СНАР. Scotland. more and more resolute.* He sent orders to the Scottish Council to punish the guilty with the utmost severity, and to make unsparing use of the boot. He pretended to be fully convinced of the Treasurer's innocence, and wrote to that minister in gracious words; but the gracious words were accompanied by ungracious acts. The Scottish Treasury was put into commission in spite of the earnest remonstrances of Rochester, who probably saw his own fate prefigured in that of his kinsman.‡ Queensberry was, indeed, named First Commissioner, and was made President of the Privy Council: but his fall, though thus broken, was still a fall. He was also removed from the government of the castle of Edinburgh, and was succeeded in that confidential post by the Duke of Gordon, a Roman Catholic.§ His plans And now a letter arrived from London, fully explaining to concerning the Scottish Privy Council the intentions of the King. What he wanted was that the Roman Catholics should be exempted from all laws imposing penalties and disabilities on account of nonconformity, but that the persecution of the Covenanters should go on without mitigation. This scheme encountered strenuous opposition in the Council. Some members were unwilling to see the existing laws relaxed. Others, who were by no means averse to relaxation, felt that it would be monstrous to admit Roman Catholics to the highest honours of the State, and yet to leave unrepealed the Act which made it death to attend a Presbyterian conventicle. The answer of the board was, therefore, less obsequious than usual. The King in reply sharply reprimanded his undutiful Councillors, and ordered three of them, the Duke of Hamilton, Sir George Lockhart, and General Drummond, to attend him at Westminster. Hamilton's abilities to London, and knowledge, though by no means such as would have sufficed to raise an obscure man to eminence, appeared highly respectable in one who was premier peer of Scotland. hart had long been regarded as one of the first jurists, logicians, and orators that his country had produced, and enjoyed also that sort of consideration which is derived from large possessions; for his estate was such as at that time very few Deputa tion of Scotch Privy Council lors sent 18 Lewis to Barillon, Feb. 1. 1686. otherwise." Bonrepaux, Feb. 1686. Lock tish nobles possessed.* He had been lately appointed ident of the Court of Session. Drummond, a cousin of h and Melfort, was commander of the forces in Scotland. was a loose and profane man: but a sense of honour ch his two kinsmen wanted restrained him from public stasy. He lived and died, in the significant phrase of of his countrymen, a bad Christian, but a good Protesb.t ames was pleased by the dutiful language which the ee Councillors used when first they appeared before him. spoke highly of them to Barillon, and particularly exed Lockhart as the ablest and most eloquent Scotchman ng. They soon proved, however, less tractable than had en expected; and it was rumoured at Court that they had en perverted by the company which they had kept in ndon. Hamilton lived much with zealous churchmen; d it might be feared that Lockhart, who was related to the harton family, had fallen into still worse society. In truth was natural that statesmen, fresh from a country where position in any other form than that of insurrection and sassination had long been almost unknown, and where all at was not lawless fury was abject submission, should have een struck by the earnest and stubborn, yet sober, disconnt which pervaded England, and should have been emoldened to try the experiment of constitutional resistance the royal will. They indeed declared themselves willing to rant large relief to the Roman Catholics; but on two contions; first, that similar indulgence should be extended to e Calvinistic sectaries; and, secondly, that the King should ind himself by a solemn promise not to attempt anything to e prejudice of the Protestant religion. CHAP. VI. tions with Both conditions were highly distasteful to James. He Their luctantly agreed, however, after a dispute which lasted negotiaeveral days, that some indulgence should be granted to the the King. resbyterians: but he would by no means consent to allow hem the full liberty which he demanded for members of his wn communion. To the second condition proposed by the Barillon, April 12 1686; Burnet, 370. The words are in a letter of JohnCone of Waristoun. Some words of Barillon deserve to e transcribed. They would alone suffice decide a question which ignorance nd party spirit have done much to per plex. "Cette liberté accordée aux non- СНАР. Meeting of the Scotch Estates. three Scottish Councillors he positively refused to The Protestant religion, he said, was false; and he w not give any guarantee that he would not use his powe the prejudice of a false religion. The altercation was b and was not brought to a conclusion satisfactory to e party.* The time fixed for the meeting of the Scottish Est: drew near; and it was necessary that the three Coun should leave London to attend their parliamentary day Edinburgh. On this occasion another affront was offere! Queensberry. In the late session he had held the offe Lord High Commissioner, and had in that capacity rep sented the majesty of the absent King. This dignity, greatest to which a Scottish noble could aspire, was n transferred to the renegade Murray. They prove On the twenty-ninth of April the Parliament met at Eli refractory burgh. A letter from the King was read. He exhorted: Estates to give relief to his Roman Catholic subjects, a offered in return a free trade with England and an amnes for political offences. A committee was appointed to dr up an answer. That committee, though named by Murra and composed of Privy Councillors and courtiers, framed reply, full indeed of dutiful and respectful expressions, y clearly indicating a determination to refuse what the Ki demanded. The Estates, it was said, would go as far as th consciences would allow to meet His Majesty's wishes specting his subjects of the Roman Catholic religion. The expressions were far from satisfying the Chancellor; y such as they were, he was forced to content himself wi them, and even had some difficulty in persuading the Pari ment to adopt them. Objection was taken by some zeal | Protestants to the mention made of the Roman Cathe religion. There was no such religion. There was an ide trous apostasy, which the laws punished with the halter, asi to which it did not become Christian men to give flattering titles. To call such a superstition Catholic was to give t the whole question which was at issue between Rome and th reformed Churches. The offer of a free trade with Englan was treated as an insult. "Our fathers," said one orat "sold their king for southern gold; and we still lie under th reproach of that foul bargain. Let it not be said of us the we have sold our God!" Sir John Lauder of Fountainhal f the Senators of the College of Justice, suggested the "the persons commonly called Roman Catholics." uld you nickname His Majesty ?" exclaimed the Chan 3, The answer drawn by the committee was carried; large and respectable minority voted against the proI words as too courtly.* It was remarked that the sentatives of the towns were, almost to a man, against government. Hitherto those members had been of very I account in the Parliament, and had generally been coned as the retainers of powerful noblemen. They now red, for the first time, an independence, a resolution, and irit of combination which alarmed the court.† he answer was so unpleasing to James that he did not r it to be printed in the Gazette. Soon he learned that w, such as he wished to see passed, would not even be ight in. The Lords of Articles, whose business was to v up the Acts on which the Estates were afterwards to berate, were virtually nominated by himself. Yet even Lords of Articles proved refractory. When they met, the ee Privy Councillors who had lately returned from London k the lead in opposition to the royal will. Hamilton dered plainly that he could not do what was asked. He was ithful and loyal subject; but there was a limit imposed conscience. "Conscience!" said the Chancellor: "conence is a vague word, which signifies anything or nothing." ckhart, who sate in Parliament as representative of the eat county of Lanark, struck in. "If conscience," he said, a word without meaning, we will change it for another rase which, I hope, means something. For conscience let put the fundamental laws of Scotland." These words raised ierce debate. General Drummond, who represented Perthire, declared that he agreed with Hamilton and Lockhart. ost of the Bishops present took the same side.‡ Fountainhall, May 6. 1686. Van Citters, May H. 1686. Van Cits informed the States that he had his lligence from a sure hand. I will nscribe part of his narrative. It is amusing specimen of the pyebald Ject in which the Dutch diplomatists that age corresponded. "Des konigs missive, boven en behaln den Hoog Commissaris aensprake, a het parlement afgesonden, gelyck dat oos gebruyckelyck is, waerby Syne jesteyt nu in genere versocht hieft de mitigatie der rigoureuse ofte sanglante CHAP. VI. СНАР. It was plain that, even in the Committee of Articles, James could not command a majority. He was mortified and intated by the tidings. He held warm and menacing languag and punished some of his mutinous servants, in the hope tha the rest would take warning. Several persons were dismisse from the Council board. Several were deprived of pensions. which formed an important part of their income. Sir Georg Mackenzie of Rosehaugh was the most distinguished victim. He had long held the office of Lord Advocate, and had take such a part in the persecution of the Covenanters that to thi day he holds, in the estimation of the austere and godly peasantry of Scotland, a place not far removed from the unenviable eminence occupied by Claverhouse. The legal learning of Mackenzie was not profound: but, as a scholar, a wit, and an orator, he stood high in the opinion of his countrymen; and his renown had spread even to the coffeehouses of Londo and to the cloisters of Oxford. The remains of his forensi speeches prove him to have been a man of parts, but ar somewhat disfigured by what he doubtless considered a Ciceronian graces, interjections which show more art tha passion, and elaborate amplifications, in which epithet rises above epithet in wearisome climax. He had now, for the first time, been found scrupulous. He was, therefore, in spite o all his claims on the gratitude of the government, deprived of his office. He retired into the country, and soon after went up to London for the purpose of clearing himself, but was refused admission to the royal presence.* While the King was thus trying to terrify the Lords of Articles into submission, the popular voice encouraged them to persist. The utmost exertions of the Chancellor could not prevent the national sentiment from expressing itself through the pulpit and the press. One tract, written with such boldness and acrimony that no printer dared to put it in type, was widely circulated in manuscript. The papers which appeared on the other side of the question had much less effect, though they were disseminated at the public charge, and though the |