pleasant Schene is turned into Confusion and some who doubted of their Interest to be preferred by their Princes Favour to that Share and Interest in the Government they designed they run about hoping to force Him to take them off for fear of their mischief whose Actings shew they resolve rather to disturb that Peace which is not yet well Confirmed to Embroyle the Nation Shake the Throne hazard Religion and all to a Revolution than fall short of their pretensions as if they had said Flectere sinequeo superos acheronta movebo and they have endeavoured to Amuse the unwarry multitude with the specious Pretexts of Law and Liberty and that their Grievances are so far from being Redressed that there are new Invasions made upon them and so in stead of taking their Relief which the King hath offered to all the Grievances represented by the Estates they fall upon new Complaints not formerly pretended to nor thought just or worthy to be insisted on for which some have Addrest to the King with great peremptoriness hindring their native Countrey from receiving the benefit of these Concessions which His Majesty offers in His Instructions But that I may not seem to impose upon you in this matter I will fairly set down both the Grievances and the Redress offered by His Majesty in the Instructions to His Commissioner with some short Notes that you may better understand the nature of the Grievâ—nce and the fulness of the Relief that is offered by the Instructions â—nd in regard the Instructions contain moe things than the Grievâ—nces do such as the turning the States into a Parliament and the â—ike they do not follow the same Method or Answer the numâ—er Therefore I shall repeat every Article of the Grievances with â—he particular Instruction relating to it together and then come to â—our Questions Article First Grievance THe Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland do Represent that the Committee of Parliament calâ—ed the Articles is a great Grievance to the Nation and that there â—ught to be no Committees of Parliament but such as are freely Chosen â—y the Estates to prepare Motions and Overtures that are first made â—n the House This is Answered by the second Article of the Instructions â—nstrustion â—econd YOu are to pass an Act for Regulating the Articles to consist of Twenty four Persons besides the Officers â—f State whereof Eight are to be Chosen by the Noblemen of their Eâ—tate Eight by the Barons and Eight by the Burrows out of their Eâ—tates and in case of the death of any of these Persons that Estate out â—f which the Person Deceased shall supply the same These are to prepare Matters and Acts for the Parliament but not to exclude the Parliaâ—ent to take any Matter into their Consideration though it hath been thrown out and Rejected in the Articles and all former Acts specially the first Act Parliament first Session third Charles the Second inconsistent herewith are to be Rescinded The Parliament of Scotland doth consist of Three Estates who all meet in one House and by the ancient Laws and Custom of that Kingdom there was a select number of Persons Chosen out of the Three Estates who with the Officers of State were called Domini ad Articulos because they did prepare Articles or Proposals and Framed Acts which were brought in to be Considered in Parliament And this Committee for Articles hath been as Antient as we find any Records of Parliament in that Kingdom and the Officers of State were alwayes Members The great Weight in the Mannagement of Affairs was committed to this Committee And in Antient times after the Articles were once Constitute the Parliament did Adjourn to a certain day till all things were prepared by the Articles which were to be proposed in Parliament The Policy of that Kingdom had introduced and maintained this Constitution of the Articles upon weighty aad solid Reasons as 1o. To preserve the different Interests of the Three Estates among themselves the several Estates having no Negatives in the Parliament for though one State were intirely opposit the plurality of the whole doth Determine and Decide And the Estates not being equal in number a greater State Combining might overthrow the Interest of another especially since the State of the Nobility being increased at the Kings Pleasure there are at present as many Lords in Scotland as do equal or exceed the number of the Commissioners for Shires and Burrows together As also the number of the Royal-Burrows may be increased at the King's Pleasure But the Shires remaining the same the Estate of the Burrows which hath the greatest part of the Property and visible Estate of the Nation they may have the fewest Votes in the Parliament But in the Articles every State hath an equal number whereby in the Projecting and Framing of the Laws each State hath an equal Interest 2o. All the Estates meeting in one House and there being no Negatives in the Parliament of Scotland a suddain Vote would put the Kings of Scotland to this strait and difficulty either to consent to a Law whereof they might be ignorant as to its Design and Framing or else to refuse the Royal Assent and so a Breach or Difference were Stated betwixt the King and People and there could be nothing more expedient for preventing these Inconveniencies than the Choosing of a select number for each Estate who with the Officers of State for the King did Prepare Digest and Adjust all Matters which were to be brought in to the Parliament In the Parliament of England there are two Houses and their Forms of Proceeding are flow and Cautious whereby the King may understand whatever is under the Deliberation of the one House before it come to the other and by Conference betwixt the two Houses Matters use to be Adjusted before they come the Kings length for the Royal Assent But in Scotland the Procedure is quick and the Forms of Parliament are Expedit and Summar besides the Temper and Genious of the Nation which is ready not to say Prefervidum Scotorum Ingenium whereby Matters of the greatest Importance may be Stated and Determined at one Sitting in the Parliament of Scotland And therefore as Matters in England do proceed by Bills from the Houses to the King so in Scotland Business did Commense from the Articles in which both the King and People had their shares of Members Of late there hath Excesses and Abuses crept in to the Articles both as to the manner of their Constitution and Power of Pâ—…miting the Parliament And since the Year 1633. The Bishops did chuse Eight Noblemen and the Noblemen did chuse Eight Bishops these did chuse Eight of the Commissioners for Shires and Eight of the Commissioners for Burrows who with the Officers of State made up the Articles by this method both the small Barons and Burrows were excluded from any Interest in chusing the Articles and they had not so much as a Vote in chusing these persons who
Disposal of Trade with Forreigners THe Estates of Parliament Considering That during the late Troubles divers Invasions were made upon the Royal Prerogatives of the Crown and that in a just abhorrence of thereof and in a due sense of the Happiness they enjoy under His Majesties Government They are oblidged on all occasions to Vindicat and Assert the same in the several Branches thereof And since the Ordering and Disposal of Trade with Forraign Countreys and the laying of Restraints and Impositions upon Forraign Imported Merchandises is by the Law of Nations acknowledged to be proper to and Inherent in the Persons of all free Princes as an undoubted Prerogative of the Crown They therefore in a Dutiful and Humble Recognisance of His Majesties Prerogative Royal Do Declare That the Ordering and Disposal of Trade with Forraign Nations and the laying of Restraints and Impositions upon Forraign Imported Commodities doth belong to His Majesty and His Successors as an undoubted Priviledge and Prerogative of the Crown and that by vertue thereof they may lay such Impositions and Restraints upon Imported Forraign Commodities and so Order and Dispose upon the Trade of them as they shall judge fit for the good of the Kingdom Likeas the King's Majesty with Advice and Consent of His Estates of Parliament Doth hereby Rescind and Annul all Acts Statutes Constitutions and Customs to the contrary and Declares the same void and null in all time coming This Grievance doth acknowledge that the King hath power by Law to Impose what Custom or Duty He pleases upon Forraign Trade but it States the King in a Legal Capacity without Consent of Parliament to exact as great Sums as the Nation is able to furnish for every Countrey needs something from another either of absolute necessity or conveniency especially such Countreys as do not abound with Manufacturies and Artisens and in a Northern Countrey Spiceries and Drugs are become almost as necessar as Air and Diet besides Iron Wine Pitch Tar and an hundred things wherewith Scotland doth not furnish it self and by Imposing such exorbitant Duties upon these as the French King doth upon Salt the Kings of Scotland might Supply themselves without being beholden to Their Parliaments and People for their Aids and it is impossible to suspect that a King who is willing to part with this Power which the Law Declares to be an Inherent Priviledge of His Crown can be uneasie to His People in any thing and it is amasing that since the effect of this Law is understood and hath been acknowledged in the Grievances how any persons could be so cruel to their Native Countrey as to obstruct the Relief which the King offered them in this Concession And if this opportunity were never renewed how justly might this Age and the succeeding Generations blame them Article 9. Grievance THe not taking an effectual Course to Repress the Depredations and Robberies by the Highland Clans is a Grievance This is Answered by the eleventh Instruction Instruction 11. YOu are to endeavour to procure an Act for an effectual Course to Repress the Depredations and Robberies by the Highland Clans and when this Matter is Digested you are to Transmit the Proposals to Vs that you may get particular Instructions thereanent The Depredations by the Highlanders is certainly a great inconvenience to the Kingdom whereby the Inhabitants of the Low Lands are not only obliged to keep numbers of Armed Men to Watch and Guard the Passages and Descents from the Highlands but likewise to pay considerable Compositions to these Robbers to procure their Protection and Assurance which the Law Discharges and this Acknowledgment is called Black-mail whereby these Thieves are Sustained without Industry or Vertue who are hard to be Reduced or brought to Justice because of the unaccessableness of the Mountains and that Forces are not able to find Subsistance there nor March as far in two or three dayes in a Body as the Highlanders can do in one and therefore the Grievance is just But there is no Method proposed for accomplishing the Redress Therefore the King doth Remit to the Parliament to Consider and Digest effectual Courses for Repressing the Highlanders which are to be Transmitted to His Majesty that He may give particular Instructions to His Commissioner Likeas in the mean time though the Parliament did Refuse to grant a Supply yet the King hath maintained a considerable Army upon his own Charge this Summer and hath planted considerable Garrisons round the Verge of the Mountains to secure the Low-Lands and if His Majesty should withdraw or Disband these Forces which He hath not been enabled to pay the Highland Clans being now Combined in Arms and open Rebellion against the Government they would quickly destroy that Kingdom and might raise such a Flame in England as might have fatal Effects before it could be quenched Article 10. Grievance THat the banishing by the Council of the greatest part of the Advocats from Edinburgh without a Process was a Grievance This is Answered by the thirteenth Instruction Instruction 13. YOu are to pass an Act that no persons be Banished out of the Kingdom or from any part thereof summarly without a Process It is not worth the while to trouble you with the Detail of this Matter But you may think it strange how the Privy Council comes to be charged with it and it is acknowledged that it was a Grievance now if it be not presently a Grievance how can it be Redressed by the King. Besides either the Sentence of Banishment was just or not if it was just it cannot be quarrelled if it was unjust and illegal that is not a Grievance that must be Redressed by the making of a new Law for the standing Law must give Relief to every thing that is against Law. But here there was more Resentment of single persons than Injury to the Nation And though the King might have slighted this Matter being stated in that manner that it was incapable to be Redressed yet He gently covers and passeth it over that none of the Grievances should want a satisfactory Answer He condescends that an Act be made that no person be Banished without a Process which is the Law there already and in all other Civilised Nations Article 11. Grievance THat most of the Laws Enacted in the Parliament 1685 are impious and intollerable Grievances This is Answered by the Twelfth Instruction Instruct 12. YOu are to pass an Act Rescinding such Acts of the Parliament 1685 as are justly grievous to the People If this Grievance had condescended upon the particular Acts as it might the King had given particular Instructions to Rescind them But this general of the most part left them uncertain what Acts were mean'd to be impious intollerable and grievous and the King being willing in every thing to satisfie his People He has subjected the whole Acts of that Parliament to the Power of this present Parliament which must convince you that the King had no mind to evade
a particular manner the King 's own Burrows Holding immediatly and directly of the King and the Law doth not allow the interposition of any Nobleman or Baron to have interest in the Magistracy of Burrows but only such as are of their own Community Of late the Royal Burrows were extreamly Incroached upon and in the last Reigns the Magistrats of Burghs were nominat by Letters from the King though by their Charters the Incorporation and Town Council had Right to choose their own Magistrats His Majesty then Prince of Orange in His Declaration for Scotland takes special notice of the Injury done to the Royal Burrows and therefore though the Grievance in relation to the Burrows be altogether general yet His Majesty hails an opportunity to Redress and Gratifie them and therefore He Impowers His Commissioner to make a Law Ratifying all their Priviledges whereby the Commissioner was obliged to give the Royal Assent to any thing that the Parliament should Determine to be the Right and Priviledge of the Burrows 2o. His Majesty offers to secure to the Burrows that they shall never be Invaded for the future and that they shall have the sole and free Choise of their own Magistrats 3o. By the Abolishing of Episcopacy the King being come in the place of the Arch-Bishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow he had in their Right the Power of naming the Provost and Magistrats of these Burghs whereby Glasgow though it be the second Burgh in the Kingdom yet it hath not the ordinary Priviledges of the meanest Burgh Royal And the King to signifie His Gracious Intentions to the Burrows in general He gives them all that is in His Power and allows these two Burrows to choose their own Magistrats albeit some have represented this Concession to be prejudicial to the Crown and that it is fit for the Crown that the King retain in His own Hand the choosing of the Magistrats of Glasgow as an Aw-band over that numerous people or that He Commit this Power to some great Family about them who may keep that City in Order 4o. Trade being the great concern of the Burrows the King hath allowed His Commissioner to pass Acts one or moe what the Parliament shall think fit for the Encouragement of Trade which give a sufficient Rise and Warrant for Repairing the Royal Burrows against any Invasions that had been made upon their Rights in the point of Trade So that they should not be obliged to pay for a Priviledge they did not enjoy Here is a notable Evidence how far the most Gracious Concessions of a Prince may be mistaken and slighted The Royal Burrows were abused by the Industry of some persons and made believe that the King by His Instructions had given them no Relief and that He had not regarded the Grievance in relation to the Royal Burrows upon this Imposture they did Combine in the Parliament to refuse a Supply to oppose any thing that was brought in in pursuance of the King's Instructions and to concur in all the Votes that was brought in against Him which they did accordingly only a few Burgesses being excepted and certainly if they had understood the King's Gracious Intentions towards them they could never have been guilty of such Transports against both their Duty and their Interest and when they come to be informed it will oblige them for the future to be more cautious not to take up an ill Report rashly to doubt their Soveraign or destroy themselves and the Royal Burrows being further sham'd to send up these same persons who had abused them with an Address to His Majesty desiring an Answer to that Grievance which did concern them His Majesty pitying their Innocence gave an Answer in Writing that it might be sure to come to their Hands signifying That He had remembred their Concerns very particularly from the beginning and that they had no reason to doubt His Care desired them not to suffer themselves to be further abused to mistake their own Interest but that they might believe He would Redress all the just Grievances of the Nation and specially of the Royal Burrows in whom He owned a peculiar Interest This Goodness and Forbearance in the King cannot fail to produce suitable Effects of Duty and Gratitude and when the Burrows shall be sufficiently Informed they will certainly take occasion to have a new Convention and return His Majesty an humble acknowledgment of their mistakes and a dutiful sense of His Favours as well as the Concessions in His Instructions Now you see that the King hath given a particular Gracious Answer to every one of the Grievances and besides these there is an Instruction for the Regulation of the Universities And after all the King concludes with a general Instruction If there be any thing else that may be necessary for the good of that Kingdom to be past into Laws You are to acquaint Us from time to time with such Overtures that you may be Authorised with particular Instructions thereanent This admits no Paraphrase it was impossible for a Prince to say more this was a Catholicon for curing all the Grievances that either were or could be represented and what a strange Return was it not to Transmit their Overtures but to proceed to Votes Straiten and Manacle the Royal Authority in its most necessary and undoubted Powers Since I have given you the Grievances and Instructions together you are able to Judge and I do submit to your Judgment whether my Reflections be Genuin or no and I shall conclude 1o. That Nation lyes under the pressure of most heavy and grievous Laws 2o. The King hath done all upon His part that was possible to render that Nation happy and since He must be acquitted by all indifferent Judgments I will not give my self the trouble to tell you who are guilty since the Instructions are so full the Ministers of State must be innocent By this time I think you may be able to resolve your own Questions 1o. If the King hath done His part and be not to blame how comes the Majority of the Parliament to be discontented 2o. Why did not the Parliament accept these Concessions pro tanto and turn them into Laws and then ask what more they thought necessary 3o. What is the meaning of so many Addresses and particularly the last which is Printed 4o. Upon what grounds does these men build their hopes who do so pertinaciously oppose the King and what may be expected whether the Presbyterians will joyn with them or not I must confess your Doubts are highly reasonable but they may be Resolved by what hath been already clearly Stated and what I shall further tell you great expectation is a mighty enemy to Contentment if there were less selfishness amongst us there would be more Satisfaction people did expect the return of the Golden Age or the beginning of the Thousand years from this Revolution and their Impatience is like to hinder them to enjoy what they
desire The King can imploy no more Actors than our Stage can hold He hath not put any Stranger nor any Scots-man that served Him abroad in any Scottish Imployment if the Nation could make a larger Fond no doubt He would be willing to intertain more persons for it s not likely the King intends to put up any Scots Money in His pocket at present He hath allowed no multiplication of Offices in one person but by putting the great and lucrative Offices into Commissions there are twice as many persons imployed in this Government as ever can be instanced in former Establishments In the whole Parliament of Scotland for all this noise there are not twenty persons as I do verily believe who are at bottom ill affected to their Majesties Service and Government but there are very many who have been seduced and have been imposed upon wholly under gross mistakes which have transported them beyond the bounds of Discretion or Duty There are persons amongst us who have their Thoughts so much set upon getting into the Government and Lucrative Places of the Kingdom that they are resolved to disquiet the Government and discontent the people before they fail of their pretensions and they turn themselves into all shapes and plyevery Wind to Deceive and amuse the people their influence is not so much because they are able and Leading Men as that they are restless and implacable Spirits and they have gotten this ascendent over a great part of the Parliament two or three wayes 1o. The most part of the Parliament have been kept ignorant of the King's Inctructions and there was no Artifice wanting to possess every State and Person that the King had refused Satisfaction or Redress to these points of the Grievances which were most material and I know to my experience that the Ministers and also several Members of Parliament who came up here with the loudest Complaints upon a sight of His Majesties Instructions they were surprised and convinced and the like success may be expected throughout the whole Kingdom and Parliament after a competent time to be informed and peruse the Instructions and that they may return to their former temper and shew that affection they had for His Majesty and the Deference and Submission to His Mannagement of Affairs 2o. These persons who are so insatiable for preferment and places they did very dexterously start and mannage an unnecessary Debate whether or not the King was obliged by their Offer and His acceptance of the Crown to Redress all Grievances and whatever Conclusions they were pleased to draw from them as their meaning though these be neither obvious nor exprest and albeit it be very true that the Grievances are not obligator upon the King as they are represented further than the King in His Wisdom shall find the things Complained upon to be truly prejudicial to the Nation and in so far as Father of the Countrey He is obliged to give His people Relief but Their Majesties were Declared Recognised and Proclaimed King and Queen of Scotland before the Grievances were Framed and so they could be no Condition or Quality of Their Right but being humbly represented to the King's Majesty from the Estates to be Redressed by Him in Parliament His Majesty did not at all engage Himself in any particular but Declared in general that he would Redress every thing that was truly Grievous to the Nation now while they mannage this disingenious and weak Argument whether the King be obliged to Redress the Grievances they in the mean time have endeavoured to perswade the people that the King hath not at all done it and that he is so far from performance that both he and his Ministers denyes there lyes any obligation upon him so that in this Revolution the people do only observe a change of Masters but no ease of Burden or Redress of Laws now after the publishing of the Instructions this Imposture is so gross and palpable that it can no longer detain the people in ignorance 3o. When the Parliament was willing to proceed according to the Instructions and to have settled their Church-Government These persons brought in always some new Motions which they did pretend to be necessarly previous as first they did pretend the Articles was a Preliminary and therefore nothing could be done till that point was Adjusted Next they did insinuat that it was to no purpose to settle the Church till first the State was purged and all the ill men rendered incapable for if ill men were permitted to come in to the Government they might easily turn the settlement of the Church round and thereupon there was a great Struggle and Debate whether Church Government should be first settled or the State purged by an Act of Incapacities 〈…〉 and it was carryed the Church Government should be delayed and postponed to the purging the State which may demonstrat that these men had more the State than the Church under their prospect Thereafter thesettling of Church Government being brought in they started a fresh Hare and mannaged a Debate with great earnestness that their Commissioners had not done their Duty in the offering of the Crown according to their Commission and Instructions and it was a second time brought to the Vote whether Church Government or the â—xoneration of the Commissioners should first come in It was carryed again to delay Church Government and several dayes being spent upon that Matter it came to nothing and was found to be pestered on groundless malice Thereafter the Church Government was talked of and then it was pretended that so long as the Act of Parliament stood unrepealed anent the Articles nothing could come in legally to the Parliament but from the Articles hereupon the King was pleased to make a further step and he sent down new Instructions which the Commissioner did intimat in plain Parliament bearing his Majesties Consent that Church Government might be settled Fines and Forefaultures considered by the Parliament either with Committees or without Committees as the Parliament pleased and in so far as concerns these points the King did pass from his Right and consented that his Officers of State should have no meddling in the matter but remitted these matters intirely to the Parliament and this Concession being publickly intimat from the Throne it was openly asserted by Lawers and others that albeit the King did pass from the Articles as to these points by an express Instruction to his Commissioner yet the Settlement could not be Legal till either the Articles were Repealed or a draught brought in to the Articles Here I shall intreat you to observe when these men had no mind to bring in a matter then the Articles was so indispensable that the Kings Instructions was not sufficient to warrant the Legality of any matter to be brought into Parliament otherwayes than from the Articles but when ever they resolved to have a matter brought in then there was neither necessity nor use of the