reader is a period, where the recital of uninterefting facts feems to demand fome argumentative or difcuffive matter to engage the attention, and fo perhaps might the origin of the feudal law.

No man perhaps has come nearer to that fo requifite and fo rare a quality in an hiftorian of unprejudiced partiality. As a ftrong inftance of this, as well as a fpecimen of our author's fine writing, we infert the difpute of Henry II. with Thomas a Becket.

"Becket waited not till Henry fhould commence thofe projects against the ecclefiaftical power, which, he knew, had been formed by that prince: he was himself the aggreffor; and endeavoured to over-awe the king by the intrepidity and boldnefs of his enterprizes. He fummoned the earl of Clare to furrender the barony of Tunbridge, which, ever fince the conqueft, had remained in the family of that nobleman, but which, as it had formerly belonged to the fee of Canterbury, the primate pretended his predeceffors were prohibited by the canons to alienate. The earl of Clare, befides the luftre which he derived from the greatness of his own birth, and the extent of his poffeffions, was allied to all the chief families in the kingdom; his fifter, who was a celebrated beauty had farther extended his credit among the nobility, and was even fuppofed to have gained the king's affections; and Becket could not better discover, than by attacking fo powerful an intereft, his refolution to maintain with vigour the rights, real or pretended, of his fee.

William de Eynsford, a military tenant of the crown, was patron of a living, which belonged to a

manor that held of the archbishop of Canterbury; and Becket, without regard to William's right, prefented, on a new and illegal pretext one Laurence to that living, who was violently expelled by Eynsford. The primate making himself, as was ufual in fpiritual courts, both judge and party, iffued out, in a fummary manner, the fentence of excommunication against Eynsford, who complained to the king, that he, who held in capite of the crown, fhould, 'contrary to the practice eftablished by the Conqueror, and maintained ever fince by his fucceffors, be subjected to that terrible fentence, without the previous confent of the fovereign. Henry, who had now broke off all perfonal intercourse with Becket, fent him, by a meffenger, his orders to abfolve Eynsford; but, received for anfwer, that it belonged not to the king to inform him whom he should abfolve and whom excommunicate: and it was not till after many remonftrances and menaces, that Becket, though with the worst grace imaginable, was induced to comply with the royal mandate.

Henry, tho' he found him.felf thus grievously mistaken in the character of the perfon whom he had promoted to the primacy, determined not to defit from his former intention of retrenching clerical ufurpations. He was entirely mafter of his extenfive dominions: the prudence and vigour of his govern ment, attended with perpetual fuccefs, had raised his character above that of any of his predeceffors : the papacy was weakened by a fchifm, which divided all Europe: and he rightly judged, that, if the prefent favourable opportunity were neglected, the crown muft, from the

prevalent fuperfition of the people, be in danger of falling into an entire fubordination under the mitre. The union of the civil and ecclefiaftical powers serves extremely, in every civilized government, to the maintenance of peace and order; and prevents thofe mutual incroachments, which, as there can be no ultimate judge between them, are often attended with the most dangerous confequences. Whether the fupreme magiftrate, who unites thefe powers, receive the appellation of prince or prelate, is not material: the fuperior weight, which temporal interefts commonly bear in the apprehenfions of men above fpiritual, renders the civil part of his character most prevalent; and in time prevents thofe grofs impoftures and bigotted perfecutions, which, in all falfe religions, are the chief foundation of clerical authority. But during the progrefs of ecclefiaftical ufurpations, the ftate, by the refiftance of the civil magiftrate, is naturally thrown into convulfions, and it behoves the prince, both for his own intereft, and for that of the public, to provide in time fufficient barriers against fo dangerous and infidious a rival. This precaution had been hitherto much neglected in England, as well as in other catholic countries; and affairs at laft feemed to have come to a dangerous crifis; a fovereign of the greatest abilities was now on the throne: a prelate of the moft infle ible and intrepid character was poffeffed of the primacy: the contending powers appeared to be armed with their full force, and it was natural to expect fome extraordinary event to refult from their rencounter.

Among their other inventions to obtain money, the clergy had in

culcated the neceffity of penance as an atonement for fin; and having again introduced the practice of paying them large fums as a commutation, or fpecies of atonement, for the remiffion of thefe penances, the fins of the people, by these means, had become a revenue to the priests; and the king computed that, by this invention alone, they levied more money from his fubjects, than flowed, by all the funds and taxes, into the royal exchequer. That he might eafe his fubjetts of fo heavy and arbitrary an impofition, Henry required, that a civil officer of his appointment fhould be prefent in all ecclefiaftical courts, and fhould, for the future, give his confent to every compofition which was made with finners for their fpiritual offences.

The ecclefiaftics in that age, had renounced all immediate fubordination to the magiftrate: they openly pretended to an exemption, in criminal accufations from a trial before courts of juftice; and were gradually intoducing a like exemption in civil caufes: fpiritual penalties alone could be inflicted on their offences: and as the clergy had extremely multiplied in England, and many of them were confequently of very low characters, crimes of the deepeft dye, murders, robberies, adulteries, rapes, were daily committed with impunity by the ecclefiaftics. It had been found, for inftance, by enquiry, that no less than an hundred murders had, fince the king's acceffion, been perpetrated by men of that profeffion, who had never been called to an account for thefe offences; and holy orders were become a full protection for all enormities. A clerk in Worcestershire having debauch

ed

ed a gentleman's daughter, had, at this time, proceeded to murder the father; and the general in dignation against this crime, moved the king to attempt the remedy of an abufe which was become fo palpable, and to require that the clerk hould be delivered up, and receive condign punishment from the magiftrate. Becket infifted on the privileges of the church; confined the criminal to the bishop's prifon, left he should be feized by the king's officers; maintained that no greater punishment could be inflicted on him than degradation: and when the king demanded, that, immediately after he was degraded, he fhould be tried by the civil power, the primate afferted, that it was iniquitous to try a man twice upon the fame accufation, and for the fame

crime.

Henry, laying hold of fo favour able a caufe, refoved to push the clergy with regard to all their privileges, which they had raised to an enormous height, and to determine at once thofe controverfies, which daily multiplied, between the civil and ecclefiaftical jurifdictions. He fummoned an affembly of all the prelates of England; and he put to them this concife and decifive queftion, whether or not they were willing to fubmit to the ancient laws and cuftoms of the kingdom? The bishops unanimoufly replied. that they were willing, faving their own order; a device by which they thought to elude the prefent urgency of the king's demand, and yet referve to themselves, on a favourable opportunity, the power of refuming all their paft pretenfions. The

king was fentible of the artifice, and was provoked to the highest indignation. He left the affembly, with

vifible marks of his displeasure: he required the primate inftantly to furrender the honours and caftles of Eye and Berkham: the bishops were terrified, and expected full farther effects of his refentment. Becket alone was inflexible; and nothing but the interpofition of the pope's legate, Philip, abbot of Eleemofina, who dreaded a breach with so powerful a prince at fo unfeasonable a juncture, could have prevailed on him to retract the faving claufe, and give a general and abfolute promife of obferving the ancient cui

toms,

But Henry was not content with a declaration in these general term: : he refolved, ere it was too late, to define exprefly thofe cuftoms, with which he required compliance, and to put a stop to clerical ufurpations before they were fully confolidated, and could plead antiquity, as they already did a facred authority in their favour. The claims of the church were open and vifible. After a gradual and infenfible progrefs through many centuries, the malk had at laft been taken off, and feveral ecclefiaftical councils, by their canons, which were pretended to be irrevocable and infallible, had pofitively defined those privileges and immunities, which gave fuch general offence, and appeared fo dangerous, to the civil magiftrate. Henry therefore deemed it neceifary to define with the fame precifion the limits of the civil power; to oppofe his legal cuftoms to their divine ordinances; to determine the exact boundaries of the rival jurifdictions; and for this purpose, he fummoned a general council of the nobility and prelates at Clarendon, to whom he fubmitted this great and important question."

F no prince ever fuffered more, than Mary queen of Scots did during her life from the illiberal violence of her fubjects, fhe has the recompence, fuch as it is, of having always found faithful and zealous friends. And ages after her enemies had spent their malice, fhe does not want able champions to defend her character. One piece of her good fortune was referved for this age, when time, experience, and a fucceffion of good princes, and, most of all, the virtues of a king, a native of the country he governs, has united all fects and all parties, religious and civil, in the one wish of continuing the government in him and his family. And Mary's ftory, which was party question, now, that all parties are fubfided, may hope as candid an hearing almoft as that of Chriftina of Sweden, or any foreign prince who never yet engaged our paffions.

a

As the feamen obferve a fwell in the waters, even after the ftorm is totally fubfided, fo tho' our paflions are not rouzed at prefent, there ftill remains a little inclination to this or that opinion. The two respectable names our author ufes in his title page, are not more efteemed as good writers than good citizens. They are both men of too enlarged understandings to be actually circumfcribed VOL. IV.

in the narrow limits of this or that party; and yet poffibly we muft fo far agree with the author before us, as to fufpect that they are not quite indifferent in the queftion of Mary's guilt or inno cence, and have not here perhaps obferved that exact impartiality, which we thought one of the valuable and uncommon qualities of these two able and elegant hiftorians.

The difcerning criticism of Mr. Goodall had thrown new light on the letters fuppofed to have been written by queen Mary to Bothwell; there was fuch apparent reafon and fo critical a knowledge in Mr. Goodall's decifion of this queftion, that certainly it behoved thofe, who rejected it, to give good reafons for their fo doing, as it would have been an unpardonable inattention to have taken no notice of an opinion fo well fupported as that of Mr. Goodall's is. Mr. Hume and Mr. Robertfon were neither of them capable of fuch an intention. They both give us their reason for diffenting. The latter gentleman has thought the fubject worthy of a particular and exprefs diflertation. The drift of the work now before us it to fhew, that the reasons and arguments of the two elegant hiftorians are not conclufive, and to replace the queftion in that point of view, in which Mr. Goodall thought to have fixed it. But to use our author's own words:

"A late writer, Mr. Walter Goodall, keeper of the advocates library at Edinburgh, who has made it his ftudy to collect materials for the hiftory of those times, a few years ago published a critical examination of the let

X

ters

ter; by comparing the three different copies of them together, he has very ingenioufly fhewn that thofe pretended letters, faid to be written in French by queen Mary to the earl of Bothwel, must be fpurious. His arguments may be reduced to this propofition.

. The letters faid to be written in French by the queen, as now extant, have. by all parties, been held for true copies of the originals produced by Morton, and have, down to this time, paffed uncontested as fuch.

Buchanan, the confident of Mur ray and Moreton, who attended them both at York and London, had the letters in his cuftody, and was fo much mafter of their contents, that he was employed by Murray to fhow and explain them to the English commiffioners at York, and tranflated the three first of them into Latin.

If then it can be fhewn, that, in place of the French being the originals, the Scotch copies are the true originals, and that the French are apparently tranflations from Buchanan's Latin, the conclufion fairly follows, that thefe French pretended originals are fpurious. This Mr. Goodall has done.

By comparing the letters, as they ftand in the three different languages, he has, to a demonftration, fhewn, that, in place of the Scotch and Latin being tranflated from the French originals, thefe laft are palbably a verfion from the Latin, and the Latin a gain a verfion from the Scotch. The Scotch is apparently original: the thoughts therein are easily and fententiously turned, and abound

ing in phrafes and proverbs peculiar to that language.-Thefe are fervilely expreffed in the Latin, and fometimes erroneously: and. as often as that happens, the French always follows these errors of the Latin. As Mr. Goodall's book is common, I fhall not tre my reader with going through his ingenious remarks: I fhall only quote two or three examples from the first letter, and refer to his book for the reft."

1. The Scotch fays proverbially, in letter first, "thair's na receipt (meaning a prefcription of phyfic) can ferve againis feir." The Latin has," nullam adverfus umorem effe medicinam.”

And the French is, “qui'l n'y avoit point de remede contre la crainte."

2. Scotch,

ze have fair going Another pro

to fee feik folk." verbial faying.

The Latin tranflator has here committed no lefs than two blunders, he miflook the word jair (or fore) for fair, and the word feik for fic (or fuch) and has tranflated them both erroneously in the laft fenfe:

"Bella hujufmodi hominum vifitatio." And the French copies him thus: " voyla une belle vifitation de telle gens."

meam