WILLIAM AND MANY.

281

The Estates then proceeded to send a letter of thanks to chap.William. To this letter were attached the signatures of many 168a '—noblemen and gentlemen who were in the interest of thebanished King. The Bishops however unanimously refused tosubscribe their names.

It had long been the custom of the Parliaments of Scotlandto entrust the preparation of Acts to a select number of memberswho were designated as the Lords of the Articles. In confor-mity with this usage, the business of framing a plan for the A com-settling of the government was now confided to a Committee of> al ,pointedtwenty four. Of the twenty four eight were peers, eight repre- p° a r J a ™"sentatives of counties, and eight representatives of towns. Themajority of the Committee were Whigs; and not a single pre-late had a seat.

The spirit of the Jacobites, broken by a succession of dis-asters, was, about this time, for a moment revived by the ar-rival of the Duke of Queensberry from London. His rank washigh: his influence was great: his character, by comparison■with the characters of those who surrounded him, was fair.

When Popery was in the ascendent, he had been true to thecause of the Protestant Church; and, since Whiggism had beenin the ascendent, he had been true to the cause of hereditarymonarchy. Some thought that, if he had been earlier in hisplace, he might have been able to render important service tothe House of Stuart.* Even now the stimulants which he ap-plied to his torpid and feeble party produced some faint symp-toms of returning animation. Means were found of communi-cating with Gordon; and he was earnestly solicited to fire onthe city. The Jacobites hoped that, as soon as the cannonballs had beaten down a few chimneys, the Estates would ad-journ to Glasgow. Time would thus be gained; and the roy-alists might be able to execute their old project of meeting in a* Balcarras.