abroad unless furrounded with guards, never returned by the fame road, nor flept above thrice in the fame apartment. A flow fever, the refult of conftant agitation, preyed upon his body, and, degenerating into a tertian ague, undermined a conftitution which was naturally robuft. The phyficians pronounced his diforder dangerous, and he began to confider his death as imminent; but his fanatical chaplains affured him that his life might yet be restored by their prayers. His original enthufiafm prevailed over his hypocrify, which, in the tumults of the camp, and amidst the bufinefs of the cabinet, had been fubftituted in its ftead; and he affured his phyficians that his life was conceded to the faithful, to intercede for the people as a mediator with God. In his laft lethargic moments, his affent was extorted to the fucceffion of his eldest fon Richard to the office of protector; and he expired at the age of fixty, on the third of September, a day which he confidered as propitious, from his victories at Worcester and Dunbar.

"He was born of refpectable parents, remotely allied, on his mother's fide, to the Stewart family, and on his father's fprung from a fifter of Cromwell, the minifter and victim of Henry VIII. From a diffolute and licentious youth, he paffed at once to the oppofite extreme of enthufiaftic devotion; and, when the wars commenced, afcended rapidly to the natural level of his genius and ambition. From a command of horfe, he rofe to the first rank in the army and in the frate; from the obfcure and humble mediocrity of a private ftation, to the abfolute dominion and ultimate difpofal of three kingdoms. To fuppiant a monarch, or

to fubvert the liberties of a free people, had been the lot of others; but, by combining thefe crimes, he was the first who brought the monarch whom he had dethroned to a public execution, and reduced the people whom he ferved to the moft complete fubjection. A magnanimous and daring fpirit, an invincible courage, military talents, addrefs, perfeverance, and uniform fuccefs, were neceflary to accomplifh his greatnefs and his crimes. But to thefe qualities he added the moft extravagant enthufiafm; the moft confummate hypocrify; a profound fagacity in difcerning the characters and defigns of others; an impenetrable fecrecy in difguif, ing his own. From the diffipation of his early years, he retained a fpecious franknefs, which degenerated often into grofs buffoonery, but without which hypocrify itfelf is of little avail. His magnanimity was naturally imperious and overbearing; nor did he stoop to diffimulation and artifice where it was poffible to command. His military talents are rather confpicuous in the enthufiafm with which he infpired, and in the difcipline to which he inured his troops, than in the evolutions of the field or the conduct of a campaign. His victories were due to their difcipline and irresistible valour; and as he entered into the army late in life, his military character, though furpaffed by none of his countrymen, never equalled the reputation of Condé and Turenne. If inferior to Vane in addrefs and dexterity, his vigorous understanding was excelled by none. Neither wholly illiterate nor deftitute of elocution, he united an apparent incoherence of thought and expreffion, with a clear and fteady conception of his object, and a prompt decifion in

the

the choice and execution of his defigns. His quick and intuitive perception of the characters of men, was accompanied with the rare talent of employing their abilities in the manner most advantageous to himself or the state. But the difcriminative characters of his genius were enthusiasm, hypocrify, and immoderate ambition; from the combination of which he was fitted to become the author of a new fect, had he not found a fyftem adapted to his purposes and fafhioned to his hands.

"His ambition, however, was guided by events, and, like his talents, appeared to expand with every opportunity that occurred. At one period it was confined to a ribband, a title, a competent fortune, and the command of the army; till the duplicity of Charles left him, he faid, only this alternative! If it is my head or the king's that must fall, can I heftate which to choofe? If Ireton, a genuine republican, had furvived, or the parliament had confented to a timely diffolution, his ufurpation

might have been prevented; but the diffolution of the long parliament had become not lefs neceffary for his prefervation than the deftruction of the king. His domeftic government was a reign of expedients, vigorous indeed, but without a plan. It was believed that his refources and arts were exhaufted with his life; but to furmount the original obftacles to his greatnefs, was more difficult far than to prolong its duration. His morals were irreproachable in private life. His government was just and lenient where his fafety or interest had no immediate concern; and although humanity obftructed the execution of his defigns, even his enemies acknow ledged that he was not unworthy of the crown he rejected, had he been born to reign. He died with the character of the worst and greatest man in modern times, which with fome abatements is ftill preserved; and as he enjoyed more than regal power while alive, he was interred with more than regal pomp and expence."

ty and sickness, he was, at the age of twenty years, admitted into the college of St. Barbe in Paris, where he taught grammar for three years, and became acquainted with the earl of Caffils, who was fo delighted with his wit and manners, that he made him his companion and tutor. With him he remained five years abroad, and two years at home; at the end of which the earl died, and he was about to return to France, when James V. made him preceptor to his illegitimate fon, who was afterwards the famous regent Murray. While he was in this fituation, there was a confpiracy against the king, who, believing the Francifcans to be concerned in it, ordered Buchanpan to write against them. He did fo, but in fuch gentle terms that the king was diffatisfied, and commanded him to write with more feverity. The fecond order produced the famous Francifcanus, of which only one copy was given to the king, who let other perfons fee it, and it would feem in a difhonourable manner; for it foon became public, and Buchannan found the animofity of the church more powerful than the favour of the crown*. Cardinal Beaton offered a fum of money for his head; and the prosecution of him became a common caufe, not only to mendicants but to ecclefiaftics of every

kind. He was imprisoned, and would have been tried had he not escaped from his keepers. When he arrived in Paris, he found Beaton there as ambaffador to that court. This induced him imme. diately to quit that city for Bourdeaux, where he taught in the public fchools for three years. Beaton found him out, and would have had him tried in France, if the affairs in Scotland had not put an end to his embassy.

"From Bourdeaux, after infpecing the education of the celebra ted Montaigne, he went to Paris, and taught the fecond clafs in the college of Bourbon. In the year 1547 he went to Portugal, in order to teach philosophy and polite learning; and he fays that he did fo, because his companions were rather familiar friends than ftrangers, and becaufe that corner of the world appeared to him most likely to be free from tumults. He was happy in that country for fome time; but when his friend. Goveanus died, he was imprison ed, firft in the inquisition, and afterwards in a monaftery. At last he obtained his liberty, and was made tutor to the fon of marefchal Brifac, with whom he fpent five years in France and Italy. He returned to Scotland in the fame year that proteftantifm became the established religion of that country.

He

He was made principal of St. Leonard's college in St. Andrew's, and was elected moderator of the general affembly of the church an office of great importance at that time, and which bas never been conferred upon a layman but in that inftance only. He was appointed preceptor to the young king by the authority of parliament. He was one of the commiffioners to York, and afterwards to Hampton-court, upon the affairs of queen Mary; and, at his return, he was made director of chancery, and penfioner of the crofs regal in Ayrshire. Honours were heaped upon him, even after the death of his great friend the regent Murray; for he was made one of the lords of council, and lord privy-feal. He retired from court about a year before his death, and died a bachelor in December 1582, in the feventy-Sixth year of

his age.

"There has fcarcely exifted a diftinguished perfon in public life, whofe moral character has not been calumniated through envy or other motives. Buchannan's was attacked with great virulence. The injuftice of the attack is, however, pretty certain, becaufe no other proof has been brought than vagué affertions, and the chain of facts juft enumerated form the trongest evidence of his probity and merit. The only circumftance which has not been well explained, is, how he fell into fuch poverty that he was buried at the expence of the city of Edinburgh. The offices which he held in Scotland, during the latter part of his life, were incrative; I cannot therefore fee how he became fo indigent, but by fuppofing that he gave away

his money in charity. This feems, the more probable, becaufe, in all the calumnies that were thrown out against him, he is not fo much as charged with extravagance; becaufe prodigality is feldom the vice of old age; and because, when he was near his end, he. defired his fervant to give to the poor what little money was in his purfe, as there was not enough to defray the expences of his faneral; faying, If they will not bury my corpfe, they may let it lie where I am, or they may throw it where they please.'

6

"Another charge which has been urged against Buchannan as a writer, is indelicacy and licentioufnefs, particularly in his de fcription of an amorous Francif-. can in his poem Francifcanus; but he may perhaps be defended when we compare the delicate. taste of the prefent age with that in which he wrote. The ancient fatirifts, as Hume obferves, often ufed great liberties in their expreffions; but their freedon no more resembles the licentioufnefs of Rochefter, than the nakednefs of an Indian docs that of a common prostitute. In the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, when the church of Rome was in the height of her glory, there was a fettled, enmity between the priests of the fame church, viz. the feculars and, regulars, or parish priests and monks, because their manners and interefts were in fome refpects different. The art of printing and copper-plate engraving was unknown at that time; and the feculars, who were in poffefion of the cathedrals, which were then the places of greateft refort, made fatirical ftatues and figures of the monks, inftead of

Lampooning them, as would be done in our times, by prints and pam. phlets. In feveral cathedrals, for inftance, that of Glafgow, there are ftill remaining many figures of the monks in more indecent fituations than any described by Buchan. nan; fo that he, in fact, faid no more against them than was com monly done by their brother ecclefiaftics. Thefe figures, which are to be found in the cathedrals of moft countries in Europe, prefent a ftriking view of hunan nature. In the opinion of good catholics, every ftone in a religious building is holy in the ftricteft fenfe; while proteftants think there is nothing more facred in the ftones of a church, than in thofe of any public edifice; and yet the first applied their holy fabrics to a ufe, of which a proteftant would be ashamed. So different are the manners of mankind in different ages, and fo wonderfully does the human mind reconcile the greateft inconfiftencies when the malevolent paffions are afloat, and fanned by party zeal.

In the Life of Buchannan, written by himfelf, there is a dignity, good humour, modefty, and knowledge of the world, which ftand forth as a reproach to aimoft all other felf-biographers. Though he was oppreffed with years and difeafe when he wrote it; and though the clergy had perfecuted him for a long time, and zealously fought his life, yet he fpeaks of them in the following terms: They, to wit, the Francifcans, who make a profeffion of gentlenefs, took that flight offence more amifs than feemed becoming in them, who were fo pious in the opinion of the vulgar; and not finding fufficient caufe to justify their immoderate

anger, they had recourfe to their common charge, to wit, that of herefy. When he speaks of the perfecution which he and his colleagues met with in Portugal, it is in this manner: All their enemies, and all their rivals, firft fecretly, and then openly, feil upon them in the most hoftile manner; and they infulted Buchannan with the utmost bitteruefs, for he was a ftranger who had few to rejoice in his fafety, to lament his diftress, or to revenge his injury.' When fpeaking of the monaftery in which he was imprifoned, he fays, that though the monks who were ap pointed to inftruct him were extremely ignorant in religion, yet they were neither inhuman nor 'wicked.' It is remarkable that his cruel treatinent did not deprive him of tranquillity of mind; for during his confinement he employed his time in writing the tranflation of the Pfalms of David, which has been admired in every country. He was fo far from atfuming great importance on account of his literary fame, that when he speaks of himself it is in this manner: The judges, who

had tired themselves and him for half a year, hot him up in a monaftery, that it might not be thought that they had without 'caufe haraffed a man who was not unknown.' And this it was proper for him to mention, because, without it, no juft account could be given of his imprisonment after his trial.

"Whether we confider Buchannan as a poet or a historian, he must be allowed to have poffeffed very uncommon abilities. The Francifcanus alone would have raised him to great eminence as a poet; for there is hardly any fatire of the

fame