Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/98

126 lish general, in preference to the regent. The garrison had to be brought from the castle under an escort, so odious was it to the people; and Kirkaldy and Maitiand, for the same reason, had to be lodged with the English general. Maitland took himself off by poison; and Kirkaldy and his brother James, along with two other persons, were hanged at the cross of Edinburgh upon the 3d day of August, 1573. Kirkaldy had been an early friend and an intrepid defender of the reformation; but his old age, in consequence perhaps of the companionships he had formed, was unworthy of his youth, and his end was most miserable. This was the last stroke to the interests of Mary in Scotland.

The regent's first care was to repair the castle, the keeping of which he committed to his brother, George Douglas of Parkhead, he himself going in person to repress the disorders that had so long prevailed among the borderers, and had been so often complained of by the English government Along with Sir John Forrester, the English warden for the middle march, he adjusted the existing differences, and concerted measures to prevent their recurrence. From the chiefs of the different districts he exacted hostages for their good behaviour; and he appointed Sir James Home of Cowdenknows, Sir John Carmichael, one of his principal ministers, and lord Maxwell, as wardens for the eastern, the middle, and the western marches. Having settled the borders, Morton next applied himself to correct the disorders in the country in general, and to the regular distribution of justice; and in this, says the author of the history of James the sixth, "he wished to punish the transgressor rather be his gudes than be death." "He had also anither purpose," says the same author, "to heap up a great treasure whatsoever way it might be obtained. For the first he prospered in effect very weil; and as to the uther, he had greater luck than any three kings had before him in sa short a space. For not only he collectit all the king's rents to his awin proffit, but also controllit the yung king's family in sik sort, as they war content of sik a small pension as he pleased to appoint Secondly, when any benefices of the kirk vaikit, he keeped the proffit of their rents sa lang in his awin hand, till he was urgit be the kirk to mak donation tharof, and that was not given but proffit for all that And becaus the wairds and marriages war also incidental matters of the crown, and fell frequently in thais dayis, as commonly they do, he obtainit als great proffit of ilk ane of them as they war of avail, and as to the gudes of those wha war ony way disobedient to the lawis, and that the same fell in the king's hand, the parties offenders escapit not but payment in the highest degree. And to this effect he had certain interpreters and componitors wha componit with all parties, according to his ain direction; and he sa appointed with them for the payment, that it sould either be made in fyne gold or fyne silver." The above, we doubt not, is a pretty fair general statement of Morton's ordinary modes of procedure. He also sentenced to whipping and imprisonment, those who dared to eat flesh in lent, but the sentences were uniformly remitted upon paying fines. His exactions upon the church perhaps were not the most aggravated of his doings, but they certainly brought him a larger share of odium than any other. The thirds of benefices had been appropriated for the maintenance of the protestant clergy; but from the avarice of the nobility, who had seized upon the revenues of the church, even these thirds could not be collected with either certainty or regularity. During the late troubles, they had in many places been entirely lost sight of; to remedy this defect, Morton proposed to vest them in the crown, under promise to make the stipend of every minister local, and payable in the parish where he served. If upon trial this arrangement should be found ineligible, he engaged to replace them in their former situation. No sooner, however, did he obtain possession of the thirds, than he appointed one man to serve