gentlemen's own mouths, as I might do others of the same kind, upon my own knowledge; although they are contradictory to what the preachers of the new established kirk have so confidently given out. They would fain have the world believe, that they showed great indulgence to the episcopal clergy, at the Revolution, and for several years after. But they must grant me and others leave not to believe them; nor ought they to be angry, if I give the reader a farther idea of them, and of the spirit that reigned in synods, conventions, or ge neral assemblies of their kirk.

During my confinement in the Tolbooth, a general assembly was called; to which my Lord Lothian, as I was informed afterward, was sent commissioner from King William. His lordship's instructions were, to signify to them the king's desire, that as many of the episcopal clergy as would take the oath of allegiance to him might keep possession of their several parishes. To this the members answered in a disdainful manner, "What! shall we suffer any scabbed sheep among us? Na, na, nat ane;" and thereupon sent two of their brethren te King William, who was then in Flanders, to move him for more favours to the kirk, and power farther to oppress the episcopal clergy. But that prince told them, in plain terms, that he had been imposed upon, in granting to the kirk the favours she had already got; and withal commanded them to let the general assembly know, that it was his will and pleasure, that they should live peaceably with those who were willing to live so with them; otherwise he would make them know that he was their master.

With this unwelcome answer from King William, the two spiritual envoys returned to those who sent them; and at the same time, or soon after, the prince despatched an order to the commissioner to dissolve the assem

bly, if he found them persisting in their severity toward the episcopal clergy.

As soon as the legates delivered the message, all in the assembly began to speak out with the greatest boldness imaginable; saying, "That the king durst not have sent them such an answer, if he had not an army at his back." Whereupon the commissioner dissolved the synod; and in the king's name, commanded all the members to depart to their several homes.

But, instead of obeying that order, they all went in a body, with that poor weak creature the Lord Crawford at their head, to the market cross; and there published a protestation, declaring, that the king had no authority in such affairs, nor any right to dissolve their general assembly.

I relate this story as it was told me, not only to give the reader an idea of the spirit that reigned in that kirk, established now in Scotland, as I have said, but likewise to do justice to the memory of King William, which may be the more acceptable, as coming from one who was in a contrary interest. And, indeed, I have so good an opinion of that prince, as to believe he would have acted much better than he did, with regard to the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of Scotland, if he had been permitted to govern by his own opinions.

But now to come to the conclusion of my story. The Hollow-een-tide* after I arrived in Ireland, my wife and two daughters followed me; and we settled in the county of Tyrone, with my father (who died two years afterward) on a small freehold; where I made a hard shift to maintain them, with industry and even manual labour, for about twelve years, till my wife

* The feast of All Saints. See Gent. Mag. LXXII. p. 1164. N.

died, and my daughters were married, which happened not very long after I became a widower.

I am at present in the eighty-third year of my age; still hated by those people who affirm the old covenanters to have been unjustly dealt with; and therefore believe a great number of improbable stories concerning me; as that I was a common murderer of them and their preachers, with many other false and improbable stories. But the reader, I hope, from whom I have not concealed any one transaction or adventure that happened to me among those rebellious people, or misrepresented the least circumstance, as far as my memory could serve me; will judge whether he has reason to believe me to have been such a person as they represented me; and to hate me, as they do, upon that account. And my comfort is, that I can appeal from their unjust tribunal, to the mercy of God; before whom, by the course of nature, I must soon appear; who knows the integrity of my heart, and that my actions (continued by them) were, as far as my understanding could direct me, meant for the good of the church, and the service of my king and country.

And although such people hate me, because they give credit to the false reports raised concerning me; another comfort left me in my old age is, that I have constantly preserved (and still do so) the love and esteem of all honest and good men, to whom I have had the happiness at any time to be known.

JOHN CREICHTON.

A DISCOURSE

ΤΟ

PROVE THE ANTIQUITY OF THE

ENGLISH TONGUE.

SHOWING, FROM VARIOUS INSTANCES, THAT HEBREW, GREEK, AND LATIN, WERE DERIVED FROM THE ENGLISH.

DURING the reign of parties, for about forty years past, it is a melancholy consideration to observe how philology has been neglected, which was before the darling employment of the greatest authors, from the restoration of learning in Europe. Neither do I remember it to have been cultivated, since the Revolution, by any one person, with great success, except our illustrious modern star, Doctor Richard Bentley, with whom the republic of learning must expire; as mathematics did with Sir Isaac Newton. My ambition has been gradually attempting, from my early youth, to be the holder of a rush-light before that great luminary; which, at least, might be of some little use during those short intervals, while he was snuffing his candle, or peeping with it under a bushel.

My present attempt is, to assert the antiquity of our English tongue; which, as I shall undertake to prove by invincible arguments, has varied very little for these two

thousand six hundred and thirty-four years past. And my proofs will be drawn from etymology; wherein I shall use my readers much fairer than Pezro, Skinner, Verstegan, Camden, and many other superficial pretenders have done; for I will put no force upon the words, nor desire any more favour than to allow for the usual accidents of corruption, or the avoiding a cacophonia.

I think, I can make it manifest to all impartial readers, that our language, as we now speak it, was originally the same with those of the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans, however corrupted in succeeding times by a mixture of barbarisms. I shall only produce, at present, two instances among a thousand from the Latin tongue. Cloaca, which they interpret a necessary-house, is altogether an English word; the last letter a being, by the mistake of some scribe, transferred from the beginning to the end of the word. In the primitive orthography, it is called a cloac, which had the same signification; and still continues so at Edinburgh, in Scotland, where a man in a cloac, or cloak, of large circumference and length, carrying a convenient vessel under it, calls out, as he goes through the streets, "Wha has need of me ?" Whatever customer calls, the vessel is placed in the corner of the street; the cloac, or a cloak, surrounds and covers him; and thus he is eased with decency and

secrecy.

The second instance is yet more remarkable. Latin word turpis signifies nasty, or filthy.

The

Now this

word turpis is a plain composition of two English words; only, by a syncope, the last letter of the first syllable, which is d, is taken out of the middle, to prevent the jarring of three consonants together and these two English words express the most unseemly excrements that belong to man.