A. D. 796. 249 



* Neverthclefs, if any are found among them not in the fervice of reh- 

 ' gion, but in the purfuit of gain, let them pay the eftabUfhed duties at 



* the proper places. We alfo will, that merchants fhall have lawful pro- 



* tedion in our kingdom according to our command ; and if they are 

 ' in any place unjuflly aggrieved, let them apply to us or our judges, 



* and we fliall take care that ample juftice be done to them.' — After 

 fome ecclefiaflical particulars, he concludes, by informing Offli, that he 

 had fent him a prefent of a belt, a Hunnifh fword, and two robes of 

 filk * f. [M. Paris Vit. Offcs, p. 20.— or Will. Mahnjb. f. 17.] 



The kingdom of Northumberland appears to have furpafled the other 

 divifions of Britain in wealth, as well as in learning and fcience. There 

 is even reafon to believe that the Jews, a race of people, who, ever fmce 

 the deftrudlion of their capital city by the Romans, have fpread them- 

 felves into every wealthy country, had before this time penetrated into 

 this remote kingdom, as we may infer from a foreign canon being 

 tranfcribed by Egbert archbifhop of York into his Excerpts X, which pro- 

 hibits Chriilians from imitating the manners of the Jews, or partaking 

 of their feafts. [Spelman. Concil. p. 275.] The fame prelate eftabhlhed 

 a noble library at York, the capital city of Northumberland, to which 

 Alcuin propofed, with the approbation of the emperor Charles, to fend 

 the youth of France for improvement. \]¥ill. Mahnjb. f. 153 a.] 



800 Charles the Great (or Charlemagne), in confequence of his ex- 



tenfive conquefts and great power, and the policy of the pope, was 

 crowned at Rome by the title of emperor of the Romans ; a title ftill 

 kept up by the emperors of Germany as his fucceflbrs. Some time af- 



• This treaty was brought about chiefly by the the great embelh'lher of Scottifli hillory, liaving 



condudl of Alcuin, one of the ambafFadors fent by given the fanaion of his authority to the ilory, it 



Offa to Charles. That great monarch was fo de- was almult uiiiverfally believed till lately. Mr. 



lighted with the talents and learning of Alcuin, Anderfon, carried away by the tide of eftabliflied 



that he entreated him to remain with him in order prejudice, which had carried away Su' George 



to inftruft his fubjefts. And to this learned na- Mackenzie, Sir James Dalrymple, Sir Robert Sib- 



tive of the Northumbrian kingdom, who flione, af- bald, Thomas Ruddiman, and other writers, whofr 



ter Bede, the brighteft luminary of the benighted profefled line of ftudy led them to a more critical 



wellern world, the French are in a great meafure inveftigation of Scottilh hiltory, has noticed this 



indebted for the origin of learning and fcience in league in his work. It would be eafy to Ihew that 



their country. there is no authority to fay that any luch league 



The hillorians of England have taken but little ever exilled, but it would lead me into a diflerta- 



notice of Charles's letter, which is an authentic tion very foreign to the nature of this work, 



treaty of friendfhip and commerce. But Fordun f Mathew Paris remarks, probably from tradi- 



and the later Scottifh hiftorians, thinking it high- tional report, that Vulli;;, abbat of St. Albans, a 



ly honourable for their country that it fhould have favourite, and perhaps a relation, of King Offa, 



attradled the nolice of fo great a prince as Charles, affetled great magniticence, and was clothed in 



have wrcfted a paffage, wherein Eginhart mentions lilk. \_Vittc abbatum, p. 37.] Perhaps the po.T.p- 



Ihe kings [' regei') of the Scots (unquellionably ous abbat had filks imported on purpofe tor hi» 



the Scots of Ireland) as the humble fervants of own ufe ; for we cannot fuppofc, that what was a 



Charles, into a proof of an alliance between him proper prefent from the greateft fovercign on the 



and Achaius, king of the Scots in Argyle. Wyn- continent to the greateft fovercign in Britain, was 



town, a writer contemporary with Fordun, knew common in the wcftern parts of the world, 



nothing of the alliance, nor of any one event of % Spelman thinks that the Excerpts of Egbert 



the reign of Achaius or Eokal ; [See his Orygynale may have been written about the year 750. Ho 



Ci-onyiil of Scotland, B. vl, c. 4] but Hcftor Bovfc, pofTeffed the fee of York from 735 to 766. 



Vol. I. ' I i 



