4° HIS TORT of the SOCIETT. 



Account of an eafv compliance. Others, however, from the fame honour- 



Lord Prtfident •' ' 



Uundjs. able motive, refufed to renounce thofe obligations, of which, 



though they regretted the abtife, they approved of the princi- 

 ple. Among that number was Sir James Dundas, who re- 

 fufed to fign the Teft-declaration, unlefs with a fubjoined claufe, 

 importing his abjuration of the Covenant, " in fo far as it had 

 " led to deeds of aiflual rebellion." This qualified compliance 

 was rejeded by the Sovereign, and the recufant Judges were 

 deprived of their offices. Their feats, however, were kept vacant 

 for fome time, in expedation, either that their fcruples might 

 be relaxed by the fenfe of their fubftantial lofles, or that fome 

 medium of accommodation might be devifed for adjufting the 

 fubjecfl of difference. One expedient was propofed, which, it 

 is probable, originated from the Sovereign himfelf, as it favours 

 remarkably of his code of eafy morality. This was, that fuch 

 of the Judges as fcrupled to give an unlimited declaration, 

 fliould, for the fake of example, fubfcribe fimply^ as the law re- 

 quired, but fliould be allowed, in a private converfation with 

 the King, to explain the fenfe in which they underftood thofe 

 oaths. 



On thefe Angular terms, fome of the deprived Judges were 

 willing to redeem their offices. They repaired to London, had 

 a private audience of his Majefty, and returned with new com- 

 miffions in their pockets *. But that conciliatory meafure was 

 propofed in vain to Lord Arniston. He adhered refolutely 

 and inflexibly to thofe principles which he efteemed right. To 

 the felicitation of a friend, who earneftly intreated him, for his 

 own fake, for that of his family and of the public, to be fatis- 



fied 



» Thet would juftify their condufl by the prudent reafonlng which Cicero ufed to 

 Lentulus. " Nam neque pugnandum contra tantas opes, neque delendum, etiam fi id 

 " fieri poflet, fuinmorum civium principatum, neque permanendum in una fententia, 

 " converfis rebus, ac bonorum voluntatibus immutatis ; fed temporibus aflentiendum." 

 Cic. ^fijl- ad fain, I. i. efi. g. 



