The Sun.
London, England, 1815-08-23 00:00:00

and valuable iufortn:lt:On. is afroriletl to tl!e Anti-
quary, while tlie- gent' it Reader. is delightecl'hy
an air of indese'riliaillx drol:ery, which is thus im-
parted to the story •
Cility of speChnen of .graver part, we shall
make some extracts from 1115 account of the death
and character Of. James V. who died of a broken
henit at Falkland in 1582.
" Thenht 'sent f:;r:certane of his lordis, both spiritual! and
temporall, to have Chair CounSall. But or they cam 11;. was
rerrie neir strangled to the death be extretur Melancholia.
.Be this the post came out of f2inlitligoW s.chowini.; the king
Kuhl tydingis that toe qucine was delyrerit. The king- in-
quyrei d whidder it was a manor woman. The MC..,...singer said
it was ane fair dochter. The king answeired and 4; Fair-
veill; it cam V.-itli_auelas and it will pass with ane las:" and
so he commendit liimsolff to the Almightie God, and spak
title from thenforth, hot turned his back to bis lotdistmd his
face to the-wall. it *

*

" As I,have showin you, he turned him vpoun his hack,
and lookit and beheld all his lordis round about, and gave
ane litle lauchter,!syne kissed his hand, and gave it till all
his lordis about him, and thairefter held vp his handis to
God, and yeildit the spirit.
" This noble: prince; if he hall vsed the cohnsall of his
Wyse and noble lordis, and koiped his bodie cleane fsoni bar-
lotrie, and the couqs,all of thy papistis, biscbopis, and cont.-
tiourc3, ha had beine ane of the most noble princes that ever
rang* in Scotland, or in any other Christians kingdome; for
he was full of policre and hol,estie in his beginning, and did
man}' guid actis, sick as biggingf of pallaceS and castles, and
in brining great. artaillie in Scotland, and all Loynd, of gnid
artificiares in this realme, quhairthrow the same became
verrie civil! and pollitick in his dayes, in respect of the former
aige. lint fra tyme he was abused with papistis, and would
not suffer the word of God to have frie passage, quhairthrow
'he ought to have beine instructed, first, in the fear of God,
and nixt in the administration!) of justice." it it.
Towards tl3e latter period of the reign of Queen
Marv, and indeed throughout the whole account
of her- reign, the Language of Pitscottie is very
cautious, -and there is, not one 'passage in which
the Queen is directly .or indirectly accused of
having committed those crimes which are still
inipute'l to her by some modern writers, remark-
able for the .rancour and -which
they Zttire sought to'fix every kind of stain 'upon
t,
Lunracter of 'the unhappy, the amiable, the
noble Mary Stuart.
We must recollect that •Pitscottie was a man
whose religious and political principles had in-
• -duccd hint to join the enemies of the Quq.en, yet
even he, with strict, impartiality, and scorning the
gratification of enmity by imputing a„ctime
though industriously laid to theQuee»'s Charge by
her enemies, was totally unsupported by protif,

►
does not attempt to implicate her in the murder
of Darnley, her. -uusband. The follox‘ing is the
remarkable and succinct account which he l►as

ut..i.1113 uytist
" The tent of Februar, in the tn6rneing, 1567
" •eircs, Ilendrie Ste Wart, Lord Darnley, husband
" to Qneine Marie, was morthered shainfullie :
the revange quhairof remainetp in the handis
I‘. of Almightie God." •
We have selected this ps.an instance of the im-
partiality of our HiStorian.

The. Gentleman wholtas favoured the public
with this excellent and improved edition of the
Chronicles is, as we find by the signature to the
Preface,- Mr, John Graham Dalyell, (we believe)
of the Faculty of Advocates, in Edinburgh, to
whom the literary world has been indebted for
the publication of those most entertaining and
valuable illustrations of Scottish history, in the
Journal of Richard Bannatyne, Secretary to John
Knox, and the accompanying documents, wiiich
are included in the volume which issued from the
press, if we are nq mistaken, in 1806.
The only complaint whiCh we have to make
against Mr. Dalyell, with respect to the publica-
tion now under our notice, is, that with the op-
' portnnities which he has had, he should not have
ei,llated the work of Pitseottic with contempOrory
historians. If this. had been done, and the dis-
cienancies as to the details of facts noticed, what
an iner,timable service would have been perform-
ed? We particularly lament, that it was not done
at least with -the History of the Reformation, by
Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, a work which
~dtriVes so much interest from the great learning',
and, let us add, genius of the author. The ori-
ginal of this-latter work, we know to be deposit-
ed in the Advocates Library in Eainburgh,

Reigtu•t].

t 13nildiilg,

Let us here notice the sage opinion on this subject deli-
livered Itt the Edinkurgh Review, a work once distinguished
alike for occasional ability and unweared ahnsiveness—fur
perversioy of intellect and a sort of sneering vivacity Which
was often afunslng, but which is now sinking as fast and as
fat in public opinion, as it has in the exercise of those talents
which alone caused its bad principle's to be overlooked in fa-
vour of con,iderations of teluporary amusement. Quei of the'
silly Creatures ;Ito now fill its pages; in a late Number, treat-
ing of the inert:ol6ns obstinacy with which bigots shut their
Minds against coniiction, adduced as an instance, that there
really were sdnie people extravagaelt 'enough -to deny that
Queen Mary was guilty of the murder of her' husband
this accuser of Queen Mary for the niql der of her
husband must, he the same shrewd writer who is the excuser
of Buonaparte for the massacre ofe.laffa.

The creed of this person must be confessed to lie finite as
correct as his predictions i-Ond his judgment in a'cutenessand
discrimination poWerfolly rivals that ot, the punk Lady, who
tried to do credit to the boarding-school at which she receives

her educa!ion, by • writing _the, sagacious (ommentarY on
Vorets (:;r4 Romances," with which the readeri
Uf this dq;einrated iL,iciS we c trcattd 1L the lasi Number.