country. We may, indeed, have heard that Malcolm Canmore had his eye knocked out and his life taken in consequence, by the obscure seneschal of a Northumbrian fortress-that William the Lion was made prisoner in an ill-advised attack on his too-powerful neighbour-that Alexander the Third married a young wife, and died in consequence" "I know nothing of all these folks," said Peter; but I grant you they may have had distresses in their time as well as we in ours." "Dost grant me, hedge-hog," retorted Andrew, in King Richard's vein."Then, I suppose, you have placed your fancy on the days of Wallace and Bruce?" (Peter's eyes kindled; he had heard of the names, and hoped they might bring him good backing." Well, then, do you chuse the days of the wight Wallace, who, after burning a few churches, towns, and villages, massacring some thousand men, and so forth, like all heroes, was at length driven into the woods, lived like an outlaw, and died like a malefactor? Are you prepared to prove, that that Wallace, of whom we talk so much and know so little, whose efforts in defence of his country's independence were totally abortive, and whose only historian is the sapient and veracious Blind Harry, brought such bless ings on a country subdued and occupied by the foreign enemy during his brief warfare of about four years, that you would change your quiet and peaceful lounge about the streets of Edinburgh, with full permission to growl at every thing, from the writers to the scavenger, for a state of servitude under a foreign yoke, varied by fierce insurrection and unsparing bloodshed? And for the Bruce," said Andrew, pur suing his victory with unsparing triumph, "he was a contented English vassal for the best part of his life, and it was only the accident of becoming a murderer that made him a patriot and a king. For his victory at Bannockburn, I think we owe him our best bow; and yet what sort of a Scythian independence did his conquest procure us, when, only three or four years after, his best, if not his sole expedient, to defend the country he had liberated against a new inroad of the English, consisted in laying it so completely waste, that of live cattle there was but a single lame bull to be found between Berwick and Tranent? Besides, Peter, I owe gude King Robert a grudge for his Black Parliament, in which, for no good cause that seems to have been known to his contemporaries, he hung a score or two of his nobility and crown vassals.→ Moreover, I detest the manner of their warfare in those days. What say you to the courteous choice proposed by the good Lord James of Douglas between the loss of the right eye, or the fore finger of the right hand, to each poor devil of an English archer who came into his ruthless hands? Or would you have liked to assist at that notable mess, the Douglasses larder, when the whole stores intended for victualling a fortress were mixed in the hall of the castle, the bags of flour and meal emptied, the casks of wine and beer staved, the sacks of grain spilt, and mingled with the contents of the barrels of salted provisions, the cattle slain on the top of this miscellaneous heap, and the prisoners finally slaughtered, all to make the gruel slab ?'" "Pah!" said Peter, beginning to spit, an action in which he was accompanied by several of the assistants. * "Well," said Pismire, "every one knows that I am the most moderate man in argument-I give Mr Grievance the choice of the ground, and point out every field of battle to him, and yet he retreats like a Parthian, to involve me still farther in the desarts before he makes head against me. I must e'en chase him through this waste and disconsolate region, like the gryphon pursuing the Arimaspian through the wilderness. So on we go through dense and rare.-Wilt thou give battle, Peter, in the doleful days of the second Bruce, when a handful of English exiles recovered the whole kingdom? when Hallidown and Duplin were fatted with the blood of our best and bravest ? when David got himself made prisoner like a fool, and came back like a tyrant, to break with his own royal hand the heads of the loving subjects who pressed upon him to welcome his restoration? What shall we say to the brief reign of Robert the Second, maintained on his throne amidst the wars which he hated and feared, by the doubtful allegiance of the Earls of Douglas, whose hand seemed as often stretched to snatch him from his seat of dignity as to maintain him there? What of Robin, who changed his name from John to break an augury, and took nothing by his motion, his reign being a series of foreign war and domestic misfortune, who sate the mimic shadow of a sovereign, victim of his own weakness and the savage ambition of his brother; and whose son was starved to death in a royal fortress, while his father enjoyed the vain name of King? "I come next to our Jameses," continued Andrew," a name which called Misfortune bride. James the First, if you please, was a reformer,-a radical one, if two thousand of his subjects fell by the executioner within the two first years of his. reign, inclusive of his cousin the Duke of Albany, the Earls of Monteith and Lennox. Engaged in the perilous task of humbling his haughty nobles, he fell a victim to the attempt, and was poniarded to death in a common sewer.-Do you like the times of James II. better, when he stabbed his rival, the Earl of Douglas, with his own hand,-when Scotland was divided into two parties, for the Stuarts and Douglasses, and only the factions of our neighbours of England, as inveterate as our own, kept them from pouncing upon us and swallowing us up ?-James III., Lord love him, a musician, bless the mark, and an architect, built fine houses and castles, gave concerts (in the churches to wit,) and lost his life because he wished to add to his musical establishment. His taste for the society of architects and musicians was termed a partiality for fiddlers and masons. Mild measures (the age called them such) were at first tried with him, and the mob of nobles were contented with hanging every man whom he had about his person, or who was dear to him ;-they even spared a page who clung to his knees. But as he was found incapable of taking warning by their clemency, and reverted to the study of the fine arts, they e'en stabbed him in a pig-stye, for an example to all royal amateurs.-The days of James IV. had a few gleams of prosperity; but the battle of Flodden, in a war indiscreetly undertaken, and a conflict fought without a glimpse of military skill, extinguished the chivalrous monarch and two-thirds of his nobility. The reign of James V. began with minority and all its evils, and ended with heart-breaking miscarriage. In his youth, the possession of the King's person was contended for as if it had been a signet, à talisman, an amulet, or any other uncom mon thing, to the possession of which power was attached. He struggled gals lantly against the evil time when he gained possession of his freedom, but lost his sons by disease, and died of a broken heart on account of his unsuccessful war with England. Then came Henry's lion-wooing in behalf of his son Edward, the fatal rout at Pinkey, the sharp swords of the English raging through the land from all the strong-holds and garrisons which they occupied, and their yet more powerful gold debauching from their allegiance onehalf of the Scottish nobles-Queen Mary only stepped on the stage to give occasion to such a history of woe as perhaps no other history records. All was murder in the open field, or by the hand of the executioner. Polemical hate sharpened, and seemed to those whom it stimulated to authorise, the unbounded rancour of hostility. A murdered King was avenged by the long imprisonment and subsequent execution of the Sovereign of Scotland by a vindictive rival. "James VI.," said Andrew, in continuation, "was, during his residence in Scotland, a foot-ball to Fortune and to his factious nobles, like his ancestors before him, and with a single grain of more spirit, could not have escaped being murdered on the many occasions when he fell into the coercive hands of his nobles. The exploits of Bothwell upon his person, the raids of Ruthven and of Stirling, the Gowrie conspiracy, and many other ruffles, must have kept his mind in such a constant state of terror, that a hare would have a better time of it in the neighbourhood of a pack of hounds." Here Peter interrupted the orator, to make what the gentlemen of the fancy call a rally. But we must necessarily defer the rest of the conversation to our next Number. SIR, To the Conductor of the SALE-ROOM. I am a plain farmer. I live surrounded by three or four thousand acres of moorland, on which there is neither house nor village besides my own steading, neither hoof nor horn, grass nor corn, but of my own raising. Such a situation you town'sown raising. folks would think lonely enough in winter, and, truly, some of the long evenings would pass rather heavily, unless it were for reading, and music now and then; for my daughters play, and sing sometimes when no one but the family is by. I take a newspaper twice a-week, a constitutional decent publication, the editor of which seldom troubles his readers with his own fancies, but gives the news as he gets them from other quarters which he thinks authentic. It has been a fancy of mine, confirmed by a pretty long expe mine, confirmed by rience, that the greatest professors are usually the smallest performers; and it is owing to this that I have taken your SaleRoom also, the first number of which came to me accidentally wrapped about a pound of candles from Dalkeith. The reason of my troubling you with my present correspondence, is this:-In despite of the modesty of your pretensions, you begin by using both strange names and the French language, (which, thank God, I never learnt, nor intend to learn,) with out subjoining a translation. For instance, there is Coryphæus ;-who is Coryphæus ? I asked the minister in the session-room between preachings last Sunday, but he was unfortunately taken with a fit of coughing before he could reply; and, afterwards, he was so much engaged in conversation with Lady Faladam, that I could never get an answer out of him. I am therefore obliged to apply to you in this difficulty, and to request that you will be pleased to translate all the French used in the foregoing numbers, in your next; and above all, furnish information as to Coryphæus. I am, Sir, Your well-wisher, Driginal Poetry. THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE. On their new state assembled to decide:- "Weary with anarchy and civil broils, And sadly living on each others spoils, In desperate hope to be protected, A Bull-Dog for their Sovereign they elected. His reign was short. To blood and rapine bred, "The animals, collected then like you, To mould their government anew, "It chanced that Man "Just what they did-an aristocracy A Stag to lead their armies went; Rending the air with hideous shout, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 10 CORRESPONDENTS. We have received a letter from a fair Correspondent, under the signature of Jaquenetta, in which she addresses us by the flattering epithet of Dear Mr Sale- Room, warns us to beware of using hard words, and requests, in particular, an explanation of the word Coryphaus used in our First Number. Although we should be loth to lose the opportunity of displaying occasionally our little stock of learning, we shall always be happy to afford explanation, and have the honour of informing the fair Querist that Coryphæus signifies the prin cipal person, or leader, of any undertaking; and, in the present instance, must be regarded as forming the head of that ingenious individual Mr Sale Room. The above solution will serve as a reply, also, to our friend Agricola's query. The French language will be accompanied by a translation in future. "J. Y." and "Gamma" are under consideration. Edinburgh, printed by James Ballantyne & Co. for John Ballantyne, Hanover-Street. |