ssenting from
the ministry in some articles; beseeching him to consider what they had
represented, to give his royal assent to the acts of parliament which
they had prepared, and take measures for redressing all the other
grievances of the nation. This address was presented to the king at
Hampton-court. William was so touched with the reproaches it implied, as
if he had not fulfilled the conditions on which he accepted the crown of
Scotland, that he, in his own vindication, published his instructions
to the commissioner; and by these it appeared that the duke might have
proceeded to greater lengths in obliging his countrymen. Before the
adjournment, however, the parliament had granted the revenue for life;
and raised money for maintaining a body of forces, as well as for
supporting the incidental expense of the government for some months; yet
part of the troops in that kingdom were supplied and subsisted by the
administration of England. In consequence of these disputes in the
Scottish parliament, their church was left without any settled form of
government; for, though the hierarchy was abolished, the presbyterian
discipline was not yet established, and ecclesiastical affairs were
occasionally regulated by the privy-council, deriving its authority from
that very act of supremacy, which, according to the claim of rights,
ought to have been repealed.

THE CASTLE OF EDINBURGH BESIEGED.

The session was no sooner adjourned than sir John Lanier converted the
blockade of Edinburgh castle into a regular siege, which was prosecuted
with such vigour that in a little time the fortifications were ruined,
and the works advanced at the foot of the walls, in which the besiegers
had made several large breaches. The duke of Gordon, finding his
ammunition expended, his defences destroyed, his intelligence entirely
cut off, and despairing of relief from the adherents of his master,
desired to capitulate, and obtained very favourable terms for his
garrison; but he would not stipulate any conditions for himself,
declaring that he had so much respect for all the princes descended from
king James VI. that he would not affront any of them so far as to insist
upon terms for his own particular: he therefore, on the thirteenth day
of June, surrendered the castle and himself at discretion. All the hopes
of James and his party were now concentred in the viscount Dundee, who
had assembled a body of Highlanders, and resolved to attack Mackay