VI.

1660.

conditions they should receive the king, was art- BOOK fully over-ruled by Monk, who affirmed, that he could be no longer responsible for the obedience of the army, or for the public tranquillity, if a delay intervened. Without any previous limitations therefore on his power, Charles was solemnly proclaimed in the presence of the lords and commons, with the most sincere demonstrations of national joy. His departure from Breda was accelerated by daily addresses from his subjects; and foreign nations, admonished by their sudden return to loyalty, were eager to congratulate a prince whom they had hitherto treated with rudeness or with neglect. From the Hague he was invited by a committee of each house, to resume the quiet possession of his kingdom; and, embarking in Montague's fleet, he was received at Dover by Monk, whom he embraced and decorated with the ensigns of the garter. His entrance into the capital was delayed till his birth-day; and after twenty years of domestic wars, he was restored without bloodshed, amidst the joyful acclamations of his subjects, to his paternal throne.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

NOTE I. p. 30.

THIS singular fact might be illustrated from the statutes

themselves, of which some are enacted at the king's request; James I. ch. 125. James II. ch. 62. Black Acts; others by the three estates, without his concurrence; and these are either limitations upon his prerogative, or injunctions for his conduct. See Parl. James I. ch. 133. James II. ch. 2. 64-7-8-9, 70-1-9. 90. Black Acts, ch. 100. James IV. ch. 6. multiplied in abundance to shew that were enacted by the king and estates, others by the estates themselves.

James III. ch. 80. Instances might be some of the statutes

The fact, were the statutes obscure or doubtful, is acknowledged by James, in his speech to the commons at Whitehall. He observes; "it has likewise been objected that, in the parliament of Scotland, the king has not a negative voice, but must pass the laws agreed on by the lords and commons. I can assure you that the form of parliament there is nothing inclined to popularity. About twenty days before parliament, proclamation is made to deliver to the king's clerk-register all bills to be exhibited that session. Then are they brought to the king, to be perused and considered of by him; and only such as I allow of are put into the chancellor's hands, to be proposed to parliament. Besides, when they have passed them for laws, they are presented to me, and I, with my sceptre put into my hand by the chancellor, must say I ratify and approve all things done in this present parliament; and if there be any thing I dis

like, they rase it out before. If this," he concludes, " may be called a negative voice, then I have one, I am sure, in that parliament."

NOTE II. p. 54.

No historical question has ever perplexed me more, than the Gowrie conspiracy. From the different copies of the same letter from Logan to Gowrie, as inserted in Sprot's trial, and in Logan's attainder, I did not hesitate, in the first edition of this history, to pronounce the whole correspondence a forgery. The difference appeared to be still greater, upon examining the original records of justiciary and of parlia ment, in which Sprot's trial and the attainder of Logan are respectively engrossed. At the same time however, the absolute identity of the letters with Logan's hand writing, is attested by such strong and unexceptionable evidence, that any explanation sufficient to reconcile the apparent contradiction between the different-copies of the same letter, should be preferred to the ultimate supposition of forgery. The explanation which I have now discovered, has at last convinced me that the letters are genuine, and that Logan was accessary to the Gowrie conspiracy. Sprot, in his confession (which is preserved by Abbot, but not inserted in the records of justiciary), recites from memory the substance of Gowrie's letter to Logan, which he had seen with Bour, before it was returned to the earl with Logan's answer. Abbot, 40. This answer also, which he had stolen from Bour, by whom it had been sent back to Logan, he proceeds, in the same manner, to recite from memory (id. 41.); and preserves the most striking expressions and circumstances, but with many unavoidable alterations, omissions, and additions of his own. The letter itself was preserved, as he said, among his other papers in a chest at Eyemouth; and the regular mode of procedure undoubtedly was, to have searched for the original, and to have produced it at

his trial. But the privy council, having obtained his confession on the tenth and eleventh of August, to prevent his retracting it, brought him to trial upon the twelfth; and he was executed on the same day that he was condemned, The letter recited in his confession, was inserted in his in dictment instead of the original (id. 49); and from this circumstance, Spottiswood, who sat upon his trial as one of the assessors to the justice general, was doubtful whether he should mention the arraignment and execution of Sprot, in his history; "his confession, though voluntary and constant, carrying small probability. It seemed a very fiction, and to be a mere invention of the man's own brain: for neither did he show the letter, nor could any wise man think that Gowrie, who went about that treason so secretly, would have communicated the matter with such a man as this Restalrig was known to be." Hist. 509. But the letter itself was discovered afterwards among Sprot's papers; together with four others from Logan to some unknown correspondent, on the subject of the conspiracy, (Cromarty, 92); and this explanation of the fact removes the seeming contradiction between the different copies of the same letter, as inserted in Sprot's indictment, and in the attainder of Logan. I have therefore abandoned my former opinion that the letters were a forgery, with as little hesitation as I advanced it at first. As Gowrie himself, if the letters are genuine, was the principal conspirator, I have also omitted the Dissertation of my friend Mr. Pinkerton, whom my former opinion had tended to mislead. The conspiracy must remain as obscure as ever; and the only conclusion to be drawn from the letters is, that Gowrie's design was to convey the king in a boat to Fastcastle, and by the possession of his person, to acquire the absolute direction of the state. Logan had devised a plan for bringing the earl and his associates to Fastcastle; "they making fashion of passing time in a boat on the sea in fair summer tide." He had