Befides the circumstances of a perfonal nature, which may affect the character of the prefent publication, there are other confiderations arifing from the subject, which may also confpire to influence it. An author who writes the General Hiftory of Scotland, is, perhaps, more liable to an injurious charge of partiality, than the hiftorian of any other country. The frequent wars which were anciently maintained betwixt England and Scotland, their mutual rivalship for antiquity and glory, and the oppofite claims of fuperiority and independence, which have been fo warmly agitated by both nations, afforded the strongest incitement to a contradictory representation of facts that the fentiments of public honour could infpire. Both likewise abounded in historians, of whom many were actuated with all the prejudices of their respective countries. Through the various gloffes of mifrepresentation, however, the footsteps of truth may ftill be afcertained in this province of hiftory, where they are not obliterated by time; and even the literary opponents, like the reciprocal ravagers of the once hoftile nations, have tranfmitted to pofterity inconteftible monuments of the transactions which they laboured to difguife.

Having faid thus much in general of the prejudices attending the work before us, we must acknowledge, that the author has acquitted himself with fuch perfpicuity and regard to truth, as do honour to his hiftorical abilities. He has availed himself of all the information to be collected from the Scotch and English hiftorians, which he every where exhibits with fidelity. The arguments he adduces for the determination of many doubtful facts, are solid and decifive; and he throws a clearer and more fatisfactory light on feveral important transactions, than we meet with in any other individual writer on the fubject. We do not find, through the whole of the work, that he once either violates the truth, or facrifices the candour, of a faithful and impartial writer; and his relation is fupported, not only by the most authentic documents of the Scottish annals, but also by the most approved hiftorians of our own country.

Mr. Guthrie, in conformity to preceding hiftorians, begins bis account of the regal government of Scotland from Fergus the Firft; though we know not whether he is any advocate for the authenticity of the forty-four kings, whom later critics have confidered as fabulous. It would be foreign to our purpofe to enter into the merits of that controverfy; and therefore we shall only obferve, that whatever reafons may be alledged for difproving the actual exiftence of thofe kings, the tranfactions of that period, as generally related, are, we think,

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dvice; and yet, for all that, Menzikoff did not apprehend that this betokened his entire difgrace. He had even the imprudence, during the feftival, to feat himself on a kind of throne, which had been placed for his majefty. His enemies did not fail of making the moft of this circumftance, which contributed to determine his fall.

• The fame evening, Menzikoff repaired to Peterhoff, where he did not find the emperor, who had been carried a hunting. He addreffed himself to the count Ofterman, with whom he had a converfation full of acrimony, and even accompanied with high words. He remained there that day and the next, at Peterhoff; but the emperor not returning, and all the countenances being frozen to him, he took the refolution of going to Petersburgh; probably he thought he should be more formidable in the midft of the court. In fact, being arrived at the capital, far from acting the difgraced courtier, he employed the whole morning in going the round of the colleges, and of giving orders every where. He regulated particularly the reception intended for the emperor in his palace, where he imagined he would continue to lodge; but towards noon, the general Soltikow came, with an order to remove from his palace the emperor's furniture, and carry it to the imperial fummer-palace. This was a thunder-ftroke to him, at which he loft all presence of mind; but what shocked him the most was, the fending back the goods and furniture of his fon, who, in quality of high-chamberlain, was to lodge officially near the emperor. In this confufion of head he fell into an other fault, that of fending into quarters the regiment of Ingermanland, which, for his fafety, he had ordered to encamp on the illand of Wafili Oftrow, at a fmail diftance from his palace. This regiment, of which he had been colonel from the firft of its being raised, was intirely devoted to him; and it is certain, that he had impreffed his enemies with a great awe of him.

In the evening, the emperor returned to Petersburgh, and the general Soltikoff was once more employed on a meffage to Menzikoff, by which he announced to him an order of arreft. His wife and children repaired immediately to the summerpalace, to throw themfelves at the feet of the emperor, but were refused admittance. Mean while, Menzikoff was made to believe, that he would be only deprived of his offices; that he would nevertheless have all his fortune left him, and that he would be permitted to pass the remainder of his days at Oranjenburgh, a pretty town on the frontiers of the Ukrain, which he had built, and even a little fortified. In fact, the free difpofal of his goods and fortune was left to him, while

berland, immediately led forth Malcolm, the eldeft fon of that prince, as yet a boy, and appointing earl Duncan his tutor, ordered the young prince to be conducted through all the provinces of Scotland, and proclaimed heir of the kingdom. But the king himself, with the younger son, William, came to Newcastle, and receiving hostages from the nobles of Northumberland, brought them all in fubjection to the youth.' The fame tranfaction is thus related in the Chronicle of Normannia. Melcholm, the eldest of them, got the kingdom of Scotland, and his brother William the county of Lothian.' In the Chronicle of Nicholas Trivet: The grandfather appointed Malcolm, the eldest of the children, to be his fucceffor, and made the other earl of Northumberland.'

Many ancient hiftorians, as Wikes, Hemmingford, Brompton, and Trivet, mention the provinces of which Henry II. unjuftly deprived young Malcolm, by the names of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland; or relate, that Henry refumed from Malcolm the towns and forts in those provinces; fuch as, Newcastle, Carlisle, and Bamburgh. Matthew Paris, Diceto, the Waverleian Annals, and Matthæus Florilegus, in fpeaking of thefe tranfactions, mention the towns by the fame names with the former writers, but they call the provinces themfelves by the denomination of the county of Lothian. It is evident therefore, that the county of Lothian is placed by them farther fouth than the Lothians in Scotland; for Malcolm neither refigned that part of the country, nor had Henry any title to demand it.

In the Saxon Chronicle of the year 1091, Lothene is faid to be in England; which the interpreter, nevertheless, underftands of the Lothians in Scotland; though, from another paffage in the fame Chronicle, it appears, that they were dif ferent countries; for, according to that chronicle, Lothene has for a bishop a perfon named John; whereas there never was any bishop in the Scotch Lothians before the time of Charles I.

It is univerfally acknowledged, that in 1091, Malcolm III. of Scotland, and William II. of England, met on the borders of their kingdoms in Lothene, or the Loudon province; but the authors of the Waverleian Annals, and Saxon Chronicle, fay exprefly, that the Lothene, there mentioned was not in Scotland, but England. Ordericus Vitalis plainly intimates, that the place of congrefs was on the fouth bank of the river Huma, or Eden, near the Solway Frith.

Upon the whole, it appears inconteftible, that by Eden and the Lothians, in ancient writers, are meant not Edinburgh,

and

and the Lothians in Seotland, but a town and country in Cumberland, which formerly went by these names.

We have been the more particular in endeavouring to elucidate this point, as the mistake which has occafioned our remark, is prevalent among writers of the beft authority, and as it has been adopted by an author of such extenfive and accurate information as the hiftorian with whom we are now engaged.

The improbable relation of preceding writers, respecting the total extermination of the Pits by Kenneth, furnamed Mac-Alpin, is very justly rejected by our author.

This period is generally fixed upon as the end of the Pictish government in Scotland; but to imagine that Kenneth exterminated the whole race, is not only abfurd, but contrary to the plaineft evidence; for the Picts are exprefly mentioned by old writers, as a people exifting three hundred years after this time. Such a maffacre would have been as impolitic as infernal; nor do we meet with any well attefted accounts in history of a numerous people, like the Picts, being totally and finally extirpated. The most probable opinion feems to be, that the Scots becoming mafters of Pictland by conqueft, their language fuperseded that of its old inhabitants; but we cannot allow that the bulk of the nation are compofed of the defcendants of thofe conquerors. The history of almost every country in Europe proves, that the victors impose their own names upon their conquefts; that of Gaul, for inftance, being changed into France, from its being conquered by the Francs.'

The alteration in the fucceffion to the crown, eftablished by Kenneth III. is an event of great importance in the hiftory of Scotland; and we regret, with our author, the filence of hiftorians, in regard to the measures which were pursued for the accomplishment of that great innovation.

Our author's remarks on the extraordinary liberality of Malcolm, the fon of Kenneth, as reprefented by former writers, are full of the foundest reasoning; and ferve not only to refute an important error in history, but to throw new light on the commencement of hereditary fucceffion to private property in Scotland.

When the hiftory of Malcolm is duly attended to, he well deserves the name of the legiflator of Scotland; and he was, perhaps, the greatest prince who ever fat upon that throne, not even excepting the first Bruce. Having with wonderful courage and perfeverance cleared his dominions of their barbarous invaders, he applied himself to the arts of peace; and we fhall, in the Ecclefiaftical History, take notice of the great things

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things he did for the church. Lawyers and antiquaries are divided with regard to the antiquity of the feudal law in Scot land; and fome have gone fo far as to fay, that it was unknown even in England before the time of the Norman Con-' queft. As I am extremely clear that the conftituent parts of the feudal law were known not only to the Saxons, but to the Danes, and other northern nations, I can fee no reason for fuppofing it to have been unknown to Malcolm and his people; and I am of opinion with thofe lawyers who think that it was imported thither by Fergus, commonly called the fecond. But whether the Regiam Majeftatem of Scotland (fo called from its first two words) which contains the code of the ancient Scotch law, was borrowed from the English, is a question that belongs more properly to a lawyer than a hiftorian. That it is of great and undoubted antiquity, is not disputed by any; and that it is not later than the time of king David the first or fecond: fo that it is at leaft a record of the highest authority. It was published by the learned Skene, who was the greatest antiquary in those matters that Scotland ever produced, and approved of by parliament in the reign of James the third. Prefixed to it are the laws of king Malcolm, ap. proved of by the fame authority; and in the first chapter of thofe laws, which treats of ward and relief, we read as follows: " King Malcome gave and diftributed all his lands of the realm of Scotland amongft his men; and referved nathing in propertive to himfelfe, bot the royall dignitie, and the Mute-hill of Scone; and all his barons gave and granted to him, the warde and relief of the heir of Ilk-Baron, quhen he fhould happen to deceis, for the king's fuftentation."

The Scotch historians have blamed Malcolm for this liberality; and fome have imagined that before this time the king beld all the lands in Scotland in fee. It is easy to prove, from the English history, that the Saxon holdings in England by the thanes were strialy feudal, and as the word Thane occurs in the Scotch hiftory, at the fame time, there can be no reasonfor doubting that the fame conftitution prevailed there. A thane fometimes had a grant of lands for a certain term, at the expiration of which it might be renewed by the king; fometimes he held it for life, and at his death, the king might continue it to his fon fo that, in one fenfe, during a long reign, the greatest part of the lands in the kingdom might lapfe to the crown. About the time we now treat of, the feudal conftitutions began to favour hereditary right, and property to be more fixed in families; nor was there any wonder if a prince, who, like Malcolm, had been fo well ferved by his fubjects, gave them a perpetual right to the lands which

they