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as much as the height of their minds can undertake, naturally loving to make use of their own ground, and not trusting to traffic. Then Scotland, by reason of her populousness, being constrained to disburden herself (like the painful bees), did every year send forth swarms, whereof great numbers did haunt Pole with the most extreme kind of drudgery (if not dying under the burden), scraping a few crumbs together, till now of late that they were compelled, abandoning their ordinary calling, to betake themselves to the wars against the Russians, Turks, or Swedens, as the Polonians were pleased to employ them; others of the better sort being bred in France, in regard of the ancient league, did find the means to force out some small fortunes there, till of late that the French, though not altogether violating, yet not valuing (as heretofore), that friendship which was so religiously observed by their predecessors, and with so much danger and loss deserved by ours, have altered the estate of the guards, and do derogate from our former liberties."

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These words touched the source of certain misgivings long dwelling in the Scots mind about the ultimate advantage of the conjunction with England. Had that, which no doubt had made a strong compact empire, really been propitious to Scotland, looking at what it took away as well as what it gave? There were many lingering aspirations after that congenial harvest of the ancient league with France, reaped by the little army of choice spirits who formed the Scots guard. This still had, and retained long afterwards, existence in name; but the really Scots element dropped gradually out of it, as a natural result of the political conditions which made the Scots no longer useful to France as the most effective and destructive enemies of England. The new openings for the Scots abroad, whether as traders, or as mercenaries in the armies engaged in the Thirty Years' War, were a sorry contrast to the chivalrous organisation, and the lofty privileges of that body who were the special guardians of the greatest of European thrones, hence

1 Laing's Royal Letters, &c., 38.

"The Low Countries have spent many of our men, but have enriched few, and (though raising their flight, with such borrowed feathers, till they were checked by a present danger) did too much vilipend these favourable springs by which their weakness was chiefly refreshed. But howsoever some particular men might prosper under a foreign prince, all that adventure so do either perish by the way, or if they attain unto any fortune, do lose the same by some colour that strict laws urged against a stranger can easily afford.” 1

New Scotland was too close to the centre of the contests between the French and British settlers in America to be a good emigration-field. In 1628 we find Sir William Alexander's colonists repelling the efforts of the French to appropriate their territory. From that period they appear no more in colonial history as a separate Scots colony; and there are no means of knowing how large a Scots element continued through the contest, which

1 Laing's Royal Letters, &c., 38, 39. The following curious analysis of the defects of other nations as colonists is not without some measure of practical truth at the present day: :

"This is no wonder, that the French, being so slightly planted, did take no deeper root in America; for they, as only desirous to know the nature and quality of the soil, and of things that were likely to grow there, did never seek to have them in such quantity as was requisite for their maintenance, affecting more, by making a needless ostentation, that the world should know they had been there, than that they did continue still to inhabit there like them that were more in love with glory than with virtue. Then being always subject to disunions amongst themselves, it was impossible that they could subsist, which proceeded sometime from emulation or envy, and at other times from the laziness of the disposition of some, who (loathing labour) could be commanded by none who would impose more upon them than was agreeable with the indifferencie of their affections and superficial endeavours."

He described the English as free from these defects, and industrious, but destitute of forethought and avaricious of immediate returns; "applying themselves to tobacco and such things as might import a present commodity; neglecting the time that might have been employed for building, planting, and husbandry; so that they did live but like hired servants labouring for their masters, and not like fathers providing for their family and posterity.”—P. 36, 37.

ended in the cession of the district to the United Kingdom of Great Britain at the Peace of Utrecht.

But, in fact, difficulties in the new dominions of their king had opened to the Scots a more attractive emigrationfield close at hand. What made those great potentates of the north of Ireland, Tyrone and Tyrconnel, take panic flight to the Continent, abandoning their dominions to the mercy of the Government, is one of the mysteries to be dealt with by the historians of Ireland. The event left the wide territory of Ulster headless. This gave opportunity for the great "plantation" scheme. scheme. It displaced the native occupiers by two operations — the territorial rights of the higher were forfeited, and the position of the humbler, in relation both to the soil they cultivated and to their superiors, was so strictly adjusted to the usages of the Saxons, that the Celt could not endure an abode among them. The Scots of Galloway and Carrick had to struggle with a miserable soil, and here were fertile acres close by offered on easy terms to their industrial enterprise. An Englishman who, while the plantation was going on, travelled from Glasgow to Carrick, said: "We passed thrugh a barren and poor country, the most of it yielding neither corn nor grass; and that which yields corn is very poor, much punished with drought." Then crossing the Channel, he saw in contrast how "from Belfast to Linsley Garven is about seven miles, and is a paradise in comparison of any part of Scotland." At the period of these notices, the spirit of migration had spread northwards; and the traveller says: "We came to Mr James Blare's, in Irwin, a wellaffected man, who informed me of that which is much to be admired-above ten thousand persons have, within two last years past, left the country wherein they lived, which was betwixt Aberdeen and Inverness, and are gone for Ireland. They have come by one hundred in company through the town, and three hundred have gone on hence together, shipped for Ireland at one tide." 1

1 Brereton's Travels, 118, 119, 129.

Such were the latest transactions during the lifetime of King James that had much either of influence or interest in his ancient kingdom. He died on the 27th of March,

in the year 1625; and from the moment of his death, although the event was of course unknown, the reign of his son was held to have begun in Scotland as well as in England.

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CHAPTER LXVII.

CHARLES I.

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THE NEW REIGN-ITS TONE AND CHARACTER-CONTRAST WITH THE PRECEDING SUSPICIONS OF THE ZEALOUS PRESBYTERIANS -CONSTERNATION AMONG THE HOLDERS OF THE OLD ECCLESIASTICAL PROPERTY-SYMPTOMS OF VIOLENT RESISTANCE-STEPS TOWARDS RESUMPTION-THE COMPROMISE-THE REFERENCE OF CLAIMS TO THE ARBITRATION OF THE KING-THE PROCESS—THE ADJUSTMENT -COMMUTATION OF TEINDS OR TITHES-THE QUESTION WHETHER THE ADJUSTMENT WAS INTENDED TO BE FINAL-CONTEMPORARY SUSPICIONS-THE KING'S VISIT TO SCOTLAND - THE ESTATESTAMPERING WITH THEIR POWERS-FIRST QUARREL BETWEEN CROWN AND PARLIAMENT IN SCOTLAND-ECCLESIASTICAL FEATURES OF THE ROYAL VISIT-RISING INFLUENCE OF WILLIAM LAUD.

ANY one who is familiar with the State papers, the correspondence, and the pamphlets of this period-with the raw materials of its history—becomes conscious of a vital change as he crosses the line between the two reigns. He is no longer with the garrulous egotist, obstinate in some matters, but infirm of purpose and easily entreated in others, impetuously proclaiming his absolute will, and then repenting or tiring of the protracted contest with opponents. There comes now a steady policy and a fixed purpose in all things. The subordinates are the same, and continue in pursuit of the same views and objects; but now they work under a leader who will carry them straight on to conquest, in the spirit which Strafford called thorough." The Government is grave, resolute, and earnest. Every act tends onwards; and even when there

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