friends afflicted with every species of distress, they who escaped death robbed and fi gitives, and he himself not only stripped of an ample patrimony, but of a kingdom, by the most powerful, active, and ablest prince of the age? Yet, beset with all these calamities at once, and reduced to the extremity of want, never did he despair, or do or say anything unworthy of a king. He neither, like Cato the younger, nor Marcus Brutus, offered violence to himself; nor did he, like Marius, enraged by his misfortunes, wreak his vengeance on his enemies. But having recovered his pristine station, he behaved towards those who had caused him so much travail as if he only remembered that he was now their sovereign, not that they had ever been his enemies; and at last, at the close of life, when a grievous distemper was added to the troubles of old age, he retained so much self-possession that he arranged the present state of the kingdom, and consulted for the tranquillity of his posterity."

SECTION VI.-THE PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT.

Good government is inseparable from the progress of a people and the interests of society. While submission and obedience are due from the governed, it is of the last moment that they who govern should themselves not be placed above law. A free government, therefore, always implies certain defined limitations to the supreme authority. In this it stands opposed to despotism. The sovereign is restricted and controlled by law, and to law he is amenable. This principle, so just and good, was recognised at a comparatively early period both in England and in Scotland. The feudal system tended in no common degree to conserve the element of true liberty. At first, indeed, the power was shared between the prince and his barons. But to balance this power, and to give an impetus to commerce and industry, the kings of Scotland had, from an early period, granted considerable privileges to many of the towns within their dominions. The chief of these privileges was the right of sending representatives to parliament. But while the English parliament was composed of an upper and a lower House, that of Scotland constituted but one assembly, and each member had an equal right to speak and vote on every question affecting the interests of the nation. No money could be raised without their consent, nor raised but in conformity with their vote.

If the laws and provisions of the government failed of their legitimate effect, the cause must be sought, not in the principles laid down, but either in their non-application or in the deficiency of their working. The laws, as far as we can judge of them, were the result of no common sagacity. They had their origin in the minds of far-seeing and deep-seeing men; and, had they been faithfully and perseveringly carried into execution, would have worked well for the regeneration and the progress of the people. But each noble had his own court, and was the supreme authority on his own estate, and to maintain this supremacy he hesitated not to sacrifice the public good. Justice might be maintained but it was matter of little concern to him. Noble

quarrelled with noble, and both with the reigning prince. Every offence, even the slightest and most trivial, was converted into a ground of war, and they sought war rather than peace. Such was the power possessed by these nobles that they sometimes threatened to depose the monarch; nor did they shrink, for the accomplishment of some selfish end, from converting the country into a scene of disorder, division, and bloodshed. Feuds of the most deadly character arose, and passed down from generation to generation, till revenge found its satisfaction in murder and in death. These feuds were fatal to the country. Many a battle might have been won, or never have been fought, had the nobles been united and prepared to act as one man against the common foes of their country and their freedom.

The existence of the highland clans was another source of internal disquietude. Each clan had its own chief, from whom the whole clan was supposed to have descended, and to whom they were bound to yield the most implicit and unbounded submission, whether in peace or in war. In asserting its own supposed rights, each clan placed itself above law, government, and prince. In some instances, rebellion was deemed a virtue. Some of the chiefs set themselves up as independent sovereigns, and in their own name entered into alliance with the English. Thus the internal tranquillity of the kingdom was often disturbed. The highlander fought with the lowlander-the noble with his peer-the peer with his prince, and all with the English. The laws for the government of the kingdom were good and conservative, but they were set at nought or trampled under foot. A supreme selfishness took possession of all classes, and threatened once again the complete dismemberment of the nation. The marvel is not that the country was so torn and distracted by its own internal feuds, but how it survived so many severe and destructive shocks. It is probable that had the life and the reign of Bruce been prolonged, he might have reduced the kingdom to something like order, and brought back the majesty of law. During the time that he occupied the throne his reign had been most beneficial, and promised much for the future. He had all the qualifications of a wise and powerful ruler. He swayed the spirits of men with a hidden but irresistible force. His resolution and his magnanimity made him to be revered. His activity and his bravery were the very soul and life of his dominion. When Alexander the Great died, the Grecian monarchy expired with him; and Rome declined with the Cæsars. It is not the existence of laws-it is not how laws are made or how they are interpreted-but the manner in which they are carried into effect, that gives stability to an empire. With the passing away of Bruce came the neglect of law, and with the contempt of law came all subsequent revolutions and catastrophes.

CHAPTER IX.

THE FAMILIES OF BALIOL AND BRUCE.

THERE is in our nature an instinctive sympathy with the oppressed; and in those glorious struggles which the oppressed have had with their oppressors, how have we yearned and wept to find that the first little band of patriots were defeated and overthrown, and their leader a fugitive, seeking shelter amid the deeper recesses of nature, or the more hidden haunts of men. Then when that fugitive-leader came forth from his retreat, again to assert the same sacred cause of liberty, and, in asserting that cause, to avenge the fallen and animate the living, how have our hearts throbbed at each renewal of the charge in the long-continued combat, and how conscious have we been of the very triumph of the deliverer himself, when his standard waved at last without any foe to oppose it, and nothing was to be seen on the field but those who had perished and those who were free!" Such are our feelings as we read, at this distance of time, the exploits and the victories of the immortal Bruce. The love of freedom is in proportion to the purity and the elevation of a man's soul. It is one of the noblest passions of his nature. If liberty can make gay the glowing face of nature, if it can give "beauty to the sun and pleasure to the day," then the love of liberty must act with all the force of a divine principle in man's interior nature. And so long as this passion reigns in the human breast, even "the slave is not wholly a slave. His true degradation begins when he has lost, not his liberty merely, but the very desire of liberty, and when he has learned to look calmly on himself as a mere breathing and moving instrument of the wishes of another, to be moved by those wishes more than by his own, a part of some external pomp necessary to the splendour of some other being, to which he contributes, indeed, but only like the car, or the sceptre, or the purple robe, a trapping of adventitious greatness, and one of many decorative trappings that are all equally insignificant in themselves, whether they be living or inanimate. He who can feel this, and feel it without any rising of his heart against the tyranny which would keep him down, or even a wish that he were free, may indeed be considered as scarcely worthy of freedom; and if tyranny produced only the evil of such mental degradation, without any of the other evils to which it gives rise, directly and indirectly, it would scarcely merit less than, at present, the detestation of all who know what man is and is capable of becoming as a freeman, and that wretched thing which he is and must ever continue to be as a slave,"

the siege was raised by Montague, and the English withdrew in despair. Scarcely had this victory been achieved when the regent died. This melancholy event took place in 1338, while the war was still raging on every side. "The splendid actions he performed during two years and a half, in which he held the regency, were such as would have illustrated the greatest captain of any age." His death was an unspeakable loss to the nation, and was universally lamented,

SECTION II.-WITHDRAWMENT OF BALIOL FROM SCOTLAND.

Had the monarch of England only concentrated his forces against Scotland, there can be no doubt that he would have reduced the whole kingdom to his sceptre. But from this he was prevented by his being engaged in war with France, and which gave to the Scottish patriots the greater opportunity of recovering the independence of their country. After the death of Murray the Steward of the kingdom was appointed regent, whose administration was distinguished by some daring exploits and memorable conquests. Having requested and obtained supplies from the French, the Scots successfully carried on their conflict with the English, expelled them from Teviotdale, took from them Edinburgh castle, proceeded to attack Perth, recaptured the castle of Cupar, besieged and took Stirling, forced the enemy.to capitulate, and Baliol having withdrawn from the country in despair of making good his pretensions to the throne, they came to the resolution of bringing back from France, whither they had been sent on the coronation of Baliol, the youthful David and his royal consort. They arrived in the year 1341-2, and were received with every demonstration of joy by the great body of the people.

The Scots were now in possession of almost the whole of their country, and truces, for a longer or a shorter period, had been entered into with the English. It was only needed that the nobles and the people should unite with their restored monarch to preserve the freedom and the independence of their nation. But the king having conferred some special honour on Ramsay for his magnanimous and unparalleled doings, this excited the jealousy of Douglas, who now sought to compass the life of his old companion and friend. Ramsay fell a victim to his wrath, and a few years afterwards the knight of Liddesdale himself was slain by his own godson while hunting in Ettrick forest. Thus perished the two men who were so terrible in arms, and on whose valour, under God, the salvation of Scotland seemed to depend. Before Douglas came to his untimely end, David had been pressed to renew the war with England. In 1346, while Edward was reaping conquest after conquest on the continent, the Scots had invaded his northern territories with a numerous and formidable army. At the head of above fifty thousand men David entered Northumberland, and carried his ravages and devastations to the gates of Durham. But Philippa, the queen, assembling a body of some twelve thousand men, which she entrusted to the command of lord Percy, openly met Bruce at a place called Neville's Cross,

near Durham, rode through the ranks of her army, exhorting every man to do his duty, and left not the field until the two armies were on the very point of the engagement. Bruce vainly imagined that it would be an easy thing to obtain a victory over undisciplined troops commanded by a woman; but his army was quickly routed and driven from the field, fifteen thousand of his men were cut to pieces, and he himself, with many of his knights and nobles, taken and carried in triumph to the capital. Never did the Scots receive a more fatal blow. It gave the victors possession of the country from the Scottish border to the confines of Lothian. Still the national spirit was not overcome. The only question was, how could this foreign yoke be shaken off? Another member of the Douglas family arose, baptized with the fire of his ancestors, who obtained several victories over the English, and kept alive the soul of independence among the people. "The title of Baliol was not again set up, and that nominal sovereign surrendered to the English monarch all his right and interests in the kingdom of Scotland, in testimony of which he presented him with a handful of earth belonging to the country, and a crown of gold. Edward, in reward for this surrender of the Scottish crown, fixed a large annual income on Baliol, who retired from public affairs, and lived ever afterwards in such obscurity that historians do not even record the period of his death." After several efforts-and those not vulgar attempts-Edward gave up the conquest of Scotland in despair, and entered into a truce. David, after having been detained in prison above eleven years, was, by paying a ransom of one hundred thousand marks,* set at liberty, to the great joy of his people. The latter years of his life had in them nothing remarkable or worthy of record. He died May 7th, 1371. "He was a man of distinguished virtue, just and humane, and, tried both by adverse and prosperous circumstances, appears to have been unfortunate, rather than incapable."

SECTION III.-THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.

It could not be expected that amid so much brutal warfare the state of society could be other than corrupt and base. Time was all taken up either in preparations for the field, or in actual conflict. National hostilities ripened into national enmities and hatred. The spirit of revenge was encouraged and cherished. Men's souls became a region of dark thoughts and of darker designs. The most hellish plots were laid and prosecuted with a zeal and an earnestness worthy of a better cause. The consequence was that the social feelings were blunted, and all but destroyed. The ties of kindred and of friendship ceased to be sacred, and men thirsted for each other's blood. The laws of humanity, no less than the principles of charity, were set at nought. In such circumstances, we do not wonder that the culture of mind was neglected, that social virtue declined, that youth became corrupt, that the religious sense grew feeble and inoperative, and that

* Amounting to nearly one million of our present money.