Second series

Chapter 1

Character of Charles II. Middleton sent as High Commissioner to Scotland — Measures of the Scottish Parliament for the Introduction of Episcopacy — Trial and Execution of the Marquis of Argyle — Trial of Judge Swinton, and others — Act of Uniformity — The JVonconforming Clergy displaced — The Earl of Lauderdale succeeds to the power of Middleton. Of Charles the Second, who thus unexpectedly, and as it were by miracle, was replaced on his father's throne, in spite of so many obstacles as within even a week or two of the event seemed to render it incredible, I have not much that is advantageous to tell you. He was a prince of an excellent understanding, of which he made less use than he ought to have done ; a graceful address, much ready wit, and no deficiency of courage. Unfor tunately, he was very fond of pleasure, and, in his zeal to pursue it, habitually neglected the interests of his kingdom.

He was very selfish too, like all whose own gratification is their sole pursuit ; and he seems to have cared little what became of friends or enemies, providing he could maintain himself on the throne, get money to sup ply the expenses of a luxurious and dissolute court, and enjoy a life of easy and dishonourable pleasure. He was good-natured in general ; but any apprehension of his own safety easily induced him to be severe and even cruel, for his love of self predominated above both his STATE OF CHURCH AFFAIRS sense of justice and his natural clemency of temper. He was always willing to sacrifice sincerity to conven ience, and perhaps the satirical epitaph written upon him at his own request, by his witty favourite, the Earl of Rochester, is not more severe than just — Here lies our Sovereign Lord, the King, Whose word no man relies on ; Who never said a foolish thing1, And never did a wise one.

After this sketch of the King's character, we must return to Scotland, from which we have been absent since Monk's march from Coldstream, to accomplish the Re storation. ' This great event was celebrated with the same general and joyful assent in Scotland which had hailed it in the sister country. Indeed the Scots, during the whole war, can hardly be said to have quitted their sentiments of loyalty to the monarchy. They had fought against Charles I., first to establish Presbytery in their own country, and then to extend it into England ; but then even the most rigid of the Presbyterians had united in the resistance to the English, had owned the right of Charles the Second, and asserted it to their severe .national loss at the battle of Dunbar. Since that eventful action, the influence of the Church of Scotland over the people at large had been considerably diminished, by disputes among the ministers themselves, as they espoused more rigid or more moderate doctrines, and by the various modes in which it had been Cromwell's policy to injure their re spectability, and curb their power.

But the Presbyteri an interest was still very strong in Scotland. It entirely occupied the Western counties, had a large share of in fluence in the south and midland provinces, and was only inferior in the northern shires, where the Episcopal inter est always prevailed. The Presbyterian church was sufficiently alive to their own interest and that of their body ; for they had sent to Monk's army, ere it had reached London, an agent or IN SCOTLAND. commissioner, to take care of the affairs of the Scottish Church in any revolution which should take place in con sequence of the General's expedition. This agent was James Sharpe, famous for his life, and still more for his deplorable death. At this time he was a man competently learned, bold, active, and ambitious, displaying much zeal for the interest of the Church, and being certainly by no means negligent of his own.

This Master James Sharpe quickly found, while at London, that there was little purpose of establishing the Presbyte rian religion in Scotland. It is true, that King Charles had, on his former expedition into Scotland, deliberately accepted and sworn to the Solemn League and Covenant, the principal object of which was the establishment of Presbytery of the most rigid kind. It wars also true, that the Earl of Lauderdale, who, both from his high talents, and from the long imprisonment which he had sustained ever since the battle of Worcester, had a peculiar title to be consulted on Scottish affairs, strongly advised the King to suffer his northern subjects to retain possession of their darling form of worship ; and though he endea voured to give this advice in the manner most agreeable to the King, ridiculing bitterly the pedantry of the ministers, and the uses made of the Covenant, and in so far gratifying and amusing the King, still he returned to the point, that the Covenant and Presbyterian discipline ought not to be removed from Scotland, while the people con tinued so partial to them.

They should he treated, he thought, like froward children, whom their keepers do not vex by struggling to wrest from them an unfitting plaything, but quietly wait to withdraw it when sleep or satiety makes it indifferent to them. But the respect due to the King's personal engage ment, as well as the opinion thus delivered by this world ly-wise nobleman, were strongly contested by those Cav aliers who professed absolute loyalty and devotion to the King, and affected to form their political opinions on thoso of Montrose. They laid upon the Presbyterian Church 1* VOL. MIDDLETON MADE the whole blame of the late rebellion, and contended that the infamous transaction of delivering up Charles the First to England, was the act of an army guided by Presbyterian counsels. In short, they imputed to the Church of Scotland the whole original guilt of the war, and though it was allowed that they at length joined the Royal cause, it was immediately said that their accession only took place when they were afraid of being deprived of their power over men's consciences, by Cromwell and his independent schismatics.

The King was then re minded, that he had been received by the Presbyterians less as their Prince than as their passive tool and engine, whom they determined to indulge in nothing save the name of a Sovereign ; and that his taking the Covenant had been under a degree of moral restraint, which ren dered it as little binding as if imposed by personal violence. Lastly, he was assured that the whole people of Scotland were now so much delighted with his happy restoration, that the moment was highly favourable for any innovation either in church or state, which might place the crown firmer on his head ; that no change could be so important as the substitution of Episcopacy for Presbytery ; and that the opportunity, if lost, might never return. The King himself had personal reasons, though they ought not to have entered into such a discussion, for re collecting with disgust the affronts and rigorous treatment which he had received from the Presbyterian leaders, before. the battle of Dunbar had diminished their power.

He had then adopted a notion that Presbytery was not a religion " for a gentleman," and he now committed to Lord Middleton, who was to be his High Commissioner and representative in the Scottish Parliament, full powers to act in .the matter of altering the national religious es tablishment to the Episcopal model, as soon as he should think proper. This determination was signing the doom of Presby tery as far as Charles could do so, for Middleton, though once in the service of the Covenanting Parliament, and HIGH COMMISSIONER. as such opposed to Montrose, by whom he was beaten at the Bridge of Dee, had afterwards been Major-General of the Duke of Hamilton's ill-fated army, which was de stroyed at Uttoxeter in 1648, and ever since that period had sought Bravely, though' unsuccessfully, in the cause of Charles, maintaining at the same time the tenets of the most extravagant Royalism.

He was a good soldier, but in other respects a man of inferior talents, who had lived the life of an adventurer, and who, in enjoying the height of fortune which he had attained, was determined to indulge without control all his favourite propensities. These were, unhappily, of a coarse and scandalous na ture. The Covenanters had assumed an exterior of strict demeanour and precise morality, and the Cavaliers, in order to show themselves their opposites in every re spect, gave into the most excessive indulgences in wine and revelry, and conceived that in doing so they showed their loyalty to the King, and their contempt of what they termed the formal hypocrisy, of his enemies. Their Parliament, when they met, were generally, many of them, under the influence of wine, and they were more than once obliged to adjourn, because the Royal Com missioner was too intoxicated to behave properly in the chair.

While the Parliament' were in this jovial humour, they failed not to drive forward the schemes of the Commis sioner Middleton, and of the more violent Royalists, with a zeal which was equally imprudent and impolitic. At once, and by a single sweeping resolution, they annulled and rescinded every statute and ordinance which had been made by those holding the supreme authority in Scotland since the commencement of the civil wars ; al though in doing so, they set aside many laws useful to the subjects, many which had received the personal as sent of the Sovereign, and some that were entered into expressly for his defence, and the acknowledgment and protection of his right. By a subsequent act, the whole Presbyterian church government was destroyed, and the Episcopal institutions, to which the nation had shown MEASURES FOR THE themselves so adverse, were rashly and precipitately es tablished.

Mr. James Sharpe, who had yielded to the high temptations held out to him, was named Lord Bishop of Saint Andrews, and Primate of Scotland, and other persons, either ancient members of the Episcopal Church, or new converts to the doctrines which seemed a sure road to preferment, were appointed Prelates, with seats in Parliament, and great influence in the councils of the nation. It may seem wonderful that such great changes, and in a matter so essential, should have been made without more violent opposition. But the general joy at finding themselves delivered from the domination of England ; the withdrawing the troops, and abandoning the citadels by which Cromwell had ruled them, as a foreign con queror governs a subdued country ; and the pleasure of enjoying once more their own Parliament under the au thority of their native prince, had a great effect, amid the first tumult of joy, in reconciling the minds of the Scot tish people to the change even of the form of religion, when proposed and carried through as the natural con sequences (it was pretended) of the restoration of royal power.

The Scottish nobility, and many of the gentry, especially the younger men, had long resented the interference of the Presbyterian preachers, in searching out scandals and improprieties within the bosoms of families ; and this right, which the clergy claimed and exercised, became more and more intolerable to those who were disposed to adopt the gay and dissolute manners which distinguished the Cavaliers of England, and who regarded with resentment the interference and rebukes with which the Presbyterian clergy claimed the right of checking their career of pleasure. The populace of the towns were amused with proces sions, largesses, free distribution of liquor, and such like marks of public rejoicing, by which they are generally attracted. And I cannot help mentioning as remarkable, that upon 23d April, 1661, Jenny Geddes, the very

Introduction

OF EPISCOPACY. woman who had given the first signal of civil broil, by throwing her stool at the Dean of Edinburgh's head, when he read the service-book on the memorable 23d July, 1637, showed her conversion to loyalty by contributing the materials of her green-stall, her baskets, shelves, forms, and even her own wicker-chair, to augment a bon fire kindled in honour of his Majesty's coronation, and the proceedings of his Parliament. There were many, however, in Scotland, who were differently affected by the hasty proceedings of Middle ton and his jovial Parliament, of whose sentiments I will have much to say hereafter. The greatest evil to be apprehended from the King's return, was the probability that he might be disposed to distinguish the more especial enemies of himself and his father, and perpetuate the memory of former injuries and quarrels, by taking vengeance for them.

He had indeed published a promise of indemnity and of oblivion, for all offences during the civil war, against his own or his fath er's person. But this proclamation bore an exception of such persons as Parliament should point out as especially deserving of punishment. Accordingly, those who had been actively concerned in the death, or as it may well be termed, the murder of Charles I., were, with one or two others, who had been peculiarly violent during the late times, excepted from pardon ; and although but few were actually executed, yet it had been better perhaps to have spared several even of the most obnoxious class. But that is a question belonging to English history. In order that Scotland might enjoy the benefit of similar examples of severity, it was resolved also to bring to trial some of the most active persons there.

Among these, the Marquis of Argyle, whom we have so often mentioned, was by far the most considerable. He had repaired to London on the Restoration, hoping to make interest with the King, but was instantly arrested, and imprisoned in the Tower, and afterwards sent down to Scotland to undergo a trial, according to the laws of that country. There was a strong desire, on the part of TRIA1 AND EXECUTION OF THE the Cavalier party, that Argyle should be put to death, in revenge for the execution of Montrose, to whom you must remember he had been a deadly and persevering enemy. Undoubtedly he had been guilty of much cruelty in suppressing the Royalist party in the Highlands ; and had probably been privately accessary to Montrose's tragical fate, though he seemed to hold aloof from the councils held on the subject.

But then it was greatly too late to call him into judgment for these things. The King, when he came to Scotland after Montrose's execution, had acknowledged all that was done against him as good service, had entered the gate of Edinburgh, over which the features of his faithful general were blackening in the sun, and received, in such circumstances, the at tendance and assistance of Argyle, as of a faithful and deserving subject. Nay, besides all this, which in effect implied a pardon for Argyle's past offences, the Marquis was protected by the general Act of Remission, granted by Charles in 1651, for all state offences committed be fore that period. Sensible of the weight of this defence, the Crown Council and Judges searched anxiously for some evidence of Argyle's having communicated with the English army subsequently to 1651.

The trial was long protracted, and the accused was about to be acquitted for want of testimony to acts of more importance than that compul sory submission which the conquering Englishmen de manded from all, and which no one had the power to refuse. But just when the Marquis was about to be discharged, a knock was heard at the door of the court, and a despatch just arrived from London was handed to the Lord Advocate. As it was discovered that the name of the messenger was Campbell, it was concluded that he bore the pardon, or remission, of the Marquis ; but the contents were very different, being certain letters which had been written by Argyle to General Monk, when the latter was acting Cromwell, in which he naturally endeavoured to gain the general's good opinion, by expressing a zeal for the English interest, then headed and managed MARO.UIS OF ARGYLE. 11 by his correspondent.

Monk, it seems, had not intended to produce these letters, if other matter had occurred to secure Argyle's condemnation, desirous, doubtless, to avoid the ignominy of so treacherous an action ; yet he resolved to send them, that they might be produced in evidence, rather than that the accused should be acquit ted. This transaction leaves a deep blot on the charac ter of the restorer of the English monarchy. These letters, so faithlessly brought forward, were re ceived as full evidence of the Marquis's active compli ance with the English enemy ; and being found guilty, though only of doing that which no man in Scotland dared refuse to do at the time, he received sentence of death by beheading. As Argyle rose from his knees, on which he had received the sentence, he said, " This reminds me, that I was the first to adorn the head of his Majesty with a crown, (meaning at the coronation at Scone,) and this is my requital.

But may God give him a crown of glory !" He faced death with a courage which other passages of his life had not prepared men to expect, for he was generally esteemed to be of a timorous disposition. On the scaffold, he told a friend that he felt himself capable of braving death like a Roman, but he preferred submit ting to it with the patience of a Christian. The rest of his behaviour made his words good : and thus died the celebrated Marquis of Argyle, so important a person during this melancholy time. He was called by tho Highlanders Gillespie Grumach, or the Grim, from an obliquity in his eyes, which gave a sinister expression to his countenance. The Marquis's head replaced on the tower of the tolbooth that of Montrose, 1ns formidable enemy, whose scattered limbs were now assembled, and committed with much pomp to an honourable grave.

John Swinton, of Swinton, representative of a family which is repeatedly mentioned in the preceding series of these tales, was destined to share Argyle's fate. He had taken the side of Cromwell very early after the battle of Dunbar. and it was bv his counsels, and those of Lock- TRIAL OF JUDGE SWINTON. hart of Lee, that the Usurper chiefly managed the affairs of Scotland. He was, therefore, far more deeply en gaged in compliances with Cromwell than the Marquis of Argyle, though less obnoxious in other respects. Swin ton was a man of acute and penetrating judgment, and great activity of mind ; yet, finding himself beset with danger, and sent down to Scotland in the same ship with Argyle, he chose, from conviction, or to screen himself from danger, to turn Quaker. As he was determined that his family should embrace the same faith, his eldest son, when about to rise in the morning, was surprised to see that his laced scarlet coat, his rapier, and other parts of a fashionable young gentleman's dress at the time, were removed, and that a plain suit of grey cloth, with a slouched hat, without loop or button, was laid down by his bed-side.

He could hardly be prevailed on to as sume this simple habit. His father, on the contrary, seemed entirely to have humbled himself to the condition he had assumed ; and when he appeared at the bar in the plain attire of his new sect, he declined to use any of the legal pleas afforded by the act of indemnity, or otherwise, but answered according to his new religious principles of non-resistance, that it was true he had been guilty of the crimes charged against him, and many more, but it was when he was in the gall of wickedness and bonds of iniquity ; and that now, being called to the light, he acknowledged his past errors, and did not refuse to atone for them with his life. The mode of his delivery was at once so dignified and so modest, and the sight of a person who had enjoyed great power, placed under such altered circumstances, appears to have so much affected the Parliament before whom he stood, that his' life was spared, though he was impoverished by forfeiture and confiscation.

The people in his own country said, that if Swinton had not trembled, he would not have quaked ; but notwithstanding this pun, his conversation seems to have been perfectly sincere. It i3 said, that he had a principal share in converting to the opinions of the Friends, the celebrated Robert Bar- TRIAL OF THE EARL OF ARGYLE. clay, who afterwards so well defended their cause in the " Apology for the people called, in scorn, Quakers." Swinton remained a member of their congregation till his death, and was highly esteemed among them. The escape of Judge Swinton might be accounted al most miraculous, for those who followed him through the same reign, although persons chiefly of inferior note, ex perienced no clemency. Johnstone of Warriston, exe uted for high treason, was indeed a man of rank and a lawyer, who had complied with all the measures of Crom well and of the following times.

But it seems petty ven geance which selected, as subjects for capital punishment, Mr. Guthrie, a clergyman^ who had written a book imput ing the wrath of Heaven against Scotland, to the sins of Charles I. and his house, and a man called Govan, merely because he had been the first to bring to Scotland the news of Charles's death, and had told it in terms of ap probation. An act of oblivion was at length passed ; but it con tained a fatal clause, that those who might be entitled to plead the benefit of it, should be liable to certain fines, in proportion to their estates. The imposition of those fines was remitted to a committee of Parliament, who secretly accepted large bribes from those who were the most guilty, and inflicted severe penalties on such as were compara tively innocent. A transaction of a still more daring character, shows the rapacious and reckless character of the commissioner Middleton in the strongest light.

The Marquis of Argyle, as I have already said, had been executed, and his son succeeded to the title of Earl Argyle only. He had repaired to London, in order to make some interest at court, and had been persuaded that some of the minions of Lord Clarendon, then at the head of affairs, would, for a thousand pounds, undertake to pro cure for him that minister's patronage and favour. Argyle upon this wrote a confidential letter to Lord Duffes, in which he told him, that providing he could raise a thou- 2 VOL. ACT OF CONFORMITY. sand pounds, he would be able to obtain the protection of the English minister ; that in such a case he trusted the present would prove a gowk storm ;* and after some other depreciating expressions concerning the prevailing party in the Scottish Parliament, he added, that " then the King would see their tricks."

This letter fell into the hands of Middleton, who de termined, that for expressions so innocent and simple, be ing in fact the natural language of a rival courtier, Argyle should be brought to trial for teasing-making ; a crime, the essence of which consisted in spreading abroad false hoods, tending to sow dissension between the King and the people. On this tyrannical law, which had been raked up on purpose, but which never could have been intended to apply to a private letter, Argyle was condemned to lose his head, and forfeit his estate. But the account of such a trial and sentence for a vague expression of ill-humour, Struck Charles and his Privy Council with astonishment when it reached England, and the Chancellor, Clarendon, was the first to exclaim in the king's presence, that did he think he lived in a country where such gross oppression could be permitted, he would get out of his Majesty's dominions as fast as the gout would permit him.

An or der was sent down discharging the execution of Argyle, who was nevertheless detained prisoner, until the end of Middleton's government, — a severe penalty for imputing tricks to the royal ministry. He was afterwards restored to his liberty and estates, to become at a later period a victim to similar persecution. It was by driving on the alteration of Church government in Scotland, that Middleton hoped to regain the place in Charles's favour, and Clarendon's good opinion, which he had lost by his excesses and severity. A general act of uniformity was passed for enforcing the ob servances of the Episcopal church, and it was followed up by an order of council of the most violent character, framed, it is said, during the heat of a drunken revel at * A short storm, such as comes in the spring, the season of the cuckoo which the Scotch call the Gowk.

ACT OF CONFORMITY. Glasgow. This furious mandate commanded, that all ministers who had not received a presentation from their lay patrons, and spiritual induction into their livings from the prelates, should be removed from them by military force, if necessary. All their parishioners were discharg ed from attending upon the ministry of such nonconformists, or acknowledging them as clergymen. This was at one stroke displacing all Presbyterian ministers who might scruple at once to turn Episcopalians. It appeared by this rash action, that Middleton entertained an opinion that the ministers, however attached to Presbyterianism, would submit to the Episcopal model, rather than lose their livings, which were the only means most of them had for the support of themselves and fam ilies. But to the great astonishment of the commissioners, about three hundred and fifty ministers resigned their churches without hesitation, and determined to submit to the last extremity of poverty, rather than enjoy comfort at the price of renouncing tbe tenets of their Church.

In the north parts of Scotland, in the midland counties, and along the eastern side of the Borders, many or most of the clergy conformed. But the Western shires, where Presbytery had been ever most flourishing, were almost entirely deprived of their pastors : and the result was, that a number equal to one-third of the whole parish min isters of Scotland, were at once expelled from their livings, and the people deprived of their instructions. The congregations of the exiled preachers were strongly affected by this sweeping change, and by the fate of their clergymen. Many of the latter had, by birth or marriage, relations and connexions in the parishes from which they were summarily banished, and they had all been the zealous instructors of the people in religion, and often their advisers in secular matters also.

It was not in nature that their congregations should have seen them with indifference suddenly reduced from decent comfort to in digence, and submitting to it with patience, rather than sacrifice their conscientious scruples to their interest. Ac BURNING OF THE COVENANT. cordingly, they showed, in almost every case, the deepest sympathy with their distresses. The cause also for which the clergy suffered, was not indifferent to the laity. It is true, the consequences of the Solemn League and Covenant had been so fatal, that at the time of the Restoration none but a few high-flying and rigid Presbyterians would have desired the re-establishment of that celebrated engagement. It depended only on the temper and moderation of the court, to have reduced what was once the idol of all true Presbyterians, to the insignificance of an old almanack, as it has been termed by the Independents.

But there was great dif ference between suffering the Covenant to fall into neg lect, as containing doctrines too highly pitched and read ily susceptible of misrepresentation, and in complying with the government by ridiculing as absurd, and renouncing as odious, a document, which had been once so much respected. The Parliament, however, commanded the Solemn League and Covenant to be burnt at the Cross of Edin burgh, and elsewhere, with every mark of dishonour ; while figures, dressed up to resemble Western Whiga mores, as they were called, were also committed to the flames, to represent a burning of Presbyterianism in effi gy. But as those who witnessed these proceedings, could not but recollect, at the same time, that upon its first being formed, the same Covenant had been solemnly sworn to by almost all Scotland, with weeping eyes, and uplifted hands, and had been solemnly taken by the King himself, and a very large proportion of the nobility, including the present ministers — it was natural they should feel invol untary respect for that which once appeared so sacred to themselves, or to their fathers, and feel the unnecessa ry insults directed against it as a species of sacrilege.

The oaths, also, which imposed on every person in public office the duty of renouncing the Covenant, as an un lawful engagement, was distressing to the consciences of many, particularly of the lower class ; and, in general, the efforts made to render the Covenant odious aud con- THE CURATES. temptible, rather revived its decaying interest with the Scottish public. There was yet another aggravation of the evils conse quent on the expulsion of the Presbyterian clergy. So many pulpits became vacant at once, that the prelates had no means of filling them up with suitable persons, whose talents and influence might have supplied the place of the exiled preachers. Numbers of half-educated youths were hastily sent for from the northern districts, in order that they might become curates, which was the term used in the Scottish Episcopal Church for a parish priest, although commonly applied in England to signify a clergyman hired to discharge the duty of another.