with its own government and princes. Henry had promised, upon oath, that he would never attempt to deprive either David himselfthe grandfather of Malcolm-nor any of his posterity, of any part of those possessions which they held in England, and each successive prince uniformly and positively refused to render any homage on account of the kingdom of Scotland. The consequence was, that there were everlasting disputes and grounds of war. Yet it was by these perpetual warfares that the Scots maintained their national independence, and enlarged their dominions at the expense of their more powerful and more frequently victorious neighbours. It was to arms that Malcolm and Henry appealed as the mode of determining their respective territorial boundaries. War was carried on to the great disadvantage of both nations, and after a severe contest they were under the necessity of coming to an agreement. Henry claimed Northumberland; and to this, with the strongest protest of his nobles before him, Malcolm consented. It was a fatal step. From that moment he began to fall in public esteem, and was deemed alike unworthy and unfit to hold the reins of government. Nothing restrained the people from insurrection but the greater fear of being subjected to the sway of the English monarch. At length he was reconciled to his people, and peace having been established throughout his whole kingdom, he devoted himself to the building of churches, the endowing of monasteries, and other deeds of benevolence. But death cut short his career. He died December 9th, 1165, in the twenty-fifth year of his age, leaving behind neither a name to cherish, nor a character to imitate.

SECTION III.-LOSS OF NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE.

A few days after the death of Malcolm, the throne was filled by his brother WILLIAM, surnamed THE LION. * The leading events of his *The origin of this appellation is somewhat obscure. According to one writer "this king was termed THE LION, not because he was a lion of courage in the field, and a lion of justice in civil life, but because he was of a rough and stern countenance." According to another, it appears that "before the days of William, none of the Scottish kings assumed a coat-armorial. The lion rampant first appears on his seal; and it is probable that, from this circumstance, he received the appellation of the lion." In harmony with this, a third says that William "having chosen for his armorial bearing a red lion, rampant-that is, a lion standing on its hind legs, as if it were going to climb-he acquired the name of William the Lion, and this rampant lion still constitutes the arms of Scotland; while the president of the Heralds' Court in that country, who is always a person of high rank, is called LORD LION KING-AT-ARMS." origin of these armorial bearings is thus accounted for:-" As it was necessary that a king, lord, or knight, should be known to his followers in battle, they adopted two ways of distinguishing themselves. The one was by a crest-that is, a figure of some kind or other, as a lion, a wolf, a hand holding a sword, or some such decoration, which they wore on the top of the helmet, as we talk of a cock's comb being the crest of that bird. these warriors were accustomed to paint very whimsical kind, upon their shields.

The

But, besides this mark of distinction, emblematical figures, sometimes of a These emblems became general; and

[A.D. 1165-1214. reign may soon be told. His unyielding demand for the restitution of Northumberland from Henry of England; his repairing to London to do homage to Henry for the provinces of Cumberland and Huntingdon; his following Henry to the war in France; his claim to his southern possessions being treated with indifference, both by the sovereign and the parliament of England; his clearing his own country of robbers and offenders, and everywhere fortifying it with garrisons and castles; his again demanding the restoration of Northumberland, on the penalty of war; his obtaining as much as his great-grandfather had possessed; his punishing the incursions of the English into his territories, by collecting an army and ravaging their country by fire and sword; his being deceived by the English, who feigned to purchase a truce with money, and to persuade him that all matters would be adjusted according to his wishes; his being attacked at Alnwick, where his tent was pitched, while thus thrown off his guard, and unexpectedly called to encounter a body of four hundred strong with sixty men-at-arms; his being defeated and taken prisoner, and conducted first to Newcastle, thence to Northampton, and thence into the presence of Henry, by whom he was sent as a state prisoner to Falaise, in Normandy; his being held captive till he agreed to do homage to the monarch of England, not only for his English possessions, but also for Scotland and all his other dominions; his brother's earnest endeavours to obtain his release; and his being permitted to return home on delivering up certain hostages to the enemy, and putting them in possession of Roxburgh, Berwick, Edinburgh, and Stirling castles, these make up the chief incidents of a reign which extended through nearly half a century. The treaty of surrender to the English was made in December, 1174, and in which the Scottish parliament were brought to acquiesce, as the condition of recovering the liberty of their prince. But in so doing they sacrificed the independence of their country, which became, though it did not long continue to be, subject to the sovereignty of England.

Henry died in 1189, and was succeeded by his son Richard Cœur de Lion, a prince of uncommon bravery and generosity. Being devoted to the cause of the Crusades, it was necessary that before he set out for the Holy Land he should so arrange his affairs at home as to insure the peace of his kingdom during his absence. He first entered into terms with Scotland, renounced his claim to the homage which had been unjustly extorted from the sovereign, restored to him the castles of Berwick and Roxburgh, released him from the conditions to which he was subjected during his captivity; and thus, after a lapse of fifteen years, was Scotland again restored to the dignity of an independent nation, and her princes declared liable only to the homage due for those possessions which they held within the realm of England. For this generous conduct on the part of Richard, we learn that William paid him ten thousand marks, which no doubt greatly aided him in carrying on his expeditions in Palestine,

at length no one was permitted to bear any such armorial device, excepting he either had right to carry it by inheritance, or that such right had been conferred upon him by some sovereign prince."

Fifteen years before William's death, Richard of England had gone down to the house appointed for all living. His brother John, who succeeded him, was "a trifler and a coward," and the most contemptible of princes. On his accession, William hastened to England to do homage to the new monarch: but having refused to follow him in an expedition against Philip, king of France, no sooner did John return from the continent than he sought a ground of quarrel with the king of the Scots. William prepared to meet his enemy. Both parties raised forces, and were resolved to take the field. But when the armies came within sight of each other, a reconciliation was effected by the intervention of the nobles, and a period of peace ensued most advantageous to both nations. But such was the ambition of John's character, and such his desire to extend his dominion, that it was necessary to renew the treaty of peace every successive year. What a reflection on poor human nature! A man has no confidence in the word and the honour of his fellow-man! One crowned man cannot trust another crowned man without the intervention of bonds, and hostages, and treaties, and most solemn oaths! No wonder that thrones fall, and that crowns are trampled in the dust!

SECTION IV.-THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETY.

Little can be said as to the education of the people at this early period. Learning had, for the most part, retired into the monastery. The monks and other ecclesiastics were almost the only classes who were in possession of the ordinary branches of knowledge. They were versed in languages, laid claim to some branches of science, and were familiar with the more useful arts. To them, in great part, the children of the higher classes were indebted for their education, nor did that education touch the masses. They enjoyed but little mental culture; nor can much be said for their moral training. It is true that cathedrals and churches were built, and endowed with royal munificence, in various parts of the kingdom, that the clergy were multiplied and encouraged in their pious labours, that several of the princes and nobles were models of virtue, and that manifold were the efforts to regenerate and purify the great body-politic, but these seeds yielded a very partial and scanty harvest. The genius of war took the place which belonged to the genius of religion, and war, with all its concomitants, damaged and deteriorated the public morals.

We are far from affirming that there was neither mental culture nor moral_excellence among the people. It would be a libel on the nation. Just as the river Jordan flowed through the lake of Tiberias, dividing its waters without becoming mingled with them, so the stream of the nation's righteousness flowed side by side with the deepening and the widening current of corruption, but still remained distinct and separate. Nor could the lessons of christian teaching be without their effect on the hearts and lives of the people. There were those who imbibed truth at its source and fountain, and who loved to communicate that truth as the divinely selected instrument for acting on sinful humanity, and for lifting it up into the life and blessed

ness of God. It fell on susceptible hearts-it came into contact with truth-loving souls, and on such it acted with all the force of a vivifying and transforming power, and these became another circle of life and influence to those beyond them.

The transitions in society are always gradual and progressive. It takes long periods of time to prepare men for great organic changes either in the political, social, or moral condition of nations. The Scottish throne had been filled by many wise and devoted princes, laws had been repeatedly enacted of the most salutary and conservative character, provisions and arrangements had been made with a supreme desire to bring society into a more healthy state, but it took ages on ages to evolve the true principles of government and to consolidate empire. This delay arose out of the slow growth of mind and the want of a sounder education. As might be expected, the social condition of the people partook more of the barbarous than of civilized life, and this again sprang from the defective teaching of christianity. In the degree in which christianity is taught and obtains among a people, will be the improvement in their social habits, and in proportion to both will they seek and find political freedom. If the church had attended less to an outward conformity, and sought to impress the people with simple living truth, their manners would in the same degree have become improved and refined, and they would have shown themselves prepared to live under a freer and a wider government.

It cannot be denied that the internal resources of the country, from industry and trade, must have been considerable, since we find so much money expended in the erection and endowment of religious houses, the king consenting to pay the most princely sums for friendship with England, and his undertaking to rebuild the city of Perth after its having been destroyed by an inundation. Many of the nobles were possessed of extensive property, and though the peasantry were subject to many privations and hardships, the flow in the tide of a general prosperity rose to a considerable height. If the national virtue had been equal to the national resources, Scotland, even then, would have been a happy country.

CHAPTER VII.,

THE EPOCH OF NATIONAL PEACE.

Or the nine hundred millions of men who live on this our earth, how few of them can be said to have any historical existence. Their very names are unknown, and they go down to the grave without the majority even being aware that they ever breathed the same air, or lived in the same world with themselves. So it is with nations. There are countries "which, in a general comparative survey of nations, serve but as a mark or evidence of some particular stage of civilization, without of themselves holding any place in the general history of our species, or conducing to the social progress of mankind, or possessing any weight or importance in the scale of humanity." And how much of the history of those which do possess this weight or importance is to be resolved into merely political events, to the exclusion of the internal development of mind, and the moral condition of the race. And then what an ugly shape and course have those political events taken on from the evil genius of war! And into what else can war be resolved, but into the struggle of a supreme and all-crushing selfishness? Peace itself--" that immutable object of high political art"-is nothing better and nothing else than a war retarded or kept under by human dexterity or courtly intrigue. The dignity of his crown, the honour of his flag, the glory of his arms, in the mouth of a prince, are stately and imposing terms; but the ideas they inspire are insatiable. It may be always glorious to conquer, whatever be the justice of the war or the price of the victory. The dignity of a sovereign may not permit him to recede from claims of homage and respect, at whatever expense of national peace and happiness they are to be maintained, however unjust they may have been in their origin or in their continuance, however useless to the possessor, or mortifying and vexatious to other states. The pursuit of honour, when set loose from the admonitions of prudence, becomes in kings a wild and romantic passion: eager to engage, and gathering fury in its progress, it is checked by no difficulties, repelled by no dangers; it forgets or despises those considerations of safety, ease, wealth, and plenty, which, in the eye of true public wisdom, compose the objects to which the renown of arms, the fame of victory, are only instrumental and subordinate. The pursuit of interest, on the other hand, is a sober principle; computes costs and consequences; is cautious of entering into war; stops in time when regulated by those universal maxims of relative justice which belong to the affairs of communities as well as of