Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/23

] of the laws and liberties of Scotland; Athol had not only been a violent partisan of James, but had fawned on William immediately on his arrival, and, being coldly received, had wheeled round again. Hamilton was chosen president; and the moment that was discovered twenty of the Jacobites instantly went over to the stronger side. It was a striking fact that in Scotland, whilst the great body of the people had stood to the death for their principles, the nobility had become so corrupt through compliance with the corrupt court, and in eagerness for office, that public principle was at the lowest ebb amongst them.

The convention having thus organised itself, sent a deputation to the duke of Gordon, demanding the surrender of the castle, as its cannon might at any moment knock in the roof of the parliament house, and drive thence the convention. Gordon requested twenty-four hours to consider the proposition; but Dundee and Balcarras again succeeded in inducing him to hold out. The convention determined to try the force of arms. They summoned the castle to surrender in due form, and pronounced the penalties of high treason on all who dared to occupy it in defiance of the estates. They called out a guard to stop all communication with the castle, and made preparations for a regular siege of the fortress. The next day a messenger arrived from king James with a letter, which, on being read, was found to be a furious denunciation of the convention, and of every one who had shown a willingness to receive William. At the same time it offered pardon to all traitors who should return to their duty in a fortnight, with the alternative, if they refused, of the utmost vengeance of the crown. There was no regret for any past acts which might have tended to alienate his subjects, no promises of future redress. The very friends of the king, whom nothing could alter or improve, were astonished and dispirited, and they stole away out of the convention, pursued through the streets by the groans and curses of the crowd. At the same time a letter was read from William, modest and liberal, trusting to the result of the free deliberations of the estates. James, as was always the case with him, had done incalculable service to the cause of his rival. His most bigoted adherents could not avoid seeing that, were he restored to the throne, he would only continue to pursue the blind and foolish course which had already driven him from it. What added to the disgust of all parties was, that the letter was countersigned by Melfort, James's secretary of state—a furious papist and apostate from protestantism, and nearly equally abhorred by both protestants and catholics.

The royalists, thus hopeless of effecting anything in the convention, and yet unwilling to yield up the cause, adopted the advice of Dundee and Balcarras, who had the authority of James to open a rival convention at Stirling. Athol consented to go with them; but on Monday, the 18th, he showed a fear of so far committing himself, and requested the party to wait for him another day. But the case of Dundee did not admit even a day's delay. The covenanters of the west, whom Hamilton and the Dalrymples had summoned to Edinburgh, and who for some time had come dropping in in small parties, till all the cellars and wynds of the city were thronged with them, vowed to kill the hated persecutor; and he made haste to flee, accompanied by his dare-devil followers, all as well-known to and as detested by the covenanters as himself for their atrocities in the west. Whilst the convention was in deliberation, sentinels from the castle hurried in to say that Claverhouse had galloped up to the foot of the fortress on the road to Stirling, accompanied by a detachment of his horsemen, and that he had climbed up the precipice high enough to hold a conversation with Gordon.

At this news the convention was thrown into a tumult of indignation. Hamilton ordered the doors to be locked, and the keys laid on the table, so that no one should go out but such persons as should be sent by the assembly to call the citizens to arms. By this means all such royalists as were in became prisoners till such time as the citizens were in arms. Lord Leven, the second son of lord Melville, who inherited the title of old general Leslie in right of his mother, was sent to call the covenanters to arms; and presently the streets were thronged with the men of the west in rude military array, sufficient to insure the safety of the estates. As the drums beat to arms, Dundee descended from the rock, mounted, and, waving his cap, with the cry that he went to where the spirit of Montrose called him, galloped away towards Stirling.

The convention now proceeded with their business. They sent a letter of thanks to William, which the bishops to a man refused to sign; the bishop of Edinburgh having, as chaplain, before prayed for the return of James. William has been said to have privately wished that episcopacy might be established in Scotland; but such specimens of the prelatic spirit there must, if so, have gone far to extinguish that desire. Other symptoms of opposition were not wanting, even yet. The duke of Queensberry arrived from London, and revived the spirits of the Jacobites. Again they urged the duke of Gordon to fire on the city, but he refused; and the chance of resistance was now taken away by the timely arrival of general Mackay with the three regiments of Scotch who had served under William in Holland. The convention immediately appointed Mackay general of their forces; and, thus placed at their ease, they proceeded to settle the government. They appointed a committee, after the matter of the lords of the articles, to draw up the plan which should be adopted. As a last means of postponing this business, a proposal was made by the Jacobites to join with the whigs to concert a scheme of union of the kingdom with England. This was a scheme which was now growingly popular. During the commonwealth the trade of England had been opened to Scotland. All custom-houses, and levying of duties on goods imported or exported between the countries, had been removed. The Scotch had been admitted to perfect freedom of foreign trade with England, and the benefit had become too apparent to be lightly relinquished. But, on the restoration, all this had been altered. The old and invidious restrictions had been renewed, and the great loss of wealth thus induced had wonderfully modified the spirit of national pride which opposed the abandonment of the ancient independence of the nation. The Dalrymples and lord Tarbet were favourable to this proposition, but the convention at large was too wise to endanger the defeat of the acknowledgment of the new sovereign by an indefinitely-prolonged