THE CONVENTION STATE THEIR GRIEVANCES.

In the meantime lord Dundee exerted himself with uncommon activity in behalf of his master. He had been summoned by a trumpet to return to the convention, refused to obey the citation on pretence that the whigs had made an attempt upon his life; and that the deliberations of the estates were influenced by the neighbourhood of English troops, under the command of Mackay. He was forthwith declared a fugitive, outlaw, and rebel. He was rancorously hated by the pres-byterians, on whom he had exercised some cruelties as an officer under the former government: and for this reason the states resolved to inflict upon him exemplary punishment. Parties were detached in pursuit of him and Balcarras. This last fell into their hands, and was committed to a common prison; but Dundee fought his way through the troops that surrounded him, and escaped to the Highlands, where he determined to take arms in favour of James, though that prince had forbid him to make any attempt of this nature until he should receive a reinforcement from Ireland. While this officer was employed in assembling the clans of his party, king William appointed the duke of Hamilton commissioner to the convention parliament. The post of secretary for Scotland was bestowed upon lord Melvil, a weak and servile nobleman, who had taken refuge in Holland from the violence of the late reigns: but the king depended chiefly for advice upon Dalrymple lord Stair, president of the college of justice, an old crafty fanatic, who for forty years had complied in all things with all governments. Though these were rigid pres-byterians, the king, to humour the opposite party, admitted some individuals of the episcopal nobility to the council-board; and this intermixture, instead of allaying animosities, served only to sow the seeds of discord and confusion. The Scottish convention, in their detail of grievances, enumerated the lords of the articles; the act of parliament in the reign of Charles II. by which the king’s supremacy was raised so high that he could prescribe any mode of religion according to his pleasure; and the superiority of any office in the church above that of presbyters. The king in his instructions to the lord commissioner, consented to the regulation of the lords of the articles, though he would not allow the institution to be abrogated; he was contented that the act relating to the king’s supremacy should be rescinded, and that the church government should be established in such a manner as would be most agreeable to the inclinations of the people.