me began to be called the Lord James Stuart.
The Lords of the Congregation, feeling themselves strong in the goodness
of their cause and the number of their adherents, resolved at this
council, that they should proceed firmly but considerately to work, and
seek redress as became true lieges, by representation and supplication.
Accordingly a paper was drawn up, wherein they set forth how, for
conscience sake, the Reformed had been long afflicted with banishment,
confiscation of goods, and death in its cruellest forms. That continual
fears darkened their lives till, being no longer able to endure such
calamities, they were compelled to beg a remedy against the oppressions
and tyranny of the Estate Ecclesiastical, which had usurped an unlimited
domination over the minds of men,--the faggot and the sword being the
weapons which the prelates employed to enforce their mandates,--plain
truths that were thus openly stated in order to show that the suppliants
were sincere; and they concluded with a demand, that the original purity
of the Christian religion should be restored, and the government so
improved as to afford them security in their persons, opinions, and
property.
Sir James Calder of Sandilands was the person chosen to present this
memorial to the Queen Regent; and never, said my grandfather, was an
agent more fitly chosen to uphold the dignity of his trust, or to
preserve the respect which, as good subjects, the Reformed desired to
maintain and manifest towards the authority regal. He was a man far
advanced in life; but there was none of the infirmities of age under the
venerable exterior with which time had clothed his appearance. Of great
honour and a pure life, he was reverenced by all parties, and had
acquired both renown and affection, through his services to the realm
and his manifold virtues.
On a day appointed by the Queen Regent, the Lords and leaders of the
Congregation attended Sandilands, each with a stately retinue, to
Holyrood House; my grandfather having leave from the Earl, his master,
to wait on his person on that occasion.
It was a solemn day to the worshippers of the true God, who came in
great multitudes to the town, many from distant parts, to be present,
and to hear the issue of a conference that was to give liberty to the
consciences of all devout Scotchmen. From the house in the Lawnmarket,
where the Lords assembled, down to the very yetts of the palace, the
sight was as if the street h
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