Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/126

420 Master of Erskine to shed tears, and make, as is usual in such cases, a lusty outcry. This brought the matter under the notice of Buchanan, who, Mackenzie says, "gave the king a box on the ear, and told him that what he had done was like a true bird of the bloody nest of which he had come." A more pleasing anecdote is thus related by Dr Irving: "One of the earliest propensities which he [James] discovered, was an excessive attachment to favourites; and this weakness, which ought to have been abandoned with the other characteristics of childhood, continued to retain its ascendancy during every stage of his life. His facility in complying with every request alarmed the prophetic sagacity of Buchanan. On the authority of the poet's nephew, Chytrseus has recorded a ludicrous expedient which he adopted for the purpose of correcting his pupil's conduct. He presented the young king with two papers which he requested him to sign; and James, after having slightly interrogated him concerning their contents, readily appended his signature to each, without the precaution of even a cursory perusal. One of them was a formal transference of the regal authority for the term of fifteen days. Having quitted the royal presence, one of the courtiers accosted him with his usual salutation: but to this astonished nobleman he announced himself in the new character of a sovereign ; and with that happy urbanity of humour, for which he was so distinguished, he began to assume the high demeanor of royalty. He afterwards preserved the same deportment towards the king himself; and when James expressed his amazement at such extraordinary conduct, Buchanan admonished him of his having resigned the crown. This reply did not tend to lessen the monarch's surprise; for he now began to suspect his preceptor of mental derangement Buchanan then produced the instrument by which he was formally invested; and, with the authority of a tutor, proceeded to remind him of the absurdity of assenting to petitions in so rash a manner."

When nominated the king's preceptor, Buchanan was also appointed director of the chancery; but this he does not appear to have long held. The same year he was made keeper of the privy seal in the room of John, afterwards lord, Maitland, who was deprived for his adherence to the queen. This office, both honourable and lucrative, and which entitled him to a seat in parliament, he held for several years. In April, 1578, he nominally resigned it in favour of his nephew, Thomas, son of Alexander Buchanan of Sleat; but this seems to have been done only to secure the reversion, for, in the following June and July, he continued to vote in parliament, and, so late as 1580, was addressed by his foreign correspondents as preceptor and counsellor to king James. In the management of public affairs Buchanan seems to have taken a lively interest, and to have been equally consulted as a politician and a scholar. Accordingly, in 1578, we find him forming one of a numerous commission, among whom was another poet and scholar, archbishop Adamson, appointed to examine and digest the existing laws; a most desirable object, but one that from its difficulty was never carried fully into effect. He was also included in two commissions for the improvement of education. The first was to rectify an inconvenience arising from the use of different grammars in the schools. Of the committee appointed for this purpose, Buchanan was president, and the other members were Messrs Peter Young, Andrew Sympson, and James Carmichael. They met in Stirling palace, and were entertained during the continuance of their labours at the charge of the king. Having declared all the grammars in use defective, they resolved that three of their number should compile a new one. To Sympson were assigned the rudiments; to Carauchnel what is improperly termed etymology; and to Buchanan the department of prosody. Their respective tracts were committed to the press, and authorized by an order of the king and council; but they ecu-