638 



A. D. 1423. 



fure, the pipe 126, the tertian and hogfhead in proportion; that the 

 barrel of herrings or eels fhould contain 30 gallons, the butt of falmon 

 84 gallons, and fmaller cafks in proportion, the fifh in all of them, whe- 

 ther imported or cured at home, being fully packed, {c. 11.] 



The laws for regulating the ftandard quality of filver were renewed. 

 The filverfmiths were ordered to affix their own mark to their work. 

 Keepers of the touch (or elTay-mafters) were appointed in London, 

 York, Newcaftle upon Tine, Lincoln, Norwich, Briflol, Salifbury, and 

 Coventry, who were to ftamp all filver work of the due flandard with a 

 leopard's head. In other places the filverfmiths were allowed to fell 

 their wares with their own flamp only, but liable to a penalty of double 

 the value of any filver found under the ftandard of flerling money. 

 [c. 14.] 



1424, February — James, king of Scotland, having bound himfelf and 

 his kingdom to pay ^^40,000 flerling, by inflallments in the courfe of 

 fix years, to Henry VI, king of England, for his board or keeping *, 

 gave his own obligation, and delivered a number of hoflages of the firfl 

 families in Scotland ; and moreover, as if thofe fecurities were not fuf- 

 ficient, the communities of Edinburgh, Perth, Dundee, and Aberdeen, 

 as the moft opulent towns of Scotland, gave their obligations for 50,000 

 marks each, every one of them thus taking burthen for the whole, 

 which, by an allowance of 10,000 marks as the portion of Lady Jane, 

 daughter of the duke of So'merfet, married to King James, was reduced 

 to that fum inftead of the original 60,000 marks. In a truce of feven 

 years, which accompanied this pecuniary tranfadion, the only article, in 

 the finallefl: degree conneded with commerce, provided that the merch- 

 ants, pilgrims, and filhers, of either party, driven by ftrefs of weather 

 into the ports of the other, fhould not be feized. [Foedtra, V. x, pp. 



.324,3291-] 



May — James I, king of Scotland, was diilinguiflied by a bright genius, 

 a vigorous mind cultivated in the fchool of early adverfity, and an eager 

 defire to improve the condition of his kingdom, which had been in a 

 retrograde ftate fince the death of King Alexander III. With his reflor- 

 ation commences the regular feries of the written laws of Scotland J, 

 which will henceforth furnifli authentic materials for the commercial 



* ' Pro tempore quo diclus dominus Rex Ja- + It is worthy oF obfcVvation, that the laws of 



' cobus ftclit ill prefentia regum Anglis'. The Scotland, vvhich had hitherto all been written in 



comniifiioners carefully avoided the word ranfom, Latin, were after the relloration of James, with the 



;is they did not chufe to fay that James was a prif- exception of about half a dozen, all cxprefled in 



oner. ''"■' language of the |)eoplc, who were to be go- 



f The panes here quoted are only thofe con- verned by them, and the (liirrefs were diredled to 

 laiiiing the obligations of the four towns, whicli make them fufficieiilly public throughout the king- 

 had tlic heavy honour of jjciiig fteuritica for iheir dom. In England tiie laws were either in Latin 

 fovcrcign, and the article of the truce referred to. or French, and moftly Freneli, till the reign of 

 Of the hundreds of writings concerning the libera- Richard III, when the full EnglKh llatute was 

 tion of King James, thofe printed in the ninth and enafted, whicli was long after the French lan- 

 icntli volumes of the Focdera, though only a part, guage had become obfoletc even among the upper 

 are far too numerous to be particularly quoted. tanks. » 



