believe her brother (Henry VIII.) and Wolsey, in yet bolder deviations. But eminent in accomplishments, and in prudence, when unbiased by her passions, her talents threw her faults into the shade. Her long letters display an intimate knowledge of affairs and characters, considerable ability, and patient industry. In her political conduct she was not free from the levity ascribed to the sex, and was apt to pass from one extreme to another; and, when in power, alternately to display too much pride or too much humility, a severity too stern, or a gentleness too relaxed. Yet the times were difficult; and that wisdom could not be mean which attracted the praise of the able Dacre, of the prudent and magnanimous Surrey, and of the cautious cardinal; a praise not to be suspected of flattery, because neither pronounced nor known to the object.

PINKERTON.

THE REGENT, DUKE OF ALBANY. JOHN, Duke of Albany, son of that Alexander who has been seen attempting to wrest the Scottish sceptre from his brother James III., whom he termed a bastard, cannot be supposed to have been warmly attached to the royal race; and there were not wanting some whose malice already saw the crown of Scotland on his head, tinged with infant blood. But such a prospect probably never existed, save in the jealous eye, or wanton calumny, of faction. His character is so mixed, that it is very difficult to delineate it

with precision. To Surrey and to Wolsey he appeared a coward and a fool, as they bluntly express their sensations; and his government in Scotland so inconsistent, so constantly foiled in every scheme, rather seems to warrant the harshness of the appellations. Yet Francis I., a good judge of merit, was afterwards to employ him in important affairs: when that king was before Pavia, in 1525, Albany was to be detached with a part of the army to conquer the kingdom of Naples, an enterprise demanding a general of supreme talents, but the defeat and capture of Francis rendered the plan abortive: in 1533, when that monarch was to meet the pontiff Clement VII. at Marseilles, Albany was to be distinguished by the appointment of conducting by sea Catherine de Medici, the destined wife of Henry, second son of the king, afterwards Henry II.; an office at least implying confidence and favour, and a brother of Albany was, according to Guicciardini, created a cardinal upon occasion of that service. The friendship of Francis I. is itself a recommendation: yet an intimate acquaintance with the actions and papers of Albany may authorize the following character of his government. It was artful, yet weak; profuse, yet unfriended; tyrannic, yet inefficient: while love and attachment were estranged by caprice, fear and awe were not supported by uniform rigour : opinionative obstinacy disconcerted the prudence of friends, and prevented the conciliation of enemies. A stranger to the arts of empire, Albany, whom just policy ought to have transformed into a complete Scottishman, never forgot his French

birth; and the haughty vanity of that nation, which he displayed without a veil, yet further disgusted the Scots, a people then, from remote situation, and want of intercourse, inimical to foreigners, when they beheld their regent surrounded with French officers and confidents, and heard him submit to term the king of France his master, an epithet he frequently used even in his dispatches; nor was the very signature of his name in French regarded as a trifle. Even his private faults contributed to disgrace him. Surrey, in a letter to Wolsey, mentions upon the authority of Dacre, that the regent was so opinionative that no counsel but his own was followed even when among his familiar friends; and his wilfulness was such that, upon the slightest contradiction, he would throw his bonnet into the fire, in which mode of argument he had consumed near a dozen of those missive syllogisms. Surrey adds, with the prophetic eye of skill," if he be such a man, with God's grace, we shall speed the better;" a prediction soon fulfilled. Of Albany's person little is remarked: even his age is unknown; though he appears to have exceeded his thirtieth year. His mother was the daughter of the Earl of Bologne, his father's second wife; but by the first, a daughter of the Earl of Orkney, a son was alive, Alexander Stuart, educated to the church, commendater of Inchaffray, afterwards abbot of Scone, and bishop of Moray. The regent had himself been married, in 1505, to Anne de la Tour, sole heiress of the countess d'Auvergne, the maternal aunt of the future Catherine de Medici; his wife's estate in France was great,

and secured his allegiance to that country, while his connexion with the house of Medici gave him great influence with the Popes Leo X. and Clement VII. sprung of that illustrious family.

PINKERTON.

JAMES V. OF SCOTLAND.

Or this monarch all our early historians present one uniform character; and their general voice proclaims his excellence. His education, as usual with princes who ascend the throne in infancy, had been neglected or erroneous; corrupted by flattery; rendered deficienț in its tasks from the preceptor's fear of displeasing. Yet his mind was great, his affections warm, his discernment acute. His vices were few, and never interrupted the happiness of his people. His propensity to vague amour was palliated by his general affability; his sternness to the nobles, by his favour to the common people, which was so eminent that he received from his affectionate subjects the glorious appellation of King of the Poor. To the voice of poverty, to the prayer of distress, the gates of his palace stood ever open: with one hand he raised the indigent, while with the other he crushed the proud oppressor. In the knowledge of the laws and customs of his kingdom he was so completely versed that his decisions were as exact as they were expeditious; and from horseback he often pronounced decrees worthy of the sagest seat of justice. Of indubitable valour, of remarkable strength of constitution, he exposed his life and health, without hesitation,

at any season when it became necessary to curb the marauding borderers, or highlanders, rendered lawless during the disorders of a long minority. The dangers of the wilderness, the gloom of night, the tempests of winter, could not prevent his patient exertions to protect the helpless, to punish the guilty, to enforce the observance of the laws. A stranger to pride, he despised it in others; and his speech was ever sprinkled with humanity.

The faults of his government, though not minute, are more to be ascribed to the times than to the character of the monarch. His avarice naturally arose from the penury of his education, the dissipation of his finances, and even of the furniture of his palaces, by the unprincipled duke of Albany. But his amassed treasure was employed in the construction of magnificent works of architecture, and of a navy; and in other plans of general utility and glory. His political designs were long studied; yet as he died in his thirtieth year, he could not have acquired the experience of age and the period of his reign presented combinations too intricate for the most skilful prudence to foresee or define. The progress of the protestant religion was dubious; and dangerous it is for a prince to embrace a new system before it be approved by a great majority of his subjects. Untaught by the glorious concord between his father and the nobles, James entertained a fixed enmity against the aristocracy, which had effected great usurpations during his minority; and his attachment to the eminent clergy, who alone could balance their power, was unavoidable.