became more pernicious to the nation than all the irregularities which he restrained. Spies and informers were every were employed; the remembrance of old offences was revived; imaginary crimes were invented; petty trespasses were aggravated; and delinquents were forced to compound for their lives, by the payment of exorbitant fines. At the same time, the current coin was debased; licenses were sold for carrying on prohibited branches of commerce; unusual taxes were imposed on commodities; and all the refinements in oppression, from which nations so imperfectly polished as the Scots are usually exempted, were put in practice. None of these were complained of more loudly, or with greater reason, than his injustice towards the church. The thirds of benefices, out of which the clergy received their subsistence, had always been slowly and irregularly paid to collectors appointed by the general assembly; and, during the civil wars, no payment could be obtained in several parts of the kingdom. Under colour of redressing this grievance, and upon a promise of assigning every minister a stipend within his own parish, the regent extorted from the church the thirds to which they had right by law. But the clergy, instead of reaping any advantage from this alteration, found that payments became more irregular and dilatory than ever. One minister was commonly burdened with the care of four or five parishes, a pitiful salary was allotted him, and the regent's insatiable avarice seized on the rest of the fund.

The weight of the regent's oppressive administration had hitherto fallen chiefly or those in the lower and middle rank; but he began now to take such steps as convinced the nobles, that their dignity would not long exempt them from feeling the effects of his power. An accident, which was a

frequent cause of dissention among the Scottish nobles, occasioned a difference between the earls of Argyll and Athol. A vassal of the former had made some depredations on the lands of the latter. Athol took arms to punish the offender, Argyll to protect him; and this ignoble quarrel they were ready to decide in the field, when the regent by interposing his authority, obliged them to disband their forces. Both of them had been guilty of irregularities, which though common, were contrary to the letter of the law. Of these the regent took advantage, and resolved to found on them a charge of treason. This design was revealed to the two earls by one of Morton's retainers. The common danger to which they were exposed compelled them to forget old quarrels, and to unite in a close confederacy for their mutual defence. Their junction rendered them formidable; they despised the summons which the regent gave them to appear before a court of justice; and he was obliged to desist from any further prosecution. But the injury he intended made a deep impression on their minds, and drew upon him severe vengeance.

The Scottish nobles, who were almost equal to their monarchs in power, and treated by them with much distinction, observed these arbitrary proceedings of a regent with the utmost indignation. The people, who, under a form of government extremely simple, had been little accustomed to the burden of taxes, complained loudly of the regent's rapacity; and all began to turn their eyes towards the young king, from whom they expected the redress of all their grievances, and the return of a more gentle and more equal administration. But as James was still far from that age at which the law permitted him to assume the reins of government, the regent did not sufficiently attend to the sentiments of the people, nor reflect how naturally

these prejudices in his favour might encourage the king to anticipate that period. He not only neglected to secure the friendship of those who were about the king's person, and who possessed his ear, but had even exasperated some of them by personal injuries. Their resentment concurred with the ambition of others, in infusing into the king early suspicions of Morton's power and designs. A king, they told him, had often reason to fear, seldom to love a regent. Prompted by ambition and by interest, he would endeavour to keep the prince in perpetual infancy, at a distance from his subjects, and unacquainted with business. A small degree of vigour, however, was sufficient to break the yoke. Subjects naturally reverence their sovereign, and become impatient of the temporary and delegated jurisdiction of a regent. Morton had governed with a rigour unknown to the ancient monarchs of Scotland. The nation groaned under his oppressions, and would welcome the first prospect of a milder administration. At present the king's name was hardly mentioned in Scotland, his friends were without influence, and his favourites without honour. But one effort would discover Morton's power to be as feeble as it was arbitrary. The same attempt would put himself in possession of his just authority, and rescue the nation from intolerable tyranny. If he did not regard his own rights as a king, let him listen at least to the cries of his people.

These suggestions made a deep impression on the young king, who was trained up in an opinion that he was born to command. His approbation of the design, however, was of small consequence, without the concurrence of the nobles. The earls of Argyll and Athol, two of the most powerful of that body, were animated with implacable resentment against the regent. To them the cabal in Stirling castle communicated the plot which was on

foot; and they entering warmly into it, Alexander Erskine, who, since the death of his brother, and during the minority of his nephew, had the command of that fort, and the custody of the king's person, admitted them secretly into the king's presence. They gave him the same account of the misery of his subjects, under the regent's arbitrary administration; they complained loudly of the injustice with which themselves had been treated, and besought the king, as the only means for redressing the grievances of the nation, to call a council of all the nobles. James consented, and letters were issued in his name for that purpose; but the two earls took care that they should be sent only to such as were known to bear no good will to Morton.

The number of these was, however, so considerable, that on the day appointed, far the greater part of the nobles assembled at Stirling; and so highly were they incensed against Morton, that although, on receiving intelligence of Argyll and Athol's interview with the king, he had made a feint as if he would resign the regency, they advised the king, without regarding this offer, to deprive him of his office, and to take the administration of government into his own hands. Lord Glamis, the chancellor, and Herries were appointed to signify this resolution to Morton, who was at that time in Dalkeith, his usual place of residence. Nothing could equal the joy with which this unexpected resolution filled the nation, but the surprise occasioned by the seeming alacrity with which the regent descended from so high a station. He neither wanted sagacity to foresee the danger of resigning, nor inclination to keep possession of an office for the expiration of which the law had fixed so distant a term. But all the sources whence the faction of which he was head derived their strength had either failed,

or now supplied his adversaries with the means of humbling him. The commons, the city of Edinburgh, the clergy, were all totally alienated from him, by his multiplied oppressions. Elizabeth having lately bound herself by treaty to send a considerable body of troops to the assistance of the inhabitants of the Netherlands, who were struggling for liberty, had little leisure to attend to the affairs of Scotland; and as she had nothing to dread from France, in whose councils the princes of Lorrain had not at that time much influence, she was not displeased, perhaps, at the birth of new factions in the kingdom. Even those nobles who had long been joined with Morton in faction, or whom he had attached to his person by benefits, Glamis, Lindsay, Ruthven, Pitcairn the secretary, Murray of Tullibardin comptroller, all deserted his falling fortunes, and appeared in the council at Stirling. So many concurring circumstances convinced Morton of his own weakness, and determined him to give way to a torrent which was too impetuous to be resisted. He attended the chancellor and Herries to Edinburgh; was present when the king'sacceptance of the government was proclaimed; and, in the presence of the people, surrendered to the king all the authority to which he had any claim in virtue of his office. This ceremony was accompanied with such excessive joy and acclamations of the multitude, as added, no doubt, to the anguish which an ambitious spirit must feel, when compelled to renounce supreme power, and convinced Morton how entirely he had lost the affections of his countrymen. He obtained, however, from the king an act containing the approbation of every thing done by him in the exercise of his office, and a pardon, in the most ample form that his fear or caution could devise, of all past offences, crimes, and treasons. The nobles who adhered to the