of the English exclufionifts. He went into England, and passed over to Holland for that purpofe. He engaged in the Rye-. house plot, so far as it related to the obtaining of a free parliament, the redrefs of public grievances, and the exclufion of the duke of York; and he thought it juftifiable to take up arms for procuring those conftitutional remedies which had been repeatedly denied to complaints and remonftrances.

On the difcovery of the confpiracy, Mr. Carftares was feized at Tenterden in Kent, thrown into the jail of that place and from thence conducted to London, and committed to close cuftody in the Gate-house, where he continued upwards of eleven weeks. During this time, he was often brought before the privy council; but could never be prevailed upon to reveal any particulars which could affect any one of those who had been concerned in the fcheme for preventing the popish fucceffion. Finding, at laft, that he had nothing to expect in the way of favour from the king, but upon terms with which he was incapable of complying, he gave in a petition to the court of king's bench, for his habeas corpus. But instead of this, he was fent down to Scotland the next day, and configned over into the hands of the privy-council, or rather, the political inquifition of that kingdom; where the inhuman practice of extracting evidence by torture ftill fubfifted in all its rigour, though banished from the courts of England, as repugnant to the genius and conftitution of a free people. Mr. Carfares was put to the torture, which he endured with great compofure and firmness.

When the privy-council found, by experience, that all attempts to bring him to a confeffion by violence would probably prove ineffectual; they empowered Lord Melfort, one of the fecretaries of state, to treat with him upon milder terms. They fpecified certain queftions to be put to him; and, upon condition he would anfwer them, they authorised the secretary to promife him an ample pardon to himself, and that he should never be produced as a witness in any trial. Not only so, but if Mr. Carftares infifted upon it, they farther engaged, that none of his anfwers to the interrogatories they were to put to him should ever be produced in evidence, either directly or indirectly, against any perfon, or before any judicatory whatso ever. With these terms he complied, having firft ftipulated that the promise of the privy-council to him fhould be ratified by a deed of court, and recorded in their books. He told them that the reason why he infifted upon this was, not that he had any thing to reveal which could, in the eye of the law, be hurtful to his friends, but that he was determined rather to die an hundred deaths than to fubmit to the difhonour of having his teftimony produced in court against any one of those who were

at that time under profecution before the criminal courts. This agreement was, however, violated in the most fhameful manner. The privy council caused a paper to be printed, containing a moft lame, falfe, and imperfect account of the whole tranfaction; and, in direct violation of the only condition upon which he would confent to answer the queries propofed to him, they suffered his evidence, as they falfely termed it, to be produced in open court against one of his moft intimate friends, Mr. Baillie of Jervifwood.

While Mr. Carftares was confined in the castle of Edinburgh, having procured a copy of Thuanus, who was his favourite Author, he fpent most of his time in the perufal of his history. As he had no variety, he read that voluminous work no less than three times over. The effect of which was, that it became as familiar to him to think and to speak in Latin as in English.

Another anecdote relative to his imprisonment, fays Dr. M'Cormick, ought not to be omitted, as he ufed to take great pleasure in relating it himself. One day, not long after his commitment, a boy, about twelve years of age, fon to Erskine of Cambo, lieutenant-governor of the caftle, in the courfe of his rambles through the court, came to the grate of his apartment. As he always loved to amufe himself with young people, he went towards the grate, and began a converfation with him. The boy was captivated with the gentle and engaging manner in which he accofted him; and, mightily pleafed with his firft interview, he refolved to cultivate his new acquaintance. In a day or two after, he returned at the fame hour to the grate; and, in the courfe of a few periodical vifits of this kind, he conceived the ftrongeft attachment to the pri foner would fit by him for hours, lamenting his unhappy fitu ation, and telling a thousand ftories to divert him. He would fometimes load his pockets with provifions of different forts, and oblige him to partake with him. At other times, he would purchafe for him pen, ink, and paper; and, when he had wrote his letters, he would come at night and carry them to the poft office himself. He was quite unhappy, if Mr. Carftares had no errand. to fend him, or no favour to afk. This intimacy fubfifted between them fo long as Mr. Cartares continued in cuftody; and, when their intercourfe was broken off by his release, the feparation was attended with tears on both fides. It was not many years before Mr. Carftares had an opportunity of telifying his gratitude. One of the first private favours he asked of King William, was, that he would beflow the office of Lord Lyon upon his young friend, to whofe humanity and kind offices he had owed his chief confolation in his deepest diftrefs; and he obtained his request, with this addi tional compliment, that it fhould be hereditary in the family. He did not, however, live long to enjoy it in his own perfon; and his eldest fon forfeited the fucceffion, by engaging in the rebellion 1715.' Mr. Carftares, after his releafe, retired to Holland, where he was graciously received by the prince of Orange, who ap

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pointed him one of his own chaplains, and procured him to be elected minifter of the English proteftant congregation at Leyden. In this fituation, he was intimately concerned in all the counfels which led to the Revolution, and was very active in promoting that great event. He came over into England with the prince, and nothing of confequence was carried on relative to the fettlement of Scotland which his royal mafter did not communicate to him, and permit him to give his fentiments of in private. No fooner were William and Mary proclaimed king and queen of Scotland, than their majefties gave Mr. Carftares a proof of their esteem, by nominating him to be their chaplain for Scotland, and annexing the whole revenue belonging to the chapel royal to that office. At the fame time, his majefty intimated to him, that he required his constant attendance upon his perfon.

Our limits will not permit us to give a particular account of the concern which Mr. Carftares had in Scottish affairs, and the various fervices he performed to that kingdom. But there is one proof of his zeal for his native, country, and of his influence over king William, which is too curious and extraordinary to pass unnoticed.

In the parliament which fat in Scotland in the year 1693, an act was paffed, obliging all in office to take the oath of allegiance to their Majefties, and at the fame time to fign the affurance, (as it was called) whereby they declared William to be king de jure, as well as de Falto. As this was the first inftance of an oath, and declaration of that kind imposed upon the church; and as those who urged it were known to be none of her friends, the prefbyterian minifters took the alarm, and confidered it as intended with a view to involve them in the fame fituation with the epifcopal clergy. From a paper, which Dr. McCormick has inferted, it appears that the Prefbyterian clergy had reason to be diffatisfied on this occafion. But be this as it may, they refufed figning the declaration; and applied for redrefs to the Privy Council, who, by the law, had a power to difpenfe with the requifition of the oath, in such cases as they fhould think proper. The Privy Council, however, were fo far from complying with their demands, that they recommended to his majefty, that an order fhould be iffued out for every minifter's taking the oath, and figning the affurance, before he fhould be allowed to take his feat in the enfuing affembly. Advantage being taken of Mr. Carftares' abfence from court, the king was prevailed upon to give instructions to his commiffioner, Lord Carmichael, to require all the reprefentatives of the clergy in the enfuing general affembly to fign the affurance; and, if they refufed, to diffolve the affembly in his majesty's name. When Lord Carmichael communicated

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nicated his orders to fome of the clergy in Edinburgh, he found them obftinate in their refolutions not to comply; and he faw, that all his attempts to bring them to a better temper would be vain and fruitlefs. As the commiffioner was fenfible that the diffolution of the affembly would not only prove fatal to the church of Scotland, but also to his majesty's intereft in that kingdom, he undertook to lay the matter, as it ftood, fairly before the king; and for that purpose, fent off a flying packet, which he expected to return from London, with the king's final determination, the night before the affembly was appointed to meet. At the fame time, the clergy fent up a memorial to Mr. Carftares, urging him to use his good offices, in this critical conjuncture, for the prefervation of that church which he had fo active a hand in eftablishing.

The flying packet, fays Dr. M'Cormick, arrived at Kenfington in the forenoon of that day upon which Mr. Carllares returned. But, before his arrival, his Majefty, by the advice of Lord Stair and Lord Tarbat, who reprefented this obftinacy of the clergy as an act of rebellion against his government, had renewed his inftructions to the commiffioner, and fent them off by the fame packet.

When Mr. Carftares came to Kenfington and received his letters, he immediately inquired what was the nature of the dispatches his Majefty had fent off for Scotland; and, upon learning their contents, he went directly, and, in his Majesty's name, required the messenger, who was just fetting off, to deliver them up to him. It was now late at night; and, as he knew no time was to be loft, (the general affembly being to fit in a few days,) he ran to his Majeffy's apartment; and, being informed, by the lord in waiting that he was gone to bed, he told him it was a matter of the lait importance which had brought him at that unfeasonable hour, and that he must fee the King.

Upon entering the chamber, he found his Majefty faft afleep, upon which, turning afide the curtain, and falling down upon his knees, he gently awaked him. The King, aftonifhed to fee him at fo late an hour, and in this pofture by his bed-fide, asked him what was: the matter? He anfwered, he had come to afk his life. And is it poffible, faid the King, that you have been guilty of a crime that deferves death? He acknowledged he had, and then produced the difpatches he had brought back from the meffenger. And have you, fays the King, with a fevere frown, have you indeed prefamed to countermand my orders? Mr. Cartares then begged leave only to be heard a few words, and he was ready to fubmit to any punishment his Majefty fhould think proper to inflict. He faid,

"That the King had now known him long, and knew his entire fidelity and attachment to his perfon and government. Some of his fervants in Scotland might find it their intereft to impofe upon his Majefty, to screen themselves from his merited difpleafure. Others. might, under the mafk of zeal for his fervice, feek only to gratify

their own private refentments; and, whilft they pretended to conciliate all parties to his government, might purfue fuch measures as would only unite them in oppofing it.

"That this was the foundation of all thofe factions which had hitherto rent that kingdom, and made its crown fit fo uneafy upon his head: That, for his own part, he could call God to witness, that, ever fince he entered into his Majefty's fervice, he had no intereft, for he could have none, feparate from that of his master: That, though he had been educated a prefbyterian, and, on that account, had a natural bias to this form of church-government; yet his Majefty knew, that, when he recommended the establishment of prefbytery in Scotland, he did it, because he was firmly perfuaded the prefbyterians were the only friends his Majefty had in that country: That his regard to their principles had not rendered him blind to their faults: That he had been aware of the indiscreet use they would make of the liberal conceffions in their favour in Lord Melville's parliament, and had freely given his fentiments upon that head: That, with the fame freedom he had remonftrated against the precipitated measures adopted in the last feffion of parliament, under the pretext of correcting the errors of the former: That the effects had juftified his opinion of both. The firft had alienated all the epifcopals, the last great part of the prefbyterians, from his administration. One thing alone was wanting to complete the wishes of his enemies, and that was, to cement the two parties by one common bond of union That nothing could be better calculated for this purpose, than the advice which had been given to his Majefty to push the administration of the oaths to the minifters before the fitting down of the affembly: That, although there was nothing unreasonable in what his Majefty required, yet fome who had credit with them had fallen upon methods to reprefent their compliance as inconfiftent with their principles, and had been so far fuccefsful, that they were determined not to comply: That, however unjustifiable in other refpects their conduct might be, it proceeded from no difaffection to his person and government; and that, whilst this was the cafe, it was more for his Majefty's intereft to confirm their attachment, by difpenfing with the rigour of the law, than to lofe their affections by enforcing it. What avail oaths and promifes to a prince, when he has loft the hearts of his fubjects? Now was the time, therefore, to retrieve his affairs in that kingdom: That, by countermanding the inftructions he had fent down to his commiffioner, he conferred the higheft obligations upon the whole body of the prefbyterian clergy, gratified all his friends in that kingdom, and effectually thwarted the infidious arts of his and their enemies."

The King heard him with great attention, and, when he had done, gave him the difpatches to read, and defired him to throw them in the fire; after which, he bid him draw up the inftructions to the commiffioner in what terms he pleafed, and he would fign them. Mr. Carftares immediately wrote to the commiffioner, fignifying, that it was his Majesty's pleasure to difpenfe with putting the oaths to the minifters; and, when the King had figned it, he immediately dispatched the meffenger, who, by being detained fo many