Transactions. 51 



expei'ienced a disaster to which the whole of Scotland was indebted 

 indirectly for a tax upon land, the first regai'ding which we have 

 any knowledge. Crossing the Border with an invading host he 

 was defeated by tlie English at Alnwick, and cast into a prison 

 with no chance of getting out of it in a hiu-ry unless by submitting 

 to the outrageous demands made upon him by his royal jailer, 

 Henry II. In an evil hour the kingly captive sold the liberty of 

 his country in order to purchase his own personal freedom, the 

 English Shylock exacting from him a goodly sum besides ; though 

 Hector Boece probably exaggerates the amount when he says that 

 it was nothing short of a hundred thousand merks (a merk being 

 1.3s 4d.) Thus was laid the foundation of that claim to a 

 suzerainty over Scotland, which, even after it had been redeemed, 

 various English monarchs endeavoured to enforce. On the 25th 

 of December, 1190, the two sovereigns whose surnames were both 

 derived from the monarch of the forest, William the Lion and 

 Richard the Lion-hearted, met by tryst in York city and signed 

 a treaty of no ordinary interest, inasmuch as the English sove- 

 reign, for himself and successors, thereby renounced the claim 

 conceded to his father Henry, thus rendering the Scottish realm 

 free from it for ever, and restoring its national independence, on 

 its sovereign, William, engaging to pay Richard ten thousand 

 merks sterling, a sum which he needed much to cover the cost of 

 his crusading expedition to the Holy Land. The claim was never- 

 theless basely revived by Edward I., and again bought off, but not 

 by gold or silver, but by treasures greater far — blood drained 

 from the dearest veins of a heroic people. Two other instances of 

 the captivity of the Scotch kings were adduced to show that in 

 their case also ransoms had to be paid, to defray which taxes on 

 land had to be imposed, and thus, what was at first looked upon 

 as a temporary impost, like our own income-tax, and one only to 

 be resorted to on special occasions, became permanently established, 

 and yielded a regular revenue towards the general expenses of the 

 State. Glancing for a moment at ttie condition of tlie soil, on 

 which these burdens were cast, Mr M'Dowall said that the 

 prevaleiice of war during the middle ages arrested the progress of 

 the plough and circumscribed the sweep of the sickle. In the 

 golden days of Alexander III. a sufficient amount of land was 

 cultivated to supply the national consumpt of oats, barley, and 

 bread-stuffs, and in some few districts, naturally fertile, wheat wa^ 



