282

msTouY or England.

crur.

XIII.

1683 .

separate convention. Gordon however positively refused to- take on himself so grave a responsibility on no better warrantthan the request of a small cabal.*

By this time- the Estates had a guard on which they couldrely more firmly than on the undisciplined and turbulent Cove-nanters of the West. A squadron of English men of war fromthe Thames had arrived in the Frith of Forth. On board werethe three Scottish regiments which had accompanied Williamfrom Holland. He had, with groat judgment, selected themto protect the assembly which was to settle the government oftheir country; and, that no cause of jealousy might be given toa people exquisitely sensitive on points of national honour, hehad purged the ranks of all Dutch soldiers, and had thus re-duced the number of men to about eleven hundred. This littleforce was commanded by Andrew Mackay, a Highlander ofnoble descent, who had served long on the Continent, and whowas distinguished by courage of the truest temper, and by apiety such as is seldom found in soldiers of fortune. The Con-vention passed a resolution appointing Mackay general of theirforces. When the question was put on this resolution, theArchbishop of Glasgow, unwilling doubtless to be a party tosuch an usurpation of powers which belonged to the King alone,begged that the prelates might be excused from voting. Di-vines, he said, had nothing to do with military arrangements.“The Fathers of the Church,” answered a member very keenly,“have been lately favoured with a new light. I have myselfseen military orders signed by the Most Reverend person whohas suddenly become so scrupulous. There w r as indeed onedifference: those orders tvere for dragooning Protestants, andthe resolution before us is meant to protect us from Papists.”**

* Balcarras.

** Act. Pari. Scot.; History of the late Revolution, 1690; Memoirs ofNorth Britain, 1715.