Along with his crown, Charles I. inherited from his father, a legacy of political and ecclesiastical bigotry, and a cluster of debateable questions betwixt him and his subjects, which, ere long, involved him in numberless embarrassments and conflicts, that terminated only with his life on the scaffold. In reference to Scotland, that which first brought him into collision with his northern subjects, was a project of resuming grants which had been lavishly bestowed by his father on his nobility and other minions (or which were usurped by them,) of the tithes and benefices that had belonged to the Popish Church prior to the Reformation. James himself had contemplated such a revocation before his death, and also the establishment of a Liturgy in the Scottish Episcopacy, recently introduced, and but imperfectly consolidated; but he wanted the courage to adopt the requisite measures for that purpose, which were calculated to rouse into active hostility the combined opposition of a fierce aristocracy, and of the Presbyterian clergy and people, who had been cheated out of their favoured scheme of church polity by the insidious manœuvres of James. The revocation was the first step taken by Charles in pursuance of his father’s policy; and it was justified by precedents in the commencement of every new reign, during the previous history of Scotland. But the first attempt to accomplish this end proved abortive, and had nearly produced the most tragical consequences. It may be proper to advert briefly to these occurrences. In October 1625, a Convention of Estates was held for the consideration of this interesting topic; but the proposition was rejected by nearly all the nobility and gentry, many of whom had profited from the plunder of the ecclesiastical patrimony; and Bishop Burnet[3] gives a very characteristic anecdote of the proceedings on the occasion. The Earl of Nithsdale, as Commissioner, had been instructed to exact an unconditional surrender; but the parties interested had previously conspired, and resolved that, if they could not otherwise deter him from prosecuting the measure, “they would fall upon him and all his party, in the old Scottish manner, and knock them on the head;” and so deadly was their purpose, that one of their number, who was blind, (Belhaven,) and was seated beside the Earl of Dumfries, had clutched hold of him with one hand, and was prepared, had any stir arisen, to plunge a dagger in his heart. Nithsdale, however, seeing the stormy aspect of the conclave, disguised his instructions, and returned to London disappointed in his mission.