CHAP. III. 1669. and continue to blow from that quarter." This was exactly what Lauderdale wanted. He loft na time in obeying his majefty's commands, or rather, in executing his own long determined purpose. He knew the fervility of parliament, and the incapacity of a poor and oppreffed people to make any formidable refiftance: he therefore refolved to crush all oppofition in the first instance, and to deftroy at one blow all the remaining liberty of the kingdom. He quickly convened a new parliament; and in order to prevent any doubts of the king's fupremacy, he had it declared by an express act, that the settling all things, with regard to the external government of the church, was a right in the crown; and that whatever related to ecclefiaftical meetings, matters, and perfons, was to be ordered according to fuch directions as the king fhould fend to his privy council. He then caufed the * Lauderdale made the prefbyterian members believe, that this act, to which they confented with foolish fervility, would operate in favour of their fect, by reftraining the power of the bishops. But they foon found, that the power was transferred to much more dangerous hands. On a meeting of the prefbyterians, held in Fife, where fome of the gentlemen had come with their ordinary arms, a fevere law was paffed against those of the reformed religion who went not to church: ruinous fines were imposed both upon the preachers and hearers in conventicles, even if the meetings were held in private houses; but fieldconventicles were fubjected to the penalty of death and confifcation of goods: four hundred marks Scotch were offered as a reward the militia act to be paffed with these material alterations, that instead of confirming the king's power to raife forces upon any emergency, twenty-two thousand men, well armed, and properly disciplined, fhould be kept in conftant readiness to march into any part of the king's dominions, for any cause in which his majesty's authority, power, or greatness should be concerned; and that orders fhould be tranfmitted to them from the council of Scotland. By the first claufe, the right of levying troops, which is, indeed, a branch of the executive authority, was converted into a standing army; and the fecond, according to which thofe forces were to receive their orders, not from the king himself, but from the council, excited a clamour in England highly unfavourable to his majesty's character. It seemed as if the king wished to prepare an excufe for any cenfurable enterprize, in which those troops might be engaged, by pretending that they acted without his authority. reward to those, who fhould feize the criminals; and they were indemnified from any flaughter, which they should commit in the execution of such an undertaking. But as it was found difficult to obtain evidence against conventicles, however numerous, it was enacted by another law, that whoever, being required by the council, refused to give information upon oath, should be punished by arbitrary fines, by imprisonment, or by banishment to the plantations. It is deferving of remark, that in the wording of all these laws, the papists were the only recufants, who were exempted from punishment. VOL. I. R I fhall CHAP. III. 1669. CHAP. III. 1669. I fhall not pursue any farther the detail of Lauderdale's tyrannical proceedings. From this time he may be faid, in the stricteft fenfe, to rule Scotland with a rod of iron. The two acts, which ferved as the basis and fupport of his administration, were incompatible with any state of civil and religious fiberty. One of them put it in the king's power to introduce popery, or make any other change he pleased in the established worship. The other was like a ftretched-out arm, perpetually brandishing a fword, and ready with irresistible fury to cut down every affertor of his natural rights. By fuch means he terrified the people into fubmiffion; and for thefe fervices, he was rewarded by the king with a ducal coronet, with a place in the cabinet council of England, and with the continuance of an undivided command over his own ill-fated country [From * Burnet fays, that when Lauderdale, after these marks of royal favour, returned to Scotland in May, 1672, he was so lifted up with the fuccefs of the French arms, and took such pleasure in talking of De Witt's fate, that he could not be heard without horror: he had been lately married to one lady Dyfert, whose company he frequented during the life of his first wife: his new spouse was a woman of an imperious, rapacious temper, and being entirely void of principle, the connexion increased the aban doned profligacy of Lauderdale: every thing was fet to fale under his administration; and he himself and his duchess affected fuch state, and carried themselves with fuch infolence, that they : difgufted [From this period till the Revolution, Scotland. remained in a state of the most abject fubmiffion to the will of the fovereign. It is even now a matter of doubt with many, whether the articles of the UNION, which took place in queen Ann's reign, were not too much dictated by the fpirit of Cromwell's former fyftem; and whether the Scotch were not then too easily induced, by the fpecious offer of a just share in the British legiflature, to make a real and irrecoverable furrender of their conftitutional freedom and political inde-` pendence.] difgufted all the Scotch nobility. The duke of Hamilton, at the inftance of several of this order, was animated into a refolution of oppofing a heavy land-tax, to which the consent of parliament was to be required, for carrying on the second war against the Dutch; but he was diverted from his purpose, on being told by lord Athol, that there would be no more parliaments in England, and that the king was in a fair way of becoming abfolute. The reader muft, no doubt, be defirous to know what step Leighton took, after the total fubverfion of his mild system. This worthy prelate had, on the folicitations of the court, accepted the archiepifcopal fee of Glafgow; but he was very foon fo highly difgufted with the fevere laws paffed against the nonconformifts, fo chagrined with the disappointment of the hopes he had entertained of reconciling religious differences, and so ¿ffected with the melancholy prospect of the times, that he retired from his public employments to the friendly filence of folitude, where he had full leisure and liberty to spend the remainder of his days in prayer and meditation. CHAP. III. 1672. CHAP. 1660. CHA P. IV. Affairs of Ireland—Sir Charles Coote's perfidy—Proceedings of the Irish convention-Inftructions and conduct of the state-commiffioners-Deputies from the clergy-Claims of the adventurers-Pretenfions of the other parties-Difpofition of the court to favour the Irish catholics-Difficulties in the choice of a deputy for the government of Ireland-Appointment and removal of lord Robarts-The marquis of Ormond and others re-inftated in their ancient poffeffions-Refloration of epifcopacy-Sentiments of the king with respect to the different parties-Speech of the Irish claimants at the council-board-Reply of their adverfaries-First Act of Settlement-Injuftice and partiality in its execution-Explanatory Bill-The duke of Ormond made lord-lieutenantProceedings of the new commiffioners-Petition against them from the Irish parliament-General clamour excited by their decrees-Third examination before the English council-Open interference of the king in feveral inftances-Cafe of the marquis of Antrim-Farther grounds of complaint against the commiffioners-Their defence-Third Act of Settlement-Conclufive remarks. IT T is not eafy to conceive any task more intricate or embarraffing to government than that which the state of Ireland prefented at the king's restoration. |