2 7 a HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

CHAP,I,XVI.IL78.

State ofaffiir! inScotland.]

Europe, Charles, they thought, had, contraryto his own honor and interest, acted a part en-tirely subservient to the common enemy; and inall his measures had either no project at all, orsuch as was highly criminal and dangerous. WhileSpain , Holland , the emperor , the princes ofGermany called aloud on England to lead themto victory and to liberty, and conspired to raiseher to a station more glorious than Hie had everbefore attained ; her king , from mean pecuniarymotives , had secretly sold his alliance to Lewis ,and was bribed into an interest contrary to thatof his people. His active schemes in conjunctionwith France were highly pernicious ; his neutralitywas equally ignominious; and the jealous, re-fractory behaviour of the parliament, though initself dangerous , was the only remedy for somany greater ills, with which the public, fromthe misguided counsels of the king, was so nearlythreatened. Such were the dispositions of men’sminds at the conclusion of the peace ofNimeguen:And these dispositions naturally prepared the wayfor the events which followed.

We must now return to the affairs of Scotland,which we left in some disorder , after the sup-pression of the insurrection in 1 066 . The king,who at that time endeavoured to render himselfpopular in England, adopted like measures inScotland; and he intrusted the government intothe hands chiefly of Tweddale, and Sir RobertMurray, men of prudence and moderation. Theseminister* made it their principal object to compose

the