The Jacobite Rebellions | Page 3

After enduring many years the loss of his rank and his
country, from the injustice of the Duke of York, he, at the age of
seventy, assumed again his long-neglected sword and cuirass, and came
over with the Prince of Orange, who was so fond of him that he carried
him in his own ship. The influence of Lord Stair in party was increased
by that of his son Sir John Dalrymple, a man distinguished above all by
the beauty of his person, and the power of his eloquence. To the
wisdom and experience of the father, to the parts and show of the son,
rather than to the power of the Duke of Hamilton, William, certain that
the two former could never hope to be pardoned by James, resolved to
leave the management of Scotland in the end; but, in the meantime, to
make advantage of the Duke's offers of service for the settlement of
that country.
Of all those nobles whom James, when Duke of York, had honoured

with his friendship, and when King, graced with his favours, a few only
continued openly in his interest. Of these the chief were the Duke of
Gordon, a Roman Catholic, to whom James had entrusted the castle of
Edinburgh, a man weak, and wavering in courage, but bound by shame
and religion; Lord Balcarres attached by affection, gratitude, and that
delicacy of sentiment which the love of letters commonly inspires; and
Lord Dundee, who had for ever before his eyes ideas of glory, the duty
of a soldier, and the example of the great Montrose, from whose family
he was descended. James had entrusted the care of his civil concerns in
Scotland to Balcarres, and of his military ones to Dundee. William
asked both to enter into his service. Dundee refused without ceremony.
Balcarres confessed the trust which had been put in him, and asked the
King, if, after that, he could enter into the service of another? William
generously answered, "I cannot say that you can." But added, "Take
care that you fall not within the law; for otherwise I shall be forced
against my will to let the law overtake you." The other nobles of the
late King's party waited for events, in hopes and in fears from the old
government and the new, intriguing with both, and depended upon by
neither.

THE CONVENTION OF ESTATES (1689).
+Source.+--Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, from the Dissolution
of the Last Parliament of Charles II. until the Sea-Battle off La Hogue,
vol. i., p. 218, by Sir John Dalrymple, Bart. (London and Edinburgh:
1771.)
The convention met on the 14th of March. As the governing part of the
boroughs had been modelled by King James, the members sent up from
thence should have been favourable to his interests. But Lord Stair,
whose views were extensive, had taken care, in the paper which
contained the offer of administration to the Prince, to recommend that
the borough-elections should be made by a general poll of the
burgesses; an artifice which, while it took the blame of innovation off
the Prince, prepared the way for securing the elections to the whigs and
presbyterians. The parties at the convention first tried their strengths in

the choice of a president. The Duke of Hamilton was set up by the new,
the Marquis of Athole by the old court: a singular situation, where both
candidates were distrusted, both by those who recommended, and by
those who elected them. The former was preferred by 40 votes out of
about 150 voters: a victory which, from the nature of the human mind,
determined the wavering. A committee of elections was next named,
consisting of nine whigs and three tories. Sir John Dalrymple, who was
an able lawyer, found it easy to start objections to the returns of the
opposite party, and to remove those which were made against his own.
The committee in the house followed his opinions, because the
necessity of the times was made the excuse of partiality....
When the convention sat down, two letters were presented, one from
the present, and another from the late King of England. The convention
read both; but first passed an act, that nothing contained in the last of
them should dissolve their assembly, or stop their proceeding to the
settlement of the nation. James's letter was written in the terms of a
conqueror and a priest; threatening the convention with punishment in
this world, and damnation in the next. And, as it was counter-signed by
Lord Melfort, a papist, and a minister abhorred by the presbyterians,
the style and the signature hurt equally the interest which the letter was
intended to serve. No answer was given. William's letter, on the
contrary, was answered in strains of gratitude and respect; a