he royal wishes was to be apprehended; and even
the assembly thus constituted could pass no law which had not been
previously approved by a committee of courtiers.

All that the government asked was readily granted. In a financial point
of view, indeed, the liberality of the Scottish Estates was of little
consequence. They gave, however, what their scanty means permitted. They
annexed in perpetuity to the crown the duties which had been granted
to the late King, and which in his time had been estimated at forty
thousand pounds sterling a year. They also settled on James for life
an additional annual income of two hundred and sixteen thousand pounds
Scots, equivalent to eighteen thousand pounds sterling. The whole Sum
which they were able to bestow was about sixty thousand a year, little
more than what was poured into the English Exchequer every fortnight.
[282]

Having little money to give, the Estates supplied the defect by loyal
professions and barbarous statutes. The King, in a letter which was
read to them at the opening of their session, called on them in vehement
language to provide new penal laws against the refractory Presbyterians,
and expressed his regret that business made it impossible for him to
propose such laws in person from the throne. His commands were obeyed.
A statute framed by his ministers was promptly passed, a statute which
stands forth even among the statutes of that unhappy country at that
unhappy period, preeminent in atrocity. It was enacted, in few but
emphatic words, that whoever should preach in a conventicle under a
roof, or should attend, either as preacher or as hearer, a conventicle
in the open air, should be punished with death and confiscation of
property. [283]

This law, passed at the King's instance by an assembly devoted to his
will, deserves especial notice. For he has been frequently represented
by ignorant writers as a prince rash, indeed, and injudicious in his
choice of means, but intent on one of the noblest ends which a ruler
can pursue, the establishment of entire religious liberty. Nor can it be
denied that some portions of his life, when detached from the rest and
superficially considered, seem to warrant this favourable view of his
character.

While a subject he had been, during many years, a persecuted man; and
persecution had produced its usual effect on him. His mind, dull and
narrow as it was, had profited under that sharp discipline. While he was
excluded fro