But we have now come to an episode in his life for which
an extremely virtuous or an extremely censorious moralist might, were he
so minded, find occasion to re-echo the popular epithet of rapacious.
Claverhouse was in no sense of the word an avaricious man; but, like all
sensible men, he had a strong belief in the truth of the maxim, the
labourer is worthy of his hire. He had laboured long and successfully;
and the time, he thought, had now come for his hire.
Lauderdale was dying, and from every side the vultures were flocking
fast to their prey. In those days politicians looked for promotion
mainly to the death or disgrace of their comrades, and the death of any
powerful statesman generally meant the disgrace of his family. All
parties were now busy in anticipation over the rich booty that was so
soon to come into the market. His brother and heir, Charles Maitland of
Hatton, was attacked before the breath was out of the old man's body.
Among the many lucrative posts he enjoyed, the most lucrative was that
of Governor (or General, as the style went) of the Scottish Mint. At the
instigation of Sir George Gordon of Haddo, who had become in quick
succession President of the Court of Session, Lord Chancellor, and Earl
of Aberdeen, a Commission was appointed to inquire into the state of the
coinage, with the result that Maitland (by this time Earl of Lauderdale,
for the dukedom began and ended with his brother) was declared to have
appropriated to his own use no less than seventy thousand pounds of the
revenue.
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