whose connections called on him for bountiful pro- | proposing that, should there be objection made to visions, which the king, at his request, with gross facility conceded. anything said by a member in the house, it should be officially reported to the king before he should receive as true any private statement on the subject. This protest the king tore out of the journal of the house, ordered the deed to be registered, and im. prisoned several of the individuals concerned, who, however, were soon afterwards liberated. But James still maintained his own authority; he strictly prohibited the general discussion of political subjects, and enjoined on the clergy a variety of rules, guarding them against preaching on several subjects, some of which must be regarded as important parts of the system which it is the duty of the clergy to proclaim. On the 17th of February, 1623, Prince Charles and the Marquis of Buckingham set off on a visit to Spain, with a view to the marriage of the former with the infanta, although the king had resisted the proposal of this journey, which had been urgently made by the prince and Buckingham. On the circumstance being known in England, the favourite was loudly blamed, and the prince suspected of an attachment to Popery. The travellers proceeded in disguise, visited Paris for a single day, and reached Madrid on the 6th of March. The Earl of Bristol, the English ambassador, met them with surprise. James corresponded with them in a very characteristic manner, and sent a large supply of jewels and other ornaments, as a present for the infanta. The Spaniards were generally anxious for the consummation of the marriage. But the pope, unwilling to grant a dispensation, addressed to Charles a letter entreating him to embrace the Roman Catholic religion, to which the prince replied in terms expressive of respect for the Romish church. In 1620 the circumstances of his son-in-law, the elector palatine, began to occupy the particular attention of the king. That prince, after having been chosen king by the Bohemians, who had thrown off the Austrian sway and received support from various states of Germany, was at last in a very perilous condition, and on the 8th November, 1620, defeated at the battle of Prague. After much delay, in which he carried on a diplomatic interference, James at last agreed to send a supply of chosen men. But he soon resigned this active interference in his behalf; he called in vain for a benevolence from his wealthy subjects to enable him, as he said, to give him a vigorous support in the event of future urgency; and, finally, summoned a parliament, which had not met for many years, to deliberate on the subject. It met in January, 1621-a parliament memorable for the investigation it made into the conduct of Lord Bacon, and the sentence it pronounced on that distinguished man, who had published only a short time before the second part of his immortal Novum Organum. The king, however, had previously promised him either freedom from such a sentence, or pardon after it, and Bacon accordingly was soon released from imprisonment, and, in three years after, fully pardoned by the king. This parliament also granted supplies to James, but in the same year refused farther supplies to the cause of the palatine. James adjourned it in spite of the remonstrance of the House of Commons; and on the same day occurred a well-known conversation of the king and the Bishops Neale and Andrews: "My lords," said the king, "cannot I take my subjects' money when I want it, without all Accordingly, all was prepared for the marriage, this formality in parliament?" "God forbid, sir,” | which was appointed to take place on the 29th of said Neale; "but you should-you are the breath of August. But before the day arrived Pope Gregory our nostrils." "Well, my lord," rejoined his majesty had died—a circumstance which destroyed the force to Andrews, "and what say you?" He excused him- of the matrimonial articles; and the prince left Spain self on the ground of ignorance in parliamentary in the midst of general demonstrations of attachment matters. "No put-off, my lord," said James, "an- to his person, and inclination towards the intended swer me presently.' "Then, sir," said the excel- marriage. On his way to England, however, he dislent prelate, "I think it lawful for you to take my covered a coldness towards the measure, and shortly brother Neale's money, for he offers it. The king, after his arrival, in October, the king acceding to the however, had himself recommended to this parlia-proposal of the favourite, who was displeased at his ment the investigation of abuses, and especially inveighed against corruption and bribery in courts of In this year he conferred the seals, which Bacon had resigned, upon Williams, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, who induced him to deliver the Earl of Northumberland from imprisonment; and soon after he very creditably interfered for the continuance of Archbishop Abbot in his office, after he had involuntarily committed an act of homicide. law. Parliament meeting again in February, 1622, the commons prepared a remonstrance to the king on the dissatisfaction which was generally felt with the position of affairs both at home and abroad, and calling on him to resist the measures of the King of Spain to enforce the laws against Popery-marry his son to a Protestant-support Protestantism abroad, and give his sanction to the bills which they should pass with a view to the interest of the nation. On hearing of this proceeding the king addressed an intemperate letter to the speaker, asserting, as usual, the interest of his "prerogative-royal.' It was answered by the commons in a manly and loyal address, to which the king replied in a letter still more intemperate than the former. The commons, notwithstanding, drew up and recorded a protest, claiming the right of delivering their sentiments, and of deciding freely, without exposure to impeachment from their speeches in parliamentary debate, and reception in Spain, a letter was sent to the Earl of fully, the proposal of Buckingham and Charles, that he should impeach the lord-treasurer on the ground of corruption in office. He also resisted, with much better reason, the petition of Buckingham that the Earl of Bristol should be forced to submit, exclaim-pearance no man had so far succeeded in attracting ing, "I were to be accounted a tyrant to engage an innocent man to confess faults of which he was not guilty." The earl, however, was prevented from appearing in the presence of the king, who also cautioned the parliament against seeking out grievances to remedy, although they might apply a cure to obviously existing ones. June, 1624, was occupied by the king and Buckingham in carrying on measures for a marriage between Prince Charles and Henrietta Maria, sister of Louis XIII., and daughter of Henry IV.; and on the 10th of November a dispensation having been with some difficulty obtained from the pope, the nuptial articles were signed at Paris. But in the spring of 1625, the king, whose constitution had previously suffered severely, was seized with ague, of which he died at Theobald's on the 27th of March, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, and the funeral sermon was preached by Williams. On the character of James, so palpable and generally known, it is not necessary to offer many observations. Much of his conduct is to be attributed in a great measure to his political advisers, who were often neither wise nor faithful. His own character embraced many combinations of what may be almost denominated inconsistencies. He was peculiarly subject to the influence of favourites, and yet exceedingly disposed to interfere with the course of political affairs. Indeed, to his warm and exclusive attachments, combined with his extravagant ideas of his own office and authority, may be traced the principal errors of his reign. He was accordingly resolute, and yet often too ready to comply; sensible to feel ing, and yet addicted to severity; undignified in manner, and yet tyrannical in government. Erring as was his judgment, his learning cannot be denied, though the use he often made of it, and especially the modes in which he showed it in the course of conversation, have been with reason the subjects of amusement or scorn. His superstition was great, but perhaps not excessive for the age in which he lived; and it is said that in his latter days he put no faith in witchcraft. His religion was probably in some degree sincere, though neither settled nor commanding. Neither his writings nor his political courses, it is to be feared, have done much directly to advance the interests of liberal and prudent policy; but in both there are pleasing specimens of wisdom, and both may teach us a useful lesson by furnishing a melancholy view of the nature and tendency of tyranny, even when in some degree controlled by the checks of parliamentary influence and popular opinion. JAMESONE, GEORGE, the first eminent painter produced by Britain, was born at Aberdeen towards the end of the sixteenth century. The year 1586 has been given as the precise era of his birth, but this we can disprove by an extract which has been furnished to us from the burgh records of his native town, and which shows that the eldest child of his parents (a daughter) was born at such a period of this year as rendered it impossible that he could have been born within some months of it. It is alone certain that 1 The marriage of the parents of Jamesone is thus entered in these burgh records : "Thair is promess of marriage betwix And Jamesone Marjore Andersone in 17th August, 1585." the date of the painter's birth was posterior to 1356 Of the private life of this distinguished man few par ticulars are known, and of these few a portion rest on rather doubtful authority. Previously to his apthe national attention of Scotland to productions in painting as to render an artist a person whose appear ance in the country was to be greatly marked. At that period of our history, too, men had other matters to occupy their minds; and it may well be believed, that, in passing through the fiery ordeal of the times, many men who in peace and prosperity might have had their minds attracted to the ora mental arts, were absorbed in feelings of a very different order, which hardly allowed them an oppor tunity of knowing, far less of indulging, in the elegant occupations of peace. The father of Jamesone was Andrew Jamesone, burgess of guild of Aberdeen, and his mother was Marjory Anderson, daughter of David Anderson, one of the magistrates of that city. What should have prompted the parents of the young painter to adopt the very unusual measure of sending their son from a quiet fireside in Aberdeen to study under Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp must remain a mys tery. The father is said to have been an architect, and it is probable that he had knowledge enough of art to remark the rising genius of his child, and was liberal enough to perceive the height to which the best foreign education might raise the possessor of that genius. If a certain Flemish building projecting into one of the narrow streets of Aberdeen, and known by the name of "Jamesone's house," be the production of the architectural talents of the elder Jamesone, as the period of the style may render not unlikely, be must have been a man of taste and judgment. Under Rubens Jamesone had for his fellow-scholar Sir Anthony Vandyke, and the early intercourse of these two artists had the effect of making the portraits of each be mistaken for those of the other. In 1620 Jamesone returned to Aberdeen, and established himself as a portrait-painter. He there, on the 12th of November, 1624, married Miss Isobel Tosh-a lady with whom he seems to have enjoyed much matrimonial felicity, and who, if we may judge by her husband's representation of her in one of his best pictures, must have been a person of very consider. able attractions; he had by her several children, of whom the sons seem to have all met early deaths, a daughter being the only child he left behind him.* Soon after the above entry, there occurs one regarding the baptism of their eldest child, the sister of the painter, in these terms: "The penult day July, 1586. Ando. Jamesone, Marjore Andersone, dochtar in mareage, callit Elspett; James Robertson, Edward Donaldson, Elspatt Cuttes, Elspatt Mydilton, witnesses.' " 2 The marriage is thus entered in the burgh records: "12th November, 1624, George Jamesoune, Isobell Tosche." 3 This picture represents the painter himself, and his wife and daughter. The grouping is very neat, and the attitudes of the hands as free from stiffness as those of almost any p ture of the age. The daughter is a fine round-cheeked spiritedlooking girl, apparently about twelve years old. Walpole says this picture was painted in 1623. From the date of Jamesone's marriage, this must be a mistake. This picture was engraved by Alexander Jamesone, a descendent of the painter, in 1728, and a very neat line engraving of it is to be found in Dallaway's edition of Walpole's Anecdotes. relates to the birth of one of Jamesone's children: "1629 vieris 4 The following entry in the council records of Aberdeen -George Jamesone and- -Toche, ane sone, baptized be Mr. Robert Baron the 27th day of July, callit William Mr. Patrick Done, Robert Alexander, Andrew Meldrum, William Gordone, god-fathers." The next notice of him which we find in the same authority shows, that on the ad January, 1630, he was present at the baptism of a child of "James Toshe," probably a relation of his wife, at which, it may be mentioned, William Forbes, Bishop of Edinburgh, officiated. In October of the same year we find him again demanding a similar duty for his own family: "October, 1630 yeires, George |