THE HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. BOOK 1685. Accession BOOK IX. Accession and Parliament of James.-Argyle's Invasion and Execution.-Opposition to the repeal of the Penal Laws and the Test.-Dispensing Powers exerted.-Origin and Progress of the Revolution in England-in Scotland.-Convention of Estates. Forfeiture of the Crown by James,—its Settlement on the Prince and Princess of Orange. WHATEVER opposition had been made to there a popish successor, in the preceding reign, was no party now to resist or to disturb the of James. accession of James. The administration of the three kingdoms had been placed in his hands; and when the alarm of the popish, was succeeded by the detection of the Ryehouse plot, the English were apparently not averse to a tacit compromise for the surrender of their liberties, if their religion were preserved. The first ambi IX. 1685. guous declaration of James, that he would neither BOOK depart from his just prerogatives, nor invade the established government in church and state, was represented as the word of a prince never yet broken, and magnified as a security above all law. Addresses from every corporate body promised a secure and permanent authority, if from servile corporations, who had surrendered their privileges or suffered them to be violated, it were possible to collect the latent spirit or the sentiments of the people. The presby land. His accession was equally secure in Scotland. In ScotDuring his residence there, he had procured many personal friends among the nobility and gentry; and the royalists were attached to his person by the impunity with which they were indulged in the abuse of power; the highlanders, by his attention to their chieftains, and by his care to compose the dissensions of their clans. terians appeared to be the objects rather of his commiseration than fear. An indemnity was proclaimed on his accession; but an act of ostentatious clemency was disappointed, as usual, by the exception of all above the rank of mechanics or peasants, and the unhappy fugitives were required to surrender within three weeks, and to submit to the oath of allegiance or to perpetual exile. While the oath of allegiance was thus exacted, it is observable that the coronation oath for Scotland was declined by James, as repug IX. BOOK nant to the religion which he proposed to introduce; but the omission was employed, in a few years, to justify the declaration that he had forfeited the throne'. 1685. Tyranny The indemnity afforded no intermission to the continued. murders in the fields; on the contrary, military violence continued to increase. The wretched fugitives were daily shot; or, if tried by a jury of soldiers, were executed, often in clusters, on the highways and the officers, who ought to have restrained the troops, were accustomed, with a savage fury, to pistol the prisoners with their own hands. Even the humanity of government was barbarous, and disgraceful to a civilized state. Numbers were transported to Jamaica, Barbadoes, and the North American settlements; but the women were not unfrequently burnt in the cheek, and the ears of the men were lopt off to prevent, or to detect their return. The most inhuman injunctions which the council had issued, were implicitly executed. Three women at Wigton, who refused the oath of abjuration, were condemned to be drowned. The youngest, a child of thirteen, was suffered to escape. But her sister, a girl of eighteen, and the other, a woman, upwards of sixty, were fastened to stakes beneath the sea mark, that as the tide flowed around them, they might suffer the lin 1 Wodrow, ii. 471-3. Fount. Mem. MS. IX. 1685, gering horrors of a protracted death. The eldest BOOK was first suffocated by the rising tide. The youngest was suffered to recover, and after respiring awhile, was persuaded by her relations, to acknowledge or to bless the king; but when they demanded her release, Winram, the officer who attended the execution, on her refusing to sign the abjuration, ordered her to be plunged again into the stream till drowned3. ment. A parliament, which had been summoned in A parlia the preceding reign, was opened by Queensberry, April 28. the commissioner, who had engaged to render the government more despotical than ever, on assurance that the protestant religion should be preserved. The king's intentions were signified in the most arbitrary strain, that the estates were assembled, not only to express their duty, but to exhibit an exemplary compliance to others (the English parliament); that his demands were necessary, rather for their own security, than for the aggrandizement of his prerogative, which he was determined to maintain in its brightest lustre ; and as nothing had been left unattempted, by a fanatical band of assassins and traitors, he trusted that no measure would be omitted to suppress their murderous designs. The commissioner and the chancellor, who enlarged successively on the letter, indulged in the most virulent invectives IX. 1685. All BOOK against the fanatics, whom they humanely proposed to extirpate, not merely as rebels to the king, but as inveterate enemies to the human race. They recommended the most unreserved submission, and never perhaps was a parliament assembled more obsequious to the crown. opposition was removed with the presbyterians, who were excluded by the test. Apparently all sense of freedom was extinguished. The parliament, in a declaration or tender of duty, acknowledged the solid and absolute power with which the first and most fundamental laws of their monarchy, had invested the sovereign; professed their abhorrence of every principle derogatory to his sacred and supreme authority, in which alone their security or their rights consisted; promised a passive or entire obedience without reserve; and as the first fruits of their submissive loyalty, the whole nation, fit for arms, was devoted to his service; the excise was annexed to the crown for ever, and the land-tax was conferred upon the king for lifes. New treasons and ་ In the severe laws against fanatics, the parliaattainders. ment was equally obsequious to his demands. As persecution renders the duty of a witness equally odious as the task of an informer, the people were generally averse to judicial paths. The refusal to give evidence agaist traitors was converted * Wodrow, ii. 453. App. 147. Ralph, 857. Parl. 1685. c. 2. 12. |