The feeble ness of the government. and government of that church. These were never examined in any public assembly of the clergy: all was managed by three or four aspiring bishops, Maxwell, Sidserfe, Whitford, and Banautine, the bishops of Ross, Galloway, Dunblane, and Aberdeen. Maxwell did also accuse the earl of Traquair, as cold in the king's service, and as managing the treasury deceitfully; and he was aspiring to that office, Spotswood, archbishop of St. Andrews, then lord chancellor, was a prudent and mild man, but of no great decency in his course of life. [For he was a frequent player at cards, and used to eat often in taverns: besides that all his livings were scandalously exposed to sale by his servants.] The earl of Traquair, seeing himself so pushed at, was more earnest than the bishops themselves in promoting the new model of worship and discipline; and by that he recovered the ground he had lost with the king, and with archbishop Laud: he also assisted the bishops in obtaining commissions, subaltern to the high commission court, in their several dioceses, which were thought little different from the courts. of inquisition. Sidserfe set this up in Galloway : and a complaint being made in council of his proceedings, he gave the earl of Argile the lie in full council. He was after all a very learned and good man, but strangely heated in those matters. And they all were so lifted up with the king's zeal, and so encouraged by archbishop Laud, that they lost all temper; of which I knew Sidserfe made great acknowledgments in his old age. But the unaccountable part of the king's proceedings was, that all this while, when he was endeavouring to recover so great a part of the property of Scotland as the church lands and tithes were from men that were not like to part with them willingly, and was going to change the whole constitution of that church and kingdom, he raised no force to maintain what he was about to do, but trusted the whole management to the civil execution. By this all people saw the weakness of the government, at the same time that they complained of its rigour. All that came down from court complained of the king's inexorable stiffness, and of the progress popery was making, of the queen's power with the king, of 27 the favour shewed the pope's nuncios, and of the many proselytes who were daily falling off to the church of Rome. The earl of Traquair infused this more effectually, though more covertly, than any other man could do: and when the country formed the first opposition they made to the king's proclamations, and protested against them, he drew the first protestation, as Primrose assured me; though he designed no more than to put a stop to the credit the bishops had, and to the fury of their proceedings: but the matter went much farther than he seemed to intend: for he himself was fatally caught in the snare laid for others. A troop of horse and a regiment of foot had prevented all that followed, or rather had by all appearance established an arbitrary government in that kingdom: but, to speak in the language of a great man, those who conducted matters at that time had as little of the prudence of the serpent, as of the innocence of the dove: and, as my father often told me, he and many others, who adhered in the sequel firmly to the king's interest, were then much troubled at the whole conduct of affairs, as being neither wise, legal, nor just. I will Saville's forgery prevailed on the Scots. go no farther in opening the beginnings of the troubles of Scotland: of these a full account will be found in the memoirs of the dukes of Hamilton. [Of which I shall take the boldness to set down the character which sir Robert Moray (who had a great share of the affairs at that time, and knew the whole secret of them) gave, after he had read it in manuscript, that he did not think there was a truer history writ since the apostles' days.] The violence with which that kingdom did almost unanimously engage against the administration may easily convince one, that the provocation must have been very great, to draw on such an entire and vehement concurrence against it. After the first pacification, upon the new disputes that arose, when the earl of Lowdun and Dunfermling were sent up with the petition from the covenanters, the lord Saville came to them, and informed them of many particulars, by which they saw the king was highly irritated against them: he took great pains to persuade them to come with their army into England. They very unwillingly hearkened to that proposition, and looked on it as a design from the court to ensnare them, making the Scots invade England, by which this nation might have been provoked to assist the king to conquer Scotland. It is true, he hated the earl of Strafford so much, that they saw no cause to suspect him': so they entered into a treaty with him about it. The tests between Saville and Went × There had been great con- till he was created a viscount; upon which Saville changed sides, and was as warm against the court as the other had been. D. worth about elections in York shire; and upon Saville's being lord Saville assured them, he spake to them in the ters of the cove nanters. The earl of Rothes was a man of plea-The characsure, but of a most obliging temper: his affairs were chief of the low: Spotswood had once made the bargain between the king and him before the troubles, but the earl of Traquair broke it, seeing he was to be raised above himself. The earl of Rothes had all the arts of making himself popular; only there was too much levity in his temper, and too much liberty in his course of life. The earl of Argile was a more solemn sort of a man, grave and sober, free of all scandalous vices *, of an invincible calmness of temper, and a pretender to high degrees of piety: [but he was a deep dissembler, and great oppressor in all his private dealings, and he was noted for a defect in his courage on all occasions where danger met him. This had one of its usual effects on him, for he was cruel in cold blood:] he was much set on raising his own family to be a sort of king in the highlands. y As a man is free of a corporation, he means. S. Waristoun was my own uncle: [but I will not be more tender in giving his character, for all that nearness in blood:] he was a man of great application, could seldom sleep above three hours in the twenty-four: he had studied the law carefully, and had a great quickness of thought, with an extraordinary memory. He went into very high notions of lengthened devotions, in which he continued many hours a day. He would often pray in his family two hours at a time, and had an unexhausted copiousness that way. [He was a deep enthusiast, for] what thought soever struck his fancy during those effusions, he looked on it as an answer of prayer, and was wholly determined by it. He looked on the covenant as the setting Christ on his throne, and so was out of measure zealous in it; [and he had an unrelenting severity of temper against all that opposed it.] He had no regard to the raising himself or his family, though he had thirteen children: but presbytery was to him more than all the world. He had a readiness and vehemence of speaking, that made him very considerable in public assemblies; [but he had no clear nor settled judgment, yet that was supplied by a fruitful invention']; so that he was at all times furnished with expedients. [And though he was a very honest man in his private dealings, yet he could make stretches, when the cause seemed to require it.] To these three only this paper was to be shewed upon an oath of secrecy': and it was to be deposited in Waristoun's hands. They were only allowed to z In the printed copy was substituted: And he had a fruitful invention. a See my note in my printed copy of Oldmixon's history of the Stuarts, page 145. O. |