re desirous of it to distinguish between him and their
oppressors.

It is reported[*] that Charles, after a full hearing of the debates
concerning Scottish affairs, said, "I perceive that Lauderdale has been
guilty of many bad things against the people of Scotland; but I cannot
find that he has acted any thing contrary to my interest;" a sentiment
unworthy of a sovereign.

* Burnet.

During the absence of Hamilton and the other discontented lords, the
king allowed Lauderdale to summon a convention of estates at Edinburgh.
This assembly, besides granting some money, bestowed applause on
all Lauderdale's administration, and in their addresses to the king,
expressed the highest contentment and satisfaction. But these instances
of complaisance had the contrary effect in England from what was
expected by the contrivers of them. All men there concluded, that in
Scotland the very voice of liberty was totally suppressed; and that,
by the prevalence of tyranny, grievances were so rivetted, that it was
become dangerous even to mention them, or complain to the prince, who
alone was able to redress them. From the slavery of the neighboring
kingdom, they inferred the arbitrary disposition of the king; and
from the violence with which sovereign power was there exercised, they
apprehended the miseries which might ensue to themselves upon their loss
of liberty. If persecution, it was asked, by a Protestant church could
be carried to such extremes, what might be dreaded from the prevalence
of Popery, which had ever, in all ages, made open profession of
exterminating by fire and sword every opposite sect or communion? And if
the first approaches towards unlimited authority were so tyrannical, how
dismal its final establishment; when all dread of opposition should at
last be removed by mercenary armies, and all sense of shame by long and
inveterate habit!

CHAPTER LXVII.

Charles II.

{1678.} THE English nation, ever since the fatal league with France,
had entertained violent jealousies against the court; and the subsequent
measures adopted by the king had tended more to increase than cure the
general prejudices. Some mysterious design was still suspected in every
enterprise and profession: arbitrary power and Popery were apprehended
as the scope of all projects: each breath or rumor made the people start
with anxiety: their enemies, they thought, were in their very bosom,
and had gotten possession of their sove