CHARLES II. -279

A VERY bad, at least a severe use was madeof this authority. The privy council dispossessedtwelve gentlemen or noblemen of their houseswhich were converted into so many garrisons,established for the suppression of conventicles.The nation, it was pretended , was really, onaccount of these religious assemblies, in a stateof war; and by the ancient law, the king, insuch an emergency, was empowered to place agarrison in any house, where he should judge itexpedient.

It were endless to recount every act of violenceand arbitrary authority exercised during Lauder-dale’s administration. All the lawyers were putfrom the bar, nay, banished by the king’s ordertwelve miles from the capital, and by that meansthe whole justice of the kingdom was suspendedfor a year ; till these lawyers were brought todeclare it as their opinion, that all appeals toparliament were illegal. A letter was procuredfrom the king, for expelling twelve of the chiefmagistrates of Edinburgh, and declaring themincapable of all public office; though their onlycrime had been their want of compliance withLauderdale. The boroughs of Scotland have aprivilege of meeting once a-year by their deputiesin order to consider the state of trade , and makeby-laws for its regulation : In this convention apetition was voted, complaining of some lateacts, which obstructed commerce, and praying

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LXVI.

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