Mr. John Thomson and Charles Auchmouty, servants to the African Company, for Treason and Leasingmaking by designing and causing to be engraved a Political Print, 1701 THIS trial, with the facts which gave rise to it, presents us with a remarkable picture of liberty and fortitude in Parliament, of expiring struggles for tyranny in the Sovereign, and of the final victory of secret influence over Parliamentary independence. In the year 1695, an Indian and African Company was established in Scotland. £400,000 Sterling were subscribed by such proprietors as were natives and residenters. The Company fitted out six ships of force and burthen,* laden with various commodities, which sailed from the Forth. They planted, by the name of Caledonia, a colony on the isthmus of Darien; and, from the establishment of this Company, and its colony, the nation universally flattered itself with the eager and unbounded prospect of extended trade and empire. From the jealousy the English, Dutch, and Spaniards, entertained of this colony, it may be presumed that the prospects which this nation derived from it, were at least plausible. But, besides the opposition of rival powers, Cale. donia experienced that of her Sovereign, whose po *Act of Scottish Parl. 26th June, 1695; Lockhart's Mem. p. 29.; De Foe's Hist. of Union; Scott's Hist. p. 710.; Edinburgh Gazette, No. 8. No. 36. litical views, or personal attachments, led him to 1701 embrace the hostile spirit of his other dominions.n The colony was attacked, was abandoned; the ves sels were captured, the adventurers were killed in battle, were executed as pirates, or died of famine; and the company was ruined. When the fatal tidings were received at Edinburgh, the sense of injury and disappointment was so strong as to burst forth with a fury which threatened immediate rebellion; and the great officers of state had to retire for a time to screen themselves from popular resentment. When the Parliament met, the first symptom of their displeasure, at the enemies of the African Company, was to pass an order for burning, by the hands of the hangman, a pamphlet, entitled, A Defence of the Scots abdicating Daien,' and requiring the Lords of the Treasury to pay a reward of £6000 Scots to any person who would apprehend William Herreis, the alledged author, and bring him before a magistrate. Soon after, they passed a resolution, declaring, that the votes and address of the Parliament of England, in December, 1695, and the address of the House of Lords in February last, were undue intermeddlings in the affairs of this kingdom, .500 Sterling. Rec. of Scottish Parl. 16th Nov. 1700, 9th, 10th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 17th, Jan. 1701. The intermeddlings complained of were, that both Houses of Parliament had addressed the King, representing, that the act to which he had given the royal assent in Scotland, for erecting a Company trading to Africa and the Indies, granting them an exemption from public burdens for twenty-one years, would make Scotland a free port for East-India commodities, enable her to undersell England at foreign markets, and be of great prejudice to 1701 and an invasion of the sovereignty and independence of our King and Parliament. They next resolved, That the memorial presented in his Majesty's name, as King of Great Britain, to the Senate of Ham→ burgh, 7th April, 1697, by Sir Paul Rycaut, then resident in that city, and Mr. Grosset, his Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Lunenburgh, was most unwarrantable, containing manifest 'falsehoods, and contrary to the law of nations, inju» rious to his Majesty, an open incroachment upon the sovereignty of this Crown and Kingdom, the oc, 'casion of great losses and disappointments to the 'said Company, and of most dangerous consequence to the trade of this nation.' Moved, That, who' ever advised his Majesty's answer to the address of 'the Parliament of England against our Indian and African Company, are enemies to this kingdom, and, if subjects thereof, are traitors to their King ' and country, and be prosecuted accordingly.'After a debate, the motion was withdrawn. They also resolved, that the proclamations issued by the English plantations against the African Com. pany, particularly that against furnishing any provi sions or necessaries whatever to their colony, direct, ly or indirectly, and even debarring them wood, water, and anchorage, were injurious to the Com the trade and revenue of the latter kingdom; especially when Scotland shall have settled plantations in America. The King returned the following answer: I have been ill served in Scotland; but I hope some remedies may be found to prevent the inconveniencies which may arise from this act Journal of House of Lords, 13th December, 1695, 8th February, 1699. House of Commons, 14th, 18th December, 1695. pany, barbarous to the adventurers, contrary to the 1701 law of nations, and a great occasion of the loss of the colony. Resolved, that this colony was a legal and rightful settlement holding of the Crown of Scotland; and moved, that the conduct of the Spaniards to the said colony was an open hostility against the Crown of Britain, and that satisfaction ought to be demanded. All the resolutions were passed nemine contradicente, and the motion was delayed. These formidable resolutions, however, by the dexterity of William's Ministers, vanished in smoke;` for the Court party moved an address to the King on the resolution, asserting the Company's right to the colony; while the country party contended, that, in the present circumstances, an act of Parliament was -requisite for securing the Company's rights, as well as for regulating the conduct of the persons engaged in the prosecution of them. A debate and division on this question taking place, it carried for an address by an hundred and eight against eighty-four.* *The Peers and Commons of Scotland formed but one House. Those who voted for an address were, Peers, 41 Commissioners for Barons, i. e. Knights of the Shire, 32 35 -108 It is perhaps superfluous in me to add, that all the officers of state were in this list. Those who voted for an act of parliament, were, 1701 And the whole of the minority entered a formal dis sent. This address recapitulates the grievances of the African Company, and the resolutions of Parliament mentioned above, omitting entirely however that for demanding satisfaction of the Spaniards; it concludes with praying his Majesty's protection and countenance against the violence of Spaniards, and of English ministers abroad. It was the parliamentary division upon this address, which was the subject of the political print that gave occasion to this trial. The print represented Scotland in the figure of a woman, wearing a crown, having the name of Scotia over her head, and supported by the eighty-four dissentient Members. These were entitled, Caledo'nia's supporters.' They were distinguished with the following motto, encircled with wreaths of laurel, patriae fautoribus;' and the woman addressed them in these words:* Take courage, and act as 'men that hold their liberty, as well as their glory, dear.' Below, an angel spoke thus to a multitude of little figures which he was driving with thunderbolts to hell, Procul, o procul esto profani.'(These figures were charged in the indictment as representing the majority in Parliament.) And in the midst of the flames, lay a person who was tormented by a fiend, that addressed him in these words: Vendidit hic auro patriam.' His Majesty's Advocate produced before the Court of Justiciary an act of the Privy Council, authorising * Rec. of Just. 14th, 21st, April; 23d, 24th, May, 1701. |