as their fovereign in the public fervice of the church; but we may reft affured, that he, who would not at her execution liften to the Dean of Peterborough's prayers, becaufe "it would in her be a heinous fin," fent no fuch advertisement from Jedburgh to the adjacent kirks, as, being an act purely religious, would have brought her under the fentence of excommunication. If this reafoning flood in need of any fupport, it would be fufficient to obferve, that the author appears (p. 213) to have confounded the Council of Trent with the Holy League,- -a miftake into which it is not to be fuppofed that a Roman Catholic could have fallen. Whether the author of this hiftory was a man of that confequence, which it was Crawfurd's intereft to represent him, may, we think, be reafonably doubted. It is certain. that his work contains nothing which was not previously known, and is at the fame time entitled to credit. He appears not to have been much, if at all, about court, either during the life of Darnley, or immediately after his death; and his account of the tranfactions there, is far from deferving the character which Crawfurd beftows on it. Thus, in the fourth extract which we have made from his work, he fays, that when Lennox was approaching Edinburgh to accufe Bothwell of the murder of his fon, the Queen fent an order to him to enter the town in a private manner, accompanied only by his houshold fervants; but there is not the flighteft evidence that fuch an order was ever fent. It is not mentioned by Robertfon; and Lennox himself, in his correfpondence with the Queen on the fubject of the trial*, does not even allude to it. He attributes his abfence from the trial to sickness, with which he had been feized on the road; and requests that "the day of law might be differred to fic ane reasonable time as he might convene his friends for keiping of the feim according to the laws of the realme;" as the letter, containing this requeft, is dated at Stirling on the day immediately preceding that which had been fixed for the trial, it feems to be complete proof, that Lennox had received from the Queen no fuch advertisement as the author mentions. That the fame author, whoever he may have been, made not that figure at court which Crawfurd fuppofes, is further evident from the character which he has drawn of Darnley. Keith, pp. 365-376. "He "He was," fays he, "a comely prince, of ane faire and large ftature of bodye, pleafant in countenance, loving and affabill to all men, devote after the Catholique maner, weill exerciefit in martial paftymes upoun horfbak as any prince of that age." Pp. 10, 11. That Darnley was a handfome man is univerfally known; and though we never before heard of his devotion, he may have been devout after the Catholique maner; but he was fo far from being loving and affable to all men, that he is allowed by all parties to have been a vain, infolent, and capricious tyrant. Even this author's reafonings and reflections do not indicate that good fenfe, which to Crawfurd he appeared to have poffeffed. He writes indeed with just severity, and in terms highly ironical of every faction under the government of the four Regents; but when he fays that the blowing up of the house in which Darnley was lodged, was devifed to deceive the people, and to make them believe that it was demolished by fudden fire, he talks like an ideot. No man could confound the explofion of a tremendous mine of gunpowder, with the accidental burning of a dwelling houfe; nor is it credible that the murderers of Darnley, whoever they were, expected to deceive the people by fuch a device. Mr. Laing feems to confider him as a party-writer on the fide of the Queen, because he repeatedly condemns rebellion. against lawful authority; but the following picture of Scotland, at the commencement of the regency of Lennox, is fufficient to make any man revere the fovereign authority, and write with abhorrence of rebellion. "Heir the mater began at fic ftryffe, that the haill realme of Scotland was fa devydit in fectiones, that it was hard for anie peaceabill man, as he redd out the hie way, to profess himselff opinly ather to be a favorer of the King or Queene. All the people were caffin fa loufe, and were become of fic diffoluit myndis and actiones, that nane was in account but he that wald ather kill or ryve his nybour. All gude pollice and law, juftice, and equiety was buriet, as it becumes for the maift pairt of all comonwealthes, yca even of the private families, that when ather of theme are deftitutt of their lawfull and ordiner heid or governor, ilk private perfoun reules as he lift, or may perforce, for his awin preferment and commoditie, without regaird of right or reafoun." Pp. 84, 85. Even the Proteflant Clergy, who were never fufpected of undue partiality to their unfortunate fovercign, felt the mifery of their country, which fome of them feem to have had the courage to attribute to the rebellion of their own chiefs. "For a certene minifter hapnit to affirme, that he (Morton) defendit ane unjuft caus, and that he fhould repent quhen tyme fhould not permit: this minifter was apprehendit and committit to prifoun; and being demandit, be whais comand, or at whais inftigatioun or perfuafioun, he awitt these wordes, he ansyrit that it was be the perfuafioun of na mortall createur, bot onlie be inftigatioun of the holy Spirite. Bot Moirtoun not content with this answere, caufit put him to torture, quhairby he grew fa weike, that he could not fleire from his bed, notwithstanding quhairof, he caufit him to be borne to the gallous, quhair he was hangit to the death." P. 167. Were we to hazard a conjecture concerning this anony mous author of this " Hiftorie," we fhould fay that he was probably a Proteftant Clergyman of this defcription; and, for our opinion, we think that we could urge one or two plaufible arguments. The queftion, however, is of no importance; for it it evident, that, whatever may have been his profeffion or rank in life, he was not admitted to the fecrets of any party, and that his work throws no light on the tranfactions of the period of which he writes. It informs us, indeed, that there was a very general fufpicion in Scotland that the Queen was criminally attached to Bothwell before the murder of her husband; that Bothwell was certainly one of the perpetrators of that murder; that though he was formally tried for the crime, the trial was in fact a . mockery of jullice; that after the captivity of the Queen the nation was divided into two parties, of which the one adhered to her, and the other to her fon; that all parties were ready to break faith with each other; and that the Regents, but more especially Morton, trampled on law and equity; but we have long known all this on authority much more to be depended on than that of an anonymous author, who, though apparently impartial, had never been within the limits of the court, and therefore could not give an exact and particular account of the various turns of ftate in his time BRITISH BRITISH CATALOGUE. POETRY. ART. 10. Poems on various Subjects: dedicated, by permiffion, to the Right Hon. Countess of Effex. By Henrietta Harris. 12mo. 141 pp. 55. Worcester, printed. Walker, London. 1805. The poems of Henrietta Harris are exactly of a ftamp to receive. the encouragement of a liberal fubfcription, which they appear to have obtained. They are fufficiently good to justify the protection of the fubfcribers; though not fufficiently vigorous to have made their own way, without the aid of patronage. They are marked by ingenuity and modefty; and prove the writer to be eftimable in character, and not devoid of genius, if not tranfcendent in it. The following little poem, though not entirely faultlefs, will give, we think, a favourable impreffion of Mrs. Harris's poetical powers. ON A ROSE TREE, Transplanted from a Garden in the Country to the Town, where it died. "Say, drooping fhrub, why bows thy head No more thy fhoots luxuriant fpread, Nor balmy fweets exhale. "Yet, Spring her genial warmth bestows; Round thee her Zephyrs play: See at thy fide the jafmine blows, "On thee alone, a fruitlefs fhow'r, "Is it that thou wert rudely torn Thy parent ftem thou feem'ft to mourn, "Or, haply, near where thou haft blown, Whofe branches tangled with thy own, "Or, "Or, feated near thy blushing bough, Perchance, you wiineffed the yow, While round the bow'r you twin'd. So fares it with the village maid, Like thee the quits her native fhade, Like thee the is undone. "See, from her check the colour flies, She fades, and pines with care; P. 38. The fubjects of this lady's compofitions afford proofs of triotifm, gratitude, and many other virtues. ART. II. The Wanderer of Switzerland, and other Poems, by James Montgomery. 12mo. P. 4. Vernor and Hood. 1806. The Wanderer of Switzerland relates the fate of that unhappy country in fix cantos, and in ftanzas of eight fyllables, which are generally fpirited and impreffive. The other Poems are mifcellaneous, and chiefly in the fame meafure, of which this which follows is no inclegant fpecimen. A FIELD FLOWER; On finding one in full bloom on Christmas Day, 1803, There is a flower, a little flower, The prouder beauties of the field "But this finall flower, to nature dear, "It fmiles upon the lap of May, "The |