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Athol was intimidated; the earl of Mar was arrested on the road; and the rest, disappointed of a refuge in his fortress, abandoned all thoughts of a convention at Stirling 45.

BOOK

IX:

1689.

of James

Next day the militia was ordered to be levied and placed in secure hands. A regiment of eight hundred Cameronians was raised within two hours; three hundred highlanders were armed by Argyle, who had assumed his seat before the attainder of his family was reversed. The convention was at length secured by the arrival of three regiments of Scots, who had been employed in the Dutch service, and had attended William to England, under the command of Mackay46. In these Adherents transactions, the superior policy of the presbyte- abandon rians is no less conspicuous than the misconduct tion. of their opponents, whose measures, at all times violent, betrayed the despair and folly of a disheartened faction, deprived of power. The fire of the castle could neither expel the convention from town 47, nor a separate convention at Stirling interrupt its debates. But the presence of a numerous opposition would embarrass its proceedings; and a forcible appeal to the dormant loyalty and passions of men, might obstruct the settlement of the

45 Balcarras. Minutes of Convention, MS.

46 Id. Mackay's Memoirs, MS.

47 See in Robertson's Hist. a parliament held by Lennox in the Canongate, notwithstanding Kirkcaldy's endeavours. from the castle to dislodge the members, ii. 20.

the conven

IX

1689.

BOOK crown in a different line. It was the policy of the presbyterians to procure unanimity, and to prevent an immediate recourse to arms, which the imprisonment or expulsion of their, adversaries could not fail to produce. But the terror and threats of imprisonment were more efficacious; and when the convention adjourned, after Dundee's retreat, some returned to their homes in despair, others deserted to the prevailing party; and when summoned next day to attend their duty, few remained to incur the obloquy and the danger of an unavailing opposition.

Proceedings of the convention,

When relieved from opposition, the measures of the convention were vigorous, and almost unanimous. Two letters had been presented, from William and from James; but the first was preferred. Before the other was permitted to be read, a resolution was adopted, and signed even by the adherents of James, that nothing contained therein should annul or impede the deliberations of the estates. But the arrogance and bigotry of the letter were so unsuitable to his situation; and the name of Melfort, with which it was countersigned, appeared so odious to the convention, that his friends had forborne to propose an answer, and his messenger was dismissed from prison with March 19. silent contempt. The convention returned a grateful answer to William, acknowledging their deliverance, and approving the address on which he had assumed the temporary administration of the

IX.

1659.

state. But the presbyterians wisely evaded his BOOK proposal of an union with England, as a compli cated measure productive of dangerous animosities, which might disappoint their hopes of an ecclesiastical establishment; and the convention March 27. proceeded to a plan, prepared by a committee, for the settlement of the crown 48.

with those

lish con

The deliberations had degenerated in the Eng-contrasted lish convention into verbal disputes between the of the Engtwo houses, whether the late king had deserted, vention. or abdicated the vacant throne. In Scotland there was neither the same necessity to gratify the tories, nor the same propriety in declaring that the king had abdicated the government, by the desertion of a country wherein he did not reside. But the opposite genius of the two nations was never more conspicuous than in the result of their deliberations on that important event. From the close of the fourteenth century, when the Plantagenets were dethroned, England, during the various dynasties of Lancaster, York, Tudor, and Stuart, had never witnessed above three generations of the same family succeeding, without interruption, to the throne. But a nation peculiarly averse from innovation, was still tenacious of hereditary right. The convention, to deviate the least from an order of succession so frequently inverted, declared that James II. having endeavoured to subvert the constitution, by breaking the original contract be

48 Balcarras.

IX.

1689.

BOOK tween the king and people, and having violated the fundamental laws, and withdrawn from the kingdom, had abdicated the government, and that the throne was thereby vacant. A voluntary desertion and a virtual renunciation, both of the government and of the realm, were meant to be implied in this ambiguous expression, in order to open the succession to the next protestant heir. But the abdication of government was irreconcileable with the premises, as it was neither applicable to his abuse of power, nor to his departure from the kingdom, which was certainly more from constraint than choice. The Scots had acknowledged eleven successive generations of the house of Stuart; and their loyalty was cherished by the belief of a long and fabulous race of an hundred and eleven kings. Instead of attempting, however, by an ambiguous fiction, to reconcile hereditary right with a change in the succession, they placed the vacancy of the throne on its true basis, the religion and mal-administration of James. The same oppression which the English had apprehended while yet distant, they had long endured. Their loyal attachment to the Stuarts, which survived the civil wars, had been effaced by their sufferings since the restoration. From the same national ardor which rendered the reformation so complete, or so destructive in Scotland, they proposed a bold and decisive vote, that James had forfeited the crown by his misconduct and

IX.

1689.

crimes. A feeble opposition was maintained by BOOK his few friends who remained in the convention. Paterson, archbishop of Glasgow, and sir George Mackenzie, asserted the exploded doctrine of divine right, or maintained with more plausibility, that every illegal measure of his government was vindicated by the declaration of the late parliament, that he was an absolute monarch, entitled. to unreserved obedience and accountable to none. Sir James Montgomery, and sir John Dalrymple, who conducted the debate on the opposite side, averred that the parliament was neither competent to grant, nor the king to acquire, an absolute power, irreconcileable with the reciprocal obligations due to the people 49. The illegal measures of Forfeiture the reign were reduced to fifteen articles, on the crown. recapitulation of which the estates declared "that "James VII. being a professed papist, did assume "the royal power, and acted as king, without ever

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taking the oath required by law; and had, by "the advice of evil and wicked counsellors, in"vaded the fundamental constitution of the king"dom, and altered it from a legal, limited mo"narchy to an arbitrary, despotic power; and. hath exerted the same to the subversion of the

66

protestant religion, and the violation of the laws "and liberties of the kingdom; whereby he hath forfaulted his right to the crown, and the throne

49 Balcarras. Life of William, iii. 51. Vindication of the Convention. State Tracts, temp. Gul.

of the

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