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THE

HISTORY

OF

SCOTLAN D.

BOOK VII.

New Government and Parliament. — Execution of Argyle, Guthry, Wariston.-Prelacy restored, Presbyterian Clergy ejected.-Middleton's rapacity, excesses, and disgrace.-Ecclesiastical commission, military persecution, and insurrection in the West.-Government mitigated and the Presbyterians indulged.—Lauderdale's tyrannical administration. Persecution of Conventicles.-Mitchel's Trial.

F

VII.

1660.

ROM the civil and religious wars of the two BOOK kingdoms, in which it is seldom possible to separate the interest, or the share of either, we re- Public exturn to the domestic transactions of Scotland, whose pectations history, from the restoration to the union, conti- the restoranues unmixed and almost unconnected with Eng.

lish affairs. Many years of undisturbed tranquillity

VOL. IV.

B

and joy at

tion.

BOOK
VII.

1660.

New minis

try.

were expected from the sincere, and universal joy which the restoration diffused. The affectionate loyalty which the people expressed, was confirmed by the gracious and popular deportment of the king. The fairest hopes were entertained of the prosperity of the new reign; which nothing could have disappointed but the misconduct or rather the crimes of government; the predilection of Charles for a foreign interest; his secret attachment to the Romish faith; and above all, his perseverance in the arbitrary measures which his father had pursued. It was from these and other causes, that the government of Scotland became hostile and gradually odious to the people, till it degenerated at length into a sanguinary and cruel despotism, for which there was no cure but the expulsion of the Stuarts.

The government still remained in the hands of the English, while the nobility and principal gentry hurried to court, to prefer their allegiance, or to tender their advice for the settlement of the kingdom. The royalists were preceded and led by Glencairn and Middleton; but their diligence was outstript by the earl of Lauderdale, who had accompanied the English commissioners to the Hague, on his release from the Tower. In return for his services, and his sufferings during ten years imprisonment, he obtained the office of secretary, which was the more desirable as it required his attendance at court; and among the numerous mi

、 VII.

nisters who rose and sunk during the course of BOOK the reign, Lauderdale retained his ascendancy the longest over the mind of the king. The earl of 1660. Crawford, who had suffered the same imprisonment, was restored to the treasury; Rothes was appointed president of council, Glencairn chancellor, Middleton commissioner to the approaching parliament. The authority of the committee of estates was revived, in order to supersede the administration of the English judges, and by the advice of Clarendon, a council for Scottish affairs was established at Whitehall.'

the garri

Two important considerations occurred, in the Removal of settlement of Scotland, whether the garrisons in- sons. troduced by Cromwell should be preserved, and what form of ecclesiastical government should be prescribed for the church? Clarendon and Monk were averse from the removal of the English garrisons, whose presence they considered as still necessary to restrain a mutinous nation, prone to rebellion, by military force. Lauderdale represented, with that consummate art which distinguishes his character, that it was not less ungenerous than impolitic to prolong the servitude which the nation, after the loss of two armies, had incurred from its loyal attachment to the crown; that the measure would be productive of national disgust; and that in the event of an insurrection.

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Burnet, i. 147. Baillie, ii. 442. Clarendon's Life, ii. 97.

VII.

1660.

BOOK in England, the garrisons left by Monk as the most disaffected part of a fanatical army, would be joined by the Scots; that the time might come, when, instead of English garrisons in Scotland, his majesty would require Scottish garrisons in England, to repress the turbulence of a wealthy people; and that the nation, relieved from a badge of ignominious subjection, might be rendered the more instrumental and subservient to his designs. As Glencairn and Middleton were afraid to oppose the removal of the garrisons, or to incur the reproach of an unpopular advice, the citadels and forts were demolished, and when supplies were procured for their discharge, the disaffected troops were disbanded or withdrawn."

Settlement of the church.

In the settlement of an ecclesiastical government, Charles was peculiarly embarrassed by the treaty at Breda. When invited to Scotland on his father's death, he had sworn and subscribed the covenant, and confirmed the presbyterian church as the conditions of his accession; and although the nation was unable to preserve him on the throne, the oaths, which were renewed at his cofonation, remained unrepealed. If it was difficult to observe, it was dishonourable to violate the conditions formerly accepted, when there was no choice unless to relinquish the crown; but if the word of a prince is to be reputed sacred, no violence, nor state necessity could afford a pretext to

2 Clarendon's Life, ii. 406. Burnet, i, 151.

VII.

1660.

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dispense with his oaths. However disgusted with BOOK the presbyterians during his residence in Scotland, the king himself was indifferent to religion; but Clarendon, whose mind was contracted and soured by religious bigotry, was irreconcileable to thevery existence of their church. That upright and able, but not enlightened statesman, had already prepared the most intolerant measures for the revival of the hierarchy, which he urged the king to restore in Scotland, by a violation of those solemn engagements which his own conscience would never have infringed. The earls of Glencairn and Middleton concurred in the same design; and, at a time when the majority of the nation were rigid presbyterians, they did not hesitate to assert, that the people were disgusted with the insolence of the ecclesiastical courts, and desirous of a change. They returned with instructions to examine the sentiments of the people, and to prepare them for the subsequent introduction of prelates; while Sharp, to appease the suspicions of the public resolutioners, whom, on the offer of the primacy, Deferred. he had secretly deserted, procured a letter from Charles that confirmed their assemblies, and pro mised to preserve the government of the church inviolate, as established by law. As the presbyterian was then the established religion, the resolutioners were easily deceived by a mean equivocation unworthy of a king; or were gratified perhaps by the persecution of the remonstrants, whom

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