INTRODUCTION xxvii

received the honour of knighthood while still a young man,
and being a member of parliament for his county, he became
a judge at the age of forty-three. So far from holding
opinions antagonistic to the reigning house, Lauder was an
enthusiastic royalist. He was indeed. a staunch Protestant
at a time when religion played a great part in politics. In
his early youth the journal here published shows him as
perhaps a bigoted Protestant. But he was not conscious
of any conflict between his faith and his loyalty till the
conflict was forced upon him, and that was late in the day.
In this position he was by no means singular. Sir George
Mackenzie, who as Lord Adv ocate w as so vigorous an instru-
ment of Charles Il.'S policy, refused, like Lauder, to concur
in the partial application of the penal laws, and his refusai
led to his temporary disgrace. Lauder was not even a
refonner. He was a man of conservative temperament, and
while his love of justice and good government led him to
criticise in his private journals the glaring defects of admini-
stration, and especially the administration of justice, there is
no evidence that he had even considered how a remedy was
to be found. There was indeed no constitutional means of
redress, and all revolutionary methods, from the stubborn
resistance of the Covenanters, to the plots in London, real
or imaginary, but always implicitly believed in bvT Lauder,
r.nd the expeditions of 1\Ionmouth and Argyll, met with
Lauder's unqualified disapproval and condemnation.
I shaH cite some passag«!s in illustration. 'Vhen Charles n.
died nnd James was prorlaimed, Lauder writes that 1 peoples
greiff was more than their joy, having lost their dearly loved
king'; then after a gentle reference to 1 his only weak syle,
he says5 1 lie was certainly a prince indued with man)' Royall
<¡ualitics, ami of whom the Dh'jne providence had taken a
speciall care by preserving him after Worcester fight in thE

oak.' 'A star appeared at noon da)" nt his birth he ww