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"James," &c. "That for als meikill as we send oure lovet familiare squyre Johnne of Haldane, of the Levinax principale, and of Rusky, as ane of oure ambassiadouris, for certane matteris concerning us in neirness, to oure deirest faeder-in-law the King of Denmark, for the quhilk we tuk the said Johnne, his lands, rents, &c. togidder with all his actions, causis, and querelis, movit or to be movit quhatsumevir, under oure speciale respect, protectioun, saufguard and defens, induring the tyme of his being utenth oure realme in oure said materis, and for forti dais efter his hame cumming, as is contained in our said respect. Nevirtheless in his absence, and furth being of oure realme in oure service foresaid, Johnne Lord Dernely optenit and purchest brevis of oure chapell tuiching the superiorite of the Ereldome of the Levinax, the quhilk the said Johnne Lord Dernly nevir clamit nor persewit als long as the said Johnne of Haldane was present, and for this he offerit divers times to the said Johnne of Haldane contentatiouns before the Lords of oure Counsale as for the principal superioritie of the said erledome, as the said Johnne of Haldane alleges; be the quhilk brevis the said Lord Dernely has optenit interess in the said superiorite, in great prejudice, hurt, and skaith of the said Johnne of Haldane, that evir clamit the said superiorite be resone of his spouss, and obtenit oure favours tharto as principale, be our charter and seising givin to him thereupon because the said Lord Dernly na nane utheris oure lieges maid ony clame contrar the said Johnne of Haldane, nor his spouss, tuiching the superiorite foresaid, we herd na party contrair to him in that matter befor the time of his passage utenth oure realme in our service, as said is, and now of lait sen the hame-cumming of the said Johnne of Haldane he has menit him to us, that our said respect was

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hurt and broken to him in its said superiorite. For the quhilk we causit the Lords of our Counsale, togidder with uthir baronis of our realme, to syt and aviss tharupon, the quhilks fand that our respect wes hurt and nocht kepit to the said Johnne of Haldane be the brevis purchest be the said John Lord Dernly anent the superioritie of the said erledome; therefore we have considerit the possessione and sesing given to the said John of Haldane as principale, and the rycht of the successione perteining to the said Johnis spouss, undemandit be ony of oure lieges, togidder with ye cause above proponit ; our will is, that the said brevis, sesingis, interess, and all uthir thingis following tharupon, purchest and optenit be the said Johnne Lord Dernly anent the said superioritie, sen the tyme of the passage of the said Johnne of Haldane in oure service utenth oure realme, as said is, be of nane availe, strength, force, nor effect, before ony juge or jugeis, spirituale or temporale, in time cumming, and that thai be annullit for ever, sua that the said matter sall stand in the samyn forme, force, and effect as it was the day of the passage of the said Johnne of Haldane utenth our realme in our service forsaid, but prejudice to ony party in their rychtis in time to cum. vin undir oure Privy-seile at Edinburgh, the 12th day of Januare and of our regime the 16th yere.-(Signed) Scheves."*

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This is an important document in the Lennox case. It proves by a declaration issuing from the fountain of honour,

1. That Dernely had sat in Parliament among the Comites solely in virtue of his service to Earl Duncan, as he is here only styled, "Johnne Lord Dernely."

* Gleneagles Papers.

2. That there was no public acknowledgment of Haldane's right, by courtesy, to the earldom of Lennox, and no express grant to that effect in his charter "tanquam primo et principali," either meant by the sovereign, or understood by Haldane, for he is simply styled our “ familiare (i. e. household) squyre," although he was infeft upon the charter said to convey the honours, and although the decree was founded upon that very charter.

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3. That any claim which Haldane had put forth in name of his spouse to the superiority of the earldom was not admitted as a matter of acknowledged right, but simply in absence, no other party having appeared or been heard in the matter before he departed on his embassy.

4. That whatever subsidiary plea Haldane may have urged in right of his lady, his leading plea, and that too upon which the judgment mainly proceeded, was, that the royal letters of protection from all suits, &c. had been broken in the person of Haldane by Dernely's service to a special portion of the fief, a process to which Haldane, who was infeft in a portion, ought to have been called.

5. That the decree of reduction involves no declarator either of Haldane's or his lady's right to the dignity, but, on the contrary, expressly reserves the rights of all parties having claims; and places that matter precisely in statu quo, as it stood when Haldane departed on his embassy as plain John Haldane.

Thus the whole argument in the memorial reared upon the terms of Haldane's charter, which is the main pillar of the modern case for Gleneagles, falls to the ground. That Agnes Menteith was elder than her sister Elizabeth is assumed in the memorial, and simply from the circumstance (also assumed) that Napier did

not oppose Dernely,while Haldane did. Now it is known to every reader of history that the minority of James III., during which the proceedings relied upon were instituted, was a period of all others when various causes might have kept back the pretensions of an elder sister, even while a younger one attempted to protect her postponed rights. The characteristic of those times was usurpation. James II. or his ministers, usurped the earldom of Mar. Archibald Douglas usurped the earldom of Moray, to the prejudice of the elder sister of his wife. The Duke of Albany assumed the title of King of Scotland, to the prejudice of his elder brother James III. on the throne. In times of political confusion, and of many a lawless pretension, the inference is much too hasty that would attempt to deduce the paramount right of one party from the forwardness and activity of his claim, or the absence of all right in another from the silence of his pretensions.

The above considerations, it is apprehended, would of themselves be sufficient to destroy the case for Gleneagles before any competent tribunal; but, it must be conceded, without at the same time establishing any case for the representatives of Elizabeth Menteith. For they merely go to prove, that the memorial does not make out the case, and that its inferences are not sound.

The first view of the matter which rears a plea for Elizabeth Menteith is this,-that not only is it unsound to argue from Haldane's charter and subsequent process, that his spouse was the elder coheiress of Rusky, but a contrary inference may be gathered from that procedure, in which case the claim for her sister Elizabeth would be negatively established.

We have seen that there were certain obvious grounds

of law, totally independent of any claim to the honours, upon which Haldane, who notoriously had a better right to them than Dernely had, could attack that nobleman's usurpations. To meet these substantial technical pleas, Dernely required at once to instruct the most exalted right in the Comitatus; and hence, in all his contention with Haldane, he endeavoured, both publicly and privately, to obtain either the verdict of a jury, or a decree-arbitral to this effect, that he Dernely represented the eldest daughter (after Isabella) of Earl Duncan. Haldane's pleas were indeed equally substantial in law to reduce all processes instituted in his absence, wherein he ought to have been called, even if Dernely had been well founded in his pretension. But that nobleman's absolute right would have been too powerful to contend with, could he have met Haldane's technical plea with the fact, that he was de jure Earl of Lennox. Dernely, however, could not take ground so high; for Haldane was prepared to urge, as a subsidiary plea on the part of his own spouse, that she, and not Lord Dernely, was " come of" the elder coheiress of Lennox,-that by inheritance her interest in the honours was certainly prior to his, who could not, therefore, urge his unquestionable right as an excuse for his irregular service. This is precisely the mode of pleading which a party in John Haldane's situation,—having a good technical plea, and a charter whose ambiguous terms gave him an interest in the Comitatus not very clearly defined, and with a usurper for his competitor,-would be likely to adopt, supposing his lady to have been the younger of two coheiresses, both having a prior right to this opponent. Now it happens that the reasons of reduction which Haldane urged, chiefly in his own name, but also in that of Agnes Menteith, are yet extant among the

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