第612章 CHAPTER XIII(1)

The Revolution more violent in Scotland than in England--Elections for the Convention; Rabbling of the Episcopal Clergy--State of Edinburgh--Question of an Union between England and Scotland raised--Wish of the English Low Churchmen to preserve Episcopacy in Scotland--Opinions of William about Church Government in Scotland--Comparative Strength of Religious Parties in Scotland--Letter from William to the Scotch Convention--William's Instructions to his Agents in Scotland; the Dalrymples--Melville--James's Agents in Scotland: Dundee; Balcarras--Meeting of the Convention--Hamilton elected President--Committee of Elections; Edinburgh Castle summoned--Dundee threatened by the Covenanters--Letter from James to the Convention--Effect of James's Letter--Flight of Dundee--Tumultuous Sitting of the Convention--A Committee appointed to frame a Plan of Government--Resolutions proposed by the Committee--William and Mary proclaimed; the Claim of Right; Abolition of Episcopacy--Torture--William and Mary accept the Crown of Scotland--Discontent of the Covenanters--Ministerial Arrangements in Scotland--Hamilton;Crawford--The Dalrymples; Lockhart; Montgomery --Melville;Carstairs--The Club formed: Annandale; Ross--Hume; Fletcher of Saltoun--War breaks out in the Highlands; State of the Highlands--Peculiar Nature of Jacobitism in the Highlands--Jealousy of the Ascendency of the Campbells--The Stewarts and Macnaghtens--The Macleans; the Camerons: Lochiel--The Macdonalds; Feud between the Macdonalds and Mackintoshes; Inverness--Inverness threatened by Macdonald of Keppoch--Dundee appears in Keppoch's Camp--Insurrection of the Clans hostile to the Campbells--Tarbet's Advice to the Government--Indecisive Campaign in the Highlands--Military Character of the Highlanders--Quarrels in the Highland Army--Dundee applies to James for Assistance; the War in the Highlands suspended--Scruples of the Covenanters about taking Arms for King William--The Cameronian Regiment raised--Edinburgh Castle surrenders--Session of Parliament at Edinburgh--Ascendancy of the Club--Troubles in Athol--The War breaks out again in the Highlands--Death of Dundee--Retreat of Mackay--Effect of the Battle of Killiecrankie; the Scottish Parliament adjourned--The Highland Army reinforced--Skirmish at Saint Johnston's--Disorders in the Highland Army--Mackay's Advice disregarded by the Scotch Ministers--The Cameronians stationed at Dunkeld--The Highlanders attack the Cameronians and are repulsed--Dissolution of the Highland Army; Intrigues of the Club; State of the Lowlands THE violence of revolutions is generally proportioned to the degree of the maladministration which has produced them. It is therefore not strange that the government of Scotland, having been during many years far more oppressive and corrupt than the government of England, should have fallen with a far heavier ruin. The movement against the last king of the House of Stuart was in England conservative, in Scotland destructive. The English complained, not of the law, but of the violation of the law. They rose up against the first magistrate merely in order to assert the supremacy of the law. They were for the most part strongly attached to the Church established by law. Even in applying that extraordinary remedy to which an extraordinary emergency compelled them to have recourse, they deviated as little as possible from the ordinary methods prescribed by the law. The Convention which met at Westminster, though summoned by irregular writs, was constituted on the exact model of a regular Parliament. No man was invited to the Upper House whose right to sit there was not clear. The knights and burgesses were chosen by those electors who would have been entitled to choose the members of a House of Commons called under the great seal. The franchises of the forty shilling freeholder, of the householder paying scot and lot, of the burgage tenant, of the liveryman of London, of the Master of Arts of Oxford, were respected. The sense of the constituent bodies was taken with as little violence on the part of mobs, with as little trickery on the part of returning officers, as at any general election of that age. When at length the Estates met, their deliberations were carried on with perfect freedom and in strict accordance with ancient forms. There was indeed, after the first flight of James, an alarming anarchy in London and in some parts of the country. But that anarchy nowhere lasted longer than forty-eight hours. From the day on which William reached Saint James's, not even the most unpopular agents of the fallen government, not even the ministers of the Roman Catholic Church, had any thing to fear from the fury of the populace.

In Scotland the course of events was very different. There the law itself was a grievance; and James had perhaps incurred more unpopularity by enforcing it than by violating it. The Church established by law was the most odious institution in the realm.