madmen would have passed; but, says Burnet, "Duke Hamilton told me they
were all so drunk that day, that they were not capable of considering anything
that was laid before them, and would hear of nothing but executing the law,
without any relenting or delay." This impetuous haste was fully shown by
the fact, that though the enactment was proclaimed on the 4th of October (1662),
the 1st of November was specified as the last day of grace, beyond which all
submission would be fruitless thus allowing their victims little more than three
weeks for deliberation upon a step in which their all was at stake. The na-
tional stubbornness of Scotland, even in the absence of a better motive, would
have fired at such an insult, and confronted it with a dogged resistance; but
what was to be expected when conscience, and principle, and every high and
holy inducement were called into full exercise? The answer was given on the
1st of November, when nearly four hundred ministers, with their families, forsook their homes, and abandoned all except their trust in God, and hope of a
life to come. Is it strange that after this Episcopacy could take no root in
Scotland, or that Presbyterian ism should be endeared to her people not only
as the best of creeds, but the most patriotic of national distinctions?
In this way the Earl of Middleton showed his utter unfitness whether for civil or religious government. He had awoke a spirit of resistance in Scotland which abler men than himself could not allay, and utterly damaged the purposes of his master by the means with which he hoped to advance them. But retribution was at hand, and it was to be imbittered tenfold by coming from a sovereign whom he had so unscrupulously served, and through the machinations of a rival whose overthrow he planned, and hoped soon to accomplish. Although he had ruled "every inch a king," it was with a sore misgiving that he had a "viceroy over him" in the person of the Earl, afterwards Duke of Lauderdale, who, as secretary for Scotland, had, when he pleased to exercise it, the chief influence at court in the direction of Scottish affairs. Middleton was eager to remove this unwelcome associate, before whom his spirit stood rebuked; but in the struggle that followed between these unscrupulous rivals, the blundering, hot-headed soldier was no match for the learned and wily politician. On find- ing that his credit with the king was failing, he repaired to London in 1603, hoping by his presence to recover the royal favour ; but, on his arrival at court, he was severely accused by Lauderdale of mismanagement in the government of Scotland. This, and the mischievous consequences that had accrued from it, he could not deny; and his only plea was, that he was a soldier, and there- fore ignorant of law and its forms, and that all he had done was designed for his majesty's service, and the establishment of the royal authority. This last apology, although so boundless in its extent, fared as it generally does in such critical emergencies, and his deposition and disgrace followed, although Monk, Clarendon, and the English bishops interposed in his behalf.
After having been thus blighted, the earl retired into obscurity, living for that purpose at a mansion called the Friary, near Guildford, which belonged to a Scottish gentleman named Dalmahoy, who had married the widow of the Duke of Hamilton; and to requite the kindness of his host, the earl built a large and handsome bridge across the river that flowed through the estate, which was called after his own name, "Middleton Bridge." At length the government of the fort of Tangier in Africa having become vacant by the death of Lord Rutherford, this poor appointment was bestowed upon Middleton, to requite, as was alleged, his services in establishing Episcopacy in Scotland, but in reality,
