BUCHANAN, George, one of the most illustrious characters of the sixteenth century, was born about the beginning of February in the year 1506. His father was Thomas, the second son of Thomas Buchanan of Drum-mikill; his mother Agnes Heriot, of the family of Tra-broun. The house from which he descended he has himself characterized as more remarkable for its antiquity than for its opulence. Thomas Buchanan the younger obtained from his father a grant of the farm of Mid-Leowen, or, as it is more commonly called, the Moss, situated in the parish of Killearn and county of Stirling. He died of the stone at a premature age; and, about the same period, the poet’s grandfather found himself in a state of insolvency. The family, which had never been opulent, was thus reduced to extreme poverty: but his mother struggled hard with the misery of her condition; and all her children, five sons and three daughters, arrived at the age of maturity. In the year 1531, a lease of two farms near Cardross was granted by Robert Erskine, commendator of Dryburgh and Inchmahome, to her and three of her sons, Patrick, Alexander, and George. One of her daughters appears to have married a person of the name of Morison; for Alexander Morison, the son of Buchanan’s sister, published an edition of his uncle’s paraphrase of the Psalms. Her third son, whose extraordinary attainments have rendered the family illustrious, is reported by oral tradition to have been indebted for the rudiments of learning to Killearn school, which long continued to maintain a considerable reputation. Mid-Leowen, which stands on the banks of the Blane, is situated at the distance of about two miles from the village; and it may be conjectured that the future poet and statesman dai!y walked to school, and carried along with him his homely repast. Dr Mackenzie, whose authority is extremely slender, asserts that he was partly educated at the school of Dunbarton. His very promising talents recommended him to the favour and protection of his maternal uncle, James Heriot, who, apparently in the year 1520, sent him to prosecute his studies in the university of Paris. It was here that he began to cultivate his poetical talents; partly impelled, as he informs us, by the natural temperament of his mind, partly by the necessity of performing the usual exercises prescribed to younger students. Some of the French writers most capable of estimating his attainments, have not neglected to record his obligations to their country: Vavasseurhas remarked that, although a Scotishman by birth, he might well pass for a French poet, since all that he knew of polite literature, and particularly of poetry, he had acquired in France. Buchanan did not profess to be one of those bright geniuses who can master a new language every six weeks; he incidentally states that his knowledge of Latin was the result of much youthful labour. The Greek tongue, in which he likewise attained to proficiency, he acquired without the aid of a preceptor. The current speech of his native district at that period may be supposed to have been Gaelic. Of this language it is at least certain that he possessed some knowledge; and an anecdote has been related which at once confirms this supposition, and illustrates his peculiar vein of humour. When in France, having met with a woman who was said to be possessed with the devil, and who professed to speak all languages, he accosted her in Gaelic: as neither she nor her familiar returned any answer, he took a protest that the devil was ignorant of that tongue.

Within the space of two years after his arrival in Paris, his uncle died, and left him exposed to want in a foreign country: his misery was increased by a violent distemper, which had perhaps been occasioned by poverty and mortification; and in this state of hopeless languor he returned to Scotland at the critical age of sixteen. Having devoted the best part of a year to the recovery of his health, he next assumed the character of a soldier, and served along with the auxiliaries whom the duke of Albany had conducted from France. The Scotish forces, commanded by the regent in person, marched towards the borders of England, and, about the end of October 1523, laid siege to the castle of Werk. The auxiliaries carried the exterior wall by assault, but could not long occupy the station which they had gained. The large area between the two ramparts, intended ^as a receptacle, during the time of war, for the cattle and stores of the neighbouring peasantry, was at this crisis replenished with materials of a combustible nature; and when the garrison found themselves repulsed by the French soldiers, they set fire to the straw, and speedily expelled thejr enemies by the flames and smoke. During the two following days, the assailants persisted in battering the inner wall: when they had effected a sufficient breach, the French soldiers again rushed to the attack, and surmounted the ruins; but they were so fiercely assaulted by missile weapons from the inner tower, which was yet entire, that after having sustained some loss, they were compelled to retreat, and repassed the Tweed. The duke, finding his native troops disaffected, and the army on the English frontier too formidable from its numbers, removed his camp on the 11th of November; and as he marched towards Lauder after midnight, his army was terribly annoyed by a sudden storm of snow.

Buchanan, who belonged to a fierce and warlike nation, seems to have caught some portion of the military ardour. It was his youthful curiosity respecting the profession of arms which had thus prompted him to mingle in danger; and he was persuaded that there is a very close affinity between the studies of literature and of war. In his history of Scotland, written at an advanced age, he often describes feats of chivalry with great animation. But his experience in the course of this inglorious campaign did not render him more enamoured of a military life: the hardships which he had undergone reduced him to his former state of languor; and during the rest of the winter he was confined to bed. In the beginning of the ensuing spring, when he had completed the eighteenth year of his age, he was sent to the university of St Andrews, where he and his brother Patrick were at the same time matriculated in what was then called the Pedagogy, and afterwards St Mary’s College. On the 3d of October 1525 George Buchanan took the degree of A. B.; and it [7:5:628]appears from the faculty register that he was then a pauper or exhibitioner. In this college logic was then taught by John Mair, a celebrated doctor of the Sorbonne. Buchanan informs us that it was to hear his prelections that he had been sent to St Andrews, and that he afterwards followed Mair to France. It has been very confidently stated, that he was now a dependent on the bounty of this venerable commentator on Peter of Lombardy; and if the fact could be established by any competent evidence, the character of Buchanan must be subjected to severe reprehension; for he mentions his supposed benefactor in terms which convey no suggestion of gratitude. Of this generous patronage, however, there is not even the faintest shadow of evidence; and such a tale manifestly originated from the misinterpretation of a very unequivocal passage in Buchanan’s account of his own life.

Upon his return to France, he became a student in the Scotish College of Paris. On the 10th of October 1527, he was incorporated as A. B., and he took the degree of A. Μ. next March. During the year 1529, he was a candidate for the office of procurator of the German nation; but his purblind countryman Robert Wauchope, who was afterwards titular archbishop of Armagh, and who sat in the council of Trent, was then elected for the ninth time. Buchanan was thus repulsed on the fifth of May, but on the third of June 1530 he was more successful. Before this period, the tenets of Luther had begun to be widely disseminated, and Buchanan was now added to the number of his converts. Having for the space of two years continued to struggle with the iniquity of fortune, he was appointed a regent or professor in the College of St Barbe, where he taught grammar for about three years. His eminent qualifications for such an employment will not be questioned, but his services do not seem to have procured him any splendid remuneration: in an elegy, apparently composed about this period of his life, he exhibits a dismal picture of the miseries to which the Parisian professors ofhumanity were then exposed. His appointment seems to have taken place in the year 1529. Gilbert Kennedy, earl of Cassillis, who was residing near this college, having become acquainted with Buchanan, admired his literary talents, and was delighted with his conversation: he was therefore solicitous to retain so accomplished a preceptor; and their closer connexion probably commenced in the year 1532. The first work that Buchanan committed to the press was a translation of the famous Thomas Linacre’s rudiments of Latin grammar; which he inscribed to Lord Cassillis, “a youth of the most promising talents, and of an excellent disposition.” This Latin version was printed at Paris .in 1533.

After he had resided with his pupil for five years, they both returned to Scotland. At this period the earl had reached the age of majority; and Buchanan might only embrace a favourable opportunity of revisiting his relations and friends. Their connexion however was not immediately dissolved. While he was residing at the earl’s seat in Ayrshire, he composed a little poem which rendered him extremely obnoxious to the ecclesiastics. In this poem, which bears the title of Somnium, and is a happy imitation of Dunbar, he expresses his own abhorrence of a monastic life, and stigmatizes the impudence and hyprocrisy of the Franciscan friars. It was his original intention to resume his former occupations in France, but James the Fifth retained him in the capacity of preceptor to one of his natural sons. This son was not, as has generally been supposed, the celebrated James Stewart, who afterwards became regent of the kingdom, but another who bore the same baptismal name. His mother was Elizabeth Shaw, of the family of Sauchie; and he died in the year 1548. It was perhaps in the year 1537 that Buchanan entered upon his new charge; for in the course of that year the king made an arrangement with respect to his four sons. The abbacies of Melrose and Kelso were secured in the name of Buchanan’s pupil, who was the eldest. The preferment of a profane scoffer at priests must have augmented the spleen of the clergy; and the Franciscan friars, still smarting from his Somnium, found means of representing him to the king as a man of depraved morals and of dubious faith. But James had formerly begun to discover their real character; and the part which he supposed them to have acted in a late conspiracy against his own life, had not contributed to diminish his antipathy. Instead of consigning the poet to disgrace or punishment, the king, who was aware that private resentment would improve the edge of his satire, enjoined him in the presence of many courtiers to renew his well-directed attack on the same pious fathers. He accordingly applied himself to the composition of the poem afterwards published under the title of Franciscanus ; and, to satisfy the king’s impatience, soon presented him with a specimen. This production, as it now appears in its finished state, may be pronounced one of the most pungent satires which any language can exhibit. No class of men was ever more completely exposed to ridicule and infamy; nor is it astonishing that the popish clergy afterwards regarded the author with implacable hatred.

But the church being infallible, he speedily recognized the danger of accosting its retainers by their proper names. At the beginning of the year 1539, many individuals suspected of Lutheranism were involved in the horrors of persecution. Towards the close of February, five were committed to the flames, nine made a formal recantation of their supposed errors, and many were driven into exile. Buchanan had been comprehended in this general arrest; and after he was committed to custody, Cardinal Beaton endeavoured to accelerate his doom by tendering to the king a sum of money as the price of his blood. Of this circumstance Buchanan was apprized by some of his friends at court; and his knowledge of the king’s rapacity must have augmented all the terrors of his situation. Stimulated by the thoughts of increasing danger, he made his escape through the window of the apartment in which he was confined; but he had soon to encounter new disasters. When he reached the frontier of the two kingdoms, he was molested by the freebooters, who at that time were its sole inhabitants; and his life was again exposed to jeopardy from the contagion of a pestilential disease, which then raged in the north of England. On his arrival in London, he experienced the friendship of Sir John Rainsford, an English knight, who is mentioned as the only person that protected him against the fury of the papists. He met with no particular inducement to continue his residence in England, which was then governed by an atrocious tyrant. The civilization of France, as well as the particular intimacies which he had formed in that country, led him to adopt the resolution of returning to Paris: but, on his arrival, he found that Cardinal Beaton was residing there in the capacity of an ambassador; and his friend Andrew Govea, a native of Portugal, having invited him to Bordeaux, he did not hesitate to embrace such an opportunity of removing himself beyond the reach of the cardinal’s deadly hatred. Of the College of Guienne, lately founded in that city, Govea had been nominated principal; and Buchanan, evidently on his recommendation, was now appointed one of the professors. Here he must have fixed his residence before the close of the yθ ar > for to Charles the Fifth, who made his solemn entry into Bordeaux on the first of December 1539, he presented a poem in the name of the college. .

The task assigned him at Bordeaux was that of teac ∙
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ing the Latin language. For an occupation of this kind he seems to have entertained no particular affection; but although sufficiently laborious, it never impaired the native elevation of his mind. His poetical studies he now prosecuted with great ardour; during the three years of his residence at Bordeaux, he completed four tragedies, together with various other poems. The earliest of his dramatic compositions bears the title of Baptistes. He had applied himself to the study of the Greek language without the aid of a preceptor, and as a useful exercise had executed a translation of the Medea of Euripides. This version he now delivered to the academical stage, and afterwards suffered it to be printed. Those two tragedies were performed with a degree of applause which almost exceeded his hopes. He afterwards completed his Jeph-tkes, and translated Alcestis, another drama of his favourite poet. These last productions, as he originally intended them for publication, were elaborated with superior diligence. The tragedy of Jephthes is conformable to the models of the Grecian theatre, and is not destitute of interest. The subject is highly dramatic; it is a subject which his great exemplar Euripides might have been inclined to select. The situation of a father who had unwarily subjected himself to the dreadful necessity of sacrificing a beloved and only child, the repugnant and excruciating sensations of the mother, the daughter’s mingled sentiments of heroism and timidity, are delineated with considerable felicity of dramatic conception. The tender or pathetic was not however the peculiar province of Buchanan, whose talents were bold, masculine, and commanding. The Baptistes, although inferior to the other tragedy in dramatic interest, is more strongly impregnated with the author’s characteristic sentiments. Its great theme is civil and religious liberty; and against tyranny and priestcraft the poet frequently expresses himself with astonishing boldness. Some of his allusions bear a very easy application to the late conduct of Cardinal Beaton. In the tragedies of the ancient Greek poets, what is termed the prologue is always an essential part of the drama; but the prologue of the Baptistes resembles those of Terence. Buchanan seems to have adopted this model, because it afforded him a better opportunity of preparing his auditors for the bold sentiments which they were about to hear.

During the term of his residence in the College of Guienne, the satirist of the Scotish clergy did not find himself totally secure from danger. The cardinal, in a letter addressed to the archbishop of Bordeaux, requested him to secure the person of the heretical poet; but as his letter had been entrusted to the care of some individual much interested in the welfare of Buchanan, he was suffered to remain without molestation. Still however he found himself annoyed by the threats of the cardinal and the grey friars; but the death of King James, and the appearance of a dreadful plague in Guienne, alleviated his former apprehensions. Having resided three years at Bordeaux, he returned to Paris. In 1544 he was officiating as a regent in the college of Cardinal le Moine; and he apparently retained the same station till 1547. About this period he was miserably tormented with the gout. The ardour of his fancy was however undiminished: in an interesting elegy, composed in 1544, and addressed to his late colleagues Tastaeus and Tevius, he exhibits a dismal picture of his own situation, and gratefully commemorates the assiduous attentions of his present colleagues Turnebus and Gelida. It is remarked by a French historian, that three of the most learned men in the world then taught humanity in the same college. The first class was taught by Turnebus, the second by Buchanan, and the third by Muretus.

The king of Portugal had recently founded the university of Coimbra; and as his own dominions could not afford a sufficient supply of able professors, he invited Andrew Govea tς> preside over the new institution, and to conduct from France a considerable number of proficients in philosophy and ancient literature. Govea accordingly returned to his native country in the year 1547, accompanied by Buchanan and other associates. The affairs of Europe presented an alarming aspect; and Portugal seemed to be almost the only corner free from tumults. To the proposals of Govea he had not only lent a willing ear, but was so much satisfied with the character of his associates, that he also persuaded his brother Patrick to join this famous colony. To several of its members he had formerly been attached by the strictest ties of friendship; these were Gruchius, Garentaeus, Tevius, and Vinetus, who have all distinguished themselves by the publication of learned works. The other scholars of whom it consisted were Arnoldus Fabricius, John Costa, and Anthony Mendez, who are not known as authors: the first was a native of Bazats, the other two were Portugueze. All these professors except P. Buchanan and Fabricius had taught in the College of Guienne. To this catalogue Dempster has added other two Scotish names, those of John Rutherford and William Ramsay. Govea died in the year 1548; and after Buchanan and his associates were deprived of his protection, the Portugueze began to persecute them with unrelenting bigotry. Three of their number were thrown into the dungeons of the inquisition, and after having been subjected to a tedious imprisonment, were at length arraigned at this direful tribunal. According to the usual practice, they were not confronted with their accusers, of whose very names they were ignorant. As they could not be convicted of any crime, they were overwheliped with reproaches, and again committed to custody.

Buchanan had attracted an unusual degree of indignation. He was accused of having written an impious poem against the Franciscans, yet with the nature of that poem the inquisitors were totally unacquainted. He was also charged with the heinous crime of eating flesh in Lent, and yet with respect to that very article, not a single individual in Portugal deemed it necessary to practise abstinence. Some of his strictures relative to monks were registered against him, but they were such as monks only could regard as criminal. He was moreover accused of having alleged, in a conversation with some young Portugueze, that with respect to the eucharist, St Augustin appeared to him to be strongly inclined towards the opinion condemned by the church of Rome. Two witnesses, whom he afterwards discovered to be Ferrerius and Tal-pin, made a formal deposition of their having been assured by several respectable informants that Buchanan was disaffected to the Romish faith. After the inquisitors had harassed him for the space of nearly two years and a half, they confined him to a monastery, for the purpose of receiving edifying lessons from the monks; whom, with due discrimination, he represents as men by no means destitute of humanity, but totally unacquainted with religion. In their custody he continued several months; and it was about this period that he began his version of the Psalms, afterwards brought to so happy a conclusion. That this translation was a penance imposed upon him by his illiterate guardians, is only to be considered as an idle tale: it is much more probable that a large proportion of the good monks were incapable of reading the Psalms in their native language. When he was at length restored to liberty, he solicited the king’s permission to return to France: he was however requested to protract his residence in Portugal, and was presented with a small sum of [7:5:630]money till he should be promoted to some station worthy of his talents; but his ambition of Portugueze preferment was not perhaps very violent, for he still remembered with regret the learned and interesting society of Paris. In a beautiful poem, entitled Desiderium Lutetiae, and apparently composed before his retreat from Portugal, he pathetically bewails his absence from that metropolis, which he represents under the allegory of a pastoral mistress. Having embarked in a Candian vessel, which he found in the port of Lisbon, he was safely conveyed to England. Here however he did not long remain, though he might have procured some creditable situation, which he himself has not particularized. He returned to France about the beginning of the year 1553. Soon after his arrival in Paris, he was appointed a regent in the College of Boncourt; and in the year 1555 he was called from that charge by the celebrated Comte dċ Brissae, who engaged him as the domestic tutor of his son Timoleon de Cossé. .

During the five years of his connexion with this illustrious family, he alternately resided in Italy and France. In the mean time several of his poetical works were published at Paris. In 1556 appeared the earliest specimen of his poetical paraphrase of the Psalms; and his version of the Alcestis of Euripides was printed in the course of the subsequent year. This tragedy he dedicated to Margaret, the daughter of Francis the First, a munificent princess, whose favour he seems to have enjoyed. His engagement with the family of Brissae terminated in the year 1560, when the civil war had already commenced. It was perhaps the alarming aspect of affairs in France that induced Buehanan to hasten his return to his own country. The precise period of his return has not been ascertained; but it is certain that he was at the Scotish court in January 1562, and that in the month of April he was officiating as classical tutor to the queen, who was then in the twentieth year of her age. Every afternoon she read with Buchanan a portion of Livy. This author is not commonly recommended to very young scholars; and indeed the study of the Latin language is known to have occupied a considerable share of her previous attention.

The era at which Buchanan finally returned to his native country was highly important. After a violent struggle against the ancient superstition, the principles of the reformed faith received the sanction of parliament in the year 1560. For the doctrines of the reformation he had long cherished a secret affection; and he now professed himself a member of the protestant church of Scotland. The earl of Murray, as commendator of the priory of St Andrews, possessed the right of nominating the principal of St Leonard’s College; and a vaeancy occurring in the year 1566, he conferred the office upon Buehanan. The tenure of his appointment seems to have imposed upon him the task o ' reading occasional lectures on divinity.

On his return to Scotland, he determined to publish, in a correct manner, the poetical works which he had composed at many different periods of his variegated life. Of his admirable version of the Psalms, the date of the first complete edition is uncertain, for it has been omitted in the book itself; but a second edition appeared in the year 1566. When he consigned his Psalms to the printer, he was probably engaged in superintending the classical studies of Queen Mary; and to that accomplished and hopeful princess he gratefully inscribed a work destined for immortality. His dedication has received, and indeed is entitled to the highest commendation for its terseness, compression, and delicacy. Buchanan had recommended himself to the queen by other poetical tributes: one of his most beautiful productions is the Epithalamium which he composed on her first nuptials; and several of his miscellaneous poems relate to the same princess. Nor was she insensible of his powerful claims upon the protection of his country. In the year 1564 she had rewarded his literary merit by conferring upon him the temporalities of Crossragwell Abbey, which amounted in annual valuation to the sum of L.500 in Scotish currency. The abbacy had become vacant by the death of Quintin Kennedy. But while he thus enjoyed the favour of the queen, he did not neglect his powerful friend the earl of Murray. To that nobleman he inscribed his Eranciscanus during the same year. The date of the earliest edition is uncertain; but the dedication was written at St Andrews on the 5th of June 1564, when he was perhaps residing in the earl’s house. He at the same time prepared for the press his miseellany entitled Fraires Fraterrimi, a collection of satires, almost exclusively directed against the impurities of the popish church. The absurdity of its doctrines, and the immoral lives of its priests, afforded him an ample field for the exercise of his formidable talents; and he has alternately employed the weapons of sareastie irony and vehement indignation. His admirable wit and address must have contributed to promote the cause which Luther had so ardently espoused; and Buchanan ought also to be classed with the most illustrious of the reformers. In the year 1567 he published another collection, consisting of Elegies^ Silvoe, Hendecasyllabi. To this miseellany was prefixed an epistle to his friend Peter Daniel, a learned man, who is still remembered for his edition of Virgil, with the commentary of Servius. His Miscellanea were not printed till after the death of the author. Of his short and miscellaneous pieces the subjects are sometimes indeed of a trivial nature; but even those lighter efforts serve to evince the wonderful versatility of his mind. His epigrams, which consist of three books, are not the least remarkable of his compositions; the terseness of the diction, the ingenuity and pungency of the thoughts, have deservedly placed them in a very high class.

Of the general assembly convened at Edinburgh on the 25th of December 1563, Buchanan had sat as a member, and had been appointed one of the commissioners for revising the Book of Discipline. He sat in the June assemblies of 1564 and the three following years, and likewise in that of December 1567. He was a member of various committees, and evidently had no small influence in the affairs of the church. Of the assembly which met at Edinburgh on the 25th of June 1567, he had the honour of being chosen moderator.

The nation was now in a state of anarchy, and the change of affairs drew Buehanan into the vortex of politics. The recent conduct of Queen Mary, whom he once regarded in so favourable a light, had offered such flagrant insults to virtue and decorum, that his attachment was at length converted into the strongest antipathy. The simple and uneontroverted history of her proceedings, from the period of her pretended reconciliation with Darnley to that of her marriage with Bothwell, exhibits such strong moral evidence of her criminality as it seems impossible for an unprejudiced mind to resist. “There are indeed, as Mr Hume has remarked, “three events in our history, which may be regarded as touchstones of party-men· An English Whig, who asserts the reality of the popish plot, an Irish Catholic, who denies the massaere of 1641, and a Scotch Jacobite, who maintains the innocence of Queen Mary, must be considered as men beyond the reach of argument or reason, and must be left to their prejudices.” Buehanan accompanied the regent Murray when he visited England for the purpose of appearing before Elizabeth’s commissioners. On the 4th of October 1568, the conference was opened at York; but in the course of the ensuing month it was transferred to Westminster. This singular transaction was managed wit [7:5:631]great address on both sides: nor was Buchanan the least powerful of Murray’s coadjutors; he composed in Latin a detection of Queen Mary’s actions, which was produced to the commissioners at Westminster, and was afterwards circulated with great industry by the English court. His engaging in a task of this kind, as well as his mode of executing it, has frequently been urged as a proof of his moral depravity; and, to augment his delinquency, the benefits conferred upon him by the unfortunate queen have been multiplied with considerable ingenuity. It is certain that she granted him the temporalities of Crossragwell Abbey; and beyond this single point the evidence cannot be extended. Nor was this reward bestowed upon a man who bad performed no correspondent services. He had officiated as her classical tutor, and had composed various poems for the entertainment of the Scotish court; but the dedication of his Psalms might almost be considered as equivalent to any reward which she conferred. If Buchanan celebrated her in his poetical capacity, and before she ceased to be an object of praise, it certainly was not incumbent upon him to approve the atrocious actions which she afterwards performed. The duty which he owed to his country was a prior consideration, and with that duty his further adherence to the infatuated princess was utterly incompatible.

The earl of Murray and his associates returned to Scotland in the beginning of the ensuing year. Buchanan’s Detection, which was not published till 1571, seems to have been entrusted to Dr Wilson, who is supposed by Mr Laing to have added the “Actio contra Mariam Scotorum Reginam,” and the Latin translation of Mary’s first three letters to the earl of Bothwell. The good regent did not long survive those transactions: on the 23d of January 1570 he was shot in the street of Linlithgow by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, whom his clemency had formerly rescued from an ignominious death. The assassin had been confirmed in his enterprise by the approbation of his powerful kinsmen. The indignation of Buchanan was naturally roused against the house of Hamilton; and he had sufficient cause to suspect that their dangerous schemes were not yet completed. Under such impressions as these, he composed “Ane Admonitioun direct to the trew Lordis, Mantenaris of the Kingis Graces Authori-tie in which he earnestly adjured them to protect the young king, and the children of the late regent, from the perils which seemed to await them. It was apparently in the course of the same year, 1570, that he wrote another Scotish tract, entitled Chamaleon. In this satirical production he very successfully exposes the wavering politics of the famous secretary Maitland. Soon after the assassination of his illustrious friend, Buchanan was removed to a situation of no small importance; he was appointed one of the preceptors of the young king. For this preferment he appears to have been indebted to the privy council, and others of the nobility and gentry, who assembled in consequence of that disastrous event, for the purpose of providing for the public security.

During his infancy, the prince had been committed to the charge of the earl of Mar, a nobleman of the most unblemished integrity. In 1570, when Buchanan entered upon his office, James was only four years of age. The chief superintendence of his education was left to the earl’s brother, Alexander Erskine. The preceptors associated with Buchanan, were Peter Young, and the two abbots of Cambuskenneth and Dryburgh, both related to the noble family of Mar. Young, who was respectable for his capacity and learning, was of a disposition naturally mild; and his attention to his future interest rendered him cautious of offending a pupil who was soon to be the dispenser of public favours. But the lofty and independent spirit of Buchanan was not to be controlled by the mere suggestions of cold caution: the honourable task which the voice of his country had assigned to his old age, he discharged with simple integrity, and, so far as he himself was concerned, he was little solicitous what impression the stric thess of his discipline might leave on the mind of his royal pupil. James, who was of a timid nature, long remembered the commanding aspect which his illustrious preceptor had assumed. He was accustomed to say of some individual high in office, “that he ever trembled at his approach, it minded him so of his pedagogue.” The young monarch’s proficiency in letters was such as reflected no discredit on his early instructors. Buchanan made him a scholar, and nature had destined him for a pedant.

Nor was this the only preferment which he now obtained. His first civil appointment, which he seems to have retained but a short time, was that of director of the chancery. The keeper of the privy seal, John, afterwards Lord Maitland of Thirlstane, having been deprived of his office on account of his adherence to the queen, it was conferred upon Buchanan in the year 1570. The earl of Lennox was at that time regent. His situation as lord privy seal was undoubtedly honourable, and probably lucrative. It entitled him to a seat in parliament. This office he retained for several years; for under the date of November 1579, he is enumerated among the ordinary officers of state entitled to a seat in the council. His talents and his station evidently gave him no small share of influence, and he was associated in various commissions of importance.

Notwithstanding the precarious state of his health, and the number of his avocations, he found leisure to compose a most profound and masterly compendium of political philosophy. It is entitled De Jure Pegni apud Scotos, and was first printed at Edinburgh in the year 1579. Although it professedly relates to the rights of the crown of Scotland, it comprehends a subtile and eloquent delineation of the general principles of government. The work is exhibited in the form of a dialogue between the author and Thomas the son of Sir Richard Maitland. Buchanan’s dialogue excited a degree of attention which will not appear surprising, when we consider the high reputation of the author, and the boldness of the precepts which he inculcates. In the course of a few years, his tenets were formally attacked by his learned countrymen Blackwood, Winzet, and Barclay, all of whom were zealous Catholics. Some of Barclay’s arguments were long afterwards refuted by Locke. Buchanan was also attacked, though in an indirect manner, by Sir Thomas Craig, and by Sir John Wemyss. Craig was a lawyer of much learning and ability, and his treatise on the feudal law still continues to be held in great estimation. Sir George Mackenzie, the servile tool of a most profligate court, undertook to defend against Buchanan the same maxims of polity; and it must be acknowledged that “the right divine of kings to govern wrong,” was a very suitable doctrine for the ministers of Charles and James. In the course of the seventeenth century, his leading principles were also oppugned by Sir Lewis Stewart, a lawyer, and by Sir James Turner, a soldier. The former wrote in Latin, the latter in English, but neither of their productions has been printed; and the republic of letters has sustained no detriment by their long suppression. He was incidentally assailed by many foreign authors, who seem in general to have been bewildered by the current doctrine of the divine and indefeasible right of kings, and the passive obedience of subjects. This was indeed the doctrine of Catholics and Protestants, of civilians and divines. Grotius, though born under a free republic, and certainly a man of a great and liberal mind, did not entirely escape the contamination of [7:5:632]those slavish maxims which were so prevalent during the age in which he lived: the right of resisting any superior power which happens to be established, he has discussed in a manner that could hardly offend the completest despot in Europe. There is perhaps too much justice in the remark of Rousseau, that it is his most common method of reasoning, to establish the right by the fact. It is one general fault of those writers, to found their theories on passages of scripture which are not didactic or exege-tical, but merely historical. This obsolete perversion they seem to have derived from the authority of those early theologians who are commonly styled the fathers of the church; and who, if not always very safe guides in morality and in biblical criticism, are certainly exceptionable guides in political science. The degrading doctrine of passive obedience was inculcated by Salmasius, Bochart, Usher, and indeed by several very able men who approached much nearer to our own times: it was even inculcated by the famous Dr Berkeley, in some metaphysical discourses preached before the university of Dublin in the year 1712. It is however a doctrine which no Briton, capable of reflection, and possessed of ordinary sincerity, will now hesitate a single moment in rejecting with the utmost indignation.

But the full measure of Buchanan’s ignominy has not yet been related. In the year 1584 the parliament condemned his dialogue and history as unfit to remain for records of truth to posterity; and, under a penalty of two hundred pounds, commanded every person who possessed copies to surrender them within forty days, in order that they might be purged of “the offensive and extraordinary matters” which they contained. In 1664, the privy council of Scotland issued a proclamation, prohibiting all subjects, of whatever degree, quality, or rank, from transcribing or circulating any copies of a manuscript translation of the dialogue. And in 1683, the loyal and orthodox university of Oxford doomed to the flames the political works of Buchanan, Milton, Languet, and other heretics. This university, says Cunningham, debauched the minds of the youth with its slavish doctrines, and pronounced a severe judgment against Buchanan for vindicating the rights of the kingdom. The Scotish legislature, the English university, and the popish tribunal of the inquisition, seem to have viewed this unfortunate speculator with equal abhorrence. And what are the terrible doctrines that once excited so violent an alarm? Buchanan maintains that all power is derived from the people; that it is more safe to entrust our liberties to the definite protection of the laws, than to the p<recarious discretion of the king; that the king is bound by those conditions under which the supreme power was originally committed to his hands; that it is lawful to resist, and even to punish tyrants. When he speaks of the people as opposed to the king, he evidently includes every individual of the nation except one. And is a race of intelligent beings to be assimilated to a tract of land, or a litter of pigs; to be considered, absolutely and unconditionally, as the lawful patrimony of a family which either merit, accident, or crime, may originally have elevated to the summit of power? In this country and this age it certainly is not necessary to remark, that man can neither inherit nor possess a right of property in his fellow-creatures. What is termed loyalty, may, according to the circumstances of the case, be either a virtue or a vice. Loyalty to Antoninus and loyalty to Nero must assuredly have flowed from different sources. If the Roman people had endeavoured to compass the death of Nero, would this have been foul and unnatural rebellion r The doctrine of punishing tyrants in their persons, either by a private arm, or by the public forms of law, is indeed of a delicate and dangerous nature; and it may be considered as amply sufficient, to ascertain the previous right of forcible resistance. It will always be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find a competent tribunal and impartial judges. But if mankind are at length roused to the redress of enormous wrongs, the prince who has either committed or sanctioned an habitual violation of the best rights of the people, will seldom fail to meet with an adequate reward; and in spite of all the slavish theories of his priests and lawyers, mankind will not long be reasoned out of the strongest feelings of their nature. Divine right and passive obedience were never more strenuously inculcated, than in the reign of Charles the First.

In the seventy-four th year of his age, Buchanan composed a brief sketch of his own life. The last production which he lived to complete was his history of Scotland, Perum Scoticarum Historia. In the year 1582, it issued from the press of Alexander Arbuthnot, printer to the king. It bears the royal privilege, and is dedicated to the young monarch. Between the original formation of his plan, and the publication of the history itself, nearly twenty years must have elapsed; but it is to be supposed that he long revolved the subject in his mind, and had proceeded to amass the greater part of his materials, before he applied himself to its composition; and during that interval, his attention had been distracted by various pursuits, political as well as literary.

Buchanan has divided his history into twenty books. The first three ought rather to have been exhibited in the form of an introductory dissertation, for the historical narrative properly commences with the fourth book. His preliminary enquiries are directed to the geographical situation, the nature of the soil and climate, the ancient names and manners, and the primitive inhabitants, of the British islands. The third book consists of a series of quotations from the Greek and Latin authors. The whole of this introductory part displays his usual erudition and sagacity; and, in the opinion of Archbishop Usher, no writer had investigated the antiquities of his country with superior diligence. In these disquisitions he evinces his knowledge of the Celtic as well as of the classical languages. In the earlier part of his narrative, he has reposed too much confidence on his predecessor Boyce. He appeals to several other Scotish historians; and he unquestionably had access to historical documents which are no longer extant. He has occasionally availed himself of the collateral aid of the English and French writers. Of the earlier reigns his sketch is brief and rapid; nor has he attempted to establish any chronological notation till he descends to the beginning of the fifth century. It must indeed be acknowledged that he has repeated the fabulous line of our ancient kings; but that continued till a much later period to be regarded as an article of national faith. Like most of the classical historians, he is too remiss in marking the chronology of the different facts which he relates. From the reign of the great King Robert, his narrative becomes much more copious and interesting; but the history of his own times, which were pregnant with remarkable events, occupies far the largest proportion of his twenty books. In some of the transactions which he records, his own affections and passions were deeply concerned, and might not unreasonably be expected to impart some tincture to his style. His indignation against the ill-fated queen he shared with a very large proportion of his fellow-subjects; and many of her actions were such as could not fail of exciting the antipathy of every well-regulated mind. The composition of his history betrays no symptoms of the author’s old age and infirmities; his style is not merely distinguished by its correctness and elegance, it breathes all the fervent animation[7:5:633] of youthful genius. The noble ideas which so frequently rise in his mind, he always expresses in language of correspondent, dignity. His narrative is extremely perspicuous, variegated, and interesting; it is seldom deficient, and never redundant. His moral and political reflections are profound and masterly. He is ready upon all occasions to vindicate the unalienable rights of mankind; and he uniformly delivers his sentiments with a noble freedom and energy. It is with the utmost propriety that the learned Conring has commended him as a man of exquisite judgment. Thuanus remarks that although much of his time had been spent in scholastic occupations, yet his history might be supposed the production of a man whose whole life had been exercised in the political transactions of the state; the felicity of his genius, and the greatness of his mind, having enabled him so completely to remove every impediment incident to an obscure and humble lot. And, in the opinion of Bishop Burnet, “his stile is so natural and nervous, and his reflections on things are so solid, that he is justly reckoned the greatest and best of our modern authors.”

The publication of this great work he did not long survive. His usual vein of pleasantry did not entirely desert him on his death-bed. When visited by John Davidson, a distinguished clergyman, he devoutly expressed his reliance on the atoning blood of Christ; but he could not refrain from introducing some facetious reflections on the absurdities of the mass. He expired soon after five o’clock in the morning of Friday the 28th of September 1582, at the age of seventy-six years and nearly eight months. His remains were interred in the cemetery of the Grey-friars: Calderwood informs us that the funeral took place on Saturday, and was attended by “a great company of the faithful.”

Buchanan had experienced many of the vicissitudes of human life, and had been tried by prosperity as well as adversity. His moral and intellectual character procured him the same high respect from the most enlightened of his contemporaries. His stern integrity, his love of his country and of mankind, cannot fail of endearing his memory to those who possess congenial qualities; and such errors as he actually committed, will not perhaps be deemed unpardonable by tlwse who recollect the condition of humanity. He was subject to the nice-and irritable feelings which frequently attend exalted genius, enthusiastic in his attachment, and violent in his resentment, equally sincere in his love and in his hatred. His friends, among whom he numbered some of the most distinguished characters of the age, regarded him with a warmth of affection which intellectual eminence .cannot alone secure. His conversation was alternately facetious and instructive: his wit and humour are still proverbial among his countrymen. Such of his contemporaries as could best judge of his conduct and character, evidently regarded him as a man of sincere piety.

Nor was the genius of Buchanan less variegated than his life. In bis numerous writings he discovers a vigorous and mature combination of talents, which have seldom been found united in equal perfection. To an imagination excursive and brilliant, he unites an undeviating rectitude of judgment. His learning was at once elegant, various, and profound: Turnebus, who was associated with him in the same college, and whose opinion is entitled to the greatest deference, has characterized him as a man of consummate erudition. Most of the ancient writers had limited their aspiring hopes to one department of literature; and even to excel in one, demands the happy perseverance of cultivated genius. Plato despaired of securing a reputation by his poetry; the poetical attempts of Cicero, though less contemptible perhaps than they are commonly represented, would not have been sufficient to transmit an illustrious name to future ages. Buchanan has not only attained to excellence in each species of composition, but in each species has displayed a variety of excellence: in philosophical dialogue and historical narrative, in lyric and didactic poetry, in elegy, epigram, and satire, he has scarcely been surpassed either in ancient or modern times. A few Roman poets of the purest age have excelled him in their several provinces; but none of them has evinced the same capability of universal attainment. Horace and Livy wrote in the language which they had learned from their mothers; but its acquisition was to Buchanan the result of much youthful labour. Yet he writes with the purity, the elegance, and freedom of an ancient Roman. Unfettered by the classical restraints which shrivel the powers of an ordinary mind, he expatiates with all the characteristic energy of strong and original sentiment; he produces new combinations of fancy, and invests them with language equally polished and appropriate. His diction uniformly displays a happy vein of elegant and masculine simplicity, and is distinguished by that propriety and perspicuity which can only be attained by a man perfectly master of his own ideas, and of the language in which he writes. The variety of his poetical measures is immense, and to each species he imparts its peculiar grace and harmony. The style of his prose exhibits correspondent beauties, nor is it chequered by phraseology unsuitable in that mode of composition. His diction, whether in prose or verse, is not a tissue of centos; he imitates the ancients as the ancients imitated each other. No Latin poet of modern times has united the same originality and elegance; no historian has so completely imbibed the spirit of antiquity, without being betrayed into servile and pedantic imitation. But his works may legitimately claim a higher order of merit; they have added no inconsiderable influx to the general stream of human knowledge. The wit, the pungency, the vehemence, of his ecclesiastical satires, must have tended to foment the genial flame of reformation; and his political speculations are evidently those of a man who had nobly soared beyond the narrow limits of his age.

Of the works of Buchanan there are two collective editions, the earlier of which was published by Ruddiman. Edinb. 1715,2 tom. fol. The editor’s masterly acquaintance with philology, and with the history of his native country, had eminently qualified him for such an undertaking. The accuracy of the text, and the utility of his illustrations, are equally conspicuous. He has prefixed a copious and satisfactory preface, and, among other appendages, has added a curious and critical dissertation De Metris Euchananaeis. His annotations on Buchanan’s history are particularly elaborate and valuable; but it is to be lamented that his narrow politics should so frequently have diverted him from the more useful tracts of enquiry. Where political prejudices intervene, he is too eager to contradict bis author; and he often attempts, by very slender and incompetent proofs, to extenuate the authenticity of his narrative. In illustrating the moral and literary character of Buchanan, he spent many years of his life. With great zeal and success, he afterwards vindicated his paraphrase of the Psalms against the objections of Benson; but his political prejudices seem to have increased with the number of his years. His controversies with Love and Man were conducted with sufficient pertinacity; though it must be acknowledged that the advantage of learning, and even of candour, generally inclines to Ruddiman’s side. Another edition of Buchanan’s works was published by Burman, a most indefatigable and useful labourer in the department of philology, and a man of [7:5:634] much more taste and talent than some of our readers may perhaps be inclined to suppose. Lugd. Bat. 1725, 2 tom. 4to. He has reprinted his predecessor’s notes, dissertation, and other appendages, and has himself interspersed some critical annotations.^[1. See the second edition of Dr Irving’s Memoirs of the Life and Writings of George Buchanan. Edinb. 1817, 8vo. ] φ (x ∙) φ