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Home Domestic Affairs, 1689-1714 Scotland; Part 2 |
Scotland; Part 2The reigns of William and Mary and of Anne mark the beginning of a happier and more prosperous period for Scotland. One fearful atrocity, it is true, was committed. The Battle of Killiecrankie and the death of Dundee (1689) did not at once terminate hostilities, and some of the clans still refused to recognize the new sovereigns. At last a proclamation was issued, promising pardon to all who took an oath of allegiance to the new Government before the last day of 1691. Only two chiefs had not taken the oath by the appointed day, and of these, one, Macdonald of Glencoe, merely failed because he had made it a point of honour to delay till the last possible moment, and had then gone to the wrong place to take the oath.The Campbells, the mortal foes of the Macdonalds, persuaded the Government to make a signal example of the people of Glencoe. Troops were sent there, who, after being entertained by the Macdonalds for a fortnight, suddenly made an attack upon them and brutally murdered the chief and thirty-seven of his clan (1692). The condition of Scotland, however, rapidly improved after the Revolution of 1688. The Bank of Scotland, founded in 1695, was an incentive to trade; the Habeas Corpus Act, passed in 1701, and similar to that passed in England thirty years before, protected the liberty of the individual. But to three things, above all, did Scotland owe her prosperity. In the first place, Presbyterianism, the religion of the great majority, was made, in 1689, the established religion, whilst the Episcopalians, who believed in the rule of bishops, obtained toleration in 1712, Hence Scotland obtained what she most needed - the cessation of religious strife. Secondly, a law was passed in 1696 establishing schools in every parish. Though ignored in some parts of Scotland, this law had great results, and the two centuries of education which Scotland has enjoyed account for the intellectual superiority of its inhabitants. |
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