84 FAMOUS SCOTS 



unessential portion of a deep and dangerous conspiracy 

 against the liberties of our country.' 



The immediate result was seen in the conduct of the 

 patrons. As the Regent Morton had established 

 tulchan bishops and secured the revenues of the sees, 

 the patrons now named such presentees as they de- 

 liberately saw would be unacceptable to the people, 

 protected as they were by the appeal to the Presbytery, 

 so that during the protracted vacancy they drew the 

 stipend. No actual case of intrusion, however, seems 

 to have occurred until 1725, but the rise of moderatism 1 

 within the Church gave too frequent occasion for such 

 forced presentations as, we have seen, took place at 

 Nigg, in 1756, in the days of Donald Roy, Miller's 

 relative. The secessions of the Erskines in 1733 and 

 of the Relief under Gillespie in 1752 were the results 

 of intolerant Moderatism, and its long reign under 

 Robertson the historian, lasted for well-nigh thirty 

 years in the Assembly, till his withdrawal in 1780. 



Were we to credit the eulogies of Dean Stanley and 

 others upon Home, Blair, and Robertson, we should 

 regard this as the golden age of the Church of Scotland. 

 Robertson he describes as 'the true Archbishop of 

 Scotland.' But there are men who seem fated, in the 

 pregnant phrase of Tacitus, to make a solitude and call 

 it peace. The reign of Robertson was simply coincident 



* For the similar rise of the spirit in England see Mark Pattison's 

 excellent paper in Essays and Reviews, 'Tendencies of Religious 

 Thought in England, 1688-1750. 



