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
Monarchy whatever some vitiated and deprav'd Palates perswade you to the Contrary The mask'd Champion of your Company whose Tongue is much too big for his Mouth is in Pain because he cannot spurt out all his Venom at one Blast However reasonable it be that the Gentleman's Zeal should atone for his want of Power yet I must acquaint you that his Quarrel with the English Nation is as unjust and groundless as your Settling a Colony in another Man's Dominions unless by Virtue of your Presbyterian Tenent viz. of Dominions being founded in Grace you who are the Presumptive Elect pretend a Divine Right to the Goods of the Wicked and so take upon you to cloath the Seven Councellors of your Colony with such another Commission as God gave the Hebrews when they departed out of Egypt I have no Inclination to offer any Thing in Opposition to the Gallantry of your Ancestors who took so much Care to keep themselves independent of another Nation And altho' I pretend to know the Thread of the Scotish and British Story full as well as the Author of the Defence yet out of Respect to the Country where I drew my first Breath tho' I owe it nothing else I will offer nothing to the Prejudice of it's Ancient Fame But if I point at some Errata's of this Author I do it purely to reconcile Mistakes and to make a Distinction betwixt the Scotch Company and Scots Nation I being so much the Latter's Friend as to wish them not to embrak in so rotten a Bottom as this of your Company until you are on an honester Footing than you appear to be at present that the Honour of the Ancient Kingdom mayn't be sully'd with so notorious a Mistake I shall only say in Answer to this Paragraph that altho' your Ancestors were never sparing of their Blood in defending their Country nay oftimes in making Reprizal when they could conveniently yet I must put you in mind that they were far better pleas'd with enjoying themselves in their old Caledonian Mountains than you are now with both Hills and Plains And I dare say they had such a Value for their Native Blood that they would not have been guilty of sending so many innocent and worthy Gentlemen like Sheep to the Slaughter or Spanish Mines so far from Home on such an April Errand 'T is both hard and unaccountable that this Gentleman who sets up for your Champion should use the English Nation so familiarly and take such Liberty not only of frightning them into an Ague but to Bully a great General who was never hitherto known to be daunted by more formidable Giants than the Quixots of your Company He honest Gentleman mean'd no Harm at the Granting of the Octroy for 't is to be believed that he could scarce hear what was whisper'd to him for the Noise of the Namure Guns And as for this Project of yours to Darien I dare be positive that he knew nothing of the Matter till it was Five or Six Months done and then he had it from other Hands If your Colony has left Darien for Reasons not as yet publick to the World 't is your Fault Right Worshipful Gentlemen in undertaking to manage a Project you so little understood and not of the English Nation whose Interest it is to advance and preserve their own Colonies and to keep them from being render'd desolate by the Clandestine Artisices of yours who industriously and tacitely spread their Declarations over all the English Islands and Plantations making use of the King of Great Britain's Name to give the more Authority to the Thing And by these indirect Manifesto's such Prosits or rather Plunders were insinuated that if the Government of England had not taken early Measures to prevent the ill Consequences 't is to be question'd whether the greatest Part of the English West-Indies had not e'er now quitted their Settlements and been decoy'd into your Colony under a Cover'd Notion that you had a Patent from the King to pick a Quarrel with the Spaniard and to devide the Spoil of Mexico and Peru amongst the Servants and Adventures of the Company This Project and Settlement you know 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 march'd over to Panama the chief City on the Isthmus of Darien and the Treasury-Chamber of all the Spanish Riches on the South-Sea and had planted Eighty Guns against it These Proceedings were enough to startle this Nation who had heard of no War with Spain and who had no great Reason to suffer their own Subjects to desert their Plantations to advance the Scotch Colony in their own Wrong As for this Nation 's curing into a War with the Spaniard on the Score of your Company who besides their Loss of Trade must throw away more English Pounds thrice over than there 's Scotch in your Capital Stock I 'll leave it to any Man of Half an Ounce of Politicks to find out the Jest on 't save this Hot-headed Author of your Colony's Defence As for these ridiculous and bugbear Stories which both you and your Champion insinuate viz. that if the Scots should lose or be expell'd out of Darien the French will certainly possess themselves of it This Story is so far vain that the French have another Game to play at present with Spain and if they had any such Inclination that Way they know that Coast far better than the Scots and might have secur'd Carthagena when they had it in their Power and a Legal Title to it by their Arms in the Time of a declar'd War Which Fortification is as far before your Fort St. Andrew or any Thing that can be made of it as Dunkirk is before Deale-Castle But still if France or Holland had any such Design as you would make the World believe why mayn't they still go sit down within a League of either Side of your Colony with as good a Title as yours since you will coop the Spaniard up within his Wall'd Towns and Garrisons But to leave this unnecessary Dispute And proceed to the oblique Threatnings wherewith he frightens King William to wit the Fate of those Mean-spirited Princes who blemish'd and were unworthy to wear the Imperial Crown of your Nation I 'll espouse His Majesty's Cause no further than to be confirm'd that he has been ill serv'd by some Persons and I am of Opinion that he does not merit one Half of this ill Language at their Hands Further I dare say so much in his Behalf by what has past already that the Scots Crown will receive no Blemish or Disreputation by his wearing of it altho' he does not think it either sit or just to Countenance an indirect Action of any of his Subjects By the Beacons which your Author sets up to scare him to wit of the Two Baliols of James the First and William the First any Man without
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