of leading and of
following, conceited, captious, and wrongheaded, an endless talker, a
sluggard in action against the enemy and active only against his own
allies. With Hume was closely connected another Scottish exile of great
note, who had many, of the same faults, Sir John Cochrane, second son of
the Earl of Dundonald.

A far higher character belonged to Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, a man
distinguished by learning and eloquence, distinguished also by
courage, disinterestedness, and public spirit but of an irritable and
impracticable temper. Like many of his most illustrious contemporaries,
Milton for example, Harrington, Marvel, and Sidney, Fletcher had, from
the misgovernment of several successive princes, conceived a strong
aversion to hereditary monarchy. Yet he was no democrat. He was the head
of an ancient Norman house, and was proud of his descent. He was a
fine speaker and a fine writer, and was proud of his intellectual
superiority. Both in his character of gentleman, and in his character
of scholar, he looked down with disdain on the common people, and was
so little disposed to entrust them with political power that he thought
them unfit even to enjoy personal freedom. It is a curious circumstance
that this man, the most honest, fearless, and uncompromising republican
of his time, should have been the author of a plan for reducing a large
part of the working classes of Scotland to slavery. He bore, in truth,
a lively resemblance to those Roman Senators who, while they hated the
name of King, guarded the privileges of their order with inflexible
pride against the encroachments of the multitude, and governed their
bondmen and bondwomen by means of the stocks and the scourge.

Amsterdam was the place where the leading emigrants, Scotch and English,
assembled. Argyle repaired thither from Friesland, Monmouth from
Brabant. It soon appeared that the fugitives had scarcely anything in
common except hatred of James and impatience to return from banishment.
The Scots were jealous of the English, the English of the Scots.
Monmouth's high pretensions were offensive to Argyle, who, proud of
ancient nobility and of a legitimate descent from kings, was by no means
inclined to do homage to the offspring of a vagrant and ignoble love.
But of all the dissensions by which the little band of outlaws was
distracted the most serious was that which arose between Argyle and a
portion of his own followers. Some of the Scottish ex