usiasm in the cause supplied the want
of good order and military subjection, to the restraints which Morton
endeavoured to bring them under. In short, while bearing the principal
burden of command, (for his colleagues willingly relinquished in his
favour every thing that was troublesome and obnoxious in the office of
general,) Morton found himself without that authority, which alone could
render his regulations effectual. [Note: These feuds, which tore to
pieces the little army of insurgents, turned merely on the point whether
the king's interest or royal authority was to be owned or not, and
whether the party in arms were to be contented with a free exercise of
their own religion, or insist upon the re-establishment of Presbytery in
its supreme authority, and with full power to predominate over all other
forms of worship. The few country gentlemen who joined the insurrection,
with the most sensible part of the clergy, thought it best to limit their
demands to what it might be possible to attain. But the party who urged
these moderate views were termed by the more zealous bigots, the Erastian
party, men, namely, who were willing to place the church under the
influence of the civil government, and therefore they accounted them, "a
snare upon Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor." See the Life of Sir
Robert Hamilton in the Scottish Worthies, and his account of the Battle
of Both-well-bridge, passim.]
Yet, notwithstanding these obstacles, he had, during the course of a few
days, laboured so hard to introduce some degree of discipline into the
army, that he thought he might hazard a second attack upon Glasgow with
every prospect of success.
It cannot be doubted that Morton's anxiety to measure himself with
Colonel Grahame of Claverhouse, at whose hands he had sustained such
injury, had its share in giving motive to his uncommon exertions. But
Claverhouse disappointed his hopes; for, satisfied with having the
advantage in repulsing the first attack upon Glasgow, he determined that
he would not, with the handful of troops under his command, await a
second assault from the insurgents, with more numerous and better
disciplined forces than had supported their first enterprise. He
therefore evacuated the place, and marched at the head of his troops
towards Edinburgh. The insurgents of course entered Glasgow without
resistance, and without Morton having the opportunity, which he so deeply
coveted, of again encountering Claverhou
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