ROBERTSON. 267 



of the Church, from the lustre of his literary fame, 

 cannot be doubted ; and that the circumstance of his 

 connexion with the University always securing him a 

 seat in the Assembly, while others went out in rotation, 

 tended greatly to consolidate his influence, is equally 

 clear. But these accidents, as they are with respect to 

 the General Assembly, would have availed him little, 

 had not his intrinsic qualities as a great practical 

 statesman secured his power. He may be said to have 

 directed the ecclesiastical affairs of Scotland for more 

 than a quarter of a century with unexampled success, 

 and without any compromise of his own opinions, or 

 modification of his views of church policy ; and he 

 quitted the scene of his brilliant career while in the 

 full vigour of his faculties, and the untarnished lustre 

 of his fame. 



At the latter end of George II.'s reign, that Prince, 

 or his advisers, deemed it expedient to make a proposal, 

 having for its object the elevation of this eminent 

 person to a high rank in the English Church. The 

 particulars are not known ; but Mr. Stewart, who 

 probably had some intimation of them, says that the 

 offer was met with f< a rejection, in terms which 

 effectually prevented a repetition of the attempt." 

 Probably he considered it as, in substance, an insult to 

 his character for sincerity as well as independence ; 

 for though no man was less tainted by narrow-minded 

 bigotry, and none probably could regard less than he 

 did the differences, rather political than religious, 

 which separate the two churches as matters of con- 

 science, he yet had declared his aversion to Episcopacy 

 on grounds not to be shaken, at any rate not to be 

 shaken by a proposal accompanied with temporal 



