1661. pofing the act refciffory. He faid, he had obferved fuch an entire unanimity in carrying on the King's fervice, that he did not know of any that had acted otherwife: And therefore he moved, that the Earl of Midletoun might fpeak plain, and name perfons. The Earl of Midletoun defired to be excufed: He did not intend to accufe any: But yet he thought, he was bound to let the King know how he had been ferved. The Earl of Crawford ftill prefs'd him to speak out after fo general an accufation: No doubt, he would inform the King in private who thefe perfons were: And fince he had already gone fo far in publick, he thought he ought to go farther. The Earl of Midletoun was in fome confufion; for he did not expect to be thus attack'd: So to get off he named the oppofition that the Earl of Tweedale had made to the fentence pafs'd on Guthry, not without making indecent reflections on it, as if his profecution had flowed from the King's refentments of his behaviour to himfelf: And fo he turned the matter, that the Earl of Tweedale's reflection, which was thought indeed pointed against himself, fhould feem as meant againit the King. The Earl of Crawford upon this faid, that the Earl of Midletoun ought to have excepted to the words when they were firft fpoken; and no doubt the Parliament would have done the King juftice: But it was never thought confiftent with the liberty of fpeech in Parliament, to bring men into queftion afterwards for words fpoken in any debate, when they were not challenged as foon as they were fpoken. The Earl of Midletoun excufed himfelf: He faid, the thing was pafs'd before he made due reflections on it; and fo afked pardon for that omiffion. The Earl of Crawford was glad he himself had efcaped, and was filent as to the Earl of Tweedale's concern: So, no body offering to excufe him, an order was prefently fent down for committing him to prifon, and for exa

mining him upon the words he had spoken, and 1661. on his meaning in them. That was not a time in which men durft pretend to privilege, or the freedom of debate: So he did not infift on it; but fent up fuch an account of his words, and fuch an explanation of them, as fully fatisfied the King. So after the imprisonment of fome weeks he was fet at liberty. But this raised a great outcry against the Earl of Midletoun, as a thing that was contrary to the freedom of debate, and deftructive of the liberty of Parliament. It lay the more open to cenfure, because the Earl of Midletoun had accepted of a great entertainment from the Earl of Tweedale after Guthry's bufinefs was over: And it seemed contrary to the rules of hofpitality, to have fuch a design in his heart against a man in whofe house he had been fo treated: All the excufe he made for it was, that he never intended it; but that the Earl of Crawford had prefs'd him fo hard upon the complaint he had made in general, that he had no way of getting out of it without naming fome particulars; and he had no other ready then at hand.

Another difference of greater moment fell in between him and the Earl of Crawford. The Earl of Midletoun was now raifing the guards, that were to be paid out of the excife granted by the Parliament. So he moved, that the excife might be raised by collectors named by himself as General, that fo he might not depend on the Treafury for the pay of the forces. The Earl of Crawford opposed this with great advantage, fince all revenues given the King did by the courfe of law come into the Treafury. Scotland was not in a condition to maintain two Treasurers: And, as to what was faid, of the neceffity of having the pay of the army well afcertained and ever ready, otherwife it would become a grievance to the Kingdom, he faid, the King was Mafter, and what orders foever he thought fit to fend to the Treasury,

1661. they fhould be moft punctually obeyed. But the Earl of Midletoun knew, there would be a great overplus of the excife beyond the pay of the troops : And he reckoned, that, if the collection was put in his hands, he would eafily get a grant of the overplus at the year's end. The Earl of Crawford faid, no fuch thing was ever pretended to by any General, unlefs by fuch as fet up to be independent, and who hoped by that means to make themselves the mafters of the army. So he carried the point, which was thought a victory. And the Earl of Midletoun was much blamed for putting his intereft at Court on fuch an iffue, where the pretenfion was fo unufual and fo unreasonable.

The next point was concerning Lord Argile's eftate. The King was inclined to restore the Lord Lorn; tho' much pains was taken to perfuade him, that all the zeal he had expreffed in his fervice was only an artifice between his father and him to preferve the family in all adventures: It was faid, that had been an ordinary practice in Scotland for father and fon to put themselves in different fides. The Marquis of Argile had taken very extraordinary methods to raife his own family to fuch a fuperiority in the Highlands, that he was a fort of a king among them. The Marquis of Huntly had married his fifter: And during their friendship Argile was bound with him for fome of his debts. After that, the Marquis of Huntly, as he neglected his affairs, fo he engaged in the King's fide, by which Argile saw he muft be undone. So he pretended, that he only intended to fecure himfelf, when he brought in prior mortgages and debts, which, as was believed, were compounded at very low rates. The friends of the Marquis of Huntly's family prefs'd the King hard to give his heirs the confifcation of that part of Argile's eftate, in which the Marquis of Huntly's debts, and all the pretenfion on his eftate were comprehended. And it was given to the Mar

quis of Huntly, now Duke of Gordon, then a 1661. young child: But no care was taken to breed him a Proteftant. The Marquis of Montrofe, and all others whofe eftates had been ruined under Argile's conduct, expected likewife reparation out of his eftate; which was a very great one, but in no way able to fatisfy all thofe demands. And it' was believed, that the Earl of Midletoun himfelf hoped to have carried away the main bulk of it: So that both the Lord Lorn and he concurred, tho' with different views, to put a stop to all the pretenfions made upon it.

The point of the greatest importance then un- It was reder confideration was, whether Epifcopacy fhould folved to be reftored in Scotland, or not. The Earl of fet up EpifcopaMidletoun affured the King, it was defired by the cy in Scotgreater and honefter part of the nation. One land. Synod had as good as petitioned for it: And many others wished for it, tho' the share they had in the late wars made them think it was not fit or decent for them to move for it. Sharp affured the King, that none but the Proteftors, of whom he had a very bad opinion, were againft it; and that of the Refolutioners there would not be found twenty that would oppose it. All thofe who were for making the change agreed, that it ought to be done now, in the first heat of joy after the Re storation, and before the act of indemnity pafs'd. The Earl of Lauderdale and all his friends on the other hand assured the King, that the national prejudice against it was ftill very ftrong, that thofe who feemed zealous for it ran into it only as a method to procure favour, but that those who were againft it would be found ftiff and eager in their oppofition to it, that by fetting it up the King would lofe the affections of the nation, and that the fupporting it would grow a heavy load on his government. The Earl of Lauderdale turned all this, that looked like a zeal for Prefbytery, to a dextrous infinuating himself into the King's con

N 3

fidence;

1661. fidence; as one that defigned nothing but his greatnefs and his having Scotland fure to him, in order to the executing of any defign he might afterwards be engaged in. The King went very coldly into the defign. He faid, he remembred well the averfion that he himfelf had obferved in that nation to any thing that looked like a fuperiority in the Church. But to that the Earl of Midletoun and Sharp anfwered, by affuring him that the infolencies committed by the Prefbyterians while they governed, and the ten years ufurpation that had followed, had made fuch a change in peoples tempers, that they were much altered fince he had been among them. The King naturally hated Prefbytery: And, having called a new Parliament in England, that did with great zeal efpoufe the interefts of the Church of England, and were now beginning to complain of the evacuating the garrifons held by the army in that Kingdom, he gave way, tho' with a visible reluctancy, to the change of the Church government in Scotland. The averfion he feemed to exprefs was imputed to his own indifference as to all thofe matters, and to his unwillingness to involve his government in new trouble. But the view of things that the Earl of Lauderdale had given him was the true root of all that coldness, The Earl of Clarendon fet it on with great zeal, And fo did the Duke of Ormond; who faid, it would be very hard to maintain the government of the Church in Ireland, if Prefbytery continued in Scotland; fince the northern counties, which were the beft ftocked of any they had, as they were originally from Scotland, fo they would still follow the way of that nation. Upon all this diverfity of opinion, the thing was propofed in a Scotch Council at Whitehall. The Earl of Crawford declared himself againft it: But the Earl of Lauderdale, Duke Hamilton, and Sir Robert Murray, were only for delaying the making any

fuch