288 TWO CHAPTERS ILLUSTRATIVE OF 



Standing was reflected upon, he was, while affecting horror of 

 blood, as prompt and resolute in his criminal undertakings as others 

 were in the pursuit of virtuous objects. On such occasions, the law 

 which carries water down a descent was not more irrevocable and 

 fixed than James in his determinations. Upon these three men, 

 John Dixon, John Plemyng, and Francis Tennant, he wreaked his 

 vengeance on account of offences for which, if there had been one 

 elemental particle of generous feeling in his breast, an appeal to it 

 for pardon Avould have been irresistible. We will detail the case of 

 the last person, as it proves that James, in his eager desire of re- 

 venge, was quite as regardless of public disapprobation as they are 

 who, having nothing to lose, are indifferent to the consequences 

 of their actions : — Francis Tennant, merchant, burgess of Edin- 

 burgh, was indicted on the 10th of October, 1609, for writing 

 slanderous pasquils against the king. What these pasquils were, it 

 has baffled the indefatigable researches of Mr. Pitcairne to discover. 

 We are instructed, however, to believe they were of a very culpable 

 nature, as the lord advocate refused to name them in process, 

 although he demanded a verdict for these pasquils without the facts 

 of the case being even known to the judges. From these offensive 

 papers being addressed to Mr. Robert Bruce and Mr. John David- 

 son, ministers in Edinburgh, Mr. Pitcairne conjectures they had 

 reference to the proceedings on the part of James to force the clergy 

 of that capital to avow their belief that his majesty was in imminent 

 peril from the Gowrie conspiracy. Tennant's sentence was death, 

 and a warrant was signed by James, declaring that the delinquent 

 was to be taken to the market cross, his tongue cut out, a paper fix- 

 ed on his brow, setting forth his crime, and then he was to be hang- 

 ed : — " He shall be takyn to the mercat crose of Edinburgh, and his 

 toung cuttit out at the rute ; and that thair sail de ane paper affixit 

 upon his brow, bearing that he is convict for forging and geveing 

 out of certaine vyld and seditious pascallis, detracting us and our 

 maist nobill progenitouris ; and thairefter that he sail be takyn to 

 the gallons and hangit, ay quhill he be dead." This warrant, how- 

 ever, is rescinded by tl.e merciful king, and, by a rare stretch of his 

 clemency, the culprit is allowed " to be hanged with his tongue in 

 his mouth." 



With respect to Higgons's assumption that Burnett is totally un- 

 worthy of belief when he asserts James's ardent attachment to the 

 doctrine of the divine appointment of kings, we need only appeal to 

 the writings and speeches of that monarch in testimony of this as- 

 sertion. How complete was the conviction of the English Justi- 



