IX. Dundee retires to Stirling. BOOK strangers from town was required; and the refusal of this demand, before the castle had surren1689. dered, was the signal to retire. But the fears of the marquis of Athol recurred, while Dundee, alike indignant at his friends and enemies, was March 18. impatient of delay. He issued with his horse from the city, and, on a signal from the castle, halted to confer with the duke at the foot of the walls. The spectators were mistaken for his adherents, and when it was reported to the convention that his numbers were still increasing, the result apprehended from this remarkable interview, was, that the castle would begin to fire during an attack upon the town. But the president exclaimed, that there was more danger within the conven tion: the doors were secured, and the keys produced upon the table; and while the drums beat to arms, the Cameronians emerged from the caverns and cellars, where they had lain concealed. The episcopal party enclosed in the convention, and surrounded without by enemies, were apprehensive of a massacre, till the tumult subsided; and when released, on Dundee's departure for Stirling, they yielded to the terrors which their ́ adversaries sought to inspire. The marquis of affected an alarm. "That he went wherever the spirit of "Montrose should direct him," is a modern fiction, ex. ceeded only by another, that his heroism was caught from the recitation of Ossian's Poems! Dalrymple's Memoirs, ii. 305. and part 2d. 73. 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 Mackay 45. 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+7, 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 Meroirs, MS. 47 See in Robertson's Hist. a parliament held by Lennox in the Canongate, notwithstanding Kirkcaldy's endeavours 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 When relieved from opposition, the measures convention, 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 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. 1683. state. But the presbyterians wisely evaded his BOOK proposal of an union with England, as a complicated 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, 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 BOOK IX. tween the king and people, and having violated the fundamental laws, and withdrawn from the 1689. 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 |