608 



SCOTLAND. 



History. A concurrence of favourable circumstances attended 

 v~y ' the elevation of the king of Scots to the English throne. 

 Civilization and commerce had advanced with unex- 

 ampled rapidity during Elizabeth's reign, and though 

 James was born and educated among a rude people, the 

 English nation submitted cheerfully to his authority. 

 His natural facility soon displayed his character in a dis- 

 advantageous light. Elizabeth had bestowed her favours 

 with great discretion ; James created 237 knights 

 within six weeks after his arrival in England. A 

 pasquinade was stuck up at St. Paul's intimating an 

 art to be taught to assist the memory in recollecting 

 the names of the new nobility. 



Two conspiracies were soon formed to subvert the 

 government. Sir Walter Raleigh, some noblemen, and 

 two catholic priests, are said to have been the chief 

 persons implicated in the first. The second, well known 

 by the name of the Gunpowder Plot, seems to have 

 been devised by the English catholics in revenge for 

 the disappointment they suffered from a monarch who, 

 they flattered themselves, must have a predilection for 

 a church to which his ancestors had been inviolably at- 

 tached. The miserable condition of Scotland had been 

 often ineffectually lamented by the king, for almost all 

 his subjects were tyrants or slaves. The state of agricul- 

 ture was stationary and languid. The trade was li- 

 mited to a few towns, and offered few inducements to 

 a people naturally attached to military pursuits. As 

 a preliminary to any national improvement, James pro- 

 posed to unite the kingdoms, and for that purpose he 

 prevailed on the parliaments of both kingdoms to no- 

 minate commissaries to settle the basis of a treaty. 

 The English commissioners proposed an uniformity 

 of laws as the basis of a treaty ; and declined to com- 

 municate the privileges of an Englishman to aliens so 

 recently their enemies upon any other terms. This 

 frustrated the whole project of the union. Of the va- 

 rious articles prepared by the commissioners, only the 

 abolition of hostile laws was adopted. 



James attempted with better success to introduce 

 episcopacy into Scotland, under the pretext of a laud- 

 able conformity ; but that event proved unpropitious 

 to the Scottish church, which was assailed and shaken 

 to its foundations. As a preliminary, the independence 

 of the General Assembly was first attacked. 



A. D. 1606. A few ministers, delegated from nine presbyteries, 

 met at Aberdeen, and proceeded to assert their rights, 

 notwithstanding a prohibition from the privy council. 

 By their own authority alone, they summoned another 

 assembly, to be held the same year, after which they 

 immediately separated. This assembly was by pro- 

 clamation declared unlawful, and Welsh and Drury, 

 two popular preachers, were tried for treason and con- 

 victed. The act annexing the church lands to the 

 crown was repealed ; the bishops were restored to their 

 estates and dignity ; thirteen dilapidated bishoprics 

 were re-established, and seventeen inferior benefices 

 were converted into temporal lordships. An ecclesi- 

 astical assembly was held soon after at Linlithgow, the 

 members of which were nominated by the bishops, as 

 favourable to their interests, and summoned by the 

 king from their respective presbyteries. In order to 

 reconcile the clergy to these proceedings, 50,000 merks 

 were privately distributed by the earl of Dunbar among 

 ihe most clamorous or necessitous. 



Andrew Melville, the successor of Knox, James Mel- History, 

 ville, his nephew, with six others, were invited to hold ~v~~r / 

 a conference at London respecting the disputed points, A.D.1GIO. 

 but it terminated in acrimonious altercation, and their 

 conscientious adherence to their principles was punish- 

 ed with imprisonment and exile. 



The archbishop of Glasgow was created an extraor- 

 dinary lord of session, to restore a spiritual intermix- 

 ture on the bench, which had been discontinued since 

 the Reformation. Two courts of high commission 

 were erected at St. Andrews and Glasgow. An as- 

 sembly of the church convened at Glasgow, recognised 

 the supremacy of the prelates ; the parliament con- 

 firmed and enlarged their powers, and, to consummate 

 their ordination, three of their number were summoned 

 to London to receive consecration from the English 

 bishops. 



The king now prepared, after fourteen years ab-A.D. 1617. 

 sence, to visit the scenes of his youth. A splendid re- 

 tinue of the English nobility accompanied him to Edin- 

 burgh, and his arrival was welcomed by the Scottish 

 muse in classical and panegyrical orations. The chief 

 object of his journey was to assimilate the forms and 

 ceremonies of the Scottish church to the episcopal ri- 

 tual. But many of the Scottish nobles became alarmed 

 for the preservation of the rich domains, of which they 

 had despoiled the catholic clergy at the Reformation, 

 the numbers nominated by the king were rejected by 

 the nobles ; while so violent was the opposition, that 

 the king threatened to dissolve the parliament. 



A reconciliation being effected, James proceeded in 

 his design, and announced his resolution of introducing 

 certain practices into the Scottish church. These in- 

 novations the clergy durst not openly oppose, and they 

 were more desirous to conciliate the king than submit 

 implicitly to his authority. An assembly was held at 

 St. Andrews ; but its resolutions were inconclusive, 

 and therefore disagreeable to the king. Another and 

 more compliant assembly was held at Perth, and to 

 each of its members was proposed the perplexing ques- 

 tion, " Will you assent to these articles, or disoblige 

 the king ?" About forty ministers declared their dis- 

 sent ; but the articles were adopted. 



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. 

 During the last year of James's reign, a series of ty- 

 rannical measures was pursued with inflexible resolu- 

 tion. The recusant ministers were suspended from 

 their functions, deprived of their benefices, persecuted, 

 and imprisoned. But these coercive measures pro- 

 duced effects entirely the reverse of what the king ex- 

 pected. The deposed clergy persisted in public and 

 private teaching ; conventicles were established, and 

 numerously attended, while the episcopal churches 

 were deserted. James died at the age of fifty-nine ^ j-> jgg 5 

 years, having reigned fifty-seven in Scotland, and 

 twenty-two in England. He was only once married, 

 to Anne of Denmark, who died in 1619, in the forty, 

 fifth year of her age. 



Beyond this point we need not pursue this abstract 

 of Scottish history, as it now becomes identified with 

 that of the sister kingdom, and will be found under our 

 article BBITAIN, Vol. IV. p. 566. 



