of all private men, and the fafety of the whole kingdom too, it is highly requifite, that all fingle interefts and concerns whatsoever, fhould stoop and give way to this confideration: And therefore I earneftly advise those, who are of this opinion, fo to confult the dignity of the Queen, as not to forget at the fame time the reverence they owe to the laws, to the old cuftoms, and to the univerfal good of their country. If they can fhew, that it is lawful, and publickly expedient, that the guardianfhip of the King, and the regency of the king. dom, ought to be in the Queen's hands, I will be of their opinion. But if what they plead for be pernicious to the publick, I hope the Queen first, and next all good men, will pardon me, if (always faving the majefty of the Queen, as facred, fo far as, by law, and the custom of our ancestors, I may) I do not conceal my opinion; or rather, if I speak out that with freedom, which it were the greatest impiety in me to conceal. To begin then with the laws; there is a law made above 500 years ago, by King Kenneth, a Prince no lefs eminent for his wifdom and prudence, than for his military performances; and it was affented and yielded to by all the orders of the kingdom; and approved of, even to this very day, by the conftant obfervance of fo many ages, That when the King happened to be

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a minor, the eftates, or parliament of the "kingdom, fhould affemble, and chufe fome 66 one man, eminent for wifdom and power, to be his guardian, and to govern the King, "whilft he was yet unable to weild the fcepter "with his own hands." Though this law

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be referred to Kenneth, as the author of it; yet it feems to me, that he did not fo much enact it first, as revive and confirm the antient custom of the Scots by a new fanction. For our ancestors were fo far from committing the fupreme power to the hands of a woman, that if you look over our chronicles, you shall not find the name of a woman regent. recorded among them all. For why, pray, fhould they mention such a name, of which they never had any occafion, and hoped they fhould never have any for the future? For those females whom other countries call Queens,. we only call wives (or conforts) of our Kings, neither do we intitle them to any higher name; for guefs, our wife ancestors had this in their eye, that as often as these conforts heard their names fubjoined to that of their husbands, they might remember, that they were fubject to men: And therefore a wo man was never admitted to the regency, or the administration of publick affairs to this very day. The fame courfe hath been alfa conftantly obferved in. lefs magiftracies, both as to their appointment and executions. For though many honours, and fome feigniories amongst them, have come by inheritance ta fome women, by reafon of their great deferts from their country, and have also been alloted to them as dowries; yet it was ne ver known, fince the memory of man, that any woman did ever prefide in any publick council, or in any court of judicature, or did ever take upon her any of thofe offices, which are appropriated to men.. And truly, fince our ancestors, though not bound by law. to

it, did conftantly obferve this custom, only by the impulse of nature, if we their pofterity should bring the commonwealth into an apparent danger, by oppofing a law received by the votes of all, and approved by fo long an usage; who will free us from the brand (I will not fay of rashness, but) even of mad. nefs itself? Efpecially, fince we have been warned by examples near at hand; for the Saxons, justly urged and provoked to it by the wickednefs of one woman, viz. Ethelburga, made a law, That, after that time, no woman fhould be called Queen, nor fhould fit in publick, next the King, in any feat of honour. I beseech you, therefore, consider seriously how much they degenerate from their prudence, who, against a law fo antient, and as advantageous to women as honourable to men, would put the reins of government into their hands, to whom our ancestors never gave fo much as a royal name; and from whom our neighbours took it away, after they had given it to them. Other nations, I grant, have acted otherwife; with what fuccefs I fhall not declare, after I have firft anfwered thofe, who dare not calumniate this law openly, but in the carpet-conventicles of women do implead it as unjuft. But whofoever he be that finds fault with it, he feems to reprehend, not fome fanction only, approved by the fuffrages of men, but even nature itself, i. e. that primary law, imprinted in our hearts by God himself; I fay, nature itself, whom our law-maker had, as a guide and directrefs of all his counfels, when he proposed and enacted this law. For nature, from

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the beginning, both not only distinguished men from women by the strength of mind and body, but hath also appropriated diftinct offices and virtues to each fex, the fame indeed for kind, but far different in degree: For it is no lefs unbecoming a woman to pronounce judgment, to levy forces, to conduct an army, to give a fignal to the battle, than it is for a man to teaze wool, to handle the distaff, to fpin, or card, and to perform the other fervices of the weaker fex. That which is liberality, fortitude, and feverity in men, is profufion, madness, and cruelty in a woman. And again, that which is elegant, comely, and ornamental in a woman, is mean, fordid, and effeminate in a man. Do not they, therefore, that endeavour to confound and mix thofe things, which nature, of her own accord, hath diftinguished; do they not, I fay, feem to you, not only to disturb, but also to overthrow the state of the kingdom, which is founded upon fo good laws and cuftoms? This they do, when they would obtrude on us the government of a woman, which our anceftors did not fo much as once name. For the maker of that law (as I told you before) doth not feem fo much to induce a new fanction in the enacting thereof, as only to commit to writing the perpetual ufage of our anccftors, that it might be tranfmitted to posterity; and that which hath been always obferved by the guidance of nature, in the making of a king, they have confecrated the fame thing to be obferved by publick authority, in chuling a guardian for a king under age. Whoever go about to undermine and infringe

this one law, what do they, but endeavour at once to overthrow all the other laws, rites and customs of our ancestors: I fpeak this (that I may prevent all cavil), not that I think all laws are immutable, as if they were enacted to laft. for ever; no, laws are of different powers, forts, and kinds: Thofe which are accommodated to the viciffitude of times, are fubject to the inconftancy of fortune; and are wont to laft fo long as the nece ty lafts, which impofed them: and these which are obtruded on men, by the wills of tyrants, are commonly difannuled and abrogated with their authors. But as for that intinct, or imprefs of nature, which is, as it wère, a living law, ordained by God, and deeply imprinted and engraven in mens hearts, that no confent of multitudes, nor any degrees of men can abolish: for (as an excellent poet is reported to have faid)· It was not barn yesterday or to-day, but it grew up together with dame nature herself, and lives and dies with her. And feeing our law, of which we now fpeak, is of that. fort, and a principal one toc, he doth not oppofe the dignity of the Queen, who defires that fhe, of her own accord, would prefcribe to herfelf thofe bounds, which nature hath appointed, her fex requires, cuftom hath established, and the laws made, by the confent of almost all nations, do approve but they who would have her forget her fex, would perfuade her to break through all bonds of law, and to disturb the order of things ap pointed by God, received by ufe, and allow ed in all well-governed cities and countries. And certainly, whofoever flights that order,