they style malignants, to the presbyteries that they might be excommunicated, or at least compelled to do penance on the cutty stool. The Assembly also wrote a long Latin letter to their brethren in the Netherlands, thanking them for the supplies of ammunition that they had sent to the covenanters in Ireland, and the sympathy which they had expressed for their brethren here and in England2. The Assembly received a letter from the Scottish commissioners at London, giving an account of the progress which the Westminster Assembly were making towards uniformity of religion with the Scottish kirks; and also one from the divines themselves, "pouring out their hearts into the Assembly's bosom with sorrow at the melancholy situation of that nation, gratefully acknowledging our sympathy with them, and fervently soliciting a continuation of the same 3" After reconstructing the commission, and passing some other acts of no great importance, they appointed the next Assembly to meet on the last Thursday in May in the year 1645, at Edinburgh, and then dissolved the meeting on the 4th of June, and remitted all affairs to the commission, in which Argyle, the dictator, was a principal member.

66

IN CONSEQUENCE of Charles's unfortunate concession of perpetuity to the Long Parliament, he had no means of procuring one that would reconstruct the disjointed materials of the commonwealth; he therefore adopted the expedient of summoning the parliament to leave Westminster and to meet at Oxford, at the same time promising a free pardon to all of the Long Parliament who should come there. Many of the peers and a few of the commons obeyed the summons, assembled there, and made many specious promises and professions of loyalty. These composed and forwarded the letter, extracts from which have already been given, to the Scottish council and conservators of the peace." Yet, says Guthry 4, "it was publicly talked here [Edinburgh] that those who came to Oxford upon his majesty's summons meant not to be very faithful unto him, but rather (by that stratagem) to do those whom they had deserted at Westminster better service than they could have done being with them, by advising his majesty to courses which tended to his ruin. Whether there was a reason or not for this construction I leave undetermined; but certain it is, that as the leaving Westminster and coming thither procured them such trust, that his majesty was led by their counsels; so his

1 Johnston's Collections, 220. 2 Ibid. 139. 3 Ibid. 247.Stevenson's Church and State, 524-25.-Spalding's Troubles, ii. 239-240. 4 Memoirs, 235-136.

affairs did thereafter more and more miscarry; and his most secret projects came to be understood by his enemies. Whereof the most loyal and gallant Ruthven did often warn his majesty, but could not get it remedied."

ON THE 4TH OF JUNE, the convention, which the leading covenanters now turned into a parliament, sat down at Edinburgh, and it was opened by a sermon by Andrew Cant, minister of Aberdeen, from St. John v. 22, 23. The principal drift of his sermon was to state an opposition between king Jesus and king Charles, and on that account to press resistance to the latter for the interest of the former. This, says Mr. Skinner, was preaching to the times without regard to the Scripture, and shews what sense these men had of the pretended oath in their covenant to defend the king's person1." The earl of Lauderdale was elected president, but there was no representative of the king. On Friday, the 12th, a despatch was read from the earl of Lindsay, president of the committee of the army at York, to inform the house of the victory that the rebels had obtained over the king's forces at Marston-Moor in Yorkshire. He earnestly desired the parliament to give public thanks for the success which had attended the principles of the covenant; and the house ordained this letter to be sent to the commission of the Assembly, and desired them to appoint a general thanksgiving. On the 18th of July, the earl of Lanerk, who had now openly joined the rebels, presented a petition against those friends of the king who still enjoyed public offices, as usurpers, against sir James Galloway for usurping the office of secretary, and against sir Robert Spottiswood, "now using the said office at court, ever since the petitioner's restraint at Oxford, at which time his majesty required the said signet from the petitioners, who delivered it to the lord Digby and sir Edward Nicholas. He desires the house to take to their consideration the deserved punishment of the two usurpers contrary to two acts of parliament; and by that act they would declare his office and place of secretary to be free of any prejudice by the usurpation of these enemies to their country 2." On the 22d of July an act of forfaultry was passed on the motion of the ungrateful lord Balmerino, against the earls of Crawford, Carnwath, Forthe, and lord Ythan, as "public enemies to their country, invaders of it, and for adjoining themselves and assisting the popish and malignant party." They were also declared to be "guilty of high treason and

1 Skinner's Eccl. Hist. ii. 379.-Guthry's Memoirs, 137.

2 Balfour's Annals, ii. 165-225.

punishable at the arbitrement of the parliament, which declared them "traitors to their religion and country, and perfidious breakers of their national covenant; and all their bands and heritages, goods moveable and immoveable, to be from henceforth forfaulted and belong to the estates of the kingdom, to pay the public debts1." This was the commencement of that method of making war maintain war which was reduced to a system by the revolutionary government of France. But the doctrine here propounded was an inversion of the general and natural order of nature; for as there can be no civil authority in the kingdom, but that which is derived from the crown, as its authority is derived from God, so there can be no treason against parliament, but only against the king, who represents God, who is the source of all power. Those who offend against the parliament are guilty of a breach of privilege, but not of treason; for the parliament cannot meet without the royal warrant, of the power of which in the case now before us, Charles had culpably suffered himself to be deprived by his senseless system of concession.

The parliament passed an act to discharge all ministers, as the titulars of benefices annexed to them, from exercising patronage; but transferred these rights to the presbytery. And the act of the Assembly which condemned the loyal band and declaration published at Oxford, and their excommunication of the loyal noblemen, was ratified, and a committee was appointed to devise and put some public mark of infamy on the band and declaration; and they voted all invaders of the country, that is, those who declared for the king, to be guilty of treason, and to suffer the highest pains of it. On the 27th of July, the act of the General Assembly, which required a mark of infamy to be put on the Oxford band and declaration, was ratified, and" ordained all the subscribers of that wicked and damnable piece to be persecuted as traitors to their country, by the committee of estates; and to the end that some mark of infamy may be put upon the said declaration, ordains the copy of the same to be burned by the hands of the hangman at the cross at Edinburgh." An act was also passed for "uplifting of pecuniary fines of whoremongers, drunkards, swearers, &c. to be applied to pious uses 2!" This source of revenue, instituted by the rigidly righteous professors of covenanting religion, reminds one of the book called "The Tax of the Apostolic Chancery," which contains the list of the prices at which the crimes of adultery, fornication, &c. may be allowed to be com2 Ibid. ii. 230, 232, 236.

1 Balfour's Annals, ii. pp. 232, 235, 239.

mitted or afterwards commuted, set forth by the pope's authority, and which is one of the sources of the papal revenue. Sin was, therefore, encouraged by the covenanters as well as by the pope in order to fill the public coffers.

On Monday, the 29th of July, the present parliament was declared "current," and therefore the house unanimously adjourned till the first Tuesday of January, without prejudice to the committee of estates to assemble the house earlier if they find reason for it. And in that spiritual delusion under which the whole country was labouring, "the lord chancellor closed up this session with a pretty and eloquent speech, rendering the Almighty most hearty thanks and honour for the peaceable meeting, and unanimity in the maintenance of his cause; entreating the whole estates of the kingdom to stand fast together for the maintenance of the truth, honour of the king, and well of his realms, now all in fire of combustion by the treacherous practices of papists, atheists, and malignants, [that is, churchmen and loyal subjects,] against religion, and the subject's liberty settled by law. He wished every one to fetch water with him to help to extinguish the fury of this flame, and not oil to nourish it; and, lastly, besought the great Creator of heaven and earth, who, according to the good pleasure of his will, did govern the actions of men, to preserve from danger the king's person, to establish peace and truth in all his dominions, and to remove the crying sins of the land, which was the cause of so heavy an indignation upon it! 1"

THE LORD HADDO, who was the ancestor of the present earl of Aberdeen, was arrested at Aberdeen, and sent, with his confidential servant, John Logie, to Edinburgh, where they were tried, by order of the parliament, on three counts: 1st, for having taken prisoners several influential Covenanters; 2d, for joining with the marquis of Huntly; and, 3d, for several other alleged crimes. For the first he justified himself, inasmuch as the parties "were avowed incendiaries against the king, factious and seditious persons; and, 2d, he was dutifully serving the king against his enemies. Lord Haddo and Logie were condemned to be beheaded; and, although the earl Marshall exerted himself much to save their lives," he came no speed, through the malice of the kirk." They were brought to the scaffold at the cross of Edinburgh, and were tormented in their last moments by the fanatical ministers, who desired Haddo to confess his sins before God, and to trust in His mercy. He answered, that he humbly confessed he was a great sinner be

1 Balfour's Annals, ii. 245.

fore God, but hoped for salvation through Christ; on which one of the ministers proclaimed that he acknowledged his guilt of rising in arms against the country. But he answered, "Not so; I confessed myself a great sinner before God, but I never transgressed against the country, but only against such as were disloyal subjects to the king." "Then the whole of the ministers railed out pitifully against him, which he patiently beheld, and desired to be relaxed from excommunication." This had been forbidden, nisi in extremis, by the Assembly; but, after much consultation, "the ministers, with some little grudge, granted the same, and loosed him upon the scaffold from this sentence." A herald then proclaimed to the spectators, "1. The parliament has found thee, sir John Gordon, of Haddo, worthy of death, and thy head to be strucken from thy shoulders; and, 2d, declares thee a villain and traitor to the king and to the country, and therefore I here ryve [tear] thy arms in thy ain face." He commended his soul to God, and his six children to the king's protection, "for whose sake I die this day." He was "borne down by the ministers of Edinburgh, the marquis of Argyle, lord Balmerino, and the kirk, because he would not subscribe the covenant, but stoutly followed the king, and died a good protestant 1."

MEN NOW were publicly executed by the rebel committee of estates for their loyalty to the king; and, what shewed the cunning and hypocrisy of the times, in the name of the king!Soon after the murder of Haddo, and his friend captain Logie, Mr. Maxwell, of Logan, in Dumfries-shire, was also beheaded at the cross of Edinburgh, for the crime of having befriended Montrose in his unfortunate diversion in favour of the king. The earl of Crawford was forfaulted, and his title transferred to the earl of Lindsay; and generals Ruthven and King were also forfaulted. These severities made the chivalrous adventures of Montrose, in disguise, through the covenanting counties, most alarming and dangerous, till he reached Tillibelton House, at the foot of the Grampian hills 2. It is lamentable to reflect on the misplaced affection which the king maintained to the last for the most genuine hypocrite of the times, the duke of Hamilton; and the prejudice which, up to the same point, had kept him from listening to the honest and patriotic advice of a man who shewed his loyalty and love of country by actions and

1 Spalding's Troubles, ii. 250.

2 Guthry's Memoirs.-Napier's Montrose and the Covenanters. As Montrose's gallant military exploits do not lie within the scope of this history, I beg to refer my readers to Mr. Napier's most interesting and minute biography of that noble and worthy confessor and sufferer for his sovereign.