civit, and musk, to the value just stated, her Majesty authorizes Heriot to pawn certain jewels enumerated in her precept, and of which she had lost conceit. Economy, it has been well observed, could never be reckoned among the virtues of Anne of Denmark. In consequence of her indiscretion, she shortly discovered that her exalted station did not save her from the anxiety which embarrassment brings in its train. We are told, that she became melancholy and dispirited in the winter of 1609; and, on inquiry, it was ascertained that her jointure was insufficient to meet the demands of her creditors, of whom Heriot was the principal. The sum of £20,000 sterling was immediately drawn from the public chest for the payment of the Queen's debt, and the royal jointure was increased £3000 a-year."

Such evidences of courtly extravagance, the fruits of which exercised no inconsiderable influence on the fate of the Queen's unfortunate son, Charles I., afford a striking and instructive contrast to the fruits of prudent industry and perseverance in the Scottish merchant. The death of his second wife Alison Primrose, once more rendered him a solitary man, amid all his wealth and the friends which it could command. On a slip of paper found among numerous other private documents in the hospital charterroom, he has written this brief but touching memorial:"she cannot be too much lamented, who could not be too much loved." It was doubtless subsequent to this sad event, which left him without a lineal heir to the fortune which his industry had accumulated, that Heriot matured the scheme for founding an asylum for the orphan and destitute children of the Scottish capital, which still forms

one of the noblest and most liberally endowed charitable institutions in the country. This distinguished and successful trader has been selected by Sir Walter Scott, as one of the principal characters in the work to which we have already referred. In the introduction he remarks:-"As worth of character, goodness of heart, and rectitude of principle, were necessary to one who laid no claim to high birth, I made free with the name of a person who has left the most magnificent proofs of his benevolence and charity that the capital of Scotland has to display. The founder of such a charity as this, may be reasonably supposed to have walked through life with a steady pace and an observant eye, neglecting no opportunity of assisting those who were not possessed of the experience necessary for their own guidance. In supposing his efforts directed to the benefit of a young nobleman, misguided by the aristocratic haughtiness of his own time, and the prevailing tone of selfish luxury which seems peculiar to ours, as well as the seductions of pleasure which are predominant in all, some amusement, or even some advantage, might, I thought, be derived from the manner in which I might bring the exertions of this civic mentor to bear in his pupil's behalf. I am, I own, no great believer in the moral utility to be derived from fictitious compositions; yet, if in any case a word spoken in season may be of advantage to a young person, it must surely be when it calls upon him to attend to the voice of principle and self-denial, instead of that of precipitate passion. Something, I hoped, might be done not altogether unworthy the fame which George Heriot has secured by the lasting benefits he has bestowed on his country."

On the first Monday of June in each year, it is customary to celebrate, in Edinburgh, the anniversary of the founder of Heriot's Hospital, when the pupils and former students of the hospital, as well as all other participators in the fruits of the benevolent merchant's bequest, commence the day by hearing the anniversary sermon, which is usually preached by one of the city clergy in the Greyfriars' Church; the children there uniting their voices in singing an anthem in commemoration of the founder. Dr. Steven has concluded his memoir of Heriot, with an extract from the commemoration sermon preached by the Rev. John Mackqueen, in 1683, to which he adds the remark, that "if such a eulogy was not overdrawn then, in regard to the incalculable religious benefits which the princely bequest enabled the trustees of the fund to confer, with what an emphasis may it be pronounced now!

“I think his works may supersede any historical account of him. He has left a more lasting monument of his piety and charity to bear his name and perpetuate his fame, than all paper memorials whatsoever are capable to perform. So long as there will be any memory of this honourable city, his name shall be mentioned with honour and esteem. When all the flashes of sensual pleasure are quite extinct; when all the glances of temporal felicity and human excellency are quite forgot; when all the flowers of secular glory are withered away; when all earthly trophies are burned in their funeral ashes; when all the eulogies of conquerors engraven on brass, or those pompous inscriptions on marble undergo the fate of those drawn on the sand, or written in water; when all the stately monuments and sumptuous statues of the Roman heroes are levelled

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with the ground; when this world and all its parade shall be consumed; when the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and the host thereof dissolved; when the elements shall melt, and the earth be burned up with fervent heat, the name of the renowned GEORGE HERIOT shall be blessed before the Lord, and his works shall be in everlasting remembrance."

In contrast to the fortunate goldsmith of James I. of England, it may not be out of place to refer to another noted merchant of the Scottish capital, once no less wealthy, but whom the adverse influence of later political convulsions reduced to the most abject misery that it was perhaps ever the fate of a successful trader to be brought to. There are nobler ambitions even than success in life, though that is a just and honourable aim, towards which every one should strive. It may not be out of place, while illustrating the success which rewards honest industry, to show also the instability of fortune; that, since riches so often take themselves wings and fly away, we may be taught to aim also at the possession of that nobler inheritance which no change of fortune can affect, and no thief can break through to steal. Sir William Dick of Braid, an eminent Scottish merchant of the seventeenth century, was so fortunate in all his engagements, that he was reputed the wealthiest man in Scotland, and was even believed by credulous contemporaries to have discovered the secret of the philosopher's stone. He possessed numerous ships and traded to many foreign countries bringing home to the port of Leith the spices and the wealth of the Indies, and exporting them again to England and the continent of Europe. On the breaking out of the civil wars, which the infatuated blind

ness and obstinacy of Charles I. provoked, Sir William Dick zealously espoused the cause of the Scottish Covenanters.

In the memorable year 1641, he advanced at one time to the Scottish Convention of Estates, the sum of 100,000 merks, to save them from the necessity of disbanding the army which had been assembled to assert and to defend the popular rights and the liberty of Parliament. Like many others of the most zealous Scottish Presbyterians, however, his horror of the "Sectaries," as the Independent party under Cromwell was called, exceeded even his apprehension of the tyrannical encroachments of the Stuarts. He aimed, moreover, like many others of his party, at a modified monarchical system, and the restoration of the Scottish Presbyterian Church; while the English party, then in the ascendant, aimed at a much more comprehensive and radical system of change. Sir Walter Scott, who was familiar with the history of this celebrated old citizen of the Scottish capital, represents David Deans, in the Heart of MidLothian, exultingly exclaiming-"Then folk might see men deliver up their silver to the State's use, as if it had been so many sclate stanes. My father saw them toom the sacks of dollars out o' Provost Dick's window, intill the carts that carried them to the army at Dunse-Law; and if ye winna believe his testimony, there is the window itsell, still standing in the Luckenbooths." On the triumph of Cromwell, Sir William Dick, as well as many other worthy but narrow-minded men in Scotland, dreaded that something worse even than the despotism of Charles was to supervene, and he accordingly gave substantial proof of his zeal by advancing £20,000 for the service of King