"1 achievement utterly hopeless. To the immediate purpose the king said: "We have seen the letter and petitions sent us therewith, which we think not fit to answer at this time, but will do it when we shall think fit. And because we are not resolved for the present when to do it, we command you to dissolve the meeting this council-day in so far as it does concern this business." This dubious instruction was repeated in the Council's proclamation, and they interpreted it as a general order to abandon all dealing with the ecclesiastical dispute until they received further instructions. Holding this view, when the great supplication came up they opened it, as not knowing what the contents of the packet might be; and when they "found it concerned Kirk matters, they professed they would read none of it, and were offended the petitioners should present anything which they had declared themselves unable to receive-taxing the petitioners of impatience, who would not wait his majesty's answer." 2 But the Council, even if the lay members had been as zealous in the cause as the clerical, were utterly helpless. They were unprotected in the midst of a hostile crowd; and though part of this crowd consisted of the aristocracy of the kingdom, who had hitherto been the supporters of the Crown and the institutions of the country, and had influenced the humbler people to the same end, they had cast away all reverence for the monarchy and constitution as then locally represented in Scotland. They were at enmity with the Council; and their moral influence over the humbler crowd, added to their feudal command over their own vassals, made their enmity all the more formidable. In the mean time it was in their protection that the members of the Council found safety from the general mob. The Council could not even obey the injunction to adjourn to Linlithgow without abandoning the capital to the enemy. Of course they enjoined on the stranger Supplicants the duty of returning home, in obedience to the king's proclamation; but this precept was received with silent contempt. Indeed the crowd of strangers was seen to increase. 1 Balfour, ii. 236. 2 Rothes's Relation, 17. The country was stirred by a rumour that on the 17th of November the king's answer to all the supplications would be read in Edinburgh. The Council attempted to stop the current by warnings and remonstrances; but the advertisements missed some by the evil weather; others came because they could not find content in their minds if they stayed at home; others hearing of their neighbours' coming, could not be withheld.” 1 It was under these exciting conditions that an affair occurred which, taken by itself, was a mere simple arrangement for the peaceable transaction of the business on hand, but in its effects was one of the most momentous events in the history of that eventful period. Professedly to obviate the dangers and mischiefs inseparable from the political action of great crowds, it was agreed on both sides that the several classes into which the Supplicants were politically and socially divided should act by committees or representatives. They were for this purpose divided into Nobles, Lesser Barons, Burgesses, and Clergy. Each of these classes was to elect four representatives; and so was created the celebrated and formidable body known in history as "THE TABLES." If it was not an absolute necessity, the consent of the Council to this arrangement was one of the grandest political blunders ever committed. Wherever a group of men can assemble together, each as the accredited representative of many others, a new power in the State is created. This is a danger well known and guarded against in all constitutional governments. For instance, when any body of persons, not being a corporation acting within their corporate powers, address the British Legislature through such a person as a chairman or secretary, their petition or other document is only received as coming from the individual person whose signature is attached to it. The Council had now set down by their side a deliberative body of sixteen, more powerful than themselves. They had better have been in the hands of the Estates of Parliament, of which their master and his 1 Rothes's Relation, 18, 19. zealous servants had a horror, for then two sides would have been represented. But here was a body of men all on one side a Parliament without an Opposition. The Council could not have done a better deed in the cause of the Supplicants; and yet, if a contemporary who knew well what was passing is correct in naming the authors of the plan, it seems to have been conceived in all simplicity. They were Hay, the Lord Clerk-Register, and the Bishop of Galloway. Hay is a neutral figure in the confusions of the times. The Bishop of Galloway was the public enemy who made so narrow an escape from the second tumult. There he was assailed as "Papist loun, Jesuit loun, betrayer of religion;" and it was charged against him "that he ordinarily had a crucifix in his cabinet where he said his prayers, and did wear upon him, commending by discourse the use of them for remembrance." The motives influencing the several members of the Council in assenting to the formation of the Tables were thus analysed by a contemporary: "The Council acquiesced: such of them as fancied them not-namely, the bishops-to be rid of the unruly multitude; others out of necessity, because they saw not how to command them. Nor wanted there in the Council such as willingly promoved the overture, being then their secret friends, but afterwards their open associates.” 2 1 The mistake was seen when it was beyond remedy. Many fruitless attempts were made to break up the compact body of representatives into morsels. They were told that the committee for each Estate should act 1 Rothes's Relation, 17-20. Baillie says: "It went also braid and wide, and was told to the bishop's face by my Lord Dumfries before the treasurer, that he did wear under his coat, upon his breast, a crucifix of gold; to which challenge his reply was but faint. A certain gentleman told me that he did see and handle and confer concerning that crucifix with the bishop. For all this, I do not believe it; for I, upon my old respect to the man, made Mr R. Hamilton his familiar pose him upon the matter, who reported to me his full purgation of that calumny. However that synod and commission in Galloway, that supposed lie and crucifix did give no little occasion to the increase of the people's murmurs."-Letters, i. 16. 2 Gordon's Scots Affairs, i. 27, 28. separately; it was not intended, and it was in itself unlawful, that they should form one compact body representing their cause throughout Scotland. But to prohibit their acting with a common understanding was too subtle an operation to be accomplished by force, had that been in the Council's possession. That, being in natural possession of a power by which they could molest their enemy and protect themselves, they should freely and scrupulously abstain from using that power was not in human nature. Their consciences were clear within them they were doing good service. "The whole commissioners professed, if they should appear and petition severally, they would become so hateful to those who had intrusted them as they could not be answerable, nor durst not turn home for fear of their dislike. And when the general meeting was branded with the imputation of unlawful convocation, it was far otherways, their cause being religion, their end just, their meeting peaceable, and their proceedings orderly." 1 Ostensibly the Tables consisted of but the sixteen persons who were to communicate with the Council, and sit in permanence for that end. But behind these there was a larger representative body available when necessary. This consisted of the aggregate electoral colleges, as they might be termed the bodies by whom the four of each Estate were chosen. The nobility chose so many of their own body to represent them in this aggregate body. is further pretty clear that each county was represented in the department of minor barons, each burgh in that of burgesses, and each presbytery in that of the clergy; but the aggregate number of the whole, and the share of representation possessed by each constituency, is not to be discovered.2 It Of the ends to which the institution worked, the following memorandum was left by a contemporary recorder of events: "These sixteen thus chosen were constitute as delegates for the rest, who were to treat with the Council thereafter in name of the rest, and to reside constantly 2 See Baillie's Letters, i. 40. 1 Rothes's Relation, 36. where the Council sat. These delegates thus constitute were appointed to give intelligence to all quarters of the kingdom to their associates of all that passed betwixt the king, the Council, and them; to correspond with the rest, and to receive intelligence from them; and to call such of them, with the mind of the rest, as they thought expedient. Further, these delegates, after a certain time, were to be freed of that charge; and being relieved, others to be put in their places to succeed to them, and so forwarded by turns. It was they who for some time afterward were known under the name of the TABLES, or more commonly the GREEN Tables." It was easy for a committee of sixteen at the utmost to conduct their business in an orderly shape; and as to the larger assemblages, arrangement was made, described in as neat a digest of the tactic of a public assembly as one will find anywhere : "2 "For keeping of order it was appointed that we shall continually choose one of our number to be president; that all motions shall be first proposed and tabled before any be handled; that no motion shall be proposed by any, nor answer given to any motion, without the proposer and answerer obtain leave of the president-and that to eschew the speaking of many at once." Both the structure and the functions of the institution were altered from time to time. It is sufficient here to remember that it was a permanent institution until it was superseded by the meeting of the Estates. The Supplicants were fortunate in their successive delegates. How thoroughly they were masters of political business the coming narrative will show. When once fairly installed in office, their constituents left them to their work in complete confidence. The narrator just cited says: "This being done, the multitude returned every one to their own homes, ready to return upon the first call of their new representative which they had established in their place."3 1 Gordon's Scots Affairs, i. 28. 3 Ibid. |