During the protectorate, as no persecution had been allowed on account of religious opinions, a few in Scotland seem to have adopted the tolerant maxims of the decried usurper; and although sectaries never flourished in that soil, they seem to have been sufficiently numerous to have excited the fears of the resolutioners, who, insensible to the benefits they enjoyed under the toleration of Cromwell, and eager to secure the liberties of their own kirk from the oppression of the prelatists, were equally anxious to guard against any freedom being allowed to those whom they termed fanatics.[[3]]
[3]. Mr Robert Douglas writes to Mr Sharpe, May 8, 1660:—“Your great errand will be for this kirk. I am confident the king will not wrong our liberties whereunto he himself is engaged. He needs not declare any liberty to tender consciences here, because the generality of the people and whole ministry have embraced the established religion by law with his majesty’s consent. It is known that in all the times of the prevailing of the late party in England, none here petitioned for toleration, except some inconsiderable naughty men.” And the ministers of Edinburgh, i. e. resolutioners, in a letter, May 10, to the Earl of Rothes, who was going to meet the king at Breda, use the following remarkable expressions: “He [the king] knows likewise how much the people adhere to the establishment of the church; so that there is no pretext for an indulgence to such as shall recede from it, but many inconveniences would ensue upon the granting it.” Correspondence between Messrs Douglas, Dickson, &c. with Sharpe. Wodrow’s Introd.
There was, besides, a third party, who, although previously discernible to those who understood the signs of the times, sprang up at once upon the afflicted vision of the resolutioners, when the rays of royalty again beamed above the horizon—a new race, who, having never been acquainted with the work of reformation, nor with the just proceedings of the nation, but weary of Presbyterian strictness, were ready to condemn the covenant and all the loyal and honest acting of the covenanters. These, consisting chiefly of young men of rank, were prepared for any change, and were supposed, in general, to be rather favourable to Episcopacy. A knowledge of this circumstance, and the frequent representations of the alarming fact by his correspondents, seem early to have influenced Sharpe to desert his employers and go over to the enemy.
In May, he went upon an embassage to Charles at Breda, and there was confirmed in the treachery which he completed shortly after the king’s landing in England. His villanous hypocrisy in managing the overturn of the polity he was dispatched to support, was consummate; yet now, when we know the part he played, it is not difficult to perceive, in his most specious letters, an overacting which must have betrayed him to men less confiding than his employers.[[4]] Besides preventing all access to the king, and representing the chief leaders in Scotland as favourable to prelacy, he dissuaded his friends from addressing against it, and cruelly widened the breach between them and the protesters. His ambition was stimulated by his revenge; he wished to gratify his private resentment against the most eminent of the latter—Samuel Rutherford, James Guthrie, and Lord Warriston. Yet, however much we may detest the traitor, it is matter of high gratulation that his mission failed; for, had he acted faithfully and succeeded, he would have procured for Scotland an iron yoke of political presbytery, which might indeed have preserved the beloved polity secured by acts of parliament, by prohibitions, and by every civil pain and penalty by which churchmen support their power; but he would have destroyed religious liberty, and delivered the nation over to a thraldom which would have been worse, as it would probably have been more permanent, than the prelacy that ensued—it would, it is likely, have been more moral, but it might not have been less oppressively severe.[[5]]
[4]. “I profess,” says Mr Douglas, “I did not suspect Mr Sharpe in reference to prelacy more than I did myself, nor more than the apostles did Judas before his treachery was discovered.” Wodrow’s Introd.
[5]. There is much retribution in this world, although it be not the place of final account. Here especially God punishes his own people. The wicked may prosper in their wickedness—“he sees their day is coming”—but the Lord will never suffer his children to sin with impunity. This was remarkably exemplified in the case of these good men, who were now so anxious to prevent their brethren from enjoying liberty of conscience, in order that they themselves might engross the royal favour and the chief places in the church; their own agent betrayed them; and the very means they were using to accomplish their improper and selfish aims, were turned against them, and became the instruments of their correction.
When Charles was at last restored to the wishes and prayers of his people, as if some enchanter’s wand had touched the frame of society, the whole kingdom in an instant changed, and, from a state of grave seriousness and exemplary decency, burst out into one disorderly scene of riot and revelry; and the day of thanksgiving for this happy event was celebrated in Edinburgh in a manner that had been very unusual in that capital for at least a quarter of a century. After sermon, the magistrates proceeded to the cross, on which was a table covered with sweatmeats, and the well ran with wine; there, amid the flourishing of trumpets and the beating of drums, the royal healths were drank, and three hundred dozen of glasses broken in honour of the day! On the Castle Hill, fireworks were exhibited, the principal figures in which were Cromwell and the Devil, who, after diverting the multitude with a flight and pursuit, exploded and disappeared amid shouts of applause.
The considerate part of the community viewed the unconditional recall of the king with very different sensations; but these, in that frantic hour, were few in number, and chiefly consisted of the remonstrators, whose dark forebodings were deemed the offspring of their own guilty consciences accusing them of their former disloyalty. In vain did they ask for evidence of his being changed from what he was, before they could trust their liberties into his hands without security. They had all along been jealous of Sharpe, and their suspicions had been heightened by some surmises of his transactions at London; but all their advances towards their brethren had been repulsed by the resolutioners, who put the most unbounded confidence in that traitor’s assurances of the king’s friendly countenance towards themselves, and his intended vengeance upon them. The first measures of Charles, however, put an end to the differences of the truly pious among both parties, who were soon undeceived, and sent to the furnace to be refined together.
All the high offices of Scotland were disposed of to men either of no religion, or of that very accommodating kind which is always found on the side of interest and power. Middleton, a soldier of fortune, created an Earl, was appointed commissioner to hold the next parliament; the Earls Glencairn had the chancellorship—Crawford, the treasury—Rothes, president of the council—and Lauderdale, secretary of state, and one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber, (the only Scottishman admitted to this honour;) Sir Archibald Primson was clerk-register; and Sir John Fletcher, king’s advocate. Meanwhile, those who were esteemed the leaders of the covenanters, although they had ever sturdily maintained their loyalty, after the greater part of the others had yielded, were thrown into prison and threatened with prosecutions for treason. The Marquis of Argyle was seized at London, whether he had gone to congratulate the king, and sent to the tower; and orders were forwarded to Scotland, to Major-General Morgan, commander-in-chief, to secure Sir James Stewart, provost of Edinburgh; Sir Archibald Johnstoun, Lord Warriston; and Sir John Christy of Carswell. Warriston escaped for the time; but the other two were arrested in a somewhat ludicrous manner. The General having heard that Christy was in town upon private business, waited upon the Provost, and required him, in virtue of his office, to apprehend Sir John and carry him to the Castle, which his lordship having done, when he was about to take leave, with many expressions of regret, he was informed “that it behooved him to bear his friend company;” nor did he obtain a release till about ten years after.
Until the meeting of a new parliament, the administration of Scottish affairs was intrusted to the surviving members of the committee of estates, nominated by the last Scottish parliament; and as they had all concurred with the king in swearing the National and Solemn League and Covenant, it was expected that they would at least be favourable to the established religion of the land; but it very soon appeared how little confidence can be placed in the professions or even oaths of public men, when the stream runs in an opposite direction. Their first meeting, at which the chancellor presided, was held in Edinburgh, August 23, and their first act was a proper prelude to the tyranny about to be inflicted on their country.