This short sketch was written as an Introduction to the recent edition
of the late Rev. J. H. Thomson’s “Martyr Graves of Scotland.” The
publishers having now resolved to issue my sketch separately as a
convenient summary of the covenanting struggle, I have revised and
considerably enlarged it.
No Englishman, it has been said, can distinguish the National Covenant
from the Solemn League and Covenant. It is to be feared that many
Scotchmen are in the same case. The Covenants, indeed, have been sadly
mixed up even by native historians; and comparatively few people seem to
have any idea of the number of these religious bonds.