THE PUBLISHERS' PREFACE TO THIS TRANSLATION. * THE first part of the following Memoirs, or, as the reverend author modestly entitles them, "The Commentary of the Marquis of Montrose's Wars in Scotland," came first abroad, while his actions were yet but recently performed, and his unexpected defeat at Philiphaugh had not recovered the world from the amaze and consternation which the number and rapidity of his victories had occasioned. At this period, when loyalty and learning seemed to have taken their flight together from Britain, nothing could more seasonably have occurred, to convince the world, that all her sons were not equally involved in the same clouds of rebellion and barbarism. "Edinburgh: Printed by W. Ruddiman jun. and Company, for A. Kincaid and A. Donaldson, W. Gordon, and C. Wright, Booksellers in Edinburgh; and for And. Stalker, Bookseller in Glasgow. 1756." A As no person had persisted with greater obstinacy in opposition to the black designs of the covenanters than this illustrious hero, or had, with greater resolution and intrepidity, endeavoured to support the royal authority against their audacious efforts to destroy it; so it was naturally to be expected, that none would be more the object of their resentment, and the butt of their vindictive rage. Accordingly, degradation of honour, sequestration and exile, were the rewards of his steady adherence to the service of his royal master. But they did not rest here; they attacked him in a more tender part, and traduced him as devoid of faith, virtue, and religion: his noblest actions were represented as the highest crimes, and his fairest victories branded with the name of inhuman butcheries. In short, he was painted out as a monster of vice, cruelty, and barbarity; and the powers of heaven, as well as earth, were invoked, by their dire and ever ready spiritual weapons of excommunication, to avenge upon him the immagined wrongs done to these holy champions of the Lord. To vindicate the character of the Marquis from this unmerited load of detraction, and to rectify the misconceived notions which might from thence be entertained of him, now at a time when he was obliged, by the express command of his sovereign, to lay down the rank of a general, and take sanctuary among strangers and foreigners, an outcast and exile from his native country, was a duty which Dr Wishart thought incumbent upon him. The intimate connection and familiarity with which the Marquis had honoured him, gave him opportunities of being well informed of the most secret transactions; and that, joined with the high esteem which his eminent virtues justly challenged, prompted him to undertake it. The merit of this performance, if estimated from its success in the world, may be concluded tobe very great; for to it may, in a great measure, be ascribed that regard and notice which was had of Montrose, not only in France, where the proscribed queen then held her thin-attended court, and where it was first published, but likewise in Germany, and most of the northern courts of Europe, which he soon after visited. That peculiar elegance of expression, and animated description with which it abounds, soon attracted the regard of the world, and in a few years carried it through several impressions both in France and Holland. When they found the truth fairly exposed, and mankind open to its conviction, whereby their own slanderous purposes were disappointed, the cove. nanters were highly incensed, and their resentment roused afresh against the author, who before had often and long experienced its full weight, from their lawless and tyrannical exercise of ill-acquired power. He was then at the Hague with his patron Montrose, where a great number of both Scots and English nobility and gentry were attending the prince. Among these, the emissaries of the Scots covenanters were subtilly endeavouring to insinuate themselves into his favour, with a view, that, as their party had principally contributed to destroy his royal father, they might now thwart the designs and confound the counsels of the son. To attain this end, it was necessary to have those trusty counsellors and faithful servants, who had followed the fortunes of the late king, removed from about him, and all possible address was used to create in him a disgust of them. Among those, none was a greater eye-sore than Montrose, and his chaplain had his share of their displeasure; of which the noble historian of this turbulent period gives the following remarkable instance: "A learned and worthy Scotch divine, Dr Wishart, being appointed to preach before the king, they formally besought the king, that he would not suffer him to preach before him, nor to come into his presence, because he stood excommunicated by the kirk of Scotland, for having refused to take the covenant,' though it was known that the true cause of the displeasure they had against that divine was, that they knew he was author of that excellent relation of the Lord Montrose's actions in Scotland,-which made those of his Majesty's council full of indignation at their insolence; and his Majesty himself declared his being offended, by using the Marquis of Montrose |