HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AFTER THE RESTORA TZON. =OS
In consequence of this, a popular tumult waa excited; a rabble of apprentices and
others watched the return of some of the chief oficers of state from public attendance at
mass. The ChancelIor’s lady, and other persons of distinction, were insulted, and the
utmost indignation excited in the minds of these dignitaries against the populace. A
baker, who had been active in the riot, was apprehended and tried before the Privy Council.
He was condemned to be publicly whipped through the Canongate; but the populace
rescued him from punishment, chastised the executioner, and kept the town in a state of
uproar and commotion throughout the night. The military were at length called out, and
fired on the rioters, by which three of them lost their lives. Two others were apprehended
and afterwards convicted, seemingly on very insufficient evidence, one of whom was hanged
and the other shot.
In July 1687, the King wrote to the Privy Council “that the Abbey Church was the
chapel belonging to his Palace of Holyrood House, and that the Knights of the noble Order
of the Thistle, which he had now erected, could not meet in St Andrew’s Church,’ being
demolished in the rebellion, as they called our Reformation, and so it was necessary for
them to have this church ; and the Provost of Edinburgh was ordained to see the keys of
it given to them.” ’ Some opposition was made to this by the Bishop of Edinburgh, but
it was agreed to with little difficulty, and the inhabitants of the Canongate, whose parish
church it had been, were ordered to seek accommodation in Lady Pester’s Church, till
better could be provided. The Canongate Church was shortly afterwards built from funds
that had been left by Thomas Moodie, a citizen of Edinburgh, for the purpose of providing
an additional place of worship.
Holyrood Chapel was now magnificently fitted up with richly carved stalls for the
Knights of the Thistle. “ An altar, vestments, images, priests, and their apurtents,”
arrived at Leith, by the King’s yacht, from London, for the purpose of completing the
restoration of the Abbey to its ancient uses. A college of priests was established in Holyrood,
and daily service performed in the Chapel. Fresh riots were the consequence of this
last procedure, and two of those who had been most zealous in testifying their abhorrence
of such religious innovations, were executed, while others were publicly whipped through
the streets.
The feeble
representative of that long line of Kings was already anticipating an invasion from Holland;
in the month of September 1688, orders were issued for ‘raising the militia, and
these were speedily followed by others for erecting beacons along the coast. But James,
who, by his rashness, had forced on the crisis, was the first to desert his own cause ; and
the Scottish Parliament, with more consistency than that of England, availed themselves
of this to declare that he had forfeited the throne.
The news of the arrival of the Prince of Orange Wed the Presbyterian party in Scotland
with the utmost joy. The Earl of Perth, who wan Chancellor, hastily quitted Edinburgh,
and the mob made it the signal for an attack on Holyrood Chapel. A body of an
hundred men defended it with firearms, which they freely used against their assailants,
killing twelve of them, and wounding many more, But this only mcremed the fury of the
mob; the armed defenders were at length overpowered, and the Chapel delivered up to
The fall of the ancient house of the Stuarts was now rapidly approaching.
1 i.e., The Cathedral of St Andrewe. * Fountainhall, voL i p. 466.
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