398 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 



who are in distress. And this in a more parti- 

 cular manner is the earnest petition of, 



** My Lord, 

 " Your Grace's most humble and 

 '* obedient son and servant, 



** Ja. Gordon." 

 " Hamibyy Oct. 25, 1709.'* 



The deliverance of the episcopal clergy, men- 

 tioned in the former part of the letter, was cer- 

 tainly a great one, and very seasonable, if their 

 apprehensions of the treatment that was designed 

 them in the northern circuits were well ground- 

 ed ; for in the beginning of August the same 

 summer the Bishop of Edinburgh in a letter to 

 the Archbishop has these words : — 



*' I am certainly informed that our lords of 

 the Justiciary have sent up to the court for in- 

 structions how to behave in the next circuits 

 with respect to the episcopal clergy. If the 

 return to this be unfavourable, and recommend 

 not much moderation, we shall be entirely 

 ruined, for the judges who go to the northern cir- 

 cuits are such, that unless some bonds be laid 

 upon them we can expect no kind of quar- 

 ter, and it is into their division that by far the 

 greatest part of our clergy do fall. We still 

 complain, and justly too, that we are sentenced 

 and punished for what the law does not require; 



