had proper endowments for their own ministers, whose charge was called a chaplainry. Besides these, there were domestic chapels, or oratories, built near the residence of great men; and almost in every parish there were private chapels built by individuals, that mass might be celebrated for the souls of themselves or their friends. The office of saying mass in such chapels, was called chantery. The priest's salary was termed alterage. The service performed for the dead was called the obit, and the register of the dead, the obituary. In the first part of the obit, are the words, Dirge nos domine, and hence came the dirge.

The government of the diocese was vested in the bishop, who had for his convenience, officers and courts, ecclesiastic, civil, and criminal.

These courts were five in number:-The Chapter was the principal. The legislative power was lodged in the court, or rather in the bishop, who, with the advice of the Chapter, made laws, canons, and regulations for the diocese, erected, annexed, or disjoined parishes, purchased, sold, or let in tack church lands.

Diocesan Synods were called at the pleasure of the bishop, who (or the dean in his absence,) was president. Cases of discipline, and appeals from deaneries were cognosced in these synodical meetings; and from them the protestant church took the plan of provincial synods.

The diocese was divided into deaneries, which seem to have been, in some respect, what presbyteries are in our own day.

The Consistorial Court was held in the bishop's name, by his official. It judged in all matters of tithes, marriages, divorces, testaments, and mortifications, &c. This court granted dispensations, allowing marriages betwixt persons within the degrees of consanguinity or affinity.

The bishop also seized on the effects of those who died intestate, to the exclusion of the widow, children, relations, and even creditors, under pretence of applying them for promoting the good of the soul of the deceased. This court is now succeeded by the Commissary Court. The next court was that of Regality, the jurisdiction of which also extended over the diocese.

The chief revenues of the clergy arose from tithes, from church lands mortified to them by the crown, and from private mortifications and donations; and such was the power and wealth of the church, that before the Reformation it possessed no less than fifty-three votes in the Scotch Parliament.

The Diocese of Glasgow was very extensive, comprising the counties of Dumbarton, Renfrew, Ayr, and Lanark, with part of Roxburgh-shire, Peebles-shire, Selkirk-shire, and Dumfries-shire, and included no less than two hundred and forty parishes. When the bishop was raised to the rank of an Archbishop, the Sees of Galloway, Argyle, and the Isles, were put under his jurisdiction.

The Reformation, in destroying the spiritual and temporal monopolies which the Roman Catholic bishop

rics had so long enjoyed, contributed also to their destruction in all other points of view. Trade and commercial enterprise being as yet almost completely unknown, the church was the sole source of subsistence to the lower as well as higher orders of society; consequently when this was withdrawn, many towns were thrown back into that obscurity from which the greater number were destined never again to emerge. It was fortunate, however, for Glasgow, that the same natural qualities which had first made it valuable as a religious station, were found to be equally applicable to the purposes of commerce. Its inhabitants, compelled to turn their industry into new channels, were not slow in availing themselves of these advantages; and from vassals of the will and stipendiaries on the bounty of arrogant churchmen, on becoming free agents in their own affairs, they laid the foundation of a system of commercial enterprise, which the industry of successive generations, though long retarded by the incessant civil wars which existed in the land, has at length so extended, as fully to realize the pious ejaculation of St. Mungo, when he "bowed his white and sacred head" over the first stone of the city of Glasgow.

What is in reality the great distinguishing difference between our citizens of the existing and those of preceding generations, the present work will attempt to explain. "Are we better or worse than our ancestors?"-is a question which has been often asked. At the close of each revolving century, it is true we can point out

immense improvements, and greater advances toward wisdom, than the beginning of that century could indicate. But instead of taking much credit to ourselves on this account, we ought to inquire whether we have made more or less use of our means and opportunities.

We must at all times regard the feelings of our ancestors with respect, for they are to be looked upon both as the great artificers of our knowledge and as those who have preserved unbroken the vast chain of human acquisition-who have bequeathed to us the richest of all legacies, the

"Gold of the dead

Which time does still dispense, but not devour."

25

CHAPTER I.

ANCIENT ASPECT OF THE CITY.

Non te pontificum luxus, non insula tantum
Ornavit, divi quæ tibi causa mali,
Glottidæ quantum decorant te, Glasgua, musæ,
Quæ celsum attollunt clara sub astra Caput,
Glotta decus rerum piscosis nobilis undis,
Finitimi recreat jugera læta soli,

Ast Glottæ decus, et vicinis gloria terris,
Glasgua, fæcundat flumine cuncta suo.

ARTHUR JOHNSTON.

OUR notions respecting the earliest appearance of Glasgow, are confused and undefined. They picture to the imagination a rural hamlet composed of a few straggling houses, which, with advancing time, also increased in numbers; till upon the foundation of the Cathedral, it began to assume the appearance of a town, destitute of trade, and inhabited only by religious devotees. Nor even after this period does its progress seem to have been rapid, for two centuries subsequently, long after it had been erected into a royal burgh, it was reckoned so inconsiderable as not to be admitted into the number

C