conspiracy, though certainly never among the higher, the assassination of tho
king and the duke of York. Feeling himself insulted, and the cause disgraced
by such a proposal, Mr Carstairs told Ferguson, that he and the men with
whom he was engaged, thought themselves warranted even with arms in their
hands, to demand, for redress of their grievances, those constitutional remedies
which had been so often denied to their complaints and remonstrances; but
they held it beneath them, both as men and as Christians, to adopt any such
mean and cowardly contrivances either against the king or his brother. From
that time forward, Ferguson never mentioned any such thing in his presence,
nor did he ever hear any such thing alluded to in his intercourse with any other
of the party. Disgusted, however, with their procrastination he took his departure for Holland, without carrying any message, having refused to do so, except it were a full compliance with his demands.
Scarcely had he landed in Holland, than Shaftesbury found it convenient to follow him, not daring to trust himself any longer in England; and by his desertion, the remaining conspirators, finding their connection with the city of London, upon which they had placed great dependence, broken, saw it the more necessary to unite with Argyle and the refugees abroad, as well as with the Scots at home. Sydney now dropped all his objections, and letters were immediately forwarded to Contain, requesting him to come over, and an express was sent down to Scotland, for his friends to come up, in order to a speedy adjustment of every particular relative to the insurrection and consentaneous invasion. In consequence of this, consultations were held among the refugees, Argyle, Stair, Loudoun, Stewart, and others, where it was proposed that the conspirators in England should contribute thirty thousand pounds sterling in money, and one thousand horse, to be ready to join Argyle the moment he should land upon the west coast of Scotland. Mr Stewart was for accepting a smaller sum of money, if so much could not be obtained; but all agreed in the necessity of raising the horse before any thing should be attempted. Stair seemed more cold in the matter than the others ; but Argyle having assured Carstairs that, so soon as the preliminaries were settled, he would be found abundantly zealous, he consented to carry their proposals and lay them before the committee or council, that had been by the conspirators appointed to conduct the business at London. When he arrived there, he was mortified to find that the difficulty of raising the money now was as formidable an obstacle as the opposition ot Sydney had formerly been. Russell frankly acknowledged that the whole party could not raise so much money; and begged that ten thousand pounds might be accepted as a beginning, and even this was never paid to Shepherd, who was appointed cashier to the concern, nor was one single step taken for levying the proposed number of troops upon the borders. After having spent several weeks in London, fruitlessly prosecuting the business that had been entrusted to him, he became perfectly convinced from the temper of the men and their mode of procedure that the scheme would come to nothing. This opinion he communicated to a meeting of his countrymen, where were present Baillie of Jerviswood, lord Melvill, Sir John Cochrane, the Campbells of Cessnock, and others, recommending it to them to attend to their own safety, by putting an immediate stop to further preparations, till their brethren of England should be more forward, and better prepared to join them. Baillie of Jerviswood, the most ardent and decisive of all his countrymen who had engaged in this enterprise, reflected bitterly upon the timidity of the English, who had suffered their zeal to evaporate in talk, when they might, by promptitude of action, have been already in possession of the benefits they expected to derive
