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ment, they awakened his numerous domestics one by one, and turning them out of the castle, they without noise or tumult, or violence to any other person, delivered their country, though by a most unjustifiable action, from an ambitious man, whose pride was unsupportable by the nobles, as his cruelty and cunning were the great checks to the Reformation.

THE REGENT ARRAN.

THE death of Cardinal Beatoun was fatal to the catholic religion, and to the French interest in Scotland. The Earl of Arran was unqualified to support a tottering system, either in church or state; his character was almost the reverse of the Cardinal's; he was neither infected with ambition, nor inclined to cruelty: the love of ease extinguished the former, the softness of his temper preserved him from the latter: timidity and irresolution were his predominant failings; the one occasioned by his natural constitution, and the other arising from a consciousness that his abilities were not equal to his station. With these dispositions, he might have enjoyed and adorned private life, but his public conduct was without courage, or dignity, or consistence: The perpetual slave of his own fears, and by consequence the perpetual tool of those who found their advantage in practising upon them. But as no other person could be set in opposition to the Cardinal, with any probability of success, the nation declared in his favour with so general a consent, that the artifices of his rival could not withstand its united strength. The Earl of Arran had scarcely taken possession of his new dignity, when a negociation, about the marriage of Edward, the only son of Henry

VIII. of England, gave birth to events of the most fatal consequences to himself and to his kingdom. The rough and impatient temper with which Henry conducted this proposal, and the terms upon which he proposed this royal alliance, so roused the indignation of the nation, that they scorned to purchase an alliance with England at the price of their own liberty. Baffled in his first attempt, he yield- • ed more to the Scots; but still the terms were so manifestly advantageous to England that the Cardinal complained that the Regent had betrayed the kingdom to its most inveterate enemies, and sacrificed its honour to his own ambition. The nobles applauded the Cardinal as the defender of the honour and liberty of his country. After various political struggles, the unpopular Regency of Arran terminated in his constrained surrender of the same to the Queen Dowager, and his departure for -France, there to enjoy the emoluments, and to reap the honours of his fallen dignity. Thus, induced by one of the passing circumstances of political life, the nation, with their own approbation, advan:ced a woman and a stranger to the supreme authority over a fierce and turbulent people, who seldom submitted without reluctance to the legal and ancient government of their native monarchs.

Upon the death of Francis II. the violent Popish Princes of Lorrain determined, by some severe measure, to strike the reformers in Scotland with terror, and stop the progress of reformation, selected for their victim Arran, who, by his rank, the splendour of his birth, and the eminence of his station, might convince them that none could be exempted from punishment, who opposed the interests of the catholic church. A few unwary expressions roused the suspicions of the Earl, and by a timely flight he escaped the intended blow. The various strong passions of his mind awaken

ed his resentment, and upon his return to his native country, he headed the reformers, and strongly op posed the interests of popery.

The variety of talents in Dr. Robertson and Dr. Stuart, will be perceived in their descriptions of the same character.

Of the Earl of Arran, Dr. Stuart says, "Nature had not qualified him for a high and difficult station. His soul had a womanish sensibility and softness. He was unfit for the bustle of business, and the ardour of turbulent times. His views were circumscribed; and he did not compensate for this defect by any firmness of purpose. He was too indolent to gain partisans, and too irresolute to fix them. Slight difficulties filled him with embarrassment, and great ones overpowered him. His enemies, applying themselves to the feverish timidity of his disposition, betrayed him into weaknesses; and the esteem which his gentleness had procured him in private life, was lost in the contempt attending his public conduct, which was feeble, fluctuating, and inconsistent."

MARY OF GUISE,

THE QUEEN REGENT,

DIED when the affairs of her government were in a disastrous condition. Of her, Dr. Robertson says, she was the instrument rather than the cause of involving Scotland in those calamities under which it groaned at that time. No princess ever possessed qualities more capable of rendering her administration illustrious, or her people happy. Of much discernment, and no less address; of great intrepidity, and equal prudence; gentle and humane, without weakness; zealous for her reli

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gion, without bigotry; a lover of justice, without rigour. One circumstance, however, and that too the excess of a virtue rather than any vice, poisoned all these great qualities, and rendered her government unfortunate, and her name odious.

Devoted to the interest of France, her native country, and attached to the Princes of Lorrain, her brothers, with most passionate fondness, she departed, in order to gratify them, from every maxim which her own wisdom would have approved. She outlived in a great measure that reputation and popularity which had smoothed the way to the highest station in the kingdom; and many examples of falsehood, and some of severity, in the latter part of her administration, totally alienated from her the affections of a people who had once placed in her an unbounded confidence. But even by her enemies, these unjustifiable actions were imputed to the facility, not to the malignity of her nature; and while they taxed her brothers and French councillors with rashness and cruelty, they still allowed her the praise of prudence and of lenity. A few days before her death, she desired an interview with the Prior of St. Andrews, the Earl of Argyle, and other chiefs of the Congregation. To them she lamented the fatal issue of those violent counsels which she had been obliged to follow; and, with the candour natural to a generous mind, confessed the error of her administration, and begged forgiveness of those to whom they had been hurtful: but at the same time, she warned them, amidst their struggles for liberty and the shock of arms, not to lose sight of the loyalty and subjection due to their sovereign. The remainder of her time she employed in religious meditations and exercises. She even invited the attendance of Willox, one of the most eminent among the reformed preachers, listened to his in

structions with reverence and attention, and pre pared for the approach of death with a decent for titude.

The character of the Queen Regent is drawn by Dr. Stuart in the following manner.

"Amidst this distress and inquietude, the Queen Dowager, wasted with a lingering distemper, and with grief, expired in Edinburgh. Religious persecution, and a settled scheme to overturn the liberties of Scotland, while they rendered her administration odious and detestable, have obscured the lustre of her virtues. The treacherous views and policy of France serve to explain, but cannot excuse the wicked counsels she embraced, and her uniform practices of dissimulation. She allowed herself to be overcome and directed by the obsti, nacy of the Duke of Guise, the unprincipled refinements of the Cardinal of Lorrain, and the imperiousness of both. Misfortunes to herself and to Scotland were the cruel consequences of her facili. ty and submission. If she had trusted to her own abilities, her government, it is probable, would have been distinguished by its popularity, and her name have been transmitted to posterity with unsullied honours. Humane and affectionate in her temper, it was naturally her wish to rule with a woman's gentleness. Her judgment was extensive, her mind vigorous. She could com prehend a system, and act upon it with undeviating exactness and unshaken fortitude. The inclinations, characters, and humours of her people were fully known to her. She could accommodate herself with ease to the Scotish manners; and the winning graces of her demeanour gave an aid and assistance to her address and penetration. In dis. tributing justice, she was impartial and severe. In her court she was careful to uphold the royal dig. nity. In private life, she was civil, amiable, and

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