as members. The duke of
Hamilton had obtained from the queen a letter to the privy-council in
Scotland, in which she expressed her desire that the presbyterian
clergy should live in brotherly love and communion with such dissenting
ministers of the reformed religion as were in possession of benefices,
and lived with decency, and submission to the law. The episcopal clergy,
encouraged by these expressions in their favour, drew up an address to
the queen, imploring her protection; and humbly beseeching her to allow
those parishes in which there was a majority of episcopal freeholders,
to bestow the benefice on ministers of their principles. This petition
was presented by Dr. Skeen and Dr. Scot, who were introduced by the duke
of Queensberry to her majesty. She assured them of her protection and
endeavours to supply their necessities; and exhorted them to live in
peace and christian love with the clergy, who were by law invested with
the church-government in her ancient kingdom of Scotland. A proclamation
of indemnity having been published in March, a great number of Jacobites
returned from France and other countries, pretended to have changed
their sentiments, and took the oaths, that they might be qualified
to sit in parliament. They formed an accession to the strength of the
anti-revolutioners and episcopalians, who now hoped to out-number the
presbyterians, and outweigh their interest. But this confederacy was
composed of dissonant parts, from which no harmony could be expected.
The presbyterians and revolutioners were headed by the duke of
Argyle. The country party of malcontents, which took its rise from the
disappointments of the Darien settlement, acted under the auspices
of the duke of Hamilton and marquis of Tweedale; and the earl of Hume
appeared as chief of the anti-revolutioners. The different parties who
now united, pursued the most opposite ends. The majority of the country
party were friends to the revolution, and sought only redress of
the grievances which the nation had sustained in the late reign. The
anti-revolutioners considered the accession and government of king
William as an extraordinary event, which they were willing to forget,
believing that all parties were safe under the shelter of her majesty's
general indemnity. The Jacobites submitted to the queen, as tutrix or
regent for the prince of Wales, whom they firmly believed she intended
to establish on the throne. The whigs under Argyle, alarmed at