BOOK 1670. Parliament. The second session of parliament is distinguished by severe and sanguinary acts against conventicles, which the military had of late been employed to disperse. The people resorted to sermon in the open fields, which they preferred to houses for the purpose of escape or defence. A large conventicle in Fife, was attended by gentlemen in their ordinary arms, and the reproaches of the court, or of the English prelates, awakened Lauderdale to all Severe laws the rage of persecution. House-conventicles were against Conven ticles. repressed by the former laws against separation; and husbands were rendered responsible for their wives, fathers for their children, and magistrates for the towns within which they were held. Fieldconventicles were more severely restrained. The preachers were subjected to confiscation and death; their hearers to double fines and penalties of sedition. A reward of five hundred Scottish merks was offered for their persons, or an indemnity for their slaughter; and house-conventicles were estimated and punished as field-conventicles, if crowded without, at the windows or doors. Whatsoever persons refused to depose against delinquents, or to furnish information on oath against such as held or frequented conventicles, were punishable by imprisonment, arbitrary fines, transportation to the plantations; and the privy council was enjoined to enforce the utmost rigor of the act, against all who decline to turn public informers against their relations and friends. It is observable that the king VII. 1671. himself disapproved of the first as a sanguinary BOOK statute, but his humanity never interposed to prevent its renewal in the subsequent parliament, much less to procure its repeal. A severe and iniquitous law was productive, however, of unforeseen mischiefs. Instead of being deterred by its rigors, the people repaired to conventicles with arms for their defence; and as field-conventicles became more numerous, armed conventicles began to prevail.53 dale's ad tion; When three-fourths of the nation are represent- Lauder ed as sectaries from the national worship, the per- ministra version of terms may excite a smile of contempt; but when the majority of a people are proscribed and persecuted for religious opinions, we must lament that fatal intermixture of the human passions, which though more frequent, and esteemed more venial in the transactions of government than in the administration of justice, is yet more destructive to the human race. From the corrupt and furious passions of Lauderdale, his administration relapsed into the same tyranny from which he had relieved the nation; with this difference, that in proportion as it was prolonged, it became daily worse. On his return to Scotland with the tyranny title of duke, his insolence provoked universal dis- lence. gust. The parliament was adjourned till the coun- June. tess of Dysart, whom he had now married, was conducted round the country, where they were and inso 1672. VII. 1672. BOOK attended and received in their progress with regal pomp and respect. Their profusion was immense; and in the hands of his rapacious duchess, every thing became venal in Scotland. As his humour or interest predominated, the presbyterians were alternately persecuted and their clergy indulged; but persecution, instead of being committed to the prelates, was reserved as a source of emolument for himself and his friends.54 Some idea may be formed of his violence and rapacity, of which it is impossible to enumerate the particulars, from a lively sketch of the grievances and the situation of the country under his administration. Situation and griev nation. The nobility, who exceeded an hundred, were ances of the immersed in poverty and debt, and supported Nobility. mostly by pensions from the crown. From their numbers they acquired the chief sway and control in parliament; but their lofty titles and decayed fortunes rendered them equally obsequious to the favourite and oppressive to the nation. They had no access to the throne, except through the minister who engrossed the absolute disposal of offices, and from his residence at court they sunk with the country into an absolute submission to his meanest dependants, his servants aud friends.55 Courts of The privy council and the courts of justice were filled with his creatures, but the former enjoyed no justice. 54 Burnet, ii. 61. 55 Miscellanea Aulica, 190. Wodrow's Hist. i. App. 147. and Collections, MS. vol. xxvii. 8vo. Adv. Library. VII. 1672. share in the government, except the merit of an BOOK implicit execution of his commands. The latter consisted of ignorant or unprincipled judges, merchants, country gentlemen, collectors of revenue; and under the management of lord Hatton, his brother, and Dalrymple the president, it is asserted that favour, bribery, partial and corrupt judgments prevailed beyond any former periods.56 An alteration was introduced by parliament into the justiciary court, to which five lords of session were conjoined, instead of the deputies whom the justice general, or the assessors whom the privy council were accustomed to appoint. But the expectations of parliament were not entirely fulfilled, as the criminal court was converted into a chamber of the court of session, infected with the same abuses, and equally devoted to the ministers of the crown. The revenues of Scotland were engrossed and Abuses of wasted by Lauderdale and his friends. The parliament was prolonged above four years, that he might enjoy the emoluments and rank of commissioner; and his revenues during his abode in Scotland, exceeded those of its ancient kings. His salary was sixteen thousand pounds sterling; the donatives which he obtained, twenty-six thou 56 Id. The judges, &c. by repeated and recent statutes, had been forbidden to grant protections from arrestments, under the penalty of becoming responsible for the debt. Protections, however, became so frequent, that they were openly purchased for five pounds a-piece.. Mackenzie's Observ. i. 308. Wod. revenue. BOOK sand; but the annual revenues of the crown, the VII. surplus revenue accumulated by Murray, and an 1672. assessment of seventy-two thousand pounds, were insufficient to support his profusion, and quickly disappeared in his hands. A gift of the feudal incidents of ward and marriage, was conferred on the earl of Kincardine; another of the incidents due before the restoration was engrossed by Lauderdale, and exacted in the most oppressive manner from the vassals of the crown. But the most Extortions. lucrative and oppressive sources of extortion were the penalties and compositions for attending conventicles, of which it is impossible to estimate the amount. Nineteen hundred pounds sterling were exacted by Athol, the justice general, for his own emolument in a single week. Two gentlemen, one of whom was a youth from school, and the wife of the other had attended a field-meeting, compounded for fifteen hundred pounds. Thirty thousand pounds were imposed on ten gentlemen, and these not the most considerable, in the shire of Renfrew. Injustice was aggravated by the insolence of Lauderdale, whose unfeeling jests insulted those who compounded for their fines. The penalties of nonconformity within particular districts were farmed out, or assigned to his dependents; and the estates of those who withdrew from his rage and insolence, were plundered and wasted by gifts of escheat.57. 57 Wodrow's App. 346-62. Scotland's Grievances under the Duke of Lauderdale. Crawford's Hist. MS. ii. 113. Burnet, ii. 65. |