Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 6.djvu/115

Rh in the land. In 1654 and 1656, he represented the shire of Lanark in Cromwell's parliaments. He was also appointed one of the trustees for disposing of the forfeited estates of the royalists, and a member of the Protector's privy council for Scotland.

On the 14th December, 1655, he was appointed ambassador from England to Louis XIV.; a duty which, at that dangerous period, when the British government was acknowledged abroad only from its strength, was eminently calculated to bring out the peculiar energies of his mind. He did not proceed on his mission until April, 1656; a circumstance which probably accounts for his having sat for Lanark during that year. The character both of the government and its servant quickly secured respect. "He was," says Clarendon, "received with great solemnity, and was a man of -great address in treaty, and had a marvellous credit and power with the cardinal Mazarine. His countryman Burnet, who probably knew him better, says, "He was both a wise and gallant man, calm and virtuous, and one that carried the generosities of friendship very far. He was made governor of Dunkirk, and ambassador, at the same time. But he told me that when he was sent afterwards ambassador by king Charles, he found he had nothing of that regard that was paid him in Cromwell's time." He arrived at Dieppe on the 24th of April, and was received with all the civic honours which the town could bestow. An alliance with France in opposition to Spain, and indeed anything resembling amity towards the former nation, was considered an anomaly in the British constitution resembling an infraction of the laws of nature, and the measure, although it was boldly undertaken, and successfully executed, has met the reprobation of historians, whose simple statement of its impolicy and folly is embraced in the terms, "An alliance between Great Britain and France." But the union was an act of almost diplomatic necessity on the part of the Protector, from the alliance (as it was termed) of Spain with the exiled Charles; and with whatever reluctance the French may have at first looked upon the novelty, Mazarine found himself associated with a government whose assistance was useful, and whose enmity might be dangerous.

From the influence of the clergy alone was any opposition to be dreaded. "I have receaved," says the ambassador, "many civill messages from persons of honour and good interest; and I fynd also, that my being here is much dislyked by others, especiallie by the assembly of the clergy. And," he continues, in the manner of the period, "I shall make it my endeavour to wait upon God for his directione and protectione, and shall verie little trouble myself with their menaces." But Lockhart found that the French were at least lukewarm in assisting the vast designs of Cromwell, and that they were naturally averse to be the mere auxiliaries of their natural enemies, in subjecting those neighbouring provinces which had often called forth the full power of their armies.

Lockhart, accordingly, takes many occasions to express the discontent of his