ch the Lower House concurred with the Upper in
consigning to the hangman was _The Present Crisis with regard to
America Considered_ (February 24th, 1775); but of this book the
fate it met with seems now the only ascertainable fact about it.
It appears to enjoy the real distinction of having been the last
book condemned by Parliament in England to the flames; although
that honour has sometimes been claimed for the _Commercial
Restraints of Ireland_, by Provost Hely Hutchinson (1779); a
claim which will remain to be considered after a brief survey of
the works which in Scotland the wisdom of Parliament saw fit to
punish by fire.

The first order of this sort was dated November 16th, 1700, and
sentenced to be burnt by the hangman at Mercat Cross His
Majesty's _High Commission and Estates of Parliament_.

In the same way was treated _A Defence of the Scots abdicating
Darien, including an Answer to the Defence of the Scots
Settlement there_, and _A Vindication_ of the same pamphlet, both
by Walter Herries, who was ordered to be apprehended. More
interesting to read would doubtless be a lampoon, said to reflect
on everything sacred to Scotland, and burnt accordingly, which
was called _Caledonia; or, the Pedlar turned Merchant_.

Dr. James Drake, whose _Memorial of the Church of England_ was
burnt in England in 1705, published a work two years earlier
which stirred the Scotch Parliament to the same fiery point of
indignation. This was his already mentioned _Historia
Anglo-Scotica: an impartial History of all that happened between
the Kings and Kingdoms of England and Scotland from the beginning
of the Reign of William the Conqueror to the Reign of Queen
Elizabeth_ (1703). This stout volume of 423 pages Drake printed
without any date or name, pretending that the manuscript had
come to him in such a way that it was impossible to trace its
authorship. He dedicated it to Sir Edward Seymour, one of Queen
Anne's commissioners for the then meditated and unpopular union
between the two kingdoms. It gave the gravest offence, and was
burnt at the Mercat Cross on June 30th for containing "many
reflections on the sovereignty and independence of this crown and
nation." But, apart from the history that attaches to it, I doubt
if any one could regard it with interest.

No less offence was given to Scotland by the English Whig writer
William Attwood, whose _Superiority and Direct Dominion of the
Imperial Crown of England over the Crown