Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/279

Rh representatives of boroughs, presented a supplication to the privy council, intreating that the matter might be again brought before the king. In this and in all other matters connected with it, Henderson took a leading part: he suggested and directed all the proceedings of the nonconformists ; drew up their memorials and petitions, and was, in short, at once the head and right hand of his party, the deviser and executor of all their measures.

The result of this second supplication to the king was as unsatisfactory as the first. The infatuated monarch, urged on by Laud, and in some measure by erroneous impressions regarding the real state of matters in Scotland, still maintained his resolutions regarding the liturgy. He, however, now so far acknowledged the appeals which had been made to him, as to have recourse to evasion instead of direct opposition as at first, a course at all times more dangerous than its opposite; inasmuch, as while it exhibits all the hostility of the latter, it is entirely without its candour, and is destitute of that manfulness and promptitude, which, if it does not reconcile, is very apt to subdue.

In place of giving any direct answer to the supplication of the nobility and barons, the king instructed his privy council in Edinburgh to intimate to the people by proclamation, that there should be nothing regarding church matters treated of in the council for some time, and that, therefore, all persons who had come to Edinburgh on that account, should repair to their homes within twenty-four hours, on pain of being denounced rebels, put to the horn, and all their movable goods being escheat to the king. This proclamation was immediately followed by another, announcing an intended removal of the court of session from Edinburgh to Linlithgow, and this again by a third, calling in, for the purpose of being burned, a pamphlet lately published against the service book.

These proclamations, which but too plainly intimated that nothing would be conceded to supplication, and that there was no hope of any change in the sentiments of the king, instantly called forth the most decided expressions of popular resentment and determination. The city was at this moment filled with strangers—noblemen, gentlemen, clergymen, and commissioners from the different parishes, besides immense numbers of persons of inferior rank, whom curiosity or interest in the engrossing topic of the day, had assembled in the metropolis from all parts of the country. The town, thus surcharged, as it were, with inflammable matter, soon became a scene of violence and insubordination. The leaders of the nonconformists again met in the midst of the storm, and in defiance of the proclamation which enjoined their departure, proceeded to deliberate upon the question of what was next to be done. The result was some farther supplications and petitions to the privy council and to the king. These, however, being still unsuccessful, were followed up some months afterwards by a determination to appeal to the people, to unite them in one common bond, and to make the cause at once and unequivocally, the cause of the whole nation. The leaders resolved to adopt a measure which should involve all in its results, be it for good or for evil; by which, in short, not a leader or leaders, nor a party, but an entire kingdom should stand or fall, by swearing before their God to peril the alternative.

This measure was a renewal of the national covenant of 1580 and 1581, adapted, by changes and additions, to the existing circumstances. The remodeled document was drawn up by Mr Henderson, with the assistance of the celebrated Archibald Johnstone, an advocate, and was first exhibited for signature, February 28th, 1638, in the Grey Friars' church in Edinburgh, where an immense multitude had assembled, for the purpose of hailing the sacred document, and of testifying their zeal in the cause which it was intended to support, by subscribing it. On this occasion Henderson addressed the people with so