ACCOUNT OF THEIR CONDUCT AND TREATMENT. 41 government, the Jacobites continued their meetings without any considerable interruption, until news arrived of the French invasion. It was then deemed proper to look more narrowly into their conduct, and a proclamation was issued for the suppression of such meetings as were served by ministers who had not qualified by taking the oaths. As soon as the noise of the invasion was over, the Jacobite clergy re-entered their former places, and proceeded to exercise their functions as usual. Although such a proceeding was decidedly illegal, the magistrates exercised their power with great lenity, until they had strict orders from the queen to suppress them. In spite of this, some of the ministers continued to preach publickly as usual, for which they became amenable to the laws; and when they were put in execution, they charged the Scottish establishment with persecution. De Foe, who was well-acquainted with all the bearings of their case, and discriminated them with great nicety, observes, "Any body that knows with what strictness the Church of England herself has forbad and restrained the Jacobite conventicles in England, might wonder at this second attempt. Notwithstanding, the magistrates of Edinburgh, before whom this matter lays, forebore to proceed against them in a judicial way; much less the Church, although they had frequent occasions, especially in the country, to complain of ill-treatment from them. But the government, finding these assemblies injurious to the settlement, and dangerous to the public peace, the magistrates were directed to put a stop to them." Some of the ministers were cited before the magistrates, and, upon their refusing the oaths, were placed in confinement. De Foe further observes, "That, notwithstanding, according to the laws of Scotland, they were committed to prison, and might have been, by the same laws, continued there until they gave security to forbear their meetings, or would take the 42 ANNOUNCES A WORK UPON THE SUBJECT. oaths required by law, yet the magistrates of Edinburgh have been so gentle in the execution of their power, and so tender to the persons imprisoned, that they have already let them all out." Inimical as he was to the principles of the Jacobites, De Foe rejoiced in the lenity shown them by the civil authorities. "I must confess," says he, "I do not at all grudge them their liberty, let the terms be never so easy to them. I am not shy in giving it as my opinion, and to which my practice shall, I hope, on all occasions correspond, that I am against all coercives in matters merely religious; and though it is alleged that this is a civil, not a religious affair, yet I shall not offer it as my opinion, that oaths are any security to a government, or of any signification at all, except it be to bind honest men, and let villains go free." He adds, " Be it then that these men are pursued for preaching, or not swearing; if they make either matter of conscience, and show themselves to be men of conscience in every thing else, I cannot but say, they should be the last sort of Jacobites I would give disturbance to. And I am very glad to have the occasion to tell the world, that let these men be what they will, the government has been very easy to them. But let such as cry out of persecution in this case know, that, as Jacobites, by the laws and customs of England, and by the known practice of the English church, whatsoever they may have obtained of lenity in Scotland, from the persecuting Presbyterians, they would have had no such favours in England; and, on this account, no Englishman ought to complain of persecution in Scotland."* In reference to this subject, De Foe announced the following work in his Review, and often repeated the advertisement; but whether it was ever published, the present writer Review, v. 287, 8. THE SCOTS' NARRATIVE. 43 is unable to say. Perhaps De Foe meant no more than to try the effect of irony upon a class of men, who went the most absurd lengths in raising the cry of persecution against the Scottish church. Speedily will be published, An Historical Account of the bitter Sufferings, and the melancholy circumstances of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, under the barbarous Usage, and bloody Persecution, of the Presbyterian Church Government. With an Essay on the Nature and Necessity of a Toleration in the North of Britain." De Foe asserts it to be false in fact, that the episcopal clergy were at all persecuted by the Church of Scotland; and that the charge was only brought forward by highchurchmen, in order to brand the Presbyterians, and excite a popular feeling against them. He has given a particular account of the proceedings against some of these Non-jurant clergy, in order to shew that they were not molested for their ecclesiastical tenets, but solely for their disaffection to the civil constitution. The episcopal clergy made known their grievances to the world, in a work intitled "A Narrative of the late Treatment of the Episcopal Ministers within the City of Edinburgh, since March 1708, until their Imprisonment July thereafter, Lond. 1708." 4to. The object of the writer, who was a Non-juror, is to prefer the charges of injustice and cruelty against the Presbyterians, in prosecuting them for a noncompliance with the laws; and he loads their establishment with many unwarrantable terms of reproach. A work, containing so much mis-representation, was not likely to pass unnoticed by De Foe. He accordingly replied to it in "The Scots' Narrative Examined; or the Case of the Episcopal Ministers in Scotland stated, and the late Treatment of them in the city of Edinburgh enquired into. With a brief Examination into the Reasonableness of the grievous Complaint of Persecution in Scotland, and a Defence of the Magistrates of Edinburgh, in their Proceedings there. Being 44 HIS REMARKS UPON LESLIE. some Remarks on a late Pamphlet, intitled 'A Narrative of the late Treatment of the Episcopal Ministers within the City of Edinburgh,' &c. London: printed in the year 1709." 4to. pp. 41. Postscript x. This work appears to contain a faithful account of the matters referred to in the title. The writer goes over the various points of accusation brought forward by the Jacobite clergy, which he refutes with temper; and he exposes their falsehood by an appeal to facts. Towards the close, he inserts a narrative of the whole proceedings before the magistrates, attested by the town-clerk of Edinburgh; and he concludes with a reproof to the men who kept alive these animosities. De Foe had ample reason to remonstrate against the artifice of the Jacobite clergy; for Leslie pursued the same course in his "Rehearsals," as his Non-juring brethren in Scotland, bringing forward many unfounded charges, in a style that united coarseness with acrimony. In reply to this writer, De Foe says, "Since the noise is so great against the Presbyterians, it puts a necessity upon me to examine a little what treatment they received from the other party while they were under the cruel hands of an abjured prelacy, when some of the very people now crying out of persecution, were their task-masters. In this search, we shall readily see on which side the humanity lies, what spirits those people were of when uppermost, what the queen would have to expect from them, what the Church of Scotland, and what reason there is to suppress both their civil and ecclesiastical usurpation. And let not my adversary be angry at the word, for I shall be ready to prove against him, that Scots' prelacy, whenever it shall in God's judgment to plague Scotland, be let loose there, will be mere usurpation, and ever was so; and this far easier than he, or all the men of his opinion in Europe, can prove a direct apostolical ordination of ministers from the keys of blessed St. Peter." In transferring the charge of persecution from the Presbyterians DE FOE PUBLISHES HIS HISTORY OF THE UNION." 45 to their adversaries, our author says, "I foresee I shall be forced to go back to the blessed restoration of prelatic tyranny in Scotland, with the restoration of the king; and if it happens a little plainly to appear how civil and ecclesiastical tyranny grew up together, went hand in hand, and assisted each other to ruin that poor nation, I cannot help it."* As soon as the Union with Scotland was completed, De Foe announced his intention of presenting the world with a complete history of that transaction. Various engagements prevented him from completing his design until the present year, when the first edition was published in Scotland, with the following title:"The History of the Union of Great Britain. Edinburgh: printed by the Heirs and Successors of Andrew Anderson, Printer to the Queen's most excellent Majesty, Anno Dom. 1709." Folio, pp. 685. Pref. xxxii. Of the contents of the work bearing this brief title, De Foe gives a larger account in his advertisements. (D) At its first appearance, it does not appear to have attracted • Review, v. 486. (D) In the Review for March 29, 1707, appears the following advertisement:-"Preparing for the press, and great part of it finished, A Compleat History of the Union. The work will contain about 250 sheets in folio, to be finished in six months after the Union: Being an account of the fruitless Attempts made in former times for uniting these kingdoms. With a particular Account of all the Transactions of the present Treaty, the many contrivances and vigorous opposition against it, both in England and Scotland, whether within the Parliament or without. Extracted out of the original Records, Registers, Journals, and other Authorities, in both Kingdoms. With an Appendix, containing an Abridgement of all the alterations made in the Laws, Trade, Customs, and Constitution of both Kingdoms by the Union. By the Author of The True-Born-Englishman.' Proposals for printing the said book by subscription will be published in a few days; and, in the meantime, subscriptions are taken in at John Matthews, printer hereof. The price is 20s. in quires; 5s. to be paid down." |