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W. II. MARGKTSON

PATERSON EXPLAINING THE DARIEN SCHEME IN HIS LODGINGS
AT EDINBURGH. (a.d. 1694 )

Vol. iii. p. 234

PATERSON EXPLAINING THE DARIEN SCHEME IN HIS
LODGINGS AT EDINBURGH.

The most notable event of this period (a.d. 1695) was the iormation in
Scotland of the Darien Company. The projector of this gigantic mercan-
tile scheme was William Paterson, a native of Dumfriesshire. He was
educated as a clergyman, but his extreme opinions in religion required him
to flee into England, where he became a trader. Subsequently he went to
America, and on his return to England he originated the Bank of England,
and became one of its first directors. Another of his projects was the
Darien Scheme, in which he proposed to found a colony on the Isthmus
of Panama, which would concentrate the commerce of the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans, and establish easy communication with the Eastern seas.
Coming to Edinburgh with his scheme — after vain efforts elsewhere — he
captured the imagination of the 7ioblcs and people of Scotland, and secured their
substantial assistance. Three several expeditions set sail for the Lsthmus of
Panama, but they all ended in complete failure, partly by reason of tlie
enmity of the English traders, and partly because the scheme itself was
ill-devised and badly managed.

A HISTORY

OF THE

SCOTTISH PEOPLE

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES.

BT.TKE

RE.y.. THOMAS; THOMSON,

EDWOK/^P^ " ^ClfE IiOmpIiIjH^NSJVE niSTORY OF ENGLAND;" ETC.

A CONTINUAnoK TO '^ti.^ JUBILEE YEAR OF HEE MAJESTY
QUEEN VICTORIA (1887), AND AN

INTRODUCTION

GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF THE COUNTRY AND ITS INHABITANTS IN THE
PERIOD PRECEDING THE INVASION OF THE ROMANS.

BY

CHARLES ANNANDALE, M.A, LL.D.

EDITOR OP "THE IMPERIAL ENGLISH DICTIONARY;" "THE MODERN CYCLOPEDIA;" ETC.

DIVISIONAL-VOLUME V.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES I., 1625, TO THE UNION OF THE KINGDOMS, 1706.

BLACKIE & SON, Limited,

LONDON, GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND DUBLIN.

*tf ^c « « a

» « c »

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CONTENTS OF DIVISIONAL-VOL. V.

LIST OF PLATES.

Page

Paterson explaining the Darien Scheme in his Lodgings at Edinburgh: a.d. 1694, Frontis. 234

Signing the Covenant in Grayfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh: a.d. 1638, - - to face 28
Sir William Balfour, Governor op the Tower of London, receives a Warrant

FROM the King to behead Lord Loudon: a.d. 1640, „ 44

Execution of James Guthrie, Minister of Stirling, in Edinburgh : a.d. 1661, - „ 130

A Covenanters' Communion: a.d. 1670, „ 158

Richard Cameron before the Charge of Covenanters at Aird's Moss: a.d. 1680, „ 182

Scene in Hall of a Highland Chieftain in the Seventeenth Century, - - „ 280

Period X. From the Union of the Crowns to the Union of the Kingdoms op Scotland
AND England. a.d. 1603-1706 {Continued).

Chap,

IV.

Charles L: 1625-1635.— First years of
Charles's administration — ■ Parliament
demands reformation of abuses — Outcry
against the Duke of Buckingham — Dis-
astrous expeditions to Rochelle — The
Petition of Right — -Oliver Cromwell's
first parliamentary appearance — Des-
potism of Laud — Disturbances in the
Western Isles — Attempts of Charles and
Laud to establish Episcopacy in Scotland
— Charles visits Scotland — Meeting of
Scottish parliament — The king's unjust
proceedings to obtain a majority, -

Charles I.: 1635-1638.— Liturgy com-
manded to be used— Indignation of the
people, and riots in Edinburgh — The
Tables — Demands of the Presbyterians
— The king temporizes — A Covenant
drawn up and signed — A General As-
sembly held at Glasgow — Episcopacy
abolished, and Presbyterianism restored,

Charles I. : 1639-1641. — Preparations for
war — March of Charles towards Scot-
land— Negotiations opened, and terms
of peace accepted — Opening of the Scot-
tish parliament — Charles resolves on a
fresh war with the Covenanters — The
Scottish army enters England — Suspen-
sion of hostilities decreed — Intrigues of
Montrose, ------

Charles L: 1641-1645.— The king's un-
constitutional proceedings — Parliament
prepares for the national defence — The
king proclaims war against the parlia-
ment— The Solemn League and Cove-
nant— A Scottish army raised — Battle
of Edgehill — Unsuccessful negotiations
— Battle of Marston Moor — Intrig-ues of

20

36

Chap. Page

Cromwell and the Independents — The
Self-denying Ordinance — Execution of
Archbishop Laud, - - - - 54

viil. Charles I.: 1644-1647. — Montrose upholds
the royal cause in Scotland — War in
England continues — The king's final
defeat at Naseby — Montrose's victory at
Kilsyth — Leslie defeats him at Philip-
haugh — The king escapes to the Scottish
army — He is finally consigned to the

English, 69

IX. Charles L: 1647-1649.— March of the
army towards London — Overthrow of
Presbyterianism and triumph of the In-
dependents— The king's double-dealing
alienates the army — He escapes to the
Isle of Wight — State of affairs in
Scotland — Battle of Preston — Charles
brought to trial and condemned — His
execution — Character of his reign, - 88

X. The Commonwealth: 1649-1651. — The
Scots proclaim the Prince of Wales as
Charles II. — Montrose lands in Scotland
— He is taken prisoner and executed —
Charles arrives in Scotland — The Com-
monwealth proclaims war against Scot-
land— Cromwell's victories at Dunbar
and Worcester — Escape of Charles —
Subjugation of Scotland completed by
Monk — Ineffectual resistance of the
Marquis of Argyle, - - - - 103
XI. The Commonwealth and Protectorate —
Charles II.: 1651-1662.— Attempts to
coerce the Church of Scotland — Resolu-
tioners and Protesters — Death of Crom-
well— Intrigues of Monk in the royal
cause — The Restoration — The Rescissorj^
Act — Arrest of the Marquis of Argyle—

CONTENTS OF DIVISIONAL-VOL. V.

Chap. Page

He is tried and executed — James Guthrie
sufiFers death for the Covenant, - - 118

XII. Charles II.: 1662-1667. — Episcopacy re-
established — Four hundred ministers
resign their livings — Church attendance
compelled by penalties — liise of conven-
ticles— Oppressive rule of Lauderdale —
Persecution of the Covenanters — -The
Court of High Commission restored —
Insurrection begins — The insurgents
defeated at Eullion Green — Torture in-
troduced— Triumphant death of Hugh
M'Kail, 132

XIII. Charles II.: 1667-1678. — Cruel persecu-

tion of the Presbyterians — The First
Indulgence — Plan of a modified Episco-
pacy— The Second Indulgence — Letters
of intercoramuning inflicted — Lawless
proceedings of the Highland Host, - 149

XIV. Charles II. : 1679-1681.— Severities against

conventicles increased — Murder of Arch-
bishop Sharp — Defeat of Claverhouse at
Drumclog — Battle of Bothwell Bridge —
Cruelties of Claverhouse — Lauderdale
■ succeeded by the Duke of York — Origin
of the Cameronians — Their Sanquhar
Declaration — They are defeated at Aird's
Moss — Hackston of Kathillet — Cargill
excommunicates the king and chief per-
secutors, --..-. 169
XV. Charles IL : 1681-1685. — Severity of
Duke of York's administration — The
Gibbites — Trial and execution of Cargill
— The Test Act — Persecution of the
Covenanters increased — The Ryehouse
Plot — Carstairs tortured — Execution of
Baillie of Jerviswood — Proceedings of
the Cameronians — Death of Charles IL, 183
XVI. James Aai.: 1685-1688.— Affairs in Scot-
land— Persecutions continued — Argyle
lands in Scotland — He is taken prisoner
and executed — Failure of Monmouth's
expedition — Merciless proceedings of

Chap. Page

Claverhouse — The king's determined
attempts to restore Popery — Martyrdom
of Renwick — Trial and acquittal of the
bishops — WiUiam of Orange lands at
Torbay— Flight of the king, - - 200

XVII. William and Mary: 1688-1690.— State
of the Scottish government at the Revo-
lution— The Protestant succession settled
— Scotch Convention held at Edinburgh
— Plots of Viscount Dundee— Battle of
Killiekrankie — James lands in Ireland —
Battle of the Boyne — Events in Scot-
land— The ejected ministers replaced, - 216

XVIII. William III. : 1G90-1702.— Pacification
of the Highlands — History of the Darien
Scheme— William Paterson its originator
— Death of the exiled James — Death of

William III, 230

XIX. Queen Anne: 1702-1706. — Proposals for
a union — Divisions in parliament — Meet-
ing of commissioners — Rumours of Scot-
tish insurrections — The act for a Treaty
of Union carried, ----- 245
XX. Queen Anne: 1706-1707. — Meeting of
the commissioners to settle the terms of
union — Terms finally settled — They are
approved b}' the queen — Opposed in
Scottish parliament — Riotous proceed-
ings in Edinburgh and Glasgow — Re-
markable speech of Lord Belhaven —
The Union finally ratified — Its articles, 258
XXI. History of Society during the Seven-
teenth Century. — Early Scottish Emi-
gration— Social state of the Highlands —
Military characteristics of the century —
Superstitions — Clerical dominion during
the perit>d, - - - - - - 275

XXII. History of Society (continued). — Educa-
tion— Public pageants — Scottish com-
merce— Manufactures — Postal communi-
cation and conveyance. — Internal history
— Food and drink — Sports and games —
Eminent men of the century, - - 298

THE

COMPREHENSIVE

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

PERIOD X.

FROM THE UNION OF THE CEOWNS TO THE UNION OF THE KINGDOMS
OF SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND (a.d. 1603 to a.d. 1706)— Continued.

CHAPTER IV.

REIGN OF CHARLES I. (1625-1635).

Accession of Charles I. — ^ First years of his administratiou in England — Favourable indications at the com-
mencement of his reign — His marriage to Henrietta Maria — Fii'st parliament of Charles — Its limited grants
and demands for the reformation of abnses — Fraudixlent expedition against the French Protestants — It
excites the popular feeling against the king — His ineffectual attempts to obtain supplies — Charles sends a
secret expedition against the Spaniards — Its signal defeat — Charles again calls a parliament — Its outcry
against abuses and the Duke of Buckingham -Discourteous dissolution of the parliament by Charles — His
illegal modes of raising money — Oi^position of the people — Unsuccessful attempts of Charles to conciliate
them — He proclaims war against France in aid of the Huguenots — New expedition to Rochelle — Its
disastrous failure — Charles again compelled to call a parliament — His incautious threats to procure its
compliance — His wavering proceedings in consequence of its firmness — Demands of the parliament
embodied in their Petition of Right — The king's equivocal assent to it — His unsatisfactory prorogation of
parliament — A new expedition designed for the relief of Rochelle — Duke of Buckingham appointed to
command it — He is assassinated — Parliament again meets — Charles urges it to grant tonnage and poundage

— His impatience for its decision — ParUament's condemnation of Laud, Arminianism, and absolute rule —
Oliver Cromwell's first parliamentary appearance — Articles which they propose for reformation — The
speaker refuses to read them — They confine him to the chair and pass them — Indignation of Charles at
their proceedings — His speech on the subject in the House of Lords — He dissolves the parliament — Trial
and punishment of the leaders of the opposition— Apostates from the popular cause to the king's party-
Oppressive measures of Charles to raise money — Proceedings in the church — Despotism of Laud — Punish-
ments inflicted on Leighton and Prynne — Severe proceedings against the Puritans — Affairs of Scotland —
Disturbances in the Western Isles — Attempts of Charles to establish the Episcopacy of Laud in Scotland

— He rejects a petition of the Presbyterians — His attempts to recover the church lands and revenues —
Resistance of the Scottish nobles to the attempt — They make common cause with the Presbyterians —
Scottish adventurers in the Swedish service — Charles commissions the Marquis of Hamilton to join the
Swedish king — Efficiency of this Scottish reinforcement — Charles visits Scotland — His welcome and
coronation — Meeting of parliament — Unfair election of the Lords of the Articles — Unjust proceedings of
Charles to obtain a majority — His rejection of a petition of ministers — A petition of the barons also
rejected — Offensive proceedings of the king — Arrogant conduct of Laud — Charles departs to England —
Iniquitous trial of Lord Balmerino — Indignation of the people at his trial and condemnation— The sentence
remitted — The prelates raised to political offices — Their power and arrogance — Growing dislike in Scotland
to Episcopacy.

At his acce.ssion to the throne of the three
kingdoms Charles was twenty-five years old, and
to his youth he added a comeliness of presence
and dignity of manners which his father had
never possessed. But, unfortunately for him,
he adopted with implicit faith his father's theory

VOL. III.

of absolute rule, and was prepared to carry it
out witli an obstinacy of which his father had
been incapable. On the other hand his sub-
jects, provoked by the high pretensions of
James, had awoke to a jealous sense of their
rights, and were more disposed to question a

76

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1625-1635.

royal order tliau to yield it implicit obedience.
All was ali-eady prejjariug for that struggle
between kingly absolutism on the jiart of the
sovereign and constitutional liberty on that of
the people, which was sooner or later inevitable,
and the result of which, considering the char-
acter of Charles I., could scarcely be doubtful.
Even at his accession there wei'e omens of a
reign of sorrow and disaster. On the day he was
proclaimed in London the weather was wet and
lowering; and a few days after such a plague
broke out as greatly exceeded that which had
accompanied the accession of his father to the
English throne. The beginning of his reign,
however, was full of ^jromise. He dismissed the
buffoons and fools who had been so familiar
with the late king, discountenanced the coarse
revelries of the court, and introduced by his
example a more decorous behaviour among the
courtiers, which, since the death of Elizabeth,
had fallen very much out of fashion. He also
evinced great zeal for religion, was devout in
attendance at church and the performance of his
religious duties, and was supposed to have as
little toleration for Popery as for Puritanism.
These auspicious tokens gladdened the hearts
of the people, who could not imagine that a
reign thus commenced would be still worse than
that of his father, leading only to anarchy and
civil war and closing with his trial and execu-
tion.

The first public event by which the new reign
was signalized was the fulfilment of the marriage
treat}' with the French princess; and on the 1st
of May (1625) Charles married Henrietta Maria
by proxy at Paris, while the Duke of Bucking-
ham was sent to bring the bride to England.
But no sooner had this vain man arrived in
Paris, which he did with a train that astonished
even the Parisians by its magnificence, than he
disgusted the French court by declaring love to
its queen, the beautiful Anne of Austria, so that
Cai'dinal Eichelieu was glad to hasten his de-
parture with the princess, which was effected in
eight days. They travelled, however, so slowly,
that although they commenced their journey on
the 23d of May, they did not reach Dover till
the following month, where Charles received his
royal bride with every demonstration of regard.

It was now necessary to call a parliament,
and it was assembled on the 10th of June, the
day after the arrival of Charles and his queen
at "Whitehall. In his speech to the assembled
houses the young king, instead of giving a long,
learned, and pedantic discourse, as his father
would have done, went directly to the point by
telling them that he wanted money. His father
had left debts to the amount of £700,000, and
he had contracted debts of his own, while money

w;is also needed to prosecute the Spanish war,
which was languishing from want of the supplies.
But the parliament was in no mood either to
receive his statements or comply with his de-
mands. Accordingly they only voted two sub-
sidies, or about £140,000, and the duties of ton-
nage and poundage for a single year instead of
grantiiig the last /or life, as had been the prac-
tice in the jjrevious reigns. But in return they
demanded concessions and reforms, the chief of
which concerned religion and the suppression of
Popery in his own household. In consequence
of the secret marriage treaty subscribed by his
father and himself, pledging to Henrietta Maria
the free and open exercise of her rehgion, that
princess had brought over in her train twenty-
nine priests, fifteen seculars, and a bishop, and
mass was celebrated on Sundays and saints' days
in her closet at Whitehall. Indignant at such
practices in the very palace of their Protestant
sovereign, the Commons demanded that they
should be suppressed ; but this Charles, on
account of the treaty, felt that he could not do,
and dared not state the cause of his refusal.
Another grievance the redress of which the
Commons took into their own hands was in the
case of Dr. Montague, one of his majesty's chap-
lains. This learned divine had maintained both
in sermons and writings those Arminian doc-
trines for which Laud afterwards suffered ; and
he had endeavoured to pi'ove that the English
reformed church more closely agreed with Eome
in many of its doctrines than with Calvin and
the church of Geneva. This roused the indigna-
tion of the clergy, of whom by far the greater
pai't were strict Calvinists ; and Montague was
represented as a Papist in disguise, who, under
shelter of his office and the protection of the
court, was endeavouring to lead the church
back to its old allegiance. His case was brought
before the House of Commons, by whom the
doctor was summoned to their bar ; and when
Chai'les represented that Montague, as his chap-
lain, was resjjousible to him alone, they replied
that they were competent to try a royal chap-
lain or any other servant of the court. They
made the doctor give bail to the amount of
£2000 for his reappearance, while the king,
regarding him as a martyr for the truth, after-
wards promoted him to a bishopric. In the
midst of the mutual discontent occasioned by
these proceedings, and while the king was
appealing foi- more liberal supplies of money,
the plague became so alarming in London that
the parliament was adjourned till the 1st of
August, and to meet at Oxford instead of its
usual place of Westminster.^

iRiishworth; Parliamentary History.

A.D. 1625-1035.]

CHAELES I.

An event now occurred which justified the
parsimony of the House of Commons in grant-
ing subsidies for the war. The persecuted
Protestants of France still held possession of
Eochelle and the island of Ehe ; and as Eiche-
lieu wished to deprive them of this their last
•defence, but was deficient in shipping, he ap-
plied for the aid of the English navy in virtue
of the late matrimonial alliance. Charles and
his minister Buckingham complied ; but know-
ing how the nation would regard a war against
French Protestants, they pretended that the
•expedition was intended against Genoa, which
was in alliance with Austria, and that it was to
be attacked simultaneously by the French and
English navies. Under this assurance the
preparations were conducted, and as Bucking-
ham, in his capacity of lord high-admiral, had
allowed the service to fall into utter decay,
seven of the largest merchant ships liad to be
pressed into the service, and hastily manned
and armed, with the Vanguard, the only ship
of war in readiness, to bear them company.
This extemporized fleet crossed the Channel;
but when off Dieppe they were informed by
the French high-admiral that they were to take
French soldiers and sailors, on board, and then
proceed to an attack on Eochelle. Indignant at
the fraud, both captains and sailors not only
refused to serve against their French co-relig-
ionists, but compelled their admiral, Pennington,
to sail back to the Downs. The same trick, how-
ever, was repeated ; and under pretext of pro-
ceeding against the Genoese they were again led
back to Dieppe, but when there Pennington
read to them a letter from his royal master com-
manding him to put the Vanguard into the
hands of the French and comjjel the commanders
of the other seven ships to do the same or sink
them in the case of disobedience. Again they
refused, but were compelled by the shotted guns
of the Vanguard to stay, with tlie excej^tion of
Sir Ferdinand Gorges, who carried off his ship,
the Neptune. The vessels were reinforced with
French soldiers and taken to Eochelle; but
there the English, instead of fighting against
the Huguenots, either deserted to them or went
home, and told how basely they had been tre-
panned into the service of Popery and France.^

On the 1st of August the parliament met in
Oxford, and the king's demand for more money
to carry on the war was met by a demand of
the Commons for fresh reforms of abuses. The
remissness in executing the penal statutes against
Papists, the multiplication of new and useless
offices, and the prevalent practice of exposing
them to sale, were each made the subject of

'Rymer; Kusliworth; Cabala.

bold and eloquent declamation, with Bucking-
ham as the head and front of these offences.
After nine days had thus been spent without
answering the king's demand, the proceedings
of the Commons were quickened by a message
from his majesty reminding them that he needed
more money, that his necessities required des-
patch, and that the prevalence of the plague,
which made their continued sitting dangerous,
wovild comjiel him to take more care of their
health than they were themselves disposed to
take, and shift as he best might without them.
This hint of a dissolution produced an answer,
in which, without refusing fresh supplies, they
respectfully but firmly avowed their determina-
tion to search into the abuses and grievances of
the state and proceed to reform them. But
before this declaration could be presented the
IDarliament was dissolved on the 12th of August.
As money was not to be obtained from the
Commons but at a price which he was unwilling
to pay, Charles now resolved to enrich himself
by the plunder that might be obtained from the
war with Spain, which under his father had been
nothing more than a war of threats and procla-
mations. He therefore issued writs to the no-
bility, gentry, and clergy soliciting loans of
money, with threats of his displeasure for non-
compliance ; and by these methods, and re-
trenching the expenditure of the court, he was
enabled to fit out a fleet of eighty ships, that
carried an army of 10,000 soldiers. This arma-
ment was reinforced by the states of Holland
with sixteen sail, and altogether composed the
largest force which England had yet mustered
upon the sea. Men marvelled at the rapidity
with which it had been collected, and wondeied
upon what country the blow was to fall. But
Buckingham, with whom the scheme originated,
had also contrived to mar it at the outset by
appointing to the command of both fleet and
army Lord Wimbledon, a creature of his own,
one who was not only a mere landsman, but
had already pi'oved himself an inefficient general.
His instructions contained a roving commission,
which Queen Elizabeth's admirals would have
easily understood : it was to scour the Spanish
coast, destroy the shipping in the harbour, and
iutercej^t tlie Plate ships from America — to ob-
tain all the plunder and work all the damage
that he could, according to his own discretion.
But when fairly out at sea Wimbledon knew
not what to do or where to begin ; and after a
series of attempts, in all of which he was shame-
fully repulsed, he disembarked his troops at the
Isla de Leon, and advanced towards Cadiz,
which he hoped to take and plunder. But on
their march his soldiers scattered themselves
among the wine-cellars, where they became so

4

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1625-1635.

drunk as to be unnt for action, so that they had
to be recalled to their ships, leaving some hun-
dreds behind them to be slaughtered by the
enraged peasantry. A contagious disorder, the
effects of the late intemperance, broke out in
one of the ships; the sick were removed into
other vessels, by which the disease was spread
over the fleet ; and after beating about during
eighteen days in quest of the treasure ships,
which were not far oft', although he could not
descry them. Lord Wimbledon issued ordere to
return home. While he was ujDon the station
four of the richest carracks from the Indies had
got safely into Lisbon ; a few days after his de-
parture the Plate fleet arrived at Cadiz; and
when Wimbledon entered Plymouth not a single
prize of any value had been captured to redeem
the expense and disgrace of the enterprise.
The outcry was so loud that an inquiry was
instituted, and the unfortunate commander put
upon his trial before the privy-council; but
through the influence of the Duke of Bucking-
ham the prosecution was stopped, and the failure
of the expedition was excused as a dispensation
of Providence.^

Although Charles hated the name of a par-
liament his necessities became so urgent that
the calling of one was inevitable, and accord-
ingly it was appointed to assemble on the 6th
of February, 1626, four days after his corona-
tion. To render it compliant he put in force
the disused statutes against the Papists, and in
the fines and forfeits which accrued to him from
their persecution he found a comfortable supply
for his immediate wants. Another device by
which he hojjed to lessen the opposition of par-
liament was still more unwise and unsatisfac-
tory. As sherifts could not sit there he appointed
to that office seven membei's, from whom the
chief resistance in jDarliament was to be feared.
It was so flimsy a device, that while he valued
himself upon its cunning, all men could see
through it and despise it. The business com-
menced with the outcry against grievances and
a demand for their redress, while the Duke of
Buckingham was denounced as their author or
encourager; and the king by his attempts to
abate the storm only helped to increase it. He
sent a message to the Commons telling them
that he would not allow any of his servants to
be questioned among them, much less one so
near him, and of such eminent standing as the
duke. " The old question was," he said, "what
shall be done to the man whom the king shall
honour; but now it hath been the labour of some
to seek what may be done against him whom

1 Howell's Letters; Letters to Buckingham, published in

Cahula.

the king thinks fit to honour. I wish," he
added in conclusion, "you would hasten my
supply, or else it will be worse for yourselves;
for if any ill happen I shall be the last shall
feel it." Disregarding this imperious command,
and asserting their right to complain of all per-
sons whatsoever who were dangerous to the
commonwealth as its public servants, the Com-
mons jiroceeded in their inquiry against Buck-
ingham. Charles again interposed in a manner
still more offensive by requiring the punish-
ment of two members who had offended him by
their speeches in the house, and ordering them
to cease this unparliamentary inquiry ; he also
bade them remember that upon him parliaments
depended for their calling, sitting, or dissolu-
tion, and that, therefore, as he should find the
fruits of them good or evil, they were to be or
not to be. LTpon this charge the Commons
retired to deliberate, after locking the door of
the house and committing the key to the cus-
tody of the speaker, and the favourite was finally
impeached at the bar of the House of Lords.
He was tried upon thirteen separate charges;
the trial was long, and the evidence condemn-
ing; and he would soon have found himself a
prisoner in the Tower had not the king, after
frequent interpositions in his behalf, abruptly
terminated the difficulty by dissolving the par-
liament, which was done on the 15th of June,
and before any supplies had been voted. After
the dissolution Charles, as if to complete the
alienation of his subjects, ordered the declara-
tion or remonstrance of parliament, which had
been published, to be suppressed and destroyed,
and sent the Earls of Bristol and Arundel, who
had headed the opposition against the Duke of
Buckingham, to the Tower.-

The necessity of raising money without a par-
liament was now so urgent, that every means
both legal and illegal were adopted for the pur-
pose. Catholics were hunted out and subjected
to pecuniary penalties; imports and exports
were burdened with additional duties; fresh
loans were demanded from the nobility, gentry,
and mei'chants. But, as the money derived from
these sources was far short of the exigency,
Charles resolved to borrow from the nation at
large and make the jmyment of the loans com-
pulsory. Each individual was therefore rated
according to his means, and commissioners were
sent throughout the kingdom to levy these
assessments, and examine and bring to punish-
ment all who refused. This money, the people
were assured, would be paid back by the king
as soon as the subsidies should be voted by par-

■'' Meade ; Rushworth ; Journals of Parliament ; White-
lock.

A.D. 1625-1635.]

CHAELES I.

liament; bvit it was uncertain the while whether
a parliament would again be called, or if called,
would grant the means of repayment. In the
meantime the forced loan was levied with the
utmost rigour, the rich who refused being sent
to prison, and the poor to serve in the army and
navy. But these oppressive acts, only fit for the
despotism of the dark ages, provoked the new-
born spirit of English liberty into a more de-
termined resistance, and the cry became general,
"No money without a parliament." The clergy
and high-church party who interposed in behalf
of royalty only tended to increase the prevalent
alienation. Under the directions of Laud, now
Bishop of Bath and Wells, the ministers preached
the divine right of kings to exact money with-
out the sanction of parliaments, and their hearers
were taught that the duty of obedience to such
demands was an essential condition of their sal-
vation. The sermons on this occasion outsoared
each other in inculcating total submission, and
the most transcendental of these orations were
published, and their authors rewarded with a
deanery or a bishopric. Such extravagance was
certain to defeat its own purpose and cause dis-
like to the church tliat sanctioned it; and Puri-
tanism, which during the reign of James had
been greatly on the increase, was now regarded
as identified with liberty both civil and religi-
ous. Its ranks, therefore, wei'e daily and hourly
increasing by the accession of those who re-
sisted the tyranny of the state and the priest-
hood by whom it was upheld; and the time was
fast approaching when the Puritans, no longer
a down-trodden party, would be able to speak
as an important power in the commonwealth
and make their voice be heard and regarded.^

It was unfortunate for Charles at this time,
as well as afterwards, that all his attemj:)ts to
repair his blunders and conciliate the nation
only sunk him deeper in the mire. In the hope
of soothing the popular exasperation he had
become a persecutor of the Papists; he was now
ready to assure his subjects of his Protestantism
by purifying his own household from the taint
of Eomish superstition. His queen was still
accompanied by her priests and Popish atten-
dants, on whom tlie nation looked with a jealous
eye, and these he was resolved to banish to their
own country. This he accordingly effected, and
in the same hasty and despotic fashion which
had characterized his other proceedings. Tak-
ing the queen by the hand he led her into his
apartments, locking the door after him and
keeping her in close custody, while the French
bishop and his priests were taken into St. James

I Rushworth ; Whitelock ; Straflford Papers ; Heylin's Life
of Laud.

Park, and there briefly informed that they must
depart the kingdom ; and a similar intimation
was briefly given to the French attendants of
her majesty. The bishop remonstrated, the
female attendants shrieked, and the queen, learn-
ing what was going on, attempted to escape from
her confinement, and broke the glass window
with her fist. But Charles was resolute, and the
Duke of Buckingham, to whom the work of
their extradition had been intrusted, was so
punctual in fulfilling his commission, that in a
few days the whole of them were shipped at
Dover and conveyed to their own country.^

However the Protestant spirit of the nation
might be gratified by these disjjlays of his ma-
jesty's zeal, they were peculiarly irritating to
France, where they were regarded in the light
of insult and defiance. They were a complete
violation of that secret marriage compact which
Charles and his father subscribed, by which the
Papists were to be relieved from the operation
of the penal statutes, and the queen indulged in
the free exercise of her religion ; and after an
ineff'ectual remonstrance of the French court,
war between the two countries was proclaimed.
This was what Buckingham wanted, and the
object for which he had fomented the quarrel
between his master and the queen. The vain
man had fallen in love with the Queen of France;
and when it was announced to him that his pre-
sence at the French court was not desired he
had vowed to return to the country as an enemy,
if not as a friend. In compliance with his re-
solution the Protestants of Kochelle were to be
relieved, and to ensui'e success to the expedition
it was to be commanded by Buckingham in
person; and Charles, who entered cordially into
the proposal, believed that by this Protestant
movement not only the general odium against
his favourite would be removed, but the suspi-
cions against his own popish tendencies be laid
to rest. It would also gratify the national re-
sentments of the English, who regarded the
French as their hereditary enemies, and who
still regretted the loss of Calais, the trophy of
their former conquest of France.

Under the gleam of that temporary popularity
which such a war was certain to produce, such
eflfectual preimrations were made, that on the
27th of June, 1627, an armament of 100 ships
with 7000 land troops on board embarked from
Portsmouth, with the inexperienced incom-
petent Buckingham for its commander. It had
been given out that the object of the expedition
was to chastise the Spaniards and recover the
honour that had been lost at the Isla de Leon,
and its real purpose was not understood until it

2 Sir H. Ellis, collection of Letters.

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1625-1635.

anchored off Eochelle on the 11 th of July. Tlie
people of tlie town were neither jnepared to
admit nor to co-operate with such doubtful
anxiliaiies; and, therefore, instead of receiving
them into Eochelle, they advised them to attack
and occupy the neighbouring Isle of Khe, which
had lately been taken from them by Richelieu.
With this suggestion Buckingham complied,
and the French troops in Rhe being taken by
surprise his first attempts on his landing were
successful ; but, having quickly recovered, such
effectual preparations for resistance were made,
that, instead of overrunning the little island, he
found himself delayed b}' the citadel of the town
of St. Martin, to which he was compelled to lay
siege, and in which he persisted at a great ex-
pense of time and soldiers. Finding that he
could make no impression upon this citadel, and
that, in spite of the blockade of his ships, it had
been reinforced with soldiers and provisions,
Buckingham, after a desperate attempt on the
6th of November to take it by storm, in which
he was baffled, resolved to abandon both citadel
and island. This, however, was not to be done
with impunity ; an army strongly fortified was
collected in his rear, and through this he had to
fight his way at disadvantage befoi'e he reached
his shipping. He returned home at the end of
November, after having lost half of his army
and ruined the cause of Protestantism in France;
but, though the whole expedition had been a
series of palpable blunders, he was welcomed
like a conqueror by his infatuated master, who
told him that as a geuei'al he had done past
expectation, and, if a man might say it, even
beyond possibility.^

It was necessary to have money for the pro-
secution of the war; but this could not be ob-
tained without a parliament. The king had
endeavoured to raise it b}^ extorted loans, and
sending those who refused to prison ; but the
effect of all this was to make the people inquire
more naiTowly into the right of royalty to levy
money without their consent, and to confirm
their resistance to those arbitrary claims which
Charles put forth as his prerogative. They were
also indignant at the disgraceful issue of the
expedition to the island of Rhe, and the in-
fatuation which had appointed Buckingham to
conduct it. While the public feeling was in this
dangerous mood Charles felt himself compelled
to summon a parliament to meet on the 17th of
March, 1628; but, in the interval before its
meeting, he continued his compulsory levies of
money upon the counties for the war, adding,
that if they paid willingly he would meet the
parliament, but, in the event of their refusal,

> Hardwicke State Papers.

would think of a more summary expedient.
This threat produced such an outcry of indigna-
tion that he was fain to revoke it; but in a few
days after he made his revocation worthless
by iuijjosing some new duties on merchandise.
These orders he was in like manner glad to re-
call in consequence of the remonstrances of his
counsellors and ministers of law.^ When par-
liament met everything was ready for opposi-
tion to the royal wishes. The people had elected
the most patriotic or democratic for their i-epre-
sentatives, and the thii'd estate had grown so-
formidable that the collective wealth of the
House of Commons was three times greater
than that of the Lords. But, even at the open-
ing Charles continued to give proofs of his
wavering inconsistency. He had set free seventy-
eight gentlemen who had been imprisoned for
refusing to contribute to the forced loans, and
made other concessions that were grateful to the
popular feeling; but, as if ashamed of these re-
lenting symptoms, he thus addressed the par-
liament in his opening sjaeech : "I have called
you together, judging a parliament to be the
ancient, the speediest, and the best way to give
such supjily as to secure ourselves and save our
friends from imminent rtiin. Every man must
now do according to his conscience ; wherefore,
if you, which God forbid, should not do your
duties in contributing what this state at this
time needs, I must, in discharge of my conscience,
use those other means which God has jjut into
my hands to save that which the follies of other
men may otherwise hazard to lose. Take not
this as a threatening; I scorn to threaten any
but my equals; but as an admonition from him
that, both out of nature and duty, hath most
care of your jDreservation and prosperities."
This menacing speech was aggravated by that
of the lord-keeper, who declared that the king
had chosen a parliamentary way to obtain sup-
plies, not as the only way, but as the fittest.
" If this be deferred," he added, " necessitj- and
the sword may make way for others. Remember
his majesty's admonition ; I say, remember it I"
To these threats, insulting and irritating as
they were, the parliament presented the tranquil
demeanour of men whose course of action was
fixed, and who were not to be driven from it.
They agreed to give five subsidies, the whole to
be paid within the year ; bt;t the king was not
to receive this money until he recognized the
rights of the people, and solemnly j^romised the
redress of grievances. These rights and these
grievances were made sufliciently intelligible
by the speeches that followed, and by the re-
solutions which were unanimously passed on the

2 Rusliworth ; Eymer ; Somers's Tracts.

A.D. 1625-1635.]

CHARLES I.

8th of May, to the following effect: — 1. That no
freeman should be imprisoued by command of
the king or privy-council without cause accor-
dant with law. 2. That a writ of habeas corpus
should be granted to every person so detained
or imprisoned on his demanding it. 3. That all
persons imprisoned by command of the king or
privy-council without cause should obtain the
benelit of habeas corpus; and, 4. That no tax,
tallage, loan, benevolence, or other like chai'ges
should be commanded or levied by the king or
his ministers without common consent of par-
liament. These demands were embodied in
their celebrated " Petition of Right," which was
presented to Cluirles on the 28th of May. The
king, who was impatient for the subsidies, but
unwilling to surrender one iota of what he
deemed his prerogative, was in a dilemma from
which, as usual^ he endeavoured to extricate
himself by an equivocal or unsatisfactory an-
swer that might afterwards be interpreted ac-
cording to his own good pleasure. It was the
following: — "The king willeth, that right be
done according to the laws and customs of the
realm ; and that the statutes be put in due exe-
cution, that his subjects may have no cause to
complain of any wrongs or oppressions contrary
to their jnst rights and liberties, to the pre-
servation whereof he holds himself in conscience
as well obliged as of his own prerogative." The
Commons were indignant at this vague reply,
which might bear any or no meaning whatever;
and their wrath was increased by a message
which he sent, intimating his intention to pro-
rogue the parliament upon the 11th of June,
commanding them withal to enter upon no new
business which might lead to the censuring or
aspersion of any of the officers of his govern-
ment. But, instead of being silent, they pro-
ceeded to accuse the Duke of Buckingham as
the evil counsellor of the king and source of all
the national calamities. The Lords also joined
the Commons in petitioning for a more explicit
and satisfactory answer to the Petition of Right,
and driven from his subterfuges Charles was
obliged to comply. He came to the Lords, and,
having commanded the attendance of both
houses, he there ratified the petition in the
most express terms, by which it became one of
the statutes of the realm. " You see now," he
said in conclusion, " how ready I have showed
myself to satisfy your demands, so that I have
done my part; wherefore, if this parliament hath
not a happy conclusion, the sin is yours — I am
free of it." The Commons showed their satis-
faction by passing, on the 12th of June, the bill
for granting the five subsidies. They afterwards
proceeded to the tonnage and poundage bill, in-
tending to pass it for one year, but to remon-

strate against levying its duties without their
consent. But here Charles, alarmed for his pre-
rogative, came down unexpectedly to the House
of Lords before the bill had passed ; and when
the Commons appeared, with the speaker at
their head, he stated, that by granting the Peti-
tion of Right he had conceded notliing new, but
only confirmed the ancient liberties of his sub-
jects, and that if they thought he had thereby
given up his right to tonnage and poundage,
they were under a mistake; these profits he could
not want, and they were the chief maintenance
of his crown. Having thus shown the worth-
lessness of his assent to the petition, and how
little he was disposed to depart from his former
absolutism, he thus concluded his address, by
which he prorogued the parliament: "I com-
mand you all that are here to take notice of
what I have spoken at this time, to be the true
intent and meaning of what I granted you in
your petition ; but especially you, my lords, the
judges; for to you only, under me, belongs the
interpretation of laws ; for none of the Houses
of Parliament, either joint or separate, what new
doctrine soever may be raised, have any power
either to make or declare a law without my
consent." ^

The attention of the English nation was now
drawn to the condition of the unfortunate Hugue-
nots of Rochelle. The abortive attempt for their
relief had only increased the efforts of the French
court for their entire suppression ; and as Ro-
chelle was the last stronghold of Protestantism
in France, its capture would end a long and
ruinous civil war. The town was therefore
closely invested and reduced to the last ex-
ti'emity, while the fresh aid which was expected
from England had been delayed by the conten-
tions of Charles with his parliament. It was
now resolved by the king and his favourite to
assist in raising the siege ; and Buckingham,
who was inqoatient to retrieve his lost honour,
hurried down to Portsmouth to hasten the pre-
parations and conduct the expedition. It was
while thus employed that the duke was struck
down by the knife of an assassin. John Felton,
a gentleman and oflficer who had served in the
former expedition to the island of Rhe, where
another had been jDromoted over his head, was
one of those religious fanatics who thought that
he could do Heaven good service by taking its
judgments into his own hand ; and his fanati-
cism being animated by personal resentment,
he followed the duke to Portsmouth, and se-
lecting his opportunity, stabbed him in the left
breast with a knife. The strong blow was so
unerring that Buckingham instantly fell dead,

' Kushworth ; Journals ; Parliamentary History.

8

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1625-1635,

aud while all wondered wlieuce it came, the
assassin, who might have escaped, calmly avowed
the deed, and gave himself up to the alarmed
attendants. Imagining that he would be mur-
dered on the spot, he had fixed a writing half
within the lining of his hat acknowledging the
murder and glorying in its motives. "That
man," it stated, " is cowardly base, and de-
serveth not the name of a gentleman or soldier,
that is not willing to sacrifice his life for the
honour of his God, his king, and his country.
Let no man commend me for the doing of it,
but rather discommend themselves as the cause
of it ; for if God had not taken our hearts for
our sins, he had not gone so long unpunished."
It was a single lurid flash, as the precursor of
that thunderstorm by which the whole heaven
was soon to be kindled, a display of that spirit
which was struggling for a more general as
well as more congenial manifestation in the
civil war which afterwards broke out. While
Felton was convej'^ed from Portsmouth to
the Tower of London he was greeted by the
acclamations and blessings of the people, and in
his trial and execution he persevered to the last
in justifying the deed. Charles wept bitterly
over the death of his favourite, but few sympa-
thized in his grief ; and the body of the duke
was interred in secret, as even his remains were
not thought to be safe from the popular resent-
ment.^ The command of the expedition to Eo-
chelle was then given to tlie Earl of Lindsey,
who set sail on the 8th of September ; but al-
though he had a powerful fleet aud army no
success awaited it to retrieve the unpopularity
of Charles with his subjects and avert or lighten
his downfall. Lindsey returned without honour
or advantage, and soon afterwards Rochelle was
taken, after more than two-thirds of its de-
fenders had fallen in the siege.

The love of absolute rule was so innate to the
disposition of Charles that the absence of the evil
counsels of Buckingham produced no change in
his government. He had also taken for his chief
adviser Bisliop Laud, whom he had raised from
the see of Bath and Wells to that of London,
and who was to the full as pernicious a coun-
sellor as the duke, with greater method and
plausibility in his suggestions. While the king
was therefore in no haste to meet his parliament,
he continued the collection of tonnage and
poundage and the duties on merchandise by
means of the Star Chamber and the Court of
High Commission.

After a fresh prorogation the parliament met
on the 20th of .January, 1629, aud their first

1 Meade, in Ellis's collection of letters ; Clarendon ; State
Trials.

proceedings were to remonstrate against the
violation of the Petition of Eight, which since
their last sitting had been invaded in its most
important clauses. In consequence of these
remonstrances Charles commanded the attend-
ance of the Lords and Commons in the ban-
queting-house in Whitehall, where he justified
his proceedings, telling the Commons that he
exjjected they would vote tonnage and poundage
without delay, and thus end all controverey upon
the subject. But the members of the Lower
House were not to be driven forward by this
arbitrary injunction ; and far from voting ton-
nage and poundage for life, as Charles expected,
they would not vote it even for a .single year,
unless he altered the character of his proceed-
ings. This was especially needed, as not only
the rights of property had been violated by
Charles, but those of conscience by Laud, who,
having introduced the Arminian creed and
Popish ceremonies into the English Church, was
already enforcing conformity by fine, imprison-
ment, and the jjillory, aud by the executioner's
scourges, knife, aud branding-iron. Instead,
therefore, of proceeding to vote according to the
royal wish, both Lords and Commons voted a
general fast on account of the national sins and
tlie dangers with which religion was threatened,
to which Charles unwillingly gave his assent.
After this public religious duty was over Charles
again sent a message to the Commons urging
the speedy settlement of tonnage aud poundage;
but the Puritans, who now mustered strong in
the parliament, complained of the encouragement
given to Popery and Arminianism, aud the
necessity of guarding the Protestant faith from
which their civil liberties were derived. It was
already reported that, as soon as the vote had
passed, the king intended to dissolve the par-
liament, aud not soon to call another; and, aware
of his insincerity and his wish to make himself
absolute, they were wary of furnishing him with
those resources by which he might free himself
from their control.

This delay, instead of teaching Charles cau-
tion, only made him more impatient for the
settlement of tonnage and poundage; and on the
3d of February he sent an urgent message to
the Lower House, expressing his astonishment
that this business of religion should only be a
hinderanceof their affairs, and commanding them
to proceed to the matter in hand at once — tell-
ing them that otherwise they must not think it
strange, if he found them slack, tliat he should
give them "such further quickening" as he
might find cause. This message quickened them
indeed, but not in the way he intended. In-
dignant rather than alarmed at the threat they
went deeper still into their religious grievances

A.D. 1625-1635.]

CHAELES I.

and the necessity of pi'ocuring their redress.
Popery and Armiuianism they declared to be
the prevalent evils, and Laud and his coadjutor
Neile, Bishop of Winchester, the chief agents of
their prevalence. Court patronage and ecclesi-
astical promotion were exclusively reserved for
those who preaclied Arnunian doctrines and ab-
solute monarchical rule ; and although thiee of
these persons had been condemned and sentenced
by parliaments, they had been selected on that
account by the king for advancement. While
the obnoxious prelates were thus denounced
political grievances were not lost sight of ; and
the sheriff of London, who had seized the goods
of a merchant for refusing to pay the tax that
had been levied upon them, was brought before
the bar of the house, compelled to ask pardon
on his knees, and committed to the Tower.
Several officers of customs were also brought
before them on the same charge, who could
only justify themselves by declaring that they
acted upon the king's warrant. During these
proceedings, in which religious grievances were
at issue, a strong square-built but clownish-look-
ing man, aged about thirty, I'ose for the first time
to speak in the house, which he did in a harsh
voice, and with a confused rambling oratory,
while he stated from hearsay that a certain doctor
of the church had preached " flat Popeiy" at St.
Paul's Cross. Already the man was regarded,
and his words heard with wonder and even with
awe, for there was a force and earnestness about
hira which it was impossible to contemplate
with indifference. That speaker was no other
than Mr. Oliver Cromwell, the member for Hnn-
tingdon.^

On the 25th of February the sub-committee
of religion presented their report under the title
of " Heads of Articles agreed upon, and to be
insisted on by the House." Among other abuses
it complained of books in favour of Popery pub-
lished by bishop's license, and books against
Popery suppressed by the same authority; of
candlesticks placed upon the communion table,
which was now wickedly called a hifik altar; of
pictures, images, and lights in the churches ; of
praying towards the east, and of frequent cross-
ing in the service of public jJi'ayer. They com-
plained also of the bishops calling men to ques-
tion ujDon these rites and practices, and punish-
ing them for their refusal to comply with them.
With the redress of these grievances they also
demanded that the penal statutes against Ca-
tholics should be executed to the letter; that
the higher ecclesiastical preferments should be
bestowed by the king, with advice of his privy-
council, upon learned, pious, and orthodox men ;

1 Rushworth ; Whitelock ; Parliamentary Ilistory.

that bishops and clergymen should be resident
upon their dioceses and parishes; and that means
should be taken in the present parliament for
providing the maintenance of a godly able minis-
ter in every parish of the kingdom. The same
evils which had troubled Scotland during the
preceding reign had thus sufficed to convert the
Euglish i^arliament into a Scotch General As-
sembly. Alarmed at the danger which threat-
ened his beloved hierarchy Charles, as soon as
these articles were read, ordered the houses to
adjourn to the 2d of March ; and although the
right of its own adjournment was claimed by the
parliament it dutifully complied. But the in-
terval seemed only to have strengthened the
resistance of the members, so that when they
met they resumed the subject of religious and
political abuses with greater vehemence than
ever. The speaker. Sir John Finch, then de-
livered a message from the king commanding a
further adjournment, but this they refused; and
Sir John Eliot, producing a remonstrance to the
king against the illegal levying of tonnage and
poundage, desired the speaker to read it. This
the latter refused to do, alleging that the king
had already adjourned the house. The office
was then proposed to the clei'k, who also refused;
upon which Eliot, after reading it himself, de-
sired the speaker to put it to the vote, who an-
swered that he was commanded otherwise by
the king. "Do you refuse to be our speaker?"
was now the outcry. Finch replied that he had
a command from the king to rise as soon as he
had delivered the charge for adjournment, and
had risen accordingly ; ujjon which HoUis, Valen-
tine, and other members of their party, laid hold
of the trembling speaker and pinned him down
upon the chair, while others locked the doors
of the house, and laid the keys on the table.
Thus debarred from all retreat, and forcibly kept
in office, with the oath of Hollis ringing in his
ears, "God's wounds! he shall sit still till it
pleases us to rise," the speaker could only shed
tears, and to every appeal reply, " I have his
majesty's commands ! I dare not sin against
his express commands." Finding it impossible
to move him, and knowing that if they let slip
the opportunity it might not be recovered, the
members hastily drew up a protest under the
following heads, which was read by Mr. Hollis:
1. Whosoever shall bring in innovation in reli-
gion, or by favour seek to extend or introduce
Popery or Arminianism, or other opinions dis-
agreeing from the true or orthodox church, shall
be reputed a capital enemy to this kingdom and
commonwealth. 2. Whosoever shall counsel or
advise the taking and levying of the subsidies
of tonnage and poundage, not being granted by
parliament, or shall be an actor or instrument

10

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1625-1635.

therein, shall be likewise reputed an innovator
in the government, and a capital enemy to this
kingdom and commonwealth. 3. If any mer-
chant or other person wliatsoever shall volun-
tarily yield or pay the said subsidies of tonnage
and poundage, not being granted by })arliameut,
he shall likewise be reputed a betrayer of the
liberty of England and an enemy to the same."
These articles were successively cheered and
voted by the whole house.

lu the meantime, while these proceedings
were going on, Charles had hastened to the
House of Lords. The anxiety that had brought
him was deepened on his arrival. Although he
had sent his orders for the adjournment of the
Lower House tlie speaker did not make his ap-
pearance; and when he sent a messenger to
bring away the Serjeant and his important
symbol, the mace, without which no sittings
could be continued, the members stopped the
sex'jeant, took his key from him, and kept him
in durance with the speaker. After waiting in
vain Charles sent the usher of the black rod to
summon the Commons before him, that he might
dissolve the parliament; but the usher found the
doors locked, and his summons disregarded.
Enraged at this defiance the king sent for the
captain of the pensioners and his guards to break
open the doors; but by this time the members
had ended their business and taken their de-
parture. Eesolved that they should not thus
escape, Charles, on the 5th of March, summoned
the princiiml offenders before the privy-council.
These were Valentine, Coriton, Eliot, tlie learned
Selden, Hobart, Haymau, Hollis, Long, and
Stroud, the members who had been the most
forward in the opposition, and confining the
speaker in the chair; but, upon presenting them-
selves, with the exception of Long and Stroud,
before the privy-council, they refused to answer
for anything they had said in parliament, and
were for their refusal committed to the Tower.
The other two surrendered ujion a proclamation
for their arrest, and were sent to join their ac-
complices; and their houses were searched, and
their papers seized by royal w^arrant, in the hope
that something would be found to implicate
them. Having thus secured the vipers, as he
termed them, Charles on the 10th went to the
House of Lords to dissolve the parliament; but
to this meeting the Commons had not been sum-
moned, neither was the speaker in presence.
This irregular dissolution was accompanied with
sharp rebuke bestowed upon the Commons,
while the members of the Upper House were
commended. " My lords," said the king, " I
never came here upon so unpleasing an occa-
sion ; therefore, many may wonder why I did
not rather choose to do this by commission ; it

being a general maxim of kings to lay harsh
commands by their ministers, themselves only
executing pleasing things. But considering that
justice is as well answered in commending and
rewarding of virtue as punishing of vice, I
thouglit it necessary to come here this day, to
declare to you, my lords, and all the world, that
it was only the disobedient carriage of the Lower
House that hath caused this dissolution at this
time ; and that you, my lords, are so far from
being causers of it, that I have as much comfort
in your lordships' carriage towards me, as I have
cause to distaste their proceedings. Yet, that I
may be clearly understood, I must needs say,
that they do mistake me wonderfully that think
I lay the fault equally upon all the Lower House;
for, as I know there are many as dutiful and
loyal subjects as any that are in the world, so I
know that it was only some vipers amongst them
that had cast this mist of difference before their
eyes ; although there were some amongst them
that would not be infected with this contagion;
inasmuch that some by their speaking — which,
indeed, was the general fault of the house on
the last day — did show their obedience. To
conclude, my lords, as those evil-aft'ected persons
must look for their rewards, so you that are here
of the Higher House may justly claim from me
that protection and favour that a good king
oweth to his loyal and faithful nobility." Hav-
ing thus drawn a broad line of distinction be-
tween the Lords and Commons, and given the
latter an opportunity to return to their allegiance,
Charles dissolved his third parliament, wishing
that he might never have occasion to call an-
other.i

The next act of Charles was to proceed against
the " vipers " whom he had committed to the
Tower, and he resolved to try them in the Star
Chamber, a court that was devoted to his will.
But in this instance he reckoned too much on
their servility; for however willing to stretch
their consciences in his service, they were un-
willing to proceed to extremities with men who
had the voice of the nation in their favour, and
the king was obliged to have recoui'se to the
ordinary modes of trial. Even here, however,
the statutes could be wrested to their disad-
vantage. On suing for their habeas corpus they
were told by the Court of King's Bench that
they were committed ujjon his majesty's warrant
for stii^ring up sedition ; and when an appeal
w^as made to the Petition of Eight, they were told
that a petition in parliament was no law, and
that although the king had assented to it, he
was not to be urged beyond his words and in-
tentions. The attorney-general also stated that

' Rushworth ; Whitelock ; Parliamentary History.

A.D. 1625-1635.]

CHAELES I.

11

persons committed to larison by the sovereign
himself or the privy-council could not be ad-
mitted to bail. After more than half a year
had been S2)ent in captious objections and delays,
during which the prisoners were closely confined
in the Tower, and denied the use of books, and
of pen, ink, and paper, they were brought into
court, and required not only to find bail for
their present charge, but for their future good
behaviour. With the first part of the injunction
they were ready to comply, but the second they
refused ; they had no wish to involve their
sureties in their future conduct, subject as it
would be to the interpretation of the king and
his ministers, by whom, let it be what it might,
it was almost certain to be condemned, and for
this refusal they were again remanded to con-
finement. An information was then lodged
against them in the King's Bench in the usual
form. Sir John Eliot was charged with certain
words which he had uttered against the judges
and privy-council in the House of Commons,
and Mr. Denzil Hollis and Mr. Valentine with
forcibly holding down the speaker in the chair.
They answered that these otiences, having been
committed in j^arliament, ouglit only to be
judged by parliament. But their plea was over-
ruled ; they had endeavoured, it was alleged, to
slander the government and excite sedition and
discord between the king, his peers, and people,
which was a violation of parliamentary privi-
leges, and punishable by this court. Sentence
accordingly was pronounced upon them to the
following etiect : All the defendants were to be
imprisoned during his majesty's pleasure; and
none of them to be enlarged without acknow-
ledging his offence, making submission, and
giving security for his good behaviour. Sir John
Eliot, as being judged the ringleader and greatest
offender, was to pay a fine to the king of ^'2000.
Mr. Hollis was to pay a fine of 1000 marks, and
Mr. Valentine of £500. Long, who had been
pricked for sheriff of Wiltshire, was brought, not
before the King's Bench, but the Star Chamber,
fined in 2000 marks, and condemned to make
public submission, and be imprisoned during the
king's pleasure ; and this upon the charge that
he had attended parliament instead of remain-
ing as sheriff in his own county.^

Although Charles had now dispensed with
the aids of a limited sovereignty and was ruling
in the style of an autocrat, he had left himself
"without counsellors either to assist him in the
government or to conduct a parliament should
the calling of one be necessary. But unfortu-
nately his advisers were men of his own choice,
and therefore like-minded with himself, and

1 Whitelock; State Trials.

were better fitted to justify and act out his
despotic purposes than to regulate or restrain
them. The first and by far the most talented
of these was Sir Thomas Wentworth. This
man, of ancient and noble family, commanding
talents, and insatiable ambition, had commenced
his career as a patriot, distinguished himself in
the cause by his bold resistless eloquence, and
been imprisoned for refusing to contribute to
the forced loan imposed by the king ; but soon
after he made his peace with Buckingham a
short time before the death of the latter, and
went over to the court jmrty, who gladly hailed
such an able associate to their cause. The king
created him a peer by the title of Baron Went-
worth, and at the end of 1628 appointed him
lord-president of the court of York, better known
by the title of Council of the North. This ex-
ample and these rewards created fresh apostates,
of whom Sir Dudley Digges, an able i^arliamen-
tary debater, was made master of the rolls; Noye,
a lawyer, attorney -genei'al ; and Littleton, also
a lawyer, solicitor- general. These purchased
patriots were now the unscrupulous servants of
the king, and were ready to act against their
old friends and cause with the rancour that be-
longs to apostates. In this way Charles sought
to weaken the ranks of his opponents, while he
strengthened his own by means of despotic rule.
But of all his counsellors the first place was
given to AVentworth, and Laud, Bishop of
London, the chief agents of his despotism, both
civil and ecclesiastical, men whom the j^eople
not only feared, but hated with a j^erfect hatred.
It was tbis spiritual rule as exercised by Laud
that finally drove the peoj^le into rebellion, and
brought himself and his master to the block.

After the dissolution of parliament in 1629
eleven years elapsed before anotlier was called.
But scarcely had the dissolution taken place
when the want of money was felt, and to raise it
Charles and his counsellors were driven to their
shifts. Some of the means which they adoj^ted
on this occasion were as unwise as they were
unconstitutional and illegal. By the Petition of
Eight the levying of tonnage and poundage had
been condemned, and the Commons had de-
nounced the man as a traitoi' who should sub-
mit to its payment. But the king, notwith-
standing his assent to the petition, not only
continued it, but augmented the rate of payment,
and ordered the goods of such as refused to be
seized and sold. In the old feudal times when
Henry III. and Edward I. had been sorely dis-
tressed for money, they had summoned their
military tenants worth £20 (a large sum in
those days) to receive knighthood, and had let
them off from the costly honoi;r for a fine ; but
this oppressive kind of taxation, which had

12

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1625-1635.

almost fallen into abeyance, was uow renewed
with more than its ancient strictness. Forty
pounds was now the sum at which eligible
persons were rated, a sum far short in value of
twenty pounds in the thirteenth century, and
when small landholders refused to pay the fine
of exemption, they were visited with heavy
penalties or thrown into prison. Nor was this
obligation confined to military men, as had at
fii'st been the case, but was now extended over
merchants and country gentlemen, especially
those who were Puritans and obnoxious to the
court party, and o£'10U,000 were said to have
been raised from the fines of those who were
not knighted. Another source was created from
the revival of the forest laws. These, too, had
been allowed in a great measure to expire when
Charles called them into active operation, and
they were renewed in a spirit worthy of their
old Norman originators. Under the plea that
such and such grounds had anciently belonged
to the royal chases, occupants were dislodged
and estates seized which had been private pro-
perty for centuries ; and when the owners en-
deavoured to maintain their claims by law, they
had no chance against the king as claimant with
his unjust justiciaries as judges. Another ex-
pedient for raising money was the revival of
monopolies ; and for the sum of .£10,000, and a
duty of £8 upon every ton of soap, the king
chartered a company with the exclusive privilege
to make it, while no other was to be sold or
manufactured. Another monopoly was the
making of starch, which was also exclusively
vested in a company. But the most mischievous
of all the king's measures was one that matched
the wisdom of Canute or Dame Partington —
it was to prevent the overflow of London beyond
its present limits. King James, opining in his
wisdom that with the increase of the metropolis
the plague became more prevalent, denounced
the building of more houses, but his proclama-
tions to that effect were unheeded. The quarrel,
however, was taken up by Charles, both as a
new source of revenue and a means of vin-
dicating his authority ; and although there was
no Jaw to prevent the people from multiplying
buildings, he appointed a commission to fix the
boundaries of streets, and punish all who tres-
passed by building new houses. A fine was
accordingly levied equal to three years' rent
uj)on all new erections, and an annual tax to the
crown ; and in some cases the buildings were
thrown down and a penalty exacted from the
ownei's, in addition to the loss of their pro-
perty.i

"While every proceeding in the state was thus

1 Rymer; Rushworth; Clarendon.

calculated to provoke suspicion or complaint,
matters were still worse in the church, where
Laud and his clerical coadjutors ruled with a
high hand, and where the absolutism of the king
was more than matched by the paj)al infallibility
and despotism of the bishop. Alexander Leigh-
ton, a Scotchman and Puritan minister, the
father of the more distinguished Archbishop
Leighton, had written a book, entitled An Ap-
peal to the ParUavieyit, or Sion's Plea against
Prelacy, in which, although he attacked the
abuses of the church with much keenness, it
was not perhaps more than the late innovations
had merited. But for this offence Laud had
him brought before the Star Chamber ; and
although Leighton pleaded that he had offended
thi'ough zeal and not from any personal malice,
his appeal was disregarded, and his punishment
was such as was only suited to the vilest of
felons. He was degraded from the ministry,
publicly whipped in Palace Yai'd, and set in
the pillory for two hours, M'here he had an ear
cut off, a nostril slit, and one of his cheeks
branded with the letters S.S., for Sower of Sedi-
tion. But here his tortures did not terminate.
After he had been remanded to prison for one
short week, and before his wounds were healed,
be was led out to be mangled anew. After be-
ing again publicly whipped and jjilloried, he was
deprived of the other ear, had the other nostril
slit, and was branded in the other cheek, after
which he was sent back to his dungeon disfigured
and mutilated, there to be imprisoned for life.^
A still more severe case, if possible, was that
of Mr. William Prynne, a barrister of Lincoln's
Inn. He had written a learned and bulky
work named Histrio-Mastix; the Players' Scourge
or Actors' Tragedie, directed against plays,
masques, dances, masquerades, and other fashion-
able amusements, and also against the sports of
the people, especially the religious sports, such
as public festivals, Christmas amusements, bon-
fires, maypoles, green houses, and the like. It
was a work the scholarship, size, and costliness
of which would have made it a sealed book to
most people, and it had been in print for some
time without exciting jsarticular notice. It
had, however, awoke the resentment of Laud
from the praise it bestowed upon Leighton;
and among its other offences, it was supposed
to be a direct libel upon the queen, because she
was fond of the drama, and had condescended
to take a part in certain pastoral rehearsals of
the court. The author was indicted before the
Star Chamber, where Laud himself was present
encouraging the prosecution ; and the work was
condemned as libellous, not only against her

2 Rushworth.

A.D. 1625-1635.]

CHARLES I.

13

majesty, but the king and court, the church and
state, the English nation and humanity at large.
The sentence passed upon the unfortunate
Pryune was equal to the universality of the
suj^posed offence. He was degraded in his uni-
versity and banished from the bar, sentenced
to pay a fine of ^5000, and condemned to per-
petual imprisonment; and in addition to these
heavy penalties he was to be branded on the
forehead, slit in the nose, and to have his ears
cropped off. This doom was strictly executed
in all its revolting particulars. ^

The Puritans were now brought to that
point beyond which endurance could go no
further. No voice was to be heard in their
pidpits condemnatory of Arminian doctrines
under the severest j^enalties, and their refusal
of conformity to tenets which they condemned,
and rites they abhorred, was liable to be visited
as a capital offence. To secure purity of doctrine
and worship from perishing off the face of the
land, they had formed associations and collected
funds for buying up the lay impropriations, and
establishing afternoon lectureships in boroughs
and cities; but Charles and Laud seized the
money, i3rofessing that they would employ it
according to their own better judgment, for the
welfai'e of religion and the church. And when
they endeavoured under these restrictions to
avail themselves of the press, the examples of
Prynne and others had shown the hopelessness
of free discussion, and the merciless severity
with which it wovdd be visited. There was no
longer liberty for them in the land of their
nativity, and the Puritans were already emi-
grating in great numbers to New England, pre-
ferring to enjoy, amidst dangers and privations,
that freedom which was denied them at home.
These were the Pilgrim Fathers who banislied
themselves to America, and there founded a
colony which was afterwards to expand into a
powerful empire, while those who remained at
home had a still more important mission to
accomplish, for which they bided their time,
and which found them in readiness when it
came.

Having thus given a summary of the first
nine years of the reign of Charles I., and the
steps which led to that civil war, in which Scot-
land commenced the onset and bore so impor-
tant a part, we now turn to Scottish affairs and
resume the regular course of our narrative.

On the death of James VI., although lie had
done much to alienate their affections, the Scots
remembered that he was their countryman and
the representative of their long line of sove-
reigns. The tidings of his demise were there-

1 Rushworth; State Trials.

fore received with decorous regret, a general
mouining was observed, and his successor was
proclaimed at the Cross of Edinburgh with the
wonted solemnities. A deputation of the Scot-
tish nobles was also sent up to London to assist
at the obsequies of the late sovereign, and the
coronation of his successor. The only interrup-
tion to this general tranquillity arose from an
insurrection of the men of the Western Isles,
who seized the oppoituuity as a favourable one
for piracy and plunder, and probably for assert-
ing their ancient lawless independence. But
the lords of the privy-council, having commis-
sioned Archibald Lord Lorn to proceed against
them, that nobleman levied a force of two
thousand men for the defence of Argyle, Lorn,
and Kintyre, while the Bai'on of Kilsyth, who
was captain of the western seas, with two shij^s
of war and a frigate cleared the sea of their
piratical lymphads. These prompt proceedings
extinguished the rebellion at its outset, and re-
duced the Islesmen to submission. ^

One of the first attempts of Charles in the
government of Scotland was the full restoration
of EjHscopacy, and his earliest movement was
to confirm the authority of the Five Articles of
Perth. Against these the majority of the Scot-
tish nation had never ceased to protest, and on
the accession of Charles they hoped to obtain
that relief from them which they had sought
in vain at the hand of his father; and to this
effect the ministers dejjuted Robert Scott, min-
ister of Glasgow, to repair to London with their
supplication. But the new king's proceedings
in reply convinced them that he would make
his finger thicker than his father's loins. In
his eyes the Five Articles were as sacred as the
commands of the decalogue, and what James
had denied from merely political motives, he
was resolved to enforce from conscience and re-
ligious conviction. He therefore rejected the
petition, and soon after wrote to Archbishop
Spottiswood exhorting him to persevere in the
good cause, and rely upon his protection and
support. And that no mistake should be enter-
tained on bis intentions, he issued a proclama-
tion ordering all j^ersons to be punLshed accord-
ing to the laws who should circulate false reports,
and attempt to persuade the lieges that he in-
tended to change the government of the church,
of which, he declared, he had not the slightest
purpose. He also followed this proclamation
by prohibiting the citizens of the royal burghs
to elect any one to the office of the magistracy
who was opposed to the Five Articles. But
worse than the imposition of rites and cere-
monies, at least in the eyes of the holdei'sof church

- Balfour's Annals, vol. ii.

14

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1625-1635.

lands, was his revocation of impropriated tithes
and benefices. These were the revenues which
had reverted to the crown after the Reformation
for the maintenance of the royal dignity, but
which James had granted to his courtiers with
reckless profusion. The revocation which was
now contemplated was for the purpose of ag-
grandizing Episcopacy, by the maintenance of
the bishops and dignified clergy in a style
accortling to their rank ; but this property had
already got into the possession of those who
were too reluctant to quit it, and too powerful
to be provoked. The Earl of Nithsdale was
sent down to hold a convention of the estates
for the purpose of persuading the nobles and
gentry to compliance, but in vain : they were
in no mood to part with the plunder and royal
donations of two long reigns, by which their
families had been enriched, and not a few re-
deemed from actual beggary, and the opposition
thsy contemplated was of the most violent char-
acter. They resolved that if arguments failed,
they would make their cause good in the old
Scottish mode, by massacring the Earl of Niths-
dale and his adherents in the senate house.
Among these desperate conspirators was Lord
Belhaven, a blind old man, who, at his own
desire, was placed beside the Earl of Dumfries,
whom he held with one hand with an excuse
for his blindness and frailty that needed such
support, but in the other hand he held a naked
dagger concealed, which he meant to jolunge
into that nobleman's heart as soon as the onset
commenced. Nithsdale, either warned of his
danger, or alarmed at the formidable demeanour
of the convention, suppressed the worst part of
his instructions, and returned to London with-
out effecting his purpose.^ But so far as Charles
was concerned the mischief was already done.
The aristocracy, who had hitherto been the
compliant servants of his father and the best
supports of his authority, were alarmed at this
prospect of the resumption of property which
was theirs by royal gift, and which had been
doubly ensured to them by long possession, and
accordingly they were now ready to make com-
mon cause with that national Presbyterianism
which they had hitherto regarded with indiffer-
ence or aversion. Had Charles left them un-
disturbed in the possession of their rights, he
might have found in their adherence a counter-
poise to his discontented subjects in England,
which might either have prevented the civil
war, or ended it in his favour. But urged by
Laud, who was resolute in his design to bring
Scotland and England into religious conformity,
and both countries to the Romanized standard

' Row ; Biunet ; Introduction to Sanderson's History.

of Armiuian doctrine and Pojjish rites and
ceremonies, and carried onward by his own
innate obstinacy and infatuation of absolute
rule, when persistence was folly, and could lead
only to defeat, he iri'econcilably provoked his
subjects of Scotland, and converted them from
loyal and most attached subjects into hostile and
confirmed enemies.

The long and peaceful reign of James YI. and
the union of the crowns of Scotland and Eng-
land, with the unsatisfactory prospect of afl'airs
at home, had sent multitudes of Scottish adven-
turers into foi-eign military service ; and the
character of Gustavus Adolphus, who united in
himself the qualities of a hero of romance with
the renown of a skilful leader and successful
conqueror, was the great point of attraction to-
wards which the attention of the Scots was
directed. He was also the champion of Pro-
testantism, and that too in a form as severe and
simple as their own. The volunteers from Scot-
land, therefore, flocked in numbers to his
standard, and their reception made his service
popular among their enterprising countrymen
at home. In his army there were already thirty-
five colonels and fifty lieutenant-colonels, all of
whom were Scots. When Gustavais invaded
Germany he sought the aid of the British king,
and Charles, anxious for the restoration of the
palatinate to his brother-in-law, agreed to assist
him with six thousand men. But as he could
not give this aid openly, being engaged at the
same time with the emperor in a negotiation for
the peaceful restoration of the palatinate, he
allowed the Marquis of Hamilton to negotiate
with Gustavus and raise the tioops in his own
name. The levies were soon completed and
ready to be embarked when an unexpected ob-
stacle was interposed by Lord Ochiltree, a son
of Captain James, the infamous Earl of Arrau,
who inherited his father's hatred against the
whole family of Hamiltous, and who declared
that the marquis had raised this army for the
purpose, at its return, of making himself King
of Scotland. This absurd charge he endeavoured
to strengthen by asserting that Colonel Ramsay,
whom Hamilton had employed in his negotia-
tions with the Swedish king, had imparted the
secret to Lord Reay. On Ochiltree being sum-
moned to substantiate his accusation he could
only allege hearsay, on which he was sent down
to Scotland to be tried for leasing-making, and
sentenced to perpetual imprisonment in Black-
ness Castle, where he remained twenty years
until he was set free by Cromwell. As for Reay
and Ramsay the alleged guilt of the rejiort was
to be decided by a judicial combat, the place
appointed was Tothill Fields, Westminster; and
the pair, richly dressed, had mounted the stage

A.D. 1625-1635.]

CHAELES I.

15

erected for the purpose, and were ready for the
encounter, when the ridiculous farce was stopped
by a prohibition from the kiug.^

The charge having thus ended to which Charles
had given no credence, Hamilton embarked his
troops, and transported them to the banks of the
Odei-. Eeport magnified their numbers into
twenty thousand, which had an important effect
on the war, for it decided the wavering
Elector of Saxony to join the Swedes, and com-
pelled the imperialist general, Tilly, to weaken
his army by reinforcing his garrisons, in con-
sequence of which he was defeated by the
Swedish king at the memorable battle of Leipsic.
To this victory of Gustavus, also, the original
Scottish brigade in his service greatly con-
tributed, and it was here that they first intro-
duced the practice of platoon firing, which as-
tonished the imperialists and threw them into
confusion. The whole German empire was now
laid open to the Swedish hei'o from the mouth
of the Oder to the source of the Danube, and
Magdeburg was recovered by the Marquis of
Hamilton. But service in a district wasted by
contending armies, and overrun with famine and
pestilence, so greatly reduced the i^anks of these
Scottish auxiliaries that they were finally in-
corporated into the Swedish army, their com-
mander serving with them as a volunteer.
Charles now solicited the restoration of the
elector palatine ; but as Gustavus would only
consent on conditions that were unpalatable to
the British sovereign, the treaty with Sweden
was broken off and Hamilton recalled. The
Scots, however, still remained in the Swedish
service, even when Gustavus had fallen at Lut-
zen, which happened a few weeks after; and as
their ranks were still supplied with recruits from
their own country, they had an important share
in those victories which were obtained by those
generals who succeeded their renowned sove-
reign. There they remained until they were
called home by their country for its defence
against the king, and in that Swedish school
they learned the improved art of war which the
Lion of the North had introduced, and which
was afterwards to be displayed in the ranks of
the Covenanters.^

With the exception of the few incidents which
we have recorded, Scotland i^resents no history
during the first eight years of the reign of
Charles. It was an enviable distinction, more
especially when we consider the troubled state
of England, and the prevalence of wars and
changes upon the Continent. The first event
that interrupted this monotony was a visit of

1 Balfour's Annals, vol. ii. ; Burnet's Memoirs.

2 Hixrte's Life of Gustavus Adolphus.

the king to Scotland. It occurred in 1633, and
the object of his visit was the rite of coronation
in his native kingdom, which he had been
obliged to defer till the present year. He left
London on the 17th of May, and entered Edin-
burgh on the 15th of June, accompanied by a
splendid train of more than five hundred persons,
whose number and the calculated expense of
their entertainment filled the Scottish nobles
with dismay. But still more formidable than
the prospectof emptied larders and impoverished
revenues was the appeai'ance of Laud, Bishop of
London, one of the most important jsersonages
in the royal retinue, and whose coming boded
little good either to the liberties of the church
or the secular holders of chui'ch property. Noth-
ing of these misgivings, however, was allowed
to appear in the magnificence with which Charles
was welcomed to the capital of his liei'editary
kingdom, and which far outshone the splendour
of any previous occasion. As he approached
the West Port, by which he entered the city,
there was a panoramic painting of Ediubui'gh,
and on withdrawing a veil, the nymph Edina
stepped forth and presented the keys of the city
to the king; and at every stage of his advance
there were allegorical representations, page-
ants, and triumjihal arches, music and ad-
dresses, which displayed a better taste and
higher proficiency in the arts than those by
which his father had been welcomed. It could
not, indeed, have been otherwise, when Drum-
mond of Hawthorn den was master of the cere-
monies, and the city filled with strangers and
foreigners who had come to witness the spectacle.
On the 18th was the coronation, at which the
Scottish bishops officiated in robes of em-
broidered silk, with white rochets and lawn
sleeves; and because the Archbishop of Glasgow
refused to wear this new episcopal attire he was
rudely thrust from his place by Laud, who
ali'eady assumed the superiority over all the
Scottish prelates. The religious public services
which afterwards took place were still further
provocations to national jealousy and religious
contention. On Sabbath the 23d of June, when
the king had taken his seat in the High Church,
and the lessons of the day, according to custom,
were about to be read, the Bishop of Eoss
ordered the reader to leave the desk, and sub-
stituted in his place two English chaplains
clothed in surplices, who performed the English
service, after which he ascended the pulpit, also
clad in a surplice, and preached the sermon.^

On the day after the coronation the parlia-
ment assembled; and, to ensure its obedience
to the royal wishes, an iniquitous device was

^ Baltour's Annals, ii.; Row; Crawford; Rushworth.

16

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1625-1635.

adopted in the election of the Lords of Arti-
cles. The prelates, who were nominated by
the chancellor, elected the nobles, and both to-
gether selected the lords for the third estate. The
etfects of this mutual election were apparent in
the liberality and harmony with which the sup-
plies were voted, and to his majesty were as-
signed a land-tax of four hundred thousand
pounds Scots and the sixteenth penny of legal
interest for six years, being the largest suj^ply
ever granted to a Scottish sovereign. The rate
of interest was also reduced from ten to eight
per cent, and the two per cent deducted from
the ci'editor was conferred upon the crown for
three yeai-s. All this was patiently endured,
but another proposal which followed was not to
pass so easily. In 1606 an act had been passed
declai-atory of the extent of the royal prerogative,
and three years after the right had been con-
ceded to James, as a pei'sonal favour, of regulat-
ing the costume of judges and clergymen. These
two separate acts embodied into one were now
attempted to be passed in a single vote in favour
of Charles, with the confirmation of every statute
in religion as then established. This would have
given full sanction not only to embroidered
copes and white surplices, but also an indirect
allowance to the introduction of all the religious
tenets and practices for which such raiment was
a convenient covering. When the act was read
Lord Melville, an aged nobleman, exclaimed to
the king, " I have sworn with your father and
the whole kingdom to the Confession of Faith,
in which the innovations intended by these
articles were solemnly abjured." The other
members were willing to ratify the Episcopal
government and worship as then established,
but not the clerical vestments, having already
seen from the example of Laud that these were
the veritable badges of a modified Popery. But
all these scruples were overborne by the king.
Drawing a list from his pocket, he exclaimed,
" I have your names here, and I shall know to-
day who are willing and who are not to do me
service ; " and saying this he proceeded to mark
down the vote of each individual member. This
unworthy proceeding of controlling the freedom
of parliament had its etFect upon the timid, and
at the close of the voting the clerk-register de-
clared the acts to be carried. Lord Eothes, who
had headed the ojjposition, rose and contradicted
him, declaring that the negatives were a ma-
jority. Charles alleged that this charge of vitiat-
ing the parliamentary records was an accusation
of high treason, and that he must either be silent
or make it good under the penalty of leasing-
making. Rothes, who had the fate of Lord
Ochiltree before his eyes, did not attempt to re-
peat the charge, and the articles thus suspiciously

passed were touched by the royal sceptre, and
the parliament was dissolved. ^

Before the meeting of this parliament a num-
ber of the ministers attached to the Presbyterian
form of worship, under a just apprehension of
the mejisures that were to be passed, had drawn
up a manifesto under the title of " Grievances
and Petitions concerning the disordered state of
the Reformed Church within the realm of Scot-
laud." It complained, and not unjustly, of royal
promises broken, and acts of parliament violated,
by which the church had been deprived of its
assemblies and ministers of their spiritual in-
dependence. This paper was presented to the
clerk-register, whose duty it was to lay all such
documents before the i^arliament; but he refused
to have anything to do with it, and the petition
was therefore not brought forward. It was not,
however, wholly in vain, for the substance of it
being communicated to several of the nobles,
forewarned them of the proj^osals to be made in
jDarliament and animated them for the resistance
in which they had nearly succeeded. The fate
of another petition was still more singular. After
the parliament had risen a number of barons
who had voted in the oi^ijosition pi-epared a most
respectful supplication to be presented to the
king in explanation of their conduct; and a copy
of it was shown to his majesty by the Earl of
Rothes, to learn if the presentation of the peti-
tion itself would be acceptable. Chai'les looked
hastily over the document and returned it to
the earl, saying sharjjly, "No more of that, my
lord, I command you." After the parliament
the king was unpopular with all parties ; with
the nobles, whom he was about to strip of their
possessions; with the people, whose civil and re-
ligious rights he disregarded; and even with the
bishops, whom he was driving into the exti-eme
Episcopacy of Laud, and whose independence
he was eager to reduce by exalting the English
hierarchy over their heads. The acclamations
with which he had so lately been welcomed had
now sunk into silence ; everywhere there were
moody discontented looks, and the astonishment
of the king's adherents at the change was thus
expressed by Leslie, Bishop of the Isles, " The
behaviour of the Scots is like that of the Jews,
who one day saluted the Lord's Anointed with
hosannahs, and the next cried out, Crucify
him !" Little did he think how this apparently
rash similitude was to become a stern reality. ^

The other proceedings of Charles while in
Scotland were not calculated to recover his
popularity. On the 24th of June, being the
day of John the Baptist, he repaired in state to

1 Row; Burnet; Rushworth.

2 Clarendon ; Crawford ; Rushworth.

A.D. 1625-1635.]

CHAELES I.

17

the chapel royal, made a solemn offertory, and
afterwards touched a hundred persons for the
king's evil, putting round the neck of each a
piece of gold coined for the purpose, suspended
from a white silk ribbon. At the beginning of
July he made a progress to Linlithgow, Stirling,
Dunfermline, the place of his birth, Falkland,
and Perth, making a short stay in each. On
his way to the Abbey of Dunfermline the Earl
of Rothes, as sheriff of Fife, and Lord Lindsay,
as bailie of the regality of St. Andrews, had
assembled the gentlemen of Fife to the number
of two thousand upon the border of the shire,
to welcome his majesty's arrival; but Charles,
after making these noblemen and their company
wait several liours in expectation, purposely
disappointed them by taking a by-road. On
the 10th of July he returned from Falkland to
Edinburgh; but, in crossing the Firth at Burnt-
island, he encountered such a storm that with
difficulty he reached his own ship, which waited
for him in the roads, while a boat, containing his
plate and money and eight attendants, was
swallowed up by the waves. In honour of his
visit to Scotland he created one marquis, ten
earls, two viscounts, and eight lords, and con-
ferred knighthood upon fifty-four commoners;
but from these honours, which he bestowed in
such jjrofusion, he was careful to exclude all who
had voted against him in parliament, or were
attached to the popular party. During the royal
progress Laud, who waited upon his master, was
equally offensive to the religious feelings of the
people. The magistrates of Perth wished to
confer upon him the fi'eedom of the city; but
when they tendered to him the customary oath
of adherence to the Protestant religion, he dis-
dainfully replied, "It is my part to exact an
oath of religion from you rather than yours to
exact any such from me," and refused the honour
of citizenship. On visiting the Cathedral of
Dunblane, which was greatly in need of repair,
one of the country people standing by observed,
"This was a braw building and more beautiful
before the Reformation." " Reformation, fellow ?
— rather say, deformation," exclaimed the bishop.
He was already contemplating a transformation
for Scotland by which all old things were to be
restored. On the 18th of July the king left
Edinburgh, and on arriving at Berwick posted
with forty of his attendants to Greenwich, where
the queen had been just delivered of a sou, who
was afterwards James VII. of Scotland and II.
of England.!

A slight allusion has already been made to a
petition of the barons which Lord Rothes pre-
sented to the king, and winch the latter treated

r VO

1 Balfour's Annals, ii.

with contempt. Several of the lords had also
subscribeil this petition, and among them was
Lord Bahnerino, one of the dissenting nobility,
whom Charles had marked down in his list at
the late parliament as one who would do him
no good service. Although the jjetition was
suppressed Balmerino retained a co])y of it
which he communicated to John Dunmore, a
notary, whom he was in the habit of employing,
on purpose to ask his professional advice in
modifying the language so as to make it more
agreeable to the king. Dunmore, though he
was bound to secrecy, rashly showed the docu-
ment to Hay of Naughton, an enemy of Bal-
merino, and sworn servant of the bishops, who
surreptitiously took a copy of it and forwarded
it to the Archbishop of St. Andrews. Spottis-
wood was so malignant as to send it by express
to the king, with the assurance that this petition
was circulated through the country to obtain
signatures ; adding that it was mainly through
the opposition of the nobility that the ministei's
were encouraged in their resistance to the sur-
plice, and that if a few of these high ringleaders
were selected for jjunishment the rest would be
warned by the example. An order was forth-
with transmitted to the privy-council, in conse-
quence of which Lord Balmerino was committed
to prison. A search was also instituted for Haig,
an advocate, by whom the original petition had
been drawn up; but he had taken the alarm and
escaped to the Continent. Balmerino was there-
fore selected to endure the whole brunt of the
trial upon the statute of leasing-makiug. By
this law whosoever uttered leasings or false re-
ports tending to excite sedition or sow dissen-
sions between the king and the people, and
whosoever listened to them and failed to reveal
them, or apprehend their author, were involved
in the same capital crime, and equally liable to
punishment. Balmerino in this case was accused
as the author of the petition, because the copy
in his possession was interlined with his own
hand; and as the abettor, because he had re-
tained the petition, and allowed the writer of it
to escape unpunished. Its language, indeed,
was temj.erate and submissive, and its demands
just and reasonable; but these were little likely
to avail him, for the greater part of his estate
consisted of church lands, wdiile Archbishop
Spottiswood was the jarincipal prosecutor.

To find a jury that would condemn him upon
such trivial evidence was now the aim of the
prelates and the crown officers. Nine of the
jury were challenged but in vain, and the Earl
of Traquair, a minister of state, presided as their
foreman. Three assessors, all of whom were hos-
tile to Balmerino, were appointed by the Court
of Session to the justice-general; these were

77

18

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1625-1635.

Learraont, a lord of session, Sir Robert Spottis-
wood, the president, second son of the Arch-
bishop of St. Andrews, and Sir John Hay, the
clerk-register. It was hopeless before such a
tribunal to plead that the interlineations soft-
ened the terms of the petition, and that the
petition itself was expressed in respectful lan-
guage; it was equally in vain to state that it had
never been communicated except to a confiden-
tial lawyer for the purpose of obtaining his pro-
fessional advice, and that its style was such that
no unaided sagacity could have discovered trea-
son lurking in it without a legal condemnation.
The jury had already made up their minds, but
■with one striking exception; this was Gordon of
Buckie, who nearly half a century ago had borne
an active hand in tiie foul murder of the " bonnie
Eai-1 of Murray," and who on that account was
reckoned upon as a sure man. But no sooner
had the jury retired than he entreated them,
with tears streaming down his aged cheeks, to
reflect upon the consequences of their proceed-
ings. The life of an innocent nobleman was at
stake, and his blood would lie heavy upon their
souls. Ouce, he added, his hands had been
stained with murder ; but, notwithstanding the
pardon of his sovereign for the deed, he felt that
it was still unremitted in heaven, and the thought
of it would haunt him to his dying day. His
unexpected appeal, which moved the jury, was
counteracted by an address of Lord Traquair,
who told them that the justice of the law and
the guilt of the petition were subjects for the
court to determine, and that their own duty was
to decide whether the prisoner had been guilty
of concealment or not. The jury was equally
divided, and the prisoner's condemnation was
only procured by the casting vote of Lord
Traquair. Sentence of death was immediately
pronounced upon him, and the execution was
only delayed until the king's pleasure could be
ascei'taiued.

The result of this trial excited universal
indignation. Lord Balmerino had hit])erto
lived in retirement, and had taken no active
share in public proceedings until the arrival of
Charles in Scotland. His offence also was of
such a negative and harmless character that his
arraignment only showed the injustice of the
prelates who were his principal accusers and
persecutors. The people were enraged to see
him brought day after day from the castle to
the tolbooth, like a notorious malefactor, escorted
by a guard, and returned with the same degrad-
ing accompaniments. Was this fitting treatment
for a Scottish nobleman from a king who was
estranged from them and a pi-iesthood who
tyrannized over them? In spite of the magis-
trates, who endeavoured to maintain order, the

people thronged the streets praying for his pre-
servation and denouncing his persecutors ; and
when his sentence was passed they held meet-
ings for deliberation, in which they resolved to
free the prisoner by force or to set fire to the
houses of the judges and jurors and put them
to death if the sentence was executed. It was
an Edinburgh mob, resolute in their fancied
right of executing justice with their own hands
when oppression triumphed and law was una-
vailing. Traquair, alarmed at his personal
danger, hurried to court, and represented that,
however just the punishment of Balmerino, it
would be impolitic and unsafe to execute him ;
and Charles, persuaded by these arguments, at
length granted a reluctant pardon. But the
insult and the injury had alread}' been in-
flicted, and this acquittal was set down, not to
the clemency of his enemies, but to their fears
and their tardy sense of shame.^

After the departure of Charles several changes
occurred which were significant of further changes
in the religion of Scotland. One of the most im-
portant of these was the elevation of Laud to the
archbishopric of Canterbury, a primacy which
he was resolved to convert into a popedom that
should extend over Scotland as well as England.
Edinburgh was erected into a separate bishopric,
and William Forbes, one of the ministers of
Aberdeen, consecrated its bishop by the two
archbishops and five prelates; and that he
might have a church fit for cathedral service
the partition wall of St. Giles which separated
the High from the Little Church was removed,
and the whole thrown into one place of worship,
as it had been before the Reformation. Spottis-
wood, who acted as a royal spy against both
nobles and clergy who were opi)osed to the pre-
sent innovations in church and state, and who
had been so forward to betray the innocent
Lord Balmerino, was now raised to an otfice
which enabled him to take precedence of all the
nobility of Scotland. Something of this had
already been attempted at the king's corona-
tion in Scotland, but ineffectually, when Charles
sent a private message b}' the lyon-king-at-arms
to the Earl of Kinnoul, the lord-chancellor, re-
questing him to permit the Archbishop of St.
Andrews to precede him in the procession only
for that one day. The grim old lord was indig-
nant at the proposal, and he returned an answer
to the king that sounded like defiance. Since
his majesty, he said, had continued him in the
ofiice of chancellor which his majesty's father
had bestowed on him, he was willing in all hu-
mility to lay it down at the royal feet ; but as

1 Balfour's Annals, vol. ii. ; State Trials; Burnet's His-
tory; Row.

A.D. 1625-1635.]

CHARLES I.

19

he was to continue in it he would enjoy it with
its wonted privileges, and never a stoled ]mest
in Scotland should set foot in advance of him as
long as his blood was hot. " Well, Lyon," said
the king, when this answer was brought back,
^' let us go to business : I will not meddle further
with that cankered, goatish man, at whose hands
there is nothing to be gained but sour words."
Kinnoul died of apoplexy at the close of 1634,
and every obstacle to his pre-eminence being
thus removed, Spottiswood was invested with
the chancellorship. It was a reversion to the
old Popish rule when this imjjortant office in
the state was often held by an ecclesiastic.
Encouraged by the example, the office of lord-
treasurer, next in dignity to that of chancellor,
was sought by Maxwell, Bishop of Ross.

Not merely the toleration but the reign of
Episcopacy was now established in Scotland,
and emboldened by their success the prelates
set no bounds to their usurpation. Out of the
fourteen bishops nine had seats in the privy-
council, and were often able to command a ma-
jority. To aggrandize their own rank and con-
firm their influence they also proposed the re-
vival of an intei-mediate class of dignified cler-
gymen, who under the title of mitred abbots
should be introduced into i^arliament in place
of lords of erections, and with whose impropri-
ated revenues and tithes they should be en-
dowed. They also obtained a warrant from the
king to establish subordinate courts of commis-
sion that should exercise the authority of a high
commission court in each diocese, and with six
assistants elected by themselves have authority

to inquire into every ecclesiastical offence and
visit it with punishment. The older prelates
trembled, and would have paused : they knew
by experience the character of the people and
the vital enei'gy of Presbyterianism now pro-
voked to the point of resistance; and they
would rather have contentedly secured what
they already held than by aiming at more to
hazard the loss of all. But the younger clergy,
charmed with the novelty of Armijiian doc-
trines, and ambitious for promotion, set no
bounds to their subserviency to Charles and
Laud, and were eager for that race of innova-
tion which led to political and ecclesiastical pro-
motion. In the meantime the nobility were
now at one with the people in their feeling of
hatred towards Episcojiacy and their hostility
to the bishops. By the assumptions of these
new upstart prelates the pride of the nobles
was wounded and their consequence impaired.
To furnish splendid revenues for such a lordly
priesthood they felt that their lands were al-
ready coveted <and their revenues threatened
with diminution. And by the late instance in
the case of Lord Balmerino they had found
how little their rank and power could avail
them against the intrigues of the bishops and
the suspicions of their priest-led king. Nothing
was now wanting but that combination of the
nobility which had hitherto been of so much
avail both against royal and clerical despotism,
and the circumstances were at hand by which,
under the burden of a common oi^pression, they
were compelled to band together for their mu-
tual emancipation.

20

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1635-1638.

CHAPTER V.

REIGN OF CHARLES I. (1635-1638).

Book of canons imposed upon the Scottish Church — Its nature — It is followed by the Book of Common Prayer
— Indignation of the people at the innovation — The liturgy commanded to be used in public worship^
Riot at its introduction — Punishment inflicted on Edinburgh for the uproar — Petitions against the liturgy
— Popular hostiUty to the bishops — Unfavourable answer of Charles to the petitions — The bishops blamed
as the causes of the general discontent — A fresh tumult in Edinburgh — The town-council and privy -council
besieged — The Presbyterians increase their demands — The entire abolition of Episcopacy required — The
people joined by the nobility — They demand the right of holding meetings by delegates — The privy-council
consents — The delegates formed into four representative bodies called the Tables — The king's refusal to
make satisfactory concessions — The Presbyterians no longer satisfied with half measures — Their petitions
to the privy-council referred to the king — Charles temporizes — His secret instructions to the Earl of Tra-
quair whom he sends to Scotland — Traquair's attemjjts to publish the royal proclamation — His attempts
encountered everywhere with pubhc protests — Strength and union of the Presbyterian cause — Covenanting
tendencies of the Scots — They now form a Covenant for the defence of religion — Its nature — A day
appointed for its public subscription — Meeting in the Grayfriars' Church and churchyard — Enthusiasm of
all classes in signing the Covenant — The example followed over the kingdom — Consternation of the bishops
— Smallness of the number who withheld their subscription to the Covenant — Alarm of the privy-council —
They send tidings of the state of affairs to the king — He calls a party of the Scottish nobles and bishops
to London — Theu- counsels to the king — His temporizing policy ineffectual — The Covenanters increase in
their demands — Charles sends the Marquis of Hamilton as his commissioner to Scotland — Instructions
given to the marquis — Alarm of the Covenanters at his arrival — Rumours of danger and precautions to
avert it — Correspondence between Hamilton and the king — Expedients of Charles to gain time — Hamilton's
pubhc entry into Edinburgh — His demands rejected by the Covenanters — His repeated attempts to publish
the royal proclamation — It is met by a pubUc protest from the Tables — A General Assembly at last allowed
to be held — The king's covenant devised as a rival to that of the i^eople— Uselessness of the device — The
free General Assembly held at Glasgow — Preparations for sending proper commissioners —Members who
composed the assembly — Henderson elected moderator — The lost records of the church recovered — The
bishops send a declinature to the assembly — The high commissioner interposes in their behalf — In conse-
quence of its refusal he leaves the assembly — Its sittings are continued — Fresh accession of noblemen to
the Covenant — Episcopacy abolished — The bishops in their absence tried and deposed — ^Presbyterianism
restored.

Nothing was now thought wanting to com-
plete the subjugation of the Church of Scotland
into conformity with that of England except the
imposition of canons and a liturgy. Accordingly,
a book of canons was first compiled by the
Bishops of Galloway, Dunblane, Aberdeen, and
Ross, according to the English model, and when
finished, was sent up to London to be revised
and sanctioned by Laud and his assistants,
and confirmed by the royal supremacy of the
king. A Genex'al Assembly was in this case
not consulted or even thought of, although by
the constitutions of the Scottish Church no inno-
vation could be introduced without its warrant.
By these canons the king was invested with all
the supremacy which had belonged to the
Jewish dispensation, and to the Roman em-
perors of the early Christian church. In like
manner the consecration and authority of bishops
was secui-ed, not only by the spiritual penalty
of excommunication, but the civil punishment
of confiscation and outlawry. The liturgy was
sanctioned even before it was prepared; the
clergy, prohibited from extemporaneous prayer,
were required to conform to it in every article;

and ever}' posture of the congregation, while it
was recited, was minutely prescribed. All kirk-
sessions and presbyteries were prohibited as
unlawful conventicles, and their powers trans-
ferred to the bishop of the diocese; and lay
elders, so important a part of Presbyterian gov-
ernment, were wholly dispensed with. At the
entrance of the church was to be a font, and in
the chancel an altar; the elements of the euchar-
ist were to be treated with religious veneration
as if actually transubstantiated, and their frag-
ments to be devoutly eaten by the poor of the
congregation. Ordination, like a sacrament,
was only to be bestowed at four seasons of the
year, the equinoctial and solstitial; and no jires-
byter was to reveal anything uttered to him
by the penitent in confession, unless it endan-
gered his life. AH was a close transcript of the
English Church, or where it varied was a nearer
approach to that of Rome, while not only the
spirit but the form of Presbyterianism had
utterly vanished away. The Scots were aston-
ished at this new church, which they were com-
manded to adopt and establish by the sole
authority of the king : it was a tyranny which

A.D. 1635-1638.]

CHARLES I.

21

they and their fathers had never endured, and its
very audacity at first made them silent. As if
to deepen the insult, also, the book, which was
published at Aberdeen in 1636, under the title
of, Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical,
gathered and put in form for the Government of
the Church of Scotland, was pretended to be
nothing more than an epitome of the acts of
the General Assembly !

The Book of Common Prayer, which these
canons required every minister to use, and
pledge himself to that effect before it had even
existed, was the next production of this unwise
ecclesiastical junto. It, too, was a copy of the
Anglican service, with variations that more
closely allied it to Popery; and in like manner
it was revised by Laud, who introduced the
worst part of these obnoxious additions. It
was an experimental attemjat to promote a
closer uniformity between the churches of Great
Britain and Eome, and to be tried in the first
instance upon Scotland, as being more helpless
to resist the change, in the hope that England
would follow the example. The liturgy being
completed, two letters were sent down by the
king to Scotland, the one addressed to all sheriffs,
and the other to the Archbishop of St. Andrews,
ordering the Prayer Book to be proclaimed at
every market cross, and used in every church
in the kingdom, and commanding tliat every
parish should immediately i)rovide itself with
two copies. At this command the whole king-
dom rose for resistance. The mass of the laity,
who still clung to their Presbyterianism, cried
out that they were to be driven back to Popery,
while the ministers declared that from no fear
of man they would be comi^elled to abandon
their extemporaneous devotions in the pulpit,
for a printed form which, after all, was as near
the Pojjish missal as English could be to Latin.^
The proud nobles, who were already trembling
for tlieir tenure of the church lands, saw in this
command of Charles a yoke more intolerable
than that of Edward I., and were ready to unite
with the Presbyterians for the maintenance of
their common freedom. This liturgy, it was
declared, was thrust upon the nation without
the consent of General Assembly or parliament;
and that it taught baptismal regeneration, tran-
substantiation, and the oblation of the conse-
crated elements, and was little better than a
mass-book. Even the archbishops and the more
experienced of the prelates were compelled to
pause and tremble, until urged forward by
Laud and the king.^ After putting off the evil
day until Easter had passed and the middle of

1 Row.

"^ Lord Rothes' Relation (Ban. Club edition), pp. 3, 4.

summer arrived, they at length addressed them-
selves to the perilous task with such precautions
as might render it least dangerous, and on
Sabbath, the 16th of July, the ministers were
ordered to announce the introduction of the use
of the Prayer Book on the succeeding Sunday.
Some refused to give the intimation, and others,
not venturing to give it themselves, devolved
the task upon their readers, while the people
everywhere received it with that stern silence
which indicated very different feelings from
submission and assent.

The eventful day, the 23d of July, arrived.
In the Middle Church of St. Giles a large con-
gregation had assembled, but not for worship ;
every countenance, instead of being composed
to devotion, was restless, troubled, and expres-
sive of aversion or fear, or eager with curiosity
and expectation. Spottiswood himself and a
part of the judges, prelates, and city council were
present to give solemnity to the new service,
while the dean, arrayed in a white surplice,
entered the reading desk, opened the ominous
book, and began the public devotions of the day.
But he had not gone far when a murmur arose
that deepened and strengthened every moment;
the people lose to their feet, and loud outcries
commenced in which the shrieks of women pre-
dominated. But the tumult rose to a height
when a zealous woman, called Jennie Geddes,
scandalized at the service, lifted up the portable
stool on which she sat and exclaimed, " Villain,
dost thou say mass at my lug?" hurled the heavy
missile at his head with such force that, had not
the dean ducked, he would hardly have escaped
the distinction of martyrdom. This violent at-
tack was seconded by a rush of women to the
reading-desk, and the dean fled after throwing
off his surplice to favour his escape. Amidst
this uproar the Bishop of Edinburgh, who was
to preach the sermon, ascended the pulpit in the
hope of stilling the uproar, but was unheard
amidst the din; and after the magistrates had
interfered and succeeded in clearing the church,
the service was resumed with closed doors. The
mob all the while continued their clamour in
the street, endeavouring to break in, smashing
the windows with stones, vociferating Popery !
Popery ! and reviling the bishops with many
insulting epithets. Even when the service was
brouglit to a hasty conclusion and the worship-
pers dismissed, the mob assailed the retiring
Bishop of Edinburgh with the cry, " A pope ! a
pope ! Antichrist ! Stone him ! " As he was
corpulent and somewhat unwieldy, it was well
for him that he got into the Earl of Traquair's
coach that was waiting for him ; and when it
drove off the mob pursued in full cry, and
were only held at bay by the swords of the earl's

22

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1635-1638.

retinue. In the Grayfriars' Church, where the
Bishop of Argyle officiated, there was also some
ujn-oar, but nothing equal to the outbreak in
St. Giles. After every subsequent inquiry made
by the magistrates, it was found that the tumult
had chiefly been confined to the women and the
lowest of the rabble, while the more respectable
classes had kept aloof or remained silent. But
the city was not the less to be jjunished for this
outbreak of part of its inhabitants, being placed
under something like an ecclesiastical interdict,
in which morning and evening prayers and even
public worship was suspended, and the ministei-s
who refused to read the service displaced.^

Instead of being warned to desist or at least
to advance with greater caution, the bishops
proceeded in their rash career with greater bold-
ness than ever. The former charge that every
parish should purchase two copies of the liturgy
and use it in the public worshi]^ was now followed
by a prosecution of the recusants. Alexander
Henderson, minister of Leuchars ; James Bruce,
minister at King's Barns ; and George Hamilton,
minister at Newburn, were cited by Chancellor
Sjjottiswood, and similar proceedings were in-
stituted by the Archbishop of Glasgow against
all the presbyteries of his diocese. Henderson
appeared before the privy-council at the time
appointed, presented a temperate supplication,
in which he stated as the causes of his non-com-
pliance that the service-book had not yet been
authorized by an assembly of the church nor
confirmed by pai'liament,and he therefore craved
a suspension of the charge. Similar petitions
were also issued from the presbyteries of Glas-
gow,Irvine,and Ayr, backed by recommendatory
letters from several noblemen and the personal
appeals of many influential gentlemen, which
were favoiirably received by the council, who
declared that instead of using these books the
original proclamation required nothing more
than that the presbyteries should purchase them.
In order therefore to reimburse, the king's
printer the copies of the work wei-e ordered to
be bought, and the reading of the liturgy sus-
pended until the king's further pleasure should
be intimated. The bishops, who expected a very
different answer, wei'e incensed at this decision,
but were obliged to wait the result. The council
represented to the king that, in co-operating
with the prelates, they met with such opposition
that their interference and aid were ineffectual ;
that the dislike to the liturgy was general and
on the increase, and that without his sanction
they could neither investigate the causes nor
suggest a remedy. In this way they ventured

1 Baillie's Letters and Jourtial; Row; Clarendon's History;
Guthrie's Memoirs; Spalding's Troubles in Scotland; De
Foe's Memoirs of the Church of Scotland.

to hint that the compulsory use of the service-
book was disagreeable not only to the ]jeople
but to themselves, and at the same time gi-atitied
their dislike of the ecclesiastical lords, whose
pretensions to equality they could no longer
tolerate.-

With a timid or a wise sovereign there would
have been only one course to adopt ; it would
have been to concede with whatever grace he
could to the manifest wishes of his people, more
especially when the desire was so reasonable
and the consequences of a refusal so dangerous.
But Charles was neither wise nor timid, and his
right of absolute rule was at .stake, which was
a cherished portion of his creed, and to which
he was finally to be a martyr. In the meantime
a short interval of quiet had occurred in Edin-
burgh in consequence of the harvest and the
vacation of the courts of law ; but the op-
portunity was improved by the friends of liberty
in strengthening their cause and maturing their
plans of opposition. While they were actively
canvassing the country and procuring petitions
from almost every town and district against the
service-book, the bishops on their part were not
idle; and conscious of their own unjiopularity
and the growing strength of their adversaries,
they had recourse to sermons and arguments.
But their defences of the liturgy were met with
clamour, and the sacreduess of the pulpit could
hardly protect them. As an instance we may
state the single case of Mr. William Annan,^
minister of Ayr, who was employed by the
Archbishop of Glasgow to preach the sei^mon at
the opening of the synod. His discourse was an
able apology for the use of liturgies in public
worship, to which the synod listened for the
most part in silent displeasure. But when the
service was over and the congTegation dismissed,
Annan was not only followed in the streets by
outcries and reproaches, but was subjected ta
an attack of infuriated women, from which the
magistrates could scarcely protect him, and as
often as he appeared during the day the hub-
bub was renewed. At night, when all was dark
and still, he ventured from his lodging to pay a
visit to the archbishop, but was discovered, sur-
rounded, thrown down, and assailed by some
hundreds of women with hands, switches, and
peats, and escaped with difficulty from their
clutches after he had received a severe beating,
while the magistrates were afterwards afraid
to inquire after the off'enders, as many of them
wei'e susjiected to belong to the best families
in the city.^

In reply to the privy-council's appeal came a

2 Balfour's A nnals, vol. ii. ; Peterkin.

3 Baillie's Letters and Journal, vol. i.

A.D. 1635-1638.]

CHARLES I.

23

mandate from the king on the 20th of September
(1637), which was delivered to the council by
the Duke of Lennox, in which Charles re-
proached their hesitation as the cause of the late
commotions, and commanded the ritual to be
used without further delay. But the mandate
could no longer be executed against a few minis-
ters, as twenty peers, many of the gentry, and
eighty commissioners from towns and jmrishes
had already made common cause with them, and
desired Lennox to present their petitions to the
king and state the difficulty of carrying the
royal orders into effect.^ In the meantime the
use of the liturgy was still delayed until his
majesty's answer should arrive, which was not
expected till November. But during the interval
the friends of religious liberty were not idle ;
petitions poured in without number, which were
incorporated into one national supplication,
praying that the obnoxious liturgy should not
be enforced until their comislaints were heard
and their reasons considered. Towards the 17th
of October, when the king's answer was expected
to be known, the throngs of 23etitioners to memo-
rialize against the liturgy were beyond all former
precedent. Edinburgh was tilled with all ranks
from every county of Scotland ; and while the
nobles joined together in one body, the ministers
in another, and the commons in a third to dis-
cuss their grievances and devise for their re-
moval, the only subject of reprobation was the
service-book. Had Charles but granted the
removal of the liturgy the other essentials of
Ejjiscopacy might have remained untouched.
But he was an infatuated king, with the fanat-
ical Archbishop of Canterbury for his chief ad-
viser. On the 18th the answer came, but its
purjiort was disappointing and astounding. It
was a proclamation at the Market-cross com-
manding all persons not resident in Edinburgh
to leave the city within twenty-four hours on
pain of being put to the horn, removing the seat
of government and court of justice from the
capital to Linlithgow, and condemning a book
called A Dispute against English Popish Cere-
monies obtruded on the Church of Scotland, which
was accused of poisoning the minds of the people
against the ritual of the Anglican church. Such
a proclamation to a people so assembled was
calculated to produce a precisely opposite effect.
The attempt to disperse them united them to-
gether as one man for the accomplishment of
their mutual object. A charge against the
bishops was drawn up, subscribed by twenty-
four noblemen and several hundreds of gentle-
men, clergymen, and representatives of boroughs,
in which the prelates were accused of subvert-

' Peterkin's Introduction, p. 7.

ing the constitution of the church, introducing
error and superstition, and imposing proclama-
tions, orders, and fines according to their plea-
sure, and praying the king to take order for
their trial and punishment. When this serious
charge was subscribed, the citizens, enraged at
the menace of removing the courts of law, sur-
rounded the house where the town-council met,
and threatened the magistrates in no doubtful
terms unless their ministers were replaced and
commissioners appointed from the council to
join the petitioners, so that, frightened for their
lives, the provost and bailies were fain to grant
all they demanded.

Before this process of violence had termi-
nated, Sydserf, Bishop of Galloway, appeared on
the street ; and in the heated state of the mul-
titude, here was a new object upon which to
exercise their zeal. He was one of the most
devoted adherents of Laud's Episcopacy ; and
in addition to this, he was supposed to wear
under his clothes an idol, in the form of a cruci-
fix. Upon him therefore the people rushed,
the women predominating in the onset, and the
bishop was quickly overturned, pummelled out
of breath, and rummaged in search of the cruci-
fix, which, however, could not be found. He
was rescued from his perilous situation, and
carried into the house of the privy-council, but
the mob surrounded the building with shouts
and threatenings, demanding that Sydserf and
certain lords whom they named should be de-
livered into their hands. In this strait the
council sent a message to the magistrates, pray-
ing them to come to their aid ; but the magis-
trates themselves needed help, for their share
of the mob had forced the barriers, filling lobby
and hall, and threatening the bailies that they
would fire the building over their heads unless
they joined the city in resistance to the service-
book. When this report was brought back to
the privy-council it was resolved to attempt the
rescue of the besieged magistrates, and for this
purpose Traquair, the lord-treasurer, and the
Earl of Wigton, with a bold band of their at-
tendants, made a sally upon the crowd and
fought their way to the town-house; but by
this time they found it best to return to their
friends, as the magistrates had already com-
pounded with the mob, and were appeasing
them by submitting to their terms. But their
return was not so easy : on emerging from the
town-house into the street they were beset by
the mob, and assailed with the cries of " God
defend all those who will defend his cause;"
" God confound the service-book and all main-
tainers thereof ! " It was in vain that these
noblemen attempted to appease the rioters by
promising to urge their requests upon the king:

24

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1635-1638.

under such circumstances their promise was
thought worthless ; a rush was made ui)on them,
and Lord Traquair, who was the most obnoxious
of the two, was thrown to the ground, rescued
with difficulty by his friends, and, half led
half carried into the privy-council room, was
glad so to escape, after his hat, cloak, and white
rod of office had been torn from him in the
struggle. By this time the danger of the privy-
councillors had grown more critical, and their
apprehensions were increased by the arrival of
some of the magistrates, who stated their in-
ability to quell the uproar. As a last resource
they sent an application to some of the lords
who were on the popular side and employed
in framing a petition against the service-book ;
the noblemen instantly hastened to the spot
and succeeded in calming the people, and escort-
ing the members of the privy-council to their
homes in safety. Even Sydserf, whom they had
been threatening to tear limb from limb, was
allowed to get off with impunity.^

In the last tumult the insurgents were no
longer composed of the lowest of the people, but
of the more influential classes ; the principal
citizens, their wives and daughters, and even
the relations of the magistrates themselves, were
among the active members of the outbreak, so
that the effect was to give greater consistency
to their demands, and unity and method to their
proceedings. Their purposes also continued to
expand with this increase of influence and in-
telligence. Formerly their views were limited
to the removal of the service-book, but nothing
would now content them but the entire aboli-
tion of Episcopacy, and the restoration of the
church of their fathers which King James had
overthrown. On the day that succeeded the
ujsroar the privy-council issued a proclamation
forbidding the citizens to assemble in the
streets, and prohibiting all private meetings ;
but both lords and commons disregarded the
order, and continued their deliberations. Be-
fore the visitoi's dispersed they agreed to meet
again in Edinburgh on the 15th of November,
when the king's answer to the former petitions
was expected ; and on the arrival of that day
they were in their places with views more
clearly defined and purposes more resolute than
ever. Their numbers also were greatly in-
creased, the fresh arrivals including several no-
blemen, and among these the young Earl of
Montrose, just returned from his travels, whose
services against them were afterwards to tlu'ow
such disastrous lustre upon the future move-
ments of their cause. All, however, at present

' Baillie's Letters and Journal, vol. i.; Large Declaration;
Guthrie.

seen of him was a young nobleman of great
talent and enthusiastic zeal, who had met with
an ungracious reception at court, and was now
ready to embark, heart and soul, with the
patriotic party.- Alarmed at the multitudes
who were assembled in Edinburgh, and dread-
ing a repetition of the former insurrection, the
privy-council remonstrated with the popular
nobles, and represented their meetings as dis-
orderly and unlawful. The nobles justified
their right to assemble for the purposes of peti-
tion, but declared the willingness of their party,
in order to avoid giving offence by their num-
bers, to select representatives from each class,
who should sup23ort their accusations against
the prelates, and await the royal answer. Their
business would thus be managed by a few dele-
gates, and the necessity of bringing crowds of
people together avoided. The privy - council
incautiously agreed, and sanctioned a proposal
by which their own authority was to be over-
thrown.^ In consequence of this agreement
four committees were elected, the first of which
consisted of all the nobles of their party, the
second of a gentleman for every county, the
third of a minister for every presbytery, and
the fourth of a citizen for every town; and as
it would have been inconvenient for all the
members constantly to attend, a standing com-
mittee of four from each class was appointed to
sit permanently in Edinburgh, while the rest
could be convoked upon any extraordinary
occasion. These committees, called the Tables,
from sitting at four diflerent tables in the par-
liament-house, being formed, the multitude
quietly dispersed to their homes, and complete
order was restored. But little did the friends
of roj'alty understand the price they had paid
for this tranquillity. By this quiet committee
the strength, resources, and intelligence of the
nation were organized for a national resistance,
and the Tables became a representative body
greater than that of council and parliament,
court and king.*

The answer of Charles, so long looked for,
came at last in December; but compared with
the increased importance of the occasion it was
frivolous, and therefore worse than useless. It
alluded in indignant terms to the " foul indig-
nity" of the 18th of October as the cause that
had delayed his majesty's reply, but assured
them that nothing should be done except what
would pi'omote and advance the true religion
as at present professed in Scotland.^ But what
was that " true religion as at present professed
in Scotland?" With some it might mean the

2 Guthrie's Memoirs. ^ Balfour, vol. ii. p. 240.

* Stevenson's History; Baillie, vol. i.

5 Rushworth, vol. li. p. 408 ; Large Declaration, p. 456.

.D. 1635-1638.]

CHAELES I.

25

modified Episcopacy which King James had
already established ; but with Charles it was
more likely to be the semi-popery of Laud,
which the royal authority had already pro-
claimed. He also expressed his intention to do
nothing "against the laudable laws of his
majesty's native kingdom," while his whole
course had been a series of outrages against its
laws. The Earl of Koxburgli, the beai'er of
the answer, and the Earl of Traquair now in-
vited a number of the nobles to a conference in
Holyrood House, and they went attended by a
deputation from the Tables. The king's gracious
assurances, and his virtual suppression of the
liturgy by withdrawing it, were stated to them
as being so satisfactory that no doubt should
be entertained of his favourable intentions.
But this was no longer sufficient. The Book
of Common Prayer must be as publicly and
formally revoked as it had been originally im-
posed, otherwise it might be withdrawn only
for a season, to be reimposed with greater strict-
ness. The canons also must be recalled as
unconstitutional, and the High Commission
Court abrogated as illegal. These demands
were objected to as exorbitant and dictatorial ;
to which the commissioners replied, that the
king would have redressed tlieir grievances of
his own accord had he been made aware of the
nature of the service-book or the tendency of
the other innovations. It was then suggested
to them, that for the better prevention of a
tumultuous general meeting each county should
petition separately and at different periods ; but
this plan, by which their union would have
been broken into fragments, the commissioners
rejected.

This private conference having terminated so
successfully for the royalist party the suppli-
cants repaired to Dalkeith, where the l^rivy-
council had met, and presented their joint peti-
tion. The council endeavoured to elude their
application and to put them off with excuses,
but they would not be thus repelled; they beset
the council-house and blocked up every door
until the council, overwhelmed by their im-
portunity, granted them an audience on the 21st
of December. The prelates, knowing that the
storm was chiefly directed against themselves,
had left their seats in the council, so that none
were present but laymen. On the admission of
the deputies of the Tables Lord Loudon, who
acted as their spokesman, presented their peti-
tion and accusation against the bishops, and
supported it in a temperate speech. But the
magnitude of the demand dismayed the council,
since it was a declinature of the authority of the
bishops and a demand that they should not have
a seat in it, as, being parties to the cause, they

could not act as judges. Since the council was not
sitting as a court of justice, and the bishops were
not present to hear their accusation, it could not
act without his majesty's instructions, and until
these aridved the jietitioners were requested to
proceed no farther.^ By the express desire of
the king the Earl of Traquair was sent up to
London as the representative of the privy-coun-
cil, to lay before his majesty a full statement of
the condition of affairs in Scotland; but this
nobleman was suspected of being in secret league
with the popular party, and an enemy of the
bishops, the representatives of a losing cause.
These reports, being industriously circulated by
the bishops themselves, made his accounts of the
state of the country be suspected of exaggera-
tion and his arguments in favour of withdraw-
ing the liturgy of little value.^ But there was
enough in the Scottish petitions to rouse the
obstinacy and pride of Charles, and make him
deaf to every remonstrance. Was he thus to
abandon his prerogative and undo his own work
by abandoning the liturgy, the court of com-
mission, the bishops, and all the institutions of
Episcopacy, after he had set them up in Scot-
land and defied any to pull them down ? A letter
of Spottiswood confirmed him in his obstinacy.
In this it was suggested, that as the conspirators
against Eizzio were obliged to break their union
aud fly into England as soon as Queen Mary
had proclaimed them traitors, a similar decisive
proceeding would dissolve the combination of
the Lords of the Tables, and make them glad to
come into his will.^ Lord Wentworth, already
raised to the dignity of Earl of Strafford, and
Archbishop Laud, apjjear to have given similar
advice,* and Traquair was sent down with his
instructions to Scotland in February, 1638.
Under an oath of secrecy he carried with him
a proclamation justifying the service-book and
canons, absolving the bishops fi'om any share in
imposing them as the act was wholly the king's
own, and condemning all meetings and subscrip-
tions against either the one or the other as mani-
fest conspiracies to disturb the public peace and
to be visited with the penalties of rebellion.''

On Traquair's arrival in Edinburgh there was
great importunity to learn the king's answer;
but he evaded it by stating in general terms
that the numerous meetings in Edinburgh were
prejudicial to their cause. In spite of his pre-
cautions, however, the ti'ue nature of his errand
was discovered, and plans were devised to coun-
teract it. As Edinburgh was still under disgi'ace
in consequence of the late riots the privy-council

1 Stevenson ; Peterkin ; Balfour.

2 Baillie's Letters and Journal. 3 Stevenson.

* Harris's Life of Charles I. ; Lord Strafford's letters.
5 Laillie ; Burnet ; Hardwicke State Papers.

20

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1635-1638.

aud courts of justice were held at Stirling, and
Traquair, kuowiug that his secret had been de-
tected, was itnjiatieut to publish his proclama-
tion iu the town where the law-officers were
assembled before his purpose could be antici-
pated. He accordingly stole out from Edin-
burgh a little after midnight along with the Earl
of Roxburgh, hoping to reach Stirling before
the petitioners, who were also on the alert,
could arrive; but Lords Lindsay and Hume had
mounted their horses as soon as he, and reached
Stii-ling before him. At ten o'clock Traquair
and Roxburgh, accompanied by the royal her-
alds, repaired to the town-cross to make the
proclamation — but there also were Lindsay and
Hume, with a notary, to enter a formal protest
against it. Accordingly, as soon as the proclama-
tion had ended and the last flourish of trumpets
been blown these noblemen took instruments
in the hands of the notary, and protested that
they should still have a right to j^etitiou the
kingnotwithstanding the prohibition; that they
would not recognize the bishops as judges in any
court civil or ecclesiastical; that they should
not incur the forfeiture of lauds, liberty, or life
for refusing to recognize such books, canons,
rites, judicatories, as were opposed to the acts
of parliament aud acts of the assembly ; and
finally, that they had no other end iu this their
protest but the preservation of the reformed
religion and the laws and liberties of his ma-
jesty's most ancient kingdom of Scotland. They
then aflixed their document to the market-cross,
that whosoever ran might read. The proclama-
tion was also made in the principal towns, but
with the same accompaniments. When it was
made iu Edinburgh, in the full blaze of royal
ceremonial before seventeen peers and an im-
mense concourse of ministers and citizens, the
crowd received it with taunts and laughter, and
compelled the heralds to wait and hear the
reading of the protest that followed it.^

The affairs of Charles in Scotland were now
in desperate plight; but it was his own infatua-
tion that had produced the crisis. He had
shown his contempt for the constitution of the
country by enforcing the liturgy without the
consent of either the assembly or {jarliament ;
and by his late proclamation he had deprived
his subjects of their natural right of petition.
He had also arrayed against himself by his own
acts the chief leadei's of the opposition: Bal-
merino, whom he had persecuted by an unjust
trial; Rothes, whom he had offended by personal
insult; Loudon, whose promised patent of an
earldom he had recalled; and Montrose, whose
reception at court had been cold and forbidding.

1 Baillie ; Large Declaration.

The others to the number of thirty peei-s he had
alienated from his cause and roused into pa-
triotism, either by his proposal to resume tlie
church lands or by his proceedings against the
national liberties and rights. And in all this
he had trusted to his divine pi-erogative as suf-
ficient to overawe resistance and compel sub-
mission, instead of having recoui'se to the despot's
usual reliance of a strong military force and an
abundant treasury. On the other side there
was not only the weight of force aud numbers^
but of courage, unanimity, and wisdom; the en-
couragement of a righteous cause and the assur-
ance of its success. The attem^jt of the govern-
ment in this state of matters was to break their
union aud subdue them in detail ; but this
endeavour only made them anxious to unite
themselves more closely by a sacred bond like
the cause itself which they sought to uphold^
and hence the origin of that gi'eat National
Covenant which united the Presbyterians to-
gether as one man, and formed them into a
23halanx from which political and ecclesiastical
tyranny were alike fain to recoil.

It will be seen from the preceding history that
Scotland was essentially a covenanting country.
In political life this was manifested by the feudal
system, in which the chief protected his vassal
and the vassal gave service to his chief ; by the
bonds of manrent into which the weaker barons
entered with the powerful noblemen of their
district; and by the mutual compacts of the
nobles themselves, in which they were pledged
to stand by each other for the suppression of
kingly despotism and the correction of state
abuses. And when the Reformation came the
Lords of the Congregation drew up a covenant,
by which lords and commons were united in the
defence of their faith, and whicli was repeatedly
renewed when that faith was endangered. But
the fullest and most important of these bonds
was the National Covenant of 1581 during
the regency of Morton. At that time Popish
emissaries glided iu disguise through the coun-
try, and the landing of a Popish army was ap-
prehended on our shores; the Earl of Lennox,
the king's favourite, was suspected as an agent
of the Duke of Guise and the ])ope, and even
James himself was thought to have a secret
leaning to Rome. To still these alarms the king
caused John Craig to draw up the Confession
aud Covenant, which was first subscribed by
James VI. and all his household, and afterwards
by the privy-council and men of all ranks in the
nation. This was the proposed exemplar for the
present Confession aud Covenant, which was
commissioned to be drawn up by Alexander
Henderson, minister of Leuchars, and .Johnston
of Warriston, and revised by Lords Loudon,

A.D. 1635-1638.]

CHARLES I.

27

Eothes, and Balmerino. The first part of it,
coutaiuing the Confession of 1581, was preserved
entire, which, besides being a general pi'ofession
of the reformed doctrines, was an abjuration of
the doctrines, disciphue, and rites of the (^'huich
of Eome, which were distinctly and minutely
specified. The second part, which was com-
piled by Johnston of Warriston, was a summary
of the acts of parliament by which Popery was
condemned and the rights and liberties of the
Scottish Church ratified. The third was the
Covenant itself, which is impressed throughout
by the master hand of Henderson, and in which
the subscribers solemnly swore in the name of
the Lord their God that they would continue
in the profession of their faith, that they would
defend it from all errors and corruptions, and
that they would stand by his majesty in sup-
port of the religion, liberties, and laws of the
realm, and also by one another against all their
enemies. They knew that this association would
be reckoned treasonable by all who were ignor-
ant of the spirit and forms of the Scottish con-
stitution ; but they knew, also, that the laws of
their country recognized the justice of such a
proceeding as theirs, and that beyond high
treason there could be a higher treason still,
which it was their first duty to avoid. This
charge and its groundlessness are thus alluded
to in the words of the Covenant : " Neither do
we fear the foul aspersions of rebellion, com-
bination, or what else our adversaries, from
their craft and malice, would put on us, seeing
what we do is so well warranted, and ariseth
from an unfeigned desire to maintain the true
worship of God, the majesty of our king, and
the peace of the kingdom, for the common
happiness of ourselves and our posterity."

All being in readiness for the subsci'iption of
the Covenant, a solemn fast was appointed for
the purpose, and Edinburgh selected as the
place for the commencement. The capital was
crowded by myriads, and the Grayfriars Church
and Churchyard by thousands, where each was
eager to be foremost in signing the solemn obli-
gation. At two o'clock, when expectation was
hushed and every eye and ear acutely alive,
the nobles Loudon and Eothes, the ministers
Henderson and Dickson, and Warriston, their
legal adviser, arrived with the copy of the
Covenant, written on four large skins of parch-
ment; and after the proceedings had been
opened with prayer by Henderson, and the
people addressed in an animating speech by the
Earl of Loudon, they were invited to come for-
ward and sign it. The subscription commenced
with the aged Earl of Sutherland ; the nobility
followed the example, lifting up their hands
and sweaz'iug to the observance of every duty

required in the bond. High and low, all ranks
succeeded, until every person within the crowded
walls had subscribed, after which the Covenant
was taken out of doors and laid flat upon a
gravestone for the signatui-es of those in the
churchyard. Many wept, many could not con-
tain their triumph at the spectacle; and as the
subscriptions followed thick and fast the space
on the ample roll became so limited that many
could find room only for their initials. Hours
went on, and the work was not ended when the
darkness of the evening arrived. It was a mo-
mentous day this 28th of February, the return
of a nation to its first love ; and one of the min-
isters might well exclaim, " Behold ! the no-
bility, the barons, the burgesses, the ministers,
the commons of all sorts in Scotland, all in teai'S
for their breach of covenant and for their back-
sliding and defection from the Lord, and at
the same time returning with great joy unto
their God by swearing cheerfully and willingly
to be the Lord's. It may well be said of this
day, ' Great was the day of Jezreel ! ' It was a
day wherein the arm of the Lord was revealed,
a da}'' wherein the princes of the people were
assembled to swear fealty and allegiance to that
gi^eat king whose name is the Lord of Hosts."
From the capital this enthusiasm went to the
towns, the villages, and remote parishes, to all
of which copies of the Covenant were sent for
subscription. " I have seen more than a thousand
persons," says Livingstone, " all at once lifting
up their hands, and the tears falling down from
their eyes ; so that through the whole land, ex-
cept the professed Papists, and some few who
for base ends adhered to the prelates, the people
universally entered into the covenant with God."
It was a rare enthusiasm among such a people,
and therefore the more likely to be lasting and
productive. Great indeed must have been that
feeling which could so effectually sweep away
the national caution and reserve and animate
them with a common aim; and who could doubt
that they would succeed in it or die for it?
The bishops heard of it and trembled. Spottis-
wood, when he heard of the scene in the Gray-
friars Church, read in it the doom of a cause
for which he had done so much, and is reported
to have exclaimed in despair," They have thrown
down in a day what we have been thirty years
in building !"i A few days sufficed to show
more clearly the greatness and completeness of
the change. Except some of the doctors of the
University of Glasgow, and the j^rofessors of the
colleges of Aberdeen, who were under the influ-
ence of the Marquis of Huntly, all the presby-

1 Baillie, First Ansioer to the Aberdeen Doctors; Steven-
son, Life of Livingstone.

28

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1635-1633.

teries to the remotest districts subscribed to the
Covenant, so that in two months none remained
of the old imrty except an insignificant minority,
chiefly composed of courtiers, prehites, Papists,
and their dependants.

The privy-council, which had been alarmed
at the opposition, were now well-nigh paralysed
at the thoughts of their own responsibility, and
on the same day that the great meeting was
held in Grayfriars Church they assembled at
Stirling. To investigate the causes of the pre-
sent troubles was easier than to find the remedy,
and after four days of anxious deliberation they
sent Sir John Hamilton of Orbiston, lord justice-
clerk, to London, that he might lay a full state-
ment of affairs before his majesty. He was to
complain of the remissness or cowardice of the
prelates and their archbishop and lord-chan-
cellor, Spottiswood, who, instead of taking their
places in the council to aid its deliberations, had
prefei'red to stand aloof. He was also to express
the unanimous opinion of the council that the
causes of the present troubles were the fears of
the people that the discipline of the church was
to be overturned by innovations brought in
without warrant of the national laws, that these
were impersonated in the canons, liturgy, and
High Commission ; and they besought his ma-
jesty, as an act of condescension and justice, to
take cognizance of the evils, with a view to their
I'emoval. Two days after, when the danger was
more fully understood, the Earls of Traquair and
Roxburgh wrote a letter to the king to the same
effect. The country, they stated, was in a uni-
versal turmoil, and they were unable to restore it
to order. They then ventured to suggest that as
religion was the pretext it would be well to free
his subjects from their fears, after which his ma-
jesty would be better able to punish those who
had "kicked against his authoiity."^ In conse-
quence of these representations the lord justice-
clerk returned to Scotland with an order to the
Earls of Traquair and Roxburgh and Lord Lorn,
eldest son of the Earl of Argyle, to repair to court.
They were soon followed by the lord-president
and lord-register and the Bishops of Ross, Gallo-
way, and Brechin. On this occasion, however,
Charles found that as little safety as unanimity
may be found in a multitude of counsellors ; and
these men, who should have been best acquainted
with Scottish affairs, spoke according to the view
from their own standing-point. The nobles re-
commended gentle measures, Traquair recom-
mended temporary expedients, and Lorn, after-
wards known as the Marquis of Argyle, advised
the entire abolition of all the innovations. But

1 Baillie's Letters and Journal, vol. i. ; Burnet's Memoirs
of the Duke of Hamilton.

the prelates, especially those of Ross and Brechin,
whom Baillie calls " the most unhappy of all the
bishops," counselled war and subjugation — to
raise an army in the north and chastise the
Covenanters with fire and sword.'^

Amidst these dissenting counsels the tempor-
izing plan of policy was adopted by Charles,
and this, from his character, was to be expected.
But it was now too late to reduce it to action
with any prospect of success. Alarmed at his
hesitation, and fearing that he meant to disunite
them, the men of the Covenant became fuller
and more specific in their demands. It was not
the revocation of the canons and the service-
book that they would now accept as sufficient.
The removal of the Court of High Commission
and the Articles of Perth, the I'estoration of the
General Assembly and church courts, and the
assembling of a free parliament were now de-
manded. Even already also, and while several
of the bishops were either absent from their
charges or had fled to London, the presbyteries,
feeling relieved from the dominion of their con-
stant moderators, were resuming their old con-
stitutional course of action. Some ministers
were removed from their charges because they
had not subscribed the Covenant ; others were
ordained by the laying on of the hands of the
presbytery without the presence of their bishops.
In too many instances, also, the mob had pro-
ceeded to the work of reformation in their own
fashion, by assaulting and maltreating those
ministers who had been thrust into their par-
ishes against the will of the people, or who
adhered to Laud's extreme Episcopacy. These
outrages, however, were the work of the rascal
multitude, who formed but a small part of the
covenanting community, and whose rude pro-
ceedings were regarded as a stigma ujDon their
patriotic and sacred cause. They knew that it
was not by taunts and reproaches, or even by
sticks and stones, that their liberties were to
be vindicated and their church restored.^

Charles had now resolved to send a high-com-
missioner to Scotland ; and he selected for the
difficult task of composing these differences a
nobleman devoted to his interests, and who, at
the same time, was popular with the nation.
This was the Marquis of Hamilton, who was
the highest of the Scottish nobility, was en-
deared to the people as the champion of the
Protestant cause in Germany, and who, having
taken no share in the late proceedings of the
nobles against the government, was the better
fitted to be an impartial judge. But this very
neutrality, as in all cases of national ferment,

2 Balfour's Annals, vol. ii. p. 263 ; Baillie.

3 Baillie ; Clarendon.

W. H. MAKGETSON

SIGNING THE COVENANT IN GREYFRIARS CHURCHYARD,
EDINBURGH, (a.d. 1638.)

'It was a day wherein the AK.M of the LOULi WALj REVEALED.'

Vul. iii. p. 37.

A.D. 1635-1638.]

CHAELES I.

29

made him be regarded by both parties either
as lukewarm or a positive enemy. Hamilton
accepted the invidious task with reluctance, for
he foresaw how difficult it would be to satisfy
the wishes of his master witliout compromising
the liberties of his country and injuring his own
popularity. The instructions which he received
from Charles were characteristic of the royal
obstinacy. He was to treat the Covenanters as
rebels, and offer a pardon to all who should re-
nounce the Covenant within a given time. He
was to continue the Court of High Commission,
which the Scots regarded as unconstitutional,
there being no act of ,parliament for its estab-
lishment. He was to refuse all petitions against
the Five Articles of Perth, and only to suspend
the acts of council enjoining the use of the
service-book; and should these concessions be
insufficient, he was to have recourse to hostile
measures. All these were only temporary re-
medies which his majesty might cancel at plea-
sure, and they were to be given as boons to
rebels who submitted, rather than as rights to
a people who demanded them. It was in vain
that Spottiswood besought him not to demand
the renunciation of the Covenant, to which the
whole nation had sworn; but the king was ob-
durate, declaring that as long as this damnable
Covenant continued he should have no more
power than a Duke of Venice. On Hamilton's
accepting the appointment the Scottish bishops
were assembled at a cabinet meeting in London,
and the marquis introduced to them as their
high -commissioner. They still wished to re-
main in the English metropolis until the troubles
in their own country were quieted; but per-
suaded by Laud and the king, and assured by
the promise of Hamilton to protect them to the
utmost of his power, they consented to accom-
pany him to Scotland. In addition to his en-
trance into the country with such unpalatable
instructions, the unfortunate commissioner was
to darken his train with such ominous atten-
dants. ^

On arriving at the Border town of Berwick
the difficulties of the marquis commenced. He
had written to nearly all the nobility and gen-
try to meet him at Haddington, for the purpose
of gracing his arrival ; but the nature of his in-
structions had already transpired, and a resolu-
tion had been passed by the Lords of the Tables
that none of their body should keep company
with those who had not subscribed the Cove-
nant. So effectual was this prohibition, that
on arriving at Haddington the marquis found
no train and no public welcome; even his own
vassals of Clydesdale, either Covenanters or

' Burnet's Memoirs; Baillie.

fearing the authority of the Tables, had with-
held their attendance; and indignant at such a
cold reception, so unsuited to the representative
of royalty, the high -commissioner, it is said,
was about to return to England, when he was
met by Lords Loudon and Lindsay, whom the
Tables had sent with their apology and excuse.
Although he accepted their explanation it did
not satisfy him ; but on proceeding to Dalkeith
he was waited upon by the Earl of Rothes,
whose captivating manners and smooth address
reconciled him to the apparent neglect. But
still the suspicions of the Covenanters respecting
the true nature of his mission could not be re-
moved, and an incident that fell out a few days
before his arrival gave strength to their worst
surmises. In consequence of a reyjresentation
made in London by the Scottish bishops, that the
noblemen were furnishing their houses with arms
and ammunition while the royal residences were
neglected, the lord-ti-easurer freighted a vessel
with gunpowder and military stores to convey
them to Leith and deposit them in the castle
of Edinburgh. This was enough to raise the
popular alarm : it was supposed to be a gun-
powder plot to blow up the Tables ; and it was
proposed to board the vessel in the roads and
lay an arrest on its contents, in which, however,
they wei'e anticipated by the Earl of Traquair,
who had the cargo conveyed to Dalkeith. As
soon as this transference was known the captain
of the ship was summoned before the Tables,
and his answers at first were high and haughty;
but this new tribunal soon pulled down his
pride, and made him fain to submit and sub-
scribe to the Covenant. Traquair also was
questioned, but he excused himself by stating
that he had conveyed the gunpowder privately
to Dalkeith to avoid the occasion of a popular
outbreak. This explanation being judged in-
sufficient it was resolved to march to Dalkeith
and take forcible possession of the stores, of
which the castle was known to be in great need.
But this step, which would have prematurely
commenced the war and thrown the odium up-
on the Covenanters, was happily prevented by
the milder alternative of watching the castle
entrances, and preventing the introduction of
all supplies. In this way the royal fortress of
Edinburgh itself was blockaded when the lord
high -commissioner had arrived in the neigh-
bourhood of the city.^

In this alarming state of public affairs, when
open war appeared so imminent and the Cove-
nanters so well prepared for it, the meetings of
the privy-council at Dalkeith were frequent,
but in spite of their deliberations they could

2 Baillie's Letters, vol. i. pp. 79, 80.

30

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1635-1638.

come to no decision. While the demands of
the popular party were so reasonable and so
accordant witli law that many of the membei-s
acknowledged their justice, those of the king
were so unconstitutional that they were reluc-
tant even to hint at them. Tlie Marquis of
Hamilton, who was little convei-sant with Scot-
tish afifairs, was equally perplexed and knew
not how to proceed. He had not, however,
been inactive. On the very day he arrived at
Dalkeith (June 4th) he wrote to the king giving
an account of the state of affairs, and suggesting
what he judged the most effectual remedies.
Charles returned an answer on the llth. He
told the marquis he had not been idle, that his
prejoarations were in a state of forwardness,
and that the Covenanters had better not be
proclaimed traitors until his fleet had set sail
for Scotland. In the meantime he suggested
that the castles of Edinburgh and Stirling
should be secured, aud the people flattered with
expectations in order to win time until all
should be in readiness for compelling them to
submit, for that he would rather die than yield
to their impei'tinent demands. On the 20th, or
nine days after, he again wrote to inform the
marquis that his train of artillery, consisting of
forty pieces, was in good forwardness and would
be ready in six weeks; that he had adopted
measures for securing Carlisle and Berwick;
that he had sent to Holland for arms for 14,000
foot aud 2000 horse; that his fleet was ready to
sail; that he had consulted with the chancellor
of the exchequer about the means for the ex-
pedition, which would amount to i,'200,000.
He also wished tlie commissioner's advice as to
whether he should send 6000 soldiers with the
fleet to the Firth of Forth, now that the castle
of Edinburgh was virtually in the hands of the
Covenanters. Truly the situation of the mar-
quis was anything but comfortable ! He must
temporize, and flatter, and prevaricate under the
character of a peacemaker, and cajole his coun-
trymen into security the more easily to be de-
stroyed. But the arrival of these missives from
the court was watched by the Covenanters, and
altliough their contents were unknown it was
suspected that they were not forerunners of
peace and concord. ^

The commissioner was now entreated to make
his public entrance into Edinburgh and take up
his residence in the royal dwelling of Holyrood ;
but to this he expressed his reluctance while the
gates were guarded and the castle in a state of
blockade. This difficulty was got over by Lord
Lorn, by whose influence the guards were re-
moved on the assurance tliat no stores should

1 Baillie's Letters, vol. i. p. 82.

be introduced into the castle during the interval.
The Covenanters prepared to give the marquis
that honourable public welcome which had been
withheld at his arrival, and the preparations for
the purpose were not only an acknowledgment
of his high office, but a display of their own
power and resources. On the 8th of June he
went in jDrocession along the sands of Mussel-
burgh and Leith towards the capital, " and in
his entry at Leith," writes the minute chronicler
of the day, " I think as much honour was done
to him as ever to a king in our country." The
road was lined the whole way leading to Leith
with peoj)le of all ranks, women as well as men
in thousands ; but the most conspicuous, as well
as in reality the most formidable part of this
display of Covenanted strength was a band of
ministers, five hundred in number, drawn up
apart on a hillside near the links, dressed in
their black cloaks. They had appointed Mr.
John Livingstone, one of their number, because
be was the strongest in voice and most austere
in countenance, to welcome his grace in a short
speech in their name ; but Hamilton escaped
the hai'angue of this grim Boanerges by declar-
ing that " speeches in field " were only for j^rinces,
but that he would be glad to hear it in private;
and it is added that he was moved even to tears
by the sight of a whole countx-y thus pleading
for their liberty and religion, and wished that
his master had been present to witness the
sjDectacle."-^

During the courtesies and ceremonial of the
high-commissioner's first entrance all was peace
aud the promise of agreement; but when busi-
ness was commenced in earnest by negotiations
between him and the leading commissioners of
the Tables, discordance naturally ensued. To
their demands Hamilton objected that all the
laws during the last forty years wei'e against
the Covenanters; and was answered that these
laws had been established by fraud and violence,
and in opposition to the wishes of the nation ;
that they wei-e ruinous to religion and subversive
of liberty, on which account they were now
complained of. On another occasion, when Mon-
trose, Rothes, Loudon, and some ministers con-
ferred with him, the marquis declared that the
king was ready to redress their grievances as to
the canons, the liturgy, and the Court of High
Commission, but that as a preliminary they must
renounce the Covenant as an unlawful bond of
union. To this they answered in one voice,
that sooner than renounce the Covenant they
would renounce their baptism.^ Perceiving that
his powers were limited, that he was more ready

2 Baillie's Letters and Journal, p. S3,
s Large Declaration.

A.D. 1635-1638.]

CHAELES I.

31

to demand thau grant concessions, and that his
chief aim was to gain time, they now presented
to him their ultimatum of a free parhameut and
a free General Assembly, and to this demand
he promised a specific answer in a few days.
But when the time came no answer was forth-
coming except the king's declaration, which he
was resolved to proclaim at the cross. He was
told that such a proclamation would be met by
a protest, and when he persisted in spite of their
warnings they resolved to carry their threat
into effect. Alarmed at their preparations for
the purpose the high-commissioner, even when
the heralds were ready to discharge their duty,
commanded these ofScials to retire, and again
attempted to open a negotiation; but the Coven-
anters would be satisfied with no concession
short of a free parliament and assembly. These
he promised should be granted if they would
satisfy him that the clause in the Covenant for
their mutual defence did not authorize resistance
to his lawful authority ; and when they gave
such an explanation as apparently satisfied him,
he still objected that the granting of their de-
mand did not rest with himself but the king,
and that he feared his majesty might not be
satisfied with their explanation. He therefore
expressed his intention to return to London for
fresh instructions and a more ample authority,
and the Covenanters, trusting to this declaration,
dispersed and returned to their homes.

By this shifty and tortuous policy, a confes-
sion of feebleness and folly, Hamilton complied
with the commands of his royal master to gain
time; but he had not succeeded in the more
important object of throwing the other party off"
their guard. Their suspicions had been roused
by the equivocal proceedings of the commis-
sioner and the evidently narrow limits of his
commission, and his delay in leaving Edinburgh
made all his proceedings be watched with double
viligance. He was resolved to publish the king's
declaration, and only waited for an opportunity.
He began with a feint, which was more like a
warlike manceuvre against an enemy than the
act of a ruler towards subjects whom he was
commissioned to pacify. On the 30th of June
he repaired to the Cross as if to make a pro-
clamation, and such of the chief Covenanters as
still remained in Edinburgh attended in readi-
ness to protest ; but instead of the king's pro-
clamation, the heralds only announced the recall
of the courts of justice to Edinburgh, a proceed-
ing that was most grateful to the citizens. On
the next day the marquis proceeded on his
journey southward, and heard sermon at Tra-
nent; but suddenly wheeling round, he returned
to Edinburgh, and caused the royal declaration
to be proclaimed at the Cross with all due for-

mality. But though he had thus stolen a march,
it was not against an unprejsai'ed enemy. The
Tables were on the watch, and had hurried out
with their protest; a platform, as if by magic,
rose beside the Cross, hastily constructed of
empty puncheons lying there, which were set
upright with planks laid across ; and upon this
extemporized hustings the Earl of Cassilis,
Johnston of Warriston, and some others as-
cended and read their protest as soon as the
proclamation was ended. This reading and
counter-reading also had well - nigh produced
all the effects of a trumpet-challenge to im-
mediate onset; for while the crowd listened to
the heralds with indignation, several of the
prelatic party, who watched the proceedings
from the little projecting windows that over-
looked the scene, railed at the protesters as re-
bels, so that it required all the influence of the
noblemen present to prevent the parties from
coming to blows.^

On the 6th of July the high-commissioner
commenced his journey to London in earnest,
and on reaching the court he made a faithful
report of the strength of the Covenanting party
in Scotland, and the impossibility of suppressing
it except by force or concession. But for the
first Charles was not yet ready, and he had
therefore recourse to the other alternative.
Hamilton was now commissioned to grant a
General Assembly, but if possible to delay it
until at least the 1st of November, to procure
for the bishops a seat in it, and have one of
them appointed moderator. If this could not
be done he was to protest against the extinction
of their order, but to grant their accountability
to the General Assembly, and if there was any
charge against the Archbishop of St. Andrews
or any of the prelates, he was to acquiesce in
their being brought to trial. He was also to
consent that the canons, liturgy, and High Com-
mission should be withdrawn, and the Articles
of Perth suspended.^ With these instructions
and others of a similar character the Marquis of
Hamilton returned to Scotland on the 8th of
August. When he was waited upon by the
heads of the Tables he announced eleven con-
ditions as the price of the royal concessions,which
after negotiation were reduced to two, and these
concerned the calling of a General Assembly :
those were, that no layman should have a vote
in the election of its clerical representatives;
and that when met the assembly must not
meddle with matters established by act of parlia-
ment except by remonstrance and petition. These
limitations upon a free assembly were decisively

1 Baillie; Lord Rothes' Relation; Large Declaration.
- Burnet's Memoir; Large Declaration; Peterkin.

S-7

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1635-1638.

rejected. It was answered that eldei-s as well
as ministers must have a voice in the election of
the representatives to the assembly. As for the
second condition, it was evidently a protection
to the Articles of Perth and Episcopacy in
general, as these had been sanctioned by acts
of parliament. Not only did they refuse these
conditions, but express their resolution to call
an assembly without waiting any longer for the
royal consent. The right of calling, they acknow-
ledged, belonged to a Christian prince ; but if
he failed to do his duty it then devolved upon
the office-bearers of the church, who were bound
to regard the safety of the church as the highest
law, and to see that it sustained no injury.^
This menace alarmed the high -commissioner,
and he obtained from them a promise, which
was gi'anted with reluctance, that they would
delay the calling of an assembly until he had
once more gone to court and consulted with the
king. On meeting with his majesty at Oatlands
he so effectually represented the dangerous state
of matters that the obstinacy of Charles gave
way, and he agreed to grant all that the Tables
had originally demanded. The obnoxious canons
and service-book were to be recalled, the Court
of High Commission abolished, and the Ar-
ticles of Perth suspended. But more than this,
he consented to the meeting of a free assembly.
It would have been well for him if he had made
these concessions at the beginning, when they
would have been received with gratitude, in-
stead of waiting until he could no longer with-
hold them. But the most humiliating step of
all was his subscribing the Confession of 1581,
which formed the first part of the Covenant.
His subscription, however, like most of his other
extraordinary concessions, was a feint to deceive
those with whom he treated. By this Confession
the subscribers bound themselves " to maintain
religion as then professed;" and notwithstanding
the sense which the Covenanters attached to the
phrase, Charles, when it suited him, could re-
present that it meant nothing else than EjdIs-
copacy.

On returning to Scotland on the 17th of
September, Hamilton laid the royal concessions
before the privy-council, who received them
with joy, and agreed to subscribe the Confession
as his majesty had done, and to pass an act ex-
pressive of their satisfaction with the king's
proceedings. But the Covenanters, warned by
past experience, were still unconvinced of his
majesty's sincerity ; and when his gracious ac-
quiescence was to be proclaimed at the Cross,
Rothes and the covenanting lords craved a day's
delay, that they might show reasons why this

1 Stevenson; Baillie; Large Declaration.

old Confession should not at present be revived.
Their request was refused, upon which they
entered a protest as soon as the proclamation
was ended, the Earl of Montrose being the most
forward of their party in the proceeding. They
declared that the service-book and canons were
not so absolutely revoked but that they might
be once mox-e reimposed ; and as for the old
Confession, why insist upon its signature, when
the new, with all its specifications, had been so
lately subscribed. Was not this a frivolous
playing at covenants that only tended to divide
and distract the people 1^ It was no vain alarm,
for this design to set them at variance had been
contemplated by the royal sanction of the Con-
fession of 1581, and by jiroposing it as a sub-
stitute for the other. There wei^e now two
covenants travelling over the length and breadth
of the land soliciting subscribers, and wherever
the king's proclamation and covenant came,
thither it was followed by the protest and ex-
planations of the other party. It is even added,
that some signatures were extorted at the
muzzle of the pistol. But the king's covenant
had little chance against that of the people. In
favour of the former was a large portion of
Aberdeen, reckoned the stronghold of Episco-
pacy, and of the county of Angus, a consider-
able number in Glasgow and its neighbourhood,
the members of the privy-council, and neaiiy
all the judges, while the people's covenant was
signed by such an overwhelming majority of
lords, barons, ministers and commons, as to show
the weakness of the opposite party, and reduce
them to insignificance.^

The great trial of strength was now at hand
by the calling of a free General Assembly, to
which Hamilton was compelled reluctantly to
yield, and for this meeting the Tables prejjared
with a solicitude worthy of its importance.
For this purpose, they desired every presbytery
to furnish itself with a copy of the Act of As-
sembly of 1597, concerning the number of com-
missioners they were entitled to send ; a form
of commission was sent to them, and every kirk-
session was to send an elder to vote in the elec-
tion of representatives, whether laic or clerical.
They were resolv^ed to tolerate no domination
whether of bishop or presbyter, and for this
purpose were anxious to revive the old Presby-
terian rule of gi\nng the laity a full voice in the
representation. They were also particular in
instructing the presbyteries as to the kind of
clerical representatives who were to be elected ;
and among these there was to be no minister
of scandalous life or erroneous doctrine, no per-

- Baillie ; Stevenson.

^ Large Declaration; Stevenson.

A.D. 1635-1638.]

CHARLES I.

33

sons belonging to an Episcopal chapter, and
none who complied with the defections of the
times by reading the liturgy. In ordinary
cases this would have been a tyrannical and un-
lawful interference with the free course of elec-
tion; but in the present instance it was declared
that such instructions were necessary, as thirty
years had elapsed since a lawful assembly was
held, so that the presbyteries had need to be
taught anew. An important part of the busi-
ness of the assembly was to proceed against
the bishops ; but most of them were already in
England ; those who remained were not likely
to acknowledge the authority of such a tribunal,
or to appear before it ; and no process would be
granted either by the high - commissioner or
the judges, compelling them to attend and
plead their own cause. The difficulty, how-
ever, was somewhat irregularly got over by an
application to the presbytery of Edinburgh,
before which an accusation wus lodged against
the prelates, numerously signed by noblemen,
barons, ministers, and burgesses. In this the
bishops were charged with preaching Popish and
Arminian doctrines, with an undue usurpation
and exercise of their function ; with bribery,
simony, and the sale of offices ; and with exces-
sive drinking, whoring, adultery, incest, dicing
and card-playing, swearing, profane speaking.
Sabbath jarofanation, contemjjt of public and
private religious duties, &c. &c. It was a fear-
ful roll of iniquity that seemed to comprise the
violation of the whole decalogue, and if the
bishops were really guilty of the crimes imputed
to them they might justly have been dragged
from the horns of the altar itself. Enough,
however, remains, after allowance made for such
extravagant exaggerations, to show that the
bishops for the most part, and judged by the
severe standard of the times, were unfit to exer-
cise the clerical office, and worthy of deposition.
The presbytery received the complaint and re-
ferred it for trial to the Geneial Assembly.

Glasgow was the j^lace appointed for this
great national and religious senate, and on the
16th of November the gentlemen of the west
came thronging into the city. On the following
day came a host of commissioners and their
retainers from the east; but notwithstanding
such a vast concourse, such was the care of the
magistrates, and the increase which the city had
already attained, that there was easily found
room to lodge council, session, parliament, and
General Assembly. On the afternoon of the
same day, when the lord high - commissioner
and lords of the privy-council were approach-
ing the city. Lord Rothes, the Earl of Montrose,
and other influential Covenanters went out to
wel 'ome them, and assure them that they meant

VOL. III.

to crave nothing but what Scripture, reason,
and law would warrant, his grace assuring them
in reply that nothing reasonable should be
denied. The noble cathedral, towering with its
gray walls over the city, and standing aloof from
it in the midst of its picturesque solitude, was
a meet as well as ample place for the immense
throng of half-clerical half-feudal national re-
presentatives which Scotland had sent from far
and near to consult for its deliverance from
ecclesiastical bondage, and for its spiritual wel-
fare through all successive ages. I't was a pic-
turesque multitude that entered its stately
porch, where the gentlemen had their swords
and daggers, and none of the clergymen wore
gowns ; and which, though so varied and some-
what tumultuous in its character, comprised the
learning, intelligence, rank, and wealth of the
kingdom, all inspired with one great subject of
enthusiasm, however variously manifested. Of
the members, there were 140 ministers and 98
ruling elders; and among the latter were 17
noblemen, 9 knights, 25 landed proprietors, and
47 wealthy and influential burgesses. At one
end of the church was a chair of state for
the royal commissioner, around him were the
officers of state and members of the privy-
council, and opjjosite to the commissioner was
a small table for the moderator and clerk.
Along the centre of the church was a long table
at which the nobility and barons who were
membei's of the court were seated, and behind
them stood or sat tlie ministers; at the end of
the church was a gallery set apart for the young
noblemen not members of the assembly ; and
in recesses in the wall higher still were many
of inferior rank- -gentlemen, citizens, and a large
proportion of ladies, whose zeal for the Covenant
had lately been manifested in Glasgow by cer-
tain unmistakable demonstrations. Of spec-
tators, indeed, there was no lack, and they
thronged that spacious area wherever room
could be found. Never had Scotland collected
a larger, more august, or more influential con-
course within the walls of a building, or at a
time and on an occasion which demanded so
gi^eat a demonstration.

After the devotional exercises and production
of commissions, in which the first day was
spent, the assembly on the second j^roceeded to
the election of a moderator, without whom no
church court could be legally constituted. But
it was of importance to the royalist cause to
interpose delays, and this the commissioner at-
tempted at the outset by j^roposing that before
the moderator was chosen the commissions
should be examined for the purpose of ascer-
taining their correctness and validity. As such
a proposal might have given occasion to find

78

34

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1635-1638.

pretended objections enough to the commis-
sionei's, and thereby to vitiate the proceedings
of the assembly, it was met with a storm of
opposition; and beaten from this point, the
mai'qiiis craved hcense to read to them a paper
given in by the bishops protesting against the
authority of the assembly. He was told that
this could not be done before it was constituted
by the election of a moderator, and when he
still persisted he was overwhelmed by the cry,
"No reading ! no reading !" A shower of pro-
tests and counter-protests followed the outcry,
until all were weary except the clerk, who with
evei'y protest received a piece of gold, according
to the old lovable custom of the Scottish law.
At length the high-commissioner withdrew his
proposal, a calm succeeded, and Alexander Hen-
derson was chosen moderator from a leet of four
candidates. No choice could have been more
judicious and more fortunate. Converted from
Episcopacy by a sermon of Robert Bruce, he
threw in his lot with the oppressed Presbyte-
rians ; and when their cause was again in the
ascendant he distinguished himself not only as
one of the chief authors of the Covenant but as
its eloquent advocate, by whose persuasions
many throughout Scotland were induced to
subscribe it. So remarkable, indeed, were his
eloquence, learning, and persuasiveness as a
preacher that he stood foremost among his
bi'ethren, while to these he added sagacity and
aptitude for bvisiness and the power of influenc-
ing his party such as none of his brethren equalled.
It was honourable to such a man that the only
demur to his election to the moderatorship wi\s
the fear that he should be lost to the assembly
as a debater, in which he was unequalled ; but
his other qualifications also were such that no
one was judged so well qualified to fill the
moderator's chair. As clerk of the assembly
the choice fell upon Archibald Johnston of
Warriston, distinguished by his legal knowledge
and zeal for the Presbyterian cause. A fortunate
incident followed this last election. The early
registers of the church from 1560 to 1590, which
had come into the keeping of Patrick Adamson,
Archbishop of St. Andrews, had first been muti-
lated by that prelate, especially where his own
trial was recorded, and were afterwards supposed
to be lost ; but at the third sitting of the as-
sembly they were produced by Warriston, who
had unexpectedly recovered them after their
long disappearance. Their recovery was hailed
with joy, and on being examined and properly
authenticated they served as authoritative guides
and warrants for the proceedings of this as-
sembly.

It was not till the 2Tth of November that the
business of the meeting commenced in earnest

with the declinature of the bishops, which was
given in and read amidst derisive whispers and
smiles. They objected to the assembly as a tri-
bunal because it was composed of laic as well as
ecclesiastical commissioners, and that, having no
primate for its moderator, it had no right to try
archbishops and bishops, who are superior to
other pastors. These objections opened a flood-
gate of controversy upon the institution of bishops,
the administration of church government by lay
elders, and the practice both of the reformed
church of Scotland and the primitive church of
the apostles, until, seeing no end of such a de-
bate, the moderator on the following day pro-
posed the question, " Whether or not this as-
sembly found themselves competent judges of
the bishops, notwithstanding their declinature ? '
At this the high-commissioner interposed, de-
claring that he could no longer stay if such a
question was to be tried. " You are now about,''
he said, "to settle the lawfulness of this judica-
tory and the competency of it against the bishops
whom you have cited thither, neither of which
I can allow if I shall discharge either my duty
toward God or loyalty toward my gracious
master." The king, he said, had graciously
granted the calling of a free assembly, but they
had so mangled and marred the matter that
there was not the least shadow of freedom to be
discerned in it. " If you will dissolve yourselves,"
he said in conclusion, " and amend all your errors
in a new election, I will with all convenient
speed address myself to his majesty for the in-
diction of a new assembly, before the meeting
of which all these things now challenged may
be amended. If you shall refuse this off'er his
majesty will then declare to the whole world
that you are disturbers of the peace of this
church and state, both by introducing of lay
elders against the laws and practices of this
church and kingdom, and by going about to
abolish Episcopal government, which at this
present stands established by both these said
laws." The moderator justified the proceedings
of the assembly, and asked if he should again
put the question, Whether they were competent
to judge the bishops. The commissioner de-
manded that it should be postponed; but Hen-
derson re])lied, " Nay, with your grace's per-
mission, that cannot be, for it is requisite that
it be put immediately after the declinature."
Hamilton then declared that he must leave
them, and persisted, notwithstanding the re-
monstrances of the moderator and several of
the lords, and though he was moved to tears by
their appeal. He requested the moderator to
dismiss the meeting with prayer, but this being
refused, he protested that no act of this as-
sembly should be binding, and after dissolving

A.D. 1635-1638.]

CHAELES I.

35

it in the king's name he took his departure.
His moderate course, by which he had endeav-
oured to please both parties, had reconciled
neither : the Presbyterians were incensed at his
-endeavours to coerce their proceedings, while
the royalists accused him of having secretly en-
couraged their boldness and hostility.

The departure of the representative of royalty,
and the responsibility which was now attached
to their proceedings as unlawful and treasonable,
was insufficient to dismay the Covenanters: even
when the commissioner was retiring they had
entered a protest that his absence should not
hinder their proceedings or make them nugatory,
and Henderson had eloquently used it as an en-
couragement and example to themselves. " See-
ing my lord commissioner," he exclaimed, " to
be zealous of his royal mastei''s commands, have
we not good reason to be zealous toward our
Lord and to maintain the privileges of his
kingdom'? You all know that the work in hand
hath had many difficulties, and yet liitherto the
Lord hath helped and borne us through them
all ; therefore it becometh not us to be discour-
aged at our being deprived of human authority,
but the rather that ought to be a powerful mo-
tive to us to double our courage in answering
the end for which we are convened." Two
other events also tended to raise their courage.
Lord Erskine, son of the Earl of Mar, a young
nobleman of great promise, moved by the ad-
dresses he had heard, advanced into the midst
•of the assembly, and with tears entreated that
he might be permitted to subscribe the Coven-
ant. Another was the accession of the powerful
Earl of Argyle, who openly declared himself for
their cause, and who afterwai-ds became one of
its most effectual supports. The influence of these
two examples was so strong that several persons
who had been wavering hesitated no longer.
But the accession of Argyle was especially wel-
-come, as his feudal power extended over a large
portion of the Highlands, from which he could
draw whole armies of military retainers, and it
was already felt that a controversy which had
commenced with arguments could only be ended
by pikes and claymores.

After the departure of the high -commis-
sioner the proceedings of the assembly went
on with unanimity and promptitude. The six
assemblies which had been held since the ac-
cession of James VI. to the throne of England, in
consequence of their proceedings being directed
by the king's interference, were condemned and
their acts declared to be null and void. Pres-
byteries and other church courts, which had
been ruled by pi-elatic authority, were replaced
in their original standing. The Articles of
Perth were rescinded, and also the service-

book, the canons, the book of ordination, and
the Court of High Commission. Act after act
was passed under which Episcopacy in all its
parts was abjured. And then came the trial
of the bishops, who were one and all charged
with contumacy in having violated those caveats
of the assembly under which they had assumed
office, and with holding and advocating the
doctrines of Arminianism and Popery. These
were of themselves sufficient warrants for their
deposition, but here the charges brought against
them did not end. Among the specific accusa-
tions, the Ai'chbishop of St. Andrews was
charged with carding and dicing during the
time of divine service, of drinking in taverns till
midnight, of adultery, incest, sacrilege, and
simony. The Bishop of Brechin was proved
guilty of several acts of drunkenness, and of
being the father of a child begat in adultery.
The Bishop of Moray was convicted, not only
of all the faults of a bishop meriting deposition,
but of having a dance of naked people in his
house, and on one occasion, at his daughter's
marriage, of having danced in his shirt. Were
such witnesses guilty of the blunder of attempt-
ing to prove too much, aggravated by the posi-
tive crime of slander? On the one hand it must
be remembered that the accusers were grave,
truthful, earnest men, who substantiated their
depositions to the satisfaction of the assembl}';
and on the other, that the bishops were not
present to answer for themselves. Much of
their alleged culpability might be owing to the
religious prejudices or credulity of their accusers;
but why did not these prelates appear in per-
son, when they knew that not only their offi-
cial, but their moral and personal characters
were at stake? Their absence was an error,
which neither the consciousness of their own
innocence nor their proud disdain of such a
tribunal could warrant, and the effect of it
upon a dispassionate posterity has been the un-
satisfactory verdict of " Not proven," by which
they are exempted from condemnation but not
assoilzied. If they were innocent it would have
been better for their memory that they had
confronted their accusers, and challenged a
scrutiny. But whether they were partially or
wholly innocent of the more grave private
offences, they were evidently unfit, perhaps we
should say unworthy, to hold the offices of
bishops or of clergymen, and accordingly they
were one and all deposed, not merely from their
bishoprics, but the ministry. In addition to
deposition, eight were excommunicated, among
whom were the archbishops of St. Andrews and
Glasgow. The three bishops of Dunkeld, Caith-
ness, and Argyle, on making humble submission
and signing the Covenant, were only suspended

36

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1639-1641.

from the exercise of the ministerial office after
being deprived of their bishoprics, and on ])roofs
being had of their repentance they were after-
wards admitted to parochial charges. The
transactions of this assembly occupied twenty-
six days, and its sittings were ended on the 20th
of December, 1638. The last meeting is said to
have been closed with tliese words of Hender-
son, the moderator: "We have now cast down
the walls of Jericho; let him that I'ebuildeth them
beware of the curse of Hiel the Bethelite."^

Thus fell the gorgeous fabric which the life
of James YI. had been spent in rearing, and
which his son and successor completed : although
the work of so many years, it was swept away
in a few days by the collected might of the
nation that was unanimous for its removal.
After the people had endured long and re-
monstrated without effect, no alternative re-
mained but to take the remedy into their own
hands; and having done this, they gave a les-

son to their anointed rulers upon the limits of
royal authority which the latter, although un-
willingly, were at last compelled to lay to heart.
It is absurd to rejsresent, as has often been
done, that the overthrow of Episcopacy in Scot-
land was solely the work of a discontented
party and an ecclesiastical tribunal. The con-
vocation of Glasgow was something more than
a Genei-al Assembly; it was also the voice of the
nation at large represented by its collected rank,
talent, and political influence — the three estates
composing a parliament in everything but the
name — while its meeting and jjroceedings were
justified by the crisis at which both church and
state had arrived. And would it have been
becoming that such a great national assize
should bow to the will of an infatuated monarch,
and supi^licate on bended knee, and with bated
breath, for the partial amelioration of those
evils w^hich it had the right as well as the power
to remove?

CHAPTER VI.

REIGN OF CHARLES I. (1639-1641).

Charles rejects the offer of French assistance in his war with the Scots — Preparations of the Scots for the war
— They receive a supply of money from the French minister — General Leslie appointed to command the
Scottish aiTuy — Preparations of Charles to subdue the Covenanters — Precautions of the Covenanters in
Scotland for the success of the campaign — The expedition against them by sea frustrated — March of
Charles towards Scotland — His fruitless proclamations to procm-e submission — Encampment of the Scottish
army on Dunse Law — Baillie's account of it — Reluctance on both sides to commence hostilities — Negotia-
tions opened — Terms of peace accepted — Charles assents to the calling of a General Assembly — His secret
instructions to Traquair his commissioner — Concessions granted to the assembly — Its triumph at these
concessions — General proceedings of the assembly — Its prosecution of Dr. Balcanquhal for writing the
Large Declaration — Opening of the Scottish parUament — Its proceedings impeded — Indignation of Charles
at the commissioner's concessions to the General Assembly — The parliament prorogued — It opposes the
prorogation — Charles resolves on a fresh war against the Covenanters— His indignation at their letter to
the King of France — Account of the letter — The Scottish commissioners sent to the Tower — The king
orders the private execution of the Earl of Loudon— The purpose abandoned at Hamilton's intercession —
The king assembles parUament to obtain supplies for the war — Its demands for the redress of grievances —
Charles abruptly dissolves the parhament — He obtains money by indu-ect means — Readiness of the Scot-
tish preparations for the campaign — The Covenanting army again encamps on Dunse Law — Its uninter-
rupted march to the Tyne — It forces a passage across the river — Its occupation of the northern counties —
Strict discipline and courteous behaviour of its soldiers in England — The king has recourse to negotiation
— List of grievances presented by the Covenanters — Charles appoints a meeting of commissioners to con-
sider and redress them — The meeting transferred from Ripon to London — A suspension of hostilities
decreed — Meeting of the Long Parliament — It proceeds to redress gi'ievances and punish the agents of
tyranny — Its favour for the Scottish commissioners — Its desire to keep the Scottish army in England —
The Scottish demands satisfied — The king tampers with the leaders of the Covenanters — He alienates
Montrose and Rothes from them — The king resolves to visit Scotland — Montrose detected and imprisoned
— His charges against the Earl of Argyle— Arrival of Charles in Scotland— Coldness of his welcome— His
confoi-mity to the Presbyterian worship— ParUament opened at Edinburgh— The king's speech— His con-
ciliatory measures — Terms of peace between the two kingdoms ratified — Concessions granted by Charles —
Scramble among the leading Covenanters for state appointments— Public offices fiUed— Intrigues of Jlon-
trose — His offers to the king to dispose of Hamilton and Argyle — Reported plot for their assassination^
A private and inconclusive trial held upon the plotters— The Irish rebelUon— Its causes— Its atrocities —
Scottish pariiament's offers of aid for its suppression— Rising of the Scottish parUament — Honours bestowed
on the principal Covenanters— Departure of the king to England.

The proceedings of the General Assembly

• Baillie's Letters and Journal; Large Declaration; Peter-
kin's Records of the Church; Burnet's Memoirs; Stevenson.

could scarcely have taken the king and his
advisers by surprise. In the anticipation of a
revolt in Scotland he had jjrovided himself with

A.D. 1639-164].]

CHAELES I.

37

arms, ammunition, and money so early as the
middle of the previous year; and he knew that
force alone could reduce his northern subjects
to that complete submission which he regarded
as the true test of their allegiance. On this
account any proposal of compromise on the part
of the assembly, however reasonable or ample,
would have disconcerted his views by throwing
the whole blame of further proceedings upon
himself. While his preparations were in such
readiness that he anticipated nothing but a short
and successful campaign, the state of atiairs upon
the Continent forwarded his views. France and
Holland having united against Spain, and re-
solved to occupy the Low Countries and share it
between them, had no interruption to ajjprehend
except from the naval power of England ; and
to propitiate Charles, Cardinal Richelieu offered
him the aid of French troops for the reduction
of his rebellious subjects in Scotland. But this
assistance the king rejected, declaring that the
laws of England and his own authority were
sufficient for the purpose.

In the meantime the Scots had neither been
dismayed by the formidable preparations of
their sovereign nor idle in providing the means
to resist them. Their merchants had been em-
ployed in purchasing arms upon the Continent,
and importing them into Scotland. Through
their pedlars they had opened negotiations with
the English Puritans, whose cause was kindred
with their own, and secured their neutrality in
the ajjproaching conflict. In raising recruits
the pulpits resounded with the curse of Meroz
against those who came not to the help of the
Lord against the mighty, and the summons was
answered by the stalwart peasantry, who en-
rolled themselves in multitudes for the cam-
paign. And that military skill and disciplined
courage might not be wanting to their cause,
those veteran Scottish officers and soldiers who
had been trained in the wars of Gustavus Adol-
phus were recalled from Germany to the service
of their own country. Even foreign aid also
was not wanting. Richelieu, offended with the
refusal of Charles, and still more at his alliance
with Spain to prevent the partition of the
Netherlands, had resolved to find him work at
home that should prevent him from interfering
with affairs on the Continent, and for this pur-
pose he supplied the Scots with money to the
amount of a hundred thousand crowns for the
purchase of warlike stores. This astute prince
of the church, who cared more for the writings
of Machiavelli than those of St. Paul, had aided
Gustavus Adolphus, the hero of Protestantism,
in his war against the Catholic house of Austria,
and was now rendering the same assistance to
the incorrigibly Presbyterian and Popery-hat-

ing Scots against their half -Popish sovereign
and his minister Laud, because his political com-
binations for the aggrandizement of the French
monarchy required this religious inconsistency.
In all these preparations for resistance, and, if
need should be, of an actual invasion of Eng-
land, the Covenanters were careful not to alarm
the pride of the English or awaken their old
hatred of the Scots. For this purpose they pro-
fessed their ardent desire for peace and disin-
clination to offend their fellow-subjects of the
south; and they distinguished between the king
and his evil advisers and the English nation,
whose good-will they sought to cherish, and
whose rights they were anxious to vindicate
along with their own. Neither would they have
taken up arms but in self-defence, and when
they were denounced as rebels and traitors.
These declarations they distributed largely
among the English, until the king prohibited
their further circulation. Their other measures
in organizing committees in every district for
the national defence, and in obtaining arms, and
drilling the peasantry into effective soldiers were
marked by the same resolute spirit and careful
moderation.! But their best military reliance,
unaccustomed as they long had been to war, was
in General Leslie, the man already trained for
the occasion, who, in a crooked diminutive form
and unprepossessing appearance, had a power of
command and prestige of success which all were
ready to obey, and of whom the following rough
sketch is given in the pages of Spalding : "About
this time, or a little before, there came ovTt of
Germany, from the wars, home to Scotland, a
gentleman of base birth, born in Balvany, who
had served long and fortunately in the German
wars, and called to his name Felt - Marshall
Leslie, his Excellence. His name, indeed, was
Alexander Leslie ; but his valour and good luck
attained to this title, ' his excellence,' inferior to
none but to the King of Sweden, under whom
he served amongst all his cavalry. "Well, this
Felt-Marshall Leslie, having conquessed [won]
from nought, honour and wealth in great
abundance, resolved to come home to his native
country of Scotland and settle beside his chief,
the Earl of Rothes, as he did indeed, and coft
[bought] fair lands in Fife. But this earl, fore-
seeing the troubles, whereof himself was one of
the principal beginners, took hold of this Leslie,
who was both wise and stout, acquaints him
with his plot, and had his advice for furthering
thereof to his power. At first he advises can-
non to be cast in the Potterrow, by one Captain
Hamilton ; he began to drill the earl's men in
Fife; he caused send to Holland for ammuni-

1 Rushworth; D'Estrade, vol. i. p. 8; Whitlocke; Baillie.

38

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1639-1641.

tion, powder and ball, muskets, carbiues, pistols,
swords, canuoii, cartell, and all other sort of
necessary arms, tit for old aud young soldiers,
in gi-eat abundance; he caused send to Germany,
France, Holland, Denmark, and other countries
for the most expert and valiant captains, lieu-
tenants, and under-officei-s, who came in great
numbers in hopes of bloody wars."^ Of this
high military character of Leslie, and the pro-
vident preparations he had made, we shall see
the effects during the course of the civil war.

Although the war which Charles was about
to wage with the Scots was unpopular with the
Puritans, who now formed a powerful party in
the state, it was regarded with favour by the
high church clergy aud their adherents, in whose
eyes it was a holy crusade ; aud by the Catholics
of England, who adhered to the queen, and
could sympathize with the church of Laud, as
nearly allied to their own. As he was to com-
mand in person the king had also issued tlie old
feudal summons to those that held of the crown,
who repaired to his standard with their military
dependants.^ On the appointed day an army of
20,000 foot and 3000 horse was assembled at
York. The Earl of Arundel, a man of no ex-
perience, was appointed general ; the Earl of
Essex, a favourite of the soldiers, and afterwards
commander of the parliamentarian soldiers dur-
ing the civil war, was lieutenant-general ; and
the Earl of Holland, whose chief recommenda-
tion was the favour of the queen, was general of
the horse. The Scots, however, were in equal
readiness, but unwilling to be the first to com-
mence hostilities; and when the king's army
had assembled at York they resolved to reduce
the royal fortresses in Scotland before they
marched to meet the invasion. The rajjidity
and ease with which this was accomplished was
a favourable promise for the campaign. In half
an hour Leslie took the castle of Edinburgh,
which was weakly garrisoned, without the loss
of a man. On the same day the castle of Dum-
barton was surprised by the Covenanters on a
fast day while the governor was at church.
Traquair's residence at Dalkeith was taken,
where the weapons and gunpowder intended for
the castle of Edinburgh, aud also the regalia
of Scotland, passed into the jDossession of the
Covenanters. The chief danger lay in the
northern districts, in which Huntly was at the
head of a considerable force, and in possession
of Aberdeen. But Leslie and Montrose being
sent against him by the Tables, were so suc-
cessful that Aberdeen was recovered and com-
pelled to accept the Covenant, and the Marquis

1 Spalding's Troubles in Scotland, p. 101.
^ Neal's History of the Puritans; Clarendou.

of Huntly and his eldest son carried prisoners
to Edinburgh. As an invasion by sea was also
ai)pi-eh ended, it was necessary to put Leith in a
state of defence, and accordingly new fortifica-
tions were erected with a readiness that showed
the national zeal ; nobles, gentry, commons,
workmen, even delicate ladies putting hand to
the work, aud carrying materials, so that in an
incredibly short space of time that unguarded
port was provided against siege or cannonade.^

It was soon apparent that this precaution was
not more than necessary. The Marquis of Ha-
milton, to whom the command of the fleet which
lay in Yarmouth roads was committed, set sail
by the king's orders to the Firth of Forth, to
effect a diversion in favour of the land expedi-
tion. But, as soon as his ships appeared, the
alarm-beacons were lighted, and the shores of
the Forth w^ere quickly lined with twenty thou-
sand defenders, wliile his own force amounted
only to three regiments, and these com]30sed of
raw levies. After summoning Leith to surrender
but in vain, aud not venturing to land in the
face of such opposition, he was compelled to
quarter his troops upon the undefended islets in
the Firth, and enter into a vain negotiation with
the town-council of Edinbui'gh for the surrender
of the capital. He could scarcely, indeed, do
otherwise, for to attempt a landing was useless,
aud his soldiers, already afflicted with small-pox,
occupied the little islands in the Firth rather as
hospitals than garrisons. It was thought, also,
that aff"ection for his country had a secret in-
fluence in promoting his inertness, otherwise he
might have strengthened the king's cause by
reinforcing the Gordons, who were again in arms
against the Covenanters, being indignant at the
imprisonment of their chief, the Marquis of
Huntly. But their insurrection was ill-con-
certed and easily suppressed. The Highlanders
could not yet be brought to abide the discharges
of cannon, and Aberdeen was once aud again
taken and subjected to heavy fines by the Earl of
Montrose, whose dariug activity aud militaiy
exactions were already equally conspicuous.*

While these proceedings were in progress, by
which Scotland was secured for the Covenanters,
the royal army advanced from York to the
Tweed. It was at first a march of triumph, for
Charles thought that as soon as he entered Scot-
land resistance would be at an end, and sub-
mission universal. But the letters sent by the
Marquis of Hamilton from the fleet, describing
the strength and resolution of the Scots, and
tidings of the capture of the royal castles, and
the march of the Covenanters towards the Bor-

3 Spalding; Baillie; Gutlirie's Memoirs; Burnet's Memoirs;
Traquair's letter to the king, in Rushworth.
■* Spalding ; Baillie ; Burnet ; Clarendon.

A.D. 1639-1641.]

CHARLES I.

39

cier, soon tended to abate these expectations.
When Leslie, who had been appointed com-
mauder-in-chief, had arrived at Dunglass with
the main army of the Covenanters, and Monro
his lieutenant had reached Kelso, the king issued
a mild proclamation commanding them not to
ajjproach within ten miles of the royal encamp-
ment, and Leslie, williug to show his obedience,
commanded the army to lialt. This was enough
to restore the king's contideuce, which was shown
by a fresh proclamation couimaudiug the Scots
to submit within ten days, and in the event of
their disobedience declaring them rebels; setting
also a price upon the heads of their leaders, and
promising to give their estates to such of their
retainers as should desert to the royal cause.
This rash j^roclamation was made at Dunse, to
which the Earl of Holland had advanced with
two thousand cavalry and found no resistance.
It was otherwise, however, when he came to
Kelso, where tlie proclamation was to be re-
peated, but where fifteen hundred soldiers of
the Covenant under Monro awaited his arrival.
The earl ordered them to retire, which they
refused, and on coming to blows, the English,
who had no heart for this war, retreated in dis-
order after a very short resistance. The whole
Scottish army now advanced and encamped
upon Dunse Law. Their numbers were equal to
those of the royal army, while in that enthusiasm
which leads to victory they were far superior;
they were also better disciplined ; and in the
opposite ranks there was no general who in skill
and experience could be compared to Leslie.

The two armies were now so nigh each other,
with the Tweed between them, that the officers
of each could survey the rival array with their
telescopes. The Scottish encampment minutely
described by Baillie is too interesting to be
omitted. " It would have done you good," he
says " to have casten your eyes athort our brave
and rich hill, as oft I did, with great content-
ment and joy, for I (quoth the wren) was there
among the rest, being clioseu preacher by the
gentlemen of our shire, who came late with my
lord of Eglinton. I furnished to half a dozen
of good fellows, muskets, and pikes, and to my
boy a broad sword. I carried myself, as the
fashion was, a sword, and a couj)le of Dutch
pistols at my saddle ; but I promise, for the
offence of no man, except a robber in the way;
for it was our part alone to pray and preach for
the encouragement of our countrymen, which I
did to ray jDower most cheerfully. Our hill was
garnished on the top towards the south and east
with our mounted cannon, well near to the num-
ber of forty, great and small. Our regiments
lay on the sides of the hill almost round about;
the place was not a mile in circle, a pretty round

rising in a declivity, without steepness, to the
height of a bowshot; on the top somewhat plain;
about a quarter of a mile in length, and as much
in breadth, as I remember, capable of tents for
forty thousand men." Having so distinctly de-
scribed the encampment of Dunse Law with a
few brief touches, Baillie with equal happiness
describes the appointments and style of tent life
among the officei's and soldiers. " The crowners"
[colonels], he continues, "lay in canvas lodges,
high and wide ; their captains about them in lesser
ones; the soldiers about all in huts of timber,
covered with divot [turf ] or straw. Our crowners
for the most part were noblemen; Rothes, Lind-
say, Sinclair, had among them two full regiments
at least from Fife; Balcarras, a horse-tioop;
Loudon, Montgomery, Erskiue, Boyd, Fleming,
Kirkcudbright, Tester, Dalhousie, Eglinton,
Cassilis, and others, either with whole or half
regiments. ... It was thought the country
of England was more afraid for the barbarity
of his [Argyle's] Highlanders than of any other
terror ; these of the English that came to visit
our camp, did gaze much with admiration upon
these supple fellows, with their plaids, targes,
and dorlachs. . . . Our captains, for the most
part, were barons or gentlemen of good note;
our lieutenants, almost all soldiers who liad
served oversea in good charges; every company
had flying at the captain's tent-door, a brave
new colour stamped with the Scottish arms, and
this ditton, 'For Christ's Crown and Coven-
ant,' in golden letters. Our general had a brave
royal tent ; but it was not set up ; his constant
guard was some hundreds of our lawyers, mus-
keteers, under Durie and Hope's command, all
the way standing in good arms, with cocked
matches, before his gate, well appareled. . . .
Our soldiers were all lusty and full of courage;
the most of them stout young ploughmen; great
cheerfulness in the face of all; the only difficulty
was to get them dollars or two the man, for
their voyage from home, and the time they en-
tered in pay; for, among our yeomen, money at
any time, let be then, uses to be very scarce;
but once having entered on the common pay,
their sixpence a day, they were galliard. . . .
Our soldiers grew in experience of arms, in
courage, in favour daily ; every one encouraged
another; the sight of the nobles and their be-
loved pastors daily raised their hearts; the good
sermons and prayers, morning and even, under
the roof of heaven, to which their drums did
call them for bells; the remonstrances very fre-
quent of the goodness of their cause ; of their
condiict hitherto, by a hand clearly divine; also
Leslie his skill and fortune made them all so
resolute for battle as could be wished. We
were feared that emulation amoncf our nobles

40

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1639-1641.

might have clone harm when they should be
met in the fields ; but such was the wisdom and
authority of that old, little, crooked soldier that
all, with an incredible submission from the be-
ginning to tlie end, gave over themselves to be
guided by him, as if he had been the great Soly-
man. . . . Had ye lent your ear in the morning,
or especially at even, and heard in the tents the
sound of some singing Psalms, some praying,
and some i-eading Scripture, ye would have been
refreshed; true, there was swearing and brawl-
ing in some quarters, whereat we were grieved;
but we hoped, if our camp Lad been a little
settled, to have gotten some way for these mis-
orders." In reading this description of the Scot-
tish encampment at Dunse Law the mind natu-
rally reverts to the encampment at Musselburgh
scarcely a century earlier, as described in the
pages of Patten. In either case it was for a war
in defence of religion; but there the comparison
begins and ends. In the temper, preparation,
and prestige of the two armies there was as great
a diiference as in the creeds that had summoned
them to the field.

Although all was thus in i-eadiness for action
there was on both sides a reluctance that con-
fined each to its own side of the river; they could
not forget that they were subjects of the same
rule, and the professors of a common Protes-
tantism, and that a single blow would suffice as
the commencement of a civil war. There were
other prudential considerations, also, that made
them reluctant to begin hostilities. The Eng-
lish were disinclined to fight in a cause where
defeat would have been national disgrace, and
victory a confirmation of the king's absolute rule,
while the Covenanters were aware that their
voluntary levies must soon disperse for want of
supplies. Under such circumstances overtures
for reconciliation were inevitable, and the first
step was naturally made by those who were in
arms against their sovereign. The Eai'l of Dun-
fermline was sent with a petition from the
Covenanters, beseeching the king that he would
appoint a meeting for delegates from both par-
ties to treat about terms of pacification; and
this request being granted two other interviews
followed, which ended in a general pacification.
The behaviour of Charles during these proceed-
ings was so bland and courteous, that deception
was thought impossible ; he kindly inquired for
Henderson, who ventured into the royal pre-
sence, when much communication passed be-
tween him and the king; and, " it is likely," adds
Baillie, " that his majesty's ears had never been
tickled with such discourses." While the Cove-
nanters met his courtiers with submission they
were cai-eful to express in plain terms the evils
from which they sought to be delivered. The

result was, that a pacification was signed on the
18th of June, by which the king agreed to call
a free General Assembly at Edinburgh on the
6th of August, and a parliament on the 20th of
the same month, for ratifying the conclusions of
the assembly; and that he should recall his fleet
and army as soon as the Covenanters had dis-
banded their troops, restored the castles they
had taken, and abolished the Tables. With these
conditions the Covenanters gladly complied, and
the encampment on Dunse Law was dispersed
within twenty-fom- hours.^ Scaicely, however,
had they returned to their homes when they felt
as if they had been overreached. Without hav-
ing sufficient guarantees for the fulfilment of the
king's promises they had stripped themselves of
their defences, and laid themselves open to his
revenge. This was especially the case in the sur-
render of Edinburgh Castle and the fortifications
of Leith; and a riot had well nigh occurred in
the streets of the cajjital, in which the chiefs of
the royalist party were marked out for the jjopu-
lar indignation. Nothing worse, however, oc-
curred than the jjursuit of Lord Traquair's coach,
which broke down in the chase, and a somewhat
rough handling of his lordship himself by the
mob, in which the white staff of office carried
before him was broken.- It is added by Burnet,
that when he complained of the indignity to the
town-council they sent him another white stick,
value sixpence, as a sufficient atonement.

The chief reliance of the Covenanters was the
king's sincerity, and the approaching meeting
of assembly would show what it was worth.
At first Charles had intended to preside at it i]i
person ; but, changing his mind, he olfered the
office of high-commissioner to the Marquis of
Hamilton, who declined the office and recom-
mended the Earl of Traquair, who was appointed
to open the assembly. The instructions he re-
ceived on the occasion were characterized by that
kingcraft which Charles had learned of his father.
The earl was to allow the abolition of Epis-
copacy, not, however, as unlawful, but only to
satisfy the people, and not to grant the issue of
any warrant against the bishops. He was to
ratify the proceedings of the Assembly of Glas-
gow as an act of royal favour ; and when the
business had closed, and before the meeting was
dissolved, he was to protest that in case any of
his majesty's instructions had escaped his Qie-
mory, or had fallen out to the prejudice of his
majesty's service, the king should be heard for
redress at his own time and jilace. With these
caveats abundant room was left for reconsidera-
tion and refusal. But what Charles chiefly relied
upon was, that the decisions of the assembly for

1 Peterkin's Records, pp. 225-231 ; Baillie. - Baillie.

1639-1641.]

CHARLES I.

41

the abolition of Episcopacy in pfissing through
the parliament would still be null and void, as
the bishops were to be excluded from their seat
in the national representation. He advised,
also, that the prelates should privately slip into
the commissioner's hand a protest against the
assembly and parliament, and this on being
transmitted to the royal keeping would be cer-
tain to meet with due attention. ^ Thus furnished
with instructions for the hampering of business
Lord Traquair came to Edinbui^gh and opened
the assembly. It was soon apparent, however,
to this sagacious statesman and intriguer, that
any open opposition to the popular bias would
awaken suspicion, and might occasion a renewal
of the war. He therefore proceeded with a
gentleness and caution that won the confidence
of the Covenanters ; and while they omitted all
reference to the Asseml)ly of Glasgow and stated
their demands, he granted them in everything
they desired. It was agreed, accordingly, by the
commissioner, that with his majesty's sanction
the service-book, books of canons and ordination,
and the high-commission should still be rejected;
that the Articles of Peith be no more practised;
that Episcopal government, and the civil places
and power of kirkmen, be still held as unlawful
"in this kirk;" that the pretended assemblies
at Linlithgow in 1606 and 1608, at Glasgow in
1610, at Aberdeen in 1616, and at Perth in 1618
be hereafter held as null and of no effect ; and
that for the preservation of religion, and pre-
venting all such evils in time coming, General
Assemblies rightly constituted, as the proper
and comjjetent judge of all matters ecclesiastical,
hereafter be kept yearly, and oHqw^y pro re nata,
as occasion and necessity shall require; the neces-
sity of these occasional assemblies being first
shown to his majesty by humble supplication;
as also, that kirk -sessions, presbyteries, and
synodal assemblies be constituted and observed
according to the order of the kirk.

No sooner was it known that this act was
about to pass, and the king through his lord
high-commissioner to assent to it, than an elec-
tric thrill of gladness pervaded the whole as-
sembly. The duplicity of Charles was forgot;
the fear that he might deceive them disap-
peared; and amidst weeping from the excess of
joy, the older members, on being called to ex-
press their opinion, were fervent in their grati-
tude to God and their loyalty to the king.
Old Mr. Row, on being called, exclaimed with
tears, " I bless, I glorify, I magnify the God of
heaven and earth, that has pitied this poor
church, and given us such matter of joy and
consolation; and the Lord make us thankful,

- Burnet's Memoirs.

first to our gracious and loving God, and next
obedient subjects to his majesty, and to thank
his majesty's commissioner for his own part."
The testimony of a,nother aged covenanting
minister was still more touching. "Mr. John
Wemyss being called on, could scarce get a word
spoken for tears trickling down along his gray
hairs, like drops of rain or dew upon the top of
the tender grass, and yet withal smiling for joy,
said, ' I do remember when the Kirk of Scot-
land had a beautiful face. I remember since
there was a great power and life accompanying
the ordinances of God, and a wonderful work of
operation upon the hearts of people. This my
eyes did see — a fearful defection after, procured
by our sins; and no more did I wish, before my
eyes were closed, but to have seen such a beau-
tiful day, and that under the conduct and favour
of our king's majesty. Blessed for evermore be
our Lord and King, Jesus ; and the blessing of
God be upon his majesty, and the Lord make us
thankful.' " So aff"ecting was the sight of this old
man's emotions that the moderator could not
help exclaiming, " I believe the king's majesty
made never the heart of any so blythe in giving
them a bishopric as he has made the heart of
that reverend man joyful in putting them away ;
and I am persuaded if his majesty saw you
shedding tears for blytheuess he would have
more pleasure in you than in some of those that
he has given great things unto." While the
patriarchs of the church, the stern fathers of the
Covenant, were thus moved into woman's tender-
ness, what shall we think of the sovereign who
had plotted to deceive them or the commissioner
who was on the watch to effect if?^

The chief difficulty having been surmounted
by the abolition of Episcopacy, the other affairs
of the assembly demand only a passing notice.
The principal subject that remained was the
trial of clerical delinquents, who consisted of
two classes — those who during the late years
had complied with the ecclesiastical orders of
the court, and those who had been guilty of such
flagrant moral offences as were incompatible
with the clerical profession in any church ; and
while the last were visited with the established
penalties the first class received lenient treat-
ment, their punishment chiefly consisting in
temporary suspension from office. The Coven-
ant was also renewed, after some demur on the
part of the high-commissioner, who qualified
his assent by stating that he accepted it in the
same sense as the Covenant of 1580-81-90,
subscribed by his majesty's father, and often
since renewed. But this reservation awoke the

2 Peterkin's Records of the Kirk of Scotland; Assembly of
1639.

42

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1639-1641.

jealousy of the assembly, and the following
explanation was ordered to be attached to this
new subscription. " The article of this Coven-
ant, which was, at the first subscription, referred
to the determination of the General Assembly,
being determined, and thereby the Five Articles
of Perth, the government of the kirk by bishops,
the civil places and power of kirkmen, upon the
reasons and gi'ounds contained in the acts of
the General Assembly, declared to be unlawful
within this kirk, we subscribe according to the
determination foi-esaid." Having made this ex-
planation, and being assured that its exceptions
would be ratified by parliament, the assembly
consented to the change.

Among the clerical oflences that were indicted
for trial not the least important was the publi-
cation of a work called the Large Declaration,
which appeared in his majesty's name, although
it was the production of Walter Balcanquhal, a
Scotchman, and Dean of Durham. This woik,
although it gives the manifestoes published on
either side with great fairness, and is therefore
valuable to the historian, was all the more dan-
gerous from its one-sided tendency and its ani-
madversions against the Covenanters, whom it
found always in the wrong. It characterized the
Covenant as " dung throw-n upon the face of au-
thority," " a wicked Covenant, or pretended
Holy League, like to that of France," and that
" all Christians in the world who have heard of
it do acknowledge that no such Covenant came
from heaven but from hell, from whence cometh
all portion of schism," while the church it set
up and the actors who established it were char-
acterized in terms equally severe and oflFensive.
It was not wonderful, therefore, that the as-
sembly should condemn it as dishonourable to
God, to the king, and the national kirk, and
stuffed full of lies and calumnies. And what
punishment did the recreant Scot deserve who,
in the name of the king, had piiblished such as-
persions to the world ? Upon this subject the
following strange opinions were uttered, at first
sight as culpable as the offence itself : —

Mr. Andrew Cant said: — "It is so full of
gross absurdities that I think hanging of the
author should prevent all other censures."

The moderator answered: — "That punish-
ment is not in the hands of kirkmen."

The sheriff of Teviotdale, being asked his judg-
ment, said : — " You were offended with a church-
man's hard sentence already; but, truly, I could
execute that sentence with all my heart, because
it is more proper to me, and I am better ac-
quainted with hanging."

My Lord Kirkcudbright said : — " It is a great
pity that many honest men in Christendom,
for writing little books called pamphlets, should

want eai-s, and false knaves, for writing such
volumes, should brook heads."

AVhat are we to think of such sentiments?
That their authors were in earnest \ Assuredly
not. Although they could talk halters, the}''
used none; and from the drolling character of
the discussion it may safely be assumed that no
lethal retribution was desired. The flying ball
of conversation having commenced in joke was
to-ssed from hand to hand in the same spirit by
men in the first rebound of a happy reaction,
when mirth even in the gravest should not be
examined too scrupulously. The whole ended
in a petition to the king that the copies of the
work should be called in and its author visited
with exemplary punishment.^

On the 31st of August (1639), the day after
the assembly rose, the parliament was opened,
and to make it more imposing it was accom-
panied with the time-honoured procession of
the ^' riding of parliament." A difficulty, how-
ever, occurred in constituting it by the waut of
bishops in selecting Lords of the Articles. To
supjaly the place of the prelates as one of the
estates it was agreed that the eight Lords of
Articles whom the bishops were authorized ta
elect should be appointed by the commissioner.
But the acts of assembly for the abolition of
Episcopacy, after having passed through the
Articles, were delayed in the j^arliament ; and
while week after week was spent in delay the
king was reinforcing the castle of Edinburgh
and attempting to seduce the covenanting lords
to his party. These symptoms, and the delays
interposed to the ratification of the acts of as-
sembly, made the Covenanters fear that the
king after all only meant to break his promises.
Nor was their alarm without adequate cause.
Charles was indignant at the concessions made
by Traquair to the assembly. It had con-
demned Episcopacy as " unlawf id in this church ;"
but Charles denied that he had authorized any
such phrase, and instead of it had only allowed
that of " contrary to the constitutions of this
church," upon which be had consented to its
abolition in Scotland. By the expression " un-
lawful" he alleged that he was made to condemn
Episcopacy not only in Scotland but in England
also ; while by the words " contrary to the con-
stitutions of this church " the condemnation had
been confined to Scotland alone. But his chief
objection was that the act of assembly would
rescind all those acts of parliament in favour of
Episcopacy which his father had established,
and deprive him of every opportunity for its
re-establishment. All this was announced to
Traquair in very angry terms ; and perceiving

1 Peterkin's Records; Assembly, 1639.

A.D. 1639-16il.]

CHAELES I.

4a

he had lost the favour of his master, he was
anxious either to dehxy or defeat the ratificatiou
of the obnoxious measure in parliament. For
this he prorogued it from the 24th of October
till the 14th of November. The Covenanters,
alarmed at this prospect of delay before their
claims had been ratified, sent the Earls of Dun-
fermline and Loudon to the court to satisfy the
royal scruples and entreat the king's permission
that the business of parliament should go for-
ward; but before they reached London these
noblemen were met by a messenger, who for-
bade them to come within a mile of the court,
while orders at the same time were sent to Scot-
land to prorogue the parliament to June next
year.^ Traquair was so ashamed of this de-
grading commission that he would not venture
to prorogue the parliament in person, but sent
the king's letter, which no one, however, would
read to the house, and against which a strong
remonstrance was drawn up. They protested
against the prorogation, and announced the pub-
lic confusion that would arise from this procras-
tination and delay. They declared that although
by the constitution of the kingdom they might
still continue their sittings, yet they would obey,
from their desire to avoid setting an example of
disobedience, leaving a committee from each
estate in Edinburgh to receive his majesty's
answer to their remonstrance. Finally they
added, " If our malicious enemies, who are not
considerable, shall, by their suggestions and
lies, prevail against the informations and general
declarations of a whole kingdom, we take God
and man to witness that we are free of the
outrages and insolences that may be committed
in the meantime, and that it shall be to us no
imputation that we are constrained to take
such courses as may best secure the kirk and
kingdom from the extremity of confusion and
misery."

With the order for proroguing the parliament
Charles had also summoned Traquair to London
to give an account of all the late Scottish pro-
ceedings. On his arrival the king received him
coldly, and reproached him for the concessions
he had made, and for having signed the Cove-
nant. Nor did the earl fare much better at
the hands of the Covenanters whom he had dis-
appointed, for they now accused him of stirring
up Charles to a fresh war against them in
order to justify his proceedings and escape the
royal displeasure. This he was certainly doing,
and his incentives were seconded by Strafford
and Laud, who still held the chief place in the
royal councils. Charles at once decided upon
war, and he was successful in persuading his

' Baillie.

English subjects that it was no longer a con-
troversy about points of church government,
but for the vindication of his authority, against
which the Scots had rebelled. It was a rash
and unjust resolution, as it was adopted upon
the statements of Traquair alone and before
the deputies from the Scottish parliament had
arrived to present their counter-statements and
remonstrances. On the arrival of the deputies,
Lords Loudon and Dunfermline, who were
again commissioned from Scotland, Charles did
not venture a second time to refuse them a
hearing, but this refusal was now the less
necessary as he had already prejudged their
cause. At their repeated interviews with Charles
and his council they justified the proceedings
of the Scottish parliament, and showed how it
could not well have acted otherwise ; and al-
though their representations liad little efiect
upon the king, they had considerable influence
upon the popular opinion, which now began to
change in favour of the Scottish demands. It
was also seen that the outrages against the
royal authority of which Charles complained,
and which he was resolved to punish, were
merely first draughts of bills which had been
under the consideration of the Lords of the
Articles, and had not even been presented to
parliament, and therefore could not be made a
ground of war between the two nations.

The Earl of Traquair, while instigating the
king against the Covenanters, had not confined
himself to statements that might be questioned:
a letter which the lords of the Covenant had
written during the late troubles to the King of
France had fallen into his hands, and this he
had delivered to Charles as a conclusive proof
that they were traitors. In this letter the
French king was addressed as a sanctuary for
afflicted states, and besought to give that wonted
assistance which France had always afforded to
the Scottish nation ; it was subscribed by
Rothes, Montrose, Leslie, Mar, Montgomery,
Loudon, and Forrester, and was addressed au
Roi, the style used by subjects to their own
natural sovereign. But the letter bore no date,
was addressed in a different hand, and after
being written had been thrown aside as useless.
The cause of this non-transmission also was
enough to throw ridicule upon the whole affair.
The subscribers were so fearless of detection
that they expressed their willingness to have
their intentions and proceedings written with
sunbeams ; but instead of rayons de soleil, the
blundering writer had substituted rayes de soleil,
by which the rays of the sun were converted
into a shoal of thornbacks. In the meantime,
however, it was no laughing matter, but one of
life and death, and Loudon was subjected to an

44

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1639-1641.

examination before the privy-council. He con-
fessed that the subscription of his name was
his own hand-writing, but that the letter had
been written when his majesty was marching
against them ; that they had applied to the
French king merely for his mediation, as he
was the nearest relative of their own sovereign;
and that finding the English army ;ilready on
the Border, the letter had neither been addressed
nor sent. These answers were judged unsatis-
factory, and the commissioners were sent to the
Tower. But what followed was still more in-
credible : a few days after, Sir AVilliam Balfour,
the governor of the Tower, received a warrant
from the king to behead Lord Loudon on the
following day within the walls of the building,
instead of the Tower Hill, where his open exe-
cution might occasion a disturbance. When
Balfour received this strange order he was play-
ing at cards with Loudon, and in his astonish-
ment he showed the warrant to his lordship,
who coolly told him that he must do his duty.
He only desired the attendance of his lawyer,
to make settlements for his younger children;
and when this was done he sent a letter by the
lawyer to the Marquis of Hamilton, informing
him of the affair, and telling him that he was a
Scotsman and must answer for it to his country.
Although it was midnight there was no time
to be lost, and hurrying to the palace, although
the king had gone to rest, the marquis, in virtue
of his office as one of the lords of the bed-
chamber, made his way to the king's sleeping
apartment, and besought him upon his knees
to revoke such a dangerous sentence. But
Charles was immovable. '• Sir," continued
Hamilton, "if you persist in this resolution not
a Scot will ever draw a sword for you, or if
they would, who should command them?" The
king replied, " Yourself." " No, sir," replied
Hamilton, " I dare never apjjear in Scotland
afterwards." Charles still persisted and ex-
claimed once and again, " By God, Loudon shall
die!" The marquis craved permission to add
only one word more, and said impressively,
" Sir, I desire your majesty to look out for
another house, for within four-and-twenty hours
there will not be one stone of AVhitehall left
upon another." This warning so greatly alarmed
the king that he sullenly cancelled the warrant.^
Preparations in earnest were now made by
Charles to chastise the rebellious Scots and re-
duce them to submission, for which purpose he
collected money from every quarter. But al-
though the English nobles, the clergy, and the
Papists answered liberally to his demands, their
contributions fell far short of his necessities, so

> Burnet's Mem ; Crawford; Oldmixon; Scott of Scotstai-vet.

that, after having ruled so long without its aid,
he was reduced to the hateful necessity of as-
sembling a parliament. He ho{)ed to awaken
their zeal against the Scots by ]>roducing the
famous letter cm Roi, and representing it not
only as a declaration of war against England,
but an insult to the nation, by craving help
from its foreign enemies. The epistle was
therefore produced before the house, and the
Lord Keeper Finch, holding it up folded, read
the inscription au Roi in tones of theatrical
amazement, and then exclaimed, " None but
the French can write such a superscription to
the French king; and whoever writes so, ac-
knowledges the king thus addressed for their
sovereign." The letter was then read, and the
argument deduced from it was, that the king
ought to be sujjplied with money for such a
war.2 But the parliament was in the same in-
dependent and discontented mood which it had
manifested at its last meeting twelve years
earlier, so that the reading of the traitorous
epistle produced no effect. The explanations
of the writers were generally received as satis-
factory, and both the grievances and demands
of the Covenanters were too much like their
own to be regarded with aversion. The con-
duct of the Scottish army also in its last cam-
paign had been so moderate and conciliatory,
that far from provoking the English it had
secured their esteem. Instead of sympathizing
with the king's indignation they therefore
directed their attention to their own wrongs,
which since the meeting of the last parliament
had increased to a fearful amount. The Star-
chamber, High Commission, and spiritual courts;
ship-money and monopolies ; the long interval
between the parliaments; innovations in reli-
gion, and invasions of popery, were each made
the subject of petition and remonstrance. Nor
was the treatment of Elliot, Hollis, and the
imprisoned members, or the unconstitutional
act of Finch in leaving the speaker's chair, for-
got. Impatient of this delay, by which the sea-
son for a campaign would be lost, the king re-
presented to them that his army intended
against the Scots cost him ^100,000 a month;
that he had expended his own funds as well as
the ship-money in maintaining it; and that
after they had granted him a sufficient subsidy
he would examine their com])laints, and redress
them if they were just. But they had experi-
enced the value of such promises already, and
they feared that, as before, a grant of money
would be immediately followed by a dissolution.
When they were therefore about to silence his
demands by voting the Scottish war unneces-

2 OldmLxon.

•Ul3>.(»>,RC.£TSor, yi

W H M \l-l,L I SU\

SIR WILLIAM BALFOUR, GOVERNOR OF THE TOWER OF LONDON, RECEIVES A

WARRANT FROM THE KING TO BEHEAD LORD LOUDON, WITH WH(_)]\I HE

IS PLAYING A GAME AT CARDS, (a.d. 1640.1

Vol. iii. p. 44.

A.D. 1639-1641]

CHARLES I.

45

sary, Charles abruptly dissolved the parliament
after it had sat little more than a month. And
not content with this, he proceeded to wreak
his personal resentment upon those who had
been foremost in the opposition. Henry Bellasis,
member for the county of York, and Sir John
Hotham were committed to the Fleet prison for
refusing to give an account of their conduct in
parliament; and John Crew, afterwards Lord
Crew, who refused to give up the petitions and
complaints intrusted to his keeping as chairman
of the committee on religious aftairs, was sent
to the Tower. The closets of the Earl of War-
wick and Lord Bi"ooks were broken open, and
even their pockets searched for papers, because
they were suspected of holding a correspondence
with the rebellious Covenanters of Scotland.^

Though the parliament had refused the neces-
sary supplies Charles was too far committed to
the Scottish war, as well as too obstinate in his
purpose, to draw back, and the means which he
adopted for raising money were of the most
desperate character. In consequence of his de-
voteduess to the bishops, and the laws which
he sanctioned to ensure the perpetuity of their
Episcopal rule, they granted him a benevolence
from the church funds of twenty thousand pounds
annually for six years. In raising the militia
each county was obliged to furnish its own quota
of troops with coat and conduct money. He
bought up all the East India spices on credit
and resold them below their value for ready
money. He extorted a boon of forty thousand
])ounds from the merchants who had bullion in
the Tower to avert his seizure of the whole, and
levied a forced conti-ibution upon the city of
London under penalty of forfeiting its privileges.
But his chief support was the Earl of Straflfbrd,
now his deputy in Ireland, where he ruled with
more than kingly authority, who obtained from
the Irish parliament five subsidies, amounting
to about two hundred and fifty thousand j^ounds,
for the king's service. By these and other means,
for which his English subjects afterwards exacted
a heavy reckoning, Charles was able to muster
an army of nineteen thousand foot and two thou-
sand horse. But instead of the former com-
manders, the Earl of Northumberland was ap-
pointed general. Lord Conway commander of
the horse, and the Earl of Stratford, who had
been called over from Ireland for the purpose,
lieutenant-general.^

While these prejoarations for war had been
going onward the Covenanters had not been
inattentive to the king's proceedings ; and when
he at last submitted to the hateful necessity of

1 May ; Rushworth ; Clarendon.

2 Clarendon ; Whitelock.

calling a parliament they knew that no time was
to be lost. It was well for their cause, also, that
they were better prepared for war than Charles
himself. Distrusting his sincerity in the late
treaty the Tables had retained the officers in
their pay when they disbanded the army, so that
the dispersed soldiers could be easily recalled to
their standards. The national zeal, also, in sup-
plying the sinews of war more than made amends
for the national poverty ; the rich contributed
their money, plate, and credit, the poor gave
their offerings at the church-door, and the women
not only contributed their ornaments of gold and
silver, but webs of coarse linen, to cover the
tents of the soldiers. In this manner an army
of twenty-two thousand foot and three thousand
cavalry was mustered, equipped, and prepared
for action with a i^apidity that was in striking
contrast to the slowness of their enemies.^ In
commanders also there could be no comparison;
for while the Scots were provided with the skil-
ful ofliceis who had been trained in the wars of
Sweden, and had for their commander-in-chief
the little, old, crooked Felt-marshal, who in him-
self was equal to an army, the English generals
had seen little of war, and did not enjoy the con-
fidence of their soldiers. The only difficulty to
be apprehended was from a protracted campaign,
as the regular maintenance of the Scottish army
was to be derived from a tenth penny on the
landed property, which was difficult to collect,
and the expectation of supplies which they might
obtain from England, which at the best was an
uncertain reliance.

As immediate action was of such importance
to the Scots an opportunity was soon afforded
by the movements of the opposite party. Lord
Conway advanced with the English cavalry to
Newcastle, ujjon which the Covenanters, who
were again encamped at Dunse Law, broke up
their encampment on the 20th of August and
marched across the Border into England. This
decisive movement disconcerted the king, who
thought that they would remain on the defen-
sive, as they had done on the previous year.
Another cause of this unexpected activity, be-
sides its advantage, is said to have risen from a
letter addressed to the Covenanters from Lord
Saville, and subscribed by seven other noblemen,
assuring them of their symjmthy and aid as soon
as they entered England ; but this letter was
afterwards found to be a forgery.* They marched
from Coldstream to the Tyne, and at Newburn
found Conway, who was prepared to dispute
their passage across the river, for which purpose
he had erected batteries on the ojjposite bank at
the places where the river was fordable. It

3 Baillie.

* Burnet's History.

46

HISTOKY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1639-1641.

might have been expected that the Scots would '
have been eucouiitered as soon as they had ,
crossed the Tweed, but even ah-eady the cause
of Charles was dispirited by evil omens ; the
Earl of Northumberland, to whom he had de-
signed the command of his army, dechned the
honour on the plea of sickness, and in his place
the Eai'l of Stratford had been appointed, al-
though still worse in health than Northumber-
land. Suffering dreadfully from the gout he had
risen from a sick-bed at his master's summons;
and knowing that the luistily raised levies of the
king would be no match for the well-disciplined
Scots, he had issued orders to Conway to confine
himself to the defence of the passages of the
Tyne. On Thursday the 28th of August oc-
curred what Clarendon has termed "that in-
famous, irreparable rout at Newburn." On the
27th the Scots were encamped at Heddonlaw,
near Newburn, on the left bank of the Tyne, a
very short distance from Newcastle; and as coals
were abundant they made such large and numer-
ous fires in the evening that their camp seemed
of greater size and extent than it really was.
Several Englishmen who crossed the river were
received not as enemies but as friends, and were
assux'ed by the Scots that they had entered Eng-
land not to make war against the nation, but to
chastise those evil counsellors of the king who
were the enemies equally of England and Scot-
land. These declarations they had also plentifully
circulated along the English Border when they
commenced their march. On the following day
Conway drew up his advanced force of 3000
foot and 1500 cavah-y on the opposite bank of
the river, whei'e there were two fords passable
by cavalry at low water; and here the troops of
the two rival nations confronted each other,
neither of them apparently wishing to strike the
first blow. Theu' mutual animosity had so com-
pletely died out that only accident could deter-
mine by which of the parties this peaceful in-
terview would be broken. At length a Scottish
officer well mounted, wearing a black feather in
his hat, came out of one of the thatched huts in
Newburn, to water his horse in the Tyne ; an
English soldier, on seeing him fix his eye upon
the English trenches, took aim at him and fired
his niusket, and the black-plumed officer fell
wounded from his horse. This was signal enough,
and was answered by a fire of musketry and
cannon, which was continued on both sides until
the river was near low water; but as the Scot-
tish artillery was handled with greater skill, a
breach was made in the chief sconce of the oppo-
site breast-works, upon which the English troops
who defended it, and who had no liking for the
war, threw down their arms and took to flight.
Leslie, perceiving his advantage and that the

river was now fordable, kept up a heavy fire
upon the rest of their defences, under cover of
which he crossed the river, a body of cavalry
composed of Scottish lawyers being the first to
cross. In tliis insignificant encounter the Eng-
lish did not lose above sixty men; but, to account
for their spiritless resistance, it must be remem-
bered that they were not only averse to the
king's cause, but consisted of only four thousand
raw recruits opposed to a well-trained army.^

The fugitives fled to Newcastle, and flushed
with success the victors followed at their heels.
But Lord Conway had no design to make a stand
for the defence of the town, wliich was so de-
fective in fortifications as to be untenable ; and
having called a council of war during the night,
it was resolved to fall back immediately upon
Durham, which was done at five o'clock on the
following morning.2 When the Scots advanced
to Newcastle they could not believe that the
town was evacuated until the gates were thrown
open to their entrance, and astonished at tlieir
good fortune they rested there the following day,
which was Sunday, and heard three sermons
preached in the churches by their own ministers,
who accompanied the army. On the following
day Leslie encamped his army on Gateside Hill,
about half a mile south of Newcastle ; and while
it was supplied with victuals from the town he
paid for it in money and bills, and would permit
none of his soldiers to take the smallest article
of provisions without payment. Indeed his
strict discipline and the sermons and exhorta-
tions of the ministers made the arrival of the
Scots a welcome visit instead of a hostile in-
vasion. On his hasty retreat to Durham Con-
way found that this town was also untenable,
so that instead of defending it he continued his
flight to Darlington, where he met the Earl of
Strafford ; and both of them being aware that
they could make no eflectual stand against the
Scots, retreated to Northallerton, where Charles
with the main army was encamped. The career
of Leslie was now so uninterruj^ted that with
the loss of scarcely twenty men he took Durham,
Shields, Teignmouth, and other places, and
finally became master of nearly the whole of the
four northern counties. Charles in the mean-
time had found his army so greatly dispirited
and so much reduced by desertion that he was
fain to retire from Northallerton to York, which
he intended to make his head-quarters for the
defence of Yorkshire; but instead of assailing
him, which they might have done with every
prospect of success, the Scots halted on the Tees,
and were still willing to negotiate for peace.

1 Letter of Vane to Windebank, in Hardwicke State
Papers ; Rushworth ; Baillie. ''■ Rushworth.

A.D. 1639-1641.]

CHAELES I.

47

The atfairs of Charles were now so hopeless that
he had scarcely any other alternative ; his troops
were spiritless, his exchequer empty; and Straf-
ford, his best general, besides being profession-
ally no soldier, was so afflicted with gout and
stone as to be unfit for the duties of a campaign.
He therefore consented to receive the envoy of
the Covenanters in the hope that by temporiz-
ing a defeat might be avoided and the disasters
of the war repaired.

The [)erson whom the Scots sent was Lord
Lanark, brother of the Marquis of Hamilton,
and secretary of state for Scotland. He pre-
sented tlie petition of the Covenanters, in which
they stated that they regretted the necessity
that had brought them into England : that
they had lived upon their own means, which
they had brought along with them, neither
troubling the peace of England nor hurting
any of his majesty's subjects, until necessity
compelled them in self-defence to have recourse
to warlike measures. Anxious to avoid such
extremities for the future they had now adopted
that submissive mode of petitioning which they
had used from the beginning; and they besought
the king that he would consider their press-
ing grievances, provide for the repair of their
wrongs and losses, and with the advice of the
estates of England assembled in parliament
settle a firm and durable peace between the two
kingdoms. Such a demand, especially that of
assembling a parliament, was most unwelcome
to the king, and he returned to the petition an
evasive reply. Their grievances, he said, were
stated in too general terms ; but if they were
mentioned more specifically they would meet
with his earliest attention. As to the assembling
of a parliament he said nothing whatever, but
announced that he had already summoned the
peers of England to meet him at York on the
24th of September, and that he hoped by their
advice to give such an answer to their petitions
as would be satisfactory to themselves and con-
sistent with his own honour and the peace and
welfare of his dominions. Rejoiced at this
gracious answer, of which they did not perceive
the equivocal purport, the Covenanters sent their
list of grievances and conditions to the king in
the following terms : — 1. That his majesty would
be graciously pleased to command that the last
acts of the Scottish parliament may be i^ublished
in his highness' name, as our sovereign lord,
with the estates of parliament convened by liis
majesty's authority. 2. That the castles of
Edinburgh and other strengths of the kingdom
of Scotland may, according to the first founda-
tion, be furnished and used for our defence and
security. 3. That our countrymen in his ma-
jesty's dominions of England and Ireland may

be freed from censure for subscribing the Cove-
nant, and be no more pressed with oaths and
subscriptions unwarrantable by their laws, and
contrary to their national oath and Covenant,
approved by his majesty. 4. That the common
incendiaries, which have been the authors of
this combustion, may receive their just censure.
5. That all our ships and goods, with all the
damage thereof, may be i-estored. 6. That the
wrongs, losses, and charges, which all this time
we have sustained may be repaired. 7. That
the declarations made against us as traitors may
be recalled. In the end, that by the advice and
counsel of the estate of England convened in
parliament, his majesty may be pleased to re-
move the garrisons from the Borders, and any
impediments which may stop free trade, and
with their advice to condescend to all particu-
lars that may establish a stable and well-
grounded peace for the enjoying of our religion
and liberties against all force and molestation,
and undoing from year to year, or as our ad-
versaries shall take the advantage."^

Although Chailes received these proposals
with courtesy, and pretended to take them into
favourable consideration, he was indignant at
their boldness; and turning to Strafford, he
asked if 20,000 men could not be speedily
brought from Ireland that he might give a due
answer to these rebels. But neither from Ireland
nor from any other quarter could such assistance
be derived ; his English subjects, instead of
being ready to aid him, were clamouring against
the war and demanding a new parliament for
the redress of their own grievances. Twelve
English peei's, the city of London, and the gentry
of Yorkshire, upon whom the immediate burden
of the war chiefly fell, presented laetitions to the
same effect, so that the king was compelled to
yield, and writs were issued for the assembling
of a parliament on the 3d of November. In the
meantime the meeting of the English peers,
which was to be held in the city of York, met
on the day appointed, the 24th of September,
and to them Charles explained the cause that
had called them together. He had of his own
free accord consented to call a parliament, but
he was anxious to advise with their lordships
what was best to be done under present difficul-
ties before it could be assembled. What answer
shoidd he give to the petition of the Scottish
rebels ? How should he treat them 1 And how,
above all, was he to keep his army in the field
until he could obtain a parliamentary grant of
supplies? The lords concluded that as the Scots
had taken Newcastle, and were in possession of

1 Letter from the Covenanters to the Earl of Lanark;
Peterkin's Records, p. 300.

48

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1639-1641.

so large a part of the northern counties, it would
be uuadvisable to continue the war; and they
counselled that a negotiation should be opened
with them, in which the demands on either side
should be peacefully adjusted. It was therefore
appoiuted that a meeting for this purpose should
be held at Ripon, with sixteen English peers on
the part of Charles, and eight Scottish lords and
gentlemen as the representatives of the Cove-
nanters. The king wished that the conferences
should be held in the cit}' of York rather than at
Eijjou, but this proposal, which was unpalatable
to both parties, was overruled. The Scottish com-
missioners, who had now learned to distrust the
king's sincerity, felt that by meeting at York
they would jilace themselves under the power
of Charles ; while the English lords were jealous
of the Earl of Stratford, by whom the army was
commanded, and who regarded them as his
enemies.! When the commissioners met little
was effected beyond a truce, during which all
hostilities were to be suspended and the Scottish
army maintained during its stay in England,
while the negotiations were to be transferred
from Ripon to London. In the meantime the
Scottish troops were to receive £850 per diem
for the space of two months, beginning from the
16th of October ; to give no molestation to
papists, prelates, and their adherents; and to
retain undisturbed possession of Durham, New-
castle, and all the towns on the eastei'n coast
beyond the Tees, with the single exception of
the town of Berwick. The final peace and its
terms were to await the decision of the ensuing
parliament.^

That parliament, so fatal to Charles and so
memorable in English history under the name
of the Long Parliament, assembled on the 3d of
November, 1640. Instead of riding to the house
in the usual state he repaired to it by water, as
if it had been an unwelcome event ; ^ and in his
oi)eniug speech, which was ominously mournful,
he proposed that all suspicions should be aban-
doned and mutual confidence between himself
and the members established as the best means
of making a hapjjy ijarliament. But it was
chiefly composed of men who suspected him,
and had cause for their suspicion. The first week
was spent in receiving petitions against griev-
ances, which were almost numberless, and these
in many cases were brought in an unusual and
alarming fashion by troops of horsemen from
the counties.* But the chief of these evils, in
whom all the perversities of the church and all
the oppression of the state were impersonated,
were Laud and Strafford, whose day of reckon-

1 Rushworth.

3 Laud's Diary; Clarendon.

2 May.

* AVhitelock.

ing had come, and who were both committed to
the Tower under a charge of high treason. The
condemnation of the odious imposts followed,
which disappeared like frostwork before the
breath of a furnace, and those who liad con-
ducted the levying of ship-money were obliged,
under heavy bail, to abide the trial of parlia-
ment. The Puritans — Burton, Prynne, and
Bastwick — were awarded large damages for the
tortures they had undergone during the pon-
tifical rule of Laud, while those who had upheld
his administration, assisted in the imjjosition of
papistical rites and ceremonies, and opj^ressed
the Puritans were visited with fine and impri-
sonment. All the evils that had accumulated
during this reign, while complaints had been
disregarded and parliaments set aside, could
now speak with an authoritative voice^ and be
certain of a hearing.

Omitting, however, the earlier proceedings of
the Long Parliament and the execution of the
Earl of Strafford, as belonging exclusively to
English history, the afiairs of Scotland demand
our chief attention. The eight commissioners
of the Covenanters, who met at Ripon, were the
Lords Loudon and Dunfermline, Sir Patrick
Hepburn, Sir William Douglas, Alexander Hen-
dei'son, Johnston of Warriston, Wedderburne,
and Smith ; and, partaking in the general sus-
picion of the king's insincerity, they refused to
leave the encampment of Leslie until their safe-
conduct had received the signature of certain
English peers, in addition to the sign-manual of
Charles.^ When their place of conference was
transferred from Ripon to London, the house in
which they resided was in the heart of the city,
near London Stone ; and contiguous to their re-
sidence was the church of St. Antholin's, which
was assigned for their especial use. Here the
Scottish preachers officiated every Sunday from
morning till night, and thousands of the in-
habitants of Loudon of all ranks, to whom con-
venticles had been prohibited for years and who
were weary of the church of Laud and its ceremo-
nies, thronged, as to a fountain newly unsealed,
from which the living waters flowed forth. Such
is the account of Clarendon, who adds that the
morning and afternoon services were the most
insipid and flat that could be delivered ; but he
either had never heai'd them, or had listened
with prejudiced ears. The sermons of the Scot-
tish ministers were characterized by fervour as
well as learning, and such was the eloquence of
Henderson that the stately historian himself
would have been compelled to admire it. While
they were thus commending their doctrines and
covenant to the metropolis and making converts

* Rushworth.

A.D. 1639-1641.]

CHAELES I.

49

to their religion it was generally felt that the
liberties of England would have been in danger
but for the bold invasion of the covenanting
army, and that a reverse miglit follow if it was
withdrawn from the northern counties. With
the parliament, also, where they gave regular
attendance, and with whose proceedings they
were so closely connected, they were in such
favour that they were cai-essed in both houses,
promised all kinds of rewards and honours, and
by an order that was entered in their books
were on all occasions styled " our dear brethren
of Scotland." While the parliament was thus
eager to keep the Scots in England Cliarles was
equally ingratiating for the purpose of procuring
their departure, and he assented to their de-
mands with a readiness which, considering his
past proceedings, was truly suspicious. He con-
sented to confirm all the acts passed by their
late parliament ; to allow none but Scotsmen to
hold the command of their fortresses ; and that
neither in England nor in Ireland their country-
men should be molested with unusual oaths.
And when they claimed indemnification for the
expenses of the war he referred them to the
English parliament, who voted them £125,000
for the expenses of the army during five months,
and a gratuity of £300,000 under the name of
"a friendly relief for the losses and necessities
of tlieir brethren of Scotland." There was now
a race between the king and the parliament in
granting concessions, but for very different pur-
poses, for the Commons were as anxious for the
stay of the Scottish army as Charles was for its
removal. In the meantime the Covenanters,
thus cared for, remained in their comfortable
quarters in the north of England, keeping watch
upon the royal army at York and reducing it to
inactivity, while they endeared their cause and
church to the people by their discreet orderly
conduct.

During the whole course of this war against
the king they had maintained a unanimity un-
paralleled in their national annals, and this close
union was owing to the religious bond of the
Covenant, which pledged them to abstain from
separate and divisive measures. To break this
union was therefore one great object of Charles,
and he had already succeeded in detaching the
Earl of Montrose from the interest of the Cove-
nanters. Piqued at the coldness with which he
had been received by the king on his first ap-
pearance at court, he had hastened to Scotland
and subscribed the Covenant; and when war
commenced he had been the most forward of its
champions not only in reducing the northern
Scottish districts to submission, but in the sub-
sequent military proceedings. But his ambition
was disappointed by the promotion of Leslie to

VOL. III.

the command of the army, and the pre-eminence
assigned to Argyle in the senate, and while in
this mood the king had successfully allured him
to his cause by ample promises, and by those
conciliatory manners in which the strength of
Charles chiefly lay. He secretly became a more
ardent king's man than he had been a Coven-
anter. Another important personage whom
Charles detached from the cause was the elo-
quent and able, but versatile Earl of Rothes,
who was allured by the promise of a rich mar-
riage and a high office in the royal bedchamber.^
Fortunately, however, for the party he had
abandoned, that nobleman soon after sickened
and died at Richmond, so that his able support
was lost to the royalists. But, from these suc-
cessful examples, the king was induced to hope
that his personal presence alone was necessary
to recall the whole Scottish nation, and he an-
nounced to the English parliament his 2:)urpose
of repairing to Scotland. This proposal was
made in the month of June, and alarmed at the
prospect the parliament made haste to conclude
the pending negotiations, satisfy the Scots, and
have both armies disbanded. The treaty was
accordingly brought to a satisfactory conclusion,
and the Scottish army left its comfortable quar-
ters to return home, not, however, until Leslie
had seen that the royal army at York was ac-
tually disbanding.2

Before the king could arrive in Scotland a
discovery was made of the treachery of Mon-
trose that was damaging to the royal cause.
One of his letters to Charles was intercepted,
and a bond or counter-association to which he
had obtained the subscrijjtion of nineteen noble-
men was discovered and brought to light, in
consequence of which he was committed a close
prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh with several
of his accomplices. Unwilling, however, to
pursue him to extremities, and being satisfied
with his ]Mofessious of sorrow, and his renuncia-
tion of the bond, the committee of estates were
disposed to overlook his off'ence, when it was
discovered that he had also propagated reports
against the Earl of Argyle calculated to bring
that nobleman under a charge of treason. When
the bond was detected Montrose had alleged in
conversation with one Murray, a minister of
Methven, that it was agreeable to the Covenant,
and only meant to counteract the designs of
Argyle, who meant to depose the king. On
being examined by the committee, Stewart, a
commissary of the consistorial court of Dunkeld,
was produced as the author of the slander against
Argyle, and his statement was to this eff'ect : —

1 Burnet's Memoirs; Clarendon ; Lord Hailes' Memorials
and Letters. * Rushworth.

79

50

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1639-1641.

While the Earl of Athole and eight other gentle-
men, of whom he was one, were prisoners in
Argjle's tent at the Ford of Lion, Argyle had
stated to them, "That the estates of parliament
had consulted both lawyers and divines concern-
ing the deposing of the king, and got resolution
that it might be done in three cases, desertion,
invasion, and prodition or vendition of the king-
dom ; and that they thought to have done it at
the last session of parliament, and would do it
at the next sitting thereof." The witnesses
alleged to have been present denied the fact,
and Stewart himself retracted the charge, and
was executed for leasing-making, while Mon-
trose, who had transmitted the charge against
Argyle to the king, was remanded to imprison-
ment in the castle.^

After they had delayed the king's journey to
Scotland as long as they decently could, the
parliament sanctioned the king's departure in
August. So jealous, however, were they of his
designs that they sent after him commissioners
ostensibly to ratify the recent treaty, but in
reality to watch over Charles, and certify the
parliament from time to time of his proceedings,
and of all that should concern the good of the
kingdom. The persons selected for this deli-
cate service were the Earl of Bedford, Edward
Lord Howard, Nathaniel Fienues, Sir William
Armyne, Sir Philip Stapleton, and Mr. Hamp-
den. The king travelled northward, accom-
panied only by his nephew, Charles Louis, the
exiled elector palatine, the Duke of Lennox,
created Duke of Richmond, and the Marquis of
Hamilton. At Newcastle he dined with General
Leslie and the officers of the Scottish army, upon
whom he practised his ai'ts to win them to his
party, but with the old Felt-mavshal at least it
was a hopelessattempt. Leslie, after these kingly
courtesies had been expended, observed to his
friends, "His majesty with all reverence would
see me hanged."^ His entrance into his native
kingdom was different from his former arrival,
when he came to assume its ancient crown ; no
crowds of nobles nor joyous acclamations
heralded his way ; instead of these he was re-
ceived with stern silence, as if his coming had
been that of an enemy. On the 14th of August
he arrived in Edinburgh and took up his resi-
dence in Holy rood. On the following day, which
was Sunday, he attended divine service in the
chapel royal; but the worship, in which he
joined with apparent sincerity, was according
to the Presbyterian forms against which he had
issued so many edicts ; and when he withheld
his attendance on the afternoon he was roundly

1 Burnet's Memoirs; Baillie ; Spalding ; Arnot's Criminal
Trials; Guthrie's Memoirs. ^ Hailes' Memorials.

told by the preacher, that such half-compliances
would not do for Scotland. Even this rebuke
he received meekly, and promised that he would
be more exemplary in future. He had also ap-
pointed Henderson his chaplain, the man by
whom the Covenant had been framed, and who
had presided as moderator in the Assembly of
Glasgow, where Episcopacy was abolished. It
was a humiliating spectacle of kingly power re-
duced to feebleness, and still further debased by
hj-pocrisy and dissimulation. In the public ser-
vices at church, and in the domestic religious
exercises of his own household, wliich were per-
formed by Henderson, Charles complained nei-
ther of the length of the sermons nor the want
of ceremonies and a liturgy.^ Laud, who would
have died at witnessing such a spectacle, was
now a helpless prisoner in the Tower.

But Charles had other circumstances to annoy
him besides these humbling compliances. The
plot of Montrose was discovered, its author and
his accomplices were prisoners in the castle, and
the king was helpless to deliver them. The
more important parliamentary proceedings had
been adjourned until his arrival, and he opened
the parliament on the 17th; but the ancient
ceremonial of "the riding" was dispensed with;
instead of this Charles, after hearing a long ser-
mon in the Abbe}'^ Church, proceeded in his
coach to the house, with the "honours" borne
before him. After prayers by Henderson the
king addressed the estates in the following
gracious speech — "My Lords and Gentlemen:
There hath been nothing so displeasing to me,
as those unlucky differences which of late have
happened betwixt me and my subjects; and
nothing that I have more desired as to see this
day, wherein I hope, not only to settle these
unhappy mistakings, but rightly to know and
be known of my native country. I need not
tell you — for I think it is well known to most —
what difficulties I have passed by and overcome
to be here at this time; yet this I will say, that
if love to my native country had not been a
chief motive to this journey, other respects
might easily have found a shift to do that by
a commissioner, which I am come to perform
myself. All this considered I cannot doubt but
to find such real testimonies of your affections
for the maintenance of that royal power which
I do enjoy after 108 descents, and which you
have so often j^rofessed to maintain, and to which
your own national oath doth oblige j'ou, that I
shall not think my pains ill bestowed. Now
the end of my coming is shortly this — to perfect
whatever I have promised, and withal to quiet
those distractions which have and may fall out

3 Baillie.

A.D. 1639-1641.]

CHAELES I.

51

amougst you; and this I mind not superficially,
but fully and cheerfully to do; for I assure you
that I can do nothing with more cheerfulness
than to give my people content and a general
satisfaction. Wherefore, not offering to endear
myself to you in words — which, indeed, is not
my way, — I desire, in the first jjlace, to settle
that which concerns the religion and just liber-
ties of this my native country before I proceed
to any other act." It is needless to observe how
greatly the professions of this speech had been
contradicted by the royal orator's past j5ei-form-
ances. But the pretension and plausibility were
not entirely on one side. Lord Burleigh, presi-
dent of the parliament, made a harangue in
reply, thanking his majesty for all the former
demonstrations of his goodness, and for his ex-
pressions of love to his ancient and native king-
dom. He was followed in a short and pithy
speech by the Earl of Argyle, who compared the
kingdom to a ship tossed in a tempestuous sea
these years bypast. " And seeing his majesty
had, like a skilful pilot in the times of most
danger, steered her through so many rocks and
shelves, to safe anchor, he did humbly entreat
liis majesty that now he would not leave her
(since that for her safety he had given way to
cast out some of the naughtiest baggage to
lighten her), but be graciously pleased to settle
her in her secure station and harbour again." ^

The king was now more eager to proceed in
his conciliatory measures than was altogether
desired, and this he showed by his offer to ratify
the acts of jDarliament made in 1640. But, as
this might have brought all the other acts into
question which had not been so confirmed, he
was persuaded to defer the act till the following
day; and when the morrow came he was pre-
vailed upon still to wait till the return of the
commissioners who were present at the treaty.
The acts in question were considered to be
already valid, and instead of the king's con-
firmation to need only to be published in his
name. On the 25tli of August the treaty be-
twixt the kingdoms of Scotland and England
■was ratified by the touch of the sceptre and the
royal sign manual, and delivered to the English
commissioners. The terms were the following:
— 1. That neither should declare war against the
other without due warning of at least three
months nor without the previous consent of par-
liament. 2. That mutual assistance should be
furnished to each parliament to prevent foreign
invasion, or suppress internal disturbances. 3.
That during the interval between triennial par-
liaments commissioners should be appointed to
watch over the treaty and preserve the peace.

' Balfour's Aniials.

Nor was the Covenant neglected among the
other proceedings. It was ordained that none
should sit in parliament until he had subscribed
it, and on this account the Duke of Lennox, the
Marquis of Hamilton, and the Earls of Rox-
burgh, Carnwath, Morton, Annandale,Kiunoul,
and several others wei"e kept in an outer room
until they had taken the Covenant. The thirty-
nine acts of the parliament of 1640 were also
fully ratified. By these proceedings the prero-
gatives of the crown were diminished, the con-
stitution of the parliament materially altered,
and Presbyterianism fully established. One im-
portant object which the parliament had at
lieart, and which had occasioned much discus-
sion at the settling of the treaty in London, was
the right of appointing the officers of state. This
the king claimed as the inalienable right of a
Scottish sovereign ; but the parliament quoted
many instances to show that the right belonged
to themselves, and that from the preponderating
influence of the English cabinet in the direction
of Scottish affairs this right ought to be con-
firmed in their possession. To this demand after
some discussion the king yielded, and the mem-
bers, delighted with his acquiescence, rose to
their feet as one man and bowed to the throne
in expression of their gratitude.

Thus far the Covenanters, in consequence of
their union, had been irresistible; they had cur-
tailed the power of the sovereign and increased
the authority of parliament, and been equally
successful in the senate and the field. But,
having no longer an enemy to control, or a com-
mon danger to unite them together, they began
to fall out among themselves. Their dissension,
also, after their exertions had been crowned
with success, was chiefly connected with the
division of the spoil. In the appointment of the
officers of state, privy-councillors, and lords of
session, the king had agreed that his nomination
should be made with " the advice of the estates,"
thus virtually transferring this royal prerogative
to the parliament; and as soon as this was done
it became necessarj' to fill up those offices which
had been left vacant by the death or condemna-
tion of their occupants. On the 20th of Septem-
ber the king presented lists of privy-councillors
of state whose a))pointment he recommended.
Argyle, however, who coveted the oftice of chan-
cellor, objected to the Earl of Morton holding
it, and the contest between them was so hot that
on the 22d a proposal was made in the house
that the election of state-officers and councillors
should be made by ballot, on the ground that
the members, from hoj)es or fears, might be un-
willing to use liberty of conscience. To this the
king remarked, that the man who feared to vote
freely was not worthy of a seat in parliament.

52

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1639-1641.

Mortou at length desired his name to be with-
di'awu, upon which Loudon was appointed to
the office of lord-chancellor, with the unanimous
consent of the house ; and, in taking his place,
he bowed before the king and said, "Promotion
comes neither from the east nor from the west,
but from God alone. I acknowledge I have this
from your majesty as from God's vicegerent on
earth, and the fountain of all earthly honour
here ; and I will endeavour to answer that ex-
pectation your majesty has of me, and to deserve
the good-will of this honourable house in faith-
fully discharging what you both, without any
desert of mine, have put upon me." Amidst
similar contention the office of clerk-register was
bestowed upon Gibson of Durie, while Johnston,
the rival candidate, was created a knight, and
appointed one of the loi'ds of session, by the title
of Warriston. The Marquis of Huntly and eight
other lords, nominated by the king, were set
aside, and an equal number of covenanting lords
substituted in their jjlace as members of council.
The Earl of Lanark was continued in the office
of secretary, and Roxburgh in that of lord privy-
seal. Sir Robert Spottiswood, president of ses-
sion. Sir "William Elphinston, justice-clerk, Sir
John Hay, and Sir Patrick Nisbet, judges, were
superseded by three trusty adherents of the
Covenant.

These contentions for office were intermingled
with reports of still darker designs to bi'eak the
power of the Covenant and restore the king's
ascendency in Scotland, and the chief of the in-
triguers in this conspiracy was the brave, ci'afty,
and unscrupulous Earl of Montrose. By letter
to Charles he had brought a charge of treason
against Hamilton and Argyle; and when his
correspondence with the king was discovered
he was sent prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh.
From his confinement he contrived to open a
fresh coi-respondence with Charles, and accord-
ing to Clarendon, offered "to make away" with
both Argyle and Hamilton, the latter of whom
was bitterly suspected by the king of having
been all along in secret alliance with the Cove-
nanters, with whom he was now in high favour.
There was enough, indeed, that warranted Ha-
milton not only in surmising secret designs, but
also in fearing open violence ; for Lord Henry
Ker in a fit of intoxication sent him a challenge,
which the Earl of Crawford, who was in a simi-
lar condition, presented to him in the presence-
chamber, for which Ker was obliged to express
contrition, and publicly crave Hamilton's pardon.
A few days after the marquis was warned of a
plot to seize him in the presence-chamber, to
which, along with Argyle, he was to be sum-
moned at midnight — that both the noblemen
and the Earl of Lanark, Hamilton's brother,

were to be conveyed by the Earl of Crawford
on board a king's ship that was lying in Leith
roads, or killed in case of difficulty or resistance.
In consequence of this warning the marquis,
Argyle, and Lanark fortified their houses and
gave the alarm to the citizens, who flew to ai-ms
and paraded the streets all night. On the morn-
ing they sent an apology to the king for absent-
ing themselves from court on the preceding
night, and desired his majesty to tell them what
to do ; but Charles, resenting this as an insult,
went down on the afternoon to the jJarliament-
house with five hundred soldiers to apprehend
them. To avoid an Edinburgh riot and street
conflict, which in such circumstances would have
been inevitable, the three noblemen privately
left the town, while Leslie was commissioned
by the estates to guard the parliament with all
the troops that were still left in the city. Charles
was indignant at the flight of the three noble-
men, and the stigma which it had thrown upon
him, and urged an instant trial that his inno-
cence might be manifested ; but to this it was
objected, that the royal presence would over-
come the freedom of inquiry. They recom-
mended, however, a private investigation, in
which the king acquiesced ; and a committee of
four members from each of the estates was ap-
pointed for the purpose, who examined the wit-
nesses with closed doors. The result was as
mysterious and inconclusive as all such trials
usually are ; for, while it was stated that a plot
had actually been formed for the removal of
these noblemen either by transportation or death,
and that they had good i-eason for their flight,
Hamilton, Argyle, and Lanark, after a few
weeks, returned, and were in greater favour
both with king and parliament than ever. The
whole afiair was hushed up, but not without
leaving unfavourable suspicions both against his
majesty and Montrose.^

While Charles was thus coerced in Scotland
by a nation which he had vainly endeavoured
to enslave, and alarmed by the symptoms of a
still more overwhelming reaction in England,
all parties were suddenly paralysed by the ex-
plosion of the Irish rebellion. The Irish for
centuries had suffered all the oppression of con-
quest ; not only their liberties, but their lands
had been taken from them by the victors;
and when England became Protestant a si)iri-
tual bondage was superadded to the other evils
of that unhappy people by the imposition of a
dominant church upon them, and the restric-
tions and persecutions with which it visited all
who adhered to the ancient faith. It was no

' Clarendon ; Baillie ; Balfour's A7inals; Hardwicke
State Papers.

A.D. 1639-1641.]

CHAELES I.

53

wonder if such .a double bondage produced re-
bellion, or that, with such a jieople, the rebellion
should have been a Sicilian Vespers or Bar-
tholomew massacre, ratlier than the rational
well-organized revolt by which a nation becomes
free.

The first and most active agent in producing
this wild insurrection was Roger I^Ioore, a gentle-
man of Kildare, whose indignation at the wrongs
of his country had been intensified by the con-
sideration that the estates of his ancestors, which
ought to have been his own patrimonial pro-
perty, were in the hands of Scotch and English
settlers. Adopting the office of a political agita-
tor, and inspired with the hope of becoming the
national liberator and champion, he glided from
district to district, haranguing the discontented
natives, preparing them for open resistance, and
everywhere finding fuel ready for his incentives;
and he was soon joined by Sir Phelim O'Neil,
the son of the Earl of Tyrone, Cornelius Maguire,
Baron of luniskillen, and other discontented
chieftains, with whom he concerted the plan of
a general rising. But their greatest hope of
success was the co-operation of the Irish army
which the Earl of Strafi"ord, as viceroy of Ire-
land, had raised for tlie service of the king.
Being almost wholly composed of Eoman Ca-
tholics, it was an object of suspicion and dread
not only to the English j^arliament but the Pro-
testants of Ireland, and the consent of Charles
had been reluctantly granted to disband it. But,
in sending this order to Ireland, he had also
transmitted secret instructions to its com-
manders to keep as many of the soldiers to-
gether as was possible, under the pretext that
they were to be retained, not for home service,
but to assist the King of Sjjain in the recovery
of Flanders. This underhand dealing gave fresh
hopes to the conspirators ; they knew that this
army was not intended for foreign duty; and if
they could succeed by its aid in quelling the
insurrections in Scotland and England, and re-
placing Charles in his former authority, what
national advantages might they not exjject from
his gratitude? These views of mutual benefit
drew the chiefs of the conspiracy and the officers
of the army together, and confident of success
they decided that the outbreak should commence
on the 23d of October with the surprise of the
castle of Dublin, and that a simultaneous rising
should take place in all the towns and districts
of Ireland.

By the appointed day all was in readiness.
Preparation for the work of death had been
made by the solemnities of religion; the priests
had administered the holy sacrament, and over
the consecrated host the people had sworn to
exterminate every Protestant. But the castle of

Dublin, in which arms for twelve thousand men
were stored, was happily saved through the
drunken revelation of one of the conspirators,
who, at the critical moment, blurted out the secret
in a tavern. Though the capital was thus saved,
the rising in other parts took place, especially
in Ulster; the towns were captured, and the
Protestants, who were taken by surprise, were
robbed and butchered almost without resistance.
No age, no rank was spared ; women and chil-
dren were involved in one indiscinminate mas-
sacre ; and in many cases the sufferings of tor-
ture were such as to make death itself a relief.
And even where life was not taken, the Pro-
testants were driven out naked from their
homes to perish in crowds, from hunger or the
inclemency of winter. From October, 1641,
when the rebellion broke out, till September,
1643, when it was suppressed, the Irish, who
boasted of the event, declared that two hundred
thousand had been murdered. By some histo-
rians this number has been diminished to forty
or fifty thousand, which is probably below the
mark, and does not take into account those who
perished from cold, hunger, and disease, or who
died in hopeless resistance with arms in their
hands.

When tidings of the Irish rebellion were con-
veyed to the king in Edinburgh the first report
was in a mitigated form ; according to it the
insurrection was chiefly confined to Ulster; and
little mention was made of the extent it had
reached, or the barbarities with which it was
connected. Charles laid these accounts before
the Scottish parliament, upon which a committee
was formed to take them into consideration ; and
it was at first resolved that as Ireland belonged
to the English crown, and the danger did not
appeal' innninent, tliey were not entitled to in-
terfere. They ofi'ered, however, to have their
forces in readiness to co-operate with the Eng-
lish for the suppression of the rebellion at the
shortest notice. For this they were thanked by
the English parliament and requested to send a
regiment of one tliousand men for the defence
of Ulster. It was unfortunate for Charles at
this crisis that both parliaments suspected his
complicity with the insurrection, however he
might protest to the contrary. After finishing
the other aflfairs of the session, which were con-
fined to a few unimportant acts, the Scottish
parliament rose on the 7th of November, after
having continued its sittings longer than any
parliament that had ever been held in Scotland.
All were contented with its proceedings except
the unhappy Charles, and even at the last moment
he was with difficulty hindered from entering
a protest that nothing he had granted should
be afterwards prejudicial to his prerogative; and

54

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1641-1645-

be did uot fail to hint privately to his friends,
that his concessions would be annulled as soon
as the dant,'er was over and the suspicions of
the Covenanters laid to sleep. But, true to his
weak principles of concealment and dissimula-
tion to the last, he allowed no token of this dis-
content to appear; and when tlie rising of par-
liament was crowned by a royal banquet noth-
ing but kingly courtesy on the one side and
dutiful cordiality on tlie other prevailed.

Before he left Scotland Charles endeavoured
by other gracious acts to quiet the apprehen-
sions of the Covenanters and bind their leaders
to his interests. He created the Marquis of
Hamilton a duke, the Earl of Argyle a marquis,
and raised Lords Loudon and Lindsay to the
rank of earls. He also raised the old soldier of

fortune, Alexander Leslie, to the rank of Earl
of Leven. Substantial benefits accompanied
these titles of honour, and the chiefs of the party
were gratified with grants from the ecclesiastical
revenues, which, on the suppression of bishop-
rics, had reverted to the crown. He did not
omit that influential body, the clergy; and while
Henderson, his chaplain, had the temporalities
of the deanery of the chapel royal attached to
his of^ce, provision was made, altliough still in
scanty degi-ee, for the better payment of the
stipends of ministers and support of tlie univer-
sities. Having thus restored Scotland to tem-
porary quietness Charles took his departure to
England, where dangers still more trying, and
spirits more difficult to be satisfied or sujjpressed,
were awaitiusj his arrival.

CHAPTER VII.

REIGX OF CHARLES I. (1641-1645).

Popular welcome of Charles on his return to London — His displeasure at the guards placed by parliament for
its j)rotection — Remonstrance on the state of the kingdom sent to him by the House of Commons — His
answer to it — His complaints of the parliamentary guard — His attempt to replace it by one of his own
appointment — Charles endeavours to gain possession of the Tower — The attempt defeated by popular
interference — Protest of twelve bishops against the House of Lords — Their protest condemned and them-
selves sent to the Tower — Six members of parliament accused by the king of high treason — His rash
attempt to seize them in the House of Commons — The members escape — The king's reception in the house
— The king repeats the attempt of arrest in the city — Unpopularity of the proceeding — Refusal of the city
to surrender the members — Parliament adjourns for safety to Guildhall — They protest against the king's
late violations of their liberties — Their precautions for the security of public rights — Resolution of parlia-
ment to deprive the king of the power of the sword — The militia bill — Controversy on the subject between
Charles and the parliament — Parliament assumes to itself the power of the sword — Its preparations by its
own authority for the national defence — Prohibitions of the king and parliament against each other —
Charles attempts to surprise Hull — He is refused entrance into the town by the parUamentary goveruoi" — ■
His complaints to parliament of this rejection — The parliament justifies the governor's proceedings — Its
decision upon the power and property of the sovereign — Preparations on both sides for war — Military
resources of the two parties — Attention of the Scots to the coming conflict — Their national interest in the
quarrel — Their attempt to mediate between the king and parliament — Their mediation rejected by the king
— His angry letter on the subject to his secretary for Scotland — The mediation of the Scots favourably
accepted by the parliament — Proclamations issued by the king and parliament for the levying of troops —
The king finally proclaims war against the parliament — Both parties apply to the Scots for aid — The
parliament offers to abolish Episcopacy and accept the Covenant— The Scots decide in favour of the par-
liament— Their reluctance to waga war against the king — Parliament in its i-everses urges their active
assistance — The Scots assent — The Solemn League and Covenant drawn up for the subscription of the
English parliament — It is accepted by parliament and the Assembly of Divines — Scottish army raised —
Proceedings of the war in England^ Unwise expedients of Charles to strengthen his cause — Battle of
Edgehill — Indecisive character of the engagement — Charles attempts to recover London by surprise — The
attempt defeated — Negotiations between Charles and the parhament continued — They are unsuccessful —
The war confined to skirmishes — Death of Hampden — Death of Lord Falkland — The Scottish army enters
England — Their advance to Durham — York besieged by the Scotch and English armies — Attempts of Prince
Rupert to relieve it — Battle of Marston Moor — Defeat of the Royalists — The city of York surrenders — The
Earl of Essex inclosed by the king's army in Cornwall — The general and his cavalry escape — The foot
compelled to surrender — Discontent at the indecisive character of the war — Intrigues of Cromwell and the
Independents — Charges of Cromwell against the principal commanders — They retaliate with counter-
charges— The House of Commons deliberate on the conduct of the war — They resolve that the army shall
be remodelled — The Self-denying Ordinance — It occasions a change of generals — Execution of Archbishop
Laud.

On the arrival of Charles in London after his I by such a cordial welcome from the citizens as
protracted stayin Scotland his re turn was greeted I made him hope that he had recovered his lost

A.D. 1641-1645.]

CHARLES I.

55

popularity and might once more rule with ab-
solute power. He was sumptuously banqueted
by the city council, whom he entertained in turn
at Hampton Court, and bestowed the honour of
knighthood on several aldermeu.i j^ hostile
spectacle soon disturbed his expectations : it
was the armed guards which the houses of par-
liament had planted for their defence, osten-
sibly from their alarm at the Irish rebellion,
and their dread of a similar rising of the Papists
in London. He informed the houses by the
lord-keeper that he saw no necessity for such
precautions, and intimated his royal pleasure
that the guards should be dismissed ; and when
compelled to yield to the reasons adduced by
parliament, he wished to have the power of
nominating the commander of the guards. He
was told that the person must be one chosen by
themselves.^

This hostile commencement was soon after-
wards followed by a proceeding that was still
more significant: it was the celebrated " Remon-
strance of the State of the Kingdom," drawn
up by the House of Commons, and passed,
after a debate of unprecedented length, by a
scanty majority. It contained 206 clauses, in
which all the faults of the king's reign from
his accession to the present hour were brought
together, with all that the parliament had done
to suppress them, and how many still remained
in active operation. This remonstrance was
presented to Charles at Hampton Court on the
evening of the 1st of December; and on the
following day he sent his answer, in which he
declared that the language of their complaint
was unparliamentary and its statements unjust.
As the church and its prelates had been especially
attacked he declared that by the laws of the
kingdom the bishops had a right to vote in par-
liament, that their undue power was sufficiently
abridged by the taking away of the High-com-
mission Court, that he would consider the pro-
posal for the calling of a national synod to ex-
amine church ceremonies and other matters of
worship, but that he was persuaded in his con-
science that the Church of England was more
pure and its government and discipline were
more free from superstition than any other
church.^ On the same day he went down to
the House of Lords, and having summoned the
Commons he complained of their suspicions in
placing guards for the defence of both houses of
parliament when there was no need of such pre-
caution. On the 8th of December, however, an
event occurred which disproved his allegations
and raised their alarm to the height. While
the subject of the Irish rebellion was in debate

May.

2 Rush worth.

3 Idem.

tidings were brought into the house that a guard
had been set over it without their authority;
and on summoning its commander to their bar
to learn the cause of this interference he re-
plied that he acted under authority of a writ
which the sheriif had received, and that the
soldiers had a warrant from the justice of the
peace. It was instantly resolved that this act
was a dangerous violation of the privileges of
parliament and that the guards should be dis-
missed. This rash attempt to control the liberty
of debate only made the parliament more sus-
picious and indignant ; their debates in conse-
quence became more angry and more indepen-
dent, until every movement of the king was
closely watched and made liable to evil inter-
pretation.

In this state of things Charles was not long in
furnishing the parliament with a legitimate sub-
ject of complaint. He attempted to get the
Tower of London into his own hands by dis-
placing its governor. Sir William Balfour, who
had kept fast the Earl of Strafford until the
hour of execution, notwithstanding the high
bribes by which he was tempted to let his
prisoner escape. The parliament was employed
in drawing up a petition to the king for his
continuation in office when his dismissal was
carried into effect, and Colonel Lunsford, a
Royalist of daring and desperate character, ap-
pointed by Charles to succeed him. Such a
keeper for the charge of the citadel of the me-
tropolis, and so ready for any enterprise with
which Charles might intrust him, alarmed the
citizens, who petitioned the House of Commons,
and they voted unanimously that Lunsford was
unfit to hold the office. That he did not possess
the public confidence was evident from the fact
that on his appointment the mei'chants had made
haste to withdraw their bullion from the Tower,
in consequence of which there would be a want
of money for carrying on the Irish war. But
the Lords refused to join in the petition of the
Commons for Lunsford's removal as an intei'-
ference that intrenched on the royal prerogative.
While they were thus debating the matter the
citizens had taken it into their own hands, and
Charles was advertised by the lord-mayor that
the London apprentices had resolved to carry
the Tower by storm unless the new lieutenant
was removed. Nor was this a threat that might
be despised, for it was of these apjsrentices that
the best soldiers of the armies of the Common-
wealth were afterwards formed. The king
wisely listened to the mayor's representation
and cancelled Lunsford's appointment. Before
this event, however, was known, the mob had
got in readiness for some violent demonstration,
and thronging the streets in tumultuous multi-

56

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1641-1645.

tudes tliey roared at the top of their voices, " No
bishops! no bishops I" While the popular fury
was at its height Colonel Luusford, with thirty
or forty followers, was attacked by some hun-
dreds of apprentices when passing through
Westminster Hall ; and in the scuffle that en-
sued swords were drawn and wounds iuHicted
as an earnest of the bloodshed that was so soon
to follow. Another riot typical of ecclesitistical
changes broke out in the evening at West-
minster Abbey, in which some of the rioters
w-ere detained and examined. Their fellow ap-
prentices rose for their rescue, battered the
gates, and threatened to pull down the organs ;
and in this conflict several of the citizens were
hurt with stones which were thrown down upon
the assailants from the roof of the sacred edifice.
A movement now occurred which threatened
the absolute extinction of the Long Parliament.
Twelve bishops, who had been impeached for
their participation in the ecclesiastical tyranny
of Laud, but been allowed to resume their seats
in the House of Lords, addressed a protest and
petition to the king, stating that they could not
attend in their places of the parliament from
fear of the threats and violence of the people.
They had been insulted and attacked, they
stated, by the mob, chased away from the House
of Lords, and put in fear of their lives, and in
spite of their complaints to both houses could
find neither protection nor redress. They there-
fore now protested before his majesty and the
peers of the realm against the validity of any
law, order, vote, or resolution that might have
been passed or that still should pass in laarlia-
ment during this their compulsory absence.
Had the peers countenanced this protest the
parliament, so far as the House of Lords was
concerned, was at an end ; but instead of acqui-
escing in the petition and protest they de-
nounced it as dangerous, treasonable, and sub-
versive of all parliamentary authorities and
rights ; the Commons heartily joined in the con-
demnation ; and the bishops, after being brought
to their knees at the bar, were committed pri-
soners to the Tower.^ Another proceeding at
the close of this year tended still fui'ther to
widen the breach between the king and parlia-
ment. The Commons sent an address to his
majesty, in which they besought a guard, and
desired to have an answer without delay. Three
days, however, the king was silent upon the sub-
ject, and when he answered it was to the eflFect
that a guard should be granted to them of his
own appointing, and responsible to himself for
their fidelity.^ Such a protection was reckoned
worse than none ; and while the Commons were

> Piushworth.

'■* Idem.

indignantly deliberating upon this reply a com-
munication from the Lords kindled their anger
into a blaze. It was, that the king's attorney,
in the name of his majesty, had accused before
their house six members of high treason and
required their arrest. These members, whose
names are so conspicuous in the events of this
stormy period, were Lord Kimbolton, Sir Ar-
thur Hazlerig, Denzil HoUis, John Pym, John
Hampden, and William Strode. The Lords
paused at this astounding charge, and instead
of acting proceeded to deliberate, by which they
might aiford sufficient warning to the accused
and time to eifect their escape. Almost at the
same instant the king had sent officers to seal up
the papers of the six members and a serjeant-at-
arms to the House of Commons to arrest them.
This decisive conduct of Charles was confronted
by the Commons with conduct that was equally
decisive. They ordered their Serjeant to break
the seals that were set upon the ai^artments and
papers of the accused and to arrest the officex-s
who had imposed them ; and instead of giving
up the six members at the royal summons they
promised to take the subject under their con-
sideration and to hold the members in readiness
to answer when a legal accusation was brought
against them.

This resistance, which would have sufficed as
a warning to wisdom, was only an incentive to
obstinac}', and in his further proceeding Charles
was true to his prevalent characteristic. He
resolved to invade the parliament house and
apprehend the obnoxious memlters by force.
On the evening of the same day he had arms
brought from the Tower to Whitehall, and a
band of hot-headed young loyalists was collected
to put his design in execution. On the morn-
ing of the following day (January 4, 1642) the
members of the House of Commons were as-
sembled, the accused, as they had been desired,
were in their places, and a keen debate had
been going on concerning these violations of
])arliamentary rights, when intelligence reached
them that the king was advancing towards
Westminster Hall, guarded by his gentlemen-
pensioners, and followed by several hundreds
of courtiei's and officers armed with swords and
pistols. In such a case the House of Commons
would have been justified in protecting its
members even though force should be used for
the purpose ; every one wore a sword, and there
was a good store of halberts within the hall for
its protection. But all shrank as yet from the
idea of levying war against the king in person,
and staining the parliament house with the first
blood shed in the quarrel, and at their desire
the accused withdrew, and found shelter among
their friends in the city. All this was the work

A.D. 1641-1645.]

CHAELES I.

57

of a few minutes, at the end of which Charles
with his motley regiment was at the door.
Leaving them behind in the porch he slowly
advanced, attended only by one of his nephews,
and said : " Mr. Speaker, by your leave I must
borrow your chair a little;" upon which the
speaker withdrew from his seat and gave place
to the king; the mace was removed, and all
the members stood up with their heads un-
covered. Charles directed his impatient glances
through the assembly, but in vain; he could
not discover the objects of his search; and after
announcing the purpose of his visit, he said to
the speaker, who was standing below the chair,
"Are any of tliose persons in the house? Do
you see any of them ? Where are they*?" The
speaker, Lenthall, kneeling respectfully, an-
swered that he had neither eyes to see nor
tongue to speak in that j^lace except as the
house was pleased to direct him. " Well," ex-
claimed the king, " since I see all the birds are
flown I will trouble you no more, but tell you
I do expect as soon as they come to the house
you will send them to me; otherwise I must
take my own course to find them." With this
intimation he rose and retired, amidst loud cries
of "Privilege! privilege!" and the house in-
stantly adjourned. Their privileges had indeed
been violated by this visit of their sovereign,
and what should have been a pledge of peace
became an iiupoitant cause and first apparent
signal of the approaching war. Persisting in
his infatuation, the king on the following day
repaired to the city to requii'e the fugitives
from the common council; but as he proceeded
on his way to Guildhall, attended only by his
usual suite, he was welcomed in the streets by
the hostile shouts of the crowd, who cried "Pri-
vileges of parliament! jjrivileges of parliament!"
and a paper was thrown into his carriage with
the Jewish signal of rebellion written uj^on it,
" To your tents, O Israel ! " The king entered
Guildhall and addressed the council with de-
mands for the delivery of the fugitive members,
who were lurking among them; but neither his
many conciliatory professions, nor the zeal he
expressed against Popery, nor his assurances
that he would maintain and defend the Pro-
testant religion to the death, had any effect on
these citizen rulers and statesmen ; he neither
obtained his prisoners nor a promise that they
would be sought out and surrendered ; and he
returned to Whitehall with a heavy heart, after
having witnessed with his own eyes the wide-
spread spirit of discontent, and the growing un-
popularity of his cause.^

All the events that followed this rash step of

1 Rushworth ; rarliameutary History ; Clarendon.

Charles were rather preparations for war than
attempts at conciliation. After their adjourn-
ment the parliament met at Guildhall, where
they appointed a permanent committee of the
two houses, and they drew up declarations
against his majesty's late visit to Westminster,
which were circulated over the kingdom. In
addition to the alarm occasioned by the Irish
rebellion, reports were prevalent of the warlike
preparations going on at Whitehall, the trans-
ference of weapons and warlike stores from the
Tower, and the arrival of shipments of foreign
gunpowder in the Thames, which quickened
the public alarm and familiarized the public
mind to the thoughts of hostile resistance.
When the safety of the members of the parlia-
mentary committee was to be ensured thousands
of seamen offered to guard them by water, and
as many apprentices to protect them by land on
their way between the city and Westminster;
and when they returned to their old quarters
it was with a mingled array of armed defence
and national triumph. Amidst these stormy
preparations Charles with his family and court
departed to Hampton Court, and afterwards to
Windsor, and never again returned to London,
except as a prisoner. The proceedings of par-
liament after its return to Westminster were
prompt and decisive. At the rumours of
an attempted rising in arms for the king, its
leader. Lord Digby, was obliged to fly be-
3'^ond sea, and Colonel Lunsford committed to
the Tower. To guard the freedom of discus-
sion in the House of Commons two companies
of the city train-bands were placed over it,
under the command of a trusty adherent. They
prohibited the removal of arms and ammuni-
tion from the Tower without their own express
permission, and placed over it a guard both by
land and water. And learning that in Hull
there was a magazine of the king's containing
arms and ammunition for 16,000 men, while
the town was full of Papists and persons dis-
affected to their cause, they decreed that Sir
John Hotham should be appointed its governor,
with a body of the train-bands of Yorkshire for
its garrison."

While Charles, foreseeing the dangers that
were hourly accumulating, had resolved to send
his queen to France, and was only studying how
to bring about her departure before committing
the defence of his prerogative to the sword, the
Commons were resolving to take the sword out
of his hands, and thus prevent the chances of
his making himself absolute. This purpose
they had cherished since his rash invasion of
their privileges by attempting to seize the five

- Rushworth; Clarendon.

58

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1641-1645>

denounced members of their house/ and they
accordingly resolved that the power of the
militia and the appointment of its of^icei-s should
rest exclusively with themselves. They accord-
ingly passed a bill in which they decreed that
the command of the sword should be placed in
the hands of those whom they could trust and
control, and that they should have the right to
nominate the lords-lieutenants of all the coun-
ties, who were to obey both houses of j^arlia-
ment alone, and not be removable even by the
king for two years. It was a stern and severe
measure, and only justified by the necessity, for
the liberties of the kingdom were at stake. The
conduct of Charles had already shown that
without such a precaution there could be no
parliament, or only such a parliament as would
be subservient to his absolute rule. When this
militia bill was presented to his majesty in
February (1642), the queen had not yet left the
kingdom, and Charles, making this an excuse
for delaying his final answer, replied that he
would take the proposal under his serious con-
sideration. But after she was on shipboard and
in safety he resumed his arrogant tone, and met
them with a flat refusal. He was followed to
Theobalds, whither he had retired, by a petition
from both houses urging him to yield to their
demand about the militia, and telling him that
otherwise they would take the case into their
own hands for the safety of the kingdom; and
to this his answer was most explicit : " I am so
much amazed at this message," he said, " that I
know not wdiat to answer. You speak of jeal-
ousies and fears: lay your hands to your hearts
and ask yourselves whether I may not likewise
be disturbed with fears and jealousies; and, if
so, I assure you this message hath nothing les-
sened them. For the militia, I thought so
much of it before I sent that answer, and am
so much assured that the answer is agreeable
to what in justice or reason you can ask or I in
honour grant, that I shall not alter it in any
point." ■■^ On receiving this ultimatum the par-
liament proceeded to act upon their own author-
ity. They resolved to put the kingdom into a
state of defence, and for this purpose issued an
order to the Earl of Northumberland, lord high
admiral of England, to have the fleet in a state
of efficiency, and in readiness to put to sea at
the shortest notice. Omitting also the name of
the king, they appointed by their own authority
lieutenants of counties who were to command
the militia, but most of them noblemen and
attached to the royalist party. And they finally
passed a resolution, "That the commissions

1 Lord Kimbolton, the first person announced in the
king's charge, was a member of the House of Lords.

2 Rushworth.

recently granted under the great seal for lieu-
tenancies for counties were illegal and void ;
that such commissions should be all called in
and cancelled; and that whosoever should at-
tempt to execute any such power without con-
sent of parliament should be accounted a dis-
turber of the peace of the kingdom." After
these resolutions the two houses drew up and
sent to the king a declaration justifying their
proceedings, and stating the causes of their
jealousies and fears. They connected the king
and court with the Irish rebellion and massacre,^
as part of a plan all along contemplated for the
subversion of religion and overthrow of the
rights of ijarliament. They also stated that the
Kings of France and Spain had been solicited
by the pope's nuncio to lend Charles assist-
ance against his parliament; and they invited
him to return to Whitehall and bring the-
Prince of Wales with him, as the best means of
quieting their apprehensions. Charles was at
Newmarket when this declaration reached him,
and he proceeded to analyse its contents in a
spirit of bitterness and contempt, characterizing
them as puerilities, and even as downright
lies. He also declared that his last answer to
the demands of parliament was not a positive
refusal. " Then," said the Earl of Pembroke,
who was one of the bearers of the declaration,
" may not the militia be granted as desired by
the parliament for a time." "No, by God!"
cried Charles, " not for an hour. You have
asked that of me which was never asked of any
king, and with which I will not trust my wife
and children." With the same inconsistency
and disregard of truth he denied every state-
ment contained in the declaration, and sought
to allay their fears of alien intervention, although
his queen was at that time selling and pawning
the crown jewels upon the Continent to raise a
foreign army for the invasion of England in his
behalf.3

There were now two antagonistic governments
of the kingdom, each demanding obedience and
threatening a refusal with the pains and penal-
ties of disloyalty. Charles forbade the parlia-
ment on any pretence to assume the control of
the militia, protesting that all their acts to which
he was not a party should be unlawful and void,
and this was met by a vote of parliament that
the king's absence from the seat of government
was an obstruction to its proceedings, and that
what the Lords and Commons declared to be the
law of the land was as such to be recognized and
obeyed. They denounced all who advised the
king to absent himself from jjarliament as ene-
mies to the peace of England and favourers of

3 Kushworth; May.

A.D. 1641-1645.]

CHAELES I.

59

the Irish rebellion. They also proclaimed that
the kingdom was in danger both from foreign
and domestic enemies, and that the ordinances
of both houses respecting the militia should be
obeyed according to established law. Charles,
after shifting his residence from place to place,
had at length established his court at York, and
began to organize his separate government, while
both parties were intent in procuring arms and
adherents for the approaching trial, by which
the questions at issue were to be decided.
Charles, disappointed in obtaining possession
of the Tower of London, resolved to attempt
the town of Hull, which had a lai-ge magazine
of warlike stores, but was held by Sir John
Hotham for the parliament. The plan by which
it was to be surprised was craftily laid. On the
22d of April he sent his sou, the young Duke
of York, his nephew the prince-palatine, and a
few nobles and gentlemen, but without any
armed force, to visit the town, who were re-
ceived with welcome by the civic authorities,
and invited to dine with the maj'or on the
morrow, which was St. George's festival. But
a little before dinner-time a messenger from his
majesty arrived, who stated in courteous terms
that the king, who was only four miles distant
with a retinue of some three hundred horse, was
coming as a guest to the banquet. It was an
undesirable and unexpected honour, and Hot-
ham, after taking hasty counsel with his party,
raised the drawbridge, shut the gates, and com-
manded the garrison to stand to their arms. At
the king's arrival he found all access closed; and,
on commanding the townsmen to open their
gates, he was answered by Sir John Hotham
from the walls, that he had been intrusted with
the defence of the town by the parliament for
his majesty's honour and the kingdom's use, and
that he intended by God's help to fulfil this
duty. He added, that if his majesty would be
pleased to enter with the Prince of Wales and
twelve more, he should be received with loyal
welcome ; but Charles refused to commit him-
self to his good town of Hull without his whole
guard. An altercation followed that continued
from eleven o'clock till four in the afternoon.
After allowing Hotham an hour for considera-
tion Charles returned to the gate at five o'clock;
but receiving from the governor the same an-
swer, he caused him to be proclaimed a traitor
by two heralds-at-arms, and retired crest-fallen
and discontented to Beverley.

The fact of a king shut out from one of his
own towns by his own subjects, and before war
had been proclaimed, might with judicious hand-
ling be turned to great account. It might throw
odium upon that authority in the name of which
he had been excluded. It might win back the

wavering loyalty of those who were falling
away from him. And at a time when the divine
right of kings was still a hallowed principle in
the political creed of Europe, it might ensure the
aid of foreign powers, should so unnatural a
rebellion bi'eak out into a civil war. Such seems
to have been the conviction of Charles; and, in
entering into a negotiation with parliament
upon the subject, he could compel them to sanc-
tion the acts of Hotham, and bear the blame
and responsibility of all that might follow. He
therefore despatched a message from York to
remonstrate with parliament on the indignity
offered to him at Hull. He said that he had
gone thither to view the arms and ammunition,
but had found the gates shut against him; that,
though he offered to enter the town with only
twenty horse, permission had still been refused;
and that now he thought it necessary to demand
from parliament the punishment of Sir John
Hotham for disobeying his orders and denying
him entrance. But to this appeal the reply of
both houses was given without demur; they
commissioned the magistrates of York and Lin-
coln to suppress all military risings that should
be attempted to force entrance into the town of
Hull ; commended Hotham for his obedience to
their orders, and declared that his being pro-
claimed a traitor, he being a member of the
House of Commons, was a violation of the pri-
vileges of parliament, and being without due
process of law, was illegal and against the liberty
of the subject. A keen correspondence between
the king and parliament followed, in which
Charles endeavoured to convict the other party
of rebellion. The towns of the kingdom, he
alleged, were his, its forts and magazines were
his, and as for the power of parliament, it was
only held inasmuch as parliament was a part of
him, and that without him or against him its
decrees had no validity or justice. To this both
houses replied that the towns were not his pro-
perty any more than the kingdom, or the king-
dom any more than its population ; and that if
his majesty's doctrine was valid, neither indi-
vidual liberty nor property could exist. This
mistaken idea of kings, they added, that king-
doms were their own and that they might rule
them as they pleased, was the root of all tyranny;
and that kingdoms, towns, people, treasurj'', even
the very crown jewels, were only given to the
custody of the sovereign in trust, and ought to
be managed by the advice of parliament. They
therefore hoped that in what they had done in
regard to Hull it would be manifest to the world
that they had discharged their own part of the
duty, and neither invaded the privileges nor yet
the property of his majesty.^

' Parliamentary History.

60

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1641-1645.

Botli parties now began to )ireiiare for war
in earnest. On the 5th of May the parliament
issued a declaration, that in consequence of the
king's refusal they would carry their own ordi-
nance respecting the militia into effect, and re-
quired all persons in autliority to co-operate in
the proceeding. They appointed lords-lieuten-
ants of the counties, who nominated their de-
puty-lieutenants under the sanction of parlia-
ment; and several of its members, being invested
with commissions, turned their attention from
politics to war, and became able drill-masters
and efficient officers. A few days later Charles
issued a proclamation forbidding all military
musters or issue of military orders without his
express commands. He declared that parlia-
meut had no right to act as they had done, com-
manded all men to refuse obedience to its pre-
tended ordinance and suumioned a county meet-
ing at York for the purpose of levying troops
in his own behalf. But the heart of the greater
part of the people of Yorkshire was with the
]jarliament, so that he could only muster one
regiment of foot and a single troop of horse,
while in London alone eight thousand men,
divided into six regiments, were raised by the
opposite party. But what was of still greater
importance to their cause, the fleet under the
Earl of Warwick declared for the parliament.
On the other hand, the nearer approach of war,
and the dangers with which the king was beset,
revived the loyalty of many of the nobles and
gentry, and those who had stood aloof from
the fear of precipitating a civil war, or were but
half persuaded of the new doctrines of popular
liberty, suddenly proclaimed themselves royal-
ists and espoused the cause of their sovereign.
The equilibrium of the two parties at the ap-
proach of the contest was thus unexpectedly
restored, and an incident occurred on the 2d of
June which gave tlie royalists an advantage for
commencing the war. This was the arrival of
the ship Providence, freighted by the queen from
Holland, which, after escaping the Earl of War-
wick's cruisers, arrived in safety on the coast of
Yorkshire. Her freight, which was a large stock
of arms and ammunition, and sixteen pieces of
cannon, for the king's service, was the material
of which he was most in need, and made amends
for the loss of Hull, where he hoped his defi-
ciency in warlike stores would be supplied.^

Of these altercations between the king and
parliament and their evident tendency to end
in a civil war the Scots could not be uncon-
cerned spectators. So vitally were the two
kingdoms now connected that, let the conflict
terminate as it might, they were certain, whether

I May ; Clarendon.

they remained passive or not, to be affected by
its results. Their sympathies also wei'e kindled
by a struggle which so much resembled their
own, and their Presbyterian feelings were grati-
fied by that popular reaction which threatened
the downfall of Episcopacy in England as effec-
tually as it had taken place in Scotland. On
the 15th of January, 1642, when the train-
bands of London had been raised for the defence
of the parliament and Hull garrisoned by its
authority, the Scottish connuissioners offered
their mediation between the contending parties,
a step which their political importance and the
danger impending over their own country from
a civil war in England fully warranted. Their
first appeal was to the king, to whom they pre-
sented a paper containing a humble statement
of their desires. In this they stated the mutual
relations between Scotland and England, so
that both kingdoms must stand or fall together;
and they lamented the disagreements between
his majesty and the people, which were fostered,
they said, by the wicked ])lots and practices of
Papists, Prelatists, and their adherents, whose
aim in all these troubles had not only been to
prevent all further reformation, but also to sub-
vert the purity and truth of religioii within all
his majesty's kingdoms — and who, being disap-
pointed of their aim in Scotland, had contrived
by means of mischievous counsels and con-
spiracies to produce these distempers in Eng-
land and Ireland. " And therefore," they added,
"according to our duty to your majesty, to
testify our brotherly affection to this kingdom
and acquit ourselves of the trust imposed on us,
we do make offer of our humble endeavours for
composing of these differences, and to that pur-
pose do beseech your majesty in these extremi-
ties to have recourse to the sacred and faithful
advice of the honourable houses of paiiiament,
and to repose thereupon as the only assured and
happy means to establish the prosperity and
quiet of this kingdom. . . . We are confident
that if your majesty shall be graciously pleased
to take in good part and give ear to these our
humble and faithful desires, that the success of
your majesty's affairs shall be happy to your
majesty and joyful to all your people." On the
same day the Scottish commissioners sent a
paper to both houses of parliament offering their
mediation with the king. Next to the good-
ness and justice of his majesty in settling the
late troubles of their country they stated them-
selves most beholden to the mediation and
brotherly kindness of England, to which they
earnestly wished the same comfortable peace
and happiness. "And as we are heartily sorry,"
they stated, " to find our hopes thereof deferred
by the present distractions growing daily here

.D. 1641-1645.]

CHAELES I.

Gl

to a greater height, and out of sense thereof
have taken the boldness to send our humble
and faithful advice to the king's most excellent
majesty for remedying of the same to the just
satisfaction of his people, so out of our duty to
his majesty, and to testify our brotherly affec-
tion to this kingdom and acquit ourselves of the
trust imposed upon us, we do most earnestly
beseech the most honourable houses, in the
depth of their wisdoms, to think timeously upon
the fairest and fittest ways of composing all
present differences to the glory of God, the good
of the church and state of both kingdoms, and
to his majesty's honour and contentment." ^

These offers of mediation were differently
received by the parties to whom they were ad-
dressed. In a letter written from Windsor in
reply on the 19th of January Charles expressed
his displeasure that the commissioners, before
they had interposed between him and his par-
liament, had not previously acquainted him
with their resolutions in private; and for the
prevention of mistakes and disputes lie desired
them in time coming not to engage in these dif-
ferences without previously giving him notice
of their intentions. He also sent an angry
letter to the Earl of Lanark, now his secretary
for Scotland, complaining of the intermeddling
of the commissioners without giving him previ-
ous notification. " We did conceive," he said,
" the intention of the commission granted them
by us in parliament was for finishing the re-
mainder of the treaty, for settling of trade and
commerce, and keeping a right understanding
between the two nations, but not betwixt him
and his parliament. He was especially annoyed
with the thought that his concessions to the
Scots had been established as a precedent for
similar concessions in England, and he thus ex-
pressed himself upon the subject to Lanark :
"We hope you will remember upon what
grounds we were induced to yield in this parti-
cular to the desires of our subjects in Scotland,
it being our necessary absence from that our
native country; and you in private did often
promise upon occasion to declare that this king-
dom ought not to urge it as a precedent for the
like to them, the reasons not being the same."
The secretary was now required to make good
that promise, and so much Charles expected
from him as one of the most acceptable services
that could be done for him. At the end of
this letter was the following postscript, written
with his majesty's own hand : " I have com-
manded this my servant, Mungo Murray, to
tell you some things which I think not fit to
"write; therefore desiring you to trust what he

• Rushworth's CoUections, vol. i. pp. 498-501.

will say to you from me, I will now only add,
that your aftections rightly expressed to me (at
this time) will do me an unspeakable service, to
the effecting of which I expect much from your
particular affection and dexterity." These mys-
terious "some tilings" which could not be com-
mitted to paper boded no good to the Scottish
concessions of Charles. The offer of mediation
thus harshly rebuked by the king was very dif-
ferently received by the House of Commons.
On the day after it was presented they sent to
the commissioners their thanks by Sir Philip
Stapleton, assuring them that the parliament
was greatly satisfied with this testimony of their
fidelity to the king and affection to England,
and that the house would continue their endea-
vours to remove the present distractions, as also
to confirm and preserve the union between the
two nations.^

Events now went onwards with such hostile
I^erseverance as defied all friendly interposition,
and the Scottish commissioners could only stand
aloof and keep themselves in readiness for a
favourable opportunity. Charles sent out his
proclamations in all directions for levying troops
and raising money, while the parliament was
not less active in its preparations, and had soon,
besides the fleet, a considerable army in readi-
ness. At last, on the 25th of August, a day
memorable in the histories of England and
Scotland, the king erected his standard and
proclaimed war at Nottingham. It was about
six o'clock on the evening of a very tempestuous
day that this ominous cei'emony was performed.
Accompanied by a small train Charles rode to
the top of the castle hill, and planted the royal
banner amidst a flourish of drums and trumpets.
It was a mournful ceremony, and well befitted
the occasion. A body of the county train-bands
under the command of their sheriff" was the only
guard the royal standard or the sacred person
of its master had : while the stormy weather
deprived the military ceremony of any pomp
or grandeur crowds of spectators and troops
of soldiers might have added to it. To add
to these mournful indications, which were con-
sidered as predictions of the calamities that
awaited the royal cause, the standard was blown
down during the night by the wind, and could
not be set up again for a day or two until the
tempest had abated.^

In conseqvience of this proclamation of war
the Scots could no longer remain neutral, and
considering the merits of the question at issue
it was not difficult to foresee the course they
would adopt. On the 27th of July the General
Assembly, now the real parliament of Scotland,

2 Rushworth.

* Clarendon • Rushworth.

C2

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1641-1645.

Iiad luet at St. Audrews, and both parties had
applied to it for the purpose of securing its
support. In a letter of the king he expressed
his good-will towards that kirk in which he had
been born and baptized, promised that he would
be a nui-siug father to it, and desired them to
judge of his sincerity by his actions, which should
always be constant for the good of religion and
the welfare of his people. The appeal of the
English parliament was of a more jjersuasive
character. They professed their ardent zeal
for a due reformation in cliurch and state ; de-
clared how much their attempts in this good
work had been impeded by Papists, by a disso-
lute clergy, and by the bishops; and they ex-
pressed their hope that with the return of jjeace
they should be able to promote the advance-
ment of true religion and such a reformation
of the church as should be most agreeable to
the Word of God — and what, in the eyes of the
General Assembly, could this be other than
Presbyteriauism 1 This declaration of the par-
liament was contirmed by a letter from a por-
tion of the English clergy, who stated the
earnest wish of a number of their brethren to
have Presbytery established among them, as
being most agreeable to Scripture and reason ;
and that there might be one Confession of Faith,
one directory of worship, and one form of church
government for both kingdoms. These repre-
sentations tiunied the scale in favour of the
English parliament. The General Assembly
hoped that their great enemy Episcopacy, which
had troubled the friendly relations between
Scotland and England, would be plucked root
and branch, as a plant which the Lord had not
planted, and that the bishops and their adher-
ents being thus removed, the government of
the English kirk by assemblies would follow as
a natural consequence. Full of this alluring hope
they sent a petition in answer to the king's appli-
cation, in which, giving credit to his expressed
desires for a more perfect reformation, they
recommended the pattern of their own church
as best fitted for promoting harmony and uni-
formity over both kingdoms. In their answer
to the parliament they accepted it as an estab-
lished fact that England was already hungering
and thirsting for Presbyterianism ; and they
suggested that convocation for the establish-
ment of religious uniformity which was soon
after distinguished as the "Assembly of Divines
at Westminster."

After the king had declared war the negotia-
tions of the Scots with Charles and the parlia-
ment became more frequent but less conclusive.
Charles still possessed his desire for church re-
formation and religious uniformity as far as
these desirable objects could be efiected with-

out the violation of conscience ; but who could
guess his limitations of that standard or the men-
tal reservations and equivocations with whicli
he guarded it/ He also encouraged the con-
tinuation of the correspondence, by which he
kept the Scots to their neutrality until his suc-
cess in the field might be no longer doubtful,
reserving to himself the power of altering or
breaking his promises when it no longer suited
his interests to keep them. Nor were the Scots
themselves eager for hostile measures. A con-
siderable party of the nobles favoured the royal
cause-, several others were waverers or trimmers;
and a feeling of loyalty which past events could
not extinguish made a majority of the peojDle
averse to war and anxious for a settlement by
accommodation. These circumstances explain
the persistency with which they continued to
negotiate and the patience with which they en-
dured the royal delays, equivocations, and pro-
mise-breaking. They therefore continued to
mediate between the king and parliament until
they were advertised by the latter that the king
had given commissions to several distinguished
and well-known Papists to raise forces and organ-
ize an army in the north and other parts of the
kingdom, to be reinforced with foreign troops
from the Continent. This alarm of danger at
their door aroused them to the necessity of self-
preservation, and it was decreed that in conse-
quence of these warlike prejiarations Scotland
should be put in a state of defence by the autho-
rity of a convention of the estates, irrespective
of the royal sanction. While this convention was
sitting commissioners arrived from the parlia-
ment of England to crave their speedy aid and
assistance as they valued their own safety; and
two ministers from the Assembly of Divines
which was now in permanent sitting at West-
minster were sent to the General Assembly to
request their co-operation and aid at West-
minster for securing the uniformity of religion
in both kingdoms. These applications decided
the Covenanters. On the one hand it was
necessary that they should be up and doing
before the northern counties, and even Scot-
land itself, should be converted into the seat of
war. On the other hand England, like the
armed man of Macedonia in the apostle's
dream, was craving their help and entreating
them to come over and secure her conversion to
the ti'ue faith. To set such a countiy free and
induce it to receive the Covenant would trans-
cend all the past achievements by which Scot-
land had been signalized. Besides, were not
the two countries bound to assist each other
when religion was in danger from external oi-
internal enemies? And had not Scotland nearly
a century eai'lier obtained the help of England,

A.D. 1641-1645.] CHAELES I.

through which the French were expelled and
her church established? Aud if they suffered
the English parliament to be enslaved, of what
avail would be the encanapments of Duuse Law
and the terms they had wrung from au unwilling
king] It was cordially resolved to make an
armed march into England aud join the parlia-
mentary army. But the framing of a covenant to
be subscribed by the English, and which should
equally comprehend the kingdoms of Scotland,
England, aud Ireland, was the most trying dith-
€ulty. The English commissioners were at one
with the Scots in their desire for the overthrow
■of Episcopacy, but, at the same time, they
wished the covenant to be so comprehensive as
to include the various sects and shades of opinion
with which their country was already beginning
to abound. Influenced by this representation of
the commissioners, at the head of whom was the
eloquent, able, and inscrutable Sir Harry Vane,
whose leanings were all for toleration, a covenant
was drawn up by Henderson and approved of by
the General Assembly, of which the following
are the articles : —

1. "That we shall sincerely, really, and con-
stantly, through the grace of God, endeavour,
in our several places and callings, the preserva-
tion of the reformed religion in the Church of
Scotland, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and
government, against our common enemies; the
reformation of religion in the kingdoms of Eng-
land and Ireland, in doctrine, worship, disci-
pline, and govei'nment, according to the Word
of God and the example of the best reformed
churches; and shall endeavour to bring the
churches of God in the three kingdoms to the
nearest conjunction and uniformity in religion,
confession of faith, form of church government,
directory for worsiiip aud catechizing, that we,
and our posterity after iis, may as brethren live
in faith and love, and the Lord may delight to
dwell in the midst of us.

2. "That we shall, in like manner, without
respect of persons, endeavour the extirpation of
Popery, Prelacy (that is, church government by
archbishops, bishops, their chancellors and com-
missaries, deans, deans and chapters, ai'chdeacons,
and all other ecclesiastical officers depending on
that hierarchy), superstition, heresy, schism,
profaneness, and whatsoever shall be found to
be contrary to sound doctrine and the power of
godliness, lest we partake in other men's sins,
and thereby be in danger to receive of their
plagues, aud that the Lord may be one aud his
name one in the three kingdoms.

3. " We shall, with the same sincerity, reality,
and constancy in our several vocations, endea-
vour, with our estates and lives, mutually to
preserve the rights and privileges of the parlia-

G.3

ments aud the liberties of the kingdom, that
the world may bear witness with our consciences
of our loyalty, and that we have no thoughts or
intentions to diminish his majesty's just power
and greatness.

4. "We shall also, with all faithfulness, en-
deavour the discovery of such as have been or
shall be incendiaries, malignants, or evil instru-
ments, by hindering the reformation of religion,
dividing the king from his people, or one of tlie
kingdoms from another, or making any faction
or parties among the people contrary to this
league and coveuant, that they may be brought
to public trial, and receive condign punishment,
as the degree of their offences shall require or
deserve, as the supreme judicatories of both
kingdoms respectively, or others having power
from them for that efl'ect, shall judge con-
venient.

5. " And whereas, the happiness of a blessed
peace between these kingdoms, denied in former
times to our progenitors, is, by the good provi-
dence of God, granted unto us, and hath been
lately concluded and settled by both parlia-
ments, we shall each one of us, according to our
place and interest, endeavour that they may
remain uninjured in a firm peace and union to
all posterity, and that justice may be done upon
the wilful opposers thereof in manner exjjressed
in the precedent article.

6. " We shall also, according to our places
and callings, in this common cause of religion,
liberty, and peace of the kingdoms, assist all
those that enter into this league and covenant
in the maintaining and pursuing thereof, and
shall not suffer ourselves, directly or indirectly,
by whatsoever combination, persuasion, or terror,
to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed
union and conjunction, whether to make defec-
tion to the contrary part or to give ourselves to
a detestable indifl'ereucy or neutrality in this
cause, which so much concerneth the glory of
God, the good of the kingdoms, and honour of
the king; but shall all the days of our lives
zealously and constantly continue therein, against
all opposition, and promote the same according
to our power, against all lets and impediments
whatsoever, and what we are not able ourselves
to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and
make known, that it may be fully j^revented or
removed, and which we shall do as in the sight
of God."

This was as far as the toleration of the age
could go, and in the opinion of a few in that
assembly it went farther than it ought. Popery
and Prelacy were denounced and thrown out,
but what would England introduce in their
room? It might be Independency, or any other
church that happened in the course of events to

C4

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1641-1645.

predominate. To this it was answered that the
English having rejected the Episcopal form of
government, the reformed churches knew no
other except the Presbyterian. The Covenant,
therefore, in its present modified and negative
charactei", was approved by the assembly as the
assured establishment of Presbyterianism in
England; and, after passing the assembly, it was
ratified by the convention of estates in the after-
noon of the same day. Under the title of the
''Solemn League and Covenant" it was sub-
scribed by the English parliament and Assembly
of Divines, and afterwards sent to Scotland,
where it was joyfully subscribed by all ranks
and classes.^ Little did they surmise the inter-
pretation that would be made of its articles by
the English Independents, and how greatly its
])romises of brotherly union and religious uni-
formity would be afterwards belied. All being
in the meantime satisfactorily ratified the con-
vention issued a proclamation in the king's name
for all fencible men from sixteen years old to
sixty to provide themselves with forty days'
provision and weapons according to their rank,
and to assemble at the place appointed by the
estates ; and the prospect of a war for the ad-
vancement of religion and the establishment of
Presbyterianism in England was of greater force
than those ancient appeals which had only pa-
triotism, or plunder, or national rancour for their
chief motive. An army of eighteen thousand
foot and three thousand horse was assembled
on the Border at the close of the year (1643),
having Field-marshal Leslie, Earl of Leven,
for its commander, with William Baillie for
his lieutenant-general, and his nephew David
Leslie, who had won renown in the wars of
Germany, as his major-general of the horse.
The soldiers were well equipped, the horse-
men having pistols, broadswords, and steel caps
or morions, jacks, and lances; and the foot with
musket and sword, or pike and sword, and
failing these, with halberts, Lochaber-axes, or
Jeddart staves. They were to be paid by the
English parliament at the rate of thirty thou-
sand pounds per month, with a hundred thou-
sand in advance ; no separate peace was to be
made by either ; and while the Scottish troops
were to be employed exclusively in the service
of the parliament the Scottish coasts were to be
defended by the English navy during their ab-
sence.

While these negotiations were in progress the
war had been going on in England. After rais-
ing his standard at Nottingham Charles, in con-
sequence of the advance of the Earl of Essex
with the parliamentarian army of 15,000 men,

' Rushwortli.

found it necessary to remove to the west of Eng-
land. Unwilling even yet to wage war against
their sovereign, the parliament made overtures
of peace; but these the king contemptuously re-
jected as the insulting message of a set of traitors,
and in his proclamations to his soldiers he told
them they should meet with no enemies but
traitors, most of whom were Brownists, Ana-
baptists, or Atheists, who would destroy both
church and commonwealth. He also put in
practice his old j^lan of borrowing money from
his subjects, which was levied in the form of
military contributions. With these, and the
voluntary donations of high Ej^iscopalians and
Catholics, his treasury was so well replenished
that he was encouraged to reject all peaceful
overtures and put his fortunes to the arbitra-
tion of the sword. And although by proclama-
tion he had forbid Papists to resort to him he
welcomed all who came, and directed the Earl
of Newcastle, who was raising an army for him
in the north, where the Papists most abounded,
to enlist as many recruits as he could without
questioning them about their religion. He also
sent to Ireland for Anglo-Irish troops, or for
troops of native Catholics. But by these des-
perate expedients his already unpopular cause
was more damaged than benefited. This con-
duct contrasted with his most solemn profes-
sions of devoteduess to the Protestant religion
and the Church of England, only confirmed his
character for insincerity and duplicity in the
eyes of his subjects, and made men mistrust
him even when he had no intention to deceive.
And the impression that so large a portion of
his army consisted of Papists only multiplied
his enemies and confirmed their hostile zeal,
from their apprehension that Protestantism was
in danger, and the conviction that their own
cause was sacred as well as patriotic.^

The first proceedings of the war were confined
to a few skirmishes, and were marked by delay
and hesitation. At length Charles broke up his
encampment at Shrewsbury with the intention
of marching upon London, and this movement
the Earl of Essex resolved to prevent, for which
purpose he took up his position at the village of
Keynton in Warwickshire. The king had already
reached Edgehill, a little in advance of the vil-
lage; but, finding the parliamentary army so
near him, he i-esolved to offer battle, more espe-
cially as several of the regiments of Essex, in
consequence of the quickness of his march, had
not yet come up. Accordingly, on Sunday the
23d of October (1642), the indecisive battle of
Edgehill was fought, the first of a series of en-

"^ Rushworth ; May ; Letter from Lord to Lady Spencer, in
Sydney Papers.

A.D. 1641-1645.]

CHAELES I.

G5

gagements in which the best blood of Enghmd
flowed and the kingdom was revokitionized.
The advantages of both armies were equally
balanced, for although the royalists outnum-
bered the 2iarliamentarians the latter were supe-
rior in artillery. Even when they were drawn
up in hostile opposition each army was reluctant
to begin ; for hours they stood gazing at each
other; and when the encounter commenced it
was with a distant cannonade which continued
on both sides for about an hour. Gradually,
however, they warmed for closer conflict, in
which mutual forbearance was abandoned. The
first decisive charge was made by Prince Rupert,
the king's nephew, who had lately arrived in
England to assist his uncle, and who had already
made himself odious to the nobles of the king's
party by his arrogance, and the nation at large
by his military exactions. By one of those head-
long charges of cavalry for which he was dis-
tinguished he broke the left wing of the par-
liament army, chased it off the field, and pursued
it as far as the village of Keynton; but, instead
of following his advantage, he allowed his soldiers
to betake themselves to j^lundering as if the vic-
tory had been already won. While the royal
army was thus unprotected by its horse the right
wing of the pai'liamentarians that was still un-
touched attacked it in front, flank, and rear,
with horse, foot, and cannon, and drove it to
the top of Edgehill, where they rallied and con-
tinued the fight until the close of the evening.
In this first battle of the civil war there was
little military skill and as little manoeuvring ;
it was a conflict of close fighting and personal
struggle, and on both sides it was shown that
at least in courage and obstinacy the English
had not degenerated from their ancestors.
About four thousand men were killed on both
sides ; but although the greater number of the
killed were royalists the king claimed the victory.
He marched to Oxford, where the reports of his
success brought many fresh recruits to his stan-
dard, while Essex jsroceeded to London, and
after quartering his troops about Acton for the
protection of the capital, repaired to West-
minster to give an account of his proceedings.
So well was it received that the parliament
voted him a gift of five thousand pounds.^

The next attempt of Charles was to recover
his capital by surprise, a bold exploit which the
present secure feeling in London justified.
Prince Rupert at the head of a flying corps was
keeping up a guerrilla warfare in which he had
advanced as far as Staines and Egham, and the
king, leaving Oxford, had marched to Coln-

i Ludlow ; Sir Philip Warwick ; May ; Whitelock ; Rush-
worth.

VOL. III.

brook. Here he was met by a deputation from
the House of Commons to learn his intentions,
to whom he exj^ressed his only desire to be for
peace, and to reside near London until the dif-
ferences between him and his parliament should
be settled by an amicable compromise. Gratified
with this prospect the parliament suspended hos-
tilities, and were ready to treat, when the roar
of the king's cannon was suddenly heard in their
neighbourhood. Following Prince Rupert he
had reached Brentford, through which he at-
tempted to force his way and fall upon Ham-
mersmith,where the parliamentary artillery was
stationed, after the capture of which Loneion
itself might be taken by a night attack. But
the soldiers of the parliament at Brentford, who
consisted only of a broken regiment, made a
stubborn resistance until three other regiments
came to their aid, and troops continued to arrive
from London in such numbers as to make all
attempts to surprise the capital hopeless. An
army of twenty-four thousand men was soon
arrayed against the king on Turnham Green,
which he would not venture to encounter, and
he retreated accordingly to Kingston, and after-
wards to Oxford.^ Although the parliament
was indignant at the treachery of this attempt
they renewed their attempts of negotiation,
and in March, 1643, they sent to Charles at
Oxford their projjosals for an agreement. These
were, that he should disband his army and
return to the parliament, pass bills for dis-
arming Papists, abolish the order of bishops,
and sanction such other steps as were neces-
sary to promote the Reformation ; that he
should consent to the removal of evil counsel-
lors and settle the militia as the parliament de-
sired. Nor was the case of Lord Kimbolton
and the five members of the House of Commons
forgotten, in whose vindication he was desired
to pass a bill restoring them to their offices, and
granting them compensation for their losses.
The counter-demands of the king were for the
restitution of his revenue, magazines, towns,
shijjs, and forts, the recall of all that had been
done contrary to law and the royal rights, the
abandonment by parliament of its illegal orders
and commissions, and the continuation of the
Book of Common Prayer as a safeguard against
sectarianism. But these demands on both sides
were so opposite and contradictory that the
negotiation, after being protracted for several
weeks, was abandoned as hopeless.

During the progress of the negotiations the
operations of war had been continued, but rather
in a series of skirmishes than any decisive action.
One of these was of importance, as it was sig-

2 May ; Rushworth.

80

C6

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1641-1645.

nalized by the death of the patriotic Hampden,
who was now as eminent for his services in the
field as the senate, but whose career was ab-
ruptly cut short in a night attack of Prince
Eu}jert at Chalgi-ove Field. It was thought that
hail he lived he would soon have been appointed
commander-in-chief of the parliament army in-
stead of the Earl of Essex, whose proceedings
were so dilatoi-y that he was finally set aside in
favour of such decisive commanders as Fairfax
and C'i'omwell. Thus an obscure night attack,
and a random pistol-shot by which Hampden
received his mortal wound, sufficed in all pro-
bability to alter the character of the war and
ultimately change a monarchical to a repub-
lican government. On the other hand the
king, whose cause had been brightened by late
successes, suffered by the death of Lord Falk-
land a heavy drawback to the career of pros-
perity upon which he was entering. Lamenting
over the losses of his countiy, and the sufferings
of his countrymen, whatever side might prevail,
and following the fortunes of a sovei'eign whose
proceedings he could not justify, as the lesser
of two evils, his only ci-y was "Peace ! Peace ! "
the utterance of a broken heart. But the pros-
pect of peace daily became more remote, and
Falkland, only three months after the death of
Hampden, his bosom friend before the war com-
menced, was struck down by a musket-ball at
the indecisive conflict of Newbury.

It was now time for the Scottish army to
enter England, and on the 19th of January
(1644) it crossed the Border, to the number of
18,000 foot and 3500 horse. They advanced to
Morpeth, meeting with no opposition except
from the weather, the snow having fallen so
deep that the thaw which followed made the
roads almost impassable. After halting five
days at Morpeth, Leslie advanced to New-
castle, which he summoned to surrender; but
that city, garrisoned by the Marquis of New-
castle for the king, returned an answer of de-
fiance, and the siege of the town was commenced
in regular form. No impression, however, being
made on it, and time being precious, the Scots
after having spent a fortnight before Newcastle
broke up their encampment, and crossing the
Tyne by three different fords advanced to Sun-
derland, which they entered. The Marquis of
Newcastle, who had been reinforced so that his
army was raised to 14,000 men, advanced to
give them battle ; but finding the Scots too
strongly posted he contented himself with taking
up a strong position in their neighbourhood and
cutting off" their supplies. Leslie was desirous
of joining the Fairfaxes, father and son, who
commanded for the parliament in the north ;
but these generals were occupied elsewhere, and

the Scots were obliged to lie inactive between
Sunderland and Durham. From this, however,
they were relieved by a night attack of the
Marquis of Newcastle, in which he failed, and
Leven was enabled to advance to the country
between Hartlepool and Durham, where pro-
visions were more abundant. An event fol-
lowed which obliged Newcastle to draw off his
forces for the defence of York. Colonel Bel-
lasis, who commanded the city, having suffered
a severe defeat from the Fairfaxes, Newcastle,
obliged to hurry to its defence, was closely fol-
lowed by Leslie, who, after inflicting consider-
able damage upon his rear, joined Lord Fairfax
under the walls of York.

The capture of this city was of such import-
ance that the allied generals resolved to invest
it ; but as the garrison was too strong to be as-
sailed behind their walls the siege was converted
into a blockade until the capture of Lincoln by
Manchester and Cromwell set free the parlia-
mentarian troops to join their brethren in an
active attempt upon York. The city was gal-
lantly assailed, and as stoutly defended by its
numerous garrison, while its preservation was
a matter of high importance to the royalists,
although Charles, fortunately for himself, had
escaped from it by night while the parliamen-
tary troops were gathering round it. When
the fall of York was imminent, Prince Eupert,
equally distinguished by his hardy valour and
relentless cruelty, was ordered by the king to
advance to its relief. This adventurous leader
addressed himself to the enterpi-ise, and being
joined on the way by the Marquis of Newcastle
and Sir Charles Lucas, he was soon at the head
of an army of 20,000, with which he aj^proached
to Marston Moor, within five miles of York.
At his approach the parliamentarian and Scot-
tish leaders advanced to prevent him; but Eu-
pert was enabled to throw both troops and
provisions into the city, and not content with
having fulfilled his commission he resolved also
to give battle, notwithstanding the remon-
strances of the Marquis of Newcastle and the
more cautious of his advisers. This decision
was unexpected by his opponents as well as
friends, so that the allied army of the parlia-
ment were already withdrawing from Marston
Moor amidst the disorder of a retrograde move-
ment. The Scots were marching towards Tad-
caster when Leslie was informed that the roy-
alists had fallen upon his rear, who had not yet
left the moor. He instantly commanded a halt;
the English foot and artillery made a corre-
spondent movement, and a struggle commenced
between them and the royalists for the posses-
sion of a large rye-field upon an eminence,
which was finally obtained by the parliamen-

A.D. 1641-1645.]

CHARLES I.

67

tarians, together with a broad drain or ditch,
that could in some measure protect their front
from charges of cavahy. Between two and
three o'clock, these evolutions being finished,
preparations were made for the encounter. The
armies on both sides were equal, each consist-
ing of about 25,000 men, and the difference was
chiefly in the officers who commanded them.
On the side of the confederates were Lord Fair-
fax and his son Sir Thomas, who was already ris-
ing in military renown ; old Leslie, to whom the
whole science of military tactics was familiar;
David Leslie his major-general, who shared
with Cromwell the chief glory of the victory ;
and Oliver Cromwell, who only awaited oppor-
tunities to show himself superior to them all.
On the other side was Prince Eupert, the com-
mander-in-chief, a matchless cavalry officer and
able partisan soldier, but defective in all the
higher qualities of a general; Newcastle, whose
prudence would have served as a counterpoise,
but whose advices had been rejected, and who
fought on this occasion as a mere volunteer;
and Goring, Porter, and Tyliard, whose names
remain undistinguished, or only notable for rash
daring intrepidity, and a devotedness to the
cause of their sovereign to which their prefer-
ment had been mainly due.

On the 2nd of July, at three o'clock in the
•afternoon, the battle of Marston Moor was com-
menced with a cannonade on both sides, which,
however, did little execution. The watchword
of the royalists was " God and the king," that
of the parliamentarians "God with us." The
distant conflict with artillery was kept up till
five o'clock, when there was a pause and silence
on both sides, each expecting the other to ad-
vance to action ; but as a ditch lay between
them, each was unwilling to forego its advantage
by crossing it. From this cessation it was thought
no engagement would be hazarded that night,
when at seven o'clock the parliamentarian com-
manders decided on becoming the assailants ;
and no sooner was the signal given than the
Earl of Manchester's foot and the Scots of the
main body advanced in a running march, crossed
the ditch, and resolutely charged their oppo-
nents. This attack was followed by two general
charges of cavalry, the right and left wings of
the two armies mutually assailing the wings op-
posed to them at the same instant. That of the
royalists' left wing was headed by Prince Ru-
pert, who assailed the right of the parliament
army, and with his bravest soldiers placed both
on front and flank, encountered Cromwell and
his Ironsides; but the latter, though few in
number, abode the brunt, and gallantly cut
their way through their antagonists. But while
Rupert still pressed forwai'd, Cromwell with

the rest of his horse, and David Leslie with his
Scottish cavalry, attacked the prince's right
wing and put it to the rout, with the exception
of the Marquis of Newcastle's regiment of white
coats, who disdained to fly, and whose dead
bodies were found in the places where they had
been drawn up. But in the prince's left wing,
under the command of Colonel LTrie or Hui ly,
matters were reversed, for he charged the par-
liamentary right, broke it, and chased it several
miles towards Cawood and Tadcaster, where it
raised the alarm that all was lost. Each suc-
cessful wing believed that it had secured the
victory to its own jiarty ; but in wheeling round
each upon its own main body they were aston-
ished to find that the battle was a drawn one,
and had to be fought over again. The position
of each army was now reversed, the place of
the parliamentarians being held by the royalists,
and that of the royalists by the parliamentarians.
That second battle was commenced by the king's
army, who came down from the rye-field which
the other had previously occupied, upon their
opponents, who were now drawn up upon the
moor. The conflict was terrible but brief. Be-
fore ten o'clock the royalists were broken by
the cavalry under Cromwell and David Leslie,
and chased with great slaughter to within
a mile of York. All their artillery, military
stores, and baggage, and about one hundred
colours and standai'ds, fell into the hands of the
victors, of whom only three hundred were killed,
while more than three thousand of the royalist
soldiers were said to have fallen. i The parlia-
ment army i-eturned to the siege of York, from
which city Prince Rupert fled on the following
morning, attended by a few horsemen and
scarcely any foot. On the same morning the
Marquis of Newcastle, disgusted with the man-
agement of affairs, and despairing of their suc-
cess, left the kingdom with his family for the
Continent, and did not return to England till
the Restoration.

On Thursday the 4th of July the siege of
York was resumed, and vigorously continued
every day except Sunday, which the army
held as a season of public thanksgiving for the
victory on Marston Moor. The city surren-
dered on Monday at noon; the royalist gar-
rison was allowed to leave it with the hon-
ours of war, and the three chief commanders of
the parliamentarians, Lord Fairfax, the Eail of
Manchester, and Leslie, Earl of Leven, repaired
to the stately cathedral, whose echoes were
startled with Presbyterian psalms and rites
of worship, and a sermon preached by a Pres-
byterian minister.^ But while their victory

1 Rushworth, vol. ii. pp. 632-635.

' Rushworth.

68

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1641-1645.

gave to parliament the command of the north,
their affairs in the west were about to undergo
a grievous humiliation. Into this quarter, where
the royal cause was strongest, the Earl of Essex
had incautiously advanced, and was not aware
of his danger until his army was inclosed and
his supplies cut off by tlie king. He was now
at the extremity of Cornwall, where he was
shut up on a narrow strip of land about two
miles in length and the same in breadth, be-
tween the rivers Fowey and St. Blaze, while
the sea, by which he expected provisions to
ai'rive, was commanded by a garrison of the
enemy. So desperate, indeed, had his affairs
become, chiefly through the impossibility of
subsisting his army in such a place, that he re-
solved to break through the king's lines with
his cavalry, while the foot should escape by sea.
Although intelligence of this design was con-
veyed to their adversaries, the precautions to
counteract it were so ineffectual that it partly
succeeded: the horse extricated themselves with
little loss, after which Essex fought his way to
the mouth of the Fowey, where he and many
of his officers embarked in a ship which the
Earl of Warwick had sent round, and which
conveyed them in safety to Plymouth. But the
foot were still left behind under the brave
Major-general Skippou, with no prospect but
capitulation, which he disdained to crave with-
out an effort. Calling, therefore, a council of
his officers, he thus laid the case before them :
" You see our general and some chief officers
have thought fit to leave us, and our horse are
got away ; we are left alone ujwn our defence.
That which I propound to you is this : that we,
having the same courage as our horse had,
and the same God to assist us, may make the
same trial of our fortunes and endeavour to
make our way through our enemies as they
have done, and account it better to die witli
honour and faithfulness than to live dishonour-
able." But the proposal of the gallant Puritan
was pronounced too rash and hazardous, and as
good terms were offered they delivered up their
arms, cannon, and ammunition, and were con-
ducted to the lines of the parliamentary army
at Poole and Portsmouth.^

The indecisive proceedings of the parliamentary
generals, Essex, WaUer, and Manchester, and the
unsatisfactory results that followed them, had
now become the subject of popular comjjlaint.
These complaints were loudest on the part of
the Independents, and of Cromwell, who was
their military head. This remarkable man, in
whom there was no such hesitation, and to
whose efforts the victories of the parliament

1 Clarendon; Kush worth; Ludlow.

had been mainly owing, now comialained openly
of the chief commanders, and especially of his
superior the Earl of Manchester, whom he
charged in the House of Commons of slack-
ness in action and equivocation in council, by
which o])portunities of successfully ending the
war were lost. It was a religious as well as a
militaiy quarrel, for the Independents hated
the intolerant spirit of the Presbyterians, who
legarded no church witli favour but their own,
and were envious of the ascendency which Pres-
byterianism had obtained both in the parliament
and the army. The generals thus accused were
not slow to retaliate, and they formally charged
Cromwell not only of remissness in the execu^
tion of military orders, by which the most pro-
mising of their plans were frustrated, but even
of absolute cowardice.

At last, when both armies had retired into
winter-quarters, the effect of this controversy
revealed itself. On the 9th of December the
House of Commons took into their serious
consideration the burdens of the war and the
misei'ies they entailed upon the kingdom. On
this occasion Cromwell was the first to speak.
He denounced the procrastination of the war as
the work of certain members of both houses
that they might retain their places and com-
mands and the power of the sword all the
longer. " Let us apply ourselves," he added, '' to
the remedy which is most necessary ; and I
hope we have such true English hearts and
zealous affections towards the general weal of
our mother-country as no membei' of either
house will scrujJe to deny themselves and their
own private interests for the public good, nor
account it to be a dishonour done to them what-
ever the parliament shall resolve upon this
weighty matter." He was followed bj" others
in the same spirit, until what was called the
Self-denying Ordinance was proposed, seconded,
and carried. By it all members of parliament,
whether of the House of Lords or Commons,
were excluded from holding offices and com-
mands, so that the army might be remodelled.
The effect of this was the resignation of the old
commanders of the army and appointment of
new. Sir Thomas Fairfax was appointed com-
mander-in-chief in lieu of the Earl of Essex,
and the gallant Skippon was made major-gen-
eral. But by whom was the important office
of lieutenant-general to be held? The name
was left blank, but soon afterwards fiUed by
that of Oliver Cromwell. Although he held a
seat in the House of Commons he was too neces-
sary as a soldier to be excluded from military
command by the Self-denying Ordinance.^

2 Deuzil HoUis' Memoirs; Eushworth.

A.D. 16-14-1647.]

CHAKLES I.

69

The commencement of the year 1645, which
thus signalized the rise of one who was after-
wards to prove the most formidable of the ene-
mies of Charles, was also distinguished by the
death of one who had been his principal friend,
counsellor, and adviser. This was Archbishop
Laud, who had been nearly four years in prison,
and although unnoticed had not been lost sight
of or forgot. After he had suffered in his own
person a small measure of those punisliments
which he had been so ready to inflict upon
others, and had seen the book of liturgy abol-
ished and the directory composed by the synod
at Westminster established, he was brought

from the Tower and placed on his trial before
the parliament. His closing scene was the
chief redeeming part of a life of narrow-minded
intolerance, and attempts that only involved
the country in war and brought ruin upon the
head of his sovereign; and after defending him-
self upon his trial, in which he was baited with
an intolerance almost equal to his own, he suf-
fered death upon the scati'old with a heroic
magnanimity which none of his victims had
surpassed. Such a trial and execution, in which
an archbishop was formally sentenced and be-
headed, was but an advancing step and prepar-
ative to the consummation of the tragedy.

CHAPTER VIII.

REIGN OF CHARLES I. (1644-1647).

Attempt of Montrose in the royal cause in Scotland — It is unsuccessful — He renews the attempt — His arrival
in Scotland in disguise — He is joined by bands of Irish and Highlanders — Fitness of Montrose to avail
himself of their qualities — He gains a victory at Tippermuir — He captures Perth — His advance upon
Aberdeen — His victory at the Bridge of Dee — Capture and plunder of Aberdeen — Atrocities of his
soldiers — His retreat to the Highlands — His rapid marches — Montrose invades the territories of Argyle —
His victory at Inverlochy — His destructive mode of prosecuting the war — Baillie and Hurry sent against
him — They almost surprise Montrose at Dundee -He saves his army by a rapid retreat — The Covenanting
army divided for double action — Montrose's victory over Hurry at Auldearn — His victory over Baillie at
Alford — The war in England — the Self-denying Ordinance — The parliamentary army remodelled — Its char-
acter— Attempt of the parliament to treat with Charles at Uxbridge — Its purpose defeated by the king's
obstinacy — War in England continues — Successes of Fairfax and Cromwell — Charles reduced to indecision
— His final defeat at the battle of Naseby — Particulars of the battle — Charles betakes himself to Rugland
Castle — His letters and papers captured at Naseby are sent to parliament — Revelation obtained from them
of the king's insincerity — Proceedings of the Scottish army in England — They lay siege to Hereford —
Charles unable, from the dissensions of his officers, to relieve it — Continuing war of Montrose in Scotland
— His important victory at Kilsyth — David Leslie leaves England to suppress Montrose — He surprises and
defeats Montrose at Philiphaugh — Execution of the prisoners — Flight of Montrose to the Highlands — His
hopeless attemjats to renew the war — Lord Digby's unsuccessful attempt to join him — Desperate condition
of the king's affairs in England — Bristol surrendered to the parliamentary army — Charles seeks safety in
Oxford — The parliament refuses to treat with him — His attempts to raise the Catholics of Ireland in his
behalf — Character of the secret negotiation — Its detection — Charles has recourse to the party divisions of
his enemies — His hopes from the quarrels of the Presbyterians and Indej^endents — The parliamentary
army advances to the siege of Oxford — The king escapes to the Scottish army at Newark — Perplexity of
the Scots at his arrival — They move from Newark to Newcastle — Intrigues of Charles with the principal
Scottish officers— The Scots urge him to take the Covenant — They induce him to dismiss Montrose from
the kingdom — He still refuses to take the Covenant — The Scots in consequence unable to assist or protect
him — His idea of taking it with a mental reservation — He proposes this as a case of conscience to Bishop
Juxon — He offers to listen to the arguments of the Scottish clergy in behalf of Presbyterianism — Hi3
controversy with Alexander Henderson — Arguments of both parties — Death of Henderson — The king
renews his negotiation with the Irish Papists — Its futile character and termination — Commissioners sent
from the English parliament to the Scottish army — Their disdainful reception by the king — The proposi-
tions of the parliament to Charles — He delays to answer them — Entreaties of the Scots that he would agree
to the propositions and take the Covenant — Speech of the Earl of Loudon on the occasion — He describes
to the king the consequences of a refusal — Charles still refuses — His fallacious hopes that the fatal conse-
quences may be avoided — Perplexity occasioned by his refusal — The Scottish army demand a settlement
of the accounts for their services — Their statement of the motives from which they had entered England
— The amount of their demand reduced by the English parliament — The Scots insist upon their claim to
an equal right in the disposal of tlie king's person — Decision of the Scottish parliament that they cannot
aid him, or permit him to enter Scotland unless he takes the Covenant — Charles still refuses, and plots to
escape to the Continent — The Scots assure him that they must deliver him up — Their stipulations to the
English parliament in his behalf — The instalment of the arrears of the Scottish army paid — Charles
consigned to the commissioners of the English parUament.

While the war was going on in England I romantic and daring character, was raging in
another upon a smaller scale, but of a still more ' Scotland. After endeavouring to secure his

70

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1644-1647.

countrymen to the cause of Charles but in vain,
and remaining in Scotland until his stay there
was no longer safe, Montrose had repaired to
England to lay before the king an account of
Scottish atiaii-s and a plan for recovering the
country to its allegiance. The cause of the
Covenanters had the entire ascendency in Scot-
laud, and all its forts and sti'ong places were in
their possession. But still lie did not despair
if his plan should be but followed out. He
proposed that a body of Irish should be landed
on the west coast of Scotland ; that the Marquis
of Newcastle, from the army in the northei'n
districts, should furnish him with a body of
horse to enter Scotland by the south ; and that
arms should be plentifully supplied to him when
in Scotland for arming his new levies.^ This
plan, by which the loyalty of Scotland might be
renewed, or at least the Scottish army recalled
for the defence of their own country, aj^peared
so hopeful to the king that he assented, and
Montrose, now raised to the rank of marquis
and invested with the authority of his majesty's
lieutenant-general, entered Scotland in thesj)ring
of 1644. Although only accompanied by 200
horse supplied by the Marquis of Newcastle,
and a few militia from the counties of North-
umberland and Cumberland, he advanced with
his wonted boldness and confidence to Dum-
fries, and raised the royal standard. But al-
though he was supported by the Earls of Niths-
dale, Traquair, Crawford, Kinnoul, Carnwath,
and the Lords Aboyue, Ogilvie, and Herri es, his
cause was so unpo23ular that none of the common
peojjle joined him, the wild Irish recruits were
not sent to his aid, and the Earl of Calendar
was advancing against him with a new army
that had been levied to oppose him. Under
these unfavourable circumstances Montrose was
compelled to retire across the Border, and after
plundering the town of Morpeth was ordered to
join Prince Eupert, who was advancing to lay
siege to York. But before Montrose could effect
this junction thebattleof Marston Moor occurred;
and finding that after this event he could not
expect aid from the king, he resolved to return
to Scotland alone and prosecute his plan of war-
fare by his own inventive resources.

In consequence of this design Montrose re-
turned to the Biir.lers in August, 1644, accom-
panied only by two friends. Sir William Pol-
lock and Colonel Sibbald, and disguised as a
groom of the lattei\ His first route was to
TuUiebeltane, at the foot of the Grampians,
•where Patrick Graham his cousin dwelt. On
the way his person was recognized by a Scot who
had served in Newcastle's army but who did

' Clarendou ; State Papers, ii. p. 1G6.

not betray him. Finding that thei'e was no
hope of assistance from tlie Lowland gentry he
had resolved to retire to the Highlands, when
he was cheered in his solitude by the tidings
that the Irish under Alaster Macdonald had
landed in Argyleshire. Instead, however, of
being 10,000 strong, they did not muster above
1600, and having been trained in the wild war-
fare of the Irish rebellion they signalized tlieir
landing by their wonted havoc and depreda-
tion. It was to these savage troops, who were
now his forlorn hope, that Montrose presented
himself among the braes of Athole, after they
had been shifting hither and thither ; but when
he appeared before them on foot, in a mean dis-
guise and without any of the insignia of his
rank, they could not believe that this could be
the lieutenant of royalty, under whom they were
to be led to victory and plunder, until they
were assured by the Highlanders who had joined
them, and to whom the marquis was personally
known. On the following day he was joined
by 800 of the men of Atliole and 300 from
Badenoch, and these, with other Highland
levies, raised his force to above 3000 men.
But never w:is so small an army more miscel-
laneously or imperfectly armed. Of the Irish,
who were divided into three regiments, some
had muskets but were scant of ammunition,
while others were provided with battle-axes or
clubs.- The weapons of the Highlanders were
broadswords, pikes, and bows and arrows, while
some had no other than the stones which
the battle-field might supply them. It was the
history of Pizarro and Cortes reversed ; it was
a handful of half-naked Peruvians or Mexicans
invading a civilized, well-armed kingdom ; and
should a victory be won by such an unhopeful
array its leader might justly exclaim to the
goddess Fortune, in the words of Timotheus,
"In this thou at least hadst no share." And
yet the enterprise was not so desperate as it
appeared. The country was at present deprived
of its best soldiers and ablest leaders ; the
slightest success would suffice as a signal for
many of the discontented nobles and gentry to
join the invaders ; and of all the soldiers of the
day Montrose was the best fitted to command
such troops and avail himself of their qualities
for irregular warfare.

No sooner was it known that the Irish
had landed and Montrose reappeared than
the estates were on the alert ; the Earl of Tulli-
bardine and Lord Drummond were ordered to
raise Perthshire and co-operate with Lord Elcho
and the forces of Fife and Angus while the
Marquis of Argyle was mustering in the rear of

- Carte's Life of Ormond, i. p. 480.

A.D, 1644-1647.]

CHARLES I.

71

the invaders. Everything promised that this
rash expedition would be surrounded and
crushed at the outset. But Montrose, who was
joined by Lord Kilpont, and Sir John Drum-
mond, who had deserted from the Covenanters
with 500 men, resolved to break through the
ring that surrounded him by an attack upon
Lord Elcho, whose troops were untrained levies,
and in many cases commanded by discontented
officers. He therefore came down upon them
on the plain of Tippermuir, where they were
drawn up to receive him. Having placed his
few Irish musketeers in the centre, and his
Highlanders armed with broadswords on his
flanks to resist the enemy's horse in which he
was deficient, Montrose joined battle, and almost
in a moment put his enemies to the rout.
Their horse was the first to fly, being beaten
back chiefly by a shower of stones, and carrying
confusion among their infantry the whole be-
took themselves to flight. Few of the Coven-
anters fell in the engagement, but 300 in the
pursuit, many of whom expired from the sheer
effects of fatigue and fear,^ while all their
artillery, ammunition, and baggage were left
behind to the victors. It was alleged that the
flight of the cavalry, to which the Covenanters
owed their defeat, was owing to Lord Drum-
mond, and this rumour he justified by joining
the marquis after the battle.^

After this victory of Tippermuir Montrose
obtained possession of Perth, by which his army
was provided with clothing and ammunition, of
which it stood much in need. The town was
also given up to his soldiers for three days to
plunder, a service in which they showed no
remissness. Here, also, the marquis was joined
by the old Earl of Airlie, his sons, Sir Thomas
and Sir David Ogilvie, and Lords Duplin and
Spynie, with their military adherents; but this
acquisition was more than counterbalanced by
the departure of the men of Athole and nearly
400 Highlanders, who returned to their homes
with the spoils of the victory. Such was the
usual custom of these valiant mountaineers.
With them a campaign was a foray, of which
the political causes were of no account com-
pared with the pi'ofit; if unsuccessful, they fled,
and were no longer to be found ; if victorious,
they retired to secure the spoil and enjoy it at
their leisure, so that defeat or success was equally
fatal to the cause in which they enlisted. It
was therefore with an army reduced to little
more than two thousand men that Montrose left
Perth and advanced upon Aberdeen. Alarmed
at his approach the Aberdonians sent off the

J Robertson in Wodrow MS. , quoted in Napier's Life of
Montrose ; Baillie, 11. p. 94. 2 ■\Vishart.

public money and their ^jrincipal effects to Dun-
nottar, and posted 2700 men at the bridge of Dee,
to dispute his entrance into the city; but the mar-
quis crossed the river by a ford higher up and
sent a summons to the town to surrender. The
messenger, a commissioner, and drummer were
hospitably entertained, but trusting in their
army, posted at the bridge, the town refused to
surrender; and on the return of the messengers
the drummer, from some accident not exj^lained,
was slain by the way. Enraged at this mis-
chance, which he attributed to designs, Mon-
trose commanded an instant attack and issued
orders to his troops to give no quarter. For the
defence of Aberdeen Lord Burleigh had an army
equal in numbers to his opponents but superior
in horse, to counteract which advantage the
maxquis had mixed his handful of cavalry with
musketeers. The left wing of the Covenanters
charged at full gallop, hojjiug to trample the
royalist horse in the dust, but were unexpectedly
greeted with a volley of firearms, at which they
staggered and drew off; their left wing was also
put to flight; and after a fight of two hours the
centre of the Covenanters being assailed by the
royalist cavalry who had returned from the
chase, gave way, and fled into the town, whither
they were followed pell-mell by their pursuers.
Four years before, when Aberdeen stood for the
king, Montrose, at that time a zealous Coven-
anter, had taken it, and visited it with military
execution ; but now that the case was reversed,
the visitation was more merciless still; his orders
to give no quarter were faithfully obeyed, and
not only in the fields, but the streets and houses,
the citizens were butchered in cold blood. It
is added to the narrative of the horrors of this
sack of Aberdeen, that when the cut-thioats of
Montrose saw a citizen well dressed they stripped
him before they murdered him, that the clothes
might not be stained with his blood. ^ During
four days these horrible atrocities were com-
mitted by the Irish of Montrose's army, who
were allowed to plunder and murder at their
pleasure, when tidings of Argyle's approach
brushed them like flesh-flies from their prey,
and the marquis was compelled to decamp.

His next course was northward towards In-
verurie, where he expected to be joined by the
followers of the Marquis of Huntly. But the
latter, remembering the zeal of Montrose for the
Covenant and smarting under its consequences,
stood aloof ; his son was with the Covenanters,
and his clan were still indignant at the injuries
sustained by their master when the guerrilla chief
was signalizing his zeal against the king. On
these accounts, when he reached the Spey he

2 Guthrie's 3/e)not>s; Spalding; Wlshart; Salmonet.

72

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1644-1647.

found not only few to join him, but the opposite
bank defended by the whole force of Moray and
ready to dispute his passage, while Argyle with
a superior army was advancing upon his rear.
Tims threatened before and behind, while re-
treat or advance was equally dangerous, ]\Ion-
trose, whose genius rose with such difficulties,
resolved to extricate himself by the woods and
mountains. He buried his artillery in a moi'ass
and led his light-heeled followers into the forests
of Strathspey and the rocky mountains of Bade-
noch, thus distancing the foot and baffling the
cavalry of his pursuers. He then descended
into Athole and Angus, still followed at a wary
distance by Argyle, who had proclaimed a reward
of twenty thousand pounds for his head; but
though Argyle had a superior army he did not
venture upon an attack, and was led by his rival
in a fruitless march from Aberdeen to Inverness.
Once more repassing the Grampians, and again
attempting but in vain to attract Huntly's Gor-
dons to his standard, Montrose took Fy vie Castle,
where he narrowly escaped having his career
tei-minated by a surprise. He had few or no
scouts, while his army, of all others, was most
liable to be taken at unawares. At Fyvie Argyle
and Lothian approached unnoticed within two
miles of his camp with three thousand horse
and foot, while his own force was reduced by
desertion to eighteen hundred men, scarcelj^ any
of whom were cavalry. Another hour of con-
fident repose might have sealed his fate ; but
Montrose, who was awake to the danger at the
critical moment, planted his men among the
heights, in the ditches, and behind hedges, fi-om
which he skirmished so successfully that his
over-cautious enemy after two attacks gave way
to hesitation, and Montrose made good his
retreat into Badenoch. But, weary of this
marching and counter-marching over almost in-
accessible mountains, a service to which they
were unaccustomed, the Lowland gentry, who had
followed him thus far, retired to their homes.^
On the other hand the Earl of Argyle, who
was no soldier, and who was probably aware of
his military deficiencies, returned to Edinburgh,
and resigned his commission in disgust.

After his fortunate escape, and a few days of
rest at Badenoch, Montrose was again ready for
action. He descended into Athole ; and, being
joined by reinforcements from the isles, he
again found himself strong enough to commence
aggressions. His direction was influenced by
expediency, and not a little by personal resent-
ment, which turned him in the way of Argyle-
shire, the territory of his hated enemy and rival.
Argyle had betaken himself to his castle of In-

' Wishart; Spalding.

verary at the head of Loch Fyne, " where he
hived himself securely, supposing no enemy to
be within one hundred miles of him, for he
could never be brought to believe that an army
could get into Argyleshire on foot even though
in the midst of summer," ^ But it was now
the dead of winter; and the mighty ram-
parts of mountains covered with snow seemed
to make this assurance of safety doubly sure.
These difficulties, however, were precisely of the
kind that encouraged Montrose to the attempt;
and scaling the apparently inaccessible defences,
untrodden but by shepherds, and that, too, in
summer, he burst upon the lands of Glenorchy
with a torrent of conflagration, in which the
atrocities of all his former expeditions were sur-
passed. Not a man carrying a weapon was left
alive ; not a house was left standing ; the corn-
fields of the poor peasantry were burnt, their
cattle and fishing-boats destroyed — it was a war
of Highland feud, and of chief against chief, as
well as of royalist against Covenanter, while the
bigoted ferocious Irish and the revengeful High-
landers, who composed the army of Montrose,
had full scope for their animosity in the
encouragement and example of their leader.^
Through Breadalbane, Argyle, and Lorn this
temjDest of destruction rolled onwai'd; and being
joined by a reinforcement of Farquharsons and
Gordons, Montrose was now turning his steps
towards Inverness when he was informed that
Argyle with thi'ee thousand men had advanced
to the neighbourhood of the castle of Inverlochy.
Altering his purpose of marching to Inverness
Montrose wheeled about with the design of en-
countering his rival. The common roads were at
that time impassable; but Montrose, having
scaled the heights of Lochaber by a path not
generally known, where the mountains were
still covered with snow, descended like an ava-
lanche into the plain, and had advanced within
half a mile of Argyle's forces before his apj^roach
was discovered. The scouts of the Campbells
fled to the main body with the intelligence, and
their chief, astounded at the incredible march
of his adventurous adversary, made hasty pre-
parations for battle. Had he made an im-
mediate onset he was still powerful enough
to have crushed the unwelcome intruders, who
were exhausted by their march, and part of
whose forces had not 3'et arrived; but bold mili-
tary measures were not within the calculations
of A]-gyle, and he remained inactive during a
bright moonlight night, in which Montrose had
time to collect his straggling troops and allow
them rest for the encounter of the morrow.
When the day dawned, which was Caudle-

- Rushworth.

3 Wishait ; Spalding

A.D. 1644-1647.]

CHAELES I.

73

mas Day, the 2d of February, 1645, both armies
were arranged for the combat ; but Argyle, who
should have led his troops and animated them
by his example, was uot present. It was of im-
portance in the warfare of the Highland clans
that their chief, the highest in rank, sliould also
be the bravest; that he should lead wherever
his people were inclined to follow, and be fore-
most in the charge and the meUe; but Argyle,
whose moral bravery was incontestable, and who
met death on the scaffold with more than Roman
firmness, was deficient in that mere physical
courage which, although lowest in the scale, is
so essential for heroic achievements, and even
for ordinary enterprises. When his troops were
drawn up for battle he retired to his galley in
the loch, where he remained in safety an idle
spectator of the conflict. It was alleged by
his friends as an apology for this retirement
that on the morning he had been lamed by a
fall from his horse. The remnant of the clan
Campbell composed the centre of his army, but
the wings consisted of undisciplined Lowlanders;
Montrose on the contrary had a force which,
though inferior in numbers, consisted of disci-
plined Irish troops, and of Highlanders whom
he had trained to arms, and who had comj^lete
confidence in their commander. In the battle
the Campbells chai'ged very gallantly, led on
by a kinsman of their chief; but the Low-
landers yielded and fled, and the centre thus left
unprotected was thi'own into disorder, driven
from the field, and unable to rally in the
face of their well-trained pursuers. The chief
slaughter was in the chase, which was relent-
lessly continued for several miles, and 1500 of
the vanquished perished, "amongst whom," says
Hash worth, "were many gentlemen of the
Campbells, chief persons of that clan, and of
good account in their country, who, making as
much resistance as they were able, received
death answerable to their names, in campo belli."
As is frequently the case in such irregular en-
gagements, the victors scarcely lost a man ; but
Montrose had to bewail the death of Sir Thomas
Ogilvie, son of the Earl of Airlie, to whom he
was greatly attached, and who fell in the battle.
By this fatal fight of Inverlochy, added to the
other bai'barities inflicted upon it during the
campaign, the clan Campbell was so greatly re-
duced that it did not recover its ascendency in
the Highlands until after several years.^

After his victory at Inverlochy Montrose re-
sumed his march to Inverness, but found it too
strong to be attacked, whereupon he continued
his course to Aberdeen, which this time he
spared on payment of a heavy ransom. Stone-

' Wishart; Baillie; Spaldinj;; Rushworth.

haven, and afterwards Feteresso, were then
visited, both of which places he gave up to con-
flagration and plunder. His erratic course was
everywhere marked by the same excesses, for
which the poor apology can only be offered that
his marauding troops could not otherwise be
kejjt in the field or induced to follow him. It
was this that tarnished his chivalrous character
beyond recovery, and made his course that of a
captain of banditti rather than of a general will-
ing to observe the usual courtesies of war.^ In
this disastrous state of affairs the Scottish par-
liament had not been idle, and when Argyle and
Lothian threw up their commissions they had
recalled Baillie, the lieutenant-general of Leslie's
army, from England to be their military com-
mander against the too successful Montrose.
He had served under Gustavus Adolphus, and
was an officer of considerable experience ; but a
committee was also appointed without whose
advice and concurrence he could undertake jig
military operations. To him also was joined
Ury, Urrie, or Huriy, one of the Dugald Dal-
getties of the age, who had fought alternately
for the parliament and the king as interest pre-
dominated, and who now offered his services to
the Scottish parliament, by whom he was ap-
pointed Baillie's major-general. Their soldiers
also had acquired only so much discipline as to
make them lose their power of individual ac-
tion without acquiring that which was neces-
sary for combined effort, so that their move-
ments in the field were as Iiopeless against the
light-footed Highlanders or the discijilined
Irish as their leaders were to cope with the
genius, activity, and daring of Montrose. Such
were the men who were now marching against
the marquis with the intention of bringing him
to battle. The headquarters of Montrose were
for the present at Dunkeld; but learning that
Baillie had crossed the Tay, and was advanc-
ing to take possession of the fords of the Forth,
he suddenly left Dunkeld at midnight on the
3d of April and marched towards Dundee,
which he summoned to surrender. The towns-
people, relying on Baillie's coming to their relief,
made the best defence they could ; but the walls
were scaled and the gates burst open by their
Highland and Irish assailants, the town was set
on fire in sevei'al places, and the usual work of
plunder commenced. Next to the plunder, the
strong drink of Dundee was the chief attraction
to Montrose's followers, and a large proportion
of them were fast verging to a state of helpless-
ness. At this critical moment news arrived
that Baillie and Hurry, instead of being in the
neighbourhood of Stirling, were within half a

2 Spalding

7-i

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1644-1647-

mile of Dundee; and Montrose, almost at his
■wits' end, drew his drunken forces from the
town and commenced a running retreat, cover-
ing their rear with two hundred of his freshest
men to skirmish w^ith the pursuer's. It was well
for him that the pursuei-s did not give battle;
and this strange remissness, by which his army
was saved, was owing to dissension between
Baillie and Hurry as to the expediency of an
instant attack. In the meantime the run of
their opponents was to the hills beyond the pur-
suit of horse by a circuitous route of twenty
miles, after which they were halted in the valley
of Glenesk, where they were secure of rest and
shelter.^

This blunder of his enemies, by which Mon-
trose was saved, was soon after followed by an-
other on the part of the military committee,
who decided on dividing their army for a double
])lan of action. Baillie was to conduct the war
iu Athole, and chastise it for its disaffections,
while Hurry was to go in pursuit of Montrose.
The troops were accordingly parted between
them, and Hurry went northwai'd, passing
through the tenitory of the Gordons, to pre-
vent them from sending reinforcements to Mon-
trose, and for the purpose of strengthening his
own scanty force by reinforcements from such
neighbouring clans as were well affected to the
cause of the Covenanters. Monti'ose, who iu the
meantime had been joined by fresh recruits and
supplied with arms and ammunition by two
ships from Flanders, was now strong enough to
go in quest of Hurry, whom he compelled to
retreat to Inverness ; but the latter being here
joined by the garrison and the Earls of Suther-
land and Seaforth, resolved to turn npon his
])ursuer iu the hope of wanning a victory before
Baillie could arrive to share in it. He accor-
dingly advanced to Auldearn, a village in the
neighbourhood of Nairn, where Montrose was
ready to receive him. The arrangements of the
marquis for battle were singular but masterly,
and well suited both to the nature of the ground
and the troops he commanded. He selected an
advantageous position behind an eminence that
concealed the disposition of his troops; instead
of centre or reserve, he supplied their place witli
his artillery, which was drawn up behind the vil-
lage, in the thoroughfares of which he placed a
few companies for show rather than effectual
resistance ; and while his right wing exhibited
the royal standard, to make it thought that this
was the chief part of his array, he concentrated
his principal strength upon his left wing, with
which he meant to decide the enrrasrement.

iRushworth; Baillie's Journal and Letters; Spalding;
Wishart.

Hurry, ignorant of the ground and of these ar-
rangements, which were for the most part con-
cealed, advanced upon the right wing of Mon-
trose, which consisted of only four hundred men,
protected and half hid by dikes, ditches, and
hedges; but while he struggled through these
obstacles to reach the enemy his troops were
exposed to a fire of artillery which he had no
means of answering. He blindly persisted, how-
ever, until he saw and encountered the small
force opposed to him, Avhich he easily put to the
rout. But while he was thus wasting time and
throwing his troops into disorder, Montrose
with his left wing fell upon the Covenanters
and defeated their cavalry, who in their confu-
sion got mixed with their own infantry, and the
new levies having fled amidst the disorder, none
were left but the disciplined regiments, that
fought and died in their places under the united
attacks of horse, foot, and cannon. More than
two thousand Covenanters fell in the battle and
pursuit, and sixteen standards were taken, with
all their ammunition and baggage.^

This victory of Auldearn was a call of alarm
to Baillie, who was joined at Strathbogie by
Hurry with 100 horse who had escaped from
the battle. But when the military committee
ordered him to go against Montrose they had
retained the best of his troops for the defence
of the lowland counties and supplied their
places with raw recruits. The marquis, who
was a Fabius in caution as well as a Mar-
cellus in boldness, found it necessary to pro-
crastinate the invited encounter, and accordingly
retreated before his adveisary to his old fast-
nesses of Badenoch, where he could safely defy
an attack, and where he could be plentifully
supplied with victuals, while Baillie's army was
so destitute of provisions that he was obliged to
retreat to Inverness. He soon, however, re-
sumed active operations, and offered battle to
Montrose at the Kirk of Keith; but the latter,
who would choose his own time and place, re-
treated to Alford, whither he was followed by
the Covenanters. Here Baillie, conscious of the
inferiority of his troops in discipline although
they were equal to the enemy in numbers,
would have .shunned the encounter, but, urged
by the orders of the committee and the impor-
tunities of the nobles, who overruled his better
judgment and experience, he was obliged to be-
come the assailant. His cavalry was put to the
rout ; his infantry, in which he was greatly in-
ferior, and which he could afi'ord to draw up
only three deep to meet the extent of the
enemy's front, was overborne after a desperate
resistance by the weight of their opponents,

- Rushworth.

A.D. 1G44-1647.] CHARLES I.

-who advanced six deep to the charge; and the
victory which Montrose gained at Alford, al-
though less bloody, was as complete as that
which lie had gained at Auldearn. ^

While Montrose was so successful in Scot-
land, events were occurring in England that
tended to neuti-alize all his triumphs. In con-
sequence of the Self-denying Ordinance the
army was remodelled; and although the new
officers whom the change introduced were not
trained in the old school of military tactics, they
were men who had already seen service in the
field and proved themselves fit for command.
In these promotions also little attention was
paid to birth and rank unless it was accom-
panied with tlie proper qualifications; so that
men who had belonged to the humblest profes-
sions, but who had made themselves conspicuous
for military talents, were raised to those mili-
tary ofiices which had been exclusively confined
to the aristocracy. Thus, as in modern times,
a spirit of emulation was diff'used through the
whole army ; the meanest private might be said
to carry an oflicer's commission in his knapsack;
and such an ambition naturally promoted that
carefulness in discipline and courage in battle
which were essential for advancement to rank
and command. In this manner an army was
organized in which the best soldierly qualities
were engrafted upon the enthusiasm, the con-
fidence, and conscientiousness of religious prin-
ciples; and even the proud cavaliers, whose
valour they foiled and whose pride they abased,
could find nothing in these Puritans to ridicule
except their demure dress, their nasal, drawling
speech, their frequent quoting of texts, and love
of long sermons. But greatly diff"erent was the
state of affairs with the followers of the king.
Even at his accession Charles, though strictly
decorous in his own conduct, had been obliged
to connive at the vices that had become rampant
at court during the reign of his father; and as
his political troubles increased he could still less
alford to discountenance those who formed his
chief strength and reliance. Accordingly, when
the war commenced his officers considered the
licenses of war as nothing more than a fair
compensation for their loyalty, and their cruel-
ties, exactions, plunderings, and fire-raisings as
privileges with which it would be impertinent
to interfere. They thus lived as if they had
been in an enemy's country, and the contrast
between the two armies was as great as that
between the armies of Gustavus Adolphus and
Wallenstein. In valour, indeed, the cavaliers
were still true to their illustrious birth and
national character; but being based upon no

75

1 Narrative of the general in Baillie's Journal and Letters.

firm or elevated principle, it was rather the
valour of the duellist or the adventurer in quest
of exciting enterprise than the steady, unflinch-
ing, self-denying endurance that can rise under
defeat and persist until its purj)ose is established.
It was therefore noticed that in attack, where
the courage of the royalists was most con-
sjaicuous, tliey were generally in the first instance
irresistible, but soon brought to a stand ; and
when driven back they were thrown into such
confusion that they could no longer be rallied
for a second efibrt. With their plebeian ene-
mies, however, the case was different. In re-
sisting the torrent they either fell in their ranks
or retreated in order so that they could be easily
drawn up anew, and on this account often con-
verted a doubtful battle into a signal victory.

While the army of the Commonwealth, by
which Charles was doomed to be overthrown,
was thus in training, negotiations for peace were
still continued on the part of the parliament,
but which the king treated with disdain. The
most memorable of these was held at Uxbridge,
where commissioners from both parties met on
the 29th of January, 1645. The proposal for a
treaty had been moved by the Scots, whose
counti'y was sutfering under the war of Mon-
trose, and eleven of whose commissioners sat
with those from the English parliament. But
when they proceeded to business the discussion
of the first question was provocative of debate
and qixarrel : it was the decision of both houses,
announced by the parliamentary commissioners
for the settling of religion in a presbyterial
way. The king's commissioners asked what
was meant by a presbyterian government; and
Dr. Stewart, who was of the school of Laud,
spoke long and learnedly against any change in
Episcopacy, which he asserted not only to be
fitted for the Church of England but also to be
of right divine. This challenge called up Alex-
ander Henderson on the side of Presbytery, and
the two able theologians continued a controversy
that threatened to be interminable, and which
ended without result. At last the parliamentary
commissioners presented the four following con-
ditions respecting religion: — That the king
should consent to the taking away of the Book
of Common Prayer ; that he should acce]it the
Directory for Public Worship which had been
substituted in its stead ; that he should confirm
the assemblies and synods of the church ; and,
finally, tliat he should take the Solemn League
and Covenant. Charles had prepared his com-
missioners with such grounds and limitations
that they knew what terms they were to refuse,
and to these conditions they ofi'ered a decided
negative. It fai-ed equally with the otiier par-
liamentary proposals, which concerned the com-

76

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1644-1647.

maiid of the army and navy, the conduct of the
Irish wai', and other such mattere : to these the
royal commissioners would not yield one iota ;
and after twenty days of business the allowed
time expired and nothing had been concluded.
This was in complete accordance with the king's
wishes, whom the victories of Montrose in Scot-
land had so greatly elevated that he hoped to
reduce both kingdoms to his own terms.^

In the meantime, though the armies were
reposing in winter-quarters, the war had not
abated ; on the contrary, it was continued in a
series of episodes over the whole extent of the
kingdom, and abundantly tiUed with those
romantic incidents that lend an interest to
many otherwise undistinguished districts in
which the records of these deeds are yet cher-
ished. Skirmishes and night surprises went on
in ditierent quarters simultaneously, but without
mutual consent; castles and manors, whose owners
held out for the king, were besieged by the vil-
lagers, who were on the side of parliament; and
even ladies, in the absence of their husbands,
sometimes undertook the defence of their homes,
in which they displayed the hardihood and cour-
age of the other sex as well as their political
rancour. In this way the winter was passed in
England; but when spring arrived to set the
armies in motion these minor encounters were
superseded by greater events and a more sys-
tematic kind of warfare. Amidst these im-
portant encounters the new independent army
showed the excellence of materials of which it
consisted, and Cromwell himself, notwithstand-
ing the Self-denying Ordinance, was called into
active service by the recommendation of both
houses. His courage, promptitude, and valour
were everywhere crowned with success, so tliat
Charles himself was in danger of being cooped
up and besieged in the city of Oxford. To avoid
this disgrace the king, with ten thousand men,
left the cit}', and Oxford, thus evacuated, was
besieged by Sir Thomas Fairfax, the commander-
in-chief, while Cromwell was sent after Charles
to bring him to an engagement. But, peril-
ous as was the condition of the royal affairs,
they were not yet hopeless ; Montrose was still
pursuing his career of victory in Scotland, and
nothing appeared necessary for the conquest of
the whole northern kingdom but the presence
of his majesty himself. Charles, therefore, after
eluding the pursuit of Cromwell and raising the
siege of Chester, made some movements as if he
meant to go northwards and join the army of
Montrose, upon wliich the Scottish army in
England, instead of advancing, fell back towards
the Border for the defence of their own country.

' Clarendon ; Whitelock ; :May ; Warwick.

Thus frustrated in his purjtose Charles altered
his march, and passing into Leicestei-shire took
the town of Leicester by assault, a proceeding
which drew Fairfax from the siege of Oxford
into Northamptonsliire. Here he was joined by
Oliver Cromwell, to whom the House of Com-
mons had newly sent the commission of major-
general, and whose arrival inspired the army
with fresh spirit and courage. Aggressive
measures were now resolved on, so that instead
of standing on the defensive they went in pur-
suit of the king, who retired before them until
he halted in the neighbourhood of Naseby.
Here, on the 14th of June, he resolved to abide
the brunt of battle, and Fairfax and Cromwell
were not willing to disappoint him. The oppos-
ing armies were equal in numbers, and when
drawn out upon the battle-tield, which was about
a mile broad on the north-west side of Naseby,
they nearly covered the whole extent of ground.
This fight of Naseby was to be the last battle of
the unhappy Charles ; his crown and ultimately
his life were staked upon the issue.

The first charge as usual was given by the
royalists, with Prince Rupert at their head; he
fell with the right wing of the royalists upon
the left of the parliamentarians, broke them,
drove them from the field, and with his wonted
rashness pursued them too far, leaving the centre
of the royal army uncovered. On the other hand
Cromwell, with the parliamentary right, charged
the left wing of the royalists, and in spite of a
gallant resistance at last routed them, and drove
them a quarter of a mile oflf the field. Having
thus ensured their defeat he wheeled round for
the defence of the main body, but not a moment
sooner than was necessary, for it had been en-
countered and driven back by the centre of the
royalists; but soon rallying, it returned to the
charge and repulsed the king's infantry, whom
it compelled to retreat in disorder. The op-
portune arrival of Cromwell, by preventing the
royalist horse from coming to their assistance,
ensured their defeat, and after three charges on
the part of the parliamentarians the whole in-
fantry of Charles were broken and disorganized,
their artillery taken, and nothing remained of
the royal army but several regiments of cavalry,
who rallied round the person of the king. It
was then that Rupert returned from the pursuit,
but only to find himself too late ; and while his
cavalry stood irresolute Fairfax and Cromwell,
who had united their troops, advanced fresh and
vigorous for a final decisive onset. In vain did
Charles endeavour to renew the battle; in vain
did he exclaim, "One charge more and we re-
cover the day ! " The valour of the cavaliers had
burned out, and at the steady determined ndvance
of their enemies they lost heart and fled, with

A.D. 1644-1647 ]

CHAELES 1.

77

Cromwell aud his Ironsides thundering on their
rear. Few of the king's troops were killed in
the battle; six hundred was the highest number
given, which speaks indifferently for their re-
sistance; but five thousand were taken prisoners,
as they surrendered by whole regiments at a
time. The artillery, military stores, and stand-
ards of the king's army also fell into the hands
of the parliamentarians, aud what was of greater
account, the king's cabinet of letters and papers,
by which the insincerity of his engagements and
promises was manifested, and all h O] )e of a friendly
agreement between him and his parliament ter-
minated. ^

After this crushing defeat at Naseby Charles
fled to Leicester ; but, considering himself not
safe, he departed on the same evening to Ashby-
de-la-Zouch, from which he continued his course
to Hereford, and afterwards to Ragland Castle,
near the Wye, where for the time he took up his
residence and sjsent several weeks in hunting,
alternated with holding royal audiences and
levees. Was this the dignity of defeat or con-
tempt of his rebellious enemies? It would be
difficult to decide; but never was his character
at a lower ebb, or his hope of recovery more
imperilled than at this critical jseriod. For his
cabinet taken at Naseby had been sent to London ;
his letters were exposed to all who desired to
examine them, and were read in full audience
to the citizens assembled in Guildhall, so that
both friend and enemy could judge of his sin-
cerity and the nature of the quarrel on which
they were enlisted. These eflects, and the na-
ture and amount of the discovery, are thus re-
corded in the graphic words of May: — "From
the reading of these letters many discourses of
the people arose. For in them appeared his
transactions with the Irish rebels, and with the
queen for assistance from France and the Duke
of Lorrain, of both which circumstances we have
already made some mention. Many good men
wei'e sorry that the king's actions agreed no
better with liis words; that he openly protested
before God, with horrid imprecations, that he
endeavoured nothing so much as the preserva-
tion of the Protestant religion, and rooting out
of Poper}^; yet in the meantime, underliand, he
promised to the Irish rebels an abrogation of
the laws against them, which was contrary to
his late expressed promises in these words, /
will never abrogate the laws against the Papists.
And again he said, / abhor to think of bringing
foreign soldiers into the kingdom; and yet he soli-
cited the Duke of Lorrain, the French, the
Danes, and the very Irish for assistance. They

' Rushworth; Clarendon; Whitelock; May; Warwick;
Ludlow.

were vexed, also, that the king was so much
ruled by the will of his wife as to do everything
by her prescript, and that peace, war, religion,
and parliament should be at her disposal. It
apiDeared, besides, out of these letters, with what
mind the king treated with the parliament at
Uxbridge, and what could be hoped for by that
treaty when, writing to the queen, he affirms
that if he could have had but two more consent-
ing to his vote he would not have given the
name of jjaiiiament to them at Westminster; at
last he agreed to it in this sense — that it was
not all one to call them a parliament and to ac-
knowledge them so to l)e, and upon that reason
(which might have displeased his own side) he
calls those with him at Oxford a mongrel j^ar-
liament."^ — What faith after this was to be
placed in a king who, in order to carry out his
plans of double-dealing against his adversaries,
could slight his own party and treat them with
such downright ingratitude ?

During these important events which were
connected with the victory at Naseby the Scot-
tish army had not entered into the principal
field of action, for which they were accused of
lukewarmness and disaffection. But the chai-ge
was groundless ; for the Earl of Leven, instead
of continuing his mai'ch southward, was obliged
to look to the defence of his own counti^y and
prevent a junction between the king and Mon-
trose in Scotland. But at the close of June,
after the victory of Naseby, he advanced to
Nottingham, thence to Melton Mowbray, and
afterwards to Tamworth and Birmingham, and
into Worcestershire and Herefordshire, breaking
up and dispersing the bands which were gather-
ing in these districts for the king's relief. On
the 22d of July Leven's pi-ogress was indicated
by the storming of Canon-Frome, midway be-
tween the cities of Worcester and Hereford,
which was garrisoned for the king. It was at
this time that Cliarles, unable to arrest his arms,
endeavoured to bribe him; but Leven rejected
the tempting offers and revealed the whole
affair to the House of Commons, who sent the
earl a letter of thanks, and a jewel worth ^500.
The Scots then invested the city of Hereford on
the 30th of July; but the king, alarmed by their
dangerous proximity, while he was collecting
recruits in the counties of Monmouth and Gla-
morgan, advanced with three thousand horse to
raise the siege. The time was favourable for the
enterprise as Sir David Leslie and his cavalry
were elsewhere employed, while the besieging
army wei^e hindered in their operations by heavy
floods of rain, which destroyed their mines, and by
such a scarcity of provisions as obliged them to

■■^ May's Hist. Pari. Anglice breviarium.

78

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 16i4-1647.

subsist on fruits and the growing corn. But the
troops of Charles were still worse impeded by
the dissensions which were rife among them-
selves, where every otiicer, valuing himself upon
his importance to the royal cixuse, aspired to the
chief command, and woidd obey no superior.
It was in consequence of this military disor-
ganization that Charles could not venture to
attack the Scottish army for the relief of Her-e-
ford. He then resolved to force his way across
the Scottish Border with his horse, and effect a
junction with the victorious Montrose; but in
this he was also baffled by Sir David Leslie,
who interrupted his march and compelled him
to abandon his design. Having thus effected
one part of his commission by debarring the
king's irruption into Scotland Sir David, instead
of continuing the puisuit, directed his march
towards the Borders for the purpose of checking
the victories of Montrose.

That able leader, although he was master as
yet of no part of the country except the spot on
which lie pitched his encampment, had con-
trived to be successful wherever he advanced,
and to fill the whole land with the terror of his
name. Although his troops were so miscella-
neous they were now highly disciplined by his
singular campaigning, and confident in the skill
and resources of their leader; while the only
forces with which the Covenanters could oppose
him were either raw levies whom a single High-
land onset could disperse, or soldiers only so far
disciplined that their imperfect drill had de-
prived them of their personal power of action
without irapai'ting the higher qualities of com-
bined regularity and unity of effort in the move-
ments and shock of battle. Under these dispirit-
ing circumstances, and while the prevalence of a
pestilence in the south of Scotland prevented
their assembling in Edinburgh, the estates met
at Perth to devise measures for the national de-
fence. They ordered a fresh levy of troops; the
nobles were enjoined to arm in the common
cause; and although Baillie and Hurry had
both been unfortunate they approved of the
proceedings of these two generals, and prevailed
on the former to resume his command after he
had resigned it. But Montrose was already on
his march to break up their meeting, and having
been joined by recruits from the Macleans,
Macgregors, Macnabs, and other clans, which
raised his army to six thousand men, his ad-
vance was sufficiently formidable to disperse
the parliament, although Baillie with his new
levies was stationed in the neighbourhood of
Perth to protect it. The latter had entrenched
himself so strongly waiting the arrival of three
regiments from Fife, that Montrose judged it im-
prudent to attack him, and accordingly continu-

ing his route he burned the villages of Muckhart
and Dollar, and wasted the district and town
of Alloa, his march being everywhere charac-
terized by those excesses of plundering and
blood-shedding which his troops considered as
part of their pay, and without which they would
not have followed him. Stirling Castle was
defended by a strong garrison, but the marquis
crossed the Forth by a ford above it, and march-
ing southward encamped at Kilsyth, a village
at the extremity of Stirlingshire. He had been
cautiously followed by Baillie, who halted within
two miles andahalf of hiseucampment; and being
ordered by the military committee he took up a
position still nearer, and on a piece of ground so
well protected that at no point he could have been
attacked by more than twenty men in line. But
this was not enough for the impetuous lords of
the committee ; it was not safety they sought,
but victory and vengeance; and fearful that Mon-
trose would give them the sli}) they compelled
Baillie, who was aware of the i-aw material that
composed his army, to leave his strong position
and give battle. He assented with reluctance,
after describing the hazardous nature of the
proceeding and the ruinous consequences of a
defeat. But before his ill-trained companies
had reached their new position, and while
they were struggling in confused array to reach
it, Montrose came down upon them like a tor-
rent. His wild Highlanders and Irish, who
had stripped themselves almost naked for the
fight, their hideous war-whoops and fierce impe-
tuous onset so confounded the Covenanters that
they were broken and scattered as soon as en-
countered ; and in the chase that followed, which
was continued fourteen miles, few of them
escaped. Five thousand at least are supposed
to have perished in this affair at Kilsyth, scarcely
deserving the name of a battle, which shows
the relentless character of the pursuit, and that
no quarter was given.^ The only army in Scot-
land wai3 thus destroyed, and Montrose con-
tinued his victorious march to Bothwell, where
he fixed his headquarters, none being in the
field to oppose him. As clemency was neces-
sary to secure the advantages of his success he
spared Glasgow from a wholesale plunder, after
hanging a few of the principal citizens as incen-
diaries ; and by his authority as king's lieute-
nant he summoned a parliament to meet in
that city. But in spite of his superiority he
was even less powerful than before. Many of
his Highland allies had gone home to secure
their plunder, while his cause was so unpopular
that few of the Lowlanders joined. Even though
Edinburgh only waited his arrival to open its

' Baillie's Letters; Wishait; Salmoud.

A.D. 1644-1647.]

CHARLES I.

79

gates and meet him with submissiou, he was
unable to avail himself of the opportunity, for
at that time such a deadly pestilence prevailed
that its occupation might have i>roved more
fatal to his army than a defeat.

No sooner had intelligence of the battle of
Kilsyth reached the Scottish army in England,
which was encamped before Hereford, than
David Leslie with his cavalry and a few infantry
returned to Berwick, to which many of the
Scottish Covenanters had fled as to a city of
refuge. His first object was to prevent the
retreat of Montrose to the mountains by inter-
cepting him at the Forth, but on reaching
■Gladsmuir in Lotbian he learned that the royal-
ists wei'e encamped in Ettrick Eoi'est and care-
less in their security. Resolved to attempt a
surprise Leslie suddenly wheeled to the left, and
by a swift and secret march southward by the
way of the vale of the Gala he arrived by night
within half a mile of their encampment. It de-
tracts greatly from our ideas of the generalship
of Montrose that with such an army as he com-
manded his intelligence of his opponents' move-
ments was so scanty, and that he who so often
took others by surprise should be so liable to
be surprised himself. His first knowledge of
Leslie's arrival was from his careless outposts,
who hunied to him with the tidings that the
enemy was at hand, and his preparations were
those of a leader completely taken at unawares.
He threw forward two hundred musketeers
as a forlorn hope to hold the advance of the
Covenanters in check, while he hastily drew up
his forces in the woods of Philiphaugh, availing
himself of the trees and hedges, dikes and
ditches, with -which the place abounded. But
these obstacles were soon surmounted by their
•disciplined enemies, and after a desperate resist-
ance, which the valour of Montrose maintained
for a whole hour, his main body that was drawn
up in line was broken and overwhelmed by a
charge of Leslie at the head of his own regi-
ment. The defeat of the royalists at Philip-
haugh was as complete as that which they had
inflicted on the Covenanters at Kilsyth; a thou-
sand lay dead on the field, and in consequence
of a resolution passed by both kingdoms that
martial law should be executed on the Irish
.soldiery whether taken in England or Scot-
land, a hundred Irish prisoners after the battle
were shot.^ If a merciless it was also a just
retaliation for the unsparing cruelties they
had exercised both in the Irish rebellion and
since their arrival in Scotland. Among the
prisoners taken were several persons of rank
and consideration, such as the Lords Hartfield,

1 Baillie ; Rushworth.

Ogilvy, and Drummond, Sir Robert Sjjottis-
wood, son of the archbishop, Sir William Rol-
lock. Sir Philip Nisbet, &c., who were sent to
the castles of Edinburgh and Stirling ; and of
these six were tried and executed, of whom the
principal was Spottiswood. The others were
set free on composition."

Deprived in a single hour of an army that
had hitherto been irresistible, and from a con-
queror become a fugitive, Montrose retired to
Peebles, where he was able to collect 200 of his
fugitive horse, and with these he eff'ected his
retreat across the Forth and Tay, and scarcely
di-ew bridle until he was safe among the braes of
Athole. Still sanguine in hope, which his career
of strange adventures justified, he there contem-
plated the formation of another army and the
prosecution of a fresh campaign; but his prestige
of success had departed, so that the Highlanders
refused to join him. The Marquis of Huntly
also, who was jealous of his superiority, and
who owed him a grudge for past injuries, was
in no mood either to assist him or allow him
to recruit in his territories, while the other
royalist nobles were so convinced of the hoj^e-
lessuess of their cause that his appeals to them
were in vain. Thus baflied in all his attempts
to revive a fallen interest, Montrose, at the
head of a small force scarcely sufiicient for his
personal protection, was obliged to shift his
quarters from place to place in the depths of the
Highlands, while he was prevented from under-
taking any enterprise by the vigilance of Mid-
dleton, whom the committee of estates had
appointed to watch his motions. While his
case was thus hopeless of Scottish aid, an at-
tempt to bring assistance from England was
equally unsuccessful. Before the disaster of
Montrose at Philiphaugh was known Lord
Digby had resolved, with 1500 horse, to fight
his way from Newark into Scotland for the
purpose of joining the marquis and opening a
fresh campaign; but he was beaten at his en-
trance into Yorkshire, and so effectually defeated
before he I'eached Carlisle that his troops were
scattered and himself obliged to escape to Ire-
land.^

The condition of Charles in England was in
the meantime well-nigh as desperate as that of
Montrose in Scotland. By the battle of Naseby
his hopes in the south were destroyed, and by
that of Philiphaugh his expectations in the
north, which had risen so high, were abruptly
terminated. No longer able to meet his ene-
mies in the field, he still had garrisoned towns
and castles in which he might carry on a war of

2 Baillie 's Journal and Letters: Burnet's History; Wish-
art. 2 Burnet; Rusliworth; Clareudon.

80

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1644-1647.

sieges and await the arrival of favourable cir-
cumstances; but the surrender of Bristol on the
11th of September (1645) showed him how
little trust was to be placed in such a kind of
resistance. It was garrisoned by Pi-ince Rupert,
who engaged to make good its defence for four
months, and surrendered it in less than four
days. After shifting his residence from one
town to another and finding no safe or pei'ma-
nant residence, and after leading a wandering
life of this kind for two mouths, exposed to the
attacks of hostile garrisons and ilying parties,
Charles returned to Oxford, from which his un-
certain route had commenced intheeai'lier partof
November. But even here, in his chief place of
strength, he could no longer be assured of safety,
for Cromwell was pressing onward towards Ox-
ford, reducing all the garrisons in his way, and
he and Fairfax were already resolving to be-
siege the city or inclose it by a blockade. Even
the resource of negotiating with parliament also
was no longer left to him, for warned of his
insincerity by his cabinet of letters which had
been taken at Naseby, they refused a safe-con-
duct to the noblemen whom he would have
sent to them, and would only treat with him
by the presentation of certain parliamentary
bills, to which they requiied his assent. Charles
again applied demanding to be heard in parlia-
ment by his commissioners, or to have a per-
sonal conference with it at Westminster, but
this apparently reasonable request was re-
fused. A new discovery of his insincerity
had been made, in consequence of which his
letter of application was thrown aside without
notice.

This transaction of Charles had reference to
a secret treaty between him and the Irish rebels
through the Earl of Glamorgan. He had autho-
rized the earl to negotiate with the Catholics of
tliat country upon the terms of their taking up
arms in his behalf and invading England. He
had no intention indeed to keep these terms ; but
promises in his name were solemnly made, and
they were such as would have not only over-
thrown the Protestant cause in Ireland, but
have imperilled England by letting loose a wild
Irish army upon the kingdom. The discovery
of the plot occurred in consequence of a skir-
mish at the siege of Sligo, in which the Arch-
bishop of Tuam, the president of the rebels of
Connaught, was killed and his carriage taken,
in which several papers connected with this
treaty were found. From these documents it
was also discovered that the king, true to his
refinements in double-dealing, was carrying on
two fraudulent negotiations in Ireland at one
and the same time, and unconnected with each
other, but which had the same object in view.

By one he commissioned the Marquis of Ormond,
the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, to treat with the
rebels for a pacification, and make large offers
to that effect, but without committing his ma-
jesty. The rebels, however, would accept no
verbal assurances, and Ormond refused to offer
terms in writing without the king's 2:)ermission.
Charles was unwilling thus openly to commit
himself, and had recourse to another agent, who
was the Earl of Glamorgan, a Roman Catholic,
and him he empowered to conclude a pacifica-
tion with the rebels upon the most ample terms,
which were to be kept secret. The earl, thus
commissioned by his master, concluded a private
treaty with the council of confederated Irish Ca-
tholics without the knowledge of the lord-lieu-
tenant, and upon terms which he could not dare to
sanction. These were, that they were to enjoy
the full and free exercise of their religion, be
eligible to all offices of profit and trust, have
exemption fi'om the jurisdiction of the Protes-
tant clergy, and retain all the churches they had
held since the 23d of October, 1641; in return
for which they were to furnish his majesty with
ten thousand soldiers for the supjoression of his
rebellious subjects in England, and grant him
two-thirds of the revenues of their church for
the payment of the soldiers. On the detection
of this secret negotiation the shifts and equivo-
cations of Charles were truly pitiable. He de-
nied to the paiiiameut all knowledge of Glamor-
gan's proceedings "on the faith of a Christian,"
while his advocates alleged that the warrants
bearing his name found in the Archbishop of
Tuam's carriage were forgeries. He also stated
that he had ordered his lord-lieutenant, Ormond,
to proceed against the Earl of Glamorgan ac-
cording to law. But, unluckily for these asser-
tions, it happened that Ormond had in his pos-
session, unknown to the parliament, a copy of
the warrant by which Charles engaged to fulfil
whatever promises should be made to the Papists
by Glamorgan, and in consequence of this evi-
dence the king, in writing to Ormond, was ob-
liged to shift his ground of defence. He now
declared that he did not remember any such
warrant, and that if he actually did furnish the
earl with some credential to the Catholics it
must have been with the understanding that
Glamorgan was not to employ it without the
sanction of the lord-lieutenant. The outcry, how-
ever, of the Protestants in Ireland was so loud
that the Earl of Glamorgan was brought to trial;
but even for such an emergency due provision
had been made by the ingenuity of the earl, and
he showed a little article, tacked to his secret
treaty, by which the king was not bound further
than he thought proper to any promises which
the earl might make in his name. This bungling

A.D. 1644-1647.]

CHAKLES I.

81

device was accepted, and Glamorgan was set
free after a very short inipiisonment.^

In the meantime, through the failure and ex-
posure of these intrigues, the situation of Charles
was daily becoming more perilous. With his
hopes of Irish assistance frustrated, and a vic-
torious enemy approaching his gates; with the
hated demands of the parliament pressed upon
him that would brook no discussion, and that de-
manded an unconditional assent, nothing seemed
to be left to him but a choice of evils. To what
party should he turn? His most obvious course
was to throw himself upon the generosity of
parliament, which even yet was willing for a
conciliation; and by proper concessions of his
prerogative, which would still have left him a
king, and a powerful one, he might reconcile or
reduce all parties to his authority. But even in
his extremity he would be all or nothing, and
he would not contemplate any alternative to
that of absolute sovereignty. Abandoning, there-
fore, this simple expedient, he resolved to avail
himself of the divided state of the kingdom, and
by allying himself to one party of the religion-
ists become master of them all alike. And the
party to which he should give the preference of
his election was now the question. Thebi'each be-
tween the Independents and Presbyterians, at
first almost imperceptible, had grown and wi-
dened through their mutual success, and equally
balanced as they at present were, his accession
to either would be sufhcient to turn the scale.
But what concessions would either party de-
mand of him? Among the Independents he
might enjoy that liberty of conscience which
they claimed for themselves, and retain his Epis-
copalianism undisturbed; but their ideas of po-
litical liberty, growing every day more republi-
can, would cut down his royal prerogatives and
leave him little more than the semblance of a
king. On the other hand, the Presbyterians
would allow greater latitude to his regal claims,
but they would insist upon his confirming the
Covenant, which had already been established
over England as well as Scotland. Of his own
free choice he was more inclined to side with
the Independents ; but his queen, who from
France continued to advise and dictate in all
his most serious proceedings, had suggested
that more was to be gained from the Presby-
terians, and she recommended him to drive a
good bargain with the Scots and renounce Epis-
copacy. His deliberations, which were quick-
ened by the advice of Montreuil, the French
ambassador, who negotiated between him and
the Scots, were finally brought to a close by the

1 May, Brev. Hist. Pari.; Curtis' Life of Ormond; Rush-
worth; Clarendon.
VOL. III.

advance of the parliamentary army and their
laying siege to Oxford. All to which the king
could be brought to agree amounted to this —
that when he should be with the Scottish army,
to which he meant to repair, he would submit
to be instructed by their ministers in the doc-
trines of their church, and embrace them if he
found them in concuri'ence with Scripture. On
the other hand, all to which the Scottish army
would agree was, that if he came to them at-
tended only by his two nephews, and his confi-
dential servant Ashburnham, they would re-
ceive him with all honour and protect his jDerson.
Even this protection, however, it was stated,
did not extend to the Princes Maurice and Eu-
pert, who, if the parliament demanded them,
would either be given up or fui-nished with
such timely notice as to ensure their escape.^
Although so vague an arrangement, it was
eagerly embraced by the king, for Oxford was
already reduced to extremity, and the parlia-
ment was taking measures for apprehending his
royal person. Narrow and unsatisfactory as were
the promises of the Scottish army, he no doubt
hoped that by his other concessions he would
be exempted from the necessity of becoming a
Presbyterian. And better still, he might so use
his kingcraft as to win the army to his purposes
and make it the instrument of his restoration.
Having, therefore, left orders that Oxford, which
could no longer hold out, should be surrendered
to the parliamentary army, Charles with his
two attendants, and disguised as a groom, left
the city on the 27th of April (1646) at mid-
night, and after several halts and frequent risks
of detection arrived at the Scottish camp before
Newai'k.'*

It was with painful surprise that the Scots
received this unexpected honour of a royal visit,
and in announcing the event they declared that
there had been no treaty between them and the
king, or by any in their names. They also in-
dicated their intention of improving his coming
for promoting uniformity of religion, by the
advice of the parliaments of both kingdoms, or
their commissioners. In the meantime they re-
ceived Charles with respect, and appointed him
a guard ; and to avoid giving offence to the
English pailiament, or any compulsory requisi-
tions for his surrender, they resolved to move
nearer to their own countiy until the terms of a
peace could be secured according to the tenor
of the Solemn League and Covenant. It was
necessary, however, in the first instance, to fulfil
their engagement to the English parliament by
reducing Newark, and they easily obtained an

2 Montreuil's Letters in Thurloe's State Papers.

3 Clarendon State Papers; Rushworth.

81

82

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1644-1647.

order from the king requiring it to surrender.
They then marched to Newcixstle, to which they
laid siege, and which now became the principal
seat of the war iu England, every other place of
importance having been reduced. Amidst these
military movements Charles had not remitted
his intrigues, which he commenced as soon as
he arrived at the Scottish camp. He took up
his quarters with David Leslie, the lieutenant-
general, whose services at Marstou Moor and
Philiphaugh had made him a greater favourite
with the army than the Earl of Leven himself,
and him he endeavoured to detach from the
Covenautei-s by ofliering him tlie title of Earl of
Orkney if he w-ould adopt the royalist cause and
unite himself with Montrose. He also tampered
to the same eflect with several of the principal
Scottish officers, hoping by a union of the nor-
thern army to the Irish and Highlanders of the
marquis to regain his ascendency and kindle
the war in England anew. But to reconcile the
Covenanters to Montrose, who had deceived and
deserted them, and afterwards became their
deadliest enemy, was impossible, and the arrival
of the Earls of Argyle, Lanark, and Loudon at
the Scottish camp for the purpose of watching
the proceedings both of the king and the army
put an end to these intrigues. They told him
in plain terms that unless he took the Covenant
he could expect no service from the Scots, and
they required him to put an end to the civil war
in Scotland by ceasing all intercourse with Mon-
trose. This must have been a bitter pill to his
majesty, who still continued to repose his trust
in the marquis; but ready to sacrifice all and
everything to the urgencies of the present hour,
he sent him an order to disband his forces and
retire to France. Montrose, who was still lurk-
ing in the Highlands, vainly attempting to raise
a new army, and whose efforts could only in-
volve his master in deeper difficulties, reluctantly
obeyed. The terms he obtained from the estates
were far superior to what he could have ex-
pected. Though under the ban of excommuni-
cation and the civil sentence of forfeiture, an
indemnity was granted to himself and all his
followers ; and when he had dismissed them
he was allowed to reside at his own house un-
molested for several weeks before he retired to
the Continent.^

When the Scottish army had moved fi'om
Newark to Newcastle the urgency of the com-
missioners that the king should take the Coven-
ant were earnest and incessant. It was the
only step by which his affairs could be retrieved
and his throne recovered. The Presbytei'ians of
Scotland and England united were still far more

I Wishart; Guthrie; Burnet.

than a match for the Independents and their re-
modelled army, but without such a pledge on the
part of the king such a union was impossible. If
left to his own freewill it was evident from past
events that Charles, after regaining his sove-
reignty, would stickle upon his prerogative as ob-
stinately as ever; and where would be the benefit
of those labours and bloodshed by which hisabso-
lutism had been broken I And that the Scots,
even though left alone, would fight to the death
for a covenanted king was evident : to this the
Covenant itself had bound them, and they had
no sympathy with those antimouarchical and
republican principles which were fast gaining
ground among the Independents and sectaries.
But withoiit such a guarantee on the part of
Charles they would only sacrifice themselves,
their country, and their church for an episcopal
ritual and an absolute sovereign. The same
Presbyterianism, however, which made them
the devoted subjects of a constitutional king
and the advocates of hereditary succession taught
them that sovereigns might be coerced for their
fatuity and set aside for their tyranny — that
j " the divinity that doth hedge a king " was a
I poetical dream rather than a rational and polit-
ical truth. That these were their convictions
and their resolutions Charles was assured, and
he wrote a letter to Juxon, Bishop of London,
proposing the question as a case of conscience,
and desiring to be resolved whether he might
take the Covenant with a mental reservation.
The question was propounded in this fashion : —
" I need not tell you the many persuasions and
threatenings that hath been used to me for
making me change episcopal into presbyterial
government, which absolutely to do is so directly
against my conscience, that, by the grace of God,
no misery shall ever make me : but I hold
myself obliged, by all honest means, to eschew
the mischief of this too visible storm, and I
think some kind of compliance with the iniquity
of the times may be fit as my case is, which at
another were unlawful. These are the grounds
that have made me think of this inclosed propo-
sition, the which as one way it looks handsome
to us, so in another I am fearful lest I cannot
make it with a safe conscience ; of which I com-
mand you to give me your opinion upon your
allegiance; conjuring you that you will deal
plainly and freely with me, as you will answer
at the dreadful day of judgment. I conceive
the question to be, whether I may, with a safe
conscience, give way to this proposed temporary
compliance, with a resolution to recover and
maintain that doctrine and discipline wherein
I have been bred. The duty of my oath is
herein chiefly to be considered, I flattering my-
self that this way I better comply with it than

A.D. 1644-1647.]

CHAELES I.

83

being constant to a flat denial, considering how
unable I am by force to obtain that which this
way there wants not probability to recover if
accepted (otherwise there is no harm done) ; for,
my regal authority once settled, I make no ques-
tion of recovering episcopal government, and
God is my witness my chiefest end in regaining
my power is to do the church service."^ It will
thus be seen in what spirit and for what purpose
Charles, if he complied, meant to take the
Covenant. He wished to reconcile the principles
of Machiavelli with those of the gospel, and go
as far as earth permitted without closing the
gates of heaven and precluding his hopes of
future safety. The answer of the good bishop
is not known, but from his well-known character
it was probably unfavourable to such Jesuitical
double-dealing; and Charles, driven from this
refuge, was obliged to listen to the arguments
of the Scottish ministers in favour of the Coven-
ant, according to his own promise. It was in
this way that he had ofiered to lay himself open
to conviction, while the other party fondly hoped
that by such a process he could not be otherwise
than convinced.

The champion for the Covenant in this dis-
cussion was Alexander Henderson, the king's
own chaplain, who was selected for the jjurpose
at his majesty's express desire. By his elo-
quence, talent, and practical sagacity, combined
with moderation and courtly suavity, none was
better fitted to dispute with a proud but erring
sovereign, and lay open to him the ways of truth
•and wisdom. The controversy between them,
which was conducted in writing, continued from
May to the close of July, and was contained in
eight papers, five of which were by the king
and three by Henderson. The arguments on
both sides, however commonplace they have
become in our own day by frequent reiteration,
were at that period fresh and full of animation
and fraught with a life-and-death importance.
The king rested his argument upon the divine
right of bishops ; their uniutei'rupted succession
from the apostles, on which the validity of the
administration of the sacraments depended; and
the authority of the ancient Christian fathers,
by whom the primitive Episcopal Church had
been founded. He also endeavoured to prove
from the same authority that no reformation in
the church could be lawful unless it originated
with the sovereign, as was the case in England.
Henderson replied that this English reformation
by royal authority was still so defective that
many who were wise and pious were dissatisfied.
In many essentials of worship and government
it was found wanting, while the sujjremacy over

1 Letter of Charles to Juxon ; Sir Henry Ellis.

it had only been transferred from one unconstitu-
tional head to another. Episcopacy, he alleged,
could not establish its exclusive claim to apos-
tolic appointment, as during the lifetime of the
apostles there was no difi'erence between a bishop
and a presbyter, but exact parity in both. To
argue also from the practices of the primitive
church and consent of the fathers he declared
to be unsatisfactory and fallacious, and that the
only rule and authority in such a question was
the law and testimony direct from God himself,
and contained in his revealed word. As for the
obligations of the coronation oath, so far as the
church was concerned, and by which his majesty
thought himself bound to uphold Episcopacy,
Henderson stated that when the occasion of an
oath ceased the obligation to maintain its re-
quirements ceased also. Thus, when the parlia-
ments of both kingdoms agreed in repealing a
law the royal conscience was not precluded from
sanctioning the change, otherwise the altering
of any law would be jDrevented.^ Such were
the jjrincipal points of the controversy, which
Henderson maintained with great acuteness,
but in gentle, respectful language, while he was
labouring under a mortal disease, embittered
by the king's obstinacy and the troubles that
were awaiting the church and kingdom ; and he
died at Edinburgh on the 19th of August, soon
after the discussion had ended. His command-
ing talents were acknowledged and his worth
was revered by the moderate and good of all
parties ; and although attemjits were after-
wards made to traduce his memory, the obloquy
and its authors quickly fell into the contempt
they merited. It was alleged, for instance, that
the royal logic had killed him, and that he died
of chagrin at finding himself unable to answer
the king's arguments. It was asserted by others
that the answers of Charles had converted him
to Episcopacy ; and a recantation was actually
written in his name, abjuring upon his death-
bed the heresy of Presbyterianism, and expi'ess-
ing his remorse for having been its champion
against so wise and pious a king. But this
bare-faced forgery was detected and exposed
by a committee of the General Assembly two
years after his death.

But while Charles was demurely listening to
the arguments of the Presbyterian ministers and
endeavouring to answer Alexander Henderson,
a very different project was occupying his brain
than that of becoming a convert to the Scottish
kirk. Even while the controversy was pending,
by which he managed to gain time and throw
the Scots off their guard, he was plotting with
the Irish Papists and devising plans for the

-King Charles's Works; Baillie's Ze<<6rs.

84

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1644-1647.

renewal of the war. On the 20th of July he
wrote a flattering letter to the Earl of Glamor-
gan proposing the opening of a new correspon-
dence. He was not so strictly guarded at New-
castle, he stated, as to be prevented from com-
municating with the earl if a trusty agent should
be sent to him for the purpose. " If you could
raise," continued Charles, " a large sum of money
by pawning my kingdoms I am content you
should do it ; and if I recover them I will fully
repay that money. And tell the nuncio that if
once I am come into his and your hands, which
ought to be extremely wished for by you both,
:is well for the sake of England as Ireland, since
all the rest, as I see, desjMse me, I will do it.
And if I do not say this from my heart, or in
any future time if I fail you in this, may God
never restore me to my kingdoms in this world
nor give me eternal happiness in the next."^
Notwithstanding his I'ecent detection and danger
Glamorgan was ready to embark in this fresh
enterprise ; he sent a cojDy of the king's letter to
the pope, who expressed the iitmost sympathy
both for the intentions and hai'dships of Charles;
and in concert with the pope's nuncio in Ire-
land he devised a plan by which the king was
to pass over to that country, raise an Irish army
from subsidies to be furnished by the pontiff,
and be joined, on his invading England, by
10,000 French soldiers who wei'e to be landed
on its shores, while Montrose, being recalled,
was to perform his old part in Scotland at
the head of fresh levies of the wild Irish. It
was one of those many mad devices which were
contrived by Charles and his friends while he
was in the hands of the Scots, and which served
no other purpose than to make his insincerity
more conspicuous ; and it is perhaps needless to
add that it vanished into thin air almost as soon
as contemplated.

But while the king was dreaming dreams the
English parliament was sternly prosecuting its
own practical task ; and on the 23d of July its
commissioners arrived at the headquarters of the
Scottish army, to jDresent to his majesty the final
propositions of the two houses. The members
of this commission were the Earls of Denbigh
and Pembroke, and Lord Montague, for the
peers, and six members of the lower house for
the Commons; and these being accompanied by
the Scottish commissioners, had audience of his
majesty on the following day. His loftiness had
risen with his misfortunes, and before the pro-
positions were read he asked the commissioners
if they had power to treat. They answered that
they had not, upon which he scornfully said,
" Then, saving the honour of the business, an

• Birch, Inquiry, &c.

honest trumpeter might have done as much."
When they had ended reading he declared that
he could not give a speedy answer to matters of
such high concernment ; and when the commis-
sioners deprecated a long delay, as their stay at
Newcastle was limited to ten days, he replied
that he would despatch them in convenient time.
But that convenient time became daily more
remote and more uncertain ; and although the
terms were not much higher than those they
had offered at Uxbridge, while the result of the
war was still doubtful, he would give no conclusive
reply.^ In the meantime every form of entreaty
was used to obtain his assent, but in vain. The
Earl of Leven on his knees besought him to
end the national strife and the distractions of
the church by surrendering his scrujales about
religion and subscribing the Covenant; and
the Eai'ls of Argyle and Loudon, also kneeling,
besought him to the same effect. Loudon, now
Chancellor of Scotland, represented that his
majesty's assent to the propositions was so neces-
sary that a refusal would only bring on a sud-
den ruin and destruction, and warming in his
earnestness he continued : '' The differences
betwixt your majesty and your parliament are
grown to such an height that after many bloody
battles they have your majesty, with all your
forts, gai-risons, and strongholds in their hands;
your revenue, and the authority to raise all the
men and money in the kingdom are in their
possession ; and with such a powerful army at
their command, they are now in a capacity to
do what they will both in church and state;
while many through fear, and others through
disinclination to your majesty's government,
desire neither you nor any of your race longer
to reign over them. But the peoj^le, although
wearied of the war and of the great burdens
that they groan under, are so loath to have
monarchical government destroyed that they
dare not attempt to cast it totally off till they
have tried the effect of proposals for peace with
your majesty, to satisfy their minds ; yet, after
so cruel a civil war and such protracted con-
fusion, they require security from revenge and
arbitrary power. They therefore resolved upon
the propositions which are now tendered to your
majesty, as those without which the kingdom
and your people cannot be in safety, and with-
out which there can be no firm peace. Your
majesty's friends in the houses and the com-
missioners from Scotland, after a strong contest,
were forced to consent either to allow these
terms to be offered or to be considered as ene-
mies to peace; and had not these conditions been
sent no others would have been proposed. And

■•i May, Brev. HM. Pari.

A.D. 1644-1647.]

CHARLES I.

85

now, if your majesty (which God forbid !) shall
refuse to assent to the propositions you will lose
every friend in the houses, lose the city; the
country and all England will join against you
as one man. They will bring you to trial, depose
you, and set up another government; they will
charge us to deliver your majesty to them, to
surrender their garrisons, and to remove our
armies. Upon your majesty's refusal of the jaro-
positions both kingdoms will be constrained for
their mutual safety to agree and settle religion
and peace without you, which, if yoi;r majesty
refuse our faithful advice, who desire nothing
on earth more than the preservation of your
majesty's royal throne, you will bring inexpres-
sible grief, occasion your own ruin, and that of
your posterity. For if you lose England by your
wilfulness you will not be permitted to come and
reign in Scotland." After this vehement appeal
the speaker proceeded to urge the advantages
that would ensue from the royal compliance in
the following words : " Sir, we have laid our
hands upon our hearts, — we have asked counsel
and direction from God, — and have had our
most serious thoughts upon a remedy, — but can
find no other to save your crown and kingdom
than your assenting to the 2:)ropositions. We
must acknowledge they are higher in some
things than we approved of ; but when we see
no other means for curing the distempers of the
kingdoms and closing the breach between your
majesty and your parliament our most humble
and safe advice is, that your majesty will be
graciously pleased to assent to them as the only
way to establish your throne. You will thus
be again received into your parliament with joy
and acclamation; your friends will be strength-
ened by your royal presence, and your enemies,
who fear nothing so much as your acceding to
the propositions, be weakened. You will here-
after have a fair opportunity of offering such
modifications as you and your parliament shall
think proper for your crown and kingdom ; the
armies will be disbanded, and your people find-
ing the fruit of a peaceable government, you
will gain their hearts and affections, your true
strength and glory, and recover all tliat you have
lost in this time of tempest and trouble. If it
please God to incline your royal heart to this
advice of your humble and faithful servants,
who, next to the honour and service of God,
esteem nothing more precious than the safety
of your person and crown, our actions shall make
it appear that we esteem no hazard too great
for your majesty's safety, and that we are willing
to sacrifice our lives and fortunes for establish-
ing your throne and just right." ^

1 Rushworth ; May. The speech as given by these authors
is substantially the same, though slightly differing in words.

These honest arguments and representations
of Lord Loudon were not the mei'e voice of an
individual or of a party, but of the friends of
Charles and the nation at large. An ambas-
sador, sent fi'om France for the purpose, urged
him to accept the propositions of his parliament;
the queen advised him by letters to the same
effect; and even the most sanguine of the royal-
ists, who had fought in his cause as long as re-
sistance in arms was possible, were of opinion
that he ought to yield to the overwhelming
wishes of the Presbyterians of both nations.
Edinburgh, also, and the other cities of Scot-
laud, sent him earnest petitions, imploring him
to take the Covenant, and thus avert the ruin
that hung over him and his posterity. But
confident in the sacredness of his prerogative,
without which he thought it impossible for the
state to exist, and buoyed up by the representa-
tions of his flatterers, whose selfish interests were
identified with the king's absolute power, Charles
still remained obdurate. The threat of deposi-
tion he laughed to scorn as a monstrosity, and
imagined that the contest was now reduced to
a question of firmness, in which the party that
held out longest would be successful. And
besides the aid which at any moment might
chance to come to him from France, from Ire-
land, or even from Rome, he calculated upon
the growing dissensions between the Presbyte-
rians and Independents, as the means by which
all should be brought back to his absolute autho-
rity. With the design, therefore, of tampering
with the two parties he offered, upon the guar-
antee of the two houses and the Scotch com-
missioners, to come up to London and treat with
parliament by personal negotiation, and assent
to all reasonable demands that might be for the
good and peace of his people. It was no answer,
or rather the mockeiy of an answer, and when
the English commissioners transmitted it to
parliament on the 5th of August it was received
as such. On the lOth they wrote again to say
that the king had refused to subscribe to the
propositions, although the commissioners of both
kingdoms had implored him upon their knees
to give his assent ; and two or three days after-
wards they made a personal report in the House
of Commons of all that had passed between them
and the king. They received the thanks of the
house, and the same token of approbation was
sent to the Scottish commissioners who had
assisted them. The perplexity occasioned to the
two parties by his majesty's refusal, and its ten-
dency in their future quarrel, was aptly illus-
trated by an incident in the discussion of the
House of Commons. "What will become of us
now," exclaimed a Presbyterian member, " that
the king has refused our propositions?" "Nay,

86

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1644-1647.

■what would have become of us" replied an In-
dependent, "if the king had accepted them?"

Among the hopes of Charles was one which
arose from the dislike that had been growing
in the English parliament against the Scottish
army. On the 19th of May the House of Com-
mons had voted that England no longer needed
its assistance, while among the peoi)le at large
complaints were prevalent that their brethren
of the north were filling Newcastle, Carlisle, and
other towns near the Borders with gai-risons as
if they meant to retain them. The Scots on the
other hand reminded them how promptly they
had come to their assistance, and how etfectually
they had laboured with them in the good cause;
they also demanded a settlement of accounts,
and payment of the subsidies which the parlia-
ment had decreed for their maintenance, bvxt
which still remained undischarged. Tlius mat-
tei-s continued till August ; and upon the same
day that the English commissioners gave in the
report of their proceedings at Newcastle the
Scottish commissioners also presented a paper
to the English House of Lords, stating their
readiness to surrender the towns they had gar-
risoned, and which they kept only for the safety
of their forces, and to recall their army, " rea-
sonable satisfaction being given for their pains,
hazards, charges, and sufferings; whereof a com-
petent i^roportion to be presently jjaid to their
army before their disbanding, and security to
be given for the remainder at such times here-
after as shall be mutually agi'eed on." In the
preamble to this spirited manifesto they also
reminded the parliament that they had marched
into England upon more important considera-
tions than the mere payment of military sub-
sidies. " The same principles of brotherly affec-
tion," it stated, " which did induce both king-
doms to a conjunction of their counsels and
forces in this cause, move us at this time to apply
ourselves to the most I'eal and eff'ectual ways
which tend to a speedy conclusion and amicable
parting, and to the prevention of misunderstand-
ings between the kingdoms in any of these
things, which, peradventure, our common ene-
mies look upon with much joy, as occasions of
differences. For this end we have not taken
notice of the many base calumnies and execrable
aspersions cast upon the kingdom of Scotland,
in printed pamjDhlets and otherwise ; expecting
from the justice and wisdom of the honourable
houses that they will themselves take such
course for the vindication of our nation and
army as the Estates of Scotland have showed
themselves ready to do for them in the like case.
Upon the invitation of both houses the kingdom
of Scotland did cheerfully undertake, and hath
faithfully managed their assistance to this king-

dom in pureuance of the ends expressed in the
Covenant; and the forces of the common enemy
being, by the blessing of God upon the joint
endeavours of both kingdoms, now broken and
subdued, a foundation is laid and some good
progress made in the reformation of religion,
which we trust the honourable houses will, ac-
cording to the Covenant, sincerely, really, and
constautl}' prosecute till it be perfected."^

This dignified appeal and the desire to get
rid of the Scottish army prevailed with the
English parliament, so that the instalment of
£100,000 was forthwith provided for the im-
mediate wants of the army, and a vote of thanks
given for its readiness in giving up the garri-
soned towns. Both parties then proceeded to
the adjustment of accounts, the settlement of
which was by no means easy. The balance due
to the Scots, after much haggling and leuuc-
tion, was brought down to £'600,000, but their
commissioners submitted to take £400,000, of
which one half was to be paid before the army
left England, and security given for the re-
mainder. After this vexatious money account
had been thus settled a new question of still
greater difficulty was brought forwaixl as to the
disposal of the king's pei-son. This the parlia-
ment on the 21st of September claimed as a
right belonging exclusively to themselves, at
which the Scottish commissioners were indig-
nant. Charles, they alleged, was king of Scot-
land as well as of England, and as both nations
had borne their share in the war and had an
equal interest in all that concerned him and his
government, the disposal of his person belonged
not to one but both of these nations, equally
and conjointly.^ They disclaimed any intention
of carrying the king with them to Scotland,
which in the present state of their country was
most unadvisable ; but as the war in England
was ended, and as he had not yet given a de-
cided refusal to the propositions of pai-liament,
he should be allowed to go to London or any
of his English residences, which was the best
chance of establishing with him a safe, lasting,
and honourable peace according to the Cove-
nant. The king's own wish also was to remain
Math the Scottish army, where he judged him-
self to be safer than in London or any part of
England, and he was already buoyed up by the
Duke of Hamilton with hopes that a diversion
in his favour might yet be effected in Scotland
if the army could only be detained from return-
ing home. But on the 11th of December this
last hope of Charles was fnistrated. On the
previous day Hamilton and the supporters of
royalty had obtained the passing of a vote in the

1 PiUsh worth.

2 laem.

A.D. 1644-1647.]

CHAELES I.

87

Scottish parliament that they should exert them-
selves in maintaining monarchical government,
and the right of Charles to the English crown ;
but on the following day they cancelled that
vote, and published a declaration that Scotland
could not lawfully engage on the king's part,
nor admit him into the kingdom, unless he
accepted the propositions and took the Cove-
nant.^ Both the English and the Scots were
well aware that wherever the king was there
also would be political commotions and strifes,
and as May has well expressed it," in all the whole
debate they seemed to contend, not who should
have the king, but who should not have him."

This resolution of the Scottish parliament
not only brought the question to a close, but
overthrew the last confidence of Charles, who
saw that he would be delivered into the hands
of his English subjects; and rather than endure
this extremity he resolved to escape and fly to
the Continent. But it was the interest of both
nations alike that he should not betake himself
to their foreign enemies, and the precautions
against his leaving the kingdom were so strict
that escape was impossible. Abandoning, thei-e-
fore, this hopeless plan, he wrote to the Eng-
lish parliament on the 2Uth of December en-
treating permission to come to London for the
purpose of holding a personal conference with
both houses upon the present subjects of de-
bate; but to this application no answer was
returned. In a debate upon Christmas-day the
Lords voted that he might be permitted to come
to Newmarket, and there remain with such
attendants as the two houses should appoint;
but the Commons voted that a titter place would
be Holmby House, in Northam])tonshire. With
this the Lords agreed, and " that his coming
hither should be with resj^ect to the safety and
preservation of his majesty's person, and in
preservation and defence of the true religion,
according to the Covenant."'^

Tlie course to which the Scots were now shut
up was simple and distinct. By refusing to
take the Covenant Charles had opposed his
single will to the wish of the whole nation ; he
had forfeited their allegiance, and tacitly con-
sented to his own deposition. And how then
could they rally in his defence? And even if
successful against the overwhelming power of
England, what would their success accomplish
but the ruin of their church and the re-estab-
lishment of absolute rule ? It would be a very
mad freak of chivalrous loyalty to undo so many
years of toil and sacrifice that a king might
reign over them independent of all laws and in
a fashion they abhorred, merely because he so

1 Rushworth.

2 Burnet ; Rushworth.

willed it. They made a last eflfort to induce
him to subscribe the Covenant and accept the
propositions ; but in answer he presented to
them a paper, in which the following position
showed the worthlessness of all negotiations
that might be held with him on that or any
other subject : " It is a received opinion by
many that engagements, acts, or promises of a
restrained person are neither valid nor obliga-
tory ; how true or false this is I will not now
dispute, but I am sure, if I be not free, I am
not fit to answer your or any propositions;
wherefore you should first resolve me in what
state I stand as in relation to freedom, before I
can give you any other answer." He also de-
manded, in case he went into Scotland, whether
he should be there with honour, freedom, and
safety, or how? To these inquiries the answei's
of the Scottish commissioners were very brief.
To the first question, as to his condition with
regard to freedom of action, they told him that
the parliaments of both kingdoms had given
such orders and directions as they thought fitted
for the welfare and safety both of his majesty
and the kingdoms. To the second, regarding
his going to Scotland, they wished to be ex-
cused from replying ; but they added, " if your
majesty shall either deny or delay your assent
to the propositions, we are in that case to repre-
sent to your majesty the resolution of the par-
liament of England." This was conclusive, so
that no further question or negotiation was
necessary. Two days after, to wit on the 16th
of January (1()47), the Scottish parliament re-
solved to deliver up the king. At the same
time they transmitted "the desires of the king-
dom of Scotland," in which they exjircssed to
the English parliament their wish to maintain
the cordial agreement of the two nations, and
at the same time to preserve their loyalty and
the person of the king. They proposed "that a
committee of both the kingdoms be appointed to
attend his majesty, and press him further for
granting the propositions of peace; and in case
of his refusal, to advise and determine what is
further necessary for continuing and strengthen-
ing the union between the kingdoms according
to the Covenant and treaties, — and that no
jjeace nor agreement be made by either king-
dom with the king without the other, according
to the late treaty betwixt the kingdoms. Next,
that such of the Scottish nation as have place
or charge about the king may attend and
exercise the same, and that none shall be de-
barred from having access to attend his majesty
from the ^parliaments of either kingdom re-
spectively, or from a committee of either.^ To

3 Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, vi. p. 240.

88

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1647-1649.

these couditions the English parliament Jis-
sented. It wiU be seen from the foregoing
account that the reproach against the Scots of
having sold their king is altogether unmerited.
The Scots demanded payment of a debt which
■wa:5 justly owing them, and which the English
parliament had cut down to nearly half of its
amount. The demand was made and the paj'-
ment settled nearly four months before the
negotiation was commenced which had for its
object the surrender of the king. And they
did not give him up to the Independents, who
were now avowedly republicans, and who after-
wards brought him to the scaffold ; but to the
Presbyterians, still the pi-edominatiiig party in
the state, and whose principles of kingly govern-
ment were identical with their own.

In the meantime the English parliament,
which was impatient for the departure of the
Scottish army, was enabled to satisfy its claims
by setting up the bishops' lands to sale. On the
16th of December £200,000 were forwarded to
Newcastle in thirty-six carts, and under a strong
guard, and the money was paid, and a receipt
delivered for it at Northallerton on the 21st of
January. The cash was not the less valuable to
the Scots as being the spoils of Episcopacy,
which the English parliament had declared to
be abolished for ever. On the 30th of January
the person of the king was delivered to the com-
missioners of the English parliament sent to re-
ceive him, and on the same day the Scot-
tish army evacuated Newcastle and returned
home.

CHAPTER IX.

REIGN OF CHARLES I. (1647-1649).

Charles conveyed from Newcastle to Holmby House — His treatment — Triumph of the Presbyterian party —
Opposition of the Independents — Attempts of the parUament to reduce the army — The soldiers' mutiny —
March of the army towards London — Adjutators chosen by the soldiers — Their negotiations with parha-
ment for redress — They take possession of the king's person — Charles conveyed from Holmby House to
Newmarket — The army approaches to the neighbourhood of London — The leading Presb}i;erians ejected
from parhament — The king transferred from Newmarket to Windsor — Insiu-rection of the Presbyterians
in London — The parliament flies to the army for protection — The army occupies London — Overthrow of
Presbyterianism and triumph of the Independents — Moderation of the army in the midst of its success —
Its proposals to the king — He rejects them — Attempts of Charles to tamper with the different parties-
He alienates the army — Cromwell's discovery of the king's double-dealing — The army adopts republican
principles — The king alarmed at the denunciations of the republicans — He escapes from Windsor to the
Isle of Wight — His reception there — Chai'les commences a treaty with the royalists of Scotland — Its detec-
tion— Strictness of the king's captivity increased — State of affaii-s in Scotland at this period — Divisions in
its church — Intrigues of Hamilton and his party in the Estates for the king — They carry a decision for the
king's restoration by arms — Their demands calculated to provoke a renewal of the war — They levy troops
— Unpopularity of their cause — Hamilton commences the war and mai'ches into England — Discordant
materials of which his army is composed — Cromwell attacks and defeats it at Preston — The war party loses
its ascendency in Scotland — The Whigamore's Raid — Argyle applies to Cromwell for aid — Arrival of Crom-
well in Scotland — Order restored by his arrival — The Presbyterians in the English parliament recover
strength in his absence — They commence a fresh treaty with the king — Fatal obstinacy of Charles —
Amount of his concessions — His refusal to abandon the cause of Episcopacy — His intermediate and secret
negotiations with Ormond and the Irish Papists — His design to escape from the Isle of Wight to Ireland —
His procrastination in his treaty with parliament — The treaty interrupted by the republican demands of
the army — Cromwell resolves to take the king into his own keeping — Charles conveyed to Hurst Castle —
" Pride's Purge," by which the parliament is wholly composed of Independents — The parliament condemns
the late treaties with the king— Charles transferred from Hurst Castle to Windsor — The king's indictment
prepared by the House of Commons — High Court of Justice appointed for liis trial — Charles brought to
London — His trial at Westminster HaU — The king's behaviour before the court — His denial of its authority
— His refusals to answer the charges — Sentence of death pronounced — His ineffectual appeals for a hear-
ing in the Painted Chamber — Conduct of Charles previous to his execution — His preparations for the
closing scene^His last speech on the scaffold — His conversation with Bishop Juxon — His execution —
Character of his reign.

Having fulfilled its commission and received
its wages, the Scottish army returned home,
and Charles was taken by easy stages to Holmby
House, a statel}- mansion near the fatal field of

Naseby, which the parliament had appointed
for his residence. During the whole journey he
was greeted by the welcoming acclamations of
the country ]5eople, who, in spite of the war,

A.D. 1647-1649.]

CHAELES I.

89

still retained a superstitious veneratiou for the
royal presence, and several persons came to him
on the way to be touched for the king's evil
At Holmby neither his personal freedom nor his
recreations were restrained; he was permitted
to walk, ride, and play at his favourite game of
bowls, although the bowling-greens were at a
distance of eight or nine miles; and for his
principal attendants he had two persons ap-
pointed by parliament, who exercised their un-
pleasant supervision with gentleness and respect,
one of them being Thomas Herbert, who has left
some interesting memorials of the last days of
Charles, while the other was James Harrington,
the talented but Utopian writer of Oceana. He
was also provided by the parliament with Pres-
byterian chaplains; but these he would in no
way countenance, not even permitting them to
say grace at his table.

While Charles was tluis spending his time in
what seemed a voluntary seclusion rather than
a, royal captivity, the Presbyterians of England
were at the height of their triimiphs. The Con-
fession of Faith, now finished by the Westmin-
ster Assembly, and ratified by the English par-
liament, was to be recognized as the established
religious standard of both kingdoms; and there
was every prospect that one creed, one doctrine,
one system of church discipline, would be set
up, under which dissent would be extinguished
and sectarianism disappear. The king was in
their hands, and could no longer arrest their
progress. And if they could only regain the
power of the sword, which the victory of Naseby
had transferred from them to the Independents,
the influence of the parliament would be com-
plete, and a limited monarchy established. Their
next step, therefore, was to dissolve the army
by which their triumphs had been achieved, but
which had become too strong to be any longer a
safe protection; and as a preliminary to this, they
hastened the departure of the Scottish army,
whose co-operation was judged no longer neces-
sary, and whose maintenance was complained of
as an oppressive burden. But by this compli-
ance with the popular will the English Presby-
terians deprived themselves of their best de-
fence against those sectaries who were driving
the kingdom into universal religious toleration
and political republicanism. Of those sectaries,
under the comprehensive name of Independents,
the remodelled army, by which the tide of war
had been reversed and royalty overthrown, was
mainly composed; and having got the chief
power into their own hands they were in no
humour to play a subsidiary part and give im-
plicit obedience to acts of parliament. The war
of absolutism against constitutional monarchy
being at an end, a new war was to be originated

of constitutional monarchy against republican-
ism, in which the champions of the latter were
men whose arguments lay in their swords, which
they had never wielded in vain.

The first open movement of the parliament was
a proposal made in the house in February, 1 647, to
reduce the army to a peace establishment, and to
dismantle the garrisons in England and Wales;
and although the motion was resisted, it was
finally carried that all the troops should be dis-
missed excejjt 5400 horse and 1000 dragoons,
and all the infantry except as many as were
sufficient to garrison forty-five castles and for-
tresses which were judged necessary to be kept
up. It was then voted that Sir Thomas Fairfax
should continue commander-in-chief ; but three
days after it was voted by the Presbyterian ma-
jority that no officer under Fairfax should hold
higher rank than that of colonel, that no com-
mander of a garrison should be a member of
parliament, and that every officer whatever
should take the Covenant and conform to the
church now established.^ By these rash deci-
sions the bravest of the army, Skippon, Ireton,
Blake, Ludlow, Algernon Sydney, and even
Cromwell, the most distinguished of all their
commanders, would have been summarily dis-
missed. Undeterred by the loudly-expressed
indignation of the Independents, the parliamen-
tary leaders of the Presbyterians proceeded to
bolder measures, and on the 6th of March re-
solved that 8400 foot, 3000 horse, and 1200
dragoons should be drawn from the army of
Fairfax and immediately shiiaped for Ireland.
The outcry of the soldiers at these last resolu-
tions was overwhelming : they were to be de-
prived of their old officers, who were to be re-
placed by Presbyterians; and they were to be
deported from their country to Ireland that they
might die of sickness and famine ! Was this a
fitting reward for their toils, their sacrifices, and
their victories'? And besides, while all the civil
officers of the kingdom had been well and regu-
larly paid, the arrears due to the soldiers had
been neglected ; so that they had received no
pay for nearly a twelvemonth. They forwarded
a petition demanding payment for their past
services, indemnity for the irregularities with
which they had been compelled to supply them-
selves during the war, and exemption from ser-
vice in Ireland until these demands were satis-
fied ; but the parliament denounced their peti-
tion as mutinous, upon which the army broke
up from its stations, marched towards London,
and halted at SafFron-Walden in Essex. This
hostile and armed demonstration terrified the
Presbyterians into moderation, who voted an

1 Whitelock

90

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1647-1649.

assessment of ^60,000 per month for one year
for paying the army, and at the request of tl.e
city oi'dered the army not to come within twenty-
five miles of London ; they also sent a deputa-
tion to inquire its intentions, and, if possible, to
etfect a compromise. There was much going to
and fro between the parliament and the army,
and much negotiation on both sides; and the
soldiers, who already felt themselves to be a
separate power in the state, had appointed a
committee from each regiment, who, under the
name of adjutators (soon changed into agita-
tors), were to represent them in the council of
general otficei-s, report their griev^ances, and
demand redress. From this strange military
senate the chief officers stood aloof; but his-
torians have generally concluded that, if not
originated by Cromwell himself, its proceedings
at least were directed by his secret dictation.
They sent three troopers as their representatives
to appeal to the House of Commons ; and on
being admitted to a hearing these men protested
against the soldiers being sent to Ireland with-
out their demands being satisfied, denounced
the plans to break them up and disband them
as a design to get rid of them without pay and
recompense, and charged the authors of it of
being ambitious men who had unjustly become
masters in the state and were seeking to be its
tyrants. Cromwell, who was in the house, recom-
mended the claims of the army to the attention
of the members, spoke of the danger of driving
it to despair by a refusal ; and such was his
persuasiveness that, although already suspected,
he wascommissioned, along with Skippon,Ireton,
and Fleetwood, to repair to headquarters, with a
view of pacifying the malcontents. The result
of such an arrangement may be easily conjec-
tured: Cromwell and his coadjutors rather stirred
up than allayed the discontent of the soldiers,
and then returned to parliament to explain the
unsuccessfulness of their mission and recommend
compliance with the army's demands. But these
representations were ineffectual ; for although
the house resolved that measures should be
adopted for discharging the arrears of the sol-
diers, they also persisted in the i^esolution in-
stantly to disband the regiments — a process to
which the army would not submit without a
previous settlement of their claims for pay ; and
finding that this demand was not likely to be
conceded, they resolved to have recourse to
stronger measures than petition. As no other
form of argument would avail, they resolved to
use that in which they overmatched their an-
tagonists and by which every difficulty would
be speedily resolved.^

' Whitelock : Rushworth.

The opportunity soon arrived. The House of
Lords, who, though for the most part royalists,
were for the present at one with the Presby-
terians, because the latter weie in earnest for
the preservation of the monarchy, passed a vote
that the king should be brought from Holmby
House to Oatlands, near London, for the pur-
pose of opening with him a new negotiation;
and this the army and the Inde^iendents were
determined to prevent. By having his majesty
in their own keeping they would eftectually
baffle their antagonists and prevent any treaty
between the king and the Presbyterians, in
which their party was certain to be sacrificed.
Accordingly they despatched Joyce, a cornet,
with five or six hundred dragoons, who arrived
at Holmby House a little after midnight on the
3d of June; and having set guards at the several
avenues, to prevent all outlet from the mansion,
he entered the house, and told Colonel Greaves
and Brown, the commaudei'S of the small gar-
rison at Holmby, that he came to speak with
the king. "From whom?" asked the officers.
" From myself," replied Joyce, at which they
laughed. "This is no laughing matter," said
the cornet, and mattere began to look moie
grave. They advised him to draw off his troops,
and in the morning speak with the commis-
sioners, who had been placed there by parlia-
mentar}^ appointment; but Joyce decisively and
briefly said to them, " I came not hither to be
advised by you, nor have I any business with
the commissioners; my errand is to the king,
and speak with him I must and will presently."
The guards of Holmby House were commanded
to stand to their arms; but, instead of this, they
threw open the gates and welcomed the troopers
without, while Joyce passed onward to the
commissioners' chamber, and told them the
purpose of his coming, and that there was no
other way to prevent a fresh war and much
bloodshed. As the morning was now advancing,
and a rescue apprehended, the cornet got admis-
sion to his majesty, who had been wakened, to
whom he announced his purpose, and assured
him that he should be kept by the army in all
honour and safety, and not be obliged to violate
his conscience by any demands. The commis-
sioners were present; and after Charles had
stipulated these and other conditions, and re-
ceived a satisfactory answer, he suddenly in-
quired of Joyce by what commission he acted?
"Here is my commission," said the cornet.
"Where?" "Here," repeated Joyce, "and I
hope it will satisfy your majesty" — and with
that he pointed to his mounted troopers drawn
up before the house, who were visible from the
window. The king smiled and replied, "It is
as fair a commission, and as well written, as I

A D. 1647-1649.]

CHARLES I.

91

have ever seen a commission written in my life;
a company of handsome, pi'oper gentlemen as I
have seen a great while." After being again
assured of his safety, and that no compulsion
would be used in carrying him off, Charles asked
whither they meant to take him. " To Oxford,"
said Joyce. " That is no good air," replied the
king. " Then, to Cambridge," said the other;
but to this place the king also objected, and said
he liked Newmarket, and to Newmarket he was
accordingly conveyed by his military escort. He
felt no compulsion in the matter, and during
the journey he was, according to Herbert, "the
merriest of the company, having, as it seems, a
confidence in the army, especially from some of
the greatest there, as was imagined." On his
arrival he was received with kindness, his ser-
vants were allowed to attend him, and several
of his chaplains, who were permitted the use of
the service-book, which was a grateful change
to his majesty after the ministrations of the
Presbyterian clergy, which he could never be
persuaded to tolerate. That his transference
from the keeping of the parliament to that of the
army, by his conveyance from Holmby House to
Newmarket, was in accordance with the piivate
wishes of the king, there can be little doubt.
On the first report of the enterprise of Cornet
Joyce, Fairfax, who was ignorant of the whole
proceeding, sent two regiments under the com-
mand of Whalley, one of his most confidential
officers, to replace Charles in the keeping of the
parliamentary commissioners and bring him
back to Holmby ; but the king was resolute to
remain where he was, and on the following day
told Fairfax that he had as much interest in the
army as himself. '^

Having thus possession of the king the army
entered into a solemn engagement not to dis-
band or divide without obtaining redress of
their grievances, security for all the free-born
people of England against oppression, and the
dismission of the present Presbyterian govern-
ment, who, they alleged, were plotting, first to
disband, and afterwards to destroy the army;
and on the 10th of June, while the parliament
was voting that no part of the army should
come within forty miles of London, they broke
up their encampment and marched to St. Albans,
within twenty miles of the capital. Here they
denounced eleven members, the Presbyterian
leaders of the House of Commons; and when
the house repeated its commands that they
should advance no nearer they resumed their
march upon Loudon, and arrived at Uxbridge.
Terrified at this insubordination of a power

1 Rushworth, vol. vi. p. 515 ; Whitelock ; Herbert's Mem.;
Fairfax's Mem.

which they could not resist the Commons voted
that the army of Fairfax was indeed the army of
England, and was to be treated with all care and
respect, while Fairfax, in compliance with their
desires, removed his headquarters from Ux-
bridge to Wycombe. Finding themselves safe
for the i)resent the eleven accused Presbyterian
members, who had fled at tlie approach of the
army, now ventured to reappear and resume
their seats in parliament; but they found that
their influence was gone, and having no other
alternative they asked and obtained passports
from the speaker and left the kingdom.- They
had helped to raise a storm which they had not
the ability to direct or allay, and by which bolder
spirits were to profit.

During these transactions the king had been
removed from Newmarket to Windsor, where
he opened a secret negotiation with Cromwell,
a more influential person with the army than
the commander-in-chief himself, and at the same
time Fairfax petitioned parliament that Charles
might be permitted to see his children, who had
long been in their custody. They complied with
reluctance, being afraid that the army would
detain them as well as their father, and sent
the Dukes of York and Gloucester, and the
Princess Elizabeth to the village of Caversham,
near Reading, where the king at that time re-
sided. The interview between the captive king
and his young innocent children was so affect-
ing that Cromwell shed tears at the spectacle,
and after spending two days with their father
the princes and their sister were sent back to
their London residence of St. James's Palace.
But London itself was now a place of turmoil.
Incensed at the petition of the army and the
Indeijendent citizens, that the command of the
London militia should be committed to their
own party, the Presbyterians got up a petition
for the supi^ression of all conventicles; and an-
other prohibiting the army from coming near
the capital, and for bringing the king to West-
minster to open a new treaty with him that
should replace him on the throne. To this last
petition an hundred thousmd signatures were
affixed, and not content with this peaceful dis-
play of their strength, a mob of Presbyterians
and royalists a few days after surrounded the
houses of jDarliament with such angry indica-
tions, that the speakers and many of the mem-
bers fled to the army for protection. As soon as
Fairfax heard of the tumult he marched upon
the city, and at Hounslow Heath met the fugi-
tives, who numbered, besides the two speakers,
fifteen lords and a hundred commoners. The
residue of the parliament had in the meantime

• Ludlow.

92

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1647-1649.

elected a temporary speaker, forbade tlie army
to come nearer, appointed a committee of safety,
and recalled the eleven fugitive Presbyterian
membei-s, when the advance and bold measures
of Fairfax put a stop to their proceedings. He
caused a part of his army to cross the Thames
at Kingston Bridge and take possession of the
borough of South wai'k, while all the block-
houses near Gravesend, and all the ports on that
side of the river between Gravesend and South-
wark, were seized and occupied. Having thus
unexpectedly blockaded the capital the general
proposed his terms, which the city was in no
condition to refuse. These were, that they
should abandon the present parliament and its
eleven recalled members, recall the declarations
they had lately published, give up their pre-
sent militia, surrender all their forts and the
Tower, and disband the forces they had raised
for their defence. These hard conditions were
instantly accepted. Fairfax also restored the
fugitive lords and commons to their places in
parliament, and took jDOSsession of the Tower of
London. In this manner English Presbyter-
ianism fell without honour, and almost without
a struggle, while Independency backed by mili-
tary power was exalted in its roora.^

The army had now the power of the state in
their hands, and they used the advantage with
wonderful moderation. To account for this we
must remember the character of the men and
the religious principles on which they had con-
ducted the warfare. Although the bravest
among the brave they were something more
than a mere collection of soldiers ; theirs was a
contest not for pay or plunder, but upon ques-
tions that tend equally to enlarge the under-
standing and purify the heart, while their leaders
were men as highly qualified for the service of
the senate and the cabinet as for the battle-field.
Having suppressed this popular insurrection
their next task was to establish a constitutional
form of government, and to effect this impoi'tant
object they were willing to make concessions
which to themselves were unpalatable, and more
than could have been expected at their hands.
This was shown by the remarkable paper entitled
the "Proposals," drawn up in the council of
officers, to be presented for his majesty's ac-
ceptance ; and by consenting to these, although
curtailed in his prerogative, he would still have
retained more of the kingly office and authority
than the Presbyterians were willing to allow
him. He would also have retained an Epis-
copal church, although somewhat shorn of its
large revenues and paramount authority, and
compelled to grant that universal toleration

1 Clarendon ; May.

which was so essential to the existence of In-
dependency. Never, indeed, even when the
chances of war were equally balanced, had the
king been offered such favourable terms; and
a single stroke of his pen would have sufficed
to antedate the institution of our British con-
stitutional monarchy. But when these " Pro-
posals" were submitted to his majesty previous
to their public pi'esentation the king objected.
Had there been any real desire, he alleged, for
an accommodation they would not have pro-
posed to him such hard terms; and when he was
reminded that a crown so nearly lost would
never have been so easily recovered, if he con-
sented, he told them flatly, that they could not
exist without him, and that they would soon be
glad to come to his own terms. He objected
chiefly to the exclusion of seven persons from
pardon, the incapacitation of any of his friends
to sit in parliament, and that there were no
express stipulations in favour of Ejiiscopacy;
and when they replied that the establishment
of Episcopacy was not their proper office, and
that they had waived it, even as he himself had
waived it in Scotland, he replied, that he hoped
God had forgiven him that sin. He also had
again recourse to his favourite axiom, which he
frequently repeated during the interview, " You
cannot be without me ; you will fall to ruin if
I do not sustain you." Astonished at this de-
claration one of the king's confidential adherents,
who was present at the interview, stepped up to
him and whispered in his ear, " Sir, your majesty
speaks as if you had some secret strength and
power that I d o not know of ; and since your
majesty hath concealed it from me I wish you
had concealed it from these men too."^

Having rejected the " Pi-oposals" Charles had
again recourse to that process of tampering with
all parties in which he deemed himself so expert,
and from which he hoped so much, until it ended
in his ruin. He negotiated with Cromwell and
the principal officers of the army, with the Eng-
lish Presbyterians, with Lauderdale and the
Scottish Covenanters, and with the Irish Ca-
tholics, to all of whom he used ingratiating lan-
guage alike, and was profuse in his protestations
and promises. But even while thus employed,
he could not keep close his own secret, but
allowed it to escape before Ireton, to whom he
exclaimed, in allusion to these manifold and
complex practices, " I shall play my game as
well as I can." " If your majesty have a game
to play," replied this stern soldier and states-
man, "you must give us also liberty to play
ours."-^ In fact, that he was making false moves,

' Ludlow ; Berkeley's Memoirs.
^ Life of Colonel Hutchinson.

A.D. 1647-1649.]

CHAELES I.

93

and getting checkmated at every tiuni, was now
only too apparent; and while every party re-
ceived his proposals with coldness or absolute
hostility, the army lately so inclined to meet
him half-way, now turned away from him,
and became his enemies. They were already
talking of the republican government set up
in Holland, and the sujDerior comfort of the
people under it, when a party was formed in
the army which, under the name of Levellers,
contemplated the deposition of monarchy, and
the reduction of ail ranks to republican equa-
lity. But the most important of these aliena-
tions was that of Oliver Cromwell himself,
who was disposed to believe in the king's sin-
cerity, or at least to calculate upon his helpless-
ness, until the following dramatic incident con-
vinced him that the king was not to be trusted,
and might still be a dangerous enemy. While
Cromwell was disposed to close with the king,
from the apprehension that the Scots and the
Presbyterians might regain the ascendency, he
was advertised by a spy of liis party, who was
of the king's bedchamber, that their ruin was
decreed by Charles, and that this he might see
by intercepting a letter from the king to the
queen, sewed up in the skirt of the messenger's
saddle, who that night would be at the Blue
Boar in Holborn, from which he was to take
horse for Dover. In consequence of this warn-
ing Cromwell and Ireton, disguised as common
troopers, and with one trusty attendant, went to
the Blue Boar, called for cans of beer, and con-
tinued drinking until the courier arrived, whose
saddle they ripped up, and secured the ominous
missive. In this letter Charles informed the
queen that he was in treaty both with the Scot-
tish Presbyterians and with the army ; that
those who bade fairest for him should have him,
but that he thought he would close sooner with
the Scots than with the other. " Upon this,"
added Cromwell, who told the story, " we took
horse and went to Windsor; and, finding we
were not likely to have any tolerable terms
from the king, we immediately, from that time
forward, resolved his ruin."^

In the meantime the proceedings of the Lev-
ellers in the army were enough to fill the king
with apprehensions for his personal safety.
They denounced him as an Ahab and a man of
blood, an obstacle to the peace and liberty of
the country, and the cause of the murder of
thousands of free-born Englishmen; and so
greatly had their party extended that sixteen
regiments were already in favour of establishing
a republic and bringing Charles to trial and

1 iMorrice's Life of the Earl of Orrery, in introduction to
Collection of State Letters, &c.

punishment. In addition to these open threats
of violence the king was daily alarmed by anony-
mous little billets or letters secretly conveyed to
him warning him of designs against his life.
He resolved to fly from Hampton Court with-
out knowing where to find a secure shelter.
At one time he thought of betaking himself to
Loudon and ai^j^ealing in person to the House
of Lords, but was dissuaded by the representa-
tion that both the capital and the parliament
were under the control of the army. He then
contemplated Scotland, but knew that the Scots
would not embrace his quarrel unless he took
the Covenant. He at last fixed uj^on the Isle
of Wight, where there were no soldiers, and
where he miglit resume his negotiations with
all parties, or, at the worst, make his escape to
the Continent. Accordingly, on the 10th of
November, about 9 o'clock in the evening, and
attended only by Sir John Berkeley, Ashburn-
ham, and Legge, he left Hampton Court so
secretly that his absence was not discovered
until the piteous crying of his greyhound in
quest of its master occasioned a search that
showed he was gone. His cloak was left in the
gallery, and some letters in his handwriting
were lying on the table of his private room, one
of which, addressed to the parliament, was to
the following effect : — " That liberty, the thing
now generally pretended and aimed at, was as
necessary for kings as any other ; that he had a
long time endured captivity and restraint, hop-
ing it might tend to the settlement of a good
peace; but finding the contrary, and the unfixed-
ness of the army, and new guards set upon him,
he had withdrawn himself. That wheresoever
he should be he would earnestly labour the settle-
ment of a good peace and to prevent the effusion
of more blood ; and if he might be heard with
honour, freedom, and safety, he would instantly
break through his cloud of retirement and show
himself ready to be Pater patrice." ^

While the public were wondering at the
king's escape, and uncertain whither he had
betaken himself, he had reached the Isle of
Wight; but this sudden, unexpected arrival so
astonished the governor, Sir John Hammond,
that he knew not whether to receive his sove-
reign as his guest or his prisoner. He was over-
whelmed with the responsibility so strangely
attached to his charge, for let him act as he
might he would underlie the charge of treason
either to the state or the king. He did, how-
ever, what he could, by receiving his majesty
with dutiful courtesy, and at the same time
sending notice to parliament of his arrival.
But for a moment the situation of Cromwell

2 Wiiitelock.

94

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1647-1649.

himself was as critic;il as that of Hammond, for
the Levellers of the army were accusing him of
favouring the king's escape, and threatening to
take his life. But Cromwell's decision was equal
to the occasion : he galloped up to two regiments
of mutineers, and by instantly causing one of
their ringleaders to be shot reduced them to
submission. The republican spirit of the army,
however, was still predominant ; and the future
Protector, disgusted with the insincerity of the
king, and finding his only safety to lie with the
army, abandoned all further thoughts of treat-
ing with Charles, and wholly identified himself
with the cause of the soldiery.

During these events the reliance of Charles
upon Scotland had formed one of the grounds
of that confidence which was bearing him on-
ward to his ruin. The Duke of Hamilton, his
sincere but weak and wavering ally, was be-
stirring himself among his countrymen in behalf
of the royal cause; and when the king removed
from Hampton Court to the Isle of Wight he
commenced a clandestine treaty with the Earls
of Lanark and Lauderdale, by which he hoped
that the Scots, in conjunction with the English
Presbyterians, would go to war with England
for his restoration. Indeed, the treaty of Charles
with the Scottish commissioners was so far set-
tled in the place of his captivity that he made
those concessions which might have saved him
had he but granted them while he resided with
the Scottish army at Newcastle. He agreed to
conrirm the Covenant in parliament and estab-
lish Presbyterian government in the church for
three years until it was revised or another form
prejiared by the Assembly of Divines. And he
promised to concur with them in the suppres-
sion of sectaries, and admit the Scots to a full
share of commercial privileges and of the honours
and emoluments conferred by the crown. These
the Scottish commissioners demanded, as nothing
less would satisfy their countrymen, while they
represented to Charles that on the rising of the
royalists in his cause the performance of the
tei-ms would be left to his own discretion. The
treaty thus concluded was inclosed in a sheet of
lead, buried in a garden, and transmitted with
all secrecy to the Scottish commissioners on their
return to London. But these dark dealings could
not escape the suspicion of the English parlia-
ment, and Cromwell complained that a negotia-
tion was secretly going on for kindling a fresli
war. In consequence of this discovery a new
resolution was adopted at the instance of the
Independents in parliament, that in the settle-
ment of the nation no further addresses should
be made to Charles or applications received
from him, and that henceforth he should be con-
sidered as having virtually forfeited his throne.

The king's confidential servants were also re-
moved, his guards doubled, and every precau-
tion adopted to prevent him from carrying on
any more secret intrigues.*

With the exception of these dealings with
the Scots, which were the work of a party
headed by Lauderdale, who from a Covenanter
had now become a royalist, Lanark the secre-
tary, and Loudon the chancellor, whom the
other two had won over to the king's party, the
history of Scotland was almost a blank : men
stood silent and at gaze, watching those political
events in England in which they had so little
influence, but by which they and their children
were to be so vitally aflfected. On the return of
the army from Newcastle it was disbanded,
with the exception of 6000 men, and the Earl
of Leven, now old, resigned his office of com-
mander-in-chief, which was immediately con-
ferred on the popular David Leslie. The
vigour of this talented soldier quickly sufficed
to restore order to the country by a few de-
cisive skirmishes, in which the Gordons in the
north and Macdonalds in the west were defeated
and reduced to obedience. The return of the
Scottish commissioners from London in Febru-
ary, 1 648, disturbed this tranquillity. They gave
an account of their proceedings to the commit-
tee of Estates and commission of the General
Assembly through Loudon, the lord -chan-
cellor; but their concessions and engagements
were so different from the common expectation
that even their best friends were indignant.
Their statement dwelt particularly upon the
desire of the king for peace and his willingness
to make concessions to Scotland, and this they
contrasted with the coldness they had experi-
enced from the English parliament and their
insolent treatment by the sectaries. After this
statement their exculpations were heard, which
only produced greater discontent and discord.
Nor was this to be wondered at, considering the
parties into which the Scottish Presbyterians
were now divided. These were the Covenanters
of the original type, headed by Argyle ; the po-
litical Presbyterians, having for their leader the
Duke of Hamilton ; and the ITltras. The first
class w\as attached to monarchy, but would have
no other sovereign but a covenanted king, and
were more inclined to endure the sectaries, as a
lesserevil, than consent to an unrestricted restora-
tion ; they were also unwilling to enter into
a war with England or to restore the king to
his throne unless their demands in behalf of
religion were satisfied. The political Presby-
terians, who included a majority of the nobles,
so fervently loathed Sectarianism and Inde-

' Clarendon ; Ludlow ; Burnet ; Rushworth ; Whitelock.

A.D. 1647-1649.]

CHARLES I.

95

pendency that they were half inclined to Epis-
copacy, and little anxious though the sovereign
should possess absolute power. The Ultras,
again, were those who demanded the king's un-
conditional restoration, with his prerogative
unimpaired, and who in comparison with this
cared little for either civil or religious liberty.
Although the first, as might be expected, com-
prised the bulk of the nation, yet the other two
parties compensated by activity what they lacked
in weight; and besides this, the unhappy con-
•dition of the king, and the insolent bearing
of England now ruled by the sectaries, gave a
force to their arguments and vitality to their
intrigues which would otherwise have been
wanting. 1

On the 2d of March (1648) the Scottish par-
liament was opened. Hamilton and his party
had previously been so active that they consti-
tuted a majority, and obtained the chief con-
trol of the house. As war against England for
the deliverance and restoration of the king was
their great object, they took every method to
inflame the public mind and revive the old
national feeling against the hereditary enemy.
They carried their object in spite of the protes-
tations of Argyle and the opposition of the mod-
erate of all parties, and resolved to commence
their military operations by the capture and
occupation of Berwick and Carlisle. This was
effected by Langdale and Musgrave, two royalist
leaders, who, acting in concert with Hamilton,
.secretly collected their friends on the Border and
^^eized these towns which were without garrisons.
This violation of the public peace, heightened
by the consideration that the deed had been
performed by the king's party, whom the Pres-
byterians stigmatized as malignants, and with
whom they would in no case co-operate, increased
the popular aversion ; but Hamilton justified
the measure to the leading clei-gymen by ex-
citing their jealousies against the sectaries, and
showing how greatly the Covenant was endan-
gered by their predominance. It was repre-
sented by his party in the parliament that
the advance of the reformation in England
which the Covenant contemplated was abruptly
stojiped ; that Episcopacy was tolerated and in
danger of being restored ; that heresy and
schism, under the pretext of toleration, were
allowed full scope and freedom. And as for
the Solemn League and Covenant, which was
to be taken by both kingdoms, the sectaries
had resolved that it should be laid aside, and
many persons who had never taken it were em-
ployed in offices of trust both in the state and
the army. By these and other such representa-

1 Burnet's Memoirs; Thurloe's State Papers; BailUe.

tions the parliament was so influenced that they
agreed to send three demands to the houses of
Westminster. The first of these was that the
Covenant should be universally taken by the
people of England ; that all who refused it
should be held as avowed enemies and malig-
nants ; and that uniformity of worship, which had
already been agreed upon by parliament, should
be immediately brought into act and use. The
second demand was that the king should be
allowed, with honour, freedom, and safety, to
come to some of his houses in or near London ;
while the third was that all the Presbyterian
members who had been excluded from pai'lia-
ment should be restored to their seats, and the
army of sectaries under Fairfax disbanded.
These demands were certain to be rejected at
Westminster ; but the object of the Hamiltonian
party in proposing and carrying them was to
disarm the general suspicion of their lukewarm-
ness in religious matters and to unite all classes
of Scotsmen in their cause. But by overacting
their part they only made themselves the more
suspected. Whence had these men acquired
such a wondrous zeal for the reign of Presby-
terianism and the Covenant? And why had
they more forbearance for godless malignants
than sincere and pious though mistaken sec-
taries] And why, when the Covenant was to
be taken by all classes, was the king and his
household excepted 1 ^

But let them be doubted as they miglit, Ha-
milton and his party for the time prevailed;
their three demands were sent off to the Eng-
lish parliament, and an answer required in fifteen
days ; and knowing what reply they had to ex-
pect, an act was passed for putting the kingdom
in a state of defence and raising an army for the
invasion of England. To testify, also, their zeal
for the good cause and enlist the whole nation
on their side the}' published their proceedings
and resolutions embellished with vehement
Presbyterian protestations, mingled with loud
lamentings at the indifference with which the
Covenant had been treated across the Tweed.
To counteract these crafty proceedings the com-
missioners of the General Assembly drew up a
representation to parliament, in which they con-
demned the three demands as unwise and im-
practicable, and containing no just grounds for
the two nations going to war, — and having thus
pitched the key-note the strain was taken up and
sounded from the greater part of the pulpits.
The effect of this opposition the friends of Charles
found in Scotland when actual hostilities were
about to be commenced. David Leslie, the

^Acts of the Scottish Parliament; Burnet's Mem.; Baillie's
Letters and Journal; Rushworth; Clarendon; Thurloe's
State Papers.

96

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1647-1649.

favourite of the army, refused to lead the ex-
peditiou, unless the clergy sauctioued it; and in
consequence of this refusal Hamilton was ap-
pointed commander-in-chief, with the Earl of
Callender for his lieutenant. But the difficul-
ties were still greater in enrolling all the forcible
men of the kingdom according to the tenor of
the proclamation and enlisting soldiers for the
invasion, and in consequence of the sermons of
the clergy against the jn'oceeding the conscrip-
tion went onward slowly and unwillingly over
the whole kingdom. In some places recruits
were dragged by force from their homes, and
in othei-s military parties were quartered upon
the inhabitants until the required contingent
was furnished. In Clydesdale, also, where the
war was particularly odious, a party of nearly
two thousand horse and foot assembled on
Mauchliue Moor, and were only dispersed after
a sharp engagement by General Middleton at
the head of his dragoons. By these obstacles
the season of action was deferred until it could
be no longer resumed with a prospect of suc-
cess.' From the same delay insurrections for
the king's deliverance, which occurred in London
and several parts of England under the hope of
being seconded by the Scottish army, were easily
suppressed by Cromwell, Lambei't, and Fairfax.
After so much time had been lost when the
necessity for rapidity of action made every
minute precious the Scottish troops to the num-
ber of ten thousand foot and four thousand
horse entered England; but it was quickly seen
that they were different from the host that had
encamped at Dunse Law. Independently of the
scanty numbers that composed the army, the
men were ill armed, undisciplined, and gene-
rally averse to the expedition, so that they were
as unfit to encounter the iron ranks of the sec-
taries, as Hamilton, their commander, to compete
witli Fairfax or Cromwell. A few days after
they were followed by two thousand foot and a
thousand horse who had arrived from Ireland
under the command of Monro, but totally des-
titute of artillery, in which, indeed, the whole
invading army was defective. On crossing the
Border they were also joined by the English
royalists under Langdale; but this was only an
additional drawback to the Scots, who were
horrified at having Papists, Episcopalians, and
men who had fought against the Covenant, now
united with them in their enterprise. .So strong
indeed was this feeling towards such allies, that
Langdale's troops were obliged to march in a
.separate Ijody and encamp in quarters by them-
selves. Such was also the case with Monro,
who, to avoid the command of Callender, en-

1 Baillie's Letters and Journal.

camped at an equal distance in the rear. Be-
sides these discordant elements, which of them-
selves were enough to make the army fall in
pieces, the unfitness of Hamilton as a com-
mander was soon evinced ; for, instead of ad-
vancing through Yorkshire in pursuit of Lam-
bert, who had abandoned the siege of Carlisle
at his approach, he spent forty days of inaction
in Lancashire, while his army — or more properly
to speak his three armies — were scattered over
an extent of twenty miles, and without com-
munication with each other, or regular plan of
action. It was well for them that the forces of
the parliament in the north, being too weak to
resist Hamilton and Langdale, had retreated
before them.^ But this imi^unity was not long
to continue, for Cromwell, having quelled an in-
surrection in Wales, turned about with his usual
rapiditj' to encounter the Scottish invasion, and
having effected a junction with Lambert he
attacked the troops of Langdale near Preston,
in Lancashire. They imagined that Cromwell
was still in Wales, and were utterly taken by
surprise; and although they maintained a stout
resistance they were driven into the town of
Preston before the Scottish army could come to
their relief. The battle was maintained in the
streets, and subsequently on the bridge, where
the Scots and their allies, who far outnumbered
their assailants, endeavoured to make a final
stand; but, being driven from this also, they
made a hasty retreat to Warrington, leaving
their ammunition and baggage behind them.
The victorious Cromwell followed in close pur-
suit, and at Warrington compelled the foot, who
were deserted by the horse, to suiTender, and
soon after Hamilton himself was compelled to
surrender to General Lambert at Utoxeter.
Thus easily was the first expedition from Scot-
land, which had for its aim the restoration of the
Stewarts, defeated — the fire which threatened
to light up the two kingdoms into the destruc-
tive conflagration of a religious war was trodden
out in an instant, and with slight effort. The
army of the victors did not exceed half the
number of the killed and prisoners of their op-
ponents ; but the discordance of the religious
principles of these ill-assorted Scotch and Eng-
lish allies, their lack of union in their common
aim, the time which they consumed at the com-
mencement of the invasion into England, and
the manner in which they incensed the popula-
tion upon whom they wei'e quartered, were of
themselves sufficient sooner or later to ensui'e
their overtlu'ow.^

While disaster thus awaited the Scottish arms

- Burnet ; Rushworth ; Clarendon.

^ Rush worth; Burnet's i>/«»i.; May; Life of Colonel HxU-
chinson.

A.D. 1647-1649.]

CHARLES I.

97

in England the cause of the party who had pro-
moted the expedition was brought to the lowest
ebb. By the General Assembly which was held
on the 12th of July, when the army had just
commenced its march, the engagement by which
the belligerents had pledged themselves to their
course of action for the restoration of Charles
was condemned, and the genuine Covenanters
were once more the prevailing party.^ The
protesthig nobles who were opposed to the en-
gagement and the royal restoration, without
pledges for the security of national and religious
liberty, began to muster troops for the main-
tenance of their principles; and in this they were
encouraged by their ministers, who declaimed
against the ruling party as a mere faction in
parliament, and denied therightof suchagovern-
ment to levy money in support of their expedi-
tion. The tidings of the defeat at Preston and
the surrenderof Hamilton at Utoxeter confirmed
this opposition; and the Earls of Eglinton and
Cassilis in the Lowlands, and Argyle and Loudon
in the Highlands proclaimed their open revolt.
Alarmed at this symptom the committee of
Estates applied for aid from their army of Eng-
land for the suppression of the insurrection, and
Monro's division of Irish, who remained at
Kirkby-Lonsdale, were in consequence ordered
to march northward for the protection of the
Scottish parliament. Monro, however, delayed
until he was assured of the rout of Preston, and
collecting the flying parties, with their leaders,
Crawford, Glencairn, and Lanark, he was en-
abled to muster a formidable force of three
thousand cavalry and two thousand foot. But
he arrived upon the scene of action too late, for
the committee of Estates had been already ex-
pelled from Edinburgh by the insurgents, in an
expedition called the Whigamores' Raid — the
bands of tumultuary peasantry led by the minis-
ters of the different parishes, and shaped into
military fashion by David Leslie, having thus
the honour of originating a political title which
has continued to the present day, and will pro-
bably last as long as the British constitution
itself.^ But this army of pi'imitive Whigs was
found incompetent to cope with the trained
forces under Monro, and in consequence of this
inability Argyle, the leader of the party that
protested against the engagement, was con-
strained to invoke the assistance of Cromwell,

1 Baillie ; Rushworth.

2 Baillie ; Burnet. Whigamore is supposed to be derived
from the word wiggam used by the peasantry in driving
their horses laden with corn from Leith, and which after-
wards was abbreviated into Whig. Others derive the name
from the whey of butter-milk called ivhig, on which the
poor Covenanters mainly subsisted when they were chased
from their homes during the persecutions of the following
reign.

VOL. III.

with which the latter complied. It was a legi-
timate invitation, for by the articles of treaty,
each nation was bound to assist the other in the
suppression of internal disturbances arising from
the designs of all who were enemies to the Cove-
nant, or who endeavoured to promote discoid
between the two kingdoms.^ On moving his
forces towards Scotland Cromwell was met by
a committee of the Estates, who welcomed his
arrival and conducted him to Edinburgh, where
he was received with great pomji and hailed by
the ministers a-s the preserver of Scotland under
God.* Even before his arrival the Engagers,
conscious of their inability to resist the Coven-
anters, aided by the English ai^my, had sub-
mitted, and disbanded their troops, so that this
invasion from England was unaccomjoanied with
bloodshed or violence. After a short stay in
Edinburgh, and a magnificent banquet given to
him and his officers, along with the Marquis of
Argyle, the Earl of Leven, David Leslie, and a
number of the Scottish nobility, Cromwell on
the 16th of October set out on his return to
England. Much, however, was effected by the
brief sojourn of the future protector of the three
kingdoms. He held many private conferences
with Argyle for the preservation of peace be-
tween Scotland and England and the regulation
of the two countries. Berwick and Carlisle,
which during tlie late outbreak of Hamilton had
been seized and garrisoned by the English royal-
ists of his party, were restored to England. The
Solemn League and Covenant was renewed, the
Engagement proscribed, and its adherents com-
pelled by the cluu'ch to express publicly their
contrition for their share in it. Among these
penitents was the noble Earl of Loudon, the
chancellor, who was compelled through the
instigation of the ministers, and of his wife,
through whom the estates chiefly came into the
family, to make satisfaction and crave forgive-
ness. He accordingly seated himself on the
stool of repentance, and bewailed his late apos-
tasy and carnal self-seeking with such unction
that the whole congregation was melted to tears.
His countess, who was a Presbyterian of the
strictest kind, had threatened that without this
alternative she would sue a divorce from him
for his adulteries, of wliich the proofs were too
manifest to be contradicted.^

"While Cromwell, now the master-spirit of the
revolutionary storm, was suppressing the insur-
rections in favour of royalty in Wales and re-
storing Scotland to order, the Presbyterian party
in parliament were endeavouring to recover their
lost ascendency; and emboldened by the absence

3 Whitelock.

* Burnet's 3Iem. ; Guthrie's Mem.

5 Whitelock ; Burnet's 31em.

Rushworth.

82

98

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1647-1649.

of the army, and the chief leaders of the Inde-
pendents in parliament who were along with it,
they carried several important votes, and re-
scinded the resolution against making any more
addi-esses to the king. This was but a prelude
to a new treaty which they opened with Charles
at Newport, in the Isle of Wight, on the 18th
of September. Fifteen commissioners from the
two houses of parliament were sent to nego-
tiate with him, and their arrival changed the
solitary prisoner once more into the semblance
of a king : he held his court, was allowed a
splendid retinue of attendants, and had his
own chaplains to comfort him and his own
lawyers to advise him. It was the last golden
opportunity that was offered to Charles for his
restoration, and had he closed with it his party
and that of the Presbyterians might still have
proved too powerful for their military opponents.
But still he was too anxious to secure all and
yield nothing, and his hopes from Hamilton and
the Scots made him protract the time until
Cromwell's return from Scotland made further
accommodation hopeless. The proposals sub-
mitted to him were substantially the same as
those given at Hampton Court, and scarcely
more stringent than those discussed at Uxbridge;
but the renunciation of the liturgy and Episco-
pacy were the stumbling-blocks, and upon these
he spent the time in casuistical debate when he
should have given his assent and proceeded at
once to action. In his eyes the subject was still
fresh and new although it had been so often
discussed before and iu all its various phases,
and although the parliamentary commissioners
adjured him with tears and on their knees to
hasten his decision, in which case he would be
taken up to London and a speedy settlement
obtained. 1 It was only when the entire sup-
pression of the Scottish revolt made further re-
sistance hopeless that he showed symptoms of
concession. He consented to revoke all his hos-
tile proclamations against the parliament and
acknowledge their resistance justifiable, to sur-
render the militia and the nomination of the
chief officers of state for twenty years. He
agreed to accept £100,000 a year for the court
of wards, to acknowledge the parliamentary
great seal, and to consult the two houses upon
his late creation of peers at Oxford. He also
promised to give full satisfaction for Ireland,
although from the letters he wrote at the same
time to the Duke of Ormond he announced that
this concession would come to nothing, and that
if the Irish gave him cause he would interpret
it to their advantage.^ He would, however, in

• Burnet's History, vol. i. p. 61 ; Whitelock ; Ludlow.
2 Carte's Ormond; Birch's Inquiry; Clarendon's State
Papers.

no case consent to the proscription and exile of
seven of his most devoted adherents, which the
parliament demanded, and for this reluctance
the remorse he felt for his surrender of the Earl
of Strafford to the block forms a sufficient ex-
planation. But it was to the demands of the
commissioners for concessions in religion that
Charles made his chief opposition. He would
not consent to the total abolition of Episcopacy
nor give his approbation to the Covenant; and
although he was willing to give up archbishops,
deans, and chapters, he would not give up
bishops. He offered, indeed, to suspend their
authority for three years, and to limit their
future powers to ordination by the advice of
their presbyters ; and seeing that parliament had
already sold the church lands he refused to con-
firm the sale, and proposed to grant ninety-nine
years' leases at their former rents. It was but
a pruning of Episcopacy to which he would con-
sent, and not a root-and-branch abolition ; and
under the sunshine of royalty restored it was
likely to flourish in greater luxuriance than
ever. Thus had it been in Scotland; and the
commissioners were warned by the example.

In this treaty Charles manifested more sin-
cerity than he had done in his former negotia-
tions, and of this his refusal to give up his
friends or concede more to Presbyteriauism than
he had formerly granted are sufficient proofs.
But even at the best this sincerity was little
worth. From his letters to the Marquis of
Ormond, who had returned to Ireland during
the treaty of Newport, it is evident that he
meant to escape to Ireland and there renew the
war, with the aid of the Irish Catholics; and
in his letters to Sir William Hopkins, who
resided opposite Newport, he was concerting
plans of escape, athough he had promised upon
his honour not to attempt to leave the Isle of
Wight during the discussion of the treaty nor
for twenty-eight days after. His anxious inquiry
from day to day was about the arrival of the
ships, the tides, the winds, and place of em-
barkation ; and on the 9th of October he char-
acterizes his motives and proceedings in the fol-
lowing words : " To deal freely with you, the
great concession I made to-day was merely in
order to my escape, of which if I had not hopes
I would not have done. For then I could have
returned to my strait prison without reluctance,
but now I confess it would break my heart,
having done that which nothing but an escape
can justify." His escape, therefore, in the mind
of the royal casuist justified this dissimulation,
while his restoration to the throne would have
been in his eyes a righteous measure, although
effected with an Irish army of invasion and at

A.D. 1647-1649.]

CHAELES I.

99

the risk of re-establishing the Popish ascen-
dency.i

In consequence of the king's studied procras-
tination twenty days were added to the forty
originally allotted for the settlement of the
treaty; but before this date had expired it was
brought to an abrupt conclusion by the intrigues
of the Independents, seconded by the impatience
of the army. At St. Albans, where the troops
were collected, a council of officers drew up and
sent a remonstrance to the House of Commons,
in which they expressed their apprehensions of
the danger of any treaty with the king, who
had been the chief cause of all the calamities of
the kingdom and of the late unjustifiable re-
newal of the war. They demanded that he
should therefore be brought to trial ; that the
government of the kingdom should henceforth
be elective ; and that no king should be elected
but by the people, and to hold his office of them
in trust. They demanded also that a period
should be assigned for the duration of the pre-
sent parliament, that parliaments should after-
wards be annual or biennial, and that the elec-
tive franchise should be extended and rendered
more equal. This remonstrance was received
by some with indignation at its boldness, by
others with justification or apology, and by
others with alarm as a prelude to military viol-
ence and control, and the debate was adjourned.^
But Cromwell, who would trust neither the
king nor the Presbyterians, was resolved to frus-
trate the designs of both by taking jDossession
of the king's person and silencing the other
party in parliament ; and this design he put in
execution with his characteristic boldness and
decision. Finding that Hammond was resolved
to keep Charles for the parliament, Cromwell
procured the recall of the governor to head-
quarters, and in his place appointed Colonel
Eure, with a commission to convey his royal
prisoner to Hurst Castle, on the mainland, oppo-
site the Isle of Wight, where he would be more
closely watched and have fewer chances of escape.^
He then turned upon the Presbyterian party,
at present a majority in the House of Com-
mons, and moved the army to London while
the house was still deliberating upon the king's
late concessions, and deliberating whether they
were satisfactory or not. They had just agreed
by a majority that they were sufficient for
settling the peace of the kingdom, and ought
to be accepted, when on the morning of the
6th of December Colonel Pride with two regi-
ments suiTOunded the houses and took jjos-
session of the doors. He had a paper with the

1 Wagstaff's Vindication, appendix. '■'T^^liteluck.

3 Herbert's Memoirs; Warwick's Memoirs.

names of the obnoxious members in his hand ;
Lord Grey of Groly and one of the doorkeepers
stood beside him to assist in identifying their
persons; and as each member entered the lobby
he was either allowed to pass or was seized and
sent o& to prison. By this summary proceeding
forty-one leading Presbyterians were ejected,
and on the following day the process was con-
tinued, until the House of Commons was re-
duced to fifty Independents, who afterwards
obtained the name of the Eump Parliament,
while the process itself by which this reduction
was effected was called, from the name of the
soldier who accomplished it, Pride's Purge.*

These proceedings were unmistakable symp-
toms of the approaching trial of Charles and
the eversion of kingly rule, and those wldch
followed were only preparations for the trial.
This rump or ghost of a parliament decided that
it should dissolve in April next and another be
chosen according to the new rule, the country
being more equally represented, and the House
of Commons to consist of 300 members. They
renewed the former decision that no more ad-
dresses should be made to the king, and con-
demned the late treaty in the Isle of Wight as
dishonourable and highly dangerous to the
country. Three days after these resolutions
were passed (December 16th) the king was re-
moved at midnight from Hurst Castle to
Windsor by Colonel Harrison and a party of
horse; and on the day of his arrival the
House of Commons decided upon their final step
by appointing a committee for drawing up a
charge against the king that he might be
brought to condign punishment. This was
quickly done ; and on the 1st of January the
charge was delivered, of which the preamble
was to the following effect: — That Charles
Stuart being admitted King of England, and
restricted to a limited power of governing by
the laws of the land, had nevertheless endeav-
oured to establish in himself a tyrannical jjower
to rule according to his will and overthrow the
rights and liberties of the people ; had traitor-
ously and maliciously levied war against the
present parliament and the people therein re-
presented. On this charge being sent to the
Upper House the few lords that remained there
rejected it unanimously and then adjourned.
Though thus deprived of an important part of
the national legislation the Commons were not
disconcerted; and they unanimously passed the
resolution — " That the Commons of England in
parliament assembled do declare that the people
are, under God, the origin of all just power.
And do also declare that the Commons of Eng-

■* Parliamentary History ; Whitelock.

100

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1647-1649.

laud, in parliament assembled, being chosen by
the people and representing them, have the su-
preme power in this nation. And do also declare,
that whatsoever is enacted or declared for law
by the Commons in parliament assembled, hath
the force of a law ; and all the people of this
nation are concluded thereby, although the con-
sent or concurrence of king or House of Peei-s
be not had thereunto." Thus the doom of
Charles was forestalled, however the justice of
the sentence might be called in question; and
the House of Commons, although so feeble in
itiielf, represented that military power by which
the doom would be carried into eti'ect.^

On the 6th of January (1649) the Commons
having decided on bringing the king to trial,
proceeded to erect for the purpose what they
termed a High Court of Justice. It consisted
of a hundred and thirty-five commissioners, re-
presenting the parliament, the army, and the
people. Three generals and thirty-four colonels
of the army, three lords, and the greater j^art
of the now reduced House of Commons, four
aldermen of London, three serjeants-at-law,
twenty-two knights and baronets, several citi-
zens, and a few country gentlemen were selected
and enrolled as members of this tribunal ; but,
from the novelty and difficulty of the case, and
from considerations of prudence or compassion,
seldom more than eighty met at one time. All
had been done with such promptitude, that
Charles at Windsor was still confident in his
security, and declaring that he had still " three
games to play, the least of which gave him hope
of regaining all,"^ when he was wakened from
his dream on the 19th of January, by being
brought from Windsor Castle to St. James's in
London, to be put upon his trial on the follow-
ing day in Westminster Hall. That vast hall,
which was partitioned by strong barriers erected
for the safety of the spectators, was not more
than sufficient to contain the crowd that looked
on, scarcely believing the testimony of their
own senses, while the judges sat sternly and
fearlessly in their places, resolved to execute
their strange commission to the uttermost, in
the light of day, and before the world, let the
consequences to themselves be what they might.
And when their own day of trial arrived, and
the hour of retribution fell upon them, they
showed by their courage and constancy that
they had not acted from sordid motives, or were
ashamed of the deed.

The king was carried in a sedan-chair to the
bar, followed by his attendants, and a band of
officers bearing partisans in their hands ac-

i Herbert's 3Iem. ; Rushworth ; Whitelock.
2 Earl of Leicester's Journal in Sydney Papers.

companied him to the chair prepared for him,
covered with velvet and placed before the bar.
He regarded the soldiers, the crowds, and gal-
leries on either side filled with people sadly but
sternly, and sat down without moving his hat,
while the judges in like manner remained
covered. Bradshaw, president of the court,
opened the proceedings by a short address to
the king, in which he stated the cause for which
he was brought to trial, after which John Coke,
who had been nominated on this occasion soli-
citor-general for the people of England, stood
up to speak ; but Charles, touching him on the
shoulder two or three times with his cane, ex-
claimed, "Hold, hold !" In doing this the gold
head dropped from his cane, and Charles, who,
like Archbishop Laud, was a believer in omens,
recognized in this trivial accident an indication
of the fate that awaited him. Bradshaw ordered
Coke to go on, who then said, "My lord, I am
come to charge Charles Stuart, King of England,
in the name of all the Commons of England
with treason and high misdemeanours ; I desire
the said charge may be read." But as soon as
the clei-k began to read, he was checked by the
king with the command, "Hold," until Bradshaw
ordered him to go on. Charles then sat down,
after looking at the guards, the spectators, and
the court with a very stern countenance; and
when the clerk came to the words, declaring
"Charles Stuart to be a tyrant, a traitor," &c.,
the king laughed contemptuously. The charge,
which was a long one, set forth how he had en-
deavoured to erect the office confided to him
into an unlimited tyrannical power, and over-
throw the rights and liberties of the people;
how for these evil ends he had levied war
against the parliament and people; and how he
had granted commissions both to English and
foreigners, and to the Marquis of Ormond and
the Irish rebels for prolonging the calamities of
the country. On being told by the lord-pre-
sident, Bradshaw, that the court expected his
reply, Charles delivered it with great dignity
and clearness. He demanded by what lawful
authority he was brought before them. He was
engaged in a treaty in the Isle of Wight with
both houses of parliament, and was treated by
their commissioners honourably and uprightly;
but when the treaty was about to be concluded
he was suddenly carried away from that place,
by what authority he knew not. " Remember,"
he added, " I am your lawful king. Let me
know by what lawful authority I am seated
here; — resolve me that, and you shall hear more
of me." Bradshaw told him he was there by
the authority of the people of England, whose
elected king he was. " England was never an
elective kingdom," cried Charles, " but an here-

A.D. 1647-1649.]

CHARLES I.

101

ditary kingdom for near these thousand years.
I stand more for the liberty of my people than
any here that come to be my pretended judges."
On being again desired to acknowledge the
authority of the court he replied, " I see no
House of Lords here that may constitute a par-
liament; and the king, too, must be in and part
of a parliament." His objection was deemed
unsatisfactory; the court was adjourned till the
following Monday, and the guard was ordered
to conduct him to his place of ward in St. James's
Palace. When Charles was going he pointed to
the sword lying before the court, and said, " I
do not fear that." When he was led out the
people wei'e variously moved, some crying,
"Justice! justice!" and others, "God save the
king!"i

Two appearances of Charles before this court
followed, the one being on Monday the 22d,
and the other the day after ; but on both occa-
sions he denied its authority and refused to
answer. His refusal was taken for confession,
and nothing remained but the examination of
witnesses, which was held on the 24th and 25th
of January. It was easy to find evidence that
he had proclaimed war and borne arms against
the parliament and people of England, and on
the following day the sentence of death was
recorded against the king. On the day after
(January 27), the seventh day of the sitting of
this court, Charles was brought before it to hear
the sentence pronounced. The lord-president
Bradshaw, who had hitherto worn plain black,
was now robed in scarlet, and the dresses of
several of the other commissioners distinctly
indicated the purposes of this meeting. When
Charles was led through the hall the cry was
raised of "Justice ! — justice ! Execution ! — exe-
cution !" but this was chieflj^ from the soldiers,
who feared that after tlie six days of delay lie
might still escape, or be set free. On perceiving
from the aspect of the court that his doom was
decided, Charles craved to be heard ; but Brad-
shaw remarked how he had refused to answer
to the charge brought against him in the name of
the people of England. Here a voice high and
clear exclaimed, "No, not half of them!" — it
was supposed to proceed from Lady Fairfax,
a zealous Presbyterian, whose husband, Sir
Thomas, after the first day, had absented him-
self from the court and refused to countenance
their proceedings. After order was restored
Bradshaw continued his speech, and told the
king that if he had anything to say in defence
of himself, and against the charges, the court
would hear him; but when Charles urged that
audience should be given to him, not by the

1 Whitelock.

court but by the Lords and Commons, assembled
for the purpose in the Painted Chamber of
Westminster, he was sternly answered by the
president, that this request was only an addi-
tional denial of the authority of the court, and
could not be granted. Earnestly and repeatedly
the king urged his petition, but in vain; he was
told that the law was his superior, and that
there was something even superior to the law,
which was, the people of England, its parent
and author. In a long speech he justified their
present proceedings and the conclusion at which
they had arrived, and quoted examples both
from Scottish and English history to show how
the laws had visited evil kings with deposition
and death; after which, raising his powerful
voice, he exclaimed, "What sentence the law
affirms to a traitor, a tyrant, a murderer, and a
public enemy to the country, that sentence you
are now to hear. Make silence ! Clerk, read the
sentence !" The clerk accordingly read the sen-
tence, which, after stating the authority of the
court, the charges exhibited, the king's refusal
to plead, and the testimony delivered by the
witnesses, condemned the king as the author
and source of all the evils of the civil war.
" For all which treasons and crimes," it con-
tinued, " this court doth adjudge that he, the
said Charles Stuaii, as a tyrant, traitor, mur-
derer, and public enemy to the good peojjle of
this nation, shall be put to death by severing
his head from his body." Charles still pleaded
to be heard, but the sentence had gone forth;
and being refused and silenced by Bradshaw
he resigned himself to his guards, and was led
through the hall, where the cry was again raised
of, "Justice! Execution!" " Here," says White-
lock, "we may take notice of the abject base-
ness of some vulgar spirits, who, seeing the king
in that condition, endeavoured, in their small
capacity, further to promote his misery, that
they might a little curry favour with the present
powers and pick thanks of their then superiors.
Some of the very same persons were afterwards
as clamorous for justice against those that were
the king's judges." ^

The brief interval between his sentence and
his execution, which was only three days, was
spent by Chai-les in preparations for the closing
scene; and never had he appeared in so amiable
a light or with such a kingly demeanour. His
faults were those of his unhappy training and
position, while his virtues were essentially his
own; and if he knew not how to reign he showed
at least that he knew how to die. It was his
misfortune that he was a king and not a private
gentleman, where his faults would have had no

2 Whitelock ; Eushworth.

102

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1647-1649-

scope, or been of little account, and where his
private virtues would have found their proper
place and occupation ; and it was only when he
ceased to be a king that his enemies as well as
his friends discovered his proper character and
worth. He requested that Bishop Juxon might
be allowed to be with him, which the court
readily granted ; and when Calamy, Caryl, and
other Presbyterian and Independent divines
tendered their services, and oti'ered to be with
him and to pray with him, he gently declined
their aid, with thanks for their solicitude about
his spiritual welfare, and entreaties that they
would remember him in their petitions to the
throne of mercy. The society of his children,
the Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Glou-
cester, the former thirteen and the latter nine
years old, was also allowed him ; and Charles,
whose domestic virtues weie most tender, re-
ceived them very affectionately, and exhorted
them to be loyal and dutiful to their absent
elder brother, when he should return to England
and become their king. On the night before
his execution the king slept soundly, and awak-
ing before daybreak of the 30th of January, the
last day he was to spend on earth, he summoned
his attendant and caused him to bestow more
than ordinary care in dressing him, observing,
"This is my second marriage-day; I would be
as trim to-day as may be, for before night I hope
to be espoused to my blessed Jesus." As the
weather was cold he also desired to have an
additional shirt, lest the effects of the weather
might be mistaken for fear, adding, " I would
have no such imputation ; I fear not death ;
death is not terrible to me ; I bless my God, I
am prepared." At ten o'clock the gates of St.
James's Palace opened, and the procession
jiassed like a funeral train through the park,
Charles having on his right hand Bishop Juxon,
on his left Colonel Tomlinson, followed by a
guard of halberdiers, and by several of the
king's gentlemen and servants, who walked
bareheaded, while a decent, solemn silence pre-
vailed among the ranks of the soldiers and
crowds of spectators as the procession moved
onward.

On arriving at the palace of Whitehall an
unexpected delay occurred, for the scaffold,
which was erected in front of it, was not yet
fully completed. Charles, therefore, spent the
interval in his own old cabinet chamber in
prayers with the good Bishop Juxon until noon,
■when all being now in readiness, he went
through the banqueting-house to the scaffold,
the floor of which was covered with black cloth;
and on the middle of it was the axe and block,
while the executioner and his assistant, both of
whom wore masks, were standing by. In front

was a sea of faces stilled into a dead calm, while
immediately round the scaffold were strong com-
panies of horse and foot, to ensure this strange
execution and prevent a popular outbreak. As
the people were too remote to hear him, Chai-les
addressed himself to those who were beside him,
and by whom his words were certain to be re-
peated. He declared his innocence of the civil
war, and took God to witness that not he but the
parliament had commenced it ; but that, being
in charity with all parties, he would not lay
the blame upon the two houses ; that he hoped
they were free of this guilt; and that he believed
that ill instruments between them and him
had been the chief cause of all this bloodshed.
He then passed to the death of the Earl of
Strafford, that deed on which, notwithstanding
the casuistry of his prelates, his conscience
could never be at rest, and added, "Yet for
all this God foibid that I should be so ill a
Christian as not to say that God's judgments,
are just upon me. I only say this, that an unjust
sentence that I suffered to take effect, is punished
now by an unjust sentence upon me." Closing
his address he pointed to Juxon and said,
"There is a good man who will bear me wit-
ness that I have forgiven all the world, and
even those in particular that have been the
chief causes of my death. Who they are God
knows; I do not desire to know; I pray God
forgive them." The bishop suggested to him
that a declaration of his affection for religion
might be expected, and the king, thanking him
for the suggestion, said to the spectators on the
scaffold, " In troth, sirs, my conscience in reli-
gion, I think, is very well known to the world^
and therefore I declare before you all, that I die
a Christian according to the profession of the
Church of England, as I found it left me by my
father."

Having thus delivered his dying testimony
Charles prepared himself for his doom, and said
to the disguised and vizored executioners, " I
shall say but very short prayers, and then thrust
out my hands for the signal." He received his
nightcap from the bishop, and assisted with his
own hands the bishop and headsman in tucking
his hair under the cap, that it might not impede
the final stroke; and, turning to Juxon, he said,
" I have a good cause and a gracious God on my
side." " You have now," observed the bishop,
" but one stage more; the stage is turbulent and
troublesome, but it is a short one ; it will soon
carry you a very great way ; it will carry you
from earth to heaven." " I go," replied the king,
" from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown,
where no disturbance can be." " You are ex-
changed from a temporal to an eternal crown
— a good exchange," exclaimed the bishop.

A,D. 1649-1651.]

THE COMMONWEALTH.

103

Charles now took off his cloak and handed his
George to Juxon, with the single word, "Re-
member," and stretching his neck across the
block, after a few moments gave the signal; the
axe descended, and at tliat single blow the head
fell on the scatibld. The executioner's assistant
took it up, held it out to view, and exclaimed,
"This is the head of a traitor!" A universal
groan of the assembled thousands was the sole
vent of their emotions.^

Thus perished Charles I. in the forty-ninth
year of his age, and the twenty-fourth of his
reign. He died indeed like a king — but had he
reigned like one ] Even while contemplating his

Christian heroism on the scaffold we are obliged
to remember the faults that brought him there.
Persistent to the last in principles that were
incompatible with the duties of an English sove-
reign and the welfare of his people, and pursuing
a course equally unjustifiable to carry them out,
he left his subjects no alternative than deposi-
tion, trial, and execution. The time had come
when nations would no longer submit to pei'ish
for the gratification of kingly love of rule or the
realization of a kingly theory, and the stern alter-
native which the prescient John Knox had
ominously hinted to Mary, was realized in the
person of her grandson.

CHAPTER X.

THE COMMONWEALTH (1649-1651).

Proceeding's of the English parUament after the death of Charles 1. — Trial and execution of the Duke of
Hamilton — The Scots proclaim the Prince of Wales king by the title of Charles II. — Their conditions on
which he was to occupy the throne — Then- remonstrance with the English parhament — HostiUty occasioned
by the remonstrance— The Scots open a negotiation with Charles II. — His doubtful reception of their offer
— The negotiation transferred to Breda — Repugnance of Charles to the Scottish stipulations — Montrose
offers to establish him free of conditions— He is commissioned by Charles to attempt an expedition for that
purpose— Montrose lands in Scotland — Unwillingness of the people to join him— He is defeated and taken
prisoner — His trial and sentence — His ignominious treatment — His behaviour in his last moments — His
execution — His character — Execution of those taken prisoners along with him — Indignation of Charles at
the event — He closes with the offer of the Scottish commissioners — His treatment on his arrival in Scotland
— Incompatil?ility of his character and aims with those of his Scottish subjects — Manifestations of hostility
on the part of the English commonwealth — It proclaims war against Scotland — Cromwell appointed to
conduct the war — The Scots lay their country waste at his entrance — Contentions in the Scottish council
— Their army fortifies itself in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh — Cromwell's proclamation — The king's
"Dunfermline Declaration" in reply — Difficulties of Cromwell on account of the strength of the Scottish
position — He commences his retreat to England — The Scots follow — They inclose the Enghsh army at
Dunbar — Desperate condition of Cromwell — Leslie compelled to give him battle — Battle of Dunbar and
defeat of the Scots— CromweU returns to Edinburgh — Fresh restraints imposed on the king — He attempts
to escape to the Highlands — He is brought back to headquarters — The restrictions imposed on him relaxed
— He is solemnly crowned at Scone — Particulars of the coronation— The Scots raise a second army to resist
the English — Its strong position at Torwood — Cromwell becomes master of Fifeshire and Perth — The
Scottish army resolves to march into England — Rash hopes founded on the proceeding — These hopes
disappointed — The Scottish march closely followed by Cromwell — He overtakes the Scots at Worcester —
Battle of Worcester and defeat of the Scottish army — Charles II. a fugitive — His dangers and escapes —
Fidelity of his adherents — His safe arrival in France— The subjugation of Scotland completed by Monk —
Resistance of the Marquis of Argylo in the Highlands — The Estates refuse to second him — He is captured
at Inverary — His submission to the English government^Scotland reduced to the condition of a dependent
province.

On the day of the execution of Charles the
House of Commons issued a proclamation pro-
hibiting any one from declaring the Prince of
Wales king, or maintaining his right to the
royal succession, under the penalties of high
treason, or to proclaim any other person king
or chief magistrate of England, Scotland, and
Ireland, without the consent of parliament.

iWhitelock; Warwick's Ifonoirs; Rushworth; Ludlow;
Nalson.

under the same j^enalties. On the same day
the Duke of Hamilton, imprisoned in Windsor
Castle, and who knew that a similar fate awaited
him, escaped in disguise, but was retaken on
the following day. His unsuccessful attempt
only hastened his doom. A court of justice
was instituted, of which Bradshaw was pre-
sident and Coke solicitor, and before it the
unfoi'tunate duke was arraigned, under his
English title of Earl of Cambridge, for having
traitorously invaded England and levied war

104

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1649-1651.

to assist the king against tlie kingdom and
people. The duke pleaded that, being a for-
eigner, a native of Scotland, and born before
his father was naturalized in England, he could
not be subject to the authority of that court.
He also stated that he was invested with the
command of the army by the parliament of his
own country, that he had surrendered to his
enemies upon articles of capitulation, and could
only be considered as a prisoner at war. This
plea was overruled; and against his strongest
objection it was proved that he had been called
by the late king to take a seat in the House of
Lords as Earl of Cambridge, that he had acted
as an English peer in that house and in several
committees, and that as a peer of England he
had taken the national covenant and subscribed
" Cambridge." As for the articles of capitula-
tion on which he had surrendered it was an-
swered that these were only military terms,
and meant to preserve him from present viol-
ence but not to exempt him from the civil pun-
ishment of a traitor. As it was thought vxnsafe
to acquit him, the duke was sentenced to die,
and he was executed on the 9th of March, pro-
testing with his last breath his afiectiou for his
native country and loyalty to his king.

As soon as the news of the execution of
Charles I. reached Scotland all parties were
indignant at the event. However they might
be opposed to arbitrary rule, they had always
respected the rights of monarchy ; and though
a king might be deposed or even put to death,
they still recognized the kingly office as a sacred
institution and the right of royal succession to
remain unimpeached. Little, therefore, could
they sympathize with the republican proceed-
ings of the sectaries, who had thought the
faults of Charles I. a sufficient warrant for the
subversion of monarchy itself and the establish-
ment of a new form of government; and had
they possessed the power they would doubtless
have made the monarchic principle, in opposi-
tion to that of republicanism, the subject of a
national war. But they did what they could
and what the}'^ were bound to do by the obli-
gations of the Covenant : they recognized the
Prince of Wales as the successor of his father,
and proclaimed him king. This proclamation
was made by the Scottish parliament at the
cross of Ediuburgli on the 5th of February,
with tlie usual solemnities, but with a sadness
that was almost funereal, and Charles II. was
announced as sovereign and his right to the
government of the three kingdoms declared.
But in making this daring choice the parliament
had been careful to guard against those evils of
the late reign which they had been so active in
opposing ; and it was enacted that before ad-

mitting him to office he should take the Cove-
nant and the Solemn League and Covenant,
and agree to the establishment of the Presby-
terian government in the church, and to the
worship, confession, and catechisms of the
Assembly of Westminster, and that he should
also agree that all civil matters should be de-
termined by parliament and all ecclesiastical
matters by the General Assembly. They knew
at what pei'il and sacrifice their choice was
made, and were resolved therefore that they
should be made for none other than a cove-
nanted king. But they little knew the already
dissolute character of the Prince of Wales and
the persons he had chosen for his counsellors,
how readily he would subscribe and swear to
engagements which he had no mind to keep,
and how lightly he would tread them under
foot and scatter them to the winds. This ex-
perience they were only to acquire when it was
too late to provide the remedy. ^

Having thus decided, the Estates announced
the proceeding to their commissioners in Lon-
don, and empowered them to present a re-
monstrance against the proceedings of the
party now holding rule in England. This
they did in a long paper which they presented
to the Eump Parliament, denouncing the apos-
tasy to the solemn league which had bound the
two nations together, the violent death in-
flicted on Charles I., and the exclusion of the
Prince of Wales from the succession, and also
the illegal proceedings of that "purged" par-
liament by which these violent acts had been
accomplished. " If," they added, " the honour-
able houses of the parliament of England who
made the declarations and engagements with
us had been permitted to sit and act with
freedom, we know there would have been no
such proceedings as we have already seen, nor
cause to fear such dangerous evils and strange
alterations as are now carried on by will and
power. We may confidently say they would
have been more mindful of their many declara-
tions, and of the Solemn League and Covenant,
and more ready to hearken to the advice of
their brethren of Scotland." They then insisted,
in obedience to their instructions, that no
toleration should be allowed to idolatry. Popery,
Prelacy, heresy, schism, or profaneness, that the
rights of Charles IT. to the royal succession
should be recognized, and uniformity in religion
settled according to the Covenant, Confession
of Faith, and Directory for Worship. Having
stated these demands, they thus concluded their
remonstrance: — "If, notwithstanding all our
earnest desires and endeavours to the contrary,

> Clarendon ; Whitelock.

A.D. 1649-1651.]

THE COMMONWEALTH.

105

the Commous now sitting at "Westminster shall
proceed otherwise, in all or any of these particit-
lars aforesaid, we do hereby, in the name of the
parliament and kingdom of Scotland, dissent
from the same, and solemnly protest, that they
may be free before God and man of the guilti-
ness, evils, confusions, miseries, and calamities
that may follow thereupon to these distracted
kingdoms."^ Having delivered their manifesto
to the speaker of the House of Commons, the
Scottish commissioners left London without tak-
ing a formal leave, intending to proceed on an
embassy to the young king in Holland, accord-
ing to the appointment of the estates. But
before they reached Graveseud, from which
they proposed to embark, they were pursued
by order of the parliament and thrown into
prison, while their paper was voted libellous
and treasonable. In consequence, however, of
a remonstrance from the Scottish Estates, the
commissioners were soon after freed from con-
finement, and conveyed as prisoners by a troop
of horse to Berwick, from which they were dis-
missed into their own country.

Notwithstanding the significant menace of
hostility and war contained in these proceed-
ings, the Scots persevered in those loyal pi'in-
ciples to which they had bound themselves by
the Covenant, and they sent commissioners
from the parliament and the kirk to invite
Charles to the vacant throne. He was at this
time residing at the Hague, with a scanty court
of exiled noblemen, the chief of whom were
Lauderdale, Callender, Lanark, now Duke of
Hamilton by the death of his brother, and the
banished royalists Montrose, Kinnoul, and Sea-
forth. It was not likely that with such coun-
sellors, especially the latter, the conditions im-
posed upon the young king, by which they
would be excluded from all share in the govern-
ment, would be favourably considered ; and
accordingly, while the lords of the Engagement
advised him to consent to the terms, the Royal-
ists suggested that he ought to enter Scotland
unfettered and at the head of an armed force.
This counsel was boldly urged by Montrose,
who, in that wild confidence which his past suc-
cesses in some measure justified, offered to place
Charles upon the throne of Scotland, not by
negotiation, but by force of arms. A third
expedient was proposed by the English coun-
sellors: it was that Charles should repair to
Ireland, where he had already been proclaimed
king, and where Ormond and the Catholics,
at present in the ascendency, would receive
him for their sovereign without any restric-
tions. Amidst these contending opinions

1 Parliamentary Hist. ; Wliiteloclc.

Charles treated the Scottish commissioners
with that bland courtesy which was natural to
him, and held them in delay until he should
decide his future course of action. But the
plan of Montrose was soon rendered impractic-
able by his own rashness. Believing in com-
mon with many of the Royalists that even assas-
sination was lawful in their adverse state of
affairs, this chivalrous hero had caused Doris-
laus, the English ambassador at the Hague, and
one of the judges of Charles I., to be mur-
dered by his emissaries ; and in consequence of
this odious deed Charles II. and his court were
obliged to withdraw first to Paris and after-
wards to the island of Jersey. As for the Irish
plan, it, too, speedily came to nothing. With a
small but choice army Oliver Cromwell passed
over to Ireland, and in a few months reduced
the whole island to submission.^

After these interrupting changes the Scottish
negotiation was resumed, first at Jersey, and
afterwards at Breda. The proposals of the Scot-
tish parliament were transmitted to the latter
place by the Earls of Cassillis and Lothian, and
were substantially the same as had been origi-
nally offered. At the head of them it was stipu-
lated that Charles should receive the Covenant
and confirm the presbyterian form of church
government. In all civil affairs he was to be
regulated by the parliament, and in all ecclesi-
astical proceedings by the General Assembly.
Popery was no longer to be tolerated, and all
declarations against the Covenant or commis-
sions hostile to the kingdom were to be recalled.-*
By these strict terms he was to be exclusively
a Presbyterian sovereign, with none but Pres-
byterians foi- his counsellors and officers, and to
occupy the Scottish throne without any promise
for the recovery of that of England. He would
thus have no greater extent of dominion or lati-
tude of power than that which had been enjoyed
by his ancestors. But this was a scanty prospect
for the heir-expectant and his counsellors, who
regarded Scotland as a mere instrument for the
recovery of England and Ireland, and the res-
toration of absolute monarchy. His English ad-
visers, however, who knew how unwelcome they
would be to the Scots, while they dissuaded him
from embracing the ofi'er, had no other course
to suggest except what might turn up in the
chapter of accidents, and would rather have their
master a wanderer and a mendicant with them-
selves than reign without their participating in
the benefits of the change. On the other hand
Lauderdale and Hamilton suggested that it was
better to accept a part than forego all. By ac-

^Baillie; Clarendon; Carte's Life of Ormond.
^ Thurloe's State Papers ; Clarendon.

lOG

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1649-1651.

cepting the Scottish offer he kept opeu his chance
for the recovery of the rest of his dominions.
They reminded him also, by the example of his
father, how foolish it would be to renounce a
kingdom already prepared for him through an
absurd devotedness to Prelacy; and they sug-
gested the probability that, after he had been
seated on their throne, the Scots might relax in
the strictness of their demands, and be more con-
formable to the royal wishes. He might also by
his neighbourhood encourage his adherents in
England and promote their attempts to rise in
his favour. Charles apparently assented to these
arguments, but with the duplicity of his father
and gi-andfather was secretly working for de-
liverance in another way. He hoped that the
sword of Montrose would lay Scotland at his feet,
and afterwards hew out his path to London ; and
under this persuasion he urged that champion
of royalty to hasten his preparations for a Scot-
tish invasion, while he purjDosely delayed the
conclusion of the treaty until the success or
failure of the expedition should be ascertained.^
No order could be more congenial to the ad-
venturous spirit of Montrose, and a wizard had
foretold to him that he was destined to restore
his master to the throne. Having obtained a
small supply of money from Denmark, and of
arms from Sweden, he embarked at Hamburg
with six hundred Germans, commanded chiefly
by Scottish exiles, and landed in the Orkneys in
the spring of 1650. But here he found the in-
habitants altogether changed from their valiant
ancestors, whose chief delight was danger and
enterprise ; and, on account of their remoteness
from the world of action, they knew little of
the late civil war, and still less of the causes
that had produced it. From such a people he
could only obtain a small addition to his followers
by compulsory levy, which raised his little band
to fourteen hundred men. He then marched
through Caithness and Sutherland, intending to
penetrate into the Highlands ; but the inhabit-
ants of these counties, hearing of his former
military devastations and alarmed at the strange
foreigners by whom he was accompanied, tied
everywhere at his approach. In the meantime
the Estates, which had been warned of his in-
tended invasion, sent out General Strachan with
thi'ee hundred cavalry to hold him in check,
while David Leslie followed with four thousand
foot. Strachan, having divided his horse into
three bodies, encountered Montrose, whose force
consisted entirely of foot, at Invercharrou in
Ross-shire. The first division of cavalry was de-
feated; but when Strachan led up the second
and sounded the charge the Orcadians, unac-

' Baillie : Clarendon : Burnet's Mem.

customed to the sight of bulky war-steeds, fled
in terror, and the Germans, thus left by their
allies, retreated to a neighbouring wood, where,
after a short resistance, they surrendered. Mon-
trose fought with his wonted gallantry, but,
finding that his case was hopeless, he fled fi-om
the field, leaving behind him his cloak and
sword, his star and garter. After he had dis-
tanced immediate pursuit and exchanged clothes
with a Highland peasant he wandered for several
days among the hills in this disguise, and finally-
sought shelter with Macleod of Assynt, who had
formerly been one of his own followers. But
the high reward offered for the apprehension
of the marquis was too much for the sordid
Macleod, who delivered up his guest and friend
to General Leslie, by whom he was conveyed to
Edinburgh.2

Great was the exultation of the capital when
Montrose entered it as a prisoner. The enemy
it most dreaded was a cajitive, and nothing re-
mained for him but trial and execution. It
would have been well, however, if the cruelty
and insolence with which this triumph was ac-
companied had been spared. Dundee, also, the
most covenanting of towns, and which had
smarted under his former successes, had set a
generous example to Edinburgh by treating him
humanely when he was brought thither on his
way, and furnishing him with clothing suitable
to his rank ; but he was now brought in at the
Watergate bareheaded in a cart, with his arms
pinioned, and the hangman in his livery driving
it, while the prisoners taken at Invercharron
were marched two and two before him. At the
spectacle of such a procession the crowd was
variously affected, and w'hile some maintained
a stern silence others were moved to tears. The
trial took up little time, as sentence had already
been passed upon him by parliament on his former
attainder; and when brought up to receive it
the Earl of Loudon, chancellor, upbraided him
for his violation of the Covenant, his inti'oduc-
tion of lawless and bloodthirsty Irish insurgents
into the country, and the various rebellions of
which he had been guilty against his native land.
The reply of Montrose was firm but temperate.
He consented, he said, to appear before them
with his head uncovered, because his majesty
had acknowledged the authority of the Estates
by treating with them. He had adhered to the
National Covenant until he discovered that it
was a pretext for abridging the king's lawful
authority, that they might usurp it for them-
selves; and as for the Solemn League he had
never sworn it, and therefore had never broken
it. He had taken up arms at first against them

2 Hay's Mem. of Montrose; Wishait.

A.D. 1649-1651.]

THE COMMONWEALTH.

107

by the lawful command of the late king, and at
his command he had also laid them down and
retired beyond sea; and in his wars he had
never shed blood except in battle, and even in
the greatest heat of it had preserved the lives of
thousands. His late invasion had been made
by the expi-ess command of the present king,
and for the purpose of accelerating the treaty
between them and his majesty; and this being
accomplished by a firm and lasting peace he
would have held himself in readiness to retire
at the call of his royal master. He had thus
manifested the height of his loyalty in the several
expeditious he had undertaken, and at the com-
mand of the two best of kings. He finally be-
sought his judges, that in reference to the cause
of quarrel they would consider him as aChristian;
in respect to his royal master's commands as a
subject; and in the fact of his having saved the
lives and fortunes of many present as their
neighbour. The appeal was fruitless, and by
order of the court he received the sentence upon
his knees, which was, that he should be hanged
for three hours upon a gibbet thirty feet high ;
that his head should be set up over the common
jail, and his limbs over the gates of the four
principal towns ; and that his body should be
interred iu the buryiug-place of common male-
factors, unless he reconciled himself to the church,
and was relaxed from excommunication. On
being led away he expressed to the magistrates,
who waited on him in prison, how much he was
indebted to the parliament for the distinction
they had conferred upon him in their sentence.
"I am jDrouder," he said, " to have my head fixed
on the top of the prison walls than my portrait
placed in the king's bedchamber. " Far from
being troubled," he added, "that my limbs are
to be sent to your principal towns, I wish that
I had flesh enough to be sent to every town in
Christendom, in witness of my dying attachment
to my king." This extravagant sentiment he
afterwards reduced to poetry, and wrote with a
diamond during the night upon the window of
his jail.^ The clergy of the city waited upon
him to induce him to turn his thoughts to still
higher subjects in his last hours, and win him
to repentance for his past apostasy and misdeeds;
but they found him so hopelessly obdurate, and

1 These verses, which were not altogether without merit,
although abounding in the poetical conceits of the period,
were as follows :—

Let them bestow on every airth a limb,

Then open all my veins, that I may swim

To thee, my Maker, in that crimson lake ;

Then place my parboiled head upon a stake,

Scatter my ashes, strew them in the air, —

Lord, since thou know'st where all these atoms are,

I'm hopeful thou'lt recover once my dust.

And confident thouTt raise me with the just.

so pi'oud in the prospect of his renown, that they
were obliged to abandon the attempt.

Early on the morning of the 21st of May, the
day fixed for his execution, hearing the streets
resounding with the sound of drums and trum-
23ets, the marquis asked what the noise meant ;
and on being told that it was to call out the
citizens and soldiers to arms, as the parliament
was afraid of an attempted rescue ou the part
of the malignants, " Do I," he said, " who have
been such a terror to these worthies during my
life, continue still so formidable to them now,
when about to die 1" He proceeded to comb his
hair, which he wore long according to the fashion
of the Cavaliers ; and while thus employed Sir
Archibald Johnston, a member of parliament,
entered and expressed his disapproval at finding
him so frivolously employed. " While my head
is my own," replied Montrose with a smile, " I
will dress and adorn it ; but when it becomes
yours you may treat it as you please." At two
o'clock he walked, guarded, from the prison to
the scaflPold, which was in the middle of the
Grassmarket, and not being permitted to har-
angue the spectators he addressed those who stood
by. He had sinned against God, he said, but not
against man, as the deeds for which he was to
sufier had been done in the course of duty, and
for the service of his sovereign, who, next to God,
was to be honoured and obeyed. He, however,
forgaveall his enemies, as he hoped to be forgiven
by the supreme Judge of all. He regretted that
he died under the censures of the church, and
wished to be freed from them, if it could be done
without violating his conscience and allegiance.
"I desire not to be mistaken," he concluded, "as
if my carriage at this time in relation to your
ways were stubborn. I do but follow the light
of my own conscience, which is seconded by the
working of the good Sjiirit of God that i§ within
me. I thank Him, I go to heaven's throne with
joy. If He enable me against the fear of death,
and furnish me with courage and confidence to
embrace it even in its most ugly shape, let God
be glorified in my end, though it wei-e in my
damnation. Yet I say not this out of any fear
or distrust, but out of my duty to God and love
to his people. I have no more to say, but that
I desire your charity and prayers. I shall pray
for you all. I leave my soul to God, — my service
to my prince, — my good-will to my friends —
and my name, and charity to you all." It would
have been well for their own sakes if additional
indignities, which his enemies inflicted upon him,
had been spared; but,in their mean malevolence,
they caused the history of his exploits to be sus-
pended from his neck by the hands of the com-
mon hangman. Montrose himself assisted the
executioner in this process, and observed with

108

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1649-1651.

a smile that he wore this with more pleasure than
even the garter with which his master had lately
invested him. He climbed up the ladder of the
tall gibbet with a tirm step, aud after being
turned over, and hanging three hours, the re-
volting accompaniments of his sentence were
duly inflicted upon his remains. It was said
that Argyle, his great enemy, witnessed the
execution with satisfaction, but this was an
unfounded calumny, as he withheld his presence
from the spectacle, and shed tears when the
event was detailed to liim.^

Thus perished the celebrated Marquis of
Montrose at the age of thirty-eight. He was
called by Cardinal de Eetz a type of the
ancient Greek and Eoman heroes of Plutarch
rather than a soldier of degenerate modern
times ; and this has been adopted as a text by
the Royalists, who have set no bounds to their
panegyrics. But a little examination will suffice
to abate this party entliusiasm. From a Royal-
ist Montrose became a Covenanter because the
king at his first reception looked coldly U23on
him ; and afterwards veered round to the other
party when his hopes of pre-eminence in the
state and the army were disappointed by the
preference wisely given to Leslie and Argyle.
In the war he conducted in behalf of Charles I.
his hatred of his personal enemies was more
conspicuous than his zeal for the king, while
the cruelties which he inflicted were such as no
necessities either of ancient or modern warfare
could justify. With all the valour of a chival-
rous knight- errant, he lacked the cautious fore-
thought of a great commander; and although
his victoi-ies were brilliant over raw, untrained
peasants and inefficient leaders, his defeats were
as signal when he was opposed by regular sol-
diers led by those captains who had learned the
art of war in foreign campaigns. It speaks little
for his military prudence that he who was so
dexterous in surprises should be so little on his
guard as to be so surprised in turn, that he
twice lost the army on which the cause of his
master depended and brought himself to the
scaffold. When acting on the aggressive, and
in his daring feats of guerrilla warfare, his
boldness, fertility of resources, and success
wei'e wonderful ; but these, which made him
the idol and the hope of the Royalists, were
foiled by the scientific skill of David Leslie, and
could scarcely have fared better with Fairfax or
Cromwell for his antagonists. Even his death-
scene, although the most heroic event of his life,
was disfigured by a vanity which a dying Chris-
tian should not exhibit, and by professions and

1 Wishart ; Whitelock ; Wigton MS. ; Clarendon ; Bal-
four.

protestations with w'hich his career had been
inconsistent.

The execution of the Marquis of Montrose
was followed by that of his i)rincipal officei-s.
These were Spottiswood, grandson of the arch-
bishop, Colonel Sibbald, who had accompanied
the marquis from England, and General Hurry,
who had wheeled like a vane from king to
Covenant and from Covenant to king, according
to the changes of the political wind, and whom
nothing short of death could fix into consistency.
There was also Sir Francis Hay of Dalgetty,
a Roman Catholic, but a better man than
Hurry, who had faithfully followed Montrose
to the last, and who desired that his body
should be buried with the remains of his leader
whether in honour or ignominy. Lord Fren-
draught would also have perished upon the same
scaffold had he not, by starving himself to death,
escaped the shame of a public execution.^

As soon as tidings reached Charles of the
execution of Montrose he was disappointed and
indignant ; but he was not long in discovering
the policy of concealing his emotions. It was
while he was in treaty with the Scots at Breda
that he had given a commission to the marquis
to invade Scotland ; and when this commission
was discovered by the defeat of Montrose the
principal leaders of the Covenanters resolved to
recall their treaty and place no further reliance
upon such a double-dealing sovereign. In this,
however, they were resolutely opposed by Argyle,
through whose arguments and persuasions the
treaty with the young king was allowed to go for-
ward. Charles indeed was disposed to resent the
execution of Montrose and his officers as an act
committed without his authority or consent and
a violation of the treaty ; but when it was hinted
to him that the commission he had given to the
marquis was discovered he waived this objec-
tion aud accejDted the conditions, which were
the same as had been oflered before Montrose
had landed. Protected by a Dutch fleet that
was employed to guard the fisheries, he set sail
with his court of exiles, and arrived at the
mouth of the Spey near the middle of June,
1650. Previous to his landing he was i^equired
to take the Solemn League and Covenant ; and
although Livingston, the minister who was com-
missioned to exact this pledge, had strong mis-
givings of the young king's sincerity, Charles,
who secretly laughed at all religious bonds, took
the Covenant with every token of satisfaction
and good-will. He was afterwards required to
dismiss from his company all " malignants " and
such as were not well affected to their cause ;
and in consequence of this demand the Duke

2 Wishart; Whitelock.

A.D. 1649-1651.J

THE COMMONWEALTH,

109

of Hamilton and the Earls of Lauderdale and
Dunfermline, who had accompanied him to
Scotland, retired to their homes. At the same
time his English attendants, the Duke of Buck-
ingham, the Earl of Cleveland, and Lord Wil-
mot, were desired to leave the country, but hav-
ing consciences as elastic as that of their mas-
ter they conformed to the rules established for
the royal court and were suffered to remain.^

Charles, by the sacrifice of his principles — for
he was, if anything, a Roman Catholic — and of
his pride, had from a wandering exile become
King of Scotland. But so long as this was only
a part of his royal inheritance its possession was
but a source of disappointment. It was rich and
fertile England upon which his wishes were fixed
and for the attainment of which he regarded
Scotland as the certain stepping-stone ; but he
found the Scots resolute to confine themselves
within their old limits, with a Presbyterian
king and legislature, rather than to risk all by
provoking a war with England. His disposi-
tion also, which was gay, frivolous, and licen-
tious, could not long endure the strict austerity
by which his subjects were distinguished. The
interference of the clergy with his levity and
vices, the frequent religious services he was re-
quired to attend, and the grave demeanour he
was constrained to assume, were a bondage that
mocked his sovereignty and made him sigh for
the free, thoughtless life of exile which he had
exchanged for the cares of such a royalty. Nor
were the Scots themselves less hampered by
their unfortunate choice. They soon saw that
Charles was not the man to realize their picture
of a covenanted king. They had discharged
the duty of subjects by furnishing him with an
ample revenue, a splendid train of attendants,
and all the pompous appendages of royalty ;
they had surrounded him with a decorous court,
and provided him with eloquent, talented chap-
lains; and in their intercourse with him they
approached him with humble reverence and
sincere offers of their duty and submission.
But instead of sympathizing in their wishes
and using these advantages for the religious
and moral welfare of his people, his example
and his practices tended to their universal sub-
version and to throw the nation back into that
anarchy and dissoluteness from which the Re-
formation, after so many years of toil and
struggle, had so happily relieved it.

This uncertain state of affaire was not to be
of long continuance. The English government
had been watching the Scottish treaty with
Charles and its results, and were now ready to

' Baillie's Letters and Jmirnal; Life of Livingston;
Clarendon's Hist. ; Burnet ; Whitelock.

interfere. For this also they had some show of
justice by their ai^prehension that the recall of
Charles would lead to an invasion of England
and the restoration of the monarchy, in which
the Scots would be aided both by the Royalists
and English Presbyterians. Unwilling, how-
ever, to proceed to hostilities, the Scottish par-
liament sent a remonstrance to the English
House of Commons against the assembling of
troops on the Border and the seizure of Scottish
shipping without any formal declaration of war;
but the English government had already de-
cided upon an invasion of Scotland, and were
making active preparations for the purpose.
They also justified their proceeding by the plea
that the Scots had violated the engagements of
the Covenant and Solemn League by their late
invasion of England, and had recalled Charles
without consulting the English Commonwealth.
Cromwell had been previously summoned from
his career of victory in Ireland after little more
remained for him to do, and in consequence of
the refusal of Fairfax to lead the army destined
for the Scottish invasion the command of it was
given to his successful rival, who had subdued
the whole of Ireland in ten months. The pre-
parations made to anticipate a Scottish invasion
now went on with such ardour that within a
month after the arrival of Charles in Scotland
Cromwell had drawn up his army upon a hill
within the bounds of Berwick, from which he
had a full view of the adjacent districts of Scot-
land. Here he harangued his soldiers, exhort-
ing them to be brave and faithful, and to be
assured of the blessing of God and all encourage-
ment from himself— a speech which they re-
ceived with joyful shouts; and on the following
day (July 23) they advanced into Scottish
ground along the eastern shore towards the
Firth of Forth.2

Although this invasion had been at last so
sudden the Scots were not unprepared to meet
it. The Earl of Leven being now too old for
active service, they had appointed David Leslie,
whose military reputation was still higher than
that of the earl, to the command of their army;
and profiting by their old experience of repelling
an invader by famine, they had swept the whole
country from Berwick to Edinburgh, as with a
broom, of all its grain and cattle, so that the
English soldiers when they advanced found
themselves in a land of utter starvation. At
the commencement of his march Cromwell had
proclaimed to the army that none, on pain of
death, should oflfer violence or injury to the per-
sons or sfoods of the Scots that were unarmed,

2 Ludlow, Memoirs; Perfect Politician; Parliamentary
History; Balfour.

110

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1649-1651.

aiid that no soldier without special license should
stray half a mile from the main army ; but this
order was superfluous as there were no goods
to destroy, while every straggler was in danger
of falling into an ambuscade. This dearth,
however, Cromwell had anticipated, so he
marched to Dunbar, where his army was sup-
plied with pi'ovisions by English ships sent
thither for the purpose, after which he pi'o-
ceeded to Haddington, which was within seven-
teen miles of Edinburgh, but still without seeing
a single armed troop or meeting with resis-
tance. The Scots were unfortunately quarrelling
among themselves about the characters of those
to whom the public safety should be intrusted ;
and regulating their ideas by the Old Testament
rule, with the ministers for its authoi'itative ex-
pounders, they refused to admit any one into
office, whether civil or military, unless his
principles conformed in every point with their
own. By this extreme scrupulosity their councils
were filled with strife and division, their army
was deprived of the services of some of their
best soldiers and officers, and time was lost when
every hour was of the utmost value. In the
meantime David Leslie had done all that the
prudence of one man could effect. Taking his
stand near Edinburgh for the defence of the
capital he selected Arthur's Seat and Salisbury
Ci'aigs for his outposts, planted the Calton Hill
with cannon, and having the Castle, still a strong
defensible fortress on the right, he had availed
himself of every inequality of the ground in
front, flank, and rear. The strength of this
position was acknowledged by Cromwell him-
self, who, when he advanced, did not venture
an attack, and found himself compelled, after
a few indecisive attempts in skirmishing and
cannonading, to retire to Musselburgh.^

In the meantime what had become of Charles,
who had so deep an interest in these proceed-
ings 1 A few days before he had arrived in the
Scottish camp, and under the countenance of his
arrival many of his Royalist and Presbytei'ian
adherents, who had been debarred under the
stigma of being sectaries and malignants, en-
tered the encampment, and soon made their
presence felt by arrogant boasting and loose
and profane conversation. This was grievous
to Argyle and his party, by whom the king had
been recalled to Scotland, and the commission of
the kirk had influence sufficient to have the king
removed to Dunfermline, and the army purged
anew. Eighty officers were displaced by this
purification, and the army, restored to its in-
tegrity, was now thought to be invincible.^
The king was then waited upon with a declara-

i Cromwell's Despatches.

2 Balfour.

tion drawn up by the council of state, which he
was required to sanction. Cromwell had every-
where procLaimed that the Scottish church and
state, by recalling the son, had approved of
the proceedings of his father, and condemned
the public resistance by which the tyranny of
Charles I. had been thrown down; and that
although the present king had taken the Cove-
nant he had done it insincerely and was not to
be trusted, a fact of which the Scottish rulers
were aware, so that they had only set him up
that under his name they might usurp the whole
authority to themselves.^ Charles had now to
set himself right with his subjects, and those
who had recalled him with the nation at large
by a declaration, which, after some demur,
and when several offensive phrases had been
softened, he consented to sign. By this paper,
called the " Dunfermline Declaration," he la-
mented his father's opposition to the work of
God, his mother's idolatry, and his own former
misconduct, of which he hoped for divine for-
giveness through the blood of Christ. He stated
that he had taken the Covenant honestly and
sincerely, and would continue in the same all
the days of his life. The league with the re-
bellious Irish he denounced as null and void,
and professed that in all future time he would
seek no such unlawful help in restoring him to his
throne. He deprecated all rancorous feeling
against his English subjects, and declared that
the commissions he had issued he intended only
to be used against such of them as had usurped
his authority. He was anxious to satisfy the
wishes of his good subjects of England and Ire-
land ; and if both houses of the English parlia-
ment, free and unconstrained, made proposals
of peace that were agreeable to both kingdoms,
he would not only consent to them, but do what-
ever else was requisite for prosecuting the ends
of the Solemn League and Covenant, especially
in the reformation of the church. And finally
he declared his hope, that whatever had been
his former guiltiness before God, and the evil
success of those who had supported his cause
while he was thus alienated from God, yet now,
the case being altered, and himself having
adopted the cause of Grod, that the Lord would
be gracious, and countenance his own cause in
the hands of weak and sinful instruments against
all enemies whatsoever. That Charles should at
first have refused his signature to such a de-
claration, which denounced his father, his mother,
and himself, was not wonderful; the only matter
of surprise is, that he finally yielded. And if
the harshness of such a demand should excite
our indignation let us remember the difficulties

3 Perfect Diurnal, August, 1650.

A.D. 1649-1651.]

THE COMMONWEALTH.

Ill

with which the opposite party was beset. They
had been accused of serving their own ends
and making Charles their tool and their dupe.
These representations would divide the nation
at a time when its energies must be unanimous
in an enterprise demanding its utmost sti'ength.
The causes, also, which had occasioned the civil
war, had been repeated a hundred times, until
they had become the watchwords of the quarrel
and the arguments for its justification; and until
these were distinctly and unmistakably abjured
by Charles he had no hope of either winning
the throne of England or even retaining that of
Scotland. The cliief fault of such a declaration
lay, not in those who presented it, but in him
who falsely and hypocritically subscribed it.
Not yet satisfied of the king's sincerity they
required of him a public profession of his re-
pentance, and Charles had consented, when the
course of events unexpectedly freed him from
such a humiliation.

Cromwell, after having attempted but in vain
to draw the Scottish army from their strong en-
trenchments, became alarmed at the danger of
his situation. He saw that nothing could be
expected but a war of skirmishes, in which his
strength would be fruitlessly wasted, while
every day of delay made the subsistence of his
army more difficult, as the English shipping
from which he was supplied with provisions
could come no nearer than Dunbar. With the
prospect of starvation before him there was no
remedy but a dangerous retreat, as had so often
been the case with other English invaders. He
accordingly broke up his encampment and
inarched westward in the direction of Stirling,
hoping to force Leslie to an engagement for the
defence of his supplies ; but the latter, who fol-
lowed in the same direction, prudently resisted
the temptation. From the neighbourhood of
Colingtou Cromwell was obliged to alter his
march towards the sea-coast, from which he
commenced his retreat in earnest to Dunbar on
the 31st of August, after having shipped five
hundred of his sick and wounded at Mussel-
burgh. He was closely followed by his wary
adversary, and had no sooner reached Had-
dington than the Scots by a furious night attack
succeeded in throwing the English troops into
disorder, and were only prevented from follow-
ing up their advantage by a thick cloud with
which the moon was suddenly overcast. On the
following day Cromwell resumed his march to
Dunbar, still followed by the Scottish army, but
when he reached that town his condition was
not improved; the ships with supplies for his
army were detained by contrary winds ; Cock-
burnspath, the only road by which he could
retire to England, " where ten men to hinder

were better than forty to make their way," was
occupied by the Scots ; while their main army,
securely posted upon the neighbouring hills of
Lammermuir, and swelled by reinforcements,
had their enemies in a net. They boasted, in-
deed, that they "had the English in a worse
pound than the king had the Earl of Essex in
Cornwall." ^ Cromwell was of the same opinion,
and had resolved to act as Essex did, by sending
off his artillery and foot to England by sea and
breaking through with his cavalry to Berwick,
when he was saved by one of those " crowning
mercies" which so often signalized his career.
In the camp of Leslie was the committee of the
kii'k and the Estates, by whose all-prevalent
authority his arrangements could at any time
be controlled; and, impatient at the prospect of
their great enemy's escape, they insisted that he
should descend into the plain and give battle,
where victory would be both safe and certain.
In this unfortunate importunity the clergy in
the Scottish camp have been rejiresented as par-
ticularly urgent; their appeal was only too well
seconded by the national impetuosity of their
countrymen ; and, overwhelmed by every argu-
ment human and divine of an assured conquest
over these godless sectaries who had converted
their churches into stables at Leith and else-
where, Leslie reluctantly descended from his
joosition among the hills, when the defeat of the
enemy was all but consummated, and drew up
his army upon the level ground between the foot
of the mountains and the sea to frustrate every
chance of the enemy's escape. These movements
of the Scottish host commenced on Monday
evening, and Cromwell, who had been watching
them with profound intei-est, could scarcely be-
lieve his good fortune when he saw them aban-
don their advantageous situation to give him
the equal chances of battle. His joy on the
occasion is said to have broke forth in the ex-
clamation, " The Lord hath delivered them into
our hands !"

It was a stormy night during which the
Scottish troops were brought down to the plain,
and this with an army hastily levied and im-
perfectly disciplined was conducive to disaster.
Even in the morning, when the battle was
about to commence, many of their matchlocks
were not lighted, and the horses were grazing
only half saddled, while the English, who had
been carefully kept under covert, were fresh
for the encounter. The army of the Covenant
was composed of 27,000 men, while that of Crom-
well was reduced to 12,000; but they were iron
soldiers accustomed to victory, and their leader

' Cromwell's despatch ; Ludlow ; Relation of the Cam-
paign in Scotland, 1650.

112

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1649-1651.

had been successful wherever he had fought.
Ou the side of the Scots the word was "The
Covenant;" on that of the reiiublicans, "The
Lord of Hosts." A great dike or ditch inter-
posed between both armies, that would have
been perilous to the party that first attempted
to pass it, but during the night the English
regiments had been moved close up to it, each
regiment being provided with cannon. The
battle commenced at six o'clock in the morning
by an attempt of Cromwell to force one of the
passes between Dunbar and Berwick, by which
he might more conveniently assail the Scottish
position, and for this purpose three regiments
of horse and two of foot were thrown forward
into the pass. They were at first rejjulsed, and
would have been defeated had not Cromwell
come up with his own regiment of Ironsides,
and the conflict in this quarter, which lasted an
hour, was maintained by the English with
pikes, swords, and the butt-ends of their mus-
kets until the Scottish ranks were jDierced
through and through and the imj^ortant pass
won. The Scots then came down and charged
with all their cavalry, most of whom were
lancers, and their gallant charge threatened to
retrieve the day; but they were driven back by
the English horse, with whom and their own
foot they were soon mingled pell-mell, without
the power of rallying and forming anew. A thick
mist that had hitherto obscured these encoun-
ters was now dispersed by the risen sun, that
lighted the whole field, and Cromwell triumph-
antly shouted, " Let God arise, and let his ene-
mies be scattered ! " It was no vain exultation ;
a flight on the part of the Scots had already
commenced, and Cromwell, scarcely able to be-
lieve such a welcome sight, exclaimed, "I pro-
test, they run ! " The confusion thus begun was
communicated to the whole host, and in a short
time the Scottish army was in ignominious
flight, leaving their artillery, arms, and baggage
behind them. Three thousand were killed in
the fight and pursuit ; 10,000 were taken pri-
soners, of whom 5000 who were wounded were
dismissed from the field, while the other half
were sent to England, and afterwards trans-
ported as slaves to the plantations. This vic-
tory was not more welcome to Cromwell than
to Charles himself, who saw in this destruction
of his supporters a silencing of his unwelcome
monitoi's, and the ruin of those who sought to
place restraints upon his arbitrary rule.^

After the battle of Dunbar Cromwell ordered
the 107th Psalm to be sung on the field, and
then prepared to improve his victory. The

1 Ludlow; Cromwell's despatch; Pari. Hist.; Whitelock;
Balfour.

army of the Covenant being destroyed or scat-
tered he once more marched back to Edinburgh,
the gates of which were thrown open at his
approach. Leslie in the meantime, having col-
lected the remains of his dispirited troops,
retired to Stirling to secure the passes, and as
the general confidence in him was unbroken, so
that he was continued in the chief command, he
fortified Stirling so strongly that Cromwell found
himself unable to take it. As for the ministers,
who were especially obnoxious to the invaders,
they retired for safety into the castle of Edin-
burgh, which had not surrendered, although
Cromwell off'ered them immunity if they would
return to their charges and no longer inter-
meddle with the alfairs of government. It was
necessary that a new army should be raised for
the national defence, and it was hoped by the
friends of Charles that an abatement would be
made on their behalf, so that they should be
admitted to oflice both in the state and army ;
but neither the greatness of the danger nor the
difficulties of preparing for a fresh resistance
could subdue the firm principles of the more
rigid Px'esbyterians. Aroused by the commis-
sioners of the kirk, who bade them beware of
the malignants, and suffer them not to enter
into place and power, the Committee of Estates
proceeded to purge anew the king's household
of the profane and disaff'ected, ordering the
most obnoxious of his majesty's attendants to
leave the court within twenty-four hours, and
the kingdom in twenty days. This imperative
command brought the disaffection of the king
and his party to a head, and a conspiracy was
organized among them for delivering him from
his trammels and investing him with irrespon-
sible rule. A thousand wild Highlanders were
to be brought down from Athole to seize the
Committee of Estates assembled at Perth ; the
town of Dundee was to be secured in the king's
behalf by Lord Dudhope, its constable; and
Royalist insurrections were at the same time to
be raised in the north and Angus, by Huntly,
General Middleton, and Lord Ogilvie, while
Chai'les, escaping from his watchful guardians,
was to aid these combined j^roceedings with his
presence and be the soul and sanction of the
revolt. But this ill-concerted plan fell to pieces
before it could be brought to action. The
decree for the removal of the king's servants,
and the short time allowed for its execution,
broke upon the conspiracy midway, and the
part which Charles was to act in it proved a
miserable failure. Under pretext of going out
to hawk he left Perth with a handful of attend-
ants and galloped to Dudhope ; but on being
conveyed to the Highland border, instead of
meetinsr with the host of Angus in their full

LD. 1649-1651.]

THE COMMONWEALTH.

113

strength he found nothing but a wretched
handful of some threescore Highland kernes,
and no better accommodation than a miserable
cottage, in a squalid room of which he threw
himself to sleep on a bed of rushes, weary with
a ride of forty miles and spiritless from disap-
pointment. He was awakened by those who
had been sent from Perth in search of him, and
although assured by his motley body-guard of
Highlanders that 5000 foot and 2000 horse
were waiting upon the hills a few miles off, in
readiness to attend him, he had soon cause to
fear that this force was but a mountain mist,
while two regiments of the troopers of the
Covenant were in the meantime fast closing
upon his quarters. Assuming, therefore, the best
grace he could, he quietly returned to Perth on
Sunday (October 6), and the afternoon's service
in the town churches being ended, " he heard
sermon in his own chamber of presence." ^ Such
was the ridiculous escapade commonly called
" The Start," that only served to show the young
king's unfitness to govern himself, and the
weakness and folly of those in whose counsels
he trusted.^

Contemptible, however, though the Start
might be in itself, it ultimately proved of great
importance to Charles and the party with which
he was identified. A conspiracy among his
friends there had certainly been, and though its
full extent was not understood it was thought
to have been powerfully supported, and only de-
feated by accident. It was necessary to relax the
severe restrictions imposed upon his majesty, and
enlist those Eoyalists in the service of their
country whose applications had hitherto been
rejected. To make Charles, therefore, a king
indeed, and unite all parties under his standard,
it was resolved by parliament that his corona-
tion, hitherto delayed, should now be formally
solemnized. The prejjarations for this impor-
tant event were characteristic of the times and
the people, for they consisted of two national
fasts, the first to bewail the sins of the royal
family, and the second to lament the decay and
scorn into which religion had fallen. On Janu-
ary 1st, 1651, Charles was crowned at Scone,
while the peculiar circumstances of the king-
dom and the contracting parties, although they
tended to abate the splendour of the pageant,
served to deepen and multiply the religious ob-
servances with which it was connected. In
every stage of the ceremony Charles was re-
minded of the religious professions he had
made, the restrictions with which his authority
was limited, and the promises he was expected

1 Balfour's Annals of Scotland, vol. iv. pp. 113-115.

2 Walker; Baillie; Balfour.

VOL. III.

to fulfil; and he was proclaimed King of Scot-
land, England, and Ireland, although his hold
of the first of these kingdoms was passing away,
while in the last two he had not a single foot
of ground that he could call his own. Ti.e first
act was j)erformed in the presence-chamber at
Scone, to which Charles was formally conducted
from his bed-chamber and seated upon a chair
of state under a canopy, where, in the presence
of the attendant nobles and commissioners of
the Estates, the Earl of Loudon, chancellor, thus
addressed him : " Sir, your good subjects desire
that you may be crowned, as the righteous and
lawful heir of the crown of this kingdom ; that
you would maintain religion as it is presently
professed and established, conform to the Na-
tional Covenant and the League and Covenant,
and according to your declaration at Dunferm-
line in August last; also, that you would be
graciously pleased to receive them under your
highness's protection, to govern them by the
laws of the kingdom, and to defend them in
their rights and liberties by your i-oyal power ;
offering themselves in the most humble manner
to your majesty, with their vows to bestow
land, life, and what else is in their power, for
the maintenance of religion, for the safety of
your majesty's sacred person, and maintenance
of your crown; which they entreat your majesty
to accept, and pray God Almighty that for many
years you may happily enjoy the same." The
reply of the young king was prompt and satis-
factory: " I do esteem the affections of my good
people more than the crown of many kingdoms;
and shall be ready, by God's assistance, to be-
stow my life in their defence, wishing to live no
longer than I may see religion and this king-
dom flourish in all happiness."

After these mutual pledges the young sove-
reign and his royal train proceeded in state to
the church, with the honoure borne before him,
the Marquis of Argyle carrying the crown, the
Earl of Crawford the sceptre, and the Earl of
Rothes the sword of justice. The king walked
under a canopy, which was candied by six earls'
sons, while four lords supported his train ; and
in the middle of the church was a platform, six
feet in li eight, surmounted by a throne, the
body of the building being thronged with spec-
tators. The officiating minister on this occasion
was Eobert Douglas, one of the most able, elo-
quent, and patriotic clergymen of the day, who
preached from the text, "And he brought forth
the king's son, and put the crown upon him,
and gave him the testimony: and they made him
king and anointed him; and they clapped their
hands and said, God save the king. . . . And
Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord,
and the king and the people, that they should be

83

114

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1649-1651.

the Lord's people ; between the king also and
the people" (2 Kings xi. 12-17). This historical
instance of the nature of a limited monarchy,
and the duties of I'ulers as well as tlie ruled, w;is
not neglected by the preacher; and in warning
the king against the sin of apostasy and the evils
of absolute royalty, he took occasion to advert
to the instance of the grandfather of Charles II.
in terms to which the ears of James VI. while
he lived in Scotland had been no stranger. The
guiltiness of his transgression, Douglas added
with more truth than courtliness, was still
lying upon the throne and upon his family.
Continuing his address to the young king seated
conspicuously before him he said: "Many doubt
of your reality in the Covenant : let your sin-
cerity and reality be evinced by your steadfast-
ness and constancy; for many, like your ances-
tor, have begun well but have not been constant:
take warning from the example before you ; let
it be laid to heart ; requite not faithful men's
kindness with persecution — yea, requite not the
Lord so who hath preserved you to this time,
and is setting a crown upon your head; requite
not the Lord with apostasy and defection from
a sworn Covenant." The sermon being ended
the National Covenant and the Solemn League
and Covenant were audibly read, and Charles,
kneeling and holding up his right hand, ex-
claimed, " I, Charles, King of Great Britain,
France, and Ireland, do assure and declare by
my solemn oath, in the presence of Almighty
God the searcher of hearts, my allowance and
approbation of the National Covenant and of
the Solemn League and Covenant above written;
and faithfully oblige myself to prosecute the
ends thei'eof in my station and calling; and that
I, for myself and successors, shall consent and
agree to all acts of parliament enjoining the
same and establishing Presbyterial government,
as approven by the General Assemblies of this
kirk and parliament of this kingdom; and that
I shall give my royal assent to acts and ordi-
nances of parliament passed, or to be passed,
enjoining the same in my other dominions; and
that I shall observe these in my own practice
and family, and shall never make opposition to
any of these or endeavour any change thereof."
After having thus sworn and attached his sig-
nature to the C'ovenants inscribed on the roll of
parchment, the young sovereign was led to the
platform and seated upon the throne, while the
whole assembly shouted, "God save King
Charles the Second ! "

Having thus solemnly bound himself to the
terms upon which the nation consented to re-
ceive him as their king, Charles took the coro-
nation oath, and the other parts of the ceremonial
followed: the royal robes were put upon him

by the lord high chamberlain, the sword was
placed in his hand by the constable, his spurs
buckled on by the earl marshal, and the crown
set upon his head by the Marquis of Argyle,
through whose persistent adherence to royalty
he had been called from exile to the throne of
his ancestors. The oath of allegiance was taken
by the representatives of the three estates, the
sceptre delivered to him by the Earl of Craw-
ford, and the whole was closed by an impressive
exhortation from the pulpit. " Sir," said the
minister, "you are now seated on a throne in
dilficult times. I shall therefore put you in
mind of the Scriptural expression of a throne.
It is said, 'Solomon sat on the throne of the
Lord.' You are a king in covenant with the
Lord ; your throne is the Lord's thi'one. Re-
member you have a King above you, the King
of kings and Lord of lords, who commandeth
thrones; and your people are his people. Let
your government, then, be refreshing imto them
as rain upon the mown grass. Your throne is
the Lord's throne; bew^ai-e of making it a throne
of iniquity; there is such a throne, which fram-
eth mischief by a law (Psa. xciv. 20). God will
not own such a throne ; it hath no fellowship
with him. Sir, there is too much iniquity upon
the throne by your ^predecessors, who framed
mischief by a law — such laws as have been de-
structive to religion and grievous to the Lord's
people. You are on the throne and have the
sceptre, beware of touching mischievous laws
therewith." After warning him of the judg-
ments of heaven upon evil sovereigns and the
blessings promised to those who ruled well, the
coronation was ended and the assembly dis-
solved.^ It would be too much to ask with
what feelings Charles and the loose attendants
of his exile contemplated the various stages;
how the king himself kept the solemn promises
he had made and the oaths he had so deeply
sworn history has faithfully recorded.

During these past contentions by which Scot-
land had been divided and its resistance all but
paralysed Cromwell had not been idle. He
had marched to Glasgow without opposition,
and suppressed all resistance in the west. Edin-
burgh Castle had been surrendered to him either
through cowardice or treachery, the castles of
Roslin, Tantallon, Hume, and other places had
been successively reduced, and the whole coun-
try from the Forth to the Clyde subdued. It
was even feared that the ceremonial of the coro-
nation itself would be disturbed by his unwel-
come presence, although he and his troopers
were elsewhere and otherwise occupied. But
it passed quietly over, and the recruiting of

1 Baillie; Balfour; Burnet; Clarendon.

A.-D. 1649-1651.]

THE COMMONWEALTH.

115

tlie army, now left open to the king's adherents,
went on with double vigour. They also gained
admission into the Committee of Estates, and
obtained the nomination of a committee for the
management of military aflairs, that should be
responsible only to the king and parliament, so
that by these changes they acquired the prepon-
derance both in the government and army, while
Argyle and his party were thrown into the
sliade. An army as numerous as that which
had fought at Dunbar was again in the field,
with Charles for its commander-in-chief, having
under him the Duke of Hamilton for his lieu-
tenant and Leslie for its major-general. Warned
also by their late rashness and defeat they
opened the campaign ujwn the defensive system
for which their country was so well adapted,
and for this pnrpose took their station in the
Torwood, where their front was protected by
strong entrenchments and the river Carron,
with the northern counties open behind them,
from which they were supplied with provisions.
Cromwell, who was still suftering from sickness,
respected the strength of their position and
allowed them to i-est unassailed until the begin-
ning of spring, when he moved his army west-
ward, either to turn the Scottish lines or inter-
cept their sujjplies from Fifeshire; but not suc-
ceeding in this movement he returned to his old
quarters near Linlithgow. A detachment of
his troops, however, consisting of 1400 men
under Overton, succeeded in surjjrising North
Queeusferiy, and aware of the importance of
such a position the Scots sent a strong force
under Brown and Holborne to recover it. In
this they were anticipated by Cromwell, who
sent a reinforcement of 2000 soldiers under Gen-
eral Lambert to assist Overton, and in a des-
perate engagement which followed nearly the
whole of the Scottish detachment was cut to
pieces, owing to the misconduct of Holborne,
while Sir John Brown, whose personal valour
was conspicuous in the engagement, died a few
days after, more from gi'ief at such a serious
disaster than from his wounds. This success of
the English was followed by the surrender of
Inverkeithing, Burntisland, and other fortified
places in Fifeshire, and Cromwell having trans-
ported the rest of the English army thither, be-
came master of the whole country, and advanc-
ing to Perth, which was newly garrisoned,
quickly compelled it to surrender.^

Notwithstanding these successes the condition
of Cromwell was still precarious. If the Scot-
tish army continued in their position at the
Torwood the campaign would be protracted to
another winter, by which his army would be

' Baillie's Letters and Journal; Pari. Hist. ; Balfour.

wasted or an ignominious retreat rendered ne-
cessary. But in this dilemma he was saved by
the Royalists in the king's army, who, as on for-
mer occasions, were impatient of the suspense
and privations of a protracted war, and eager
to stake all upon the issue of battle. They were
also dissatisfied that the Scottish arms should
be exclusively employed in the protection of
their own country instead of ojjening their
master's way to the possession of the throne of
England. They therefore represented that Fife-
shire and Pertli being in the hands of the en-
emy it was useless to remain in a place where
they might be surrounded and starved ; that
the way to England was still open, and that by
a march towards London they would be joined
by all the English adherents of the king,
whether Episcopalian or Presbyterian, and be in
a condition to dictate terms for his entire resto-
ration. This proposal was too gratifying to the
national pride and impatience to be disregarded,
and heedless alike of the successful military
caution of Leslie and the political prudence of
Argyle, who opposed the project as romantic
and rainous, the Scottish camp broke up and
commenced its march into England. The army,
consisting of only 18,000 men, although strong
enough for a defensive war in its own country,
was too feeble for a distant enterprise of such
magnitude; and while its ranks in their advance
continued to be deserted by the more prudent,
they were not supplied by those reinforcements
from the English counties upon which they had
so confidently reckoned. The Scottish march
resembled a flight more than an advance; the
English Presbyterians, whose intrigues for the
succession of Charles had been detected and
crushed, stood aloof, while the Eoyalists were
deterred by the jDroclamations of the invaders
that they intended to restore the Covenant, and
that none who were opposed to it should be
allowed to join them.^

In the meantime Cromwell, whom the Scots
hoped they had outwitted, was delighted with
this sudden change. His movements had been
for the purpose of breaking up their strong en-
campment, and he saw that this was not only
effected but that the enemy was marching south-
ward to destruction. Leaving a garrison at
Perth, and appointing General Monk with 6000
men to reduce the castle of Stirling, he followed
the Scots within two days' march, and sent an en-
couraging letter to the parliament bidding them
not be alarmed, and pointing out the resem-
blance between this invasion and that which
had ended in the rout of Preston. He com-
missioned General Harrison and Colonel Birch,

2 Clarendon; Burnet.

IIG

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1649-1651.

with a body of cavalry, to follow their advance
and hang upon their flanks, General Lambert
with another body of horse to molest their rear,
and forwarded orders for the militia to be
assembled in their front, so as to retard their
advance and give time for his arrival. All this
was so ably performed that the Scottish army,
exhausted and dispirited, had no prospect of
reaching the capital; but Chailes, still confident
of success, reproached Leslie, who already fore-
saw nothing but ruin to the enterprise. At
Warrington Bridge the army, now reduced to
about fifteen thousand men, had an encounter
with Lambert's cavalry, who endeavoured to
dispute their passage, and whose hasty retreat
in disorder, either real or pretended, encouraged
them to persevere. They were invited to Wor-
cester, a city famed for its loyalty, which they
reached in weary plight, and the fortifications of
which they proceeded to repair. But here they
had not only reached the end of their march, but
had fallen into a trap; the city was surrounded
by the troops of Lambert, Harrison, and the
militia, by whom they were greatly outnum-
bered, until Cromwell himself arrived to put a
decisive period to the war.

The day appointed for the assault was the 3d
of September, the anniversary of the battle of
Dunbar. On the morning Fleetwood, the lieu-
tenant-general, was to commence the attack
upon a strong pass on the south-west side of the
river which was in possession of the Scots, while
Ci-omwell reserved for himself the more impor-
tant assault upon Worcester. But Fleetwood
encountered such obstacles that the afternoon
had arrived before he could enter into action,
and the Scots encountered him with such a
vigorous resistance that Cromwell was obliged
to send a large detachment to his aid, by which
the Scots were dislodged from their ground and
driven into the town. While the English army
was thus divided, with the Severn between the
two portions, the Scots rushed from the town on
the opposite side and fell upon Cromwell's divi-
sion, hoping to overpower it before their enemies
could reunite, and after a keen fight of three
hours succeeded in driving the English back
and becoming masters of their cannon. But
their advantage was only for a moment; the
return of Cromwell with the rest of his army
retrieved the battle, and the supei-iority of
numbers and discipline was so great that the
Scots were driven into the town with the over-
whelming enemy at their heels. All that re-
mained for them was a hopeless defence of the
unfinished entrenchments, or battle in the open
streets, in which there was no escape but by
flight. And where was Charles amidst this
overthrow of his hopes and slaughter of his

adherents ? It is said that during the battle
without the town he had gone comfortably to
sleep, and was only roused by the uproar of con-
test in the streets ; that he rushed out and en-
deavoured to rally the flying cavalry, and was
at last fain to escape with them through an op-
posite gate. If the defeat was disastrous the
resistance at least was creditable to the Scots,
and Cromwell in his despatches says of this fight
of Worcester, " Indeed it was a stiif business —
a very glorious mercy — as stiff a contest as I
have ever seen." Three thousand of the royal
army were slain in the battle, and ten thousand
taken prisoners in the town and in the pursuit,
most of whom died in the crowded prisons of
London, while such as survived were shipped
off to the plantations. The Duke of Hamilton,
who was mortally wounded, died on the follow-
ing day; of eleven noblemen taken prisoners,
the Earl of Lauderdale was sent to the Tower,
where it would have been well for his country
that he had remained till the close of his life.
Never since the battle of Flodden had a discom-
fiture pressed so heavily upon the noble houses
of Scotland.^

After the fight of Worcester had ended, the
chief aim of the victors was to secure the person
of Chai-les, and thereby prevent a renewal of the
war; but whatever defect of conduct he may
have shown in the campaign or courage in the
field, none of these qualities were wanting when
the preservation of his own life was at issue.
After eluding the first pursuit and reaching the
borders of Stafford and Shropshire in safety he
wandered in disguise and almost unattended
from place to place, finding occasional shelter
and concealment in the houses of the nobility,
and although his identity at every step was more
widely revealed, while pereons of the humblest
rank participated in the secret, they scorned to
betray it, notwithstanding the large Y>r[ce that
was set upon his head. These adventures of a
fugitive prince, in escaping from a country that
had disowned him, were only paralleled by the
romantic escapes of Charles Edward after the
battle of CuUoden nearly a hundred years later;
and in both cases a loyalty that was stronger
than death jirotected the fugitives and carried
them through every difficulty. Above fifty per-
sons of either sex from first to last were privy
to the hiding-places of Charles, and on more
than one occasion he was within a hair's-breadth
of detection by the enemies who thirsted for his
blood. At one time he was concealed among
the thick branches of a lofty oak, from which
he could see the pursuers in search of him in the

1 Pari. Hist. ; Whitelock ; Cromwell's Despatches ; Clar-
endon.

A.D. 1649-1651.]

THE COMMONWEALTH.

117

neighbourhood. A blacksmith, who discovered
that his horse had been shod iu the north,
hastened with the information to a sectarian
preacher at that time engaged in prayer ; but
Charles escaped before the public devotions were
ended. In riding down a hill he unexpectedly
came upon Desborough, the republican general,
and passed his whole line of soldiers undis-
covered. After forty-five days of such danger-
ous risks and escapes Chaiies embarked at
Shoreham in Sussex in a collier which his ad-
herents had procured, and reached France in
safety.

Although General Monk had been left with
so small a force to complete the reduction of
Scotland the battle of Woi-cester, by which the
military resources of the country were destroyed,
made his work an easy task. He laid siege to
Stirling Castle, in wliich the most valuable
etleets of the district were stored for safety ; but
the garrison, which consisted of Highlanders un-
accustomed to sieges and dismayed at the open-
ing cannonade, surrendered the fortress without
resistance, on condition that they should be
allowed to retire with the goods it contained.
Monk then advanced to Dundee, a town well
fortified, to whose keeping the wealth of the
surrounding country had been committed; but
it was so ill defended by the Royalists within,
who wei'e intoxicated, that it was taken by storm,
and both soldiers and citizens given up to in-
discriminate massacre, while Lumsden, its brave
governor, after surrendering himself on assur-
ance of quarter, was put to death by the orders
of Monk. These merciless proceedings, iu imita-
tion of those at Drogheda and elsewhere, by
which Cromwell had so speedily reduced Ire-
land, were but too eff'ectual in Scotland, deprived
as it now was of its best defenders, so that Mon-
trose, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews, alarmed by
the warning of Dundee, surrendered without
resistance. The last attempt of the Scots to
rally was at Inverurie, to which several members
of the committee of Estates had fled, and where
they were proposing to elect the Earl of Huntly
captain-general of the kingdom ; but, in the
midst of their deliberations. Monk advanced,
upon which they either fled or surrendered
themselves to the English.^

The chief as well as best representative of the
loyalty of Scotland, the man who best under-
stood the principle of devotedness to his king in
unison with the rights and liberties of his coun-
try, was now left alone to maintain the unequal
conflict as he best could. This was the Mar-
quis of Argyle, whom Charles at first had found
his best supporter, and whose daughter he at

' Pari. Hist. ; Balfour ; Whitelock.

one time had been ambitious to marry as the
means of establishing his own sovereignty in
Scotland. But when Charles admitted other
politicians into his councils and filled the army
with his own adherents, the influence of the
mai'quis speedily declined ; his remonstrances
against the ill-fated expedition to England, the
fate of which he predicted, completed the aliena-
tion ; and he retired to his country and estates
before the army had arrived at Worcester.
After the defeat, and when he saw that mea-
sures were iu operation to reduce Scotland to the
condition of a conquered province dependent
upon England, he invited a convention of the
Estates to meet at Inverary, that they might
devise measures for the 2:)reservation of the
national independence either by arms or nego-
tiation. This scheme through various causes fell
to the ground, upon which the marquis, like other
eminent patriots, resolved to provide a shelter
for liberty among his native mountains, from
which she might emerge at the first prospect of a
reaction; and with this view he began to fortify
his Highland fastnesses and collect his clans-
men for resistance. At first sight such a hope
might have seemed ridiculous from his very
limited resources, and the havoc with which
Montrose had wasted his territories, from which
they had not yet recovered ; but his character
and spirit inspired respect, while the English
soldiers, unacquainted with the Highlands
and its people, felt that impression of the ter-
rible which is so often attaclied by the igno-
rant to whatever is strange and unknown. It
was a land, they wrote to their friends in Eng-
land, inhabited by half-naked savages, who wore
l^Iaids about their middle, who spoke an un-
known tongue, but whose blows were sufficiently
pi'ompt and intelligible ; and who inhabited
turf houses so low in the roof, that horsemen
rode over them unawares. It was a country
where money did not circulate, and could pur-
chase nothing; and although deer were in plenty
they could not hunt them on account of the
resistance of the wild people, except in strong
detachments. Amidst such defences Argyle
23repared to hold out, even after General Deane
and other English commissioners had sum-
moned him to submit to the Commonwealth.
In consequence of this refusal several regi-
ments of horse and foot were marched against
him, but found the country so wasted, that
before they had gone far they were driven
back by famine. Thus baflled by land General
Deane repeated the attempt by sea, and was
successful ; for, embarking at Ayr, he surprised
Argyle, who was suffering from sickness at In-
verary, kept him prisoner, and extorted from
him a reluctant submission to Monk and a union

118

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1651-1662.

with Englaud. He enjoyed the melancholy dis-
tinction ot being the last Scot who yielded to the
invader, and he only yielded when resistance
could no longer avail. ^

Scotland was now more effectually subdued
than it had ever been at any former period, and
under circumstances more galling to its national
pride. From a successful principal in the war
against despotism and Charles I. she had sunk
into a doubted and disregarded ally ; and after
all her victories she was now the helpless thrall
of a lieutenant of Cromwell, while a small army
was sufficient to confirm her subjugation. Even
her religious pride as the deliverer of England
from prelatic bondage was rebuked, by the fact
that her overthrow had been effected by a hand-
ful of sectaries whose origin was but of yester-
day, and whose rise to pre-eminence no one could
have expected. Her nobles, too, who had been
her champions in former extremities, and by
whose union she had so lately been victorious —
where were they ? Of the princely house of
Hamilton one duke had died on the scaffold, the
other in the field, and none but a daughter sur-
vived of their family and name. Huntly, also,
had been executed, and Loudon was skulking

like an outlaw in the Highlands. The Earls of
Crawford, Lauderdale, Marischal, Eglinton, and
Ixothes were prisonei's in the Tower of London.
And while the people were thus without leaders
a chain of forts was rising round them, by which
every jjopular revolt could be supj)ressed, and
the country retained in vassalage. Nothing now
remained in settling the affairs of Scotland but
to unite it to England, or, as it was called in the
political language of the day, to "incorporate"
it with the Commonwealth, and notwithstanding
the remonstrances of the Scots, who detested
the very mention of such union or co-operation,
the object was successfully accomplished. Sir
Harry Vane, St. John, and six other commis-
sioners were sent down for the purpose, and
these, in concert with Scottish commissioners
who consented to act with them, drew up the
terms on which the union w;is settled, in conse-
quence of which eighteen out of thirty-one coun-
ties, and twenty-four out of fifty-six cities and
boroughs, gave in their adhesion and sent twenty-
eight members to represent them in the English
parliament. Scotland, from being an indepen-
dent kingdom, had thus dwindled into the frag-
ment of a republic.

CHAPTER XI.

THE COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE.— REIGN OF CHARLES II. (1651-1662).

The spirit of the Scottish Church oj^posed to the principles of the Commonwealth — Attemj^ts of the English;
rulers to coerce the Church of Scotland — Violent dissolution of the General Assembly — Fresh attempt in
the royal cause — Earl of Glencairn's army for the king — Dissensions of its leaders — Episode of Colonel
Wogan — Glencairn superseded in the command bj^ General Middleton — Glencaii-n's duel with Mom-o —
Middleton defeated and his forces dispersed — Glencaii'n surrenders to Monk — State of the church during
the Protectorate of Cromwell — Resolutioners and Protesters — Annoyances occasioned by the English
sectaries —Advantages of Cromwell's administration — Religious character of the Scots at this period —
Their government amalgamated with that of England — Death of Cromwell — Troubles under his successor
Richard — Richard resigns the protectorship — Intrigues of Monk in the royal cause — Perplexity of all
parties occasioned by his conduct — Charles II. invited to the throne — Eagerness of all classes to receive
him — Slender guarantees on which he becomes King of Great Britain — The Restoration — Disappointment
of the Royalists who had suffered in his cause — Choice of the counsellors and favourites of Charles —
Retaliations inflicted on Scottish Presbyterians — Management of affairs in Scotland — Symptoms of the
contemplated overthrow of Presbyterianism — Monk's forts in Scotland destroyed — Scottish parliament
opened — General Middleton, the royal commissioner — Insidious oath of allegiance tendered to the members
— It is accepted — Irregular character of the parliament's proceedings — Its acts — The strange Recissory
Act — Marquis of Argyle's arrest in London — He is sent down to Scotland for trial — Charges against him —
His satisfactory answers — Evidence sought against him — Monk's treacherous conduct in procuring his
condemnation — Argyle sentenced to be beheaded — His conduct in prison and upon the scaffold — His
intrepidity to the close — James Gutlirie, minister of Stirling, marked as the next victim — His early
presentiment of becoming a sufferer for the Covenant — Offences laid to his charge on trial — His eloquent
plea in justification — Difficulty in condemning him — He is sentenced to the death of a traitor — His cheerful
behaviour in prison — His bold conduct on the scaffold — Deliberation of Charles and his counsellors for the
overthrow of the Scottish Church — Its destruction resolved — Letter to that effect from the king to the
Scottish council — It is submissively received and put into instant effect — Political condemnation and
downfall of the Church of Scotland.

Although the military power of Scotland was
thus broken and its political influence rendered

! Whitelock.

subservient to that of England, the subjugation
of the country could not be considered complete
as long as the church retained its independence.

A.D. 1651-1662.]

THE COMMONWEALTH.

119

With the ministers for their leaders and the
Covenant for their rule of government in church
and state, the people might at any time rebel
against their sectarian rulers and the republican
government and assert the rights of monarchy
even though Charles II. was its representative.
But, unfortunately, the church was divided
against itself, and the quarrels between its two
principal parties, the Eesolutioners and Re-
monstrants, deprived it of unity of action ; and
the general attention was more closely called to
the questions at issue between the parties than
to the national wrongs and the necessity of re-
dressing them. The feebleness occasioned by
this contentious state encouraged the English
rulers to strike at the General Assembly itself,
by which ecclesiastical resistance was paralysed
and subdued. That august convocation had
met in July, 1653, according to the usual ap-
pointment, when Colonel Cotterei suiTounded
the church with bands of musketeers and a
troop of horse; and their leader, entering the
building, inquired at the members by whose
authority they sat there. " Is it," he asked,
"by the authority of the parliament of the
Commonwealth of England, or of the com-
mander-in-chief of the English forces, or of
the English judges in Scotland?" The moder-
ator replied that they were an ecclesiastical
synod, a spiritual court of Jesus Christ, which
middled not with anything civil ; that their
authority was from God, and established by
the laws of the land, as yet standing unre-
pealed ; and that, by the Solemn League and
Covenant, most of the English army stood
bound to defend their General Assembly.
The colonel then told that his orders were
to dissolve the meeting, and he commanded
them all to follow him, otherwise he would
drag them out of the hall. After protesting
against this violence they complied, upon which
he led them through the streets, the peoisle lining
the way on either side, and bewailing a cala-
mity which they were too helpless to prevent.
After Cotterel had conducted them a mile
out of town he delivered to the ministers
the rest of his chai'ge, which was that they
should not henceforth dare to meet in greater
number than three, and that on the following-
day they should leave the city under penalty
of a breach of public peace ; and the next day
they were warned publicly by sound of trumpet
to quit the town under pain of imprisonment.^
It was an act that neither James VI. nor his
son would have adventured, which was now
committed with impunity. But bolder acts
than these had previously characterized the

J Lamont's Diary; Baillie's Letters.

English Commonwealth ; and the ruling power
that purged, repurged, and finally expelled the
paiiiament which had humbled the pride of
Charles I. was not likely to hesitate in the dis-
solution of a Scottish General Assembly.

Although the strength of Scotland had been
so greatly broken in two disastrous camimigns,
Charles did not despair ; and although once
more an exile, he and his counsellors encouraged
an attempt in his cause, at the head of which
was the Earl of Glencairn. The time also
seemed favourable for such an enterprise, as
Monk had been recalled to command the Eng-
lish fleet against the Dutch, while rumours
were prevalent of the defeats of the English
at sea and the readiness of the United Pro-
vinces to assist the friends of Charles in Scot-
land both with men and money. But in con-
sequence of a discovery of the correspondence
the conspiracy was prematurely forced into
action; and in August, 1653, Glencairn i^e tired
to Athole, where he was soon joined by Glen-
garry, Lochiel, Blackadder, and by Lord Ken-
mure, and especially by Lord Lorn, the son
of the Marquis of Argyle, who, in the rashness
of youth, was impatient of the prudence and
cautious policy of his father. Glencairn, en-
couraged by tliis resort of influential men to his
standard, published a proclamation calling upon
all to join him who loved the king and hated
the oppression of the Commonwealth ; and this
invitation was obeyed with alacrity by the
districts on the border of the Highlands, from
which discontented men and disbanded soldiers
repaired to him, while all the serviceable horses
that could be stolen were sent up to his encamp-
ment among the mountains. He then com-
menced his march northward, gathering rein-
forcements as he proceeded, and after some
trivial encounters with General Morgan reached
Badenoch at the end of the year. He was now
at the head of a considerable army, and ready
to open the campaign in earnest; but here a
difiiculty occurred about the leadership, Bal-
carras refusing to submit to Glencairn, and in-
sisting that the army should be managed by a
committee, to which none should be admitted
who did not take the Solemn League and
Covenant. In answer to this Glencairn pro-
duced his majesty's commission appointing him
captain-general, and at the sight of it all open
opposition was quashed. The secret discontent,
however, was only the more increased, so that
Balcarras and Lorn retired in disgust, the former
passing through England in disguise and escap-
ing to Charles on the Continent, and the latter
seeking shelter among his Highland fastnesses.
It was about this time, while they were ruining
their master's cause by their personal quarrels,

120

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1651-1662.

that they were joiued by the gallant Colouel
Wogau from England, a guerrilla leader, whose
romantic exploit has been somewhat unduly
magnitied by the admiration of Royalist writers.
Originally an adherent of the paiiiament,
Wogau had been converted to the royal cause
by the death of Charles I., and hearing of this
rising in the Highlands he resolved to join it.
He accordingly left Fi-ance for London, and
having associated to his bold enterprise several
of the most daring of his party, they set out
from the English capital undiscovered, travelled
in small parties, disguised as Commonwealth
officers, through the counties of England, and
after eluding the suspicion and search of their
enemies, arrived in safety at their rendezvous of
the Scottish encampment. They numbered
from eighty to a hundred gentlemen, and their
soldierly bearing, good war-horses, and com-
plete equipments formed a sticking contrast to
the motley crew by whom they were surrounded.
And here also theii' enthusiastic career was
abruptly terminated. In a charge against the
English republicans at Athole Wogan broke
through a troop of the Brazen-wall regiment,
hitherto believed invincible, but in the onset
received a wound, which, though trifling, became
mortal through unskilful treatment, so that he
died at the height of his reputation, and before
the events of this luckless campaign had brought
it into hazard.^

Although so many had deserted the stan-
dard of Glencairn, the loss was supplied by
troops of desperate and broken men who joined
him, when he marched into Moray, and fixed
his headquarters at Elgin. Charles, probably
aware that the earl was not distinguished as
a soldier, sent General Middleton to conduct
the campaign ; and on hearing that this com-
mander had arrived in Sutherland Glencairn
repaired thither to join him, with Morgan the
English Commonwealth commander following
closely at his heels. On the meeting of these
Royalist chiefs Middleton gave Glencairn an en-
tertainment at his headquarters, which the other
reciprocated by a banquet to the general at his
own house at Kettle, a few miles from Dornoch.
When the feasting was over, Glencairn, pledg-
ing Middleton in a cup of wine, praised the
gallant army which was now consigned to his
charge — an army which he and the noble gentle-
men present with him had raised out of nothing
for the service of his majesty. At this self-
eulogium and these extravagant commendations
Sir George Monro, MiddIeton'sIieuteuant,started
up at the board, and rudely interrupting the
earl's speech, exclaimed, " By God ! the men

> Baillie's Letters; Clarendon's History.

you speak of are no other than a pack of thieves
and robbers : in a short time I will show you
other sort of men." At this insult to the clans
Glengarry rose to make a fierce reply, but was
stopped by Glencairn, who said, "Forbear! it
is I that am levelled at;" and turning to
Monro, he told him that he was a base liar, for
they were neither thieves nor robbers, but
much better men than he could raise. Middle-
ton attempted to pacify the angry disputants,
and telling Glencairn that he had more than
requited Monro's insult by calling him a liar,
]iroposed that they should drink to each other
and be reconciled. Glencairn complied, but the
other refused, and sulkily retired. On the same
night he sent a challenge to the earl, and early
on the following morning, which was Sunday,
they met at an appointed place near Dornoch
to fight their quarrel out. They met on horse-
back, armed with pistols and broadswords, and
after firing at each other inefFectually both
drew their blades, but in the encounter that
followed Monro received a wound in the bridle
hand, so that he was unable to manage his horse:
this he represented to his antagonist, with the
request that he would alight and fight with him
on foot, with which the other complied, saying,
" Ye carle, I will let you know I am a match
for you either on foot or on horseback." At
the beginning of the foot encounter Glencairn
once more wounded Monro, upon the brow,
about an inch above the eyes, by which the
latter was blinded with the blood that followed;
and the earl was about to follow up his advan-
tage by running his antagonist through the
body when he was prevented by his own ser-
vant, who stiaick up his weapon, observing,
" You have got enough of him, my lord."
Glencairn seemed to be of a different opinion,
for he struck the officious menial over the
shoulders, and reluctantly retired. This duel
produced another between two of their officers,
who quarrelled about the right of their respec-
tive commanders, and Middleton's champion was
killed on the spot. The successful combatant
was tried by a court-martial, condemned to be
shot, and executed the same afternoon, upon
which Glencairn, who had in vain opposed the
sentence, withdrew himself from the main army
in chagrin. With such brawling commanders^
and the promptitude with which their example
was followed, it was not difficult to foresee the
fate of the expedition.-

While time was thus wasted in useless quai"-
rels an opportunity was aff'orded to Cromwell of
bringing his resources against an insurrection
which, under proper management, might have

-Account of Glencairn' s Expedition; Baillie's Litters.

A.D. 1651-1662.]

THE COMMONWEALTH.

121

been productive of important consequences.
The Dutch war with which he was occupied
being brought to a satisfactory close, he sent
back Monk to Scotland, who instantly directed
his course into the Highlands against Middle-
ton, with his army in two divisions, himself
leading the one and General Morgan the other.
Between these two adversaries, Middleton, who
led as strong an army as that with which Mon-
trose had overrun Scotland, but who wanted
the genius of the great marquis, could hardly
escape; and at Lochgarry he was suddenly
attacked by Morgan, and so effectually put to
the rout, that his baggage and papers were
taken, and himself escaping with difficulty, was
fain to fly to the Continent. Another insurgent
was to be subdued, who was quickly put down :
this was the Earl of Glencairn, who had de-
tached himself from the main army after the un-
fortunate duel, and maintained a guerrilla war-
fare upon his own account. After being suc-
cessful in a petty skirmish at Dumbarton, he
was at last persuaded of the hopelessness of
further resistance, and on the 4th of Septem-
ber surrendered to Monk upon honourable
terms, the courage of his followers having in-
spired their enemies with respect. In this sum-
mary manner was the last Scottish resistance
to the dominion of the Commonwealth extin-
guished.^

After this period until the close of the Pro-
tectorate the history of Scotland is devoid of
public incident, but in consequence of the un-
settled condition and stormy events that had
preceded, such a lull was hailed by all parties
as a welcome relief. And here a glance at the
administration by which such unwonted effects
were produced may not be without interest.

During the brief sojourn of Charles II. in
Scotland the church was divided, or rather
rudely rent asunder, by a schism that assumed
its paljmble form in the General Assembly
which met in 1651 ; and it arose from the fol-
lowing question submitted to the assembly by
the parliament : " What persons are to be ad-
mitted to rise in arms, and to join with the
forces of the kingdom, and in what capacity,
for defence thereof, against the armies of the
sectaries, who, contrary to the Solemn League
and Covenant and treaties, have most unjustly
invaded, and are destroying the kingdom ? " By
the reply, all fencible men were declared to be
eligible under certain restrictions ; but disie-
garding these restrictions, the parliament re-
ceived the answer as a sanction to the admission
of all men whatsoever — and the consequence of
this was, that notorious " malignants" — men who

1 Clarendon ; Baillie ; Burnet ; Gamble's Li/e of Monk.

were opposed to the Covenant, and had taken
part with Montrose, were freely admitted into
the council and army of the king. This pro-
voked a contioversy in the assembly, where the
majority, who approved of the resolutions or
answer of their commissioners, were caUed Ee-
solutioners, while those who appealed against
these latitudinarian resolutions were called
Protesters. And fiercely was the controversy
between them waged, each party accusing the
other of impairing the character, or hindering
the progress of the reformation, and three of the
protesting ministers were actually deposed by
the opposite party. We, indeed, may now-a-days
smile at the vast importance attached to such
a question, and to the ruinous schism it occa-
sioned ; but in those days it was otherwise, as
the fate both of the church and kingdom de-
pended upon the issue. Such momentous con-
sequences made the controversy be waged with
an earnestness into which we cannot enter, as
well as with a rancour of which we cannot
approve.

Events soon succeeded that moderated this
unseemly strife, by calling the attention of the
discording parties to their common safety. The
victory of Cromwell at Worcester made the
question for the present superfluous; and his
entrance into Scotland with his troopers, who
carried Bibles as well as swords in their belts,
and were as apt for religious controversy as for
battle, called the general attention to more vital
themes. Not a party in the church, but the
whole church was now in danger, for the sec-
taries were in the midst of them, and had be-
come their masters. Nor were these sectaries
slow to use their advantages, and let their light
shine upon the benighted Presbyterians of
Scotland. While Cromwell was cannonading
the castle of Edinburgh, he was at the same
time carrying on a religious controversy with
the ministers who had taken shelter within its
walls. The pulpits of Edinburgh were invaded
by preachers of the church militant, officers and
even common soldiers, who preached in buff
and bandoleer, and who only laid aside their
swords and pistols until they had ended the
sermon ; while those who were captivated by
their phraseology, or who recognized their gifts,
were scandalized that such men should assume
the clerical office without a regular call.^ While
such was the mischievous zeal of the sectaries
in the metropolis, their brethi'en in the country
were equally intent on what they called "the
good work." To show their contempt of set
forms, the soldiers would enter the churches
during the time of service, seat themselves on

Nicholl's Diary, A.D. 1651.

122

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1651-1662.

the repenting stool, and after sermon challenge
the minister to a debate upon his doctrine.^ In
this way, not merely Independents in the ex-
clusive meaning of the term, but Anabaptists,
Quakers, and Fifth-monarchy men disseminated
their doctrines, and entrapped the unwary,
while the ministei-s, occupied in guarding their
flocks, maintaining discipline, and recalling
jjerverts, had little time to think of the distinc-
tions of Resolutioner and Protester. But a still
more effectual remedy, although a rough one,
■was found in the dissolution of the General As-
sembly itself in 1653, which we have already
noticed. By this decisive process, and the jaro-
hibition of all General Assemblies in time to
come, the variance between the two parties in-
stead of becoming dangerous by concentration
was dispersed over synods and presbyteries,
which were still allowed the right of meeting.
Thus, a schism which might have antedated
the diWsion of the Scottish Church, only con-
tinued to smoulder during the Protectoi'ate,
and was effectually extinguished by the sharper
trials that ensued upon the Restoration. Then
it was, as Wodrow expresses it, that "the
whole Presbyterian ministei's were struck at,
and sent to the furnace to unite them."

Besides these grievances of lay intrusion into
pulpits, of which the ministers justly complained,
the settlement of ministers into charges without
the popular call was also occasionally a subject
of complaint. The Protesters, who were opposed
to the party that had brought Charles II. into
Scotland, were naturally greater favourites with
the English rulers than their rivals, so that
sometimes a protesting candidate was intruded
upon a congregation, through the influence of
his party backed by the Commonwealth soldiers,
and force was occasionally used, and blows
dealt, in such unlawful settlements.^ Such cases,
however, were not only rare, but of brief con-
tinuance; and when the military occupation of
Scotland under the rule of Cromwell had been
fully established, such a peaceful happy era
succeeded in the religious history of the country
as has secured the testimony of every party in
its favour. A picture of its condition has been
given in the homely, but oft-quoted words of
Kirkton. " It is true," he says, " that they did
not permit the General Assembly to sit (and in
this, I believe, they did no bad office, for both
the authority of that meeting was denied by
the Protesters, and the iissembly seemed to be
more set upon establishing themselves than pro-
moting religion); also, the division of the church
betwixt Protesters and Resolutioners con-
tinued for six or seven years with far more heat

1 Lamont's Diary, p. 5S.

Baillie's Letters.

than became them ; and errors in some places in-
fected some few ; yet were all these losses incon-
siderable in regard of the great success the Word
pi'eached had in sanctifying the people of the
nation ; and I verily believe there were more
souls convei'ted to Christ in that short period
of time than in any season since the Reformation,
though of triple its duration. Nor was there
ever greater purity and plenty of the means of
grace. Ministers were painful, people were
diligent. So, truly, religion was at that time
in very good case, and the Lord present in Scot-
land, though in a cloud." Describing the le-
ligious state of the country at the close of the
Protectorate, Kirkton thus speaks of it: "At
the king's return, every parish had a minister,
every village had a school, every family almost
had a Bible — yea, in most of the country all the
children of age could read the Scriptures, and
were provided of Bibles either by their parents
or ministers. Every minister was a very full
professor of the reformed religion according to
the Large Confession of Faith framed at West-
minster. None of them might be scandalous
in their conversation, or negligent in their oftice,
so long as a presbytery stood. I have lived
many years in a parish where I never heard an
oath ; and you might have ridden many miles
before you heard any. Also, you could not, for
a great part of the country, have lodged in a
family where the Lord was not worshipped, by
reading, singing, and public prayer. Nobody
complained more of our church government
than our taverners, whose ordinary lamentation
was — their trade was broke, peojjle were be-
come so sober."

In adapting the government of Scotland to
that of England a council of state was estab-
lished composed of nine members, of which
Lord Broghill was president ; but only two
Scotsmen, Lockhart and Swinton, were ad-
mitted into it. Their authority was more ex-
tensive than that of the jM'ivy-council, as it
comprised the civil administration, the disposal
of the revenue, the regulation of the exchequer,
the appointment of the officers of excise, cus-
toms, sequestrations, &c.; they also nominated
the inferior judges, sheriffs, commissaries, and
justices of peace, and their approval was ne-
cessary for entitling the clergy to the fruits
of their benefices; but while their powers were
so extensive, they were res]3onsible for their
exercise to the Protector. The commissary and
sheriff courts having English officers for magis-
trates, the processes were short, and the deci-
sions those of justice and common sense, unin-
fluenced by local or family partialities ; and the
people, while they were thus freed from tedious
and expensive lawsuits, were gratified by an

A.D. 1651-1662.]

THE COMMONWEALTH.

123

administration of justice that was independent
of feud or favour. This impartiality during
the time of the Commonwealth was so new,
and withal so remarkable, that it excited the
surprise of many long after the rule of the
Commonwealth had passed away. Of the chief
cause of this even-handed justice, however, the
following was assigned by a Scottish judge,
who, perhaps, like the Athenian peasant, was
weary of hearing about the justice of these
administrators: "No thanks to them! they had
neither kith nor kin in the country : take that
out of the way and I think I could be a good
judge myself." In the higher court seven judges
were appointed to preside, of whom four were
English, to prevent national partiality in their de-
cisions, and three Scotch, that their proceedings
might be regulated by the law of the land; and
regular circuits were appointed throughout the
country. It was from the ignorance of these
English judges of Scottish law, and the refusal
of the principal advocates to plead at their
bar, that written memorials instead of plead-
ings were introduced, which quickly swelled
into bulky volumes; but this inconvenience,
which is felt in the present day, was not only
inevitable under such circumstances, but was
in some degree compensated by the soundness
of their decisions, and by the satisfaction with
which they were received and long afterwards
remembered. While the laws were thus ad-
ministered the public peace was preserved by
the soldiers, who, with all their faults, were
grave, discreet, and honest, as well as energetic
men, and who acted as the police of the king-
dom.

In this way Scotland was blessed with un-
wonted peace, and ruled with equity during the
period of Cromwell's ascendency, so that com-
pared with its former condition the present
might be called its golden age. But still, the
great drawback of national bondage existed, by
which every benefit was embittered and more
than countei'poised. These great blessings were
the impositions of a conquest that in time per-
haps would have tended to make the yoke un-
felt; and had such a change been permanent
Scotland might have acquiesced, and sunk con-
tentedly into a mere English province. But a
still better kind of union and incorporation was
to be effected when time and circumstances
were more propitious; and before these arrived
Scotland was to undergo another furnace-trial,
that her independence might be complete and
her assent the acquiescence of an equal, not the
submission of a slave.

After having been king in all but the title,
and ruling as few kings had done, so that
England was raised to an eminence among the

nations which she had never before attained,
Cromwell expired on the 3d of September, 1658,
a day which he reckoned the most foi^tunate of
his life, as it was the anniversary of the vic-
tories of Dunbar and Worcester. His character
belongs to English history, in which it is only
beginning to be justly estimated. After his
death the jaarties in the state whom his ener-
getic rule had reduced to submission appointed
Richard his son protector; but this was rather
to obtain time for a fresh competition than
with any design that his office should be j^er-
manent. At first, however, all was fair and
promising; congratulatory addresses from every
part of the country poured in vc^ow. his acces-
sion; every religious sect welcomed the change,
and the princes and states on the Continent sent
their ministers to his court, as if his sovereign
right was unquestionable.^ " It has jjleased
God hitherto," wrote Thurloe to Henry Crom-
well on the 7th of September, "to give his
highness, your brother, a very easy and peace-
able entrance upon his government; there is
not a dog that wags his tongue, so great a calm
are we in." But Richard was neither soldier
nor statesman, although his position required
that he should be both, and a few days sufficed
to show his unfitness for office and the totter-
ing condition of its tenure. Fleetwood, his
brother-in-law, envied him, and wished to get
the army exclusively under his own control.
When the parliament was summoned scarcely
half of the members met, and among those who
complied were Vane, Ludlow, and Bradshaw,who
were prominent in opposing Cromwell's assump-
tion of the Protectorate. And while these were
contending for the restoration of the republic
as it existed at the death of Chai'les I. the army
itself was split into three factions, the strongest
of which adhered to General Lambert, wdio as-
pired to the seat of the late protector. Thiough
the influence of this i^arty the long jjarliament
was forcibly restored to its place, which after
its restoration began to quai-rel with the army
through which it had been reinstated; while the
Royalists, emboldened by the general confusion,
crept out of their lurking-places and intrigued
for the restoration of royalty. Confounded by a
storm of such opposing winds, in which he felt
himself utterly helpless, Richard Cromwell
adopted the only course that was left for one so
inert and unambitious — he retired from Hamp-
ton Court, signed his demission of the protector-
ship, and betook himself to his patrimony in
the country, where he spent his life in rural
occupations and among his books, alike un-
troubled with the cares of office and the tur-

1 Whitelock; Thurloe.

12Jj

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1651-1662.

moils of those who had compelled him to aban-
don it.^

While these commotions were going on an
observant eye was watching them in Scotland,
and calmly awaiting the crisis. George Monk,
who might be called the Protector of Scotland,
as Cromwell was of England, had been origi-
nally an oflScer of the Royalist party; but when
the cause of the parliament was in the ascen-
dant he changed sides and became one of the
most distinguished officers of the Common-
wealth. Like Blake also, he was sailor as well
as soldier, and gained renown in both services.
When the Scots were subdued. Monk, who had
greatly contributed to Cromwell's successes, was
left in the country to complete its subjugation,
and in that unpopular office he so contrived to
conciliate the natives by his integrity, clemency,
and firmness, that Cromwell became jealous of
his influence, and rumours were already afloat
that he was intending to use it in behalf of the
exiled king. In an age of such political wheel-
ing and counter-wheeling such rumours were
not to be disregarded, and Cromwell a short
time before his death administered a warning
to Monk in his own humorous fashion, by the
following postscript to one of his letters, written
with his own hand : " There be that tell me
there is a certain cunning fellow in Scotland
called George Monk, who is said to lie in wait
there to introduce Charles Stuart. I pray you
use your diligence to apprehend him and send
him up to me." This significant hint was suf-
ficient, and nothing more was heard of Monk's
tamperings with the Royalists ; on the contrary,
when Richard Cromwell was proclaimed pro-
tector in the room of his father he was among
the first to forward his assurances of submission
and fidelity to the new government. The same
assurances he also re^Dcated to the parliament
when it was restored to power, and he gave
hopes to the army of his adhesion to their cause
when they jalaced themselves in oj^position
to parliament. It was an unscrupulous game
which he was playing with all parties, but it
produced its desired effect ; all parties doubted,
feared, and courted him ; dissension forbore to
break out into action until his choice was known,
and it was felt that the fate of the three king-
doms lay in the hands of the cold, crafty, mys-
terious, unscrupulous general who commanded
in Scotland."

Monk now commenced his march towards
England, but still with the same protestations
of devotedness to the Commonwealth, with
which he masked his designs to the last, while

' Whitelock; Pari. History; Ludlow.

= Clarendon State Papers ; "WTiitelock ; Life of Monk.

the principal Presbyterians of Scotland, who
surmised his real intentions, joined his ranks
and crossed the Tweed under his banner. And
all the while he was multiplying deep oaths and
protestations that he intended nothing more
than to restore the parliament, which the ai-my
had lately dissolved. .His march might have been
arrested as soon as he had crossed the Border,
for Lambert, who had been commissioned to pre-
vent him, lay with a sufficient force at Newcastle;
but the enthusiasm of his soldiers had died out
with their great commander Cromwell, while
Lambert's hands were tied by an order from gov-
ernment not to precipitate matters by a hostile
collision. In the same conciliatory spirit the
parliament was restored, by which Monk was
invited to London ; and on arriving at the
metropolis it was purged of its mutinous soldiers
and placed under Monk's protection; he was
also appointed by the parliament commander-
in-chief of all the forces of England, Scotland,
and Ireland, while his rival, Lambert, was sent
prisoner to the Tower. After these proceedings
the House of Lords was reinstated; the Pres-
byterians and Royalists, who were at one for
a monarchical instead of a republican govern-
ment, composed an overwhelming majority in
the parliament; and nothing was awauting but
the striking of the key-note to proclaim the
abolition of the Commonwealth and the recall
of King Charles to the throne. Nor was this
long delayed. Chai-les, who had been in cor-
respondence with Monk, and apprised by that
ci'afty manoeuvrer of the state of parties and
the progress of the royal cause, addressed letters
from Breda to the House of Lords, to the Com-
mons, to the lord-mayor, aldermen, and common
council of London, and to Monk himself, con-
taining the " Declaration of Bi^eda," which offered
indemnity for the past and liberty of conscience
for the future. These oflfers were received with
transports of delight. It was in vain that it
was represented in parliament that the terms
of this "declaration" were not only vague and
unsatisfactory, but of little value from one who
had so often broken his engagements; it was
equally in vain that the religious belief of
Charles was declared to be doubtful, and that
nothing of it was certain but his attachment to
Prelacy, which he would certainly labour to
restore. And what kind of liberty or mercy
could the Presbyterians expect from a king
whose Royalist favourites would be continually
reminding him that Presbyterianism, which
originated in Scotland, had been founded u^jon
the ruin of his great-grandmother, had inces-
santly harassed his grandfather, and brought
his father to the block? Thus it was objected
by the more prudent, who demanded more

A.D. 1651-1662.]

CHAELES II.

125

specific engagements than those contained in
the " Deckratiou of Breda ; " but a frantic re-
action of loyalty both in the Lords and Com-
mons prevailed, and Presbyterians though the
majority were, they accepted the king upon his
own terms. Every article in the joui'uals of
parliament inimical to kingly rule was ordered
to be erased ; i,'50,000 were voted to Charles,
who was poor, for his immediate wants ; they
further assessed themselves for ^70,000 a month
for three months; and on the evening of this
momentous day there was such a blaze of illu-
minations, such shouting, firing of guns, and
drinking the king's health, that all London
seemed to reel and stagger under the fervour
and deep potations of its loj'alty. It was the
escape of the nation from that republican rule
to which it had fled from despotism; which it
had tried but once and found too uncongenial
to be borne — the triumph of its return to that
political state of government which, with all its
faults, was the most natural to the character of
the people, and wholly irrespective of him who
was recalled as its representative. With greater
glory than that of a conqueror of ancient Rome
Charles returned to England, and on the 29th
of May, 1660, he entered the palace of White-
hall, from which his father had been led out to
execution.

On the succession of Charles to tlie throne of
the three kingdoms there was an instant hurry-
ing to the capital of those who had suffered in
the Koyalist cause. Their name was Legion, for
of the noble families of England a great ma-
jority had adhered to his father, and of these
there were few whose revenues had not been
impoverished by confiscation or contribution, or
whose members had not been thinned in their
numbers by the sword. They comforted them-
selves, however, with the thought that tliey had
a grateful sovereign, by whom all their sufter-
ings would be remembered and their losses re-
quited. But Charles did nothing of the kind,
and they returned to their desolate homes dis-
appointed and heart-broken. They found that
he lived only for the present, and that the names
of Edgehill, Newbury, Marston Moor, and even
the more recent ones in wliich he had personally
borne a part were ghosts of the past, and ought
no longer to haunt him. To these he preferred
the men who had prudently taken cai-e of them-
selves and did not need his aid, or the gay com-
panions of his exile, whose loyalty had been
exerted in ministering to his pleasures; while
those only were promoted to office with whose
services he could not dispense, or who could best
support the burden of government and leave
him to his own enjoyments. The chief of these
was Chancellor Hyde, soon after created Lord

Clarendon, equally famous by his History of the
Rebellion and hatred of Presbyterianism, by
whose recommendation the appointment to
offices of state in Scotland were chiefly in-
fluenced. General Middleton, a soldier of for-
tune, who had originally trailed a pike in Hep-
burn's regiment in France,^ and who in his rise
retained the brutality of the vulgar soldier and
the unscrupulous principles of an adventurer
and place-hunter, was appointed royal commis-
sioner to the next Scottish parliament, while
Lauderdale was made secretary for Scotland.
The other Scottish appointments were of a simi-
lar character, and they all portended the ever-
sion of its church and vengeance upon those who
were opposed to royal absolutism.-

Events soon showed that these fears were to
be fully realized. One of the first-fruits of the
restoration was the issue of warrants which were
sent down to Scotland for apprehending Sir
Archibald Johnston of Warriston, Sir John
Chiesly, and Sir James Stewart. Warriston es-
caped for the present by flying from the coun-
try; but Chiesly was made fast in the castle of
Edinburgh. The duty of arresting him was im-
posed upon Stewart in virtue of being provost
of the city ; but when he had fulfilled his office
he was himself arrested and sent to keep com-
pany with his prisoner. But a still more dis-
tinguished victim of the newly-roused spirit of
revenge was the Marquis of Argyle. Hearing
that the Scottish nobility were received at court
with favour he sent thither his son, Lord Lorn,
whom Charles cordially welcomed and treated
with such favour that the father ventured to
London and presented himself at Whitehall.
But while the marquis was waiting in the privy-
chamber and expecting to be presented to the
king he was arrested by royal order upon the
charge of having been accessory to the late king's
murder, and hurried to the Tower.

During these arbitrary proceedings it was
necessary to decide by whom Scottish affairs
should be managed previous to the opening of
parliament, and for this purpose a meeting of
Scotsmen of rank and influence was held in
London at the house of the Earl of Crawford.
The majority of the meeting proposed that the
interior administration should i-emain in the
hands of the Committee of Estates who were
appointed by the parliament held at Stirling
in 1650. To this it was objected that the par-
liament from which the committee derived its
authority was not a free parliament, and con-
sequently not legal — that it was, in fact, a con-
tinuation of the rebellion, as it excluded from
office all persons who had served under Mon-

1 Kirkton. 2 ciaiendou's History; Kirkton.

126

HISTOKY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1651-1662.

trose. In this opinion Charles liimself con-
curred, and the parliament of 1650 would have
been condemned but for the interposition of
Lauderdale, who was a theologian as well as
statesman, and who had as yet been unable to
get rid of his Presbyterian education. He re-
presented that by far the greater part of the
nation agreed to these restrictions and were
o]iposed to Montrose ; and that to condemn the
parliament at present would be premature, and
might prove dangerous at the commencement of
a new reign; and in this representation the Earl
of Crawford agreed. The Committee of Estates
were therefore allowed to resume their office in
Edinburgh, and this they did by dispersing a
meeting of the Protesters or Eemonstrants who
had assembled to petition the king, and sending
their leaders to jail. At this severity, which
might at any time be turned against themselves,
their rivals the Resolutioners ought to have taken
the alarm, but were prevented by the assurances
of James Sharp, minister of Ci'ail, who resided
in London as their envoy, and in whom his party
reposed the highest confidence. But even already
he liad sold them to their enemies, and his reward
was to be one of the highest appointments which
a Scottish ecclesiastic could hold. In coinci-
dence with this secret bargain he quieted the
fears of his party by a letter from the king, in
which Charles assured them of his determina-
tion to preserve the government of their church
as settled by law, inviolate. But while these
assurances tranquillized the Eesolutionei's the
proceedings of the committee continued to alarm
the more observant. It was significant of com-
ing events that they caused the inscriptions upon
the tombs of Henderson and Gillespie to be
erased, and Rutherford's Lex Rex to be burned
by the hands of the common hangman.

While the church was thus in danger a serious
question was at issue respecting the national
independence. What was to be done with that
chain of English forts by which the land was
reminded of its bondage I Monk, who was now
Duke of Albemarle and the hero and favourite
of the day, wished to reward his officers and
soldiers by retaining these forts under his own
command, and Clarendon was of the same mind,
alleging that the Scots were still too rebellious
to be trusted. Lauderdale, on the other hand,
pleaded the loyalty of his countrymen, and the
expense which the maintenance of the forts
would occasion. His argument prevailed, and
to the great satisfaction of the Scots the ob-
noxious citadels were destroyed, Lauderdale
himself obtaining the disposal of the ground
and materials, those of the fort at Ayr to the
Earl of Eglinton and of Inverness to the Earl
of Moray. The third and most profitable, of

Leith, he kept to himself and ei-ected into a
burgh of regality, which he called Charlestown,
in honour of his royal master, and afterwards
compelled the city of Edinburgh to purchase the
sui)eriority of it for £6000 — thus gratifying at
once his loyalty and his avarice.^ But still he
was unsuspected by his country to which he was
to prove so great a scourge, and his interposi-
tions in favour of the national church as well
as his vindication of the national honour made
him be regarded for the present as a true patriot.
It was now the close of 1660, and the time
had arrived for the opening of the Scottish par-
liament. Middleton therefore came down to
Scotland at the end of the year, and was re-
ceived with regal pomp, being attended from
Musselburgh to Edinburgh by a train of a thou-
sand horse.^ But while the splendour of his
style of living was beyond what the nation had
witnessed his gross manners and the vices of his
household created universal astonishment and
disgust. It was not by such missionaries that
the Episcopacy which they meant to impose
upon the people was to obtain acceptance and
secure willing proselytes. On the first of Ja-
nuary (1661) was the riding of parliament, in
which the regalia, concealed in the north during
the late troubles, were brought out and paraded
in triumph, while the parliament itself was dis-
tinguished by its numerous attendance and by
its splendour. But those who might have op-
posed its arbitrary proceedings and rebuked its
obsequious conduct were not there; for the best
of them were in prison, and the others were kept
at a distance by their personal fears, as the act
of indemnity by which their safety was guar-
anteed had been carefully withheld from Scot-
land. After the opening sermon was preached
by Mr. Robert Douglas, and preliminary matters
adjusted, the oath of allegiance was adminis-
tered, but in a fashion that was new and alarm-
ing. By the form as now administei'ed this oath
acknowledged the king as the only supreme
governor of the kingdom over all persons and
in all cases, and abjured the jurisdiction of any
foreign prince, power, state, or person civil or
ecclesiastical — the last clause making it appear
that the king only claimed the rights of a
Christian ruler, and that nothing but the papal
dominion was abjured. It was evident, how-
ever, to the Presbyterians that it was a trans-
ference of the pope's authority into the hands
of the king, and that it made him supreme in
all ecclesiastical as well as civil matters; but the
parliament was so slavish that none refused to
take the oath except the Earl of Cassilis and the

1 Maitland's History of Edinburgh, p. 99.

2 Mackenzie ; Baillie's Letters.

.D. 1651-1662.]

CHAELES II.

127

Laird of Kilbirnie. When they proceeded to
elect the Lords of Articles an attempt was made
by the court jaarty to set this ancient usage
aside and abolish it altogether, but in vain; the
practice was too closely identified with the exis-
tence of Scottish parliaments to be thus abruptly
terminated ; and it was not only revived in the
present instance, but afterwards established by
law.

Having confirmed the royal supremacy by
the form of the oath of allegiance, the other
proceedings of this mad parliament were con-
formable to the preparations made for the settle-
ment of business. Middleton seldom came
sober to the house, and the drunken revels of
the palace were frequently continued until the
morning, so that the sessions were generally
held in the afternoon, and before the bi'ains of
the courtiers had recovered from their debauch.
Of debate there was little or none, and generally
a measure was carried as soon as it was pro-
posed. The appointment of all officers of state,
counsellors, and lords of session was declared a
privilege of the crown by right divine. The right
of calling and dissolving jsarliaments or public
assemblies was adjudged to belong to the king,
and any meeting otherwise held or called was
denounced as high treason. The Solemn League
and Covenant itself was annulled, and all at-
tempts to renew it without the royal warrant
prohibited ; and when the ministers met to jDro-
test against such an arbitrary decree they were
imperiously commanded to disperse. But one
sweeping deed yet remained to consummate and
crown their folly. Weary of the slowness of such
details by which act after act of parliament was
specifically condemned, they resolved to settle
the matter at once by condemning as illegal all
the proceedings of the parliaments that had met
since the year 1633; and this frantic proposal
was made and resolved on in the midst of a
drunken revel. In consequence of this what
was called the Rescissory Act was carried in
the same spirit and with the same indecent haste
as the rest. By this act every proceeding for
reformation from 1633 and onward was con-
demned as treason and rebellion ; the National
Covenant and Solemn League were denounced
as unlawful oaths, the Glasgow Assembly of
1638 was proclaimed a seditious meeting, and
the government of the church was declared to
be a privilege inherent in the crown. Thus all
for which James VI. had jjlotted and Charles I.
struggled in vain, all that had been done for
the Scottish church during the second refor-
mation, all for which not only General Assem-
Wies had been held but armies mustered in the
field, were settled at a single sweep, and by men
who were scarcely awake to what they decreed

or tlie calamitous consequences that would ensue
from the deed, first to the nation at large, and
afterwards to themselves and the throne which
they were seeking to build up.^

A victim was needed to terminate such pro-
ceedings—a victim the noblest and worthiest
that could be found ; and who so fit for such
distinction as the Marquis of Argyle? From
the time of the memorable Assembly at Glas-
gow in 1638, which he joined, up to the present
jjeriod, he had been recognized as the leader of
the Presbyterians and the most faithful cham-
pion of the civil and religious rights of Scotland;
and it was in this spirit that he had called
Charles II. to Scotland as the representative of
a constitutional monarchy, amidst the wild strug-
gle between the absolutists on the one hand and
the republicans on the other. It was, finally,
when he stood almost alone, and could maintain
the struggle no longer, that he consented to recog-
nize CVomwell as protector and to live peaceably
under the Commonwealth. At the Restoration
he went to congratulate Charles II., relying on
his past services and the king's grateful acknow-
ledgment of their value ; but his majesty, in-
stead of receiving him when he presented him-
self at Whitehall, ordered him to be carried to
the Tower. As it was resolved to try him
before the High Court of the Scottish parlia-
ment he was sent down by sea from his prison
in London to the castle of Edinburgh, and
brought out for trial on the 13th of February
(1661). The charges against him consisted of
fourteen articles, which may be summed up
under the three following heads : The first re-
ferred to all the actions of the war in Scotland,
from its opposition to Charles I. to its subju-
gation under Cromwell ; and of these he was
charged with being the princiiml mover and
agent, especially in the delivering up of Charles
I. at Newcastle; his opposition to the Engage-
ment in 1648, and the heading of the rising in
the west in opposition to the Committee of Estates.
The second head charged him with the many
murders and other barbarities committed by
his officers during the war on the Royalists,
and especially those who had served under
Montrose. The third was his concurrence
with Cromwell and the other usurpers in oppo-
sition to those who appeared for the king in the
Highlands, his being a member of Cromwell's
parliament and assisting in proclaiming him
protector, and other particulars of his compli-
ance with the usurper.

The answers of Argyle, which were given
extemporaneously, were dignified and satisfac-
tory. He expressed the joy he felt at the

1 Burnet's History of His Own Times, vol. i. A.D. 1661.

128

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1651-1662.

king's restoration, enumerated the services he
had performed iu the royal cause and the marks
of favour he had received in return both from
his majesty and hLs fatlier ; and was it hkely,
he asked, that he should have harboured a
thought to their disadvantage ? He had always
acted by authority of parliament and according
to his instructions, whether he was sent to act
or negotiate. All that had been done before
1641 had been buried by the late king in an
act of oblivion, and all after that date by the
indemnity of the present king granted at Perth
in 1651, so that he did not think he should be
questioned on anything that had been done
before the last-mentioned period. As for the
charges of cruelty contained in the second
head, he was at London when most of them
were committed, nor did it appear that he had
given any ordere about them. As for the cruel-
ties of his clansmen, these were to be imputed
to the fervour of the time and the temper of
the people, who had been irritated by the wast-
ing of their districts with fire and sword ; and
for these he could not be answerable, as he had
neither joined in them nor ordered them. To
the third head he answered that he had stood
out until the nation was utterly conquered
before he submitted to the usurpation ; and it
was the opinion both of lawyers and divines
that such compliance was justifiable as an in-
evitable necessity. If a sin, it was the sin of
the nation at large. From his position more
than mere compliance had been required of
him ; but whatever of this kind he did was not
to oppose the king's interest but to preserve
himself and his family. "And how could I
suppose," he on another occasion said, pointing
to Sir John Fletcher, the lord-advocate, "how
could I suppose that I was acting criminally when
the learned gentleman who now acts as his ma-
jesty's advocate took the same oaths to the Com-
monwealth with myself?" To this home-thrust
Fletcher could only reply by calling the marquis
an impudent villain. To this coarse reproach
Argyle replied, " I have learned in my affliction
to bear reproaches; but if the parliament sees
no cause to condemn me I am the less concerned
at the king's advocate's railing."

The whole of his answers replied so effec-
tually to each charge that nothing could be
established against him ; and at the close he
petitioned to be tried before the justice court,
where the case would be examined by learned
judges instead of gentlemen and burgesses,
who were not likely to be learned in the law.
But this reasonable jjetition was rejected, and
the counsel at whose suggestion he offered it
were declared to be pardoned — as if they had
committed an offence ! Still, however, his argu-

ments were so strong, and his innocence so ap-
parent, that it was feared no grounds could be
found for convicting him, and his judges, most
of whom were as deeply implicated in the offences
as the accused, were at a loss how to proceed.
In consequence of this further proofs were sought.
Rothes and Glencairn went to London to obtain
them; and Monk, to whom they applied, sent
down by post to Edinburgh certain imvate letters
written by Argyle. Accordingly, while the trial,
which had continued from week to week, was
still going on, a rude knocking was heard at the
door of the parliament house, and when it was
opened tlie packet was delivered. All thought
that it was a royal pardon or an arrest of pro-
ceedings, more especially as the bearer was a
Campbell ; but when opened it was found to
contain letters which the marquis had written
to General Monk while governor of Scotland,
and which the latter had now meanly searched
out and sent down to procure the desired con-
viction. These were enough for the purpose:
they were conclusive proofs that the marquis
had passively assented to the usurpation, and
he was condemned by judges deeper in the
offence than himself to suffer the death of a
traitor. This sentence, which he received kneel-
ing, was pronounced on Saturday the 25th of
May, and was to be carried into effect on Mon-
day the 27th. His head was to be affixed on
the same pinnacle upon which the head of Mon-
trose had been exposed, but which had been re-
moved at the Restoration, and honoured, along
with his remains, with a noble funeral. Thus
rapidly had the change been effected, and the
head of the champion of I'oyalty and absolute
rule to give place to that of the leader of Pres-
byterianism. It was in vain that Argyle sought
a respite of ten days to settle his domestic affairs,
and that the king, of whose clemency he still
had hopes, might be advertised of his sentence:
even this faint chance was denied him, and his
short time of preparation for death was to be
spent in the prison of ordinary malefactors.

On being led to the Tolbooth he found his
lady waiting for him, to whom he said, " Tliey
have given me till Monday to be with you, my
dear; therefore let us make for it." She em-
braced him with tears and exclaimed, "The
Lord will requite it, the Lord will requite it!"
He calmly answered, in allusion to his judges,
" Forbear ; truly I pity them ; they know not
what they are doing: they may shut me in
where they please, but they cannot shut out
God from me. For my part, I am as content to
be here as in the Castle, and as content in the
Castle as in the Tower of London, and as con-
tent there as when at liberty ; and I hope to be
as content on the scaffold as any of them all."

A.D. 1651-1662.]

CHARLES II.

129

Although constitutionally timoi'ous, he contem-
plated the approach of death not only with
calm tranquillity but gladness, bidding the min-
isters who joined him in his devotions observe
how wonderfully he was delivered from all fear.
To some of them he also said that they would
shortly envy him for having got before them ;
'• for," continued he, " my skill fails me if you
who are ministers will not either suffer much
or sin much ; for though you go along with those
men in part, if you do it not in all things you
are but where you were, and so must suffer;
and if you go not at all with them you shall
but suffer." On the day before he was executed
he wrote a letter to the king, protesting his in-
nocence of the charges brought against him in
reference to the death of Charles I., and justi-
fying all he had done in behalf of the Covenant,
and he commended his wife and children to his
majesty's mercy. It is gratifying to find that
this request at least was not ineffectual. Middle-
ton, and the other enemies of Argyle who
sought his death in the hope of succeeding to
his lands and possessions, were disappointed,
his estates being allowed to pass into the pos-
session of Lord Lorn, his eldest son. This act
of favour was obtained through the influence of
Lauderdale, who hated Middletou, and whose
lady's niece Lorn had married.

The morning of the following day was spent
by Argyle in private devotions and in social
intercourse with his friends, whom he warned
of the trying times that were at hand, and the
necessity of standing fast in their religious
allegiance. When the last hour arrived he left
the prison to go to the scaffold, saying to those
who accompanied him, " I could die like a
Roman, but choose i-ather to die as a Chris-
tian. Come away, gentlemen ; he that goes first
goes cleanliest." On the scaffold he manifested
the same calm intrepidity, and addressing the
spectators at some length he, among other
things, said, " God hath laid engagements on
Scotland. We are tied by covenants to religion
and reformation ; those who were then unborn
are yet engaged ; and it passeth the power of aU
the magistrates under heaven to absolve from
the oath of God. These times are like to be
either very sinning or suffering times ; and let
Christians make their choice : there is a sad
dilemma in the business, sm or suffer; and
surely he that will choose the better part will
choose to suffer. Othei's that will choose to sin
will not escape suffering ; they shall suffer, but
perhaps not as I do (pointing to the instrument
of execution), but worse. Mine is but temporal,
theirs shall be eternal. When I shall be sing-
ing they shall be howling. I have no more to
say but to beg the Lord, that when I go away

VOL. III.

he would bless every one that stayeth behind."
When he approached the maiden, the Scottish
guillotine, and took off his doublet, he said to
those who stood nearest, " Gentlemen, I desire
you, and all that hear me, again to take notice,
and remember, that now, when I am entering
into eternity, and to ajipear before my Judge,
and as I desire salvation and expect eternal
happiness from him, I am free from any accession,
by knowledge, contriving, counsel, or any ways,
of his late majesty's death ; and I pray the Loi-d
to preserve the j^i'esent king, and to pour out
his best blessings upon his person and govern-
ment; and the Lord give him good and faithful
counsellors." Having thus spoken he knelt
down, and at a signal the axe of the maiden
fell, and his head was severed from his body.
Thus perished the noble Marquis of Argyle,
whom his traducers could not understand, and
of whom the jieriod of his decline and fall was
most unworthy. His head according to the
sentence was placed over the Tolbooth, but his
body, which was surrendered to his friends,
was interred in the family burying-place of
Kilmun.i

The most distinguished of Scottish statesmen
and Presbyterians was not the sole victim of
Middleton and his parliament. The successor
of the marquis upon the scaffold was James
Guthrie, minister of Stirling, the son of the
Laird of Guthrie, an ancient and honourable
Scottish family. On coming to Edinburgh to
subscribe the Covenant in the church of Grey-
friars he met the executioner of the city at the
West Port, and was so struck with the incident
that he said, " he took the Covenant with the
resolution to suffer for the things contained in
it, if the Lord should call him thereto." It was
an age when the wise, the learned, and good
were not superior to omens which even the most
ignorant can now despise ; but Guthrie could
turn such a warning to the best account. His
talents, energy, and religious worth soon raised
him to an influential position among his brethren;
and as he belonged to the Protesters, his oppo-
sition to the court party was remembered when
their day of retribution arrived. And indeed
it was impossible that a man so conscientious
could have escaped, let whatever party prevail,
for while he was steadfastly opposed to the
usui'pation of Cromwell, he doubted the sin-
cerity of Charles II. at his entrance into Scot-
land, and was one of those who sought to cir-
cumscribe his authority to those limits which
the Covenant enjoined. He was now to be tried
chiefly upon the charge of having written and

1 Burnet's History of His Oitrn Times, A.D. 1661 ; Scots
Worthies, article "Marquis of Argyle;" Wodrow; Sir
George Mackenzie.

84

130

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1651-1662.

publislied a book entitled The Causes of God's
Wrath upon the Nation; but his chief and real
offence was his having excommunicated the
Earl of Middleton in 1650 by the order of the
church. He defended himself instead of Jiaving
recourse to counsel, and conducted his defence
with such legal knowledge, skill, ability, and
eloquence, that while several of his judges were
moved to absolve him the rest were at a loss
how to find him guilty. After he had acknow-
ledged the facts brought against him, and
shown that none of them amounted by law to
sedition or treason, he thus concluded : " That
I did never propose or intend to speak or act
any thing disloyal, seditious, or treasonable,
against his majesty's pei'son, authority, or gov-
ernment, God is my witness, and that what I
have spoken, written, or acted, in any of these
things wherewith I am charged, hath been
merely and singly from a principle of con-
science, that, according to the light given me
of God, I might do my duty as a minister of
the gospel. But because the plea of conscience
alone, although it may extenuate, cannot wholly
excuse, I do assert that I have founded my
speeches, writings, and actings, in these matters,
on the word of God, and on the doctrine. Con-
fession of Faith, and laws of this church and
kingdom, upon the National Covenant of Scot-
land, and the Solemn League and Covenant
betwixt the three kingdoms. If these founda-
tions fall, I must fall with them ; but if these
sustain and stand in judgment, as I hope they
will, I cannot acknowledge myself, neither I
hope will his majesty's commissioner and the
honourable court of parliament judge me, guilty
either of sedition or treason."

In consequence of his able defence the trial
lasted long, so that he was himself anxious that
it should be brought to a conclusive end. " I
humbly beg," he said, " that being already cast
out of my ministry, driven from my dwelling,
and deprived of my maintenance, myself and
my family thrown upon the charity of others;
ami having now suffered eight months' imjn-ison-
ment, that your lordship would put no further
burden upon me. But in the words of the
prophet, ' Behold, I am in your hands ; do to
me what seemeth good to you.' " He expressed
his readiness to suffer bondage, banishment, or
death, but also his confidence that thus the
reformation of 1638 would not be overthrown —
that on the contrary the sufferings of himself
and others would only tend the more to its
establishment. His wish of a termination to
the trial was gratified, but by a verdict that was
agreeable to his judges ; for he was sentenced to
be hanged at the cross of Edinburgh as a traitor
on the 1st of June, 1661; his head afterwards

to be struck off' and .set over the Nether Bow;
his estate to be confiscated, his coat-of-arms torn
and reversed, and his children declared incap-
able, in all time coming, to enjoy any office,
dignities, possessions, lands, or goods, movable
or immovable, within the kingdom. When the
sentence was pronounced the prisoner said, "My
lords, let never this sentence afiect you any
more than it does me ; and let never my blood
be required of the king's family."

During the time that Guthrie spent in prison
before his execution the Marquis of Argyle was
led out from the Tolbooth to the scaffold ; and
being desirous of bidding an affectionate fare-
well to his noble fellow-sufierer with whom he
had been at variance upon the invitation of
Charles II. to Scotland, he requested a personal
interview. Both were now exalted above the
littleness of political feuds, and they embraced
each other with the most affectionate cordiality.
"My lord," said Guthrie, "God hath been with
you, he is with you, and will be with you ; and
such is my respect for your lordship, that if I
were not under sentence of death myself I could
cheerfully die for your lordship."' On the night
before his execution Guthrie, while sealing some
letters, was observed to stamp tliem cross-ways,
so as to mar his armorial bearings, and when
asked the cause, replied, " I have no more to do
with coats-of-arms." On the evening, while
supping with his friends, he was cheerful even
to pleasantry, eating cheese, of which he was
very fond, but from which he had been pro-
hibited by his disease, and observing, " I hope
I am now beyond reach of the gravel." On
coming out to the scaffold they would have
pinioned his arms ; but on his declaring that he
was now so frail that he could not support him-
self without a staff, and that if they bound him
they must also carry him to the place, one of his
arms was left at liberty. When he ascended
the ladder, "he spoke," says Bishop Burnet,
"an hour with the composedness of a man that
was delivering a sermon rather than his last
words." The chief theme of this parting ad-
dress was the Covenants, of which he said,
"These sacred, solemn, public oaths of God, I
believe, can be loosed or dispensed by no person,
party, or power upon earth, but are still binding
upon these kingdoms, and will be so for ever
hereafter; and are ratified and sealed by the
conversion of many thousand souls since our
entering thereinto. I take God to record upon
my soul," he continued, " I would not exchange
this scaffold with the palace or mitre of the
greatest prelate in Britain." When the cord was
put about his neck, and just before he was turned
over by the executioner, he raised the napkin
from his face, and exclaimed in a voice of

W. H. MARGETSON.

EXECUTION OF JAMES GUTHRIE, MINISTER OF STIRLING,
IN EDINBURGH, (a.d. i66i.)

'WHEN THE CORD WAS PUT ABOUT HIS NECK, HE RAISED THE NAPKIN FROM HIS FACE AND EXCLAIMED IN A
VOICE OF TRIUMPH, THE COVENANTS, THE COVENANTS SHALL YET BE SCOTLAND'S REVIVING!"'

Vol. iii, p. 130

A.D. 1651-1662.]

CHAELES II.

131

triumph, "The Covenants, the Covenants shall
yet be Scotland's reviving !"^

Although Argyle and Guthrie were the only
persons who suffered death by this first Restora-
tion parliament the doom inflicted on two such
men was significant of the pui'pose of their re-
moval. The king had often declared that Pres-
byterianism was not a fit religion for gentlemen,
and accordingly the land was to be improved
by the destruction of that church to which its
civilization, learning, and moral reformation had
been mainly owing. After the adjournment of
parliament Middleton went up to London to
give an account of his proceedings to the king
and urge the establishment of Episcopacy in
Scotland, while his intrigues in the English
capital evinced that he was more intent upon
the confiscation of the Presbyterian estates
which he expected to fall to his share, than either
the dissolution of a hostile church or the estab-
lishment of his royal master's authority. But,
as events afterwards showed, this was the pre-
vailing motive of the statesmen of the period
under the influence of which the best part of
the property of Scotland was to be assessed,
plundered, and confiscated. When Middleton
Lad given an account of his administration he
proceeded to assure the king of the general de-
sire in Scotland that Episcopacy should be re-
stored; it was, he alleged, the wish of the greater
and better part of the nation ; one synod had
already all but petitioned for it, and many others
desired it, but were only withheld from peti-
tioning by the part they had taken in the late
war. In this he was corroborated by the Earl
•of Glencairn, who affirmed that the people were
so disgusted with the sway of their ministers
that six for one longed for the restoration of
bishops; while Rothes adverted to the exclusive-
ness of the Presbyterians and the indecorum
with which they had treated the king. Lauder-
dale, whose expiring Presbyterianisra was pro-
bably fanned into momentary life by the favour
accorded to his rival Middleton, ventured to
object that the national prejudice against Epis-
copacy was still very strong ; that those who
seemed most zealous for it aff"ected that zeal as
the best means of courting favour, while those
who were against it were so resolute, that to set
it up would endanger his majesty's authority,
while its maintenance would be an expensive
burden. In a question so doubtful and impor-
tant much deliberation and much inquiry were
jiecessary. He proposed, therefore, that a Gene-
ral Assembly should be called, or at least the
synodal meetings consulted, and as these con-
sisted of lay elders as well as ministers the real

1 Wodrow ; Burnet ; Sir G. Mackenzie's Hist, of Scot.

mind of the nation could be ascertained; and if
these methods were unacceptable, that at least
the ablest ministers of the two parties should
be invited to Westminster to deliver their senti-
ments on the subject. Middleton answered that
the last of these methods would only produce
confusion, and that the first two would efi'ec-
tually establish presbytery, as the ruling elders
would naturally be influenced by their ministers.
The Duke of Ormond drew a parallel between
Scotland and Ireland, and hinted at the injus-
tice of maintaining Presbyterianism in the one
country and the Church of England in the other.
But the argument of Chancellor Clarendon was
of most avail, in which he set forth the rebel-
liousness of the Scots under their 2:)resent church
and the natural tendency of Presbyterianism to
rebellion. "God preserve me," he added, " from
being in a country where the church is inde-
pendent of the state, and may subsist by their
own acts ; there all churchmen may be kings ! "
This statesman-like view of the case prevailed,
and Lauderdale acceded to the majority.^

In consequence of the decision of this political
conclave a royal order was sent down to Scotland
conmianding its people to renounce their beloved
Presbyterianism and worship God in such fashion
as their rulers were pleased to prescribe. The
letter to this effect issued by his majesty to the
council in evasion of all the laws by which the
Scottish church was established, and his own
promises to maintain them inviolate, was as fol-
lows : " We did by our letter to the presbytery
of Edinburgh declare our purpose to maintain
the government of the Chui'ch of Scotland
settled bylaw; and our parliament having since
that time not only rescinded all the acts since
the troubles began referring to that govern-
ment, but declared, also, all those pretended par-
liaments null and void, and left to us the securing
and settling church government; we therefore,
in compliance with that Act Rescissory, from our
respect to the glory of God, the good and in-
terest of the Protestant religion, from our pious
care and jDrincely zeal for the order, unity, peace,
and stability of the church, and its better har-
mony with the government of the churches of
England and Ireland, have, after mature deli-
beration, declared to those of our council here,
our firm resolution to interpose our royal authoi'-
ity for the restoring of that church to its right
government by bishops, as it was by law before
the late troubles during the reigns of our royal
father and grandfather, of blessed memory." —
But how had sire and grandsire succeeded in
the attempt ? And why was the warning dis-
regarded ? He concluded this order, worthy of

- Burnet's History of His Own Times; Wodrow.

132

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1662-1667.

Henry VIII. or Pope Hildebraud, by ordering
the council to prohibit the synodal assemblies of
ministers throughout the kingdom until his fur-
ther pleasure was announced, and to keep a
watchful eye over all who under whatever pre-
te.xt should attempt by discoursing, preaching,
reviling, or any otlier way to alienate the affec-
tions of his subjects and dispose them to an evil
opinion of him and his government.^

This letter was received by the Scottish council
with implicit obedience, and after returning to
it a most submissive reply they readily addressed
themselves to its fulfilment. Nor had their
obedience long to wait, for the Earl of Tweeddale
demvirred at the order and suggested the pro-
priety of advising with the synods. Although
this was done so gently and with such qualifica-
tions that it could not be established as a ground
for punishment, yet the example was dangerous
and must instantly be suppressed. Accordingly
an order was procured by Middleton from the
king for Tweeddale's imprisonment, because he
had spoken in vindication of Guthrie at his trial,
and had not voted for his death with the rest.
It was in vain that he pleaded his privilege as
a member of parliament, and he only escaped
imprisonment by acknowledging his offence, in
consequence of which he was confined to his own
dwelling. Having thus removed a troublesome
dissentient they issued a proclamation announc-
ing the restoration of bishops, prohibiting all
meetings of synods, and forbidding all jjreaching
or discoursing against the change under pain of

1 Wodrow.

imprisonment. This was followed by another
addressed to the burghs, commanding them to
elect none as magistrates who were fanatical in
their princij^les, or of suspected loyalty, under
the highest penalties. Having heard that the
presbytery of Peebles was about to ordain a
minister, they issued a prohibition, declaring that
the right of ordination belonged no longer to
presbyteries but to the Archbishop of Glasgow,
in whose diocese the parish was situated; and
when this order was disregarded the members
were summoned to answer for their contumacy
on pain of rebellion.^

In this abrupt and easy manner the Presby-
terianism of Scotland was deposed ; it fell, as
has been scornfully observed, without the honour
of a dissolution. But the spirit of the land had
not yet recovered fi'om the dispiriting effects of
its late subjugation, and of the nobles who should
have been its leaders and protectors the greater
part had gone over to the enemy and become its
worst oppressore. The first eff'ects of such a
sudden restoration were worse than the previous
subjection, and in the general giddiness the
national rights and national dignity were alike
forgotten. But the people quickly rallied in be-
half of their beloved church, and were prepared
to show by their endurance of persecution how
constant they were to their faith, and how im-
possible it was to subdue them. The deadliest
of their national conflicts was now to commence,
and their history has well attested how nobly
they endvired it.

* Wodrow.

CHAPTER XII.

REIGN OF CHARLES II. (1662-1667).

Sharp made Archbishop of St. Andrews— His previous history — His betrayal of the Scottish Church — His
double-dealing with Robert Douglas — His selection of bishops for Scotland — He receives consecration from
the English prelates — Leighton's disappointment — Arrival of the new bishops in Scotland — Their reception
— Their admission into parliament — Proceedings of parliament subversive of Presbyterianism — Episcopacy
re-established — Tardy passing of the Act of Indemnity — Fine for compliance with the government of the
Commonwealth — Pretext for imposing it — Middleton's attempt to procure the condemnation of Lord Lorn
— Lom's attempt to counteract his designs — Lorn tried and condemned, but acquitted — Lauderdale plots
to supplant Middleton— Ministers commanded to attend diocesan meetings — Middleton repairs to Glasgow
to enforce the order — The "Act of Glasgow" — Non-compliance of ministers with the act — Four hundred
of them resign their li\'ings — General sorrow occasioned by their ejection — Manner in which their places
were filled up — Character of the new clergy appointed to the vacant charges — Modes in which the popular
discontent was expressed — Church attendance compelled by penalties — Charges brought against Middle-
ton's administration — His downfall accelerated by his own rash act — His deposition and death — Increasing
dishke to Episcopacy in Scotland — Rise of conventicles — The rule of Lauderdale more oppressive than that
of Middleton — New meeting of parliament — Its fresh acts against Presbyterianism and conventicles — The
"Bishops' Drag-net" — Acts of the privy-councU — The Mile Act — Acts to coerce the people into church
conformity— Johnston of Warriston apprehended and brought to Scotland — His trial and condemnation —
His execution— Persecution of the Covenanters by the curates and soldiers — Sir James Turner the chief

A.D. 1662-1667.]

CHARLES II.

133

instrument in the work — His character and oppressive proceedings — Lawlessness of the soldiers against
the recusants — Abjectness of the Scottish nobility — The protection of the people limited to the inferior
barons — Shar2J's impatience for the complete establishment of Episcopacy — He procures the restoration of
the Court of High Commission — Its despotic proceedings — Its speedy dissolution — General character of
the Scottish Episcopal clergy — Contrast in the character of Bishop Leighton — Laws against conventicles
increased in severity — Accident in which an insurrection commences — Sir James Turner taken prisoner —
Alarm of the government — Sir Thomas Dalziel sent against the insurgents — He defeats them at RuUion
Green — New oppressive acts of the council against the Covenanters — Trial and execution of the prisoners
taken at RuUion Green — Their abhorrence of the charge of rebellion, and dying professions of their
loyalty — Torture added to the punishment of death — Introduction of the "boot" — The boot inflicted
upon Neilson — M'Kail tried and tortured — His triumphant death on the scaffold — Meanness of the prel-
ates in concealing the king's orders to stop the executions — Sharp's unmanly terror, and vindictiveness of
his revenge.

All being now prepared for the establishment
of Episcopacy in Scotland, nothing was wanting
but a bench of bishops, which could easily be
found. Of these new prelates the highest in
rank as in infamy was James Sharp, Archbishop
of St. Andrews, a man whose influence in his
day was so marked, and the termination of his
career so tragical, that a brief notice of his pre-
vious history is necessary for the clearness of
the narrative.

He was of respectable birth, although his
parents wei'e in a humble position ; and being
destined for the church, was educated at the
University of Aberdeen, and through the influ-
ence of Alexander Henderson was appointed
regent in the University of St. Andrews. At
this stage of his progress all further rise was
nearly prevented by a fierce outbreak of his
resentful disposition at the public college table
upon a Sunday evening and in presence of the
principal and regents, when he quarrelled with
one of his rivals and actually struck him ; but
his subsequent expressions of contrition were
so deep and moving that his character for
Christian humility and piety was only the
more confirmed in the eyes of his brethren by
an event so incompatible with the clerical char-
acter. He was afterwards appointed minister
of Crail, and became so distinguished for his
ability in the management of church affairs
that in 1657 he was deputed by the Resolution-
ers to proceed to London and plead their cause
before Oliver Cromwell ; which he did with such
satisfaction to his party that BaiUie was profuse
in his commendations of " that very worthy,
pious, wise and diligent young man, Mr. James
Sharp." He was now of such consequence that
in the march of Monk to London he was, at
that general's own desire, commissioned by the
church to accompany him, for the purpose of
watching over its interests; but while he was
luUing his constituents into security by the
most flattering representations of Monk's good
inclinations towards Presbytery and a favour-
able settlement of their affairs, he was all the
while intriguing with the enemies of Presby-
terianism for its overthrow and the establish-

ment of Episcopacy in its room, with himself
as its primate. His ingratiating conferences
with Monk, and afterwards with Chai'les II.,
in which he unscrupulously betrayed the church
and sacrificed its interests for his own advance-
ment, were so successful that while in Scotland
he was thanked by the church courts as the
faithful, zealous, and eff"ective advocate of their
rights, he was rejoicing in the promise of being
appointed primate of Scotland. So dexterously,
indeed, did he manage his double-dealing that
Robert Douglas, minister of Edinburgh, with
whom he had corresponded, continued, although
one of the most sagacious of the Scottish min-
isters, still to believe in the sincerity of the apos-
tate. It was only when Sharp had returned to
Scotland, and when all was in readiness for the
innovation, that he began to drop the mask and
excite the suspicions of his brethren, by urging
Douglas to accept the archbishopric of St. An-
drews; assuring him that the king was bent
upon the establishment of Episcopacy, and that
he had better accept the office lest a worse man
should be appointed in his room. It was a
sudden flash of light in which the hypocrite
stood betrayed. The honourable high-minded
Douglas indignantly asked his former friend
what he should do if the offer were made to
himself — a question to which Sharp returned a
confused answer, and rose to take his leave.
Douglas accompanied him to the door, and in
parting said : "James, I see you are clear; I see
you will engage; you will be Ai-chbishop of St.
Andrews;" and laying his hand on the apos-
tate's shoulder he added, "Take it, then, and
the curse of God with it." ^

As long as hypocrisy could serve his purpose
the primate elect continued to use it; and now,
when the destination of the archbishopric was
known, he began to make a virtue of his accept-
ing it. The king, he said, being resolved on
the change, and some hot-headed men likely to
be advanced whose violence would ruin the
country, he had submitted to that office to
moderate the matter, and to protect good men

I Klrkton.

134

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1662-1667.

from a storm that would otherwise burst upon i
them.^ S^'dserf alone survived of the old
bishops of 1638, and it might have been thought
that he would be promoted to the see of St.
Andrews, as one who had borne the burden
and heat of the day; but he was now worn
out with old age, while a vigorous active primate
was needed; he was therefore appointed Bishoi^
of Orkney, almost a sinecure, but one of the
richest bishoprics in Scotland, and Sharp was
ordered to find out jjroper men to till the vacant
charges. Fairfoul was accordingly chosen for
the see of Glasgow, and Hamilton for that of
Galloway. The first of these has been described
as one whose life had been scarcely free from
scandal; insinuating and crafty in disposition,
though pleasant and facetious, but whose worst
qualities had hitherto been concealed by his un-
compromising zeal for the Covenant. The second,
a brother of Lord Belhaven, was a good-natured
man, but of facile disposition. A third was
Leighton, for Dunblane, and perhaps through-
out the whole ranks of the church a better could
not have been selected to recommend an ob-
noxious cause ; for in him were combined the
simijlicity, diligence, and piety of an apostle
with the accomplishments of a scholar and the
eloqvience of a true orator. Of the four neither
Sharp nor Leighton had been episcopally or-
dained, and therefore, in the eyes of the Eng-
lish bishops their Presbyterian orders went for
nothing, and it was judged necessary to ordain
them anew. This was a humbling check to
Sharp at the very entrance to his promotion,
and he tried to elude it by representing the
similar case of Spottiswood in 1610, who had
been made a bishop without prelatic ordination;
but the divine right of bishops and the apostolic
succession being now a favoui'ite dogma in the
English Church, he was compelled to receive
ordination and consecration at the hands of the
Bishops of Loudon and AVorcester, and certain
suffragans of the diocese of Canterbury.^ The
ceremony was performed with great splendour
in Westminster Abbey, and was followed by a
banquet to inaugurate the restoration of Epis-
copacy in Scotland, at which there was such an
amount of revelry as shocked the pious soul of
Leighton. The new Bishop of Dunblane, who
considered his rise as the imposition of fresh
cares and responsibilities, thought this a strange
way of remodelling a national church, and soon
after the festival he applied to the Scottish
primate upon the subject that was nearest his
heart. For the accomplishment of this he had
two plans to propose : the first was to reconcile
the Episcopalians and Presbyterians of Scot-

• Burnet, History of His Own Times. - Burnet.

land by the establishment of a modified system
of Episcopacy, founded upon that of Archbishop
Usher; the second was to introduce a more
regular form of preaching into the public minis-
trations than the extemporaneous harangues
which were now coming into fashion. But he
was soon repelled by the discovery that Sharp
had neither formed any scheme nor wished to
hear of any: it was enough for him that the
authority of the bishops would be established
by the next parliament, and that afterwards
they would do the best, each in his own way, to
reduce the people to their authority. As for
Fairfoul, he always parried the subject with a
merry jest, neither entering into serious dis-
course nor seeming capable of any. Leighton
gave up the task in despaii'. He already began
to see that heaven itself was against their
attempt, and that labouring to establish Epis-
copacy would be like fighting against God.^

After the Scottish bishoj^s had been conse-
ci-ated they set out for Scotland together; but
Leighton, finding they were already weary of
him, and being averse to the triumphal proces-
sion that was prepared to welcome their coming,
left them at Morpeth, and j^roceeded to Edin-
burgh alone, where he arrived a few days before
them. On their arrival they were received by
the lord-chancellor, the nobility, privy-council-
lors, and magistrates of the city, who went out of
Edinburgh to welcome them; and such was the
splendour of their reception in the metropolis
that the more strict Episcopalians regi'etted it,
and were oflFeuded. Soon after their arrival
six other bishops were consecrated by the two
archbishops arrayed in the magnificent robes of
their order; the seventh bishojiric, that of Edin-
burgh, being kept vacant, in the hope that Dou-
glas would be tempted to accept it; but, as he
would Listen to no proposal on the subject, the
appointment was bestowed by the interest of the
Earl of Middleton upon Wishart, the chaplain
and biographer of the Marquis of Montrose.*

As no time was to be lost in confirming the
authority of the prelates the second session of
parliament was held on the 8th of May (1662),
the day after their arrival; and the first act
passed was for the establishment of Episcopacy
and the government of the church by bishops.
The proposal was made by Middleton, and in
brief decisive terms he stated that since the Act
Rescissory had annulled all parliaments between
1638 and 1650, therefore the former laws in fa-
vour of Episcopacy were still in force. An act was
therefore immediately passed for the restitution
of the ancient government of the church by arch-
bishops and bishops, giving them the presidency

3 Burnet.

* Idem.

A.D. 1662-1667.]

CHAELES II.

135

in the church, investing them with the power
of bestowing oi'dination and inflicting censure,
and enabling them to exercise their jurisdic-
tion with the advice and aid of such presbyters
as were distinguished by their prudence and
loyalty. The act also annulled every kind and
degree of church power and jurisdiction "other
than that which acknowledgeth a dependence
upon and subordination to the sovereign power
of the king as supreme." Thus the king was
once rnore proclaimed the head of the Scottish
Church, and all his commands to it recognized
as of divine authority. The right of the bishops
to sit in parliament being recognized a respect-
ful invitation was brought to them in the outer
hall by a deputation of members from the three
Estates, requesting them to enter and occupy
their places, which they did, with the exception
of Leightou; and on entering they were received
with every token of respect as one of the
branches of the national legislature. Other acts
of an equally sweejjing character followed and
crowned this addition to the parliamentary
authority. The chief of these was one for the
preservation of his majesty's person, authority,
and government, by which all covenants and
leagues for reformation were denounced as trea-
son, the Covenants of the church and nation
condemned as unlawful oaths against the laws
and liberties of the kingdom, and all writing,
speaking, painting, preaching, praying, &c., tend-
ing to stir np a dislike of his majesty's preroga-
tive and supremacy in cases ecclesiastical, or the
government of the church by aichbishops and
bishops, prohibited under the strictest penalties.
Every person who took upon him an office of
trust was required by another act to declare that
he judged it unlawful for subjects upou any pre-
tence of reformation to enter into covenants or
take up arms against their sovereign ; and to
disown as seditious all that had been done by
petition or remonstrance during the late troubles
• — an act that excluded every conscientious Pres-
byterian from holding office under the crown.
The rights of patronage were then restored, and
every minister who since 1659 had been inducted
to a parish without a regular presentation from
the lawful patron was declared to have forfeited
his benefice, unless he could obtain legal titles
within four months, and have collation from the
bishop of his diocese.^

Having thus established a more stringent
form of Episcopacy than had ever been at-
tempted in Scotland the next step was to pass
the act of indemnity, which, although proclaimed
in England, had hitherto been delayed in Scot-
land, owing, as was alleged, to the unsettled

' Wodrow, vol. i. pp. 257, 258.

state of ecclesiastical affairs in that kingdom;
and we have seen how, in consequence of this
delay, the enemies of the Covenant were enabled
to bring Argyle and Guthrie to the scaffold.
The chief advocate for its passing was the Earl
of Lauderdale, who had been so largely involved
in the proceedings of the Presbyterians that his
own safety was in peril; and he urged the com-
missioner Middleton with such eff'ect, that the
latter could no longer procrastinate the measure.
But the manner of passing the act of indemnity
was characteristic of such selfish statesmen.
They represented that as so many families in
Scotland had been ruined in defence of royalty,
while there was no fund out of which they could
be relieved, it was but fair that those who had
saved their estates by compliance with the usur-
pation of the Commonwealth, or grown rich in
office under it, should be fined, to repair the
losses of the impoverished Eoyalists.^ And who
were these Royalists? — Themselves. This was
the interpretation of Middleton and his sup-
porters, and although he limited the offences to
those that had been committed since the year
1650, and the penalty to a single year's rent,
these restrictions were little regarded when
avarice and revenge were to be gratified. At
a secret conclave which was held for the pur-
pose, a list was drawn up of those who were
liable to tine, and had wherewithal to pay, which
included eight hundred persons; and of these
many were dead although their estates survived,
several had been abroad during the offences in
question, and some had been children and even
infants. It was found also by those who did
not wish the publicity of a penalty, or to stand
on record as culprits, that a sufficient bribe to
Middleton or one of his favourites was sufficient
to ensure their escape.^

The chief aim of the commissioner's animosity
was now the Lord of Lorn, the eldest son of
Argyle. Although the father had been sacrificed
chiefly through the devices of Middleton the
latter had been disappointed in his designs upon
the estates of his victim, and his wrath was trans-
ferred upon Lorn, to whom the succession to
the paternal property had been confirmed. The
necessities of Middleton were also urgent, as his
wild extravagant modes of living far exceeded
his salary and perquisites, unreasonably great
although they were. While he was thus lying
on the watch for an opportunity Lorn himself
furnished one upon which the other laid hold.
Annoyed by the persecutions to which himself
and his family had been exposed, and aware of
their aim, and the danger in which it might
involve him, Lorn had made interest with an

2 Bumet.

3 Idem.

1.36

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1662-1667

English Doblemau, the Earl of Berkshire, who
for a consideration of £1000 was willing to ob-
tain for him the protection of the all-powerful
Clarendon. Rejoicing in this prospect he had
written an account of the aifair to his friend,
Lord Duffus, stating among other things, that
when he could raise tlie money, he hoped that
this opposition would sink into a. gowk's storm;
and added, in speaking of the parliament, "then
the king will see their tricks." This harmless
letter was intercepted and carried to Middleton,
who laid it before the Estates as an instance of
" leasing-making," by its attempt to produce
dissension between his majesty and the Scottish
parliament. He therefore sent a request to the
king that Loru should be sent to Edinburgh to
abide a trial ; and although Charles could see
nothing in the letter beyond an act of indis-
cretion he meanly complied, and sent down Lorn
on his parole ; but he wrote also to Middleton,
expressly prohibiting the execution of any sen-
tence that might be passed uj^on him. Lorn was
brought as a prisoner to the bar, and formally
indicted upon the barbarous charge of leasing-
making; and he offered no defence, because he
knew that it would only sharpen the prosecu-
tion. But in a long speech he detailed the great
provocations he had received, and the many
libels that had been printed against him, some
of which had been put into the king's own hand,
representing him as a person unworthy of grace
or favour, and stated, that in writing to his
friend his aim had been to refute the falsehoods
heaped upon him, rather than to injure any one
or devise calumnies against any. But his sen-
tence was death, and the day of his execution
was left by the parliament to the Earl of Middle-
ton.i It showed how cheaply the best blood
and highest rank of the nation was now valued,
when it stood opposed to the interest of a coarse
soldier of fortune and his worthless supporters.
It is true, that in consequence of the royal pro-
hibition the sentence was not carried into effect;
but they had stained his character and estab-
lished a precedent, by which any life might be
sacrificed by the caprice of whatever party might
happen to predominate.

While Middleton for his own selfish ends was
plotting for the ruin of Lord Lorn, another
politician, equally selfish and unscrupulous, but
moi'e able, was carrying on those machinations
against himself, under which he was to fall.
This was the Earl of Lauderdale, who was be-
coming every day more conformable to the
spirit of the times, and more covetous of the
commissioner's place, power, and emoluments,
and who lost no opportunity which his access

I Burnet.

to the king afforded him of I'epresenting the
rashness and incapacity of his rival. The reign
of Middleton was therefore drawing to a close,
and only one additional act of folly was neces-
sary to ensure his deposition. This act he soon
furnished by his memorable proceedings at
Glasgow.

On the rising of j)arliament in September
(1662) the privy-council assumed the manage-
ment of public affairs, and being earnest to
fulfil the royal wishes for the establishment of
Episcopacy, they ordered the diocesan meet-
ings to be held on the following month both in
the southern and northern divisions of the
kingdom. But these diocesan meetings were
now, in reality as well as in name, bishops'
courts, to attend which was a recognition of
Episcopacy ;"' and although the ministers in the
north were generally obedient to the command,
those of the south and west, particularly the
latter, stood aloof; Middleton, therefore, made
a tour through the west, partly to enforce obe-
dience, and partly to enjoy those jovial enter-
tainments that were given liim by the nobility
in his progress. When he came to Glasgow
Fairfoul, archbishop of the diocese, complained
to him that none of the younger ministers who
had entered since the year 1649 attended his
court or acknowledged his authority, and that
his situation as a prelate was both painful and
odious. At this Middleton, whose blood was
already heated with plentiful dinners, was in-
dignant; he requested the archbishop to state
the remedy, which he would put into instant
execution. Fairfoul proposed that the act lately
passed in parliament should be immediately put
in foi'ce; that all the ministers who had entered
since 1649 should be ejected from their homes,
churches, and presbyteries, who did not, before
the 1st of November next, procure presentation
from the patrons, and apply for collation to
their bishops; assuring him that there would
not be ten in his whole diocese who would not
sacrifice their pi-inciples rather than their sti-
pends.^ It speaks strangely of the utter igno-
rance or forgetfulness both of the commissioner
and the prelate that they did not take warning
from the signs of the times. A similar experi-
ment had been recently tried upon the Noncon-
formists in England, and on St. Bartholomew's
Day (August 24, 1662), when the Act of Uni-
formity was to be enforced, three thousand minis-
ters had abandoned their livings rather than
obey a command to which their consciences were
opposed. This act, devised by the archbishop
and carried by the influence of Middleton on

- Apologetical Narration, pp. 91-100.
' Burnet; Wodrow, vol. i. p. 282.

A.D. 1662-1667.]

CHARLES II.

137

the 1st of October, was denominated the "Act of
Glasgow," and on the day it was passed the
members of the council "were all so drunk that
they were not capable of considering anything
that was laid before them, and would hear of
nothing but the executing the law without any
relenting or delay." Such is the statement of
Burnet, ujjou the testimony given him by the
Duke of Hamilton; but, indeed, it appears that
this condition of the council was nothing worse
than their daily plight. To aggravate the
cruelty of the act, which was proclaimed on the
4th of October, less than a month was allowed
to the ministers to decide upon such a moment-
ous question, in which their all was at stake,
and to make preparations for themselves and
their families should the penalty be actually
inflicted.

But brief though the time was the ministers
showed neither doubt nor hesitation. When
the fatal 1st of November arrived above two
hundred churches were shut up, and their manses
left tenantless ; the farewell sermons had been
preached to weeping congregations, and the
domestic hearths, those circles of social happi-
ness and devotion, were smokeless and silent.
The calamity which commenced in the western
counties was soon extended over the kingdom,
and four hundred parishes abandoned by their
pastors was the result of this mad attempt to
produce obedience. The men who had thus
given up their all, and wandered with their
wives and children into the desolation of winter,
were also the best and choicest of their order —
ministers eudeaied to the people by their elo-
quence, talents, and worth, and now doubly
endeared by the test they had endured, and the
seal they had set to tlie principles which they
inculcated. It was a season of sorrow and wail-
ing over Scotland, such as few national disasters
could have produced. To make sure and severe
work also with those who from natural affection
might linger in their places beyond the ap-
pointed day and hour, the soldiers were author-
ized to pull the ministers from their pulpits,
or expel them from their homes.^

On perceiving the dangerous gap they had so
unexpectedly created both Middleton and Sharp
stood aghast. The former was unable to mea-
sure, or even to understand, the power of con-
science, and when he found that he had con-
verted the best part of the church and people
of Scotland into coniirmed recusants, he saw
the blunder he had committed, and trembled
at the thoughts of the triumph of his rival
and the displeasure of the king. Nor was the
primate more at ease at the effects of a deed

' Burnet; Wodrow; Kirkton,

upon which he had not been consulted, and of
which he was not even apprised until he saw
the proclamation of the act in print, and when
it was too late to interfere. His design, and
that of the more cautious prelates, had been to
eject the most able of the hostile ministers by
degrees, filling up their places by men of char-
acter and education; and to continue this silent
process of weeding until Presbytery had died
out and Prelacy been established in its room.-
But this mad attempt had ruined all, and
taught the nation the amount of their danger
and the necessity of resisting it. In the mean-
time the council returned to Edinburgh, like
truant schoolboys, and endeavoured by peni-
tence to repair their error ; they summoned the
archbishops in all haste to aid them with their
counsel, and the result was a proclamation that
the ministers ejected by the Glasgow act might
return to their charges by applying to the
jjatrons for presentation, and to the bishops for
collation, before the 1st of February, 1663.
But it was too late, and the indemnity might
as well have been proclaimed to the winds.
How to fill up the unseemly gap was then the
principal difficulty, and the result of this attempt
can be best given by the following account of
Bishop Burnet: "There was a sort of an invita-
tion sent over the kingdom like a hue-and-cry,
to all persons to accept of benefices in the west.
The livings were generally well endowed, and
the parsonage-houses were well built and in
good repair; and this drew many very worth-
less persons thither, who had little learning,
less piety, and no sort of discretion. . , . They
were generally very mean and despicable in all
respects. They were the worst preachers I
ever heard ; they were ignorant to a reproach ;
and many of them were openly vicious. They
were a disgrace to their orders and the sacred
functions, and were indeed the dreg and refuse
of the northern parts. Those of them who
arose above contempt or scandal were men of
such violent tempers that they were as much
hated as the others were despised. This was
the fatal beginning of Episcopacy in Scotland,
of which few of the bishops seemed to have any
sense : Fairfoul, the most concerned, had none
at all, for he fell into a paralytic state, in which
he languished a year before he died." After
this statement the account which the Presby-
terian Kirkton gives of these ministers will
excite little surprise. He characterizes them as
raw needy lads and unscrupulous place-hunters,
"who had all the properties of Jeroboam's
priests, miserable in the world, and unable to
subsist, which made them so much long for a

"^ Burnet.

138

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1662-1667.

stipend. So they went to their churches with
the same iutention as a shepherd contracts for
herding a fiock of cattle. A gentleman in the
north, it is said, cursed the Presbyterian min-
isters, because, said he, 'since they left their
churches we cannot get a lad to keep our cows;
they turn all ministers.'"

The imposition of such ministers a.s the spirit-
ual teachers of the nation, though in itself an
intolerable evil, might have been lightened had
the people been left to their own choice ; in this
case nothing worse would have happened than
voices crying in the wilderness that were not
worthy of a hearing. But even to refuse
attendance upon such woi-thless ministrations
was not left free to the popular choice, for by
the act of the 23d of December the refusal of
any one to attend the parish church was visited
with a fine, and the pastors could employ the
soldiers to exact the penalty. They could thus
obtain the luxury of an audience or revenge for
a refusal. Symptoms of resistance began to
show themselves, but they were chiefly from
boys and women. At Irougray, from which
John Welsh, its beloved pastor, was ejected,
the women rose against the soldiers by whom
his successor was protected, and entrenching
themselves behind the kirk-dyke, fairly put
them to the rout with volleys of stones. For
this deed of war Margaret Smith, the leader of
these Amazons, was brought to Edinburgh for
trial ; but she so moved the sympathy of her
judges that she was let otf unpunished.^ On
another occasion a minister, annoyed by the
scantiness of his congregation, commanded the
women of the parish to attend church on the
following Sunday, on pain of being informed
against and fined. They came, but each brought
a baby in her arms; and when the minister,
overwhelmed with a chorus of squalling, re-
buked the mothers for bringing their infants,
they excused themselves on the plea that they
could not leave their helpless babes at home.-
A herd-boy, having found a nest of ants, emptied
them into the parson's wide boots before he
proceeded to the pulpit, and grinned with his
companions at the reverend sufferer's posturings
as soon as the insects began to bite.^ Some-
times the annoyances assumed a lighter form ;
the tongue of the bell would be stolen, so that
the congregation could not be called together;
or the church door nailed up, so that the parson
had to enter by the window. These and other
such molestations were usually inflicted only
by the young or unreflecting; in the eyes of the
generality of Presbyterians the public calamity
was too serious for mirth, and too deeply-seated

Kirkton.

- Wodrow's Analecta.

3 Kirkton.

to be moved by such petulant acts of resist-
ance.

While Middleton was hopelessly endeavour-
ing to retrieve his error his career wtis drawing
to a close; the machinations of his rival, Lau-
derdale, had prevailed, and he was summoned to
give answer to the various charges which were
brought against his administration in Scotland.
And these wei'e neither light nor few. He was.
accused of having deceived both the king and
the parliament ; of having passed acts without
consulting the king; of having ratified by the
touch of the sceptre an act by which those for-
faulted by the last parliament were exempted
from pardon, even though the royal clemency
should be interposed in their behalf. He was
accused of inflicting fines on the innocent, and
allowing the guilty to escape for a bribe; of
having misapplied the public money, and of
having usurped the right to ajjpoint a receiver
of the fines that belonged to the king. He was
also charged with having introduced a species
of ostracism, like that of the Athenians of old,
into his administration, by which ministers of
state, the servants of his majesty, were con-
demned by secret ballot, without trial, and
without the power of clearing themselves or
appealing to his majesty's clemency. The com-
missioner's answers to these charges, although
specious, were so unsatisfactory that the royal
confidence was shaken; and as Charles from hia
unbounded prodigality was always in want of
money, he was easily induced to believe that
the fines and imposts which should have flowed
into the royal treasury had been diverted into
Middleton's own coffers. While his fate thus
wavered in the scale one of the commissioner's
rash actions consummated his disgi-ace. Availing
himself of his rival's greediness and imijetuous
temper Lauderdale moved the king to write to
the Scottish council, commanding them not to
continue exacting the fines upon the recusants
until his further pleasure was announced, and to
dismiss the collector whom Middleton had ap-
pointed; and Middleton, alarmed at this arrest
upon his power to reward and punish, wrote to
the council countermanding the royal order, who
acted according to their commissionei^'s dictate.
Lauderdale hurried with the tidings to his
master; and although Middleton pleaded in his
justification that the king had given him a
verbal promise, through which he had been in-
duced to countermand the royal order, Charles
had either forgot or was unwilling to remember
any such promise.* The result was that Mid-
dleton was disj^laced from the management of

^ Sir George Mackenzie's History of Scotland ; Burnet ;
Lament's Diary.

a..D. 1662-1667.]

CHAKLES II.

13^

Scottish affairs and his successful rival exalted
in his room. The history of the fallen commis-
sioner after this overthrow was that which
usually points the moral at the close of the
narrative of a court favourite's career. After
sinking into his original obscurity he was sent
into a sort of honourable exile as governor of
the fort of Taugiers, where he soon experienced
a drunkard's death, by falling headlong down
the stair of his house and breaking his arm, the
bone of which protruding through the flesh
entered his side and inflicted a mortal wouud.^
Thus perished the Earl of Middleton, unre-
gretted by friends and enemies, and whose rise
and fall were equally owing to his worthless
principles, and his blind devotedness to a court
which threw him aside when his services were
no longer required.

While these political events were in progress
by which Middleton's power was broken the
cause of Episcopacy with which his proceedings
were identified was continuing to become more
unpopular. The contemptible character of the
new ministers, who were called the bishops'
curates, their immoral lives, and their inability
to preach and instruct, only served the more to
confirm the Presbyterian ism of the people and
increase their enthusiasm for the pastors of
whom they had been bereaved. And still a
remnant of the faithful witnesses were left to
them. As the Glasgow act only included those
ministers who had been inducted since 1649,
ther-e was still a considerable number of the
more aged of the clergy who had entered their
charges before that date, and whom the act
therefore did not touch. To these ministers the
people repaired in crowds, and often from dis-
tant parishes, until the severity of tlie fine im-
posed on them for such wandering imprisoned
them within their own locality. But this bri-
gading of the consciences of men only produced
the fruits that might have been expected : the
desecrated parish church became only the more
a prison and attendance upon its ministrations
a weary penance. In consequence also of the
difliculty of filling vacant charges, plentiful as
was the raw material for the purpose, several of
the ejected ministers were allowed to remain in
their parishes, although not in their manses.
These half-jDroscribed, half-silenced pastors be-
came more fervent in their family prayers and
more copious in their expositions of Scripture,
in consequence of which their people resorted
in great numbers to these devotional exercises ;-
and in this way those meetings grew, afterwards
denounced under the name of conventicles, which
had been applied to the similar meetings of the

1 Wodrovv ; Burnet.

'i Burnet.

English Puritans. When private dwellings could
no longer hold them they were assembled in the
open air, until the crowds amounted to hundreds,
and even to thousands. But alarm was already
excited at the headquarters of government, and
the Earl of Rothes, who had been appointed
commissioner, came down from London to sup-
press them. With him also came the Earl of
Lauderdale, who, although nominally only gov-
ernor of the castle of Edinburgh, had more po-
litical power than the other, and was the real
representative of the king in Scotland. We
have already seen the intrigues of this states-
man to obtain the place he coveted. He was
now no longer a zealous Covenanter and apolo-
gist of Presbyterianism : he had changed with
the spirit of the times, and become an implicit
king-server and courtier, ready to execute his
masters will as the best means of gratifying his
own vicious inclinations, and as ready under
such inspiration to uphold Episcopacy as he had
formerly been to oppose it. He was soon, indeed,
found a worse ruler than Middleton himself;
for while the latter acted upon headlong im-
pulses that were followed by intermittent fits
of inaction, the former acted upon cold, selfish
calculations that steadily pursued their aim,
and paused neither through sympathy nor fear.
His, indeed, was an administration under which
the rule of his predecessor, infamous though it
had been, was almost forgot.

The first meeting of the Scottish parliament,
which was held on the 18th of June (1663), gave
a foretaste of the government under which it was
to be ruled and the evil influence under which it
had fallen. Its introductory' proceeding was to
elect the Lords of the Articles, according to the
old and abrogated form, and establish it by law.
The clergy elected eight noblemen, the nobility
eight prelates; and this being done, the two
bodies met and chose eight barons and eight
commissioners. By this close -borough, self-
electing system the right of election was virtu-
ally in the hands of the prelates, and the whole
parliament subjected to the dictation of those
who were dependent on the crown. Their next
proceeding was to abjui'e the act of limitation
in the exercise of the 23i'erogative of royal clem-
ency ; and to this act they declared they had
given no warrant, although it stood inscribed
among the parliamentary records. The next
jM-ocess, which was entitled "An Act against
SejDaration and Disobedience to Ecclesiastical
Authority," was chiefly levelled against conven-
ticles and every kind of clerical ministration
except such as was sanctioned by the ruling
power. Accordingly it decreed that all ministers
who refused to attend their diocesan meetings
were to be dejirived ; and that if after this depri-

140

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1662-1667.

vatiou they continued to preach they were to be
punished asseditious. Every nobleman or heritor
who should wilfully absent himself from his
parish church on Sunday was to be amerced in a
fourth part of a year's rental ; every fanner and
tenant so trespassing was to lose a fourth part
of his movables ; and every burgess the same,
besides forfeiting his burgess ticket and under-
going whatever corporal punishment the privy-
council might be pleased to inflict. This law
was not likely to be exercised very gently, see-
ing the Archbishop of Glasgow, and Sharp him-
self, had lately been appointed members of the
privy-council. The act was commonly called
the "Bishops' Drag-net" — a net with which
they fished for men, although not according to
divine rule, and within the meshes of which
they entangled their victims, whether for fine
or bodily suffering. Another act enforced the
signing of the condemnation of the Covenants,
witliout which no person was eligible to any
public office; and to this it was added, that
such as refused to sign should also be deprived
of the privileges of merchandizing and trading.
The last proceeding of this parliament was an
off'er to his majesty of maintaining a standing
army of 22,000 foot and 2000 horse for the de-
fence of Christendom against the Turks. There
was now little danger from the Turkish power;
and if this offer was not a mere bravado of
loyalty, it may have been designed as a menace
to the enemies of royal absolutism and an evid-
ence of his majesty's resources should his Eng-
lish parliament again become rebellious.^

While the Scottish parliament was sitting in
Edinburgh the privy-council, under the direc-
tion of Archbishop Sharp, passed several acts
not only beyond their authority, but subversive
of whatever rights were still left to the Presby-
terians. Of these the most oppressive was one
called the Mile Act. By it all ministers included
within the act of Glasgow were ordered to re-
move themselves and their families within
twenty days out of the parishes where they
were incumbents, and not to reside within
twenty miles of the same, nor within six miles
of Edinburgh or any cathedral church, or
within three miles of any royal burgh within
the kingdom, under those peniUties inflicted on
the movers of sedition. As a previous prohibi-
tion, however, had been issued against any two
of the exiled ministers residing in the same
parish, it would have been geographically diffi-
cult, if not impossible, to find a place in the
whole extent of Scotland where the homeless
minister could pitch his tent without being

^Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, a.d. 1663; Macken-
zie's History.

liable to punishment. By another act passed
on the 7th of October those Presbyterian minis-
ters who had fled from Ireland to escape the
pei-secutions of the prelates in that country
were prohibited from preaching or residing in
Scotland under the penalties of sedition. By
another part of the same act the curates were
required to read from their pulpits the names
of their parishioners who absented themselves
from church, which would form sufficient
ground, if the absentees did not submit, of
issuing proceedings against them; and not only
civil magistrates, but all officers of the army,
were required to aid the ministers in the dis-
charge of their office, put the law in execution
against the nonconforming, and enforce the
penalties appointed by the parliament and
council.^ The curates were thus converted into
spies over their parishes, and the officers of the
army into tipstaff's, judges, and executioners.

While parliament and council were thus run-
ning a race of cruelty and oppression, the execu-
tion of Johnston of Warriston during this year
showed the earnestness of their zeal. He had
taken a prominent and leading part in all the
public events of the second reformation up to a
recent period; and while Charles II. was in
Scotland, he had reproved his moral delinquen-
cies with more candour than courtesy. This,
with his able opposition to the ambitious de-
signs of Charles I., and the jDertinacity with
which he prosecuted Montrose and his adher-
ents, until they ended their career on the scaf-
fold, were his principal off'ences; but as these
could not be charged against him, when similar
offenders were so abundant even among the
rulers of the day, he was threatened at the
Restoration with arraignment for having com-
plied with the government of Cromwell, by
whom he was promoted to the bench. But
aware of the vindictiveness of his enemies, and
knowing how useless it was to present himself
for trial, Johnston fled to the Continent, and
lived some time in concealment. While he was
at Hamburg, where in addition to the infirm-
ities of old age he had an attack of sickness,
he put himself under the care of Dr. Bates,
who had been physician first to Cromwell and
afterwards to Charles II.; but this practitioner,
either quack or .something worse, so completely
debilitated his patient by pei'nicious drugs and
copious blood-lettings, that nothing but the
shadow of his former self was left.^ His judg-
ment, once so quick and piercing, could no longer
be recognized, his memory was gone, and the
eloquence to which senates and General Assem-

2 Wodrow, vol. i. pp. 341-344.

3 Preface to Apologetical Relation.

A.D. 1662-1667.]

CHAELES II.

141

blies had listened with delight, was changed
into senseless maundering or idle repetition.
By continuing to persecute such a man a gov-
ernment could add little to his calamities/ and
must necessarily bring disgrace upon itself; but
this disgrace it was willing to incur, for the sake
of gratifying its love of vengeance. A worth-
less emissary of the court was commissioned to
hunt him down, and Warriston having inadvert-
ently gone to Rouen in Normandy, was given up
by the French king to his captor, who brought
him in triumph to Leith, and dragged him up
bareheaded and on foot to the Tolbooth. The
weak, bewildered old man, on being presented
before the council, imj^lored their clemency in
the words and with the demeanour of a child ;
but at this spectacle of the total wreck of a man
once so noble. Sharp and the prelates only
laughed. It was otherwise, however, with the
rest of the audience, whom it " moved with a
deep melancholy; and the chancellor [Glen-
cairn], reflecting upon the man's great parts,
former esteem, and the great share he had in
all the late revolutions, could not deny some
tears to the frailty of silly mankind."- It was
thought a work of gratuitous cruelty to con-
demn him, but Lauderdale, who knew the king's
resentment at Warriston, prevailed with the
judges, and the prisoner was sentenced on his
former attainder as a supporter of the usurping
government. He received the sentence of death
with dignity, and apologized for his late weak-
ness, the causes of which he stated. The cloud
was passing from his mind, and revealing him
as he had formerly been. On the night pre-
vious to his execution he slept soundly, and
awoke a renewed man ; and on his way to the
scaffold he frequently said to the people look-
ing on, " Your prayers, your prayers." On
ascending the ladder, in which he was assisted
by his friends, he fervently exclaimed, "I be-
seech you all who are the people of God, not to
scare at sufferings for the sake of Chi'ist, or
stumble at anything of this kind falling out in
these days, but be encouraged to suffer for him ;
for I assure you in the name of the Lord, he
wiU bear your charges." When turned over,
he expired without a struggle, and with his
hands lifted towards heaven.^

The curates and soldiers had now betaken
themselves to their commissioned work, the
curates as informers, and the military as officers
of justice. The persecution had commenced,
and under such executors it could not be other-
wise than irregular and severe. Every conven-
ticle was prohibited, every recusant of parish

1 Burnet.
' Naphtali.

2 Mackenzie's Histortj of Scotland.

church attendance watched and fined, while all
masters and householders were required to re-
move such persons fi'om their bounds. In these
attempts to convert the country the clergy
found an apt instrument in Sir James Turner,
one of those "booted apostles" of which the
country was soon after so prolific. Possessed
of considerable talent, as his work entitled
Pallas Armata testifies. Sir James had all the
brutal qualities of a mere soldier of fortune :
like Middleton, he had deserted from the Cove-
nant, and turned upon the party he forsook
with the rancour of a renegade ; and like him,
also, he was almost continually drunk, even when
the state of affairs required the utmost sobriety
and discretion.^ In consequence of receiving
orders from the privy-council to repair with
a body of troops to the west and south of Scot-
land, to establish church attendance and the
authority of the curates, he established his
headquarters at Glasgow, and sent his myr-
midons over the devoted districts to pillage and
compel at discretion. And well did they second
the zeal of their master by the nature of their
proceedings. As they were allowed to appro-
priate the fines which they levied, they often
exacted them to double the due amount; and if
the offending party were reluctant in paying,
they lived upon him at free quarters until the
girnel was emptied, after which they distrained
his goods, and sold them for a trifle. At the
close of the sei-mon in public worship, the curate
usually called over the roll of his parishioners,
and handed over the names of the absent to the
military to deal with them according to law.
Often also a less formal mode of reaching the
recusants was adopted. The soldiers would
repair to a house of public entertainment in the
neighbourhood of a church, from which the
Presbyterian minister had not yet been ejected,
and spend the time in drinking, until the reli-
gious services had nearly terminated, when they
sallied out and took their stations at the church
door. They would then demand of every per-
son coming out, upon oath, whether he belonged
to that parish, and those who could not declare
that they did were instantly apprehended and
fined, while those who could not pay had their
hats, bonnets, cloaks, outer clothing, and Bibles
taken from them in lieu of the money. In this
way a decent congregation would be suddenly
transformed into a crowd of stripped and terror-
stricken scarecrows, and the public worship be
productive of a noisy village auction in which
the forfeited goods were knocked down to the
highest bidder. It frequently happened, also,
that when the soldiers quartered themselves in

* Burnet.

142

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1662-1667.

a house of which the occupants either could not
or would not pay the tine, their lawlessness was
not confined to mere distraining ; they destroyed
whatever could not be converted into money,
interrupted and ridiculed the family devotions,
and tyrannized over the inmates whom they had
tlius reduced to beggary, until they converted
them into homeless wandei'ere on the highway.
Nor was this the worst of these military ex-
cesses, and in the fulness of their unrestrained
power the soldierj' were sometimes guilty of
those revolting otiences which they perpetrate
in the flush of victory, and upon the inhabitants
of a rebellious city which they have taken by
storm. And still there was no remeid. Charles
was buried in his sensual pleasures in Loudon,
a,nd if a thought of Scotland crossed him, it was
one of hatred or revenge. Eothes and Sharp,
the two royal vicegerents in Edinburgh, instead
of checking these military oppressions, actually
found fault with Turner for not acting up to
the full strictness and rigour of his commission.
And as for the aristocracy, upon whom the
Scottish commons had been wont to depend,
and to whom in their feudal devotedness they
had been accustomed to apply for redress, a
•change had passed upon them with the changes
of the period. London instead of Edinburgh
was now their capital, and court favour instead
of feudal power and popularity the mark of
their ambition. Emulous of rivalling the Eng-
lish nobility, who with no higher titles had far
superior revenues, they could only eke out their
scanty means by the royal favour, and were
willing to sell both their country and themselves
for pensions and profitable court appointments.
Noble exceptions indeed th ere were, but they were
unable to bear up against the general current.
They could no longer strengthen themselves by
bonds of man-rent, or be the kingliugs of their
little district, when the great lord of the state,
or the acts of parliament or council were against
them ; and to interpose in favour of the perse-
cuted Presbyterians could only bring them
under condemnation as the enemies of order
and the king. It was among the inferior
nobility, the barons of Scotland, that the open
friends of the Covenanters were still to be found.
They had been the first to adopt the cause of
the Reformation in the times of James V. ; and
in the reign of his unworthy descendant, Charles
II., they still continued to furnish a remnant
•who adhered to it. They were too distant from
the court to be corrupted by its influence, and
reckoned too obscure and powerless to be courted
by its solicitatious.

Although the cause of Episcopacy was thus
urged to full speed, the complaint of Sharp was
that it was not driven fast enough; and nothing

would satisfy him but the establishment anew
of the Court of High Commission, of which,
like Laud, he should be the director. This
tyrannous court was accordingly restored on
the 16th of January, 1664, having nine ecclesi-
astical and thirty -five lay members, five of
whom, including one prelate, were sufficient to
form a quorum; and as Sharp was fii-st in the
commission, and to take precedence even of the
lord-chancellor, there was no likelihood that
such a court would fail through lack of energy.
Its powers were also more despotic than those
of its predecessor had been. They could sum-
mon before them and punish all the deposed
ministers who presumed to preach, all persons
who attended conventicles, all who repaired to
meetings at fasts and sacraments, and all who
should speak, preach, write, or print against
Episcopacy. They were empowered to inflict
suspension or deposition from the ministry, to
punish by fine and imprisonment, to employ
the magistrates and military for the apprehen-
sion of recusant parishioners, and generally to do
and execute whatever they should judge fit in
such respects for the service of his majesty.^
With a court invested with such terrible j^ower,
and having Archbishop Sharp at its head, the
persecutions of the Presbyterians were resumed
with such vigour that soon the state officers
were confounded, and endeavoured to abate
them. Often, also, in the trials of this court
hearsay and presumption were accepted for
proofs, and its jounishments dictated by caprice
and not warranted by law. The consequence
was that the secular arm, to which the victims
of the High Commission were handed over for
the infliction of punishment, often refused to
second it. The judges and lawyers of these
courts had professional characters of their own
to support, which made them averse to such
proceedings; but when they showed their wish
to confine themselves to the statute-book Sharp
and his brethren were loud in outcries against
their remissness. The people, they said, were
so leagued and combined together that to find
full proof against offenders was impossible: and
was the church to be shipwrecked for law
punctilios? Such at length was the amount of
public whipping, branding, imprisoning, and
banishing of the Presbyterians, and the arro-
gance with which the High Commission ruled
over the land, that the proud nobles could no
longer endure this ecclesiastical predominance,
and the public discontent it occasioned was so
formidable that these obnoxious courts of in-
quisition were suff'ered to expire. They had,
however, already done their utmost, and were

Wodrow, vol. i. pp. 3S4-3S6 ; Burnet.

A.D. 1662-1667.]

CHAELES II.

143

now to die of inanition. It was said that of all
those who were brought before such a tribunal,
be the evidence what it might, none escaped
unpunished, and that at last its severities be-
came so tiagraut that the bishops could procure
neither judges to sit in it nor parties to come
forward to prosecute.^

Such was the dreary history of Scotland
during the years 1664 and 1665. The Presby-
terians as a body were stigmatized by Sharp
and his brethren under the name of fanatics,
and were punished as rebels. The emptiness
of the parish churches was compensated by the
fulness of the prisons. And if any escaped fine
or imprisonment it was often to endure the
more serious infliction of being transported to
the plantations, and there sold for slaves. A
fanaticism immeasurably transcending the wild-
■est and worst displays of Presbyterianism ani-
mated the prelates, so that the ruin of Scotland
itself seemed in their eyes a lesser evil than
failure in the establishment of Episcopacy. But
there was one striking instance of contrast, and
this we give in the following words of Bishop
Bui-net, who, though attached to his church and
order, was still more attached to true religion
and vital godliness ; and it shows that there
was still one faithful Abdiel among the faith-
less : —

" At that time Leighton was prevailed on to
go to court, and to give the king a true account
of the proceedings in Scotland ; which, he said,
were so violent that he could not concur in the
planting the Christian religion itself in such a
manner, much less a form of government. He
therefore begged leave to quit his bishopric and
to retire; for he thought he was in some sort
accessory to the violences done by others, since
he was one of them, and all was pretended to
be done to establish them and their order.
There were indeed no violences committed in
his diocese. He went round it continually
every year, preaching and catechizing from
parish to parish. He continued in his private
and ascetic course of life, and gave all his in-
come, beyond the small expense of his own
person, to the poor. He studied to raise in his
clergy a greater sense of spiritual matters and
of the care of souls, and was in all respects a
burning and shining light, highly esteemed by
the greater part of his diocese ; even the Pres-
byterians were much mollified, if not quite
overcome, by his mild and heavenly course of
life. The king seemed touched with the state
that the country was in ; he spoke very severely
of Sharp, and assured Leighton he would quickly
come to other measures, and put a stop to those

Kirkton; Apologetical Relation.

violent methods; but he would by no means
sufler him to quit his bishopric." Here the
modern friends of Episcopacy will naturally
exclaim, "0 si sic omnes/" Had all or even a
large portion of the bench of Scottish prelates
been like the eloquent, pious, pure-minded and
gentle Bishop of Dunblane, how soon these
ti'oubles might have been composed, if they had
ever arisen, and how gently and persuasively
the Church of Scotland might have been allured
into close and yet closer conformity with that
of England, until their differences had disap-
peared or been but of small account ! But
Leighton stood alone, and there was none to
second or succeed him. Unchecked by his ex-
ample his brethren went on in their vindictive
career of persecution, until the natural efi^ect
was to make the Scots more attached to their
down-trodden church, and more confirmed in
their Presbyterianism than ever. It was with
a branding- iron that Presbyterianism was
burned into the Scottish mind, so that it be-
came a deep and indelible national character-
istic.

The cliief dread of the bishops was the as-
sembling of conventicles, and to suppress them
their edicts had been especially severe. Not
only were the people punished for non-attend-
ance at the parish church, but doubly punished
if they repaired to these lonely meetings, which
were held by stealth, and in places least liable
to suspicion. And to incapacitate the ejected
ministers, and prevent them from collecting
such assemblies, all persons were prohibited
under severe penalties from making collections
for their support or ministering to their relief.
It was no idle dread with which these meetings
were regarded ; a community of grievances
would combine the frequenters of them against
their oppressors, and as the Scottish people had
but recently been a feudal militia they had
arms in their possession, and knew how to use
them. The employment of soldiers was there-
fore increased, and among other precautions
Sir James Turner was empowered to search
every house for arms, and carry them forcibly
away. On the 7th of December, 1665, finding
that conventicles were held and frequented
more than ever, the privy-council passed an act
for their eflfectual suppression, by which, in
addition to former prohibitions and j^enalties,
not only the privy-council might inflict these
penalties, but all who had or should have his
majesty's commission to that efi'ect. The inter-
pretation of this act invested every brutal sol-
dier with the power of punishing, as he acted
under royal authority ; and so understanding
it, he was not slow to reduce it to prac-
tice. He might seize, fine, drag to prison, or

144

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1662-1667.

punish as he saw fit all who frequented con-
venticles, or allowed them to be held in their
houses; and after this act military oppression
became more violent and intolerable. As if all
this had not been enough Sir James Turner
was sent early in the spring of 1666 into the
south and west counties to propagate Episcopacy
with fire and sword. It was a perilous com-
mission to grant to such a man, of whom we
are told, that "he was naturally fierce, but was
mad when he was drunk, and that was very
often." ^ His chief ravages extended over Niths-
dale and Galloway, and, in consequence of the ad-
ditional penalties against conventicles, were more
severe than ever; for whereas before offeudei's
were only responsible for their own deeds, the
innocent were now made responsible for the
guilty — landlords for their servants and tenants,
tenants for their landlords, and husbands and
fathei-s for their wives and children. These
formed such pretexts for exaction and spolia-
tion, that wherever the soldiers were quartered
the visit was signalized by impoverished house-
holdei-s and the peasantry driven out to beg on
the highways. Previous to this, also, gentle-
men had been respected, but now they were
exempted no longer; and men of mark and
substance, the inheritors of ancient names and
representatives of honoured houses, were subject,
equally with their hinds and cottars, to the in-
quisitorial trials and arrogant impositions of
the lowest soldiers in the ranks. By these mili-
tary occupations of the districts fifty thousand
pounds Scots were exacted in the west country
alone, and a much greater sum in Galloway
and Dumfriesshire, independently of what the
soldiers wasted and destroyed — for it was their
practice to destroy what provisions they did
not use, and break every article of furniture
that could not readily be converted into money. ^
Amidst these severities the patience of the
people was as wonderful as it was unwonted;
but it was a religious cause for which they were
suffering, and they contented themselves with
appealing to heaven when earthly redress was
denied them. Even an outbreak of the popular
feeling, which occurred at last, was entirely
accidental. In November, 1666, after seven
months of military devastation in the west, four
countrymen, who had been chased from their
homes and compelled to lurk among the moun-
tains and mosses of Galloway, happened to pass
through the village of Dairy in Dumfriesshire,
when they were informed that three or four sol-
diers were barbarously treating a poor old man
who was unable to pay the required fines. They
hastened to the spot and found the man lying

1 Burnet.

2 Wodrow; Naphtali.

on the ground, bound hand and foot, and the
soldiers threatening to strip him naked and lay
him on a red-hot gi-idirou. The countrymen,
unable to endure such inhumanity, interposed;
the soldiei-s drew their swords upon them, and
in the scuffle that ensued one of their number
was wounded by the shot of a pistol loaded w-ith
a piece of a tobacco-pipe. Upon this his com-
rades, as cowardly as they were cruel, surren-
dered, and the old man was set free. The coun-
trymen, knowing well that their lives were
forfeited by this act, resolved to die with
arms in theii' hands rather than ropes about
their necks, and being joined by some others,
they advanced to where a small party of sol-
diers were stationed, whom they captured and
disarmed, only one soldier who would not yield
being killed in the struggle. The insurgents
were quickly increased by fresh recruits, and
marching rapidly to Dumfries, they took Sir
James Turner, whom they found in bed, pris-
oner, and disarmed his soldiers. And now it
might have fared hard with this unlucky com-
mander, whose oppressions had made him odious
to the country; but on examining his papers
they found that he had even fallen short of the
severities prescribed by the bishops, upon which
he was spared by the solicitations of Neilson of
Corsack, whose propei'ty Turner's soldiers had
almost ruined. In proof also of their loyalty
they proceeded to the cross of Dumfries, and
drank his majesty's health and prosperity to his
government.^

As soon as tidings of this revolt reached Edin-
burgh the government was thrown into a panic
equal to their former confidence; they knew what
oppressive orders they had issued, and how faith-
fully they had been obeyed. A double portion
of this terror fell to the lot of Sharp, who, in the
absence of the Earl of Eothes, was president of
the privy-council, and therefore head of the
executive; and his preparations to meet the
difl[iculty showed the extremity of his fear.
Edinburgh was placed in a state of siege ; the
ferries of the Forth were secured, and the bridge
of Stirling barricaded ; expresses wei'e sent out
to all the noblemen of the south and west, com-
manding them to join the royal forces. But the
chief hope of the prelates was in Sir Thomas
Dalziel of Binns, an abler and more truculent
soldier than Turner, who had been trained in
the military service of Muscovy, and recalled by
the Scottish council to command its army when
these oppressive measures were to be enforced
by military coercion ; and as he was as inacces-
sible to pity as to fear, it was thought that he

3 Wodrow ; Kirkton ; Turner's Memoirs; Blackadder's
Memoirs.

A.D. 1662-1667.] CHAELES II.

would deal conclusively with the insurgents and
stifle the insurrection in their blood. He was
commissioned on this occasion to hold his head-
quarters at Glasgow, and act against the rebels
wherever his presence should be most required.
In the meantime the difliculties of this un-
fortunate rebellion, against which such imposing
preparations had been made, were hourly in-
creasing, for it had originated entirely in acci-
dent and grown without a plan. The council
summoned the insurgents by proclamation to lay
down their arms within twenty -four hours; but,
as no promise of indemnity was coupled with
this command, they knew that it was only a
summons to the gallows, and thought it better
to die in the field. They marched to Lanark,
where they mustered nearly three thousand
horse and foot, but imperfectly armed and
wholly undisciplined ; and although they had
been joined by Colonel Wallace, a brave enter-
prising officer, who became their commander,
their prospect of success was so desperate that
many were daily deserting them. At Lanark
they renewed the Covenant and drew up a short
statement of the causes of their rising, which
they declared to be " sinless self-defence" instead
of hostile aggression, and deliverance from their
numerous grievances, " the just sense of which,"
they said, " made us choose rather to betake
ourselves to the fields for self-defence than to
stay at home burdened daily with the calamities
of others and tortured with the fears of our own
approaching misery." They then advanced to
Edinburgh ; but, on approaching the city, they
found it so well fortified and occupied with
troops, that the hope of an entrance into the
capital, or reinforcements of their friends from
its guarded gates, were equally hopeless. Thus
disappointed, worn out with hunger and the
cold of a winter's march, and reduced to nine
hundred men, "who looked rather like dying
men than soldiers going to conquer," with Sir
Thomas Dalziel closely following on their track,
they fell back upon the Pentland Hills and
selected their place for a final stand upon Rullion
Green. Their situation was so well chosen that
Dalziel, when he came up with his numerous
and well-appointed forces, hesitated to attack
them. At last he sent forward a body of fifty
horse, who were met by an equal number of
mounted Covenanters and driven back to their
main body. It was but a momentary success
that gave dignity to their defeat ; when the
whole weight of the Royalist army fell upon
them, numbers, discipline, and weapons had
their usual efi'ect upon a weary, exhausted, un-
trained handful, and after a gallant but useless
resistance the insurgents were put to the rout.
About fifty were killed and as many taken

VOL. III.

145

prisoners; the rest escaped through the dark-
ness of the night, and the clemency of the
Royalist horsemen, who, being chiefly Scottish
gentlemen, had compassion for the fugitives, and
favoured their escape. This skirmish, called the
battle of the Pentlands, fought on the 28th of
November, 1666, was thus speedily ended, but
only to be followed by more intolerable suffer-
ings than the Covenanters had yet endured.^

By this victory of a regular army over a hand-
ful of untrained half-armed peasantry the hearts
of the prelates, which had yielded to despair,
rebounded into extravagant exultation. But this
change of feeling, instead of inclining them to
clemency, made them look with double hatred on
those who had caused their disquietude, and the
Pentland prisoners were the first on whom their
revenge was inflicted. After they had been
brought to Edinburgh to abide their trial Sharp,
who still presided in the privy-council during
the absence of Rothes in London, issued such
orders as he thought best calculated to improve
the victory. The lord-treasurer was required to
secure the property of all who had joined the
rising — an order which laid the greater part
of Ayrshire and Galloway under confiscation.
Dalziel was commanded to search for and ap-
prehend all persons who had given them coun-
tenance and shelter, and to quarter his troops
upon their lands. Soon afterwards a proclama-
tion was made, in which, after specifying many
gentlemen, ministers, and elders, who had been
concerned in the late rebellion, all subjects of
his majesty were prohibited from sheltering or
aiding them, and commanded to pursue, seize,
and deliver them up to justice, on pain of being
treated as accomplices in their crime, while the
curates were required to furnish lists of all per-
sons who were supposed to be concerned in any
way with the rising. Having issued these oi-ders
the council proceeded to the trial of those who
had been captured at Rullion Green. This
was but a short and an easy process, as their
condemnation had been previously deter-
mined. It was in vain for them to plead the
wrongs they had suffered, and the rights of self-
defence ; it was sufficient that they were con-
victed of rising and gathering in arms, and of
renewing the Covenant without and against the
king's authority and consent. It was in vain
that their advocate objected that these men had
surrendered on the assurance of quarter; it was
answered, that although spared in the field as
soldiers they were still amenable for their re-
bellion to the civil tribunal as subjects. After
a brief form of trial eleven were sentenced to

1 Colonel Wallace's ' ' Narrative of the Kising at Pentland "
in M'Crie's Memoirs of Veitch and Brysson.

85

146

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1662-1667.

death, but one died of his wounds before the day
of execution. The other ten on the 7th of De-
cember were hanged on one gibbet; their heads
were set up at Hamilton, Kilmarnock, and Kirk-
cudbright, and their right hands at Lanark,
where they had taken the Covenant.^ Among
those sutl'erers were Major John M'Culloch of
Barholm, Captain John Arnot, and two young
gentlemen, brothers, the Gordons of Knock-
breck. They all died with Christian constanc\-,
repelling with their dying testimony the charge
of rebellion. When the laws requiring them to
become Prelatists had been met simply by passive
forbearance, they were lined, imprisoned, beaten
like beasts of burden, scourged, and driven from
their homes to the mountains ; and when they
appealed against these iniquitous inflictions
their rulers had no pity, and the laws no redress.
But they did not die despairing of their cause,
or believing that their lives would be sacrificed
in vain, and the following conclusion of their
dying testimony expressed a prophetic hope
which future events realized: "We are assui-ed
though this be the day of Jacob's trouble, that
yet the Lord, when he hath accomplished the
trial of his own and filled up the cuj) of his ad-
versaries, he will awake for judgment, plead his
own cause, avenge the quarrel of his covenant,
make inquiry for blood, vindicate his people,
break the arm of the wicked, and establish the
just; — for to Him belongeth judgment and ven-
geance. And though our eyes shall not see it,
yet we believe that theSuu of Righteousness shall
arise with healing under his wings; and that he
will revive his work, repair the breaches, build
up the old wastes, and raise up the desolations;
yea, the Lord will judge his peonle and repent
himself for his servants, when their power is
gone, and there is none shut up or left." Well
might such men declare, as they did, " We would
not exchange lots with our adversaries nor re-
deem our lives, liberties, and fortunes at the
price of perjury and breach of the Covenant." ^
This public execution was followed by that of
other five, who suftered death on the 14th of
December, and the iniquity of their trial was ag-
gravated by counsel being denied them. But the
punishment of death was now to be refined upon
by the addition of torture, to make the prisoners
convict themselves and pronounce their own con-
demnation. The chief instrument used on this
occasion was the hoot, an instrumeiit used in
extreme cases in France, and that had not been
altogether unknown to the ancient Romans. It
consisted of a framework of four wooden boards
nailed together, into which the leg of the accused
who refused to confess was placed; and into this

1 Naphtali; Hind Let Loose.

Naphtali.

wedges of different sizes were successively in-
serted anil driven down by a heavy mallet, until
the flesh of the limb w;us burst, or the bones
shattered, according to the amount of infliction
that might be found necessary. By this horrid
instrument Neilson of Corsack, one of the Pent-
land insurgents, was now to be interrogated.
He had been fined and imprisoned, and after-
wards, with his wife and family, had been driven
from his home, and all his substance sold and
wasted by the soldiers who were quartered upon
him, because he refused to attend the ministra-
tions of his parish curate. It was not wonder-
ful that he should join the rising and hold a
command in it; but what was worthy of remark,
was his clemency in behalf of Sir James Turner,
whose soldiers had been quartered upon him, to
riot and waste at their pleasure ; and it was by
his earnest entreaty that the life of Sir James
was spared, when his incensed captors would
have put him to death. It was thought that
such a person must be privy to all the plans of
the late rebellion, of which Sharp and his coad-
jutors had sent up such alarming accounts to
the king, and which they were now anxious to
verify, in consequence of which Neilson was
interrogated under the torture of the boot, al-
though Turner, in a generous mood, had endea-
voured to obtain his pardon. But though the
instrument was applied, and though the mallet
descended, Neilson — "that meek and generous
gentleman," as he was justly described by his
acquaintances — either would confess nothing or
had nothing to confess, and continued to declare,
amidst his agonizing shrieks, that the rising was
unconcerted, and that nothing but the genei'al
oppression had caused it. This answer was so
unsatisfactory that Rothes, the commissioner,
who had returned from London, and now pre-
sided at the trial, repeatedly ordered the exe-
cutioner to " give him the other touch." It was
only when he had been mangled to the utmost
of endurance, and when nothing could be ga-
thered from his words, that he was sentenced
to die as a rebel against the king.^

Another victim of the torture was Hugh
M'Kail, a preacher or licentiate. Distinguished
by learning, eloquence, and piety, he had been
licensed at the early age of twenty ; but Episco-
pacy being newly introduced, his last sermon
was preached in Edinburgh, in which he stated
that " the Church of Scotland had been perse-
cuted by a Pharaoh on the throne, a Haman in
the state, and a Judas in the church." Although
he made no application of these cases to the
present state of affairs. Sharp suspected himself
to be meant by Judas, and sent a party of horse

* Wodrow.

A.D. 1662-1667.J

CHARLES II.

147

a few days after to appreheud the preacher ; bvit
M'Kail haviug got warning of the primate's
design, saved himself by flight, and during four
years was obliged to lead a life of exile upon
the Continent. On the rising in the west he
joined the insurgents, and accompanied them in
their march, but was taken prisoner before they
had reached Rulliou Green. Although there was
thus nothing on which to found a capital convic-
tion, it was thought that he had been privy to
the whole design, which his judges still persisted
in terming a deep-laid conspiracy; and to make
him reveal the several branches of the plot and
its chief agents he was subjected to the torture
of the boot. His youth — for he was only
twenty-six years old— and the enfeebled state
of his health had no effect upon his judges ; and
the crushing wedges were driven home with ten
or eleven strokes, all of which he received
without a mui-mur. Before the last stroke was
dealt he solemnly protested that heknewnothing
more than he had already told them ; that he
believed the insurrection to have been a sudden
rising, occasioned by the discontent of the people
with Sir James Turner; and that though all
the joints in his body were to be tortured as his
poor leg had been he could reveal uothiugfurther.
After this infliction, which was so much more
than law or justice conld warrant, instead of
being set free, he was condemned to die with
the rest. During his short stay in prison pre-
vious to execution he chiefly employed himself
in sustaining the courage of his fellow-prisoners;
and when a friend wondered at his cheerfulness,
and asked how his shattered limb was, he jo-
cosely answered, " The fear of my ueck makes
me forget my leg." When he was brought out
to the scattbid his youth, his comely appearance,
and the suff"ering he had vindergone produced
such a thrill of emotion among the crowd that
all were melted into tears : " there was such a
lamentation," says Kirkton, " as was never
known in Scotland before ; not one dry cheek
■upon all the street or in all the numberless
windows in the market-place." As for M'Kail
himself, he was the only one who showed neither
dejection nor sorrow, and when he heard the
general lamentation he said, "Your work is not
to weep, but to pray that we may be honourably
borne through — and blessed be the Lord, that
supports me. Now," he continued, " as I have
been beholden to the prayers and kindness of
many since my imprisonment and sentence, so
I hope you will not be wanting to me now in
this last step of my journey, that I may witness
a good confession." He then explained to them
the ground of his consolation by reading to
them the last chapter of the Apocalypse.
When the rope was put round his neck and

the napkin over his eyes he raised the handker-
chief from his face to utter a last farewell en-
couragement. "I hope," he said, "you per-
ceived no alteration or discouragement in my
countenance and carriage; and as it may be
your wonder, so I profess it is a wonder to my-
self, and I will tell you the reason of it: besides
the justness of my cause, this is my comfort,
which was said of Lazarus when he died, that
' the angels did carry his soul into Abraham's
bosom;' so that as there is a great solemnity
here of a confluence of people, a scaffold, and a
gallows, and people looking out at windows, so
is there greater and more solemn preparation in
heaven of angels to carry my soul to Christ's
bosom. Again, this is my comfort, that it is to
come into Christ's hands, and He will present
it blameless and faultless to the Father, and
then shall I be ever with the Lord." With
heaven thus opening to his view he passed into
that burst of rapture which no triumjjhant fare-
well to earth and time has ever surpassed :
" And now I leave to speak any more to crea-
tures, and turn my speech to thee, O Lord ;
now I begin my intercourse with God which
shall never be broken off. Farewell father and
mother, friends and relations; farewell meat
and drink; farewell sun, moon, and stars!
Welcome God and Father; welcome sweet
Lord Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant ;
welcome blessed Spirit of grace and God of all
consolation, welcome glory, welcome eternal
life, welcome death ! "^ Thus passed the youth-
ful martyr from earth to heaven, as if, like the
Tishbite of old, he had been borne to immortality
without tasting the bitterness of death. Not-
withstanding the degrading adjuncts of an exe-
cution, who of his proudest pei'secutors but had
cause to exclaim, " May my last end be like
his!"

These inflictions which we have mentioned
did not comprise the whole punishment of the
Pentland insurrection : other executions fol-
lowed at Glasgow, Ayr, and Irvine ; and several
persons, to make their death the more bitter,
were hanged at the doors of their own houses.
But in every case they repudiated the charge of
rebellion, and vindicated their loyalty to the
last — a loyalty which their time-serving enemies,
who forsook the Stewart race in their hour of
need, were too base to imitate. Of this assurance
we have the dying testimonies of the sufl'erers
themselves, who were careful to vindicate their
creed from the political aspersions which were
thrown upon it. They all owned the authority
of the king, and were ready to submit to any-
thing but Episcopacy, which he had no right to

'Wodrow; Kirkton; Naphtali.

148

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1662-1667.

inflict ; and remembering that he, too, had taken
the Covenant, their highest wish was that their
complaints should reach the royal ear and their
ecclesiastical oppression be removed by constitu-
tional authority. Such was the declaration of
the ten condemned men who, after the sup-
pression of the Pentland insuiTection, were
hanged on one gibbet. "We are condemned
by men," they said, " and esteemed by many as
rebels against the king, whose authority we
acknowledge. But this is our rejoicing, the
testimony of our conscience, that we suffer not
as evil-doei-s, but for righteousness, for the
"Word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ,
and particularly for our renewing the Coven-
ants, and in pursuance thereof defending and
preserving ourselves by arms against the usur-
pation and insupportable tyranny of the prel-
ates, and against the most unchristian and in-
human oppression and perseci;tion that ever
was enjoined and practised by unjust rulers
upon free, innocent, and peaceable subjects.
. . . We declare in the presence of God,
before whom we are now ready to appear, that
we did not intend to rebel against the king and
his just authority, whom we acknowledge for
our lawful sovereign." ^ Another of the Pent-
land victims, a preacher, and who served in the
insurrection as a captain, has the following
woi'ds to the same eflFect : " I do solemnly de-
clare, as a dying man, that I had no worse de-
sign than the restoring of the glorious work of
reformation according to the Covenant, and
more particularly the extirpation of Prelacy, to
which his majesty and all his subjects are as
much obliged as I. And let that be removed
and the work of reformation be restored and I
dare die in saying that his majesty shall not
have in all his dominions more loving, loyal,
and peaceable subjects than those who for their
non-compliance with Prelacy are loaded with
reproaches of fanaticism and rebellion."- Many
other such declarations might be quoted expres-
sive of the loyalty of the sufferers, their abhor-
rence of rebellion, and their willingness to obey
in all points except where a higher authority
than the king's interposed. But these dying
testimonies, so much at variance with the
charges brought against them, were so incon-

1 Joint Testimony of the ten executed December 7th,
1666; Naphtali.
'•'M'Crie's Sketches of Scottish Church History.

venient to the ruling powers that it was found
necessary to drown in noise what they could
not refute ; and this was done by the beating of
drums at the scaffold as soon as their victims
introduced this part of their testimony.

But guarded though the throne was from
every Scottish appeal while this work of cruelty
was going on, and immei-sed though he was iu
pleasures, to the neglect of his kingly duties,
Charles could not be kept iu utter ignorance of
the misery of his northern subjects and the
mismanagement of those to whom the adminis-
tration of government had been intrusted. After
the first executions for the affair of Pentland he
sent down a letter to the privy-council command-
ing that no more lives should be taken; but this
order was concealed by Sharp, and Burnet, Arch-
bishop of Glasgow, and in the meantime M'Kail
and the others whom it would have saved were
brought to the scaffold.^ Sharp was not likely
to forget the preacher's sermon about a "Judas
in the church " when the ojDportunity of requital
had arrived. He also in this manner exacted
satisfaction for the terror into which the report
of the insurrection had thrown him. When the
tidings had arrived in Edinburgh he was thrown
into such a fit of consternation that he applied
for an armed guard for the protection of his
dwelling. But the soldiers so greatly disliked
this duty, and were so eager for a practical joke
at the primate, that they deafened the night
every half-hour with false alarms, as if the
enemy were upon them, until the ai'chbishop,
exhausted with fear and want of repose, was
fain to leave his house and lodge in the castle.*
The reticence that made him conceal the royal
order not only displayed the depth and mean-
ness of his rancour, but the confidence he placed
in the tranquil indifference of the king and his
knowledge that the fault would be overlooked.
But it was generally known, and only too well
remembered, when the hour of retribution came
with a revengefulness equal to his own.

=■ Wodrow ; Kirkton ; Memoirs of Veitch and Brysson.
" His [M'Kail's] death was the more cried out on, because
it came to be known afterwards that Burnet, who had
come down before his execution, had brought with him a
letter from the king, in which he approved of all that they
had done; but added, that he thought there was blood
enough shed, and therefore he ordered that such of the
prisoners as should promise to obey the laws for the future
should be set at liberty, and that the incorrigible should
be sent to the Plantations."— Burnet's History of His Otvn
Time, vol. i. p. 237. * Kirkton.

A.D. 1667-1678.]

CHAELES II.

149

CHAPTEE XIII.

REIGN OF CHARLES II. (1667-1678).

Dalziel's proceedings after the battle of Pentland — Instances of his cruelty — He is imitated by Sir Mungo
Murray and Sir William Bannatyne — Atrocious deeds of Bannatyne — General statement of the sufferings
of the Presbyterians — Act passed against absentees — Interval of relief to the persecuted — Causes of the
change — Bond required of the Presbyterians — Its unreasonable character — Turner and Bannatyne dis-
carded— Severe enactments against conventicles — Season of relief interrupted — Attempt of James Mitchell
to assassinate Archbishop Sharp — Persecution in consequence renewed — Increase of conventicles — The
First Indulgence — Its conditions — Its conciliatory purpose marred by Sharp — Dissensions created by the
indulgence — Parliament held — It is opened by Lauderdale — Its ample recognition of the king's supremacy
— It passes the Militia Act — Devices of the prelates to counteract the indulgence — Fresh persecution of
conventicles — The military called in to inflict it — Resistance provoked by military interference — Parlia-
ment again meets — Its acts for the detection of those who frequented conventicles — Unnatural cruelty of
these acts — Field conventicles — Account of a field conventicle held in Merse — Harmless character of these
meetings — Lauderdale's intrigues for power at the expense of his country — Leighton made Archbishop of
Glasgow — His plan of a modified episcopacy — It satisfies neither party — Opposition offered to it by both
— Leighton endeavours to recommend it by a popular mission — The mission unsuccessful — New severities
against the Presbyterians — Increasing power of Lauderdale — He holds a new session of parliament — It
betrays symptoms of opjiosition — Its act against unlawful ordination — It compels the preachers to study
and be ordained in HoUand — The Second Indulgence — It succeeds no better than the first — Lauderdale's
power becomes insecure — His grants of monopolies opiDosed— Parties against him in the parliament — The
parliament prorogued — A deputation repairs to London to complain of Lauderdale's administration — Cold
reception of the deputation by the king — He is obliged to dismiss it with fair promises — Hope of the
deputation to overthrow Lauderdale in parliament — They are disappointed by a sudden adjournment and
prorogation — They again repau- — Theii- caution in shunning to commit themselves — Lauderdale's triumph
over all his opponents — He forms a new council subservient to his interests — Fresh enactments and harsh
proceedings against conventicles — They increase amidst the opposition — A petition of the women of Edin-
burgh for liberty of conscience — Their severe treatment from the council — Persecution directed against
the gentlemen who patronized conventicles — Garrisons established in their houses — Letters of intercom-
muning inflicted — Their peculiarly oppressive nature— Wrath of the prelates at the endurance of Presby-
terianism — They devise new severities — Case of Kirkton and Baillie of Jerviswood — Increasing boldness of
conventicles — More soldiers demanded to suppress them — The Highland Host raised — It is quartered upon
the western districts — Its lawless proceedings — The statute of law-burrows applied by the king against
his Scottish subjects — A deputation goes to London to complain of this application — Charles refuses to
receive the deputation— Some of the obnoxious burdens removed — Apprehension of James Mitchell — He
confesses his attempt to take the life of Sharp on a promise of pardon — He is sent to prison — He is again
tried and tortured — His fruitless appeal to the promise on which he had confessed— The reaUty of the
promise denied and reference to the council records refused — Mitchell sentenced to death and executed.

In proportion to the fear of the prelates at
the rebellion in Dumfriesshire, was their triumph
at its suppression at Pentland: they thought
that their worst dangei's were buried in the un-
timely grave into which their victims had been
hurried, and that henceforth no tongue would
be bold enough to move against them. A simi-
lar delusion seems to have taken possession of
Dalziel ; and to improve his victory, he, in the
beginning of 1667, marched into the west coun-
try with a considerable body of his troops, to
harass the Presbyterians into submission. He
established his headquarters at Kilmarnock,
and there pursued his vocation with such suc-
cess, that in a few months, by the imposition of
fines and the quartering of soldiers, he had ex-
acted from it to an amount of more than fifty
thousand marks.

His extensive plunder, however, was nothing
compared with the manner in which it was ex-

acted; and here Dalziel acted like some Musco-
vite, fighting, slaughtering, and ruling over some
rebellious Tartar province. Without proof,
without accusation, but merely on suspicion,
which was enough for his purpose, he sum-
moned before him the neighbouring heritors or
whomsoever he pleased ; and if they had money
few escaped conviction and fine, however inno-
cent they might be of oflPence. If they denied
the crime of partici^Dating in the late rebellion,
or sympathy with its agents, he not only threat-
ened but inflicted torture to obtain confession ;
and one favourite place which he used for this
purpose was called the Thieves' Hole. This
was an ugly dungeon in Kilmarnock, into which
the merely suspected were thrust, where they
could obtain no rest, but were obliged to remain
standing night and day. In this confinement
when one man fell dangerously sick, Dalziel
would not let him out until two compassionate

150

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1667-1678-

pei'sous became bail for him; and Avheu lie
granted their petition, he bound them to bring
back the prisoner at the ai)i)ointed time whether
living or dead. The man died ; the sureties
brought back the body to the prison door : and
there the savage commander allowed it to lie
for a considerable time before he allowed it to
be buried as a special favour. On another oc-
casion a man was tried for having been at
Lanark when the insurrection was in that
quarter. On examination he stated that he
had not joined the insurgents, that he had been
in the town only a short time upon business,
and that he could give no account of the rich
pei-sons there. Incensed that such a testimony
could not be turned to a protitable account by
imposing fines on the rich men of Lanark, Dal-
ziel ordered the man to be led out and immedi-
ately shot. The lieutenant, unable to believe
that his commander was in earnest until Dalziel
repeated the order, went out to the man, who
had been as sceptical on the subject as the lieu-
tenant himself, and announced to him the posi-
tive order of the general. The other craved
but one night to prepare for death, and the
lieutenant carried his request to Dalziel, and
backed it with his own entreaty; but the savage,
scowling at his officer and reiterating his com-
mand, added, that he would teach him to ohey
without scruple. The poor man was accordingly
shot, and afterwards stripped naked and left on
the spot. A sergeant who had him in keeping
during the interval, and led him to his house,
had fallen asleep when the sentence was exe-
cuted ; but when he learned what had happened,
he sickened and died in a day or two after.^
Another instance of still more refined cruelty
was exercised upon a woman who dwelt near
Kilmarnock. A man chased by a party of
soldiers ran into her house, passed out by an
opposite door without stopping, and effectually
concealed himself in a ditch hard by, where he
hid himself by standing to the neck in water.
Baulked of their prey the soldiers questioned
the woman, who could only answer that a man
had run through her house, and that slie knew
nothing of him. This was enough : he had
been in her house, and she had failed to pro-
duce him. They carried her to Kilmarnock,
and there she was sentenced to be let down
into a deep pit, under the house of the dean,
near Kilmarnock, where a garrison was sta-
tioned ; and as the pit was full of toads and
other loathsome creatures, her shrieks were
heard at a great distance, while none dared to
intercede for her, knowing that a similar punish-
ment would be the reward of their humanity.^

1 Kirkton ; Wodrow.

2 Idem.

These atrocities of Dalziel, whichhehad learned
in the Muscovite service, and which had all the-
freshness of originality in the eyes of the mili-
tary persecutors in Scotland, were emulously
followed by the other officers to whom the
country was given up. Of these w-as Sir Mungo
Murray, one of whose doings will suffice for
the man and the character of his proceedings.
While he was scouring the country with a band
of soldiere in quest of fugitives, he was informed
of two countrymen who had given a night's
lodging to two Pentland insurgents on their
return to their home. Sir Mungo immediately
caused them to be apprehended ; but having no
better evidence than hearsay, he endeavoured
to procure further proof by hanging them up
by their thumbs all night to a tree. This was
done, and the wretched sufferers would proba-
bly have died before the morning, had not some
of the soldiers privately cut tliem down at the
risk of taking their place.^ Amidst such dark-
ening scenes of cruelty, it is gratifying to find
such incidental gleams of generous compassion,
and that however brutified the officers might
be, they had soldiers who could be ashamed of
their deeds.

But almost equalling Dalziel himself was Sir
William Bannatyne,whoheldaconsiderable mili-
tary command, and used it for the gratification
of his cruelty and avarice. In the parish of Earl-
ston, one David M'Gill, who had been at EuUion
Green, and whom the pursuers sought to appre-
hend, escaped detection in women's clothes.
When this fact was ascertained, it was assumed
that his wife had furnished the disguise and
aided his escape ; and either to jDunish her, or
force her to confess where her husband was
concealed, she was bound, and lighted matches
were placed between her fingers for several
hours. The agony of this infliction well nigh
drove her distracted; she lost the use of her
hands, and in a few days after died. Sir
William Bannatyne's soldiers scoured and
plundered the country round, bringing the ac-
cused, whom they stripped half-naked by the
way, to their garrison, where they thrust them
into loathsome dungeons, and only let them out
as a special favour when their lives were in
danger. On one occasion, when drinking in a
country inn, Bannatyne himself made an in-
decent attempt on the landlady; her husband
interposed, on which Sir William felled him to
the ground, and was about to run him through
the body, when a gentleman who was present
jarevented him : a struggle commenced, and the
gentleman proving the stronger, Bannatyne
was obliged to halloo to the soldiers who were at

3 Wodrow.

A.D. 1667-1678.]

CHAELES II.

151

the door to come to the rescue. The gallant
interposer was bound with his head between
his kuees, and his hands behind his back, and
kept in this uncomfortable condition all night
and part of the next day, until his friends came,
and gave bond for his reappearance. This
gentleman also, it is added, was not a fanatic
but a Eoyalist, and had been with the king's
army at RuUion Green. But Bannatyne's
cruelties, murders, oppressions, and other deeds,
of which the foregoing is a specimen, were so
many and flagitious that his employers soon
grew ashamed of him. His spoliations were
also correspondent to his other atrocities, so that
wherever he came, the parish was devoured by
the free-quarterings of his soldiers, and the fines
he almost indiscriminately levied on all who
were able to pay. Among those unscrupulous
imposts was a fine of fifty marks upon a farmer
in Carsphairn, against wliom no fault was
alleged. Confounded at this undesired distinc-
tion, the astonished rustic exclaimed, " What
am I fined for ] " " Because," replied Sir William
coolly, " you have gear, and I must have a part
of it."i

We now gladly close the account of the
persecutions of this period, which are too heart-
sickening to be further particularized, with the
following statement of Burnet : " Thus this re-
bellion, that might have been so turned in the
conclusion of it that the clergy might have
gained reputation and honour by a wise and
merciful conduct, did now exasperate the coun-
try more than ever against the church. The
forces were ordered to lie in the west, where
Dalziel acted the Muscovite too grossly. He
threatened to spit men and to roast them ; and
he killed some in cold blood, or rather in hot
blood, for he was then drunk when he ordered one
to be hanged because he would not tell where
his father was, for whom he was in search.
When he heard of any that would not go to
church he did not trouble himself to set a fine
upon him, but he set as many soldiers upon him
as should eat him up in a night. By this means
all people were struck with such a terror that
they came regularly to church. And the clergy
were so delighted witli it that they used to
speak of that time as the poets do of the golden
age. They never interceded for any compassion
to their people, nor did they take care to live
more regularly or to labour more carefully.
They looked on the soldieiy as their patrons;
they were ever in their company, complying with
them in their excesses ; and if they were not
much wronged, they rather led them into them
than checked them for them. . . . Things of

* Wodrow,

SO strange a pitch in vice were told of them
that they seemed scarce credible."

Although the money obtained by fine and
plunder was so ample, it was still insufficient
for the inordinate cravings of the Royalists and
supporters of Episcopacy, and in looking about
for fresh sources of gratification their search
was speedily gratified. It was found that to
save their property or persons many of the rich
Whigs had temporarily left the country, and
as it was a jirinciple in Scottish law that no
pei-sons could be tried during their absence,
their estates were thus supposed to be secure
from confiscation. But such necessary flight
and voluntary exile were no longer to be an
available defence, and a question was brought
before the Court of Session whether a person
guilty of high treason might not be tried,
though absent, and on proof of his guilt con-
demned to death and forfeiture ? On tliis ques-
tion being proposed to the privy-council an
answer was returned in tlie affirmative, and it
was asserted that as sentence for treason was
IJassed upon parties already dead, it could still
more be jsronounced upon those who were vol-
untarily absent, as they sought to defeat the
ends of justice by their absence. So satisfac-
tory a reply, which was against established
usage and an express statute of James VI., was
speedily followed by an accusation against
twenty-two absentees for having been partakers
in the rebellion of Pentland, who were sentenced
to be executed as soon as apprehended, and
their estates wex'e in the meantime foi'feited
and shared among the champions of Episcopacy.
In this way some of the most considerable
families in Clydesdale and Galloway were ruined,
and the estates of Caldwell and Kerslaud came
into the possession of Dalziel and his lieutenant,
Drummond.2

Matters had now reached that extremity at
which a reaction is thought sure and certain,
and accordingly in 1667 a lull of persecution
occurred, and the Covenanters experienced a
temporary relief. This change, however, was
owing not to clemency or justice, but to mere
political necessity. By the declining jiopularity
of Lord Clarendon the Presbyterians were re-
lieved from the most influential opponent of
their cause. The higher nobility were weary
of the arrogance of the prelates, who, raised to
an equality with themselves, were unable to
bear their honours meekly or use their ^Jower
with moderation. The majority of the council
was composed of bishops, and officers of the
army who followed their leading, while the
Scottish barons of the council eschewed their

* Wodrow.

152

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1667-1678.

society and were ashamed of their pioceediugs.
It was now too distinctly seen that, under a
pretext of loyalty and zeal for the cause of
Episcopacy, Scotland had been given up to sul-
diers and prelates, who ruled and plundered it
at pleasure. In this excess Lauderdale foresaw
the downfall of his party and the loss of his
predominance in Scotland; and as he was not
a man to endure such privation tamely, he set
himself to work to counteract the influence
both of the hierarchy and the army, which
necessarily involved a change of rule in favour
of the Presbyterians. And as he was a favourite
of the king, the effect of his interested media-
tion was soon apparent. The most important
measure with the champions of Episcopacy was
to maintain the standing army upon which theu-
rule depended; and having obtained from the
Convention of Estates a grant of sixty thousand
pounds per month for its support, they applied to
the king for confirming the establishment of the
army, and their plans for the vigorous extinc-
tion of rebellion among his northern subjects.
But Charles, moved by Lauderdale, sent a letter
to the council, permitting them to imprison and
try all suspected persons, but without saying a
word of confiscating their estates. Then fol-
lowed the disasters of the w\ar with Holland, in
which the naval flag of Britain was lowered,
and the disgrace of Clarendon, the advocate of
the war, by which the Covenanters were de-
livered from the most powerful of their political
enemies, and the progress of his downfall was
signalized by royal orders dismissing Rothes
from his ofliice of commissioner, and command-
ing Sharp to confine himself to his diocese, and
not intermeddle with the affairs of govern-
ment. Sir Robert Murray was appointed lord-
justice clerk for Scotland, and his learning, up-
rightness, and moderation were a promise that
the trials would be managed with greater order
and impartiality. While the prelates were con-
founded at these changes, another proceeding
threw them into utter despair; it was a I'oyal
order to disband the army, on the permanence
of which their hopes had been chiefly founded.
As soon as the command arrived in Scotland
Burnet, Archbishop of Glasgow, exclaimed :
"Now that the army is disbanded the gospel
will go out of my diocese !" ^

In consequence of the removal of these re-
straints the difficulty of coercing Scotland and
maintaining tlie permanence of E2:)iscopacy be-
came the chief subjects of inquiry. After much
discussion in the council it was deemed that the
least objectionable mode was to require the
signature of a bond from all suspected persons,

1 Burnet ; Wodrow.

obliging themselves to keep the peace. The
bond was accordingly drawn up, in which the
subscriber bound and obliged himself to keep
the public peace, and not to take arms witliout
or against the king's authority; and to be re-
sponsible not only for himself but for all his
tenants and servants, under the forfeit of a
year's rent for his tenant and a year's wages for
his servant. Even under this limited form
there was likelihood enough of a goodly harvest
of forfeitures, although their course was to be
diverted into the royal treasury. But this was
not the chief perplexity which the bond occa-
sioned. The "public peace" — what did these
words mean? Did they imply consent to the
j^reseut form of government in the church as
well as the state ? and if they did, could a sincere
Presbyterian conscientiously subscribe the obli-
gation ? This perplexity, however, was happily
obviated, as the bond was tendered without
explanation and restriction, so that each might
subscribe with his own meaning attached to it.
An act of royal indemnity was also granted to
all who had been concerned in the late rebellion ;
but the restrictions were at each step of this
indemnity so multiplied that, as Wodrow ex-
presses it, " In the beginning it pardoned all,
in the middle very few, and in the end none at
all."

A breathing interval now succeeded to the
weary Covenanters, and although it was inter-
mixed with occasional severities, they were as
nothing compared with former inflictions. In
the beginning of 1668, also, an act of retributive
justice was inflicted upon two of their late
persecutors which gave promise of milder mea-
sures. The privy-council instituted an inquiry
into the conduct of Sir James Turner, and al-
though he proved that he had not exceeded his
commission he was dismissed the service. Sir
William Bannatyne, a still more atrocious crimi-
nal than Turner, was also brought to trial, and
in consequence of his barbarities he w^as sent into
banishment, and soon after he was killed at
the siege of Grave.- But Dalziel and Drum-
mond were left untroubled, and allowed to
enjoy their plunder in peace. The acts against
conventicles, also, instead of being abated, were
prosecuted with greater severity than ever. A
strict search was made, and outed ministers
banished from Edinburgh and other prohibited
places. A commission was granted to the Earl
of Linlithgow, who was in command of the
troops, to change the quarters of his soldiers at
pleasure, disperse conventicles, and apprehend
their officiating ministers and principal fre-
quenters, especially such as carried arms ; and

2 Wodrow; Sir J. Turner's Memoirs; Kirkton.

A.D. 1667-1678.]

CHARLES II.

153

the magistrates of boroughs were obliged to
give bond to the privy-couucil to suppress all
such meetings within their jurisdiction, and to
pay a certain line if any were held in it. In
consequence of these strict orders several of the
more eminent clergymen were apprehended and
imprisoned, and many conventicles dispersed.
Several, also, who had been imprisoned for
refusing to subscribe the bond were banished.
But still this period of comparative quiet was
gratefully felt by the Presbyterians as a relief,
and the same immunities which they enjoyed
were extended to their fellow-sutferers, the
Nonconformists of England. In consequence
of an interview with Bates, Baxter, and other
of the English Presbyterian ministers, Charles
had roundly declared that he had been too long
the king of a party, and that now he was re-
solved to be king of all his subjects. To add
to the relief of the Covenanters the Earl of
Tweeddale sought out several ejected ministers
who were under hiding, and proposed to them
certain conditions of indulgence which he hoped
to procure for them, and to which they could
give a cordial assent and welcome.^

These fair prospects, however, which probably
would never have been realized, as they depended
upon such a careless sovei'eign as Charles II.,
were suddenly terminated by the rash and
criminal act of one of the persecuted. James
Mitchell, a preacher who was involved in the
affair of Pentland, and exempted from the act
of indemnity, had brooded over the wrongs of
his church and country until his ill-regulated
religious enthusiasm was driven into frenzy ;
and in this state it occurred to him that he
might redress these wrongs, and do a deed ac-
ceptable in the sight of heaven, by despatching
Archbishop Sharp, the head of Scottish Prelacy.
Mitchell was evidently one of those overwrought
fanatics whom every church, sect, or party is
liable to produce under the maddening influence
of persecution, and who dishonours his cause
by some unwarrantable attempt to set it free.
Communicating his intention to none he watched
his opportunity of meeting with Sharp, and on
the lltli of July, having perceived the arch-
bishop's carriage drawn up at his own door to
receive him, he took his station where he could
best have a deadly aim. Sharp entered his
carriage and the pistol of the assassin was dis-
charged; but Honeyman, Bishop of Orkney,
who was stepping at that moment into the
carriage after the archbishop, received the shot
in his wrist, and the life of the primate was
saved. The place where this occurred was at
the head of Blackfriars' Wynd in Edinburgh.

' Burnet; Wodrow.

A cry arose that a man was killed, and the
people rushed to the spot; but when theii- in-
quiries were answered with, " It is only a bishop,"
they shrugged their shoulders and dispersed.
In the meantime Mitchell had deliberately
crossed the street, walked down Niddry's Wynd,
and reached his lodging, where, after merely
changing his clothes, he reappeared near the
spot with an air of unconcern. The hue-and-
cry, which was unsuccessful, was followed two
days after by a proclamation of the council, in
which they offered a reward of five thousand
marks for the apprehension of the principal in
this attempt, and free pardon to his accessories
who should give him up; but notwithstand-
ing the strictness of the search MitcheU re-
mained at large and unsuspected. But the
innocent did not escape, and several women who
were suspected of harbouring the assassins were
heavily lined and transported. Among these
was a lady who was threatened with the boot,
and would likely have been tortured but for a
silly jest of Rothes to the council, that " it was
not proper for gentlewomen to wear boots." ^

In consequence of this failure the resentment
of the ruling party was kindled afresh against
the Pi-esbyterians, and their persecution was
renewed. Sharp, whose courage moral or phy-
sical was never commensurate with his danger-
ous career, was trembling at this attempt upon
his life which might at any time be renewed,
while the council was indignant that such a deed
should be attempted and the agent be concealed
from their search. The crusade against conven-
ticles especially was keen during the early part
of the year 1669, and although the army had
been disbanded the fines against these illegal
assemblies had been renewed by an arbitrary
act of council, and collectors ap23ointed in the
disaffected districts to levy them. But the in-
crease of conventicles and the want of a military
force to suppress them had made the task of the
collectors diflicult, while the fines themselves
were lightly felt when they were unaccompanied
with soldiers for tax-gatherers. "Indeed," writes
Wodrow, " this year conventicles were like the
palm-tree, the more weights were hung upon
them, the more they grew ; and there were few
Presbyterian ministers in the west and south
but were preaching in their houses, and some
in barns, and some few in the fields." In this
state of affairs, and while the new tolerance of
Charles for the Presbyterians still lasted, the
Earl of Tweeddale proposed a plan of mutual
accommodation between them and the bishops,
which the king approved and signified on the
15th of July by letter to the council. By the

^ Naphtali; Wodrow.

154

HISTOKY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1667-1678.

proposals of this plan, "which was called the
First Indulgeuce, as many of the outed ministers
of 1662 as had lived peaceably and orderly in the
places where they had resided were to return
to the duties of their parish churches, jirovided
they were vacant, or be appointed to othere; and
that they should be entitled to the stipend of
their charges on condition of their receiving the
consent of the patron and collation from the
bishops, or refusing this, be only in possession
of the manse and glebe; that they should be
bound to attend presbyteries and synods, by
which was meant the bishop's courts that had
taken their name and place ; that they should
not allow people from other parishes to attend
their churches and receive ordinances; and that
these advantages should be forfeited if they
were guilty of seditious discourse in the pulpit
or elsewhere against the king. It was also de-
creed, that such of the outed ministers as had
behaved peaceably and orderly, and were not
re-entered or presented as aforesaid, should have
four hundred marks yearly allotted to them out
of the vacant churches for their maintenance,
until they were provided with churches; and
that even such as should give assurance to live
jDcaceably for the future should be allowed the
same yearly maintenance. "And seeing by these
orders (the royal Indulgence concluded) we have
taken away all pretences for conventicles, and
provided for the wants of such as are and will
be jieaceable ; if any shall hereafter be found to
preach without authority or keep conventicles,
our express pleasure is, that you proceed with all
severity against the preachers and hearers as
seditious persons and contemners of our author-
ity."i

This composition shared the usual fate of re-
ligious comjjromises ; it pleased neither party
and offended both. To the indignant bishops
the terms wei'e too favourable to the Presby-
terians, and the restoration of the old ministers
would be nothing less than the entire extinction
of Prelacy. But Sharp soothed them with the
promise that he would make this Indulgence a
bone of contention to the Presbyterians, and
this he hoped to eft'ect by reviving the old par-
ties of Eesolutioners and Protesters, and limit-
ing the grant to the former party.^ Accordingly
it was at first offered to ten ministers, by whom
it was thankfully accepted, but with the follow-
ing proviso, "We having received our ministry
fi-om Jesus Christ, with prescriptions from him
for regulating us therein, must, in the discharge
thereof, be accountable to him." This qualified
protest excited the indignation of the council,
who i-egarded it as a denial of the king's su-

1 AVodrow.

'- Burnet's History of His Oiun Time.

premacy, and the displeasure of their bretlu-en,
who looked on it as a denial of the sole suprem-
acy of Christ in the church. Other ministers
accepted it, but refused to leceive presentation
from the patron and collation from the bishop,
thereby forfeiting all right to the stipend. In
all forty-two ministers were comprised who ac-
cepted this First Indulgeuce, and these were soon
distinguished by the name of the Indulged, in
opposition to those who refused and were called
the Non-indulged. And thus the promise of
Sharp was verified, and the grant converted into
a bone of contention, while a new subject of
discord and division was introduced into the
church of greater intensity than the old. So
great was the division, that in a few years after-
wards the indulged ministers were termed the
" king's curates" by the non-indulged, thus
classing them in the same obnoxious list with
the " bishojis' curates," whom the prelates had
introduced and patronized.^

While the Indulgence was generally so un-
popular that the council regretted having passed
it upon the strength of his majesty's letter, and
in opposition to laws that were still unrepealed,
a meeting of parliament was called, the first that
had assembled after an interval of six years.
Two purposes occasioned this change, otherwise
so unwelcome to the oligarchy who now ruled
in Scotland. The first was to legalize the In-
dulgence by constitutional authority. But the-
second, and by far the most important, was to
attempt the great political object of uniting the
two kingdoms into one, a measure that required
the ratification of the parliaments both of Eng-
land and Scotland. The inducement held out
to the Scots for their consent was that they
would thereby participate in the advantages of
the English commerce, which was confined to
English subjects either native-born or natural-
ized. But the hand of Lauderdale was apparent
in this proceeding, and it was thought that he
had moved the king to it for his own aggran-
tlizement, being aware of the difficulties and
delays it would encounter, and hoping during
the interval to retain the government of Scot-
land in his own possession. He so far succeeded
as to be appointed commissioner, and on his en-
trance into Edinburgh it was with so large a
train of court expectants, and with such royal
honours, that it wanted nothing of the state of
a king, except that the jirovost himself did not
carry the mace before him.

The parliament met on the 16th of October
(1669); and even its commencement was accom-
l^auied with innovations that savoured of des-
potism, and were regarded with alarm. The

3 Wodrow.

A.D. 1667-1678.]

CHAELES II.

155

first was the meetings of the Lords of Articles,
which, instead of being open and free to all,
were confined exclusively to their own members.
The next was the order of sitting. The spiritual,
instead of being intermingled with the temporal
lords as formerly, were placed in a body on the
right hand of the throne. In the opening
speech the commissioner insisted at great length
on the king's unalterable resolution to maintain
Episcopacy, and all the members signed the
declaration which engaged them to support it.
The first act, passed on the 16th of November,
was for the purpose of legalizing the Indulgence;
but this it did by asserting his majesty's suprem-
acy over all persons in all ecclesiastical afi'airs
whatever. It stated, "That his majesty hath
the supreme authority and svipremacy over all
persons and in all causes ecclesiastical within
this his kingdom; and that, by virtue thereof,
the ordering and disposal of the external govern-
ment and policy of the church doth properly
belong to his majesty and his successors as an
inherent right of the crown ; and that his ma-
jesty and his successors may settle, enact, and
emit such constitutions, acts, and orders con-
cerning the administration of the external go-
vernment of the church and the persons em-
ployed in the same, and concerning all ecclesias-
tical meetings and matters to be projjosed and
determined therein, as they in their royal wis-
dom shall think fit; which acts, orders, and con-
stitutions, being recorded in the books of council
and duly published, are to be observed and
obeyed by all his majesty's subjects, any law,
act, or custom to the coutraiy notwithstanding."
And thus the Indulgence was sanctioned by
giving to the king an unlimited power to gi'aut
that or anything ! By this act he might alter or
overturn all form or government in the church
and introduce Popery, or whatever he pleased.
Burnet thinks that Lauderdale, by whose in-
fluence the act was passed, was already aware
of the secret that the Duke of York was a Papist;
and that he sought to secure the favour of the
heir presumptive of the throne by putting the
Church of Scotland wholly in his power. Even
tlie prelates, who were all for royal supremacy
as long as it was in their favour, took the alarm
when they saw that it might be used against
them ; and under the dread of this contingency
Alexander Burnet, Archbishop of Glasgow, com-
plained that it placed the prelates at the disposal
of the royal caprice as much as it did the Pres-
byterians themselves. He even convoked his
synod on the following year and drew up a re-
monstrance against the act; but when it was
submitted to the king he termed it another
west remonstrance as bad as that of Guthrie's,
and this royal displeasure was followed by the

deposition of Burnet and the promotion of the
gentle Leigh ton to the archbishopric of Glasgow. '^

Another act of this parliament was concern-
ing the militia. It will be remembered that
when the last parliament had sat in 1663, over
which Lauderdale presided, he ended its pro-
ceedings by the parade of an act in which he
oft'ered to the king an army for the defence of
Christendom against the Turks. Under this
shallow pretext a standing force had been re-
cruited, not indiscriminately but by careful
selection, armed, officered, and disciplined, and
made fit for immediate service, while the com-
mand of it was placed at the disposal of the
council. All that had been done in raising it
was approved, and it was enacted that it should
still be kept up and ready to march into any
part of his majesty's dominions, and for what-
ever service he should lequii'e. It was also
enacted that orders should be transmitted to it
from the council alone, without any mention of
orders from the king. This strange army, and
the equivocal nature of its direction, disjjleased
all parties; some thought that it made the
Scottish council utterly independent of the royal
authority, and might be used against it, as in
1638 ; while the English regarded it as an in-
strument for despotic purposes, which the king
might secretly call in, and, if his enterprise
failed, throw the whole blame on the council,
whose orders had set it in motion. Its real
purpose, however, was expressed in a secret
letter from Lauderdale to the king. All Scot-
land, he said, was now at his majesty's devo-
tion : its church was more subject to him than
that of England ; the militia was an army ready
at his call, and would march whenever he issued
the command. As for the proposed union of
the two kingdoms, the time had not yet fully
come, and national jealousies were still strong
enough to delay an event so necessary, and
ultimately so inevitable. On adjourning the
parliament, Lauderdale returned to London
more greedy of power, and more confirmed in
his hatred of Presbyterians than ever.^

The commencement of the year 1670 began
to show the real value of the late vaunted In-
dulgence. The prelates and their party having
failed in arresting it, resolved to make it as
uncomfortable as they could both to the minis-
ters and their people. They accordingly began
with irritating measures to force compliance
with every jot and tittle required by the In-
dulgence. They complained to the council that
these replaced ministers lectured and expounded
Scripture before the forenoon's sermon, a practice
recommended by the directory for public wor-

1 Wodrow ; Burnet. ^ idem.

156

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1667-1678.

ship ; but as the curates had not adopted this
practice, they thought that the indulged should
discontinue it. This objection was thought so
valid, that an order was issued for abandoning
the practice, under the penalty of being prose-
cuted for nonconformity. The indulged min-
isters were watched narrowly that they should
not administer the sacraments to those who be-
longed to a different parish. A committee was
also appointed by the privy-council to examine
how they discharged their ministry, and to in-
terrogate them strictly on every part of their
clerical duty. It was that kind of petty an-
noyance and harassing inquest by which their
bonds were straitened, and their privileges
made of little worth. The king was indeed
supreme in ecclesiastical matters, and this they
were to be made to feel and compelled to recog-
nize.^

When the submissive portion of the Church
of Scotland was treated with such hard measure,
a treatment still more severe awaited the recu-
sants. It was alleged that the Indulgence took
away all pretext for holding conventicles, which
were therefore visited more severely than ever,
and in the beginning of this year (1670), in a
direction issued by the commissioner to the
military, the following was added to the other
severities for the jaunishment of such meetings :
" Upon notice of any numerous conventicle kept
since November 1st last past, or to be kept
hereafter, you shall do your utmost endeavour
to seize the minister, and send him into Edin-
burgh with a party, and the names of such as
can bear witness in the thing. You are also to
seize the most considerable heritors and tenants
present, and require bond and aiution to appear
before the council at a certain day ; and if they
refuse to give surety, send them in with a party,
with a list of persons who can witness against
them."^ This order was grateful both to officers
and soldiers, as it promised them a safe easy
duty and an abundant reward, and those who
were to be employed in the defence of Christen-
dom against the Turks turned with ardour to
the more comfortable service of breaking up
conventicles. But this liability to be attacked
by armed men made the frequenters of such
gatherings arm themselves for self-defence, and
a field conventicle was often composed of a
formidable assemblage armed with firearms,
rapiers, and whingers, or at least with clubs
and pike-staves. The evil which the rulers had
dreaded of these meetings assuming such a war-
like form had now occurred in very deed ; —
but, like uninspired prophets, they had occa-
sioned the event which they so sagely predicted.

' Burnet.

2 Wodrow.

Their persevering persecution and violent ag-
gressions had provoked resistance, and when this
was done they adopted the fact to justify their
use of still more severe measures for its sup-
pression.

The most conspicuous of these armed field
conventicles at this time was held on the 18th of
June (1670) at Beath Hill, in the parish of
Dunfermline. The worship was conducted by
Mr. Blackadder and Mr. Dickson, two of the
non-indulged ministers, and those who attended
formed a numerous meeting. In the midst of
the religious services they were interrupted by
the sudden arrival of a lieutenant of the militia
of the county, who rode up to the people, and
with many boastful threateniugs ordered them
to disperse. One of the gentlemen requested
him to retire peaceably, and not disturb the
religious duties ; but the other still continuing
to bluster, he seized the lieutenant's horse by
the bridle, clapped a pistol to the rider's head,
and threatened to shoot him unless he remained
silent. This unexpected check so daunted the
officer that he sat as silent as a statue until the
service was over, after which he was suffered to
retire in peace.^ Here, however, the matter did
j not end. Although no violence had been com-
mitted, the prelates regarded this affair as a
horrid insult, and eight gentlemen or substan-
tial burghers were apprehended who had been
at this conventicle at Beath Hill. Their punish-
ment was characteristic of the sordid loyalty
of the persecutors, for each offender was fined
to the amount of five hundred marks, besides
enduring imprisonment in irons during the
jjleasure of the privy-council. Three of them,
one of whom was a minister, were afterwards
released from prison, but only to be banished
to the plantations. Two other large field con-
venticles were held this year, the one in the
jDarish of Carnwath and the other at Torwood,
which were visited upon several of the offenders
with fine, imprisonment, and banishment to the
plantations.*

The parliament, which had been adjourned
at the close of the previous year, resumed its
sitting on the 28th of July, and the first subject
brought before it was the proposed union be-
tween the kingdoms of England and Scotland.
But the English scorn and the Scottish dread
of the proposal were still so strong, that there
was as yet no better prospect of realizing it,
although the parliament empowered the king
to nominate commissioners for the purpose of
drawing up the terms of the union. The
establishment of Episcopacy by the entire sup-
pression of Presbyterianism was the next and

» Crichton's lAfe of Blackadder ; Wodrow. < Wodrow.

A.D. 1667-1678.]

CHARLES II.

157

more congenial occupation, and an act was
passed for the discovery of all who held or fre-
quented conventicles. This was the chief diffi-
culty in obtaining conviction, as the knowledge
was mainly confined to the frequenters them-
selves, and those who had hitherto been placed
on their examination were more willing to en-
dure the penalty of concealment, than impeach
their fellow-worshippers. It was in the pre-
amble of this act stated to be the duty of all
good subjects to concur and assist in the dis-
covery and punishment of all crimes against the
public laws that might tend to disturb the peace
of the kingdom, and a high contempt of author-
ity to refuse or shift the same when desired.
Every subject, therefore, of whatever degree,
sex, or quality, was required, if questioned by
the council or any one having authority, to
declare ujion oath what they knew of all such
disturbers and disturbances, "and particularly
of any conventicles or other unlawful meetings."
This they were bound to do vipon their alle-
giance, and under the usual penalties of trea-
son; and by this sweeping act the father who
refused to witness against his child, the husband
against his wife, the brother against the sister,
or the friend against his friend, was to be fined,
imprisoned, or transported, according to the
pleasure of the council. The laws against hold-
ing conventicles were also increased in severity.
Any outed minister presuming to preach, ex-
pound Scripture, or pray in his own house, any
persons except the members of his own family
being present, was to be punished as the holder
of a conventicle, and was besides to find surety
to the amount of five thousand marks that he
would not so offend in future, or consent to
leave the kingdom and not return without his
majesty's permission. Every person attending
these private meetings was to be fined accord-
ing to his means or rental; and if his wife,
children, or servants attended them, he was to
be fined in half the amount imposed for his
own personal attendance. The magistrates of
burghs, also, were made liable for every con-
venticle kept within their bounds, to be fined
according to the pleasure of the council. But
field conventicles — under which term was in-
cluded every devotional meeting held out of
doors and in the open air — were still more
teri'ibly visited. Every minister holding such
a meeting was to be punished with death and
confiscation of his goods. Every good subject
was commissioned to seize the minister thus
praying, preaching, or expounding, and on
delivering him up to justice was to receive a
reward of five hundred marks ; and should any
slaughter be committed in such seizure, he and
his assistants were to be acquitted for the deed.

And all laymen who attended these field con-
venticles were to be fined in twice the amount
imposed in the case of house meetings. In the
amount of these penalties in money, and the
numerous variety of cases in which they could
be incurred, we can learn the sordid nature of
the religious zeal by which the rulers of the
nation were animated; and in the severity of
the measures for the suppression of field meet-
ings we see their consciousness of insecurity, and
the quarter from which the danger was appre-
hended.^

From these notices of open-air religious as-
semblies, curiosity is naturally turned to the
materials of which such congregations were
composed and the proceedings by which they
were distinguished. Were they meetings for
conspiracy against the government? Were they
incompatible with the safety and peace of society
at large? The following description of a field
conventicle in its most complete state, given by
John Blackadder, one of the presiding ministers
on the occasion, which was held at East Nisbet
in the Mei^se, will give a more distinct idea of
such gatherings than any form of exjilanation
or disquisition. The picture is so perfect that
we give it almost entire, notwithstanding its
extent and minuteness : —

"Meantime the communion elements had
been prepared, and the people in Teviotdale
advertised. Mi'. Welsh and Mr. Riddell had
reached the place on Saturday. When Mr.
Blackadder arrived he found a great assembly,
and still gathering from all airts. The people
from the east brought reports that caused great
alarm. It was rumoured that the Earl of
Hume, as ramp a youth as any in the country,
intended to assault the meeting with his men
and militia, and that parties of the regulars
were coming to assist him. He had profanely
threatened to make their horses drink the
communion wine and ti-ample the sacred ele-
ments under foot. Most of the gentry there,
and even the commonalty, wei-e ill-set. Upon
this we drew hastily together about seven or
eight score of horse on the Saturday, equipped
with such furniture as they had. Pickets of
twelve or sixteen men were appointed to recon-
noitre and ride towards the suspected parts.
Single horsemen were despatched to greater
distances to view the country and give warning
in case of attack. The remainder of the horse
were drawn round, to be a defence, at such dis-
tance as they might hear sermon and be ready
to act if need be. Every means was taken to
compose the multitude from needless alarm,
and prevent, in a harmless, defensive way, any

1 Wodrow.

1.58

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1*107-1678.

affrout that niiglit be offered to so solemn and
sacred a work. Though many of their own
accord had provided for their safety — and this
was the more necessary when they had to stay
three days together, sojonruing by ' the lions'
dens and the mountains of leopards '■ — yet none
had come armed with hostile intentions. We
entered on the administration of the holy or-
dinance, committing it and ourselves to the in-
visible protection of the Lord of Hosts, in whose
name we were met together. Our trust was in
the arm of Jehovali, which was better than
weapons of war or the strength of hills.

" The place where we convened was every
"way commodious, and seemed to have been
formed on purpose. It was a green and plea-
sant haugh, fast by the water side [the Whit-
adder]. On either hand there was a spacious
brae, in form of a half round, covered with
delightful pasture, and rising with a gentle
slope to a goodly height. Above us was the
clear blue sky, for it was a sweet and calm
Sabbath morning, promising to be indeed one
of the days of the Son of Man. There was a
solemnity in the place befitting the occasion,
and elevating the whole soul to a pure and holy
frame. The communion tables were spread on
the green by the water, and around them the
people had ax'rauged themselves in decent order.
But the far greater multitude sat on the bi'ae
face, which was crowded from top to bottom —
full as pleasant a sight as ever was seen of that
sort. Each day at the congregation's dismissing
the ministers with their guai'ds, and as many of
the people as could, retired to their quarters in
three several county towns, where they might
be provided with necessaries. The liorsemen
drew up in a body till the people left the place,
and then marched in goodly array behind at a
little distance until all were safely lodged in
their quaiters. In the morning, when the
people returned to the meeting, the horsemen
accompanied them. All tlie three parties met a
mile from the spot, and marched in a full body
to the consecrated ground. The congregation
being all fairly settled in their places, the guards-
men took their several stations, as formerly.
These accidental volunteers seemed to have
been the gift of Providence, and they secured
the peace and quiet of the audience, for from
Saturday morning, when the work began, until
Monday afternoon, we suffered not the least
affront or molestation from enemies, which
appeared wonderful. At first there was some
apprehension, but the people sat undisturbed,
and the whole was closed in as orderly a way as
it had been in the time of Scotland's brightest
noon. And tmly the spectacle of so many grave,
■composed, and devout faces must have struck

the adversaries with awe, and been more formid-
able than any outward ability of fierce looks and
warlike array. We desired not the countenance
of earthly kings ; there was a spiritual and divine
majesty shining on the work, and sensible evi-
dence that the great Master of assemblies was
present in the midst. It was indeed the doing
of the Lord, who covered us a table in the
wilderness, in presence of our foes; and reared
a pillar of glory between us and the enemy,
like the fiery cloud of old that separated be-
tween the camp of Israel and the Egyptians —
encouraging to the one but dark and terrible to
the other. Though our vows were not ofi"ered
within the courts of God's house, they wanted
not sincerity of heart, which is better than the
reverence of sanctuaries. Amidst the lonely
mountains we remembered the words of our
Lord, that true worship was not peculiar to
Jerusalem or Samaria — that the beauty of holi-
ness consisted not in consecrated buildings or
material temples. We remembered the ark of
the Israelites which had sojourned for years in
the desert, with no dwelling-place but the taber-
nacle of the plain. We thought of Abraham
and the ancient patriarchs who laid their vic-
tims on the rocks for an altar, and burnt sweet
incense under the shade of the green tree.

" The ordinance of the last supper, that me-
morial of His dying love till His second coming,
was signally countenanced and backed with
power and refreshing influence from above.
Blessed be God, for He hath visited and con-
firmed His heritage when it was weary. In
that day Zion put on the beauty of Sharon and
Carmel, the mountains broke forth into singing,
and the desert place was made to bud and
blossom as the rose. Few such days were seen
in the desolate Church of Scotland, and few
will ever witness the like. There was a rich
effusion of the Spirit shed abroad in many
hearts ; their souls, filled with heavenly trans-
ports, seemed to breathe in a diviner element,
and to burn upwards, as with the fire of a pure
and holy devotion. The ministers were visibly
assisted to speak home to the conscience of the
hearers. It seemed as if God had touched their
lips with a live coal from ofi" his altar, for they
who witnessed declared they carried more like
ambassadors from the court of heaven than men
cast in earthly mould.

" The tables were served by some gentlemen
and persons of the gravest deportment. None
were .admitted without tokens, as usual, which
were distributed on the Saturday, but only to
such as were known to some of the ministers
or persons of trust to be free of public scandals.
All the regular forms were gone through. The
communicants entered at one end and retired

\\ H MAKOEfbOM

A COVENANTERS' COMMUNION. (A.d. 1670.

Vol, iii. p. is9.

i.D. 1667-1678.]

CHAELES IL

159

at the other, a way being kept clear to take
theu' seats again on the hill-side. Mi'. Welsh
preached the action sermon and served the first
two tables, as he was ordinarily put to do on
such occasions. The other four ministers, Mr.
Blackadder, Mr. Dickson, Mr. Riddell, and Mr.
Eae, exhorted the rest in their turn ; the table
service was closed by Mr. Welsh with solemn
thauksgiving ; and solemn it was, and sweet
and edifying, to see the gravity and composure
of all present, as well as of all jaarts of the ser-
vice. The communion was peaceably con-
cluded, all the people heartily offering up their
gratitude, and singing with a joyful voice to
the Eock of their salvation. It was pleasant,
as the night fell, to hear their melody swelling
in full unison along the hill, the whole congre-
gation joining with one accord and praising
God with the voice of psalms.

" There were two long tables, and one
short, across the head, with seats on each
side. About a hundred sat at every table.
There were sixteen tables in all, so that about
3200 communicated that day."^

It was a great political blunder that occa-
sioned the necessity of such meetings, and a
worse blunder that attempted their suppression
by the I'ough agency of force and violence.
After the first fault had been committed, from
which conventicles originated, the wisest course
would have been to let them alone. But this
forbearance would have militated alike against
the pride and the avarice of the rulers. They
would not pause or retrace their steps, and
thereby confess that they had been in the
wrong. And above all, they would not forego
that rich percentage of fines and confiscations
which the present state of things must inevitably
produce. They therefore continued in that
course of violent suppression and insult which
was best fitted to occasion the resistance of a
high-spirited people and end in open rebellion.
But were such a people likely to be easily sub-
dued ? A glance at the nature and character of
these conventicles will sufticiently answer the
question. Men so assembled in defiance of
penalties were not likely to swerve from their
faith, and though acting upon the defensive
princi])le, were likely, if assailed, to return
blow for blow. The first issue of such a strife
was certain to be unfavourable, with the whole
power of the state ai'rayed against them ; but
theirs was the most enduring of all principles,
fitted alike for the worst of the battle-field and
the scafi'old, and which in the end would weary
out if it did not conquer the oppressors and
secure the victory of their cause. Of this even

• Crichtou's Life of the Rev. John Blackadder.

the sufferers themselves were convinced, and of
this confidence their children were to reap the
fruits.

After the parliament had been adjourned
Lauderdale returned to London, where his in-
fluence as Scottish high-commissioner and his
devotedness to royal absolutism procured him
an entrance into that infamous club afterwards
called the Cabal, and of which the initial of his
name formed the last limb of the mystic title.
Its purpose, which was to undermine and de-
stroy the liberty of the emjiire and reduce the
government to an absolute despotism, and the
dangerous progress it made in the attempt, are
well known to every reader of English history.
While he was thus using his Scottish power for
establishing his predominance in the English
council, and pandering to the low pleasures of
the king as the best means of advancing his
own interests, he was chiefly influenced in his
proceedings by Lady Dysart, whom he after-
wards married, and who is described as a wo-
man " of considerable talent, but of inordinate
ambition, boundless expense, and the most un-
scrupulous rapacity." She was the daughter of
William Murray, who had been whipping-boy
to Charles I., and as such received the flog-
gings which should have visited the sacred per-
son of the young prince. Murray was by his
grateful mastei' created Lord Dysart, from
which his daughter assumed her title. By this
union, which was considered disgraceful to both
parties, not only the ambition but the avarice
of Lauderdale was raised to full height, so
that whatever relentings be retained in favour
of Presbyterianism were wholly thrown aside,
and he became the most relentless of its perse-
cutors.^

While the apostate earl was sending down
his orders to Scotland for the suppression of
conventicles, an attempt of a different kind was
going on for the establishment of its obnoxious
Episcopacy. By an act of his royal supremacy
Charles had thrust out Burnet from the arch-
bishopric of Glasgow and appointed Leighton
in his stead. It was an unwelcome change to
the apostolic Bishop of Dunblane, who would
have preferred a sentence of banishment ; but
recognizing the king as head of the church
he had no alternative but to obey. On accept-
ing the high office he attempted to introduce his
scheme of accommodation between the Presby-
terians and Episcopalians of Scotland, but met
with discouragement at the outset. When he
held a synod of the ministers of his diocese they
complained of the neglect and ill-usage of the
people ; and when he exhorted them in his ser-

160

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

I.A.D. 1667-1678.

iiions to look less to man aud more to God — to
regard themselves as the ministers of Christ,
and bear his cross that had been laid upon them
meekly aud patiently — it was to them a new
and uncomfortable doctrine, and they wondered
that he had not recommended an increase of
fines and the employment of the military. He
then tried personal negotiation with the in-
dulged ministers, and for this purpose made a
tour through his diocese to recommend to them
his plan for the accommodation of the two
churches. It was that the government of the
church should be vested in the bishops and
clergy conjointly ; that in their church judica-
tories the bishops should act only as presidents
or moderators, and in everything belonging to
jurisdiction and ordination be guided by the
votes of the presbyters; that he should only
have a negative voice in their decisions ; and
that ordinations should take place in the churches
to be filled up, and with the concurrence of the
l)resbytery. He also proposed that synods
should be held every third year, at which com-
plaints against the bishops should be received;
and that these being found valid, the bishops
should be subjected to censure. He even ofi"ered
to these indulged ministers, and through them
to the whole order in the Presbyterian church,
that when they became members of these eccle-
siastical courts it should be considered that they
did so only for the restoration of peace, without
pledging themselves to admit the presidency of
bishops; and that they should be at liberty to
hold that the bishops were only the chief of
presbyters. This plan of modified Presbyterian-
ism was the beatific vision of Usher, and the
millennial union for which Leightou sighed and
laboured — it was the restoration of the church
of the Culdees, of which he would have been
the second Columba. But with Leighton, as
with other pure-hearted aud recluse studious
men, he regarded the abstract excellence of his
plan too exclusively, and did not take into
account the season of proposing it aud the char-
acter and situation of the persons whom it was
to reconcile. Mutual hostility had severed the
parties too widely asunder for reconciliation,
and each regarded his proposal as involving the
sacrifice of the principles for which they had
been contending ; so that while his brother
prelates regarded him as a traitor to their
order, the Presbyterians denounced him as an
insidious enemy who had approached them
under the guise of an angel of light.^

All this hostility was especially manifested
when the proposal was brought under public
discussion. Lauderdale, who probably foresaw

1 Burnet ; Wodrow.

such a termination, seconded the desire of
Leighton to have the subject canvassed in all
its bearings; aud accordingly, several of the
most respectable ministers were invited to a
conference at Edinburgh when he came down
to hold the second session of parliament, in
August (1670). By the rulers of the Episcopal
party Leighton's plan was regarded with indig-
nation. In the eyes of Sharp aud the bishops
the whole church would be overthrown by the
lowering of the prelatic office, and Presbyterian-
ism be established upon its ruin; and they de-
nounced the proposer in no measured terms as
an enemy of Ei^iscopacy — as a Presbyterian in
disguise. On the other hand the indulged min-
ister, before whom the proposal was brought
forward, first at Edinburgh in August, and
afterwards at Paisley in December, received it
coldly, and were unmoved by the arguments in
its favour. They listened like men who feared
to be cajoled; who were convinced that a trap
was laid for them; and when their opinion was
asked, they replied that their principles were
sufficiently known, aud that they had no plan
to propose in return. Events, however, had
but too well justified them for the apathy with
which they received this overture of Christian
peace and concord. They knew that Leighton
stood alone in making it, and that the rest of
his brethren were opposed to it, and would
have influence to overturn it. They were also
aware that there would be still greater danger
in accepting it, as the bishops, backed by the
king and the state, would soon obtain the
ascendency over presbyters, aud reduce the
church to their exclusive rule. Thus had it
been in the reign of James VI., and thus, in
the very nature of things, it would continue if
the rule of Presbyterian parity was altered. It
is worthy of notice, also, that although Sharp
aud his brethren were so resolutely opposed to
the proposed accommodation, they made the
fact of its rejection by the Presbyterians an
argument for increased persecution. It was a
gracious offer, they alleged, that had been made
in all kindness aud good faith, while the refusal
showed that the other imrty was confirmed in
its obstinacy, and would be moved by no form
of conciliation or argument.^

Auother mode which Leighton adopted was
to recommeud his accommodation by popular
appeal. If he could but make the people listen
to it, and approve it, a way would be opened
for its ultimate establishment. He therefore
sent six Episcopal divines, drawn from diff"erent
districts, and the best that could be persuaded
to undertake such a difficult mission, to peram-

2 Burnet ; Wodrow.

A.D. 1667-1678.]

CHAELES II.

161

bulate the western counties, preach in the va- i
cant churches, and explain the principles of the
accommodation to all who should apply to them
for information. Of those disciples Bishop
Burnet, at that time j^rofessor of theology in
the University of Glasgow, was one, and he has
given in his history a brief but interesting
notice of the mission. " The Episcopal clergy,"
he says, " who were yet in the country could
not argue much for anything, and would not at
all argue in favour of a proposition that they
hated. The people of the country came gener-
ally to hear us, though not in great crowds."
He then bears the following highly honourable
testimony to their religious intelligence, " We
were indeed amazed to see a poor commonalty
so capable to argue upon points of government,
and on the bounds to be set to the power of
princes in matters of religion; upon all these
topics they had texts of Scripture at hand, and
were ready with their answers to anything that
was said to them. This measure of knowledge
was spread even among the meanest of them,
their cottagers, and their servants." Thus far
writes the learned professor of divinity and
future Bishop of Sarum; but as he naturally felt
indignant that he and his coadjutors should
have been resisted, and, it may be, nonplussed
by these hard-headed logical and scriptural
rustics, he assigns the causes of the failure of
his enterprise in the following language, that
somewhat savours of angry caricature : " They
were, indeed, vain of their knowledge, much
conceited of themselves, and were full of a most
entangled scrupulosity; so that they found or
made difficulties in everything that could be
laid before them. We stayed about three
months in the country, and in that time there
was a stand in the frequency of conventicles ;
but as soon as we were gone a set of those hot
preachers went round all the places in which
we had been, to defeat all the good we could
hope to do. They told them the devil was
never so formidable as when he was transformed
into an angel of light."

After this failure of the conciliatory plan of
Leighton, the history of Scotland becomes for
several years a dreary record of political humil-
iation and religious persecution. The first of
these calamities was ensured to Scotland as to
England by the reign of such a sovereign as
Charles II., while the second was the natural
result of the rule of the bishops, and the attempt
to force Episcopacy upon the people. There is,
indeed, such a sickening monotony in the suc-
cessive events, that instead of detailing them
we shall content ourselves with noticing a few
salient points, as illustrative of the whole his-
tory of this dismal period.

VOL. III.

The year 1671 was distinguished by nothing
remarkable, if we except an increase in the
severity with which the Presbyterians were
visited ; they were now denounced as the rejec-
tors of fi'iendly offers, and ujjon whom all kind-
ness and conciliation was lost. To make their
punishment, also, more certain and severe, the
Bass, an island, or rather rock, about a mile in
circumference, at the mouth of the Firth of
Forth, was purchased by government and con-
verted into a state prison, of wliich the Earl of
Lauderdale was appointed governor. In the
following year he was created a duke and
married to Lady Dysart, with whom he had
been previously living in adultery, and the
effect of this shameless union was to increase
the number and amount of fines to satisfy her
rapacious greed.^ Besides his new title and
additional offices Lauderdale was still continued
commissioner of Scotland, and during this year
(1672) came down to Scotland to hold the third
session of parliament. Previous to its open-
ing he and his Lamia made a triumphal pro-
gress through several of the counties of Scot-
land, and were entertained with a hospitality
of which lavish expenditure and abject servility
made amends for the want of cordiality and
real kindness.^ The parliament was ojjened
on the 11th of June, and not only Lauderdale
attended in state but his lady also — an honour
that had never been granted to the queens of
Scotland. An occasional flash, however, of the
old national spirit broke out, which showed the
fire that was smouldering beneath, and which
the commissioner had cause to fear. A tax was
proposed, which was resisted by the third estate
on the plea that the country was already too
much impoverished, and that the former impo-
sitions had only gone to enrich courtiers and
favourites. At this the rage of the commis-
sioner blazed up, and its force was directed
against William Moor, an advocate and burgess
of Inverurie, who suggested the necessity of
consulting their constituents about granting the
tax, as was usual in such cases in England.
Lauderdale instantly ordered him to be brought
to the bar for daring to propose the custom of
England as an example to a Scottish parliament;
the trembling president of the Court of Session
ordered the unlucky patriot to be sent to prison,
that the business of the house might not be
hindered by his interruption ; and on the fol-
lowing day the offender was brought up and
compelled to ask pardon of the commissioner
on his knees !

Of the acts passed by this parliament upon
the subject of religion the chief was that against

2 Kirkton.

86

162

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1667-1678.

"Unlawful Ordinatious." The bishops were in-
diguaut at the vitality of Presbytei-ianism, which
they attributed to the I'ight retained by minis-
ters to license preachers and ordain them in the
ministry, by which a perpetual succession was
kept up. To stop this practice, so that Presby-
terianisra should die a natural death of inani-
tion, they procured this act to be passed, by
which all clerical oi'dinations were denounced
as unlawful except such as were made by the
bishops. The penalties, also, of a breach of this
act were sufficiently severe ; both the ordained
and the oi'dainers were to be imprisoned and
banished, and their goods to be confiscated; and
all persons married by such ministers were to
be held as unlawfully married, and to undergo
the disqualifications and penalties of unlawful
unions. It was thus thought that the Presby-
terian Church in Scotland would be extinguished
in a single generation from lack of ministers;
but in this calculation its enemies were mistaken,
for the ordination of the Church of Holland was
still open to them, and some of the Scottish
divines in that church were among the most
eminent in their day. To this resource, there-
fore, the Scottish students were obliged to be-
take themselves; and in the colleges of Holland
they enjoyed leisure for study and the direc-
tions of learned men, such as they could not
have found in their own country. There, also,
the new generation of Scottish divines were
imbued with tliat spirit of liberty and love for
their protectors of the house of Orange, which,
among other facilities, prepared the way for the
accession of William of Orange to the British
throne. The other acts were regarding baptism,
by which every person not having a certificate
of the baptism of his child by the parish minister
within thirty days after birth, should, if an
heritor, forfeit a fourth part of his yearly rental,
and if a merchant, an hundred pounds Scots ;
and against conventicles, which, under the belief
that no more parliaments should be held for
several years, were renewed with additional
severities.^

The Duke of Lauderdale, whose domineering
insolence the possession of power seemed to have
exaggerated by this time into temporary fits of
madness, was supposed to have brought a fresh
indulgence for the Presbyterians of Scotland.
This idea was countenanced by the fact that the
king had granted toleration to the dissenters,
and in yet gi^eater measures to the Papists of
England— the first designed to introduce the
second, as the price of his alliance with France,
and the pension he enjoyed from its court.

1 Wodrow; Life of Rev. Robert Fleming (Cheap Publica-
tion Society).

Their expectation was confirmed by the pro-
duction of what is called the Second Indulgence,
which was tendered for their acceptance on the
3d of September. By this act a number of the
non-indulged ministers were to be sent either to
the parishes of those who had accepted the First
Indulgence, where they were to reside, and per-
form along with the incumbents the ministerial
functions, or to other parishes not previously
indulged. By this plan two or more of the
outed ministers were often thrown into a single
charge, so that eighty of them were confined to
about fifty-eight parishes. Thus occupying them
with charges it was hoped that they would no
longer wander about the country preaching at
conventicles, while, by restricting them within
narrow limits, the enthusiasm they might kindle
would be also circumscribed. This plan, which
originated with Burnet, was apjsroved by Leigh-
ton, who compared it " to the gathering the coals
that were scattered over the house, setting it all
on fire into the chimney, where they might burn
away safely." To make this doubly sure the
ministers thus coupled were fixed to the ap-
pointed parish and allowed to officiate nowhere
else whether in church or churchyai'd. But
could the ministers conscientiously accept such
limited terms ? This was the question at issue
among them, which ended in controversy and
division; and while some accepted the Second
Indulgence, with a protest against its Erastian
principles, others refused and denounced it, so
that the general cause was further weakened by
this new ground of dissension. It was well, how-
ever, that this plan of confining ministers in
couples to a particular charge was not of long
continuation. Lauderdale, whose government
was by fits, and who was apt to pass from one
extreme to another, soon neglected this device
of pairing, so that single ministers were allowed
to hold churches, while those who had no charge
went about the country holding conventicles as
boldly as ever.^

The Duke of Lauderdale's tenure of power
had now become very precarious. In England
the treacherous designs of the Cabal being dis-
covered, the association was broken up, and the
duke, as one of its most infiuential members,
denounced by the House of Commons as one
unworthy of trust or office. And although con-
tinued in his office of commissioner by the king,
his political influence in Scotland was about to
receive a shock not from the despised and op-
pressed Presbyterians, but from those who had
been his friends and suppoi'ters. One of the
despotic acts of the English sovereigns, and
which had formed one of the grievances that

^ Burnet ; "Wodrow.

j\.D. 1667-1678.]

CHAELES II.

163

led to the civil war, was the granting of mono-
polies, by which the royal favourites could en-
rich themselves at the expense of the community
at large; and Lauderdale was not slow to adopt
this plan for his own aggrandizement and the
establishment of his control over Scotland. The
important monopoly of salt was held by the Earl
of Kincardine, that of imported brandy by Lord
Elphinstone, and that of tobacco by Sir John
Nicholson, while Sir Andrew Ramsay, the pro-
vost of Edinburgh, had a gift of the duties on
ale and wines that were sold within the city.
By these grants, which only enriched a few, a
far gi-eater number of expectants were disap-
pointed. But to these malcontents were added
the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of Tweeddale,
the Earl of Rothes, and Lord Queensberry, who
had been disappointed of inheritances, offices,
or pensions; the advocates, whose fees had been
diminished; and the burghs, who, as an influen-
tial body, had been insulted by the domineering
Duke of Lauderdale; and when he came to Scot-
land in November, 1673, he found an opposition
organized against him too formidable to be con-
trolled. This he found at the opeuing of the
parliament; for no sooner had he read the king's
letter, and proposed that a committee should be
formed to draw up an answer, than Hamilton
declared that the grievances of the nation should
be first inquired into, while a general cry of
voices seconded the motion. A fierce debate
followed, and Lauderdale attempted to overawe
the speakers, but was silenced by Hume of Pol-
mont, who asked whether this was not a free
parliament? Overwhelmed by this opposition
the commissioner adjourned the sitting, and
privately offered to withdraw the monopolies
of salt, brandy, and tobacco; but no concession
would satisfy them unless it was made and
ratified in open parliament. The demands for
the reform of abuses — and in reality their name
was Legion — grew and multiplied so rapidly,
that Lauderdale was fain to prorogue the par-
liament in despair. But amidst all this heat
and clamour of reform nothing was done for the
oppressed Church of Scotland; the zeal that pre-
dominated was guided by selfish motives ; and
even if it had succeeded in displacing the com-
missioner these fervent patriots would have little
cared, though Lauderdale had been succeeded
by a more relentless persecutor of the church, if
such could have been found.^

After the parliament had been prorogued a
deputation of the opposition, consisting of the
Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of Tweeddale, and
General Drummond repaired to London to lay

1 Kirkton ; M'Kenzie's History of Scotland; Law's Me-
morials; Burnet.

their complaints before the king. But they had
been anticipated by the counter -statements
transmitted by Lauderdale, so that Charles re-
ceived the deputation coldly, and reproached
them for attempting to overthrow his authority
in Scotland. But the alarm of the English as
well as the Scots coincided against the obnoxious
duke, and while he had become universally un-
popular with his own country the English were
alarmed at his despotic power in Scotland, and
the facility with which it might be turned against
their own national liberty. Nor was that army
forgot which he had raised under the ridiculous
pretext of a Turkish crusade, but which at any
moment might be ordered on its march to London.
These were already the subjects of inquiry by a
committee of the English parliament, and if the
king meant to retain the services of his devoted
Lauderdale it was necessary to pacify the Scot-
tish malcontents. Charles therefore dismissed
the deputation with solemn assurances that their
national grievances should be left to the full and
free deliberation of the parliament, and buoyant
with this hope, Hamilton and his friends re-
turned, to concert measures with his party and
form a plan of proceedings for the ensuing ses-
sion ; and when the parliament opened he was
accompanied by a splendid train as if he had
already been ajjpointed commissioner, while he
who really bore the office repaired to it almost
wholly unattended. But soon was the party to
be woke from its dream of victory. They had
resolved to move that the answer to the king's
letter should not be returned without a state-
ment of their grievances, and that the motion
to this effect should be made immediately after
prayers, so that a full discussion at least of these
grievances should take place before any hasty
adjournment should disperse the house. But
no sooner was the prayer ended, than the par-
liament was adjourned as by the touch of an
extinguisher; and when Hamilton rose to an-
nounce his motion he was told that he was too
late — that the adjournment had been pronounced
by his majesty's command — that there was now
no parliament ! The enraged members retired
with the resolution of making their voices heard
at the ensuing meeting of the house, happen
when it might; but soon after the parliament
was unconstitutionally dissolved by proclama-
tion, and no other afterwards called during the
whole of Lauderdale's administration. Such
was now the government of Scotland, and
such the persons by whom it was administered.
Hamilton's party proposed to settle the matter
in the old Scottish fashion by knocking Lauder-
dale on the head ; but the age of summary jus-
tice had gone by, and their chief ordered them
to desist. He repaired with his friends to court,

164

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1667-1678.

aud wrote out a memoi-ial of grievances by the
invitation of Charles himself; but when they
were required to sign it they drew back, well
knowing that the document might be converted
into a proof of leasing-making, of which neither
the king nor Laudeixlale would be slow to avail
themselves if it suited their purpose so to do.
Having thus got the better of his titled adver-
saries the commissioner turned upon the advo-
cates and the burghs, both of whom were opposed
to him, and against whom he proceeded with a
similar mixture of law chicanery and barefaced
treachery until he had reduced them to helpless
silence. Thus triumphant over every class of
opi^onents, the rule of Lauderdale, when it had
apparently reached the point of extinction, be-
came more firmly established and more absolute
than ever.i

One of the first fruits of this victory was the
appointment of a new council, in which the
supporters of Lauderdale formed a majority.
During his late difiiculties he had made such
conciliatory overtures to the Presbjd^erians as
alarmed the prelatic party ; but finding such a
mask no longer necessary, he cast it aside, and be-
came a fiercer persecutor than he had been under
his former tenure of jDOwer. The increase of field
conventicles, also, with the year 1674 aflForded
a decent pretext for this additional severity, as
well as the king's letter to the council in May,
in which his majesty complained of their pre-
valence, and demanded that not only the laws
should be put in force against them, but the
standing army and militia employed for their
suppression. Armed parties accordingly were
sent out in all directions against those who
preached or jjrayed at such meetings, of whom
fourteen persons were specified by name ; and
of these John Welsh and Gabriel Semple were
especially obnoxious, for whose apprehension
the council offered the tempting reward of £400
sterling and <£55 for each of the others, while
the soldiers were secured from prosecution for
any slaughter that might ensue in apprehending
them. Comfortable free quarters for the mili-
tary and a rich harvest of fines to their supe-
riors were the reward of this diligence in de-
nouncing, seizing, and trying delinquents, and
especially of rich or landed gentlemen who could
be convicted of attending conventicles. But
these meetings grew and multiplied on account
of the means that were used to suppress them,
so that in July forty-one persons, in addition to
their previous list of offenders, had to be de-
nounced by the council as holders of conven-
ticles, and put to the horn as rebels. It was no
common season also in which the suffering Pres-

1 Burnet.

byterians of Scotland thus risked and braved
the spoiling of their goods by licensed plunder-
ing, for the weather of the winter and spring
had been so unfavourable that ploughing was
at a stand, while one-third of the cattle, in
which the subsistence of the rural districts in
Scotland mainly consisted, had died in conse-
quence of the famine.-

While the persecutions of this year were at
the worst, so that men could no longer petition
the council against them without the certainty
of being sent to prison for this exercise of their
lawful right, the gentler sex resolved to present
a petition in their own name. This was done
by fifteen gentlewomen of the city of Edin-
burgh, chiefly the widows of ministers, each
having a copy to j^resent to the principal mem-
bers of the privy-council. Accordingly, when
the council was assembling on the 4th of June,
they went to the place of meeting, accompanied
with such a number of their own sex that the
parliament close was filled with them — a sjDec-
tacle which created the wonder of most of the
councillors and the alarm of not a few. Sharp,
the great oS"ender, was the most alarmed of
any, and stuck close to the side of the chan-
cellor, with whom he was entering; but the
anger of the ladies being stirred at the sight of
him, broke out into no gentle terms, some
calling him " Judas," and others " traitor,"
while one of them laid her hand upon his neck,
saying that "ere all was done that neck be-
hoved to pay for it." It was a sudden and harm-
less burst of female feeling, and more gentle
than such a merciless apostate merited ; and
while he cowered under it a copy of the peti-
tion was handed to the chancellor, who greatly
enjoyed the primate's consternation. The pur-
port of the document was that their ministers
might be allowed to exercise their holy function
without molestation, and be freed from any
sinful compliance with what was contrary to the
known judgment of honest Presbyterians ; and
after reading it he interchanged friendly conver-
sation and sportive jests with the petitionee.
But it was no subject for joking with Sharp
and his brethren, and a dozen of the ladies
were called in one by one and subjected to a
strict examination, in which they declared that
no man had a hand in the petition, and that
they had been solely moved to present it by a
sense of their perishing condition under the
want of the gospel, ha\ang none to preach to
them but ignorant and profane men, whom
they would not heai'. Enraged at finding they
had no male accomplices on whom they might
wi'eak their vengeance, the council sent three of

« Wodrow.

A.D. 1667-1678.]

CHAELES II.

165

the ladies, one of whom was a daughter of
Johnston of Warriston, to prison, and banished
several of the rest from Edinburgh.^

Finding that in spite of all their efforts to
suppress them conventicles continued to in-
crease, and that many persons of rank, both
male and female, persisted in attending them,
the ruling party in 1675 directed the persecu-
tion against those influential persons by whom
such meetings were patronized. Accordingly,
by an order of council, garrisons were estab-
lished in the houses of two noblemen and ten
gentlemen, who lived in those parts of the
country where house and field conventicles
most abounded. In this manner they could
oppress the patrons of the persecuted party and
arrest the ministers who repaired to them for
countenance or shelter. Thus also the peaceful
mansions of persons of distinction were con-
verted into homes of military license, or even
into dens of robbers, against all law, and chiefly
to gratify the bishops. While nobles and gentle-
men of name were thus punished, it fared
harder with the unfortunate ministers, for the
damp, dreary dungeons of the Bass were opened,
into which they were conveyed, and there left
to languish and die. But the height of pre-
latic oppression during this year was the issuing
of " Letters of Intercommuning." By these
missives above a hundred persons, of whom
sixteen or eighteen were ministers and some of
them ladies of rank, were declared to be the
king's rebels because they held and frequented
conventicles. " Therefore we command and
charge all and sundry our lieges and subjects,"
the letters added, " that they, nor none of them
presume, nor take upon hand to reset, supply,
or intercommune with any of the foresaid per-
sons our rebels, for the causes foresaid; nor
furnish them with meat, drink, house, harbour,
victual, nor no other thing useful or comfortable
to them, nor have intelligence with them by
word, writ, or message, or any other manner of
way, under the pain to be repute and esteemed
art and part with them in the crimes foresaid,
and pursued therefore with all rigour, to the
terror of others : requiring hereby all sheriffs,
stewards, bailies of regalities and baileries, and
their deputes, and magistrates of burghs, to
apprehend and commit to prison any of the
persons above-written, our rebels, whom they
shall find within their respective jurisdictions,
according to justice, as you will answer to us
thereupon." 2 Was this the prohibition of a
Christian king or the ban and excommunication
of an Arch-druid? To live a man forbid — to
wander and find no rest — to have neither home,

1 Wodrow.

2 Idem.

nor friend, nor sustenance, and to have no hope
of the end of such suffering except the grave,
was the doom of these Letters of Intercommun-
ing issued in his majesty's name, and enforced
with his authority and power. With a person
intercommuned neither wife nor husband, neither
brother nor sister, must in the slightest degree
associate, without sharing in his crime and
being involved in his punishment.

The illegal manner in which the houses of
noblemen and gentlemen had been turned into
garrisons continued to be bitterly felt in the
year 1676. The soldiers who occupied them
were not idle, for they scoured the districts
without control, and harassed, imprisoned,
robbed, and wounded those whom they were
pleased to suspect of being haunters of conven-
ticles. And still they were astonished to find
that these conventicles .continued to multi])ly,
and it may be thought were dehghted with the
profitable prospect which such an increase
afforded. But by this defiant increase the
bishops were provoked to greater severity, so
that they not only urged the strict execution of
the existing laws against conventicles, but bound
the indulged ministers with additional restric-
tions. They also classed among the intercom-
muned all such preachers as did not attend with
their families the public worship ministered by
the curates, threatened all inferior judges and
officers with heavy penalties who did not exe-
cute with strictness the letters of intercom-
muning, and increased the penalties of those
heritors who in any way permitted the holding
of house conventicles within their bounds. No
chaplain, schoolmaster, or tutor was also to be
employed in their families without a license
under the hand of the bishop of the diocese
under the penalty of 3000 marks on every
nobleman, 1200 on every gentleman, and 600
on every burgess. By this decree the most
learned and accomplished students whom our
colleges had produced since the Keformation
were shut out from their pi^oper employment
and reduced to inactivity.^ One event of this
year may suflnce to show how unscrupulously
the most common rules of justice could be set
aside by the ruling party to procure the punish-
ment of an offender. Mr. James Kirkton, the
well-known church historian, having been ap-
prehended by Captain Carstairs, was rescued
by his near relative, Baillie of Jerviswood.
Carstairs complained of Baillie to the council,
who were sufiiciently inclined to punish, but
unluckily the captain had no warrant to appre-
hend Kirkton, having burnt that which he re-
ceived from Sharp for the puj-pose a month pre-

3 Wodrow.

166

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1667-1678.

vious to the capture, so that tlie act itself was il-
legal, and C'arstairs, rather th;m Baillie, deserving
of puiiisliLuent. This ditticulty, however, was a
mere trifle iu the eyes of the archbishop, who
drew out a new warrant, and to establish the
charge against Jerviswood it was dated so as to
suit the time of the minister's apprehension. This
document Carstairs produced upon the trial,
and Baillie, with the two friends who had as-
sisted him, were imprisoned and heavily fined.
Nor even here did this precious display of jus-
tice stop. Several of the inhabitants of Edin-
burgh who felt an interest in the trial waited
in the lobby of the council-house to know what
was to be done with the prisoners. But this
natural solicitude was interpreted into a partici-
pation in the crime. A vote was proposed in
the council whether all the men in the lobby
should not be imprisoned also, and they only
escaped incarceration by one casting-vote.^

During the preceding years the conventicles
had been distinguished by their harmlessness.
They assembled iu places least liable to be sus-
pected, and on the alarm of danger quietly dis-
persed. But forbearance has its limits, and
being now strong enough to repel aggression,
the year 1677 was distinguished by several acts
of resistance in which they overawed the mili-
tary who were brought against them, and suc-
cessfully defended themselves when attacked.
They were now bringing their weapons as well
as Bibles and psalm-books to the field ; and on
one occasion, in Fifeshire, when Captain Car-
stairs assailed a dwelling-house, in which a few
resolute worshippers were assembled, they beat
him and his party oflf', and wounded one of the
soldiers This principle of resistance in self-
defence, although it had been so long delayed,
was nothing more than the persecutors had
anticipated, and were earnest to provoke ; and
it served as a pretext for raising those forces
which, under a show of maintaining order, would
be sufficient for the extinction of the national
liberties and the establishment of monarchical
despotism. Urged accordingly by the alarm of
the bishops and their demands for still more
soldiers to effect the national conversion, Lauder-
dale carried their representations to the king,
and aided with his counsels in carrying them
into effect. It was a favourable opportunity for
Charles, as the outcry was loud against the
maintenance of an army in England in the time
of peace : an army in Scotland would suffice as
well or better for confirming his absolute power,
while its maintenance would occasion little or
no diminution of his revenue. Having con-
certed his i^lan with the king Lauderdale re-

1 Wodrow ; Kirkton ; Burnet.

turned to Scotland to stir up some notable broil
or discontent that would justify a fresh levy of
soldiers, and w-as not long in devising the means.
As conventicles were most numerous in the west
a bond was presented to the gentlemen of that
quarter for signature, by which they bound not
only themselves, but became responsible, under
the same penalties as the actual delinquents, for
their families, servants, tenants, and dependants,,
that none of them should attend conventicles.
This most unreasonable demand they refused to
sign, and this refusal was enough; the whole of
the west of Scotland was rebellious, and must
be placed in a state of siege. It was suggested
that the Highland clans could be easily raised
for the performance of military service in the
Lowlands, and the king gave his assent. Orders
were accordingly issued to the Earl (now Mar-
quis) of Athole and the Earls of Moray, Mar,
Perth, Strathmore, Airley, and Caithness to
raise their Highland retainers, which they soon
did to the number of eight thousand men; and
these, on advancing to Stirling in January, 1678,
were joined by two thousand militia under the
command of the Earl of Linlithgow.^

Such was the Highland Host, a name of
abomination to the Covenanters of the west.
Strangers alike to the civilization, the lan-
guage, and the laws of those upon whom they
were let loose, they knew no authority but
that of their chiefs, and sought no object be-
yond that of free quarters and plunder, which
they were ready to secure by the most uncere-
monious means. Alarmed at the outset of these
ominous preparations those gentlemen to whom
the bond had been tendered resolved to appeal
to the king; but from this they were prevented
by an order of council prohibiting noblemen and
others to go out of the kingdom without license.
Thus cooj^ed up like victims awaiting the spoiler
they next applied to the privy-council; but there
Lauderdale was in one of his worst fits of frenzy;
for, making bare his arm to the shoulder to give
emphasis to his imprecation, and raising it to
heaven, he swore by Jehovah that he would
make the recusants enter into these bonds.
After this they had no alternative but silence,
and the Highland Host marched to Glasgow,
although there was no enemy to encounter, fur-
nished, besides their usual weapons, with a small
train of artillery for the siege of fortified places,
and a sufficient portion of fettei-s, handcuffs,
and thumb-screws. These, indeed, were their
chief tokens of civilization, as in all other re-
spects they resembled an army of wild predatory
Tartars. And well did they justify their appear-
ance by their deeds in Glasgow and the west,

2 Wodrow ; Burnet.

A.D. 1667-1678.]

CHAELES II.

167

where everything they saw was rich and rare in
their eyes, and might be obtained for the mei'e
trouble of seizure. Even then it would have
been well had they confined themselves to plun-
dering, which they exercised without measure;
but their deeds of iusolence and merciless cruelty
kept pace with their rapacity. With them the
Covenanters were not only Saxons but heretics,
against whom, therefore, they were animated
with a double hatred ; and they not only dis-
armed and stripped the devoted districts, but
treated their inhabitants with all the license
claimed by barbarians in overrunning a hostile
country. Accordingly, besides those deeds of
insolence and cruelty in which they indulged to
the full, they were guilty of others too shocking
to be particularized; and not only aged men but
several women, among whom were two ladies of
rank, expired under the cruel treatment of these
savage mountaineers. In order also to compel
subscription to the bond the oppressed districts
of the west were visited with a new device of
refined political cruelty. In Scottish law a man,
who was afraid of violence from his neighbour,
could take out a writ of law-burrows against
him, compelling him to keep the peace ; and a
writ to this effect was taken out in the name of
the king, against the counties that refused to
subscribe the bond under the pretext that his
majesty had just cause of fear from their viol-
ence. This was intolerable, and when the wes-
tern gentlemen complained of this extravagant
proceeding that involved them in a personal
quarrel with their sovereign, and stated that, as
ploughing-time was at hand, these violent pro-
ceedings would arrest agricultural labour and
convert the whole quarter of that kingdom into
a waste, they were insultingly answered by
Lauderdale, that it were better that the west
should bear nothing but windle-straes and sand-
larks than rebels to the king.^ And to show
that this was no empty threat, all the inhabit-
ants of these counties were soon after com-
manded to go to their houses to aid the king's
army and obey such orders as were sent to them;
and it was oidered that none should leave the
kingdom without permission of the council, as
their stay was necessary for his majesty's ser-
vice. All this was done to compel the people
to rebel and justify the maintenance of a stand-
ing army. So hopeful also were Lauderdale's
party of such a result, that on Valentine's day,
instead of drawing for mistresses, they drew for
the estates which they hoped would be forfeited
by the rebellion. ^

Findins? that all reasonable submission was

1 Sir W. Scott's Tales of a Grandfather.

2 Wodrow : Burnet.

in vain, and that their ruin was resolved, a last
peaceful effort was made by the Duke of Ha-
milton, when he learned that the writ of law-
burrows was about to be issued against him;
and disregarding the imperious prohibition to
leave the kingdom he repaired to Loudon, to
lay a statement of the national grievances before
the king. He was accompanied on this occasion
by ten or twelve noblemen and fifty gentlemen
of quality, and by the Marquis of Athole and
the Earl of Perth, two members of the council,
who had seceded from the party of Lauderdale,
and who now accompanied the deputation to
confirm their statements. But Charles would
not admit them, because they had left Scotland
contrary to the pi'oclamation ; and when they
stated that this order was to prevent their com-
plaints f roip being brought to his majesty, which
was one of their principal grievances, they were
told that they should not have departed without
asking permission. Although Charles suspected
that Lauderdale had now become distraught he
would not disown his proceedings, as they were
so favourable to his interests; and hence the in-
sulting coldness with which he treated the Scot-
tish deputation, although it was composed of
the princijjal men of the kingdom.^ Lauderdale,
however, did not view the matter so coolly; the
strength and influence of such an opposition
alarmed him, and he caused an act of council to
be passed at the end of February (1678) order-
ing the Highland Host to return to their homes.
These maraudera accordingly trussed up their
plunder, which consisted of every miscellaneous
article, from vessels of gold and silver to pots,
pans, and crockery, and vanished like a locust-
cloud, after they had impoverished the wes-
tern districts to an incredible amount, be-
sides entailing calamities upon them of a still
worse description.* The bond and the writ of
law- burrows were also withdrawn; but Lauder-
dale, instead of being rebuked or displaced, ob-
tained a letter from his majesty to the council
approving of all his proceedings.^

During these years of public calamity an inci-
dent, trivial in itself, was in progress more illustra-
tive than almost any other event of the character
of those rulers to whose tender mercies Scotland
was now wholly given up. Mention has already
been made of the attempt by James Mitchell to
assassinate Archbishop Sharp in 1668, and the
fruitlessness of the search after the intending
murderer. Mitchell remained abroad until he
thought the event forgot, when he returned to
Scotland, and married a woman who kept a
small shop near the primate's Edinburgh resi-
dence. Sharp, who observed the man looking

3 Burnet.

* Wodrow.

5 Burnet.

168

HISTOKY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1667-1678.

narrowly at him every time be passed his shoj")-
door, had his attention roused by the circum-
stance ; and, looking uarrowl}'^ at him, he sus-
pected him to be the same 2:)erson who had shot
at him six yeai-s ago — for this luckless detection
occurred in the year 1674. He caused the man
to be arrested, who, when taken, had a loaded
pistol in his pocket; but, as it was impossible to
identify him except by his own confession, Sharp
with uplifted hands swore by the living God
that if he made a full confession no evil should
befall him. Induced by this solemn declaration,
and by the promises of certain members of
council commissioned by Lauderdale to assure
him of impunity if he made a frank confession,
Mitchell at last acknowledged himself the author
of the attempt. It was hoped that this confes-
sion would lead to the profitable revelation of
some wide-spread conspiracy, but here they were
disappointed; Mitchell declared that he was the
sole contriver of the deed, and that only one man
had been privy to it, who was now dead. En-
raged at having found so little the council next
deliberated what was to be done to him; and while
some recommended that his right hand should
be struck off, others insisted that he should lose
both hands, as he would otherwise be able to
practise pistol-shooting with his left. A nauseous
jest on the part of Lord Rothes saved the culprit
from dismemberment; but he was sent to prison
first in Edinburgh and afterwards in the Bass,
"where he was confined two years. In 1676' he
was again brought to trial ; but, finding that the
promise of life on which he had made his con-
fession was intended to be broken, he refused
to acknowledge his confession, upon which he
was subjected to the boot ; but although nine
successive blows of the mallet were iufiicted,
until he fainted under the torture, no confession
could be wrung from him to criminate himself
or others. They would have then subjected his
other leg to a similar process, but were pre-
vented by Sharp, who had received an anony-
mous letter, threatening that if this cruel inten-
tion was carried out he should have a shot from
a steadier hand.^ He was again remanded to
the Bass, but produced for final trial in January,
1678, the vindictive Sharp being now satisfied
that he had no accomplices, and determined that
he should not escape. The particulars of this
trial may be briefly given. The prisoner ap-
pealed to the promise of immunity on which he
had made his confession ; but Sharp, Lauderdale,
Rothes, and Hatton swore that no such promise
had been given ; and when Mitchell's counsel
produced a copy of their written promise, which
he had privately obtained, and appealed to the

1 Law's Memorials.

register of the privy-council in which it was
engrossed, desiring that it should be brought
from the next room to verify it, Lauderdale,
who was there only as a witness, indignantly
stormed, declaring that the council's books con-
tained the king's secrets, and must not be exa-
mined. The prisoner was condemned to die, and
the judge who pronounced the sentence was the
same person who had privately furnished the
copy of the promise to Mitchell's advocate upon
the trial. The doom was confined to death by
hanging; but two days after it was passed, an
order came from court, at the suggestion, it was
thought, of Shai'p, that Mitchell's head and hand
should be set up on some public jmrt of the city.
As the sentence, however, had been akeady pro-
nounced this additional piece of horror could
not be annexed to the execution.

When the trial was finished the lords of council
adjourned to their own apartment, and there, to
their shame, found the act recorded and signed
by Lord Rothes as president of the council, by
which Mitchell's indemnity was secured. The
Duke of Lauderdale, wlio had probably forgot all
about it, was somewhat moved by the discovery,
and he proposed to the council that the execu-
tion should be delayed until the matter had been
laid before the king ; but Sharp was indignant
at this symptom of clemency, and represented
that if such a murderer was spared his life could
no longer be safe. At this suggestion Lauder-
dale yielded, with the impious jest, " Then, let
Mitchell glorify God in the Grassmarket." In
the Grassmarket he was accordingly executed;
and the firmness with which he had endured the
torture, and the courage he displayed on the
scaffold, excited public sympathy, and made the
real turpitude of his offence be overlooked, so
that many regarded him not as an assassin but
a martyr. This feeling also was heightened by
the knowledge of the promises solemnly given
to obtain Mitchell's confession, and the shame-
lessness with which they had been violated.
What was to be thought of such rulers, and
above all, of a church that had such a man as
Sharp for its primate? After detailing the
trial, and its iniquitous perversion not only of
justice but of truth and common honesty, Burnet
thus concludes the narrative: "This I set down
the more fully, to let my readers see to what a
height in wickedness men may be carried, after
they have once thrown off good jjrinciples.
What Sharp did now to preserve himself from
such practices was probably that which, both in
the just judgment of God and the inflamed fury
of wicked men, brought him two years after to
such a dismal end."^

2 Wodrow ; Burnet.

A.D. 1679-1681.]

CHAELES II.

169

CHAPTEE XIV.

REIGN OF CHARLES II. (1679-1681).

Application of the council to the king for further powers — The application granted — Severities against con-
venticles increased — The conventicles arm in self-defence — Laws against Papists made to include the
Covenanters — Fresh edicts against them on account of the murder of two soldiers — Murder of Archbishop
Sharp on Magus Moor — Its unpremeditated nature — Particulars of the deed — Fanaticism of its authors —
Indignation of the council at the primate's mvu'der — Their laws against conventicles increased in severity
• — Reaction in the Covenanters provoked — A party of them proclaim their testimony at Rutherglen — They
are pursued by Graham of Claverhouse — Skirmish at Drumclog — Defeat of Claverhouse by the Covenanters
— Their unsuccessful attack on Glasgow — They encamp at Hamilton — Their theological dissensions and
disputes — Advance of the king's troops — Unsuccessful attempts of the Presbyterians to negotiate vnth the
Duke of Monmouth — Battle of Bothwell Bridge — Defeat of the Covenanters — Severe proceedings of the
Royalists after the battle — Cruelties of Claverhouse — Treatment of the prisoners taken at Bothwell Bridge
— Part of them shipped for the plantations — Wreck of the transport vessel — Five men executed as parties
in Sharp's murder — Execution of the ministers King and Kidd — Their dying professions of loyalty — Chai'ges
against Lauderdale's administration — The king's opinion of it — Lauderdale succeeded by the Duke of
York — Origin of the Cameronians — The Queensferry Paper — Desire of the Cameronians to avoid misrepre-
sentation— Their Sanquhar Declaration — Its frankness and boldness — The Queensferry and Sanquhar
Declarations published in England — Tendency of this proceeding — The Cameronians attacked and defeated
at Aird's Moss — Death of Richard Cameron — Treatment of his mangled remains — Hackston brought prisoner
to Edinburgh — His ignominious treatment by order of the magistrates — His trial and barbarous execu-
tion— Cargill excommunicates the king and chief persecutors — Its effect on the consciences of the excom-
municated— Instance in the death of the Duke of Rothes.

The year 1679 only brought additioual sever-
ities upon the Covenanters. Although the High-
land Host had been dismissed, 5000 additional
troops had been raised to supply their absence,
and what the former had failed to reap the
latter gleaned, until there was little more left
to plunder. It was against conventicles that
the efforts of the council were now directed, as
they recognized in these the nursing mothers
of the national spirit and the future sources of
armed resistance, and until these were uttei'ly
suppressed there was no chance for the establish-
ment of royal absolutism or their own advance-
ment in the royal favour. For this purpose,
however, it was necessary that their powers
should be enlarged, and they accordingly applied
to the king by " Overtures for suppressing the
present schism and disorders of the church, and
frequent insurrections following thereupon."
In these overtures or proposals, after conii^lain-
ing of the lawless assemblies that were still
upon the increase, and the impossibility of pro-
curing conformity in religion as long as they
existed, they expressed their desire that these
should be everywhere put down by military
agency. They also proposed that, in the dis-
persion of conventicles, should resistance be
made and death ensue, the soldiers should be
exempt from prosecution; that they should be
empowered to apprehend and commit to prison
the minister, and as many of his audience as
they could ; and that they should take the upper
garments from those they could not conveniently

carry to prison, so that they might be after-
wards known and identified. They, moreover,
required an order upon the treasury for pay-
ment of the rewards offered for the apprehen-
sion of the chief ringleaders as soon as they
should be caught and given up, viz., five hun-
dred pounds stei'ling for Mr. John Welsh, three
thousand marks for that of any of the ministers
who were proclaimed traitors, two thousand for
each of the preachers declared fugitive or in-
tercommuned, and nine hundred marks for every
vagrant minister who preached in the fields.^
It is not difficult to guess how soldiers with
arms in their hands, invested with such autho-
rity and stimulated by such rewards, would
signalize their zeal in the suppression of Pres-
byterianism. Charles granted all that the
council required, and they were prompt to
avail themselves of the permission. For this
purpose they divided the military force, and
while one portion was established in garrisons
over five of the principal cities of the west, the
other were dispersed over the country in flying
detachments, to apprehend, imprison, and even
to slay should resistance be off"ered. And now,
indeed, conventicles became less frequent, but
far more dangerous; it was useless for the
people so to meet except in such numbers as to
be capable of resistance, and the soldiers were
often obliged to calculate whether they might
safely encounter such a meeting or exercise

1 Wodrow.

170

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1679-1681.

their discretion in letting it alone. The min-
ister now repaired to the trysting- place of
preaching accompanied by a body-guard of
armed adherents ; tlie ground selected was one
favourable either for resistance or escape ;
the hearere were drawn up and marshalled in
order of battle, and sentinels were placed on
the distant heights to give notice of the enemy's
approach. An attempt on the 30th of March
to break up a conventicle of this description at
Lesmahagow, near Lanark, gives a distinct idea
of their strength and resources. The soldiers
having been advertised of the meeting, advanced
with the intention of dispersing them, but on
learning what numbers were assembled and
how well many of them were armed, they did
not think it prudent to make the attempt.
They kept, therefore, at a wary distance on the
outside of the throng, rifled some women who
were repairing to it of their cloaks and Bibles,
which would afterwards suffice to discover tlieir
owners, and also took several men prisoners.
When intelligence of this capture reached the
meeting an armed j^-'^i'ty was sent against the
soldiers, to demand the restitution of their pris-
oners and the spoil; their commander refused
and a scuffle commenced, in which not only
the prisoners, cloaks, and Bibles were recovered,
but the captain himself was wounded and several
of his men taken, who, however, were after-
wards set free.^

The plot of Titus Oates was now setting
England in a flame. The people were raised
into a frenzy of alarm in consequence of the
successive revelations that were made of the
dangerous designs of the Papists, and while the
terror of the English was raised to fever heat,
nothing but the best blood of the country could
allay it. The gullibility with which the incon-
sistent testimonies of Oates and his crew were
swallowed, the executions that followed, and the
shame and remoi-se of the nation when it awoke
from its dream, will ever constitute a strange
chapter in the history of national panics. Ad-
vantage was taken of this alarm to extend the
enactments against Papists to Scotland, not,
however, from apprehension from this quarter,
but that the nonconforming Presbyterians
should be included in their restrictions. Ac-
cordingly in the proclamation issued by the
council commanding all "Jesuits, priests, and
trafficking Papists" to leave the kingdom, the
enforcement of the laws against all who per-
formed and attended mass, and the disqualifica-
tion of any of that communion to belong to the
army, or hold any public office, the sting of the
proclamation was exhibited in the following

1 Wodrow.

words : " And to the end all our good subjects
may unanimously join not only in hearing tlie
word of God, but in participating of his holy
sacraments, we do hereby revive that excellent
statute made by our royal grandfather (act 17,
pari. 16), 'That subjects of this kingdom shall
communicate once a year;' and that if any
shall abstain, upon any pretext whatsoever, they
being by their pastors thereunto required, shall
pay the penalties mentioned in the said act;
every earl a thousand pounds, lord a thousand
marks, baron five hundred pounds, freeholder
three hundred marks, yeoman forty pounds,
and burgess according as the council shall
modify ; requiring all magistrates and judges
to put the said act in execution against all per-
sons of what profession soever, conform to the
words as well as the meaning of the act itself."
In this way the alarm of Popery was used as a
handle against the Presbyterians, who were to
be compelled by additional penalties to conform
to the established church, and to give token of
their sincerity by the most solemn of all reli-
gious pledges. That such was the design of the
council was sufficiently manifested by the man-
ner in which their proclamation was followed
up; for while they left the Papists undisturbed,
and sent only a single priest to the Bass, they
directed the whole force of the prohibition and
its penalties against those Presbyterians who
refused to communicate in the parish churches,
and thereby show that they were not Papists.^
While every method was thus adojated to
implicate the nonconformists, an event occurred
which favoured the design. This was the
murder of two soldiers at the house of a man
near Loudon Hill, upon whom they were quar-
tered because he had not paid the cess. They
were attacked and killed at two o'clock on the
morning of the 20th of April, and although the
party by whom the deed was done could not be
discovered, it was known that their leader was
an infamous tinker who had lately belonged to
the army, but had left it, as was thought, upon
some infamous errand. It has, indeed, been
plausibly suspected that he was a spy in the
employment of government, and that he wrought
this deed of violence on purpose that the blame
might be thrown upon the Presbyterians. At
all events they were charged with the murder,
and the act was used as a pretext for additional
rigour and fresh enactments. One of these,
which was passed on the 1st of May, was the
most remarkable. After stating their alarm at
the dangerous concourses of armed men who
frequented the field meetings, the council issued
ordeis to the Earl of Linlithgow, their major-

2 Wodrow.

.D. 1679-1681.]

CHAELES II.

171

general, to send out detachments of horse, foot,
and dragoons into whatever place the ministers
Welsh, Cameron, Kidd, and Douglas held their
conventicles; to issue money from the public
fund for obtaining intelligence of the jjlaces
where these conventicles were held ; to seize
and apprehend such as should be found at them;
and declaring that in the event of resistance
being offered and death inflicted, neither officers
nor soldiers should be criminally or civilly
called in question. This was a proclamation of
war, to which there could be no answer on the
part either of ministers or people but absolute
submission or open resistance; and as such the
suffering party received it, and stood on their
defence. Sharp was the princijml author of
this act, and on the 6th of the same mouth he
intended to take a journey to court for the
purpose of obtaining still more severe enact-
ments against the persecuted, when his career
was cut short by a violence as sudden and un-
expected as that which had ended the cai'eer of
Cardinal Beaton. ^

His own county of Fife, which had stood the
foremost in the Reformation, was equally alert
in the cause of the Covenant; and during the
last and beginning of the present year conven-
ticles not only abounded over Fifeshire, but
were held under the very shadow of his archi-
episcopal city. Indignant at such resistance in
the very seat of his power, that should have
been a pattern of obedience, the archbishop
redoubled his efforts to suppress it, and com-
missioned a wretched creature of his own, one
Carmichael, who had been a bailie and bank-
rupt merchant in Edinburgh, to harass, im-
prison, fine, and plunder all who absented
themselves from the church or attended field
conventicles — a commission which this func-
tionary exercised with congenial rigour. Among
his cruelties we are told that he often put burn-
ing matches between the fingers of servants to
force them to criminate their masters or reveal
where they were, and used to beat and abuse wo-
men and children to make them inform against
husbands and parents. The oppression of such
an upstart bankx'ui^t was intolerable to the high-
spirited gentlemen of the county, and nine of
them resolved to waylay him and put him to
death, or at least to give him a severe drubbing
and frighten him out of Fifeshire. For this pur-
pose they met on the 3d of May, and searched for
him in the fields about Cupar and its neigh-
bourhood for several hours; but Carmichael,
who had got a timely hint of their intention,
left the hunt in which he was recreating him-
self, and got safe to his dwelling. Wearied out

1 Wodrow.

with their long search, the party were about to
disjjerse when a boy told them that the arch-
bishop's coach was at the village of Ceres, and
would pass near the sjiot where they were as-
sembled on its way to St. Andrews. These were
unexpected tidings : the agent had escaped
them and the principal fallen into their hands !
In their enthusiasm they regarded it as a pro-
vidential occurrence which they would do wrong
to neglect, and projjosed to cut him off notwith-
standing the dissuasions of Hackston of Eathillet,
one of their party ; and when they proj^osed that
he should lead the enterj^rise he refused, as a
civil ])rocess was jaending betwixt him and the
primate, so that his conduct might be attributed
to private revenge. They chose another to lead
them, and moved forward to Magus Moor to
intercept the primate, in the resolution to show
as little mercy to him as he had shown ta
others. When they reached the moor the
bishop's coach was in sight — one of those heavy,
lumbering conveyances of the period that were
better fitted for state than rapid motion — and
instantly one of the party, who was mounted
on a fleet horse, rode forward to ascertain if the
primate was in the coach. Sharp, who was
alarmed at this suspicious arrival, bade the
coachman drive at full speed ; the gentleman,
hearing this, threw off his cloak and pursued,
and his companions followed. The carriage was
soon overtaken by the foremost rider, who cried
to the primate, "Judas be taken!" while Sharp
exclaimed to the coachman, " Drive, drive ; "
but the gentleman wounded and dismounted
the postilion, cut the traces, and ordered the
archbishop to come forth, as his daughter was
with him, whom they were unwilling to injui'e.
He hesitated, upon which two of the party
fired at him, close to his body, while the rest
were employed in disarming his servants; and
thinking that their enemy was settled, they
were mounting their horses to depart, when
one of them overheard his daughter exclaiming,
"Oh, there is life in him yet !" This brought
them back to the carriage, when they found
that the archbishop was still unwounded, and
that their work was still to do. But they
had gone too far to recede, and this thought
steeled their hearts to every ajipeal for mercy.
The captain of the party sternly ordered the
primate to dismount; but he only clung the
closer to his seat, and entreated that his life
might be spai'ed. The captain, who appears to
have studied the history of the murder of
Beaton, and to have been emulous to rival the
example of James Melvil, the chief actor in
the deed, whom Knox calls " a man of nature
most gentle and most modest," here replied, " I
take God to witness, whose name I desire to

172

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1679-1681.

own in adhering to the persecuted gospel, that
it is not out of any hatred of your person, nor
from any prejudice you have done or could do
to me, that I now intend to take your life, but
because you have been, and still continue to be,
an avowed opposer of the gospel and kingdom
of Christ, and a murderer of his saints, whose
blood you have shed like waiter." Another
member of the gang here exclaimed, " Eepent,
Judas, and come out !" while Sharp piteously
cried, " Gentlemen, save my life, and I will save
yours." To this the captain answered, " I know
it is not in your jjower either to save us or to
kill us : I again declare it is not any particular
feud or quarrel I have with you which moves
me to this attempt, but because you are an enemy
to Christ and his interests, and have wrung your
hands in the blood of his saints, not only after
Pentland, but several times since, and particu-
larly for your perjury, and shedding the blood
of Mr. James Mitchell, and having a hand in
the death of James Learmont, and your per-
fidious betraying of the Church of Scotland.
These crimes," he added, "and the blood cry
with a loud voice to heaven for vengeance, and
we are this day to execute it." Still the bishop
cried for mercy, and offered money, but the
captain indignantly replied, " Thy money perish
with thee !" and offering him a few minutes for
prayer, again ordered him to come out. But as
he still clung to his hopeless shelter, and con-
tinued his vain entreaties, one of the party fired
a pistol at him, which missed him, while another
wounded him with a sword; and seeing their
resolution was unchangeable, he left the car-
riage, and threw himself on his knees before
the captain, with the cry, " For God's sake save
my life, save my life !" He offered forgiveness,
he offered money, he even offered to lay down
his episcopal function and retire into private
life ; and seeing Hackston at a distance, wliom
he knew, and who had taken no part in the
transaction, he crawled towards him on his
hands and knees, and aj^pealed to him, " Sir, I
know you are a gentleman; you will protect
me." But Hackston, who was still on horseback,
only answered briefly, "I will never lay a hand
on you," and drew back a short distance. The
captain of the party was now impatient, and
again desired his victim to prepare himself for
his end by prayer; but Sharp still continued
his cries for mercy and offers of immunity if
they would but spare him. Finding their admoni-
tion fruitless, they discharged a volley of shot at
him, and the archbishop fell motionless ; but on
one of them pricking liim with his sword he
raised himself, and showed that life was still in
him. It was a superstition among the Coven-
anters of the period that Satan had made his

chosen servants, the principal persecutors of the
saints, invulnerable to ordinary leaden bullets,
and that they could only be killed by shot of
silver or weapons of cold steel ; and believing
that this tenacity of life in the primate was
owing to such a cause, the commander ordered
his party to use their swords. This they did
with such savage determination that his face
was frightfully mangled, his body pierced with
more than one mortal wound, and his brains
actually scooped from his head.^

Thus perished an apostate who coolly bartered
his reputation for wealth and office, who sold
to the enemy a church that had trusted him,
and who used its confidence in his integrity to
bind it hand and foot and deliver it up, and
who afterwards, when the foul deed was done,
endeavoured to justify his treachery or stifle the
reproaches of his conscience by becoming the
most vindictive of the enemies of that church
and the most unpitying of its persecutors.
Without the heroic gi'andeur of Beaton, or the
consistent devotedness and courage of Laud, he
only resembled them in the meanest parts of
their characters, and outstripped the former in
fraudful cunning and the latter in merciless
severity. And as he had lived so he died^ — the
same measure of cruelty which he had so often
allotted to his victims was meted out to him in
return, and he who had trampled on all law
and justice was lawlessly murdered upon an
open highway by a vengeance as pitiless as his
own.

After having committed the merciless deed,
and deprived the archbishop's five servants of
their arms, the assassins proceeded to search his
luggage in the hope of finding papers connected
with the movements of his party; but having
found nothing that could enlighten them they
resumed their cloaks which they had thrown
aside, deliberately mounted their horses, and
rode off. The place where the deed was done
was one of the most frequented thoroughfares
of the county ; there were several parties of
soldiers in four towns, the most distant of
which was not more than four miles from the
spot, while troopers were constantly patrolling
the principal roads ; and yet, though they had
spent nearly an hour at the scene of action,
there was neither interruption nor witness to
their proceedings. Tliis they regarded as a
wonderful intervention of Providence and an
approval of their deed ; and for this they gave
thanks, as well as for the action itself, in
solemn united prayer, when they halted at a
house some three or four miles distant from
Magus Moor. There they remained till night,

I Wodrow ; Kirkton ; Biirnet.

A.D. 1679-1681.]

CHARLES II.

173

and having spent the time chiefly in social and
private devotion, " they removed from thence
with as much composure of spirit as their hearts
could wish."^

When the news of the archbishop's death
reached Edinburgh the council did not display
that sympathy which might have been expected.
Sharp had already served their purpose, and was
no longer indispensable. His high-born asso-
ciates were also impatient of the domineering
ecclesiastic, and felt that his urgency was ani-
mated more by selfish and personal considera-
tions than a regard for their own safety or the
public weal. He was working to establish that
priestly domination which tended to the sub-
version of their own order, and they felt that
jealousy and disgust which proud nobles gene-
rally feel when a low-born priest has forced
himself into their ranks, and assumed the lead-
ing in their counsels. But whatever secret satis-
faction they might feel at his removal was con-
cealed by the loudness of their deploration; the
primate was represented as a heroic martyr to
his church; lying accounts were published of his
Christian magnanimity in the hour of death, and
statements equally exaggerated of the fanatical
and ruthless conduct of his destroyers ; and the
deed, instead of being taken as the sudden act
of angry men met for a different purpose, was
I'epresented as a deep deliberate design, in which
the whole body of the Presbyterians were im-
plicated. No pretext could be better fitted to
justify their own cruelty, and they did not allow
the opportunity to go to sleep. Proclamations
were issued in all directions for the apprehension
of the murderers, and all were prohibited from
wearing arms in public without license. This
was especially directed against those who at-
tended conventicles; and, by a proclamation
issued on the 13th of May, all who repaired to
the.se field meetings with any kind of weapons
were forthwith to be punished as traitors. " And
lest that any of our subjects," the proclamation
added, "may pretend, by the just rigour we
will use against such as do go to conventicles in
arms, that we resolve to slacken our prosecution
of other field conventicles, we have therefore
thought fit, to require all our judges and oflacers
to put our laws and former commands in vigor-
ous execution even against those who frequent
these field meetings without arms."- It was a
sorry choice left to tlie Covenanter of being cut
down on the field like a soldier, or hanged on the
gallows like a rogue. It was an evident temp-
tation to resistance, so that the extermination
of the whole party might be justified. The act,
upon which this jiroclamation was founded, had

1 Wodrow.

- Idem.

been proposed by Sharp on the 1st of May; and
as it was the last of his public proceedings be-
fore he left Edinburgh to perish on Magus Moor,
it was termed " the Bishop's Legacy." Another
use of the primate's death was to make it the
test of the principles of those who were sus-
pected. " Was the archbishop's death murder 1 "
was now the query of the soldiers to every doubt-
ful i^erson they chanced to meet. But many
who felt themselves not clear in condemning the
deed or its actors, or refused to answer, or gave
a doubtful reply, were considered as justifying
the murder, and killed on the sj^ot.^

Hitherto the Presbyterians as a body had been
distinguished not only by their loyalty but by
their forbearance. They had been ready to defend
to the death all the king's claims except that of
supremacy, and when they resisted it was only
when they were pi^ovoked into self-defence by
the intolerable tyranny of the Scottish rulers and
the brutality of the lawless soldiery. But now
they were to be disarmed, in order that they
might more easily be trampled under foot. Was
not this then a reasonable limit to their forbear-
ance 1 And would they not be justified in or-
ganizing a regular resistance for the safety of
their libei'ty and lives, and in defence of their
religion 1 All this they concluded they might
do, and thus far none could blame them. But,
while the majority were satisfied with this con-
clusion, and prepared to act up to it but no far-
ther, there were other bold spirits among them
whom oppression had inflamed, and who were
not to be satisfied with such moderate measures.
These were chiefly of the laity, men to whom
the princi23les of carnal warfare were familiar,
and who were too ready to apply the Old Testa-
ment proceedings to the spirit of the New.
They thought that the time had come, when,
instead of a passive resistance, they must be up
and doing, and meet the aggressors midway by
condemning the steps by which their country
had been enslaved, and proclaiming their reso-
lution to endure it no longer. In this case they
necessarily condemned the Indulgence by which
the church was shackled, and the imposition of
cess by which their bondage was maintained,
resolving neither to tolerate the one nor pay the
other. The party who entertained these ex-
ti'eme sentiments had for their clerical leaders
Cameron, Cargill, and Douglas, who were in-
tercommuned ministers; and among the laity,
Robert Hamilton, son of Sir Thomas Hamilton
of Preston, a man of unquestionable sincerity
and piety, but of narrow judgment and intem-
perate zeal.

Such was the party who now judged it their

3 Wodrow.

174

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1679-1681.

duty to publish to the world their " testimony
to the truth aud cause which they owned, and
against the sins and defections of the times." It
was a violent impulse of their own, instead of
being concerted with the Presbyterians in gene-
ral; antl although the act was a challenge of de-
fiance and a provocation to an open civil war,
they did not muster more for its pei'formance
than eighty armed men. To make the deed
more conspicuous they selected for the day the
29th of May, the anniversary of the king's birth
and restoration, which was solemnized by bon-
fires aud public rejoicings ; and for the place, the
royal burgh of Eutherglen, about two miles from
Glasgow. Thither accordingly they i-epaired at
the appointed time, where they burned all the
pei'secuting acts of the parliament and council,
extinguished the bonfires, and set up upon the
•cross their own declaration and testimony. This
treasonable deed of the extinction of the royal
bonfires, and the written scroll which the insur-
gents had left on the cross, was regarded as an
indignity by the ruling powers in Glasgow; and
foremost among these was Captain Graham —
the notorious Graham of Claverhouse — who held
a military command in Glasgow, and was dis-
tinguished above all his compeers by the zeal
with which he pursued and persecuted the Cove-
nanters and broke up their conventicles. With
several troops of horse and foot, and with a com-
mission to discover, seize, and in case of resist-
ance, kill all who had any share in the afi'air
of Rutherglen, he entered that little burgh on
the 31st of May, but found that the oftenders
had disappeared. On the same afternoon he
suddenly entered Hamilton, and surprised a
conventicle, where he seized King its preacher,
aud about fourteen country people, who, though
they were unarmed, were handcuffed in pairs,
and driven like sheep before him. His route
was now towards Loudon Hill, where he heard
that a conventicle was to assemble; and although
he was warned that resolute men would be there,
who would make a stout resistance, he was too
confident in his soldiers and his own courage to
listen to such dissuasions. On the following day
he reached Loudon Hill, where the conventicle
had assembled; but scarcely had the public wor-
ship commenced, when tidings were brought
that Clavei'house was advancing, and this occa-
sioned certain changes, by which that bold com-
mander was to be surprised in his turn. The
unarmed of the congregation were dismissed,
while those who had weapons resolved to ad-
vance and give battle to the soldiers for the
rescue of King and the other prisoners. With
this purpose they proceeded to Drumclog, about
a mile from Loudon Hill, which lay in the march
of Claverhouse, and made such hasty arrange-

ments for the encounter as the opportunity per-
mitted.^

The battle of Drumclog, so named from the
place where it was fought, although in itself au
insignificant skirmish, was important from the
valour displayed in it, and the events which it
afterwards occasioned. The bold peasantry, who
thus advanced to confi'ont disciplined well-
armed soldiers, did not muster more that 150
or 200 foot, and about forty horse ; there were
few firearms among them, aud but a scanty supply
of powder, while the greater part appear to
have had nothing better than scythes, pitch-
forks, and flails. But to lead them they had
Balfour and Hackston, both of them men of skiU
and resolution, AVilliam Cleland the poet, still a
stripling, but already distinguished by his apti-
tude for military aff;iirs, and Robert Hamilton,
the leader of the Rutherglen demonstration, who
was their commander-in-chief. They had also
the advantage of the ground, which was swampy
and unfit for cavalry to act against them, and
they were further protected by a broad ditch
which ran along their front, Claverhouse, al-
though he saw how well they were prepared for
him, could not shun the encounter, as his ordei's
were to attack them at whatever risk; and his
force, which chiefly consisted of cavalry, was
almost equal in number to the ill-armed un-
skilled peasantry who opposed him. Leaving,
therefore, his prisoners under a small guard,
with orders to shoot them if he should be de-
feated, he commenced the battle by ordering his
soldiers to open fire upon the enemy ; but, by
the advice of Cleland, the insurgents fell flat on
their faces, so that the shot went over them;
and, starting to their feet, they replied with such
a successful volley, that many of the enemies'
saddles were emptied. This interchange was
several times repeated, until, finding themselves
the losers, the soldiers pressed on to a close-
handed encounter, in which their horses and
weapons would give them the advantage ; but
in advancing they floundered or stuck fast in the
morass, and before they covdd well extricate
themselves they were gallantly charged by the
handful of Presbyterian horse led by Balfour,
and the foot under Cleland, and after a desperate
but short conflict put completely to the rout.
Claverhouse himself was almost taken, as his
horse's belly was laid open with a scythe, so that
its bowels were trailed along the ground for more
than a mile; and about thirty or forty of his
men fell in the battle and the pursuit, which
was continued more than a mile. Five also were
taken prisoners; but Hamilton, who had pre-
viously issued orders that none should be taken.

1 Wodrow

A.D. 1679-1681.]

CHAELES II.

175

shot oue of them, while the rest were saved by
the interposition of the officers. The guards,
whom Claverhouse had left with the prisoners,
fled on seeing the defeat of their companions,
and a tradition adds, that King, on seeing the
hurried retreat of Claverhouse himself, called
upon him at the top of his voice, and advised
him to tarry for the afternoon's sermon. But,
instead of tarrying for a moment, even though
it should be to pistol tiie unseasonable monitor,
Claverhouse continued his flight to Glasgow for
the purpose of making arrangements for its de-
fence. ^

After their victory at Drumclog the insur-
gents felt that they had committed themselves
to the arbitration of war, and that, instead of
dispersing, their only chance of safety consisted
in keeping together. This the disastrous revolt
of the affair of Peutland had taught them, while
their successful resistance had inspired them
with courage and ho])e. Numbers also continued
to flock to them, so that they soon assumed the
appearance of an army that might achieve greater
victories than that of Drumclog. On the day
after the battle they marcheil to Hamilton, and
still gathering as they advanced, they proceeded
to Glasgow, the military headquarters of the
west, hoping to surprise it and dislodge the
soldiers from the town. But the alarm had gone
before them, so that the enemy was on their
guard, and Lord Ross and Claverhouse had made
such preparations as ensured them a dangerous
resistance. Knowing that the town was open to
assault they erected a barricade of carts and
planks at the cross, and similar defences at the
entrances of the closes and wynds, behind which
the soldiers fought under cover, so that their
assailants were galled as they advanced by a
running fire which they had no means of re-
turning. After a brief attempt, therefore, in
which several of their men were killed, the
Presbyterians hastily abandoned the city and
returned to Hamilton. The bodies of their
comrades who had fallen in the assault were
allowed to lie in the streets till night; and when
they were at last carried into the houses of
citizens, previous to interment, the soldiers en-
tered, turned the bodies out of the dead-clothes,
and carried oif the linen. None dared to appear
in these last kind offices except women; but
although permission was tacitly allowed them
to bury the dead the soldiers attacked them in
the streets, cut the mort-cloths with their swords,
and carried off the poles that supported the
biers; and when the women endeavoured to
carry the coffins upon their plaids, even also

1 Wilson's Relation; Alton's History of the Rencounter at
Drumclog and Battle of Bothwell Bridge; Wodrow.

their plaids were taken from them, so that the
bodies had to be left in the Alms-house, near
the High Church, until their regular interment
could be peacefully elfected.'-^

The retreat of the Presbyterians to Hamilton
was soon after followed by that of the king's
troops to Stirling. The reason assigned for this
unexpected movement was the apprehension of
a more serious attack on Glasgow, in which case
there were not soldiers enough to defend it, and
the necessity of Ross and Claverhouse to repair
to the royal a)-my, from the increasing strength
of the insurgents. Reports, indeed, of their num-
bers had been so greatly exaggerated that go-
vernment took the alarm, and adopted those
measures which were only usual in a great na-
tional rebellion. Proclamations denouncing
additional severities upon the rebels and non-
conformists were published, the militia were
ordered out for service, and the Duke of Mon-
mouth, the most favoured and popular of the
king's illegitimate sons, was sent down to take
the chief command of the army. But the enemy
against whom such preparations were made
scarcely exceeded four thousand men ; and in
most cases they were an inexperienced, undis-
ciplined, and scarcely half-armed peasantry,
while among the better classes there were few
good officers who had been tried in actual war-
fare. They were also grievously defective in
ammunition and artillery, those essentials which
now constituted the strength of an army, and
of which the Royalists had an unlimited com-
mand. But still worse than these were their
divisions in religious opinion, by which mutual
concert either in plan or action was rendered
difficult, if not totally impossible. Hamilton
and his party, who might be called the zealots
of Presbyterianism, believed that Charles, in
consequence of violating the Covenant to which
he had sworn, and the tyrannical measures he
pursued, had thereby forfeited all claim to their
allegiance ; and they proposed to draw up and
publish a testimony founded upon the Ruther-
glen declaration against the payment of cess
and accepting the Indulgence. But the more
numerous party, who had never gone to such
extremes, would identify themselves with no
testimony unless it avowed unshaken loyalty to
the king, notwithstanding the oppressive deeds
that had been done in his name or by his sanc-
tion. These discoi'dant sentiments upon subjects
of such latitude, and so fruitful of controversy,
convei-ted the whole encampment into an as-
sembly of theological disputants: they spent the
time in debate which should have been devoted
to action ; while those who would have joined

2 Wodrow.

176

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1679-1681.

them hung back, foreseeing nothing but danger
and ruin to an enterprise conducted amidst such
contentious diversity.

The great bone of contention amidst these
wrathful debates was the Indulgence, the effect
of which had been sagaciously predicted by
Archbishop Sharp. The question was not
about its lawfulness — for it was universally
condemned by the insurgents — but whether the
act of accepting it should be condemned and
classed in their proclamation among the public
sins of the day. Of the eighteen ministers
present, sixteen, at the head of whom was Mr.
John Welsh of Irongray, would not go so far.
They had themselves refused to accept the
Indulgence or to approve of it, and had con-
demned it as sinful and Erastian; but they
also z'efused in the present crisis to condemn
those who had accepted it, and who would
thereby be prevented from joining their com-
mon cause. They therefore proposed that the
subject should be set aside for the present as an
open question to be decided by the next General
Assembly, and that in the meantime all should
heartily concur in the good work of delivering
the church and state from bondage. The other
party, who maintained that the king, by as-
suming an Erastian dominion over the church,
had forfeited the allegiance of his subjects, had
for its leaders Mr. Cargill and Mr. Douglas,
two ministers; but they were also supported
by Mr. Hamilton, the commander of the army,
and by a great number of its lay officers, to
whom such decisive conclusions were more con-
genial. These men would neither fraternize in
religious communion nor fight in the same ranks
with any who refused to condemn the Indul-
gence or who had actually accepted it. The
elBFects of this disunion were soon perceptible in
their military proceedings. They returned and
took possession of Glasgow, but almost imme-
diately after they again retreated back to their
camp at Hamilton Moor, near Bothwell Bridge,
where they renewed their controversy with
gi'eater rancour than ever. As usual, also, in
such popular assemblies, the opinions of the
more violent party prevailed, and served but
too well to justify the charge of rebellion with
which their cause was stigmatized.

In the meantime the Eoyalist army had
advanced to Bothwell Bridge, where the Pres-
byterians were stationed to defend it. The
sight of a disciplined array that so greatly out-
numbered them, and the formidable prepara-
tions for an attack, which ought for the present
at least to have allayed their dissensions, only
set-med to act like oil upon flame, so that instead
of turning against the enemy they were con-
tending with each other as to what principles

they were to fight for. It was on the morning
of the Sabbath, the 22d of June, that the
Presbyterian camp was roused by the enemy's
arrival ; and thus taken at unawares, a deputa-
tion from the more moderate party repaired to
the headquartei-s of the Duke of Monmouth
with proposals of an armistice for settling the
terms of a mutual accommodation. His gi-ace
received the deputation kindly, and promised
his good offices with the king in their behalf,
but added that he could do nothing until they
had laid down their arms, and uni'eservedly
submitted to the royal clemency, and that he
would grant them half an hour to think of his
proposal. But the Presbyterians would in no
case submit to such terms, and no answer was
returned. An advance from the Royalist army
with their cannon approached the bridge, which
was defended by 200 or 300 men commanded
by Hackston of Eathillet, who, notwithstanding
a heavy cannonade, made good their post for an
hour, imtil their ammunition failed ; but when
they sent to their main body for fresh sup-
plies or a reinforcement they were ordered by
Hamilton to retire and leave the bridge open.
It was a mad command : that bridge was the
principal key of their position, and should have
been maintained at any cost or risk ; but
Hackston being unsupported was obliged to
yield, and the duke's whole army and artillery
crossed and formed on the opposite bank. A
single attack thereafter sufficed to scatter the
already wavering Presbyterians, who on see-
ing the bridge abandoned had lost heart and
thought themselves betrayed, and in a few
moments horse and foot were flying in confu-
sion, Hamilton himself, it is said, being the first
to run. Only 400 fell in the battle, if battle it
might be called, and 1200 threw down their
arms and surrendered; but the greatest slaughter
was in the pursuit by Claverhouse and his dra-
goons, who were impatient to revenge their dis-
grace at Drumclog. Many were killed in this
indiscriminate butchery who had no concern in
the insurrection, but were quietly repairing to
their places of worship, it being Sunday; all,
indeed, whom they found in the fields those
troopers cut down without questioning, as if
they were runaways from the battle or on their
way to it. The loss of the royal army, as might
be expected, was so inconsiderable that no
account was made of it.^

The facility with which this insurrection had
been put down was of itself a plea for clemency;
but no such generous principle visited the sol-
diers by whom such an easy victory had been

'Wodrow; Wilson's Relation; Blackadder's Memoirs;
Alton's History of the Rencounter at Drumclog and BatfJ-e
<^f Bothwell.

A.D. 1679-1681.]

CHAELES II.

177

won or the government by whom it was to be
improved for the restoration of peace and order.
After the battle the jjrincipal officers of the
royal army proposed to burn the towns of
Glasgow, Hamilton, and Strathaven, lay waste
the western country, and kill the greater part
of the prisoners ; but to these savage and selfish
proposals Monmouth would not consent. They
then limited their demand to a four hours'
plunder of Glasgow, to punish it for the counten-
ance it had given to the rebels ; but this also the
duke refused. They were not, however, to be
entirely baulked of their reward; and in lieu of
these wholesale inflictions the processes of fine,
forfeiture, and plunder were renewed with more
than their former severity. Indeed, over the
whole kingdom, wherever a parish could be
found from which an inhabitant had belonged
to the army at Bothwell, this fact was enough
to convict the whole community and furnish a
pretext for military impositions and quarterings
that were continued for seven or eight years.
But of all these military oppressors none equalled
either in rapacity or cruelty that model hero of
the Royalists of the day, John Graham of Claver-
house. The remembrance of his disgraceful de-
feat at Drumclog seemed to haunt him like an
avenging fury, and to shed the blood of the
helpless and innocent like water seemed his
only method of silencing its taunts. A few
days after the battle of Bothwell Bridge he
swept through the counties of Ayr, Galloway,
Nithsdale, and Dumfries, making inquiiy after
nonconformists, in which the curates I'eadily
aided him, and attacking and plundering the
houses of the proscribed whether their owners
had been at Bothwell or not. In this way the
oppressions and barbarities of the Highland
Host were not only repeated but refined upon
by Graham and his ti^oopers, while their per-
quisitions were stirred into double activity by
the liberty they assumed of appropriating the
fines and plunder to their own use instead of
accounting for it to the civil authorities. The
instances of their merciless practices to extort
confession in regard to those who were sus-
pected to have been at Bothwell were worthy
of inquisitors or of bucaneers. A poor youth
whom the soldiers of Claverhouse apprehended
in the parish of Glencairn either could not or
would not give the names of the neighbours
who had joined the insurrection ; and to force
a revelation they put a small cord round his
head, with the extremities attached to the butt-
end of a pistol, and twisted this ligature so
tightly that the skin of his head was cut to the
bone, and he died of the torture soon after he
was relieved. Another stripling of the same
parish, a herd, who refused to confess whether
VOL. III.

his master had been at Bothwell, was hanged
up with two small cords by the thumbs to the
roof of the house, although no answer could be
got from him under this excruciating trial.
Such was a specimen of the deeds of Claver-
house and his soldiers over the counties which
they plundered and desolated. Imagination
does indeed play fantastic tricks when it justi-
fies such deeds of ruffianism and converts their
doer into a hero.^

While such was the treatment of those who
were at large but lying under suspicion, or who
were even suspected of being suspected, the fate
of the prisoners who surrendered at the battle
of Bothwell was of a still worse description.
After their surrender they were stripped not
only of their arms but their clothes, marched to
Edinburgh almost naked, and generally tied to-
gether in pairs. When compassionate people
on their way brought them meat and drink
they were beaten, or even mai'ched along with
them as prisoners, while the liquor they brought
was spilt on the ground and the victuals trodden
under foot. When the procession reached Cor-
storphine, about three miles from Edinburgh,
both sides of the way to the capital was lined
with those who were adverse to their cause, and
who taunted the prisoners as they passed with
every gibe which the rudest jirofauity and
hatred could supply. As the prisons of Edin-
burgh could not contain them they were thrust
into tlie churchyard of the Greyfriars, and in
this dreary peufold they continued nearly five
months, closely watched during the day by a
guard, and not allowed in any case to raise
their heads from the ground at night without
being shot at by the soldiers. Thus they re-
mained unsheltered, and more than half-starved,
until a considerable number consented to sub-
scribe a bond agreeing no more to take arms
against the king, in consequence of which they
were set at liberty ; others escaped under cloud
of night or disguised as women. But those
who remained firm to the end were hurried
down to Leith, put on board a vessel hired for
the purpose, where, to the number of 257, they
were huddled within a hold scarcely sufficient
to contain a hundred, and in this slave-ship
were to be conveyed to the plantations, at least
such as could survive such a mode of transit.
Here their sufferings were too horrible to be
related, and happily for them were soon ended.
When off the Orkneys the ship was encountered
by a violent storm ; the skipper, a hardened
ruffian, more anxious to secure his prisoners
than give them a chance for their lives, bat-
tened down the hatches over them ; and when

1 Wodrow.

87

178

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1679-1681.

the vessel split upon a rock and went asunder,
the master and his crew secured their own
safety without allowing an opening for the
prisonei"S in the hold, of whom, however, about
forty contrived to break up the deck and drift
ashore on the planks while the ship was going
to pieces. Thus more than two hundred per-
ished by what was nothing better than a judi-
cial murder.^

All this, however, was nothing to the council
so long as there was no public execution; an
exhibition of this kind wiis necessary to attest
their activity and zeal, and give proof to the
government in London that they wei-e doing
somewhat. Abov^e all it was necessary to attest
their devotedness to Episcopacy by a sacrifice
to the manes of Archbishop Sharp. Unfortu-
nately, however, for themselves, they had been
unable with all their activity, to secure the
murderers of Magus Moor, who had joined the
insurgents at Drumclog and Bothwell, and after
the dispersion still continued to be at large. In
this case, until their apprehension, it was thought
best to execute them vicariously, and accord-
ingly five prisoners were accused of having a
hand in the archbishop's death, although their
only offence had been their presence at Both-
well. Of this it was easy to convict them, and
they were convicted accordingly; but while
they were sentenced to die the place of their
execution was appointed to be Magus Moor, to
give credence to the report that they formed
part of the band by whom the primate had
been murdered.^

While the laity were thus selected for mar-
tyrdom there was fai' less chance that the clergy
should escape, and two ministers were selected
by the council for trial and execution. One of
these was Mr. John King, the prisoner whom
Claverhouse had di-agged to Drumclog; the
other was Mr. Kidd, who had been jiresent at
Bothw^ell. As it was thought that they were
cognizant of all the secrets of their party, and
would have important matters to reveal that
might give scope for extensive fines and for-
feitures, they were threatened with the boots,
and the operation was tried upon Kidd ; but the
result showed that torture was useless, as neither
he nor his fellow-prisoner had anything to con-
fess. King stated that when rescued at Drum-
clog he had remained with his captors in the
quality of a prisoner, and not only refused to
preach to them, but had exhorted them to
return to their loyalty, and had made his escape
before the engagement at Bothwell commenced;
while Kidd showed that both at his surrender
and afterwards he had got assurance of life

J Wodrow.

2 Idem.

from the Duke of Monmouth. But they had
been at field conventicles, and been taken with
arms at their sides if not in their hands, for
which they were sentenced to die ; and to
aggi'avate their doom they were executed on
the 14th of August, the day on which the king's
indemnity to all concerned in the late rebellion
was proclaimed, amidst the ringing of the city
bells and the sounding of trumpets. The con-
demned men walked hand in hand to the scaf-
fold, and on their way Mr. Kidd remarked to
his companion witli a smile, "I have often heard
and read of a kid sacrifice." In their dying
testimony they were careful to vindicate the
loyalty of themselves and their brethren from
the charges of disaffection and treason; and
although their enemies could not understand
such loyalty, unless it was a total and implicit
surrender both of body and soul, the time was
coming when their principle would be better un-
derstood and appreciated. " For that charge in
my indictment," said Kidd, " upon which my
sentence of death is founded, to wit, personal
presence twice or thrice with that party whom
they called rebels, for my own part I never
judged them nor called them such. I acknow-
ledge and do believe there were a great many
there that came in the simplicity of their own
hearts, like those that followed Absalom long
ago. I am as sure, on the other hand, that
there was a great party there that had nothing
before them but the repairing of the Lord's
fallen work, and the restoring of the breach,
which is wide as the sea; and I am apt to
think that such of those who were most branded
with mistakes will be found to have been most
I single. But for rebellion against his majesty's
person and authority," added the man about to
enter into the presence of the King of kings,
" the Lord knows my soul abhorreth it, name
and thing. Loyal I have been, and will every
Christian to be so; and I was ever of this judg-
ment to give to Caesar the things that are
Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
The testimony of King was to the same effect.
"I thank God," he said, "my heart doth not
condemn me of any disloyalty. I have been
loyal, and do recommend to all to be obedient
to the higher powers in the Lord. And that I
preached at field-meetings, which is the other
ground of my sentence, I am so far from ac-
knowledging that the gospel preached that way
was a rendezvousing in rebellion, as it is termed,
that I bless the Lord that ever counted me
worthy to be a witness to such meetings, which
have been so wonderfully countenanced and
owned, not only to tlie conviction but even to
the conversion of many thousands. That I
preached up rebellion and rising in arms against

A.D. 1679-1681.]

CHAELES II.

]79

4iuthority, I bless the Lord my conscience doth
not condemn me in this, it never being my
design; if I could have preached Christ, and
salvation in his name, that was my work ; and
herein have I walked according to the light and
rule of the Word of God, and as it did become
(though one of the meanest) a minister of the
gospel." After this dying attestation of their
loyalty the two ministers were executed, and
their heads and arms placed over the gate of
the Nether Bow.^

The Duke of Monmouth, who had behaved
so humanely to the Presbyterians after the
battle of Bothwell Bridge, still continued to
exercise such clemency that the Scots welcomed
his brief rule as a grateful contrast to that of
their own unworthy countrymen. After peace
was in some measure restored he sent the militia
to their homes, and endeavoured to restrain the
excesses of the army by introducing a stricter
discipline among the troops, and by these mea-
sures made the people sensible that he had pre-
served their country from ruin and themselves
from the extremity of martial law. But these
acts only increased and multiplied the com-
plaints of Lauderdale to the court in London,
and tended to deepen that odium which ended
in Monmouth's disgrace. But while Lauder-
dale was thus bestirring himself to depreciate
tlie Duke of Monmouth, he was himself the
subject of such numerous complaints from Scot-
land that the king could be no longer deaf to
the representations from that quarter, so that a
full discussion was held upon Lauderdale's ad-
ministration in the jDresence of Charles and two
English noblemen, the Earls of Halifax and
Essex. But after hearing the accumulated mass
of accusation, which ought to have been suffi-
cient to unseat the culprit or even consign him
to a worse doom, the king summed up all in
the following selfish deliverance: "I perceive
that Lauderdale has committed many damnable
deeds against the people of Scotland, but I
cannot find that he has done anything contrary
to my interest." 2 This was indeed a plenary
absolution for whatever offences Lauderdale
might have committed. Even in his worst he
had secured the main chance, and been careful
of the interests of the king.

But though Lauderdale not only escaped a
merited punishment, but was mentioned in terms
of high approval in his majesty's letters to the
council, his removal from the administration of
Scottish affairs was not the less necessary. This,
however, arose from the difficulty of disposing
of the Duke of York. His adherence to Popery
was so well known, and the charges brought

^ Naphtali; Cloud of Witnesses. '^'Rnrnei's, Own Times.

against him in the plot of Titus Gates had so
excited the popular alarm, that he had been
sent into temporary exile, from which he was
recalled during a short but dangerous illness of
the king. On his majesty's recovery it was
thought ungenerous to remand him to his place
of foreign banishment, and instead of this he
was sent as his majesty's commissioner to Scot-
land, this being regarded as a more honourable
kind of exile. Thus the unhappy country was
doomed to all the degrees of evil government,
the tyrant Middleton being succeeded by the
still more oppressive Lauderdale, and Lauder-
dale by the more cruel and vindictive York,
wlio was to complete the climax of tyranny.
This gloomy narrow-minded bigot, who saw no
truth in what Rome had not sanctioned, and
who judged every aberration from it worthy of
death as well as damnation, was now sent down
as if to consummate the disgrace and crown the
sufferings of Protestant and Presbyterian Scot-
land. Hap]nly, however, for the country, he
was himself for the present under disgrace and
surveillance, which obliged him to walk warily;
and during the three months of his first brief
sojourn in Scotland his administration was
moderate compared with that of his predeces-
sors. It was only at his second return, and
when the dangers of his position had been
abated, tliat he dared to act the part of an in-
quisitor, and show the nation what it had to
expect when he should succeed to the throne.

The armed resistance of the Presbyterians at
Drumclog, and especially at Bothwell Bridge,
had produced a further development of their
j^rinciples in regard to the right of resistance
itself and the power of the civil magistrate.
The questions were agitated at Bothwell even
when the king's cannon were planted against
the disputants, and the effects of such an un-
timely controversy were the loss of the battle,
and the calamities with which it was followed.
The extreme party, maddened by persecution
and dissatisfied with half measures, were im-
patient of the moderation of their brethren, and
had already begun to question whether allegi-
ance was owing to tyrants, by whom their church
was enslaved and their liberties extinguished.
Tliese doubts also assumed the more vitality
when it appeared that the Duke of York, a
notorious Papist, was likely to be the successor
of Charles II., and they were confirmed into
certainties by the cruelties that followed the
battle of Bothwell Bridge. They had now sepa-
rated from their brethren, whom they stigma-
tized as lukewarm and Laodicean, and under the
leading of their two ministers, Donald Cargill
and Richard Cameron, they were distinguished
by the title of "the remnant," from their in-

ISO

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1679-1681.

feriority in numbers, and sometimes " Society
people/' as being organized into a number of
societies united by correspondence, but more
conspicuously as Cameronians, from the name
of their last-mentioned preacher. It was a fatal
disunion at such a period, as it not only weak-
ened the strength of the Presbyterians, but
brought the whole body under reproach for the
extreme principles held by a few. On the other
hand the majority thus stigmatized were too
eager to escape the odious charge of republi-
canism by falling into the opposite extreme,
under the influence of which they were apt to
make concessions which their original principles
were far from recognizing.

The first display of the principles of the Ca-
meroniaus was made incidentally at Bothwell
Bridge by i-efusing in their declaration to avow
allegiance to the king. After this, when they
seceded from their brethren, they more boldly
avowed their belief in the principle of recipro-
city between the rulers and the ruled, declaring
that when the king became a manifest tyrant
the obligation of his j^eople ceased, so that they
no longer owed him their homage and obedience.
It was a principle too strong for the loyalty of
the day, although it was afterwards established
as an eternal truth in the British constitution;
and it was disfigured by their proscription of all
magistrates, rulers, and kings who refused to
take the Covenant. An accident first tended
to bring their principles under the notice of the
ruling powers and ensure their publicity. While
Mr. Cargill, the minister, and Mr. Henry Hall
of Haughhead were lurking in the neighbour-
hood of Queensferry, information of their place
of concealment was given by the curates of
Borrowstounness and Carriden to the governor
of Blackness Castle, in consequence of which
they were apprehended ; but Hall generously
secured the escape of Cargill, by a gallant resist-
ance in which he was mortally wounded, so
that he died as the horsemen were bringing him
to Edinburgh. In his pocket was found an out-
line of the declaration of the principles of his
party which tliey had begun to agitate among
themselves previous to the battle of Bothwell
Bridge, and from the place where Hall was cap-
tured this document was called the Queensferry
Paper.^

This Queensferry Paper, although it was no
authoritative declaration, but the production of
an individual, and was composed of notes ap-
parently of some discussion or conversation, was
yet represented by the council not only as the
authorized statement of the sentiments of the
Cameronians, but of the Presbyterians at large.

' Burnet.

and upon it they proceeded to found new charges
of disloyalty, and to justify fresh acts of perse-
cution. In this document, to which such impor-
tance was attached, the principles of the first
and second Scottish reformation were assumed
as the basis on which it was founded. The
Scriptures were recognized as the only rule of
faith and practice, and adherence to the cove-
nanted reformation the chief principle of poli-
tical government; and whatever was opposed to
these was denounced and condemned. But, by
the following rash declaration, they not only
condemned the present rule, but avowed their
intention to set it aside: "We do declare, that
we shall set up over ourselves, and over what
God shall give us power of, government and
governors according to the Word of God; — that
we shall no more commit the government of
ourselves, and the making of laws for us, to any
one single person, this kindof government being
most liable to inconveniences, and aptest to de-
generate into tyranny." This was a most un-
equivocal confession, from which the whole
Presbyterian body was accused of treasonable
designs to overthrow the government and set
up in its stead some odious republic or impracti-
cable theocracy of their own.

While the council was expressing its horror
at these sentiments, which they magnified into
a great national conspiracy, and writing to Lau-
derdale in London an account of it, and of their
diligence to investigate it, the small party of
Camei'onians, from whom it had emanated, re-
solved to give a more official statement of their
sentiments ; and this they did on the 22d of
June (1680) at Sanquhar. On that day twenty
of their leaders, with Cameron at their head, aU
well mounted and armed, entered the town, and
affixed to the cross a full statement of their prin-
ciples, the joint production of Cameron and Car-
gill, called the Sanquhar Declaration. In this
manifesto they repudiated the charge of repub-
licanism and professed their adherence to the
monarchical principle as acknowledged by the
Covenants. They also, of course, omitted the
treasonable clause in which they were made to
avow their resolution to overturn the govern-
ment. But they disowned Charles Stuart, the
reigning monarch, individually and personally,
on account of his perjury and breach of the
Covenant, his usurpation over the church, and
tyranny in the state ; and they declared war
against him and his supporters, and j^rotested
that the Duke of York, as being a Pajiist, should
not succeed to the throne.^ This bold declara-
tion increased the rage of the council and sharp-
ened their devices ; the present sovereign and

- Wodrow ; Hind Let Loose.

A.D. 1679-1681.]

CHARLES II.

181

his heir-presumptive, iu whom they lived and
throve, were denounced as unworthy to reign;
and they not only proclaimed Cameron, Cargill,
and ten other persons, traitors, and set a price
upon their heads, but sent proclamations through
sixteen parishes, requiring all the inhabitants
male and female above the age of sixteen years
to give oath whether any of the foresaid traitors
had been there, and at what time, and where
they were now lurking. To make the Presby-
terians, also, more odious they blended the San-
quhar Declai'ation with the Queensferry Paper,
and represented them as expressing the senti-
ments of the body at large. But by refining on
their hostility they took a step by which they
overshot the mark, for they published and widely
distributed the two documents, not only through-
out Scotland, but Eugland also. There was
abundance of combustible materials, especially
in the latter country, to be set in a blaze by such
a dangerous contact, and the authors found when
too late that they had been acting the mad-
man's part and scattering " firebrands, arrows,
and death." For England was now disgusted
with the inglorious reign of Charles II., con-
trasting it with the rule of Cromwell, when
the country was feared by those nations that
were now allowed to insult it with imimnity;
and so greatly liad the people been terrified with
the rumours of Popish plots and conspiracies,
that they longed to debar the Duke of York
from the royal succession. And now they
learned that in these feelings they did not stand
alone, and that there was a community in Scot-
land, represented as the bulk of the people, who
not only sympathized in, but were ready to act
upon these sentiments, and who gave substan-
tial religious arguments for their pi'oceedings.
Upon the English mind these considerations
were not lost ; and a few years after, when the
Stuarts had completed their course, the accord
of the two nations in expelling the unworthy
dynasty was as wonderful and unwonted as it was
complete. The indolence of Charles, the bigotry
of his brother, and the persecutions and remon-
strances of the sufferers of Scotland, were all,
however darkly and remotely, preparing for the
landing of the Prince of Orange at Torbay.

While the military were in search of the de-
nounced Cameronians, and using this search as
a pretext for fresh cruelties and exactions upon
all who either could not or would not give
tidings of the fugitives, the latter were obliged
to draw more closely together for their mutual
defence. Bruce of Earlshall, who commanded
a strong military party, having heard on the
20th of July that a band of the proscribed were
at Aird's Moss, in the parish of Auchinleck,
advanced unexpectedly upon them when they

were little provided for such a meeting. They
had only twenty-three horse and forty foot im-
perfectly armed, while the soldiers opposed to
them, who were mostly troopers, were more
than twice their number; but being taken by
surprise, and knowing that surrender would be
useless, they resolved to resist to the last.
They chose Hackston of Eathillet, who was
with them, for their captain, took their station
at the entrance to the moss, intending to chaige
the king's party when it came up, and before
the encounter commenced Richard Cameron
uttered a short fervent prayer, in which he re-
peatedly used the remarkable petition, alluding
to the young men of the party, " Lord, spare
the green and take the ripe." The charge of
the Covenanters was headed by Hackston and
Cameron, who with their handful of horse
broke through the first line of the enemy; but
their attack not being timeously supported by
the foot, they were surrounded and soon over-
powered, Cameron himself and his brother
Michael were killed, and Hackston, disabled
by wounds, was taken prisoner. The foot then
retreated through the bog, where the enemy's
cavalry could not follow them; and in this short
skirmish twenty-eight of the king's soldiers
were killed. Disappointed at not having taken
Richard Cameron prisoner, that they might
bring him to tlie gallows, they cut off his head
and hands which they carried to Edinburgh,
and with a fiendish refinement in cruelty they
took the relics to his father, who was in prison,
and insultingly asked him if he knew whose
they were? "I know them," exclaimed the
old man, kissing the head and hands and be-
dewing them with tears, "I know them; they
are my son's, my own dear son's. Good is the
will of the Lord, who cannot wrong me nor
mine, but has made goodness and mercy to
follow us all our days." The head and hands
were set up over one of the city gates, and in
derision the hands were set close to the head
with the fingers upwards, to imitate the action
of prayer. But even upon some of the perse-
cutors themselves this profane practical jest was
lost, and one of them observed, " There are the
head and hands that lived praying and preach-
ing, and died praying and fighting." ^

But although Cameron had fallen in the
field, so that the persecutors could only wreak
their anger upon his remains, a living victim
was brought from Aird's Moss on whom to exer-
cise their revenge. This was David Hackston
of Rathillet ; and to add to their satisfaction in
having so distinguished an insurgent in their
power, he was present at the death of Sharp,

I Wodrow ; Life of Richard Cameron.

182

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1679-1681-

and therefore judged an accomplice in the mur-
der. Although mangled with wounds he was
brought direct to Edinburgh, and the nature of
the trial that awaited him was indicated by the
directions of the magistrates as to the mode in
which he was to be received on entering the
city. As soon as he was brought to the Water-
gate he was to be mounted on a bare-backed
horse with his face towards the tail, his feet to
be tied beneath its belly, and his arms bound ;
and in this degraded style he was to be con-
ducted bareheaded from the Watergate to the
council-house, the executioner with his bonnet
on leadinsf the horse, and the head of Richard
Cameron carried on a pike before him. The
strictest orders for his custody were also issued
to the jailer, whose life was made answerable
for the escape of his prisoner. At his trial he
answered with the same boldness he had dis-
played in the field, declining the authority of
the council, and refusing to sign his declaration,
so that the judges actually threatened him with
the torture, unfit though he was for its infliction.
It was remarked of this invincible martyr of
the Covenant, that he was the first of the suf-
ferers of this period who refused to own the
king's authority, as having shed much innocent
blood, and usurped the ofiice of Christ in the
government of his church. The kind of execu-
tion inflicted on a man dying of his wounds
was not an execution, but a vindictive torture
and a butchery. He was first half-strangled by
hanging, and while still alive lowered down
within reach of the executioner, who cut out
his heart from his bosom, stuck it while still
quivering upon the point of a knife and ex-
claimed, " Here is the heart of a traitor !" after
which his body was dismembered, and the four
quarters sent to be exposed in the jDrinciiml
places of St. Andrews, Glasgow, Leith, and
Edinburgh. Several others were executed who
had been taken at Aird's Moss, but not with
such circumstances of gratuitous cruelty.^

The only minister of the Cameronians who
now remained was Donald Cargill, and as the
pursuit after him was keen, he shifted from
place to place, and held field-meetings wherever
he found an opportunity. But while thus em-
ployed he performed a deed that astonished the
whole nation by its audacity. In the month of
September, while holding a large field-meeting
at Torwood, in Stirlingshire, he, after sermon,
solemnly pronounced sentence of excommuni-
cation upon the king and the Duke of York,
upon the Dukes of Monmouth, Lauderdale, and
Rothes, and upon General Dalziel, and Sir
George Mackenzie, the king's advocate, for their

1 Wodrow ; Cloud of Witnesses.

persecutions and their crimes. Men as high in
rank, the sovereigns of mighty kingdoms and
the arbiters of the fate of nations, had been ex-
communicated ere now, but it was by those
who were recognized as the princes of the
church, and their equals, and amidst those gor-
geous and imposing rites in which the utmost
of earthly splendour was combined with a reli-
gious solemnity at which all bowed down and
trembled. But here the deed was performed by
a homeless vagrant presbyter, with none but
peasants for its auditors and witnesses, while
the place of its performance was a lonely waste
in the midst of a few stunted trees. But even
setting aside these squalid accompaniments, at
which the proud were ofl'ended and the profane
laughed, this highest censure of the Christian
church, by which the oflFenders were cut off
from its communion and delivered over to Satan,
was pronounced by Cargill alone — none of his-
brethren approved of the sentence, or ratified
it by their solemn Amen, and this daring deed
of a handful of Cameronians, in which they
were thought to have exceeded their commis-
sion, was abjured by the whole body of Presby-
terians. That the doom was merited there was
little doubt, but where was the commission of
a solitary preacher to inflict it ? As a body, the
Presbyterians renounced the act as unauthorized
and informal ; but not the less was it used as
a charge against them, and this Torwood ex-
communication was eagerly welcomed as an
additional article for their condemnation. Let
the Presbyterians, however, in general repudiate
it as they might, upon certain wise theological
distinctions and questions of discipline, with
which it was not in all points conformable, the
excommunication sunk deep into the hearts of
some of these powerful persecutors, and became
a painful reality which would neither be scorned
nor silenced. This was apparent in the case of
the Duke of Rothes, who died in the following
year.

This nobleman, who was one of the most in-
fluential though not most active of the perae-
cutors, and for his services in the interests of
the king had been promoted to a dukedom,
was in 1681 attacked by a dangerous illness
which it was soon evident would end in death.
In his extremity he sent, not for the prelates
whom he had cherished in health and prosperity,
but for the poor proscribed Presbyterian min-
isters whom he had aided to persecute, to one
of whom he made the following confession:
" We all thought little of what that man did in
excommunicating us ; but I find that sentence
binding ujDon me now, and will, I fear, bind to
eternity." The minister exhorted him to repent,
and endeavoured to direct his mind to the only

\V H. M \K(,ErsO\.

RICHARD CAMERON BEFORE THE CHARGE OF COVENANTERS AT AIRD'S MOSS.

"LORD, SPARE THE GREEN AND TAKE THE RIPE." (A.D. 1680.)

VOi. iii. p. i8j.

A.D. 1681-1685.]

CHAELES II.

183

source of a sinner's acceptance; and having
done this he fervently prayed for the dying
nobleman, that repentance and remission might
yet be vouchsafed to him. Several friends of
Rothes were in an adjoining chamber, and a
nobleman hearing the voice said to a prelate
standing beside him, " That is a Presbyterian
minister who is pi'aying; not one of you can
pray as they do, though the welfare of a man's
soul shoidd depend upon it." The Duke of
Hamilton also remarked, "We banish these

men from us, and yet when dying we call for
them ; this is melancholy work." When the
Duke of York heard that Rothes had sent for
Presbyterian ministers in his last hour, he made
the following remark, characterized alike by its
peevishness and truth: "All Scotsmen are either
Presbyterians through their life or at their
death, profess what they may."i His brother,
father,and grandsirehad deepened Presbyterian-
ism into a national principle, of which himself
and his descendants were soon to reap the fruits.

CHAPTER XV.

REIGN OF CHARLES II. (1681-1685).

Duke of York succeeds Lauderdale in the government of Scotland — Severity of the duke's administration —
Sir George Mackenzie's legal proceedings — Trial of Isabel Alison and Marion Harvie — Their behaviour on
the scaffold — Trial of John Spreul — He is tortured and sent to the Bass — The Gibbites — Their origin and
principles — Apprehension of Cargill — His trial and execution — A pariiament summoned — Purpose to be
served in calUng it — Its enactments against the Covenanters — The Test Act — Its character — Dissatisfaction
occasioned by it — Devices to elude it — Quahfication with which it was taken by the Earl of Argyle — Arg^^le
tried and sentenced — His escape from prison — National demonstrations against Popery and a Popish suc-
cession— Burning of the pope in effigy —Ridicule of the Test Act by the boys of Heriot's Hospital — Testi-
mony of the Cameronians at Lanark — Puerile resentment of the privy-council — The Duke of York's de-
parture to London — His return to Scotland — His shipwreck and narrow escape — Apprehension and trial
of James Robertson — His trial and sentence — His barbarous treatment at the place of execution — Trial of
Alexander Hume — His condemnation upon insufficient evidence — His testimony on the scaffold — Persecu-
tion of the Covenanters continued and increased — Accusation of Lady Caldwell — Groundlessness of the
charges — Her cruel imprisonment in Blackness Castle — Accession of Scottish noblemen and gentlemen to
the Monmouth confederacy in opposing a Popish succession — Origin from this of the Rye House Plot — The
Scots accused of joining it — Executions occasioned by the plot — Sir Hugh Campbell tried on the charge of
acceding to it — The charge abandoned for that of joining the insurgents at Bothwell— His unjust trial —
His solemn admonition to the witnesses brought against him — He is acquitted but punished with forfeiture
and imprisonment — Sjjence examined by torture — The torture also tried upon Carstairs — Scantiness of
their revelations — BailUe of Jerviswood implicated in the charge of the Rye House Plot — His trial— His
appeal of innocence to his prosecutor Mackenzie — Mackenzie's confused answer — .Jer\aswood sentenced to
execution on the scaffold— His dying declaration of innocence of the charges — Cruel commissions issued
to the circuit courts — Merciless restrictions imposed on the Covenanters — The restrictions increased by
fresh enactments — Entei-kin Path — Soldiers opposed and their prisoners liberated — The Cameronians —
Retrospect of their proceedings — Renvrick becomes their minister — Account of him — Field conventicles
kept up by the Cameronians — They ai'e mercilessly oppressed and punished — The Cameronians pubUsh
their Apologetic Declaration — Its threatening denunciations against intelligencers and informers— Its
effects — The "Bloody Act" and its penalties — Increased severity of the persecution — A sudden pause —
Last sickness and death of Charles II. — He dies in communion with the Church of Rome.

Near the close of the year 1680 a change
occurred in the government of Scotland. Lau-
derdale, through the indulgence of sensual
habits, having sunk into a state of dotage, was
found unfit for the administration of affairs,
and was unceremoniously set aside ; and as the
odium against the Duke of York as a Papist
still continued, it was thought advisable that
he should return to Scotland as Lauderdale's
successor until the popular hostility had sub-
sided. During his previous short stay in the
country the Duke of York's administration,
after the despotism of Middleton and Lauder-

dale, had been welcomed as a relief, and it was
hoped that the same ingratiating spirit would
continue to signalize his rule. But in these
calculations his counsellors and father-confes-
sors were left out of account; and from his
blind, perverse bigotry a more persecuting
spirit was evinced than that which had sig-
nalized his predecessors. Middleton could occa-
sionally be moderate in the intermissions of his
revels, and Lauderdale when political expediency
advised him to stop short ; but with the royal

■ Wodrow ; Cruikshanks' History; Life of Cargill.

184

HISTOKY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1681-1685.

duke there was no such weakness or calculation.
Inaccessible to pity for those whom he regarded
as the enemies of heaven, intolerant of opposi-
tion to his own blind, headstrong will, and
directed like a puppet by the ghostly counsels
of those who hoped to efiect the conversion of
England by the subjugation of Scotland, he
heated the furnace of persecution seven times
hotter than before. In his eyes Presbyterian-
ism, instead of being merely an inconvenient
form of ecclesiastical polity, was a monstrous
and unpardonable heresy ; and he was resolute
to destroy it root and branch, not for the re-
establishment of Episcopacy, but the planting
of Popery in its room.^

A fit instrument for the duke's tyrannical
rule was Sir George Mackenzie, the king's
advocate, who has obtained an imperishable
but unenviable celebrity in the traditions of
the country as the " bloody Mackenzie." The
military persecutors might butcher their vic-
tims in cold or rather hot blood, for such prac-
tices were too congenial to their habits and
calling ; but this lawyer employed the full
power of his talent, which was great, to pervert
every principle of law and justice, and secure
the condemnation of those whom it was deemed
expedient to destroy. His chief expedient in
this case was to overawe the jury with his
legal knowledge and cunning, and threaten
them with aU the consequences of a writ of
error if they failed to return a proper verdict;
and under this form of intimidation it was easy
for him to obtain what finding he was pleased
to suggest. A proof of this, and to how low
a depth his talents could descend in quest of
victims, was afforded in the trial of Isabel
Alison, a young unmarried woman in Perth,
and Marion Harvie, a maid-servant in Borrow-
stounness. They were apprehended on suspi-
cion, the first having uttered some remarks on
the severe treatment inflicted on the Coven-
anters, and the other having been found on the
highway while repairing to hear a sermon.
Both were young, Marion Harvie being scarcely
twenty years old. The only proof against them
consisted of the answers which they frankly
gave on their examination; during which,
though grave matters of life and death were
before the council, the proceedings were scan-
dalized by the buffoonery of the judges. Thus,
when Marion Harvie was interrogated about
the Queensferry Paper and Sanquhar Declar-
ation, she declared her ignorance about them,
being unable to read them ; and when they
caused them to be read to her, and when she
o\vned them as being agreeable to Scripture,

I Wodrow ; Burnet.

they scornfully told her, "A rock, a cod
[bolster], and bobbins would suit her better
than these debates." From the council they
were transferred to the criminal court, along
with the evidence that had already been ob-
tained from them, where was Mackenzie, to
twist the evidence into a hangman's cord
and browbeat the jury to have it put to
use. The culprits had assented to the San-
quhar Declaration, had heard Mr. Cargill
preach, and conversed with several persons
who were intercommuned. From these con-
fessions they would not swerve, although these
formed the only evidence against them ; and
when some of the jury alleged that no fact
was proved Mackenzie angrily replied that
what they said was treason, and commanded
them to decide according to law, otherwise he
knew what to do with them. Both of the
young women were condemned to be hanged at
the Grassmarket, and on the 26th of January
(1681), this barbarous sentence was carried
into effect. " Some tliought," observes Foun-
tainhall, with a sti-ange mixture of savage
pleasantry and humanity, "that the threaten-
ing to drown them privately in the North
Loch, without giving them the credit of a
public sulfei'ing, would have more effectually
reclaimed them than any arguments which
were used."^

The manner of their execution was as unjust
and unfeeling as their sentence. When they
were on their way to the scaffold, Paterson,
Bishop of Edinburgh, a man reputed of a light
and profane spirit, endeavoured with his ribaldry
to interrupt their last devotions, and said to
Marion Harvie, " You would never hear a
curate ; now you shall hear one pray before you
die ; " and with that he ordered one of his cur-
ates to commence a devotional service. As the
women could not move aside, Marion said to
her companion, " Come, Isabel, let us sing the
twenty -third psalm;" and this they did so
effectually as to drown the voice of the curate.
But this was not the worst indignity to which
they were exposed, for they were hanged in
company with three or four women guilty of
infanticide and other crimes, that they might
be deemed as worthless as their fellow-sufferers.
Undisturbed, however, by the circumstance, the
two female martyrs sung psalms and prayed on
the scaffold, and submitted themselves to death
not only with resignation but triumph. " Behold,"
cried Marion Harvie, in the language of the
Canticles, a part of Scripture endeared to the
Covenanters of the period, " Behold, I hear my
Beloved saying unto me, 'Arise, my love, my

2 Fountainhall's Historical Observes, p. 27

A.D. 1681-1685.]

CHAELES II.

185

fair one, and come away.' I am not come
here," she continued, " for murder ! I am
about twenty years of age. At fourteen oi-
fifteen I was a heai'er of the curates, then I was
a blasjjhemer and a Sabbath-breaker, and a
chapter of the Bible was a burden to me ; but
since I heard this persecuted gospel I durst not
blaspheme, nor break the Sabbath, and the
Bible became my delight." Here the officer in
command of the guai'd commanded the hang-
man to cast her over, and she was presently
strangled. 1

But a still more flagrant display of cruelty, in
which the Duke of York was j^ei'sonally con-
cerned, occurred soon after his arrival in Scot-
land. Mr. John Spreul, an apothecary in Glas-
gow, had been threatened by General Dalziel in
former years to be roasted alive because he had
refused to betray the hiding-place of his father;
his own life was in jeopardy of forfeiture merely
by his ci-ime of nonconformity; and in conse-
quence of his flight he was denounced and in-
tercommuned. After some time spent in exile
abroad he returned to Scotland in 1680, and
was apprehended and carried befoi'e the council.
The interrogatories give a specimen of the pro-
ceedings of this august court and its mode of
procuring the self-crimination of the person
whom they examined. "Were you," he was
asked, "at the killing of the archbishop T' He
replied, " I was in Ireland at that time." " Was
it a murder]" "I know not, but by hearsay,
that he is dead, and cannot judge other men's
actions upon hearsay. I am no judge, but in
my discretive judgment I would not have done
it, and cannot approve it." This was much, but
not enough for the council, and they returned to
the question, "Do you think it was murder?"
"Excuse me," said Spreul, "from going any
further : I scruple to condemn what I cannot
approve, seeing there may be a righteous judg-
ment of God where there is a sinful hand of
man, and I may admire and adore the one when
I tremble at the other." Finding they could
make nothing of him on this ground, they took
him up on another. " Were you at Drumclog?"
" I was at Dublin then." " Did you know
nothing of the rebels rising in arms when in
Dublin?" "No; the first time I heard of it
was in coming from Dublin to Belfast in my
way home, where I heard that Claverhouse was
resisted by the country people at Drumclog."
" Was not that rebellion?" " I think not; for
I own the freedom of preaching the gospel, and
I hear that what they did was only in self-de-
fence." Thinking that now they could catch
him, they asked, " Were you at Bothwell with

'Wodrow; Cloud of Witnesses; Scots Worthies.

the rebels?" He had not joined them, he said,
either as commander, trooper, or soldier. De-
termined if possible to find him guilty of treason
in his secret thoughts, he was asked, " Was that
rising rebellion ? " He honestly answered, " I
will not call it rebellion ; I think it was a Pro-
vidential necessity put ujdou them for their own
safety after Drumclog."

Thus far there had been nothing to convict
him, and the judges were baffled. But not the
less did they persevere in their examination,
and two days after he confessed that he had
been in company with Mr. Cargill in Edinburgh,
although nothing but salutations had been in-
terchanged between them, and he refused to
reveal in what house the interview had occurred.
To them the name of Cargill was a name of
horror ; they believed, or pretended to believe,
that he was at the head of a band of assassins
who were bent on murdering the king and all
his chief officers, and involving the kingdom in
rebellion ; and it was decided that for the dis-
covery of such monstrous devices the applica-
tion of torture was both lawful and necessary.
Spreul was therefore told that unless he made
a more ample confession he must undergo exa-
mination by torture; and, notwithstanding his
protestations against the illegality of the pro-
ceeding, his leg was put into the boot. The
questions asked of him were the suggestions of
their own visionary fears. They were, What
he knew of a plot to blow up Holyrood and the
Duke of York? Who was in the plot ? Where
was Cargill? and, whether he would subscribe
what he had already confessed? — and an answer
was enforced by five strokes of the mall upon
the wedges of the boot at each interrogation.
But nothing could be elicited : he knew of no
such plot, and therefore could reveal nothing.
Eniaged at his professions of ignorance the
council alleged that the new boot used by the
executioner was not so good as the old one, and
ordered the old to be produced — and all the
while the Duke of York was present — coolly
looking on. The torture was inflicted anew; but,
though the executioner struck with his whole
strength, no revelation was produced; and when
Dalziel complained that the hangman did not
strike hard enough the man declared that he did
his utmost, and pettishly off"ered the general the
mall, to strike harder, if he could. After the
torture had been applied in vain Spreul was
carried to prison on the back of a soldier, and
not only was refused the attendance of a sur-
geon, but even his wife was not allowed to visit
him. While he was recovering from the effects
of his torture and pi'eparing for further exam-
ination the Duke of York had sent several
others to execution. The examinations of

186

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1681-168.'

Spreul that followed were frivolous and vexa-
tions ; but, although the duke was eager for the
infliction of death, there was neither confession
nor proof of any kind upon which the prisoner
could be justly convicted. He was, however,
condemned for the minor offences of attending
field conventicles and associating with the inter-
communed, and was sent to the Bass, where he
lingered in captivity for six dreary years.^

Amidst this terrible pereecution, when so
many were driven from their homes to dwell
among lonely caves, or almost inaccessible rocks,
with no communion but their own thoughts, or
who could find their only safety amidst wastes
and mosses where they were hunted like wild
beasts, it would have been strange if such a
death-in-life state of existence, with its priva-
tions, its dreariness, and marvellous escapes, had
not produced strange and wild examples of re-
ligious fanaticism. But, although they endured
that excess of oppression that makes the wisest
mad and produces fanatics in hundreds, to show
that the suffered are not absolute stocks and
stones, the strength and healthiness of the na-
tional spirit predominated over every attempt
to depress it. Hence the disappointment of their
persecutors, who sought a justification for their
cruelty, but were unable to find it. A few
assassinations, perpetrated by these impracti-
cable Presbyterians, or the production of a few
such sectaries as England itself exhibited under
the more gentle oppressions of Charles I., would
have been welcomed as a relief by those Scottish
rulers who were bent upon the extirpation of
Presbyterianism, and desirous to show good cause
for their hostility. But still the people suff'ered
in silence and continued to conquer by endur-
ance. The instance of Sharp was alread}' worn
threadbare, and continued to be the only in-
stance of the kind ; while, instead of the wild
sects which such a hot-bed was fitted to produce,
the sufferers only clung moi-e closely together,
and to the principles for which they were con-
tending. One solitary sect, which arose about
this time, was noticeable chiefly for its in-
significance, and the speed with which it van-
ished into nothingness. This was the sect of
the Gibbites or Sweet Singers, which derived
its name from John Gibb, a sailor in Borrow-
stounness. This man, who was evidently insane,
could never collect above thirty followers, of
whom four were men, and the rest silly and
ignorant young women. Their tenets were a
wild medley of opinions perverted from the doc-
trines of Cameronianism and Quakerism, and
thrown into an incongruous system or jumble.
They laid claim to divine inspiration, despised

1 Wodrow.

learning, and rejected the names of the months
and the days of the week ; and they disowned not
only the authority of the king, but all human
authority whatever. They also protested against
all taxation and abstained from the use of ale,
tobacco, and other excisable articles. Among
his other crazy declarations Gibb predicted to
his followei-s the speedy destruction of Edin-
burgh— a prophecy which fortunately they were
not strong enough to realize — and they repaired
to the Pentland Hills, where they abode several
days, in expectation of witnessing the burning
and desolation of the guilty city. Cargill endea-
voured to reason them out of their delusions both
by personal interview and by letter, but in vain .
At length their extravagances were so flagrant
that the whole party was seized and brought
befoi'e the council ; but a short examination
having convinced the court that the Gibbites
were ignorant enthusiasts, who were to be con-
futed by a bread and water diet, with hard
labour and stripes rather than grave argument,
the process was tried, and with the happiest
effect, so that as a sect they quickly disappeared.
Their case, however, was not the less used
by the Royalist party against the Presbyterians,
with whom an attempt was made to identify
them but ineff'ectually ; for these Gibbites re-
nounced the Covenant, the Confession of Faith,
and the Sanquhar Declaration, for which the
Presbyterians were testifying and suffering, and
even the Bible itself, in whose divine authority
all classes of Christians were agreed.-

Mr. Cargill, who was still at large, was especi-
ally obnoxious to the council since the affair of
the Torwood excommunication, and the jjureuit
against him was stimulated by a reward of five
thousand marks, which was offered for his a.]>-
preheusion. After several narrow escapes he
had preached to a field conventicle on Dunsyre
Common, between Lothian and Clydesdale, on
the 10th of July, and had retired at night to
Covington Mill, with James Boeg and "Walter
Smith, two students of theology, when he and
his companions were apprehended by Irvine of
Bonshaw, who beset the house with a strong
party of dragoons. This man was in such ecstasy
with his successful capture, that he exclaimed,
" O blessed Bonshaw ! — and blessed day that
ever I was born, that have found such a prize
this morning !" With his own hands he secured
Cargill upon an unsaddled horse, tying his feet
beneath the animal's belly, and lost no time in
conveying him to Edinburgh for trial. The
minister frankly answered the interrogatories
of his judges, although his answers furnished

- Wodrow ; Walker's Biograph. Presbyt , Life of Donald
Cargill.

A.D. 1681-1685.]

CHAELES II.

187

grounds for his condemnation. "When asked,
among other questions, if he thought that the
killing of Archbishop Sharj) was murder, he
replied, that the Lord giving a call to a private
man to kill, he might do it lawfully, as in the
case of Jael and Phinehas. The conclusion was
a right one if such a divine call could be estab-
lished ; but there lay its fallacy, and the impos-
sibility of furnishing such a proof, while the
commands of the gospel are so express to the
contrary. To the question, if he thought that
the king, by his falling from the Covenant, has
lost his civil right as king, he answered that
this was an ecclesiastical matter which he could
not answer in a civil court, but that he was
not obliged to obey the king's government as it
was now established by the Act of Supremacy.
This he afterwards explained and qualified in
the following words: — "The act, explaining the
king's supremacy, gives him a right to the
authority of Jesus Christ, and that supremacy
given him by act of parliament is against right."
Although he had acknowledged enough for his
condemnation an unwonted fit of clemency seems
to have possessed the council, so that there were
as many votes for his confinement during life in
the Bass as for his execution. But the casting
vote of the Earl of Argyle, which was for death,
decided the question, and Cargill, with his two
companions and two others who were apjjre-
hended about the same time, were executed on
the 27th of July, and their heads fixed on
spikes above two of the city gates. Cargill
went to the scaffold as boldly as he had gone to
Torwood, and when he went up the fatal ladder
declared that he felt less agitation than he had
ever exjjerienced to enter a pulpit to preach.
But still more deeply was Argyle himself pun-
ished for his unadvised vote ; in his last insur-
rection a few years afterwards it deterred the
Covenanters from joining him; and when a
similar sentence of death was passed upon him-
self he remembered with compunction the fate
of Cargill.'-

As nine years had elapsed since a parliament
had been held in Scotland, it was now resolved
that one should be opened, with the Duke of
York for his majesty's commissioner. Two pur-
poses were to be served by this pi'oceeding. The
first WHS the suppression of Presb3'terianism by
more stringent laws against the Covenanters, and
the second, which was closely connected with the
first, was the obtaining of a legislative sanction to
the Duke of York's succession to the throne. Upon
this subject the English parliament demurred,
from the duke's notorious adhesion to Popery,
and a bill for the recognition of his claim of

' Wodrow ; Life of Cargill in Walker's Biog. Presbyt. ;
Cruikshank's History of the Church of Scotland.

succession had been rejected in the House of
Lords. But it was thought that the Scottish
parliament would be more compliant, and that
its example would be followed in England
rather than risk a civil war or the evils of a
divided emjiire. The parliament was opened
in great state and with the usual forms on the
28th of July, and its first act, as usual, was a
ratification of all former laws for the security
of the Protestant religion. But the act was
framed very briefly and ambiguously, so as to
shelter the Papists; and when the Earl of
Argyle manfully remonstrated against its vague-
ness, he thereby secured the hostility of the
Duke of York, who never forgot or forgave an
injury. The second act was for the duke's suc-
cession to the throne, in which there was no
brevity or doubtful meaning. The right of
succession to the imperial crown of Scotland
was asserted in the most arbitrary and despotic
terms. The succession, it was declared, was
lineal, according to the known degrees of prox-
imity in blood, and could not be interrupted,
suspended, or diverted by any act or statute
whatever ; and that any attempts to alter it in-
volved the crimes of perjury and rebellion, and
would lead to a civil war. Thus the Duke of
York possessed this right of lineal succession, to
which all opposition was unlawful; and he could
not be lawfully set aside, though he should even
extirpate Protestantism and set up Popery in
its room. The other acts were confirmatory of
the royal power thus secured for the duke, and
they chiefly concerned the collection of cess and
the securing of the peace of the country — objects
that were to be accomplished by still sharper
persecutions of the Covenanters, until they
could resist or remonstrate no longer. But the
crowning iniquity of this abject parliament was
the Test Act, which they passed on the 31st of
August, and by which, under the pretext of
renouncing all Popish doctrine, they recognized
the king as supreme judge in all cases whether
civil or ecclesiastical. It declared all covenants
and leagues, all conventions and assemblies
formed or held without the royal license un-
lawful, and denounced the National Covenant
and the Solemn League and Covenant as having
no force or obligation. It was a complex oath,
of which it was diflicult to see the meaning; a
farrago of Popery, Prelacy, Erastianism, and
self-contradiction; and although it was at
first only to be imposed ujjon persons holding
public ofliice, it was afterwards converted into
a test of loyalty, and tendered to all who were
in any way suspected of hostility to absolute
rule.2 "No Presbyterian," remarks Wodrow,.

188

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

r.v.D. 1681-1685.

"could take it; yea, even such who were of
other principles, and had any remaining senti-
ments of freedom and liberty, justly scrupled
at it."

This general dissatisfaction was not long con-
cealed. All who still loved their country and
all who were Protestants in earnest were at one
in condemning the Test. Even the Episcopal
clergy demurred in recognizing an authority by
which the king, if so disposed, might abrogate
Episcopacy as well as Presbyteriauism, and
about eighty of the most learned and pious of
their body abandoned their livings rather than
violate their consciences.^ But although the
Scottish prelates were touched to the quick by
that part of the royal supremacy by which the
king might turn a bishop out of office at his
own good pleasure by his mere letter of dis-
missal, not one of them graced the conscientious
retirement of their inferior brethren by assum-
ing their natural place in the secession. In-
stead of this they confined themselves to inarti-
culate murmurings, and Paterson, Bishop of
Edinburgh, with much labour drew up an ex-
planation with which his brethren might salve
their consciences in submitting to the Test. This
explanation, however, was a mere tampering
with the evil, as it allowed each subscriber to
attach his own explanation to the oath, and
in this way it was to be swallowed entire, in-
stead of being subjected to a very scrupulous
perusal. This plan was successful, for, as Bur-
net has well observed, " when men are to be
undone if they do not submit to a hard law,
they willingly catch at anything that seems to
resolve their doubts." Above all they were
reconciled to the Test when they found that it
denounced the Covenant, and condemned all
alterations in the church and state as at present
established. After this submission, also, the
bext step of these prelates was to turn upon
the ministers of their church by whose secession
their own pusillanimity had been rebuked, and
to persecute them almost as relentlessly as they
had persecuted the followers of the Covenant.-

Among the Scottish nobility of the peiiod
and the officials of government little reluctance
was shown at this process, by which the national
liberties were bound hand and foot; the Duke
of Hamilton, indeed, demurred, but afterwards
took the oath; the Earl of Queensberry accepted
it with a gentle protest, as one who was unwil-
ling to disturb the peace oi the nation or thwart
the good intentions of the king. But the great
difficulty was with the Earl of Argyle. This
unfortunate nobleman, although the son of the
great champion of the Covenant, had at his

1 Burnet.

'^ Idem.

father's death been indebted to his wife's kins-
man, the Duke of Lauderdale, for the preserva-
tion of his hereditary property from Middleton
and his adherents, and in consequence of this
unfortunate union had concuned too far with
the Lauderdale party in the j^ersecuting pro-
ceedings of the period; and he had even assented
to the death of Cargill, when his vote on the
trial might have turned the scale. By these
compliances he had escaped suspicion until now
that this Test appeared to try the soundness of
his principles. As he was a member of the
privy-council, and one of the commi-ssiouers of
the treasury, he could not escape the ordeal,
and the Duke of York, who hated him, watched
for his halting. He had already shown his
opinion of the Test by opposing it in parliament,
and now that it was to be tendered he offered
to demit his hereditary jurisdiction and public
offices, and profess his loyalty as a private
subject, rather than be compelled to sub-
scribe. He was told, however, that he would
be allowed to take it with an explanation ; and
to this he consented. His explanation was,
that he took it " in as far as it was consistent
with itself and the Protestant religion," and
with this qualification the Duke of York ex-
pressed himself satisfied. But this satisfaction
was not lasting; the duke had listened to other
counsellors, and especially to Sir George Mac-
kenzie, the king's advocate, who persuaded him
that the earl's words could be stretched into a
treasonable meaning, and he ordered Argyle to
enter himself prisoner in the castle of Edin-
burgh to abide a trial.

And that trial was such a process of iniqui-
tous chicanery as only the Scottish tribunals of
that day could exhibit when patriotism and
religious integrity were to be arraigned and
condemned. It was at first resolved to indict
him for slander, leasing-making, and deprava-
tion of the laws, by which life and fortune
were subject to forfeiture; but the principal
charges upon which he was now to answer were
those of treason and perjury. The indictment
was drawn u]) by Mackenzie with his usual
craft and baseness, and the earl was defended
by Lockhart and Dalrymple. After replies,
duplies, and triplies at great length, the earl
was absolved from the charge of jjerjury, but
not from treason and leasing-making; and when
the trial had reached this point only four of the
lords were present, with the justice-general, of
whom two wei'e for eliminating the earl and
two for absolving him. In this difficulty a
casting vote was needed for his condemnation,
and this was found in Lord Nairn, an infirm
old man who for a considerable time had been
unfit for duty in the outer house of the lords of

A.D. 1681-1685.]

CHARLES II.

189

Session, and who even had not heard the trial.
As it was now midnight this worn-out legislator
was carried out of bed, borne from his house to
the court, and instructed in the merits of the
case by the clerk, who read the reasonings on
either side, in the course of which Nairn fell
fast asleep; but when the reading was ended
and his lordship awakened he knew what was
expected of him, and voted against the earl,
by which the charges of leasing-making and
treason were found relevant. The next step
was to try the Earl of Argyle upon these charges
by a jury of his peers, and while he made no
defence, knowing that every answer would be
in vain, Mackenzie did not fail to threaten the
assize with a process of error if they refused a
verdict on the evidence laid before them. The
council sent a letter to the king, desiring to
know his majesty's pleasure respecting the sen-
tence ; and the answer was that one of death
should be passed, but not to be executed with-
out the royal order. But Argyle had been ad-
vertised of this by a swift courier, who outrode
the bearer of the royal letter to the council,
and perceiving that his death was intended,
he resolved to escape from prison before the
royal mandate arrived. Accordingly, on the
same night (December 20) he ])assed out of the
castle of Edinburgh unsuspected, in the dis-
guise of a page bearing the train of the Lady
Sophia Lindsay, his step-daughter, and reached
London in safety, from which he soon after
went over to Holland. The trial and sentence of
this nobleman excited the highest indignation
not only among the true-hearted in Scotland
but also in England, where opinions could be
more freely expressed, and tlie odium which it
reflected upon the Duke of York was not lost
sight of when he afterwards became king.^

While these headlong proceedings were going
on, by which the restoration of Popery was un-
mistakably indicated, the nation was the more
effectually put upon its guard ; and while ma-
tured manhood was silently preparing for re-
sistance, the impetuosity of youth betrayed the
same spirit by more noisy indications. On
Christmas day of the preceding year the stud-
ents of Edinburgh had resolved to burn the
pope in efhgy; but, fearing that this display of
Protestant zeal would be considered an insult to
the Duke of York, the magistrates called a band
of soldiers into the city to prevent it. Resolved
not to be disappointed in their sport the stud-
ents carried a mere puppet of straw to the Castle
Hill, and when they had thus drawn the soldiers
to its neighbourhood, they stole away to the
Grammar School where the true effigy had been

1 Burnet ; Wodrow.

deposited, carried it in gleeful procession to the
head of Blackfriars' Wynd, and there destroyed
it in a bonfire amidst shouts of triumph. A
few days after, the mansion of Priesttield near
Edinburgh was set on fire, and as this house
belonged to the provost, the deed was imputed
to the students, in revenge for his having im-
prisoned some of their number who had been
most forward in the atiair of Christmas day.
In consequence of this suspicion (for it was no-
thing moi'e) the privy-council by proclamation
ordered the university to be shut up and the
students banished fifteen miles from the spot,
unless their parents could give security for their
good behaviour. It was no wonder that this
harsh proceeding was followed by the indignant
cry, " Shall the next generation be starved in
learning, because the children in a Protestant
country have burnt the image of the pope?"
On the following year (1681) it was hoped that
this uncourtly pageant would be dispensed with
as its Christmas occurred on a Sunday, but the
students had only postponed it twenty-four
hours. " They had it," says Fountainhall, " on
the 26th of December at night. Their prepar-
ations were so quiet that none suspected it this
year; they brought him [the pope] to the Cross,
and fixed his chair in that place where the
gallows stands; he was trucked up in a red
gown and mitre, with two keys over his arm, a
crucifix in one hand, and the oath of the Test in
the other; then they put fire to him and it
burnt lengthy till it came to the powder, at
which he blew up in the air."^ A still more
witty and daring ridicule of Popery and the
proceedings of the council was displayed by the
young boys of Heriot's Hospital. Deciding that
the watch-dog which guarded the premises held
a place of public trust, the urchins agreed that
he ought to take the Test; but on presenting
it the animal only smelled at it and turned
away. To make the engagement more palatable
they then rubbed it over with butter, which
they compared to the exjjlication or exception
used by the Earl of Argyle, and again admin-
istered it; but after extracting the butter by
chewing, the dog spit the Test out of its mouth.
They then jiroceeded, in imitation of Argyle's
judges, to try the animal for its leasing-making
and treason, and having found it guilty they
actually hanged it.^ These in themselves were
trivial incidents, but in like manner the tem-
pest that wrecks an armada is previously indi-
cated by the motion of straws or the fluttering
of leaves. In a few years these schoolboys and
students became men, and they then indicated

2 Fountainhall's Ilistorieal Observes; Wodrow.
^ nistary of Heriot's Hospital, 4to, Edin., 1827, whereafull
account of this ludicrous trial is given.

190

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 16S1-16S5.

their principles by weighty deeds of which these
holiday plays were but the types.

While the Test was so odious to the Presby-
terians in general, it was especially repulsive to
the Cameronians, whose spirits were already
sufficiently embittered by the late execution of
their favourite minister and leader, Donald
Cargill. His death, instead of dispersing them,
had drawn them more firmly together; and
having organized their dilfeieut members into
A united body, they met at Logan House in the
parish of Lesmahagow, on the 15th of Decem-
ber (16S1), to formulate their public testimony
-against the iniquities and defections of the
times. It was time, indeed, that such a protest
should be uttered, whether it might be heeded
■or disregarded, for the best of the land, under
the administration of the Duke of York, had
either been silenced or compelled to seek safety
in exile. Their further proceeding, however,
had been unavoidably delayed until the com-
mencement of the following year, when on the
12th of January forty armed Cameronians
entered the town of Lanark, publicly burnt the
Test Act and set up their own Declaration and
Testimony upon the market-cross. In their
declaration they confirmed those of Rutherglen
and Sanquhar, renewed their denial of allegiance
to the king in consequence of his long-continued
tyranny and oppression, and avowed in bold
language their natural right to free themselves
from such a bondage. This proceeding enraged
the council, but their mode of retaliation was
unworthy of the dignity of legislators : they
ordered the magistrates of Edinburgh to as-
semble in their official robes upon the next
public market-day, and to burn by the hands
of the common hangman the Solemn League
and Covenant, the Eutherglen and Sanquhar
Declarations, the libel or protest called Cargill's
Covenant, and the declaration which had been
appended to the cross of Lanark. But this
contumely done to the principles of those
offenders whose persons they could not catch
was not sufficient; the poor peaceful town of
Lanark was to be punished for the offence of
intrudei-s whom it had not invited and was un-
able to resist, and accordinglj^ a fine of six thou-
sand marks was laid upon it, for allowing such
a declai-atiou to be published within their pre-
cincts and not rising to resist it.^

The Duke of York having repaired to Eng-
land at an early period of 1682, the Scottish
bishops at the same time wrote to the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury in the most fulsome terms,
of the duke's administration and the safety and
prosperity he had imparted to their church and

I Wodrow.

order. "Upon all occasions," say the right
reverend writers, " he gives fresh instances of
his eminent zeal against the most unreasonable
schism [Presbyteriauism] which, by rending,
threatens the subvei-sion of our church and re-
ligion; and concerns himself as a patron to us
in all our public and even personal interests, so
that all men take notice of his signal kindness
to us, and observe that he looks on the enemies
of the church as adversaries to the monarchy
itself."^ They were soon to find the meaning
of all this favour, and the price which he meant
to exact of them in return. After a short stay
in London, which his own interests rendered
necessary, the duke returned to Scotland by
sea, where a mischance occurred which well-
nigh changed an important era in British
history. His ship, the Gloucester, struck upon
a sand-bank and went to pieces; but while 150
pereous were drowned, of whom eighty were
noblemen and persons of distinction, the duke
and several passeugera were saved in the long
boat. Amidst this terrible calamity, in which
so many persons of high rank perished, it is
stated b}^ Burnet that the duke was particularly
careful of his dogs, and of several unknown
persons who were thought to be his priests.^
His stay this time in Scotland was only for
a few days, having found that his unpopu-
lai'ity in London had so much abated that
he might reside there in safety. But before
he left Scotland he was careful to make such
arrangements that his interests there should
not suffer, or his administration be forgotten.
Gordon of Haddo, afterwards Earl of Aberdeen,
was appointed chancellor; the Marquis of
Queensberry, treasurer; and the Earl of Perth,
justice-general; and with three such men at the
head of affairs in Scotland, there was no fear
that either the duke's cause or that of Popery
and absolutism would suffer from neglect.*

To specify the instances of oppression and
cruelty after the duke's departure would form
a dismal and monotonous record ; the savage
practices used for the discovery of offenders
were only paralleled by the fraudulent trials
and barbarous executions inflicted on those who
were condemned on slight or perverted evidence;
and while there was scarcely a family in Scot-
laud that could not show an instance of a kins-
man's sufferings or martyrdom for the Cove-
nant, the survi vol's lived in doubt and dread,
not knowing when their own turn might arrive
that would deliver them over to the soldier or
the judge. As a specimen of the legal pro-
ceedings now used against the Presbyterians

2 Wodrow.

' Burnet; Letter of Sir James Dick, Provost of Edinburgli,
in Dalrymple's Appendix. ■* Wodrow.

A.D. 1681-1685.

CHAELES II.

191

let the followiug specimen from the mass suffice.
James Robertson, a travelling merchant or
pedlar, had arrived at the town of Kilmarnock
in October on his usual business, and had gone
to visit a prisoner with whom he was acquaint-
ed, when he was seized and carried to the guard-
house. His visit was enough to make him sus-
pected, and he was required to give his oath
super inquirendis ; but when he refused, Major
White, the military commandant, maltreated
him, wrung him by the nose till the blood
gushed out, and sent him to the common prison.
Of course his pack of goods was also seized, and,
according to custom, made the property of the
captors. When in prison Robertson and his
fellow-prisoners attempted to worship God to-
gether; but when tlie captain of the guard had
notice of this he came in a great rage, snatched
the Bible out of Robertson's hands, and threat-
ened to burn it if they attempted such practices
again. After remaining in prison several weeks
he was taken, to Edinburgh, and on the way,
when he had reached Linlithgow, because he
refused to drink the king's health, his guards
bound him hand and foot, compelling him to
lie on the cold ground all night, and on the
following morning tied his feet with cords under
the belly of a horse, and in that state brought
him to Edinburgh. As there was no proof
against him he was to be forced to bear evi-
dence against himself, and the questions put to
him for this purpose were a strange medley of
craft, captiousness, and idle drollery. " Was
the rising against the king at Peutland and
Bothwell lawful?" He appealed to the Confes-
sion of Faith as justifying resistance to tyranny.
" Was the king a tyrant 1 " He referred to the
coronation oath and the usurpations of the
king in the church, and left it to persons at
home and nations abroad to solve the question.
As to that about the archbishop's death, whether
it was murder or not, being not a judge he
would not cognosce upon it, and he refused to
answer it otherwise. He was then desired to
say "God save the king;" but to this he an-
swered that such language was a prayer, for
which he had not composure enough at present.
When the president of the court peremptorily
demanded, " Is the king your lawful prince, yea
or nay?" Robertson answered, "As he is a
terror to evil-doers and a praise to them that
do well, he is or he is not." After some fence
of this kind he was convicted, although upon
little or no proof, of having denied that the
risings at Pentland and Bothwell were rebel-
lion, and of disowning the king's authority;
but especially of having set up a protestation
against the Test on the church door of Stone-
house, of which they had no evidence whatever

excejjt mere suspicion. He was of course sen-
tenced to die, and as his dying testimony might
have been inconvenient to his judges, his voice
when he attempted to speak on the scaffold was
drowned in a flourish of drums; he complained
of this to Johnston, the town major, who in
return beat the poor man with his cane at the
foot of the ladder. But thougli silenced Robert-
son's example was not lost, nor did he die in
vain. Several of the spectators were convinced
of the persecuting character of Prelacy, and
some dated their first serious impressions of
religion from the spectacle they had that day
witnessed.^

Equally iniquitous with the foregoing in-
stance were the trial and execution of a worthy
gentleman, Alexander Hume of Hume, upon
whose head were heaped every crime which he
might, and every crime which he had not com-
mitted, since the commencement of the insur-
rections. He was accused of having been a
partaker in the murder of Archbishop Sharp ;
of rising in arms against his majesty in Rox-
burgh, Berwick, Selkirk, and Peebles; of march-
ing up and down with the rebels, joining in all
their invasions of lawful authority, and being
finally one of the insurgents at Bothwell Bridge.
And yet there was no j^roof of anything worse
than that he had called accidentally and peace-
ably on his way home at the house of Sir Henry
M'Dowal of Muckerstone, where some disturb-
ances from the Covenanters had occurred, and
that he had previously been seen at two con-
venticles armed, as was the fashion of the time,
with sword and pistols, which formed part of
the usual travelling equipments of a gentleman.
Notwithstanding the miserable deficiency of
the evidence, and the able and satisfactory
defence of Sir Patrick Hume, his advocate,
Alexander Hume was pronounced guilty, and
sentenced to die at the cross of Edinburgh on
the 29th of December. He besought that at
least some delay might be granted that the case
might be laid before his majesty; but this
was refused, and an early day for execution was
purposely appointed to prevent any such appli-
cation. But his friends bestirred themselves
so effectually that a remission was sent from
coui't some days before the execution took place;
it was, however, useless, in consequence of the
baseness of the Earl of Perth, who concealed
the remission and left Alexander Hume to his
fate. His wife, Isobel Hume, also interceded
with the Countess of Perth for her husband,
and made a moving appeal in the name of her
five young children, who would be fatherless,
but the countess repelled her with an answer

1 Wodrow.

192

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1681-1685.

too savage to be expressed in writing. The
condemned gentleman underwent his sentence
witli the calmness of a Christian and the heroic
constancy of a martyr. " The world represents
me," he said on the scaflbld, " as seditious and
disloyal ; but God is my witness, and my own
conscience, of my innocence in this matter. I
am loyal, and did ever judge obedience to law-
ful authority my duty, and the duty of all
Christians. I was never against the king's just
power and greatness, and this I commend to all
that hear me this day ; but all a Christian does
must be of faith, for what conflicts with the
command of God cannot be our duty ; and I
wish the Lord may help tiie king to do his duty
to the people, and the people to do their duty
to the king." It was natural that he should
advert to the iniquity of his trial, and this he
did in the gentle forgiving language so becom-
ing in a dying man. " I cannot but be sensible
of the sharpness and severity of my sentence,
which after strict inquiry will be found to be
as hard measure as any have met with before
me; which seems to flow from some other thing
than what law and justice could allow. I wish
I may be the last who will be thus dealt with.
I question not but if comiDetent time had been
given so that application might have been made
to his majesty his clemency would not have
been wanting in this case. [He knew not that
some of his friends at court had succeeded in
procuring a pardon, which was locked up in
the Earl of Perth's bureau.] Nevertheless,
I bless the Lord I find it in my heart to for-
give all men, even as I desire to be forgiven,
and obtain mercy in that day ; and if there be
any at whose door my blood may more directly
lie than others, I pray the Lord forgive them.
And now I wish that it may be well with
the land when I am gone. My conscience
bears me witness I ever studied the good of my
country. I hope I shall be no loser that I
have gone so young a man off the stage of
this world, seeing I am to make so blest an
exchange as to receive eternal life, the crown
of glory, the near and immediate fruition of
the blessed Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in
place of a short, frail, and miserable life here
below." Could a man who so died have lived
a traitor? His estate, in which his greatest
crime probably consisted, was forfeited, and his
wife and children were reduced to destitution,
and subjected to great hardships; but for them
the Eevolution was a happy change, for while
the enemies of this good man were brought to
a strict account and unable to repay their in-
iquitous intromissions, the eldest son and repre-
sentative of Alexander Hume of Hume became
possessor of more than double the amount

of landed property which his father had for-
feited.i

The year 1683 differed in no respect from the
former periods, except that additional powers
were conferred upon the agents of persecution,
and more severe fines inflicted not only on all
who were convicted of Covenanting principles,
but all who were barely suspected of holding
them. The sufferers were ground between the
ujiper and nether miUstone of legal extortion
and military rapacity, and civil magistrates and
soldier magistrates seemed to contend which of
them would get soonest rich at the expense of
their unfortunate victims. " Nobody," says
Wodrow, "against whom any information could
be had escaped ; and multitudes who had for-
merly been sufficiently squeezed were brought
on the file again, and prodigious sums were ex-
acted." But it was landed gentlemen, persons
of family and substance, who were chiefly hon-
oured with the notice of these functionaries; and
from them, under a variety of accusations or
pretexts, such an amount of money was extorted
in the shape of fines as wasted their estates,
and threatened to leave their heirs ])enniless.
And with all this the severities in the form of
execution or bodily suffering were not abated,
but rather increased; the Bass and Blackness
Castles were more crowded than ever, and the
martyrdoms at the Cross or the Grassmarket
more frequent.

The following special instance will suffice to
illusti-ate the treatment of those against whom
there was no pretext for enforcing the extremity
of the law. The Laird of Caldwell, having
been falsely accused of being accessory to the
rising of Pentland, and knowing that it was
in vain to expect a fair trial, had fled ; and in
his absence a sentence of forfeiture was passed
against him, and his estate given to Sir Thomas
Dalziel. The laird soon after died abroad in
exile, leaving a widow, the daughter of Sir
William Cunningham of Cunninghamhead, to
whom a dower had been allotted from the lands
of Caldwell suitable to her rank. At the best it
would have been a perilous claim upon an estate
held by such a man as Dalziel. She had ne-
glected, however, a point of law in taking infeft-
ment before the forfeiture was passed, on which
account her claim was declared void, and she,
with her four children, was dispossessed, and
obliged to depend upon their joint industry for
a livelihood. She lived with her family in Glas-
gow, occupying one of those humble dwellings
at the foot of the Saltmarket, where the topmost
story or flat, which was made of timber, pro-
jected like a cage beyond the basement of the

A.D. 1681-1685.]

CHARLES II.

193

building. Even here, however, and thus re-
duced, she could not escape the malice of per-
secution. A person on the opposite side of the
street, peering out at the few inches of glass in
her shot or projecting window, believed or pre-
tended that he saw a minister preaching in the
room within and carried the tidings to the j^ro-
vost. Lady Caldwell was apprehended on the
charge of entertaining a house conventicle; and
although there was none in her dwelling at the
time alleged, yet she could not deny that minis-
ters had occasionally ])reached there. This was
enough ; the mere surmise of the witness as to
what he alleged he saw was held for sufficient
proof, and not only Lady Caldwell, but her eldest
daughter, scarcely twenty years of age, were by
order of the council conveyed to the castle of
Blackness. Here they were so closely immured
that health failed them, and though the daughter,
after nearly a year's imprisonment, was liberated,
chiefly through bribes administered to the men
in office, the mother was still continued in close
})rison, the only relief allowed her being an occa-
sional ascent to the top of the castle to breathe
the fresh air. While in this state intelligence
reached her that her second daughter had fallen
dangerously ill of fever ; but although she peti-
tioned for leave to visit her dying child, who
was only a few miles off, and offered to maintain
the guard sent with her while she performed
this pious duty, the council rejected her petition,
and she had not the melancholy consolation of
closing her daughter's eyes. Thus she spent
several dreary years in Blackness because she
was accused, although not convicted, of wha,t was
called a crime, and accused only by a single wit-
ness. And even at the worst this "Peeping
Tom" could not have ascertained whether more
than five persons, besides the members of the
family, were present at the alleged pi^eaching,
for such were necessary to constitute a conven-
ticle as distinguished from family worship,
against which there was no prohibition. Lady
Caldwell, after having so long tasted the bitter-
ness of death, obtained her liberty in the reign
of James VII., but without legal formality, or
remonstrance, or petition, as if the whole had
been only a trivial mistake.^

As with every change in the government of
Scotland property and personal safety had be-
come more insecure, and as no rank was now
safe from false accusations, a number of Scottish
noblemen and gentlemen had resolved to found
a settlement in Carolina, where they could find
a shelter in case of the worst, or until these evil
days had passed over. But while employed in
London in concerting this plan of colonization

1 Wodrow.

VOL. III.

they learned that the Duke of Monmouth, the
Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord Russell, Algernon
Sidney, and other English patriots had formed
a confederacy for the defence of the kingdom
from Popery and absolutism, and the exclusion
of the Duke of York from the throne, and, think-
ing that this offered a fairer prospect of relief
than the project of expatriation, they gladly
joined the coalition. The principal Scots who
thus acceded to it were the Earl of Loudon, Lord
Melville, Sir John Cochrane of Ochiltree, Sir
Hugh Campbell of Cessnock, Baillie of Jervis-
wood, Stewart of Coltness, and Crawford of Craw-
fordland, and they entered into a correspondence
with the Earl of Argyle in Holland, which was
conducted chiefly by the Rev. William Carstairs,
one of the Presbyterian ministers. But, soon
finding that the design was not likely to succeed,
these Scottish adherents left it before it was
detected. The subordinate agents, however,
had, unknown to their jjriucipals, devised an
enterprise of their own, termed in English his-
tory the Rye House Plot, in which they contem-
plated nothing less than the assassination of the
king and the conversion of the monarchj^ into
a republic. This plot was soon discovered, and
advantage was taken of the discovery to connect
it with the more constitutional designs in which
it had indirectly originated, so that Russell and
Sidney, names dear to English patriotism, be-
came the victims of a conspiracy which they
had never contemplated. In like manner the
Scottish gentlemen, though equally innocent of
this Rye House Plot, had to share in its odium
and punishment, and through them the whole
body of Presbyterians, so that the year 1684
was distinguished even beyond those years that
had preceded for the iniquity of its trials and
the severity of its punishments.

Passing over the executions of those of
inferior rank or station we hasten to the trial
of Sir Hugh Campbell of Cessnock, the first
Scottish victim, whom the persecutors sought
to implicate in this Rye House Plot in con-
sequence of his connection with the Monmouth
and Russell association. But from this design
they were obliged to depart, as no proof could
be established against him. He was not, how-
ever, to escape, so he was accused of having
taken part in the insurrection of Bothwell
Bridge, which two witnesses were brought
forward to attest. But when the first hud
raised his right hand to be sworn, Cessnock
solemnly thus addressed him : " Take heed , now,
what you are about to do, and damn not your
own soul by perjury; for, as I shall answer to
God and upon the peril of mine own soul, I am
here ready to declare I never saw you in the
face before this process nor spoke to you." This

88

194

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1681-1685.

impressive appeal so daunted both witnesses that
they retracted their statements and reduced their
evidence to such a negative character that a ver-
dict of acquittal was returned. At this the
bystiindei-s raised a shout of triumph, which was
angrily checked by Sir George Mackenzie, xyho
called it a "Protestant roar." "I always," he
added, "had a kindness for the Presbyterian
persuasion till now (!), but I am convinced in
my conscience it hugs tlie most damnable trinket
in nature." Mackenzie then attempted to in-
timidate the jury, but in spite of his threats they
returned a verdict of not guilty. The acquittal
of the prisoner should have followed as a matter
of course; but, instead of this, Campbell was re-
manded to prison, his estate was forfeited, and
soon after he was sent to the Bass. Nor was
this all, for, in consequence of their verdict, the
jury were compelled to apologize, and the wit-
nesses for their default were laid in iious.^

The miserable failure that had attended the
trial of Cessnock only whetted the resolution of
the Royalists to make the most of the Rye House
Plot, and the next victims selected for trial were
Spence, Carstairs, and Baillie of Jerviswood.
William Spence had been secretary to the Earl of
Argyle, by whom he was greatly trusted, and on
this account it was thought that he would be able
to reveal the negotiations between the Scottish
Presbyterians connected with the plot and his
master. Under this idea he was thrown into
prison, and put in irons, and afterwards exa-
mined under torture. But when no confession
could be extorted by the infliction of the boot
soldiers were appointed to watch him night and
day in prison so as to prevent him from sleep,
until he made a full revelation. But, notwith-
standing the ingenuity of this diabolical mode
of annoyance, by which he was kept awake for
several days and nights successively until he had
well nigh lost his reason, still nothing could be
obtained from him. Baffled in these two ex-
periments the judges then attempted a third; it
was to force him to petition, accompanied with
an offer to reveal what he knew of the Rye
House Plot ; and, knowing that he could com-
municate nothing which the government did
not aU'eady possess, he closed with the offer, on
condition that he should be tortured no further.
His confession accordingly was made, but, find-
ing that it contained nothing new, he was sent
prisoner to the castle of Dumbarton.^

The trial which had failed with Spence was
now to be attempted upon William Carstairs.
This pi'ofound and sagacious clerical politician
had been apprehended in England, being mis-
taken for another person, and when it was

1 Wodrow.

' Wodrow ; Burnet.

known that he was greatly trusted by the Scot-
tish exiles in Holland he was sent down to Scot-
land to be tried, although this proceeding was
contrary to English law. As there was nothing
to criminate him, but the occasional mention of
his name in the letters transmitted to the Earl
of Argyle, which had been deciphered by Spence,
he was brought for tnal before the council and
ordered to answer upon oath the questions
put to him or undergo the torture* He chose
the latter alternative, and the instrument used
was the thumbkins, an implement of tor-
ture for violently compressing the thumbs be-
tween two metal bars which are made to ap-
proach each other by means of a screw. This
excruciating infliction he endured a full hour
and a half without criminating any one by
his answers, and at the end of that time was
sent back to prison. It was resolved that
at his next examination he should undergo a
trial by the boot; but, having learned that the
answers of Spence contained a reply to aU the
questions which the council were likely to ask,
he resolved to escape further torture by repeat-
ing the confessions of his companion in suffer-
ing. This he accordingly did, and his revelations
were of the same harmless character as those of
Spence. But, after being garbled and j^erverted
by the council, they were printed and cried in
the streets of Edinburgh only a few hours after,
while Carstairs, though innocent, had to bear
the blame of confessions by which the safety of
several was endangered. But it was well that
secrets of such deep concernment, and on which
the future lauding of the Prince of Orange so
intimately depended, were committed to the
keeping of a man so firm, wise, and circumspect.
These he was resolved to preserve against any
amount of torture, and so well were they con-
cealed that not a hint of them was suffered to
escape. On regaining his liberty Carstairs re-
tired to Holland, where he resided until the
Revolution restored him to his country.^

But a still more odious instance than the
preceding of the injustice of the council, and
its zeal to involve the best of the country in
the Rye House Plot, was afforded in the trial
of Robei't Baillie of Jerviswood. In character
he was in private one of the best of men, and
in public one of the ablest of statesmen, and
had been through life a consistent opponent of
Popery and arbitrary power. Such a man was
a condemning testimony against the political
crimes of the period, and as he had been men-
tioned in the confession of Carstairs, this, it was
hoped, would afibrd a pretext for his condem-
nation and execution. After he had been

8 M'Cormack's Life of Carstairs.

A.D. 1681-1685.]

CHARLES II.

195

weakened by a long and severe inijirisonraent,
coupled with the infirmity of old age, so that
he was already a dying man; and though he
could scarcely stand when he was brought be-
fore the judges in his night-gown, yet he was
compelled to remain ten hours at their bar, and
obliged several times to support himself with
cordials. Previously, indeed, they had seen
that he was dying, and fearing that a natural
death would deprive them of his estate they
had decreed against him a fine of six thousand
pounds sterling for harbouring iutercommuned
Covenanters. Now, however, in consequence of
the additional charge, they resolved to prosecute
him for treason, and condemn him to forfeiture
and the scaflfold. On the 23d of December he
was hurried to their bar upon the brief notice
of a single day, while the proceedings of the
trial were in conformity with this iniquitous
informality. The principal charges against
him were his accession to the conspiracy of
Russell, Sidney, and their associates, and his
participation in their design to kill the king
•and the Duke of York; and as an additional
proof of his guilt, the evidence from the con-
fession of Carstairs was brought against him
by the lord-advocate, although this evidence
had been obtained under the solemn assurance
that it should not be employed to the prejudice
•of the accused. Jerviswood was attended at
the bar by his sister-in-law, the daughter of
Johnston of Warriston, who supported the dying
old man, and while the evidence completely
failed, the answers of Jerviswood were such
that even his judges were convinced of his
innocence. But the council, notwithstanding,
were resolved to condemn him, and Mackenzie
exerted himself with more than his wonted
cunning to obtain a verdict of guilty. While
the unpi'iucipled lawyer was thus running on
in full career Jerviswood fixed his eyes on him,
and solemnly said to him, " Did you not own
to me privately in prison that you were satis-
fied of my innocence? And are you now con-
vinced in your conscience that I am more guilty
than before 1" The whole audience looked at
Mackenzie, who appeared confounded; at length
he replied, "Jerviswood, I own what you say;
but my thoughts there were as a private man,
what I say here is by special direction of the
privy-council," and pointing to the clerk he
added, "He knows my orders." "Well," said
Jerviswood, " if your lordship have one con-
science for yourself, and another for the council,
I pray God forgive you; I do." Then turning
to the justice-general he said, " My lord, I
trouble j^oiir lordships no longer." It was in
vain that nothing had been proved against him,
that all were convinced of his innocence of the

crimes laid to his charge, that nothing more
could be established against him than his oppo-
sition to a Popish succession. The trial termin-
ated at one o'clock in the morning on the 24tli
of December, and, lest he should die in the
interval, he was to be hurried to execution on
the same day, betwixt the hours of two and
four in the afternoon. His sentence was, to be
hanged on a gibbet until he was dead, after
which his head was to be cut otf and set over
the Netherbow gate of Edinburgh, and his body
to be quartered and set up on the tolbooths of
Jedburgh, Lanark, Ayr, and Glasgow. When
this barbarous and unjust sentence was pro-
nounced he calmly said, " My lords, the time is
short; the sentence is sharp; but I thank my
God who hath made me as fit to die as you are
to live."

Although such a brief space had been allowed
him for jareparation to die, it was evident that
Baillie had not delayed this duty until the last
few hours of his life. On being brought back
to prison he was asked how he was, to which
he answered, "Never better, and in a few hours
I'll be well beyond all conception. They are
going to send me in pieces and quarters through
the country. They may hack and hew my body
as they please, but I know assuredly that no-
thing sliall be lost, that all my members shall
be wonderfully gathered, and made like Christ's
glorious body." On the scaffold he would have
made a parting speech explanatory of his prin-
cijiles, but had no sooner begun to speak than
his voice was drowned in a flourish of drums.
Fearing such an interruption, however, he had
written out his speech, and given copies of it to
his friends, so that his dying sentiments were
not lost. With regard to the conspiracy for
which he was sentenced to die, the following
was his solemn declaration, delivered in this
last speech : " I do testify and declare in the
sight of the omniscient God, and as I hope for
mercy on the day of Christ's appearance, that I
was never conscious to any conspiracy against
the life of his sacerd majesty, or the life of
his royal highness the Duke of York, or the
life of any other person whatever; that I was
never conscious to any plot, in any of the
nations, for the overthi'ow and subversion of
the government; and that I designed nothing
in all my public appearances, which have been
few, but the preservation of the Protestant re-
ligion, the .safety of his majesty's person, the
continuation of our ancient government upon
the foundations of justice and righteousness,
the redressing of our just grievances by king
and parliament, the relieving of the oppressed,
and putting a stop to the shedding of blood.
As for my principles with relation to govern-

19G

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1681-1685,

uieut, they are such as I ought uot to be
;\shamed of, being consonant to the word of
God, tlie confessions of faith of the reformed
churches, the rules of Jjolicy, reason, and hu-
manity." ^

After this instance of the case of Baillie of
Jerviswood, it is unnecessary to notice the
merciless exactions or the more cruel executions
by which the annals of this year are disgraced.
It is a record of tyranny that is wearisome
from its horrible monotony, and which friend
and enemy alike, although from ditFerent mo-
tives, are equally desirous to bury in oblivion.
The whole process was now reduced into a
legalized aud regular system of national govern-
ment which the annual circuit courts of Glasgow,
Ayr, Dumfries, and Wigton faithfully carried
out, and in the royal commissions upon which
they were ordered to act, we see the resolution
to turn Scotland into a hunting-field, rather
than allow it to be a residence to the enemies
of the king's absolute power. By these in-
structions, which were issued on the 6th of
September, and which were only fit for a king-
dom conquered, trodden under foot, and des-
tined to extinction, the judges of these circuits
were armed wdth unlimited power, which ex-
tended to persons the most obscure and actions
the most trivial, so that wherever money could
be obtained or revenge gratified, there was full
and ample scope for their exercise. All heritoi-s
who had not taken the Test, and all commons
without distinction, except the militia, were to
be disarmed, aud no one was to keep a weapon
or even a horse except by the sanction of the
privy-council. Notice was to be given to the
secret committee of the council of all persons
who had fled from their habitations, whether
they had removed to other districts or retired
from the kingdom. No minister refusing the
Indulgence, or transgressing its insti'uctions and
leaving the three kingdoms, was to have license
to depart without pledging himself not to return
except by pei'mission of the privy-council. All
wives aud children of fugitive and forfeited
persons who had conversed with their husbands
or parents, or who refused to vindicate them-
selves from the charge by oath, were to be
driven from their habitations. To stop ever}'^
kind of communication between the disafi'ected
of one district and another, all pedlars who had
not passes, and all persons carrying letters,
except such as were allowed by the postmaster-
general, were to be stopped and secured. No
yeoman was to travel three miles from his own
house without a pass from his minister or a
commissioner of the excise; and no gentleman

was to carry arms upon a journey unless he was
of known loyalty and had taken the Test. If
any man fled from one district to another, he
was to be pursued, brought back and tried, or
sent to Edinburgh as might be judged fit. The
functionaries of each circuit might tender the
oath of allegiance to whomsoever they pleased,
and on his or her refusal to take it, might
banish the recusant to the plantations. And
finally, lest they should be remiss in following
these and the other oppressive instructions, the
following unnecessary injunction was added :
" You shall put in execution the power of justi-
ciary to be granted unto you by our privy-
council, with all vigour, by using fire and sword
as is usual in such cases ; and we do empower
our privy-council to insert an indemnity to you,
or any employed by you, for what shall be done
in the execution thereof." But the tyrannical
severity of these restrictions was increased by
two proclamations which were issued soon after-
ward. By the first, which was dated the 15th
of September, all masters of ships or vessels
leaving the kingdom were to make oath as to
what passengers they carried, lest they might
be of the number of the disaflTected; and by the
other, which was proclaimed on the 16th, all
persons whatever were forbidden to travel
from one shire to another without a pass from
an official of government, and this under the
pretext of stopping the circulation of false news
from one part of the country to another. In
this way, after the establishment of such circuits,
the disaff'ected were to be cooped up like sheep
for the slaughter. Not only the natural remedy
of the persecuted in fleeing from one city to
another, but even the melancholy refuge of
exile was denied them.-

An event which had happened in July or
August of this year, from its bold character and
successful result, was calculated in no small de-
gree to excite the rage of the persecutors. It was
a skirmish on a small scale at Enteikin Path, in
whicli a party of the military were bi'aved and
baftled ; it was also the fir-st instance after the
defeat of the Presbyterians at Bothwell that they
had ventured upon an armed resistance. A field
conventicle having been held at Drumlanrig, in
Dumfriesshire, the soldiers of the district had
mustered to disperse it; but judging the people
too numerous and well-armed to be attacked,
they waited until the meeting had broken up,
when they managed to intercept eight or nine
stragglers, among whom was the minister. Re-
solving to conduct their prisoners to Edinburgh,
they bound them in pairs together on horse-
back, and proceeded to climb the pass of En-

- Wodrow.

A.D. 1681-1685.]

CHARLES II.

197

terkin, a perilous road cut out of the steep side
of the precipitous mountaiu of that name, where
only two horsemen could ride abreast. But the
Covenanters had rallied and occupied different
jmi'ts of the hill ; and while the soldiers were
making their way through a mist by which that
part of the mountain is frequently enveloped a
noise was heard overhead, at which the com-
manding officer halted his party and exclaimed,
" What do you want, and who are ye ? " His
question was answered by the undesirable ap-
parition of twelve men upon the side of the hill
above them armed for battle. Their commander
issued trhe order, "Make ready!" and then,
tiu'ning to the captain, said, " Sir, will you de-
liver up our minister?" The captain refused
with an oath, upon which the Covenanter fired
with such good aim as shot him through the
head; and when he dropped from his horse, the
animal, swerving with the shock, reeled over
the precipice, rebounded from rock to rock,
and landed a shapeless mass at the bottom of
the valley. The rest of the Covenanters then
levelled their muskets and were about to
tire upon the soldiers, when their second in
command stepped forward desiring a parley,
while his men felt themselves so cooped up in
their steep, narrow position that flight and re-
sistance were equally difficult. The minister
was surrendered and sent to his friends, the
lieutenant saying to him, "Go, sir, you owe
your life to this d — d mountain." " Eather,
sir," replied the minister, " to the God who
made this mountain." Still the insurgents did
not retire, and their leader said, " Sir, we also
want the other prisoners ; " and these were ac-
cordingly given up. " And now," said the
lieutenant, " I expect you will call off those
fellows you have posted at the head of the
way." " These don't belong to us," said the
other, "they are unarmed people waiting till
you pass by." This discovery incensed the
officer, and he exclaimed, " Say you so ? had
I known that you had not gotten your men so
cheap." " An' ye are for battle, then," replied
his adversary, " we'll quit the truce if you
like." "No, no," cried the officer hastily, "I
think ye be brave fellows; e'en gang your
gate."i

As the Cameronians had now advanced to
the forefront of the struggle, being the most
decided in their resistance to every proposal of
conformity, and the only part of the Presbyte-
rian community who ventured to hold field con-
venticles, they had now the honour of sustaining
the chief brunt of the persecution. We have
already seen how Cameron had perished in the

1 De Foe's Memoirs of the Church of Scotland.

field and Cargill on the scaffold ; and by these
successive deaths they were deprived of their
only ministers. In their case the bereavement
was the more keenly felt, as the growing inten-
sity of persecution made spiritual comfort and
instruction all the more necessary, while their
aversion to what they considered the sinful com-
pliances of the times kept them apart by them-
selves, and prevented them from worshipping
with those who were less strict in their notions
about spiritual liberty. But in Mr. James
Eenwick they had the hope of a successor to
these martyred ministers who would occupy
their place with the same talent, courage, and
fidelity. As yet not twenty years old when
Cargill suffered, he had lived among events that
form a stern training to gravity and wisdom ;
and it was owing to his suggestion of the neceo-
sity of a formal testimony declarative of the
principles of his party that the Cameronians
issued the Lanark Declaration in the beginning
of 1682, and burned the Test Act and the bill
that recognized the right of succession of the
Duke of York to the throne. After this daring
deed, the colleges in which his studies for the
ministry would have been prosecuted being
closed against him, he repaired to the Uni-
versity of Groningen, where, after six months
of study, the necessity of his friends at home
required his speedy ordination ; and this being
obtained he repaired to Scotland to undergo
that life of incessant toil, danger, and priva-
tion which was only terminated by his death
on the scaffold. On his arrival the Came-
ronians renewed their field-preachings, and his
first public appearance was at a conventicle at
Darmead Linn in September, 1683. In this first
sermon of his ministry over a people assembled
in a lonely moss, and liable every moment to
military assault and massacre, he gave an ac-
count of his ordination to the sacred office, and
his adherence to the doctrine, worship, disci-
pline, and government of the Church of Scot-
land as it had existed in its purest state, and
condemned those compliances to the ruling
powers by which its rights had been compro-
mised. But in doing this, and stating with
what class of ministers and professors he was
willing to hold communion, he also specified
those with whom he would not, and for the
purpose of greater distinctness he particularized
several of them by their names. It was the
rashness of uncompromising frankness and fer-
vent zeal, and his enemies represented the deed
as a sentence of excommunication pronounced
upon many of the best ministers of Scotland.
But well did his labours and his death show
that no petty or personal resentments had in-
spired him. These compliances, trivial though

198

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND,

[a.d. 1681-1685..

they seemed, had been the insertion of tlie
narrow end of the wedge by which the Church
of Scothxnd was to be cleft asunder, and whicli
might tinally have been effected but for these
reacting principles of which Renwick and his
party were the repi'esentatives. In such a
crisis, when principles were a matter of life and
death, it was most needful for such an auditory
who were summoned to act upon them that
they should be clearly defined and distinctly
undei'stood.'^

These field conventicles and the sentiments of
those who frequented them excited the rage of
the persecutoi-s to double fury. They saw that
Presbyterianism had rallied anew its powers of
endurance, and that the battle must be fought
over again, and that, too, with doubtful issue.
For the life of Charles II. was somewhat pre-
carious, and everything that would oppose the
succession of his brother w^as fraught with ruin
to themselves. The vigilance of the curates
w-as sharpened and the activity of the soldiers
increased, so that the unfortunate Camerouians
were no longer safe either on the midnight heath
or in the caves of the rocks where they sought
a precariotis shelter. But Renwick, as their
chief enemy, was the especial object of their
search, so that by day he was obliged to lurk in
lonely places the most unfit for the residence of
human beings, and therefore least liable to be
susj^ected, while his nights were spent in preach-
ing, praying, conference, and those duties of his
office which could not be performed by day.
And yet, though starved, hunted, and over-
wrought, and often escaping by means little less
than miraculous, he only became more indefa-
tigable in his labours, while his party increased
in strength, numbers, and confidence. But the
limits of human endurance being reached, they
resolved to turn upon their pursuers, and of this
they gave warning in their "Apologetic De-
claration and Admonitory Vindication of tlie
True Presbyterians of the Church of Scot-
land, especially against Intelligencers and In-
formers," which they set up on the market
crosses of the chief towns on the 8th of No-
vember, 1684. In this Apologetic Declara-
tion, which contains much to admire as well as
not a little to regret, they announced their de-
fiant purpose in the following unmistakable
words : —

"\Ye do hereby jointly and unanimously
testify and declare, that as we utterly detest
and abhor that hellish principle of killing all
who differ in judgment and persuasion from us,
it having no bottom upon the "Word of God or
right reason . . . so we do hereby declare unto

' Life of Renwick.

all, that whosoever stretch forth their hands
against us while we are maintaining the cause
of Christ against his enemies, in defence of the
Covenanted Reformation, all and every one of
such shall be reputed by us enemies to God
and the covenanted work of reformation, and
punished as such, according to our power and
the degree of their oflfeuce, chiefly if they shall
continue, after the publication of this our De-
claration, obstinately and habitually with malice
to proceed against us in any of the foresaid ways.
Now, let not any think that (our God assisting
us) we will be so slack-handed in time coming
to put matters in execution as heretofore we
have been, seeing we are bound faithfully and
valiantly to maintain our Covenants and the
cause of Christ. Therefore, let all these fore-
said persons be admonished of their hazard;
and particularly all ye intelligencers, who by
your voluntary informationseudeavour to render
us up into the enemies' hands, that our blood
may be shed ; for by such courses ye both en-
danger your immoi'tal souls, if repentance pre-
vent not, seeing God will make inquisition for
shedding the precious blood of his saints, and
also your bodies, seeing you render yourselves
actually and maliciously guilty of our blood,
whose innocency the Lord knoweth. However,
we are sorry at our very hearts that any of you
should choose such courses, either with bloody
Doeg to shed our blood, or with the flattering
Ziphites to inform persecutore w^here we are to
be found. So we say again, we desire you ta
take warning of the hazard that ye incur by
following such coui'ses, for the sinless necessity
of self-preservation, accompanied with holy
zeal for Christ's reigning in our land, and sup-
pressing of profanity, wdll move us not to let
you pass unpunished. Call to your remem-
brance all that is in peril is not lost, and all
that is delayed is not forgiven. Therefore ex-
pect to be dealt with as ye deal with us, so far
as our power can reach, not because w^e are
actuated by a sinful spirit of revenge for private
and personal injuries, but mainly because by
our fall reformation suffers damage ; yea, the
power of godliness, through ensnaring flatteries
and terrible threatening, will thereby be brought
to a very low ebb, the consciences of many
more dreadfully surrendered, and j^rofanity
more established and propagated."-

This Declaration Renwick would have soft-
ened, but his remonstrances against its threaten-
ing language were in vain, and it was fixed up
in the public places of the towns as a note of
warning or a cartel of defiance. If it is some-
what inconsistent with the forbearing and for-

■•' Wodrow ; Informatory Vindication.

A.D. 1681-1685.]

CHARLES II.

199

giving spirit of the gospel, we must at the same
time remember how imperfectly as yet the
Scots understood the nature of the warfare of
the cross, how prone they were to the redress
of wrongs and retaliation of injuries with the
weapons of secular conflict, and how recently
they had been engaged in a long and eventful
war that had the defence of religion for its
principal object. And above all, we must keep
in mind the small proportion of the community
from which it emanated, and how much they
had suffered and endured before they had re-
course to such an alternative. Its effects were
in full keeping with its mixed and contradictory
character. It dismayed the whole troop of
spies and informers, and even daunted the mili-
tary, so that while the curates were less alert
in supplying the names of the malcontent of
their parishes, the soldiers were more timid in
chasing them to their hiding-places, and a tem-
porary lull occurred in the work of persecution
and murder. This pause was soon followed,
however, by greater efforts on the part of the
government to exterminate such resistance.
An act was jiublished on the 22d of November
which was called the " bloody act," and which
enacted that every person owning or refusing
upon oath to disown the late traitorous Declara-
tion, was to be put to death; and commissions
were given to several noblemen, gentlemen, and
military officers of each of the discontented
counties to carry out the act. They were em-
powered to convocate in certain parishes that
were named all the inhabitants, male and female,
above fourteen years of age, and inflict military
execution on the spot upon all who owned the
Declaration ; and if any withheld attendance
their houses were to be burned and their goods
confiscated or destroyed. All persons above the
age of twelve years belonging to the families of
those who were thus executed were to be made
prisoners, in order that they might be trans-
ported to the plantations. An abjuration oath,
as it was called, was also prepared, by which all
were obliged to abjure and renounce the De-
claration ; and no one was to travel without a
certificate of having taken the oath, which was
to serve him by way of passport. This " bloody
act" was sanguinary enough, but here its seve-
rities did not stop ; it was not enough to slay
the Presbyterians without also rooting up Pres-
byterianisra, by which all future generations of
malcontents might be extinguished in embryo,
and accordingly the Indulgence itself was now
withdrawn, and a bond was required from the
indulged ministers that they should no longer
exercise their ministry in Scotland.^

1 Woilrow ; Life of Renwick.

The year 1685 ushered in those cruelties to
which the enactments at the end of 1684 had
been a preparation, and executions, both legal
and military, became the order of the day. The
abjuration oath, now the principal test, was
administered without distinction of station, age,
or sex, and whosoever refused it was subjected
to sjjoliation, banishment or slavery, imprison-
ment, torture, or death, according to the caprice
of the judges of the law, or the mei'e summary
and brutal cruelty of the soldiers and their
officers. It was a melancholy circumstance
that among the mildest inflictions of the period,
cropping off the ears or applying burning
matches between the fingers of the victims to
extort confession or punish their obstinacy held
so frequent a place as to have become ordinary
events. But all at once the deep notes of that
funeral bell which proclaims the death of kings
introduced a dreadful pause, during which the
oppressor trembled and the oppressed breathed
a sigh of hope. Charles II., in whose name
and by whose authority or sufferance such
cruelties were inflicted, had suddenly died on
the 6th of February, 1685.

The last days and closing hours of this gay
but heartless and unprincipled monarch were
in conformity with his character and the his-
tory of his reign. While he was the abject
pensioner of Louis XIV. France had become
the uncontrolled sovereign of the seas, the op-
pressor of Protestantism, and the arbiter of
Europe ; and even while England was reduced
to the lowest depths of her degradation, and
the Dutch fleet riding triumjjhantly at the
mouth of the Thames, Charles was I'evelling at
the house of Lady Castlemaine, and delighting
himself with the sport of the comjiany, which
consisted in — hunting a moth I To him his
pleasures were of more account than a glorious
and successful administration, and his mistresses
and spaniels than his council, parliament, and
subjects; and provided he was left untroubled
he cared little either about the disgrace of his
reign or the disasters of his people. "What to
such a sovereign were the sufferings of the
Covenanters, which Sedley or Buckingham
could make the themes of an idle jest? And
as for his religion, what shall we think of the
sincerity of him who was openly the head of
one church and secretly the servant of another,
while he habitually laughed at the laws and
obligations of both alike ] In the beginning of
this year (1685) it was observed that he had
become gloomy, sad, and restless, finding no
occupation except sauntering among his mis-
tresses; and it was perceived that there were
the tokens of a disease whose effects would be
both sudden and fatal. It was apoplexy, and

200

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1685-1688.

in a few clays he lay stretched upon his death-
bed. The bishops of the Anglican Church who
surrounded it were instant that he should take
the sacrament ; but Charles in his dying hour
felt that it was time to drop the mask, and re-
fused compliance, while his brother, the Duke
of York, introduced a Catholic priest into the
palace. By the law of the land it still was
death for a native Eomish priest to intrude
into such a place, and therefore the ecclesiastic,
disguised in a wig and gown, was smuggled up
the back-stairs by Chiffinch, the minister of the
king's pleasures, who had often brought to him
his women by the same private passage. The
room of the dying man was cleared, and while
the English bishops in the adjoining apartment
were gazing at each other and conjecturing
what was going on, but not daring to exjiress
their suspicions, the bewigged priest heard his
confession, absolved him, and administered the
sacrament and extreme unction. After all this

was done Charles recommended his mistresses
and illegitimate children to the cai-e of the Duke
of York, his successor, and on the same night
he expired. In this secrecy with which, in the
hour of death, he was obliged to utter in whis-
pers the faith that was in him lest the walls
should overhear it, do we not read a strange
comment ujjon the scaffolds of the Covenanters
in Scotland, and the solicitude with which their
last utterances were suppressed by the sound
of drums and trumpets ] Charles died in the
fifty-fifth year of his age and the twenty-fifth
of his reign, reckoning from the Restoration.
No sooner had he exj^ired than a report was
raised that he had died by poison administered
by the Duke of York, who was impatient for
his own succession; but the nature of his disease
and its symptoms are sufiicieut to show the
groundlessness of this rumour and to absolve
the memory of the duke from such unnatural
and gi'atuitous cruelty.

CHAPTER XVI.

REIGN OF JAMES VII. (1685-1688).

Accession of James VII. of Scotland and II. of England — His satisfactory declarations — Decorous change intro-
duced into the court — Early Popish manifestations of the new king — His religious scruples at the form of
his coronation — His offensive display of arbitrary power — Affairs in Scotland — Subservience of the ruling
powers to the absolutism of James — Persecutions of the Presbyterians continued — A parliament held in
Edinburgh — Their compliant submission to the king's letter — Principal acts of this parliament — The law
of entail established — Rumours of the Argyle and Monmouth invasion — Argyle lands in Scotland — The
Cameronians refuse to join him — Failure of his expedition — Argyle taken prisoner — He is sentenced to be
executed — His behaviour in prison and on the scaffold — Trial and execution af Rumbald — Execution of
Colonel Ayloffe — Severities against Argyle's family and adherents — Monmouth's expedition — Its failure —
Cruelties which followed its suppression — Execution of the Duke of Jlonmouth. — Continued ci-uelties
against the Covenanters — Merciless proceedings of Claverhouse — Murder of John Brown by military
execution — Similar execution of Andrew Hislop — The Wigtonshire martyrs — Two women executed by
drowning — Particulars of their trial and execution — Other executions of Covenanters — The king proceeds
in his attempts for the restoration of Popery — The English clergy assail Popery from the pulpit — The king
establishes a commission for the suppression of these attacks — Despotic proceedings of the commission —
Similar course of James in Scotland — Meeting of parliament in Edinburgh — The king's letter to it in behalf
of Roman Catholics — Union of Presbyterians and Episcopalians against Popery — The parliament shows
symptoms of resistance to the king — The king persists — He demands for the Papists the free exercise of
their religion — The Three Indulgences in which the Papists are included — Terms of the Third Indulgence
— It is accepted by the Presbyterians — Cause of Scottish resistance in high places to Popery — Cessation of
persecution in consequence of the Third Indulgence — Ren wick the last of the Covenant martyrs — His
execution — Proceedings of James in England— His attempts to obtain the control of schools and colleges
— His demands on the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge — Failure of his attempt to establish universal
toleration — His anxiety for the birth of a son and successor — The queen's pregnancy announced — General
suspicion that a fraud was to be attempted — The clergy commanded to read the Act of Toleration from the
pulpit — Their refusal — The bishops petition against the reading — They are sent to the Tower — Their trial
and triumphant acquittal — The queen delivered of a son — Suspicions occasioned by the event — William of
Orange resolves to invade England — His landing at Torbay — Wavering conduct of James — His adherents
and family join the invader — Unresisted progress of William — Flight of the queen — James follows — He is
mobbed at Sheppey and Feversham — His return to London — His infatuated conduct there — He is ordered
to quit London — His final departure from the kingdom.

The first pi-oceediugs of James VII. of Scot- I national hopes. Immediately on his brother's
land, II. of England, were calculated to raise the | demise he repaired to the council, and after

A.D. 1685-1688.]

JAMES VII.

201

amioimcing to them his resolution to imitate the
late king in clemency and tenderness to his
people, he added, " I have been reported to be
a man fond of arbitrary power; but that is not
the only falsehood which has been reported of
me ; and I shall make it my endeavour to pre-
serve this government, both in church and state,
as it is now by law established. ... I have
often before ventured my life in defence of this
nation; and I shall go as far as any man in pre-
serving it in all its just rights and liberties."
These declarations, which were printed and dis-
tributed abroad, tended to allay the popular
jealousy which the prospect of a Pojaish succes-
sion in the person of the Duke of York had
excited, and they welcomed the proclamation
that announced him King of England, Scotland,
Ireland, and France with the usual acclamations.
The hope that he would attempt no innovation
was increased by his gracious reception of the
ministers and chief officers of state, all of whom
he continued in their places. In a few days,
also, the appearance of the court was changed,
and changed for the better ; so that, instead of
the levity, buffoonery, and jjrofaneness that had
disgraced it during the late reign, it had modelled
itself into the decorousiiess of its new master,
and was characterized by an aspect of gravity
and propriety.!

This confidence, however, could not long con-
tinue. Sunday came, the first Sunday after the
funeral of Charles II., and James, who had made
no secret of his devotedness to Popery while
Duke of York, was less disposed to conceal it
when king, and thei'efore accountable, as he
imagined, to none but the King of kings. On
this occasion he repaired publicly to mass with
all the insignia of royalty and caused the doors
of his chapel to be set wide open.^ He ordered
an account of his brother's death in communion
with the Church of Rome, and his dying de-
clarations to his Popish confessor, to be published ;
he also published two papers which he professed
to have found in his brother's strong-box, ar-
guing that there could be only one true church,
and that that was the Church of Rome. Even
his coronation could not be performed without
the interruption of religious scruples ; and the
pope and his priests were anxiously consulted
as to whether he could conscientiously take the
coronation oath, and allow himself to be crowned
by a Protestant prelate. The oath was taken
at last with quibbling and mental reservation,
in which James swore to maintain the Anglican
church ; and the crown was set upon his head
by Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury. A ser-
mon was also preached on the occasion, but the

1 Evelyn. 2 idem.

sacrament, which should have followed it, was
omitted.^

While the churches of both kingdoms were
thus threatened with invasion intimations of a
similar character menaced the safety of civil
liberty. Notwithstanding his professions of
universal clemency and good-will James could
not forget the hostility of the party by whom
his right to the succession had been called in
question; and when the leading Whigs pre-
sented themselves to pay their homage to their
new sovereign some were received with coldness,
and some with absolute reproaches, while several
were denied entrance. He had also promised
to call a parliament; but, impatient of the delay
that must occur in assembling it, he proceeded,
as his father had done, to stretch his royal pre-
rogative, and thereby to reawaken those remem-
brances of resistance to royal encroachments
which had occasioned the late civil wars, and
that terminated in the execution of Charles I.
Thus, even at the commencement of his reign
he showed his insensibility to example and
warning. The point at issue was concerning
certain customs, and part of the excise, which,
having been granted to Charles II. only for life,
had terminated by law at his death. But, with-
out waiting for a fresh parliamentary grant,
James, by the advice of the infamous Judge
Jetfreys, issuetl a proclamation commanding this
portion of the royal revenue to be levied, as in
the reign of the late king. To make himself
also independent of parliaments he submitted
to become a pensionary of Louis XIV., as his
brother had been ; and when the French king
sent him a subsidy of 500,000 livres James re-
ceived the money with teai's of gratitude.

While the new sovereign was thus reviving a
contention which he was so ill fitted to manage,
and which teiminated so fatally for himself and
his posterity, his accession produced little change
in the affairs of Scotland ; there the people was
as thoi'oughly subdued, and the interests of tlie
rulers as closely identified with those of royalty,
as the most absolute of kings could desire ; and
on the 10th of February James VII. was pro-
claimed at the Cross of Edinburgh without a
murmur being heard. In the proclamation it
was also declared that he had not only the right
to the crown, but also to supreme sovereign
authority by lawful and undoubted succession
and descent; and the autliorities swore with up-
lifted hands to obey, serve, and defend his sacred
majesty as their only righteous king and sove-
reign over all persons, and in all causes, "and
as holding his imperial crown from God alone."
In this way all demur or question was rudely

3 Evelyn.

202

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1685-1688.

shut up by the recognition of the king's su-
premacy in all cases whether civil or religious.
It was the duty of the Scottish council to see
that the king should take the coronation oath
for his kingdom of Scotland; but this oath it
would have been superfluous to exact of a sove-
reign who held his office by right divine, and
not from the consent of the people. But this
omission, which was so convenient for his pur-
poses, recoiled upon himself; for when the hour
of retribution arrived, it was considered right
and lawful to pass upon him the sentence of the
forfeiture of his throne because he had not taken
the oath. As in England all tlie public function-
aries were continued in office ; the powers of
the military commission courts for the trial of
Presbyterians were increased, and the work of
persecution went on with greater ardour than
ever, signalized by hanging, shooting in cold
blood, or the gentler applications of ear-crop-
ping, finger-burning, scourging, despoiling, and
banishing to the plantations. These were the
favourite deeds of those military magistrates,
Grierson of Lagg, Urquhart of Meldrum, John-
ston of Westerraw, Douglas, and above all,
Graham of Clavei'house,by which they signalized
their zeal for the promotion of loyalty, peace, and
order, and what was of chief account, brought
money into their own coffers. Under such tierce
and sordid disci])linarians the voice of remon-
strance was hushed, the display of resistance
quelled, and even stern and moveless silence
suspected, and made liable to punishment.^

As under such circumstances a parliament
might be safely assembled, it was held on the
28th of April. To ensure unanimity every
member of the non-compliant stamp was ex-
cluded, and refusal of the Test Act was a suf-
ficient cause for rejection. The Duke of Queens-
berry was royal commissioner; and the king's
letter to the parliament, which was read at
the opening, expatiated upon the honour he
had conferred upon them, and his expectation
that they would be compliant in return. This,
the letter added, was necessary, more for the
sake of securing their own safety than extend-
ing the royal prerogative, and it recommended
to them to use every precaution for securing
themselves from the outrage and violence of
the fanatics in all time coming. It was a
letter to a parliament of assured slaves, and as
such it was received ; the ilatteries with which
it was welcomed, and the homage professed to
its royal writer, were only equalled by their
invectives against the Presbyterians, whom they
characterized as " desperate, fanatical, and irre-
concilable wi-etches, of such monstrous prin-

Fountainhall ; Wodrow.

ciples and practices as past ages never heard^
nor those to come will hardly believe." They
declared " their abhorrence and detestation not
only of the authors and actors of all preceding
rebellions against the sovereign, but likewise of
all principles and positions which are contrary
or derogatory to the king's sacred, supreme,
absolute power and authority, which none,
whether persons or collective bodies, can parti-
cipate of any manner of way or upon any pre-
text but in dependence on him and by commis-
sion from him." And their acts were in con-
formity with the unqualified loyalty of their
professions. To take the Covenant, to write
in defence of it, or own it to be lawful, they
condemned as treason. All attendance on house
or field conventicles was to be punished with
death and confiscation. The Test was to be
imposed upon all heritors, life-renters, and
tacksmen. Papists alone excepted. All the ille-
gal and oppressive violences which had hitherta
been used against the recusants by order of
council were established into statute law, and
complete indemnity was proclaimed for all such
deeds that had been already perpetrated. The
estates of Lord Melville, Sir Patrick Hume,^
Pringle of Torwoodlee, Stewart of Coltness,
Fletcher of Salton, and several other gentlemen,
accused of being implicated in the Eye House
conspiracy, underwent the doom of forfeiture.
But here, as if terrified at their own excessive
loyalty, and feeling that this process might
react uj^on themselves when resistance to abso-
lute power might no longer be condemned as
treason, they were anxious to save their own
estates and ill-gotten property in the event of
a political revolution or change. It was prob-
ably under this provident fear that they passed
the law of entail, by which estates at present
held by their families were to be possessed in
perpetuity, and made only liable to a life-rent
interest, or the escheat of the present heir.
Thus was an incubus established by this par-
liament upon the landed property of Scotland,
by which the national progress has been en-
cumbered ; while many a fair estate now pos-
sessed by families of mark owe their present
ownership to a more questionable source than
our old Border modes of acquisition.^

But before this parliament had risen they
were troubled with I'umours of the projected
invasion of the Earl of Argyle. This nobleman,
as we have seen, after his escape from prison
had fied to Holland, the principal refuge of the
Scottish exiles from the persecution of the
Stuarts, and here the refugees concocted mea-

2 Wodrow; Acts of the Scottish Parliament, vol. viil.,
A.D. 16S5.

A.D. 1685-1688.]

JAMES VII.

20J

sures for the redress of their country's injuries
and their own. The earl, in concert with the
Duke of Monmouth, also in exile, agreed to
make a landing in England simultaneously,
with the avowed pui'pose '" of i-ecovering the
religion, rights, and liberties of the kingdom
from the usurpation of James, Duke of Yoi'k,
and a Popish faction." Two small bands only
could be levied for the purj^ose; and to give
such a desperate enterprise the least chance of
success it was necessary that both invasions
should occur at the same instant, and be con-
ducted on a plan of mutual co-operation. But
when the season for action had arrived, Mon-
mouth, who was living with his mistress, Lady
Henrietta Wentworth, at Brussels, found him-
self unable to break away from her society, and
Argyle set sail alone upon his part of the enter-
prise with not more than a hundred followers,
among whom were Ayloffe and Rumbald, two
Englishmen who had been deeply implicated
in the Eye House couspii-acy. The first appear-
ance of the eaii was off the coast of Orkney,
where he sent two emissaries ashore at Kirkwall
to instigate a rising of the natives; but his
messengers were seized and detained, and in-
telligence of his arrival was sent to Edinburgh,
so that the government had time for jjrepar-
ation. Disappointed of aid from Orkney,
Argyle, with his three small vessels, after beat-
ing about in the western seas between Scot-
land and Ireland, bore away for Kintyre where
his family influence was strongest ; but gov-
ernment had already stationed two ships of
war on the coast to observe his motions, while
twenty thousand militia were ordered out for
service, of whom six thousand, with half that
number of regular troops, were marched into
the western country. But in spite of these
formidable obstacles Argyle landed and sent
the fiery cross among the clans of which he
was chief, or who were united to him by
the ties of family, and 2500 Highlanders re-
paired to his standard. He also published the
cause of his coming in two declarations, one in
his own name complaining of the loss of his
estates and the injuries he had suffered, which
compelled him to this mode of seeking redress;
the other, complaining of the wrongs of the
nation by the breach of the Covenant, and de-
nouncing the king as having forfeited the throne
by Popery, tyranny, and fratricide; and after
telling his fiiends and vassals that he had been
restored to his rights by the Duke of Monmouth,
the lawful heir to the crown, he incited them
to rise and aid him in their recovery. He also
jjromised the suppression both of Popery and
Prelacy, and the standard which he hoisted was
emblazoned with the inscription, "Against

Popery, Prelacy and Erastianism." After de-
laying some time longer in the hope of being
joined by more Highlanders, and of receiving
tidings of Monmouth's landing in England, in
both of which expectations he was disappointed,
Argyle descended into the low countries expect-
ing to be joined by the Covenanters, but here
also he was disappointed, for as a body they
stood aloof. And for this unexpected conduct
they had sufficient excuse; for not only had he
trimmed too suspiciously between the Royalists
and the Presbyterians to be greatly trusted by
the latter, but they also remembered that he
had given the casting-vote for the execution
of Cargill.i

The result of this unfortunate expedition
may be briefly narrated. On descending to the
Lowlands the small army of insurgents was
everywhere confronted by superior forces; their
proceedings were also distracted by the divided
councils of their officers; and the only subject
on which they could agree was to avoid the
dangerous issue of battle either by retreat or
flight. In this hopeless condition they made a
hasty march to Glasgow, and after staying
longer there than either success or safety could
have warranted, they broke up their irregular
encampment, crossed the Water of Leven about
three miles above Dumbarton, and attempted,
when reduced to four or five hundred men, to
elude the enemy, who lay in front of them in
greatly superior force. But their guides proved
incompetent or unfaithful, and led them into
a morass, where they lost their baggage and
where a large number of them deserted. See-
ing all further attempt hopeless, the earl issued
orders for every man to shift for himself, and
had reached the ford of Inchinnan in the dis-
guise of a. peasant, when he was attacked by
three grooms as a rebel deserter, wounded on
the head and overpowered, and in falling ex-
claimed, "Ah, unfortunate Argyle!" by which
his rank was discovered. He was secured and
sent prisoner to Edinburgh ; and after an igno-
minious march through the city on foot with
his arms pinioned, and the hangman walking
before him, he w\as in)prisoued in the castle.
Almost instantly afterward his trial followed,
and to save time he was condemned to die, not
for his late invasion of the kingdom and attempt
to dethrone the king, but for his former offence
of refusing to take the Test without a qualifi-
cation, on which he had been already sentenced.
It was thus that James sent down the warrant
for his execution ; and this fulfilment of an old
sentence, in j^ieference to arraignment for a
more recent crime, was remembered among the

1 Wodrow ; Fouutainhall.

204.

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1685-1688.

acts of royal despotism when the season of
reckoning against James himself arrived.

The Earl of Argyle had not only the consti-
tutional timidity of his father, which disqualified
him for warlike enterprises, but also lacked
that moral courage with which his father had
braved and surmounted the difficulties that
tried his endurance as a statesman. The son
was vacillating where he ought to have been
firm, and guilty of compliances with the hostile
party wliich the great and uj^right marquis
would have scorned. But during the three
short days which were allowed him between his
sentence and execution he displayed a magna-
nimity and a courage at which both friends and
enemies were astonished. He bewailed his
sinful compliances wdth the ruling party, which
had been justified under the plea of expediency;
acknowledged the sinfulness of his conduct in
allying himself with the persecutors; and ex-
pressed his confidence that, notwithstanding the
failure of his enterprise, his country would be
delivered from bondage, and the good cause
from its oppressor. And as for his tranquillity
in the near prospect of death and the courage
with which he was prepared to meet it, an
anecdote has often been told which is still
worthy of repetition. After his last meal in
pi'ison, and before he was to be led out to exe-
cution, he retired to his closet and lay down on
his bed for about a quarter of an hour. In the
meantime one of the officers of state called with
some matter to communicate, but was told that
the earl was asleep ; and on expi'essing his
disbelief of such a fact and his conviction that
the excuse was a feint, he was led to the bed-
side of Argyle, whom he found sleeping in such
deep tranquillity as nothing but the feeling of
innocence and the knowledge that all would
hereafter be well with him could have inspired
at such a moment. Confounded at the spec-
tacle the nobleman went out of the room
without speaking, hurried down the Castle-
hill to his own house, threw himself iipon his
bed groaning with anguish and remorse ; and
to the inquiries of his alarmed wife could only
answer, " I have been in at Argyle, and saw
him sleeping as pleasantly as ever a man did,
within an hour of eternity ; but as for me — ."
On being led to the scaffold two ministers at-
tended the earl, one being Annand, dean of
Edinburgh, appointed to that duty by the coun-
cil; the other was Charteris, a minister laid
aside for refusing the Test, who was the eaii's
own choice. When he had uttered his last
prayers and his parting address, Argyle, turn-
ing to the south side of the scaffold, exclaimed,
" I freely forgive all men their wrongs and in-
juries done against me, as I desire to be for-

given of God ; " and Dean Annand, repeating
his words, added, " This nobleman dies a Pro-
testant." " I die not only a Protestant," said
the earl, who seemed to feel this testimony too
general ; " but with a heart-hatred of Popery,
Prelacy, and all superstition whatsoever." He
was to be executed by beheading, and being
led to the maiden he embraced the instrument
and said, "It is the sweetest maiden I ever
kissed, it being the means to finish my sin and
misery, and my inlet to glory, for \s'hicli I have
longed." Then adjusting his head for the fall
of the axe he exclaimed three times, "Lord
Jesus, receive me into thy glory ; " and letting
fall his hands as a signal to the executioner, his
head was instantly severed from his body.^

Argyle was not the only person who forfeited
his life by this rash expedition, for after his
adherents had dispersed, the two Englishmen
Eumbald and Aylofie were captured after a
desperate resistance. As owner of the Eye
House Richard Eumbald was deeply involved
in the plot, whether real or fictitious, which
had already destroyed so many victims; and as
it was reported to the privy-council that he was
in hazard of dying of his wounds, they resolved
to anticipate such a death by his public execu-
tion. He was first tried upon the Rye House
affair, but as he solemnly denied all intention
against the life of the king, the judges, appre-
hensive that the truth of the conspiracy might
be discredited by a trial, shifted the charge to
his having joined the forfeited traitoi', Argyle,
and held the office of colonel among the in-
vaders. All this he acknowledged, and justified
as a sacred duty of resistance to tyranny, and
he avowed his belief in rough but expressive
language, that " God had not made the greater
part of mankind with saddles on their backs
and bridles in their mouths, and a few men
booted and spurred to ride the rest." He also
declared that he had been a lieutenant in Crom-
well's army, had fought at Duubai', Worcester,
and Dundee, and that he had foreseen the ruin
of Argyle's expedition from the delay spent in
the isles and Highlands, when it should have
hastened down into the inland country. The
bold maltster (for such had been his occupation)
was condemned, although the greater part of the
jury consisted of his own countrymen, and his
sentence was as severe as that of the most
bitter Covenanter. Being unable to walk from
his wounds he was drawn to the scaftokl on a
hurdle, and on proceeding to address the by-
standers the drums were ordered to commence
beating. The execution of a traitor with all
its horrid accompaniments was inflicted upon

A.D. 1685-1688.]

JAMES VII.

205

him, and his quarters were sent to four of the
chief towns of Scothmd.^ Colonel Ayloffe, tlie
other prisoner, was equally firm. On being
sent to London for trial, the king, who was as
curious abovit the confessions of prisoners as his
grandfather James VI. had been, examined him
in j^erson, hoping to derive from him some
revelation of the Eye House 23lot, but was un-
successful. " You know, sir," said the king
among other inducements, " that if you desire
it, it is in my power to pardon you." " It is in
your power but not in your nature," was the
stinging reply of the colonel. Although Ayloffe
was a relation of the late Lord Clarendon,
whose daughter was the first wife of James and
mother of his children, the king, instead of dis-
arming the gibe by a pardon, subscribed his
death-warrant.'-

It might have been thought that, consider-
ing the rash and harmless nature of Argyle's
attemjit, and the facility with which it had
been suppressed, a sufficient number of execu-
tions had been inflicted for the purposes of
jmnishment and warning. But there was as
little magnanimity in the Scottish rulers as in
their sovereign, and while other executions fol-
lowed, the Earl of Balcarras was sent into Gal-
loway with a commission of fire and sword
against all who had given shelter to the rebels.
But it was against the vassals and connections
of Argyle that this wrath was chiefly directed ;
the rival clans were hounded against them, and
the practices of Highland extermination which
had directed the barbarous policy of an earlier
period, were only invigorated by the superior
wisdom and experience of the present. Charles
Campbell, the second son of the Earl of Argyle,
while lying sick of a raging fever in Argyle-
shire was threatened with execution by the
Marquis of Athole, the hereditary enemy of
the family, and adding savage cruelty to his
justiciary power the marquis resolved to hang
the young gentleman over his father's gate of
Inverary. But several ladies, with his wife,
Lady Sophia Lindsay, who had aided the escape
of his father from the castle of Edinburgh, in-
terposed with a jDetition to the council, in conse-
quence of which the murderous intention was
arrested and the prisoner sent down to the
capital. Another of his brothers, John Camp-
bell, and one of his cousins, who were hunted
by the bloodhounds of justice until they could
conceal themselves no longer, disguised them-
selves in women's riding-habits, repaired to
Lord Dumbarton, and falling on their knees
revealed themselves and imjalored his clemency.
He only shut them up in easy imprisonment in

1 Fountainhall ; Buruet.

2 Burnet.

the castle of Stirling, allowing them the range
of the whole building ; but for this act of qua-
lified humanity he was severely blamed by the
secret committee.^

While the Scottish part of the enterprise de-
signed for the dethronement of James was thus
extinguished as by a breath, it fared little
better with the English part of it, which was
conducted by the Duke of Monmouth. That
weak frivolous nobleman, after having dallied
with the opportunity until it was too late, set
sail and landed on the coast of Dorsetshire six
days before Argyle's capture. His force con-
sisted of only eighty officers and about a hun-
dred and fifty followers, English and Scotch; but
such were his ingratiating appearance and man-
ners, and the popularity of his cause, that thou-
sands quickly rallied round his standai'd. He
jjublished a manifesto containing every kind of
odious charge agaiu.st the bigotry, cruelty, and
tyranny of James, in which so much of what
was true was mingled with the false that the
common people gave their belief to both ; and
insinuating his own lawful right to the crown,
as Lucy Walters, his mother, had been secretly
married to the late king. But his i-ecruits,
though numerous, were an ill-armed and un-
trained peasantry; his bold claims to the crown
offended many of the nobility who would other-
wise have joined him ; and at the commence-
ment of his camjaaign he lost the services of
Fletcher of Saltou, by far the ablest politician
and best soldier in his army, whom, in conse-
quence of a private quarrel, he was obliged to
send back to Holland. His proceedings after
this so much resembled those of the Earl of
Argyle, although upon a larger scale, that they
are scarcely worth enumerating ; there was the
same vacillation of counsel, and a similar amount
of discouraging marches and counter-marches,
until all was staked upon the issue of the battle
of Sedgemoor, in which Monmouth was utterly
and irretrievably defeated. Monmouth himself,
who had fled like a coward from the field of
Sedgemoor, was found two days after disguised
and lurking in a ditch, half hid among ferns and
nettles, and with a few peas in his pocket which
he had gathered to assuage liis hunger. When
brought before the king he abjectly crawled upon
his knees and besought the royal pardon, but in
vaiu ; and James, after extracting from him a
confession that his claims to the crown were
unfounded, and that no marriage had occurred
between his mother and Charles II., handed
him over to trial, the result of which could not
be doubtful. In fact there was no trial, as the
bill of attainder passed upon him on his first

3 Fountainhall.

206

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1685-1688.

landing was thought to supei-sede the necessity
of holding any, and his fate was decided in the
same manner as in the case of his associate
Aigyle. During the two brief days of the
duke's imprisonment he was worried by the
importunities of the bishops who were appointed
to attend him, and who made little account of
his faith and repentance because he would not
acknowledge the doctrine of passive obedience
and non-resistance; and even when he was led
out to the scaffold he was baited upon the same
subject by the prelates, and desired to indoc-
trinate the spectators with theii' duty to the
king, and acknowledge the righteousness of his
sentence. The time was not distant when they
too would be posed between the requirements
of divine and human authority, and compelled
to acknowledge that the court doctrine of obe-
dience had its limits, upon which they had too
often been stumbling. With all their unseemly
importunity they could extract no more from
the Duke of Monmouth in his last moments
than that he repented of his sins, forgave his
enemies, and died in the Protestant faith.^

From these unfortunate expeditions we now
return to the Scottish Covenanters, whose suf-
fei'ings continued without abatement. Prompt
military trial and execution were now preferred
to the dull delays of the law, and these, which
especially prevailed in Dumfriesshire and Gal-
loway, were conducted by Grierson of Lagg
and Major Windram, but chiefly by Claver-
house, who had won for himself the highest
reputation by his deeds of oppression and mer-
ciless cruelty, and in whom loyalty would have
seemed a very frenzy had it not been so closely
connected with his own seltish interests. The
rumour of the intended invasions of Mon-
mouth and Argyle only increased his fury; and
his zeal against the king's enemies was sig-
nalized in Clydesdale, Annandale, and Niths-
dale by such deeds as worthily earned the patent
of nobility which he afterwards obtained from
his grateful sovereign. Over the extensive dis-
trict that was committed to his charge he sta-
tioned parties of horse upon the hills, and pa-
trolled the mai-shes and mosses with bodies of
foot, so that none might escape. He had also
parcelled it out into districts, so that six or eight
miles square could be taken in at once, and its
inhabitants, men, women, and children, without
distinction, be assembled at the same time. He
then interrogated them whether they owned
the present king for their sovereign, and ten-
dered to them the oath of allegiance ; and not
satisfied with this, he would question them
whether they had ever repented of taking the

1 Fox ; Ralph ; Echard.

oath, and make them promise, by their hopes
of salvation, that they never would repent it,
but remain loyal to the end. When they had
complied with these extravagant requisitions
he would let them go, saying, "Argyle will
have a perjured dog of you." We can estimate
the value of such oaths when we remember that
these district conventions were surrounded by
his soldiers with loaded muskets, and that the
threat of instant death was used to confirm the
wavering. Sometimes the children above six
and under ten years of age were collected by
themselves, and ordered to pray, as they were
going to be shot, while a party of soldiers was
drawn up before them ready to fire ; and when
they were thus frightened out of their wits they
were asked when they had seen men with guns
and swords in their houses, whether they had
been supplied with meat, and other such ques-
tions as might convict their parents, and if they
refused to answer jjistols loaded with blank cart-
ridges were fired in their faces to terrify them
into confession. A still more iniquitous refine-
ment was used against the wanderers, compared
with which the use of bloodhounds would have
been both honest and merciful. Profane but
cunning soldiers, who could assume not only the
disguise and manner but even the phraseology
of the persecuted, were employed as spies against
them; and thus it often happened that they were
betrayed to the enemy by the very person who
had engaged with them in religious conversation
and presided at their devotions. Such infamous
treachery combined with such hypocrisy requires
no comment. -

But of all the deeds of Claverhouse none sur-
passes in cold-blooded cruelty his murder of
John Brown of Priesthill, in the parish of
Muirkirk. This Brown was a carrier, and
possessed a small patch of laud in the parish,
and although he belonged to the Cameronians
he was in no way obnoxious to the government
except for not attending the ministry of the in-
dulged, while his piety obtained for him among
his neighbours the title of "the Christian carrier."
While he was employed at work in the fields
Claverhouse came suddenly upon him with three
troops of dragoons, and caused him to be brought
back, to his own door. There the trial was so
brief that it is uncertain whether Claverhouse
had received any information against him or
even asked any questions at Brown himself:
these, indeed, were, in too many cases, reckoned
useless ceremonies that might be dispensed
with, and though not yet weary of killing the
persecutors were tired of hunting for evidence
to justify their executions. Brown was briefly

2 Wodrow ; Swift's Memoirs of Captain Crichton.

A.D. 1685-1688.]

JAMES VII.

207

told that he must die ; and when, as a special
favour, he obtained a few minutes to prepare
himself by prayer, he expressed himself in such
fervent, appropriate language that the soldiers
were astonished and moved to pity. Not so,
however, was Claverhouse, who thrice inter-
rupted his devotions, exclaiming impatiently,
" I gave you time to pray, but not to preach."
His victim meekly answered, " Sir, you know
neither the nature of preaching nor of praying
if you call this preaching," and went on with
his devotions unmoved. When he had ended
Claverhouse bade him take farewell of his wife
and children. Brown, turning to his wife, who
stood beside him, having her infant in her arms
and another child clinging at her knee, said to
her, " Now, Isabel, the day is come that I told
you would come when I spoke first to you of
marrying me." " Indeed, John," she replied,
*' I can willingly part with you." " Then,"
said he, " that is all I desire ; I have no more to
do but to die ; I have been in case to meet with
death for so many years." After he had kissed
and blessed his wife and children the word of
command was given by Claverhouse, and six sol-
diers drawn out for the purpose discharged their
muskets, so that he was shot through the head
and fell to the ground, on which his brains were
scattered. " What thinkest thou of thy hus-
band now, woman r' exclaimed Claverhouse in
savage derision. " I thought ever much good
of him," she replied, " and as much now as ever."
'' It were but justice to lay thee beside him," he
observed ; and to this threat she said, " If you
■were permitted I doubt not but your cruelty
would go that length ; but how will you make
answer for this morning's work?" His answer
of profane bravado was, " To man I can be
answerable, and for God I will take him in my
own hand." He then mounted his horse and
rode otf with his followers, leaving the poor
woman upon the moor, " a very desert place,
where never victual grew, and far from neigh-
tours." Setting her infant on the ground, she
gathered the scattered brains, tied up the head
of the corpse, and having covered it with her
plaid, sat down, and wept over her murdered
husband — a picture of widowhood in its worst
form of bereavement, and having none to com-
fort her in that solitude but God.^

The next appearance of Claverhouse was in
Dumfriesshire, where he apprehended Andrew
Hislop, a young man who had been guilty of

• Wodrow ; Walker's Life of Peden In Biograijhia Preshy-
teriana. We have chiefly followed the account of Brown's
death as contained in the Life of Peden. Wodrow states
that the soldiers showed such reluctance to the execution
that Claverhouse was obliged to shoot Brown with his own
iiand.

receiving one of the persecuted in sickness, and
afterwards burying him by night in the fields
when he died. This was so deadly a crime that
Sir James Johnston of Westerraw punished it
by plundering and razing the dwelling of the
Hislops, and driving the widowed mother and
her whole family of sons and daughters into
the fields. While they were thus homeless fugi-
tives Claverhouse apprehended Andrew, and
carried him to Westerraw, who sentenced him
to instant execution. But at this Claverhouse
demurred : the prayers of John Blown and his
murder had grated upon his conscience in spite
of his hardihood, and he pressed for delaying
the execution ; but the other being obdurate,
he was obliged to assent, saying, " The blood of
this poor man be upon you, Westerraw. I am
free of it." Claverhouse then ordered a High-
land gentleman, the captain of a company that
acted with him, to become the executioner, who
indignantly refused, declaring that he would
fight Claverhouse and his dragoons lather than
do such a deed. Three of the troop of Claver-
house were then drawn out for the service, and
Andrew Hislop was ordered to draw his bonnet
over his eyes. But the bold youth refused, de-
claring that he could look his death-briugers in
the face without fear or shame ; and holding up
his Bible, he charged them to answer for what
they had done and were to do at the great day
when they should be judged by that book. In
this intrepid spirit he received their fire, and was
buried in Eskdale Moor, the place where he
fell.2

On the day of the murder of Hislop, which
was the 11th of May, an execution occurred
near Wigtou in Upper Galloway of such pecu-
liar barbarity, as to transcend all our ideas of
the cruelty of these persecuting times. So strong,
indeed, is the scepticism it has occasioned, that
attempts have been made to invalidate the fact
and show that this story of the " Wigtou
Martyrs" is entirely mythical and unfounded;
but all investigations have only tended the
more to establish its veracity. So shanjefully,
indeed, did it reflect upon the memory of the
persecutors themselves, that after the Revolu-
tion the Royalists endeavoured to conceal or
deny it, but without success; and on this ac-
count the historian Wodrow has been all the
more circumstantial in recording it. Of this
tragic event the following is a simple detail.

Gilbert Wilson occupied a farm belonging to
the Laird of Castle- Stewart, in the parish of Pen-
ningham and shire of Wigtou. He and his wife
were conformed to Episcopacy, so that no charge
could be brought against them; but it was other-

2 Wodrow.

208

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1685-1688.

wise with their childreu, who refused to attend
the ministrations of the Episcopal clergyman,
and who, on that account, were obnoxious to the
ruling powers. They were driven from their
homes to find a shelter among the heaths, caves,
and mountains; their parents were strictly pro-
hibited from associating with them, or giving
them any kind of protection or sustenance, and
not even to see them or speak with them, with-
out informing against them ; and as Gilbert
Wilson was a man of substance the proscri])tiou
of his childreu was used as a pretext for fining
him and quartering soldiers upon him, some-
times a hundred at a time, notwithstanding his
conformity. At the time of their expulsion from
the paternal home these childreu were very
young, the son Thomas being a youth of sixteen,
and the daughters, Margaret aud Agues, only
eighteen and thirteen years of age; but as long
as the father had goods and money he was har-
assed with extortions that finally reduced him
to destitution. At length, when a lull occuiTed
in persecution after the death of Charles II., the
two daughters ventured to go to Wigton, but
were there betrayed by a worthless wretch, who
pretended to be their friend that he might
betra}' them to the government, and the two
females, on being seized by a party of soldiers,
were thrust into the most infamous part of the
pi'ison called the Thieves' Hole, as if they had
been the vilest of malefactors.

After having been imjirisoned for several
weeks the sisters were brought out before the
Laird of Lagg,and MajorWindram, the military
commander of the district ; and with them was
Margaret M'Lauchlan, a widow about sixty-
three years of age, who had hospitably re-
ceived the wanderers when they had come to
Wigton to visit her, and for that offence had
been imprisoned, and was now to be tried along
with them. This old woman had refused to take
the oaths, which were now demanded of women
as well as men, and she was charged with re-
bellion and rising in arms! — for these absurd
charges were thrown into her indictment as an
easy exjDeditious mode of procuring condemna-
tion. A similar process, but, if possible more
absurd, was used with Margaret and Agnes
Wilson, who were charged with rebellion at
Bothwell Bridge and Aird's Moss, and being
present at twenty conventicles ; and in these
specific charges their old fellow-sufferer was also
included. When the affsiir of Aird's Moss oc-
curred, which was later than that of Bothwell
Bridge, Margaret Wilson was only twelve or thir-
teen, and Agnes her sister eight years old. Could
the judges of such a trial contain their gravity?
Or were they desirous of showing how a Dog-
berry and Verges farce could be converted into

a harassing tragedy ? It was as if justice were
capering in a cap and bells, and flourishing a
zany's bauble. As if aware that it could not be
proved that these women had been in the field
armed with pike and gun, the judges tendered
to them the abjuration oath, which they refused
to take, and this served as cause sufficient for
their condemnation. The whole three were
brought in guilty and condemned to be tied to
stakes fixed within the flood- mark in the water
of Bladenoeh, near Wigton, where the sea flows
at high water, there to be drowned. From this
punishment the youngest was exempted, but
from no principle of compassion, for the mon-
strous idea of drowning a girl only thirteen
years of age on a charge of rebellion, and for
not taking the oaths, would have little moved
such judges, who were iuured to strange pro-
ceedings and armed in unblushing confidence.
But her distracted father had still some money
left, and he obtained her liberation from prison
on becoming surety on a bond of a hundred
pounds sterling that she would be produced
when called. This money he willingly forfeited,
no doubt greatly to their satisfaction; the elder
sister was left to abide her sentence.

On the arrival of the 11th of May Margaret
M'Lauchlan and Margaret Wilson were con-
ducted to the place of execution, where a crowd
of spectators had already assembled to witness
and wonder at the spectacle. While with many
the chief feeling may have been that morbid
curiosity which in all ages gathers crowds to
such a scene, many also repaired from common
sympathy, and some from a higher aud holier
motive. The elderly female was bound to a stake
that was farther in the sea, in the hope that the
sight of her dying sufferings might tei'rify the
younger, and induce her to recant, while Major
Windram with a party of soldiers superintended
the execution. The tide advanced, and Margaret
M'Lauchlan was the first to suffer. While she
was struggling with the agonies of death, as
wave after wave rolled over her head, some of
the spectators who were nearest Margaret Wil-
son asked, "What do you thiuk now of your
friend?" "What do I see," she replied, "but
Christ in one of his members wi-estling there ?
Think you that we are the sufferers? No, it is
Christ in us, for he sends none a warfare upon
their own charges." She then calmly prepared
for her own approaching end by singing a por-
tion of the 25th Psalm, reading the eighth chapter
of the Epistle to the Romans, and finally, by
prayer; and while employed in this last exercise
the tide had risen so high that it would soon
overflow her. AVhen she was almost smothered
she was raised above the water, and asked by
Windram's orders if she would pray for the

A.D. 16S5-1688.]

JAMES VII.

209

king 1 She replied that she wished the salva-
tion of all men and the damnation of none.
" Dear Margaret," cried a pitying friend, " say,
' God save the king, God save the king ! ' " She
answered with steadiness and composure, "God
save him if He will, for it is his salvation I de-
sire." At this some of her relations appealed to
Windram with the anxious cry, "Sir, she has
said it, she has said it!" The major then ap-
proached and offered the oath of abjuration,
ordering her to swear it, or be instantly thrown
back into the water; but this denial of her prin-
ciples she refused, exclaiming, " I will not; I am
one of Christ's children ; let me go ! " She was
immediately thrust down again into the water,
and was drowned. Thus died a virgin martyr
at the early age of eighteen years. How could
a reign be prospei'ous under the sanction of
which such deeds were perpetrated 1^

Another act, of itself peculiarly atrocious, but
which excited small attention as being com-
paratively of little moment, was perpetrated
on the same day in Galloway. On the 10th
of May, while Colonel Douglas was on the scent
of blood, he found a good religious man, Andrew
M'Quhan, lying ill of a fever. To this poor
invalid the usual questions were put, and being
either unwilling or too far gone to answer them,
tlie colonel caused his soldiers to take him out
of his bed and carry him to the town of Newton
in Galloway, where, to make short work of him,
they shot him without any trial whatever. In-
deed these tender mercies shown towards the
sick were not of rare occurrence. One Matthew
Donaldson, who had been imprisoned in the
Tolbooth of Glasgow for nonconformity, fell so
sick that he apjjeared to be in a dyiug condi-
tion ; and, unwilling that he should escape by a
natural death, he was sent with some other pri-
soners for trial to Edinburgh. He was dragged
upon that long journey on foot ; but when he
had reached Calder he could walk no farther.
Upon this the soldiers, meeting with a sledge,
pressed it into the service; and, having bound
the dying man to it, they in this manner dragged
him forward. It was not long, however, that
they were troubled with conveying him, as he
soon after expired on the way. And while
female innocence and the extremity of sickness
were insufficient to move compunction there was
little chance that the hoary head of old age would
escape. There was a man, Thomas Richard, in
the parish of Muirkirk, who, though now nearly
eighty years of age, was obnoxious to the per-
secutors, and not to be allowed to die in his bed.
In order to obtain proofs of his guilt some sol-
diers, disguised in rustic attire, and pretending

1 Wodrow.

to be Covenanters, thrust themselves into his
company, and won his confidence by their hypo-
critical language, and ])retended adherence to
the suffering cause, vmtil he had frankly avowed
his own sentiments; and, having thus obtained
enough to convict him, they threw off the mask
and carried the old man to Colonel Douglas, who
without jury or trial executed him on the follow-
ing day.2

These were but single specimens of the fright-
ful and heartless cruelty which was carried on
throughout the country by wholesale during the
whole of the year 1685. Indeed so much in this
way was done that the persecutors had little
more to do ; there was peace in the land, but it
was the peace of solitude and desolation. In like
manner England was quieted by the wholesale
executions that had followed the suppression of
the Monmouth expedition. Being thus rid of
two great obstacles to the accomplishment of his
favourite purpose James became more open in
his attempts for the restoration of Popery, and
his authority being absolute he seemed to think
that it also must be irresistible. He had already
dissolved the parliament, which betrayed symp-
toms of opposition, and resolved never to call
another. Aided by his confessor. Father Peti-e,
he was employed in converting the nobles of his
court to Popery, and as kings are convincing
disputants his labours in some cases were not
unsuccessful. He had secured the alliance of
Louis XIV., the great persecutor of Protestan-
tism, by consenting to become his pensionary;
and, while by this source of supply he hoped to
make himself independent of parliaments, he
had a standing army encamped on Hounslow
Heath a great proportion of the officers of which,
in defiance of the laws of the realm, were open
and avowed Papists. His ministry, also, which
was narrowed into a cabal, consisted of five
Popish lords, with Father Petre and himself at
their head. Confident in these various sources
of power and the sacredness of bis own right
divine he sent the Earl of Castlemaine on an
embassy to the pope, and openly received an
ambassador from the pontiff in return. But with
still greater infatuation he claimed a dispensing,
suspending, and repealing power over all laws
and acts of parliament whatsoever, and sought
to displace Protestants from the highest civil
and military appointments and appoint Catholics
in their room. And while four thousand Pro-
testant soldiers wei-e cashiered and disbanded to
wander over the country in starvation for their
non-compliance with the new spirit of rule, many
of the best revenues of the church were assigned,
not to Protestant, but Popish bishops and eccle-

2 Wodrow.

89

210

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1685-1688.

siaatics, who were not only permitted but com-
manded to wear their canouical.s, and exercise
their otHces in pubhc.

It was now time for tlie Protestant clergy of
England to reconsider the doctrines of passive
obedience and non-resistance, and whether a
sovereign who thus drove onward in such a
career could be altogether in the right, or was
entitled to implicit submission. The existence
of their church was at stake, and the result of
their inquiry was speedily manifested from the
pulpit by fresh attacks upon Popery, and warn-
ings of coming danger. This insubordination
provoked the king, who proceeded in his own
fashion to quell it at the outset, but his pro-
ceedings only increased the elements of discord,
and made the storm become more violent. He
issued mandatory letters to the bishops charging
them to prohibit the clergy from preaching
upon points of controversy, and established an
ecclesiastical commission with greater powers
than were held by even the infamous court of
Laud. But who were the members who should
compose this commission by which their own
church was to be gagged and manacled? San-
croft, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was
appointed to the chief place in this revived
Court of High Commission, would have nothing
to do with it; and the remaining members
were either ecclesiastical time-servers or con-
cealed Papists, with the infamous Judge Jeffreys,
by whose advice the court had been erected,
to conduct its prosecutions. The first on whom
its power was tried was no less a person than
Compton, Bishop of London. He had boldly
declaimed in the House of Lords against the
Popish standing army; and when James issued
orders to him to susjDend Dr. Sharp for preach-
ing against Popery, the prelate replied that he
could not legally punish him without hearing
him in his own defence. This was enough for
the newly erected court, before which Comi3ton
was summoned for trial. It was in vain that
he objected to the court as illegal; that being
a bishop, he was subject in ecclesiastical affairs
only to his metropolitan and suffragans ; that
as a prelate of England and lord of parliament,
he could be tried only by the laws of his coun-
try; as to the charge against him, he also de-
clared that as far as he lawfully could he had
obeyed the king's commands, by requiring
Sharp to desist from preaching, who was him-
self ready to make atonement and beg his
majesty's pardon. These answers were unsatis-
factory to James, who ordei'ed the commission
to suspend Compton, and after some demur at
the boldness of such a mandate, they suspended
him accordingly. ^

1 Burnet

While James was thus alarming the English
Church, and commencing tliat war against the
bishops which was to terminate in his own
overthrow, the odium of his pi^oceedings was
equally strong among his Presbyterian subjects
of Scotland. This was manifested in the par-
liament which met at Edinburgh on the 29th
of April. It was hoped that it would set an
example of obedience to England, by sanctioning
those measures in favour of Papists which
James had so much at heart; and that the
Scottish Epi-scopal clergy, to whom the king
had been a nursing father, and who had hitherto
been so compliant, would second the royal
wishes. But it was a vain calculation ; even
already the Episcopal and Presbyterian parties,
foreseeing their mutual danger, had suspended
their death-quarrel, and were uniting under the
general banner of their Protestantism against
the advance of their common enemy. The
Paj^ists had been previously exempted from the
necessity of taking the Test, and an attempt
was now to be made to repeal the jienal statutes
against them, and free them from their dis-
abilities. At the opening of parliament these
proposals were announced in the royal letter,
which was read to them by the Earl of Moray,
the king's commissioner. After announcing
that instructions had been given for passing a
full indemnity to his majesty's enemies for all
crimes committed against his royal person and
authority [these enemies had already been dis-
l^osed of] the letter thus gently went on: "And
whilst we show these acts of mercy to the
enemies of our person, crowni, and royal dignity,
we cannot be unmindful of others, our innocent
subjects, those of the Roman Catholic religion,
who have with the hazard of their lives and
fortunes been always assistant to the crown in
the worst of rebellions and usurpations, though
they lay under discouragements hardly to be
named. Them we do heartily recommend to
your care, to the end that as they have given
good experience of their loyalty and peaceable
behaviour, so by your assistance they may have
the jirotection of our laws, and that security
under our government which others of our sub-
jects have, — not suffering them to lie under
obligations which their religion cannot admit
of. By doing whereof you will give a demon-
stration of the duty and affection you have for
us, and do us most accejitable service. This
love we expect you will show to your brethren
as you see we are an indulgent father to you
all." But although this gentle appeal of royalty
was seconded by all the eloquence of the Earl
of Moray, it failed to pi'oduce the desired effect;
a majority of the parliament was opposed to it,
and even the Episcopalians condemned it. The

A.D. 1685-168S.]

JAMES VII.

211

strong anti-popish zeal of the period could not
be lulled to sleep or thrown off its guard by the
gentle solicitations of James, when the edict of
Nantes had been so recent, and when it was re-
membered that Louis XIV., who was so zealous
for the extermination of Protestantism in France,
was the patron and exemplar of the sovereign of
Britain. And even where conscientious or poli-
tical motives might have failed, there was one
to which the aristocracy of the country could
not be indifferent. Little more than a century
had elapsed since the spoliation of the church
property consequent on the Reformation had
taken place; and if these insidious approaches
towards the re-establishment of Popery were
allowed, its restoration might be followed by
an unwelcome demand for restitution. This of
itself was sufficient to stimulate the lukewarm
nobility and gentry both of England and Scot-
land, to whom the possession of such plunder
could still be so distinctly traced, and to engage
them against a church that held its rights to
be sacred and immutable, let violence or trans-
ference do what it might. The Scottish parlia-
ment therefore refused his majesty's overture,
but in language as gentle and as guarded as his
own. They promised tliat they would take the
subject into their serious consideration, and
comply with it as far as their consciences would
allow, in the belief that liis majesty would still
be careful for the safety of the Protestant reli-
gion. The meaning of this promise was intelli-
gible enough, as was apparent by its effect; the
parliament was prorogued, and no other assem-
bled during the present reign. ^

Although thus disappointed, the obstinacy
and bigotry of James were not to be baffled, and
another expedient still remained for enforcing
the required submission. The former Scottish
parliaments in the exuberance of their loyalty
had acknowledged his absolute supremacy, and
this he now resolved to exercise for the removal
of Catholic disabilities. He accordingly sent a
letter to the council on the 21st of August, in
which he told them that he had presented his
wishes before the parliament, merely that they
might have an opportunity of showing their
dutiful obedience, and that now, by his un-
doubted right and prerogative, he took the
Eoman Catholics under his own royal protec-
tion, allowing them the free exercise of their
religion, assigning to them the chapel of Holy-
rood House for their place of worsliip, and
granting them chaplains and other functionaries,
whom he recommended to their special j^rotec-
tion. This, however, was but the commence-

1 Wodrow ; A cts of the Parliament of Scotland, vol. viii. ,
A.D. 1686.

ment of a ])lan in which he hoped to compass
his designs by establishing universal toleration.
Accordingly, on the 12th of February, 1687, he
sent down a proclamation in which, " by his
soveieign authority, prerogative royal, and ab-
solute power, which all his subjects are to obey
without reserve," he granted his toleration to
the several professors of the Christian religion.
This, however, was only to apply to the moderate
Presbyterians, who might meet in their private
houses, and there enjoy the ministration of such
pastors as were willing to submit to the Indul-
gence, while field conventicles were to be sup-
pressed with the same rigour as before. By
the same power, his majesty declared all acts of
parliament against Roman Catholics to be ab-
rogated and annulled, the free and public exer-
cise of their religion restored to them, and their
eligibility to all public places of trust recognized.
Such was the First Indulgence, which only sat-
isfied the Papists, for whose sole benefit it was
obviously framed, while the Covenanters rejected
it, and kept up theii- field meetings as before.
Then came the Second Indulgence on the 31st
of March, by which Presbj'terian ministers
without distinction were allowed to preach in
private houses during his majesty's pleasure.
Even this, however, was also rejected by the
Presbyterians ; only a few ministers availed
themselves of the opportunity to hold house
conventicles, and this they did without recog-
nizing the royal right to grant or withhold such
permission. After this followed the Third In-
dulgence, which was proclaimed at Edinburgh
on the 5th of July, by which all past injury
inflicted on Presbyterianism was to be redressed,
and all occasion for discontent and disobedience
removed. After adverting to the two previous
Indulgences, the third thus announced its char-
acter and extent:—

" We now, taking into our royal considera-
tion the sinistrous interpretations which either
have or may be made of some restrictions
therein mentioned, have thought fit by this our
royal pi'oclamation further to declare that we
will protect our archbishops and bishops, and
aU our subjects of the Protestant religion, in
the free exercise of their Protestant religion as
it is by law established, and in the quiet and
full enjoyment of all their possessions, without
any molestation or disturbance whatsoever. And
we do likewise by our sovereign authority, pre-
rogative royal, and absolute power, suspend,
stop, and disable all penal and sanguinary laws
made against any for nonconformity to the reli-
gion established by law in that our ancient
kingdom, or for exercising their respective wor-
ships, religions, rites, and ceremonies ; all which
laws are hereby stopped, suspended, and dis-

212

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1685-1688.

abled to all intents and purposes. And to the
end, that by the liberty thereby granted the
peace and security of our government in the
practice thereof may not be endangered, we
have thought fit, and do hereby strictly charge
and command all our loving subjects, that as
we do give them leave to meet and serve God
after their own way and manner, be it in
private houses, chapels, or j)laces purposely
hired or built for that use, so that they take
care that nothing be preached or taught among
them which may any ways tend to alienate the
hearts of our people from us or our government,
and that their meetings be peaceable, openly,
and publicly held, and all persons freely ad-
mitted to them, and that they do signify and
make known to some one or more of the next
privy - councillors, sheriffs, stewards, bailies,
justices of the peace, or magistrates of burghs
royal, what place or places they set apart for
their uses, with the names of the preachers." ^

Such was the almost unbounded latitude al-
lowed by this Third Indulgence. Its most strik-
ing characteristics are its plausibility and its
arrogance. The Catholic disabilities established
in both kingdoms since the Reformation are
blown away by a single breath; the struggle
that was still to continue during nearly a hun-
dred and fifty yeai-s is settled by a few words ;
the natural choice and the enactments of parlia-
meuts were to vanish into nothingness at the
will of James and the Popish clique by which
his counsels were directed. And this will is
softly announced in the midst of the proclama-
tion as if no controversy could be raised upon
it, and nothing was left but obedience to its
authority. The same absolutism which pro-
claimed universal toleration to-day would an-
nounce the exclusive ascendency of Popery to-
morrow, and the one was but a step to the other.
But short-lived though this Indulgence might
be, and followed by perilous results, it was
hailed by the Presbyterians as a welcome relief.
It emptied the prisons, it silenced the fears of
all who were still at large, and enabled all to
return to their churches that had been closed,
and their public worship which had been pro-
scribed and driven to the moors and mountains.
Accordingly both ministers and people joyfully
availed themselves of the opportunity, while
the Scottish exiles who had fled to the Con-
tinent returned to their native country and their
homes. But ought James to be thanked for the
benefit? This was now the question at issue;
and at a meeting of the ministers from various
parts of Scotland who assembled at Edinburgh
in the month of July it was the subject of

1 Wodrow.

serious deliberation. But as it might recognize
the right of the king to grant or withhold at
pleasure what did not belong to him, the sen-
timents of the meeting were so divided that
each minister was allowed to follow his own
judgment, and an address of thanks to his
majesty was drawn up and transmitted, which
was signed by some at the desire of the rest.
After the heavy oppression they had endured
so long it was not surprising that the sudden
relief was expi-essed in too ardent a strain of
gi-atitude or that their assurances of loyalty
should be too unlimited.''^

There was, however, one party of Presby-
terians from whom no such pliability could be
expected. These were the Cameronians, who
had latterly borne the chief brunt of the perse-
cution, and who continued to stand out when
all others had yielded. On the preceding year
(1686) they had rejected overtures from the Pres-
byterian body for a general union in the defence
of their mutual religious rights and liberties ;
and they now refused to avail themselves of the
Thijd Indulgence, in consequence of which the
persecution was continued against them, while
the rest of their brethren were spared. At
length their leader Renwick, who continued the
practice of field-preaching, and denounced the
compliances to a Popish and absolute king as
sinful and full of danger to religion and the
church, was apprehended at Edinburgh on the
morning of the 1st of February, 1688. He was
accused on his trial of disowning the king, re-
fusing to pay cess, and justifying the beaiing of
arms at field conventicles as lawful ; and these
opinions he not only acknowledged but boldly
defended, while his frank manners, his youth
(for he had only reached the age of twenty-six),
and the engaging gracefulness of his person
moved the judges in his favour, and inclined
them to spare him. Even although sentenced
to die, his execution was delayed in the hope
that he might be persuaded to recant. But in
spite of the solicitations with which he was
urged in prison by the bishops, the Episcopal
clero-y. and the lord-advocate, he stood true to
the principles of the party of which he had been
the leader, and was executed on the I7th of
February. He was the last of the Scottish
Covenanters who sealed his testimony on the
scaff'old in behalf of the principles of his church.^

During these proceedings in Scotland James
was prosecuting a similar career in England,
but with still more disastrous results. We have
already noticed his establishment in 1686 of an
ecclesiastical commission possessed of greater
power than even the Court of High Commission

- Wodrow.

3 Wodrow ; Life of Renwick.

A.D. 1685-1688.]

JAMES VII.

213

in the days of Laud. His next attack was upon
the rights of those public bodies that stood in
the way of his reckless innovations. He felt
that for the purpose of turning the nation back
to Popery it was necessary to obtain jiossession
of the seminaiies of public education, and his
first attempt was ujDon the Charter-house, into
which he commanded the governors to admit a
Popish priest without test or oath. But the
mandate was opposed so successfully that he
was compelled to desist. His next effort was
with the universities, by demanding from Ox-
ford a recognition of the right of Father Petre
to nominate seven Fellows in Exeter College,
and from the University of Cambridge the de-
gree of Master of Arts for a Benedictine friar.
But now that the fruits of their non-resisting
principles were brought home to them, these
learned bodies resisted, in consequence of which
the vice-chancellor of Magdalene College (Cam-
bridge) was deprived of his office and suspended
from his mastership. The king then com-
manded the college to elect first one, and then
another, both of them concealed Papists, to be
their master, instead of which they elected one
of tlieir own ; and when the king summoned
the members of Magdalene before him at Oxford,
and commanded them to submit on pain of his
displeasure, they still pei'sisted in their refusal.
The result of this inglorious contest on the part
of his majesty was that the Fellows were ex-
pelled and their places filled up by notorious
Papists or very doubtful Protestants.

Another device of James was that of universal
toleration, under shelter of which the Papists
were to be exempted not only from the penal
statutes, but made eligible for every kind of
public office. We have already seen the form
in which his " Declaration for Liberty of Con-
science " entered Scotland and the effects it pro-
duced; but the phraseology of this Declara-
tion, as proclaimed in England, was different
from that of the Scottish one, for the preamble
of " sovereign authority, prerogative royal, and
absolute power," which would have alarmed the
English pride and provoked a national resist-
ance, was omitted. 1 But the Dissenters of
England, like the Cameronians of Scotland,
rejected the boon, although on different prin-
ciples, and prepared themselves to rally around
the Established Church as the strongest bulwark
of their common Protestantism ; and the Eng-
lish Presbyterians, still the most powerful sec-
tion of the Dissenters, refused to send addresses
of thanks to the king, although solicited by the
court so to do. The fruits of this toleration
were soon exhibited in the royal favour be-

1 Proclamatiou in the Gazette, April 4th, 1687.

stowed upon the Roman Catholics and the
offensive manner in which it was publicly pa-
raded. Four Popish bishops, after being openly
consecrated in the chapel-royal, were sent as
vicars-apostolical to their several dioceses, and
their pastoral letters were circulated over the
kingdom. The court swarmed with priests of
the Romish Church, arrogant in their confidence
of the royal favour, and petitioning for grants
of public buildings, which they intended to
convert into monasteries, schools, and chapels.
The law was enslaved by time-serving judges
to suit the purposes of the king, and the liberty
of the i^ress was so eff"ectually shackled that it
no longer dared to speak out. And still, as the
danger increased and the moment of reaction
approached, the blindness of James to the signs
of the times became more confirmed, so that the
" horrid stillness " which precedes the tempest
seemed to him nothing less than a peaceful
acquiescence and the promise of success. Even
the Spanish ambassador, Ranquillo, was aston-
ished at these rash proceedings, and ventured
to remonstrate ; and when James, who expected
nothing less than commendation, asked by way
of reply, " Is it not the custom of your country
forthekingto consult his priests and confessors'?"
the ambassador answered, "Yes; and for that
reason our affairs succeed so ill."

But, amidst all his self-complacency, there was
one object of anxiety that embittered the satis-
faction of the king. There was no son to suc-
ceed him in the throne, and carry on the work
of national conversion, which, as he thought, he
had so successfully begun. His family consisted
of two daughters, of whom the eldest, Mary, who
should succeed him, and whom he attempted to
deprive of the succession, was married to the
Prince of Orange, while his second daughter,
Anne, whom he had vainly tried to convert to
Popery, was a Protestant, and heartily opposed
to his administration. His death would leave
the throne to be occupied by Mary, whose coun-
sels would be directed by her husband, the illus-
trious champion of Protestantism, and a few
days would suffice to throw down that precarious
fabric which it was the work of his reign to
build up. So greatly did the Papists of Eng-
land sympathize with their sovereign, that every
saint in the calendar was supplicated to grant
him a son, while James and his queen were
equally importunate in their prayers. At length
their desires were granted, and on the 23d of
December (1687) the queen's pregnancy was offi-
cially announced, and a day of thanksgiving
appointed. The whole nation was silent at the
tidings, the Papists from delight, and the Pro-
testants from consternation ; but when their
voices found utterance the congratulations of

214

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1685-1688.

the one party were drowned in the derisive out-
cries and sceptical doubts of the other. It was
a court trick, a Popisli miracle; a device by which
a spurious child was to be imposed on the nation,
that the designs of the Romish party should be
carried out. This was declared by the Protes-
tants in every form of innuendo, assertion, and
lampoon, and even the Princess Anne hinted
her suspicion that the whole was a pious fraud. ^
But, while James was exulting in his new hoi)es
of an heir, they only increased the danger of his
position. The Protestants looked more intently
towards Holland, in which was their only hope
of deliverance, and William, no longer trusting
to time and natural events for the peaceful suc-
cession of his consort to the throne of Britain,
began in earnest those i^rej^aratious which ended
in making himself king.

While affairs were in this precarious condi-
tion James committed a fresh blunder by pub-
lishing a new declaration of indulgence on the
27th of April, and commanding all the clergy
to read it in their churches. This brought the
question to an issue, and the doctrine of non-
resistance could no longer be practicable. The
gi'eater part of the churchmen resolved not to
read it, and six prelates, with Sancroft, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury at their head, resolved to
petition against the injunction. They described
the aversion of the clergy to read the Indulgence
until it should be settled in parliament and con-
vocation, as it was founded upon a dispensing
power which the parliament had often pro-
claimed to be illegal; but the king, on receiving
this i^etition, declared that it was rebellious, that
he had never seen such an address before, that
he never expected such treatment from the
Church of England ; and after an altercation
with the bishops that only increased his ob-
stinacy he dismissed them with exjaressions of
insult and reproach. But the dissentient bishops
were soon after joined by the greater part of
their order, and nearly the whole body of the
clergy; and James, who might have learnt cau-
tion if he could learn anything, only consum-
mated his folly by committing the prelates to
the Tower and instituting a prosecution against
them in the Court of King's Bench. The nation
made common cause with the bishops, and James
stood alone in his folly, his projects falling in
pieces around him, and threatening to bury
him in their ruin. Wlien the trial arrived its
issue could not be doubtful, and when the
verdict of not guilty was returned, the joyful
shouts, under which London rang to its centre,
showed that the bishops had not only gained

1 Clarendon ; Letters of Anna in Dalrymple's Appendix ;
Evelyn.

tlie crown of martyrdom without its suffering,,
but the palm of a national victory and triumph.
The huzzas of the metropolis reached Hounslow
Heath, where James was reviewing his army,
by whom the shouts were cordially returned,
and startled at the noise, he paused, and asked
what it meant. " It is nothing," replied Lord
Feversham, his general, " but the soldiers shout-
ing for the acquittal of the bishops." "And
call you that nothing?" said the king — "but so
much the worse for them."

On the 10th of June, only two days after the
sending of the bishops to the Tower, the queen
was delivered of her expected infant, in the pre-
sence of several witnesses both Protestants and
Papists, who were called for the occasion. But
even this attestation did not remove the sus-
picions of fraud and collusion. A line healthy
boy was born ; but it was remembered that
nothing but a son, as his heir and successor,
would suit the purposes of James, and that the
Catliolics had boasted that the infant would be
a male from the very time that the queen's
pregnancy had been first announced. It was
accordingly asserted that the child had been
procured for the occasion, and that to deceive
the witnesses it had been dexterously conveyed
into the queen's bed in a warming-pan. Such
was the story now circulated among the Pro-
testants until it settled into a confirmed belief,
so that the tenure of the Stuarts, which this
birth should have established, became more hope-
less thau ever, and James, it was alleged, had
forfeited all right to the throne by such an im-
position, if for nothing else. The intrigues with
the Prince of Orange were therefore renewed,
and William, who saw that caution and procras-
tination were no longer available, lent a willing
ear to the invitations of the British nobility
who besought him to vindicate the purity of the
royal succession and the majesty of the outraged
laws by force of arras. By the month of August
he had collected an army of 1.5,000 soldiers and
70 ships, with all the munitions necessary for
the projected invasion of England. Owing to
the popular discontent, and the jaromises of aid
from the chief nobility of England, this force,
though small, appeared large enough for the
expulsion of the unpopular sovei'eign. And even
James himself, by his timid and vacillating mea-
sures, added strength to these preparations. He
first rejected and afterwards entreated the aid
of his Catholic and persecuting ally, Louis XIV.
He endeavoured to impose Po])ish olficers upon
the regiment of the Duke of Berwick, his ille-
gitimate son, notwithstanding the discontent of
the soldiers, afterwards he endeavoured to win
back the community at large by his ample con-
cessions to Protestantism, and, according as tlifr

A.D. 1685-1688.]

JAMES VII.

215

wind blew for or against the arrival of the arma-
ment from Holland, his craven fears and useless
placability changed with the barometer.^

At last, on the 16th of October, William set
sail, but was driven back by a storm, and James,
exulting in this disaster as if it had been a ruin-
ous defeat, attributed it to the Host which had
been exposed during several days for the \n-o-
tection of the kingdom. But, on the 1st of No-
vember, William again embarked and lauded at
Torbay on the 5th, the day of the anniversary
of the Gunpowder Plot. Although his promises
from the malcontent nobles had been so numer-
ous few at first joined him, so that William,
instead of marching into the heart of the king-
dom, remained near his shipping; he even talked
of re-embarking, and threatened to jJublish the
names of those who had invited him over as a
just jDUuishment of theircowardice. Thismenace
produced the desired effect; nobleman after
nobleman, statesmen, princes, and military chiefs
began to throng to the invader's camp, while
James, as if stunned by the report of these
defections, made no attempt either to resist or
negotiate. At last, when he heard that Prince
George of Denmark, his son-in-law, and his
daughter Anne had also gone over to William,
his anguish broke forth in the despairing cry,
"God help me! my very children have forsaken
me." In the meantime the progress of William
resembled the march of a military triumph; not
a sword was drawn against him, every city wel-
comed his arrival, and the priests, Jesuits, and
Popish counsellors who had fostered the infatua-
tion of their sovereign, either stole into hiding-
places or tied from the kingdom. The reign of
James was ended.

The last days of this unfortunate sovereign in
the kingdom, which would no longer give him
safety or shelter, were correspondent to the
pusillanimity with which he had yielded with-
out a blow. On the night of the 10th of De-
cember the queen, disguised as an Italian lady
with her infant son and almost unattended, fled
across the Thames lighted by the flames of Popish
chapels which the mob had set on fire, and after
several dangers in her way, was conveyed in a
coach to Gravesend, from which she embarked
in a yacht that landed her at Calais. Twenty-
four hours after James himself followed, throw-
ing the great seal into the river while crossing

1 Evelyn's Diary; English Histories of the period.

it, and reached Feversham, where he embarked
in a custom-house hoy. But the vessel was
driven by stress of wind to the Island of Sheppey,
and when the king landed there he was mobbed
as a Jesuit in disguise, and after some rough
handling by the populace was carried back a
prisoner to Feversham, where he revealed him-
self by a note which he sent to Lord Winchel-
sea, the lieutenant of the county. His lordship
hurried to the fallen king, and not sooner than
was needful; for James was surrounded by a
mob, who railed at him as "a hatchet-faced
Jesuit," hustled him, and would not let him
go, while he told them in vain that he was
their king fleeing for his life, and shouted, " A
boat ! a boat ! " in his eagerness to escape. He
was rescued by Winchelsea and carried to an inn,
where he was seized with a fit of weeping at his
loss of a splinter of wood, asserted to be a j^iece
of the true cross that had belonged to Edward
the Confessor. He was brought back to London;
but, stupefied rather than warned by his mis-
fortunes, he no sooner had re-entered White-
hall than he proceeded to resume the functions
of sovereignty. He went to mass, dined in
public, and had a Jesuit to say grace ; and he
sent an invitation to William to meet him at
Whitehall, that they might compromise their
afiairs without occasioning a civil war. But
William had no wish for such a meeting ; his
only desire was that James should peacefully
leave the kingdom, and to quicken this move-
ment he advanced a part of his army into West-
minster, and sent a body of Dutch soldiers to
supersede the English guards and do duty at the
jDalace. James was then told that he must retire
to Rochester, as AVilliam would enter London
on the following day; and, compelled to yield,
he embarked in the royal yacht for Gravesend,
while the London citizens, moved with the spec-
tacle of fallen greatness, shed tears of sympathy
at his departure, and implored blessings on his
head. He proceeded to Rochester, while Dutch
troops watched, but did not hinder his move-
ments, and on the 24th of December he set sail
in a fishing smack which had been hired for the
purpose, and on the following morning was
landed at Ambleteuse in France.^ It was a rare
example of a king suffered peacefully to retire
from a kingdom which he had misgoverned, and
subjects whom he had injured and provoked.

'■iEchard; Papin; Evelyn's i)iarj/.

216

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1688-1690.

CHAPTEE XVII.

REIGN OF WILLIAM AND MARY (1688-1690).

State of the Scottish government at the Revolution— Riots against Popery in Edinburgh— Rising of the Pres-
byterians against the curates— Moderation of the Presbyterians on recovering the ascendency— Interreg-
num—Question of the succession to the vacant throne in England— A Convention for its settlement held
in London— Deliberations of the Convention— William and Mary proclaimed king and queen— The Protes-
tant succession settled— Scotch Convention held at Edinburgh — Difficulties that surrounded it — Its first
proceedings — Letters to it from James and William— Plots of Viscount Dundee to counteract the Conven-
tion— His ineffectual complaints brought before it — His singular departure from Edinburgh — Premature
attempt in the Convention to unite the kingdoms of England and Scotland — William and Mary chosen
King and Queen of Scotland — The Scottish coronation oath administered to William — The Claim of Right
also presented — Open revolt of Viscount Dimdee — He raises the Highland clans — He is joined by the
Erasers— General Mackay is sent against him — Battle of Killiekrankie — Death of Dundee— Brave defence
of Dunkeld by the Cameronians — Death of Colonel Cleland their commander — James lands in Ireland —
His rash and impolitic proceedings — He opens the campaign in Ulster— Siege of Londonderry — Its gallant
defence — Cruelties of the army of James during the siege— Distresses of the inhabitants from disease and
famine— Relief of the town and raising of the siege— Defeat of the Papists at Newton -JButler — King
William passes over to Ireland — Battle of the Boyne — Defeat and flight of James— Events in Scotland —
Garrison in the Bass Rock holds out for James — Its proceedings and surrender — Scotland divided into
factions — Difficulties of William's government in Scotland — Causes of William's unpopularity — Parties La
parliament — Its proceedings in session — Act of Supremacy cancelled— The ejected ministers of 1661
replaced in their charges — The Presbyterian form of church government restored — Patronage abolished
and recompense allowed to the patrons — A General Assembly called — Members who composed it — Their
cautious and moderate proceedings— Their letter to the king at the close detailing the acts they had
passed — The Revolution Settlement accomplished.

Although the general discontent of the nation
with the proceedings of James, and the intrigues
of the most influential of both kingdoms to
obtain the interposition of William, were so
palpable, the landing at Torbay and the events
that so rapidly followed confounded the Scot-
tish ralers, and deprived them of all power of
action. Their helplessness was the more com-
plete, as the king, upon the alarm of invasion,
had called up the Scottish troops to England to
join his army encamped at Hounslow, and at
their departure the authority of the privy-
council had ceased. There was now no king,
and until the interregnum had ceased the mob
predominated, and the popular passions might
rule unchecked. From the Restoration to the
Revolution, a period of 28 years, the people
had been insulted, oppressed, and persecuted,
and the laud despoiled and laid waste, while
rumours of a Popish invasion from Ireland,
to effect the total overthi'ow of Presbyterianism,
still further aggravated the general indignation.
But though the hour of reckoning had arrived,
never did an aggrieved people act with greater
moderation and forbearance; and after a few
acts, which rather resembled a religious protest
against certain prevalent errors of the day than
outbursts of popular revenge, all subsided into
decorous silence and preparations for the ap-
proaching change of government.

The first of these proceedings was a demon-
stration against Popery, the restoration of which

had been the chief cause and animating principle
of James VII. in his persecutions of the Pres-
byterians. The populace of Edinburgh were
especiall}' indignant against the Earl of Perth,
the lord-chancellor, who had become a Papist
to please the king; and as he had concealed
himself, they proclaimed a reward of four hun-
dred pounds for his apprehension. He was
soon apprehended, but instead of being sum-
marily dealt with by his enraged captors, he
suffered nothing worse than imprisonment at
Kirkcaldy. The Chapel Royal at Holyrood,
which had been fitted up with ornaments in the
Popish style, and which loomed proudly as the
sign of the re-establishment of Popery in high
places, was too conspicuous an object to be
overlooked, and against this an attack of the
mob was especially directed. It was defended,
however, by a troop of regular soldiers ap-
pointed for its special protection, under the
command of Captain Wallace, who received
the assault with a fire of cannon and musketry,
by which about forty of the citizens were
slain. This provoked the assailants, who took
the palace by storm, killed a few of the sol-
diers, and took the rest prisoners except those
who escaped, after which they rifled the chapel
and Jesuit schools, and demolished the images
which had been concealed in an oven at the
beginning of the attack.^ While such was the

1 Wodrow.

A.D. 1688-1690.]

WILLIAM AND MARY,

217

worst which Popery had to endure in this great
political reaction, the party that had greatest
cause to tremble were let otf still more cheaply.
The persecutions of the Presbyterians by the
Episcopal party had been more recent, as well
as more formidable, and of the present gener-
ation there were few who had not to deplore
the death of some kinsman, and treasure up the
remembrance as an argument for a Scottish
feud. This was especially the case in the south-
ern and western districts, where the people had
been hunted like wild beasts, or shot ujion their
own hearths by a brutal and merciless soldiery;
while the curates, for whose establishment these
cruelties had been perpetrated, hounded on the
oppressors, and furnished the names of those
of their flock whom they denounced for the
slaughter. These cruelties, also, had fallen chiefly
upon the Cameronians, who were represented
as fierce and merciless men, and who had con-
tinued their resistance when the others had
succumbed. It was now their time to turn
upon the Episcopal clergy, but this they did in
a way that must have surprised the victims
themselves, unprotected as they now were, and
conscious that they had merited no mercy.
These grim champions of the Covenant and
followers of Richard Cameron merely carried
the obnoxious curates round their parishes in a
sort of mock ovation, reproached them for their
past proceedings, and then tore their gowns
from their shoulder's, and after warning them
against exercising their functions any longer,
allowed them to depart unhurt. ^ No murder,
no dismemberment was inflicted to signalize the
popular indignation, or requite the death of
those thousands who had Ijeen butchered in
cold blood.

While Popery and Episcopacy had thus van-
ished with the flight of the king, and left the
people of Scotland in their original freedom,
their next movement depended on the course
of events in London, and the settlement of the
new form of government. It was for this im-
portant result that the principal noblemen and
gentlemen of Scotland now hurried to the cajii-
tal, to take an anxious part in the general
deliberations. Although William was already
master of England it was only by the national
permission, and until he was called to rule he
was nothing more than the husband of Mary,
the heir apparent, and the natural protector of
her interests. On this account he avoided every
assumption of authority, taking up his residence,
not at Whitehall, the seat of royalty, but at St.
James's, and leaving the kingdom apparently

1 Burnet ; Cruikshank, vol. ii. p. 474 ; Sufferings and
Grievances of the Presbyterians.

free to settle its own aflfairs. At the request of
the House of Lords, he issued writs for a Con-
vention to meet on the 22d of January, 1689,
and in the meantime assumed the administra-
tion of afl"airs, and the disposal of the public
revenue, by the desire of the lords, commons,
and council of London. At the same time he
was commissioned by thirty Scottish jaeers and
eighty commoners to take upon him the admin-
istration of afl'airs in Scotland until the Con-
vention of Estates, which he was to summon
at Edinburgh, should be assembled.

On the arrival of the eventful day, the 22d
of January, 16S9, the London Convention, which
was afterwards declared to be a parliament, as-
sembled, and never had an English pai'liament
been collected for a more important subject of
deliberation. The letter of the Prince of Orange
was read in both houses urging a speedy deci-
sion, whatever might be the form of govern-
ment they should adopt, as the state of his
aflfairs would soon call him to the Continent;
and both lords and commons acceded to his
wishes. Nor could the issue be doubtful even
from the commencement. The Tory and High
Church parties, the advocates of the divine
right of kings and the divine right of bishops,
held themselves aloof, and left the task of
settling the new government to the Whigs, the
political representatives of the English Presby-
terianism during the reign of Charles I. and
the civil war. Their first step was to present a
unanimous address to the prince, whom they
acknowledged as the great instrument of their
deliverance from Popery and arbitrary power ;
their next to decide whether their late sovereign
was still to be acknowledged as their king.
After a stormy debate it was resolved that
James, having violated the fundamental laws
of the realm, and withdrawn from the kingdom,
had abdicated the government, and that there-
by the throne had become vacant. The next
step was to declare that it was inconsistent with
the safety and welfare of this Protestant king-
dom to be governed by a Popish sovereign. In
what manner, then, and Ijy whom was the
vacancy to be filled and its government admin-
istered ! Some were for a regency, but William
told them coolly that they must look out in
such a case for some other person, as, be the
consequences what they might, he would not
consent to be regent. Others were desirous to
have Mary for their sovereign, with her hus-
band to reign by her courtesy ; but to William
this proposal was equally unpalatable. " No
man," he said, " can esteem a woman more than
I do the princess, but I am so made that I can-
not think of holding anything by apron-strings;
nor can I think it reasonable to have any

218

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1688-1690.

share in the government unless it be put in
my own person, and for the term of ray life.
If you think it tit " he added, " to settle it
otherwise I will not oppose you, but will go
back to Holland and meddle no more in your
attairs." This threat, and the clamour out of
dooi-s for a Protestant sovereign who should
defend them from Popery and absolutism, hur-
ried on the final resolution, which was announced
by both houses on the 12th of February. It
was, "That William and Mary, Prince and
Princess of Orange, be, and be declared, King
and Queen of England, France, and Ireland,
and the dominions thereunto belonging, to hold
the crown and dignity of the said kingdoms
and dominions to them, the said prince and
princess, during their lives and the life of the
survivor of them; and that the sole and full
exercise of the regal power be only in and exe-
cuted by the said Prince of Orange, in the
names of the said prince and princess, during
their joint lives; and, after their decease, the
said crown and royal dignity of the said king-
dom and dominions to be to the heirs of the
body of the said princess ; for default of such
issue, to the Princess Anne of Denmark and
the heirs of her body ; and for default of such
issue, to the heirs of the body of the said Prince
of Orange." In this decision, on which the
Revolution was established, no mention is made
of the rights or even of the existence of the
infant Prince of Wales, the son of James VII.
During the discussions of both houses a motion
had indeed been made for an inquiry into his
birtli, but the projjosal was made only to be
hastily rejected. It was well known that the
belief of his spurious birth had taken deep root
in the popvilar mind, and that without such
belief the change that seated William and Mary
upon the throne would scarcely have occurred.
The Whigs had boldly changed the line of royal
succession, and by that act the son, and after-
wards the grandson, of James VII. were branded
as Pretenders.^

The meeting of the Scottish Convention of
Estates was held at Edinburgh on the 14th of
March, nnder circumstances that characterized
the stormy nature of the period, and the ele-
ments of strife that had scarcely yet subsided.
Graham of Claverhouse, lately raised by James
to the rank of Viscount Dundee, was a member
of the Convention ; and not only was his fierce
daring spirit and ardent loyalty known and
dreaded, but he had also a military force still at
his disposal, as fifty troopers had tleserted from
his regiment and followed him to Edinburgh.
The castle of Edinburgh was held by tlie Duke

1 Ralph; Roger Coke; Luttrell's Diary; Burnet.

of Gordon, a Papist, to whom the command of
the fortress had been intrusted by the late
king, and who was bound to the caixse of James
by ties of religion as well as personal gratitude.
But the Convention might reckon upon the sup-
port of the Cameroniau regiment commanded
by the gallant Colonel Cleland, who had, when
a mere stripling, contributed to the victory of
the Covenanters at Drumclog, and upon the
numerous bands of armed Presbyterians who
had repaired to the capital, equally prompt for
battle or controversy. With such materials
there was every reason to fear that the discus-
sions in the senate might be accompanied with
street conflicts, and the questions at issue be
settled in the old Scottish fashion. Nor did
the materials of the Convention itself promise
that spirit of harmonious unanimity which had
characterized the parliament in London. Clan-
nish and family feuds decided the political lean-
ings of many, so that to embrace the cause of
William was often sufficient to add an adherent
to the opposite party. With others, also, who
had upheld the despotism and had been enriched
by the bounties of the late king, his deposition
would be followed by an inquiry into their con-
duct, and a demand for i-estitutiou or punish-
ment.

The first ti'ial of strength between the adverse
parties was the election of a president for the
Convention, the Duke of Hamilton being pro-
posed by the new, and the Marquis of Athole
by the old government. The duke was elected
by 150 votes against 40, and this striking ma-
jority at the outset confirmed the party of
William, and gave boldness to their j^roceed-
ings. A committee of elections was then ap-
pointed, and here the same superiority was
manifested, as of the twelve who composed the
committee nine were for the Prince of Oi-ange,
while only three were on the side of James,
With such electors, under the direction of Sir
John Dalrymple, son of Lord Stair, who was
skilled in the law and an able jDolitician, objec-
tions could easily be made against the returns
of the opposite party, and some of the most
violent of its members excluded. When the
Convention had at last been settled and was
ready to proceed to business, two letters were
presented to it, one from the exiled James,
and the other from William ; and having pre-
viously passed a resolution that nothing con-
tained in the first of these should dissolve the
meeting or arrest their proceedings, the letters
were opened and read. That of James was
characterized by his usual arrogance and infatu-
ation; it was written in the style of a conqueror
and priest, threatening the Convention with
punishment in this world and damnation in the

1688-1690.]

WILLIAM AND MARY.

219

next, while its offensive character was aggra-
vated by being countersigned by Lord Melfort,
a Papist, whom as a statesman the Scottish
Presbyterians abhorred. William's letter, which
was written in a ditiereut sjiirit, met with a
cordial recejatiou ; and a respectful answer was
sent to it, while none was returned to the other.
On proceeding to business the Convention showed
no deticiency either in boldness or promptitude.
To secure the peace and safety of the realm they
issued the usual military proclamation ordering
all men from sixteen to sixty to assemble in
arms when called for ; armed and arrayed the
militia of the south, and gave the command of
it to officers in whom they could trust; levied
regular troops, and imposed taxes necessary for
the support of both. Having thus provided
for internal quiet they sent arms and ammuni-
tion to the north of Ireland, whose inhabitants,
for the most ^aart Presbyterians and their coun-
trymen, were apprehensive of a fresh Popish
massacre; and as rumours wei'e prevalent of an
Irish invasion into their own country in the
cause of James, they erected beacons on the
principal heights of the Scottish coast opposite
to Ireland, and adopted the necessary exj^edients
to resist a landing. The Duke of Hamilton
was also empowered to secure all suspected per-
sons, and the sheriffs to apprehend all whom they
found in arms without the authority of the
Convention.^

These proceedings could not be otherwise than
irritating to the fiery Claverhouse, Viscount
Dundee; and having endeavoured, but in vain,
with the aid of his friend Lord Balcarras, to
delay the progress of the Convention, he next
resolved to break it up by open violence. For
this purpo.se he tampered with the Duke of
Gordon, whom the Convention had j^roclainied
a traitor for refusing to surrender the castle,
and urged him to commence a cannonade upon
the city, by which the meeting would be dis-
solved at once ; but this advice, which proposed
to treat the capital and estates of the kingdom
like a lawless, moorland conventicle, was too
much for the duke, who wisely rejected it.
Baffled in this wild scheme, Dundee, Balcarras,
and the Archbishop of Glasgow resolved to
summon a new convention at Stirling to coun-
teract that of Edinburgh, and they prevailed
upon Lord Mar, who was governor of the
castle of Stirling, and the Marquis of Athole, to
join them in a measure that would have re-
newed the old national contentions of the reign
of Mary Stuart. But happily for the peace of
the country, when the day for action arrived

1 Sir John Dalrymple's Memoirs of Great Britain and Ire-
land.

Mar and Athole lost heart and refused to pro-
ceed to Stirling. Enraged as much by the
coldness of his friends as the hostility of his
enemies, Dundee resolved to retire to the High-
lands and commence a war for James on his
own responsibility, and was only detained by
the orders of the ex-king, who had already
landed in Ireland, and who commanded him to
wait until assistance could be sent to him from
that country. While he impatiently chafed at
the delay a rumour was conveyed to him that
certain Covenanters in the town had resolved
to assassinate him in levenge for the severities
he had exercised against their brethren; and
without waiting to asceitain the truth or false-
hood of the report he flew to the Convention
and demanded justice. It may have been that
the retribution he had so often provoked was
contemplated in this fashion ; and it is said that
he had received a challenge from Colonel Cleland,
as brave a man as himself, with which he did
not see fit to comply. The assembly appears to
have shown no wonderment nor yet deep sym-
pathy at the dangers that had so greatly alarmed
him ; and the Duke of Hamilton, still further
to irritate him, expressed his surpiise that he
could be s'o moved by imaginary fears. This
taunt, which reflected on his courage, stung
Dundee to madness ; and leaving the house in
a rage, he summoned his flfty troopers, mounted
his horse, galloped through the city, and to a
friend who asked him whither he was going he
Waved his hat and replied, " Wherever the sjjirit
of Montrose shall direct me !" The great mar-
quis, of whom he bore the family name, and to
whom he was distantly related, was the model
of his imitation, especially in the attempt he
now meditated. When he was passing under
the castle walls he halted his troop, and
scrambling up the rock at a place where the
precipice is almost perpendicular, he held a
short conference at a postern gate with the Duke
of Gordon, whom he vainly pressed to retire
with him into the Highlands and there raise his
vassals in the cause of King James. While
this strange interview was going on a crowd
was collecting at the foot of the rock; and as
these were mistaken fol- his adherents on their
way to join him, a report to that effect was car-
ried to the Convention and that the duke was
preparing to fire upon the city. The Duke of
Hamilton, who knew better, pretended to share
in the general alarm ; and ordering the doors of
the building to be locked, and the keys laid
before him on the table, he caused an alarm to
be sent through the city by beat of drum. At
this signal the Covenanters of the west, whom
Hamilton and Sir John DalrymjJe had brought
to Edinburgh for the purpose, poured out from

220

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1688-1690.

the murky closes and lanes in which they had
been concealed, armed, and resolute for action.
The consternation of the citizens, the cause in
which it originated, and these provident mea-
sures for their defence, raised the popularity of
the new cause to its height, and the Jacobites
were everywhere received with threats and
execrations. Nor was the effect less conspicuous
within the walls of the Convention. Many of
the Jacobite members left the town, several
went over to the opposite party, and such of
them as continued their attendance sat and
looked on in silence. The precipitate conduct
of Dundee and the adroit manner in which his
departure had been improved made the Con-
vention unanimous, so that its further business
was subject to little delay or disputation.^

To settle the government of Scotland by con-
ferring the crown upon William and Mary was
the iirst proposal; but this obvious measure
was encumbered with an impediment. Lord
Stair had suggested to the new sovereign that
now was the time to etfect the union of the two
kingdoms; and William having recommended
this measure to the Convention, it was earnestly
advocated by Staii', his son, and Lord Tarbet.
To the Whigs they suggested, that in the pre-
sent troubled state of England they might ob-
tain better terms for a union than at any other
period, while they hinted to the Jacobites that
the negotiations necessary for the purpose might
delay the settlement of the crown and give time
for their party to rally. But the proposal pleased
neither the Whigs nor the Jacobites, while the
Presbyterian feelings of the nation at large still
regarded Episcopal England both with fear and
resentment. Lord Stair and his friends were
therefore obliged to postpone this part of their
plan till a better opportunity should arrive.
The settlement of the ciown was of far more
easy accomplishment. In the English Conven-
tion, where the Whigs and the Tories were
almost balanced, much nice discussion had been
employed as to whether James bj'' his flight had
abdicated the throne or only deserted it ; but on
the present occasion, where the Scottish Whigs
wholly predominated, no such delicacy was re-
quired. They declared at once that James by
his evil government had for faulted his royal
rights — a term of Scottish law — by which his
children and all his descendants were involved
in the doom of forfeiture.- To save, however,
the rights of the female line, it was explained
that this forfaulture only excluded James, the
pretended Prince of Wales, and all the children
that might henceforth be procreated by either.
This sweeping and decisive measure was op-

• Dalrymple.

2 Oldmixon.

posed only by five members, the chief of whom
was the notorious Sir George Mackenzie, lately
the lord-advocate; but his protest was answered
by Sir John Dah*ymple, his successor in ofiice,
with greater eloquence, and arguments more
cogent than his own. This sentence of the Scot-
tish Convention, by which James and his pos-
terity were declared to have forfeited their
rights, was more logical and conclusive than the
deposition proclaimed against him in England
upon the plea of desertion or abdication. An
otier of the crown of Scotland was then made to
William and Mary, and it was accompanied
with a declaration of rights which went further
than that of England, stating all the inroads
upon liberty of which not only the late king but
Charles 11. had been guilty, and defining with
clear precision the power of the kingly preroga-
tive and the rights of the people.^

The Convention, having thus ended its pro-
ceedings, sent up three of their members to
London, to tender the crown to William and
Mary and administer the coronation oath. The
members on this occasion were the Earl of
Argyle, whose father and grandfather had per-
ished on the scattbld — Sir John Dalrymple, lord-
advocate, and Sir James Montgomery. Such a
deputation was welcome to William, who took
the coronation oath in the solemn Scottish fashion
by holding ujj his right hand and repeating
each sentence slowly after him who i-ead it. But
there was one part of it at which the new king
paused. It was the promise "to root out all
heretics," while William himself, though a Pres-
byterian, was the champion of toleration and
king of all classes of Christians alike. He stopped
the Earl of Argyle, who was administering the
oath, and declared that he did not mean to oblige
himself to become a persecutor. The commis-
sioners answered that no such obligation was
meant, upon which William said, "Then I take
it in that sense only." Another demand in the
Claim of Right which was presented to William
upon this occasion was more reasonable and
modei'ate. It was " That Prelacy, and the
supeiiority of any office in the church above
presbyters, is, and hath been, a great and in-
supportable gi^ievance and trouble to this nation,
and contrary to the inclinations of the generality
of the people, ever since the Reformation, they
having been refoi-med from Popery by presby-
ters, and therefore ought to be abolished." Who
can wonder that after such a bitter endurance of
twenty-eight years they demanded the removal
of the evil?*

While the Scottish Convention was thus trans-

''^ Memoirs of Lord Balcarras; Record of Scotch Conven-
tion. * Dalrymple ; Burnet.

A.D. 1688-1690.]

WILLIAM AND MARY.

221

ferring the sovereignty of their country from
James to William Dundee was earnestly labour-
ing to make this deed of no avail. His loyalty,
which he had signalized by such terrible deeds
of violence and massacre that his name was only
mentioned with a shudder, had been well re-
warded, not only with the plunder of the op-
pressed, butby the rich appointments and honours
conferred upon him by his master; and although
all his victories hitherto had been over unarmed
peasants, whom he could ride over or cut down
with safety, such was his self-confidence, that
when William landed he offered to collect ten
thousand disbanded soldiers at the head of whom
he would drive William and his Dutchmen out
of the kingdom. It was a strange proposal on
the part of one who had never borne a separate
command except in the affair of Drumclog, where
he was outgeneralled and ignomiuiously put to
flight by half -armed peasants, to oppose himself
in the present instance to one of the best generals
of the age, and an army of veterans whose dis-
cipline, courage, and confidence iia their leader
had made them the admiration of Europe. His
offer was not accepted, and after attending James
to the place of embarkation he came down to
Scotland in the hope of disturbing the pi'oceed-
ings of the Convention, where he was summarily
got rid of, as we have seen, by rumours of danger
to his person and the taunts of the Duke of
Hamilton. His loyalty to James was unques-
tionable, while that of all others had given way;
but his former deeds had left him no other alter-
native, as by giving in his adhesion to William
he could only purchase a precarious life, and a
condition of obscurity and contempt. After his
unsuccessful attempt to persuade the Duke of
Gordon to join him he resolved to prosecute his
Montrose-like career without such a timid asso-
ciate; and, having heard that James had landed
in Ireland, he hastened to Inverness, the capital
of the Highlands, in the hope of gathering an
army of mountaineers around his standard. His
arrival was opportune for such a purpose, as
some of the clans of Lochaber, who had quar-
relled with the townspeople about a debt, were
mustered in arms in the neiglibourhood of the
town. Dundee paid the debt out of his own
pocket, and became so popular by the deed that
most of the Highlanders joined his standard.
From Inverness he penetrated by rapid marches
into several of the Highland districts, his forces
gathering as he flew, so that he soon had an
army of six thousand men. How easily this
recruiting was managed may be surmised from
the following fact. Lord Murray, son of the
Marquis of Athole, had raised a thousand men
upon the estate of his father and that of Lord
Lovat, who was married to his sister, under the

assurance that they were to be employed in the
service of King James, although in reality they
were raised to serve against him. But Simon
Fraser, a young man, and cadet of the house of
Lovat, having learned this treacherous design,
soon counteracted it by deeper craft of his ov/n.
He intrigued so successfully with the High-
landers, that while Lord Murray was reviewing
them they suddenly broke from their ranks,
ran to a neighbouring brook, and after filling
their bonnets with water and drinking to the
health of King James, marched off with pipes
playing to join Dundee. Simon Fraser, the
youth who distiui^uished himself on this occa-
sion, was the same person who, under the title
of Lord Lovat afterwards, obtained such un-
enviable notorie*^y in the Jacobite wars of Scot-
land, and finally perished by execution on Tower
Hill.i

While Dundee was making such alarming
progress in the Highlands the Convention of
Estates in Edinburgh had not been idle, and
General Mackay, an able officer, who had won
high military distinction both in the French and
Dutch service, was sent against him with a force
almost equal to his own. But it was a miscel-
laneous army, chiefly composed of raw recruits
with a few regiments of regular soldiers; several
of the officers were secretly inclined to the cause
of James, and ready underhand to promote it ;
and Mackay's proceedings were hampered by
concealed Jacobites, who either executed his
orders remissly or betrayed them to the enemy.
In spite, however, of these a.d verse circumstances
he succeeded in cooping up Dundee among the
mountains, where the latter was obliged to make
prodigious marches to save his men from utter
starvation; and this inactivity was increased by
the orders of the ex-king from Ireland, not to risk
an engagement until reinforcements were sent
to him. These, which at length arrived towards
the end of June, consisted of only five hundred
soldiers miserably equipped and armed; but
Dundee, being now free to act on the offensive,
and learning that Mackay was marching through
Athole to attack Blair Castle, the loss of which
would cut off the communication between the
two divisions of the Highlands, which it was
of the utmost importance for his cause to keep
open, advanced to give him battle. His forces
were already considerably reduced by desertion;
but he knew from the examples of the wars of
Montrose that a single victory would suffice to
rally whole hosts of fresh mountaineers to his
standard. Learning at Blair Castle that Mackay
was to advance through the Pass of Killiekran-

1 Dalrymple ; Lovat's Memoirs of himself ; General Mac-
kay's Memoirs of the War in Scotland and Ireland in 1689-
1691 (Maitland Publications).

222

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1688-1690.

kie, he resolved thei'e to abide the onset. In-
stead of defending the pass he drew np on the
open plain behind it, jmlging that in the event
■of victory, of which he felt himself assured, tbe
retreat of the fugitives would be so difficult as
to be all but certain destruction. It was of
importance, also, that he should hurry on the
engagement before Mackay could be joined by
his cavalry, a force of which the Highlanders
still were in dread, not only from the size of the
horses, but their belief that the animals fought
against their assailants with hoofs and teeth.
Dundee also sent warning to his adherents in
Athole to close up the entrance to the Pass of
Killiekrankie when the enemy had passed
through, so that the escape of the fugitives
should be rendered still more difficult and pre-
carious.

On the morning of the 16tb of July Mackay
left Dunkeld, and after pausing two hours at
the mouth of the pass entered it at mid-day.
It was a straight and almost open road about
two miles in length, where not more than six
or eight men could march abreast, wdth high
abrupt mountains on the right, while on the
left was a precipice which overhung a deep
dark river, and on the opposite side of the river
rose a lofty wooded mountain. The soldiers
■entered this wild and gloomy gorge with awe,
but met with no resistance; and on emerging
into the open plain beyond the pass they found
their enemies drawn up in order, and appa-
rently moi'e numerous than themselves, for the
vacancies in their line occasioned by trees and
clumps of bushes were easily peopled by the
imagination with troops lying in concealment.
And yet they only numbered about two thou-
sand Highlanders and five hundred Irish, while
Mackay had three thousand foot and a few com-
panies of horse. The battle commenced before
sunset, and of manceuvriiig there was little or
none; it was a charge, a confusion, and a flight,
commenced and ended in a few moments. The
Highlanders rushed on in compact columns,
and after giving and receiving a single fire,
charged with their broadswords, cut their way
through Mackay's infantry, and drove them
pell-mell through the pass from which they had
so lately emerged, although their brave com-
mander made every ettbrt to rally them for the
purpose of an orderly retreat. Dundee, thus
siiccessful, wished to call his men from the
spoil, upon which they had flown, to the pur-
suit, in which case few of the fugitives would
have escaped ; but by that act he sealed his
own doom. While spurring his horse and
pointing to the pass his raised arm left a part
of his side unguarded, and a random bullet
entering the opening of his cuirass struck him

in the armpit, so that he fell to the ground
and almost instantly expired. After this there
was no more fighting, and Mackay, who jutiged
from the suilden j)ause that some distinguished
person in the opposite ranks had fallen, was
enabled to withdraw his men without further
molestation. As for the Highlanders, to whom
all spoil wjis welcome, after plundering the bag-
gage they stripped the body of their late com-
mander and left it lying naked on the field, not-
withstanding the romantic enthusiasm which
they are said to have entertained for the gallant
Dundee, and their readiness to peril their lives
for his sake. By their other j)roceedings they
have made it evident that a freebooting spreach
ink) the Lowlands, and not loyalty to James or
love for his adventurous captain, was the cause
of their rising; and after having, according to
their custom, set np a great stone to mark the
place where Dundee had fallen, they placed
themselves under Colonel Cannon, an Irish offi-
cer, upon whom the command had devolved.^

But although the chief danger of this insur-
rection had terminated with the death of Dun-
dee, an attempt was still continued, and Cannon,
having increased his army to between four and
five thousand men, resolved to attack Dunkeld,
which was garrisoned by the Cameronian regi-
ment under the command of Colonel Cleland.
Of all the regiments serving against King
James this was the most odious to the Jacobites,
on account of the uncompromising character of
its principles and the alacrity with which it
had risen against its old oppressor. Nor was
this dislike confined to the enemies who con-
fronted them in the field; it was participated in
by those members of the government who were
secretly inclined to Jacobitism, or whose luke-
warmness was rebuked by the ardour of Came-
ronian zeal ; and on this account the regiment
was not only left unsupported in the Highlands
amidst a hostile population, but denied all sup-
plies when threatened with an attack. It is
even said that when they sent for a cask of
gunpowder they received a barrel of figs ; and
in their hour of extremity, when they were
about to be attacked, a troop was withdrawn,
that they might be weakened by the depriva-
tion.^ Well might they therefore complain, as
they did afterwards, that they had been sent
to Dunkeld only to be betrayed or destroyed.
With numbers thus diminished to little more
than 700, this regiment arrived at Dunkeld on
the 17th of August, the day after the battle of
Killiekrankie, and on the 18th the enemy sum-
moned them to surrender. To this demand

1 Mackay's Memoirs; Dundee's Memoirs; Balcarras.
" Grievances of the Cameronians.

A.D. 1688-1690.]

WILLIAM AND MARY.

223

Cleland boldly replied, "We are faithful sub-
jects to King William and Queen Mary, and
enemies to their enemies, and if you shaU make
any hostile demonstration we will burn all that
belongs to you, and otherwise chastise you as
you deserve." On the morning of the 21st the
whole army of General Cannon came down
against them, and the Cameronians were reso-
lute in their defence ; entrenching themselves
behind the houses they repelled every attack,
until their powder was nearly and their bullets
altogether spent ; but during the fight several
of their party were employed in stripping the
lead from Dunkeld House, melting it in little
gutters along the ground, and cutting it into
slugs, which were fired against the assailants.
They were unanimous in their resolution to
hold out, and had agreed that should the enemy
surmount tlieir barriers of defence they w^ould
retire for their final stand into Dunkeld House,
and should that be also stormed, to set fire to
the building and involve themselves with their
enemies in the ruin of the conflagration. Again
and again did the Highlanders attempt to di'ive
them from their position; every onset, however
desperate, was repulsed, and at last, when they
drew off from the hopeless attempt, the Came-
ronians beat their drums, waved their colours,
and defied them to return and renew their
fight. Even when their own ofiicers would
have brought them back they refused, declaring
their readiness to fight against mortal men, but
not against incarnate devils. This desperate
attack and defence continued from seven o'clock
in the morning till eleven at night, and when
it was over the Cameronians signalized their
success by singing psalms and expressing their
gi-atitude to the Lord of Hosts in fervent
prayer. But tlieir gallant chief, who had in-
spired them with his spirit and arranged the
means of their defence, was no more. While
he was animating his men in their retreat into
Dunkeld House, two bullets struck him simul-
taneously, one through the head and the other
through the liver, and finding himself mortally
wounded he endeavoured to get into the house,
that his soldiers might not be discouraged by
his death, but fell before he could reach the
threshold.^ Such was the end of this chival-
rous soldier, at the early age of twenty-eight.
It is unfortunate that we know so little of his
personal history, but his deeds and his writings
show that for the age in which he lived he was
no ordinary character. He only appears in the
history of this period in passing glimpses, but
invariably with distinction; and from the battle

1 Exact Narrative of the Conflict at Dunkeld, betwixt tlie
Earl of Angus' Regiment and the Rebels, collected from
several ofiacers of that regiment.

of Drumclog to his last fight he seems to have
been always at hand when his party was in
extremity, or when brave deeds were to be
achieved. It was well that such a man should
die the death of a soldier, and still more in the
hour of victory. His defence of Dunkeld House,
which was a requital in full for the defeat of
Killiekrankie, sealed the fate of the campaign,
and establislied the Revolution in Scotland.

While these events were in progress James
had been making a desperate attempt for the
recovery of his crown in Ireland, a country to
which his religion endeared him, and where he
had the best hopes of success. With the aid of
Louis XIV. he accordingly landed at Kinsale
on the 12th of March, and proceeded to Dub-
lin, his whole journey being a triumphal ova-
tion, while his arrival was the signal for the
whole island, with the exception of Ulster, to
arm and rise in his cause. It seemed to them
that the hour of their emancipation had come,
and the season of revenge for the wrongs of
their country's oppression since the time of
Henry II., and especially the invasion of Crom-
well. But the misfortunes of James had not
taught him wisdom, and one of his first pro-
ceedings was to repeal the Act of Settlement,
by which the greater part of the Protestants,
both English and Scotch, held their estates in
Ireland. This incautious deed, which armed
the whole Protestantism of tlie kingdom against
him, was aggravated by the mode with which
it was carried into efl'ect. Troops of armed
horse and foot were sent out to seize the pro-
perty of the Protestants; they were excluded
everywhere from the schools, colleges, and
churches ; and they were even forbid to as-
semble for religious worship, or any other pur-
pose, under pain of death. His next proceed-
ing was to debase the currency, that funds
might be obtained for the war, and when his
Irish parliament remonstrated against such an
impolitic proceeding he peevishly remarked, "I
find all commons ai^e the same." In what
quarter to prosecute the war was the next
question for consideration; but instead of trans-
ferring it to Scotland, where he would have
been joined by Dundee and the Highland clans,
and by such an accession of Lowland adherents
as might have opened up his passage to London,
James, infatuated to the last, resolved to con-
fine himself in the first instance to the conquest
of the province of Ulster, the stronghold of Irish
Protestantism, and commenced proceedings with
the siege of its principal city, Londonderry,
which was forthwith invested.

It was by a grievous error in judgment, and
doubtless for the fall of a righteous retribution
upon his own head, that James decided upon

224

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1688-1690.

an enterprise so immaterial to his own interests,
and yet so full of ditticulties and delays. The
colonization of Ulster by Scottish settlers in the
reign of James VI., and the pei'secutions of the
Covenanters in those of Charles II. and his
brother, which had driven many of them to
this province, as a Goshen of religious liberty
and safety, had made it strong, not only in its
Protestant but Presbyterian feelings; and to
the intensity of its repugnance to Popery was
added the remembrance of the injuries in-
flicted upon its inhabitants by the Stuarts, and
their resolution rather to die to a man than
submit anew to the jiroscribed dynasty. Lon-
donderry, which was tlie focus of this animating
s]nrit, was chiefly inliabited by Scottish Pres-
byterian colonists and their descendants, and
they had shown of what temper they were be-
fore the flight of James from London. In the
attempts of the Earl of Tyrconnel, the royal
deputy, to secure this part of Ireland for his
master, he endeavoured to introduce a Popish
garrison of 1 2()0 men into the town ; but no
sooner did it appear than the inhabitants shut
the gates, raised the drawbridge, armed them-
selves from the magazines and guardhouse, and,
pointing the guns ujjon the walls against the
garrison, compelled it to retire. Their example
was followed over the province, and nearly the
whole of Ulster was armed and ready for the
invader. But except in this resolute spirit
Londonderry was ill fitted for a regular siege;
its walls were weak and decayed, its cannon
almost unserviceable, and Colonel Lundy, who
had been appointed its governor by William,
but who was secretly a Jacobite, represented
the place as untenable and proposed a surrender.
But no sooner did this proposal reach the ears
of the inhabitants, than they rose against him
and the officers who abetted his treason, and
this uproar was at its height when the army of
James approached the town and summoned it
to surrender. But at this critical moment
Captain Mui-ray, a gallant officer, with a troop
of horse arrived at the opposite side of the
town, and was received by the people with
rapturous welcome, and the summons of James
was answered with a cannon-shot that killed
an officer by his side. After this nothing but
a war of extremity could follow, and dismayed
at the prospect, all who were faint-hearted or
seci-etly inclined to the enemy left the town ;
even Lundy, its recreant governor, stole away
disguised as a porter, and bearing a load on his
back. But his place was better supplied by
Major Baker, who was chosen governor, and
Dr. Walker, a clergyman, rector of Donogh-
more, and the true hero of the defence of Lon-
donderry, who was appointed his assistant. A

few brave Scotsmen, also, who were skilful in
military operations, threw themselves into the
town, and assisted in repairing the fortifications,
as far as shortness of time and limited means
would permit. Still, however, nothing more
than about 7000 militia remained for the defence
of a place assailed by an army of 20,000 regular
troops with the king at their head.

Operations were now commenced in regular
form, and the defence of Londonderry was to
form one of the most interesting episodes in the
history of civic heroism. By night and by day
the army of James was attacked by unexpected
sallies, in which its works were destroyed and
its detachments cut oft'; at any hour, whether
of light or darkness, of storm or sunshine, the
besiegers were hai'assed by sudden onslaughts,
which were all the more formidable as tliey
were conducted, not by formal rule, but the
enthusiastic courage of the defenders, and such
gallant officers as volunteered to head them,
and who vied with each other in the boldness
and success of their onsets. James soon be-
came weary of a harassing warfare that
brought him not a step nearer to success, and
after eleven days of fruitless eff"orts he retired
to Dublin to open the Irish parliament, leaving
the command of the army to General Rosen,
who had been trained in the exterminating
wars of Louis XIV. in the Palatinate. This
new commander was an apt officer of such a
school, and while the siege was now conducted
with greater vigour and skill, its operations
were characterized by acts of barbarity unknown
in civilized warfare. Laying waste the country
for ten miles round the town, and driving all
the inhabitants under the walls to perish of
hunger, he threatened that if Londonderry did
not surrender in ten days, he would put every
one within it to the sword. And there these
defenceless crowds were coojaed up for two days
and two nights between the fire of both parties,
until for very shame they were allowed to retire,
but only to find their homes in ashes, and all
their property destroyed or carried away. On
the other hand, the besieged erected a tall
gibbet on one of the bastions, to hang all pri-
soners who fell into their hands by way of re-
taliation, and desired a piiest to be sent to con-
fess and prepare them for execution. But
within the walls the miseries of disease and
famine were now added to those of war. Cooped
up in such narrow limits. Baker the governor
died, and fifteen officers were buried in one
day. The provisions, which were scanty enough
at the beginning of the siege, were soon con-
sumed, and the people had to sustain life as
they best could by horse-flesh, tallow, starch,
salted hides, and impure vermin, until even

A.D. 1688-1690.]

WILLIAM AND MARY.

225

these miserable resources began to fail. Thus
it was also with their ammunition. Their
cannon-balls failed, so that they were obliged
to use balls made of brick and covered with
lead. But their Scottish pertinacity only grew
stronger under these difficulties, so that there
was not a word of surrender; and when General
Hamilton, one of the officers of James, urged
them to yield on moderate terms, they asked
him tauntingly in return, " Did he think that
they could place reliance in the offers of one
who had himself betrayed the trust with which
his master had charged him 1 "

It was only when they could do and endure
no more that relief at last arrived. When
tidings reached England of the brave defence
of Londonderry, and the straits to which its
people were reduced, the po^jular cry to relieve
them was so loud, that a supply of provisions
and a reinforcement of 5000 men wei-e sent for
the purpose. But the command of this convoy
was placed under Colonel Percy Kirk, the in-
famous butcher of the people of the West of
England after the Monmouth insurrection had
been suppressed, and who, strangely enough,
had now obtained the confidence of William.
Kirk, who undertook the commission with no
great zeal, did not arrive at Lough Foyle until
the 13th of .June, and even then his proceedings
were provokingly dilatory, although his ships
were within sight of the besieged, whose hopes
and fears were equally excited to frenzy. After
having thus tantalized them, he retired to the
Inch, an island six miles below the town, pre-
tending that the boom and other works by
which the river was secured were too strong
for his ships ; and here he lay at anchor, after
increasing the dismay of the besieged by advis-
ing them to husband their provisions. At
length, when the garrison was so far reduced
that nothing was left but surrender or volun-
tary death by starvation, he resolved to attempt
the relief of the town. Three victual frigates,
and a man-of-war to cover them, were sent on
this expedition, and as they sailed town ward the
walls were crowded with the famished inhabi-
tants. The vessels went gallantly onward, and
the foremost victualler broke the boom but was
run aground by the shock, and at this disaster
a shrill cry, like the wail of women, was heard
from the townfolks on the walls, while the de-
spair was such that their faces seemed to have
become black in the eyes of each other. But
the delay was only for an instant; the victualler,
assailed by the enemy, replied to them with a
heavy cannonade, and got clear into deep water
by the rebound of her own guns. The way
was thus cleared for the entrance of the whole
armament, and Londonderry with Ireland itself

VOL. III.

was saved. But such a noble defence could
not be made without a heavy sacrifice, and out
of 7500 men, who originally composed the gar-
rison, only 4000 remained, of whom 1000 were
unfit for service, while the rest were so worn
with hunger and fatigue that they were more
like ghosts than living men. The food was re-
ceived like manna from heaven, and the first
act of their joy was to walk in procession to the
church, and give fervent thanks to God for
their deliverance. As there was no longer any
hope of reducing the town by famine, the siege,
after having continued three months and a
half, was raised on the following day.^

The example of Londonderry was not lost
upon Ulster at large, to which the war was con-
fined ; and no sooner had the siege been raised
than a signal defeat was inflicted upon a large
portion of the Irish army at Newton-Butler.
On this occasion 6000 of Tyrconnel's troops were
met by 2500 Inniskilliners, and so completely
routed, that 2000 were killed, 500 driven into
a lake and drowned, and 300 taken prisoners.
This disaster was so shameful in the estimation
of their commander. General Macartney, that
he sought to hide his shame in a soldier's grave.
Refusing, therefore, to fly or surrender, he con-
tinued to fight until he sank covered with
wounds, and only then expressed his apprehen-
sion that none of them might prove mortal.^

Ulster being thus preserved William, whose
attention had hitherto been occupied by the
difficulties that beset him in England and upon
the Continent, was able to turn his efforts in the
direction of Ireland. Instead, however, of send-
ing the army raised by James, in which he could
not trust, to the seat of war, he raised a fresh
army of English, Scotch, Dutch, Danes, and
Huguenots, who had been persecuted in France
for their religion ; and the same feeling of in-
security made him intrust the command to
Marshal Schomberg, a celebrated Protestant
general. So unaccustomed, however, had the
country been to military expeditions, that Schom-
berg was compelled to repair to Ireland with
only part of his army, and this also so miserably
officered and provided, that, instead of driving
the enemy out of the island, he was himself
cooped up at Dundalk, and obliged to stand on
the defensive, while nearly half of his troops
perished by sickness or in skirmishes.^ These
dilatory and indecisive proceedings irritated the
military spirit of William, and the first interval
lie could obtain from his growing troubles was
devoted to an expedition to Ireland in person.

^W&lkeT'sAccountof the Siege of Londonderry;M'Kenzie;
Story.
2 Hamilton's History of the Inniskillen Regiment.
'^ Mackay ; Story ; Hamilton.

90

226

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1688-1690.

He landed there ou the ]4tli of June, 1G9(), about
ten months after Schomberg had arrived, and
having extricated the old marshal from his dif-
Hculties he advanced to commence a fresh cam-
paign. On the 29th of June James had taken
upa strong [losition on tlio right bank of the river
Boyne, wliere he resolved to abide the issue, and
on the following day William took up his posi-
tion on the left bank. Thus brought within
reach of each other the armies, burning with
religious antagonism, and their leaders having
nothing less than a crown at stake upon the
issue, the contest was likely to be long, and at
all events to be deadly. On the day before the
battle William rode along the left bank of the
river to reconnoitre the opposite lines and dis-
cover the best i^lace to force a passage, but was
marked by the enemy on the other side, who
pointed and fired two field pieces, one of the balls
killing a man and two horses ; but the second
ball grazed the shoulder of William himself,
tearing off a part of the skin along with the cloth
of his coat, and causing him to stoop in the
saddle. The enemy, who saw this, believed that
he was killed ; the tidings were conveyed with
almost electric rapidity to every court in Europe;
and the wild joy of his enemies, as well as the
dismay of his friends, showed what importance
was attached to the idea of his demise. But
William, on receiving the hurt, said coolly to
those around him, that the ball should have
come nearer to do him harm. After allowing
his wound to be dressed he continued his survey
of the defences of James, and planned the cross-
ing of the Boyne, which was eff'ected on the 1st
of July. The particulars of the fight were of
such a complicated description that an account
of them is unnecessary; it is enough to state
that while James kept at a wary distance from
danger, and thought more of a safe retreat than
victory, William was in the hottest of the fight,
and superintending every charge in person. The
consequence was that every defence of the enemy
was carried, and their whole army, right, left,
and centre put to flight. James himself fled to
Dublin that night, but not resting there, he
travelled all night until he reached Duncannon;
and, still not thinking himself safe, he there em-
bai-ked for France with a few attendants. The
diff'erence of the two commanders on this occa-
sion was so striking, that the Irish, though suf-
fering from their defeat, remarked on it with
that peculiar humour which they can manifest
under the greatest misfortunes, "Let lis only
exchange kings with you," they said to the vic-
tors, "and we will be glad to fight the battle of
the Boyne over again."

Ireland being thus virtually conquered anew,
and James having no resource in France except

those plans of assassination, by which William
was to be removed by secret murder when he
could no longer be dislodged by force, we return
to the events in Scotland which occurred after
the battle of Killiekraukie. William sent no
more troops to Scotland, declaring that it was
needless after the death of Dundee, and in this
he was right ; the war had languished so com-
pletely that the army of James was at last dis-
banded, and not a foot of Scottish territory re-
presented his cause except the Bass Eock, in
the Firth of Forth, which had been lately used
as a state prison for the confinement of the
oppressed Covenanters. Here a few men, not
exceeding fifteen or twenty souls, in the des-
l^eration of loyalty, still continued to hold out
for their dethroned sovereign ; and the form of
government of this strange community and their
mode of subsistence was the marvel of the main-
land, from which the sea-girdled perpendicular
rock was visible in storm and sunshine. But
this garrison possessed a boat in which descents
could be made for provisions, or intelligence
conveyed to their friends; and, to prevent its
being recognized, it was changed as often as
possible for another, while its safety was ensured
by being hoisted up by a crane on the rock, so
as to be out of sight of any cruiser. But, in
the needful exchanges, they at last got a boat
too heavy for hoisting; and, being left floating
at the foot of the rock, it was carried aw^ay by
their enemies in the night. Thinking that they
would now be ready to submit the government
sent a sergeant and party of soldiers to offer
favourable terms; but during the parley the
garrison desired the sergeant to come nearei',
that they might more distinctly hear his Avords.
He complied; and no sooner had he come within
their reach than these cunning occupants of the
Bass pounced upon his boat, made him and his
party j^risoners, and compelled them to aid in
hoisting it to the place of safety. Soon after a
Danish ship having come within the reach of
their cannon, they obliged the vessel to bring to;
and, having made it pay toll by a supply of pro-
visions and other necessaries, they embarked
their prisoners on board, as they were unwilling
to have any superfluous mouths among them.
In this strange way a handful of men perched
upon a rock, and subsisting as precariously as
the sea-fowl whose domain they shared, lived in
a government of their own, and exacted tribute
of all who sailed within the circle of their
dominion, while the very oddity of their mode
of life and the caricature it presented of the ob-
noxious cause it typified, seems to have induced
the ruling powers to tolerate its existence. But
the joke at length became flat and stale, and
such precautions were used that in the be-

A.D. 1688-1690.]

WILLIAM AND MAEY.

227

ginning of 1694 the garrison was starved into a
surrender. Its members, however, might con-
gratulate themselves that they had stood out
against three kingdoms, and had been the last of
the adherents of James who submitted to yield.^
It might have been thought that the accession
of William to the throne would have given satis-
faction to the Scots. But with the extinction
of persecution there was also a revival of the
old religious differences which the common suf-
fering had hitherto tended to suppress. And
first of all was the renewal of the umbrage be-
tween the Presbyterian and Episcopal parties,
which the late attempts for the restoration of
Popeiy had reduced to temporary peace. Almost
all the lower and middling ranks and a great
proportion of the gentry were Presbyterians,
and longed for the re-establishment of their
church and its predominance over every other.
On the other hand Episcopacy was strongly
adhered to by the higher nobility and heads of
the landed aristocracy, in whom the wealth and
political influence of the country was chiefly
vested. It was also strong in the colleges, which
were filled with students who had been reared
under the teaching of Prelacy, and who were
ready to adopt it, should it become the estab-
lished church of their country.^ The two par-
ties were so equally balanced in the estimate of
political calculation, that the adhesion of William
would be sufiicient to turn the scale. William,
himself a Presbyterian, although somewhat
Erastian according to the reckoning of the Scots,
would have given the preference to his co-reli-
gionists. But, on the other hand, the Prelatists
of Scotland were Jacobites, and closely allied to
the Prelatists of England, and on both accounts
it was dangerous to reject them. In this diffi-
culty his desire was that the two parties would
compromise their differences by adopting a sort
of modified Episcopacy; but, finding such a union
hopeless, he ordered his ministers to consent in
parliament to whatever form of church govern-
ment would best satisfy the people.

Another difficulty of William in the manage-
ment of Scottish affairs arose from the selfish
expectations of individuals. Almost all had
more or less intrigued for the Revolution and
concurred in placing the crown upon his head;
and these being accomplished they waited for
their reward. But the reward was either not
forthcoming or far below their hopes. The ap-
plicants were so many, and the offices to be filled
so few and unprofitable, that, let William act as
he might, he was certain to create more enemies
than friends by the proceeding. In this diffi-

' Life of King James II.

^ Wodrow's AnaUcta, ii. p. 269.

culty it was natural that he should give the pre-
ference to those exiles who had taken refuge
with him in Holland, and accompanied him in
his expedition, and to these he therefore gave
his chief confidence and the highest offices.
Lord Stair was restored to his office of president
of the session, and his son. Sir John Dalrymple,
appointed lord-advocate. Lord Melville, who
had been engaged in the Monmouth conspiracy,
and on the detection of the Eye House Plot had
been compelled to fly to Holland, was made
secretary of state, but to act imder the direction
of Lord Stair and his son.^ In the bands of
these three the appointment to places and the
management of affairs were intrusted, and soon
after, Lord Talbot, afterwards Earl of Cromarty,
and Lord Breadalbane were associated in their
councils. And in the important affairs of the
Scottish Church William was principally directed
by Carstairs, the minister who had suffered the
torture of the thumbscrew, and afterwards taken
refuge in Holland, who, from his great ecclesias-
tical influence, went in Scotland by the nickname
of Cardinal Carstairs. But the names of the
disappointed, who, in consequence of their scanty
reward, were eager to vent their discontent in
opposition to the measures of the ruling party,
would form a bead-roll too copious for rehearsal.
The chief of them was the Duke of Hamilton,
the highest nobleman of Scotland, who was put
off with the empty honour of being king's com-
missioner; and Sir James Montgomery, who had
expected the office of secretary of state, and in
consequence of his disappointment had left his
party and taken to intriguing with the Jacobites.
In parliament these variances had assumed a
distinctive character, and were represented by
three great parties. The first was the Jacobite,
still strong, and full of hope that the fallen
dynasty would yet be restored. The second
was the high Presbyterian party, denominated
" the club," whose principal leader was Sir Patrick
Hume of Polwart. The third consisted of the
moderate Presbyterians, headed by Lord Mel-
ville, secretary of state, and the Earl of Craw-
ford. The offences, however, of the first of these
parties had subjected them to penalties and dis-
qualifications by which their political influence
was materially weakened. On the 13th of
April, 1689, a proclamation had been made by
the Convention requiring that William and
Mary should be publicly prayed for as King
and Queen of Scotland, and that those clergymen
who refused should be deprived of their bene-
fices; but the Episcopal clergy neither com-
plied with this order, nor yet with a subsequent
one by which a day of public thanksgiving was

3 Leven and Melyille Papers.

228

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1688-1690.

appointed. Tliey liad also corresjionded witli
James and Viscount Dundee, and supplied in-
telligence to the latter previous to the battle
of Killiekrankie ; and for their refusal and sub-
sequent treason 202 were brought to trial before
the piuvy-couucil, and of this number 179 were
sentenced to deprivation. Although this sen-
tence in many cases was not carried into effect,
it was sufficient to subject the whole body to
suspicion. Such was the state of parties when
the Convention, now a parliament, met iu April,
1690.1

This important meeting was regarded as the
great crisis of the Scottish Church. In what
manner or degree was Episcopacy to be set
aside? In what form, and with how much
liberty, was Presbyterianism to be restored?
William had already too distinctly seen that
the Scottish Episcopalians were confirmed in
their Jacobitism, and he had been convinced by
Carstairs that the Presbyterian jDarty alone was
to be relied upon for the security of his Scottish
crown. But neither he nor Carstairs his chap-
lain were desirous that the old Presbyterian
hierocracy should be restored, in which the
clergy should predominate both in secular and
ecclesiastical matters, but rather that a system
conformed to the improved spirit of the age
would be established, in which the magisterial
and clerical offices should be kept separate and
distinct, and both made amenable to royal super-
intendence. More effectually to ensure this
result, the Earl of Crawford was appointed
president; and by his private instructions he
was to concede whatever was demanded short of
these necessary limits. By this royal acquies-
cence the difficulties of the church were settled
with a facility and expedition unwonted in the
Scottish annals, and the Revolution Settlement
accomplished.

The first proceeding was to rescind the Act
of Supremacy under which the church had so
grievously suffered during the late unhappy
reigns, and on the 25th of April a vote was
passed decreeing its entire abolition. On the
same day another important act was passed, re-
storing to their churches the ministers who had
been ejected in January, 1661. Such of them
as survived returned accordingly to their old
charges, while the displacement of their Epis-
copal incumbents was magnified by the Jacobite
party as an act not of justice but cruel persecu-
tion. At the same time justice in some degree
was done to the real sufferers who had endured
the tyranny of the Stuarts by rescinding their
fines and forfeitures, and by repealing all the

1 Leven and Melville Papers; Records of the Privy-
council ; Life of Carstairs.

laws imposed upon those who took the Covenants
or who had in any way been guilty of religious
nonconformity. Then came the chief difficulty,
which was the restoration of the Presbyterian
form of church government. This difficulty arose
partly from the Prelatists, who still hoped for
the restoration of their church, and partly from
the reluctance of the king, who was unwilling
to recognize the divine right of Presbytery, and
anxious that the opportunity might still be left
open of amalgamating the two churches into
such a modified Episcopacy as would promote
the union of Scotland with England. Accord-
ingly, on the draft of this act, which was sub-
mitted to his previous revisal, he made such
alterations as might favour his plan should the
opportunity arrive, but leaving some latitude
to the commissioner in adhering more closely
to the original form if the royal modifications
were unacceptable.^ But on the 7th of June
the act was passed in all or nearly all its orig-
inal integrity, " ratifying the Confession of
Faith, and settling Presbyterian church govern-
ment." By this act Prelacy was again stated to
be "a great and insupportable grievance, and
contrary to the inclination of the generality of
the people ever since the Eeformation, they
having been reformed from Popery by Presby-
ters;" and the Presbyterian form was charac-
terized as " the government of Christ's church
within this nation, agreeable to the Word of
God, and most conducive to the advancement
of true piety and godliness and the establishing
of peace and tranquillity within this realm."
It was also declared that the government of
the church was henceforth vested in those
Presbyterian ministers who had been ejected
in 1661, and such ministers and elders as they
had " admitted and received or might heieafter
admit and receive." The General Assembly
was allowed " to try and purge out all insuf-
ficient, negligent, scandalous, and erroneous
ministers by due course of ecclesiastical j^ioofs
and censures." On the 19th of July the parlia-
ment proceeded to consider the subject of pat-
ronage, and an act was passed abolishing it, and
declaring that in the case of any vacancy in a
parish "the heritors of the said parish, being
Protestants, and the elders, are to name and
propose the person to the whole congregation,
to be either approved or disapproved by them,
their reasons, if they disapproved, to be judged
of by the presbytery." On the other hand, as a
compensation to the patron for relinquishing
his right of presenting, he was empowered to
raise 300 marks from the parish, and to receive
those teinds to which none could show an herit-

2 Life of Carstairs.

A.D. 1688-1690.]

WILLIAM AND MARY.

229

able title, and which had always been consi-
dered the patrimony of the church. Having
passed these acts for the re-establishment of
Presbytery, a General Assembly was appointed
to be held in Edinburgh on the 16th of October
to carry them into effect.

On that date the members of assembly met;
and well might they gaze in wonderment at such
a meeting after the doors had been closed upon
them for nearly forty years. There were three
parties in the church represented in this assembly.
The first were the ejected ministers — men who
had borne the brunt of persecution, and of whom
not more than sixty survived. Another party
were the Indulged ministers — men who had
yielded to the storm and exercised their office
under a Prelatic government, but who more than
doubled all the other members combined. The
third were the extreme Presbyterians, who had
withdrawn themselves with Cameron, Cargill,
and Renwick — men who had not only refused
every kind of compliance as sinful, but met their
persecutors with defiance and resistance. Thus
the second party, whicli was pledged to moderate
measures, could outvote the rest and act in ac-
cordance with the lessons of Carstairs and the
wishes of his royal master. The effect of this
preponderance was apparent in the proceedings
of the assembly. Mr. Hugh Kennedy, one of
the ministers of Edinburgh, was elected moder-
ator, and Lord Carmichael presided as king's
commissioner. The king's letter recommended
a calm and peaceable course of proceeding, and
the answer of the assembly was in similar
terms, and with assurances of the moderation
with which their duties would be jierformed.
An act of assembly appointing a national fast
threatened to give rise to angry discussion. The
extreme party or Cameronians insisted that, along
with the apjjointment, the causes should be stated
in full, and that these ought to comprise not only
the national sins in general but the offences of
particular bodies — rulers, ministers, and peoiile.
But as such a proceeding would have revived
old quaiTels and furnished ground for fresh
contention the proposal was refused, and the
assembly contented itself with a general con-
fession. The rest of their ^proceedings, which
were characterized by diligence and moderation
and a due desire for the sjDiritual welfare of the
people, especially in the more benighted dis-
tricts, were thus recorded in their letter to the
king at the close of the session : " We engaged

to your majesty that in all things that should
come before us we should carry ourselves with
that calmness and moderation which becometh
the ministers of the gospel of grace ; so now, in
the close of the assembly, we presume to ac-
quaint your majesty that, through the good
hand of God upon us, we have in a great mea-
sure performed accordingly. Having applied
ourselves mostly and especially to what con-
cerned this whole church, and endeavoured by
all means, ecclesiastical and proper for us, to
promote the good thereof, together with the
quiet of the kingdom and your majesty's con-
tentment, God hath been pleased to bless our
endeavours in our receiving to the unity and
order of this church some who had withdrawn
and now have joined us, and in providing for
the promoting of religion and the knowledge of
God in the most barbarous places of the High-
lauds, which may be the sure way of reducing
these people also to your majesty's obedience ;
and especially in regulating the ministers of
this church after so great revolutions and altera-
tions, for we have, according to the use and
practice of the church ever since the first re-
formation from Popery, ajipointed visitations
both for the southern and northern parts of this
kingdom, consisting of the gravest and most
experienced ministers and elders, to whom we
have given instructions that none of them be
removed from their places but such as are either
insufficient, or scandalous, or erroneous, or su-
pinely negligent; and that those of them be
admitted to the ministerial communion with us
who, upon due trial, and in a competent time
for that trial, shall be found to be orthodox in
doctrine, of competent abilities, of a godly,
peaceable, and loyal conversation, and who shall
be judged faithful to God and to the govern-
ment, and who shall likewise own, submit unto,
and concur with it. We have also taken care
that all persons who have received wrong in any
inferior judicatory of this church shall be duly
redressed."^ Such were the proceedings of the
first General Assembly after the Revolution
and under the Revolution Settlement. By
that Settlement itself the church had been freed
from bondage and replaced in its former dignity,
and those high principles of independence of
state control against which the Stuarts had
warred so pertinaciously were now the subjects
of frank and full recognition.

' Acts of General Assembly, A.D. 1C90.

230

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1690-1702.

CHAPTER XVIII.

REIGN OF WILLIAM III. (1690-1702),

Desire of William to restore order in the Highlands — Plan for reconciling the Highland chiefs to his govern-
ment— The Earl of Breadalbane intrusted with its management — His suspicious conduct — Temporary
pacification of the Highlands effected — The Macdonalds of Glencoe — Their chief takes the oaths to gov-
ernment— Purpose to destroy him and his clan — Correspondence in matming the plan between Dalrymple
and Breadalbane — Treacherous arrangement concluded — Massacre of Glencoe — Its ferocious and selfish
character — Odium reflected on William by the event — The Darien Scheme— Antecedents of WiUiam
Paterson its contriver — Particulars of the plan — His own statements on the subject — A company formed
to carry it out — Privileges granted to the company by the Scottish parUament — Large subscriptions for
it — Alarm of the English merchants at the project — Their remonstrances against it — Holland unites in the
opposition — The king opposed to the company — The scheme abandoned by the English and Dutch — Enthu-
siasm of the Scots to undertake it unsupported — Their liberal and ready subscriptions — The first expedition
sets sail from Leith to Darien — Its landing — The colony settled — Its unpropitious commencement — General
unfitness of its members for the task of colonization — Liberality of the offers to all nations and creeds —
Laws drawn up for the government of the settlers — The colony ruined by the jealousy of the Dutch and
English companies, and the hostility of the king — The isthmus abandoned — Distresses of the colonists in
their return to Scotland — A fresh expedition meanwliilo sent out — They find the Isthmus of Darien for-
saken— They attempt to restore the settlement — Hostility of the Sj^aniards — They are defeated at Subu-
cantee — The colonists are obliged to siu-render to the Spaniards — They are sent home — Their losses by
shipwreck on the way — Indignation of Scotland at the defeat of the Darien project — The company appeals
to the king — Their appeals disregarded — A national address to the king also disregarded — Hope of redress
from the Scottish pai'liament — Its meeting — It is repeatedly adjourned — Indignation of the country at
these adjournments — Uproar in Edinburgh — Fruitless attempts to punish the rioters — The king's concilia-
tory letter to Scotland — Abatement of the opposition in fiarliament — Yielding of the popular resentment
— Character and subsequent history of Paterson — Hopes entertained by King James of his restoration — His
last sickness — His death and character — Popularity of William towards the close of his life — His declining
health aggravated by an accident — His dj'ing recommendation of a union between England and Scotland —
His death — Character and results of his reign.

As the chief strength of Jacobitism lay in
the Highlands, it was impossible that the na-
tion could be free from alarm until these tur-
bulent districts were reduced to order. The
poverty of the country, the ignorance of the
people, their lawless, restless habits and love
of martial enterprise, laid them open to every
daring intriguer; and the instances of Montrose
and Claverhouse had shown how easily they
could be roused in the cause of the Stuarts, and
what changes might be effected in the govern-
ment by a sudden outbreak in the Highlands.
Nor was this the worst, for even in time of
peace the Highlanders regarded the Lowlands
as their original birthright of which they had
been deprived by the strong hand, and which
they were justified in plundering whenever
opportunity offered. On this account alone
the Lowlandere among other complaints had
stated, that the " not taking an effectual course
to repress the depredations and robberies by
the Highland clans is a grievance." The at-
tention of William was necessarily called to this
subject, but he wjis a stranger to the man-
ners of the mountaineers, and obliged to rely
on the counsels of those who were their heredi-
tary enemies. More gentle measui^es, indeed, for
pacification than those of fire and swoi'd liad

been at first contemplated. The chief of these
was the plan which, at a later period and with
certain modifications, was adopted by the Earl
of Chatham. It was projiosed that regiments
of four thousand Highlanders should be formed
as a local militia for the service of government,
that each regiment should be commanded by
its own chieftain, who should receive a general's
pay during the period of service, and that when
the appointed days of training had ended, each
soldier should be sent home with a gratuity.
But to train and arm bodies of men of whose
fidelity to the government they could not be
assured, was regarded as impolitic and danger-
ous. This difficulty, however, was disposed of
by the Earl of Breadalbane, the originator and
proposer of the scheme. He suggested that a
capital sum should be funded, and that the
chiefs should receive the interest of it as pay-
ment. This funding of the money, he alleged,
would secure the steadfastness of their allegiance
by the perpetuity of the reward, and the facility
with which it might be stopped in the event of
disloyalty.^

Such was the advice of the Earl of Breadal-

1 Proposals of the Earl of Breadalbaiie ; Papers illustra-
tive of the Political Condition of the Uiijldands, 1GS7-1698
(Maitland Club Publications).

A.D. 1690-1702.]

WILLIAM III.

231

bane, whom Mackay described in the following
terms : " He is cunning as a fox, wise as a ser-
pent, but as slippery as an eel ; no government
can trust him but where his own private inter-
est is in view." ^ His counsel was adopted, and
a sum, said to have been as much as twenty
thousand pounds, to carry it out was placed at
his disposal. He was also directed by William
to i^ay particular attention to the great chiefs,
Donald Macdonald, MacLean, Clanranald, Glen-
garry, Lochiel, and the Mackeuzies, and to otfer
a sum not exceeding £2000, or rank under an
earldom, to any high chief who should set such
a price upon his services. ^ His commission to
negotiate with these Highland magnates was
dated 24th of April, 1690. But as a counter-
part to these conciliatory and profitable orders,
" letters of fire and sword" were issued against
all who refused to comply by appearing before
a civil judge before the 1st of January, 1692,
and taking the oath of allegiance. At these pro-
clamations there was a movement and stir in the
Highlands, and every chief who either coveted
the pi'omised rewards or dreaded the penalties
made haste to give the required assurances to
government. But these oaths were accounted by
them of no binding value. Devoted heart and soul
to the cause of James, they considered that as
an obligation to which all others must yield; and
before they pledged themselves to William, they
had obtained permission from their former king
to lay down their arms and resume them at a more
favourable opportunity. It was thus then that
they swore allegiance to the present sovereign,
and returned to their homes to laugh at the
empty ceremony. Nor was Breadalbane him-
self thought more honest in the negotiation.
His frequent interviews with the Highland
chiefs at his residence of Kilchuru, upon the
peninsula of Loch Awe, were full of suspicion and
mystery : it has even been said, that while pre-
tending zeal for the cause of William, he kejat
up his connection with the court of St. Germains,
and that he had assured the chiefs that he was
working for the interests, not of the Prince of
Orange, but King James. But if so, he was
not singular in his duplicity. Such was the
double-dealing of the politicians of this period,
both English and Scotch, that the reign of
William is the most mysterious and perplexing
era of British history. It is certain, however,
that he did not account for the large sum with
which government had intrusted him; and that
when the hour of reckoning came, after his
duplicity had been discovered, he was too power-
ful to be closely catechised. This he showed

1 Secret Services during the reigns of William, Anne, and
George I., by John Mackay.

2 Melville Papers.

when he was required by Lord Nottingham to
make a statement of his disbursements. " My
lord," he replied, " the Highlands are quiet —
the money is spent — and this is the best way
of accounting among friends." He even de-
manded repayment of £2000 which he pretended
to have laid out in addition to the original
sum.^

A hollow pacification of the Highlands had
now been effected; Appin, Keppoch, Clanran-
ald, Glengarry, Lochiel, and the jsrincipal Ja-
cobite chiefs had come in and sworn allegiance;
and the chief annoyance at this ti-eacherous
calm was felt by Sir John Dalrymple, Master
of Stair, who expressed his fears that nothing
short of a wholesale extermination would effec-
tually compose the Highlands. But one clan
remained on which vengeance might be dealt and
revenge satisfied. This was the MacDonalds of
Glencoe, with which Breadalbane was at feud,
and which might conveniently be made the scajie-
goat of the rest. Its chief, MacDonald, was not
of high rank, and his clan was but an offshoot of
the great family of the MacDonalds; but he
had been out with Dundee, and was a notable
lifter of Lowland cattle, while his people were
characterized as bitter Jacobites and Papists.
Knowing the ticklish predicament in which he
stood, and that the letters of fire and sword
might be executed against him in their fullest
meaning, the old chieftain, MacDonald, better
known by the name of Maclan (or son of John),
hastened down towards the close of 1691 to
Fort- William, the nearest military station, to
tender the oath of allegiance to government.
This Colonel Hill, the commander, refused to
receive, as not being commissioned by govern-
ment ; but moved by the earnest entreaties of
the chief he sent him to the sheriff of Argyle,
with an urgent letter beseeching him to receive
a lost sheep to mercy. Eighty miles on foot,
and in the depth of winter, had this old Celt to
travel before he could reach the sheriff, who
lived near Inverary, and with all his efforts the
day of grace had exjaired before he arrived,
while to add to his danger the sheriff was ab-
sent, and did not return home until a day or
two later. This functionary, one of the Camp-
bells, who were at feud with the MacDonalds,
hesitated to receive the oath; but, overcome by
the aged warrior's tears and entreaties, he at
last consented, and dismissed Maclan to his
home in peace.

The oath of the chieftain, along with those of
the others in the same county, was registered
and duly transmitted to the imvy-council. But

' Pajicrs illvntrative of the Political Condition of the High-
lands (Maitland Club Publications).

232

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1690-1702.

finding that Miiclau bad not qualified until the
tith of January (1692), when the last day of
grace had expired, the clerks were doubtful
whether the oath should be received as valid.
The matter was taken into consideration by the
privy-council, apparently to obviate the diffi-
culty, but in reality, as it afterwards appeared,
for a very different purpose; and when the roll
was returned to the clerks the name of the
chief of Glencoe had been carefully erased.
And by whom had this fraudful villainy been
effected ? When suspicion was afterwards awak-
ened and a search instituted there was little
hesitation in fixing the guilt upon Breadalbane
and the Master of Stair, whom the earl had
persuaded to join in his feud against Glencoe
and his clan. And this suspicion was too well
justified by the letters of these statesmen.
When it was known that Maclan had not
sworn allegiance within the appointed time the
exultation of Dalrymple was expressed in the
following sentences: " Ai-gyle tells me that Glen-
coe hath not taken the oath, at which I rejoice."
In another letter he says, " When anything
concerning Glencoe is resolved let it be secret
and sudden;" and proceeding to express him-
self more plainly he writes, " I hope what is
done there may be in earnest, since the rest are
not in a condition to draw together to help. I
think to herry their cattle or burn their houses
is but to render them desperate, lawless men,
to rob their neighboui's. But I believe you
will be satisfied it were a great advantage to
the nation that that thieving tribe wei-e rooted
out and cut off. It must be quietly done, other-
wise they will make shift for both the men and
their cattle. Argyle's detachment lies in Let-
trickwell to assist the garrison to do all on a
sudden." Concealing the fact of the chief's
submission, and representing him as an obsti-
nate thief and rebel, Breadalbane, in addition
to the usual letters of fire and sword, obtained
on the 11th of January a commission, signed
and countersigned by the king, to the following
effect : " As for Glencoe and his tribe, if they
can be well distinguished from the rest of the
Highlanders, it would be proper for the vindi-
cation of public justice to extirpate that set of
thieves." Having received this license, and
being certain of immunity, the only remaining
study of the conspirators was the mode of
carrying it into effect. This, however, was easy
to persons bent upon a deadly and thorough
revenge. In giving directions for the pur-
pose Dah-ymple thus wrote : " The winter is
the only season in which we are sure the High-
landers cannot escape us, nor carry their wives,
bairns, and cattle to the mountains. It is the
only time that they cannot escape you, for the

human constitution cannot endure to be so long
out of houses. This is the proper season to
maul them, in the long cold nights; and I
expect you will find little resistance but from the
season." Additional precautions had been taken,
besides the inclement winter, and the secretary
adds : " The Earls of Argyle and Breadalbane
have promised that they shall have no retreat
in their grounds; the passes to Eaunoch will be
secured, and the hazard certified to the Laird of
Weems to reset them : in that case Argyle's
detachment, with a party that may be posted
in island Stalker, must cut them off." To the
subordinates, also, who were to execute the
sentence, strict orders were issued to secure
every outlet — to strike the blow silently, that
none might flee to the mountains — above all,
that "the old fox and his young cubs," meaning
Maclan and his children, should not escape.
As for the agents of such a ruthless and treach-
erous massacre, these could easily be found in
Highland hatred and clannish revengefuluess.
The work was intrusted to a party of the Camp-
bells, who dwelt nearest to Glencoe, men who
had long been exposed to the plundering in-
roads of the MacDonalds, and now exulted in
the ojjportunity of a merciless retaliation.

The month of February had now commenced,
and the doomed chief and his people were
securely reposing upon the assurances of peace
they had obtained from the ruling powers. On
the first of February (1692) Campbell of Glen-
lyon, a captain of the independent regiment of
the clan of that name, came peacefully to the
long naiTOw pass of Glencoe, accompanied by
120 privates ; and alarmed at such a visit from
the Campbells John, the eldest son of Maclan,
with twenty of his clan occupied the pass, which
they could have defended against a multitude,
and asked the cause of this suspicious visit.
Glenlyon replied that they only came in peace
and friendship, and that they sought to be
quartered there, as the new fortress at Fort-
William could not accommodate the whole regi-
ment. Had this explanation of itself been in-
sutficient it was confirmed by the fact that Cap-
tain Campbell's niece was married to a son of
the old chief of Glencoe, and among Highlanders
such a relationship was almost as sacred as the
obligation of revenge. Trusting in this tie and
the fact that their peace was established with
the government, the MacDonalds received the
visitors with warm hospitality, Campbells though
they were; the men were billeted in the houses
of the clansmen, and Glenlyon entertained at
the table of the chief; and for a fortnight
all was kindness and festival. With the High-
lander as with the Arab hospitality was a sacred
duty, and the cup, like the bread and salt of

A.D. 1690-1702.]

WILLIAM III.

233

the East, was the pledge of reconciliation and
peace. But early on the morning of the 13th
of February all was fearfully changed: the
passes had been secured by troops from Fort-
William, and the guests had commenced the
murder of tlieir entertainers. The first step
was against the chieftain himself, with whom,
on the night previous, Glenlyon had spent a
friendly evening in playing at cards. Between
four and five o'clock in the morning Lieutenant
Lyndsay with a party of soldiers came to his
house, and Maclan, rising from his bed to give
him a kind welcome, was shot as he was putting
on his clothes, while his wife was treated with
such cruelty that she died the next day. Two of
his clansmen who were in the house were killed,
and a third was left for dead. On that very day
the officers of the regiment were to have ban-
queted with Maclan — and thus they answered
the invitation ! Having thus made sure of the " old
fox," the next attempt was to send the " young
cubs" after him; but this was found not so
easy. Ian or John, the eldest son, having pre-
viously been alarmed by an unwonted stir of
preparation among the Campbells, hastened to
Glenlyon to inquire the reason, and found the
captain actually arming for the work. Glen-
lyon soothed him with the assurance that he
was preparing to march against some of Glen-
garry's men, and asked with a show of oS'ended
innocence if he thought, had mischief been in-
tended, that he would not have revealed it to
his nephew and his niece. John returned home
and retired to rest, but was soon roused by
shots and cries, and apprehending the whole
danger in a moment he fled to the hills and
escaped. His brother Alexander was equally
fortunate ; a clansman woke him with the ex-
clamation, " Is it time to sleep when they are
killing your brother at the doorT' upon which
he also took to flight and escaped. The massacre
went on, aggravated with deeds of wanton
cruelty, and when morning dawned thirty-eight
victims were weltering in their blood. But
about five hundred of the doomed had actually
escaped ! And how had this happened when
the purpose had been so vindictive, and the
chances of its frustration so few? The fugitives
had fled to the hills, and a temjaest which raged
against them in fearful violence had also arrested
the detachment that was to set out from Fort-
William to secure one of the main outlets of
Glencoe, so that the cowering runaways found
their best protection in what would have been
otherwise an aggravation of their miseries. It
is gratifying to add that they not only escaped
for the present, but were afterwards spared by
the tardy shame or repentance of government.
In the meantime the butcliers, having finished

their work in the glen, proceeded to indemnify
themselves for their labour by wholesale spolia-
tion. All the houses were stripped, burned,
and reduced to ashes, and all the sheep and
cattle, 1000 cows and 200 horses, were driven
through the pass as the spoil of the conquerors.^

Such was the massacre of Glencoe. It was a
deed of state-craft by which a Highland clan,
deemed too barbarous to be civilized and too
lawless to be reduced to order, was to be got rid
of by a wholesale extirpation, and as such, there
were politicians in the Lowlands to applaud it
as a just and necessary act of severity. It was
in accordance, also, with the old Scottish plan
of bridling this unruly people, partly by foment-
ing their quarrels among themselves, so that
they might destroy each other in mutual con-
flict, and partly by undertaking razzias against
them when a favourable opportunity offered.
In this way the redundant population of the
Highlands had been pruned, and their unions
against their civilized neighbours prevented or
frustrated. But no such palliations were now
admitted to qualify the popular outcry against
the deed. It electrified England, it astonished
the whole of Europe, and while the enemies
of William made every court and country ring
with the narrative his friends and apologists
were unable to defend it. In this way, so trivial
an event in the eyes of statesmen as the sum-
mary execution of thirty-eight Highland cater-
ans, forms the foullest blot on his character
and the heaviest impeachment of his admin-
istration. And while the evil thus recoiled
so heavily upon himself for having authorized
the deed, its immediate agents did not escape.
Breadalbane and the Master of Stair, although
they escaped the consequences which the sub-
sequent inquiry might have entailed on them,
were not the less tried at the bar of i)ublic
opinion, and their characters punished with the
reprobation they merited, so that the infamy of
Glencoe coupled with their names has descended
to the present day.

For three years after this event the history of
Scotland presents few incidents worthy of par-
ticular attention. Notwithstanding the Deed
of Settlement the church was still unsatisfied,
because it had not obtained complete and per-
fect freedom ; and its resistance to Erastianism
was combined with watchfulness against poli-
tical aggression, whether on the part of the king
or his ministers. And, notwithstanding the late
severe example, the Highlands was neither paci-
fied nor subdued; in fact, the event had irritated
rather than dismayed the clans, who might at

1 Dalrymple's Memoirs of Great Britain; Laing; Car-
stairs Papers ; Burnet.

234

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1690-1702.

any time be subjected to a similar visitation,
aud made them the more disposed for any fresh
attempt that might iiusettle the government
aud promote the cause of their former sovereign.
A reaction had followed the Revolution, in which
William was unpopular to the Scots, and the
Massacre of Glencoe had become a favourite
watchword with the discontented. But an en-
terprise was at hand not only so imjDortant as
to monopolize the national feeling, but to turn
it in a new direction. We allude to the forma-
tion of the Darien Company, and the great work
it attempted, which formed the commencement
of a new era in the history of Scottish enter-
prise.

The projector of this gigantic mercantile
scheme was William Paterson, a kinsman of
the equally famed projector, John Law of Lau-
riston, whose Mississij^pi and South Sea Com-
panies entailed such disasters upon France and
England. It was unfortunate for the success of
such a man as Paterson that the antecedents of
his early history were unknown, until he bui'st
into public notice as the successful merchant aud
able financier; and, in consequence of this un-
certainty, some have supposed that his youth
was spent among the buccaneers, and others as
a missionary among the Indians of Darien. But
from the scanty notices that can be relied upon
it may be stated, that he was born in Dumfries-
shire in 1658 ; that he was the son of a farmer
in good circumstances; aud that, like many
youths of his own station at that period, his
education was commenced with a view to the
clerical profession. It is said, however, that at
the age of seventeen bis Presbyterian tendencies
brought him under the suspicion of the ruling
powers, in consequence of which he fled from
Scotland and by aud by proceeded to Bristol.
After spending some time in England, and trad-
ing there in the somewhat humble capacity of
a packman, he went to America and lived for
some time in the Bahamas, probably as a mer-
chant adventurer rather than as a buccaneer or
a missionary. Having returned to England,
he engaged in trade in London aud amassed a
considerable fortune. He also occupied himself
with financial projects, and has the honour of
having originated the Bank of England, the
plan of which was due to him, while he was
himself also one of the first directors. To Scots-
men he is best known as the originator of the
unfortunate Darien Scheme. This was not the
crude theory of a day, but the result of long and
careful deliberation ; and Paterson had pro-
posed it to foreign states, and to England be-
fore he came down to Scotland and offered it to
his countrymen. He came also, as he afterwards
stated to the House of Commons, not as a ran-

dom adventurer, but at their own request.2
They adopted it in consequence of the new mer-
cantile spirit of enterprise by which the nation
was animated, and in the same spirit pursued
it through every difficulty and disaster to its
unfoi'tunate close.

The plan of Paterson, even when examined
in the present day, possesses a grandeur aud
liberality greatly in advance of the age, while
the details of it are sufficient to save it from the
charge of impracticability. It was, to occupy
the Isthmus of Panama, at that time nominally
in possession of Spain, but given over to a few
tribes of wandering savages, and plant upon it
a Scottish colony. As that narrow neck of land
united the two continents of America, the colony
established there would concentrate the com-
merce of the Atlantic aud Pacific Oceans, and be
the great trading thoroughfare of the commer-
cial world. It would be a short and easy com-
munication between Europe on the one hand
and China, Japan, and the unexjjlored regions
of the Eastern seas on the other. As this colony,
also, was designed not for the enrichment of a
particular nation, but of mankind at large, all
the jealous restrictions, whether of a trading
company or a nation, had no place iu the pros-
jjectus. The vessels of every government were
to be made free of its joorts on the payment of
moderate customs for the support of the ad-
ministration of the colony, and the merchandise
of every nation was to be housed within its
warehouses without exclusion or distinction.
The advantages of the site were thus explained
by Paterson himself : " The time and expense
of navigation to China, Japan, the Spice Islands,
and the far greatest j^art of the East Indies will
be lessened more than half, and the consumption
of European commodities more than doubled;
trade will increase trade, and money will increase
money; and the trading world shall no more
need to want work for their hands, but will
rather want hands for their work. Thus the
door of the seas and the key of the universe,
with anything of a reasonable management, will
of course enable its proprietors to give laws to
both oceans, and to become arbitrators of the
commercial world, without being liable to the
fatigues, expenses, aud dangers, or contracting
the guilt and blood of Alexander and Ctesar.
In all our empires that have been anything
universal, the conquerors have been obliged to
seek out and court their conquests from afar;
but the universal force and influence of this
attractive magnet is such as can much more
effectually bring empire home to its j^roprietors'
doors." The catholicity of the enterprise in

I Bamii.ster's Life of Williaiii Paterson.

1690-1702.]

WILLIAM III.

235

which all nations were to be invited to partake,
and the advantages of such a principle, were
also thus explained by the large-minded pro-
jector: "The nature of these discoveries are such
as not to be engrossed by any one nation or
people, with exclusion to others ; nor can it be
thus attempted without evident hazard and
ruin, as we see in the case of Spain and Por-
tugal, who, by their prohibiting any other people
to trade, or so much as go to or dwell in the
Indies, have not only lost that trade they were
not able to maintain, but have depopulated and
ruined those countries therewith; so that the
Indies have rather conquered Spain and Por-
tugal, than they have conquered the Indies.
People and their industry are the true riches of
a prince or nation, and in respect to them all
other things are but imaginary. This was well
understood by the people of Eome, who, con-
trary to the maxims of Sparta and Spain, by
general naturalizations, liberty of conscience,
and immunity of government, far more eifec-
tually and advantageously conquered and kejDt
the world than ever they did or possibly could
have done by the sword."

In a scheme so vast, and which tended so
much to the aggrandizement of every other
country, the first advances of Paterson had to
be made with cautious circumspection. It was
the first attempt to establish a peaceful settle-
ment upon a locality which had hitherto been
the rendezvous and fighting ground first of the
privateering English heroes of the days of Eliza-
beth and James and afterwards of the lawless
buccaneers. It was intended to realize by
patient, regular industry those advantages
which had hitherto been sought in the gold
fields of the country, and beyond which nothing
else was judged worthy of a search. And,
above all, it was an establishment well fitted to
kindle the jealousy of every other mercantile in-
corporation by the greatness of its aims and the
extent of its privileges. An act was therefore
drawn up under the direction of Paterson him-
self, and passed by the Scottish parliament on
the 26th of June, 1695, in favour of the associa-
tion, under the name of " A Company trading
to Africa and the Indies ; " and to disarm the
national jealousy of England it was stipulated
that one half of the proprietors were to consist
of Scotsmen and the other half of foreigners or
persons not resident in Scotland. Of these the
lowest share contributed was not to be less than
£100 and the greatest not above X3000. These
proprietors were to form their own constitution,
both civil and military, by a iDlurality of votes ;
and all persons belonging to it were to take the
oath of fidelity to the establishment. The com-
pany was also to enjoy privileges which freed

them from the restraints of the Navigation Act
by fitting out and freighting their own or for-
eign vessels for the space of ten years. Their
other immunities were worthy of a company that
already contemjDlated the possession of power
and dominion. They might fit out and arm ves-
sels of war either in Scotland or in any other
country that was not at war with the sovereign
of Britain. They were empowered to establish
settlements and build cities, hai'bours, and forti-
fications in any uninhabited place in Asia,
Africa, or America, or where they had the con-
sent of the natives or did not intrude upon a
previous European occupation. They might
also, when attacked, fight or make rejsrisals,
and form alliances with sovereign powers in
the three quarters of the world wherever their
privileges extended. And to secure to this
company the same exclusive advantages which
were enjoyed by the English trading corj^ora-
tions all other Scotsmen were prohibited from
trading within its limits without a license,
while the company was authorized to arrest all
interlopers " by force of aims, and at their own
hand." The capital of the comjjany was fixed
at the sum of £600,000, and three months after
the passing of the act a deputation was sent from
Edinburgh to London, the books opened for
subscription, and so tempting was the scheme
that the whole disposable stock of £300,000
was subscribed for in nine days. Holland and
Hamburg partook of the enthusiasm, and sub-
scribed £200,000. The subscription books were
opened later in Edinburgh and Glasgow than
in London, and were more slowly filled up,
for already that mercantile jealousy had com-
menced of which the Darien Company was to
be the victim.^

The season was particularly apt in England
for fostering such an unkindly spirit. It was a
season of mercantile bankruptcies and political
irritation ; and while the i^eople were smarting
under their losses they attributed to the king a
desire to aggrandize the commercial j^rosperity
of his native Holland at the expense of that of
England. The non -subscribers to the Darien
scheme were also indignant that Scotland should
be joined with Holland in an enterprise by
which their own privileged companies would be
supplanted. The subject was brought before
the English parliament, and so zealously taken
wp by both houses that they appointed a com-
mittee of inquiry as to how the act had been
obtained and who were the company's sub-
scribers. They also drew wp and presented
a joint address to the king, setting forth the
evils that would accrue to England from such

1 Darien Papers (Bannatjne Club Publications).

236

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1690-1702.

a mercantile incorporation. " By re;ison," they
stated, " of the great advantages granted to
the Scots India company, and the duties and
difficulties that lay in that trade in England, a
gi'eat part of the stock and shipping of this
nation would be carried thither, and by this
reason Scotland might be made a free port for
all East India commodities, and consequently
those several places in Europe which were sup-
plied from England would be furnished from
Scotland much cheaper than could be done by
the English, and therefoi^e this nation would
lose the benefit of supplying foreign jjarts with
those commodities, which had always been a
great article in the balance of their foreign
trade. Moreover, that the said commodities
would unavoidably be brought by the Scots
into England by stealth, both by sea and land,
to the great prejudice of the English trade and
navigation, and to the great detriment of his
majesty in his customs. And that when that
nation should have settled themselves by plan-
tations in America the English commerce in
tobacto, sugar, cotton, wool, skins, masts, &c.,
would be utterly lost, because the privileges of
that nation granted to them by this act were
such that that kingdom must be the magazine
of all commodities, and the English plantations
and the traffic there lost to this nation, and the
exportation of their own manufactures yeaiiy
decreased."^ It was a selfish and insulting
document. It seemed to intimate that Scot-
land was a mere dejieudency of England, and
that its parliament had no right to grant any
privileges that infringed upon the interests of
England. But still further than this the House
of Commons proceeded. In prosecuting the
inquiry they seized on the books and documents
of the company in London, threatened the
capitalists who had subscribed to its fund, and
voted that Lord Belhaven, Patersou, and the
other agents of the Scottish company who re-
sided in London should be impeached of high
crimes and misdemeanours because they had
administered an oath of fidelity to the associa-
tion. These denunciatory proceedings com-
pelled the English subscribers to pause; and
finding that they were not only liable to for-
feiture of their money but the infliction of civil
pains and penalties, they refused to pay up their
subscriptions, and allowed their rights in the
company to expire. Thus wealthy England
was lost to the association, and through the
same selfish intrigues and the denunciations of
William Holland and Hamburg were also in-
duced to withdraw their subscriptions.

The great project was thus reduced once

^ raiiiainentaiy UULory, vol. v. pp. 975, 976.

more to an abstract speculation, and unless the
Scots, the poorest of the nations of Europe,
could carry it on by their own unaided resources,
it would soon become a vague national tradition.
But it was not to be thus abandoned. It had
been devised by their own countryman, and for
their especial behoof. It had recommended
itself to their enthusiasm by its grandeur, and
to their cautiousness by its feasibility. And
when England had so selfishly and violently
crossed it, their own national jealousy was
wounded, and their national honour provoked
to its defence. Let but a great eff'ort be made,
a vast sacrifice at the outset hazarded, and
their country would no longer need to wait
for the assistance of jjroud and wealthy Eng-
land. A feeling so congenial to the j^erfervid
spirit of the Scots grew in intensity and widened
in range, until it comprised all classes of the
kingdom, so that when the subscription books
were opened in Edinburgh, the rush of sub-
scribers was similar to that which had been
exhibited in Greyfriars' Churchyard, in the
reign of Charles I., at the signing of the Cove-
nant, On the first day, the 26th of February,
only a month after the denunciations of the
English parliament, the subscriptions in Edin-
burgh were far more than £50,000; before the
end of March, more than half the share of
capital assigned to Scotland had been filled up,
and when the whole ,£300,000 was completed,
the desire of subscribing was still so strong,
that an additional £100,000 was added to the
amount. In these subscription books, which are
still preserved, we can contemplate with melan-
choly sympathy the enthusiasm and the hopes of
the subscribers,belonging to every prof ession,who
threw their all upon a cast. The first entry is
that of the Duchess of Hamilton and Chatelher-
ault, who subscribes £3000. The nobles highest
in rank and the illustrious in the history of that
period are also there, all for sums varying in their
amount but still large as compared with their
means, largely intermixed with the names of
lawyers, physicians, and merchants — the men of
science and the men of business, to whom the
scheme, instead of appearing a mere Utopia, was
acceptable as the most sober and substantial of
sjieculations. The same lists also evince the grow-
ing wealth and enterprising spirit of Glasgow,
several of its merchants having subscribed a
thousand pounds apiece to the enterprise. The
books in Glasgow and Edinburgh were to be
closed on the 3d of August, but such was the
rush of subscribers, that the original sum and
its addition of one hundred thousand pounds was
fully subscribed two days previous, sixteen sub-
scribers having enrolled themselves on the first
of August to the amount of £14,00(.». It is to

A.D. 1690-1702.]

WILLIAM III.

237

be remarked, too, that there was none of that
jobbing in shares, by selling out at a heavy pre-
mium, which afterwards became such a feature
in mercantile sjieculations. It was a high na-
tional adventure in which the undertakers stood
shoulder to shoulder, and e--\ch man subscribed
for himself alone, and was willing in his own
person to undergo the risk.

From the importance and complication of the
preparations, and the obstacles that were thrown
in its way, the expedition did not set sail until
the year 1698. Tlu'ee ships, the Caledonia, St.
Andreio, and Unicorn^ which had been jxirchased
by the company from the Dutch, and fitted out
as ships of war, and two tenders laden with
merchandise, provisions, and military stores,
were in readiness to sail from Leith on the
26th of July. In this armament were twelve
hundred men, of whom three hundred were
gentlemen, standing on the decks to bid their
friends farewell, while crowds in thousands
from Edinburgh and every part of the country
thronged to the harbour of Leith to witness the
dejaarture. But it was with the hojie of a re-
union, however distant, either there or in the
land which these gallant pioneers were to open
up. And such was the enthusiasm inspired by
the enterjirise, that several had embai-ked in it
whose company was unexpected. These were
soldiers and seamen who had offered their pro-
fessional services but had been rejected, so many
having already applied that the number was
filled vip; and when discovered in their hiding
places and ordered ashore, they clung to the
ropes and masts, praying to be allowed to go
with their countrymen, and offering to serve
without 23'iy- Paterson himself accompanied
the expedition, but as a private passenger and
shareholder, not as its governor or commander.
It had been suggested that he should be em-
ployed in it, but the suggestion was not followed,
and although he had proposed a judicious
system of government for the colony it was not
adopted, and he was obliged to embark in an
enterprise of his own conception as a private
adventui'er, accompanied by his wife and ser-
vant. Even when he entered on board the
Unicom, and advised Captain Pennycuik, the
commodore, to call a council before they sailed,
to inquire into the arrangements of provision
for the voyage, he was sharply told by the com-
mander that he knew his own business, and the
instructions he had to follow. Only a very
few days after they had set sail their provi-
sions were found so scanty that the people had
to be put on short allowance. Even already
their troubles had commenced. ^ It was a col-

' Report of Paterson to the Directors.

onizing scheme on a gigantic scale by a countiy
that knew nothing of colonization.

On the 4th of November the adventurers
reached their land of promise. It was a pro-
jecting point on the Gulf of Darien, and upon
the isthmus itself they prepared to settle by
laying out the plan of two towns, the one to
be called New^ St. Andrews, and the other
New Edinburgh. The first of these towns was
happily situated on the northern coast of the
Isthmus of Darien or Panama, being midway
between Porto-Bello and Cartagena, about fifty
leagues distant from either, and possessing such
a noble harbour that the greatest fleets could
be received in it; while on the other side of the
isthmus were the shores of the Pacific, then
little known, indented with bays and harbours
equally promising. Although the Spaniards
laid claim to the Isthmus of Darien in common
with all those parts of the globe, they did not
occupy it, so that it was inhabited by only a
few Indians, who welcomed the new arrivnl.
The Spaniards, however, occujjied both sides of
the country, so that the coming and the claims
of these formidable settlers were not there-
fore likely to be agreeable to them, trembling
as they were at the recent visits of the buc-
caneere, and the traditions of Drake and his
contemporaries. The Scots, indeed, alleged
that they had found the place unoccupied by
Europeans, and had purchased the right of set-
tlement there from the natives; but these claims,
however just in themselves, could only be made
available by a company of traders if supported
by a government having fleets and armies
at its command. It was also remembered
that the native chiefs who had granted the
right of settlement to the strangers had con-
ceded the same right to the buccaneers so late
as 1680.

The expedition had left Europe under secret
opposition and envy; it had settled upon a ter-
ritory to which its right was questionable; and,
while England and Holland were ready to re-
joice in its downfall, its claim of occupation was
contested by a people who had the right of jire-
scription upon their side, and superior force to
make it good. Foreseeing the possibility of
such difficulties, Paterson had recommended a
plan of rule correspondent to the emergency,
but instead of listening to his advice, they set
up during the voyage a government of their
own, as unfit as could have well been devised.
Seven gentlemen were appointed to act as the
council and governors of the new state, with
full power to appoint all officers civil and mili-
tary by land or by sea; but when they landed
their plans were so contradictory, that they
were undecided on what part to settle, and had

238

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1690-1702.

nearly selected a moi-ass for the place of their
establishment. Finding that seven independent
and irresjjonsible rulers were worse than none,
they at last, through sheer necessity, appointed
a president, but so jealous were they of his
jiower, that each was to hold it in rotation, and
only for a week at a time. As might therefore
be expected, each president undid the work of
his predecessor, and the affairs of such a govern-
ment soon fell into confusion. ^ Nor were the
colonists themselves of that steady, industrious,
plodding character which are best fitted for the
pioneers of civilization. Some, indeed, were
political enthusiasts, who were ready to sacrifice
their all for a theory; and some were men of
strict piety and virtue; but there were among
them many gentlemen more accustomed to com-
mand than obey, and more conversant with the
pi-actices of war than the arts of peace and com-
merce. Sailors had also joined the expedition
who had formerly been among the buccaneers,
and were more ready to plunder the Spaniards
than to treat with them; soldiers whom the
late wars had made poor and profligate, and
who hoped for better fortune by the exercise of
their profession in the New World than the Old ;
and a few Highlanders who hated the Revol-
ution, as it was not one of their own making. ^
It was said, indeed, and not without reason,
that these twelve hundred men, brave, hardy,
and for the most part accustomed to arms and
inured to the fatigues and dangers of war, might,
if so disposed, have marched from one end
of South America to the other without finding
a Spanish force able to resist them. They were
not the persons who can remain in one spot, or
be content to spend their lives in digging and
delving. To add to the corruptibility of such
a society, and their disinclination for a settled
home and occupation, there was not one woman
among their number, for the wife of Paterson
had died a short time after their landing.

As soon as the infant colony had settled its
first public act was a declaration of freedom of
trade, and not only of trade, but of religion, to
all nations. This was a stretch of liberality so
unprecedented as to heighten our regret that
the community which had devised it had not
also sufficient time and opportunity to enjoy
its eff'ects. The only restrictions upon this
liberty of conscience were such as the conces-
sion itself naturally suggested, and consisted in
conniving at or indulging in the blasphemy of
God's holy name or ajiy of his divine attributes,
or unhallowing or profaning the Sabbath day.
In conducting the government, also, it was

1 Report of Paterson to the Directors.

2 Paterson's Report ; Earl of Seafield's letter to Mr. Car-
stairs.

stated that the chief care should be to frame
its constitution, laws, and ordinances in con-
formity to " the Holy Scriptures, right reason,
and the examples of the wisest and justest na-
tions." In the colonial parliament which was
summoned for this task of legislation the chief
text-book used seems to have been the law of
Moses. A few of the statutes devised we shall
now briefly mention. It was in the first place
declared that "the precepts, examples, com-
mands, and prohibitions expressed and con-
tained in the Holy Scriptures, as of right they
ought, shall not only be binding and obliging,
and have the full force and efl"ect of laws within
the colony, but are, were, and of right ought to
be, the standard rule and measure to all further
and other constitutions, rules, and ordinances
thereof." Then followed the denunciation that
whosoever blasphemed or profaned the name of
God or his attributes should, after making
public acknowledgment of his off"ence, suffer
three days of imprisonment, and be subjected
during that time to hard labour and a diet of
bread and water. All disrespectful conduct or
language towards the council or any public
officer was to be punished according to the
nature of the offence; and whosoever resisted
an officer or magistrate in the discharge of his
duty was to suffer death, or such other punish-
ment as the justiciary court might inflict. To
send a challenge, to fight a duel, or officiate as
a second in it, were equally capital crimes; a
provoking or threatening word against one of
equal degree was to be visited with the punish-
ment of hard labour for six months at the public
works; and he who wilfully hurt or maimed
another was to pay for the loss of time occa-
sioned thereby, and for the pain and cure, and
if unable to pay was to become the servant of
the injured party until full reparation was
made. No man was to contrive mutiny or
sedition in the colony on pain of death. Moral
offences were as strictly dealt with as political,
and to commit murder, or even to assault with
lethal weapons, was punishable with death.
The same penalty was denounced against the
act of stealing either man, woman, or child from
the colony, and he who violated a woman, even
though belonging to an enemy, was also to
suffer death. Housebreaking and all forcible
theft was to be punished with loss of life or
liberty; a thief was to restore fourfold the
amount he had stolen, or repay it with hard
labour, and to rob Indians, or their plantations
or houses, was to incur the same penalties.
After these and other equally stringent laws
against violence and dishonesty, those of buying
and selling succeeded. No man was to be de-
tained prisoner more than three months without

A.D. 1690-1702.]

WILLIAM III.

239

being brought to lawful trial. No freeman's
person was to be liable to restraint or imprison-
ment for debt, unless fraud or breach of trust
could be proved against him. And for the just
and easy satisfaction of debts, all lands, goods,
debts, and other effects whatsoever and where-
soever, were made liable — but not the needful
and working tools of a mechanic, the proper
books of a student or a man of reading, and the
proper and absolutely necessary clothes of any
person. Finally, in the administration of jus-
tice no sentence was to pass without the concur-
rence of a jury of fifteen pejsons, by a majority
of their votes; no man was to sit in court, or be
of the jury, or act as judge, in any cause of
which he was an interested party; and to guard
the court from such practices as had been too
often used in the mother country, no man was
to use "any braving words, signs, or gestures,
in any place of council or judicature, whilst the
council or court was sitting, ujion pain of such
punishment as shall be inflicted by the court."

But let the legislation of the Darien Colony
be what it might it was powerless to save it
from destruction; and active agencies were at
work in Europe which were to procure its
downfall. William, who was at peace with
Spain, and to whose system of Continental poli-
tics that peace was of vital importance, would not
consent to derange his chei'ished jalans for the
sake of the colony, or even of Scotland itself, a
country which he held in cheap estimation.
And as little was he disposed to disregard the
petitions of his English subjects who traded
with the East, and the representations of the
Dutch East India Company, who regarded the
infant colony as an unlawful intruder, that
might in time prove a dangerous rival. He
therefore ordered the Earl of Seafield, secretary
of state for Scotland, to inform the colonists
that their design not having been communi-
cated to the king, he must withhold his assist-
ance from them until he should receive more
certain information. On this the company in
Scotland replied that their ships had already
reached the coast of Darien, and had obtained
from the natives by fair treaty a tract of coun-
try which had never been in the possession of
any European power. But the king, who knew
the claims of Sjaain to that country, and how it
would regard such a treaty with contempt, pro-
ceeded to action by sending out his orders to
Sir William Beeston, governor of Jamaica. In
consequence of this Beeston issued a proclama-
tion in April, 1699, about seven months after
the settlement of New Caledonia, announcing
that his majesty had not been advertised of
the designs of the Scots in relation to Darien,
and that being contrary to the treaties subsist-

ing between the king and his allies, all his sub-
jects in these ])arts were forbidden to hold any
correspondence whatsoever with these colonists.
Similar proclamations were also issued by their
governors to the other West India islands held
by the English, so that the Darien emigrants
found themselves shut uj) within a hostile
territory, and branded as fugitives and rebels.
It cut oft" at once their best hoj^es. New
York, Barbadoes, and Jamaica were the places
from which they had hoped to receive aid and
sympathy, and derive their supplies of provi-
sions, and now their harboui-s were relentlessly
closed against them. Even from their distant
native counti-y there was no help. Scotland,
indeed, was deprived of the power by one of
her periodical famines in consequence of a de-
fective harvest ; and the emigrants, after having
consumed their own supjilies, looked wistfully
seaward in vain for the exjaected arrivals from
their native land. With the want of food, or
such scanty fare as «ouId be supplied by hunting
and fishing, came the baneful eft"ects of a tropical
climate, and the hardy Scots perished daily in
dozens, and found their chief task limited to the
burying of their dead. The capture of one of
their vessels by the Spaniards was the climax
to their suff"erings, and brought the aff'airs of
the colony to a close. The Dolphin, commanded
by Captain Pinkerton,on a voyage to Barbadoes,
had been stranded on the coast of Cartagena;
the cargo was condemned, and the crew sent to
Spain to be tried as pirates. Under this last
blow their sjairits sank, and on the 23d of June
(1699) they left the settlement which they had
occupied only eight months, although Paterson
vainly entreated them to stay, and was the last
man to embark. They embarked in three vessels,
and two of them, after losing each 100 men, ar-
rived at New York, the one on the 8th and the
other on the 13th of August. But the governor
was absent at Boston, and, in consequence of his
absence and the proclamation which had been
issued against holding intercourse with the
colonists of New Caledonia, the settlers of New
York demurred about receiving these sick and
dying men into their town or fxirnishing them
with the means of subsistence. The third ship
arrived at Jamaica, and its exhausted crew
were received with similar churlishness, so that
they were obliged to depend upon the private
charity of the benevolent.

While these disastrous events were going on
by which the colony was ruined and broken up
the people of Scotland were exulting in the hopes
of its success ; and as soon as the news of the safe
landing of the emigrants had arrived public
thanks were given in the churches, followed by
the ringing of bells, the blaze of bonfires and

240

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1690-1702.

illuminations, and every indication of popular
triumjjh. Of this the chief directors of the com-
pany in Edinburgh wrote to the council of New
Caledonia, and assured them withal that ships,
stores, men, arms, provisions, and other neces-
saries should be sent out to them with the ut-
most despatch. And these wei'e no empty pro-
mises, for in the month of May, just when the
starved and worn-out colonists were on the
point of leaving the settlement, two ships sailed
from Leith for New Caledonia, carrying provi-
sions and military stores, and a reinforcement
of 3()0 settlers. The persons who composed this
reinforcement consisted of overseers, assistants
and sub-assistants, gentlemen volunteers, trades-
men, and planters; and besides these were two
captains in the quality of military engineers, a
bombardier and a gunner for the defence of the
colony, a goldsmith who understood the refining
of gold and silver, and a Jew who knew the
Indian as well as European languages to serve
as interpreter — all of them men whose abilities
had been tested, and who were engaged on
liberal salaries. But on their arrival at New
Caledonia they found silence and desolation
where they had expected a happy welcome: the
fort was dismantled, the huts burned down;
and where rich cornfields should by this time
have waved there was nothing but clumps of
wild, tropical vegetation, intermingled with
numerous graves. They could scai'cely believe
their eyes or the report of the few deserters
who crept from their hiding-jjlaces to join them.
But while they were j^erplexed as to what thej'
ought to do, and finding that they could do
nothing, a third expedition arrived from Scot-
land, but only to multiply their distresses and
add to their perplexity.

This last and greatest instalment of a ruinous
adventure was composed of 1300 men in four
ships. When it was about to set sail from the
Clyde in November it was only then that the
news arrived of the evacuation of the colony,
and thunderstruck at the intelligence of such a
cowardly and incomprehensible abandonment,
as they then considered it, the directors sent
orders to Rothesay, whence the fleet was about to
sail, ordering it to wait until they should receive
more certain intelligence. But the commanders
of the expedition were so impatient for the ad-
venture, that, instead of waiting, they weighed
anchor and set sail. On landing, however, in
New Caledonia Bay in December they found
the rejjorts which they had treated as lying
rumours only too well verified by the desolation
into which they entered. "Where they expected
a flourishing city, they found every hut burnt
to the ground, and the batteries of the fort of
St. Andrews demolished. They landed and

talked of repairing the huts, but in the mean-
time lived chiefly in their vessels, dreading the
insalubrity of the climate, of which such con-
vincing proofs were before their eyes. To add
to their perplexity the prospect of famine began
to haunt them, as their stock was running short,
and there was no certain prospect of obtaining
fresh supplies. It was not wonderful, then, that
even after they were landed they were uncertain
whether to stay or return, and that many, dis-
contented at the prospect, clamoured for the
latter alternative. Of these malcontents one of
the council was the chief, and he set himself to
counteract all the bolder proposals that tended
to perseverance in the attempt to restore the
colony. Thus matters continued after seventy-
two new huts had been constructed, with a
guard-house, and a building that served alter-
nately for a church and a store. During this
season of inaction and dissension the Spaniards
were mustering their forces for an attack on
the settlers both by sea and land, and this
menace of a common danger produced a tem-
porary unanimity. Sixteen hundred Spanish
soldiers, having been brought from the oppo-
site coast and encamped at Subucantee on the
edge of the Isthmus, Captain Campbell, who
had joined the colonists with a company of
his own Highland tenantry, whom he had
commanded as soldiers in the war of Flanders,
set out against this array with only 200 fol-
lowers, and after a long and laborious march
across the mountains, attacked them in their
encampment and put them to the rout with
considerable slaughter. But this gallant out-
burst of the old Scottish spirit, which at a hap-
pier season might have saved the colony, was
too late to be availing, and when Campbell re-
turned to St. Andrews it was to find five block-
ading Spanish ships of war in the harbour, while
the colonists had only frail hastily constructed
fortifications for their defence. Even here, how-
ever, the victor of Subucantee and his brave
Highlanders defended the place for nearly six
weeks; and when the garrison was compelled to
surrender upon honourable terms he embarked
with his followers in his own ship, sailed to Scot-
laud which he reached in safety, and was re-
ceived by his countrymen as a hero. As for the
colonists and their property they were allowed
by the Spaniards according to agreement to
embark in two of their ships, the Hope and the
Rising Sun; but the crews were so few in number
and so weak that they were scarcely able to weigh
their anchors. Although they were humanely
treated at parting by their enemies they had
a diff"erent reception from the governors of the
English possessions at which they touched, who
behaved to them as if they had been lepers or

A.D. 1690-1702.]

WILLIAM III.

241

felons. At last their cares were speedily and
disastrously ended by the Hope being wrecked
on the western coast of Cuba, and the Rising
Sun on the bar of Carolina. Not more than
thirty of these ill-fated adventurers survived
to return to Scotland.'

While Scotland was exulting in the thought
that the Darien colony was firmly established
at last, the crushing intelligence arrived that
all was irretrievably ruined. New St. Andrews
had surrendered ; the colonists had been scat-
tered to the four winds of heaven ; such as had
survived the neglect of the English colonies, the
shipwreck, and the prisons of Cartagena, were
retui'ning to find a shelter, or it might be a
grave, in the home which they ought never to
have abandoned. The loss of hundreds of lives
and hundreds of thousands of money, the cruel-
ties inflicted on the survivors, and the selfish
mercantile jealousy and political intrigue which
had exacted such a sacrifice, excited the Scots
to frenzy, and under its fii'st inspiration they
talked of a war with England, and a declaration
that William, from his share in the transaction,
had forfeited his occupation of the Scottish
throne. But when the first burst of this rage
had passed away the council-general of the com-
pany, consisting of the directors appointed by
parliament and the representatives of the stock-
holders, had recourse to more constitutional
measures by transmitting an appeal to the king
through Lord Basil Hamilton. But the present
Duke of Hamilton was a Jacobite, the family
was connected with the Darien scheme, and Lord
Basil himself had not waited upon the king
when he was last in London, and had not as yet
given any token of his loyalty. These circum-
stances were represented to William by his coun-
sellors as sufficient reasons for refusing him an
audience, and they prevailed. There is a tradi-
tion, however, that his lordship watched the
king's departure from the audience hall to thrust
the appeal into his hand; and that William ob-
served, "That young man is too bold," but hastily
added in qualification — " if a man can be too
bold in his country's cause." ^ It is certain,
however, that this nobleman was refused an
audience, and this rejection, which was justly
regarded as a slight upon the nation at large,
did not tend to pacify the Scots. A more de-
cisive process was thei'efore adopted; it was
to send a national address to the king desiring
him to submit the affairs of the company to par-
liament. This address, which was expressed in
bold decisive language and subscribed not only

1 Darien Papers (Bannatyne Club Publications) ; Contem-
porary Tracts on the Darien Company ; Burton's History
of Scotland; Dalrymple ; Carstairs Papers.

- Dalrymple.
VOL. III.

by many of the aristocracy, but holders of place
under the crown, was presented by the Marquis
of Tweeddale and other influential persons on
the 25th of March, 1700. But William received
it with contemptuous coldness, and to the re-
quest that he would hasten the meeting of par-
liament for the expression of the national senti-
ments regarding the Indian and African Com-
pany, he briefly told them, that the parliament
was to be opened in May, and could not meet
any sooner.

As the only hope of redress lay in the Scot-
tish parliament the Company and the nation at
large awaited its opening with feverish im-
patience. Its session commenced on the 21st of
May (1700), and the king's letter at the open-
ing, instead of being received with gratitude,
was regarded as an insult. " We are heartily
sorry," were the words of this cold missive, "for
the misfortunes and losses that the nation has
sustained in their trade, and we will effectually
concur in anything that may contribute for pro-
moting and encouraging of trade, that being
so indispensably needful for the welfare of the
nation." The letter then went on to recommend
the encouraging of manufactures and the im-
provement of the native produce of the kingdom
— as if these had not already sustained a damag-
ing blow! The Duke of Queensbeny, lord -com-
missioner, and the Earl of Marchmont, chancellor,
then made speeches extolling the glorious effects
of the Revolution, the deep debt of gratitude
which the country owed to the king, and the im-
policy of urging at the present time any projects or
proposals that might weaken his majesty's coun-
cils by promoting dissensions among the people.
The reply of the parliament was suggestive of
the principal business on hand — the injuries and
claims of the Darien Company — and this was
followed not only by an address from the com-
pany, but a deluge of similar remonstrances from
every part of the kingdom. A resolution was
forthwith moved that the colony of Darien was
a legal and rightful settlement in terms of the
act of 1695, and that the parliament would
maintain and support the same. The commis-
sioner was overwhelmed, and found his only
refuge in an adjournment. The speech which
he made on this occasion also was a curious con-
fession of his perplexity and helplessness; he
said that he was troubled with a " cold and
hoarsenes.s," which prevented him from speaking
fully. The adjournment was only for three days,
dui'ing which he hoped that a milder sjiirit would
prevail; but when the session was resumed it
met in a more angry temper than before.
Queensberry then ventured upon the uncon-
stitutional measure of a second adjournment of
twenty days, alleging for this unwonted stretch

91

242

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1690-1702.

of his prerogative that several unforeseen things
had fallen out which obliged him to consult his
majesty. On that same night a majority of the
members assembled in a private house and drew
up an address to the king complaining of these
adjournments, and demanding that they should
no more be repeated, and that when the day to
which they were adjourned should have arrived,
the session should continue until the grievances
of the nation were redressed. But, in spite of
this remonstrance, a third adjournment followed,
and the indignant members, perceiving that they
were only mocked with delays, proposed that
they should sit and deliberate in spite of the
proclamation, and that they should resist any
attempt to dislodge them from the building.

Edinburgh was now a city of political uproar.
The resentment of the Estates and the indigna-
tion of the people recalled the memories of the
old inhabitants to the temper of the country in
1641 when Charles I. assembled his Scottish
parliament ; and it was feared that this spirit
was only the prelude of a fresh encampment at
Dunse Law. Nor was the church a passive on-
looker on the present occasion, for the General
Assembly, by appointing a fast and public hu-
miliation for the national sins and their visita-
tion, seemed to countenance the parliament in
its resistance. But one circumstance which oc-
curred at this critical moment was as a shower
of oil upon the red embers of popular resentment.
It was the news of the gallant action of Captain
Campbell and the defeat of the Spaniards at
Subucantee, which showed what the colony
might have done had the government only left
it to its own resources. Campbell therefore
became the hero of the hour, and a medal was
struck in which he was represented careering
upon his war-liorse and trampling the defeated
Spaniards beneath its hoofs. The popular cry
decreed an illumination, and the mob that now
predominated enforced its observance, so that
not only the main streets but the lanes blazed
with light, while every window was smashed
that was either in darkness or not sufficiently
illuminated. But even when windows were
broken to the value of ^5000 this was not
enough : the houses of the members of govern-
ment were attacked by angry crowds and
threatened with sack and ruin ; the Netherbow
port was taken by storm, and also the military
post of the city guard ; the Tolbooth was broken
open, and two prisoners set free whom the magis-
trates had confined for printing libellous hand-
bills on the Darien affiiir; and, mixing mirth with
their fierce defiance, they caused the music bells
of St. Giles's to strike up the tune of " Wilfu'
Willie, wilt thou be wilfu' still," while this process
of violence and havoc was going on. When oi'der

was at length restored the magistrates instituted
a search for the offenders ; but these guardians
of the public peace were either so helpless or so
much in accord with the rioters that few of the
latter could be apprehended, and still fewer con-
victed; and although three were put in the
pillory, their scourging was as gentle as the self-
inflicted flagellation of Sancho Panza, while the
people applauded them during the whole pro-
cess, showered flowers upon them, drank to
them in flowing bumjiers, and enrolled their
names among the civic heroes who had deserved
well of Edinburgh. The sequel of this ridicu-
lous outbreak was a satire upon the helplessness
of government. The privy-council, after sub-
jecting the magisti'ates to a severe rebuke for
the levity of the pillory scene, doomed the city
hangman to a public flogging for having been
so gentle in his duty, and sent for the execu-
tioner of Haddington to inflict the punishment.
But no sooner had this functionary prepared
himself to operate upon the naked back of his
brother of the capital than he lost heart at the
threatening visages of the crowd and took to
his heels, leaving the Edinburgh magistrates
to settle the affair among them. For this neglect
of duty the runaway was taken in hand by the
magistracy of his own town, who, feeling their
honour at stake, sentenced him to a substan-
tial public flogging, which was inflicted by the
executioner of a neighbouring burgh. In this
strange and roundabout way the whole punish-
ment of an Edinburgh riot, that might have
led to a civil war, descended upon the back and
shoulders of the innocent hangman of Had-
dington.^

But a more effectual lull of the storm was
occasioned by a letter from the king himself,
which the Duke of Queensberry published by
the royal authority. In this William declared
that had it been jiossible for him to have agreed
to the resolution offered him by the jiarliament
of Scotland to assert the right of the African
and Indian Company he would gladly have
done it. He expressed his sympathy for the
nation's loss, and how willingly he would con-
cur in everything that could reasonably be ex-
pected of him for aiding and supporting their in-
terests, and advancing the wealth and prosperity
of their ancient kingdom ; but at the same time
he warned them " to be careful both of their own
preservation and of tlie honour and inteiest of
the government, and not suffer themselves to
be misled, nor to give advantage to enemies and
ill-designing persons too ready to catch hold of
an opportunity." These royal representations,
and perhaps some private and profitable nego-

1 Earl of Seafleld's Letter ; Carstairs Papers, pp. 011-618.

A.D. 1690-1702.]

WILLIAM III.

243

tiatious with the leaders of the Scottish opposi-
tion, were so iulluential, that when parliament
resumed its sitting a tone of moderation per-
vaded it that was at variance with its former
defiance ; and though the Darien Company con-
tinued to remonstrate and another national ad-
dress was voted, it was evident that the public
hostility was settling down into a silent, moody
discontent. Thus, when the parliament, having
continued its sitting till the 29th of October,
was adjourned to the 28th of January, the pro-
ceeding occasioned little demur, and when it re-
sumed its sitting, and the question of sui^plies
was moved, it was voted, "That in consideration
of their great deliverance by his majesty, and
that next, under God, their safety and happi-
ness depended wholly on the preservation of
his majesty's person and the security of his
government, they would stand by and support
both his majesty and his government to the
utmost of their power, and maintain such forces
as should be requisite for these ends." And
whence this subservience, so much in contrast to
the opposition manifested by the English par-
liament? It has been assumed that the leading
men of Scotland were bought over by the court,
and hence the strange abatement of their zeal,
under which the Darien question was allowed
gradually to expire. At the end of the session
the Earl of Argyle was raised to a dukedom,
and the Order of the Garter was bestowed
on the Duke of Queensberry. But the greatest
sufferer of all, one who was too virtuous to be
bribed and too bold to be silenced, was still left
to languish in neglect. We allude to the ener-
getic founder of the Darien enterprise. When
the company was formed and ]-eady for action
it had been agreed that Paterson should get two
per cent, on the stock and three per cent, on the
profits; but when he saw the unexpected and
immense amount of the subscriptions he gener-
ously suri'endered his claims in favour of the
common good of the enterj^rise. To him also
the company was indebted for the new and
noble conception of proclaiming freedom of
trade and religion to all nations as a funda-
mental principle of the colony. He embarked
with the first expedition, and, in addition to the
suff"erings which he endured in common with the
rest of the colonists, he was obliged to contend
with the factiousness of the ambitious and the
complaints of the discontented, which of them-
selves were too grievous to bear. To the last
he stood out against the proposal of abandoning
the enterprise ; and when the measure was re-
solved he was the last man who stepjaed on
board at Darien as he had been the first to em-
bark at Leith. On his voyage home he was
stricken with fever and lunacy, so that when

he landed he looked more like a skeleton than a
man; but on recovering health his wonted
energy returned, and his first task was to pro-
pose a new plan to the company, in which Eng-
land should have the joint government of the
settlement with Scotland. His proposal was
that the scheme should be carried on by a joint
stock of ^'2,000,000 sterling, one-fifth part to
belong to Scotland and the other four-fifths to
England; and by this plan he contemplated
that not only the union between both kingdoms
would be accelerated but made more cordial and
comjalete. The death of William and the troubled
events of the succeeding reigns frustrated this
proposal; but from the period of the Darien
disaster until the commencement of the year
1719, when he died, his career can be traced in
the mercantile and financial schemes which he
IDrojiosed for the welfare of both nations. It is
melancholy to think that so little should now be
known of a man whose writings were so useful
and whose sphere of action was so distinguished.
William Paterson, indeed, appears to have been
one of the illustrious few who are so far in ad-
vance of their age that they can neither be fully
understood nor justly appreciated. Hence it is
that their memory so often falls into oblivion,
and that posterity, which enjoys the fruits of
their wisdom, are unable to trace these benefits
to their true source.^

While these events were going on the order
of succession in the British throne had been
rudely shaken. Queen Mary, the eldest daughter
of James VII., and the true heir of royalty,
by whom William, her husband, could claim
the crown, died at the close of 1694, so that
William nominally as well as really was now
the sole sovereign of the empire. The next in
succession was the Duke of Gloucester, only son
of Anne, the sister of Mary, and grandson of
James, but this prince also dying in 1700, the
crown would naturally devolve upon his mother,
with all the difiiculties and uncertainties of a
female succession. And in all this the Jacobites
exulted. By these breaches in the royal line
they hoped that their deposed sovereign's re-
storation to the throne would be facilitated, and
they even trusted that the filial piety of Anne,
when her own turn of succession arrived, would
concur in the transference. But when these
hopes were at the highest, they were interrupted
by the demise of James himself at St. Germains
on the 17th of September, 1701.

This unfortunate sovereign, the last of the
Stuarts who wore a crown — a crown which he
so recklessly threw away and afterwards so
timidly attempted to recover — had seen his hopes

' Dalrymple ; Bannister's Life of William Paterson.

244

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1690-1702.

so utterly frustrated in Ireland lliat he aban-
doned the coutlict in despair. But not the less
did he hope that assassination might accomplish
what open battle had failed to effect, and of the
various conspiracies devised by his rash adher-
ents for the secret murder of William, he had
at least a foreknowledge of some of them, if not
a positive participation. But William continued
to live and triumph, and James resigned him-
self to his fate. This was especially the case
after the peace of Ryswick in 1697, which de-
stroyed every lingering prospect James had
continued to entertain of the recovery of his
crown by the arms of France, and by the severe
austerities of his religion he endeavoured to
purchase that better crown which could not be
taken from him. He therefore spent much of
his time among the monks of La Trappe, whom
he edified and sometimes astonished by the
height of his devotions : he was even willing to
forego the last prayei's of the church, and re-
main in purgatory all the longer, that he might
make suflficieut expiation for his sins. These
gloomy and contracted views, and the painful
self-infiictious to which they led, at lastexhausted
him, and while attending the service in his
chapel, the words of the anthem from the La-
mentations, " Remember, O Lord, what is come
upon us ; consider and behold our reproach :
our inheritance is turned to strangers, our
houses to aliens," so deeply affected him, that
he swooned away, and was soon after struck
with paralysis, from the effects of which he
never recovered. In his last moments he re-
quested that no dying rite of the church should
be omitted in his behalf; and, zealous to the
last in making converts, he entreated Lord
Middleton and his other Protestant attendants
to abjure Protestantism and embrace the Ca-
tholic faith. After he had received the eucharist,
he declared to his confessor that he forgave all
his enemies political and domestic — the emperor,
the Prince of Orange, and Anne, his daughter.
His host and ally Louis XIV, visited him in
his dying moments, and was so much affected
with the interview, that he declared he would
treat the Prince of Wales as he had treated his
father, and acknowledge him as King of Eng-
land. This welcome declaration was soon fol-
lowed by the cry in the streets of St. Germains,
"Long live James III. !" The late king while
living had ordered that his body should be
buried in the church of the parish where he
should happen to die, that his funeral should
be plain and private, and his only monument
be a bare stone with the insci-iption, "Here
lies King James;" but this arrangement not
being suitable to the royal pride and political
views of Louis, he caused the body to be em-

balmed and preserved in the church of the
English Benedictine monks in Paris, until God
should dis230se the people of England to show
honour after death to the king whom they had
injured while living. ^ Thus died James, a
bigot to the last, but sincere and fervent in his
bigotry, and whose best epitaph was comprised
in the well-known gibe, "There goes a king
who sacrificed three kingdoms for a mass ! "

The year 1702 opened with more favourable
auspices to William than any that had hitherto
cheered his troubled reign. The parliament
was at one with him in his foreign policy, which
had the suppression of the French ascendency
for its object, and his complaints of the insult
offered to the nation by the recognition of the
Prince of AVales and his claims, by Louis XIV,,
found a corresponding answer over the whole
kingdom. Everywhere there were expressions
of sympathy and promises of aid to maintain
the due balance of power in Europe, and pre-
serve the Protestantism of Britain, and the
votes of supplies in soldiers, sailors, and money
for carrying out his designs, were made by par-
liament in the same spirit of liberality. But
all this was only a bright halo after a life of
storm, to ti'anquillize and adorn the king's de-
parture from the world. His health of late had
been gradually bi'eaking, but this he endea-
voured to counteract by active exercise, and
when hopes were entertained of his complete
recovery, a trivial accident brought matters to
a fatal conclusion. On Saturday the 21st of
February he set out from Kensington, as he
was accustomed weekly to do, to hunt at Hamp-
ton Court, but while galloping along the high-
way his horse stumbled and fell violently, so
that the king's collar-bone was broken. He
was carried to Hampton Court where the bone
was set, but on the same evening he returned
to Kensington against the advice of his i^hysi-
cians. As no particularly dangerous symptoms
followed, his mind during convalescence was
employed with his wonted activity, and on the
28th he sent a message to the House of Com-
mons, implying what he intended to have
spoken to both houses, had his health permitted,
from the throne. It was to the following effect :
" His majesty in the first year of his reign did
acquaint the parliament, that commissioners
were authorized in Scotland to treat with such
commissioners as shoiild be appointed in Eng-
land of proper terms for uniting the two king-
doms, and at the same time expressed his great
desire of such a union: his majesty is fully
satisfied that nothing can more contribute to
the present and future security and happiness

1 Life of James II.

A.D. 1702-1706.]

QUEEN ANNE.

245

of England and Scotland than a firm and entire
union between them; and he cannot but hojje
that, upon a due consideration of our present
circumstances, there will be found a general
disposition to this union. His majesty would
esteem it a peculiar felicity if, during his reign,
some hajipy expedient for making both king-
doms one might take place, and is, therefore,
extremely desirous that a treaty for that purpose
might be set on foot, and does, in the most
earnest manner, recommend this affair to the
consideration of the house." But this good
and glorious achievement which he had so much
at heart, and the consummation of which he so
fondly hoped to include within his own reign,
was not so to fall out, for his hours were already
numbered, and with this important intimation
his political career was ended. After this he
daily became worse, and on the 8th of March
he died in the fifty-second year of his age.

As stadtholder of Holland William upheld
the sinking interests of the Protestant faith

and the expiring liberties of iiis country, when
both were threatened alike by the aggressions
of the French king. As sovereign of Britain,
his additional resources enabled him not only
to check the power of France, but to prepare
the way for those victories which were achieved
in the reign of his successor. And although
the ruler of so many discordant races and con-
tending parties, whose intrigues would have
bewildered and whose quarrels would have pro-
voked any ordinary sovereign, and reduced him
to inactivity or one-sided action, he was able to
reduce all within his sway, and into that course
of procedure which afterwards formed the dis-
tinguished characteristic of Britain as the great
constitutional monarchy of Europe. Scotland,
indeed, knew him little, and that little was
unfavourable, but she enjoyed the substantial
benefits of his wisdom and the fruits of his
administration long after the episodes of Glen-
coe and Darien had faded into traditional re-
membrances.

CHAPTER XIX.

REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE (1702-1706).

State of Scottish political feeling at the accession of Queen Anne — Hostility to the continuation of the Con-
vention Parliament — Change of officers of state — Meeting of j)arliament — Its lawfulness questioned by
the Duke of Hamilton — He retires with a portion of the members — The consideration of a union of the
two kingdoms recommended — Divisions in parliament — It is adjourned — Meeting of commissioners in
London about the union — Demands of the English and Scottish commissioners— Difficulty of agreement —
The commission adjourned — A new parliament called — Interest it occasions as the last of Scottish par-
liaments— The riding of parliament — Arrangement and ceremonies of the occasion— Parliament commences
its proceedings — Attempts to interrupt them — Alarm of the church in danger — The demands of the
Episcopalians resisted — Earnestness of aU parties for the Act of Security — Their jealous proposal for the
purpose of confirming it — Speech on the subject by Fletcher of Salton — Rancoiir and fierceness of the
debate — The parliament adjourned — Account of Fraser of Lovat — His offers in the cause of the Pretender
His intrigues in Scotland — His attempts to involve Athole in the plot — The mischief recoils on the Duke
of Queensberry — Lovat escapes to France— Alarm of England occasioned by Eraser's plot — Apprehension
of Sir John Maclean — Unjust trials of Lindsay and Boucher — Resentment in Scotland at the proceedings
of the judges — Meeting of parUament — The queen's letter to it — Its earnest appeal for the settlement of
the Protestant succession — Act of settlement refused until a treaty of commerce and the rights of the
nation were secured — An inquiry demanded into the trial of those accused of complicity in the Fraser
plot — The grant of supplies couj^led with a condition — Nature of the condition — Its popularity in Scotland
— The condition refused by the queen — The demand for an examination of the Fraser plot renewed —
Alarm of England at the rumours of Scottish insurrections — The subject discussed in the English parlia-
ment— Lord Haversham's speech — Lord Godolphin's danger from granting the demands of the Scots —
Proposals to separate England from Scotland — The queen petitioned to fortify the English borders —
Correspondent resentment in Scotland — Capture of the shiji Worcester in the Firth of Forth — Its crew
tried for piracy and murder upon a Scottish ship and sailors^They are sentenced to be executed — Uproar
in Edinburgh from fear that the prisoners were to be set free — The execution compelled by the mob —
ParUament meets — Parties represented at it — The commissioner's speech — Its ingratiating character —
The question of trade and commerce renewed — Poverty of the country and plans suggested for its removal
— Subjects discussed by the parliament — Its acts — Fletcher's impracticable scheme of Limitations —
Proposal of apijointing commissioners for a treaty of union — Keenness of the debate — Sudden movement
of the Duke of Hamilton — His party disconcerted by the proceeding — The Act for a Treaty of Union
carried.

Queen Anne at her accession to the throne I event produced the acquiescence of all parties;
was in the thirty-eighth year of her age. The | for while the Whigs rejoiced that her power was

246

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1702-1706.

regulated by the Revolution Settlement, under
favour of which she had succeeded, the Jacobites
were consoled with the thought that she was of
the Stuart race, and that their hopes of the re-
storation of the male line were still as reasonable
as before. In Scotland, above all, the succession
of Anne was an event of the utmost importance.
The nation was still desirous of redress for the
losses suffered in the affair of Darien, and of a
confirmation of the same rights of trading to
foreign countries which were enjoyed by Eng-
land, even though it should be at the expense of
a union. While such was the national feeling
the state of the Convention Parliament which
had sat during the whole of William's reign was
especially precarious. It was fast losing its popu-
larity, and the hostile feeling against it was
chiefly manifested by a party that adopted the
name of Cavaliers, and had the Duke of Hamilton
for its head. Its first movement was to procure
the dissolution of jDarliament, and for this pur-
pose its leaders represented to the queen, that
according to old established rule this parliament
should be allowed to expire with the death of
the king, and a new one be called. But their
ajjpeal was ineffectual, for the queen appointed
the Estates to meet on the 9th of June, and the
Duke of Queensberry, who had been royal com-
missioner during the r-eign of William, was still
continued in ofRce. Important changes, how-
ever, were introduced among the other officers
of parliament. Lord Seafield succeeded the Earl
of Marchmont as chancellor; Lord TuUibardine,
afterwards Duke of Athole, was appointed lord
privy-seal, and the Marquis of Annandale was
made president of the council instead of Lord
Melville. Altogether the parliament was com-
posed of discordant materials, representing Epis-
copalians, Presbyterians, Jacobites, Cavaliers,
Whigs, Republicans, where each party struggled
for the ascendency by turns, and each member
was ambitious of place or leadership. But it
was out of so many balancing and contending
parties that unanimity was finally to be secured,
and the Union established.

At the first meeting of the Estates on the 9th
of June the joining of these discordant elements
commenced. Immediately after the wonted
prayers at the opening had been finished, and
before the Duke of Queensberry's commission
was read, the Duke of Hamilton hurried into
the arena, and although repeatedly desired by
Queensberry to be silent until the meeting was
regularly constituted he would not be thus pre-
vented. After professing all due obedience to
her majesty he questioned the lawfulness of the
present meeting as a parliament, and read the
following protest: "Forasmuch as by the funda-
mental laws and constitution of the kinirdom,

all parliaments do dissolve by the death of the
king or queen, except in so far as innovated by the
seventeenth act sixth session of King William's
parliament last, in being at his decease to meet
and act what should be needful for the defence
of the true Protestant religion as now by law
established, and maintaining the succession to
the crown as settled by the Claim of Right, and
for preserving and securing the peace and safety
of the kingdom : And seeing that the said ends
are fuUy satisfied by her majesty's succession to
the throne, whereby the religion and peace of
the country are secured, we conceive ourselves
not now warranted by law to meet, sit, or act,
and therefore do dissent from anything that
shall be done or acted." ^ Having uttered this
protest he retired, and was followed by nearly
eighty members, who were received by the mob
out of doors with loud huzzas. At their de-
parture a quarrel ensued between the remain-
ing members, now contemptuously called the
"Rump," and a part of the Faculty of Advo-
cates who were in favour of the dissentient
members, and who subscribed an address ap-
proving of their conduct. But this formidable
resistance, which might have overthrown the
joarliament, only confirmed its authority. When
the dissentients endeavoured to justify their con-
duct to the queen she refused to receive the ad-
dress from Lord Blantyre, their messenger, and
expressed her displeasure at their conduct, and
her resolution to maintain the authority of the
parliament and her commissioner against all
who questioned it.

After the departure of so many of its mem-
bers the parliament or "Rump" proceeded to the
ordinary business as if nothing had hajipened.
The queen's letter was read, the chief object of
which was to recommend the consideration of
a union between the two nations; and in answer
an act was passed, empowering her majesty to
ajJi^oint commissioners to treat for a union as
"advantageous for the defence of the true Pro-
testant religion, and for the better preserving
and establishing the peace, safety, and happi-
ness of both kingdoms." The chief demur, ex-
pressed by only one commissioner, arose from
the queen's well-known attachment to Epis-
copacy and the dangers of such a union with
Episcopal England. But this fear was obviated
by the establishment of the Claim of Right, and
the express declaration of the queen that the
Church of Scotland should remain intact and
inviolate. Several acts were also passed, the
chief of which referred to the supplies. All
went on harmoniously until Marchmont, in his
zeal for the Protestant succession, proposed an

1 Acts of Paiiiament of Scotland, appendix, vol. xi.

A.D. 1702-1706.]

QUEEN ANNE.

247

act for abjuring tlie pretended Pi'ince of Wales.
The possibility of such a pro^DOsal had been an-
ticiimted, and the Duke of Queensberry author-
ized to pass such an act, but only if it should
be unanimously demanded; but, while it was
zealously supported by one portion of the Pres-
byterians, it was opposed by another, on the
plea that the present parliament had no such
authority; and that to pass it, would satisfy the
wishes of England and abate the desire of that
kingdom for the union. Finding that upon this
momentous question the iDarliament was divided,
the Duke of Queensberry consulted the English
cabinet, which, bei)ig of the Toiy jsarty, was
rejoiced to have such a check upon their enemies,
the Whigs, and advised that the motion should
not be brought to the vote. In consequence of
this advice, and a threat from the Cavaliers
that if it was passed, they would return and
resume their seats, the duke adjourned the par-
liament in the usual form until the 18th of
August.^

While the definite proposal of a union had
thus been brought forward in Scotland, it had
also been suggested in England by the queen
in her first speech to the parliament, when she
opened it on the third day after her accession;
and a bill was j^assed authorizing the appoint-
ment of commissioners, which became law on
the 6th of May. It was fit that the initiative
should be taken by England, as the more
powerful kingdom of the two, and on this
account the meeting of the Scottish Estates was
deferred until the 9th of June. The commis-
sioners of the two kingdoms met in the Cock-
pit at Whitehall on the 10th of November,
1702, and continued their sittings until they
were adjourned on the 3d of February, 1703;
but although their deliberations were followed
by no decisive conclusion, they constituted an
important preparation for the real business
which was afterwards so successfully accom-
plished. They were unanimous in the agree-
ment that the two kingdoms should be united
into one monarchy; that they should have one
parliament and one legislature; and that the
succession to the throne should be limited to
Sophia, the Electress of Hanover, and her chil-
dren, being Protestants, as provided for Eng-
land by the Act of Settlement. But when the
Scottish commissioners demanded, as an equi-
valent for these concessions, a " natural com-
munication of trade, and other privileges and
advantages," they were answei'ed that such a
communication must be the result of a comjalete
union, the terras and conditions of which must
be previously discussed by the board. A delay

1 Acts of Scottish Parliaments, appendix, vol. xi.

followed in consequence of the slack attendance
of the English commissioners, a negligence that
did not fail to irritate the pride of the Scots,
and make them more specific in their demands
when the two bodies again assembled. They
now distinctly demanded free trade between
the two nations, the same regulations and duties
in both countries for exporting and importing,
and equal privileges to the shipping and seamen
of both. They also demanded that the two
nations should not be burdened with each
other's debts, or if they were, that an equivalent
should be paid to Scotland as being more un-
equally burdened ; and finally, that these de-
mands should be considered without reference
to existing trading companies in either king-
dom. This had reference to the Darien Com-
pany, and the English commissioners replied
that the existence of two companies in the
same kingdom, carrying on the same traffic, was
pernicious to the interests of both. It was
finally agreed by both parties that neither king-
dom should be burdened with the debts of the
other contracted befoi'e the union; that no duty
on home consumption, or taxes to be levied
from Scotland, should be applied to the pay-
ment of English debts; and that time should
be allowed for Scotland to reap the benefit of
the communication of trade, before it was called
upon to pay duties on home consumption equal
to England, but that this should await the de-
termination of the respective parliaments of
both kingdoms. Thus, only another step was
gained by specifying the subjects for future
discussion and legislation — and perhaps it was
well that a subject fraught with such political
difficulties, and so many national jealousies,
should be so slowly deliberated. Former ex-
perience had too well shown the eff'ects of pre-
cipitancy in trying to unite these nations into
one people. When the commissioners ended
their meetings on the 3d of February, 1703,
they were adjourned by royal letter until the
4th of October, but they never met again. The
Scottish parliament, which had been adjourned
in the previous year, was dissolved, having
been sitting for an unprecedented length of time.
So new and important a change as was now at
hand demanded new members and fresh vigour,
and the political parties of the day were to be
fully represented, not by worn-out statesmen,
but men alive to the question at issue, and com-
petent for its management. ^

Never had a Scottish parliament opened its
sessions for so important a work as that which
assembled on the 6tli of May, 1703. It was

'■^ Acts of Scottish Parliaments, appendix, vol. xi. ; Defoe's
History of the Union.

248

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[A.D. 1702-1706.

also the last of Scottish parliameuts, aud as
such there is a mournful interest in its pro-
ceedings which arrests our attention, and over
which we are fain to linger. The old feudal
ceremony of " Riding," in which the royal com-
missioner and the Estates went in procession
on horseback, was performed with unusual
splendour, and regarded with unwonted interest
by a crowd who looked on with the conscious-
ness that they should never behold such another
spectacle. And was it merely a spectacle? or
did they feel that it was the type of their na-
tional individuality which was about to pass
away for ever?

The long street, from the palace of Holy-
rood to the Parliament Square, was carefully
cleansed aud cleared of every imjjediraeut, the
coaches and carriages of every description had
disappeared, and in the centre of the street
was a lane palisaded on either side for the
procession, and within which none imconnected
with it was permitted to intrude. Without
the rails, ou either side, and extending the
whole length of the way, the streets were lined
with horse-guards, grenadiers, foot-guards, and
the trained bands of the city, while round
and within the Parliament House were the
guards of the lord high constable and the earl
marshal. It was the pomp and pageantry of
war, where the ancient costume and weapons
were now almost superseded by those of modern
usage, showing that the old modes of warfare,
by which kingdoms had been built up and
thrown down were also passing away. To ride
was still imperative, for such had been the rule
established at a time when the leaders of men
were active himters and gallant men-at-arms,
to whom the saddle was a familiar seat; but
for shopkeeping burgesses and studious civil-
ians, who had lost that dexterity in the acquire-
ment of other habits, stones and posts had been
provided at the palace and the Pai'liament
Square, that they might mount and dismount
with as little pain as possible. First of the
procession, and an hour before the rest, moved
the officers of state to the Parliament House, who
were received at the opening of the Parliament
Close by the lord high constable at the head of
his guards; and after taking them under his pro-
tection, he handed them over to the earl marshal,
who had the guardianship of the interior of the
building. When the members were assembled at
Holyrood the name of each was announced by
the lord register, and the lord lyon aud heralds,
from the windows and gates of the palace; and
when the train went up the Canongate, which
they did two abreast, the proper order of rank
was reversed. First of all, therefore, with two
trumpeters in coats and banners, baieheaded.

and two pursuivants in coats and foot mantles
heading the procession, and riding before them
came sixty-three commissioners of boroughs,
each having a lackey attending him on foot;
next followed seventy-seven commissioners for
shires, each having two lackeys on foot to attend
him. After these commons came the nobility,
also with their degrees of rank reversed, the
foremost consisting of fifty-one barons, each
with a gentleman to support his train, aud
attended by three lackeys on foot wearing their
masters' arms on breast and back of their vel-
vet surtouts, either embossed on a plate or em-
broidered in gold and silver. Then came nine-
teen viscounts, similarly attended; and after
them sixty earls, each having four attendants.
Thus punctiliously was the rank of each person-
age indicated, so that the procession, which
must have been a long one from the number of
servitors, always swelled in splendour and im-
l^ortance, until it was terminated by the highest
of all, the lord high commissioner himself and
the principal noliility, each with a princely
train, according to his station and title. But
the greatest distinction was concentrated upon
the honours — the croAvn, sword of state, and
sceptre — which now, as it was thought, were to
be exhibited for the last time before they were
borne away for ever, and to carry which at the
opening of jDarliameut was the coveted privilege
of the highest of Scottish noblemen. On enter-
ing the hall, the commissioner was led to the
throne by the lord constable and earl mar-
shal, ushered by the lord high chancellor.
When the parliament had assembled, instead
of forming two houses, both Lords aud Com-
mons sat in one place of meeting, and the chief
distinction between them was, that the nobles
occupied raised and ornamented benches at the
upper end of the hall, into which no other per-
son might intrude, while the officers of state
sat upon the steps of the throne, which was
occupied by the commissioner. In the centre
of the building was a large table, around which
sat the judges of the court of session aud the
clerks of parliament, and beneath this, upon
plain benches, sat the Commons, who still
occupied the place of inferior distinction. The
vacant space nearest the doors was allotted to
the public in general, and to the attendants
who were in waiting upon the members. Hither-
to, when a question was put to the vote, each
member had been accustomed to give it in his
own language, and frequently with explanatory
declarations, but at this parliament the whole
process was simplified and shortened into an
absolute Yea or Nay. ^

1 Extracts from the Registers of the Privy-Council of Scot-

A.D. 1702-170(3.]

QUEEN ANNE.

249

The parliament was constituted ; the queen's
letter was read recommending supplies for the
war in which Britain was engaged with Finance
and attention to the improvement of trades and
manufactures; and when the speeches of the
commissioner and chancellor had ended the
Duke of Hamilton announced the projDosal of
an act for recognizing and asserting her majesty's
authority and her right and title to the imperial
crown. In this way he attempted to follow up
his hostility to the late parliament by which
the Revolution Settlement had been confirmed,
and have the meeting itself ^^roclaimed illegal ;
but this attempt was quashed by an additional
clause suggested by the lord-advocate and car-
ried by the house, making it high treason to
question the queen's right or title to the crown
or her exercise of the government since her ac-
cession. Another attempt was made to interrupt
the i^roceedings by the popular cry of "The
church is in danger." As yet the Presbyterian
Settlement of William had lasted only twelve
years, and although the royal letter had given
no cause of apprehension, the E2:)iscopal and
High Church tendencies of Anne were regarded
by the Scots with alarm. This feeling had also
been heightened by a letter addressed by her
majesty to the privy-council, in which she hinted
her sympathies for the suffering Episcopal clergy
and her desire that they should enjoy the benefits
of a full and free toleration. A motion was ac-
cordingly made on the 1st of June by Lord
Strathmore for a toleration to all Protestants in
the exercise of religious worship; but it was
met at the outset by a representation from the
General Assembly's commission and the strenu-
ous opposition of Argyle and Marchmont.
Even before the supjalies were voted they in-
sisted that the security of the national church
should have the precedence, and by their re-
presentations an act was decreed for "ratify-
ing, establishing, and confii-ming Presbyterian
church government and discipline by kirk-ses-
sions, presbyteries, provincial synods, and gen-
eral assemblies, as agreeable to the Word of
God and the only government of Christ's
church within the kingdom." By another act
it was declared that to question the authority of
the late convention parliament, or maliciously to
attempt to alter or innovate the Claim of Right,
of which the abrogation of Prelac}' and the estab-
lishment of Presbytery formed especial articles,
was high treason.^ The Presbyterians were al-
ready alarmed, and with good cause, at the

land, and other Papers connected with the Method and
Manner of Biding the Scottish Parliament, <£-c. (Maitlaiid
Club Publications); Acts for Settling the Orders in the Par-
liament House (Maltland Club Publications).
' Acts of Scottish Parliaments, appendix, vol. xi.

overweening confidence expressed by the Episco-
palian party in Scotland, and had acquired fresh
strength by additions to their ranks of many
who hated Episcopacy because it was English.
On this account the Jacobites, who were gener-
ally opposed to the Union, were often to be
found fighting side by side with the Presby-
terians.2

But the great question that succeeded, and
on which all pai^ties were at one, was the Act
of Security. Since the union of the two crowns
the wealth and influence of Scotland had been
diminished ; its commerce with foreign coun-
tries had almost expired, and its home produce
and manufactures were languishing for lack of
encouragement, while England was daily be-
coming more wealthy, powerful, and domin-
eering. Even the Revolution itself, which was
so profitable to the English, had brought nothing
as yet to Scotland but the disaster of Darien.
Scotsmen of substance, also, who had found
England open to them since the union of the
crowns, had only promoted the evil, for while
they spent their wealth there they were ready
to join those political associations which had
the ascendency of England over their own
country for its object. And all this occurred
because they had imposed no necessary re-
strictions upon their native sovereign when he
succeeded to the English throne, and had con-
tinued the same error when the Revolution
gave them a foreigner for their king. The only
opportunity, therefore, to recover the indepen-
dence of their country was to remedy this perni-
cious blunder as soon as the demise of the
present sovereign should occur. In anticipation
of this event, hajipen when it might, it was now
projjosed that within sixty days after it took
place the coronation oath should be administered
to her successor. If the heir should be a minor
the Estates were to appoint a regency, and if
no heir had been ap^iointed the Estates were to
nominate one of the royal line of Scotland, and
of the true Protestant faith, with the promise
that he should not also succeed to the crown of
England without the honour and sovereignty
and all the rights and privileges of the crown
and kingdom being previously ensured. This
fiercely decisive proposal, by which the inde-
pendence of Scotland was to be secured by
breaking asunder the ties that bound it to
England and establishing an independent gov-
ernment of its own, appeared to the extreme
politicians of every party the only mode of
settling the difficulty. It might recognize for
their future sovereign the venerable Princess
Sophia of Hanover, granddaughter of James

2 Lockhart.

250

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1702-1706.

VI., in the absence of the other princes con-
nected with the Stuart race, who were Papists;
and the reco^mitiou might be extended to her
heirs, the occupants of a German princijiality ;
but in any case the sovereign thus adopted must
gu;u"antee the honour of the Scottish crown and
independence of the Scottish kingdom, the
freedom, frequency, and authority of its parlia-
ments, and the religious freedom and commerce
of the people untrammelled either by English
or foreign influence. This "Act for the Security
of the Kingdom," introduced by Lord Tweed-
dale, was chiefly moulded into form by the
patriotic and eloquent but rejjublican Fletcher
of Salton, after a series of vehement debates
that continued from the 2Sth of May to the
16tli of September, and was supposed to com-
prise a remedy for all the evils that Scotland
had sufl'ered both from the decay of its inde-
pendent spirit and the venality of its children.
" Without this," exclaimed Fletcher, " it is im-
possible to free us from a dependence on the
English court; all other remedies and condi-
tions of government will prove iueflfectual, as
plainly appears from the nature of the thing,
for who is not sensible of the influence of
places and pensions upon all men and all
aff'airs?" Then rising with his theme, he thus
continued : " If our ministers continue to be
appointed by the English court, and this nation
may not be permitted to dispose of the offices
and jjlaces of this kingdom to balance the Eng-
lish bribery, they will corrupt everything to
that degree that if any of our laws stand in
their way they will get them repealed. Let no
man say that it cannot be jjroved that the Eng-
lish court has ever bestowed any bribe in this
country, for they bestow all offices and pensions,
they bribe us at our own cost. 'Tis nothing but
an English interest in this house that those who
wish well to our country have to struggle with
at this time. We may, if we please, dream
of other remedies, but so long as Scotsmen
must go to the English court to obtain offices
of trust or profit in this kingdom these offices
will always be managed with regard to the
court and interest of England, though to the
betraying of the interest of this nation, when-
ever it comes in competition with that of Eng-
land. And what less can be expected unless
we resolve to expect miracles, and that greedy,
ambitious, and for the most part necessitous
men, involved in great debts, burdened with
great families, and having great titles to sup-
port, will lay down their places rather than
comply with an English interest. Now to
find Scotsmen opposing this, and willing the
English ministers should have the disposal of
places and pensions iu Scotland ratlier than

their own jDarliament, is matter of great aston-
ishment, but that it should be so much as a
question in the parliament is altogether incom-
prehensible." We have thus given at some
length the speech of one of the most eloquent
and talented of Scottish orators and statesmen,
but of the debates upon this Act of Security,
and which extended over a pei'iod of nearly
four months, we can only briefly mention that
they were chiefly remarkable for fierceness and
personality. The individual as well as national
feelings of every member were involved in the
discussion, and charges of incapacity, venality,
and corruption were bandied to and fro with
a profuseuess and rudeness of language that
would not for a moment be tolerated in the
parliamentary debates of our own day. The
Act of Security was successfully carried, but
the commissioner refused to sanction it with
the royal assent, declaring that he would agree
to all their acts save that. Upon this the
storm rose to its height ; the members sj^oke of
dying free Scotsmen rather than continue the
thi-alls of England; and when attemjDts were
made to check this outburst they threatened
that if the right was denied them of expressing
their sentiments in parliament they would pro-
claim them with their swords. After this
Fletcher again introduced his Bill of Limita-
tions, which would have turned the monarchy
into a commonwealth and the king into a mere
Venetian doge ; but while they were debating
upon the proposals of committing the adminis-
tration to a council nominated by i^arliament,
the frequent holding of liarliameuts, and annual
elections of members to sit in it, the house was
suddenly adjourned on the 16th of November.
It was significant of the sjairit of this session that
the voting of supplies was delayed until the de-
mands for redress were satisfied, and that the
latter not being complied with no subsidies were
granted.^

It was when matters had arrived at this stage
that an incident occurred which was termed the
Scottish plot in England and the Queensberry
plot iu Scotland. The hero of this design, who
played in it such a discreditable part, was the
same Eraser of Lovat who had marched off" with
his clan iu battle array to join Dundee, and who
since that period had adopted the cause of the
exiled royal family at Saint Germaius, and was
ready to further or betray it as might best serve
his own interests. Indeed, his whole career from
the beginning to the end of his extended life
was a tissue of craft, villainy, and selfishness.
Disappointed in his attemjjt to usurji the estate

1 Bonuer's Annals of Queen Anne; Tindal's Histoiy of
Etxgland, vol. iv. ; Hume of Crossrig's Diary.

A.D. 1702-1706.]

QUEEN ANNE.

251

of Lovat by excluding from it the deceased Lord
Lovat's widow and her four daughters, he re-
solved to obtain it by a marriage with the widow
herself, and his courtship was in the fashion of
a savage and a ruffian. At the head of a party
of his armed banditti he burst into the house
of the defenceless lady, seized her person, had
the marriage ceremony performed amidst the
shouts of his accomplices and the yell of bag-
pipes; and, cutting open her stays with his dii'k,
he dragged her shiieking to bed as his bride.
Compelled, in consequence of this outrage, to
fly the country, where he was tried in his absence
and outlawed, he had recoui'se to the court of
St. Germains, where, having ingratiated himself
with James, he offered to betray him to William
as the price of the remission of his offences. He
was pardoned accordingly for his political ini-
quities ; but the rape not being included in the
absolution, he again went back to St. Germains,
turned Papist, and was privately introduced to
the King of France, to whom he boasted of his
Scottish influence, and offered if five thousand
French troops were landed at Dundee, and five
hundred at Fort-William, to prevail upon the
Highland chiefs to raise ten thousand men for
the service of King James. His offers were ac-
cepted but with caution, and being furnished
with money by Louis, and a major-general's
commission from the Pretender, he came to Scot-
land, and was introduced to the Duke of Queens-
berry, at that time troubled by the agitation
about the Act of Security, and who hoped to
employ Fraser's services as a spy upon the
Jacobites. To the Highlands accordingly this
double renegade went, where his plottings among
the Highland chiefs excited such commotion,
that the government was disturbed with rumours
of a gathering of the clans and a plot for the re-
storation of the banished dynasty. Among other
credentials which Fraser had brought from St.
Germains was a letter from the ex-queen to one
of her adherents, but without any address, and
signed only with the initial of her name; and
Fraser, thirsting for revenge upon the Marquis
of Athole, who had frustrated his designs upon
the Lovat succession, and nearly brought him
to the gallows for his rape on his kinswoman,
inscribed the name of the marquis on the letter,
and handed it to the Duke of Queensberry.
It was a welcome boon to the duke, who be-
lieved that it was a genuine missive to Athole,
his rival, and a proof of his complicity in the
plot for the Pretender; and he accordingly
sent the missive unopened to the queen. But,
while Fraser was thus devising the ruin of the
marquis, a plotter as able as himself was coun-
teracting the fraud; this was Ferguson, the
clergyman, better known by his usual title of

Ferguson the Plottei^, to whom deep and dan-
gerous political dances were a necessary element,
and who had joined, furthered, and deserted
every conspiracy since the time of the Mon-
mouth insurrection, and even long before. He
had by some means gained information of Lo-
vat's design, and revealed it to Athole, upon
which the latter complained to the queen that
the correspondence was a device of the Duke of
Queensberry for his destruction. The duke in
his defence alleged that a conspiracy did exist,
and that but for this interruption he would have
been able to detect and defeat it. His informant,
however, was by this time beyond his reach.
Alarmed by the discovery of his plot, and ap-
prehensive of the consequences, Lovat fled back
to St. Germains, to the mimic court of which he
gave a flattering account of his negotiations with
the Highland chiefs and their readiness to rise
in the Jacobite cause. But before this his sin-
cerity had been suspected, and two gentlemen
had been sent ostensibly to assist, but in reality
to watch his motions, by whom the fallacy of his
statements and selfish double-dealing were fully
exposed. In consequence of this detection he
was handed over to the French government,
who committed him to the close im^jrisonment
of the Bastille.i

But it was not chiefly to Scotland tliat the
alarm of this hostile rising was confined; it
also pervaded England, where rumours of the
"Scotch plot" were mingled with terrible re-
ports of insurrectionary clans, and all the un-
known dangers of a Highland invasion worse
than that conducted by the great Montrose.
In such a season of surmise and apprehension
Sir John Maclean, the head of a clan, having
been conveyed with his wife from France to the
coast of Kent, was arrested at Folkestone, carried
prisoner to London, and subjected to a close
examination in the secretary of state's office.
He had merely come over to England, he alleged,
to submit to the queen's government and take
the benefit of a pardon; but, on being more
closely pressed, he revealed all, and perhaps
more than all that he knew. About the same
time Mr. David Lindsay, who had been under-
seci'etary to King James and the Prince of
Wales, and Mr. James Boucher, who had been
aide-de-camp to James's natural son, the Duke
of Berwick, were arrested in England, having
just arrived from France. The coming of so
many Jacobites from that suspected quarter was
thought to have a connection with the Scottish
conspiracy, and the House of Commons was
clamorous for their examination. Boucher, how-

' Life of Fraser of Lovat; Stewart Papers; Lockhart
Papers.

252

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1702-1706.

ever, denied his knowledge of any plot, and de-
clai'ed that the only cause of his coming was to
solicit the queen's pardon, being weary of a life
of exile. Although his declarations were not
believed, " yet," adds Burnet, " there being no
special matter laid against him, his case was to
be pitied : he proved that he had saved the lives
of many prisoners during the war of Ireland,
and that, during the war in Flanders, he had
been very careful of all English prisoners ; and
when all this was laid before the lords they did
did not think fit to carry tlie matter further; so
he was reprieved, and that matter slept." But
the tender mercies of this reprieve were un-
availing, for soon after jaoor Boucher died in
Newgate. As for David Lindsay his case was
still harder than that of Boucher. He had come
to Scotland availing himself of the queen's in-
demnity ; and, being assured by the Scottish
lawyers that he was perfectly safe, he had set
out for London by the way of Berwick, to bring
home his wife and children. But he had scarcely
set foot on English ground when he was arrested,
tried, and convicted, and, although he pleaded
the queen's pardon and his rights as a Scotch-
man, he was condemned to die as a traitor. In
prison he was tempted with promises of a royal
pardon if he w^ould reveal the correspondence
between Saint Germains and the Jacobites of
Britain, but these offers he spurned even when
led to the gallows foot, and with immediate exe-
cution in prospect. Baffled in their hopes, and
not daring to carry out their sentence, his judges
produced a reprieve at the last moment and re-
manded him to Newgate. After languishing
four years in that dreary prison he was banished
to the Continent, where he died in want of the
common necessaries of life. It was only when
too late that his case was reconsidered with sym-
pathy and regret.^

After an interval of manoeuvring between the
different parties the session of parliament was
opened at Edinburgh on July 6th, 1704. The
case of Lindsay was not yet forgotten, and men
of every shade of politics regarded it with indig-
nation as a cruel proceeding and a violation of
the rights of Scotchmen. The influence of the
Duke of Queensberry had also declined so
gi-eatly through his connection with Fraser's
plot, that he had retired from office, the Marquis
of Tweeddale being appointed commissioner in
his room. It was thought that the conspiracies
in Scotland had been encouraged in consequence
of the succession not having been settled in that
country as it had been in England, and it was
to secure this succession in favour of the Princess

1 state Trials; Trial and Condemnation of David Lindsay,
Edin. 1740 ; Lockhart Papers ; Burnet.

Sophia and the house of Hanover that the par-
liament was chiefly assembled. The royal letter
was especially urgent upon the subject. After
expressing her willingness to grant whatever
her good subjects of Scotland could reasonably
demand to maintain the government in church
and state as by law established, and to consent
to such laws as might still be wanting for the
full security of both, and to prevent all encroach-
ments on them for the future, her majesty added,
"Thus having done our part we are persuaded
you will not fail to do yours, and show to the
world the sincerity of your professions. The
main thing we recommend to you, and which
we recommend with all the earnestness we are
capable of, is the settling of the succession in
the Protestant line, as that which is absolutely
necessary for your own peace and happiness, as
well as our quiet and security in all our domin-
ions, for the reputation of our affairs abroad
and the strengthening the Protestant interest
everywhere. As to terms and conditions of
government with regard to the successor we have
empowered our commissioner to give the royal
assent to whatever can in reason be demanded,
and is in our power to grant for securing the
sovereignty and liberties of that of ovir ancient
kingdom."

This appeal, more earnest and more humble
than those usually embodied in royal addresses,
was seconded by the speeches of Tweeddale, the
high commissioner, and Seafield, the lord-chan-
cellor. But, in anticipation of the proposal to
settle the succession, preparations had been
made to resist it, and the opposition on this
occasion was led by the Duke of Hamilton.
Without giving previous notice the duke pi'o-
posed a resolution that no successor to the
crown should be named until a fair treaty in
relation to commerce with England had first
been settled. It was a popular demand ; the
affair of Darien was still rankling in the public
mind, and many of the members were ready to
demand a full share of the plantation trade of
England, and that the shipping of Scotland
should be comprehended and included in the
English Navigation Act. This could not be
granted without the concurrence of the parlia-
ment of England ; but such a difficulty did not
impugn the propriety of demanding it. Another
resolution was proposed by the Earl of Eothes;
it was, that parliament should fii-st take into
consideration the questions of privileges and
nationality. It was advisable, he stated, that
such conditions of government should be pro-
posed as were necessary to rectify the constitu-
tion and secure the sovereignty and indepen-
dence of the kingdom, and this being done they
might proceed to the previous motion respecting

A.D. 1702-1706.]

QUEEN ANNE.

253

trade and commerce. On this a violent debate
ensued which was settled by Sir James Falconer,
who declared that both resolutions were so good
that it was a pity to sej^arate them. Both ac-
cordingly were put together and carried by a
considerable majority; and so acceptable was
the decision to the crowd out of doors, that they
cheered the members of the opposition when
they retired, and conducted the Duke of Ha-
milton to Holyrood House in triumph.

Having succeeded thus far in thwarting the
government, the Duke of Athole, who took the
lead in these violent measures, proposed that
her majesty should be desired to send down
the witnesses and jDapers relative to the late
alleged Scottish or Queensberry conspiracy, in
order that those who had been ^mjiistli/ accused
in England might be vindicated, and those who
were really guilty brought to punishment. It
was the desire of Athole and the Jacobites to
crush the Duke of Queensberry, who, it was
alleged, had fabricated the Eraser plot to serve
his own purposes. The demand was also pop-
ular, as the Scots were indignant at the trial
and punishment of several of their countrymen
w^ho had been innocently convicted and punished
as ti'aitors, and at the domineering proceed-
ing of England, which had disregarded the
rights of a nation as free and independent as
herself. The commissioner declared that he
had already written to the queen uj)on the sub-
ject, and would write again. But Anne and
her ministers dreaded this obnoxious subject,
which would have implicated more persons than
the Duke of Queensberry; and they saw that
in the commotion which it would excite, both
the question of succession and the vote of supjaly
would be lost sight of or thrust aside. She
therefore took no notice of the repeated appli-
cations for the pajiers and witnesses of the
trials; and the tempest which explanation and
discussion would only have kept alive, or raised
to double violence, was allowed to die away
into indistinct murmurings.

The Duke of Hamilton now moved that par-
liament should proceed to the limitations and
the treaty about trade, and enter into no busi-
ness until these were settled, except the passing
of a land-tax only for two months for the sub-
sistence of the forces now in Scotlaad. A bill
of supply was accordingly brought in, but with
a "tack" to it. This tack or additional stipu-
lation was, " That if the queen should die with-
out issue, a Scottish parliament should presently
meet, and the}/ were to declare the successor to
the crown, who should not be the same person
that was possessed of the crown of England,
unless, before that time, there should be a
settlement made in parliament of the rights and

liberties of the nation independent of English
councils." It will be remembered that this bill,
or the greater part of it, had been passed during
the previous session, but rejected by the queen.
This proposal threw the ministry into a dilemma :
it was necessary to maintain the troops, who
were the only check upon the disaiiected in the
Highlands; but to obtain money for the purpose
on such conditions was not to be thought of.
The "tack" also was so pojaular with the
people, as their best guarantee of independence
and defence against English domination, that
those who opposed it were regarded as traitors
to their country. Some ventured to suggest
an application to the English ministry for the
necessary funds until better measures could be
adopted; but on the other hand it was known
that the troops, both officers and soldiers, were
so imbued with the national feeling, that they
would have refused to touch English gold,
though it should be given them in payment of
their military service. While Edinburgh was
in an ujjroar, and all ranks joining in the cry
against English rule, and threatening to sacri-
fice all who opposed the Act of Security, the
trembling ministry within doors were so com-
pletely overawed, that they signed a letter to
the queen beseeching her to pass the bill, tack
and all, rather than risk the disseverance of the
two kingdoms. And by the advice of Godolphin,
her minister, Anne actually comjDlied ! He saw
that of two evils this was the least, and that it
was the only means of jarotecting Scotland from
Highland insurrection and foreign invasion.
He hoped, also, that the brilliant victories which
Marlborough was gaining over the French
would so completely disconcert the designs of
foreign invasion, and establish the prestige of
government, that this submission to the high
Scottish demands, however unpalatable, would
only be temporary, and could be easily recalled.
The Scottish ministers accordingly got the sup-
plies, by which they were enabled to increase
their small army, which at first consisted of not
above 3000 men. But even yet the parliament
was not satisfied, and they returned to the
Eraser j^lot and the trials which the House of
Lords had instituted in consequence, whose
conduct on the occasion they denounced as a
violation of the rights and liberties of the Scot-
tish nation. They accordingly sent an address
to the queen desiring that next session at least,
if not before, the jjapers and evidence relating
to the conspiracy should be laid before them;
and her reply to this was a prorogation of the
parliament.

England the while was in a fever of appre-
hension from rumours of conspiracies in the
north. Men in multitudes were said to be in

254

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1702-1706.

traiuing, and arms in ship-loads imported from
abroad. These alarms and the proceedings of
the Scottish parliament had their influence upon
that of England, where it was proposed that
the Act of Security should be examined and
discussed by both houses. It was thought also
by the opposition to be a favourable opportunity
for an attack upon Godolphiu, whose head they
boasted they had got in a bag ever since the
Act of Security had been passed. The subject
was introduced by Loi-d Haversham, who pro-
posed that the ministers should be censured;
but his speech was calm and temperate, giving
full credit both to the pressure brought against
them, and the condition of the Scots by whom
it had been applied. In reference to the last,
he observed with great moderation and justice :
" There are two matters of all troubles ; much
discontent and great poverty; and whoever will
now look into Scotland, will find them both in
that kingdom. It is certain that the nobility
and gentry of Scotland are as learned and as
brave as any nation in Europe can boast of,
and these are generally discontented. And as
to the common peojile, they are very numerous
and very stout, but very poor. And who is the
man that can answer what such a multitude,
so armed, so disciplined, with such leaders, may
do, especially since opportunities do so much
alter men from themselves?" In his motion
for a vote of censure he was followed in a dif-
ferent si^irit by the Earls of Eochester and
Nottingham, and it was declared in the house,
that the granting of the Act of Security under
the pretext of obviating a rebellion in Scotland,
had only the more provided the Scots with an
incitement to rebellion and license to resistance.
After such an angry debate as had seldom
passed within the walls of that building, Godol-
phin and his party escaped the expected con-
demnation, which fell not the less upon the
Scottish parliament, which it was proposed to
censure for its presumption. This purpose,
however, was defeated by the ministers, who
represented that this would be to arrogate a
legislative superiority of England over Scot-
laud, which would be still worse than a positive
declaration of war. The gentlest proposal that
could be obtained in its stead, was to isolate
both nations from each other either until both
were legislatively united, or were agreed in the
prospect of a common regal succession. Until
this could be effected, Scotsmen were deprived
of the privileges of English citizens, and the
queen was petitioned to fortify Newcastle and
Tynemouth, to repair the works at Carlisle and
Hull, to have the militia of the four northern
counties put in readiness for active duty, and
to march regular troops to the Border. All

these preparations, which threatened nothing
short of war, only pointed towards the union,
and showed its necessity. Godolphin, though
obliged to bow before the storm and assent to
these hot resolutions, was every day becoming
stronger through the victories of his ally, Marl-
borough, and could afford to bide his time,
while the queen's answer favoured delay and
gave time for consideration. ^

While these measures were in progress about
fortifying the Borders, which were regarded by
the Scots as a preparation for hostilities, another
incident occurred which showed more distinctly
the necessity of a union between two such
jealous nations. The Darien Company, although
brought to ruin, had still attempted to carry on
their trade, and for this purpose their vessel
called the Annandale was lying in the Thames,
waiting for a few seamen acquainted with the
route to India. But on learning that she was
to be chartered for the East India trade, the
East India Company complained of this as a
breach of their privileges, and caused the Annan-
dale to be seized, condemned, and confiscated.
As the two nations wei^e scarcely at peace at
this time, the Scots resolved to make reprisals
in the same fashion, and an English merchant
ship called the Worcester, connected with the
East India trade, having entered the Forth,
seemed to afford a favourable opportunity. The
ship, indeed, did not belong to the East India
Company, by whom the injury had been done,
but to a rival mercantile association. To this dif-
ference, however, the Scots at the time were not
disposed to pay much heed. They thought them-
selves also justified in the proceeding, as one of
the acts of the Scottish parliament in favour
of the Darien Company entitled them to make
reprisals for damage done to them both by sea
and land. A warrant for the seizure of the
vessel was issued by the company, and when
the officers of government refused to serve it,
Mr. Mackenzie, the company's secretary, re-
solved to execute it at his own risk. On a
Saturday afternoon he easily recruited a party
of eleven men in the High Street for this
desperate service, and dividing them into two
bodies, they put off from the shore and were
received on board the vessel as two separate
parties unconnected with each other, and in
quest of a Saturday evening's pleasure. While
the hospitality of the shij) was offered to these
new-comers, Mackenzie arranged them for sur-
prising it, and at his signal they started to work
so dexterously that the crew, though double
their number, were speedily overpowered and

1 Parliamentary History; Acts of Scottish Parliaments,
appendix, xi. ; Burnet.

A.D. 1702-1706.]

QUEEN ANNE.

255

secured. None of the crew of the Worcester had
been hurt in this bold proceeding, and they
would soon have been set free but for their own
mysterious and incoherent talk over their cups
of a crime they had committed, and a righteous
retribution of which this capture was the com-
mencement. Their confession amounted to this,
that they had been guilty of piracy and murder;
and out of their confused revelations a story
was formed, that they had cajjtured a ship at
sea belonging to the Darien Company, and
murdered the whole crew. It was not even
dilBcult to conjecture the ship that had fallen
into their hands, as the company's vessel called
the Speedy Return, commanded by Captain
Di'ummond, had so long been missing that she
had been given up for lost. It was enough for
the purposes of a specific charge, and Captain
Green and his crew were prosecuted for piracy
and murder. The trial commenced on the 5th
of March, 1705, and so heated was the public
mind with prejudice, that although there was
scarcely evidence enough to show that any piracy
whatever had been committed, the fact was
received as established that Drummond and his
crew had been foully butchered, and that these
men were his murderers. It was also remarked
in justification of the verdict, that providence
itself had conducted the murderers to their fate :
there was no necessity for the entrance of the
Worcester into the Firth of Forth; and when
there, the confessions which had excited inquiry
had been delivered spontaneously, without
question or accusation. Green and two of his
crew were condemned to death as principals in
the deed, and the people of Edinburgh exulted
in the prospect of their execution. Very dif-
ferent, however, was the feeling in London
when the particulars of the trial were trans-
mitted to government. In their eyes the evi-
dence was so insufficient that the condemnation
of the culprits was attributed to national re-
venge; affidavits were even obtained to show
that Drummond and his men were still alive;
and moved by these representations, the queen,
in virtue of her prerogative, sent orders to the
Scottish privy-council to delay the execution
until further inquiry should be instituted.

The events that followed this interposal were
in singular coincidence with those of the Por-
teous riot, which afterwards followed on a
more imposing scale. In consequence of her
majesty's commands the privy-council met with
fear and trembling; and, having called the
magistrates of Edinburgh to assist them, they
deliberated whether the delay might be safely
hazarded. But no sooner was the purpose of
this meeting known than the cry out of doors
arose that the criminals wei'e to be allowed to

escape. The Parliament Close, the Cross, and
the Tolbooth were instantly surrounded by the
mob clamouring for justice and threatening both
magistrates and privy-council, and they were
only appeased by the assurance of the magis-
trates tliat the criminals would be executed on
that same day. When the council broke up, how-
ever, it was rumoured among the people that the
magistrates had only deceived them, and that
the culprits had been reprieved, upon which the
mob attacked the lord-chancellor's coach at the
Tron Church, smashed its windows, and com-
pelled him to come forth ; and although he as-
sured them that the men were ordered for exe-
cution, he would not have escaped a rough hand-
ling had not his friends interposed and conveyed
him to a place of safety. It was evident that
the popular fury could not be opposed without
occasioning tenfold more mischief, and the sen-
tence was accordingly allowed to take its course.
The prisoners were brought out and conveyed
to the place at Leith where pirates were usually
executed, the crowd following them with taunts
and threatenings; and there they were hanged
at sea-mark, for the murder of a man who was
said to be still alive. After this blind and re-
vengeful execution there was a reaction of re-
morse that made the people ashamed of their
part in it, and willing to forget it, while a sense
of the groundlessness of the charge was given
by the rest of the crew being afterwards dis-
missed unpunished. This event only increased
the conviction of the reflective of both kingdoms
that a union was necessary, and strengthened
their desire for its accomplishment.^

Afl'airs were tending towards this consumma-
tion as speedily and safely as the most patriotic
could desire. The paiiiament, which was to con-
sider the overture for a union to which England
had at last submitted, assembled on the 28th
of June, 1705. It was necessary that an able and
experienced statesman should preside on such an
occasion, and therefore the Duke of Queensbeiry
was restored to confidence ; but, as he was still
somewhat unpoixilar from his unfortunate con-
nection with the bygone Fraser plot, he only
held the secondary place of lord privy-seal, while
the office of commissioner was conferred on
John, Duke of Argyle, a young nobleman whose
high talents, popular manners, and hereditary
principles had endeared him to the affections,
and won the confidence of his country. Three
parties, whose combinations and actions shifted
according to the course of events and the neces-
sities of each case, were represented in this par-
liament. The first consisted of the ministers

' Defoe's History of the Union; Burton's Narratives of
Criminal Trials in Scotland; Arnot's Criminal Trials.

256

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1702-1706.

aud their supporters, whose chief object was to
reconcile the discordant kingdoms and settle
the succession, let the union follow as it might.
The second was tlie Jacobites or Cavaliers, whose
resolute singleness of purpose compensated for
the smallness of their numbers, and who were
opposed to the union in every form. The third
was named the " Squadrone Volante," and com-
posed a middle party belonging to neither of the
two others, and deriving their name from the
support they gave to either as their own especial
views might be affected by the movement. But,
generally speaking, the majority of the Estates
wei'e resolute in demanding the trading privi-
leges of their country, and the rights of Presby-
tery, as essential conditions to the settlement
either of the succession or the union, and with-
out which they were willing to let things re-
main as they were. Even the character of the
union was also to be a matter of controvei'sy,
whether it should be federal or incorporate.
Amidst so many involved as well as contending
principles, it was not wonderful that the mem-
bers of one party should sometimes be at vari-
ance among themselves, and the members of the
other two be occasionally at one.

The young commissioner, whose speech, deli-
vered in a clear voice, and distinguished by a
gracefulness unwonted in such addresses, opened
the business of the session in the following words :
— " My lords and gentlemen, her majesty has
in her most gracious letter expressed so much
tenderness and affection towards this nation, in
assuring you that she will maintain the govern-
ment as established by law both in church and
state ; and acquainting you that she has been
pleased to give me full power to pass such acts
as may be for the good of the nation; that were
it not purely to comply with custom, I might
be silent.

" Her majesty has had under her considera-
tion the present circumstances of this kingdom,
and, out of her extreme concern for its welfare,
has been graciously pleased to recommend to you
two expedients, to prevent the ruin which does
but too plainly threaten us : In the first place,
your settling the succession in the Protestant
line, as what is absolutely and immediately ne-
cessary to secure our peace, to cool those heats,
which have with great industry and too much
success been fomented among us, and effectually
disappoint the designs of all our enemies; in
the second, a treaty with England, which you
yourselves have shown so great an inclination
for, that it is not to be supposed it can meet
with any opposition.

" The small part of the funds which were
appropriated in your last meeting for the army
are now at an end. I believe everybody is satis-

fied of how great use our frigates have been to
our trade, and it is ht to acquaint you our forts
are ruinous, and our magazines empty; there-
fore I do not doubt but your wisdom wiU direct
you to provide suitable supplies.

" ]\Iy lords and gentlemen, I am most sensible
of the difficulties that attend this post, and the
loss I am at by my want of experience in affairs;
but I shall endeavour to make it up by my zeal
and firmness in serving her majesty, and the
great regai'd I shall have to whatever may be
for the good of my country." ^

As the queen's message had so earnestly re-
commended the settlement of the succession,
and the appointment of a commission to settle
the terms of a legislative union, the discussions
that followed about the answer to the royal
message were abundantly keen, so that the
draught of it which was laid before the house
was set aside. This was done in consequence of
an amendment which was carried, that they
should first proceed to the consideration of
matters of trade. This was especially necessary
at the present time from the scarcity of coin and
the stoppage of the bank of Scotland. It was
hoped also that by patient, persevering, commer-
cial industry, the wealth of the country might
be restored without the necessity of union with
England. Nor was this commonplace view of
the subject adopted without tempting solicita-
tions to the contrary. John Law of Lauriston,
who fifteen yeai-s afterwards obtained such
notoriety by the Mississippi scheme, was at
hand to allure his native country with expedi-
tious modes of getting rich; and for this purpose
he proposed to the Estates the plan of an exten-
sive circulation of paper money, based upon the
security of the landed property of Scotland.
But, although it was so showy as to obtain the
support of the Duke of Argyle and the " Squad-
rone," it was generally unpalatable, from the
well-grounded fear that it would bring the
estates of the kingdom to be held in mortgage
under government, and accordingly Law's plan
was disposed of by the parliament in the follow-
ing brief negative: "Proposal for supplying the
nation with money by a j^aper credit read; and,
after reasoning and debate thereon, it was agreed
that the forcing any pajier credit by an act of
parliament was unfit for this nation." It was
well for Scotland that, after the failure of the
Darien expedition, she was able to take a dis-
passionate view of the ways and means of getting
rich, so that the sanguine projector, instead of
ruining his native country, was obliged to have
recourse to a foreign market. The same fate
awaited a scheme which was proposed by Dr,

1 Acts of Scottish Parliaments, appendix, vol. xi.

A.D. 1702-1706.]

QUEEN ANNE.

257

Hugh Chamberlane, another notable financial
empiric of the day. His scheme of a land bank
for enriching the nation met with no greater
favour, and it was rejected by a committee that
was appointed to consider it.^

Along with these discussions of the Law and
Chamberlane projects, the revival of trade, and
the restoration of credit and specie, several sub-
jects were introduced and discussed preparatory
to the treaty of the union, by which the feel-
ings of the house, and the nature and amount
of the exjoected opjDosition, were cautiously as-
certained. They chiefly regarded the limita-
tions on the crown which had been introduced
during the previous session; and it was evi-
dent that the majority were disposed to sac-
rifice the monarchical principle itself, rather
than be subject any longer to the control of
England. It was proposed and carried that if,
after the queen's death, the two nations should
come under one monarch, the oflicers of state
and the judges of the supreme courts should be
elected not by the king, but by parliament.
By another act it was provided, that a Scottish
ambassador should be present at every treaty
made by the sovereign of the two kingdoms
with a foreign power. Another decreed trien-
nial parliaments, which were to come into opei'a-
tion after three years. But, although passed by
the parliament, none of these acts received the
royal sanction, and in the discussion of the more
important subjects that followed they were
allowed to drop out of notice. But proposals
of a still more democratical character were also
introduced, which the parliament greatly to its
honour rejected. The chief of them was by
Fletcher of Salton, who was dissatisfied with all
these restrictions ; and who proposed a plan of
government which, if it could have been realized
in Scotland, would have converted the country
into a 2^erfect Utopia. Parliaments instead of
triennial were to be annual, and to have the
power to assemble and adjourn at pleasure.
They were to elect their own presidents, vote
secretly and by ballot, and no placeman was to
have a vote in them. As often as the king
created a nobleman the burghs should appoint a
new commissioner to their number. The sove-
reign as a matter of course was to I'atify every act
of parliament, and he was not to make jieace or
war, or grant an indemnity without the consent
and sanction of parliament. All these limitations
were to be imposed upon the Scottish king who
should be also King of England, and resident in
that country — but for every purpose of real

1 Wood's Life of Law; Law on Money and Trade; Report
of the Committee on Chamberlane's Plan ; Acts of Scottish
Parliaments, xl.
VOL. III.

authorit}^ he might as well have been resident
at Ispahan or Timbuctoo. The substantial power
would be .vested in the members of parliament,
who, by virtue of their secret vote, would be as
irresponsible and absolute as the senators of
Venice. Had his aim been to bring monarchy
into contem^Dt and procure its utter abrogation,
he could not have accomplished his purpose
more efi"ectually. When he proposed that the
royal indemnity should not be valid without
the consent of parliament, and was explaining
that this would deter ministers from giving their
sovereign bad advice, or doing anything con-
trary to law, he was interrupted by the Earl of
Stair; upon which the stern republican of the
old Roman stamp, fixing his eyes upon the noble-
man, observed, " it was no wonder that his lord-
shij) was against it ; for had there been such an
act he would long ere now have been hanged for
the advice he gave to King James, the murder
of Glencoe, and his conduct since the Eevolu-
tion."2

It was now evident that the question of suc-
cession depended on that of the union, that
there could be no King of England and Scotland
conjointly unless the two countries were united.
Having ascertained thus much by these pre-
liminary trials, the next step was to introduce
the great question at issue, which was done on
the 25th of August (1705), when the draft of an
Act for a Treaty of Union was brought before
the parliament. In England, when the act was
passed containing the proposal, the queen had
been empowered to nominate the English com-
missioners; but it had been insisted that she
should have the right to nominate those of
Scotland also. This raised the indignation of
Fletcher, ever jealous of the honour and inde-
pendence of his country, and on the 28th he
moved that a loyal and dutiful address should
be forwarded to the queen, setting forth, " That
the act lately passed in the parliament of Eng-
land containing a proposal for a treaty of union
of the two kingdoms is made in such injurious
terms to the honour and interest of this nation
that we, who represent this kingdom in parlia-
ment, can no ways comply with it." But his
representations failed to awaken a correspondent
sympathy, and after some discussion the act was
passed for appointing commissioners to treat witli
those of England. It was an important step in
advance, but not won without a hard struggle;
and this subserviency at the outset was enough
to make men wonder and excite suspicions of
treachery and double-dealing. The debate had

2 Fletcher's Political Works; Life of Fletcher; Lookhart's
"Memoirs concerning the Affairs of Scotland;" Acts of
Scottish Parliaments, vol. xi.

92

258

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1706-1707.

lasted to a late hour — late at all events for the
business habits of the times — and a considerable
number of the members, especially of tliat party
called the Cavaliers, had retired to their homes
or to the taverns imagining that the debate
was at an end. But the most imjiortant part of
it was still to succeed, and tlie opijortunity was
seized to carry it through the house. Although
consent had been obtained that commissioners
should be sent from Scotland it was with the
understanding that their nomination should be
by parliament. But now that the coast was
clear the question was brought on, "Are the
commissioners for the Union to be appointed by
parliament or left to the nomination of the
crown?" The chief supporters of the right of
the crown to nominate was the "Squadrone,"
while its keenest antagonists were the Jacobites,
who calculated on the aid of Fletcher and his
adherents. But, above all, the Duke of Hamilton,
whose affections lay with the exiled royal family,
and whose interests were opposed to the union,
was relied upon by the Jacobites as their tower
of strength in any such question as the present.
Great, therefore, was their astonishment and
discomfiture when he joined with the ministers
in voting that the nomination of commissioners
should be by the queen. The greater part of
the Jacobites had already left the house, and
only a minority remained ; but, although few,
they would even yet have sufficed to turn the
scale. Confounded, however, at the duke's de-
sertion, they hurried away, crying that they
were betrayed. Those who still kept their
seats amid the panic maintained a fierce but
unavailing resistance ; the measure was carried
by vote ; and all that the Jacobites could do
was to enter a strong protest against it, headed
by Athole, and subscribed by twenty-one noble-

men, tliirty-three barons, and eight commis-
sioners for the burghs.^

In this way the " Act for a Treaty with Eng-
land " was successfully carried through all the
obstacles that opposed it; and in looking at
these obstacles we have cause to wonder how
easily they were obviated or surmounted.
Against it we find arrayed a formidable amount
of patriotism, talent, and numbers, as well as of
national and party prejudices, and of social and
personal interests which, on former occasions,
had sufficed to silence every overture of such a
union ; but now we find this dissentient party
so divided as to be neither prepared foi' a com-
bined resistance nor to offer any other feasible
expedient by which the mutual cordiality of the
two nations might be continued. Matters be-
tween them had come to such a crisis that union
or war was the only alternative, and all the in-
termediate expedients wei'e so various and un-
satisfactory that the one negatived the other,
while none of them could stand investigation.
On the other hand, there was that union and
singleness of purpose which in a jDolitical con-
test can more than compensate for inferiority in
talents and numbers ; and there was the suj)-
port of the English cabinet, strong in its pat-
ronage, its reputation, and its victorious general,
who was more than renewing the ancient glories
of Cressy and Agincourt. These powerful influ-
ences we can distinctly detect under the troubled
surface of the past movements ; and these we
shall find in still greater force in the stormy
deliberations that succeeded. A resolution as
strong as the necessity itself was drawing the
two nations into the indissoluble bond.

1 Lockhart; Hume of Crossrig's Diary; Acts of Seotthh
Parliaments, xi.

CHAPTER XX.

REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE (1706-1707).

Meeting of the commissioners of both kingdoms to settle the terms of the union — Demand of the Enghsh
commissioners that the union should be incorporative — The demand granted by the Scottish commissioners
—They assent to the Hanoverian succession— The demand of the Scots for equality in English privileges
of trade— It is met by a demand that there should be an equality of taxes, excise, &c.— Debates occasioned
by these proposals— Difficulties of the Scottish commissioners about the land-tax— Attempts to reconcile
the contrarieties in the administration and finance of both kingdoms— Assignment of the number of Scot-
tish peers and commoners to sit in the parliament of Great Britain — The smallness of the number com-
plained of by the Scots— Slight concession made to their complaint — Equahzation of the coinage-
Uniformity of weights and measures— Navigation laws— New seal and national banner— Compensation to
be paid to Scotland for its losses occasioned by the union — Manner of the proceedings of the English
commissioners during the treaty — The terms finally settled by both parties — They are submitted to the
queen— Her approval of them— The Scottish parliament assembled— The terms laid before them— General
dissatisfaction among all parties in Scotland — Discontent and opposition in parhament — Objections of

A.D. 1706-1707.]

QUEEN ANNE.

259

different political parties at the terms of union — Methods adopted to inflame the popular anger — Attempt
to increase it by the proclamation of a national fast — The design defeated by the moderation of the church
^Uproar in Edinburgh — The house of the provost attacked — Riotous proceedings of the mob — Troops
called into the city — The uproar (juelled — Petitions sent to the parliament against the union — Tenor of the
petitions — The provost of Glasgow urged to join the petitioners— He refuses — A riot in Glasgow occasioned
by his refusal — Proceedings in parliament during these disturbances — First trial of parties on the question
of an incorporative union — The subject opened by Seton of Pitmedden — His arguments in favour of incor-
porative union — The speech in opposition by Lord Belhaven — Its remai-kable character — His predictions,
statements, and arguments against a national incorporation — His eloquent appeals to the national feelings
— The speech of Belhaven briefly answered by the Earl of Marchmont — Duke of Hamilton's proposal and
appeal — The proposal of an incorporating union carried — Successful management of the other terms of the
Treaty of Union — Attempts to hinder them from passing — Danger apprehended from the resistance of the
Cameronians — Their rising in Dumfries — They abandon their opposition — The Union hnally ratified by the
Scottish parliament — Its articles.

Nothing now remained but to appoint the
commissionei's by whom the terms of the Treaty
of Union were to be settled. Accordingly thirty-
one were appointed for Scotland and as many
for England. In the appointment of the Scot-
tish commissioners there was every apjjearance
of fairness ; for the election was made so as to
include not only the representatives of the nobi-
lity, but also of the burghs and the country
population. Members of the different political
parties were also included, so that even the
Jacobites wei-e represented by Lockhart of Carn-
wath. Only the Church of Scotland was omitted,
while the Archbishops of Canterbury and York
were present to represent that of England ; but
for this omission there was the most substantial
of reasons. It was an avowed principle of the
Scottish Church that the awards of a secular
body could not affect her ecclesiastical standing
and privileges, and by a condition in the act her
discipline and govei-nment were not to come
under the deliberation of the commission.

The commissioners met at the Cockpit on the
16th of April, and continued their sittings till
the 23d of July, The opening of their proceed-
ings was such as to inspire universal caution in
those upon whom the fate of their respective
nations depended. The English commissioners
had come to the resolution that nothing could
heal the breaches and remove the contention of
interests between the two nations but an entire
and incorporating union under one government,
one representative body, and one sovereign, and
this accordingly they proposed as the first and
principal condition. But, however they might
be convinced of its desirableness, the Scottish
commissioners could not assent to it without an
interval of discussion and delay, and after three
days of deliberation their acquiescence was re-
turned to the following effect : — They do agree
that the two kingdoms of Scotland and England
be for ever united into one kingdom by the name
of Great Britain ; that the united kingdom of
Great Britain be represented by one and the
same parliament; and that the succession to the
monarchy of the kingdom of Great Britain (in

case of failure of heirs of her majesty's body)
shall descend ujjon the most excellent Princess
Sophia, Electoress and Duchess-dowager of Ha-
nover, and remain to her and the heirs of her
body, being Protestants, to whom the succession
to the crown of England is provided by an act
made in the 12th and 13th year of the reign
of the late King William, intituled " An act for
the further limitation of the crown and better
securing the rights and liberties of the subjects,
and excluding all Pajjists, and who shall marry
Papists, in the terms of the said act." To this
important acquiescence, however, they attached
the proviso, " That all the subjects of the united
kingdom of Great Britain shall have full freedom
and intercourse of trade and navigation to and
from any part or place within the said united
kingdoms, and plantations thereunto belonging ;
and that there be a communication of all other
privileges and advantages, which do, or may
belong to the subjects of either kingdom." To
this proviso the English commissioners assented,
declaring their opinion that it was the neces-
sary consequence of an entire union.

The principal points of the Union had thus
been settled, but the greatest of difficulties had
next to be adjusted. When it was agreed that
the Scots should enjoy the same trading privi-
leges as the English, the latter demanded in
return that there should be the same customs,
excise, and other taxes, and the same prohibi-
tions, restrictions, and regulations of trade
throughout the united kingdoms. The Scots
before they could answer to this proposal desired
to see the account of these taxes, burdens, and
restrictions; but it was not so easy, on the other
hand, to draw up the balance-sheet of debts and
revenues. At length, however, the task was
accomplished, and the result showed that, while
the trade of England was profitable and great,
the taxes were equally heavy ; and that there
was a national debt already incurred to the
amount of nearly twenty millions sterling — a
sum at that time almost too great for imagina-
tion to conceive. Scotland, on the other hand,
had an insignificant revenue as compared with

260

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1706-1707.

England, but it was encumbered by no public
debt. The Scottish commissioners were as-
tounded at the schedule of English debts and
liabilities, and insisted that the revenues of their
country should not be charged with their share
of such a crushing bui'den ; but to this it was
answered that unless there was an equality of
customs, excise, and all other taxes thi'oughout
the united kingdom, the union could not be en-
tire. In such a difficulty only two expedients
could be suggested : the one was, that the two
kingdoms should unite like two tradesmen en-
tering into partnership, each paying off its own
debts and bringing its proportion of stock into
the business free of all encumbrances ; or that,
putting the general accounts together, the Eng-
lish should make good the inequalities to the
Scots in some other way. This last seemed the
only remedy, and accordingly was adopted.
Some of the taxes were remitted, the imposi-
tion of others was to be delayed for a certain
number of years, and the burden of the rest was
to be compensated by a sum of money which
was to be paid to Scotland as an equivalent.

In this attemjit to equalize the liabilities of
the two kingdoms the land-tax presented the
greatest obstacle. In England its rate was four
shillings a pound on the rent; but this impost,
which was lightly felt by the English farmer,
would have been a heavy burden upon the Scot-
tish agriculturist. While the former was often
a capitalist, and generally held his land upon
an easy tenure, many of tlie Scottish estates were
rack-rented by a fierce competition among the
peasantry for farms, however small or unpro-
ductive, if they could only afford a mere sub-
sistence. Rent also, in many cases, was paid,
not in money, but produce or personal service.
In England, moreover, the land-tax, though
nominally four shillings in the pound, was fre-
(|ueutly not more in real payment than half the
amount. It was no w'onder that the Scottish
commissioners, land-owners themselves, but with
scanty revenues in spite of their high-sounding
titles and great feudal power, should have de-
murred to such a heavy tax upon their holdings,
and striven to mitigate it. This accordingly was
done by the agreement that Scotland should pay
£12,000 for each one shilling per pound levied
in England. In this case, as under the four-
shilling system, while the land-tax of England
was valued at J2,000,000, Scotland was only to
be assessed at ^£48,000 as her share, or less than
£'50 for each £2000 of the richer country. It
was indeed a light proportion, but perhaps not
much lighter than was necessary, when com-
pared with the wretched state of agriculture at
that period in Scotland.

These financial operations of equalizing the

customs and excise, and estimating the ecjuiva-
lent in money to be paid by England to Scot-
land, not only occupied a great amount of time
but occasioned much arithmetical perplexity,
and the detail of items compared with their
sums total are occasionally so irreconcilable
that it is difficult to arrive at the real conclu-
sion except in general terms. This confusion
was mainly occasioned by the fluctuations of
the English revenue, its multiplied sources, and
the difficulty of forming correct estimates while
the science of political economy was still in its
infancy. Among the difficulties they encount-
ered were those occasioned by the malt and salt
taxes, in consequence of their different value in
the two kingdoms and the mode of levying them,
the one in England being according to value,
while in Scotland it was according to weight
and measure. When the laws for the regula-
tion of ti-ade, customs, and excise were to be the
same throughout both kingdoms it was resolved
that a court of exchequer should be established
for deciding questions about the revenue and
excise, with the same powers as those possessed
by the Court of Exchequer in England. While
the laws which concerned public right, policy,
and government were to be the same through-
out the united kingdoms, no change was to
be made in the laws of private rights, which
were to remain the same as before the union.
Accordingly the Courts of Session and Justi-
ciary were to remain entire, and only sub-
ject to such regulations as parliament might
find it necessary to introduce, and without pre-
judice of other rights of justiciary. All the
other courts in Scotland subordinate to the
supreme courts of justice were also to remain
untouched, but subject in like manner to altera-
tions by the parliament of Great Britain. After
the union the queen and her successors might
continue the privy-council for preserving public
order and peace until the British parliament
should think fit to alter it or establish any other
effectual method for that end. All heritable
offices and jurisdictions and offices and jurisdic-
tions for life were to be reserved to their owners
as right of property, and the rights and privi-
leges of royal burghs in Scotland were after the
union to continue entire.

Among so many and such variety of subjects
it was impossible for the commissioners always
to avoid that step which leads from the sublime
to the ridiculous ; and this occurred in a transi-
tion from the duty on salted flesh and fish to
the share of representation which Scotland should
possess in the parliament of Great Britain. This
subject was introduced on the 7th of June, and
apparently very abruptly, by the English com-
missioners, who proposed that thirty-eight mem-

A.D. 1706-1707.]

QUEEN ANNE.

2G1

bers sliould compose the representation of Scot-
land in the British House of Commons. The
smallness of such a number seems to have taken
the Scottisli commissioners by surprise, and they
declared that they found themselves " under an
absolute necessity, for bringing to a happy con-
clusion the union of the two kingdoms, to insist
that a greater number than that of thirty-eight
be agreed to." It was natural to think that the
145 noblemen and 160 commissioners by whom
the Scottish Estates were represented would
scarcely submit to so humiliating a reduction.
Hitherto the debates had been conducted in
writing for the expedition of business and pre-
vention of national animosity; but now the Scots
demanded a personal interview for the purpose
of explaining the grievance and in the hope of
obtaining a larger share in the representation.
Of the nature of the oral discussions that fol-
lowed we have no account, but that they were
sufficiently long and earnest may be easily con-
jectured. In their estimate the English com-
missioners seem to have taken the Union under
the Protectorate for their guide, and to have
fixed the amount of representation by that of
the taxes paid by each kingdom. Thus, as
Scotland was valued at J6000 per month,
while England paid i'70,()00, the former country
was represented in Cromwell's House of Com-
mons by thirty members and the latter by 400.
But besides the indignity of such an allotment,
which was compulsory, and by the will of a
conqueror, the Scots felt that something else
than wealth should be the basis of a national
representation. If numbers were to be taken
into account the Scots composed a sixth part of
the population of the island, and should have at
least sixty members to represent them. They
limited, however, their demands to fifty mem-
bers, with which they would have been content.
To this it was answered that to form a distinct
national party in parliament would destroy the
eftects of the Union, and that besides being the
representatives of local interests the Scottish
members would have an equal voice on all sub-
jects for the genei-al good. It was consented,
however, to increase the numbers from thirty-
eight to forty-five, and with this addition the
Scottish commissioners acquiesced rather than
break up the treaty. The same proportion of
representatives to the population which sug-
gested the number of members for the House
of Commons was also observed for the House of
Lords, so that sixteen were henceforth to consti-
tute the Scottish peerage who were to enjoy
that privilege. These were to have seats in the
Upper House, and to be chosen from the no-
bility by election, while as a boon to the rest of
the order all the Scottish nobles were to rank

with, and enjoy the same privileges as, the peer-
age of England except that of holding a place in
parliament.

The more important articles of union being
thus agreed to, several minor subjects were con-
cluded to make it complete. Of these one im-
portant subject was an equalization of the coin-
age in both kingdoms, a proper compensation
being paid for the loss occasioned by the ex-
change. It was therefore resolved that from
and after the union the Mint at Edinburgh
should be always continued under the same
rules as the Mint at the Tower of London. The
change, indeed, is an easy one, provided the money
is good and can obtain the value it rej^resents.
But far otherwise was it with a viniformity of
weights and measures which was attempted to
be established. Respecting the navigation laws
it was consented by the English commissioners
that all ships belonging to Scotsmen at the time
of signing the Union should, although foreign-
built, be considei'ed as ships of Great Britain,
the owner making oath that the vessel belonged
to him, and that no foreigner had any share or
part in it; and this precaution was judged
necessary to prevent foreign vessels from pro-
tection that were merely owned in part by
Scotsmen or chartered in their names to escape
the restrictions imposed upon foreign bottoms.
As a new national heraldry was needed it was
agreed that a new great seal should be used for
the united kingdom of Great Britain in the au-
thentication of its national acts, and that another
seal also should be kept in Scotland for matters
i-elating to piivate rights and justice. A con-
joint national banner was also decreed both for
land and sea, in which the crosses of St. George
and St. Andrew should be blended, the manner
of conjoining them to be left to her majesty as
well as the armorial bearings of the great seal.

In the meantime the subject of compensation
which was promised at the outset had not been
overlooked. What equivalent was to be jiaid to
Scotland for the concessions and changes so
largely demanded? What, above all, for the
losses sustained by the ruin of the Darien Com-
pany? It was proposed by the Scottisli com-
missioners that the company should still retain
its privileges and that its stock should be pur-
chased from the holders; but the existence of
such a formidable rival to their mercantile
interests the English could not endure. They
would willingly buy up the shares, but the
company itself must exist no longer. Accord-
ingly, when the turn of compensation came, the
purchase of this stock was considered in the
equivalent that was allowed for the proportion
of customs and excise in Scotland that was to
go to the payment of the English national debt.

202

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1706-1707.

The whole sum allotted for these purposes was
lixed at i;398,t)85, IO5. sterling. Having de-
cided upon this sum, it was next deliberated
whether the money should be paid at once or
in yearly instalments ; but this part of the de-
bate was soon terminated : it would have been
ridiculous that the Scots should defray a part
of the sum out of their own customs and excise,
which would have been the c;ise had the plan
of annual payments been adopted ; and besides,
the money was immediately needed to purchase
the stock of the Darien Company and make up
for the deficiency and loss which the equaliza-
tion of the coinage would occasion to Scotland.
It was also decided that whatever increase of
revenue should arise from the additional taxes
in consequence of the union should be de-
voted for seven years to the encouragement
of Scottish manufactures, the establishment of
fisheries, and other matters of jDublic utility.
This resolution of instant payment as soon as
the union was ratified did not escape suspicion
and comment. It was whispered in Scotland —
or rather it was proclaimed aloud — that this
sum was a capital from which the members of
the Scottish parliament were to be purchased
for the support of the measure, and that the
country would have ultimately to repay the
sum with usury. Be its truth or falsehood
what it might, it was a convenient charge to
urge against the supporters of the union, and
when the parliament met at Edinburgh the
opportunity was not neglected.

In this way the work which had been pend-
ing for centuries, and which had been resumed
so often and in such a variety of ways, only to
be baffled and defeated, was settled in two
months and a few days. The shoi'tness of the
time spent in such an undertaking, and where
so many important subjects had to be discussed,
is a proof not only of the necessity of such a
union but the ripeness of the two nations for
its accomplishment. In the transactions of the
board the English commissioners showed a far
greater degree of eagerness than those of Scot-
land, especially at the commencement, and when
the leading principles were to be considered ;
but after these had been decided they became
more remiss in their attendance, feeling that
the remaining measures were chiefly Scottish,
and might be left to their Scottish brethren.
Finally, of the thirty-one commissioners on
either side twenty-seven of the English signed
the articles and twenty-six of the Scots. During
these negotiations the proceedings of the com-
mittee were to be kept secret ; but the person
most interested in them was made cognizant of
their progress, and more than once her majesty
had attended their meetings in jjcrson. On the

23d of July the commissionere went from the
Cockpit to St. James's Palace to present the
ai-ticles to the queen, and to the addresses on
the occasion she was pleased to reply in the fol-
lowing gi'acious words : — "I give you many
thanks for the great pains you have taken in
this treaty, and am very well pleased to find
your endeavours and ajaplications have brought
it to so good a conclusion. The particulai-s of it
seem so reasonable that I hojje they will meet
with approbation in the parliaments of both
kingdoms. I wish, therefore, that my servants
of Scotland may lose no time in going down to
propose it to my subjects of that kingdom ; and
I shall always look upon it as a particular
happiness if this union, which will be so great
a security and advantage to both kingdoms, can
be accomplished in my reign."

This ratification of the two parliaments was
the next great object of accomplishment, and
the steps taken for the purjiose were distin-
guished by wisdom and caution. The English
government was careful not to take the initia-
tive, as such a proceeding would have looked
like dictation, and sufficed to alarm the sensitive
pride of the Scots. It was accordingly by their
own parliament that the terms of union were
to be adopted and afterwards sent for the con-
sideration of the parliament of England. Be-
fore the meeting of Estates the whole Scottish
nation was stirred, and Edinburgh was a hot-
bed of political contention and intrigue. A
union with England had been favourably re-
garded by the bulk of the nation for the sake
of participating in the advantages of English
commerce, but not an incorporative union, and
they regarded the absorption of their national
individuality as too great a price, be the benefits
what they might. To the Jacobites it announced
the extinction of their hopes by the secure set-
tlement of a Protestant succession, and to the
Episco2:)aliaus it was the death-knell of their
cause, which must therefore dwindle into a
mere branch of national Dissenterism. Nor
were the extreme Presbyterians less hostile to
the measure. How were their principles likely
to fare in such a close alliance with Episcopal
England? What would become of their Cove-
nant, their hopes to obtain for it the recogni-
tion of kings and rulers, and their claims for its
universal adojjtion ? Or how indeed could they
continue to own its obligations without opposi-
tion and persecution? Even the Edinburgh
shopkeepers were hostile to the treaty, and
ready to rise in riot for the national independ-
ence. For by the extinction of the Scottish
parliament would they not lose their best cus-
tomers? Nor was the humble artisan ex-
cluded from the general panic. The salt of his

A.D. 1706-1707.]

QUEEN ANNE.

263

dinner and the beer of his malt would be hea-
vily taxed upon the English scale, so that his
meals would be reduced to a scanty portion
of bread, with nothing but water to accom-
pany it. For every class and party there were
arguments against the union, and while the
demagogues of each made them the theme of
declamation, none were so active as the Jacob-
ites. They corresponded with the Pretender;
they besought aid from the French court, al-
though from Marlborough's victories it could at
]iresent give nothing but promises; a,nd they
deluged the country with showers of pam-
phlets and broadsheets (a new element in the
Scottish political atmosphere) denouncing the
union, and foretelling the manifold miseries it
would occasion. Under such untoward aus-
pices the Scottish parliament was assembled for
its last session on the 3d of October, 1706.
Never had it met for so important a purpose or
under greater difficulties.

The proceedings were opened by the Duke of
Queensberry, who, in consequence of his suavity,
firmness, and acknowledged talents, had on this
distinguished occasion been apj^ointed lord high-
commissioner. After the reading of the queen's
letter earnestly recommending the treaty to their
consideration his grace addressed the members
to the same eft'ect, and was seconded by a speech
from the lord-chancellor, the Earl of Seafield.
But the "calmness and impartiality" which
these addresses recommended seemed to be the
signal of wrath and dissension, and no sooner
were the terms announced than the uproar
commenced. Besides the majority of the people,
who had thought of no closer union than that
of the states of Holland or Switzerland, and who
regarded a union of absorption as one of posi-
tive conquest and annihilation, there wei^e the
different parties already mentioned, whose
mouths were opened as soou as the articles
were printed and dispersed. The poor were
terrified with apprehensions of want of employ-
ment and heavy taxes ; the patriotic with the
loss of national identity and the transference of
parliament, crown, and sceptre to England; and
the merchants with tales of excessive customs
and impositions, which were to succeed the pro-
fitable trade they had carried on with France
and the Continent. But the incorporating union,
as the head and front of the offence, and the
fruitful source of the rest, was the chief theme
of their indignation. Nor were the religious
objections lost sight of or little heard. The
fate of their church in a united parliament where
the bishops of England had a vote, and of tlie
Solemn League and Covenant by which they
were pledged to the pulling down of Prelarv
and establishing the work of covenanted re-

formation in England, were urged as dissua-
sives, or shouted as war-cries. It happened,
also, that a treatise published at this time
completed the popular distraction. A certain
pamphleteer named Hodges wrote a tract against
an incorporate union of the two kingdoms, in
which he stated thirty-two contending interests
between them which he declared it impossible
to reconcile; and as this work was written in
a showy persuasive style and adapted to the
popular prejudices, it was eagerly adopted by
the leaders of the anti-unionists and propagated
over Scotland, where it obtained a temporary
but very mischievous popularity. In conse-
quence of this and other efforts of the agitators
through the medium of the press, the streets
rang with the cry of "No union," its commis-
sioners were called not treaters but traitors, and
in many cases they were threatened with per-
sonal violence. While such was the state of feel-
ing out of doors the language of opposition in
the parliament was, "Let us have a union with
England with all our hearts, but no incorpora-
tion; let us keep our parliament, keep our sove-
reignty, keep our independence; and for all the
rest we are ready to unite with you as firmly
as you can devise."

Among the several expedients to gain time
and make the union more unpopular*, was a
motion made in parliament for a national fast;
and as the General Assembly's commission were
now in session the proposal was referred to their
authority. The behaviour of the commission on
this trying occasion was firm and temperate.
They yielded so far as to appoint a fast, but not
a national one, and announced on October 17th
that they were ready, with such as were pleased
to join them, to meet in the High Church of
Edinburgh, and hold the religious services usual
on such occasions. The meeting accordingly
convened, and, instead of producing any of those
violent demonsti-ations which had been hoped
for, it passed over with Sabbath-like stillness
and decorum. As this was a grievous disap-
pointment to the api^licants the demand was
renewed, and the commission only yielded so
far as to decree presbyterial fasts instead of a
general and national one. That which was held
in Edinburgh on the 22d of October was ob-
served with great solemnity, the commissioner,
the officers of state, and many of the members
of parliament being present on the occasion.
In this way the enemies of the union were again
disapi)ointed. They had hoped that a national
fast being held, the ministers would declaim
against the treaty, raise the popular cry, " The
church is in danger!" and excite the people at
large to insurrection. But, instead of this, the
ministers in their parishes adhered to the re-

264

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1706-1707.

ligious purposes of their meeting and prayeil in
the very words of the commission's enactment,
" That all the determinations of the estates of
parliament, with respect to a union with Eng-
land, might be influenced and directed by divine
wisdom, to the glory of God, the good of reli-
gion, and particularly of the Church of Scot-
hiud."

But other and more secular arts, which were
used to excite the mob to riot, were in the mean-
timeproducing theirnatural effects; and rumours
were rife of an intended onslaught upon the par-
liament house, of a plot to seize the "honours,"
and secure them in the castle of Edinburgh; and
on the 23d of October these obscure threats
broke out into actual riot. From the first day
of the meeting of parliament a crowd had sur-
rounded the building, watching the progress of
discussion and cheering those who were opposed
to the union, or denouncing its supporters, and
among those who came in for the greater share
of their apjjlause was the Duke of Hamilton.
On departing at night from the parliament to
Holyrood House, where he had his residence,
he was usually followed by a crowd, chiefly of
apprentices and young persons, who cheered him
as a true Scot and patriot, and cursed his rival,
the Duke of Queensberry. On the evening in
question the house sat to an unusually late hour,
and the duke, who at the time was suffering
from lameness, instead of proceeding in his chair
to Holyrood House, caused himself to be carried
to the lodging of the Duke of Athole along the
High Street and Lawnmarket. Thither the
mob followed, huzzaing with the full force of
their lungs; but, being disappointed by this de-
tour of honouring their favourite with his wonted
ovation, they resolved to wreak their anger upon
some one of the opposite party. Sir Patrick
Johnston, who had formerly been their provost,
but was now looked on as one of the traitors and
whose dwelling was temjitingly at hand, was
the person they pitched upon. They accordingly
gathered round it and opened a battery of stones
against the windows; but the building was a
strong one, and the provost's residence was on
the fourth story, so that the missiles fell short
of the mark. They then resolved to come to
close quarters and made a rush at the common
stair; but, as only a few could reach the door at
once, the attack was not very formidable, al-
though there was abundant noise with the
knocking of sticks and hammers. Two or three
resolute inmates would have sufficed to hurl the
foremost assailants down-stairs and make good
that narrow entrance against a host; but un-
fortunately no one was within but Lady John-
ston and her handmaids, who could only scream
at the uproar. Seizing a couple of candles that

she might be recognized, and hurrying to one
of the windows, the lady called to the peoj^le in
the streets to run for the guards. A benevolent
apothecary instantly set off to the guard-house
and brought thirty of the civic guards and their
captain to the rescue, who bravely charged the
mob, cleared the stair, and took six of the ring-
leaders prisoners. This check, however, in-
stead of stilling the tumult, only made it more
outrageous than ever; the mob, which was in-
creased by a number of seamen and others
who came up from Leith, became masters of
the city, and went up and down the streets,
breaking the windows of the members of par-
liament, and insulting them in their coaches
as they were driving home. Thus the ujjroar
continued from the evening till an hour after
midnight, while the town-guards, who had the
exclusive privilege of military action within
the walls, were too few for making effectual
resistance. During all this time no one was
allowed to look out at a window, especially
with a light ; and Daniel Defoe, who had ac-
companied the commissioners to Edinburgh, and
was watching the whole scene with his wonted
sharp observation, had a big stone thrown at
him merely for venturing to peer out ujion the
rioters. The commissioner was unwilling to
have recourse at such a time to the unpopular
expedient of military force, which might have
provoked such a dangerous affray as would have
maiTcd or retai'ded the treaty ; but when the
popular violence had reached its height, he sent,
with the sanction of the lord-jjrovost, for assist-
ance from the castle, in consequence of which
a battalion of the guards entered the city, took
possession of the heads of the principal lanes,
and at length reduced the threatened revolt to
inanition.

Such was a commotion which the opponents
of the union made the most of as a demon-
stration of the national unwillingness. But
there was neither strength nor concei't in the
l^roceeding to aggrandize it with such a char-
acter ; on the contrary, while it seems to have
been a sudden uprising of idle boys and the
refuse of the mob, it was of so harmless a
character that from first to last not a life was
lost in it — and had Edinburgh been in earnest,
it is evident that the affair would not have
passed off so harmlessly or so quietly. The
proclamation which was issued by the privy-
council properly characteiized it as the act of
a " most villainous and outrageous mob ; " and,
to prevent any similar recurrence, masters were
ordered to keep their prentices, servants, and
domestics within doors, and the regents and
professors of the university to look to (he peace-
able behaviour and good order of their pupils.

1706-1707.]

QUEEN ANNE.

265

Tlie conrluct of the commissioner in calling
troops into the city, although this had been done
at the last emergency, and when no other remedy
could avail, was made in parliament the subject
of keen complaint. No sooner had a vote of
thanks to him for his conduct on the occasion
been proposed by the lord-chancellor than the
Earl of Errol, hereditary lord high- constable,
complained of the act of calling soldiers into the
city as an insult upon the civic privileges of
Edinburgh, an encroachment upon the freedom
of parliamentary discussion, and an infringe-
ment of his own rights as lord high-constable of
the kingdom. But the vote of thanks was passed
by a majority, the guards were continued by the
privy-council, and this unsuccessfvd attempt only
tended to strengthen the influence of the party
whom it was designed to injure.

But it was not upon popular violence alone
that the enemies of the Union depended : they
had also recourse to the more peaceful but sub-
stantially more formidable mode of petition;
and through their activity petitions against the
treaty were procured from Mid-Lothian, Lin-
lithgow, and Perth, subscribed by almost every
man who could sign his name. The example
was contagious, and was followed by almost
every county and burgh in Scotland. These
petitions, though respectful in their language,
were unmistakable in their spirit and meaning,
and were all against an incorporating union, as
contrary to the rights and destructive of the
true interests of the nation. They expressed
the hope that parliament would preserve and
support these inviolate, for which desirable pur-
pose the petitioners were jarepared to risk their
lives and fortunes. Guarded and temperate,
however, though the language was, parliament
declared them to be seditious, and would not
have received them had it not been for a sig-
nificant hint that if they were rejected the
subscribers themselves would come to the door
of the house for the purpose of presenting them
with their own hands. Strong, however, though
these petitions were, their chief weakness con-
sisted in the character of the parties by whom
they were mainly promoted and the means
adopted to procure signatures to them. The
agents were principally Jacobites, Papists, and
Episcopalians, and their inducements were gen-
erally fallacious statements that could only pass
current for the hour. Among other burghs that
were worked upon by these plotters was the
already important and thriving city of Glas-
gow ; and its zealous citizens were induced to
join in petitioning by the representation that
their church would be annihilated by the Union.
They waited upon the provost with the request
that a civic petition should be issued from the

town-council, and when he refused they de-
parted with the threat that they would address
the parliament in one way or other. This was
followed by a fast, which was held at Glasgow
on the 7th of November ; and the minister of
the Tron Church, in preaching on the text from
the book of Ezra, "Then I proclaimed a fast
there, at the river Ahava, that we might afflict
ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right
way for us, and for our little ones, and for all
our substance," ended his sermon with a refer-
ence to the Union, and concluded in these
words, " Addresses will not do, prayers will not
do; there must be other methods: it is true
jirayer is a duty, but we must not rest there,
wherefore, up and be valiant for the city of our
God !" This appeal, whether meant as a signal
for battle or not, was so accejited by the artisans ;
their drum beat for a muster in the back streets,
and a deputation repaired to the council-cham-
ber and rudely demanded of the provost if he
would petition. He refused, and upon this
the crowd without shouted, raged, and threw
stones ; and not content with this they stormed
his house and cariied away from it twenty-five
muskets. They then drew up a petition for
themselves, which they forwarded to parlia-
ment, and continued several days in a state of
insurrection, until it was quelled by the en-
trance of a troop of soldiers. In this riot, how-
ever, none of the respectable citizens were im-
plicated, and the case sufficed to show the un-
satisfactory character of many of these peti-
tions and the means adopted to procure them.

While demonstrations of the public feeling
were thus displayed the time of parliament had
been spent in preliminary discussions, with which
a whole month was occupied. But by this time
the popular passion had somewhat cooled, and
men were able to judge more dispassionately of
the Union itself and the terms on which it was:
to be established. But as government had a
majority in parliament, and further delay
might have been dangerous, the campaign was
opened in earnest on the 4tli of November upon
the first article of the Union, with the under-
standing, however, that it was but a part of the
whole, and that if the other articles were " not
adjusted by parliament, then the agreeing to
and approving of the first shall be of no eff"ect."
The occasion not only called forth the utmost
eloquence but the most careful and matured
thought of the speakers, and as the speeches
were written out they have been faithfully re-
ported in the numerous pamphlets of the day.
The great question was. Should the Union be
one of incorporation] It was stated at the
outset that such a proposal was contrary to the
Claim of Eight ; but to this the following woi'ds

2CG

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1706-1707.

«)f a letter from the convention parliament to
William, with which the Claim was accom-
panied, were a complete reply : " We are most
sensible of your majesty's kindness and fatherly
care to both your kingdoms in promoting their
union, which we hope hath been reserved to be
accomplished by you; that as both kingdoms
are united in one head and sovereign so they
may become one body politic, one nation, to be
represented in one parliament." After reading
the first article the debate was opened by Mr.
Setou of Pitmedden, who had been one of the
commissioners, and who demonstrated the ad-
vantages of an incorporating union with great
force and clearness. There were only three
methods open, he said, for the recovery of the
nation from its languishing condition : these
were, that they should continue under the
same sovereign with England, but with limita-
tions on his prerogative as King of Scotland ;
that the two kingdoms should be incorporated
into one; or that they should be entirely se-
parated. The first and last of these expedi-
ents he disposed of in the following man-
ner : —

" That the union of crowns with limitations
on the successor is not sufficient to rectify the
bad state of this nation appears from these
]iositions founded on reason and experience.
Two kingdoms subject to one sovereign having
different interests the nearer these are to one
another the greater jealousy and emulation
will be betwixt them. Every monarch having
two or more kingdoms will be obliged to prefer
the counsel and interest of the stronger to that
of the weaker; and the greater disparity of
power and riches there is betwixt these king-
doms the greater influence the more powerful
nation will have on the sovereign. Notwith-
standing these positions, I shall suppose the
])arliament of Scotland is vested with the power
of making peace and war, of rewarding and
punishing persons of all ranks, of levying troops,
and of the negative itself. I could show the
inconveniences that must attend such a state of
government in disposal of places and managing
public afl'airs. I could likewise show the im-
probability of attaining such conditions or keep-
ing them if attained. But laying aside such
considerations, my humble opinion is that we
cannot reap any benefit from these conditions
of government without the assistance of Eng-
land ; and the people thereof will never be con-
vinced to promote the interest of Scotland till
both kingdoms are incorporated into one. So
that I conceive such a state of limitations to be
no better for Scotland than if it were entirely
separated from England, in which state there is
little appearance of procuring any remedy to

our present circimistances, which appears from
these uucontroverted positions: —

"The people and government of Scotland
must be richer or poorer as they have plenty or
scarcity of money, the common measure of trade.

" No money or things of value can be pur-
chased in the course of commerce but where
there is a force to protect it.

"This nation is behind all other nations of
Europe for many years with respect to the
eff'ects of an extended trade.

" This nation being poor, and without force
to protect its commerce, cannot reap great ad-
vantages by it till it partake of the trade and
protection of some powerful neighbour nation
that can communicate both of these."

These wereunj^alatable but convincing truths,
which could neither be overlooked nor resisted ;
and to establish the last of these positions the
orator gave a brief sketch of the then state of
commerce, in which he showed that Scotland
had no valuable branch of expoi't which did
not interfere with the like in some powerful
neighbouring nation, and that each nation
would have an interest in discouraging the
Scottish trade for the benefit of its own. Hol-
land would not suffer us to improve our fisher-
ies. If we trafficked with Russia, Sweden,
Denmark, Poland, Germany, France, Spain,
Portugal, and Italy, these countries could be
supplied with the same commodities by the
Dutch or English at a cheaper rate than our-
selves. If we attempted the East India trade
we should find it already monopolized by the
Dutch, English, French, Spaniards, and Portu-
guese, who would oppose us, and with whom we
could not compete. As for the African trade, it
was of small value, while every part of America
was claimed by some powerful European nation.
If an alliance of Scotland with some neighbour-
ing country should be proposed as the remedy
the choice was narrowed to Holland, England,
or France. But with these countries such an
alliance would be of no advantage — in Holland
because their trade was the same with ours, in
England because national jealousies would coun-
teract it, and in France because that country
would not agree to it until Scotland renewed
its ancient alliance with that country and be-
came the enemy of England. " From these
considerations," said the speaker, " I conceive
that this nation, by an entire separation from
England, cannot extend its trade so as to raise
its power in proportion to other trafficking
nations in Europe, but that hereby we may be
in danger of returning to that Gothic constitu-
tion of government wherein our forefathers
were, which was frequently attended with
feuds, murders, de])redations, and rebellions.

A.D. 1706-1707.]

QUEEN ANNE.

267

"My lord," continued the orator, announcing
the obvious conchision of these skilfully arranged
and clearly stated premises ; " I am sorry that
in place of things we amuse ourselves with
words. For my part, I comprehend no durable
union betwixt Scotland and England but that
expressed in this article, by one kingdom — that
is to say, one people, one civil government, and
one interest. It is true the words federal union
are become very fashionable, and may be hand-
somely fitted to delude unthinking people; but
if any member of this house will give himself
the trouble to examine what conditions or arti-
cles are understood by these words, and i^educe
them into any kind of federal compacts whereby
distinct nations have been united, I will pre-
sume to say these will be found impracticable,
and of very little use to us. But to put that
matter in a clear light, these queries ought to
be duly examined : Whether a federal union be
practicable betwixt two nations accustomed to
monarchical government; Whether there can
be any sure guarantee projected for the obser-
vance of the articles of a federal compact stipu-
lated betwixt two nations whereof the one is
much superior to the other in riches, numbers
of people, and an extended commerce ; Whether
the advantages of a federal union do balance its
disadvantages ; Whether the English will accept
a federal union, supposing it to be for the true
interest of both nations ; Whether any federal
compact betwixt Scotland and England is suf-
ficient to secure the peace of this island, or
fortify it against the intrigues and invasions of
its foreign enemies ; and. Whether England, in
prudence, ought to communicate its trade and
protection to this nation, till both kingdoms are
incorporated into one." The speaker then pro-
ceeded to state from history the examples of
kingdoms united by a federal compact that had
failed, and of others which had formed an in-
corporating union and been all the stronger and
more prosperous by the change. But as his-
torical experience was somewhat scanty on
these heads, he contented himself with the
union of Spain with Portugal, and Sweden with
Denmark, as illustrations of the first, and the
incorporations of the provinces of France and
Spain into entire kingdoms, the English hept-
archy, and even that of Scotland itself, out of
the two contending races that composed it, as
evidences of the second. After having hastily
l^assed over this unsatisfactory ground, which
could scarcely bear him up, Pitmedden thus
concluded his argument : — " Now, my lord, if
limitations on the successor can be of little or
no use to us ; if an entire separation from Eng-
land brings no advantage to this nation; and if
all federal comjiacts, as we have stated, have

insuperable difficulties, which in some measure
I have made clear, there is but one of two left
to our choice, to wit, that both kingdoms be
united into one, or that we continue under the
same sovereign with England, as we have done
these hundred years past. This last I conceive
to be a very ill state, for by it (if experience be
convincing) we cannot expect any of the advan-
tages of an incorporating union. But on the
contrary our sovereignty and independence will
be eclipsed, the number of our nobility will in-
crease, our commons will be opi^ressed, our par-
liaments will be influenced by England, the
execution of our laws will be neglected; our peace
will be iuteirupted by factions for places and
pensions, luxury together with poverty (though
strange) will invade us, numbers of Scots will
withdraw themselves to foreign countries, and
all the other effects of bad government must
necessarily attend us. Let us therefore, my
lord, after all these considerations, approve this
article ; and when the whole treaty shall be
duly examined and i-atified I am hopeful this
parliament will return their most dutiful ac-
knowledgments to her majesty for her royal
endeavours in promoting a lasting union betwixt
both nations."^

The speech which followed this unimpassioned
statesman-like address was so remarkable, and
has been so often quoted, that we feel con-
strained to give it almost entire. It forms, in-
deed, the most distinguishing feature in the
discussions of this treaty, and was long after
remembered in Scotland when the other speeches
were foi-gotten. After Mr. Seton sat down Lord
Belhaven thus addressed the parliament : —

"My lord-chancellor, when I consider this
aff"air of a union betwixt the two nations, as it
is expressed in the several articles thereof, and
now the subject of deliberation at this time, I
find my mind crowded with a variety of melan-
choly thoughts, and I think it my duty to dis-
burden myself of some of them by laying them
before, and exposing them to the serious con-
sideration of this honourable house.

" I think I see a free and independent king-
dom delivering up that which all the world has
been fighting for since the days of Nimrod;
yea, that for which most of all the empires,
kingdoms, states, pi-incipalities, and dukedoms
of Europe are at this very time engaged in the
most bloody and cruel wars that ever were, to
wit, a power to manage their own aflairs by
themselves, without the assistance and counsel
of any other.

1 "A Speech in Parliament, tlie Second day of November,
1706, by William Seton of Pitmedden, junr., on the First
Article of the Union," 4to, Edin. 1706; De Foe's History of
the Union.

268

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1706-1707.

" I think I see a national church, founded
upon a rock, secured by a Claim of Right,
hedged and fenced about by the strictest and
most pointed legal sanction that sovereignty
could contrive, voluntarily descending into a
plain, upon an equal level with Jews, Papists,
Sociuians, Arminians, Anabaptists, and other
sectaries.

" I think I see the noble and honourable
peerage of Scotland, whose valiant predecessors
led armies against their enemies upon their own
proper charges and expenses, now divested of
their followers and vassalages, and put upon
such an equal foot with their vassals, that I
think I see a petty English exciseman receive
more homage and respect than what was for-
merly paid to their proudest chieftain. I think
I see the present peers of Scotland, whose noble
ancestors conquered provinces, overran coun-
tries, reduced and subjected towns and forti-
fied places, exacted tribute through the greatest
part of England, now walking in the Coui't of
Requests like so many English attorneys, laying
aside their walking swords when in company
with the English peers, lest their self-defence
sliould be found murder.

"I think I see the honourable estate of barons,
the bold assertei-s of the nation's rights and liber-
ties in the worst of times, now setting a watch
upon their lips and a guard upon their tongues,
lest they be found guilty of scandalum mag-
natum.

" I think I see the royal state of burrows
walking their desolate streets, hanging down
their heads under disappointments, wormed out
of all the branches of their old trade, uncertain
what hand to turn to ; necessitated to become
prentices to their unkind neighbours, and yet,
after all, finding their trade so fortified by com-
panies, and secured by prescriptions, that they
despair of any success therein.

" I think I see our learned judges laying aside
their practiques and decisions, studying the com-
mon law of England, gravelled with certioraries,
nisi priuses, writs of error, injunctions, demurs,
&c., and frightened with appeals and avocations,
because of the new regulations and rectifica-
tions they may meet with.

" I think I see the valiant and gallant soldiery
either sent to learn the plantation trade abroad,
or at home petitioning for a small subsistence
as the reward of their honourable exploits, while
their old corps are broken, the common soldiers
left to beg, and the youngest English corps kept
standing.

'•' I think 1 see the honest industrious trades-
man, loaded with new taxes and impositions,
disappointed of the equivalents, drinking water
in jiLice of ale, eating his saltless pottage; peti-

tioning for encouragement to his manufactories,
and answered by counter-petitions. In short,
I think I see the laborious ])loughman, with his
corn spoiling upon his hands for want of sale,
cursing the day of his birth, dreading the ex-
pense of his burial, and uncertain whether to
marry or do worse.

" I think I see the incurable difficulties of the
landed men, fettered under the golden chain of
equivalents, their pretty daughters petitioning
for want of husbands, and their sons for want
of employments.

" I think I see our mariners delivering uj)
their ships to their Dutch partners, and what
through presses and necessity, earning their
bread in the Royal English Navy.

" But above all, my lord, I think I see our
ancient mother, Caledonia, like Cjjesar, sitting
in the midst of our senate, ruefully looking round
about her, covering herself with her royal gar-
ment, attending the fatal blow, and breathing
out her last with a et tu quoque mi fill?

" Are not these, my lord, very afllicting
thoughts ? And yet they are but the least part
suggested to me by these dishonourable articles.
Should not the consideration of these things
vivify these dry bones of ours ] Should not the
memory of our noble predecessors' valour and
constancy rouse up our drooping spirits ? Are
our noble predecessors' souls got so far into the
English cabbage-stock and cauliflowers, that we
should show the least inclination that way?
Are our eyes so blinded, are our eai's so deafened,
are our hearts so hardened, are our tongues so
faltered, are our hands so fettered, that in this
our day — I say, my lord, that in this our day,
that w^e should not mind the things that concern
the very being and well-being of our ancient
kingdom before the day be hid from our eyes?
No, my lord ; God forbid ; man's extremity is
God's opportunity: he is a present help in time
of need ; and a deliverer, and that right early.
Some unforeseen providence will fall out that
may cast the balance; some Joseph or other will
say, ' Why do ye strive together since you are
brethren ? ' None can destroy Scotland, save Scot-
land's self. Hold your hands from the pen, you
are secure. Some Judah or other will say, 'Let
not our hands be upon the lad, he is our brother.'
There will be a Jehovah-jireh, and some ram
will be caught in the thicket, when the bloody
knife is at our mother's throat. Let us up, then,
my lord, and let our noble patriots behave them-
selves like men, and we know not how soon a
blessing may come.

" My lord-chancellor, the greatest honour that
was done unto a Roman was to allow liim tlie
glory of a trium])li ; the greatest and most dis-

A.D. 1706-1707.]

QUEEN ANNE.

269

honourable punishment was that of parricide;
he that was guilty of parricide was lieaten with
rods upon his naked body till the blood gushed
out of all the veins of his body ; then he was
sewed up in a leather sack called a culeus, with
a cock, a viper, and an ape, and thrown headlong
into the sea. My lord, patricide is a greater
crime than parricide all the world over. In a
triumph, when the conqueror was I'iding in his
triumphal chariot crowned with laurels, adorned
with troj^hies, and applauded with huzzas, there
was a monitor appointed to stand behind him,
to warn him not to be high-minded, nor puffed
up with overweening thoughts of himself; and
to his chariot were tied a whip and a bell to re-
mind him, that, for all his glory and grandeur,
he was accountable to the people for his ad-
ministration, and would be punished as other
men if found guilty. The greatest honour
amongst us, my lord, is to represent the sove-
reign's sacred jierson in parliament ; and in one
particular it ai)pears to be greater than that of
a triumph, because the whole legislative jDOwer
seems to be wholly intrusted with him ; if he
gives the royal assent to an act of the Estates
it becomes a law obligatory on the subject,
though contrary, or without any instructions
from the sovereign; if he refuse the royal assent
to a vote in parliament it cannot be a law, though
he has the sovereign's jiarticular and positive in-
structions for it. His grace the Duke of Queens-
berry, who now represents her majesty in this
session of parliament, liath had the honour of
that great trust as often, if not more than any
Scotsman ever had ; he hath been the favourite
of two successive sovereigns; and I cannot but
commend his constancy and perseverance that,
notwithstanding his former difficulties and
maugi'e some other specialities not yet deter-
mined, that his gi'ace has yet had the resolution
to undertake the most unpopular measures last.
If his grace succeed in this affair of a union, and
that it prove for the happiness and welfare of
the nation, then he justly merits to have a statue
of gold erected for himself. But if it shall tend
to the entire destruction and abolition of our
nation, and that we, the nation's trustees, shall
go into it, then I must say, that a whip and a
bell, a cock, a viper, and an ape are but too small
punishments for any such bold unnatural under-
taking and complaisance.

" That I may path a way, my lord, to a full,
calm, and free reasoning upon this affair, which
is of the last consequence to this nation, I shall
remind this honourable house, that we are the
successors of our noble predecessors who founded
our monarchy, framed our laws, amended, al-
tered, and corrected them from time to time, as
the affairs and circumstances of the nation did

require, without the assistance or advice of any
foreign power or potentate, and who, during the
time of two thousand years, have handed them
down to us, a free, independent nation, with the
hazard of their lives and fortunes. Shall not
we then argue for that which our progenitors
have purchased for us at so dear a rate, and with
so much immortal honour and glory? God for-
bid ! Shall the hazard of a father unbind the
ligaments of a dumb son's tongue, and shall we
hold our peace when our Patria is in danger?
I speak tliis, my lord, that I may encourage
every individual member of this house to speak
their mind freely. There are many wise and
prudent men amongst us, who think it not worth
their while to open their mouths; there are others
who can speak very well, and to good purpose,
who shelter themselves under the shameful cloak
of silence, from a fear of the frowns of great
men and parties. I have observed, my lord, by
my experience, the greatest number of speakers
in the most trivial affairs; and it will always
prove so while we come not to the right under-
standing of our oath de fideli, whereby we are
bound not only to give our vote, but our faithful
advice in parliament as we shall answer to God.
And in our ancient laws the representatives of
the honourable barons and the royal boroughs
are termed spokesmen. It lies upon your lord-
shijis, therefore, particularly to take notice of
such whose modesty makes them bashful to
speak. Therefore I shall leave it upon you, and
conclude this point with a very memorable say-
ing of an honest private gentleman, to a great
queen, upon occasion of a state project contrived
by an able statesman, and the favourite to a
great king, against a peaceable, obedient people,
because of the diversity of their laws and con-
stitutions, ' If, at this time thou hold thy peace,
salvation shall come to the people from another
place, but thou and thy house shall perish.' I
leave the application to each particular membev
of this house."

In this stiri'ing manner did Lord Belhaven
sound the key-note to the opi^osition, and never
did a trumpet summon to the onset with more
fearful and thrilling energy. Even in the pre-
sent day, and when his predictions are known
to be fallacious, there is still to be found in them
a power and persuasiveness that comes home to
the heart of every Scotsman. He appealed to
the pride of the nobility, the interests of the
mercantile communities, the necessities of the
peasantry ; and while striving to awaken each
by the considerations which every individual of
the class could best appreciate, he endeavoured
to combine all parties by their feelings of na-
tional pride and love of national freedom.
Hence the singular variety of the harangue, in

270

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1706-1707.

wliich Greek, Roman, and medieval oratory were
blended, and such illustrations selected from
Scripture and history as might best serve to
fortify his appeal. It was the eloquence of the
Hebi'ew school of the prophets, the Athenian
popular assembly, and the convocation of proud
indignant Scottish nobles, all uniting to rouse
a nation against injustice and oppression, and
invoking its leaders to take their place in the
resistance. Rushing into the heart of his theme
his lordship then rebuked the parliament and
kingdom for their political divisions, at a time
when it most behoved them to be at one ; and,
transported out of himself with the theme, he
exclaimed, " What hinders us then to lay aside
our divisions, to unite cordially and heartily
together in our present circumstances, when our
all is at stake ? Hannibal is at our gates — Han-
nibal is come within our gates — Hannibal is
come the length of this table — he is at the foot
of this throne — he will demolish this throne —
if we take not notice he will seize upon these
regalia, he will take them as our spolia opima, and
whiji us out of this house never to return again.
For the love of God then," added the eloquent
enthusiast — "think on the safety and welfare
of our ancient kingdom, whose sad circumstances
I hope we shall yet convert into prosperity and
haj^piness ! We want no means; if we unite
God blesseth the peacemakei's; we want neither
men nor sufficiency of all manner of things ne-
cessary to make a nation happy; all depends
upon management, Concordia res par va crescunt.
I fear not these articles, though they were ten
times worse than they are, if we once cordially
forgive one another, and that, according to our
proverb, ' bygones be bygones, and fair play to
come.' For my part, in the sight of God, and
in the presence of this honourable house, I
heartily forgive every man, and beg that they
may do the same to me. And I do most humbly
propose that his grace, my lord-commissioner,
may appoint an agape, may order a love-feast
for this honourable house, that we may lay aside
all self-designs, and after our fasts and humilia-
tions may have a day of rejoicing and thankful-
ness, may eat our meat with gladness, and our
bread with a merry heart. Then shall we sit
each man under his own fig-tree, and the voice
of the turtle shall be heard in our land — a bird
famous for constancy and fidelity." Not content
with this striking appeal for unity among them-
selves, he threw himself upon his knees with the
air and gesture of supplication, while the house
remained silent, and apparently at a loss, in con-
sequence of so unparliamentary a form of carry-
ing an argument. Finding that no answer was
returned Belhaven resumed his subject, and
after complaining of the injustice of England,

in changing its demand so unexpectedly from a
federal to an incorporative union, and the con-
duct of the commissioners in permitting it, he
assumed that the Scotland of future years would
thus denounce the transaction: "Ah, our nation
has been reduced to the last extremity at the
time of this treaty ! All our great chieftains, all
our great j^eers and considerable men, who used
formerly to defend the rights and liberties of
the nation, have been all killed and dead in the
bed of honour before ever the nation was neces-
sitated to condescend to such mean and con-
temptible terms. Where are the names of the
chief men of the noble families of Stuarts, Ha-
miltons, Grahams, Campbells, Gordons, John-
stons, Humes, Murrays, Kers? Where are two
great officers of the crown, the Constable and
Marshal of Scotland ? They have certainly all
been extinguished, and now we are slaves for
ever." Talking of the inequality of the terms
offered by the one nation to the other he ex-
claimed, " I see the English constitution re-
maining firm; the same two houses of parlia-
ment, the same taxes, the same customs, the
same excise, the same trade in companies, the
same municipal laws and courts of judicature;
and all ours either subject to regulations or
annihilation; only we have the honour to pay
their old debts, and to have some few persons
present for witnesses to the validity of the deed,
when they are pleased to contract more. Good
God! — what is thisl — an entire surrender. ^My
lord, I find my heart so full of grief and indig-
nation, that I must beg pardon not to finish the
last part of my discourse, that I may drop a tear
as the prelude to so sad a story."'

It might have been thought that a speech so
remarkable for its eloquence, and which took
the mind of the nation by storm, would have
created in parliament, if not a correspondent
emotion, at least a decent show of attention.
But never was the adder more deaf to the voice
of the charmer than the members to the ha-
rangue of Lord Belhaven. They had made up
their minds upon the subject with a pertinacity
that was not wont to be gainsaid, and there-
fore his words of fire, his gestures of impas-
sioned oratory, his lowly kneeling, his pausing
for a reply, and his tears, all went for nothing.
It is even jDOSsible that these appeared so the-
atrical and unsuited to the place and occasion as
to produce a recoil of merriment in the minds of
those who listened. During this pathetic pause,
which with many other audiences would have
been more eloquent than words, the members

1 " Lord Belhaven's Speech in Parliament, the Second
day of November, 1706, on the subject-matter of an Union
betwixt the two Kingdoms of Scotland and England," 4to,
Edin. 1706 ; De Foe's History of the Union.

A.D. 1706-1707.]

QUEEN ANNE.

271

seem to have been engaged iu desultory discus-
sion until the orator's emotion had found a vent
so that he could resume the subject, and when
he had ended, Pitraedden, who had made the
first speech, was desirous to reply. But being
reminded that this was against the rules of the
house, as he had already spoken, he gave place
to the Earl of Marchmont, who rose to answer
Belhaven amidst cheers and laughter. His
reply was short and frivolous — and effective.
" He had heard," he said, " a long sjDeech, and a
very terrible one, but he was of opinion it
only required this short answer, ' Behold I
dreamed, and lo, when I awoke, I found it was
a dream.' "

The first article of the treaty, upon which the
others so essentially depended, was naturally the
chief object of attack and defence ; but after the
unsuccessful effort of Lord Belhaven it was not
difficult to foresee the result. The Marquis of
Annaudale proposed that, as the sense of the
nation in general was against an incorporative
union, another should be attempted as near it
as the public feeling would permit. He pro-
posed that the two nations should be united
entirely in the succession, war, alliances, and
trade, but should reserve the independence of
the Scottish crown, the immunities of the king-
dom, and the constitution and form of govern-
ment in church and state. This proposal was
seconded by the Duke of Hamilton, but al-
though his support of it was bold and elo-
quent, his speech, like that of Belhaven, failed
in its effect. " Shall we," said his grace, " yield
in half an hour what our forefathers maintained
with their lives and fortunes for ages? Are
there here none of the descendants of those
patriots who defended the liberty of their
country against all invaders, who assisted Bruce
to restore the constitution, revenge the false-
hood of England, and the usurpation of Baliol?
"Where are the Douglases and the Campbells?
where are the peers and chieftains? where the
barons, once the bulwarks of the nation ? Shall
we yield up that independence which those we
represent command us to preserve and assure
us of their assistance to suj^port?" But such
appeals the house had heard already, and it
was suspected, whether justly or not, that the
patriotism of the Duke of Hamilton was founded
upon the hope of preserving the crown of Scot-
land for the succession of his own family.
Those in parliament who favoured the union
had been strengthened by the addition of the
" Squadrone," or new party, and by this rein-
forcement to their ordinary strength they were
certain to carry every ai'ticle of the treaty. On
the vote being taken the first article was carried
by a majority in each of the three Estates; and

all that the leaders of the minority could do, with
the Dukes of Athole and Hamilton at their head,
was to enter their protest against an incorporat-
ing union " as contrary to tlie honour, iuteiest,
fundamental laws, and constitution of this king-
dom, the birthriglit of the peeis, the riglits and
privileges of the barons and burghs, and con-
trary to the Claim of Right, property, and
liberty of the subjects," &c.

After this strong barrier in the forefront of
the treaty had been so successfully cai-ried by
the Unionists there was a pause of ten days, as
if each jsarty sought to recover breath for a fresh
conflict. The most important outpost had been
won, and the enemies of the union signally de-
feated, so that their chief hope lay in protracting
the contest from point to point — in making a
stand at the several articles of taxes, customs,
excise, and other financial questions, in the ex-
pectation that some point of vantage might be
found from which they could recover the ground
they had lost. They thei'efore continued to de-
bate from article to article, disputing every word,
contesting with every argument, and striving
to gain time at least, if nothing else, in the hope
that some happy chance might turn up in their
favour during the interval. But the govern-
ment party, aware of their tactics, consented to
several amendments, by which complaint was
silenced, or demonstrated the unreasonableness
of those demands with which they were unwilling
to comply. And all the while those conflicts
were going on in Edinburgh and Glasgow to
which we have formerly adverted, and which
were triumphantly quoted as satisfactory signs
of the national aversion to the union. Of these
outbreaks the most dangerous of all was to be
apprehended from the Cameronians of the wes-
tern counties, whose objections to the union
were of a more serious kind than taxes and com-
munity of trade. Prelacy was to be restored,
the Covenants annihilated, and the old perse-
cuting times renewed by this jirojected union,
against which, therefore, they were bound to
strive conscientiously, and strive to the death.
Accordingly, on the 20th of November a body of
them, not numbering more than 200, dashed into
the town of Dumfries, burnt at the market cross
the articles of the Union, and a list containing
the names of the commissioners, and fixed a
paper upon the cross, in which they declared
that they did not hold themselves bound by the
treaty, and would stand by the old national in-
dei^endence. But small though their numbers
were, they were magnified into an army of
thousands. It was also added that they were
ready to march to Hamilton, where they were
to be joined by the Duke of Athole and his High-
landers, and thus united were to march upon

272

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1706-1707.

Edinburgh and bring the treaty to a close by
dissolving the parliament. But there were
traitors in the C'anieronian caui]), of whom some
urged them forward for their own political jiur-
poses and othei's betrayed their counsels to
the government ; even Ker of Kersland, their
leader, was in communication with the Duke of
Queensberry ; and Hepburn, their minister, who
had urged them to take arms, when he discov-
ered that he and his people were to be used as
the tools of political intrigue, was the first to
counsel peace and dispersion. Consequently
this Cameronian rising, which had ajjpeared of
such portentous dimensions, collapsed and disap-
peared.

It had been well known from the beginning
that there could be no hojie of a union unless the
safet}^ and inviolability of the Church of Scot-
land were guaranteed by the strongest of sanc-
tions; and no sooner therefore had the first
article been concluded than the security of the
church was the next subject of consideration.
It was accordingly confirmed with all the cir-
cumstantiality and strength of which language
is cajaable, and to give it due distinction it held
precedence of the act by which the union itself
was resolved. This important "Act for securing
of the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian
Church " provided that the Presbyterian church
government, as it had been established by various
acts of parliament, with its Confession of Faith,
its discijiline, and ecclesiastical judicatories,
should remain for ever unalterable, and be " the
only government of the church within the king-
dom of Scotland." And in the coronation oath
an obligation was to be introduced binding
every sovereign of Great Britain at his acces-
sion to protect " the government, worshijj, disci-
pline, rights, and privileges " of the Church of
Scotland. But the Test Act was the next
obstacle to be surmounted. No one could hold
office in England without taking the sacrament
according to the form and ritual of the English
Church ; and it was demanded either that Scots-
men should be exemjDted from this test or that
a reciprocal Test Act should be established for
Scotland excluding all who did not subscribe to
Presbyterianism as a lawful form of church
government. These proposals the parliament
rejected, and the dissentients were silent, yield-
ing to necessity and the fear of provoking a
rupture of the treaty rather than convinced by
the arguments of their opponents.

It would be too tedious to detail the discus-
sions that accompanied the passing of every
separate article. Patiiotism and national jeal-
ousy were roused to their utmost, while party
and personal interests were not lost sight of;
but such various motives only tended to make

the opposition less effectual : it was a guer-
rilla warfare carried on without plan or union
against a disciplined and united array whose
progress might be annoyed but not arrested by
such a mode of warfai'e. It will be better
therefore to give a brief enumeration of the
articles of Union when the last of Scottish par-
liaments rose on the 25th of March, 1707, never
to meet again. These were : —

1. That the two kingdoms should, after the
1st of May (1707), be for ever after united into
one kingdom by the name of Great Britain, and
their heraldic cognizances be conjoined.

2. That the succession to the monarchy of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain should de-
scend to the Electress Sophia of Hanover, and
her heirs being Protestants.

3. That the United Kingdom of Great Bri-
tain should be represented by one and the same
parliament, to be styled the parliament of Great
Britain.

4. That all the subjects of the United Kingdom
should, from and after the Union, have full free-
dom and intercourse of navigation to and from
any port or place within the said United King-
dom, and the dominions and j^lantations there-
unto belonging; and that there should be a com-
munication of all other rights, privileges, and
advantages, which did or might belong to the
subjects of either kingdom, except where it is
otherwise expressly agreed in these articles.

5. That all ships or vessels belonging to Scots-
men, though foreign built, should be deemed
and passed as ships of Great Britain.

6. That all parts of the United Kingdom
should have the same commercial allowances,
encouragements, and drawbacks, and be under
the same prohibitions, restrictions, and regula-
tions of trade, and liable to the same customs
and duties on import and export, as were settled
in England at the time of the Union ; and that
no Scotch cattle carried into England should be
liable to any other duties, either on the public
or private accounts, than those duties to which
the cattle of England are, or shall be liable
within the said kingdom. And as, by the laws
of England, there are I'ewards granted upon the
exportation of cei'tain kinds of grain wherein
oats grinded or ungrinded are not expressed,
that, from and after the Union, when oats were
sold at fifteen shillings per quarter, or under,
there should be paid two shillings and sixjDence
sterling for every quarter of the oatmeal ex-
ported in the terms of the law, whereby, and
so long as rewards are granted for exportation
of other grains, and that the bere of Scotland
liave the same rewards as barley. And as the
importation of provision and victual into Scot-
land would prove a discouragement to tillage,

A.D. 1706-1707.]

QUEEN ANNE.

273

the prohibition in force by the law of Scotland
against all importation of victual from Ireland
or any other place should remain as it was, until
the parliament of Great Britain provided more
eflectual ways for discouraging such importa-
tion.

7. That all parts of the United Kingdom
should be liable to the same excise upon all
excisable liquors, with the exception of beer or
ale, in which the advantage was given to the
Scots.

8. Is a long article upon the importation of
foreign salt, chiefly in reference to the encour-
agement of the Scottish fisheries, &c.

9. Whenever the sum of £1,997,763 should
be decreed by parliament to be raised in Eng-
land as a land-tax, Scotland was to be charged
by the same act with the sum of £48,000 as its
quota.

Articles 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 adjusted the
several taxes which were to be paid by the
kingdom of Scotland.

15. As Scotland would be liable to several new
customs and excise duties for the payment of the
debts of England contracted before the Union,
it was agreed that Scotland should have as an
equivalent the sum of £398,085, 10s., and that
this should be employed in making good what-
ever losses private persons might sustain by re-
ducing the coin of Scotland to the same standard
and value as the coin of England, and in cover-
ing the losses sustained by the African and In-
dian Company of Scotland, which, upon such
reimbursement, should thenceforth cease as a
company. From this fund also all the public
debts of Scotland were to be paid, and £2000
per annum applied during seven years for en-
couraging the manufacture of coarse wool in
Scotland, and after seven years for the promo-
tion of the fisheries of Scotland and other im-
provements.

16. That the same coin should be used through-
out the United Kingdom, and that there should
be a mint in Scotland under the same rules as
that of England, but with its own officers.

17. That the same weights and measures
should be used which were established in Eng-
land.

18. That the laws regulating the trade, cus-
toms, and such excises as Scotland should have
to pay after the Union should be the same in
both countries; but that all other laws in use
within the kingdom of Scotland should remain
in the same force as before, but alterable by the
parliament of Great Britain ; with this differ-
ence, that the laws which concern public right,
policy, and civil government may be made the
same throughout the United Kingdom, but that
no alteration should be made in those which

VOL. III.

concerned private right, except for evident utility
of the natives of Scotland.

19. That the Court of Session remain in all
time coming in Scotland with the same laws,
authority, and privileges as before, subject never-
theless to such regulations as the parliament of
Great Britain might judge necessary for the
better administration of justice ; and that the
Court of Justiciary should also be as before, but
in like manner subject to the regulations of par-
liament. That though all admiralty jurisdiction
should be under the lord high-admiral, or com-
missioners for the admiralty of Great Britain,
yet the Court of Admiralty established in Scot-
land should be continued, subject, however, to
future regulations and alterations by the par-
liament of Great Britain; and that the heritable
rights of admiralty and vice-admiralties in Scot-
land be reserved to the respective proprietors as
rights of projierty ; subject, nevertheless, as to
the mann&r of exercising such heritable rights,
to such regulations and alterations as shall be
thought proj^er to be made by the parliament
of Great Britain. That all inferior courts in
Scotland should remain subordinate, as tliey
then were, to the supreme courts of justice in
the country, and that no Scotch causes should
be cognizable by the Court of Chancery, Queen's
Bench, or any other court in Westminster Hall;
that such courts should have no power what-
ever to review or alter the acts or sentences of
the judicatories within Scotland, or to stop the
execution of the same ; that there should be a
Court of Exchequer in Scotland, having the
same power and authoi-ity as the Court of Ex-
chequer has in England; and that after the
Union the queen and her successors may con-
tinue a privy-council in Scotland for preserving
public peace and order, until the parliament of
Great Britain shall think fit to alter it, or estab-
lish any other effectual method for that end.

20. That all hereditary offices, supeiiorities,
heritable jurisdictions, offices for life, and juiis-
dictions for life, be reserved to the owners
thereof, as rights of propei^ty, in the same man-
ner as they are now enjoyed by the laws of
Scotland, notwithstanding of this ti-eaty.

21. That the rights and privileges of the royal
boroughs in Scotland, as they now are, do remain
entire after the Union, and notwithstanding
thereof.

22. That by virtue of this treaty, of the peers
of Scotland at the time of the Union sixteen
shall be the number to sit and vote in the House
of Lords, and forty -five the number of the re-
presentatives for Scotland to sit in the House of
Commons. That the sixteen peers returned for
parliament should be elected from and by their
own body, and that of the forty-five representa-

93

274

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[a.d. 1706-1707.

lives of the Commons, two-thirds should be
choseu by the counties, and one-thix'd by the
bui'ghs of Scotland.

23. Thiit the sixteen Scottish peers elected to
sit in the House of Lords should have all the
privileges of parliament which the peers of
England possessed ; and that all peers of Scot-
laud whatsoever, whether elected to sit in par-
liament or not, should have rank and precedence
next, and immediately after the peers of the
like orders and degrees in England at the time
of the LTnion, and before all peers of Great Bri-
tain, of the like orders and degrees, who might
be created after the Union ; and should be tried
as peers of Great Britain, and should enjoy all
privileges of peers, except the right and privilege
of voting in the House of Lords.

24. That there should be one Great Seal for
the United Kingdom of Great Britain for seal-
ing of writs to elect and summon the parlia-
ment, for sealing all treaties with foreign princes
and states, and all public acts, instruments, and
orders of state which concern the whole United
Kingdom ; and that Scotland should have also
a seal of its own, to use in all things relating to
private rights or grants within that kingdom;
and that the crown, sceptre, and sword of state,
the records of parliament, and all other records,
rolls, and registers whatsoever continue to be
kept, as they are, within that part of the United
Kingdom now called Scotland, and that they
shall so remain in all time coming, notwith-
standing of the Union.

25. That all laws and statutes in either king-
dom, so far as they are contrary to, or inconsis-
tent with the terms of these articles, or any one
of them, shall, from and after the Union, cease
and become void, and shall be so declared to be
by the respective parliaments of the said king-
doms.

After these twenty-five articles the provisions
followed by which the Protestant religion and
Presbyterian church government were to be
confirmed and maintained. It was declared
that her majesty, with advice and consent of
parliament, " ratifies, approves, and for ever
confirms the fifth act of the first parliament of
King William and Queen Mary, entitled, ' Act
Ratifying the Confession of Faith, and Settling
Presbyterian Church Government,' with all the
other acts of pai'liament relating thereto, in
prosecution of the declaration of the Estates of
this kingdom, containing the Claim of Right
bearing date the 11th of April, 1689." With
the same advice and consent she also expressly
provides and declares, " That the foresaid true
Protestant religion contained in the above-
mentioned Confession of Faith, with the form
and purity of worship j^jresently in use within

this church, and its Presbyterian church gov-
ernment and discipline; that is to say, the
government of the church by kirk-sessions,
presbyteries, provincial synods, and general
assemblies, all established by the foresaid
acts of parliament, pursuant to the Claim of
Right, shall remain and continue unalterable ;
and that the said Presbyterian government
shall be the only government of the church
within the kingdom of Scotland." For the
greater security of the worship, discipline, and
government of the Church of Scotland, it was
also decreed that the Universities of St. An-
drews, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh,
should perjietually continue, and that no prin-
cipals, professors, or others bearing ofiice within
them, should be admitted or continued in office
unless they subscribed the Confession of Faith,
and conformed themselves to the worship, gov-
ernment, and discipline of the church. Every
subject of Scotland was to be for ever free of
any oath, test, or subscription contraiy to, or
inconsistent with, the Presbyterian church gov-
ernment, &c. Every successor to her majesty
was at his or her accession inviolably to main-
tain and preserve the Church of Scotland. This
establishment of Presbyterian ism in Scotland
according to the Claim of Right was to be in-
serted and repeated in any act of jjarliament
that should pass for agreeing and concluding a
treaty of union, and without this the articles of
the Union should be in no ways binding. As
the United Kingdom had now two churches,
both of them established by law, and as the
adhei-ents of both were to be found mixed in
either kingdom, their rival claims, whether in
Scotland or England, were settled by the fol-
lowing proviso : " The parliament of England
may provide for the security of the Church of
England as they think expedient to take place
within the bounds of the said kingdom of Eng-
land, and not derogating from the security
above provided for establishing of the Church
of Scotland within the bounds of this kingdom.
As also, the said parliament of England may
extend the additions and other provisions con-
tained in the articles of union, as above inserted,
in favour of the subjects of Scotland, to and in
favour of the subjects of England, which shall
not suspend or derogate from the force and
effect of this present ratification, but shall be
understood as herein included, without the ne-
cessity of any new ratification in the parliament
of Scotland. And lastly, her majesty enacts
and declares, Tliat all laws and statutes in this
kingdom, as far as they are contrary to or in-
consistent with the terms of these articles as
above mentioned, shall, from and after the
Union, cease and become void.

zviith Centtjrt.]

HISTOEY OF SOCIETY.

275

CHAPTEE XXI

HISTORY OF SOCIETY DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

Early Scottish Emigration — Success of Scottish emigrants in France — Noble French families founded by
them — Causes of this success of the Scots in France — The Scottish auxiliaries of the Thirty Years' War—
The great number of Scottish officers in the Swedish army — Scottish merchants in Poland— Scottish
adventurers in Russia— The high rank they attained in that kingdom. Highlanders in the Seven-
teenth Century — Their clanships and form of government — Their poverty and predatory habits — Their
occupations and amusements — Their music — Highland bards and story-tellers — Highland hospitality —
Costume of the Highlanders — Their aptitude for war— Their weapons— Theii- modes of advance and attack
Their successes in the wars of Montrose — Their dread of cavalry— Hunting in the Highlands — A Highland
hunt described by an English traveller — Summoning a clan for war — The fiery cross— Highland supersti-
tions—The second-sight — Highlanders at the close of the seventeenth century— Proscription of the clan
Macgregor— Execution of Gilderoy. Military Characteristics of the Period — Weapons, costume,
and discipline — Pikemen and musketeers — The long-bow occasionally used during the Civil War — Im-
provements in the musket — Bandoliers and cartridge-boxes— The fusil and grenade — Progress of the
bayonet — Important improvement in the bayonet by General Mackay — Drill of the period — A martinet
officer — Military punishments— The wooden horse and picket. Superstitions of the Period— Continu-
ing predominance of witchcraft — Facility in detecting witchcraft in old women — Cruel methods to obtain
self -crimination — Account of Major Weir — His reputation for sanctity — His remorse and strange confes-
sions— His obduracj' at the stake — Confessions of his sister — Her execution — The haunted house of Major
Weir — Superstitious belief in omens and ghosts — Forbidden attempts to solve difficulties and read the
future— Forms of superstition among the Covenanters— Their modes of divine inquiry and receiving an
answer — Case of Russell, one of the murderers of Archbishop Sharp — Superstitions in medicine — Miracu-
lous cures by holy wells — Methods of using them — Amulets — Healing incantations — Superstitious cures for
the diseases of infants — Miraculous doctors — Royal touching for the disease of king's evil — Incurable
■diseases transferred to a substitute — Guards against the powers of evil — Protections for the doors of byres
and houses — Belief of the Covenanters that their chief persecutors were shot-proof — Cases of Dalziel and
Claverhouse — Superstitions fostered among the Covenanters by their persecutions — Superstitions among
lawyers — The ordeal of touching the dead body still retained in Scotland — Instance in the suspicious
death of Sir James Stanfield — Perversions in the administration of law — Instance of Lynch-law and Jed-
dart justice still in practice— An unrighteous judge. Clerical Dominion in Scotland during the
Seventeenth Century — The prevalent state of society exhibited in the kirk-session records — Specifica-
tion of the prevalent crimes to be punished and removed — Illicit intercourse of the sexes severely visited
by the kirk-sessions — The pillar of repentance— Precautions to ensure the public exposure of the culprits —
Disregard of church rule by the soldiers of Cromwell in Scotland — Church discipline more firmly estab-
lished by their assaults — Evil consequence of public exposure upon female offenders — Infanticide often
adopted to avoid the shame — Strict obligations to Sabbath obsei-vance — Kinds of Sabbath desecration
specified by the church — Their punishment — Instances of undue severity — Strict search organized against
all Sabbath offenders — Expedients for maintaining decorum and compelling attention in church during
■divine service — War of the church against the popular superstitions — Its prohibition of holy wells, incanta-
tions, beltane fires, and goodman's crofts — Efforts of the church to moderate the popular festivals — Bap-
tisms, contracts, marriages, and lykewakes — Manner of their observance — Licentiousness which they occa-
sioned— Restrictions laid upon penny bridals — Caveats of the church in the conducting of lykewakes and
funerals — Profane and improper language at fairs watched and punished — Abatement of clerical severity
in its inquests on witchcraft — Trespass in the presence of a clergyman visited with double punishment —
Perplexing mixture of the civil and ecclesiastical rights and offices.

Hitherto, in tracing the progress of society,
Ave have confined our attention to the Scot at
home. We have seen the tine promise of im-
provement under the three Alexanders which
was given by the Scottish population at that
early period, and how suddenly it was ai'rested
by the fatal interference of Edward Longshanks
and the wars that succeeded with England dur-
ing three centuries of havoc and bloodshed.
But while this long and unequal trial was going
on, the advance in civilization which its people
might have made was exhibited, not in their own
country, but in foreign lands, where their na-

tional capacities had a more free scope of action
and better chances of development.

During the wars of the Scots with England
the only ally which they had was Finance. This
alliance between a country so poor and barbarous
and one so rich and powerful is carried back by
our eai-ly historians to the mythic times of
Achaius, King of Scotland, and the Emperor
Charlemagne. But, independently of the diffi-
culty of finding a sovereign of the entire king-
dom of Scotland at so remote a date, there is no
probability that the great representative of the
Eomau emperors would have formed a league

276

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xviitli Century.

offensive and defensive with an obscure and
remote Celtic chieftain. It more likely origin-
ated at a much later date, and when both coun-
tries were involved in war with their common
enemy, England. And it was an alliance fa-
vourable to both ; for while France could fur-
nish arms and money, Scotland abounded in
brave and hardy soldiers, who wanted nothing
but the munitions of war. The desirableness of
such an alliance to France was more especially
apparent after the gallant resistance of Wallace
and the signal victory of Bruce at Baunockburn
had secured the independence of Scotland. It
was then found that when England contemplated
an invasion of France work for her could easily
be found at home by supplying the Scots with
a few skilful men-at-arms and a liberal supply
of gold crowns and good weapons. And even
when it came to the worst the progress of a vic-
torious English army in France might be checked
by hardy recruits from Scotland, who asked
nothing beyond good pay and a fair field. In
this manner the aid which Scotland received
from France in the reign of Robert III. was
abundantly returned by the other country in
the reinforcements which she sent to her over-
powered ally after her fatal defeat at Agincourt.
The gallant services done by the Scots to
France at Verneuil and elsewhere have already
been recorded in their proper place. Without
these what a change might have been given to
European history ! An English dynasty might
have been imposed upon France, as a Norman
one had been ujjon England, in which case the
latter country, and perhaps Scotland also, might
have been reduced, for a time at least, into French
dependencies. This consummation, which would
have been so fatal to the two British kingdoms,
was prevented by the arrival of these Scottish
auxiliaries; and, although they were nearly ex-
tirpated on the field of Verneuil, they succeeded
in restored the equilibrium between France and
England, so that the former was saved from
conquest and the latter from vassalage ; and
the war was afterwards carried on upon equal
terms until the latter saw fit to retire from the
contest. Nor were the handful of Scots who
survived the slaughter of their countrymen at
Verneuil neglected. Their bravery had only
been matched by their fidelity, and on this
account the French sovereigns formed them
into a guard for the protection of the palace
and the royal person. They consisted of 100
men-at-arms and 200 archers ; and as this Scot-
tish guard were intrusted with so important a
charge their honours, emoluments, and equip-
ments were snijerior to any of those enjoyed by
the French army. The officers and soldiers
were exclusively Scotch, their commander was

a privileged pei-son almost equal to the constable
of France, and to obtain enrolment into this
honoured corps was the chief ambition of every
young Scot who could count kindred with any
of its members. Even after the Reformation,
when the friendly relationships of the two coun-
tries had changed, and the royal guard had to
be supplied with Frenchmen instead of Scots, its
title and institutions continued unchanged, as if
to perpetuate the remembrance of its origin.

But the establishment of the Royal Guard
was not the only permanent evidence of the
honours which the Scots had won in France.
Like the Normans of old, who established a
nobility in every country which they visited,
whether as foes, allies, or emigrants, these ad-
venturous Caledonians soon took their place
among the French aristocracy, which they per-
vaded with fresh blood and renewed energies.
Few circumstances, indeed, ai'e more remark-
able in French history than the numbers of
noble families that can be traced to a Scot-
tish origin, the still greater numbers which
were connected with Scottish emigrants, and
the high French titles worn by several of our
Scottish nobility. The dukedoms of Touraine
and Chatelherault were conferred upon the
Douglases and the Hamiltons, and the lord-
ship of Aubigny was given to John Stewart
of Darnley. But besides these instances, which
are familiar to every reader of Scottish history,
other noble families are mentioned, whose names
are more or less obscurely disguised under their
French nomenclature. Of these the Couinglants,
the Coigans, the Conigans, the Coningands, and
Conyghans of Burgundy, were but variations
of the Scottish name of Cunningham. Then
come the Quenimonts [Kinninmonts] of Bur-
gundy and Touraine, the Gohorys [Cowries] of
Touraine, the Prestons of La Roche Preston,
the Mauri9ons [Morrisons] of Gueuaudifere, the
Dromonts [Drummonds], the Viuctons [Swin-
tons] and the C-'raforts [Cravvfords], the Grays,
the Barties [Bourties], and the Levistons [Liv-
ingstons]. Passing from these noble seigneurs
of Touraine, Michel, whose zeal in the investi-
gation would entitle himself to a Scottish an-
cestry independent of his name, carries us into
Chamjiague, where the noble names of the pro-
vince, Berey, D'Handresson, Locart, Tourne-
bulle, and Montcrif can easily be traced to
their Scottish source. The Sieurs de Villengon
he hunts up to their obscure Scottish founder,
Williamson. The Maxuels,theD Arsons [Henry-
sons], the Doddes [Dods],the De Lisles [Leslies],
viscounts of Faissy, the Vausoys [Vaux], the De
Lauzons [Lawsons], the D'Espences [Spences] he
in like manner derives fi'om Scottish founders.
Struggling still through the perplexities arising

xviith Century.]

HISTORY OF SOCIETY.

277

from the change of names in passing from one
language to another, Michel satisfactorily as-
signs a Scottish derivation to the noble families
of Folcart [Flockhart], Le Clerk [Clarke],
Sinson [Simpson], Blair (which needs no ex-
planation), Vaucop [Wauchop], and Menipegny
[Monnypenny]. Blackwoods, also, there were
in France, whose ancestor went thither after
the battle of Pinkie, and became the founder
of a race distinguished for their talents and
high appointments in the state. Nor must
the Cenedys [Kennedies] be omitted, nor the
founder of a noble family in Thomas de Hous-
ton, nor Robert Pitilloch, who from an obscure
native of Dundee became lord of Sauveterre.
These specimens may suffice to show how
extensively the French nobility partook of
the Scottish element. Nor were the wearers
ashamed of the distinction : on the contrary,
they were as proud of their Scottish descent as
the English nobility are in deriving their ances-
try from the followers of William the Conqueror.
Even a relationship, however remote, with Scot-
land, was claimed by Frenchmen who might
have been reckoned superior to any such dis-
tinction. The great Duke of Sully, whose
family name was Bethune, declared that it was
related to the Scottish Beatons. Colbert, the
great financier and statesman of France, claimed
a Scottish descent, and the same was the case
with Molicjre, the distinguished dramatist.

In tracing the causes of such wonderful suc-
cess we chiefly find them in the condition of
France and the character of these foreign auxil-
iaries. Among the French nobility fearful
havoc had been made by the invasions of Ed-
ward III., butespeciallyof Henry V. of England;
and not only had these gaps to be filled, but a
fresh spirit infused into the order. And U])on
whom could their choice more naturally fall
than upon those foreign champions who had so
gallantly relieved them in their hour of need ?
Nor were the strangers themselves unfitted for
such high distinction. They were not mere hire-
ling mercenaries ready to sell themselves to the
highest bidder. On the contrary, in their fidelity
to France and hatred of the English they rivalled
the French themselves, and this they showed by
their unflinching resistance in the field, and their
resolution to die or conquer. They had engaged
in this service not from the mere paltry con-
siderations of pay and plunder, but that they
might war with the oppressors of their country
upon a foreign soil; and their fidelity to France
was ennobled and confirmed by patriotism to
Scotland, and their eagerness to revenge her
wrongs. Thus animated they were very dif-
ferent from the mere Condottieri and Free-
companions of the day, who roamed from court

to court, and took service in any warfare, with-
out questions asked about its origin or purpose.
These elevating motives, which made him so
greatly superior to an ordinary military hireling,
gave a dignity to the manners and bearing of
the Scottish adventurer, and were sufficient to
recommend him to rank and command, where
such jjrizes were abundant, and only waiting for
proper occupants. Nor must another considera-
tion be omitted in his list of qualifications. The
French were worshippers of ancestry and titles;
and every Scot was somehow the son of some-
body, and had a territorial designation to his
name. In a country whose population scarcely
amounted to a million, and where so many had
distinguished themselves by warlike deeds, it
was even diflficult for a Scotchman to belong to
a family altogether unknown to fame; and from
the pertinacity with which its members clung
together, the renown of the one great man be-
came the common property of all who bore his
name. In this way a Douglas, a Ramsay, or a
Bruce, although at home he may have been but
a di'iver of oxen, became in France a person
qualified to be a leader of men, by virtue of the
noble blood that was in him. If he also pos-
sessed a landed patrimony, however small or
barren — a few acres of heath were sufficient —
he was wont at home to be designated by the
title of his estate; and, on passing over to France,
his being of somewhere made him at once an
honoured de, and prepared the way for his ex-
change of a barren Scottish lairdship for a sub-
stantial French lordship. Even up to the com-
mencement of the present period the English,
who should have known better, made the same
blunder with regard to these Scottish territorial
appellations, so that they converted our whole
country into a land of small nobility. "With
them a Scottish laird was a lord, and a baron
an honoured member of the peerage. The mis-
take has gone onward in France to our own
times, where the counts of Lauriston derived
their title from a small estate in the neighbour-
hood of Edinburgh, while the younger of the
family, from the name of an adjacent hamlet,
were designated Barons de Mutton-hole.^

But it was not in France alone that the Scot-
tish emigrant, as soon as he had obtained a fair
field, showed what he was worth, and achieved
the distinction he had merited. On the break-
ing out of the Thirty Years' War in Bohemia
the clamour of Britain to send aid to the pala-
tine was loud and incessant. But James, who
negotiated when he should have made war, and
blustered when his threats were only laughed

1 Burton's Scot Abroad; Les Ecossais en France, <i-c., par
Francisque-Michel.

278

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[x\^Ith CENTrRT.

at, employed these means with nothing but their
wonted result. The Scots, however, were more
eager than the rest to interpose in behalf of the
overmatched Frederick. They were impatient
of the inactivity to which their sovereign had
condemned them ; the war was one of religious
principle in which they heartily sympathized;
and the Bohemian queen was their country-
woman, to whose fate they could not be indif-
ferent. Accordingly the Scottish auxiliaries
that joined the palatine, and his general, Count
Mansfeldt, were numei'ous, but still more so
when Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, suc-
ceeded to the leadership of this Protestant war.
Thirteen regiments of Scottish infantry were in
his service, whose deeds were eminent where
all parties were distinguished for bravery ; and
many other regiments, composed of English,
Swedish, and German pikemen, had Scotsmen
for their officers. Urquhart, who gives us a
long list of his countrymen who had attained to
high offices during the earlier part of the war,
informs us, that after the battle of Leipsic
Gustavus had thirty-six Scottish colonels about
him. It would thus appear that a very large por-
tion of his army was officered entirely by Scots-
men. His miuister-at-war, Alexander Erskine,
was also a Scot. The allurements for settling
permanently in the country were by no means
so strong for these favoured auxiliaries as they
had been in France, and the breaking out of the
civil war, which made their services necessary
at home, recalled them to their national standard.
But in the Thirty Years' "War the sympathies
of the Scots were not entirely confined to one
side. There weie Scottish Catholics who re-
garded the imperial cause as the true one, be-
cause it was against Protestantism, and who en-
listed under its banner as a choice opportunity
of warring against heresy and heretics. There
were also several who adopted it in the mere
caprice of soldiers of fortune, or who regarded
it as the winning side, and one that afforded the
best chances of pay and booty. It is gr-atifying,
however, to think that these bore a very small
proportion to those who served under Gustavus
Adolphus. Among the Scots in the imperial
service was John Gordon, a cadet of the house
of Gight, who made himself infamous by his
share in the assassination of Wallenstein.

It was not, however, merely as adventurous
soldiers that the Scots signalized themselves in
foreign lands; they also went forth as merchants;
and in this capacity their shrewdness, enter-
prising spirit, and economical habits won for
them that success which they were unable to
obtain in their own impoverished country, with
Scotchmen for their competitors. One country
especially they seemed to have marked as their

most favourable field of enterprise; and this was
Poland, whose numerous noblesse were too proud
to engage in traffic, while the common people
were serfs bound to the soil, and labouring
for the service of their lords. At Dantzic a
wealthy and influential community of Scottish,
merchants had long been settled, who were
ruled by laws of their own; while over the
whole of Poland roamed about ten thousand
Cramers, or pedlars, who occupied the chief
traffic of the kingdom.^ Such was the state
of affairs in Poland at the beginning of the
seventeenth century until the equal activity of
the Jews, aided by their superior political privi-
leges, were too much for the Scots, who gradually
yielded in the unequal competition. Another
country in which Scottish adventurere obtained
a footing was Russia, but not until towards the
close of this period, when Europe for the first
time began to be aware of its existence. It was
as warriors and ]3oliticians, also, that they en-
tered, in which character they gave effective aid
in the construction of that great empire. The
first Scottish emigrant of note who settled in
Russia was Patrick Gordon, a young adventurer
of respectable family but no fortune, who, after
a youth of wandering, enlisted in the Swedish,
and afterwards the Russian service; became the
chief counsellor and soldier of Peter the Great,
then young; aided him in breaking the power
of the Strelitzes, frustrated the ambitious de-
signs of the imperial family; and finally, aided
in those vast projects which had the develop-
ment of the resources of Russia for their object.
After him, but in the following century, was.
Admiral Greig, the son of a skipper in luver-
keithing, who created the Russian navy. It is
perhaps also not generally known, that the ori-
ginal name and title of Barclay de Tolly, a prince
of the Russian empire, who planned the cam-
paign which occasioned the disastrous retreat of
the French from Moscow, was simply Barclay
of Towie, this Towie being nothing more than
an obscure parish and fortalice in Aberdeen-
shire.^

As the Highlanders occupy a distinguished
place in the wars for the establishment, and
afterwards for the restoration of the Stuai-ts, the
condition of that primitive people during the
present period of Scottish history is worthy of
particular notice. Secluded from the Lowlands
by their ramparts of mountains, they were almost
inaccessible to the changes and improvements
under which the nation had been progressively
advancing; and while the rest of the kingdom
was settled under a permanent monarchic rule

1 Calderwood's History of the Kirk of Scotland.
• Burton's Scot Abroad.

xviith Century.]

HISTOEY OF SOCIETY.

279

they still clung to their patriarchal form of
government with a tenacity that was truly
Asiatic. Their chief was not only the ruler, but
also the father of his clan, and every one of his
people, however lowly, could claim kindred with
him either nearly or remotely. From this pa-
ternal nature of his office his unlimited authority
was matched by the obedience and devotedness
of his subjects; and, on the other hand, while
their homage was so implicit he was bound to
protect them and provide for them in return.
This, however, was no easy matter for a Celtic
magnate, who could muster four or five hundred
broadswords, but not as many pounds sterling;
and accoi'diugly the difficulties of finance, and
problems of ways and means, were as trying to
these petty kingliugs as to the sovereigns of the
greatest empires. Of agriculture there was little,
as each family only cultivated as much ground
as would barely supply its own wants; and of
manufactures there was still less, as the chief
part of it consisted in the fabrication of their
own scanty clothing. Their chief subsistence
depei d 3d upon their flocks and herds, while
upon their thin pastures enough of animal food
could not be reared to support the numerous
population, and thus they were robbers not only
from choice but necessity. But, like all rude
people, they aggrandized robbery into heroic
enterprise, more especially as it was conducted
by the community at large and upon an ample
scale ; it was no petty seizure of a sheep or ox,
but the lifting of whole droves, and therefore
the spoils of a warlike expedition. As these
robberies also were committed upon the Saxons
their hereditary enemies, who had driven them
beyond the mountains and usurped the soil that
was once their own, these marauding inroads
were regarded as nothing worse than a rigliteous
and just retribution. Their chief occupation
and favourite amusement was also a fit training
for such enterprises. In consequence of their
scanty husbandry the Highlanders were obliged
to become keen hunters, and of all occupations
the chase is best adapted for producing good
sold iers.

Of the style of their peaceful life little need
be said, as it was a state of penance, from which
they were always glad to escape. The High-
land towns were generally villages of rude huts,
built in utter disregard both of the rules of
architecture and those of domestic comfort, while
whatever of the picturesque they jjossessed was
chiefly owing to their site, as it was generally a
valley and by the side of a river. Pre-eminent
above these huts, and usually at a lordly dis-
tance, stood the house or castle of the chief,
built of stone, and displaying more or less the
style of a Lowland mansion, according to the

means of its honoured resident ; and to its hall
and table every clansman was welcomed and
treated according to his degree. Having so
much spare time the Highlanders spent most
of it in the open air ; and in the evening they
assembled round a common fire, where they
amused themselves with songs, dancing, and
story-telling. As the music of the Highlanders
is a debatable subject we care not to enter on it ;
it is enough to say, that while the love of it was
general amongst them, the music itself was nei-
ther of an artificial chai-acter nor yet very highly
cultivated. Their songs were chiefly plaintive;
but their instrumental music was lively or mar-
tial, the former being used for the dance, and
the latter for battle. Their martial music of
the bagpipe, while with some it unpleasantly
" sings i' the nose," and with others is but a
Babel of confused sounds and uproar, is a far
difi'erent matter with the Highlanders, whom
it transports into warlike fury more eftectually
than a whole orchestra of drums and wind-in-
struments.

The history and poetry among the High-
landers was chiefly oral and traditional, and
from the circumstance of not being committed
to writing, as well as the general ignorance of
the language, little of either has survived to
the present day, or been known beyond the
Highland boundaries. The family bard and
the family story-teller of the chief were the
chroniclers of the deeds and legends of the clan,
and conservators of its learning; and from tlieir
songs and tales the people learned the deeds of
their ancestors, and were taught to follow their
example. As with most communities that have
little to bestow, the best characteristic of the
Highlanders was hosjjitality ; and the arrival
of a stranger, while it was the signal for an en-
tertainment in which their best was expended,
was also the means of their learning tidings of
that world from which they were almost wholly
excluded. The guest was also as sacred among
them as among the Arabs of the desert, and
the entertainer who was profuse in his hospital-
ity to the stranger, was equally ready in jiro-
tectiug him from injury. The Highlanders, in-
deed, might be thieves and robbers according
to the civilized acceptation of the terms, but it
was only against their genei'al enemies, the
Saxons, or the hostile clan with whom tliey
were at feud. On the other hand, an injury of
this kind by one clansman against another was
an injury to all, and the whole sept was ready
to punish the offender. Being always ready
either for foray or feud-fight, every Highlander
went armed, and they were both fearless and
dexterous in the use of their weapons. This
habitual wearing of arms, and promptitude in

280

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xvnth Century.

using them, made them careful of otieudiug oue
another, and hence their intercourse and con-
versation displayed a punctilious politeness un-
usual among more civilized communities.

The costume of the Highlanders, when com-
plete, consisted of a woollen mantle called a
plaid, six yards in length and two in breadth :
this was wrapped loosely round the body and
over the left shoulder, leaving the right arm at
full liberty. Under this mantle was the jacket
of thick cloth that fitted tightly to the body,
and a loose short garment or petticoat called a
kilt, that went round the waist and did not
reach the knee. The kilt seems to have been a
final improvement upon the two ends of the
plaid, which had been previously allowed to
hang loosely before and behind to serve the
same purpose. This free and easy bare-legged
dress, supposed to have been the last remains
in Europe of the old Roman costume, was well-
fitted for a peojjle inhabiting a mountainous
country, and accu.stomed to make their journeys
on foot, for the use of horses they disregarded,
all the more that theirs were of a very small
breed and reckoned scarcely worth their pastur-
age. This is enough to account for the super-
stitious dread entertained by the Highlanders
of the war-horses of the Saxons, which in their
eyes appeared as big as elephants and as fierce
as tigers. From this mode of journeying, and
their habits of hardy endurance, these moun-
taineers, when employed in warfare, could make
incredibly long marches, — sometimes of sixty
miles in a single day, — so that they could easily
outstrip a regular army either in advance or
retreat. These marches also they could per-
form without food or halting, and over such
mountains, rocks, and morasses, as would have
delayed a regular army; and in descending to
the Lowlands, they never encumbered them-
selves with provisions or military stores, as it
was their custom to live at free quartei's upon
the enemy. In rain, their plaids thrown over
their shoulders served for a roof; at night,
when they encamped in the open air, the same
garment sufficed them for bed and blanket;
and when three men slept together, their plaids
could compose three folds of cloth below them,
and six folds above them.

The weapons of this martial people were a
broadsword, a dagger called a dirk, a target or
round shield of hard wood covered with leather,
a musket, and two pistols. Sometimes, before
giving battle, they threw off their upper cloth-
ing, and then came on like a troop of half-naked
savages. This was enough of itself to dismay
their enemies, who were not only astounded at
such unusual preparations, but made aware
that they would soon have hot work of it. In

charging the Highlanders advanced not in line,
but in column, each clan by itself under its own
chief, but all acting in concert; and thus, while
the rival clans could do their best in the sight
of each other, every individual gave proof to
his own array whether he was a " pretty man"
or a coward. In j)reparing for the onset, a common
practice was to advance slowly till they were near
the foe, when they fired oue volley from their
muskets and threwthemonthe ground, they then
rushed nearer, fired their pistols at the enemy's
heads, after which they unsheathed their swords,
and flung themselves on the ojaposite ranks in
order to break them by a headlong onset. Against
this impetuosity and desperate hand-to-hand
fighting the still imperfect discipline and slow
movements of regular soldiers were insufficient,
and it was by such desperate onslaughts,
against which the new theories of war had as
yet made no provision, that this motley crowd
of untrained Celts generally gained their vic-
tories, in defiance of the lessons of Lowland
and English drill-sergeants. But while a High-
land army could be so formidable in action, it
was more apt than other armies to be controlled
by impediments. If their first charge could
be successfully withstood, they lost confidence,
and might be routed with ease; and when de-
feated, the want of discipline prevented their
rallying either for a renewed onset or a future
encounter. If the campaign was continued be-
yond a battle or two, a river brought their march
to a stand, because they were unaccustomed to
swim, and a fort, however weak, could hold
them in check, as they had neither cannon to
batter it, nor other means for a regular siege. But
it was not a temporary failure alone that could
disperse a Highland army in the full tide of its
success. When victorious, they were wont to
hurry home with the plunder they had won,
and thus a victory was usually as fatal to their
cause as a defeat. Like the moss-troopers of
the Borders, also, when they had broken the
enemy, instead of following up the advantage,
they generally flew upon the spoil. ^

In these notices we understand the causes of
the successes and defeats of Montrose. Himself
the most skilful of guerrilla leaders, he had the
best of guerrilla soldiers to follow him; and his
rapid motions, as well as wonderful successes,
were the natural result. It must not be forgot,
also, that his Irish auxiliaries, who formed the
permanent nucleus of his army, were trained
veterans, who, having no home to receive them,
were obliged to abide with him to the last;
while the enemies he overcame were but the
refuse of the military force of the country — men

' Dalrymple ; Memoirs of Lieutenant-general Mackay.

H. J. DRAPER. 31

SCENE IN HALL OF A HIGHLAND CHIEFTAIN IN THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

A Bard reciting the Deeds of the Clan.

Vol. iii. p. 279.

xviith Century.]

HISTOEY OF SOCIETY.

281

who, under the first lessons of discipline, had
lost their natural and individual power of action,
without acquiring that of the soldier in its
stead, and who were beaten down in the charge
before they could go through one half of their
evolutions. But when the troops of the great
marquis were oj^posed by the steady veterans
of the wars of the Commonwealth the case was
reversed, fiist by his surprise and defeat, and
afterwards by his capture. Such also was the
fate of the conquerors of Killiekrankie, who
were brought to a stand at Dunkeld House, and
routed by its handful of defenders. Still, how-
ever, Highland valour was appreciated by its
enemies. General Mackay, who knew them
well, observed that from their habits and mode
of living they surpassed the rest of their coun-
trymen in the qualities of brave, efficient soldiers,
and declared that no new levies could be com-
pared to them. He noticed also their abiding
dread of cavalry, and availed himself of such a
weakness. " Horse," he writes in his memoirs,
" is the great fear of Highlanders, for the same
forces which beat my three thousand men for-
merly, I kept in their hills and hindered from
all communication with their favourers, who
were in no small numbers, with the matter of
400 horse and dragoons, most new levies, the
enemy being recruited with several other High-
landers, who were not pi'esent at the action."

Fromthegreat quantity of deerand othergame
with which the Highland districtsabouuded they
formed the favourite hunting-ground of the Scot-
tish nobles and Highland chiefs, who on such
occasions could meet on social terms ; and here
the amusement was enjoyed upon so large a scale
as no other part of the island could have dis-
played. But these great meetings " to drive the
deer with hound and horn " were often the pre-
paratives for as important events as occurred at
Chevy Chase. A Highland hunt was often the
apology for a great political concourse ; and
while the leaders were apparently occupied with
the amusements of the chase they were forming
those coalitions by which a faction was to be un-
seated or a dynasty itself dethroned. This was
especially the case when the Stuarts were de-
posed; and these festive gatherings were pre-
texts for political meetings among the chief
Jacobites of Scotland, both Highland and Low-
land, where they might concert their plans un-
watched and unsuspected.

But apart from all such ulterior purposes, a
Highland hunt must have been a gorgeous and
stirring spectacle; and Taylor, the water-poet,
who during his short visit in Scotland was pre-
sent at one of them, where 1400 or 1500 men
were keenly employed in the sport, thus de-
scribes the stirring scene, which may be best

given in his own language : — " The manner of
the hunting is tliis : five or six hundred men do
rise early in the morning, and they do disperse
themselves diverse ways; and seven, eight, or
ten miles compass they do bring or chase in the
deer in many herds (two, three, or four hun-
dred in a herd) to such or such a place as the
noblemen shall appoint them. Then, when day
is come, the lords and gentlemen of their com-
j^anies do ride or go to the said places, some-
times wading up to the middles through burns
and rivers : and then they being come to the
jjlace, do lie down on the ground, till those fore-
said scouts, which are called the tinchel, do
bring down the deer. . . . Then after we
had stayed three hours or thereabouts, we
might perceive the deer appear on the hills
round about us, their heads making a show like
a wood; which being followed close by the
tinchel, are chased down into the valley where
we lay. Then all the valley on each side being
waylaid with a hundred couple of strong Iiish
greyhounds, they are let loose as occasion serves
upon the herd of deer, that with dogs, guns,
arrows, dirks, and daggers, in the space of two
hours, four score fat deer were slain, which
after are disposed of, some one way, some
another, twenty and thirty miles, and more
than enough left for us to make merry withal
at our rendezvous."^

As the mustering of a clan for battle or foray
was a frequent circumstance, the Highland plan
adopted for the purpose was characterized by as
much promptitude and efficiency as was mani-
fested in their great chase gatherings. When a
chief wished to i-aise his people for a great enter-
l^rise, and not only his own clan but those who
were his allies, he killed a goat with his own
sword, and having dipped into its blood a cross
composed of two twigs, the two ends of the
transverse twig having been previously scorched
with tire, he sent it by a swift runner to the
nearest village, announcing the day, hour, and
place of rendezvous; the person to whom the
messenger transferred it went off at full speed
to the next station with the summons, and
tliere delivered the cross to a third; and in
this way the signal and its mandate were circu-
lated over a widely-scattered population in a
wonderfully short space of time. Everywhere,
also, it found people not only armed for instant

1 Taylor the Water Poet's Penniless Pilgrimage or Money-
less Perambulation. This writer was originally a water-
man upon the Thames ; and he terms his journey to Scot-
land a penniless pilgrimafie because he took no money with
him, trusting to the kindness of his admirers in Scotland
and the national hospitality. His confidence was not in
vain ; he was suffered to want for nothing, and his singular
narrative abounds with instances of the kindness with which
he was everywhere received and treated.

282

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xmth CE>TrRT.

service but ready to start at the moment, for
not only the hallowed form of this strange mis-
sive was a sacred adjuration, but its blood-red
stain and charred extremities indicated the
punishment of fire and sword to all who diso-
beyed. In this manner the fiery cross flew like
an ominous meteor from strath to strath, over
mountains and across rivers, and was welcomed
by those to whom war was the chief sport as
well as occupation, and who having little to lose
were likely to be gainers by the change. It was
thus that during the present period the Earl of
Argyle endeavoured to rouse the Campbells and
their allies when he touched at the Highlands
in his unfortunate expedition against James VII.
Of the two kinds of their war-songs, equally
termed a coronach^ one was of a threatening and
insi^iriting nature, sung by the women at the
appearance of the fiery cross, while the other
was the sorrowful lament which they raised over
the body of the fallen warrior while they carried
it to the grave.

In superstition the Highlanders went beyond
their neighbours, for while they readily adopted
those phases of it which were prevalent in the
Lowlands, they had others peculiarly their own
of an earlier and darker character by which their
exclusively Celtic origin was indicated. The
wild, gloomy aspect of their perpetually chang-
ing scenery and their idle modes of life were
congenial nurses of such a tendency ; and thus,
while they peopled every glen, hill, and river
with supernatural beings of a more dismaying
form than those which kept the Lowland laistic
in awe, they had also among them, dwelling in
the body, leeches of more miraculous power, and
witches and wizards of higher pretensions than
their poor Saxon contemporaries. Tlie High-
lands, indeed, was a happy land for such pre-
tendei-s, as they had few church courts to de-
nounce them, while hatred of the devil and all
his children was not so characteristic of the
Highlander as the Lowlander. Upon this
copious subject, however, it is at present unne-
cessary to enter : it is enough for our purpose to
allude to the second sight, in which the High-
lander believed as firmly as he believed in any-
thing, whether divine or human. Tlie taischter
or seer was a dreaded and honoured, but gener-
ally an unhappy being, upon whom an unenvi-
able knowledge of futurity had descended as a
curse, and before whose straining eyes the events
of the unknown present or future passed with
the distinctness of veritable action. In this way
he saw the happy marriage or successful spreach
before the one or the other was contemplated;
and with equal distinctness he saw the distant
boat that was even now sinking in the storm or
the young warrior who at the present moment

was perishing on the field of battle. It is need-
less further to specify this quality of second
sight with which the writings of Sir Walter
Scott have made all classes familiar.

Of the common customs of the Highlanders
at the close of this period the following brief
account is given by the Eev. John Fraser,
an Episcopal minister in the Highlands, in a
letter to his Lowland correspondent : " It would
be a little tedious to give you an exact map of
the customs of the Highlanders : in the general
they were litigious, ready to take arms upon a
small occasion, very predatory, much given to-
tables, carding, and dicing. Their games were
military exercise, and such as rendered them
fittest for war, as arching [archery], running,
jumping, with and without a race, swimming,
continual hunting and fowling, feasting, espe-
cially upon their holidays, of which they had
enough boiTOwed from Popery. Tlieir marriage
and funeral solemnities were much like their
neighbours' in the low countries, only at their
funeral there was fearful howling, screeching,
and crying, with very bitter lamentations, and.
a complete nai'ration of the descent of the dead
person, the valorous acts of himself and his pre-
decessors, sung with tune in measure and con-
tinual piping if the person was of any quality or
possessing arms. Their chiliarchy had their
ushers that went out and came in before them
in full arms. I cannot pass by a cruel custom
that is hardly yet extinct. They played at cards
or tables (to pass the time in the winter nights)
in parties, perhaps four in a side, the party that
lost was obliged to make his man sit down in
the midst of the floor, then there was a single-
soled shoe, well-plated, wherewith his antagonist
was to give him six strokes on end upon his bai'e
loof [palm], and the doing of that with strength
and art was thought gallantry." Such is the
compendious notice of Fraser.^ The reader will
be iniable to perceive the justice that stigmatizes
the last of these amusements as a "cruel custom."
It was only a rough impi'ovement upon the game
of " hunt-the-slipper," and scarcely more severe
than the chastisement of a schoolboy who 1ms
failed in his task.

Of all the persecutions inflicted upon the
Highlanders none equalled those with which
the clan Macgregor was visited. As they had
distinguished themselves more than the rest of
their countrymen by their lawless enterprises
upon the Lowlands, they soon became esi^ecially
obnoxious to the Scottish government, and
when sentences of " fire and sword " were
issued against them there were plenty of High-
land chiefs to execute these denunciations, more

' Analecta Scotica, vol. i. p. 117.

xviitli Century.]

HISTOEY OF SOCIETY.

283

especially as their zeal was rewarded with a
portion of the extensive territories of the dis-
possessed. Thus driven from their homes,
branded as outlaws, their very name proscribed
and visited with death, and finding enemies
alike in the Highlander and Lowlander, they
turned their hand against every man in retalia-
tion, and justified the merciless cruelties they
inflicted by the unpitying severities which had
driven them into universal rebellion. Thus
amidst a sufficiently lawless community the
Macgregors were the wildest, and the whole of
this period was signalized with accounts of their
atrocities and the summary massacres and exe-
cutions with which these deeds were visited.

Among the noblemen who were most inter-
ested in the sujipression of this jDroscribed and
broken clan was Lord Lorn, afterwards Mar-
quis of Argyle, and leader of the Covenanters,
who in 1636 captured ten notable Macgregors,
one of whom, called Gilderoy (or the red lad),
enjoys a high distinction even to the j^resent
day from a ballad in which his fate is patheti-
cally bewailed. His actions of wholesale rol)-
bery and violence equalled in boldness while
they far exceeded in cruelty those of the cele-
brated Rob Roy, who at the close of this period
had stepped into Gilderoy's jjlace, and these
were enough to procure for him a short trial
and a sharp sentence in the justiciary court at
Edinburgh. He and his gang suffered the ex-
tremity of the law, and to indicate his pre-emi-
nence he was hanged on a higher gallows than
the I'est. In tiie ballad to which we have
alluded, supposed to be a lament of his mistress,
of which there are various readings, the lady,
after describing their happy loves, their free
roving life, and his unmerited doom, thus ter-
minates her lamentation : —

"And now he is in Edinburgh town,

'Twas long ere I came there ;
They hanged him upon a pin,

And he wagged in the air.
His reUcs they were more esteemed

Than Hector's were at Troy —
I never love to see the face

That gazed on Gilderoy. "^

In turning our attention to the usages and
weapons of war we find that the union of the
crowns had introduced its natural changes ; the
Scottish soldiers now formed only an integral
part of the British army, while their discipline,
habits, and arms wei'e modelled according to
the rule of the moi-e powerful and advanced
nation. The usual wapenshaws, indeed, weie
still enjoined in Scotland, and while every
estate was assessed for its quota of men arrayed

' Chambers' Domestic Annals of Scotland.

in an " aft'eir of weir," tliat was daily becoming
more obsolete,the musters were accompanied with
those military sports and competitions by which
amusement was blended with the more serious
purposes of the meeting. But even these wa-
penshaws and their feudal array were only use-
ful for the maintenance of internal peace, or
in the event of a sudden invasion ; and for all
the usual requirements of war the trained sol-
dier, who made fighting his profession and lived
upon its wages, was needed instead of the mere
citizen-soldier of a few days in the year.

The warlike ranks of the earlier part of this
period were chiefly composed of pikemen and
musketeers. Of these the pikemen were the
tallest and strongest, as their principal use
was in close hand-to-hand encounter; and
the pike was required, by royal statute, to be
not less than sixteen feet long. As such a
weapon was apt to be shivered in a close en-
counter the pikeman also carried a sword by
his side; and for defensive armour, which he
equally needed, he wore a back and breast
plate and a head-piece, while the musketeer had
no defensive armour. But the growing supe-
riority of firearms, and the readiness with
which they decided the fate of an engagement,
had so completely reversed this order that in
the reign of James VII. the use of the pike was
abandoned. But besides the musket for dis-
tant fight the use of the bow was still partially
retained even to the close of the Civil War.
Chai'les I. granted two commissions under the
great seal for enforcing the use of the long-
bow ; and when the war commenced the Earl
of Essex, commander of the Parliamentarian
army, craved a " benevolence" of the people for
raising a company of archers to serve in his
army. Montrose, also, in his campaigns had
often as many archers as musketeers, so that
the astonishment of Dugald Dalgetty was only
owing to his exjjerieuce in the greater and more
scientific wars of Germany, from which he had
just returned. Even yet, also, balls of stone
were used for the cannon as well as balls of
iron, a fact we learn from the proclamation of
Charles I., in which he specifies his need of
archers.

The last of ancient warlike habiliments dis-
carded during this period was the cumbrous de-
fensive armour of the sixteenth century ; and
officers and men of rank only discai'ded it re-
luctantly, and ]nece by piece, when it was
found that armour of plate was an uncertain
defence against musket bullets. The last to
abandon it were the cavalry, and so late as the
fourteenth year of the reign of Charles II. we
find by a parliamentary enactment that the de-
fensive armour of a horseman was a back and

284

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xviith Ckntcry.

breast j^late that was to be pistol-proof, while
his otfensive arms were to be a sword and a
case of pistols, the barrels of which were not to
be less than fourteen inches long.

As the musket was superseding every other
weapon its stages of improvement were various,
from the clumsy hagbut to the light and still
more deadly fusil. These first essays in fire-
arms, which were characterized under the
names of snaphaunces, hand-guns, and dags,
had improved into muskets, pistols, and pe-
tronels, the latter being a horseman's short
carbine, which could be used with one hand,
and fii-ed with the butt resting against the
shoulder. The muskets at the beginning of
the present period were four feet long in the
barrel, and carried bullets of twelve to the
pound. The mode of kindling them, also, which
at first was by a match held between the fore-
fingers and thumb of the left hand, was super-
seded by the match -lock, the wheel-lock, and,
finally, the flint-lock of a later jaeriod. The
gunpowder at first was carried in httle cylindri-
cal boxes of wood, leather, or tin, which were
attached to a belt called the bandolier, that was
worn over the left shoulder. But this way of
carrying powder was so dangerous to the wearer,
and occasioned such delay in loading, that each
charge was finally made up into a cartridge and
carried in a small light cartridge-box. The
necessity of promptness and the advantages of
quick loading and firing were taught by the
inconveniences of the earlier drill of musketry,
in which the manoeuvres were so slow and
numerous that before half of them were ended
the rapid sweep of the Highland broadsword
had made the rest of the lesson superfluous.
Even at the best it was complained that, while
"the soldier emptied his musket he was emptied
of his life." Towards the close of this pei'iod
the fusil or firelock was generally used by our
armies, and the regiments who carried them
were distinguished by the name of fusileers.
Grenadiers were also employed in our armies so
early as a.d. 1684, at first by a few attached to
each regiment, and afterwards by entire com-
panies. Independently of being armed with
firelocks and the other weapons of a musketeer,
each man carried a pouch of hand-grenades,
which he kindled and threw among the enemy
before he advanced to the charge. The same
sound sense which was characterizing the land
service was also conspicuous in the improve-
ment of naval warfare, by the introduction of
those amphibious warriors called marines. It
was soon found that laud soldiers were only
fitted for their own element, and on this account
a marine force was raised toward the close of
this period, who, besides their training in the

military tactics of the land, were inured to life
at sea, and able to assist in the navigation and
defence of the vessel, as well as service on shore.

It may here be necessary to give some ac-
count of the bayonet, a weapon almost as neces-
sary and useful in modern warfare as the rifle
itself. At first the musketeer, like the eai'ly
English archer, was only fit for distant fight;
his "levin-darting gun" was useless against the
hand-to-hand attack of one armed for standing
fight; and in a charge of cavalry he was as
helpless as the English archery when the horse-
men of Bruce charged them at Bannockburn.
This inconvenience also they endeavoured to
remedy by a device similar to that of the sharp
stakes with which the archers of Henry V. de-
fended themselves in their wars in France. As
the heavy musket in firing had to be supported
upon a forked rest, the rest at the head was
fortified with a pi'ojecting sword-blade called a
swine's feather, as a defence against a charge of
cavalry. But when the musket became lighter,
so that these rests might be thrown aside, the
musketeer when he came to close quarters stuck
his dagger into the muzzle of his weaj^on, by
which it was converted into a tolerably service-
able pike.i This plan met with such approval
that it was extensively adopted, and musketeera
were enabled to march with the pikemen to
a general charge. The gun thus plugged, how-
ever, could no longer be used in firing, and was
nothing better than a lance-pole, until a for-
tunate genius converted the dagger into a rude
bayonet, by which the musketeer could use his
weapon both in distant fight and the charge at
the same instant. This was the invention of
General Mackay during his wars in the High-
lands, and in his Memoirs, speaking of himself
in the third person, he gives us the following
short account of the invention : " The High-
landers are of such a quick motion, that if a
battalion keep up his fire till they be near to
make sure of them, they are upon it befoi-e our
men can come to their second defence, which is
the bayonet in the muzzle of the musket. I
say, the general [Mackay] having observed this
method of the enemy, he invented the way to
fasten the bayonet so to the muzzle without, by
two rings, that the soldiers may safely keep
their fire till they pour it into their breasts, and
then have no other motion to make but to push
as with a pike."

In thus describing the English army we have
described the Scotch also, which formed a part
of it; the same discipline and weapons served
for both, and, with a few excej^tions in costume,
the necessity of uniformity was enough to over-

1 Grose's Military Antiquities.

xviith Centuby.]

HISTOEY OF SOCIETY.

285

bear all national distinctions. If the drilling of
the soldiers, also, at this later stage was less
laborious and pedantic it was more attentive to
those minutiae hitherto disregarded, upon which
the efficiency of a modern army so gi-eatly de-
pends. In the historical notices of Lord Foun-
tainhall there is brief mention made of an officer,
whose attention to these matters would have
raised him to high rank in the service of Frede-
rick the Great, or his father. In 1684 this officer,
Colonel James Douglas, was wont to exercise his
regiment upon the Links of Leith, and the drill
was of a character so peculiarly strict that his
lordship seems to have marvelled at it. His
great aim was to have all his soldiers " of one
pitch" or height, and he allowed none of them
to wear long beards, or to have " ill cravats or
cravat strings," and this, that they might look
young and brisk. To ensure punctual compli-
ance also with his regulation, he supplied them
with new cravats and cravat strings, the price of
which he deducted from their pny. He obliged
them all to tie their hair back with a ribbon,
that it might not be blown into their eyes, to mar
their aim in firing. And he prohibited his officers
from keeping drinking cellars, that the soldiers
might not waste their pay at them in drinking.
These rules exhibited an amusing combination
of the prudent commander and frivolous mar-
tinet. His last prohibition was needful, for from
several military enactments we learn, that even
officers sometimes kept taverns and drove a
gainful trade by selling strong liquors to their
soldiers.

The same necessities of a strict and uniform
discipline characterized the military punish-
ments of this period, which were wholly confined
to the soldiery. Of these punishments the chief
were, riding the wooden horse and the picket.
This dreaded horse was made of wooden planks
about four feet iu length, nailed together so as
to form a sharp ridge for the back, and stood
upon four wooden props that served as legs; and
to increase its resemblance to the animal from
whom its name was derived, a grotesque head
and tail were frequently added. Upon this
sharp-backed and ignominious steed the off'ender
against military rules was mounted; and, to in-
crease the severity of such a seat, muskets were
sometimes tied to his legs to keep him, it was
jocularly alleged, in the saddle, and prevent his
horse from throwing him. The other penance,
called the picket, was a kind of strappado. A
post was set upright in the ground, to which the
offender was secured at the utmost stretch by
the wrist, in such a way that one foot could find
a kind of support upon a hard knob that was
only blunt enough to avoid piercing the skin.
Thus the sufferer was tantalized with the pro-

mise of rest, which he could not obtain without
torture, whether he allowed his whole body to
hang by the arm, or sought the relief of the knob
with his foot, which was only exchanging one
kind of pain for another. But as either kind of
punishment was often attended with conse-
quences that maimed the soldier for life, both
the wooden horse and picket were afterwards
exchanged for the lash and solitary confine-
ment. Such at the commencement of the eigh-
teenth century were the military appointments
of a British army, and such the training that
prepared it for the victories of Audenarde, Mal-
plaquet, and Blenheim.^

It is melancholy to find that, at a period when
religion was so predominant, superstition was
also so rampant. The two principles were
now iu desperate antagonism, and an excess of
religious belief, as well as the utter lack of it,
were fruitful sources of the same result. The
as yet defective knowledge of the laws of nature,
and the general inability to account for those
phenomena that interrupted the everyday
course of life — the exaggerations of fancy whe-
ther in witnessing or describing what was mar-
vellous or unusual — and the simple expedient
of referring everything to supernatural agency,
which they were unable to solve upon natural
principles, were now common not only in Scot-
laud and England, but throughout Europe. It
was the awakening of the human intellect to its
new career of inquiry, the desperate stumbling of
the first steps in emerging from darkness into
light ; the percejitious of men whose eyes were
opening in a dim twilight after a long and be-
wildering repose. But they were to sleep no
longer, and the sunrise was at band. Even
their gross mistakes were the tokens of a re-
newed vitality and the promise of a full awaken-
ing. From these superstitions, also, Scotland,
which of all countries was the most enthralled,
was finally to obtain the fullest deliverance.

During the dreary period of darkness the
greatest nightmare of the Scottish mind, as we
have ali'eady seen, was the subject of witch-
craft. James VI., whose proudest title, next to
that of the Scottish Solomon, was malleus male-
ficarum, had dealt his heaviest blows against
witchcraft, and written his Bemonologie to show
how the crime might be detected and its con-
viction ensured; and over the whole of the seven-
teenth century his recommendations were fol-
lowed up with a zeal which none of his other
measures had secured. It is worthy of notice,
also, that the most zealous prosecutors of witches
were his old enemies, the clergy, and that the
persecutions to which the Covenanters them-

1 Grose's Military Antiquities.

286

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xviith Century.

selves were exposed by his successors, did not
tend to abate the strictness with which the in-
quiry .'iiter witchcraft was conducted, or the
severity with which it was punished.

Of the numerous executions of witches during
the whole of the present period we have no wish
further to speak; they were merciless hecatombs
of old women offered up to the presiding ignor-
ance and super::;tition of the day. It was easy
also to find a victim; for the bare suspicion was
often enough to lead to conviction. If a woman,
under the effects of stu])idity or age, had acquired
a habit of mumbling or maundering she might
be accused of conversing with her familiar. If
of a tiery malignant temper, and prone to utter
imprecations, and deal her impatient curses
against those she hated, this might bring her
under suspicion of being a witch. And above
all, if any evd should befall the object of her
maledictions, whether in person, family, or pro-
perty, this was proof positive that she had sold
herself to the devil, who had thus seconded her
malevolent prayers. While mere surmise was
thus sufficient it was reckoned a pious deed to
delate a witch before the presbytery, and there
the unfortunate crone was ti'ied with hard and
subtle questions, by which she might be con-
fused to her own condemnation. But if she
stood fast to her innocence her denial was attri-
buted to obstinacy, and further proof was to be
established by the preener. This was some per-
son supposed to have a divine gift of detecting
witches, and who probed the crime by pins two
or three inches in length, which he thrust some-
times to the head in the body of the accused;
and if no pain was felt, or if no blood followed,
he was supposed to have hit the witch's mark —
the part of their body which Satan had pinched
at their new baptism, in which they surrendered
themselves to be his servants and worshippers.^
Sometimes, also, to detect this secret mark, the
woman was stripi)ed naked, and her whole per-
son subjected to examination. In this way an
earnest zeal to detect an emissary of Satan was
enough to extinguish the most common feelings
of decency. Sometimes these je»?-ee7ze?'s, also, were
idle debauched fellows, who roved from parish
to parish, and made a comfortable livelihood by
their craft; and Hogg of Kiltearn expressed
himself sorely puzzled that the fuuctiouarv he
emjiloyed in such services should lead a life so
much at variance with so divine a gift.^ As it
often haitpeued, that after such torture no part
of the sufferer's body was so indurate as neither
to shrink nor bleed, this proof of her innocence
went for nothing; the trial had been imperfect.

' Dalziel's Superstitions; Pitcairn's Criminal Trials of
Scotland ; Witch trials of the period.
2 MS. Diary of Hogg of Kiltearn.

or the spot too hidden to be discovered, and she
was sent to prison to undergo worse tortures,
that the secret of her guilt might be wrung out.
Of the modes of extorting a witch's confession
we have already given an account in a former
period of this work ; but the favourite way of
obtaining it was to keep her fi'om sleep until
her obstinacy was subdued. She was accord-
ingly watched day and night by a succession of
tormentors, who kept her awake three, four, or
more days together by goading her with sharp
instruments, until she either fell distracted, or
nature could endure no more; and by a full con-
fession her deliverance from sucli a prison to the
sharp but short process of execution, by being
burned at the stake, was a welcome change.
And these confessions — they would compose a
singular record of human folly, perversity, and
guilt; they would even more than serve as the
justification of the last punishment of the law,
were it not for the means by which they had
been obtained. Throughout they are foul records
of such malignant deeds and gross sensualities,
that our pity for the sufferers is lost in our ab-
horrence of those who could contemplate sucii
crimes, imaginary though most of them must
have been. Let us hope that they were uttered
under such distraction that the speakers were
wholly passive, and knew not what they said.^
This is rendered the more probable from the
fact, that by far the greater number of the ac-
cused were of the weaker sex. Where one man
suffered as a warlock, ten women at least were
executed as witches.

Of all the strange tales of the diablerie of this
period nothing of the wonderful or the horrible
is to be compared to the case of Major Weir.
This man, who was the sou of a respectable
Clydesdale proprietor, followed the profession
of arms, and after serving as a lieutenant in
Ireland against the rebels in 1641, he came to
Edinburgh, entered the town-guard, and was
soon pi-omoted to the rank of major in that
corps. He took up his residence in the West
Bow, at that time the favourite locality of
the more zealous Covenanters, and there he
soon became famous for his austerity, his piety,
and the marvellous fluency and unction of his
prayers. It was afterwards noticed, that in
these acts of social devotion, of which he was
usually preferred to be the leader, he was never
without his staff in his hand, upon which he
leaned while he poured forth his floods of ex-
traordinary supplication. In personal appeai--
ance he has been described as a tall dark man,
with a grim countenance and a big nose ; that
he always looked down upon the ground as he

3 Pitcairn's Crimiiuil Trials.

xviith CentItrt.]

HISTOEY OF SOCIETY.

287

walked, was invariably clad iu a cloak of sombre
hue, aud uever went forth without his stati'.
But wliile his reputation was at the height for
piety, so that the female devotees almost wor-
shipped him under the name of the " angelical
Thomas," he was suddenly overwlielmed with
remorse, and sending for some of his neighbours
he made such a confession as caused their hairs
to stand on end. It was carried to the magis-
trates, to whom it apjjeared so incredible that
they were unwilling to receive it; and it was
with great reluctance that they at last com-
mitted him to prison, along with his sister, the
accomplice of his crimes. On being apprehended
his suspicious staff was also secured. A few
dollars wrapped up in rags being found in his pos-
session, the rags were thrown into the fire, where,
instead of quietly blazing, they danced iu circles
about the flames ; and another piece of cloth
with something hard in it, which was treated
in like manner, went off in the chimney like the
•crack of a cannon. The major's confession was
a full revelation of how he had sold himself to
Satan, and the supernatural deeds he had thereby
been enabled to perform for the fulfilment of his
criminal purjjoses ; but while these would be
thrown aside in the present day as the lavings
of sheer insanity, they were accompanied with
acknowledgments of such hideous crimes, com-
mitted through a course of years, as were of
themselves more than sufficient to merit capital
punishment. It is enough to say, that of these
the crime of incest was among the lightest. The
■clergymen visited him in prison ; but to their
■exhortations he answered, in sullen despair,
*' Torment me not before my time !" and refused
to hear them. At the stake his conduct was
equally obdurate, and when desired to say,
'•Lord, be merciful to me!" his answer was,
■" Let me alone ; I will not : I have lived like a
beast, and I must die like a beast." He was
strangled at the stake, and then burnt; his black
staff was committed to the flames along with
him, and it maintained its charmed character
to the last by turning curiously in the fire, and
being long in burning before it could be reduced
to ashes. Other still more curious stories are
told of this wonderful stick. Sometimes it was
seen to walk alone upon the errands of its
master, and tap at the counters of the booths
which it had to enter; and at other times it
walked before the major with a lantern, as he
went down the Lawnmarket at night.

Of Grizel Weir, the sister of the culprit, no
particular notice is needed. She assented to
much that her brother had confessed, and was
condemned to die as his accomplice. She, too,
Avas skilled in sorcery, and inherited the power
from her mother, who was a witch. She had

accompanied her brother to Satanic meetings,
and she described the fiei'y chariot that was
wont to be sent for them, and which was in-
visible to all but themselves. She also con-
fessed that she had an enchanted spinning-
wheel, with which she could do her work faster
than ordinary mortals. After the execution of
Major Weir a clergyman returned to the prison
and told her that her brother was dead. She
would not at first believe him, and asked ear-
nestly where his staff' was; but when told that
it had also been committed to the flames she
fell on her knees, " uttering words horrible to
be remembered." She was sentenced to be
hanged, aud at the place of execution she was
with difficulty prevented from stripping herself
naked, expressing her determination to die with
all the shame that was possible. Not only the
deeper iniquity, but the stronger insanity of
her brother had moulded her whole nature, and
assimilated it to his own. The house in the West
Bow which this strange pair inhabited became
thenceforth a place of mysterious dread to the
people of Edinburgh. It was haunted by those
hellish beings who had frequented it while the
Weirs were alive; audits strange unearthly revels
and sounds of laughter, which still continued to
be heard, especially at midnight, and the blaze
of candles with which it was lighted up, were
whispered in the strange stories of the neigh-
bourhood. Nay, even the charmed staff had
returned, and kept watch at the door as a sen-
tinel, and Grizel Weir's enchanted wheel could
be heard booming in the kitchen. For nearly
two centuries l^efore it was demolished the house
remained without a regular inmate, no one being
so hardy as to sleep within its walls.^

While such was the belief in witchcraft, what
may be called the minor superstitions were of
course equally prevalent among the people of
Scotland. These, however, were so numerous
that it would be impossible to particularize
them, and therefore we select a few at random.
And first of these was the pojiular faith in
omens, a weakness common to every age aud
country. As every important public event was
supposed to cast its shadow before, and this in
some wonderful or sujiernatural appearance,
every extraordinary manifestation in the earth,
sea, or sky, was accepted as an indication, which
was especially the case before any great calam-

1 Sata7i's Invisible World Discovered. The -work under that
title, which continued for a time to be a favourite book of
the lower order of Scotland, was the work of George Sinclair,
professor of philosophy in the University of Glasgow, and
afterwards minister of Eastwood. It was published in 1685,
and its author not only held " each strange tale devoutly
true," but from his character and office was well fitted to
impress the same belief upon others. See also Wilson's
Memorials of Edinburgh, vol. ii. pp. 115-118.

288

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xvnth Century.

ity; and as the period was full of these, the
portents were equally abundant. Every record
of the time is full of them, and even the wisest
were not free of the delusion. As an instance,
we have only to advert to the writings of Lord
Fountainhall, who records these marvels as
gravely as he does the incidents they prefigured.
Thus, in a single year, he chronicles the follow-
ing remarkable indications. A shower of blue
bonnets in the air was seen at Glasgow, which
bonnets vanished when they came near the
ground. A shower of blood fell at Moffat. A
little ghost took up its residence at Eoseneath,
and occasionally inflicted a severe drubbing on
fifty soldiers who were established as a garrison
there. ^ But besides public events, private and
personal disasters might with equal cei'tainty
be read by those who could decipher the signs,
and every man was on the watch for a dream,
a vision, or a ferlie, that might serve for his
especial admonition or protection. It was the
gratification of individual self-love, as well as
the craving for the marvellous. But it was not
enough that these notices should spontaneously
offer themselves, so in trying difficulties men
went out of their way to find or create the
means of warning or instruction. Various
means of divination were therefore adopted,
especially in the case of property lost or stolen.
In Scotland, therefore, as in England, was used
the practice of the old classical divination joe;*
crihrim, or the riddle.^ A riddle or sieve was
set upright with a pair of shears stuck in the
rim, and two pereons placed their forefingers on
the upper part of the legs of the shears, to keep
the sieve steady in its iipright posture. Then
commenced a series of leading questions as to
where the article was lost, or by whom it was
stolen, and at the right question the sieve gently
revolved. And this was enough either to crim-
inate the supposed culprit, or find the lost
article ! As this and other such oracles were
supposed to be heathenish and sinful, while
the religious objectors were not behind their
weaker neighbours in curiosity and love of
divination, they endeavoured to satisfy their
consciences by appealing to the source of divine
truth for the solution of their doubts. Of all
these sortes evangelicce the most common was
that of the key and Bible. A key was laid
upon a copy of the Scriptures, and at the right
question the book began to move. A second
mode was to make the difficulty a subject of
prayer, after which the inquirer opened the
Bible at random, laid his finger on any part of
the page, and found in the verse or sentence

1 Fountainhall's Historical Observes.

2 Fountainhall ; Dalziel.

which he touched a solution of his inquiries.
Such searchers of Scripture could not easily be
pei'suaded that this, instead of indicating leli-
gious reverence of the Bible, was more profane
than tlie superstitious practices which they con-
demned. This practice, however, of Bible di-
vination, while it was very common among the
Puritans of England, was not so prevalent
among the Scottish Covenanters. The usual
form of inquiry among the latter was by prayer
alone. Among the strange difficulties and sud-
den emergencies to which their party was ex-
posed, and in which the ordinaiy precautions of
human wisdom w^ere unavailing, they wei"e wont
" to lay their case before the Lord." This was
well ; but unfortunately, they often took the
first suggestion that was "borne in" upon their
minds at the close of their devotions, as an
answer direct from heaven. Such, for example,
among many others, was the case of Russell,
one of the murderers of Archbishop Sharp,
according to the account of Kirktou : "While
at his uncle's house, intending towards the
Highlands, because of the violent rage in Fife,
he was pressed in sj^irit to return ; and he, in-
quiring the Lord's mind anent it, got this answer
borne in upon him, 'Go on and prosper.' So,
returning from prayer wondering what this
could mean, went again and got it confirmed,
'Go, have not I sent you?' whereupon he durst
no more question." He went back accordingly,
and it was not wonderful that such a fanaticism
should have led him to Magus Muir.^

At a time when the science of healing was so
defective that little trust could be placed in it,
and when the barber-doctor himself, in admin-
istering his professional remedies, was obliged
to give them efficacy by supei-stitious observ-
ances, it was to be exjDected that strange cures
would be sought by the people which neither
science nor the gospel could warrant. And of
all these sources of healing, none were so highly
venerated or so eagerly sought after as holy
wells and springs. These were to be found in
ev^ery district, were adapted to every kind of
disease, and in the time-honoured traditions of
the peasantry had effected cures which were
altogether supernatural and complete. In the
Highlands and Lowlands, therefore, where these
healing waters were abundant, people in spite
of the Reformation continued to haunt them
dui'ing the whole of the present period. The cure
was effected either by drinking the water of the
holy well or washing in it, and sometimes, to
make sure work, the patient did both. Some-
times, as in the case of the pool of Bethesda, there
were particular seasons when the water was

3 Kirkton's History, p. 413.

xviith Century.]

HISTORY OF SOCIETY.

289

efficacious, and these were generally the first
day or the first Sabbath of May. Nor was it
always necessary for the patient to repair
thither in person if he was too sick or heljDless;
it was enough to dip a part of his clothing in
the well, or bring him a draught from it. When
the cure was thus sought by proxy, the person
sent was to go to the well in silence, and silent
to return from it, as speaking would break the
charm. At the stated_s^isous a pilgrimage to
these holy wells was a sort of festival, and the
crowds who repaired to them were the first repre-
sentatives of those who now frequent a fashion-
able watering-place. On drinking the waters,
also, it was necessary to make some recompense
to the presiding spirit, in token of homage or
gratitude; but this was easily done by leaving
a thread or rag, or by dropping a pin into the
well.^ But besides accredited sources for the
cure of every malady, a south-running water
was supposed to be of equal potency; and in
this, either the patient bathed or had his shirt
dipped in it, while in drinking, the water was
mixed with salt or other ingredients.

Next to these wells and springs, most of
which were supposed to have originated in a
miracle, or been endowed with their healing
power by some eminent saint, came the amulets,
to which a similar efficacy was attributed. These
in Scotland were usually stones of little in-
trinsic value, and of these the adder-stone was
preferred, as having originally been a serpent.
The general mode of cure by these amulets
was a draught of water, into which one of
these wonder-working stones had been thrown.
During the whole of the present period of our
history this simj^le kind of leech-craft prevailed,
and near its close amulets were preserved not
only as relics by noble families, but used in the
cure of diseases by their members or especial
friends.^ But as every person was not so for-
tunate as to possess an amulet, certain rhymes
were preserved among the vulgai-, whfch were
supposed to be of almost equal efficacy with the
adder-stone. They were generally very vulgar
doggerel, and their antique phraseology as well
as tlie nature of their invocation betrayed their
origin and use in the benighted era of Popery.
It is enough to give a single specimen of these,
in an incantation which was supposed to be
useful in the healing of sores and wounds :

" Thir sairis are risen through God's work,
And must be laid through God's help;
The mother Mary, and her dear Son,
Lay thir saii'is that are begun."

The superstitious practices for the cure of dis-

' Kirk-session and presbytery records of the period.
2 Diilziel's Superstitions.

VOT,. III.

eases in infants were also well nigh as numerous
as the freaks of nurses and mothers. To remove
that malady of infancy called the cake-mark the
child was passed through a cake composed of
nine pickles of meal that had been contributed
by nine maidens and nine married women.-''
But besides these various modes of cure whicli
we have enumerated, the want of learned and
efficient doctors was compensated by physicians
who inherited the power of curing by right
divine instead of the uncertain training of schools
and colleges. Of this class especially was the
seventh son of a seventh son, and one who re-
joiced in such a descent in regular succession
could not only remove diseases but cure scrofula
or king's evil with a touch almost as effectually
as royalty itself. But this trespass upon the
especial prerogatives of his sacred majesty had
to be asserted in a whisper and used with circum-
spection, as both magistrates and kirk-sessions
were ready to visit it with trial and punishment.
This naturally leads to the mention of the
alleged miraculous power of our sovereigns in
the cure of a malady which on this account was
called the king's evil. It was supposed in Eng-
land to have been a miraculous gift imparted to
Edward the Confessor and his descendants ; but
although the claim had somewhat fallen into
abeyance at the Reformation, and was not at
all put in practice by James I., who probably
feared that it would expose him to ridicule or
even the suspicion of Popish tendencies, it was
revived in its full force by Charles I., who must
have regarded it as part of that divinity that doth
hedge a king. On his visit, therefore, to Scot-
land in 1633, he, among other displays to the
Scots, evinced himself to be a true king and the
Lord's anointed by touching 100 persons for
scrofula in Holyrood House upon St. John's
day. It must have occasioned the wonderment
at least of his northern subjects, who had never
seen such a spectacle before, as none of their
previous kings had arrogated this miraculous
gift of healing. The practice thus resumed was
continued through our successive sovereigns of
the Stuart race, and only ended with the acces-
sion of the house of Hanover.* When a
deadly disease could not be cured either by
incantations, amulets, miraculous salves, or a
seventh son, or even by the seventh son of a
seventh son, the sufferer might be relieved by
having his malady transferred to another. Such
a mischievous mode of healing, however, was
obviously the effect of Satanic agency, and
therefore possessed only by witches and wizards.
As an example of this, we are told that the
Countess of Lothian, having been afflicted with

3 Records of Perth, p. 92, &c.

4 Dalziel.
94

290

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xviith Century.

a cancer in her breast, had recourse to the war-
lock Playfair, who offered to cure her on condi-
tion that the sore should be transferred to the
person whom she best loved. The selfish
countess consented, and the cancer passed into
her husband's throat, of which he died. Some-
times, when so valuable a substitute was not
demanded, a horse, cow, calf, or domestic animal
sufficed, into whom the disease was thrown.^

While the plagues of witchcraft wei-e so pre-
valent persons were often tempted to have re-
course to the same power to counteract them,
and thus not only charm was pitted against
charm, but witch against witch. And fortunate
was the man or woman who possessed some
talisman or knew some spell by which the
glance of the evil eye could be frustrated and
the elf-shot of flint arrow-heads broken. This
was a species of artillery directed not only
against the person but the houses, possessions,
and cattle of all with whom the powers of sor-
cery were at war, and the precautions for self-
defence in Scotland were as strange as the
modes of annoyance. These protections, also,
were curious remains of the ancient Popery or
the still more ancient Druidism which had for-
merly prevailed in Scotland. Over the doors of
stables and byres crosses made of elder-tree were
set to consecrate and guard the animals within.
Sometimes a cut and peeled stick from the
branch of a witch-dismaying tree, among which
the rowan was conspicuous, was wound round
with a thread and stuck over the lintel of the
byre door to guard the cows from elf-shot and
prevent their milk from being dried up.^ But
the defence of the house and its inmates was still
more important ; and among the various charms
to prevent the entrance of the emissaries of Satan
or their spells the branches of the mountain-ash,
which were decorated with heath and flowers,
and had been carried thrice round the beltane
fires, were reared over the dwelling, and suffered
to remain there until they were replaced by the
fresh branches and flowers of the following year.
On retiring to rest, also, the house was frequently
commended to the protection of saints and angels
by such rhymes as the following : —

" Wha sains the house this nicht?
They that sain it ilka nicht.
Saint Colme and his hat,
Saint Bridget and her brat,
Saint Michael and his spear,
Keep this house from reif and wcir."^

In an account of the Scottish superstitions of the
period one called the " prief of shot " is not to be
omitted. The persecuting laws against the Cove-

1 Dalziel. '^ Idem.

8 Sinclair's Satan's Invisible World Discovered.

nanters and the severity witli which they were
inflicted, the daring courage of their assailants
and the fiendish cruelties in which they revelled
had a tendency to deepen the dark misgivings of
the sufferers, who at length believed that such
restless and reckless inhumanity was so far be-
yond the ordinary i-ange as to be only attributable
to Satanic inspiration. They even believed that
the worst of these agents had sold themselves to
the devil, who in return had made them shot-
pi'oof ; and of these invulnerable champions of
iniquity the chief place was given to Dalziel and
Claverhouse. It was supposed that neither lead
nor steel could harm them, and in a hand-to-
hand encounter between Dalziel and Captain
Patou the latter is described as having loaded
his pistol with a silver button from his dress, of
which the other was aware, and only eluded by
retiring behind one of his troopers at the moment
of giving fire.'* As for Claverhouse, their belief
was, that after having escaped so many dangers
of shot and sword, his death at Killiecrankie was
owing to a silver bullet with which one of the
persecuted had loaded his musket. The super-
stitions of these Covenanters, indeed, were pe-
culiar to themselves, and had originated in their
character and sufferings, so that while they were
superior to the debased apprehensions of the
common people, they held a belief upon the sub-
ject of supernatural action derived from per-
verted views of the religion for which they so
manfully suffered. Driven from their homes,
and obliged to lurk half-starved among mosses
and caverns, with death continually before their
view, it was not wonderful if in the daily course
of such a life the common was often blended in
their eyes with the supernatural. In the dismal
solitudes of their hiding-places they often heard
the audible voice of Satan tempting them to ab-
jure their principles and purchase comfort and
safety by conformity to the ruling powers. They
even saw the bodily presence of the foul fiend
himself, and resisted his attacks both with sword
and Bible. And amidst their sufferings they
clung to the denunciations uttered in the Old
Testament against the persecutors of the children
of God and the miraculous manner in which they
were fulfilled, while they devoutly believed that
the divine dispensation by which these events
had been overruled in old times was still uncan-
celled and unchangeable. The wonder is that
in such a condition their better thoughts could
so often overrule their impulses of fanaticism,
and that their outbreaks, when they burst into
action, should have been so moderate and so few.
While every class of society was more or less
pervaded by this superstitious spirit it might

* Li/e of Captain Paton of Meadowhead.

xviith Century.]

HISTOEY OF SOCIETY.

291

have been expected that the administration of
the law and its hard-headed matter-of-fact prac-
titioners would have been inaccessible to such
weakness. But even judges, too, and in matters
of life and death, could accept a sign or a por-
tent in the absence of more tangible evidence.
Such was the case where a murder had been
committed, and nothing more than bare suspicion
could be adduced against the person accused.
Throughout the middle ages the courts of law
had been accustomed in such cases to produce
the body of the victim and cause every one in
succession to touch it who had borne a grudge
against the dead, or might be profited by his
death; and at the touch of the real culprit the
wounds, it was declared, would bleed afresh.
This solemn ordeal was pi'oclaimed to be the
visible judgment of God, after which any fur-
ther search for evidence would be impertinent;
and it was declared that this testimony had
held good from the time of the first murder,
when it was announced to the trembling frat-
ricide, " The voice of thy brother's blood crieth
to me from the ground." But this kind of test
had long ago been generally abandoned, although
James, in his work on Demonology, maintained
that " God had appointed that secret sujoer-
natural trial of that secret unnatural crime." ^
Still, however, it continued to be reverenced in
Scotland, and was actually \)\\i in practice near
the close of this period. The case to which we
particularly allude was that of Sir James Stan-
field in 1688. His body was found dead in a
stream and buried with a haste that was sus-
picious. His worthless son and successor PhilijD
had often been heard to wish that his father was
dead ; and this, with his general character and
undutiful conduct, made him suspected of having
caused the death of the old man. The body
accordingly was disinterred for careful examina-
tion, and the neck was laid open by a surgeon
to ascertain whether he had been suffocated by
drowning or violence, when lo ! the side of the
cor2:)se which Philip supported was soon stained
with fresh blood. This was assumed as proof
positive of his guilt, and on no better evidence
he was convicted and executed as a parricide.^
It is needless to point out how the surgeon's
operation may have been sufficient to account
for the effusion. Men might afterwards com-
fort themselves with the thought, that if he had
been sentenced to the extremity of the law un-
justly he scarcely merited a better fate.

The statutes enacted, and the manner in which
they were enforced during the twenty-eight
years of persecution, wei-e by no means calcu-
lated to increase the veneration of the Scots for

1 DaUiel.

- Fountainliall,

law, or make tliem desirous of committing them-
selves implicitly to its rule ; and while the con-
stituted judges were ready to decide upon shallow
evidence, or no evidence at all, men were often
ready to take its administration into their own
hands, either in the forin of Jeddart justice or
Lynch law. The following instances, casually
mentioned in Fountainhall's Historical Notices,
will suffice to corroborate these statements.

In 1673 a gypsy, or, in the phraseology of the
day, an Egyptian, one of the tribe of the Faas,
having killed a tinker, was brought to trial for
the crime. It was evident that the tinker had
been murdered ; but the witnesses were unable
positively to depone that the gypsy was the
very man who had done the deed. This diffi-
culty, however, did not trouble the judges, as
the accused belonged to a race who were under
the legal ban ; and even if innocent he was al-
ready condemned to death by act of parliament
for the fact of his being a gypsy. He was exe-
cuted accordingly without further trial or demur
as guilty of the tinker's death, or at least, as
worthy of execution.

In 1677, while a flesher [butcher] and a coun-
tryman were drinking together in an alehouse
in the village of Abernethy, a disjiute fell out
between them in which the rustic was mortally
stabbed by his comiDanion. Some gentlemen,
who were drinking in a neighbouring room,
rushed in upon hearing the noise and seized the
murderer. This was well ; but they were so
shocked with the atrocity of the deed, as well
as warmed with wine, that they led out the
culprit to the gibbet of the regality, and forth-
with hanged him, although neither judge, sherifi',
nor bailie was present to sanction this act of
summary justice. About the same j^eriod an
execution of similar promptitude was performed
by the Captain of Clanronald. At the desire of
his wife, a Papist, who was sick, he brought her
confessor to reside in the house. But this wolf
in sheep's clothing having corrupted the marital
fidelity of the lady, the captain one day detected
them under circumstances that left no doubt of
their guilt. On this he led out the reverend
father to the gate, and there hanged him.

Among the magistracy of this jseriod there
must have been unrighteous judges not a few,
who neither feared God nor regarded man, and
who availed themselves of the troubles of the
day by filling their own pockets in defiance both
of law and justice. Such a one was the sheriff-
depute of Eenfrew, who in 1684 was taken to
account for his malpractices, and against whom
twenty-four charges of injustice, oppression, and
fraud were exhibited. One of these was to the
following eifect: — A woman, in rising from her
bed, had her head entangled in a net that hung

292

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xvnth Century.

from her bedhead, and from which she appears
to have been extricated with some difficulty.
This accident, however, the sheriti" used as a
pretext that she was going to commit suicide,
and under this charge he contiscated all her
goods and gear. Another man had his house
burned to the ground. This of itself was a
heavy calamity; but, in searching among the
rubbish, he was comforted by finding a bag con-
taining a thousand merks of his money, which
had escaped the flames. In the gladness of his
heart the honest man told his neighbours of his
good fortune, and expressed his thankfulness
that all had not been lost. But the watchful
ears of the slieriff were open, and he seized the
money under the pretext that after the fire it
had become treasure-trove.^

In advancing to the more particular charac-
teristics of Scottish society from the union of
the crowns to the union of the two nations we
derive important light from the published re-
cords of the kirk-sessions, in which the prevalent
vices of the period w^ere specially mentioned,
denounced, and punished. In the ecclesiastical
discipline of the times we learn, that if the at-
tempt to erect Scotland into a pure hierocracy
was hopeless, it was by no means useless; and
that, if its laws were a burden grievous to be
borne, they were by no means unnecessary or
uncalled for. The following rigid specification
of the minor religious offences, and the manner
in which they were to be checked or punished,
gives not only a distinct idea of the clerical
domination of the period, but the evils which
it sought to eradicate. At the presbytery of
St. Andrews, in March 14, a.d. 1641, the follow-
ing rules for the punishment of smaller offences
were decreed for the whole province of Fife-
shire.

All who were found "cursing, swearing, ban-
ning, or any ways abusing the Lord's holy and
glorious name," were first to be gravely admon-
ished in private. If they did not amend after
this admonition they were then to be visited by
an elder; and if they did not hearken to the ad-
monition of one or two they were to be sum-
moned before the session and required to ac-
knowledge their offence before the whole con-
gregation. After these processes, if they still
persisted in their fault, they were then to be
delivered to the civil magistrate, to be put into
the jougs or stocks. To check this sin of swear-
ing and profane speaking, also, the elders were
to be very diligent in noticing it; and all masters
of families wei'e to delate any member of their
household who should be guilty of it, either be-
fore the elder of the quarter or the parish minis-

1 Fouiitainhall's Historical Notices.

ter. Every one was to be admonished and pun-
ished in like manner, who profaned the Sabbath
by withholding their attendance in church when
in good health, by tippling and drinking either
before or after divine service, by games or pas-
times, by working of mills, driving carts, horses,
&c., or fishing, trysting, buying or selling.
Searchers were also to be appointed in every
parish, to try how the Sabbath was kept, and
to bring before the session such as did not attend
the church both forenoon and afternoon. And,
to keep people in better order and a.scertain how
God was served in families, every minister was
to visit his whole congregation by going from
house to house at least twice a year. It was
further decreed, that, because the woeful ignor-
ance, rudeness, stubbornness, and incapacity of
the common people proceeded from the want of
schools, or the not putting children to school
where they existed, all possible means were to
be used to have a school for every congregation;
and where there was one already, that parents
should send all children over seven years of age
to it. And if the parents were too poor to pay
the schoolmaster the kirk-session was to take
order that the fees should be paid either out of
the poor's box or from a quarterly collection
made for the purpose by the congregation before
the commencement of divine service. Such were
the enactments for Fife; but they are illustrative
of the spii'it of the church and the aims of its
ecclesiastics tliroughout the kingdom. The
domination of the clergy and the inquisitorial
spirit by which it was upheld, have often been
quoted as a proof of their inordinate love of
power and their desire to establish a despotism
of their own. But how is this to be reconciled
with their earnest endeavours to promote the
universal education of the people?^

In examining the parish records of the period
we find this clerical zeal especially directed
throughout against what we have already char-
acterized as the besetting national sin, while
the evidences are sufficient to show that the
severity with which it was visited was scarcely
commensurate with the evil. Not only its pun-
ishment but its prevention was also the subject
of much anxiety. Unmarried women living by
themselves were sharply watched by the kirk-
session and advised by the elders either to marry
or go into service; and one living in this equivo-
cal fashion excused herself to her spiritual censors
upon the plea that she followed the honest call-
ing of a laundress, and that gentlemen only re-
jmired to her house to have their ruffs washed and
stiffened. Whether this explanation was suffi-

2 Minutes of the Synod of Fife (Abbotsford Club Publica-
tions), p. 125.

xviith Century.]

HISTOEY OF SOCIETY.

293

cieiit the records do uot tell us. The denuncia-
tions tliat were hung up i7i terrorem for the crime
of illicit love were both many and singular.
Thus a ship of war from Dunkirk in 1607 had
anchored for some short time at Aberdeen. This
was no extraordinary circumstance at one of
the principal seaport towns of the kingdom.
But the kirk-session of Aberdeen were aware
of the probable consequences, and made provi-
sion to meet it. It was therefore resolved that
if any living proofs should a^jpear of an impro-
per intercourse between the sailors of the ship
and the women of the city, the offending females
should be imprisoned eight days in the church
vault upon bread and water, and afterwards
publicly ducked at the quay-head. ^ Such pun-
ishment and exposure was even more severe
than that of the jjillar of repentance. As for
this pillar or black-stool, it was still the most con-
spicuous seat in the congregation, and the num-
ber of culprits, both male and female, in every
parish who occupied it was most scandalous. As
might be supposed, also, the females predomin-
ated, as the other oflfending party could escajje by
passing to some remote district. As the conspicu-
ousness of such an exposure was so terrible the
female penitent often tried to mitigate it; but
to prevent this no woman was allowed to ascend
the pillar with a plaid, so that she was de-
prived of the power of muffling her head and
face. A decree to this effect was made by the
kirk-session of Aberdeen in 1608.'-^ Sometimes
when a male offender was to be exposed he en-
deavoured to bear down the shame by buffoonery
or bravado, and the attempts of this kind formed
the standing joke of the parish, when no min-
ister or elder was at hand to overhear it. As
an instance of this kind we may mention the
case of one who, to make a mockery of his jiublic
repentance, put snuff into his eyes, so that they
should shed tears, while he was privately wink-
ing and grinning to his companions below.
But his hypocrisy being detected, he was pun-
ished with the highest infliction of the church,
the greater excommunication, and was only re-
leased from it by undergoing public penance
for several Sundays.^ Sometimes, when the
offence was particularly flagrant, additions were
made to the common j^enalty. Thus, two
women who had accompanied the army of Mon-
trose, and been thei-eby guilty of a double
crime, wei'e compelled to sit in the branks bare-
footed and in sackcloth, at the kirk-door, " be-
tween the two bells," and thereafter to stand on
the pillar during the time of sermon for several
days, until the congregation had been satisfied

1 Extracts from the Kirk-session Records of Aberdeen
(Spalding Club Publications), p. 57. - Ibid. p. C2.

8 Records of the Presbytery of Strathbogie.

of the sincerity of their repentance. Sometimes
the worst parts of these additional inflictions
might be avoided by a fine.* In this way a
doctor of medicine in Perth, having been guilty
of fornication, was freed from imprisonment
and jDublic exposure at the town ci'oss on pay-
ment of a double angel. He was obliged, how-
ever, to declare his repentance on his knees, and
his willingness to ascend the pillar when re-
quired. In the same month a woman guilty
of the like offence, and who had no money to
redeem herself from wai'd or the cross-head,
was imprisoned in the tower.^ And a woman
of the parish of Echt who had been guilty of
adultery, but " had no gear," was condemned to
stand in the jougs and branks until the congre-
gation were satisfied.

Among the wild work wrought in Scotland
by the fanatical soldiers of Cromwell were their
outbreaks against the established church-order
and discipline, which they regarded as incom-
patible with the Christian liberty of the saints.
In this mood they carried off" the sackcloth of
parish churches, and threw the stools of repent-
ance out of doors. But these violent protests
were regarded as the rude acts of national ene-
mies, and the " pillar " was more firmly rooted
than ever. They seemed to love it, upon the
same principle that congregations love stinging
sermons that reprobate the notorious vices of
individuals, and who know into what particular
pew their eyes should be directed when this or
that sin is denounced and exposed. This kind
of penance, therefore, continued to prevail in
Scotland not only to the end of this period, but
till near the close of the eighteenth century. But
such was the dread of the exposure and the
shame that sensitive women often endeavoured
to escape the penalty by the crime of infanticide,
which is said to have become a prevalent crime
in Scotland during the whole of the seventeenth
and part of the eighteenth century. The pre-
valence of child-murder arising from this cause
was represented to the Duke of York in 1681,
and his sentiments on the subject were more
creditable to his wisdom than the opinions he
held on other matters. He expressed his dis-
pleasure that such punishments were not rather
inflicted on drunkenness, swearing. Sabbath-
breaking, lying, and other moral and religious
enormities, while fornication ought to be visited
by fine and corporal punishment.^

Next to the suppression of illicit intercourse
between the sexes the great aim of the church
was to have the Sabbath duly reverenced, and
its religious services regularly attended. Their

* Records of the Presbytery of Strathbogie.

* Chronicle of Perth (Maitlaiid Club). « Fouutainhall.

294

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xviith C'i:NTruY.

ideas, also, of the various modes in which the
Sabbatli might be i^rofaued were stated to be
the following: — Going about any secular busi-
ness, either in their own or into other pai'ishes.
Letting of horses for hire or travelling upon
horses that were hired. Going to taverns or
alehouses before or after sermons, or drinking
more than for necessary refreshment — ^half
an houi', or at most a whole hour, being de-
clared sufficient for the purpose. Eoaming
at large. Sitting or walking idly among the
fields. After this specification, which one might
think was sufficiently moderate, the manner of
dealing with such offences was of a similar char-
acter. For the first offence the culprit was to
be called before the session, and to make ac-
knowledgment of his fault ; for the second he
was to acknowledge his trespass before the con-
gregation; and for the third he was to suffer
suspension from the sacrament of the supjser,
and endure a public rebuke.^

Thei'e was no lack of vigour in prosecuting
these rules of Sabbath observance to their full
extent, and the session records of the period
attest the zeal of the eldership in every parish
to enforce them to the uttermost. Of this a few
instances selected at random will be a sufficient
illustration. A person convicted of carrying
and delivering letters on a Sunday was con-
demned to a fine of thirty-three shillings and
fourpence, and to sit three Sabbaths on the
pillar, or six Sabbaths failing the payment
of the fine. A man was brought before the
session for the crime of carrying a sheep from
its pasturage to his own house on the Sabbath.
He pleaded in excuse that the weather was
stormy and the animal sickly, and that by
carrying it home he had saved its life. It was
a parallel case to that of the ox or the sheep
that had fallen into a pit on the Sabbath-day.
He was visited, however, with a rebuke, and
admonished not to do the like again. A woman
who had profaned the Sabbath, and that, too,
in the church, by scolding at another woman im-
mediately after the private prayers, was obliged
to declare her repentance before the kirk-ses-
sion on her knees, and was also fined. Another
female offender was in like manner brought to
her knees for stiffening ruff and overlays on a
Sunday. Nothing worse, however, than this
humiliation was inflicted, as she was sickly and
nigh child-beai'ing. Sundry persons were pun-
ished for having travelled on a Sabbath from
Perth, their own town, to Scone; but the nature
of their punishment is not stated. Some wrights
in Perth had desecrated the Sabbath by making
coffins on that day, and only escaped punish-

' Minutes of the Synod of Fife.

ment by promising that henceforth they should
have ready-made coffins of all sizes continually on
hand. A baker of Perth and his servants did not
escape so easily. They had baked manchets on
Sunday for the loi'd-chancellor's supper; but
although his lordship had expressly requested
them to do so the excuse did not avail, and
they were obliged to humble themselves before
the session on their knees. Another baker in
the same locality was convicted of keeping his
booth ojien, and selling bread on a Sunday. As
this was a case of Sunday traffic he was ordered
to shut up his booth on that day; but forasmuch
as the staff of life could not altogether be dis-
pensed with, even upon the Sabbath, he was
allowed to keep bread in his own house, to sup-
ply the necessities of his neighbours. No min-
strelsy of any kind except psalm-singing was to
invade the sacred character of the day, and the
town piper of Aberdeen was 23i"ohibited from
using his pipes on the Sabbath, on penalty of
being displaced from office and banished from
the town. A profane fiddler, also, who had ex-
ercised his vocation on Sundays, was silenced by
the like penalties. A smith in Perth who had
shoed horses on the Sabbath was mulcted in
thirteen shillings and fourjience for his ofi'ence.
Persons who not only absented themselves fi'om
church but were guilty of drinking during the
time of divine service, were to be punished in
the same manner as fornicators; and persons
who bleached clothes on Sunday were subjected
to the same penalty. To those who eschewed
church-going keeping at home was no shelter,
and strict quietness no apology; for not to
attend church, and above all not to communi-
cate, were positive oflPences to be rebuked and
punished. And to i^revent the escape of such
persons from the princijjal towns into the coun-
try vigilant sentinels were stationed at the chief
outlets on Sundays, to prevent their egress
either by land or water.

While not only Sabbath decorum but also
attendance on public Sabbath ordinances was
so strictly enforced, many congregations must
have been composed of a very singular variety.
The enthusiasts to whom the sermon was a
feast of fat things, and the Gallios who cared
for none of those things, must have been
grievously jumbled together ; and at times the
devotions of the sincere might be rudely inter-
rupted by the levity of the profane. But for
this also the church had made provision, so that
none might violate the decorum required within
these sacred inclosures under the heaviest pen-
alties. Even the negative comfort of a nap was
not permitted to those who were unable to en-
dure long sermons, for the session-officer was
furnished with a Ions red staff, the badge of

xviith Century.

HISTOEY OF SOCIETY.

295

his office, with which he roused up the sleepers.
Another of his functions was to remove all cry-
ing children.^ As there is a period, however,
between babyhood and boyhood in which chil-
dren cannot be carried or led to church, minis-
ters, by order of the synod, were required to
adopt the best expedients they could for having
these children kept in due order at home, and
preventing them from running about on the Sab-
bath.2 When at length they were brought to
church they were admonished by the beadle's
red staff neither to gaze about nor go to sleep ;
and in cases of boyish levity and misconduct
they were apt to be as severely punished as their
seniors. On the complaint of a citizen of Perth
to the session that " certain young professed
knaves" had insulted him by throwing their
bonnets at him in church, although this hap-
pened on New-year's day (of 1621), a day when
the spirits of young boys are most buoyant, the
excuse of such a season was of no avail. The
elders went in chase of the light-heeled culprits,
but could only succeed in securing one of them,
who was forthwith sent to the grammar school,
"to be scourged with Saint Bartholomew's
tawse."^ Not merely crying babes and unruly
children, but even the canine race also were to
be visited for their trespasses on church decorum.
Many inhabitants of Aberdeen were in the
habit of bringing their dogs with them to church
on Sabbath and week-days, which caused great
confusion of all order by their barking. It was
therefore ordained that no person should suffer
his dog, whether mastiff, cur, or messan, to
follow him into the church, under a jienalty of
forty shillings for the use of the poor. Autho-
rity was also given to the town scourgers " to
fell the dogs."

As a serious obstacle to the progress of reli-
gion and the intellectual improvement of the
people the church waged a steadfast war against
all the numerous forms of popular superstition.
How, indeed, could Pojaery be suppressed while
the most alluring of its practices remained un-
checked, or the minds of the people be elevated
without freeing them from such encumbrances I
The same spirit that demolished the monasteries
and left no place of refuge for the enemy was
equally alert in destroying these minor cells
and hermitages within whose walls the ancient
leprosy still remained. We have sufficiently de-
scribed the zeal of the church in the jaunishnient
of witches and every species of sorcery, and
with the same ardour they prosecuted all who
in any way aided and abetted the delusion. The
stern decree, " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to

1 Chronicle of Peith (Maitlaiul Club).

2 Miimtes of the Si/nnd of Fife, p. 154.
^ Chronicle of Perth.

live," extended to all who aided, abetted, and
consulted her; and as the clergy believed that
these were no mere delusions, but veritable
compacts with the evil one — that Satan had
come down with great power since the Eeforma-
tion, because he knew that his time was but
short — they were anxious to make root-and-
branch work of it both with the principal of-
fenders and their adherents. All, therefore,
who sought the aid of a witch, whether to cure
a disease or be revenged on an enemy, and all
who dabbled at second hand in cantrips, con-
jurations, and philtres were regarded not as silly
and credulous but as imi^ious imitators, who
would if they dared become witches and sor-
cerers outright. But with the mere popular
superstitions, which their superior knowledge
regarded with scorn or pity, they were more
lenient in dealing, but still equally resolute for
their suppression. These were the pilgrimages
to holy wells, the rhyming invocations to angels
and aaints for guarding houses and averting
danger, and the other mummeries of Poi^ish
origin to which we have already adverted.
These were not only pernicious but Papistical
delusions, and the records of the presbyteries
abound with instances in which these practices
were condemned and punished. Others there
were, the relics of the earlier Druidism, which
were also condemned as impious and heathenish ;
and of these we need only notice the kindling of
the beltane bonfires and the allotment of the
goodman's croft. These fires were kindled on
what the church termed " superstitious nights,"
at midsummer and All-hallowmass, on which
occasions not only the rural districts but even
the streets of towns were ablaze with these
bonfires, every substantial citizen who affected
popularity being desirous of setting up one before
his own door. They seem to have been regarded
by the people as nothing more than an old estab-
lished festival and an opportunity for harmless
merry-making; but they were viewed in a very
different light by the clergy, who denounced
them as offerings to Baal, and subjected their
observers to a severe ecclesiastical inquest.
Accordingly the crime of kindling these fires,
and the punishments infiicted on those who
had either set up or attended them, occupy
a pretty conspicuous place in the session re-
cords. Of a far more questionable character
than these beltane fires was the goodman's croft,
whicli still continued among the agricultural
population. This croft was a certain portion of
thefarmleft unfilled asthedueof that mysterious
personage called the goodman, but who was no
other than the devil himself. The gentle title
was no doubt assigned to him as a propitiation,
as well as the offering of a piece of ground to

296

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xviith Century.

bear for him a congenial crop of briai's and
tliistles, and the manicheau character of these
tributes was too distinct to be mistaken. The
practice, also, still continued to be kept up, not-
withstanding the light diffused by the Reforma-
tion and the sinful and absurd character of such
an observance, while the kirk-sessions had a very
difficult work in its suppression. Veiy justly,
they would allow no goodmau's croft to remain
in the parish ; and wherever the obnoxious field
existed the tenant was obliged to jalough and
cultivate it, under the severest penalties of the
church if he refused. '^

Among the national practices of the period
was that of making every great epoch in human
life the occasion of a social or domestic festival.
AVhen a person was born he was welcomed into
the world with eating, drinking, and merry-
making ; when he was baptized the solemn act
of his initiation into the Christian church was
distinguished by the same observances. When
he married it was natural that the congratula-
tions of his friends should occasion a liberal
outpouring of good cheer; but when he died,
both the watching of the corjjse and its inter-
ment in the grave were observed after the same
fashion. Such, also, was the license and the riot
of these occasions that the church found itself
forced to interfere. Statutes, accordingly, were
enacted against the excesses with which baptisms
were celebrated, and also on the occasion of mar-
riage contracts. Ministers and elders were en-
joined to see that the latter were not attended
by more than six or seven persons, and that the
hostelers [innkeepers] who provided wasteful
feasts for such occasions should be censured.
But more terrible still were the penny bridals,
and a grievous subject of disquiet both to magis-
trates and ministers. It was still the fashion
among the poorer classes to make a contribution
among themselves for giving the young couple
a fair start in life ; and in this custom originated
these weddings, which were all the more profitable
the more numerously they chanced to be attended.
But on such an occasion, and from the miscel-
laneous concourse of the guests, every excess in
eating, drinking, revelry, and love-making, down
to absolute fighting and bones-breaking, were
the frequent results. The decrees against these
penny weddings were both numerous and strict ;
and from their number and constant iteration
we can conclude that their strictness caused
them to be of little or no avail. No man was to
be married without previously pledging himself
that there should be no such abuses at his bridal,
under a penalty of ten j^ounds Scots. There
was to be a moderate measure of eating and

1 Dalziel.

drinking, and no promiscuous dancing, as this
harmless amusement was denounced by the
church as sinful. The number of the guests
and expense of the entertainment were also
limited by hard and express statutes. These
prohibitions, however, were useless; penny
bridals still continued, and were kept up until
the earlier part of the present century; but
time and the progress of society succeeded in
ameliorating those excesses by which they were
disgraced, and with which both magistrates and
churchmen had contended in vain.

As marriage was a fit occasion for jollity as its
natural expression, death demanded the same
indulgence by way of solace; and the same
drinking and feasting which had welcomed a
man's entrance into life, and afterwards into
full manhood, were equally ready to signalize
his departure. His lykewake (or watching the
corpse) occasioned a gathering together of the
friends and kindred of the deceased ; and the
habitation soon bore a different character from
that of a house of mourning. Among the
various attempts of the church to abolish such
unseemly orgies that of the presbytery of St.
Andrews and Cupar in 1644 will suffice as a
specimen. It ordered that people having a dead
body in the house should have their doors closed
as at other times, and give no entrance to the
confused multitudes who repaired to such occa-
sions ; also, that those who went to such houses
without an invitation should be censured by the
session as " disorderly walkers." Such as had
the dead in their houses were to invite only
three or four grave kinsfolks or friends whom
they thought meetest, and to remember that it
was not a time to eat, drink, and be merry, but to
behave in a manner worthy of Christians. The
presbytery also enjoined the abolition of dirgies,
" that heathenish custom under a Popish name,"
which consisted of a meeting for drinking after
the corpse was interred. The same order re-
quired that what the deceased had appointed to
be given to the poor should be brought to the
kirk-session, by them to be distributed to the
poor, as those " who must best know the neces-
sities of such, and can distribute the same more
reasonably and equally than it can be done in so
great a tumult of beggars as use to be at the
burial-jjlace, where they that cry most and have
least need come often best speed." ^ Even at the
commencement of this period, and still earlier,
the minister was apt to be interrupted in the
pulpit by the untimeous arrival of a funeral ;
but to prevent this interruption from becoming
an ajoology for clerical negligence or sloth the

" MinutcK cif the Prcshytcry of St. Andrews and Cupar
(Alilidtsfi.nl Club I'ulilicatiuus)

xviith Century.]

HISTORY OF SOCIETY.

297

presbytery of Aberdeen in 1603 passed the fol-
lowing statute : — " That burials stay not the
minister to continue his preaching, but keep his
hour precisely, so that, if he exceed his glass, he
shall be censured in penalty of gear." This glass,
be it remembered, was the hour-glass attached to
the pulpit, and by which the time of its services
was measured. The " penalty of gear " must have
been all the more fearful from the amount re-
maining a mystery.

A few other miscellaneous instances may be
added as illustrative of the ecclesiastical rule of
the period. While watchers and seizers were
appointed in every parish to watch the highways,
perambulate the streets, and even enter private
houses in search of absentees from the church
on Sundays, the same strict supervision was
found more necessary for faii-s, where the bicker-
ings of those who bought and sold were not
always conducted upon the righteous restrictions
of "yea" and "nay." It was known, also, that
when the business of the day had ended and its
mirth commenced, the strict rules of the church
on the proprieties of sj^eech were apt to be grossly
violated. Strict inspectors, therefore, were some-
times sent by the session to watch over the public
morals at such meetings and check every im-
proper word. Among the resolutions of the
synod of Fife in 1647, one was passed by which
two elders were apjiointed in every parish of the
county to keei? watch upon the markets. Their
special duty was to apprehend every person guilty
of swearing and obscene language, and in the
event of resistance to call in the heljD of the
civil magistrate, so that the offenders might be
brought to trial before the session.

As the proper vocation of the church courts
was to suppress the power of Satan and punish
his especial instruments, the clergy distinguished
themselves by the zeal with which they prose-
cuted witches and warlocks, and brought them
to the stake. In spite, however, of the numer-
ous executions these diabolical practices were
on the increase — or at least what were taken for
such — as it was natural that every weird revela-
tion would only deepen the public credulity and
strengthen its cravings for fresh victims. Ac-
cordingly it was declared by the synod of Fife in
1641, that no approved way had as yet been fixed
for the trial of witches, and they resolved to pre-
sent an overture to the General Assembly or its
commission to that effect. But with this in-
crease of zeal there had also grown an increase
of justice and common sense among the eccles-
iastical tribunals, which sometimes tended to
abate the evil, so that vague surmises or even
unsupported charges were not always found suf-

ficient for the conviction of a witch. Of this many
proofs were given in the trials before the session
courts, and the accusers themselves were pun-
ished with the heaviest penalties inflicted on
slandei'ers.

After the departure of James VI. to England,
and the clergy were relieved of his presence,
they attempted to re-establish their spiritual
authority, which the meddling disposition of the
king and arrogance of the courtiers had tended
to impair; and any trespass committed in their
own presence was a double crime, as committed
in defiance of sacerdotal authority. We find an
instance of this in the records of the kirk-session
of Aberdeen. A woman had used profane and
blasphemous language in the very presence of
the minister against her husband, and, not con-
tent with this, had attempted to strike him with
his own sword. This domestic fury was forth-
with taken before the kirk-session and magis-
trates conjointly, and their sentence was indica-
tive of the aggravated offence. On the next
market-day she was to be set in the jougs for
two hours, and afterwards drawn through the
town in a cart with a crown of paper upon her
head, having an inscription stating the nature
of her crime; and, until the arrival of that
day, she was to be locked up in the church
vault.

In the records of this period few subjects are
more j^eri^lexing than the incongruous mixture
of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. Some-
times we find a town-council or bench of country
magistrates sitting in judgment upon cases of a
purely spiritual nature, and, on the other hand,
a presbytery or kirk-session adjudicating upon
matters entirely civil. Among other instances
of a similar kind it is enough to mention one in
1655. The presbytery of St. Andrews and Cupar
had an overture before tlieua "anent decayed
bridges;" and, having found that the Bow Bridge
of St. Andrews, the Inner Bridge of Leuchars,
and the Bridge of Dairsie were decayed, they
nominated a deputation of their brethren to
consider about the means of repairing them,^
It was an office more pertinent to a board of
roads and highways, had such existed, or at
least to the bailies of these respective localities.
It is worthy of notice, also, that James Sharp,
afterwards Archbishop of Saint Andrews, was
one of the deputation. It is possible that these
decayed bridges hindered the regular Sabbath
attendance on church, and that the presbytery
meant to assist in the mending of the bridges
by a public collection at the church doors.

' Minutes of the Presbytery of St. Andrews and Cupar.

298

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[xvuth Century.

CHAPTER XXII.

HISTORY OF SOCIETY DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTVB.Y— Continued.

Education — Inaugui-ation of the University of Edinburgh hy James VI. — Display of a forensic debate on the
occasion — Play upon the names of the disputants by the king — Grammar-schools, song-schools, and parish
schools of this period — Law for a uniform grammar in teaching Latin — Enactments for establishing a school
in every parish throughout the kingdom — Provision decreed for their support — Resistance of the heritors
to these enactments — The troubled state of public affairs unfavourable to the progress of education — The
attempt resumed after the Revolution — Visitation of universities, colleges, and schools appointed — The
establishment of a school in every parish again decreed. Public Pageants — These affected by the religious
changes and pohtical events of the age — The reception of Charles I. in Edinburgh — Nature of the display
on this occasion — The riding of parliament held by the king — Its order and grandeur — Restoration
of Charles II. commemorated as a public festival — Manner of the celebration at Linlithgow. Scot-
tish Commerce — Causes of its decline during the seventeenth century — Discouragements to its
revival — Unwise sumptuary laws — Prohibitions of imports — Severe punishment of bankruptcy — The
dyvovir's dress — Mode of his exposure in the pillory — Reaction of the national commerce after the
Revolution — The unfortunate Darien enterprise — The Bank of Scotland successfully established by
Paterson — Its commendation by Law, the Mississippi projector — Statutes still in force against usury-
Relative importance of the chief maritime towns in Scotland at this period — Early traffic in fish and coal
— The coal mine of Culross — Description of it — Visit of James VI. to the mine — His causeless alarm on
emerging from it — Sir William Dick, the great merchant of liis day — His ungrateful treatment from the
government — Scottish merchants as disting lished from those of England — The term as applied in Scotland.
Manufactures — Their slow progress indicated in the patents of the period — Patents granted for various
processes — Introduction of tobacco-spinning, cabinet-making, the manufacture of stamped and gilded
leather, and beaver hats. Postal Communication and Conveyance— Introduction of coaches into Scot-
land— Their partial use — Stage-coaches — Hackney-coaches — Posts, and the establishment of the post-office
— Its slowness at this period. Internal History — Edinburgh at the beginning of the seventeenth century —
The chief civic magistrate chosen from the tradesmen — Costumes apj^ointed by James VI. for the public
functionaries of Edinburgh — Foulness of the streets — Disregard of sanitary laws — Street riots abated —
Attempts to revive them on the arrival of Cromwell — Their suppression — Sumptuary laws against the
l^laids worn by ladies — Growth of female extravagance in dress — Fraudulent dealings of the Edinburgh
shopkeepers — Cleansing and lighting of the streets made compulsory — Precautions to prevent fires — A
street riot in 1682 — Town guard established— The statue of Charles II. set up — Wonder occasioned by it—
The great fire of Edinburgh in 1700— Scottish mode of living as described by English visitors — Taylor's
account of it at the beginning of the period — Ray's account of it in 1661 — Kirke's account of it in 1679 —
Account of it by an Englishman in 1702 — Living of the Scottish nobility — Extracts from the household
book of the Countess of Mar — Domestic life and habits of a noble lady in the earlier part of this period —
State of the middle and lower orders — Scottish mendicancy — Enormous number of beggars at the Union —
Causes of their increase— Insufficiency of the attempts to suppress beggary — Scotland overrun by Irish
beggars and gypsies in addition to the native poor. Food and Drink — Scottish cookery of the period
chiefly of French origin — Native dishes — Kinds of bread — Wine, ale, beer, and aqua-vitte — Law to mode-
rate excess in drinking. Sports and Games — Sedentary and in-door games — Fruitless attempts to
establish the theatre — Travelling quacks and mountebanks — Shows of rare and strange animals — Masquer-
ades— New-year songs— Bowls, kyles, archery, and tennis — Horse-races — Foot-races — Curling — Bullet-
throwing — Game of the leads — GoK. Eminent Men of the Period — Learning and talent in Scotland
chiefly exhibited by churchmen — Causes of this tendency — Eminent men of the Covenant : Henderson,
Gillespie, David Dickson, Robert Boyd, Zachary Boyd — Notices of Robert Douglas, James Guthrie,
WiHiam Guthrie, James Durham, Hugh Binning, Samuel Rutherford— Decay of learning under the perse-
cution of the reign of Charles II. — Men of science : Napier of Merchiston, James Gregory, Da\'id Gregory,
Andrew Balfour — Historians : Archbishop Spottiswood, Calderwood, Bishop Burnet, Sir James Balfour
— Poet, Drummond of Hawthoruden — Painter, George Jamesone.

lu education the most important incident with
■which this period was distinguished was the
establishment of the College of Edinburgh, the
latest of our Scottish colleges, into a royal Uni-
versity. This was done by James VI. in his
memorable visit to Scotland in 1617, wlien his
"salmon-like affection" yearned towards his
native streams, which his coming only tended
to muddy and disturb. Amidst the fanfare of
this august visit one of his chief desires was to

inaugurate the opening of the university with
the tournament of a public disputation, in which
he could disjilay his surpassing scholarship and
wisdom; but the press of public affairs hindered
this meeting until the 29th of July, when it
took place, not in the palace of Holyrood, but
at the castle of Stirling, to which the professors
repaired, where the king received them, attended
by the chief nobility, and the most accomplished
scholars both of Ensiland and Scotland. Three

xviith Century.]

HISTORY OF SOCIETY.

299

separate theses were to be disputed by the pro-
fessors at this learned display. The first was,
That sheriffs and other inferior magistrates
ought not to be hereditary ; the second, On the
nature of local motion; and the third, Concern-
ing the origin of fountains or springs ; and al-
though his majesty was umpire he was also the
most active of the disputants, sometimes speak-
ing ou the one side, sometimes on the other, and
seconding or parrying every good home-thrust
that was dealt in this hurly-burly and keen
warfare of words. So greatly was James de-
lighted with the display, that after supper he
sent for the professors, whose names were John
Adamson, James Fairlie, Patrick Sands, Andrew
Young, James Reid, and William King; and,
after a learned harangue upon the various sub-
jects of the controversy, he wound up by de-
claring, that these gentlemen, by their names,
had evidently been destined for the feats of the
day ; and this he forthwith joroceeded to illus-
trate in the following strange fashion: "Adam
was father of all, and Adam's son had the first
part of this act. The defender is justly called
Fairlie; his thesis had some ferlies in it, and he
sustained them very fairly, and with many fer-
lies given to the oppugners. And why should
not Mr. Sands be the first to enter the sands?
But now, I clearly see that all sands are not
barren, for certainly he hath shown a fertile wit.
Mr. Young is very old in Aristotle. Mr. Reid
need not be red with blushing for his acting this
day. Mr. King disputed very kingly, and of a
kingly purpose, concerning the royal supremacy
of reason above anger, and all passions." After
this ridiculous jingle upon their names, which
resembled the cai)ers of a zany to the tune of
his own morris-bells, the king added, " I am so
well satisfied with this day's exercise, that I will
be godfather to the college of Edinburgh, and
have it called the College of King James. For,
after its founding, it stopjDed sundry years in
my minority; after I came to knowledge I held
hand to it and caused it to be established ; and
although I see many look upon it with an evil
eye, yet I will have them know, that, having
given it my name, I have espoused its quarrel,
and at a proper time will give it a royal god-
bairn gift, to enlarge its revenues." It was
rounded into liis majesty's ear that one im-
portant person had been omitted ; this was
Henry Charteris, principal of the college, who,
although he had taken ik) part in the discussion,
on account of his bashfuluess, was yet a man of
great erudition. James, thus reminded, imme-
diately added, "His name agrees well with his
nature; for charters contain much matter, yet
say nothing; yet put great matters in men's
mouths." The king was so well pleased with

his string of puns, that he signified his wish to
have it versified, and this was accordingly done
to his heart's contentment.^

During the earlier part of the seventeenth
century we learn, from the Accounts of the Ex-
penses of the Scottish Burghs, that each principal
town had a grammar-school taught by a master
and one or more assistants, and that his prin-
cipal assistant had the title of doctor. To tliis
was also attached a song-school, for the teaching
of vocal music, without which a common educa-
tion was not judged complete. The salaries of
these teachers wei'e permanent, and defrayed
by an assessment vipon the town similar to the
salaries of ministers. It is worthy of notice
how carefully the science of music was studied
at this period by the young of both sexes, and
how much the Reformation had done to pro-
mote it. In the inferior burghs that did not
enjoy the distinction of a grammar-school, the
parish school was taught by a master, either
with or without an assistant.

As the subject of education was so closely con-
nected with the Reformation, that the parish
school was considered almost as essential as the
parish church, nothing was calculated to make
the government of the day more unpopular than
indiff'erence to its interests. Thus much John
Knox had been able to establish, notwithstand-
ing the selfishness of the nobility; and king, par-
liament, and privy-council were alike anxious to
second the elTorts of the church for the "learned
and godly upbringing of the young." Of all the
bi'anches of education, also, that of "Humanity"
formed the most important, and a statute on
this head in 1607 was characteristic of James VI.
A complaint was prevalent that the knowledge
of the Latin tongue had greatly decreased, and
that this was owing to the want of uniformity

1 The doggerel thus produced was worthy of the occasion,
aud was as follows: —

" As Adam was the first man, whence all beginning tak,
So Adam's sou was president, and first man in this act.
The thesis Fairlie did defend, which, though they lies

contain,
Yet were ferlies, and he the same right fairly did maintain.
The field first entered JIaster Sands, aud there he made

me see
That not all sands are barren sands, but that some fer-
tile be.
Then Master Young most subtilie the thesis did impugne
And kythed old in Aristotle, although his name was Votmg.
To him succeeded Master Reid, who, though Reid be his

name,
Needs neither for his dispute blush, nor of his speech think

shame.
Last, entered Master King the lists, and dispute like a

Jci7ig,
How Reason, reigning like a kiiiij, should Anger mider

bring.
To their deserved praise have I thus play'il upon tlieir

names,
And wills their coUedge, hence, be call'd the College of

iviNcj James."

300

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xviith Century.

in the plan of teaching it, each master preferring
to use such a grammju' of tlie language as suited
his own fancy. It was therefore enacted by
the king and parliament that there should be
one settled form of the most approved grammar
taught in every school throughout the kingdom.
A committee was also appointed to settle upon
such form and order of teaching Latin as they
should judge most expedient, and that all
teachers should conform to it on penalty of
deprivation of office and a fine of twenty pounds.

The next effort for the promotion of education
•was in 1616; and here we have the modified
Episcopacy, which James had established, care-
fully following in the wake of Presbyterianism.
In that year it was decreed by the privy-council
that a school should be established in every parish
wliere it was possible, and a tit person ajipointed
to teach it, at the expense of the parishionei's,
and under the superintendence of the bishop
of the diocese. This increase of schools was de-
clared necessary, in order that all his majesty's
subjects, and especially the young, should be
" exercised and trained up in civility, godliness,
knowledge, and learning ; " that the vulgar Eng-
lish tongue should be universally planted, and
that the Irish [Gaelic] language, the chief cause
of the barbarism of the Highlands and Isles,
might be abolished. As this order was found
to have been neglected, it was reiterated in the
following reign (a.d. 1626), and again repeated
in 1 633. And to ensure compliance, it was added
that the bishop of the district should be author-
ized to lay a stent [rate] upon every plough or
husband land for the maintenance of the school.

This enactment, which came home to the
pockets of the heritors, continued to be eluded,
so that many 2:)arishes were still without a
school. The subject, therefore, was seriously
taken up by the national Presbyterian church,
now in the ascendant, and in 1646 it was absol-
utely decreed by the Estates in parliament that
a school should be founded and a schoolmaster
appointed in every parish not yet provided, by
advice of the presbytery. For this purjiose the
heritors of every congregation were to meet
among themselves, and provide a commodious
house for the school, and modify a stipend for
the schoolmaster, which was not to be under
100 merks nor above 200 annually, to be paid
yearly in two terms. And to defray the ex-
penses of the school and the teaclier's salary a
stent was to be set down upon every person's
rent of stock and teind in the parish proportion-
able to its value. The schoolmaster's salary was
also to be irrespective of the casualties which
had formerly belonged to readers and clerks of
the kirk-session. And should the heritors fail
to convene, or, having met, should be unable to

agree among themselves, the presbytery were to
nominate twelve men residing within the bounds
of the parish, with full power to establish the
school and master's salary, and decide at what
rate each heritor should be assessed for the
purpose.

This decree was most express and conclusive ;
it issued from those who had both will and
power to enforce it; and if time had been al-
lowed for its development the intellectual pro-
gress of Scotland might have been considerably
antedated. But the wars of the Commonwealth
and the reigns of Charles II. and James VII.
were so unfavourable to Scottish education, that
after the Revolution the whole subject had to
be taken up anew and placed upon its former
footing. An act of parliament was accordingly
issued A.D. 1690, in the names of William and
Mary, for the visitation of universities, colleges,
and schools in Scotland. For this purpose a
committee of noblemen and gentlemen was ap-
pointed as visitors, who were to take trial of
the principals, professors, regents, and masters
concerning their loyalty, moral living, and fit-
ness for teaching ; to examine the condition of
the revenues and rents of the universities, col-
leges, and schools, and how they wei'e adminis-
tered ; and also for the ordering of the teaching
in these institutions according to the rules of
their foundation. Another act was subsequently
passed in the reign of William, ordering a
school and schoolmaster to be established in
every parish not yet provided, and for ensuring
a fund for their expenses and maintenance
on a plan similar to that decreed in the earlier
part of this period.^

Notwithstanding her limited means, Scot-
land had hitherto been as partial to those great
pageants by which public events were cele-
brated as any other country, and the utmost
both of her treasures and her wit had been dis-
played in their production. But the peculiarly
stern character of her Reformation, although it
did not abrogate them, in a great measure
tended to damp their outrageous license and
somewhat to abate their splendour ; and their
chivalrous or poetical displays were strangely
mixed with indications of the downfall of
Babylon and heaven's vengeance against every
follower of the Beast. And then succeeded
causes still more dispiriting — the depai'ture of
the king and court to England, the civil wars,
and the long period of religious persecution and
bondage, under which the country had neither
cause nor inclination for pageants or rejoicings.
One event, however, which occurred in an in-
terval of calm, and before the civil war broke

1 Maltlaiid Club Miscellany, vol. ii. p. 5.

xvnth Century.]

HISTOEY OF SOCIETY.

301

out in its worst aspects, was auspicated by a
display of the national spirit, of which had
Charles I. availed himself it might have abated
the disasters that awaited him. It was his visit
to Scotland, and arrival in Edinburgh in 1633,
and the mode of his reception, which is minutely
described by Sjaalding, was after the following
fashion : —

At the West Port the king was welcomed
with an eloquent speech, and the keys of the
city were presented to him by the speaker.
When he passed through the gate the provost
and bailies, all clad in their red robes trimmed
with fur, and about threescore councillors and
principal citizens in black velvet gowns, were
awaiting his coming, sitting on rows of benches
ascending in three tiers, erected for the pur-
pose : and at his majesty's apj^earance they all
rose. The provost in their name then made a
short speech, and presented to the king, in
token of the city's homage and affection, a fair
gold basin valued at 5000 raerks, into which
1000 gold angels were poured from a purse.
" The king," it is added, " looked gladly upon
tlie speech and the gift both ; but the Marquis
of Hamilton, master of his majesty's house-
hold, melled with the gift as due to him
by virtue of his office." The jirovost then
mounted his splendidly cajjarisoned horse,
and with the bailies and councillors, who were
on foot, joined the royal procession. When
Charles came to the Upper or Over Bow a gal-
lant company of the town soldiers met him, all
clad in white satin doublets, black velvet breeches,
and silk stockings, with hats, feathers, scarfs,
bands, and other such paraphernalia, and armed
with muskets, pikes, gilded partisans, and other
weapons, who attended his majesty as a guard
of honour until he had finally entered his palace
of Holyrood. On passing through the port or
gate of the Upper Bow the king was arrested
with a third speech ; and on advancing to the
west end of the Tolbooth, which was but a few
steps onwards, his eyes were greeted with the
display of a delicately-painted panorama of the
kings of Scotland, his ancestors, beginning with
Fergus I., and his ears with a fourth speech.
A fifth speech awaited him at the Cross ; and
there, also, his health was drunk by the jolly
figure of a Bacchus seated on the Cross, the
spouts or fountains of which were all the while
running with wine in abundance. On the south
side of the High Street, near the Cross, a large
artificial mount was raised, representing Par-
nassus hill, " all green with birks," and tenanted
by nine pretty boys, dressed like the Nine Muses,
who regaled Charles with a sixth speech, after
which the speaker delivered to him a book — pro-
bably a Bible, although the kind of book is not

distinctly specified. And even yet a seventh
siDeech awaited him at the Nether Bow, " which
whole orations his majesty, with great pleasure
and delight, sitting on horseback, as his company
did, heard pleasantly." It was a display of
patience amidst dull formalities and delays
which none of the imj^etuous Stewarts could
have endured ; and not even James VI. himself
would have deigned to listen to such declama-
tions without giving sjieeches of equal length
and number in return. A sadly decorous age
was now prevalent in Scotland, under which
grave or pedantic harangues had taken the place
of childish mirth and shouting, and the staid
and formal Charles was every way a sovereign
fit for such a reception. After having run the
gauntlet through such a regiment of speeches
he rode down the Canongate to the palace of
Holyrood, which he was suffered to enter in
peace, and the provost and town-council re-
turned to their homes.

A few days after the royal arrival, and two
days after the coronation, the great national
ceremonial of the "Riding of the Parliament"
took place. As it was rare that such an event
was now to be graced by royalty itself, the
grandeur and solemnity of the display were
worthy of the occasion. The order of the Es-
tates, according to established usage, was the
following : — First of all rode the commissioners
of burghs, arrayed in their sombre, unadorned
cloaks, their horses being caparisoned with black
velvet footman ties; next followed the commis-
sionei'S of baronies; the lords of the spirituality;
the bishops; the temporal lords; the viscounts;
the earls ; the Earls of Buchan and Rothes
riding abreast, the former carrying the sword of
state and the latter the sceptre; the Marquis
of Douglas carrying the crown, having on his
right hand the Duke of Lennox and on his left
the Marquis of Hamilton, followed by the
king. His majesty rode a chestnut-coloured
horse, with a bunch of feathers on its head
and a footmantle of purple velvet. Charles on
this occasion wore by his own choice the royal
I'obe of James IV., which was of purple velvet,
richly furred and laced with gold, with a train
supi^orted by five grooms, each of whom held it
up from the ground by turns. Contrary to the
courteous fashion of his ancestors, Charles, in-
stead of carrying his hat in his hand, wore it on
his head — under the same proud feeling, it may
be, with which he wore it at his final trial in
Westminster Abbey— and in his right hand
was a rod. The procession was closed with the
gorgeous array of heralds, pursuivants, macers,
and trumpeters, who followed his majesty in
silence; and it must have added to the splendour
and solemnity of the procession that no one rode

302

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xvnth Century.

there without a footmantle, according to the
established custom, while the nobles were dis-
tinguished from the other Estates by their
scarlet robes trimmed with fur. When the
cavalcade came up from Holyrood to the High
Street it was met at the Nether Bow by the
provost of Edinburgh, who attended his majesty
during the rest of the riding until the latter
alighted. Among the precautions to keep off
the pressure of the onlookers we are told that
" the calsey was raveled [railed] from the Nether
Bow to the Stinking Stile with stakes of timber
dung in the end on both sides " — that is to say,
driven into the earth on both sides of the street,
so that sufficient space w^as left midway for the
procession and the crowd kept in its proper place.
Within this railing, also, was a strong guard of
citizens armed with pikes, partisans, and mus-
kets, while the king's own foot-guard with par-
tisans accompanied his majesty, more effectually
to keep the way clear. At the Stinking Stile,
where all alighted, the Earl of Errol, as high
constable of Scotland, received the king, and
escorted him to the door of the High Tolbooth,
where the Earl Marischal, as high marshal of
Scotland, was in waiting; and the latter taking
his majesty, conducted him through his guards
to his royal seat in isarliament.^

We shall content ourselves by describing an-
other pageant at a later period, and under dif-
ferent circumstances, but also commemorative
of a joyful national event; this was the Restora-
tion, which by act of parliament was to be ob-
served as an anniversary throughout the king-
dom on the 29th of May, both because that was
his majesty's birth-day, and the date of his happy
return to his three kingdoms. So happy an
occasion was to be observed not only by an en-
tire abstinence from labour, and by public reli-
gious services, but with every demonstration of
national mirth and rejoicing. On the first occa-
sion of this nature in 1662 the little town of
Linlithgow was ambitious to excel all other
towns ; and as the chief pageants were devised
by the bailie and minister of Linlithgow, both
of them originally Covenanters, but afterwards
furious zealots for loyalty and Episcopacy, they
were characterized by that ultra hatred of the
old cause and its adherents which was to be
expected from turncoats and apostates. The
Earl of Linlithgow was present, and, of course,
\vas the principal figure in the procession ; and,
accompanied by the magistrates, the clergj^man,
and principal jjersons of the district, he marched
to the mai'ket-place, where the famed fountain
of the town was flowing, not with its wonted

1 Spalding's Memorials of the Troubles in Scotland and in
England (Spalding Club Publications).

water, but streams of variously coloured wines
both French and Spanish. Here the august
jjarty drank the king's health, a collation being
spread for them in the open air, and threw their
glasses and sweetmeats among the people. But
the grand display was a triumphal arch, on one
side of which the effigy of a grewsome hag had
been constructed, representing the genius of
the Covenant, and on the other, a whigamore,
while the top of the arch was graced with the
figure of the devil, and the back, with a picture
of Rebellion, impersonated in a religious habit,
with turned up eyes and devout grimace, such
as were judged best fitted to represent the
Covenanter. On the pillars were painted ar-
ticles of homely whigamore life — kirk -stools,
rocks and reels, cogs and spoons, with sundry
burlesque allusions to the dominion of the Pres-
byterians during the previous twenty years.
No sooner was the king's health drunk, than
the whole fabric was lighted into a bonfire, in
which were also consumed copies of the Cove-
nants, the acts of parliament during the civil war,
and all the public documents, protestations, and
declarations which had emanated from the ruling
party. But, like a Phoenix arising from the ashes
of this pyre, a tablet rose in its place, supported
by two angels, and bearing the following in-
scription : —

"Great Britain's monarch on this day was born,

And to his kingdom happily restored ;
His queen's arrived, the matter now is known,

Let us rejoice, this day is from the Lord !
Flee hence, all traitors that did mar our peace;

Flee, all schismatics who our church did rent ;
Flee, Covenanting remonstrating race;

Let us rejoice that God this day hath sent."

After this disjDlay, which was witnessed with
noisy aj^plause by the royalists and the meaner
of the peojale, but with silent sorrow and indig-
nation by those whom it chiefly concerned, the
procession retired to the palace, of which the
earl was keeper, where a sj^lendid bonfire was
kindled, and loyal toasts drunk over again; after
which the magistrates again marched through
the burgh, saluting every man of account whom
they passed in their way. It would have been
well for the country, and finally for the restored
dynasty itself, if the king's party had been
contented with such puerile disjilays of their
triumph.^

This mode of celebrating the king's birth-day
and the happy event of the Restoration was
long after regarded with dread and disgust, as
the prelude to these terrible persecutions and
dragonades under which the country for years

^ A Dismal Account of the Burning of our Solemn League
and National Covenant, etc., at Linlithgow. Reprinted,
Bdin. 1832.

xviith Century.]

HISTOEY OF SOCIETY.

303

was trampled under foot. Another public re-
joicing, with which the Duke of York was after-
wards welcomed into Edinburgh, tended still
deeper to embitter the popular feeling. On
this occasion the huge antique piece of artillery
called Mons, or more generally Mons Meg, was
to welcome the arrival of his grace with its
loudest thunders. But, in the abundant loyalty
of the gunners, too plentiful a charge of gun-
powder had been rammed home in it, and the
consequence was, that this unwieldy piece of
ordnance burst so as to be no longer serviceable.
This was regarded by the suj)erstitious Scots as
a great national calamity; they felt as if the
palladium of the country had been destroyed;
and they attributed the mischance to the malice
of the English gunner, who, they declared, had
purposely overloaded it out of envy, because
Mons Meg in bulk surpassed all the cannon in
England. Superstition and dislike, thus awak-
ened by the event, found also an evil omen in
the title of their j^rincely visitor. While in
England he was Duke of York, in Scotland he
was Duke of Albany, and its Latin version
Dux Albanice reminded them of Dux Albannus,
the title of the cruel and persecuting Duke of
Alva.i

The history of Scottish commerce from the
union of the crowns to that of the kingdoms of
England and Scotland is so insignificant that it
may be dismissed with a very brief notice. No
sooner had it rallied from the disasters of Eng-
lish invasions and the shock of the Eeformation,
than its new spirit of enterprise was arrested by
the great political event of the accession of its
sovereign to the English crown. The Scottish
court was thus extinguished, its nobles and
gentry made London their principal home, and
the men of traffic soon found that it was more
I^rofitable to transfer their activity to the gain-
ful branches of commerce already established in
England, than devote themselves to its uncertain
restoration at home. In this way not only the
money but the industry of Scotland were chiefly
absorbed in English traffic; and such a close
alliance, which promised to enrich the poorer
country, only tended in the first instance to
deepen its poverty. It was the English market
that was enriched by this addition of Scottish
resources and enterpi'ise ; and those merchants
who had exchanged the scanty tribute of the
Forth for the rich contributions of the Thames,
seldom returned to enrich their own country
with the fruits of their successful toils. The
example of George Heriot, who, after amassing
a large fortune in England, bequeathed his
gains to the benefit of his native city, was one

1 Fountainhall's Historical Obseroes, pp. 5-7.

which few of his successful brethren were in-
clined to imitate. They had naturally become
English merchants, and identified their affec-
tions and pursuits with the land of their adop-
tion.

While the decay of their commerce had thus
made the Scots poorer than ever it did not aftect
their pride, which, on the contrary, became
stronger than before ; and, after having held
their own against the English as enemies, they
were not willing to succumb to them as fellow -
subjects under the same rule and sovereign.
Although they might no longer contend with
them in the field they were still willing to
rival them in the contentions of j^eaceful life,
as far as their limited means could be strained;
and of all the modes in which this rivalry
could be expressed, that of attire was the
easiest and most obvious. If they could not
have such splendid houses and luxurious a style
of life as the English, who had been epicures
since the days of Macbeth, and were ten times
richer than themselves, they might at least match
them in the material and showiness of dress,
which could be more readily attained. Let them
curtail their means and pinch themselves in pri-
vate as they might, they were resolved that in
clothing at least they should be as fine as their
proud neighbours. But, instead of encouraging
this feeling of emulation, by which industr}'
would have been stimulated, and commerce and
manufactures revived, the Scottish parliament
unwisely sought to repress it by severe sump-
tuary enactments. They accordingly decreed in
1621 that no persons should wear cloth of gold
or silver, or gold and silver lace on their clothes,
or velvets, satins, or other silk stuffs, except
noblemen, their wives and children, lords of
parliament, prelates, privy-councillors, lords of
manors, judges, magistrates of principal towns
such as have six thousand merks (about £340)
of yearly rent in money — and heralds, trum-
peters, and minstrels. They also decreed that
these persons so privileged to wear silk clothing
should have no embroidering nor lace on their
clothes, except a plain lace of silk on the seams
and edges, with belts and hatbands embroidered
with silk, and this silk apparel to be no way
cut out upon other stuffs of silk, except upon
a single taffety. Foreign damask, table-linen,
cambrics, lawns, tiffanies, and the wearing of
pearls and precious stones, were limited more-
over to these persons. The number of mourning
suits in great families was limited. The fashion
of clothes, also, was not to be altered. Servants
were to have no silk on their clothes, except
buttons and garters, and were to wear only cloth,
fustians, and canvas, and stuffs of Scottish manu-
facture. Husbandmen and labourers of the

304

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xvnth Century.

ground were to wear ouly gray, blue, white,
and self-black cloth of Scottish mauufacture.
No clothes were to be gilded with gold. Still
further to check, luxurious imports, by which the
reciprocity of commerce would be destroyed, the
same enactment decreed that neither wet nor
diy confections were to be used at weddings,
christenings, or feasts, unless they were made
of Scottish fruits.' These prohibitions, so ruin-
ous to a mercantile country, must have fared as
similar parliamentary statutes had done; the
powerful must have braved, and the rich eluded
them, while those offenders who were neither
rich nor powerful were left to pay the penalty.
The same unwise legislations on commerce
prevailed in the punishment of bankrupts, who
in Scotland went under the name of dyvours.
As it was presumed that none could become in-
solvent unless their misfortune was occasioned
by downright knavery, bankruptcy was treated
as a crime, and the penalty which the bankrupt
was doomed to undergo was thus decreed by the
Court of Session, a.d. 1604. "The lords ordain
the provost, bailies, and council of Edinburgh,
to cause build a pillory of hewn stone, near to
the Market Cross of Edinburgh; upon the head
thereof a seat and place to be made, whereupon,
in time coming, shall be set all dyvours, who
shall sit thereon one market-day, from ten hours
in the morning till an hour after dinner ; and
the said dyvours, before their liberty and coming
forth of the Tolbooth, upon their own charges,
to cause, make, or buy a hat or bonnet of yellow
colour, to be worn by them all the time of their
sitting on the said pillory, and in all time there-
after, so long as they remain and abide dyvours."
The unfortunate insolvent, who was thus c«i-
sigued to the martyrdom without the honou^f
a Simeon Stylitis, must have been a conspicuous
object not only to the jeers of the crowd, but
the more substantial missiles of those who had
been sufferers by his bankruptcy. The daily
wearing of his yellow hat or bonnet having be-
come intolerable to the victim, the statute was
repeated in 1606, with the following specifica-
tion : " If at any time or place, after the pub-
lication of the said dyvour at the said Market
Cross, any person or persons, declared dyvours,
be found wanting the foresaid hat or bonnet of
yellow colour, so often shall it be lawful for the
bailies of Edinburgh or any of his creditors to
take and apprehend the said dyvour, and put
him within the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, therein
to remain in sure custody the space of a quarter
of a year for each fault and failure aforesaid."
Even this unlucky head-dress was afterwards
deemed too lenient, and after several improve-

' Acts of the Scottish Parliaments, A.D. 1621.

meuts in the bankrupt's costume, the following
was decreed by the Court of Session in 1669:
" The lords declare that the habit is to be a coat
and upper garment, AVhich is to cover their
clothes, body, and arms whereof the one half is
to be of yellow, and the other half of a brown
colour, and a cap or hood, which they are to
wear on their head, party-coloured as said is."
The pattern of this harlequin dress was after-
wards delivered to the magistrates to be kept in
the Tolbooth, so that there might be no modi-
fication or mistake either as to its colour or cut,
Wei'e such a statute revived in the present day,
the crowds who would flaunt in such a costume,
and the picturesque variety which it would pro-
duce not only in the streets, but those places
" where merchants most do congi'egate," may be
easily imagined.^

After languishing nearly a century in this
condition, overborne not only by the superior
trade of England, with which it could not com-
pete, but the anarchy of the civil war and the
oppressions of religious jaersecutiou, Scotland at
the accession of William and Mary recovered
her wonted activity and courage. But her way
in commercial enterprise had still to be dis-
covered, and the first great attempt was a miser-
able failure. We allude to the Darien enter-
prise, in which Scotland endeavoured to estab-
lish a commerce and found a colony of her own,
upon such a gigantic scale as should distance all
competition. Another enterjjrise in which the
Scottish merchants were more successful was
the establishment of the Bank of Scotland, also
projected by William Paterson. The bank was
ei'ected in the year 1695, and although its capi-
tal at first was only ^1,200,000 Scots, or £100,000
sterling, the speculation was so sound, and its re-
turns so speedy and certain, as to ensure its growth
and permanence. Law, the famous projector, who
afterwards obtained such a questionable repu-
tation in France, declared, in his Treatise on
Money and Trade, that the notes of this Scot-
tish bank went for four or five times the value
of the cash it contained, and that so much as
the amount of these notes exceeded the cash in
bank was a clear addition to the money of that
nation. In noticing the advantages of the
foundation on which it was established he also
adds, that this bank was safer than that of
England, because the lands of Scotland, on the
security of which most of the cash of that bank
was lent, were under a register; and that, more-
over, it was moi'e national or general than either
the Bank of England or that of Amsterdam,
because its notes, a great part of which were of

- Records of Privy-council ; Maitland's History of Edin-
burgh, p. 57 ; Wilson's Description of Edinburgh, vol. ii. p. 4.

sviith Century.]

HISTORY OF SOCIETY.

305

a one-pound sterling value, could pass in most
payments throughout the whole; whereas the
Bank of Amsterdam served only for that one
city, while the Ban^ of England was of little
use except in London.^

To this brief aud general sketch of Scottish
commerce extending over so long a period we
can only add a few particulars, by way of giving
distinctive features to the outline. Among the
restrictions with which mercantile accommoda-
tions were still crippled were the old laws
against usury, which still continued in full
force, and with all their former severity. One
instance will suffice as a specimen of the severity
with which the offence was visited. One James
Elder, a baker in the Canongate, Edinburgh, was
convicted of having taken eight per cent, when
six was the maximum of interest. For this offence
all his goods were escheated, and he was further
obliged to give security to appear in the event
of any further infliction being laid upon him.

In a tax granted to the king by the Scottish
parliament in 1625 we learn the relative impor-
tance of the principal Scottish towns at this
early period. Glasgow was set down for £815,
12s. Gd., Linlithgow for £163, 2s. 6d., Stirling
for £422, 17s. 9d., St. Andrews for £490, Dun-
bar for £90, 15s., Culross for £84, 10s., Canon-
gate for £100, and Hamilton for 100 merks.
These proportions are strongly at variance with
that which the several towns exhibit in the pre-
sent day. When English commissioners were
employed to introduce order into the custom-
house accounts of Scotland, we learn from the
report of Tucker in 1658 the amount of the
revenues of the principal ports, which were as
follows: Leith, £2335; Aberdeen, £573; Glas-
gow, £554. The amount for Leith was small,
although it was the chief port of Scotland, while
that of Glasgow was scarcely lai-ger than the
customs drawn at the harbour of Burntisland.
Shipbuilding, also, in which Scotland at one
time was supposed to excel, had been so little
prosecuted that the ships of native construction
were only from twelve to a hundred and fifty
tons burden. Of these Glasgow had twelve.
Kirkcaldy owned as many, but none of them
were above an hundred tons. Dundee and An-
struther had ten vessels, Burntisland seven,
Wemyss six, and Dysart four.

Of the two chief articles of native produce
most available for trade, fish and coal were
still of great account ; the former both for ex-
port and home consumption, the latter as a
necessary of life, and for inland traffic alone.
Even already a coal-pit was found to be a

1 Macpherson's History of Byitish Commerce, &c., vol. ii.
p. 670.

VOL. III.

mine of wealth to its proprietor; and the en-
terprise and science displayed in sinking shafts
and carrying on excavations showed that the
intelligence of Scotland had hit upon the
right vein, let the commercial uses of its re-
sources be however limited for the present.
The chief coal-pits already opened were on
the coast of Fife, and the principal of these
was at Culross, with Sir George Bruce for its
enterprising j^roprietor. Of this coal-pit, which
was one of the marvels of the country, Taylor,
the water-poet, who visited it, gives the follow-
ing account: "At low water, the sea being
ebbed away and a great part of the sand bare,
upon this same sand, mixed with rocks and
crags, did the master of this great work build
a circular frame of stone, very thick, strong,
and joined with bituminous matter; so high
withal that the sea at the highest flood, or the
greatest rage of storm or tempest, can neither
dissolve the stones so well compacted in the
building, nor yet overflow the height of it.
Within this round frame he did set workmen
to dig ; . . . they did dig forty feet down right
into and through a rock. At last they found
that which they expected, which was sea-coal.
They following the vein of the mine, did dig
forward -still, so that in the space of eight-and-
twenty or niue-and-twenty years they have
digged more than an English mile under the
sea, so that when men are at work below a
hundred of the greatest ships in Britain may
sail over their heads." After describing the
form of the mine Taylor thus desci'ibes the
ap2)aratus for keeping the water out of it.
"The sea at certain places doth leak or soak
into the mine, which by the industry of Sir
George Bruce is conveyed to one well near the
land, where he hath a device like a horse-mill,
with three great horses, and a great chain of
iron going downwards many fathoms, with
thirty-six buckets attached to the chain, of the
which eighteen go down still to be filled and
eighteen ascend still to be emptied, which do
empty themselves without any man's labour
into a trough that conveys the water into the
sea again."

These bold excavations under the sea and the
mechanical contrivances to keep the mine from
being overflowed were so justly admired that
they had the distinguished honour of a visit
from royalty itself. When James visited Scot-
land in 1617 he resolved to dine with the collier,
and accordingly repaired to the house of Sir
George Bruce, with a party of courtiers whom
he had invited to accompany him. Before
dinner they descended into this wonderful
Aladdin's cave, and traversed the subterranean
pathways to their exti'emity, wondering alike

306

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xvnth Century.

at the works themselves and the woi-kmen who
flitted hithei- and thither like demons. At
length, on coming to the end of the pit, they
were drawn into upper air by the sea-shaft; but
James, finding himself on an islet surrounded
bj' waves, was seized by one of his ague fits of
terror, and began to shout, " Treason ! Treason ! "
as loud as he could bawl. He was not aware
of this singular exit to the place, from which
the coals were at once put on board of the ves-
sels, that conveyed their freight to the main-
land, and thought that he was himself to be
transported by sea to some unknown prison or
untimely death. It was with difficulty that he
was reassured by Sir George, who pointed to an
elegant pinnace moored close to the islet, and
ready to carry him and his party ashore to save
them the trouble of retracing their steps undei--
ground.^

From our history of Scottish traffic it will be
perceived that the country could as yet furnish
no instances of merchants who, in wealth and im-
portance, could be compared to those of London.
The nighest approach was in the instance of
Sir William Dick of Braid, the richest mer-
cliant of his day in Scotland, and whose career
at first was one of unexampled prosperity. His
success inspired such confidence that at a time
when the taxes were farmed, he was allowed to
rent the customs of the kingdom and the re-
venues of Orkney, by which and the profits of
commerce he gained wealth that placed him far
beyond the most fortunate northern traffickers
of the period. Before the breaking out of the
war of the Covenant, but when it was con-
sidered inevitable, he was appointed provost of
Edinburgh; and being a Covenanter his con-
tributions to the cause were so eflfective that but
for his liberality the Scottish army could scarcely
have been so well appointed at Dunse Law, or
so successful in their march across the Border.
For these disbursements Scotland owed him to
the amount of ,£28,131, and the English parlia-
ment ^36,803 — sums of almost fabulous extent,
considering that they were contributed from
the coffers of one man, and he a Scottish trader.
This was the culminating point of his prosjierity,
the downfall from which was more signal than
his rise. His mercantile transactions fell into
disorder, heavy losses ensued, and when he
went to London in 1652 to be repaid by gov-
eiument for the sums he had advanced, he got
nothing more from the Commonwealth than a
thousand pounds. Incurring fresh debts during
his long and unprofitable waiting in London he
was thrown into prison at Westminster, and
there he died in absolute penury and want.

1 Forsyth's Beauties of Scotland.

Such was the end of the Scottish millionaire of
the seventeenth century. The only compensa-
tion received by his family after the Restoration
was a poor annual pension of £132 sterling, and
even this after a few years was discontinued.^

As the title of merchant has a grandiose ap-
plication in England, and is confined exclusively
to the aristocracy of traffic, mistakes are apt to
be made from the frequency with which it was
applied to the vendors of goods in Scotland.
But there it was not necessary that the trader,
in order to be considered a merchant, should
have a wholesale traffic with numerous ships
and a well-appointed counting-house or ware-
house. On the contrary, the title was applied
to every retail dealer, however humble his
goods or the booth in which he vended them ;
and it is also conferred upon the small rural
shopkeepers in many parts of Scotland even in
the present day. In like manner the pedlar who
carried his goods on a travelling pack-horse, or
even on his own back, and the stall-keeper who
had nothing but a few boards on which his goods
were exposed in the open air, were merchants.
These last extemporaneous and movable shops
api^ear to have been called krames, to distinguish
them from booths, which were permanent places
of sale. A Scottish town, therefore, must have
presented a confused appearance where most of
its shops were stalls, and where the articles wait-
ing a customer not only were exhibited upon
the board but dangled over the head, or were
strewed along the path of the bewildered
stranger who went forth to buy. Even in
Edinburgh trade was carried on in the same
humble and irregular fashion ; booths were
clustered like honeycombs around the vener-
able cathedral of St. Giles, and krames were
set up in the approaches to the house of par-
liament. This nuisance at last became so trou-
blesome, and so unworthy of the dignity of
a capital, that in 1683 it was determined to
remove these krames, as there were several
empty shops in town. It was found, however,
that this prohibition had invaded the interests
of a powerful body, in consequence of which
the lords of the council interposed, and the
tenants were continued in possession until fur-
ther orders." The war against the stalls was
resumed in 1684 by an absolute decree of
the town-council that all keepers of krames
and fruit-stands should remove off the streets,
as there was still enough of empty shops iu
which they might follow their occupations —
but to what amount obedience was given to
the order we are not informed. It is evident,

2 Chambers' Domestic Annals of Scotland.

3 Fountainhall's Historical Notices, p. 471.

xviith Century.]

HISTOEY OF SOCIETY.

307

however, that the storm had commenced before
which these fragile establishments must sooner
or later j^^iss away. A jjendant to this last
decree of the town-council is not a little amusing.
Mixed with the peripatetic vendors of small
merchandise were travelling tinkers, who went
from house to house exercising their cra,ft of
mending pots, pans, and other such household
gear, and perhaps using their vocation as a
pretext for violence, intrigue, or theft. It was
ordered in this pi'ohibitiou that tinkers should
no longer go tlirough the town; that there should
be only one tinker, who, with his assistants,
might be sufficient for all the wants of Edin-
burgh; and that the said tinker and his aids
should abide in a settled shop, and there receive
such customers as required his services.^

If the progress of trade was slow and un-
satisfactory, that of manufactures was in much
the same state, and for most of the improve-
ments in this department during the seventeenth
century the country was chiefly indebted to
foreigners. These visits, also, appear to have
been deferred to the last, and only when most
of the other countries of Europe no longer
needed them. This slowness and dependence
on strangers was in singular contrast to the in-
ventiveness and activity of the nation when it
was finally aroused into action and carried by
its ardour into the very forefront of the great
European competition. A few of the patents
of the present period may suffice for the history
of its manufactures. The first of these which
we select was for glass, an article for which
Scotland had hitherto been beholden to Eng-
land and the Continent. In 1610, however,
a patent was granted for the manufacture of
home-made glass, and a manufactory of it was
set up at Wemyss, in Fife, the workmanship of
which was highly satisfactory, plates of glass
being made for windows as large as the largest
of the period, and declared equal in quality to
the glass imported from Dantzic. Its chief
failure was in its drinking-glasses, which were
inferior to those of England; but to improve
them English glasses were procured, and kept
as models for imitation. To further encourage
also this home manufacture the importation
of foreign glass into Scotland was prohibited
in 1621.^ In 1612 a Fleming having pro-
posed to establish a manufactory for the making
of brimstone, vitriol, and alum, on condition
that he should enjoy the exclusive privilege for
thirteen years, a patent was granted to him to
that effect.^ Another proposal about the same

' Fountainhairs Historical Notices, p. 511.
n Privy-council Records.

3 State Papers of the Earl of Melrose (Abbotsford Club
Publications).

time was that of Archibald Campbell, who
offered to bring foreigners into the country to
make red herrings, the art of salting herrings
only being as yet understood in Scotland, and ac-
cordingly an exclusive privilege was guaranteed
to him. From red herrings to musical instru-
ments the transition is certainly abrupt, but if
the Scottish fish-curers could not produce the
former our mechanics could the latter, as ap-
pears by the intimation of a maker of virginals
being settled in Aberdeen in 1618. The next
improvement in chronological order was the
tanning of leather, and this was introduced by
the arrival of about a dozen tanners from Eng-
land in 1620. The manufacture of soap suc-
ceeded. This article must hitherto have been a
luxury, being imported from abroad, until a
patent for its home manufacture was granted
to Nathaniel Uddart; and to secure him in its
jarofits a prohibition was made in 1621, by
which the importation of foreign soap was pro-
hibited.*

After this time the troubled condition of
Scotland was little calculated to allure ingenious
foreigners to its shores, and the natives had far
other matters to occupy them than the improve-
ment of manufactures and the multiplication of
the means of enjoyment. From 1638, there-
fore, to 1672, there wei-e no applications of
strangers for patents, and a lull occurred in
manufacturing improvements until the last-
mentioned year, when Philip Vander Straten,
a native of Bruges, entered our forsaken market.
He applied to the privy-council for naturaliza-
tion in the country, and for the freedom of work-
ing and trafficking while he should embark a
considerable amount of money in a work at
Kelso which he had set up for the dressing
and refining of wool. Only two years after an
important change was introduced in another
department of industry, at which James VI.
would have been thrown into a fit of rage.
Tobacco, as we have already seen, was now
extensively used in Scotland; and as the im-
ported article was too costly for the general de-
mand tobacco-spinning was introduced by a
native who had learned the art in Newcastle,
London, and Holland. Cabinet-making was
not practised in Scotland until 1678, and the
first making of mirrors does not seem to have
been attempted till 1682. The introduction of
another article conducive to household elegance
gave indications of progress. Hitherto stamped
and gilded leather had been used in covering the
naked walls of the principal apartments ; but
as the leather necessary for the purpose was a
foreign importation, it was chiefly confined to

* Chambers' Domestic Annals of Scotland.

308

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[xvnth Centttry.

the mansions of the uj^per classes. In 1681,
however, the manufacture of it was introduced
into Scotland by Alexander Bi-aud, a merchant
of Edinburgh. In 1C83 another merchant of
Edinburgh applied for a license to manufacture
beaver hats, the first trial of their fabrication
in Scotland, and these in course of time sujDer-
seded the blue bonnets, which had hitherto
constituted the head-dress of the common
people.^

When the mercantile progress of the country
was so slow, and its internal traffic so limited,
postal communication and the means of convey-
ance were of a correspondent character. The
first coach seen in Scotland was in 1598, but it
arrived in the train of the English ambassador,
and it was not until 1610 that coaches came into
actual use. They were in this way introduced
by a foreigner, Henry Andersen, a native of
Stralsund, Pomerania, who offered to bring
from his country coaches and waggons, with
horses to draw them and drivers and servants
to manage them, on condition of enjoying an
exclusive privilege to the trade. He got a
patent for fifteen years, and began to run
coaches between Edinburgh and Leith only,
at a fare of 2c?. sterling for each passenger.
So stately and comfortable a mode of convey-
ance gradually recommended itself to the higher
orders, and coaches and chariots seem to have
become pretty common among the nobility at
the end of the seventeenth century. The general
unfitness, however, of the roads at this time for
such kind of conveyance prevented them from
being so extensively adopted as they otherwise
might have been. As they were chiefly used
for extraordinary and state occasions, we find
that in 1700 the king's commissioner was met
about eight miles from Edinburgh by nearly
forty coaches, most of them drawn by six horses.
Hackney coaches are first mentioned as being
used in Edinburgh in 1673,at which time twenty
belonged to the city. Edinburgh, however, was
so ill adapted for their use, that, instead of multi-
plying, they gradually decreased, sedan chairs
being found more convenient. Although Loudon
was now the actual capital of the country, the com-
munication betwixt it and Edinburgh by stage
coaches does not seem to have commenced until
about 1658, in which year they were advertised
to go from the George Inn, without Alders-
gate, to Edinburgh, once in three weeks, at a
fare of .£4, \0s. for each passenger, and with
good coaches and fresh horses provided on the
road. The means of correspondence between
the different parts of the empire were very
limited and tedious. The first post established

Chambers' Domestic Annals of Scotland.

between London and Edinburgh was in 1635,
and as this was the most important it was
also the quickest, the time allotted for the jour-
ney being only three days. The first post estab-
lished between Scotland and Ireland was in 1662.
In 1669 a post was appointed to go twice a week
between Edinburgh and Aberdeen and once a
week between Edinburgh and Inverness. It was
not until 1695 that the post-office was established
in Scotland and posts apjiointed for the king-
dom at large, but the conveyance was intoler-
ably slow even for the patient spirit of the
period. A letter took three days to travel between
Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and in most instances
the post-boys, instead of being mounted on good
horses, travelled with theii- budgets on foot.^

As so much of the internal history of Scotland
was now concentrated in Edinburgh, so that the
city took the lead in evei-y religious, political,
and military movement of the kingdom, as well
as in all its social and domestic improvements,
a few notices of its general condition during the
period will give a more complete idea of the
state of the people at large, and their social and
domestic modes of life. We begin, thei^efore,
with the appearance of the city itself, when the
seventeenth century had commenced, and when
it no longer possessed a court and sovereign;
and here we shall again have recourse to the
pages of the observant water-poet, Taylor, in
whose eyes Edinburgh appeared a noble city,
accustomed though his eyes had been to the
wealth and grandeur of London. His brief but
striking sketch is as follows: — "Leaving the
castle I descended lower to the city, wherein I
observed the fairest and goodliest street that
ever mine eyes beheld, for I did never see or
hear of a street of that length (which is half an
English mile from the castle to a fair port which
they call the Nether Bow), and from that port,
the street which they call the Kennyhate [Canon-
gate] is one quarter of a mile more down to the
king's palace, called Holyrood House, the build-
ings on each side of the way being all of squared
stone, five, six, or seven stories high, and many
by-lanes and closes on each side of the way,
wherein are gentlemen's houses, much fairer
than the buildings in the high street, for in the
high street the merchants and tradesmen do
dwell, but the gentlemen's mansions and good-
liest houses are obscurely founded in the afore-
said lanes; the walls are eight or ten foot thick,
exceeding strong, not built for a day, a week, or
a month, or a year, but from antiquity to pos-
terity for many ages." If the bard of the Thames
was astonished at houses six or seven stories

2 Maitland's History of Edinburgh; Chambers' Domestic
Annals.

xviith Century.]

HISTOEY OF SOCIETY.

309

high how his wonder would have been raised at
those towering habitations of Edinburgh that
reached the height of fourteen and even fifteen
stories! But these architectural prodigies were
to amaze his countrymen of a later generation,
as they were not constructed before the year
1685. In his account of the creature comforts
he found in Edinburgh, Taylor is equally en-
thusiastic. " There," he says, " I found enter-
tainment beyond my expectation or merit; and
there is fish, flesh, bread, and fruit in such
variety that I think I may otfenceless call it
superfluity or satiety."

It was significant of the times, and the change
which had commenced, that each burgh should
have an actual tradesman for its provost. This
law, so difi^erent from the old feudal usage that
required a nobleman, or at least a baron for the
provostship, was passed in 1609, and the highest
civic honour was thus exclusively reserved for
those who could best administer its duties.^ The
middle class was now about to rise into notice
and worshipful consideration, with a provost for
its representative. In the same year James
granted to the provosts of Edinburgh the privi-
lege of having a sword borne before them as a
badge of oiBce and authority. As he felt also
that the removal of the court must have thrown
a sombre aspect over the crowded streets of the
northern cajjital, he endeavoured to compensate
for the dejDrivatiou by devising a rich costume
for the several officials who still remained. Ac-
cordingly the magistrates of Edinburgh were
enjoined to wear gowns similar to those worn by
the aldermen of London ; and two ready-made
gowns were sent them as patterns, the one being
of red, and the other of black cloth, and both of
them faced with sable. In like manner he de-
creed, that when the judges sat in office they
should wear a purple robe or gown, and that
advocates, clerks, and scribes of the College of
Justice should wear black gowns. But, most of
all, the costume of churchmen employed his royal
Solicitude, and he decreed that ministers should
wear black clothes and gowns in the pulpit, and
that bishops and doctors in divinity should wear
black cassocking descending to the knee, black
gowns above them, and a black crape about their
necks. It was found, however, that not merely
the clergy, but the lawyers recalcitrated against
these sumptuary innovations, and accordingly it
was decreed in 1611 that all advocates should
wear gowns instead of their usual cloaks, under
penalty of not being allowed to practice at the
bar. In 1627 Charles I. still further graced the
town-council of Edinburgh by presenting them
with a robe and a sword of state, the former to

Maitland's History of Edinburgh, p. 57.

be worn by the provost, and the latter to be
carried before him.-

Although Edinburgh was so fair and stately
a city in the eyes of its southern visitors, who
hastily passed through it and admired it, the
leprosy of dirt still continued to cleave to it.
This was strange laziness and infatuation, con-
sidering the visits of pestilence it occasioned, the
penalties denounced by the town-council upon
the owners of these civic nuisances, and the
architectural improvements which were in pro-
cess of time to make Edinburgh the queen of
cities. In consequence of these abominations
the privy-council rose in its wrath, and in 1619
issued an order to the magistrates that the evil
should be conclusively removed. In their state-
ment of the offence, also, it would appear that
the evil had become absolutely intolerable.
They described the streets, wynds, vennels, and
closes as being filled with dunghills, so that re-
spectable people could not obtain a clean passage
to their lodgings, and that on this account stran-
gers characterized the burgh as a puddle of filth
and uncleanuess. The magistrates humbled
themselves and went to work; but, instead of
organizing a staff of paid and responsible scaven-
gers, they contented themselves with ordering
that each householder should keep that part of
the street clean which was opposite his own door.
It is needless to add that where all were alike
offenders and liable to conviction, the order was
generally disregarded, and few or none punished
for the breach of it.

The departure of James to England, which
deprived Edinburgh of so great a portion of its
aristocracy, the stern religious spirit that now
prevailed, and the progi-ess of civilization among
the different classes, had abated those terrible
street riots for which the northern metropolis
had been formerly so notorious. Duelling, in-
deed, was still continued among the Scottish
gentry ; but it was chiefly among the followers
of the court at London, and the quarrel was
fought out in the metropolis or its neighbour-
hood. The arrival of Cromwell with his Eng-
lish army, however, threatened to restore Edin-
burgh to its former turbulent pre-eminence.
His sectaries, not only hated as enemies but
heretics, were well qualified to kindle alike the
patriotic and Presbyterian zeal of the Scots, and
the old party-bickerings and bloodshed of the
streets seemed about to be renewed under a
new phase, and with redoubled violence. But
the iron man, who could control friend and
foe alike, was at hand to stop these disorders,
and at his stern command the streets soon re-

2 Calderwood ; Maitland's Hintory of Edinburgh ; Cham-
bers' Domestic Annals.

310

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xviith Century.

sunied their former tranquillity. The following
incideut, mentioned by one of the writers of the
day, will sufficiently illustrate the facility with
which these quaiTels were provoked, and the
extremes to which they might have been cai'ried.
One day an English officer, against whom the
Scots had lodged certain complaints, issued from
the gate of Cromwell's lodging, indicating by his
crest-fallen look that he had endured one of the
genenU's sharpest exhortations. On mounting
iiis steed he eyed the crowd with an air of
bravado, and exclaimed, " With my owaa hand
I killed the Scot who owned this horse and this
case of pistols ; and who will dare to say that I
did wrong?" "I dare to say it !" exclaimed one
of the crowd, and with that he unsheathed his
sword, and ran the challenger through the body.
The deed was so quickly done, that the English-
man had scarcely touched the earth where he
fell, than his assailant was in the emptied saddle,
while a few moments more carried him beyond
pursuit.^

While the magistrates of Edinburgh were
warring with the defilement of the streets they
had also attempted to remove the moral im-
purities with which, in common with every large
city of the day, they abounded. These mis-
doings were also found to be conveniently shel-
tered by the plaid, with which the women so
eff"ectually mutfied their faces that they could
jiass to and fro, and carry on their intrigues
without detection. They therefore denounced
the wearing of plaids in such a fashion under
penalty of corporal punishment. Their prohibi-
tion, however, which was made in 1630, fared
as other legislative interferences had been wont
to do ; they were not only disregarded, but the
fashion became more prevalent than ever ; and
where the plaid was abandoned, the women
wore their long skirts over their heads, which
masked them almost as effectually. The contest
between the town-council and the ladies of Edin-
burgh was renewed in 1636, and the practice of
wearing all such concealments were denounced,
no longer with corporal punishment, but heavy
penalties by way of fine.^

Although trade was conducted on so humble
a scale, it appears that the fraudulent arts of
shop-keeping wei'e almost as cunning and as
prevalent as they are in modern times. The
origin of this was partly to be found in the
higher style of luxui-y both in dress and living
to which the middle classes asjjired, and this
especially in the article of female attire. During
1655, when the poverty of the people was great,
and the public distress prevalent, NicoU thus

1 Gordon's Short Abridgement of Britain's Distemper, &c.
" Maitland's Edinhuri/h ; Chambers' Annals.

lugubriously complains in his diar}', "At this
time it was daily seen, that gentlewomen and
burgesses' wives had more gold and silver about
their gown and wylicoat tails, nor their husbands
had in their purses and coffers." And by an
entry, which he gives us in the following year,
he enables us to trace the sources in which this
extravagance arose, and out of which it was
mainly supplied. He is complaining of the
frauds with which almost every department of
trade was more or less pervaded. This was
especially the case in drinks, such as beer, ale,
and wine. The wine, he tells us, was mixed with
milk, brimstone, and other ingredients. Ale
was made sti'ong and heady with hemp-seed,
coriander-seed, Turkish pepjjer, soot, salt, and
by casting in strong wash under the caldron
when the ale was brewing. He also informs us
that shopkeepers sold blown mutton, vitiated
veal, fusty bread, and light loaves, and that false
weights and measures were common. Nor were
these complaints groundless, as in 1685 Lord
Fountainhall incidentally mentions some of these
evils a.s still pi'evalent in his day. Brewers, he
informs us, corrupted their ale by poisoning it
with salt, which made it more pungent to the
taste, while it corrupted the blood. They also
rubbed their barrels with coriander seed and
other such articles, which served instead of malt,
and gave the ale a strong taste, by which they
made a higher profit upon their unwholesome
beverages.

When the rule of the Commonwealth was
established over Scotland the foul and unhealthy
state of the streets of Edinburgh attracted the
attention of the English rulers; and as they had
absolute power in their own hands their pro-
ceedings were marked by a vigour in which
both the privy-council and city magistracy had
been defective. They obliged the magistrates
to adopt measures of street and lane cleansing
by employing regular scavengers, and also to
prevent the practice of throwing foul water from
the windows. These rules were strictly enforced
and observed in Edinburgh until the sway of
the Commonwealth had ceased, and the Restora-
tion enabled the inhabitants to return to their
old habits.

Until 1677 many of the houses of Edinburgh
appear to have been built of wood and covered
with thatch, and as fires were prevalent among
such structures the city had an engine for their
extinction even befoi-e the year 1657, a model
of which was during that year adojited by the
growing town of Glasgow. But as a flying
spark was enough to set such combustible ma-
terials in a blaze, and the engine, though " it
spouted out water," was found insufficient to
prevent such disasters, an order was issued in

xviith Century.]

HISTORY OF SOCIETY.

311

1677 that all houses henceforth erected in the
city should be built with stone and covered
with slates, under a penalty of iive hundred
merks, and the house to be demolished. As the
darkness of the streets also had gone on, not-
withstanding the attempts of the authorities to
light them by proclamation, the Commonwealth
government was obliged to interfere with its
wonted decision. Accordingly the householders
were not only commanded but compelled to
hang out lanterns at their doors and windows
from six until nine o'clock at night. ^

It was not until about the year 1677 that
coffee-houses were established in Edinburgh,
and while government could not weU prevent
them it watched their rise with great susjaicion.
To render them, therefore, as harmless as pos-
sible during this period of dangerous political
discussions it was ordered that no person should
open a coffee-house without obtaining a license.
The pamphlets, newspajDei's, and broadsheets
also were submitted to a strict censorship before
they were allowed to enter these houses, so that
there should be no reading of those that were
inimical to the present government.^

In consequence of the numerous restraints
imposed upon the insubordinate spirit of Edin-
burgh no political riot occurred either during
the time of the Commonwealth or after the
Restoration until 1682, when the old spirit
broke out with its former boldness and bitter-
ness. This was occasioned by the impressment
of several young men for the service of the
Prince of Orange, who were to be marched
down to Leith under a guard, and there em-
barked for Holland. The mob of Edinburgh
rose to the rescue and attacked the military
escort, who fired upon their assailants in return,
by which nine of the inhabitants were killed
and twenty -five wounded. To check all such
affrays in time to come and preserve the public
peace the town-guard was established; and that
they might act without feud or favour, most of
the corjis consisted not of people connected with
the town or its politics, but grim Highlanders
from the remote mountain districts, who cared
nothing about Lowland questions of strife, and
would march at the orders of the council without
asking questions. They consisted of 108 men,
wore a brown uniform, and were armed with
the well-known Lochaber axe or partisan.^

Although Charles II. had done little to en-
dear himself to the national feelings, there was
a powerful if not a numerous clique in Edin-
burgh who had thriven under his government,
and were anxious to i-ecommend themselves to

' Council Records; Maitland's History nf Edinhurgh,
p. 100. 2 Maitland. ^ Fountainhall.

his successor by their zeal for unlimited royalty
and the sacredness of the royal succession. The
best mode of effecting their purpose was to set
up a statue of the deceased king, and accord-
ingly, while the loyal tears of the party were
still undried the well-known equestrian image
of that sovereign was set up in the place now
called Parliament Square. This was in April,
1685, and the people gazed upon this new appa-
rition with but little friendly feeling. The
expense of it formed the chief complaint of
the town -council, for it cost the town for its
share of the contribution more than a thousand
pounds. It was sarcastically alleged that it
was wrongly placed, as the tail of the horse was
turned against the great gate and the statue of
Justice over the door of the parliament hall.
The majority of the on-lookers were puzzled at
the sight of an equestrian statue where the
rider was half naked, without spurs and stirrups,
having never seen the like before; and while
some likened it to Nebuchadnezzar's image
before which all men were to fall down and
worship, othei's compared it to Death on the
pale horse mentioned in the book of Revela-
tion.* Other and more serious considerations
are connected with this effigy of a sovereign so
unworthy of honourable commemoration. Where
the statue stands it had been proposed to set up
one of Oliver Cromwell ; and in consequence of
the increase of the city buildings the site of it
is nigh, if not u])on the very spot, where the
body of John Knox was interred.^

It was not without cause that the civic legis-
lation of the northern capital had been so
anxious about the danger arising from fire, and
the prohibitions they made to prevent it. In
1676 a considerable portion of new buildings
erected upon the open area before the Parlia-
ment House had been destroyed by fire, but this
was nothing compared with the disaster in the
same locality that succeeded in 1700, by which
a magnificent pile of the stateliest houses in the
civic architecture of Euro2oe were burned to the
ground. This disaster, called the "great fire,"
is thus briefly but distinctly described by Dun-
can Forbes of Culloden in a letter to his brother:
" Upon Saturday's night, by ten a clock, a fire
burst out in Mr. John Buchan's closet window,
towards the Meal Market. It continued whill
[till] eleven a clock of the day, with the greatest
frayor and vehemency that ever I saw fire do,
notwithstanding that I saw London burn.
There are burnt, by the easiest computation be-
tween three and four hundred families : all the
pride of Edinburgh is sunk : from the Cowgate
to the High Street, all is burnt, and hardly one

< Fountainhall. ^ Wilson's Memorials of Edinburgh.

312

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xvnth Century.

stoue left upon another. The commissioner,
president of the parliament, president of the
session, the bank, most of the lords, lawyei-s,
and clerks, were all burnt [out], and many good
and great families. It is said just now by Sir
John Cochran and Jordanhill that there is more
rent bui'nt in this fire than the whole city of
Glasgow will amount to. The Parliament
House very hardly escaped; all registers con-
founded ; clerk's chambers and j^rocesses in
such a confusion that the loixls and officers of
state are just now met at Rosse's tavern in
order to adjourning of the session by reason of
the disorder. Few people are lost, if any at all,
but there was neither heart nor hand left
amongst them for saving from the fire, nor a
drop of water in the cisterns; twenty thousand
hands flitting their trash they knew not where,
and hardly twenty at work. These Babels of
ten and fourteen story high are down to the
ground, and their fall is very terrible. Many
rueful spectacles, such as Crossrig naked, with
child under his oxter, hopping for his life; the
Fish Market, and all from the Cowgate to Pett
Street's Close, burnt; the Exchange, vaults,
and coal-cellars under the Parliament Close are
still burning." After the confusion occasioned
by this terrible calamity had subsided, re-
building was commenced, and the gap was soon
filled with houses as tall and a population as
numerous as the old. And thus it continued
until the memorable year 1824, when a fire broke
out in the same locality and with a similar de-
struction.^

In passing to the mode of living among the
people we give three sketches by as many Eng-
lishmen who visited the country during diflferent
stages of the period. The first is by our genial
friend Taylor, the water-poet, who, in the ac-
count of his Scottish tour published in 1618,
thus states what he saw and experienced : " I
am sure that in Scotland, beyond Edinburgh, I
have been at houses like castles for building;
the master of the house his beaver being his
blue-bonnet, one that will wear no other shirts
but of the flax that grows on his own ground,
and of his wife's, daughter's, or servants' spin-
ning ; that hath his stockings, hose, and jerkin
of the wool of his own sheeps' backs; that
never, by his pride of apparel, caused mercer,
draper, silkman, embroiderer, or haberdasher
to break and turn bankrupt; and yet this plain
homespun fellow keeps and maintains thirty,
forty, fifty servants, or perhaps more, every day
relieving three or four score poor people at his
gate; and besides all this can give noble enter-

1 Cullodcn Papers, p. 27; Wilson's Memorials of Edin-
burgh, vol. i. p. 209.

tainmeuts for four or five days together to five
or six earls and lords, besides knights, gentle-
men, and their followers, if they be three or
four hundred men and horse of them, where
they shall not only feed but feast, and not feast
but banquet: this is a man that desires to know
nothing so much as his duty to God and his
king; whose greatest cares are to practise the
works of piety, charity, and hospitality."

The next account is not only more full and
particular, but less unctuous than the flattering
desci-iiDtion of Taylor. John Ray, tlie distin-
guished naturalist, visited Scotland in August,
1661, and the general sketch of the inhabitants
at that time which he has given, although it
is a severe, is also in most cases a true one. It
is as follows : —

" The Scots generally (that is, the poorer sort)
wear, the men blue bonnets on their heads and
some russet; the women only white linen,
which hangs down their backs as if a napkin
were pinned about them. When they go abroad
none of them wear hats, but a party-coloured
blanket which they call a plaid over their heads
and shoulders. The women, generally, to us
seemed none of the handsomest. They are not
very cleanly in their houses, and but sluttish in
dressing their meat. Their way of washing
linen is to tuck up their coats and tread them
with their feet in a tub. They have a custom
to make up the fronts of their houses, even in
their principal towns, with fir boards nailed one
over another, in which are often made many
round holes or Avindows to put out their heads
[called shots or shot-windows]. In the best
Scottish houses, even the king's palaces, the
windows are not glazed throughout, but the
upper part only; the lower have two wooden
shuts or folds, to open at pleasure and admit
the fresh air. The Scots cannot endure to hear
their country or countrymen spoken against.
They have neither good bread, cheese, or drink.
They cannot make them, nor will they learn.
Their butter is very indiff"erent, and one would
wonder how they could contrive to make it so
bad. They use much pottage, made of cole-
wort, which they call kail, sometimes broth of
decorticated barley. The ordinary country
houses are pitiful cots, built of stone, and cov-
ered with turves, having in them but one room,
many of them no chimneys, the windows very
small holes, and not glazed. In the most stately
and fashionable houses in great towns instead
of ceiling they cover the chambers with fir-
boards, nailed on the roof within side. They
have rarely any bellows or warming-pans. It
is the manner in some places there to lay on
but one sheet as large as two, turned up from
the feet upwards. The gi-ound in the valleys

xviith Century.]

HISTORY OF SOCIETY.

313

and plains bears good corn, but especially beer-
barley, and oats, but rarely wheat and rye.
We observed little or no fallow -grounds in
Scotland; some layed ground we saw which
they manured witli sea-wreck [sea-weeds]. The
people seem to be very lazy, at least the men,
and may be frequently observed to plough in
their cloaks. It is the fashion of them to wear
cloaks when they go abroad, especially on Sun-
days. They lay out most they are worth in clothes,
and a fellow that hath scarce ten groats besides
to help himself with, you shall see him come
out of his smoky cottage dad like a gentle-
man."

A still more atrabilious description of the
country and people, although correct in its
principal features, is given in Kirke's Modern
Account of Scotland, published in 1679. This
gentleman, a Yorkshire squire, who seems to
have been disappointed at not finding every-
where in Scotland the abundance, civilization,
and comforts of his own country, speaks thus of
his northern tour: "The highways in Scotland
are tolerably good, which is the greatest com-
fort a traveller meets with amongst them.
They have not inns, but change -houses — poor,
small cottages, where you must be content to
take what you find. . . . The Scotch gen-
try generally travel from one friend's house
to another, so seldom require a change-house.
Their way is to hire a horse and a man for
twopence a mile ; they ride on the horse thirty
or forty miles a day, and the man who is his
guide foots it beside him and carries his lug-
gage to boot." Travelling in this fashion, which
to an English country gentleman accustomed to
good inns must have been a penance, he de-
scribes the gentlemen's houses as half prisons,
half strongholds, and every way uncomfortable.
He tells lis they were provided with "strong
iron grates before the windows, the lower part
whereof is only a wooden shutter, and the
upper part glass; so they look more like prisons
than. houses of reception. Some few houses,"
he continues, " there are of late erection, that
are built in a better form, witli good walks and
gardens about them ; but their fruit rarely
comes to any perfection. The houses of the
commonality are very mean; mud-wall and
thatch the best. But the poor sort live in such
miserable huts as never eye beheld; men, women,
and children pig together in a poor mouse-hole
of mud, heath, and such like matter." Having
thus disposed of the dwellings he dismisses
their inhabitants in the same brief discourteous
fashion : " The Lowland gentry go well enough
habited, but the poorer sort almost naked; only
an old cloak or part of their bed-clothes thrown
over them. The Highlanders wear slashed

doublets, commonly without breeches, only a
plaid tied about their waist and thrown over
one shoulder, with short stockings to the garter-
ing place, their knees and part of their thighs
being naked. Others have breeches and stock-
ings all of a piece of plaid ware, close to their
thighs. In one side of their gii-dle sticks a durk
or skene, about a foot or half a yard long ; on
the other side a brace at least of brass pistols :
nor is this honour sufticient; if they can purchase
more they must have a long swinging sword."
Of the kind of entertainment wluch the fasti-
dious Kirke enjoyed at the houses where he
temporarily sojourned in Scotland we can form
a conjecture from the following notice given by
an Englishman, who published a Short Account
of Scotland in 1702. "Their drink," he says,
" is beer, sometimes so new that it is scarce
cold when brought to table. But their gentry
are better provided, and give it age, yet think
not so well of it as to let it go alone, and there-
fore add brandy, cherry brandy, or brandy and
sugar ; and this is the nectar of their coiaitry,
at their feasts and entertainments, and carries
with it a mark of great esteem and affection.
Sometimes they have wine — a thin bodied claret,
at tenpence the mutchkin, which answers our
quart." He describes also another stimulant
to which until our own day they had become
more addicted than any other nation. " They
are fond," he adds, " of tobacco, but more from
the sneesh-box [snuff-box] than the pipe. And
they have made it so necessary that I have
heard some of them say that, should their bread
come in competition with it, they would rather
fast than their sneesh should be taken away.
Yet mostly it consists of the coarsest tobacco,
dried by the fire, and powdered in a little
engine after the form of a tap, which they carry
in their pockets, and is both a mill to grind and
a box to keep it in." The regular maimfacture
of snuff soon banished this portable snuff-mill,
which must have resembled a nutmeg-grater.

These sketches will suffice to give a general
view of the style of living among the better
classes of the population of Scotland. Among
the higher nobility, however, the housekeeping,
although greatly inferior in style to that of the
wealthier nobles of England, and less distin-
guished by elegance and refinement, had in other
respects become similar, and this was an inevit-
able consequence of the union of the crowns,
which brought the privileged classes of both
kingdoms either into more friendly contact or
keener rivalry with each other. Of the dwell-
ings of the Scottish nobles of this period the
Theatrum Scotia; of Slezer shows that while
most of them were stately mansions, some of
them might be termed princely palaces, indi-

314

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xviith Century.

eating the uumber of attendants and costly style
of living which were necessary to support their
character, while the keen traffic in political
capital which had now set in among them indi-
cates how this exiDeuditure was maintained. Still,
however, many high titled men were too proud
to sell their independence, and too simple in
their habits to live otherwise than their fathers
had lived before them.

From a leaf of the household book of Lady
Mary Stewart, daughter of Esme, first Duke of
Lennox, and Dowager Countess of Mar, we have
a glimpse of the domestic and everyday life of
the noble ladies of Scotland at the commence-
ment of the civil war, and the nature of their
household expenditure. The sums mentioned,
be it noticed, are not English, but Scottish
money, and the account begins with the year
1638.

"May 16. To a blind singer who sang the
time of dinner, 12s." Without giving us an in-
sight into the viands on the board, this entry
aftbrds us an idea of her ladyship's love of music,
and her wisdom in selecting the time for its
gratification. Another gives us an idea of the
interruptions that might occur in dining, al-
though the door of the house was usually locked
during that important period. "June 8. To ane
masterful beggar who did knock at the gate, my
lady being at table, 2s." In this way she was
obliged to compound for peace at the meal by
buying off the unseasonable disturber, who
doubtless had selected the time for his battery.
The fast days of the church she was too pious
to disregard, and therefore on two occasions
within half a year the following notice twice
occurs: " Ane pound of raisins to keep the fast-
ing Sunday." On this unsubstantial fare she
probably dined during that season of mortifica-
tion. The following entry of 1642 is almost the
only instance of luxury in diet that occurs:
" Feby. 21, 1642. Sent to Sir Charles Erskine to
buy escorse de sidroue Qarobably preserved citron]
and marmolat [marmalade], £5, 6s. 8d." But at
variance with these delicacies are such entries
as the following: "Paid to the lady Glenorchy
for aqua-vitse that she bought to my lady, 6s."
"November 29. Paid to the lady Glenorchy her
man, for ane little barrel of aqua-vitse, £3."
How would such items figure in the accounts of
a modern court lady? Whisky, however, was
not distilled in those days "for village churls;"
it had lately been imported from the Highlands
as a luxury, and might be classed in her lady-
ship's receipts as a medicine. But still more
stai-tling is another entry. " For tobacco to
my lady's use. Is." It is certain that the high-
born Countess of Mar smoked tobacco; but
what then? Had not Queen Elizabeth been

also a smoker? And did not all ranks already
use the seductive weed as a universal nepenthe,
notwithstanding the "counterblast" of the Scot-
tish Solomon?

The devotedness of the countess to the char-
itable claims of religion is also indicated in these
accounts. One notification is : " Paid for con-
tribution to the confederate lords, £4." Another
is : " To ane old blind man as my lady came
from prayers, 4s." A third announces her charity
to the general church contributions for the sup-
port of the poor in the following terms: "Given
to the kirk brodd [board] as my lady went to
sermon in the High Kirk, 6s." Besides these
habitual charities in going to and from church,
she is equally bountiful to the poor in her casual
rides, and accordingly we have such an entry as
the following: "To Andrew Erskine, to give to
the poor at my lady's on-louping [getting on
horseback], 12s." As a zealous Covenanter, she
gave up her plate to the good cause, and the
gift is indicated in the following brief notice r
" Paid for carrying down the silver wark to the
council house, to be weighed and delivered to
the town-treasurer of Edinburgh, 10s." Nor was
she neglectful of a decent burial, according to
the estimate of the times, for those poor de-
pendants who could no longer taste of her be-
nevolence; and in the household book the fol-
lowing disbursements are set down: "For making
a chest [coffin] to Katherine Ramsay, who de-
ceased the night before, 205.; for two half pounds
tobacco and eighteen pipes to spend at her lyk-
wake, 2l5.; to the bellman that went through
the town to wai'n to her burial, 12s.; to the
makers of the gi-aff [grave], 12s. 4d." Even fes-
tive occasions also awoke her charity instead of
laying it to sleep, and on the marriage of her
son Charles, she supplies him with the sum of
£5, 8s. 3a'. " to distribute among the poor." Her
simplest recreations were attended with the
same bountiful feeling, as appears by such an
item as : " To ane poor woman as my lady sat
at the fishing, 61:/."

From the same source we learn that, although
the countess was a devoted Covenanter, she had
nothing of that morose spirit which has been so
frequently attributed to this calumniated com-
munity. She could enter with zest into the
simple amusements of the period, and of these
music seems to have been the chief. We have
already heard of the blind singer who sang to
her at dinner. Another item of this kind is:
" To twa Highland singing- women, at my lady's
command, 6s." And a few days after: "To ane
lame man called Ross, who plays the plaisant,
3s." Another disbursement is: " To blind Wat
the piper that day, as my lady went to the Ex-
ercise, 4s. ; and another : " To ane woman clair-

xviith Centdry.]

HISTORY OF SOCIETY.

315

shocher [harper] who used the house in my lord
his time, 12s." To a cheerful evening game at
cards or tables she had no objections, but with
moderate stakes, as appears by the following
entry of her steward: "Sent to my lady, to play
with the lady Glenorchy after supper, 4s." As
the taste for domestic oddities and deformities
had not yet died out, the countess in this re-
spect was not superior to her neighbours, as
appears by the following: "Paid to John, that
he gave to ane woman who brought ane dwarf
by my lady, 12s." "Paid in contribution to
Edward the fool, 12s." " To Mr. William Ers-
kiue, to go to the dwarf's marriage, Ts. Gd.;" and
grandmother and Covenanter though she was,
she still could sympathize in the sports of the
young on St. Valentine's day, as is evident by
the following entry: "To my lady in her own
chamber, when the Valentines were a drawing,
.£10, 12s. 4d." In pretty pet animals she also
took pleasure, which is indicated by: " To ane
man who brought the parroquet her cage, 4s."

While these brief notices indicate the amiable
and genial character of a noble lady, they also
afford us distinct though brief views of the kind
of domestic life which prevailed among those of
her own rank in Scotland. In other particulars
of the same household book we see the every-
day life of ladies of rank and their management
in the concei'ns of their families. Lady Mar
was a dowager, having children and grandchil-
dren to train up, and a princely household to
control, and these duties she discharges in a
manner that makes us smile at its primitive sim-
plicity. Such are the following expenditures,
in which economy is combined with the desire
that their habiliments should be correspondent
to their rank: "For pressing ane red scarlet
riding coat for John the Bairn [her grandson],
125." " For ane belt to Lord James [an elder
grandson], 18s.; for ane powder horn to him, 4s.
6d." " For a periwig to Lord James, ^8, 2s."
" Paid for twa pair sweet [perfumed] gloves to
Lord James and Mr. Will. Erskine,£3." "Paid
to Gilbert Somerville, for making ane suit clothes
to Lord James of red lined with satin, £7, 10s."
While these essentials are carefully heeded, the
amusements fitted for their age and degree are
not neglected. We have : " Paid for ane golf-
club to John the Bairn, 5s." " To Lord James
to play at the totumwith John Hamilton, Is. 4d."
The next entry is not quite so commendable,
although the sport it announces was universal:
"Given to John Erskine to buy a cock to fight
on Fasten's Even, 6s." Another gratuity to the
said John was for a better purpose: " To John
Erskine to buy a bladder for trying a mathe-
matical conclusion," sum not specified.

Of the style of living among the middle and

lower classes enough has already been indicated.
All their movements were under clerical inspec-
tion, and the result we have given by extracts
from the kirk-session books. But lower still than
the lowest was a vast substratum composed of
the lees and sediment of society: these were the
beggars, a class sufticiently numerous at every
period in Scotland, but that had now grown so
abundant as to exceed all former precedent.
And for this peculiarity more than one cause
may be assigned. The demolition of the monas-
teries at the Reformation had set adrift those
numerous paupers who mainly lived ujjon the
doles given at the church or abbey gate. The
introduction of law upon the Border, no longer
the extremity but the well-watched centre of
the kingdom, converted the moss-troo23er into a
gaberlunzie, and sent him forth with staff and
wallet instead of jack and spear. The extinc-
tion of the wars between England and Scotland,
which in the article of plunder at least had been
generally to the advantage of the poorer country,
had dried up that fountain, and tin-own Scot-
land upon her own scanty resources. And then
followed the wars of the Covenant, and the per-
secution of the Covenanters, by which j^roperty
was scattered or destroyed, and thousands were
reduced to want. In these successive causes,
combined with the natural poverty of the soil,
and the discouragements of agricultural in-
dustry, we can trace the overwhelming amount
of the poor which, originally great, had now out-
grown all former precedent; and although the
following account by Fletcher of Salton is sup-
posed to be greatly exaggerated, enough re-
mains to show that the evil must have been of
portentous magnitude. This is his statement: —
" There are at this day in Scotland 200,000
people begging from door to door. These are
not only no way advantageous, but a very
grievous burden to so poor a country; and,
though the number of them be perhaps double
to what it was formerly, by reason of this present
great distress, yet in all times there have been
about 100,000 of those vagabonds who have
lived without any regard or subjection, either
to the laws of the land, or even those of God
and nature; fathers incestuously accompanying
with their own daughters, the son with the
mother, and the brother with the sister. No
magistrate could ever discover, or be informed,
which way one in a hundred of these wretches
died, or that even they were baptized. Many
murders have been discovered among them; and
they are not only a most unsjieakable oppres-
sion to poor tenants, but they rob many poor
peojile who live in houses distant from any
neighbourhood. In years of plenty many thou-
sands of them meet together in mountains, where

316

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xvnth Century.

they feast and riot for many days; and at coun-
try weddings, markets and buiials, and other the
like public occasions, they are to be seen, both
men and women, perpetually drunk, cm-sing,
blaspheming, and fighting together."^

To this general account of the beggary of Scot-
land, and its enormous increase at the period of
the Union, it is only necessary to adtl a few par-
ticulars. The evil had from an early period been
recognized as a national one, and our kings had
endeavoured to aid the church in curing it by
supplementing the alms at the monastery gate
with their own j^rivate benefactions. Hence
" the very ancient and loveable custom," which
selected certain deserving and worn-out men to
be the annual recipients of the royal bounty.
To them at each return of the king's bii'thday
was given a purse, containing as many shillings
as there were years in the king's life, and in ad-
dition to this they were entitled to wear a blue
gown and pewter badge, by which they were
privileged to beg at large, notwithstanding
the strict laws against begging beyond certain
bounds. They were also honoured with the
title of the King's Bedesmen, as their ofBce was
to pray for the life of the sovereign. Of these
blue gownsmen,who only disappeared at the close
of the eighteenth century. Sir Walter Scott has
left a lasting memorial in his character of Edie
Ochiltree. While a few of the more meritorious
paujjers were thus provided with the means of
subsistence, the magistrates both of town and
country endeavoured to check the growth of pau-
perism by confining mendicants to their own dis-
tricts inslead of permitting them to wander over
the country at large. But such restraints were
irksome to men who are naturally and habitually
vagi-ants, and, instead of remaining in their own
parishes where they were known, watched, and
kept to proper behaviour, they preferred the
terra incognita, where they could wander at will
and make what appeals they pleased. It will
at once be perceived, however, that these stinted
benevolences were but as a drop in the bucket;
and John Knox, who well knew that the poor
should be always in the land, was as anxious to
provide for them as for the demolition of the
monasteries that had formerly supported them.
With this view he projoosed that a certain por-
tion of the confiscated revenues of the church
should be set aside for the support of the j^oor
— and we know how the propasal was received.
On finding that the appeal was utterly hopeless
the impoverished church of the Reformation
was left to deal with the evil by its own re-
sources, and the collection at the church-doors
was the only fund which they could raise for the

' Fletcher's Works, p. 100.

support of the poor of each parish. And thus the
relief was provided until the imposition of a
regular poor's rate, although long delayed, was
at last found inevitable. Besides these regular
Sabbath collections, the insufticiency of whicli
was very soon felt, the mendicants of this time,
like those of continental counti-ies, were wont
to assemble in gi-eat numbers at the church-
doors to beg from the people as they went in
and came out. The natural consequences were,
that the pi-actice bred such scenes of confusion
as were incompatible with religious worship.
This we learn from the records of Aberdeen,
where these church beggars often fought for
the alms, and swore so horribly as greatly to
disturb the worshippers. It was therefore de-
creed that no beggars should assemble or sit
at the church-doors during the time of prayer
or preaching, unless they came to the church to
hear the word, and that all disobeying this rule
should be imprisoned in the church vault.

These feeble efforts to support the helpless
and meritorious poor, and prevent the increase
of sturdy beggare and worthless mendicancy,
were so insufficient, that while the poor of the
land were increasing their ranks received large
accessions by prowling strangers who had no
claims upon the country for support. This
we find from a complaint lodged before the
privy-council, that the kingdom was overrun by
sturdy Irish beggars, who went in troops and
extorted charity where it was not willingly be-
stowed. They thus, it was represented, injured
the native poor, and were an intolerable burden
to the country. All that the council could do in
such a case was to issue orders for the expulsion
of these interloioers,- a command more easily
issued than executed. But these Irish were not
the only foreign spoilers of the land by extorted
charity, and in the following year we learn, by
a proclamation of the privy-council, that there
were bands of Egyptians [gypsies] in the northern
districts pursuing this occupation in the same
lawless fashion. Under the iron rule of Cromwell
the subject of Scottish mendicancy occujoied the
protector's eai'nest attention, and the following
instructions were sent down to the council at
Edinburgh in 1655 by his secretary Thurloe:
" In regard there be a great many hospitals and
other mortifications [mortmains] in Scotland,
you are therefore to take special notice and con-
sideration of the same, and see them particularly
employed for the benefit of the poor, and other
pious uses for which they were first appointed ;
and to obey every other thing for the relief of
the poor in the several parishes, that so none go
a begging, to the scandal of the Christian pro-

2 Records of the Privy-council.

xviith Centdry.]

HISTOEY OF SOCIETY.

317

fession, but each parish to maintain its own
poor."' Thus decreed the conqueror of Marstou
Moor, Dunbar, and Worcester; but, successful
though he had been against CavaHers and Cove-
nanters alike, he could not suppress that invin-
cible vis inertice of Scottish mendicancy which
laughed his ordinances to scorn, and grew until
it reached its complete maturity.

Of tlie kinds of food and diink used at this
time by the people of Scotland so much has
already been intimated that little more remains
deserving particular note. Of beef and mutton,
venison, and fowls wild and tame there was
greater plenty than of cereals, and the great use
of broth, which the Scots are thought to have
adopted from the example of their French allies,
was convenient for a country where bread corn
was not abundant. Even the names of the
favourite national dishes, also, indicate their
French origin. Thus the haggis, although es-
teemed in Scotland " the great chieftain of the
pudding race," was the French hachis, modified
in its materials to the Scottish taste or poverty.
Hodge-podge or hotch-potch indicates by its
name a similar derivation. The howtowdy,
so prized by Scottish epicures, was originally
the French hutaibdeaiv. Even the names of the
vessels of cookery and its materials, notwith-
standing their homely Scottish aspect, are de-
rived from the French language. Thus our
ashet is the French assiette, the jigot of mut-
ton is the French gigot, and the knife called the
jockteleg, originally vised for table as well as
other i^urposes, was the large knife of the
French cutler Jacques de Leige, from whom
it derived its name. Of the cookery of real
Scottish originality used at this period, perhaps
little more can be found than cockieleekie, kail-
brose, and the singed sheep's head. Plumbdames
or prunes were in request, both stewed and
boiled in broth, and also in the stuffing of fowls,
but they were a luxury confined to the higher
classes, as they cost Ad. or bd. sterling per lb.
Confections were also plentifully consumed, but
chiefly at the tables of the nobility, where they
served both for ornament and use. Marmalade,
still so universally used in Scotland as to be
almost a common necessary, was the chief pre-
serve of a Scottish banquet, and was said to
have been introduced into the country by Mary
of Guise. The chief bread of this period was
wbeaten loaves and oatmeal cakes, the latter
being home-baked upon a round plate of iron
called a griddle. But, from the scarcity of wheat,
a loaf was a luxury in country cottages and the
houses of the poorer classes in towns, the in-
habitants of which had for bread the oatmeal
cake, or the scone of bere or barley.

1 Thurloe, vol. iii. p. 497.

In the drinks of Scotland wine held an im-
portant place, and of these the French wines
were preferred, especially claret, which was the
favourite beverage of the liigher classes. Brandy
was also both cheap and plentiful, being easily
imported from France. The home-brewed ale
was made not only by professional brewers, but
by householders for family use, and porter or
beer, originally an English importation, was
used, although more sparingly. Among the
debauches of the period, however, the chief
drinks mentioned on such occasions are ale and
brandy. At such meetings, also, an excessive
hospitality was so rampant, that to remain sober
to the end was often deemed an insult to the
entertainer, and the cuji was often passed round
perforce until the whole company, young and
old, wise and foolish, were reduced to the same
dead level. This practice had become so pre-
valent, that in 1625 the town-council of Aber-
deen decreed, that no person at any public or
private meeting should compel his neighbour to
drink more wine or beer than he pleased, under
a penalty of ioviy pounds Scotch.'^ It was dur-
ing this period, also, that whisky was introduced,
which was soon to enjoy the bad i^re-eminence
of becoming the national beverage.

Of the games and sports of Scottish life dur-
ing the seventeenth century those of a sedentary
or in-door description were so few, that they
may be passed over with a brief notice. The
chief of these were card-playing and dicing; but
among a people so cautious, and who had so
little to lose, these had not as yet risen to any
height, or been attended with ruinous conse-
quences. Concerts of music had been estab-
lished in Edinburgh at the close of this period,
and were well patronized and numerously at-
tended. The theatre, howevei', was still under
the ban that had been pronounced upon it
at the Reformation. We have already seen the
attempts of James VI. to naturalize the drama
in Scotland, and how they ended in failure.
James VII., when Duke of York, renewed the
endeavour by bringing part of his licensed com-
pany of actors to Scotland; but, as his stay was
so brief, the experiment did not succeed, not-
withstanding his patronage, and his private
theatricals at Holyrood, in which his daughter
Anne, afterwards Queen of Great Britain, ap-
peared as a performer.

While the regular drama was so little en-
couraged in Scotland that all its attempts at
revival had hitherto been unsuccessful, the
primitive forms out of which it had grown
could not be so extinguished, and where the

2 Extracts from the Council Register of the Burgh of
Aberdeen.

318

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xviith Century.

stage with all its goi-geous acconipanimeuts
failed to attract, the cart of Thespis became
a popular favourite. Thus it was with the
Scots of this period, aud mountebanks drew
crowds where the accomplished actor had failed.
Many, accordingly, are the notices of travelling
({uacks who came to Scotland with their mov-
able stages, and who astonished the people by
their wonderful performances, as well as cajoled
them with their health-restoring packets. The
chief of these was a foreigner called Ponteous,
who visited the country three times, the first in
1633, when he sold his packets of drugs for one
pound; the second in 1643, when they were
sold for one pound nine shillings ; and the third
time in 1662-63, when he distributed his packets
for the jjaltry sum of eighteeupence. Either
the faith of his jsatients had become marvellously
disabused, or they had betaken themselves to
fresh rivals during the interval. At each of these
visits he had a public stage or scaffold erected, on
which his peoj^le jDerformed those acrobatic feats
that were a.s yet new to the spectators, one of
them, his jack-pudding, playing the part of
merry-andrew, and the other dancing on the
tight-ro^se. During his last visit, when the sale of
his wares was so low, he did not confine his ex-
hibitions to Edinburgh, but displayed them in
almost every town throughout the kingdom.
About the same time, however, another mounte-
bank, a High-German, came to Scotland with
healing nostrums, which he recommended with
similar displays. It is added, " He likewise
had the leaping and flying rope, viz., coming
down a high tow and his head all the way
downward, his arms aud feet holden out all the
time; and this he did divers times in one after-
noon."^ Who could be so unreasonable as to
doubt the power of his medicines when he
could thus fly like a bird? Other travelling
novelties than quack-doctors occasionally visited
the country, to excite the astonishment and ex-
tract the pence of the provident Scots. A horse
that dauced and played the other usual tiicks
of a horse of knowledge was exhibited in Edin-
burgh, Glasgow, and other towns, at twopence
a head, and sometimes more.'-^ But a greater
wonder was a travelling dromedary, carried
about as a show, and exhibited at threepence for
each spectator. " It was very big," says the
admiring Nicoll, " of great height, and cloven-
footed like a cow, and on the back one seat, as
it were a saddle to sit on." These living mar-
vels, however, were outdone by an elephant, of
whose wonderful appearance and qualities the
Scots had sometimes heai'd, but had never seen
the animal till now.

1 Lamont's Diary, p. 200.

NicoH's Diary.

Other amusements there were of a more dra-
matic character, the chief of which was mas-
querading, and this seems to have been prac-
tised in the various hajsj^y epochs of domestic
life, aud chiefly on the occasion of a mai-riage.
At Aberdeen in 1605, at a marriage, we are
informed that some of the guests, both young
men and women, danced through the town, the
former disguised in female and the latter in male
attire.^ At another marriage at Perth in 1609,
the event was celebrated with similar masquer-
ading.* But these exhibitions were too riotous
and too dangerous to morals to be viewed by the
church with indifi'erence, and the kirk-sessions
prosecuted the actors with fine and public ex-
posure.

In the active and out-of-door sports we find
that many of those used both by the Scotch
and English were identical. Of this kind was
the firing of muskets on all occasions of public
rejoicing, the kindling of midsummer fires, and
the welcoming of the new year. On the last of
these occasions it was the fashion in Scotland
on New-year's even to parade in bands through
the streets, singing ditties applicable to the
season, which were called New-year songs. But
it was found that these merry promenades at
such a festive season not only savoured of the
old superstition, but gave occasion to much im-
moi^al license, and therefore they were very
properly prohibited. In Aberdeen it was de-
creed by the town-council in 1612 that all such
wandering vocalists should be imprisoned, and
that aU who encouraged them by giving them
meat or drink, or receiving them into their
houses, should pay a penalty of five pounds for
the use of the poor.^ The other games which
the Scats practised in common with the Eng-
lish were that of bowls, for which alleys were
laid out not only at the houses of the nobility,
but those of public entertainment; catchpell or
catchpool, for which a place called the pell was
set apart, and kyles or kailes, a kind of nine-
pins. For this game, apparently an important
one in its day, kyle alleys in which it was prose-
cuted were provided, and the master of the revels,
an important court functionary, had the privi-
lege of exacting a certain fee or tax from each of
them." Nor must the amusement of archery be
omitted. The Scots, who had neglected its prac-
tice in earnest, notwithstanding the sovereigns
who recommended and the laws that enforced it,
had now betaken themselves to it as a graceful
amusement, and could compete successfully with

^Records of the Kirk-session of Aberdeen (Spalding Club).
< Perth Kirk-session Records.

5 Records of the KirTc-session of .4 6<'?-rf(>cn (Spalding Club
Publications), pp. 77, 78.
*■' Fonntainhall's Historical Notices, p. 326.

xviith Century.]

HISTORY OF SOCIETY.

319

the English archers themselves. Tennis, the
favourite game of princes and courtiers, had
also been common to both kingdoms from an
early period. Bull-baiting and bear-baiting,
which constituted the choice gladiatorial spec-
tacle of the English, never gained a footing in
Scotland; but instead of this the Scots patronized
cock-fighting, the passion for which became so
prevalent that matches were often exhibited in
the streets of our principal towns, until at last
they were prohibited as a public nuisance by
the magistrates. These prohibitions only pro-
duced the regular cock-pit, one of which was
set up on Leith Links in 1762.

Although horse-racing was never pursued
with such ardour in Scotland as in England,
where the superior breed of horses and the
glories of Newmarket defied the rivalry of
every other nation, still the Scots had not been
without their horse-racing competitions, whei'e
the usual prize of the victor was a silver cup or
bell. The additional luxury of betting, how-
ever, with which their neighboui's of the south so
largely season the sport, was not suited to Scot-
tish caution and thrift. During the wars against
Charles I. and the Commonwealth the horse-
races of Scotland declined, under the pressure of
moi'e important pursuits; but with the Restora-
tion they revived with greater popularity than
ever. The same was the case with foot-racing,
into which there was occasionally infused a
spirit that indicated the predominance of the
new courtiers, and the English eccentricity with
which they were infected. One of these com-
petitions was a foot-race in 1661, from the foot
of Thicket Burn to the top of Arthur's Seat, to
be performed by twelve brewster's wives, all of
them in a condition that would make running
both difficult and dangerous, while the prizes
were a groaning cheese, weighing a hundred
pounds, for the first successful competitor, and
a budgell of Dunkeld aqua-vitpe and a sumpkin
of Brunswick mum for the second. On the fol-
lowing day sixteen fish-women were to trot
from Musselburgh to the cross of Edinburgh
for twelve pair of lambs' harrigalds.^

Of the games essentially Scottish, that of
curling, we find from an incidental notice in
Fountainhall, was practised towards the end of
the present period, although it probably had a
much earlier origin — and it jjromises to endure
as long as Scotland and its winters shall con-
tinue to last. Another game was throwing or
trundling the bullet, which seems to have been
either a ball of stone or an iron cannon-shot.
The unfortunate Earl of Argyle, executed in
the reign of James VII., nearly lost his life in

1 Chambers' Domestic Annals of Scotland.

1658 while playing at this active game. The
following account is given by Lamont of the
disaster : " The said Lord Lorn, being playing
at the bullets in the castle of Edinburgh (the
English at that time having a garrison there),
the lieutenant of the castle being an English-
man and on the Lord Lorn's side, throwing the
bullet, it lighted on a stone and with such force
started back upon the Lord Lorn's head that he
fell down, and lay dead for the space of some
hours; after that he recovered, and his head
was trepanned once or twice." To this acci-
dent Lord Fountainhall attributes the eccentri-
cities with which the earl's conduct in public
affaii's was afterwards occasionally character-
ized.2 Of the game called the leads, which
was common at this time, we can find no de-
scription, and can only suppose that it consisted
of jjitching flat circular pieces of the metal at a
mark. This was a common game in Scotland
during the earlier part of the present century,
and practised by schoolboys, who aimed their
leads at a narrow hole in the pavement, while
the pi'ize was nothing more than a button, and
a string of such buttons was as triumphantly
pai^aded by successful players as a string of
scalps by an Indian hero. Among the clerical
notices of the period is one of certain citizens
of Perth who were detected in " playing at the
leads " upon Sunday. The ringleader was ob-
liged to humble himself before the kirk-session,
express his penitence upon his knees, and pay a
penalty of fifteen shillings, while he was warned
that a mulct of five pounds would be exacted if
he was convicted a second time of such Sabbath
desecration.^ The game must have possessed
wonderful alliu'ements, as soon after we find
offenders in the same town convicted of this
kind of Sunday trespass, and visited by the ses-
sion with similar punishment.

But of all the Scottish games none was so
attractive as that of golf. This game, so well
fitted to keep vigour of muscle, skilfulness of
eye, and activity of foot in complete practice,
was so great a favourite that every town of Scot-
land upon the sea coast had its links for playing
it. This was a large field consisting of broken
rugged ground covered with short grass, such as
is to be found in the neighbourhood of the sea-
shore, and at an early hour of the morning the
inhabitants of each town were wont to turn out
to the links, either to witness the game or to
share in it. As yet, however, probably in con-
sequence of the expense and a jealous feeling of
exclusiveness,it was chiefly confined, like archery
and tennis, to the upper classes. It is enough

2 Lamont's Diary, p. 20 ; Fountainhall's Historical No-
tices. 3 Records of the Kirk-session of Perth.

320

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[xvrith Century.

to add, for the instruction of those who never
saw it, that the game is played by two or more
on each side; that the instruments of play are
a small but very hard ball, and a slender elastic
club, with lead in the lower end of it to give
force to the blow ; while the object is to send
the l)all into the hole with the fewest strokes.
Like curling it still retains its hold upon the
popular aflfections, and with this distinction,
that instead of being confined like the other to
a few weeks of winter it can be played at all
seasons.

In Scotland the revival of learning and the
Reformation had been coeval; and while the
overthrow of the strongholds of Pojiery was
going on the master intellects of this great
revolution were laying those foundations ujDon
which the learning and civilization of the
country were aftei'wards to be established and
built up. This was the great aim of the earliest
reformers, Knox, Buchanan, Erskine of Dun,
Balnaves, and their coadjutors; and through
the dust and havoc of falling monasteries and
shrines we can recognize them labouring in their
great work of reconstruction, by which the eflPete
church was to be replaced by purer temples of
worship and better schools for intellectual culture.
This tendency, so congenial to the native elements
of the Scottish character, decided the future bias
and progress of the national church. ■ Men refused
to believe before they were convinced, and for
conviction they required better authority than
priestly assertions or the alleged infallibility of
a conclave. Hence their love of strict logical
demonstration in sermons, discussions, and de-
bates, and their desire to be able to search for
themselves and be assured that the argument
which required their assent was established on
right principles, whether of logic or scholarship.
Such was henceforth to be the tendency of the
Scottish Church, and such the nature of its in-
structions, and the spiritual teacher, however
eloquently he might declaim or however authori-
tatively assert, could obtain no credence unless
he was able to found his message upon the in-
fallible Word, and show, moreover, that he had
interpreted it aright. Nothing was more natural,
therefore, than that the preaching addressed to
such a people should chiefly consist of demon-
stration, and that their joreachers should be more
distinguished for their argumentative powers
than either their eloqiience or refinement. This
peculiarity has been the main characteristic of
the Scottish Church and its clergy to the present
day.

When the first reformers had entered into their
rest new difliculties awaited the church they had
founded. It had been emancipated from Popery,
but it was now threatened with the im^iosition

of Episcopacy and royal supremacy. The king
was to be pontiff, and it was his royal will that
the church should be ruled by prelates instead
of presbyters. The successors of Knox and liis
brethren equipped themselves accordingly for
this new warfare, and in Andrew and James
Melville, Eobert Bruce, Robert Rollock, John
Welch, and other leading churchmen of the day
James VI. found as elfectual champions for
Presbyterianism as their predecessors had been
for the Protestant faith. Erastianism was now
the great heresy of the age, and to prevent its
advances, backed by royal power, the Scottish
clergy rose in defence of those divine rights of
the church which kings and rulers have not
given and which they cannot take away. It
was also a stand-or-fall conflict that allowed
neither time nor inclination for any other study
than that of the most difficult of all problems —
the things that belong to Caesar and those that
belong to God. As Ctesar also was the master
of thirty legions, the debate could not be con-
fined to mere words, and accordingly the Scot-
tish clergy, besides making themselves full mas-
ters of the argument, w-ere obliged to be men of
action, and combine the duties of the council-
chamber and the field with those of the closet
and pulpit. In this character, therefore, we are
to find the eminent intellects of this period.
Choice had made them clergymen, and necessity
made them statesmen, negotiators, and even
soldicES, so that in reading the history of this
period we find the Scottish clergy as deeply
occupied with war and politics as with classical
learning and theology. Such was the case over
the whole of the seventeenth century, and the
list is so large that we can only advei't to a few
names. Of these the most eminent were Alex-
ander Henderson, who was the principal agent
of the church in promoting the national signing
of the Covenant and negotiating with Charles L,
and who, to eloquence of the highest order, added
the talents of a profound and sagacious statesman.
George Gillespie, minister of Wemyss, in Fife-
shire, and afterwards one of the ministei's of
Edinburgh, who died at the early age of thirty-
three, distinguished himself as a member of the
Assembly of Divines at Westminster, to which
he was sent by the Scottish Church as one of its
four representatives, and who while there com-
posed six volumes of sermons for the press, which
are unfortunately lost. Robert Baillie, profes-
sor of theology in the University of Glasgow,
besides being a learned classical and Oriental
scholar and able controversialist, was actively
employed in the negotiations of the Covenanters,
and afterwards with their armies in the capacity
of chaplain, the events of which, chronicled in
his letters and journal, have formed a valuable

xvnth Century.]

HISTORY OF SOCIETY.

821

mine for the history of the period, David
Dickson, also a professor in the University of
Glasgow, and afterwards of Edinburgh, was
chiefly distinguished by his power as a preacher.
His fervent preaching at Irvine in 1630 produced
that strong movement of rehgious enthusiasm
called the Stewarton Sickness, which in our
own day has been more than once repeated
under the name of " Revivals." ^ Robert Boyd
of Trochrig, principal of the College of Glasgow,
was not only a theological but an accomplished
classical scholar, as his Latin poems, which are
still preserved, especially his Hecatomhe ad
Christum servatoreni, abundantly testify. Nor
must his eccentric brother, Zachary Boyd, also
of Glasgow College, and a poet, be forgot. His
last work is his Last Battell of the Soule in
Death, and his numerous writings, which are
still extant, are distinguished by learning, orig-
inality, and a remarkably brilliant imagination.
His imagination, however, ran riot in his poetical
productions, while the waggery of a subsequent
age has attributed to him stanzas which he never
penned or would have thought of, A tale is told
of him and Cromwell characteristic of both par-
ties. When that victorious general visited Glas-
gow Zachary Boyd preached before him, and, as
Baillie adds, " railed on them all to their very
face in the High Church." ^ The text of the
preacher was from the eighth chapter of the
book of Daniel, and applying the chapter to the
existing state of things he made out Cromwell
to be the he-goat mentioned in the text. En-
raged at this application, a Puritan officer whis-
pered into the ear of his commander for permis-
sion to " pistol the scoundrel," but was sternly
told by Cromwell that he was a greater fool
than the preacher. "No, no," he continued,
" we will manage him in another way." He
invited Boyd to dine with him; and such was
the persuasiveness of his speech and unction of
his prayers that the minister was utterly over-
come. It is said that they did not finish their
religious exercises until three o'clock in the
morning.^ This was only one of several instances
in which C'romwell overcame the jDrejudices of
the Scots and converted some of the most rigid
of the Covenanters into admirers and friends.

Passing over the names of several clergymen
who distinguished themselves in the wars of the
Covenant, and whose memory continues to be
treasured by our devout peasantry, there are
still a few which ought not to be omitted. Of
these was Robert Douglas, one of the ministers
of Edinburgh, whose origin and history partook

1 Wodrow ; biographies and histories of the period.
* Baillie's Letters.

^ Life of Zachary Boyd prefixed to a new edition of The
Last Battell of the Soule.
VOL. III.

largely of the romantic. His father was said
to have been the son of the unfortunate Queen
Mary, born by her to George Douglas while she
was a prisoner in the castle of Lochleven. In
his youth Robert went as chaplain with one of
the brigades of Scottish auxiliaries that passed
over to the assistance of the King of Sweden in
the Thirty Years' War, and there distinguished
himself so highly in several departments that
Gustavus Adolphus said of him, " Mr, Douglas
might have been counsellor to any prince of
Europe ; for prudence and knowledge, he might
be moderator to a General Assembly; and even
for military skill, I could freely trust my army
to his conduct," On returning home he became
leader of the party called the Resolutioners, and
was one of those ministers who were friendly
to the recall of Charles II, to Scotland, and
afterwards to the Restoration. We have already
noticed in another place how he was circum-
vented by the hypocritical movements of Sharp,
and the rebuke he administered to the latter
for accepting the archbishopric of St. Andrews.
After this event, being no longer able to con-
form to the episcopal government introduced
into the Scottish Church, he resigned his clerical
charge and retired into private life.* Another
eminent champion of the Covenant was James
Guthrie, minister of Stirling, who had the hardi-
hood to carry out the sentence of the General
Assembly against Middleton, although aware of
the danger of the proceeding, and which the
latter requited when he became royal commis-
sioner of Scotland by bringing the minister to
the gallows. Of Guthrie's martyrdom notice
has been already taken; it is enough to add
that he died for the liberties of his church and
country with a courage and cheerfulness which
would have immortalized an ancient Roman.
Another Guthrie, whose Christian name was
William, was minister of Fenwick, and finding
his flock both wild and ignorant he adopted
every means for their reformation, often visiting
the remote corners of his parish for this pur-
pose in the guise of a sportsman ; and such were
the persuasive powers of his conversation that
in this way he allured jjeople to church, who
would have been deaf to his appeals had he ap-
peared before them as a clergyman. He was
involved in the war against the Commonwealth
and the troubles of the Restoration, and was
finally ejected from his parish by the operation
of the Glasgow Act, which required all ministers
to receive collation from the bishops. It was
as an eloquent preacher and able theologian
that William Guthrie was chiefly distinguished,
and his well-known production, entitled The

* Wodrow's Analecta; histories of the time.

96

322

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[xviith Century.

Clv-istian's Great Interest, long retained its popu-
larity.i James Durliam, first a captain in the
civil wai-s, afterwards entered the church, and
at the age of twenty-five became one of the
ministers of Glasgow, and one of the chaplains
of the king's family; but dying at the eai'ly
age of thirty-six, he escaped those troubles in
which the church was soon after involved.
But brief as was Durham's life, his labours as
an author were abundant, and his theological
writings are characterized by a depth of thought
and an elegance of style, which has ensured
for them a gi-eat jDopularity. The same may
be said of Hugh Binning, who, at the Uni-
versity of Glasgow, distinguished himself so
highly by his precocious excellence and attain-
ments, that at the early age of nineteen he suc-
ceeded James Dalrymple, Lord Stair, as pro-
fessor of philosophy in that college, and was the
first to reform the science from the barbarous
jargon and pedantry of the middle ages with
which it was still obscured in our seats of learn-
ing. Afterwards becoming minister of Govan,
he distinguished himself as the most eloquent
preacher of his day, while amidst the conten-
tions of the time, both within the church and
fi'om without, his gentle voice, like that of Lord
Falkland, was " Peace, peace." It was from no
craven or latitudinarian spirit, however, that
this desire was expressed, and when Cromwell
presided at a debate at Glasgow between his
own Independent clergy and the Presbyterian
ministers, Binning entered the lists, and sorely
nonplussed the Independents. This amiable
young divine died in his twenty -sixth year;
but short as was his career, it was equal to a
long life of distinguished usefulness, and his re-
markable attainments still survive in his trea-
tise On Christian Love, and a quarto vokirae
of his miscellaneous writings.- From this series
of eminent divines, whose intellectual powers
were so well fitted to their day and the work
to which they were called, Samuel Putherford
ought not to be omitted. He was at first
minister of Anwoth, in the district of Kirkcud-
bright, and he continued in this charge until he
was ejected by the Bishop of Galloway in 1636
and banished to Aberdeen ; but the subsequent
downfall of Episcopacy recalled him to active ser-
vice, and he was appointed professor of divinity
in the New College, St. Andrews. His learning
as a teacher and his eloquence in preaching soon
distinguished him both in town and college, and
being appointed one of the commissioners sent
to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, his
scholarship and talents were of singular use in

1 Scots Worthies; Wodrow.

* Scots Worthies; Memoir prefixed to Binning's Evan-
gelical Beauties; Christian Instructor, 1829.

the important discussions witli which its meet-
ings were occupied. In 1649 he was appointed
princij^al of the New College, St. Andrews, and
soon after rector of the university, while his
talented productions as an author had extended
his fame so widely that the University of Utrecht
earnestly sought to have him for their chair of
theology. This application, however, he saw fit
to decline, on account of the troubles with which
the church at home was threatened. The rest
of Eutherford's life was an incessant toil, a war-
fare, and a martyrdom, until he died in 1661,
broken in spirit by the calamities that had
already befallen the church and those worse
evils of persecution that still awaited it. The
works of Eutherford, which were chiefly of a
controversial nature, are distinguished for their
powerful reasoning and copious erudition ; but
remarkable though the}^ were among the publi-
cations of the day, his treatises are too much
encumbered by the divisions and subdivisions
of that scholastic age to suit the taste of mo-
dern readers. It was much, however, that they
were so admirably suited for the age and the pur-
pose for which they were written. The most dis-
tinguished of these productions. Lex, Rex, being
found unanswerable, was briefly disposed of by
the sentence of government to be burnt by the
hands of the common hangman. Of all his
writings, however, his letters, written to his
friends in the aff"ectionate impulse of the moment,
and exclusively of a religious chai'acter, which
were collected and published after his death,
have survived the rest of his productions.
They maintained for long the extraordinary
popularity in which they were held by our an-
cestors of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies. The devotional fervour, brilliant ima-
gination, and terse, powerful, approjiriate lan-
guage of these singular ejjistles, invest them with
all the charms of poetry, and have gone far to
preserve them from the fate of other theological
writings of the period which have passed into
oblivion.^

Such were the most remarkable men of Scot-
land from the beginning of the present period
until after the Eestoration. The events of the
country were chiefly of a religious character,
and it was natural that those who sustained
the brunt of the conflict should be mainly of
the clerical profession. Clergymen, also, there
were of the opposite party who gained distinc-
tion in the conflicts of the period ; but the chief
of these have already been noticed in the account
of those events with which they were connected.
It is worthy of note, also, that the men who

^ Life of Rutherford, by Rev. Thomas Murray; Living-
ston's Characteristics; Scots Worthies.

xviitli Century.]

HISTORY OF SOCIETY.

323

threw themselves into the struggle, and vindi-
cated the rights of the church, were not merely
profound theologians, accom25lished scholars, and
stirring men of action ; they were also in most
cases men of distinguished families, who had,
therefore, a high interest in the affairs at
issue, and who generously threw themselves
into the cause of the losing party, when by a
conti'ary conduct they might have won wealth,
ease, jaolitical power and pi-e-eminence under a
government that would have welcomed their
alliance. But they were superior alike to the
sellish ambition of Sjaottiswood, the mean du-
plicity of Sharp, and the conscientious weak-
ness of the amiable Leighton; and while they
understood the cause they had adopted, their
choice was the dictate of a religious duty which
they would not disobey. When the persecutions
of the Covenanters under Charles II. com-
menced in earnest, it was a period of suffering
under which learning for the time was extin-
guished, and there was neither opportunity for
careful study nor eloqvient preaching; and
while the clergy of the one party were chased
over the whole country, and had no settled
homes, the ministers of the other had little
ambition beyond that of enjoying their livings
and recommending themselves to the ruling
powers. Endeared, therefore, though the martyr
clergy were to the affections of the people, and
every way worthy of their affection, such men
as Cameron, Cargill, and Eenwick were not to
be compared with their learned and talented
predecessors. This, however, was the less to be
regretted, as the work had been already done.
Instructed by the preceding champions of the
Covenant, the people understood the merits of
the question in aU its breadth and depth, and
what they now chiefly needed were teachers
who could animate them by example, and
teach them how to suffer and die. And how
effectually these were found the history of the
dismal period of persecution has well attested.

While this period of Scottish history so essen-
tially connected with religious movements was
so prolific of eminent men who were fitted for
the crisis, others appeared, although few and at
wide intervals, who attained eminence in other
departments. The researches of science had
already roused the Scottish mind to inquiry, and
Napier's invention of logarithms, which he per-
fected at the commencement of this period, had
made him famous among the scientific communi-
ties of Europe, who regarded him as the greatest
man of his age. James Gregory, who was born in
1638, and occupied the chair of mathematics in
the University of Edinburgh, was distinguished
by the extent and originality of his knowledge
in mathematics and the physical sciences, and

was the inventor of the reflecting telescope.^
His nephew, David Gregory, who was born in
1661, was devoted to the same pursuits. The
tendency, indeed, was hereditary; and his father
having been the first person in Scotland who
used a barometer, his predictions of the weather
excited such alarm, that he was believed to be
in league with the prince of the power of the
air, so that a deputation from the presbytery
was sent to ascertain whether he was a warlock
or not. David, after distinguishing himself at
an early age in geometry, and occupying for
seven years the professorship of mathematics in
the College of Edinburgh, went to London, en-
joyed the friendship of Newton and Flamsteed,
was appointed Savilian professor of astronomy
at Oxford, and after jjublishing several works
of great scientific merit, produced the most dis-
tinguished of them all, the Elements of Physical
and Geometrical Astronomy, which was chiefly
a digest of Newton's Principia, but with illus-
trations wholly original.^ Another distinguished
student of physical science was Andrew Balfour.
Of all the sciences, that of medicine, notwith-
standing the large demands upon the powers of
healing, especially in the department of sur-
gery in Scotland, was the least known and
studied; but, at a time when it chiefly consisted
of superstitious spells and incantations, Balfour,
who had devoted himself to the profession in
all its branches, studied first in Edinburgh, and
afterwards in England and France; and on
returning to his native country with a rich
library and valuable collection, he settled in
Edinburgh in 1670, where he devoted himself
to medicine as a profession, and soon succeeded
in establishing an extensive practice. In the
northern capital, indeed, he soon displayed the
ardour of a daring innovator, and the abilities
of a scientific reformer. He was the first who
introduced the dissection of the human body
into Scotland. He was the originator of the
earliest hospital in the country for the relief of
disease and poverty maintained by public con-
tribution. He introduced the study of botany,
and founded the botanic garden at Edinburgh.
He planned the royal college of physicians, and
when his valuable life drew to a close, which
terminated in 1694, he bequeathed to the public
his library and museum which he had been col-
lecting for nearly forty years. Although Charles
II. created him a baronet. Sir Andrew Balfour
was too far in advance of his country to be
justly appreciated; and after his death the
public institutions which he had commenced
came at a stand, and the library, which he had

' Life of James Gregory prefixed to his works.
2 Aiken's Biographical Dictionary; Encyclopedia Britannica.

324

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[xvuth Century.

bequeathed for public benefit, was dispersed,
wasted, or sold. It was not until a later period
that his country was alive to his worth, and that
Edinburgh, under the impulse he had communi-
cated, became one of the foremost schools of
those sciences which he had introduced.^

Of historians during this period Scotland
possessed an abundant share in Spottiswood,
Calderwood, and Burnet, and while their his-
tories are sufficiently voluminous, they are de-
voted, the first two entirely, and the third
partially, to the religious events which occurred
in Scotland. Spottiswood's Histort/ of the Church
and State of Scotland, is a history of the Refor-
mation from the earliest period to the death of
James VI.; but although his narrative is lucid,
while the ample documents at his command
enabled him to give a fuU and accurate detail
of events, his character of John Knox, and his
account of the establishment of Presbyterianism
and the introduction of Episcopacy, sufficiently
indicate the one-sided and politic prelate, who
had his own apostasy as well as the cause of
his church to advocate. The same is perceptible
in his dealing with historical documents, in
which garblings and omissions occur when the
whole truth was found inconvenient for his
purpose. Calderwood's History of the Kirk of
Scotland, which is better known than his volu-
minous works of controversy, is chiefly valuable
as a minute chronicle of events from year to
year, its graphic, vigorous sketches, and the
valuable materials it furnishes for the history
of the reigns of Mary Stuart and James VI.
A still more important historian was Gilbert
Burnet, who was born at Edinburgh in 1643,
who first occupied the chair of divinity at Glas-
gow, was afterwards a lecturer in St. Clements,
London, where he was one of the most popular
preachers in the metropolis, and finally, became
Bishop of Salisbury. His varied acquirements,
his active life in Scotland, England, and Holland,
where he was connected with the great political
events of the period, and the conspicuous place
he occupied in the Revolution that jDlaced
William and Mary upon the throne of Great
Britain, were an effectual training for the author-
ship of his two great works, the History of the
Reforjnation, and History of His Own Time.
As a moderate Scottish Episcopalian of the
school of Leighton, who was alike opposed to
arbitrary power and the violent measures by
which Episcopacy was imposed upon his country-
men, he was universally ridiculed and con-
demned by the Tory writers of England, while
the Scots regarded him with jealousy, as a

1 Bower's History of the University of Edinburgh; Scots
Magazine, 1803; Edinburgh Magazine, 1810.

doubtful ally and latitudinarian. But these
clouds by which his worth was obscured have
passed away, and his histories, especially the His-
tory of His Own Time, is preferred both for truth
and natural eloquence to the more stately but
partial history written by Lord Clarendon.
Another writer of this period, who has thrown
much light upon the history of Scotland, was
Sir James Balfour, the elder brother of Sir
Andrew Balfour, the distinguished physician
who has been already noticed. Sir James,
who acquired distinction as an antiquary, herald,
and annalist, was knighted by Charles I., and
crowned at Holyrood House by the same mon-
arch as Lord Lyon-king-at-arms. Besides his
other writings, by which he opened up the early
history of Scotland, and the origin of its illus-
trious families, he wrote his Annals, a valuable
contribution to Scottish history during the
reigns of James III., IV., and V., Queen Mary,
James VI., and Charles I.^

Although there was abundant verse-making
during this period, while the nature of passing
events imparted to the poetry abundance of
satire and personality, only one poet in the
highest sense of the term was produced. This
was William Drummond of Hawthornden, who
was born in 1585, and died in 1649, the same
year in which Charles I. was beheaded, and
whose fate is supposed to have accelerated his
own death, in consequence of the sympathetic
sorrow it occasioned. Drummond was an ac-
complished classical scholar, as well as conver-
sant with the modern languages and the works
of their best writei's, while his attachment to
a life of contemplation and study was promoted
by the easiness of his circumstances and his
hereditary estate of Hawthornden, one of the
most picturesque and beautiful localities that
ever poet enjoyed. In consequence of these
advantages, acting upon his natural talents and
poetical temperament, the productions of Drum-
mond, whether in prose or verse, exhibit a deli-
cacy and tenderness of sentiment, and refinement
of language, which none of the Scottish writers
of that period have equalled. The first of his
poems to see the light was a lament on the early
death of Prince Henry, the promising son of
James VI. It was entitled "Tears on the
Death of Mceliades," and was published at
Edinburgh in 1613, being a production of the
press of Scotland's early printer, Andro Hart.
Another celebrated poem of his was also writ-
ten as a tribute to royalty, " The River of Forth
Feasting," namely, an elaborate panegyric on
King James, celebrating this monarch's visit to
his ancient kingdom in 1617. The preceding

2 Memoirs of Sir J. Balfour prefixed to his Annals.

xvuth Century.]

HISTORY OF SOCIETY.

325

year Drummond had issued a collection of poems,
including sonnets, madrigals, and other pieces,
some of them giving exjsression to the grief ex-
perienced by the writer on the death of his
young wife, who had been his wedded com-
panion for barely a year. These publications
excited the attention of the most eminent of
the literati of England, who wondered that
such writings could proceed from a country so
obscure and barbarous. The celebrated English
poet, Michael Drayton, began a correspondence
with his Scottish brother in the poetic craft,
whom he also praised highly in his " Epistle on
Poets and Poetry." In 1618 took place the
famous visit of Ben Jonson to Hawthorndeu,
though there seems to be no evidence for the
common story that this pilgrimage, which was
made on foot all the way from London, was
undertaken by Jonson on purpose to become
personally acquainted with the Scottish poet.
Ben Jonson remained several weeks at Haw-
thorndeu, and his host kept a careful record of
the conversations that had passed between them,
and in which the English poet had expressed
himself with no small freedom regarding his
contemporaries, and even regarding Drummond
himself. The chief subsequent work by which
Diummond was distinguished in his own lifetime,
was a volume containing " Flowers of Sion," with
several other poems, and a prose production in
the form of a philosophical discourse, entitled
" A Cypress Grove," which he wrote after his
recovery from a severe illness — a discourse that
combines the highest qualities of eloquence with
the chastened richness of a poetical fancy. An-
other work of Drummond, which was not pub-
lished until after his death, was the Bistojy of
Scotland, from the Fear 1423, until the Year
1543; and, however useless it may now be
reckoned, in consequence of the superior light
that has been subsequently thrown upon the
subject, it is still remarkable among the his-
torical productions of the age both for the clas-
sical beavities of its style and the fidelity of the
narrative. So well, indeed, had Drummond
studied history, that on one remarkable occasion
it inspired him with the vision of a true prophet.
The following was his remarkable prediction,
verified in its main parts, in an " Address to the
noblemen, barons, gentlemen, &c., who have
leagued themselves for the defence of religion
and the liberties of Scotland." He thus writes
to them in 1639, ten years before the execution
of Charles I., and when all ranks regarded even
his deposition as a monstrous impossibility:
" During these miseries, of which the troublers
of the state shall make their profit, there will
arise (perhaps) one, who will name himself
PROTECTOR of the liberty of the kingdom : he

shall surcharge the people with greater miseries
than ever before they did sutler: he shall be
protector of the church, himself being without
soul or conscience, without letters [learning] or
great knowledge; under the shadow of piety
and zeal shall commit a thousand impieties;
and in end shall essay to make himself king, and
under pretext of reformation bring in all con-
fusion."— " Then shall the poor people suffer for
all their follies; then shall they see, to their own
charges, what it is to pull the sceptre from their
sovereign, the sword from the lawful magistrate
whom God hath set over them, and that it is a
fearful thing for subjects to degraduate their
king. This progress is no new divining, being
approved by the histories of all times." The
vaticination was disregarded, and only called
to mind and wondered at when its warning
was too late. Another production generally
attributed to Drummond, though on somewhat
doubtful evidence, is a macaronic or mock-Latin
poem entitled " Polemo-Middinia," or the battle
of the dunghill, a humorous account of a rustic
quarrel. Drummond was also the author of
many political tracts and pamphlets, satires,
&c., generally on the royalist side, though he
took little part in the troubles of the time.
Part of his attention was devoted to mechanical
inventions, and in 1627 he obtained a patent
for certain improved military appliances, the
patent also embracing telescopes and burning-
glasses, and instruments for noting the strength
of winds. ^

While Scotland produced only one eminent
poet during the long period of a hundred years,
she enjoyed the more distinguished honour of
producing the earliest of the great painters of
Britain. This was George Jamesone, who was
born at Aberdeen, of which city his father was
a burgess, probably about the year 1587, for the
exact date of his birth is uncertain. At a time
when the young men of Scotland went abroad
to better their circumstances as soldiers of for-
tune or trafllckers, young Jamesone was sent by
his parents to Antwerp to study the art of paint-
ing imder Peter Paul E'lbsng. . .A.ft^r leaving
justified so ctrapge i^ ciioice, bj his' proficiency
under the great Flemish artist Jamesone re-
turned t(» iib-ard-ien ?'.li' i6W,' dtid c6'iin^e'jiced
the occupfvt^oii (if ; hislife, j^s; a pQrtrait-painter ;
and his art being new in Scotland, and also
attractive, by thf) gfatifitr^tion, jt affords to per-
sonal vanity and;loye;of-' distinction,' his labours
were soon in great request and well remuner-
ated. In 1633 he had Charles I. for his sitter
during his majesty's visit to Edinburgh, and

1 Douglas's Baronage; Biographical Dictionary of Eminent
Scotsmen; Dictionary of National Biography.

326

HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND.

[xviith Century.

after this the principal nobility of the country
were not slow in following the royal example.
Not only, also, was he required to paint the like-
nesses of the living men and women of tlie day,
but of Scottish sovereigns who had lived cen-
turies before, and even of those who had never
existed ; but this was the easiest part of his oc-
cupation, as he could draw upon the resources of
imagination, without fearing that the fidelity of
the portrait would be contradicted. His prices,
also, being Avondrously small, when the pounds
Scots are reduced to their English value, he
seems to have painted with great rapidity, a dis-
advantage unfavourable to his genius and the
lasting reputation of his paintings; and thus,
although some of his portraits are occasionally
mistaken for those done by Vandyke, of whom
he was a fellow-pnpil under Rubens, he scarcely
equals Vandyke in gTacefulness of accessories
and completeness of back-ground. It was the
face of the sitter that occupied his care, and if

a good striking likeness was dashed off he seems
to have considered his chief task completed,
without troubling himself about the adjuncts
of attitude and costume. What he could accom-
plish, however, in these details, when time per-
mitted, and the subject was worthy of such care,
was shown in such portraits as that of Sir Thomas
Hope, now in the Parliament House of Edin-
burgh. He is usually termed tlie " Vandyke of
Scotland," and is every way worthy of the title.
He is also the more conspicuous that he stands
alone. Enjoying the honour of being the earli-
est of our British portrait-painters, and belong-
ing to a country in which painting had hitherto
been unknown, he passed away without leaving
a native successor, and Scotland had long to
wait before it could produce men capable of
following his steps or rivalling his excellence.^

2Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting; Cunningham's Lives
of Painters.

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The Household Physician:

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THE HENRY IRVING SHAKESPEARE.— SUBSCRIPTION EDITION.

The Works of Shakespeare.

EDITED BY

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The universal popularity of the works of our Great Dramatist has induced the publishers to issue a sumptuous
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%* Every subscriber for this edition of Shakespeare's Works will be presented, on the completion of his copy of
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NEW PICTORIAL EDITIOA.

The Works of Robert Burns,

With a series of Authentic Pictorial Illustrations, Marginal Glossary, numerous Notes, and Appendixes.
Also the life of Bums by J. G. Lockhart, and Essays on the Genius, Character, and Writings of
Bums, by Thomas Carlyle and Professor Wilson. Edited by Charles Annandale, m.a., ll.d.,
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In this edition of Bums his writings are presented in two sections, the one containing the poetry, the other the prose.
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Altogether in no other edition is so much light thrown from all points of view upon Bums the poet and Bums the man,
and it may therefore be said to be complete in the best sense of the word.

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The Natural History of Animals

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'n the mot careful and finished manner, under Mr, Specht's own direction.

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A History of the Scottish People

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M.A., LL.D. With 40 Original Designs by W. H. Margetson, Alfred Pearse, Walter Paget,
Gordon Browne, and other eminent artists.

It is a full and detailed History of Scotland from the Earliest Times to the Latest.

It is a History of the Scottish People, their manners, customs, and modes of living at the various successive periods.

It is a History of Religion and Ecclesiastical Affairs in Scotland.

It is a History of Scotland's progress in Commerce, Industry, Arts, Science, and Literature.

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The Cabinet of Irish Literature.

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Stories of Irish Life," " Stories from the Ancient Classics," &c. Illustrated by a series of 32 admirable
Portraits in mesochrome, specially prepared for this work.

The Publishers aim in this Work to supply a standard work in which the genius, the fire, the pathos, the humour, and
the eloquence of Irish Literature are adequately represented. The specimens selected, which are arranged chronologically
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of the individual style and particular merit of each author, while to those not critically disposed the infinite variety presented
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The Poets and Poetry of Scotland:

From the Earliest to the Present Time. Comprising Characteristic Selections from the
works of the more Noteworthy Scottish Poets, with Biographical and Critical Notices. By James,
Grant Wilson, Illustrated by Portraits.

In the preparation of this Work the first object has been to present, not a collection of the ballads or songs, or the
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HvsLOP, Henry Scott Riddell, John Levden, William Miller, and others.

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The Works of the Ettrick Shepherd,

IN POETRY AND PROSE. Centenary Edition. With a Biographical Memoir by the Rev.
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Hogg's Works comprise Tales in Prose, illustrative of Border history and superstitions. They comprise likewise
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"Certainly we may now recognize hint as the only one 0/ Burns^ followers who deserves to be named iti the same
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The Works of Shakspeare,

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numerous Illustrative Engravings from Designs by Kenny Meadows and T. H. Nicholson.

The most distinctive, as well as the most attractive feature of this edition of the Works of Shakspeare consists in the
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By far the greater number are by the well-known artist Kenny Meadows, and so important are these illustrations
that the edition of which they form a part has been appropriately named the Kenny Meadows Shakspeare.

Each play is accompanied by an original introduction, and explanatory notes from the pens of various writers dis-
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Our Sovereign Lady Queen Victoria:

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The Life of our Lord and Saviour

Jesus Christ,

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Fourth Edition. Large 8vo (1000 pp.), cloth, i6j-., or half-morocco, 20s.

A Manual of Rules, Tables, and Data

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NEW ISSUE.

The Imperial Bible-Dictionary,

Historical, Biographical, Geographical, and Doctrinal. Edited by Rev. Patrick
Fairbairn, D.D., author of "Typology of Scripture"; &c. With Introductions by the Right Rev.
J. C. Ryle, D.D., Lord Bishop of Liverpool, and Rev. C. H. Waller, m.a. Illustrated by about
seven hundred Engravings.

This Edition will be augmented by an interesting discussion on the subject of Inspiration, by the Rev. C. H.
Waller, Principal of the London College of Divinity. To this is prefixed a luminous introduction on the same subject
by the Right Rev. John Charles Ryle, Lord Bishop of Liverpool.

The Work takes up in alphabetical order all the subjects which enter into the contents of the Bible, while the several
books of which the Bible is composed in every case receive careful and attentive consideration. In the treatment of the
different topics, full advantage is taken of the materials which modem criticism and research have accumulated.

The Pictorial Illustrations include representations of the plants and animals mentioned in Scripture, notable scenes and
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New Issue, to be completed in 6 half-volumes, imperial 8vo, cloth extra, 95. 6^. each.

The Whole Works of John Bunyan,

Accurately reprinted from the Author's own editions. Collated and edited, with an. introduction to
each treatise, numerous illustrative and explanatory notes, and a memoir of Bunyan, by Geurge Offor.
Illustrated by engravings on steel and on wood.

Among the Illustrative Engravings will be found the Portrait of Bunyan after Sadler ; and a careful copy of the inter-
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Cottage, the Market-house and Church, Elstow; and of Bunyan 's Tomb in Bunhill Fields. Also, a Series of beautiful
Illustrations of The Pilgrim from Stothard's elegant designs; with Facsimiles of Bunyan's Writing, and of the earliest
wood-cut illustrations to The Pilgrim, and to the Life 0/ Badmati.

All the excellencies of this much admired and highly valued edition of Bunyan's Whole Works (of which over twenty
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Eleven vols., post 8vo, cloth, red edges, 3^. 6d. each; or in handsome case, £2, \s.

Commentary on the New Testament,

Explanatory and Practical. With Qtiestioiis for Bible-classes and Sunday-schools. By Albert
Barnes. Edited by the Rev. Robert Frew, d.d. With numerous additional Notes, and an ex-
tensive series of beautiful Engravings and Maps, not in any other edition.

Shortly before his decease the Author completed a revision of his Notes on the New Testament, to the end of the Acts
of the Apostles, the only section of the New Testament respecting the exposition and illustration of which modern research
had accumulated new and important materials.

In making this new issue the first three volumes have been re-set so as to embody the author's latest corrections and
additions, and they are now presented for the first time to readers in this country. This issue will consequently be the most
complete and perfect of any published in Great Britain.

In royal 4to, cloth, gilt edges, 30J.

Family Worship:

A Series of Devotional Services for every Morning and Evening throughout the Year, adapted to the
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By above Two Hundred Evangelical Ministers. Illustrated by Twenty-six fine Engravings on
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The work comprises 732 Services, adapted to be used in the family, being a service for every Morning and Evening
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whole closes with a plain and earnest Prayer.

LONDON: BLACKIE & SON, LIMITED; GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH.

DEC 27 193^

This book is due two weeks from the last date stamped
below, and if not returned at or before that time a fine of

five cents a day will be incurred.

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