Without attempting to delineate the character of this ambitious disturber of the peace of Britain, the writer will merely notice a few of the leading circumstances of his history, and leave the reader to discover by what curious process of literary chemistry those crudities have been made to harmonize, in order to produce so fair a display of political sagacity and kingly greatness. The littleness which appears to have been inherent in the mind of Edward was laid open to the Londoners in 1263, by his breaking into the treasury of the Knights Templars, and carrying off 1000_l._ deposited there by the citizens. This robbery was looked upon by the people as an act so thoroughly base, that they instantly flew to arms, and assaulted the houses of those among the nobility who were supposed accessary to the theft. Edward was at this time in his 26th year; of course youthful indiscretion cannot be advanced as an excuse for the crime. His aggression upon Scotland has been indulgently placed to the account of those enlightened and statesman-like views which he entertained of the true interests and general welfare of Britain, and the advantages he discovered would result from the resources of the two countries being consolidated under one head. This “reason of state,” has been held up in extenuation of the nefarious means which he resorted to for the accomplishment of his purpose. But by the extracts which we are about to make from the pages of an author every way inclined to treat the faults of Edward with lenity, the reader will perceive, that though the enlightened views “which he took of the solid interests of his kingdom,” may have found a place in the imagination of the historian, they do not appear to have occurred to the monarch. The extinction of every thing like rational liberty, and the establishment of an extensive and uncontrollable autocracy, seem to have been the undisguised objects of his ambition. In proof of which, we have only to refer to his demeanour towards his barons, and the unwarrantable appropriation of the effects of his subjects, mentioned in the extracts alluded to. His conduct in respect to Scotland being thus stripped of the only palliation that can be offered, it stands forward on the page of history in all its native deformity, unrelieved by one solitary extenuating circumstance, while the following transaction gives it, if possible, a darker and more disgusting complexion.