CHAPTER X

Arrest of Fletcher--His Release--The Jacobite Prisoners of 1708--Death of Belhaven--Fletcher retires into Private Life--Conversations with Wodrow--His Death--Views of his Character.

It is possible that Fletcher did not ride further than Saltoun; but if he did leave Scotland as soon as the Union was accomplished, he was back again in the spring of the following year. At that time the country was alarmed by the fleet which was fitted out at Dunkirk by the French, and which sailed, with the Chevalier de St. George on board, for the shores of Scotland. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended; and the Privy Council ordered the arrest of a number of suspected persons, among whom were the Duke of Gordon, the Marquis of Huntly, and no less than twenty other peers of Scotland. One of these was Belhaven. Many commoners, too, were taken up, such as Stirling of Keir, Cameron of Lochiel, Moray of Abercairney, Edmonstone of Newton, and other notorious Jacobites. But, strange to say, Fletcher was also arrested; on what grounds it is difficult to surmise, for it seems impossible to imagine that he could have been suspected of plotting for the return of the Stuarts.

Fletcher took his arrest very quietly. ‘All I fear,’ he wrote to Leven, ‘is that so inconsiderable a man as I may be forgot, and no further orders given about me.’ His indifference was justified; for on the 15th of April 1708 the Privy Council issued a warrant directing Leven to send all the prisoners up to London, ‘Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, Esq., only excepted.’ After this Fletcher disappears from public life; and Belhaven too, but in a sadder fashion. A few lines may be spared to say farewell to Saltoun’s old companion of the Country Party. Belhaven went almost mad with rage. As soon as he heard that a warrant was out for his arrest, he wrote an impetuous remonstrance to Leven, which he read aloud at a coffee-house before sending it off. After he was apprehended he addressed a letter to the Queen, demanding his release, ‘without bail, parole of honour, or any other suspicious engagement.’ Then we find him despatching a long letter to Leven, protesting his innocence, and begging to be set at liberty. He is like a caged lion. He cannot rest. ‘My good name is attacked,’ he declares; ‘I am called unfaithful to my God, and treacherous to my Queen. I must throw my stones about, I must cry and spare not.’ A few days later, he writes a most pathetic letter. ‘My wife,’ he begins, ‘who hath been my bedfellow those thirty and four years, takes it much to heart to be separated from me now.’ And then he asks authority for ‘my dear old wife to be enclosed as a prisoner in the same manner with me in everything.’ Another of his arguments is that he has work awaiting him at home at Biel; eight ploughs going, and a little lake to drain, and turn into meadowland. But he was never to see his home again. The prisoners were sent up to London; and there the eloquent Belhaven died of brain-fever, or, as some say, of a broken heart.[20]

[20] Some of the prisoners took matters more quietly. Stirling of Keir writes to his wife, from Newgate, in June: ‘We are all very well and hearty, and I assure you this is a palace in comparison of the Tolbooth of Edinburgh.’--Sir William Fraser’s _Melville and Leven Book_, ii. 215-218

Henceforth Fletcher’s life was that of a private ‘person of quality.’ He never married. When asked the reason why, he used to answer, ‘My brother has got the woman that should have been my wife.’ This was Margaret Carnegie, the eldest daughter of Sir David Carnegie of Pittarrow. Perhaps Andrew Fletcher did not attract her--‘the low, thin man of brown complexion, full of fire, with a stern, sour look,’ to quote the well-known description of the Laird of Saltoun. At all events she fell in love with Henry, the younger brother, who, besides, had this in his favour, that Andrew was an outlaw in Holland while he was paying his court to the young lady. Her father was at first against the marriage; but the young people insisted on having their own way, and they were married on the 27th of April 1688.[21] The couple were very poor, and Henry became tenant of the mill at Saltoun, after the estate had been restored to his brother. Mrs. Henry Fletcher was a woman of great capacity, and it was she who, acting probably on hints given by her brother-in-law, got machinery from Holland, introduced the Dutch system of making ‘pot barley,’ till then unknown in Scotland, imported a winnowing machine, or fanners, and, in short, was the founder of the Saltoun Barley Mill, which was a household word in Scotland for many years. ‘So jealous,’ says Sir William Fraser, ‘was Lady Saltoun of the secret of the construction of her machinery, and so anxious was she to retain a monopoly of this particular trade, that, whilst she occupied, during the day, a room in the mill specially fitted up for herself, all orders for barley were received across a door which was securely fastened by a chain to prevent strangers from entering.’

[21] Sir William Fraser’s _History of the Carnegies, Earls of Southesk_, ii. 275.

This clever Scottish lady of the old school also started the manufacture of Holland cloth on a wide field near the mill; and in a hollow near Saltoun Hall the British Linen Company worked for many years, until they changed their business into that of a banking company. Perhaps a dame of so very practical a turn would not have sympathised with the Utopian dreams of her famous brother-in-law, and had chosen wisely. The walls of a new mill which was erected at Saltoun in 1710 are still as strong as when they were built; and some fragments of the old machinery still remain.

During the latter part of his life Fletcher lived chiefly in England or abroad. Wodrow has preserved an account of some conversations which he had with him. On one occasion Fletcher told him that ‘he used to say to Sunderland, Wharton, and the leading Whigs in England, that they were the greatest fools imaginable in three things, and acted directly contrary to their interest: 1st, In the settling of the Succession upon Hanover, he remarked that the Lutherans, and still the nearer people goes to Popery, they are still the more for absolute government; and so much the more for a Tory. 2nd, In promoting and violently pushing the Union with Scotland, which now they are sensible is an addition to the power of the Court, and makes the Prince by far more absolute than before; and 3rd, In the affair of Sacheverell, when he (Fletcher) was in London, and conversed with them at that time, their pushing of his trial was the most unpopular thing they could do, and raised the cry of the “Danger of the Church,” and proposed nothing in the world to themselves by such a prosecution. Things were openly vented upon the behalf of absolute Government and non-resistance; and the event has sadly verified all his thoughts as to this.’[22]

[22] This conversation was in 1712, when the Tory Government of Harley and St. John was in office.

On another occasion Fletcher expounded his ideas on the subject of church patronage. He said a Presbytery was no judge of a young man’s fitness to be minister of a congregation, and he had a plan of his own ready. He would appoint six Professors of Divinity in each University, none of whom were to teach more than ten or twelve students; for they could not know more than that number intimately. These Professors were not only to lecture, but to watch the temper and character of each student, and license him when he was really capable of being a minister. Then, when a vacancy occurred, the Presbytery was to ask the Professor to send down a man whom they thought suited to the parish which was vacant. If the people did not like the man who was sent, another was to come; and so on until the congregation was satisfied.

Wodrow asked Fletcher if he had not thought of writing a History of the Union; but he replied that he had kept no notes of the proceedings, and his memory was not to be relied on. He lamented his bad memory, and said he used to write out all his speeches, and repeat them, over and over again, to himself, like a schoolboy learning his lessons. He also said that he had so little readiness in debate, that if he did not know what subject was to be brought forward, he was obliged to prepare several speeches, which he laboriously learned by heart.

In 1716 Fletcher was in Paris, where he took ill. His nephew Andrew, afterwards a judge of the Court of Session under the title of Lord Milton, who was then studying at Leyden, hearing that his uncle wished to return home, hurried to Paris. They reached London, but the old gentleman was unable to go further. Lord Sunderland called on him, and asked if there was anything he wished done. ‘I have a nephew,’ he replied, ‘who has been studying the law. Make him a judge when he is fit for it.’[23]

[23] ‘I have heard,’ says Mr. Ramsay, ‘Sir Hugh Paterson say, who knew Saltoun well, that he early predicted his nephew would turn out a _corrupt fellow_, and a perfect courtier. Saltoun, however, hated all Kings and Ministers of State.’--Ochtertyre MS. 1. 87.

On the 15th of September 1716 he died; and his nephew brought his body to Scotland in a leaden coffin, which was laid in the family vault under the parish church of Saltoun, where it still remains.

A scrap of paper among the manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford bears this curious memorandum, in the handwriting of Thomas Rawlinson, the great antiquary and book collector: ‘Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, dyed in London, on Sunday, September 16th 1716, of a flux contracted by drinking ye waters of the River Seine at Paris. He died Christianly and bravely, only concerned for ye ruin of his country, and yt he had been base enough to have kissed the hand of ye insulting Tyrant.’[24]

[24] The date given by Rawlinson is wrong. Fletcher died on the 15th of September.

He was succeeded, in the estate of Saltoun, by his brother Henry, and afterwards by his nephew, Andrew Fletcher of Milton, who, as Lord Justice-Clerk, was, for many years, the Duke of Argyll’s right-hand man in the management of Scottish affairs. Many of the books collected by Fletcher are still preserved at Saltoun Hall, where there is a tablet with this inscription, ‘This Library was built A.D. 1775, by Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, to contain that excellent collection of books made by his great uncle of Illustrious Memory, whose name he bore. Lieutenant-General Henry Fletcher of Saltoun inscribes this marble to the memory of his lamented brother, and desires to remind their common successors that the Love of Letters or of Arms has always distinguished the family of Saltoun.’

Fletcher occupies a peculiar place in the history of Scottish Literature. His works were produced during a period of about six years, from 1698 to 1704, and at that time Learning had sunk to a very low point in Scotland. Sir George M’Kenzie stands out almost, if not entirely, alone as a man of Letters during the closing years of the seventeenth century; but his style is turgid, and wholly wanting in that quality of simplicity which is to be found in everything written by Fletcher. Burnet’s chief works, with the exception of the _History of His Own Times_, which was not published until after his death, appeared before the end of the century; but though a Scotsman, he can hardly be placed in the catalogue of purely Scottish writers. Pamphlets and sermons there were in abundance, many of them composed with great skill, and most of them invaluable from the light which they throw on the controversies of that time; but in point of style Fletcher is unique. He had no models. If he had written ten or fifteen years later, it might have been supposed that he had imitated Addison; for, especially in the _Account of a Conversation_, the style of Fletcher resembles the style of Addison. But he had ceased to write long before the _Spectator_ appeared. To Burnet he doubtless owed a sound classical education, and a knowledge of political history. The clearness and elegance of his style, however, were certainly not learned from Burnet, but were evidently the result of studying, very closely, the literature of Greece and Rome, from which he loves to draw illustrations for the purpose of enforcing his own theories of government, and his peculiar political schemes.

The political schemes of Fletcher may have been visionary, but that he honestly believed in them is evident. The Utopias which he loved to imagine may have been wild dreams, but there was always something noble in the ideals which he set up. His faults were those of a man of ardent temper. I have not attempted to conceal them, and the men of his own day, even those who most widely disagreed with him in his views on public questions, seem all to admire him, with only one or two exceptions. One of these exceptions is Swift, whose description of him is: ‘A most arrogant, conceited pedant in politics; cannot endure any contradiction in any of his views or paradoxes.’ But a Scotsman was to Swift like a red rag to a bull. Oldmixon, too, who knew Fletcher, says, and certainly with some truth, that he was ‘hot, positive, obstinate, opinionative.’ Nor does Sir John Clerk of Pennycuik seem to have fully appreciated Fletcher. ‘He was,’ he says, ‘a little untoward in his temper, and much inclined to eloquence. He made many speeches in Parliament, which are all printed, but was not very dexterous in making extemporary replies. He was, however, a very honest man, and meant well in everything he said and did, except in cases where his humour, passion, or prejudice were suffered to get the better of his reason.’ On another occasion he speaks of him as a ‘worthy man’; but that excellent placeman, Sir John Clerk, patting Fletcher of Saltoun on the back, is the tame pigeon patronising the eagle.

But, as against the hostile opinions of Swift and Oldmixon, and the lukewarm verdict of Sir John Clerk, it would be easy to fill page after page of unstinted praise from the writings of men who either knew him, or had good opportunities for observing his conduct. Of these I shall quote only two. In Mackay’s well-known _Characters of the Nobility of Scotland_, which are said to have been compiled for the private use of the Princess Sophia, we have what may be called the official opinion of Fletcher. ‘He is,’ says Mackay, ‘a gentleman steady in his principles, of nice honour, with abundance of learning; brave as the sword he wears, and bold as a lion. A sure friend, but an irreconcilable enemy; would readily lose his life to serve his country, but would not do a base thing to save it.’

The Tory Lockhart, also, in a passage which is too long for full quotation, draws the character of Fletcher. He tells us how the Laird of Saltoun was master of the Latin, Greek, French, and Italian languages, and well versed in history and the civil law; a nice observer of all points of honour; free from all manner of vice; impatient under opposition, but affable in private conversation. ‘To sum up all,’ says Lockhart, ‘he was a learned, gallant, honest, and every other way well accomplished gentleman; and if ever a man proposes to serve and merit well of his country, let him place his courage, zeal, and constancy before him, and think himself sufficiently applauded and rewarded by obtaining the character of being like Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun.’

INDEX

_Account of a Conversation_, 86-95, 150.

Act of Security, introduced in 1703, 71, 72; debates on, 72-76; passed, 77; its chief provisions, 77, 78; royal assent refused to, 78; circulated in London, 84; in 1704, proposal to tack it to a Money Bill, 97, 98; royal assent given to, 99; English opinion on, 102.

Addison, Joseph, 150.

Alien Act, passed, 107; effects on Scotland, 110; resolution against, in Scottish Parliament, 127; hostile clauses of, repealed, 129.

Amsterdam, Fletcher joins Monmouth at, 23; Monmouth sails from, 26.

Annandale, Earl of, 40, 62, 108.

Argyll, Archibald, Earl of, writes to Fletcher, 20; with Monmouth at Amsterdam, 24; invades Scotland, 26; his execution, 109.

---- John, second Duke of, at the opening of the Scottish Parliament in May 1703, 63; appointed High Commissioner, 108; arranges for the dismissal of the New Party, 111; breaks with Annandale, 112, 113; threatens to resign, 113; forms a Ministry, 114; holds a Council, 116; supports the Act for a Treaty of Union, 116 _et seq._; his refusal to act with the Jacobites in 1703, 67.

Ayloffe, 24, 26.

Baillie of Jerviswoode, 20, 21.

---- ---- (his son), 106, 114, 122.

Ballads, Fletcher’s saying as to, 95.

Belgium, Fletcher in, 21.

Belhaven, Lord, 95, 123, 135, 136, 143, 144.

Bilboa, 26.

Blenheim, battle of, 101.

Bridport, 28, 31.

Bristol, 37.

British Linen Company, 145.

Brougham, Lord, 136.

Bruce, Sir Henry, of Clackmannan, 9.

---- Captain, 33, 35.

Brussels, Argyll at, 20; Andrew Fletcher at, 23.

Boyer, 119.

Boyle, Lord, 79.

Buchan, David, Earl of, 12, 13, 20, 38, 40.

Burke, Edmund, 136.

Burnet, Bishop, 9, 10, 11, 12, 21, 39, 105, 150.

Buyse, Anthony, 24, 29, 33, 35, 36.

Calderwood, Mrs., of Polton, her anecdote of Fletcher, 21, 22.

Cameron of Lochiel, 142.

Carnegie, Margaret, 144 _et seq._

---- Sir David, of Pittarrow, 144.

Chamberlen, Hugh, 110, 121 _et seq._

_Characters of the Nobility of Scotland_, Mackay’s, 152.

Chevalier de St. George, 142.

Clerk, Sir John, of Pennycuik, 35.

---- ---- ---- son of the foregoing, 95, 151, 152.

Club, The, 40, 41.

Cockburn, Adam, of Ormiston, 13, 40, 60, 114.

---- John, younger of Ormiston, 66, 67.

Coltness Collection, story of Fletcher in, 21, 22.

Company of Scotland, Trading, 47, 48.

Cromartie, Earl of, 86 _et seq._

Cunningham, Alexander (the Historian), 137.

Dalmahoy, Sir John, 34.

Dalrymple, Sir James (Viscount Stair), 17, 18, 23, 33.

---- Sir John (First Earl of Stair), 47.

---- ---- (the Historian), 17, 24, 47.

Dare of Taunton, at Amsterdam with Monmouth, 24; lands in England, 26; killed by Fletcher, 29.

---- (the younger), 30.

Darien, 48, 49, 54.

Defoe, Daniel, 28.

_Discorso di Spagna_, 49, 59, 60.

_Discourses on the Affairs of Scotland_, 49, 53 _et seq._

Douglas, James, second Marquis of, 34.

---- Archibald, Marquis of, 63.

Doyle, Mr. Conan, 24.

Dumbarton, George, Earl of, 36.

Dundas of Arniston, 95.

Dunkirk, expedition from in 1708, 142.

Edinburgh University, 12.

---- _Review_, article in, 117.

Edmonstone of Newton, 142.

Errol, Lord, 61, 64.

Erskine, Sir James, 98.

Essex, his connection with the Whig Plot, 20.

Eugene, Prince of Savoy, 13.

Ferguson the Plotter, 24, 26, 27, 39.

Fletcher, Andrew, birth and early days of, 9; educated by Burnet, 10 _et seq._, 150; goes on the Grand Tour, 12; is in Parliament as member for Haddingtonshire, 13; opposes Lauderdale, 14, and accused before the Privy Council of obstructing the King’s service, 15, 16, 18; his return for Haddingtonshire contested in 1681, 16; opposes the Duke of York, 17; goes abroad, 19; his connection with the Whig Plot, 20 _et seq._, 23, 34; anecdote of him told by Mrs. Calderwood, 22; is outlawed, 23; joins Monmouth at Amsterdam and sails to England, 23-27; shoots Dare, 29; Lord Buchan’s erroneous account of his reasons for leaving England, 31 _et seq._; is tried for high treason and attainted, 33 _et seq._; the estate of Saltoun given to the Earl of Dumbarton, 36; adventures in Spain, 37; serves in Hungary, 38; returns to Scotland at the Revolution, 39; joins the Club, 40; complains of the delay in restoring Saltoun, 45; writes to Hamilton, 46; his connection with Darien, 47, 48; his political writings, 49 _et seq._; plans for a national militia, 49-53; his account of the poverty of Scotland, 55; his opinions on slavery, 56, 57; on high rents, 58, 59; on the Partition Treaty, 60; returned to Parliament in 1703, 60; speech on the Supplies, 68; proposes Limitations on the Crown, 69 _et seq._, 80, 81; attacks the English Ministers, 72; supports the Act of Security, 71-77; denies the power of the Sovereign to refuse the royal assent, 79; publishes his speeches, 84; _An Account of a Conversation_, 86-94; his saying about ballads, 95; about an hereditary professor, 95; speeches in the session of 1704, 97 _et seq._; attacks Johnston, 98; Sir James Halket, 98; Hamilton, 100; duel with Roxburghe, 121, 122; proposes the Limitations again, 123; moves an address against the Alien Act, 126; attacks Hamilton, 128; his conduct during the sessions of 1706-1707, 133-138; story of his leaving Scotland, 138; arrested in 1708, 142; reasons for not marrying, 144; conversations with Wodrow, 146-148; his death, 148; his place in Scottish literature, 149; contemporary opinions of his character, 151, 152.

Fletcher, Andrew (Lord Milton), 148, 149.

---- ---- (grand-nephew of the patriot), 149.

---- Henry (brother of the patriot), 14, 33, 144, 145, 149.

---- ---- (Lieutenant-General), 149.

---- Sir Robert, 9, 10.

---- Lady (Catherine Bruce), 9, 10, 11.

Fletcher, Mrs. Henry (Margaret Carnegie), 144, 145.

Ford Abbey, 28.

Forfar, Earl of, 63.

Fountainhall, Lord, 14, 19, 23.

Glasgow, Earl of, 114.

---- Burnet, Professor, at, 12.

Gloucester, Duke of, 11.

Godolphin, writes to Athole as to the Act of Security, 76; attacked for advising the Queen to give the royal assent, 101, 102; his views about Scotland, 102; explains the position to the House of Lords, 105; letters to him from Glasgow, Seafield, and Annandale, 111, 112.

---- _Correspondence_, in the British Museum, 117, _note_.

Gordon, Duke of, 142.

Grand Resolve, The, 69.

---- Marquis de, 20.

Grant, The Laird of, 18.

Grey, Lord, of Wark, 24, 26, 27.

Haarlem, Fletcher at, 21.

Hague, Fletcher at, 39.

Halifax, Lord, 21, 106, 132.

Halket, Sir James, 98.

Hamilton, James, fourth Duke of, leads the Country Party, 65, 66; supports Fletcher against the Government, 72; protests against the adjournment of the House, 74; conduct in the session of 1704, 97 _et seq._; quarrel with Fletcher, 100; moves that the Queen should appoint the Commissioners on Union, 128.

---- William, Duke of, 14, 45, 46.

Hampden, in the Whig Plot, 20.

Hanover, Elector of, 132.

Haversham, Lord, his speech in Scotland, 104.

_Helderenberg_, the frigate, 26, 27, 30, 31, 37.

Hepburn of Humbie, 16.

‘Hereditary Professor,’ 95.

Highlanders, Fletchers opinion of, 54, 57.

Historical Account of the Rights and Powers of the Parliament of Scotland, 85.

Holland, Shaftesbury escapes to, 20; Fletcher visits, 21.

Howard in the Whig Plot, 20.

Hume, Sir David, 98, 133, 134.

---- Sir Patrick (Earl of Marchmont), 40.

Hungary, 38.

Huntly, Marquis of, 142.

James II., Letter to the Scottish Estates in 1686, 39; grants a general pardon in 1688, 39.

Johnston, James, of Warriston, 46, 47, 95, 108.

Kerr, Lord Charles, 122.

Kerridge, John, 37.

Lauderdale, 13, 14, 34, 36, 43.

Law, John, of Lauriston, 110, 121 _et seq._

Lely, Sir Peter, 11.

Leyden, Andrew Fletcher at, 21; his nephew at, 148.

Limitations, the, 69, 70, 71, 79, 80, 81, 123.

Lockhart, George, of Carnwath, 82, 115, 152.

---- Sir William, 40.

Lorraine, Duke of, 38.

Loudoun, Lord, 23.

Louis XIV., 60.

Lyme, Monmouth at, 27 _et seq._

Mackay, John, 18, 40, 152.

Mackenzie, Sir George, 33, 149.

Madrid, Fletcher at, 37.

Mar, Charles, Earl of, 34.

---- John, Earl of, 63.

Marchmont, Earl of, 114.

Marischal, Earl (tenth), 33, 37, 38.

---- William, (ninth) Earl, 64.

Matthews, Captain, 24, 25.

Melville, Lord, 23, 40, 46.

_Micah Clarke_, 24.

_Militias, Discourse on_, 49 _et seq._

Monmouth, Duke of, in the Whig Plot, 20; writes to Fletcher from Amsterdam, 23; his confidence in Fletcher, 24; his invasion of England, 25-32; tried at Edinburgh after his death, 33.

Montgomery, Sir James, 40.

Montrose, fourth Marquis of, 66, 114.

Moray of Abercairney, 142.

Murray, Earl of, Commissioner in 1686, 39.

---- of Blackbarrony, 15.

Musgrave, Sir Christopher, 86 _et seq._

New Party, The, formed, 95; dismissed from office, 111 _et seq._

Nottingham, Earl of, 101, 106.

Ochtertyre ms., 136, 148.

Oldmixon, his opinion of Fletcher, 151, 152.

Ormiston, Andrew Cockburn of, 13, 16.

Paris, Fletcher at, in October 1683, 21.

Paris, Fletcher at, in 1716, 148.

Partition Treaty, 60.

Paterson, Bishop, 16.

---- William, 47.

Pitcairn, Dr., 95.

Polton, Mrs. Calderwood of, 21.

Preston, Viscount, 21.

Prideaux, Edmund, 28.

Queensberry, Duke of, 61, 67, 72, 78, 79 _et seq._; adjourns the Parliament, 84, 95 _et seq._, 114.

Ramsay, General, 62.

Rawlinson, Thomas, MS. at Oxford, 148.

Rochester, Earl of, 106.

Ross, Lord, 40.

Rothes, Earl of, 66, 72, 73, 95, 114.

Roxburghe, Duke of, 75, 95, 106, 114, 122.

---- Earl of, 66.

Rumbold, 24, 26.

Russell, his connection with the Whig Plot, 20.

Rye-House Plot, 21, 24, 34.

Ryswick, Peace of, 49.

Sacheverell, 146.

Saltoun, Living of, presented to Burnet, 9; library at, 10, 11; Burnet leaves, 12; estate of, forfeited, 36; restored after the Revolution, 46; Lord Milton succeeds to, 149; Saltoun Hall, portrait of Lady Fletcher at, 11; memorial tablet at, 149; Barley Mill, 145.

Scots Plot, 95, 117.

Seafield, Earl of, Lord Chancellor, 62; adjourns the House suddenly, 74, 108, 114.

Security, Act of. See Act.

Sedgemoor, battle of, 33.

Seymour, Sir Edward, 88 _et seq._

Shaftesbury, 20.

Sidney, Algernon, his connection with the Whig Plot, 20.

Sinclair of Stevenston, 15, 40.

Slavery, Fletcher on, 56, 57, 58.

Somers, opinion of the situation in 1704, 103, 106.

---- proposes legislation, 107.

---- State Tracts, 117.

Somerville of Drum, 35.

_Spectator, The_, 95, 150.

_Speech without-doors concerning Toleration_, 85.

_Speech on the State of the Nation_, 49, 60.

Spittal of Leuchat, 136.

Squadrone Volante, The, 114, 118, 137.

Stair family, The, 113.

Stair, first Earl of, 123, 124, 134.

_State of the Controversy betwixt United and Separate Parliaments_, 132.

Stewart, Sir James, Lord Advocate, 47, 75, 115.

Stirling of Keir, 142.

Sunderland, 146.

Suttie, Sir George, of Balgonie, 66.

Swift, Dean, his opinion of Fletcher, 151, 152.

Tarbat (first Earl of Cromartie), 62.

_Tatler, The_, 95.

Taunton, 27, 28, 32.

Texel, The, 26, 27.

Titus Oates, 39.

Tolemache, William, 14.

Torphichen, Lord, 35.

Tullibardine (afterwards Duke of Athole), 62.

---- (Duke of Athole), 76.

Tweeddale, Marquis of, 47, 66, 67, 95 _et seq._, 108 _et seq._, 114 _et seq._

Union, Act for a Treaty brought into the Scottish Parliament, 119; passed, 128.

---- Commission on, at Westminster, 129 _et seq._; Treaty of, signed, 131; approved by Scottish Parliament, 137.

Vulpone, 117.

Wade, 24, 26.

Wedderburn of Gosford, 16.

Westminster, Treaty of Union signed at, 131.

Whig Plot, 21, 23, 34.

Whitehall, 86.

William III. lands in England, 39; Fletcher’s distrust of, 60; refusal of royal assent to Acts of Scottish Parliament, 78.

Williams, William, servant to Monmouth, 23, 35.

Wodrow, his conversations with Fletcher, 146, 147.

Yester, Lord, 16.

York, Duke of (James II.), 16, 17, 18, 20.