ry; he uniformly insisted that no species of religious persecution should take place under his sway all the relaxations of the penal laws, affecting the catholics and the protestant dissenters, bear date from his reign, and were sanctioned by his beneficent and equitable mind; and a genuine scruple of conscience respecting his coronation oath seems alone to have opposed his conceding to the former sect the full rights of citizens.

To the system of general education, promul, gated by Joseph Lancaster, his majesty early extended his firm and liberal support, nobly disdainful of the scruples and alarms which it excited in other quarters. On this subject he once uttered the memorable wish, "That the day might come in which every poor. child in his dominions would be able to read the Bible." Posterity will number George III. with the best men, though not the ablest monarchs, who have borne the British sceptre.

DR. AIKIN.

JAMES I. OF SCOTLAND.

AFTER two weak and inactive reigns, and two regencies of no superior character, a monarch is to succeed, whose government is to be distinguished for its novelty and vigour; and the house of Stuart is at last to know a sovereign. James had now attained his thirtieth year; and his prime of life was yet further recommended by every advantage, which natural talents and a

In person he

complete education could bestow. was rather under the middle size, but endued with such firmness and agility as to excel in every manly exercise. In wrestling, in the management of the bow or the spear, in throwing the quoit, in running, in horsemanship, he yielded to none. But his mental abilities were yet more conspicuous. A man of science and learning, an `excellent poet, a master of music, the fame of his accomplishments reflected glory even on the throne. Illustrious in every personal virtue, free from any personal vice, his very amusements adorned his character; his hours of leisure being frequently dedicated to elegant writing, and miniature painting, to mechanical arts, and to the cultivation of the gården and the orchard.

The features of his government it is more difficult to discriminate. If we believe some writers, not less than three thousand men were put to death in the two first years of his reign; and after the inroad of Donald Balloch, three hundred highland banditti met with the same fate. Happily these matters are quite unknown to contemporary and authentic monuments of our history: the justice of James fell only on a few nobles and some chiefs of clans; but the numerous dependents of those victims of equitable severity embraced every occasion to excite discontents, and propagate falsehoods against the government, falsehoods which have even passed into the page of history, for one of the misfortunes of the house of Stuart has consisted in the prejudices of several Scottish historians. If any blame must fall, let it fall where it ought, upon the misrule of the

house of Albany. To a people who had lived half a century under a loose and delegated government, and who had been accustomed to regard licence as liberty, it is no wonder that the punishment of crimes seemed quite a new and strange cruelty: that a salutary strength of government appeared despotism; that a necessary and legal taxation assumed the shape of tyrannic extortion. The commons, led by the nobles, absurdly regarded the cause of the latter as their own, and saw not that the king in crushing the aristocracy was doing the most essential service to his people. The plans of James were sagacious and profound, but sometimes incur the charge of temerity; and while they partake of the greatness of genius, they are limited by the want of a sufficient power in the Scottish monarchy for their complete execution. In a word, James is fully entitled to the uncommon character of a great sovereign in the arts of government and of peace.

PINKERTON.

JAMES II. OF SCOTLAND.

His actions proclaim him a prince of decisive, and sometimes even violent spirit. In war he was a valiant and popular leader; and surpassed his father in a marked attention to military discipline. Negligent of pomp, the equal of every soldier, he shared the mean repast of the march, confident that poison is seldom administered in vessels of wood, and reposing absolute faith on the love of his people. The power of his abili

ties, the excellence of his intentions in peace, are best displayed by the laws of his reign, always the most instructive and valuable portion of history. His wisdom appears conspicuous, in his reverence for the counsels of the wise, in guiding his most important actions by the experience of Crichton, and the benign and patriotic prudence of Kennedy. The perdition of the aristocratic and tyrannic house of Douglas was to be a spirited exertion of justice to himself and to his people. But that any fixed plan yet existed, for the destruction of the aristocracy, seems a refined theory, incongruous with the ignorance and spirit and manners of the times; and is best confuted by the plain facts, that the families abased are ever remarkable for important crimes, and that the property and power, which were withdrawn from one house, were ever to be bestowed on another. Even when Louis XI. and Henry VII. were, towards the termination of this century, in countries of greater civilization, and political science, to humble the aristocracy, an unprejudiced reader will be ready to infer that the events proceed rather from chance and circumstances, and the rotation of society, than from design. As to the person of the second James, we only know that it was robust; and that a red tinge, which deformed one of his cheeks, gave him the vulgar appellation of James with the fiery face.

PINKERTON.

JAMES III. OF SCOTLAND, AND HIS BROTHERS.

In

His

His person was elegant, his mind weak. 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. 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