The ministers, meantime, continued, in their public addresses to the people on Sundays, to criticise the political conduct of the sovereign and his council; and one of them at St. Andrew's, after abusing the king, the queen, and the lords of council and session, concluded his intemperate oration by branding the English queen as an atheist, or a woman of no religion. The ambassador of Elizabeth complaining of this insult, the offender was called before the privy council; upon which, the brethren at Edinburgh, in order to maintain what they call the preaching of the gospel, urged him to decline, by a formal deed, the jurisdiction of both the king and council. The declinature, as it was termed, was accordingly composed, and sent to the various presbyteries that the subscription of the whole Church might be obtained, the letter which accompanied it bearing this motto prefixed: "If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him." The king issued a proclamation, commanding the Ecclesiastical Council to break up and leave Edinburgh; but the ministers resolved" to obey God rather than men.' A tumult at length ensued, when the cry raised by their adherents was, the "Sword of the Lord and Gideon ;" and James found, from the most painful experience, that the" sincerest kirk in the world" would most willingly have hurled him from his throne, and persecuted the papists in their own way. Indeed it has been recorded, that " John Welsh, the son-in-law of Knox, a man who was revered as a prophet, who was considered as admitted to the most intimate communion with God, and who has ever been gravely held forth by some of his biographers as a worker of miracles, declared in his sermon that the king was possessed with a devil; that one devil having been put out, seven had entered in its place, and that the subjects might lawfully rise and take the sword out of his hand *." It hardly requires to be mentioned, that such conduct, and the avowal of such sentiments, could not fail to be disagreeable to many of the more temperate ministers; yet the mere fact, that four hundred of their names were attached to the deed, by which was denied the power of the King and Council to check sedition and personal insult on the part of the preachers, goes a great * Welsh spent eight hours of every day in prayer, or, as he expressed it, in wrestling with God, an exercise to him attended with vast bodily exertion; he uttered more predictions than any of the ancient prophets; and the particulars of his recovering a young man, apparently dead, are recorded, as if life was really restored in consequence of his intercession. It is difficult from the whole narration, highly laudatory as it is, not to draw the conclusion, that, with this good man, enthusiasm had already reached the point of insanity to which it so naturally tends. Note by Dr. Cook. way to prove that their pretensions were of the most dangerous nature. These violent measures, resorted to by the fanatical party, however, contributed not a little to weaken their own cause, while it materially strengthened that of the Court. Several of the more reasonable ministers joined the king, and a deputation of the citizens of Edinburgh was sent to make all the submission his majesty should require, and to exculpate the magistrates from all participation in the late tumult. James was thus enabled to gain two most important points. The ministers were made to subscribe a bond recognizing the authority of the king to punish in all cases of sedition and treason; and magistrates, barons, and every description of persons vested with power, were commanded to interrupt preachers uttering in the pulpit false and treasonable speeches. Profiting by the influence thus obtained, James summoned an assembly to meet at Perth; and proposed to their consideration a few articles which he deemed necessary for the preservation of public harmony. We cannot specify the particular regulations which were sanctioned on this occasion: it may be remarked, however, that they secured to the king a considerable ascendancy in ecclesiastical affairs, and seemed to open a prospect, not very remote, of restoring the order of bishops in the Church. To effectuate this favourite object, no plan could have been suggested more likely to succeed than that which was adopted by his majesty. This was to raise the Clergy to their former rank, as one of the three estates of the kingdom. In a parliament held at Edinburgh, in December, 1597, he accordingly brought the subject under discussion; and an act was passed, ordaining that such pastors and ministers as his majesty should at any time please to invest with the office, place and dignity of a bishop, abbot or other prelate, should, at all time hereafter, have vote in parliament, in the same way as any prelate was accustomed to have, declaring that all bishoprics presently vacant, or which afterwards might become vacant, should be given by his majesty to actual preachers and ministers, or to persons qualified to become such, and who should pledge themselves that they would enter upon the ministry. Nor was this all, for at a meeting of Assembly in the spring of 1598, it was, after considerable altercation, decided by a majority, that "it is necessary and expedient for the good of the Church that the Ministry, as the third estate in this realm, in the name of Christ, have vote in parliament." A uumber of minor regulations were subsequently drawn up by the Clergy respecting the mode of electing their representatives, their title, and the duration of their appointment. It was resolved that the title of commissioner should be continued; but when par parliament met, the king invested the clerical members with the title of bishops, and they took their seats accordingly. This great point was not carried without exciting considerable opposition on the part of the more rigid presbyterians; who never ceased to exclaim, that the matter would terminate in what they were pleased to call "Antichristian and Anglical episcopal dignities, offices and titles, flatly repugnant to the word of God." Indeed Dr. Cook is at some pains to shew that even the majority who sanctioned the measure in question preserved, notwithstanding, the fundamental maxims of that presbyterian polity to which they had ever been warmly attached; and that, although they consented that such pastors and ministers as his majesty should at any time be pleased to invest with the office, place, and dignity, of a bishop, abbot or other prelate, should represent their church in parliament, they, at the same time, shewed the utmost aversion to admit any essential distinction amongst ministers. If this be a correct view of their sentiments, it must be admitted that they acted with much inconsistency and very little sincerity; for when the assembly at Dundee, in March, 1598, gave their sanction to what, as Dr. Cook himself expresses it, would, not long before, have been considered as in direct opposition to the fundamental principles of presbyterian discipline, a motion made by one of the members for protesting against its decisions was unanimously rejected. The Doctor is seldom so unsuccessful in argument. James was, no doubt, considerably aided in his public undertakings by the influence attached to his character as heir apparent of the English throne; for it has been remarked, that his friends in Scotland increased in number as the prospect of his succession became more certain. The flame of disaffection, however, among the determined presbyterians, was not extinguished. It was tolerably well suppressed indeed three or four years, with the exception of such sparks as occasionally broke forth in letters and votes from the friends of Melvil. One of them, in an epistle to the assembly, says, " Is it time for us of the ministry to be inveigled and blindfolded with pretence of preferment of a small number of our brethren, and that not to stand so much in the ordinance and election of the church as at the pleasure of the court; to have vote in parliament, to ride with fool mantles, to have the titles of prelacy, and so ourselves to prepare for that hierarchy which the papists intend with speed to enjoy." Such was the state of ecclesiastical affairs in Scotland when James ascended the throne of Eugland. Before he left Edinburgh, he delivered a speech in the High Church, making to his countrymen the strongest professions, of his tender regard for their happiness, and solemnly assuring them that he would not change the ecclesiastical polity to which he bad given his sanction. He entered London on the 7th of May, 1603, and was received with the most gratifying testimonies of respect and attachment; and, in the following July, he and his queen were crowned with much solemnity by the Archbishop of Canterbury. From this date the history of the Church of Scotland is in some measure connected with that of England; and the facts detailed by our author throw considerable light on the sentiments and occurrences which fill up the annals of those bad times, in which our Constitution, ecclesiastical and civil, was thrown down to the ground. ART. V. An Account of the most important recent Discoveries and Improvements in Chemistry and Mineralogy to the present Time; being an Appendix to their Dictionary of Chemistry and Mineralogy. By A. and C. R. Aikin. Arch. 1814. Chemical Essays, principally relating to the Arts and Manufuctures of the British Dominions. By Samuel Parkes, F. L. S. &c. Baldwin and Co. WE are sensible that we are greatly in arrears in respect of Chemical Science; and yet, so rapid and overturning has been the progress of discovery in these latter times, and so completely unsettled is the state of opinion among experimenters in relation both to fact and principle, that we have, even now, rather to exhibit a sketch of the new views which have been opened up, than to record any very decisive results, or to announce the triumph of any particular theory. We begin with the consideration of the very important doctrines which respect affinity; by which term, we meau, both the power which carries bodies to enter into chemical combination, and also the law that regulates the operations of this power, particularly with regard to the proportions in which the particles of matter combine chemically. Of the power by which bodies enter into chemical combination, nothing till very lately was supposed to be known. It was regarded as a primary and inexplicable fact in the economy of nature; in the same light as we continue to view that all-powerful energy to which Newton gave the name of universal attraction. In consequence, however, of the great improvement introduced by Sir Humphry Davy in the use of the galvanic ap paratus paratus, and of the astonishing power with which that instrument supplies the operator in the processes of decomposition, it has been fondly imagined that one step at least is gained. By the most skilful and fortunate experiments it has been discovered, that the chemical affinity of bodies is closely connected with their electrical states; or, in other words, that electricity is the agent employed by nature, in producing that species of action which results in chemical combination. If two bodies, the one positive and the other negative, be applied to each other, in circumstances not incompatible with the exertion of their respective properties, they will be found to combine chemically, and to exhibit qualities peculiar to substances in the neutral state. If, again, the two bodies be brought into the same electrical condition; that is, if both be rendered negative or both positive, they will not enter into chemical union; or if already combined, they will instantly separate from each other. To generalize the principle, it may be stated, that bodies, which have a chemical affinity for one another, are in an opposite electrical state, and, moreover, that the intensity of their affinity is in proportion to the degree in which their electrical states are different:-the more negative the one, in short, and the more positive the other, the greater their tendency to unite, and the greater the strength of their union. Oxygen and acids stand on one side, and hydrogen, earths, alkalies, and metals, on the other; the former being in the relation of negative, and, of consequence, exercising an affinity for the latter which are charged positively. As a matter of science, the doctrine now stated may be regarded as very trivial, and as amounting perhaps to nothing more than the substitution of one term for another. It is, however, to this ingenious view of chemical attraction, that Sir H. Davy owes the splendid discoveries which he made relative to the metallic nature of the fixed alkalies and earths, and which have procured to him an immortal reputation. He justly conceived, that if the power by which bodies are maintained in chemical combination be electricity, it might be possible by applying a very intense electrical energy, to overcome the affinity which subsists between any two substances; and this energy he could increase by means of galvanisin almost to any extent. The result proved the shrewdness and accuracy of this reasoning. He found potash and soda to be oxides of peculiar metals; and in like manner, in the prosecution of his researches, he decomposed the inost refractory earths into oxygen and a metallic base. So far, then, the hypothesis seems to derive support, from facts brought to light by the application of its own principles; and the reasonings of several distinguished philosophers add no inconsiderable |