ftudied the regulation of kingdoms, and of the manners of men. How great, and how ripe abilities for civil government were in him, fufficiently appears by thofe acts performed by him, and by the laws which he made; by which he not only much benefited his own age, but all pofterity. And his death declared, that there is nothing more popular than juftice; for they who were wont to detract from him, whilft he was alive, now he was dead, paffionately revered his memory. The nobles, as foon as they heard he was murdered, came in of their own accord from their refpective countries, and, before a trial was regularly decreed, they voluntarily fent out into all parts, to apprehend the murderers, and bring them to juftice. Many of them were taken; the principals were put to new and exquifite kinds of death. The reft were hanged. The chief heads in perpetrating this villany were reckoned to be Walter Earl of Athol, Robert his grandfon, and their kinfman Robert Graham. The punishment of Walter (because he was the chief author and inftigator of the whole plot) was divided into three days fucceffively. In the firft he was put on a cart, wherein a ftork-like swipe or engine was erected; and by ropes let through pullies, he was hoifted up on high, and then the ropes being fuddenly loofed, he was let down again, but topped near the ground, with intolerable pain, by reason of the laxation of the joints. Then he was fet on a pillory, that every one might fee him, and a red-hot iron-crown fet on his head, with this infcription, The king of all traitors. They fay, the caufe of this punishment

nishment was, That Walter had been fome times told by female witches, (for which the country of Athol was always infamous), that he should be crowned King in a mighty concourfe of people; for by this means that prophecy was either fulfilled or eluded, as indeed fuch kind of predictions do commonly meet with no other events. The day after, he was bound upon a hurdle, and drawn at a horse's tail through the greatest street in Edinburgh. The third day he was laid along upon a plank in a confpicuous place, and his bowels were cut out, whilft he was alive, caft into the fire, and burnt before his face; afterwards his heart was pulled out, and caft into the fame fire; then his head was cut off, and expofed to the view of all, being fet upon a pole in the highest place of the city. His body was divided into four quarters, which were fent to be hanged up in the most noted places of the principal cities of the kingdom. After him his grandson was brought forth to fuffer; but becaufe of his age, they would not put him to fo much pain; befides he was not the author, but only an accomplice in another man's wicked defign, as having obeyed his grandfather therein; so that he was only hanged and quartered. But Robert Graham, who perpetrated the villany with his own hand, was carried in a cart through the city, and his right hand nailed to a gallows, which was fet up in the cart; and then came the executioners, who continually run red-hot ironfpikes into his thighs, fhoulders, and those parts of his body which were most remote from the vitals; and then he was quartered

as

as the other. death of James revenged: it is true, it was a barbarous one; but it was revenged by punishments fo cruel, that they feemed to exceed the bounds of humanity: for fuch extreme kinds of punishment do not fo much reftrain the minds of the vulgar, by the fear of feverity, as enrage them to do, or fuffer any thing; neither do they fo much deter wicked men from committing fuch barbarous actions, as lessen their terror by often beholding them; especially if the spirits of the criminals be fo hardened, that they finch not at their punishment. For among the ignorant populace, "a ftubborn confidence is fome

After this manner was the

times praised for a firm and fteddy conftan"cy." James departed this life in the year 1437, the 20th day of February, when he had reigned thirteen years, and in the 44th year of his age. So great diligence was ufed in revenging his death, that within forty days all the confpirators were taken, and put to death. He left one fon behind him, the younger of the twins, half of whofe face (fee the various operations of nature) was perfect fcarlet.

254

The Speech of James Kennedy, Bishop of St. An▪ drew's, before the parliament of Scotland, in the minority of King James III. on the que ftion, Who Should have the tutelage or guar dianship of the young King? the Queen his mother alledging, that she should have it; the Bishop and others alledging, that it was more fit that one should be chofen out of the parliament for fo great a charge.

[N. B. Bishop Kennedy was nephew to King James I. being fon to his fifter Mary Countess of Angus, and John Lord Kennedy. He was firft Bishop of Dunkeld, and thereafter of St. Andrews'. He built St. Salvator's college there, which he provided with large revenues. He died at St. Andrew's May 10. anno 1466, and lies interred in a fine fepulchre prepared by himself, within the chapel of the faid college.]

IT is my chief defire, noble peers, that they whofe aims are at the good of all in gene ral, might freely declare their minds, without offence to any one particular perfon. But, in our prefent circumftances, when the fenfe of things, delivered for the publick good, is wrefted and turned to the reproach of those private perfons who fpeak them, it is a very difficult thing to obferve fuch a mean between difagreeing heats and different opinions, as not to incur the offence of one of the parties.

As for me, I will fo temper and moderate my difcourfe, that no man fhall com

plain of me, without firft confeffing his own guilt: yet I fhall use the liberty of fpeech, received from our ancestors, fo modeftly, that as, on the one fide, I defire to prejudice no man; fo, on the other, neither, for fear nor favour, will I pafs by any thing, which is of ufe in the debate before us. I fee, that. there are two opinions which do retard and impede our concord. The one is of those who judge, that in a matter relating to the good of all, an election out of all is to be made: and, as we all meet to give our fuffrages in a bufinefs concerning the fafety of the whole king-dom; fo it is juft and fit, that no man should be excluded from the hopes of that honour, who feeks after it by honeft and virtuous ways. The other is of fuch, who count it a great injury done to the Queen, who is fo noble a princefs, and fo choice a woman, if she be not preferred before all others in the guardianfhip of her fon, and the adminiftration of the government of the kingdom.

Of these two opinions I like the former · beft; and I will fhew you my reafons for it by and by. In the mean time, I fo far approve the mind of the latter, that they think it below the Queen's grandeur, that any fingle perfon should vye with her for this point of honour, left her authority, which ought to be, as in truth it is, accounted venerable, fhould be leffened by coping with inferiors. And indeed I would be wholly of their mind, if the dispute lay here, about the honour of one, and not the fafety of all. But feeing that we are, this day, to make a determination about that which concerns the lives and fortunes