Chapter XXVII: Act 131: , Par. 8, K. Ja. 6, and the subjects’ liberties, who ought (24)

First, for the frequencie of this meeting, there was never such a meeting at such a worke sein in Christendome. 2, So powerfull assistance, both of the spirit of our God for which we glorified him, and of these worthie nobles and uthers heir present, on whom we wish all earthlie blessings—blessings heir, and eternall happinesse in the lyfe to come. 3, For our harmonie; there was never such a harmonie; that, all in ane voit, we have rejected and condemned that Service Booke—a booke of slaverie and servitude indeed—that superstitious Booke of Ordination, and that Booke of Canons, which was a bulwarke and defence for all the rest. 4, For the happie conclusion, we have great reason to thanke God that these bookes are now condemned. The 5 Articles that rent our Church are now condemned; Episcopacie now abjured, and all uther matters introductorie to Popperie—the Lord hes fried us from them; for which I say we have great reason to thank God. Now let us not sing a requiem to ourselves, nor yet be insolent in our carriage, but behave ourselves wiselie and prudentlie towards our superiours; and, though the Bishops be cast out, let us not be cairelesse of auctoritie, but let our carriage be modest and our speach seasoned with grace. 3, Let us be vigilant and not secure; for, a great and good worke such as this is, it was never brought to ane end without opposition. 4, Let us be courageous in the strenth of our God; and, lastlie, thankfull to his great name for that wonderfull unanimitie that hes beine amongst us, and happie conclusion that God hes granted unto us.

The Moderatour said—Truelie it becomes us not to be insolent; for the Lord hes bein pleased so to dispose of us as we have not caus to be wantoun, for if, as we had divine auctoritie to warrand us, so we had humane, I feir it should be hard for us to keip ourselves within bounds. But the Lord, knowing our weaknes, keipes us in this temper; and if we cary ourselfes worthlie of that God hes bestowed upon us, who knowes but he will graceouslie grant us all our desyres, and turn the countenance of our King toward this Kirk? There rests ane circumstance which I should have remembered. I am assured it will be acceptable to this Assembly, that some of these Noblemen who hes bein ane ornament to this Assembly should speake ane word before it dissolve, especiallie my noble Lord Argyle, whom we could have wished, if it had pleased his Lordship, to have come in sooner: but the Lord hes reserved him for the fittest tyme, and I trust the Lord shall honour him with all blessings, both heir and heirefter.

My Lord Argyle said—Since it pleases you, Moderatour, to name my name, yow give me occasion to thanke yow for putting so favourable a construction upon my cariage, whereas ye wishe me that I had come in sooner. Truelie, I tell yow it was not want of affection to the good of religion and my countrie, and I desyre that favourable construction of yow still, that my intention was to have done more good wherein I was not inlaiking before; and, when I saw I could be no more usefull, except I had bein a knave, I thought good to doe as I have done. Ane thing I would remember yow of who hath bein purging the Kirk of evill instruments, that ye would labour to learn a lesson upon their expenses: _felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum._ I remember, upon ane occasion, I told some of them to their face, that there was two faults which had brought meikle evill in this Church—to witt, pride and avarice, which I cannot deny but to be grievous faults in any man, but especially in Churchmen. But I hope everie man shall walke by the square and rule which is now before him—keeping duetie first to superiors; secondly, to equalls; and, thirdlie to inferiours. For superiours, their needs nothing to be farder said nor hes bein alreadie by the Moderatour. Only this; let us all labour, since we are fried of many yockes of bondage, not to abuse our Christian libertie, which may make our profession to be evil spoken of. Secondlie, for our duetie to our equals—there is a caus much spoken of in this Church, betwixt ruleing elders and ministers. Some ministers feares that it be a corbing of them; but, if any of these elders stryve to make use of that power for any end but for the good of the Kirk, they may be sure of their oune judgment. Truelie, it may be, that some ruleing elders in some places be not so wise as neid wer; but let not that, if it fall out, breid a distemper in the peace of this Church; but let unitie be all our rules; and, if anything of this kind fall out in Presbytries or Parochines, let neighbour Presbytries and Parochines joyne togither for settling thereof, that no dissension be of this kind, for it may doe much evill. Thirdlie, for inferiors—I hope ministers will studie to know their duetie towards their flocke and people; lykewayes, will have due regaird to these whom God hes sett over them; for we must not thinke that becaus we want Bishops, therefore we may live as we will. And, if this we doe, though our gracious Master doe not everie thing at first as we would wishe, yet tyme may worke many things, if we goe on constantlie in the defence of our religion and of the auctoritie of our gracious Soveraigne, whom, we pray, may long and prosperouslie reigne over us.

After that the Moderatour had given thankes to my Lord Argyle for his speach, and craved pardon of his Lordship for expressing his name, he said—As for that which my Lord hes beine wiselie speaking, concerning our duetie to the Kings Majestie, we have good reason to advert unto it; for this reason, addit to many—becaus our adversaries gave it out as a calumnie against us, that his government which we are about, established by Christ in this Church, cannot stand with monarchicall government, but Episcopall only; but let us resolve to give a proofe of the contrare—that the government which Christ hes appoynted, may weill stand with monarchicall government; and, we trust, that we are not to be suspected of our loyaltie toward his Majestie; and this certainlie will make his Majestie perceave that we have done nothing but what we have done moved by God, and drawen be necessitie to doe. And for this end let us—to conclude this great worke—beseech Him who hes the hearts of Kings in his hands, to inclyne our Kings heart, and let us magnifie, from our hearts, our graceous Lord for this peaceable meeting and happie conclusion we have had; for the which we are oblissed all the dayes of our life to be thankfull to our God and King, and to rander unto the Father, Soune, and blissed Spirit of Grace, all praise, endless honour, and glorie, for now and ever.—AMEN.[140]

FINIS.

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, AT EDINBURGH, 1639.

Before proceeding with a detail of the Acts and discussions of the Assembly of 1639, it is fitting, in conformity with the general plan of this work, to state briefly the occurrences which resulted from that of the preceding year—events, the character of which must, in some measure, have been anticipated in the perusal of the numerous documents which we have already concentrated in the foregoing pages.

It is evident, from many indications in the correspondence and public documents of the period, that, from the first movements of the Covenanters against the Service Book and Prelacy, both the King and the Scotch Leaders contemplated the contingency of an appeal to arms, although both parties disguised, as much as possible, their mutual anticipations and arrangements. The rupture which ensued on the Commissioner’s dissolution of the Assembly on the 29th of November 1638; the continuance of the Assembly in defiance of the King’s authority, (apart altogether from the nature of its subsequent proceedings;) and the proclamations by Hamilton, after his retirement from the Assembly—in which all who continued in it were denounced as liable to the penalties of treason—amounted, in substance and effect, to a declaration of war, on the part of Charles, against the great body of his Scottish subjects, as rebels. Nor, in the circumstances, could aught else be expected; for, with the Sovereign’s notions of the royal prerogative, and influenced by the spirit disclosed in all his letters and instructions to the Commissioner, nothing, save consciousness of utter want of power, was likely to deter him from enforcing full and unlimited authority over all his subjects; while, on the other hand, the bold, numerous, and influential representatives of national feeling that composed the Glasgow Assembly of 1638, must have been prepared, from the first hour of its meeting, to raise the standard of revolt in the field, unless the objects at which they aimed with such intense enthusiasm, were otherwise attained. In fact, even before the meeting of that Assembly, both the King and the Covenanters had secretly prepared for a conflict; and, after its dissolution, and the scornful rejection of its supplication for a sanction to its Acts, the exertions of both parties were commensurate to their means and their relative positions.

The chief Acts of the Assembly of 1638—some of which have been made subjects of controversy—were, 1st, The election of their Moderator and Clerk, and their constituting the Court before receiving the Declinature tendered by the Prelates; 2d, The Acts approving of the Registers; 3d, The continuing to sit after the Commissioner ordered it to dissolve; 4th, The Act condemning the spurious Assemblies from 1606 to 1618, inclusive; 5th, The Act condemning the Service Book, and other Books forced on the country and Church, by the royal prerogative, without the sanction of Parliament or of the Church; 6th, The deposition and excommunication of the Prelates and others; 7th, The prohibition, by its own authority, of Episcopacy and the practice of the Five Articles of Perth, under the pains of censure and excommunication; 8th, The Act against the Press.

Of these, the first five, and some other relative Acts, reviving former laws of the Church, appear to be quite unexceptionable, and fully within the competency of a free General Assembly, according to the laws of the land, and the consuetudes of the Reformed Church, from the time of the Reformation; and these were all Acts, legitimately within the range of spiritual and ecclesiastical jurisdiction. We know not on what ground it can be contended that it was bound to dissolve itself on the mandate of the King or his Commissioner. It was confessedly convened by the royal proclamation; but we know of no authority by which the executive power was at that time warranted to dissolve a General Assembly, by its mere _fiat_, after being so assembled, upon an anticipation that it was about to act _ultra vires_ and illegally.

The 6th, 7th, and 8th classes of Acts to which we have alluded, were of a different character, and imported an assumption of civil power and jurisdiction. Had that Assembly, upon the points referred to, confined itself to an expression of opinion in the first instance, or taken cognizance only, and in an orderly manner, of the moral and ministerial delinquencies of the prelates and ministers, there does not appear to be any good ground for challenging its procedure; and, having exhausted its proper spiritual jurisdiction, it could then have applied to the supreme legislature for a ratification of its ecclesiastical conclusions, and thus avoided the rock on which it split, and, for many “evil days,” made shipwreck of the genuine and legitimate Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

It would be disingenuous, as well as absurd, to disguise the fact, that several of the Acts of the Assembly of 1638 were violations of, and irreconcilable with, the existing law of the land, and imported an assumption of authority identical with that of the State. In fact, that Assembly was a Political Convention, as much, at least, as an Ecclesiastical Synod—having fully a hundred Members of Parliament in its composition; and, in many of its enactments and decrees, it directly rescinded and superseded a great number of Acts of Parliament. Without entering at all on controversial ground, we may remark, as a matter of fact and of notoriety, established on the face of the Statute Book, and by the tenor of the Assembly’s Acts, that that Assembly, virtually and explicitly, abrogated a series of Acts of Parliament, by which Prelacy was fully and distinctly settled as the Established Church of Scotland, for a period of above thirty years preceding, under which the greater number of the Clergy in that Assembly had received ordination and benefices, and in which the lay members had acquiesced without any visible opposition.[141] In addition to the assumption of civil authority, in practically repealing Acts of Parliament, the Assembly sustained Complaints against the Prelates and others, at the instance of miscellaneous and self-constituted public prosecutors—a practice never recognised as competent in the law of Scotland at any period.[142] It deposed the Prelates, not solely for erroneous doctrine or immoralities, which was quite competent to the spiritual jurisdiction of the Assembly, but chiefly because they held offices conferred on them under the existing law of the country. It superseded the uniform and settled law, both of the Church and State, from the time of the Reformation, on the point of ecclesiastical presentations to benefices, and transported ministers from place to place, regardless of the rights of patrons and the wishes of incumbents. It imposed an absolute veto on the liberty of the press; and, above all, it issued an edict for coercing the whole people into an adoption of the Covenant or Confession, and, in obedience to its decrees, under the terrors of excommunication, (a penalty which, at that time, was tantamount to outlawry, confiscation of property, and proscription,) in each and all of these particulars deviating from the spiritual into the civil track of jurisprudence and legislation. Of this, indeed, that sagacious and gifted man, Henderson, the Moderator, was fully aware; for he says explicitly—“Neither can we thinke ourselves secure in peace and quyetness, _till civill auctoritie ratifie what is heir done by ecclesiasticall constitution._”

One of the most unaccountable characteristics of the Reformation in this country, is the intolerance and coercive courses adopted by the Protestants, from their Popish predecessors, for compelling uniformity to the new doctrines and worship. This appears to be inconsistent, and indeed irreconcilable with the great first principle of the Reformation—the right of private judgment in matters of religion, and in interpreting the Scriptures according to the conclusions of that judgment. It was the assertion of this right which shook the Papal domination; and nothing contributed more largely to the overthrow of Popery in Scotland, than the civil persecutions which ushered in the dawn of the Reformation, and which excited the sympathy and indignation of the people; yet no sooner were our first Reformers disenthralled from that bloody yoke, than they resorted to similar methods of compelling assent to their principles, and obedience to the authority of the Kirk. From 1449, in the reign of James II., “cursing” or “excommunication” by the Church, both Catholic and Protestant, for nonconformity or other kindred offences, inferred imprisonment and forfeiture of property in the recusant; and the unhappy victim of ecclesiastical censure was doomed to exclusion from society and all its charities, to destitution, to imprisonment, to exile from his native country, and even to death. Self-preservation may, perhaps, have prompted this course at first, when the Reformers were struggling to secure that religious liberty which was the great object of their zeal; and “The Booke of the Universall Kirk” affords numberless examples of the eagerness betrayed for constraining, by civil penalties, all persons to _profess_ the reformed doctrine, and submit themselves to ecclesiastical authority. During the space of 140 years after, the spirit of intolerance continued to govern every party that was dominant for the time; in the reigns of Mary, James VI., and his son Charles, and his grandsons Charles II. and James VII. The triumph of the Covenanters was not more distinguished than any other portion of the period referred to, for greater relaxation in this respect, than either the Popish or Episcopal Churches; and, during all the vicissitudes of their fortune, as already in some measure disclosed, and to be further illustrated, we cannot find even a trace of any proposal to give freedom of conscience to others, even when they were waging war against Popery and Prelacy in the name of religious liberty. This strikes us as an anomaly in the moral history of our country, of which we have never seen any satisfactory solution; but the rigorous enforcement of the Covenant and submission to the Presbyterian Kirk, and the excommunications, which were directed against the Prelates and others at the time to which our attention is more immediately directed, perhaps paved the way, in some degree, as a precedent, for the interdicts, intercommunings, and diversified persecutions, which have rendered the reigns of the two last monarchs of the Stuart dynasty, a byword and a reproach to the land in which these horrors were perpetrated. It was not till the year 1690 that the civil penalties on religious nonconformity were blotted from our statute-book, after the settlement of William and Mary on the throne of Britain.

Greatly as we admire the talents, the courage, and the piety of many individuals in the Assembly of 1638, we do not deem it necessary to canonize their errors, or to ascribe a sort of plenary inspiration to all their proceedings. That in their great objects, they were right, and that much good resulted from their stern and intrepid course, we most willingly admit; but (if we may be permitted to express any opinion of our own) we should say, that the true and only justification of some Acts, which were _ultra vires_ of a church assembly, is, that in fact they were partly a political as well as an ecclesiastical body, _constrained, by the necessity of the case_, to resist and to resent the assumption of arbitrary power, which by its stretches had virtually broken up the fabric of society in Scotland, and reduced it nearly to its primary elements. The Covenanters had but too much reason to apprehend that their civil as well as their religious liberties were in the utmost jeopardy; and, therefore, it is by no means surprising if, in the tumult of emotions by which the nation was at that time convulsed, they in some points passed beyond the strict line of demarcation which separates the spiritual from the civil authorities in peaceful and well-ordered states—_Inter arma silent leges._

Such was the position of the parties—the King and the Kingdom of Scotland—in the beginning of the year 1639, after the Assembly of 1638 had terminated its labours.

Immediately after the dissolution of the Assembly, the several Commissions which it had appointed proceeded to “purge out” all persons who, either by adherence to Prelacy, or for other causes, were obnoxious to the now ruling power: and Baillie informs us that “many ministers who remained obstinate in scandals were deposed at Edinʳ, St Andrews, Dundee, Irvine, and elsewhere.”[143] We learn, however, from the Acts of 1639 that these depositions were to be relaxed, (except in the case of gross faults,) upon submission to the new order of things.[144] The members of the late Assembly, according to its injunctions, had made known to their several parishes the nature of its proceedings; but at Aberdeen, where there was a stiff opposition to its authority, Dr Guild was deterred from doing so; and Lundie, the Commissioner from King’s College, was summoned before the Senatus Academicus, and threatened with deprivation for having continued in the Assembly after it was dissolved by the Commissioner.[145]

But the attention of the Covenanters was called from such matters to others of more serious importance. Hamilton had, on the 17th of December preceding, put forth a full proclamation, containing his reasons for dissolving the Assembly. His health had suffered much from mental anxiety and the exertions which he had been called on to make; and it was not until the 28th of that month that he proceeded on his journey to London.[146] Previously to his final departure from Scotland, however, the chiefs of the Covenanters waited on him, to solicit his good offices at Court; but we are told that he replied to them—“You must not think to use your Kings now as you did formerly, when they were only Kings of rebels: the King has now _another_ royal and warlike nation at his command, and you shall soon feel it to your cost.”[147] Hamilton reached Whitehall on the 5th of January, when he found the King highly exasperated, and resolved, by force of arms, to subdue his obstreperous subjects, the Covenanters of Scotland.

The plan of operations designed for carrying this object into effect was, that an English army of 30,000 horse and foot, under the immediate command of Charles, should invade Scotland on the eastern borders—that Carlisle and Berwick should be strongly garrisoned—that 5000 men should be landed in the north, to co-operate with Huntly and his followers—that the Earl of Antrim should land in Argyleshire—that Strafford, with such forces as he could withdraw from Ireland, should enter the Clyde—that another fleet should enter the Forth, and scour the eastern coast—and thus, by a simultaneous attack on all sides, distract and overwhelm the Covenanters. And had this well-devised plan of operations been fully and promptly carried into effect, there can be but little doubt that it would have been attended with at least temporary success.

The King, though hampered by increasing discontents among his English subjects, and weakened by many errors in policy, both foreign and domestic, roused “the might of England.” He had effected a saving of £200,000 in his Exchequer; he obtained loans from the Episcopal Clergy of England, and from the Papists by means of the Queen and the priests; he had ample stores of arms, and a formidable train of artillery; and he summoned the English nobility to assemble, with their followers, at York, on the 1st of April.[148]

Of these designs on the part of the King, the Covenanters did not long remain ignorant; and, indeed, they had anticipated them so far that they had previously procured arms and munitions secretly from the Continent, and had secured the services of Alexander Lesly, and other veteran soldiers, trained to war in the army of the celebrated Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden. The King’s summons to the English nobility was promulgated on the 26th of January, and the ground on which it proceeded was a statement that the Scotch intended to invade England. Even before this public document appeared, the Covenanters were made aware of the King’s hostile intentions, from the circumstance of all Scotchmen at Court being required upon oath to renounce the Assembly, and to promise assistance when required against the Covenanters. Being anxious to propitiate the good opinion of the English people, and thereby to weaken the King’s hands, they had circulated extensively “a printed sheet or two” of information to the people of England, “for vindicating their intentions and actions from the unjust calumnies of their enemies.” It was dated 4th February, and, on the 27th of that month, Charles issued “A proclamation and declaration to inform the kingdom of England of the seditious practices of some in Scotland, seeking to overthrow his regal power under the false pretence of religion.”[149]

The deputies of the Covenanters, who assembled in Edinburgh about the middle of February, resolved to make a reply to this proclamation, which was drawn up by Henderson, and entitled, “The Remonstrance of the Nobility, Barons, Burgesses, Ministers, and Commons, within the Kingdom of Scotland, vindicating them and their proceedings from the crimes wherewith they are charged by the late proclamation in England,” &c. “These three or four most dainty sheets of paper of Mr Henderson,” says Baillie, “made such an impression, that we, over all England, began to be much more pitied than before, and our enraged party, [antagonists,] the Bishops, to be more detested.” These, and various other tracts by Henderson, Baillie, and others, on the “lawfulness of our defence in arms,”[150] and which were distributed extensively through England by pedlers and otherwise, had a powerful moral influence in that kingdom; in which, besides, there was a growing discontent, occasioned by the King’s arbitrary disuse of Parliaments, and other grievances peculiar to themselves.

“When we had done diligence,” says Baillie, “to inform our neighbours of England, and make sure the courage of all our friends at home, in the third place we took course for a real opposition to our enemies.” On the 7th of March, a full meeting of the deputies and leaders of the Covenant was held, at which, resolving not to depend on any foreign auxiliaries, a general committee of the nobles, barons, and burgesses, and two senators of the College of Justice, being twenty-six in number, was appointed, (thirteen being a quorum,) to give out orders, receive intelligence, levy troops, raise money, &c.; and, exercising all the functions of a supreme, legislative, and executive body, this “Committee of Estates” issued an edict that every fourth man should be armed and trained: local committees of war were appointed, and a complete plan of military organization was established in every burgh and county in Scotland; and we have Bishop Burnet’s authority for stating, that “these committees found small resistance, and no difficulty, of levying men—greater numbers being offered than could be either armed or maintained.”[151] Thus, the chimera of royal and indefeasible prerogative was reduced in Scotland to a nonentity; and the nice metaphysical problem of the lawfulness of resistance by subjects, was practically solved by the entire Kingdom appearing in arms, to resist the undefined and unlimited claims of the first Charles Stuart, to absolute power over all estates in the realm, when about to be enforced by foreign invasion.

While these transactions were in progress, the Court of Session, it appears, had remonstrated strongly with their Sovereign against his belligerent purposes. Their earlier communications on the subject appear to have been intercepted, probably by the incendiary courtiers; but, in the month of March, their Lordships sent another remonstrance to his Majesty by the Lord Justice-Clerk, which we have not observed in any of the common histories or printed collections, and which we, therefore, subjoin among the documents hereto appended, being a piece of evidence entitled to great weight, as emanating from the supreme civil judicatory of Scotland.[152]

Their Lordships state that, “when your Majestie was pleased to indict a General Assembly, we, and most parte of all your good subjects of this kingdome, wer overjoyed, in expectation that the doubts in religious worship and kirk government, quhilk was tossed to and fro this whyle bygone, should have then beine cleerlie settled; and altho’ the greater part of your people be weill pleased with the constitutions therein concluded, yet your Majesties displeasure against that Assembly, and the proceedings thereof, and your expresse dislike of those who adheres to the same, and the fearfull consequences therefra like to ensue, hes turned all the hopes of comfort which we expected, in sorrowes and teares.”—“Your Majestie may be pleased to pardon us to avere, that in this, they are but badd counsellours, and no better patriots, who will advis your Majestie to adde oyle and fewall to the fire.” And among their “Instructions,” (advices,) their Lordships inform his Majesty, “that, if our neighbour nation doe invaid this countrie, it will assuredlie be taken be all Scotsmen, albeit not affected the present way, for a national quarrel; and all will strive as one man, to defend themselves, as for their lives, estates, and liberties of the countrie.” This salutary advice, however, was slighted by King Charles.

We shall not pause to notice all the deliberations and preparations on either side which ensued, but hasten on to the main points of our narrative.

On the 21st of March, Leslie, and other officers, commanding about 1000 men, took Edinburgh Castle—having forced the outer gate—securing twenty-five field-pieces, and other munitions. The day following, Rothes, Lowdoun, Home, and Lothian, with a similar force, invested Dalkeith House, which was surrendered, without resistance, by Traquair, the keeper: and they seized the Regalia of Scotland, forty-eight barrels of gunpowder, twenty-four of balls, and six cart-loads of muskets, which they deposited in Edinburgh Castle. On the 23d of March, (being a Sunday,) Dumbarton Castle was secured by a stratagem; and, besides these chief forts, (Stirling was in the hands of Mar, one of their own party,) Strathaven Castle and Douglas Castle, in Lanarkshire, and Tantallan Castle, in East Lothian, Dairsy, in Fife,[153] and Broderick Castle, in Arran were seized; the only enterprise of this kind which failed, being in the case of Karlaverock Castle, in the south, which it would have been hazardous to attack, and difficult to maintain. Dumfries, however, was taken possession of by a body of Covenanters.

In the north, the Earl of Montrose, with a well-appointed force, of seven or eight thousand men, (“the most were brave, resolute, and well-armed gentlemen,”) levied in Angus and Mearns, moved to Aberdeen, appalled Huntly and his adherents, who fled; and Montrose took possession of Aberdeen, where he levied contributions, though very generously. There was a subsequent rallying of the Royalists, headed by Aboyne, Huntly’s son, and Ogilvy of Banff, who gained some petty advantages; but they were worsted in a skirmish at Turreff; and Montrose kept all the north country in awe and subjection—Huntly being seized and conveyed to Edinburgh Castle, as the only security his opponents could get for his neutrality. In the Western Highlands, Argyle was on the alert, with a sufficient force. The enthusiasm was so high, that nobility, gentry, ladies, and persons of all ranks, joined in the humblest labours for self-defence. “Leith fortifications went on speedily—above 1000 hands daily employed; plat up towards the sea, sundry perfect and strong bastions, well garnished, with a number of double cannon, that we feared not much any landing of ships on that quarter. The towns of Fife, all along the shore, made up such sconces and fosses, and planted such a number of ship-cannon upon batteries, that they were all in the case of a tolerable defence. Thus, in a short time, by God’s extraordinary help, we cut the main sinews of our adversaries hopes; all the strength of our land came in our hands; no man among us but those who swore they were stout friends. All otherwise disposed, both Noblemen, Gentlemen, and Ministers, were got away to our professed enemies, and the whole country put in such an order and magnanimity, that we found sensibly in every thing, the hand of God going before us; so all fear of human force was clean banished away.”[154]

Such were the energetic and successful movements, which, in the course of a few days, put the Covenanters in possession of all the strongholds of Scotland, and inspired them with assured confidence. Let us now turn to the preparations of King Charles for his enterprise against them.

About the middle of March, the King published a declaration of the reasons for his expedition against Scotland, and soon after issued the “Large Declaration,” or Manifesto, containing a more minute statement of the grounds of his projected invasion. The latter of these, as has been already noticed, was written by Balcanquel, Dean of Durham; and, although we have had occasion to select public documents from it, which could not be materially falsified, it is to be regarded merely as a varnished and partial statement on behalf of the King’s policy, on which no reliance can be placed, except when his testimony operates against the cause which he advocated. His Majesty thereafter took his departure from London, on the 27th of March, and, on the 1st of April, arrived at York, where he remained till the beginning of May, when he moved on to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He marched thence to Berwick-upon-Tweed, in the vicinity of which he arrived about the beginning of the month, and continued there till the negotiations and treaty, betwixt him and the Covenanters, put a stop to the impending hostilities, on the 18th of June following.

The movements of the two armies, however, during that interval, form too prominent a picture of the times to be passed over without a brief notice—referring to the Royal Letters, and other documents of the day, which will be found annexed, as embodying the most authentic accounts, not merely of what was visible to the common eye, but of what was passing behind the scenes, in the secret councils of the antagonist courts and camps.

Charles, with a well-appointed army, which had preceded and accompanied him from London to York, was there joined by the English nobility; and, from the splendour of the national chivalry who there joined his standard, the march, from thence to Berwick; of betwixt 20,000 and 30,000 infantry, cavalry, and artillery, is described as resembling a military triumph. The English host was under the nominal command of the Earl of Arundel and Essex, but having its monarch and his standard in the midst. It finally encamped at the Birks, a few miles above Berwick, on the southern bank of the Tweed. The long inaction, however, which ensued—the peculiar nature of the service, in which the sympathies of the officers, as well as of the common soldiers, were, to a great extent, with the Scotch—and the unpopularity of Charles’ Government in England, created by his arbitrary dissolutions and discontinuance of Parliaments, paralysed the energies of this showy army; and Charles ere long discovered symptoms that there was peril in relying on a force the military prowess of which was unnerved by these inherent moral affections.

During the progress of this prolonged and hesitating advance towards the boundary which divided the kingdoms, the Marquis of Hamilton, who had remained in London at the King’s departure, to superintend the outfit of the naval expedition, had only reached Yarmouth Roads on the 15th of April, and being there detained by adverse winds, it was not till the 29th of that month that he reached Holy Island with his squadron, on board of which there were about 5000 raw levies, so inefficient that the greater part of them, including even the non-commissioned officers, did not even know how to fire a musket. On the 1st of May, he entered the Frith of Forth; and his squadron, consisting of about twenty vessels, cast anchor in Leith Roads.

The Covenanters were not unprepared for the threatened invasion. Whenever the fleet appeared in the offing, the beacon fires blazed along the summits of the mountains, awakening the land to a sense of its dangers and its duties. From all quarters, the stout peasantry and burgesses of Scotland followed, with ardour; the Nobles and gentry, and veteran officers, as their “Crowners” and commanders, to the point of danger; and, ere Hamilton could refresh his sickly troops, by landing them on Inchkeith and Inchcolm, or issue the King’s proclamations, the shores of the Forth, on both sides of his fleet, gleamed with twenty thousand Scottish spears and broadswords—the well-known symbols of ancient renown and national victory—and stood, “a wall of fire,” in defence of their native land, against what every man deemed an invasion by a foreign foe. Whatever we may now think of the circumstances of a political nature which led to this unhappy difference betwixt the King and his Scottish subjects, and however clearly we may trace, as it appears to us, through the backward vista of two hundred years, the errors and the failings of our fathers—there is not a true Scotchman, of these times, or in any future generations, who can look back on the records of such a scene, without a throb of pride and of patriotism swelling in his heart, that he is descended of a race who thus gathered themselves around the altar of their country and their God, in the hour of peril—in defence of what they deemed the highest and the holiest privileges of their fathers, of themselves, and of their children.

This splendid demonstration of national spirit and power, seems to have warned Hamilton that his purposes of attack were effectually frustrated, even if he was not paralyzed by the feelings inseparable from a generous nature in such a position. He lingered on in a fruitless series of negotiations with the leaders of the Covenanters, (of which the particulars are too minute for recapitulation here)—his strength frittered away by detaching a portion of his troops, and by the ravages of disease; and he continued in a state of listless distraction and impotence for many weeks, neither attempting anything hostile, nor receiving any aggression from his sagacious antagonists, until he was recalled by his royal master to headquarters, in the camp near Berwick.

It will be recollected that, by the proclamations of 9th and 22d September 1638, the General Assembly was indicted for the 21st of November that year, and the Scottish Parliament to meet on the 16th of May following.[155] The time had now arrived for the assembling of Parliament, to which, in compliance with the proclamation, the Nobles, Barons, and others liable or entitled to serve in the Supreme Legislature convened at Edinburgh, while public affairs were in the attitude of which we have thus given a brief outline—the King’s Commissioner on board a naval armament in Leith Roads, for the subjection of Scotland by force, and the nation mustered in arms to resist him; the Sovereign himself being at the head of a foreign army, (for, as regarded Scotland then, it was a foreign army,) on the eve of invading her territories, and issuing proclamations against the whole nation, as guilty of treason and rebellion. It was under these extraordinary circumstances that Parliament assembled on the 16th of June 1639; and it is necessary to advert to the proceedings which the Estates, thus convoked by royal authority, adopted.

It was surmised by the royalist partisans that the Covenanters would hold a Parliament according to the indiction, and proceed, without either the King or a Commissioner being present, and establish some form of government, more or less anti-monarchical; in this, however, they were mistaken. When his Majesty sent orders to prorogate the Parliament, all agreed that it should be prorogued, after being fenced, to any period his Majesty thought fit; and it was prorogued accordingly, and by subsequent adjournment, till September following. Before separating, however, the Members concurred in granting a very ample commission to General Leslie, as Commander-in-Chief, and appointed Balmerino Governor of Edinburgh Castle. Meanwhile, the Covenanting chiefs omitted no opportunity of appealing to the justice and patriotism of the King, by supplications to himself, and communications to others whom they thought likely to have influence in his councils.

We now turn our attention to that quarter where it appeared probable the main battle would be fought, had not the consciousness of danger in the battle-field, and a sinister and double policy, induced the King to listen to the proposals of peace from his subjects; and it is one of the most honourable traits in the character of the Covenanters, that, however mistaken they might be in some of their views and actions, they ever manifested a desire to avoid the calamities of war, and ever cherished feelings of loyalty to the King, and of submission to his constitutional authority.

As the plans of the King began to be developed by his own march to the Eastern Border, and Hamilton’s expedition to the Forth, the Covenanters concentrated their forces to meet the threatened invasion at all points. On the 18th of May, peremptory orders were given by the Committee of War for general and energetic exertions. The forces which had been organized and disciplined on the Western Borders, under Monro, advanced from Dumfries through Nithsdale, Annandale, Liddisdale, and Teviotdale, towards the Merse, and took up cantonments at Kelso; while the main army (after leaving sufficient force to keep Hamilton in check) marched toward the royal camp, under the command of Alexander Leslie as _Generalissimo_, and pitched their tents in an entrenched camp at Dunglas, on the confines of East Lothian and Berwickshire—each body being so placed as to interpose an opposing force if the King’s army should attempt to enter Scotland through Berwick or further up the Tweed—and so posted that either portion of the army could presently coalesce with the other at any point of attack by the English. While the opposing armies were thus situated, the King was busied in issuing proclamations, one of which was more mild in its tone than those which preceded it, offering amnesty to all who should relinquish hostilities, but denouncing all who should not do so, and holding out an insidious temptation to the tenantry of Scotland that the estates of their landlords would be forfeited and partitioned among them, but withal forbidding them to come within ten miles of the royal camp, &c. Early in June these proclamations were published along the Border—at Dunse by Arundel, having an armed force along with him, without opposition; but not so at Kelso. Holland was dispatched, on the 3d of June, with 1000 horse and 3000 foot, to Kelso, professedly for a similar purpose, but evidently with the view of attacking and dispersing Monro’s corps of the Covenanters. He “advanced towards them with the horse (leaving the foot three miles behind) to a place called Maxwel-heugh, a height above Kelso; which, when the rebels discovered, they instantly marched out with 150 horse, and (as my Lord Holland sayes) eight or ten thousand foot—five or six thousand there might have been. He thereupon sent a trumpet, commanding them to retreat, according to what they had promised by the proclamation. They asked whose trumpet he was: he said—my Lord Holland’s. Their answer was—he was best to be gone; and so my Lord Holland made his retreat, and waited on his Majesty this night, to give him this account.”[156] We learn, from the same authority, that this untoward result operated strongly on the royal mind. “This morning,” says Vane, in his Letter, “advertisement is brought his Majestie that Lesley, with 12,000 men, is at Cockburnspath—that 5000 will be this night or tomorrow at Dunce—6000 at Kelso; so his Majestie’s opinion is, with many of his Council, to keep himself upon a defensive, and make himself here as fast as he can.” He therefore instructed Hamilton not to act on the offensive, but to leave his fleet in the Forth in as good a posture as he could, and go in person to the royal camp.

Baillie gives an account of this same affair, varying but little from Lord Holland’s. After stating that the Scotch troops willingly stood at the required distance from the King’s encampment, in order to shew that they did not meditate any invasion of England, and mentioning the proclamation at Dunse, he adds:—“The like was intended at Kelso; but there Monro, Fleming, and Erskine, presenting themselves in battle array, made Holland, with some thousand foot and horse, with their show alone, to retire in haste in a shamefull disorder. It is thought Holland’s commission was to cut off all he met in opposition to him; but his soldiers that day was a great deal more nimble in their legs than arms, except their cavilliers, whose right arms were no less weary in whipping, than their heels in jading their horses. We were informed that, to repair that disgrace, Holland was commanded to return with far more forces to execute his former commission; wherupon our Generall raises his camp from Dunglass, advertises his troops at Kelso to march towards him. Both of them met together that night at Dunse, and there they sat down on the head of their fair Law.”[157] He continues—“This our march did much affray the English camp. Dunse Law was in their sight within six or seven miles; for they lay in pavilions some two miles above Berwick, on the other side of the Tweed, in a fair plain along the river. The King himself, beholding us through a prospect, conjectured us to be about 16,000 or 18,000 men. We were, indeed, above twelve; but at once we were above twenty-four. We might have doubled that number, but we had none there from the one full half of Scotland—not a man beyond Tay—few from Lothian, Fife, Edinburgh, the Merse; for they were waiting on the ships or employed in carriages; the south behoved to observe the border about Carlisle; and the west, the Irish shore; albeit that was needless.”

Baillie states the English army at that time to have been only about 16,000, “and these not of the stoutest.” “One night,” says he, “a false alarm being in our camp, when our drums began to beat, and our matches on the hill to shine through the darkness, there arose such a fray in the English camp, that very many betook them to their heels, expecting from us a present invasion; yea, had not our wise and valorous Prince, with his General Arundel, done diligence to encourage and to find out the grundless vanity of the fray, there had bein a greater flight than with honour could have been gotten stayed.”

Although anxious to compress, as much as possible, these illustrative historical details, we cannot resist gratifying ourselves, and, we trust, our readers, by giving Baillie’s most graphical, though quaint, description of the Scottish camp on Dunse Law. It affords a more lively impression of the character, the manners, and the spirit of those times, than any modern description could possibly convey; and as this was, perhaps, the last great national demonstration of “Scotland’s might and Scotland’s right” which her a___ls afford, we must be forgiven for recording it in these pages, in connection with the history of the Presbyterian Church.

“It would have done you good,” says the reverend patriot, “to have cast your eyes athort our brave and rich hills, as oft as I did, with greater contentment and joy; for I was there among the rest, being chosen preacher by the gentlemen of our shire, who came late with Lord Eglinton. I furnished to half a dozen of good fellows, muskets and pikes, and to my boy a broad sword. I carried myself, as the fashion was, a sword, and a couple of Dutch pistols at my saddle; but I promise, for the offence of no man except a robber in the way; for it was our part alone to pray and preach for the encouragement of our countrymen, which I did to my power most chearfully.

“Our hill was garnished on the top, towards the south and east, with our mounted cannon, well near to the number of forty, great and small. Our regiment lay on the sides of the hill, almost round about. The place was not ample in circle; a pretty round, rising in a declivity, without steepness, to the height of a bow-shot; on the top somewhat plain; about a quarter of a mile in length, and as much in breadth, as I remember, capable of tents for 40,000 men. The Crowners lay in canvas lodges, high and wide; their captains about them in lesser ones; the soldiers about, all in huts of timber, covered with divot or straw. Our Crowners for the most part were noblemen; Rothes, Lindsay, Sinclair, had among them two full regiments at least from Fife; Balcarras a horse-troop; Loudon, Montgomery, Erskine, Boyd, Fleming, Kircudbright, Dalhousie, Yester, Eglinton, Cassils, and others, either with a whole or half regiments. Montrose’s regiment was above 1500 men in the castle of Edinburgh; himself was expected; but what detained him ye shall hear at once.

“Argyle was sent for to the treaty of peace; for without him none would mint to treat. He came, and set up his tent in the hill; but few of his people with him. It was thought meet that he and his should lie about Stirling, in the heart of the country, to be always ready in subsidies for unexpected accidents, to be a terror to our neutralists or but masked friends; to make all, without din, march forward, lest his uncanny trewsmen should light on to call them up in their rear; always to have an eye what either the north, or the shires, or the west, or our stail host should mister of help. It was thought the country of England was more afraid of the barbarity of his Highlanders, than of any other terror. Those of the English that came to visit our camp, did gaze much with admiration upon these supple fellows, with their plaids, targes, and dorlachs. There were some companies of them under Captain Buchanan, and others in Erskine’s regiment; our captains, for the most part barons or gentlemen of good note; our lieutenants, most of old soldiers, who had served over sea in good charges. Every company had, fleeing at the captain’s tent-door, a brave new colour, stamped with the Scottish arms, and this motto, ‘FOR CHRIST’S CROWN AND COVENANT,’ in golden letters.

“Our General had a brave royal tent; but it was not set up. His constant guard was some hundreds of our lawyers, musquetiers, under Durie and Hope’s command, all the good way standing in arms, with locked matches, before his high gate, well apparelled. He lay at the foot of the hill, with Baillie his sergeant-major or lieutenant-general. That place was destined for Almond, in whose wisdom and valour we had but too much confidence; yet in the time of our most need, the greatness of his gravel, or the pretence of it, made him go to France to be cut. Always, when he came there, it was found he needed no incision, so he passed to his charge in Holland, where to us he was as dead in all our dangers.

“The councils of war were kept daily in the castle; the ecclesiastick meetings in Rothes’s large tent. The General, with Baillie, came nightly for the setting of the watch on their horses. Our soldiers were all lusty and full of courage; the most of them, stout young plowmen; great chearfulness in the face of all: the only difficulty was, to get them dollars or two the man, for that voyage from home, and the time they entered in pay; for among our yeoman, money at any time, let be then, uses to be very scarce; but once having entered on the common pay, their sixpence a-day, they were galliard. None of our gentlemen were any thing worse of lying some weeks together in their cloaks and boots on the ground, or standing all night in arms in the greatest storm. Whiles, through storm of weather, and neglect of the commissaries, our bread would be too long a-coming, which made some of the eastland soldiers half-mutiny; but at once, order being taken for our victuals at Edinburgh, East Lothian, and the country about us, we were answered better than we could have been at home. Our meanest soldiers were always served in wheat-bread, and a groat would have gotten them a lamb-leg, which was a dainty world to the most of them. There had been an extraordinary crop in that country the former year, beside abundance that was stolen away to the English camp for great prices. We would have feared no inlack for little money for some months to come. Merse and Teviotdale are the best mixt and most plentiful shires, both for grass and corn, for flesh and bread, in all our land. We were much obliged to the town of Edinburgh for money. Mr Harry Pollock, by his sermons, moved them to shake out their purses; the garners of non-covenanters, especially of James Maxwell and Lord Winton, gave us plenty of wheat. One of our ordinances was, to seize on the rents of non-covenanters; for we thought it but reasonable, since they sided with these who put our lives and our lands for ever to sale, for the defence of our church and country, to employ for that cause, wherein their interest was as great as ours if they would be Scotsmen, a part of their rent for one year; but, for all that, few of them did incur any loss by that our decree, for the peace prevented the execution.