The defeat of the expedition, and the insurrection in the west, filled the Committee of Estates at Edinburgh with dismay and perplexity. Many of them were not very eager in the cause—all of them were anxious to save their estates from probable confiscation—and many were threatened by the ministers with excommunication. Under the influence, therefore, of terror, selfishness, and ghostly intimidation, their hearts sunk within them, more especially as the clergy threatened to call in the schismatic English army to their aid; and, after some hesitation, the greater number of them agreed to relinquish all attempts at resistance, and dispatched the Lairds of Lee and Humbie to the western insurgents, then advanced as far as Hamilton, on their way to the capital, with proposals for a cessation of arms, and to learn their demands with a view to a treaty. From the reproach of temporizing and cowardice, to which this committee was justly obnoxious, Lord Lanerick must be exempted. He strenuously urged fidelity to their engagement and the trust reposed in them; but all in vain; and, yielding to the torrent, he survived this manifestation of imbecility among his colleagues, to establish, on a future occasion, his claims to honour, to loyalty, and to patriotism, by perishing, sword in hand, on the battle-field, as his brother did on the scaffold—thus sealing, by the sacrifice of their fortunes and by their blood, their entire devotion to their King and country.
Monro, with his detachment, having, after the battle of Preston, marched towards the east coast, reached Berwick, where he received notice, from the Committee of Estates, of the insurrection in the west, and orders to join them at Colbrandspath; and these they issued after having resolved to abandon the engagement. He marched to Colbrandspath, but found not there the promised meeting; and after waiting a day or two, he received fresh orders to advance to Haddington, where Lanerick, Crawfurd, and Glencairn met him with some troops that had escaped from the fight of Preston. On a master of all the forces at Gladsmuir, they were found to be about 3,000 horse and 2,000 infantry. By this time the whigamores had carried their raid as far as Edinburgh, whence the Committee of Estates had fled; and, when Monro’s force had advanced to Musselburgh, they descried some hundreds of the whig troopers who bad been sent to that neighbourhood to reconnoitre, but who retreated after losing a few prisoners taken at the bridge.
The whigamores were organized in and about Edinburgh, under old Leven and David Leslie. Monro offered to drive them out, but the majority of the committee overruled this course; while, on the other hand, the ministers and insurgent lords urged an attack on Monro, which the experienced old soldiers in command resisted, as perilous with such raw levies; and, in the meantime, Lee and Humbie were busied in negotiations betwixt the two parties, but without effect.
From Inveresk, the Committee of Estates, such as it was, under the protection of Monro’s band, marched westward by the eastern acclivity of the Pentland Hills, Collington, Corstorphine, and so on towards Linlithgow—the object being to intercept some of the whig levies from the west under Cassillis, Kirkcudbright, and Argyle, and ultimately to establish themselves in Stirling, as a central rallying point suitable for maintaining their army and receiving auxiliaries from the northern shires, not yet compromised or overborne by whig ascendency. Cassillis, with some hundred horse, was almost surprised by Monro’s advance, but, in the darkness of the night, escaped by Borrowstounness, and afterwards through Queensferry to Edinburgh. David Leslie followed in Monro’s rear, but did not venture an attack; and Monro would willingly have turned upon him, but was anxious to push on to Stirling. At Larbert, he learned that Argyle, with a troop of horse and a thousand foot, was in the town of Stirling, with a committee of his party, endeavouring, by treaty, to get possession of the castle, which was garrisoned by the King’s troops; and, as the port of the town was shut and manned, he was obliged to go round the castle, in order to secure the bridge, and prevent Argyle’s retreat before he could reach him. On Monro’s advance, the royal standard was hoisted, and the guns from the castle began to play on some of Argyle’s party who were retiring alongst it; but Monro, with a few of his men advancing, and the rest following rapidly, about a hundred were either killed or drowned in the river, and betwixt eight and nine hundred taken prisoners; Argyle himself, as was his wont, making his escape.
The Committee of Estates at Stirling, on this success, issued orders for raising all the fencible men in the northern shires; and Lanerick went to Perthshire to unite the nobility and gentry there; but very speedily the divisions and sinister objects of the leading men, which have so often proved ruinous to Scotland, did their work; and the craven and slippery members of the committee began to listen to propositions from the whig leaders and clergy. Distraction of councils neutralized effectually all opposition to the treacherous machinations of Argyle and his associates. That nobleman, mortified and excited by his late defeat at Stirling, having joined the whigamores in Edinburgh after his escape, prompted measures equally vindictive and treacherous to his native country; and, with the sanction of his allies, he, Lord Elcho, and two other commissioners, went to Berwick with an invitation to Cromwell to join “the honest party” (as they called themselves) at Edinburgh with his army—an invitation which, it is no ways surprising, was most cordially accepted. In these circumstances, and pending the progress of the negotiations betwixt the leaders on both sides, Monro and his officers saw the necessity of negotiating for their own safety, and (18th September) sent articles to the whig headquarters at Edinburgh, which ended in a treaty that the Irish troops should be allowed to have free passage to Ireland; that none should be questioned for what was past, but that all who had been in the Engagement should lay down their offices and places of trust, and not be allowed to sit in any judicatory; and that all public matters should be referred to the determination of the Parliament and General Assembly. And thus was dissolved and dissipated the last show of lawful authority in the Committee of Estates, and the last fragment of the host which went forth under the warrant of the Scottish Parliament for maintaining the ancient monarchy of the country in the person of King Charles I., and for vindicating the independence of that parliament and the kingdom.
The bad faith of the whigs was fully illustrated in a very brief time; for, instead of abiding by this treaty, the troops, who separated in reliance on it, were no sooner dispersed than it was violated. Those of them who were to go to Ireland were attacked on their march betwixt Glasgow and Ayr, and plundered, abused, and scattered; and within a very few days, a proclamation was issued at Edinburgh, commanding all persons who had been in the army in support of the “unlawful Engagement,” (an enterprise undertaken under the authority, be it remembered, of the King and Parliament,) to remove at least twelve miles from town, under pain of imprisonment, Cromwell being on his way thither.
Having thus possessed themselves of power, the whig leaders constituted themselves into a Committee of Estates, without the shadow of any legitimate warrant. Some of them had indeed been named on the committee, but being protesters against the Engagement, it was with an express proviso that they should not be capable of acting until they owned the Resolutions and Declarations of Parliament. Disregarding this condition, however, these insurgent leaders arrogated to themselves the supreme authority, pretending they were appointed by that very act of the States which actually debarred them; and, as the best proof that could be adduced of the principles by which they were governed, we insert, among the annexed documents, the instructions given to their commissioners sent to the English Parliament.[388]
From that humiliating record of national prostration we are constrained to turn and advert to some of its accompaniments.
On the 22d of September, “the Marquiss of Argyle, the Lord Elcoe, Sir John Scot, and others, came as Commissioners from the honest party in Scotland to the Lord of Mordington’s house at Mordington, to the Lieutenant-General’s [Cromwell’s] quarters, two miles from Berwick, within Scotland.” “The Lords day, Argyle sent in to desire the Governour himself to come forth,” the town being still held by a Scottish garrison; “and the Lords day, at night, Colonel Pride possessed himself of Tweedmouth;” and, next morning, tidings reached Mordington that treaties were in progress for disbanding all the Scottish armies—that Argyle had taken 10,000 arms which had arrived from Denmark for the Duke of Hamilton—and that the “honest party” in Scotland had coalesced completely with the “godly party” of England, whom hitherto they had abhorred as heretics and schismatics. On the 2d of October, Cromwell writes that Berwick and Carlisle were delivered up to him; and the terms of compromise agreed on betwixt him and the Scottish deputies, stand on record: that all the Scottish armies should be disbanded—that the affairs of religion in the three kingdoms should be settled by the General Assembly—all civil questions by a Parliament in January following—and that from that Parliament should be excluded every man who had been accessary to the late engagement; and, moreover, that though life and property should be spared from forfeiture, this should only be to those who, before the 10th of October, accepted and submitted to that agreement.[389] Cromwell was met by Lord Kirkcudbright and General Holburn at Seaton, (his headquarters,) as a deputation from the Committee of Estates. They accompanied him to Edinburgh, where he was lodged in the Earl of Moray’s house in the Canongate, and a guard of honour appointed to protect him. Loudoun, Leven, Argyle, Cassillis, Burley, General David Leslie, and Wariston, paid him homage, when he “did demand that, to prevent the reviving or re-inforcement of their late Engagement and invasion, none that had been in action therein, or accessary thereto, might henceforward be employed in any public place of trust whatsoever.” Two days after, “the same persons brought back from the Committee of Estates a very satisfactory answer, giving assurance, in name of the kingdom of Scotland, that accordingly none should be employed, with this addition only—without the consent of the kingdom of England—which the honest party thought to be the surest lay and bar against the malignants creeping in any more. Several select ministers also came from the Commissioners of the Kirk, both to congratulate and discuss for mutual satisfaction.”—“The Lord Provost, and several eminent citizens performed a visit also, and old Sir William Dick, in the name of the rest, made a great oration.”—“Our entertainment, during our abode at Edinburgh, was taken care of and defrayed by the Lord Provost, by order of the Committee of Estates; and, when we were about to come away, [11th October,] several coaches were sent to bring up the Lieut.-General Leven, Sir Arthur Haselrig and the rest of the officers to Edinburgh Castle, where was provided a very sumptuous banquet—the Lord General Leven, the Lord Marquiss of Argile, and divers other Lords being present to grace the entertainment. At our departure, many pieces of ordinance, and a volley of small shot, was given us from the castle, and we convoyed by some Lords without the city, where we parted.”[390]
These particulars are sufficient for exemplifying the state of national degradation to which Scotland was thus reduced, when some of the proudest of her nobles thus bowed the knee to a hypocritical alien and dictator, and when the champions of Covenanted Presbytery offered up incense to the leader of that band of armed schismatics against whom they had fiercely and often fulminated all the thunders of reprobation. We make no comments, but have stated the facts from the most unquestionable authority, to which we now make reference. Thus did Scotland prostitute the motto and emblem of her national independence, and cast away her sword and her shield of defence.