Scotland,' had only just been rescued from the profane hands of a housemaid, who was about to light a fire with it, by the accidental intervention of the then Earl. The precious document, however, had been in no such jeopardy; but it had been made to do duty as an ornamental firescreen in a mock-grate in the charter-room-an unfitting, if not dangerous, situation for so venerable a record. Where archives were so plentiful that they could be turned to such common uses, Sir William Fraser might reasonably expect that in the Tynninghame charter-room he would find himself in "a perfect paradise of parchments;" and his instincts did not belie him. The Haddington collections had already yielded much to the printer, but Sir William's research has brought much interesting and valuable matter to light, among which may be specifiedmany additional MSS. of the first Earl; papers of the sixth Earl of the time of the Union; letters from the Honourable Colonel Hamilton, who served at Fontenoy and in the Seven Years' War; and the letter-book of King James V., containing despatches to the Pope, the Emperor, the kings of France and other European sovereigns, covering the period from April 1529 to December 1532,- —a manuscript which certainly ought to be published.

In his history of the Hamiltons of Haddington, Sir William Fraser finds himself upon fresh ground. His researches have been chiefly among the great feudal families, with their records of war, public and private; their intrigues, conspiracies, and rebellions, too often, alas! their decay and extinction. The Earls of Haddington, though belonging to a great feudal house, come to the front in more

peaceful and enlightened days, and owe their elevation to a more humane eminence in statesmanship and jurisprudence. Their history is closely connected with the beginnings of administrative statesmanship in Scotland, in which its distinguished representative, the founder of its honours, played a conspicuous part; and round him the most interesting associations of the family naturally centre.

But before we come to the first Earl of Haddington, we must say a few words about his ancestors. The Haddington family is the eldest cadetal branch of the House of Hamilton, breaking off with John, son of Walter Fitz-Gilbert, whose father is the first known Hamilton in Scotland. But who was Gilbert? We have been generally disposed to believe that he was of Hamilton in Leicestershire, that the three cinque-foils in the earliest coat of the Scottish Hamiltons indicated a connection with the De Bellamonts, Earls of Leicester, to whose shield it bore a relation of cadency. The "earliest ancestor," however, never evades Sir William Fraser's scepticism. He has banished Sholto Dhuglas, the dark-grey man,_from the line of the Bleeding Heart, and turned his back upon the aboriginal Scot in the Buck's Cleugh. He cannot get rid of the existence of Gilbert, who flourished somewhere in the west of Scotland, about the time of Alexander III.; but he strenuously denies him any kinship with the De Bellamonts, and apparently with anybody else. But though Gilbert did not designate himself of Hamilton, his immediate descendants did so; and they clung so much to the name that they transferred it to their earliest landed possessions, and they used the De Bellamont arms with a

mark of cadency. Sir William is positive that they were not De Bellamonts: the first Hamiltons by their arms were disposed to assert that they were. The one has only negative evidence to offer; the others have not much positive: and there we may leave the matter. In the second generation after Gilbert we find the Haddington family settled in the county with which they have been so long connected as the knights of Innerwick, a possession which came to them by marriage from the Stewarts, Earls of Angus. Thomas Hamilton, a younger son of the third knight of Innerwick, followed the law, and acquired the lands of Orchardfield and Priestfield in Mid-Lothian. His grand-nephew Patrick was also possessed for some time of the lands of Ewerland or Braehead in Cramond, held servitio lavari-the presentation of a ewer and basin for the king to wash his hands in- -a tenure older than the time of King James I., and quite destructive of the Howison legend, to which family the Hamiltons sold the lands.

Thomas Hamilton's son, of the same name, was a merchant at Edinburgh, and fell with so many other burgesses at the battle of Pinkie. His son was the notable curé of SS. Cosmus and Damien, celebrated in the gossipy pages of Pierre L'Estoile as one of the most active agents in the League, was concerned in the émeute in which Brisson the President lost his life, and was literally turned out of Paris, partisan in hand, after Henri IV.'s entry. He returned to Scotland as a Papal emissary, and after some years of intrigue among the Catholic nobility was seized and cast into the Tower, where he died in 1610. Father Hamilton's elder brother studied in Paris, and entered him

He es

self at the Scotch Bar. poused the cause of Queen Mary, "and suffered loss of almost all his goods and gear, frequently placed his life in the utmost danger, and freely shed his blood for the lawful protection of just authority." The rise of his eminent son, the future earl, improved the father's fortunes under King James VI. He was appointed one of the managers of the queen's property in Scotland after the departure of the Court, and was raised to the bench in 1607, under new regulations which had shortly before been prescribed. "The Lords of Session ordained trial to be made of Hamilton's qualifications, and appointed a legal theme on which the next day he should discourse in Latin, and thereafter be ready to hear causes and give his opinion." His wife was Elizabeth Heriot of Trabroun, a family whose ability was notably illustrated about the same period by such representatives as George Heriot, and George Buchanan the historian and poet.

Thomas Hamilton, their elder son, was educated at the Edinburgh High School and at Paris, where he probably came under his uncle's influence, which caused a suspicion of Catholic proclivities to attach to him long afterwards. After his return in 1587, he "haunted the formes and courtis," the usual course for an expectant advocate, and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-four in 1587. He was one of a committee for revising and printing the Scots Acts of Parliament, and after five years' practice, of which we hear nothing, was called to the bench as Lord Drumcairn, 1592. His trials on that occasion were much more strict than those which, as we have seen, his father underwent fifteen years afterwards.

"At that time every candidate for the bench was obliged before obtaining the appointment to submit to the ordeal of a six days' probation, during which trial was made of his qualifications. The first three days the Lordprobationer sat with the Lord Ordinary in the Outer House and drew up a report of alledgances, answers, duplies, heard and proponed by the parties and their procurators.' He was also required to give his opinion first upon every question or interlocutor. The other three days were passed in the Inner House, where he had 'to reason on ilk actioun and cause that shall happen to be called during that time.' The Lords then consulted among themselves about his qualifications, and after voting thereupon, reported to the king accordingly."

In Thomas Hamilton's time the Court of Session sat in what was then the new Tolbooth, on the present site of the Signet Library. As a College, the Lords made their own regulations for procedure, some of which were primitive enough. They generally sat from eight in the morning to eleven; and dilatory judges, who had not taken their seats before the Court bell had ceased ringing, were punished by getting na pairt of the ordinar contributioun quott and sentence silver with the remanent lordis the tyme of their division." They sat with locked doors, and even the advocates, their pleadings finished, were shut out from the deliberative discussions of the Bench. Provision was made to prevent judges from selling their places and to purchase seats upon the bench. Yet we fear that venality was not unknown, though it had probably had less evil influence upon the course of justice than had the ties of kinship and alliance. We find, however, an instance of impartial procedure in a Court order of 1583, which ordains that

no great men's causes proceed, but mean men's until the 7th

day of January." The original number of judges had been fifteen

half laymen, half ecclesiastics; but the Reformation had interfered with the supply of spiritual lords, although in Hamilton's time we find the clergy, such as Lindsay, parson of Menmuir, still acting as judges. But the Lords of Session were not wholly consecrated to the administration of justice. They were generally statesmen as well, always councillors of State, and sometimes discharging executive duties, and always active political partisans. A Lord of Session might be at the same time both judge and counsel; and we find Thomas Hamilton filling at once the office of Lord of Session and Lord Advocate for the king. It does seem to have faintly dawned upon the legal mind of the day that there was something anomalous in this conjunction of offices-some risk of its interference with the even distribution of public justice. Objection was taken to Lord Advocate Hamilton acting in the double capacity of prosecutor and judge; but the Lords decided that "the then Lord Advocate and all others succeeding him in that office being ordinary Lords of Session, should in no wise be reputed or held parties in the said actions by occasion of their office; but that he and they should judge, vote, and determine in such causes, unless in circumstances in which any other judge might be reputed a party." No doubt the Lords were technically right: the error consisted in conjoining the two offices; but the practice continued until the retirement of Nisbet of Dirleton, who was the last Lord Advocate that had a seat on the bench, in 1677.

As a statesman, Hamilton's first experience was as a member of that

remarkable body termed the "Octavians," which marked a notable innovation upon Scottish methods of government. It is, however, a mistake to regard the appointment of this Cabinet, for such the Octavians were, as in any way connected with a tendency towards responsible or constitutional government. James had a fondness for delegating powers to committees and commissions: they saved his natural indolence, they bore vicarious odium, they helped to keep dangerous and troublesome elements in check, and above all, they were useful for raising money. The legend is that James, seeing how economically his queen's af fairs were managed by commissioners, determined to place the royal revenues under eight Lords of Exchequer appointed for life. This was done, and among them was Hamilton, Lord Drumcairn; and James, in his enthusiasm, even went the length of passing for himself a self-denying ordinance, binding himself to incur no expense without their sanction, and leaving them the entire control of the Court and public expenditure. It is amusing to read the extravagant expectations that were entertained of the appointment of the Octavians. The author of the 'History of King James the Sixth' writes as if the millennium had begun: "The ground should yield to the old fertility, godliness and charity should be ingraft in the hearts of the people, men should be in sweet security that none should be wronged in his own possession, in respect the laws were profitably to be amendit, equally distributed, and justice engrafted in the hearts of the Senate."

This burst of popularity was soon, however, to give place to a natural reaction. The Octavians had to

bear the brunt of the exasperation which James's prelatic proclivities called forth from the Presbyterians. They did not respond to the public clamour for the persecution of the Catholic Earls of Huntly and Errol; and at least two of their number-Seton, the President of the Session, and Hamilton, Lord Drumcairn—were concerned in passing the Act of Falkland, which enabled Huntly and Errol to return to Scotland The Octavians also generally concurred in the king's desire for an Episcopal settlement; and were accordingly denounced as enemies by the Presbyterian clergy. They had also a formidable foe in the courtiers, the officers of James's own household, who were smarting, doubtless, under the new reign of economy, and had found their power transferred to the hands of the Octavians. These "Cubiculars," as they were called, did their best to foment enmity between the Octavians and the Church, and by a crafty plot led to the "Corslet Tumult" in Edinburgh, which brought the rancorous feelings between James and the clergy to a critical issue. Persuading the Octavians that they were to be murdered by the Presbyterian faction, and the Presbyterian ministers that the Octavians were bent on forcibly altering the religion of the country with the aid of Huntly and his armed vassals, the Cubiculars readily stirred up a riot in Edinburgh, which had the effect of driving the king from the city, and of ultimately causing the resignation of the Octavians. Their place was taken by a large commission of twenty-one, of which the Octavians were members. To the existence of this commission Sir William Fraser has been the first to call attention, and it has

hitherto escaped the notice of historians; but it was speedily changed for a fresh board of twenty-three, which also included the original Octavians. These officials only held office for a year, and the management of the Exchequer reverted to the Lord High Treasurer, as before.

To follow the history of Lord Advocate Hamilton, whether in his capacity of legal adviser of the Crown, or of a statesman, would involve in a great measure recapitulating the history of Scotland in the reigns of James and Charles, especially in its ecclesiastical controversies. The illegal excuses by which the Presbyterian clergy responded to the king's at tempts to force an Episcopal constitution upon them, naturally brought the Lord Advocate as public prosecutor into the front of the strife, and he was as much maligned by his opponents as he was badly seconded by his friends. We see no grounds for the charge so freely preferred against him of being a Papist, though his early training under his uncle may have inclined him to view the Scottish Catholics with a toleration which the extreme Presbyterians could not distinguish from sympathy. It fell to his duty to second the king's efforts in favour of Episcopacy, and he doubtless perceived that there was a real danger of both Crown and constitution being subordinated to an ideal theocracy, and the liberty of the subject being chained to the car of the Church. After the king's departure for London, when James became swayed by counsels which were often very inapplicable to the circumstances of Scotland, the Lord Advocate found his difficulties greatly increased and his duties still more unpalatable. His position practically became that of

Regent of the country; new and enlarged powers were hurriedly conferred upon him; and an armed guard of forty horsemen was allotted to him to aid in the execution of the law. His attendance was also frequently required at London, where he received the honour of knighthood in 1603. He took part in the deliberation that year for a union of the two countries, and along with Sir Francis Bacon framed the draft treaty, which, however, failed to recommend itself to either Parliament. Again, we find him present at the Hampton Court Conference between James and the Presbyterian ministers in 1606; and in his exposition of the position which the Crown had taken up with regard to the Aberdeen Assembly and the recusant clergy, drew upon himself a torrent of abuse from Andrew Melville, which astonished even the king, who had himself considerable experience of Mr Andrew's oratory. "What is yon he says, my lord?" the king cried, turning to the Archbishop of Canterbury; "I think he is calling him out of the Revelation the Antichrist— nay, by God! he calleth him the very devil."

However disposed

Sir Thomas Hamilton might have been to make matters easy for the recusant ministers, the attacks which they made upon him in the discharge of his office could scarcely have admitted of his showing much sympathy with their troubles.

The reign of James was rife in sensational State trials in Scotland as well as in England, and in those in the former country Sir Thomas Hamilton had, of course, to bear a very prominent part. He prosecuted in the case of Margaret Hartside, a chambermaid to the queen, who was accused of steal