had been of so great importance why were they then forgot And if they be of less importance than the Grievance why do they make such a bustle to press in these points of less moment and stop these things which are of far greater consideration which were first Tabled by a representation from the States and granted by the Kings Instructions And its pretty odd to see men who make such a noise about the Authority of the Grievances that the King must satisfie them and yet when they please to bring in any little Overture it must take place and justle out the other 2. As to the Vote of Incapacities it is indeed a Vote incapacitating the King to imploy any person in his service but whom they please for the Terms are so lax and the Nation so universally invovled that there are few men of Business Fortune or parts but they may be reached and most part of the Addresses themselves as far as they are capable they are guilty but when a man turns upon that side the most abominable and monstrous faults are covered whereas trifles are mustered and magnified if a man be on the Kings side And I cannot forget the last Member of the incapacities that all who have obstructed the designs of the House after they came the length of Votes shall be incapable of Publick Trust though the Royal consent neither is nor I believe will perhaps ever be adhibited so they are no Laws but abortive Attempts which never had a precedent and it may be will never have a parallel 3. As to that Article concerning the Session I have already told you how it was thrown out by the Committee of the Estates I dare say to you upon my reputation that there is not one word in our Law giving the Parliament any power in Tryal or Admission of the Lords of Session I shall refer you to two short Acts in Anno 1661 the second and eleventh Acts of the first Session first Parliament K. Ch. 2d Where the King 's Right in this point is as clearly stated as can be exprest These Acts are as follows ACT and Acknowledgment of His Majesties Prerogative in the choise of His Officers of State Counsellors and Judges THE Estates of Parliament considering the great obligations that do ly upon them from the Law of God the Law of Nations the Municipal Laws of the Land and their Oaths of Allegiance to maintain and defend the Sovereign Power and Authority of the Kings Majesty and the sad consequences that do accompany any incroachments upon or diminutions thereof do therefore from their sence of duty declare that it is an inherent priviledge of the Crown and an undoubted part of the Royal Prerogative of the Kings of this Realm to have the sole choice and appointment of the Officers of State and Privy Counsellors and nomination of the Lords of Session as in former times preceeding the year 1637. And that the Kings Sacred Majesty and his Heirs and Successors are for ever by vertue of that Royal Power which they hold from God Almighty over this Kingdom to enjoy and have the full exercise of that Right And therefore the Kings Majesty with Advice and Consent of his Estates of Parliament doth hereby rescind all Acts Statutes or Practices to the contrair Follows the acknowledgment of His Majesties Prerogative FOrasmuch as the Estates of Parliament of this Kingdom by their several Acts of the 11th and 25th of January last have from the sense of their humble duty and in recognizance of His Majesties just Right declared that it is an inherent priviledge of the Crown and an undoubted part of the Royal Prerogative of the Kings of this Kingdom to have the sole choice and appointment of the Officers of State Privy Counsellors and Lords of Session c. I shall only tell you that the Session is sitten down with as great satisfaction as ever it did and several of the most eminent Lawyers have accepted whose Practice was much better than their Sallaries and you must allow me to say since they must know the Law they are great fools if they be not safe And I am sure the greatest Lawers that did oppose this would have been content to have run the hazard of the Parliaments censure if they could but procured the Kings Commission and would have parted with the Club to the Boot when they had got their own Staik And as to that part of the Vote that the President should be chosen by the Lords this did not concern the Parliament since the Lords did not complain And the five last successive Presidents are named by the King in the same manner Besides my Lord Stairs is not made of new President but restored to an Office whereunto He had been formerly Admitted by the Lords conform to the Kings Declaration from which he was unjustly thrust out And withal the Lords did unanimously by a Vote acquiesce in His Majesties nomination and reponing the President and declared if the matter had been intire to themselves they would all and every one of them have chosen him so this dust has been very idly raised 4. I must again take notice of that grief they express for the want of that Church-government they themselves hindered to be established and the design of the Address is to Imprint in the apprehensions of the people that the King is slow or backward in that matter 5. As to the Apology for not giving Cess it is very pleasant they did not refuse it absolutely but till some things were first exped which might give them satisfaction that is to say they would give no Cess or Subsistence for the Kings Troops though they must quit the Countrey if he withdraw them till such time as the King shall renounce the remainder of his Soveraignty And I shall not say that he hath been prodigal of his Prerogative but I am sure he hath been so liberal of it that it might at this time have given contentment for once It is needless in this case to remember either the obligations we owe to our King or the necessity we have of his Protection but I shall offer two things to show the ingratitude and foolishness of refusing this Supply 1. The King hath expended above threescore thousand pounds upon his Troops in Scotland out of his own Pocket for our defence and in sending Arms Ordnance and Ammunition thither and if he should abandon us this Winter the best part of the Nation would be forced to leave the Countrey 2. By a standing Law the Parliament settled Eight Months Cess upon King James during his life time which we payed pleasantly for supporting that Government was it discretion to refuse the King four Months Cess which is but 24000 Pounds Sterling which he was willing to accept instead of demanding the Eight Months during King James's life And supposing that he had redeemed us from that Eight Months Cess as well as many other miseries was it grateful or just to
Prerogative in the Ordering and Disposal of Trade with Foreigners THe Estates of Parliament Considering That during the late Troubles divers Invasions were made upon the Royal Prerogatives of the Crown and that in a just abhorrence thereof and in a due sense of the Happiness they enjoy under His Majesties Government They are obliged on all occasions to Vindicate and Assert the same in the several Branches thereof And since the Ordering and Disposal of Trade with Foreign Countreys and the laying of Restraints and Impositions upon Foreign Imported Merchandises is by the Law of Nations acknowledged to be proper to and Inherent in the Persons of all free Princes as an undoubted Prerogative of the Crown They therefore in a Dutiful and Humble Recognisance of His Majesties Prerogative Royal Do Declare That the Ordering and Disposal of Trade with Foreign Nations and the laying of Restraints and Impositions upon Foreign Imported Commodities doth belong to His Majesty and His Successors as an undoubted Priviledge and Prerogative of the Crown and that by Vertue thereof they may lay such Impositions and Restraints upon Imported Foreign Commodities and so Order and Dispose upon the Trade of them as they shall judge fit for the good of the Kingdom Likeas the King's Majesty with Advice and Consent of His Estates of Parliament Doth hereby Rescind and Annul all Acts Statutes Constitutions and Customs to the contrary and Declares the same void and null in all time coming This Grievance doth acknowledge that the King hath power by Law to Impose what Custom or Duty he pleases upon Foreign Trade but it States the King in a Legal Capacity without Consent of Parliament to exact as great Summs as the Nation is able to furnish for every Country needs something from another either of absolute necessity or conveniency especially such Countries as do not abound with Manufactures and Artisens and in the Northern Countries Spiceries and Drugs are become almost as necessary as Air and Dier besides Iron Wine Pitch Tar and an hundred things wherewith Scotland doth not furnish it self and by Imposing such exorbitant Duties upon these as the French King doth upon Salt the Kings of Scotland might Supply themselves without being beholden to Their Parliaments and People for their Aids and it is impossible to suspect that a King who is willing to part with this Power which the Law Declares to be an Inherent Priviledge of His Crown can be uneasie to His People in any thing and it is amasing that since the effect of this Law is understood and hath been acknowledged in the Grievances how any persons could be so cruel to their Native Country as to obstruct the Relief which the King offered them in this Concession And if this opportunity were never renewed how justly might this Age and the succeeding Generations blame them Article 9. Grievance THe not taking an effectual Course to Repress the Depredations and Robberies by the Highland Clans is a Grievance This is Answered by the eleventh Instruction Instruction 11. YOu are to endeavour to procure an Act for an effectual Course to Repress the Depredations and Robberies by the Highland Clans and when this matter is Digested you are to transmit the Proposals to Vs that you may get particular Instructions thereanent The Depredations by the Highlanders is certainly a great inconvenience to the Kingdom whereby the Inhabitants to the Low Lands are not only obliged to keep numbers of armed Men to watch and guard the Passages and Descents from the Highlands but likewise to pay considerable Compositions to these Robbers to procure their Protection and Assurance which the Law discharges and this Acknowledgment is called Black-mail whereby these Thieves are sustained without Industry or Vertue who are hard to be reduced or brought to Justice because of the unaccessableness of the Mountains and that Forces are not able to find Subsistance there nor march as far in two or three days in a Body as the Highlanders can do in one and therefore the Grievance is just But there is no Method proposed for accomplishing the Redress Therefore the King doth remit to the Parliament to consider and digest effectual Courses for repressing the Highlanders which are to be transmitted to His Majesty that He may give particular Instructions to His Commissioner Likeas in the mean time though the Parliament did refuse to grant a Supply yet the King hath maintained a considerable Army upon his own Charge this Summer and hath planted considerable Garrisons round the Verge of the Mountains to secure the Low-Grounds and if His Majesty should withdraw or Disband these Forces which He hath not been able to pay the Highland Clans being now combined in Arms and open Rebellion against the Government they would quickly destroy that Kingdom and might raise such a Flame in England as might have fatal Effects before it could be quenched Article 10. Grievance THat the banishing by the Council of the greatest part of the Advocates from Edinbourg without a Process was a Grievance This is Answered by the thirteenth Instruction Instruction 13. YOu are to pass an Act that no persons be Banished out of the Kingdom or from any part thereof summary without a Process It is not worth the while to trouble you with the Detail of this matter But you may think it strange how the Privy Council comes to be charged with it and it is acknowledged that it was a Grievance now if it be not presently a Grievance how can it be Redressed by the King Besides either the Sentence of Banishment was just or not if it was just it cannot be quarrelled if it was unjust and illegal that is not a a Grievance that must be Redressed by the making of a new Law for the standing Law must give Relief to every thing that is against Law But here there was more Resentment of single Persons than Injury to the Nation And though the King might have slighted this Matter being stated in that manner that it was incapable to be Redressed yet he gently cover and passeth it over that none of the Grievances should want a satisfactory Answer He condescends that an Act be made that no Person be Banished without a Process which is the Law there already and in all other Civilised Nations Article 11. Grievance THat most of the Laws Enacted in the Parliament 1685 are impious and intollerable Grievances This is Answered by the Twelfth Instruction Instruct 12. YOu are to pass an Act Rescinding such Acts of the Parliament 1685 as are justly grievous to the People If this Grievance had condescended upon the particular Acts as it might â—…e King had given particular Instructions to Rescind them But this general of the most part left them uncertain what Acts were mean'd to be impious intollerable and grievous and the King being willing in every thing to satisfie his People He has subjected the whole Acts of that Parliament to the Power of this present Parliament which must convince you that
the King had no mind to evade the desires of his People or to shift them off upon the Generality of their Desires But what they plainly desire He gives a distinct Instruction to it and when they point at any thing which they do not distinctly Express He remits the whole Affair to themselves and in this Case because there was no necessity of Adjusting Narratives but only to Rescind some Acts of that Parliament therefore the King doth not Require his Commissioner to Transmit the Proposals as in many other Articles but Authorizeth him to give the Royal Assent in this Matter and in the Settling of Church Government and in Redressing of Fines and restoring of Forfaultures which were the greatest Tokens of his Intire Confidence in the Parliament and that he did not Proceed Cautiously or narrowly with them Who could have expected such unsutable Returns that some Persons should press to proceed to Votes in Matters new not offered in their Grievances without Representing to His Majesty any thing of the Matter before they were previously engaged and put the King to the necessity of a Refusal as when His Majesty had opened the Signet by His Proclamation that Law and Justice might have its course that it should have been Countermanded and stopt by a Vote of Parliament which the World must have considered as the last Effects of the highest Jealousie and Difference to the Disreputation of His Affairs and the Endangering the Common Interest But that you may have a Snatch of the Acts of that Parliament and how far our Great Men did Outvey one another to Depress the Nation and Raise the Prerogative I have set down the Second Act of Parliament by which you will see that they have not rested in the Doctrine of Passive Obedience but for what I see we own Active Obedience without Reserve and yet I am told this Act passed with very few or no contrary Votes A Declaration and Offer of Duty by the Kingdom of Scotland with an Annexation of Excise to the Crown April 28 1685. THe Estates of Parliament now Conveened by His Majesties Soveraign Authority Taking into their Consideration how the Nation hath continued now upwards of 2000 years in the unaltered Form of our Monarchical Government and uninterrupted Line of 111 Kings whose Sacred Authority and Power hath been upon all Signal Occasions so Owned and Assisted by Almighty God that Our Kingdom hath been Protected from Conquest Our Possessions Defended from Strangers Our Civil Commotions brought into Wished Events Our Laws Vigorously Executed Our Properties Legally Fixed and Our Lives Securely Preserved so that We and Our Ancestors have Enjoyed those Securities and Tranquillities which the greater and more Flourishing Kingdoms have frequently wanted Those great Blessings We Owe in the first place to Divine Mercy and in Dependance on that to the Sacred Race of Our Glorious Kings and to the Solid Absolute Authority wherewith they were Invested by the First and Fundamental Laws of Our Monarchy Nor can either Our Records or Our Experience Instance Our being Deprived of those happy Effects But when a Rebellious Party did by Commotions and Seditions Invade the Kings Sacred Authority which was the Cause of Our Prosperity yet so far hath Our Primitive Constitution and Fundamental Laws Prevailed against the Innovations and Seditions of Turbulent Men as that these Interruptions never Terminated but either in the Ruine or at least the Suppression of those who at any time did Rebel or Rise in Opposition to Our Government And since so many Ages hath Assured to Us the great Advantages that flow down to all Ranks of People from the happy Constitution of Our Monarchy and that all Our Calamities hath ever arisen from Seditious Invasions upon these Sacred Rights Therefore the Estates of Parliament for Themselves and in Name of the whole Kingdom Judge Themselves Obliged to Declare and They Do Declare to the World That they Abhor and Detest not only the Authors and Actors of all preceeding Rebellions against the Soveraign but likewise all Principles and Positions which are Contrary or Derogatory to the Kings Sacred Supream Absolute Power and Authority which none whether Persons or Collective Bodies can Participate of any manner of Way or upon any Pretext but in Dependance on Him and Commission from Him and as Their Duty formerly did Bind them to Own and Assert the Just and Legal Succession of the Sacred Line as Unalterable by any Humane Jurisdiction so now they Hold Themselves on this Occasion Obliged for Themselves and the whole Nation Represented by Them in most Humble and Dutiful Manner to Renew the Hearty and Sincere Offer of their Lives and Fortunes to Assist Support Defend and Maintain King James the 7th their present Glorious Monarch and his Heirs and Lawful Successors in the Possessions of Their Crowns Soveraignty Prerogatives Authority Dignity Rights and Possessions against all Mortals And withall to Assure all His Enemies who shall Adventure on the Disloyalty of Disobeying His Laws or on the Impiety of Invading His Rights that such shall sooner be weary of their Wickedness than they of their Duty and they firmly Resolve to give their intire Obedience to His Majesty without Reserve and to Concur against all His Enemies Foreign or Intestine and they solemnly Declare that as they are bound by Law so they are voluntarly and firmly Resolved that all of this Nation betwixt Sixty and Sixteen Armed and Provided according to their Abilities shall be in Readiness for His Majesties Service where and as oft as it shall be His Royal Pleasure to Require them And since the Excise of In-land and Foreign Commodities Granted to King Charles II. of ever blessed Memory by the 14th Act of the Parliament 1661 during all the days of his Life-time and Prorogat by the 8th Act of the Parliament 1681 for five years thereafter will shortly Terminate And the Estates of Parliament Considering the Usefulness of this Grant to support the Interest of the Crown Do as the first evidence of their Sincerity in the aforesaid Tender of their Duty humbly and unanimously offer to His most Sacred Majesty King James the VII their present Monarch and to his lawful Heirs and Successors in the Imperial Crown of Scotland The said Excise of In-land and and Foreign Commodities exprest in the said 14th Act of Parliament 1661 to be Collected in the manner Prescribed by the said 8th Act of the Parliament 1681. for ever And His Majesty and Estates of Parliament by the force of this Act have United Annexed and Incorporated and Unites Annexes and Incorporates the same to the Crown of this Realm to Remain therewith in Annexed Property in all time coming And in respect that the Alteration in the method of Collecting the In-land Excise from what it was by the Act 1661. to that prescribed by the 8th Act of the Parliament 1681. will require some time to establish it in Collection Therefore His Majesty with Consent of the Estates continues the Collection
by what hath been already clearly stated and what I shall further tell you great expectation is a mighty enemy to Contentment if there were less selfishness amongst us there would be more Satisfaction people did expect the return of the Golden Age or the beginning of the Thousand Years from this Revolution and their Impatience is like to hinder them to enjoy what they desire The King can imploy no more Actors than our Stage can hold He hath not put any Stranger nor any Scotch-man that served him abroad in any Scottish Imployment if the Nation could make a larger Fond no doubt he would be willing to entertain more persons for it 's not likely the King intends to put up any Scots-Money in his Pocket at present he hath allowed no multiplication of Offices in one person but by putting the great and lucrative Offices into Commissions there are twice as many persons imployed in this Government as ever can be instanced in former Establishments In the whole Parliament of Scotland for all this Noise there are not twenty persons as I do verily believe who are at bottom ill affected to their Majesties Service and Government but there are very many who have been seduced and have been imposed upon wholly under gross mistakes which have transported them beyond the bounds of Discretion or Duty There are persons amongst us who have their thoughts so much set upon getting into the Government and Lucrative Places of the Kingdom that they are resolved to disquiet the Government and discontent the people before they fail of their pretensions and they turn themselves into all shapes and ply every Wind to Deceive and amuse the people their influence is not so much because they are able and leading Men as that they are restless and implacable Spirits and they have gotten this ascendent over a great part of the Parliament two or three ways 1. The most part of the Parliament have been kept ignorant of the King's Instructions and there was no Artifice wanting to possess every State and Person that the King had refused Satisfaction or Redress to these points of the Grievances which were most material and I know to my experience that the Ministers and also several Members of Parliament who came up here with the loudest Complaints upon a sight of His Majesty's Instructions they were furprised and convinced and the like success may be expected throughout the whole Kingdom and Parliament after a competent time to be informed and peruse the Instructions and that they may return to their former temper and shew that affection they had for his Majesty and the deference and submission to his Management of Affairs 2. These persons who are so insatiable for preferments and places they did very dexterously start and manage an unnecessary Debate Whether or not the King was obliged by their Offer and his Acceptance of the Crown to Redress all Grievances and whatever Conclusions they were pleased to draw from them as their meaning though these be neither obvious nor exprest and albeit it be very true that the Grievances are not obligator upon the King as they are represented further than the King in his wisdom shall find the things complained upon to be truly prejudicial to the Nation and in so far as Father of the Country he is obliged to give his people relief but their Majesties were declared recognised and proclaimed King and Queen of Scotland before the Grievances were framed and so they could be no Condition or Quality of their Right but being humbly represented to the King's Majesty from the Estates to be redressed by him in Parliament his Majesty did not at all engage himself in any particular but declared in general That he would Redress every thing that was truly grievous to the Nation Now while they manage this disingenious and weak Argument Whether the King be obliged to Redress the Grievances they in the mean time have endeavoured to perswade the people that the King hath not at all done it and that he is so far from performance that both he and his Ministers denies there lies any obligation upon him so that in this Revolution the people do only observe a change of Masters but no ease of Burden or Redress of Laws now after the publishing of the Instructions this Imposture is so gross and palpable that it can no longer detain the people in ignorance 3. When the Parliament was willing to proceed according to the Instructions and to have setled their Church-Government these persons brought in always some new Motions which they did pretend to be necessarily previous as first they did pretend the Articles was a preliminary and therefore nothing could be done till that point was adjusted Next they did insinuate that it was to no purpose to settle the Church till first the State was purged and all the ill Men rendered incapable for if ill Men were permitted to come in to the Government they might easily turn the Settlement of the Church round and thereupon there was a great struggle and debate Whether Church-Government should be first settled or the State purged by an Act of Incapacities brought in by the Earl of Mortoun and it was carried The Church Government should be delayed and postponed to the purging the State which may demonstrat that these Men had more the State than the Church under their prospect Thereafter the settling of Church-Government being brought in they started a fresh Hare and managed a Debate with great earnestness that their Commissioners had not done their Duty in the offering of the Crown according to their Commission and Instructions and it was a second time brought to the Vote Whether Church-Government or the Exoneration of the Commissioners should first come in It was carried again to delay Church-Government and several days being spent upon that matter it came to nothing and was found to be pestered on groundless Malice Thereafter the Church-Government was talked of and then it was pretended that so long as the Act of Parliament stood unrepealed anent the Articles nothing could come in legally to the Parliament but from the Articles hereupon the King was pleased to make a further step and he sent down new Instructions which the Commissioner did intimat in plain Parliament bearing his Majesty's Consent that Church-Government might be settled Fines and Foresaultures considered by the Parliament either with Committees or without Committees as the Parliament pleased and in so far as concerns these points the King did pass from his Right and consented that his Officers of State should have no meddling in the matter but remitted these matters intirely to the Parliament and this Concession being publickly intimat from the Throne it was openly asserted by Lawers and others that albeit the King did pass from the Articles as to these points by an express Instruction to his Commissioner yet the Settlement could not be Legal till either the Articles were repealed or a draught brought in to the Articles