actually excommunicated.* The conduct of the assembly and inferior judicatures towards these worthy men, was, at that time, a subject of lamentation to many excellent individuals belonging to the church of Scotland, both in public and in pri * The following letter from the General Correspondence of Old Dissenters, to the presbytery of Dumfries on this occasion, is a curious specimen of the spirit and feeling of the times: Gentlemen, We ye united Societys of a witnessing remnant of yo Church of Scotland, met at Crawford John, having been certainly informed, yt you are still persisting in your malicious and bitter opposition agt ye Truth, & yse yt desire faithfully to adhere yrunto, as is piculiarly evident in your most unchristian treatment of Mr. James Gilchrist, min' in Dunscore, qm notwithstanding his being a man of a blameless and godly life, and well reported of beyond many oy, you are resolving so much as in you lyes, to divest of all Christian priviledges, cast out of ye Church of Christ, & deliver up to Satan. We say, being certainly informed of your persisting in this wicked design, we thought ourselves bound, by ye word of God, & our Covt Engagements, so far to interest ourselves in ye cause of Truth, & defence of ye innocent, unjustly & maliciously pursued, prosecuted, & persecuted by you, q° pretend yourselves a presbytery of y° Church of Scotland, & servants of Jesus Christ, but by yor actions ray' evidence yrselves, ye servants of Satan, yt we cannot omit ys occasion, tho' we have formerly protested agt all your acts & proceedings in general, yet in p'cular to bear testimony, & enter our protestation ag such an unchristian, cruel, & undeserved sentence as you intend to pronounce agt ye sd Mr. James Gilchrist, for no oyr cause, yn his faithfulness in opposing yo Church renting, religion ruining courses. Gentlemen, if Satan had not so filled your hearts, as to make you utterly stupid, and incapable of all conviction, you could not but see, yt yr prostituting yt solemn & tremendous ordinance of Excommunication, to so base and unworthy ends, as the serving ye lusts of your malice & envy, agt an innocent person, is ye high way to draw down divine vengeance on yrselves & ye land, to ruin your own reputation, if yt were not deplorable already, wt all yt have ye least spark of tenderness & concern for Truth, to debase ye ordinance of Christ, and render it contemptible in ye eyes of ye loose & profane multitude, to pave a way for more bloody courses of persecution, & is an irrefragable proof of your inveterate malice, agt y Cov'ed Reformation, & of your palpable hypocrisy, while you pretend moderation for your Catholick principles, & yet in your practice discover y' most ravenous & devouring temper agt ye Truth & its followers. We would yrefore, if yre were any hope, ye would yet be brought to consider y things, beseech & obtest you to desist from yt evil course of yours, & be unfeignedly humbled for ye length y have already gone on y'in; qħ if you shall refuse to doe & continue obstinate in your perverse purpose, as we are fully persuaded your sentence shall not be ratified in heaven, so we protest it vate life; it was improved, as laying a foundation for seceding from her communion, and it is to this day, along with other charges, triumphantly appealed to as an irrefragable proof of her early and native tendency to corruption.-The assembly broke up on the fifteenth, after appointing their next meeting to be held at Edinburgh, the fourteenth of May, 1718. Public attention was at this time very much engrossed with the state of the currency, which the various methods fallen upon to supply the prodigious drain occasioned by the expensive wars in which the nation had been so long engaged had greatly deranged. Silver coin had nearly disappeared, being exported for gold, from the high price of which, a profit of one shilling and threepence was obtained upon the coinage of the guinea. After considering a representation on the subject from Sir Isaac Newton, master of the mint, the house of commons addressed his majesty, requesting that a proclamation might be issued, forbidding the guinea to be taken for any more than twenty-one shillings, which was done accordingly, and a bill passed both houses, fixing the weight, fineness, and denomination of both gold and silver coins, and particularly prohibiting the melting down of the latter.* The Jacobites seem at this time to have been mostly employed in intriguing abroad; yet one youth, James Shepherd, an apprentice to a coach maker, formed a scheme for assassinating the king, which having communicated to a nonjuring clergyman, he was apprehended, tried, condemned, and executed at Tyburn. Aware of the diligence of the pretender and his friends, the king was anxious to strengthen his interest among the potentates of the continent, and, with this view, entered into what shall always be held void and null by us; & yt notwtstanding y'of, we will encourage him, if he shall constantly adhere to ye truth & testimony of ye Church of Scotland, as if no such sentence had been pronounced agt him. In witness q'of y'e presents are subscribed in our name, & at our appointment, y 5th day of Feb. 1718, by Rot Maxwell, preses. Alex Marshall, cls. Conclusions of the General Correspondence, &c. &c. • Smollett's History of England, &c. &c. has been denominated the quadruple alliance, by which peace was prescribed to the emperor, the king of Spain, and the king of Sicily, by France and England. Nothing could be more contradictory to the true interests of Great Britain than this treaty, which destroyed the balance in Italy, by the accession of power which it brought to the house of Austria. The whole, indeed, was nothing more than an expensive compliment to the emperor, who wished to add Sicily to his other dominions, and the consequences to Britain, were an immediate interruption of friendly and commercial intercourse with Spain, and, in a short time, a war with that monarchy. The General Assembly of the church of Scotland was convened, according to appointment, on the fourteenth of May, 1718, John, earl of Rothes, commissioner, and William Wishart, principal of the college of Edinburgh, moderator. Nothing in the intercourse of this assembly with the government occurred, but moderation and mildness, nor was any thing of much public interest at this time brought under discussion. An extraordinary correspondence which had been maintained between the synod of Angus and Mearns, and the synods of Lothian and Tweedale, Perth and Stirling, Fife and Aberdeen, ever since the year 1701, it was now, from the improved and settled state of the former, considered expedient to discontinue. An act was also passed respecting the Auchterarder proposition, which had been condemned by the assembly of last year. The presbytery had been called to the bar of the commission, which had condescended to accept their explanation, had admonished them, and prohibited them to use the same expressions in time coming, all which was approved of by this assembly.* War had now, in the end of the year 1718, been declared against Spain, and a descent upon England in favours of the pretender, was immediately planned by cardinal Alberoni, the minister of Spain. The chevalier de St. George, who had taken up his residence at Urbino, in the papal territories, secretly withdrew from that place early in the spring. Taking his passage from Netteno to Cagliari, he arrived there in the month of March. From Cagliari, he proceeded to Rosas, in Cata * Printed Acts of Assembly, 1718. lonia, and thence to Madrid, where he was cordially received. as king of England. Ten ships of war had already been. equipped for his service, with transports, having on board six thousand troops, and twelve thousand stand of arms. This armament was confided to the duke of Ormond, as captain general of his most catholic majesty, and he was liberally furnished with declarations in the name of that monarch, justifying the part he had now taken, and, though he was invading the kingdom of Great Britain, assuring the people that it was only as an auxiliary to king James. Timely notice of all this preparation was communicated to his Britannic majesty, by the regent of France, which he communicated to both houses of parliament, and received in return, the warmest assurances of support against all his enemies. Two thousand men were immediately landed from Holland, six battalions from the Austrian Netherlands, and the duke of Orleans proffered no less than twenty battalions for the defence of Great Britain, against this formidable attack. Proclamations were at the same time issued, offering five thousand pounds of reward for the duke of Ormond, one thousand for every attainted peer, and five hundred for every gentleman who should embark in his train. There was in the issue no need for these precautions. Ormond, having sailed from Cadiz and proceeded as far as Cape Finisterre, was there met by a violent storm, which totally defeated the whole expedition. The earls Marischal and Seaforth, the marquis of Tullibardine, some field officers, and about three hundred Spaniards, with a quantity of arms, ammunition, and money, embarked on board of two Spanish frigates at St. Sebastian, and sailed direct for the Island of Lewis. They were joined by a few Highlanders, landed in Kintail, and possessed themselves of the pass of Glenshiel, where they were met by a body of regular troops from Inverness, under the command of general Wightman. At the approach of the king's troops, they abandoned Glenshiel, and retired to the pass of Strachell, which they resolved to defend. They were attacked on the eighteenth of June, 1719, and driven from one eminence to another till night, when the Highlanders dispersed themselves among the hills, and the Spaniards surrendered themselves prisoners. Seaforth was dangerously wounded, but was carried off by his followers, and, along with earl Marischal and Tullibardine, escaped to the continent.* The same good providence on this occasion, as on many others, averted the danger that seemed impending over the best interests of Britain. The English Jacobites, taught prudence from their former experience, determined not to risk themselves till such time as Ormond had landed his forces, and was in a condition to protect them, of course there was not the smallest movement in that part of the kingdom. The Highlanders also, were shy to commit themselves. Marischal and Tullibardine had scarcely set foot on shore, when they quarrelled about the command, which could not fail to make the confidence of the people, which was not great at best, still less. Indeed, it appears that few, if any, except the immediate dependants of Seaforth, were prevailed upon to join them.† *Smollett's History of England. Douglass' Peerage of Scotland, by Wood, vol. ii. pp. 197, 484. Memoirs of the Chevalier de Johnstone, xxxii. This prudence on the part of the Scotish Jacobites, seems to have very narrowly escaped being overset by the machinations of their enemies. "A resolution having been universally taken not to move in Scotland till England was fairly engaged, this measure was very near being broke by a piece of odd conduct, of captain Straiton, at Edinburgh. There came, it seems, an unknown fellow to one Mr. Millns, tutor to Mr. Macdonald, younger of Glengarie, and told him, that being a servant to Cameron of Locheall, he came with him from Spain, and was set on shoar on the coast of Galloway, from the duke of Ormond's fleet as it passed by, with orders to goe and acquaint his master's friends to be ready to take up arms. Mr. Millns carried this fellow to captain Straiton, who with joy heard and gave some credit to what he so earnestly wished, and was soon confirmed in the truth therof, by a letter sent express by the viscount of Stormont, then at his house in Annandale, giving an account, that five or six days befor the date, a large fleet of tall ships, being no doubt Ormond's fleet, past by that coast, sailing with a fair wind directly for the west of England. Straiton having after this no remaining doubts, sent off an express to acquaint my lord Nairn, in Perthshire, that the duke was on the coast, and certainly landed by that time, and desireing his lordship to forward the good news to Marishall, and other proper persons in the Highlands, that noe time might be lost in drawing to the feilds; and, as he imparted it likewise to some in and about Edinburgh, the earl of Dalhousie, and some other gentlemen of that county, got on horseback, with a resolution to try if they could join Ormond, for they knew there was no possibility of getting up to Marishall; but I persuaded his lordship to stop at Selkirk on pretence of seeing the race, till I enquired further into the story. |