Page images
PDF
EPUB

as much as any man, but that addition was contrary to the liberties of the church, and he thought no determination ought to be made in such matters with-22 out the consent of the clergy, at least without their being heard. The king bid him argue no more, but give his vote: so he voted, not content. Some few lords offered to argue: but the king stopped them, and commanded them to vote. Almost the whole commons voted in the negative: so that the act was indeed rejected by the majority: which the king knew; for he had called for a list of the numbers, and with his own pen had marked every man's vote: yet the clerk of register, who gathers and declares the votes, said it was carried in the affirmative. The earl of Rothes affirmed it went for the negative: so the king said, the clerk of register's declaration must be held good, unless the earl of Rothes would go to the bar, and accuse him of falsifying the record of parliament, which was capital: and in that case, if he should fail in the proof, he was liable to the same punishment: so he would not venture on that. Thus the act was published, though in truth it was rejected. The king expressed a high displeasure at all who had concurred in that opposition. Upon that the lords had many meetings: they reckoned that now all their liberties were gone, and a parliament was but a piece of pageantry, if the clerk of register might declare as he pleased how the vote went, and that no scrutiny were allowed. Upon that, Hague, the king's solicitor, a zealous man of that party, drew a petition to be signed by the lords, and to be offered by them to the king, setting forth all their grievances, and praying redress: he shewed Balmerithis to some of them, and among others to the lord

noch's trial.

Balmerinoch, who liked the main of it, but was for altering it in some particulars: he spoke of it to the earl of Rothes in the presence of the earl of Cassilis and some others: none of them approved of it. The earl of Rothes carried it to the king; and told him, that there was a design to offer a petition in order to the explaining and justifying their proceedings, and that he had a copy to shew him: but the king would not look upon it, and ordered him to put a stop to it, for he would receive no such petition. The earl of Rothes told this to Balmerinoch: so the thing was laid aside: only he kept a copy of it, and interlined it in some places with his own hand. While the king was in Scotland he erected a new bishopric at Edinburgh, and made one Forbes bishop, who was a very learned and pious man: he had a strange faculty of preaching five or six hours at a time: his way of life and devotion was thought monastic, and his learning lay in antiquity: he studied to be a reconciler between papists and protestants, leaning rather to the first, as appears by his Considerationes modesta: he was a very simple 23 man, and knew little of the world: so he fell into

several errors in conduct, but died soon after suspected of popery, which suspicion was increased by his son's turning papist. The king left Scotland much discontented, but resolved to prosecute the design of recovering the church lands: and sir Thomas Hope, a subtil lawyer, who was believed to understand that matter beyond all the men of his

s (Quam insigniter reverendo viro (Guil. Forbesio) injurii sint, qui eum Catholicum Rom. prædicant, inter alia perspi

cuum est concione publica ab eo habita Edinburgi coram rege Carolo I. an. 1633. Vit. Joh. Forbesii à Corse. p. 10.)

profession, though in all respects he was a zealous puritan, was made the king's advocate, upon his undertaking to bring all the church lands back to the crown: yet he proceeded in that matter so slowly, that it was believed he acted in concert with the party that opposed it. Enough was already done to alarm all that were possessed of the church lands: and they, to engage the whole country in their quarrel, took care to infuse it into all people, but chiefly into the preachers, that all was done to make way for popery. The winter after the king was in Scotland, Balmerinoch was thinking how to make the petition more acceptable: and in order to that he shewed it to one Dunmoor, a lawyer in whom he trusted, and desired his opinion of it, and suffered him to carry it home with him, but charged him to shew it to no person, and to take no copy of it. He shewed it under a promise of secrecy to one Hay of Naughton, and told him from whom he had it. Hay looking on the paper, and seeing it a matter of some consequence, carried it to Spotswood, archbishop of St. Andrews; who apprehending it was going about for hands, was alarmed at it, and went immediately to London, beginning his journey, as he often did, on a Sunday, which was a very odious thing in that country s. There are laws in Scotland loosely worded, that make it capital to spread lies of the king or his government, or to alienate his subjects from him. It was also made capital to know of any that do it, and not discover them: but this last was never once put in execution. The petition was thought within this act: so an order was sent down for committing lord Balmerinoch. The reason of it

t Poor malice. S.

being for some time kept secret, it was thought done because of his vote in parliament. But after some consultation, a special commission was sent down for the trial. In Scotland there is a court for the trial of peers, distinct from the jury, who are to be fifteen, and the majority determine the verdict: the fact being only referred to the jury or assize, as they call it, the law is judged by the court: and if the majority of the jury are peers, the rest may be gentlemen. At this time a private gentleman of the name of Steward was become so considerable, that he was raised by several degrees to be made earl of Traquair and lord treasurer, and was in great favour; 24 but suffered afterwards such a reverse of fortune,

that I saw him so low that he wanted bread, and was forced to beg; and it was believed died of hunger". He was a man of great parts, but of too much craft: he was thought the capablest man for business, and the best speaker in that kingdom. So he was charged with the care of the lord Balmerinoch's trial: but when the ground of the prosecution was known, Hague, who drew the petition, writ a letter to the lord Balmerinoch, in which he owned that he drew the petition without any direction or assistance from him: and upon that he went over to Holland. The court was created by a special commission: in the naming of judges there appeared too visibly a design to have that lord's life, for they were either very weak or very poor. Much pains was taken to have a jury; in which so great partiality appeared, that when the lord Balmerinoch was upon his challenges, and excepted to the earl of Dunfrise for his having said, that if he were of his

"A strange death: perhaps it was of want of meat. S.

jury, though he were as innocent as St. Paul, he would find him guilty, some of the judges said, that was only a rash word: yet the king's advocate allowed the challenge if proved, which was done. The next called on was the earl of Lauderdale, father to the duke of that title: with him the lord Balmerinoch had been long in enmity: yet instead of challenging him, he said he was omni exceptione major. It was long considered upon what the prisoner should be tried: for his hand interlining the paper, which did plainly soften it, was not thought evidence that he drew it, or that he was accessary to it: and they had no other proof against him: nor could they from that infer that he was the divulger, since it did appear it was only shewed by him to a lawyer for counsel. So it was settled on to insist on this, that the paper tended to alienate the subjects from their duty to the king, and that he, knowing who was the author of it, did not discover him; which by law was capital. The court judged the paper to be seditious, and to be a lie of the king and his government: the other point was clear, that he knowing the author did not discover him. He pleaded for himself, that the statute for discovery had never been put in execution; that it could never be meant but of matters that were notoriously seditious; that till the court judged so, he did not take this paper to be of that nature, but considered it as a paper full of duty, designed to set himself and some others right in the king's opinion; that upon the first sight of it, though he approved of the main, yet he disliked some expressions in it; that he communicated the matter to the earl of Rothes, who told the king of the design; and that, upon the king's saying he

« PreviousContinue »