Life and diary of Lieut. Col. J. Blackader

CHAP. II. THE CAMERONIANS. 41
maintain their principles and their party; leaving, in
their example, a salutary lesson on the rash and illi-
beral policy of assailing conscientious opinions by force,
or attempting to alter or subdue them by cruelty.
They were a remnant that had not bowed the knee to
Baal. From the midst of the fiery furnace, they came
out untouched, and unchanged in their sentiments.
They were resolved, whatever it might cost, to hold fast
their integrity, — to vow perpetual hostility, and wage
a defensive warfare, against their inhuman spoilers.
Considering their circumstances, it is not surpris-
ing that they assumed an attitude of defiance, or
spoke in language which their rulers deemed seditious
and insulting. The wonder would have been had
they acted otherwise, — had they felt no resentment
for past indignities, or expressed no inclination to re-
taliate. And who, we are tempted to ask, in the
same situation, but would have pursued similar steps ?
Is it possible to put on bowels of compassion towards
murderers and incendiaries, or speak of their atroci-
ties with affected tenderness ? It is a surer mark of
an honest mind, to avow its indignation openly and
boldly, to be ingenuous and undisguised in word as
well as in deed. If we do discover fierceness in their
expressions, or asperities in their temper, we may well
suppose that their sensibilities must have been a little
impaired, and their kindlier feelings worn off amidst
the storms of persecution, and the strife of party con-
tentions.
Taking these into account, there is a tone of so-
briety, of indulgence and forbearance, which we
could scarcely have expected, and which may be
thought almost incompatible with their stern prin-
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