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mittee of estates, of the year 1650, to sit down, and the parliament, December 12th. For a commissioner, by our nobles' consent, lest strife should be for it, the lord Middleton, earl of Fettercairn, was nominated, who was not very acceptable to many; especially not keeping the day of the parliament, but causing it to be adjourned to January; yet when he is come. down, his wisdom, sobriety, and moderation, has been such as makes him better beloved and respected as fit for that great charge, as any other we could have gotten. So far it went very well, to the great joy of us all.'”

On the 2d of June, Mr. Sharp wrote to Douglas, that the use of the liturgy had been spontaneously commenced, and that a motion at Sion House, among the presbyterian ministers, was lost, for a petition to parliament in favour of the Westminster Confession, the Directory for worship, and the presbyterian form of government. And, he adds, "for any observation I can make, the presbyterian cause is wholly given up and lost. Some of our countrymen go to the common prayer. All matters are devolved into the hands of the king, in whose power it is to do absolutely what he pleases, in church and state." In another letter, he says, "The king and the [Scottish] grandees are wholly for episcopacy..... The parliament, when it meets, will make all void since 1639." Of these grandees there were no less than twenty-eight then at court, many of whom had been chiefly embarked with the remonstrators; but who neither individually nor collectively advocated the cause of presbytery; but on the contrary, complied with the reaction which had taken place, and went to church where the liturgy was constantly used in the public service. Mr. Sharp again assured Mr. Douglas that all his efforts were unavailing to set aside the firm determination of the king, and the Scottish noblemen then at court, to re-establish episcopacy in Scotland; and as he could now no longer be of any service to the presbyterian party, he made repeated applications to be allowed to return and resign his commission. The king sent for Mr. Sharp on the 14th of June, and said he would call a General Assembly after the sitting of parliament, and licensed him to return to Scotland, and inform his brethren that as soon as civil affairs were settled, he would send for some of their number; and assured Mr. Sharp that he was perfectly aware of the usage which the moderates had received at the hands of the remonstrators. On the 28th of June, Mr. Sharp wrote to Mr. Douglas, stating how much all parties at court were

1 Baillie's Letters, iii. 423-466.

disgusted with the Dumfermline Declaration, before mentioned. Mr. Baillie, who had a personal dislike at Gillespie, mentions that man's terror of retribution, for his former domineering sway, and that he had gone with his wife with the tear in her eye to London, that she might implore a pardon for her husband. In this letter Mr. Sharp mentions, "I had it from a sure hand that the other week Gillespie's wife came to the lord Sinclair, and having wept, told him, that the stream against her husband she saw to be so great, as he would be ruined.

. . She shewed him a letter from Mr. Patrick to her, bearing that she might deal with the lord Sinclair, that he would move the king on his behalf, and know what length his majesty would have him to go to the BRINGING IN EPISCOPACY into Scotland; and to give all assurance that he would do the king service to the utmost, and nothing could be enjoined to him for promoting thereof, which he would not most faithfully and vigorously obey and perfect." This important fact is also vouched for by Baillie; but it is totally suppressed by Wodrow. It, however, shews that Gillespie had either not so learnt Christ as to suffer for Him, or that he retained so much of the Romish origin of his beloved covenant, as to act the hypocrite, and to do what he considered evil that his own ideas of good might ensue, or else to save himself from merited punishment. Mr. Douglas, in his letter of the 3d of July, says, "Some, indeed, make it their work here to possess people with the king's purpose to bring in prelacy into Scotland, which hath necessitate me often in public to vindicate his majesty, and signify he hath never discovered any such purpose, but rather professed the contrary, which hath satisfied honest people here who were discouraged with such apprehensions." "Honest people" just means such as were of the presbyterian persuasion; but not the people in general; for he had said in a previous letter that the majority of the nation were joyfully anticipating the restoration of the episcopal church. If it be," he continues, "your mind at court that we should not speak of [establishing] presbyterial government in Scotland, and that our covenant may be kept here, then I hope never to be of it, for we had never more need, considering the temper of many here, and of our countrymen with you," whose predilection for episcopacy he had formerly confessed. He was informed in return that shortly the cabinet council would settle the ecclesiastical affairs, and that both the king and the Scottish nobility were predisposed to establish episcopacy. Mr. Sharp also said the king

1 Wodrow, i. 47.

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asked him at Breda," What should be done with those remonstrators in my answer I closed with this- Though it be not fit your majesty should give them countenance, or put power into their hands, yet I think we shall all be suitors to your majesty that they and pardon may be their measure.' The king, with a smile replied unto me, 'were they in your case, they would not allow you such measure.' We have repeatedly found evidences of their malice against us; I pray it may not be charged upon them1."

Towards the latter end of July the ministerial appointments were made. General Middleton was created an earl, and appointed the lord high commissioner for the ensuing parliament; of whom a contemporary author says, "he was really a man of a manly eloquence as well as aspect; happier in his wit than in his friends, and more pitied after his fall than envied in his prosperity 2." The earl of Glencairn was made lord chancellor; the earl of Lauderdale principal secretary of state; and the same author says, "Chancellor Hyde endeavoured to make Lauderdale chancellor, under pretence of rewarding his sufferings, but really to remove him from a constant attendance at court. But Lauderdale foreseeing that he who was possessed of his majesty's ear would govern all, thought fit to reside in London, and so that employment was bestowed on Glencairn, a person who honoured it by his great parts and greater goodness. The earl of Rothes was made president of the council without any competition, and by the joint consent of all the opposite parties; for his youth had as yet suffered him to have no enemies, and the subtlety of his wit obliged all to court his friendship3." The earl of Crawford was appointed lord treasurer; sir John Gilmour president of the court of session; sir Archibald Primrose clerk-register; Mr. John Fletcher the lord advocate. The English judges who had been appointed during the usurpation were deprived of their commissions, and such of the former judges as had been expelled by Cromwell, and were alive, resumed their seats on the bench. A presbyterian author, no ways favourable to Mr. Sharp, although more moderate than the generality of his vituperators, says:-" The king frowned upon the earls of Loudon and Lothian, and artfully evaded all propositions laid before him by Sharp, as agent of the resolutioners, for settling the church government in Scotland while episcopacy was fully

1 Vide Author's Life and Times of Archbishop Sharp, p. 67.

2 Memoirs of the History of Scotland, p. 7.

3 Ibid. p. 8.

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