to Dunnottar castle, he proceeded against it, and, failing to seduce the earl Marischall from the cause of his country, he burned the barn yards, outhouses, and destroyed whatever fire could destroy. Returning to Stonehaven, he committed to the flames the tolbooth, at that time the public granary, filled with corn and bear, plundered a ship in the harbour, and burned her, together with all the poor men's only means of livelihood, the fisher boats, and, in spite of the entreaties of the inhabitants, old men and women, some with children at their feet, others with infants in their arms, weeping and howling, and praying, for God's cause, to be saved from remediless destruction, the relentless ruffian, heedless of the sufferings of so many innocent, unoffending individuals, whom he was depriving of shelter in an inclement season, returned no answer to their supplications, but left the town a heap of uninhabitable ruins, and the houseless wretches without a covert or a home. He then wreaked his vengeance on Fetteresso, and, not content with having ruined it in the same barbarous manner, he fired the pleasant park, and wantonly butchered all the hart and deer, hind and roe, as they fled affrighted at the flaming trees. Advancing southward to Brechin, the people ran at his approach, and lodging their most valuable property in the tower, left the town to his mercy. The houses were rifled, and sixty burned to the ground. It is disgusting to follow the track of wanton and uniform barbarity, but it is necessary to exhibit, in their native deformity, the atrocities of ruffians, the mischievous nature, and woful effects of whose crimes we are apt to forget, when we hear of the principal perpetrator only under the imposing name of a hero.

In the month of January, 1645, the parliament met, to consider the alarming state of the country; but Lauderdale, the president, having died during the recess, Lindsay, a person not well qualified for carrying through the business. of the session, was unhappily chosen, and much of the time wasted in violent and contentious debate; and when the necessities of the state called for united and strenuous exertion, the members allowed their private animosities to distract them. The money which had been voted, it was found

difficult to raise. In order to make the excise effectual, the collectors were allowed a tenth of the proceeds for the trouble of levying it; and for enforcing prompt payment of the tax appropriated to the support of the army, it was enacted, that they should account for their intromissions upon an appointed day, on pain of being compelled to pay the whole. Montrose, Huntly, Carnwath, and Traquair were forfeited, their lands exposed to sale at ten years' amount of the yearly rent, and the public faith engaged to warrant the purchase, and protect the persons of the purchasers. An army for subduing the insurrection, was ordered to be levied, and the whole fencible men in the kingdom mustered and trained; but the counties, either overawed or undecided, remained in a state of inactivity, which rendered it necessary to pass an act for exacting five hundred merks for every dragoon, and one hundred pound Scots, for every foot soldier, who had not been raised, or who had deserted.

But the exertions of the general assembly, which had been summoned to hold an extraordinary meeting at the same time with the estates, were more successful in rousing the spirit of the country. They first addressed a free admonition to the parliament respecting their dissensions, the impunity their internal enemies enjoyed, and the facility with which convicted traitors had been passed over, all which, they said, saddened the hearts of their friends, and weakened their hands, while it emboldened the disaffected, and encouraged the natural unwillingness of the people to bear the burdens necessarily imposed for the public good; they therefore exhorted them to execute exemplary punishment

* In the act for collecting the excise, notwithstanding the public pressure, there was a charitable clause, to prevent the excruciating spectacle of poverty or old age, being rouped to the door, or stripped of their last rags to pay taxes, one half of which never reaches the exchequer. " And where they," the commissioners for the excise," shall finde any persons, that in regard of their poverty, are not able to pay all bygone excise, the estates ordains sick parts and portions of the bygone excise, to be tane frome these poor persons as they are able to give," and declares the certificate of the magistrates or session, sufficient to infer liberation, &c. Scots Acts, Thomson's Edition, folio, vol. vi. p. 162

upon such as had joined in arms, or secretly aided the unnatural and cruel enemy, now deluging the country with blood, that the hesitating might be confirmed by their decided conduct; to speedily and unanimously, by all lawful and possible ways, endeavour to extirpate the invading barbarians, and wipe away the reproach, shame, and dishonour put upon the nation by the vilest of men. "We are confident of your honours' conscience and care," say they, in the conclusion of their spirited paper, "only, we exhort you in the Lord, to unite your spirits, and accelerate your counsels and endeavours. Be of good courage, and behave yourselves valiantly, for our people, and for the cities of our God. Arise! and the Lord be with you!" They also addressed a solemn and seasonable warning to the noblemen, barons, gentlemen, boroughs, ministers, and commons of Scotland, and to the armies within and without the kingdom. The country was at this time suffering under the three severest judgments which can afflict any land, war, pestilence, and famine. They therefore, as watchmen, durst not be silent, their duty required them to show the causes of God's displeasure, and the duties of the people under his chastening rod. After repelling the idea, that rebellion or disloyalty, slanderously imputed to the solemn league and covenant, could be considered as among these, they state the real procuring causes. For the transgression of Judah is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. God is thereby showing to great and small in this land, their work and their transgression. But while they press private and individual repentance for private iniquity, they consider the national sins which have provoked national chastisement, as-the selfishness, and want of public spirit among the nobility, gentry, and barons; their studying their own private interest more than that of the commonwealth; and their defrauding and oppressing the poor and the needy, because it was in the power of their hand to do it. The timeservers who had crept into the ministry, men who have been secretly haters of the power of godliness and of mortification, who have not renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, whose hearts have not been right before God, nor stedfast in his covenant-but 2 A

VOL. IV.

above all 1st, God hath sent his sword, to punish the contempt, neglect, and disesteem of the glorious gospel. 2d, To avenge the quarrel of his broken covenant; for, besides the defection of many, under the prelates, from the first national covenant, a sin not forgotten by God, their later vows and covenants had also been foully violated, by not contributing their uttermost assistance to this cause with their estates and lives; by not only not bringing to justice, but even countenancing those, who, guilty themselves, have also led on others to shed the brethren's blood; and particularly, by the neglect of promoting a real personal reformation in themselves and in those under their charge. 3d, Great unthankfulness for God's great mercies, filleth up the cup. And 4th, Presumptuously sending out their armies, and undertaking great services, without repentance and making their peace with God. The primary duties, which a due sense of these national transgressions imposed, were humiliation, repentance, faith, amendment of life, and fervent prayer, but there were also others which the times required. "It ought never to be forgotten," add they, "that the present cause and controversy, is none other than what hath been formerly professed before God and the world. The reformation and preservation of religion, the defence of the honour and happiness of the king, and of the authority of parliament, together with the maintenance of our laws, liberties, lives, and estates; and as the cause is the same, the danger is greater from the popish, prelatical, and malignant faction, who have openly displayed their banners in the three kingdoms, and threaten with Irish rebels and troops, to oppress poor Scotland, already scourged by that "hellish crew," under the conduct of the excommunicated and forfeited earl of Montrose, and Alaster Macdonald, a papist and an outlaw, who exercise such barbarous, unnatural, horrid, and unheard of cruelty, as is above expression; and from the secret malignants and discovenanters, who slight or censure the public resolutions of the kirk or state, slander the covenant, confound the king's honour and authority, with the abuse and pretence thereof, and commend or excuse the enormities of

James Graham,

and his accomplices. For such a cause, and against such dangers, they called upon every man, who was not regardless of his religion, law, liberty, or country, who was not dead to all natural affection for wives, children, or friends, or insensible to the preservation of whatsoever was dearest under the sun, to act now or never, stretching himself to, yea, beyond his power. The crisis allowed of no dallying with the enemy, no half measures, the alarm was abroad, and cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord. negligently, or dealeth falsely in the covenant of God. The ministers were exhorted to stir up others, by free and faithful preaching, and if any of them should fall into the hands of the enemy, to choose affliction rather than sin. The armies were admonished to beware of ungodliness and worldly lusts, but to live soberly and righteously, avoiding all scandalous conduct, and renouncing all confidence in their own strength, skill, valour, and number, trusting only to the God of the armies of Israel; and the people were reminded, that as the enemy could not be suppressed without a competent number of forces, and the forces could not be kept together without maintenance, nor maintenance be had without public burdens, and although these burdens were, for the present, not joyous but grievous, yet it would be found no grief of heart afterwards, even unto the common sort, that they had given some part of their necessary livelihood, for assisting so good a work. But it was far from their thoughts, that the pinching of some should make others superfluously abound, it was rather to be expected of the richer sort, that they would spare and defalk, [retrench,] not only the pride and superfluity, both of apparel and diet, but also a part of their lawful allowance in all these things, to contribute the same as a free-will-offering, besides what they are obliged to by law or public order; and after reminding them of the danger and disgrace of disunion or neutrality, they close in a high, animating strain, calculated to excite contempt of difficulties, and the noblest enthusiasm in a cause which had

So the covenanters, after his forfeiture and excommunication, always styled the marquis of Montrose.