tain to all and every known branch of science. Next, there was taught to every individual of Scottish birth, in our remotest glens, much important truth and knowledge by the perusal of the Bible. That book teaches that this world was formed by a Being of boundless intelligence and power—that he adorned and enriched it with vegetation of almost boundless variety, and placed on it a multiplicity of animals of different kinds—that he bestowed the world, thus furnished, upon a single human family, a man and his wife, and their descendants in all generations—that thus we are all kindred of the same blood or race—that, unhappily, by eating a poisonous fruit contrary to a divine warning and prohibition, our first ancestors inflicted disease and death upon their descendants, and, what is worse, a selfish, sensual, and polluted corporeal constitution, unfit for the habitation of a pure mind—that, with boundless generosity, a high or the highest celestial intelligence interfered, assumed our nature, and, by suffering as a man all that man can suffer, acquired the privilege of defeating the effect of death by means of a resurrection—that in the mean-while he requires us to act towards each other with the same spirit of beneficence with which he acted, to cultivate the virtues that purify and elevate the human character, and he threatens due punishment to those that do otherwise—that he prohibits all idolatry or worship of saints or superstitious observances, and all reliance on any interest or influence but his own, and the instructions he has given, for the safety and exaltation of men in a future state of existence. The result has been, that when a Scotsman has met his countryman in a foreign land, he believed he had met an intelligent, religious, and trustworthy man, to whom he was bound, and in safety, to give countenance and aid. This, at least, was the principle on which Scotsmen long acted. An infidel Scotsman was accounted a monster in the moral world, no more to be looked for than a monstrous birth in animal nature. Other men said of Scottish Protestants as of the first Christians, "See, how they love one another!"—and, obtaining trust from their countrymen, they were trusted by others, and thereby, with the aid of industry and prudence, they prospered; and thus the safeguards of Protestantism against Popery proved a source of prosperity to Scotland, and a profitable patrimony to Scotsmen. But our forefathers did not rely upon the precautions already mentioned exclusively. They added political sanctions to Protestantism, apparently of the weightiest description.
When the happy event occurred of the arrival of William, Prince of Orange, and afterwards in making a treaty of political union with England, care was taken utterly to exclude Popery and Papists from the possession of political power.
In the claim of right (Scots Acts of Parliament, 1689, c. 13), by which the Estates of the kingdom of Scotland declared the crown forfeited by King James, and made an offer of it to William and Mary, the nephew and eldest daughter of the deposed monarch, one of the chief, or rather the chief, ground on which the Estates proceeded, was the attempt to which James had been incited by the Popish priests to assume absolute power, in order to establish their ascendency. The claim of right contains the memorable declaration, "That by the law of this kingdom, no Papist can be king or queen of this realm, or bear any office whatever therein."
By this declaration, the Estates proceed to claim, as matter of right, that certain acts complained of, including expressly the attempt to support Popery, committed by King James, shall be held illegal, and on these conditions the Estates offer the crown to William and Mary.
Thereafter, in 1707, when a treaty was made incorporating the kingdoms of England and Scotland, the second article of the treaty declared, "That all Papists, and persons marrying Papists, shall be excluded from, and for ever incapable to inherit, possess, or enjoy the imperial crown of Great Britain, and the dominions thereunto belonging, or any part thereof; and in every such case, the crown and government shall from time to time descend to, and be enjoyed by such person, being a Protestant, as should have inherited and enjoyed the same, in case such Papists, or persons marrying Papists, were naturally dead." By the same treaty, a Scottish statute intituled, "Act for securing of the Pro-
