WILLIAM AND MARY.

187

Not having the means of supporting a hereditary title, he must, chap.if he accepted the high dignity which was offerecfrto him, pre —-side during some years in the Upper House without taking partin the debates. The opinion of others, however, was that hewould be more useful as head of the law than as head of theWhig party in the Commons. He was sent for to Kensington,and called into the Council Chamber. Caermarthen spoke inthe name of the King. “Sir John,” he said, “it is necessaryfor the public service that you should take this charge uponyou; and I have it in command from His Majesty to say thathe can admit of no excuse.” Somers submitted. The seal wasdelivered to him, with a patent which entitled him to a pensionof two thousand a year from the day on which he should quithis office; and he was immediately sworn in a Privy Councillorand Lord Keeper. *

The Gazette which announced these changes in the ad- Tlie k>”b

° goes to

ministration, announced also the King’s departure.' He set Holland,out for Holland on the twenty-fourth of March.

He left orders that the Estates of Scotland should, after a A sessionrecess of more than two } r ears and a half, be again called to- ment ingether. Hamilton, who had lived many months in retirement,had, since the fall of Melville, been reconciled to the Court,and now consented to quit his retreat, and to occupy HolyroodHouse as Lord High Commissioner. It was necessary that oneof the Secretaries of State for Scotland should be in attendanceon the King. The Master of Stair had therefore gone to theContinent. His colleague, Johnstone, was chief manager forthe Crown at Edinburgh, and was charged to correspondregularly with Carstairs, who never quitted William.**

It might naturally have been expected that the session

* London Gazette, March 27. 1693; Narcissus Luttrell’s Diary.

** Burnet, ii. 123.; Carstairs Papers.