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。 (4)

Some people urged; in the Council; that the promise of  quarter which had been given on the field of battle should  protect the lives of the miserable men。  Sir John Gilmoure;  the greatest lawyer; gave no opinion … certainly a suggestive  circumstance … but Lord Lee declared that this would not  interfere with their legal trial; 'so to bloody executions  they went。' (5)  To the number of thirty they were condemned  and executed; while two of them; Hugh M'Kail; a young  minister; and Neilson of Corsack; were tortured with the  boots。

The goods of those who perished were confiscated; and their  bodies were dismembered and distributed to different parts of  the country; 'the heads of Major M'Culloch and the two  Gordons;' it was resolved; says Kirkton; 'should be pitched  on the gate of Kirkcudbright; the two Hamiltons and Strong's  head should be affixed at Hamilton; and Captain Arnot's sett  on the Watter Gate at Edinburgh。  The armes of all the ten;  because they hade with uplifted hands renewed the Covenant at  Lanark; were sent to the people of that town to expiate that  crime; by placing these arms on the top of the prison。' (6)   Among these was John Neilson; the Laird of Corsack; who saved  Turner's life at Dumfries; in return for which service Sir  James attempted; though without success; to get the poor man  reprieved。  One of the condemned died of his wounds between  the day of condemnation and the day of execution。  ' None of  them;' says Kirkton; 'would save their life by taking the  declaration and renouncing the Covenant; though it was  offered to them。 。 。 。 But never men died in Scotland so much  lamented by the people; not only spectators; but those in the  country。  When Knockbreck and his brother were turned over;  they clasped each other in their armes; and so endured the  pangs of death。  When Humphrey Colquhoun died; he spoke not  like an ordinary citizen; but like a heavenly minister;  relating his comfortable Christian experiences; and called  for his Bible; and laid it on his wounded arm; and read John  iii。 8; and spoke upon it to the admiration of all。  But most  of all; when Mr。 M'Kail died; there was such a lamentation as  was never known in Scotland before; not one dry cheek upon  all the street; or in all the numberless windows in the  mercate place。' (7)

The following passage from this speech speaks for itself and  its author:

'Hereafter I will not talk with flesh and blood; nor think on  the world's consolations。  Farewell to all my friends; whose  company hath been refreshful to me in my pilgrimage。  I have  done with the light of the sun and the moon; welcome eternal  light; eternal life; everlasting love; everlasting praise;  everlasting glory。  Praise to Him that sits upon the throne;  and to the Lamb for ever!  Bless the Lord; O my soul; that  hath pardoned all my iniquities in the blood of His Son; and  healed all my diseases。  Bless Him; O all ye His angels that  excel in strength; ye ministers of His that do His pleasure。   Bless the Lord; O my soul!' (8)

After having ascended the gallows ladder he again broke forth  in the following words of touching eloquence: 'And now I  leave off to speak any more to creatures; and begin my  intercourse with God; which shall never be broken off。   Farewell father and mother; friends and relations!  Farewell  the world and all delights!  Farewell meat and drink!   Farewell sun; moon; and stars! … Welcome God and Father!   Welcome sweet Jesus Christ; the Mediator of the new covenant!   Welcome blessed Spirit of grace and God of all consolation!   Welcome glory!  Welcome eternal life!  Welcome Death!' (9)

At Glasgow; too; where some were executed; they caused the  soldiers to beat the drums and blow the trumpets on their  closing ears。  Hideous refinement of revenge!  Even the last  words which drop from the lips of a dying man … words surely  the most sincere and the most unbiassed which mortal mouth  can utter … even these were looked upon as poisoned and as  poisonous。  'Drown their last accents;' was the cry; 'lest  they should lead the crowd to take their part; or at the  least to mourn their doom!' (10)  But; after all; perhaps it  was more merciful than one would think …unintentionally so;  of course; perhaps the storm of harsh and fiercely jubilant  noises; the clanging of trumpets; the rattling of drums; and  the hootings and jeerings of an unfeeling mob; which were the  last they heard on earth; might; when the mortal fight was  over; when the river of death was passed; add tenfold  sweetness to the hymning of the angels; tenfold peacefulness  to the shores which they had reached。

Not content with the cruelty of these executions; some even  of the peasantry; though these were confined to the shire of  Mid…Lothian; pursued; captured; plundered; and murdered the  miserable fugitives who fell in their way。  One strange story  have we of these times of blood and persecution: Kirkton the  historian and popular tradition tell us alike of a flame  which often would arise from the grave; in a moss near  Carnwath; of some of those poor rebels: of how it crept along  the ground; of how it covered the house of their murderer;  and of how it scared him with its lurid glare。

Hear Daniel Defoe: (11)

'If the poor people were by these insupportable violences  made desperate; and driven to all the extremities of a wild  despair; who can justly reflect on them when they read in the  Word of God 〃That oppression makes a wise man mad〃?  And  therefore were there no other original of the insurrection  known by the name of the Rising of Pentland; it was nothing  but what the intolerable oppressions of those times might  have justified to all the world; nature having dictated to  all people a right of defence when illegally and arbitrarily  attacked in a manner not justifiable either by laws of  nature; the laws of God; or the laws of the country。'

Bear this remonstrance of Defoe's in mind; and though it is  the fashion of the day to jeer and to mock; to execrate and  to contemn; the noble band of Covenanters … though the bitter  laugh at their old…world religious views; the curl of the lip  at their merits; and the chilling silence on their bravery  and their determination; are but too rife through all society  … be charitable to what was evil and honest to what was good  about the Pentland insurgents; who fought for life and  liberty; for country and religion; on the 28th of November  1666; now just two hundred years ago。


EDINBURGH; 28TH NOVEMBER 1866。

(1) CLOUD OF WITNESSES; p。 389; Edin。 1765。 (2) Kirkton; p。 247。 (3) Ibid。 p。 254。 (4) IBID。 p。 247。 (5) IBID。 pp。 247; 248。 (6) Kirkton; p。 248。 (7) Kirkton; p。 249。 (8) NAPHTALI; p。 205; Glasgow; 1721。 (9) Wodrow; p。 59。 (10) Kirkton; p。 246。 (11) Defoe's HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND。



THE DAY AFTER TO…MORROW



HISTORY is much decried; it is a tissue of errors; we are  told; no doubt correctly; and rival historians expose each  other's blunders with gratification。  Yet the worst historian  has a clearer view of the period he studies than the best of  us can hope to form of that in which we live。  The obscurest  epoch is to…day; and that for a thousand reasons of inchoate  tendency; conflicting report; and sheer mass and multiplicity  of experience; but chiefly; perhaps; by reason of an  insidious shifting of landmarks。  Parties and ideas  continually move; but not by measurable marches on a stable  course; the political soil itself steals forth by  imperceptible degrees; like a travelling glacier; carrying on  its bosom not only political parties but their flag…posts and  cantonments; so that what appears to be an eternal city  founded on hills is but a flying island of Laputa。  It is for  this reason in particular that we are all becoming Socialists  without knowing it; by which I would not in the least refer  to the acute case of Mr。 Hyndman and his horn…blowing  supporters; sounding their trumps of a Sunday within the  walls of our individualist Jericho … but to the stealthy  change that has come over the spirit of Englishmen and  English legislation。  A little while ago; and we were still  for liberty; 'crowd a few more thousands on the bench of  Government;' we seemed to cry; 'keep her head direct on  liberty; and we cannot help but come to port。'  This is over;  LAISSER FAIRE declines in favour; our legislation grows  authoritative; grows philanthropical; bristles with new  duties and new penalties; and casts a spawn of inspectors;  who now begin; note…book in hand; to darken the face of  England。  It may be right or wrong; we are not trying that;  but one thing it is beyond doubt: it is Socialism in action;  and the strange thing is that we scarcely know it。

Liberty has served us a long while; and it may be time to  seek new altars。  Like all other principles; she has been  proved to be self…exclusive in the long run。  She has taken  wages besides (like all other virtues) and dutifully served  Mammon; so that many things we were accustomed to admire as  the benefits of freedom and common to all were truly benefits  of wealth; and took their value from our neighbours' poverty。   A few shocks of logic; a few disclosures (in the journalistic  phrase) of what t

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