With this explanation, the matter appears to have been dismissed from
Claverhouse’s mind; and the remainder of his letter is taken up with
remarks concerning certain dispositions intended by the other commanders
who, like himself, were watching the progress of the threatened
invasion. His outspoken, but well-grounded criticism of them showed that
the rebuke administered to him had not reduced him to a condition of
cringing subserviency, and that the obedience which he was prepared to
yield to those in authority above him did not include a readiness to
bear responsibility for the result of measures which seemed to him
ill-advised.
The extant correspondence between Claverhouse and Queensberry closes
with a letter bearing date of the 3rd of July 1685. It is a report as to
the manner in which an order from the Secret Committee with regard to
the disposal of the moveables of rebels for the maintenance of the royal
forces had been carried out. It is a straightforward and business-like
statement, setting forth how the money already received had been laid
out, and requesting instructions with respect to the sums still due.
Apart from the desire which every honourable man would feel, and with
which Claverhouse may be credited, of placing himself above suspicion in
all that concerned the management of the funds that came into his hands,
he had special reason for exercising exceptional care in the matter in
view of the humiliating treatment to which he had been subjected shortly
before. In the preceding month of March, Queensberry, as High Treasurer
had given orders to the cash-keeper to charge Claverhouse on a bond he
had given to the Exchequer, for the fines of delinquents in Galloway.
Claverhouse had replied that his brother, the Sheriff-depute, was
gathering them in, and craved for delay, whereupon he was allowed five
or six days’ grace. He objected that considering the distance, such a
concession was as unreasonable as giving no time at all. To this the
Treasurer had retorted, ‘Then you shall have none.’
Claverhouse had paid the money; but he was not content to remain under
the imputation which Queensberry’s action towards him implied. He had
repeatedly applied for leave to proceed to London, for the purpose of
explaining his conduct to the King, both in this transaction and in
other matters which had been made the grounds of complaints against him,
and which had led to his temporary disgrace. He had been persistently
refused, and it was not till the end of the year that he had an
opportunity of pleading his cause before James. Then, however, he did it
to good purpose. According to Fountainhall, ‘the King was so
ill-satisfied with what the Treasurer had exacted of Claverhouse, that
he ordered the Treasurer to repay it.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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