188 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

chap. intentions, and asked their advice in the presentl.xxi. emergency. This assembly, consisting of thirty

i«3?. noblemen and about fourscore gentlemen, choseduke Hamilton president; a man, who, beingof a temporizing character, was determined topay court to the present authority. His eldestfon , the earl of Arran, professed an adherence toking James; a usual policy in Scotland, wherethe father and son , during civil commotions,were often observed to take opposite sides; inorder to secure in all events the family fromattainder. Arran proposed to invite back the kingupon conditions ; but as he was vehementlyopposed in this motion by Sis Patric Hume, andseconded by nobody, the assembly made an offerto the prince of the present administration, whichhe willingly accepted. To anticipate a little inour narration ; a convention , by circular lettersfrom the prince , was summoned at Edinburghon the twenty-second of IVlarch; where it wassoon visible, that the interest of the malecontentswould entirely prevail. The more zealous royal-ists , regarding this assembly as illegal, hadforborn to appear at elections ; and the otherparty were returned for most places. The revolu-tion was not, in Scotland as in England, effectedby a coalition of whig and tory: The formerparty alone had overpowered the government,and were too much enraged by the past injuries,which they had suffered, to admit of any compo-sition with their former masters. As soon as thepurpose of the convention was discovered, the