The History of England, from the Accession of James II Volume III Part 29

[Footnote 234: Avaux July 27/Aug 6. 1689.]

[Footnote 235: King's State of the Protestants in Ireland, iii. 19.]

[Footnote 236: Ibid. iii. 15.]

[Footnote 237: Leslie's Answer to King.]

[Footnote 238: "En comparazion de lo que se hace in Irlanda con los Protestantes, es nada." April 29/May 6 1689; "Para que vea Su Sant.i.tad que aqui estan los Catolicos mas benignamente tratados que los Protestantes in Irlanda." June 19/29]

[Footnote 239: Commons' Journals, June 15. 1689.]

[Footnote 240: Stat. 1 W.&M. sess. 1. c. 29.]

[Footnote 241: Grey's Debates, June 19. 1689.]

[Footnote 242: Ibid. June 22. 1689.]

[Footnote 243: Hamilton's True Relation; Mac Cormick's Further Account.

Of the island generally, Avaux says, "On n'attend rien de cette recolte cy, les paysans ayant presque tous pris les armes."--Letters to Louvois, March 19/29 1689.]

[Footnote 244: Hamilton's True Relation.]

[Footnote 245: Walker.]

[Footnote 246: Walker; Mackenzie.]

[Footnote 247: Avaux, June 16/26 1689.]

[Footnote 248: Walker; Mackenzie; Light to the Blind; King, iii. 13; Leslie's Answer to King; Life of James, ii, 364. I ought to say that on this occasion King is unjust to James.]

[Footnote 249: Leslie's Answer to King; Avaux, July 5/15. 1689. "Je trouvay l'expression bien forte: mais je ne voulois rien repondre, car le Roy s'estoit, desja fort emporte."]

[Footnote 250: Mackenzie.]

[Footnote 251: Walker's Account. "The fat man in Londonderry" became a proverbial expression for a person whose prosperity excited the envy and cupidity of his less fortunate neighbours.]

[Footnote 252: This, according to Narcissus Luttrell was the report made by Captain Withers, afterwards a highly distinguished officer, on whom Pope wrote an epitaph.]

[Footnote 253: The despatch which positively commanded Kirke to attack the boom, was signed by Schomberg, who had already been appointed commander in chief of all the English forces in Ireland. A copy of it is among the Nairne MSS. in the Bodleian Library. Wodrow, on no better authority than the gossip of a country parish in Dumbartons.h.i.+re, attributes the relief of Londonderry to the exhortations of a heroic Scotch preacher named Gordon. I am inclined to think that Kirke was more likely to be influenced by a peremptory order from Schomberg, than by the united eloquence of a whole synod of presbyterian divines.]

[Footnote 254: Walker; Mackenzie; Histoire de la Revolution d'Irlande, Amsterdarn, 1691; London Gazette, Aug. 5/15; 1689; Letter of Buchan among the Nairne MSS.; Life of Sir John Leake; The Londeriad; Observations on Mr. Walker's Account of the Siege of Londonderry, licensed Oct, 4. 1689.]

[Footnote 255: Avaux to Seignelay, July 18/28 to Lewis, Aug. 9/19]

[Footnote 256: "You will see here, as you have all along, that the tradesmen of Londonderry had more skill in their defence than the great officers of the Irish army in their attacks." Light to the Blind. The author of this work is furious against the Irish gunners. The boom he thinks, would never have been broken if they had done their duty. Were they drunk? Were they traitors? He does not determine the point. "Lord,"

he exclaims, "who seest the hearts of people, we leave the judgment of this affair to thy mercy. In the interim those gunners lost Ireland."]

[Footnote 257: In a collection ent.i.tled "Derriana," which was published more than sixty years ago, is a curious letter on this subject.]

[Footnote 258: Bernardi's Life of Himself, 1737.]

[Footnote 259: Hamilton's True Relation; Mac Cormick's Further Account; London Gazette, Aug. 22. 1689; Life of James, ii. 368, 369.; Avaux to Lewis, Aug. 30., and to Louvois of the same date. Story mentions a report that the panic among the Irish was caused by the mistake of an officer who called out "Right about face" instead of "Right face."

Neither Avaux nor James had heard any thing about this mistake. Indeed the dragoons who set the example of flight were not in the habit of waiting for orders to turn their backs on an enemy. They had run away once before on that very day. Avaux gives a very simple account of the defeat: "Ces mesmes dragons qui avoient fuy le matin lascherent le pied avec tout le reste de la cavalerie, sans tirer un coup de pistolet; et ils s'enfuidrent tous avec une telle epouvante qu'ils jetterent mousquetons, pistolets, et espees; et la plupart d'eux, ayant creve leurs chevaux, se deshabillerent pour aller plus viste a pied."]

[Footnote 260: Hamilton's True Relation.]

[Footnote 261: Act. Parl. Scot., Aug. 31. 1681.]

[Footnote 262: Balcarras's Memoirs; Short History of the Revolution in Scotland in a letter from a Scotch gentleman in Amsterdam to his friend in London, 1712.]

[Footnote 263: Balcarras's Memoirs; Life of James ii. 341.]

[Footnote 264: A Memorial for His Highness the Prince of Orange in relation to the Affairs of Scotland, by two Persons of Quality, 1689.]

[Footnote 265: See Calvin's letter to Haller, iv. Non. Jan. 1551: "Priusquam urbem unquam ingrederer, nullae prorsus erant feriae praeter diem Dominic.u.m. Ex quo sum revocatus hoc temperamentum quaesivi, ut Christi natalis celebraretur."]

[Footnote 266: In the Act Declaration, and Testimony of the Seceders, dated in December, 1736 it is said that "countenance is given by authority of Parliament to the observation of holidays in Scotland, by the vacation of our most considerable Courts of justice in the latter end of December." This is declared to be a national sin, and a ground of the Lord's indignation. In March 1758, the a.s.sociate Synod addressed a Solemn Warning to the Nation, in which the same complaint was repeated.

A poor crazy creature, whose nonsense has been thought worthy of being reprinted even in our own time, says: "I leave my testimony against the abominable Act of the pretended Queen Anne and her pretended British, really Brutish Parliament, for enacting the observance of that which is called the Yule Vacancy."--The Dying Testimony of William Wilson sometime Schoolmaster in Park, in the Parish of Douglas, aged 68, who died in 1757.]

[Footnote 267: An Account of the Present Persecution of the Church in Scotland, in several Letters, 1690; The Case of the afflicted Clergy in Scotland truly represented, 1690; Faithful Contendings Displayed; Burnet, i. 805]

[Footnote 268: The form of notice will be found in the book ent.i.tled Faithful Contendings Displayed.]

[Footnote 269: Account of the Present Persecution, 1690; Case of the afflicted Clergy, 1690; A true Account of that Interruption that was made of the Service of G.o.d on Sunday last, being the 17th of February, 1689, signed by James Gibson, acting for the Lord Provost of Glasgow.]

[Footnote 270: Balcarras's Memoirs; Mackay's Memoirs.]

[Footnote 271: Burnet, ii. 21.]

[Footnote 272: Scobell, 1654, cap. 9., and Oliver's Ordinance in Council of the 12th of April in the same year.]

[Footnote 273: Burnet and Fletcher of Saltoun mention the prosperity of Scotland under the Protector, but ascribe it to a cause quite inadequate to the production of such an effect. "There was," says Burnet, "a considerable force of about seven or eight thousand men kept in Scotland. The pay of the army brought so much money into the kingdom that it continued all that while in a very flouris.h.i.+ng state...... We always reckon those eight years of usurpation a time of great peace and prosperity." "During the time of the usurper Cromwell," says Fletcher, "we imagined ourselves to be in a tolerable condition with respect to the last particular (trade and money) by reason of that expense which was made in the realm by those forces that kept us in subjection."

The true explanation of the phenomenon about which Burnet and Fletcher blundered so grossly will be found in a pamphlet ent.i.tled "Some seasonable and modest Thoughts partly occasioned by and partly concerning the Scotch East India Company," Edinburgh, 1696. See the Proceedings of the Wednesday Club in Friday Street, upon the subject of an Union with Scotland, December 1705. See also the Seventh Chapter of Mr. Burton's valuable History of Scotland.]

[Footnote 274: See the paper in which the demands of the Scotch Commissioners are set forth. It will be found in the Appendix to De Foe's History of the Union, No. 13.]

[Footnote 275: Act. Parl. Scot., July 30. 1670.]

[Footnote 276: Burnet, ii. 23.]

[Footnote 277: See, for example, a pamphlet ent.i.tled "Some questions resolved concerning episcopal and presbyterian government in Scotland, 1690." One of the questions is, whether Scottish presbytery be agreeable to the general inclinations of that people. The author answers the question in the negative, on the ground that the upper and middle cla.s.ses had generally conformed to the episcopal Church before the Revolution.]

[Footnote 278: The instructions are in the Leven and Melville Papers.

They bear date March 7, 1688/9. On the first occasion on which I quote this most valuable collection, I cannot refrain from acknowledging the obligations under which I, and all who take an interest in the history of our island, lie to the gentleman who has performed so well the duty of an editor.]

[Footnote 279: As to the Dalrymples; see the Lord President's own writings, and among them his Vindication of the Divine Perfections; Wodrow's a.n.a.lecta; Douglas's Peerage; Lockhart's Memoirs; the Satyre on the Familie of Stairs; the Satyric Lines upon the long wished for and timely Death of the Right Honourable Lady Stairs; Law's Memorials; and the Hyndford Papers, written in 1704/5 and printed with the Letters of Carstairs. Lockhart, though a mortal enemy of John Dalrymple, says, "There was none in the parliament capable to take up the cudgels with him."]

[Footnote 280: As to Melville, see the Leven and Melville Papers, pa.s.sim, and the preface; the Act. Parl. Scot. June 16. 1685; and the Appendix, June 13.; Burnet, ii. 24; and the Burnet MS. Had. 6584.]