there is no retrieving For in what sad condition had Esther and the poor Jews been if Haman had conquered Mordecai And it had been better for Haman he had let Mordecai alone Upon which Considerations it were very advisable for Societies if they be any ways split in Parties to take the Wise Man's Advice before they Accuse or Prosecute and to consider three things First their Strength whom they Accuse Secondly the Enterprize and Merit of the Cause And Thirdly the Person or Persons they have to do withal and that in respect of their Superiours Equals or Inferiours c. For as no good Musick so no good Government or Society without Concord which cannot well be without bearing of Injuries And Epicurus said That Wise Men will bear with all Injuries Ardua res haec est where the Publick is concerned I will therefore conclude this Point with a Sentence of Seneca's when in an Epistle to his Friend he was condemning Anger and Choler he adds a But. But says he in case of exemplary and prostitute dissolution of Manners when Clodius shall be preferred and Cicero rejected when Loyalty shall be broken upon the Wheel and Treason shall sit Triumphant upon the Bench. Is not this a Subject to move the Choler of any Vertuous Man Now lest I should weary you too much with a simple Discourse yet knows it is to my Friend only I come to satisfie so much your Curiosity as is in my Power without Reflection or Byass Nam pacis mihi cura temendae Illud amicitiae Sanctum venerabile nomen Sed Dat veniam corvus vexat Censura Columbis Hoc Impedit c. As for the Bishop of Galloway being first in view In the Year 1686. The late King James having sent the Earl of Morray his High Commissioner to Scotland with Instructions to Repeal the Penal Laws against Papists the aforesaid Bishop stood firm to the Protestant Religion and though very infirm went every day to the Meetings of Parliament to give his Testimony against the Courses then in hand for which there was Evil Designs against him but that God removed him in great Age and Peace a little time after the Adjourning of that Parliament He being a Pious Hospital and Generous Man left his Lady being upwards of Eighty Years old but poor His Eldest Daughter was married to one Mr. Patrick Smith Advocate many Years before his Decease His Second Daughter was married to a Parson and the Third was Run away with a little time before his Death by the aforesaid Mr. Duncan Robertson without the Bishop's or any other Friend's knowledge the said Robertson judging her to be a great Prize the other two Daughters being married and she being then the only Child in Familia The aforesaid Mr. Duncan Robertson was a High-land Gentleman's Son bordering upon Athol and Lochquhaber bred up something to the Law at Edinburgh became a Sollicitor that way and practised that Employ when he Run away with and married the aforesaid Bishop's Daughter When the last Earl of Argile was forfeited in those days and his Children scattered here and there and the Estate being sequestred by the then Publick Authority and all Argile's Officers and Friends in his vast Dominions being laid aside he the said Robertson what by Money and Interest he made in those days stept into the Clerkship of the Sheriff-ship of Argile but upon the late Happy Revolution Argile being restored to his Estate the said Robertson was justly excluded from the said Office of Clerkship the same being Heritable in the Earl of Argile and his Families Gift past memory of Man The Lord Viscount Stair he is the Representative of the ancient Family of the Dalrymples of Stair a Barony in the County of Kyle in the West of Scotland he being educated in and endowed with all manner of Learning and Sciences of our Horizon was received into the faculty of Advocates in the year 1648. having before had when but very young a considerable Post in the Army verifying Ovid's Phrase in him Pace data terris ad civilia c. In the year 1650. he was made choice of by the then Parliament to be Clerk or Secretary to the Committee of the Parliament and Ministers went for King Charles II. to Holland where he not only gave great Satisfaction by his behaviour to the Committee of Parliament and all concerned in the said Transaction but likewise King Charles took particular notice of him c. Upon the Restauration of King Charles II. he was Created Knight and Baronet and advanced to be one of the Lords of Session at which time he began to observe and write the Decisions of the Lord of the Session and afterwards digested them with former and after Observations of his own and others in a System or Body these being Presidents or Rules to Decree by afterwards in parallel Cases In the year 1662. The Presbyterian Government being abolished and the Episcopal Government established in Scotland there was a Declaration formed abjuring the Presbyterian Government all its consequences and all the Oaths formerly taken Which Declaration he not being clear to take left the Bench travelled abroad and coming to Court after his Travels King Charles Excused and Restored him to his Place again dispatching a Letter to the Lords of the Session signifying that Sir James Dalrimple of Stair having given him full satisfaction in relation to the said Declaration required them to receive him again to the Bench without signing the same Thus I find it marked in the Books of Sederunt of the Lords of the Session Anno 1664. Then it was that he began to compose a System of the Civil Law intermixt with the Law of Scotland and Practises and Presidents of that Soveraign Court which makes the Law intelligible and known to all the King's Subjects there who can read English When Sir John Gilmor being then President of the Session was called up to Court to draw up the Contract or Articles of Marriage between the Duke and Dutchess of Monmouth the Lord Stair was chosen vice Praeses of the Session as he was several times afterwards when Sir John Gilmor turned infirme And all along when the said Lord Stair was a single Lord of the Session and sitting by turns on the Bench in the outer house where most of the Cases and Processes are heard and decreed in the first instance by a single Lord and where the Judges as to their parts Judgment Justice or Injustice are mostly known having none other of the Lords Votes to interfere with their Judgment He had the greatest Character of Dispatch and Justice of any Man that ever sat upon that Bench all Men being desirous to have their Cases brought and tried before him In the year 1670. he was one of the Lords who went up to Court about the Union designed then between England and Scotland at which time Sir John Gilmore the then President of the Session died and he was advanced to be President of the Session Upon this step some envied him The Lord President
was sent for to Court in March 1676. to have some differences composed when he was offered to be Chancellour which he declined But seeing great Men turning into Factions and fearing the thing which came afterwards to pass intend to go abroad and to desert the Bench In Winter 1679. The Duke of York being sent to Scotland 't was thought by advice of the Duke of Lauderdale for his Safety the President would not adjourn the Session to meet him upon the Road towards Edinburg in Procession with all the Lords of Session as was expected and as most of the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland did giving for his reason in his Speech when he and the rest of the Lords of Session went in their formalities to wait upon the Duke as a Prince of the Blood at the King's Palace of Holyroodhouse the next day after his arrival that the Session could not adjourn themselves being a Constituted Soveraign Court instituted by King and Parliament without the King and Parliament which gave offence as did also another Expression in his said Speech against Popery and Bigotry the Duke then mask'd and not going publickly to Mass In the Spring 1681. the Duke of Rothes Chancellor dying when there was a Commission given by King Charles to the Duke of York to be his High Commissioner for Scotland 't was mightily talked then that the Lord President would be made Chancellor But in that Parliament 1681. the designing Party of the Nobility and Clergy flattering the Duke of York that all would be as he wished matters lookt with a very bad aspect the President could expect no good Yet as God said to the Prophet that there were 7000 in Israel who had not bowed their Knees to Baal there was some of the Clergy many of the Nobility and most of the Gentry who did fore-see the Torrent they laid aside their Private Heats and Emulations joined Hands to stop the Current and by Plurality of Votes though some things did pass current in that Parliament before that time would have been prevented if some Men had not been lull'd asleep they did stop more mischief For the President had drawn up a Test for preservation of Religion Liberty and Property too long to be inserted here made a Speech in Parliament to that purpose and though seconded by very many was thrown out but some of the then Court-Party drew up another Test to their purpose which was carried the very next Morning into the Articles and past current there At the Meeting of the Parliament that Morning the Court Test was presented and read whereupon the Duke of Hamilton the Earl of Argile Haddington c. The Bishop of Dunkell Bruce the Lord Stair President Sir George Lockhart Sir John Cunningham and many others of the several States stood up to oppose the said Test but would not do and all they could gain by the Arguments used was to get the Confession of Faith made concerning the Protestant Religion mentioned in King James the Sixth's Acts of Parliament insert in their Test The inserting of which Confession of Faith the Intriguing Party then not understanding the thing being fond to pass their own Test with any quality without Examination was the very thing made some of the Bishops Nobility and Gentry stand firm against taking away the Penal Laws in the Parliament 1686. They and all the Members of that Parliament having taken the said Test But when the Bishops and others of the then Court-Party after the Adjourning of the Parliament that Evening had met together and considered what they had done in Voting the said Whiggish Confession of Faith as they called it then and procured the Royal Assent thereto went in a Body to the Duke of York and exclaimed against the Lord Stair President as the only Man who had wheedled them in the matter by surprize but were told the thing could not be helped then being it was past the Royal Assent but that the Contrivers should be Animadverted upon and in some few days that Parliament being adjourned and the President in disgrace he retired to the Country sent his Son Sir John Dalrymple now Master of Stair to the Duke to signifie that seeing his Father was not pleasing to his Royal Highness he intended to go to Court and give up his Commission to the King his Master who gave it to him Upon the Delivery of which Message the Duke of York being surprized dispatched Coll. Graham then his Privy Purse Post to the King to give Account of the Lord President 's Behaviour which was the occasion the President had no Access to the King when he went to Court but the King desired to tell him that he might live at home privately under his Protection Upon which Assurance he went to his Country House in Scotland did not live there long without an Alarm which obliged him to repair privately to Edinburgh to advise his Safety nor was he long there when there was a Warrant to seize him upon which he went incognito to Holland For certainly his Fate had been the same which was the late Argile's if he had staid at home when in Holland there were Ruffians sent to seize him but by Providence made his escape to corners diverting himself there with the Conversation of the Schoolmen and Scholars of the two Famous Universities of Leyden and Vtricht and then writ a System of Natural Philosophy His Lady was harrass'd and forced to fly to Holland also His Houses made a Receptacle of Souldiers His Heritable Office taken from him and his Tenants spoiled The then Government raised Process of Treason several times against him But they could not reach his Estate by all the stretches of Law were made In the Year 1687. King James sent him a Remission to Holland which he slighted judging himself guilty of no Crime deserving a Remission and being safe under the Protection of the Prince of Orange and the States of Holland rested satisfied In November 1688. He the said President came over with the Prince of Orange now our Gracious King His Majesty being pleased to communicate his Resolutions to him as a Man fit to give and keep Counsel Sir George Lockhart being President of the Session when the King came over but being unfortunately murdered in March 1689. by a base Ruffian for pronouncing an Unjust Sentence against him as he alledged though no such thing my Lord Stair was re-established in the President 's Chair again In the Year 1690. he is created Viscount of Stair Lord Dalrymple and Glenluce And though this hath been an Age where meaner Men were ashamed to serve God in their Families I will add this one good Quality more to him that he besides his Private Devotion was never a day in the worst of Times but he read the Scripture and prayed himself twice in his Family were there never so
great or many strangers present which might be a Reflection in these days but I hope not now and to tell the truth I dare give no worse Character of him As for his Behaviour in Matters of State these are Matters I do not meddle with let him put his misbehaviour in Publick who will venture to do it if they can but I judge it will puzzle any to do it and Rational Men will Judge that he who Rules his Family best at home is the fittest to Rule in Publick and I pray God long may such Men Rule amongst us I will not say but the Lord Viscount Stair is envied by some People for his Parts and growing Greatness but that should be no Argument with Rational good Men being that mens Vertues ought not to be accounted their Crimes And I believe he may say in his Old Age Whose Ox or whose Asse have I taken The Master of Stair is the foresaid Viscount's Eldest Son liberally Educated and bred to the Law being upon his Travels in the time of the Dutch War he and one Ramsay Son of Sir Andrew Ramsay of Abbots-Hall being intimate Companions happened to be at Chatham and as I am informed preserved one of the King's Men of War from being blown up by the Dutch with the hazard of their own Lives for which brave Action when they were but very young King Charles Knighted them before he knew who they were thus I heard it In the Year 1672. Sir John was admitted after his Tryals to be an Advocate which Employ he followed for several Years being of the first Rank In the Year 1683. when the said Viscount his Father was forc'd to abscond in Holland as is said before the Laird of Claverhouse afterwards Viscount Dundee having the Command of the Army which was sent to the West Country to Spoil and Dragoon the Dissenting Party not without our Scots Bishops consent did attempt to possess himself of the Office of the Baily of Regality of the Lordship of Glenluce which did Heritably belong to the said Sir John and the Viscount of Stair his Father Sir John now Master of Stair by Creation of his Father Lord Baron and Peer of the Realm did oppose the Lord Dundee and beat him off for which he was convened before the Council and fined in 500l which he paid In the Year 1684. The said Master was seized at his own house when his Lady was just to lye in and made Prisoner being suspected it seems by the then Government to have Correspondence from Holland and to have carried on intrigues against the Government and being brought to Edinburgh was carried from the Palace of Holyrood-house where he was examined by the Ministers of State as a Trophe it seems to disgrace him between the common Soldiers along the publick Streets to the common Prison more than half a Miles distance was kept close Prisoner there for several Months not knowing for what Crime but as himself then said for the Original sin of the Father At last after many Petitions he had the favour granted him by the Council to be enlarged to the Castle Prison where he lay a long time till the Government was ashamed they could not fix a Crime upon him set him at Liberty In the Year 1687. there being none of the Advocates but these who were advanced to be Lords of the Session for their then Zeal and Loyalty to the Cause in hand fit to be the King's Advocate the Court hoping to gain him to their Party and to wheedle his Father over from Holland made the Master King's Advocate that being the time of the Toleration and during a whole year he continued King's Advocate there was none Prosecuted to death but one Man upon the score of Nonconformity The Court perceiving the Master's behaviour in that Post that year and intending to take another course by the Dispensing Power and finding him not to be a fit tool for their purpose brought in Sir George Mckhenzie again to be King's Advocate and they degraded the Master to be Justice Clerk then they found out he was the Man saved the Bishop of Ross in Anno 1686. by advising him to appeal from the Bishops Court to the Parliament Upon the Revolution the Earl of Perth then Chancellor fearing the just indignation of the enraged Mob taking his flight the said Master and some others of the Privy Councellors taking care first of keeping things in order and distributing so far as was then in their power the Government in the best hands went up to wait upon the Prince of Orange in December 1688. concurred in making the address to the Prince for taking on the Administration of the Government assisted in the Convention 1689. as a chosen Member thereof was the Man chiefly with the indefatigable pains and endeavours of the late Duke of Hamilton chosen President of the Convention who concerted the Resolution and stated the vote of forfeiting King James and Proclaiming his Majesty and the late Queen King and Queen of Scotland The Master of Stair in conjunction with the Earl of Argile and Sir James Montgomry were voted and sent up Commissioners from the Three Estates of Scotland to make offer of the Crown to their Majesties when our Gracious King was pleased to make the Master his Advocate again and Lord Melvil Secretary of State c. The foresaid Convention being turned into a Parliament The Duke of Hamilton made Lord High Commissioner some People who pretended great matters for Religion Liberty and Property being displeased it seems that they were not advanced instantly to some places of high dignity and trust in the Government recoiled And then it was that we unhappily turned into Parties which put the Subjects in a ferment made our Proceedings uneasie ever since at home and makes the King's Affairs sometimes to be retarded both here and abroad thus by our Divisions giving too much encouragement to the disaffected Party In the Winter 1690. The Master of Stair was advanced to be conjunct Secretary of State with the Earl of Melvil who upon the Revolution was made sole Secretary of State for Scotland as aforesaid which he did merit as formerly a great Sufferer and always a true common weals Man In the year 1692. Mr. James Johnson was made Conjunct Secretary of State with the Master of Stair and the Earl of Melvil sent to Scotland to be Lord Privy Seal And as to these Three Persons they continue in the same Stations and Offices still The Earl of Broadalban who was formerly called Sir John Campbell of Glenorchy an ancient family in the Highlands a Cadent of the family of Argile when he married the late Earl of Argile's Sister Countess Dowager of the late Earl of Caithnes who died without issue Male he the said Sir John was created Earl of Caithnes in the year 1677. or 1678. and brought several debts upon the Earldom of Caithnes and made use of force to possess himself of the Estate which
created him Enemies afterwards an Heir Male and of Tail appearing to the deceased Earl of Caithnes he the said Sir John Campbell took a new Patent to be Earl of Brodalban In the year 1677. by order of Council he sent a double Regiment of his Tenants and Vassals in conjunction with the Marquis of Athol Earl of Perth and several other Noblemen and Gentlemen to the West Country which was then called the Highland Host there was a Commission of the Council sent along with them to try the Dissenters this created the Earl of Broadalban Enemies also Upon the Revolution he stood out but being convinced of his errour as to the alteration from that of Arbitrary and dispotick power to that of a mild merciful and peaceable Government tracing the true Constitution and fundamental Laws of the Nation he joined forces and offered his Service to the Government by bringing in of the Highland Clans and Rebels by fair means or necessary stratagems to make the effects answer the end As for the Glenco-men the truth is hic labor hoc opus est to describe them without reflection upon my Country-men which I would willingly avoid but the real truth is they were a branch of the Mc. Donnels who were a brave couragious People always seated amongst the Campbells who I mean Glenco-men are all Papists if they have any Religion were always counted a People given to Rapine and Plunder or Sorners as we call it and much of a piece with your Highway-men in England Several Governments designed to bring them to condign Punishment but their Purses it seems found them out Protectors and their Country was inaccessable to any small Parties and though I dare not approve of the method taken in January and February 1692. by killing them under trust and in cold Blood yet at the same time they deserved the heavy hand of Justice in a regular and legal manner which would have made their Neighbours live in more peace and tranquility I do remember when I first heard then of the matter I said to some great Persons that the best method would be to make these Men Prisoners and send them abroad to be Soldiers or to the Plantations and wishes it had been so Now that I have given you a Historical account of these Persons in as brief terms as I could to make you understand the Men and the relation of matters afterwards I begin again with the Bishop of Galloway Mr. Robertson and the Lord Viscount Stair's affair The Viscount of Stair is by his own his Author's and Predecessors Charters Heretable Bailly or Judge of the Royalty or Regality of the Lordship of Glenluce within the Bishoprick of Galloway for which the Bishop is obliged and was constantly in use to pay him 20l. sterling yearly of fee or Sallary in Money or value besides the perquisites of the Court which is allowed to the Deputy always The Bishop of Galloway died as was mentioned The three Daughters and their Husbands did contend about proving the Will of the Deceased the Bishop's Widow being poor and detained from what effects the Bishop left by the contention and tedious unnatural Law Debates of her Children Mr. Hugh Dalrymple the Lord Stair's Son being Factor for uplisting of his Father's Rents the time of his Father's Exile as abovesaid and the Viscount himself likewise after his return home did support her with Money that she might not starve during the Law debates for which they took security both from her self and Mr. Patrick Smyth her Eldest Daughter's Husband to repay them After long and litigious Debates the Lords of the Session pronounced a Decreet in favour of Mr. Patrick Smyth being found to have the best right and who supported the Mother by his Credit This Mr. Duncan Robertson encouraged by some Persons not well inclined to the Lord Stair to be sure presented a Petition to the Parliament upon the 3d day of June last complaining that the said Viscount had pronounced an unjust Sentence against him It would be needless and not to your purpose to repeat all the said Complaint and the great and long Debates followed thereupon so I only give you the substance and the most material points in the Complaint viz That the President in the Debate betwixt the said Robertson and Mr. Patrick Smith should have done Injustice by making up himself or by his Influence a Debate or Minutes and Interloquitor subjoyned thereto upon the 29th of July 1692. and signed the same privately in the Vacation 2. That after there was a Decree pronounced in favour of Mr. Smith against Mr. Robertson against which Decree Mr. Robertson gave in a Bill of Suspension upon which Bill the Clerk of the Bills refused to write a Sist by the President 's Order thereby stopping the ordinary course of the Law 3. That the President Transacted during the Dependence of the Plea with Mr. Smith as Executor to the Bishop for a Debt due by the President to the late Biship and had an Ease from Mr. Patrick of the Debt and took Allowance of 20l. Sterling of Baily Fee which the Bishop would never have paid The Answer made to the first was That if Mr. Robertson or any other could prove against the President that he did sign any Interloquitor or Debates privately but what was the meaning of the rest of the Lords in praesentia as well as his own Opinion he were most unjustifiable but nothing at all thereof was proved On the contrary one Smyth a Witness adduced by Robertson himself Deposed that the King's Advocate did Dictate them who is a Man of great Honour and Integrity and owned the same The Clerk also deposed the same and Mr. John Frank Robertson's own Advocate Deposed that the Point mentioned in these Minutes was stated by the President which should have been debated Mr. Robertson's Advocates declined to Debate and Mr. Patrick Smith craving a Decreet and that the same was pronounced in Mr. Frank's own hearing and others so not done privately Two of the Lords of Session Halcraig and Crosrig deposed to the same purpose and one of these Lords doth exactly remember that before the Cause was called the Lords Resolved that the Parties should Debate the very Points mentioned in the minutes which was stated truly by the President as all the Lords resolved And it is further cleared the aforesaid Interloquitor being res gesta known to and authorized by all the Lords by a subsequent Decreet of Suspension which followed thereupon the first of February 1693. It was answered to the Second That the Clerk of the Bills James Nicolson did refuse to receive or write upon the Bill of Suspension because Mr. Robertson was litigious and after two Decreets in foro he offered a third Bill and Mr. Patrick Smith having found Caution or Surety to Relieve Mr. Duncan Robertson and his Wife of any Process might be intended against them as Executors to the Bishop which was the