44

HISTORY 03? ENGLAND.

cnAp.

XIII.

1689,

may appear to the generation which has seen the RomanCatholic Association and the League against the Corn Laws,was then thought marvellous and formidable. The leaders ofthe confederacy boasted that, they would force the King to dothem right. They got up petitions and addresses, tried to in-flame the populace by means of the press and the pulpit,employed emissaries among the soldiers, and talked of bringingup a large body of Covenanters from the west to overawe thePrivy Council. In spite of every artifice, however, the fermentof the public mind gradually subsided. The Government, aftersome hesitation, ventured to open the Courts of Justice whichthe Estates had closed. The Lords of Session appointed by theKing took then - seats; and Sir James Dalrymple presided. TheClub attempted to induce the advocates to absent themselvesfrom the bar, and eptertained some hope that the mob wouldpull the judges from the bench. But it speedily became clearthat there w r as much more likely to be a scarcity of fees than oflawyers to take them: the common people of Edinburgh werewell pleased to see again a tribunal associated in their mindswith the dignity and prosperity of their city; and by many signsit appeared that the false and greedy faction which had com-manded a majority of the legislature did not command a majo-rity of the nation.*

* The history of Scotland daring this autumn will be best studied inthe Leven and Melville Tapers.