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BOOK

IX.

1685.

Entails authorized.

Amidst the new treasons which the parliament created, and the numerous attainders which it pro nounced, an act of an opposite tendency was passed, to authorize the perpetual entail of lands. That the Scots should have remained so long ignorant, or have availed themselves at such a late period, of a feudal institution which other nations were desirous to explode, are circumstances sufficient to excite our attention and surprise. The statute of entails was evaded in England before the Scots had begun to study or to improve their laws; and the carly sovereigns of the Stuart family would never have consented to a device adapted to perpetuate a feudal aristocracy, which it was the uniform policy of their house to depress. But the nobility at present were no longer the object of jealousy or fear. The estates were called upon to confirm the sentences of Jerviswood, Argyle, and Porterfield; to ratify the opinions of the court of session, that it was treason not to reveal the demand of contributions for traitors, nor to abjure the treasonable declaration of the fanatics; to approve the practice of the justiciary court, in proceeding to trial and conviction the day after the citation was given; and the nobility were secretly alarmed at the retrospective treasons which they were employed to create. From these they perceived that the declaration of new laws, and of new crimes, was lodged entirely in the breast of the judge; and from the numerous attainders

IX.

1685.

which they were required to pronounce, they felt BOOK with terror that their lives were exposed to the mercy, and their estates to the rapacity of the servants of the crown. To preserve their estates from forfeiture, and their families from ruin, it would appear that they sought an indirect expedient to elude the iniquitous laws and corrupt practices, which they were too dependent to reject or to resist. Entails had already been introduced in a few instances, but were reprobated as repugnant to the genius of the laws. Corruption of blood, which obstructs the course of succession, was a penalty never incurred as the consequence of attainder, unless it were inflicted by an act of dishabilitation; and the estates, relying secretly on the maxim, that nothing more could be forfeited than the person attainted was entitled to alienate, passed an act by which lands might be entailed to perpetuity, and the rights of an endless series of heirs be reduced almost to an usufructuary interest during their lives. Under the pretext of securing their estates from alienation or debts, the nobility undoubtedly expected to preserve their families, in the event of an attainder, from the forfeiture of more than the life-rent interest or escheat of the heir 5. The commissioner consented to the act, to perpetuate his own acquisitions to

5 At the revolution they declared that " Forfeitures in prejudice of vassals, creditors, and heirs of entail, are a great grievance." Articles of Grievance.

IX.

1685.

BOOK his family; and from the tyranny of James, entails were introduced into Scotland, when the rigor of the feudal system had almost expired. In a commercial country, above a fifth, or a third part of the lands is excluded from commerce; and entails will continue to increase, till the magnitude of the evil requires an extensive redress.

Argyle's descent:

In the mean while, the exiles attainted by parliament had resumed the plan of a descent on Scotland, to which they were stimulated by their private and the public wrongs. Argyle was elected general, and supplied by a rich and zealous widow at Amsterdam, with ten thousand pounds for the purchase of arms". Monmouth, reduced from the most splendid hopes to sudden poverty and despair, was invited, and persuaded by the importu, nity of his followers, to engage in a premature and desperate enterprise, which his judgment condemned; and Fletcher of Salton, who alone dissuaded the attempt, disdained, where he approved the object, to desert his friends?. While Argyle attempted a descent in Scotland, it was concerted that Monmouth should land in the west of England, where his name and person were so extremely popular, that the whole country was

Mrs. Smith, a sugar baker's widow, who had concealed him in London, on his escape from Scotland. Wodrow, ii. 213. 541. Burnet, iii. 18. Lord Grey's Secret History of the Rye-House Plot, 120.

7 Burnet, iii. 18.

BOOK

IX.

1685.

May 2.

expected to resort to his standard. Argyle embarked, with his friends, at Vlie, and in order to procure intelligence or pilots, stopt at the Orkneys; but his secretary and surgeon were intercepted, on landing, by Mackenzie the bishop; his expedition was timely disclosed to government; and before his arrival at Lorn, the kingdom was May 17. placed in a posture of defence. He erected the fiery cross, which was sent through the highlands, to summon his clan to arms; and issued two declarations, the one addressed to his vassals, recapitulating his personal injuries, the other to the covenanters in the name of his adherents, enumerating pathetically the sufferings of the nation under popery and tyranny united; protesting their stedfast adherence to the covenant, and disclaiming allegiance or subjection to a popish king. But his vassals had been secured on the first notice of his approach; the militia was raised through the whole kingdom; the presbyterians were crushed by oppression, or were restrained by the presence of a military force; and the Cameronians, who renewed their declaration at Sanquhar, scrupled to join his promiscuous associates, the grounds of whose declaration were inconsistent with their own. Two thousand five hundred of his clan were collected; but by a fatal oversight, he lingered in Kintyre to increase his strength, instead of transporting his troops to the Clyde to surprise Dunbarton; to establish a communica

IX.

1685.

BOOK tion with the western fanatics, or to justify the temerity of his enterprise, and confirm the hopes of his followers, by some signal exploit. This ill-fated nobleman was unequal to the situation in which he was placed. His officers disconcerted his plans, and disputed his commands. His shipping, and the military stores which he had deposited in the castle of Ellengreg, were abandoned to some English frigates, and when he descended into Lennox to cross the Clyde, the marquis of Athole, the duke of Gordon, and the earl of Dunbarton, penetrating in every direction through the country, had almost surrounded his diminutive army. His intention to fight was overruled by his officers, and his army, in its march by night towards Glasgow, was misled or betrayed by the guides into a deep morass, where the baggage and horse were lost, and all order and subordination instantly ceased. In the tumult and confusion of a nocturnal retreat, each consulted his own safety, and in the morning not above five hundred of his followers remained. A part escaped at Kilpatrick, across the Clyde, and the rest dispersed. Argyle, Peer in the disguise of a peasant, was overtaken at Paisley by two of the militia, whom his pistols intimidated; but in crossing the Carl at Inchannon, he was attacked and wounded by five others, and exclaimed in falling, alas! unfortunate Argyle! They regretted the situation, and would have concealed the rank of their prisoner, whom they

Taken prisoner, June 18.

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