BUCHANAN BUCHAREST. 



713 



the Cotton MSS., daU d 1570, and it was printed at 

 London, in 1710, in the Miscellanea Scotica. It has 

 been often reprinted since. These two pieces appear 

 to be all that he ever composed in his vernacular 

 tongue, and they are of such excellence as to make it 

 matter of regret that he did not turn his attention of- 

 tener to the cultivation of his native language. As 

 the hopes of the protestant party were entirely cen- 

 tred in king James, B. was, in 1570, selected by the 

 lords of the privy council, and others of the nobility, 

 assembled on occasion of the slaughter of the regent 

 Murray, to take the superintendence of that important 

 matter, the education of the royal youth; and the 

 very respectable scholarship which his pupil exhibited 

 in after life, shows that so far he executed his task 

 with great success. 



When nominated the king's preceptor, B. was also 

 appointed director of the chancery ; but this he does 

 not appear to have long held. The same year he 

 was made keeper of the privy seal. This office, both 

 honourable and lucrative, and which entitled him to 

 a seat in parliament, he held for several years. In 

 the management of public aflairs Buchanan seems to 

 have taken a lively interest, and to have been equally 

 consulted as a politician and a scholar. With the re- 

 gents, Murray, Lennox, and Mar, Buchanan was 

 cordially united ; but Morton in the end forfeited his 

 good-will ; and it was principally by his advice and 

 that of Sir Alexander Erskine that Morton was de- 

 posed, and the reins of government put into the 

 king's hands, though he was yet only in his twelfth 

 year. He was of course a member of the privy coun- 

 cil appointed for the young monarch, but seems to 

 have been displaced on Morton's return to power; and 

 we are uncertain if he ever again held any political 

 office. 



In 1576, he prepared his Baptistes, and dedicated 

 it to the young king, with a freedom of sentiment 

 bordering upon disrespect, which is to be regretted, 

 because if his lessons had been conveyed in a less dic- 

 tatorial manner, there would have been more likeli- 

 hood of their being attended with advantage. Three 

 years after, in 1579, he published his compendium of 

 political philosophy, entitled De Jure llegni apud 

 Scotos, a work which will ever rank him among the 

 spirited defenders of the rights of the people to judge 

 of and control the conduct of their governors. 



Amidst multiplied labours Buchanan was now borne 

 down with the load of years, aggravated by the en- 

 croachments of disease. His poetical studies seem 

 now to have been entirely suspended, but his history 

 of Scotland was unfinished, and was probably still re- 

 ceiving short additions or finishing touches. His life, 

 too, at the request of his friends, he compiled when 

 he had reached his 74th year, and his epistolary cor- 

 respondence, which was at one time very extensive, 

 was still continued with some of the friends of his 

 earlier days. 



It is doubtful whether he lived to see his history of 

 Scotland ushered fiiirly into the world or not. The 

 dedication to the king is dated August the twenty- 

 ninth, 1582, only thirty days before the death of the 

 author, which happened on Friday, the 28th of Sept. 

 following, when he had reached the age of seventy- 

 six years and eight months. Notwithstanding the 

 many public situations lie held in his life-time, such 

 was the extent of his charities, that he died poor, and 

 was buried at the expense of the city of Edinburgh, 

 in the Grey Friars churchyard, a great multitude at- 

 tending his funeral. 



In 1584, only two years after the publication of the 

 history, it was condemned, along with De Jure Regni, 

 by the parliament of Scotland, and every person pos- 

 sessed of copies commanded to surrender them within 

 forty days, in order that they might be purged of the 



offensive and extraordinary matters which they con- 

 tained. 



Buchanan, during his life, was a violent and often 

 virulent partisan; and his character, therefore, has 

 been differently estimated according to the political 

 and religious views of the writers. With much bold- 

 ness, disinterestedness, and generosity, he was often 

 harsh and unfair in his constructions of the conduct of 

 others ; and his behaviour to queen Mary, in parti- 

 cular, with whom he had often read the Roman clas- 

 sics, and from whom he had received many favours, 

 was too gross and cruel to be even justified by her 

 alleged misdeeds. As a Latin poet and historian , how- 

 ever, there can be but one opinion of his excellence. In 

 the former department, no modern Latinist has ap- 

 proached him in harmony and splendour of diction ; 

 in the latter department, he is said to unite the beauties 

 of Livy and Sallust as to style, though, in other re- 

 spects, he shows a lack of judgment in taking up all 

 the tales of old chronicles as he found them, and 

 affording to their legendary absurdities the currency 

 of his own eloquent embellishment. Perhaps, after 

 all, it is as a political writer that the world is chiefly 

 indebted to him, for he was among the first to combat 

 the old axiom of the " divine right ef kings," and to 

 expound the true rights and privileges of the sub- 

 ject. Of B.'s works, there are two collective edi- 

 tions, one by Ruddiman, Edinburgh, 1715, 2 vols. 

 folio, and one by Burman, Leyden, 1725, 2 vols. 4to. 

 See his Life by Dr Irving, second edition, Edinburgh, 

 1817, 8vo. 



BUCHANITES, a sect of enthusiasts who sprung up at 

 Irvine, in the West of Scotland, about the year 1783. 

 Mr White, the minister of a relief congregation in 

 that town, having been invited to preach in the 

 neighbourhood of Glasgow, a female named Elizabeth 

 Buchan, the wife of a painter, was captivated with 

 his eloquence, and, writing to him, announced that 

 he was the first who had spoken to her heart, and re- 

 quested permission to pay him a visit at Irvine, that 

 the work of her conversion might be perfected. On 

 her arrival, she was joyfully received by the members 

 of the congregation : engaged without intermission in 

 religious exercises ; went from house to house ; con- 

 ducted family worship ; answered questions, resolved 

 doubts, explained the Scriptures, and testified that the 

 end of the world was at hand, and that it was the 

 duty of every Christian to abandon the concerns of 

 time, and prepare for the reception of Christ. Mr 

 White, favouring her and her views, was complained 

 of to the presbytery, by which he was deposed from 

 his ministry. Thus a distinct party was formed, the 

 meetings of which were commonly held at night, and 

 on these occasions the new prophetess indulged in her 

 reveries, styling herself the woman of the twelfth of 

 Revelations, and Mr White her first-born. Such gross 

 outrage on the common sense of the inhabitants occa- 

 sioned a popular tumult, to save her from the fury of 

 which the magistrate sent her under escort to some dis- 

 tance ; after which, with her clerical friend and about 

 forty deluded followers, she wandered up and down 

 the country, singing, and avowing that they were 

 travellers for the New Jerusalem, and the expectants 

 of the immediate coming of Christ. They had a com- 

 mon fund on which they lived, and did not consider 

 it necessary to work, as they believed God would not 

 suffer them to want. Mrs Buchan died in 1792, and 

 the sect soon after broke up. 



BUCHAREST (i. e. city of joy), the chief city of Wa- 

 lachia, the residence of the hospodar and of a Greek 

 bishop, contains 10,000 meanly built houses, and 

 GOjOOOlnhabitants, including Greeks, Jews, and Ar- 

 menians. The streets are not paved, but covered 

 with logs. The Greeks formerly had an academy 

 here with 12 instructors which, in 1810, contained 



