burghs saw in the loss of their parliament the destruction of their importance, and the loss of their liberty; besides throughout the whole land there was a strong feeling of respect for monarchical government, however different their sentiments were with regard to the present king. Their aversion to the measure was displayed by the tardiness with which the counties and towns proceeded to choose delegates to meet with the commissioners, nor was it without threats, promises, and force, that about a third of the number who had been summoned, could be induced to attend, and vote in favour of the proposal. * A bill was however in conse

*THE MINISTERS.-The English general had already forbidden any covenant or oath being imposed by the kirkmen, without the authority of the English parliament; or any civil officer to molest the persons or estates of the excommunicated, or prevent others from trading and using the common intercourse of life with them: the ministers conceiving this an intrusion upon their ecclesiastical rights, had taken the alarm, and drawn up a letter for Cromwell, expecting that he would have had the sole direction of Scottish affairs, in which they deprecated "an incorporating union with England, as what would draw on a subordination of the church to the state in the things of Christ, introduce magistrates of principles contrary to the church, and tolerate the gathering of private churches and the preaching of troopers." Cromwell not returning, Warriston presented the letter to Lambert, who laid it before the commissioners. They felt neither the same horror at toleration nor at lay-preaching; but were willing to maintain the established form of church government, so long as it did not intermeddle with politics, nor urge its own exclusive protection: and in reply, they issued a declaration, "That, for promoting of holiness, and the power of godliness, all care should be used for publishing the gospel of Christ in all parts of the land, and for the maintenance of the faithful dispensers thereof; and care taken for removing of scandalous persons in the work of the ministry, and placing others, fitly qualified with gifts for instructing the people, in their stead; and encouragement be given from all authority to such as shall join in the service of God, according to the usage of the church of Scotland, in their peaceable and inoffensive exercise of the same: and others not satisfied with that form, shall serve and worship God in any other gospel-way. That all magistrates who lived peaceably, and exercised their functions as terrors only to evil-doers, should be protected by them; and that all merchants, tradesmen, and craftsmen, possessing estates not above £500, and all others under £200, soldiers and moss-troopers excepted, should be freed from all forfeitures, molestation, or trouble, for any thing they had done during the war." The remonstrants, in their aversion to prelacy, the restoration of which they justly considered

quence brought into the English parliament for the union of Scotland with the commonwealth and committed; but the forcible dissolution of that renowned assembly prevented the completion of that work, as a regular transaction between the two kingdoms.

But when Cromwell seized the reins, in the instrument of government, constituting the empire a protectorate, the incorporating union of Scotland with England was declared, only the number of representatives to be sent from that section of the state, as well as the proportions for the counties, cities,

as inseparable from the restoration of Charles, were less opposed to an union with England, which secured them from the danger of a persecuting hierarchy, than the resolutionists; who either believed, or affected to believe, in the sincerity of the king's conversion to the covenant, and continued to offer up prayers for his safety, as their lawful king. This added another to the almost interminable divisions in the country; some presbyterians refusing to allow the declaration to be read in their pulpits, and others expressing their approbation of the proposed union.

THE SHIRES.-Previously to the arrival of the commissioners from England, the gentlemen of Fife met, and prepared letters and commissioners, to be sent to every county, inviting deputies to attend their arrival, and make proposals; but the parliament of England ordered the council of state to take care that no meeting should be suffered in Scotland, under any pretence of consulting upon matters of government.

THE BURGHS.-The capital and some of the principal towns were without magistrates, because no one would venture, without authority, to exercise an office, by which he might be made liable for the debt of the community, and ultimately refused any legal resource. A committee of the citizens of Edinburgh, consisting of three merchants and three tradesmen, immediately upon the arrival of the commissioners, waited upon them at Dalkeith, to invite them to the city, and solicit them for a restitution of their magistracy. A protection was granted to the city, and a new charter for the election of magistrates. The power of election appears to have been, by this deed (the original of which is now lost), left undecided between the council and the whole body of the citizens, but "at a meeting of the neighbours :" it would seem the said neighbours devolved this task on the former council, which was empowered to nominate the new one-a precedent, the authority of which has outlived these turbulent times. Dundee, upon a similar application, received a similar return. But these favours appear to have been coupled with a requisition, that the new magistrates should choose deputies for arranging the proposed union. Maitland's Hist. of Edin. p. 91. Lamont's Diary. Whitelock, ut supra.

and burghs, was left to the determination of the protector and major part of his council. Shortly after Oliver was named by his officers, protector, he issued an ordinance for perfecting and completing that union. In it the people of Scotland were discharged from all fealty and allegiance to the house of Stuart; and the separate monarchy of Scotland, together with the authority of the three estates, was formally abolished; and the number of members to sit in the united parliament for Scotland and the isles fixed at thirty. The other provisions of this act were highly favourable to Scotland, and not less remarkable for their good sense than their beneficial tendency; had they been carried into effect they would have anticipated by a century the improvement of the country. All customs and imposts upon the export or import of goods from either country to the other were taken off, and both were to enjoy the same privileges and freedom throughout the whole territories of the commonwealth. The system of feudal vassalage and servitude hitherto exercised in Scotland, by which estates were held under tenures of personal service, was done away; and all heritors, proprietors, or possessors of lands, were freed from any other demand upon them than the fines due upon the death of the lords, or the death or alienation of the tenant, and these in no case to exceed one year's value of the property; all hereditary territorial jurisdiction of the chiefs was at the same time suppressed. But few Scottishmen of rank were ever returned to any of Cromwell's parliaments; the majority consisted of English officers, or persons in the employment of government.

"Of a long time," says Baillie, "no men in the whole isle did mute;" the episcopalians bent to the storm, and when it was perilous to contend for the church or king, they left them both to that divine protection which they claimed by right, and were content themselves to repose under a more visible, and what they deemed more secure, albeit they styled it, an execrable authority. The presbyterians yielded only to necessity, and never surrendered their religious or political principles, even when they submitted to physical force; and to them alone, in the day of his deepest distress, could the

fugitive Charles look for any glimmering of hope; but they were split into factions, whose different religious views, augmented by their political antipathies, prevented them from uniting in any scheme for the recall of the king. When the general assembly, which met at St. Andrews, approved of the resolutions of the commission respecting malignants, the remonstrants refused to acknowledge the authority of that assembly, and protested against it as pre-limited. The assembly, in return, deposed three of the leading ministers, and suspended one; but the protestors, as they were now called, remained firm, and renewed their opposition in the next assembly, though with as little success, and their party, increased in number, were prepared for a still farther trial of strength, when Cromwell effectually prevented the meeting of any more assemblies. This dispute was not, however, a mere contest respecting the propriety of a measure which the protestors considered as having involved both cause and country in ruin, it involved also the question, whether the nation was bound by the covenants to endeavour, even then, the recall of the king, and the promoting of religious uniformity, or whether they ought to accept of the toleration offered by the English commonwealth, employ themselves in the duties of their stations, and, as the case of royalty seemed to be desperate, to avoid engaging in any attempts against a government which protected their civil rights, and did not encroach upon their religious liberty.*

The dissensions upon this subject continued till the restoration, when, as Wodrow remarks, "the whole honest presbyterian ministers were sent to the furnace to unite them;" but the account of them belongs properly to ecclesiastical story, and, not being immediately and necessarily connected with the political, I omit them in this work, as possibly some of my readers may think I have already intermingled too much of the church with the civil history; but it was the fault of the

* The presbyterians were only forbid to hold general assemblies: their presbyteries and synods were not interrupted, nor were any of their religious meetings disturbed; only, they were not allowed to interfere in politics-how different from the days of the Stuarts!

times; nor do I think an historian would present a faithful portrait of that period, if the most prominent feature were omitted in the picture.

Two disastrous campaigns had despoiled Scotland of upwards of thirty thousand of her youth, the strength and the hope of the country; two considerable armies, which, under proper management, ought, at least, to have secured her safety, and preserved her independence, had been broken down and destroyed; and her remaining military population, disheartened and disjointed, was miserably thinned. Yet, even in these circumstances, his advisers projected, and Charles encouraged, another attempt to rise and renew a contest, in which so much of the best blood of the country had been so

"The remon

Mr. Laing gives a caricature of the state of the church :— strants," he says, were inferior in numbers; but this defect was compensated by more outrageous devotion and violence; a more fanatical worship began to prevail; long and frequent extemporary sermons, of which the constant topic was the corruption of a regenerated church; [Qy.] more vehement and incessant prayers; and a prophetical intonation, which it is impossible to describe. The settlement of a new minister was dishonoured by indecent tumults: the rites were not unfrequently defiled with bloodshed; and the people were disfigured and dispersed by blows and wounds." Vol. iii. p. 499. The authorities on which he relies are Baillie, Whitelock, and Burnet. But Baillie, although an honest man, and well-informed in what regards the proceedings of the resolutioners, is a partial and prejudiced witness respecting the remonstrants: nor will his judgment of what constitutes good preaching stand very high, who could characterise Leighton, Traill, and Andrew Gray's sermons, as composed in "a high, romancing, and unscriptural style; tickling the ear for the present, and moving the affections of some, but leaving little or nought to the memory or understanding!" Whitelock is, as I before remarked, not to be implicitly trusted, wherever he can get a sneer at the Scots or the presbyterians; and Burnet is by no means accurate. For a true account of the religious state of Scotland, we must have recourse to the writings of the different parties themselves, compare their statements together, and weigh the different inferences they severally draw from the same facts which both admit. That much animosity existed there is no doubt; but that any such excesses as Mr. L. depicts took place, does not appear upon the record. Before the secession afforded an easy remedy for similar disturbances, I apprehend the forcible settlements in later days were as bloody and as disgraceful as those in the days of the remonstrants: but this subject I intend to illustrate in a separate work-A HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, AND ANNALS OF THE PERSECUTION-which I propose publishing as a companion to the present History, when finished.