official vocation. It was for this very good reason that he never would consent to be removed from the retirement and leisure of a small country parish, to the more conspicuous, but at the same time more laborious and difficult situation, of a clergyman in one of our larger cities. Glasgow in 1712, and Stirling, first in 1717, and again in 1726, did each solicit and with earnestness, the benefits of the pastoral services of this excellent individual; but after serious delibera. tion, accompanied with earnest prayer for divine direction, he saw it to be his duty to decline all these solicitations. In a letter, from the gallant and worthy Colonel Blackadder, the deputy governor of Stirling castle, there occurs towards the end, the following passage: "There is no place you will be more welcome to than the castle of Stirling, and you may come freely now, without being suspected to be reus ambitus; for you will" Humble and unambitious of public notice, have heard that Mr. Hamilton is transported and to be settled here on the 2d of February next. My wife joins with me in our kind respects to you and spouse. She regrets your obstinate temper (as she calls it) that you resolve to live and die at Eastwood; but we see that every minister is not of that stiff temper." He also felt attached to Glasgow as the field of his father's life and labours; and the scene of his earliest and dearest associations. The advan-struction and improvement." tages which its university library gave him, also influenced him in his wish to remain where he was; and he enjoyed the singularly strong affection of a loving and beloved people.

this, a remarkable facility. Besides his regular labours on Sabbath, he frequently preached week day sermons and lectures, and even these were the result of accurate and well arranged study. His countenance and appearance in the pulpit were many and dignified; his voice clear and commanding; his manner serious and animated; and the whole impression on the minds of his hearers, was heightened and sweetened by the complete consciousness of his perfect sincerity, in all he spoke and in all he did for their benefit. He became one of the most popular preachers of his day; and the crowds which resorted on sacramental occasions to Eastwood, proved the eagerness with which these seasons were hailed and enjoyed as a kind of spiritual jubilee. To quote the words of the author of his life inserted in the Encyclopedia Britannica:

While he was assiduous and constant in all the duties of the pastoral office, preaching the gospel publicly, and from house to house, and going in and out before his people, in all the affectionate intercourse of Christian and ministerial service; his character as a preacher rose remarkably high in the west of Scotland. Good sense; distinct conception and arrangement of his thoughts; scripturality of statement and of language; solemn and impressive address; these constituted the charms of his public character as a preacher. He composed his sermons with great care; and the frequent habit of regular composition gave him, in

he was well entitled to distinguished reputation by his conscientious and exemplary piety; his learning, not only in professional, but in other branches of knowledge; his natural good sense and solid judgment; his benevolent obliging spirit to all; his warm attachment to his friends, who formed a wide circle around him; and especially his deep concern for the best interests of his people, and active exertions for their in

The sentiments of cotemporaries regarding him, may be safely appealed to as valid evidences in his favour. The repeated invitations which he received from large and respectable congregations to become their pastor, afford very clear proofs of his extended reputation, and the letters of his correspondents both in this country and in other countries, speak the same language of affectionate veneration. As a small specimen, I shall quote the following passage from the letter of a pious and excellent young minister then newly settled in a small country parish in the south of Scotland, the reverend Mr. Thomas Pollock, minister of Ednam. It bears date, May 23d, 1726. You, with others of my very reverend fathers, were encouraging to me, in setting forward to the work and office of the ministry, and therefore, I hope, will

clare his sentiments on the matter, and he did not despair of the return both of the country and of the church, to sounder constitutional principles.

The rebellion in 1715, was to Mr. Wodrow a subject of deep and painful interest. In common with all truehearted Scottish presbyterians, he stood forward as one of the warmest defenders of the Hanoverian interest; and the deep anxiety of his mind at this critical era, may be fairly inferred from the voluminous collection of letters to him, by correspondents in all parts of the country, which remain among his MSS. There are at least four quarto volumes of these; and the minute and curious details which many of them contain, throw no small light on what may be termed the internal history of that momentous struggle.

To a man thus admirably qualified by principle, by extensive information, by a habit of persevering and accurate research, and by a native candour of soul, which bade defiance to all the arts of chicanery, no literary undertaking could be more appropriate, than that of the "History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland," during the days of prelatical persecution. To the undertaking of this work, he seems to have been led at a pretty early period of his life; and from the year 1707, down to the time of its publication, all his leisure hours seem to have been devoted to it. His friends encouraged the laborious undertaking, convinced of the incalculable value of such a work, if properly executed, both as a record of the sufferings and of the worth of many excellent men, and as filling up an important niche in the ecclesiastical and po

The same enlightened zeal for the public interests of his church and country, which led him to take such a deep interest in the question of patronage, influenced him in his sentiments and measures regarding the political state and government of Great Britain. Tenderly alive to the liberties of the people; intimately acquainted with the genius of that execrable system of church and state policy, which, during the reign of the Stuarts, had deluged his native land with the blood of her noblest citizens; and alarmed at the ascendancy of tory and Jacobitish principles during the latter part of Queen Anne's reign, he, in common with the great body of zealous Scottish presbyterians, resisted the imposition of what was termed the abjuration oath, whose terms and language, seemed to them hostile to the elector of Hanover's newly acquired right to the crown, conferred on him by the parliament and people; and at variance with their avowed sentiments on the subject of ecclesiastical polity. They steadily refused to take this oath, and thus exposed themselves to considerable peril and difficulty. But Mr. Wodrow was of too catholic and liberal a mind, to take offence at those whose consciences allowed them to comply with the order; and he exerted all his influence in attempting to reconcile the people at large to such of the clergy as had gone into a measure thus peculiarly unpopular.litical annals of the country. There had With the firmness of the recusant clergy, been published, it is true, various authentic the forbearance of the public officers admir- details of the leading events of the coveably harmonized. The obnoxious oath, was, nanting period, and biographical sketches after an ineffectual struggle, not keenly of the principal characters who figured in pressed on scrupulous minds. The penalties it. But there was still wanting a comfor noncompliance were remitted; and the prehensive digest of the whole into chronScottish administration seemed to rest satis-ological order; together, with what might fied with the assurance that the loyalty of the recusants was beyond all question. Twenty-five years had effected a wonderful change in public feeling; and bigoted intolerance, it was now at length discovered, was not the most likely way of securing the attachment of the subjects, and the stability of the throne.

be held up to future ages, as a fair and impartial exhibition of events, which could not fail to interest the feelings of the immediate actors in them. Mr. Wodrow lived at a time sufficiently distant from the persecuting era, to allow of his forming an unbiassed opinion of its scenes, under the moderating influence of more liberal

times, and a more tolerant administration. This person seems to have been an inde

He had access to the best sources of information, and his ardent but temperate zeal in the great cause for which his forefathers suffered, presented an edifying contrast to that cold, and supercilious, and infidel temper, which has led some other historians to look upon the whole scene either with absolute contempt, or with the frigidity of a cold-blooded Stoicism. The design of the history, was, not so much to give a regular, connected narrative of the events of the period, as to exhibit a distinct sketch of the characters, both of the principal sufferers and their persecutors; the springs of the persecution, in the unjustifiable plans and measures of an arbitrary government; with the motives of its chief advisers and executors. "The unfortunate, but innocent sufferers, our author viewed in the light, not of a set of wild fanatics, as they were called by their cotemporaries, and frequently too by later historians. Many of them were most respectable for their rank in society, as well as for their talents and virtues; but even those in the lower ranks, our author thought worthy of some public notice, as confessors and martyrs in the noble cause which they had espoused, the supporting of the rights of conscience, and of national liberty.”

fatigable collector of old records, and he is said to have possessed one of the largest collections of the kind, of any private individual in Britain. To this friend, Mr. Wodrow submitted his proposal, and a specimen of the history, in autumn 1717. Mr. Redpath embarked with all his soul in the undertaking, and in the following letter, gave Mr. W. every encouragement to proceed, while he suggests some hints that well deserve the attention of every inquirer into ecclesiastical antiquities, and the value of which, was no doubt duly estimated by his amiable and candid friend.

"London, August 3d, 1717. "Reverend and worthy Sir,

"I have perused your manuscript, sent by Colonel Erskine, with very great satisfaction, and am heartily glad that a person of your ability and industry, has undertaken that necessary part of our history, which has been so long wanted, and nothing yet done in it that can be thought complete or sufficiently vouched. As I am very ready to give you what assistance is in my power, I presume that you will not take it amiss, if I give my advice freely, as I should be willing in the like rase that another should use freedom with me.

"I need not inform you, that the style of our country is not what is acceptable here; nor indeed grateful to those of rank at home; which is not our crime but our misfortune, since our present language is derived from our neighbours in England, who alter theirs every day; and it is not to be supposed that our countrymen, who live at home, should be sufficiently versed in it. Therefore, though I am of opinion that our own way of expression is more emphatical, yet as it is the interest of our church and country, that the history should be writ in a style, which will give it a greater currency here, and may be equally well understood at home, I shall be very ready to contribute my endeavours for that end; and though I never studied what they call a polite style, yet I doubt not to make it intelligible, for a plain and natural way of writing is what is fittest for a historian: what is called flowers and em

Among the friends to whom Mr. Wodrow was indebted for encouragement and aid in the preparation of his grand work, we may particularly notice his venerable patron lord Pollock, who had himself suffered in the covenanting interest, and who nobly exemplified in his character, the holy principles of the religion he professed; lord Poltoun, one of the senators of the college of justice, and the representative both of the Durham and Calderwood families; lieutenant colonel Erskine of Carnock; lord Grange; Mr. James Anderson, the celebrated author of Numismata, and other well known works in history and antiquities; and particularly Mr. George Redpath, esteemed at the time, as the author of several very able tracts on the union, and who is entitled to more notice than he has obtained, as a severe sufferer in the cause of independence and Scottish nationality. bellishments must be left for poets; which

"Sixthly, That where matters of fact are not well attested they should be entirely left out, or but slightly touched as common reports, and not even noticed but where the case is extraordinary.