liam was more troubled by the General Assembly, which refused to take
oaths of allegiance to him and his wife, and actually appointed a date
for an Assembly without his consent. When he gave it, it was on
condition that the members should take the oaths of allegiance. They
refused: it was the old deadlock, but William at the last moment withdrew
from the imposition of oaths of allegiance--moved, it is said, by Mr
Carstares, "Cardinal Carstares," who had been privy to the Rye House
Plot. Under Queen Anne, however, the conscientious preachers were
compelled to take the oaths like mere laymen.

CHAPTER XXVIII. DARIEN.

The Scottish Parliament of May-July 1695, held while William was abroad,
saw the beginning of evils for Scotland. The affair of Glencoe was
examined into by a Commission, headed by Tweeddale, William's
Commissioner: several Judges sat in it. Their report cleared William
himself: Dalrymple, it was found, had "exceeded his instructions." Hill
was exonerated. Hamilton, who commanded the detachment that arrived too
late, fled the country. William was asked to send home for trial
Duncanson and other butchers who were with his army. The king was also
invited to deal with Dalrymple as he thought fit. He thought fit to give
Dalrymple an indemnity, and made him Viscount Stair, with a grant of
money, but did not retain him in office. He did not send the subaltern
butchers home for trial. Many years later, in 1745, the MacIans insisted
on acting as guards of the house and family of the descendant of Campbell
of Glenlyon, the guest and murderer of the chief of Glencoe.

Perhaps by way of a sop to the Scots, William allowed an Act for the
Establishment of a Scottish East India Company to be passed on June 20,
1695. He afterwards protested that in this matter he had been "badly
served," probably meaning "misinformed." The result was the Darien
Expedition, a great financial disaster for Scotland, and a terrible
grievance. Hitherto since the Union of the Crowns all Scottish efforts
to found trading companies, as in England, had been wrecked on English
jealousy: there had always been, and to this new East India Company there
was, a rival, a pre-existing English company. Scottish Acts for
protection of home industries were met by English retaliation in a war of
tariffs. Scotland had prohibited the exportation of her raw materials,
such as wool, but was cut off from English and other foreign markets