majesty's conduct in managing the conference, so much so, that the lord chancellor [Egerton,] said aloud, he had often heard of the offices of priest and king being united in one person, but never saw it verified till now, and Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury exclaimed, "he verily believed the king spoke by the inspiration of the Spirit of God."

The Scottish church viewed these proceedings with very different feelings. Mr. Patrick Galloway, one of their accredited ministers, sent down to the presbytery of Edinburgh, a full statement of the conference, and its result. When read in the presbytery, it was heard with profound silence, and no one ventured to hazard an observation, till James Melville arose, and moved two resolutions. "First, that they should express their brotherly compassion, and their sincere participation in the sorrow of their many godly and learned brethren in a neighbouring country, who, having expected a reformation, are disappointed and heavily grieved, and if no other way could be found for help, that they would at least help by prayer to God for their comfort and relief; and next, that as the presbytery of Edinburgh had ever been the Zion and watchtower of the church, the ministers should take care, that no peril contagion come from the neighbouring church, and give warning, if need be, to the presbyteries throughout the realm: especially, that they should observe and watch over the proceedings of the next parliament, summoned to consult respecting the union of the two kingdoms"-and this was no idle or useless jealousy.

or

Soon after, the king issued a proclamation, ordering Jesuits and foreign priests, to quit the kingdom, but the effect of this proclamation, which was in unison with the feelings of his people, was destroyed by the manner in which it was ex pressed. In explaining his motives, he was anxious to show that it was not dislike to the general principles of the Roman h Catholic religion, that induced him to banish the Jesuits, but only his aversion to that peculiar tenet which inculcated the pope's unlimited power over crowned heads.

James' reign in England, was distinguished as a reign of proclamations. Immediately after the one against the Jesuits, he issued another against the Puritans, enjoining them to

conform with the established church, which was received with almost universal dissatisfaction, as it was in opposition to the rising spirit of the people, and manifested the most determined hatred against a large portion of his Protestant subjects, and which, when contrasted with the tenderness he had expressed for the consciences of the Roman Catholics, gave rise to suspicions and discontents that continued to increase during his whole reign.

The king, who possessed considerable speculative talents, but whose practical powers were of the lowest order, in spite of the obvious obstacles to any union at that time between the two kingdoms, had fondly entertained the idea of its easy accomplishment; and he imagined, as the benefits appeared according to his theory so plain, it would be impossible any objection could arise. * He, accordingly, as soon as the plague had subsided in London, assembled a parliament, the chief object of which was to consider of the eligibility of his scheme, or rather, according to his politics, of the means to carry it into immediate execution. His overweening vanity, however, and the extravagant length to which he pushed the pretensions of his royal prerogative, created, ere the session had well begun, a distrust and jealousy between the commons house and him, which led them to receive with coldness, if not with dislike, any proposition in which they saw him keenly interested.† His opening speech was of tedious length, and although characterized by Hume as "a performance, which few productions of the

* For myself I protest vnto you all, when I first propounded the union, I then thought there could have been no more question of it, than of your declaration and acknowledgement of my right vnto this crowne, and that as two twinnes, they would haue growne vp together. The error was my mistaking; I knew mine owne ende, but not others feares. K. James' Works, p. 510.

+ In his writs summoning parliament, and in his proclamation for its assembling, he assumed the right of dictating what kind of members ought to be chosen for the commons house. Hume attempts to gloss this over, but, thanks to the sturdy resistance of the commons of that day, and their clearer views of the danger of kingly influence in elections, the fountain of English liberty was not sealed. His other attempt was to render all contested elections subject to the decision of the crown. Here too, the manly good sense, and firmness of the commons defeated him, and to these two independent acts of the

*

age surpass, either in style or matter," is wholly unintelligible when he deals in generals, and when he descends to particulars, is reprehensible, as avowing doctrines totally inconsistent with the increasing knowledge of the times, with the laws and customs of the people, and with every principle of common prudence. In it he avowed undisguisedly, his despotic principles of government, his leaning to the Popish creed, and his antipathy to the Puritans. "He acknowledged the Roman church to be our mother church, although defiled with some infirmities and corruptions," and after objecting strongly to the temporal supremacy claimed by the pope, and the doctrine which authorized the assassination of heretic princes, added, "I could wish from my heart, it would please God to make me one of the members of such a general Christian union in religion, as, laying wilfulness aside on both hands, we might meet in the midst, which is the centre and perfection of all things. For if they would leave, and be ashamed of such new and gross corruptions of theirs, as themselves cannot maintain, nor deny to be worthy of reformation, I would on my part be content to meet them in the midway, so that all novelty might be renounced on either side, for as my faith is the true ancient Catholic, and Apostolic faith, grounded upon the Scriptures, and the express word of God; so will I

English house of commons, may be traced all the privileges a British lower house now enjoys. The principles of rational liberty, which Buchanan had in vain endeavoured to impress on the mind of James, had taken deep root in the nation, and these arbitrary, though abortive attempts to shackle the English parliament, had a strong and lasting influence on the affairs of Scotland.

*To exemplify his intelligibility, I quote the following. After mentioning that he had assembled the parliament to express to them his thanks for the manner in which he had been received as king, and his inadequacy to do so with such eloquence as the occasion required, he says, he ever misliked lip payment, and adds, "Therefore, for expressing my thankfulness, I must resort unto other two reasons of my convening of this parliament, by them, in action, to utter my thankfulness; both the said reasons having but one ground, which is the deeds whereby all the days of my life, I am, by God's grace, to express my said thankfulness to you, but divided in this, that in the first of these two, mine actions of thanks are so inseparably conjoined with my person, as they are in a manner become individually annexed in the same," &c. &c. For the rest I refer to the speech itself. K. James' Works, p. 486.

ever yield all reverence to antiquity in the points of ecclesiastical polity, and by that means shall I ever, with God's grace, keep myself from being either an heretic in faith, or schismatic in matters of polity." He was less measured with respect to the Puritans, "This sect, which," said he, "I call a sect rather than a religion, do not so far differ from us in points of religion, as in their confused form of policy and purity, being ever discontented with the present government, and impatient to suffer any superiority, which makes this sect insufferable in any well governed commonwealth. As to my course respecting them, I refer to my proclamations.”

A majority of the house of commons were semi-puritans, or at least, men who had a rooted abhorrence of Popery ; to them such sentiments gave universal disgust, and led them to view every proceeding of the king's with suspicion. They besides, had national antipathies to overcome, they perceived the number of Scots who had already flocked to England, and they feared a further influx. In a conference between the two houses, however, lord Ellesmere, the chancellor, procured their consent to the nomination of forty-four commissioners, to treat with the Scots respecting a union.

When the Scottish parliament, which met at Perth, on account of the plague then raging in Edinburgh,* assembled, their aversion to a union was not less than that of the English. Private consultations were frequently held among the nobles, and their fears for national independence were stimulated and strengthened by the ministers, who trembled for the safety of the church. At the first mention of a proposed union, the ministers had taken an alarm, and the commissioners of the general assembly, petitioned that a meeting might be held before parliament met, to consider the proper steps for securing the order and discipline of the church of Scotland from danger; but the king refused this, as he said the

I have attempted in vain to get some data to estimate the ravages of the plague in Scotland. At this period I can only ascertain that in several years it was dreadful, and I can account for it from the nauseous food on which the poor vassals were forced to subsist on account of the scarcity they lived upon garbage and carrion, and the fluids which should have carried fe and vigour to the body, carried disease and death.

union was entirely a political measure, in which the church had no interest, and where their rights would not at all be compromised. It was alleged on the part of the church, that it was evident from the whole of the king's procedure, that a uniformity in the church government of the two realms was intended, and as this could not take place without the one yielding to the other, it was to be feared this submission would be required of the Scots. The synod of Fife, took a wider and sounder view of the subject than their sovereign, they rejoiced in "the purpose of the union, as most loveable and good,” at the same time they perceived its practicability, without a uniformity between the ecclesiastical establishments, and instructed the commissioners to oppose any innovation in the doctrine or discipline of the church, or any assimilation of statuary laws.* This fact, of political union without ecclesiastical uniformity, or the surrender of the ancient laws of either nation to the other, which has now been demonstrated to be beneficial by the experience of more than a century, was one which the royal theologian could not comprehend, and which among the court party, the enlightened Bacon alone seems to have understood.

After some difficulty, † thirty-six commissioners were chosen by the Scottish parliament, but their powers were restricted, and they were not intrusted with any discretionary latitude of action, which would allow them to trench on the independence, rights, or liberties of their country. The whole proceedings of this parliament were adverse to the union, and the only attempts which they made at any approximation to a closer alliance, were recommending the removal of such

• Calderwood, p. 480.

+I differ with diffidence, which I must always do when I venture to dissent on political subjects, from Mr. Laing; but it does not appear to me, that the Scottish nobles were so easily intimidated into the measures of James as he asserts, Hist. vol. iii. p. 10. nor can I find those marks of haste which he mentions. He quotes the State Papers, MSS. Advocates' Library. Ambassadors have been always allowed to be legalized spies. State papers in general may be compared to special pleadings, which, in a majority of cases, are special falsehoods, and we know how grossly the affairs of Scotland were misrepresented to James, as he confessed when he visited it. I cannot, there