The reception, which he obtained from his countrymen, evinced that they were not incapable of estimating his merits; and the satisfaction with which he spent the remainder of his life among them, after he had enjoyed the society of the most learned men in Europe, is a sufficient proof, that they had made no inconsiderable advances in the acquisition of polite literature. That they were ignorant indeed of arts and civility, and corrupted (as Hume has slanderously affirmed of them) beyond their usual rusticity by a dismal fanaticism, which rendered them incapable of all humanity or improvement,' is an assertion, which argues either inexcusable ignorance or deplorable prejudice.*

* But the historian was content to slander even his own countrymen, as they were hostile at that time to his idolised Stuarts, though he almost unconsciously pleaded the cause of superstition by so doing, as they were hostile likewise in the highest degree to Popery. See M'Crie II. 17., and Not. E. 297. In the parliament which met in 1543, observes the same intelligent historian, individuals among the nobility and other laymembers discovered more knowledge of Greek, in a debate which occurred, than all the ecclesiastical bench. Foreign writers have been amused with information, stating many of the Scottish clergy to have affirmed, that Martin Luther had lately composed a wicked book called the New Testament; but that they, for their part, would adhere to the Old. Ignorant however as they were, they were not more so than many on the Continent. A foreign Monk, declaiming one day in the pulpit against Lutherans and Zuinglians, said to his audience; "A new language was invented some time ago, called Greek, which has been the mother of all these heresies. A book is printed in this language, called the New Testament, which contains many dangerous things. Another language is now forming, the Hebrew: whoever learns it, immediately becomes a Jew!" No wonder, after this, that the Commissioners of the Senate of Lucern. should have confiscated the works of Aristotle, Plato, and some VOL. I. 20

He was shortly afterward made Principal of St. Leonard's college, in the University of St. Andrew's, where he for some years taught philosophy;* employing his occasional intervals of labour in collecting all his poems, except such as were in the hands of his friends, and of which he had no copies. In 1567 he was, though a layman, elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He was, also, appointed by the states of the realm preceptor to the young Prince James VI.; and when it was afterward observed to him, that he had made his Majesty a pedant,' he is said to have replied, that it was the best he could make of him.'‡ When the civil dissensions broke out between Mary and her subjects, he joined the party in opposition to the Queen, and by the direction of his old pupil the Earl of Murray, then Regent of Scotland, composed under the title of The Detection' a work containing very severe reflexions upon her character and con

of the Greek poets, which they found in the library of a friend of Zuinglius; concluding, that every book printed in that language must be infected with Lutheranism. (I. Von Muller's Schw. Gesch. in Hess' Life of Ulrich Zuingle.')

* He appears, also, to have read divinity-lectures in this seminary; whence Rutherfurd, in his Lex Rex,' calls him a "Doctor of Divinity," and Baillie, in his Historical Vindica

tion,' says

" he had been a preacher at St. Andrew's."

In this important charge, he had the learned and accomplished Mr. Peter Young for his collegue. To enable Buchanan to discharge it more completely, he was very honourably permitted to nominate a successor to his literary functions at St. Andrew's, upon which occasion he named Patrick Adamson, afterward Archbishop of that see.

Mackenzie relates a story of a hearty whipping, which Buchanan bestowed upon his royal pupil, for having persisted to disturb him while engaged in his private studies.

duct. For this his memory has been aspersed by such, as have undertaken the more than Herculean labour of exculpating that weak and wicked woman.

In 1568, Buchanan was chosen one of the Commissioners, who were sent to England to accuse Mary of having been privy to the murther of her husband Lord Darnley; and, upon his return, he had the revenues of the abbey of Cross Raguel (or Royal) assigned to him for life. He was also made Director of the Chancery, one of the Lords of the Council, and finally Lord Privy Seal. Beside all these promotions and emoluments, it is said, that Queen Elizabeth allowed him an annual pension of one hundred pounds.

The remaining thirteen years of his life he employed, chiefly, in literary pursuits. His two last performances were his 'De Jure Regni apud Scotos, dedicated to James VI. and published in 1579, and his History of Scotland:' both of them by impartial judges esteemed masterly productions; but both, as favouring the principles of democratic government, condemned by the states of the realm. Upon the publication of the History,† indeed, he was cited before

*Beside this, he also wrote an Admonition to the true Lords;' in which he vindicates every thing done or said by himself, or his party, against the Queen. Yet he had been under great obligations to her Majesty, had celebrated her beauty and her merits in some of his poems, and had even composed an epithalamium upon her marriage with Francis II. His arguments were encountered by Adam Blackwood, in a Tract entitled, 'Apologia pro Regibus adversus G. Buchanani Dialogum de Jure Regni, &c.'

+ This work completely occupied his closing years, and nothing but the most resolute application could have enabled him to finish it; afflicted as he was with extreme ill health,

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the Lords of the Privy Council, to answer for certain bold truths which it contained; but he died before the day appointed for his appearance. The King was, likewise, highly incensed at some passages unfavourable to the royal prerogative: which being communicated to Buchanan during his illness, he observed with stoical indifference, that his Majesty's anger gave him little or no concern, as he was going to a place where there were few kings.'

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We are told likewise, that a short time before his death he called for his servant, inquired how much money he had belonging to him,' and finding it insufficient for his burial (for his most honourable and lucrative appointments he had only attained at the close of life), ordered him to distribute it among the poor. Upon which the servant desired to know, who in that case would defray the expense of his funeral.' To this, Buchanan replied, he was very indifferent: if they refused to bury him, they might let him lie where he was, or throw his corpse wherever they pleased.' And persisting in his resolution, the magistracy of Edinburgh were obliged to inter him at the public charge.

He died September 5, 1582, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.

labouring under the advances of old age, and continually interrupted by the indispensable duties of the King's education. He survived it's publication scarcely a single month. Though no one however, since the days of Livy and Sallust, has written history with more chastised taste, or perhaps with greater purity of stile, not only his enemies universally complain of his partiality, but even they who profess the utmost tenderness for his fame are sometimes inclined to question his veracity, and still oftener to censure his want of moderation.

* An obelisk, a hundred feet high, was erected in 1788 on

With regard to his person, Buchanan is said to have been slovenly in his dress, and almost to have bordered upon rusticity in his manners and appearance. The character of his countenance, as his remaining portraits testify, was manly, but austere. He possessed a peculiar faculty of illustrating every subject by lively anecdotes, and short moral examples; and what his knowledge and recollection failed to suggest upon any topic, his invention instantly supplied. He has been too truly reproached with vindictiveness and ingratitude. These seem, however, to have been not characteristic qualities, but occasional failures of his nobler nature, arising from too violent an attachment to party, and too devoted an affection to individuals. From the same source, likewise, may probably be derived that easiness of belief, to which he too frequently resigned his better judgement. His freedom from solicitudes relative to fortune, and his indifference to outward and accidental circumstances, gained him, with some, the reputation of a Stoic: but as a state of mind undisturbed by the vicissitudes of life, and a disposition to forbear all anxious" thoughts for the morrow," are injoined by One greater than Zeno, let us not forget his claims to a higher title; nor unjustly place in the niche of an Athenian portico a figure, which claims no inferior station in the Christian temple.

Of his writings Bishop Burnet pronounces, that there appear in them "not only all the beauty and graces of the Latin tongue, but a vigour of mind

the Leven to his memory. The expense was defrayed by a subscription, originally suggested, and principally collected, by the late Professor Anderson.