Adventures in Spain--Serves in Hungary against the
Turks--Returns to Scotland at the Revolution--Reforms in the
Scottish Parliament--Saltoun restored--Darien.
As soon as Fletcher gained the deck of the _Helderenberg_ the master
sailed for Spain, carrying with him one John Kerridge, a pilot who had
been pressed into Monmouth’s service for the purpose of steering the
vessel to Bristol. As soon as they reached Bilboa, Fletcher, the
master, and this unfortunate Kerridge were all seized and put in
prison; and soon afterwards the English Minister at Madrid requested
the Spanish Government to send Fletcher to England. If he had been
sent to England his fate would not have long remained doubtful; but,
by some strange chance, he escaped. The Earl Marischal’s account of
what Fletcher told him of his adventures at this period is as
follows:--
One morning he was sitting at the window of his prison, when a
‘venerable person’ appeared, and made signs that he had something to
tell him. Fletcher somehow found an open door, at which he was met by
the ‘venerable person,’ who led him past the sentinels, who, strange
to say, were all fast asleep. As soon as he was outside the prison,
his deliverer, who was a perfect stranger, disappeared before he had
time to thank him. Thereafter, in disguise, he wandered through Spain,
where, as soon as he thought himself out of danger, he spent some time
in studying in the conventual libraries, and buying rare and curious
books.
‘He made,’ says Lord Buchan, ‘several very narrow escapes of being
detected and seized in the course of his peregrinations through Spain,
particularly in the neighbourhood of a town (the name of which Lord
Marshall had forgotten) where he intended to have passed the night;
but in the skirts of a wood a few miles distant from thence, upon
entering a road to the right, he was warned by a woman of a very
respectable appearance to take the left-hand road, as there would be
danger in the other direction. Upon his arrival he found the citizens
alarmed by the news of a robbery and murder on the road against which
he had been cautioned.’
We next find him serving under the Duke of Lorraine in Hungary against
the Turks, whom he calls ‘the common enemy of Christendom.’ Here he is
said to have distinguished himself by his gallantry and military
talents; but now events were happening elsewhere which soon led to his
return from exile. The Revolution was rapidly approaching. James was
losing ground in Scotland as well as in England; and when the
Scottish Parliament, at which the apostate Earl of Murray was Lord
High Commissioner, met in April 1686, the King’s letter, artfully
framed for the purpose of inducing the Estates to tolerate the Roman
Catholics, contained not only the offer of free trade with England,
but also the promise of a ‘full and ample indemnity for all crimes
committed against our royal person and authority.’ It is possible that
if the Scottish Parliament had yielded to the wishes of the King this
indemnity might have been granted, and Fletcher might have returned to
Scotland. But it was soon found that even the Episcopalians would not
submit to the royal wishes; and the Parliament replied that they could
only do as much for the relief of the Roman Catholics as their
consciences would permit. Then followed the assertion of the
dispensing power, the declarations of indulgence, and the series of
events which brought about the Revolution.
On the 2nd of October 1688, the very eve of his downfall, the King
granted a general pardon; but from that pardon several persons were
specially excepted by name, and among these were Burnet, Ferguson the
Plotter, Titus Oates, and Fletcher of Saltoun. By that time, however,
Fletcher was at the Hague, whence he accompanied the Prince of Orange
to England.
He did not linger in the south, but made his way as soon as possible
to Scotland.
Lord Buchan errs in saying that Fletcher was a member of the
Convention of Estates which met at Edinburgh in March 1689. The
members for Haddingtonshire were Sir Robert Sinclair of Stevenston and
Adam Cockburn of Ormiston; but Fletcher was already taking an active
part in public affairs. He had come back from the Continent with his
Whig principles deepening into Republicanism, with his mind full of
projects for the welfare of Scotland, and with a fixed opinion that
the power of the Crown ought to be diminished.
He therefore joined the Club, that association which had been formed
for the express purpose of thwarting the Government and decreasing the
royal authority. Sir James Montgomery, Annandale, Ross, and Sir
Patrick Hume were the leaders of this body; and among them there was
‘no man, though not a member, busier than Saltoun,’ writes Sir William
Lockhart to Lord Melville on the 11th of July 1689.
His great aim, then and ever after, was to reduce the royal authority
to a shadow, and to place all real power in the hands of Parliament.
‘He is,’ said Mackay in the paper which he drew up for the use of the
Princess Sophia, ‘a zealous assertor of the liberties of the people,
and so jealous of the growing power of all Princes, in whom he thinks
ambition to be natural, that he is not for intrusting the best of them
with a power which they can make use of against the people. As he
believes all Princes made by, and for the good of, the people, he is
for giving them no power but that of doing good.’ The Club did not
long survive; but apart from some of the questionable and factious
purposes for which it had been formed, it was mainly responsible for
that salutary reform by which the institution known as the ‘Lords of
the Articles’ was abolished. Though Fletcher was not a member of the
Convention, we are soon to enter on that period of his career when he
was one of the foremost members of the Scottish Parliament; and the
proceedings of that body, of which an account must be given, will be
unintelligible unless certain facts connected with its history and
character are understood.
The Scottish Parliament was originally divided into the three Estates
of the Bishops, the Barons, and the Boroughs. The Estate of the Barons
included the peers, or greater barons, and the county members, or
lesser barons. The ‘Boroughs’ meant the representatives of the royal
boroughs of Scotland. The three Estates sat in one chamber, there
being no Upper and Lower House as in England. At the Revolution, when
Episcopacy was abolished, the bishops lost their seats. The peers then
became the first Estate, the county members (known as the ‘barons’)
the second Estate, and the borough members the third Estate. The peers
numbered sixty-four in 1606, soon after the Union of the Crowns; but
by 1707 they had increased to one hundred and fifty-three. The number
of commoners who sat in the Estates was never more than one hundred
and fifty-six. Thus in the Scottish Parliament the feudal aristocracy
was almost supreme. The franchise was then genuine, without the
fictitious votes which were afterwards created on all sides; but the
county members were really nominated, in many constituencies, by the
peers. This, coupled with the fact that there was only one chamber,
made the subjection of the Commons complete.
The Commons, at the date of the Revolution, consisted of sixty-four
county and sixty-six borough members. The county franchise was in the
hands of the freeholders, who were few in number. The borough
franchise was in the hands of the magistrates, who were self-elected.
There was thus scarcely a trace of popular representation. Moreover,
the officers of state had seats and votes without having to undergo
any form of election, a custom which was often complained of.
But the chief peculiarity, and the most glaring defect in the
constitution of the Scottish Parliament, before the Revolution, was
the institution known as the Lords of the Articles. This was a
committee chosen, at the beginning of each session, to prepare
measures for the consideration of the Estates. It usually consisted of
forty members, eight bishops, eight peers, eight county members, eight
borough members, and eight officers of state. The manner in which
they were chosen was as anomalous as their powers. First the bishops
chose eight peers. Then those peers chose eight bishops; and those
sixteen chose the county and borough members. Eight officers of state,
nominated by the King or his Commissioner, were added, and the
Committee on Articles was complete. ‘Not only,’ Lauderdale once said,
‘hath the King in Scotland his negative vote, but, God be thanked, by
this constitution of the Articles, he hath the affirmative vote also,
for nothing can come to the Parliament but through the Articles, and
nothing can pass in Articles but what is warranted by his Majesty; so
that the King is absolute master in Parliament, both of the negative
and affirmative.’
All the business was, in most Scottish Parliaments, transacted by the
Lords of the Articles. The usual course of procedure was this. As soon
as the Estates met, the Committee on Articles was chosen, and directed
to prepare the measures which were intended to become law during the
session. The House then adjourned for a few days. When it met again,
these measures were read, and passed at once into law. There was
seldom any debating, and sometimes more than one hundred Acts of
Parliament were passed, and received the royal assent, in one day.
There was thus a constant danger of hasty legislation, and for this
there was no remedy. In England the Lords could reject any measure
passed by the Commons, and the Commons could reject any measure passed
by the Lords. But in Scotland, where there was only one chamber, there
was nothing to prevent the Estates making any law, however rash or
ill-considered, in the space of a single day.
At the Revolution, however, the Committee of Articles, which the
Estates had declared to be a grievance, was abolished. Henceforth the
Acts of the Scottish Parliament were no longer compiled in secret,
brought, cut and dry, into the House, read over by the clerks, and
carried to the Throne to receive the royal assent, in batches of a
dozen at a time, within the space of a few hours. Power was given to
the Estates to choose freely such committees as they might think
necessary, subject only to the condition that some of the officers of
state should sit on these committees, but without the right of voting.
The statute which put an end to the old institution of the Lords of
the Articles became law on the 8th of May 1690. On the 1st of May 1707
the Union took place. Thus the Scottish Parliament lasted for just
seventeen years after the introduction of this great reform. The old
defects in the rules of procedure remained; the method of conducting
debates was still irregular; and the risk of hasty legislation was as
great as ever, only a slight attempt having been made to remedy this
evil by a statute which forbade that any measure should be passed
until it had been read twice.[2] But during these seventeen years the
Scottish Parliament was free. There was nothing to hinder the full
discussion of any topic; and independent members could bring in
measures, and move resolutions, as freely as in the Parliament of
England.
[2] _Act that no law pass at the First Reading_, 25th September
1695. The term ‘bill’ was not used in the Scottish Parliament.
When a measure was brought in, and while it was before the
Estates, it was called an ‘overture,’ or ‘the draft of an Act,’
or simply an ‘Act.’
In the session of 1689 Fletcher presented a petition to the Estates
for the restoration of the estate of Saltoun, in which he asserted
that the sentence of forfeiture had proceeded on ‘frivolous and weak
pretences, and upon lame and defective probation.’
This petition, along with some others of a similar character, was
remitted to a committee of Parliament for inquiry. There was a long
delay; and at last Fletcher was put forward to complain to the Duke of
Hamilton, who was then Commissioner. So he went to Hamilton, and said
it was unfair that Argyll’s forfeiture should have been reversed
without delay, while he and others, who had suffered unjustly, should
have to wait so long. Having lodged this complaint, he asked Hamilton
to mention the matter to the King.
‘Tell the King,’ he said, ‘that Fletcher of Saltoun has a better
right to his estate than his Majesty has to the Crown.’
‘Devil take me,’ said the Duke in reply, ‘if it isn’t true!’
At last, on the 30th of June 1690, an Act was passed, rescinding the
forfeiture, and putting Fletcher once more in possession of his family
estate.
Before this event, so important to Fletcher, took place, Hamilton,
superseded by Melville, had retired in disgust from public life; and
there is some reason to believe that it was Fletcher who was the means
of bringing him back to support the Revolution principles in 1692,
when the country was alarmed by the threat of a Jacobite invasion. ‘I
know you will be surprised,’ Fletcher wrote to Hamilton in April of
that year, ‘to receive a letter from me; but my writing to you in such
an exigence shows the high esteem I must have of you, and of the true
love you bear your religion and country. If, laying aside all other
considerations, you do not come in presently, and assist in council,
all things will go into confusion; and your presence there will easily
retrieve all. The castle has been very nearly surprised, and an
advertisement which Secretary Johnstone had from France, and wrote
hither, has saved it. When things are any ways composed you may return
to your former measures, for I do not approve of them. I do advise
your Grace to the most honourable thing you can do; and without which
your country must perish.’ This ‘spirited letter,’ as it is called by
Dalrymple--in whose _Memoirs_ it is printed--is said to have induced
Hamilton to make up his quarrel with the Court, and in the following
year he was once more presiding over the debates of the Scottish
Parliament.
It was probably about this time, or soon after, that the project of
forming the ‘Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies’
first took shape in the fertile brain of William Paterson, who may
perhaps have met Fletcher in Holland before the Revolution. He was in
London in 1690; and Dalrymple says that in Scotland it was always
believed that Fletcher brought him down to Saltoun, and presented him
to the Marquis of Tweeddale, to whom Paterson unfolded the great
scheme. Then Fletcher, ‘with that power which a vehement spirit always
possesses over a diffident one, persuaded the Marquis, by arguments of
public good, and of the honour which would redound to his
administration, to adopt the scheme.’
Sir John Dalrymple of Stairs, Mr. Secretary Johnstone, and Sir James
Stewart, then Lord Advocate, took the matter in hand, and the famous
Act constituting the Company was passed by the Scottish Parliament,
and received the royal assent on the 26th of June 1695. When the
subscription list was opened, in February 1696, Fletcher put his name
down for one thousand pounds’ worth of stock.
The story of the expedition which the Company sent to Darien, and of
the tragic fate of the adventurers, has been told and retold so often
that every child from John o’ Groat’s House to the Cheviots knows it
off by heart. It has never been forgotten in Scotland. England had to
face the question--Shall we run the risk of a war with Spain to save
the property of a Scottish trading Company, and the lives of some
twelve hundred Scotsmen? And England answered--No.
Fletcher was a rich man, and the disaster at Darien did not mean ruin
to him, as it did to so many of his countrymen. But the sight of their
sufferings, the callous indifference of the English Government, and
the knowledge that there was not one London merchant in a hundred who
did not, in his heart, rejoice in the ruin which had befallen the
Scottish traders, made him, as it made most Scotsmen, distrust
England, and devote himself, heart and soul, for the rest of his life,
to the cause of Scottish independence.