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of my state, as it is possible for a good man to have. I used to think the text in St. James, that "he who offends in one point, offends in all," very harsh; but I now feel the awful, the tremendous truth of it. In the one crime of Opium, what crime have I not made myself guilty of! Ingratitude to my Maker! and to my benefactors-injustice! and unnatural cruelty to my poor children!-self-contempt for my repeated promisebreach, nay, too often, actual falsehood! After my death, I earnestly entreat, that a full and unqualified narration of my wretchedness, and of its guilty cause, may be made public, that, at least, some little good may be effected by the direful example! May God Almighty bless you, and have mercy on your still affectionate, and, in his heart, grateful'.-(Cottle, Vol. ii. p. 185.)

Alas for the evils to which humanity is heir; and the manifold temptations to which every form of it—each after its own infirmity is exposed! We may be strong or weak-some one way; some another. But, surely, enough is here to warn the pure and confident of the madness of dispensing with a single aid towards virtue; and to teach the hardest amongst us the generous necessity of charity and forbearance.

A poetical tribute from Mr Wordsworth, in honour of the memory of their common friend, closes a work for which all lovers of literature and goodness have to return to Mr Talfourd their best thanks. As long as new combinations of the feelings and imagination allow of the birth, from time to time, of people as unlike their predecessors as Charles Lamb, the most distant generations will not have to grumble at the wits who have said all their good things before them. There will still be left something new under the sun.' It will scarcely be, however, in our time we are afraid, that a writer so original, both in his pathos and his humour, is destined to appear. If Lamb has not put a new face upon an old acquaintance, and raised this world of ours one degree nearer fairy-land, yet he has helped us to a new way of looking at it, and furnished us with fresh elements of enjoyment. We see for the time with his eyes, and feel with his feelings. We follow him as we follow Shakspeare's sweet creations, -of the outward circumstances of whose existence we know but little; but with whom we are admitted into the recesses of their buoyant nature—have leave to revel in their happy thoughts and their sunny diction and are carried along by them, at one minute, into their festal scenes of most excellent fooling; at the next, into their 'As you Like it' woods, and to a melancholy compounded of many simples.

ART. II.-Documents and Records, illustrating the History of Scotland, and the Transactions between the Crowns of Scotland and England. Preserved in the Treasury of Her Majesty's Exchequer. Collected and edited by SIR FRANCIS PALGRAVE. 8vo. London: 1837. Volume First.

IT T is not our intention to justify the proceedings of Edward I. towards the Scotch. The miseries he entailed for centuries on our countrymen were such that no Scotsman can speak of him with calmness, or draw his character with impartiality. But the bitterest foe is entitled to justice; and, we must confess, the documents before us afford an excuse for much of what has been deemed most culpable in his conduct. The greatest, though not the most accurate or careful of our historians, represents him as having, with the deepest dissimulation and most egregious breach of trust, deceived the confidence of the Scotch, who, allured by the excellence of his reputation, had made him arbiter of their differences, and unwarily placed themselves in his power. Mr Hume tells us, that Edward, having been invited by the Scottish Parliament to decide between the competitors for the throne of Scotland, assembled the Scotch nobility at Norham on that pretence; and having first collected a powerful army to overawe the refractory, that he there unexpectedly advanced his pretensions to the Superiority of Scotland, and required them to acknowledge him as Lord Paramount of the kingdom. Part of this story has been already refuted by a Scottish historian. Lord Hailes has shown, and the fact is undeniable, that when Edward met the Scoth nobility at Norham he had no troops with him, and could not therefore intend to terrify them into a recognition of his title by apprehensions of immediate violence. But, though this aggravation of his supposed treachery has been rejected by the historian, Lord Hailes continues to represent the claim of Edward as having been wholly unexpected by the Scots. The 'whole assembly," he tells us, stood motionless and silent,' and craved delay (which was granted reluctantly), that they might consult together. "This unexpected demand,' says another historian, struck dismay and embarrassment into the hearts of the 'Scottish assembly.' That the demand was not unexpected by a large portion of the assembly-that their silence and dismay arose from no surprise at a claim, which some of themselves had suggested, and which all, or the greater part of them, had most probably foreseen-is proved beyond the possibility of doubt by the documents before us. It is singular, that, after so many ages

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of unmerited abuse, the fame of one of the greatest of the English kings should at length be vindicated by documents, which have been all the while quietly reposing in the Chapter-House at Westminster, where they had nearly mouldered into dust, when, in the last stage of decay, they were rescued from destruction by the zeal and diligence of Sir Francis Palgrave. What stronger proof can be given of the urgency of a careful examination of our ancient records, in order to supply the defects and correct the errors of chroniclers and historians! What better answer to the vulgar spirit of economy that would suffer all the memorials of bygone times to perish, rather than expend the merest trifle for their preservation !

*

The first of these documents is an appeal preferred to the Guardians of Scotland, in name of the seven Earls and Community of that kingdom. After stating that the throne of Scotland has been vacant since the death of Alexander, and alleging that, by the immemorial laws and usages of the kingdom, it is the right of the seven Earls and Community of Scotland, when the throne is de jure and de facto vacant, to appoint a king, and place him in his royal seat, and invest him with the honours of royalty, the instrument goes on to declare, that lest William, Bishop of St Andrews, and John Comyn, who hold themselves to be Guardians of Scotland, and act as such, with that portion of the community which adheres to them, should of their own authority appoint a king, without regard to the rights of the seven Earls and Community of Scotland, the said Earls-of whom the son of Duncan, late Earl of Fife, is one-in their own names and in the names of the bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, freeholders, and community of Scotland, appeal by their procurator, regularly constituted for that purpose, to the authority and protection of Edward, and of the royal crown of England, against any interference in the government of Scotland, to the prejudice of their rights, by William, Bishop of St Andrews, John Comyn, or John Baliol; and place themselves, their adherents, kindred and effects, movable and immovable, under the special guard and protection of Edward and of the English crown. They further pray for reparation of sundry wrongs and damages done to them by the said Guardians since the death of Alexander.

A second document† contains a similar protest and appeal, in name of Donald, Earl of Mar, one of the seven Earls, and in name of the freemen of Moray, against a military execution perpetrated in the district of Moray, under authority of the said Guar

* No. IV. 1.

+ No. IV. 2.

dians, by subguardians of their appointment; and concludes, like the other paper, by placing the Earl of Mar and the men of Moray under the protection of Edward and of the English

crown.

The third document* is an appeal to the same authority in the name of Robert Bruce, Lord of Annandale, styling himself the lawful, true, and acknowledged heir of the Scottish crown; and complaining, that though he has propounded and offered to prosecute his claim to that dignity, the said Guardians and their abettors, without regard to his rights, or to those of the seven Earls, intend and propose to raise John Baliol to the throne; for which reason he appeals to Edward, and to the English crown for judgment thereon, which, from the said Guardians, he will not accept; submitting himself and his adherents, and the seven Earls in particular, to the protection and defence of Edward and of his royal crown. To this last appeal is annexed a memorandum, setting forth the pretensions of Bruce to the throne of Scotland.

There is still a fourth paper,† written in French, the others being in Latin, with no name annexed to it, in which it is argued that King Richard had no right to release the King of Scotland from the homage he had rendered for his kingdom to the crown of England; concluding with an intimation, through a private and confidential agent, that if the King of England will demand his right according to law, the author of the note will aid and obey him, with all his friends and kindred. The author of this note, Sir Francis Palgrave conjectures to have been one of the competitors for the Scottish crown, most probably Bruce. It is in perfect accordance with his appeal.

With these documents before us, it is idle declamation to lament the situation to which the Scottish nobles were reduced at Norham; or to represent them as totally unprepared for the demand of Edward that they should acknowledge his claim as superior and Paramount Lord of Scotland. Bruce, at least, and his accomplices, had no reason for surprise, dismay, or embarrassment. They had suggested the claim, and appealed in private to the authority they were there called upon to acknowledge in public. To some of the partisans of Baliol the appeals of Bruce and his adherents might have been unknown. But, if the statements in the instruments of appeal be correct, they must have been communicated to the Bishop of St Andrews and to Comyn; and if known to them, most probably they were imparted to their friends. All ought to have been prepared for the

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claim of superiority; and if the spirit of Wallace had breathed in this assembly of nobles, the demand of Edward would have been instantly and indignantly rejected. But it required experience of foreign bondage to rouse that flame which finally triumphed over Edward and his successors. * Had our forefathers yielded, as the Irish did, to the yoke of England, or contented themselves, like them, with a rude and savage independence in the recesses of their mountains and morasses, we might at this day have been petitioning for an equality of rights with the more fortunate inhabitants of the south; or with indignation heard ourselves stigmatized as aliens, unworthy of the same privileges.

It

It is not dificult to discern the motive for these appeals. is clear that two of the Regents and their adherents, constituting probably a majority of the nation, were inclined to prefer Baliol as the lawful heir, or fittest successor of the Scottish crown; and that Bruce and his partisans, forming a minority of the kingdom, appealed to Edward from a consciousness of their own weakness, and, to conciliate his favour, were ready to sacrifice the independence of their country. Edward listened to their appeal so far as suited his own interest. He asserted, and so far as the recognition of a recreant nobility could effect it, he established the superiority of the English over the Scottish crown. Having attained that object, he seems to have proceeded with fairness in his adjudication of the kingdom. He appointed a numerous and impartial

* Barbour has expressed with equal spirit and feeling the misery and oppression of Scotland under Edward; and concludes with a passionate exclamation which for centuries found an echo in every Scotsman's bosom.

"A! freedome is a noble thing!

Freedome mayss man to haiff liking;
Freedome all solace to man giffis :
He levys at ess that freely levys!
A noble hart may haiff nane ess,
Na ellys nocht that may him pless,
Gyff fredome failyhe: for fre liking
Is yharnit our all othir thing.
Na he, that ay has levyt fre,
May nocht knaw weil the propyrté,
The angyr, na the wrechyt dome,
That is cowplyt to foule thyrldome.
Bot gyff he had assayit it,

Than all perquer he suld it wyt;

And suld think fredome mar to pryss,

Than all the gold in warld that is."

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