reader in a period, where the recital of uninterefting facts feems to demand fome argumentative or difcutive matter to engage the attention, and fo perhaps might the origin of the feudal law.

No man perhaps has come nearer to that fo requifite and fo rare a qukty in an hiftorian of unprejudivad partiality. As a ftrong inftance of this, as well as a fpecimen of our author's fine writing, we infert the difpute of Henry II. with Thomas a Becket.

"Becket waited not till Henry fhould commence thofe projects araint the ecclefiaftical power, which, he knew, had been formed by that prince: he was himself the aggreffor; and endeavoured to overawe the king by the intrepidity and boldness of his enterprizes. He fummoned the earl of Clare to furrender the barony of Tunbridge, which, ever fince the conqueft, had remained in the family of that nobleman, but which, as it had formerly belonged to the fee of Canterbury, the primate pretended his predeceffors were prohibited by the canons to alienate. The earl of Clare, befides the luftre which he derived from the greatnefs of his own birth, and the extent of his poffeffions, was allied to all the chief families in the kingdom; his fifter, who was a celebrated beauty, had farther extended his credit among the nobility, and was even fuppofed to have gained the king's affections; and Becket could not better difcover, than by attacking fo powerful an intereft, his refolution to maintain with vigour the rights, real or pretended, of his fee.

William de Eynsford, a military tenart of the crown, was patron of a living, which belonged to a

manor that held of the archbishop of Canterbury; and Becket, without regard to William's right, prefented, on new and illegal pretext, one Laurence to that living, who was violently expelled by Eynsford. The primate, making himself, as was ufual in fpiritual courts, both judge and party, iffued out, in a fummary manner, the fentence of excommunication against Eynsford, who complained to the king, that he, who held in capite of the crown, fhould, contrary to the practice eftablifhed by the Conqueror, and maintained ever fince by his fucceffors, be fubjected to that terrible fentence, without the previous confent of the fovereign. Henry, who had now broke off all perfonal intercourfe with Becket, fent him, by a meffenger, his orders to abfolve Eynsford; but received for anfwer, that it belonged not to the king to inform him whom he fhould abfolve and whom excommunicate; and it was not till after many remonftrances and menaces, that Becket, though with the worst grace imaginable, was induced to comply with the royal mandate.

Henry, though he found himfelf thus grievously mistaken in the character of the perfon whom he had promoted to the primacy, determined not to defift from his former intention of retrenching clerical ufurpations. He was entirely mafter of his extenfive dominions: the prudence and vigour of his govern ment, attended with perpetual fuccefs, had raifed his character above that of any of his predeceffors. The papacy was weakened by a fchifm, which divided all Europe, and he rightly judged, that, if the prefent favourable opportunity were neglected, the crown muft, from the prevalent

prevalent fuperftition of the people, be in danger of falling into an entire fubordination under the mitre. The union of the cival and ecclefiaftical powers ferves extremely, in every civilized government, to the maintenance of peace and order; and prevents thofe mutual in croachments, which, as there can be no ultimate judge between them, are often attended with the moft dangerous confequences. Whether the fupreme magiltrate, who unites thefe powers, receive the appellation of prince or prelate, is not material: the fuperior weight, which temporal interefts commonly bear in the apprehenfions of men above fpiritual renders the civil part of bis character moft prevalent; and in time prevents thofe grofs impoftures and bigotted profecutions, which, in all falfe religions, are the chief foundation of clerical authority. But, during the progrefs of ecclefiaftical ufurpations, the ftate, by the refiftance of the civil magif trate, is naturally thrown into convulfions, and it behoves the prince, both for his own intereft and for that of the public, to provide in time fufficient barriers again fo dangerous and infidious a rival. This precaution had been hitherto much neglected in England, as well as in other catholic countries; and affairs at laft feemed to have come to a dangerous crifis; a fovereign of the greatest abilities was now on the throne: a prelate of the moft inflexible and intrepid character was poffefled of the primacy: the contending powers appeared to be arined with their full force, and it was natural to expect fome extraordinary event to refult from their rencounter. Among their other inventions to obtain money, the clergy had in

culcated the neceffity of penance as an atonement for fin; and having again introduced the practice of paying them large fums as a commutation, or fpecies of atonement for the remiffion of thefe penances, the fins of the people, by these means, had become a revenue to the priests and the king computed that, by this invention alone, they levied more money from his fubjects, than flowed, by all the funds. and taxes, into the royal exchequer. That he might eate his fubjects of fo heavy and arbitrary an impofition. Henry required, that a civil officer of his appointment fhould be prefent in all ecclefiaftical courts, and fhould, for the future, give his confent to every compofition which was made with finners for their fpiritual offences.

4

The ecclefiaftics, in that age, had renounced all immediate fubordination to the magifirate: they openly pretended to an exemption, in criminal accufations, from a trial before courts of Juflice: and were gradually introducing a like exemption in civil caufs: fpiritual penalties a'cne could be inflicted on their oilences: and as the clergy had extremely multiplied in England, and many of them were confequentiy of very low characters, crimes of the deepaft dye, murders, robberies, adulteries, rapes, were daily committed with impunity by the ecclefiaftics. It had been found, for inftance, by enquiry, that no less than an hundred murders had, fince the king's acceffion, been perpetrated by inen of that profeffion, who had never been called to an account for thefe offences; and holy orders were become a full protection for all enormities. A clerk in Worcefterine, having bebauched a gentleman's

a gentleman's daughter, had, at this time, proceeded to murder the father; and the general indignation against this crime, moved the king to attempt the remedy of an abufe which was become fo palpable, and to require that the clerk fhould be. delivered up, and receive condign punithurent from the magiftrate Pecket infifted on the privileges of the charch; confined the criminal to the bishop's prifon, left he fhould be feized by the king's officers; maintained that no greater punith ment could be inflicted on him than degradation; and when the king demanded, that, immediately after he was degraded, he should be tried by the civil power, the primate alerted, that it was iniquitous to try a man twice upon the fame accufation, and for the fame crime.

Henry, laying hold of fo favourable a cause refolved to push the clergy with regard to all their privileges, which they had railed to an enormous height, and to determine at cace thote controverfies, which daily multiplied, between the civil and ecclefiaftical jurifdictions. He fummoned an aflembly of all the prelates in England; and he put to them this concife and decifive queftion, whether or not they were willing to fubunit to the ancient laws and cufioms of the kingdom? The bithops unanimoufly replied, that they were willing, saving their own order; a device by which they thought to elude the prefent urgency of the king's demand, and yet referve to themfelves, on a favourable opportunity, the power of refuming all their paft pretenfions. The king was fenfible of the artifice, and was provoked to the highest indignation. He left the aflembly, with

vifible marks of his displeasure : he required the primate inftantly to furrender the honours and caitles of Eye and Berkham: the bithops were terrified, and expected il farther effects of his refantment. Becket alone was inflexible; and nothing but the interpofition of the pope's legate, Philip, abbot of Elecmofina, who dreaded a breach with for powerful a prince at fo unfeafon. able a juncture, could have prevailed on him to retract the faving claufe, and give a general and abfolute promie of obferving the artcient cuftoms.

But Henry was not contert with a declaration in these generat terms: he refolved, ere it was too late, to defiue exprefly thofe cuftoms, with which he required compliance, and to put a stop to clerical ufurpations before they were fully confolidated, and could plead antiquity, as they already did a facred authority, in their favour. The claims of the church were open and visible. After a gradual and infenfible progrefs through many centuries, the matk had at laft been taken off, and feveral ecclefiaftical councils, by their canons, which were pretended to be irrevocable and infallible, had pofitively denied thofe privileges and immunities, which gave fuch general offence, and appeared fo dangerous to the civil magiftrate. Henry therefore deemed it necellary to define, with the fame precition, the limits of the civil power; to oppofe his legal cuftoins to their divine ordinances; to determine the exact boundaries of the rival jurif dictions; and, for this purpofe, he fummoned a general council of the nobility and prelates at Clarenden, to whom he fubmitted this great and important question."

An

An historical and critical enquiry into the evidence produced by the earls of Murray and Morton against Mary queen of Scots, with an examination of the reverend Dr. Robinson's dissertation, and Mr. Hume's history, with respect to that evidence.

F no prince ever fuffered more, than Mary queen of Scots did, during her life, from the illiberal violence of her fubjects, he has the recompence, fuch as it is, of having always found faithful and zealous friends. And ages after her enemies had spent their malice, fhe does not want able champions to defend her character. One piece of her good fortune was referved for this age, when time, experience, and a fucceffion of good princes, and, most of all, the virtues of a king, a native ot the country he governs, has united all fects and all parties, religious and civil, in the one with of continuing the government in him and his family. And Mary's story, which was a party queftion, now that all parties are fubfided, may hope as candid an hearing almoft as that of Chriftina of Sweden, or any foreign prince who never yet engaged our paffions.

As the feamen obferve a fwell in the waters, even after the ftorm is totally fubfided, fo tho' our paffions are not roused at prefent, there ftill remains a little inclination to this or that opinion. The two refpectable names our author ufes in his title-page, are not more efteemed as good writers than good citizens." They are both men of too enlarged underftandings to be actually circumfcribed VOL. IV.

in the narrow limits of this or that party; and yet poffibly we muft fo far agree with the author before us, as to fufpect that they are not quite indifferent in the queftion of Mary's guilt or innocence, and have not here perhaps obferved that exact impartiality, which we thought one of the valuable and uncommon qualities of these two able and elegant hiftorians.

The difcerning criticism of Mr. Goodall had thrown new light on the letters fuppofed to have been written by queen Mary to Bothwell; there was fuch apparent reafon, and fo critical a knowledge in Mr. Goodall's decifion of this queftion, that certainly it behoved thofe, who rejected it, to give good reafons for their fo doing, as it would have been an unpar donable inattention to have taken no notice of an opinion fo well fupported as that of Mr. Goodall's is. Mr. Hume and Mr. Robinfon were neither of them capable of fuch an attention. They both give us their reafon for diffenting. The latter gentleman has thought the fubject worthy of a particular and exprefs differtation. The drift of the work now before us is to fhew, that the reafons and arguments of the two elegant hiftorians are not conclufive, and to replace the queftion in that point of view, in which Mr. Goodall thought to have fixed ` it. But to ufe our author's own words:

"A late writer, Mr. Walter Goodall, keeper of the advocates library at Edinburgh, who has made it his ftudy to collect materials for the hiftory of thofe times, a few years ago publi a critical examination of the lets

X

ters;

ters; by comparing the three different copies of them together, he has very ingenioufly fhewn that thofe pretended letters, faid to be written in French by queen Mary to the earl of Bothwell, muft be fpurious. His arguments may be reduced to this propofition.

The letters faid to be written in French by the queen, as now extant, have, by all parties, been held for true copies of the originals produced by Morten, and have, down to this time, paffed uncontefted as fuch.

Buchanan, the confidant of Murray and Morton, who attended them both at York and London, had the letters in his cuftody, and was fo much mafter of their contents, that he was employed by Murray to fhew and explain them to the English commiffioners at York, and tranflated the three first of them into Latin.

If then it can be fhewn, that, in place of the French being the originals, the Scotch copies are the true originals, and that the French are apparently tranflations from Buchanan's Latin, the conclufion fairly follows, that thefe French pretended originals are fpurious. This Mr. Goodall has done,

ing in phrafes and proverbs peculiar to that language.-Thefe are fervilely expreffed in the Latin, and fometimes erroneously: and, as often as that happens, the French always follows these errors of the Latin. As Mr. Goodall's book is common, I shall not tire my reader with going through his ingenious remarks: I fhall only quote two or three examples from the first letter*, and refer to his book for the reft."

1. The Scotch fays proverbially, in letter firft, "thair's na recent (meaning a prefeription of phyfic) can ferve againis feir." The Latin has, "nullam adverfus timorem effe medicinam."

And the French is, "qu'il n'y avoit point de remede contre la crainte."

2. Scotch, "ze have sair going to fee seik folk." Another proverbial faying.

The Latin tranflator has here committed no less than two blunders; he mistook the word sair (or fore) for fair, and the word seik for sic (or fuch) and has tranflated them both erroneoufly in the laft fenfe:

Bella hujusmodi hominum vifiatio." And the French copies him thus: "voyla une belle vifitation de telle gens."

meam