When the northern storm was ended, the western winds began to blow the louder. I told their declaration was kept in by advice from Stirling, as many thought, to make vantage of the new failings at court; for these were looked on with a greedy eye, and exaggerated to the height of truth. When, with a great deal of expenses and trouble, our forces in the west were levied, and present action against Cromwell promised and expected, their very first march is to Dumfries, the farthest place they were able to chuse from the enemy’s quarters. The pretence was to attend the motion of the enemy coming from Carlisle; but when the party which went from Edinburgh to fight them, neither in the going nor coming, was looked upon, nor any good at all done by that long march, but the hazarding the country, and the spoiling of a number of noblemen and gentlemen of their saddle-horse, and lying still at Glasgow, while Cromwell took up Glasgow. This made it visible they had some other thing in hand than to mind the enemy. By their earnest missives they had brought Wariston from Stirling to Dumfries. There, after some debate, the draught of the remonstrance is brought to some perfection, you see. It seems one main end of both remonstrances was to satisfy Strachan, and for that end they came up well near to his full length about the King and the state, the malignants and England. For in this last paper they are clear in condemning the treaty as sinful, and notwithstanding of it to suspend the King’s government till he should give satisfactory evidence of his real change, whereof they were to be judges, who were never like to be satisfied, although they were never like to be troubled with the judging of these signs; for the King who had started away upon the suspicion of these things, upon the sight of them in an army-remonstrance, was not like to stay: so on this escape the government of the kingdom, and the distribution of the royal rent in new pensions, all the former being void, fell in our own hand; and if the king should have ventured to stay, then an effectual course was moved to be taken with him to keep him from joining with malignants, which could not be but by a strong guard or imprisonment; albeit this was needless, if the course against malignants had been taken to put them out of all capacity to hurt the people and cause of God; for this could not be but by executing, forfaulting, and imprisoning of the chief of them, as we thought fit.
As for our present state, so many and gross faults were pressed against Argyle, the Chancellor, Lothian, Balcarras, and others, that in all reason they behoved to be laid aside, and our state modelled of new; so that no active nobleman should have any hand therein; and as for England, they might rest secure of our armies, not only till church and state should agree on the lawfulness and expediency of that war was found, but also a clear call from England should appear; and if we could not mar the one, and Cromwell the other, yet we behoved to move nothing of bringing this King to England, whom we had found unmeet to govern Scotland, and though thereafter he should change never so much to the better, yet it was injustice for us to meddle with a kingdom not subordinate to us. Thus far the remonstrance went on, and closed with a solemn engagement on all their hearts, if God blessed their armies, to see all these things performed. I have oft marvelled that Strachan remained dissatisfied for all this; for I verily think, whatever he or Cromwell could have desired in Scotland, would easily have followed upon the former premises.
While these things are a-doing at Dumfries, Cromwell, with the whole body of his army and cannon, comes peaceably by the way of Kilsyth to Glasgow. The magistrates and ministers fled all away. I got to the isle of Cumray, with my Lady Montgomery, but left all my family and goods to Cromwell’s courtesy, which indeed was great; for he took such a course with his soldiers, that they did less displeasure at Glasgow than if they had been at London, though Mr Zachary Boyd railed on them all to their very face in the High Church. I took this extraordinary favour, from their coming alone to gain the people, and to please Strachan, with whom he was then keeping correspondence, and by whom he had great hopes to draw over the western army, at least to a cessation with him; as indeed he brought them by his means to be altogether useless; though, on a report of their march towards Edinburgh, he left the west in a great suddenty and demi-disorder.
So soon as the remonstrance was perfected, and all present at Dumfries professed their assent to it, except Strachan, conceiving it to be too low for his meridian, Mr Patrick and Mr John Stirling, with some of the gentlemen, went along with it to Stirling, and Wariston in their company. The commission of the kirk refused to meddle with it; only Mr Robert Douglas wrote to the presbyteries to send to the next meeting at Stirling, with their commissioners of the church, some more of their number, of greatest experience and wisdom, to advise in matters of great importance. The committee of estates, by Wariston’s means, at their first presenting, put no affront upon it; but what was a very dangerous error, gave too good words to the carriers; and, to allure them to action against the enemy, increased their forces, by joining with them the dragoons of Niddisdale and the Lennox; and overseeing also the feathers which they had drawn out of the Stirling’s wing, the putting them in hopes to get the Stirling’s nest, which made them march quickly west to Partick, in order to Stirling, thinking that Lesly and Middleton should have been in others flesh in the north: but to their open discontent, the northern storm being composed, and D. Lesly returned to Stirling, they turned their heads another way.
When, after my return to Glasgow, I saw their remonstrance, and Cromwell’s letter thereupon, on the occasion of Strachan’s queries, requiring a treaty, which at that same time he sent his prisoners, Mr Jaffray and Mr Carstairs, to agent, I was sore grieved, but knew not how to help it; only I sent the copies of all, with express bearers to Argyle and you at Inverary, and to the Chancellor at Perth, and Mr James Ferguson at Kilwinning, with my best advice to you all, and resolved myself to keep the next meeting of the commission on the call of their letter, to declare my dissent, if I could do no more. But behold, the next presbytery-day, when I am absent, Mr Patrick causes read again the commission’s letter, and had led it so, that by the elders votes, the men of greatest experience and wisdom of our presbytery were the two youngest we had, Mr Hugh Binning and Mr Andrew Morton. Then when it was pressed that I might be but added to them, it was, by a vote, refused, upon supposition it was needless, being clear I would doubtless go howsoever. These despiteful votes wrought so on my mind when I heard of them, that I resolved not to go, for all that could be said to me by many of the brethren; yet the clerk of the commission, at the moderator’s direction, writing a pressing letter to me from Stirling, I went along to Perth; where, by God’s good providence, I have staid since for many good purposes.
At the meeting of Stirling, there was a conference appointed of the chief members of the committee of estates, and commissioners of the church, on the remonstrance; wherein there were many high words about it betwixt Wariston and Mr R. Douglas, Mr R. Ramsay and Mr P. Gillespie, Mr James Wood and Mr James Guthrie, and others. No appearance there was of any issue. The time of parliament at Perth drawing near, the King, by his letter, invited the meeting of church and state to Perth. The desire of many was but to have some agreement before, if no other way were possible, as none appeared, that the remonstrance might be laid aside, and much of the matter of it be pressed in an orderly way by the commission of the kirk, and the forces of the west be joined with these at Stirling; since, for so long a time, they had acted nothing apart, and never like to act any thing for any purpose alone. The remonstrants were averse from these motions; so all was laid aside till they came to Perth: at which time a new conference was appointed, and four whole days kept in Argyle’s chamber. I then, and thereafter, was witness to all, and little more than a witness; for not being a commissioner, I thought meet to be silent. For the one side, Mr Patrick and Wariston spoke most; for the other, Argyle, the Chancellor, the Advocate, and Mr Douglas: but Mr Wood spoke most, and to best purpose. Mr Rutherford and Mr Durham said some little for sundry points of the remonstrance. Mr James Guthrie, most ingenuously and freely, vented his mind; for the principal point, (as he avowed he had oft before maintained), “That the close of our treaty was a sin, to promise any power to the King before he had evidenced the change of his principles; and the continuing that power in his hand was sinful till that change did appear;” though it was visible, that every day the kingdom languished under these debates, which impeded all action. There was no remedy. By no persuasion the remonstrance could be taken up; yea, the gentlemen gave in a petition to the estates at Perth, in the presence of the King, urging the answer thereof; from which petition they would not pass: yea, when they were most earnestly dealt with to conjoin their forces, all that could be obtained, both by publick and divers private entreaties of their best friends, Argyle and others, there was a willingness to join on two conditions: The first was, an express laying aside of the King’s quarrel in the state of the question; the other, to keep none in the army of Stirling but according to the qualifications in the act of parliament. When in these two all of the gentlemen and officers were found peremptory, the conference on Friday, the fourth day of it, was broken off as fruitless; though for their satisfaction, the parliament had been shifted from the Wednesday to the Friday, and from the Friday to the Tuesday again, for all the issue of blood, and starving, that was every day visible over the kingdom. Before the meeting, the remonstrants had a solemn meeting at Glasgow, by Mr Patrick’s call, where, the subscribing of the remonstrance was much pressed on the great committee of gentlemen and officers, by the ministers, who sat apart in the tolbooth, and called themselves the presbytery of the western army. That subscription was generally declined, and by no persuasion any more could be obtained, nor a warrant, subscribed by Crosbie, the president of the committee, to some few commissioners, to present the remonstrance to the state. Mr Robert Ramsay, sore against my mind, offered, in his own and my name, once and again, to come and debate in their presence, with the brethren, the injustice of that remonstrance. This offer was told them in the committee. All the answer it got was, that no man was excluded to come and propone what they pleased. Upon such entertainment we let them alone. Here it was where Strachan, before having laid down his charge, was commanded to go no more to the regiment; but he told them expressly, he could not obey. Some would have been at laying him fast, for fear of his going to the enemy; but lest that Ker and many more should thereby have been provoked, they let him alone. Govan, for his known correspondence with the enemy, was cashiered, and their scout-master Dundass also. Sundry of the officers were suspected to be of Strachan’s principles, albeit the most went not beyond the remonstrance.
When the conference was broken off, the Committee of state went about their answer to the petitioners, and there began debate. The most found the matter high treason; the divesting the King of his authority; the breaking of the treaty approven by kirk and state; the slandering highly of the judicatories; and engaging of private men to change the government. The deepness of these crimes troubled the judges; the respect the most of them had to the persons guilty, moving them to go far lower than the writ’s deserving, and all of them being resolved to make no more of it than was in the committee’s power to pardon; they went therefore no higher in the censure than you have in the sentence; from which yet near fifteen dissented for one or other word, though all professed their disallowance of the writ. This dissent was in the King’s presence. If he had been absent, as some would have persuaded him, the dissenting might have been greater; for Wariston was very long and passionate in his exhortation to wave it simply, which had been very unhandsome, since the parties peremptorily refused to take it up. At the sentence, the gentlemen stormed, but the ministers much more. It came next to the commission of the church. The states had given in their sense to them, and required the kirk’s judgement. Here came the vehement opposition. The remonstrants petitioned to have the present consideration thereof laid aside, lest the parties should be discouraged to act against the enemy. Mr Rutherford pressed this with much more passion than reason, and Mr Guthrie also. Here it was where I spoke but so much as declared my sense against the thing. Much dealing was still to take it up. Mess. Cant, Blair, Rutherford, and Durham, were sent to persuade them; but Mr Patrick was peremptory to shew their willingness to quit their life rather than their testimony. So when there was no remedy, at last, by Mr Douglas and Mr James Wood’s industry most, it came to that mild sentence which you see here subscribed. With it the parties were highly offended, and entered their loud protestation. Mr Blair came in the hinder end. He and you, by your letters, had signified your judgement much averse from the remonstrance; which in a scolding way was cried out by Mr John Nevo in Mr Blair’s face: to which he replied nothing. Mr David Bennet and Mr Hugh Peebles expressed themselves bitterly, and were answered accordingly by others. Our Provost, George, spoke in his protestation of something like sealing the remonstrance with his blood. All of them went out of town highly discontent; though as little occasion was given them as possibly could be, either by church, or state, or any person. I thought the separation exceeding unhappy, both to our west country and to the whole kingdom, but remediless, God giving over the chief misleaders, who had oppressed, to my grief, many others, to follow their own sense in that which the rest of us thought a high and dangerous sin.
Mr Patrick and Mr James Guthrie, where-ever they came, uttered their passion. I heard one who had married Mr Patrick’s sister’s daughter, report to Mr Douglas, that Mr Hugh Binning, with Mr Patrick, in Kirkaldy, had spoke like a distracted man, saying to Mr Douglas’s own wife, and the young man himself, and his mother-in-law, Mr Patrick’s sister, “That the commission of the kirk would approve nothing that was right; that a hypocrite ought not to reign over us; that we ought to treat with Cromwell, and give him security not to trouble England with a King; and whoever marred this treaty, the blood of the slain in this quarrel should be on their heads!” Strange words, if true. Always behold the fearful consequence of that pride of stomach. The state sent Col. Robert Montgomery west, to join the best part of the horse they had with the western forces, or any part of them that would join with him. For this end, he spoke with the commissioners of the west, at Stirling, who had been at Perth; but they shewed great averseness at any such junction. He wrote also to Ker for this effect, and marched towards Glasgow. On the Sunday at night he came to Campsie; but on the Saturday, Ker, with all his forces, lying at Carmunock, resolves to prevent Col. Robert’s approach, and by themselves to make an infall on the English before day.
Our intelligence was, that the English at Hamilton were but 1200; but Lambert lay there, with above 3000 of their best horse. They called ours above 1,500; but some double the number: for of all their forces, there was not above four or five of Strachan’s troops away. Some speak of treachery; for Govan, for all his cashiering, was re-admitted by Ker on fair promises. Strachan was not far off. It is certain when, at four o’clock in the morning, December 1, our men came to set on, the enemy were ready to receive them, having sounded to horse half an hour before, as it were for a march to Glasgow. All speak of a great rashness, as in an anger, or what else, to cast away these forces. Lieut.-Col. Ralston, with a small party of horse, entered Hamilton, and most gallantly carried all before him, killed sundry; some spoke of hundreds, other are within scores; however, he cleared the town of the enemy. Col. Ker, with fewer than 200, seconded him well; but at the end of the town, where the body of the English drew up again in the field at the back of a ditch, when Ker saw it not easy to pass, he retired a little, which they behind took for a flight, and all turned their backs; yea, the whole rest fled apart; not one would stay. The English pursued as far as Paisley and Kilmarnock that day; yet very few were killed. Some say, scarce twenty; not above eighty prisoners, whereof Col. Ker made one; as some say, deadly, as others, slightly wounded. Argyle said to me, he might have escaped if he would. The next day, 200 or 300, who rallied in Kyle, by Strachan’s persuasion disbanded; and himself, as fearing to be taken by us, went in to Cromwell, with Swinton, whose first work was, to agent the rendering the castle of Edinburgh, with their dear comrade young Dundass, who most basely, and, as yet it is taken, treacherously, gave over that most considerable strength of our kingdom. But of this more certainly afterwards.
The miscarriage of affairs in the west by a few unhappy men, put us all under the foot of the enemy. They presently ran over all the country, without any stop, destroying cattle and corn, putting Glasgow and all others under grievous contributions. This makes me yet to stick at Perth, not daring to go where the enemy is master, as now he is of all Scotland beyond Forth, [i. e. besouth Forth,] not so much by his own virtue as our vices. The loss of the west, the magazine of our best forces, put the state presently to new thoughts. We had long many debates about employing malignants in our armies. Some were of opinion that the acts of church and state were unjust, and for particular ends, from the beginning. All agreed, that common soldiers, after satisfaction to the church, might be taken in; but as for officers, noblemen and gentlemen volunteers, that we were not to take them in at all, at least not without an eminent degree of evident repentance. The most thought they might be employed as soldiers, on their admittance by the church to the sacrament and covenant. As for places of counsell and trust, that this was to be left to the state’s discretion. However, when the case was clearly altered, and now there was no choice of men, the parliament wrote to Mr Robert Douglas to call the commission extraordinary. A quorum was got, most of these of Fife. The question was proponed, of the lawfulness of employing such who before were excluded. The question was alledged to be altered from that which Mr Gillespie writes of, and that whereto Mr Guthrie had solemnly engaged, a defence of our lives and country, in extreme necessity, against sectarians and strangers, who had twice been victors. My heart was in great perplexity for this question. I was much in prayer to God, and in some action with men, for a concord in it. The parliament was necessitated to employ more than before, or give over their defence. Mr Samuel Rutherford and Mr James Guthrie wrote peremptory letters to the old way, on all hazards. Mr Douglass and Mr D. Dick had of a long time been in my sense, that in the war against invading strangers, our former strictness had been unadvised and unjust. Mr Blair and Mr Durham were a little ambiguous, which I much feared should have divided the commission; and likely bad done so, if with the loss of the west, the absence of all the brethren of the west had not concurred. However, we carried unanimously at last the answer herewith sent to you. My joy for this was soon tempered when I saw the consequence, the lothing of sundry good people to see numbers of grievous bloodshedders ready to come in, and so many malignant noblemen as were not like to lay down arms till they were put into some places of trust, and restored to their vote in parliament. Against this necessity for our very being, and hope that the guides of our state would, by their wisdom and virtue, and adherence of the church and good men, get kept what they had of authority, the Chancellor oft remembering us, that in this there was a great alteration of the case, that the King being now in covenant, the most whose malignancy stood in their following the King against the covenant, were no more to be counted malignants, the fountain of that evil being stopped in them, there was just ground why that blot and name of distinction in that respect should be now abolished. Another inconvenience was like to trouble us, a seed of Hyper-Brounism, which had been secretly sown in the minds of sundry of the soldiers, that it was unlawful to join in arms with such and such men, and so that they were necessitated to make a civil separation from such, for fear of sin, and cursing of their enterprises. The main fomenters of these doubts seemed not at all to be led by conscience, but by interest; for the officers of our standing army, since the defeat at Dunbar, being sent to recruit the regiments in the northern shires, little increased that number, but taking large money for men, and yet exacted quarters for men which were not; this vexed the country, and disappointed the service. The officers, by the new levies, thought it easy to be recruited at their pleasure; but an act passing, that the new levies should not recruit the old regiments, they stormed, and gladly would have blasted the new way for their own ends. Under these evils we wrestle as yet, but hope for a good end of these divisions also. In the mean time Cromwell is daily expected to march towards Stirling to mar the coronation, which, sore against my heart, was delayed to the first of January, on pretence of keeping a fast for the sins of the King’s family on Thursday next. We mourned on Monday last for the contempt of the gospel, according to Mr Dickson’s motion, branched out by Mr Wood. Also you see in the printed papers, upon other particulars the commission at Stirling, which appointed these fasts, could not agree. The remonstrants pressed to have sundry sins acknowledged which others denied, and would not now permit them to set down as they would what causes of fast they liked. Surely we had never more need of mourning, be the causes, what God knows, visible or invisible, confessed or denied, seen or unseen, by all but the most guilty. It cannot be denied but our miseries and dangers of ruin are greater than for many ages have been; a potent victorious enemy master of our seas, and for some good time of the best part of our land; our standing forces against this his imminent invasion, few, weak, inconsiderable; our kirk, state, army, full of divisions and jealousies; the body of our people besouth Forth spoiled, and near starving; the be-north Forth extremely ill-used by a handful of our own; many inclining to treat and agree with Cromwell, without care either of King or covenant; none of our neighbours called upon by us, or willing to give us any help, though called. What the end of all shall be, the Lord knows. Many are ready to faint with discouragement and despair; yet divers are waiting on the Lord, expecting he will help us in our great extremity against our most unjust oppressors.