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the omnivorous scholar had been collecting material for what he called an Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, which was in reality nothing but a catalogue raisonné of writers real or imaginary. The unlucky 'Nomenclature of Scottish Writers' had been published as a kind of specimen of this work, and quite undeterred by the protests and corrections tendered to him, Dempster proceeded to repeat with exaggerations every mistake he had made in his first publication; he even issued a separate volume containing nine arguments to prove Boniface, the Wessex apostle of Germany,

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University of Paris"; Rabanus Maurus and Eginhard; Willibrord and Boniface-all, all are Scots, while, as already mentioned, the name of Scotus encouraged him to appropriate Fursey and Patrick and half the Irish list of saints. With them, too, he captured the Doctors of the Law. Duns Scotus of course falls a victim at once; and as to Joannes Erigena, what can be clearer? The name is doubtless Airigens, and he was born at Ayr, a notable town in Scotland. Nor is it sufficient for him to enumerate twelve hundred or more Caledonian worthies; he multiplies them by making two or three have been a Scot, and saints out of one; he has three twelve more to establish Kilians and five Columbas. claim to Duns Scotus. The From one Bernard the Monk, full "History" itself was only who had as much to do with published after his death, and Scotland as with Cathay, and then only when it had been who wrote a few pages of sufficiently bedevilled by description of the Holy Land Romanist Scots, who in parti- in the ninth century, our cular had garbled the passage, Thomas evolves two saints, above alluded to, about the one of them Abbot of Holywood massacre of Saint Bartholo- in Dumfriesshire and author of mew's Day. Its absurdities ten books on the history of they never attempted to cor- Jerusalem, which he, Dempster, rect it stands as a monument has seen! Nay, if the avengof wrongheaded patriotism. ing Irishman is right, he acDempster begins by accepting tually manufactured a Saint that shining light of mendacity, Amphibalus (he gives two in Hector Boyce, or Boethius, as the "History") out of Saint an unimpeachable authority, Alban's "cloak" (amphibalus in and then of his own wickedness Low Latin). And all his and malice prepense goes on to worthies must have written claim as Scots half the medi- something: from Fergus L, eval saints of Europe. French- long before the Christian era, men, Frisians, Germans, Welsh- downwards, Bards, Druids, men, Englishmen, Goths, he and Culdees, he is ready with sweeps them all in. If one of lists of their works; and he them passed a night in Scot- puts the coping-stone on abland he is reckoned as a surdity when he ascribes to Scottish writer. Bede and Boadicea, who was of course Alouin, who "founded the a Scotswoman, half a dozen

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books on affairs military, in- of the original Doomster or cluding one 'On Shaking Deemster-he is right enough off the Roman Yoke.' As his so far whose court authority he refers to one "Tiraquellus."

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formed by twelve assessors called the Keys; the whole arrangement being afterwards

He cannot quite appropriate King Arthur, but he claims Merlin, and lays hands on "Saint" Guinevere, who was captured in battle by the Picts and Scots when they defeated Arthur, and whose tomb did such very questionable miracles that it had to be fenced in to prevent their repetition. His account of Queen Mary and her relations with the "she-wolf of England" is, as might be expected, fantastic.

Now Dempster has been often accused of downright transferred to Mona's isle. forgery-invention of authorities who never existed. It is difficult to prove that. In one case he has been triumphantly vindicated James Kyd or Cadanus, whom he mentions as having taught at Toulouse about 1500, was long supposed to be a mythical person; he was real enough. But that Thomas did wickedly misquote and distort his authorities is true; as when he gave a phrase from a hymn to Saint Boniface not, as in the original, "pious martyr" but "Scottish martyr"; and "Tiraquellus" is a case in point. Tiraquellus lived and wrote-wrote a good deal; the only fault in the reference is that the passage quoted deals not with Boadicea at all, but with lady doctors from the beginning of the world, headed by the nymph Hygieia! and from one learn all.

His history is not above reproach either. Fergus II. may have been at the capture of Rome by Alaric. But Edward I. (specifically described as Longshanks) was not defeated at Bannockburn, nor did he flee away in a small boat leaving a bard, whom he had brought with him to sing his praises, to chant those of the Bruce. Even the Manx patriot is plundered of his antiquities: he, Dempster, is a descendant

VOL. CLXXXVI.—NO. MCXXX.

In spite of these vagaries, there is an immense amount of research embodied in the Ecclesiastical History. On his continual wanderings Dempster had had access to sources of Scottish history then and long after unpublished, and some since lost: Fordun's manuscript he had seen, and Mill's Lives of the Bishops of Dunkeld, and Newton's lost history of those of Dunblane. And again, he had known or had gathered information as to scores of those Scottish scholars who in the sixteenth century and later taught in half the universities of Europe, and whose memorial had wellnigh perished with them. Of one of such scholars, poor and proud, he gives a graphic and touching account. Halkerstone or Hackerston was his name, of kin belike to Hackston of Rathillet, and Dempster

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found him starving in London. He had been a soldier and a poet with a neat turn for epigram: what he was doing in London does not appear. He and Dempster walked through the city till the dinner - hour, but nothing would induce him to accept the big man's jovial invitation; rather he insisted on sharing with him his own own poor bread and beans. Nor would he take money as a loan, which he knew he could not repay, though he did accept a small gift. "And now," says Dempster, "I hear he is dead of starvation." Sad enough we turn gladly to a delightful ghost story of oue Saint Emilian, who was buried at Faenza, and his forgotten grave contumeliously covered with hay. This he resented by rising up and boxing the ears of any persons who might engage in conversation over his head, until the mutual recrimination thence arising led to the discovery and proper adornment of his tomb, from which in future issued not buffets but perfumes of Araby.

He gives, too, most horrible and quite unrepeatable details of the murder of Cardinal Beaton by Norman Leslie and of the death of the homicide, which do not seem to be recorded elsewhere, but which are terribly consonant with the desire for "picturesqueof dramatic revenge

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which distinguished the Scot of those days.1 In fine, could Dempster here have checked his rabid patriotism he might, with his sources of information, have produced a really valuable work: as it is, we can only re-echo Bishop Lloyd's remark that "Dempster the Jesuit (which he was not) "was as well inclined to believe a lie as any man in his time" time" (which he was, wherever Scotland was concerned). Scotland, he assured the University of BolognaScotland, the possessor of a line of kings unbroken for 2000 years Scotland had conquered Rome and civilised Europe by teaching it the Civil Law. Even for the Caledonian midge, as we have seen, when boiled, he had a good word.

We take our leave of the big man with regret. A big man he was, alike in body, in temper, and in learning. And as to his exaggerated patriotism, is it not a pleasure in these anæmic days to remember a man whose opinions were those of our grandfathers' famous toast: "Our Country! In her dealings with foreign powers may she ever be in the right! but, right or wrong, our Country!" Had Johnson lived in the days of Dempster, Dempster would have abused him when alive for an Englishman, and canonised him as a Scot after death.

A. T. S. GoODRICK.

1 The story is given by Pitscottie, but the brutal insult is attributed not to Norman Leslie but to "ane knaif" named Guthrie, of whom it is refreshing to read that he "thraif never the better efterwarts."

THE LIGHTER SIDE OF MY OFFICIAL LIFE.

BY SIR ROBERT ANDERSON, K.C.B.

III.

SECRET SERVICE.

As I review the earlier years of my life in London, I wish to keep silence about all matters of a specially confidential nature, and at the same time to avoid loading these pages with mere gossip and trivial details. I am the only survivor of those who had knowledge of the graver matters to which I allude; and while the disclosure of them now would lend sensational interest to my story, it would serve no useful public purpose. Apart from these, indeed, incidents abounded which might, with a little dressing up, afford material for a novel. I was in a position, moreover, to know all that was worth knowing in the sphere of ordinary Police work at Scotland Yard. For Sir Richard Mayne had placed the detective department at my disposal; and as I soon gained the confidence and good - will of the officers, they not only helped me loyally in my inquiries respecting political crime, but spoke to me without reserve about their " "cases and all ordinary Police business. All this, however, is ancient history, and the years in question shall be dismissed with no more notice than

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is necessary to preserve the sequence of my narrative.

At that time I had no intention of abandoning the profession of my choice, and it was not till ten years later that I entered the Civil Service. My immediate objective was admission to the English Bar. For though a sceptic both by temperament and training, I have long held a firm belief in the capacity of Irish agitators to impose upon English statesmen — a belief that is shared by all Irishmen, not excepting the agitators themselves, and, as I anticipated the evils which agitation has in fact brought upon Ireland, I wished to be free of the Law Courts at Westminster Dublin.

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change of masters. "I don't know how you feel, but I'm devilish miserable," was Liddell's greeting to me the day the change took place. But it is not the wicked only who are disquieted in vain. For the change of masters served only to bring me new friends. And as regards the political element involved, I cannot but contrast the change of December 1868 with that of December 1905, for Mr Bruce at once announced that he was satisfied that everything approved by Mr Hardy must be right, and all was to go on as usual in the Office.

Not that he was a weak man. He was in fact one of the best Home Secretaries of my time a man of judgment and discretion, a thorough gentleman, a good lawyer, and a pleasing speaker. But on the staff of two of the leading newspapers there were certain Government officials who, for some reason or other, were his enemies. One of them was a Metropolitan Police magistrate, and the other was still more closely connected with Scotland Yard; and the persistent

malignity of these journalists conveyed to the public a wholly false impression of Mr Bruce's administration of the Home Office. He was prejudiced also by appointing as his Private Secretary a man who, though clever and amiable, was wanting in tact and common-sense.

The absurd Fenian scare which followed "the Clerkenwell explosion" naturally led to a revival of Fenian activity. Ricard Burke, who instigated that outrage, was succeeded by Michael Davitt as "arms agent" to the conspirators, and, unlike most of their paid officials, he served them honestly and well. So much so, indeed, that during the year 1869 the illicit introduction of arms into Ireland became a matter of anxiety to the Irish Government. And such is the fatuity of Government methods and ways, that this very time was chosen by the War Office to sell off stores of discarded rifles. The Fenians were thus enabled to purchase at "knock-out" prices better arms than had ever been carried by British troops in actual warfare; and quantities of these were smuggled into Ireland for the use of the rebels. We were aware of what was doing; but there is a great difference between getting information and obtaining evidence for a treason - felony prosecution, and it was not till February 1870 that Davitt and his partner in the business fell into our clutches.

Davitt's life - story is not without interest. When he was but twelve years of age

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