reigns. At the same time, the acquittal of the seven bishops, who had been committed to the Tower by James because of their petitioning against being compelled to read one of his arbitrary indulgences from the pulpit, gave occasion to the display of the nation's joy at the defeat of absolute power. The vigilant eye of William marked well the importance of the juncture. He saw the Scottish Presbyterians availing themselves of the king's deceptive truce, to muster their strength, and to recover that position which belonged to them as forming the great majority of the population in the kingdom. He perceived that James had succeeded in alienating the affections of the English Church and people, while yet his Popish support was inconsiderable. The nation, he perceived, was ripe for a change, and the favourable moment was come, which, if not promptly seized, might never return. The birth of the infant prince put an end to all indecision, as it put an end to his hope of ascending the throne by natural succession. Having made the necessary preparations for an enterprise so momentous, he committed the cause solemnly to God, set sail, and landed at Torbay, without having encountered any opposition, on the 5th of November. In the meantime, James had been acting like a man under the spell of infatuation. In England he ceased not to irritate the feelings of that high-spirited people, already provoked beyond endurance by his despotism. He attempted the perilous measure of remodelling the army, from which he was compelled to desist. He drew the greater part of the forces from Scotland, with the view of employing them to keep his refractory English subjects in obedience, but leaving his Scottish minions destitute of power to maintain his interests in that country against the rising and rapidly increasing strength of the Presbyterians. A proclamation was issued for raising the militia in Scotland; but that was little else than putting arms into the hands of his opponents. Yet the Scottish council showed their willingness, if not their power, by transmitting an address making offer of their lives and fortunes to the king, and requesting directions how to act in such a dangerous juncture. When the Prince of Orange issued his declaration and manifesto, that document was prohibited to be circulated or read; but the zealous Covenanters assisted greatly in spreading it throughout the length and breadth of the land, in spite of all prohibitions, and it was received with general satisfaction. On the 3d of November, all the Scottish prelates, except two, concurred in sending a letter to the king, containing the most extravagant eulogiums on that tyrant and his course of government, avowing their stedfast allegiance to him, as an essential part of their religion," and wishing him "the hearts of his subjects and the necks of his enemies."* Any thing more servile, and at the same time despotic and persecuting in its spirit, it is impossible to imagine; and as this was the last public act of Scottish Prelacy, at the close of its bloody reign, it deserves to be recorded, as a proof that it was still the same slavish, intolerant, irreligious, and persecuting system which it had ever been, and as a warning also, that Prelacy and civil and religious freedom cannot exist together in Scotland.

On the 10th of December there occurred a riot in Edinburgh, caused chiefly by the students of the college and the city apprentices, which ended in their driving a body of troops out of Holyrood House, which had been fortified and garrisoned, rifling the Abbey, and

* Wodrow, vol. iv. p. 463. The address of the Presbyterian ministers to the Prince of Orange furnishes a noble contrast to this servile letter, as will be shown in its proper place.

burning the images and other idolatrous symbols employed in the Popish worship. This riot the council had not power to quell; and the Duke of Perth, the chancellor, fled from the capital in terror of his life. On the 14th the council published an act for disarming Papists, and at the same time protecting their persons and property against tumults, which was intended to prevent the recurrence of similar riotous scenes. On the 24th they issued a proclamation, founded upon a rumour that the Irish Papists had been called on by the king to invade Scotland. In this proclamation they require all Protestant subjects to put themselves in a state of defence, for securing their religion, lives, liberties, and properties, against the attempts of Papists; and all heritors are summoned to meet, well armed and provided, at the head burghs of their respective counties, and to place themselves under the command of the persons named in the proclamation. This was a virtual repeal of the whole proceedings of the government during the preceding twenty-eight years, in which to appear armed in defence of life and religion was condemned and punished as treason. After this act the Scottish privy council voluntarily dissolved and disappeared, leaving the people in a great measure to their own government, and to the defence of that form of religion to which they were most attached. This, therefore, we may regard as the end of the long and bloody persecution which the Church of Scotland endured from perjured and remorseless Prelacy, and the absolute despotism of the Brother Tyrants.

It would not have been strange if the Presbyterians had inflicted a terrible retribution on their merciless oppressors. But they acted in general like men conscious of a glorious cause, which they might not permit their own passions to sully and disfigure. When the rumour that an Irish invasion was intended reached the Covenanters, they immediately mustered in a considerable body, and prepared to defend their country and their friends from the invaders; but, finding the rumour groundless, they resolved to take that opportunity of expelling the prelatic curates from the parishes which they had so long polluted with their presence and devastated with their cruelty. They accordingly seized upon these wretched men, turned them out of their usurped abodes, marched them to the boundaries of their respective parishes, and sent them away, without offering them further violence.* No plunder, no bloodshed, stained the hands of the Covenanters. As their constancy through the long period of fiery trial had been almost unparalleled, so their high-principled self-government was conspicuous in their hour of bloodless triumph. How gloriously different the conduct of the Scottish Presbyterians from that of their prelatic persecutors, rendering it manifest to the world, as if written with a sunbeam, which of these two forms of church government possessed most of the principles, and displayed most of the character, of the gospel of peace and good-will.

When the landing of the Prince of Orange, and the revolution which followed, put an end to the persecution which had continued for twenty-eight years, a computation was made, from which it appeared, that above eighteen thousand had suffered by death, slavery, exile, or imprisonment, inflicted in the vain endeavour to destroy the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and establish Prelacy on its ruins. This is exclusive of the desolation spread over the country by oppressive fines, assessments, and the lawless pillage of the licen

* Cruickshank, vol. ii. p. 474; Burnet's Own Times, vol. i. p. 805. † Memoirs of the Church of Scotland, pp. 290-294.

tious soldiery, by which whole districts were almost turned into a wilderness. Surely those who talk of the possibility of Prelacy ever becoming the religion of Scotland, must expect it to be preceded by such a revolution both in the constitution of the human mind and in the frame of nature, as shall completely sweep away all records of the past; for so long as our mountains, heaths, and glens, are studded with the gray memorials of our martyred fathers, and so long as the free blood courses more warmly and the heart beats higher in one true Scottish bosom, at the narrative of their glorious sufferings and the savage cruelty of their merciless persecutors, so long must it be absolutely impossible for Prelacy to be regarded in Scotland with any other feelings than those of indignant reprobation, as alike hostile to the principles of civil liberty, and contrary to the mild and gracious spirit of Christianity.

In taking a retrospective glance over that dark and stormy period of the Church of Scotland's history between the Restoration and the Revolution, there are some topics which force themselves upon the mind so strongly as to demand a brief investigation before proceeding further. What was the ruling motive which induced Charles and James to persecute the Presbyterian Church with such relentless cruelty? In the case of Charles, it could not have been his preference of Prelacy on religious grounds, as he was evidently a man of no religion at all. In the case of James, it was as manifest, that if he preferred that form of church government, it was only because he regarded it as less directly opposed to Popery, on the re-establishment of which his heart was bent. The steady and unswerving perseverance with which the whole course of public affairs was guided in Scotland, towards the effecting of one object, during so many years, proves clearly that some one ruling principle was in continual operation all the while. That principle, we think, Burnet's "History of His Own Times" furnishes the means of detecting. From that work, as well as from many other sources, we learn that Charles had joined the Church of Rome before he left France. Burnet tells us further, that soon after the restoration, Charles, in conversation with him, reprobated the liberty that, under the reformation, all men took of inquiring in matters of religion, from which they proceeded to inquire into matters of state; adding, that he thought government was a much safer and easier thing when the authority was believed infallible, and the faith and submission of the people were implicit. The king's predilection for Popery was evidently not on the ground of conscience, but because by its means alone he could hope to acquire absolute power, and to reduce the people to the implicit obedience of slaves. To effect this tyrannical intention was the constant endeavour of both Charles and his brother; and there are many significant indications, that even in the case of James, the love of Popery was subordinate to the love of despotism. This view completely explains both the direct endeavours and the evasive changes and fluctuations of these two reigns. Lauderdale appears to have early penetrated into the king's designs, and to have made the attempt to realize them the ruling aim and effort of his whole administration. Remembering also, that it was the presence of the Scottish army in England which turned the wavering balance in favour of the parliament during the civil wars, he made it his steady endeavour to bring Scotland into a state of such complete subserviency to the king, that a powerful army might be raised in support of his majesty, should any contest arise between him and his English subjects. In this view, the act

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which Lauderdale procured from the Scottish parliament in 1663, offering to the king an army of twenty thousand foot and two thousand cavalry to be at his own disposal, was no empty bravado, as it has generally been regarded, but a significant hint from that despotic statesman, that the time for the monarch's assumption of absolute power was near at hand. oath of supremacy, and the acts enforcing it, became, when viewed in this light, not only perfectly intelligible, but pregnant with meaning of fearful import. They were all so many steps towards that absolute despotism which the king desired to establish, and that state of utter slavery to which he wished to reduce the kingdom. It is not necessary to suppose that the prelatic party were fully aware of this intention, and were willing to become the base instruments by which it should be accomplished; yet their conduct and their written sentiments not only supported, but too often seemed to lead the way to the full establishment of the most arbitrary and cruel tyranny. And it must never be forgotten, that the execrable design of reducing Britain to a state of abject slavery was, under Providence, frustrated solely by the unconquerable fortitude with which the Presbyterian Church of Scotland endured every extremity of suffering which a long, relentless, and desolating persecution could inflict.

At the same time it must be observed, that the resistance of the Presbyterian Church proceeded from a far higher principle than merely the determination to defend the civil liberties of the country, a principle without which civil liberty can never be fully realized, and which, in free and active operation, would render the dire counterparts-absolute power and abject slavery for ever impossible. This great principle, as abstractly stated and most tenaciously maintained by the Church of Scotland, is, "That the Lord Jesus Christ is the sole Head and King of the Church, and bath therein appointed a government distinct from that of the civil magistrate." In the form in which it practically appears, this great principle realizes such a disjunction of the civil and the ecclesiastical powers from each other as to assign and secure to each a separate, co-ordinate, and independent supreme court for the exercise of their respective functions. The direct consequence of this great and sacred principle, thus realized, is, that it preserves the whole region of the conscience entirely free from the control of external power; and where the conscience is free, men cannot be enslaved. The attempt to establish an absolute despotism, involved, of necessity, the destruction of this principle; and the oath of supremacy was the weapon by which it was directly and fiercely assailed. The cruel policy of the assailants needs little explanation. It was an easy matter for them to enact an unjust and irreligious law, such as that which virtually declared that the sovereignty of the Church should be taken from Christ, and given to the king, and then to shout, Obey the law, obey the law!" proclaiming men rebels and traitors, and persecuting them to the death, because they could not yield obedience to a law which required the violation of their allegiance to the Divine Redeemer, but chose to obey God rather than man in matters of religion. It requires but little Christian principle, metaphysical acumen, or knowledge of the general principles of jurisprudence, to perceive that no law can possibly be binding upon man which is manifestly contrary to the law of God. So reasoned and so felt our covenanted fathers; and in defence of that sacred and eternal principle they "endured a great fight of afflictions," through which they were trium

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phantly borne by the mighty power of God, unfolding and realizing in the fearful struggle, what, though of subordinate importance, was still of inestimable value, that noblest charter of civil liberty which man has ever framed, the British Constitution.

The only accusation which can, with any degree of propriety, be urged against the Covenanters is, that they did to a certain extent misunderstand and overpass some of the essential distinctions between things civil and things sacred. But this cannot justly either excite our surprise or call forth our censure. Few seem yet to have any accurate perception of these distinctions; and many seem disposed to deny that they either do or can exist, or, at least, that they can be so specifically marked out as to prevent the incessant mutual encroachments of the civil and the ecclesiastical jurisdictions upon the respective provinces which rightfully belong to each. It was not strange, therefore, that the Covenanters partially erred, especially when engaged in such a deadly struggle. The contest was, on their part, at first waged solely in defence of the central principle of religious liberty. But as civil and religious liberty exist or perish together, they were soon compelled to contend equally for both, and thus the scene of conflict was both enlarged and altered, involving a complication of interests which tended to produce confusion. It was this which led them to the idea of disowning the king, and declaring what they explained to be a "defensive war" against him, as against a lawless tyrant, whose own acts involved the invalidation of his right to reign. The Revolution was indeed a substantial confirmation of the justness of their bold opinions. But still, for any section of a community to proclaim and act upon such opinions, must unavoidably expose them, as citizens, to the charge of rebellion, and as ministers and members of the Christian Church, to the charge of interfering with matters beyond their legitimate province. There seem to be but two conditions by which such a course of procedure can be fully justified, either of which can rarely occur, and the one of which cannot be known beforehand, and, therefore, ought not to be assumed as a primary cause. These are, the direct command of God, of which the Bible relates various instances; and ultimate success, which, correctly speaking, does not justify the attempt, but merely ratifies the deed, from which it may be inferred, that the enterprise was accordant with the will of Divine Providence. This second condition, we are aware, may be both misunderstood and misrepresented, as if it were identical with the false principle, that the end justifies the means. What we mean is this, that when an attempt is made by any considerable party in a nation, for an object which appears to be in accordance with Scripture, reason, and civil liberty, its failure may prove it to have been premature, but will not prove it to have been wrong; whereas its success will go far to prove it to have been essentially right. The first, many of the Scottish Covenanters conceived themselves to have, both by reasoning from Scripture analogies, and from the directly unchristian character of the principles attempted to be enforced by their opponents: the second they obtained, when the Revolution completed what they had begun and carried forward with determined resolution, heroic fortitude, and Christian patience; and it must be remarked, that they never doubted of the ultimate triumph of their sacred cause, even in the most disastrous periods, and amidst the darkest horrors of the fierce exterminating persecution directed against them by their despotic and merciless oppressors. Any censure,

therefore, which could justly be pronounced against them, must be exceedingly slight, and, when compared with the vast debt of gratitude due to them by the entire empire, must become almost invisible, like a speck in the sun. Still, while such must be the sentiments of every enlightened lover of freedom, it is the true spiritually-minded Christian alone who can enter fully into the feelings of these much-enduring and devoted men, comprehend the true nature of the great and sacred principles in defence of which they encountered the perils and suffered the extremities of poverty, imprisonment, exile, torture, and death, and appreciate the real value of the service rendered by them to the cause of vital piety, and to the interests of the Divine Redeemer's spiritual kingdom.

CHAPTER VIII.

FROM THE REVOLUTION, IN THE YEAR 1688, TO THE TREATY OF UNION IN 1707.

Meeting of the Convention of Estates-Declaration and Claim of Right-Petition of the Covenanters-Their Loyalty and Patriotism-Condition of the Church and Country-King William and Carstares-The Prelatists-Meeting of Parliament-Acts abolishing Prelacy, ratifying the Confession of Faith, establishing the Presbyterian Church, and abolishing Patronage-Meeting of the General Assembly-Acts of Assembly-Remarks on the Revolution Settlement-State of the Conflicting Parties-The Restored Ministers, the Conformists, the Covenanters-Views of the King, of the Church, and of the Jacobites and Prelatic Party-Origin of the Moderate Party-The Commission-The Assembly forcibly adjourned-Its Firmness-Act of Parliament for settling the Quiet and Peace of the Church-Its Character and Consequences-A Mutual Compromise-A New Collision threatened-The King and Carstares-Meetings of the Assembly-Proceedings of the Church-Conduct of the Jacobites and Prelatists-Act against intruding into Churches-Competing Calls and Transportations -The Rabbling Act-Misrepresentations of the Prelatic PartyDeath of King William-Queen Anne-Political Intrigues against the Church-Proposals for a Union-Act of Security-The Union -General View of the State of the Church.

THE dissolution of the Scottish privy council relieved the country instantly and completely from a tyranny and persecution under which it had groaned and bled for a period of twenty-eight terrible years; but it left the kingdom in a state of anarchy dangerous to the peace and welfare of the community. Had the Presbyterians been influenced at all by the spirit of revenge, there was nothing to have prevented them from inflicting a dreadful retribution upon their paralyzed and defenceless oppressors in their hour of utter weakness. Nothing, therefore, could have given a more perfect proof of the injustice and falsehood of the accusations formerly urged so vehemently against them on account of the pernicious, treacherous, and murderous principles which they were said to hold, than the fact, that when their principles had free scope, the most remarkable characteristic which they displayed was the forgiveness of their fallen enemies. The expelling of the curates, which has been already noticed, was in truth nothing else but the ejection of lawless intruders from positions and property on which they had wrongfully seized, with the view of having them restored to their rightful owners. Still, the condition of the country was full of peril, which was held in check by the power of religious principle alone; and it was the manifest interest of all classes to reconstruct the disorganized frame of society as speedily as possible. On this account men

of all political parties hastened to London, to hold intercourse with each other and with the Prince of Orange, to ascertain their respective strength, and to deliberate on the course to be pursued.

[1689.] The legislature of England met in the form of a convention, avoiding the term parliament, as not being called by the king, and, after considerable discussion, voted, "That James the Second, having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of the kingdom, by breaking the original contract between the king and the people, and, by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and withdrawn himself out of this kingdom, has abdicated the government, and the throne is become vacant." After | some further discussion, the vacant throne was given to the Prince and Princess of Orange, as joint sovereigns, the title constantly running William and Mary, King and Queen of England,-the sole administration resting in the king. On the 8th of January 1689, William assembled the leading Scottish noblemen and gentlemen who were in London, and after referring to his Declaration, told them that he had called them together to ask their advice respecting the best method of securing | the civil and religious liberties of their country. Their advice was, that he would assume the administration of affairs till a convention of estates could be held in Edinburgh, and a proper settlement be effected, which convention they requested to be empowered to meet on the 14th of March; and to this he gave his assent.

The Scottish convention met on the day appointed, the short interval having been employed by the two contending parties, the adherents of James, who were generally Prelatists, and the supporters of the Revolution, who were Presbyterians,-in the most strenuous endeavours to muster their whole strength for the struggle. It had been stipulated by the meeting in London, that in the election of representatives to the convention, none who were Protestants should be excluded from legally voting, or from being returned as members. This removed at once the disabilities under which the oppressive acts of the preceding reigns had laid the greater part of the Presbyterians, and enabled them to send to the convention a majority of right-minded men. Still the peril was great. Claverhouse, who had been created Viscount Dundee by James, was fully determined to maintain the right of that despot by war; and had brought with him to Edinburgh a considerable band of armed and desperate men to overawe the convention. There were no military forces in the kingdom to prevent Dundee from any extreme to which his daring and ferocious spirit might impel him; and the castle was held by the Duke of Gordon, who also favoured the interests of the fallen monarch. In this dangerous juncture recourse was had to the Cameronian Covenanters, as the only body which both possessed the power and the inclination to protect their country's liberties, and might be trusted in this hour of peril. They were requested to come to Edinburgh, armed and prepared to resist any outrage which might be offered to the convention or the town by Dundee, their former relentless persecutor. This was a noble tribute to the character of these much injured and greatly calumniated men. They had been formerly hunted down as disturbers of peace and the very enemies of society; they were now sought and hailed as conservators of peace, and protectors of the public welfare.

The first trial of strength in the convention took place on the subject of choosing a president. The Duke of Hamilton was named by the Presbyterians;

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the Prelatists gave their support to the Marquis of Athol. The Duke of Hamilton was chosen by a majority of fifteen; and as this proved the superiority of the Presbyterian party, a considerable number of that wavering class of politicians who act from selfish motives, joined the side which they saw to be the strongest, increasing its majorities, though adding nothing to its moral influence. The struggle was no longer doubtful, so far as regarded the transfer of the crown from James to William; but the adjustment of the many great interests therein involved, was still a matter of an extremely difficult nature. Viscount Dundee, having in vain attempted to disturb or overawe the convention, abandoned the wily arts of the politician, and determined to have recourse to the sword. His abrupt and threatening departure ruined the plans of the adherents of James, by precipitating them into a conflict for which they were not prepared, and by relieving the convention in a great measure from the impediments which the supporters of despotism, had they remained, might have thrown in the way of the Revolution Settlement. The convention then ratified the London Address, in all its tenor and conditions. A committee was next appointed, similar to the Lords of the Articles, for preparing the overtures for settling the government; and in this committee the prelates were omitted, by which a sufficiently intelligible intimation was given what was likely to be the fate of Prelacy. Two letters were presented to the convention, the one from King James, the other from the Prince of Orange; the first was disregarded, the other treated with great. respect. An answer to the Prince's letter was prepared, and then the convention proceeded to declare their opinion respecting the state of the nation, and the necessary remedial measures. This declaration was publicly read and agreed to, on the 4th of April, the day on which the Prince's letter in reply was received; and having been embodied in the "Claim of Right," in the conclusion of which was contained an offer of the Scottish crown to William and Mary, together with a brief and simple oath of allegiance, the whole document was read, and the king and queen publicly proclaimed in Edinburgh, on the 11th day of April 1689.

A few sentences of this most important document must be engrossed in the body of this work, in vindication of the principles and conduct of the oppressed and persecuted Church of Scotland. It begins as follows:

"Whereas King James VII. being a professed Papist, did assume the regal power, and acted as king, without ever taking the .oath required by law, whereby the king, at his accession to the government, is obliged to swear to maintain the Protestant religion, and to rule the people according to the laudable laws, and did, by the advice of wicked and evil counsellors, invade the fundamental constitution of this kingdom, and alter it from a legal limited monarchy to an arbitrary despotic power; and in a public proclamation asserted an absolute power to cass, annul, and disable all the laws, particularly the laws establishing the Protestant religion, and did exercise that power to the subversion of the Protestant religion, and to the violation of the laws and liberties of the kingdom." (Then follows an enumeration of the arbitrary acts complained against, forming, in fact, a brief outline of the history of the persecuting period.) Therefore, the estates of the kingdom of Scotland find and declare that King James VII. being a professed Papist, did assume, &c. (in the same terms as above,) WHEREBY HE HATH Forfeited

The reader will observe, that this declaration of the Scottish convention of estates is the same in spirit, and almost the same in words, as the declarations emitted by the covenanted Presbyterians, on account of which they were calumniated and persecuted as rebels and traitors. The only essential difference between their declarations and that of the convention is, that the Covenanters took for their central and leading principle that which forms the essence of religious liberty, and at the same time renders absolute civil despotism impossible, namely, the sole sovereignty of Christ, as the only Head and King of his free spiritual kingdom, the Church. This the convention did not declare, in all probability they neither understood nor held it; but so far as their declaration went, it stated the very same reasons for the tyrant's forfeiture of the crown which had been repeatedly stated by the followers of Cameron, Cargill and Renwick, and in defence of which these high-principled men had cheerfully laid down their lives.

A short time previous to the issuing of the convention's Declaration and Claim of Right, a petition was laid before them, embodying the sentiments and requests of the maligned Cameronian Covenanters, in a strain at once of sublimity and pathos, such as rarely has been surpassed.

"We prostrate ourselves, yet under the sorrowing smart of our still bleeding wounds, at your honours' feet, who have a call, a capacity, and, we hope, a heart to heal us; and we offer this our petition, conjuring your honours to hearken to us. By all the formerly felt, presently seen, and, for the future, feared effects and efforts of Popery and tyranny,-by the cry of the blood of our murdered brethren,--by the sufferings of the banished free-born subjects of this realm, now groaning in servitude, having been sold into slavery in the English plantations of America, by the miseries that many thousands forfeited, disinherited, harassed, and wasted houses have been reduced to,-by all the sufferings of a faithful people, for adhering to the ancient covenanted establishment of religion and liberty, and by all the arguments of justice, necessity, and mercy, that ever could join together, to begin communication among men of wisdom, piety, and virtue,— humbly, beseeching, requesting, and craving of your honours, now when God hath given you this opportunity to act for His glory, the good of the Church, of the nation, your own honour, and the happiness of posterity, now when this kingdom, the neighbouring, and all the nations of Europe, have their eyes upon you, expecting you will acquit yourselves like the representatives of a free nation, in redeeming it from slavery otherwise inevitable,-that you will proceed without any delay to declare the wicked government dissolved, the crown and throne vacant, and James VII., whom we never owned, and resolved in conjunction with many thousands of our countrymen never to own, to have really forfeited, and rightly to be deprived of, all right and title he ever had, or ever could pretend to have hitherto, and to provide that it may never be in the power of any succeeding ruler to aspire unto or arise to such a capacity of tyrannizing."(They then petition that the crown may be bestowed upon William, with such necessary provisions as may secure liberty civil and religious, specify the king's duty to profess and preserve the pure religion and the work of reformation, and conclude thus :)--" Upon such terms as these we render our allegiance to King William, and hope to

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Such were the earnest, free, dignified, loyal, and pious sentiments of men who had been slandered, reviled, and persecuted, for the space of twenty-eight years; and whose characters, principles, and memory, the greatest author of modern times has vainly striven to blacken and disgrace, his own reputation alone suffering from the malignant and abortive attempt, through the fatal recoil which ignorant and calumnious falsehood sustains, when it dares to encounter unsullied and majestic truth. Their loyalty and patriotism were not confined to words. In the distressed state of the country, a civil war commencing, led on by the fierce and infuriated Dundee (Claverhouse), with few troops in the kingdom, and some of these disaffected to the new sovereign, and others almost undisciplined, the generous Covenanters stood forward in defence of their native land, and offered to raise a regiment for public service, stipulating only, that the officers should be men of conscience, honour, and fidelity, and unstained by the persecuting proceedings of the late reigns, and that their service should be for the defence of the nation and the preservation of religion, in opposition to Popery, Prelacy, and tyranny. These terms were gladly accepted; and in one day, without beat of drum, or the expenditure of levy-money, they raised a regiment of eight hundred men, commonly termed the Cameronian regiment, commanded by the Earl of Angus, and Lieutenant-Colonel Cleland; the latter of whom had led a party of the insurgents both at Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge, and was afterwards killed in the gallant and successful defence of Dunkeld by that regiment against a far superior force of Highlanders. Such, indeed, was their loyalty and zeal, that they even offered to raise two more regiments, if their services should be required, for the protection of the nation's liberties; a sufficient proof that they were neither the narrow-minded fanatics, nor the miserable handful, which their enemies and persecutors pretended, but in reality a powerful body of high-hearted and patriotic men.

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It deserves to be remarked, that in the Claim of Right, which forms the basis of the Revolution Settlement, the convention did not rest satisfied with the rather ambiguous mention of the Protestant religion, but inserted a clause in the following terms: "That Prelacy, and the superiority of any office in the Church above Presbyters, is, and hath been, a great and insupportable grievance and trouble to this nation, and contrary to the inclinations of the generality of the people, ever since the Reformation, they having been reformed from Popery by Presbyters, and, therefore, ought to be abolished." The insertion of such a clause was imperatively necessary in order to satisfy the Presbyterians, who had at least as much reason to dread Prelacy as they had to dread Popery itself, having suffered from Prelacy a persecution unspeakably more intense than ever Popery had been in a condition to inflict.

The Revolution Settlement was now as complete as the temporary expedient of a convention of estates could legally render it; and in order to confirm it in the amplest manner, without incurring the danger of intrigues and divisions, the king empowered them to * Cruickshank, vol. ii. pp. 279, 280; Memoirs of the Church of Scotland, pp. 303-308.

† See Sir Walter Scott's Old Mortality; and Dr M'Crie's Vindi cation of the Covenanters, in his Miscellaneous Works.