Chapter VII: The Union of the Crowns (2)

=48. Argyle's Rising.=--_Monmouth_ was in _Holland_ when his father died, and many refugees from England and Scotland were there with him. Among them they got up a scheme for placing him on the throne in place of his uncle James, who was hated, while Monmouth was very popular. To carry this out they planned a rising, which was to have taken place at the same time in both kingdoms. _Argyle_ was to take the lead in _Scotland_, but he was subject to the interference of a _Committee_ chosen from among the others. The Government was informed of this intended outbreak, and all the clans that were known to be hostile to Argyle were roused against him. Early in May he landed in _Kintyre_, and sent out the fiery cross to summon his clansmen, who mustered to the number of 1800. But the quarrels and the jealousy of the Committee placed over him overthrew all his plans. By their advice he marched into the Lowlands, where the people were little disposed to join him. The fort where he had stored his arms and ammunition was seized by the King's men. His men were starving. They deserted in large numbers, and were at last dispersed by a false alarm as they were marching on Glasgow. Argyle himself was taken while trying to escape. He was still lying under the old sentence of death, which had been passed against him for leasing-making. This sentence was executed without any further trial, and with a repetition of all the indignities which had been heaped upon Montrose. After his death the vengeance of the Government fell on his clansmen. The country round _Inverary_ was wasted, while great numbers of the clan were transported to the plantations, many of them having been first cruelly mutilated. At the first alarm of the invasion a large body of prisoners for religious opinion, of all ages and both sexes, had been sent to _Dunnottar_, a strong castle on the coast of Kincardine, where they were so closely crowded together in one dungeon that many died there. Most of the survivors were also sent to the plantations.

=49. The Indulgence.=--Up to this time the _Council_ had blindly followed in the lead of the King. They would now do so no longer, as they feared that he meant to restore the Roman Catholic Faith. The _Duke_ of _Queensberry_, the Commissioner, was deprived of his office, and _James Drummond, Earl_ of _Perth_, a convert to Romanism, was placed in his stead. James next tried to get a Bill passed by which all the penalties against the Roman Catholics should be done away, while those against the Covenanters should remain in force. To this Bill even the bishops objected, and James saw that there was nothing for it but to treat all sects alike. He published several Indulgences, but it was only the last, in 1688, that was full and complete. It extended toleration to all, even to the Quakers, who had up to this time been as much despised and persecuted as the Covenanters.

=50. Deposition of James.=--This change of policy on the part of the King had come too late. His attack on the liberties of the Church in England had been resisted by seven of her bishops; and before long his English subjects resolved to bear his tyranny no longer. They invited his nephew and son-in-law, _William, Prince of Orange_, to come to their aid. He came, and was by common consent invited to mount the throne abdicated by James. When the news of William's entry into London reached Edinburgh, a deputation, headed by _Hamilton_, was sent to him, to pray him to call a _Convention_ of the Estates, and, till it met, to take the government of Scotland into his own hands, Jan. 7th, 1689.

=51. William and Mary, 1689-1702. The Convention.=--When the _Convention_ met there was a large Whig majority. They passed a resolution that James by his misgovernment had forfeited the throne; they therefore deposed him, and offered the crown to _William_ and his wife _Mary_, the daughter of James, on the same terms as had been made in England. The _Convention_ then turned itself into a _Parliament_, which went on to the end of the reign. The members went in procession to the Cross of Edinburgh, where their vote was read. William and Mary were then proclaimed; and the ministers of parishes were ordered to pray publicly for the King and Queen, on pain of being turned out of their livings. To the _Claim of Right_, which was much the same as the English one, a special clause was added, declaring prelacy to be an intolerable burthen which had long been hateful to the people, and which ought to be swept away. Three _Commissioners_ were sent with the _Instrument of Government_ to London. _Argyle_ administered the coronation oath; but William, while taking it, declared that he would not become a persecutor in support of any sect.

=52. The Rabbling.=--The fall of James was followed by the fall of the Episcopal Church, which had made itself hateful to the greater number of the people. They took the law into their own hands, and on _Christmas Day_, 1688, a general attack was made on the curates or parish priests in the _Western Lowlands_. About two hundred curates with their families were at once driven out of their houses with every sort of insult and abuse. William did not approve of these excesses, but he had no means of putting a stop to them, for there was no regiment north of the _Tweed_. He put forth a proclamation ordering all persons to lay down their arms, but it was little heeded. The rabbling and turning out went on much as before. If the bishops would have taken the oaths, William would most likely have protected them; but they remained true to their old master, and shared his fall. For a time all was disorder. In some parishes the curates went on ministering as heretofore, while in others the Presbyterian divines held services in tents, or illegally occupied the pulpits. It was not till June 1690 that the Presbyterian Church was re-established by law. Sixty of the ministers who had been turned out at the Restoration were still living, and to them was given authority to visit all the parishes, and to turn out all those curates whom they thought wanting in abilities, scandalous in morals, or unsound in faith. Those livings from which the curates had been rabbled and driven away were declared vacant. This way of dealing with the Church gave offence both to the Episcopalians and to the extreme Presbyterians, who did not approve of the interference of the King in Church matters. Both these parties continued to look on _William_ and _Mary_ as usurpers.

=53. Dundee's Revolt.=--When the Convention first met, each party, _Whigs_ and _Jacobites_ alike, had dreaded an outbreak on the part of the other. In the cellars of the city were hidden large numbers of _Covenanters_, who had been brought up from the West to overawe the _Jacobites_, while the _Duke of Gordon_ held the Castle for James, and he could, if he had so chosen, have turned the guns upon the city. But the Jacobites, finding themselves in the minority, determined to leave _Edinburgh_, and to hold a rival _Convention_ at _Stirling_; while it was agreed that the _Marquess of Athole_ should bring a body of his Highlanders to protect them. But this plan was so ill concerted that _Claverhouse_, now _Viscount_ _Dundee_, left hastily before the others were ready, an alarm was given, and they were all secured. Dundee withdrew to his own house in the _Highlands_, and stayed there quietly for some time. But a few months later certain letters written to him by James fell into the hands of the Government, and an order was sent out for his arrest. Thus roused to action, he summoned the clans for _King James_. Many of them joined him, more from hatred of Argyle than from love for James. _General Mackay_, who had come North with three regiments, was sent against him; but he was not used to the _Highland_ way of fighting, and wasted some weeks in running about after an enemy who always kept out of his way. Dundee had no regular troops, but, as Montrose had done before him, he showed what good soldiers the Celts can make with a good leader. As both Dundee and Montrose were Lowlanders, they could not excite the jealousy of the chiefs, and were all the better fitted for the supreme command of a Celtic army. Each clan in such an army formed a regiment bound together by a tie of common brotherhood, and all bound to live or die for the colonel their chief; and so long as the clans could be kept from quarrelling all went well. Dundee wrote to James, who was now in Ireland, for help; but he only sent three hundred miserably-equipped foot, under an officer named _Canon_. The hopes of the Whigs were placed in _Argyle_ and the western _Covenanters_, but neither of these did all that was expected of them. _Argyle_ could not, because his country had been so lately wasted; and the _Covenanters_ would not, because the more part of them thought it a sin to fight for a King who had not signed the Covenant. Some of them however thought otherwise, and of these a regiment was raised, and placed under the command of the Earl of Angus. This regiment was called the Cameronians.

=54. Battle of Killiecrankie.=--The war now broke out again. It was the great aim of each party to win over the adherents of Athole. The Marquess himself, to keep out of harm's way, had gone to England, and of those whom he had left to act for him some were for James, others for the King and Queen. It was of importance to both sides to secure the castle of _Blair_, which belonged to _Athole_, and near there the two armies met, at _Killiecrankie_, a pass leading into the Highlands. Here the Celts won a brilliant and decided victory. The clansmen charged sword in hand down the pass with such fury that they swept their foes before them; and Mackay, with a few hundred men, all he could gather of his scattered army, was forced to flee to Stirling, July 27, 1689. But this success had been dearly bought by the death of Dundee. Thus left without a leader, the victors thought more of plunder than pursuit; nor was there anyone among them fitted to fill Dundee's place, and to follow up the advantage he had won. Recruits came in, their numbers increased, but this only made the disorder greater.

=55. Attack on Dunkeld. Buchan's Attempt.=--A month later they attacked the _Cameronian_ regiment stationed at Dunkeld. They took the town at the first attack, but the soldiers defended themselves in the church and in a house belonging to _Athole_ in the town with such spirit, that the Highlanders were driven back. They blamed the _Irish_ for the defeat, and the _Irish_ blamed them, and the end of it was that the clans dispersed, and _Canon_ and his Irish withdrew to _Mull_. In the spring of the next year the clans gathered again, under an officer named _Buchan_, who came from James with a commission to act as his commander-in-chief in Scotland. But they were surprised and scattered in the strath of the _Spey_, by _Sir William Livingstone_, who held _Inverness_ for _William_. This action ended the _Civil War_ in _Scotland_, for _Gordon_ had long since given up Edinburgh Castle. To keep the western clans in order, _Mackay_ built a fort in the west of _Invernesshire_, which was called _Fort William_, in honour of the King. The castle on the _Bass_, a rock in the _Firth of Forth_, was the last place which held out for _James_, but the garrison were at last obliged to give in, from want of food.

=56. Reduction of the Highlands.=--Still the chiefs did not take the oaths to William, and were clearly only waiting for the appearance of a new leader to break out again. To win them over to the Government a large sum of money was put into the hands of _John Campbell, Earl of Breadalbane_. He was accused of cheating both the clans and the King by keeping a part of this sum himself, and he never gave any clear account of what he had done with it. At the same time a proclamation was put forth which offered pardon to all the rebels who should take the oaths to _William and Mary_ before or on December 31, 1691. All who did not take advantage of this offer were after that day to be dealt with as enemies and traitors, and warlike preparations were made for carrying out the threat.

=57. Massacre of Glencoe.=--By the day named the clans had all come in, except _MacIan_, chief of a tribe of _MacDonalds_, who lived in _Glencoe_, a wild mountain valley in the northwestern corner of _Argyleshire_. On the last day, December 31, _MacIan_ and his principal clansmen went to _Fort William_ to take the oaths, but found that there was no one there who had authority to administer them. There was no magistrate nearer than _Inverary_, and, as the ground was deeply covered with snow, it was some days before MacIan got there. But the sheriff, in consideration of his goodwill and of the delay that he had met with, administered the oaths, (January 6,) and sent an account of the whole affair to the Privy Council at Edinburgh. Unfortunately for Glencoe, _Breadalbane_ was his bitter personal enemy, and along with _Sir John Dalrymple_, the _Master of Stair_, he determined on his destruction. An order for the extirpation of the whole tribe was drawn up and presented to _William_, who signed it, and it was carried out with cold-blooded treachery. A party of soldiers, under the command of _Campbell of Glenlyon_, appeared in the Glen. They gave out that they came as friends, and as such they were kindly welcomed, and shared the hospitality of the MacDonalds for a fortnight. Without any warning they turned on their hosts, and before dawn of a winter's morning slew nearly all the dwellers in the valley, old and young together, February 13, 1691. They then burnt the houses, and drove off the cattle, so that nothing was left for the few wretched beings who had escaped death but to perish miserably of cold and hunger. Whether William knew the whole state of the case or not when he signed the warrant is not certain, but he did not punish those who had dared to commit this wholesale murder in his name. And though four years after, when a stir was made about it, he did grant a commission to the _Privy Council_ to inquire into the matter, he did not bring to judgment the _Master of Stair_, who was very clearly pointed out as the guilty person.

=58. Darien Scheme.=--Just at this time the public attention was taken up with a scheme for founding a new colony on the _Isthmus of Darien_, and people's minds were so full of it that nothing else was thought of. It was got up by _William Paterson_, who is to be remembered as the originator of the _Bank of England_. He fancied that he had found, what _Columbus_ and the other navigators of his day had sought in vain, a short cut to the _Indies_. His plan was to plant a colony on the isthmus which unites _North_ and _South America_, and to make it the route by which the merchandise of the East should be brought to Europe, thereby shortening the long sea-voyage. He drew glowing pictures of the untold wealth that would thus fall to the lot of those who were clear-sighted enough to join in the venture. A charter was granted to the new Company, which gave them a monopoly of the trade with Asia, Africa, and America for a term of thirty-one years, with leave to import all goods duty free, except foreign sugar and tobacco. Never had project been so popular. Every one was anxious to take shares. Half the capital of Scotland was invested in it, and poor and rich alike, deceived by _Paterson's_ lying stories of the healthiness and fertility of the soil and climate, were eager to hasten to the new colony. A few vessels were bought at _Hamburg_ and _Amsterdam_. In these twelve hundred emigrants set sail on the 25th July, 1698, and arrived safely on the shore of the Gulf of _Darien_. They named the settlement which they founded there _New Caledonia_, and built a town and a fort, to which they gave the names of _New Edinburgh_ and _St. Andrews_. But, to set up such a trading market with any hopes of success, they ought to have had the good will and help of the great trading countries of Europe. Instead of this, _England_ and _Holland_ were much opposed to the scheme, as being an interference with their trading rights. The _East India Company_ looked on the bringing in of Eastern merchandise to Scotland as an infringement of their privileges. _Spain_ too claimed the Isthmus as her own, and seized one of the Scottish ships; while the Governor of the English colonies in North America refused to let them have supplies. In addition to these difficulties from without, the climate was wretchedly unhealthy. Disease quickly thinned their ranks, till at last the miserable remnant whom it spared were glad to flee from almost certain death. They deserted the new settlement, and set sail for _New York_. Meanwhile such glowing reports of the success of the venture had been spread abroad at home, that a second body of thirteen hundred emigrants, ignorant of the fate of those who had gone before them, set sail in _August_ of the next year. They found the colony deserted, and the colonists gone. They themselves fared no better than the first settlers, and were in a few months driven out by the Spaniards. The Scottish people were deeply mortified and much enraged by the failure of this scheme. They blamed William for all the disasters of the colonists, because he had done nothing to help them, nor to prevent the interference of Spain. The Charter had been granted by the Government of Scotland without the King's knowledge when he was in Holland; and though he could not recall it, it would have been unjust to his English subjects to show any favour to a scheme which, had it succeeded, might have proved the ruin of their East Indian trade. So much bad feeling arose out of this unfortunate affair between the two nations, that it was plain that if there was not a closer union between them there would be a breach before long.

=59. William's Death.=--Just as the project of an Union was about to be considered in the English Parliament, William died, March 8, 1702. Since the death of Mary, in 1690, he had reigned alone. Both crowns now passed to Anne, the younger daughter of James VII.

=60. Education Act.=--It was in this reign that the system of national education which has made the Scotch, as a people, so intelligent and well-informed, was re-cast. An Act was passed, in 1696, by which every parish was required to provide a suitable schoolhouse, and to pay a properly qualified schoolmaster for the instruction of the children of the parish.

=61. Anne, 1702-1714. Act of Security.=--_James VII._ had died in France a few months before his nephew, and his son had been proclaimed there as _James VIII._ This made the Whigs anxious to have an _Act_ passed in _Scotland_ similar to the _English Act of Settlement_. By this Act the Parliament of England had settled that, if Anne died without heirs, the crown should pass to the nearest Protestant heir, _Sophia_, Electress of Hanover, grand-daughter of James the Sixth, or to her descendants. But the Estates still felt injured and angry about the late differences with England, and passed an _Act of Security_, which made express conditions that the same person should not succeed to the throne of both kingdoms, unless, during Queen Anne's reign, measures had been taken for securing the honour and independence of the Scottish nation against English influence. The right of declaring war against England at any time was to remain with the Scottish Parliament.

=62. Trial and Death of Captain Green.=--Just at this time an event happened which tended to increase the bad feeling between the two countries. An English ship, the _Worcester_, was driven by stress of weather into the _Firth of Forth_. It was seized by the Scots, because the _East India Company_ had some time before detained a Scotch ship. From the talk of some of the crew it was suspected that they had murdered the captain and crew of one of the _Darien_ vessels which was missing. On this charge _Captain Green_ of the _Worcester_, his mate and crew, were brought to trial before the High Court of Admiralty. On the evidence of a black slave they were found guilty and condemned, and Green, his mate, and one of the crew were hanged. It was afterwards found out that the crime for which they had suffered had never been committed. The missing ship had gone ashore on the island of _Madagascar_, where _Drummond_, the captain, was then living. Whatever wrongs the Scots had suffered, the English had now, after this unlawful deed, a very reasonable cause of complaint against them.

=63. The Union.=--It was clear that, if the two kingdoms were to go on together in peace, it could only be by joining their Parliaments and their commercial interests into one. Commissioners from both sides were appointed to consider the best way of effecting this union. _Godolphin_, the _Treasurer of England_, and the _Duke of Queensberry_, the _Royal Commissioner in Scotland_, were its chief promoters. The Commissioners drew up a _Treaty of Union_, which was approved by the Parliaments of both countries. By the _Articles of Union_ the succession to both crowns was settled in the Protestant heirs of _Sophia_; and each country was secured in the possession of her national Church as then established. Scotland was to send sixteen Representative Peers, elected from the whole body of Peers, and forty-five members from the Commons, to the Parliament at Westminster, henceforth to be called the _Parliament of Great Britain_. It was further settled that one seal, with the arms of both kingdoms quartered upon it, should serve for both countries, that both should be subject to the same _Excise duties_ and _Customs_, and should have the same privileges of trade. The same coins, weights, and measures were to be used throughout the island. The law-courts of Scotland, the _Court of Justiciary_ and the _Court of Session_, were to remain unchanged, only there was now a right of appeal from the _Court of Session_, which had hitherto been supreme in all civil cases, to the _House of Lords_. In addition to the twenty-five Articles of Union, a special Act was passed for securing the liberty of the _Church of Scotland_ as it then stood in all time coming, and declaring that the Presbyterian should be the only Church government in Scotland. The first Parliament of Great Britain met October 23, 1707.

=64. Results of the Union.=--Twice before this time the Legislature of the two kingdoms had been thus joined together into one, under _Edward I._ and under _Cromwell_. But these two unions, each the result of conquest, had lasted but a little while. This Union was destined to be more enduring, and to lead to increased prosperity in both kingdoms. For Scotland it was the beginning of quite a new state of things. Hitherto the struggle for national life had left her no leisure for internal development, and at the time of the Union she was without manufactures, shipping, or commerce. With the end of her independent nationality a new social life began, and a spirit of industry and enterprise was awakened, which has since raised her people to their present eminence in trade, manufactures, and agriculture. The Union struck the last blow at the power of the Scottish nobles. They were not placed by any means on the same level with the Peers of the sister kingdom. It brought to the Commons, who during this period had been much despised and oppressed, an increase in dignity and independence, by admitting them to a share in the liberty and privileges which the Commons of England had won for themselves with the sword. But what did even more for the prosperity of Scotland was the removal of all restrictions on her trade, which was now placed on the same footing as that of the larger kingdom. For half a century after the union of the crowns she had enjoyed free trade with England and her colonies; but that was brought to an end by the Navigation Act, passed soon after the Restoration, which forbade the importing of any foreign goods into England except in English vessels, and which was, as the Scots justly complained, the ruin of their rising commerce.

=65. Literature and Art.=--Between the union of the Crowns and the union of the Parliaments there was but little advance in literature or art. This was in great part owing to the fact that, just when all other nations had taken to writing in their own tongues in place of _Latin_, the Scottish Court migrated to London. There the _Northumbrian English_, which was the common speech of the _Lowlands_ of Scotland, was despised as a provincial dialect, in which no educated man would write if he wished his writings to be read. During this period, the talent that was to be found in the country was enlisted in the religious struggle, which occupied all men's minds, and it produced many divines eminent for eloquence and learning. The literature of the times was, like the fighting, the tyranny, and the persecutions, chiefly of a religious character. There were many men of learning and talent, renowned either for their writings or from their eloquence, to be found among the leaders of the different sects. Among the _Presbyterians_ the most eminent were _John Welch_, the son-in-law of _Knox_; _Alexander Henderson_; _Guthrie_, the martyr of the _Remonstrants_, and _George Gillespie_, who, from his gift for argument, was called the "_Hammer of the Malignants_." The _Episcopal Church_ could boast of some scholarly divines, such as _John_ and _Patrick Forbes_, and _Leighton, Archbishop of Glasgow_. Of poets there were but few; none who could bear comparison with those of an earlier time. _Drummond_ of _Hawthornden_ is chief among them, but his genius is obscured by an imitation of the dialect and style then prevalent in England. Many of the beautiful ballads and songs of which Scotland may justly be proud, must have been composed about this time, but the authors are unknown. Unknown also, or forgotten, are the musicians to whom Scotland owes the wild, sweet strains to which those songs were sung, those pathetic melodies which make the national music so peculiar and characteristic in its exquisite beauty. The oldest collection of these airs is in a manuscript which seems to date from the sixteenth century. To _George Jameson_, the earliest Scottish painter of note, we owe the life-like portraits of the heroes of these times. He was born at Aberdeen and in 1620 he settled in his native town as a portrait-painter. But the spirit of the Covenant was opposed to art. Though it inspired to heroic deeds, there were no songs made about them. Architecture fared even worse than poetry, for while churches, the work of former ages, were pulled down, any new ones that were put up were as ugly and tasteless as it was possible to make them. _Napier of Merchiston_, a zealous reformer, the writer of an _Explanation of the Apocalypse_, is known in the world of science as the inventor of _Logarithms_, a clever and easy way of shortening difficult numerical calculations.

=66. Summary.=--The union of the crowns of England and Scotland put a stop to the constant skirmishing on the Border and to the devastating inroads which had for centuries embittered the two countries against one another. It might therefore have been expected that Scotland, during the century which passed between the union of the Crowns and the union of the Parliaments, would have made great social advances. This was prevented by the ceaseless party strife which disgraced the century, and made this period one of the most disastrous and oppressive to the people in the whole history of the nation. James the Sixth had found the strict discipline and constant interference of the ministers so irksome, and the turbulent independence of his nobles so little to his mind, that he was delighted to escape from both to the richer kingdom to which his good fortune called him. The severe training of his childhood had made him hate the Presbyterian polity with all his heart. As soon as he had the power, he changed the government of the Church, and introduced various observances which were hateful to the people. His son Charles went a step further, and by his attempt to substitute an English for a Scottish Liturgy, drove the people to revolt. The war thus begun, by an effort to force on the hereditary kingdom of his race the customs of the larger kingdom which his father had acquired, ended in his losing both. Scotland enjoyed a short gleam of prosperity from the conquest of Cromwell till his death. Under the next Stewart, Charles the Second, the King to whom she had always been loyal, the government was entrusted to a council, which exercised a cold-blooded tyranny against which the people had no redress. This reign of terror only rooted their religious prejudices the more firmly in their minds. When the tyrant James was deposed, the reaction of popular feeling fell heavily on the clergy of the Established Church, who individually were no way accountable for the crimes which had been committed under the mask of zeal for Episcopacy. Under William the Presbyterian polity was re-established, and the Episcopal clergy had in their turn to suffer many hardships from severe laws and the intolerance of party feeling, though nothing to compare with the bloody persecution under the form of law which had disgraced the reigns of Charles and James.