To leave William any voice in the matter was to put him under the necessity of deeply wounding the strongest feelings of one of the nations which he governed.
It was therefore plainly for his own interest that the question, which he could not settle in any manner without incurring a fearful amount of obloquy, should be settled for him by others who were exposed to no such danger.

He was not yet Sovereign of Scotland.

While the interregnum lasted, the supreme power belonged to the Estates; and for what the Estates might do the prelatists of his southern kingdom could not hold him responsible.

The elder Dalrymple wrote strongly from London to this effect, and there can be little doubt that he expressed the sentiments of his master.

William would have sincerely rejoiced if the Scots could have been reconciled to a modified episcopacy.