The History of England, from the Accession of James II Volume III Part 41

[Footnote 767: Faithful Contendings Displayed; Case of the present Afflicted Episcopal Clergy in Scotland, 1690.]

[Footnote 768: Act. Parl. April 25. 1690.]

[Footnote 769: See the Humble Address of the Presbyterian Ministers and Professors of the Church of Scotland to His Grace His Majesty's High Commissioner and to the Right Honourable the Estates of Parliament.]

[Footnote 770: See the Account of the late Establishment of Presbyterian Government by the Parliament of Scotland, Anno 1690. This is an Episcopalian narrative. Act. Parl. May 26. 1690.]

[Footnote 771: Act. Parl. June 7. 1690.]

[Footnote 772: An Historical Relation of the late Presbyterian General a.s.sembly in a Letter from a Person in Edinburgh to his Friend in London licensed April 20. 1691.]

[Footnote 773: Account of the late Establishment of the Presbyterian Government by the Parliament of Scotland, 1690.]

[Footnote 774: Act. Parl. July 4. 1690.]

[Footnote 775: Act. Parl. July 19 1690; Lockhart to Melville, April 29.

1690.]

[Footnote 776: Balcarras; Confession of Annandale in the Leven and Melville Papers.]

[Footnote 777: Balcarras; Notes of Ross's Confession in the Leven and Melville Papers.]

[Footnote 778: Balcarras; Mary's account of her interview with Montgomery, printed among the Leven and Melville Papers.]

[Footnote 779: Compare Balcarras with Burnett, ii. 62. The pamphlet ent.i.tled Great Britain's Just Complaint is a good specimen of Montgomery's manner.]

[Footnote 780: Balcarras; Annandale's Confession.]

[Footnote 781: Burnett, ii. 62, Lockhart to Melville, Aug. 30. 1690 and Crawford to Melville, Dec. 11. 1690 in the Leven and Melville Papers; Neville Payne's letter of Dec 3 1692, printed in 1693.]

[Footnote 782: Historical Relation of the late Presbyterian General a.s.sembly, 1691; The Presbyterian Inquisition as it was lately practised against the Professors of the College of Edinburgh, 1691.]

[Footnote 783: One of the most curious of the many curious papers written by the Covenanters of that generation is ent.i.tled, "Nathaniel, or the Dying Testimony of John Matthieson in Closeburn." Matthieson did not die till 1709, but his Testimony was written some years earlier, when he was in expectation of death. "And now," he says, "I as a dying man, would in a few words tell you that are to live behind my thoughts as to the times. When I saw, or rather heard, the Prince and Princess of Orange being set up as they were, and his pardoning all the murderers of the saints and receiving all the b.l.o.o.d.y beasts, soldiers, and others, all these officers of their state and army, and all the b.l.o.o.d.y counsellors, civil and ecclesiastic; and his letting slip that son of Belial, his father in law, who, both by all the laws of G.o.d and man, ought to have died, I knew he would do no good to the cause and work of G.o.d."]

[Footnote 784: See the Dying Testimony of Mr. Robert Smith, Student of Divinity, who lived in Douglas Town, in the Shire of Clydesdale, who died about two o'clock in the Sabbath morning, Dec. 13. 1724, aged 58 years; and the Dying Testimony of William Wilson, sometime Schoolmaster of Park in the Parish of Douglas, aged 68, who died May 7. 1757.]

[Footnote 785: See the Dying Testimony of William Wilson, mentioned in the last note. It ought to be remarked that, on the subject of witchcraft, the Divines of the a.s.sociate Presbytery were as absurd as this poor crazy Dominie. See their Act, Declaration, and Testimony, published in 1773 by Adam Gib.]

[Footnote 786: In the year 1791, Thomas Henderson of Paisley wrote, in defence of some separatists who called themselves the Reformed Presbytery, against a writer who had charged them with "disowning the present excellent sovereign as the lawful King of Great Britain." "The Reformed Presbytery and their connections," says Mr. Henderson, "have not been much accustomed to give flattering t.i.tles to princes.".....

"However, they entertain no resentment against the person of the present occupant, nor any of the good qualities which he possesses. They sincerely wish that he were more excellent than external royalty can make him, that he were adorned with the image of Christ," &c., &c., &c. "But they can by no means acknowledge him, nor any of the episcopal persuasion, to be a lawful king over these covenanted lands."]

[Footnote 787: An enthusiast, named George Calderwood, in his preface to a Collection of Dying Testimonies, published in 1806, accuses even the Reformed Presbytery of scandalous compliances. "As for the Reformed Presbytery," he says, "though they profess to own the martyr's testimony in hairs and hoofs, yet they have now adopted so many new distinctions, and given up their old ones, that they have made it so evident that it is neither the martyr's testimony nor yet the one that that Presbytery adopted at first that they are now maintaining. When the Reformed Presbytery was in its infancy, and had some appearance of honesty and faithfulness among them, they were blamed by all the other parties for using of distinctions that no man could justify, i.e. they would not admit into their communion those that paid the land tax or subscribed tacks to do so; but now they can admit into their communions both rulers and members who voluntarily pay all taxes and subscribe tacks.".... "It shall be only referred to government's books, since the commencement of the French war, how many of their own members have accepted of places of trust, to be at government's call, such as bearers of arms, driving of cattle, stopping of ways, &c.; and what is all their license for trading by sea or land but a serving under government?"]

[Footnote 788: The King to Melville, May 22. 1690, in the Leven and Melville Papers.]

[Footnote 789: Account of the Establishment of Presbyterian Government.]

[Footnote 790: Carmichael's good qualities are fully admitted by the Episcopalians. See the Historical Relation of the late Presbyterian General a.s.sembly and the Presbyterian Inquisition.]

[Footnote 791: See, in the Leven and Melville Papers, Melville's Letters written from London at this time to Crawford, Rule, Williamson, and other vehement Presbyterians. He says: "The clergy that were put out, and come up, make a great clamour: many here encourage and rejoyce at it.... There is nothing now but the greatest sobrietie and moderation imaginable to be used, unless we will hazard the overturning of all; and take this as earnest, and not as imaginations and fears only."]

[Footnote 792: Princ.i.p.al Acts of the General a.s.sembly of the Church of Scotland held in and begun at Edinburgh the 16th day of October, 1690; Edinburgh, 1691.]

[Footnote 793: Monthly Mercuries; London Gazettes of November 3. and 6.

1690.]

[Footnote 794: Van Citters to the States General, Oct. 3/13 1690.]

[Footnote 795: Lords' Journals, Oct. 6. 1690; Commons' Journals, Oct.

8.]

[Footnote 796: I am not aware that this lampoon has ever been printed.

I have seen it only in two contemporary ma.n.u.scripts. It is ent.i.tled The Opening of the Session, 1690.]

[Footnote 797: Commons' Journals, Oct. 9, 10 13, 14. 1690.]

[Footnote 798: Commons' Journals of December, 1690, particularly of Dec.

26. Stat. 2 W. & M. sess 2. C. 11.]

[Footnote 799: Stat. 2 W. and M. sess. 2. c. I. 3, 4.]

[Footnote 800: Burnet, ii. 67. See the journals of both Houses, particularly the Commons' Journals of the 10th of December and the Lords' Journals of the 30th of December and the 1st of January. The bill itself will be found in the archives of the House of Lords.]

[Footnote 801: Lords' Journals, Oct. 30. 1690. The numbers are never given in the Lords' Journals. That the majority was only two is a.s.serted by Ralph, who had, I suppose, some authority which I have not been able to find.]

[Footnote 802: Van Citters to the States General, Nov. 14/24 1690. The Earl of Torrington's speech to the House of Commons, 1710.]

[Footnote 803: Burnet, ii. 67, 68.; Van Citters to the States General, Nov. 22/Dec 1 1690; An impartial Account of some remarkable Pa.s.sages in the Life of Arthur, Earl of Torrington, together with some modest Remarks on the Trial and Acquitment, 1691; Reasons for the Trial of the Earl of Torrington by Impeachment, 1690; The Parable of the Bearbaiting, 1690; The Earl of Torrington's Speech to the House of Commons, 1710.

That Torrington was coldly received by the peers I learned from an article in the Noticias Ordinarias of February 6 1691, Madrid.]

[Footnote 804: In one Whig lampoon of this year are these lines,

"David, we thought, succeeded Saul, When William rose on James's fall; But now King Thomas governs all."

In another are these lines:

"When Charles did seem to fill the throne, This tyrant Tom made England groan."

A third says:

"Yorkshire Tom was rais'd to honour, For what cause no creature knew; He was false to the royal donor And will be the same to you."]

[Footnote 805: A Whig poet compares the two Marquesses, as they were often called, and gives George the preference over Thomas.]

"If a Marquess needs must steer us, Take a better in his stead, Who will in your absence cheer us, And has far a wiser head."]

[Footnote 806: "A thin, illnatured ghost that haunts the King."]

[Footnote 807: