He was accessory, if not the principal,
in putting Spence and Carstairs to the torture of the boot and
thumb-screw after the rebellion of Argyll. In 1685 King James
ennobled him by the title of Viscount Tarbat, Lord Macleod and
Castlehaven. During the reign of William III. his influence
became much diminished, but he afterwards got into power, and, on
the accession of Queen Anne, he again became a Royal favourite, and
was by her in 1703 created Earl of Cromarty, and made Secretary
of State for Scotland. He subsequently resigned this office
and took up his old post of Justice-General, and recompensed Her
Majesty's favours by strongly advocating with voice and pen the
Union between England and Scotland, of which he was the original
proposer. In 1710, after 60 years of the most active public
service, he retired into private life.
That he possessed ability of a very high order is undoubted, though
as a politician he held very loose and changeable principles.
Sinibert says that "as a judge, he was addicted to the old
practice of considering the litigants rather than their causes";
and Carstairs goes the length of saying that "he habitually
falsified the minutes of Parliament, and recorded in its name
decisions and orders never really made.
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