xxxii JOURNAL OF JOHN LAUDER

Decisions, i.
160.

H. O. 65.

il. 0, 1(ifi.

that this Test did not hinder nor bind him up from
endeavouring alterations to the better either in Church or
State.' Argyll, who had escaped, was sentenced to death in
his absence, attainted, and bis estates forfeited. Lauder
strongly disapproved of the proceedings. He writes, 1'here
was a great outcry against the Criminal Judges, their timor-
ous dishonesty. These words, consistent with my
loyalty, were judged taxative and restrictive, seeing his loyalty
might be below the standard of true loyalty, not fiv e-penny
fine, much less eleven-penny.' 1 The design was to low
him, that he might never be the head of a Protestant part)',
and to annex his jurisdiction to the Crown, and to parcel
out his lands and, tho' he was unworthily and unjustly
dealt with here, yet ought he to observ e GOO'8 secret hand,
punishing him for his cruelty to his own and his father's
creditors and vassals, sundry of whom were starving.' Lauder
speaks of that fatal Act of the Test,' He had no fav our
for it, and he narrates with glee ho\ the children of Hcriofs
Hospitall, finding that the dog which keiped the )'airds of
that Hospitall had a publick charge and office, they ordaineci
him to take the Test, and offered him the paher, but he,
loving a bone rather than it, absolutely refused it then tliey
rubbed it over with butter (which they called an Explication
of the Test in imitation of Argile), and he licked of the butter,
but did spite out the paper, for which thew hold a jurie on
him, and in derision of the sentence against Argile, they found
the dog guilty of treason, and actuaBy hanged him,'
Although Lauder considered that Arg)'11 had been unjustly
condemned in the matter of the Test, his opinion about the
expedition of 1685 was very diflcrent, He did justice to
his capacity. He writes, 1 Argile had always the ml~utntion
of sense and reason, and if the 11'higs at Bothwell Bridge in
1679 had got such a commander as lie, it' like the rebellion
had been more durable and sanbuinnrïe.' But as soon as tlie