ment. terians and so far had he been from it is probable that the politic Marquess showing any inclination to resistance had been warned rather by the signs that, when the Covenanters had been of the times than by the visions of any persecuted into insurrection, he had prophet. In Friesland Earl Archibald brought into the field a large body of resided during some time so quietly his dependents to support the govern- that it was not generally known whither he had fled. From his retreat he carried on a correspondence with his friends in Great Britain, was a party to the Whig conspiracy, and concerted with the chiefs of that conspiracy a plan for invading Scotland.* This plan had been dropped upon the detection of the Rye House Plot, but became again the subject of his thoughts after the demise of the crown. Such had been his political course until the Duke of York came down to Edinburgh armed with the whole regal authority. The despotic viceroy soon found that he could not expect entire support from Argyle. Since the most powerful chief in the kingdom could not be gained, it was thought necessary that he should be destroyed. On grounds so frivolous that even the spirit of party He had, during his residence on the and the spirit of chicane were ashamed Continent, reflected much more deeply of them, he was brought to trial for on religious questions than in the pretreason, convicted, and sentenced to ceding years of his life. In one respect death. The partisans of the Stuarts the effect of these reflections on his afterwards asserted that it was never mind had been pernicious. His partimeant to carry this sentence into effect, ality for the synodical form of church and that the only object of the prose-government now amounted to bigotry. cution was to frighten him into ceding When he remembered how long he had his extensive jurisdiction in the High-conformed to the established worship, lands. Whether James designed, as he was overwhelmed with shame and his enemies suspected, to commit mur- remorse, and showed too many signs der, or only, as his friends affirmed, of a disposition to atone for his deto commit extortion by threatening to commit murder, cannot now be ascertained. "I know nothing of the Scotch law," said Halifax to King Charles; "but this I know, that we should not hang a dog here on the grounds on which my Lord Argyle has been sentenced."* To his companions in adversity his Argyle escaped in disguise to Eng-assistance was of the highest moment. land, and thence passed over to Fries- Though proscribed and a fugitive, he land. In that secluded province his was still, in some sense, the most father had bought a small estate, as a powerful subject in the British domiplace of refuge for the family in civil nions. In wealth, even before his troubles. It was said, among the Scots, attainder, he was probably inferior, that this purchase had been made in not only to the great English nobles, consequence of the predictions of a but to some of the opulent esquires of Celtic seer, to whom it had been re- Kent and Norfolk. But his patriarchal vealed that Mac Callum More would authority, an authority which no wealth one day be driven forth from the ancient could give and which no attainder could mansion of his race at Inverary.† But take away, made him, as a leader of an insurrection, truly formidable. No southern lord could feel any confidence that, if he ventured to resist the government, even his own gamekeepers and huntsmen would stand by him. An *Proceedings against Argyle in the Collection of State Trials; Burnet, i. 521.; A true and plain Account of the Discoveries made in Scotland. 1684; The Scotch Mist Cleared; Sir George Mackenzie's Vindication; Lord Fountainhall's Chronological Notes. + Information of Robert Smith in the Appendix to Sprat's True Account. fection by violence and intolerance. He had, however, in no long time, an opportunity of proving that the fear and love of a higher Power had nerved him for the most formidable conflicts by which human nature can be tried. *True and plain Account of the Discoveries made in Scotland. Earl of Bedford, an Earl of Devonshire, | courage, disinterestedness, and public could not engage to bring ten men into spirit, but of an irritable and impractithe field. Mac Callum More, penniless cable temper. Like many of his most and deprived of his earldom, might, at illustrious contemporaries, Milton for any moment, raise a serious civil war. example, Harrington, Marvel, and He had only to show himself on the Sidney, Fletcher had, from the misgocoast of Lorn; and an army would, in vernment of several successive princes, a few days, gather round him. The conceived a strong aversion to heforce, which, in favourable circum-reditary monarchy. Yet he was no stances, he could bring into the field, democrat. He was the head of an amounted to five thousand fighting men, ancient Norman house, and was proud devoted to his service, accustomed to of his descent. He was a fine speaker the use of target and broadsword, not and a fine writer, and was proud of afraid to encounter regular troops even his intellectual superiority. Both in in the open plain, and perhaps superior his character of gentleman, and in his to regular troops in the qualifications character of scholar, he looked down requisite for the defence of wild moun- with disdain on the common people, and tain passes, hidden in mist, and torn was so little disposed to entrust them by headlong torrents. What such a with political power that he thought force, well directed, could effect, even them unfit even to enjoy personal freeagainst veteran regiments and skilful dom. It is a curious circumstance that commanders, was proved, a few years this man, the most honest, fearless, and later, at Killiecrankie. uncompromising republican of his time, should have been the author of a plan for reducing a large part of the working classes of Scotland to slavery. He bore, in truth, a lively resemblance to those Roman Senators who, while they hated the name of King, guarded the privileges of their order with inflexible pride against the encroachments of the multitude, and governed their bondmen and bondwomen by means of the stocks and the scourge. But, strong as was the claim of Sir Patrick Argyle to the confidence of Hume. the exiled Scots, there was a faction among them which regarded him with no friendly feeling, and which wished to make use of his name and influence, without entrusting to him any real power. The chief of this faction was a lowland gentleman, who had been implicated in the Whig plot, and had with difficulty eluded the vengeance of the court, Sir Patrick Hume, of Polwarth, in Berwickshire. Great doubt has been thrown on his integrity, but without sufficient reason. It must, however, be admitted that he injured his cause by perverseness as much as he could have done by treachery. He was a man incapable alike of leading and of following, conceited, captious, and wrongheaded, an endless talker, a sluggard in action against the enemy, and active only against his own allies. With Hume was closely connected another Scottish Amsterdam was the place where the leading emigrants, Scotch and English, assembled. Argyle repaired thither from Friesland, Monmouth from Brabant. It soon appeared that the fugitives had scarcely anything in common except hatred of James and impatience to return from banishment. The Scots were jealous of the English, the English of the Scots. Monmouth's high pretensions were offensive to Argyle, who, proud of ancient nobility and of a legitimate descent from kings, was by no means inclined to do homage to the offspring of a vagrant and ignoble love. But of all the dissensions by which the little band of outlaws was distracted the most serious was that which Unreasonarose between Argyle and a able con portion of his own followers. Scotch Some of the Scottish exiles refugees. had, in a long course of opposition to duct of the enemy, but in devising restraints on their leader's power and securities against his ambition. The selfcomplacent stupidity with which they insisted on organising an army as if they had been organising a commonwealth would be incredible if it had not been frankly and even boastfully recorded by one of themselves.* an at. At length all differences were compromised. It was determined Arrangethat an attempt should be forth- ment for with made on the western coast tempt on of Scotland, and that it should and Scotbe promptly followed by a de- land. scent on England. England tyranny, been excited into a morbid | their industry and ingenuity, not in colstate of understanding and temper, lecting means for the attack which they which made the most just and necessary were about to make on a formidable restraint insupportable to them. They knew that without Argyle they could do nothing. They ought to have known that, unless they wished to run headlong to ruin, they must either repose full confidence in their leader, or relinquish all thoughts of military enterprise. Experience has fully proved that in war every operation, from the greatest to the smallest, ought to be under the absolute direction of one mind, and that every subordinate agent, in his degree, ought to obey implicitly, strenuously, and with the show of cheerfulness, orders which he disapproves, or of which the reasons are kept secret from him. Representative assemblies, public discussions, Argyle was to hold the nominal comand all the other checks by which, in mand in Scotland: but he was placed civil affairs, rulers are restrained from under the control of a Committee which abusing power, are out of place in a reserved to itself all the most important camp. Machiavel justly imputed many parts of the military administration. of the disasters of Venice and Florence This Committee was empowered to deto the jealousy which led those repub-termine where the expedition should lies to interfere with every act of their land, to appoint officers, to superintend generals. The Dutch practice of send- the levying of troops, to dole out proing to an army deputies, without whose visions and ammunition. All that was consent no great blow could be struck, left to the general was to direct the was almost equally pernicious. It is evolutions of the army in the field, and undoubtedly by no means certain that he was forced to promise that even in a captain, who has been entrusted with the field, except in the case of a surdictatorial power in the hour of peril, prise, he would do nothing without the will quietly surrender that power in the assent of a council of war. hour of triumph; and this is one of the Monmouth was to command in Engmany considerations which ought to land. His soft mind had, as usual, make men hesitate long before they re-taken an impress from the society which solve to vindicate public liberty by the sword. But, if they determine to try the chance of war, they will, if they are wise, entrust to their chief that plenary authority without which war cannot be well conducted. It is possible that, if they give him that authority, he may turn out a Cromwell or a Napoleon. But it is almost certain that, if they withhold from him that authority, their enterprises will end like the enterprise of Argyle. Some of the Scottish emigrants, heated with republican enthusiasm, and utterly destitute of the skill necessary to the conduct of great affairs, employed all Discorsi sopra la prima Deca di Tito Livio, lib. ii. cap. 35. VOL.I. surrounded him. Ambitious hopes, which had seemed to be extinguished, revived in his bosom. He remembered the affection with which he had been constantly greeted by the common people in town and country, and expected that they would now rise by hundreds of thousands to welcome him. He remembered the good will which the soldiers had always borne him, and flattered himself that they would come over to him by regiments. Encouraging messages reached him in quick succession from London. He was assured that the violence and injustice with which the elections had been carried on had * See Sir Patrick Hume's Narrative, passim. S had been expected thence. But instead of the money came excuses from Wildman, which ought to have opened the eyes of all who were not wilfully blind. The Duke made up the deficiency by pawning his own jewels and those of Lady Wentworth. Arms, ammunition, and provisions were bought, and several ships which lay at Amsterdam were freighted.* driven the nation mad, that the pru- | in Holland, a sum sufficient for the two dence of the leading Whigs had with expeditions. Very little was obtained difficulty prevented a sanguinary out- from London. Six thousand pounds break on the day of the coronation, and that all the great Lords who had supported the Exclusion Bill were impatient to rally round him. Wildman, who loved to talk treason in parables, sent to say that the Earl of Richmond, just two hundred years before, had landed in England with a handful of men, and had a few days later been crowned, on the field of Bosworth, with the diadem taken from the head of Richard. Danvers undertook to raise the City. The Duke was deceived into the belief that, as soon as he set up his standard, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Cheshire would rise in arms.* He consequently became eager for the enterprise from which a few weeks before he had shrunk. His countrymen did not impose on him restrictions so elaborately absurd as those which the Scotch emigrants had devised. All that was required of him was to promise that he would not assume the regal title till his pretensions had been submitted to the judgment of a free Parliament. It was determined that two Englishmen, Ayloffe and Rumbold, should accompany Argyle to Scotland, and that Fletcher should go with Monmouth to England. Fletcher, from the beginning, had augured ill of the enterprise: but his chivalrous spirit would not suffer him to decline a risk which his friends seemed eager to encounter. When Grey repeated with approbation what Wildman had said about Richmond and Richard, the well read and thoughtful Scot justly remarked that there was a great difference between the fifteenth century and the seventeenth. Richmond was assured of the support of barons, each of whom could bring an army of feudal retainers into the field; and Richard had not one regiment of regular soldiers.† The exiles were able to raise, partly from their own resources and partly from the contributions of well wishers Grey's Narrative; Wade's Confession, Harl. MS. 6845. † Burnet, i. 631. It is remarkable that the most illustrious and the most grossly injured John man among the British exiles Locke. stood far aloof from these rash counsels. John Locke hated tyranny and persecution as a philosopher; but his intellect and his temper preserved him from the violence of a partisan. He had lived on confidential terms with Shaftesbury, and had thus incurred the displeasure of the court. Locke's prudence had, however, been such that it would have been to little purpose to bring him even before the corrupt and partial tribunals of that age. In one point, however, he was vulnerable. He was a student of Christ Church in the University of Oxford. It was determined to drive from that celebrated college the greatest man of whom it could ever boast. But this was not easy. Locke had, at Oxford, abstained from expressing any opinion on the politics of the day. Spies had been set about him. Doctors of Divinity and Masters of Arts had not been ashamed to perform the vilest of all offices, that of watching the lips of a companion in order to report his words to his ruin. The conversation in the hall had been purposely turned to irritating topics, to the Exclusion Bill. and to the character of the Earl of Shaftesbury, but in vain. Locke neither broke out nor dissembled, but maintained such steady silence and composure as forced the tools of power to own with vexation that never man was so complete a master of his tongue and of his passions. When it was found that treachery could do nothing, *Grey's Narrative. James with sadors. While these preparations were making in Scotland, James Conversacalled into his closet Arnold tion of Van Citters, who had long re- the Dutch sided in England as Ambassa- ambasdor from the United Provinces, and Everard Van Dykvelt, who, after the death of Charles, had been sent by the States General on a special mission of condolence and congratulation. The King said that he had received from arbitrary power was used. After part of the army of Ireland was moved vainly trying to inveigle Locke into to the coast of Ulster.* a fault, the government resolved to punish him without one. Orders came from Whitehall that he should be ejected; and those orders the Dean and Canons made haste to obey. Locke was travelling on the Continent for his health when he learned that he had been deprived of his home and of his bread without a trial or even a notice. The injustice with which he had been treated would have excused him if he had resorted to violent methods of unquestionable sources intelligence of redress. But he was not to be blinded by personal resentment: he augured no good from the schemes of those who had assembled at Amsterdam; and he quietly repaired to Utrecht, where, while his partners in misfortune were planning their own destruction, he employed himself in writing his celebrated letter on Toleration.* by Govern the defence land. designs which were forming against The English Government was early Prepara apprised that something was tions made in agitation among the outlaws. ment for An invasion of England seems of Scot- not to have been at first expected: but it was apprehended that Argyle would shortly appear in arms among his clansmen. A proclamation was accordingly issued directing that Scotland should be put into a state of defence. The militia They were justified in expressing was ordered to be in readiness. All this confidence. Both the Ineffecthe clans hostile to the name of Camp- Prince of Orange and the States tual bell were set in motion. John Murray, General were, at this time, to prevent Marquess of Athol, was appointed most desirous that the hospi- from sailLord Lieutenant of Argyleshire, and, tality of their country should ing. at the head of a great body of his not be abused for purposes of which the followers, occupied the castle of Inver- English government could justly comary. Some suspected persons were plain. James had lately held language arrested. Others were compelled to give hostages. Ships of war were sent to cruise near the isle of Bute; and * Le Clerc's Life of Locke; Lord King's Life of Locke; Lord Grenville's Oxford and Locke. Locke must not be confounded with the Anabaptist Nicholas Look, whose name is spelt Locke in Grey's Confession, and who is mentioned in the Lansdowne MS. 1152., and in the Buccleuch narrative appended to Mr. Rose's dissertation. I should hardly think it necessary to make this remark, but that the similarity of the two names appears to have misled a man so well acquainted with the history of those times as Speaker Onslow. See his note on Burnet, i. 629. attempts Argyle which encouraged the hope that he would not patiently submit to the ascendency of France. It seemed probable that he would consent to form a close alliance with the United Provinces and the House of Austria. There was, therefore, at the Hague, an extreme anxiety to avoid all that could give him offence. The personal interest of *Wodrow, book iii. chap. ix.; London Gazette, May 11. 1685; Barillon, May 11. † Register of the Proceedings of the States General, May. 1685. 15 |