likeas I his majesty's commissioner do consent to, the aforesaid act, and have subscribed the premises'.'

Another act ordained the covenant to be signed, under ecclesiastical censure, by all masters of universities, colleges, and schools, all scholars at the passing of their degrees, all persons suspected of popery or any other error, and, finally, all members of this kirk and kingdom, with the following words prefixed to their subscription:" The article of this covenant, which was at the first subscription referred to the determination of the General Assembly, being determined, and thereby the five articles of Perth, the government of the kirk by bishops, and civil places and power of kirkmen, upon the reasons and grounds contained in the acts of the General Assembly, declared to be unlawful within this kirk: we subscribe according to the determination foresaid 2."

66

The commissioner consented to these acts condemning episcopacy and establishing the covenant, though contrary to the king's will and instructions, and for which Charles severely reproached him. The Assembly had now gone on triumphantly under the presidency of a commissioner, who, being their secret friend, betrayed his trust. Before rising, however, they took care to supply the universities and other seminaries with men devoted to the covenant, to fill up the vacancies occasioned by the flight of many of the former professors. It became necessary to indoctrinate the rising generation of divinity students in their own principles, "whereof," says Guthry, they had the more need, because by this time the old ministry saw so much into their designs, that divers of them were falling from them, and so no way remained to keep the church constantly on their side, but that young ones (who were to succeed when they were gone) should be bred towards a liking of their course." John Adamson, principal of the college of Edinburgh, was a furious Covenanter, not so much. from conviction as from a mean-spirited policy to eschew their wrath." Samuel Rutherford was transferred from a country parish in Galloway, near to Kirkcudbright, to be Principal and the teacher of theology in the university of St. Andrews; and in order to strengthen his hands, Robert Blair, from Ayr, was placed as the parish minister; the former clergy, Dr. Gladstanes and Dr. Wishart, having been driven out of their benefices by the persecution of the covenanters. Blair had many years before been a professor in the university

Johnston's Acts, p. 86.

2 Ibid. p. 86.

of Glasgow; but from which he had been expelled for instilling seditious and antimonarchical principles into the students: after that, he went over to Ireland, and joined the malcontented protestants there; but on the rise of the troubles in Scotland, he returned, and violently took possession of the church in Ayr, thrusting out Mr. Annan, the legal incumbent. Mr. David Dickson, from Irvine, was appointed a professor in Glasgow, under principal Baillie; " for albeit his weakness for that profession was generally known, yet in regard he was very seditious, and had a pragmatical way of dealing with young folks, towards that end the leaders of the cause thought that his settling there might be profitable to them." They could not find men sufficiently seditious and pragmatical to send to the university of Aberdeen, which was also rendered vacant by the persecution of the times, and therefore in the meantine they only confirmed Andrew Cants' appointment to be the minister of the town1. "This design in placing such men in the universities was not taken notice of by those that had the charge of his majesty's affairs, yet it did, in progress of time, prove the most effectual means whereby that cause prevailed; for when those young men (who had their breed

1 In the year 1841, the ancient cross of the old city of Aberdeen was discovered in a smithery in that city, and redeemed by some worthy antiquary from its degrading situation, and placed in the museum of King's College. The following narrative was written by Mr. John Ramsay, the accomplished author of "My Grave,' ," and "My Good Old Aunt;" and as it is connected with Mr. Cants' name, it is here given entire, as it appeared in the Aberdeen Constitutional, a respectable paper which had copied it from the journal of that city.-"A remnant of this ancient and beautiful structure, the original place of which has long ceased to know it, was recently rescued from a situation of most inglorious obscurity, and consigned to a fitting asylum, in the museum of King's College. Our topographers tell us, that there formerly stood, in the centre of the area in front of the Town House of Old Aberdeen, a Cross which was formed of an upright stone, raised upon a pedestal of a few steps above the level of the street. This stone was surmounted by a figure of the Virgin Mary; and underneath were the armorial bearings of the bishops Dunbar, Stewart, and Gordon. The last succeeded to the episcopal see, in 1545, which serves to indicate the period about which the Cross was erected. At the era of the Reformation, it was defaced by those whose indiscriminate zeal took offence at whatever even smelt somewhat of popery;' and after experiencing the inclemency of many a trying season, and the rough manipulation of ruthless hands-the ministers of wanton mischief-it was finally removed about the time when the Town House was rebuilt. What became of the shaft is not known; but the stone, on which were engraved the armorial bearings of the episcopal trio, was discovered, the other day, in a smithy in Old Aberdeen, where it had long been degraded into an utensil for holding tackets, old nails, and other odds and ends in the hard line,' tossed into the square cavity into which the top of the shaft had been inserted. To such vile uses had come this portion of a time-honoured fabric, which had once so proudly cropped the causey!' This curious relic owes its more congenial quarters in King's College, to the pious care of the individual who by chance discovered it."

ing under them) came forth to be ministers in the church, they were incomparably more furious, and therein outstripped the elder men (even of their own judgment) so far, that if any of them happened (upon any occasion) to speak of any thing that savoured of moderation, they were therefore reckoned Laodicean politicians, &c.; the madness of the time being such, that those who were most cruel were most cried up1."

Traquair gave the king an account of the Assembly's proceedings, who wrote to his lordship with his own hand, and tied him up to the instructions which had been given him at Berwick. On the point of abjuring episcopacy, the king says, "We think it fit to declare hereupon unto you, that let their madness be what it will, further than we have declared in our instructions in these points we will not go." Again, with respect to the liturgy, canons, Perth articles, and the Assemblies which had been condemned at Glasgow, he says, "if the Assembly will, in despite of your endeavour, conclude contrary to this, you are to protest against their proceedings in these points, and be sure not to ratify them in parliament." In order to save any dispute about annual assemblies, he directed Traquair to indict one to meet within the year; but by their act of "Apellations" his grace suffered this measure to be silently carried contrary to the king's instructions. "The article in your instructions, which is only that the Covenant of 1580 shall be subscribed, you must have an especial care of, and how you proceed therein; that the band be the same which was in our father's time, mutatis mutandis; and that you give your assent no otherwise to the interpretations thereof, than may stand with our future intentions, well known to you; nor is the same otherwise to be ratified in parliament.

"Thus you have our pleasure fully signified in every particular of your letter, which you will find noways contrary to our resolution taken at Berwick, and our instructions given to you then. But if the madness of our subjects be such, that they will not rest satisfied with what we have given you power and authority to condescend to,-which, notwithstanding all their insolencies, we shall allow you to make good to them,we take God to witness that, what misery soever shall fall to that country hereafter, it is no fault of OURS, but their own procurement. And hereupon we do command you, that if you cannot compose this business according to our instructions, and what we have now written, that you prorogue the parliament till the next spring; and that you think upon some course,

1 Guthry's Memoirs, 54, 55.-Skinner's Ecc. Hist. ii. 350,

how you can make publicly known to all our subjects to what we had given you power to condescend. And, because it is not improbable that this may produce a present rupture, you are to warn and assist Ruthven for the defence of the castle of Edinburgh, and to take, in general, the like care of all our houses and forts in that kingdom; and likewise to advertise ail such who are affected to our service, that timeously they may secure themselves. And so we bid you heartily farewell1."

Before their dissolution, the Assembly addressed a letter of thanks to the king for his wonderful condescensions, and "blessed his majesty for that happiness upon the knees of their hearts," and promised "to fill heaven and earth with their praises" of the king:-" That your majesty's princely power and the ecclesiastical power joining in one, the mutual embracements of religion and justice, of truth and peace, may be seen in the land, which shall be to us as a resurrection from the dead, and shall make us, being not only so far recovered but also revived, to fill heaven and earth with our praises, and to pray that KING CHARLES may be more and more blessed, and his throne established before the LORD for ever." The Assembly then appointed "the next General Assembly to sit at Aberdeen, on the last Tuesday of July, 1840; and warned all presbyteries, universities, and burghs, to send their commissioners to that city; and thereafter the assembly was concluded by giving of thanks by the moderator, and singing of a psalm, according to custom 2."

On the 31st of August the parliament sat down; but, in their very first proceedings, the disaffected members showed their disposition towards revolution: for they totally altered the frame of the parliament, and particularly in the choice of the lords of the articles, and protested, that they should not hold any act of this parliament valid, unless they were permitted to make the alterations which would pack it to answer their purposes. They took away the first or spiritual estate; and, to keep up three estates, they arbitrarily divided the higher rank of the nobility from the barons, which, with the burgh members, they declared to be the three estates of parliament. These acts of themselves were undoubtedly high treason. Instead of an act of oblivion, for which they petitioned at Berwick, they now passed an act to justify all their former opposition to the king's government; and they had the assurance to enact, that the expenses of the late insurrectionary movements should be paid by those of his majesty's subjects who had been loyal and 2 Johnston's Acts, 90.

1 Nalson's Collections, i. 254-5. VOL. II.

F

obedient to the crown. Montrose argued strongly against all these proceedings, which first awakened the jealousy of the covenanted chiefs, and the populace on the streets were instructed to insult him when he appeared in public. Even Traquair's secret treachery could not consent to all their demands; and he therefore wrote to the king for further instructions. He accordingly sent him instructions to prorogue the parliament, "when he found them thus pertinaciously resolved to persist in these their insolent and insufferable demands, contrary to all religion and laws, though they so much pretend to them both." But, before their prorogation, the treacherous Traquair ratified all the Assemblies' acts, although he had been peremptorily prohibited by his majesty's express command; and when, at last, he did signify the king's command for the prorogation, this undoubted prerogative of the sovereign was met by a protest, which they called a "declaration of the parliament," in which they claimed, that a parliament should not be prorogued without the consent of the estates. The commissioner, however, carried his instructions into effect; but as he had given them timely notice, they had their protest ready, which was read by Johnston, and instruments taken thereupon by the earl of Rothes1.

On the 17th November, the day after the prorogation of parliament, the commissioner set out for court to give an account of the proceedings, and was not very graciously received by the king, who was displeased with his betrayal of the prerogative. Balfour says, he was "freighted with sinistrous informations against the proceedings of the covenanters; and in eloquent terms, before his majesty and his privy council, stiffly denied all, with great oaths, he had done in the Assembly, or that he haa assented to anything; but, to the contrary, exaggerated all the Covenanters' deportment and actings, as tending to the destruction of the fundamental laws of the kingdom, and the overthrow of the monarchical government,and made a very molehill a mountain 2." Nevertheless, his majesty was pleased to say, that his ears should be ever open to the just complaints of his Scottish subjects; which induced the covenanters to dispatch the earl of Dunfermline and the lord Loudon to court, to put his majesty in possession of their account of the late proceedings in parliaOn receiving notice of this movement, the king sent them a peremptory order not to approach nearer than within

ment.

1 The king's own Narrative and Letters, as given in Nalson's Collections, p. 257-70.-Guthry's Memoirs, 55, 56.-Johnston's Acts of Assembly for 1639. Balfour's Annals, ii. 363.