there had been little persecution, the prospect of the change in the ecclesiastical polity excited no ferment." And Hetherington, in giving vent to his malignant exultation at the triumph of presbyterian principles, says, "they resolved to take that opportunity of expelling the prelatic curates from the parishes which they had so long polluted with their presence, and devastated with their cruelty. They accordingly seized upon these wretched men, turned them out of their usurped abodes, marched them to the boundaries of their respective parishes, and sent them away, without offering them any further violence 2!" Presbyterian authors entirely cover over the enormous atrocities that disgraced their sect at the period of the Revolution, under a few general sentimentalisms. But while affecting to call "these excesses improper," they never forget to give the last stab to the characters of these confessors for Christ, who has Himself pronounced a blessing on those who suffer as they had been made unjustly to suffer:"Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in Heaven."

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CHAPTER L.

PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP ROSS.

CONTINUED RABBLING AND PERSECUTION OF THE CLERGY.

1689.-An order for the meeting of a Convention in England.-NATIONAL DEBT commenced.-Convention.-Resolution of ABDICATION.-William and Mary declared king and queen-proclaimed.—Several bishops refuse the oaths.— The prince's declaration—and for Scotland.-Movement of the rabble.—College of justice take arms.-Foot-note.-The rabbling proceeds-at Manse of Livingstone-at Bathgate-Midcalder-a general description of their treatment.-Convention of estates-manner of its election.-Prince of Orange favourable to episcopacy.-Prince's letter read.-King James's letter-answer to the prince's letter.-A committee of estates.-Covenanters brought into Edinburgh-their conduct. CLAIM OF RIGHT.-Allegiance transferred to William. The prince and princess of Orange proclaimed king and queen. — Convention turned into a parliament.—William accepts the crown. — The oath. -Petition of the presbyterians.-Proclamation.-Vote of thanks to the rabble. -Effects of the proclamation—not read in Edinburgh.—Irregularity in sending the proclamation to the clergy.-Presbyterian ministers did not read the proclamation.-Committee of estates cite the clergy.—Dr. Strachan-his defence.-William and Mary take the oath.-Rabbling. Mr. Macmath.Burgess.—Mackenzie.—Hamilton.—Selkrig.—Spence.—Mowbray.— Presby

tery of Stranraer.-Mr. Ramsay.-Scott.-Alison.-Gillis.—Mackgill.—An affray.-Craig and Buchanan.-Remarks.-The liturgy.

1689. IMMEDIATELY on receiving intelligence of king James's departure from the kingdom, the prince of Orange published an order requiring all those who had served as members in any of the parliaments held in the reign of king Charles II. to meet him at St. James's on the 26th December the preceding year, together with the aldermen and common council of London. Some of the lords spiritual, and the lords temporal, assembled at Westminster on Christmas-day, and addressed the prince, requesting him to summon a Convention to meet on the 22d of January; and the commons concurred in the same request. The prince returned an answer, saying that he would endeavour to secure the peace of the nation, and issue his letters for assembling a convention, as they desired. To remove any apprehensions of a design to alter the disci

pline of the established church of England, the prince received the sacrament from the bishop of London on the 30th of December. The same day, he issued a declaration, authorising all officers and magistrates, except papists, to continue to act in their respective offices and places till the meeting of the convention. On the 10th of January he laid the foundation of the NATIONAL DEBT, by borrowing £200,000 from the City of London; so that, however glorious or bloodless it was at the time, it has not been a cheap revolution, but has since cost the nation much blood and treasure to maintain it.

THE CONVENTION assembled at Westminster on the 22d of January; the marquis of Hastings was chosen speaker by the Upper House, and Henry Powle, esq. by the Commons. letter was then presented by the prince of Orange, wherein he recommended to them the settlement of the kingdom, the condition of the protestants in Ireland, and, above all, despatch and unanimity in their resolutions. The archbishop of Canterbury, with some of the other bishops, did not attend this convention, although he was urgently pressed by several of his friends. He considered the meeting to be illegal; nevertheless, he ought to have attended it, if it had only been to have maintained the rights of his absent sovereign, and to have recorded his protest. Both houses addressed the prince, and returned thanks to his highness for delivering them from popery and arbitrary power, and for his care in the administration of the public affairs, which they desired him to continue. King James hearing of this convention, sent a letter addressed to the lords of his late privy council, asserting that his absence was involuntary, and only temporary; and he recapitulated his complaint against the late proceedings of his son-in-law. Notwithstanding this letter, the House of Commons agreed, on the 28th, to the following resolution :-"That king James II. having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of the kingdom, by breaking the original contract between king and people, and by the advice of jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws and withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, hath ABDICATED the government, and that the throne is thereby vacant."

THIS RESOLUTION was carried up to the Lords by Mr. Hampden, for their concurrence, to which the peers agreed, with these amendments: that instead of the word abdicated, the word deserted should be inserted, and the words the throne is thereby vacant should be wholly left out. The Commons peremptorily declined to admit of these amendments, and therefore sent to the Lords to desire a conference, which was agreed

to, and a committee was appointed to manage it. The Lords were anxious to substitute the word desertion, but the Commons would not agree to it, for their managers said desertion implies fear and compulsion, and they would not admit that coercion had been used, but that the king had made a free and voluntary abdication of the throne. The conferences continued till the 7th of February, when the peers sent a message to the Commons, saying that their lordships had agreed to their vote without any alterations 1.

THE PRINCESS OF ORANGE arrived from Holland at Whitehall on the 12th of February. Both houses of the convention attended the prince and princess of Orange at Whitehall, with a declaration asserting the rights and liberties of the subject, and with a resolution,

"THAT William and Mary, prince and princess of Orange, be, and be declared, king and queen of England, France, and Ireland, to hold to them during their lives, and the life of the survivor of them; and that the sole and full exercise of the royal power be only in, and executed by, the said prince of Orange, in the names of the prince and princess during their joint lives. Remainder to the heirs of the body of the princess Anne of Denmark, and the heirs of her body; remainder to the heirs of the body of the prince of Orange."

THE PRINCE refused the crown upon these conditions, unless the power as well as the name of king was conferred upon him, and he insisted that the princess should have no share in the government. If they would not yield to this demand, he threatened to withdraw his army and return to Holland, and leave the kingdom to the mercy of their exasperated sovereign. This threat silenced all opposition; and on the 13th, William Henry and Mary, prince and princess of Orange, were proclaimed king and queen at the usual places and with the customary solemnities. It is a curious coincidence, that William was born on the 4th November, 1650; married on the 4th November, 1677; and landed at Torbay on the 4th November, 1688. His household and ministry were immediately formed, and bishop Burnet observes that there was a majority of whigs, both in the council and among the great officers of state. On the 1st of March, the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishops of Gloucester, Ely, Norwich, Bath and Wells, and Peterborough, refused to take the oaths to king William;

1 Life of James II. 221-277; where a full account of the Conference is given.-Salmon's Chronological Historian, i. 248, 249.-D'Oyley's Life of San

croft.

and it is a remarkable circumstance, that four of these bishops were of the seven that had been sent to the Tower, and tried for disobeying king James's illegal orders.

IN HIS additional declaration the prince of Orange said"We are confident that no persons can have had such hard thoughts of us as to imagine that we have any other design in this undertaking than to procure a settlement of the religion and of the liberties and properties of the subjects upon so sure a foundation, that there may be no danger of the nation relapsing into the like miseries at any time hereafter." Yet the whole of his actions tended to shew that he had long fixed his firmest affections on the crown. He alleged several points that require to be proved before they can be admitted, but which were entirely forgotten as soon as he had secured the object of his ambition and of his expedition-that the prince of Wales was a supposititious child-that king James made a league with the king of France for the destruction of his protestant subjects-that Charles II. had been poisoned—and that the earl of Essex had been murdered. These are such heavy accusations, grievous charges, and horrid crimes, that they require to be proved before they can be believed; for if it were enough to accuse, there would not be an innocent person found. Although the jesuits into whose hands James had resigned himself were capable of any atrocity to serve the end that they had in view, and whose principles are such as to create a deserved detestation of popery, yet" to see a father setting up a pretended son against the interest of his own undoubted children; to behold a king bargaining for the destruction of his own subjects; to represent to our minds one brother preparing the deadly cup for the other, who yet ventured his crown rather than he would exclude him from the hopes of it in reversion; to look upon the same royal person plotting and managing the assassination of a captive and helpless peer; are such dismal sights and melancholy scenes, so full of horror and barbarous cruelty, that they must needs make sad impressions on the hearts even of the boldest spectators1," and they require better proof than the mere declamation that has been hitherto produced for them, to make them credible.

IN THE PRINCE's declaration for Scotland there was a clause commanding all parties then in arms, except garrisons and the company of foot kept up by the city of Edinburgh, instantly to be disbanded, and forbidding any one either to continue in arms or to take them up. This appears a very innocent

1 Somers' Tracts, 319.-The earl of Essex committed suicide in the water-closet