IN submitting this Volume to the Public the Author does so with very great dififidence, and he wishes to be distinctly under stood that the Church of which he is a humble member is not to be held responsible for any opinions or inferences he advances. Although it is hoped that nothing herein recorded is at variance with the principles of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Author wishes this to be candidly kept in view by all, whether friends or foes, into whose hands this volume may fall, on the same principle that it would be illiberal to consider the Presbyterian Establish' ment at large as identified with such works as the History of the Church of Scotland, by Mr Hetherington of Torphichen, or that all its members approved of the commemoration of the Glasgow General Assembly of 1638, held in Edinburgh in 1838, when very offensive and insulting remarks were uttered towards the Church of England, the Scottish Episcopal Church, and the Church at large; and a feeble and unsuccessful attempt made on the part of certain Presbyterian leaders to revive the bigotry, the prejudices, and the intolerance of the Covenanting times.