Jan.] 



CHRONICLE. 



II 



as some sav, so late as 17 io, the 

 regalia of Scotland were transfer- 

 red to London, and it is certain, 

 that, at the Jewel Office in the 

 Tower, a Crown has been exhi- 

 bited among the other treasures, 

 supposed and alleged to be that 

 of Scotland. Others have traced 

 this report to the artifices of the 

 Jacobites, whose aversion at the 

 Union is well knowTi, and who 

 did all they could to excite 

 throughout Scotland a feeling, that 

 the country had been degraded, 

 and her privileges destroyed, by 

 that memorable treat}-. 



Some years since, a Commission 

 was issued to the Officers of State 

 of Scotland, and other eminent 

 persons, to open the Crown- 

 room, in order to search for cer- 

 tain records which it was sup- 

 posed might have been deposited 

 there. The room was opened 

 accordingly, and all things seemed 

 to be in the same condition in 

 which they might have been left 

 in 1707. The dust of a century 

 lay on the floor, and on the lid 

 of a huge chest, answering the 

 description of that in which the 

 regalia are stated to have been 

 deposited. It was even remarked 

 by an observer, equally acute and 

 accurate, that the dust (about 6 

 inches thick) presented a surface 

 perfectly uniform and level, which 

 could not have been the case had 

 the chest been opened at any 

 great distance of time after it had 

 been placed in the Crown-room, 

 since, in that case, a large quan- 

 tity of dust displaced from the 

 lid of the chest must have been 

 lying around it in heaps. But 

 the matter was left to conjecture; 

 for the Commission only war- 

 ranting a search for Records, of 



which none were found in the 

 Cronm-room, the Commissioners 

 did not consider it as authorizing 

 them to open a chest, which, if 

 it contains an_v thing at all, holds 

 not the Records, but the Regalia 

 of our ancient kingdom. 



The keen and irritating feehng 

 of national jealousy, which once 

 attached an important point of 

 honour to the existence and pre- 

 servation of these Cimelia, as the 

 visible and tangible symbols of 

 Scottish independence, has been 

 long lulled to rest by the merging 

 of our separate national concerns 

 in the general interests of Great 

 Britain. Yet there is a feeling 

 of mysterious curiosity with which 

 we are tempted to regard bolted 

 rooms, chests which we have 

 locked for centuries, and the fate 

 of those symbols which anciently 

 represented the Royalty of Scot- 

 land. It is therefore with plea- 

 sure that we inform our readers, 

 that the mystery attached to this 

 point of our national and histori- 

 cal antiquities will probably soon 

 be cleared up. 



A Commission, under the Sign 

 Manual, has been recently issued 

 to his grace the duke of Buc- 

 cleugh and Queensberry, Lord 

 Lieutenant of Mid-Lothian, with 

 the principal Officers of State for 

 Scotland, the respective Heads 

 of the Courts of Law and Legal 

 Bodies, the Lord Provost of 

 Edinburgh, and other gentlemen 

 recommended by official situa- 

 tions of importance, directing 

 them to open the Crown-room, 

 and proceed to open the chest in 

 which the regalia are said to have 

 been deposited, to make search 

 for the same, and to report the 

 issue of their inquiries to his 



Royal 



