Note 460 — Chapter XVII · ON THE CONSTITUTION OF SCOTLAND—INTRODUCTION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM
Reading edition
The king's instructions by no means warrant the execution, especially with all its circumstances of cruelty, but they contain one unfortunate sentence: "If Maclean [sic], of Glencoe, and that tribe can be well separated from the rest, it will be a proper vindication of the public justice to extirpate that seat of thieves." This was written, it is to be remembered, while they were exposed to the penalties of the law for the rebellion. But the massacre would never have been perpetrated, if Lord Breadalbane and the master of Stair, two of the worst men in Scotland, had not used the foulest arts to effect it. It is an apparent great reproach to the government of William, that they escaped with impunity; but political necessity bears down justice and honour. Laing, iv. 246; Carstares' State Papers.