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 benefit of the Act of Pacification in Scotland, but did not comply with the condition requiring a confession of his faith; and on 29 May 1589 an act was passed putting in force former acts against him and others notwithstanding recent remissions (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iv. 388). Nevertheless, on 23 June 1591 an act was passed declaring the tacks and disposition made out of the bishopric of Ross by the exiled bishop since his restitution and the act of 1587 to be valid, all intermediate acts to the contrary notwithstanding (ib. pp. 641–2). During the civil war in France he exerted his influence with great effect in encouraging the citizens of Rouen to hold out against the besiegers in 1591, and as a reward for his services he was appointed by Clement VIII to the bishopric of Coutances in Normandy. On account, however, of the unsettled condition of the country, it was impossible for him to proceed to his diocese, and ultimately he took up his residence in a monastery of Augustinian canons at Guirtenburg, near Brussels, where he died 30 May 1596. Leslie had a daughter, Janet, married to Andrew, fifth laird of New Leslie, and he is also said to have had a second daughter married to Richard Irvine, and a third married to Cruickshank of Tillymorgan. He founded a Scottish college at Paris, and left money to found a college at Douay. There are some old engravings of Leslie. An engraving from an old portrait is prefixed to the Bannatyne edition of his ‘History.’ His portrait is also included in Pinkerton's gallery.

As a catholic political disputant and historian Leslie occupies a somewhat similar position to that of George Buchanan among the reformed party. If not endowed with such brilliant rhetorical gifts as Buchanan, and if destitute of his skill in bitter invective, he was at least his equal in dialectics; he excelled him in legal learning, he was as accomplished an historian, and as a politician and man of affairs he was greatly his superior. His principal work, the ‘History of Scotland,’ was originally written in part in the Scottish language during 1568–70, while he was resident in England, for the perusal of Queen Mary, to whom it was presented in 1571. This Scottish version bears the title, ‘History of Scotland from the death of King James I in the year to the year.’ It remained unpublished till 1830, when it was printed by the Bannatyne Club from a manuscript in the possession of the Earl of Melville. The Latin edition of the history extends from the earliest times to the end of the period embraced in the Scottish edition. It bears the title, ‘De Origine, Moribus, et Rebus Gestis Scotorum libri decem: e quibus septem veterum Scotorum res in primis memorabiles contractius, reliqui vero tres posteriorum Regum ad nostra tempora historiam, quæ hucusque desiderabatur, fusius explicant. Accessit nova et accurata Regionum et Insularum Scotiæ, cum vera ejusdem tabula topographica, Descriptio. Authore Joanne Leslæo, Scoto, Episcopo Rossensi. Romæ, in ædibus populi Romani, 1578.’ Copies of the original edition are rare; two are in the library of the British Museum (one with the arms of J. A. de Thou), and one is in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. It was republished in 1675, the old title-page being kept, with the addition ‘Nunc denuo recus. Anno Domini 1675.’ Irving (Lives of Scotish Writers, p. 145) states that this latter edition, ‘said to have been printed in London, contains a dedication to the Earl of Rothes subscribed by a George Lesley.’ There is, however, no evidence that the work was printed in London, nor is the dedication referred to contained in all the copies (the copy in the British Museum does not contain it), and the probability is that the dedication was inserted only in a few copies intended for circulation in Scotland. The earlier part of the work is an epitome of Major and Boece; the description of the counties and islands is, however, to a considerable extent founded on independent observation and information; the latter portion, treating of the period from 1436 to 1562, is not a mere Latin translation of the Scottish version presented to Queen Mary, various corrections, additions, and suppressions being made. It is much more detailed than the earlier part of the work, and is of great value as a catholic account of the events with which the bishop was himself personally acquainted. A Scottish translation of the Latin version by Father James Dalrymple, of the Scottish cloister of Regensburg, dated in 1596, has been printed by the Scottish Text Society, 1884–91, under the editorship of Father E. G. Cody, O.S.B., from a manuscript in St. Benedict's Abbey, Fort Augustus. In the archives of the Vatican there is a Latin manuscript of Leslie containing a meagre narrative of events from 1562 to 1571, and an English translation of this is published in Forbes-Leith's ‘Narrative of Scottish Catholics’ (1885), pp. 84–126. The latter portion (1436–1562) of the Latin version of the history is republished in Jebb's ‘Collections,’ i. 148–236. Other works of Leslie are: 1. ‘A Defence of the Honour of the Right Highe, Mightye, and Noble Princesse Marie, Queene of Scotlande and Dowager of France; with a Declaration as well of her Right, Title, and Interest to the