the sentence of excommunication upon the earl, and who was now condemned
to die the death of a traitor under those, new laws from which no man could
be safe. Having thus gratified his resentment, Middleton now turned his
attention more exclusively to his personal interests, which he resolved to
further by fine and confiscation; and, accordingly, in the second sitting of parliament, held in 1662, a list was drawn out of those who were to be excepted
from the act of indemnity now about to be reluctantly granted to Scotland,
although England had enjoyed its full benefit since the commencement of the
Restoration. It was a monstrous list, constructed chiefly with an eye to the
wealth and means of the proscribed, and included seven or eight hundred noblemen, gentlemen, burgesses, and others, whose fines, it was calculated, would
amount to one million, seventeen thousand, three hundred and fifty-three
pounds, six shillings, and eightpence. True, indeed, this money was in Scottish, not English coinage, and therefore scarcely a tenth of the usual sterling
amount; but the imposition of such a fine upon so poor a country, implied the
infliction of such destitution and suffering, as to render it one of the heaviest
of national calamities. In this decree it was also stated, "that the fines therein
imposed were to be given for the relief of the king's good subjects who had
suffered in the late troubles," while Middleton resolved that these "good subjects" should mean no others than himself and his dependents. Little was
he aware that this harvest of iniquity, which he so diligently sowed, he was not destined to reap : the fines, indeed, were afterwards levied to the full, but
only to pass into other coffers than his own; even as in war, the wretched camp-followers, who have kept at a wary distance during the battle, rush down upon
the spoil while the conquerors are securing the victory.
But wilder, baser, and more mischievous, if possible, than this purpose of wholesale spoliation, was his tour to the west for the establishment of Episcopacy. He knew that this was his master's prevailing wish; and therefore, although originally himself a Covenanter, and an honoured one, he now seconded the royal desire with all the zeal of a place-hunter, and all the rancour of a renegade. A favourable opportunity, as he thought, had now occurred. Although the Presbyterian church courts had been arbitrarily closed as illegal meetings, the pulpits were still open; and it was indignantly complained of by the newly-made Scottish bishops, that these recusant ministers, who were thus permitted the free exercise of their office, would neither recognize the authority of their diocesans, nor give attendance at the episcopal court-meetings. Middleton, accordingly, designed a justiciary progress for the purpose of enforcing the authority of the bishops; and as the west of Scotland was the stronghold of recusancy, he resolved to make Glasgow his head-quarters. And never, perhaps, went such a troop of mortal men upon so sacred a commission; it was a procession of Silenus and his bacchanals, of Comus and his rabble rout. On Middleton's arrival in Glasgow with his motley array of senators and councillors, Archbishop Fairfoul repeated his complaints of the refusal of these Presbyterian divines to acknowledge his authority, and proposed that an act should be passed banishing all those ministers from their manses, parishes, and districts, who had been admitted into office since 1649, when patronage was abolished, unless they consented to receive presentation from the lawful patron, and collation from the bishop of the diocese. In this way it was asserted Episcopacy would be fully established, and that not even so many as ten ministers would consent to forego their livings by refusing compliance. It was a mad decree, which none but
