: James and Scotland.]

James had won a victory for his prerogative; but he had won it at the
cost of Scotland. To the smaller and poorer kingdom the removal of all
obstacles to her commerce with England would have been an inestimable
gain. The intercourse which it would have necessitated could hardly have
failed in time to bring about a more perfect union. But as the king's
reign drew on, the union of the two realms seemed more distant than
ever. Bacon's shrewd question, "Under which laws is this Britain to be
governed?" took fresh meaning as men saw James asserting in Scotland an
all but absolute authority, and breaking down the one constitutional
check which had hitherto hampered him. The energy which he had shown in
his earlier combat with the democratic forces embodied in the Kirk was
not likely to slacken on his accession to the southern throne. It was in
the General Assembly that the new force of public opinion took
legislative and administrative form; and even before he crossed the
Border James had succeeded in asserting a right to convene and be
personally present at the proceedings of the General Assembly. But once
King of England he could venture on heavier blows. In spite of his
assent to an act legalizing its annual convention, James hindered any
meeting of the General Assembly for five successive years by repeated
prorogations. The protests of the clergy were roughly met. When nineteen
ministers appeared in 1605 at Aberdeen and, in defiance of the
prorogation, constituted themselves an Assembly, they were called before
the Council, and on refusal to own its jurisdiction banished as traitors
from the realm. Of the leaders who remained the boldest were summoned in
1606 with Andrew Melville to confer with the king in England on his
projects of change. On their refusal to betray the freedom of the Church
they were committed to prison; and an epigram which Melville wrote on
the usages of the English communion was seized on as a ground for
bringing him before the English Privy Council with Bancroft at its head.
But the insolence of the Primate fell on ears less patient than those of
the Puritans he had insulted at Hampton Court. As he stood at the
council-table Melville seized the Archbishop by the sleeves of his
rochet, and shaking them in his manner, called them Popish rags and
marks of the beast. He was sent to the Tower, and released after some
years of imprisonment only to go into exile.

[Sidenote: Submis