THE COVENANTERS.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Allow me a few lines on More Old Papers" in yours of May 27th. I have read the Spectator for fifty years, and enjoy its absolute fairness. But this article is an absolute travesty of history. The writer, like most Scotch Episcopa- lians, has no mercy on the Covenanters. They are called " rebels," and South-West Scotland in the seventeenth century is compared as similar to Ireland at the present time. Nothing is more unfair or untrue. The fight was for religious liberty, and this was attained by the Scottish Covenanters in 1688 to the advantage of the whole United Kingdom, when these men then ceased to be " rebels." What made them rebels? They refused to attend the preaching of drunken curates, and if found with a Bible under their arm attending a field preaching were imprisoned, or oftener shot dead on the spot. I would that were the fault of the Irish to-day! Wondroussaccounts are taken from contemporary documents and have never been successfully assailed, whatever the writer of the article may say. Macaulay knew his authorities. The murder of John Brown, of Priesthill, by Claverhouse, in the presence of his wife and children, has always been considered a serious blot on what may have otherviise beela a fine character. No !`incriminating papers" were found in John Brown's house,
nor can a single case be proved of a Covenanter " shooting a soldier from behind a hedge."—I am, Sir, &co
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