frequently threatened him bodily injury, and could not therefore be received as a witness.

On the second day, commissioners from the presbytery of St. Andrews, attended to protest for the liberty of the church, and also commissioners from the university, to re-pledge Mel. ville to the court of the rector, but were refused admission, and the court was about to proceed, when Melville gave in his protest and declinature, expressed in language similar to the requests and explanations he had made the day before. The king and Arran, violently enraged at the bold step Melville had taken, endeavoured, by alternate threats and entreaties, to induce Melville to withdraw his declinature, but finding him resolute in demanding that his cause should be remitted to the proper judges, at last, Stuart was brought forward as his accuser, and a number of witnesses were examined, but nothing criminal could be proved against him. Failing to establish their charge, but determined on vengeance, a new accusation, and one never heard of, but in the most arbitrary courts, was brought forward, and Melville was found guilty of declining the judgment of the council, and of behaving improperly before them, and was condemned to be imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh, and further punished in person and goods, at his majesty's pleasure. But learning that the place of confinement was changed to Blackness, a damp and unwholesome dungeon, and that if he entered ward, it was probable he would only be released to go to the scaffold, without waiting the legal time for the execution of the sentence, he secretly fled from Edinburgh, and took refuge in Berwick.*

In the then state of justice in Scotland, the line of conduct adopted by Melville, was the only safe method he could have pursued. To have submitted in the first instance to the privy council, would have been certain ruin, besides owning a jurisdiction which he did not believe to be legal, and which, even if in common cases it had, he was not in the present instance bound to obey, as there were two special exemptions, which were still in force, and which he pleaded-the agreement of

* Calderwood, pp. 145-7. M'Cric's Life of Melville, vol. i. pp. 287, 292. Cook's Hist. Ch. of Scot. vol. i. pp. 377-9.

the court* with the church, and the privileges granted to the university of St. Andrews. The claims of the church were high, but in that age necessary, for they had to meet and resist the exorbitant demands of unqualified despotism. In the present day, when there are other methods of opposing the encroachments of power, and when the jurisdiction of the several courts are better defined, the claim of hearing, even in the first instance, charges of sedition or treason, or any civil offence committed by their members, would never be listened to. In matters referring to religion and morals, the pulpit has, and ought to have a liberty unrestrained by any civil power, but in politics, and private character, it is widely dif ferent, for the obvious reason, that while in the senate, or at the bar, any improper observations may be instantly challenged and corrected, the pulpit admits of no immediate reply, and besides, there is a natural tendency in church courts, to encroach upon the civil jurisdiction, and to protect their members, which would render such a privilege, of very doubtful advantage.

The escape of Melville, was made the grounds of a new stretch of power by the privy council, and further severities against the fugitives. An act was passed, ordaining that such

An agreement had been entered into, between the commissioners of the council, and certain ministers, after the first imprisonment of Dury, to avoid any future dissension, in which it was stipulated, if the king was offended at the doctrine of any preacher, he should cause a complaint to be given in against him to the ecclesiastical courts, instead of summoning him to appear before the privy council; and this was done in the case of Balcanquhall, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, who, in a sermon, had said, "that within these four years, popery had entered into the country and court, and was maintained in the king's hall, by the tyranny of a great champion, who was called Grace-alluding to Lennox-but if his Grace continued in opposing himself to God and his word, he would come to little Grace in the end." The assembly, before whom the cause was brought, having been unable to find either sedition or treason in the expressions, declared the doctrine to have been "good and sound." The king was dissatisfied with the decision and this was afterward alleged as an excuse for bringing the other causes immediately before the privy council, as if the assembly had bound themselves to condemn in every case, when his majesty thought fit to accuse. James never forgot the acquittal of Balcanquhall; being an inveterate punster himself, he probably thought the preacher had invaded his prerogative.

preachers as were accused, should henceforth be apprehended without the formality of a legal charge, and it was declared treason to hold any communication with those who had left the kingdom. An order was at the same time issued, for all who had obtained leave to depart, to set out without delay to the places of their destination. Notwithstanding these warnings, and his knowledge of the inveterate enmity of Arran, the earl of Gowrie, unwilling to leave his native land, still delayed his departure. While lingering about Dundee, he received information that the lords who had gone to Ireland, had determined to endeavour the liberation of their country, by removing Arran from the king's council. Little persuasion was necessary to induce him to enter into their designs, but as he waited their motions, his protracted stay excited suspicion, and colonel Stuart, the captain of the king's guard, was sent to apprehend him. The colonel surprised him at his lodgings, but notwithstanding he defended himself for six hours, and endeavoured to excite the inhabitants to come to his assistance, by exclaiming, that he was prosecuted for the sake of religion, he was, however, overpowered, and carried prisoner to Kinniel, the earl of Arran's seat.

Two days after, the earls of Angus, Marr, and the master of Glammis, surprised Stirling castle, where they intended to fortify themselves, and issued a proclamation, declaring that their only object in seizing arms, was to deliver the king from evil counsellors, but the apprehension of Gowrie, of whose fidelity they were uncertain, as he had formerly deserted them, the tardiness of their friends at home, and their disappointment of aid from England, cast a gloom over their minds, and rendered their prospects hopeless; and the king having raised an army with uncommon expedition, the chiefs fled to England, and the castle surrendered to Alexander, master of Levingston, upon the first summons. The speedy abruption of this ill-concerted attempt, rendered the favourite more secure, and added strength to his party. Gowrie first felt its effects. The extensive estates of that nobleman, had attracted the avarice of Arran's wife, and his opposition in the council,

*

* He, [Arran] shot directly at the life and lands of the earl of Gowrie, for

had drawn down upon him the hatred of the earl himself, both which circumstances conduced to render him peculiarly obnoxious. He was therefore ordered to Stirling, to stand trial, but before he set out, he was induced by the hope of pardon held out to him, and a promise that nothing he might disclose would be used in evidence against him, to reveal all he knew concerning the conspiracy, and the names of those who, though not actually engaged, were considered as favourable to the design.

On his arrival at Stirling, he wrote to the king, requesting an interview, in order to reveal some secret of importance, but the request was not only denied, but the concealing from his majesty a secret-the nature of which was not known to his accusers-made part of the indictment preferred against him. It was in vain he objected deadly enmity to some of his judges, and the promises that had been made to him previously to his trial; all his objections were over-ruled, he was sent to an assize, found guilty of treason, and sentenced to suffer the death of a traitor. In the evening of the same day, he was beheaded, but the quartering of the body being dispensed with, his servants were permitted to bury the whole remains of the unfortunate nobleman. He died with firmness and resignation, expressing on the scaffold the usual regret of disappointed courtiers, who, in their career of ambition, have been more anxious to study the humours or caprice of princes, than to hold fast their own integrity. His lands were divided among the dominant party. On the same day, two servants of the earl of Marr were executed, and the rest who were in the castle at the time of its surrender, were banished.

A temporary calm ensued, and the unnatural vigour which a government always acquires after the suppression of an unsuccessful insurrection, promised to ensure its continuance. In the usual method of adopting more severe and arbitrary measures, to crush entirely the spirit which had just been broken, James hastened to Edinburgh, and summoned a parliament, which, in the present state of affairs, consisted entirely of the

the Highland oracles had shown unto his wife, that Gowrie should be ruined, as she told to some of her familiars." Melville, p. 310.

friends or supporters of Arran, who were disposed to enact whatever he should be disposed to dictate. As the church was the peculiar object of his resentment, whose freedom of discussion, the king and his favourite equally hated and feared, the ministers who knew this, were extremely anxious in watching the proceedings of the court, and the court was equally anxious to prevent them from knowing what was in agitation; the lords of the articles were sworn to secrecy, and the business of parliament was carried on with shut doors. The ministers, however, having learned the nature of some of the acts proposed, deputed Mr. David Lindsay, a man whose wisdom and moderation the king pretended greatly to respect, to wait upon his majesty, and to entreat that no law might pass, af fecting the interest of the church, till the assembly was first consulted, but Arran being informed of the message, caused him to be arrested, on the charge of corresponding with the fugitives, in the palace yard, as he was proceeding to the king, detained him that night in Holyroodhouse, and next morning, sent him prisoner to Blackness, where he lay till the fall of the favourite. They then instructed some of their number to proceed to parliament, and protest in name of the church, against any encroachment on their liberty, but they were refused admission.

Such was the unconstitutional, precipitate, and hidden manner in which the king and Arran procured the enactments of this parliament, and the acts were in every respect worthy of the manner in which they were obtained. The late usurpa tions of the privy council were confirmed. The king's authority was declared to extend over all persons, and all causes, and to decline his majesty's judgment, or the council's in any matter, was pronounced treason. To impugn the authority, or to innovate or procure the diminution of the power, of any of the three estates, was forbidden under the same penalty. All jurisdictions and judicatures, spiritual and temporal, which had hitherto been exercised, but not formally sanctioned by parliament, were prohibited. Commissions were to be given to the bishops, and such others as shall be constituted king's commissioners in ecclesiastical causes, to put order to all ecclesiastical matters in their dioceses: and it was ordain