west in such confusion and discouragement, that all acting against
the enemy was impossible. But the matter stood not at this point. In
our debates, at the time of the engagement, our publick professions
were, of our clearness to fight against the English sectaries, for
vindication of the covenant, and the King’s just rights, on the
parliament’s grant to us of some few desires. Mess. J. Guthrie and
Jo. Livingston their whisperings a little in the ear to the contrary,
were not then audible. It was strange to me thereafter, when I heard
Wariston and Mr Guthrie speak it out, that it would take a long
debate to clear from the covenant, the lawfulness of an offensive
war against Cromwell and his party; yet in a short time it appeared,
that the quarrel of the King or covenant, or any quarrel tending to
war with the English, became to divers more questionable than it
wont to be. Whether a fear of the troubles of war, or a despair of
conquering the King to the publick, or their own personal interests,
or a desire to keep the government, not only in the form, but in
the hands it was in, or truly judgement of mind, drew men to those
changes of former professed principles, I cannot say; only a great
deal of zeal was begun to be practised against all who did smell in
any excess of favour towards the King. What strict acts of kirk and
state were made against malignancy. What numbers were cast out of
their charges in the church, state, and army. What bars were put to
their re-admitting. You know too much pleading was for the justice
of beheading the King, whatever fault was in the actors. Mr Guthrie
and Mr Gillespie’s debates were passionate against the proclaiming
of the King, till his qualifications for government had first been
tried and allowed. You may remember the labour was taken to hinder
the addresses to the King; and how like it was to have prevailed,
had not the reason, authority, and diligence of Argyle, overswayed
it; and, for all that could be said, the voting of Mess. Guthrie,
Gillespie, Hutcheson, and Durham, that no commissioner should be sent
till a change in the King should appear; and when it was carried to
send commissioners, I will not forget the great study of some to make
their instructions so rigid, that few had any hope the King would
ever assent to them; and when, above hope, the King had yielded to
all the commissioners had required, the industry of these same men
to get new instructions posted away to Holland, which, had they come
thither before the King’s imbarking, were expected by all should
have ruined the treaty. Yet when, by the extraordinary favour of
God, the King was brought into Scotland, to do what either kirk or
state had required; and, upon this agreeance, the noise of Cromwell’s
march towards us was grown loud, Sir John Cheesly, Hopeton, and
Swinton, kept off, by their debates in parliament, the raising of
our army so long, that we were near surprised; and when our army
was got together at Leith, the same men helped, by their continual
cross-debates, to keep all in confusion. Their strange affronting
of the King at Leith; the putting of him to a new declaration; and,
when he stuck but at some hard expressions, concerning the persons
of his father and mother; their procuring from the kirk and state
that terrible act of disclaiming his interest of the 13th of August;
that same night, without the kirk’s knowledge, printed it, and sent
it to Cromwell with a trumpet. All these things bred jealousies in
the observers, what the intentions of some men might be; yet all was
dissembled, till after the defeat at Dunbar these intentions broke
out in their actions. So soon as they saw it probable that they were
to have a force to be ruled by themselves alone, it became their work
to have that army so great, and the other at Stirling so small, as
they were able.
Then, in these meetings with Mr Gillespie, where Sir John Cheesly
and some three or four burgesses did meet oft and long, propositions
of a strange and high nature were in hand, as Robert Lockhart, who
sometimes was present, did show to Argyle and others. The first
vent of their motions was at the provincial synod in Glasgow,
where Mr Patrick, Mr Hutcheson, Ker, Strachan and others, with
much night-waking, brought forth that strange remonstrance of the
synod, where Mr Patrick, obtaining a committee to consider the sins
procuring the wrath of God on the land, did put such men on it as
he liked best, and by them the framing of the draught was put upon
himself, who quickly begat that pretty piece which I sent you. It
doubtless had been the subject of more discourse, had it not been
drowned in the subsequent more absurd one on the same head in the
name of the army; for at the very first, it fell on the face of the
general assembly and parliament, and condemns both for their first
treating with the King, and for the renewing of it in a second
address; but most for closing of it without evidence of his real
change. Then these most bitter invectives against the state, for
which Mr Patrick had used so high language with you and Mr Douglas,
in face of the commission, at length are all brought in, with large
additions, to any thing was then heard. I have oft of late regretted
to see the judicatories of the church so easily led to whatever some
few of our busy men designed, but never more than in the particular
in hand. I am sure the most of that writ was without the knowledge
of the most, and against the sense of many, of the brethren. Yet
all was voted, _nemine contradicente_, except honest Mr W. Russel,
Mr R. Ramsay, and Mr Jo. Bell, spoke a little to some words, but
on the matter let all go. Fearing what was in hand, I could speak
but little. The night before I expected nothing more should have
been pressed but a keeping out engagers from the army. I loved not
to appear in contradiction to some violent men; yet my heart being
against their conclusion, I was, after much soliciting and prayer,
brought to a necessity of contradicting, and had thought on some
reasons for that point to have been mainly proponed for my dissent;
although I doubt not but my impatience and canker had broken out, if
I had heard, which I had never dreamed of, their invectives against
the treaties; but the Lord, in a very sensible way to me, carried it
so, that neither the synod was troubled with me, nor the peace of
my mind by them. I once inclined to absent myself, and had indeed
gone out, but behoved to return, not daring to take that course; but
behold, when I was ready to go to the synod at that diet when the
remonstrance came in, my Lord Cassils sent his man to call me to
speak with him at his lodging. While we are a little serious about
sundry of the publick affairs, I found that more time had gone than
either of us had observed, and telling him that my absence from
the synod might be mistaken, I took my leave, and with all haste
I got up to the church; where I found, at my entry, that all the
debates on that paper were closed, and after thrice reading, it was
going to the vote. I adored divine providence, who truly beside my
purpose, but much to my content, had given me a fair occasion to
say nothing of a writ, whereof I never heard a line read. This, for
the time, and since, was a satisfactory ground for my silence, to
my own mind, in that remonstrance which brought to the consenters,
let be the contrivers, but small credit; the commission of the
church having so far disavowed it, as for no request they could be
induced to countenance it towards the committee of estates; but Mr
Patrick behoved to present it himself, without the company of any
from that meeting, which would have made a noise, had not the second
remonstrance filled the ears of the whole kingdom with a louder sound.
Mr R. Ramsay and others had pressed that for removing of
jealousies from many who were then speaking their doubts of some
mens intentions, that the officers of the army should put forth
a declaration of their designs. To me the motion savoured not.
Since the raising of these forces were allowed by the states, all
declarations from particular officers seemed needless; yet, on the
synod’s motion to Colonel Ker, a declaration by him and his fellows
was promised, and presently gone about by Mr Patrick and the chief
associates then present. But, as Mr Patrick told us, it was laid
aside by the advice sent them by Wariston from Stirling, and Mr James
Guthrie, betwixt whom and them the posts then and thereafter ran very
thick night and day, not so much on that ground, he told us, that
they thought it illegal for such private persons to make publick
manifestoes, as for that, as I suspect, which he told us not.
About this time, the King’s head was filled by some unhappy men
about him, especially Dr Fraser and Henry Seymour, with many extreme
fears. After the affront at Leith, they had raised suspicions in his
mind, which, upon the defeat at Dunbar, were increased, but, by the
separate rising in the west, brought near to the head of a design to
break the treaty with him, and agree upon his expenses with Cromwell.
Upon these motions, the malignants in the north stept in, and, by
the forenamed persons, began a correspondence for the raising of the
north for his present service, under the conduct of Middleton. So
many noblemen were on this unhappy enterprise. Crawford was given out
for its head and contriver, albeit he professed to me his opposition
to it. Lauderdale knew of it; but he has said so far to me, that I
believe him he opposed it to his power. However, the thing was so
foolishly laid, and the King, by the counsels of these about him,
was so various in giving order for that rising, sometimes commanding
and then countermanding to rise, that all the party was put in a
confusion; yet, by the information of these foresaid fools, the
King being put in fear, that Lorn, going timely to bury a soldier,
was drawing together his regiment to lay hands on him, contrary to
his former resolutions; he took horse with some two or three, as if
it had been to go a kawking, but crossed Tay, and stayed not till
he came to Clowe in Angus. By the way he repented of the journey,
and meeting with Lauderdale at Diddup, and Balcarras coming from
Dundee by accident, was almost persuaded by them to return; yet, by
Diddup and Buchan he was kept in Clowe. But when he came to that
miserably-accommodated house, and in place of the great promised
forces, he saw nothing but a small company of highlanders, he
presently sent for Robert Montgomery, who was near with his regiment,
and without more ado, did willingly return, exceedingly confounded
and dejected for that ill-advised start. When it was first blazed
abroad, it filled all good men with great grief, and to my own heart
it brought one of the most sensible sorrows that in all my life I had
felt. Yet his quick return of his own accord, and his readiness to
give all satisfaction for that failure, and his kind receiving by the
committee of states, among whom he ever sat after his return, (though
never before), turned our grief suddenly into joy, his absence not
lasting above two full days. Yet all men were not so soon satisfied.
Sundry of them who had been on the plot, fearing a discovery and
punishment, flew to arms; Lewis Gordon, Ogilvie, Athol, and others,
under Middleton’s command, putting out a number of fair pretexts for
their rising. This might have destroyed all; yet, by God’s mercy, all
was quickly quieted. D. Leslie, with all his horse, marched towards
them; the King wrote earnestly to them to lay down. The committee
of estates sent a fair act of indemnity, and so without more ado
they went home. Mr James Guthrie had well near marred this peace; he
moved Middleton’s summar excommunication. Mr R. Douglas, and most
number present, were against it; yet Mr James and Mr Patrick, by two
or three votes of elders, obtained it. And though the committee of
estates, by an earnest letter, intreated Mr James to delay a little
the execution, yet on the next sabbath he executed the sentence to
the regret of many.
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.