all concern with the affairs of Drumbog and Bothwell, he declined to pronounce them rebellions, or to give any opinion with regard to the killing of the Archbishop; the Preses, Lord Haltoun, then told him, "that unless he would make a more ample confession, and subscribe it, he would be put to the torture." Mr. Spreull answered, "that he had been explicit, and would go no farther, and protested, that if they put him to the torture it would be illegal, and expressing his hopes that God would protect him from accusing himself or others, while under the extremity of pain."

His foot was then put into an instrument, called the Boot. The following questions were proposed to him, and at every query, the hangman gave five strokes upon the wedges, viz. "Whether he knew any thing of a plot to blow up the Abbey, and the Duke of York? Who was in the plot? Where Mr. Cargill was? and whether he would subscribe his confession?" To the former he declared his utmost ignorance, and adhered to his refusal to subscribe. The Court then ordered the old Boot to be brought, alleging that the new one which had been used was not so good. He, accordingly, underwent the torture a second time, which he bore with wonderful firmness; when the torture was over, he was carried to the prison on a soldier's back, and refused the assistance of a surgeon. On his recovery, he was served with an indictment for having wrote a petition in favour of John Murray, who was under sentence of death, for being found in arms at a Conventicle; this petition was construed into a remonstrance instead of a petition, and having acknowledged that he framed it, the Duke of York rose up and said with a frown, "Sir, would you kill the King?" Mr. Spreull, after a pause, directing himself to the Chancellor, said, "My Lord, I bless God I am no Papist, I loathe and abhor all such jesuitical, bloody, and murderous principles; neither my parents nor the Ministers I heard ever taught me such principles." A great silence followed, and many expected that Mr. Spreull would have

been immediately put in irons; after some other questions, which he declined to answer, he was remanded back to prison. On the 6th of December, he was brought back, when the diet was deserted; and, on the 10th, he was indicted for high treason, in being with the Rebels at Bothwell, and in keeping company with Messrs. John Welch and Samuel Arnot, the bloody and sacrilegious murderers of the late Archbishop of St. Andrews. Among other charges, Sir George M'Kenzie, the Lord Advocate, demanded to know from the prisoner, "if the rising at Bothwell Bridge was a rebellion?" The prisoner answered, "That that was no part of the libel." Other matters having been discussed, the Jury returned a unanimous verdict of nothing proven. Mr. Spreull expected now to get free; he was, however, detained by an order from the Council, to undergo an examination respecting his attending Conventicles. On the 14th of February 1678, he was brought before the Privy Council, when the matter was referred to his oath, but he having refused to swear, was found guilty, and fined in 500l. sterling, and sent to the Bass; where, having remained for six years, he got the appellation of Bass John.

In the beginning of the year 1681, Mr. Donald Cargill, formerly Minister of the Barony Parish of Glasgow, was apprehended and examined before the Council; and, on the 26th of February, was brought to trial before the Court of Justiciary, for being concerned in the battle of Bothwell Bridge; he was instantly found guilty, and next day executed. The spirit of persecution and oppression continued in full force during the continuance of Charles's reign. On the 31st of August 1681, an Act of Parliament was passed, ordaining a test, to be taken by all persons in offices of public trust; and so complex and intricate was this test, that it was considered to be beyond the capacity of many of those upon whom it was imposed. It was thought also to involve an approbation of the doctrine of the divine indefeisible hereditary

right of Kings, and to include a renunciation of the Covenants, and of the right to use defensive arms. This act or test, was brought into Parliament and voted in one day, although the Earl of Argyle and many others, argued that more time should be given for the consideration of a matter so important.

Several persons, particularly Clergymen, having refused to take the test, were subjected to persecution. The Earl of Argyle, when it was proposed to him, subjoined, with the Duke of York's approbation, a short explication, which was afterwards the cause of his trial before the Court of Justiciary, in the issue of which, he was found guilty of the crime of treason. A short time after the verdict was pronounced, he found means to escape from the Castle of Edinburgh, and, having reached London, he escaped to Holland. In the interim, sentence was pronounced, adjudging him to be a traitor; appointing his name and honours to be extinct; ordaining his arms to be torn and reversed; and confiscated his lands and estates.

In the beginning of the year 1685, the King was seized with a sudden fit, and, after languishing a few days, died on 6th February, in the 55th year of his age; his disorder not being well understood, has been attributed to poison. James, Duke of York, the King's brother, who was a Papist, was immediately declared King. Although he took the coronation oath, he went openly to mass, and displayed such a disposition for Popery, that he sent an agent to Rome, and made submission to the Pope.

The

Under these circumstances, fresh disturbances arose. Duke of Monmouth, Charles's natural son, enjoying the protection of William, Prince of Orange, concerted with Argyle the plan of an invasion. In pursuance of this project, Argyle sailed from Holland, on the 2d of May, and, by favourable winds, was soon carried into Scotland; he landed on the Isle of Mull, and from thence passed to Kintyre. Having summoned in vain the people to rise in support of their violated privileges, the greatest force he could collect amounted only

to 2500 men. The Privy Council, judging his pretensions, embodied the Militia and increased the Regular Forces. Argyle, being now surrounded on all sides with difficulties, endeavoured to force his way into the Low Country; from Leven he came to Dumbarton, where he found his provisions nearly exhausted, and his followers gradually reduced; he, therefore, shaped his course towards Galloway; crossing the Clyde, he arrived at Renfrew, where he and his few adherents, in the dark, were misled into a bog. Confusion and flight was the consequence of this disaster, and the Earl, returning towards the Clyde, was pursued and seized by two peasants. He was first carried to Glasgow, then to Edinburgh, when, after many indignities, he was beheaded. upon his former sentence.

Monmouth, having matured his scheme of invasion, left Amsterdam on the 24th of May; when, after considerable obstruction by contrary winds, he landed near Lime, in Dorsetshire, on the 9th of June, proclaiming the King to be a tyrant, a Popish usurper, and ascribing to him the poisoning of the late King. Having collected some followers, he hazarded his fortune at the battle of Sedgemoor, when his forces were completely routed with great slaughter. Having fled from the field of battle, he concealed himself in a ditch, but was discovered, and soon afterwards beheaded.

The persecutions for religious opinions were carried on during this reign with redoubled vigour, all ranks, ages, and sexes, being subjected to them without even inquiry into the causes. Two women were tied to stakes in the flood, and drowned near Wigton; and three men were shot at Polmadie, near Glasgow, for refusing to pray for the King by name. These severities are probably without a parallel, excepting the counterpart of the same plot against the reformation of religion, which took place in France, in October 1685. Louis XIV. after having long harassed the Protestants, revoked the Edict of Nantz, by which the free exercise of religion had been permitted.

In consequence of the persecutions exercised against the unhappy Protestants, France was deserted by above half a million of her most useful subjects, who carried with them, besides large sums of money, those arts and manufactures which had chiefly tended to enrich that country. Of these refugees, near 50,000 settled in Britain; and by the tragical accounts of the tyranny which they had experienced, revived among the Protestants in this country, all their former horror and animosity against Popery.

The situation of Scotland, at this period, was very deplorable; most part of the Presbyterian Ministers were either executed or banished, or had withdrawn themselves; of the laity, the gentry and heritors were either worn out by death, forfeitures, and burthens, or under banishment; and many of the common people were cut off, transported to the plantations, or mewed up in prison; the rest were borne down by the soldiers and time-servers, while a great number of foreign Priests and Jesuits inundated the country. On the 12th of February 1687, the King issued a proclamation, which he called the first indulgence; by this, the Papists were allowed the full exercise of their religion, and the Presbyterians allowed to meet in private houses, but discharged from meeting in barns or meeting-houses, or in the fields. On the 24th of February, the Council thanked the King for his proclamation, and approved of giving liberty to the Papists; the Archbishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow joined issue with the Council; the Duke of Hamilton, however, and the Earls of Panmure and Dundonald, would not give their approbation; the two latter were, therefore, removed from the Council, but the Duke was of too much consequence to be disobliged.

The King soon issued out a second and a third proclamation, by the last of which, he, "by his sovereign authority, prerogative royal, and absolute power, suspended, stopped and disabled all penal and sanguinary laws made against any former conformity to the religion established by law." This liberty