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THE

HISTORY

OF

SCOTLAND.

BOOK X.

Convention turned into a parliament.-Insurrection.-
Dundee's Victory and Death.-Montgomery's Plots.
Redress of grievances, and Presbytery restored.-
Massacre of Glencoe.-Settlement of Darien.-Na-
tional distress and despair.-Death of James.-
Death and character of William.

X.

nistration.

It T was difficult, in the choice of an administra- BOOK tion, to gratify the unreasonable expectations 1689. of claimants, and to provide for the security of the New adminew reign. The episcopal party had few pretensions: from their refusal of the oaths to government, they soon acquired the appellation of nonjurors; and of Jacobites, from their stedfast attachment to James. The presbyterians who began the revolution, assumed superior merit with the king; but the exiles who returned from Holland, enjoyed a larger share of his confidence and esteem. Lord Melville, with inferior talents, was appointed

X.

1689.

BOOK sole secretary, in preference to Montgomery, whose mind was estranged from the new government by disgust and neglect. The duke of Hamilton was appointed high commissioner, the earl of Crawford president of parliament; but as the chief, offices of state, the treasury and the seals, were reserved to be put in commission, the former was disappointed of the distribution of places among his children and friends. By a choice less fortunate, as it was productive of general discontent, Dalrymple created viscount Stair, was restored to the presidency of the court of session, on the assassination of Lockhart, by one who conceived himself injured by an unjust award. Sir John Dalrymple, his son, was appointed king's advocate; and though they were both presbyterians, they were unacceptable and odious to that party from their compliance with the times. Their abilities were confessedly great and transcendant; but the father had abetted the iniquitous administration of Lauderdale; the son, as king's advocate in the late reign, had revived the persecutions for the insurrection at Bothwell; and from a general dislike of the confidence unguardedly reposed in men whose characters were by no means pure, their advice was suspected of creating a separation of interests between the people and the king. But the confidence of William was soon transferred to Carstairs, his chaplain, who studied, like the earl of Nottingham in England, to pre

X.

possess his master against the surrender of a single BOOK branch of his prerogative, as the more dangerous, and necessary to be resisted, where he was raised by popular consent to the throne'.

1689.

turned into

ment.

In the transactions of civil society, the example Convention of Cortes, when he resigned his commission from a partia Velasquez to a council of his own appointment, from whom he received another in the name of his sovereign, has been frequently transcribed. By June 5. the royal assent to an act of convention, the estates who declared William king, were inversely converted into a parliament by the same powers which they had previously conferred. Necessity was supposed, in each kingdom, to supersede the vain consideration of forms. While the nation was threatened with an invasion by James, who had landed in Ireland, and with a civil war by Dundee, who retired to the highlands, neither the convention could be safely dissolved, nor another parliament freely elected. But it is observable, that representatives are ever more desirous to perpetuate their authority than to return to their constituents; and when the convention was once converted into a parliament, its authority was prolonged during the whole reign.

. When the redress of grievances was taken into Opposition. consideration, a sudden opposition was created> between the parliament and the king. The latter,

'Balcarras, 64. Burnet, iv. 34. Fount. Dec. Carstairs'

State Papers, p. 42.

X.

1689.

BOOK though not adverse to the regulation of the lords of articles, proposed that they should be freely elected and monthly renewed by their respective estates; agreed that whatever motions they rejected might be revived in parliament; but required that the officers of state should be conjoined to facilitate business, or to preserve some share of a negative before debate. But the parliament, jealous of their influence or encroachments, was inflexible in demanding their removal from the articles. Their introduction into that committee was originally an usurpation, no less than the official seats which they had acquired in parliament; and the loudest resentment was excited at the king's refusal, or reluctance, to redress entirely the first grievance of which the nation complained 2.

William, indifferent to forms of worship if toleration were established, would have concurred in preserving prelacy, if the episcopal party had contributed to his support 3. But as presbytery was the condition on which he was admitted to the throne, an act was passed to abolish prelacy and pre-eminence in ecclesiastical office. His commissioner was instructed to repeal the extensive

2 State Tracts, Temp. Gul. iii. 466. Burnet, iv. 35. Hist. of the Rev. 150. Minutes of Parlt. MS.

3 Keith's Catalogue of Scottish Bishops, 43. iv. 33.

Burnet,

X.

1689.

supremacy which Charles had acquired4; but he BOOK scrupled to abrogate the rights of patronage, which he considered as the only expedient to infuse a mild or more tolerant spirit into the presby terian church. The parliament persisted in the repeal of patronage; and though episcopacy was abolished, presbyterian government, from their mutual opposition, remained unestablished.

From the same desire to restrain intolerance, he refused his assent to an act for the incapacita tion of such as opposed the revolution, or con curred in the illegal measures of the two preceding reigns. Proscription from office, if ever justifiable, was justified by the recent government of Scotland. But the king adopted a generous and wise resolution, to exclude no party from his service, or from the hopes of preferment, and to reduce no description of men to despair.

The nomination of the whole judges was challenged, in order to exclude Stair the president from the court of session. It was admitted that a single vacancy might be supplied by prerogative; but it was affirmed that the court, on a total vacancy produced by the revolution, must be renewed, as at first created, by the authority of par

See his instructions, State Tracts, iii. 460. "to establish that form of ecclesiastical government most agreeable to the people." As the parliament was prorogued before the acts were passed, Montgomery represented, in the Address and Vindication, that they were refused by William.

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