demands, and for so lengthening the cords and stretching out the curtains of the episcopal frame, as to take in all the covenanters who were not implacable recusants. Although the concessions, to which he was prepared to proceed, went near to vacate the episcopal office, yet he thought them justified by the improbability of their permanence; for he counted that when the present race of untameable zealots was laid in the grave, and an era of peace had allowed scope for a revival of good sense and charity, there would be a readiness on the part of the people to reinvest the bishop with such prerogatives, as he had been unreasonably compelled to sacrifice at the shrine of religious concord.

The articles proposed by Leighton for the basis of an accommodation, are reported by Burnet in nearly the following words.

1. That the church should be governed by the bishops and their clergy, mixing together in the church judicatories, in which the bishop should act only as a president, and be determined by the majority of his presbyters, both in matters of jurisdiction and ordination.

2. That the presbyters should be allowed, when they first sat down in their judicatories, to declare that their sitting under a bishop was submitted to by them for peace sake; with a reservation of their opinion with relation to any such presidency; and that no negative vote should be claimed by the bishop.

3. That bishops should go to the churches, in which such as were candidates for ordination were to serve, and hear and discuss any exceptions that were made to them, and ordain them with the concurrence of the presbytery.

4. That such as were to be ordained should have leave to declare their opinion, if they held that the bishop was only the head of the presbyters.

5. That provincial synods should sit in course every third year, or oftener if the king summoned them; in which complaints of the bishops should be received, and they should be censured according to their deserts.

It was not to be expected that such a scheme would go down smoothly with the patrons of the new system. There was an outcry against it as a measure subversive of episcopacy, which it certainly despoiled of some capital dignities and powers. Against this Leighton urged, that it was better to depress episcopacy below the scriptural model, than to suffer the church to continue in prey to those factions, which had already carried a sword into its bowels. He further essayed to soothe the indignant prelatists, by showing how probable it was that the locks, of which episcopacy was unhandsomely shorn, would rapidly grow again; and that, like a moulted eagle, it would ere long soar aloft with renovated strength and richer plumage.

As there is no reason, on the one hand, to suspect the Bishop of Dunblane of having held out hopes, to

propitiate the high episcopalians, which he thought unlikely to be verified, so, on the other hand, there is not the slightest ground for charging him with duplicity, because, while proposing an excessive abasement of the episcopal office, he anticipated its partial redintegration. Had he artfully shaped the proposed constitution, so as to leave a handle by which the bishops might recover their abdicated authority; or had he purposely made the machinery liable to accidents and embarrassments, which it would need an augmentation of the episcopal influence to remedy; he would justly have incurred the reproach of double-dealing. But it is obvious that he studied, with the greatest good faith, to accommodate his plan to the presbyterian taste as nearly as the government with which he acted would endure. No doubt he foresaw the likelihood of the presbyterian ministers themselves, as soon as the fever of faction and bigotry should be allayed, unclosing their eyes to the inconvenience of so immoderately retrenching the powers of their chief functionary. Such foresight is creditable to his penetration, without disparagement to his integrity. In order to form an adequate estimate of this great Bishop's merits, it is necessary to reflect upon the extraordinary difficulties with which he had to contend. He was mediating between two fierce parties, who agreed in nothing but unkind suspicions of himself: and it was hardly within the compass of human skill and wisdom, in that squally

season, to steer so exactly through a narrow and intricate channel, as to escape the rocks on one side without striking upon those on the other. It was his difficult task to keep on terms with the impatient arrogance of the episcopal party, at the same time that he accommodated himself to the crabbed humours and contracted genius of the nonconformists. He had at once to propitiate jealous adversaries, and to obviate the misconduct of lukewarm or dishonest confederates. One while he was thwarted by the King's despotic jealousies, and again he was traversed by the selfish wiliness of Lauderdale. That he should have done so much, and endured so bravely, must therefore be ascribed to a zeal, a diligence, a constancy, a wisdom, an unquenchable benevolence, and a valorous selfdevotion, before which every thing bent but the inflexible sinews of relentless bigotry.

It was the Earl of Kirkardine's advice, that no treaty should be attempted with the presbyterians, but that whatever concessions it might be thought expedient to make should pass into laws: and he hoped that, when they saw nothing further was to be expected from holding out, they would accede to the new arrangements. In this opinion Leighton fully concurred; but Lord Lauderdale refused his assent, with a sinister purpose, it was shrewdly suspected, of frustrating the attempt at accommodation. It was then resolved to try whether any thing could be effected by private negotiation.

With this view Burnet was sent to Hutchinson*, who was connected with him by marriage, and was esteemed the most learned man of that party, to sound his sentiments on the Comprehension, but not to propose it officially. The wary minister took care, however, not to commit himself, observing that he was but one of many, and his opinion that of a simple individual. All he would say was, that the project was not in his eyes very promising; but he reserved his sentence on the particular concessions proposed, until they should be ratified by competent authority.

Shortly after this abortive negotiation, the experiment was tried of granting some of the vacant churches to the most moderate of the presbyterian ministers. The adoption of this measure was accelerated, if not occasioned, by a letter of Burnet to Lord Tweedale, in which he strongly advised it; and being known to cherish an almost filial reverence for Leighton, it was naturally presumed that he was the organ of that Bishop's sentiments. The fact is, however, that the letter in question had not been imparted to Leighton; nor would it, there is reason to think, have obtained his concurrence.

This measure, which was contrary to the law that had vested the right of parochial institution in

* George Hutchinson was educated at Glasgow, and was accounted one of the greatest preachers of the presbyterian party. He was a learned man, and wrote on the twelve Minor Prophets, on the book of Job, and on the gospel of St. John. He died in the year 1674.