CHAPTER VII.

THE RESTORATION, 1660.

Injudicious administration of Charles. Execution of Argyll. Revival of Prelacy. Presbyterians persecuted-they retaliate. Skirmish at Pentland-its consequences.

CHARLES the SECOND had completed his thirtieth year when he was restored to his paternal throne. From the universal joy which that event had produced, a season of undisturbed tranquillity was anticipated. The gracious and popular deportment of the Kingthe moderation and experience which, it was presumed, he had acquired in adversity-induced the nation to hope for a wise and beneficial administration.

These expectations were unhappily disappointed. The recollection of his misfortunes was lost in dissipation, unworthy pleasures, or frivolous pursuits; and his reign, auspicious and popular at its commencement, became odious and disgraceful before its termination. Secretly attached to the Romish church, and imbued with the arbitrary and dogmatical opinions of his father, his reign degenerated into a sanguine and cruel despotism, and ac celerated the final expulsion of his family from the throne of Britain.

In the settlement of Scotland, it was determined to disband the English garrisons, and to demolish the citadels and forts which had been erected by Cromwell. But it was more difficult to decide what form of ecclesiastical government should be prescribed for the Scots. Having subscribed the covenant, and sworn to observe it when invited to Scotland after his father's death, Charles was perplexed for a plausible ground of apostacy, when urged to violate those solemn engagements by Clarendon.

That statesman had already devised the most intolerant mea sures for the revival of Prelacy, at a time when the majority of the nation were rigid Presbyterians. The King himself was indifferent to religion; but the introduction of Episcopacy opened allur ing prospects of ambition, which attracted the avarice even of some of the Presbyterian leaders. The notorious Sharpe deserted the Scottish church on the offer of the primacy; and, by a mean

equivocation, circumvented the Presbyterians with the fallacious hopes of legal protection and support.

A.D.

But it was by means of the Parliament that the Court 1661. § infringed the civil and religious rights of the Scots. The Earl of Middleton had been appointed to preside as commissioner in that assembly; which, being composed of nobles inured to servitude under the English Government, evinced an obsequious submission to the crown. To restore the royal prerogative to its full extent, was therefore easily accomplished.

The nomination of judges and officers of state-the power of declaring war and concluding peace-the command of the militia—the right to summon and dissolve Parliaments and conventions—were acknowledged to be inherent and unalienable prerogatives of the crown. The covenant was indirectly repealed by an act which declared that it could not be revived without the King's consent. An excise of forty thousand pounds Sterling was conferred on the King for life, to maintain a military force for preserving the public tranquillity.

But a more exceptionable admission was obtained,—that the King was supreme governor over all persons, and in all cases ecclesiastical and civil; and, to absolve him from his former engagements with the Presbyterians, a general recissory act was proposed, to annul all the Parliamentary acts of the last thirty years. Notwithstanding a vigorous opposition from a few of the nobles and the surviving Covenanters, the measure was approved by a large majority.

It may appear surprising, that the Scots, who but a few years before maintained their civil and religious liberties with such spirit, should have sunk so soon into a state of apathy. It may be remarked, in illustration, that the elections had been influenced by the Chancellor, that the greater part of the old Covenanters had quitted the transitory scene; and as an indemnity had been withheld from the Scots, the young nobility and gentry, overawed by the terrors of confiscation and punishment for their fathers' offences, vied with each other in servility to their Sovereign.

Argyll, the first nobleman in the kingdom, was arraigned for high treason. Though his defence was vigorous and plausible, if not strictly just, the Commissioner and Royalists, who grasped at his possessions, procured a sentence of treason against him; and

he was publicly executed; the third day after his trial. Mr Guthry, a clergyman who had rendered himself obnoxious by his zeal for the covenant, was executed with an obscure deserter, as a mark of ignominy.

The government of Scotland was at this time a pure despotism. The Privy Council was at once a council of state and a court of justice. It assumed not unfrequently a legislative authority; and hence the institution became tyrannical.

It was a favourite but unworthy sentiment of Charles, that the Presbyterian religion was unfit for a gentleman, and should therefore be discountenanced by the state.. The bigotry and violence of his ministers readily seconded the wishes of their Sovereign, and betrayed him into the pernicious measures of the two preceding reigns. Conformably to this unhappy determination, Sharpe, Fairfoul, Leighton, and Hamilton,, were consecrated in England, and dismissed, with Sydserf, the only survivor of the former Scottish prelates, to propagate their order in Scotland.

Every mark of respect and honour that could serve to impress the people with veneration for their character, was conferred on them. They were conducted to the capital by the Chancellor and the nobility, in solemn procession; and they resumed their ancient seats in the national legislature. To forward the work of ecclesiastical transformation, the Parliament annulled the authority of assemblies and presbyteries; the covenants were repealed, A.D, and abjured as unlawful oaths; the right of patronage was 1662. S revived; and the prelates monopolized the whole power of

the church.

An act of conditional indemnity and oblivion was no longer withheld from the Scots, when the Monarch's favourite wish was gratified, by the establishment of the Episcopal hierarchy: But it soon appeared that the royal clemency was elicited to gratify the avarice and revenge of his ministers. Under pretence of disqualifying some public delinquents for offices of trust, a Parliamentary committee, invested with inquisitorial powers, was appointed to scrutinize the characters of all those who had been concerned in the late rebellion. No proof of innocence was required or admitted; and, of such as were only indirectly implicated, nine hundred were amerced in the sum of eighty-five thousand pounds.

Middleton, who had devised and conducted these measures, was become universally odious, from his severity; but his removal from

office was accelerated by an unsuccessful attempt to incapacitate Lauderdale for public employment. Unhappily for the Scots, Lauderdale and Rothes, who succeeded to the administration, proved as imperious and cruel as their predecessor. A system of ecclesiastical measures, equally wicked and inimical to sound policy, was advised by the bishops; who procured an act of Council commanding all Presbyterian clergymen to procure presentations from their patrons, and submit to ordination by the prelates, under pain of being ejected by military force.

Three hundred and fifty clergymen, unawed by the menaces of power, evinced the noble determination of submitting to the privations of contumacy, during the inclemencies of winter, rather than violate their consciences by an obsequious submission. The most distinguished of these sufferers were selected for punishment, and banished to remote districts or expelled the kingdom.

A.D.

It was in consequence of this severity that conventicles 1663. were first held. Disgusted by the irregular conduct, the negligence, and the ignorance of the Episcopal curates, the people deserted the parish-churches, and resorted to their former pastors, in the fields and woods, for worship and instruction. Indignant at this general disaffection, an act was passed, at the instigation of the bishops, to amerce all separatists from the national church. For this offence, landholders were liable to a forfeiture of a fourth of their rents-tenants and burgesses, a fourth of their substance, the freedom of their corporation, and the privileges of trade, besides being subject to such corporeal punishment as the Privy Council might think proper to inflict.

The people were forbidden, under penalty of treason, even to administer to the wants of their ejected pastors. A court of ecA.D. clesiastical commission was again established, similar to 1664. Š the Papal inquisition,—being invested with a spiritual and civil jurisdiction; while its secret and summary proceedings rejected both evidence and defence. The unsuspecting Presbyterians were insnared by captious interrogatories. On their declining to acknowledge the King's supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs, they were punished as felons. Ruinous penalties were exacted of many; corporeal punishments were inflicted on some; the gaols were crowded with numbers; and others, happy to escape with their lives, fled to Ireland.

As the most resolute opposition to Prelacy had been made in

the Western counties, they were abandoned to military oppression. Turner, an Englishman of a ferocious temper and licentious character, commanded the troops that were at once the judges and the instruments of justice. The Episcopal clergy were the chief accusers. The country gentlemen were fined and imprisoned for the secession of their tenants and servants; and the tenants were amerced and their substance devoured by the military, for the delinquency of their superiors.

The lamentations and complaints of the people were indistinctly heard or disregarded by the Government; which seemed actuated by a blind resentment against its own subjects. The public prisons that had been gorged with the victims of the inquisition, were cleared of their inhabitants; who were transported to Barbadoes, to make room for fresh delinquents.

A.D. Three years was this desolating persecution continued. 1666. The fugitive Presbyterians, despairing of indulgence by submission, were driven at last to rebellion. The flame was kindled through a slight occurrence among the peasantry. Moved with compassion for an aged poor man, who was dragged in fetters to prison on account of his inability to pay the fines of the church, the spectators suddenly disarmed the soldiers, and effected his

rescue.

Encouraged by applause, and emboldened by augmented num bers, the malecontents surprised Turner at Dumfries; and, proceeding to Lanark, their tumultuary force was increased to two thousand. After solemnly renewing the covenant, and issuing a declaration of undiminished loyalty to the King, they marched to Edinburgh, under the command of Wallace and Learmont, two obscure officers. By the time they arrived in the vicinity of the metropolis, one half of their numbers had deserted. They found the city fortified, and all communication with the inhabitants cut off.

Disappointed of the expected aid of their friends, exhausted by want, and dispirited by fatigue, they attempted to return home by the Pentland hills. There they were overtaken and attacked by General Dalziel, who commanded a body of yeomanry cavalry. Though the Presbyterians were reduced to eight hundred, they repulsed different attacks of the assailants; but at sunset, they were overpowered and dispersed. Nearly one fourth of their

number was killed or taken prisoners.

Twenty of the prisoners