Keppoch song

ADDENDA. 143
inconsistent with the dignity and impartia-
lity of history; and he thinks they but ve-
rify the old Scots proverb, " The greatest
rogue cries first fie."
The governor of Scotland, during the
minority of James the Third, quarrelled
with John about his Earldom of Ross, the
object of the unjust cupidity of the gover-
nor for the minority of James the First, aid-
ed by the arts of knavish priestcraft, and a
contemptible, illegal, and fraudulent con-
veyance of property devolving by descent,
of which any common attorney would be
ashamed. But as the affair of that earldom
had been settled by James the First, after
his assuming the reins of government, all
pretensions of the crown departed from,
and the same restored to Alexander of the
Isles, the lineal heir, inasmuch as the earl-
dom had been the property and heritage of
the Thanes and Earls of Ross, long prior to
the reigns of his predecessors, David the
Second, Robert the Second, and Robert
the Third. John of Ross might, therefore,
be justly provoked, at the reiterated at-
tempts of a person against his property,