It is not less pathetic to turn to Edward's scheme for the government of Scotland. It bears the impress of a mind which was that of a statesman and a lawyer as well as a soldier. It is impossible to deny a tribute of admiration to its wisdom, or to question the probability of its success in other circumstances. Had the course of events been more propitious for Edward's great plan, Scotland and England might have been spared much suffering. But Edward failed to realize that the Scots could no longer regard him as the friend and ally to whose son they had willingly agreed to marry their queen. He was now but a military conqueror in temporary possession of their country, an enemy to be resisted by any means. The new constitution was foredoomed to failure. Carrying out his scheme of 1296, Edward created no vassal-king, but placed Scotland under his own nephew, John of Brittany; he interfered as little as might be with the customs and laws of the country; he placed over it eight justiciars with sheriffs under them. In 1305, Edward's Parliament, which met at London, was attended by Scottish representatives. The incorporation of the country with its larger neighbour was complete, but it involved as little change as was possible in the circumstances. The Parliament of 1305 was attended by Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, who attended not as a representative of Scotland, but as an English lord. Bruce was the grandson of the Robert Bruce of Annandale who had been promised the crown by Alexander II, and who had been one of the claimants of 1290. His grandfather had done homage to Edward, and Bruce himself had been generally on the English side, and had fought against Wallace at Falkirk. When John Balliol had decided to rebel, he had transferred the lands of Annandale from the Bruces to the Comyns, and they had been restored by Edward I after Balliol's submission. From 1299 to 1303, Bruce had been associated with Comyn in the guardianship of the kingdom, but, like Comyn, had submitted to Edward. Nobody in Scotland could now think of a restoration of Balliol, and if there was to be a Scottish king at all, it must obviously be either Comyn or Bruce. The claim of John Comyn the younger was much stronger than that of his father had been. The elder Comyn had claimed on account of his descent from Donald Bane, the brother and successor of Malcolm Canmore; but the younger Comyn had an additional claim in right of his mother, who was a sister of John Balliol. Between Bruce and Comyn there was a long-standing feud. In 1299, at a meeting of the Great Council of Scotland at Peebles, Comyn had attacked Bruce, and they could only be separated by the use of violence. On the 10th February, 1305-6, Bruce and the Comyn met in the church of the convent of the Minorite Friars at Dumfries. Tradition tells that they met to adjust their conflicting claims, with a view to establishing the independence of the country in