The reader may form some idea of the treasures squandered by Edward in the Scottish wars, from the Statement of Receipts and Disbursements for the year 1300, inserted in Appendix M, at the end of this volume. The military operations of that year were not on a more expensive scale than those connected with the preceding and subsequent invasions; and by this statement, it will be found, that the disbursements for the campaign of 1300, exceeded, “within one department of the national expenditure,” _one fifth_ of the national income. That the expenses of this campaign pressed equally hard on other departments of the exchequer, is sufficiently obvious from the singular expedients which were resorted to for the purpose of carrying it on. The year 1300 is remarkable for the first attempt to depreciate the currency of the realm, it having been then ordered that 243 pennies should be coined out of the pound of silver, in place of 240 as formerly. In this year, also, as will be seen by the statements already alluded to, the Wardrobe department was in arrears to the amount of 5949_l._ 4s. 3d., which circumstance--taken in connexion with the fact, that Sir Simon Fraser and other knights soon after deserted the English service, because their pay and other allowances were withheld--proves that the treasury of England at this time must have been in a very depressed state. This profitless expenditure was continued with little interruption, from 1296 till 1320, in pursuit of an object, which, happily for the future prosperity of both countries, was unattainable. We have already alluded to the treacherous designs of Edward, regarding the liberties of his own subjects; and, in illustration of the opinion then expressed, we shall now subjoin the account of his behaviour, after his triumphant return from the north, as it appears in the pages of Dr Lingard, an author who certainly cannot be considered as a friend to Scotland:--we wish we were able to call him a _candid_ adversary.