Charles I had hoped that the General Assembly would be constituted according to the forms in use when it had last met under his father, when hardly anything had been heard of the lay elders. In that case it might have been expected that episcopacy would be maintained, even if it were made subject to the general representative body of the clergy. But without applying to him for permission, an elder had been elected to represent every presbytery, and that without regarding whether the elder so elected was resident in the presbytery or not. The leaders of the movement, who were the original promoters and subscribers of the Covenant rejected by the King, and declared by him irreconcilable with the duty of a subject, now confronted him as the most prominent members of an Assembly invested with undefined right. Everything had been already prepared beforehand in the Assembly for taking the decisive step against the bishops. Just at the time of the elections it had been [A.D. 1638.] recommended that proofs of their guilt should be collected, and preparations made for an abstract discussion on the nature of their office. The bishops now handed in a declinatory on their part also, in which they especially insisted on the point that an assembly composed for the most part of laymen, had no longer an ecclesiastical character, and by the ancient usages of the Church was incapable of sitting in judgment on bishops. But in the prevailing state of opinion, how could any regard be paid to this objection? The Moderator put the question to the Assembly, whether they did not consider themselves nevertheless as the legally-constituted tribunal for judging the bishops. The Lord Commissioner would have allowed judicial proceedings to be taken against the bishops, but only in a General Assembly summoned according to the forms usually adopted of late, not in this Assembly, against which he had protested from the beginning, and which every one knew to be contemplating the entire abolition of episcopacy. He thought that he could not await the issue of the voting. He once more explained why he was obliged to declare the composition as well as the claim of the Assembly to be illegal; and he then pronounced its dissolution in the name of the King. But the Assembly was now in a humour which mocked at the exercise of any authority on the part of the crown. Henderson said that the Lord Commissioner might uphold the prerogative of his master as much as he pleased; but that there was yet another prerogative, that of the Church of God, and the General Assembly must take care of this. He first put the question to the Assembly whether, in spite of the declaration which they had heard from the Commissioner, they thought of proceeding with their deliberations. Only some ten votes were given in the negative. Then he returned to his former question, whether the Assembly regarded itself as the tribunal which had jurisdiction