of a brutal and
licentious soldiery on suspected persons. Law, especially since 1679,
had been twisted for the conviction of persons whom the administration
desired to rob. The greed and corruption of the rulers, from Lauderdale,
his wife, and his brother Haltoun, to Perth and his brother, the Earl of
Melfort, whose very title was the name of an unjustly confiscated estate,
is almost inconceivable. {225} Few of the foremost men in power, except
Sir George Mackenzie and Claverhouse, were free from personal profligacy
of every sort. Claverhouse has left on record his aversion to severities
against the peasantry; he was for prosecuting such gentry as the
Dalrymples. As constable of Dundee he refused to inflict capital
punishment on petty offenders, and Mackenzie went as far as he dared in
opposing the ferocities of the inquisition of witches. But in cases of
alleged treason Mackenzie knew no mercy.

Torture, legal in Scotland, was used with barbarism unprecedented there
after each plot or rising, to extract secrets which, save in one or two
cases like that of Carstares, the victims did not possess. They were
peasants, preachers, and a few country gentlemen: the nobles had no
inclination to suffer for the cause of the Covenants. The Covenants
continued to be the idols of the societies of Cameronians, and of many
preachers who were no longer inclined to die for these documents,--the
expression of such strange doctrines, the causes of so many sorrows and
of so many martyrdoms. However little we may sympathise with the
doctrines, none the less the sufferers were idealists, and, no less than
Montrose, preferred honour to life.

With all its sins, the Restoration so far pulverised the pretensions
which, since 1560, the preachers had made, that William of Orange was not
obliged to renew the conflict with the spiritual sons of Knox and Andrew
Melville.

This fact is not so generally recognised as it might be. It is therefore
proper to quote the corroborative opinion of the learned Historiographer-
Royal of Scotland, Professor Hume Brown. "By concession and repression
the once mighty force of Scottish Presbyterianism had been broken. Most
deadly of the weapons in the accomplishment of this result had been the
three Acts of Indulgence which had successively cut so deep into the
ranks of uniformity. In succumbing to the threats and promises of the
Government, the Indulged ministers had undoubtedly compromised the
fund