Page:Sketches of the History of the Church of Scotland.djvu/31

 half-hearted in his own cause, and was among the first to counsel the dispersion of his adherents. About the only thing remembered of him in connection with the Rising is a feeble joke that he made. At Perth there was no bridge, as now, across the Tay. The season was winter, and the river was frozen over. James was invited to cross, and exhibited some reluctance. When assured that the ice would bear, and that there was no danger, he ventured; and turning round to the gentlemen about him, said with a sickly smile, "Ah! my friends, you have indeed led me on the ice!" And so, through faint-heartedness and mismanagement on the part of those who were entrusted with conducting it, the gallant attempt took end; and nothing more was done till thirty years after, when Bonnie Prince Charlie unfurled his father's standard at Moydart.

From what can be gathered from the Publications of the period, and other sources, the number of the Clergy and Congregations during Queen Anne's reign, down to the Hanoverian succession would seem to have been about three hundred. In a rare Pamphlet, of which I possess a copy, intituled, "A representation of the state of the Church in North Britain, as to Episcopacy and Liturgy, and of the sufferings of the Orthodox and Regular Clergy from the enemies of both; but more especially of the Episcopal Churches within the Diocese and Shire of Aberdeen," there is a detailed account of the cruel treatment to which the Clergy in those parts were subjected after 1715. It is significant of the virulence of the persecution, that this Pamphlet was printed in London in 1718. Evidently it was not safe for a Scottish printer to take it in hand.

The Honourable Archibald Campbell, a younger son of the House of Argyle, was Bishop of Aberdeen about that time. By careful study, he had worked himself out of those principles, religious and political, in which he had been educated, which in that family were traditional, and had become an ardent Jacobite and zealous Churchman. Another curious and similar change of front, it may be noticed in passing, took place about the same time, in the conversion of a grandson of the famous Andrew Cant, the northern apostle of the Covenant, who had renounced Covenanting and Presbyterian principles, and ultimately became one of the Bishops of the suffering Church. The see of Aberdeen was administered by a Commissary, in the person of Dr James Gadderar, Bishop Campbell residing chiefly in London. In the scarce Pamphlet, whose title I have given, most of the old Congregations which still remain are mentioned, together with many others which have long ceased to exist; most of them, as is known, coming to an end, either in the fiery persecution,—literally so, for in many cases the chapels were burnt,—consequent on the failure in the '15, and finally at Culloden. Detachments of mounted dragoons scoured the country; and, acting on the information of the Presbyterian authorities, harassed the nonjuring Clergy, spoiled their goods,