JAMES III. OF SCOTLAND, AND HIS BROTHERS.

His person was elegant, his mind weak. In attachment to favourites, in superstition, in love of retirement and literature, he not a little resembled James VI. The other chief features of his character were avarice, caprice, and a delight in architecture, music, and astrology, too violent to leave room for the duties of a monarch. His aversion to the severity of public business rendered the relaxation of his government obnoxious to the united evils of anarchy and tyranny; for, besides a fixed inclination to despotism, his impatience of slow and moderate measures prompted him to sudden acts of outrage; and his favourites oppressed the people, while the indolence of the king abandoned the reins of justice; and his lenity to the bad was cruelty to the good. His sceptre was so little stained with blood, that the fate of his brother may excite doubt or astonishment; yet oppression may proceed by rapid, though silent steps, while the fears and weakness of the sovereign constrain him to shrink from sanguinary violence.

The character of James was strongly contrasted by those of his brothers, Alexander duke of Albany, and John earl of Mar. While the king, in solitary retirement, indulged his favourite studies of music, architecture, and astrology, he forgot the duties, amid the idle amusements of a mo

narch. The nobles, in the feudal ages, seldom visiting the court, except upon occasions of business or high festivals, and being ignorant of the arts in which James delighted, he had recourse to the conversation of those who excelled in them; but forgot the majesty of the sovereign so far as to make companions and favourites of men of mean origin; imitating Louis XI. who had raised his barber, Oliver le Dain, to great wealth and high dignities; but a stranger to the standing army, large revenue, and other resources, which enabled that king to crush the lofty and exalt the humble. Cochran, a mason or architect, and Rogers, the English master of music, were respectable names among the favourites of the Scottish king, when followed by those of Leonard, a smith; Hommil, a tailor; and Torpichan, a fencing master. The contempt and indignation of the nobility were extreme, when they beheld the public favour of the sovereign to those minions, joined with a pointed neglect of their haughty order.

Albany was a sensible and spirited prince, fond of martial exercises, of fine horses, and of attendants tall and vigorous. In person he was of a middle stature, strong, and well proportioned: his broad shoulders, and blooming yet stern countenance, engaged the praise of a martial age; and his known courage, if we believe an historian, was the only cause why the nobles did not rebel against James, while he lived in amity with this brother. Mar added superior stature to youth, beauty, and elegance of person: his gentle manners won every heart; nor did he yield to

his brother in the favourite exercises of the nobility, or in his attention to the breed of his war horses and in hunting, hawking, and every knightly pastime, his skill and grace were admired.

As the king, in his flight, was about to pass the rivulet Bannockburn, at the hamlet of Miltown, a woman, who was drawing water, alarmed at his appearance and rapidity, fled, and left her pitcher, which startled the steed, or disordered his career, so that the unexpected rider fell from the saddle, and, oppressed with the weight of his armour, fainted away. A miller and his wife conveyed their unknown sovereign into the mill; and, to conceal the stranger from any pursuers, they covered him with a cloth. Some time after he resumed his senses; but perceiving himself much hurt, and very weak, he called for a priest to hear his confession: and to his blunt hosts, who inquired his name and quality, his impatience answered, "I was your king this morning." The woman upon this ran into the road, wringing her hands, and calling aloud for a priest to the king. It so chánced that some of the rebels were in the neighbourhood engaged in disorderly pursuit; and a priest, one of Lord Gray's followers, as is said, riding up, exclaimed, “I am a priest, where is the king?" Being conducted to the place, he knew his sovereign; and, kneeling, inquired if he thought he might survive, by the help of surgery; to which James answered, "I believe that I might; but let me have a priest

to hear my confession, and to bring me the eucharist. The priest, it is averred, heard his confession; and then stabbed the unfortunate monarch; whose weakness deserved a milder fate than to fall the victim of a lawless aristocracy, more inimical to public order and prosperity than the feeble despotism of their sovereign.

On this important event some reflections naturally arise. Had James been victorious, the power of the Scottish aristocracy might have been crushed for ever; and, weak and despotic as he was, it would have been better for the people to have one tyrant than many. But this monarch (if we set the dubious murder of his brother aside), was more weak than vicious; and even when his feebleness and impolicy are mentioned, it is rather in a relative than a positive view; for his conduct was chiefly blameable, because ill adapted to the ferocious times and people, which required, in the character of a sovereign, the duties of a magistrate, and the valour and skill of a general. Had James lived a century or two later, his faults would perhaps have escaped observation. But the conduct of the rebellious peers, whose sanguinary lust of power, and eagerness to continue their lawless rapine, opposed the son in open combat against his father, that last infamy of civil war, cannot be severely reprobated. They excite horror, while the monarch attracts a reverential compassion.

PINKERTON.

JAMES IV. OF SCOTLAND.

AT length a reign arises, undisturbed by the disorders of a minority; and forming a strong contrast to the preceding in spirit and ability. The young monarch was soon to develope a character brightened with many illustrious qualities, and darkened with few shades. His strict administration of justice, by which the realm was maintained in a tranquillity long unknown, his uniform concord with his nobles, his magnificence, his generosity, his patronage of useful arts and sciences, particularly navigation, which had been strangely neglected by the Scottish monarchs, and even his spirit of chivalry, were to render his reign popular and glorious. Nor has it been unjustly asserted, that the period of his domination was that of the greatest wealth and power of Scotland, while a separate kingdom. Yet some of his qualities were rather specious than solid, and rather belonged to chivalrous romance than to real life in the high regal duties of a politician, and of a general, he was extremely defective; his natural impetuosity predominating alike in his smaller pursuits and in his most important affairs. The avarice of the preceding reign he contrasted by a profusion which secured the attachment of the peers at the expense of the people. That superstitious devotion which, with a few exceptions, was inherent in his family, from its first elevation to his final descent from the throne, was in the fourth James much increased by his remorse for the death of his father;