1682. some of their agents were sent to England, in order CHAP. to treat with the proprietors of Carolina for a settle- LXIX. ment in that colony. Any condition seemed preferable to their living in their native country, which, by the prevalence of persecution and violence, was become as insecure to them as a den of robbers. ABOVE two thousand persons were outlawed on pretence of their conversing or having intercourse with rebels", and they were continually hunted in their retreat by soldiers, spies, informers, and oppressive magistrates. It was usual to put ensnaring questions to people living peaceably in their own houses; such as, "Will you renounce the cove"nant? Do you esteem the rising at Bothwel to "be rebellion? Was the killing of the Archbishop " of St. Andrews murder?" And when the poor deluded creatures refused to answer, capital punishments were inflicted on them. Even women were brought to the gibbet for this pretended crime. A number of fugitives, rendered frantic by oppression, had published a seditious declaration ; reno, ncing allegiance to Charles Stuart, whom they called, as they, for their parts, had indeed some reason to esteem him, a tyrant. This incident afforded the privy council a pretence for an unusual kind of oppression. Soldiers were dispersed over the country, and power was given to all commission-officers, even the lowest, to oblige every one they met with to abjure the declaration; and, upon refusal, instantly, without farther questions, to shoot the delinquent ". It were endless, as well as shocking, to enumerate all the instances of persecution, or in other words, of absurd tyranny, which at that time prevailed in Scotland. One of them, however, is so singular, that I cannot forbear relating it. 1682. CHAP. THREE Women were seized; and the customary LXIX. oath was tendered to them, by which they were to abjure the seditious declaration above mentioned. They all refused and were condemned to a capital punishment by drowning. One of them was an elderly woman: The other two were young; one eighteen years of age, the other only thirteen. Even these violent persecutors were ashamed to put the youngest to death: But the other two were conducted to the place of execution, and were tied to stakes within the sea-mark at low-water: A contrivance which rendered their death lingering and dreadful. The elderly woman was placed farthest in, and by the rising of the waters was first suffocated. The younger, partly terrified with the view of her companion's death, partly subdued by the entreaty of her friends, was prevailed with to say, God save the King. Immediately the spectators called out that she had submitted; and she was loosened from the stake. Major Winram the officer who guarded the execution, again required her to sign the abjuration; and upon her refusal, he ordered her instantly to be plunged in the water, where she was suffocated. THE severity of the administration in Scotland is in part to be ascribed to the Duke's temper, to whom the King had consigned over the government of that country, and who gave such attention to affairs as to allow nothing of moment to escape him. Even the government of England, from the same cause, began to be somewhat infected with the same severity. The Duke's credit was great at court. Though neither so much beloved nor esteemed as the King, he was more dreaded; and thence an attendance more exact, as well as a submission more obsequious, was paid to him. The saying of Waller was remarked, that Charles, in spite to the parliainent, who had determined that the Duke should not succeed him, was resolved that he should reign even CHAP. in his lifetime. LXIX. THE King, however, who loved to maintain a ba- 1682. lance in his councils, still supported Halifax, whom he created a marquis, and made privy seal, though ever in opposition to the Duke. This man, who State of possessed the finest genius and most extensive ca- the minispacity of all employed in public affairs during the try in England. present reign, affected a species of neutrality between the parties, and was esteemed the head of that small body known by the denomination of Trimmers. This conduct, which is more natural to men of integrity, than of ambition, could not, however, procure him the former character; and he was always, with reason, regarded as an intriguer rather than a patriot. Sunderland, who had promoted the exclusion-bill, and who had been displaced on that account, was again, with the Duke's consent, brought into the administration. The extreme duplicity, at least variableness, of this man's conduct, through the whole course of his life, made it be suspected that it was by the King's direction he had mixed with the country party. Hyde, created Earl of Rochester, was first commissioner of the treasury, and was entirely in the Duke's interests. THE King himself was obliged to act as the head of a party; a disagreeable situation for a Prince, and always the source of much injustice and oppression. He knew how obnoxious the dissenters were to the church, and he resolved, contrary to the maxims of toleration which he had hitherto supported in England, to gratify his friends by the persecution of his enemies. The laws against conventicles were now rigorously executed; an expedient which, the King knew, would diminish neither the numbers nor influence of the non-conformists; and which is therefore to be deemed more the result of passion than of policy. Scarcely any per CHAP. persecution serves the intended purpose but such as LXIX. amounts to a total extermination. 1682. New no of sheriffs. THOUGH the King's authority made every day great advances, it still met with considerable ob stacles, chiefly from the city, which was entirely in the hands of the malcontents. The juries, in particular, named by the sheriffs, were not likely to be impartial judges between the crown and the people; and, after the experiments already made mination in the case of Shaftesbury and that of College, treason, it was apprehended, might there be committed with impunity. There could not therefore be a more important service to the court than to put affairs upon a different footing. Sir John Moore, the mayor, was gained by secretary Jenkins, and encouraged to insist upon the customary privilege of his office, of naming one of the sheriffs. Accordingly, when the time of election came, he drank to North, a Levant merchant, who accepted of that expensive office. The country party said, that, being lately returned from Turkey, he was on account of his recent experience, better qualified to serve the purposes of the court. A poll was opened for the election of another sheriff; and here began the contest. June. The majority of the common-hall, headed by the two sheriffs of the former year, refused to acknowledge the mayor's right of appointing one sheriff, but insisted that both must be elected by the livery. 24th of Papillon and Dubois were the persons whom the country party agreed to elect: Box was pointed out by the courtiers. The poll was opened; but as the mayor would not allow the election to proceed for two vacancies, the sheriffs and he separated, and each carried on the poll apart. The country party, who voted with the sheriffs for Papillon and Dubois, were much more numerous than those who voted with the mayor for Box: But as the mayor insisted insisted, that his poll was the only legal one, he CHAP. declared Box to be duly elected. All difficulties, LXIX. however, were not surmounted. Box, apprehen 1682. sive of the consequences which might attend so dubious an election, fined off; and the mayor found it necessary to proceed to a new choice. When the matter was proposed to the common-hall, a loud cry was raised, No election! No election! The two sheriffs already elected, Papillon and Dubois, were insisted on as the only legal magistrates. But as the mayor still maintained, that Box alone had been legally chosen, and that it was not requisite to supply his place, he opened books anew; and during the tumult and confusion of the citizens, a few of the mayor's partisans elected Rich, unknown to and unheeded by the rest of the livery. North and Rich were accordingly sworn in sheriffs for the ensuing year; but it was necessary to send a guard of the train bands to protect them in entering upon their office. A new mayor of the court party was soon after chosen, by means, as is pretended, still more Oct. 25. violent and irregular. THUS the country-party were dislodged from their strong hold in the city; where, ever since the commencement of factions in the English government, they had, without interruption, almost without molestation, maintained a superiority. It had been happy, had the partialities, hitherto objected to juries, been corrected, without giving place to partialities of an opposite kind: But in the present distracted state of the nation, an equitable neutrality was almost impossible to be attained. The court and church. party, who were now named on juries, made justice subservient to their factious views; and the King had a prospect of obtaining full revenge on his enemies. It was not long before the effects of these alterations were seen. When it was first reported, VOL. VIIL N that |