From what has been stated in the foregoing pages, it is pretty evident that Scotland occupied a more prominent station among the nations of Europe, before the aggression of Edward I. than she has ever done since. The single fact, that Alexander II. mustered and led to the borders of England, in 1244, an army of 100,000 foot, with a well appointed body of cavalry, proves that, at the period under review, when the numerical strength of the two British kingdoms were marshalled, the inferiority of Scotland was by no means very apparent. An army so numerous as that we have mentioned, no subsequent monarch of that kingdom ever had it in his power to bring into the field. On the death of Alexander III. the prosperity of Scotland became eclipsed--anarchy overspread the land--the machiavelism of her arch-enemy prevailed--her ancient glory was trampled in the dust--and commerce deserted a country overrun with the horrors of war. Thus, in the emphatic language of the Bard, “Oure gold wes changyd into lede;” “and,” says MacPherson, “our fishermen and merchants into cut-throats and plunderers, whose only trade was war, and whose precarious and only profit was the ruin of her neighbours.” CHAPTER II. ON THE CLAIM OF ENGLAND TO THE FEUDAL HOMAGE OF SCOTLAND. Scotland, at various periods of her history, has been placed in situations of imminent peril, from the encroachments and invasions of her ambitious neighbour in the South. Misled by an insatiable thirst for conquest, the English monarchs were either prosecuting their views of aggrandizement on the continent of Europe, or disturbing the tranquillity of Britain by endeavouring to subvert the liberty and independence of her states. The Welsh, after being driven from the most fruitful of their domains, continued an arduous, but ineffectual struggle for their freedom, amid the few barren rocks and vallies that remained to them of their ancient and once flourishing kingdom. The Scots, though always numerically inferior to the English, and, from the comparative poverty of their country, deficient in those internal resources which their richer neighbours possessed; yet, from their warlike propensities, their parsimonious habits, and that love of independence which formed so striking a feature in the character of all the tribes of which the nation was composed, were either prepared to guard the frontier of their kingdom, or retaliate an aggression by invading the territories of the enemy. This last measure was the mode of defence they chiefly resorted to; aware that, with the exception of Berwick, the English, without advancing farther into the country than was consistent with their safety, would find no booty equivalent to what could be driven by the Scots from the fertile plains of their more wealthy opponents. These hostilities were frequently embittered by a claim of superiority which the English urged against the crown and kingdom of Scotland; and as the attempts which were made, from