152.
** Burnet, p. 147.
No consideration was had, either of men's riches, or of the degrees
of their guilt: no proofs were produced: inquiries were not so much as
made: but as fast as information was given in against any man, he was
marked down for a particular fine: and all was transacted in a secret
committee. When the list was read in parliament, exceptions were made
to several: some had been under age during the civil wars; some had been
abroad. But it was still replied, that a proper time would come when
every man should be heard in his own defence. The only intention, it was
said, of setting the fines was, that such persons should have no benefit
by the act of indemnity, unless they paid the sum demanded: every one
that chose to stand upon his innocence, and renounce the benefit of
the indemnity, might do it at his peril. It was well known, that no one
would dare so far to set at defiance so arbitrary an administration.
The king wrote to the council, ordering them to supersede the levying of
those fines: but Middleton found means, during some time, to elude these
orders.[*] And at last, the king obliged his ministers to compound for
half the sums which had been imposed. In all these transactions, and
in most others which passed during the present reign, we still find the
moderating hand of the king interposed to protect the Scots from the
oppressions which their own countrymen, employed in the ministry, were
desirous of exercising over them.
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