As most
of their congregations had followed the expelled ministers into the
wilderness, this new law so mightily increased the labours of the
authorities that it was found necessary to institute a new tribunal of
justice for the especial treatment of ecclesiastical offences. This was
no less than a renewal of that old Court of High Commission which had
been abolished by the Long Parliament twenty years before to the joy of
the whole nation. To strengthen its hands a body of troops was sent down
into the western shires, now the stronghold of the Covenant, to impose
and exact the fines ordained by the Commission. Their leader was Sir
James Turner, a man of some education, but rough and brutal. He had
served on the Continent under Gustavus Adolphus, had fought under Leslie
in the Presbyterian ranks, and had accompanied Hamilton with the
Engagers into England. Turner, in his own memoirs, declares that he not
only did not exceed his orders, but was even lenient beyond his
commission. When, a few years later, in a momentary fit of indulgence,
his acts were called in question by the Privy Council, the evidence
hardly served to establish his assertion.
At length the West rose. On November 13th, 1666, four countrymen came
into the little village of Dalry, in Galloway, in search of refreshment.
There they found a few soldiers, driving before them a body of peasants
to thresh out the corn of an old man who would not pay his fines.
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