THE TRIUMPH OF LAW. "Broken men" drafted off to Belgic wars--Graemes banished to Ireland--Buccleuch invested with arbitrary powers--Thieves executed without ceremony--The Union of the Crowns--The effect highly beneficial--Firm hand laid on the ring-leaders of Border strife--New spirit infused into the administration--The name _Middleshires_ substituted for _Borders_--The law impartially administered--A happy era-- Parochial system of education--Schools before the Reformation--Educational condition of the Borders--John Knox's scheme--Beneficial results--Teaching and influence of the Church--Religious state of the Borders--Decision of the Commission--Difficulties in the way--Thomas Boston--The unploughed field--Victory achieved 280-298 XVI. THE HARVEST OF PEACE. Great changes effected in habits and character of the people--Easily explained--"Broken men" expatriated--How reiving was regarded--Border ethics--Right to rob the English--Statistics of crime--The Tweed Act--A hard school--Grim and dour--Services rendered by Borderers-- Great feature of Border life--Birthplace of poetry--The old ballads--A priceless inheritance--James Thomson, the author of "The Seasons"--Sir Walter Scott--Hogg--Leyden-- Burns probably sprung from a Border stock--The name "Burness"--A Western Mecca--Rural population decreasing-- Conclusion 299-310 PREFACE. The object we have had in view in the following pages has been (1) to indicate briefly the causes which produced Border reiving; (2) to show the extent to which the system was ultimately developed; (3) to describe the means adopted by both Governments for its suppression; (4) to illustrate the way in which the _rugging and riving_--to use a well-known phrase--was carried on; (5) to explain how these abnormal conditions were in the end effectually removed; and (6) to set forth in brief outline some of the more prominent traits in the lives and characters of the men who were most closely identified with this extraordinary phase of Border life. We have to acknowledge our indebtedness for much of the information conveyed in the following pages to Scott's "Border Antiquities" and "Border Minstrelsy," Nicolson's "Leges Marchiarum," Pitcairn's "Criminal Trials," "Calendar of Border Papers" (recently published), "Cary's Memoirs"--Froissart, Godscroft, Pitscottie, Pinkerton--and host of other writers on Border themes. It is in no spirit of mock-modesty we acknowledge how inadequately the object we have had in view has been realised. The subject is so large and many-sided that we have found it difficult to compress within the compass of a single volume anything like an adequate outline of a theme which is at once so varied and interesting.