middle of the 16th century, the parliament appointed justices and sheriffs, in Ross, Caithness, the Orkneys, and the Western Isles, where none had been before, and appointed courts to be holden from time to time, in very remote districts. There was need of this attention if the preamble to the acts is to be credited, 'Through lack of justiciaries, justices, and sheriffs, by which the people are become wild.' *-Public acts, James VI.

James V, who could sometimes exert a just and proper spirit, sailed in 1535 from Leith, and examined in person how far those wholesome regulations had been put in practice. He seized and brought away some of the most turbulent chieftains, and inspired the most ungovernable of his subjects with a decent respect for the laws.*

The parliaments were frequently and regularly called, particularly by James IV and V. Everything which the nation could afford, was granted by the house (for it was but single, the scheme which James I had planned, of forming two chambers, having unhappily miscarried) and all possible care was there taken, that the king should not alienate the demesnes of the crown. In some instances, this branch of the legislative appears to have trenched upon the royal prerogative,† and even to have assumed the executive power.

* Justice,' says Pennant, was administered with great expedition, and too often with vindictive severity. Originally the time of trial and execution was to be within 'three suns.' About the latter end of the seventeenth century, the period was extended to nine days after the sentence; but since a rapid and unjust execution in a petty Scottish town in 1720, the execution has been ordered to be deferred for forty days on the south, and sixty on the north side of the Tay, that time may be allowed for an application for mercy.'

As in 1503, when an act was passed for prohibiting the king from pardoning those convicted of wilful and premeditated murder; but this appears to have been done at the monarch's own request, and was liable to be rescinded at his pleasure. James IV, Act 97.

It is certain (as has been remarked by a well informed historian) that this mixture of liberality and of caution in the Scottish representatives, at the same time that it maintained their kings in decent magnificence by the revenues of the crown lands, 'prevented the subjects from being harassed by loans, benevolences, and other oppressive acts, which were so often employed by the powers of Europe, their contemporaries.' Yet as the government had very seldom sufficient strength to guard the unarmed members of society from assassination and pillage, arrayed under the banners of a factious nobleman, it may be doubted, whether the extortion and despotism of a Seventh or Eighth Henry, might not be more tolerable than the domestic tyranny * and murderous ravages committed by the satellites of a Douglas, a Home,† a Sinclair, or of a Hamilton.

* It appears that each great man had his courts, held by power delegated from the crown, with a soc sac, (a pit for drowning some offenders, particularly women) pit, and gallows, toill and paine, in-fang thief; he had power to hold courts for slaughter and doe upon ane man that is seized there with in hand havand, or in back bearand.'

The Homes were intrepid border chiefs; and their af frays were often tainted with that prevalent species of ferocity which characterised the times. Anthony d'Arcy, Seigneur de la Bastie, a French knight of great courage and fame, had been left by the regent (Albany) in the important situation of warden of the eastern marshes, and had taken up the duties of the office with a strict hand. But Home of Wedderburn, a powerful chief of the name, could not brook that an office usually held by the head of his house, should be lodged in the hands of a foreigner dependent on the regent, by whom Lord Home had been put to death. Eager for revenge, the border chieftain way-laid the new warden with an ambuscade of armed men. Seeing himself beset, the unfortunate d'Arcy endeavored to gain the castle of Dunbar; but having run his horse into a morass, near Dunse, he was overtaken and slain. Home knitted the head of his victim to his saddle-bow by the long locks, which had been so much

AN ESTIMATE OF THE MORALS, MANNERS, DIVERSIONS, BANQUETS, AND DRESS, OF THE SCOTS AND ENGLISH,

WITH OTHER MEMORABILIAS TOWARDS THE CLOSE OF THE XVTH AND COMMENCEMENT OF THE XVITH CENTURY.

As regards moral habits, the English generally were still brave, humane, and (at least among each other) hospitable. That their priests and monks * were luxurious and gluttonous, is known from their own prelates; and that their profligacy exceeded the usual natural bounds of licentiousness, we are

admired in courtly assemblies, and placed it on the ramparts of Home castle, as a pledge of the vengeance exacted for the death of the late lord of that fortress.

The

The monks in rich monastaries lived more luxuriously than any order of men in the kingdom. The office of chief cook was one of the greatest offices in these monastaries, and was conferred with great impartiality, on that brother who had studied the art of cookery with most success. historian of Croyland Abbey speaks highly in praise of brother Lawrence Charteres, the cook of that monastery, who, prompted by the love of God, and zeal of religion, had given £40 (a sum equivalent to £400 now) for the recreation of the convent with the milk of almonds on fast days.' He also gives us a long statute that was made for the equitable distribution of this almond milk, with the finest bread and best honey. Nor were the secular clergy more hostile to the pleasures of the table; and some of them contrived to convert gluttony and drunkenness into religious ceremonies by the celebration of glutton-masses, as they very properly called them. These were celebrated five times a year, in honor of the Virgin Mary; and the bone of contention was who should devour the greatest quantities of meat and drink to her honor.

but too well assured by the report of the visitation under Cromwell but the faults of a singularly depraved and pampered race ought not to be laid to the door of a whole nation. The lower orders of the community were exceedingly ignorant; and as little attention was shewn to instruct them in the religious duties of life, they repaid the neglect by plundering their superiors. But although twenty-two thousand persons are said to have been executed chiefly for theft, in the time of Henry VIII, yet was murder almost entirely unknown, and England might, in the 16th century, proudly vaunt, that the taking away life in cold blood, at least without some legal color of justice, was a practice almost unknown within her limits.

An unhappy species of political rivalry wherein each head of a party found it necessary to support its adherents in rapine and murder, lest he should be deserted by all, prevents the eulogy from being extended at this period to Scotland, wherein the example of the Douglas family, of the house of Hamilton, and many gallant but ferocious warriors, too plainly shewed that it was possible to unite in the same person intrepid bravery against the foreign foe and inexorable cruelty of the defenceless neighbor.

THE HAMILTON FACTION.

The peace of the kingdom at this period was disturbed by the constant dissension kept up betwixt the parties of Hamilton and Douglas; that is, between the Earls of Angus and Arran. They used arms against each other without hesitation. At length (Jan. 1520) a parliament being called at Edinburgh, the Earl of Angus appeared with four hundred of his followers armed with spears. The Hamiltons not less eager and similarly prepared for

ters.'

strife, repaired to the capital in equal or superior numbers. They assembled in the house of the Chancellor Beaton, the ambitious Archbishop of Glasgow, who was bound to the faction of Arran by that nobleman having married the niece of the prelate. Gawin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, a son of Earl Bell-thecat, and the celebrated translator of Virgil, labored to prevent the factions from coming to blows. He applied to Beaton himself, as official conservator of the laws and peace of the realm. Beaton laying his hand on his heart, protested upon his conscience he could not help the affray which was about to take place. Ah! my lord,' exclaimed the advocate for peace, who heard a shirt of mail rattle under the bishop's rochet, methinks your conscience clatThe Bishop of Dunkeld then had recourse to Sir Patrick Hamilton, brother to the Earl of Arran, who willingly attempted to exhort his kinsman to keep the peace, until he was rudely upbraided with. reluctance to fight by Sir James Hamilton, natural son to his brother, and a man for peace and sanguinary disposition. 'False bastard!' exclaimed Sir Patrick, in a rage, 'I will fight to-day where thou darest not be seen.' All thoughts of peace had now vanished; and the Hamiltons with their friends and adherents rushed furiously up the lanes which lead from the Cow-gate, where the bishop's palace was situated, with the view of taking possession of the High Street. But the Douglas party had been beforehand with them, and already occupied the principal street, with the advantage of attacking their enemies. as they issued in disorder from the narrow lanes. Those of Angus's followers who were not armed were supplied with lances by the favor of the citizens of Edinburgh, who handed them through their windows.

These long weapons considerably added to the advantages of the Douglases over their enemies; and