History Of Scotland Vol. 2 - Part 18

( Originally Published 1909 )

IT will be observed that Sir Walter Scott's HISTORY OF SCOTLAND VOL. 2 ends with the year 1603, when James VI. of that kingdom became James I. of England. No doubt a reader of the present day will expect to find added a summary of the more important events that have marked the ensuing three hundred years. The first consequence of the union of the two crowns upon one head was the cessation of the age-long border wars and of the English and French intrigues for ascendency at Edinburgh. On the other hand, Scotland ceased to have a court of its own, a loss not without some counterbalancing advantages, for it tended to promote the independence of the northern king-dom. It is, of course, well understood that the mere accession of James VI. of Scotland to the English throne did not bring about any change in the constitution, laws or National Church of North Britain. Although the Reformation had begotten a multitude of sects, Scotland, at this time, may be fairly described as Presbyterian, England as Episcopal, And Ireland as Papal. James himself desired to see his native land united with England, not only by a junction of the crowns, but also by a fusion of parliaments, and, at all events, by an ultimate, if not immediate consociation of the national churches. The latter desire could not be fulfilled, except by force, so deeply planted in Scotland was the love of the Presbyterian system of church government. Scarcely was James seated, however, upon the English throne before he began endeavors to this end. The first English parliament which convened under his reign appointed commissioners to treat with Scottish commissioners for an accommodation of religious, political, and legal differences. The commissioners met, but they could not agree, the English being determined not to permit freedom of trade, and the Scots being equally opposed to an acceptance of the laws of England. The only points upon which the commissioners could concur were that subjects of the common king, born in either country after the accession of James VI. to the English throne, should have in both kingdoms the privileges of subjects, and that those born before the accession should be capable of inheriting and acquiring land in England; though not of acquiring political rights or offices. The English parliament, however, refused to sanction the agreement, so far as those born after the accession of the Scottish king to the English throne were concerned, though it agreed not to treat Scotland as a foreign country, and to assent to covenants for the mutual extradition of criminals. Meanwhile, King James persisted in his determination to reintroduce episcopacy into Scotland, and the Scottish parliament of 1612 passed a law re-establishing episcopacy in the northern kingdom. At first, however, the bishops were not successful in introducing the same services which were followed in England, but, after the visit of James I. to his native country in 1617, the Scottish parliament tried to assure the desired conformity by enacting the so-called Five Articles of Perth. Three years later, these articles were confirmed by another parliament on the promise given by the royal commissioner that no further ecclesiastical innovations should be proposed. It was this parliament of 1621 which introduced a new mode of electing the so-called Lords of Articles, a species of committee by which all parliamentary business was initiated, and all power of introducing bills was taken away from private members. This law, practically, vested in the king the dual powers of initiative and of the veto. Other incidents in the reign of James I., which should be chronicled, were the ineffective attempt to colonize the Hebrides and the temporarily successful plantation of Ulster by Scottish farmers, the ancestors of the so-called Scotch-Irish. His efforts to colonize Nova Scotia, though they seemed almost abortive at the tine, were to have, in the future, important consequences.

The sovereign who was known as James VI. in Scotland and James I. in England, died in 1625, and was succeeded by his son Charles L During the subsequent eight years, no Scottish parliament did any Business, though one was convoked in 1628, and adjourned annually without action until 1633. Neither was there, during this period, any general assembly of the Presbyterian Church; on the contrary, the restoration of episcopacy was steadily pressed by the exercise of the royal prerogative. Charles I. succeeded at this time in bringing about the resumption of tithes, for the benefit of the clergy, from the laymen who had appropriated them. In 1633 the Scottish parliament distinctly formulated the terms on which the tithes might be acquired by the parochial clergy, and, thereby, arrayed against the crown the nobles and landed gentry, who saw themselves threatened with the loss of all the gains they had derived from the Protestant reformation. Nevertheless, when Charles I. came to Edinburgh in 1633, there were no open signs of insubordination. On the contrary, the Scottish parliament passed thirty-one acts, almost all of which were regarded by contemporary Scotchmen as hurtful to the liberty of the subject. It was not until a twelvemonth after the departure of Charles from Scotland that the first impulse may be said to have been given to the Scottish revolution. In 1635, Lord Balmerino was tried on the charge of possessing a copy of a petition protesting against the acts carried in the parliament over which Charles had presided. Condemned to death, he was respited by the king, but the people of Scotland deeply resented the treatment of the possession of a petition for the redress of grievances as if it were a capital crime. In 1636, the Book of Canons, ratified by the king, was published, and, in the following year, the Liturgy enjoined by the said book was introduced in the service of St. Giles's Cathedral, Edinburgh. This was the beginning of a popular agitation which, in the end, proved fatal to Charles I. The vital difference between his situation and his father's was this, that James I. was so intimately acquainted with the temper of the Scottish people that he knew precisely when to stop short, and even to retrace his steps; his son, on the other hand, from a lack of similar experience, plunged headlong on a path which led him to a precipice. The riots which occurred all over Scotland in 1637 should have convinced him that he had gone too far. Instead of accepting the warning, however, he announced in the following year by a proclamation that he assumed the whole responsibility for the introduction of the hated Liturgy. Thereupon, the opponents of the innovations formed a powerful organization, in which not only the nobles and clergy, but the towns also, were represented, and a so-called Covenant was drawn up by several eminent ministers, and very generally signed. This covenant, while professing respect for the royal office, bound the subscribers to cooperate for the defence of the true reformed religion, and for the liberties and laws of the northern kingdom. Recognizing his inability to subdue by force the Covenanters, Charles I. now endeavored to arrive at a compromise with them. But the effort was a half-hearted one, and, evidently, came too late. An assembly which met at Glasgow failed to effect an accommodation, and it was, accordingly, dissolved by the king's commissioner. Notwithstanding its dissolution, it persisted in sitting, and proceeded to condemn the service-book, or so-called Book of Canons, ratified in 1636 ; it deposed the bishops, declared episcopacy illegal, and restored Presbyterian church government.

The lines were now sharply drawn between the king and the Scottish people. An appeal to arms was inevitable. On June 7, 1639, the Covenanters, under Alexander Leslie, who had been in the service of Gustavus Adolphus, confronted the royal troops at Dunse Law, and were so manifestly superior in quality that Charles gave way, and, by the pacification of Berwick, agreed that all ecclesiastical matters should be thenceforth regulated by assemblies, and all civil affairs by the Scottish parliament and other courts of law. In conformity with this agreement, an assembly was held which re-enacted the resolutions of the Glasgow assembly, above referred to, and ordered every one in authority to subscribe to the Covenant. The Scottish parliament also met and abolished episcopacy. This act of the Edinburgh parliament, however, was not approved by Charles I., who endeavored to secure from the English parliament sufficient funds for the coercion of Scot-land. Once more the Scots appealed to arms, and a strong force under Leslie advanced southward and occupied New-castle. Unable to obtain the money necessary for resisting the invasion, Charles was forced to accept a truce, and the English parliament, after impeaching the Earl of Strafford, the king's ablest supporter, not only refused to raise forces to be employed against the Scots, but actually voted three hundred thousand pounds by way of friendly assistance and relief for "our brethren in Scotland." In the following year, 1641, Charles L came to Edinburgh, in the hope of creating by his personal influence a party favorable to his views. In the Scottish parliament which he summoned, he made large concessions, ratifying an act which substituted the Presbyterian for the Episcopal form of church government, and agreeing that the national legislature should be convoked every third year. These concessions failed to satisfy the Scots, who had no confidence in the king's sincerity, and, in November, Charles I. returned to London, where he had to face that opposition of the Long Parliament which, ultimately, brought him to the scaffold.

The part taken by the Scotch in the civil war can be quickly outlined. Toward the close of 1643, the English parliament sent to Edinburgh commissioners, who formally accepted the "Solemn League and Covenant," in consideration of which act they secured the alliance of the Scottish Covenanters. In the next year, 1644, while a Scotch force lay in the north of England, the Marquis of Montrose, who had accepted a commission from King Charles, made a diversion in the Highlands which was, at first, remarkably successful, but which, in September, was brought to naught by his defeat at the hands of Leslie. In 1645 Charles, whose cause was now ruined in England, ordered Montrose to lay down his arms, and himself took refuge with Leslie, whom he had created Earl of Leven. For some eight months Charles remained with the Scottish army, by the leaders of which an earnest but ineffectual attempt was made to induce him to accept the Covenant. His refusal destroyed his last chance of safety. On January 30, 1646, he was surrendered to the English commissioners by the Scots, who had received a few days previously two hundred thousand pounds sterling, and to whom an equal sum was paid a few days afterward. This transaction gave rise to the reproach, which royalists have never wearied of repeating, that the Scots, like Judas, sold their king for a certain number of pieces of silver.

By the execution of Charles I. the relations between England and Scotland were profoundly modified. In the former kingdom, the so-called Independents, headed by Cromwell, were now all-powerful, and, by a natural reaction against them, the majority of the Scottish Presbyterians decided to proclaim Charles IL, and sent a mission to The Hague to invite the young king to assume the Scottish throne, on condition, however, that he should accept the Covenant and the Presbyterian system of church government. These terms being agreed upon, Charles II. landed in Scotland on June 23, 1650, but, within a month afterward, Cromwell had invaded Scotland, and on September 3 gained a victory over David Leslie at Dunbar, whereby the southern part of the Scottish kingdom fell into his hands. He was unable, how-ever, to intercept the Scottish force under Charles IL, which entered England and advanced as far as Worcester before Cromwell could overtake it. It is well known that the complete defeat of the royalists at Worcester was described by Cromwell as his "crowning mercy." General Monk, who had been left by Cromwell in Scotland, succeeded within three years in subjugating that kingdom, which, in 1654, was, practically, united with England. To the so-called Barebones Parliament, 1653, five Scottish members were summoned, and, in the parliament of 1654, twenty Scotch-men took part. On the death of Cromwell and the proclamation of his son Richard as his successor in both kingdoms, thirty Scotch members were returned to the new parliament, which, however, was presently dissolved. Before the Restoration was effected in England, Charles II. had already been proclaimed king in Scotland.

It might have been supposed that the deeply-rooted desire of Scotchmen for an independent Presbyterian Church would have found favor in the sight of Charles II., when he recalled their fidelity to him in the hour of his adversity. Such, however, was not the ease. All he remembered was that Cromwell had succeeded in conquering Scotland, and in effecting a temporary union of that kingdom with the rest of Britain. The whole power of his government was, from the outset, concentrated on the task of suppressing the religious and civil liberties of Scotland. Argyle, who, in January, 1651, had placed the crown on the head of Charles IL, was now tried and beheaded on a charge of treason, and leading clerical representatives of the more stalwart Presbyterians were hanged. A docile Scottish parliament annulled the acts passed by all preceding parliaments since 1640, and declared the Covenant no longer binding. In 1662, Charles announced his intention of restoring episcopacy, and the execution of this project provoked an insurrection, which, however, for a time, was quelled. In the next ten years, it is estimated that seventeen thousand persons suffered fines or imprisonment for attending conventicler, and not a few were put to death on the same charge. The retaliatory murder of Sharp, archbishop of St. Andrew's, by a small band of Covenanters in May, 1679, was followed by a new rebellion, which, after some successes, was put down, though only with extreme difficulty. The Cameronians, as the insurgents were called, were treated with the utmost cruelty. The last six years of the reign of Charles II. came to be known in Scotland as the "Killing Time." The accession of James II., in 1685, led to a still more rigorous enforcement of the law against conventicles, which was now extended to meetings held in private houses, provided five persons outside of the family attended domestic worship. A number of the Scottish nobles now became converts to the Catholic faith, and James II. offered to give Scotland free trade with England and an indemnity for political offences on condition that Catholics should be released from the test and penal laws. Then came the revolution of 1688, which had the effect of splitting Scotland into two divisions, the Catholics and Episcopalians clinging to James II., and forming the Jacobite party, while William and Mary were supported by the Presbyterians. Graham of Claverhouse, who commanded in Scotland for James II., beat William's general at Killiecrankie, on July 29, 1689, but his death at the moment of victory rendered it impossible to hold the Jacobites together, and the surrender of the principal fortresses kept Scotland quiet for the next two reigns. A convention parliament called at Edinburgh declared that James II. had forfeited the crown, and recognized William and Mary as king and queen of Scotland, providing, also, that, after Mary's death, the royal power should be exercised by William alone, and, in the event of his decease, by Anne of Denmark and her heirs. The Scottish parliament of 1690 put an end to the so-called Committee of Articles, which had monopolized the power of initiative in legislation, approved the Westminster Confession, reestablished the Presbyterian Church, and restored all surviving Presbyterian ministers that had been deposed since 1661. In matters of free trade and navigation, however, the government of William and Mary discriminated against the Scots, believing that such discrimination was needed to persuade them to consent to a union with England. It was during this reign that the attempt of Scotchmen to find on the Isthmus of Darien an independent outlet for colonization and investment ended in overwhelming disaster. The great achievement of the reign of Anne, so far as Scotland was concerned, was the final accomplishment of the union of that kingdom with England. Many obstacles had to be surmounted before the arrangement was effected. At one time, the Scottish parliament went so far as to exclude from the throne of Scotland, after the death of Anne, the successor to the English throne, except upon such conditions as would assure freedom of trade to Scotland. The refusal to grant this boon caused the failure of the joint commission, which sat from November, 1702, to February, 1705, for the purpose of bringing about a union. In the course of the last-named year, however, a new joint commission was appointed, which sat for some three months at Whitehall and framed a treaty of union, the chief articles of which were as follows: Both crowns were settled on Anne and her descendants, and, failing these, on the electress Sophia and the Hanoverian line; free trade was to exist between England and Scotland, and the Scotch were to have equal privileges, as regarded trade with other countries; the national debt and taxation were adjusted by imposing upon Scotland less than one-fifth of the land tax, and there was to be a uniform rate of customs and excise duties; finally, Scotland was to send forty-five members to the House of Commons and to elect from its peerage for each parliament sixteen representatives to the House of Lords. Considerable as were the concessions to Scotland, the treaty of union was, upon the whole, received with dissatisfaction in that country, and it was only with difficulty that it was ratified by the Edinburgh parliament. The act of union took effect on May 1, 1707, having received the royal assent on the preceding 6th of March. It is, of course, understood that, although, by this measure, Scot-land lost its legislative independence, its Presbyterian church establishment was guaranteed, and it also retained its own system of judicature and laws. It also kept its national system of parish schools, burgh schools and universities.

We should further note that, up to 1746, the management of Scottish affairs in London was intrusted to a Secretary of State for Scotland, an office which has been revived in our own day.

It was late in the eighteenth century, however, before Scotland became reconciled to its loss of legislative independence. The people, moreover, felt themselves to be distinct from the English, and two rebellions attested their lingering devotion to the House of Stuart. Many of the Highland clans, the Catholics, and some of the Episcopalians, long considered that, after the death of Anne, their allegiance was due to the heirs male of James II. In 1715 they pro-tested, in the name of James III., against the accession of the House of Brunswick, but their insurrection under the Earl of Mar was speedily quelled. Very different was the temporary outcome of their uprising, in 1745, on behalf of Charles, the son of the titular James III., and best known as the Young Pretender. An English force was defeated at Prestonpans, and, for a time, it looked as if the whole of Scotland would fall into Jacobite hands. At the head of a small army, largely composed of Highlanders, the Young Pretender advanced into England as far as Derby, and, for a moment, caused a species of panic in London. The Highlanders, however, refused to second Charles in his project of moving quickly on the British metropolis, and, a retreat being ordered, they managed to reach Glasgow within about two months after their southward departure from Edinburgh. They defeated at Falkirk an English force under General Hawley, which was attempting to raise the Jacobite siege of Stirling, but this was their last success. Driven back to Inverness, the supporters of Charles were utterly beaten by the Duke of Cumberland at Culloden in April, 1746, and the Pretender was compelled to seek safety in flight. After prolonged and romantic wanderings, which have been repeatedly depicted in verse and prose, he man-aged to escape to France, from which country, being eventually banished, he took refuge in Italy. After his death and that of his brother, Cardinal York, the direct male line of the House of Stuart became extinct. The suppression of this rebellion was followed by an act abolishing the use of the Highland dress and the right to carry arms, and the extinction of military tenures dealt a final blow to the feudal power of the northern chieftains. Within fifteen years, the Highlanders were induced to enlist in large numbers under the British colors, and, from that day to this, have rendered inestimable services to the English Crown in both hemispheres. After the accession of George III., the Scottish people gradually became reconciled to the new dynasty.

The intellectual development of Scotland began in the last half of the last century, and is memorable for the number of names eminent in literature, among which those of Adam Smith, David Hume, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Campbell, Dugald Stewart, and Sir William Hamilton may be particularly mentioned. Remarkable, also, has been the increase of capital, of commerce and of manufactures in the last hundred years. Scottish men of science were among the first to make practical applications of steam as a motive power. Skilful engineering has made the Clyde a competitor of the Thames and Glasgow one of the most populous cities in Great Britain. The population of Scot-land, which, in 1801, barely exceeded one million six hundred thousand, is now upward of four million. It is note-worthy that the females considerably exceed the males, a result due to emigration, for the proportion of female births is smaller than that of male births. The percentage of illegitimate births is large, having amounted, in 1885, to nearly eight and a half per cent. Crime and pauperism have steadily declined during the last half century, not only in proportion to the population, but absolutely. From an agricultural viewpoint, Scotland is still a country of large proprietors. It is computed that, on an average, each landowner possesses in Scotland one hundred and forty-three acres against thirty-three acres owned by each landowner in England. Less than four per cent of the inhabitants of Scotland share in the ownership of the soil. The wholesale clearances of tenants carried out in many districts during the present century gave rise to the grievances of the so-called crofters, which have, in recent years, been the subject of remedial legislation. The skill with which farming is prosecuted in Scotland may be inferred from the fact that the average yield of wheat and barley is higher than it is in England. On the other hand, the yield of oats and potatoes is lower. The number of cattle and sheep per one thousand acres of cultivated land is-much larger in Scotland than in England. According to the report of the crofters' commission, appointed in 1883, the area under deer forest in Scotland is nearly two million acres, or about one-fifth of the whole country. The grouse moors occupy a still more extensive superficies. Half a century ago the herring and deep-sea fisheries employed only about thirty thousand persons, but the number has been since more than trebled. The output of coal in Scotland has also trebled in forty years. On the other hand, the delivery of iron ore is now less than it was forty years ago. The woollen industry has rapidly expanded since 1850; on the other hand, the manufacture of linen has materially declined since 1867. The number of cotton factories is also smaller than it was fifty years ago. The number of gallons of whiskey produced in Scotland in 1824 was only about five million; sixty years later, it had risen to upward of twenty million. Of especial interest are the statistics relating to the shipping owned in Scotland. At the time of the union with England, in 1707, the number of vessels was two hundred and fifteen, having an aggregate capacity of less than fifteen thousand tons. In 1884, the number of vessels owned in Scotland was three thousand four hundred and sixty-eight, with a total tonnage of nearly one million seven hundred thousand. The tonnage of the coasting and foreign trade nearly trebled in the thirty years succeeding 1855. The value of the traffic increased during the same period from about thirty-six million dollars to one hundred and fifty-three million. It is true that, even now, the value of imports into Scotland is only about a tenth as great as that of the imports into England, but it should be remembered that large quantities of foreign products find their way into Scotland from England by rail.

We have seen that, by the act of union in 1707, Scotland was to be represented at Westminster by sixteen peers, to be chosen by the Scottish peerage for each parliament, and by forty-five members of the House of Commons. By the Re-form act of 1832, the number of Scottish members in the Commons was raised to fifty-three; by the Reform act of 1868, to sixty; and by the Seats act of 1885, to seventy-five. It is since 1885, too, that the management of Scottish business in the British parliament has been confided to a Secretary for Scotland.

We have seen also, that, by the Act of Union, Presbyterianism, which was professed by a large majority of the Scottish people, was recognized as established in the northern kingdom under the name of the Church of Scotland. There were secessions from the Established Kirk in 1733 and 1751, but these were insignificant compared with the great schism which began in 1833 and ended ten years later with the exodus which organized the so-called Free Church of Scotland. The Free Church had, in 1885, two-thirds as many congregations as did the Established Church. Since 1874, patron-age has been abolished even in the Established Church, and the right of choosing parish ministers has been conferred upon the congregations. We should add that, in 1885, the Roman Catholic Church had three hundred and twenty-seven churches or chapels, and that the population affiliated to it was computed at over three hundred and forty thou-sand. The Episcopal Church in Scotland is still very weak, possessing at the date last mentioned only about two hundred and fifty churches, and eighty thousand members of all ages. Of Baptists and Methodists in Scotland there are very few.