Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/557

537 DUNDEE 537 pressly nominated l&amp;gt;y Charles II. to the command of one of the newly raised troops of cavalry. From the time, indeed, of his return to Scotland he assumed an influential position. His prestige as a soldier, his uncompromising disposition, and his unmistakable capacity, at once marked him out as a leader upon whom Government could rely. In the end of the year he was despatched with his troop to Galloway to suppress the disorders which prevailed in the district. He had a difficult and unpopular task, that of carrying out the policy of Lauderdale in the most disaffected part of Scotland. The Act of 1670, imposing the punishment of death and confiscation of goods, was still in operation ; and the Covenanters had for years before Graham s return to Scotland propounded the theory that opposition to the Government and the actual slaughter of the king were not only just, but a religious duty. Opposition to Lauderdale s measures, however, was winked at by the duke of Hamilton, and the recent authorized inroad of the Highlanders had widened the area of dissatisfaction. It is not wonderful that the success of Graham in his mission was small He entered, however, upon his occupation with zest, and inter preted consistently the orders he received. There is evi dence, also, that his efforts were appreciated at head quarters, in his appointment, jointly with the laird of Earls- hall, to the office of sheriff-depute of Dumfriesshire in March 1679, with powers specially narrated in his com mission anent &quot; separation,&quot; conventicles, &quot; disorderly baptisms and marriages, &quot; and the like. For some years thereafter the position of Graham was perhaps as difficult and delicate as one man was ever called upon to occupy. In the midst of enemies, and in virtue of the most erroneous but direct orders of his Government, he combined the functions of soldier, spy, prosecutor, and judge. Shortly after the murder of Arch bishop Sharp, on 5th May 1679, lie was summoned to increased activity. There were reports of an intended gathering in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, and at the head of his dragoons Graham went in pursuit of the rebels. On Sunday the 1st of June, the Covenanters having removed from Loudon Hill to a well-protected position upon the marshy ground of the farm of Dnimclog, Graham, who had gone in search, of them, advanced. Hindered from the attack by the nature of the ground, he had to wait till the impatience of his adversaries, who were under better leadership than they ever afterwards enjoyed, induced them to commence an impetuous attack. Headed by the youthful Clelland, the Covenanters charged the cavalry, who in a little turned and fled. The loss of the victors was but three men, while thirty-six dragoons were killed, Graham himself having a narrow escape. This was the only regular engagement he had with the Cove nanters. Small as it was, the result raised an enthusiasm in the bosoms of the victors, and was the beginning of an actual rebellion. On the 22d June Graham was present at the battle of Bothwell Bridge, at the head of his own troop. Immedi ately thereafter he was commissioned to search the south western shires for those who had taken part in the insur rection. In this duty he seems to have been engaged till the early part of 1680, when he disappears for a time from the record of these stringent measures. His powers during these months were of the most sweeping description ; and it appears that his ample commission was most slenderly used. The gravest accusation against him in reference to this period is that he was a robber. Graham had for some time been recognized as an adherent of the party who were adverse to measures of leniency and conciliation. During these months he was accordingly despatched to London along with Lord Lin- lithgow to influence the mind of Charles II against the indulgent method adopted by Monmouth with the extreme Covenanting party. It is perhaps not to his credit that he succeeded in the object of his mission. He was then iu the prime of life, was commandingly handsome in appearance, a lover of sport, and a devoted royalist. Charles seems to have been fascinated by his loyal supporter, and from that moment Graham was destined to rise in rank and honours. On the 21st of April 1680 he obtained a royal grant of the barony of the outlawed Macdowall of Freugh, and the grant was confirmed by subsequent orders upon the Exchequer in Scotland. In April 1680 it appears that his roving commission had been withdrawn by the Privy Council. He is thus free from all concern with the severe measures which followed the San- quhar Declaration of 22d June 1680. The turbulence occasioned by the passing of the Test Act of 1681 required to be quelled by a strong hand; and in the beginning of the following year Graham was again commissioned to act in the disaffected districts. In the end of January he was appointed to the sheriffships of Wigtown, Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, and Annandale. He was besides acting captain of a troop of dragoons the pernicious com bination of his offices being thus repeated. He appears further to have had powers of life and death in virtue of a commission of justiciary granted to him about the same time. In his despatches there are indications that he dis approved of a system of indiscriminate punishment, and desired that severe vengeance should only be executed upon ring-leaders and men of rank. This, however, applied solely to the harshest measures then known to the law, those of torture and death. Where these were involved he preferred, after hunting out and seizing his prisoners, to send them to Edinburgh for trial. But within these limits his methods of procedure in the large districts over which he had control were uncompromising, and, if we suppose him to have had sympathy with his orders, most cruel. He quartered on the rebels, rifled their houses, and, to use his own words, &quot; endeavoured to destroy them by eating up their provisions.&quot; The effect of his policy, if we believe his own writ, is not overstated as &quot;Death, desolation, ruin, and decay.&quot; The result of a bitter quarrel with Sir John Dalrymple confirmed the prestige of Graham, who was not only ac quitted by the verdict of the Privy Council of the grave charges of exaction and oppression preferred against him, but had the satisfaction of seeing Sir John condemned to fine and imprisonment for interference Avith his proceedings. On 25th December 1682 he was appointed colonel of a new regiment raised in Scotland, and captain of its leading troop. He had still greater honours in view, and in March 1683 he started for Newmarket to demand an audience of the king. In the preceding January the case of the earl of Lauderdale, late Maitland of Hatton, which involved the question of his malversations with regard to the Scottish mint, was debated in the House of Lords. Maitland was proprietor of the lands and lordship of Dundee and Dud- hope, and the decree of the lords against him was in March 1683 issued f_or the sum of 72,000. Graham succeeded in having the property of the defaulter transferred to him by royal grant, and in May the additional honour was conferred upon him of nomination to the Privy Council of Scotland. Shortly afterwards Claverhouse was appointed to be pre sent at the sittings of the recently instituted Circuit Court of Justiciary in Stirling, Glasgow, Dumfries, and Jed- burgh. The notable objects of the circuit were the im position of the test and the punishment of rebels. Several were sentenced to death. During the rest of the year he attended the meetings of council. As a statesman he. was VTT. 68