The Earl of Lauderdale, to whom he was partly in ticbted for this change in Isis fortunes, received from him considerable support in the administration of public fairs. Argyle, however, would never countenanc e or assist bins in any of his violent measures. They %vele both Presbyterians ; but Lauderdale carried the prero gative high, and vigorously maintained the bishops in Scotland, because he found all this conducive to the pre servation of his influence at court ; whereas, Arc} he acted in strict conformity to his principles, and wls a Presby terian both in heart and in practice. Through the tyrt,n Meal procedure of Lauderdale, Archbishop Sharp, aid others, a spirit oh rebellion was engendered among the people, and in 1666 it burst forth in the west with consi derable fury. The Earl of Argyle retained the loyalty by which he had been uniformly distinguished, and raised 1500 men to be employed in quelling the insurrection, though the Archbishop was too jealous to call them in to the field. The rebels were defeated at Pentland. Great cruelties were p( rpetrated by the king's troops after the battle, and cruelties still greater and more ex tensive were committed by his ministers and judges un der the form of trial, and under the pretexts of justice. Ilis majesty himself interposed to prevent t; e Larder effusion of blood : but it was not long be fore his serv_nts had recourse to the same excessive severities which •mad formerly provoked the country to take up arms. L. u derdale, who was now created a duke. began to forsake some of his old friends, who refused to lend tneir sanction to his arbitrary conduct. Among the sc \V;. s tic Ea:i of Argyle. But the minister knew too well his influence with the king, and his interest in the country, to deprive him either of his seat at the privy-council board, or of his place as a lend of the treasury. Lauderdale, in 1673, most inhumanly Entught down the Highlanders, at that time a lawless and savage band, to live at free quarters in the western parts of the kingdom. To this measure, at once impolitic and barbarous, Argyle refused to give any active concurrence ; but, at the same time, he acted a moderate and prudent part, by not joining in the attack which was made upon ministry in consequence of that unjustifiable step. The Duke of York being sent by the king in 1681, to take the management of Scottish affairs, he conducted himself with so much temper in general, and so obligingly to the earl in particular, that they were on good terms for a considerable time. But the duke having questioned Argyle pretty closely about the government in Scotland, he discovered that he had principles and views quite adverse to those by which he himself and his brother were actuated ; and, therefore, though still externally civil to him, he began to assume a coldness and reserve which indicated a change in his sentiments, if, indeed, his real sentiments towards the earl were susceptible of any change. An act was passed this year by the parliament for establishing a test, oblig ing all who filled any office, to swear that he would at tempt no alteration in the constitution of church or state. While this act was under discussion, Argyle opposed it with the utmost boldness and vigour. And after his op position had proved fruitless, he would not take the test without an explanation of the meaning which he attached to it. This was also done by the Marquis of Queens berry ; while many expressed their scruples about the oath, and others refused to take it all. The earl sent his explanation to the Duke of York ; his royal highness declared himself satisfied with it ; and the earl was per mitted to sign it in the qualified sense which he had af fixed to it, and to sit and deliberate accordingly as a privy counsellor. It is also worthy of remark, that the privy council themselves, on the very same day, gave an explanation of the test similar to that which had been given by Argyle, and that the clergy were allowed the privilege of signing it, with an adjection to that purpose. But his lordship was an obnoxious man to those in pow er, and what was reckoned venial or innocent in others, was in him an unpardonable crime. A design was formed against him, and through the malice of his enemies, and his own consistency and firmness, on which they could always calculate, it unfortunately succeeded. He was most unreasonably required to take the test a second time as a commissioner of the treasury. He offered the same explanation : hut when desired to subscribe it, which demonstrated to him that there was some insidi ous view in the proposal, he refused to comply with it. A complaint was sent to the king against him, and in the mean time he was committed prisoner to the Castle. But before an answer from his majesty could arrive, a prosecution was commenced. He was first accused of slander, leasing-making, and depravation of the laws; but aft( r the king's kucr came to hand, authorizing the pmcet:uri which was intended, the charge was altered, and 1 e was indicted before the Court of Justiciary for high treason and perjury. The conduct of the prosecu tors in every part of it, she wed that there was a deter mination to cut Min off. The plainest maxims cf justice were violated without ; and a degree of zeal was exhibited to procure his condemnation. wl ich was alio;;eiher Mike( nt even in those times of violence and oppression. The earl requested that Sir George Lock hart, his ordinary advocate, might be allowed and au thorised to appear in his behalf. This most reasonable petition was refused once and again. About eight gen tlemen at the bar, eminent for their talents and character, gave a written opinion, in which they declared that the earl's explanation of the test contained nothing illegal or criminal ; and this was taken so heinously amiss, that it was made a matter of formal consultation whether those lawyers should not be prosecuted for scandal against the government. Argyle delivered a speech in his own de fence, and offered two letters, one of them from the king, and the other from Middleton, in proof of his loyalty and faithful services, requesting them to be read and recorded in process ; but the court would not allow them to be recorded after they were read, plainly because they went tar to invalidate the interpretation put upon his conduct with regard to the test. After pleadings were heard at great length, the judges deliberated on the relevancy of the indictment, and it so happened that they were divided on that point, while the presiding judge declined giving his casting vote : but they were relieved from this dilemma, by bringing Lord Nairn, an old infirm man, out of his bed at midnight, from whom, though he had not heard the debate, and even fell asleep while the clerk was reading over to him the reasonings on both sides, they procured a vote against the earl. The cause was then remitted to an assize, consisting of persons known to be hostile to him, and whose sense of justice, if they had any, was still farther biassed by the king's advocate, who threatened them with a process of ere or.
Neither the earl nor his counsel would say a single word more, as, from the interlocutor on the relevancy, and the whole complexion of the business, they perceived that speaking could be of no service, and refrained even from objecting either to the jury or the witnesses, though they could have urged valid objections to both. A ver dict was very soon brought in, all in one voice, " finding the Earl of Argyle guilty of treason, leasing-making, and leasing.telling ; and, by a plurality of votes, finding him not guilty of perjury,"—thus endeavouring to impose upon the world by an appearance of candour and discri mination. The council immediately sent a letter to the king, informing him of what had taken place, and ask ing leave to pronounce sentence. The earl concluded, from a variety of circumstances, that the utmost rigour was to be expected from the government in Scotland, and knowing also that a thoughtless, dissipated, unprinci pled king, however much he might otherwise be disposed to favour him, would be easily influenced by these advisers to give any order on which they were pleased to insist, he used means of making his escape from the castle, and succeeded in the attempt. In a few days he got safe to London, lea\ ing his enemies in Scotland to express their resentment as they best could ; and they did it, af ter receiving the king's permission, by proclaiming his sentence at the Cross, and tearing his coat of arms in pieces, as if he had been in open rebellion, and had fled from justice. It was well known at court that he was residing in London, for lie did not take any extraordinary pains to conceal himself; but no notice was taken of him, although he was represented there as a person of dan gerous principles, who had been guilty of treason, and who had ( ven sinned grievously after his conviction, by making his escape, and thus distrusting the royal cle mency. It is even said, that when sonic person very eagerly and officiously put a note into the king's hand, intimating, that the earl might he easily apprehended, his majesty, with an indignation at the idea which did him honour, tore it, and replied, " l'oh, poh, hunt a hunted partridge ! for shame !" This is given by the editor of the Biographia Britannica, on the authority of private informatien ; and it is well, if it lie true.. Bid it would appeal that the earl did not trust much in the king's gene rosily, for he took the first opportunity of going over to 11 ()Hand, where he continued during- the remain der of Cha•les's reign.
On James's accession to the throne, many gentlemen belonging- to Scotland, who had been driven from their native country by the illegal and oppressive measures of the gm eminent, began to think or some hostile attempt against the arbitrary power to which their expatriation w as owing ; and, aware of the respectability and influ ence of Argyle, they' proposed that he should place him self at their head, and endeavour to accomplish by force what he could not In ye to obtain by gentler means. To this proposal lie readily acceded. It was not against his country, but in its behalf, that he was about to take up arms. It w ,s to maintain the cause of ci% it and religious lihert v—of justice and humanity—of patriotism and of truth ; it was to restore a constitution which had been di struN •d by its law less and savage administrators; it was to t,ive hack to the people of Scotland those rights of vialich the y should tie\ ee have been deprived ; and to re-establish the connection w hich he and his followers naturally had with that kingdom, and which bad been dissols ed by the hand of unprincipled violence. These were the news which actuated the breast and sanctified the conduct of Argyle, in that rebellion, as it has been called, by a very ordinary misnomer, which lie directed again et the government of King James. But it did not like's:. ovidence at that time to crown the efforts of pat' iutisin with slice( ss. The skill of Argyle's manage ment, indeed, was not equal to the excellence of his ob ject and the purity of his intention. Many untoward and unforeseen circumstances occurred to thwart his plans. Of the people from whom he looked for active and zea lous assistance, but who were now greatly dispirited by the harsh treatment they had experienced, much fewer joined nisi than he had reason to expect. Ilis measures were even disconcerted by the refractory temper of those who, though under his command, were yet tth, essential to his success to have their opinions slighted. The Duke of lonmouth, too, who engaged to make a similar at tempt in England, conducted himself weakly and impru dently, and this tended to throw discredit on the corres ponding inovements in Scotland, and to render the ac complishment of their united purpose impracticable. The whole enterprise failed almost as soon as it CoM Argyle was taken prisoner in the neighbour hood of Paisley. Ile was immediatelv carried to Glas gow ; amid front that, in a few days, to Edinburgh. The manner in which he was compelled to enter that city was most ignominious. More disgraceful treatment could not have been given to the vilest criminal ; but at that period it was the wise and the good who chiefly suffered, and great personal merit seemed to be almost uniformly the signal for persecution and death. The Earl's fate was speedily fixed. It was indeed a subject of delibera tion, whether lie should be punished according to his former sentence, or in consequence of a new trial and conviction. But it was decided without any hesitation, that he should be put to death ; and, as if it had been to chew how utterly the rulers of the country at that time set all the maxims of law and justice at defiance, and how mu' h they disregarded the opinions of the world and of posterity, they e othleinto d him to (lie on the sentence onounced against him ill I 68 I , nobody (milk' justify or delend, instead of impeaching him fOr taking. up arms against the government, which was at least a plausible ground of accusation. The La•l bore his fate with all the composure and magnanimity of a Christian. Ife was beheaded at the ('loss, on the 3oth of June 168.1, and both in his whole behaviour, and in the speech whir he delivered on the scaffold, gave a most unenuiv ()cal to the truth and power of religion. Of his de portm•nt on that interesting occasion, Wodrow has given a vcry pal tieular and al•ecting account, which worthy of the reader's perusal, and of which he '11S0 See a beautiful abridgement in Fox's History of the Reign of James 11. Sec \Vodrow's History of the Snfir•rings of the Church of Scotland ; thirnet's History of his own Times; Scots Mist cleared ; Original ALS'S. in Ur& possession of Blackwood, Bookseller, Edinburgh. (r)