Order on our behalf which by a further Address we are now to lay before his Majesty But whereas we humbly conceive your Lord ships to be more immediatly under his Majesty the Guardians of the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom We think it our duty to represent to your Lordships the Consequences of the said Memorial both with relation to our Company in particular and the Privileges Interest Honour Dignity and Reputation of the Nation in general Your Lordships very well know of what concern the Success of this Company is to the whole Kingdom and that scarce any particular Society or Corporation within the same can justly boast of so solemn and unanimous a Suffrage or Sanction as the Acts of Parliament by which this Company is established So that if effectual measures be not taken for putting an early stop to such an open and violent Infringement of and Incroachment upon the Privileges of so solemn a Constitution 't is hard to guess how far it may in after Ages be made use of as a Precedent for invading and overturning even the very Fundamental Rights natural Liberties and indisputable Independency of this Kingdom which by the now open and frequent Practices of our unkind Neighbours seem to be too shrewdly pointed at And should this Company wherein the most considerable of the Nobility Gentry Merchants and whole Body of the Royal Burroughs are concerned be so unhappy which God forbid as to have its Designs rendered unsuccessful through the unaccountable evil Treatments of our said Neighbours most certain it is that no consideration whatever can hereafter induce this Nation to join in any such other publick Stock tho never so advantageous an undertaking as not doubting but to meet with the like or greater Discouragements from those who give such frequent and manifest Indications of their Designs to wrest our Right and Freedom of Trade out of our hands For which cause we humbly offer the Premises to your Lordships serious Consideration not doubting but you will in your profound Wisdom and Prudence take such effectual measures for redress thereof at present and to prevent the like Incroachments for the future as may be capable to remove those Apprehensions and Jealousies which the bare-faced and avowed Methods of the English do now suggest not only to our Company in particular but even to the whole Body of this Nation in general Signed at Edinburgh the 22d Day of December 1697. in Name Presence and by Order of the said Council General by May it please your Lordships Your Lordships most Obedient and most Humble Servant Sic subscribitur Francis Scot P. And therewith they join'd another to the King as follows To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Address of the Council General of the Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies May it please Your Majesty BY a former Address of the 28th of June last We have humbly represented to Your Majesty that Your Majesty's Envoy to the Court of Lunenburgh and Resident at Hamburgh did under pretence of special Warrant from Your Majesty give in a Memorial to the Senat of the said City of Hamburgh contrary to the Law of Nations and expresly invading the Privileges contained in the said Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent by which our said Company is established Copies of which Address and Memorial we have for Your Majesty's better Information hereto annexed In answer to which Your Majesty was then graciously pleased to signify by your Royal Letter that upon Your Majesty's Arrival in England You would take the Contents of our said Address into consideration and that in the mean time You would give Orders to Your said Minister not to make use of Your Majesty's Name or Authority for obstructing our Comapny in the prosecution of our Trade with the Inhabitants of the said City of Hamburgh In the full assurance of which we rested secure and took our Measures accordingly till to our further fur prize and great disappointment we find by repeated Advices from Hamburgh that Your Majesty 's said Resident continues still contumacious and is so far from giving due Obedience to Your Majesty's said Order that upon Application made to him for that effect with all respect due to his Character he pretended that he had never as yet got any such Order on our behalf Which we thought fit in all duty and humility to lay before Your Majesty renewing withal our most humble and earnest Request that Your Majesty would be now graciously pleas'd to take the Contents of this and our said former Address into consideration and in Your Royal Wisdom order some speedy and effectual Redress of our Grievances therein mentioned and a just Reparation of the manifest Damages which our Company has already fustain'd by reason of the said Memorial And grant us a declaration under Your Royal Hand to render the Senat and Inhabitants of the City of Hamburgh and all others with whom we may have occasion to enter into Commerce secure from Threatnings and other false Suggestions contained in the said Memorial as well as to render us secure under Your Majesty's Protection in the free Enjoyment of our lawful Rights and Privileges contained in Your Majesty's Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent above mentioned Signed at Edinburgh the 22d Day of December 1697. in Name Presence and by Order of the said Council General by May it please your Majesty Your Majesty's most Faithful most Dutiful most Humble and most Obedient Subject and Servant Sic subscribitur Francis Scot P. Notwithstanding all this humble Application there was no stop put to that Opposition So that the Hamburghers dar'd not venture to subscribe and the Company after great loss of time and Money and leaving two Ships unfinish'd to the great Dishonour as well as Disadvantage of the Nation were oblig'd to recal their Agents after having spent 30000 l and not receiv'd one Farthing there tho the Hamburghers were so willing to join that they were sorry there was not room left for subscribing more than 200000 l The Company finding themselves thus injuriously dealt with made application to the Parliament of Scotland for redress Upon which the Parliament presented the following Address to his Majesty An ADDRESS to his Majesty by the Parliament WE Your Majesty's most Loyal and Faithful Subjects the Noblemen Barons and Burgesses convened in Parliament do humbly represent to Your Majesty that having consider'd a Representation made to us by the Council General of the Company trading to Africa and the Indies making mention of several Obstructions they have met with in the prosecution of their Trade particularly by a Memorial presented to the Senat of Hamburgh by Your Majesty's Residents in that City tending to lessen the Credit of the Rights and Privileges granted to the said Company by an Act of this present Parliament We do therefore in all humble Duty lay before Your Majesty the whole Nations Concern in this Matter And We most earnestly do entreat
long before the Union but continue still in the Highlands which we can scarocly think is unknown to our Author who was born so near that Country as Dumbarton The Macdonalds have been several times in Arms against the Earl of Argile since the Restoration and there 's a Fend now depending between the Frazers and the Murrays or rather the Family of Athol Non did we ever hear of any thing that look'd so like an unnatural Massacre in Scotland as that committed since tho Revolution upon the Inhabitants of Glenco which had it not been for the Union of the Crowns would not have been suffer'd to go unpunished But admitting it to be true that the Union had deliver'd us from those little Feuds we are no gainers by the Bargain since it hath occasion'd greater pavticularly that unnatural Feud which rag'd so long betwixt the Episcopal Party and Presbyterians and had its rise altogether from the Union of the Crowns the very prospect of which was the sole cause why the Earl of Morton when Regent set up the first Protestant Bishops in Scotland Into what Couvulsions that Imposition threw the Nation is well enough known and how besides the bringing down K Charles I. with 30000 Men against our Kingdom and contributing to engage the Nations in a Civil War it occasioned King Charles II. to plunder the West of Scotland first by Sir James Turner which gave rise to the Insurrection at Pentland and twice afterwards by the Highland Host which occasion'd that of Bothwel-Bridg And afterwards the Oppression run so high that it forc'd some of the Presbyterians into unaccountable Actions which gave occasion to oppress the whole Party so that it was made punishable by Death for any of their Ministers to preach or for the People to hear them From this indeed we were totally delivered by the Revolution tho our freedom in that respect was partly begun by the late King James's Declaration But our Enemies unwilling that our Nation should be long at ease have found other Methods to set our Court against us And because they know that his present Majesty has too great a Soul to persecute any man on the account of Conscience our Enemies have chang'd their Battery and instead of pointing their Cannon at our Religion they level them against our Civil Liberties The Powder they prime their Artillery with is That we are Enemies to Prerogative But because this would not go down with the good People of England who are strenuous Assertors of Liberty and Property they must gild it over with the specious Pretence that we have a design to undermine their Trade and have unjustly invaded the Spanish Dominions This is the Design of H s and his Suborners and therefore they insist so much on our Clandestine Declarations as they call them that we publish'd in the English Plantations on purpose to drain them of their People but unhappily overthrow what they advance at the same time when they tell us That the Jamaica Sloops were Witnesses that we had neither Provisions nor Money for the sustenance of our own People pag. 148. And therefore it cannot reasonably be suppos'd that we had any such design as he malicioufly charges us with to draw over the People from the English Plantations since we had not wherewith to support our own but more of this anon Our Author learn'd the Maxim of Calumniare audacter aliquid barebit when he was a Papist And if he and his Suborners can be any way instrumental to set the Nations together by the Ears by this Method or if that fail if they can but raise Animositys between them they know it will be a good pretence for some people to put his Majesty upon pressing for a Standing Army and perhaps for having it enlarg'd it being necessary say they to overaw the Scors but in reality to protect such evil Counsellors from being brought to Justice that have advis'd to such Measures as visibly tend to the disadvantage of both Nations It may perhaps be worth the Enquiry of our Neighbours whether this be not the real meaning of this intolerable Oppression exercis'd upon our Nation as to their Trade both at home and abroad viz. that knowing our prafervidum Ingenium as they are pleas'd to call it to be impatient under Tyranny the Faction think thereby to provoke us to a resentment that may give occasion for raising an Army against us which if it have the good hap to subdue us or force us to digest our Oppresslon without any more to do shall be made use of afterwards to chastise themselves and bring them to better Manners then to limit their Monarchs in their Grants and leave them no other Troops but their Garisons and Guards It was the Observalton of the Earl of Shastsbury whom his Enemies will own to have been a great Statesman that Scotland is a Door to let in Good or Evil upon England which is verified in the latter at least by the whole Course of our History since the Union for when K. James I. succeeded in trampling upon us he quickly began to huff his Parliaments in England and notwithstanding all the Remonstrances of Church and State would needs have a Popish Match for his Son tho he should sacrifice the Great Sir Walter Rawleigh his own Daughter the Queen of Bohemia and her Children together with the Protestant Interest in Germany to make way for it When Charles I. obtain'd footing for his Impositions on the Church and State of Scotland it 's well enough known what Methods he took with England and how he sacrific'd the Protestant Interest in France whilst he eagerly pursued an Arbitrary Sway at home When Charles II. got his Prerogative exalted and an Army at his Call allow'd him in Scotland i'ts too late to be forgotten how he trod under foot the Liberties of England seiz'd the Charters of their Cities cut off whom he would by Sham-Plots and pav'd the way for Popery and Arbitrary Power When K. James II. did by his absolute Power and unaccountable Authority cass and annul all the Laws establishing the Reformation in Sootland it was not long e're he suspended the Laws imprison'd the Bishops and fill'd with Papists his Council Army and Universities in England From all which it is evident that our Neighbours have reason to look to themselves when we are oppress'd for in all probability their Acts of Parliament will not be long regarded when ours are annull'd and made void by the Intrigues of the Courtiers and West-India Proclamations The very Advocats of Tyranny make use of this as their Herculean Argument That the People having once resign'd their Privileges to the Crown have no more right to demand them which tho we will not allow to be any ways concluding yet we may very well make use of it ad hominem that a pari ratione when once a Prince has touch'd with his Scepter a Law for the benefit of his Subjects it is not in his power
a more false step in Government for when once People perceive that Princes have no regard to the Laws made for the protection and welfare of the Subject they will naturally think themselves absolv'd from such as require their Allegiance and support of the Soveraign That Mr. Paterson and the Scots Company should insinuate from the Octroy that we were to be assisted or defended by English Men of War or Money is nothing but a mixture of Falshood and Malice The Libeller owns that the Words of our Act cannot bear it and the World knows that our Parliaments never pretend to dispose of English Ships or Mony and therefore no man of sense will believe this Renegado when he says the Scots Company put that Gloss on the Text for their own advantage since that had been directly to expose themselves For we are not to suppose they could think the Dutch and Hamburghers so weak as not to peruse the Act it self which would soon have undeceived them Therefore all those Reflections which he protends the English Traders to India made upon it must vanish of course as having no manner of Foundation Much less can they serve to justify the Memorial given in at Hamburgh by Sir Paul Ricaut against our taking Subscriptions there Which Memorial tho minc'd by our Libeller yet ev'n as he represents it is against the Law of Nations and indeed scarcely reconcileable to good sense in the first place to call our Agents private Men who acted by the Company 's Authority and according to Act of Parliament and in the next place to suppose that the Hamburghers could possibly join with us in hopes of English Protection when the Opposition made to us by the Court of England was known all over Europe nay the Scribler himself owns P. 17. That the more Opposition the English and Dutch offer'd to the Project the more the Hamburghers thought it their Interest to embrace it This is sufficient to convince the Suborners that the next time they hire a Scribler to belie the Scots Company they must be sure to pitch upon one that has a better Memory His next Reflections P. 22 23. That our Ships were neither fit for Trade nor War that our Cargo was not proper that our main Design was the Buccaneer Trade that above 10000 l. was deficient of the first Payments and most of the Subscribers not able to raise their Quota are equally false with the rest The Ships for their Burden and Size are as fit either for Trade or War as any in Europe The Cargo of Cloth Stuffs Shoes Stockins Slippers and Wigs must needs be proper for a Country where the Natives go naked for want of Apparel and fit to be exchanged for other Commodities either in the English Dutch French or Spanish Plantations For Bibles we suppose our Libeller would rather we had carried Mass Books yet others will be of opinion that 1500 of 'em was no unfit Cargo Our own Colony might have dispens'd with that number in a little time nor were they unfit to have been put into the hands of such of the Natives especially of the younger sort that might learn our language For Hoes Axes Macheet Knives c. they were absolutely necessary for our selves and a Commodity much valued by the Natives Fifteen hundred square Buccaneer Pieces and proportionable Ammunition was no such extraordinary Store for eleven or twelve hundred men and whereas he maliciously insinuates that Buccaneering was our main Design the Event hath prov'd it to be false had that been our intent we might easily have invaded the Spanish Plantations at both ends of the Isthmus Sancta Maria nor Panama it self could never have been able to withstand such a force when a few undisciplin'd Buccaneers did so easily take them It 's well enough known there was a parcel of as brave Men that went with our Fleet as perhaps Great Britain could afford many of 'em inur'd to War and Fatigues and knew how to look an Enemy in the Face without being daunted They had giv'n proofs enough of that in Flanders where no men alive could fight with more Bravery and Zeal than they did for the Common Cause tho some People have since thought sit to starve them That there was above 10000 l of the 100000 l not paid in is false there was not above 2000 l wanting For those great men that thought their Countenance enough and therefore refus'd to pay in their Subscriptions he shall have our leave to name them but perhaps his Suborners will not care to have their Friends so much expos'd That most of the Subscribers were unable to raise their Quota is demonstrably false by our sending away two Convoys since the thirds being greater by far than the first and that we are now preparing a fourth As to the Companies charging 25 per Cent. advance on every Article of the 19000 l Stock it 's well enough known that so much Advance is thought nothing in a West-India Trade it was all the profit the Company was to have and only charged in the Books by way of Formality that the Colony might know what they were indebted to the Company His Story p. 23. of its being propos'd in the Company to sell off their Ships and Cargo and divide the Product amongst the Subscribers is nothing eul our dishonour nor at all to be wondred at considering the unreasonable opposition we had met with from Court That we rejected it as inglorious argues still that we are not so mean-spirited as he elsewhere represents us His base Reflections p. 24. on the Company as if they had despair'd of the design and sent their men to Sea on purpose to perish and on Drummellier that be order'd the Colony to get Mony honestly if they could but be sure to get it and if they came home without it then the Devil get them all serve only to discover his own Temper and that he thinks all men act and speak like himself We have faid enough already to demonstrate the Honesty of both Company and Colony Had their design been to get Mony without regard to Honesty they would not have been starv'd to death by the Proclamations and other opposition made them at Court they could quickly have possessed themselves of the Spanish Mines which the Scribler owns p. 164. were within twelve Leagues of them and with much more ease of the 40000 l that was sunk in the French Ship But he serves the Suborners for their Mony much at the same rate he did the Scots Company His Reflection p. 25. that Mr. Stratford was oblig'd to arrest our Ships at Hamburgh for 800 l Flemish as they were fitting out serves only to discover his own malice and folly Mr. Stratford had very good Security for 800 l Flemish when he had four Ships in Port not yet fitted out and his receiving his Mony in a fortnight or three weeks as the Libeller owns in the same Paragraph shows he had no ill
that all the Salvo we could make to dash the Story was by saying that this was the Companies sho'el Anchor if every thing else should fail them but that they had no occasion to make use of that Power at present nor that Mr. Paterson meant so when he spoke it But that which gave us the dead stroke in Holland just as the Companies Books were open'd the East and West India Companies run open mouth'd to the Lords of Amsterdam shewing what was hatching by the Scotch Commissioners in their City to ruine the Trade of the United Provinces The Lords gave them satisfaction in the matter and made no noise of it for we were made to understand in a day or two afterwards that our Subscriptions were dash'd and none to be expected there On this occasion it was resolved in the Commitee that Paterson and the Colonel should forthwith proceed to Hamburgh to see what could be be done there the rest being to remain in Holland for some time to give the less Umbrage to the Hamburgh Project The Hamburghers swallow'd the bait to a wish for the more opposition the English and Dutch offer'd to the project confirm'd them the more that it was their Interest to embrace it The River Elve on which Hamburgh stands is Navigable for flat bottom Barges of 70 or 80 Tuns for some 200. Miles up into the Country of Germany which gives them an opportunity of serving all the North parts of that Empire with Goods more conveniently then the Hollanders can And as they have no East India Goods but what they have at second hand from England and Holland or a few from Denmark by joyning now with the Scotch Company they have a prospect of worming the Hollander out of a good part of the German Trade In Parenthesi I must own that this part of the Project was Reasonable on both the Scotch and Hamburgher side if it had been meant as it was told but the Devil on 't was the Hamburgers knew nothing of Darien but builded altogether on Ships laden with India Goods whereof their City and Port was to be the Receptacle and Mart while Paterson wanted only their Money to raise Forces to over-run Mexico and Peru. The way being thus prepared by these two Fore-runers the body of the Commitee receiv'd advice to repair thither at sight all things being ready for Signing and Sealing And I receiving orders to accompany them set out from Amsterdam after we had spent three Mouths there in vain and arrived at Humburgh on Lady-day 1697. Our Affair was so generally favour'd by the Burghers of this City that at our arrival we printed Placaarts and fix'd them on the Exchange and other publick Places there intimating that the Companies Books were to be open'd in the Commercie Kamber the week following for Subscriptions but they were to take notice the best Jest on 't That by the Constitutions of the Company no Man could sign above 3000 l. sterling for himself as likewise that their Books could not admit above 200000 l. in all These Placaarts were no sooner pasted up on the Posts than Pamphlets were crying up and down the Streets full of ill Nature and a great many sad Truths advising the Hamburghers to enquire further into the Project before they parted with their Money lest they should never see it again These Pamphlets contain'd 3 or 4 Sheets and were printed in French High and Low Dutch under the Title of A Letter from a Friend in Amsterdam to his Friend in Hamburgh But the Hamburghers having such a Confidence in Paterson's Phiz and smooth Tongue and by the forward appearance the Company made with their new Ships of 50 Guns all in a row they believ'd all this stuff to be hatch'd in Samaria from whence no good can be expected But that the Scriptures might be fulfill'd by the Elects meeting with Disappointments and Crosses while they sojourn here or on the other hand that of Honesty's being the best Policy either you please the Companies Book was likewise shut up here without getting a Groat of the Hamburgers Money although that City got near 30000 l of the Company 's The human reason of this Disappointment if I am not mistaken was as follows in the Octroy there was a certain unnecessary Paragraph which occasion'd a great many English and Hollands Speculations viz. That in case the Company should be interrupted in their Trade c. the King had ingag'd to interpose the Regal Authority to do them Right and that at the publick Charge Paterson and the other Agents of the Company to magnifie their Charter did insinuate in all Companies That the King was to assist and defend them with his Ships of War or otherwise if there was occasion and that out of his own Pocket which they did not question to be English Coin when at the same time the words of the Act cannot bear it much less That a Scots Act of Parliament should dispose of English Ships and Money But since the Scotch Company would force this gloss on the Text for their Advantage the English Traders to India made as profitable a use of it the other way for say they Was it not enough that the King of Great Britain should pass an Act in favour of his Scots Subjects to Trade to India and exempt them from Duties for 21 years which is an evitable Prejudice to the English Trade since it 's impossible to hinder them from sending their India Goods by stealth over the Border and underselling our Markets by 25 or 30 per Cent. but that they should be empower'd to take in Forreigners to be Sharers with them in this Trade and not only thereby suck the Blood and Marrow out of England for 21 years but that our English Ships of War for the maintenance of which great Taxes and Imposts are laid on our Trade and Goods should defend this Scotch Company 's Trade and these Foreigners who run away with the whole These weak Proceedings of Paterson and the other Agents with the Sentiments the English had of it made the Government of England send to the Senate of Hamburgh a Caution by Sir Paul Ricaut Resident there to take care how they suffer'd their Burghers to embark with private Men the King's Subjects under the hopes of the English Protection which being to the Prejudice of their own Subjects could not be reasonably expected This was the Substance of the Memorial given in to that Senate who had never hitherto countenanc'd the Committee altho' the Private Burghers were so Resolute to Join Adverse Fortune still attending our Embassie they thought fit to steer homewards and make the best of a bad Market being now fully satisfy'd that there 's no other Body's Money to be Trusted to but their own And having left me with Legate Stevenson to tend the Ships till farther Orders they set out from Hamburgh in April The Report of this Mournful Story being made to the Board in Scotland they found that they
Money and to give vent to his Malice The latter he owns in the beginning of his Book and repeats it again p. 161. where he says he took this way to right himself because of the Scots here in Town being on his Top and of some other harsh usage which he receiv'd at the hands of the Scots Company The very manner of giving in his Evidence lays him open to the Lash of the English Law and it is to be presum'd that his train of Blasphemies and constant ridiculing the Text would have been taken notice of e're now by a certain Court at the West end of Paul's but that he is protected by some Gentlemen belonging to a Court at the West end of the Town His invenom'd malice is demonstrable by the sport he makes to himself throughout his Libel at the Calamities and Misery of his Fellow-Creatures and Countrymen so that never did any man more exactly fill up the Character of a Renegado than himself for as those Miscreants stab an Image of our Saviour to the Heart as a proof of having absolutely denied him H s hath in the same manner done all he could to stab the Reputation of his native Country as a certain evidence of his being turn'd a Monster in Nature for which even they that imploy him must needs abhor him except they love to see the Image of their own Crimes in his Lovely Features We have not enter'd upon the detail of his malicious Lies with which he hath stuff'd his Book but have only pointed at the chief of them which are so very notorious as may well put his Suborners to the Blush that they should not have either taught him his Lesson better or have seen he had conn'd it more exactly for they are such gross Contradictions either to common Sense or to what he himself has advanc'd in his Libel that none but one who had swallow'd Transubstantiation could be guilty of the like It 's needless to enlarge upon his Character since it 's impossible to conceive a worse Idea of him than all Men of Sense will immediately form to themselves when they know he is a Traitor to his Country He was was formerly a Surgeon in the Fleet and made some Interest amongst the Officers by Female Mediation which was allow'd him by his last Religion for his Book shews that now he has none Hence it is that he expresses himself so readily in the Dialect of his Office and talks of Bullying Kings in his Dedication to shew us that he was acquainted with B-dy-house Rhetorick and they that know his Friends in Little B n say he has convey'd his Libel to the World through a very proper Channel Whilst he was a Surgeon in the Fleet his ill Nature having condemn'd him to perpetual Broyls he had the Impudence to draw upon his Captain ashore who wounded him so as 't was thought might have put a period to his Infamous Life upon which his Captain was Confin'd but the Wound not being Mortal the Gentleman was set at Liberty and returning on Board a Council of War was held by which H s was like to have had an Exit more answerable to his desert at the Yard-Arm but that one of our Country-men who Commanded in the Place sav'd him out of Pity and whilst he was sculking at London to avoid this Prosecution others of them out of Compassion hir'd him to go along with their Fleet for which he hath made his Country such a Grateful Reward as hath verify'd the Proverb That save a R gue from the Gallows he shall be the first that will cut your Throat We leave his Suborners to think on 't His Captain being thus disappointed of having Justice executed was forc'd to content himself with Pricking him Run that he might not have any claim to his Wages but since his return from Darien and engaging in the Honourable service of Reviling and Belying his Country his Suborners out of their innate Bounty and Gratitude have got him deliver'd from all farther Prosecution entitled him to his Wages and given him the opportunity to value himself upon his Corespondence at the Court end of the Town so that now he thinks himself sure of a Patent for Life and that he shall never be oblig'd to go up Holborn-Hill except his important occasions call him now and then that way to enable him to pay his present Debts when some of his Brethren pass that Road to pay their last It had been easie for us to have given such a History of his Life as would have put his Suborners to the blush but we reserve that to make use of as we shall see occasion what 's said is enough to let them know how much they are to trust to his Evidence if they think fit to make further use of him either by Libelling his Country or accusing any of those great Families he threatens in his Dedication AN INQUIRY INTO The Causes of the Miscariage of the Scots Colony at Darien THE main design of H s and his Suborners is to charge the Miscarriage of the Scots Colony upon their own Country to clear some Gentlemen that perhaps may be found within the Verge of White-Hall from having any hand in it and to evince the necessity of those Proclamations publish'd against the Scots in the West-Indies so as no Person or Party in England may seem justly chargeable with the ruin of that Colony a certain Evidence that the Crime is very black and that they are put to a miserable shift when those Gentlemen are at such expence of Contrivance and Pains to wipe off the Imputation and so ready to fall in with any Tool that they think can assist them in so doing Enough has been said already to demonstrate that the evidence of such an infamous Person as H s and so circumstantiated would not be admitted in any Court of Judicature in Europe especially against such an honourable Society as the Company of Scotland for trading to Africa and the Indies which consists of the very flower of the Nation and perhaps has more Persons of illustrious Birth Quality and Merit in it than any trading Company that ever yet was erected in the World The Directors particularly whom H s and his Masters have condemned to the Halter p. 46. are most of them Persons of that Quality Estate Worth and untainted Honour as the Accusation of no one particular Person tho of never so good Repute could in justice or decency be admitted against them and much less the malicious Calumnies of a Renegado But to set this matter in a clearer Light Whereas we have only H s's own word for what he asserts in vindication of his Friends and Suborners we shall demonstrate against him and them too from undeniable matter of Fact that some People in England are justly chargeable with the ruin of that Colony We shall begin with the opposition made to the Scots Act by the Parliament of England to whom the matter was
misrepresented the Answer they obtain'd from the King and the Prosecution they commenc'd and threatned against English Natives and Scots-men residing in England that should subscribe to the Scots Company In the next place we alledg the English Resident's Memorial at Hamburgh against that Governments suffering any of their Subjects to subscribe to the Scots Company It is likewise well enough known that the Influence and Example of the English Court hinder'd the Subscriptions of our Neighbours in Holland Nor can it be denied but this continued Thread of Opposition from the Court of England must needs hinder the Subscriptions of a great many in Scotland who could not but foresee that a Storm was threatned by so many Clouds To this we may add that the Kingdom of Scotland have not yet forgot the discourting of the Marquiss of Tweddale who was known to be an able Statesman and a true Patriot to his Country because of his touching that Act when he had the Honor to represent his Majesty on the Throne Nor was it the least of our Misfortunes that we lost such an able and faithful Minister of State as Secretary Johnston and that too upon the account of his Affection to his Country in this matter We are very well satisfied that his Majesty who advanc'd him to that Post for his Merit and was so well satisfied with his ability and care would scarcely have parted with a Minister of that Gentleman's Faithfulness and Penetration but by the Intrigues of some People at Court Before we proceed any further with the Narrative of the Opposition made to us we shall obviate one Objection which some Persons may possibly make viz. That all we have said hitherto is nothing to the purpose because it does not regard our Colony but the Company To which we reply 1. That this is so far from being an Excuse to our Opposers that it highly aggravates our Charge against them as being a plain demonstration that they were resolv'd to obstruct our Trade in every respect and whatever it should be without any exception 2. That the opposing of the Company was the direct Method to prevent our ever having a Colony and by the Laws of God and Man those who endeavour to destroy the Embrio are chargeable with a design of preventing the Birth But we shall come closer to the point in a little time and resume the thread of our Narrative after one or two Observations upon what we have said already viz. 1. That the greatest of those Difficulties and Disappointments which H s says in his Book the Company met with as to their Subscriptions Payments c. may justly be charg'd to the account of that opposition made us from the Court of England 2. That there is so little reason to upbraid us that our Efforts were not greater that it is rather to be wonder'd at that the Company was not dash'd to pieces and crush'd in the bud and much more that ever they should have been able to weather out the Storm of so much Indignation overcome all those Difficulties find Mony enough to build Ships equip out a Fleet and make a Settlement in America when neither England nor Scots-men residing there Hamburgh nor Holland shall dare to assist them without incurring his Majesty of England's displeasure But to come directly to the Narrative of the Opposition made to our Colony It is well enough known that the Kingdom of Scotland as many other Parts of Europe have suffered much for three or four years past by bad Harvests which rendred them uncapable of providing Bread for their People at home and much more of sending Supplies to their Infant Colony abroad This was very manifest to some People about White-hall and care was taken we should have none for our Mony from England tho that Nation could have spar'd it and perhaps we might have pleaded it as our merit when in Parliament we voted his Majesty a standing Army upon his Royal Word that it was necessary tho we had more need to have sav'd the Mony to have bought Bread for thousands of our People that were starving for want afforded us the melancholy prospect of dying by shoals in our Streets and have left behind them a reigning Contagion which hath swept away multitudes more and God knows where it may end Tho our Country was reduced to this deplorable state that a generous Enemy would have shew'd us compassion yet the malice of our Court Adversaries did not rest here nor with having follow'd us into Holland and Germany but pursues us into America and with Angry Proclamations forbids the Subjects there on pain of his Majesty's Displeasure to afford any manner of assistance to the Scots at Darien So that we are starv'd at home and abroad by our Enemies at Court who having by this means dispossess'd us of our Colony at Darien and knowing that the good People of England had reason to cry shame upon them and might perhaps take their own time to resent this inhuman Treatment of their Neighbours in Scotland therefore they found it necessary to suppress a Book wrote in defence of the Scots Settlement and to hire a Scots Renegado Surgeon to varnish over the matter and to represent his Countrymen as Knaves and Fools that so they might fall unpitied To return again to the Opposition made us in America It is not enough that we are starv'd out of Darien but when we come from thence and so leave what the Proclamations suppose to be the Dominions of their Allies yet we must not be supplied in the English Plantations nor have Provisions in exchange for our effects tho our Men be dying for want on pain of incurring the Displeasure of the Court and therefore those who are willing to relieve us must put their Inventions on the rack to sind out a way to do that with safety which common Humanity and much more Christianity obliges them to do to a Turk or a Jew in the like circumstances Nay farther tho notwithstanding our distress at home we make shift to send a Convoy to our Colony abroad because our future hopes depended so much upon it they shall not have leave to put in to any English Port to refit refresh or stay for any of their Company that may be separated from them by storm and yet our Friends who were so instrumental in obtaining and publishing those Proclamations must bribe a Renegado to declare to the World in print that they were no way accessary to the Blood of his Country-men that were starv'd to death at Darien It will appear plain that the Ruin of the Colony is chargeable on the Proclamations if we consider the Consternation that must needs be among them when they saw themselves condemned as having invaded the Dominions of his Majesty's Allies so that they had all the reason in the World to think that they were not only precluded from all possibility of having any further supply or assistance from home but in danger
it themselves as to suffer her to have Mass in her own Family We might go farther back to the Reign of Robert II. who was check'd by the States for making a Truce with the English without their Consent it not being then in the power of our Kings either to make Peace or War without the States But the Truth of that Maxim laid down by our Historian That the supreme Power of the Government of Scotland is in the States is so obvious to every one that reads our History that it cannot be denied and hence it is that our old Acts of Parliament are often call'd the Acts of the States and say The three States enact c. for by our Original Constitution the King is none of the States but only Dux belli and Minister publicus which was well understood by our Viceroy the E. of Morton and the other Deputies from the States of Scotland when they acquainted Q. Elizabeth in their Memorial That the Scots created their Kings on that condition that they might when they saw cause divest them of that Power which they receiv'd from the People which we have now reasserted in making our Crown forfeitable by the Claim of Right at the last Revolution and perhaps that 's none of the least Causes why our Ruin is now endeavour'd by the Abettors of a growing Prerogative It were easy for us to enlarge on this and to shew from our Histories and Acts of Parliaments that our Kings according to our antient Constitution which those Rapes committed on our Liberties in some of the last Reigns can never overturn were inferior to their Parliaments who inthron'd and dethron'd them as they saw cause made them accountable for their Administration allow'd them no power of proroguing them without their own consent nor of hindering their meeting when the ardua Regni negotia requir'd it They could not make Peace or War without them nor so much as dispose of their Castles but by their Consent Their Councils were chosen and sworn in Parliament and punishable by the States Nor had they any Revenue but what their Parliaments allow'd them These and many more were the native Liberties of the People of Scotland an 1638. and their Representation of their Proceedings against the Mistakes in the King's Declaration in 1640. And therefore his Majesty had no reason to say he was ill serv'd by the passing of an Act offer'd by the States of Scotland The Ignorance of those things have often occafion'd our being misrepresented by the English Historians and other Writers as Rebels and what not when we really acted according to our own fundamental Laws And not only they but even our own Princes since the Union of the Crowns have either been kept ignorant of our Constitution or so incens'd against it by the Abettors of Tyranny that they have all of 'em his present Majesty excepted endeavour'd our Overthrow as well knowing it to be impossible to bring Arbitrary Government to perfection whilst a People who had always breath'd in a free Air and call'd their Princes to an account when they invaded their Properties were in any condition to defend themselves or assist others against such Princes as design'd an absolute Sway. But the Pill being too bitter to be swallowed by it self there was a necessity of taking Priestcraft into the Composition and to gild it over with the specious pretext of bringing the Scots to an Uniformity in Religion The Court knew that this would arm the Zealots against us and that it could never be aflected without the ruin of our Kingdom whose Religion was so interwoven with our Civil Constitution that there was no overturning of the one without subverting the other This will appear plain to those that know that besides the Sanction of Acts of Parliament the Church of Scotland is defended by a full Representative of the Clergy and Laity of the Kingdom call'd a General Assembly which preserves us from being Priest-ridden as our Parliaments do from being Prince-ridden where the King by Law had no negative Voice no more than he formerly had in our Parliaments This in effect is the Representative of the Nation as Christians as the Parliaments are our Representatives as Men and as to the Laity many of them are the same individual Persons that sit in Parliament So that those Assemblies being a second Barrier about our Liberties it was thought sit to run down the Constitution of our Church as not suted with Monarchy The Case being thus we dare refer it to the thoughts of our neighbouring Nation who have gallantly from time to time stood up for their own Liberties whether it were not more generous for them to unite with us than to suffer us to be oppress'd and enslav'd There 's nothing can be objected to this but that all these glorious Privileges were swallow'd up by those Acts of Parliament that exalted the Prerogative to such a height in the Reign of K. Charles II. To which we answer That the Privileges of a Nation cannot be giv'n away without their own consent and we are morally certain that the Constituents even of those pack'd Parliaments did never give any commission to those that represented them to give away those Liberties Slavery is repugnant to human Nature so that it cannot be supposed the Nation exalted the Prerogative on purpose to put themselves in a worse condition than besore or that when they find it applied to another use than that which they gave it for they may not reduce it to its antient Boundary The necessity of Affairs did sometimes oblige the Romans to entrust their Dictators with an extraordinary and absolute Power but when the occasion ceas'd they recalled it and kept to their antient and rational Maxim that Salus Populi is suprema Lex In the like manner the Enemies of our old Constitution may know if they please that we have retrieved the main point of making our Crown forfeitable by the Claim of Right and therefore if they push us too far it 's a thousand to one but we may renew our Demands to the rest or oblige them to cast them into the bargain But to return from this Digression Tho we had no such peculiar Privileges belonging to us why might not we expect that his majesty should be as kind to us as to our Brethren in England He hath once and again declared to them in Parliament That he never had nor never will have an Interest distinct from that of his People Then why should not the Interest of the People of Scotland be the same with the Interest of the King of Scots And if the People of Scotland met in Parliament agreed upon it as their Interest to have that Act past for incouraging Kieir Trade how was it possible that the King of Scots could be ill serv'd by the passing that Act in Scotland Our Enemies and H s's Suborners have put a sort of an Answer to this in his mouth viz. That the said Act
was obtain'd viis modis but the Falshood and Malice of that Insinuation will appear to the World by the previous Act of 1693. for incouraging of foreign Trade by which it was statuted That Merchants more or fewer may contract and enter into such Societies and Companies for carrying on Trade as to any Subject of Goods or Merchandise to whatsomever Kingdoms Countries or parts of the World not being in War with his Majesty where Trade is in use to be or may be follow'd and particularly besides the Kingdoms and Countries of Europe to the East and West-Indies the Straits and to trade in the Mediterranean or upon the Coast of Africa or elsewhere as above Which Societies and Companies being contracted and entred into upon the terms and in the usual manner as such Companies are set up His Majesty with Consent aforesaid did allow and approve giving and granting to them and each of them all Powers Rights and Privileges as to their Persons Rules and Orders that by the Laws are given to Companies allowed to be erected for Manufactories And his Majesty for their greater Incouragement did promise to give to those Companies and each of them his Letters Patent under the Great Seal confirming to them the whole foresaid Powers and Privileges with what other incouragement his Majesty should judg needful These are the very terms of the Act of 1693. and in pursuance of this Act our Nation being willing to form a Company for trading to Africa and the Indies this Act which hath met with so much opposition in the World was past June 26. 1695. which was two years after Then with what Effrontery can H s and his Suborners suggest that it was obtain'd viis modis by surprise or in a surreptitious manner But something they must say to justify their unreasonable treatment of us and to blind the Eyes of the World Thus we see then that the Parliament of Scotland went on deliberately to advance their Trade and to make this Act by which it's evident that they who advis'd his Majesty to say that he was ill serv'd in Scotland impos'd upon him have laid a Foundation of division betwixt him and his Parliament which are the two constituent parts of our Government and if they be dash'd against one another the whole frame of it must of necessity be dissolv'd Hence also it is evident that those Counsellors if Scots-men ought by our old Constitution to be call'd to an account by the Parliament according to the 12th Act of Parl. 2 James 4. And if they be Englishmen or Dutchmen we have a right to demand Justice against them as having meddled in our Affairs contrary to the Laws of Nations The Soveraignty of our Nation and the Independency of the K. of Scots upon the Crown of England being tacitely giv'n up by this Answer and the Parliament of England being possess'd by our Enemies with a false Notion of our Design they put a stop to our taking Subscriptions from any Residenters in England tho our offering to take in the English as Sharers was a plain Demonstration of the uprightness of our Intentions towards that Nation This made it apparent that we had no design in the least to supplant them in their Trade but on the contrary to make them Partakers in ours in order to lay a foundation for a closer Union and greater Amity betwixt the two Nations which if it had taken effect our Trade had not been nipp'd in the bud as now it is by the frowns of the Court but might by this time have been improv'd to the advancement of the glory and strength of the Island Whereas by the opposition made to that noble Design the Nations are more alienated from one another than before lessen'd in their Strength and Trade and Scotland for ever lost as to their Friendship usefulness and joining with England on any occasion whatever unless proper Measures be taken to make up the Breach and retrieve our lost Honour and Advantage All that can be said to excuse so false a step in such a wise Nation as England is that they were impos'd upon by those that are Enemies to the true Liberties of both Nations and by some of their Traders and ignorant Pretenders to give advice in matters of Trade who out of a sordid Principle of Self-interest preferr'd their own private Gain to the general advantage of their Country This would have quickly been seen had his Majesty and the Parliament of England instead of that violent opposition which they made to the Scots Act desir'd a conference betwixt a Committee of the Parliaments of both Nations then it would soon have appear'd what our true Design was and that it was neither our Interest nor Intention immediately to follow an East-India Trade the apprehensions of which did so much alarm the Kingdom of England That it was not our Intention is evident from our rejecting the Proposals of our Countryman Mr. Douglas the East-India Merchant with which H s upbraids us by which at the same time he discovers his own folly and dishonesty his Folly in arguing against the Interest of England which he pretends to espouse and his Dishonesty in proposing our following a Trade which his new Masters who have paid him so well for his false Evidence look upon to be destructive to theirs That it was not our Interest immediately to think of an East-India Trade is evident from this that it would have exported our Mony with which it 's known we do not abound and ruin'd the Linen Manufacture of our Country upon which so many of our Poor depend This we think the City of London may be sensible of in a good measure by the multitudes of their own Silk-Weavers that are starv'd for want of Imployment and also by the unsuccessfulness of their own Linen Manufacture in England by reason of the great quantity of Silks Muslins Calicoes c. brought from the East-Indies from whence some wise Men have been and are still of opinion that an East-India Trade of that sort tends to the general Impoverishment of Europe tho it may enrich particular Persons These Considerations together with some Jealousies that Mr. Douglas might have been put upon making us that Proposal on purpose to divert us from our other Design of an American Trade were the true Reasons of our not hearkening to Mr. Douglas's Advice This our Neighbours might have known had they proceeded with us in such a Friendly manner as we had reason to expect when we were so kind as to offer them a share in the Benefits of our Act. And the Government at the same time might soon have been satisfied that the sinking of their Customs by our own and twenty years Freedom from that Duty was a meer bugbear Pretence It is evident that we could not have spent much East-India Goods in Scotland and therefore must have exported them If we had brought them to England they were liable to Customs there If we
had offer'd to run them over the Border they could as well have prevented that as the stealing over their own Corn and Wool and if we had exported them to any other places of Europe the English by their Draw-backs could have done it in effect as cheap as we By all which it appears that there was no solid Foundation for any of those pretended Reasons why the Government in particular or the English in general should have oppos'd us and we wish that upon due inquiry it may not be found to be the effect of Dutch Councils for that People being jealous of their Trade and Rivals to England on that account cannot be suppos'd to have sat still and done nothing when they saw we had obtain'd such an Act and were resolv'd to take in the English to partake in our Trade which if suffer'd to go on might endanger theirs and enable the English to outrival them indeed besides the present loss they foresaw of our Custom the Scots having most of their East-India Goods from Holland This we have the more reason to suspect first because tho the English have formerly suffered in their Trade by the Incroachments and Intrigues of the Dutch but never by the Scots yet they have made no Application to his Majesty for preventing the like in time to come If it be said that be is but Stadtholder there whereas he is K. of Scots We can easily reply that it appears by what has been said already of our true Constitution that the Kings of Scotland were as much accountable to the States of that Nation as the Dutch Stadtholder is to the States of Holland The 2 d Reason we have to suspect the Influence of Dutch Councils in this Affair is this that 't is their Interest to keep us and the English from uniting and if possible of forcing us by that means into an Alliance with themselves to prevent their own ruin if England after this should come to fall out with them upon the account of Trade or otherwise and likewise to have their Privilege of fishing in our Seas continued which they know to be of such vast Advantage to them that they are shrewdly suspected of having by Bribes or other indirect Methods prevail'd with some great Men to supplant us as to the Benefits we had just reason to expect from the Act of 1661. incouraging our Fishery the Privileges granted by which are very considerable and to continue for ever nay to put it out of all doubt that they are join'd in this matter against us H s owns it as beforemention'd Being upon this Subject we cannot but take notice of the difference betwixt the Spanish Memorials about Darien and of those late Memorials presented by them to our Court against their meddling with the Succession of that Monarchy or the cantoning it out into several Parcels in case the King of Spain die without Issue The former tho insolent and hussing enough were procur'd by our Court therefore calmly digested and the desire of them effectually answer'd to the ruin almost of the Scotish Nation but the latter was no sooner presented than the Spanish Ambassadors are disgrac'd in England and Holland and forbid both Courts It may therefore deserve the Inquiry of our Neighbours what this Regulation about the Succession of Spain and the dismembring of their Monarchy is that occasion such outragious Memorials for there must needs be something in it that touches the Spaniards more sensibly than the business of Darien and which they did not complain of till they were put upon it and in like manner touches our court more sensibly to the quick than any Memorials about that Affair tho they had not been of their own procurement were capable of doing Perhaps upon a narrow Scrutiny into this Affair it will be found that this keen and uninterrupted Opposition made to the Scots Settlement at Darien does not proceed from any foresight of damage that it could do to the Trade of England tho that be the specious Pretext but from a Cause which touches some People more nearly crosses their Project of dismembring the Spanish Monarchy and of having that important Post to their own share they know that they have a natural as well as a political Interest in some great Courtiers and make little doubt of obtaining the preheminence before either of those Nations that compose the Empire of Great Britain It concerns our Neighbours so much the more to inquire into this because it is visible from the Resentments of it by the Spanish Court that this matter is more like to affect the advantageous Trade that England drives with Spain than our Settlement in America was ever like to do which tho it be made a Sacrifice to his Catholick Majesty and perhaps on purpose to make him digest the other Project with more ease is like to be of as little advantage to England as was the Sacrifice of the great Sir Walter Raleigh formerly tho it may be infinitely more to their damage If our Neighbours have a mind to be fully inform'd of this matter they know who were imploy'd in those Negotiations and how to speak with them We come next to consider the Opposition made to our Subscriptions at Hamburgh by Sir Paul Ricaut the English Resident there in conjunction with his Majesty's Envoy to the Court of Lunenburg who deliver'd in a joint Memorial to the Senate of Hamburgh threatning them with the heighth of his Majesty's Displeasure if they join'd with the Scots in any Treaty of Commerce whatsoever This we shall not need to make any Reflexions upon the Petitions from the Company to his Majesty and his Privy Council in Scotland being sufficient for that end Their first to the King was dated June the 28th 1697. and is as follows To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Address of the Council General of the Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies May it please your Majesty WHEREAS by the 32d Act of the 4th Session and by the 8th Act of the 5th Session of Your Majesty's current Parliament as well as by Your Majesty's Patent under the Great Seal of this Kingdom this Company is established with such ample Privileges as were thought most proper and encouraging both to Natives and Foreigners to join in the carrying on supporting and advancement of our Trade The most considerable of the Nobility Gentry Merchants and whole Body of the Royal Burrows have upon the Inducement and publick Faith of Your Majesty and Act of Parliament and Letters Patent contributed as Adventurers in raising a far more considerable joint Stock than any was ever before raised in this Kingdom for any publick Undertaking or Project of Trade whatsoever which makes it now of so much the more universal a Concern to the Nation And for the better enabling us to accomplish the ends of Your Majesty's said Act of Parliament and Letters Patent we have pursuant thereunto appointed certain Deputies of our
own number to transact and negotiate our necessary Affairs beyond Sea and at the same time to treat with such Foreigners of any Nation in amity with Your Majesty as might be inclinable to join with us for the purpose aforesaid In the prosecution of which Commission to our said Deputies vested with full Power and Authority according to Law We are not a little surprized to find to the great hindrance and obstruction of our Affairs That your Majesty's Envoy to the Courts of Lunenburgh and Resident at Hamburgh have under pretence of special Warrant from Your Majesty given in a joint subscribed Memorial to the Senat of Hamburgh expresly invading the Privileges granted to our Company by Your Majesty's said Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent as by the herewith transmitted Copy may appear By the which Memorial we sustain great and manifold Prejudices since both the Senat and Inhabitants of the said City of Hamburgh are thereby contrary to the Law of Nations expresly threatned with Your Majesty's Displeasure if they or either of them should countenance or join with us in any Treaty of Trade or Commerce whatsoever which deprives us of the assistance which we had reason to expect from several Inhabitants of that City For redress whereof we do in all Duty and Humility apply to Your Majesty not only for the Protection and Maintenance of our Privileges and freedom of Trade but also for reparation of damage conform to Your Majesty's said Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent And we further beg leave humbly to represent to Your Majesty that tho by the said Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent we conceive our selves legally and sufficiently authorized to treat even with any Soveraign Potentate or State in Amity with Your Majesty for the support and advancement of our Trade yet we by our said Deputies have only treated with particular and private Merchants of the said City of Hamburgh without ever making any the least Proposal to the Senate thereof and this we humbly conceive to be the natural Right and Privilege of all Merchants whatsoever even tho we had wanted the Sanction of so solemn Laws and without some speedy redress be had therein not only this Company but all the individual Merchants of this Kingdom must from henceforward conclude that all our Rights and Freedoms of Trade are and may be further by our Neighbours violently wrested out of our hands We therefore to prevent the further evil Consequences of the said Memorial to our Company in particular do make our most humble and earnest Request to Your Majesty That you would be graciously pleased to grant us such Declarations as in your Royal Wisdom you shall think fit to render the Senate and Inhabitants of the said City of Hamburgh and all others that are or may be concerned secure from the Threatnings and other Suggestions contain'd in the said Memorial as well as to render us secure under Your Majesty's Protection in the full Prosecution of our Trade and free Injoyment of our lawful Rights Privileges and Immunities contained in your Majesty's Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent above-mentioned Signed at Edinburgh the 28th Day of June 1697. in Name Presence and by Order of the said Council General by May it please your Majesty Your Majesty's most Faithful most Dutiful most Humble and most Obedient Subject and Servant Sic subscribitur Yester P. The King's Answer to the above written Address By the Right Honourable the Earl of Tullibardin c. and Sir James Ogilvie Principal Secretaries of State My Lords and Gentlemen WE are impowered by the King to signify unto you that as soon as his Majesty shall return to England he will take into Consideration what you have represented unto him and that in the mean time His Majesty will give orders to his Envoy at the Courts of Lunenburgh and his Resident at Hamburgh not to make use of his Majesty's Name or Authority for obstructing your Company in the prosecution of your Trade with the Inhabitants of that City Signed at Edinburgh the 2d Day of August 1697. Sic subscribitur Tullibardin Ja. Ogilvie The Company finding that the said Resident did notwithstanding this Answer continue his Opposition and deny that he had any orders to the contrary petitioned his Majesty's Privy Council afresh as follows To the Right Honourable the Lord High Chancellour and remanent Lords of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council The humble Representation of the Council General of the Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies May it please your Lordships 'T IS not unknown to your Lordships how that in several successive Sessions of this current Parliament his Majesty's Instructions to his respective High Commissioners and their several Speeches pursuant thereto have been full of repeated Assurances of his Majesty's good Inclinations for incouraging the Trade and Manufactories of this Nation And whereas accordingly by the 22d Act of the fourth Session and the 8th Act of the fifth Session of the said Parliament together with his Majesty's Patent under the Great Seal of this Kingdom our Company is established with such ample Privileges and Immunities as were thought most proper for encouraging both Natives and Foreigners to join in the carrying on supporting and advancement of our Trade we in pursuance and upon the publick Faith thereof not only contributed at home a far more considerable joint Stock than ever was yet rais'd in this Nation for any publick Undertaking or Project of Trade whatsoever but have also had all the promising hopes and prospect of foreign Aid that our hearts could wish till to our great surprize the English Ministers at Hamburgh have under pretence of special Warrant from his Majesty put a stop thereto by giving in a Memorial to the Senat of that City threatning both Senat and Inhabitants with the King 's utmost Displeasure if they should countenance or join with us in any Treaty of Trade or Commerce as by the annexed Copy thereof may appear Upon due consideration whereof we have in all duty and humility addressed his Majesty in June last for redress thereof in answer to which Address his Majesty was then graciously pleased to signify by his Royal Letter That upon his return into England he would take into consideration the Contents of our said Address and that in the mean time he would give Orders to the said Ministers at Hamburgh not to make use of his Royal Name or Authority for obstructing the Trade of our Company with the Inhabitants of that City In the full assurance of which we rested secure and took our measures accordingly till to our further surprize and unspeakable prejudice we find by repeated Advices from Hamburgh that the said Resident continues still contumacious and is so far from giving due Obedience to his Majesty's said Order that upon application made to him by our Agent in that City with all the respect due to his Character he declared that as yet he had got no such
making his Case better that it makes it ten times worse for if his Affections be captivated we are without remedy except we either sue for a Divorce as in case of wilful Desertion and denying conjugal Duty or withdraw from under his roof and remove to another Family as God and Man will allow one Sister to do that is oppressed and denied the Privileges of paternal Love and Protection whilst another is caressed and dandled and has her Fortune raised by diminishing that of the neglected Sister The Jamaica Proclamation against our Colony at Darien comes next to be considered and is as follows By the Honourable Sir William Beeston Knt-Governour and Commander in chief for his Majesty in the Island of Jamaica and of the Territories and Dependencies of the same and Admiral thereof WHereas I have received Orders from his Majesty by the Right Honourable James Vernon one of the Principal Secretaries of State importing that his Majesty was not informed of the Intentions and Designs of the Scots in peopling Darien which is contrary to the Peace between his Majesty and his Allies commanding me not to afford them any Assistance In compliance therewith in his Majesty's Name and by his Order I do strictly charge and require all and every his Majesty's Subjects that upon no pretence whatsoever they hold any Correspondence with the Scots aforesaid or give them any Assistance with Arms Ammunition Provision or any thing whatsoever either by themselves or any other for them nor assist them with any of their Shipping or of the English Nations upon pain of his Majesty's Displeasure and suffering the severest punishment Given under my Hand and Seal of Arms the 9th of April 1699. and in the 11th year of the Reign of William the 3d King of England Scotland France and Ireland and Lord of Jamaica Defender of the Faith It contains a heavy Charge against the Scots Company as having settled in Darien without informing his Majesty and having thereby broke the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies As to their not intorming his Majesty with their Design there was neither any need of it nor had they reason to do it that there was no need of it is plain enough from the Act of Parliament impowering them to settle any where in Asia Africa or America upon places not inhabited or any other place with consent of the Natives and not possess'd by any European Potentate Prince or State So that they were under no Obligation to acquaint him where they design'd to settle provided they kept to the Terms of the Act. And that they had no cause so to do is evident from that unreasonable opposition that a Faction of Court had prevailed with him to make to them all along which gave them just cause to expect the like treatment in time to come Then as to the Breach of the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies by the Settlement they had no reason to think themselves guilty of any such thing and so much the less that Dampier Wafer and all others that wrote of the Country gave an Account of the Natives being in possession of their Liberty and almost in continual Wars with the Spaniards Besides it was a rul'd Case in England since Capt. Sharp was by Law acquitted in King Charles Il's time not only for having marched through Darien in a Hostile manner but for attacquing Places that were really in possession of the Spaniards as St. Maria and Panama because he acted by virtue of a Commission from those Darien Princes This together with their not finding a Spaniard or Spanish Garison on all that part of the Isthmus was enough to justify the fairness of the Scots Settlement there and to have put a stop to this hasty Sentence till both sides had been heard But instead of that the Advisers to this Proclamation take upon them in a very Magisterial manner to declare the Scots guilty of a Breach of the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies which is so much the more remarkable that this Proclamation is publish'd in the West-Indies before ever it was known what the Scots could say in their own defence and sent away before the presenting of the Spanish Memorial which was on the third of May 1699. and the Proclamation bears date April 9th 1699. The unfairness of this Proclamation is evident from this that at the very same time it is publish'd in the West-Indies the Lord President of the Sessions and his Majesty's Advocate for the Kingdom of Scotland were sent for from hence to see what they could say to justify their Pretensions to Darien which they did by such Arguments as have not yet been answer'd We leave it then to the impartial Thoughts of the good People of England whether we have not occasion to say that our King is in the Hand of our Enemies since we are thus condemn'd without a hearing and our Nation put tothe trouble and expence to send Lawyers out of the Kingdom to defend themselves before those that had already condemned them And since this is a visible effect of the Union of the Crowns by which we are every day more and more oppressed let them speak their Consciences if we have not all the reason in the World to dissolve that Union except the Nations be more closely united and upon a better footing That we were so treated in former Reigns we had no great cause to wonder when the Court was engaged in a Conspiracy against our Religion and Liberties And our Nation being inferior to none in their Zeal for both it was but natural to think that we should be the first Sacrifice But to be treated thus by a Prince who hath ventur'd his Life to save us from Popery and Slavery a Prince who for Courage in War and Conduct in Peace is not to be match'd in Story a Prince who is under God the Great Champion of our Religion and the bold Asserter of Europe's Liberty a Prince whose Family we revere and whose Person we adore a Prince for whom we have so chearfully ventur'd our Lives and lost so much of the best Blood in our Veins to be so treated by such a Prince hath some thing cutting beyond expression and proves that our Disasters are no way to be remedied but either by a total Separation or a closer Union of the two Kingdoms We cannot be so unjust to his Majesty's Character as to think a Prince of his Magnanimity could be guilty of so mean a thing as willingly to subject the Crown of his Antient Kingdom which he received free to that of another We cannot once suffer it to enter into our thoughts that he who dares to out-brave Death in the Field a thousand times a day should act so unworthy a part as first to condemn and then to try us These and all other things of that sort we must needs charge to the account of our Enemies about him who misrepresent us and therefore surprise his Majesty
into any thing he does against us As to that positive Sentence of our having acted contrary to the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies we have all the Reason in the World to complain of it Is our Kingdom then become so mean and contemptible that what is transacted according to the Acts of our Parliaments and Patents of our Kings is liable to be annull'd or declared illegal by any Person that has the hap to be made an English Secretary of State Governor of one of their American Plantations or a Member of their Council of Trade If it be so his Majesty's Dignity as King of Scots is well defended in the mean time when it is liable thus to be trampled upon by his own Servants as King of England This does indeed verisy what has been said that our Kings since the Union leave their Antient Kingdom to the disposal of their Servants but whether this be agreeable to the Coronation Oaths of our Kings let them determine that are concern'd to enquire and perhaps it may be worth the consideration of our Neighbours whether since we have been govern'd by Servants they have not for the most part been subject to Minions and that the one does naturally pave the way for the other So that they are no great gainers by the Bargain If it be answer'd that the Proclamations are issued by his Majesty's Authority and that therefore our Sentence proceeds from his Bar. We answer 1. That there are shrewd Suspitions that a certain Gentleman or two who have affected all along to shew their Zeal against the Scots in this Affair have push'd this matter beyond their Instructions for there 's no man that knows his Majesty's Justice and Wisdom can admit a thought that he would condemn us before we were heard 2. We don 't at all question his Majesty's Authority as King of England to forbid his English Subjects to give any manner of Assistance to the Scots at Darien tho we might say it was unkind but we absolutely deny that he has any Authority as King of England to condemn the Proceedings of the Subjects of Scotland for any thing they transact without the Dominions of England If it be otherwise his Majesty as King of Scots is bound to appear at the King's-Bench-bar in Westminster-Hall for what he hath done as King of Scots upon the Lord Chief Justices Summons and of what Consequence this may be to himself or his Successors may be easily judg'd Had Oliver and the other Regicides bethought themselves of this it had been more for the Honour of England and would have taken off a great deal of the odium that is charg'd upon them for cutting off King Charles had they search'd for something Criminal in his Conduct toward the English Nation as King of Scots and condemned him for that Tho they did not think upon this perhaps others may and then the English will be able to justify themselves as not having cut off their own King but their Enemy the King of Scots as there 's no doubt they would have done by King Charles II. had he not made his escape after the battel of Worcester This may perhaps deserve the thoughts of his present Majesty and others concern'd in the Succession and so much the more that the dependence of the Crown of Scotland upon that of England hath been lately asserted by some English Historians and indirectly hinted at in a pretended Answer to the Defence of the Scots Settlement at Darien p. 24. But to satisfy that Gentleman and others who please themselves so much in vilifying the Scotish Nation they may turn to the Reigns of Edward I. II. III. and they will quickly find that Sir William Wallace K. Robert Bruce James Lord Douglas Thomas Randolph Earl of Murray and others that we could name did so gallantly defend the Soveraignty of Scotland against those bold Pretenders to a Superiority over us that their Successors have had no great stomach to pursue their Claim to it since So that if ever they had any it is forfeited by Prescription Oliver's imaginary Conquest so much insisted on by the dull Answerer of the Scots Defence and others will be of no use to the Faction in this matter since that was no National Quarrel nor did the English pretend to any such thing as a Conquest of us but immediatly withdrew their Forces upon the Restoration So that Oliver's Conquest as he calls it was only the Victory of one Party over another in a Civil War it being well known that he had Friends in Scotland as well as England which if that Wise Author will have Oliver's Victories to be Conquests he had conquerâ—d too before ever he came near Scotland We don't insist upon this with any design to derogate from the Valour of the English Nation which is known all over the World but to stop the mouths of those pitiful Scriblers and to give a Caveat to those Gentlemen about Court who talk so big of conquering Scotland upon this present occasion But we wish them to consult beforehand how England in general stands affected to such a Design and how they will justify the Lawfulness of it lest it fare with them as it did with K. Charles I. and his Cabal who not only in Council advis'd TO REDUCE US TO OUR DUTY BY FORCE RATHER THAN GIVE WAY TO OUR DEMANDS as may be seen in the Representation of the States of Scotland in 1640. but rais'd Money and levied a formidable Army to carry on their Design and yet the Hearts of these Bravos fail'd them when they came in view of the Scots who repuls'd them twice with shame the first time when they encamp'd their great Army near Barwick and the next when we charg'd them at Newburn And at last the best of the Nobility and Gentry of England thought fit to put a stop to those dangerous Proceedings and follow'd his Majesty with a Protestation against them as well knowing that if Scotland were once subdued the Liberties of England could not be long liv'd That it is the Interest of England now to prevent the Ruin of Scotland as much as it was then will appear by the following Arguments 1. That the present Juncture of Affairs makes it necessary for the Kingdom of England rather to strengthen themselves by making new Friends than by procuring new Enemies They are not ignorant that they have a controverted Title to their Crown entail'd upon them and that the Pretenders against those in possession are in the French Interest and under their Protection Nor can they be ignorant that to the old National Hatred betwixt France and England the French have added that of the Protestant Religion Of late years they have declared themselves the most implacable Enemies of it and their King in all his Triumphs has that ascrib'd to him as his greatest Exploit that he hath quelled the Monster of Heresy The case being thus it must needs be against the Interest of
the Articles of their Church those about Discipline excepted should be destin'd to ruin because we believe with most of the Reformed Churches that there is no Office superiour to that of a Presbyter of divine Institution Must we be denied the Privileges of Men and Christians because we think that the Discipline of the Church may be more safely intrusted and more faithfully administred by the joint Indeavors of the Minister and the Heads of his Congregation by an Association of neighbouring Ministers and the Heads of their Parishes and by Delegates both of the Clergy and Laity of those Associations in a general Convocation than by another Model But enough of this Subject Let any Man peruse the learned Archbishop Vsher's Treatise of Presbytery and Episcopacy reconcil'd and there they will find that the difference is not so great as some People have made it their business to make the World believe But if nothing less than our destruction will serve those Gentlemen because our Church is of a different Constitution from that of England and that our political Principles and original Constitution are diametrically opposite to arbitrary Power let the Dissenters of England and all those Church-men that concurr'd in the late Revolution look to it When their Neighbour's House is on sire it's time for them to prepare their Bucket's If this Digression be thought impertinent H s and the Answerer of the Scots Defence must bear the blame of it They would insinuate to the World that the Affair of our Trade and Colony is a Presbyterian Project on purpose to render it odious and suspected to the Church of England therefore it was necessary to obviate that false and malicious Suggestion and to acquaint our Neighbours that the Company make no difference as to the matter of Perswasion and let it be put to the Test when they please it will be found that those of the Episcopal Opinion are as zealous for the thriving of our Trade and the Honour of our Nation both of which are concern'd in this Affair as any of the other To wind up this matter if any Party in England entertain suspicions of us the better way to prevent us is to treat us kindly and enter into an Union with us on such Terms as his Majesty and the Parliament of both Kingdoms shall agree and so as the Civil and Religious Liberties of both People may be preserved That will be casier and safer than to relie on the Hopes of an uncertain Conquest or if they don't think fit to do so it 's but reasonable they should leave us in the undisturb'd possession of our own Liberties But if they will do neither let them no more accuse those that complain of this Treatment as Incendiaries but seriously examine whether they themselves mayn't with more Justice be accounted Oppressors PART II. Being a more particular Answer to H s's Libel WE come in the next place to take a Survey of H s Libel intituled The Defence of the Scots abdicating Darien and shall speedily shew to how little purpose his Suborners have spent their Pains and Mony on him The first Line of his Performance is a Banter upon his Majesty whom he charges with investing our Company with immense Privileges and Immunities by his Octroy of 1695. There 's no Man can be answerable for more sense than God has given him but tho H s understood no better his Masters at White-hall of whom he brags so much ought to have taken care that he should not run into Nonsense and an Invective against his Majesty at first dash To talk of granting us immense Privileges is to impeach his Majesty's Wisdom as if he had done a thing without parallel which is directly to incense the Kingdom of England against him as some bad People indeavour'd to do when by a Misrepresentation of our Design they stir'd up the House of Commons against it But had the Surgeon or his suborners look'd into the Privileges of 21 Years freedom from all manner of Taxes granted to the Dutch East-India Company by the States of Holland and the vast Immunities granted by the French King the Danes and Brandenburghers to their Companies for trading to the East-Indies or even to those granted to the English East-India Company at first they would have found there was no reason to charge his Majesty with granting us such immense or unparallel'd Privileges or ascribing it to his not well knowing what he did for the noise of the Guns at Namur as this petulant Scribler does Dedication pag. 9. But if H s and his Suborners exclaim against our Privileges as immense they are resolv'd to diminish the Authority by which they were granted and call it only by the name of an Octroy which signifies no more than a Patent whereas our Privileges were granted us by an Act of Parliament which are greater and more sacred than all the Octroys in Europe Thus thro Ignorance or Malice they think fit to vilify his Majesty's Conduct and Authority which they pretend to defend Their Malice is further demonstrated by the Parenthesis to be presum'd in the 2d page of the Decation where they speak of his Majesty's Promise to interpose his Royal Authority to do us right in case of disturbance and that at the publick Charge to be presum'd of his antient Kingdom There might possibly have been some need of their presumption had all Mankind been indow'd with as little Sense and Honesty as H s and his Suborners for no other Body could ever presume it to mean any thing else since our Acts do not oblige England tho if they had presum'd that our Enemies would take eare that the said Promise should not be kept the refusal of lending our Company the 3 Men of War built at the Charge of our own Nation would soon have convine'd the World that they had presum'd too true We have accounted for rejecting Mr. Douglas's Proposal elsewhere nor shall we take notice of H s's scurrilous Reflections on Mr. Paterson which only discover his own Temper but do that honest Man no hurt As to his charging us with squandring away 50000 l. on 6 Hulks at Amsterdam and Hamburgh purely to make a noise of our Proceedings c. we would desire him and his Suborners to reconcile it with what they say from p. 14 to 20. where they own themselves that the Dutch and Hamburgers were both mightily pleas'd with the Design p. 14. That the Dutch were tickled with the Conceit that they should be Sharers in the Scots Trade and p. 16. they say That that which gave the dead stroke to the Scots Design was the East and West-India Companies running open mouth'd to the Lords of Amsterdam shewing what was hatching by the Scots Commissioners in their City to ruine the Trade of the Vnited Provinces P. 17. they tell us That the Hamburgers thought it the more their Interest to embrace the Project the more that the Dutch oppos'd it P. 18. That our Affair was
the Servants and Adventurers of the Company This indeed is something to the purpose and might deserve the Suborners Mony were there no possibility of proving it false but we shall see anon what ground there is for this bold Accusation after observing That perhaps some Gentlemen at the West end of the Town may find at long-run that their Evidence has blab'd out something more in this Paragraph than it 's for their Interest the World should know We will only ask Mr. H s some civil Questions What are those Reasons not as yet publick to the World for which our Colony left Darien Sir William Beeston's Letter acquainted us that it was for want of Provisions and for fear of the great Preparations by the Spaniards The Letters we have had since from New-York say that it was for want of Provisions and because they were brought to their wits end and did not know what to think of their Case by reason of the English Proclamations Then since the very first of these and much more all of them together were reason sufficient and are publick to the World What other private reasons can Mr. H s give us for it We know he boasts of his Interest in those that are concerned in the Secrets of the West End of the Town Did they tell him then that the Government of England took early Measures to prevent the ill Consequences of our Colony If they did so pray what were those Measures Was the sending of Capt. Long thither to debauch our Men traduce us to the Indians as Pirats and to tell them his Majesty of Great Britain would not protect us one of those early Measures Was not their solliciting a foreign Minister to present a Memorial against our Colony as soon as ever the News of it arriv'd another And was not this the reason why they put it upon that Minister and not upon the Spanish Ambassador that the latter had been forbid coming to Court because his Catholick Majesty would not admit of Schonenburg the the Jew as Envoy from the Dutch Were not the Enemies of the Scots Company so zealous in promoting that Memorial that they could not have patience till orders came from Madrid but put the Envoy upon it of themselves And when a Controversy happen'd about receiving it signed or unsign'd because of the difference betwixt the two Courts did not our Enemies agree to it as an Expedient that one of both sorts should be presented Was not this abominable trifling upon a point of Honour when they were plotting to bereave the Kingdom of Scotland of their Honour Men Mony and Colony all at once Were not these more clandestine and indirect Artifices to destroy our Colony than any he charges upon us to destroy the English Colonies Having ask'd Mr. H s more Questions than he and his Suborners dare positively answer we come next to deny his Charge upon our Colony as being malicious and absolutely false for which their own Declaration shall be our Evidence and is as follows CALEDONIA The Declaration of the Council constitured by the Indian and African Company of Scotland for the government and direction of their Colonies and Settlements in the Indies THE said Company pursuant to the Powers and Immunities granted unto them by His Majesty of Great Britain our Soveraign Lord with Advice and Consent of His Parliament of Scotland having granted and conceded unto us and our Successors in the Government for all times hereafter full Power to equip set out freight and navigate our own or hired Ships in warlike or other manner from any Ports or Places in amity or not in hostility with His Majesty to any Lands Islands Countries or Places in Asia Africa or America and there to plant Colonies build Cities Towns or Forts in or upon the places not inhabited or in or upon any other place by consent of the Natives or Inhabitants thereof and not possest by any European Soveraign Potentate Prince or State and to provide and furnish the aforesaid Places Cities Towns or Forts with Magazines Ordinance Arms Weapons Ammunition and Stores of War and by force of Arms to defend the same Trade Navigation Colonies Cities Towns Forts Plantations and other Effects whatsoever and likewise to make Reprizals and to seek and take reparation of damage done by Sea or by Land and to make and conclude Treaties of Peace and Commerce with Soveraign Princes Estates Rulers Governours or Proprietors of the aforesaid Lands Istands Countries or places in Asia Africa or America And reserving to themselves five per Cent. or one twentieth part of the Lands Mines Minerals Stones of value precious Woods and Fishings have further conceded and granted unto us the free and absolute Right and Property in and to all such Lands Islands Colonies Towns Forts and Plantations as we shall come to establish or possess in manner aforesaid as also to all manner of Treasures Wealth Riches Profits Mines Minerals and Fishings with the whole Product and Benefit thereof as well under as above the Ground as well in Rivers and Seas as in the Lands thereunto belonging or for or by reason of the same in any sort together with the right of Government and Admiralty thereof as likewise that all manner of Persons who shall settle to inhabit or be born in any such Plantations Colonies Cities Towns Factories or Places shall be and be reputed as Natives of the Kingdom of Scotland And generally the said Company have communicated unto us a Right to all the Powers Properties and Privileges granted unto them by Act of Parliament or otherwise howsoever with Power to grant and delegate the same and to permit and allow such sort of Trade Commerce and Navigation unto the Plantations Colonies Cities and Places of our Possession as we shall think fit and convenient And the chief Captains and supream Leaders of the People of Darien in compliance with former Agresments having now in most kind and obliging mannet received us into their Friendship and Country with promise and contract to assist and join in defence thereof against such as shall be their or our Enemies in any time to come Which besides its being one of the most healthful rich and fruitful Countries upon Earth hath the advantage of being a narrow ISTHMVS seated in the heighth of the World between two vast Oceans which renders it more convenient than any other for being the common Store-house of the insearchable and immense Treasures of the spacious South Seas the door of Commerce to China and Japan and the Emporium and Staple for the Trade of both Indies And now by virtue of the before-mentioned Powers to us given We do here settle and in the name of GOD establish Our Selves end in Honour and for the Momory of that most Antient and Renowned Name of our Mother Kingdom We do and will from hence-forward call this Country by the Name of Caledonia and our selves Successors and Associates by the name of Caledonians And sutable to the
Weight and greatness of the Trust reposed and the valuable Opportunity now in our hands being firmly resolved to communicate and dispose thereof in the most just and equal manner for increasing the Domimons and Subjects of the King Our Soveraign Lord the Honour and Wealth of our Country as well as the benefit and advantage of those who now are or may hereafter be concerned with us We do hereby declare That all manner of Pcople soever shall from hence-forward be equally free and alike capable of the said Properties Privileges Protections Immunities and Rights of Government granted unto us and the Merchants and Merchants Ships of all Nations may freely come to and trade with us without being liable in their Persons Goods or Effects to any manner of Capture Confiscation Seizure Forfeiture Attachment Arrest Restraint or Prohibition for or by reason of any Embargo breach of the Peace Letters of Mark or Reprizals Declaration of War with any foreign Prince Potentate or State or upon any other account or pretence whatsoever And we do hereby not only grant and concede and declare a general and equal freedom of Government and Trade to those of all Nations who shall hereafter be of or concerned with us but also a full and free Liberty of Conserence in matter of Religion so as the same be not understood to allow connive at or indulge the blaspheming of God's holy Name or any of his Divine Attributes or of the unhallowing or prophaning the Sabbath Day And finally as the best and surest means to render any Government successful durable and happy it shall by the help of Almighty God be ever our constant and chiefest care that all our further Constitutions Laws and Ordinances be consonant and agreeable to the Holy Scripture right Reason and the Examples of the wisest and justest Nations that from the Truth and Right cousness thereof we may reasonably hope for and expect the Blessings of Prosperity and Increase NEW-EDINBVRGH Decemb. 18. 1608. By Order of the Council Hugh Ross Secretary We dare refer it to the Scrutiny of the nicest Observers whether this Declaration infer any such thing as Plunder or a Patent from the King to pick a Quarrel with the Spaniards and to divide the Spoil of Mexico and Peru what clandestine Artifices are here to be found to drain the English Plantations and wherein does it interfere with the Interest of England any more than all free Ports must of necessity interfere with their Neighbours We wish that our Author would inform us how publick Declarations according to Act of Parliament can be call'd clandestine Artisices and defy him and his Suborners with all their art to find any thing pretended to in this Declaration but what the Colony has a right to by Act of Parliament The only thing this malicious Scribler can wrest to his Purpose in the Declaration is the Colony's publishing that all manner of Persons of what Nation or People soever c. should be equally free and alike capable of the same Privileges with themselves c. which are the express Words of the Act of Parliament and therefore supposing that the said Declaration should have influenc'd some People to come over to them from the English Plantations the Colony could not be any ways blam'd for it Qui utitur jure suo nil damni facit is a known Maxim in Maw The Libeller's Malice is not satisfied with reflecting upon our Colony but flies on the face of the greatest part of the English in the West-Indies as if they had so little Honour or Love for their native Country as to lay their own Plantations desolate and run over to ours Indeed if most of them be such Persons as himself there might be some ground for the Reflection but till it appears to be so we must beg Mr. H s's leave to have a better opinion of them No Man of sense can believe that those who found themselves at ease in the English Plantations would be fond of removing to a new Colony but if others who are at their freedom had a mind to do so we know of no reason they should be hinder'd The Subjects of England are a free People and not confin'd to their own Dominions but have liberty to trade and live elsewhere if they find their account in it There 's no man can blame the Scots for publishing their Declaration throughout the West-Indies the thing being absolutely necessary in it self and the natural Practice of all new Settlements to acquaint the World with the nature of their Design and on what Terms they may have Commerce with them We hope our Author and his Suborners will not say that the Subjects of England might not have traded with them for their own advantage provided their Title had been unexceptionable and seeing the Scots had reason to think it so it was no act of unkindness in them to let the English Plantations know that they should be very welcome to trade to Darien and how this could be done so properly and with so much effect as by Declaration our Author would do well to acquaint us The Gentleman and his Friends are very angry that we should have made use of the King of Great Britain's Name to give the more Authority to the thing We would very fain know their Reasons why it is not as lawful for the Scots to make use of that Name as the English and at the same time must take leave to tell the Renegado and his Whitehall Friends that all this Venom they have spit at the Scots Colony is a virulent Invective against his Majesty He impower'd them to do what they accuse them for by Act of Parliament and because our Antagonists have a mind to say that this Octroy as they call it was destructive to the Trade of England they find themselves oblig'd to make an Excuse for the King viz. that the honest Gentleman meant no harm at the granting of it for it is to be believ'd that he could scarce bear what was whisper'd for the noise of the Namur Guns which is in plain English he gave his consent to he knew not what A noble Defence for which his Majesty is oblig'd to them But Banter and Blasphemy they were fully resolv'd on and so they had but a Subject they car'd not what Nor Adam nor David nay nor the Almighty himself shall escape them but his Commission to the Hebrews when they departed out of Egypt must come in to make up the profane Jest thus Heavâ—n it self shall be charg'd at last with founding Dominion upon Grace and giving the Elect a Divine Right to the Goods of the Wicked after its being first thrown as a killing Reflection at the Heads of the poor Presbyterians H s will needs insist upon it in his Dedication that our Project on Darien was so secretly carried on that it was not known to England till the same Wind that brought the News likewise inform'd the Nation that the Scots were
for Refreshment or to refit after a Storm as they did to Capt. Jamison at Nevis That this wants very little of going to War with the Scots we believe most thinking men are very well satisfied but whether it be so or not we will venture to tell the Renegado and his Suborners that by this kind of Procedure against the Scots as if we were Servants and Subjects to England some Gentlemen in and about White-hall have giv'n the Spaniards just occasion to make War upon England if they were able or at least to make Reprisals upon the English for the damage they pretend to have suffer'd from the Scots whom the English Court by this sort of Treatment have declar'd to be their Subjects whereas if they had not invaded the Soveraignty of Scotland the Spaniards could have had no such pretonce Now whether men that had been endow'd with a quarter of an ounce of Politicks would have been guilty of such a false step as this let our Author's Suborners determine And besides we must tell them that the Men whom Capt. Long had set ashore with Capt. Diego in the Gulph of Darien committed the first Hostility on the Spaniards and kill'd seven of them with a design for any thing we know to trapan us into a War with the Spaniards since one of the same Fellows came to our Colony afterwards for Powder and Shot which our Men wisely deny'd them and told them they had done what they could not justify The Author of the Defence of the Scots Settlement dos no where advise the English to a War with Spain on the score of our Company but gives such Arguments to prove that they had no reason to dread the Effects if Spain should make War with them on that Account and that it was the Interest of England to have supported the Scots in that Settlement as have not yet been answer'd and therefore we shall say nothing farther of it here Our Author and his Friends are pleas'd to call our apprechensions of the Places being possess'd by the French bugbear Stories because the French have another Game to play at present with Spain or might have secur'd Carthagena when they had it in their Power and that if France or Holland had any such design they may go sit down within a League of either side of our Colony with as good a Title as ours But that the French are genetally wiser than to lay out their Mony upon such Tools as this Author appears to be by his way of argning one would be apt to think he had touch'd some Leuidor's Does he conceive that the French understood their Interest so little during the War that threatned their Ruine as to settle a Colony in the West-Indies at a time when they stood in more need of them at home to defend their own Country and cultivate their Ground and Vineyards Is it not known that their Design was on the Spanish Plate in order to enable them to continue the War and not on the Spanish Plantations which they were in no Capacity to defend against the Spaniards and their Allies if they had at that time seiz'd any of them Does our Author and his Suborners think that L. XIV did not understand his Interest better than to offer at a Settlement in the Spanish West-Indies especially at a place of such Importance as Carthagena and thereby have give the English and Dutch an opportunity of settling there themselves by coming to drive him out Could he think that the two Nations of Europe that have the greatest Naval Force and were most concern'd of any to reduce him to reason would sit still and suffer him to seize the Spanish Treafures and by that means enable himself to bring all Europe under his Yoke It is impossible such a thought could ever enter into his mind and therefore he had very good reason to forbear keeping possession of Carthagena since 't would have been the ready way to have spoil'd his future pretensions to the West-Indies in case of the K. of Spain's death which every body then expected daily And whenever it happens if he die without Issue as there 's great odds he will we stand in need of better Guarantees than H and his Suborners that the Fr. King will not seize the Spanish West-Indies and Darien into Boot against which there are those who have studied Politicks as much as our Author who are of opinion that the Settlement at Darien might have been no contemptible Barrier The Scribler takes upon him to pafs his word for his Majesty that the Scots Crown will receive no blemish or disreputation by his wearing it We believe his Majesty will scarcely thank him for his Security and we are satisfied our Nation will as little rely on it But at the same time we must tell this Gentleman and his Suborners that we had as little reason to suspect that K. Charles I. who was a Native of Scotland would have dishonour'd our Crown so far as to order it to be brought to England and therefore it is not imposfible for Princes to be over-perswaded by ill Council to do such things as are inconsistent with the Honour of their Crowns And thus some will venture to say that the Crown of Scotland was no ways honour'd when the Dutch Troops took place of the King of Scots's Guards and when the King of England takes upon him to condemn by Proclamations what the King of Scotland has approv'd by Act of Parliament and Letters Patent The Scribler comes next to give us a taste of his Skill in the Brittish History he brags of so much by telling us the Fate of some great Scots Families that swell'd beyond their Proportion His Instances of the Cummins and Gouries sufficiently discover his Ignorance of the Scotish History The former was indeed a very great Family but are an inauspicious instance for him and those of his kidney their ruin not being occasion'd by their Greatness but by joying with the Enemies of our Nation as this Renegado does As for his Application of his Instances it serves to discover the malicious Designs of himself and Suborners against the two greatest Families that are now left in Scotland The kind treatment this Author met with from one of these great Men upon his arrival after having deserted our Colony would have oblig'd any but a Monster of Ingratitude to have forborn such a causeless and invenom'd Reflection which nothing but ingrain'd Malice can suggest We come in the next place to take a view of the Book it self In the very first Page he owns he is no Friend to the Scots Company and alledges he has more reason for it than those Skeletons that are starved to death This we hope is sufficient to shew what credit is to be given to his Narrative wherein tho he promises to keep close to matter of Fact he abounds with blasphemous and impertinent Digressions One of the first we shall take notice of is his unmannerly
they were impowered to do so by their Act which was every where publick and in print is like the rest of the Libeller's Inconsistencies But his Suborners and he were so far transported with Malice that they resolv'd to dress our Act of Parliament throughout in the disguise of a Cheat and charge it upon the Company as secret Intrigues without ever considering that the Act it self would discover their Falshood and Malice The Clause of the Act is as follows And that the said Company may by virtue hereof grant and delegate such Rights Properties Powers and Immunities and permit and allow such sort of Trade Commerce and Navigation into their Plantations Colonies Cities Towns or Places of their Possession as the said Company shall from time to time judg sit and convenient These being the very words of the Act the Dutch could not be impos'd upon in that manner by Mr. Paterson if he had been so minded or had he been drunk as the Libeller says when he told the story they must have been very weak men that would offer to sign upon the words of a drunken man without seeing the Act it self It is not to be doubted but this Clause impowers the Company to allow such a Trade as H s mentions and therefore it might be proper enough for Mr. Paterson to urge it as an Argument to engage Subseribers but that he could do it in these Terms that H s here sets down there 's no ground to believe and therefore his Answer to those that would not sign but on that bottom that the Company had no occasion to make use of that Power at present was very proper The Story of the sham Entry in Scotland paying 3 per Cent. to the Company and thereby underselling the English and Dutch 17 per Cent. is so void of all sense that it would seem the Libeller and his Suborners were drunk when they suggested it The Act does indeed oblige such Ships as were imploy'd by the Company to break bulk in Scotland but lays no such Obligation upon those that they might impower to trade to their Colony And considering what has been already said of the Drawbacks that the Cargo of the said Ships was Custom-free no where but in Scotland and that by his own concession they were to pay 3 per Cent. at least to the Company how was it possible they could undersel the English and Dutch 17 per Cent. especially considering the vast Quantities that those two Companies buy at a time and by consequence were like to have the prime Cost easier than our Infant Company After all this sham Story he happens to tell the main reason of the Miscarriage of our Design in Holland and perhaps of its doing so in England The Dutch East and West India Companies says he complain'd to the Lords of Amsterdam that the Scots Commissioners were designing the ruin of their Trade Which by the way shews that the Project of an American Trade was discours'd of by the Commissioners which the Libeller it 's probable would not have mention'd had not his Memory given him the slip and that he forgot he had formerly told us that the Darien Project was still kept secret Why then should the Dutch West-India Company be so much concerned at our taking Subscriptions there but that they knew we had a design on the Isthmus of America and therefore their East-India Company knowing also that we being once Masters of a good Settlement there it would have abridg'd the way and made Voyages speedier to China Japan the Philippine Islands c. where their Trade lies they thought it might in time be dangerous for them if that Isthmus should be possess'd by the Subjects of Great Britain So that there 's no reason to doubt but they found Interest enough at the West end of the Town to lay as many rubs in our way as was possible to be done P. 17. The Libellers give us another Evidence of their Candor and Ingenuity when they tell us The Hamburghers knew nothing of Darien but builded altogether on Ships laden with India Goods whereof their City and Port was to be the Receptacle and Mart whilst Paterson wanted only Mony to raise Forces to overrun Mexico and Peru. But our Author and his Suborners ought to have consider'd that since they have told us of the Fears of the Dutch West-India Company we could easily infer that the Project of the Isthmus could not be long conceal'd from the Hamburghers That the Act it self would satisfy the Subscribers there that the Company 's Ships must break bulk in Scotland and therefore they could not expect to be the Receptacle and Mart of our Stores whatever they might hope for as to conveying the Merchandize to the Inland Places of Germany they could not but think that we had Shipping of our own to carry our Goods to the Ports on the Baltick and German Sea In that same Page they give us another hint to confirm our Suspicion that it is more from the apprehensions of our lessening the Dutch than the English Trade that the Court have so violently oppos'd us viz. that the Hamburghers by joining with the Scots had a prospect of worming the Hollander out of a good part of the German Trade Which admitting to be true the Hollanders had none but themselves to blame for it since we offer'd to take them in as joint Subscribers before we made any Proposal to the Hamburghers nor is it any ways unreasonable in it self that Germans should have the preference of other Nations in trading with Germany After a great deal of prophane Banter and ridiculing the sacred Text he tells us that the Human Reason of our Disappointment was an unnecessary Paragraph in our Octroy which occasion'd a great many English and Holland Speculations viz. That in case the Company should be interrupted in their Trade c. the King had ingaged to interpose the Royal Authority to do them right and that at the public Charge which says he Paterson and the rest insinuated in all Companies That the King was to assist and defend them with his Ships of War or otherwise if there was occasion and that out of his own Pocket which they did not question to be English Coin There 's no reasonable Man will think it unnecessary that a Prince should protect his Subjects in their Trade either by his Men of War or otherwise and therefore this being a Clause of the Act of Parliament it was no ways unnecessary to be put into the Patent and we will adventure to tell H and his Suborners that they who advis'd his Majesty to refuse our Company the three Men of War built at our own Charge when they offer'd to be at the expence of maintaining them have advis'd him to act contrary to the Trust repos'd in him as King of Scots and to contravene this very Act of Parliament and that which order'd those Ships to be built for defence of Trade than which there cannot be
Paymasters to deal with It were well for England if all those that have been imployed in the Royal Navy could say as much by his Suborners and their Friends As for our discharging Mr. Stratford to be any longer our Cashier there 's no need of assigning any other Cause for it but that Sr. Paul Ricaut's Memorial render'd it needless and to that same account we must charge the two Ships that were left there to rot in their Ouse But at the same time we will tell him we had no great reason to be satisfied with Mr. Stratford's Conduct and believe we have less now than ever since this Libeller defends him His Story p. 26 of Mr Henderson's arresting another of our Ships for 3000 l is sufficiently answer'd by himself when he tells us that he and his Partners fail'd in their Subscriptions which was a just debt due to the Company and therefore they had reason to demand and expect it especially he being a Scots-man yet the Company dealt very kindly with him on that account and so much the more that they consider'd his being a Residenter in Holland where he was liable both to the English and Dutch Court to whose account the Libeller must also charge this Affront and the Loss we sustain'd at Amsterdam What he says of our Seamen p. 27 28. is a manifest untruth They were immediately paid extreamly well satisfied and we had such choice of able Seamen who were willing to go in the Expedition that we turn'd feveral ashoar after they had embarqu'd as having no occasion for them As to his Reflection on Mr. Robert Blackwood for pinching them of their Wages and p. 46. for cheating them as to their Provisions that Gentleman is now at London where we leave H s and him to account for it We doubt not but Mr. Blackwood may have Justice done him in Westminster-hall if he thinks sit to sue for it but so much we think our selves oblig'd to say in his Vindication during his absence that he was never charg'd with any such thing by the Company His next Reflections on the Transfer p. 29. by which he would impose on the World as if it had been a Trick of the Company to cheat the seamen of their Wages are so much the less to be credited that he himself is a Party and commenc'd the Suit he talks of in Doctors Commons which tho that Court may perhaps have determin'd in his favour because the Bargain was made with him in London and those that made it were on the Spot and for other Causes best known to themselves it is nothing at all to the matter in hand our Courts have no reason to take them for a Precedent and our Company has as little to allow the Libeller any Wages But to come to the Transfer which he so foully misrepresents It was so far from being a clandestine practice that it was agreed on in publick Council and but highly reasonable that the Colony should be accountable to the Company for the Stock they intrusted them with The Libeller only betrays his own Folly and Malice and imposes upon his Suborners when he says the Gentlemen who gave their joint Bond to the Company for 70000 l were not worth so many English Pence for admitting they had not been worth one penny of personal Estate they were intrusted by the Company with 19000 l Cargo and Ships Provisions c. to make it up 70000 l which was not charg'd upon them as their personal Debt but upon the Colony as a Corporation till the same was paid What he says as to the Seamen is a malicious Untruth It was indeed agreed that the Colony should pay them but if they did not the Company was to do it and besides the two months advance which the Libeller owns was paid them the Company was to pay to them or to those that had their Powers or Letters of Attorny a Month in six and have accordingly paid them As to the Seamens being made believe that assoon as they had set the Landmen on shoar they were to proceed on a trading Voyage and return to Scotland to be paid it is equally false they being to stay out whilst the Company pleas'd Then as to the Transfer in general it was so far from being clandestine or a Trick that the Company was impower'd to make it by the Act of Parliament which gave them their Original as any Person may see by turning to the Act it self which authorizes them to transfer their joint Stock or Capital Fund or any Estate real or personal Ships Goods c. belonging to the Company under such Restrictions Rules Conditions c. as the said Company shall by writing in and upon their Books c. appoint As to the Landmen whom he will also have to be impos'd upon they knew what they had to relic on and were very well satisfied with it and as to the Companys levying Souldiers under the Notion of Planters without asking leave of the Privy Council admitting it to be true they are not at all to be blam'd for it since they had no reason to think that the Faction at Court which had contraven'd Acts of Parliament by opposing their Subscriptions and denying them the men of War built for the protection of our Trade would allow them to levy Souldiers under that Name But the truth of the matter is this they were really design'd for ' Planters and not at all for Military Business tho it was highly necessary the Colony should have as many Officers and disciplin'd Men as they could that they might be the more able to defend themselves in case of Attaque and therefore his railing against the Colony for offering to punish Deserters and other Criminals pag. 31. only discovers his own ignorance and malice for by the Act of Parliament they had the whole Power Civil and Military conferr'd upon them and accordingly might exercise their Power upon all Persons belonging to the Company as they saw cause so that this is again a libelling of the Act of Parliament thro the Company 's sides His Representation of the seven Men chosen for Counsellors page 34. is false and malicious to the highest degree The liberty given to add other six to those seven was not as he spitefully insinuates for English or French men of Substance that should join them from the West-India Plantations but for such of their own number as they might think fit to assume afterwards It cannot once enter into the thoughts of any man of sense that the Colony should at first entrust Foreigners and especially French Papists in their Government or that the Company had any design they should do so but he and his Suborners think it their Interest to make us odious to the English and French by accusing us of a design to drain their Colonies As to Mr. Paterson whom he hath all along abus'd he happens now thro Inadvertency to vindicate him from his own Calumnies he formerly charg'd
Rob. Pennicook Rob. Pincartone Will. Paterson Caledonia New Edenburgh December 28th 1698. P. S. We intreat you to send us a good Ingineer who is extreamly wanted here This Place being capable of being strongly Fortified You 'l understand by our from Maderas the Danger as well as the Tediousness of our Passage North about so that if the Ships can conveniently be fitted out from Clyd it will save a great deal of time in their Passage and be far less bazardous This being from Men who knew the Misrepresentation of the Affair must needs Issue in their own Ruin cannot be suspected of disingenuity and therefore must certainly over-balance the Evidence of a Renegado who owns that he writes out of Malice The first defence he puts in the Company 's Mouthis their being baulk'd of Foreign Subscriptions which made them lose Time and Money whereby they could not send out such a number of Men and quantity of Provisions as the Project would have required This is litterally true let H s and his Suborniers answer it if they can As for his Question Why did they prodigally throw away 50000 l in Holland and Hamburgh purely to make a Bluster there and why did they trust to another Man's Purse till such time as they are sure of it We shall answer by asking him another Question viz. Since he pretends to know the Secrets of the West end of the Town why did our Government oppose our taking Foreign Subscriptions since they had impowered us by Acts of Parliament and Letters Pattent to take them and since t was such a thing as the like perhaps was never done what reason had we to suspect being baulk'd of our Foreign Subscriptions He himself own'd that the Hollanders and Hamburgers were fond of our Project till our Government oppos'd us and therefore by his own Confession they are to blame for those disappointments As to our taking Subscriptions in Hamburgh and Holland We had reason to engage as many of our Protestant Neighbours in the Design as we could that we might be the more able to defend our selves in case of Opposition which is neither ill Policy nor inconsistent with Honesty The 2d Defence he puts in their Mouth That their Ships were Man'd no Provisions to be had in Scotland more were providing abroad and no more Money to be had from the Subscribers till once the Ships were Sail'd is such as he and his Suborners will never be able to answer What could the Company do more than take care to have Provisions abroad when none were to be had at home And if the Subscribers would pay no more Money till the Ships put to Sea there was a necessity of Sailing His Objection as to the shortness of their Provisions we have answer'd already and shall add which he maliciously conceals That we sent a Ship with Provisions after them which was cast away in January for which we cannot be answerable and he himself owns we sent another Convoy in May Then since the Colony sent us Advice from the Maderas dated Aug. 29. That they had still 8 Months large and twelve Months short Allowance The Company cannot justly be accus'd of supine Neglect when they sent away one Ship with Provisions four Months after this notice and two more in five Months after that considering that they had no Provisions in Scotland as the Libeller himself owns and that the Colony had a Cargo which might have bought them Provisions either from the Natives if they had any to spare which we could not doubt of by Mr. Wafer's Description or from the English Colonies had it not not been for the Proclamation which we had no reason to suspect would be issued at all and much less in such a manner in the Name of our own Prince who was oblig'd to Protect us To the Causes he assigns for the Sailing of our Fleer without a greater quantity of Provisions we 〈◊〉 add one more viz. That we had reason to fear that our Enemies might prevent us which Captain Long 's being on those Coasts a Month before us shews was not without Ground no more than our Suspicion that endeayours were used to surprize us into a War with the Spaniards by Long 's Men killing seven of them as hath been already mention'd and of his doing all he could to make us odious to the Natives by telling them we were Pirates and disobliging both Ambrosio and Diego by sordid little Actions of his own as Captain Pennicook gave us an Accoun in his Journal A Grave Member of the Committee of Trade can give a more full Account of this if he pleases and when his hand is in he would do well to assign us a Reason why that barbarous Murder committed by Long 's Men was never yet taken notice of by the Spaniards since they have published such angry Memorials against us who committed no Hostilities upon them His Objection to the third and fourth Reason relating to the Honesty of our Design and the Cargoes not being proper we have answer'd already As for that of our Goods being seizable in Jamaica and other English Plantations by the Act of Navigation it 's one of the Hardships we justly complain of that was put upon us by the Enemics of our Nation in Charles II's Reign But allowing it to be reasonable it cannot have so much Equity in it as the Laws which make it punishable by Death to Roband Murder Yet the Execution of those are many times dispenc'd with in favour of Criminals by his Majesty and indeed a Power to dispence with the Execution of Law sometimes to save the Life of a Subject is one of the most Innocent Branches of the Prerogative but we had much more reason to have expected a Dispensation in this Case to save the Lives of so many of his Subjects who had generously venter'd them for himself His owning p. 148. and 154. That a Cargo of Provisions brought by two Jamaica Sloops was bought by the Colony besides as many Turtle as came to 100 and odd Pounds for which he owns the Colony paid em not only contradicts what he says almost in the same breath That there was neither Money no Moneys worth to be had in the Colony and that they laid out all their Stock of Ready Money for Wine at Maderas p. 48. but may together with their having both Provisions and Money when they came to New York justly confirm our Suspicion that there was a Mismanagement of the Provisions since two Sloop's Cargo of Provision 27 Pipes of Wine 100 Pounds worth of Turtle the Fish Plantains Bonanoes Potatoes Indian Corn Sojours or Land Crabs which he says were plentiful at first ' added to their former Provisions which they own'd they had at the Maderas together with the decrease of their Number of Men by Death was not enough to keep their Colony from starving for Nine Months We have still the more reason to suspect this because the Letter from New York which
and most assuredly expect That Your Majesty will in Your Royal Wisdom take such measures as may effectually vindicate the undoubted Rights and Privileges of the said Company and support the Credit and Interest thereof And as we are in Duty bound to return Your Majesty most hearty Thanks for the Gracious Assurances Your Majesty has been pleased to give Us of all due Encouragement for promoting the Trade of this Kingdom So We are thereby encouraged at present humbly to recommend to the more special Marks of Your Royal Favour the Concerns of the said Company as that Branch of Our Trade in which We and the Nation we represent have a more peculiar Interest Subscribed at Edinburgh the 5th of August 1698. in Name Presence and by Warrant of the Estates of Parliament SEAFIELD J. P. D. P. By all this it is evideht that the whole Kingdom of Scotland was unanimous in this matter and proceeded deliberately in it as that which highly concern'd their Interest yet we see that all their Endeavours were to no purpose for our Enemies were so resolute in opposing our Trade that rather than it should succeed they will not only trample under foot the Laws of Scotland but the Laws of Nations and exactly follow the Pattern set them by the French in huffing and tyrannizing over their Neighbours when at the same time they pretend to make War upon Lewis XIV for practices of the same nature and whilst they cry out upon the Decisions of the Chambers of Brisac and Mets and of the Parliament of Paris as tyrannical and unjust for invading the Rights of Neighbouring Princes and Nations they set up a Cabal at Whitehall to do the like by Scotland and Hamburgh Then let the World judg whether the King of England had not less reason to say that he was ill serv'd in Scotland than the King of Scots had to say that he was ill serv'd in England since one single Address from the Parliament of England prevail'd with their King to forbid all his Subjects to join with the Scots whereas the repeated Supplications of the Company of Scotland the Address of their Parliament and the Authority of Law and his own Letters Patent could not prevail with the King of Scots to do Justice to his own Subjects We wish these Gentlemen would consider this who were so very angry at the Author of the Defence of the Scots Settlement for saying that the King of Scots was detain'd prisoner in England It is very certain that never any King of Scotland before the Union of the Crowns dar'd thus to trample upon their Laws or to oppose the General Interest of the Nation or if they attempted to do it they were quickly made sensible of their being inferior to the Law and the States of the Nation assembled in Parliament who till the Accession of our Princes to the English Throne remain'd in an undisputed possession of calling their Kings to an account for Male-administration and of disposing of thei Lives and Liberties as they saw cause We need not go so far back for Evidence to prove this as Eugenius the 7th who was brought to his Tryal on suspition of having murder'd his own Wife and acquitted upon discovery of the real Murderers or of James III. whose Minions by whose Council he governed were taken out of his own Bed-Chamber by the Nobles and hanged over Lauder-bridg and he himself persisting in those Courses was killed in flight after being defeated in Battle by the States and in the next Parliament was voted to be lawfully slain We have a later Instance and the Power of our Nation on that Head was largely asserted and accounted for by the Earl of Morton then Regent of Scotland in that noble Memorial he delivered in to Q. Elizabeth and her Council in defence of our proceedings against Q. Mary whom we dethron'd and in her stead set up her Son so that it is not the principle or practice of any one Party of our Nation tho it has been of late fix'd upon the Presbyterians as peculiar to them but was an Hereditary Right conveyed to us all by our Ancestors practised by Papists before the Reformation and justisied by those of the Episcopal Perswasion since particularly by the Earl of Morton beforemention'd who was the first that introduc'd Bishops into our Church after the Reformation Those things are not insisted upon with any Design of applying them to his present Majesty or of incensing the People of Scotland to do so but only to inform those that put his Majesty upon such Courses that they are his greatest Enemies and do what in them lies to destroy him It is the common Right of Mankind to be protected by those they set over them and to complain of Governors when they find themselves aggriev'd and their Privileges torn from them by Violence This Generation has prov'd it beyond possibility of Reply that the greatest Pretenders to submission to Princes and the most zealous Patrons of Passive Obedience will resist and dethrone their Kings too when they find themselves oppressed by them They that maintain the contrary are nothing but mean-spirited Flatterers or such as temporize with Courts because of their own private Advantage and be their Quality what it will are far from being so noble and brave as that poor Woman who told Philip of Macedon that he ceas'd to be King when he refus'd to hear her Petition Upon the whole it will appear that he Author of the Defence of the Scots Settlement made the best Apology for his Majesty that could be made when he said that he was a Prisoner in England and therefore forc'd to act thus against the Interest and Dignity of his Crown as King of Scots It is demonstrated thus If his Majesty were in Scotland and another Person upon the Throne of England it is certain his Majesty would have encouraged the Trade of Scotland and resented such practices in the King of England as contrary to the Laws of Nations and the Soveraignty of his Crown If he did not he would be look'd upon to be mean-spirited and not fit to wear it and if he took part with the King of England against the Dignity of his Crown and the Interest of his Kingdom he would not only be looked upon as an Enemy to his Country but as felo de se From all which it is plain that as it is the best Apology that can be made for the King of Scots when he acts thus contrary to the Honour and Interest of himself and his Country to say he is a Prisoner in England so it is a sufficient Justification of the People of Scotland to refuse Obedience to what he commands by the Influence of the English or other Councils in opposition to their Interest because they are the Commands of a Captive and not of the King of Scots If our Enemies say he is no Captive but at Liberty to go to Scotland if he pleases it is so far from