A proclamation was issued, enjoining the clergy and the people to conform to the new ceremonies; but the more vehement the King was in demanding obedience, the people were the more obstinate in their opposition. In Edinburgh, the Christmas festival was observed by the judges and lawyers only. The citizens persisted in their daily avocations; and in the country churches, when the communicants were commanded to kneel to the eucharistical elements, they arose and retired with indignation.

During the last year of James's reign, a series of tyrannical measures was pursued with inflexible resolution. The recusant ministers were suspended from their functions, deprived of their benefices, persecuted, and imprisoned. But these coercive measures produced effects entirely the reverse of what the King expected. The deposed clergy persisted in public and private teaching; conventicles were established and numerously attended, while the Episcopal churches were deserted.

A.D.

James died of a tertian ague, at the age of fifty-nine 1625. S. years; having reigned fifty-seven in Scotland and twentytwo in England. His reign in the latter kingdom was tranquil and beneficent; but after his accession, his reign in Scotland exhibits him engaged in an ignoble struggle with the majority of his subjects, for the purpose of prescribing to them a religious belief and imposing it by penal sanctions.

James was a prince of considerable talents and learning, but of little mental or political energy. From his notions of an incontrollable prerogative, he became unpopular, and provoked his subjects to question it. The current of public opinion was now strongly turned to an extension of the rights of the subject and retrenchment of the powers of the crown ; and, during this reign, the seeds were sown of that spirit of resistance on the part of the people which was destined in the next to overturn the monarchy.

James was only once married, to Anne of Denmark; who died in 1619, in the forty-fifth year of her age. She was bold, intriguing, immersed in politics, impressed with little reverence for her husband's spirit or his talents for government. A great comet appeared about the time of her death; and the phenomenon was considered by the vulgar as a prognostic of that event. James left only one son, Charles; and one daughter, Elizabeth, married to the Elector Palatine. Henry Prince of Wales, an accomplished youth, died at the premature age of eighteen.

CHAPTER II.

Charles. Revocation of impropriated tithes-exasperates the nobility. Charles visits Scotland-introduces the Liturgy and Canons. Popular irritation and tumults. Renewal of the Covenant. Compromises attempted. Hos-tile preparations. Negotiation. Civil war.

A.D.

CHARLES the FIRST.-Charles the First began his reign 1625. under a combination of circumstances, which were render ed, by his imprudence, imminently dangerous and eventful. The hostility which had harassed and weakened both kingdoms, and the domestic dissentions which had been excited in Scotland through the influence of the English monarchs, were happily terminated by the union of the crowns. The great authority which the late King had acquired was occasionally exerted in allaying the feuds of the Scottish aristocracy, and establishing law and order throughout the kingdom.

To these circumstances may be attributed the profound tranquil lity of Scotland for twelve years after the accession of Charles to the throne. In this period, though diversified with few important transactions, may be discovered the germes of the civil and reli gious discord which subsequently convulsed the kingdom.

Had

the nation, in this reign, entertained the same ideas of the royal prerogative, of the powers of Parliament, and of the liberty of the subject, that had prevailed in the two preceding centuries, Charles would have reigned with high popularity. ·

But his mind had been imbued with his father's tenets in religion and politics, when the public opinion had undergone an entire ́revolution on these topics: He was extremely attached to the Episcopal hierarchy, as more congenial to monarchy than the democratic genius of Presbytery. He conceived that the prelates maintained an exemplary subordination and discipline among the inferior clergy; and as their order derived its authority solely from the King, he concluded that they must be zealous and trusty supporters of the prerogative.

One of the first measures of the new reign in Scotland, was the revocation of impropriated tithes and benefices which had reverted to the crown after the Reformation, and which had been exhausted in gifts to the importunate nobles. But every proposition for relinquishing the spoils of the church was peremptorily refused by

the nobility and gentry. The Assembly of Estates, to whose deliberations the act of revocation had been submitted, threatened the Earl of Nithsdale, who presided, with summary vengeance, unless he desisted; and Lord Belhaven, though blind with age, requested to be set next the Earl of Dumfries, whom he grasped with one hand, as if to support his infirmities, and held in the other a concealed dagger, to plunge into his heart on the first commotion. Nithsdale, apprized of the hostile spirit of the Convention, immediately dissolved it. The King, however, determined to persevere in recovering the patrimony of the church. A commission was issued to receive the surrender of impropriated tithes and benefices, under certain implied conditions; and the refractory nobles, who refused to submit to the arbitration of the Sovereign, were successively prosecuted and compelled to submit. But a secret and permanent disaffection to the Government was thus kindled; and the nobility, who had hitherto beheld with apathy the ecclesiastical innovations, were resolved to unite with the Presbyterians.

Such was the situation of the kingdom when Charles revisited his native country, to be formally invested with the supreme authority. The ceremony of inauguration was succeeded by a short session of Parliament, which voted liberal and unprecedented supplies. This complaisance was mistaken by the King for an unconditional submission to his authority. He obtained an act of Parliament for the introduction of episcopal vestments, which was understood to be tantamount to an acknowledgment of his suprepremacy; but as that act was known to have been extorted by his influence and importunity, contrary to the sentiments of those who gave it their suffrage, it served only to inflame the resentment of the nation, which became alarmed for the independence of Parliament.

Charles could not dissemble his surprise at the sudden reverse he had experienced in the popular favour. A prelate, unconscious that he uttered a prediction to be verified in the tragical death of the King, observed, "The Scots will execrate and crucify tomorrow him whom but yesterday they saluted with hosannas !”

The popular indignation was still more inflamed by the arbitrary trial and unjust condemnation of Lord Balmerino; who was accused of sedition, from motives of private malice, by his hereditary enemy Hay of Naughton, This iniquitous prosecution was ruin

ous to the King's cause in Scotland. The people had long felt that the administration of justice was partial and corrupt; but the nobility now became alarmed for their safety; and they engaged, after the example of their ancestors, in a confederacy against the throne.

Meanwhile, Charles and his dignified ecclesiastics were zealously employed in framing canons and a liturgy for the use of a people who held both in abhorrence. The canons for establishing ecclesiastical jurisdiction were first promulgated. They asserted that the King's authority was absolute and unlimited; they ordained that the clergy should not pray extemporaneously, but should read the printed form prescribed in the liturgy.

The Presbyterians, who professed to regard Jesus Christ as the head of the church, and considered the church in its doctrine and discipline to be totally independent of the civil power, were filled with indignation at seeing a body of ecclesiastical laws established without the consent of the church itself, which only was competent to sanction any change in its worship or discipline.

The liturgy, which was absurdly sanctioned before it was prepared, was, with little variation, copied from that used by the church of England: Great prejudices were therefore entertained against it; the Presbyterians regarded it as a preparation for the introduction of Popery. In obedience to a royal mandate for the immediate observance of the liturgy, the Dean of Edin1637. Sburgh prepared to officiate in St Giles's, and the Bishop of Argyll in the Grayfriars' church.

A.D.

ness it.

To increase the solemnity, the judges, the prelates, and a part of the council, attended; and, from the novelty of the spectacle, a large and indiscriminate concourse of people assembled to witThe congregation in St Giles's remained quiet until the Dean opened the book and began the service. An old woman suddenly started up, and, exclaiming aloud against the supposed mass, threw the stool on which she had sat at the Dean's head.

.

A wild uproar immediately commenced: The service was interrupted; a party of women made towards the desk; and the Dean with difficulty disengaged himself from his surplice, and fled. In vain did the Bishop of Edinburgh address the enraged multitude: Stones and other missiles were thrown at the pulpit, and his life was saved only by the timely interference of the magistrates. After the most turbulent of the rioters had been turned

out of the church, the service was resumed; but the multitude broke the windows and battered the doors, exclaiming furiously, "A Pope, a Pope! Antichrist! Stone him, stone him!" In the Grayfriars, the service was also interrupted by groans and loud lamentation; but it was concluded in the evening without interruption.

Though the tumult was conducted by persons of low condition, and without any previous concert, the sense of the nation was well known and unequivocally expressed; for, except at St Andrew's, and in the cathedrals of Brechin, Ross, and Dunblane, the bishops, though very assiduous, were equally unsuccessful. Contrary to every principle of sound policy, the Chancellor issued orders to use coercive measures against the nonconformists. In this extremity, Henderson, a zealous Presbyterian clergyman, with several others, petitioned the Privy Council against this arbitrary prosecution, as the liturgy was not yet sanctioned by the General Assembly of the church or by the Parliament. Many of the nobility and gentry seconded the application of their ministers.

Intimidated by this strong expression of national feeling, the Privy Council privately represented to the King the danger of increasing the popular discontent; but he remained inflexible. When this unhappy determination was known, multitudes of all ranks resorted to Edinburgh, from every county south of the Grampian hills. Supplications from two hundred parishes were forwarded; the pulpits resounded with vehement declamation against Episcopacy; and the populace, who had first opposed the innovation, were compared by the preachers to Balaam's ass, an animal stupid in itself, but whose mouth was miraculously opened to the admiration of the whole world.

Two proclamations were issued, commanding the multitude to disperse from Edinburgh, transferring the seat of government and of justice to Linlithgow, and suspending the consideration of ecclesiastical grievances for an indefinite period. It was obviously the King's purpose to divide the supplicants, or weary them by delay: But they preferred a formal accusation against the prelates, as the authors and advisers of the liturgy and canons, and consequently of the discord between the King and the people.

The nobility, the gentry, the clergy, all ranks, and almost every congregation in the kingdom, subscribed the accusation. And, in order to proceed with unanimity and vigour, a few individuals