s mournful interview, and of another which took place on
the morning of the execution. The address of young M'Kail on the
scaffold concluded with these sublime expressions--"Farewell, father
and mother, friends and relations. Farewell the world, and all
delights. Farewell meat and drink. Farewell sun, moon and stars.
Welcome God and Father! Welcome sweet Lord Jesus the Mediator of the
new covenant! Welcome blessed Spirit of grace, and God of all
consolation! Welcome glory! Welcome eternal life! Welcome death!"
(Id. p. 348 Edin. 1761). We are told by Kirkton that "when Mr.
M'Kail died, there was such a lamentation as was never known in
Scotland before, not one dry cheek upon all the street or in all the
numberless windows in the market place" (Hist. of Ch. of Scot. p.
249). It was discovered afterwards, that Burnet, archbishop of
Glasgow, had in his possession at the time, a letter from the king,
forbidding any more blood to be shed. But to the disgrace of his
sacred profession, and of his feelings as a man, "Burnet let the
execution go on, before he produced his letter, pretending there was
no council day between"--Burnet's Hist. of his own Times, vol. ii. p.
435 Oxford, 1833.--_Ed._]

90 [All accounts agree in stating that Mr. Hugh M'Kail, minister in
Edinburgh, was uncle to the preacher of the same name who was
executed. The minister of Bothwell, therefore, instead of being the
father, must have been the brother of the minister in Edinburgh. In
the years 1636, and 1637, when Mr. Samuel Rutherford was in
Aberdeen, according to his own description of himself, "a poor
Joseph, and prisoner," with whom his "mother's children were angry,"
he wrote several letters to Mr. Hugh M'Kail, in answer to others
which he received from him (Rutherford's Letters, pp. 41, 247, 272,
292 _Sixth edition_ Edin., 1738). The name of Mr. Hugh M'Kail is
included in the list of ministers who, on the 19th of August 1643,
were by the General Assembly appointed Commissioners for the
Visitation of the University of Glasgow (Evidence of Royal
Commissioners for Visiting the Universities of Scotland, vol. ii. p.
261, London, 1837). Mr. Hugh M'Kail, minister at Irvine, was
likewise one of the ministers commissioned by the Assembly, in 1644,
to visit t