The King had been supposed, from his previous declaration, [A.D. 1638.] to disapprove of the innovations attempted; for he had then said that he would maintain the laws, to which these innovations were plainly seen to be opposed: if nevertheless he now approved them, this change was also regarded as the work of the bishops only, by whom the name of the King was thought to be abused. But people could never bow to this, and allow the bishops in any way to resume those powers of which they were thought to have been virtually deprived. As the royal proclamation declared all previous assemblies and their resolutions, supplications, and petitions to be null and void, it was thought necessary, before it was received throughout Scotland, to forestal it by a protestation, and in this way to keep the declinatory in force. Measures were taken with this object at the Castle of Stirling, in Linlithgow, and above all in Edinburgh, where the main body of petitioners now again appeared. In order to keep them together, and to enable those who resisted the royal proclamation to take up an imposing position, a still more universal demonstration seemed requisite. More than half a century before, when the Western world was most violently shaken by the conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism, and the Scots feared that they had secret adherents of Catholicism present among them, they had set up a confession of faith in which all leanings in that direction were abjured in harsh terms (March, 1581). This confession, which King James had approved, had been considered as a covenant of the nation with its own members and with God, for it was sworn to in the high name of God. A design was now embraced not only of renewing it, which had been done more than once, but of giving it a fresh and immediate importance by adapting it to the prevailing tone of affairs. Alexander Henderson and Archibald Johnston the lawyer, who were the leaders and pioneers of every step of the movement, were commissioned to draw out the alterations, which they then laid in the first instance before Lords Rothes, Loudon and Balmerino. It was not altogether an easy matter to find a formula with which not only those who had previously conformed would be contented, but those also who from the beginning had placed [A.D. 1638.] themselves in opposition: at last however one was arrived at. The gist of the declaration drawn up lies in the identification of the King’s efforts to reduce them to Anglicanism with the hostile movements of the Catholics in former times. It was laid down that the religious abuses noticed in the last petitions and declarations might be looked upon in the same light as if they had been condemned in the old confession: every one pledged himself to withstand them with all his might as long as he lived, and in so doing to defend each man his neighbour against every one: whatever was done to the meanest among them on this account was to be considered as affecting each and