havoc through the country. On Mary's side were the duke of Chastelerault, the earls of Argyll, Athole, Huntly, Crawford, Rothes, and Cassillis, the lords Seton, Boyd, Gray, Livingston, Fleming, with the lairds of Buccleugh, Fernihurst, and many others; to whom we must add the able and crafty secretary Maitland, and the experienced soldier Kirkaldy of Grange. Of the king's party the nobles were neither so numerous nor so powerful. Lennox, Morton, Mar, and Glencairn, lords Lindsay, Glamis, Semple, Methven, Ochiltree, Cathcart, Ruthven, and some others, espoused this side; but if inferior in numbers, they were confident in the assistance of England, and in the support of the church, the commons, and the boroughs.
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 Mor- ton, a man who has been justly described as possessing all chosen faults, some of the talents, but none of the good qualities regent. His character 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 by Elizabeth, resumed his project of marrying Mary, and engaged in a correspondence with her. The duke of Chas- teleauralt, and the earl of Huntly, lord Claud Hamilton, the lairds of Buccleugh and Fernihurst, with the indefatig- able 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 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.
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 young king, and the duke his favourite. With these advantages, an overwhelming opposition was soon raised against Morton; and as his exactions and cruelty had made him universally odious, it was in vain that his steady friend, the English queen, interposed to save him. Her interference indeed rather accelerated his fate, and the news that she meditated an invasion, roused the spirit of the young king and of his people to instant opposition. When Elizabeth, however, received intelligence that a Scottish army was assembled, she prudently withdrew from the contest; and Morton abandoned to his fate, was arraigned as an accomplice in the king's murder, at the instance of captain Stewart, who had recently been created earl of Arran. Of his guilt there can be little doubt, and he himself, after the jury brought in their verdict, and he had received sentence of death, acknowledged that he was privy to the intended murder. But his trial was conducted, even in those days of prostituted justice, with a reckless disregard of every form of law; and all were aware that the jury, of whom many were his bitter enemies, would, under any circumstances, have found him guilty. He died as he had lived, boldly, expressing a calm contempt of death, and exhibiting all the outward marks of repentance.
The death of Morton was followed by the nominal accession of the young king to the supreme power, but by the actual transmission of that power into the hands of his favourites, Lennox and Arran. This last nobleman, owing to the weak and flexible character of Lennox, soon came to rule all, and his rapacity, profligacy, and open defiance of public opinion, completely disgusted the nation. The result was a conspiracy for his ruin, headed by the earl of Gowrie. This nobleman and his associates having contrived to make themselves masters of the king's person, at the castle of Ruthven, and having removed Lennox and Arran from all authority in the state, directed the government as they judged best for their own interests. But the character of the king, although full of many strange contradictions, began now to exhibit a greater degree of talent and energy than his opponents were aware of; and although compelled to dissemble, and showing no symptoms of discontent with this change of masters, James was really disgusted with the durance in which he was held by Gowrie and his faction. With an ability which proved the more successful, because his adversaries were unprepared for it, he contrived to organize a party, and free himself from his servitude; but it happened unfortunately that at this crisis the earl of Arran James VI. A.D.1578. Morton resigns the regency.
.
A.D.1579.
Rise of Esmé, duke of Lennox, and the earl of Arran.
A.D.1581.
Morton is tried, condemned, and executed.
A.D.1582.
The earl of Arran at the head of the government.
Raid of Ruthven.
Scotland.
It might have been expected that if anything could have Elizabeth roused the king of Scots, it would have been the cruelty base con- and injustice to which his mother had fallen a sacrifice; and dur- 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 in- nocent 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 Scotland looked to the king, who, after a short interval, relapsed into his usual pacific frame of mind, and celebrated his entrance James VI. upon majority, by an attempt to abolish those sanguinary A.D.1567. 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 Princess of the princess Anne of Denmark; an alliance which Elizabeth, Denmark. A.D.1589. 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 ambition 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 squabbles 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 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 was enjoying a degree of tranquillity to which it had been compelled 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 23d 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. The mainland of Scotland lies between 54° 38' and 58° 41' N. Lat., its extreme points being the Mull of Galloway in the south and Dunnet Head in the north. It extends from 1° 46' to 6° 14' W. Long., from Peterhead on the east to Ardnamurchan Point on the west coast. Its greatest length, nearly due north and south, in 5° W. Long., from the Mull of Galloway to Cape Wrath, is about 280 miles; its greatest breadth, from Buchan Ness to the coast of Applecross, above 150 miles. From the Firth of Forth to the Clyde, and from the Dornoch Firth to Loch Broom, the distance is scarcely 30 miles. The extent of sea-coast, from the numerous indentations on the western shore, is very great, or probably above 3000 miles. Its area is still very uncertain, the mainland being estimated at from 25,500 to 26,400 square miles; of which about 500 are occupied by fresh-water lakes. Including the islands, the total extent is 29,600; or in round numbers, 30,000 square miles. St Kilda, the most remote of the Hebrides, lies in 8° 35' W. Long.; Lambaness, the most northern point of Unst in Shetland, in 60° 49' N. Lat.
The physical features of this country, as of other regions of the earth, are intimately connected with its geological structure. In this respect Scotland forms three very strongly marked divisions, which are better described separately. These are, first, the Southern Division, or region of the older Palaeozoic or Silurian formations; second, the Central Division, or region of newer Palaeozoic, or Devonian and carboniferous formations; and third, the Northern Division, or region of the crystalline and metamorphic formations. The islands on the west and north form a portion, or rather a kind of appendix, to the last division. Each of these we shall notice in the order now indicated.
I. The Southern, or older Palaeozoic region, extends from the border of England to an irregular line running E.N.E. from the Firth of Clyde, near Girvan, by Dalmenyton, Crawfordjohn, Skirling, and the north base of the Moorfoot Hills, to the east coast near the Siccar Point. It consists predominantly of a great formation of Lower Silurian strata, broken through at intervals by felspar-porphryes, trap-rocks, and, in Kirkcudbright, by large masses of granite and syenite. The strata have been forced up in various anticlinals and convolutions; but the lowest beds occur along a line from the vale of the Teviot to the vicinity of Dumfries; the newer deposits, chiefly near the northern margin. These strata form an extensive mountain range, known as the Southern Highlands, and crossing the island in a series of connected chains from St Abb's Head to Stranraer and Loch Ryan. Taken generally, the mountains show broad flattened forms, intersected by deep, pastoral glens, widening out into broader valleys or dales along the course of the principal rivers. The mountains are rarely rocky or precipitous, but covered by grass and moss, to their summits, which seldom rise above 1500 to 2000 feet. The greatest elevations are found in Peeblesshire and Dumfriesshire, near the sources of the Tweed, Clyde, and Annan, where Dollar Law (2680 ft.), Broad Law (2754 ft.), White Comb Edge (2695 ft.), Hartfell (2638 ft.), and Ettrick Pen (2268 ft.), are some of the culminating points. Farther east, Dundreich (2004 ft.), Windlestraw Law and Blackhope Scar (2130 ft.), are among the highest summits. On the west, the Lowther Hills (2522 ft.) and Queensberry Hill (2279 ft.), between the Annan and Nith; the Black Larg (2890 ft.), and Cairns Muir of Deugh (2597 ft.), between the latter river and the Dee; and beyond the latter, Merrick Hill (2764 ft.), are worthy of note. Criffel (1867 ft.) is conspicuous from its position. The Cheviots, on the border of England, with Cheviot (2668 ft.) and Carter Fell (1502 ft.), are a parallel group, but of very distinct formation, consisting of felspar-porphyry, and trap-rocks, breaking through and elevating the lower carboniferous strata. Connecting these two chains some isolated mountains range along between the sources of the Teviot and Liddel, including the Wisp Hill (1950 ft.), the Mainden Paps, and Great Moor Fell.
The valleys are best noticed in connection with their respective rivers. Of these the most important is the Tweed, with a length of 100 miles, and draining a basin of 1800 square miles in Scotland alone. The upper part of its course is chiefly in longitudinal valleys, parallel to the Silurian mountain-ridges. Below the junction of the Lynx, it intersects the main chain by a series of transverse hollows; and receiving on the left the Leithen, Gala, and Leader; on the right, the Manor, Quair, Yarrow, and Ettrick, it enters the lower valley near Melrose. Here it is joined by the Whaitadder from the north, the Teviot on the south, and flows along the fertile plains of the Merse to the sea, at Berwick. This district, with the connected portions of Roxburghshire, forms some of the most fertile land in Scotland, resting on the upper old red and carboniferous formations, broken up by craggy knolls of trap, the sites of many of those ancient keeps famed in Border story.
Farther west are the vales of the Liddel, Esk, and Annan; wild and pastoral in their higher portions; more cultivated where they traverse the carboniferous and new red or Permian strata, forming the shore of the Solway Firth. The low ground in this district is in many places covered with deep accumulations of peat (Solway Moss and Lochar Moss), concealing the remains of ancient forests, but now rapidly being converted into arable fields under the progress of modern improvements. The Nith, 58 miles long, rises on the north side of the Southern Highlands, and traversing them by a deep valley, partially filled with carboniferous and Permian deposits, has few important tributaries. Its valley, too, is comparatively narrow, but in many places beautifully wooded and fertile. The Dee, 45 miles long, has its sources in the wild granite mountains south of Loch Doon, and is joined by the Ken, where they expand into the long narrow lochs of the same names. Beyond the granite eruptions of the Cairnsmuir and Loch Doon mountains the country rapidly declines into low undulating moors, and the rivers Cree, Luce, and Stincher, have no peculiarities worthy of notice.
Loch Doon, 6 miles long by 1 broad, Loch Ken in Kirkcudbright, already mentioned, and St Mary's Loch in Selkirkshire, more celebrated for poetic associations than for its magnitude, are the only lakes in this district deserving mention. The others are mere mountain tarns; and the rarity or absence of these accumulations of water is one of the most striking contrasts between the southern and northern divisions of the country. Springs are everywhere common in the mountain districts, but rarely remarkable either for their size or other properties. The mineral springs of Moffat and Innerleithen are the only ones celebrated for their medicinal qualities.
Notwithstanding its mountainous character, this region produces very little mineral wealth. Lead ore has been mined for centuries at Leadhills in Lanarkshire and Wanlockhead in Dumfriesshire, and very recently with considerable success. The ores contain a considerable proportion of silver, which is extracted from them at Wanlockhead, and gold was formerly gathered from the alluvial deposits in that vicinity. Attempts to work lead have been made in various other places; antimony ore occurs near Langholm and New Cumnock, and copper mines have been opened in several localities in Kirkcudbright. Coal is only wrought near Canonbie, in Dumfriesshire; and lime, except in connection with the carboniferous strata in Roxburgh and Dumfries, only in some thin beds on the Stincher, in Ayrshire. II. The central or newer Palaeozoic region of Scotland contains only about 5000 square miles of extent, or less than one-fifth of the mainland, but is by far the richest and most important in a political point of view. It embraces the basins of the Firths of Clyde, Forth, and Tay; the upper sources of these rivers lying in the southern and northern divisions. On the south it is bounded by the line already mentioned, and on the north by another nearly parallel line, from the mouth of the Gare Loch on the Firth of Clyde, to Stonehaven on the east coast, passing near Aberfoyle, Callander, Comrie, south of Dunkeld, Crieff, and Fettercairn. Geologically, this region consists of the Devonian, or old red sandstone, and the carboniferous formations, broken through or covered over by extensive trap-rocks. The old red sandstone is chiefly seen on the sides of the valley, being concealed in the centre by the carboniferous beds. The most extensive mass is on the north, where it runs continuously from the Clyde and lower end of Loch Lomond, through Stirling, Perth, and Forfar shires, to the shores of Kincardineshire on the east. The lower beds, or Forfarshire flagstones, marked by their characteristic fossils (Cephalaspis, Pterygotus, &c.), are extensively quarried and exported, as the well-known Arbroath pavement. Near the mountains a coarse conglomerate or pudding-stone prevails, which, in the gorges cut by the rivers in their descent, forms some of the most picturesque scenery in Scotland, as Brack Linn, near Callander; Monzie; Craigshall, on the Erchit; Lintrathen, on the Isla; Corntachy, on the South Esk; and the Burn, on the North Esk.
On the Tay, below Perth, higher beds of the old red occur with peculiar fossil-fishes (Holoptychius, &c.), as at Clashbennie and Balruddery. The carboniferous formation consists of two divisions, the Lower, including the mountain limestone, with thick masses of sandstone and shale, and the Upper or Coal Measures, containing the chief beds of workable coal. The whole formation covers an area of 1500 square miles, of which, however, less than two-thirds, or 600,000 acres, contain workable coal. The beds wrought are generally one to two or three yards in thickness; those of greater dimensions, like the Dysart main coal, seven yards thick, being made up of several beds of coal, alternating with shale. Besides the coal, clay ironstone in vast abundance, and especially the valuable blackband, occurs in most portions of the formation. Less important are the beds of fire-clay used for bricks and crucibles; and the alum shales, from which alum and other chemical products are manufactured. The annual value of the mineral products of this part of Scotland cannot be estimated at less than—
Iron, two and a half to three millions sterling. Coal, three to three and a half do. Lime, &c., one and a half to two do.
or, on the whole, from £7,000,000 to £8,000,000 sterling.
The larger masses of igneous rocks in this district are generally found forming the hills; but where they occur in the low grounds, as in East Lothian, from their varied composition, add much to the fertility of the soil. The high grounds can scarcely be designated mountains; the chief group south of the Forth being the Pentland Hills, with Carnethy (1881 ft.), the Kipp Hills (1806 ft.), and W. Cairn (1829 ft.), as their highest summits. Beyond the Clyde, Tinto Hill (2308 ft.) connects this range with Cairn Table, and other summits, in Ayrshire. North of the Forth, the Kilpatrick, Campsie, Ochil, and Sidlaw Hills, from an almost continuous range of trap-rocks, interspersed between the old red sandstone and coal formation. The Kilpatrick Hills, commencing near Dumbarton, on the Clyde, are a low but picturesque group. The Campsie Fells are also little elevated (King's Seat, 1510 ft.), and more undulating and uniform in outline. The western portion of the Ochils attains greater heights, as in Dun Myat (1345 ft.), Ben Clough (2352 ft.), and the King's Seat (2100 ft.); but the eastern portion along the Tay falls to 300 or 400 feet.
The Sidlaws, in Forfarshire, are composed principally of lower old red, elevated by trap, with Dunsmuir Hill (1114 ft.), and Cairn Owl (1100 ft.), as remarkable points. Some of the lower trap-hills in this district, as North Berwick-Law (612 ft.), Arthur Seat (823 ft.), the Lomond Hills (1471 ft.); and the rocks on which Edinburgh, Stirling, and Dumbarton Castles are built, are conspicuous objects from their isolation.
This district is drained by three of the chief rivers of Scotland,—the Clyde, Forth, and Tay, with others of less importance. The first of these, the Clyde, is the only large river flowing to the Western Sea. Rising in the centre of the southern Highlands, and flowing first N. and N.E., till near Biggar, it then bends round the base of Tinto, and joined by the Douglas and other tributaries, runs N.W. to the Firth, below Greenock. The well-known falls occur near Lanark, where the river is changing its course, the first, that of Bonnington, being about 30 feet high; the second, Corra Linn, about 70 feet, and the third, Stonebyres, not less than 76 feet, but broken into three falls. Above the Falls the valley is often bleak and moory, but lower down becomes more fertile, richly wooded, and adorned with numerous orchards and thriving towns and villages. At Glasgow, the river becomes navigable, the shoals and other obstructions being removed by dredging, and the water straightened and confined by artificial banks. The total length of the Clyde is about 90 miles, and its basin under 1500 square miles. The Firth into which it falls is rather one of the great indentations of the western coast, than a portion of the river; but is very important as conveying commerce and wealth into the centre of the richest mineral district in the country.
The Forth rises near Ben Lomond, and is joined above Stirling by the Teith, a larger and longer stream. In their upper course, amidst the Highland mountains, they are wild and rapid rivers; but after entering this district their course is slow and winding. The total length of the Forth above Alloa is about 50 miles; of the Teith, to the same town, about 65 miles. The banks of the river are formed by low alluvial plains or carse, remarkable for their fertility, and producing rich crops of wheat and other grains. They have evidently been submerged by the sea till a recent geological period; and from Blandrummund westwards are often covered by peat, a still more recent accumulation, apparently formed in some cases since the island was first invaded by the Romans. The tide flows to Stirling; but the Firth is considered as beginning at Alloa, from which it extends for 50 miles to the Isle of May. The Carse lands continue to Borrowstounness, whilst the lower shores in Fife and the Lothians comprise some of the most fertile and best cultivated land in the kingdom. The Firth, too, expanding from 2 miles wide at Queensferry to 6 at Leith, and 15 to 10 lower down, is one of the best natural harbours of refuge on the east coast of Britain, and consequently, from an early period, one of the chief seats of Scottish commerce.
The Tay, the monarch of Scottish, and in size of basin and amount of water carried to the sea, probably also of British rivers, rises in the northern region. The main stream has a length of 100 miles above Perth, or 130 miles to the opening of the Firth at Buddon-Ness. Its basin comprises about 2400 square miles, or one-eleventh of the mainland, about three-fourths belonging to the river above Perth. It is also remarkable for the number and size of its tributaries,—the Garry, Tummel, Lyon, Earn, Isla, and Erchit, and the wide range of country from which they draw their waters. We shall notice the upper portion in connection with the northern district, to which it naturally belongs. Its lower basin falls chiefly in the valley of Strathmore, inclosed between the Grampians on the north, and the Ochils and Sidlaw Hills on the south. This great valley, including Strathearn, has an undulating surface, but nowhere rises far above the sea-level. It is thickly covered with alluvial matter, resting on the old red sandstone, and the soil, consequently, is highly fertile. The Carse of Gowrie, between the Sidlaws and the Firth of Tay, has long had the reputation of possessing the richest and most productive soil in Scotland, derived probably from the decomposing trap-hills which shelter it on the north. The South Esk, 40 miles long, and terminating in the wide but shallow bay of Montrose, nearly dry at low water, and the North Esk, traverse the northern part of this district. In physical features and capabilities, this tract is a mere continuation of the valley of Strathmore, the most marked peculiarity of the plains of Kincardine being the deep red tint of the soil. The precipitous character of the coast, well seen at the Red Head, and north from Berrie to Dunnottar, is interesting as proving the waste which the conglomerate and other hard beds of the red sandstone have undergone from the action of the sea.
Like the southern region, the centre of Scotland is remarkable for the rarity and small size of its lakes. Loch Leven, in Kinross, 4 miles long by 2 broad, is scarce an exception, and is best known for the picturesque ruins of its island-castle, the scene of Queen Mary's imprisonment and romantic escape (1568) previous to the battle of Langside, and her ill-fated flight into England. It produces abundance of excellent trout, the fishery being let for a considerable sum, and was long remarkable as the only Scottish lake that yielded any revenue to its proprietors. The springs in this district also have little interest. Some in the coal formation are strongly impregnated with iron; and a few near the intrusive igneous rocks contain so much mineral matter as to be used for medicinal purposes. The best known of the latter are, Airthrey, Pitcaithley, and St Bernard's, near Edinburgh.
III. The northern division, or the region of the crystalline and metamorphic rocks, comprises the whole country north and west of the boundary line of the central division, drawn from the Firth of Clyde to Stonehaven. It contains above 19,000 square miles, or fully two-thirds of the whole country; and though generally far inferior in fertility and population to the other divisions, is in many respects more interesting in its structure and physical features. The western portion is usually named the Highlands, occupied by a people chiefly of Celtic descent, and still retaining their old language, and many peculiarities of habits and modes of life. No well-defined limit separates the north Highlands from the Lowlands on the east coast. After crossing the Spey, however, near Charlestown, the boundary line between the Celtic and Lowland population almost coincides with that dividing the crystalline rocks from the districts coloured in the geological map as belonging to the old red sandstone and newer formations. We may also mention that, though named Highlands, this term is only applicable to the elevation of the mountains, the inhabited and cultivated ground along the river-valleys and sea-coasts, being usually at a lower level than many of the dales in the southern division.
The geological structure of this vast region, and the boundaries of the formations, can only be understood by reference to a geological map, and we here chiefly notice the points bearing on its physical characteristics. Its southern boundary is formed by a narrow zone of clay-slate, commencing in Arran and running along the foot of the Grampians to near Stonehaven. In many places it is quarried for roofing-slates, and might be in many others, if required for the wants of the country. This rock again appears in the north of Aberdeen and Banffshires, and on the west coast, in a thin band from Islay to Port-William. In all these localities it is also wrought for economic purposes, particularly at Easdale and Balalush, and is everywhere distinguished from the similar rock in the south by its distinct cleavage. The next formation to the north is the micaslate, which, commencing in the lofty cliffs of the Mull of Cantyre, forms the greater part of that curious peninsula in a series of low, rounded hills. It extends along the west coast to Loch Melfort, where it meets the trap-hills of Lorn, and thence N.E., in lofier and more picturesque ridges, through the upper part of Perthshire to Glen Prosen, in Forfarshire. There it contracts greatly, but still forms a continuous band, on the southern declivity of the Grampians, to the east coast. A less extensive mass forms the east side of Loch Linne and the Great Glen from Loch Etive to Fort-Augustus, including the lower parts of Glencoe, the valley of the Spean, and Glenroy, with its singular parallel roads. Other portions of mica-slate occur in Banff and Aberdeenshire, and again in the north of Sutherland. It is often, especially near Loch Fyne, associated with chlorite and talc slates. It is rarely turned to any other use than as a coarse building stone and imperfect roofing slate; but its lofty mountains, with ridged and serrated summits, and its valleys fringed with natural wood and adorned with long winding lakes, form some of the finest and most romantic scenery in Scotland.
The next formation is the gneiss, covering about 10,000 square miles, or fully one-third of the whole country. One great mass, commencing on the outskirts of Ben Cruachan, stretches N.E. along the Grampians to the shores of Kincardine and Aberdeen, from Stonehaven to Fraserburgh, and north through Inverness to the higher parts of Nairn and Elgin. This tract, especially on the N.E. line, is everywhere broken by granite, in some places in mere veins, in others in mountain masses. Another equally extensive gneiss region extends on the west of the Great Glen, from Morvern and the Sound of Mull, through Inverness, Ross, and Sutherland to the extreme northern coast of Scotland, between Cape Wrath and Caithness. The Long Island, or outer Hebrides, is a third corresponding mass, once perhaps equally wide-spread, though now only the scattered fragments forming these islands remain. In the two latter tracts, granite in large masses is less common than in the first, but still abounds in veins, especially in the Hebrides and on the western shore of Sutherland and Ross. In mineral character the gneiss varies greatly from coarse crystalline varieties, scarce distinguishable from true granite, to fine-grained, distinctly schistose and stratified rocks. The general dip of the beds is at moderate angles to the S.E.; but in Sutherland and Ross, particularly on the west coast, S.W. dips with a N.W. strike prevail. Different parts of this vast formation may not improbably be of diverse age. On the N.W. coast it underlies all the other formations; in the centre of Sutherland a newer gneiss has been supposed to occur; whilst in the Southern Grampians this rock is apparently superior to the mica slate. Except as a building stone the gneiss has no economic value, and in this country is singularly devoid of mineral wealth. As a general rule, too, the regions formed of this rock are far from picturesque,—wide moory straths, rounded lumpish hills, and dark, irregularly winding lakes, with treeless shores, are the characteristic features.
The other primary rocks in this region require no notice, except quartzite, found in considerable abundance, as subordinate or superior to gneiss, in the Grampians of Perth, Aberdeen, and Banff. The range of the granite has been already noticed, forming some of the highest summits of the Grampians, Ben Macdui, Cairngorm, Loch-na-Gar, and
---
1 See Geological Map of Scotland, by Professor Nicol, Edinburgh, 1853. Statistics. Mount Battock; but often also seen in the low grounds, as in the Moor of Rannoch and the plains of Aberdeenshire. Porphyry is the most important of the other igneous rocks, occurring in large mass near Inverary, composing the wild buttressed mountains of the dark Glencoe, and in the summit of Ben Nevis (4406 ft.) forming the culminating point of the whole British isles.
The next formation in the ascending series, is the red sandstone of the west coast, with the superposed quartzite and limestone, till lately regarded as equivalent to the old red sandstone on the east side of the island, but now as a much older formation. Fossil shells of species found also in the Lower Silurian strata of North America, occur in the limestone of Duirness; and this rock, with the quartzite, is now classed by Sir R. I. Murchison as Lower Silurian, and the inferior red sandstone as Cambrian. The red sandstone, resting in nearly horizontal beds on a great water-worn plateau of gneiss, and covered in the interior by quartzite, forms a series of most peculiar and majestic mountains, almost from Cape Wrath down to Applecross and Skye. First in order, from the north, are Foinaven (3015 ft.) and Arkle, their summits of dazzling white quartzite, mistaken by Pennant for marble. The isolated conical Stac was proposed by Macculloch as favourable for repeating the Schiehallien experiment on the density of the earth, but is in too close proximity to some more gigantic neighbours. Ben More Assynt (3281 ft.) is the chief of another noble group, with Queeniaig, Canisp, and Suilven as outlying members. Suilven, or the Sugar Loaf, named from its conical appearance from the sea, but in reality a long serrated ridge, is a well-known landmark on the western coasts. Coul More, Coul Beg, and Ben More Coigach, north of Loch Broom, with Ben Goolish and Kea Cloch, on the south, are also remarkable mountains. Ben Lair, Slengach, and Ben Ey, on Loch Maree; Leagach and Ben Alligin (3015 ft.) in Gairloch, with some less known summits between Loch Torridon and Loch Carron, may complete this enumeration. Carved out, as it were, by denudation, from the solid mass of sandstone and quartzite, these mountains show the waste which the land has undergone more strikingly than any other part of the British islands.
The old red sandstone, or Devonian formation, covering most of Caithness, on the mainland, and spreading north over the Orkneys and part of Zetland, again appears south of the Scarabins and Ord, bordering the Dornoch and Moray Firths on the west. It then fills the Great Glen to Mealfourvonie and Foyers, and stretches by Culloden and the plains of Nairn and Moray to the east side of the Spey, reappearing in patches in Banff and near Aberdeen. The great conglomerate is regarded as the lowest portion; the Caithness flags, with their singular extinct fishes, and extensively quarried, are the central group; whilst the light red sandstones of Duncansby, Dunnet Head, and Hoy Head, in Orkney, are the upper division. The fine yellow sandstone of Elgin, remarkable for its numerous reptilian remains (*Telerpeton*, *Stagonolepis*, *Hyperodapedon*), is still included in this formation, though probably a newer group.
The newer secondary deposits occur in such limited extent that they exert no influence on the physical aspect of the country. The most important on the east coast are the patches of lias and oolite found in the north of Aberdeenshire, at Elgin, near Cromarty, and along the Sutherland coast from Dunrobin to Helmsdale, where, at Brora, they contain workable coal. The greensand and chalk flints found in Aberdeenshire, though curious, are of less importance. On the west coast, lias and oolite beds are widely dispersed round the shores of Skye, Mull, and some other islands, and in Morven, Arisaig, and Applecross on the mainland, but now form no continuous tract. The trap-rocks covering them in Skye, Mull, and Morven, and also wide-spread on the mainland in Lorn, show that this part of Scotland has been for a long period the seat of a powerful volcanic action. Like the connected trap formations in the north of Ireland, some portions, as those overlying the Ardtn Leaf-beds in Mull, cannot be more ancient than the Eocene tertiary.
The country formed of these various rock masses may be described generally as a great plateau, deeply cut into valleys, and crowned with mountains rising to 2000 or 3000, and occasionally even 4000 feet of elevation. The distribution of these mountains in chains or other groups is often very obscure, especially on the west side of the Great Glen. The Grampians, from Argyle to Aberdeenshire, show the most marked linear arrangement, often, however, rather indicated by the river-valleys and lakes than by the mountains themselves. In Argyle, on the west, the mountains are by no means high, but attain greater elevations near the head of Loch Long and Loch Fyne, where Ben Ura, the fantastic Cobbler (2863 ft.), Ben Iona (3300 ft.), Ben Vorlich (3160 ft.), with Ben Lomond (3192 ft.), east of the lake, form a most picturesque group, as seen from many points on the Clyde. Ben Lui (3651 ft.), at the sources of the Tay; Ben More (3819 ft.), rising from Loch Dochart; and Ben Lawers (3984 ft.), near Killin, with many other hardly lower hills, belong to a higher, though less conspicuous, range, than Ben Venachar (2800 ft.), Ben Ledi (3009 ft.), and Ben Vorlich (3180 ft.), which dominate over the whole valley of the Firth as far even as Edinburgh. In the southern Grampians, east of the Tay, there are few remarkable summits except Mount Battock (2554 ft.), well seen from the plains of Kincardineshire. Beyond this mountain the chain rapidly descends; and where it terminates in the German Ocean is a mere undulating moorland, over which cultivation is fast spreading. The marked elevations now belong rather to a more interior range connected with the gneiss and granite. This series, beginning with the double-peaked Ben Cruachan (3670 ft.), sinks down in the wild moor of Rannoch (1000 ft. high), bounded on the north-west by the beautifully conical Buachaille Etive (2537 ft.), but again rises in Ben Aulder and Ben Vorlich on Loch Erich. Schiehallien (3533 ft.), celebrated for Maskelyne's experiment, rendered possible by its isolation, is rivalled by the Ben-y-Gloe and other mountains between the Garry and Upper Dee; of which it is enough to name Cairn Gowar (3725 ft.), Ben Uarn More (3589 ft.), Ben Dcarg (3550 ft.), Cairn Beiar (3356 ft.), and Scarsoch (3402 ft.). North of this is the granite group round the sources of the Dee, including Ben Macdui (4296 ft.), 110 feet lower than Ben Nevis, Ben Vrochan (3825 ft.), Ben-na-Buird, Ben Avon (3968 ft.), and Cairn Gorm (4095 ft.). A similar granite group, but separated by the valley of the Dee, attains its greatest elevation in the "dark Loch-na-Gar" (3800 ft.), with its rugged corry and lake, and is connected through Mount Keen (3180 ft.) with the Eastern Grampians, already noticed.
North of these mountains, in Aberdeen and Banff, there are no hills deserving notice from their elevation. Ben-nachie (1440 ft.), on the borders of the high ground, and conspicuous through the whole of Buchan, the Knock Hill on the coast, and Ben Rinnes (2747 ft.) on the Spey, are the best known. West of the Spey, the Monadhliath Mountains are wild, but tame in outline; and we find no marked
---
1 See for the history of this change, and the relation of these strata to the central gneiss of Sutherland, which is still under discussion, papers by Sir R. I. Murchison and Professor Nicol in the Journal of the Geological Society and Proceedings of the British Association for 1855, &c. Also Murchison's *Siluria*, 2d edition, and Nicol's *Geol. Map of Scotland*, in which the red sandstone of the west coast was first distinguished from the Old Red or Devonian. Statistics, summits till we reach the Great Glen. This singular line of depression now regulates the direction of the mountain ridges, though the massive Ben Nevis (4406 ft.), with its dependants, and the rugged quartzite ridges on Loch Leven and Glencoe, form almost isolated groups.
Beyond the Glenmore-na-Albin, or great valley of the Caledonian canal, though a direction parallel to its course still prevails in the ridges, it is more difficult to trace out. It seems to have been obscured by subsequent geological revolutions; and the most marked valleys and depressions run from east to west. South of Loch Arkaig and Arisaig the country, though wild, is not remarkable for elevation; but the region north is a mass of mountains, with scarce an intervening valley, rivalling those of any other part of Scotland. Scurr Ouran, Ben Line, Ben Serian, Ben Attow (4000 ft.), Scurr-na-Cairnan, Mam Sull (3861 ft.), and Scurr-na-Lapich (3772 ft.), are a few among many lofty but almost unknown summits. Scurr-na-Vertach and Scurr Vullin lead us on to Ben Wyvis (3422 ft.), more marked from its proximity to the east coast than for its height or beauty of form. The Derrie More, with Ben Derry (3550 ft.), are the last group worth noting in central Ross. The interior of Sutherland, too, is a flat undulating table-land; the most marked mountains lying towards the eastern and western shores. The quartzite hills on the latter were already noticed; and we shall only name Ben Leod, at the upper end of Loch Shin, Ben Hee (2858 ft.), and Ben Hope (3061 ft.), as an inner range; and Ben Laeghall, south of the Kyle of Tongue, as a singularly picturesque syenitic mass. Ben Clibrig (3157 ft.) is the most noted of the eastern mountains; Ben Bharagie, Ben Horn, and others, being conspicuous only from their position on the coast. So, too, the Ord, the Scarabins (2054 ft.), and other hills on the border of Caithness, are prominent chiefly from contrast with the low plains on the north. No eminence of note breaks the monotony of these plains of undulating flagstones, deeply encumbered with arctic drift. The characteristic scenery of Caithness must, however, be sought in the long line of sea-worn cliffs and bold headlands, crowned by the ruined keeps of the northern vikings, whilst the bleak moors and stagnating waters of the interior are fast yielding to the industry of their descendants.
In the western isles there are a few mountains rivalling those on the mainland, and well known from their position. Such are the Paps (North, 2556 ft.), rising from the quartz ridges of Jura; Ben More (3168 ft.), the chief among the dark trap mountains of Mull; Ben More (2130 ft.), in Rum; the jagged and gloomy Cuchullins, in Skye, with the regular conical Red Hills in the same vicinity, and Suid Thum (2000 ft.); the fractured Storr (2341 ft.); and many more in the north of that island. In the outer Hebrides, Mount Heckla (2940 ft.) in South Uist, and some mountains in Harris Forest, are alone noticeable; the greater part of Lewis being a mere table-land of mingled moor and lochs.
The most important river in this division is the Tay, draining the southern declivities of the Grampians, but already noticed. The Dee, 70 miles long, on the north side of this chain, is a marked contrast to the Tay, in its direct course and its few short tributaries. The Don, Ythan, and Doeran drain the low peninsula of Buchan east of the Spey. This river, 96 miles long, with a basin of 1300 square miles, is the largest flowing to the north sea; and, like its neighbour the Findhorn, is a wild and rapid stream, especially in its upper and mountain portion. North of the Moray Firth there are no important rivers, the Beauly and Conan, each about 40 miles long, and the Oikel, 30 miles long, being the largest on the east coast; the Thurso river and the Naver, on the north. On the west coast, the Lochy, draining the Great Glen, with its main branch, the Spean, alone deserve mention.
One of the marked features of this region is the number and picturesque features of its lakes. Foremost among them is Loch Lomond, about 20 miles long, and 3 miles broad at the lower end, but narrowing above Luss to a mile or less. In the north, its depth exceeds 100 fathoms; but it is shallower in the south, where its surface is studded with numerous richly wooded islands. Loch Katterin and Loch Achray are well known from the "Lady of the Lake," though scarce distinguished from many yet unsung. Loch Awe, 25 miles long, chiefly known for the beauty of its northern extremity, but more remarkable for the deep transverse gorge through which its waters flow to Loch Etive; and Loch Tay, with its winding wooded shores, are the largest lakes in this portion of the Highlands. In the wild moor and mountain region to the north-west there are many lakes; as Loch Lyloch, Loch Rannoch, Loch Erichit, and Loch Laggan, which, in other situations, would attract more notice. Of the chain of lakes in the valley of the Caledonian Canal, perhaps only separated from each other by detrital matter, Loch Lochy and Loch Ness are the chief; the latter above 20 miles long, and, in part, more than 800 feet deep. It is enough to name Loch Arkaig and Loch Morar, in Inverness; Loch Leuchart and Loch Fannich, in Ross. But Loch Maree, in the latter county, 12 miles long and about 3 wide, though little known, is surpassed by no Scottish lake in picturesque scenery—in the beauty of the labyrinth of wooded islands in the middle, and the magnificence of the rugged mountains at the upper end. Of the innumerable lakes in Western Sutherland, Loch Assynt alone deserves notice for its beauty, though Loch More, Loch Hope, Loch Laeghal, and Loch Naver may be named. Loch Shin, 16 miles long and about a mile broad, with low moory banks, is nearly devoid of beauty; but remarkable as forming, with Lochs Grian, Merkland, More, and Stack, a chain of lakes from the Laxford to the Dornoch Firth, rivalling those of the Glenmore in number, continuity, and slight elevation above the sea-level.
The most marked and characteristic feature of this northern region is, however, the number and extent of its sea-lochs or firths (fords of the Norsemen). Of these the Moray Firth is the most extensive on the east coast; but its interior, including the Beauly Firth, is shallow and encumbered with banks of mud and sand. Its shores, however, are rich and fertile; and the scenery, with the fine mountain outlines in the back-ground, highly beautiful. Cromarty Firth, to the north, even exceeds it in the richness and cultivation of its shores, and the beauty of its more distant landscapes, while as a harbour of refuge it scarcely can be surpassed. The bold headlands of the Sutors mark the entrance in the darkest night, and within there is depth of water and room sufficient for the largest of fleets. The Dornoch Firth is, again, encumbered with shoals in the upper part; and the Fleet, even far below the Mound, almost changed into marshland. On the north coast, Loch Eriboll is the chief indentation, with good anchorage, though open to the north. Rounding Cape Wrath, we find Loch Laxford, still meriting its Norse name from the abundance of its salmon; Badonial Bay, with innumerable picturesque islands, like a half-submerged portion of the mainland; and the Kyle Sku, with its deep lonely arms, still a favourite resort of the herring. Farther south are the great inlets of the two Lochs Broom, with innumerable islets at their mouth, and deep and safe anchorage within. Loch Greinord is a wide exposed bay, with wild and rocky shores. Loch Ewe, a capacious and safe harbour, less used, however, than the more open Garloch. Loch Torridon is one of the most magnificent of these Highland lochs, but almost unvisited and thinly peopled since the decline of the western herring fishery. It is divided into three spacious basins; the two interior ones with narrow entrances, and shut in by lofty mountains. Loch Carron, with Loch Statistics. Kisborn branching from it on the north, is again a very deep inlet, with more than usual population and cultivation on its shores. Loch Alsh, separating Skye from the mainland, is a safe harbour, with a double opening through the two Kyles; whilst Loch Duich, its southern arm, is celebrated for romantic beauty even on this coast. Loch Hourn is another deep inlet, narrow, rocky, and adorned with natural wood in the upper part, but almost unvisited; and, like the wider but less picturesque Loch Nevis, formerly a great resort of the herring. Loch Sunart, a splendid inlet, 30 miles deep, leads only to the Strontian mines, but, it is said, still shows on its shores some remnants of the old Caledonian oak-forests. Loch Linnhe surpasses in extent and utility any of the western lochs yet named. Its branches, Loch Eil, Loch Leven, Loch Creran, and Loch Etive, are themselves noble bays; and the latter remarkable for the rich beauty of its lower reaches and the rugged grandeur of its upper half, below the granite summits of Cruachan.
Among the many lochs between this and Cantyre we need only mention Loch Craignish for the beauty of its wooded islets, and Loch Tarbert, almost separating that peninsula from the mainland. The Firth of Clyde is the last and noblest of these remarkable inlets. Next to the river itself, Loch Fyne, 40 miles long, and still a favourite resort of the herring, and Loch Long, are the more important of its many branches.
The climate of Scotland is remarkably equable throughout the year, as the heats of summer and the colds of winter are alike mitigated by winds from the adjacent seas. The mean temperature of the year is about $47^\circ$, and the thermometer rarely rises above $80^\circ$ in summer, and still more rarely does it sink to zero in winter. Such an intense cold as this only occurs once or twice in the course of twenty years in land-locked inland situations, where radiation takes place freely. The thermometer never sinks below $20^\circ$, when the wind is blowing with much strength; and it is seldom that it snows when much below $32^\circ$. Owing to the physical features of the country, the elements of climate over its surface vary very considerably. The western counties, at equal elevations, have a higher mean temperature than the eastern. This is chiefly due, however, to the higher temperature during the winter in the west, and to the more cloudy state of the sky, which hinders terrestrial radiation. On the other hand, this cloudy state of the sky intercepts the rays of the sun during summer, which renders the heats more moderate, and the climate less suited for the ripening of fruit and grain. This state of things will be rendered more apparent by comparing the mean maximum and minimum temperatures at Rothesay, in Bute, and at Dunino, in Fife:
| Districts | Spring | Summer | Autumn | Winter | |-----------|--------|--------|--------|--------| | Rothesay | 52° 90 | 41° 6 | 54° 35 | 51° 68 | | Dunino | 50° 30 | 35° 8 | 54° 79 | 49° 53 |
The relative intensity of solar and terrestrial radiation is pretty well brought out in these figures, when it is remembered that Dunino is about 300 feet above the level of the sea, and situated in an open and unsheltered district. So, also, the range of the thermometer being greater in the east, it follows that the evaporative or drying powers of the air is greater—a fact well known from other considerations. Besides this, much more rain falls on the west coast, in consequence of the moisture which the south-west winds bring from the ocean.
The prevailing winds in Scotland are from a westerly quarter. Observations show that the wind, on an average, blows from between the south-west and north-west points of the compass more than two-thirds of the whole year. The wind never remains long either due south or due west. During the westerly gales the wind usually begins to blow from the south-east or south-west, and veers round to west and north-west. These winds, in passing over the hills, let fall a great deal of rain, which renders the climate in these districts exceedingly moist. Nearly a hundred inches of rain fall annually in some of the mountainous parts; whereas, along the southern shores of the Firth of Forth, the annual fall is considerably under 30 inches. In Rothesay, the amount is about 40 inches yearly; while at Musselburgh it is only 24 inches. So long as the south-west winds continue to blow, in winter, the temperature remains high, and the pastures continue green. When the wind goes round to the north, in winter, the temperature is lowered and frost sets in; and continues until it goes round again to the south-west. During rainy periods the winds usually blow from an easterly quarter, and the barometer falls considerably. The rainy east winds, with low barometer, however, have invariably an upper current from the south-west, which brings the moisture to maintain the rains. In the latter part of spring and beginning of summer, east winds often prevail, and have somewhat of a periodical character. They are then usually cold and dry, and accompanied with considerable atmospheric pressure.
The flora of Great Britain has been divided geographically by H. C. Watson, into—1. Agrarian, including those plants which are found within the limits of *Pteris aquilina* or the common bracken, the elevation or climate of which would not forbid successful corn cultivation. In the Highlands the region may be said to extend as high, at least, as 1200 feet. 2. Arctic, including the plants above these limits, the region being characterized by the absence of corn cultivation. The agrarian region has been subdivided into three climatic zones. 1. Super-agrarian, characterized by the presence of *Clematis Vitalba* or traveller's joy, *Rhubarbe peregrina* or wild madder, and *Cyperus longus* or large galangale. 2. Mid-agrarian, in which *Rhamnus catharticus* or buckthorn occurs without Clematis. 3. Super-agrarian, characterized by the presence of *Pteris aquilina* or bracken, without Rhamnus. The Arctic region has also been subdivided into three zones—1. Super-arctic, in which *Erica tetralix* or cross-leaved heath, occurs without Pteris. 2. Mid-arctic, in which *Calluna vulgaris* or common heather is seen without Erica. 3. Super-arctic, indicated by the presence of *Salix herbacea* or the dwarf willow, without Calluna.
In Scotland, the super- and mid-agrarian zones are not truly represented. We commence with the super-agrarian, and proceed as far as the super-arctic. In the region of the plains, the common weeds and wild-flowers of Britain are seen with ordinary trees, such as the oak and the ash. An upland region succeeds this, in which certain northern forms occur, such as *Trientalis europaea*, *Linnaea borealis*, *Corallorhiza innata*, *Goodgyera repens*, *Vaccinium Vitis-idaea*, *Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi*, and *Lobelia Dortmanna*. Some trees, such as *Pinus sylvestris* or Scotch fir, *Betula alba* or common birch, and *Pyrus aucuparia* or mountain ash, extend into a sub-alpine region. This region reaches to about 2400 feet, and extends beyond the limit of trees. It is characterized by such plants as *Thalictrum alpinum*, *Arabia petraea*, *Juncea trifida*, and *Gnaphalium supinum*. Beyond this a true alpine region is seen, containing such plants as *Draba rupicola*, *Alyssum rubella*, *Astragalus alpinus*, *Saxifraga cernua*, and *S. rivularis*, *Eriophorum alpinus*, *Veronica alpina*, *Luzula arcuata*, *Luzula spicata*, *Sibbaldia procumbens*, *Gentiana nivalis*, *Azalea procumbens*, and various alpine willows, grasses, ferns, and cryptogamic plants.
There are many plants in Scotland which are restricted to very limited localities. Thus, *Oxytropis campestris* is found only on one rock in Clova, and nowhere else in Bri- The flora of the eastern parts of Scotland differs considerably from that of the western districts.
The best districts in Scotland for alpine species are the Grampian range, more particularly in Clova, Glen Isla, Braemar, the Breadalbane Mountains near Loch Tay, and Loch Lomond—the mountains ranging from 3000 to 4400 feet above the level of the sea. On the summit of Ben-na-Muic Dhui, which is about 100 feet lower than Ben Nevis, we meet with Luzula arcuata, L. spicata, Carex rigida, Silene acaulis, Festuca vivipara, Salix herbacea, Saxifraga stellaris, Juncus trifidus, Euphrasia nigrum, Aira alpina, Lycopodium selago, and some mosses and lichens. Close to the summit of Ben Lawers, Saxifraga cernua and Draba ropestres occur.
The number of flowering plants and ferns in Scotland amounts to about 1200. They belong to the following types, as given by Watson:—1. British type, including species commonly distributed over Great Britain, such as the alder, hazel, dog-rose, daisy, heather, chickweed, dandelion, nettle, male-fern. 2. Scottish type, comprising such species as the globe-flower, crowberry, Trientalis europaea, Primula farinosa, Haloscias scoticum, and Mertensia maritima. To this type are referred some very local plants, as Arenaria norvegica, Primula scotica, and Ajuga pyramidalis. 3. Highland type, seen in the plants of the Scottish Highlands, as already noticed. 4. Atlantic type, species chiefly confined to the western district of Scotland, as Sinapis Monensis, Cotyledon Umbilicus, and Euphorbia portlandica. 5. Local type, such as Eriocaulon septangulare, found in the Isle of Skye.
The animal kingdom of Scotland differs little from that of England, there being comparatively few species of animals that are not common to both countries. Several of the wild animals that were common in Scotland, even within the historic period, as the bear, wolf, and beaver, have become extinct. In 1657 a Gordon, for his valour in killing a bear, was authorized to carry three bears' heads upon his banner; and so late as 1680 the last wolf in Scotland is said to have been killed by Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel. Of the native wild cattle (Bos urus) there are in Scotland now only a few preserved in the Duke of Hamilton's park, near Hamilton. Of land quadrupeds there are only about 37 species indigenous to Scotland, among which are the red, fallow, and roe deer, the hare, rabbit, fox, badger, otter, wild-cat, weasel, and hedgehog. Some of these exist in great numbers, but others are becoming scarce. The birds of Scotland number about 270 species, about equally divided between land and water birds. Aquatic birds in great numbers frequent the coast; while, inland, the pheasant, ptarmigan, black-cock, grouse, and partridge abound. The golden eagle and other birds of prey are found in the lofty rocky districts. Attempts have recently been made by the Marquis of Breadalbane and others to re-introduce the capercaillie, or cock of the wood, which was formerly very common in the country, but which appears to have been exterminated about 1760. In the order of reptiles Scotland is fortunately very deficient. The coasts and rivers abound in fish of various kinds. Whales are occasionally seen on the coast, but they were formerly much more common than at present. Shell-fish are plentiful and in great variety. In several of the rivers a species of mussel occurs in which are sometimes found pearls of considerable size.
As regards the agriculture of Scotland, our space only Agricultural admits of our giving the merest outline of it, in the form of a few remarks on the statistics collected by the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, and given below.
### Table of Acreage of principal Crops (1857).
| Counties | Number of Occupants | Total Acreage under a Rotation of Crops | Wheat | Barley | Oats | Rye | Beans | Pease | Vetches or Tares | Turnips | Potatoes | Summer Fallow | Grass and Hay under Rotation | |----------|---------------------|----------------------------------------|-------|-------|-----|-----|------|------|-----------------|--------|---------|--------------|-----------------------------| | 1. Aberdeen | 7,348 | 488,283 | 8,909 | 9,531 | 105,275 | 687 | 6,121 | 3,651 | 255 | 2,102 | 82,316 | 7,099 | 688 | 204,137 | | 2. Argyll | 1,284 | 69,775 | 1,201 | 1,628 | 24,061 | 371 | 1,527 | 734 | 90 | 135 | 6,821 | 5,553 | 610 | 27,571 | | 3. Ayr | 1,701 | 114,959 | 15,621 | 1,838 | 4,403 | 41,275 | 49 | 788 | 329 | 92 | 675 | 18,516 | 2,002 | 224 | 44,148 | | 4. Bute | 746 | 448,815 | 12,404 | 15,288 | 30,444 | 47 | 34 | 2,275 | 489 | 1,125 | 27,300 | 2,117 | 1,184 | 53,517 | | 5. Caithness | 139 | 129,273 | 211 | 2,756 | 30 | 3 | 28 | 1,446 | 211 | 28 | 447 | 371 | 95 | 3,183 | | 6. Carrick | 147 | 6,336 | 217 | 414 | 1,217 | 208 | 122 | 113 | 26 | 36 | 1,471 | 1,471 | 124 | 2,372 | | 7. Caithness | 814 | 57,840 | 380 | 380 | 2,490 | 17 | 1,340 | 172 | 1,909 | 338 | 36 | 5,994 | | 8. Dumfriesshire | 218 | 7,556 | 2,014 | 1,777 | 3,592 | 1 | 2 | 632 | 6 | 155 | 2,622 | 2,500 | 127 | 20,691 | | 9. Dunbartonshire | 593 | 49,277 | 2,141 | 1,077 | 10,027 | 11 | 2 | 632 | 6 | 155 | 2,622 | 2,500 | 127 | 20,691 | | 10. Dumfries | 1,953 | 167,839 | 3,890 | 2,888 | 51,268 | 152 | 46 | 496 | 25 | 260 | 21,529 | 5,967 | 434 | 79,682 | | 11. Edinburgh | 859 | 102,657 | 10,037 | 11,810 | 22,038 | 6 | 83 | 1,809 | 111 | 1,271 | 15,274 | 5,801 | 541 | 33,982 | | 12. Elgin | 1,146 | 82,401 | 8,748 | 8,526 | 17,218 | 764 | 1 | 153 | 181 | 108 | 3,109 | 3,109 | 148 | 28,560 | | 13. Fife | 1,222 | 92,225 | 20,913 | 22,974 | 10,192 | 353 | 1,175 | 138 | 1,290 | 34,693 | 12,963 | 473 | 77,461 | | 14. Forfar | 9,100 | 923,534 | 371 | 22,974 | 10,192 | 353 | 1,175 | 138 | 1,290 | 34,693 | 12,963 | 473 | 77,461 | | 15. Haddington | 469 | 102,445 | 15,573 | 13,313 | 15,859 | 1 | 24 | 4,656 | 159 | 868 | 17,341 | 1,582 | 1,138 | 26,435 | | 16. Inverness | 734 | 42,290 | 1,980 | 2,341 | 13,479 | 266 | 917 | 494 | 119 | 226 | 5,842 | 3,070 | 277 | 14,049 | | 17. Kinross | 1,374 | 102,040 | 4,084 | 8,868 | 28,174 | 207 | 666 | 648 | 45 | 371 | 17,691 | 2,553 | 135 | 38,272 | | 18. Kinross | 397 | 33,414 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 8,268 | 2 | 8 | 357 | 24 | 113 | 15,414 | 2,921 | 192 | 63,514 | | 19. Lanarkshire | 1,262 | 121,447 | 2,178 | 1,590 | 2,000 | 2 | 357 | 24 | 113 | 15,414 | 2,921 | 192 | 63,514 | | 20. Lanark | 2,931 | 508,295 | 8,363 | 2,142 | 7,041 | 1031 | 345 | 3,097 | 158 | 1,774 | 11,934 | 8,253 | 1,576 | 112,972 | | 21. Linlithgow | 443 | 50,547 | 3,737 | 4,653 | 11,590 | 17 | 14 | 1,709 | 13 | 452 | 5,246 | 1,666 | 816 | 20,075 | | 22. Nairn | 426 | 50,811 | 2,062 | 3,182 | 7,346 | 356 | 87 | 94 | 138 | 125 | 4,678 | 1,407 | 90 | 10,810 | | 23. Orkney | 894 | 33,293 | 581 | 143 | 13,288 | 204 | 5,533 | 104 | 6 | 103 | 4,845 | 2,529 | 204 | 11,200 | | 24. Peebles | 194 | 303 | 3,450 | 864 | 2,308 | 9,922 | 28 | 44 | 1524 | 257 | 5,472 | 776 | 284 | 15,384 | | 25. Perth | 3,616 | 207,297 | 25,038 | 18,802 | 64,041 | 77 | 655 | 3,949 | 306 | 1,241 | 33,313 | 17,489 | 1,840 | 99,656 | | 26. Renfrew | 1,481 | 75,151 | 4,784 | 417 | 17,057 | 74 | 10 | 1,222 | 84 | 205 | 3,470 | 5,729 | 221 | 41,595 | | 27. Ross & Cromarty | 865 | 72,831 | 9,715 | 16,655 | 12,071 | 28 | 44 | 1,222 | 84 | 205 | 3,470 | 5,729 | 221 | 41,595 | | 28. Roxburgh | 863 | 88,258 | 12,971 | 28,428 | 44 | 2 | 1,222 | 84 | 205 | 3,470 | 5,729 | 221 | 41,595 | | 29. Selkirk | 1,212 | 14,441 | 1,944 | 1,944 | 1,944 | 1 | 1 | 1,222 | 84 | 205 | 3,470 | 5,729 | 221 | 41,595 | | 30. Stirling | 1,419 | 93,291 | 5,312 | 6,903 | 23,133 | 18 | 36 | 4,680 | 24 | 637 | 6,158 | 3,881 | 1,298 | 40,311 | | 31. Sutherland | 137 | 9,969 | 431 | 1,127 | 2,265 | 59 | 97 | 5 | 5 | 41 | 1,820 | 332 | 113 | 3,558 | | 32. Wigton | 1,118 | 122,343 | 9,971 | 1,553 | 24,254 | 292 | 214 | 768 | 10 | 200 | 16,913 | 3,317 | 714 | 52,591 |
Total | 43,432 | 3,556,572 | 223,152 | 198,367 | 538,613 | 38,894 | 21,072 | 39,186 | 3,687 | 18,168 | 476,691 | 309,819 | 18,822 | 1,459,601 |
* In the counties marked with an asterisk, there are no returns from occupiers whose rent is below £20; in the other counties, all at and above a rent of £10 are included.
Note.—The arable acreage occupied by small tenants not included was, in 1854, returned at 220,000 acres, and forms an addition to the total acreage. ## Table of Proportional Acreage of the Crops in each County (1857)
| Counties | White Crops, &c. | Green Crops and Fallow. | |----------|------------------|-------------------------| | | Wheat | Barley | Oats | Rape and Berries | Flax | Vetches, Turnips, Peas, &c., and any other Crop | Total per cent. acreage of White Crops | Beans and Potatoes | Tur- nips | Potatoes | Maize | Carrots | Cabbage, &c., Summer Fallow, &c., and Rape | Summer Fallow, &c., and Rape | Grass | | 1. Aberdeen | 1,836 | 1,953 | 33,852 | 1,308 | 141 | 536 | 32,583 | -127 | 16,962 | 1,652 | -003 | -038 | -119 | 18,601 | 41,816 | | 2. Argyle | 2,068 | 342 | 93,398 | 2,940 | -128 | 10,460 | 32,182 | 7,993 | 1,693 | -008 | -059 | -150 | -888 | 20,062 | 38,438 | | 3. Ayr | 6,558 | 340 | 15,169 | 396 | 309 | 238 | 31,119 | 1,181 | 6,847 | 2,722 | 402 | 356 | 200 | 11,544 | 57,137 | | 4. Banff | 1,613 | 360 | 5,567 | 739 | 506 | ... | 703 | 18,418 | 9,614 | 7,167 | 1,868 | -007 | -021 | -195 | 9,187 | 16,507 | | 5. Berwick | 8,449 | 10,420 | 20,736 | 556 | 1 | 865 | 40,521 | -188 | 15,856 | 1,442 | 79 | -023 | -087 | 23,221 | 26,453 | | 6. Bute | 6,952 | 2,233 | 10,455 | -219 | 419 | -51 | 833 | 1,316 | -178 | 2,992 | -035 | -035 | -040 | 18,142 | 50,674 | | 7. Caithness | 651 | 587 | 24,467 | 549 | ... | ... | 44,484 | 7,562 | 20,991 | 987 | -025 | -040 | -193 | 16,517 | 38,470 | | 8. Cambusnethan | 13,124 | 985 | 20,117 | -98 | ... | 969 | 39,312 | ... | 7,962 | 8,567 | -062 | -225 | 413 | 18,142 | 50,674 | | 9. Dumbarton | 3,166 | 729 | 55,582 | -139 | 165 | 646 | 20,710 | 3,629 | 7,269 | 1,789 | -077 | -077 | -013 | 13,845 | 47,474 | | 10. Dumfries | 2,293 | 5,701 | ... | ... | ... | ... | 25,401 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 13,845 | 47,474 | | 11. Edinburgh | 10,641 | 11,560 | 24,400 | -97 | -115 | -28 | 31,894 | 1,147 | 1,100 | ... | -061 | -213 | -527 | 5,238 | 34,378 | | 12. Elgin | 10,618 | 11,557 | 20,898 | ... | ... | ... | 31,897 | 7,744 | ... | ... | ... | 949 | -212 | 22,201 | 34,671 | | 13. Fife | 13285 | 12,071 | 19,118 | 163 | 151 | -96 | 46,150 | 11,817 | 25,254 | 915 | -015 | -645 | 12,250 | 24,400 | 32,703 | | 14. Forfar | 9,933 | 10,279 | 22,852 | -222 | -101 | 963 | 33,888 | 1,147 | 5,541 | 5,007 | -009 | -049 | -447 | 13,604 | 28,862 | | 15. Haddington | 16,893 | 13,336 | 16,608 | -92 | -91 | -90 | 26,606 | 1,600 | 12,936 | -90 | -005 | -012 | -297 | 7,301 | 32,906 | | 16. Inverness | 6,644 | 4,555 | 20,352 | 375 | -94 | -562 | 28,462 | 7,714 | 13,624 | ... | -184 | -112 | -799 | 7,641 | 30,321 | | 17. Kincardine | 4,000 | 8,027 | 27,611 | -93 | -91 | -99 | 37,483 | 13,755 | 8,399 | -912 | -133 | -20,707 | -37,408 | | 18. Kinross | 4,594 | 7,987 | 24,254 | 064 | -011 | -683 | 37,783 | 269 | 13,940 | 2,817 | -005 | -037 | -209 | 16,134 | 44,600 | | 19. Kirkcudbright | 1,794 | 1,369 | 28,893 | 26 | -652 | -945 | 12,259 | 2,406 | 671 | -178 | -159 | -168 | -819 | 52,132 | | 20. Lanark | 1,709 | 1,369 | 32,793 | 26 | -652 | -945 | 12,259 | 2,406 | 671 | -178 | -159 | -168 | -819 | 52,132 | | 22. Linlithgow | 7,985 | 9,206 | 25,721 | 160 | 140 | 580 | 34,204 | 11,525 | 3,399 | 3,079 | -297 | 893 | 1,610 | 19,214 | 38,733 | | 23. Nairn | 6,803 | 10,759 | 30,164 | 140 | 458 | -252 | 45,363 | 4,888 | 8,867 | -644 | -308 | -612 | 017 | 70,484 | 46,681 | | 24. Orkney | 1,524 | 3,746 | 13,674 | 140 | -50,544 | -535 | 10,504 | 4,304 | 12,859 | -00 | -054 | -081 | -796 | 22,566 | 25,050 | | 25. Perth | 5,814 | 3,002 | 8,714 | 71 | 041 | -235 | 21,459 | -445 | -388 | -829 | -39 | -25 | -447 | 5,447 | 12,466 | | 26. Renfrew | 6,340 | -5,555 | 22,921 | 400 | 192 | 612 | 23,020 | 107 | 343 | -629 | -629 | -809 | -225 | 31,437 | 29,709 | | 27. Ross and Cromarty | 3,753 | 2,832 | 9,231 | 138 | -99 | -69 | 12,630 | 918 | -961 | -951 | -394 | -694 | -391 | -215 | 20,853 | | 28. Roxburgh | 6,716 | 7,299 | 17,273 | -53 | -53 | -53 | 20,176 | 1,182 | 2,244 | 1,182 | -029 | -10 | -34 | 7,805 | 32,541 | | 29. Selkirk | 1,811 | 5,575 | :821 | -38 | -38 | -38 | 24,566 | 16,956 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | | 30. Stirling | 5,695 | 5,744 | 24,313 | 439 | -1,390 | -588 | 58,131 | 3,332 | -89 | -5504 | 6,840 | -2,947 | -7,391 | -39,028 | 24,461 | | 31. Sutherland | 4,333 | 3,322 | 23,476 | 549 | -439 | -589 | 8,977 | 3,333 | -89 | -5504 | 6,840 | -2,947 | -7,391 | -39,028 | 24,461 | | 32. Wigtown | 8,150 | 1,269 | 23,998 | 420 | 486 | 584 | 23,326 | -503 | 23,326 | -53 | -24 | -436 | -1,707 | 18,024 | 29,026 |
## Table of Estimated Gross Produce of the Principal Crops per County (1857)
### Wheat 1. Aberdeen 217,328 2. Argyll 19,778 3. Ayr 451,159 4. Banff 43,438 5. Berwick 535,503 6. Bute 83,704
### Barley 1. Aberdeen 405,668 2. Argyll 35,597 3. Ayr 260,978 4. Banff 129,059 5. Berwick 504,842 6. Bute 174,629
### Oats 1. Aberdeen 5,464,694 2. Argyll 482,494 3. Ayr 5,098,998 4. Banff 2,65,573 5. Berwick 1,194,656 6. Butte 192,651
### Beans and Pease 1. Aberdeen 128,887 2. Argyll 169,697 3. Ayr 79,792 4. Banff 2,657,675 5. Berwick 68,446 6. Bute ...
### Turnips 1. Aberdeen 313,316 2. Argyll 204,743 3. Ayr 69,178 4. Banff ... 5. Berwick 68,446 6. Bute 436,392 Scotland having a humid atmosphere, the greater part of its surface is better suited for the growth of grass and green crops than for wheat, which only comes to perfection in situations of no great height; indeed, an elevation of a few feet is often attended with striking effects on vegetation. Its rocks present the geologist with a well developed series of formations, from the primitive granite to the coal measures, over which vast beds of drift occur. These have produced a great variety of soils, and led to great differences in the systems of management.
In the rich and level plains, such as the Lothians and Stirlingshire, all the cereals, as well as beans, come to great perfection. In these and similar districts where the climate is dry, the land appears to be worth more in crop than under pasture. The following rotation is most common:
1. oats; 2. beans or potatoes; 3. wheat; 4. turnips; 5. wheat or barley; 6. grass. This system, it will be observed, does not admit of many cattle or sheep being reared, as the extent of land under grass is small, and few stock can thus be kept in summer, after supplying the working horses with grass and hay. The turnip crop renders food for stock much more plentiful in winter, and hence the cattle and sheep reared in the pastoral districts find their way to these arable districts in autumn. The whole system of cultivation in them is generally of a very perfect character. The grain is usually sown by the drill, and the crop thrashed and much of it reaped by machinery. Guano and other light manures are liberally applied to the crops.
In Aberdeenshire and other counties, more especially in the higher districts, a different system prevails. There the soil and climate being more genial to the growth of grass, the land lies longer in pasture. The rotation is also a six course—1. oats; 2. turnips; 3. oats, barley, or bere; 4. grass; 5. grass; 6. grass. This rotation is more economical in manure and labour, but requires a considerable capital for the rearing and feeding of stock. There is no finer class of animals sent to the London market than the Aberdeen polled stock, or the other native breeds crossed with the shorthorn. This being the best grazing district in Scotland, cattle are usually preferred to sheep. Rearing and feeding of cattle are carried on, as the most profitable way of consuming the grass and green crops.
On the steeper lands that have been brought under cultivation along the flanks of the Lammermuir, Cheviot, and other hills, arable farming and the rearing of sheep are combined. Such land is less suited, from its hilly nature, to the breeding of cattle. Leicester rams are put to the Cheviot ewes in November, and a cross is obtained, highly esteemed for its early maturity and fattening qualities. This description of stock is always in great request with the farmers in the more purely arable districts, where it is not found so suitable to breed sheep in any great numbers, owing to the deficiency of grass-lands. These sheep being fed on turnips throughout the winter, and frequently obtaining an allowance of cake or corn, are ready for the butcher in the end of May or beginning of June.
Berwickshire presents us with a good specimen of a well-formed system of farming. The soil in general is of medium quality, and the farms are large. The five course rotation, of—1. oats; 2. turnip; 3. barley or wheat; 4. grass; 5, grass—is, as a whole, more regularly followed than in any other county in Scotland. Thus, by the statistics, it is seen that the oat crop occupies fully one-fifth of the whole acreage under rotation; turnips, one-fifth; wheat and barley together, make up another fifth; grass, nearly two-fifths. For various reasons, the extent of land under potatoes does not exceed one-thirteenth of the extent of land under turnips. The bean crop occupies only a little more.
On the other hand, where there are larger portions of rich lands, as in the counties of Haddington, Stirling, Fife, and Perth, the proportional extent of beans and potatoes is increased. These two crops being also good preparations for wheat, its average will be found to increase in like proportions. On the other hand, it is singular enough that the extent in turnips is less in the western counties than in the eastern. Banff, with less than half the extent of land under rotation of Ayrshire, has a greater extent under turnips. In all the western counties, the potato, on medium quality of land, occupies a larger breadth than in the eastern. In the west, the farms are usually smaller, and the dairy furnishes more employment for the tenants and their families. The necessity for raising turnips, which is an expensive crop, is not so much felt, as in the corn districts where cattle and sheep are fattened. The larger proportion, too, of wheat and barley grown in the east enables the cultivators to grow a greater extent of turnips.
The larger part of the surface of Scotland, being mountainous, is really capable of comparatively little improvement. Heaths and natural grasses occupy the soil, and yield a scanty herbage for sheep or cattle. There the art of man has been in a great measure confined to the improving of the breeds of stock, and in distributing the most suitable over the different kinds of pasture-grounds. Much skill has been displayed in this matter, with valuable results. In the wildest regions of the West Highlands, as well as in the highest and most stormy ground in the north, the black-faced Highland sheep is found to be best suited to withstand the deteriorating influences of the climate. The Cheviot sheep is only slightly inferior to the black-faced sheep for the mountains, and has already been largely introduced into the North Highlands. Both these hardy animals usually receive no other food than what they find on the hills, and are often subjected to great privations during deep snows in winter. Wide as these hilly and pastoral districts stretch, they are no larger than is required to breed animals for the consumption of turnips in the arable districts.
The rapid progress of Scottish agriculture is, no doubt, to be greatly attributed to granting of leases of nineteen years by proprietors. This period generally enables the tenants to reap the rewards of the improvements made on the farms they occupy. In some cases, the restrictions in leases may have had the effect of cramping the tenants' energies; but, as a rule, the system has wrought admirably. Since the middle of the last century the farms have been greatly consolidated in most of the counties. By the greater economy of labour that the large-farm system introduced, the strictly rural population has become less numerous. The higher wages in the towns have attracted large numbers. This revolution, brought about by the introduction of better cultivation, has not been without its disadvantages in a moral point of view. For it can hardly be disguised that the social condition of the agricultural labourers has not kept pace with the improvement in the art. A reform in this condition of things is being gradually brought about, as is apparent from the better class of cottages that is in course of being erected over the land.
The population of Scotland, at the time of the Union in 1707, is not supposed to have exceeded 1,050,000. It was first ascertained, with tolerable precision, in 1755, from returns furnished by the clergy to Dr Webster, the omissions and deficiencies being supplied from the most approved data; and was found to be 1,265,380. The first government census was taken in 1801, and the following table gives the population, and rate of increase in each county, since that time:
| Counties | Area in Square Miles | Pop. 1801 | Increase per Cent. | 1811 | Increase per Cent. | 1821 | Increase per Cent. | 1831 | Increase per Cent. | |----------------|----------------------|-----------|-------------------|------|-------------------|------|-------------------|------|-------------------| | Aberdeen | 1,970 | 121,065 | 10 | 133,871 | 16 | 155,446 | 16 | 177,657 | 8 | 192,357 | 10 | 212,032 | 75 | | Argyll | 3,255 | 81,277 | 6 | 86,541 | 12 | 97,316 | 12 | 109,973 | -4 | 97,371 | -9 | 89,288 | 10 | | Ayr | 1,016 | 84,207 | 23 | 103,839 | 14 | 127,396 | 14 | 145,055 | 13 | 164,356 | 15 | 189,858 | 125 | | Banff | 686 | 37,216 | 3 | 44,653 | 33 | 49,663 | 33 | 48,337 | 3 | 49,679 | 9 | 54,171 | 45 | | Berwick | 483 | 30,260 | 8 | 30,893 | 8 | 33,884 | 2 | 34,048 | 1 | 34,438 | 5 | 36,297 | 20 | | Bute | 171 | 11,971 | 2 | 12,633 | 3 | 13,797 | 3 | 14,151 | 11 | 15,740 | 6 | 16,608 | 41 | | Caithness | 712 | 24,606 | 4 | 24,319 | 25 | 22,181 | 15 | 18,529 | 5 | 30,243 | 6 | 38,709 | 71 | | Clackmannan | 46 | 10,852 | 10 | 12,010 | 10 | 12,833 | 11 | 14,729 | 30 | 19,155 | 20 | 22,951 | 111 | | Clackmorton | 297 | 20,716 | 16 | 24,189 | 13 | 27,317 | 12 | 33,211 | 33 | 44,296 | 1 | 45,103 | 117 | | Dumbarton | 1,129 | 54,597 | 15 | 62,960 | 15 | 70,878 | 4 | 73,770 | -1 | 72,830 | 7 | 78,123 | 43 | | Edinburgh | 319 | 122,597 | 21 | 148,607 | 29 | 191,014 | 15 | 219,345 | 2 | 225,454 | 1 | 259,435 | 111 | | Elgin or Moray| 531 | 27,769 | 1 | 27,967 | 1 | 31,298 | 10 | 34,498 | 1 | 35,012 | 1 | 38,045 | 40 | | Fife | 553 | 83,748 | 1 | 80,127 | 13 | 114,556 | 13 | 128,839 | 9 | 140,140 | 10 | 158,155 | 64 | | Forfar | 889 | 99,053 | 8 | 107,187 | 13 | 113,535 | 23 | 139,606 | 2 | 170,453 | 12 | 191,264 | 23 | | Haddington | 291 | 29,988 | 3 | 31,050 | 13 | 36,127 | 16 | 36,127 | -1 | 36,127 | -1 | 36,127 | -1 | | Inverness | 4,256 | 72,672 | 7 | 77,671 | 16 | 85,061 | 5 | 94,797 | 3 | 97,729 | 2 | 96,506 | 33 | | Kinclarnan | 394 | 20,349 | 4 | 27,456 | 7 | 29,118 | 6 | 31,431 | 5 | 33,075 | 5 | 34,598 | 31 | | Kinross | 77 | 6,725 | 8 | 7,475 | 7 | 7,762 | 17 | 9,072 | -3 | 8,763 | -3 | 8,924 | 33 | | Kirkcudbright | 954 | 29,211 | 12 | 33,684 | 15 | 38,903 | 4 | 40,590 | 1 | 41,119 | 5 | 43,121 | 48 | | Lamark | 987 | 14,079 | 29 | 191,291 | 28 | 244,357 | 30 | 316,719 | 34 | 426,972 | 24 | 590,168 | 258 | | Linlithgow | 101 | 17,844 | 9 | 19,451 | 17 | 22,632 | 3 | 23,291 | 15 | 26,872 | 12 | 30,135 | 68 | | Nairn | 215 | 8,322 | 2 | 8,496 | 9 | 9,208 | 1 | 9,354 | -1 | 9,217 | 8 | 9,956 | 19 | | Orkney and Shetland | 1,545 | 46,824 | -1 | 46,153 | 15 | 53,124 | 10 | 58,239 | 5 | 61,065 | 2 | 62,533 | 33 | | Perth | 2,835 | 125,583 | 7 | 134,390 | 3 | 138,247 | 3 | 142,166 | -3 | 137,457 | 1 | 138,660 | 10 | | Renfrew | 234 | 78,501 | 18 | 93,172 | 20 | 112,175 | 19 | 123,443 | 16 | 155,072 | 4 | 161,091 | 105 | | Ross and Cromarty | 3,151 | 56,318 | 8 | 60,833 | 13 | 63,762 | 9 | 74,890 | 5 | 78,606 | 5 | 82,707 | 53 | | Roxburgh | 729 | 33,721 | 10 | 37,230 | 10 | 40,892 | 10 | 43,668 | 6 | 46,025 | 3 | 51,171 | 53 | | Selkirk | 266 | 5,888 | 9 | 5,889 | 13 | 6,657 | 3 | 6,657 | -3 | 7,661 | 12 | 82,057 | 4 | | Stirling | 462 | 50,825 | 14 | 58,174 | 12 | 63,576 | 11 | 7,661 | 12 | 82,057 | 4 | 86,237 | 59 | | Sutherland | 1,885 | 23,117 | 2 | 23,629 | 1 | 23,840 | 7 | 25,518 | -3 | 24,782 | 4 | 25,793 | 12 | | Wigtown | 311 | 22,918 | 17 | 26,810 | 24 | 33,240 | 6 | 36,258 | 8 | 39,190 | 11 | 43,389 | 89 |
Total: 31,324, 1,608,420, 12, 1,805,854, 16, 2,091,521, 13, 2,364,388, 11, 2,620,184, 10, 2,888,742, 79 The rate of increase for the whole of Scotland during fifty years, from 1801, is 79 per cent., whereas for England and Wales it is as high as 101 per cent. The county in which the greatest increase has taken place is Lanark, where it reaches 258 per cent. The neighbouring counties of Ayr and Dumfarton follow, having 125 and 117 respectively. Edinburgh and Clackmannan have each 111, and Renfrew 105. On the other hand, the smallest increase has taken place in Argyle and Perth, having each only 10 per cent.; Sutherland only 12; Nairn, 19; Berwick, 20; Haddington, 21; Peebles, 23; Kincardine, 31; Inverness, Kinross, and Orkney and Shetland, 33; Elgin, 40; Bute, 41; Dumfries, 43; Banff, 45; and Ross and Cromarty, 47. This small increase has, in too many instances, arisen from the system of "clearings," by which the cottar or small farmer is driven from his home to seek refuge in our large towns, or in a foreign country, in order to make room for sheep and deer. The population of Scotland in 1858 is estimated at 3,093,870.
The progress of the population in the seven largest towns of Scotland during the half century preceding 1851, will be seen from the following table:
| Name | 1861 | 1851 | 1841 | 1831 | 1821 | |---------------|------|------|------|------|------| | Edinburgh | 31,404 | 101,492 | 136,351 | 159,732 | 164,174 | | Glasgow | 77,058 | 103,224 | 140,438 | 153,030 | 261,004 | | Aberdeen | 26,992 | 34,640 | 43,821 | 58,681 | 63,288 | | Dundee | 27,295 | 31,058 | 32,126 | 48,626 | 64,299 | | Paisley | 25,058 | 29,461 | 30,182 | 46,222 | 48,263 | | Greenock | 17,190 | 18,756 | 21,719 | 27,082 | 36,169 | | Perth | 16,388 | 16,564 | 18,197 | 19,238 | 20,407 |
In 1851, there were 1,375,479 males, and 1,513,263 females in Scotland, being an excess of 137,784 of the latter over the former. This excess is considerably greater in Scotland than in England; there being in England and Wales 102 females to 100 males; and in Scotland, 107 females to 100 males. This disparity between the two countries is greater after the age of 20; there being in England and Wales 115 females to 100 males, and in Scotland 130 females to 100 males, of the age of 20 and upwards. Under the age of 20 the number of males exceeds that of females, and that to a greater extent in Scotland than in England. The excess of females at the ages above 20 is ascribed, partly to the fact that the mortality of females is less than that of males, and also to the circumstance that so many young Scotchmen cross the Tweed, or emigrate to foreign countries before marriage. Under the age of 20 there are only 97,595 females to 100,000 males; between the ages of 20 and 40 there are 111,638; between 40 and 60, 117,016; between 60 and 80, 134,649; and above 80, 158,629 females to 100,000 males.
The proportion of those who enter the married state in Scotland is much smaller than in England. Of males, of the age of 20 and upwards, 30 per cent. in England and 35 per cent. in Scotland were bachelors; and of females of the same age, 28 per cent. in England and 36 per cent. in Scotland were spinsters. In England, too, the proportion of early marriages is greater than in Scotland. Of young men, from 20 to 25 years of age, 20 per cent. in England and 16 per cent. in Scotland were married; while of women, of the same age, 31 per cent. in England, and only 25 per cent. in Scotland, were married. Of the male population of Scotland, of 20 years of age and upwards, 35-3 per cent. were bachelors, 38 husbands, and 66 widowers; of females, of the same age, 36-1 were spinsters, 49-1 wives, and 14-8 widows. The total number of husbands was 410,349; of wives, 422,296. There are proportionally fewer widowers, and more widows, in Scotland than in England; which, perhaps, may be accounted for by widowers marrying again more, and widows less, frequently in Scotland than in England.
The number of blind, as ascertained by the census of 1851, was 3010, or 1 to every 960 of the population; of deaf and dumb, 2155, or 1 to every 1340 of the population. There were also inmates of prisons, 2993; of workhouses, 5488; of lunatic asylums, 2353; and of hospitals for the sick, 1192.
The following table gives the number and proportion, to the estimated population, of births, deaths, and marriages in Scotland, during the years 1855-58:
| Year | Births | Deaths | Marriages | |------|--------|--------|-----------| | | Number | Per cent. | Ratio | Number | Per cent. | Ratio | Number | Per cent. | Ratio | | 1855 | 93,050 | 3-911 | 1 in 26 | 69,360 | 2-971 | 1 in 48 | 19,690 | 0-651 | 1 in 152 | | 1856 | 101,748 | 3-858 | 1 in 26 | 58,456 | 2-522 | 1 in 62 | 20,454 | 0-674 | 1 in 146 | | 1857 | 103,029 | 3-831 | 1 in 26 | 61,225 | 2-611 | 1 in 49 | 21,314 | 0-693 | 1 in 143 | | 1858 | 104,195 | 3-871 | 1 in 26 | 63,532 | 2-651 | 1 in 48 | 15,000 | 0-633 | 1 in 157 |
The proportion of births, deaths, and marriages is lowest in the rural districts, higher in the small towns, and highest in the great towns. Thus, in 1858, in the eight principal towns of Scotland, the proportion of marriages was 77 to every 10,000 persons of the estimated population; in the smaller towns the proportion was 66; while in the rural districts the proportion was only 53. Of births, in the same way, the proportion in the eight principal towns was 369 to every 10,000 persons; in the smaller towns, 358; while in the country districts it was only 307. We see in this a wise provision of nature, that as the consumpt of life is greater in the towns, and this somewhat in proportion to their size, so, to secure a continuance of the species in these less healthy localities, a greater number of marriages and births occur there.
Of the 104,195 births in 1858, 53,826 were males, and 50,369 females, being in the proportion of 100 males to every 98-3 females; a proportion of males higher than in any of the three previous years. The number of illegitimate births was 9256, giving a proportion of 8-8 per cent. of the births as illegitimate, or 1 illegitimate in every 11-2 births. This is a higher proportion by rather more than 2 per cent. than in England. In the eight principal towns of Scotland, 8-4 per cent. of the births were illegitimate; in the smaller towns, 8-6 per cent.; and in the rural districts, 9-3. Of the counties, Banff exhibits the highest proportion of illegitimate births, being no less than 16-1 per cent.; next follow Aberdeen, 14-9; Dumfries, 14-4; Kirkcudbright, 13-8; Kincardine, 13-1; while in the great manufacturing and mining county of Lanark, the proportion was only 7-1 per cent., and in Renfrew only 6-8.
The mean annual mortality in Scotland for the past four years has been at the rate of 203 deaths in every 10,000 persons; that of England, for the same period, 219 deaths in the same population. In the eight largest towns there were, in 1858, 265 deaths to every 10,000 of the population; in the smaller towns, 217; and in the rural districts only 164. Of the 63,532 persons who died during 1858, 31,660 were males, and 31,872 females; from which it appears that the males die in the proportion of 241 in every 10,000 of the estimated male population, and the females in the proportion of only 196 in a like number of females.
The Reformation in Scotland began at an early period, but it was not until 1560 that Popery was abolished by act of Parliament, and the Protestant religion established in its stead. The history and constitution of the prevailing sects in Scotland have already been so fully treated of in the article Presbyterianism, that it is unnecessary to do more here than give some statistics of the different bodies, founded on the census of 1851. The three prevailing sects are the Established, the Free, and the United Pres- Statistics. Presbyterian Churches. The proportion of adherents belonging to each are estimated as follows:
- Established Church: 34 per cent. - Free Church: 32 " - United Presbyterian Church: 18 " - All other Churches: 16 "
It is to be borne in mind, however, that a number of the clergy refused returns of the attendance at their places of worship, and the deficiencies were made up by assigning to such congregations the average of the attendance at the other places of worship of the same sect. There were 481 churches from which no returns were obtained, of which 279 belonged to the Established Church, 65 to the Free Church, and 38 to the United Presbyterian. The refusals, doubtless, in most cases, arose from the smallness of the congregations, and to allow for such an average of the number attending the other places of worship of the same sect, is manifestly to place them in too favourable a light.
The great majority of these refusals being in the Established Church, the probability therefore is, that the number of her adherents is rather overestimated than otherwise. The Established Church may hence be said to possess only one-third of the worshippers of Scotland, and to barely exceed the Free Church. Taking the different counties, and including only the places of worship from which returns were made, we find that the Established Church had the majority of worshippers in 14 counties—Ayr, Banff, Berwick, Dumfriesshire, Dumfries, Fife, Forfar, Haddington, Kinross, Kirkcudbright, Orkney and Shetland, Peebles, Stirling, and Wigton; the Free Church in 12 counties—Aberdeen, Argyll, Bute, Caithness, Edinburgh, Elgin, Inverness, Nairn, Perth, Renfrew, Ross and Cromarty, and Sutherland; and the United Presbyterian Church in 6 counties—Clackmannan, Kinross, Lanark, Linlithgow, Roxburgh, and Selkirk. The following table gives the number of places of worship and sittings, and the attendance at each of the three diets on Sunday, 30th March 1851:
| Denominations | Places of Worship | Sittings | Attendance | |---------------|------------------|----------|------------| | | | Morning | Afternoon | Evening | | Established | 1183 | 767,680 | 351,454 | 184,162 | 30,763 | | Free | 883 | 493,335 | 229,368 | 128,583 | 64,811 | | United Presbyterians | 455 | 288,100 | 159,191 | 146,411 | 30,810 | | Other Denominations | 858 | 234,282 | 140,908 | 90,677 | 62,490 | | Total | 3395 | 1,834,805| 943,931 | 619,863 | 188,874 |
At the morning service little more than one half of the sittings were occupied, and in the afternoon little more than one-third. The proportion of unoccupied sittings is largest in the Established Church, and smallest in the Free Church, although even the latter cannot boast of having her pews much more than half filled. The proportion of attendants to population is less than a third in the forenoon, and rather more than a fifth in the afternoon. There are sittings provided for 63½ per cent. of the entire population, a number considerably greater than can possibly be used. Were all the population capable of attending public worship to do so, it is estimated that not more than 58 per cent. would be required, so that the accommodation is 5½ per cent. above what can possibly be required.
From 2914 places of worship returns more or less complete were obtained. Of these 2694 were separate buildings, and 220 were not separate buildings. The following table gives the number of places of worship belonging to other sects in Scotland, with their sittings and attendance on the 30th of March 1851:
| Denominations | Sittings | Attendance | |---------------|----------|------------| | Independents | 192 | 76,942 | | Episcopal | 134 | 40,622 | | Roman Catholics | 117 | 62,766 | | Baptists | 119 | 26,966 | | Reformed Presbyterians | 39 | 16,998 | | Original Secession | 36 | 16,424 | | Relief | 2 | 1,020 | | Society of Friends | 2 | 2,152 | | Unitarians | 5 | 2,437 | | Moravians | 1 | 200 | | Wesleyan | 70 | 19,951 | | Primitive Methodists | 10 | 1,890 | | Independent Methodists | 1 | 600 | | Wesleyan Reformers | 1 | ... | | Glasites | 6 | 1,908 | | New Church | 5 | 716 | | Campbellites | 1 | 18 | | Evangelical Union | 28 | 10,319 | | Various | 9 | 2,175 | | Common | 2 | 260 | | Unsectarian | 1 | 320 | | City Mission | 7 | 1,265 | | Christians | 7 | 1,131 | | Christian Disciples | 15 | 2,471 | | Christian Reformation | 1 | 50 | | Reformed Christians | 1 | ... | | Free Christian Brethren | 1 | 340 | | Primitive Christians | 2 | 210 | | Protestants | 4 | 1,210 | | Reformers | 1 | 250 | | Reformed Protestants | 1 | 725 | | Separatists | 1 | ... | | Christian Chartists | 1 | 220 | | Denomination not stated | 6 | 495 | | Cath. and Pres. Church | 3 | 675 | | Mormons or L. D. Saints | 29 | 3,182 | | Jews | 1 | 67 |
The subject of education engaged the attention of the Scottish Parliament as early as the year 1494. At that time the schools were generally attached to some religious establishment. After the Reformation the Protestant Church zealously took up the cause of education, and many acts of the General Assembly were passed in favour of it. The government, however, cannot be said to have interfered till 1616, when the privy council enacted, "That in every parish of this kingdom, where convenient means may be had for entertaining a school, a school shall be established, and a fit person appointed to teach the same, upon the expense of the parishioners, according to the quality and quantity of the parish;" but it was not till seventeen years thereafter that this act of council was ratified by Parliament. The then disturbed state of the country prevented the act from becoming operative; and it was not till some time after the Revolution, namely in 1695, that the celebrated statute of William and Mary was passed, which forms the foundation of the present parochial system. It enacts, "That there be a school founded and a schoolmaster appointed in every parish (not already provided) by advice of the presbyteries; and to this purpose that the heritors do in every congregation meet among themselves and provide a commodious house for a school, and modify a stipend to the schoolmaster, which shall not be under 100 merks (L.5, 11s. 14½d.), nor above 200 merks (L.11, 2s. 2½d.), to be paid yearly, at two terms." The provisions of this act were immediately carried into effect in most parishes, and now the system is in universal operation throughout Scotland. The schoolmasters' salary continued as fixed by the statute of William and Mary till 1803, when it was enacted, "That from and after the term of Martinmas next, the..." Statistics. salary of each parochial schoolmaster, in every parish in Scotland, shall not be under the sum of 300 merks Scots (L16, 18s. 4d.), per annum, nor above the sum of 400 merks (L22, 4s. 5½d.), except in the cases hereinafter mentioned." The exceptions have regard to cases where it is necessary to have two or more parochial schoolmasters in one parish. The heritors have also to provide a commodious house for a school, a dwelling-house of at least two apartments, and at least a quarter of an acre Scots of ground for a garden. The act provided for the augmentation of the salary at the end of every twenty-five years, according to the value of the chalder of oatmeal, which, at the date of the passing of the act, was estimated at 200 merks Scots. In 1828, therefore, the salary of each parochial schoolmaster was raised upwards of a third, the maximum being L34, 4s. 4½d., and the minimum L25, 13s. 3½d.
The inadequacy of this provision has of late been universally admitted. When, in 1853, a new average fell to be introduced, an education bill providing, among other things, for raising the status of the schoolmasters was expected speedily to become law, and the old rates were therefore continued from year to year in expectation of that taking place, till 1857, when an act was passed providing for fixing the average, or, or before 1st July 1859, in terms of the act passed in 1803. Besides the statutory allowance, schoolmasters receive fees from their pupils, according to a scale fixed by the minister and heritors. The fees are generally very low, sometimes not more than 1s. or 1s. 6d. per quarter for English; and the schoolmaster is further bound to teach gratuitously "such poor children of the parish as shall be recommended by the heritors and minister at any parochial meeting." Frequently the parish schoolmaster adds to his salary by acting as session-clerk, precentor, &c.; and in many cases benevolent individuals have left sums for the better endowment of parish schools. The late James Dick, Esq., of London, bequeathed the sum of L118,757 to augment the salaries of parochial schoolmasters in the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Moray. The choice of the schoolmaster is vested in the minister and heritors, and the person elected must be found qualified by the presbytery as to morals, religion, and literature.
Besides the parish schools, there are a number of other elementary schools supported by Christian bodies or societies. As early as 1701 a few private individuals in Edinburgh formed themselves into an association, under the title of "The Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge," and established a number of schools throughout the country, chiefly in the Highlands and islands. The number of schools so established and maintained at present (1859) is 231, at an annual expenditure of upwards of L3,000. In 1824, the General Assembly appointed a committee to inquire into the state of education, and take steps for its improvement. This led to the establishment of a number of new schools; and these at present amount to 181, with 20,525 scholars. On the Disruption, the Free Church established a number of schools in connection with their places of worship. The number of these in 1859 was 617 (viz., 455 congregational; 127 side; 28 missionary; 3 grammar; and 2 normal schools), with 647 teachers, and 62,205 scholars. There are also, throughout Scotland, a large number of private schools supported entirely by the school fees. In the cities and larger towns there are grammar or high schools and academies for communicating the higher branches of instruction; and there are 5 normal schools for the training of teachers, 2 connected with the Established Church, 2 with the Free Church, and 1 with the Episcopal Church. There are also the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and St Andrews, an account of which will be found in the article Universities.
Since 1839 the Privy Council has annually granted certain sums to aid in the establishment and support of schools, under certain conditions. The following table shows the Statistics, number of school-houses built, enlarged, or improved, with aid from such grants, the amount so granted, the amount subscribed by the promoters, the total amount expended, and the number of children for whom accommodation has thus been provided from 1839 to 31st December 1858:
| Denominations | School-Houses Built | Amount Granted | Amount Subscribed | Total Expended | Amount Provided | |--------------------------------|---------------------|----------------|-------------------|---------------|----------------| | Established Church schools | 237 | 36,649 | 75,325 | 111,974 | 23,361 | | Free Church, and others not connected with the Establishment | 224 | 24,473 | 49,490 | 73,963 | 19,747 | | Episcopal Church schs | 9 | 2,577 | 4,554 | 7,131 | 1,247 | | Total | 470 | 63,699 | 129,369 | 193,068 | 44,355 |
The whole expenditure for Scotland from the beginning of the grants in 1839 to the end of the year 1858 was, on schools connected with the Established Church, L232,961; on schools connected with the Free Church, L185,877; and on schools connected with the Episcopal Church, L18,903. The expenditure for the year 1858 was, on schools connected with the Established Church, L46,774, (being an increase on the previous year of L9949); on schools connected with the Free Church, L31,609, (being an increase on the previous year of L3194); on schools connected with the Episcopal Church, L5536, (being an increase on the previous year of L661).
According to the census of 1851, there were then in Scotland, in all, 5242 day schools, of which 3349 were public, and 1893 private day schools. The number of scholars attending the former was 280,045 (161,754 males, and 118,291 females); attending the latter, 88,472 (43,594 males, and 44,878 females). The total, 368,517, gives a proportion to the population of 12·76 per cent., or one scholar to every 7·84 inhabitants. Making a fair allowance for deficient returns, it seems probable that about 14 per cent., or one in every seven, of the people of Scotland are at school. As compared with the other side of the Tweed, this is not an unfavourable result, the total number of day-scholars at school in England and Wales being 2,144,378, out of a population of 17,927,609, or in the proportion of one to every 8·5 of the whole population. The number returned as scholars in the householders' schedule, under the head occupation, was 426,566. The public day schools are arranged by the compilers of the census in four groups, according to the sources from which they are maintained. Class 1 is designed to represent the number of schools which depend for their support upon the public taxes, whether national or local, and in this class all parochial and burgh schools are included. Class 2 was intended to show the number of schools sustained chiefly by permanent endowment, but it was found that, in the returns, the word "endowment" was used to signify not merely funds assigned in perpetuity for education, but also the aid afforded by the educational societies and the contributions of the heritors; so that this class, in reality, represents the number (exclusive of parochial and burgh schools), which derive the principal portion of their sustenance from "endowments," as understood by the parties who made the return. Class 3 shows the action of religious bodies in the matter of education, so far as they act denominationally; while class 4 displays the influence of general philanthropy, apart from any sectarian organization. The following table exhibits the results according to this mode of classification. Returns of income for the year 1856 were received from 2511 public day schools, having 210,363 scholars. The total income was £173,436, of which £62,089 were permanent endowments, £21,824 voluntary contributions; £66,443 grants from government; £54,471 payments by scholars; £18,409 other sources. Of 1662 endowed schools, 59 had endowments of less than £3; 140 of £5 and less than £10; 381 of £10 and less than £20; 922 of £20 and less than £50; 33 of £50 and less than £100; 10 of £100 and less than £200; 9 of £200 and less than £500; 2 of £500 and less than £1000; 2 of £1000 and less than £2000; 2 of £2000 and upwards. The endowments of 102 were not stated.
Returns were made as to the remuneration of 1695 masters, and 295 mistresses of public day schools. The total aggregate amount of the remuneration of masters was £78,393, of which £41,423 arose from salary, and £36,970 from school fees. The average remuneration per master was £46. Of 691 masters in schools of class I., the average remuneration was £55; of 232 in schools of class II., £39; of 736 in schools of class III., £39; and of 136 in schools of class IV., £45. The number of masters allowed a residence was 1110. The total aggregate amount of remuneration of mistresses was £6288, of which £4089 arose from salary, and £2199 from school fees. The average remuneration per mistress was £21. The number of mistresses allowed a residence was 137. Information as to teachers was received from 2818 public day schools, having 142,687 male, and 103,813 female scholars. The total number of male teachers was 4821, of whom 2903 were masters, 553 paid monitors and pupil teachers, and 1365 unpaid teachers. The total number of female teachers was 1792, of whom 894 were mistresses, 241 paid monitors and pupil teachers, and 657 unpaid teachers.
Besides the day schools, there were 438 adult evening schools, with 9500 males, and 5571 female scholars. The number of teachers was 629, of whom 526 were males, and 103 females. In 44 of these schools instruction was free. Of 10,327 adult evening scholars, 4386 were artisans; 2397 factory operatives; 561 agricultural labourers; 553 domestic servants; 349 weavers; 343 coal and iron operatives; 237 bleachers; 278 warehousemen; 385 miners; and 166 clerks. There were also found to be 221 mechanics', literary, and similar institutions in the country.
The number of Sunday schools was 3803, with 292,549 scholars (135,435 males, and 157,114 females), being 10-1 per cent. of the population. Of these schools, 1095 belonged to the Established Church; 1248 to the Free Church; and 558 to the United Presbyterian Church. There were 25,411 teachers, of whom 14,181 were males, and 11,230 females; 152 were paid, and 25,259 unpaid.
The following table exhibits the state of crime in Scotland in 1855, 1856, and 1857, as well as in each of the four quinquennial periods immediately preceding:
| Year | Committed for trial or bailed | Tried | Convicted, outlawed, or found insane | Convictions aggravated by previous convictions | Sentenced to death | Executed | |------|-----------------------------|------|-----------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|------------------|---------| | 1854 | 2516 | 2685 | 3248 | 2812 | 2568 | 2591 | | 1855 | 2743 | 2743 | 2743 | 2743 | 2743 | 2743 | | 1856 | 2789 | 3062 | 3062 | 3190 | 2961 | 2961 | | 1857 | 2791 | 3370 | 2947 | 2742 | 2762 | 2937 |
| Offences | Against person | Against property with violence | Against property without violence | Against property (malicious) | Forgery, &c. | Other offences | |----------|---------------|--------------------------------|-----------------------------------|-------------------------------|--------------|---------------| | | 751 | 837 | 1088 | 1014 | 972 | 1046 | | | 530 | 537 | 703 | 532 | 377 | 350 | | | 1676 | 1885 | 2182 | 1916 | 1836 | 1942 | | | 47 | 64 | 73 | 62 | 78 | 79 | | | 120 | 137 | 146 | 109 | 124 | 85 | | | 266 | 259 | 294 | 247 | 243 | 181 |
| Age and Education of Criminals | |--------------------------------| | Of or under 16 years of age | 461 | 496 | 512 | 450 | 470 | 412 | 433 | | Could neither read nor write | 94 | 116 | 126 | 169 | 154 | 117 | 134 | | Could read and write | 431 | 485 | 615 | 539 | 474 | 456 | 557 | | Read or write imperfectly | 237 | 268 | 309 | 317 | 293 | 260 | 316 | | Could read and write well | 512 | 684 | 844 | 679 | 691 | 764 | 697 | | Had superior education | 50 | 56 | 93 | 83 | 72 | 88 | 75 | | Total | 21 | 21 | 31 | 4 | 8 | 7 | Of the 3169 persons tried in 1857, there were tried by the High Court of Justiciary 99; by the Circuit Court of Justiciary 375; by the sheriff with a jury, 1114; by the sheriff without a jury, 1402; by burgh magistrates, 144; by justices or other courts, 5. The sentences passed in that year were transportation for life, 2; transportation for more than 15 years, 8; transportation for 15 or 14 years, 18; penal servitude for life, 1; penal servitude for more than 15 years, 2; penal servitude for 15 years and above 10 years, 4; penal servitude for 10 years and above 6 years, 24; penal servitude for 6 years and above 4 years, 50; penal servitude for 4 years, 132; penal servitude for 3 years, 17; imprisonment for 3 years and above 2 years, 2; imprisonment for 2 years and above 1 year, 182; imprisonment for 1 year and above 6 months, 326; imprisonment for 6 months and under, 1877; whipping, fine, and discharge, 287.
The total number of males in Scotland in 1851 was 1,375,479, of whom 3352 were Protestant clergymen; 2422 lawyers; 3010 medical men; 2557 law clerks; 1194 druggists; 282 literary writers; 371 artists; 273 architects; 420 civil engineers; 3982 schoolmasters; 1983 land proprietors; 48,071 farmers; 94,899 outdoor agricultural labourers; 45,346 farm-servants (indoor); 8459 domestic servants; 2915 road labourers; 5203 railway labourers; 40,701 labourers (undefined); 8276 gardeners; 1944 gamekeepers; 1903 grooms or jockeys; 19,617 fishermen; 12,189 seamen; 32,971 coal-miners; 7619 iron-miners; 898 lead-miners; 4527 stone-quarriers; 784 slate-quarriers; 1116 limestone-quarriers or burners; 2017 brickmakers; 12,283 carriers, carters, &c.; 1434 publishers or booksellers; 1019 bookbinders; 3401 printers; 623 engravers; 45,560 engaged in the manufacture of cotton; 32,907 of linen; 9572 of woollen cloth; 2317 of carpets and rugs; 367 of worsted; 1824 of stockings; 1369 of silk; 1265 of paper; 1645 of earthenware; 13,240 of iron; 724 of glass; and 1673 of chemicals; 2762 dyers; 8860 cotton printers; 17,095 blacksmiths; 1549 nailmakers; 1430 boilermakers; 5719 engine, machine, and toolmakers; 1534 brassfounders; 166 wireworkers; 185 gunsmiths; 1894 tinsmiths; 305 copper-smiths; 755 gold and silver smiths; 1526 watchmakers; 657 combmakers; 685 sugar-refiners; 2411 ropemakers; 161 soap-boilers; 393 tallow-chandlers; 1220 curriers; 815 tanners; 453 skinners; 531 cork-cutters; 530 tobacco-constables; 9621 grocers; 2937 wine and spirit merchants; 2338 licensed victuallers; 1840 innkeepers; 1152 brewers; 561 maltsters; 4471 millers; 9541 bakers; 1155 confectioners; 4851 butchers; 29,703 shoemakers; 18,492 tailors; 772 hatters; 827 hair-dressers; 1006 builders; 773 bricklayers; 22,332 masons and paviers; 24,066 carpenters and joiners; 2707 slaters; 1793 plasterers; 5545 painters and plumbers; 5528 cabinet-makers and upholsterers; 1185 turners; 4025 coopers; 4729 sawyers; 2020 wheelwrights; 2249 millwrights; 1162 coachmakers; 1642 saddlers; 4395 ship and boat builders; 1256 were in the post-office service; 1173 in the inland revenue; 1019 customs; and 1920 police.
Of the 1,513,263 females, 114,751 were domestic servants; 28,477 indoor farm-servants; 26,151 agricultural labourers (outdoor); 28,902 milliners; 12,971 seamstresses; 1457 staymakers; 2049 schoolmistresses; 1164 governesses; 10,380 washerwomen, laundresses, &c.; 4865 farmers; 4024 grocers; 1082 licensed victuallers; 524 wine and spirit merchants; 52,685 were employed in the manufacture of cotton; 39,579 linen; 5696 woollen cloth; 945 worsted; 4715 stockings; 1059 silk; 2159 paper; 633 straw plait; 3006 shawls; 5602 were cotton printers; and 4361 embroiderers.
The coal and iron mines of Scotland are great sources of wealth, and afford employment to a great number of the population. In 1858 there were 417 coal mines in Scotland, in the counties of Lanark, Ayr, Fife, Clackmannan, Haddington, Edinburgh, Linlithgow, Stirling, Dumfriesshire, Renfrewshire, Peebles, and Perth. These were estimated to employ 32,000 persons, of whom about 27,000 were colliers and drawers, the remainder being overseers, engine-keepers, mechanics, labourers, &c. The total quantity of coal produced in 1854 was 7,448,000 tons; and in 1858, 8,926,249 tons.
Iron is of frequent occurrence in the coal districts, especially in Lanarkshire, where the ores are of the very best quality. The iron trade of that county, and of Scotland generally, has increased with unexampled rapidity. In 1825 there were only 33,540; and in 1830, 87,500 tons of iron produced in Scotland; whereas in 1840 it had risen to 241,000 tons; in 1854 to 796,640; in 1856 to 852,000; and in 1858 to 925,500 tons. The quantity of ore raised in this last mentioned year was 2,312,000 tons, valued at L750,000. In 1858 there were 32 iron-works in Scotland, with 177 furnaces, of which 132 were in blast. Of these, 13 iron-works, with 97 furnaces, 81 being in blast, were in Lanarkshire; and 9 iron-works, with 50 furnaces, of which 32 in blast, were in Ayrshire.
The number of lead mines in Scotland in 1858 was 9, Lead, of which 1 was in Dumfriesshire (Wanlockhead), producing 870 tons of ore; 1 in Lanarkshire (Lead Hills), 1087 tons; 4 in Kirkcudbrightshire, 235 tons; 1 in Argyllshire, 44 tons; 1 in Perthshire, 54 tons. The total produce of lead ore was 2290 tons, from which 1586 tons of lead were obtained, and 4882 ounces of silver extracted.
The salmon fishery of Scotland has long been very considerable. It is chiefly carried on in the rivers on the east coast, the Tweed, Forth, Tay, Dee, Don, Findhorn, Spey, Ness, &c. The London market is chiefly supplied with salmon from Scotland. Before the London trade commenced, salmon was so common in the country, that, in some parts, domestic servants used to stipulate that they should not be obliged to dine on it more than three or four times a week. Of late years the value of the river-fisheries has declined considerably, owing, doubtless, in a great measure, to the increased use of stake and bag nets in estuaries and along the coast. See article Fisheries.
The herring fishery is an important branch of industry, Herring, and has long been extensively carried on. Till a recent period large sums were annually expended by government in premiums and bounties to stimulate this branch of industry, but these were finally abolished in 1830, and since that time it has gradually but steadily progressed. In 1830, 329,557 barrels of herring were cured; in 1840, 543,945; and in 1857 (an unfavourable year), 580,813. The total produce of this fishery in Scotland and the Isle of Man in the last of these years was 666,934 barrels, of which 86,121 barrels were sold or disposed of for immediate consumption, and 580,813 cured; 218,902 were branded; 367,160 exported; and assorted after the Dutch mode, and branded accordingly, 178,440 "full," and 283 "mated." The export trade to the Continent is rapidly increasing; and there the Scotch herrings now rival those of any other country. In 1857, 307,275 barrels were exported to the Continent.
The cod and ling fisheries produced in 1857, 157,706 Cod and cut., and 4893 barrels; of which there were cured dried, 44g. 104,668 cwt.; and cured in pickle, 4393 barrels; exported, 34,310 cwt. The quantity caught and not cured was 53,038 cwt.
In 1857 the herring, cod, and ling fisheries in Scotland employed 11,858 boats (3702 1st class—30 feet keel and upwards; 3607 2d class—18 to 30 feet keel; and 4549 3d class—under 18 feet keel); having an aggregate burden of 82,175 tons. The total number of persons employed was 90,543, of whom 40,724 were fishermen and boys; 2045 cooperers; 19,748 gutters, packers, &c.; 28,026 net-makers, venders, &c.; and 1017 fish-curers. The total value of boats, nets, and lines was L702,715; of which L85,811 Statistics, belonged to the Wick district; L.72,702 to the Banff district; L.72,640 to the Anstruther district; L.47,118 to the Peterhead district; L.41,695 to the Eyemouth district; L.32,216 to the Inverary district; L.30,926 to the Leith district; L.29,407 to the Orkney district; L.29,588 to the Fraserburgh district; L.25,545 to the Findhorn district; L.20,384 to the Rathesay district; L.26,725 to the Stornoway district; L.23,557 to the Lybster district; L.21,060 to the Loch Broom district; and L.20,344 to the Loch Shiel-dag district. The total value of the boats was L.265,560; of the nets L.373,963; and of the lines, L.63,183.
The prosperity of the fisheries in general has had a very beneficial effect upon the fishermen. Their social condition has improved; their labours are now more largely remunerated; and they have found that diligence, and skill, and enterprise are necessary to success. A great advance has taken place in the size and character of the boats employed; and the number and value of the nets in use by each boat have also greatly increased. This spirit of improvement is also beginning to manifest itself in their towns and villages; their dwelling-houses are being improved, shops of larger size and of superior character are increasing, and roads and other means of communication are being opened up.
It is only since the union with England that Scotland has attained to any importance in the manufactures. The linen manufacture was the earliest, and was long regarded as the staple branch of industry. At the time of the Union in 1707 it is not supposed to have yielded more than 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 to encourage its production and exportation. The quantity produced for sale in 1728 was 2,000,000 yards; in 1775, 12,000,000 yards; and in 1822, 36,000,000 yards. The regulations as to the inspection and stamping of the linen intended for exportation, by which the trade was much annoyed, were abolished in 1822, and the bounties ceased in 1830.
Previously to 1791 all the flax used in the manufacture was spun upon the common hand-wheel; but at that time the spinning by machinery began to be introduced, and since then the progress of this manufacture has been rapid. In 1837 the flax factories employed 15,462 hands; in 1850, 28,312; and in 1856, 31,722, of whom 8331 were males and 23,391 females. In 1850 there were 189 factories, with 303,125 spindles and 2529 power-looms; and in 1856 there were 168 factories, with 278,304 spindles and 4011 power-looms, driven by 6346 horse-power, of which 5529 was steam. The principal seat of the linen manufacture is Dundee, especially of the coarser fabrics,—as sailcloth, sacking, sheeting, osnaburgh, &c. In Kirkcaldy, Arbroath, Forfar, Montrose, and Aberdeen this manufacture is also largely carried on. In Dunfermline, and the immediate vicinity, the finer fabrics are chiefly manufactured. The counties where the linen manufacture is chiefly carried on are Forfar, Fife, and Aberdeen; to a less extent, Perth, Lanark, Renfrew, Edinburgh, and Ayr; and to a small extent, Kincardine.
The cotton manufacture in Scotland is only of comparatively recent introduction, the first steam-engine for a cotton factory having been constructed so late as 1792. Its principal seats are in the counties of Lanark and Renfrew. Some of the fabrics made at Glasgow and Paisley are of almost unrivalled beauty and fineness. The number of cotton mills in 1837 was 177; all those of considerable size, with only a few exceptions, being situated in Glasgow, or within 20 or 30 miles of it, and all of them without exception being connected with Glasgow houses, or the Glasgow trade, at least so far as the raw material was concerned. In 1850 the number of cotton factories was 168, with 1,683,093 spindles and 23,564 power-looms, employing 36,325 hands. In 1857 there were 152 cotton factories, with 2,041,129 spindles and 21,624 power-looms, driven by 9971 horse-power, of which 7641 was steam, and employing 34,698 hands, of whom 7609 were males and 27,089 females. The entire cotton manufacture of Scotland may be said to centre in, or be dependent on, Glasgow.
The woollen manufacture has never been considerable Woollen in Scotland; but it is more generally diffused over the country than either of the other two, being carried on, to a greater or lesser extent, in 24 of the 32 counties; whereas the linen manufacture is carried on only in 9, and the cotton in 10. It was formerly the custom for the occupiers of land 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 could exist only in a rude state of society, and is now entirely abandoned. Coarse cloth still continues to form the staple article of Scotch manufacture, though factories for the making of fine cloth have been established in various parts of the country. Flannels, blankets, shawls, plaids, stockings and stocking-yarn, tartans, druggets, &c., are produced to a considerable extent at Galashiels, Hawick, Paisley, Bannockburn, Stirling, Kilmarnock, Jedburgh, and Aberdeen, as is more particularly noticed in the special articles on these places. In 1850 there were 188 woollen and worsted factories, with 233,533 spindles and 2,47 power-looms, employing 10,210 persons; and, in 1856, 202 woollen and worsted factories, with 293,563 spindles and 800 power-looms, driven by 3267 horse-power, of which 1487 was steam, and employing 10,175 hands, of whom 5179 were males and 4996 females. The power-loom has not hitherto been much employed in this manufacture; but it is being rapidly introduced, the number having more than tripled between 1850 and 1856.
The silk manufacture is still less considerable than that Silk, of woollen. Its seats are Paisley and Glasgow. In 1856 there were 6 silk factories, with 30,244 spindles, driven by 122 steam horse-power, and employing 887 persons, of whom 160 were males and 677 females.
The favourite beverage of the people of Scotland has Spirits, for a lengthened period been whiskey. Previously to 1823, owing to the high rate of duty, smuggling prevailed to a great extent in almost every district of the country, but especially in the Highlands. But in that year the duty was reduced from 6s. 2d. to 2s. 4½d. per imperial gallon, when the quantity of legally distilled spirits rose from 3,637,850 gals. in 1822 to 5,903,373 gals. in 1824, and 8,224,807 in 1825. The quantity charged duty for home consumption in Scotland in 1822 was 2,225,124 gals.; and in 1825, 5,981,549. In 1826 the duty was increased to 2s. 10½d.; in 1831 to 3s. 4½d.; and in 1840 to 3s. 8½d. In 1855 it was further increased to 4s. 8½d.; in 1854 to 6s.; and in 1855 to 8s. per gallon. In 1850 there were 167 licensed distilleries in Scotland, and the quantity of proof spirits distilled during the year ending 5th January 1850 was 10,846,634 gallons, of which 6,058,086 were from malt only, and 4,788,548 from a mixture of malt with unmalted grain, sugar, or molasses. The number of gallons of proof spirits distilled in Scotland during 1857 was 13,299,409. Since the passing of the Act 18 and 19 Vict. cap. 94, allowing malt to be made, and sugar and molasses to be used for distillery purposes free of duty, in lieu of allowances and drawbacks, no separate account of the quantities of spirits made from these materials has been kept.
Since the repeal of the duty in 1830 we have no means Ale and of determining the quantities of ale and beer brewed. In beer, 1829, 111,071 barrels of strong beer, and 229,384 barrels of table-beer were made in Scotland, yielding a duty of L.71,787. The duty on strong beer was 9s. 10½d., and on table-beer was 1s. 11½d. per barrel. The brewers are now subject to license duties, varying according to the quantity which they produce. In 1857 there were 223 brewers of Statistics. strong beer, 11 brewers of table-beer, 23 retail brewers, and 15 brewers from sugar, licensed in Scotland. The number of bushels of malt consumed was 1,298,524. The principal seat of this manufacture is Edinburgh, but it is also carried on in many other places.
Malt. Malt has been largely made in Scotland from an early period. A duty was first imposed upon it in 1713; and in 1770 the quantity charged with duty was 1,762,460 bushels. In 1856 the number of bushels made by maltsters was 4,192,039; and in 1857, 6,131,876. In the latter of these years the numbers of bushels consumed by brewers was 1,228,524; and by distillers, 3,814,663.
Paper. Paper is a large and rapidly extending manufacture in Scotland. In 1837 the quantity produced was 13,781,383 lb.; in 1841, 16,821,354 lb.; in 1851, 31,723,001 lb.; and in 1857, 41,673,595 lb. The number of paper-mills in operation in 1838 was 49; in 1850, 48; and in 1856, 51. Paper was one of the first articles that was subjected to excise duties,—viz., as early as 1712. In 1737 the amount of duty collected was L187; in 1790, L5048; in 1820, L52,182; in 1840, L108,675; in 1850, L187,687; and in 1857, L271,662.
Among the more important of the other manufactures are, leather, soap, earthenware, glass, hardware, hats, and combs. The making of steam-engines, and every other description of machinery, as also the building of steam-boats, both of wood and iron, is carried on to a great extent, especially on the Clyde; and ship-building is largely carried on at all the chief ports.
Commerce. Previous to the Union, Scotland having little industry, and being thinly peopled, possessed only a very limited trade. Its exports were chiefly wool, skins, hides, and other raw materials; and its imports, corn, wine, spices, &c. Soon after the Union, however, the trade with the American and West India colonies began to awaken the commercial energies of the nation. In 1755 the exports amounted in value to L535,576, and the imports to L465,411. Since that time the rapid extension of its manufactures, aided by the discoveries and inventions of Watt, Arkwright, and others, has led to a corresponding increase of its commerce. In 1801 the exports amounted to L2,844,502, and the imports to L2,579,914. In 1831 the official value of the exports was L17,871,869; and of the imports, L8,921,108. The declared real value of the produce of the United Kingdom exported from Scotland in 1851 was L5,016,116; and in 1857 it was L8,136,708; of which, cotton yarn and manufactures, L2,448,552; iron, wrought and unwrought, L1,545,311; linen yarn and manufactures, L832,692; herrings, L445,016; woollen and worsted yarn and manufactures (pure and mixed), L424,430; coals, cinders, and culm, L288,199; haberdashery and millinery, L247,131; machinery of all sorts, L292,531; spirits, L176,014; ale and beer, L145,193. The principal ports from which these articles were exported were—Glasgow (L5,103,318, chiefly cotton, linen, and iron manufactures); Leith (L830,532, chiefly linen and iron manufactures); Greenock (L502,899, chiefly iron and cotton manufactures); Grangemouth (L450,078, chiefly iron manufactures); Irvine (L246,588, chiefly iron and coal); and Dundee (L230,020, chiefly linen yarn and manufactures).
Shipping. At the time of the Union in 1707, Scotland possessed only 215 vessels, having an aggregate burden of 14,485 tons. In 1800, its shipping amounted to 171,728 tons; in 1840, to 429,204 tons; in 1850, to 522,222 tons; and in 1857, to 639,557 tons. Of these last, the number registered as belonging to Scotland on 31st December 1857, there were 3214 sailing vessels, with 558,623 tons, of which 1170 vessels, with 35,405 tons, were of and under 50 tons burden each; and 294 steam vessels, with 80,934 tons, of which 66 vessels, with 1406 tons, were of and under 50 tons burden each. At 31st December 1858, 3543 vessels, having 652,675 tons, were registered at the various ports of Scotland, and that year 141 vessels, having 33,432 tons, were built. The following table gives the number of vessels and tonnage registered at the principal ports of Scotland on 31st December 1857:
| Ports | Sailing Vessels | Steam Vessels | Total Tonnage | |-------------|-----------------|---------------|---------------| | Glasgow | 458 | 153 | 56,501 | | Greenock | 386 | 30 | 5,729 | | Aberdeen | 252 | 15 | 4,347 | | Dundee | 299 | 9 | 1,852 | | Leith | 150 | 39 | 6,809 | | Total | 3214 | 294 | 80,934 |
The number of sailing vessels entered coastwise in Scotland in 1857 was 15,129 (15,096 British and 33 foreign); their tonnage, 948,946 (944,660 British and 3286 foreign); the number cleared coastwise, 15,827 (15,800 British and 27 foreign); their tonnage, 915,556 (913,531 British, 2025 foreign). The number of steam vessels (all British) entered coastwise was 5961; tonnage, 1,264,360; the number cleared coastwise, 6020; tonnage, 1,246,404. The number and tonnage of the sailing and steam vessels entered and cleared at the chief ports in 1857 were:
| Ports | Entered | Cleared | |-------------|---------|---------| | Glasgow | 2,769 | 4,142 | | Aberdeen | 1,767 | 1,102 | | Leith | 1,595 | 1,314 | | Dundee | 1,838 | 498 | | Inverness | 2,421 | 2,364 | | Campbeltown | 1,777 | 1,362 | | Irvine | 391 | 9,512 | | Total | 74,735 | 21,847 |
The number of sailing vessels entered from the colonies Colonial in 1857 was 585 (560 British and 25 foreign); their tonnage, 248,368 (236,568 British, and 11,800 foreign); the number cleared for the colonies was 570 (547 British and 23 foreign); their tonnage, 257,621 (245,069 British and 12,552 foreign). The number of steam vessels (all British) that entered from the colonies was 10; their tonnage, 2426; the number that cleared for the colonies was 37; their tonnage, 13,325. The number and tonnage of sailing and steam vessels entered and cleared in the colonial trade at the chief ports were:
| Ports | Entered | Cleared | |-------------|---------|---------| | Greenock | 228 | 126 | | Glasgow | 145 | 271 | | Port-Glasgow| 53 | 24 | | Irvine | 32 | 86 | | Leith | 27 | 24 | | Dundee | 18 | 18 | | Aberdeen | 17 | 12 | | Total | 595 | 607 |
The number of sailing vessels entered from foreign foreign ports in 1857 was 3936 (1357 British and 2579 foreign); their tonnage, 550,320 (233,781 British and 316,539 foreign); the number cleared for foreign ports was 4951 (2003 British and 2858 foreign); their tonnage, 678,687 (322,612 British and 356,075 foreign). The number of steam vessels entered from foreign ports was 391 (346 British and 45 foreign); their tonnage, 128,058 (117,479 foreign). Statistics. British and 10,679 foreign): the number cleared for foreign ports, 434 (354 British and 80 foreign); their tonnage, 136,715 (114,908 British and 21,807 foreign). The number and tonnage of sailing and steam vessels entered and cleared in the foreign trade at the chief ports in 1857 were:
| Ports | Entered | Cleared | |-------------|---------|---------| | | Vessels | Tonage | Vessels | Tonage | | Leith | 1355 | 192,927 | 451 | 85,935 | | Glasgow | 370 | 160,146 | 636 | 144,797| | Grangemouth | 568 | 92,390 | 714 | 107,670| | Dundee | 518 | 89,665 | 357 | 63,877 | | Greenock | 80 | 31,746 | 46 | 16,976 | | Aberdeen | 203 | 20,085 | 76 | 12,991 | | Irvine | 76 | 17,165 | 442 | 95,826 | | Borrowstounness | 132 | 13,936 | 887 | 100,177| | Total | 4327 | 678,378 | 5385 | 815,402|
The following table shows the progress of shipping in the colonial and foreign and coasting trade for the seven years, from 1851-1857:
| Year | Inwards | Outwards | Colonial and Foreign | Total | |------|---------|----------|----------------------|-------| | 1851 | 2,010,988 | 2,102,224 | 663,221 | 4,776,433 | | 1852 | 1,571,204 | 2,058,185 | 459,168 | 4,088,557 | | 1853 | 1,504,270 | 2,003,581 | 720,047 | 4,227,898 | | 1854 | 1,323,689 | 1,901,967 | 702,940 | 3,928,596 | | 1855 | 1,963,552 | 2,057,936 | 668,078 | 4,689,566 | | 1856 | 2,049,300 | 2,008,050 | 763,193 | 4,820,543 | | 1857 | 2,205,306 | 2,161,960 | 922,172 | 5,289,438 |
Roads.
Until after the middle of last century there was scarcely a good road in Scotland. Even in the southern counties, corn, coal, turf, and even straw and hay, were usually carried upon the backs of horses. "Cadgers" pled regularly between different places, conveying goods in sacks or baskets, suspended one on each side of the horse. Where the distance, however, was considerable, it was necessary to use a cart, as all that a horse could carry on his back would not defray the expense of a long journey; and such was the wretched state of the roads that the time taken by the carriers (i.e., those that used carts) is almost incredible. The common carrier from Selkirk to Edinburgh, 38 miles distant, required a fortnight for his journey going and returning. In 1678 an agreement was made to run a coach, with six horses, between Edinburgh and Glasgow, a distance of 44 miles; the double journey to be accomplished in six days; and even so late as the middle of last century, the stage-coach between these two towns took a day and a half to the journey. Soon after the rebellion of 1745, government began to open up the country by roads made by the military, hence called military roads, of which there were in all about 800 miles. These, however, were mostly confined to the Highlands, and were of little use for commercial purposes, being formed with little or no regard to such ascents and descents as do not impede the passage of an army.
The turnpike roads and bridges in the Lowlands have, for upwards of a century, been made and 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. The roads are under the management of a board of trustees, who appoint clerks, collectors, surveyors, &c.; borrow money; enforce subscriptions; erect or remove toll-bars; reduce tolls or raise them as far as permitted by the local act; let tolls by public roup; provide tables of tolls, &c. By this means, and in consequence of the excellent materials that abound in all parts of the country, Scotland is now well supplied with turnpike roads, which are superior even to those in England. There are about 7000 miles of turnpike roads in Scotland, and 245 trusts. In the year 1854-55, the revenue received from tolls was L216,661, and the total income from all sources, L250,800; the total expenditure was L248,347; and the total debt L2,358,767. The expenditure for manual labour was L84,956; for carriage of materials, L9367; for materials for surface repairs, L25,875; for land purchased, L360; for damage done in obtaining materials, L1004; for tradesmen's bills, L5723; for salaries of treasurers, L2138; of clerks, L4768; of surveyors, L11,672; for law charges, L3587; for interest of debt, L37,587; for annuities, L500; for improvements, L32,760; for watering roads, L424; for debts paid off, L18,923; for incidental expenses, L9145.
In the Highlands, the nature of the country and the state of the population did not admit of the same system being roads and carried out as in the Lowlands. The military roads, after being made, had likewise to be kept in repair at the public expense, for which L5000 a year was usually granted by parliament. A great many new roads and bridges were also required; and in 1803 an act was passed 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. There are now 938 miles of these, in the following counties:—Inverness, 383½; Ross, 210½; Sutherland, 96½; Caithness, 54½; Aberdeen, 15½; Nairn, 20½; Moray, 8½; Banff, 2½; Bute, 17½; Argyll, 130½. The military roads have in many instances been allowed to fall into disrepair, but 255 miles of them are still kept up by the Commissioners for Highland Roads and Bridges. The total sum expended in keeping in repair these roads in 1857 was L10,765, of which L2372 was paid from the funds of the commissioners, and L2745 from toll-dues, leaving L5647 as the proportion payable by counties. There was a further sum of L1015 expended in maintaining in repair 137 miles of roads in Caithness-shire, surrendered to the charge of the commissioners in 1858.
The Caledonian Canal, the greatest work of its kind in Canals—Britain, stretches S.W. and N.E. across the island, through Caledonian, the centre of the Highlands, from the Moray Firth, on the E. coast, to Loch Linne, on the W. It is 60 miles in length, but the greater part of it consists of three lakes or lochs,—Ness, Oich, and Lochy. The artificial portion, 23 miles in length, is 122 feet wide at the top, 50 feet at the bottom, and affords a maximum depth of 20 feet. Had it been executed as originally intended, frigates of 32 guns, and merchantmen of 1000 tons burden, might have been able to pass through; but owing to a wish to lessen the expense and to hasten the opening of the canal, parts of it were executed in a hurried and insufficient manner, and parts were not excavated to the proper depth, so that in some cases it is not more than 17 feet deep. It was executed entirely at the expense of the government, from the designs and under the superintendence of Thomas Telford, Esq. The total cost of the canal up to 1822, when it was opened, was L905,258; and the aggregate outlay to the 1st of May 1839, was L1,023,628. Nor has the income ever met the expenditure. In the year ending 1st May 1839, the expenditure was L4170, while the income was only L2532; and in the year ending 1st May 1859, the expenditure was L6951, and the income only L5080. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the question has more than once been debated, whether it would not be better to abandon the canal altogether. And now it is less necessary than formerly to maintain it, seeing that all the principal ports of the east and west coast are connected by railway. During the year ending 1st May 1859, the passages through the canal from E. to W. were 387; from W. to E. 289; on parts of the canal, 289; passages of steamers, 467; and the total dues collected on these L3916.
The Crinan Canal is situated in Argyllshire, and stretches Crinan across the Mull of Cantrye, from Loch Gilp to Jura Sound. Statistics. It was originally undertaken in 1793 by a company of shareholders, but the sum subscribed (£108,000) being 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 since 1817 has been in the hands of the Commissioners of the Caledonian Canal. It is 9 miles long and 12 feet deep, admitting vessels of 200 tons burden.
In the beginning of February last (1859), one of the great reservoirs by which the canal is supplied with water burst, and did great damage to the canal and adjacent country. It is, however, in course of being repaired. Notwithstanding the disaster by which the traffic of the canal had been almost wholly suspended for three months, the receipts of the year ending 1st May 1859 amounted to £2,238, and the payments to £2,150, leaving a balance of £88. In the previous year there was a deficiency of £90, which led to a rise in the rates on certain classes of goods.
The Great Canal, uniting the Firths of Forth and Clyde, was begun in 1768, but not finally completed till 1790. Its length from Grangemouth, on the Forth, to Bowling Bay, on the Clyde, is 35 miles, or including the lateral branch to Port-Dundas, Glasgow, 34½ miles. Its average width at the surface is 56 feet; at the bottom, 27 feet; general depth, 10 feet. It is understood to have been very profitable to the proprietors. The Union Canal, which was finished in 1822, stretches from Port-Hopetoun, Edinburgh, until it joins the Forth and Clyde Canal at Port-Downie, near Falkirk, a distance of 31½ miles. Its depth is only 5 feet, so that its traffic is very limited; and all altogether it has been a very unprofitable undertaking. The Monkland Canal stretches from Glasgow to Woodhall, about 2 miles S.E. of Airdrie, a distance of 12 miles, and communicates by a lateral branch with the Forth and Clyde Canal at Port-Dundas. The Glasgow, Paisley, and Ardrossan Canal has never been completed. It extends from Port-Eglinton, near Glasgow, to the village of Johnstone, a distance of 11 miles, and was opened in 1811. It was on this canal that the experiment was first made in rapid travelling, showing that it was practicable for a properly constructed boat to proceed at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour without injury to the banks.
The first railway formed in Scotland was that between Kilmarnock and Troon, a distance of 9¾ miles. The act for the formation of this railway, or rather tram-road, was passed in 1808, and it was opened in 1810. It was followed by the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway, 11 miles in length, connecting the rich coal and ironstone district of New and Old Monkland with the Forth and Clyde Canal, near Kirkintilloch. In 1849, there were 795 miles of railway in operation; in 1853, 987; and in the end of 1857, 1243; of which 409 miles were single lines. Besides these, at last mentioned date, there were 573 miles authorised but not opened. The total number of passengers conveyed in 1857 was 14,733,503, of whom 1,823,542 were first class; 2,180,284, second; 10,723,694, third and parliamentary; and 5983 mixed, or not duly apportioned into classes. The receipts from passengers were £916,697; from goods, £1,684,781; total, £2,601,478. The total amount authorised to be raised by railways in Scotland to 31st December 1857 was £38,292,976, of which £33,668,115 was actually raised—£16,756,881 by ordinary shares, £7,700,808 by preference and guaranteed shares, and £9,210,426 by loans. The total amount of working and preferential charges in 1857 was £1,846,999. Of the preferential charges £354,774 were charges for interest on preference and guaranteed shares; and £401,775 charges for interest on loans. The average cost per mile of railways in Scotland has been £28,225; but for independent lines authorised and opened since 1848 it has been only £7243. See article Railways.
The following table will show the progress of railways Statistics since 1849. It gives the mean length of railway open in each year from 1849 to 1857; the capital raised per mile open; the average number of passengers; and the average receipts from passengers and goods per mile; together with the proportion per cent. of traffic to capital raised.
| Year | Mean Length | Capital raised per Mile | No. of Passengers per Mile | Receipts per Mile from Passengers | Goods | Proportion of Traffic to Capital raised | |------|-------------|------------------------|---------------------------|----------------------------------|-------|----------------------------------------| | 1849 | 795 | 27,654 | 9,933 | 680 | 818 | 5:41 | | 1850 | 904 | 27,612 | 9,799 | 646 | 799 | 5:29 | | 1851 | 957 | 29,001 | 9,698 | 649 | 859 | 5:16 | | 1852 | 970 | 29,476 | 10,035 | 653 | 958 | 5:49 | | 1853 | 987 | 29,564 | 11,246 | 713 | 1075 | 6:04 | | 1854 | 1019 | 29,792 | 11,725 | 742 | 1219 | 6:58 | | 1855 | 1089 | 29,680 | 11,419 | 726 | 1277 | 6:77 | | 1856 | 1147 | 27,750 | 11,419 | 745 | 1277 | 6:94 | | 1857 | 1225 | 28,225 | 12,017 | 746 | 1293 | 7:22 |
A duty of one halfpenny per mile for every four passengers conveyed by railway was imposed in 1832. In 1842 this was altered to the present duty of 5 per cent. upon the receipts from passengers. In 1844 an act was passed requiring railway companies to run cheap trains, at least once daily from each end of their lines, for the benefit of the poorer classes, at a rate not exceeding one penny for each mile travelled, and granting an exemption from duty on the receipts from such passengers. The powers of central control over railways, which, in 1846, were vested in a board of railway commissioners, were, in 1851, restored to the Board of Trade.
The great advance made by Scotland since the time of the Revenue Union, is indicated by the increase that has taken place in her public revenue. In 1707 it amounted to no more than £110,694; in 1788 to £1,090,148; in 1813 (including the property-tax and other war taxes) to £4,204,097; in 1822 (the property-tax, &c., having been repealed) to £3,436,642; in 1839 to £5,254,624; in 1846 to £5,586,756; in 1851 to £6,154,804; and in year ending 31st March 1858, to about £7,300,000. The principal sources of revenue are the Customs, Excise, Stamps, Land and Assessed Taxes, Property and Income Tax, and Post-Office.
The gross amount of customs collected in Scotland for Customs, the year 1836 was £1,129,802; in 1844 it was £1,864,148; in 1850, £1,951,981; in 1856, £2,188,379; and in 1857, £2,024,093. The chief ports, with the amount of duty collected at each in 1857, were—Glasgow, £752,263; Leith, £486,646; Greenock, £448,318; Aberdeen, £92,036; Dundee, £58,703; Port-Glasgow, £56,174. The number of officers was 532, and the amount of their salaries, £56,448.
The gross amount of excise duties collected in Scotland Excise, in 1849 was £2,338,397; in 1851, £2,899,358; and in 1853, £3,045,471. In 1850 the duty on bricks was abolished, and in 1853 the duties on soap and post-horses. The following table gives the amount of duties collected on the several articles for each year, from 31st March 1854 to 31st March 1859:
| Description | 1854 | 1855 | 1856 | 1857 | 1858 | |----------------------|------|------|------|------|------| | Licenses | | | | | | | Mail | | | | | | | Postage | | | | | | | Railways | | | | | | | Stage Carriages | | | | | | | Spirits (home-made) | | | | | | | Sugar used in brewing| | | | | |
Total: £3,443,333; £3,350,217; £3,524,568; £3,412,441; £3,300,352 In 1849 the stamp-duties yielded £538,406; in 1851, £533,096; and in 1853, £576,774. The following table gives the gross amount collected in the various branches for each year from 31st March 1854 to 31st March 1859:
| Description | 1854 | 1855 | 1856 | 1857 | 1858 | |------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------| | Deeds and other Instruments | £107,188| £100,287| £109,553| £121,370| £124,293| | Probate of Wills and Letters of Administration | £96,350| £90,290| £81,069| £88,751| £97,687| | Bills of Exchange | £80,037| £53,108| £61,890| £65,078| £52,776| | Bankers' Notes and Consignments | £6,877| £6,442| £10,828| £10,528| £11,434| | Receipts and Drafts | £24,808| £20,464| £31,084| £31,827| £37,216| | Marine Insurances | £19,438| £21,978| £25,006| £25,173| £19,577| | Licenses and Certificates | £21,811| £25,259| £29,259| £31,013| £30,210| | Newspapers | £38,482| £25,877| £19,411| £18,998| £19,357| | Mails | £3,512| £2,259| £423| £316| £370| | Legacies and Donations | £12,119| £19,692| £20,948| £30,108| £17,591| | Fire Insurances | £58,839| £79,602| £83,675| £95,936| £92,188| | Gold and Silver Plate | £2,724| £2,509| £2,713| £2,734| £2,540| | **Total** | £562,240| £576,006| £661,354| £621,202| £569,138|
The land-tax, which previously existed in England, was introduced into Scotland at the time of the Union, and was fixed at the rate of 4s. upon the pound of the then valued rental. The amount it yielded was £47,954. The rate has varied at different times from 4s. to 18s. per pound, but the valuation has remained fixed. In 1798 this tax was made perpetual at its original rate, but subject to redemption, a privilege which, however, has been but sparingly taken advantage of. In 1858 this tax yielded a gross sum of £35,586.
The assessed taxes comprise duties on inhabited houses, servants, carriages, horses, dogs, game, &c. In 1849 they produced £258,149; in 1851, £256,748; and in 1853, £163,014. The deficiency in the last of these years arose from the repeal of the window tax, yielding about £124,000 annually, for which was substituted a duty on inhabited houses, which produced about £42,000. In 1854 the rates of duty were considerably reduced, and were rendered more simple and uniform by the abolition of the progressive duties and of several exemptions. The following table gives the gross amount collected on each branch in each of the five years preceding 31st March 1859:
| Description | 1854 | 1855 | 1856 | 1857 | 1858 | |------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------| | Inhabited houses | £48,255| £49,030| £45,001| £53,682| £50,042| | Servants | £21,040| £17,411| £16,499| £19,355| £17,193| | Carriages | £34,374| £23,482| £22,703| £26,208| £25,906| | Horses for riding, &c. | £23,614| £19,378| £18,212| £20,899| £19,137| | Other horses and mules | £8,864| £10,902| £10,750| £12,766| £12,600| | Dogs | £18,629| £20,760| £19,290| £22,368| £19,895| | Horse dealers | £1,491| £1,831| £1,614| £1,758| £1,698| | Hair powder | £71| £61| £62| £64| £56| | Armorial bearings | £6,681| £4,442| £4,490| £5,142| £4,929| | Game Duties | £11,864| £11,112| £10,824| £11,289| £11,177| | Additional 10 per cent. | £12,182| £1,541| £1,344| £1,305| £1,117| | Composition duty | £886| £230| £222| ...| ...| | **Total** | £185,351| £159,823| £150,920| £174,849| £163,674|
The income-tax was first had recourse to by Mr Pitt in 1798, to supply means for carrying on the war. It first took the form of an increase of assessed duties to each person who possessed an income of £60 per annum and upwards; but next year it was changed to a duty of 10 per cent. on incomes of £200 and upwards, with modified rates on incomes between £60 and £200. This tax was repealed in 1802, after the peace of Amiens; but was revived again the following year, a rate varying from 3d. to 11d. per pound being imposed upon all incomes between £60 and £150 per annum, and 5 per cent. on all incomes amounting to or exceeding this latter sum. In 1805, an additional duty of one-fourth of the above rates was imposed; and in 1806, the duty was raised to 10 per cent. on incomes of £150 and upwards, and only professional incomes under £50 were exempted from taxation. This tax ceased in 1816, and was not revived till 1842, when it was reimposed by Sir Robert Peel's government, for the purpose of meeting the deficiency which then occurred in the revenue, and to enable the government to make some reforms, with the view of improving the commerce and manufactures of the country. The rate imposed was 7d. in the pound on all incomes of £150 and upwards, exemption being granted to all persons whose income was under that sum. It was first imposed for three years, but in 1845 it was continued for three years longer at the same rate, and again for another three years. In 1851 it was continued for one year, and in 1852 for another year.
In 1853, Mr Gladstone introduced an act by which the tax was reimposed for a period of seven years, after which it was to cease entirely. By this act the original rate of duty of 7d. in the pound was continued for two years; 6d. in the pound was imposed for the next two years; and 5d. in the pound for the remaining three years, ending 5th April 1860. The rate of duty on incomes between £100 and £150 was fixed at 5d. in the pound annually during the whole seven years. On the declaration of the war with Russia, it was found necessary to double the income-tax from the 5th April 1854; and a farther increase was afterwards imposed, from the 5th April 1855, of 2d. in the pound, on incomes of £150 and upwards; and of 1½d. in the pound on incomes between £100 and £150. In 1857, the rates were reduced to 7d. and 5d. in the pound respectively; and in 1858, the former of these was farther reduced to 5d. In 1859, the rates were again raised to 9d. in the pound on incomes of £150 and upwards, and to 6½d. in the pound on incomes between £100 and £150. The following table gives the nett amount of property and income-tax collected in Scotland in each of the eleven years, from year ending 5th April 1847 to 5th April 1857, under each schedule. Schedule A applies to incomes arising from lands, houses, mines, and other heritages in respect of property; schedule B to incomes arising from the above in respect of occupancy; schedule D to incomes derived from trades, manufactures, professions, or employments; and schedule E to salaries and emoluments of office of all persons employed in public offices:
| Year | A | B | D | E | Total | |------|---|---|---|---|-------| | 1847 | £266,439 | £23,137 | £163,088 | £12,458 | £465,722 | | 1848 | £274,401 | £23,666 | £154,342 | £13,097 | £465,148 | | 1849 | £284,289 | £23,796 | £135,861 | £13,973 | £475,669 | | 1850 | £294,289 | £23,796 | £135,861 | £13,973 | £475,669 | | 1851 | £289,216 | £22,778 | £125,388 | £13,181 | £451,863 | | 1852 | £289,206 | £22,453 | £140,720 | £15,159 | £467,538 | | 1853 | £290,484 | £22,592 | £145,332 | £15,397 | £478,905 | | 1854 | £321,171 | £28,408 | £186,623 | £18,512 | £544,814 | | 1855 | £565,805 | £38,396 | £365,133 | £39,396 | £1,140,790 | | 1856 | £767,679 | £69,026 | £422,811 | £49,211 | £1,312,727 | | 1857 | £774,302 | £70,711 | £442,417 | £52,405 | £1,339,835 |
The amount of property and income charged duty for year ending 5th April 1857 was, under schedule A, £1,116,577,882; B, £2,806,855; D, £6,856,106; E, £818,876.—total, £2,221,992; for 1858, A, £1,252,968; B, £3,397,365; D, £7,107,287; E, £869,627.—total, £2,256,533. The annual value of real property assessed under schedule A, in 1843, was £9,481,000, showing an increase of nearly a fourth in fifteen years.
The number of persons charged under schedule D, on incomes derived from trades and professions in 1847, was 26,190, of whom more than one-half, or 13,567, were from £100 to £150; 3,331 under £100; 2,749 from £150 to Statistics. L.200; 2393 from L.200 to L.300; 1281 from L.300 to L.400; 640 from L.400 to L.500; 1282 from L.500 to 1000; and 947 L.1000 and upwards.
Post-office. On 10th January 1840 the penny postage system was introduced, and since that time the number of letters delivered in the United Kingdom has increased more than sixfold. The gross revenue for year ending 5th January 1839 (the last complete year before the reduction) was L.2,346,278; and for the year ending 31st December 1857, it was L.3,035,713; the net revenue in the former case was L.1,659,509; and in the latter, L.1,314,898—the difference arising from the increased cost of management, which in 1839 was only L.686,768, and in 1857, L.1,720,815. The gross revenue from postages in Scotland, in 1857, was L.271,906, being an increase of L.17,473 on that of 1856; and the commission on money-orders was L.8463, being an increase of L.466 on that of 1856. The number of chargeable letters delivered in the United Kingdom in 1857 was, as nearly as can be estimated, 504,421,000, being an increase on the previous year of 5½ per cent.; in Scotland, 51,612,000, showing an increase of 7 per cent. The colonial and foreign letters were less than one-fiftieth of the number delivered; and about one letter in every 400 was registered. The proportion of letters to each individual in the United Kingdom was about 17; in Scotland, about 16. The number of free newspapers delivered in the United Kingdom, in 1857, was about 51,616,000; in Scotland, 7,245,000; the number of book-packets and chargeable newspapers (i.e., not bearing the newspaper stamp) delivered in the United Kingdom in 1857 was 25,193,000; in Scotland, 3,623,000. The number of money-orders issued in the United Kingdom, in 1857, was 6,389,702; and their aggregate amount was L.12,180,272, affording a clear profit of L.24,175. In Scotland the number was 512,874; amount, L.950,872; clear profit, L.1180. Of the number of orders issued in Scotland, 350,178 were of and under L.2, and 162,697 above L.2 and not above L.5.
Poor-laws. Though poor rates were not generally imposed in Scotland till very recently, yet as early as 1579 an act was passed by the Scottish Parliament involving a compulsory assessment for the support of the impotent poor. Down to the middle of the last century, however, the weekly collections, under the management of the kirk-session, were in general found sufficient for the support of the poor, except in years of peculiar pressure or scarcity; when in some cases temporary assessments were resorted to. Assessments have only been introduced as a last resort, and only when the poor could not otherwise be supported. Hence we find that, in 1838, only 236 parishes were legally assessed in Scotland, and 126 voluntarily assessed, while 517 were unassessed. These assessments were most common and heaviest in the parishes bordering on England; and except in the case of the larger towns, they decreased or disappeared as they receded from the contaminating influence of the sister kingdom. Thus, every parish in the Synod of Merse and Tweeddale was burdened with assessment, while in the midland synods less than the half of the parishes were assessed; and in the northern synods, embracing 157 parishes, only three were subjected to that burden.
In 1845 an act (8 and 9 Vict. c. 83) was passed for the amendment and better administration of the laws relating to the relief of the poor in Scotland. It established a board of supervision to inquire into the management of the poor throughout Scotland, and to make an annual report of its proceedings. This statute placed three modes of assessment in the option of parochial boards, subject to the sanction of the board of supervision:—(1.) One-half of the assessment may be imposed upon the owners, and the other half upon the tenants, or occupants of all lands and heritages within the parish rateably, according to the annual value of such lands and heritages. (2.) One-half of the assessment may be imposed upon the owners of all lands and heritages within the parish, according to the annual value of such lands and heritages; and the other half upon the whole inhabitants, according to their means and substance, other than lands and heritages situated in Great Britain and Ireland. (3.) The whole assessment may be imposed as an equal percentage upon the annual value of all lands and heritages within the parish, and upon the estimated annual income of the whole inhabitants from means and substance, other than lands and heritages situated in Great Britain and Ireland. The act further permitted the continuance of any other mode of assessment established in any parish by a local act or by usage. The following table gives the number of parishes assessed in each mode for each year (ending August) since the institution of the board:
| Mode | 1846 | 1847 | 1848 | 1849 | 1850 | 1851 | 1852 | 1853 | 1854 | 1855 | 1856 | |------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------| | First | 325 | 431 | 471 | 490 | 521 | 534 | 554 | 557 | 567 | 592 | 630 | | Second | 35 | 37 | 40 | 36 | 30 | 30 | 29 | 24 | 24 | 17 | 13 | | Third | 31 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 40 | 40 | 33 | 35 | 35 | 31 | 31 | | Local usage| 56 | 56 | 62 | 50 | 50 | 49 | 49 | 45 | 45 | 35 | 31 | | Total assessed | 445 | 558 | 602 | 625 | 644 | 653 | 671 | 690 | 689 | 707 | 729 | | Unassessed | 435 | 522 | 578 | 555 | 536 | 528 | 511 | 502 | 494 | 483 | 454 |
The sums received from all sources for the relief of the poor were, in 1836, L.171,042; in 1845-6, L.306,044; in 1856-7, L.669,852. Of this last sum there was expended for relief of poor on the roll, L.485,803; relief of casual poor, L.20,719; medical relief, L.23,730; management, L.61,553; law expenses, L.7399; poor-house buildings, L.27,277; general sanitary measures, L.1122. The number of registered poor, on the 14th of May 1857, was 69,217 (a decrease of 10,756 since the same date in preceding year); the number who had died, or ceased to receive relief during the year, was 19,405; and the number of casual or unregistered poor was 36,545.
The supreme court in civil matters is the Court of Session, consisting of thirteen judges. They act in what is justice, i.e., called the "Inner" and the "Outer" house. The Outer-House is the court of first instance, whence litigations pass to the Inner as to a court of review. Five of the junior judges sit in the Outer-House, each holding a separate court, which, to distinguish it from the Inner-House, is called the court of a Lord Ordinary. The Inner-House is partitioned into two divisions, each consisting of four judges. An ordinary litigation in the Court of Session comes first before a Lord Ordinary, and may be taken for review to one of the divisions of the Inner-House, where a decision is a decision of the Court of Session. It is practicable, however, when occasion demands, to have the judgment of the whole court on a point. The decisions in the Court of Session are under certain restrictions, liable to be brought by appeal before the House of Lords. See Appeal-Causes may be taken into the Court of Session from local courts by a process called "advocation."
The supreme tribunal for matters criminal is the Court of Justiciary, consisting of five of the judges of the Court of Session. The High Court of Justiciary, as it is termed, sits in Edinburgh, but Circuit Courts of Justiciary are held, four in Glasgow, and two in the other circuit districts, annually. This court has jurisdiction in all criminal charges, except those which are reserved by statute for summary trial in inferior tribunals. There are points which can be referred from the circuit courts to the High Court of Justiciary, but from this tribunal there is no appeal, nor can it review its own judgments. The head of this Court is the Lord Justice-General, whose title represents that of the ancient Justiciar of Scotland. The offices of Lord Justice- Statistics General and President of the Court of Session are now united.
The most important local courts are those of the sheriffs. There is at least one sheriff-court in each county. The immediate business of the court is conducted before the sheriff-substitute, who resides within the county, where he is the Sovereign's immediate representative, enforcing the decisions of the courts of law generally, and superintending everything done under the authority of what is called "the executive." The sheriff-substitute, as his title implies, acts for a principal, who has, within certain limits, a power to revise his proceedings, while there are certain acts, both judicial and executive, which must be performed by the sheriff-principal. By an act passed in 1855, arrangements were made for grouping the counties into districts; and one sheriff-principal serves for all the counties of each district. There was previously a sheriff-principal as well as a sheriff-substitute for each county, and the new arrangement was adopted under the view, that although there might be work enough for a sheriff-substitute in a county, or for several, as in the county of Lanark, the office of principal-sheriff of any of the smaller counties was apt to degenerate to something little above a sinecure.
There is no limit to the importance, in a pecuniary scale, of the questions of civil right that may be tried in the court of the sheriff. Its operation is of course restrained by the local limits of the sheriff's jurisdiction. He has no authority in questions of feudal rights, or, in other words, of land rights. Nor can he decide questions of status, as it is termed, such as marriage or legitimacy. The peculiar Scottish action called a "Declarator," by which a person who is neither prosecuting another nor defending himself, but establishing a right liable to be called in question, is excluded from the sheriff-court. The proceedings in the civil department of the ordinary sheriff's court are chiefly conducted in written pleadings. For the recovery of small debts, the sheriff has a separate court, in which the procedure is oral and summary. In the criminal department of the sheriff's court, those cases are tried which the crown lawyers do not think it necessary to bring before the Court of Justiciary. As the sheriff has not authority beyond his district, transportable offences could not be adjudicated by him, and the exclusion now of course applies to the punishment of penal servitude. The punishment of death is within the power of the sheriff by the theory of the law, but has been long abandoned in practice. Justices of peace appointed under royal commission, as in England, and magistrates of municipal corporations, have jurisdiction in Scotland, both in civil and criminal matters. Their authority, however, limited by law and custom, is practically left to a still narrower sphere, by the efficiency of the jurisdiction exercised by the sheriffs, who are professionally trained and responsible judges.
The law administered by the Scottish tribunals differs fundamentally from the law of England. This difference will be found to have originated in the antagonism between the two countries, created by that war of independence which ended in the establishment of Bruce's kingdom in Scotland. The records of the laws and customs of the two countries anterior to that war show that there was then little fundamental difference between them. Scotland, however, having to support her national independence against so powerful a neighbour, fell into alliance with France. Hence her laws, and to some extent her institutions, followed the example of that country. The Court of Session, for instance, was an imitation of the Parliament of Paris. So far as Scotland took her laws from France, she received them from those two great fountains of the Roman and the feudal law which supplied all the continental nations with their jurisprudence. In England the common law owes more to the Justinian system than the old school of English common lawyers would have readily admitted; but Scotland received the whole of the civil law as authority, unless when the field was occupied by the feudal law. Hence the whole of the Justinian system, and the numerous comments on its various parts by French and German jurists, were the study of the Scottish lawyers, while those in England perused the year books and the works of the commentators who restricted their views to precedents purely English. Both England and Scotland drew from the feudal law, but both in a different fashion. The Scottish system of law rights became more purely and scientifically feudal than the English, carrying out a hierarchy of subinfeudation from the monarch, the supreme over-lord, through nearly any number of grades of sub-vassalship. If this system had its political and its economical inconveniences, it had the effect of establishing a thorough and scientific system of land registration in Scotland. In many points the laws of England and of Scotland have since the union been assimilated by statute. In the criminal department, the continental characteristics are still preserved in the institution of public prosecutors. A private person may prosecute in Scotland on a criminal charge, but partly from difficulties in carrying out such proceedings, and far more because they are rendered unnecessary by the ample official organization for the administration of the criminal law, the private prosecution of criminal charges is virtually unknown.
For fuller information on the law and judicature of Scotland, see Advocate, Agent, Appeal, Arrest, Arrestment, Bankruptcy, Charity, Conveyancing, Corporation, Entail, Husband and Wife, Inspectment, Inhibition, Joint-Stock, Jury, Lease, Parent and Child, &c.
For information on subjects connected with Scotland, not noticed, or only glanced at in this article, see such headings as Money, Savings Banks, Parliament, Municipal Corporations, Police, Prisons, &c.
It only remains to add, that of this article the physical description and geology are by Professor Nicol of Aberdeen; the climate and agriculture by Robert Russell, Esq., author of North America, its Agriculture and Climate; the botany by Professor Balfour of Edinburgh University; and the judicature by J. H. Burton, Esq., advocate.