a fixed enmity against the aristocracy, which had effected great ufurpations during his minority; and his attachment to the eminent clergy, who alone could balance their power, was unavoidable.

"Of the perfon, and domeftic life, of James V, the features are well known. His frame was of the middle fize, and robust, capable of every exertion of agility or fatigue. In elegance of form and countenance, he equalled any prince of his time. His oval face, blue eyes of piercing fplendor, aquiline nofe, yellow hair, and fmall beard, forked in the fashion of that period, impreffed the beholders with ideas of fweetnefs joined with majefty. In drefs he was rather elegant than magnificent: yet his palaces were replete with decoration. The repaft of a peasant he would share; and, even from a fumptuous board, the royal meal was plain and frugal; nor did he entruft his dignity to the intemperance of wine. Eminently patient he was of labour, of hunger and thirst, of heat and cold. His attachment to the arts was decided: he reared palaces of good architecture; and compofed fome fugitive pieces of poetry, though it be doubtful if any have reached our times. He replenished his country with artillery, and military weapons; and the beauty of his gold coins befpeaks his attention even to the minuteft improvements, to be gained by the employment of foreign artifts. The Scotifh navy, ruined by Albany, began to refume fome importance: and the fubfequent voyage of James to the Orkneys and the Hebudes, accompanied by men of fkill, in order to examine the dangers and advantages of the circumjacent feas, will ever deferve the applaufe of the philofopher, as an enterprise equally rare and meritorious." Vol. ii, p. 292.

This character does honour to the hiftorian as well as to the fovereign. It is certainly drawn with a judicious hand; though with feveral not very pleafing affectations of ftyle.

But let us now turn to the retrospect of the fame king's reign, not exactly extracting but abridging that general differtation or retrospect; for the fake of introducing which, as we now fee, thefe iketches are taken from their natural places in the narrative, and thrown together at the end of it.

"That paradoxical philofophy, which fuppofes man more happy in a favage, than in a civilized condition, will never find converts among the fons of fcience. To folid information, to enlarged views, to candid difcuffion, to genuine ratiocination, the idea will ever ap pear a dream of ignorant genius, a vifion of the golden age of the ancient poets:

• Di latte

Sen' corfe il fiume, et ftillo mele il bofc.' Whether we perufe the imperfect records of barbaric ages, or the page of the modern travelier, which delineates nations yet in infancy, and reprefents antiquities coeval with ourselves, the comparative mifery of the favage will ever appear predominant. Few and infipid are his enjoyments, the animal pleasures merely animal, unheightened by anti

Yet this is exactly the philofophy of Illuminifm. Rev.

cipation

cipation, by memory, by imagination, by the thoufand nameless elegancies of civic life," &c. &c. &c. P. 386.

"But whether the fum of the contentment of the poor, for happinefs is too bold a word for human existence, be greater in barbaric or in civilized ages, is a different queftion. Among our German ancestors," &c. &c. &c. P. 388.

"The ufage of flavery among ancient nations prevented any occafion of beggary. In diftrefs to become flaves, was the last refuge of the miferable; and their master provided objects for their industry, and fubfiftence for their lives. The Chriflian fyftem did not oppofe this practife: the early Chriftians had their flaves*; and though the Popes, in the ninth century, prohibited the Venetians to fell Believers as flaves to the Mahometanst, yet the poor people of England continued, even to the twelfth century, to fell their children as flaves to the Irifht. But modern charity would fhrink from the advice of a great political writers, to restore the custom of flavery as the only mean of deliverance from the recent evils of beggary and poors'-rates an opulent manufacturer never supporting the fick, aged, or helplefs; while a rich Roman would not only employ five thousand flaves, but furnish an afylum for all in every ftage of existence.

"In a more immediate view of the prefent topic, it appears that the condition of the poor, as well as of the rich, is greatly ameliorated by civilization. New difadvantages, it must be confeffed, arife; the population becomes fo numerous, that the fubfiftence is of courfe more difficult: and hardly, except in civilized fociety, can the poor man fhun marriage, or execrate the increase of his family. But this defect may often arife," &c. &c. &c. P. 389.

"The progrefs of Scotland towards civilization, during the reigns of James IV and V, appears to have been fomewhat more rapid than at any preceding period, though the minority of the latter prince formed a confiderable interruption" (p. 391). John Mair," commonly called Major, "in his defcription of Scotland, 1521, prefents fome particulars worthy of commemoration. He mentions Leith as the chief port, and obferves that, between it and Edinburgh, there was a fmall but rich village, famous for the woolen manufacture, and from which the beft cloths in Scotland derived their name. Perth was the only fortified town, the Scots being little versed either in fortification

Among other authorities, fee an infcription in the Recherches fur les Antiquités de Vienne of Nicolas Chorier, Lyons, 1658, 12m0, P. 221."

+ "Anaftafius vita Zachariæ Papæ, an. 747; Danduli Chron. Venet. an. 878."

Wil. Malmfb. Vita Wulfftani, Anglia Sacra 11, 258. Chronicon Hib. Domit. A. xviii, an. 1172.. Thorklin's learned tract on the Slave-Trade in Europe, London, 1788, 8vo."

"Fletcher of Salton, Difc. 2, on Scotifh Affairs, p. 87, edit,

1749."

ΟΙ

or fiege; but difplaying great fortitude in repelling an enemy. The ecclefiaftic polity was far inferior to that of England, there being often thirty hamlets attached to one parish church, diftant from fome of them four, five, or even ten miles: but every laird had his chapel and chaplain, and fome more [than one]. The cures were few, but rich; and generally administered by deputies. The houfes of the farmers were small, because they only rented by the year, at the most four or five [years]; fo that, though ftone were common, there was no defire to erect good houses, to plant trees or hedges, or to enrich the ground; and Mair juftly expreffes his regret for the confequent lofs, and difgrace, to the kingdom at large. He adds, that if perpetual leafes were granted, the rent might be tripled, and yet the tenants become rich; and the homicides which followed their removal be avoided, for a tenant of fpirit would kill his fucceffor to defpite the lord.-He blames the farmers for their contempt of manufactures, and of citizens, whom they regarded as effeminate while they, leaving the agricultural operation to fervants, affected to ride conftantly with their lords, perhaps a refpect neceffary to fecure their brief leafes. P. 392.

"There being no manufactures," except (as the author fhould in common confiftency have noted) at Leith," the poor were chiefly occupied in the numerous menial trains of the great; or in the more ufeful employments of agriculture and pafturage. The cottagers and fervants of farmers were almoft as rich as their mafters; and far lefs harraffed with care. But barren are the materials to form an estimation of the ftate of a million of poor, while a few thousands of more fortunate families attract alike the notice of the heralds and the old annalifts. P. 394.

"Among the games and paftimes, Lindfay the hiftorian mentions. fhooting with the bow at pricks, rovers, or buts; leaping, running, wrestling and cafting of the penny-ftone or quoit*. Even the women are branded, by Dunbar and other poets, for drinking ale, or malmfey, if they could procure it, to excefst. The plays, or annual feftivals, mentioned in a former retrospect, seem to have been retained till the Reformation, about which period a poet mentions that at Bowdent. P. 398.

"A few culverins and hagbuts were the unwieldly fire-arms then borne by the foldiers. But the artillery was of numerous defcriptions, as the reader may have obferved in the preceding books. P. 407.

"Of large artillery James IV had provided a noble train, among which Lindfay mentions the feven fifters, pieces of fuperior fize and exquifite fabric, the work of Robert Borthwick, mafter of the artilJery, who infcribed on his productions this rude line,

Machina fum Scoto Borthwic fabricata Roberto.

The fword, dagger, and turquoife ring, of that great prince, paffed to the Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal of England, after the battle of

Flodden; and a defcendant prefented them to the College of Heralds, London, where they remain. P. 408.

James IV improved, or enlarged, the caftles of Falkland and Stirling, and founded a monaftery near the latter; but that prince fhewed more attachment to his navy than to architecture, and chiefly encouraged the military arts. His fucceffor built a palace within the caftle-walls of Stirling; and another at Linlithgow, in a more advantageous fituation than the ancient edifice which was demolished. This new palace was praised by Mary of Guife, as equal to thofe of France; and from its remains, and thofe of part of the royal refidences at Falkland and Holyrood-house, the state of architecture may be estimated. P. P. 424.

"That the manners of the times were not a little depraved, may be learned from the tale of Dunbar, called The Two married Women and the Widow, where the fair-fex in particular fhew every vice of the most polished ages, without the fentiment and delicacy. And many incidents in this hiftory will testify that the characters are far from ideal. That luxury and civilization increase the progrefs of vice, will appear problematic to the ftudent of hiftory; and at any rate they acknowledge the divinity of virtue, by a hypocri ical homage to exterior decency, while in more rude ages crimes ftalk about in naked deformity." P. 432.

We have thus given one retrofpect reduced into a kind of anatomy, exhibiting all the moft ftable parts of the whole; even thowing, in fome degree, the general form. Comparing what we have thus given with our general remarks, and with the fpecimen of Character which we have given before, our readers will be enabled to form for themfelves a tolerably exact idea of the hiftory at large. The author of it appears to us, in the whole tenor of his work, a man of frong intellect, and fhrewd fagacity. Nor does he fhow thofe violent prejudices which we thought there was reafon to expect. He is generally very fair and candid.

"The fables," he notes, in I, 247," and prolix orations, of Buchanan concerning the queen and Kennedy, xi, 6-17, were compofed by him to ferve the faction of Murray againft Mary, and deferve fevere reprobation, as they evince that he was capable of perverting the very foundation of hiftory." And, in 1, 256, “Fabulous elegance, and a complete confufion of chronology are the general features of Buchanan's hiftory; Lefley is infinitely fuperior in veracity and exactnefs."

Nor do we fee any ground for thofe fufpicions of his probity, which his impofition upon the public, perfifted in for many years, of a poem written by himself, as one hereditarily recited by the pealants in Kyle and Carrick, raight appear to justify in the eyes of ftrict morality. The hiftorian feems to be perfealy juft and honourable. Even his infidelity, once fo daringly obtrufive, and fo offenfively loquacious, here utters fcarcely a

found.

found. We notice only, in p. I, 182, "the royal perfon" of James I, mentioned very improperly as "the mark of his omniprefent authority." It is faid alfo, in I, 415, that "pardon for fins," (the author meaning feemingly, from the context, human pardon, but appearing plainly in the fequel to mean heavenly)" is ever a dangerous tenet; a better creed would prevent crimes, by denying any celeftial pardon." The latter indeed is an affertion horrible in itlelf to man, and impoffible, we think, to be founded upon any thing fhort of that Atheism, which confiders morality as the mere fervant of policy.

We have obferved fome contradictions in this historian; and one of them we have before tranfiently noticed. We have particularly obferved them in this friend of Mr. Gibbon, as in that author himself, between the text and the notes. Thus in I, 204-205, for "Huntingdon," in the text, an hiftorian in the note "feems rightly to put Harrington." In I, 306-307, the text fpecifies certain peers by name, but a note adds, So Lindlay, 123, but this is dubious," and then mentions another enumeration from Leflie; as, in II, 154-155, a "donation is flated by the narrative to have been made at one part of the year, while it is "fufpected" by the comment to have rather" taken place at another. We even meet with a violent contradiction in the text itself, within the compass only of three pages, and in the management of the fame fubject. The author remarks, in I, 296, if it be often dubious, even in modern times, which of two warring nations was the aggreffor, a fuperior certainty is not to be expected in remote ages,' he then adds, "fome affert that Ed

ward IV was the author of hoftilities, while others affirm that Louis XI excited the Scotifh king to arms;" yet he argties, that the latter opinion might be fupported by an incident noticed; though, for fome reafons affigned, "it does not seem probable." At the fame time, he allows that arguments against that fuppofition arife from circumftances fpecified, though, "on the other hand, it is certain that, in 1478, Edward had infringed the amity with Scotland." Yet, after all, a circumftance, which does not appear till p. 298, "of itfelf fixes the violation upon Edward." Thus what was doubtful at first, is refolved at laft into a double certainty.

The language of this hiftorian is deformed by many vicious, vulgár, and affected expreflions. In p. 10, we have "vague or ufurpative;" p. 25, "forage" for foraging; p. 69, "awaken the attention and detection of the people;" p. 86, "the conciliation of munificence;" p. 118," to inculcate into their obduracy fome principles;" p. 198, "the height of impolicy;" p. 251, "her doubtful reputation;" p. 329,"veracious tefti

mony;"