ANNALS OF SCOTLAND. 4,1 



munication and correfpondence with the Scots, 

 whom he calls rebels ; to which the Earl made 

 anfwer as follows : cc Our country of Flanders is 

 common to all the world, where every perfon finds 

 free permifiion, neither can we withhold this privi-\ 

 ledge from perfons concerned in commerce, without 

 bringing ruin and deftruction on our country. If 

 the Scots come into our ports, and our fubjecls go 

 to theirs, it is not thereby our intention, nor that 

 of our fub}ecl:s, to encourage them in their error, 

 but merely to carry on our traffic without taking 

 part with them. " 



In 1322, Edward finding all his remonftrances 

 with the Earl of Flanders ineffectual, and that his 

 fubjects ftill continued to fupply the Scots with 

 arms and provifions, ordered the barons of the 

 Cinque ports to deftroy all the fhips of the Flem- 

 ings, which fhould be found carrying fupplies to 

 the Scots. And in 1333, we find Edward III. 

 complaining to the faid Earl, and to the burgo- 

 matters of the three good towns of Bruges, Gaunt, 

 and Ypres, of their people's aiding the Scots, his 

 enemies, with their fhips, ammunition, and pro- 

 vifions. 



So refpeclable was the Scottifh trade, even in the 

 word of times 5 and as all the trifling manufactures 

 of that early period muft have been nearly at a {land 

 during the deprefling circumftances attendant upon 

 war, we may chiefly attribute the foreign aid and 

 fupplies, to the fiiheries alone. 



No fooner had peace, fccurity, and good order, 

 been reftored, than the nation refumed its commer- 

 cial fpirit with new vigour, and from thencefor- 

 ward the progreflive flourifhing date of Scotland is 



The valuable collection of Hate papers, thus happily preferred 

 through a feries of ages, and amidft all the revolutions that con- 

 vulied the ifiand, hath enabled later hiftorians to correct the 

 errors of old writers, and to publifh the annals of both nations, 

 with a degree of certainty hitherto unknown, 



fully 



