in
Holland. But when he goes on to say that there was no insurrection in
any part of our island, he goes rather too far. The western shires of
Scotland had been in a state of insurrection ever since the Pentland
rising, if there be any meaning in the word at all. And, though it is
true that on May 1st (the day of Brown's death) Argyle was in Holland,
it is no less true that on the second he had left Holland for Scotland;
that since April 21st the Privy Council had been well informed of his
designs; that measures had been taken for putting the whole kingdom in a
state of defence against him; and that arrests had been already made on
account of treasonable correspondence with him.[57] But the question is
not one of probabilities, and moreover against these probabilities it
may be very fairly urged that Claverhouse's own despatch proves that the
nephew's confession and the discovery of the underground armoury were
not made till after the uncle's death. Nor is there any word in this
despatch to show that Claverhouse had any previous knowledge of Brown or
was acting on particular information. The real question, and the only
question, is, was Claverhouse legally--not morally, that belongs to
another part of the case--was he legally justified in ordering the man
to be shot? To this there can be but one answer, so long as the phrase
"legal justification" bears the meaning it has hitherto borne for those
who use the English tongue: both by the spirit and the letter of his
commission he was justified in what he did. By the law of the Government
whose servant Claverhouse then was, the death of John Brown on that
Ayrshire moor was as lawful an act as the death on the scaffold of any
prisoner to-day found guilty by a jury of his countrymen. In October,
1684, the Covenanters had published a declaration, drawn up by Renwick,
of their intention to do unto all their enemies whom they could lay
hands on, civil no less than military, as their enemies had done and
should do unto them; and the deliberate murder of two troopers of the
Life Guards in the following month had shown (what, to be sure, can have
needed very little proof) that this was no idle threat.[58] An Act,
therefore, was hastily passed to the effect that, "Any person who owns
or will not disown the late treasonable declaration on oath, whether
they have arms or not, be immediately put to death, this being always
done in the presence of two witnesses, and the person or persons