injure her in regard to any of her essential privileges. The clouds, however, were now thickening in her horizon, and, without some unforeseen interposition, a storm was evidently approaching. She had, indeed, been under the necessity of proceeding with extreme caution, seldom venturing to make any very direct or pointed assertion of her privileges, lest haply she might awaken that spirit of opposition, which, though by circumstances kept under for the present, she well knew was not yet extinguished; and without this species of temporizing, which her friends at court, real and pretended, as well as her own leaders, glossed over with the names of liberality, moderation, and prudence, it does not appear that the politicians of that day, any more than those of this, thought it possible she could have been quietly tolerated so long. Even the very small approximation which this last assembly made towards claiming the indisputable rights of a national church, appears to have been highly offensive, for we find Sunderland, immediately after the rising of the assembly, writing to Mr. Carstares, thus expresses himself: "I hope the assembly will be very sensible of her majesty's goodness in condescending to interpose the civil sanction to their act [for the due observance of fast days], for which it must be owned there was no occasion, the government not having been wanting hitherto in any thing necessary for promoting either the civil or religious concerns of the people; so that if we could see into the views of some, who perhaps have been most active and zealous for this step, we should probably find them different from what they appear to be, and to fall but too much in with the like humour here which has already raised so great a ferment, and which, if not diverted, must necessarily end in the disturbance of the quiet, both of church and state. And I dare not promise you, if the assembly should offer again at the like step, that they will meet with the same easiness and compliance in the government. And, therefore, I hope, it will be the care and study of the cautious. and prudent of the ministers to keep them, as much as possible from unnecessarily asserting of their authority and privileges; which is what their enemies desire above all things they should, and which cannot fail to bring that upon them they seem so much to apprehend from the Union."

No

language can be plainer than this, nor is it possible to paint in stronger colours the dependant condition of the church of Scotland. Three short years had yet scarcely elapsed since her constitution had been fixed, and her liberties guaranteed in a solemn treaty, which was declared to be inviolable; and yet, but a second time to claim that which was confessedly her due and just right, "cannot fail to bring upon her all the evils she apprehends," that is to say, the subversion of her unalterable constitution.*

Sunderland, when he wrote the above, was on the eve of losing his place, and knowing what was all along designed with regard to the Scotish church, and that those who were to succeed him would be less disposed to stand between her and the evil intentions of her enemies, had he been a better man, might be supposed to have intended it as a friendly warning to stand prepared for what was most certainly approaching; but the probability is, that Sunderland still hoped to preserve his place, and that he was only sounding Carstares, preparatory to his adopting those measures, which he could not fail to perceive would be necessary if he intended to keep in her majesty's good graces. This view of the matter is greatly strengthened, if not confirmed, by letters to the same Mr. Carstares from other individuals, who were either already basking in the full sunshine of court favour, or in expectation of doing so immediately. The first is from lord Ilay, an apology for himself and his brother, the duke of Argyle, both of whom had recently gone over to the tories. "I have heard," he says, "lately from Scotland that there are some very busy in insinuating that my brother and I are taking measures against the interest of our church and revolution establishment. I was always of opinion that it was very obviously our interest not to mingle ourselves with the factions here, I mean as Scotchmen; for, it being very plain that no party here has our country much at heart, the exasperating any side here might, at some conjuncture or other, draw both upon us, and crush us at once. The queen has been pleased to remove the earl of Sunderland, as

Letter to Mr. Carstares, dated May 22d, 1710.

'tis said, for behaving himself disrespectfully towards her, and some are so bold as to censure even her majesty's making that step; I, for my part, think it my duty to approve of it, as I shall of any other alteration she may happen to make; and think our interest, both of church and state, as secure under those she may employ as it has been hitherto."* This was certainly a pretty strong expression of confidence, though it could have no effect in soothing the suspicions of any but such as had attained to the same implicit belief in the immaculacy of her majesty's intentions, of which there were, we suspect, at that time, very few among Scotish presbyterians. The next is from the earl of Marr, who was just now come into great favour at court, and had obtained a commission for his brother, lord Grange, to be justice clerk. "Some people are at pains to give out here, that the change the queen has thought fit to make will give your brethren some discontent; but I hope they will be wiser than to show any dislike to what the queen, to whom they have been so much obliged, thinks fit to do for her service either here or there. They owe the queen more, personally, than any minister ever she had, and it would be an odd requittal for all her favours, to suspect her inclinations to them now. 'Tis in nobody's power to hurt them but their own. There is nothing but the continuance of that favour the queen has always shown them designed to them; and if they be not made tools of by some people, for their own bye-ends, they will be as safe as ever. As I have told you often, I wish them well, and the continuance of their church-government; and this makes me the more concerned for them upon this juncture. I know, as they may, your prudence, from a long tract of experience; and I wish they may take your advice, in behaving themselves with that duty and submission to so good a queen, who, I may say, has established them even beyond what their best friends could have expected. They need not be afraid that her majesty will ever go into high or violent measures."+

*Letter to Mr. Carstares, July 5th, 1710. Letter to Mr. Carstares, July 22d, 1710.

Wherein, it may be inquired, lay the necessity for so much laboured declamation upon her majesty's goodness, and the purity and simplicity of her intentions? Had she conferred any thing more upon the church of Scotland than what was stipulated for in the claim of right, which in Scotland formed the very basis of her majesty's government? And had not all that the church of Scotland enjoyed been guaranteed by the treaty of Union in the plainest and most unequivocal terms? The necessity appears to have lain simply in this; high measures were really contemplated, and Mr. Carstares, under the guise of friendship, was made an instrument wherewith to sound the temper of the clergy, to familiarise them with ideas of inferiority and dependance, and to cajole the more ardent and enterprising, who, less courtly in their manners, and less careful of consequences, might have been apt to characterize such attempts, so as to produce unpleasant results among the people, whose feelings were still feverish, and their attachment to the new order of things not at all to be depended upon. The fanatic Sacheveral, sounding an alarm of the church's danger, had awakened a tempest among the plebeians of England, concerning whom, it might have been justly inquired, what were they to the church, or what was the church to them? that had shaken an administration to pieces, though perhaps as able, and unquestionably as successful, as had ever been at the helm of a state, and what might not, by the same means, be effected in Scotland, where the church, of which the meanest individual felt himself an integral portion, was intwined with the confirmed habits and the noblest and the dearest associations of the people? Such was probably the mode of reasoning adopted by the new directors of the sovereign's will; and till, by repeated insults, tamely borne, they discovered, that the ancient spirit of the Scotish church was not to be awakened by any ordinary means, their measures were taken with caution, and with the appearance at least of candour and impartiality.

The new parliament, which had been elected amid such violent struggles, assembled on the twenty-fifth of November,

* Supplement to the History of Queen Anne, p. 51.

1710, and it soon appeared that the tories were greatly preponderant, from which the Scotish Jacobites drew the most cheering conclusions. The queen, in her speech, contrary to her practice on all former occasions of a like kind, took no notice of the success of the last campaign, and instead of promising, as formerly, to maintain the toleration, she adopted the language of Dr. Sacheveral, saying, "she would maintain the indulgence granted by law to tender consciences," which, with other concurring circumstances, demonstrated to the most careless that her heart was wholly with her new friends, and gave abundant room to surmise that she was better pleased to have her title to the crown bottomed upon lineal descent and presumptive right, than upon the authority of parliament, and the love of her people.+ She appealed, however, to the fact of her calling a new parliament, as an evidence of her confidence in the duty and affection of her subjects; recommended the vigorous prosecution of the war in Spain,‡ which had been the hobby of her present ministers, while they were in the ranks of opposition; expressed great concern for the heavy debts of the navy, with her earnest desire that measures might be taken for discharging them, and preventing the like mismanagement in future; and, finally, she promised to support the church of England, preserve the Union, and to employ none in her service, but such as were hearty for the protestant succession. This latter assertion leaves a heavy stain upon her majesty's integrity, which in this instance can be cleared only at the expense of her understanding, which, as it was at best none of the clearest, might at this time, darkened by the breath of faction, and the steam of conflicting passions, fail to reflect

"This change into the language of Sacheveral was much observed." Burnet's History of his Own Times.

↑ Sommerville's History of Great Britain, p. 408.

This part of her majesty's speech was a source of high enjoyment to the French monarch, especially when he read it coupled with the answer of the commons, "We conceive it of the highest importance to carry on the war with vigour in Spain." Ouy Messieurs," said he, il est de tres grand importance au France." Sommerville's History of the Reign of Queen Anne, p. 313.