Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/175

Rh troduced an altar into the church, on which stood two blind books, two wax candles lighted, and an empty bason. "Behind the altar there was ane rich tapestry wherein the crucifix was curiously wrought, and, as thir bishops who were on service past by this crucifix, they were seen to bow their knee and beck, which with their habit was noted, and bred great fear of inbringing of popery." Charles by these means rendered his visit disagreeable to the people, and he left them in a more dissatisfied state than even that in which he found them. A copy of a protestation, or statement of grievances, which had been drawn up to be presented to the parliament held by the king in 1633, but which circumstances had prevented its framers from presenting, having been shown in confidence by lord Balmerino, was surreptitiously carried to Spotswood, who hastened with it to court, where it was represented as a crime of no common kind. Balmerino was immediately brought to trial under the statute of leasing making, and, chiefly through the influence of the primate, who was himself an extraordinary lord of session, of which his second son, Robert, was president, condemned to die. This measure gave so much offence that it was found necessary to pardon Balmerino, a concession which did not at all satisfy the people, or remove their aversion to the prelates, upon whom the whole odium of these despotic proceedings was laid. That aversion was still heightened by the zeal displayed by the primate in enlarging the revenues of his see, which had, both in Glasgow and St Andrews, been a principal object with him, and in prosecuting which, his biographer affirms he made not fewer than fifty journeys between Scotland and the court of London. He had also about this time, on the death of lord Kinnoul, obtained the first office of the state, that of chancellor. He was labouring to revive the order of mitred abbots to be substituted in parliament in place of the lords of erection, whose impropriated livings and tithes he intended should go to their endowments. A book of canons, and a liturgy imposed upon the church by the sole authority of the king and the bishops in 1G37, filled up the measure of court imprudence. Spots wood, whose gentle character probably revolted at the strong measures adopted by the king, exclaimed, on hearing of the intention to meet these innovations with a renewal of the covenant, that the labours of an age had been undone in a day. Scotland, in consequence of their own intolerant conduct, was now no agreeable place for bishops and the upholders of a semi-popish episcopacy; and Spotswood retired, with a depressed mind and a diseased frame to Newcastle, where he was confined for some time by sickness. On recovering a little, he proceeded to London, where he died, November 26, 1639, in the seventy-fourth year of his age, just in time to escape witnessing the total overthrow of his favourite church polity in Scotland. By his wife, Rachel Lindsay, daughter of the bishop of Ross, he had a numerous family, though only three of them survived him, two sons and a daughter. Spotswood was unquestionably a man of excellent abilities, but, though a clergyman, he was also a man of the world, and probably somewhat more ambitious than became his sacred profession. He was, however, neither sanguinary nor cruel, but, on the contrary, seems to have been desirous of accomplishing all his purposes by the gentlest means. As a historian he is entitled to very high praise. He certainly leans to the side of his own party, but his statements, like his general character, are, for the most part, marked by moderation. In richness and variety of materials, his history, perhaps, is not equal to several contemporary, or perhaps earlier productions of the same class, but in point of style and arrange- ment it is inferior to none.

SPOTSWOOD, (, president of the court of session, was the second son of archbishop Spotswood, and was born in the jear 1596. He was edu-