Folio 184. Memorial of the proceedings in the Scottish parliament from 18 to 20 June...

Folio 184. Memorial of the proceedings in the Scottish parliament from 18 to 20 June 1695. 'A communication of the enquiry into the Glencoe affair being pressed for in Parliament with such unanimity that it's plain without it business would stop or the Parliament would themselves order an enquiry. The Commissioner being convinced of this hath this day told them he would communicate it to them, he has shunned the doing it these ten days expecting to hear from Flanders. The Report from the Commission which is transmitted to his Majesty vindicates his Majesty's instructions, which the officers had made public these three years for their own exoneration as they thought fit. The report loads the Master of Stair's letters as exceeding his Majesty's instructions, and proceeding from pique and animosity. The officers pretend to defend themselves in executing the instructions in the sense which the letters gives them, but this can hardly be extended to the manner of the execution. The Macdonalds and the Campbells being the two great names in the Highlands and emulous the one of the other, and the Macdonalds having defeated the £12,000 negotiation, it is evident that dominion and resentment have been at the bottom of the business and that My Lord [Campbell of] Breadalbane has imposed on the Master of Stair, and that which is in the Report about Breadalbane in discourse throws the business off himself upon the Master of Stair, and that which is in the Report about Breadalbane amounts only to presumption and conjecture. He is mighty apprehensive of his life, but I know no man that has any inclination that he lose either life or fortune, though he were at mercy'.