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 one of his children (ib.), and is frequently consulted as to the best means of settling the country (ib. i. 195, 201, 210). In May 1665 he was busy disarming the covenanters in Kintyre, as he had formerly done in 1654 (ib. 23123, f. 38), and in October was instrumental in seizing Rallston and Hacket. He took, however, as little part as possible in public affairs; his main object was evidently to raise the fallen estate of his family, in doing which he is accused of great harshness to his creditors; and he remained for the most part quietly at Inverary, exercising his hereditary office of grand justiciar of the highlands, and composing the differences between highland chiefs (ib.) Many instances of his jurisdiction, especially against the McCleans, are recorded (Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. 624 a, b, 609 b, &c.). At this time, it may be noted, his family consisted of four boys and two girls (Lauderdale Papers, 23123, f. 224). As one of Lauderdale's confidants he was, with Tweeddale, Kincardine, and Moray, opposed to the oppression of Rothes, Sharp, Hamilton, Dalyel, and the needy nobility. There was naturally violent animosity against him on the part of the majority of the council, and especially on that of James Sharp, of which Lauderdale was informed by Bellenden. Bellenden urges that Argyll should be set right with the king (ib. i. 247). It is somewhat surprising to find his signature appended, on 6 Aug. 1666, to the letter of the privy council to Charles, in which the iniquitous act compelling landlords to be sureties for their heritors and tenants is suggested. He had been summoned to Edinburgh by Rothes for this purpose (ib. ii. App. lxxv). The jealousy of Sharp and others was evidenced by an attempt to challenge his formal restoration to his hereditary offices in October 1666, and still more when the Pentland revolt took place. According to a letter to England, dated 28 Nov., he was forward in the attack (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1666, 295). As a matter of fact he was not even present. He had raised a force of 1,500 or 2,000 men (, p. 234;, Peerage of Scotland), but Sharp, who in Rothes' absence had the direction of affairs, would not allow him to come on the scene, fearing that he and his men would join the rebels (, p. 234). On 6 Dec. 1666, however, Rothes expressed to Lauderdale his surprise at Argyll's absenting himself, ‘never having been so much as heard of all this while,’ and pointed out that if he had studied his own interests by bestirring himself he would have undeceived thousands who had no good opinion of him. Rothes added that he had placed Argyll on the commission that was going west, and urged Lauderdale to write to him, if he was his friend, to bestir himself (Lauderdale Papers, 23125, f. 183). Argyll, however, writes to Lauderdale to contradict the reports of his lukewarmness, and to complain of the fact that he has never been sent for in spite of his readiness (ib. 23125, ff. 101, 177), and in another letter speaks of himself as almost killed with toil and ill weather in Kintyre (Argyll Correspondence, Bannatyne Club). After the rout the principal leaders of the rebels endeavoured to reach the western coast to cross over to Ireland, and on 14 Dec. Argyll received instructions from the privy council to capture them if possible (Lauderdale Papers, i. 261). He is reported as having done so on 25 Dec. (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1666, 369).

In January 1667, however, he again complained of the unfair jealousy that keeps him from employment, and in February compelled Sharp to retract his charge against him of hostility to the bishops. His twin children died in June of this year. The treasurership was now taken from Rothes and placed in commission, and Argyll was made one of the commissioners; he also received from Charles a new charter of all his lands, offices, &c. On 3 Aug. he was appointed, with Atholl and Seaforth, to have the oversight of the highlands, which were in a disturbed state, with a grant of the effects of all thieves and the forfeiture of their associates, and the duty of making up to every person the value of what has been stolen from them (ib. 1667, 356). In 1669 he made a celebrated proposition regarding the putting down of the thieves, viz. that some private gentleman should have put into his hands a list of all the notorious freebooters, and that he should be bound to produce them dead or alive by a certain date before being able to claim a reward. Nevertheless, he more than once remonstrates against the language used of the highlanders, which is such, he says, as would be used if they did not belong to Christendom (Lauderdale Papers, ii. 136). On 10 Jan. 1667 he came forward at the convention of estates, and named 6,000l. a month for a year as the sum to be raised for the king's use (ib. i. 270), although only two years before, 11 March 1665, he had spoken against endeavouring to raise money from so impoverished a country (ib. i. 210). He was still on good terms with Lauderdale, and upheld him against the party headed by Rothes. In September he wrote to Lauderdale urging him to secure Rothes's resignation of the commissionership, and on 12 Dec. he exposes the designs and characters of Sharp, Hamilton, and Rothes in the most felicitous