Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/229

Rh severities of a popish administration; and he saw the universal alienation of all ranks from the system of government they had adopted, and perceived that the very methods fallen upon for stilling popular clamour was only tending to its increase. The narrow politics of the duke of York he had thoroughly penetrated, was aware of all the schemes he had laid for enslaving the nation, and saw that the tools with which he was working could easily be turned to his own destruction. of all these interesting particulars he was admitted to give his sentiments freely to the prince of Orange, who was no longer at pains to conceal his aversion to the means James was employing to restore the Catholic church. This encouraged still greater numbers of suffering British subjects to place themselves under his protection, and for the characters of these new comers his Royal Highness generally applied to Carstairs, and he was wont to remark, that he never in one instance had occasion to charge him with the smallest attempt to mislead or deceive him. It cannot indeed be doubted that he was made the channel of many complaints and advices to William, which were never made known to the public. Of these secret warnings the prince had sagacity enough to make the best use, even when he was to outward appearance treating them with neglect, and Carstairs himself was in all probability not a little surprised when he was summoned to attend him on an expedition to Great Britain. Notwithstanding all that has been spoken and written and printed about it, we believe that William felt very little, and cared very little about the sufferings of the British people; but he had an eye steadily fixed upon the British crown, to which, till the birth of a prince of Wales, June 10th, 1688, his wife was the heir apparent, and so long as he had the prospect of a natural succession, whatever might be the disorders of the government or the wishes of the people, he was not disposed to endanger his future greatness by any thing like a premature attempt to secure it. The birth of the prince, however, gave an entirely new aspect to his affairs. He behoved now to fix upon the disordere of the government, and embrace the call of the people, or abandon all reasonable hopes of ever avearing that diadem which he so fondly coveted, and by which alone he could ever hope to carry into effect those mighty plans of policy with which his mind had been so long pregnant. Equally wise to discern and prompt to act, he lost not a moment in idle hesitation ; but while he seemed to discourage all the invitations he was now daily receiving, hastened to complete his preparations, and on the 19th of October, 1688, set sail for the shore of Britain with sixty-five ships of war, and five hundred transports, carrying upwards of fifteen thousand men. The subject of this memoir accompanied him as his domestic chaplain aboard his own ship, and he had in his train a numerous retinue of British subjects, whom the tyranny of the times had compelled to take refuge in Holland. On the evening of the same day, the fleet was dispersed in a tremendous hurricane, and by the dawn of next morning not two of the whole fleet were to be seen together. On the third day William returned to port, with only four ships of war and forty transports. The ship in which he himself sailed narrowly escaped being wrecked, which was looked on by some about him as an evil omen, and among the rest by Burnet, afterwards bishop of Salisbury, who remarked that it seemed predestined they should not set foot on English ground. A few days, however, collected the whole fleet once more, and on the 1st of November, the whole sailed again with a fair wind, and on Monday the 5th, the troops were safely landed at Torbay in Devonshire, the English fleet all the while lying wind-bound at Harwich. On the landing of the troops, Mr Carstairs performed divine service at their head, after which the whole army drawn up along the beach sang the 118th psalm before going into a camp. From this time till the settlement of the crowns upon William and Mary, Car-