ountry, who had to be summoned to exhibit their
charters and prove their titles, partly no doubt with the view of
discovering what Crown lands had been alienated by the Albany party,
that the King's quarrel was, than with the humbler subjects of the
nation.

Yet there is no doubt, with all these lights and softening influences of
character and genius, that his reign was a stern one. James had
everything to reform in the country to which he came with so many new
ideas and so enlarged a knowledge of what the internal economy of a
nation might be made. It is rather against the general historical
estimate of the talents and power of the Regent Albany that the new King
should have found, as appears, so much to do for the reorganisation of
the commonwealth--regulating the laws, appointing courts of justice,
inquiring into the titles of property, and in every other way giving
consistency and order to the affairs of Scotland. However, the lavish
grants made to the great Scots lords and the licence given them to rule
their vassals as they pleased arose not from weakness but from Albany's
deliberate policy of securing a strong party on his side, a policy
exactly opposed to that of James, whose heart was set on subduing these
fierce nobles, and perhaps of developing the people at large, the nation
itself, if that is not too modern an ambition. The reign of Law, broken
and disturbed by a hundred storms, but still henceforward with a
statute-book to fall back upon and some fitful authority at its command,
began in Scotland in his day.

There are some curious details in the _Scotichronicon_ about the taxes,
now, it would seem, for the first time levied upon the general mass of
the people. In 1424, the year after James's return, a tax of twelvepence
in the pound was imposed by the Parliament at Perth, for the maintenance
of the King's state and payment of his ransom, upon all goods, lands,
and annual revenues of whatever description, both spiritual and
temporal, which was passed with the consent of the estates, no doubt
under the stimulus of the general rejoicing at the King's return. This
impost was to last for two years. An income tax so general and
all-embracing could scarcely be expected to be popular, but for the
first year it was paid, we are told, with readiness, certain of the
greatest nobles in the kingdom being appointed in their various
districts to the office of collecting. That the Church should have taken
her share in