In the ensuing February, Peter was again in trouble. Alexander Daes,
owner of the paper-manufactory at Dalry Mills, complained that his
privilege of making paper and playing-cards had been infringed by Peter
Bruce and James Lithgow, who had clandestinely obtained a licence for
a playing-card manufactory. They had likewise enticed away a workman
named Nicolas de Champ, whom he had brought from France, and caused
the abstraction from his work of some of his haircloths. The Council
freed Peter and his associate from everything but the charge of taking
away the haircloths, which they left to be dealt with by the ordinary
judge.--_P. C. R._
[Sidenote: 1681.]
Altogether, Peter seems to have found great difficulty in preventing a
sale of foreign cards. It was difficult to detect the importation of
such articles. A package containing a quantity of them had lately been
brought by the ship of one Adam Watt; and even the custom-house officer
winked at its being smuggled ashore. Peter craved the Council (June 7,
1682) for general letters against the contraveners of his privilege;
but the Council, apparently warned by the complaints about the Messrs
Fountain, would only, on that occasion, agree to give warrant for
particular cases. Afterwards (July 5), they gave a more general
warrant, but still declaring that Bruce, in the event of making a wrong
charge, should be liable to a fine.
Finally, persecuted out of Edinburgh, Peter betook himself to Glasgow,
and tried to set up a paper-mill at Woodside, near that city; but here,
too, he encountered a variety of troubles and oppressions, designed
for the purpose of neutralising his monopoly of the manufacture of
playing-cards, his builders failing in their engagements, his men
being seduced away from him, his mill-course defrauded of water, and
so forth. He complained to the Privy Council (January 6, 1685), and
got a decree against his two chief persecutors, John Campbell and
James Peddie, for a thousand merks as compensation for the injuries he
had suffered. When everything else failed, Peter seems to have turned
his religious professions to some account, as he is last seen acting
as printer to the Catholic chapel and college at Holyrood--where,
doubtless, the Revolution gave him a disagreeable surprise.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: DEC. 26.]
The college youths renewed the demonstration of last year. ‘Their
preparations were so quiet, that none suspected it this year. They
brought [the pope] to the Cross, and fixed his chair in that place
where the gallows stands. He was tricked up in a red gown and a mitre,
with two keys over his arm, a crucifix in one hand, and the oath of the
Test in the other. Then they put fire to him, and it burnt lengthy till
it came to the powder, at which he blew up in the air.
‘At this time, many things were done in mockery of the Test: one I
shall tell. The children of Heriot’s Hospital, finding that the dog
which kept the yards of that hospital had a public charge and office,
ordained him to take the Test, and offered him a paper. But he, loving
a bone better than it, absolutely refused it. They then rubbed it over
with butter, which they called an Explication of the Test, in imitation
of Argyle, and he licked off the butter, but did spit out the paper;
for which they held a jury upon him, and, in derision of the sentence
on Argyle, they found the dog guilty of treason, and actually hanged
him.’--_Foun._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1682.