ingratitude towardes them, by hurting them with his hard hammered wordes, fitter to be vsed vpon his Mineralles’ (Sir James Balfour MSS. in Advocates' Library, Edinburgh).
In 1614 he was nominated master of requests. This appointment was a fortunate one for the king and state, in that it brought an iron will and hand down upon the rapacious beggarly Scots who day and night besieged the sovereign. At his recommendation an edict was issued in 1619, in which the king ‘discharges all manner of persons from resorting out of Scotland to this our kingdome, unlesse it be gentlemen of good qualitie, marchands for traffiques, or such as shall have a generall license from our counselle of that kingdome, with expresse prohibitioun to all masters of shippes that they transport no such persones.’ It is added that ‘Sir William Alexander, master of requests, has received a commission to apprehend and send home, or to punish all vagrant persones who come to England to cause trouble or bring discredit on their country’ (Register of Letters).
King James had long meditated a metrical version of the Psalms, which might supersede that of Sternhold and Hopkins used in England. In his ‘Poetical Exercises at Vacant Houres,’ published in 1591, he informs the reader that should his verses be well accepted, he would proceed to publish ‘such number of the Psalmes’ as he ‘had perfited,’ and would be encouraged ‘to the ending of the rest.’ In a general assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, held at Burntisland in 1601, his majesty set forth the importance of improving the version then in use (Spottiswoode's History, p. 446).
In this well-intentioned but unfortunate project the king early invited Alexander's assistance, though throughout he was disposed to hold his ground against all supersession of his own inharmonious attempts by alternative versions. The thing went on sluggishly, and the new ‘Psalmes’ did not appear until after the king's death in 1631, when they were published as ‘The Psalmes of King David. Translated by King James.’ The following license faced the title-page:—
‘Charles R. haveing caused this translation of the Psalmes (whereof oure late deare father was author) to be perused, and it being found to be exactly and truely done, we doe hereby authorize the same to be imprinted according to the patent granted thereupon, and doe allow them to be song in all the churches of oure dominiones, recommending them to all oure goode subjects for that effect.’ By a royal letter dated 14 June (1631), the English bishops were further commanded to introduce the new version into all the schools (Reg. of Letters).
Sir William had received a patent granting him the sole right for thirty-one years of ‘printing or causing to be printed these Psalmes.’ Had the new version been acceptable to the churches and people, the profits must have been considerable; but it did not succeed, and speedily fell into deserved oblivion. A later element added to its unpopularity over and above the patentee's pressing of his books: it was even bound up with Archbishop Laud's detested ‘Service Book’ (Memorials, pp. 167–170 seqq.). How far Sir William Alexander availed himself of the permission granted him by Charles I ‘to consider and reveu the meeter and poesie thereof,’ cannot positively be determined now. There are great variations between the first edition of 1631 and that of 1636 (cf. Laing's Baillie's Letters and Journals, iii. 529}. It seems clear that Charles must have winked hard in permitting the licence, as he must have known that the proportion of Jamas to Alexander was as Falstaff's bread to his sack.
In 1621 occurred the central fact in Alexander's political and public career—the grant of Nova Scotia, then known as ‘New Scotland,’ and (practically) of Canada. In 1611 James had established the order of baronets of Ulster, towards furthering the ‘plantation’ of the north of Ireland. This ‘plantation’ and related ‘order’ so prospered, that Sir William suggested similar procedure for North America; and on 21 Sept. 1621 he obtained from the king a charter, granting him, ‘his heirs and assigns, whomsoever, hereditarily, all and singular, the continent, lands, and islands, situate and lying in America, within the cape or promontory commonly called the Cape de Sable, lying near the latitude of 43 degrees or thereabout from the equinoctial line northward, from which promontory, toward the sea coast, verging to the west, to the harbour of Sancta Maria, commonly called Sanct Mareis Bay, and thence northward, traversing by a right line the entrance or mouth of that great naval station which runs out into the eastern tract of the land between the countries of the Suriqui and Stechemini, commonly called the Suriquois and Stechemines, to the river commonly called by the name of Santa Cruz, and to the remotest source or fountain on the western side of the same . . . and thence by an imaginary line, which might be conceived to proceed through the land, or run northward to the nearest naval station, river, or source discharging itself into the great river of Canada; and
