Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/175

Rh both from disease and difficulty of circumstances, could never either break his spirits, or chill his interest in the happiness of his friends. If he had the foibles of a keen temper, he was free from the faults of a sullen and cold disposition. After experiencing as many of the vicissitudes of life as fall to the lot of most men, he died of apoplexy on the 15th of May, 1824, in the sixty-first year of his age.

CAMPBELL,, Marquis of Argyle, an eminent political character of the seventeenth century, born in 1598, was the son of Archibald, seventh earl of Argyle. He was carefully educated in a manner suitable to the important place in society, which his birth destined him to occupy. Having been well grounded in the various branches of classical knowledge, he added to these, an attentive perusal of the holy scriptures, in consequence of which his mind became at an early period deeply imbued with a sense of religion, which, amidst all the vicissitudes of an active and eventful life, became stronger and stronger till his dying day. There had long been an hereditary feud subsisting between his family and the clan of the Macdonalds, against whom he accompanied his father on an expedition in the year 1616, being then only in the eighteenth year of his age ; and two years afterwards, his father having left the kingdom, the care of the Highlands, and especially of the protestant interest there, devolved almost entirely upon him. In 1626, he was sworn of his majesty's most honourable privy council, and in 1628, surrendered into the hands of the king, so far as lay in his power, the office of justice general in Scotland, which had been hereditary in his family, but reserving to himself and his heirs the office of justiciary of Argyle, and the Western Isles, which was confirmed to him by act of parliament. In 1633, the earl of Argyle having declared himself a Roman Catholic, was commanded to make over his estate to his son by the king, reserving to himself only as much as might support him in a manner suitable to his quality during the remainder of his life. Lord Lome, thus prematurely possessed of political and territorial influence, was, in 1634, appointed one of the extraordinary lords of Session ; and in the month of April, 1638, after the national covenant had been framed and sworn by nearly all the ministers and people of Scotland, he was summoned up to London, along with Traquair the treasurer, and Roxburgh, lord privy seal, to give advice with regard to what line of conduct his majesty should adopt under the existing circumstances. They were all equally aware that the covenant was hateful to the king; but Argyle alone spoke freely and honestly, recommending the entire abolition of those innovations which bis majesty had recklessly made on the forms of the Scottish church, and. which had been solely instrumental in throwing Scotland into its present hostile attitude. Traquair advised a temporizing policy till his majesty's affairs should be in a better condition; but the bishops of Galloway, Ross, and Brechin insisted upon the necessity of strong measures, and suggested a plan for raising an army in the north, that should be amply sufficient for asserting the dignity of the crown, and repressing the insolence of the covenanters. This alone was the advice that was agreeable to his majesty, and he followed it out with a blindness alike fatal to himself and the kingdom. The earl of Argyle, being at this, time at court, a bigot to the Romish faith, and friendly to the designs of the king, advised his majesty to detain the lord Lome a prisoner at London, assuring him that, if he was permitted to return to Scotland, he would certainly do him a mischief. But the lung, supposing this advice to be the fruit of the old man's irritation at the loss of his estate, and probably afraid, as seeing no feasible pretext for taking such a violent step, allowed him to depart in peace. He returned to Edinburgh on the twentieth of May, and was one of the last of the Scottish nobility that signed the national covenant, which he did not do till